ALMONER OF THE WORLD'S DAILY BREAD. THE simple endeavour to give mankind day by day its daily bread bids fair to make the American wheat trader not only the greatest of his class, but the most sensitive and alive cosmopolitan to be found in the world. He is bound to consider humanity as a unit-infinitely varied and complex no doubt in its wants, but still a very tangible and palpable unit. Mr. Ray Stannard Baker in the November Windsor gives a very striking and suggestive sketch of America and the world's wheat supply, and of the man who mediates between both. This is the portrait of the type of man which the central position of Chicago has produced :

The American, with his enormous surplus of wheat for exportation, has become, naturally, the greatest of all wheat traders. He is practically the manager and dictator of the world's wheat movement. He is eminently practical, clearheaded, and far-sighted; and wherever I saw him-in Chicago, Minneapolis, New York, Duluth, Buffalo, Detroit, or Toledohe was always astonishing, he came so near to the realisation of the cosmopolitan. Every morning he knows the conditions of the weather in Chili and the progress of threshing in India. The United States Government hangs at his elbow a map. showing the rising storm in Montana, which may reduce by two per cent. the crops of Northern Minnesota. His special newspapers inform him as to prices in Mark London; in the Produce Exchange, New York; the Board of Trade, Chicago; in the Chamber of Commerce, Minneapolis. The railroad companies quote him daily rates for shipments to Rio Janeiro, Hamburg, and Hong Kong. His State Government weighs his wheat as it arrives from the fields, and decides definitely as to its grade. He knows intimately how many bushels of wheat there are each morning at the great terminal elevator points the world over, how much is afloat in steamships, how much is being rushed across the continents in cars. His bank stands ready to advance him money at the lowest rates of interest to the full value of the slips

Lane,

on

66

of paper which record his elevator holdings. He knows the personal traits and needs of half the races of the earth. He knows, for instance, just when the Chinaman can be persuaded to buy his cheap flours instead of rice. He knows that Germany will use his bran for making molasses cakes. He knows that the Finns will sometimes eat his wheat, though grown 4,000 miles away, in preference to the flour of Russia. He knows that the Frenchman eats more bread than the Englishman, and the Englishman more than the American; and while there is wheat in the bins of Manitoba or Buffalo he will not allow the poorest bakeshop in London to go without bread to sell. So vast are his dealings that thousands have become units to him; when he sells 10 wheat," he means 10,000 bushels, not ten bushels. He knows just where in all the world wheat will be scarce, and he prepares overnight to turn all his elevators, railroads, canals, and steamship lines to satisfying the demand. He may not know a harvesting machine from a plough, this trader of wheat; but his eye is always on the thin, wavering ratio line between population and production; he is always facing world-wide starvation, and always averting it by his splendidly organised business machinery. Indeed, there is no more impressive spectacle in the whole scheme of human life than the almost frantic energy and haste of the men of the wheat pits, of the railroad and steamship lines, and of the mills, each fighting tooth and nail for his own personal gain, and yet serving a unconsciously the mighty world purpose of feeding the city from the surplus of the distant field.

A few estimates as to last year's crop-the crop of 1899-will give some idea of the wheat business of the American :

THE DECLINE OF BRITISH COMMERCE.

THE North American Review for October contains a very spirited reply by Mr. Benjamin Taylor to an article by Mr. A. M. Low on "The Decline of British Commerce," published in the same review some time ago. "British commerce is not declining," says Mr. Taylor, "and it is not fair to contrast the rapid increase in the entirely new trades of foreign countries with the slight increases in the already enormous trade of Great Britain." In regard to German trade, Mr. Taylor points out a fact which is not generally remembered that the statistics of German trade before 1889 do not include the exports of Hamburg and Bremen :

There are, in fact, no complete "German" statistics available before 1889. Nevertheless, Mr. Low makes up a table with a design to prove the relatively greater progress of other nations than Great Britain's between 1870 and 1895; and in that table he states the "special" export trade of Germany as £116,031,000 in the former and £165,895,000 in the latter year. As already pointed out, the figures Mr. Low quotes for 1870 do not include the exports of Hamburg and Bremen, the two principal ports of Germany.

THE IRON TRADE ARGUMENT.

