universities, colleges and academies into a harmonious system, and the best means for making University Extension work successful, were stimulating and timely, and were especially significant as showing the rapid advancement American educational methods are making in the direction of actual American needs. The University of New York is entering upon a career of brilliant usefulness with new and unique methods which have the merit of peculiar adaptation to existing conditions. Several other States might with advantage create a similar institution.

The British and American governments Preparing for have taken steps to secure the expert Arbitration. evidence that will be needed in preparing their respective arguments on the Bering Sea sealing question for the court of arbitration. Sir George Baden-Powell of England and Dr. G. N. Dawson of Canada are the commissioners whom the British government has appointed to make, in its behalf, a thorough inquiry into all that concerns seal fishing in the North Pacific. They had reached the coast by the middle of July, and on the 17th they took evidence at Victoria. Dr. Dawson is a son of Sir William Dawson, the distinguished president of McGill University, and he is famous as a geologist, naturalist and explorer. better man could not have been chosen by the British authorities. Professors Mendenhall and Merrian, who represent the United States as Bering Sea commissioners, sailed for Alaska from San Francisco on the United States steamer Albatross, on July 16. In pursuance of orders from Washington, the United States ship Marion sailed from Port Townsend, Washington, on Monday, July 18th, to aid in patrolling the Bering Sea for the maintenance of the close season. All things now point to an early, orderly and reasonable settlement of international differences in that quarter of the globe.

The

A

President Balmaceda, of Chili, approaches Warring the end of his term of office. He was Chilians installed on September 21, 1886, and his five years will end in the coming September. The new elections have occurred under his auspices, and a congress has been chosen that has confirmed to Balmaceda all the arbitrary authority he had previously assumed. He has been formally endowed with autocratic power, and he has unlimited right to arrest and imprison his opponents, to muzzle the press, to raise and expend money, to abolish laws, or to suspend officials. He would seem to be exercising his power as absolute dictator with a bold and unscrupulous hand. Meantime his successor has been chosen, the president-elect being, of course, Balmaceda's tool. The revolutionary party is making strenuous efforts to obtain international recognition, but with scant success. A recent battle in the north seems to have gone against Balmaceda; but there is no evidence of permanent gains on the part of the insurgents. The most im

portant news concerning the Chilian situation comes from Paris and is to the effect that the new cruisers which were being fitted out for Balmaceda and which had been detained by the French courts, have been released and have sailed for Chili. The new ships which had been ordered in Europe

CLAUDIO VICUNA. President-elect of Chili.

would, if safely in possession of Balmaceda's government, turn the scale entirely against the insurgents, whose strength has been almost wholly naval. It is idle to predict the outcome of the civil war, with the news reports so shamefully garbled by one side or the other.

The Haytian Tyrant.

If Balmaceda's absolutism is harsh, with a desperate civil war on his hands, it is at least not so vindictively bloody as that of Hyppolite, the colored tyrant of Hayti, who, with his wild soldiery has been enacting a reign of terror in that wretched island. The condition of Hayti, as well as that of some other West-Indian, CentralAmerican and South-American republics, shows us how little guaranty for individual liberty and for the ordinary rights of citizenship there may be in the mere possession of paper constitutions and nominally democratic institutions. Without some real political capacity and character in the body of the people, free government is a farce, and revo lutions and fierce autocracies alternate swiftly.

According to the Haytian constitution, the President must be elected by the people. But as a matter of fact the President in recent years has been chosen in almost every way but the lawful one. He has in several instances been chosen by the two houses of Congress sitting as a National Assembly; he has

been chosen by the troops, he has been selected by the delegates to party conventions and installed without the formality of a popular election. Republican government in Hayti is a curious ad

HYPPOLITE.

mixture of chaos and formality. The productivity of the island is enormous; but without some guarantee against civil war and social disorderand none is in prospect-there can be no proper development of latent resources.

on His

The German On the 20th of June, the Emperor William Emperor closed the Prussian Parliament in a speech Travels. which, after referring with satisfaction to the re-establishment of peace with the Catholic church, and after alluding with hope to the vital development in communal life expected from the new law for the regulation of the rural communes, concluded by a declaration that he had no reason to fear that the blessings of peace were imperilled. The maintenance of peace, he said, was the constant endeavor of this young father of his country. Having said this, he proceeded to give practical proof of the sincerity of his speech by setting off on one of his foreign tours. This time he visited Holland, where the Socialists lamented the expenditure entailed by the Imperial visit, and declared it foreshadowed the peaceful annexation of Holland by Germany. He went on to England, where unwonted demonstrations of welcome awaited him. Seldom has a monarch so completely reversed public sentiment as the Kaiser. Twelve months ago he was one of the least popular of European sovereigns in the opinion of the British people; to-day no one stands higher in their esteem. No sovereign has done more to rehabilitate monarchy in the opinion of the democracy.

