sive and endless road, and will bring no honor either to the nation or to those whose shortsighted patriotism finds vent in schemes which are essentially unAmerican.

Editorial Notes.

On the fourteenth of January the President submitted to Congress the awards and report of the Commission appointed under the treaty of 1896 to determine the amount of damages to be paid to British subjects on account of the seizure of their sealing vessels in Behring Sea. In submitting the report the president recommended "prompt and favorable action by Congress to the end that these long pending questions may be finally and satisfactorily terminated." The amount of the claims allowed on account of twenty-two vessels was $264,188.91. Interest on this amounted to $149,790.36. Fourteen personal claims were allowed, amounting to $49,475. Two further claims, originally thrown out but finally considered, amounting to $9,696.99, were allowed. The whole amount allowed, therefore, was, with interest, $473,151.26. This amount differs slightly from that given in the telegraphic reports, which was noted in our last issue. The treaty of 1896, under which the Commission was appointed, requires that an appropriation to pay these awards be made within six months.

The following statement from Ex-President Cleveland has been called out by remarks of Senator Morgan in the Senate representing that the ex-President was in favor of the annexation of Hawaii :

"I do not believe in discussing matters of this kind as a private citizen. I do not care, however, to be misrepresented. I will, therefore, say that ever since the question of Hawaiian annexation was presented I have been utterly and constantly opposed to it. The first thing I did after my inauguration in March, 1893, was to recall from the federal Senate an annexation treaty then pending before that body. I regarded, and still regard, the proposed annexation of these islands as not only opposed to our national policy, but as a perversion of our national mission.

"The mission of our nation is to build up and make a greater country out of what we already have, instead of annexing islands. I did not suppose that there was anyone in public life who misunderstood my position on this matter. It had been said that I was partial to the former Hawaiian monarchy, and desired to see it restored, in order that I might treat with it for the purpose of annexation. How could I have any such an idea if I regarded annexation as contrary to our national policy.

"The same answer can be made to the statement that my opposition to Hawaiian annexation was based merely upon dissatisfaction with the treaty pending before the Senate at the time of my second inauguration. I was opposed to annexation as such.

"In regard to the Hawaiian monarchy, aside from any question of annexation and without harboring any previ

ous designs of restoring that monarchy, I investigated the investigation satisfied me that our interference in the relations of our representatives to its overthrow. This revolution of 1893 was disgraceful. I would gladly, therefore, for the sake of our national honor and our country's fair name, have repaired that wrong.

"In regard to the Cuban question: My position was fully made known to Congress in the various messages in which the subject was discussed. I was opposed to the recognition of the belligerency of the island, and my position was perfectly well known. Indeed, so unmistakable were my views on the subject that I was time and again threatened by frenzied men and women with dire calamities to be visited upon myself and children because of what they saw fit to assert as my enmity to the Cuban cause.

"My position on all these questions was made perfectly clear in the official documents of the time, and there can be no possible mistake. It is very difficult for me to understand Senator Morgan's evidently wrong impressions in regard to my position. Indeed, it is one of the strangest things of these strange times that my position in these matters should be called into question.'

But

Count Esterhazy, the retired French army officer who has been court-martialed on a charge of having had dealings with a foreign power detrimental to France, has fared better than Captain Dreyfus, whose case has created so much excitement in France. Esterhazy was acquitted at the end of a two days' trial, the decision of the court being unanimously in his favor. Both these cases illustrate one of the worst phases of militarism, namely, a narrow, sensitive, suspicious selfishness, which, on occasion, bursts out into tyrannical aggressiveness against both military men and civilians. There is a wide-spread feeling in France that Captain Dreyfus is an unjustly condemned man, and the demand has been strong and continued for a re-opening of his case. But so far all efforts to get a re-hearing for him have proved fruitless. His courtmartial was in secret, and the French nation does not know to-day the real grounds of his condemnation. the military authorities, or the national authorities under the terrible bondage of the military régime, have not dared to re-open the case or let the nation into the secret of the proceedings, lest it should be interpreted across the border as an act of weakness. The military régime knows no mercy, and justice itself is often trampled under foot by its iron-heeled discipline. Any citizen in the nation, however loyal and innocent, only has to have some suspicion of betraying military secrets raised against him by some public official or private adversary, and all his rights as a man and a citizen are at once imperilled, and, whether he be innocent or guilty, are liable to be lost forever When race through the swift decision of a secret trial. prejudice is mixed up with the matter, as in these cases in France, the evil is at its worst. Liberty practically has no meaning in a country where such a régime prevails.

