offered to them; and certainly none conferring upon the Governor the authority to determine who are and who are not desirable citizens, and excluding, or permitting others to exclude, such as he does not regard as desirable. If escaping criminals were entering the State, he had a right to arrest them and await a requisition; if suspicious persons were entering, he had a right to arrest them and subject them to an investigation. But to refuse to protect mining property because its business was not conducted according to his ideas, to leave the mine-owners and the mine-workers to arm and equip hostile bodies, and to give the former public notice that if they attempted to bring in men to work in their mines from another State, which they have a perfect legal right to do, they must take the chances of mob violence, and he would not protect them, appears to us the most remarkable abdication of gubernatorial authority, not to say practical instigation to anarchy, which recent history has revealed in any of the States of the Union.

The Peace Commission

The Joint Peace Commissioners have continued to meet and adjourn, to discuss and dine, in Paris during the past week. Their sessions are enveloped in a cloud of rumors, all of which may be regarded as entirely untrustworthy. So far as can be judged, the difficult question of the Philippines has not yet been reached; the newspaper correspondents are very certain that so far the Commission has found it impossible to agree on the question of the Cuban debt. The Spanish Commissioners are said to have urged the claim of Spain as having certain financial equities which can be fairly charge able upon the Government of the United States, as a consequence of the American assumption of sovereignty in Cuba, on the general principle that conquerors must assume the burdens of the conquered territory. The Commissioners for the United States, if reports are to be believed, have refused, and will continue to refuse, to assume any part of the Cuban debt, on the ground that that debt represents money spent mainly in the suppression of domestic insurrections, and, to a certain extent, in war against this country. One of the semi-official journals in Madrid probably stated a fact when it said that the Americans yield on unimportant

The

complished. On Tuesday of this week MajorGeneral Brooke assumed absolute command of the island of Porto Rico. Those Spanish troops, if any, who had not left Porto Rico by that time were to be quartered in barracks until they could be carried away, Spain to bear the expense of the transshipment. present custom regulations are to continue until modified, and the United States has become the recipient of all moneys received for customs, taxes, and from all other sources of Government revenue. On the first day of December the United States will assume entire control of Cuba. All revenues and the management of all municipal affairs will then pass into the hands of the American commanders. It is believed that by that date the United States troops in sufficient numbers will be in Cuba to preserve order. The President has already issued proclamations establishing custom rates and defining the Government organization of the Cuban territory. December first, therefore, will mark the final disappearance of Spanish authority on this continent.

in China

An American syndicate American Enterprise having secured important concessions in southern China, General W. B. Parsons, a wellknown engineer of this city, has gone to investigate and report upon their probable paying value. If the report is favorable, a railway will be built by American capitalists from Hong-Kong northerly to Han-kau, an important commercial city on the Yang-tse-kiang, the object being to open up and work the iron and coal deposits through which the railway is to pass. The line of the proposed railway lies wholly within the British sphere of influence, crosses the province of Kwangtung on the southern coast, passes through the entire length of the province of Hu-nan and through part of the province of Hu-pei. Mr. A. R. Colquhoun, in his " China in Transformation," states that the southeastern portion of Hu-pei (in which the terminus of the railway will be situated) is considered the most fertile portion of China. Hu-pei has an

area of 70,000 square miles and a population of 28,000,000, while Hu-nan has an area of 83,000 square miles and a population of 20,000,000. Kwang-tung has 90,000 square miles and 20,000,000 people. These figures will give some idea of the richness and magnitude of the markets which can be opened to American enterprise through these concessions. Less is known about Hu-nan than any other Chinese province, but Mr. Colquhoun declares it to be a rich province, though the people are said to have an evil reputation for roughness and turbulence. Evidently trade issues of considerable importance depend upon the character of General Parsons's report.

A Military Plot in France

A good deal of excitement was caused in Paris last week, and a good deal of apprehension excited throughout Europe, by the announcement that a military plot against the Government had been discovered, in which Prince Louis Bonaparte was concerned. Prince Louis Bonaparte, it will be remembered, is now the heir and representative of the Napoleonic tradition. He is said to be a very attractive and gifted young man, a Colonel of the Russian Lancers, and a general favorite with the Russian court. His older brother, Prince Victor, not long ago formally resigned the leadership of the Imperialist party in favor of Prince Louis. He is therefore an available pretender to the throne, though his claims are not likely, under any circumstances, to become of serious importance. It is reported, however, that although Prince Louis was concerned in the plot, the aim of the conspirators was not to place him on the throne, but to bring about certain changes in the Ministry. Several generals are declared to be implicated, and General Zurlinden, the Military Governor of Paris, appears to be among them. The Government has taken the matter very quietly, and has shown so little concern that some of the newspapers are questioning whether any such plot has existed. It is undoubtedly true that a good many leaders of the army have been infuriated by the severe criticisms of the general staff and the army spirit called out by the attitude of the army in the Dreyfus matter; and it is not impossible that the loose talk of some of these officers may have given rise to the story of a definite conspiracy. On the other hand, a

definite conspiracy, planning to effect a revolution on a definite day, is by no means impossible in the present state of affairs. A military revolution, which, even if it respected the present constitutional forms, should make the Cabinet a mere mouthpiece or tool of the army, would mark the destruction of the French Republic, and would probably endanger the amicable relations of France and England.

