OCCURRENCES more interesting than the Chinese imbroglio of 1882 now turned American eyes abroad.

Close after President Garfield's funeral followed an event which for some days attracted the world's attentionthe centennial celebration of Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown, Va. The hamlet of Yorktown is seated on a sandy river-bank among the vestiges of the two sieges it has sustained, that of 1781 and that of 1861, the Confederate works thrown up in the last-named year not having completely erased the defences erected by Cornwallis. The Confederate fortifications were to be seen in 1881, as also some of McClellan's approaches. The site of Washington's headquarters, still known as "Washington's Lodge," was pointed out two and a half miles back from the river. The buildings were burned during the civil war, but the house had been rebuilt. The old Nelson House, gray, ivy-grown, massive, was standing, while a mile away was the Moore House, Cornwallis's quarters at the time of his surrender. Its exterior was tricked out with red, yellow, and green paint, effects which, inside, aesthetic" wall-paper and gaudy carpets strove to match.

Once redeemed from the British and once from Confederate rule, the village was now, for a few days, rescued from its own loneliness. There was some complaint that locality was not ignored and the anniversary celebrated where modern conveniences were at hand. Such were the dust and heat of Yorktown on the first day of the fête that pilgrims admired Cornwallis's good sense in surrendering as quickly as decency allowed, that he might go elsewhere. The second day was twenty degrees colder, and dusters gave way to ulsters. Truly vast preparations had been originally planned, but so obvious were the discomforts which

could not but attend a long sojourn at the place, that the programme was radically docked. The events that were left, however, amply repaid for their trouble all who saw them.

Arrangements had been making at Yorktown for a month, during which time the sandbanks all about were in a stir, such as neither Cornwallis nor Magruder's cannon-wheels had occasioned. When the day marking the anniversary of the Briton's surrender arrived, a score of great war-ships, with other craft of various sorts, lined the river up and down, while shanties and tents covered the landscape in all directions. Wagons, buggies, and carriages by hundreds came and went, frequent among them the two-wheeled family vehicle of the Virginia negro, attached by a rope harness to a scrawny "scalawag. "scalawag." Strains of martial music, the thunder of heavy guns, throngs of civilians and of soldiers, thieves and gamblers plying their art unmolested till a welcome detachment of Richmond police arrived-all conspired to waken the little place from the dead. To the credit of the Post-office Department, no hitch occurred when mails multiplied from three a week to two a day, and the daily delivery of letters mounted from fifty to five thousand.

The celebration began on October 18th, "Surrender Day." Troops had been pouring in all night and the influx increased at dawn. Some had marched far and swiftly. Captain Sinclair's battery of the Third Artillery had covered the distance from Fort Hamilton, New York Harbor, to Yorktown, 470 miles, in twenty-one marching days. At ten o'clock the Tallapoosa, bearing the President and most of his Cabinet, came up the river, being saluted as she passed the batteries. At this notice "the yards of the ships of war were manned"-the account reads quaintly after the lapse of but fourteen years. For ten minutes smokeclouds covered the river and the boom of ponderous cannon quenched all other sounds. Behind the Tallapooss were vessels bringing the Secretary of the Navy, the Secretary of War, and General Sherman. Distinguished foreign guests came too, descendants

Wednesday, October 19th, was devoted to the ceremony of laying the corner-stone of the Yorktown Centennial Monument. Commemorative exercises formed the feature of Thursday. President Arthur delivered an address, the Marquis de Rochambeau responding in French, Baron von Steuben in German, all three being loudly applauded. Hon. Robert C. Winthrop pronounced the oration of the day. The presence of Steuben and Rochambeau, of Generals Sherman and Wade Hampton, of Hancock, the favorite and hero of the festival, and Fitz Hugh Lee, hardly second to him in receipt of applause, naturally suggested the themes of concord and reunion. Among those who shook hands with President Arthur was the widow of President John Tyler. At the conclusion of these exercises all the troops passed in review before the President. It was the most brilliant military pageant seen since the war. Northern visitors noticed, with pleasure, that many of the Southern commands wore uniforms of blue. On Thursday evening fireworks were displayed. All the war vessels were illuminated. The flagship Franklin so disposed her lights as to bring out the outlines of her hull and rigging with charming effect. The celebration ended on Friday with a naval review, embracing all the men-of-war in the harbor. A graceful and handsome deed, acknowledged by the British press, was the salute paid by the entire fleet to the Union Jack hoisted at the foremast of each vessel.

