THE FERMENT IN CHINA. The rationale of the troubles in China is beginning to appear in a clearer light as events move on. That a formidable reaction is shaking the Empire has been obvious enough, but it has not been plainly seen that it has a domestic side as well as an international aspect. The truth is, however, that the movement of which the "Boxers" have taken the murderous lead, is directed against not only foreign interlopers, but native reformers as well. These are normally the two phases of the agitation. The revolt is one against modern ideas and methods, whether imposed from without or advocated from within. Missionaries are murdered and foreigners hunted on exactly the same principle that led to the execution of six native reformers at Pekin, and sent Kang-Yu and other educated Chinamen, hospitable to the new enlightenment, fleeing from the land for safety. Much valuable information concerning the influences at work for the regeneration of China from within is given in an article by Prof. Robert K. Douglas in the June Nineteenth Century. Professor Douglas is a recognized authority in matters Chinese. For many years in the China Consular Service, he is now Professor of Chinese in King's College, London, and Keeper of Oriental Books and MSS. in the British Museum. The special value of his article lies in its clear account of the means by which the long night of intellectual stagnation in China has been made to yield to something like the dawn. The most potent agency has been the systematic publication of books conveying to educated persons correct notions science and religion and the progress of civilization. Appeal has been deliberately made to the more intelligent classes. It has been perceived that the motive power for enlightenment and reform in so vast and ignorant a population must be found among the people themselves, and must come from above -from the mandarins and literati. Accordingly, selected works on history, geography, the various sciences, besides the Bible, have been translated into a pure literary style, such as the learned affect, and have had a wide circulation and powerful influence. of Western Professor Douglas gives in considerable detail an account of the publishing activity of the "Society for the Diffusion of Christian and General Knowledge among the Chinese." It has issued more than 120 volumes. These are not given away, but sold, and the demand for them has increased remarkably in all parts of the Empire. Thus, when a popular edition of Mackenzie's 'Nineteenth Century' was recently brought out, 4,000 copies were sold within a fortnight--this, be it remembered, among a population only 10 per cent. of which is able to read. The Society's agents have made particular efforts to circulate their One proof of this is to be seen in the Japanese war, with its shock and sur- Of course, this promising internal ery, instead of swindling carpet-baggers. That was the old and successful way of empire-building. There is undoubtedly a peril, as Goldwin Smith asserts, that the new Imperialism of shot and shell may be applied to China; that the civilized nations may take their next battues, in the name of humanity and religion, out of the millions of Chinese whose invincible ignorance of centuries is just being penetrated by the first gleams of knowledge. But the example of Japan shows us the more excelient way, and it is to be hoped that the Chinese, too, will he left to work out their own salvation. That they have the instrumentalities and the leaders ready to their hand, as soon as these troublous times are overpast, Professor Douglas is firmly convinced. Meanwhile, nothing can be more evident than that Russia and Japan are more directly concerned in the Chinese crisis than any other nation. The map is the great treaty-maker and international lawyer, and the map shows that in the impending break-up, or at any rate sweeping readjustment, in North China, Russian and Japanese interests are predominant. Close upon the flank of China lies Japan, a nation eager to colonize, with a population of 40,000,000 already pressing hard upon the means of subsistence. Just across a narrow channel is Korea, thinly settled, with a kindred people and institutions-the very outlet for Japanese energy. "Korea must be Japanese," is the one watchword of foreign politics for all parties and classes in Japan. If nature had chanced to make Korea an island instead of a peninsula, it would undoubtedly have been numbered long since among the Japanese islands, as surely as Yesso. Formosa, to the south, was added as the one visible trophy of the war with China; but Formosa has a teeming population, and is not colonizable. To Korea and to predominance in North China, Japanese ambitions steadfastly look. On the other hand, Russia's march to supremacy in all that region has been stealthy and steady. Her railway across Siberia and through Mantchuria has been pushed with consuming zeal, and is within less than two years of completion, every section having hitherto been finished in advance of the estimated time. Not content with her terminal harbor of Vladivostok, Russia secured Port Arthur, and has since been working feverishly to make