1886, which is the subject of a book published with illustrations by her young friend, Noel Paton, "An Unknown Country."

As a poet, Mrs. Craik won a lasting though somewhat humble place. Her verse is good, and the sentiment is invariably noble. Her words are full of cheer and comfort, and will linger in the memory when many a finer lyric has been forgotten. Her most pleasing lyrics are "Rothesay Bay," "By the Alma River," "Philip my King," "Douglas, Tender and True," Plighted," and "The Unfinished Book." "Philip my King" was written for her god-son, who afterward became known as "the blind poet," Philip Bourke Marston.

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Like several other noted writers of the last half-century, Mrs. Craik seemed to wish, as she grew older, to address herself more especially to youth, and she carried with her into old age the same child heart and its sparkling freshness and grace, winning, as in earlier days, the love of the children. Among the most popular of her juvenile stories are " The Adventures of a Brownie" and "The Little Lame Prince." In the former, a sprightly, good-natured family brownie in contradistinction to a "family ghost," becomes the means of teaching the most wholesome lessons of law, order, and unselfishness in a very palatable and amusing way, so that even a brownie may be a missionary if he belongs to a good family. In "The Little Lame Prince" we have a diminutive political allegory, well adapted to youthful minds, and the same wholesome truths with which she fills her books for older people are conveyed in one of the most delightful little fairy stories.

In 1864 a pension of £60 a year was conferred upon Miss Mulock. A personal friend of hers writes: "In 1864 her literary work received the appreciation of a pension from the civil list, and the next year her personal life was crowned by her marriage to George Lillie Craik, the younger. Mr. Craik, who is a member of the publishing firm of Macmillan & Co., was somewhat younger than his wife, but the marriage was most happy as she once had occasion to say to another lady who came to her in regard to a marriage under similar conditions." The home that Mr. and Mrs. Craik built for themselves was one of the most charming about London, across "the lovely Kentish meadows" at Shortlands, ten miles southeast of London. It stood in the pleasant English country, with a delightful garden stretching out from it, and outside the house toward the garden was a little recess called "Dorothy's Parlor," where Mrs. Craik was fond of taking her work or her writing on a summer's day. It was named for the little daughter they had adopted years ago, having no children of their own, who was the sunshine of the house up to the time of her fostermother's death. Within the recess was the Latin motto "Deus hæc otia fecit" (God made this rest), which Mrs. Craik once said, she se

lected as the motto she would wish to build into a home of her own, should it ever be given to her to make one. In the house there was one charming room that served for library, music-room, and parlor, filled with books and choice pictures, but chiefly beautiful because of the presence of its mistress, as she brought her work-basket out for a quiet talk with her friends. Over the mantel of the dining-room was the motto "East or West, Hame is best," which pleasantly gave the spirit in which Mrs. Craik lived in her home, for she used to say that home-keeping was more to her than storywriting, and she often got only one hour a week for her pen. She was tall and stately in carriage, with a winning smile and a frank and quaint manner, which gave one the best kind of welcome, and her silver-gray hair crowned the comfortable age of a woman who had used her years, one could see and feel, always to the best purpose. In the spring of 1887 Hubert Herkomer painted Mrs. Craik's portrait. Frances Martin says of it that "he depicts all that the painter can render of the repose, the quiet dignity, and the beauty of her advancing age. All but the few who remember the elegance of her youthful figure, and the intent gaze of the youthful face, will be contented with such a portrait. It is true to her as she lived and as she died." Mrs. Craik's death was caused by failure of the heart's action. The passing away was as peaceful as any death she has described. It was like that of Catherine Ogilvie, and like the falling asleep in death of John Halifax, and as like a translation into the Heavenly Land as that of Ursula his wife. It was the death Mrs. Craik had always foreseen for herself. Her only desire was to live long enough to witness the marriage of her adopted daughter; when this could not be, she murmured, "No matter, no matter," a fitting remark from the lips of one who had once penned these words "whether we see it or not, all is well." The Sunday after her death, in the church she had attended at Shortlands, Mr. Wolley, in his sermon, introduced this stanza from one of her poems: "And when I lie in the green kirkyard, With the mold upon my breast, Say not that she did well-or ill, Only, She did her best.''

