the pilot of a steam packet to Rica asked him if he would like to sail with them the next day, and named a very moderate fare. His heart leapt up, but the next instant the man asked to see his passport: he took it out trembling, but the sailor, without scrutiny, cried, "Good! Be off with you, and come back to-morrow morning at seven o'clock. The next morn ing at seven he was on board, and the boat was under way. From Riga he had to make his way on foot across Courland and Lithuania to the Prussian frontier. He now made a change in his disguise, and gave himself out as a dealer in hogs' bristles. In Lithuania he found himself once more on his beloved native soil, and the longing to speak his own language, to make himself known to a fellowcountryman, was almost irresistible; but he sternly quelled such a yearning. As he neared the frontier he had the utmost difficulty in ascertaining where and how it was guarded, and what he should have to encounter in passing. At length he learned enough for his purpose; there were no guards on the Prussian side. Reaching a rampart of the fortifications, he waited until the moment when the two sentinels on duty were back to back on their beats, and jumped down into the first of the three ditches which protected the boundary. Clambering and jumping, he reached the edge of the third; shots were fired in several directions; he had been seen. He slid into the third ditch, scrambled up the opposite side, sprang down once more, rushed on until out of sight of the soldiers, and fell panting in a little wood. There he lay for hours without stirring, as he knew the Russian guards sometimes violated the boundary in pursuit of fugitives. But there was no pursuit, and he at last took heart. Then he began a final transformation. He had lately bought a razor, a pocketmirror and some soap, and with these, by the aid of a slight rain which was falling, he succeeded with much diffi culty in shaving himself and changing his clothes to a costume he had provided expressly for Prussia. When night had closed he set forth oncemore, lighter of heart than for many long years, though well aware that by international agreement he was not yet out of danger. He pushed on toward the grand duchy of Posen, where he hoped to find assistance from his fellow-countrymen, who, being under Prussian rule, would not be compromised by aiding him. He passed. through Memel and Tilsit, and reached Königsberg without let or hindrance -over two hundred miles on Prussian soil in addition to all the rest. There he found a steamboat to sail the next day in the direction which he wished to follow. He had slept only in the open fields, and meant to do so on this night and re-enter the town betimes. in the morning. Meanwhile he sat down on a heap of stones in the street, and, overcome by fatigue, fell into a profound sleep. He was awakened by the patrol; his first confused words. excited suspicion, and he was arrested and carried to the station-house. After all his perils, his escapes, his adventures, his disguises, to be taken by a Prussian watchman! The next morning he was examined by the police : he declared himself a French artisan on his way home from Russia, but as having lost his passport. The story imposed upon nobody, and he perceived that he was supposed to be a malefactor of some dangerous sort : his real case was not suspected. A month's incarceration followed, and then a new interrogation, in which he was informed that all his statements had been found to be false, and that he was an object of the gravest suspicion. He demanded a private interview with one of the higher functionaries, and a M. Fleury, a naturalized Frenchman in some way connected with the police-courts. To them he told his whole story. After the first moment's stupefaction the Prussian cried, But, unhappy man, we must He He was taken back to prison. wrote; he received a kind but vague reply; delays followed, and investigations into the truth of his story; his anguish of mind was reaching a climax in which he felt that his dagger would be his best friend after all. A citizen of the place, a M. Kamke, a total stranger, offered to go bail for him: his story had got abroad and excited the deepest sympathy. The bail was not effected without difficulty: ultimately, he was declared free, however, but the chief of police intimated that he had better remain in Konisberg for the present. THREE SONNETS. NEW YEAR'S DAY. BY J. L. STEWART. I. TH HE glad New Year!' Sweet friend, why call it so ? Why do the faces of the people show No trace of recent tears, no touch of woe? Why do the wretches, thinly clad, who freeze on Hope whispering that a happier year is born ;- 6 The glad New Year!' II. The laughter of the bells, Why do the mountains tremble as with fear? III. 'The glad New Year!' Rejoice on bended knee! The angels' song, proclaiming Christ is nigh!— O'ermastering love, with churches torn by pride,— THE CONFEDERATION OF CANADA WITH BRITAIN IN RELATION TO THE CANADA PACIFIC RAILWAY. IN BY JAMES WHITMAN, P, A. N whatever light the question of Imperial Confederation may be viewed, there is one thing certain and admitted both by the supporters and opponents of such a measure, viz., that no one ventures to say that the pre sent relations of Canada to the mother country will be perpetual; 'certainly,' as Mr. Goldwin Smith says, 'not the advocates of Imperial Confederation, who warn us that, unless England, by a total change of system, draws her colonies nearer to her, they will soon drift further away.' It is in view of this fact, and the fact, too, that the great preponderating opinion of both the mother country and the colonies is now so strongly in favour of a closer union, and consequently averse to separation, that it would be unstatesmanlike and unwise to defer any longer the settlement of this question. England's Colonial Empire presents a combination of pressing questions as to the existence of present relations, or the change, if any, that necessity seems now to force upon them, which are as yet unsatisfactorily answered. With the exception of the Roman Empire, at the period of its greatest power, no kingdom of the world has ever been in a similar condition; and even that similarity is more apparent than real. The great consuls and pro-consuls of Rome are only reproduced to a certain extent in the British Imperial Government of India. About one hundred years ago Warren Hastings, the first Governor-General, established British supremacy in India with a mere