it impregnable. More than 90,000 coolies are at this moment laboring on the fortifications of this Russian arsenal at the point of the LiaoTong peninsula. A railroad to connect with Vladivostok has been pushed on rapidly, and is to be completed in October. Meanwhile, Korea has not been neglected by Russian diplomats. In addition to thwarting Japanese influence at Seul in every way possible, they suddenly secured for themselves, apparently in open violation of their agreements with both China and Japan, the Korean harbor of Masampho, right across the Korean Channel from Nippon. citement, only a small vote, no howling What is the reason of this lethargy? The suddenly precipitated Chinese anarchy, however, may easily put a new face on the entire question. The RussoJapanese serpent may be swallowed by a bigger one. What the Powers will have to confront and decide is the whole question of the control of the Chinese Empire; and the chances are now great-classes with this first electoral experily increased that a decision, and a division of territory, if that be necessary, will be reached by the peaceful means of a solemn international agreement under the highest guarantees. Even so, Russia and Japan would need to be given the lion's share. Geography settles that. Korea to Japan, and Mantchuria, clear down to Pekin, as Russia's part, would be a natural assignment. But, whatever the settlement, after the first stern task of restoring order is accomplished, it is much more likely to be a pacific settlement than seemed possible two months ago. THE CUBAN ELECTIONS. On Saturday last the Cubans took the first step towards their promised independent government. The municipal elections then held, under a restricted suffrage, are regarded as only the preliminary to a Constitutional Convention, to be called before the end of the year for the purpose of framing a system of self-government to which the United States, as in honor bound, will thereafter commit the destinies of the island. This is the clear understanding of the natives. Gen. Gomez, in the speech which he made on his return to Havana a fortnight ago, explicitly laid down the programme of the Cubans. It is to accept municipal autonomy as a gratifying payment on account, an earnest of the intention of the American Government to discharge the full debt of Cuban independence as speedily as may be. As both important in themselves, and as an indication of what the Cubans may be expected to do when intrusted with full control of their own affairs, these first elections deserve careful study. In the party organizations formed for the purpose of taking part in them, and in the electoral methods followed, we already have a fair measure of Cuban political aptitude. One unexpected feature of the contest is the general indifference and apathy which have prevailed. In Havana, only about one-half the eligible voters took the trouble to register, and one-sixth of these abstained from the polling. In the city of Santiago, where it was estimated that there would be 10,000 votes, the registration was less than 2,000. Similar conditions appeared in the other municipalities. The affair, too, went off quietly. There was no ex of the Republican party, but he with- ment lies in the fact that the party or- Three nominally different parties were Chief interest centred in the Mayoralty ARBITRATION, COMPULSORY AND OTHER. labor question which really goes to the root of the disease. There may have been others, before Mr. Thompson came forward, who have applied the scalpel with equal thoroughness and intrepidity, but we have not happened to hear of them. Mr. Thompson is described as the Secretary of the Southern Industrial Convention. Whatever this body may be, it is served by a man who knows how to make himself understood, and who withholds nothing that contributes to that end. Evidently he is not an office-seeker. No office-seeker would have used the words with which he describes the present situation of the American republic. He considers labor organizations "the greatest menace to this Government that exists to-day inside or outside the pale of our national domain"— far more dangerous to the perpetuity of the republic than would be the hostile array on our border of all the armies of the world combined. He has arrived at this conviction after years of close study with the amplest means of information. The sympathetic strike and the boycott constitute the renace which he has i mind. The sympathetic strike is inaugurated to redress the wrongs of some one class or person, however insignificant or however unjust may be the demands of that class or person. When resistance is made to those demands, the boycott is invoked to compel all classes to join in enforcing the demand, although their own interests may be directly opposed thereto. The boycott is the force undermining the State, and Mr. Thomp son's language is not too strong when he says: "To recognize such a power as this in any organization, or to permit such a theory to be advanced without protest or counteracting influence, is so dangerous and subversive of the Government that it may justly be likened to the planting of deadly virus in the heart of