said to be fair representatives of the honest, wellintentioned citizenship of the States from which they come. Senator Peffer is doubtless somewhat dreary and tedious as a debater, and he does not make the impression of a very powerful personality; but he seems to have won the respect and esteem of his colleagues, and to have convinced them that he represents a high standard of citizenship. Senator Kyle, of South Dakota, is still a young man, of fine presence and agreeable manners, a well-educated Congregational minister, of wide Western experience, and of the most unblemished reputation. Senator Stewart, of Nevada, is a veteran in public life, whose transfer from the Republican column to the Populist squad

REPRESENTATIVE LAFE PENCE, OF COLORADO.

has been due to his convictions on the silver question. No one will deny his right to speak as a great expert in monetary science. Of Senator Allen, of Nebraska, whose appearance is still more recent, we write at length elsewhere in this number. In the House of Representatives the Populists number about a dozen, five of whom are from Kansas. Mr. Jerry Simpson, and Mr. John Davis are the most prominent of the Kansas delegation. The other three are Benjamin H. Clover, John G. Otis and William Baker. Mr. Simpson, who has sustained an immense amount of rather superfluous newspaper badinage, is a public speaker of unusual directness and force, and as a man he seems strong in the esteem of those who know him well. He is unfortunately ill and for some time has been unable to attend to his Congressional duties. Mr. John Davis is a man of natural conser

vatism, who makes the impression of firmness and of intelligence. Besides Mr. Allen in the Senate, Nebraska has two Populists in the House, namely, William A. McKeighan and Omer M. Kem. Mr. McKeighan is a farmer who served in an Illinois cavalry regiment through the war, and who has for perhaps thirty years taken a very active part in farmers' organizations and movements. He is serving his second term in Congress, and while somewhat unprepossessing in appearance and unpretentious in manner, he has gained the respect of his fellow Congressmen through his analytic mind, his readiness of speech and his manifest sincerity. Mr. Kem is also serving his second term, is thirty-eight years of age and began Nebraska life as a homesteader in Custer County in 1882. Colorado's two Representatives, Messrs. Lafe Pence, of Denver, and John C. Bell, of Mont Rose, are both Populists.

The Lexow

The subject that has engrossed more at tention than any other in the press of Investigation. New York City during the past few

weeks has been the revelations of blackmail and corruption in the police department, as brought to light by the investigating committee of the State Senate under Senator Lexow's chairmanship. There have been legislative inquests upon corrupt administration in New York City in former years. But they have been comparatively superficial. The present inquiry was looked upon with much skepticism in its opening days, and was treated with some satire even by Dr. Parkhurst himself. But it has proved to be an ally of seemingly irresistible resources; and Dr. Parkhurst has gone to Switzerland for his needed and regular vacation of mountain climbing, with a serene confidence that the work initiated by him will not suffer through neglect in his absence. At first it was difficult for the Lexow Committee to get evidence. But as its work proceeded and its prestige grew, there began to be a feeling that it was quite as safe to trust in the Committee as to trust in tottering Tammany, and there began to be a prospect of something like a stampede of witnesses. The task of the Committee's chief counsel, Mr. Goff, and his able legal associates, began to be that of culling out the most typical cases where an embarrassing wealth of testimony was available, rather than that of searching for bits of evidence here and there. Mr. Goff has exhibited a knowledge of the facts and conditions, and an ability to extract the truth from reluctant witnesses, that have far outstripped the most sanguine hopes. There has been revealed a widespread system of police blackmail levied upon almost every conceivable form of vice and crime. The beginning that has thus been made so impressively, and that has won so complete a support from the metropolitan press, affords leverage for further inquiry that ought by all means to be followed up even if the Committee should need to be kept alive by action of the next legislature. Its work should not end until the whole administration of New York City is laid bare in all its iniquity.

The Redemption of New York.

MR. JOHN W. GOFF.

Meanwhile there is to be an election in November, and it is evident that Tammany can be defeated if its opponents will but unite their forces. The obtrusion of mere party politics into this election, which affords an opportunity for the overthrow of corrupt municipal domination, should be sharply rebuked by every thoughtful citizen. The best plan of action would perhaps be the selection and announcement of candidates by a non-partisan conference of municipal reform elements, with the hope that all parties and elements that are opposed to Tammany Hall would indorse the reform ticket. It is not yet known what action the New York Constitutional Convention may take with reference to the government of cities, but it is hoped that it may see fit to provide for a liberal measure of home rule, and for the organization of large cities under the government of councils elected upon a general ticket, with at least permissive authority to employ a plan of minority or proportional representation. With such a system, New York could have as good a government as its people wish and as it deserves, while under the existing conditions, that is well-nigh impossible.

