compulsion of Cholera, would never be sanctioned by parsimonious sanitary boards. M. Lessar, the brilliant Russian diplomatist and engineer, who for some time past has been the Resident at Bokhara, told me the other day that his Ameer had averted the visitation of Cholera by a vigorous sanitary reform, which has made Bokhara one of the cleanest cities in Central Asia. The Ameer wants to visit St. Petersburg, M. Lessar gave him a hint that he could not be received if Bokhara remained a reeking cesspool, and forthwith the work of sanitation was begun. All the abbatoirs are now outside the city, and every morning all the night-soil is carried by asses into the country. Bokhara has not had a single case of Cholera, and the Ameer will be graciously received in St. Petersburg this autumn. It is an excellent illustration of the value of sanitation even in the most unlikely quarters. Unfortunately we have no equivalent to a longed-for trip to St. Petersburg with which to bribe our local Ameers into a display of sanitary activity. Nothing will do that short of the sudden and sensational slaughter of a certain number of ratepayers, and as this human sacrifice seems to be indispensable, it is a merciful arrangement that the work should be entrusted to a disease as rapid and decisive as the Cholera. It passes in about three weeks, and as its victims are seldom ill three days, there is at least no prolonged torture before death.

M. Lessar told me that there was not the On the Roof least reason for anticipating any trouble of Asia. about the Pamir dispute. The Governments can quarrel about the Pamir as they can quarrel about the cholera if they want to quarrel, but as they don't they won't. M. Lessar says it is sheer nonsense to imagine that any importance, strategic or otherwise, can be attached to a region in which no European troops can exist for six months of the year. The Pamir is the roof of Asia, and it is about as comfortable a place to occupy as the coping stone of a house-top. The real trouble in Central Asia-I am still quoting M. Lessar-is not. to be sought in the lofty plateau of the uninhabitable Pamir, but on the Afghan frontier, across which hundreds and thousands of the Ameer's subjects are flying for safety into the Russian Empire. The Ameer is suppressing or trying to suppress a rebellion. The turbulent tribes who are related by race with Russian subjects across the border have been getting the worst of it, and hundreds of families have streamed over the frontier imploring the Russians to give them land on which to live. As the Russians have no land to spare, this kind of pauper immigration causes them

much uneasiness. They don't know exactly what to do with their unwelcome guests, and they are wishing, naturally enough, that Lord Lansdowne would tell the Ameer to let the tribes live in peace. Abdur Rahman, however, who is nourishing his gout in Scotch whisky at Cabul, appears to be in an ugly temper, and the proposed visit of Lord Roberts to Jellalabad is indefinitely postponed. The worst of it is that if we stop his subsidies, we virtually cut his throat, and it does not suit our book to throw Afghanistan once more into the throes of a civil war. The task of bowing out the defeated Salisbury Administration was accomplished with due constitutional formalities on August 11. Mr. Asquith moved and Mr. Burt seconded an amendment to the Address to the Throne, which in polite language embodied the command the ruder representatives of our race would have expressed in the mono

Exit Lord

pro tem.

AN IRISH VIEW OF THE VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE.

syllable "Git!" The debate lasted three days, but it yielded nothing worth noting, save the speeches of Mr. Chamberlain on one side and Mr. Redmond on the other. Mr. Chamberlain, whose speech was one of the most incisive and effective ever delivered in Parliament, set forth with extraordinary lucidity and force the fixed determination of the mass of the British people never, under any pressure whatever, to concede to Ireland that full measure of colonial independence which Mr. Frederic Harrison declares to be the only solution of the question. As Mr. Chamberlain read out extract after extract from the speeches of Gladstonian Ministers, he made it abundantly clear even to the dullest understanding that any attempt to pass such a Home Rule Bill as Mr. Harrison demands would shatter the Gladstonian

party to its base. Mr. Redmond, speaking as the representative of the extreme Nationalists, formulated his demands with a precision which left nothin'

Parliament even more absolutely free to legislate than any Colonial Parliament. For the veto of the Crown, according to Mr. Redmond, must be exercised not on the advice of the Imperial Cabinet, but on that of the Irish Ministry. Mr. Gladstone replied more or less evasively. Mr. Asquith is to examine the claims of the dynamiters to release, the evicted tenants are to be considered, and, as for the Home Rule Bill, well, that will go as far in Mr. Redmond's direction as possible. After this there was nothing worth noting, beyond the tumult in which Mr. Chaplin closed the debate. The division showed the exact majority of forty against the Unionist Administration that had been returned by the constituencies, although 10 members were absent. The figures were 350 to 310, out of 670 members 660 being present.

