gentlemen is a personage of formidable appearance, but both are fairly expert swordsmen, and the duel was actually fought near Paris at sunrise on the date mentioned above. Prince Henri was stabbed in the abdomen, and thus the honor of the Italian nation was considered to be gloriously vindicated. There are no facts to show that any real effort was made by either the French or the Italian government to prevent this disgraceful occurrence. One of Prince Henri's seconds was Colonel Leontieff, whose portrait appeared in our issue for last month as that of the Russian now in high favor at the court of King Menelik and has been made governor of the equatorial provinces of Abyssinia.

Soudan.

The English Government, while conEngland and the stantly sending more troops and munitions of war to South Africa, is just now giving especial attention to the expedition that will ultimately occupy Khartoum. Another advance has been made by the Anglo-Egyptian forces under Sir Herbert Kitchener, and the important position known as Abu Hamid, above the Fourth Cataract, is now the expeditionary headquarters. A railroad is being pushed to that point from Wady Halfa, which is a point below the Second Cataract. Some powerful gunboats, now being completed in England, will be carried in sections over this railroad to get them past the worst cataracts, and will be put into the water at Abu Hamid. They will have clear navigation all the way to Khartoum. The one

ABD-ER-RAHMAN KHAN, AMEER OF AFGHANISTAN.

important military position between Abu Hamid and Khartoum is Berber. It is possible that Sir Herbert Kitchener's troops may advance to that point without waiting for the gunboats, which it is expected will be ready to leave Abu Hamid four or five months hence. The dervishes are by no means ready to give up the situation, and it is expected that they will fight valiantly and in pretty large force. But they will have no weapons that can withstand the armament of the English gunboats or the light artillery and rapidfire machine guns with which Sir Herbert Kitchener is so abundantly supplied. The Caliph Abdullah, who is the successor of the mahdi, has Osman Digna as his mighty man of valor and the captain of his host. English pluck and science will prevail against the fierce fanaticism. and unshrinking courage of the Arab Mohammedans of the desert; but there may be some hard fighting before the campaign is done.

In still another quarter English England on the pluck and military science are facAfghan Borders. ing Mohammedan fanaticism. The emissaries of the Turkish sultan have been doing their best to stir up the Mohammedans of India to a revolt against the British, in order to pay off England for concerning herself so much about the massacred Armenians. These representatives of the sultan have received altogether too much encouragement from the Ameer of Afghanistan and his principal officers. Just across the line from Afghanistan are the extreme northwestern districts of British India, occupied by Mohammedan tribesmen who are closely related to the Afghans and who have never in good faith accepted English rule. These tribes seem to have been supplied with arms and ammunition by the ameer's own generals. Several years ago, at a time of disturbance in that remote mountain region, the British Government sent an expedition that penetrated as far as Chitral-a point which had been previously considered as well across the borders in Afghanistan. Looking at the matter purely from the military standpoint, it was the judgment of many English statesmen that there should be no attempt made to retain Chitral permanently. Lord Salisbury, however, reversed Lord Rosebery's judgment on that point, and the garrison at Chitral was maintained. In order to hold that point it was necessary to keep open a long and almost incredibly difficult line of communication. A chief strategic point in this line is the Malakand Pass, in the mountain range which has heretofore been considered the boundary line between British India and Afghanistan. Malakand is perhaps a hundred miles south of Chitral. The garrison at Malakand has numbered about three

THE MALAKAND PASS.

(The junction of the old Buddhist road and the new military road.)

thousand soldiers, most of them native Indian troops with English officers. Some weeks ago the tribesmen to the number of many thousands arose in open revolt against the British, and attacked the garrisons, concentrating with particular energy at Malakand and Chakdara. The British Indian Government hurried reenforcements forward, and these arrived in time to relieve the garrisons, whose peril lay in the approaching exhaustion of their supplies of food and ammunition. The instigators of all this uneasiness in India had evidently hoped to cause a mutiny in the army. Thousands of copies of incendiary books and pamphlets, intended to promote a "holy war," had been circulated among the native troops which make up the British Indian army. But the Sepoys have not forgotten the lesson of forty

years ago, and they will not mutiny. Already it seems likely that the uprising on the Chitral route is for the most part suppressed. Large bodies of troops have, however, been continuously sent forward as reënforcements, and the episode will have cost British India a good deal of money.

The past month of August has been The Parleying at Constan- precisely like the preceding month of tinople. July in its steady series of official news dispatches from Constantinople to the effect that the terms of peace between Turkey and the Greeks had been fully arranged, and that the formal treaty was to be signed on a given day. Up to the time of the present writing these reports have proved to be totally devoid of truth or meaning. It is possible that the representatives of the great powers in their conferences with the Turkish Government have been making great progress toward a settlement; but there is no outward evidence of any progress whatsoever. The Turks are acting upon the principle that possession is everything and are making themselves more and more at home in Thessaly. The powers still keep their naval representatives in Cretan waters, but the opposing factions of the Cretan population are by no means pacified, and a state of anarchy prevails throughout most of the island. There have been renewed reports that the King of Greece intends to resign on account of the alleged determination of the powers to put the finances of Greece under control of a European commission. The German holders of Turkish bonds are believed to be exerting a great deal of influence behind the scenes.

