W

estminster

For 1897

Sabbath-School Helps

Edited by REV. J. R. MILLER, D. D.
AUTHOR OF PRACTICAL RELIGION," "WEEK DAY RELIGION,"
OF PASTURE," ETC.

The Westminster Teacher.

The Westminster Quarterlies

"IN HIS STEPS," "BITS

will be enlarged, and, in addition to other features, will contain a new department-"NOTES ON PRIMARY WORK.' The object will be to give to our primary teachers the best things we can provide for them. Mr. Israel P. Black will gather the articles and paragraphs for these pages.

THE SENIOR AND INTERMEDIATE QUARTERLIES will have a new dress of type, and admirable maps have been specially drawn and engraved for them, that equal in accuracy and workmanship those in the most expensive teachers' Bibles. THE INTERMEDIATE QUARTERLY will contain all the music that appears in the SENIOR QUARTERLY. The JUNIOR QUARTERLY, under Mr. Israel P. Black's skillful editorship, will have new features of interest, and will also contain special maps and illustrations.

Four Weekly Tllustrated Papers

Forward, for the oldest scholars

S. S. Visitor and Morning Star, for the intermediate grade
Sunbeam, for the primary department

Beginning with January 1, 1897, THE SABBATH-SCHOOL VISITOR and THE MORNING STAR will become weekly papers. This is to meet the desire of many schools that want a paper for every Sabbath. No Sabbath-school papers published in this country excel in beauty, in instructiveness or real helpfulness, those issued by this Board. Sample copies will be furnished free upon application.

JOHN H. SCRIBNER, Business Sup't., Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath-School Work, 1334 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, Pa.

Horectly spell with the letters in the word

OW many words do you think you can corFASHIONS? Using each letter as desired, but not more times than it appears in fashions-foreign words do not count. Work it out as follows: As, Is, In, On, Son, Sons, Fashion, Fashions, etc.

Our Offer. We will pay $100 for the largest list, $50 for the second largest, $25 for the third. $10 each for the next five, $5 each for the next ten, and $1 each for the next twenty-five. That is to say, we will divide among forty-three contestants the aggregate sum of $300, according to merit. Don't you think you could be one of the forty-three? TRY IT.

Our Purpose.-The above rewards for mental effort are given free and without consideration for the purpose of attracting attention to MODES, by May Manton, the most popular up-to-date Fashion Magazine in the world. Its 36 pages, replete with beautiful illustrations of the latest styles in ladies', misses', and children's garments, make it a real necessity in every household: the Designs and Fashion Hints, being by May Manton, render it invaluable as an absolutely reliable Fashion Guide.

Our Conditions.-You must send with your list of words 25 cents (stamps or silver) for a Three Months' Trial Subscription to MODES.

Our Extra Inducement.-Every person sending 25 cents and a list of 15 words or more will, in addition to three months' subscription. receive by return mail a pattern of this stylish waist with Bolero front and girdle No. 6916 (illustrated above), in any size from 32 to 40 inches bust measure. The regular retail price of the pattern is

25 cents.

Our Aim.-The present monthly circulation of MODES exceeds 50,000. We aim to make it 100,000.

This contest will close January 15th next so the names of successful spellers may be published in the following issue of MODES, but SEND IN YOUR LIST AT ONCE. For our responsibility we refer you to any Mercantile Agency. Address

MODES FASHION MAGAZINE,
Dept. 260, 130 WHITE STREET, NEW YORK.

STAMPED
STEEL
CEILINGS

DECORATIVE, DURABLE,
AND BEST

for Dwellings, Churches, or Business Houses. Ceilings of any shape, old or new. Send for Catalogue. H. S. NORTHROP, 29 Cherry St., N.Y.

THE BIBLE AS LITERATURE

A Course of 14 Lectures on this subject is now being delivered at Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, on Sunday evenings, by Rev. Dr. LYMAN ABBOTT. These lectures are exciting great interest, and will command the attention of all readers and Bible students. We will furnish in pamphlet form complete reports of each lecture, together with suggested Bible readings. for one dollar. On receipt of price, copies of the lectures already delivered will be mailed at once, postpaid, and the rest weekly as they appear. Address

Miss L. L. WHITLOCK, 145 Willow St., Brooklyn, N. Y.