British

The season abroad has been very important Miners at in the practical demonstration it has afBerlin. forded of the steady onward progress of the cause of labor. It is less evident in America. Of the somewhat grotesque, but very significant, manifestations of the uneasiness and of the bewilderment of the blind giant afforded by Coxeyism, we have said enough elsewhere. The prolonged coal strike, with its savage episodes of murder-as, for instance, when the strikers blew eleven "blacklegs" into eternity by exploding giant powder in the mine in which they were working; and of semi-insurrection, as when 2,000 miners armed themselves with rifles and defied the authorities to dislodge them from their mountain camp,-affords a melancholy contrast to the deliberations of the miners of Europe at the International Conference at Berlin. That Conference was somewhat turbulent in its debates, but it expressed itself in debate, not in giant powder. The English miners at Berlin displayed both the capacity and the arrogance natural to their race. It is a curious thing to find even in the depths of the mine the self-same calm consciousness of a kind of divine right of practical common-sense, which used to irritate continental statesmen so much in Lord Palmerston. And to judge from Berlin, the proletariat dislike the insufferable arrogance of the Briton quite as much as the diplomatists and the sovereigns.

The EightHours Day.

The European miners passed a resolution in favor of the eight-hours day, but their resolution tells less strongly for that next step in the conquest of leisure that the remarkable letter in which Mr. Mather has disposed of the objections taken to the experiment at the Salford Iron Works. That experiment, it will be remembered, was held to have conclusively established the economic advantages of the eight-hours day. Replying to those who question the accuracy of this conclusion, Mr. Mather says that it is the unanimous conviction of his staff that the eight-hours day contributes to an increase of the efficiency of the workman, chiefly because it enables him to start work fresh after breakfast and a good night's rest, instead of compelling him to begin work before breakfast. Mr. Mather says:

The 48-hours week holds the field as the best arrangement of working time and as affording the best conditions for the production of the best work to secure the best interests of the great engineering and machine-making industry of the country.

If we add to this Mr. Allen's testimony as to the moral and social advantages of allowing the father to take his breakfast at home among his children, we seem to be within measurable distance of the time when the promotion of the eight-hours day will be recognized as one of the objects commanding the united support of the Christian Church.

The Fall of M. CasimirPerier.

The most sensational European tribute to the power of labor in the politica! sphere was supplied by the overthrow of the Casimir-Perier administration because it refused to allow the employees of the State,-railway servants for instance,-to become members of trades unions. The crisis arose out of a refusal on the part of the railway companies to allow their employees to attend a congress of railway men held recently in Paris. The Ministry, instead of condemning the companies, supported them by asserting that the right to join a trades union was properly denied to all who were employed on the State railways. Thereupon the Chamber incontinently revolted and flung out M. Casimir-Perier by a majority of 265 to 225. After the usual game of hide-and-seek, M. Dupuy-a youngster of forty-two-succeeded in forming a Cabinet, composed largely of men under forty. France has one ministry the more, and the official class has received a lesson in Labor politics which it will not soon forget.

now in command at Lado, and Belgian ambition will not be contented with anything but the right to occupy and administer the whole of the Bahr el Ghazel.

The Objections of France.

England has quite recently reoccupied Wadelai from Uganda, which makes her supreme at the other end of the Nile. It was, therefore, obviously well to come to terms with the Belgians. This she has done in the agreement by which she leaves the Bahr el Ghazel to them, and they leave the Tanganyika strip to her, the leases to run as long as the Congo State remains independent, or is a Belgian Colony. France has a right of preemption over the Congo State if the Belgians get tired of it. This pre-emption does not extend to the leased portion of the Egyptian province of Bahr el Ghazel. The agreement therefore shuts France out from the headwaters of the Nile, and the French are mad accordingly. They are the more mad because they say that the agreement England has made with Italy is one in which she agrees to recognize as Italian various regions in the neighborhood of Abyssinia which she undertook in 1888 to regard as French, or at least to be beyond her action or intervention. The formal protest of M. Deloncle, the chief of the French Jingoes, reads unpleasantly. France is not likely to go to war to enforce reversionary claims in places which she cannot occupy, even if they were recognized to-morrow; but she dislikes being formally and publicly shut out of territories which she had marked for her own.

