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QUESTIONS OF SOUTH AFRICAN RECONSTRUCTION.

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MAKE TWO GREAT COLONIES?

THE North American Review for June contains an article by Sir Sidney Shippard, in which he gives his views as to How England should Treat the Vanquished Boers." The principle which should govern the settlement is, he says:

A statesman's first duty is to safeguard the interests of his own country, and if this cannot be done without hurting the feelings of others, tant pis pour les autres.

As to the concrete application of this principle, he says that the capital should be removed to Johannesburg:

The advantages of uniting the present colony of Natal and the Transvaal and Orange territory in one great colony would, I think, be very great. It would have an excellent seaboard. It would be a fair political and commercial counterpoise to the Cape Colony. An Appeal Court for all South Africa below the Zambesi might at once be established at Cape Town, with rights of ultimate appeal to the Privy Council. The Cape University system might be extended over all South Africa. The postal and telegraph systems would be uniform, and could be worked from one centre. Due provision would be made, of course, for extradition and for the reciprocal enforcement of legal process. Union as between the great Eastern and Western Colonies for defensive purposes could be easily arranged. The laws of Natal and of the two extinct republics would have to be examined and compared, and a law commission should be appointed to draft a series of consolidating enactments applicable to the entire territory. These enactments, of course, would have to be submitted to the present Natal Legislature, whose consent would be a condition precedent to any such arrangement; but, as regards the conquered territories, legislation should be by proclamation, pending the establishment of a limited form of representative government. Full Parliamentary institutions with responsible government could not be safely introduced until all danger of disturbances shall have been finally removed.

CALL IN MR. RHODES?

Mr. Edward Dicey, writing in the Fortnightly on the Policy of Peace, recognises that British supremacy in a self-governed South Africa can best be secured by an increase in the British resident population. Government irrigation works might make it worth while for younger sons of good family, now serving under Lord Roberts, to settle on the land. But his chief hope is that the staffing of the railways, the building and mine-sinking which will follow the war, will retain a large number of skilled artisans among the Reservists, Militia and Yeomanry. He especially urges the development of the mining industry, and pays this tribute to its present chiefs :

I know of no mining community where the capitalists have done so much to provide for the comfort and convenience of the workers in their service, have lavished money so freely on all works of public utility, or have so identified themselves with the interests of the industry by which they have made their fortunes. He also insists :

The time has come to put aside the prejudices caused by the Raid, and to avail ourselves freely of the services of the British party, of which, in fact, if not in name, Mr. Cecil Rhodes still remains the leader. We have a hard task before us, and we need the help of all South African statesmen who, whatever errors they may be deemed to have committed, have always been loyal in their allegiance to the Mother Country.

SETTLE SOLDIERS AS FARMERS?

Colonel J. G. B. Stopford has an article in the Nineteenth Century dealing with the proposals for settling time-expired soldiers in South Africa. The bulk of his article is devoted to a recapitulation of the

difficulties which settlers would meet with, but he does not think the project by any means impossible. He says:

If the force which it is necessary to maintain in Africa be composed of men chosen because of their wish to settle permanently in the country, they might be divided into regiments of 1,000 or 500, or a less number of men, as the facilities for accumulating water might render advisable, and be settled in communities, whose houses might extend for some miles along a course, the centre part of which would be supplied with water from a dam made by blocking a valley or depression in the ground.

For a year, or two years, or as long as it was necessary to complete the works, these men might receive pay and be under military discipline, and would work under the direction of officers. During this time they would construct a dam, and build themselves houses and fences, and prepare the land for sowing.

As the force, after their recent experiences, would not require much military training, the whole of their time would be available to make the farm, and, when they were released from service, they should be able to continue in their houses and on their holdings at such terms as might be arranged.

"COMMANDEERING THE ALMIGHTY."

The only passage worth quoting from Miss Anna Howarth's sketch in Cornhill of the Boer at home is her witness to the strength and sincerity of his religious convictions:

The Boer is nothing if not religious. . . . He does undoubtedly believe that his cause is a sacred one, and that the Lord is fighting on his side. "What!" exclaimed a profane Englishman, on hearing this sentiment expressed, "have you commandeered the Almighty too?" The phrase was not unapt. The Boer has commandeered the Almighty, and is by this time greatly disappointed that the Almighty has not performed what was expected of Him. "If we do not win in this war," said a sturdy old Boer, "I will throw my Bible in the fire, and never read it again."

