ed and leaped. The hoofs wolloped on the lane; the wheels rattled; brr-oom! across the bridge; up the road, under the maples and stopped at the stable door.

Peart sprang out and literally tore the animals away from the rig. Panting like dogs they plunged into the stalls.

"Pearty!" It was the widow's voice right at the stable door.

Peart turned and faced her. With a thrill of self-recovery he folded his arms and, for a moment, would not speak. He had shown his passion to one woman that night. He would hide it from this one.

"Mother," he said with mocking emphasis," it takes an old man to fool a knave. We shall never catch him. But," setting his teeth, "if I could get the fingers you taught knavery to on that money, they should tear it to bits so small not even your eyes could tell them. Ha! ha!"

The owl caught up the rest. Right over the barn somewhere its cold, hideous whinny cursed the night. The widow heard it and sprang to the stable-door.

It was already barred inside. She could hear Peart unharnessing the horses. It was getting colder.

VII. ANOTHER ATTEMPT.

Minerva Falconer slept not a wink that night. She was up next morning at dawn. So was Peart; and out drawing corn when Caleb Tooze came downstairs to breakfast.

Minerva said nothing to the old man, as she helped Molly wash the clutter of dirty dishes left by the bee and the dance; didn't even notice him as he took his hat and cane and wandered out. He was in his shanty building a fire before the dishes were done. The rising wind beat the smoke down over the slashing.

Minerva said not a word at dinner. Neither did Peart, who went out draw

ing corn again before he fed his horses Neither did Molly.

oats.

In the afternoon it started to spit snow past the window. Minerva took a shawl and went out. She might have got on with Peart to ride as he was just driving out of the lane again and down the road for another load of corn. But she preferred to walk. Perhaps, if she had carried a basket as she usually did when she visited Caleb Tooze, it had been different. But she carried nothing that afternoon as she entered the lane and went back to the shanty, except the shawl over her head and the look of Roman resolution on her face.

She entered without knock. Caleb sat hunched over his knees and hands by the stove, looking as though he hadn't been away for a year. He squirmed a little and the chair squeaked as Minerva entered and, without removing the shawl from her head, stood by the table eyeing him with mournful severity. The unconscionable little knot!

It was no use to say anything. Caleb, doubtless, had a pain in his head. But if she began to talk she would have need of the tower of Babel before she finished.

The fire was low. Minerva opened the front door of the stove. A gust of wind blew down the pipe and puffed the ashes out white. Caleb moved a little, but said nothing. She opened the door. A dead leaf hopped on the step and slid across to the old man's feet. He merely changed legs, pulled up his collar and shivered. The dying coals clinked in the stove. The quilt on the bed waved its edge in the wind. The widow pulled down the blinds. The shanty got dark in the corners. Standing over the old man in the dull light from the door Minerva bent her head.

NOW that the Canadian Government

has decided to assume fiveeighteenths of the cost of an all-British Pacific Cable, and the British Columbia Government two-eighteenths, the details of the scheme may be considered.

In 1896, an Imperial Committee investigated the proposal to lay a cable from British Columbia on the west coast of Canada to some point in the Australasian colonies. The Earl of Selborne was chairman of this Committee; while Lord Strathcona and the Hon. A. G. Jones represented Canada. Their report was completed about the first of the year 1897, but was not published by the Imperial Government until recently.

A

Practicability.-The Committee believed the project to be practicable, but suggested a preliminary survey. They stated, however, that the information to hand was quite sufficient to justify the making of the cable contemporaneously with the survey. recent despatch from Victoria, B.C., (May 11th) says that the British survey ship Egena has been instructed to prepare to survey the proposed route. This looks as if the Imperial Government was willing to, at least, bear the expense of a survey. Whether it is willing to assist in arrangements looking to the manufacture of a cable in the meantime remains to be seen.

Route.-The Committee recommended that the route should be from Vancouver via Fanning or Palyrma Island, Fiji and Norfolk Island, with branches from the latter to Queensland and New Zealand. Laid in this way, the cable would be all-British, and thus meet the expressed wishes of the Canadian and Australasian Governments. Length. The length of cable would be 7,986 miles. The connections would be via the Commercial Cable Company to Canso, Nova Scotia, and then across the continent by the Canadian Pacific telegraph. This would mean consider

able business for these two companies, and the Committee seemed to be of the opinion that some arrangement should be made with them. It would seem quite reasonable that the Governments concerned should demand from these two companies either a special rate on all business given to them, or a percentage of the receipts on all business originating from the laying of the cable. This is a point to which, undoubtedly, the Canadian Government will give its serious consideration before an agreement is finally approved.

Cost. The size and weight of the cable depends upon the speed required for transmission. The Committee concluded that a core of 552 pounds of copper and 368 pounds of gutta percha to the nautical mile might be expected to give 40 paying letters per minute. This would be a capacity of 1,620,000 words a year of three hundred days of eighteen hours each. One company offered to lay a cable of this class for £1,517,000, this sum including the erection at each station of a suitable dwelling house and operating room with duplicate sets of all proper instruments; also the use of two cable-repairing ships, with the cost of maintaining them as well as the cables themselves for three years. The working expenses would be £22,000 a year, while replacing and repair vessels would bring this up to £92,000 a year. Estimating the capital at £1,500,000 and the replacement period of this capital at fifty-years, the following table shows the total cost per year: Interest at 234 p.c.

Interest
Sinking Fund.

Working Expenses.
Maintenance

Total

£ 41,250

14,311

22,000

70,000

£147,561

It will thus be seen that the total cost per year would be about $700,000. If the South Australian Government and the Eastern Extension Telegraph Com

pany should require to be paid for loss of trade, the cost would be correspondingly increased.

