place for the Irish Americans to proclaim a policy of revolution, and to demand that the Irish race throughout the world should prepare for action against the British Empire. It is the fashion to belittle and deride the Irish convention in Chicago, but it is significant as a formal notification of the fact that the result of last general election has been accepted by Irish patriots outside Ireland, where they are much more numerous and more influential than those who are left in their native land, that for the present the policy of constitutional agitation is played out, and the day of the dagger and of dynamite has returned. Nothing was said of either of those weapons at Chicago, but as there is no chance of meeting England in the open field, the policy recommended by the convention means either assassination and outrage, or it is a mere stroke in the water.

Selling At present, however, the threats of the Ireland to Irish revolutionists have hardly received the Pope. the attention of a hearing. The immediate difficulty in Ireland is much more serious. Ministers are committed to a Land Bill, but they can take over Mr. Morley's, patch it up a bit, and pass it off as their own. The real crux comes when they have to decide how far they have to sell the Irish nation into the hands of the priests. The Catholic vote helped to put the Unionists in power, and Rome will require to be paid for her services. It is understood that Ministers will establish and endow a Catholic University in Ireland, and will practically re-model the educational system of the country in accordance with the wishes of the priests. Poor Orange Ulster will have to grin and bear it. In the south and the west, the whole of the schools will pass into the hands of the Catholic Church. Such, at least, is the by no means improbable result of the policy to which Ministers are committed by their devotion to deno. minational education and their obligations to the hierarchy. Thus we are going to have Rome Rule as the alternative to Home Rule. It may be necessary, but it is not surprising that some stalwart Protestants, who have seen how Rome Rule works in Belgium and Quebec, have many searchings of heart when they think of the price that has to be paid in Ireland for the defeat of Home Rule. A Threatened

As if we had not sufficient to occupy Ashantee ourselves with at home, there is an ugly War. report from the West Coast of Africa that we may have to prepare for another Ashantee expedition. It would seem almost as if there were

some connection between the horoscope of Lord Wolseley and the Ashantee kingdom. Lord Wolseley won his first distinguished success by leading the expedition which captured and burnt Coomassie in 1873; and now, almost on the very day when he left Dublin to assume the duties of Commander-in-Chief, comes the news that another war with Ashantee is considered almost inevitable. This is a matter which will lie within Mr. Chamberlain's province, and as the probability is that "Joe" will stand no nonsense, we may be committed to another little war before we know where we are.

All these things, however, are but fleaRussia and bites compared with the possibility of a

France.

General

sudden breach with France. Last month the French held their autumn manœuvres upon a gigantic scale, almost within gunshot of the German frontier. But the military operations were insignificant compared with the political demonstrations for which they afforded the excuse. Dragomiroff, representing the Russian army, was the hero of the day, while the arrival of Prince Lobanoff, who is virtually vice-Tzar, seemed to supply the crowning demonstration of the reality of the RussoFrench alliance. Prince Lobanoff has been some time in France, and has been closeted with the French Minister for Foreign Affairs. What business they discussed is not known. It is not believed they simply met as historians, but rather as the makers of history yet to come.

De Witte

Prince, Lobanoff is a gentleman and a and statesman who, despite his age, seems Chamberlain. to hold the reins of power with a pretty firm grip. De Witte, his colleague, is Minister of Finance, and a much more dangerous and much less reputable politician... What the two between them will make of Russian policy in the next twelve months, it is difficult to say, but it is improbable that they will wantonly precipitate war ; on the contrary, there is every reason to believe that they will utilise the rapprochement with France to the uttermost for the purpose of emptying the French stocking. The Alliance, so long as it is confined to the diplomatic field as financial, is as good as a gold mine to Russia. The rumour has been started that, strong in the strength of his access to the French stocking, De Witte has conceived the daring scheme of making Russia guarantor-general of all the debts of all her feudatories. The success of the Chinese Loan is said to have encouraged him to believe that by undersigning the Servian, Montenegrin, and Bulgarian Bonds, he can practically establish

Let me shave off your beard. For twenty-five years you have graciously hidden your beautiful face. Your Rome no longer exists; nevertheless, make yourself beautiful in these days, which are en 1éte for me, and every boly rushes to see your Vatican, my Colosseum, and the Quirinal, with Crispi as guard.

Russian influence in the Balkan penin-
sula upon a foundation firmer than
that of arms or of religion. It may
be. But if it is, there is one man in
Great Britain who will probably see in
her action a hint which may bring
about a federation of the British
Empire on a somewhat similar basis.
There is some resemblance between
Mr. Chamberlain and M. de Witte,
and there is no doubt that a British
Imperial guarantee for Colonial debt
would be a master stroke of policy that
naturally would commend itself to our
municipal statesman.

While France and Russia
foregathering with

The Triple Alliance.

are

demonstrative effusiveness,

From Moonshine.]

lying low. Austria has been preoccupied with the victory of the anti-Semites in the Vienna elections. Germany last month celebrated, with great demonstrations of enthusiasm, the twenty-fifth anniversary of Sedan, while the Italians with equal heartiness celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of the occupation of Rome. Crispi signalised the Roman demonstration by the delivery of an eloquent and powerful onslaught upon the policy of the Pope, who, although secure in his spiritual sovereignty, continues to cherish vain hopes of the restoration of the temporal power. Crispi spoke wisely and well, but the spectacle of Crispi solemnly reproving Leo XIII. for worldly ambition is rather rich. The Pope is in a very difficult positionhow difficult no one knows but himself; all that outsiders can see is that he has played a very delicate game with extraordinary tact and patience. Let us hope that he may never be exposed to the crucial test of having to face the problems that would be precipitated by a great European war.

