years of age are permitted to continue using it, but all others must reduce their use of it twenty per cent annually. It is interesting to note the provision made in regard to those holding official and public positions. With evident recognition of the value of example in high places, a definite date is required for the abandonment of the habit. Opium dens are to be closed within six months, and physicians must render assistance to those addicted to the use of the drug by gratuitous prescriptions or at cost price. Anti-opium societies are to be established, and the diplomats are requested to arrange with their respective governments for termination of the export of the drug within ten years. This venerable nation, now that it has started on a cause of reform, is doing nothing by halves!

The famine conditions in some districts in Russia are increasingly bad, many Fraud in peasants being compelled Russia Famine to exist on pigweed and

Relief hay. To aggravate the situation, the relief appropriations from the government have been put to a fraudulent use. The Czar has appointed a committee to investigate charges against Assistant Minister of the Interior Gurko

and others for conspiracy to defraud. It appears that a contract was made by Gurko for the delivery by January 14 of thirty-six million pounds of wheat by a Swede named Lidval, who has been paid in advance more than $400,000. Food

paid for at high prices has been found unfit for use when it reached the starving peasants. Transportation facilities are also inadequate for relief measures, districts near those suffering from famine having an abundant supply, which can not be conveyed to those in need.

There seems to be a decided effort to improve the condition of the peasants. A

Reform ukase was issued NovemMeasures for ber 25 permitting them to the Peasants abandon the communal system and become individual freehold

ers.

The oppression which resulted from the establishment of the communes upon the liberation of the serfs in 1861 has increased greatly during the reign of the present emperor, and any release there

from will be some mitigation of the burdens under which the Russian peasant suffers. Local officials, however, will unfortunately still have the power largely to interpret this new law as they see fit. Another law, promulgated November 29, permits peasants to mortgage their lands for money to make improvements, purchase implements or buy more land. This provision safeguards the borrowers from usurious money-lenders, by the condition. that the money shall be obtained only from the government or the agrarian banks.

Other Russian Reforms

The demand for shorter working hours has been met by a law ordering a tenhour day for clerks in stores and offices and a fifteen-hour day in restaurants and saloons. Employees under seventeen years of age are to be given two hours' rest at noon and three hours a day for attendance at schools. A law extend

ing like privileges to factories and industrial establishments is promised. A Sunday-closing law has also been promulgated by the emperor, providing for the closing of factories and stores on Sundays and on the twelve great holidays of the Russian Church, except in such industries as can not be closed without public injury. An important reform has been instituted by the decision of the minister of justice that in future persons accused of political crimes must be tried by the ordinary civil tribunals and by the regular methods.

House of Lords

The debate on the Education Bill in the House of Lords has reached a point where The English all hopes of a compromise between it and the government appear to have been given up. The amendments made in the upper house have completely changed the tenor of the bill so that it will be impossible for the Liberal leaders to accept it.. It is a fresh instance of the obstructive policy adopted by the bishops of the Church of England toward reform measures of importance. Dr. Fairbairn is quoted as saying that "the sooner they are cleared out of it [the House of Lords] the better." Certain it is that the eventual outcome will be either the abolition or the reconstruction of the upper house. It

is also probable that the attempt to force the teaching of the Church catechism upon the common schools will result in a decision to exclude all religious teaching, and an adoption of a secular system of instruction. It is but fair to the Bishops of Hereford and Ripon to say that they cautioned their brethren against action which would provoke a revolutionary spirit, lest it should cause their own undoing. The House of Commons, which holds the public purse, can refuse any money for sectarian teaching, if it so chooses.

Changed Status

of the Congo

Free State

By the granting of concessions to a group of American capitalists for the development of mines, mines, railways and rubber cultivation in the Congo Free Question State, it is probable that the attitude of the United States government toward intervention in regard to the atrocities therein, may be materially altered. It is stated that even Secretary Root sees the matter in a new light. There is nothing like business to arouse interest in a people's wrongs! The trade relations of the United States with the Free State may give a basis for interference. The British government is also freshly aroused and Earl Grey, Secretary for Foreign Affairs, recently informed a delegation soliciting his attention to the inhumanities there practiced, that the government would take decisive action if negotiations with Belgium, now pending, did not result satisfactorily. On December 6, M. Jansen, the radical leader in the Belgian Chamber of Deputies, suggested that Belgium call an international conference for the protection of the natives of the Congo State. It really begins to look as if something would be done. Public opinion works slowly, but it works none the less.

der the present circumstances was left vacant. Hardly had this reconstructed cabinet been approved by King Alfonso, before Count Romanones resigned as minister of justice, followed on December 3 by Premier Moret. General Montero Rios, who resigned the premiership in 1905, was next asked to form another new cabinet, but declined because of the divergencies of opinion in the Liberal party. Still another ministry has been formed, with Marquis de Armijo as its head. It is doubtful if any other European country can equal Spain in the frequency of cabinet changes. Since May, 1902, there have been no less than 114 prime ministers. The present trouble is accentuated by the proposed legislation in regard to education and religious associations.

