on the head, which brought me back to|ing the previous three weeks, I had pretty my senses. well settled in my own mind that it must By daytime, of course, when reason contain at least a declaration of war against reigned supreme, affairs were more cheer- the native state whither I was bound. ful. There were even occasions when, These cogitations were suddenly cut short flirting mildly with some of the fascinating by the entrance of my cabin companion. girls on board, I forgot my responsible In an instant the despatch bag was again position and really enjoyed myself. But reposing among the shirts and socks, and these intervals were few and far between, the lock was shut with a snap. I fancy though it certainly was not for want of he saw the action, for he smiled. There pretty girls. Stopping at port was always was no reason whatever why I should have a time of agony, and stoppages are so fre- displayed any trepidation, but I was always quent on the way to the East. There was nervous where the bag was concerned. the "Gib," as the passengers familiarly called that grand old rock, Malta, Brindisi, Port Said, Suez, Aden, Colombo, etc. The notices which I saw strewed about warning passengers against thieves in the shape of pedlars, holy pilgrims, and fakirs, and announcing that the company would not be responsible for any loss, did not improve my equanimity of mind. When on shore and trying to amuse myself like the others, I was haunted with a dread that something might happen to that accursed bag, and I was always glad to get on board again and make sure by stealthy inspection that it was all right. At one place, Colombo, which has the reputation of being the worst place for ship-thieving on the whole Eastern route, I could not muster courage to leave the vessel. I an nounced that I had a severe headache, and went and lay down in my bunk with my portmanteau in full sight.

It was a great deprivation to give up Colombo. Every one was talking about running up the interior to Kandy, the an cient capital; and old travellers were loud in their praises of the magnificent tropical scenery to be seen on the way. I put my head through the porthole, sniffed in the sweet, perfumed breezes, and gazed upon the gleaming white Eastern buildings overshadowed by the waving palm-trees. It was very hard luck, I groaned; but pro patria mori was my motto, and in the cabin I remained, meal-times excepted, till the anchor was raised.

It was not long after leaving Colombo, that one blazing hot afternoon I retired below to suck oranges for the lack of anything better to do, and at the same time took the opportunity of seeing that the Foreign-Office bag was still there. dragged it out, and was conjecturing for the hundredth time what the contents might be. By dint of much thinking dur

I

The longest road has a turning, however, and this miserable journey came to a termination at last. Behold your humble servant marching up to the British Consulate at Carabaya, sweltering under a tropical sun, a huge roll of rugs and sticks in one hand, and the other supporting a white umbrella. Like a good and faithful servant had I done my duty. It was an anxious but happy moment for me when I handed over the bag to her Britannic Majesty's consul. He rapidly cut the red tape, and out poured a torrent of private letters, some for himself, which he leisurely began to read. There were also two official-looking letters, and three or four large blue-books. After her Britannic Majesty's consul had glanced over his own letters, he turned his attention to the official ones.

My curiosity was strained to the highest pitch, and no-not if I was to be hanged for it, could I restrain my tongue. "Is it to be war, sir?" I said, in a tremulous and apprehensive voice.

The consul stared at me through his one eyeglass as if I had suddenly gone mad. "What's that? What do you mean?" he gasped.

His glance frightened me. "I only asked, sir, if it is likely to be warm,” I responded apologetically, happy to light on so easy an escape.

"Oh-ah-hum," he replied, eying me suspiciously. "Not more so than now;" and seeing the perspiration pouring down my face, he added: "I would advise you, Mr. Brown, to go and get a bath, and be sure and souse your head well with cold water."

I have since found out the purport of these documents; but as it would be an inexcusable breach of the first principles of diplomacy to reveal the secret, I must reluctantly leave my readers in ignorance.

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Faith, an' Michael himself got a shmall little Wid each wag of his tail like a cavalry charge.

From The Contemporary Review.
FRENCH POLITICS.
BY GABRIAL MONOD.

SINCE the elections of 1889 and the collapse of Boulangism, the one salient feature in the French political situation has been its stability—a stability which contrasts strongly with those incessant ministerial changes which were coming to be regarded as inseparable from parliamentary government. For a whole year we have never drawn the attention of our English readers to French politics, for the simple reason that there has been nothing in French politics to draw their attention to. But this absence of political disturb ance is itself a fact worth noting, and of which we may well ask the cause.

and

now endeavoring to make the republican régime a régime of stability and peace.

And in this encomium the government also deserves its share. M. de Freycinet had the wisdom, when he became president of the Council, to retain his old portfolio; and he has thus carried, so to speak, into the prime ministry the prestige he had gained as minister of war, and, at the same time, given to the War Department a pledge of that continuity of policy of which the need has been everywhere recognized. He has, moreover, by dint of a tact and elasticity which border on the marvellous, contrived to keep himself in favor with all parties. None of them has absolute confidence in him; none of them recognizes him as its chief; but all wish to make use of him, and he has hopes and promises to hold out to all. His Cabinet partakes of the conciliating tone and chameleon tints of his own character. It contains Moderates like M. Ribot and M. Develle; Opportunists like MM. Rouvier, J. Roche,