International Yachting.

It used to be the fashion to sneer at the absorbing interest which was taken by the Greeks of the old Empire in the contest of the circus. Gibbon, however, would hardly care to point his sarcasm at the expense of the Byzantines were he living to-day, for millions of Englishmen, face to face with all the immense questions which involve the fate of empires, have been so pre-occupied with the yacht races for the American Cup as hardly to spare a thought for Lord anything else. Dunraven built a yacht

A WIN AND A PROTEST.

[October 5, 1895.

after his own design, named it Valkyrie III., and challenged the Americans to defend their right to the American Cup. This Cup must be sailed for according to the provisions of the Trust Deed of the New York Yacht Club. The Defender having defeated all rivals among American yachts, was selected to represent the American yachtsmen in the international contest. The course being comparatively close to one of the greatest cities in the world, was crowded with a flotilla of steam-boats, carrying sightseers. As there is no law, divine or human, by which steam-boats full of sightseers can be kept from trespassing on an ocean course over which the yachts are to sail, the first two races-for

DEFENDER

From the Detroit Journal.]

JOHN BULL: "H'if they'd let me disable 'im, blawst me bloomin' h'eyes h'if h'I don't think h'I could have done 'im don'tcberknow! ***

the Cup goes to the winner of the best five-were sailed with considerable peril to the respective yachts. On the first day there was a fair start, and the Valkyrie was fairly beaten by the American yacht, Both boats, however, suffered from the eagerness of the attendant steam-boats to see the races from start to finish. On the second day the Valkyrie, at the moment of starting, fouled the Defender, injuring her top-mast, and rendering it impossible for her to spread her full canvas. Notwithstanding this, the Defender hoisted a protest flag and went on with the race. The Valkyrie succeeded in distancing her crippled antagonist, and was the first to pass the winning-post. The race was claimed by the Defender on account of the foul, and the committee, after due deliberation, decided that the claim was just. Before the decision was closed Lord Dunraven handed a

letter to the committee in which he protested against having to endanger the lives of his men by sailing over a course crowded by attendant steamboats. Unless they took certain drastic precautions against a repetition of such conduct on the part of the steamers, he declared his determination not to sail the course again. The committee decided they could neither shift the course nor take the precautions he suggested. Thereupon, when the third race came to be sailed Lord Dunraven merely crossed the line with his yacht and then withdrew. The Defender covered the course followed by the mob of steam-boats, and having won three out of five of the races, secured the Cup once more for America.

惠

The gain and All this is very simple and easy to be loss of such understood.. Similar disputes are of contests. constant occurrence in all sports. But as a rule no one takes any notice beyond those immediately concerned. On this occasion, however, the fact that the two yachts represented two nations let loose a good deal of ill-feeling which now looked at, even at this short distance of time, seems both petty and miserably exaggerated. So far as an impartial Englishman can judge from accounts published by eye-witnesses, there seems to be no doubt that the Defender was the better boat. She beat the Valkyrie the first day with ease, and the second day was rapidly gaining upon her at the close of the race, notwithstanding her crippled condition. If the two yachts had sailed in mid-ocean without any spectators excepting those in the umpire's boat, it is probable the result would have been the same, and the Americans were fairly entitled to their victory. But, the Americans themselves being the judges, there was ample ground for Lord Dunraven's protest against the way in which the yachts were interfered with by the steamers. And it was the worst of bad taste and ill-feeling to hold him up to ridicule and contempt simply because he did not consider it safe to risk the lives of his men in rushing over the course which no one could keep clear. Imagine the Derby run at Epsom with the miscellaneous crowd of sightseers meandering on the course through which the horses come thundering down to the winning-post! But people who are excited over a race or a fight seldom take much pains to keep cool heads or civil tongues, and for a few days there was a rather ugly slanging match between the meaner champions of the respective boats, which afforded an unpleasant example of what may be regarded as the latent instincts of the worst tempered of both nations,

If

There are some who argue from this that international contests should be avoided lest they should generate international ill-feeling. That is all nonsense. America and England are to be united, we must not be too squeamish about such evidences of temper as are inevitable when differences of opinion manifest themselves. You cannot make an omelette without

breaking eggs. Neither can you bring two nations together nor two individuals together without multiplying points of friction, which, when nations or individuals are very headstrong and self-opinionated, will often culminate in much bad language. But unless people do come together and

pared with the Americans, in the athletic sports. It is true that the heat was terrible, but the Americans broke their own records as well as ours, and there is no doubt that we were fairly whipped. No one can reasonably deny that we are taking our licking like gentlemen. It is one of the disadvantages of making sport the ground of meetings of nations, that sport has an immense attraction for the scum of both nations, and the riffraff of the saloon and the slum cannot be expected to behave with the nice courtesy which should prevail around the lists in which an international tournament takes place. Still, even the sportsmen of both nations will learn

[September 13, 1895.

in time to be civil, and that will be a great gain. I sometimes think there is more hope, from this point of view,. of the conversion of prize-fighters than of editors.

The

The British Association met this year at Parliament of Ipswich. "Sir Douglas Galton, the Presi

Science. dent, delivered the inaugural address, which called for little remark. The meeting, on the whole, was somewhat commonplace, but it was relieved by one or two papers of somewhat sensational interest. One, which was followed by an interesting discussion, described the cannibals of West Africa from a somewhat sympathetic point of view. There is one tribe that habitually eats all its old people as soon as they show any signs of decrepitude-a primitive method of