As to the argument deduced from the increase of the iron trade of Germany and the United States, Mr. Taylor says:

Germany and the United States had practically no iron smelting to speak of in 1870, and, therefore, had barely tapped their deposits of iron ore. Once they began smelting, it was natural that Germany's output of ore should be quadrupled and America's quintupled in five and twenty years. But the mistake Mr. Low makes is in measuring the decline of the British industry by the decline in the output of British ironstone. That is easily explained. Between 1870 and 1895 we entered upon what may be called the age of steel. The manufacture of steel requires the smelting of hematite ores, the deposits of which in Great Britain are confined to the Cumberland district. To feed the blast furnaces of Scotland

and Cleveland, in order to make steel-making iron, we had to import hematite ores from Spain. Germany and the United States are now doing the same thing, neither country having enough native ore presently available for the existing demand of the furnaces. It is perfectly true that the smelting of iron has increased enormously both in Germany and in America, and in America has reached dimensions never yet attained, nor ever likely to be attained, in Great Britain. But it is also true that, up till Great Britain is the only one of the three great ironproducing countries that is able to make both for herself and others.

now,

British merchant, nor from German and American superiority. All these are pretexts, while the real evil is Trade Unionism :—

This it is that cripples us, by enhancing the costs of production and constantly restricting the output. Mr. Low doubts whether the tyranny of the British Trade Union is any more oppressive than that known in America. But he does not know British Trade Unionism, of which I could tell him moving tales enough to "make his flesh creep." Why does not the United States suffer from the same cause?" asks Mr. Low. Have patience. The turn of both the United States and Germany will comewill not now be long in coming.

THE WOES OF AN EDITOR'S WIFE.

"AN Editor's Wife," in the November Woman at Home, has a most entertaining paper on " The Girl who should Marry an Editor." No girl, we should say, if such a dog's life is before her; and editors ought to go unmarried if they cannot look after their wives a little better than this particular editor's wife seems to think they do. Unfortunately an editor is seldom an editor when he marries; and this explains why the unwary so often get trapped, for celibacy is not noticeably com-moner among editors than among any other men. This is an editor's wife's advice to those not yet so unfortunate as herself:

If a girl should notice any budding signs of editorship about her fiancé, let her take Mr. Punch's advice, and remain single; unless, of course, she feel strongly that even editorship would not, in her case, quell the ardent springs of affection.

The girl who marries an editor should possess her soul in patience, and, like the lady in the Proverbs, find her comfort in looking well to the ways of her household." She must not be vain of her accomplishments, for her husband will think nothing of going to sleep during her most masterly efforts at Mozart or Chopin. She will gradually accustom herself to regard her music in the humbler light of a soothing soporific. She must not rebel if, like the husband in "Elizabeth's German Garden," he fail" to speak a single whole sentence in three weeks," and she must expect but few endearments and relaxations.

Besides this, she "must endure his absence for at least thirteen hours out of the twenty-four, and must tolerate the fact that his meals, his waking and sleeping hours are all extraordinary and irregular."

If he comes in at half-past three in the morning, filled with woe and the prospect of a European war, his wife must be ready to soothe and sympathise.

Above all, let her mind her own business, and never seek to invade the editorial sanctum. She may, we are told, "darn her husband's socks, tend him, nurse him, mend him," etc., but on no account must she have literary aspirations of her own, or, if she has, she must confide them to other editors than her husband, “although,” as the writer remarks, “why he should think nothing of his wife's literary ability until other editors appreciate it is perhaps less easily explained.” appointment and hope deferred, apparently, are the daily bread of the editor's wife :

Dis

"We have been twenty-five years married, and Samuel has always had some craze or other," once remarked pathetically the much-jaded wife of a kaleidoscopic and fire-eating editor. "If only he would have a quiet time and settle down!"

Now we can quite understand the remark of a distinguished foreign journalist to a lady on learning that she was the wife of a London editor: "Madame, you have my most profound commiseration."

