in the Imperial Parliament is to be retained. In the opinion of the Unionists, this would make Ireland practically independent, and yet confer upon her the balance of power between the contending parties in Great Britain.

Should the Nationalist demands exceed what the Liberals are willing to grant, it is generally admitted that Home Rule, as a practical issue, will be virtually killed. Should a Home Rule bill, on the other hand, or any other measures embodying the large reforms included in the Newcastle program (see Vol. I., p. 495), be passed by the Commons and rejected by the Lords, it will be Mr. Gladstone's privilege to go directly again to the people, in the hopes of securing such an emphatic expression of the popular will in his favor as will be resistless to the opposition of the Upper House.

There are none to dispute Lord Salisbury's rank as one of the most eminent among English diplomatists. His six years' administration has been marked by unwonted activity in the matter of domestic legislation; and, in foreign affairs, a pacific policy has been maintained without derogating in the least from the prestige of the United Kingdom. And, as regards Ireland, he has courageously and honestly endeavored to reform the system of land tenure and local government, and to give the island the best that she can expect under English rule.

It is wondered why he delayed his resignation until it was forced upon him by the vote of want of confidence. His action in this matter was based upon the idea that the Gladstonian majority, "faction rent," as the Conservatives described it, might not hold together,and that it could hardly, in any case, be considered as a valid exponent of the sentiment of the nation.

As parting gifts to his followers, he bestowed Knighthood upon Mr. Ashmead-Bartlett and Mr. Maple, the extensive furniture dealer in Tottenham Court Road; also baronetcies upon Dr. William Smith, editor of The Quarterly; Captain Armstrong, of the Globe; Mr. Edward Lawson, of the Daily Telegraph; and Mr. Jaffray, of the Birmingham Post.

THE IRISH AGITATION.

One striking feature of the present political situation in Ireland, is, as already noted, the firm trust displayed by the Anti-Parnellites in the honesty of the Liberal Home Rule intentions. "We are convinced of the sincerity of the Liberal leaders," says the manifesto of the National Federation, signed by Mr. McCarthy, and addressed to Irishmen in America and Australia toward the end of September. Although primarily an appeal for assistance, partly for the evicted tenants, and partly for the sustenance of the Irish forces in Parliament, the manifesto confirms the friendly understanding between the Nationalists and the Liberals.

It is true that Mr. Redmond and his Parnellite forces, have been much more distrustful of Mr. Gladstone. Early in September, they also issued a manifesto declaring their intention still to make the welfare of Ireland their supreme object, and warning the Irish people against the dangers of Imperial rule in Dublin Castle. But, in a recent article in The Nineteenth Century, Mr. Redmond shows an alteration in the position so recently taken by his party-a position, the reader will remember, of implacable distrust of everything Gladstonian. He now declares that the Parnellites would accept a responsible Irish Parliament, and still acknowledge the supremacy of the Imperial Parliament as to purely Imperial issues, on which alone the Irish Members retained at Westminster should have the right to speak and vote. He still insists on Irish control of the judiciary, police, and land. This position does not differ materially from that of the Anti-Parnellites. Its effect istodiminish the confidence with which the Unionists have all along looked for dissensions among the Irish leaders. If Mr. Gladstone devise a Home Rule bill acceptable to the bulk of the Irish Members-and such a bill must follow pretty closely the lines of that accepted by the late Mr. Parnell-it is not thought probable that Mr. Redmond, the Parnellite leader, would seriously oppose it.

Another striking feature of the pres

ther which prevailed during the harvest season just past, and the present low price of stock, the coming winter is likely to be one of great distress in Ireland; and there is a growing feeling in favor of extending assistance to those who will feel the distress most keenly. In the debate which ended in the defeat of the late Salisbury Government, Mr. Gladstone expressed the hope that landlords and tenants, during this autumn, would arrive at some satisfactory arrangement, and thus obviate immediate interference by the new Ministry. At the close of the quarter, however, the eviction movement had been to some extent resumed, notably in the Counties Clare, Fermanagh, and Wexford; and prophecies of a fresh outbreak of agrarian violence were uttered.

Until Parliament sits again,of course, there can be no legislative solution of the difficulty. In the meantime, as intimated by Mr. Morley to Mr. Justin McCarthy in a letter dated September 26, a Commission is to be appointed, to examine into and report upon the whole question. Its inquiry will be confined to those cases where the evicted tenant has not left the country, and will, it is hoped, be suggest ive of available means for bringing about settlements and the restoration of tenants to their holdings. The inquiry will be necessarily long, and may not be completed before the opening of the next session. The Evicted Tenants' Association not only demand representation on the Commission, but, in the interim, are pressing for a grant of £250,000 to sustain the tenants for twelve months pending their restoration.

