schools, and the erection of hospitals and orphanages form part. The Synod, however, for the present declines to carry out the suggestions of its emissaries, owing to the great cost involved. Accordingly, the Orthodox Mission in Persia has issued an appeal to the Russian people in which stress is laid on the political importance of the conversion of the Nestorians, and the rivalry of other European Powers. Funds are beggel to enable the mission to carry out their plans. The "Novoye Vremya accompanies the appeal with the remark that strengthening Russian influence in Persia is of such importance as will be readily appreciated by the Russian people.

A PLAN TO STOP WAR.

To the Editor of the HERALD OF PEACE,
London, England.

DEAR SIR,-Please permit me to call your attention to the enclosed communication from my pen, published in the New York Tribune. If you would kindly comment on it, editorially, it might stir up discussion and do some good.

The idea of a Peace army and navy first occurred to me soon after I had written my book, called "A True Son of Liberty; or, The Man who would not be a Patriot," published about five years ago.

It certainly seems as though the friends of Peace ought to be as willing to imperil their lives for the cause that they love as are the believers in warfare.

Thanking you for the copies of your magazine that you have so kindly sent me from time to time, I am,

Yours very truly,

F. P. WILLIAMS.

"To the Editor of The Tribune.

"SIR,-Will you permit me to say a few words in regard to a statement that I find in the letter of Mr. Van de Water that is published in your issue of this date? Mr. Van de Water says: There is a kind of peace that rings out of a cannon's throat, and follows the persuasion of shot and shell.' Now, although it would be difficult to persuade a member of a Peace Society to acknowledge that the peace which is a consequence of warfare, or a threat of warfare, is really peace, yet it seems to me that it is the only sort of peace that can be hoped for at this stage of the world's progress.

"So far as I know, there are three practicable ways, and three ways only (outside of the methods of ordinary statesinanship), of preventing warfare among nations. One way is by arbitration; but the idea of arbitration has failed so signally, in the present crisis, that it is out of the question. Another way is the plan advocated by Henry George-that of doing away with public debts and indirect taxation. Mr. George's contention was that, if the cost of war had to be defrayed by a direct tax, collected as the expenses arose, no war could be begun. In the present crisis, the patriotic fires are burning so intensely that, if the devices of public debts and indirect taxation did not exist, possibly the thing might happen that Mr. George said was impossible. But those twin devices do exist, and cannot be abolished save by the tedious way of social reform; so that plan, too, is out of the question at this time.

"The only other plan for preventing warfare, I believe, is a plan that would in all probability be effectual in the present crisis, if it could be put into operation. "They say that a leader in appers every crisis-that with the hour comes the man. Let us suppose that a man had been born who was destined to be the means of averting warfare in the present crisis, after all methods of diplomacy had failed.

"His education would have been begun years ago. In early childhood, from the lips of loving parent or teacher, he would have heard the story of that Wonderful Counsellor who by His life and by His death taught men the lesson of Peace on earth. And down deep in the young heart would have been born the belief that the best of all lives to live, and the best of all deaths to die, is the life that is lived and the death that is died for the cause of Peace. As he grew in years, and as his understanding deepened, he would have listened in amazement and horror, as men preached the doctrines of patriotism in pulpits consecrated to

the religion of Christ; and then he would have taken up the work that he had been appointed to do.

"He would have taught that to be a follower of the Prince of Peace is to be raised far above patriotism to a level where all men are regarded as brothers, and where the shedding of human blood is known as murder, whether it is done in private encounter or whether it is done in warfare. He would have unfurled the white flag of Peace-that flag which is able to inspire men with far higher courage than was ever inspired by any national emblem. He would have called for volunteers to gather under the standard that he had uplifted, and his call would have been answered. For strange as it may seem to patriots, it is nevertheless true that men have lived and men are living now, who, although they could not be forced by all the governmental power on earth to take the life of a fellow-man, would gladly lay down their own lives to save the lives of others. The army and navy of Peace would have been raised, and under their leader would have been ready in the event of the opening of hostilities, to place themselves between the opposing forces, and to say to the combatants: "Shoot, if you are resolved to do so, but it is through our bodies that your bullets will pass; we are ready to lay down our lives in the cause of Peace." Would the guns be fired? Would any human being, civilized or semi-civilized, fire a shot that must pass through defenceless fellow-creatures before it could reach the enemy?