THE LIMITS OF MUNICIPAL TRADING. THE birth of twenty-eight boroughs in a single daythe Ist of November-ought to give a powerful impetus to every form of municipal interest, and to make the question of municipal trading, which has occupied a Select Committee of both Houses, and which the current number of the Edinburgh Review discusses at length, one of special public concern. The reviewer tries to find if a line can be drawn between those matters which can best be entrusted to municipalities, and those which may safely be left to private enterprise. He considers that water and light are essentials which may be therefore municipalised, but that locomotion is not an essential. He touches on the question whether municipalised concerns should be run for cheapness or for profits applicable to the reduction of the rates. quotes the view of the Lord Provost of Glasgow that the second alternative is dangerous: the Corporation of Glasgow applying the profits of each undertaking to that undertaking. The writer gravely doubts whether municipal dwellings do not work more harm than good. He accepts the definition of the Lord Provost of Glasgow that the functions of the municipality are rather functions of service than functions of trade.

A PENNY TELEPHONE.

He

In respect of the telephone, the writer seems inclined to nationalise and municipalise the system at the same time. He says:

After repeated application Glasgow has obtained a license from the Postmaster-General, and is in a position to work an exchange over an area equal to that worked in Glasgow by the National Company. Only from the spread of this system and the subsequent introduction of the principle of competition can we look for such a perfection of telephonic facilities as will enable all classes of the public to communicate with each other as freely and as cheaply as they do by post. Already in Glasgow it is proposed to establish numerous call-offices where for a penny any one will be able to communicate with the entire area. The extension of such a system to the United Kingdom is a task immeasurably less difficult than the establishment of the penny post, and if properly worked there is every prospect that it would be a source of actual profit to those who undertake it. But the position requires to be boldly handled; the interests of a body of monopolists cannot be allowed to override the advantage and convenience of the public at large; and the efforts of the central Government should be supplemented by the energy and enterprise of local associations.

MUNICIPALISATION STRIDING ON.

But the writer calls attention to "a far-reaching attempt by municipalities to invade the province of individual enterprise," and quotes the following

instances:

By an Act of last year power was given to a Midland corporation to provide Turkish baths. In a bill of the recent session power was sought, among other things, to provide apparatus for games and athletics, to be used presumably, but not necessarily, on recreation-grounds established by the authority. In another, power was sought to provide refrigerators and cold ice stores for the preservation of marketable articles, and to sell ice. In another it was proposed to provide bathing tents. In another, tailoring was contemplated; saddlery in another. In several, power was asked for to construct and manage refreshment-rooms in parks. By many corporations the power of manufacturing as well as supplying electrical fittings was demanded, and in three cases efforts were made to acquire the privilege of providing entertainments and charging for admission.

The House of Lords, on Lord Morley's advice, has refused assent to bills authorising the manufacture as well as the supply of electric and water fittings.

We believe, then, that it behoves Parliament to impose some carefully framed limit on the trading efforts of municipalities within the areas administered by them. It may be that Lord Crewe's Committee may find some sounder basis for fixing that limit than was suggested to them by the Lord Provost of Glasgow. But there is much wisdom in the definition he laid down, and he supported it with good sense fortified by long experience. He said that the municipalities might safely be entrusted with, but confined to, the supply of things which were in their nature suitable to a monopoly, which were articles of necessity, and which required control of the streets or portions of the public property of the municipality.

GOING BEYOND BOUNDS.

Where the municipality extends its enterprise outside its own boundaries, as where it supplies water or light or locomotion to its neighbours, a new difficulty arises. May it make a profit out of its neighbours' necessities? In the case of tramways the question is becoming grave:

Glasgow is already working thirteen miles outside the city boundary, and expects soon to be working thirty-four. Hudders field obtained powers this year to establish spurs of its own system, extending in many directions into many areas. And unless some proper check can be established, we may expect ere long to see a large number of town councils in the position of a board of directors owning and controlling a network of tramways over a wide district, and comparable in difficulty and importance with many minor systems of railways

Some check, such as insistence on joint management and a sharing of responsibility by all the authorities affected, will have to be devised, and the higher the authority devising it the better.

SIR HENRY FOWLER'S DICTUM.

The reviewer cites another outline of suggestea limitation which has been suggested :

Sir Henry Fowler, a friend of municipal administration if ever there was one. would limit it to such undertakings as are clearly for the common good and the general use of the whole community, and which it is for the public advantage to place under public control.