organized society-death being its certain and speedy concomitant. Organizations teaching such theories should be held as treasonable in their character, and their leaders worse than traitors to their country. It is time for the plainest utterances on this subject, for the danger is imminent; and in view of the incidents that have attended recent strikes, it can be considered little less than criminal in those who control public sentiment, that such scenes are possible anywhere in this country." These may be called extreme opinions. but the facts and reasons by which they are supported are quite sufficient to warrant the conclusion that the real crisis of the country is not in the East Indies or the West Indies, but "in our midst," and that in reaching out to seize foreign countries, and to introduce civilization and suppress evils among distant "savages," we are wasting time, money, and blood which might better be spent in finding a remedy for greater evils at home. agrees to this. He thinks that society "In view of the close relationship existing This suggestion calls to mind the Com- Looking at labor organizations from the standpoint of patriotism, it cannot be said that their members, or even the walking delegates to whom the greater part of the mischief is imputed, are consciously unpatriotic. They believe themselves to be working for the best interests of the country when they work for their own interest; but even if it were otherwise, where is the social class that thinks more highly of the welfare of the country than of its own welfare? The patriotism that prefers country to self is the possession of individuals, not of classes. When sacrifices are to be made for the good of the State, rich and poor are expected to contribute and do contribute. The line of demarcation does not run between classes. None the less do we consider Mr. Thompson's diagnosis of the country's chief malady a pretty accurate one. Looking at the situation of Chicago, where industry in the building trade has been suspended for several months, and where the public authorities have surrendered their powers to a private society whose decrees are enacted in secret session, we recall that only six years ago the same city passed through the Debs strike and boy-paigns excavating one important building cott, which was accompanied by bloodshed and conflagration, and that a little earlier the Anarchist rebellion took place there all showing that one experience, instead of serving as a deterrent, seems to pave the way for another of the same kind. Evidently the repetition of the sympathetic strike and boycott, with their attendant suffering and their prodigious loss, is not to be avoided by shooting and hanging. These remedies may be necessary in particular cases, but they are not preventive. Mr. Thompson DISCOVERIES IN THE AGORA AT COR- ATHENS, May 29 1900. This year's work at Corinth has eclipsed in one way the work of former years. It is true that we had gone on in three cam after another until we' found ourselves in- of that rich city, which, even after its destruction by the Romans, possessed so much. It began to look dubious whether very much had survived the slower and surer destruction of ages of occupation. Particularly, after we had last year passed up the paved street from Lechæon, ascended the great marble staircase, gone through the central opening of the Propylæa, and proceeded nearly half way through the agora, clearing a space thirty yards wide as we advanced, without finding anything of importance, it began to seem as if our holy of holles was empty, after all. So it was with some misgivings that I began, this year, in performance of what seemed a duty, the clearing out of so much of the agora as was already expropriated. This time, we turned the west flank of the Propylæa, and before we got far we found our way fairly checked by an abundance of marble blocks and statues. The former were architrave blocks, very massive, carved on one side with most elaborate mouldings (the most prominent of which was the palm-leaf band), on the other with the usual Ionic mouldings, and on the bottom with a triple band of overlapping. myrtle leaves; and cornice blocks ornamented with brackets and rosettes. Among about ten of each kind of these several were curved, the ornamented side being con cave. The first statues found were a pair of colossal figures, eight feet high, wearing the Phrygian cap, attached to pilasters at the back. Two Corinthian square capitals fitted on to the tops of these pilasters. The backs of the heads of the statues were cut away, that they might come closer up against the capital, which was also cut away a little. The figures thus appeared to assist at least in bearing the architrave, and 80 were analogous to the famous Caryatids. Two square bases, three feet each way, with the same ornamentation as the architrave blocks, and with most shabby reliefs on one side, were seen to be bases for these figures, the plinth with the feet of one of the statues fitting exactly into the depression at the top of one of them. Thus, we can reconstruct the whole system from the bottom up. Two more large, fine female heads, with the same proportions