It is a wonder that a great, liberty-loving people like the French have submitted to such a tyranny so long, a tyranny which continues and will continue to tighten its grasp on the throats of the people so long as it lasts. As with every other tyranny, so with the military, the older it becomes the more severe and relentless it grows. France will have to have another Fourteenth of July and destroy one more Bastile before she becomes a nation of really free people.

Li Hung Chang holds the same view of the seizure of Kiao Chau by Germany as is held by all sensible people everywhere. He characterizes it as an act of war, in direct violation of existing treaties and of international law. The Chinese government, he says, offered, in immediate and full redress for the murder of the two missionaries, the punishment of the criminals, the dismissal of the local officials and large compensation for losses. He says that outlaws exist in China as in all other countries, and that neither treaties, law, nor religion can entirely suppress crime. There are places in every country where lawlessness abounds. To such a place the German missionaries determined to go, knowing that the inhabitants themselves were often victims of the bandits. He thinks it very unjust for China to be oppressed while she is struggling to recover from the effects of the late war, and to emerge from the restraints of her ancient civilization. China desires to preserve her territory intact, to improve it steadily, and to open it equally to all countries for the development of Commerce. This judgment of the distinguished Chinese viceroy about the Kiao Chau incident is worthy of a genuine Christian statesman. Germany's lease of Kiao Chau for a long period has covered up to some extent the crime committed in its occupation, but it has not changed in the least its character. The whole proceeding reminds us of our own wickedness in robbing Mexico of a vast section of her territory and then proceeding to lay our national conscience by paying her fifteen millions for the territory which we had taken by violence and meant to keep anyway.

From the nature of the subject, it was due, we think, to the public that the treaty for the annexation of Hawaii should have been discussed in open Senate. It is a matter peculiarly affecting the future of the whole country, and every one of us had a right to know what reasons the Senators could give for making the far-off island republic a constituent part of the nation. Practically, however, the country will lose nothing, for two reasons. First, everything of importance said in the Senate immediately leaks out, and, secondly, the course of the debate has shown that there was not the least new consideration to be advanced. The Senators have been threshing over the old straw, until they themselves have apparently ceased to have any more than an academic interest in the mat

ter. It is inconceivable how any man, who had already last year talked himself dry, could have kept himself awake while speaking four days on the subject. That feat has however been accomplished. We do not wonder that, as the last dispatches state, not enough Senators have been won to annexation to secure for the treaty the necessary two-thirds vote. It is now almost sure that the necessary majority can not be found, and that the treaty will not be allowed to come to a vote. The next step, if one is taken, will be a concurrent resolution, and such a step will not be a short or easy one for the friends of annexation. Public sentiment to-day is certainly not inclining at all their way.

Much excitement was occasioned and all sorts of rumors set afloat by the rioting which broke out in Havana at the middle of last month. It appears that the rioting was induced by Loyalists because of their dislike of the autonomy scheme, which they are determined to defeat if possible. There were no assaults on the American consulate either during the first or subsequent riots. Frequent communications passed between Consul-General Lee and President McKinley, and Mr. Lee was authorized to order a warship whenever he thought American interests endangered. Trouble having arisen again and anti-United States circulars having been distributed among the Havana populace, President McKinley ordered the battleship Maine to proceed to Havana. Before issuing the order, he consulted with the Spanish minister at Washington and received his sanction. This course, which was in every way prudent and statesmanlike, though very displeasing to the congressional jingoists, prevented the sending of the Maine from being looked upon as an act unfriendly to Spain. The Spanish papers have shown some irritation over the action of the President, but the Spanish ministry have taken it in good part, as the riots in Havana were specially directed against the ministry's course in Cuba. British and German warships have also been sent to Havana, where things have evidently been in a state of considerable anarchy. Havana is strongly guarded, and the last reports are that General Blanco has gone from the city, and is trying in person to bring the insurgent leaders to accept autonomy. There is no likelihood that he will succeed. Small engagements continue to occur, and General Aranguren, the insurgent commander who ordered Colonel Ruiz court-martialed and shot, is reported to have been killed. Two Spanish warships are to be sent into United States waters to return the " friendly call" of the Maine at Havana. The officers of the Maine have visited the acting captain-general at Havana and been courteously received. It is reported that the Maine will not remain long in Cuban waters but will be replaced by a smaller

war.