The session of the British Parliament

came to an end with a promptness that was very pleasing to the members; for the British statesman hates to have pub. lic business detain him at Westminster when holiday time has come. The recess began with the second week of August, in good season for the grouse-shooting

the orthodox time for prorogation. Englishmen wno

belong to the leisure class are now enjoying themselves in all parts of the United Kingdom, or else are on their vacation travels to the uttermost ends of the earth. The session accomplished very little in the way of innova. tion, although two important enactments must be credited to it-one of them Mr. Chamberlain's employers' liability bill, which became a law after some amending in the House of Lords, and the other the measure which subsidizes denominational schools. It looked at one time as if the whitewashing report of the Parliamentary committee on the Jamieson raid might not be made the subject of a debate in the House of Commons; but a few resolute critics of that report forced a discussion and a vote. The matter was brought up in the form of a motion by Mr. Stanhope, which demanded that Mr. Hawksley, the attorney for Cecil Rhodes, should be ordered to appear at the bar of the House and produce the telegrams that had passed between Mr. Rhodes in Africa and his representatives in London. The debate made it clear that the government proposed to stand by Mr. Chamberlain on the one hand and Mr. Rhodes on the other to the

very utmost. Mr. Stanhope's motion was defeated by a vote of 304 to 77. But although Mr. Hawksley was not ordered to appear, the House had the satisfaction of summoning to its august presence a London money-lender named Kirkwood, who had refused to give testimony to a Parliamentary committee that was investigating certain scandalous aspects of the business of loaning money at usurious rates. The contrast af

answer questions.)

forded by the refusal to punish Hawksley's serious offense, while dealing so severely with Kirkwood for refusing to violate the confidence of his clients, has put the House of Commons in a rather unfavorable light before the world. The British finances, it may be remarked in passing, have been satisfactory enough this year to enable the Admiralty to announce the beginning of a number of additional armored cruisers of the most powerful and swift type, and also a number of torpedo-boats. Naval enthusiasın is greater than ever in England.

on His Travels.

An Oriental potentate who is at The King of Siam present enjoying British hospitality and having his photograph taken innumerable times for the illustrated papers is the King of Siam. In his own country he is wholly Oriental in appearance; but in England he dresses as a European and looks a good deal like the bright-faced and intelligent Japanese public men who visit the United States from time to time. This royal gentleman's name is Chulalongkorn I. He will be forty-four years old this month. Next fall he can celebrate the completion of thirty years on the throne. He has several young sons, one of whom, with a nephew, is in school at Harrow. While Queen Victoria in her long reign has been gaining much territory, this King of Siam in his shorter one has not been so lucky; for a considerable slice of the boasted British empire has been gained at his expense, while the French, from another direction, have also been encroaching to an enormous The king has remaining to him possibly

extent.

A

useful affair. The conference repudiated all idea of an ecclesiastical union which might lessen the independence of the American and colonial churches, agreeing that the best results would be found in voluntary counsel and fellowship. Its resolutions declared strongly for critical study of the Bible by those competent to carry on such inquiries; urged renewed zeal and effort in missionary propaganda in non-Christian countries; contained a strong paragraph in favor of international arbitration, and exhibited on many other subjects a great deal of practical wisdom, together with a most commendable spirit. number of Americans have also attended an international library conference in London. English scientists, on the other hand, have come this year to Toronto as the meeting-place of the British Association. Several hundred representatives of English scientific progress and scholarship have crossed the sea, the most eminent of them being Lord Kelvin, who is foremost, perhaps, among all living men of science. The American Association had this year held its meeting at Detroit, just before the gathering at Toronto, and its members largely accepted the cordial invitation to attend the sessions of the British Association.

SIR JOHN EVANS, President of the British Assoc'n.

siderably more than one hundred thousand signatures of New York voters who have declared that they desire his nomination and election as mayor. This means that the candidate of the Citizens' Union must almost of necessity be indorsed by the Republicans. Tammany has been casting about very anxiously for a presentable figure-head to place in nomination against Mr. Low, but has not as yet found a man. Mr. Croker's retirement from the leadership of Tammany is declared by him to be absolute, and John C. Sheehan now holds undisputed sway at

66

the wigwam." Meanwhile, the efficiency of the administration of Mayor Strong is evinced in many ways. The summer death-rate has not been so low in twenty-five years as within the past few weeks. Some of the worst slums on the East Side are in process of demolition to make room for small parks. In almost every department of the city government there are healthy signs of progress. Early in the month which comes under review Col. Frederick D. Grant resigned from the Police Board, on the ground that he was opposed to certain methods which the chief of police was using, with the sanction of the board, for the detection and prevention of vice. Colonel Grant's place was at once filled by the appointment of Col. George M. Smith, a business man of excellent standing and character, and head of one of the New York militia regiments. One of the most important public improvements of the immediate future is the great public library that is to be built upon the site of the old reservoir on Fifth Avenue, be tween Fortieth and Forty-second Streets. The