and the same cuttings at the back, belong evidently to the same series; but nothing of their bodies has yet been recovered. One large plaque of ceiling, doubtless of the same building, containing in two of its sunken squares busts of Hellos and Selene in relief, and in a third a rosette, is supplemented by several other pieces with rosettes. As we kept on going southwest from the west end of the Propylæa, we expected to find foundations to fit all these pieces of the superstructure; but now that we seem to have got beyond the mass of them, and no foundations fitted for them appear, the probability that they come from the Propylæa, of which we have massive buttresses remaining, is greatly increased. To reconstruct the Propylæa is a large hope, and it seems now about to be realized. At any rate, the sculpture, although of Roman times, is valuable for itself. After the first flush of excitement, there followed many dull days in which we had little to record, except the removal of so many cubic metres of earth. Then came the discovery of a very fine head of Ariadne, with an ivy wreath and one hand thrown up over the head, in a state of perfect preservation; then a relief, with two ecstatic mænads most beautifully carved on a rounded block which formed a part of a base about four feet in diameter, perhaps a base for a group of Dionysos and Ariadne from which the head just mentioned came. But, not to catalogue all our finds here, I will note the crowning success of the year. About seventy-five feet southwest of the west end of the Propylæa, we came upon a platform about three feet high with a façade made of metopes and triglyphs and a coping above them, with red, blue, and yellow paint still covering them, making a gorgeous show even now. This façade had a length of about thirty feet, and in a part of its extent it had no platform behind it, and was simply a balustrade. At one point it was broken through. As we advanced into this opening we came upon a series of slabs on a level with the bot tom of the triglyph system. When these slabs were taken up, the earth rolled down on one side so much that those working above joked at those below to the effect that they were going to be swallowed up in the earth. In a few hours we did get down into the earth; but it was by a flight of seven steps, at the bottom of which we stood on the floor of an irregularly quadrangular room, about twenty-five feet below the surface which we had broken up. In the west wall of the room there were two rather undersized lions' heads of bronze, through the wide-open mouths of which water had once flowed. Beneath them were the round holes in the pavement in which pitchers were placed for filling. Above them there projected forward the edge of the native ledge with which we had become familiar two years ago in the fountain Peirene at the other end of the Propylæa. There was no doubt, there could be no doubt, that here we were at an ancient Greek level, and that the fountain which we have is an ancient Greek fountain, not destroyed like Glauke nor remodelled several times like Peirene, but remaining absolutely intact, an absolutely unique example. I was so staggered by it that I could hardly believe in our good luck. Mr. Kabbadias, the Ephor General of Antiquities, came out from Athens and upbraided for not being enthusiastic enough over my luck. And when he wrote about it in the papers, visitors came from Athens and elsewhere, so that we had to have a guard mounted to see that the lions' heads were not stolen. Two Cabinet members came separately yesterday afternoon. To-day, casts of the heads are being made. me Although it is certain that the fountain itself is Greek, the balustrade at the top of the steps is Roman in the sense that it was placed there when Corinth was refounded by Julius Cæsar. But it is Greek, and very interesting Greek, in that it is taken from temples which Mummius destroyed when they had all their parure fresh upon them, and convey to us a lively impression of the distribution of color on a Doric temple. Pausanius never saw the buildings from which they come, for when he visited the place they had ceased to exist for more than three hundred years. And he was too much engaged in recording sacred things to mention this balustrade made of their remains, beautiful though it must have been. He does, indeed, I think, mention this fountain without noticing the balustrade especially; for this is in the agora, and he mentions a single fountain there, one on which stood a bronze statue of Poseidon with a dolphin at his feet ejecting water from its mouth. As we found a base on the above mentioned platform (which, by the way, forms the covering to the room in front of the wall with the lion's heads), it seems natural to connect this with the statue of Poseidon, even if we fail to see how the water was brought to so high a level. I must refrain from enlarging on other events of the campaign, but ought not to leave unmentioned a most exquisite votive relief found in the last days of the work, with seven small figures not more than eight inches high. The pure spirit of Greek art breathes through it, and is felt as sensibly from it as from the