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Bismarck's herculean task to weld together. To engage Gladstone's powers, when he had sloughed off his early Tory proclivities, it was not the battle for kingly sway and national aggrandizement that enlisted him in their combined service, but the battle for the peoples' rights and privileges, with all that is implied in English legislative and franchise reform. Great, of course, was Bismarck's forecast of his lifework, and strenuous and resolute his policy in guiding Germany to an unquestioned ascendancy in Europe. But his achievements, mighty as they are, pale, in many respects, before the triumphs of Gladstone, in that the great Englishman's were those of peace rather than those of

war.

Nevertheless, for good or for evil,and the former, as we think,- Bismarck has left an ineffaceable impress both upon the general history of modern Europe and upon the internal development and national life of Germany. Nor were Bismarck's qualities for his high task the least notable of the marks of his greatness. He admittedly lacked Gladstone's varied culture and lofty standard of ethics, as he lacked his golden tongue and phenomenal power of moving the popular heart; but he had, in an eminently practical and, oftentimes, rough way, both the brain and the arm necessary to the times and the work to be done. By these he wrought with signal success his ends, crushed or swept aside his foes, and, with the zest of a man of action rather than of words, he drove on in his conquering way to the goal of his ambition -a "patriotic German" and loyal servant of his master, the King.

Like Wolsey and Richelieu, to both of whom he, in some respects, may be compared, Bismarck had his reverses as well as his triumphs. As a diplomatist he was incomparable; but as an administrator he wanted tact, as well as the patience to pick rather than fight his way, and trust in the country's sagacity to follow him, when it had been convinced that he was right as well as masterful. Neither his sympathies nor his care were with or for the people, and he as little regarded his foes, for he accepted to the letter Machiavelli's maxim, that it is safer to be feared than to be loved. With all his defects, it is doubtful if his country would have had him other than he was, since only strong natures, as well as self-confident, could so successfully have done the work he set his

hand to do. A man less heroic than he, moreover, might have been diverted from his task by mere personal ambition and the lust of popular applause. He was cast in too sturdy a mould to care for either, so Germany does well to be proud of him- proud of his sterling patriotism and grand, if rude, integrity.

These characteristics, however, are not all of Bismarck. There was another and more sunny side to his nature. In hours of ease hardly ever was there a more delightful or companionable man. The disposition that could growl could, like that of his own German mastiffs, also frolic and

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PRINCE HERBERT BISMARCK

beam upon the intruder with frank kindliness. Many are the tales told of the amenities of his now desolate home in the "Sachsenwald." Open to the day also was the purity and lovableness of his personal character and the sweet simplicity of his domestic life. His successor and heir is his eldest son, Prince Herbert Bismarck, whose portrait will be found in these pages. From the hands of the new head of the house we may shortly look, we presume, for the promised Memoirs of his distinguished father.

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navies, and continue to grind swords and look sharply to their military efficiency. Russia, we are told, designs, within the next seven years, to make a further expenditure of two hundred and fifty million dollars on her fleet, while England has set herself to build a further array of new and still more powerful battleships, cruisers, and torpedo-boat destroyers. Germany and France are following suit, in strengthening their navies; while the latter is, wherever she can, acquiring and fortifying coaling stations. This general enhancing of armaments is ominous and is plainly indicative of war rather than of peace. England's practical withdrawal from the European Concert and the fervor of her feeling for this country, have aroused antagonisms on the continent, added to the jealousies engendered by watching each other over the partition of China and in looking after the bones of Spanish colonies we may not wish to gnaw in the Pacific. Trade rivalries and socialistic perturbations increase the unrest of Europe, while the dark ambitions of Russia and her enormous Asiatic development, seem a menace to the nations. the devotees of peace the times are obviously neither happy nor assuring.

