soil is deep and exceptionally fertile, and is in many communities yielding twenty bushels of wheat to the acre.

From the British Point of View.

Englishmen who, like Mr. W. T. Stead, have come to believe that the Americanization of the British Empire is inevitable, and cannot be long deferred, will find much to confirm their opinions in an article contributed to the Fortnightly Review for December by Mr. Archibald S. Hurd.

Mr. Hurd's paper deals with "The Foreign Invasion of Canada." Canada, he points out, is, firstly, being de-Anglicized by foreign immigra tion and by the growth of the French; and, secondly, Americanized by the phenomenal flood of immigrants from across the frontier. The natural growth of the Canadian population is small. The census of 1881 showed an increase in ten years of 19 per cent.; in 1901, the increase had fallen to 11.14 per cent. And it is not the British, but the French, who account for most of this small increase. The French-Canadians double in numbers every twenty-five years. Families of eighteen and twenty children are not infrequent; and in Quebec the birth rate is 36.86 per thousand. The French-Canadians, Mr. Hurd insists, are not well affected to England, and they enjoy their liberties as sops given by the British nation in the hope of keeping them quiet. Meantime immigration from the European Continent has increased, while the number of British and Irish born settlers is 100,000 less than it was thirty years ago.

THE AMERICAN WAVE.

The British element in Canada is therefore relatively falling off. Settlers from the United States are flooding the country. Last year only 25 per cent. of the immigrants came from the United Kingdom, while 35 per cent. came across the frontier. In 1901, there were 17,987 immigrants from the United States, and only 9,401 from England and Wales, 1,476 from Scotland, and 923 from Ireland. In 1902, down to the beginning of October, 27,000 Americans had entered Canada. The immigrants bring considerable capital with them, and become permanent settlers. Of the 127,891 who had settled in Canada prior to 1902, 84,493 have already been naturalized.

Canada is, in fact, becoming Americanized. British immigration is becoming every day less important. Mr. Hurd explains this largely by the erroneous ideas which are so widespread in England as to the severity of the Canadian climate. Mr. Kipling's description of Canada as "Our Lady of the Snows," has been itself suf

ficient to throw back the development of the colony by Englishmen a whole decade. Mr. Hurd, however, says that the immigration of Americans, who thoroughly know the Canadian climate, shows that the climate is a good one. As the result of it all we witness the development of a Canadian policy which, if not antiBritish, is not pro-British. The Canadian immigration officials regard the problem solely from a Canadian point of view, and welcome the wealthy and enterprising American who crosses their frontier. Mr. Hurd thinks that this threatening movement can be checked by spreading juster knowledge among Britishers in regard to the Canadian climate. But in view of the increasing disinclination of Englishmen for country life, it seems more probable that the Americanization of the British Empire has definitely begun in Canada.

Decline of Imperial Prestige.

In an article in the Monthly Review on "Canada and Imperial Ignorance," Mr. W. Beach Thomas lays stress on the Americanization of the country:

"American ideas, if not America, are taking the country captive. The Americans have no insidious intentions, no arrière pensée,-an American seldom has. He is generally candid, if not honest, to a degree. He goes where he goes to make money, and makes no pretense of ulterior objects; he neither simulates nor dissimulates. But power goes with the making of money as an inseparable accident; and the American is apt to win other prizes than millions. It is no small achievement that the press is completely captured. It has been done merely in the way of business; but so effectively that in the last ten years English magazines have been practically banished. Private people and the clubs still take in this or that weekly paper, but it may be said that there is practically no public sale at all; no agents who take English papers, no public which demands them. Some of the shells may be seen, but an inspection of the contents reveals the American edition, in which articles especially designed to suit American tastes have been substituted in New York for the more typical English material."

Mr. Thomas argues that the British are losing their hold on Canada owing to the ignorance of that colony which is so common in England, an ignorance which leads some Englishmen to address their letters, "Ottawa, Canada, the United States." He thinks that it would be more profitable to expend the $60,000,000 a year now spent in Great Britain on maintaining paupers in making immigration easy.

MR. BRYCE ON THE POWERS OF THE BRITISH CROWN.

THE Christmas number of the Windsor Maga

zine contains a disquisition by Mr. James Bryce, M.P., on the powers of the crown in England as exercised down to the beginning of the present reign. He regards Queen Victoria's reign as the time in which the principles of the constitution first became firmly settled in practice and definitely accepted by all sections and parties in the state. After tracing the gradual transformation of the royal power from almost absolute authority to the Reform Act of 1832, Mr. Bryce observes that the power which at Queen Victoria's accession remained in the hands of the sovereign, considered as an individual person, may to-day be described as being of the nature rather of influence than of legal power. He points out that the personal preferences of the crown may count in the choice of the particular person who is first invited to become prime minister at a ministerial crisis, and in the choice between two possible holders of subordinate ministerial offices. There are two questions raised by Mr. Bryce. He says:

WHEN MAY THE CROWN DISMISS MINISTERS?

