ment at home. Assuming all the outcry which we hear of fearful misgovernment, intense hostility, and civil war tempered by the scarcity of firearms, to be genuine, and not half theatrical and half a mere political craze, obviously the logical though impracticable outcome would be a declaration of independence. Disaffected Ireland is in no humour to accept the federal headship of the British Parliament, with or without Irish members in it, if that federal headship involves anything approaching to the substantial authority of the President and Congress over and throughout the length and breadth of America. Unless the authority reserved be substantial and daily exercised, it is idle to talk of the continuance of political union. There would result a relationship which would be neither union nor separation, but which would involve the responsibilities of the former and the disabilities of the latter. The history of the American commonwealth gives no cncouragement to such an arrangement. Federal union there results from independent and sovereign States seeking first confederacy, and then by relinquishing their sovereignty, seek ing to establish Federal government in order to perpetuate a Union to which all are loyal.

Federal union, or some kind of union which no man is bold enough to attempt to formulate, is to result here from a dependent Stato being allowed to tear itself, amidst the protests of a powerful and intelligent minority, from its allegiance to one common Parliament, and from then being compelled to submit itself to what is euphemistically described as a union of hearts, but which will

really be a relationship where authority is very much diminished on the one side, the power of resistance very much increasea on the other.

The "United States in Congress assembled" have no powers but what they exercise, as it were, in delegation from the States, and with their hearty consent and cooperation. Whatever power the British Parliament will in the new order of things exercise over Ireland, will spring from a totally different source. It will be in reality the reserved authority of the conqueror, disguise it as we may, and the detested yoke of the Saxon will be no more welcome then than it is now. The est political fruits to be gathered from the Irish struggles, which have lasted so many years, will be, that from the strained political attention which it enforces to that country, its real grievances are being removed, the tyranny of paid agitators is being suppressed, and their leaders are already beginning to take refuge in the pretence that Englishmen, from want of experience of and want of touch with the Irish people, cannot enter into their feelings and understand their wants. We can, however, try; and in order correctly to appreciate them, we need not place unreserved confidence' in those who profit by disorder. If we can only secure the continuance of the policy which has been pursued for the last three years, of enforcing obedience to law, of effecting real reforms, and of not taking political hysterics too seriously, we shall be rewarded by a continuance of the results which are beginning to unfold themselves in the increased contentment of the people, and the increased security of trade and capital, of life and property.

No. DCCCLXXXVII.

VOL. CXLVI.

ONE of the practical results of the self-sacrifice of Father Dainien has been to attract additional attention to one of the most dreadful physical woes to which human nature is liable-leprosy. Close to Cape Town there is a second Molokai, called Robben Island, perhaps even a sadder place because it is unrelieved by the interest and intense public sympathy aroused by the Sandwich isle. Here the patients live a deathto coin an expression-coniparatively uncared for, and certainly unwept; and here, too, are gathered together a number of lunatics with a proportion of convicts.

A dirty little tug occupies threequarters of an hour in our rough unpleasant transit. It conveys

VOL. CXLVI.-NO. DCCCLXXXVII.

about forty passengers, most of whom are officials connected with the island; while a few, like myself, have obtained a special Government permit, without which no outsider is allowed to disembark. Our freight comprises twenty sheep cruelly tied up by the legs and as cruelly piled on each other, some bundles of forage, and a medley of articles, such as soap for the lepers, letters for the lunatics, and coffee for the convicts. The surpassingly lovely view of Table Mountain fades from our gaze, and we turn to behold suddenly the island of desolation about three miles in diameter, low and flat, sad and sandy, with scarcely a vestige of vegetation, save patches of coarse, unlovely grass. The

Cape Government has declined to incur the expense of the simplest jetty, and the shallow roadstead forbids the close approach of the tug. So we transfer ourselves first to a small boat which dances crankily through the surf, and then "pick-a-back" to the shoulders of the grey-clothed convicts, who wade thigh-deep into the water, and thus convey us to the seaside capital of the domain. We stare around at the scene: its aspect can scarcely be otherwise than strangely weird when we consider the nature of its population, consisting, approximately, of 130 lepers, 230 lunatics, 30 convicts, and 160 police and ward-masters, with their families-making a total of about 550.