It has been impossible to convince a Aspects of the Visit. large portion of the English public, to to England. gether with the entire outside world, that the Emperor's visit to England has not been a political one. The newspapers of Great Britain, France, Italy, Germany and America have been full of reports and discussions touching the relations between the British government and the Triple Alliance. In all the discussions, it is needless to say, the young Emperor has occupied the central place. He is absorbed early and late, every day, with momentous public questions for the actual treatment of which he holds an appalling responsibility. And this weight of duty and authority seems to be developing the best attributes of his personal character with almost unprecedented rapidity. The contrast between his life and that of the leading masculine member of the royal house of Great Britain has been so emphasized of late that it gives added impressiveness to every part of Mr. Stead's character study of the Prince of Wales, which appears this month in both the English and the American editions of the REVIEW OF REVIEWS. And the personal character and daily occupations of the two men are in themselves highly instructive as illus trating the differences between the constitutional systems of Germany and Great Britain. The most noteworthy event of the Emperor's sojourn in Eng. land was his prolonged conference with Lord Salisbury at Hatfield. The presence of William in England has been observed by France with the most acute annoyance, and it would not now be easy to convince Frenchmen or their political friends that Lord Salisbury has not entered into some sort of arrangement with Germany, Italy and Austria that would add England's support, under certain possible con tingencies, to the war alliance of those powers. England is supposed to be apprehensive of Russia's intentions on the frontiers of India and in the direction of Constantinople, and persistently averse to French pretensions in Egypt; and these are assigned among other things as motives for England's co-operation with the Triple Alliance to prevent a concerted and aggressive movement by France and Russia against the world's peace. Mr. Henry Labouchere, the conspicuous radical politician, has won the gratitude of France by his repeated attacks upon Lord Salisbury and his persistent but fruitless efforts to draw out, in the House of Commons, a statement from the ministry of its relations with European policies. Thus it happens that in any consideration of the immediate political aspects of the Emperor's visit to England, Mr. Labouchere and Lord Salisbury are the men of the month, affording a very curious contrast to one another, while the Emperor and the Prince of Wales have been, as social personages, the preeminently conspicuous figures of the whole world, tempting journalists to numberless articles setting the two in parallel or contrast. It will not be possible much longer to refer to the Emperor's youthful inexperience, for he is gaining wisdom fast.

Imperial

Lord Salisbury was last month waited Federation. upon by two deputations, who, in their concern for the future of the British Empire, called upon him to take practical steps to promote the closer union between the mother country and the colonies. To each Lord Salisbury replied by expressing his sympathy with their ultimate objects, but suggesting that it would be well if they made up their minds what they wanted to have done before asking him to do it. His speeches were, however, encouraging in tone. He recognized the fact that federation was emerging out of the region of aspiration into the sphere of practical schemes, and he invited the federationists first to think out their plan, and then to convert the country to its support A United British Empire means a Zollverein and a Kriegsverein, -a customs union and a union for war. The former is for the present unattainable; but the latter, which is growing more important every year, as the world shrinks under steam, and the colonies lose the protection which distance formerly afforded them, already exists in some fashion, and appears capable of almost indefinite development.

LORD SALISBURY.

HENRY LABOUCHERE.

Politics.