Enter Mr. Gladstone.

In deference to that emphatic notice to quit, Lord Salisbury resigned, and the Queen at once sent for Mr. Gladstone, who proceeded to form his fourth Administration. It was amid the brooding darkness of a coming storm that the newly-appointed Ministers crossed the Solent to take over the seals of office, and when the investiture was complete they recrossed the troubled water amid endless salvoes of thunder, while the livid lightning flashed incessantly around the steamer. In London, during the debate which preceded the fall of Lord Salisbury's Government, the sky became so dark that it was difficult for members, even in the middle of a midsummer afternoon, to see without artificial light

across the floor of the House. It was a curiouscoincidence. Imagination is not a strong point with politicians; otherwise we should have had the Liberals borrowing from Milton the idea that the world, like Hell, grew darker at the frown of Sin and Death, whose kingdom was threatened by the advent of the new Government, while Conservatives would have seen in the sulphurous mirk

"A hue like that when some great painter dips

His pencil in the gloom of earthquake and eclipse," a grim presage of woe to come. But science has paralysed that kind of imagination, and the Gladstonians did not even claim the thunder peals as a royal salute from the skies, although some ingenious Unionist was clever enough to discover some mysterious connection between Mr. Gladstone's return to office and the eruption of Etna.

The only unpleasant incident connected. The Queen. with the Cabinet-making, which went on the greater part of August, was the attempt made by some of Mr. Gladstone's entourage to saddle the Queen with responsibility for Mr. Labouchere's absence from the Administration. This was cowardly on their part, and as unconstitutional as it was untrue. Her Majesty has always acted in a strictly constitutional manner in those matters, and Mr. Gladstone could

have made Mr. Labouchere a Cabinet Minis- NO ter if he pleased. ADMITTANCE But Mr. Glad- By orde "of the stone did not COURT please, and his familiars would GOVERNMENT have shown more regard both for his own reputation and the position of Her Majesty if they had boldly admitted that Mr. Gladstone was determined not to have Mr. Labouchere at any price. The From the Pall Mall Budget,] result of their meddling was that Mr. Labouchere, being led to believe the Queen vetoed his nomination, said so in plain, blunt terms, which compelled Mr. Gladstone to throw over his injudicious and inaccurate satellites

[August 25, 1892 MR. LABOUCHERE'S VIEW OF THE SITUATION.

and to assume the entire responsibility for leaving the editor of Truth outside his Administration.

Mr. Gladstone did not want Mr. No Editors Labouchere, and when Mr. Gladstone Need Apply. does not want anything he can always conjure up any number of plausible reasons for not getting it. it can hardly be said that he was particularly happy in finally selecting the ground upon which he rested his justification for ignoring Mr. Labouchere. According to the letter which he wrote to the member for Northampton he was unfit to

theless rendered it unfit to offer him office. That comes very near saying that the journalist is disqualified as a journalist from any place in the Administration. That this is Mr. Gladstone's opinion seems to be confirmed by the remarkable exclusion of Professor Stuart from the Ministry. Professor Stuart has been a faithfu!

Administration

no editors need apply. It is a curious rule, not very complimentary either to the editors or to the Ministers. All rumours to the contrary notwithstanding, Mr. Gladstone had a perfectly free hand in choosing his colleagues. Of

Course

Her

about the new Cabinet; but it may be noted here that neither Mr. Stansfeld, nor Professor Stuart, nor the Aberdeens figure in the new Administration. The conjunction of these names is curious and suggestive Let us hope that it may not possess a sinister significance, testifying to what a