Aninteresting controversy has arisen between the Duke of Argyll and Mr. Gladstone, over the principles of the Home Rule agitation. The latter has taken the pages of the North American Review as the medium for refuting the attempt of the Duke to make it plain to the American people that the Irish Nationalist claims are identical with those put forward by the slaveholders of the South at the time of the Civil War in the United States. Mr. Gladstone's contention is, that under Home Rule, Ireland will stand to

the Empire in a position analogous to that of the various States to the Federal Government of the American Union; and that the granting of Home Rule will be a justifiable recognition. of the fact that Ireland has rights as a "nation," that she formerly had a "sovereign" Parliament co-equal in its independence with that of Great Britain, and that she is not bound by the Act of Union, having never given constitutional assent to it.

On returning to Canada, the Hon. Edward Blake was tendered an enthusiastic reception in the Horticultural Gardens in Toronto, by friends of the Irish Nationalists, on the night of September 19. In the course of his address, Mr. Blake asserted that the Liberal party in Canada were practically unanimous in favor of Home Rule. On the following night, an equally enthusiastic anti-Home Rule meeting assembled in the Auditorium, at which addresses were given by several of the Irish delegates to the PanPresbyterian Council then in session in the city.

PERSONAL, ETC.

When one Ministry retires, and gives place to another, there are always various elevations of rank and other honors bestowed. The two Garters lately rendered vacant by the death of the Duke of Devonshire and the Duke of Cleveland, have been given respectively to the present Duke of Devonshire, who was formerly known as Lord Hartington, the leader of the Liberal Unionists, and to the Duke of Abercorn, leader of the Ulster Unionists, who presided at the recent great Ulster Convention (p. 144). Lord Zetland, the Viceroy of Ireland, and the Earl of Cranbrook are raised one step in the peerage; while the list of new peerages conferred, includes the names of Sir Lyon Playfair and Mr. Cyril Flower.

On August 16, the Duke of Devonshire was quietly married to Louise, the Dowager Duchess of Manchester. The couple had been for many years on the most intimate terms of friendship, and their devotion formed one of the well known romances of English society.

On July 19, the Earl of Orkney was married to Miss Connie Gilchrist, formerly a member of the London Gaiety Burlesque Company.

The judicial bench of the House of Lords has confirmed the decision of the Court of Appeals which recently granted permission to the Marquis of Ailesbury to sell his estate, the historic Saversnake Forest (see Vol. I., p. 500). Lord Henry Augustus Bruce, heir presumptive to the estate, had unsuccessfully appealed against the decision allowing the sale.

Considerable interest was recently aroused by what is known as the "literary frauds" case. On September 27, the trial of six conspirators, including Sir Gilbert Campbell, third baronet of his line, and well known in society, ended in the conviction of all, and their sentence to various terms of imprisonment. They were found guilty of forming fraudulent literary and art societies, and obtaining fees from authors and artists on the pretense of securing publication for their works, or prominent places for their paintings at the exhibitions of the Royal Academy. These operations had been carried on since 1873; but were finally exposed by Mr. Labouchere, the editor of London Truth.

VARIOUS BRITISH AFFAIRS.

The German Emperor's visit to Queen Victoria at Osborne House, covered the first week in August, and was of no unusual importance. The Emperor's yacht Meteor, with William II. on board, took part in the races which began on August 2, but was defeated by the Corsair in the contest for the Queen's Cup.

On August 16, in the Brompton Oratory, South Kensington, Dr. Vaughan, the Reverend Roman Catholic Archbishop Elect of Westminster, and the successor to the late Cardinal Manning, received at the hands of the Papal Delegate, the Archbishop of Trebizond, the final ratification of his ecclesiastical authority, in being invested with the pallium. This is the most important article in the insignia of an Archbishop, and the indispensable badge of his authority. The ceremony was of a most impressive char

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acter; and was remarkable as the first instance of its kind which had occurred in England since 1556, when Cardinal Pole, then a dignitary of the Established Church, was invested with the important symbol.

case

The famous ritual case against the Bishop of Lincoln, which has dragged along since December, 1887, was finally ended on August 2 last, by the decision of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council dismissing the appeal against the Archbishop of Canterbury's judgment delivered in November, 1890 (see Vol. I., p. 7). The was instituted by certain lay members resident in the Bishop's diocese, who charged the Bishop of Lincoln with committing certain offenses, as regards ritual, against the laws ecclesiastical. The elaborate judgment of the Archbishop, which was outlined in the first number of this review, has been finally upheld on all points; and the position of the Bishop of Lincoln, as regards his toleration and sanction of ritual, has thus been sustained.

