cluding the internal public debt, and also the external when interest is paid in Portugal, is raised to 30 per cent. But bondholders of both classes may escape this tax by agreeing to a convention with the foreign creditors. It is proposed to guarantee payment of the interest on the external debt in gold, but the holders of bonds may have either to assent to a conversion of them into a maximum of half their capital, receiving interest at the old rate, or to retain their nominal capital and receive interest at half the former rate. These proposals involve serious sacrifices upon taxpayers, civil servants, and creditors of the State; and, in so far as they affect foreign creditors, who cannot be expected to be animated with those patriotic sentiments which are willing to suffer serious privation, they seem hardly calculated to improve Portuguese credit abroad. The King has set his subjects an example by relinquishing one-fifth of his civil list, this contribution amounting to £23,000 a year.

Toward the middle of February, the Chamber of Deputies finally adopted the financial proposals of the Government, and, on March 20, the Finance Minister, signed a scheme to be submitted to the foreign holders. The plan includes a reduction of the interest by 50 per cent, the raising of a loan of $20,000,000, redeemable in fifteen years, and the assignment of the customs revenue to the service of the debt.

A proposal to raise funds by a sale of Portuguese possessions in Africa, was dismissed without discussion, February 3 (see p. 23).

On February 5, a motion was made in the Cortes, to impeach Señor Carvalho, formerly Minister of Finance, for his action, while holding his portfolio, in advancing to the Royal Railway Company, the sum of 13,000,000 francs, on his own responsibility and without the knowledge of his colleagues. The Council of Ministers had declined to accept responsibility in the matter. The following day (February 6), a decree was issued, dismissing the ex-Minister from his office as Administrator-General of the Customs.

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY.

The Hungarian Diet was dissolved January 5; and an exciting and somewhat turbulent electoral campaign followed, ending January 28. As a result, the Liberal Government was returned to power, but with a slightly diminished majority. The Liberal party was founded seventeen years ago, by M. Tisza; and its policy is to maintain the unity of the Dual Empire. Its leader is Count Julius Szapary, who has now come forward with a program of important administrative reforms. The Opposition, consisting of the Nationals, under Count Apponyi, and the Independents, or Kossuth party, has a stronger showing in the new House than in the old, but the Liberal Government still has a large majority.

It is announced that the Government has decided to accord to Hungary, separate representation at foreign Courts.

Toward the end of February, the authorities of Vienna were awakened to a knowledge of the serious character which the Labor question has assumed. The unemployed workingmen of the capital assembled, and formulated demands for work. Though there is no evidence directly connecting the incident with the Berlin riots, nor with the socialist movement, the problem it presents is very much the same. It is estimated that fully 40,000 laborers are out of employment in Vienna.

Several thousand men have been supplied with work under police supervision, and active measures have been taken to distribute relief. The Emperor has subscribed 5,000 florins, and public benevolence is doing what it can to afford help-a noteworthy feature of the case being that it is by the bourgeoisie and middle classes, not by the aristocracy, that charity is most exercised. In some of the districts of Hungary, greater distress exists than at any other time since 1846.

The Methodist church in Vienna has been closed by order of the Austrian authorities, on the ground of the spirit of intolerance and hatred of the Roman Church, which the authorities

profess to discover in the articles of the Wesleyan faith. The appeal of Dr. Stephenson, President of the Wesleyan Conference, for a removal of the inhibition against the Methodist pastor, has been rejected.

The Austrian capital has recently, in accordance with the plans of the Emperor, and in spite of the opposition of those living in the outlying districts, annexed its various suburbs. Its area is thus multiplied more than three times, making the city now half as large as London, more than twice as large as Paris, and almost three times the size of Berlin. Its population has been increased by about 400,000, and, in round numbers, now reaches 1,300,000.

On March 17, Franz Schneider, who had been convicted, on his own confession, of decoying eight servant girls into his house, and there outraging and strangling them, was hanged in Vienna. His wife, who was an accomplice, was similarly sentenced; but her sentence was commuted, owing to the Emperor's repugnance to the capital punishment of women. Since 1808 no woman has been executed in Vienna.

