the problem has had to be sought, how to be as present in the office as if it were never left, and yet as much at the call of general work as though there were not the claim of any other. This has been done, for, in addition to the many daily home duties, he has lectured, preached, and attended meetings, in Lancashire, London and its vicinity, Birmingham, the West of Scotland, South Wales, the West of England, and elsewhere, in some forty-five instances.

Mr. Diamond also has rendered assistance in public work which could not be undertaken by the Secretary, and has addressed meetings in London, Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, &c.

THE INTERNATIONAL PETITION.

The Petition to Rulers in favour of Arbitration, which was promoted by the American Churches, which has been in hand for the last seven years, and which, on the death of Dr. W. A. Campbell last year, was handed over to Dr. Darby for completion, is at length ready for presentation, and in some instances the presentation has been made. It contains 165 signatures, representing 111 Ecclesiastical Bodies and many millions of people, in Great Britain and Ireland, the United States of America, Australia, Belgium, Holland, and Switzerland.

INTERVIEW WITH PRESIDENT FAURE.

At the beginning of April Dr. Darby was received by the President of the French Republic, and presented to him the Petition, together with a copy of "International Tribunals" suitably bound. The President expressed himself very cordially, and has since sent a formal reply to the document through the Foreign Minister, M. Hanotaux. During his visit to Paris, Dr. Darby presented other copies of the Petition and pamphlet to representatives of various rulers, and was entertained at a banquet by a number of distinguished Friends of Peace resident in Paris.

OTHER PRESENTATIONS.

The Petition to the President of the Swiss Confederation was presented by M. Elie Ducommun, through whom the President replied, as he has since officially, that the sentiments of the Petition are absolutely his own and those of the Federal Council. The Baroness von Suttner has undertaken the presentation to the Emperor of Austria, Don Marcoartu to the Queen Regent of Spain, the Dutch Peace Society to the Queen Regent of Holland, and the heads of the Protestant Churches in Brussels to the King of the Belgians. Dr. Trueblood has received the Petition for the American President, and has communicated with Dr. Roberts, of the original Committee, as to its presentation. Lord Salisbury has consented to accept the Petition for the Queen, and other presentations have been made, in London, by Dr. Darby in person.

OUR WORK IN PARIS.

M. Vasseur, at the Dépôt Central in Paris, still represents and serves the Society with intelligent alertness. He writes much to the newspapers, and, as testified by M. Passy and others, writes well, on our subject; distributes literature-as usual, a thousand copies of the "Nismes Peace Almanac' were sent by him to all parts of France, and numerous newspaper articles at various times; converses with visitors and inquirers; attends gatherings-social and otherwise-for the promotion of Peace; and in a number of ways is constantly active, while the very existence of the office in the centre and the busiest part of Paris is a constant advertisement of the idea. M. Vasseur writes:

"I am sending you L'Eglise Libre, which is completely gained over to our cause, and which is a courageous paper. This acquisition recompenses us in some degree for the inertia we meet with in other quarters.

"I help the Epoque all I can, for it is the only paper which always has a wide-open door for us. I have written a good deal in it myself, and have continually posted marked copies, treating of our question directly or indirectly, in all directions. In short, I have left no stone unturned.

"As an effect of your visits, you have all French Protestantism, Reformed or otherwise, pledged to pray and work by moral influence, and by the Press, for Peace and International Arbitration. For I may safely say that the whole Protestant Press is becoming active in this matter. All this, I think, is a satisfactory result.

"I attended the International Congress of Co-operative and Profitsharing Societies as Representative of the Peace Society, and Correspondent of the Peace and Arbitration Societies. Mr J. Siegfried presided, and we were received most pleasantly by the President of the Republic. I made the acquaintance of several of your countrymen.

"Three persons called on me the other day who wished for information, which I supplied. As two of them wished to join a Peace Society, I referred them to M. Thiaudière, the Secretary of M. Passy's Society.