Parthenon frieze or from the Attic tombstones of the best period. RUFUS B. RICHARDSON. THE ECLIPSE IN TRIPOLI. TRIPOLI, BARBARY, May 29, 1900. A more nearly ideal station for observing an eclipse could hardly be imagined than the roof terrace of the old British Consulate here, whereon, through the courtesy of Mr. Jago, the Consul-General, Professor Todd has set up his instruments. Higher than all the surrounding aouses, it commands a fine view of the white city, through whose courtyards an occasional palm or blossoming oleander projects itself above the masonry; and is overlooked only by the green-capped, crescent-crowned minarets of seven or eight mosques, from which the cloaked muezzins emerge five times a day to send out their not unmelodious calls to prayer. Far beyond roofs and domes, too, one sees three sides the blue Mediterranean, and on the fourth the fringing palms of the desert, and its undulating, mysterious wastes of endless sand. on Here the "royal observatory" is established, and the Arab dwellers on surrounding roofs have watched for several weeks the growth of telescopic groves, a dignified curiosity marking their silent attention. Below, in the narrow streets, figures wrapped in the white barracan pass and repass like ghostly figures of a dream. An occasional Moslem woman showing only one bright eye, the Jewish women less covered but hardly more frequent, brown Arab boys driving flocks of goats, overburdened donkeys, stately camels-the whole Oriental procession in endless interest threads the tiny thoroughfares; and above, the long tubes have pointed skyward, waiting for the important day. When the apparatus in its many boxes first arrived, the natives imagined that the astronomer was bringing a huge balloon to convey him into the interior of the desert, and many innocent questions as to his intentions gave zest to the early days of Tripoli life. The older men, on being told that an eclipse was coming, said they remembered one years ago, but that was produced by God. This new kind, made by a Kaffir, they knew nothing about. At all events, it was not lawful to draw or depict it in any way. An eclipse was total here, or near by, according to Oppolzer, on December 31, 1861, which may be the one remembered-or possibly the annular eclipse of June 17, 1890. Just before its plunge off into the desert to the southeast, and its flight away from the earth entirely, the long path of yesterday's total eclipse covered Tripoli in a brief darkness. From Mexico very early in the morning to Barbary late in the afternoon, the swiftly flying shadow of the moon sped on its way, calling scores of astronomers. into its track. The chances for clear skies seemed greater here, and hither came Professor Todd and later Mr. Percival Lowell to interrogate the corona. The automatic system of eclipse photography, first devised by Professor Todd in Japan in 1887, carried out by pneumatic tubes in West Africa in 1889, and by electricity in Japan in 1896, he employed again, with essential modifications, using a purely mechanical force in changing the plates, and turning the controlling barrel by gravity, weights starting at the roof and descending to the bottom of the courtyard. On one great central tube were twelve telescopes, each arranged to take its own series of pictures. The upper one was a five-inch Zeiss-Clark lens by Bausch & Lomb of Rochester, fitted up as a biograph camera for taking four photographs every three seconds. A five-inch Schroeder lens, with image amplified in the ordinary way, came next, with an attachment invented by Professor Todd for photographing both the inner and outer corona on the same plate, by a series of concentric rings, successively removed as the eclipse progresseswhich he also used in Japan. Following the order of position on the tube, a quadruple camera with lenses by the Gundlach Optical Co. and C. P. Goerz of Berlin was arranged to take twelve pictures by each lens; a four-inch metal speculum succeeded, and two short focus cameras by Ross of London and Gilmer of Paris were added, to get records of possible intramercurian planets; next came a pinhole photometer for estimating the total light of the corona; a twenty-fourinch lens of thirty feet focus, the conspicuous feature of our roof observatory, was arranged for taking large-scale coronal pictures, and a box of a dozen dry plates for testing the possibility of X-rays in the corona completed the apparatus carried by the one large tube. Half of each of these plates had been previously exposed by Professor Stephan of Marseilles to the Roentgen rays, while the other half was covered with lead, waiting for what might develop on eclipse day. The whole mounting was kept accurately pointed at the sun by the glycerine clock, which has enabled very perfect following of the heavenly bodies. Like everything else in Tripoli, the standards, tubes, and all iron or brass or wood connected with the apparatus, were painted white, to avoid absorption of heat-and indeed it seemed a spectral array of telescopes for photographing a shadow. A number of small glasses to be used visually were mounted by themselves, and three or four fine meteorological instruments