In connection with an attempted celebration, by the Czech National party, of the third centenary of the birth of Comenius, the noted educational reformer, serious rioting occurred at Prague on March 28. The Government had forbidden the celebration; but the Czechs were persistent in their determination to carry out the preparations they had made; and it was only after being repeatedly scattered by the police, that the angry crowds finally dispersed. In Hungary, the centenary was celebrated without any outbreak. Comenius was Bishop of the Czecho-Moravian Brotherhood, composed of the last adherents of John Huss.

RUSSIA.

With the lapse of time, a better knowledge of the conditions of the faminestricken districts of Russia, and of the causes of distress, has been acquired. Since 1858, the peasants have increased in number by 40 per cent, while their land has been steadily deteriorating.

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This is due largely to the primitive agricultural methods, which exhaust the soil without replenishing it, and to a general improvidence which is content to live from hand to mouth. Moreover, for over 25 years, a reckless destruction of the forests has been carried on; and, added to this, Russia has lost, through foreign competition, the commanding position she once occupied in the grain markets of Europe. To these general causes, combined with the poor crops of the last few years, is due the culmination of distress which has awakened the sympathy of a horrified world.

To some extent, distress in certain districts is part and parcel of the national existence. In the present instance, there has been no absolute famine in any one district; but so sharp is the distress, and so wide its area, that words cannot describe it adequately.

Naturally enough the Russian authorities are anxious that reports shall not be exaggerated. The Czar is said to have abruptly refused an offer of 2,000 roubles made him by the Colonel of a Finnish regiment, for the work of relief, giving as his reasons that there were no people actually starving in Russia, and that the Government would be able to cope with the distress. And Count Tolstoi, has been ordered to return to his estate, where, though not under arrest, he is more or less under surveillance, on account of his letters to the London Daily Telegraph, frankly expressing his incredulity as to the efficiency of the means taken by the Government to relieve the distress. It is even declared that the medical inspectors have, under official pressure, been forced to make lying reports.

All this seems quite credible in the light of the recent revelations of official frauds in the distribution of relief. Some of the officials charged with the relief work, have taken advantage of the general wretchedness to satisfy their greed for gain. At St. Petersburg, Odessa, and elsewhere, consignments of grain for the distressed regions, have been found to be largely adulterated with sand, earth, chalk, and other alien matter, the frauds being the work of middlemen. The general honesty of the Imperial efforts is, how

ministrative bodies, have, according to a manifesto appearing in the London Daily Graphic, emphasized the utter inadequacy of the government relief measures, their statements constituting one of the most notable expressions of public opinion which have ever come from Russia. In several provinces, these district assemblies have decided to issue loans at low rates of interest, to prevent the peasants from selling their tools and farming implements. In large numbers, the peasants have abandoned their homes, and flocked toward the towns. The officials and military have to be constantly on the alert to prevent outrages by the gangs of desperate men roaming over the country. Clergymen's houses have been robbed, and the bodies of murdered men have been found on the highways. Caravans of merchandise are attended by armed escorts. In many places, the peasants have torn down parts of their dwellings for fuel, and pulled the thatch from the roofs of their cottages to feed the few cattle still unkilled, thus exposing themselves to much additional suffering and to hopeless ravages of disease. The sufferings of those who have emigrated to Siberia are indescribable. Some 14,000 managed to reach Tiuman, a town 120 miles southwest of Tobolsk. They were without money, and could find no adequate shelter. Typhus and scarlet fever made fearful ravages, medical aid being impossible. The priests refused the comforts of the Church unless paid therefor, and the bodies of the dead were thrown without ceremony into a common pit. In the Province of Voronej, the doctors, unable to effect cures, have had to flee before the angry peasants; and the military have been called upon to maintain order.