Mrs. Craik was a conspicuous advocate of the legalization in England of marriage with a deceased wife's sister, in order that the law might be uniform at home and in the colonies, and not long before her death she offered, in promotion of this reform, to reissue her "Hannah," with a new preface dealing with the question. She always considered that the critics and the public were wrong in ranking her most famous work as her best. "A Life for a Life" she invariably maintained was her highest reach in fiction, an opinion shared by many of her literary friends.

There must be, however, in "John Halifax" a quality that appeals to the universal heart, a

certain homeliness that causes it to be read and loved wherever English is spoken. Her last completed literary work was an article for "The Forum," published in New York, and at the time of her death she was at work upon another article for the same periodical, entitled "Nearing the End." She left an estate of about $85,000.

The following list of Mrs. Craik's works was made last year by her husband, with her co-operation, adding one or two that have since appeared. Novels: "The Ogilvies" (1849); "Olive 99 (1850); "The Head of the Family" (1857); Agatha's Husband" (1853); "John Halifax, Gentleman " (1857); "Christian's Mistake" (1865); "A Noble Life" (1866); "Two Marriages' (1867); "The Woman's Kingdom" (1869); "A Brave Lady' (1870); "Hannah" (1871); 66 My Mother and Ì" (1874); "The Laurel Bush" (1876); "Young Mrs. Jardine (1879); "His Little Mother (1881): "Miss Tommy (1884); "King Arthur" (1886). Miscellaneous works: "Avillion and other Tales" (1853); "Nothing New" (1857); "A Woman's Thoughts about Woman" (1858); "Studies from Life " (1861); "The Unkind Word and other Stories"

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(1870); "Fair France (1872); "Sermons out of Church" (1875); "A Legacy, being the Life and Remains of John Martin, Schoolmaster and Postmaster" (1878); "Plain Speaking" (1882); "An Unsentimental Journey Through Cornwall" (1884); "About Money and Other Things (1886); "An Unknown Country" (1887). Poetry: "Poems "(1859), expanded into "Thirty Years' Poems, New and Old" (1881); "Children's Poetry" (1881); Songs of Our Youth (1875). Children's Books: "How to Win Love; or, Rhoda's Lesson" (1848); "Cola Monti" (1849); "Alice Learmont, a Fairy Tale" (1852); A Hero" (1853); "Bread Upon the Waters" (1852); "The Little Lychetts" (1855); "Michael the Miner" (1846); "Our Year" (1862); "Little Sunshine's Holiday" (1875); "Adventures of a Brownie" (1872); "The Little Lame Prince" (1874). She also prepared the "Fairy Book" and "Is it True?" two volumes of old fairy tales translated from Mme. Guizot de Witt's "Motherless, or a Parisian Family," "A French Country Family," "The Cousin from India," and "Twenty Years Ago," and edited a series of books for girls.

CUBA, an island in the West Indies, belong ing to Spain. (For statistics of area, population, etc., see "Annual Cyclopædia" for 1883.) Army. The Commander-in-Chief and Captain-General of the island is Don Saba Marin, and the Segundo Cabo, Señor Sanchez Mira. The strength of the Spanish forces in Cuba in 1887 was 19,000.

Finance. The Cuban budget for 1887-'88 estimates the outlay at $22,862,541, being $3,097,194 less than for 1886-'87. The income is estimated at $23,273,100, hence there would result a surplus of $410,559 in spite of the sup

pression of the export duties on sugar, molasses, and rum, the reduction by 20 per cent. of the consumption tax, and the annual reductions fixed with reference to the traffic between Cuba and the Peninsula, such reductions being estimated to aggregate $2,721,625.