Revenue.-The Committee estimated the revenue would be 750,000 words for the first year, and ten per cent. increase each subsequent year. At two shillings a word, this would net £75,ooo the first year; £82,500 the second year; and £90,750 the third year. It would require a rate of about three shillings per word to equalize revenue and cost.

Ownership.-The Committee was of the opinion that the cable should be owned and worked by the Governments interested. In this decision the Committee expressed its disapproval of the subsidy arrangement, thus reading a

lesson to such Governments as ours which seem to have bound themselves

up with the subsidy principle for all public undertakings.

Management.The Committee favoured the general direction of the cable being in the hands of a manager in London. Just why Lord Selborne

and his associates desired to have the management in London instead of in British Columbia or in Queensland is difficult to imagine. The general director should be at one end of the cable, or close to one end of it, not 6,000 miles away from the nearest end. If it is desired to have the management in a governmental city, why not choose Ottawa? Canada's contribution to the project is greater than Great Britain's.

ON

N more than one occasion Lord Salisbury has declared, with gentle satire, that the worst enemies a Foreign Minister has to face are the necessity of making speeches, and the premature publicity given to the negotiations. In spite of these trying obstacles the British Foreign Minister has been able to spring a surprise upon an eager critical generation of newspaper readers by his agreement with Russia. It may only be a truce, since each country has a profound distrust of the other, but for the present at least, it appears, the danger of a war with Russia over the Chinese question is removed. England is to have her sphere of influence in China, and Russia's clutch upon the north is to tighten into Ever since the a permanent hold. Crimean war Russia has had, not unjustly, a suspicion of English diplomacy, while by far the most potent elements in English politics are possessed of the idea that Russia is a dangerous friend and a still more dangerous enemy. But Russia needs British cap

ital and the British market, while England is always ready for peace-on her own terms-with anyone.

The Peace Conference at the Hague may now meet without fear that a war will break out during its deliberations. It will be composed of able men, but the general opinion is that their discussions can be little more than academic. There are some things which cannot be carried out, and a disarmament policy is one of them. The position of England is peculiar; she of all countries would suffer most from war and at the same time can best bear the burden imposed by the cost of armies and fleets. The navy is the real source of her strength, but since it is essential to preserve a world-wide empire, its withdrawal is an impossibility. In the abstract, no doubt, the English delegates to the Conference will talk peace until their eyelids can no longer wag. but when it comes to breaking up these magnificent fleets which are at once the

pride and safety of the Empire, the Government that would propose such a policy would soon be on its last legs. But Russia, France, Italy and Austria are borne down by taxation for war purposes and it is quite reasonable that those countries should discuss the pros and cons of disarmament.

In France the wearisome Dreyfus case still drags on and the fate of Ministries and the honour of the army hang upon the issue. If one knew the real mood of Paris at this time one could predict with tolerable certainty the immediate future of the country. Abandoned by Russia in the attempt to bait England, the French Government has been obliged to drop its hectoring tone and to settle its African difficulties on a basis that appears to be a fair compromise. The French may be asking themselves the real value of an alliance which failed them just when it was most needed. The commercial interests that centre round the Paris Exposition are probably shaping policy to some extent and preparations go on for that interesting and money-yielding event.

Doubt is thrown upon the cablegrams from South Africa which are said to be doctored to suit one side or the other. The trouble with the Transvaal continues a festering sore, and at no time since its occurrence is the criminal folly of the Jameson Raid more clearly recognized. Mr. Rhodes is unquestionably a man of great force and ability, but, right or wrongly, the view prevails that his policy is not a purely patriotic one but is dictated to an appreciable extent by the interests of selfish capitalists of whom he himself is a central figure. The abilities of Sir Alfred Milner, the Governor at the Cape, are now being brought into play and bereft of German assistance it remains to be seen how long the stubborn mediævalism of President Kruger can hold out. The Uitlanders have a substantial grievance in the deprivation of political rights, but behind this loom

the interests of investors whose cries are quite as loud and quite as effective in our time as those of downtrodden civilians who want votes and schools and the precious privilege of open agitation so dear to democratic hearts.

Mr. Rhodes has spoken so highly of the prospects of finding gold in Rhodesia that a rush to that region is regarded as probable. When Mr. Selous, the noted hunter of big game, spoke on the prospects of Rhodesia, in his address at Toronto two years ago, he was interpreted as damning the region with faint praise. In London there is a fear that too great expectations may be formed of Rhodesia. But the English find South Africa a fascinating field for investment and must be left to acquire their own experience.

In Great Britain, Parliament is much occupied with the passage of the London Bill, a municipal question, it is true, but one of vast import, affecting the greatest city in the world. No Englishman dreams of grudging the time spent upon rearranging the local government of those communities which are huddled together in so unwieldy a mass that one elective body cannot possibly attend to their affairs. Mr. Balfour, with his usual insight and urbanity, is aiding the passage of the bill, the principle of which is generally accepted, in spite of great controversy over the details. The agitation against ritualism continues with unabated force and the ultimate end of the fight is very difficult to foresee. It is a lay movement of unusual persistency, and the prelates and the Government are visibly embarrassed. As time goes on it may furnish a battle-cry to the Opposition, since extension of the franchise, reform of the House of Lords, and disestablishment, are almost the last steps which militant Radicalism has to take toward the setting up of a real democracy. In Scotland two of the Presbyterian Churches, the Free Kirk and the U. P. Church are taking