unison with the Colonial pack. His last act was to protest against the Anglo-Belgian Agreement, by which England made over the Equatorial province of Bahr el Ghazel to the Congo Free State for the lifetime of King Leopold, in return for a lease to her of a strip of territory fifteen miles wide, from the north of Lake Tanganyika to the south of Lake Albert Edward, and a right of way for a telegraph line through the Congo State, from the Zambesi to the Nile. The Bahr el Ghazel is one of the abandoned provinces of the Soudan which King Leopold was urged to take as long ago as 1884. At that time the King would not hear of it. A good deal has happened since then, and, among other things, the King has changed his mind. A Congo captain is

Securities

for Peace.

The French will probably refuse to recognize the agreement. It is not probable that the German government will make any objections, although the German papers are protesting against the lease which makes England their neighbor instead of the Congo State, for the Tanganyika strip. England has just entered into an agreement with the Germans for a common customs tariff on the west coast, for Togo and the Gold Coast territory. They will certainly not object to the Italian agreement. France therefore will only sulk, and add the two agreements to the long list of grudges which she is cherishing against the British. Fortunately, however, for the peace of the world, the Czar insists upon the peace being kept; and France, besides, has a very solid reason for not wishing to push matters to an extremity. In 1900 she is to inaugurate the twentieth century by an exhibition of unprecedented magnificence in Paris. Until then she will not force a rupture with anybody, and may possibly assent to a proposal to keep her military and naval expenditure at their present limits.

Armor.

It is possible that the invention of the Cloth-Proof German journeyman tailor Dowe of an impenetrable breastplate, made apparently of cloth and asbestos, may also tend to postpone the much-dreaded war. Dowe has discovered how to manufacture a material which stops rifle-bullets in a fashion that recalls the stories of the knight of romance who wore enchanted armor. Not only does his cloth plate stop rifle-bullets fired at it point-blank, but the wearer scarcely feels the impact of the shot. If the military authorities decide that their soldiers must be cloth plated, there will be no war until the men have got their new suits. Even then somebody else may discover something else, and the war may again be put off. M. Turpin, for instance, is announcing the invention of a new engine of destruction which the Germans have snapped up. The invention and science of chemists and journeyman tailors may in the long run be more efficacious in postponing war than the exhortations of the churches or the efforts of the diplomatists.

Exit Stambuloff.

At present everything seems set fair. The Czar, true to his pacific mission, is even making up to the Emperor of Austria, and the calm in the East is so profound that neither the d'état restoring limited suffrage and open voting coup in Servia, nor the resignation of Stambuloff in Bulgaria, disturbs the tranquillity of Europe. The Balkan States are to be left alone to stew in their own juice. Nothing that happens in Belgrade or Sofia is to be allowed to disturb the composure of St. Petersburg or Vienna. The fall of Stambuloff, the masterful autocrat who has governed Bulgaria in the name of Prince Ferdinand, is, however, an event of sufficient magnitude to occasion some uneasiness. Ferdinand the Coburger will never be recognized by Russia, and it remains to be seen whether there is another man except Stambuloff who can rule Bulgaria without Russian support.

Various

France has her financial difficulties to disProblems pose her to keep the peace. It is curious to Abroad. note how similar are the problems which confront all the nations. France, confronted like America and England with a deficit, is attempting, just as they are, to choke it by throwing an additional share of taxation on the rich. One of the last sayings attributed to M. Casimir-Perier might have fallen from the lips of Sir W. Harcourt :

We must reform our morals at the same time as our laws. Those who enjoy a superfluity must form a larger idea of these social obligations and resign themselves to assuming a somewhat heavier portion of the public charges in order to relieve those who buy bread for their families with a daily wage.

In Austria-Hungary the defeat of the Civil Marriage bill by the Roman Catholic clergy in the Upper House compelled the Ministry to face a conflict with their House of Lords which they are trying to solve à la Labouchere. The Emperor King hesitated, and

then shrunk from the Hungarian equivalent to the ennobling of Mr. Labouchere's five hundred chimney sweeps. As a consequence the Wekerle Ministry resigned, and crisis reigned at Pesth.

Those Peers of England.