"This last-mentioned plan comes nearest of any plan that can be devised, I think, to insuring Peace on earth. If civilized and semi-civilized nations were the only people with whom we had to do, it would, in all probability, be wholly effectual. But when we think of the Orientals, whose appetite would be whetted by the knowledge that only defenceless human beings stood between them and everything in the West that they might covet, we realize that even an absolute following in the footsteps of the Prince of Peace would not insure Peace on earth.

"Therefore, it seems to me that, although a member of the Peace Society might not be willing to regard a condition that is consequent upon warfare, or a threat of warfare, as being really a condition of peace, yet it is the only kind of Peace that men may hope to see at this stage of human progress.

"Montclair, N. J., April 6, 1898."

"F. P. WILLIAMS.

[Novel though this proposal may seem to many it is nevertheless premiuently Christlike, and really the natural and appropriate expression of that Christianity which lays upon its adherent the obligation of laying down his life for his brethren, though it nowhere sanctions a man's taking his brother's lifehorrible enough when it is judicially done, but aggravated a thousandfold in war. And when we remember how the monk Telemachus, by the adoption of such a method, put an end for ever to the gladiatorial combats of Rome, more inhumanly bloody and cruel by far than even Spanish bullfights, and banished them from the earth, and how his action left its mark upon a nation inherently as cruel as the Spaniards, and indeed upon the world, we can confidently predict the result. Nor should we despair of that result even as regards the Orientals, who are yet human ; experience has shown that even the brutes are amenable to kindness, and the wildest have been tamed thereby.- Ed. H. of P.]

THE PEACE CONGRESS.

As was not altogether unexpected, it has been found impracticable to hold the Congress at Lisbon as arranged. The International Bureau at Berne has decided, therefore, to postpone the Peace Congress till next year, but to enlarge the scope of the General Meeting of the Bureau, to be held at Turin on September 26th, so as to embrace the consideration, as in a Congress, of the subjects on the programme of the Congress, in preparation for next year's meeting.

MR. CHAMBERLAIN, when a little boy, was playing one day with his sister at a game of "battle "--each child having a regiment of toy soldiers and a pop-gun to fire at the enemy. The little girl's soldiers went down very quickly, but his stood firm, and he was proclaimed the victor. He had glued his men to the floor!

THE ANNEXATION OF HAWAII. TELEGRAMS from Honolulu, dated the 12th August, describe the formal transfer of the Hawaiian Islands to the United Statesthe successful censummation of a long intrigue. The Act of Annexation was handed to President Dole by Mr. Sewall, American Minister, in the presence of Admiral Miller, other naval officers and men from the "Philadelphia" and "Mohican," and a miscellaneous company of spectators of many nationalities, Consuls included. There was prayer, there were short speeches by Mr. Dole and by Mr. Sewall, who accepted, in the name of the United States, the transfer of the sovereignty and property of the Hawaiian Government, the "Philadelphia" fired a salute of 20 guns, a Hawaiian band played the Hawaiian national air for the last time, and the Hawaiian flag was lowered. Then, exactly at noon, upon Admiral Miller's order and to the music of the "The Star-spangled Banner" by the "Philadelphia's" band, the American flag was raised and saluted by 21 guns from the American ships, and the oath of allegiance was taken by Mr. Dole as "President of Hawaii, a new territory of the United States" -a new title indeed! Says a despatch to the Tribune, which has advocated the absorption of Hawaii strenuously :

"Scarcely a native stirred abroad that day, except when driven by necessity. Few of them came near the flag-raising, and those who did would not look on their flag as it came down. Even then their eyes were filled with tears."

Yet we used to be told that the people of Hawaii were eager to be annexed to the United States. It was Mr. Dole and his followers and confederates who were eager to be annexed.Times.

MESSENGERS OF DEATH.

DURING the present year Parliament has shown great interest in the Dum-dum bullet, and even some members of the French Chamber have been suggesting that the Government of France should remonstrate with our War Office on the subject.

