'Yue Spectator under the title of the "New House of Cards" deals with Mr. Parnell's acceptance of Mr. Cecil Rhodes' invitation to him and his followers to retain their seats in Westminster, and advocate Colonial representation there. It offers many weighty objections to local parliaments and against the federalisation of the Empire. Among other objections to an Imperial parliament which it offers is this, that any ministry which opposed the desire or will of a local parliament would soon be turned out of ellice, by the coalition of the representatives of that country with those of the three others, by which the United Kingdom is to be governed. It presses this view home by oaths ver hen, for which Liberals inated that, the Irieh representives The very " then, for which so man}
Should be retained in the Imperial Parliament, would be defeated by the very machinery by which it was intended to be enforced." The Imperial lon ug become, simply Jocal assertion of self-will, and. the new helpless for the purpose of ove an} Setearchy, Ppa reeeanule noe so much as which babies delight to pt in motion - by 08 peh figures with string joints ing the strings from behind, the effect ing thet all the limbs diverge in different directions, and give the impression of a man suffering from St. Vitus's dance. That would be bed enough. But add all. the greater Colonies to this loose ce-ordination of jointed Jimbs, and the result would be, we venture to think, the ced to such helplessness as i and it will bea race among the greater naval Powers which shall pick " quarrel with Our Poor-Law was originally forced on the her first. We dare say that those Irish Home-rulers who care a great deal more to see the Tudors by the' incessant insurrections of the British Empire rambling to pieces than they unemployed, and was intended to meet their care to see Prosperous, are as happy as Mr. Parnell himself, in brooding over the fog impouibiity? The Gems lows out impossibility.' The German laws, on the madness of these hybrid Federalists who are contrary, follow the line which would be half-anarchists and half-Ji lat naturally taken by men who observe from as regards the exertion of any real control, above; who pity the very wretched, but Jingoes as regards the ambitiousness of their nominal aims. These impracticable fanatics worl lo. There is no attempt, as who do not aliogeter share the feling of the are busying themselves with disjointing all England, to provide against occasional that history has welded together, and then sions of labour. There is no attempt, ouch as making up for their madness by connecting by fresh number of similar disjoints,—for joints Dysine hunger. e dea peradiag the now ows is that natural to pitiful petoons not The idea the new we cannot call them,—those sections of our so-called Empire which can never be really quite aware where the shoe pinches, to provide identified with this country in their main in-rather against misfortune than against want. terests, though they may all ally themselves The first law, for example, secured a small with us for a limited kind of reciprocal self-pension to the workman, and the workman defence. And all this,—which is enough to make Mr, Gladstone's hair stand on end with onl when disabled by accident. It was a well-intentioned law, and has now been imita: horror, though we observe with surprise that ted in France; but, of course, it affected only he seems to contemplate with some satisfaction 4 minute section of the people, It was rather Mr. Parnell's letter to Mr. Rhodes,—has an ex of the State hospital system sprung out of his wild attempt to reverse the than anything truly national. The second course of history and foster the sectional self-law just by the Bundesrath is wider, will of the various elements of the United but still only touches a section of the com: Kingdom. Those Liberals, however, who, munity. The welltodo pity the very old when they insisted on the retention' of the fand the incapacitated, and consequently call Irish Members in the Imperial Parliament, German workmen are helped to provide really meant to retain an efficient control against incapacity and old age. They must subscribe so much a week—men 24d., and the centre, should gravely consider the eager-women 1?d.