"I am constantly receiving visits from people interested in Arbitration, who see the notices on my windows, and am occupied in a number of ways that I cannot report in detail. This subject of Peace and Arbitration is enough in itself to occupy all a man's thoughts and all the moments of his life.

"I meet frequently at dinner the friends of Peace who feel the need of exchanging thoughts, and so fostering united action as much as possible, a matter not always easy.

"The present time, it seems to me, is very propitious for pushing our principles. The events that are passing around us, even if they are not quite in our favour, may still arouse serious reflection on our question.

"Ours is a glorious task-the defence of justice, and the proclamation of the inviolability of human life, and the defence of the weak. But, how difficult! and what obstacles to overcome! Let us pray Him who can help us all, or rather act Himself, for our forces are so weak in presence of an enterprise so formidable.

THE PEACE CONGRESS.

The "Seventh" Universal Peace Congress was held in BudaPesth in September last-from the 16th to the 22nd-when the Society was represented by Miss P. H. Peckover, Miss Ellen Robinson, Mr. Felix Moscheles, Mr. J. G. Alexander, LL.B., Mr. Alfred F. Morgan, Mr. Thomas Wright, Alderman Thomas Snape, Mr. John Mather, Mr. C. Dalrymple Hall, Mr. Mark Howarth, and the Secretary. Dr. Darby also represented the Arbitration Alliance, the International Law Association, and the World's Women's Christian Temperance Union, on whose behalf, at the request of Miss Willard, he presented a letter of greeting to the assembly. It is proposed to hold the next Congress in Hamburg in the second or third week in August. The comparatively easy access of this historic city should make the next international Peace gathering attractive to many of our members.

THE INTERPARLIAMENTARY CONFERENCE.

Following immediately upon the Congress, the Interparliamentary Peace Union held its Annual Conference in the Parliament House, Buda-Pesth. The attendance was the best on record-altogether about 400 M.P.'s and ex-M.P.'s being present -and its proceedings were of an interesting and influential character. The next Conference will be held in Brussels early in August, immediately preceding the Congress.

LOSSES BY DEATH.

One of the most conspicuous members of the Conference at Buda-Pesth was our esteemed Vice-President, Mr. HENRY FELL PEASE, M.P., who was soon afterwards taken from us by death. He had been long identified with the Society, and personally active in the cause of Peace. Another Vice-President, Mrs. E. P. NICHOL, of Edinburgh, has recently died, and her influence and interest thereby removed. Among earnest members and supporters whom we have lost during the year may be recorded the following:-Mr. JAMES HACK TUKE, of Hitchin; the venerable ISAAC SHARP, of Ettington; and Mr. ISAAC BROWN, of Kendal-respected Ministers of the Society of Friends; Mr. H. BURLINGHAM and Mr. J. H. PUMPHREY, of Evesham; Mr. JAMES THOMPSON, of Kendal; Miss GIBBINS, of Ettington; Mr. W. BENINGTON, of Scarboro', formerly the Society's Collector at Stockton; Mr. F. J. THOMPSON, who for many years served the Society in a like capacity at Bridgwater; Dr. HOLDSWORTH, of Wakefield; Mr. ELIAS BELL, of Belfast; Mr. J. S. HOPKINS, of Nottingham, who bequeathed a legacy of £100 to the Societyall members of the Society of Friends; and Mr. J. B. MEAD, who by his will decreed the continuation of his subscription to the funds of the Society. Mention should also be made of the loss

of the venerable Rev. JOSIAHI VINEY, of Caterham, and the still more venerable Rev. ANGUS MCKENZIE, of Inverness, who were staunch and good friends of the Society.

By the decease, at the ripe age of 81, last June, of M. JULES SIMON, France lost one of her most eminent statesmen, and the cause of Peace one of its most earnest and judicious advocates. Sir EDMUND HORNBY, too, who died last November at Rapallo, in Italy, had rendered signal service to the cause of Peace and Arbitration, and his loss was a matter of deep and lasting regret.

THE MOVEMENT LIVES.