THE UNMAKERS OF ENGLAND.

Karl Blind, writing in the July Fortnightly on France, Russia, and the peace of the world, concludes that "there are great perils ahead for England." He says:—

For the calm observer there can be no doubt that the conscience of the civilised world has, in this South African war, been as much shocked as if some Continental Power were to destroy by force of arms the independence and the Republican institutions of Switzerland, or the independence and the somewhat Conservative institutions of the Netherlands. An outcry of indignation at such a deed would ring all over the world. Such an outcry has rung, in the present instance, from Europe to America, and it is being taken up even by cultured Indians of the most loyal character. The friends of England abroad are angered and sad at heart. Her enemies are reckoning upon

what may befall her some day, when she will be assailed by a variety of complications. More than one storm-cloud is already in course of formation. The time may not be too far when those answerable for what is done now will appear before history, not as the makers of new Imperial glories, but as the thoughtless unmakers of England.

A VILLAGE INSTITUTE WITH GAMES.-A clerical correspondent in the country writes to ask me if any of my readers can give him information as to whether there is known to exist any country parish where an Institute has been run successfully in which all the parishioners have found their games. He would prefer to hear of a country parish, but the lessons learned in a town would help. If any of our readers can send me any information on this point I will be much obliged.

CECIL RHODES'S FUTURE.

BY PRINCESS RADZIWILL.

A DOZEN years ago Mme. Novikoff introduced me to Princess Radziwill at the Hôtel de l'Europe, St. Petersburg. I saw a good deal of her in those days, for we were all staying at the same hotel, where Miss Maude Gonne was also a guest. Eleven years passed, and I was astonished to receive one day a letter from Cape Town from the Princess enclosing an article upon Mr. Rhodes, which I subsequently published in the REVIEW OF REVIEWS. I was told that Princess Radziwill had divorced her husband, and had gone to South Africa to look after some property in Rhodesia which was left her by her father.

I heard little more of the Princess until Mr. Rhodes's short visit to London after the relief of Kimberley. Princess Radziwill returned to London before Mr. Rhodes left for South Africa, and there she has remained ever since. She has contributed articles to the Pall Mall Gazette, the Review of the Week, and to the North American Review. Last month, however, the robbery of her pearls and of various treasures which she had received from her mother and from her cousin General Skobeleff, made her the talk of the town, and made many familiar with her name who are completely innocent of all knowledge of the political and journalistic sphere in which the Princess moves and enjoys herself.

Princess Radziwill is half Polish and half Russian, but she wields her pen as if she were English born, and she has thrown herself into the exciting arena of South African politics with as great élan as if she had been born on the slopes of Table Mountain.

THE PRINCESS'S PROPHECY.

Princess Radziwill contributes to the North American Review for June a vigorous article in defence of Mr. Rhodes from a somewhat unreasonable attack made upon him by an anonymous British officer in a previous number of the Review. Mr. Rhodes's assailant had accused him of misleading the Government as to the fighting capacity of the Boers, and of having deflected the whole plan of campaign in his own interest. The Princess has little difficulty in disposing of these accusations, and then, after having pointed out the absurdity that the Government was dependent, either for its information or for its plan of campaign, upon Mr. Rhodes's action, she proceeds to prophesy as to the future of Mr. Rhodes. She says :—

A great future awaits him, greater than the one Mr. Chamberlain has marked out for himself and obstinately denied to his friend of bygone days, perhaps his accomplice in far-fetched and farseeking schemes. When this war is over, when commercial peace and prosperity are restored to South Africa, when the political life of the country begins again, the world will see that it will fall to Mr. Rhodes to direct the destinies of the new Empire over which Queen Victoria will preside. He will again, by the very force of circumstances, become the leading and paramount power in it; his genius will urge him on to it; the thousands of people who believe now, and will later on believe in him, will carry him to the zenith of political influence.