Mr. Ferdinand Brunetière, in his impressions of Eastern America, given in the Revue des Deux Mondes, makes one reflection which many people, who are always seeing differences in people of different nationalities and priding themselves that they, and their fellow nationals in a less degree, are superior to all the rest of creation, would do well to take seriously to heart:

"I am so constituted in my eyes and my mind that wherever I have been I have found men more alike than it suited their vanity to admit. It is an unfortunate disposition, doubtless, for an observer, but who knows that it will not enable one to see more in the long run. How many travellers there are whose stories have impressed me with astonishment at their own ingenuity! They were always discovering differences, which were not differences at all to me. Have we not all, or almost all of us, Europeans and Americans, Anglo-Saxons and Latins, yellow men and white, within ourselves samples of all the vices? Granted, of course, that we have also our share of all the virtues, and let us say with the poet: Humani generis mores tibi nôsse volanti Sufficit una domus."

How many people, conceited of self and swollen with national vanity, would find it a profitable spiritual exercise to spend some time in reconstituting their eyes and their minds !

Two legal experts, sent by the British government, have discovered in the vaults of the law courts at Georgetown, British Guiana, a series of volumes of memoranda drawn up by the Commandeur of the Settlement, containing a running account of the Dutch Settlement from the middle till towards the close of the seventeenth century. The memoranda are all in Dutch, the writing is easily read, though the paper is torn in many places. A translation of the volumes is being made into English. This new evidence, it is thought, will throw so much light on the boundary question as to make the work of the arbitrators much easier. It will take several months to put the evidence in shape to use. The court will probably sit in Paris. The Czar has given his sanction to the appointment of Professor Maartens as umpire of the court.

Mr. E. P. Alexander, the arbitrator appointed by President Cleveland to settle the boundary differences between Costa Rica and Nicaragua, has rendered a second award in favor of Costa Rica. This decision determines the present boundary line in the lower part of the course of the San Juan River where it runs through a flat and sandy delta. The river, which marks the boundary, is here subject to changes of its bed. The Nicaraguan Commission wanted a fixed boundary marked out, which changes in the river would not affect. The Costa Rican Commission

decided in their favor and said what channel should be considered the river. Under this decision, which Mr. Alexander claimed to follow international law in making, boundary differences may arise again in the future as the river may hereafter change its course.

La Paix par le Droit for December last contains an account of the eighteenth annual meeting of the Institute of International Law, which occured at Copenhagen from the twenty-sixth of August to the fourth of September last. The meetings were held in the University Palace and were opened by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Prince Royal and his two sons being present. The President chosen was Mr. Goos, former Minister of Public Instruction. The subjects discussed were "States, Cities, etc., as Moral Personalties," "Emigration, and Immigration," "Harbor Regulations," "The Right to Labor," etc. The discussions seem to have been unusually lively and not very coherent, if the account given by M. de Montluc in the above mentioned journal is correct. Four sessions were given to the subject of "Harbor Regulations." The Institute will meet next year, for its twenty-fifth anniversary, at The Hague.

The Lombard Peace Union, Milan, Italy, has just published its ninth annual illustrated peace almanac. The editor is E. T. Moneta, president of the Union. Nine artists have furnished designs for the almanac, illustrating the horrors and absurdities of war, the blessings of peace and the work of the peace associations. More than a score of contributors have furnished articles. Among them we notice the names of Frederic Passy of France, the distinguished Russian sociologist Novicow, Miss P. H. Peckover of England, etc. The title of the almanac is "Giu le Armi" (down with arms). Most of the articles are short pointed ones, of a nature to impress vividly the minds of the readers among whom the almanac is circulated.

