on practical experience. Will not some working man's constituency return a genuine sailor to Parliament a foremast hand--to speak for himself and his order? Poor Mercantile Jack is voiceless, and often becomes the victim of those who imagine that they are serving his interests. Why even in this philanthropic latter-day ships are sent away with provisions that, in the common sailor's phrase, no animal except a man could live upon. We would ask no worse punishment for captains and owners than six weeks' imprisonment upon the diet they have provided for the common sailors. Scarcely one out of three would survive. Tax not the Rich. We are told in the morning papers that in the conflict which will arise in the coming Parliamentary session over the Coal and Wine Dues, the Corporation of the City of London do not propose too strenuously to defend the latter impost. They would have both if it were possible; but if they can get the Coal Dues renewed they will not waste energy in defending the Wine Dues. We should think not. The Wine Dues are a tax on the rich not on the poor, and, therefore, they are not likely to be defended; moreover, they produce only £8,000 a year, while the Coal Tax produces £450,000. The active friends of the rich have already care of their clients. Who were There? We read that a conference of working class representatives from the East of London was held at the Three Tuns Hotel, Aldgate, to consider the question of the Coal and Wine Dues. Mr. F. Wigginton (Secretary of the Watermen's Society) took the chair. There was a good attendance of delegates of working men's organisations. The chairman said this was a working man's question. In his opinion, the working classes would get no benefit if the Coal Dues were abolished, while public improve ments which gave them much employment would be stopped. How can the working man benefit by an arrangement under which the wages he receives are taken ont of his own pocket before he receives them, and the improve- Scottish Heroes. The Rev. Donald MacCallum is about thirty-five years of age the fourth son of the John Macpherson is about fifty years of age. He suffered eight weeks' imprisonment in Calton Jail, Edinburgh, for breach of interdict, and recently was arrested by Sheriff Ivory and kept in prison for a week while his papers were ransacked, but had to be discharged, as no fault could be found in him. May he live to see the jubilee of his class, and the people returning into possession of their own. Protection in America. The work published in the columns of THE DEMOCRAT, wherein Henry George advocated Free Trade, seems to have made a deep impression in the United States. Many of the speeches delivered in America are filled with parts taken from that full and well-arranged storehouse. Free Trade is being pushed to the front in the States, or rather is pushing itself to the front. The embarrassment of riches, the startling and novel fact of a country having more money than it can spend, has led to the reasonable conclusion that America should reduce her tariff. The money got from these tariffs is taken out of the pockets of the poor, and the former goes into the pockets of those who speculate on their country's ignorance. Of late we have been hearing little or nothing of Protection in this country. Protection is only an election cry for Primrose Dames, who may as well cry that as any other nonsense. But Conservative politicians know better than to face in the House of Commons the storm of facts and figures that would be raised against them. Thanks to Henry George and common sense, America will soon be as free from Protection as Britain. Cause and Effect. that comes from the West-end swamps of vice. But while we recognise the peril, we also recognise the need, of telling all the truth. Every case like that of the Duke of Marlborough means a year less of the House of Lords, so potent is it to awaken slothful public opinion. But let not their lordships fear for the public morality. Although we cannot afford to abolish nauseous newspaper reports, we can abolish the House of Lords, which will have just the same effect. Sir J. Pope Hennessy, the Governor of Mauritius, has been dismissed from his situation. Why? That we have yet to learn. All that we know is that he did not get on with Mr. Clifford Lloyd, the ex-tyrant from Ireland. That, with the solitary other fact we yet know, that somehow he was concerned in a question of the relation of white men to coloured men, makes us very suspicious. It is much in his favour that the person with whom he quarrelled was Mr. Clifford Lloyd. That gentleman would be likely to have about the same regard for poor black men that he has shown himself to have for poor white men. It may happen that Sir J. Pope Hennessy has only been taking the part of oppressed natives against European autocrats, who believe in slavery when we call slavery by another name. If that be so, the British people will have something to say before all is done. Lord Brabourne wishes to exclude from the House of Lords all those against whom is proved any ungentlemanly conduct. We fear that his suggestion is not likely to succeed. Even if we manufactured an old nobility at the A good many noblemen, with a few clergy- present rapid rate, the Divorce Court and men and other hangers-on of the nobility, have other courts would in three generations have been sending round a circular asking clitors to solved the problem of a second chamber, and suppress the details of those almost daily left the House of Commons alone in the land. scandals that show the aristocratic world in so The peerage has a percentage of vice that lovely and lovable a light. Coming from any leaves every other class far, far behind. Lord other quarter the suggestion would have Brabourne will find no moral standard that received, at least, our sympathy. We do not can be acceptable to the noble lords. We wish to see the youth and virtue of this would, however, be very much obliged to him country poisoned by the deadly moral effluvia | if he would try. If it were interesting for cent. THE CROFTERS. The reductions made in the rents of Highland estates by the Crofters' Commission show how Highland landlords have