Volume 54

ENATOR HOAR, in a speech delivered last week in Boston, told some plain, homely truths in a plain, homely manner. We hope that the men to whom he spoke, and a wider circle than he reached either at that meeting or by the Boston press, will hear and heed his message. We quote: "It is not strange that the people of the new States who see colossal fortunes acquired by forbidden ways, by the fraudulent management of great railroads, by the perversions of corporate powers bestowed by Government for public use and for public ends, or by gambling in stocks or in the necessaries of life, should strive to imitate the example on a smaller scale. It is not strange that a Kansas or Nebraska farmer, who reads the railroad history of the section of the country to which he belongs, should lend a ready ear and become a docile disciple to a plan by which he can use the powers of the Government for his own advantage, by getting rid of the burden of debt. It is not strange that the example It is not strange that the example of gambling by tampering with the currency, or in the stock market, or wheat market, should stir up the youth of the Northwest to attempt a little manipulation of the currency for their own benefit."

The evils which Senator Hoar thus summarizes cannot be cured by crude legislation forbidding the accumulation of wealth, or limiting the amount; nor by unjust class legislation aimed at rich men because they are rich, and conceived and framed in the spirit of jealousy; nor by legislation preventing the organization of capital and depriving the community of the benefits which organization confers-legislation based, as truly as the analogous legislation. against the organization of labor, in inherent distrust of man, while democracy is based on mutual trust and good will, never on mutual jealousy, suspicion, and distrust. But we can provide systems of taxation that will be adjusted according to the pecuniary interests protected by the Government, and therefore will collect much of the rich and little of the poor; we can make gambling in corn, wheat, cotton, and stocks a criminal offense, as we have made gambling with cards; we can put a stop to watering stocks and compel every corporation to represent its true value, not an artificial and fictitious one, by its stocks and bonds; we can require corporations to publish accurate statements, and subject their affairs to public. examiners, as we now subject the affairs of banks: in short, we can bring capital under law and make it obedient to law. And we can thus, more effectually than in any other way, though concurrently with wise public education, prove to the community that capital is not and capitalists. are not the enemy of the community, and that it does not follow that because the rich are growing richer the poor are growing poorer. These are some of the things we can do.

Meanwhile it is matter of congratulation that such a man as Senator Hoar is telling such men as listened to him in Boston the other day that the Democratic vote at the last election interpreted a public grievance which men of intelligence and wealth must recognize and cure by wise

Number 23

and honest methods, or revolutionary methods will be resorted to in the hope of cure. Senator Hoar's voice, we are glad to add, is not the only one to raise this note of warning. We find in the same week similar warnings uttered in New York by Dr. Parkhurst, in a reported interview in Washington by President Cleveland, and in Kansas City by a letter read at a banquet in celebration of the defeat of free silver, from so well known an advocate of gold monometallism as the Secretary of the Interior, who says: "If some legislation is not enacted to check the growing influence of wealth and circumscribe the powers of the trusts and monopolies, there will be an uprising of the people before the century closes which will endanger our institutions."

There is a good deal of interest in and outside political circles in the question as to who will take Senator Hill's place in the United States Senate. The Republican party ought to find no difficulty in securing and sending a man worthy to represent the Empire State in that august body. There is a good deal of danger that it will not do so; that, in fact, it will not select the Senator at all, but will send whomsoever Mr. Platt selects, possibly Mr. Platt himself. It is some years since the State has been represented in the United States Senate by a man of whom it could be proud. The public in and out of the State will look with more than curiosity to see whether a change of party is only going to make a change in person, while sending to be the colleague of Senator Murphy a man of the same stamp. The State ought to send such a man as Joseph H. Choate, Andrew D. White, or Chauncey M. Depew. And any man whom the Republican party selects ought to be willing to sacrifice something of his personal interests for the public welfare, and go, if he is called by the voice of his party, not merely of its boss.

Secretary Lamont's just-published report deals largely with the subject of coast defenses. It appears that while on July 1, 1893, only one high-power gun was mounted in the modern defense system, by July 1 next seventy high-power breech-loading guns and ninety-five breech-loading mortars will be in position, and in another year 128 guns and 153 mortars will, it is expected, be in place. The execution that might be done by these guns may be imagined when it is known that the larger type (12-inch) weighs 57 tons, is 40 feet long, takes a powder-charge of 520 pounds, and throws a 1,000-pound projectile about thirteen miles. Modern science has now attained such exactness that (as was shown by the recent tests at New York) such a monster gun may be loaded, aimed out of sight of the enemy by an ingenious mathematical contrivance, then raised by machinery, fired, and instantly lowered into its pit. The system of coast defense now being constructed is, no doubt, the result of the fullest military knowledge and of the proverbial Yankee ingenuity. It is, naturally, costly. Secretary Lamont asks for $10,000,000 in addition to the $12,000,000 appropriated at the last session of Congress for