The buildings comprise about twenty low, tumble-down-looking tenements, plus the mean-looking Government establishments. A small knot of downcast, ragged individuals are watching with languid interest our disembarkation: there needs little enlightenment to inform us that they are harmless lunatics. But those strange objects crouching on the ground, if possible still more forlorn, silent, motionless, who are they? I scan them more closely -they are lepers,-horrible! I

am not yet steeled to such a sight, and I hurry away to find the doctor, who will impart to me the information I seek, and will give me authority to visit the wards. Here let me explain that I conducted my investigations on more than one occasion, but for simplicity's sake I will describe my experience in the form of a single visit.

There are two resident doctors, the senior of whom is Governor, and is rightly intrusted with an authority over the island and its inhabitants compared with which

the power of the Czar is of a restricted nature, save in one respect-he is tied down hand and foot by the parsimony of the Colonial officials. On these latter be the shame of the shortcomings respecting the welfare of the miserable inhabitants. One of them undertakes to cicerone me over the leper establishment. On our way we examine the tiny churchperhaps almost the only thoroughly pleasing object in the island, inasmuch as it is trim without and reverently pretty within. Here service is held on Sundays, at which members of all creeds attend-Protestants, Roman Catholics, Mohammedans, and Jews: a community of suffering seems to make their whole world kin. Only the lepers have their hour, and the lunatics and convicts their hour, respectively-for there must be no risk of the contagion which might be feared by indiscriminate juxtaposition in a small, close, hot building. It has been proposed to throw out a small bow-room to one of the aisles, screened off with glass, so that the lepers might join in the common worship without risk to the rest of the congregation. But no; this is negatived because it would cost a small, a very small suin. Next we enter one of the wards occupied by a race which is partly Hottentot and partly Malay, with an infusion of white blood. Few are actually in bed-most are in a semi-recumbent position on their beds, or are crouched about the floor. floor. There is no murmuring of small talk, no mutterings of suffering, and the unbroken silence is almost oppressive. The doctor takes me from patient to patient, diagnosing the typical cases for my benefit. This young Hottentot is an instance of tubercular leprosy in its incipient stage. It has some

affinity with ordinary consumption, and commences with internal tubercles. which in course of time manifest themselves externally on the face, head, and arnis. but never in any other part of the body. Look at that slight, apparently insignificant, swelling of the lobes of the ears. It is the first invariable and never-deceiving sympton. By-and-by slight enlargements will appear over his frontal bones, close to the eyebrows. There does not seen to be much amiss with this lad, whose apparent sturdiness and twentyone years veil his lurking malady; but watch the development of the disease in this next patient, who is some four or five years older. Observe the regular wens over the eyebrows; his ear-lobes have now become pendulous; neck and head are puffy; his face is shiny, and is ruckled with high ridges and low furrows; and in fact the original contour of his features is being gradually merged into a formless forbidding mass. No. 3 patient represents the "last scene of all that ends this strange and terrible history." Probably he is not inuch over thirty, but his malady has reached even his armis, which are pulpy and inflated, and the skin resembles the rough rind of a boiled orange. His earlobes are dangling down in grotesque lamps; huge knobs are disposed about his cheeks; his nostrils are swollen monstrously; the nape of his neck is scarcely to be distinguished; and shocking, shocking beyond my powers of description, is a gigantic excrescence on the side of his head, which has disfigured him almost beyond recognition as a human being. His eyes are directed towards us with an expressionless fixity, his body is motionless; his whole being seems utterly torpid,

he looks as though he were but half alive-would indeed that he were wholly dead!

Frightful and fatal as are these types, they do not correspond to the traditional ideas of leprosy," I remark to the doctor. "Where are the Mirianis, the Naamans, and the Gehazis, lepers as white as snow?"