Individuals are removed by death, leaders and standard bearers fall, the rank and file of the Peace Army are soon forgotten. But the cause lives, and moves, and is growing continually. In EUROPE all sections of the forces have been active, and have worked successfully. To chronicle the doings of all would be impossible, to make selections would be invidious. Two facts may, however, be noted. The first is the extraordinary growth of Peace Organisations in Germany, where public movements have least liberty of action and assembly, and women are prohibited from belonging to organisations which are in any sense political. The second is the extraordinary bequest for Peace workers, by which the late Dr. Alfred Nobel, the discoverer of dynamite and practically the sole owner of the largest gun factory in Sweden, condemned and sought to neutralise the work to which he had given his life, and the fruits of which he hated, while he disclosed his own generous disposition and his belief in, and sympathy with, the principles of Peace. His bequest, as it stands, however, is likely to bring more pain than profit to the Peace cause. In AMERICA the various Societies and their friends and adherents, have, without exception, been occupied, with absorbing diligence, in endeavouring to counteract the evil influences that assailed the Arbitration Treaty from which so much was expected, and to promote its acceptance by the Senate. For the moment they have been defeated, and the question that has faced them is one that faces us on this side the Atlantic, viz., What advantage is there in this fruitless striving that may be so easily defeated? Is it not, as we have been so often taunted, an impossible Utopia that we seek ? Is it not vain for us to hope that we may overcome the barbarism and selfishness of the age?

To WHAT END?

The American answer is already given. The Peace forces are not disheartened. A forward movement has even now begun. Organised efforts have been initiated to conclude similar treaties between Switzerland, and between France, and the United States, and in the Senate Mr. Bacon, who the day before was in the defeated majority, replied by introducing a joint resolution which deprecated war, expressed the desire of the United States for peace and friendship, not with one nation only, but with all, reaffirmed their endorsement of the principle and practice of Arbitration, and the fixity of their policy and intention to submit all differences to that mode of settlement, and declared: "That the United States hereby invite all civilised nations to make a corresponding and reciprocal declaration to the end that universal Peace may be inaugurated and maintained." If, therefore, in consequence of renewed effort, the defeat of the particular Treaty between two countries should end in a common treaty for all civilised nations, as may not be impossible, then defeat will be in very truth-victory.

CONCLUSION.

To us, fascinated and yet deafened by the martial music and military display of royal celebrations, the marching and countermarching of armed bands preparing for war, the thunder of ironclads gathered in scenic array or anticipating the next sea fight, and the clash of arms where defeat may mean the forging of fresh fetters for the oppressed-to us, standing helpless amidst the disgraces and disappointments of selfish diplomacies, there may well come the pessimistic mood, and the doubtful questioning as to the result. We ask, as did the Hebrew of old, " Watchman, what of the night?"-and to the confident reply, "The morning cometh," we lend a half-willing, half-hoping, halfdoubtful ear. Yet it comes, surely as

"The morn Sails hither over Indian seas."

Already there is a light of prophecy in the Eastern sky, above the ruddy flames of war; there is a quiver of prophecy in all the surrounding air. A little observation and reasoning will correct any tendency to doubt and despondency.

For what is the Peace for which this Society has worked, and of which the natious are beginning to dream? It is the most rational, beneficent, desirable thing of which human society has any conception. It is its very rationality, beneficence, desirability, that makes men deem it so impossible. But that they do perceive these characteristics and feel themselves capable of the enjoyment of Peace is surely prophetic too, for the scientists declare it to be a law of nature that capability results in development and ultimate attainment. Philosophers, such as Kant and Jeremy Bentham, have reached a similar conclusion by other paths, and have deduced "perpetual and universal Peace" for humanity from other premises, and as the necessary corollary of man and life, reason and truth. The poets with their intuitive perception, their piercing insight into the essential truth of things, have, with strange unanimity, sung of a golden age of universal Peace, and, in all the centuries, poet, seer, prophet, are one. The trend and movement of all life, the intellectual, political, moral, and social progress of the world, are all in the same direction, working out the beast within us, and, in every sphere, making the ape and tiger die. "For," as sang one of our modern poets, "humanity sweeps onward;" that is a patent fact. But whither? We believe, to the golden time, as sings another :

"When shall all men's good
Be each man's rule, and universal peace
Lie, like a shaft of light across the land."