In 1884 occurred an event presaging change in the time-honored foreign policy of the United States. Our diplomatic representatives took leading part in the Berlin Conference of that year, a conference which dealt with important questions touching the Dark Continent.

STANLEY AND THE CONGO

IN September, 1876, Leopold II., King of the Belgians, had convened at his palace a conference of African travellers, to discuss the best means of opening equatorial Africa. Half a year later a Congress was convoked at the same place, where appeared delegates from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States. A committee of three, headed by the King, and including General Henry S. Sanford, of Florida, representing the English-speaking races, recommended the formation of an International African Association to found "hospitable and scientific" stations in Africa under the association's own flag. A chain of such stations was formed from Zanzibar to Lake Tanganyika.

The royal enterprise was advertised. to the world mainly by the labors of Henry M. Stanley. Born in 1841, near Denbigh, Wales, where he was known as John Rowlands, from three years of age to thirteen the lad lived and was schooled inside St. Asaph Poor-house. He later ascribed all his success to the education here received. When sixteen he shipped for New Orleans, where he found a foster-father in a trader named Stanley, whose name he assumed and henceforth bore. At the outbreak of the civil war his energy took a military turn, and the man who was later reverenced by the Congo blacks as "Father and Mother of the Country," enlisted on the pro-slavery side, because, as he explained, he then knew no better. He was taken prisoner, escaped at night by swimming a river amid a storm of bullets, and made for Wales, but not to stay. Returning, he enlisted once more, this time in the Federal navy, acting presently as ensign on the flagship Ticonderoga. young man is said to have once swam five hundred yards under fire, to attach a hawser to a Confederate steamer, which was thus made prize. Peace restored, the path of a newspaper correspondent in wild and distant lands attracted the bold fellow; and we find him by turns in Spain, Turkey, and Syria.

The

Stanley's fame was not sealed, however, till James Gordon Bennett, of the New York Herald, despatched him to the Dark Continent to "find Livingstone." More explicit directions would have been impossible at the time, as well as needless and insufferable for Stanley. The new explorer found the old one, who refused to return to civilization before completing his explorations. Livingstone died in Africa, his work still incomplete, but it was taken up and astonishingly supplemented by his strong successor. The Queen sent Stanley a gold snuff-box set with diamonds. France decorated him with the cross of the Legion of Honor. Bismarck entertained him. Leopold II. treated him as if he had been a prince of the blood. The poor-house boy became the most famous man on earth.

After Stanley had discovered the Upper Congo in 1877, "The Comité d'Etudes of the Upper Congo," a branch, or perhaps a partner, of the International African Association, devoted its labors to that region. In 1884 General Sanford wrote: "This work has developed into extraordinary proportions and has had for practical result the opening, up to civilizing influence and to the world's traffic this vast, populous, and fertile region, securing certain destruction to the slavetrade wherever its flag floats." The flag -blue, with a golden star in the centre was as yet unrecognized. The United States, so prominent in the inception of the enterprise, was the first to recognize it. In his annual message for 1883, President Arthur calls attention to the work of the association, "of which a citizen of the United States is the chief executive officer."

The succeeding April the Secretary of State found himself authorized to proclaim "that in accordance with the traditional policy of the United States, which enjoins their careful attention to the commercial interests of American citizens, avoiding at the same time all interference in the controversies engaged in between other powers or the conclusion of alliances with foreign nations, the Government of the United States declares its sympathy with and approbation of the humane and noble

object of the International Association of the Congo, acting in the interest of the Free States established in that region, and commands all officers of the United States, either on land or sea, to recognize the flag of the International Association as that of a friendly gov ernment."