Continued disturbance in Morocco, particularly in the neighborhood of Tangier,

Anarchy

in

The

and several cases of molestation of of foreigners, Morocco have induced France and Spain to send war-ships and troops to Tangier, for use in emergency. Algeciras treaty confers this right upon these countries, and they have considered it wise to exercise it without waiting for the formal assent of the powers signatory to the treaty. Great Britain has officially notified both France and Spain of 'her approval of their action, and of her purpose not to interfere. Germany also has assured them of her assent to their course. Raisuli, the noted bandit, expelled the tribesmen from Arzilla when the Moroccan authorities were unable to do it, and because of his strength and influence, the government appealed to him. to restore order.

But the European governments propose to have order without his aid.

in German. The insurrection is no small

one.

Some forty-five thousand children have been on "strike." The sudden death of Archbishop Stablewski of Posen, who has defended the rights of the Poles, bodes ill to their cause. It is probable that a German non-sympathizer will be appointed as his successor. An impassioned protest by Henryk Sienkiewicz, the Polish novelist, was published in the British and French newspapers. He does not hesitate to accuse the German Emperor of cruel persecutions toward these aliens who have been subjected to his authority. And, as if to make matters even more unbearable, the universities in Russian Poland are to be removed.

The estimation in which the people of the German empire as a whole regard the A Practical Joke flamboyant militarism of

on German their government is to be Militarism seen in their endeavor to raise money to give a pension to Voigt.

This shoemaker, it will be recalled, after having been released from prison, found himself persecuted by the police so that he could not get honorable employment. He therefore perpetrated one of the cleverest and most daring pieces of rascality of recent years. Buying an officer's uniform in an old-clothes shop, he put himself at the head of a squad of a dozen soldiers who took him for a genuine officer, placed the mayor of the town of Koepenick, near Berlin, under arrest, and in the name of the emperor proceeded to loot the city treasury. loot the city treasury. He was subsequently arrested, put on trial and condemned. So great was the national enjoyment of his performances, and so great was the sympathy with him because of the treatment accorded him by the police that he was given a sentence of only something like four years, and there is every likelihood that when he is released he will find a comfortable pension waiting for him, raised by public subscription. The gov

ernment naturally takes the matter seriously, but if it is wise it will see in it a very clear indication of the impatience of

the Germans with the prevailing cult of the army and of the police. Germany is far enough from being a republic.

The height of the season has been fittingly marked by the inauguration of the Manhattan Opera House,

A Home

for a playhouse magnificent Grand Opera in proportions, dedicated solely to the production of grand opera. A special company of European artists, gathered together by impresario Oscar Hammerstein, has rendered French and Italian grand opera with marked popularity, competing successfully against the more brilliant and better established coterie under Conried's banner at the Metropolitan Opera House. This surfeit of grand opera, with such artists as Eames, Sembrich, Scotti, Fremstad and Louise Homer, and with the first production in America of the Giordano "Fedora," and Hector Berlioz's "Damnation of Faust," has made the month a memorable one in dramatic history. The first production in years of Gounod's "Romeo et Juliette" saw the American début of three artists, Geraldine Farrar, Charles Rousseliere, and M. Simard, who are destined to win permanent distinction in this country. Not so much may be said of the much-heralded American singer, Bessie Abbott, whose voice is colorless, though she imparts youth and grace to her rôles. Puccini's "Madam Butterfly, sung in English by the Savage Opera Company, is generally styled a lovely and poetic work, with the charm of intimacy. In the chief rôle, Elza Szamosy, the Hungarian prima donna, has scored a marked

Comedy of manners has been gracefully prominent in the revival of Oliver GoldPlays of Yester- Smith's "She Stoops to day and about Conquer,' presented with

Yesterday good results by William H. Crane and Ellis Jeffreys. It is a noteworthy, painstaking revival, acted by a uniformly excellent cast. The fine old comedy has lost none of its luster, even weighed against modern standards and present-day technic. Louis Evan Shipman's well constructed little comedydrama, "On Parole," in a martial setting from the confederate standpoint, is a pleasing, if not wholly a superior and commanding work. It has served to feature a rising young actress, Charlotte Walker, who is developing into a comedienne of the first rank. Perhaps the most satisfying event of the month, both in technical skill and novelty in idea, is "The Road to Yesterday," by Beulah M. Dix and Evelyn G. Sutherland. It deals plausibly with the theory of reincarnation of souls, and is presented as a vivid dream, involving a love story of delicate sentiment. It is one of the few modern comedies really worth while.