The San Francisco call., 1896-02-09

The entire Rand, embracing the whole
mining district, is to be erected into a
semi-autonomous province, with Legis-
lature, Supreme Court, police, educational
system, mining management and so on OF
its own. Plenty of safeguards of the
TransyaaPs supremacy in large matters
are suggested, such as the power to veto
aud the like. but, in substance, Chamber
lain proposes to give to the invading Uit-
landers on the Rand rather freer scheme
OF home rule than what he broke up the
Liberal party for attempting to secure for
the Irish in their own island.
The announcement that Rhodes on his
return will live in Rhodesia, instead of
Cape Town, may be taken as signifying
that he is to stand on the frontier Of the
Transvaal as the representative not merely
as the head of a huge private financial
syndicate, but as the more or less official
representative of England's will that the
Uitlanders be allowed to manage the Rand
in their own way.
That Kruger will accept this solution
without violent protest or that his Beers
will not encourage him to resist by force
of arms and appeals for European aid, is
entirely unlikely. One may look with con-
again with exuberance at the vague notion
Of blocking England's felinous progress,
but when it comes to reality what can
either Kruger or the Kaiser do? England
is on the ground and holds little Transvaal
as in thum bscrew. One twist of its giant
hand and the Beers pass into history,
while with its other hand the German
navy and mercantile marine could be
111 h.
British empire goes on being made.
AS rule the week preceding the session
| of Parliament is made vocal with specula-
tions and rumors about the Queens
speech. This year nobody displays the
| faintest curiosity on the subject. 1t is
! supposed that there will be a request for a
| large naval grant, which will not be seri-
ously resisted, and clause devoted to ed
ucation. 1t is said that this latter is the
| subject that the Tory leaders have most at
| heart, and that it will be put through at
| all hazards. Tt is their measure for
| strengthening the church's grip on the
schools. Some Irish land legislation must
| be introduced, and there will be the usual
gags about agriculture. But, save in the
matters of schools no one cares much, and
even there the majority is too huge to be
| hopefully opposed. Much more fighting
| interest attaches to foreign questions. and
| to Armenia in particular. There will be
direct and immediate assault on this point
| by Rosebery in the House of Lords, and
battle between him and Salisbury is ex-
pected to claim first place IN the public at
| tention.
| 1t is being whispered tonight among
Tories that Salisbury, whose case seems
so naked to attack in this whole Armen-
| ian business, had something up his sleeve,
which will show England really strong
| where to outward view it seems weakest;
but hear this is rather in the spirit of
whistling past graveyard. There can be
no doubt, however, that the Turkish
/ question and various Continental prob
| lens entered with it look much more in
| the Parliamentary mind than all the
phases of domestic politics combined.
| Sexton's selection to succeed Justin Nc
! Carthy has been foregone conclusion all
| the week. Up to the last adviees he was
| pretending not to want IL, but that is only
| pretty Fanny's way. In reality his was
the most utter egotism in the whole vain
/ boiling, and he has been thrust into the
post by Healy merely to keep Dillon out.
1t is not risking much to predict that his
reign will be both brief and stormy one.
| The French Government is hurrying
| forward plans for representation at the
Cars coronation at Moscow in May,
| which will eclipse anything on record in
| such matters. 1t happens that the present
| French ambassador in Russia is by
seniority of service the dean of the diplo-
matte corps at ST. Petersburg, so he is to
enjoy the right of receiving the young
Car and Czarina in the name of his col
leagues when they enter Moscow. He will
do this on a scale of extraordinary mag
nificence, two of the largest noblemen's
palaces in Moscow, rented for the occasion,
being all reftted in the costliest manner
from France. A mile and quarter of the
costliest carpeting that France can pro-
duce is merely one item in the bewild ering
outfit. The supper alone, when their
Majesties attend the first ball under the
French roof, is to cost $50, 900. Louis XV's
ornate state chariot which so many
| Americans have seen at the Musee Cluny,
is to be sent out for the use of the Embas-
sador in the procession, with Jrappings
for horses and liveries for positions and
footmen OF the same highly monarchial
period; and orders are already placed in
Morocco, Algiers and along the Riviera
for the choicest fruits, vegetables and
flowers that the season will permit, all to
be shipped to Moscow.
This wild ostentation may not improb-
ably prove in the nature of funeral dem
onstration over the corpse of the Franco
Russian entente. Many signs point to the
conclusion that the Russians are already
tired of the thing. Fewer of their princes
and millionaires are spending their win
ter in France than for years before and
France is hardly mentioned nowadays in
the Russian papers.
Meanwhile Verestschagin's new collec-
ton of paintings, recently moved from
Moscow to st. Petersburg, is attracting ex-
ceptional attention at the latter capital.
Their principal feature is dozen huge
canvases devoted to the Napoleonic inva-
sion and retreat of 1923 and they lay
almost malicious stress on the French bru-
tality to the Russian peasants and prison
ers, the French cowardice when brayely
opposed, and above all the French sacri