—the Empire will add a third, ness with which their proposal is now accepted employers will add a third, and from the fund by the very men who latend to, have created any man who is invalided or who is ent control at the centre, and who boast seventy will receive a pension of 2s, 6d. a that this in their intention in the very same week. In other words, he will be protected, breath in which they accept the overtures of their former opponents. partly by his own compulsory thrift and partly Mr. Gladstone, speaking—at one of those by " State grant, from dying of actual starve ion. novel after dinner entertainments, of a The Pall Mall for the week is full of lengthy political speech, of which he, or his friends, is the inventor—at Sir Wilfred illustrations, some of them political skits, It now gives extracts from its leading Lawson's, said as much as that Mr. Parnell's articles instead of one or two of these at consent that the Irish members should full length, and from those in the present remaining the Imperial Parliament, removed take it that nothing very strik-the last ground of opposition on the part of the Unionists to Home Rule. He, had ing has appeared in its daily columns. There is an amusing account of " Cricket Known for two years that Mr. Parnell had no objection to remain; which is probable, as she was played", by actresses play but it may be said that he preferred the ordinary Cricket and gentlemen playing left handed with broomsticks, and fielding Bill of 1886 as a distinctly Separatist. mea-left handed The Indies made 60 in their sure. The speech isa very wily one. This retention of the Irish members he said was first and 64 in their second innings—giving mere subsidiary part of Home Rule and the gentlemen a thorough drubbing, for they only made 23 and 24." Which is the one that Parliament could arrange, " maybe in a score of ways." Yet when happiest country in Europe" is answered in this way, which may have some interest for this part of his measure was debated in parents and guardian: Parliament he said there that it "passed the wit of man" to devise how it could be According to Dr. Alice Vickery the firet done. But he became indefinite in the lace belongs to France, chiefly because French families do not exceed manageable dimensions, next sentence:-—"'You may retain the present number of Irish members or you may She says -—In the frst place, while the of women in the United Kingdom and in Ger-reduce it; you may elect Irish members to many amounts to nearly three-quarters of a Westminster directly, or you may elect million and one million respectively, France, them indirectly—that is, have them chosen in 1881, had a surplus of only 92,000 women, by an intermediate body, such as the Irish and, asia consequence, marriages are more representatives. You may allow them to prevalent in proportion to population in France sit in Parliament with the right to vote on than elsewhere: and, ly _enough—con. all subjects. or you may give them a trary to the general opinion in this country limited right to sit, with power to vote on France has the smallest proportion of illegitimate births. Thus from 1825 to 1867 the certain subjects. There are many modes reentage of all illegitimate births was 7.2 in into which you may cast the question, and I ance; 8.2 in Prussia; 10 in Sweden 5 11 in am not prepared at this moment to state Austria; and 22 in Bavaria, France has the which of those should be ultimately sealed lowest birth rate of all European countries, and stamped by public judgment asthe best viz, 23.8 per 1,000, t 31 for the United mode. It would have been very imprudent Kingdom, and 38 for Germany. The ay and absurd to anticipate the future in that number of children to a family is now 33, way. What we have to look at is the prin-against 4.6 in England and Wales, 5.25 in ciple, and, so far as the principle is con-Scotland, and 5.4 in Ireland. Germany has cerned, 1 am perfectly willing to accept it an average of nearly 5 to a family. France with open arms, and to consider that the contains 'a far greater proportion of grown-up end in view is that upon which our atten-Persons than any other nation in, Europe, tion and our desire and effort ought to be States of Ewrope, the following. numbers in re are in each 10,000 persons in the several concentrated." But indefinite as this is, the most productive age, between 15: and-60: it will serve as an excuse for those Unionists who may be doubting, who are on the out-in France, 5,373; in Holland, $8045 Sweden 4,954; in Great Britain, 4,782; in look for an excuse to return to their party, the United States, 4,396. France, of all nations to say that Mr. Gladstone has removed all in Europe, has the highest average of ages of doubts of his Separatist tendencies, and 80 the living—namely, 31.06 years; against Hol-vote for his candidates at the first election. land, 2176; Swelen, 27.06; Great Britain, We shall not be surprised if this is the case. has a greater number of attaining old 98.5; the United States, 93:1. France, too,
Returning to the Spectator, we find a age than any other +3 for out of every 160 deaths, those over the age of 60 are—in very interesting article on the "New Ger-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.