This step was much criticised abroad. The scramble for " a piece of Africa" had begun, and the association, which, unrecognized, might be a cat's-paw, once recognized became a rival. France and Portugal, each of whom had her claim (one very ancient, the other just hatched, but both much cackled about) to lands occupied by the association, were especially nettled. Had the claims mentioned been fully conceded the new State would have been left without seacoast. The adjustment gave to the blue-flag nation a coast frontage of from thirty to forty miles north from the Congo estuary, as well as a vast empire of back country. More vital ends than these touching the African continent waited to be attained, appealing to "the commercial interests of American citizens," and to their "sympathy" and "approbation." Besides, Americans had founded Liberia, American missionaries were not few in Africa, a wealthy American journalist had furnished the means and a famous American explorer performed the task of rescuing Dr. Livingstone. All these facts aroused public interest here and led to our participa tion in the Berlin Conference.

This step was as fiercely criticised at home as our recognition of the blue flag had been abroad. The timid shrieked appeal to the Monroe doctrine. Our commercial interests in Africa, it was said, were small, even in posse. Considered as disinterested, the action was denounced as meddling. We should regret it, critics said, when the Nicaragua controversy reached an acute phase. The correspondent of the London News considered the conspicuous part taken by our delegates in the conference an intimation that this country was henceforth to be more active in foreign affairs.

The conference assembled on November 19, 1884. It was formally opened by Prince Bismarck, who stated its main objects to be: 1. To secure free naviga

tion and trade on the River Congo. 2. To secure free navigation of the River Niger. 3. To determine the formalities to be in future observed for the valid annexation of territory on the African continent. The neutralization of the Congo and Niger, an American proposition, put forward by our delegate, Mr. Kasson, was attained in part, not perfectly, owing to the opposition of France. The motion to restrict the sale of liquor in the Congo basin, though introduced by Italy, was also of American origin. It was bitterly assailed by Germany and Holland, but was partly realized afterward. The United States, with England, joined the enlightened King of the Belgians in securing provisions for the preservation and amelioration of native races, the suppression of slavery and the slave-trade, and the encouragement of all religious, scientific, and charitable enterprises, with perfect religious liberty for white and black. Arrangements were made to include the neutralized strip in the Postal Union.

Subsequent events have justified Stanley's assertion that the course of the United States toward the new sovereignty was "well worthy of the great republic." The aborigines no longer dread the merciless Arab slave-raider, for his power is broken. Cannibals who in 1877 assailed Stanley with flights of poisoned arrows are now enlisted in the little standing army of the Free State. The sale of liquor, arms, and gunpowder has been restricted. Commerce has more than doubled the proportions it had when the conference rose. A railroad around Livingstone Falls has been begun and part of it is in operation.

ENGLAND AND CENTRAL AMERICA

WHILE the Congo episode was broadening American ideas of the Monroe doctrine, events in Central America led to the emphatic reassertion of that doctrine. M. de Lesseps's ill-starred attempt to ditch the Isthmus of Panama was begun in 1881. The prospect of its success raised anew questions of neutrality and control over land or water routes joining the oceans. During President Taylor's administration

the United States had requested Great Britain to withdraw her pretensions to the Mosquito Coast, that Nicaragua and ourselves might join to construct a canal from there to the Pacific. Great Britain declined, but signified her consent to a treaty admitting her to a share in the protection of the proposed canal. The Clayton - Bulwer treaty resulted, having in view, so far as the United States was concerned, the encouragement of a canal enterprise under the so-called "Hise" grant made us by Nicaragua. The treaty declared that neither government should " ever ob tain or maintain for itself any exclusive control over the said ship-canal,” or "occupy, or fortify, or colonize, or assume or exercise any dominion over Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the Mosquito Coast, or any part of Central America," the last provision, however, not to apply to the British settlement at Belize. The governments further agree to "facilitate the construction of the said canal by every means in their power," to protect it and to guarantee its neutrality. The eighth article of the treaty extends the agreement "to any other practicable communications, whether by canal or railway, across the isthmus.