To

In England Jingoism appears to be infecting all classes, for there is increasing dissatisfaction with Lord Salisbury (whose war-feeling, if he now has any, is held in leash by the Queen) for not taking firmer ground against the aggressions of Russia in the East. Even the usually mild Liberals join with the Jingoes in objecting to the weakness of Tory diplomacy and seem to relish Chamberlain's more defiant attitude. That the party is hopelessly under a cloud is due not so much to lack of an acceptable and recognized leader as to the increasing drift, on the part of the nation at large, towards imperialism. This is shown in the abandonment of Irish Home Rule, and in the favor with which Liberals look on the permanent occupation of Egypt and the active prosecution of the war against the Khalifa. It also finds expression in the regard paid to the idea of an Anglo-American alliance and the world-dominance of the two great English-speaking branches of the AngloSaxon race. Despite these militant aspects of the nation, England is contented and prosperous. She finds leisure, moreover, to look well after her great and small

dependencies and to be interested in the industrial and social weal of her people. In the one sphere she has just made new vice-regal appointments, one to India, the other to Canada, in each of which the United States has either a political or a semi-personal interest; in the other sphere, in conjunction with her chief colonies, she has just agreed to a measure of great domestic and colonial importance a uniform penny postage rate.

France, which has had the luxury of having some thirty different administrations since she became a Republic, no doubt longs in her heart for stable government, but doesn't get it. The Socialists, having upset the Méline ministry, it has been succeeded by that of M. Brisson, whose complexion is mildly Radical. The fall of the Méline government, it is said, is distasteful to Russia, since the accession of a Radical ministry places in some peril the Franco-Russian understanding. It is doubtful whether the Republic cares much, however, for that, and it would care less if the alliance between them demanded that France should side with the Czar in the event of war with England. The programme of the new ministry calls for a rehearing of the vexed Dreyfus case, but opinion in France, which stands by the army, is strongly against reopening the matter, and Cavaignac, the new war minister, is known, also, to oppose it. Meanwhile, France wants quiet to give her undistracted attention to the Paris International Exposition of 1900.

Germany has also been through the turmoil of an election, though it has not greatly altered the balance of parties in the Reichstag. The gainers in the Chamber are the Centre or Clerical party and the Socialists; the National-Liberals have held their own; and the Conservatists and anti-Semites have lost. The added strength of the Clerics and Socialists is an omen of distrust, and of possible future disturbance. There is, of course, no bond between the two, save that they are each for themselves and both are against the Conservative Protestant and propertyholding forces in the country. At present, no trouble is likely to come from either of these elements, unless there is a fatuous resort to repressive legislation and an untoward display of autocracy.

The lesson of the elections would seem to point to a growth of the Democratic spirit and to an increase in the Social Democratic party, which, besides expressing discontent at the inequalities of life, is averse from the feudal exercise of monarchical authority, and from a government of spies and police, with its rude processes of summary convictions for lèse-majesté. The Kaiser, meanwhile having been summoned from his trip to Norway by the death of Bismarck, prepares for his expedition to the Holy Land, which we may be sure will give the Emperor the opportunity once more to draw all eyes upon him and his doings.

The problems of Austrian politics continue to baffle statesmanship in the curious jumble of conflicting national interests known as the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The bond of confederation continues to hang loose, and there seems, at present, no man of sufficient power and will able to weld together the discordant rival elements in the composite kingdom. And yet, curiously enough, the fabric doesn't fall to pieces. The scuffle of races and diverse sectional interests goes on, but nothing, so far, falls apart, though Magyar influence appears somewhat to decline and German Liberalism, it is to be feared, withers. The concession to the Czechs, in placing their language on a par with German in the Prague legislature, has given Bohemia a great national advantage and encouraged the Czechs to insist more strongly upon their racial and legislative supremacy. The conflict between the antagonistic elements is, therefore, all the more bitter. The Ausgleich matter remains unsettled, and government in the Empire is administered under a merely provisional arrangement, which leads to both instability and discord. Fortunately, the Emperor does much to save the dual kingdom from dissolution, aided by the pressure of external environing forces. The fiftieth anniversary of Francis Joseph's accession to the throne of the Habsburgs takes place early in December, which will, no doubt, occasion great rejoicing and possibly may be helpful to the increased stability and more harmonious working of the Constitution.

