"The Governor of the Cape of Good Hope says there is no steady demand for European labour in the colony; that the farmers prefer native labour; and that some years ago very great inconvenience was caused by the presence of the labourers who had been introduced for the construction of the railway and other works, and who were left in a state of destitution. There is clearly no opening for emigrants from the United Kingdom in the Cape.

"The Governor of Queensland says that for some years past the immigration into that colony has, in his opinion, been rather in excess of the demand for labour; that unless the arrival of immigrants be accompanied by the arrival of capitalists ready to employ them, disappointment will follow; that the modern system of enclosing pastoral lands has reduced the demand for shepherds, and that the one class much in demand are female domestic servants.

"The Governor of New South Wales transmits the substance of a series of Reports which he had obtained from residents in the several districts of the colony, generally members of the Legislature or magistrates. The opinions of these gentlemen vary very much, many of them being of opinion that at the present rate of wages no additional labourers could find employment; others considering that there is still a large opening for immigrants of the labouring class.

"The real state of affairs in New South Wales is obvious enough. Wages are at present so high that the amount of capital in the colony available for the purpose of labour is not more than sufficient to pay the existing labourers. The introduction of fresh labourers would, for a time, at least, reduce the rate of wages, and this the labourers are determined to resist. On the other hand, employers are cramped in their operations by the want of additional hands, and unless the want can be supplied, the progress of the colony will be arrested. A determined struggle is therefore continually going on between employers and employed: the one desiring to apply a portion of the public revenue to the introduction of immigrants; the other determined to prevent it. Hitherto the Trades Unions Organization and the numerical preponderance of the labouring class at the poll have enabled them to carry the day. How long this will be the case it is impossible to foresee. Probably, as the wealth of the colony increases, and more men rise from the condition of labourers to be employers of labour, the result may be reversed. But it is clear that the defeat of the labouring class, whenever it happens, would be but temporary, as the immigrants which that defeat introduced would at once recruit its ranks. The result must be a succession of alternate successes and defeats on the part of each, which, unfortunately there is no mediating authority to control or compose.

"Upper Canada, after an apathy of several years, has at last awakened to the importance of encouraging immigration. It has accordingly appointed agents for that purpose in the three divisions of the United Kingdom and on the Continent, and has established

a scheme for ascertaining the number and description of labourers required in each district, and for forwarding emigrants accordingly from Quebec, Montreal, and Toronto. It is calculated that Upper Canada could absorb from 30,000 to 40,000 immigrants of a good description annually; but I was informed by the Immigration Agent at Toronto that the demand for the present year had, in his opinion, been injuriously affected by the indifferent description of some of the immigrants of 1869—a fact which it is very important to bear in mind. There is nothing more certain than that the introduction into Canada of men of bad character, or confirmed idle or dissolute habits, would be strongly resented, and would probably lead to a resistance to immigration generally. It is calculated that well-conducted industrious immigrants can earn in Canada on an average one dollar a day throughout the year, provided they are willing in the winter to turn their hands to such work as the climate will allow. New immigrants, unless possessed of capital, are not calculated for settlement on wild land, the clearing of which requires special skill and knowledge.

"In Lower Canada the demand for immigrants is comparatively small, the French Canadian population being generally sufficient for the cultivation of their own lands. The only district in which emigrants from the United Kingdom would be likely to find employment is the eastern townships, and even there not to any great extent.

"In Nova Scotia and New Brunswick there is ordinarily but little opening for immigrant labour. The construction, however, of the intercolonial railway will create a demand for labourers during the next year or two, though to what extent I am at present unable to say.'

FOREIGN HISTORY,

CHAPTER I.

FRANCE.