This is because we entered into a convention with the other European Powers in 1868, binding ourselves not to use explosive bullets in war.

Not that the Dum-dum bullet can be held to be an explosive bullet, being the ordinary ball of the Lee-Metford rifle with the external case filed thin.

In the old days the bullet was of immense size, and at close quarters it did terrible execution.

OLD ENFIELD RIFLE BALL.

COLTS ARMY

REVOLVER
BULLET.

With the introduction of rifled arms, however, it became possible to reduce the size of the bullet, because it was shot with so much greater force, and this reduction has continued, until at the present time, this terrible messenger of death is of quite insignificant bulk. The change in shape has been quite as remarkable. From a perfect sphere it has become like a section of a stair-rod, being one and a-fifth inches long and less than one-third of an inch thick. In 1842 a pound of metal made only fourteen and a half army bullets; at present it makes thirtytwo. The advantage of this change is obvious for the soldier can carry more than twice as much ammunition now as then. The old bullets were cast in a mould, with the consequence that air-bubbles and other defects made their flight very uncertain; the present bullet is made by compression, and is as perfect as it can be. The modern army ball consist of a central portion of lead hardened by a trace of antimony, and a nickel or steel case outside. This case is so hard that the ball will pass through the body-or even two bodies -without losing its shape.

WAX........

FULMINATE....

AN EXPLOSIVE BULLET.

The wound made is small, and although if it strikes a bone it shatters it, and is moreover deadly at ten times BULLETS GROWING SMALLER.

OLD SMOOTH BORE.

LEE-METFORD BULLET.

(As used by the British Army.)

the range of the old musket ball, still it does not disable a soldier as effectively as is desirable. Hence the necessity for converting it into a Dum-dum bullet, which spreads out or breaks up whenever it encounters resistance. But the wound inflicted is nothing to the destruction produced by an explosive bullet. The explosive bullet consists of an ordinary ball hollowed out at the base for the reception of some kind of explosive. Sometimes a timefuse is attached, which is lighted at the moment of discharge from the rifle, and is timed to explode the bullet just as it arrives at its destination. Sometimes the hollow at the base contains a fulminate, while at the top of the bullet is inserted a little wedge of wood, or of wax; when the bullet strikes any object, the wedge is driven in and explodes the fulminate. Of course, the wound inflicted by such a weapon of war would be terrible. The last time explosive bullets were used on a large scale was during the American Civil War. They are now used only for shooting big game. Buck and ball, mixed together, was also used in the American War, and it proved a very destructive charge at close range. The United States, by the way, is not bound by the International Agreement of 1868 forbidding the use of explosive bullets. Of modern rifle bullets, the Portuguese and Austrian are the largest, containing 247 and 244 grains weight respectively. The French comes next with 231 grains. Then the German with 227, followed by the British with 215 and the Russian with 214 grains. The Italian ball is the smallest, weighing only 162 grains. But all these have quite as much energy" (ie., weight multiplied by velocity) as the old Martini-Henry bullet of 410 grains, for the new powders are much more forcible than the old.-Daily Mail.

LEE-METFORD BULLET. (After striking soft ground.)

There can be little doubt that the cruelly destructive character of the Dum-dum bullet used against the Afridis during the recent Frontier Campaign was only brought to light by the fact that a large quantity of British ammunition was captured by the enemy and returned with deadly effect against us. When, however, the question as to whether the use of such bullets was not opposed to international law or customs of war, was raised in the House of Commons last February, Lord George Hamilton, with his usual light-hearted optimism, replied in the negative, and by way of justifying the use of such terrible missiles, stated that they were not explosive. No, but the Secretary for India omitted to add a fact, of which he must surely have been informed, that the wound inflicted by a Dum-dum bullet was not only equal to, but frequently exceeded, in severity that of any explosive bullet. Professor V. Bruns, one of Germany's greatest surgeons, in a paper read by him before the Gerinan Surgeons' Congress, described the Dum-dum bullets as "inhuman projectiles," and suggested that their terrible effects might call for a modification of the Petersburg Convention. A distinguished Scottish surgeon, writing on the subject, says that "even the soft parts, when struck by them, were blown away as if from the mouth of a gun, while the skin was torn with long slashes evidencing internal expansion of a most violent kind." Mr. Arthur E. Barker, professor of surgery at University College, London, writing on the matter in the

current issue of the British Medical Journal, says, "As to the wounds themselves, I have never seen anything so terrible, whether in railway injuries or in war. It fell to my lot to see many gun-shot wounds during the campaign of 1870 and 1871, but anything so horrible as these I never saw." This is "civilised" warfare! This is "Christian" (!) warfare! It is with weapons such as these that we are clearing the way for "our commerce and finding places "for our boys." And our Archbishops and Bishops are silent.--The New Age.