were put in position and used on eclipse day by Professor Ayra, director of the local observatory. As preparations approached a focus, and the eventful day drew near, the skies became an all-absorbing subject of study for the unofficial member of the Lowell Expedition. It is the dry season in Tripoli, and storms would not come, fine weather being always normal at this time; but that does not mean necessarily an absolutely cloudless sky, and there was a bare possibility, also, that it might be a "giblet" day, when the hot wind would blow straight from the central deserts, bringing a yellowish haze of imperceptible sand to thicken the atmosphere dangerously. But Sunday came, bright and warm, with a few floating clouds, and Monday morning dawned with a fresh west wind and skies of crystal .clearness. It was scarcely possible to experience any nerve tension on account of the weather, and yet I jealously watched the western sky all day, lest some wandering bit of film might dim the perfect brightness of it. And as the hour drew nearer, the same sense of expectancy, of something approaching, which has always accompanied eclipses, drew on with the minutes. From Mr. Douglass, in far-away Georgia, a gratifying cable message was received about 1:59, Greenwich time, of his success in observing the eclipse, thus beating the on-rushing moon by man's swifter messenger. We received the news in twenty-nine minutes from the time the observations were made, and two hours and twenty minutes before totality began here. The Georgia message was telegraphed to Washington; by the Western Union from Washington to New York; from there to Penzance, and thence to Gibraltar. On Prof. Todd's application and by the courtesy of Denison Pender, Esq., General Manager of the extensive lines of the Eastern Telegraph Co., and son of the late Sir John Pender, the use of the new cables from Gibraltar to Malta and Malta to Tripoli was given, which enabled this very rapid communication, and the entire worsting of the moon in its race with electricity. Gradually, the roofs about the consulate filled with a curious throng, as the afternoon began. Arabs folded in white barracans silhouetted against the sky; Turkish soldiers on their ramparts, the Franciscan monks in brown-hooded robes on their church roof, Jews and Maltese, all crowded skyward as the day advanced. The partial eclipse began, and still the people, like the Ainus of northern Yezo, looked steadily at us, and not at the sun. The adoration of Baal, once the old worship on these sites, had, indeed, given way to a scientific solar devotion of very different character. The minarets were filled with gazers, and, as the eclipse went on, the strange Gregorian chant of the call to prayer came through the still, clear air with an almost weird cadence in the peculiarly penetrating voices of the muezzins. The sky was so clear, the sunshine so dazzling, that the glare of the white roof was almost blinding, and the first change in the light which became perceptible was the increasing comfort in opening one's eyes upon the landscape. Many amateur observers had been drilled for drawing the corona, observing the shadow-bands, Bailey's beads, and other points of interest, and at a signal all went to their appointed places as totality approached. When the sun somewhat more than half hidden, the light became wan and cold, the colors of everything subdued, sad. The blue Mediterranean turned slate-color, the sky like steel. The streets and roofs, though crowded with humanity, grew singularly silent, with now and then a sound of alarm from some distant point. One man only seemed entirely oblivious to the changing light, and he, wrapped in cassiabeia in a shaded courtyard far below, was stupidly shaking barley in a sieve. was Not flying about excitedly, in a manner quite different from their nightly sunset parade. As the black moon crept nearer and nearer to the narrowing edge of the crescent sun, strange shadow-bands began to fly across the landscape at a rapid rate, and then the crescent disintegrated into drops of brilliance, and with a thrill of tingling expectation I felt the corona approaching. with jerks, as in 1887, or with a grand leap, as in 1896, the darkness came, but with a strange softness-and there hung the moon's black ball in an absolutely clear sky, while about it the corona grew into life like the blossoming of some beautiful flower of celestial light. And what an exquisite corona it was with long, delicately pointed equatorial streamers above and below, their edges luminous with white fire, their extensions lost only because the eye could not follow them to the end, the polar rays inconspicuous; and the whole with a definite structure of interwoven filaments almost an exact reproduction of the New Year's Day corona of 1889. Mercury and Venus shone brilliantly, and the sky above the desert glowed warmly yellow. But there was none of that majesty of color, that unearthly effect of a new creation, which made the Esashi eclipse of 1896 so superbly breathless. For fifty-one seconds this heavenly flower hung in the sky, and then a bit of true, dazzling sunlight returned, and totality was over. By shielding my