New Year's Day at Paris-Ollivier Cabinet-Assassination of Victor Noir by Prince Pierre Bonaparte-M. Rochefort and the Marseillaise-Funeral of Victor Noir-M. Rochefort arrested-Riots of February-Debates on Commercial Treaty -Speech of M. Thiers-Strike at the Creuzot Iron-works-Debates in the Chamber-Trial of Pierre Bonaparte-Death of Count de Montalembert-Senatus Consultum-Plebiscite proposed-Imperial Proclamation-Beaury Conspiracy-Plebiscite, May 8-Announcement of its result to the Emperor-Imperial Manifesto -Changes in Ministry-Political Parties-M. Gambetta-Want of confidence in Ministry-Affair of M. Clement Duvernois-Debate on St. Gothard RailwayPetition of Orleans Princes-The Drought-M. Prevost Paradol-Budget-Trial of Seditious Operatives.

THE new year at Paris opened with its accustomed ceremonies. At noon on Saturday, the 1st January, the Court of the Tuileries was thronged with visitors and attendants, Ministers of State, officers of the household, Marshals and Admirals, Judges and Privy Councillors, Professors, Clergy, and Municipalities, and the representatives of foreign powers, all coming to offer their salutations to the Emperor Napoleon III. The representatives of the Bonaparte and Murat families were also there, and ladies as well as gentlemen of rank and fashion caused the state rooms to blaze with brilliant costumes. Shortly after the conclusion of mass in the chapel of the palace, the Emperor proceeded to the throne-room, and there delivered, in reply to the congratulations of the Corps Diplomatique, his customary New Year's speech, stating his assurance that he recognized in their address "a new proof of the good relations existing between France and foreign powers," and expressing a hope that the new year would tend to increase concord and the advancement of civilization. On Monday, the 3rd, the Corps Législatif met, and re-elected M. Schneider as its President. On the same day, the new cabinet of M. Emile Ollivier was officially received by the Emperor and Empress. M. Ollivier, deputy for the Var, a member of the Left Centre or moderate Liberal party, had been entrusted with the post of Prime Minister after the retirement of the Rouher Ministry in December; and his advent to office was looked upon as the final and satisfactory triumph of those enlightened opinions which had for long years aimed at restricting the action of personal government and extending the liberties of the subject.

The general election of May, 1869, though nominally the expression of the public sentiment of the French people, had, indeed, been notoriously far more the work of the Imperial prefects, seeking to

turn that sentiment into the channels most convenient for the in

terests of the supreme power. And yet the real bearings of the event proved to be something very different from its outward aspect. The numerical majority of the Assembly by no means embodied its actual strength. The town population had in a vast majority of instances defeated the systematic efforts of the Government; and the fixed opinion required for victories such as these, represented a much greater amount of moral force than did the inert or interested acquiescence of other constituencies. It was, however, from the Parliamentary majority pur et simple, that Ollivier was bound by the terms of his commission to choose his colleagues. Accordingly, he made overtures at first, whether seriously may be doubted, to the members of the "Right Centre" or moderate Imperialists. Ultimately, however, he found his principal colleagues in those who sympathized with his own political views; and the "homogeneous" cabinet which, in accordance with the expressed desire of the Emperor, he succeeded in forming, stood on the 3rd of January as follows:-M. Ollivier, Minister of Justice or Keeper of the Seals; Count Daru, Foreign Affairs; M. Chevaudier de Valdrôme, Interior; M. Buffet, Finance; M. Ségur, Public Instruction; M. Louvet, Commerce M. de Talhouet, Public Works; and M. Richard, Fine Arts. Of these, Daru, Buffett, Louvet, and Talhouet were strongly pronounced Liberals of the "Left Centre." Marshal Le Bœuf was continued in his post of Minister of War, in which he had succeeded Marshal Niel; and Admiral de Rigault de Genouilly in that of Minister of Marine. Marshal Vaillant also retained his office of Minister of the Emperor's household. Thus, at any rate, the Liberalism of the new Government was not pitched too high for the conservation in part of the traditions of the recent all powerful imperialism. One sacrifice indeed was demanded, which the Emperor demurred to at first. Baron Haussmann, the Autocratic re-builder of Paris, the lavish expender of the national millions, was no longer to be Prefect of the Seine. M. Chevreau, hitherto Prefect of the Rhone, was installed at the Hotel de Ville in his place.