AN EMBODIMENT OF ENGLISH PRESTIGE.

or wrongly, since Majuba a strong feeling of distrust against the Government at home exists amongst a certain class of Colonials. Mr. Rhodes alone is always there. It is he who changed the gloomy wilderness of the past into a settled country, who opened it to the life of people and, it may be said, created South Africa. He worked these mines over the possession of which two nations are fighting now; he joined the country to the civilised world by means of railways and telegraphs; he felled forests, drained swamps, built factories, founded villages and settlements, brought in colonists, put down robbers, defended settlers against Matabele or Basuto raids, maintained the peace necessary for the welfare of the vast territory he had conquered, and introduced the rule of law and justice into it. It is through him that South Africa has lived, grown and flourished; and whatever some people in England may say or do, they will never wipe out the memory of these great deeds, they will never succeed in effacing that man's name from the annals of the land which he has brought before the notice of the world and given to his own country.

THE HOPE OF THE EMPIRE

As for the notion that he is not to be trusted, which Lord Salisbury appears to entertain, she asserts that as Mr. Rhodes was the first to start the Imperialistic idea in South Africa, he is the indispensable agent by which the Dutch are to be brought into line with the Imperialists at the Cape. She says:

In the task of pacifying the country and at the same time imbuing the Dutch population with the conviction that England's supremacy must never be disputed again, the Government have not got a more powerful auxiliary than Mr. Rhodes.

-AND THE CHAMPION OF THE DUTCH.

She is even sanguine enough to believe that the Dutch will themselves welcome Mr. Rhodes as their friend and champion. As long as President Kruger reigned in Pretoria there were two men in Africa; now there is only one. Princess Radziwill says :

Nothing will be left for the Afrikander but to accept the situation, and recognise Mr. Rhodes in his true light, that of the greatest Imperialist of his time, and they will naturally expect him to help them in their difficulty. He will be, and he is, the only man in South Africa capable of enforcing a reasonable settlement, in which the rights of every private individual will be respected, but at the same time where there will be no maudlin attempt to patch up peace and buy loyalty by Imperial concessions. One must have a clean slate, clean to the best interests of Imperialism. In a country like South Africa, with only a million whites, there is no need for five cantankerous states; there has been already too much of home rule and race hatred; the sections must be politically united.

The Dutch, both in the Cape Colony and in the Transvaal, coming more and more in contact with the English, will naturally turn to Mr. Rhodes for at least material, if not political, support. He has so identified himself with South Africa that no one living in it will ever dream of turning in its needs toward any one else. Governors only represent a distant authority; besides, they are changed. Mr. Rhodes is always there, and, as all are aware, never fails to redress, if he can do so, the wrongs of those who come to him in their need.

THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE RAID.

As for the Raid, Princess Radziwill does not think that this will be an insuperable obstacle in his path. Nay, she even lets fall a pregnant hint that if the truth were

Princess Radziwill is not a woman who does anything told, Mr. Rhodes would be found to be much more sinned

by halves, as may be seen from the following emphatic declarations of what Mr. Rhodes has done in South Africa. Speaking of his position in that continent, she says:

English prestige, whatever his enemies may say, is embodied in him. Governors come and go; the claims of the mother country, though recognised, are often not admitted; and, rightly

against than sinning in that matter. She says:

The last word has not yet been spoken with regard to the Raid, and perhaps time will show that Mr. Rhodes was in this sad business just as generous as he was imprudent, just as ready as he ever is, when he thinks it necessary for his country's welfare, to sacrifice his person in order to screen its prestigeeven when that prestige is embodied in the person of Mr. Chamberlain, who is always as willing to disavow anything or

anybody he believes to be compromising to himself, as he is forgetful of services rendered to him in the past.

PRINCESS RADZIWILL'S FRIENDS. Princess Radziwill first came into contact with English statesmen at the Berlin Congress. She met Lord Beaconsfield at dinner at the Austrian Embassy. She went into dinner hating the Turcophile Jew, and came out completely subjugated by Lord Beaconsfield's charm. They continued to correspond until his death. Princess Radziwill made the acquaintance of Lord Salisbury at the same time, and the acquaintance has continued down to the present hour. The Princess is expected to sail to Africa with her son, who is going out to Rhodesia, before the end of this month. Her ideas as to the necessity of conciliating the Dutch are sound, and she would take a hand in the political game, as if, instead of being Polish and Russian born, she were a native of South Africa.