THE PIOUS PASTIME OF WAR.

To a person of moral sensibility, and still more of devout sympathies, there is nothing in connection with the brutal and horrible practice of war more revolting than the introduction into it of religion-as for instance that custom of the Christian nations which sings its Te Deums for victory, consecrates with a sacramental rite their fighting ships, blesses regimental flags, and when they have become tattered stores them away before sacred altars, and gives the places of honour in their temples to their heroes of fratricide. But most awful of any is that blasphemy which makes God-the beneficent and loving eternal Father-a partner in our petty mundane quarrels, presents to Him petitions for His partisanship, and offers Him thanksgivings for success achieved in breaking His laws and slaughtering His offspring. Such prayers surely cannot be presented in the name of Him in whose name Christians pray, and who left His followers an example to follow which they are specially called, which is the opposite of their petitions; or in the very nature of things be acceptable to Infinite Beneficence.

Nothing has been more painful in connection with the late unhappy war than to read the announcement that President McKinley had issued a Proclamation asking the people" to give thanks to God for the glorious victories of our forces on land and sea," and to pray for the protection of the United States forces on land and sea, and then to read that, "in accordance with the President's Proclamation, calling the people to unite in praise and prayer for the recent victories, the churches throughout the United States held thanksgiving services yesterday.

"In most places the Proclamation was read. Thanks were offered for the deliverance from enemies, and prayers for the restoration of Peace.

"The sermons abounded in patriotic sentiments. In St. Patrick's Cathedral and the other Roman Catholic churches prayers for those who died in battle were offered. Many churches were elaborately decorated with flags.

"In nearly all the national hymns of America were sung with great enthusiasm."

According to one account there seems to have been some doubt or lack of faith or something else, for it announced "This has been a day both of prayer and thanksgiving and of uncertaintyof prayer and thanksgiving at the churches, in accordance with the Proclamation issued by the President; of uncertainty at the Departments concerning the condition of affairs at the front."

"President McKinley himself," it was said, "attended the Metropolitan Methodist Church, where he usually worships, and joined fervently in the special service of praise for the victories attained, and of supplication for an early Peace.

"Similar services were held throughout Washington and throughout the land, and all the members of the Cabinet followed the example of their chief.

"There was a greater attendance of churchgoers to-day than any Sunday since Easter."

We agree with the New Age which says:-"We think it sheer hypocrisy to thank God for naval or military victories. On such occasions Christians ought to feel, not jubilant, but sorrowful. Men have no right to assume that the Almighty is responsible for their wickedness and folly, however successful it may be."

Again, "While the good Americans are offering up their thanksgivings let them think of the horrors of the fights for which they are so grateful. What are they to praise God for? For blood and frenzy, flame and fury, death and agony in their most awful form? Captain Ussher's description of the hell created on board the Vizcaya" by the American shells is, as the St. James's Gazette says, one of the most awful passages in literature-the iron skin of the ship red-hot, wounded and dying men roasting on the iron decks

or climbing naked down the chains, the shotted guns going off of their own accord from the heat."

The descriptions given by Captain Bob Evans, of the "Iowa," equal anything in literature. Could these have been read before the thanksgiving the incongruity of it and the hypocrisy would have been felt.

The pious thanksgivers should have realised the infernal scenes on the Spanish warships as the fight became hopeless-"the gunners deserting their guns because flesh and blood could no longer stand the hail of shot and shell, and being shot down by their officers, the serving out of unlimited quantities of wine and spirits that the men might fight to the last with despairing, if drunken, valour." No, do not let us thank God for these things. Let us rather feel humiliated that nations calling themselves Christians cannot settle their differences otherwise than by the methods of hell,

We are not blaming the Americans. It is natural to man in danger and difficulty to seek superior help. It is most becoming for Christians to ask "the wisdom from above" necessary for guidance and right action.