Italy has, for some time, been sitting on the thin crust of revolution and anarchy. The cause is partly economic; though the

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A New WarCloud in the East

Nothing shows so clearly the feebleness of China than the glimpse we get of the corrupt and inherently vicious administration installed at Peking. To its impotence or rascality-probably both-is due the cause which has just put a severe strain upon the diplomatic relations between England and Russia and may possibly lead to war. The Chinese government, it appears, lately applied to the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, a British monetary institution, for a loan to build an extension of the New-Chwang railroad. The loan was at once agreed to, when, it seems, the Russians, learning of the matter, interposed and brought such pressure to bear upon the Tsung-li-Yamen at Peking as to lead that body to reject the proffer of British money and accept a similar loan from

Russia.

The motive Russia is supposed to have for intimidating or bribing the administration at Peking is that the region through which the new railroad is projected is already within the sphere of Russian influence. England, on her part, not being in China for territorial aggression, but for commercial expansion in the common interest of the nations, protests against this interference by Russia, and her ambassador, Sir Claude Macdonald, has been urged to stiffen the backs of members of the Yamen and assure the Chinese government that it will, even at the cost of war with the Colossus of the North, back up all its trade concessions to England and stand by it in resisting Muscovite dictation. A further justification for the stand England has taken appears in the fact that Russian money has just been accepted by China for railway operations, in the Yang-tse Valley, an already assured region of British influence. Under the circumstances, Russian intrigue at Peking is naturally resented by England, and the situation at present is so critical that war between the Lion and the Bear would appear to be imminent.

from trade rivalries and the lust of territorial aggression. Lord Salisbury's firmness may avert present trouble, but England is not likely to stoop to further humiliations in pursuing her own policy in the Far East, where that policy is dictated by regard solely for commercial, and not imperialistic, interests. We are not Russophobists, but Muscovite aggression in China must have some respect for other Powers, whose interests have been secured by treaty and whose commercial policy is the open, and not the closed, door. The dictation of Russia that seeks to exclude Britain from trade privileges in the Mid-. dle Kingdom may, one day, if unchecked, be also turned against the commerce in China of the United States, and the legitimate employment of American capital.

The gravity of the situation is enhanced by the well-known ineptitude and cupidity of Mandarin rule at Peking, and by the political feeling in Jingo circles in England, which makes it risky for the British foreign minister to continue to acquiesce in the vast concessions that are being made in China to other and rival European Powers, to the elimination of British prestige and the disadvantage of her trade. Russian preponderance is also resented, where, as would appear, her influence and that of her ally, France, are known to be hostile to England, and where much is corruptly going on to weaken the integrity of the Celestial Empire and threaten the overthrow of the Manchu dynasty. The recent assumption, of power by the astute Dowager-Empress and Li Hung Chang is said to be inspired by Russia, and it is not impossible that she may have had a hand in inciting the recent revolt in the Southern Provinces, which may fire the country anew and lead to a repetition of the horrors of the Taiping rebellion. Calamitous as war between Russia and England would be, it is hardly possible that the scramble that has been going on for the partition of the Chinese Empire will not have its sequel in European dissensions, and possible conflicts, arising

