Detective: There is a prisoner of State concealed here. (Disguises himself as the Nelson steeple-jack and climbs up water spout ostensibly to look for birds? nests for the Ambassador's soup, but really to reconnoitre.
Sun (in back' room): Ah!—the face of an Englishman—I am saved (Screams at top his voice.) How old are you? Are you married Get out 's just what.I want to do, and hop chop! Wouldn't a hard-boiled: egg do? at's all I've got in my pocket.
Sun: Come in and help me to escape.
Detective: Pye no orders, but Tit report that you are detained. (Reports to Authorities.
Athorities: Ab, a prisoner, is he? Going to be put to death in Portland Place! Well, we can't do anything—you see that third floor back in Portland Place is Chinese terrfor selves: Britons, shall this be? foreign political prisoner within the four mile radius of Charing Cross?
B.P.: Never Ourselves: Then follow us and we will rescue him. (We communicate by secret signals from the roof of a house at the back, and Sun promptly sels fire to a lot of rubbish i the room. That is our 0] tunity. In a moment we break all the glass of the Fire Brigade alarms and the engines dash up. We put the fre escape against the third floor wall and drag Sun Yat-sen out of the window.
Chinese Ambassador (below): Stay—he is my prisoner! This is Chinese ferriter Ourselves "(putting Mr. Sun on a fire engine): But this isn't! (Exit with the captive of Portland Place amid the cheers of the assem-Bled thousands, but to avoid complications the Chinese Ambassador announces that he has released Sun at the request of Lord Salislury.)
There is some reason to believe that it was Sir Holliday Macartney himself who fle had put his foot in it, he threw the hold of Sun, and that when he found
blame on the Minister, who was ill in bed at the time.
The calculated indiscretion of Prince Bismarck's revelations caused a very genuine sensation throughout Europe; the Times says of them that "they are very characteristic of the remarkable man who did so much for his country but failed in eagerness to throw upon his successor the responsibility for all that he failed to achieve." It is interesting to find, in reading the comments of the German Press on these revelations. that not all the German papers are so bitter towards England. The Berlin correspondent of the Times says The Vossische Zeitung, which was the immediate cause of the recent publication in the Hamburger Nachrichten, stigmatised as idle the idea of Germany's adhesion to a Franco-Russian coalition against England, "Germany," says the Radical organ, "will not place herself at the disposal of Russian policy in spite of all differences of opinion on nonessential questions, people in Germany will ever bear in mind that England stands considerably nearer tothem than Russia, Therefore, we are not, like the 'German statesman,' so foolish as to believe in the possibility of a coalition between France, Russia, Germany, and Austria against England, and, for the matter of that, against Italy. The idea is ridiculous, since Germany might, indeed, in this way' become completely isolated. ' It would need only trifling concessions on the part of England to acquire for her a position against Germany at the side of France and Russia. Why should such things be discussed We wish to flatter neither Russia nor England, nor do we desire, by competing for the favour of Russia, to give her occasion to laugh us to scorn. Up to the present the Triple Alliance remains unshaken in spite of everything, and England completes i, though without a treaty snd notwithstanding all the petty. incidents to which an exaggerated Amportance i acribod."
remarks of the Radical organ are the more striking in view of the efforts made b; other German newspapers to render Hoglan responsible for any dispaition on the part friendship. The Triple Alliance may indeed Italy. to question the value of German be unshaken, but even Germany seems to begin to perceive that some of the bonds are showing a tendency to slacken which, slight though it be, needs to be checked if the Alliance is to retain its original strength. The German Press in its comments upon the marriage of the Crown Prince of Italy displays a marked desire to bring home to Italy the advantages of loyalty to her Northern allies. Were there no fears of her ultimate defection stich arguments would hardly have been considered necessary. Though the outward form of the Triple Alliance appears as robust as heretofore, it may perhaps be doubted whether the degree of spontaneous cordiality existing between its members is sufficiently intense to afford a margin for possible future misunderstandings.
In its issue of the 24th of October the Economist replaces its usual Money Market note by a long article headed " Four Per Cent." It approves the action of the Directors in raising the rate at once to that
of gold for America, saying that "the dure, in view of the continued withdrawals position of the Bank of England is still abundantly strong, and while it was quite right to check an outflow which might become too pronounced, there has never been any ground for supposing that extra; ordinary measures would be called for." It considered the financial situation still very uncertain, owing to the uneasiness in the United States, and concludes The political and financial problems now inted in the States are so complicated, ind so many unforeseen factors may come into play, that it is quite impossible to say beforehand how affairs will tun, All that can te done is to deal with the situation as it presents itself from day to day, and whatever the future may have in store, the directors have acted prudently in raising the rate to 4 per cent.
The second article in the Economist is on "The Nervousness of the Continent." "<The long waiting for war, the enormous extent of the preparations made for it, the immense importance attached to alliances, and of late some changes perceptible in
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.