eyes from the increasing brightness I followed the corona distinctly for over a minute after totality, until it faded away with the growing light. And gravity had done its work-endless chains of plates had passed before the lenses, pulleys had kept their place, records were made, and except for releasing the pin at the beginning, as Mrs. Jago did, to put the mechanism in motion, no hand had helped to take the hundred and fifty photographs which that pregnant fifty-one seconds had brought out. The Lowell Expedition has been peculiarly fortunate in finding on these remote African shores many friends, who made its success possible. First, her Majesty's ConsulGeneral, Mr. Jago and his delightful family, without whose more than courteous kindness the "royal observatory" could not have existed: and to Mr. W. H. Venables and Mr. W. F. Riley, the warmest thanks are due for an unselfish devotion to the mechanical part of the expedition, which insured its proper completion in ample time. So many names should be mentioned, that a complete list of the small English colony here would have to be made in order to include all who have helped us in these weeks of effort. Another total eclipse will come near Tripoli in 1905, but a fine and very long one is due here on the 2d of August, 2027. It will last about seven minutes, and I only regret that circumstances beyond our control will probably prevent our observation of its protracted glories. And so I can leave this word of hopefulness for those who regretted the spectacular brevity of yesterday's corona: "The same eclipses run their steady cycle." MABEL LOOMIS TODD. COUNT DE LA FERRONAYS. PARIS, May 30, 1900. The success obtained lately by the Memoirs of the present Countess Fernand de The air grew suddenly cold and slightly damp, and the swallows came out in masses, la Ferronays-a volume which has given rise to many discussions and comments in French society-will probably contribute in great part to the notoriety of a volume very different in its character, and belonging to severe history, namely, 'Souvenirs Derived from the Papers of Count A. de la Ferronays (1777-1814).' The Souvenirs are edited by the Marquis Costa de Beauregard, member of the French Academy, and well known by the volume which has for its title 'Un Homme d'autrefois.' The Costas de Beauregard are an old family of Savoy, which for many years was devoted to the house of Savoy. Since the annexation to France, some of its branches, which were already established in France, have adopted completely the French nationality. The Marquis Costa, who is the head of the house, took a very honorable part in the war of 1870, and has since applied himself to literary and historical pursuits. The Count de la Ferronays whose papers he now gives to the public with long comments of his own, was an émigré, who became Minister of Foreign Affairs during the Restoration, and consequently was of some importance in his time. His diplomatic career is, however, less interesting now than his life in the troubled times of the emigration. He was a modest man, and he did not write real "memoirs." "My career," he said at the age of sixty, "has not been sufficiently marked. I feel neither vanity nor humility enough to write real memoirs." The volume published by M. Costa de Beauregard is therefore made up from the letters and papers which were carefully collected by Count de la Ferronays's widow. "The husband's letters, the wife's notes, such," says M. Costa de Beauregard, "are the elements of this volume." Count Auguste de la Ferronays was born in October, 1777, at Saint Malo (where Chateaubriand also was born). His mother was a native of San Domingo; his father, Count Eugène de la Ferronays, owned plantations in the West Indies. The boy was educated in a poor old manor-house, lost in the forest of Brittany; his father was almost always either with his regiment or at Versailles, and participated in the Seven Years' War with four of his brothers. "One day, when, on their return from Germany, the La Ferronays brothers came to pay their court at Versailles, 'He! he! there is one missing,' said gayly Louis XV., counting on his fingers." The missing one was precisely the Count Eugène, who had been severely wounded at Brunswick. M. de la Ferronays himself decided to emigrate in the early days of 1790. He came to Brittany to take his son Auguste with him; the boy was only thirteen years old. They went together to Soleure in Switzerland, and joined the Bishop of Lisieux, one of their relations. The boy was placed in a school kept by the Premonstrants of Bellelay; the father joined Condé's army. The Countess de la Ferronays would perhaps have been forgotten if her desire to have news of her husband and son had not brought her to Nantes, where the sanguinary Carrier represented the Convention. She arrived with her two young daughters, who were still children. She was arrested in the street; some good people took pity on the unfortunate girls and offered them their hospitality. The next day, the children took each other by the hand, and would fain have gone to Carrier and ask him to give them back their mother. "Hospitable as they were, these good people |