Hooleyism and It is, unfortunately, no novCompany- elty to find people in EngPromoting land, even of high rank, amenable to the corrupt influence of money. Everywhere, indeed, in this age, money can effect marvels. Among the evidences of its power, not the least surprising are the readily thrown-open-door and the easy purchase by it of influential recognition and support, alike in the social and in the financial world. The reality of these things has come anew to light in the scandals which have arisen out of the recent failure of Mr. Ernest T. Hooley, a professional organizer of stockcompanies in England. The promoter's many heavy enterprises having collapsed, he has just been adjudged a bankrupt on his own petition. To account in part for his failure, Mr. Hooley has been telling all England of the vast sums he had to expend to enable him to secure men of title on the directorate of his companies, and to secure introductions to people of prominence. Many of the persons he names, who have thus sold themselves to advance his schemes and act as aristocratic decoys in the stock-market. The disclosure is a painful one, and has naturally filled England with alarm, since the investing public in the British Isles is an enormous one that is readily lured by a titled figurehead on the directorate of speculative enterprises. To find that these enterprises are not always legitimate, though vouched for by influential, wellknown, and supposedly incorruptible people, has given a rough shock to public confidence. Distrust has been increased

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The World's

Coal Areas

An instructive paper in the "Nineteenth Century" for July last deals with the World's Coal Supplies. In a higher sense than ever, this precious mineral is king, and happy are the nations that possess it, for in it lies the real economic problem of the future. "It is the coal supply of the world," observes Mr. Benjamin Taylor, the writer of the article referred to, "that will readjust the industrial, social, and political relations of the nations. Enormous and rapidly increasing as is the consumption—and to that consumption, for domestic and manufacturing purposes we have now to allow for its waste in war,—yet, if we can trust Mr. Taylor's figures, there is little cause, for centuries to come, at least, to apprehend anything like a coal famine. The figures are well-nigh bewildering that represent the store of the "bottled sunshine" in the carboniferous strata of the globe, and marvellous even are the statistics of the present consumption by the great industrial nations.

According to careful expert estimates, made last year (1897), the annual coal output of the world, it seems, reached the unprecedented figure of 575,000,000 tons. Of this enormous yield, the bulk was mined in this country and in England, the figures being 202,000,000 tons for the United Kingdom and 178,000,000 tons for the United States. Germany comes next, with 91,000,000 tons; France with 30,000,ooo tons; Belgium with 22,000,000 tons; and Russia and Austria-Hungary each with 11,000,000 tons. The remaining crop is contributed chiefly by Canada, New South Wales, Japan and Formosa, British India, China, Spain, New Zealand, and the Transvaal. The number of countries in

which coal is now mined, and in all of which the output might be enormously enhanced, proves the abundance and practically inexhaustible character of the supply. The facilities the railways afford add to the readiness by which the mineral can be got from the coal-fields to tidewater. The cost of mining, in some of the countries, is at present unfavorable to the supply, the average price per ton at the mines varying from $1.20 in this country and $1.45 in the United Kingdom, to $1.70 in Germany, and to $2.50 in Natal, Victoria, and New Zealand. In British India, where labor is cheap and the facilities for mining good, the cost per ton at the pit mouth is only ninety cents.

We have lately seen the importance in possessing coal by a nation that would become a great sea-power. Of all countries, Britain, with her circlet of colonies round the world, is best off in this respect. Nor need she fear any dearth of coal in her old Island Kingdom, though some twenty-five years ago Sir William (now Lord) Armstrong startled the nation with the spectre of a coming coal famine. Reassurance came with the report of the Royal Commission in 1871, which showed that there was then enough available coal in Great Britain to last for three hundred and sixty years, or for one thousand two hundred years more, if she did not, as she has been doing, increase the consumption. In this country, with the vast area of our coal measures, we have no occasion to be apprehensive, though, like England, we are also enormous consumers of the mineral. We have, it is estimated, a coal area of some 200,000 square miles, the output of which has doubled in the last fifteen years. To the production in Pennsylvania, which has a coal area of 12,000 square miles, and to that in Illinois, Ohio, and Kentucky, has now to be added the production in the 16,000 square miles of coal in West Virginia. Besides these enormous fields of coal, others are known to be scattered throughout the Union, save perhaps in four States, which are supposed to have none. There

is also the supply in the adjoining Canadian Dominion, chiefly in the Maritime Provinces in the East, and in British Columbia and the Northwest Provinces in the West. The coal resources of the Continent, as are those of the world, it will be seen, are therefore practically unlimited.

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