THE BOERS.

THE GREAT TREK.

IN the first June number of the Revue des Deux Mondes M. Leclercq writes an interesting paper on "The Origins of the South African Republics." Of these he says that, while it is well known how England seized the Colony of the Cape in 1806, where the Dutch had been established towards the middle of the seventeenth century, it is not so well known how the descendants of those same Dutchmen, unable to bear the foreign yoke, expatriated themselves in that famous exodus which the Boers call the Great Trek. James Anthony Froude describes it in "Oceana." The desire to change one's abode is with the Boers a kind of sixth sense. They are, unlike other peasants, fond of leading a sedentary life at certain times, and at other times they are nomads. That is why every Boer possesses, or desires to possess, several farms separated by considerable distances. If his pastoral Occupations are not successful at one farm, the Boer will trek with his live stock and his family to another, perhaps more favourably situated. M. Leclercq compares the Boers to the Irish, who were, he says, similarly expatriated at the same time, and also to the Israelites, who had a similar absolute confidence in God. He assures us that the Voortrekkers always led a pure life, free from drunkenness, luxury, and quarrels, although they had no law courts and no police; and he says that the fact that the people could remain for so many years outside all contact with civilisation without falling into gross barbarism, would be inexplicable if the cause were sought for elsewhere than in the fear of God and the principles of the Decalogue with which the Boers were inspired.

BRITISH CALUMNIES.

The moving spirit of the Great Trek was Prinsloo-the Protector of the People, as the Boers called him. The Colonial Government attempted to repress the rebellion with ruthless severity; and there is a story of the execution of five rebels, who had to be hanged twice because the first time they broke the rope with their weight, which is still remembered in South Africa. The language question caused great bitterness, for Dutch was not taught in the schools, all legal proceedings were conducted in English, and no one could serve on a jury unless he understood English. All this wounded the pride of the Boers. On the other side, the worst accusations were launched against the Boers by the natives, which, being credited by the English, caused the name of Boer to become an object of execration throughout Europe. The Boers were accused of assassinating the

natives with the most horrible refinements of cruelty, and M. Leclercq tells us that, under the pretext of philanthropy and religious propaganda, these calumnies were spread by the English missionaries. The accusations were so precise that the Government instituted an inquiry which lasted for several months, and ended, according to M. Leclercq, in no single one of the horrible accusations being proved.

THE KAFFIR QUESTION.

M. Leclercq also defends the Boers from the charge of subjecting the natives to degrading slavery. Their condition he represents rather as that of the manservants and maidservants who formed the household of the old

biblical patriarchs. Moreover, the Boers as a whole desired to abolish the titular institution of slavery. In a meeting which was held at Graaf Reinet, in 1826, it was expressly declared that "All the members of the assembly wished for the complete suppression of slavery, provided that this desire could be realised in reasonable conditions. The only difficulty was the mode of carrying it out." The objection which the Boers entertained to the freeing of the slaves appears, therefore, to have been not one of principle, but directed to the suddenness of the measure. Emancipation was decreed in 1834, and the British Parliament voted the sum of £20,000,000 sterling as compensation for securing the liberty of the slaves in all the British colonies. At the Cape there were 39,000 slaves who were valued at over £3,000,000 sterling; nevertheless the share which South Africa obtained of the compensation was reduced to £1,200,000. This aroused absolute consternation in the Colony, for many of the Boers had pledged their slaves as security for loans; and, moreover, the compensation was only payable in London, so that the slave owners were obliged to employ agents, who took care to secure an enormous profit. The result was widespread misery at the Cape, and many hundreds of families who had been well to do were reduced to poverty.