The centripetal tendency of the age has Centripetal been asserting itself in Europe, where the Triple Alliance, which has just been renewed for six years, seems to grow more solid the more attempts are made to rend it asunder. There have been stormy scenes in the Italian chamber, but they have only brought into clearer relief the determination of the great majority of the Italian deputies to support the peace league. Attempts are being made to bring Switzerland into a customs union, including Germany, Austria, and Italy-a project which, but for the neutralization of the little republic, would be held to be the precursor of its adherence to the peace league of central Europe. Further east, M. Tricoupis, the greatest statesman of modern Greece, has been making an attempt to establish a confederation of the Balkan States. He met with support at Belgrade, but at Sofia M. Stambouloff told him that Bulgaria would side with Turkey rather than with Greece. If, however, Turkey were to be seriously pressed by the spread of the Arab insurrection which has broken out in Yemen, M. Stambouloff might reconsider his attitude, especially if Greece and Servia attempted to invade Macedonia in alliance. Macedonia, which, according to the Berlin Treaty, ought to be enjoying autonomous institutions under the ægis of Europe, has been left to the Turk, with the result that some day the Macedonians will set the East in a blaze. Probably no living man understands the Eastern question better than Tricoupis, who is farsighted and sagacious, and his negotiations and plans will deserve Europe's attention.

England, France

On the question of "England and the Peace League," Mr. Stead takes the followand Russia. ing ground "Admiral Hoskins, one of the best of our sea-kings, has been entertaining the Emperor of Austria at Fiume, on board the Mediterranean fleet. This incident coming immediately after the repeated declarations made in Italy that Lord Salisbury had virtually guaranteed the Italian coast against an unprovoked attack by the French fleet, has led to much newspaper writing on the subject of England's relations to the peace league of central Europe. Russia and England might well consent to unite with the central European powers in maintaining the peace of the Continent, which is permanently threatened by France, and France alone. The French make great parade of their devotion to Russia; but the Russian emperor, with whom alone lies the decisive word, abhors war, and has no sympathy with France. The French last month further alienated themselves from the friendly concert of Europe by refusing to ratify the convention drawn up at Brussels for the suppression of the slave trade The French government sup ported the convention, which has the support of all the powers, but the chamber rejected it by a decisive majority The Czar, selected by France to be arbitrator in a dispute between the French and the Dutch as to a frontier question in Guiana, has given his award entirely in favor of the Dutch. But neither that nor the expulsion of the Jews, to whom France has become a second Canaan, can cool the ardor with which the Republicans of the West make court to the Autocrat of the East."

Mr. Balfour got his bill through the House Irish Land Purchase of Commons on June 15th, the third Bill. reading being carried by 225 to 96, the Irish members supporting it without distinction of party or class. The debates, although prolonged, were conducted, according to Mr. Balfour himself, in a business-like way with very little surplusage. The bill is complicated, but in brief it may be explained that it provides for the issue of £33,000, 000 of 23-4 per cent. bonds by the Imperial government for buying out the interests of the Irish landlords who wish to part with their property, and who can persuade their tenants to purchase. The tenants who buy obtain at once, for the first five years, an immediate reduction of 20 per cent. on their rent, and after that, a farther reduction, cor responding to the difference between their old rents and 4 per cent. on the purchase-money. For instance, landlord A agrees to sell to tenant B a farm for which the latter is paying £50 per annum, at sixteen years' purchase. The government will give to A government stock bearing 23-4 per cent. interest to the amount of £800 and will give to B the ownership of the farm subject to a payment for the first five years of £40 per annum and after that time of £32 per annum for forty-four years. The £8 extra per annum levied for the first five years goes to form an insurance fund. Afterwards, of the £32 paid by

the tenant for forty-four years £22 goes to pay the landlord, £8 to a sinking fund to repay capital, and the remaining £2 is devoted to local purposes, notably to the supply of laborers' dwellings The advance of £33,000,000 is secured on the Consolidated Fund, which is guaranteed against loss (1) by the Irish probate duty grant of £200,000 per year and the exchequer contribution of £40,000, and (2) by the Irish share of local taxation (customs and excise), duties amounting to £700,000, for the following local grants-Rates on government property, grants to model schools, national schools and industrial schools, grants to workhouses, dispensaries, and lunatic asylums. The bulk of the money is to be set apart for tenants and farmers whose farms are under £50 rental valuation. Such are the main features of the latest of the long and weary attempts which the Imperial legislature has made to settle the Irish land question. It is practically the exe cution by a Tory government of the favorite scheme which John Bright set forth in 1870.

Objections.

Of course it will not settle the land quesThe Liberal tion. No one who has ever been in Ireland, or who has looked for a moment into the almost impenetrable jungle of interlaced interests, can expect any act of Parliament to settle things. Mr. Balfour, who compares the Irish land system to a series of geological strata, knows well that his bill will leave its main features unaltered. If it succeeds, its success will be gradual. It can only succeed rapidly at the risk of a convulsion which will immediately necessitate fresh legislation. If it were not that nothing ever happens in Ireland according to expectation, it would seem to be a safe prophecy that the immediate reduction of 20 per cent. in the rent of all purchasing tenants would lead all their neighbors to compel their landlords to agree to sell or to reduce their rents, but no one ever knows what to expect except the unexpected. Morley conveniently summarized as follows the Liberal objections to the bill on the third reading :

Mr.