coast defense and other military improvements, all having in view the placing of the country in a state of defense. The War Department desires not only to make our very largest cities secure from an attack by the most formidable men-of-war in existence, but also to make such places as Charleston, Savannah, New Orleans, and at least a dozen other ports safe from any ordinary fleet. Secretary Lamont declares that for these purposes he needs not only more batteries of the highest order, but more skilled soldiers to handle and support the guns; he advocates, therefore, an increase of the artillery branch to at least seven full regiments. With plenty of money, men, and guns, he thinks that "by 1898 the Nation will be fairly safe from foreign invasion." It is obvious that, however safe the great ports may be (and by 1901 Mr. Lamont believes that they could be made invulnerable), a landing in force by the enemy might be made elsewhere on the coast. To prevent this we must look to the navy, and we are not surprised to find Secretary Herbert asking for more battle-ships and torpedoboats; of cruisers he thinks we have enough for the present. He holds that we should have at least fifteen battleships and a hundred torpedo-boats. The last session of Congress authorized three battle-ships; the Naval Department hopes that several more will be ordered at once, together with a dozen or more torpedo-boats. This, of course, means an appropriation of many millions of dollars; and, incidentally, Secretary Herbert thinks that 1,000 men should be added to the force. To the man who believes in peace and economy, these demands, scientific though they be, are somewhat appalling; such a man asks who will guarantee that in ten years the strides of science may not have made the whole expenditure useless?

Senator Raines, of New York State, does not seem to realize that his complaint against the police for the nonenforcement of the Raines Law in New York City is an indictment of the law itself. Under that law there are

special agents whose business it is to see that the law is enforced. What are they doing? That there is illegal selling and a good deal of it in the cities of New York and Brooklyn is probably true. There are three co-operating causes. In the first place, the law itself is defective. Under its provisions so-called hotels which are really only bars, and so-called social clubs which are only drinking associations that are worse than clubs, have been organized. Mr. Raines's first duty is to add to or modify the provisions of the law so as to make this selfevident evasion illegal. A second cause is an unmistakable desire in certain of the Police Courts to protect, not punish, violators of the law. A judge has nothing to do with the question whether a law is wise or foolish, just or unjust, right or wrong. If it is constitutional, it is his duty to enforce it, until the people repeal it. But there are judges who contrive to repeal it themselves; and when a policeman finds the arrested criminal regularly discharged and he himself only scowled at, if not scolded, for making the arrest, he naturally gets discouraged. Finally, it is probable that in the imperfectly reorganized police force—whose reorganization the Platt politicians made impossible—there are some blackmailers left, who are using their power, not to punish crime or prevent it, but to protect and promote it. But there is no reason to believe that there are many such. It looks as though Mr. Raines's accusations were part of a renewal of the old campaign by the politicians against Mr. Roosevelt and that municipal reform which Mr. Roosevelt represents.

The overcrowding of public schools and their inadequacy to meet the demands upon them are evils peculiar to all