On the very day that the Corps Législatif met to inaugurate the new régime, an event took place which, in itself and in its consequences, shook the now somewhat delicate fabric of imperialism, and put to an immediate and severe test the devices by which its chief had laboriously endeavoured to strengthen its foundations. It was one of those incidents which strike, comet-like, across the path of ordinary political evolutions, which no prevision could have anticipated, and whose results are incalculable, because they proceed from the eccentricities of passion, and not from plan or premeditation.

Prince Pierre Bonaparte, third son of Lucien, and, therefore, first cousin of the reigning Emperor, originally a red-hot Republican in his opinions, and a reckless bravo in habits and temperament, after wandering half over the world, and taking part in various revolutionary plots and insurrections in the Eastern and Western hemispheres, fighting duels and incurring personal quarrels innumerable,

had married the daughter of a working man in the Faubourg St. Antoine, and taken up his residence in the Rue d'Auteuil. Neither his opinions nor his habits were to the taste of his imperial cousin ; and though he received a pension from Napoleon III., Prince Pierre was not admitted to be a visitor at his Court. When not in action, his turbulent spirit found vent in pen and ink warfare, and in spite of his Republican proclivities, he had lately entered the lists in a feud between two Corsican journals, to defend the memory of his uncle, the great Napoleon, against the organ of the Republican party in the island from whence the Bonapartes drew their origin. The coarse and extravagant abuse he heaped upon his opponents, in an article in the Avenir de Corse signed with his name, called forth not only a fairly temperate reply in the rival journal, the Revanche, whose Paris representative was M. Grousset, but also a smart personal attack in the famous Paris journal the Marseillaise, whose well-known editor was M. Henri Rochefort. On the appearance of the latter article Prince Pierre lost no time in sending a challenge to M. Rochefort. Meanwhile M. Grousset, on his part, resolved to challenge Prince Pierre for the offensive expressions in the Avenir de Corse. He entrusted his message to M. Ulric de Fonvielle, one of the staff of the Marseillaise, and to another young journalist known as Victor Noir, but whose real name was Salmon. These envoys accordingly proceeded to Auteuil in the quality of M. Grousset's seconds. Arrived at the house of Prince Pierre, they were ushered upstairs into a saloon, where presently the Prince joined them. They handed him M. Grousset's letter. The Prince, read it, crushed it in his hand, and returned it to his visitors, saying, "I provoked M. Rochefort because he is the standard-bearer of crapulism. I have no answer to give M. Grousset. Are you conjointly responsible (solidaires) with these carrion (charogne)?" "We come," was the reply, "to fulfil a commission courteously." "Do you" persisted the Prince "share the opinion of these wretches?" "We share those of our friends," rejoined Victor Noir. At this instant the Prince struck Victor Noir with his left hand, drew a revolver with his right from his trousers pocket, and fired point blank. Victor Noir received the shot, rushed into the street and dropped down dead. The Prince meanwhile fired at Fonvielle, and while the latter was trying to draw his own revolver out of his case, placed his back against the door and took a second aim. Fonvielle, however, succeeded in escaping through another door, and the Prince rushing after him, fired through Fonvielle's overcoat as he was descending the staircase. Such was the account of the transaction given by Fonvielle himself. The Prince related that after reading Grousset's letter, he observed that "he would fight with Rochefort willingly, but not with one of his workmen." "I had," he said, "my right hand in my pocket, on my little five-shot revolver, and my left hand was raised in an energetic attitude; then the tall man (M. Noir) struck me a heavy blow in the face." He admitted that he then fired point blank at his antagonist. As to the blow on the face no evidence was forth