The

Another cause had previously contributed to the ruin of the Boers, namely, the action of the London Government in the year 1824 in withdrawing certain small banknotes which had been issued at 4s., and were withdrawn at a reduction of more than 50 per cent. But the principal cause of the Great Trek was the Kaffir question. Boers, M. Leclercq explains, had bitter experience of the falseness, "slimness" and rapacity of the Kaffirs, who were always pillaging and robbing them; whereas the English viewed the Kaffirs through the rosy spectacles of the Protestant missionaries. It is needless to follow M. Leclercq through the rest of his extremely interesting article, in which he shows how much the Boers had to contend with, and what astonishing blunders were made by the English.

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF THE BOERS.

To the second June number of the Revue de Paris M. Mille contributes a study of the Boers from the point of view of social psychology. M. Mille notes with astonishment that the English have practically not studied at all the nature of the Boers themselves. The books written about South Africa, at any rate before the war broke out, dealt with gold mines or big game shooting, and M. Mille could only find two exceptions-those of Livingstone and Mr. Bryce. The inquirer who sought to understand the Boer nature was obliged to have recourse to Dutch or German books, or to the notes made by the French Protestant missionaries in Basutoland. M. Mille relates various stories which go to show the ignorance of the Boer of everything outside South Africa, and even of

some things that are inside. He brings out clearly the patriarchal cohesion of the Boer families, and he goes on to explain the efforts which the Pretoria Government made in the cause of education. In 1886 there were 159 rural schools and 20 urban schools, and these had risen in 1896 to 330 and to 34 respectively; while the total number of pupils had risen from 4,016 to 7,738. Secondary education, too, had received a great impetus ; but M. Mille does not disguise the fact that this interest in education is comparatively modern, and came from Europe-indeed, the majority of the teaching-staff was composed of Hollanders and Germans. Nevertheless, the Boer is a great reader, and not of the Bible alone, but also of newspapers; in fact, as one shrewd observer has said of him, he is a politician to the marrow of his bones.

M. Mille then goes on to show that the theory-so diligently propagated in England-that the Dutch element in South Africa had formed an old and long-elaborated plot for the destruction of British supremacy is not in accordance with the facts, but is rather contrary to them. As to the future, M. Mille declares that the gulf between ..e Afrikanders and the English is now perhaps impassable. He prophecies that England will attempt to submerge the Boers beneath a flood of emigrants from Scotland, Australia, and Canada, which he thinks will be a pity, because Australia and Canada are richer countries than South Africa, where the mines alone will continue to excite men's covetousness. M. Mille does not go so far as to say that reconciliation is impossible; the future is made up of so many elements that they cannot all be distinguished. But it is, he thinks, permissible to declare that no such difficult task has ever been imposed upon a conqueror. The economic antagonism between the two races will not disappear because the Pretoria forts are razed. The language, the family, the religious and social conceptions of the Boers will survive, and he thinks it will take many years to kill them.

THE BOER AS SOLDIER.

Theoretically speaking the Boers had no right to have any victories in the war at all. This is very clearly proved by Thomas F. Millard in Scribner's Magazine. He says:

The Boer detests, hates, loathes war. He will not fight unless driven to it. Before he will take the field he will endure coercion up to any point short of an undisguised assault upon the thing he holds dearest of all things on earth-his political independence. To any man who has watched the Boer in war, any accusation which fastens upon him the responsibility for the commencement of hostilities falls to the ground as absolutely preposterous. There is not a man, from the CommandantGeneral down, who does not daily pray for peace. There is not a man who is not heartily sick of fighting and the hardship of laager life, and who would not readily purchase the privilege to again enjoy the comfort and quiet of home with any concession that would leave him his liberty.

The principal trouble is that the Boer is hopelessly insubordinate. He will not obey commands, and has to be wheedled into doing the most apparent of duties. The small value of foreign military leaders to the Boers is evident, since they would hardly obey strangers when they scarcely dreamed of doing what their own generals told them to. No punishment is possible, because such action on the part of the commandant would assuredly result in his being shot by the burghers of his commando. Mr. Millard writes concerning the lack of initiative of the Boers after a victory :

It does seem ridiculous, however, to see, as has repeatedly occurred in this war, the British force, shattered and broken, retreating in one direction, while the Boers calmly retire in the

opposite direction, toward their laagers. How often must the English generals give thanks for such tactics on the part of the enemy? No wonder that Colonel Villebois-Mareuil said, as he shrugged his shoulders despairingly at Colenso: "The British lose; but the Boers do not win."