"Time and everything else are with us," is the universal testimony:-of the practised diplomatist, laying down his task of promoting amity between two great peoples, in the freshest moment of his disappointment; of the poet, in his highest moods; of the thinker, in his shrewdest reasoning; of the popular leader, in his boldest and most honest intuitions; of the statesman, from his calmest and clearest conclusions; of the international jurist, thoughtfully elaborating his schemes of law; and of the moralist, following out that ethical code which, as Paley taught, should fulfil the object of all systems of morality, the promotion of the greatest happiness of mankind.

What to these witnesses is only reasonable, but conclusive, deduction, becomes, in the clear light of that Divine revelation in which we live and work, absolute certainty. So that, ourselves fresh from disappointment and from occurrences that have shaken the faith of many in all but the strong arm and the swift keen sword, we will remind one another of what must be, according to the fixed purpose and decree of that infinite Beneficence which is necessarily working for man's full and final good.

For God is still, Our Father; and, God is Love; and Love is "Creation's final law,"-the law of His Kingdom, which "ruleth over all," and which will secure the blessing and perfection of all, however slow its processes may seem to our impatient eyes and anxious hearts.

ANOTHER PLEA FOR PEACE.

The Johannesburg organ previously quoted, in a later issue, referring to the Jews' Passover, continues its plea thus :

"The Transvaal has surely passed its long and gloomy Lent; victims enough have been slain. Doubt and distrust have prevailed, and they who saw the light glimmering at the end of the valley were deemed visionaries or vain comforters. It is now in our power to end all this. The first fruits are to be gathered if men will but see it. All other things as well as the season point to Peace. Cannot the burgher meet the stranger within his gates and, forgetful of the past, bid him a friendly welcome? Cannot the Uitlander accept the burgher as he is? The Government has now a splendid opportunity to weld the State into one impregnable whole. It lies in their hands to redeem commerce and industry from the corruption and mortality of the past. If they will but lift up their hearts in courage and faith to this high task, will remove all let and hindrance to goodfellowship and Peace, the sorrows of the past will not have been in vain, for the first fruits of Peace will be at hand, and the terrors of night will be forgotten in the joy that cometh in the morning."

OUR DISTANT FRIENDS AND OUR ANNUAL
MEETING.

We reciprocate most heartily the fraternal greetings which were sent to our Annual Meeting by our friends Mr. F. Bajer, of Copenhagen, and Alfred H. Love, of Philadelphia, President of the Universal Peace Union. The following letter came to hand the morning after the meetings. It is really a message "to the Officers and Members of the Peace Society," and therefore we print it in extenso. Its cordial, fraternal spirit-the very embodiment of Peace-will make it acceptable to all our readers :

Your beautiful letters have too long remained unanswered, not because I have not prized them most highly, but because I wanted to write carefully and fully, and so I put it off for a nice open free time. But that time does not come to everyday busy men, and now that I see your Annual Meeting is to be held on the 18th inst., I am nerved to put aside important work and send off my sincerest greetings to the officers and members of the Peace Society. May they reach you in time. I feel as though I wanted you all right here, to take your hands and prove to you that the Senate of the U.S. does not represent the American sentiment in the rejection of the Arbitration Treaty. I am disappointed, chagrined, but goaded on to greater efforts to secure some better treaty. Senator Bacon immediately offered a joint resolution covering the whole ground and pledging this Government to Arbitration. It served to soothe the feeling of regret. We at once sent one of our Vice-Presidents, Mr. Miller, to Washington to lay before President McKinley and the Members of Congress our plan for an International Arbitration Tribunal. You shall see it as soon as presented. We hold President McKinley to the grand expressions in his inaugural. We believe you will all unite in the plan, and we shall yet have our wishes gratified. To you and your Society, to your Government, and to Lord Salisbury, and to your excellent Ambassador Sir Julian Pauncefote, we tender our sincerest acknowledgments and profoundest gratitude. Your noble efforts are not lost! You have educated the age! You have been like John the Baptist, preparing the way! We must all admit that the conditions did not exist in our Senate, and indeed they do not exist throughout the world to-day, for so blessed a word as Arbitration. There is too much cry for war. Behold Cuba, Greece, and indeed our own people voting supplies for the army and navy, for coast defences, &c., and then the next hour talking about Arbitration and Peace. We really do not deserve the gift. Let us all work on to (6 prepare the way," assured that the greatest gain of history has been made, and you may feel that your Annual Meeting will indeed be consecration anew to the beneficent work, and that you will receive the reward of faithfulness and devotion.