our cities. The natural increase of population and the abnormal increase by immigration in our coast cities has made it well-nigh impossible for the Boards of Education to meet the demands made upon the schools., In New York the evil is so great that a number of the churches have offered the use of their Sunday-school rooms for the opening of classes to the children in their immediate vicinity who could not find room in the schools. In almost all cases the Board of Education has been compelled by the Building Department to reject these offers. The Board of Education of Watervliet, formerly West Troy, found itself this fall unable to meet the demands on the seating capacity of the schools. The Board of Education of that city leased the rooms of St. Bridget's Parochial School Building for public school purposes, employing as teachers members of the Sisterhood of St. Joseph. The Sisters were permitted to wear their habits in the school-room. Naturally this aroused a great deal of feeling in the city, and some of its leading citizens appealed to the Superintendent of Public Instruction of New York against this decision of the Board of Education. The Superintendent gave most careful consideration to the subject. He decides that the leasing of the rooms by the Board of Education was an unwise exercise of the power given it, (1) it not appearing that place could not have been provided in the regular school-rooms for all pupils, (2) and it appearing that the lease was limited, not absolute, and only for certain hours in the day. Under the laws of the State these Sisters hold State certificates, and the Superintendent says they are fully qualified to teach. qualified to teach. In regard to the dress, he states that, taken in connection with the location, surroundings, and distinguishing characteristics of the building leased by the school authorities in which these Sisters are employed, there is a constant reminder to the pupils of the existence of one particular religious denomination or sect, and that this public declaration is such an object-lesson to the susceptible minds of the pupils under their charge that it comes dangerously near the line of prohibition laid down by the Constitution. The final decision of the Superintendent is that outwardly it would be apparent that the children of one particular faith were attending this school; that to all intents and purposes the city is maintaining a sectarian school at public expense. It is clearly the intent of the law that this practice should be prohibited. According to the law, as interpreted by Mr. Skinner, the Board of Education will be compelled to require the teachers employed by it to discontinue the use in the public-school room of the distinguishing dress or garb of the religious order to which they belong. It is hardly necessary for us to add that in our judgment this decision is in accordance with public policy. To allow school-rooms to be used out of school hours for religious instruction may be legitimate and wise, but it is neither legitimate nor wise to support a parochial school under guise of maintaining one that is non-sectarian.

The recent appeal of Mrs. Van Rensselaer and Mr. Gilder for aid for the University Settlement in this city receives an indirect emphasis from a university meeting recently held at Cambridge, England, for the purpose of establishing a Cambridge House in South London. Six of the Cambridge colleges have for some years had missions in this part of the English metropolis, and in every case the college which supports the house maintains one or more clergymen, with a church organization. The relations between the colleges and their missions are intimate; new men are constantly going into the missions from the University, and the men in the missions are constantly going

back to the University and awakening interest and giving information. Cambridge has not, so far, had a Settlement, with the exception of the Trinity Settlement on the Camberwell Road, but not a few of its graduates have done work through the Oxford House and Toynbee Hall. As the result of the recent enthusiastic university gathering it was decided to establish a Cambridge House in South London. Dr. Westcott, the Bishop of Durham, who was one of the speakers, declared that the greatest peril of the present time is the ignorance of one class of the feelings and aims of another class, the ignorance of one man of the feelings and aims of another man, and it was the natural privilege of a university to assist in removing this ignorance. Mr. Balfour summarized the work of the Settlement as directed towards the organization of charity, the organization of thrift, and the organization of recreation. He also said very strongly that the employers in great cities and in great corporations and joint stock concerns lose the sense of personal responsibility to the employed, and he emphasized the fact that the weight of such work as is needed to be done in the great cities must be done largely by the laity. Few things are more significant of the vital life of the great universities than the interest which they are showing in the social problems of the hour. This is the one way in which the university can be of direct and immense service in practical matters-a service which springs directly and legitimately out of its own functions and life.

Boston has given a lesson to the entire country in park work, and no city needs to profit by that lesson more than will the Greater New York. Surrounding Boston there are thirty-seven separate municipalities, containing a population of about 1,000,000 persons. While the central city has developed a superb series of parks within its own boundaries, it was evident that the great new population was spreading throughout the suburban district more rapidly than the local park commissions and water commissions were acquiring open public spaces. In 1891, therefore, an act was passed establishing the Metropolitan Park Commission. The Commission consists of five persons, one new member being appointed every year by the Governor, the term of service being five years. The General Court authorizes from time to time the sale of bonds by the State Treasurer, who is directed to collect every year the amount of interest and the sinking fund charges from the towns and cities of the metropolitan district according to an apportionment newly made every five years. Over $2,000,000 worth of 31⁄2 per cent. bonds, running forty years, have been authorized. The total annual sum to be collected from the district is about $111,000. Boston pays half of this requirement. Like the unproductive but wonderfully picturesque sections of Boston, such as Revere Beach, the banks of the Charles River, and the Blue Hills, so the suburbs of New York City contain many strongly characterized scenes which should find their proper use in a continuous park system. It is to be hoped that a park It is to be hoped that a park commission with ample powers shall consider an adequate plan, reaching from the ocean on the northeast to the ocean on the southeast, embracing the suburban resorts on the south and north shores of Long Island; including the park systems of Brooklyn, Jamaica, Long Island City, and Flushing; Pelham, Bronx, Crotona, Van Cortlandt, and Palisade Parks, the Hudson County Boulevard, the Blocmfield Road, the Orange Mountain Parks, the Millburn and Springfield turnpikes, and the Rumsen and other roads of Monmouth County, New Jersey. Every one who knows

the whole or a part of this splendid sweep will appreciate the possibilities of development.

