Omaha daily bee., 1896-12-26

and marked out square mile on the coast
cutting down trees to define tho line and
placing buoys In the channel outside White
the opinion Is that the station has been
c.dcd by King Meneek OF Abyssinia, the
Eussian Foreign office describes the act as
simply scientific affair, the purpose OF
which Is the taking Of typographical observ-
ations. IL has been said of tho territories
which Great Britain seizes that there comes
80 them first the missionary. next the
trader and then the soldier. Russia varies
this form Of procedure by first sending what
Is described .as scientific expedition which
explores territories and then their annexa-
tion follows. The method may be different,
tho results are the same
II would 20 far to be forgotten that Por-
tugal still held Indian possessions II 1t were
not for an occasional native uprising
against her rule. such as has Just taken
place among the Rancs in the nelghborhood
Of Goa, the solo remaining seat of her au-
thorlty IN the peninsula. 1t was much more
important three centuries ago than II Is now.
Tho insugr ctionists have been beaten back
after having looted the treasury at Per
now, which could not have had much in
IL, ard 1saln order reigns till the next out
break. 1t Is not now the powerful and opu-
lcnt dominion which Portugal so long main
tdined there, antedatng British occupancy
BY nearly century, but It is an interesting
survival, with attractive historical features,
and everybody will be glad that she has
whipped the insurgent mountaineers and re-
stored order to her inconsiderable and unim-
portaBt territory.
why not a "United States OF South Af-
rica?" The dominant inhabitants of that
country are as well fitted for self-rule as
the American people were in 1776, they have
no necessary connection with Great Britain,
their land abounds in agricultural resources
and mineral wealth, and as late events have
conclusiyely demonstrated, they are perfect
ly competent to defend themselves against
savage aggIessiors. Only one serious obsta-
clio seems to stand in the way-the bitter
rcpugnance Of the burghers of the Boer re-
public and the Orange Free state to po-
litical aMalgamation with their neighbors.
These sturdy Dutch descendants sought eX-
lie expressly to escape what they regarded
as British injustice and to found govern
monts of their own, and. with the memories
OF Jameson's raid, in addition rambling in
their breasts, 1t will be no easy task to
persuade them to join the proposed fedora
tion.
NJ Faure, president of France, will prob
ably 20 to St Petersburg, and II so will
doubtless be entertained there as imperially
as though he were the most conspicuous and
autocratic representative of the divine right
OF kings" He is the representative of two
far more potent and significant principles
than that, namely, the right of a people TO
choose their own rulers-or servants-and
the possibility of mans rising, through ma
tive worth, from humble and obscure sta
tion to nll with credit and distinction the
foremost place in one of the foremost ma
tious of the world. The visit will be a
uniue ard memorable one, and it will be not
less memorable for the imperial host than
for the republican guest,