Your own brave spirit shines forth in your address "The Peace Societies and the Cretan Invasion." It came to-day, and I read it through at once, and said, Here is a man who is no coward, and who stands for the right and sees the truth.

I am ashamed of my country. We feel that our Senators have been afraid they have been jealous and selfish in rejecting a treaty, excellent as it came to us, but horribly mutilated, and yet I would have rejoiced in ratification. To invite nations to establish a Tribunal of Arbitration as we did in 1874, 1888, and 1890, and then shut the door in their faces when they accept, is not only rude but unpeaceful. But let me assure you the people protest and the people will change the verdict.

Now for your own self. You sent me the portrait, I believe, of Richard Cobden. Am I right? It is in our Hall, and I want to mark it. Also the photograph of Henry Richard. Most sincerely do we all thank you. The address of the Churches came just in time to read to the Orthodox Friends' Yearly Meeting. Now, what am I to do with it? It is a treasure! Is it for us, or to send to President McKinley? Will you come to our country and attend Lake Mohonk Conference? You intimated you might. You know we want a visit. My wife and self may go to Lake Mohonk, as we have the invitation and we enjoyed our visit there last year. Our Independence Hall Peace Museum

is looking well. We still have room for more portraits, pictures, &c., from England. Your own picture should grace the walls. We mark them all. Our charts are valued and seem to bring you nearer and dearer. With many thanks, your attached friend, ALFRED H. LOVE,

President U.P.U.

THE TRANSVAAL TROUBLE.

The warnings uttered by Mr. F. C. Selous on the dangers of a South African racial conflict, will, says the Echo, come as a surprise to the many Jingoes who have for months past been doing their best to secure war with the Boers. Even the most irresponsible Jingoes will hardly accuse Mr. Selous of ignorance or anti-British prejudice. The friend of Rhodes, the hero of the Matabele war, the great hunter whose fame has spread throughout the world-Frederick Courtney Selous is above attacks of that kind. He, of course, does not doubt that England could conquer the Boers, if she were prepared to spend the necessary money and blood; but, in his opinion, such a conquest would only be the first step towards the overthrow of British rule. A very similar verdict was given by a Conservative leader, Lord Randolph Churchill, some years ago. After admitting that he had severely criticised and condemned Mr. Gladstone's peace with the Boers after Majuba Hill, Lord Randolph said :-"Better and more precise information, combined with cool reflection, leads me to the conclusion that, had the British Government of the day annihilated, as it could easily have done, the Boer forces, it would, indeed, have regained the Transvaal, but it might have lost Cape Colony.' Mr. Schreiner, for giving voice to very similar sentiments during his recent visit to London, has been reviled by Jingoes throughout England and South Africa. Will they equally abuse Mr. Selous?

66

SUICIDAL FOLLY.