General Weyler, after a brief visit to Havana, has returned to the Pinar del Rio mountain regions to conduct his campaign against Maceo. So far that campaign has had little results. The only engagement of any consequence has been at the Rubi Hills, and there the Cuban patriots assert that Weyler was repulsed with great loss; sensational reports declare that his loss was many hundreds. Weyler's statement of the situation is that Maceo retreats from one mountain stronghold to another, that it is impossible to entice him into a general fight, that the Cubans are rapidly exhausting ammunition and provisions, and that their dispersion or extermination is merely a question of time. The fight at Rubi Hills, Weyler says, resulted in small loss to either side, and ended with the retreat of the Cubans. The difficulty in getting at the truth about Cuba is illustrated by the fact that when Colonel Reyes, an aide-de-camp of Maceo, arrived in Jacksonville on a mission from the Cubans to this country, the New York papers reported him as asserting that 2,000 of Weyler's men had been killed in two days and twice as many wounded, and that whole battalions had been blown. up by dynamite. Startling head-lines, "Routed," "Great Slaughter," "Blown up by Dynamite," heightened the sensation. When Reyes arrived in New York none of these sensational statements were confirmed by him! Whatever may be the actual military situation, the condition of the island generally is one of desolation, threatened famine, and financial ruin. General Weyler before leaving Havana said to a correspondent "that it was a necessity of war to destroy the whole province, burning every house which may be made a shelter for the insurgents, and every plantation which may give them food." The same dispatch says of the Cuban leader Gomez that on his expected march westward this month "he will carry with him la vengadora tea (the avenging torch), and will not leave a single sugar-cane field which might yield a direct or indirect revenue to the Spanish Government." General Weyler has lately again positively refused to allow the grinding of sugar-cane, and has ordered all growers of corn in the provinces of Pinar del Rio, Havana, and Matanzas to gather together all of the corn still in their possession and transport it to the nearest towns and settlements by December 20. After that date all corn found in the possession of farmers will be regarded as contraband of war. Merchants, planters, exporters, business men generallyall are in a state nearing despair, and the long struggle between the Spanish troops and the Cuban insurgents

seems no nearer at an end.

Little has been known with certainty about the progress of the revolt against Spanish rule in the Philippine Islands. A Hongkong correspondent of the London "Times" at last furnishes an interesting account of the first outbreak and of the steps taken to quell the rebellion. It appears that the large province of Cavite is in the hands of the native insurgents, and that there have been risings in seven other provinces. Spanish misrule and tyranny were the sufficient causes; the belief that the rebellion was fomented by Japan is discredited. It is said, however, that Japanese, Germans, and even one American (a Mr. Collins) have been arrested for aiding the rebels. The natives and half-breeds who started the insurrection are members of a secret society. The members are "sealed with blood," and the triangular mark thus made on the arm of each has proved a fatal means of identification in many cases.

There are only three or four thousand Spanish troops in the islands, and these are mostly at Manila. The fighting has been followed by horrible cruelty on both sides. The natives, for instance, seized a large monastery in Cavite and not only murdered but tortured all the priests, saturating some in petroleum and then tying them to trees and setting fire to them. In retaliation the Spaniards have, it is alleged, tortured prisoners with thumbscrews found in the convents, which were actually in use in the worst days of the Inquisition. It is certain that in Manila prisoners were confined by the Spanish officers in an underground dungeon into which the tide entered, and ventilated only by an iron grating in the roof. On one night, by accident or design, this grating was covered, and the scenes of the Black Hole of Calcutta were repeated; half of the one hundred and fifty prisoners were found dead in the morning. As in the war in Cuba, the rebel forces avoid open engagements, know the country thoroughly, and it will be a difficult matter to bring them into subjection.