Another plot, charged Plotters Against France upon the leaders of the anti-Semitic movement in France who have shown such reckless disregard of truth, and a race-hatred so devoid of all traces of civiliization, is more credible. It seems incredible, it is true, that France should produce such brutal agitators as many of the men who have led the crusade against the Jews; or that it should give birth to such scoundrels as Esterhazy and Du Paty de Clam. Unluckily, these men not only exist, but they are potent factors for mischief, and they have done much in the last few years to bring discredit on a brave and generous people. It is now reported that they are endeavoring to carry out a desperate plot, which involves the turning to revolutionary account of the industrial troubles with which France is just now stirred. The strike in Paris continues to extend, and as it extends it grows more dangerous. These Jew-baiters and brutal self-seekers propose, it is said, to create as much inflammable material as possible in the shape of labor disturbances, and then to throw a firebrand into the pile. In this way they hope to compel a military dictatorship in order to prevent anarchy, and under that dictatorship they propose to work their fury on the Jews. Some of them have already talked with the utmost frankness of a St. Bartholomew for the Jews; and there is therefore no lack of charity or intelligence in crediting them with the most bloodthirsty designs. That they will fail we believe certain; first, because they represent nothing but the meanest and blindest race-hatred, and the worst and lowest personal ambitions; second, because among them all there is not one man of real ability; and, third, because, in our judgment, the faces of the French people are already set toward a righteous and rational treatment of the Dreyfus matter, and they are not likely to be touched again with the insanity which has made France mad for the past few years.

The English Claim

to Fashoda

The publication of the correspondence of the French and British Foreign Offices concerning Major Marchand's seizure of Fashoda has given great satisfaction in England, and does not appear to have awakened resentment in France. Lord Salisbury has for once driven down a stake and committed himself to the task of keeping it where he has placed it; he cannot recede from the position he has taken without a humiliating reversal of policy. Throughout the correspondence between the Foreign Offices on the subject, the English Government has consistently held by its claim to control the Nile Valley. This claim is based on the responsibilities and authority of the English Government in Egypt; on the recognition of Great Britain's protectorate by Italy in the treaty which gave Italy her East African possessions; on the recognition of that protectorate by Germany in return for the gift of Heligoland; and on its recognition in a series of treaties made with the Congo Free State. France has never protested against any of these treaties. Three years ago the House of Commons was definitely promised by one of the Under-Secretaries that any invasion of the Nile Valley by any Power would be regarded as an unfriendly act. There are behind the English claim, therefore, the necessities of the situation created by her occupation of Egypt, a number of treaties, and the acquiescence of the French Government for a series of years. Fashoda is, of course, within the territory once belonging to Egypt.

The French claim, on their The French Claim part, that the abandonment of the Soudan involved the abandonment of the Equatorial Provinces, and left these Provinces open to anybody who could establish himself within their limits; that Egyptian sovereignty ceased, and that, therefore, the French have as much right in Fashoda as the English would have. But the French Government shows no great anxiety to take up the gauntlet which the English Government has thrown down. The tone of the French Cabinet is distinctly pacific, and the publication of the English blue-book has been taken very quietly by the French press. Matin," which is generally regarded as inspired by the Government, declares that it is highly improbable that France will risk war

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for the nominal possession of territories which Egypt has never been able to retain, and that France does not need to keep Fashoda in order to retain her honor. The importance of the possession of Fashoda lies in the fact that it is in a fertile province, surrounded by a race which would furnish the very best material for native recruits; that it is a convenient station between the French possessions on the Congo and their possessions on the Red Sea; that it is an outlet for the commerce of the Soudan; and that it could easily be made the basis of control over the whole of Egypt. That country depends for its fertility so completely on the Nile that the Government which controls it must control the river back to its sources. From this position the English Government cannot suffer itself to be moved.