"There are some students of the constitution who have argued that when the crown is convinced that ministers do not possess the confidence of the nation (which, of course, implies that the House of Commons, in continuing to support them, does not possess that confidence), it may of its own motion dismiss its ministers and commission some statesman to form a new administration. It would, of course, be necessary that in taking such a course the crown should have, first of all, requested ministers to dissolve Parliament, and that it should feel sure that a man could be found who would be able to form a strong administration."

Mr. Bryce observes "that the power (if still existing) has not been exercised for a very long time; and that it would be imprudent for the crown to exercise it unless in a very exceptional case, where it was perfectly clear that the House of Commons had ceased to represent the real sentiment of the people, and that ministers were, in fact, disregarding the popular will. highly improbable contingency.”

This is a

MAY THE CROWN REFUSE TO DISSOLVE
PARLIAMENT ?

The second question which he puts is: "Is it consistent with the established use and practice of the government of England for the crown to refuse to its ministers permission to dissolve Parliament when they ask for such per

mission? Suppose that a ministry which has been defeated in the House of Commons believes that a general election would give it a majority. Ought the crown, as a matter of course, to assent to a dissolution?"

He answers that "nothing but the subsequent approval of a considerable majority of the nation could justify what would be, prima facie, an unusual stretching of the functions of the crown as they have been understood for many years past." Mr. Bryce thinks that the monarch may be especially useful as an adviser in foreign affairs through his family connections with other crowned heads. As regards the appointment to posts in the public service, he says the army and navy are by long tradition a little more closely connected with the crown than is the civil service, and the crown has a large share in the selection of bishops.

THE MAD MULLAH.

VERY interesting at the present moment is

the article concerning the personality of the Mad Mullah, contributed by M. Hugues Le Roux to the Revue de Paris. The writer, who entitles his article "The New Mahdi," spent last year in Somaliland, and he gathered many interesting particulars concerning Abdulla Achur, whose religious crusade in that country has met with such unexpected success, and who will, M. Le Roux declares, end by becoming as formidable an adversary as he who was vanquished at Omdurman.

THE NEW MAHDI.

Some years ago Abdulla Achur was already much discussed among the Mussulman population of Aden and of the surrounding country the Europeans made light of "the new Mahdi," as he was already styled, and at Aden was first invented for him the foolish and misleading nickname of the Mad Mullah.

Abdulla seems to have first appeared on the horizon five years ago; he had then performed four times the lengthy and difficult pilgrimage to Mecca, and he edified all the Mussulmans with whom he came in contact by his piety and learning. The new Mahdi is some thirty-two years of age; he is a true Somali, tall, vigorous, and with regular features. His past career, like that of all Mohammedan "saints," has been very adventurous; his father was a shepherd in the Somali country, and he was brought up among the herds. There he was met by a Mohammedan missionary, who offered to buy him from his parents, and to bring him up to a religious life. His first pilgrimage to Mecca took place when

he was twenty, and he produced so great an impression on the Sheik Mohammed Salah, the supreme head of the mysterious confraternity known as Tariqa Mahadia, that the latter kept him with him, and now Abdulla is the favorite disciple of this important religious leader.

HOW THE MULLAH GAINS HIS POWER.

Abdulla, in spite of the fact that he is regarded more or less as a savage by his adversaries, is a man of considerable learning, familiar with every kind of theological subtlety, and quite able to work on the religious fanaticism of his followers. Already the Mad Mullah has obtained extraordinary influence over the inhab itants of Somaliland. He has passed various decrees, of which one makes it illegal to be married by an ordinary Cadi who is subject to the King of England; such marriages, he declares, are null and void. He also freely excommunicates all those who do not follow his peculiar tenets, and in all sorts of ways he recalls, as no other Mahdi has ever done, his great predecessor Mohammed. Up to the present time, Abdulla has met with only one important reverse. This was inflicted on him in the spring of 1900 by

the soldiers of Menelik; since then the Mullah avoids his northern neighbors.

M. Le Roux pays a high tribute to Colonel Swayne, who, he says, knows Somaliland better than any Englishman alive, and who, he declares, must have known well the determined foe against whom he was pitted with such insufficient forces. The French writer tells the story of the repulse. He evidently considers that the Mad Mullah may develop into a very serious adversary, and he advises the British Government to prepare a serious campaign for February, which is, he says, the best season of the year for the enterprise. The question is much complicated, because certain loyal tribes, while perfectly willing to live contented and happy lives under British rule, are determined to resist every effort made to compel them to fight their co-religionists.