The Czar has taken the administration of affairs, both home and foreign, into his own personal keeping, and hereafter his Ministers are to be mere head clerks of departments. He is to receive daily reports from all departments, and to make his own replies to all questions, and settle all policies without so much as consulting the heads of those departments unless he chooses to do so. It is significant that the Czar seems to find small use for the opinion of the Russian Ambassador to Constantinople, who is now at St. Petersburg, and who is in a position which would naturally entitle his opinion to great consideration. The Czar's only confidant appears to be his great-uncle, the Grand Duke Michael, the last surviving son of Nicholas I. The Grand Duke, who is Aide-de-Camp General to the Czar, and President of the Council of the Empire, appears to have gained at least a temporary ascendency over his great-nephew. Under his advice there is to be an entire reorganization of Russian administration. Both in administrative and army positions there are to be wholesale changes and transfers, all in the direction of bringing the bureaucracy more directly under the control of the Czar,

who is to be his own Minister. This radical move on the part of the Czar may mean more consistent absolutism, or it may mean the breaking up of the detested bureaucracy from which Russia has so long suffered. No change in Russian foreign policy is to be expected at present, and it is generally believed that Russia's protection of the Sultan will continue; that she will reject all schemes for European interference in Turkey, as she has recently rejected the French proposal for the readjustment of Turkish finances. The Russian papers are frankly declaring that Russia has now exclusive control of Constantinople, and one of the semi-official journals of St. Petersburg states the Russian attitude almost brutally when it says: "The policy of Russia is not to support the action of the other Powers, but to enforce her own will; no matter what massacres of Armenians and other Christians may occur, the isolated action of Russia is a practical reality."

One of the most ardent wishes of that somewhat ardent young man, the Emperor of Germany, has been for a new and powerful fleet. In the expression of this desire he has not been content with direct references to it in his remarkable speeches, but has also inspired those about him to like expression. We are not surprised, therefore, to read, in the last issue of the semi-official "Militärwochenblatt," an article from an officer of the General Staff, strongly recommending that Germany ought to have a better navy

than that of any other Power except Great Britain. The German navy must be strong enough, he says, not only to protect the German coast, but so to engage the British fleet as to give German transports opportunity to land an army in England. The Emperor's influence has been shown also in another and more notable quarter-namely, in the proposition by the Finance Minister, Dr. Miquel, to devote to naval expenditure next year no less than $32,500,000, a sum nearly twice as great as the appropriation for last year. The reason for this prodigious increase is frankly avowed to be the building. of new ships, over $15,000,000 being. necessary to that end. Nevertheless, there is a deficit of more than $14,000,000 in the Imperial Budget. It is proposed to meet this by a loan, and a consequent increase to that extent of Germany's bonded debt. In this connection it is interesting to note that such an addition to the debt is by no means so burdensome as it might be in France. The total indebtedness of Germany (including the individual debts of the German States with that of the Empire itself) is said to be less than $3,000,000,000; those of Russia and of Italy, about $2,500,000,000 each; of Austria, about $3,000,000,000; of the United Kingdom, $3,300,000,000; while that of France is stated to be over $6,000,000,000. Yet France, and Russia and England too, by this proposed action of Germany must burden themselves proportionately. When will the folly of militarism be so apparent that we shall hear the good news of dis

armaments?

When the Egyptian expeditionary force set out, no definite statements were made with regard to it beyond the fact that Dongola would be retaken. Now that Dongola has been captured, the British Government announces that the occupation of Khartoum and the reconquest of the Soudan are to follow. Dongola was recaptured after a sharp fight. The town was bombarded by the gunboats, and the Dervish position was carried by a charge of the combined English and Egyptian forces. The reconquest of the Soudan is, as has been often pointed out, the logical necessity of the occupation of Egypt. Unless that great region is kept in order, Egypt would be constantly harassed, and it would be a mere waste of time to leave an open spring flowing and attempt to stay its course by a series of small dams hundreds of miles distant. Sir Herbert Kitchener, who has been in command of the expedition, has shown great skill and sagacity, and the fighting quality of the Egyptian troops has greatly improved, and the native army is now regarded by military experts as thoroughly effective. Kitchener will have in the neighborhood of thirty thousand native troops and probably two or three British or Indian brigades, with a small squadron of gun

At high water the gunboats can pass from Dongola up the Nile to Abuhamed, and beyond that point at the same season there will be easy navigation. The gunboats will be accompanied by a column following probably the general line of the river to Abuhamed, which will be promptly taken if the English plans are successful. Meanwhile the Dervishes are collecting supplies of all sorts and fortifying their position, and the advancing column will be met by sixty or seventy thousand men. It is believed, however, that the old-time fighting quality has gone out of these warriors of the desert, that both their religious and their military zeal has subsided, and that General Kitchener will have very little trouble with them when he finally faces them for a definite struggle.

Among the minor British poets of the day few have been more widely read than Coventry Patmore, who died, after