But he would not allow the general user to decide what came under this definition. The reviewer raises the question whether municipal employés should be allowed to retain their municipal franchise. He presses for the imposition by Parliament of "wise and temperate conditions" for the regulation of the whole matter.

THE most notable paper in Longman's for November is one by G. Bradshaw on Indian famines. The writer gives a vivid idea of the heroism of the administrators who fight these terrible visitations of hunger. He quotes a missionary who said, “Very few missionaries could show a record of self-sacrifice equal to that of Government officials," and complains that while England honours with almost superstitious reverence the magic letters "V.C.," she recks little of "the men who have saved thousands from a horrible death" and "faced death in the most ghastly of diseases with quiet English pluck. Mr. G. Paston revives out of the dust of oblivion the story of a once famous authoress, Mrs. Grant, of Laggan whose "Letters from the Mountains" had a great vogue in the beginning of the century.

"TOMMY" UNDER FIRE.

A PAPER on Our Soldiers," written by "Linesman " in the November Blackwood, will, if we mistake not, be widely read and vastly appreciated. It is a panegyric on Tommy Atkins, it is true, but it contains pictures drawn from life of the way our private soldiers comport themselves in the actual brunt of battle. The writer contrasts the fantastic imaginings of what soldiers feel in their first action with what he saw at the front. He says:

The writer's first taste of fire was an unexpected shelling of the camp when dinners were being prepared, and all men were in the peaceful frame of mind inseparable from the fragrant smell of cooking meat. How were all hands taking it, considering that they were men who had only landed from the transport three days before? Apparently they were not "taking it" at all, in the sense of being affected by it. I have seen soldiers make more fuss over the upsetting of a perambulator than they did over the shouting of those grim messengers from the far-off kopje.

A RUSH TOWARDS THE SHELL.

the time for a prayer, or even a shriek, if ever there were one. "I've just had a free 'air-cut, mates!" was the only observation heard by the officer. Rifle-fire has often been compared to hail, but it is pretty safe to say that it never gave a more faithful representation than it did upon the smooth veldt between those merciful ant-hills. Is it credible that rough jokes, loud inquiries after the welfare of friends next door, or rather next heap, could be heard sounding from anthill to anthill from jolly red faces pressed against them behind? It may not be credible, but it is history.

IN RETREAT.

It was the first time the men had come under fire from the pom-pom they amused themselves by imitating the sound of its voice to a nicety with their own! When they were ordered to retreat they retired like "a party.... all silent and all damned" and sulky, but a complete refutation of Sir John Moore's remark that British soldiers were "no good in a retirement" :—

No soldiers but our own have ever turned their backs on an exulting foe with their discipline intact-nay, more rigid and dignified than before; with their spirit as high, their courage as steadfast.

A TEA-FIGHT AMID DROPPING SHELLS!

This is how General Hildyard's Second Brigade on Vaal Krantz stood the severest test-"a long and severe dose of artillery fire, without a chance of reprisal or being permitted to advance":

For fifteen hours shells fell upon that miserable kopje from a 40-pounder perched upon Spion Kop, from six 7-pounders on Brakfontein, from two pom-poms in varying positions, from a 3-inch Creusot in its usual state of hurry, from an irascible old gentleman of a 94-pounder on Doorn Kloof. Wheugh-bang! Piff, piff, piff! Orrgh-crash! Never did bird-fanciers recognise more certainly the different notes of the warblers of the grove

than did those 3,000 lodgers on the kopje the respective voices of those vile, unceasing shells. Some died, some were carried away on dripping stretchers before they could learn the full gamut. And the survivors? The few within the writer's kenquarrelled! During a lucid interval in the shelling, the regimental cooks had contrived to make and distribute tea to the men lying prone in their shelters. The distribution was not, perhaps, impartial. . . . So there arose a bickering... “Peace" yelled the monstrous shrapnel at the height of the argument; "Shut up!" snapped the pom-pom shells; "Silence!" boomed the far-off 40-pounder. Not a bit of it. No foreign-made projectile ever fired shall stop a Briton well under weigh with a grievance !

NOT FAULTLESS.

The writer explains that the British soldier does not desire glory; does not think of glory; and therefore wins it. He is thinking of unattainable beer or tea, or the next camping ground, or how long his contract-boots will last. The writer allows that Tommy is slow to perceive a danger or a possible advantage, slow to meet the first or seize the latter. He takes no care of himself, and is too dependent on his officers. Nevertheless, the writer concludes, "He is everything a soldier should be, save in one particular": he is not cunning.

