The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-01-22
BIGGEST MAN IN
GREAT BRITAIN
How English People Run
After Rhodes.
CECIL HAS A LARGE PULL
WILL SECURE MONEY FOR THE
CAPE TO CAIRO RAILROAD.
By Slow Steps, but in Pursuance OF
Definite Plan, England Is Tight
ening Her Grip on
North Africa.
WILL SECURE MONEY FOR THE
CAPE TO CAIRO RAILROAD.
Copyrighted. 1899, by the Associated Press.

kingdom to-day. Peers, Cabinet Min
listers, promoters with Munchausen
schemes, Duchesses craving for tips on
'Kaff1rs" or South African securities,
workmen who cherish dreams Of emf
grafton and bishops solicitous for Afri-
can securities, haunt his hotel and beg
even for the briefest interviews. as
though he had already realized his as
piration. The popular mind credits him
with being the potentate of the African
continent.
The Cabinet met yesterday to discuss
Mr.. Rhodes scheme for guarantees Of
the Cape to Cairo railroad and tele-
graph. Mr.. Rhodes afterWard con-
ferred with Joseph Chamberlain, the
Secretary Of State for the Colonies, and
Sir Michael Hicks Beach, the Chancel-
lor of the Exchequer. Mr.. Rhodes says
100000, 900 will cover the entire cost of
the work and there is little doubt that
he will carry his point with the Gov
eminent and raise all the money he
needs in the city. Before the projectors
can act in the matter there will be a
formality in the shape of a Parlia-
mentary bill; but the imperialists may
be asked to drive the so-called Little
Englanders, who are preparing an op-
position to the scheme, declaring that
the Rhodesian empire is making for a
gigantic hasco and that Mr.. Rhodes
wants the Government to lift him out
OF mole by throwing good money after
pad into railroad through a wilder
ness. They also find a coincidence in
Mr. Rhodes home coming and the re-
viva! or newspaper outbreaks against
the Beers oppression of British sub
Jects In the Transvaal.
BY slow steps, so as not to arouse
the violent antagonism of the powers.
but In pursuance of a definite plan.
Great Britain is Tightening her grip on
North Africa. The Egyptian conven-
ton, so far as the Soudan is concerned,
accomplishes that which those who
prodded the Marquis of Salisbury to
declare protectorate could have ex-
pected. Great Britain no longer gov
erns through the Khedive. She be-
comes co-equal ruler and ignores the
mixed tribunals. This means that the
governor general is responsible only to
Downing street and Parliament.
The comment of the Liberte of Paris.
that Great Britain does not annex the
Soudan, she palms it like a sleight-of-
hand professors a specimen of the
spirit in which France, already in
censed at Great Britain, regards Great
Britain's progress toward absolute
sovereignty In Egypt.
A majority of the London specula-
tors handling American stocks have
been badly bitten through pinn1ng their
faith to the prevailing idea that a re-
action and a drop in prices must soon
come. This prediction has been fostered
by the financial papers. For weeks
they have been declaring that the phe-
nomenal advances were artificial and
could not possibly be maintained.
Of 'ahOOr1n Sarca SticallV.
in such terms as the American
mania" The result has been that
many professionals have been caught
on the bear side, selling Americans for
a fall which failed to material1ze They
found that the heavy selling of the
Venezuelan and free silver" periods
had not left enough stocks here to meet
their orders and they were forced to
buy in at advanced prices. Still the
Stock Exchange here adhereS to the
opinion that the boom" Will. be over
done, that the ebb will set in in the
natural course of events ana that II
cannot be far distant.
The Statist, in a somewhat alarmlst
tone, points out that the unprecedented
amount of American capital employed
in Europe, ten or fifteen millions. chlef-
ly in London and Berlin, may be With
drawn at it's owners pleasure ana that
nossibly American speculation will be-
come so rampant that the owners will
recall their money and invest it there.
The naDerS fear serious shipments to
New York would send up rates in
Europe.
Great Britain presents vivid con-
trast between the potency OF civic and
military fame. To put 1t boldly, Glad
stone dead is quoted at $4,000 in the
memorial market, while Kitchener alive
easily commands 912,000 The pro-
motors of the Gladstone memorial, who
expected to secure 100000 to establish
libraries in the principal cities through
popular contributions, are greatly de-
pressed at the reports of the appeals
to the people After several months
these appeals have only resulted in
collecting one-tenth of the sum desired
But in the case of Kitchener, who
dazzled the empire with the laurels of
a day spent in moving down thousands
of savages by the perfection of military
discipline and machinery, the British
climb over one another in their eager
ness to pour money into the college
for blacks" otherwise the Gordon me-
mortal college at Khartoum, to educate
a people they have never seen, in a
country they never cared for, as a trib-
ute to the conqueror. The Gladstone
fund, however, will be made up by
wealthy men, who will gladly give their
money, but who are grieYously
chagrined at the lukewarmness of the
people who called him leader and whom
they expected to contribute spon-
taneously.
When the conservative churchmen,
who persisted in shutting their eyes to
the theological controversies, read the
headlines in the Times and Spectator,
| Crisis in the Church of England they
were compelled to recognize that the
agitation against the mass and con-
fessionaP' started by Konsit and car
ried on by Harcourt, had come to pass
demanding settlement. The Bishops,
being finally driven to grapple with the
problem, met at Lambeth Palace this
week and discussed the policy Of issu-
| ing a manifesto. While the deepest
secrecy surrounds the proceedings, it
is said that it has been one of the bit
terest conclaves in the history Of the
church, as it certainly was one of the
most important, and that it has re-
suited in an agreement to present a bill
to Parliament for a revival of the
church courts. It provides that disputes
must be first brought before the do
cesar court, consisting of the Bishop,
! assisted by a theological and legal adj