-

geois and Yves Guyot; and, above all, a man whose personal value as a politician and parliamentary tactician is all the greater for his being hampered by no other principle and no other programme than that of spreading the sail whichever way the wind blows M. Constans. The energy displayed by M. Constans in the struggle with Boulangism gave him a prestige of which the whole ministry has reaped the benefit. This heterogeneous Cabinet has shown in the conduct of affairs a skill and prudence which have kept it quietly in office all this time in presence of a Chamber so divided as to make any solid majority utterly impossible. It cannot be denied, however, that the solidity of the ministry, which for two years had seemed quite unshakable, was menaced to some extent at the close of last session; and that the checks sustained by M. Ribot in one instance, and M. de Freycinet in

Let us begin by admitting that some share of the credit is due to the head of the government himself. M. Carnot continues to play his part in a manner so correct, serene, and dignified as to exercise the happiest influence on the public especially on the parliamentary-mind; and Fallières; Radicals like MM. Bouran influence all the more effectual for being apparently unconscious, and awakening no susceptibilities in those whom it touches. M. Carnot keeps strictly within his constitutional powers; his individual will never makes itself felt; he contents himself with representing the State, under all circumstances, with a dignified propriety; he lends himself to no intrigues, gives occasion to no complaints, takes a willing part in every good and useful work, and once, or even twice, in the year makes a progress through the departments, which always increases his popularity and the respect in which his name is held. His last visit to the south was really a triumphal progress; but M. Carnot always effaces his own personality, and attributes the acclamations that greet him to the popularity of the republic which he has the honor to represent. By this demeanor he has helped to make it everywhere accepted as a system of regular and peaceful | another, on insignificant questions, were government, which respects all rights and awakens no anxieties, and to break the old and tenacious association of ideas which identified the word republic with the word revolution. Following the initiative of M. Carnot, the whole country is

not far from breaking it up. The truth is that it has lasted so long only because it has avoided pronouncing itself clearly on any question; it has lived upon compromises, and on the strength of the general feeling that, after the keen alarms of the

Boulangist enterprise, it was above all things desirable not to provoke a ministerial crisis. But the Cabinet has within itself disintegrating elements, which are very likely to make themselves felt during the new session of Parliament. M. de Freycinet himself is visibly weary, and it would not be surprising if he should yield to the desire for repose; and, moreover, there exists within the Cabinet itself a marked antagonism between M. Ribot and M. Bourgeois on the one hand, and M. Constans on the other. The latter has several times shown a disposition to separate his own person and policy from that of his colleagues; and this antagonism is sure to break out into open strife whenever, by the retirement of M. de Freycinet, the question of the premiership comes to the front. If the only requirement were to find the man who combined the greatest energy of will with the greatest skill in guiding and persuading Parliament, M. Constans would be the very man for the post. But M. Carnot has little sympathy with the character of M. Constans; and MM. Ribot and Bourgeois are certain to do everything in their power to bar the way.

the party), gave him no accession of force. Prince Napoleon was at least well known; his intellectual powers were indisputable. Prince Victor is to the masses at leastan inconnu, and he represents nothing but a personal ambition, without greatness and without a future. Royalism has the advantage of attaching itself less to persons than to a principle. The political incapacity of which the Comte de Paris has given proof, the ridiculous escapade of the Duc d'Orléans, whose conviction and imprisonment it was impossible for anybody to take seriously, and even the deplorable alliance with the Boulangists, would have done but little permanent injury to the Royalist idea, if only it had retained the thing to which it really owed its force - its strict cohesion with Clericalism. But this cohesion has been broken. Pope Leo XIII., with that penetrating instinct with which he always apprehends the conditions of existence of modern society, perceived that the Catholic Church, if she was to continue to exercise any influence over it, must beware of identifying herself exclusively with any particular form of government, and must rather accept all, in order to find a place in each; and he had Nevertheless, there are in the Chamber also the astuteness to perceive that, in the itself and in the parliamentary situation present state of the relations between some permanent factors which make for France and Italy, the Church had everystability, and which may neutralize these thing to gain by avoiding a state of open divergent tendencies and prolong the ex- hostility with the Republican government istence of the Freycinet government. I of France. In this view the higher French recognize such elements of stability in the clergy have followed the pope, and many great importance assumed at the present of them have openly declared that the moment by diplomatic and economic moment has come for abandoning all sysquestions, to the detriment of all mere tematic opposition to the Republic, and questions of internal policy. One of the endeavoring rather to induce it to adopt chief results of the Boulangist movement, an attitude more favorable to the Church, and of its collapse, has been to disorgan- and to create for themselves by legitimate ize and render powerless for the time all means a majority in the Republican Chamthe parties which mixed themselves up bers. The Church no longer seeks to dewith it-the Extreme Radicals, the Bo-stroy the Republic; she would prefer to napartists, and the Royalists. Bonapart- govern it, or at least to take a share in its ism, indeed, had little to lose. It might, government. Cardinal Lavigerie was the indeed, answer to a permanent tendency first to give utterance to this policy. His of all centralized democracies, but it lacked the one thing which is essential to a Cæsarian party - a popular and capable Cæsar. The death of Prince Jerome Napoleon, while it left a free field to Prince Victor (who was already the real chief of

missionary work in Africa led him into hearty accord with the colonizing activity of France. He openly declared, by word and deed, his adhesion to the Republican régime. The Bishop of Grenoble, followed by the Bishop of Bordeaux, the