announced in connection with the amendment than a movement, obviously organised and artificial, was begun against him. The country was told that the Liberals in the House were shocked and aggrieved because Sir Henry had been selected to move an official amendment. His views upon the war were stated to be such that no real Liberal could possibly feel confidence in him, and it was not obscurely hinted that he was personally regarded with dislike and suspicion by all the 'advanced' section of the Opposition. This attempt to proscribe an ex-Cabinet Minister of the first rank, whose services in debate are second to those of no other member of his party, was obviously foolish and dishonest. There was, as a matter of fact, no foundation for the inspired newspaper attacks upon Sir Henry beyond that provided by a small clique of intriguers of advanced opinions and little influence. But when the gentlemen engaged in this movement saw that their attempt at proscription had recoiled upon their own heads, they did not abandon the attack, but only shifted their ground. It was explained, with much elaboration, that it was not with Sir Henry Fowler that people were dissatisfied, but with his amendment. That amendment did not deal with the question of the war-as though the war was a subject upon which the opinion of Parliament had never been expressed— and it was consequently impossible for this or the other section of the Opposition to support it. The result of these tactics was seen in the division-lobby, when the majority of the Government, on a motion in which the official Opposition challenged the policy of Ministers, was no less than 177. The Irish members, after a speech from Mr. Redmond, in which he proclaimed his warm sympathy with the Boers, and assailed Sir Henry Fowler with the malignant vituperation which is the stock-in-trade of Irish orators, abstained from voting, and more than a dozen members of the Liberal party took the same course. The history of Parliament records no more discreditable collapse than this.

The simple truth with regard to the Opposition is that for years past personal questions and personal rivalries have been permitted to assume an importance to which they have no claim, and that deliberate attempts have been made by men whose activity in intrigue is fortunately more conspicuous than their numerical strength, to proscribe those leaders who happened to be obnoxious to an extreme section. It is painful to have to write thus of a party with whose principles and traditions I am in full sympathy; but it is notoriously true and it ought to be said. Until the party can be freed from the burden of these personal rivalries and animosities, and can concentrate its strength upon its proper task-that of resisting what it believes to be evil in the policy of the Governmentit must remain what it is at present, weak, discredited and disunited.

kindliest feelings on this side of the Atlantic. The insane panic in Wall Street, resulting from the struggles of rival millionaires for possession of one of the great trans-continental railways, and the continued invasion of British fields of commerce by American capital, have not been calculated to increase the confidence and good will with which men of business in this country regard the commercial and financial development of the United States.

WEMYSS REID.

The Editor of THE NINETEENTH CENTURY cannot undertake
to return unaccepted MSS.

believe. Temporary expedients for meeting the difficulties of the moment are the stock-in-trade of the diplomatists on the spot, and the Governments of Europe seem to be either reluctant or afraid to make any attempt to deal with questions of principle. But Russia pursues her way; and whether above the surface or beneath it, is assuredly advancing towards the desired end. On the European continent Russia has been passing through a troubled time. The anger of the students of St. Petersburg against the Ministers whom they hold responsible for the stern system of repression from which they suffer has apparently infected other classes of the community. The excommunication of Count Tolstoi has caused profound and widespread emotion; and though the Emperor is clearly unwilling to cast off the evil influence of the Procurator of the Holy Synod, he has done his utmost to introduce a more liberal régime into the universities, and thus to soften the righteous anger of his subjects.

Amid the prosaic struggles of rival parties in the great States of the Continent, we are introduced into the region of romance, or rather of historical melodrama, in Servia. The King, like his father before him, has throughout his life seemed resolved to live up to the wildest fancies of the writers of fiction. His marriage to the lady who is now known as Queen Draga was in itself an episode to which very few novelists could have done justice; but the political crisis which has been caused by her Majesty's failure to fulfil the expectations of her husband and his people lies altogether beyond the limits of the wildest fiction. That thrones should be overturned and dynasties removed for such a cause may well seem incredible; yet it is not impossible that the disappointment which Queen Draga has inflicted upon the King and his party by her failure to give birth to the expected heir may have the most serious effect upon the future of South-Eastern Europe.

The journey of President McKinley through the Southern and Western States of the Republic, which was to have been a triumphal progress in the interests of the new American Imperialism, has been interrupted in the saddest manner by the dangerous illness of Mrs. McKinley. American family life is the same in the White House as in the log hut, and the whole American people have borne touching testimony to their sympathy with their President in a trial which all can understand. In this country also Mrs. McKinley's illness has evoked many expressions of sincere good will and sympathy. Englishmen cannot forget the days so lately passed when the whole American people were grieving with them over the deathbed of Queen Victoria. It is well that the two peoples should be drawn together from time to time by a touch of nature like this; for it must be confessed that some events in the United States during the past month have hardly been such as to evoke the

VOL. XLIX-No. 292

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kindliest feelings on this side of the Atlantic. The insane panic in Wall Street, resulting from the struggles of rival millionaires for possession of one of the great trans-continental railways, and the continued invasion of British fields of commerce by American capital, have not been calculated to increase the confidence and good will with which men of business in this country regard the commercial and financial development of the United States.

WEMYSS REID.

The Editor of THE NINETEENTH CENTURY cannot undertake
to return unaccepted MSS.

INDEX TO VOL. XLIX

The titles of articles are printed in italics