The Washington times., 1901-07-15
FOREIGN TOPICS.

| government, although Ii Is ruled by &
hing, Is much more liberal than ours be
cause their Parliament is absolute Tn,
King can do nothing that affects tn.
welfare of the people without their con.
sent, expressed through the House OF
commons. and there is no Supreme Court
to review its legislation. The courts are
often called upon to interpret the acts
of Parliament. to decide what they mean
in case the application of a law is dis
puted. but further than that they have
no jurisdiction. Neither the judiciary
nor the sovereign can veto, or set aside
or defeat the will of the people as ex-
pressed by Parliament, and no King has
| attempted to do so since Cromwell S
time.
Englishmen smile when you ask for a
copy of the British constitution. That
| august document exists only in the i'm
agination, although 1t is quoted and dis
| cussed and appealed to frequently. 1t is
| like the ghost of Hamlet's father. 1t has
been and 1t Is and it ever shall be. but
it is an intangible thing. The British
constitution. consists of the precedents
| established by Parliament during the last
| GOO yearS-a very complicated and intri-
| cate code, which may be changed at any
moment in Difference to public sentiment
| or to meet new conditions and emer-
| gencies, but never to promote the ambi-
| ton of men. The voters OF England are
extremely sensitive and suspicious They
keep good men in Parliament, but bad
men cannot stay and are seldom re-
elected. The father of the House. who
recently died, had been reelected contin-
uously for forty-ive years. The present
father of the House has been member
| of that body for forty seven years.
Glasgow, Scotland. which suffers great
iy from drunkenness among its people,
is now, it is said. about to grapple with
the evil by handing over a monopoly of
the liquor business to a private corpora
tion. The plan differs from the Gothen-
burg plan in being more comprehensive,
and thus resembles somewhat the South
Carolina plan. The Swedish system ap-
plies only to distilled liquors, leaving wine
and beer sales unregulated. In Glasgow
wine and beer. as well as whisky. are to
be sold only by licensed monopoly,
which engages to limit its profits to 4
per cent, to hand over the excess to the
city and to make saloon surroundings re-
spectacle without making them unduly
tempting The manager of each saloon
will get his profit from sales of food and
soft drinks, and will not be forced to
encourage the drinking OF distilled al
coholic liquors. Present holders of IL
censes are, of course, fighting the pro-
posed reform. vested interests" are a
great power in the British isles But if
not able to capture the whole city the
Public House Trust" expects to get at
least a few model saloons in which to
exhibit the working of its theory. In
Sweden the Gothenburg plan has given
the state large revenue. This is
tho1sht to be only proper, as the liquor
evil adds greatly to the cost of admins
tration. 1t has proved the possibility of
regulating the saloon in such a way as to
deprive citizens of opportunity to tempt
and ruin each other for the sake of pri-
vate gain. 1t also affords a good means
of securing the use of pure liquors.
The town of Davos. in Switzerland, is
considering bold scheme for the aboIi-
ton OF all the ordinary forms of fuel.
1t is proposed to erect an extensive cleo
trio plant at the confluence of two large
mountain torrents, whose united waters
will supply the necessary motive force.
a large firm of Swiss electricians has
been studying the problem for over a
year. and has obtained the concession of
the forces OF the torrents alluded to. The
same firm has brought out new electric
heating and cooking apparatus especially
designed for the scheme. The first cost of
the installation is estimated TO be $780,
900 francs. Already electricity is not
only used for lighting and motive power.
but Is adopted in many villas for cooking
and heating and in one of the largest
bakeries The idea is to do away with all
contamination of the air by the use of
fuel.
cars is being experimental with. The
tracks are made powerful magnets which
pull the car forward. AS there are no
moving parts on the car or tracks the
troublesome motor is got rid of. The
tracks are supplied by current from the
power station in the ordinary way. There
are field coils along the tracks, and the
car alse carries coils, the arrangement
being such that the current is kept con-
stantly circulating in the track coils just
ahead of the car, so as to pull the car
forward by magnetic force. The scheme
seems to work fairly well at high speeds
Placed by the side of Belgium, the dimi-
mutton of the population in France is
nothing short of a calamity.
The agricultural departments show
further graduation of decrease. French
harvests will have to be gathered in by
Luxemburgers or men of the Ticino. 1t
may be said, that Lille. Roubaix, Armen-
there's. and a dozen towns are as Flemish
as they were 300 years ago. In these dis
tricts the increase is accounted for by
alien immigration. Marseilles is half Ital-
ian. The Riviera teens with foreign ele-
ments. The same remark applies to the
Spanish frentier towns and villages.
1t may be taken. therefore, that in the
last iiv years the paltry increase of about
1O.OpJ Inhabitants means a dead loss of
double that number of French people.
Apart from the resident foreign popula-
tion. it is calculated that when the CEN
sus was taken there must have been at |
least 20.Oo0 passing travellers.
The chief cause of disappointment is the |
proof that the so-called colonial aspira- |
tions of France amount to a costly deiu-
sion. As far as Algeria is concerned. the |
majority of the population Is made up |
OF Maltese, Italians, and Spaniards. Oran |
Is virtually Spanish colony. The COM |
mercial and agricultural population of Tu- |
mis- is Italian. The German or so-called |
Alsatian population of Paris is greatly |
augmented.
The Bavarian State Railroad is estab- |
fishing preparatory school for employees |
at Munich. Attendance at this school for |
at least one term will be obligatory upon |
all who wish to obtain employment. Can
iidates who have passed the one-year ar
my volunteer examination and who are |
of competing for the higher ex-
acutive positions in mechanical branches
IN the railroad service are allowed to have
two morths practical experience in rail-
roading before taking a course in the
school, in order that they may be better
able to understand the theoretical teach
ng which they will receive. Candidates
are to be allowed partial pay while at
tending the school.
Berlin is resolved to erect the most |
irtistic Wagner statue in the world at
he entrance of the celebrated Thiergar-
en-. At the invitation of the Wagner
Monument Committee sixty artists, rep
esenting nearly all civilized countries,
designs and out of these ten
eceived prizes OF these il is believed |
hat the design of Edward Beyrer
-oung sculptor. will be the successful
ne.
A remarkable thing about this competi-
|