A highly creditable measure was the payment by anticipation of the custom-house bonds of 1878 still in circulation, and of the 6per-cent. hypothecary bonds of 1880 at par, in Cuba, Madrid, Paris, and London, on July 1 and Oct. 1, 1887, respectively. The directors of the Spanish Bank declared on July 1 a semiannual dividend of 4 per cent. gold; and the Bank of Commerce declared a semi-annual dividend of 3 per cent. A new bank is to be founded at Havara by tobacco-exporters, for the purpose of facilitating their dealings.

General Condition.-Cuba, being thinly populated, mountainous toward the east, and thickly wooded, with comparatively few railways and good high-roads, while lying within the tropics, is still suffering from the disorders resulting from a ten years' insurrection and the abolition of slavery. The daily press teemed in 1887 with accounts of highway robberies, the kidnapping of well-to-do farmers, and even children, held for a ransom, incendiarism, and even a few landings of filibusters. Soldiers, mounted police, and armed bands of citizens have been keeping up a lively warfare with those anarchical elements, but the task is difficult, and it may take some time yet ere the island is purged of those disorderly elements continually cropping up again in consequence of the deep demoralization which seems to exist in a portion of the lower stratum of society. To a considerable extent it also exists among merchants and Government officials, notably revenue officers; hence the Captain-General was compelled to take energetic measures to arrest gigantic frauds at the Havana CustomHouse, the existence of which had been no secret for a long time. Small-pox and yellowfever were exceptionally malignant in 1887 at Santiago de Cuba and elsewhere. Extensive and destructive inundations also occurred, and an earthquake visited Santiago September 23, but without doing much harm. Yet planters have borne these visitations with patience, as the great planting interest is evidently entering upon an era of comparative prosperity through the better organization of labor and the sugar industry, the gradual appreciation of the value of the staple, and several well-timed reforms, chiefly in the interest of the agricultural and mercantile classes.

Suspicions having been aroused that the treasury was systematically defrauded through the connivance of custom-house officials at Havana, the Captain-General, on Aug. 18, 1887, ordered the military seizure of the customhouse, all means of outlet to the wharves and warehouses having been closed, and guards established over every wharf and avenue. several days following a committee of investi

For

gation was engaged in an examination of the recent operations of the custom-house, and the superior officers and many subordinates were suspended. Meanwhile, all other operations were paralyzed-the wharves were covered with goods, numbers of loaded lighters were not permitted to discharge their cargoes, while crowds of laborers were standing around idle. Several committees of importing merchants called upon the Captain-General, and, admitting that they were more or less compromised in the irregular way of doing custom-house business, begged to be allowed to correct their entries already made. But three days were allowed them, and during that time the ordinary receipts from customs duties were more than trebled. The Government at Madrid approved the acts of the Captain-General. The resignation of the Intendant-General of Finance was also accepted, and Don Anibal Arieste was put in charge of the custom-house as special delegate of the Captain-General.

Ci

Reforms.-The excise duty on fresh meat was reduced July 1 from 30 cents to 25 cents on each eight kilogrammes, and the collection was committed to the Spanish Bank according to an agreement made in Madrid between the governor of the bank and the Home Government. The amount to be collected is $1,000,000. gars manufactured for local consumption, and not packed in boxes, but simply wrapped in paper, it was decided by the Intendant General, are henceforth not to be subjected to the stamp duty. The following Spanish-colonial products are to be admitted duty free into Spain and the Balearic Isles, provided they are shipped thither direct under the Spanish flag: Sugar, molasses, rum, coffee, chocolate, and cocoa. Those shipped under a foreign flag are to be subject to the duties established by the law of June 30, 1882, which duties are gradually being reduced till the year 1890, with the difference that products under a foreign flag coming from the Philippine Islands are only to pay one fifth of the duty that Cuban products are subject to.

Emancipation.-A royal decree dated Oct. 7, 1886, abolished the “patronato" or semi-slavery in Cuba, which was a transitory form of servitude created by the Abolition Law of Fob. 13, 1880, thus doing away with the last vestige of slavery.