The policy of war with the Transvaal he says would be suicidal folly. Broadly, I do not believe in the establishment of British supremacy in South Africa permanently by a British army, but consider rather that the conquest of the South African Boers by a large British force at the present time would eventually lead to the overthrow of British supremacy in the not distant future. Let us look at the history of the country. Less than fifty years ago Sir Harry Smith was able to defeat the levies of the emigrant Boers who had settled in the country to the north of the Orange River, with a very small force. The one battle of Boomplaats settled the campaign. Little more than thirty years later a much larger British force was found insufficient to subdue the Boers of the Transvaal. Had the war proceeded after the battle of Majuba the Free State Boers would have thrown in their lot with their countrymen, but it was thought by high military authorities that 15,000 British troops would have been able to conquer any Boer army that could have been brought into the field. Little more than sixteen years have passed since the last Boer war, but no one doubts, who knows anything of the subject, that should war now be declared against the Boers of the Trausvaal and the Free State-the danger of which, thank God, now seems almost past-a British army of 40,000 or 50,000 men would be required to conquer the 25,000 or 30,000 stubborn, well-armed Dutchmen who would be prepared to stake their lives to guard their country's independence. Of the issue, of course, there could be no question, provided that England was prepared to spend men and money enough to accomplish her purposes. But what would be the state of South Africa after the final successes of the British arms? No one who knows the South African Dutch can doubt that should a war break out in the Transvaal in which British troops were employed, no matter what the rights or wrongs of the question at issue might be, the sympathies of almost the entire Dutch population of the Cape Colony, Orange Free State, and Natal would be on the side of their own blood ralations. Now, the population of the Orange Free State is almost entirely Dutch, while in the Cape Colony seven whites out of every ten are of that nationality, as is also a large proportion of the farming population in the upland districts of Natal. Therefore, because of this large and constantly increasing Dutch population in South Africa, it would not only require a

large British army to conquer those actually in arms in the first instance in case of war, but the subsequent maintenance of a large British army in the country would be necessary to hold them in subjection. In ten years' time there would certainly be another war of independence which might be unsuccessful, but which it would at any rate require a large body of troops to quell. Other revolutions would follow in which we should have to cope with an ever-increasing number of insurgents, till in the end we should probably not only lose all of South Africa but the Cape Peninsula."

THE ALTERNATIVE.

But, while admitting that war, though temporarily successful, would only lead to final disaster, Mr. Selous is by no means in favour of a "do-nothing" policy in South Africa. His remedies for the present situation are three-fold. First comes the encouragement of the settlement of British subjects in the great tract of unoccupied territory south of the Zambesi; secondly, the maintenance of present engagements between England and the Transvaal and a steady resistance to foreign interference between the two countries; and thirdly, the cultivation of a friendly understanding between Pretoria and Downing Street. This is brave counsel, and, says the Echo further, “Mr. Selous has never more truly shown his courage than in uttering such warnings against the policy of his old friends and allies at such a time."

"In my opinion, there is only one way to secure eventual British supremacy in fact as well as in name in South Africa, and that is by the introduction of British settlers into the unoccupied parts of the country south of the Zambesi, which are capable of colonisation and settlement by Europeans. In 1820 a number of English, Scotch, Irish, and Welsh families were sent out to South Africa at the expense of the British Government. These settlers, in all 3,053 individuals, were placed upon unoccupied land in the eastern districts of the Cape Colony, and after enduring many trials and bearing the brunt of many native rebellions, they established themselves firmly, and spread over the surrounding districts. To-day the descendants of these British settlers are as loyal to the flag as any subjects of the Queen in any part of the British Empire, and morally and physically they are the finest population of British stock in South Africa. Some of the young men from these districts, grandsons of the original settlers, are now taking up land in Rhodesia. The secret of the success of the British settlers who were sent out to South Africa in 1820 lies in the fact that they went in families. Could not the British Government, instead of threatening to establish British supremacy