plundered their tenants for many years past. Out of six estates gone over by the Commission the reductions on five are 171, 291, 32, 371, and 51 per Even from the point of view of those who believe in the justice of rent, the landlords have been robbing and oppressing their tenants, and if common justice were done they would be compelled to make full restitution. And it is against the victims of this iniquitous. robbery that the forces of the Crown have been despatched, under the pretence, forsooth, that gunboats and bayonets were needed to uphold law and order" in the Highlands. The action of the Government towards the crofters is converting thousands of Scotsmen to the cause of Home Rule for Scotland. As an instance of the callous conduct of officialdom may be cited the case of the Garalpin (Skye) crofters charged with deforcement. These poor people-two of them women--instead of being tried in their own district, were dragged all the way to Edinburgh at their own expense, and this, too, notwithstanding the terrible incle mency of the season. When they got to Edinburgh the Lord Advocate dropped the charges against the women, and, on being put on trial, the other prisoners were acquitted. Seven men from another district have been sent to prison for the heinous offence of attempting to defend their hearths and homes against the destroyer. If the Highland members do not make a stir this Session it behoves their constituents to replace them by men who will raise their voice in Legislature against these legalised atrocities. :0: WE must protest against the constant importation of South Sea Islanders into the Australian Colonies. Call the traffic what we may, it is slavery, and nothing but slavery. It is bad for the black people, and it is bad for the white people. Wages will inevitably fall, and the Australians will be face to face with a domineering sugar aristocracy. I have seen those who call themselves patriots and philanthropists act the most grinding tyrants when asserting their own rights. Even on last Saturday we had a specimen of it in the case of a patriotic gentleman (shopkeeper) who evicted an unfortunate tradesman who failed to pay a rackrent for a house he held from him, the rent of which he raised from £7 to £14 a year. Yet this kindhearted landlord stands in the front ranks of the National League on public platforms, and is the loudest in denouncing landed proprietors when the mercenary spouters declaim against them. SALISBURY AND GOSCHEN. It is very difficult to write upon the present political situation. We feel, in describing it, like men who have all their lives dealt with small quantities and little figures, and who are suddenly called upon to deal with infinite space and time. Past Governments have blundered and have been unfortunate, but they to this are as the "prologue to the swelling act." Lord Salisbury was called to power as the "Saviour of Britain"; his triumph was the more remarkable that it came just when the constituencies, rejoicing in a new and larger freedom, were eagerly straining forward on the path that led to just and great reforms. One reform especially was almost ripe. The conscience of Britain prompted her to restore the liberties of Ireland and to undo the wrongs of seven centuries. Unfortunately, the greatest statesman of this century and country, in secking to give effect to this generous impulse, went somewhat astray. He made no adequate provision for a joint Irish and British Parliament, and he made most unnecessary and unjust provision for an Irish robber aristocracy. The Radicals of Britain were disheartened; many of them withheld their votes; a few spoke out with vigorous protest. The Whigs seized once again the opportunity to play their historic part of traitors to the Liberal party: with joy, hardly to be concealed, they threw aside the mask and breathed with delicious freedom the air of Tory politics. And so the British Empire was saved. An illustrious nobleman emerged from his elegant hermitage to guide the State. The Whigs rallied round the Throne. "Ah, dream too bright to last!" Platform orators mysteriously inspired, and newspaper writers gifted with the prophets' ecstacy spake of a millenium of stupid and steady repose for Ireland, crushed and disheartened, and a general apocalypse of Tory doctrines into everyday facts. They reckoned without human nature; they forgot the inactivity of Lord Salisbury and the activity of Lord Randolph Churchill. When the world is in a mood to worship, Lord Salisbury shines in the business of a demi-god; he loves the cloud-wrapped height, the unimpeachable command, the unexpected thunderbolt. But demi-gods are apt to be lazy. Lord Salisbury has passed his days opposing everything and everybody. A life of bitter dialectics is not the fittest preparation for the office of Prime Minister, which demands that the holder shall be at once a scholar in men and things. He seems to cherish a belief that the world should know that he has come to keep an eye on it, and should proceed according to his will and wish; and so he settles comfortably into his place. But Nature, which is always jocular, joined to this complacent demi-god one who is now regarded by Conservatives as the demi-devil of the Conservative party. Lord Randolph Churchill is a man who would have patronised Solon and contradicted Plato. He simply laughed at the lazy dignity of his leader. Indeed, why should he not be the actual, if he is not the nominal, leader himself? He began to sort the Cabinet to his liking. This man had to go to the House of Lords, that one to Jericho. The changes he ordered in the Cabinet were like those a master draper orders to be made in his shop windows. At last things were settled comparatively to his satisfaction. Tory hopes rose high and ever higher. Then came the first whisper of the storm. Lord Randolph Churchill is a clever man and the associate of clever men. He knew well that the political calm which lulled the senses of his brother Ministers was as temporary as a sea calm off the Orkney Islands. The people were gathering breath. The storm of popular feeling must come. Could he not guide it and ride it? He issued a programme of reforms that made Conservatives