"That is the Eastern form, and does not exist here," is the answer. "Our two classes are the tubercular, which you have just seen, and which has some affinity with elephantiasis or contiasis; and the anesthetic, which I will now show you. Anæsthetic leprosy consists not in the dropping off of the bones, as most doctors assert, but in their absorption."

My cicerone then explains that the joints are attacked, open, and waste away. Then the connecting cartilage wastes away likewise; but there is no mortification, merely a slight exudation of lymph at the fingers or the toes, for the seat of the disease is strictly confined to the upper and lower extremities. Thus the bones become shortened, drawn up almost to a vanishing-point. The malady proceeds, as it were, by leaps-fingers, wrist, elbow, and humerus. Strangely enough, the nails are leprous-proof; and thus one may see a patient apparently with only half an arm, from the stump of which five perfect fingernails project. Here is an anæsthetic case in its incipient stage; he has lost the power of completely extending his fingers, the first and never-failing sympton, due to the tendons connecting the joints having become wasted away. Otherwise the patient looks well enough, fairly well nourished, and of a fairly good aspect, were it not for a sombre cloud indicating probably his horror at what he knows

'to be his inevitablo future. No. 2 case, however, inspires one with startled uisınay. Little more than a child of apparently twelve or thirteen years old-for the anæsthetic forma seems to be singularly indiscriminate in assailing youth and old age-his snooth, tender body, unscarred by spot or eruption, forms a pitiable contrast to his legs, the aukles and tihia whereof are withered and shrunken up towards his knees, and have dwindled away almost to dry twigs. Though the thigh - bone has not yet, as far as we can see, been actively attacked. the flesh around it, is unnaturally spare, and he looks poorly nourished. His fingers are half clenched; he moves about with difficulty; listless and silent: young in years, but old in suffering, without one trace of childhood's bright vivacity, this boyleper seened to me the most pitiable object in the whole pitiable establishment. Not that he had by any means reached the acine of anæsthetic disease represented in this next patient, an aged man, looking far older than his years, in contrast to the boy. He is quite helpless and in bed, but the doctor uncovers him sufficiently to show the ravages. Legs, or rather what remains of them, drawn up, and their extremities resembling round rulers. Armus in a far worse condition-they are now scarcely longer than from an ordinary shoulder to elbow - distance; in fact, they are perfectly useless, shapeless stumps, with rudimentary fingers but perfect finger-nails projecting from a small knob at the base of the stunıp, which once represented a hand. Truly here is absorption of a man's whole corporeal being; his very collar bones and shoulder-blades seem to be in process of rapid diminution; he is undergoing a living death,

and that "the beautiful angel Death " uay be quickly seut to hin is the most incrciful prayer which can be breathed.

What is the average duration of leprosy ere it prove fatal to life i No average can he statel, so capricious and variable is its nature. and the more or less the ferocity with which it attacks the victiu. He may die in a year or two, aud again we have cases liere of ten years' duration. Indeed there is an instance on record of thirty years' malady. Much depends ou age and constitution. There is no increased liability to the development of the lurking disease either by reason of youth or advanced years. Indeed it is exceerlingly difficult to trace the first cause, though undoubtedly heredity is the most frequent origin.

"That it is contagious," stated one of the doctors, "I have not a shadow of a doubt. That is to say, the long and constant and close association of a healthy person with lepers would unquestionably result in his contracting the disease, especially if any abrasion on the surface of the body were to come into contact with leprous lymph. I have often had cases confirming the above opinion."

"Then how is. it you yourself are free?"

"Because though I am with then frequently, I am not incessantly associated with them, day and night; and of course I possess many sanitary advantages impracticable for the lepers themselves : above all, I never relax the most scrupulous precautions-for example, carefully guarding my hands, and after dealing with a patient washing them with carbolic soap

not in a basin of water, but under a tap, so that the force of the stream may carry away the contagious poison. As for the attendants on the sick, they are

ou