"The first objection is that the probate duty grant was appropriated for a certain purpose without Irish consent. The second is that certain local resources were hypothecated without the consent or sanction or voice, in any shape or form, of any Irish local authority. Thirdly, that the notion of withholding money voted by Parliament for education or other purposes was practically and essentially unjust. Fourthly, that eviction was your only remedy in case of non-payment of these annuities, and that this eviction on a large scale was an intolerable remedy. The fifth objection is that the scheme of the bill offered no safeguard against pressure being put by ill-disposed landlords on their tenants in the shape of arrears. The sixth is that outside of each purchase transaction all sorts of ulterior liabilities were left untouched, which would be disclosed after the purchase transaction was finished, and that all sorts of covenants might have been entered into destructive of the policy of this bill. The seventh objection is inside the purchase transaction, that the security is the entire holding, the tenant's interest plus the landlord's interest, and as

the bill stands we are apparently again going to do what was done in the well-meant but disastrous measure of 1848, the Encumbered Estates act, namely, selling the tenants' improvements over and over again. The eighth objection, which is one of the most important of all, springs from the danger we have pointed out of creating by law so great an inequality, so immense a disparity, between two sections of tenants, on the one hand those whose landlords are willing to sell to them, and on the 'other those whose landlords are not willing to sell; so that you will have two classes of tenants, a privileged class, paying the reduced annuity, and those outside the bill, who are paying a rent appreciably higher. Those are the main objections which we took, and of these not one has been met."

State So

The "Congested District" section of the cialism and land bill may yet prove to be the most Church Funds. important. It provides that £1,500,000 of the surplus of the Irish Church Fund shall be placed at the disposal of a Congested Districts Board, which shall be instructed to use it so as to bring about the amalgamation of small holdings, to assist migration and emigration, and generally to develop the industries of any district where the proportion between the total population and the total rateable value is less than £1 6s. 8d. per head. Mr. Balfour anticipates from this provision absolutely incalculable advantages. The Board has not only to provide the machinery of production, but at the same time to teach the people how the machinery is to be used. "What the Board has to do is to consider in its whole scope and bearings the question of the great poverty and misery in the West." It is to provide technical education, to provide harbors and boats, and above all to teach the people how to cultivate their lands to the best advantage. Here is the Paternal State reappearing with its pockets filled with the proceeds of the disendowment of a church. The example is not likely to be lost on the English side of St. George's Channel. Mr. Gladstone's remarkable speech on June 19th on the Colonial Bishoprics Fund shows that he is a free churchman at heart, and that he has almost convinced himself that state endowments cripple instead of help religion. The demonstration of the practical uses that can be made of a church surplus by Mr. Balfour's bill will probably tend to quicken the movement in favor of creating a similar surplus, first in Wales, then in Scotland, and ultimately in England, where the Church revenue from endowments left before 1703 is over five millions of pounds per annum.

the land. The population of England and Wales, according to the census returns, is 29,000,000, the rate of increase having fallen from 14.36 per cent. in 1871-81 to 11.64 in 1881-91. The increase is confined to urban districts, chiefly to the suburbs of towns. In the five months ending May 31st, 49,652 English people left their native country, 30,000 coming to the United States, and 20,000 going to British colonies-but this drain is nothing compared to the drain made by the towns upon the country.

A Depleted District Board in England, with ample funds, is suggested, which shall be authorized to undertake the re-peopling of any district which does not carry a certain minimum proportion of inhabitants to acreage. The experiment which the Salvation Army is conducting in Essex will be watched with intense interest from this point of view. The time is too short to enable them to speak with confidence, but the Army leaders are sanguine that they will be able to pay interest on capital, to feed their laborers, and show a small profit. If they can do this, it is by no means improbable that before long the revenues not devoted to maintain the ecclesiastical hierarchy of the wealthiest of English churches may be transferred to minister to the social necessities of the poorest of the English people. History supplies an abundance of precedents far more radical than the application of accumulated church funds to social amelioration.