But, in loyalty to Jesus Christ, we are criticising this custom of national thanksgiving and the conceptions among Christians which make it possible; and we emphasise in this general connection the following paragraph which has been in most of the newspapers:-"The telegram of our Special Correspondent off Santiago deals largely with a subject too often neglectedthe sheer horrors of war. A set of Red Cross' correspondents, dealing with this, and this only, would be powerful advocates of Peace. It is as true now, as in Byron's time, that 'Cockneys of London, Muscadins of Paris,' should 'ponder what a pious pastime war is.' One of the American captains who looked through the holes torn by the shells in the burning 'Vizcaya' saw the wounded roasting inside. They, like the whole ship's crew, were naked. The men had thrown off their clothes as they ignited, or perhaps to escape the heat, and they looked like so many savages manning a war canoe. On some of the ships there was a good deal of clothing to throw off. Officers and men had dressed as though for parade, under the impression that they were victims going to a sacrifice. Some were ravenously hungry; others dead drunk; the wounded shifted for themselves as those whose business it was to look after them stood by in the apathy of despair. As the poor wretches made for the shore, they found the Cubans-other savages who did not happen to be naked-waiting to butcher them. And all this was no accident of a particular engagement, but an ordinary incident of war, There were sights just as awful after Trafalgar on one of the captured Spanish ships which had been reduced almost to matchwood by the British fire. Four hundred men lay writhing in their agony there. Such is war, and such it ever shall be as long as it lasts.

EUROPEAN DISARMAMENT.

As we go to press, a State paper is made public which Count Mouravieff, by direct order of the Tsar, has addressed to tho representatives of the Powers accredited to the Court of St. Petersburg, proposing the meeting of a Conference to discuss the problem of putting some limit to the increasing armaments of Europe, and of finding some means of averting the calamities which threaten the whole world.

The action is most timely. The document is a very remarkable and most unexpected one, and, however it is received, will prove epoch-making. At last some one has been found to make a beginning. It was inevitable that it should be so before long. We hope that mistrust, which some sections of the Press are already fostering, including some from which we should have anticipated better things, and international jealousy and rivalry will not prevent the proposal being fairly and fully discussed, and that our own Government will be the first to welcome it and to co-operate. Both political parties have expressed themselves as being in sympathy with such a solution, and that in terms so unequivocal as to virtually amount to a pledge. A similar proposal, made by the Emperor Napoleon in 1863, was defeated by our own Government only. We cannot think that it will be so again, and we anticipate that this magnanimous proposal of the Tsar will be welcomed throughout Europe.

ENGLAND AND FRANCE.

BY A FRENCHMAN.

IT is such a novelty to hear a civil word about England, writes a correspondent from Paris, that I feel I must especially notice M. Urbain Gohier's leader in the Aurore. M. Gohier is a grand. son of a member of the Directory. He is a vigorous writer, a prominent member of the Journalists' Peace Society, and is not on international questions narrow. M. Golier has shown that the General Staff at the War Office is almost entirely composed of grandsons of men who fought against Republican France. Some fought under Prussian or Russian, or Austrian, or English colours. Most of them came back to France in the artillery waggons of the foreigner. What wonder therefore if the sabre as represented by the General Staff should ally itself with Father Didon, the Peter the Hermit of a coup d'état policy. M. Gohier returns to this theme in his article. The "sans-patrie" and traitors, he says, are really the party of the sabre and the goupillon." All the men of the Right voted the railway conventions, and the renewal of the Bank of France charter. They have given the quay-wall of the second-hand booksellers to the Orleans Railway Company, who are also being helped to build a terminus in the heart of artistic Paris. M. Edmond Blanc, of Monaco, M. Eiffel, and M. Letellier, who made 35,000,000 francs out of Panama, are kept in the Legion of Honour. The military gang have disgusted Alsace by pelting with mud three or four Alsatians, the Jew Dreyfus, the Protestants ScheurerKestner and Leblois, and the Catholic Picquart. They humiliated the French colours at Kiel, and concluded the Russian alliance to confirm the Treaty of Frankfort. The Russian alliance is a disguised German alliance. It guarantees Germany her conquests of 1870, and opens the door for fresh conquests in China. It is stupid to talk of the Russian people fraternising with the French. There is no Russian people. Russia is the Czar and his Government, which last is German. The Czarina, before whom the Paris snobs prostrated themselves, is a pure German. Nearly all the Civil Service, a great part of the Army, the whole of the Commissariat, and the owners and the foremen of nearly every factory are German. The Russian and German autocrats are in a close partnership. William is to have the west, and Nicholas the east. Coming to Great Britain, M. Gohier then goes on:

"Russia and Germany have united against England in Asia. All the journals devoted to the military gang are let loose against England. England should be held sacred by the French Democracy, because she is, amid European Powers that are carried along by a movement of reaction, the last refuge of the principles of liberty. If this reason no longer influences minds, remember then, French workmen, that England is your best customer. Darling Russia buys twenty-five or thirty millions of francs' worth of our goods a year. England buys to the value of one milliard three hundred millions. Our export trade may be said to live on England. A war between England and France would be not only disastrous for civilisation, but the ruin of France."

Spain is told that "she has long since attained the only object of the war which the more enlightened of her citizens professed to have in view-the vindication of the honour of her arms" and to reconcile her to the blood-price that has been paid, it is added : "The brave men who have met in battle have steadily grown in mutual respect and good feeling, and have learnt to appreciate each other." Well and good, if this really is the case; but it is a strange process, and it is a sore pity "the respect and good feeling" did not come into existence before the war. We sympathise with the sufferers, and agree with the Iron Duke that "there is nothing more terrible than a victory gained except "though we hardly can except it-"a battle lost."-The News.

THE ANGLO-AMERICAN ARBITRATION CONFERENCE.

THE International Conference, to adjust existing differences between Great Britain and the United States in relation to Canada, was opened in the Provincial Parliament Buildings, Quebec, on the 23rd ult., at noon. All the Commissioners were present except Sir James Winter, Newfoundland. Lord Herschell was chosen President, at the suggestion of Senator Fairbanks. Three secretaries were appointed-namely, Mr. W. D. Cartwright (British Foreign Office), Mr. Chandler B. Anderson (State Department, Washington), and Mr. J. G. Bourassa (Canadian Member of Parliament). After the presentation of credentials, the Conference adjourned till Thursday morning. The sessions will be secret.

The Commissioners next proceeded to the Chamber of the Legislative Assembly, where the members of the Provincial Government, the City Council, and the leading citizens of Quebec were assembled. The Mayor, Mr. Parent, read in French and English an address of welcome to the Commissioners. Senator Fairbanks and Lord Herschell responded. Both expressed a hope that the results of the Conference would further cement the bond of Anglo-American friendship.

In the afternoon the American Commissioners received representatives of the Michigan lumber industry, in reference to an act affecting that industry which was passed some months ago by the Ontario Legislature, and also conferred with the Hon. Don Dickinson (Detroit), in reference to the Rush-Bagot Treaty, which forbids the construction of war vessels on the great lakes. The Americans want to build ships on the lakes for delivery on tidal water.

It was decided, says Dalziel, to discuss the following subjects in the order named, viz.: Behring Sea sealing, the fisheries on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts; the determination of the Alaska boundary; to arrange for the transit of bonded merchandise; alien labour laws; mining rights; the readjustment of customs duties; to revise the agreement regarding the presence of warships on the great lakes; the better defining of the frontier; extradition; wrecking and salvage rights.

THE FOLLY OF WAR.

THE folly of war is the greatest folly in the world. Of course, the strongest must conquer. Right has nothing to do with it. The question is one of might. The penalty is terrible for those who have to do the fighting. The wreckage of Cervera's Squadron, says one who was present, "presented scenes of desolation, ruin, and death-baffling description." The record is worth preserving for its lesson. "Buzzards are feeding on the dead, and hovering over the wreckage on the beach, while whole flocks of them sit in silence waiting for the sea to give up its dead. Every tide washes up countless gruesome relics of the battle, such as a sleeve enclosing an arm or other portions of bodies gnawed by sharks. The bodies of the hundred or more Spanish sailors taken from the wrecks of the Spanish warships, or washed ashore, which were interred by order of Admiral Sampson, lie in a confused mass, unnumbered and unnamed, in a huge pit on the sandy beach."