"THE UNION OF CIVILISED PEOPLES.”

WITH a noble optimism Baron d'Estournelles de Constant prophesies in the November Humanitarian of the inevitable harvest of good which follows the good seed sown at the Hague. He is not deterred by what has happened in South Africa. He says:

If we are willing to reason truthfully and coolly, we shall see that the Transvaal War has caused pacific ideas to make a stride in advance, through the unanimous condemnation to which it has been subjected by the civilised world, as well as by the lamentable but significant decision of the Powers to confine themselves to this platonic condemnation and not to render the war general.

No one will emerge from this crisis satisfied, not the conquered nor the conqueror, nor the neutrals who feel themselves responsible to the conscience of humanity. The result, still dim but certain, of this unanimous displeasure, will be expressed in the masses by the need, the necessity of organising peace, and of rendering war more and more rare and difficult. Everything is helping to prepare peace in the world.

...

The establishment of apparatus for mediation and arbitration makes the writer confident that no Government will dare to refuse arbitration. "The cause of arbitration is won."

The Chinese disorders have brought to pass this miracle "the union of the civilised peoples." The writer proceeds :

The nations will lose their importance; they will perceive that they are small and weak if they remain isolated; they will be forced into association like individuals, not through love, but through self-interest well understood, by the instinct of selfpreservation. The twentieth century will be the century of association, not only of men, but of peoples.

But, like a true prophet, the writer recognises the freedom of choice which belongs to those he addresses ; so his last words are :

A ridiculous and blood abortion of civilisation in the Far East; the triumph of barbarism; universal war, or ruin and social revolution-such will be the inevitable result of discord among the Powers at Pekin.

Civilisation has reached the tragic and decisive hour when it must choose between good and evil, between the instincts of violence, of cupidity, and the appeals to reason. hesitate under penalty of abdicating and going to perdition.

It cannot

THE VERY LATEST THEORY OF THE CRUCIFIXION. BY J. G. FRASER.

MR. J. G. FRASER, the author of "The Golden Bough," was regarded by the late Mr. Grant Allen with an almost superstitious veneration. Mr. Grant Allen was not the kind of man to worship any one, but he almost worshipped Mr. Fraser for his "Golden Bough," and he would almost have fallen down at his feet in an ecstasy of devotion on hearing the latest contribution on the theory of religion. Mr. Fraser had contributed to the Fortnightly Review for October and November a paper on the Saturnalia and kindred festivals. Both papers are very interesting and full of much suggestive matter. The only point which will impress the general public is the bearing which they have upon Mr. Fraser's theory of the Crucifixion. But I prefer to allow Mr. Fraser to state this in his own way :

Festivals of the type of the Saturnalia, characterised by an inversion of social ranks and the sacrifice of a man in the character of a god, were at one time held all over the ancient world from Italy to Babylon. Such festivals seem to date from an early age in the history of agriculture, when people lived in small communities, each presided over by a sacred or a divine king, whose primary duty was to secure the orderly succession of the seasons and the fertility of the earth. Associated with him was his wife or other female consort, with whom he performed some of the necessary ceremonies, and who therefore shared his divine character. Originally his term of office appears to have been limited to a year, on the conclusion of which he was put to death; but in time he contrived by force or craft to extend his reign, and sometimes to procure a substitute, who after a short and more or less nominal tenure of the crown was slain in his stead. At first the substitute for the divine father was probably the divine son, but afterwards this rule was no longer insisted on, and still later the growth of a humane feeling demanded that the victim should always be a condemned criminal. In this advanced stage of degeneration it is no wonder if the light of divinity suffered eclipse, and many should fail to detect the god in the malefactor. Yet the downward career of fallen deity does not stop here; even a criminal comes to be thought too good to personate a god on the gallows or in the fire; and then there is nothing left but to make up a more or less grotesque effigy, and so to hang, burn, or otherwise destroy the god in the person of this sorry representative. By this time the original meaning of the ceremony may be so completely forgotten that the puppet is supposed to represent some historical personage, who earned the hatred and contempt of his fellows in his life, and whose memory has ever since been held up to eternal execration by the annual destruction of his effigy. The figures of Haman, of the Carnival, and of Winter or Death which are or used to be annually destroyed in spring by Jews, Catholics, and the peasants of Central Europe respectively, appear to be all lineal descendants of those human incarnations of the powers of nature whose life and death were deemed essential to the welfare of mankind.