ANOTHER DE WET.

At Aden the new Mahdi is no longer called the Mad Mullah; indeed, the local paper spoke of him as "another De Wet," for, like the Boer general, Abdulla seems to have a remarkable power of darting from one point to another. Meanwhile, the Emperor Menelik is watching what is to him a most interesting game with intense attention; he also is anti-Mullah, but, according to M. Le Roux, he is waiting to be asked to lend his powerful aid to Great Britain, for then he will be able to ask in exchange that his new ally should formally recognize the existence of Abyssinia, which his French friend considers should be regarded as an eastern Switzerland, or No-man's Land.

L

THE RUSSIAN TEMPERANCE COMMITTEES. AST month we noticed at some length an article in the Nineteenth Century describing the movement in favor of people's theaters in Russia. That movement has developed largely under the stimulus of the so-called "Temperance Committees" instituted by M. de Witte for the purpose of organizing counter attractions to drink. In the December Contemporary Review there is an extremely interesting article by Miss Edith Sellers, dealing with these committees, both as to their theatrical and their other activities. Miss Sellers is inclined to take a more favorable view of the Russian spirit monopoly than is generally taken in Russia, but her account of the counter-attraction side of the monopoly is very instructive and very interesting.

HOW THE COMMITTEES WORK.

Every Russian town and every Russian province has now a temperance committee, and every village has a temperance guardian. These committees have several functions, the chief of which is to create counter attractions to drink. The committees are largely composed of officials. Their campaign against drink is based largely upon the principle that the lack of good food and the want of rational amusement are the chief causes of the evil. The committees have carried on their campaign in such a way that Miss Sellers thinks that the working class of Moscow and St. Petersburg are to be envied by the same class in England in the provision which is made both for their mental and bodily needs. In one of the "people's houses" outside Moscow men are decently lodged for 2 cents a night, and boarded and lodged for 12 cents a day. "people's house," as understood in Moscow, is a workingman's restaurant, club, library, and much besides. The restaurants are fine large rooms, well lighted and well ventilated and beautifully clean; soap, water, and towels are supplied gratis to the visitors. They are open from early morning till late at night, breakfasts, dinners, and suppers being supplied. The food supplied is both good and cheap, and only the bare cost is charged, the other expenses being paid out of the government subsidy. In one of the people's houses there is a labor bureau, and others have reading rooms, where visitors may pass their whole day if they desire.

A

THE PEOPLE'S PALACE IN ST. PETERSBurg. The St. Petersburg Committee's People's House is exactly what London's People's Palace was intended to be and is not. It is a pleasure resort for the poor, a place where they may

betake themselves whenever on enjoyment bent. The building, which is the old Nijni-Novgorod Exhibition building renovated, is situated close to the Neva in a beautiful park, with great trees around it, and flower beds dotted here and there. The building is divided into five parts,—a great entrance hall, a restaurant, a concert hall, a theater, and a reading room,-into all of which admission costs only 5 cents. The average price paid for dinner is only 5 cents. "The restaurant is a perfect model of what such a place should be." In the theater there is room for 2,000 spectators. Of her visit to this theater Miss Sellers says:

"Evidently the play appealed in a quite special degree to the audience, for even the roughest among them followed it with close attention. Some of them, indeed, were quite transformed as they listened; there was real distress in their faces when the hero's plans seemed going agley, and their eyes glowed with excitement when he finally put his foes to rout. They sat as if spellbound so long as each scene lasted, and then shook the very building with their applause. Never have I seen a more appreciative audience, or one more enthusiastic. When the play was over they turned to one another, eagerly comparing notes and discussing its bearing. Evidently the theater serves its purpose admirably if that purpose be to put new ideas into the heads of those who frequent it and give them something to think about."

THE QUESTION OF FINANCE.

How are all these amenities given to the people for nothing? The answer is that the government subsidizes them out of the profits of the spirit monopoly. The provincial committees receive 50,000 rubles a year, and the St. Petersburg and Moscow committees get annual subsidies of 500,000 rubles and 300,000 rubles. In addition, the St. Petersburg Committee was granted 1,000,000 rubles for the purpose of building the People's Palace. Altogether, M. de Witte handed over to the committees in 1900 nearly 4,000,000 rubles, and the amount was increased when the monopoly system embraced the whole country. As the profit from the monopoly in 1897 was 20,375.000 rubles, he could well afford to do so.

"A WORK OF REAL CHARITY."

Miss Sellers gives high praise to the energy and capacity of the officials who are intrusted with the task of carrying on the work of the committees. They have gone on the principle of gaining the confidence of the working class.