On

The projected canal was never begun, and interest in the subject subsided until after the war. It was revived by the attempt of France to join us, perhaps with other nations, in guaranteeing the neutrality of the new isthmus route which de Lesseps was designing. March 8, 1880, in a special message, President Hayes said: "The United States cannot consent to the surrender of control (over an interoceanic canal) to any European power or to any combination of European powers." Hayes evidently assumed that the British guaranty mentioned in the ClaytonBulwer treaty had relation solely to the schemes then in mind.

dinary and exceptional conditions, and operating, as it would in case of war, to place the canal in the hands of England's navy. He said: "As England insists, by the might of her power, that her enemies in war shall strike her Indian possessions only by doubling the Cape of Good Hope, so the United States will equally insist that the canal shall be reserved for ourselves, while our enemies, if we shall ever be so unfortunate as to have any, shall be remanded to the voyage around Cape Horn." In declining Blaine's proposition to modify the treaty Lord Granville pointed out the great interest of his country and of the whole civilized world in an unobstructed passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific. He painted "the melancholy spectacle" of "competition among the nations in the construction of fortifications to obtain the command over the canal and its approaches," a consequence apprehended (in other words, threatened) by her Majesty's government, should the United States persist in demanding supreme authority over the canal.

Under Mr. Frelinghuysen, President Arthur's Secretary of State, the controversy assumed a tenor more legal and less journalistic. The Clayton-Bulwer treaty he thought certainly voidable at our option. It had applied only to interoceanic ways definitely contemplated or in prospect in 1850, especially to a canal under the grant of 1849 from Nicaragua, a grant which the United States, "poor in money and floating capital," was unable by herself to make effective. In consideration of the speedy construction of the canal and of Great Britain's withdrawal from adjoining soil, our Government had "consented to waive the exclusive and valuable rights which had been given to them; consented to agree with Great Britain that they would not occupy, fortify, colonize, or assume dominion over any part of Central America, and consented to admit her Majesty's government at some future day to a share in the protection which they have exercised over the Isthmus of Panama." But, through Great Britain's fault alone, the proposed canal had never been constructed, while the tolerated mahogany - cutting "set

tlement at Belize" had been, in contravention of the treaty, erected into a veritable colony.

Under an international guarantee of neutrality, Mr. Frelinghuysen argued, a canal across the isthmus "would affect this republic in its trade and commerce; expose our western coast to attack; destroy our isolation; oblige us to improve our defences and increase our navy and possibly compel us, contrary to our traditions, to take an active interest in the affairs of European nations." On the other hand, the political interest of this country as sole guarantor would not necessarily conflict with the material interest of other nations, to whose free use the canal would still be open. International agreements of the kind proposed by Lord Granville our Secretary declared in peace useless, in times of dissension unenforceable.

The discussion was, for the time, closed at the end of 1882, when the British Secretary announced England's conclusions, as follows: "The meaning. and effect of Article viii." (as widening the scope of the treaty and establishing a general principle) "are not open to any doubt; the British Government have committed no act in relation to British Honduras or otherwise which can invalidate that treaty and justify the United States in denouncing it; and no necessity exists for removing any of the provisions of that treaty."

Many pronounced our opening of this question unwise, a foolish manifestation of a " jingo" policy. Mr. Blaine's spirited manner in the discussion was par ticularly reprehended. The criticism was unjust. The imbroglio was not of Mr. Blaine's creation, but came to him with the state portfolio from Secretary Evarts, upon whom it had been thrust by the action of Colombia, incited by France. Mr. Blaine's despatches upon the subject, perhaps less able than those of Evarts or those of Frelinghuysen, and almost dangerously bold in tone, yet take the only ground which a patriotie American Secretary of State could have assumed. Had Mr. Blaine been as reckless as many thought him, he would have moved to denounce the treaty forthwith and risk the consequences; but the time had not come for that.