Immigration.-At the instigation of the Crédito Territorial Hipotecario de la Isla de Cuba, arrangements were made in March to set on foot a current of Italian immigrants of the laboring-class, sugar-planters being anxious to procure field-hands and other operatives from Southern Europe, such operatives to receive $15 a month the first half of the year, and $9 the latter half, together with board and lodging, if between the ages of eighteen and fifty.

Modus Vivendi Treaty.-On Sept. 21, 1887, the Department of State at Washington published the ensuing memorandum of an agreement between the Government of the United States and the Government of Spain for the reciprocal

and complete suspension of all discriminating duties of tonnage or imposts in the United States and the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico and all other countries belonging to the Crown of Spain, upon vessels of the respective countries and their cargoes:

1. It is positively agreed that from this date an absolute equalization of tonnage dues and imposts shall at once be applied to the production of or articles proceeding from the United States or any other foreign country, when carried in vessels belonging to citizens of the United States and under the American flag, to the islands of Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippines, and also to all other countries belonging to the Crown of Spain, and that no higher or other tonnage dues or imposts shall be levied upon said vessels and the goods carried in them, as aforesaid, than are paid by Spanish vessels and their cargoes under similar circumstances.

2. On the above conditions the President of the United States shall at once issue a proclamation declaring that these discriminating tonnage dues and imposts in the United States are suspended and discontinued as regards Spanish vessels and produce, manufactures or merchandise imported into the United States proceeding from Spain, and from the aforesaid possessions and from the Philippine Islands, and also from all other countries belonging to the Crown of Spain, or from any foreign country.

This protocol of an agreement is offered by the Government of Spain and accepted by that of the United States as a full and satisfactory notification of the facts above recited.

3. The United States Minister at Madrid will be authorized to negotiate with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, either by an agreement or treaty, so as to place the commercial relations between the United States and Spain on a permanent footing advantageous

to both countries.

Americans in Cuba.-About the middle of October the Government published at Havana some new regulations, according to which American citizens are now allowed to land at or depart from Cuban ports without being obliged to present a passport or other document signed by a Spanish consul. A simple certificate from the American consul at the port of entry henceforth suffices for the identification of any citizen of the United States, and enables him to travel all over Cuba, to remain on the island as long he pleases, and to leave whenever he wishes.

Railroads.-A concession was granted to Don Marcos Fial y Cabrizas to build in the province of Santiago de Cuba a railroad between Palma, Soriano and San Luis. A branch line has been built connecting Remedios with Rojas and the Zaza Railway. In February work was begun to extend the Western Railroad from Consolacion del sur to Pinar del Rio. A French company has taken the necessary steps to build a railroad from Holguin to Nipe. The Matanzas Railroad reduced, early in the year, the freight on new machinery 50 per cent., and on old machinery 65 per cent., coal to pay 70 cents a ton, and only 63 cents on quantities of 1,000 tons and upward. Application was made early in the year for a concession to construct a railway to connect Sagua la Grande with Manicaragua, where, next to that of the Vuelta Abajo, the best tobacco is grown in Cuba. The government of the island has resolved that a branch railway be built from Júcaro to Punta de Burro, in order to

facilitate the export of cattle and wood from Moron and Ciego de Avila. During 1886 the Cerro, Jesus del Monte, Carmelo and Principe lines of tramway in the city of Havana, with the Vedado and Vibora branch lines, forwarded altogether 5,529,604 passengers paying fares, and 99,396 riding free; together, 5,629,000 passengers; the total fare collected being $766,795. Adding thereto $15,169 accruing from other sources of income, the total gross earnings reached $781,964; and deducting therefrom the expenses, $572,647, there were net earnings to the amount of $209,317 or 13 per cent. on the capital. The Minister of the Colonies at Madrid has decreed a general plan of high-road building for Cuba.