An important announcement has just been made through the State Department, which, if true, gives more hope of the early coming of peace in Cuba. Minister Woodford has induced the Madrid authorities to enter into negotiations for two commercial treaties, one with Spain and the other relating wholly to Cuba. The Madrid authorities have even consented to direct negotiations between a Commissioner from the new Cuban autonomist Cabinet and the United States authorities. The Commissioner from Cuba is to come to Washington to carry on the negotiations for the Cuban treaty. The treaty with Spain will be arranged at Madrid by General Woodford. It is believed that this new commercial

arrangement, when completed, will induce many of the insurgents to accept autonomy, and that thus peace will be restored to the island in the near future. CaptainGeneral Blanco says that Cuba should look forward with confidence to the near approach of peace, which he believes will come during the present month. Commerce is mightier than arms.

Great Britain's course in the East is being watched with the greatest interest. In a recent speech at Swansea Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, Chancellor of the Exchequer, made a statement to the effect that Chinese ports should not be shut to Great Britain. He said that his government did not regard China as a place for conquest or colonization by any European or other power, but as a hopeful field for the development of the Commerce not only of Great Britain, but of the world. He believed that the government would have the sympathy and support not only of all parties in Parliament but of the best public opinion everywhere. The Chancellor's declaration has been approved not only by leaders of the Liberals but also by newspapers of every shade of opinion. In this country much sympathy has been expressed with the British government in the policy thus announced. Japan is siding with Great Britain in the demand for equality of commercial opportunity. In consideration of a loan of sixty or eighty millions of dollars for which China is negotiating Great Britain asks that China shall not alienate any part of the Yangste valley, that Great Britain shall have the right to extend her railway from Burma through Yunnan and that China shall open three new treaty ports, one in the north, one in the center, and one in the south. To the opening of the first of these ports, Talienwan, Russia is opposed; to that of the third one, France. But Great Britain is likely to have her way, in large measure at any rate, and it is reasonably certain that no blood will be shed. The risks are too great for any of the powers to venture to go to war to prevent the peaceful opening of these ports to the commerce of the world.

Brevities.

On the 25th of August, 1790, Mirabeau said: "The moment is perhaps not far from us when liberty, reigning without a rival over the two worlds, shall realize the wish of philosophy, release the human race from the crime of war and proclaim universal peace.

Before the recent meeting of the American Humane Society Bishop O. P. Fitzgerald opened his address by saying: "While war continues to be possible between nations calling themselves Christian, all other brutalities are possible."

At the Peace Congress held in London in 1851 the president, Sir David Brewster, wore on his breast an olive

branch which had been sent him from France for the occasion.

More clergymen of the Church of England took part in the observance of Peace Sunday in Great Britain this year than ever before.

Dr. C. A. Berry, since his return to England, has publicly made the statement that during his five weeks' journeyings in the United States he did not meet one man who was opposed to arbitration, though he found in some quarters an objection to a binding treaty.

The Tabernacle Church at Sheffield, England, has passed a resolution protesting against "the cruel and revengeful policy pursued by our (British) military authorities in India, in burning numerous villages, scattering defenceless women and children, rendering them homeless and destitute-barbarous proceedings which bring discredit and dishonor upon the British name."

The Russian naval estimates for 1898, including ship-building and harbor improvement, amount to twenty

three millions of dollars.

The second number of the Christian Register, Boston, under the new management, contains an article on "War or Peace" by Mr. W. Henry Winslow.

The first number of the new journal, La Vita Internazionale, alluded to in our last issue, has reached us from Milan, Italy, where it is published. It has thirty-two pages and a cover. Besides others, it contains articles on "The Two Italies (North and South)," "The Triple Alliance and the Dual Alliance," "Fifty Years Afterwards, 1818-1898," "The Crisis of the Family," "An Apology for War." There are "Politico-Social Notes,' notes on "The Peace Movement," etc. The journal is published semi-monthly at $2.00 a year, for Italy, $3.00

for other countries.

Björnstjerne Björnson, the great Norwegian author, is endeavoring to get Norway, Sweden and Denmark to conclude an agreement to submit every controversy to a court of arbitration.

It has been estimated that the armies of Europe, on a war footing would make a procession reaching round the globe, and that it would take them about a year, marching night and day, to pass a given point.

Concord the organ of the International Arbitration and Peace Association, begins the new year increased in size, improved greatly in appearance, with a new design for its front page. It has a new editor, G. H. Perris, and the January number contains contributions by Lord Farrar, Frederic Harrison, Justin McCarthy, William Clarke, Hodgson Pratt and others.