How hopeless it was for the generals to adopt another course may be seen from the fact that, after the battle of Colenso, the commando ordered by General Botha to attack the retreating forces of Buller's army, calmly refused to cross the Tugela.

MISPLACED QUOTATION MARKS.

29, Piccadilly, W., May 24th, 1900. To the Editor of the "Review of Reviews." My dear Sir-In the May issue of the REVIEW OF REVIEWS there appears a very fair and friendly notice of my article on South African Reconstruction in the current Fortnightly Review, which, owing to my absence abroad, I have only just seen, and for which I have to thank you. There is, however, one statement in this notice to which I would call your kind attention.

I find to my astonishment that I am quoted in your notice, in inverted commas, as saying that "Crown Colony administration is one which would be certain to provoke rebellion both on the part of Boers and Britons."

I immediately re-read my own article most carefully, and cannot find a single line justifying such an interpretation of my views, which, whether sound or unsound, are utterly at variance with the statement in question.

The following are the only allusions to the subject I can discover-p. 863, l. 16, "States which have been for years accustomed to self-government cannot be expected to remain contented with being administered as Crown Colonies, however wisely or loyally that administration may be conducted."

Again, p. 870, 1. 15: "The system of Crown Colony administration, however great its intrinsic merits, is one which can never be popular with colonists, either of British or Boer race."

The above statements I have no desire to modify in any way. But to assert upon the strength of these statements that I anticipate a rebellion on the part of Boer and British colonists alike, as the result of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State being administered as Crown Colonies, seems to me an utterly unwarrantable assertion.

I should therefore be greatly obliged if, in your forthcoming issue, you would state that the words you have used as a quotation from my article are not words used by me, but simply an inference drawn by the writer of the notice, an inference from which I dissent most strongly, on public as well as personal grounds.

I rely on your acceding to this not, I think, unreasonable request, not only on account of the invariable courtesy I, as a publicist, utterly opposed to you in my political and social views, have hitherto received from you in your criticisms of my writings, but of the uniform fairness you have made your rule in newspaper discussions.-Believe me, my dear sir, yours faithfully, EDWARD DICEY.

[I am very sorry the mistake occurred. The explanation is simple. I dictated the notice. My secretary, who typed it out, thought I was quoting textually what I was summarising, and inserted quotation marks where they had no right to be. Another member of my staff who read the proofs had not read the original article. usually read my own proofs. Had I done so on this occasion I should have noticed and have deleted the offending inverted commas.-ED.]

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PLANS OF IMPERIAL REORGANISATION.

THE AUSTRALIAN FEDERATION BILL. MR. EDMUND BARTON contributes to the North American Review for June a sketch of the Australian Federation Bill. The article does not enter into controversial questions, but gives a very lucid account of the new Constitution and its working. It is at once more democratic than the Constitution of the United States, and not only more democratic, but more Federal than that of Canada :-

Instead of being elected by the several Legislatures, as in the United States, senators are to be directly chosen by the people. They will each represent the whole of the State which elects them; while, in the House of Representatives, the members will be representatives of districts. The voters for each house will

be the same persons, the difference being that, in voting for senators, each State is to be one entire electorate, and will have equal representation without respect of numbers; while, in voting for the House of Representatives, each State will be represented in electoral divisions, purely according to the numbers of inhabitants. There is one broad fact which secures that each House will be popularly representative.

The conditions for membership of either of the Federal Houses are the following

1. The attainment of the age of twenty-one years;

2. The qualification of an elector for the House of Representatives;

3. A three years' residence within the limits of the Federal Commonwealth;

4. The being a British subject, either natural born or for five years naturalised.

COLONIES IN THE CABINET.