In England they are in a kind of political doldrums. There is no wind blowing in any direction, and every one is dreadfully bored. There is to be a conference of the Liberal Caucus in Ascot week to discuss what is to be done with the Lords. It will probably cheer speeches declaring that the Peers should be thrown into the Thames, it will pass resolutions demanding the abolition of their veto, and then everything will go on pretty much the same as before. No one has any plan either for mending or ending the Peers except Mr. Labouchere, and the country is by no means ripe for the advent of the five hundred Chimney Sweep Dukes. It will be necessary to get up a great deal more steam than has been generated thus far before the Radical Engine can throw that obstruction off the rails.

Liberals

Hackney Election, where Mr. Moulton was Making No elected in place of Sir Charles Russell, who Headway. is now enjoying his judicial retreat as Lord Justice of Appeal, showed how very far the Liberals are from sweeping the country. Two years ago the Home Rule majority in Hackney was 1,052. Last month it had sunk to 192. It can be explained, they say. Everything can be explained, but the fact remains, and a disagreeable fact it is. In the House of Commons Ministers monopolize all the sittings, but they no longer pretend to hope to be able to pass anything but their Budget. The Local Option bill is not even to be introduced, the Welsh Disestablishment bill cannot possibly be passed, and the Registration bill excites a very chastened enthusiasm among the rank and file. It is a kind of stalemate. Neither party can move, and the only resource is to sweep the board and begin a new game. Neither side is in any hurry to appeal to the country; but, for all that, it is extremely doubtful whether a dissolution will not be seen to be inevitable before our next issue. Lord Rosebery made two good speeches in the country, one at Manchester, the other at Birmingham, and a capital speech chiefly directed against that hideous plague of liver-pill and soap advertisements which are reducing the English landscape to the state of the American. Later, at Eton, he defended his horse-racing. Finally, he attracted to himself measureless enthusiasm and sharp criticism by winning the Derby with his favorite "Ladas." Mr. Morley spoke sturdily at Newcastle, where he sought and obtained fresh courage from the enthusiasm of his constituents. Mr. Fowler also spoke lucidly and well on the Parish Councils Bill; but this whistling for wind on the platform in the country does not expedite business in the House. The Irish members are behaving with splendid loyalty for the most part, but Mr. Healey is threatening to make more mischief than Mr. Redmond was ever capable of effecting.

English politics have been beclouded by Mr. Mundella's the financial scandal which led to the Resignation. resignation of Mr. Mundella from the cabinet. The judicial investigation into the affairs of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company proved that the Company had 1, issued debentures on representations which deceived the public as to the nature of their security; 2, kept the shareholders in the dark as to the real state of the concern, which was concealed by crooked balancesheets, and, 3, sanctioned shady transactions between the Loan Company and the Land Company. The judge commented in strong terms upon the dishonesty with which the affairs of the company had been conducted. Mr. Mundella, although probably innocent of all personal knowledge of what had been done, was one of the directors. As President of the Board of Trade, it was his duty to officially inquire into his own conduct, and that of his fellow-directors. The position was obviously untenable, and he retired amid the universal regret of all those who have known and appreciated his lifelong labors in the cause of the people.

Ministerial Readjustments.

Mr. James Bryce took Mundella's place at the Board of Trade, and Lord Tweedmouth became Chancellor of the Duchy. Sir John Rigby was appointed Attorney-General in place of Sir Charles Russell, and Mr. Robert Reid was made Solicitor-General. Mr. Bryce, Lord Tweedmouth and Mr. Reid are all Scotchmen. These changes were unavoidable, and the appointments were the best possible; but it can hardly be contended that a Ministry minus Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Mundella and Sir Charles Russell is as strong as when these three Ministers sat on the Front Bench.

The Queen's birthday honors call for lite New Knights remark except in three cases. The knightin England. hoods bestowed upon George Williams, Isaac Pitman and T. Wemyss Reid were well deserved. Sir Isaac Pitman, the leading representative of a singularly gifted family of stainless character and adamantine rigidity of principle, is best known to the world as the inventor of the system. of stenography by the aid of which almost every important speech now finds its way into print. Sir T. Wemyss Reid is the latest and not the least distinguished journalist who has been singled out for knighthood. Mr. Reid is now manager of Cassell's immense publishing business, and the biographer of Mr. W. E. Forster. He won his spurs long since as Editor of the Leeds Mercury, and is at this moment occupying