When at last the weakest nation has to "accept" what the Times terms "the inevitable," an attempt is made to cover over the guilt of war by complimentary words about "honour."

BOOK NOTICES.

"LEO TOLSTOY, THE GRAND MUJIK: A STUDY IN PERSONAL EVOLUTION," by G. H. Perris (London: J. Fisher Unwin, Paternoster Square; published at 5s.), is a striking book, and one that we heartily commend to our readers. In our limited space it is impossible to do more than notice and commend. Mr. Perris has written with great sympathy and admiration, but discriminately and temperately, of his subject, and gives a clear and coherent account of Tolstoy's career and teaching, drawn from his autobiographical writings, and novels. A useful bibliography is included in Mr. Perris's book, which contains a very good portrait of Tolstoy, and is introduced by a preface written by the Russian exile, F. Volkovsky.

IN a Peshawar Hospital, scrawled in chalk by a wounded soldier, are the words :

From all our generals,

From all our political officers,

And from all frontier wars,

Good Lord, deliver ng on the matter in the

THE publication of the Tzar's Rescript has already made considerable demands upon the efforts and resources of the Peace Society. Since its publication the staff of the Society have been ceaselessly active in taking advantage of the opportunity which the incident has afforded them of advancing the Society's principles. Large quantities of literature have been sent out every day to applicants. Necessarily a much larger demand than usual will be made for some time to come. Committee are anxious that the Society shall be equal to the occasion, and therefore appeal to their friends and Members for increased financial support.

The

INSTEAD of the proposed Congress at Lisbon, meetings were arranged at Turin on the 26th September and two following days. These meetings were identical in character with those of the annual gatherings, needing less elaborate preparation but having equal validity, and, it is hoped, usefulness. The delegates from the Society are the Secretary, Dr. Darby, Alderman Thomas Snape, Mr. Felix Moscheles, Mr. J. G. Alexander, and Mr. Thomas Wright.

THE International Commission to settle matters in dispute between Great Britain and the United States affecting Canada is steadily doing its work in Quebec, and the various questions as they arise are

[PRICE 1d.

being thoroughly discussed. It is reported that the lumber question is causing some disputes. The Westerners demand the removal by Ontario of the export tax on logs cut by American companies operating in Ontario territory, but Ontario refuses to agree to this proposal. Mr. Dingley says that with this exception everything is agreed upon. The Times says that the Commission will probably remain in session at Quebec for three weeks and then adjourn either to Washington or to Ottawa.

IN connection with the reference of the Alaska boundary question to an impartial tribunal, which will probably be the course adopted by the Quebec Conference, a new proposition has been made. It is that, instead of the case being decided by the interpretation of the Russian Treaty of 1829, a conventional boundary be arranged, and an agreement arrived at for a neutral free port at the head of the Lynn Canal, and bonding privileges for both nations on the main routes to the Yukon and the Alaska interior.

IT is announced that M. Arthur Desjardins, President of the French Court of Appeal, who is the Arbitrator in the dispute between Great Britain and Belgium in regard to the expulsion of Mr. Ben Tillett, is about to proceed to Antwerp in order to obtain supplementary details on which to base his decision, the notes presented by the English and Belgian Governments not furnishing sufficient data. It may be hoped, therefore, that this incident will be quite closed at no distant date.

THE Arbitration between Chili and Argentina, to which we have on several occasions made reference,

In

has, after seriously threatening the Peace of the Southern Hemisphere, reached its final stage. 1896 an agreement was formed referring the dispute to a joint commission, with Queen Victoria as umpire, in the case of disagreement between the commissioners. This disagreement has been quite as marked and heated as that between angry diplomatists. But the Times announces that "the boundary conflict is settled." The conflict at last merged itself into a contention for the honour of having taken the initiative in inviting a comprehensive and definitive Arbitration. The substantial fact, however, is that both Governments