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A plea for the entire reorganisation of our Colonial Department is put forward by Mr. Beckles Willson in the July Fortnightly under the awkward title of " An Overworked Minister-and a Remedy," as if the health of Mr. Chamberlain were a ground sufficient to justify the readjustment of an Empire. After an instructive survey of the previous development of the department, the writer considers first the suggestion that there should be two Colonial Secretaries, one to have charge of the Crown Colonies, the other to supervise the self-governing Colonies. This change he dismisses as insufficient. He says:

There is, however, another need, another aspiration which is now presenting itself to the mind of the Sovereign, the statesmen, and the people of the Empire, one which recent unforeseen events have caused to become very prominent. It is the necessity for a direct participation of the greater Colonies in Imperial Councils. If it is really desirable that we should "invite the Colonies to share in the responsibilities and privileges of Empire in such a manner as not to disturb the constitution of this country or that which is enjoyed by the Colonies," in what simpler and yet more effective manner could this end be attained than by the establishment of a Secretaryship of State for each of the great federations of Colonies, the incumbent of which should be representative, as well as advisory and executive? Why should not a Canadian, with a full knowledge of Canada, advise his Sovereign on Canadian affairs, in so far as they affect Imperial interests?

With a Secretary of State for Canada, another for Australia, and another for South Africa, each having a seat in the House of Lords, and charged with the oversight of the affairs, so far as the British Empire is concerned, of their respective States, we have a scheme which should assist us on our way. adoption there would still remain work enough and more than With its enough, seeing that the Empire is in a state of growth, for the Secretary of State for the "Colonies." are, properly speaking, no longer Colonies, but Nations, Canada and Australia Kingdoms, or Commonwealths.

These Secretaries of State would, the writer suggests, absorb the functions of the present Agents-General.

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THE FRUIT OF THE WAR.

The first result of the war was the union of the Irish parties. The war outraged the conscience of the Irish people, who saw their own history reproduced in the history of the South African Republics. The sympathy of Ireland went out to the Dutch, and it was the painful consciousness of the impotence of disunited Ireland to make her sympathy felt that led to the end of all dissension :-

Thus, peace in Ireland was produced by war in South Africa. It is only two months since this peace was proclaimed, and already the results are apparent. In Ireland a great popular national organization, on the lines of the old National League, is springing into being. The Irish members in the House of Commons have proclaimed their complete independence of all English parties. They are once more a power and a menace, and the Irish Question has once more arisen phoenix-like fro

its ashes.

IRELAND ALONE HOSTILE.

The second service of the war to Ireland was the testimony it afforded as to the failure of British statesmanship. All parts of the Empire gave willing aid; but from Ireland only came bitter and uncompromising hostility. Yet in spite of this

on the field of battle England has in the end been obliged to rely upon the genius and the valour of the generals and the soldiers who are the sons of that land which is still vainly clamouring for its rights. The recent visit of the Queen to Ireland is a proof of what I say; and more than likely it has served to intensify the feeling which undoubtedly exists in England at this moment-that Ireland has been treated unjustly, and that the Empire itself has suffered severely in its prestige and its power by the injustice.

THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT GERM.

Together with the Queen's visit came the complete success of the Local Government Act. Redmond says that he has always believed it to be the Of this Mr. greatest step towards the granting of Home Rule :

The working of the new system has been a complete and admitted success. The administration of local affairs has been better and more economical than it ever was before. Men of

all religions and politics and classes have been elected to these boards. Landlords and tenants, Catholics and Protestants, Orangemen and Nationalists sit side by side and amicably transact the business of the country. I say the success of this Act destroys the chief argument against Home Rule; and I believe the day is near at hand when, by general assent, Ireland will obtain Legislative Home Rule in a Parliament in Dublin.

E. M. EMMERS writes a brief account of the Countess of Flanders in Haus und Welt. From this sketch it would appear that the Countess was above all a family mother, who does not busy herself much with politics. She is idolised by the Belgian people. The life led by her husband and herself is said to have been ideal. instance is given of this. The prince always had his An breakfast at 8.30, and was never happy unless his wife was there to have it with him. So, even if she did not return home until three or four o'clock in the morning, she was always ready and waiting for him at the breakfast table at 8.30. The close relationship of the European reigning families is shown in her case. will be the future Queen of Belgium, one of her brothers Her daughter is King Karl of Roumania, and her sister was the late Queen of Portugal.

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