The Shakespeare Birthplace Trustees have purchased from Alderman Thompson, of Stratford-on-Avon, for £3,000, the historic cottage of Anne Hathaway; and have also acquired the interesting relics it contains, which were the property of Mrs. Baker, the occupier and custodian. Prospective buyers in America and elsewhere had sought to secure the property for removal from Stratford.

On September 8, the largest steamship afloat for active service, was launched at Glasgow. The Campania, as she is called, belongs to the Cunard Steamship Company, and is intended for service between New York and Liverpool. She is 600 feet long, and 75 broad, only 92 feet shorter and 8 feet narrower than the famous Great Eastern.

Owing to the failure, on September 2, of the London and General Bank, and the Liberator Permanent Building and Investment Society, with which the Birckbeck Bank of London was supposed to be intimately connected, there followed a run upon the last named institution, unprecedented in the history of London banks. By

the 15th of the month, when the crisis came to an end, £1,578,005 had been withdrawn from deposit. By the sale of a portion of its Consols, without touching the £4,500,000 held in other convertible securities, the bank had little difficulty in meeting all demands.

The famous library at Althorp, founded by the Earl of Spencer, containing an invaluable collection of rare editions, including forty-three Caxtons, and an unparalleled collection of the classics, has been saved from dispersion, and is to be immediately removed to Manchester, where it will be carefully guarded

A case of insubordination, bordering upon mutiny, occurred in the First Life Guards Regiment at Windsor on September 25. The men of C Squadron, numbering eighty, disaffected by the numerous drills and inspections to which they had been subjected, cut and ruined their saddles, and, when ordered into their barracks, became very uproarious, the disorder continuing into the night. It is probable that the Regiment will be ordered to for eign service.

Sir Albert Rollit, President of the Associated Chambers of Commerce of the United Kingdom, is authority for the statement that the volume of England's trade is declining. The coal, iron, steel, and textile industries have been seriously harassed by several causes-foreign tariffs, economic, monetary, and labor problems; while ship-building has declined to a small fraction of its old proportions.

EUROPEAN LABOR INTERESTS. The present quarter stands in marked contrast to its immediate predecessor, in being almost free from attempts at violence such as those that sent a shudder of fear throughout Europe on occasion of the approach of last May Day. The energetic measures taken to stifle the germs of conspiracy, have had their due effect. Ravachol, the Anarchist who figured so prominently in connection with the Paris explosions in March last (p. 50), and who was sentenced to death on June 21 for a long series of murderous crimes (p. 151), was executed by

the guillotine June 11. The occasion passed off without any disturbance. The four French Anarchists arrested for stealing the dynamite used in the explosions on May 1, were convicted July 28, and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment at hard labor. Similar punishment was meted out on July 26, to nine of the fifteen Anarchists arrested for conspiracy, theft of dynamite, and the use of the explosive in the destructive outrages of last May Day at Liège. The leader of the band was sentenced to twenty-five years' imprisonment; the others, to terms varying from three to twenty years.

In spite of the vigorous measures of repression, the spirit of violence still lurks in many quarters, as is evident from the fact that about the middle of July, the police discovered an Anarchist plot to blow up the Bourse and other public buildings in Paris.

The French and Belgian miners are at present in unfriendly relations, owing to the expulsion of some Belgian miners who had gone to seek work in the Pas de Calais District. In the frontier districts of Belgium, the miners. have organized demonstrations clamoring for the expulsion of the French miners in retaliation.

European Socialism.

We have had frequent occasion to dwell upon the growth and importance of the Socialist movement in Europe. A few years ago, with the exception of Germany, no European country felt called upon to give any great attention to the development of an organization and the spread of ideas which had not yet sensibly affected either the prospects or the policy of its Government. Now, however, the situation is changed; and the legislative acts of Assemblies, the political programs of parties, and the policies of Cabinets, are modified, consciously or unconsciously, in deference to those radical ideas whose extreme advocates have adopted as their symbol the red flag.

The recent International Socialist Congress, the tenth of the Revolutionary party, which assembled at Marseilles on September 24, was an important indication of the trend of