In the midst of these tales of pitiable distress, there came a startling rumor to the effect that the Czar contemplated restoring serfdom among the peasants. It was in 1861 that the liberal-minded Alexander II. passed his celebrated decree setting free the serfs. Since that time, opinion differs as to whether the condition of the peasantry has improved. Certainly

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there has been less industry among them, and a rapidly increasing dissatisfaction with the existing form of government, one evidence of which is seen in the growth of Nihilism. Many of the district officials have reported that the population in the villages has so increased that the land belonging to the local communes is insufficient to support all the members. To remedy this evil, it is now proposed to portion out to the peasants vast tracts of land, under conditions which will reduce. them to the status of serfs. One-third of the harvest is to be stored in the communal magazines for the support of the peasants; one-third is to be sold for the payment of local debts to the State; and one-third is to be retained for the payment of government taxes. The peasants will not be allowed to move from their communes, but will be bound to the soil, and will be obliged to fulfill their contracts with the State. One significant feature of the plan, is that its execution is to be intrusted to the district officials, to whose evil influence can be traced most of the injustice and misery that habitually reign within the Czar's dominions. In the present unsettled state of society in general, and with the present strength of the nihilistic element, such a radical change of existing institutions as the restoration of serfdom, cannot but be followed by mischievous consequences; and the contemplated move of Alexander III. is a most dangerous one.

A brighter side of the picture is found when we contemplate the substantial relief efforts that have been made. In our last issue (see Vol. I., p. 512) we referred to the good work done by the Imperial authorities, the Red Cross Society, and other similar organizations, by the Central Famine Committee, by Count Leo Tolstoi, and others. Toward the middle of January, the Imperial Treasury was again opened, and 65,000,000 roubles appropriated for relief work, this bringing the total contributions of the Government up to 130,000,000 roubles. The Public Works Commission, appointed for the purpose, has given employment to about 200,000 men in clearing lands and building roads.

Important as have been the efforts of Russians to mitigate the evils besetting their country, it is for the contributions that America has made, that the first quarter of 1892 will long be considered unique in the history of philanthropy. The spectacle of suffering in a distant foreign country has not appealed to American hearts in vain. În various parts of the country, official appeals were made, and committees appointed to receive contributions. In Massachusetts, Governor Russell appointed a committee with Bishop Phillips Brooks at its head. In New York, a committee of fifty

COUNT LEO TOLSTOI.

was appointed by the Chamber of Commerce February 4, and within a week collected over $20,000. But it was from the great farming regions of the West, that the largest contributions were made. Toward the end of February, the Indiana, of the International Steam-ship Company, sailed from Philadelphia, arriving on March 18 at Libau, one of the Baltic ports of Russia, bearing upwards of 4,000,000 pounds of flour and corn, which had been contributed by the people of Minnesota, Iowa, and other parts of the West. The Company had generously offered to transport the food at the actual cost of the voyage disbursements from Philadelphia to Libau, and

thence to Liverpool, and the offer was accepted by the citizens of Philadelphia. On landing at Libau, the Indiana was boarded by a number of the Orthodox Greek clergy, who held a thanksgiving service ending with the impressive ceremony of formally blessing the ship.

On a still larger scale was the charity,which, on March 15, sent the steamship Missouri, of the Atlantic Transportation Company, from New York, on a similar errand of mercy. The vessel was furnished without cost by the Company. The Berwynd-White Company, of New York, donated the coal. The Chamber of Commerce gave $12,000 for the purchase of part of the cargo, the remainder being given by the West. The railroads transported the flour and grain free of charge, and it was freely stored by the Terminal Warehouse Company; and Messrs. Hogan & Sons, stevedores, loaded the vessel at their own expense. Mr. William James, General Foreign Freight Agent of the New York Central Railroad, attended to the details of the shipping at New York.

The movement originated with Mr. W. C. Edgar, editor of the Northwestern Miller, who, through the columns of his paper and by circulars, announced his proposals to every miller of prominence in the country. Responses immediately poured in, being greatly assisted by proclamations issued by the Governors of Minnesota, Ohio, Iowa, and Nebraska, calling upon the people to contribute. Fully 450 towns and 2,000 people responded. It was proposed in Congress to make an appropriation to defray the costs of transportation; but, though the Senate passed a resolution to that effect, it was "pigeon-holed" in the House. The Atlantic Transportation Company then made their generous offer of the 4,500 ton ship Missouri.

Her cargo of nearly 2,800 tons came from almost every wheat-growing State and Territory in the Union, twenty-four altogether being represented, besides a small contribution from Canada. There were 4,038,784 pounds of flour, in addition to which the farmers of Nebraska gave 1,500,ooo pounds of corn. The latter was