handful of British troops and Sepoys. To-day over 200,000,000 of the native races acknowledge allegiance to British rule, which is maintained by an army of 66,000 British, and 120,000 native soldiers, charged, not only with the regulations of the internal relations of this vast Empire, but also with the guardianship of several thousand miles of frontier against warlike and aggressive hordes. And so successfully has the rule of this Anglo-Indian army been established that, in times of threatened danger, such as England has recently passed through, thousands of these Indian troops were moved, at their own ardent solicitation, to the scene of the threatened war, and hundreds of thousands more stood ready to volunteer in aid of England whenever their services were required. It is asserted by the very best authorities that, had England en tered upon a protracted war with Russia, she could have drawn a million of fighting volunteers from India, and possibly an additional million if required. No wonder then that all Europe was startled by this, to them, military apparition which the magic wand of Beaconsfield transferred so suddenly from every quarter and clime of India to the Mediterranean and Malta. The acquisition and retention of these possessions in India have been the cause of the most important wars in which England has been engaged for the century past, and the same cause has recently marshalled her hosts to confront the threatened aggressions of Russia, though ostensibly on Turkey, in reality on British Indian interests. As the next important colony of the Empire, after India, Canada must naturally endeavour to forecast her relations in such an eventuality as a general European war in which the mother country should become one of the principals. That England would rely, to some extent, for aid upon Canada, as well as upon the other colonies, is as natural as evident. The navy of Great Britain-her principal offensive and defensive power-would be expected to protect Canadian and other Colonial, as well as Imperial commerce; and for such protection the Imperial Government would have a right to ask some recompense, and call upon the colonies to say how far they desire to bear a hand in their own defence, and will be ready to assist in maintaining Imperial posts of vantage in an adequate state of preparation for resistance. Thus will the question of the relations of Colonial and Imperial responsibilities in war, and indeed the whole future relations of the Empire to its component parts, be brought to an issue. Within the past few years a great change has taken place in the relations of Great Britain to her colonies. 'It is not long since the period,' says Sir Julius Vogel, 'when the removal of Im perial troops from New Zealand at the most critical time of the struggle with the Maories-a struggle brought about by Downing street misrule-was followed by strong feelings in favour of the separation of that colony from England; while, in spite of the offer from at least one colony to pay the expense of their retention, the recall of the troops from Australia, and the forcing upon Victoria an irritating change in the flag, produced similar results, and for a time the exertions in favour of the disintegration of the Empire seemed about to be successful. A like feeling from the same causes existed at one time in Canada; but among the most galling of all influences has been that of the tone adopted by the Colonial Office, and that portion of the English press as represented by The Times towards Colonial Governments and Colonial Statesmen. In London, the Premier of a great colony like Canada, seemed personally and officially of less account than the diplomatic representative of the untutored savages of Hayti or San Domingo. This seems now to be all changed, and, as remarked, the crisis. of a change in the entire colonial relations to the mother country seems to have arrived. It becomes us then as Canadians to meet the question and discuss it fully upon its merits. It is argued that the enormous wealth of England would successfully carry her through any great European war however protracted. In the great struggle of England which commenced in 1792 and ended with Waterloo, Some sixty years ago, the relative proportion of her national debt to that of her national wealth was something alarmingly close. Now, that debt has been reduced to about £640,000,000, while her national wealth has risen to £7,680,000,000, or in the proportion of 640 to 7,680; and, in the event of a life and death struggle, we see how much England could increase her present debt before it obtained the proportion in which it stood to her na of patriotic sentiment, which, in this practical age, can never be altogether depended on, it may be asked why should Canada, who has no special cause or interest in a war between England and Russia or other European Powers, be called upon to bear her proportionate expenses either for aggression or defence? The satisfactory answer to this question must, in case of compliance, form the basis for the changed Imperial and colonial relations which will of necessity ensue. What those relations may be, I do not presume to foretell. It may be, in his article on the Political Destiny of Canada,' published in the Fortnightly Review last year, that Mr. Goldwin Smith is right, when alluding to the annexation of Canada to the United States, in concluding that: 'To Canada the economical advantages of continental union will be immense; to the United States its general advantages will be not less so. To England it will be no menace, but the reverse; it will be the introduction into the Councils of the United States-on all questions, commercial as well as diplomatic-of an element friendly to England, the influence of which will be worth far more to her than the faint and invidious chance of building up Canada as a rival to the United States. In case of war her greatest danger will be removed. She will lose neither wealth nor strength; probably she will gain a good deal of both.' But we believe that the public sentiment in Canada is, as yet, largely unfavourable to Mr. Smith's conclusions, and that in the event of war, as in the crisis which has just passed over, Canada would respond, in so far as she was able, to England's request for aid in money or in men. Of the latter Canada would undoubtedly furnish her quota. I have it from the best authority that, during the recent apprehension of war between England and Russia, ten thousand of the Can |