Señor Correa, chargé d'affaires of the Greater Republic of Central America at Washington, has received advices indicating that the complete consolidation of Nicaragua, Salvador and Honduras into one sovereign republic is progressing steadily. The constitution has been completed and will be passed upon by a constitutional assembly, of twenty delegates from each of the countries, to be held this spring.

At the Parker Memorial Hall, Boston, on the evening of January second Dr. Edward Everett Hale delivered an address on "The Reign of Peace." His point of departure was the Supreme Court of the United States, and the address was a plea for a permanent international tribunal, which he thinks we ought, before the close of this century, to take the lead in establishing.

President Dole of the Republic of Hawaii has arrived in this country, and is received as the guest of the nation. He says he has not come to try to influence in any way the decision of the question of annexation. He knows, however, the influence which his simple presence will have on the "unconscious cerebration" going on in the heads of Senators.

United States Minister Angell at Constantinople has informed the State Department that the Turkish government has not yet yielded to his demand for the payment of an indemnity for the destruction of American mission property during the Armenian outbreak. The Porte takes the position that a government is not responsible for the destruction of private property during a riot, when the government has made every effort to guard it. The prospect of a speedy settlement is not promising

Daniel Hill, secretary of the Peace Association of the Friends in America, has commenced the publication at Richmond, Indiana, of a small, four-page paper in the interests of the peace cause. It is entitled The Messenger, and the price is twenty cents per year, or ten copies for one dollar. Secretary Hill's purpose is to make the little sheet a regular little peace gattling gun.

Ambassador White has sent the State Department an emphatic denial of the rumor that he and Mrs. White had been snubbed at a reception given by Emperor William. He says that the Emperor and all others have been most kind to them.

Benjamin F. Trueblood, Secretary of the American Peace Society, has been elected a Corresponding Member of the Central Committee of the International Association of Journalists, organized at Paris for the promotion of international peace.

The General Peace League of Holland has just issued its twenty-fifth year book. It covers ninetyfive pages, and contains a list of the peace societies in Europe and America, a report of the last annual meeting of the League, a review of the year 1897. an account of the Hamburg Peace Congress, and other interesting matter of local or general interest.

The recent British expedition on the northwest frontier of India cost twenty million dollars per month. That was five hundred dollars per month for each of the forty thousand men of the army. It is so much more taxes to be paid by the poor Hindoos!

Hon. Lyman J. Gage has written a letter to Mr. D. R. Goudie of Chicago, editor and publisher of The Pen or Sword, in which he expresses the conviction that the cause of arbitration and peace 66 ought to receive the support of all those who, engaged in trade and commerce, have come to realize the value of settled conditions, under which alone the peaceful arts of industry thrive, wealth accumulates, and man advances in his intellectual and moral development."

Rev. George H. Hepworth, in one of his recent letters, reports a scholarly and well-to-do Armenian as saying: "If Europe would let us alone we might still have a future, but as it is we seem to be a doomed people. Europe has interfered in our favor and ruined us. She has roused the worst passions of the Turk against us, has excited his suspicions, and left us in the lurch to die or live as God may will."

Our one-cent stamp is to be changed in color to green, and the five-cent stamp to a dark blue. These changes are made in accordance with a resolution passed at the meeting of the Universal Postal Congress at Washington last spring. This resolution provided that the lents, should be made uniform in color throughout the one-cent, two-cent and five-cent stamps, or their equivaworld. The two-cent stamp already fills the bill. The postage stamp is the first complete international institution. Pax semper et ubique ought to be its device.

The great engineers' strike in England, which began on the 13th of July last, and has been one of the longest and most extensive in the annals of English labor troubles, is ended. The terms made by the employers have been accepted. Work was simultaneously resumed in all the federated shops on the 31st ult.

.. The British troops operating against the Afridis in Northwest India have just met with a serious disaster in a gorge near Shin-Kamar. The second battalion of the Yorkshire light infantry lost many officers and men. It

is thought that this will so encourage the Afridis as to make a new invasion of the Tirah country necessary in the spring. This disaster came to the British while trying to

cut off the retreat of a number of Afridis who had been driving their cattle to graze.

It is reported that a Russian volunteer fleet is about to sail, to convey in the quickest possible time ten thousand Russian troops to the far East.

An American man-of-war is to be sent to Samoa. Ex-Consul-General Churchill, just returned, has told the