in South Afica by the help of British armies, endeavour to effect that object by sending families of British settlers to the healthy parts of Matabeleland and Mashonaland? If, by some means or another, British families cannot be induced to settle in the still unoccupied districts of South Africa, there is in my opinion but little hope of eventual British supremacy in the country, for in that case the Dutch will in time people all the habitable land outside the townships of Rhodesia, as they already people the whole of the Cape Colony, except the Eastern districts, which were colonised by the British settlers of 1820-portions of Natal, and the whole of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal, except the towns which are inhabited by Europeans. It is true that in Johannesburg there is a non-Boer population said to number 80,000, which may increase in the near future to half-a-million. But this foreign population lives on the mining industry, and when the mines are worked out this foreign population will dis appear, and leave the Boers in the undisputed possession of a country which was always considered a very poor one before the discovery of gold. It is for the reasons I have given above that it seems to me that a war with the Boers of the Transvaal ought to be avoided if possible. Of course England must resist all foreign interference with South Africa at any cost, and President Kruger must not be allowed to set aside the engagements entered into willingly with the British Government, and embodied in the Convention of London. At the same time it should be remembered that the exact meaning of the various articles of the Convention seem difficult to arrive at, high legal opinion, even in England, seeming to differ as to their correct interpretation. Now that President Kruger has repealed the obnoxious Aliens Immigration Law, I trust that the further differences of opinion between the British and Pretoria Governments will be discussed in a friendly spirit, and possibly a new Convention drawn up, which a man of ordinary intelligence will be able to understand even without the interpretation of a Figh legal luminary."

UNPATRIOTIC CONDUCT.

According to the Daily News even a necessary war with any section of the Dutch in South Africa would be a great misfortune. An unnecessary war would be a calamity and a crime, and those who try to inflame war or speak of it as inevitable and desirable -so far from being patriotic-are, as Mr. Selous says, undermining British supremacy. What is a necessary war? Certainly not one with an opponent anxious for peace; certainly not one that can be by any means prevented.

A battalion of infantry carries 150 picks, 150 shovels, 10 spades, 25 axes, 50 bill-hooks, and 4 crowbars. An engineer company has 130 picks, 130 shovels, 6 spades, 81 axes, 13 hand-saws, 4 crosscut saws, 40 bill-hooks, 13 crowbars, and 2 heavy hammers.

May 12th, 1897.

(Signed) HOWARD BROOK, C.A. Hon. Auditors

NOK AND OUNDATIONS.

No. 575.

NEW SERIES.

[PRICE 1d.

for ten years, and the majority against him at the last election was 31. We heartily wish him success at the next election.

PRESENTATION OF PETITION.

The Petition from the Churches was, on behalf of the Arbitration Alliance, presented to the Emperor of Austria, on the 3rd of June, by the Baroness von Suttner, who was accompanied by Prince Alfred von Wrede, co-president with her of the Austrian Peace Society. "His Majesty," writes the Baroness, "took the Petition and the volume out of my hands, and promised to give them due consideration. He also listened with great interest to the report we gave about the contents and the aims of the document." We are deeply indebted to our colleagues for their valued co-operation.

"L'ENTENTE CORDIALE."

This Association, the object of which is to promote a good understanding between this country and France, by educating public opinion in both countries, pointing out how closely the interests of the two are identified, and by fostering social relations, held its first general meeting at St. Martin's Town Hall, on June 11th, under the presidency of Sir Arthur Arnold. The meeting was well attended by both French and English, and resolutions approving the objects of the Society were submitted, spoken to, and adopted. We have hearty sympathy with the movement.

ANGLO-GERMANIC SOCIETY.

We have also received a Circular of a similar AngloGerman Association. Several distinguished Germans resident in England have issued an address, in which they state they are painfully impressed by the fact that the relations between Germany and Great Britain are strained, and that this condition seems to become aggravated year by year. They propose the formation of an association to promote friendly relations, and appeal to all women and men of German extraction urging and entreating them to join. "We think," they add, "that the Germans living in England cannot prove their loyalty to the old fatherland, nor their gratefulness to their new home, in a more worthy manner than by making an effort to influence the relations of both countries in a conciliatory spirit." The Jubilee of the Queen, they think, offers a most welcome opportunity. opportunity. The address is signed by Professor Althaus, Mr. Curt Abel-Musgrave, United Services College, Westward Ho (Hon, Sec.), and others.

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