Telegraphs.-The Spanish Minister of the Colonies granted during the summer a concession to Don José Rafael, Vizarrondo to lay a cable between Cuba and Hayti. A cable was laid early in the year in the bay of Havana, connecting Forts el Morro, la Cabaña, and the city of Havana.

Steamship Lines.-The subsidy that the Spanish Government has agreed to pay the Spanish Transatlantic Steamship Line insures the following Line between Spain, the Spanish West Indies, and Mexico, 36 voyages per annum; Philippine Island line, 13 voyages; La Plata, 6 voyages; Fernando-Po, 6 voyages; Morocco, 24 voyages. The company engages to establish branch lines for the traffic with the United States, Central America, the Marianne and Caroline Islands, China, and Japan.

Meteorological Observatory.-The Government intends establishing a meteorological observatory at Santiago, and has written to New York, London, and Paris for the purpose of procuring the latest and most approved instruments.

houses, in which "leagasse," or expressed cane, is advantageously utilized as the only fuel. The Cuban sugar-crop, ended Dec. 1, 1886, was 637,237 tons for export, besides 35,000 tons for home consumption; together, 672,237 tons, against 625,311 tons in 1885. The exports to Aug. 1, 1887, amounted to 391,506 tons, while the stock in the six ports on that date was 116793 tons; total, 508,299 tons. against exports during the corresponding period in 1886 of 418,764 and stock 174,845 tons; total, 593,609. These figures, showing a failing off of 85,310 tons in the crop up to August 1, indicated that the crop of 1887 would not exceed in yield 600,000 tons, which has since been confirmed. A fresh impulse is to be given to cocoa-planting, which had been allowed to go to decay, there being only twenty-five plantations in the island. Don José Antonio Barrera, Don Manuel Delgardo, and Don Manuel Carrera y Sterling of Remedios purchased early in 1887 the Itabo cocoa estate of Yaguajuay, in order to extend and replant it and revive this branch generally in the district.

Botanic Garden.—In the Campo de Marte the necessary transformation was taken in hand in May to lay out six lateral gardens, in which Philippine plants imported by Dr. Villarraza are to begin the creation of a botanic garden.

Iron-Mining. In 1883 an American company bought a group of the iron-mines that had been claimed, and built a railway 16 miles in length, and a large wharf. In 1884 the company exported to the United States 22,000 tons of ore; in 1885, 80,000 tons; and in 1886, 110,000 tons. But, so far, they have not begun to ship in proportion to the capacity of the mines; that they may do so they are building a line of steamers of their own under the English flag, two of which vessels are already running. When the ships are completed they expect to ship 1,000 tons of ore a day. There is no underground mining of this ore, but merely cutting down the hill side, throwing away the incasing dirt and rock, and taking out the ore from the solid vein. Although some contracts have been lately made with people in the United States for manganese-mines, none of them have been worked.

Commerce. The trade of the Spanish West Indies was distributed among leading commercial nations as follows:

NATION.

United States.. England. France

Spain..

The American trade with Cuba is the following table:

FISCAL YEAR.

1884

15,626,113 8,766.147

23,084,106

shown in

Total trade.

$65,544,534

$80,112.452

1885

1886

1887

Columbus's Remains. The mortal remains of Christopher Columbus were removed from the cathedral of Havana, where they had hitherto found a resting-place, to the city of his birth,