feel as if the solid earth were moving beneath their feet. Recovering a little, they raised a feeble cheer for "Conservative Reforms," while the Liberal camp rang with inextinguishable laughter. But he carried with him the country. Liberals wanted the reforms, and cared very little whence and from whom they came. Conservatives did not want the reforms, but they could not do without Lord Randolph Churchill. It was in the Cabinet that this new and true reformer met opposition. The Jupiter of his party thundered. The country was gravely told that Conservatism was Radicalism. this opposition expected or unexpected? Did Lord Randolph Churchill expect to carry everything before him in the Cabinet or by overthrowing the Cabinet? Probably he reasoned thus: "If I can succeed in making the people believe that I stand for them in an aristocratic Cabinet, I will be all-powerful. If the aristccratic Cabinet objects, I will knock it to pieces." The aristocratic Cabinet did object; it would not accept the leadership of a Conservative Chartist at least, not yet. He would have to go. But he took his own time, and, if rumour is not a liar, quarrelled at least a dozen times Was with his colleagues before the occasion of his final quarrel. That occasion was admirably chosen. If the people of this country care for anything they care for the national purse, and the monstrous continual drain that all parties make upon it. Lord Randolph Churchill asked his aristocratic friends to accept the economic ideas of Mr. Joseph Hume and Mr. Richard Cobden. Naturally enough they refused, and Lord Randolph Churchill seceded. And now we are being assured in many mysterious hints that when his true position is understood he will be the most popular Minister of the century. retired from the scene with, perhaps, the largest single fortune in Europe. The financial crisis in Turkey dragged Egypt into the slough of bankruptcy. But Egypt was not allowed to become bankrupt. The Stock Exchange gamblers knew their business too well. £45,000,000 had been lent to Egypt, and of that sum about £26,000,000 had reached the poor Egyptian people; and on this base a debt of £90,000,000 had been inscribed against the fellaheen. at At this crisis Mr. Goschen proved that financial talent of which Conservative papers speak so highly. With M. Joubert he went Had the Conservative party lost at one fell to Egypt and assessed the value of the swoop the whole of its London seats it could Egyptian finances. This he he valued not have been more agitated or troubled. Its £10,500,000. Of this money he calmly leader seemed stricken with helplessness; he alloted an annual £6,000,000 to himself and to could think of nothing better than to telegraph his brother usurers, and generously allowed to Lord Hartington to come to save the country £4,500,000 to carry on all the purposes of the once more. The Carlton Club cackled like a Egyptian State. It is often asked, “Why are hen-house into which a fox has found its way. we in Egypt?" That is why. Britain has At the same time a mysterious stranger began taken up the trade of pawnbroking, and instead to glide about the scene. A person called Lord of being paid for it she has had to pay in Rowton began to whisper into carefully-untold blood and treasure. Britain holds selected ears the opinions of the Throne. A shadowy Rowton with a stately message, seen and heard with laughter. Jupiter having sent a message to Lord Hartington asking to be saved, Lord Hartington generously consents to save him. And so in his leisurely manner the arch-Whig proceeds from Rome to London. He found the Conservative party in extremis. What will he do? Lord Hartington is far from being a fool. He perfectly understands the party, which he leads and its missions. He knows the mission of the Whig party to Liberalism to be the relation of the old Man of the Sea to Sinbad the Sailor. If the Whig party descended from the shoulders of Liberalism it would be the feeblest thing in politics. Lord Hartington decided to retain the historic role of Whigism. He will continue with his party to burden and hamper the strong progressive Democracy. But he must give some help to the helpless Conservatives; so he gave them Mr. Goschien. Egypt in pawn in order that the tribe of Goschen may wring the last farthing from the helpless Egyptians. For this we have banished the patriotic Arabi, and for this to-day on soldiers are perishing with disease in an unwholesome climate. Another instance of this financier's greatness. When Britain struck a bargain with the telegraphic companies for their lines, the chief bargainer on the part of Britain was Mr. Goschen. To this day our great postal department lags behind other countries, burdened with the results of Mr. Goschen's brilliant finance. To servants of the old companies who had incomes of orer £70 a year he gave compensation for these incomes. Most of them at once entered upon other service, generally with increasing salaries, and at the same time enjoyed their "compensation." In fact, Mr. Goschen's liberality was unbounded when the nation had to pay. Reuter's Telegraph Company had a cable which, when it was bran new, had cost them something under £70,000. The generous Goschen presented them with something over £600,000 as a fair compensation. And Mr. Goschen's politics are worthy of Mr. Goschen's finance. He has been pleased to call himself a Liberal-"a consistent Liberal." In that case Liberalism means a devoted opposition to every measure of improvement and enfran For the second time a Jew steps forward to sive the historic party of the gentlemen of England. Naturally enough, Mr. Goschen takes the post of Chancellor of the Exchequer. Mr. Goschen is a distinguished master of finance-of a kind. As a member of the great firm of Frühling and Goschen, he became personally and deeply interested in Egyptian finance. Some years ago the gambling stock-chisement. brokers of Europe undertook several operations in Egypt. Enormous sums of money were lent. At length the Khedive (Ismail Pasha) If Mr. Goschen is to be called a Liberal then our whole nomenclature is a falsehood and a fraud, and we had better start some newer, truer system of language. This gentle |