Lord Rosebery unLord Rosebery's Speech doubtedly expressed the sentiment of the English people, without reference to party lines, in his speech at Epsom last week, strongly reinforcing, by unqualified approval, the position which Lord Salisbury has taken. The speech contained more than one of those happy or brilliant epigrams which Lord Rosebery rarely fails to give his hearers; but there was in it a seriousness of tone and a definiteness of statement which speeches from this statesman have not always had. He called attention to the fact that the French Minister of Foreign Affairs had received the diplomatic representations of Great Britain in a very conciliatory spirit, and that, by disavowing that Major Marchand had acted in an official character, he had opened the way for an easy settlement of the difficulty. "A flag," said Lord Rosebery, “is portable, and in this case there is hope that the flag which was raised in Fashoda was not the flag of France, but the flag of an individual explorer." The real strength, however, of the English position lies, not in the power of the Ministry, but in the spirit of a united people. A fine note was struck in the insistence that cordiality between nations can rest only upon mutual respect for the rights of one another. The comments of the English press upon this address, which gained significance from the fact that it marked the reappearance of Lord Rosebery from what has been a virtual retirement from public affairs, gives it the weight of the utterance of the feeling of the English people.

The Irish deParliamentary Representation mand for Home in Great Britain Rule, and especially the alleged grievance of unjust and excessive taxation, have produced results in England and Scotland that threaten to change the existing ratio of the distribution of seats in Parliament. Against the claim of Ireland for a lowering of rates and a readjustment of taxation, it is urged that she has twenty-seven more Parliamentary seats at Westminster than she is entitled to, and that at best her demand could not be met without a reduction of her representation. It is further urged that Ireland's case is also the case of England, Scotland, and Wales, the growth and movement of population having somewhat altered the number of members of Parliament to which they are entitled. At present the House of Commons contains 670 members, of whom 466 are from England, 103 from Ireland, 72 from Scotland, and 30 from Wales. On the basis of the latest census returns, which allot one member for every 60,000 of the population, England would have 495 members, Ireland 76, Scotland 71, and Wales 28. The London "Chronicle" has shown how a number of little Tory boroughs, each with very much less than the average number of votes in a constituency, have returned enough members to the House of Commons to contribute materially to the triumph of the Unionist cause, but at the same time opposes the movement for reducing Ireland's representation unless the redistribution of seats in the whole Kingdom is dealt with at the same time. The discussions in Great Britain in regard to this and allied questions have really had a unifying influence; they have shown the political solidarity of the Kingdom in ways apt to be overlooked except when thus brought quickly and unexpectedly to the front. Not only in regard to representation, but taxation as well, England is beginning to ask for a readjustment of her financial burdens, claiming that an undue proportion of them falls upon the poorer districts. It would be hard to find another instance in British history of an issue, presented at first as local and sectional, which has more completely asserted itself as of national importance and at the same time called out forbearance and a spirit of just compromise.

want of confidence, and Mr. W. P. Schreiner, as leader of the Africander Bond, has succeeded to the premiership. The policy of the new Ministry will be closely watched in relation to the Transvaal and the British Government. It is only just to say that the platform of the Africander Bond, so far from containing only disloyal utterances, had provided for a voluntary addition to the navy of Great Britain; and in regard to the Transvaal and the Orange Free State there was nothing asserted which could be construed into hostility to England. If any hostility is to be shown, the present time and opportunity would seem auspicious. Great Britain is believed with good reason to be engaged in negotiations for the taking over of Delagoa Bay, and the railway and telegraph lines in which Portugal has an interest. Any assistance given now by the Dutch in Cape Colony to their friends in the Transvaal would aid the latter in retaining her only way of egress to the sea, all other ways having come under the control of Great Britain. But a new factor, the demands of which will not stop to consider the necessities of the Transvaal, is apparently deciding the possession of Delagoa Bay in favor of Great Britain. Portugal is on the verge of bankruptcy, and it is asserted, with much reason, that some relief from her financial strain will be gained by selling the reversion of her African possessions to England and Germany. The fact is that the Anglo-German agreement had its origin in Portugal's necessity, and Germany cannot be counted upon as in the slightest degree favoring the Transvaal in the policy so avowedly hostile to England. Thus it would seem that the new Ministry at the Cape cannot effect any adverse change of importance; apart from the larger interests which would not stand any meddling at present, Mr. Schreiner's majority is only two. Had it not been for the narrow and intolerant disposition which led Mr. Rhodes and the Progressives to ascribe disloyalty and treason to their opponents without any sufficient evidence in support of the charge, the Africander Bond would not now be in power.

The pilgrimage of the Emperor of Germany to Palestine, which began last week, will be followed with a great deal of curiosity. The spectacular and somewhat humorous aspects of this pilgrimage were pointed

An Emperor on His Travels