dents, 392 officials, with their families, and 34,500 miscellaneous, chiefly laborers.

The figures regarding the Japanese population in the United States, especially on the Pacific coast, where it is very difficult for consuls to gather accurate statistics, are probably below the actual numbers.

CHINA.

Through the efforts of United States Minister Denby, the long-disputed claim of the missionaries to the right to go where they please within the empire, and to have at all points the protection of the government, has finally been granted by the authorities at Pekin. Another important concession to the missionaries is the privilege of purchasing land and holding it in their own names; hitherto all foreign property has been held in the names of Chinese subjects. The promise has also been obtained, that governors who prove careless about the enforcement of law shall be more adequately punished than has hitherto been usual.

A recent British official report on the commercial and industrial condition of China during the past year, draws the following significant conclusion:

"During the past year evidences, such as increased friendliness to foreigners on the part of the educated classes and eager competition among the officials for foreign posts, have not been wanting to show that China is beginning to assume a better attitude towards the ideas and institutions of the West. 'Progress is slow and almost imperceptible, but progress there is.'

SIAM.

Throughout the month of August King Chulalongkorn of Siam was engaged in making a tour of European courts, and was everywhere received with honors appropriate to his rank. His visits may be said to have begun July 30, when he arrived off Spithead, England, and was cordially welcomed by the Duke of York. He afterward visited Germany, Holland, Belgium, Russia, Italy, and France. A visit to America had also been intended, but was deferred.

The present king of Siam, until last year, had never gone beyond the frontier of his own kingdom; and he is the first sovereign now reigning who has visited England from the Far East.

AUSTRALASIA.

The Federation Movement.-The Federation convention met pursuant to adjournment (p. 478), in Sydney, N. S. W., September 2, and adjourned September 24, to meet again in Melbourne, Victoria, in January, 1898. Queensland will be represented at the next session by delegates directly chosen by the electors in the same manner as in the other colonies, a motion in the Queensland assembly to that effect having been carried, September 16, by thirty-four votes eight-which fact indicates a more favorable attitude on the part of that colony toward the federation movement.

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In the interval after the adjournment at Adelaide last April, the draft of the proposed constitution was amended in several points by the various parliaments principally as regarded the question of state rights, power of

the senate over money bills, and means for averting a deadlock between the two houses of the federal parlia

ment.

Regarding state rights, the smaller colonies insisted on the necessity of equal representation in the senate. Victoria was ready to concede this; but New South Wales, by way of amendment, proposed proportional representation in the upper house, as in the lower, on a basis of population. This would have given to the larger colonies practical control over all federal questions. The smaller colonies carried their point at Sydney.

The New South Wales proposal was rejected; and the convention adopted, by a majority of forty-one votes to five, the principle of equal representation of all colonies, large or small, in the federal senate. It was decided that the members of the senate should be elected by each colony voting as one electorate,

and that in the case of new states entering the federation representation should not necessarily be equal.

A more difficult point to settle was that concerning power over money bills. The draft bill of the Adelaide convention had given the senate power to reject money bills. The larger colonies of Victoria and New South Wales desired that this should be the limit of the power of the upper house. The smaller colonies, whose only hope of a majority is in that house, desired, on the contrary, to give the senate full power to amend as well as to reject taxation bills. The Commonwealth bill, it will be remembered (p. 478), was almost wrecked in the Adelaide convention on this difference, but was finally saved by a compromise which allowed the senate to suggest amendments. In the discussion of this point in the various parliaments, every colony went back to the original position taken by its delegates. The smaller colonies amended the draft Commonwealth bill in the direction of giving more power to the senate. Victoria and New South Wales amended it in the opposite direction.

The decision of the convention at Sydney, having gone in favor of the smaller colonies with regard to representation in the senate, went against them in regard to the power of the senate over money bills, and it was decided that the senate should have no power to amend. By mutual agreement the compromise of Adelaide appears to have been dropped, and the discussion to have turned on the concession of power to the senate to amend or not to amend. The proposal to give the senate full power to amend money bills like other bills was rejected by 39 to 29 votes, many of the delegates of the smaller colonies voting with the majority as a return for the concession made by the larger colonies in the matter of equal representation in the senate.

On the question of the best method of dealing with deadlock between the houses, the parliamentary debates showed that a very strong diversity of opinion existed in the various colonies. The Adelaide convention had left the question open. New South Wales favored a "referendum," as did also Victoria; but, as a resort to the referendum tends to place the senate ultimately under popular control, the smaller colonies were disposed to view the adoption of the system with disfavor as tending to nullify state rights.

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Various proposals were debated at much length; and finally a compromise, suggested by a delegate from New South Wales, was adopted by the convention, which provided that in case of deadlock both houses should be simultaneously dissolved. further amendment, which was also adopted, provided that, in the event of the double dissolution proving insufficient, the matter in dispute should be decided by a three-fourths majority of both houses sitting together.

The convention decided to refer to a finance committee for special consideration and report the question of the distribution of surplus federal revenue.

The net result of the Sydney convention is thought to have brightened the prospects of federation; but undoubtedly a very serious spirit of opposition to the move

ment has developed in New South Wales and is echoed. to some extent in other colonies.

MALAYSIA.

The Philippine Revolt.-The rebellion in the Philippine islands continues in spite of all that the Spaniards can do. The insurgents have adopted a general change in tactics, the effect of which is said to be very exhausting upon the resources of Spain and to bid fair to enable the rebels to prolong the campaign indefinitely. They are now making less effort to hold the fortified towns, and have fallen back upon the Cuban method of guerrilla warfare. In the latter part of September a battle lasting several hours is said to have occurred near San Rafael. The royalists, so the report runs, were defeated with a loss of four hundred in dead and wounded, being finally forced to throw away their arms and flee.

AFFAIRS IN AFRICA.

The Nile Expedition.-Before the revolt of the Mahdi in 1882, the Khedival possessions proper comprised the whole of East Soudan and Nubia from Wadai to the Red sea, and from Upper Egypt, 1,400 miles to Lake Albert Nyanza, about 1,000,000 square miles, with a population of 10,000,000. Emin Pasha held a part of this territory until the Stanley expedition of 1889.

Since the Mahdi's revolt in 1882 the Egyptian Soudan has been divided; Dongola (100,000 square miles; population 1,000,000; capital, Khartoum) has been occupied by Egypt; Berber, Suakim, and Zeilah by the English; Massowah by the Italians. It is estimated that threefifths of the entire population of Egyptian Soudan have died by war, famine, and the slave trade in the last ten years. The exports are gold, ostrich feathers, gums, hides, and skins.

On August 7 Abu Hamed, the objective point of the Anglo-Egyptian expedition under Sir H. H. Kitchener, was captured after an eighteen hours' march and a brisk fight in which two British officers were killed. The dervishes met with heavy loss. This gave the British