THE ANNUAL BARABBAS

It is possible that the reader will fail to see the bearing of these conclusions upon the crucifixion of Christ, but Mr. Fraser leaves him in no doubt upon that point. He suggests that it was customary—

with the Jews at Purim, or perhaps occasionally at Passover, to employ two prisoners to act the parts respectively of Haman and Mordecai in the passion play which formed a central feature of the festival. Both men paraded for a short time in the insignia of royalty, but their fates were different; for while at the end of the performance the one who played Haman was hung or crucified, the one who personated Mordecai, and bore in popular parlance the title of Barabbas, was allowed to go free. Pilate, perceiving the trumpery nature of the charges brought against Jesus, tried to persuade the Jews to let him play the part of Barabbas, which would have saved His life; but the merciful

attempt failed, and Jesus perished on the cross in the character of Haman.

-OR THE ANNUAL HAMAN

Mr. Fraser puts this astonishing theory forward, with the suggestion that its adoption would tend to explain many things in the gospel narrative :

The hypothesis that the crucifixion with all its cruel mockery was not a punishment specially devised for Christ, but was merely the fate that annually befell the malefactor who played Haman, appears to go some way towards relieving the gospel narrative of certain difficulties which otherwise beset it. On this assumption Pilate had no power to prevent the sacrifice; the most he could do was to choose the victim. Again, consider the remarkable statement of the Evangelists that Pilate set up over the cross a superscription stating that the man who hung on it was King of the Jews.

It is difficult to believe that Pilate could have put up such an inscription, says Mr. Fraser, unless it was merely a traditional form under which the unfortunate victim was annually delivered over to death. Assuming that Mr. Fraser is right, what then? He answers that point himself as follows:

In the great army of martyrs who in many ages and in many lands, not in Asia only, have died a cruel death in the character of gods, the devout Christian will doubtless discern types and forerunners of the coming Saviour-stars that heralded in the morning sky the advent of the Sun of Righteousness-earthen vessels wherein it pleased the divine wisdom to set before hungering souls the bread of heaven. The sceptic, on the other hand, with equal confidence, will reduce Jesus of Nazareth to the level of a multitude of other victims of a barbarous superstition, and will see in him no more than a moral teacher, whom the fortunate accident of his execution invested with the crown, not merely of a martyr, but of a god.

AN ANGLO-AMERICAN SOCIAL UNION. SIR WALTER BESANT, much struck by the fact that thousands of Americans visit this country every year without seeing more than the external side of English life, and thereby receiving many false impressions, has had the excellent idea of forming a Union to promote social intercourse between the two nations. The new society is described by Sir Walter in the October Forum:— It has long been a matter for concern with those who desire not only to maintain friendly relations with Colonials and Americans, but also to cultivate personal friendships with them, that so many visitors from the United States and the Colonies come over every year, stay for a time in London, travel about the country, and go away without having made the acquaintance of a single English family, and without having entered a single English home. They go away without any knowledge of English life except that which can be gained from the outside.

The Atlantic Union" will be an attempt to meet and to overcome this reproach. It will be the object of the Union to attract, if possible, those who occupy, either in the United States or the Colonies, positions of trust and responsibility, those whom their own people look to for leading and for guidance. The Union desires to make the English members acquainted with those who help to form public opinion in the Colonies and the States. In order that this object may te carried out, it is essential that the English members shall them. selves belong to the class of those who make and lead public opinion in this country. Membership in the Union will, there fore, be offered only to such persons as can satisfy more or less this condition. It will include, therefore, statesmen, clergymen, men of science, art, and literature, journalists, artists, actors, architects, professors, lecturers, teachers, and, in a word, all pre fessional men, together with leaders in the world of finance and

commerce.

The Union has already gained the support of the Primate, and a large number of distinguished men in every walk of life. The yearly subscri, tion is a guinea.