DAKOTA. Territorial Government.-The following were the Territorial officers during the year: Governor, Gilbert A. Pierce, Republican, succeeded by Louis K. Church. Democrat; Secretary, M. L. McCormack; Treasurer, J. W. Raymond; Auditor, E. W. Caldwell, succeeded by James A. Ward; Superintendent of Public Instruction, A. S. Jones, succeeded by Eugene A. Dye; Attorney-General, George Rice, succeeded by C. F. Templeton; Commissioner of Immigration, Lauren Dunlap, succeeded by P. F. McClure; Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court, Bartlett Tripp; AssociateJustices, Charles M. Thomas, William H. Francis, William B. McConnell, Cornelius S. Palmer, Louis K. Church, succeeded by James Spencer. Legislative Session.-The Seventeenth Territorial Assembly convened on January 11, and remained in session two months. One hundred and thirty-five new laws, and twelve joint resolutions, were passed. The most important measures were the appropriation bills, the local-option law, and the law submitting the question of division of the Territory to a vote of the people. In the matter of appropriations, the session has been criticised for its extravagance. The total appropriations were $1,530,718, as against $705,000 in 1885. The local-option bill provides that on petition of one third of the legal voters of any county, an election shall be held at the time of any general election, to determine whether prohibition or license shall prevail in that county. Under this law, at the November election, a large majority of the counties declared for prohibition. Another act of this Legislature authorizes the acceptance of the partially-constructed Capitol building at Bismarck. When the Territorial capital was removed to Bismarck, in 1883, that city gave 320 acres of land, and agreed to erect a suitable structure within that area; but as accepted, the building is without the north and south wings originally planned, and the Territory assumes about 70,000 of unpaid bills incurred in the construction. It is provided that these bills be paid by a sale of the adjoining lots given by the city. Other acts of the session

were:

Creating two agricultural districts, and providing for a board of agriculture for each district. There had been one board for the whole Territory previously.

To provide for the construction and maintenance of artesian wells, appointing a well-commissioner for each county, and prescribing his duties and regulating the assessment and collection of taxes for such wells. Creating the office of county auditor. Authorizing incorporated boards of education or school districts to refund outstanding indebtedness; also giving cities and counties like authority.

Genoa, on board the Italian man-of-war, Matteo Brazza, on July 2, in charge of Monsignore Cocio, the Papal Internuntius in Brazil, and buried with great ecclesiastical pomp.

Permitting cities and municipal corporations to issue bonds for erecting school and other public buildings, and for other public improvements.

Permitting the construction of bridges over navigable rivers, and providing the manner for paying for them.

To suppress and prevent the spread of contagious or infectious diseases among domestic animals, and creating the office of State Veterinary Surgeon. To appropriate, for the support of fire departments of each city, town, or village a part of the tax paid by fire-insurance companies upon premiums received in any such town, city, or village.

Regulating the manner of ingress and egress of public buildings.

To allow the establishment of free libraries and reading-rooms by towns or cities, upon the approval of a majority of the electors voting upon the question, and authorizing a tax-levy for their support. liquors, and fixing it at sums from $500 to $1,000. It Increasing the annual license-fee for the sale of was from $200 to $500 previously.

Protecting the use of irrigating ditches.

Declaring that woman shall retain the same legal existence and personality after as before marriage. To regulate the practice of pharmacy, the licensing of persons to carry on such practice, and the sale of poisons in the Territory.

To create the office of public examiner, and divid

ing the Territory into two examiners' districts. These officials are directed to exercise a constant supervision over the books and financial accounts of the several public, educational, charitable, penal, and reformatory institutions of the Territory, and are invested with large powers to investigate the general management of the institutions.

weighing, and handling of grain, and defining the To regulate grain-warehouses, and the inspection, duties of the Railroad and Warehouse Commission in relation thereto.

Raising the age of consent from ten to fourteen years.

Providing the manner for assessing the stocks and shares of banks and bank associations, and collecting

tax for the same.

Creating liens on the crops of persons buying seed on credit, and providing for filing and foreclosing the

same.

Creating a new Capitol Commission, to have control of the Capitol and grounds, and to superintend the sale of certain lands given to the State and held for the benefit of the public-building fund.

To create Pierce and Church counties, and to define the boundaries of certain other counties.

Population. The Territory has had another year of wonderful growth in population. The building westward, through the northern counties of Dakota, of the St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Manitoba Railroad, and the construction by this and the Northern Pacific Railway companies of numerous north and south feeders, has turned a great tide of immigration toward the agricultural and stock lands of the Mouse river, Turtle mountains, Devil's lake, and other regions. This, together with the largest crop ever harvested in many sections of Northern Dakota, have made it almost impossible to keep