Show d JOHN BULlS WORRIES I French A Aggressiveness In Africa i Annoys Him I I THE INDIAN CAMPAIGN PAILTTRE OP ITS LARGEST ANDES AND-ES EQUIPPED FORCE Ii Whole Work Will Have > to Be Repeated j peated In the Spring Changes In I 1 the Indian OfficePearys Weld Wel-d come Minister Hay British and I Continental Gossip I 1 i I London Dec Copyrighted 1897 Ii by the Associated Press Four cabinet I cab-inet councils in a weak are calculated 1 to arouse comment bunt must be admitted ad-mitted that the Marquis of Salisbury and his colleagues have a multiplicity j S of matters more or less urgently calling j call-ing for a settlement With France I trying to filch slices of African territory terri-tory Avhich Great Britain is in the halt of ca1IingherriJwn and Germany loosening the dnch Albion has always al-ways claimed to have in China while Great Britain herself is trying to grab a little morecountry at Aariousother points and with the preparation of I the legislative programme the ministry I minis-try has no lack of worries FRENCH AGGRESSIVENESS The announcement which the St James Gazette made on Wednesday last authoritatively that the British Brit-ish government does not expect any further trouble with France regarding the Upper Nile regions France agreeing agree-ing to accept the situation is unconfirmed uncon-firmed and probably unfounded asS as-S there is no lack of evidence that France is deliberately pursuing the task of seizing the upper waters of the Nile above Khartoum thus cutting the British line of communication between Cape Town and Suez and the powerful colonial party in France threatens to upset the Maline cabinet should it recede re-cede from this enterprise FRUITLESS CAMPAIGN 4k All the forces of General Sir WilliamS William-S Lpokhart the British commander on the Indian frontier have been withdrawn with-drawn to the Bara valley for the winter win-ter Thus the largest and best equipped force ever assembled in India has failed and the whole york will have to be repeated in the spring About 1400 officers and men either killed or wounded and 3000000 rupees spent in loss and British prestige weakened en the frontier I are the debits against which a few mud huts and Sangers blown up and probably several thousand thou-sand natives killed are the only apparent ap-parent credits THE INDIAN OFFICE Rumors too precise to be guesswork are current to the effect that the Earl of Elgin early next year will retire from the viceroyalty of India and be I succeeded by Lord George Hamilton whose Indian secretaryship will be filled by Lord Lansdowne the present secretary of state for war This would be a good party move as it would enable en-able the Marquis of Salisbury to place at the head of the war office a skilled man of business who would satisfy the I taxpayers as well as the army and materiallysmooth the path for the intended in-tended popular demand for military reform It is intimated that Joseph Chamberlain may be transferred from the colonial to the war office his place being given as a sop to the Marquis of Londonderry whose kicking qualities are not appreciated by the ministry OUR ARCTIC EXPLORER Lieutenant R E Peary the American Ameri-can exrPorer has taken the town by storm though he arrived h ere unheralded unher-alded The newspapers geographers and scientists are at his disposal Asa As-a leadr geographer said to a rcire j scntatve of the Associated Press Lifuttnart Peary has won all our hearts by his modesty courtesy and learning We put him on the same plare as Dr Nansen and have the utmost ut-most confidence in his plans On Tuesday Lieutenant and Mrs Peary dined with the HarmsWOrths and on Wednesday the United States ambassador Colonel John Hay and Mrs Hay gave a dinner in their honor I The lieutenant lectured at Newcastle on Thursday and on Friday he lectured lec-tured at Edinburgh There he met with an enthusiastic reception from the boo Royal Scottish Geographical society and was presented with its medal Sir Clement Markham president of I the Royal Geographical society will give a banquet in Lieutenant Pearys honor on Dec 14 The Saturday Review says There js a tinge of hero worship in the reception recep-tion accorded to Lieutenant Peary which surpasses the reception of Dr Nausea This is as it should be Peary is of our race and speaks our tongue and it is only fitting that we should feel more warmly for him than for a foreigner Moreover the desperate courage shown by Lieutenant Peary is almost unparalleled in the splendid story of Arctic exploration MINISTER HAY Colonel Hay has done a great deal more here than people think said one of his friends recently He has declined de-clined over 50 invitations to make public pub-lic speeches since he arrived in Eng f land Judging frum the praise lavished on his purelj literary speech at the Omar Khay Im club on Wednesday he will find it more difficult than ever to decline de-cline these invitations i INTEREST OF SCIENCE The member of the British Astronomical S Astronom-ical association who is going to India to witness the eclipse ot the sun will take with him a powerful cinematograph cinemato-graph camera which Mill produce five or six photographs per second He hopes thereby to settle the Question whether the appearance of the corona hanges during the brief moments o 5 the ecipse Professor Hansen of Dakota has about concluded his mission to Turke stan for the purpose of studying the seeds and plants best calculated to reclaim re-claim sandy wastes He has secured a good collection SNAP SHOTS A snap shot of the family group while the czar and czarina were at Darm stadt showing Emperor William with his arm resting affectionately on the t ¼ czars shoulder has furnished a German Ger-man photographer with a picture which S Is selling freely The Berlin photographer photogra-pher has skilfully detached the German emperor and the czar from their surroundings sur-roundings and has made it appear that the two autocrats were photographed lone after purposely assuming a J friendly pose When the pictures appeared ap-peared in the stores at St Petersburg they were summarily confiscated f PLAIN SPEAKING S At the Christmas dinner of the new Vagabonds club on Friday Rear Admiral Ad-miral Lord Charles Beresford was the guest of the evening and he created a sensation oy his plain speaking on social so-cial questions Money he declared is now every thing among us Any vulgarian of whatever nationality could buy his way among those who are described as i the best and proudest in the land but wh worship the golden calf Continuing Lord Beresford said sOur old empire will soon be going down grade when a man in the so called best society commits a dishonorable dishon-orable act and society bands together to screen him instead of hanging him to the first treeS r tree-S t S 1 S I L = The popular rear admiral also urged I a return to the old l < ye of chivalry and patriotism the abhorrence of j everything sordid and selfish The Vagabonds were at first laghast I at this plain speaking but the subsequent subse-quent cheers showed that outspoken truths are not altogether unpalatable 1 LIBERALS OF ENGLAND The National Liberal Federation at its annual meeting at Derby on Tuesday Tues-day last constructed a new platform which it is hoped will be broad enough to hold all the factions It includes abolition i ab-olition of the peers right of veto woman i j wo-man suffrage the payment of members mem-bers of the house of commons the enfranchisement I en-franchisement of paupers and the defraying de-fraying election expenses from public pub-lic funds John Morley has kicked at the platform He says he has doffed his coat and waistcoat in behalf of home rule and cannot spare any more apparel ap-parel for the purpose of fighting for the abolition of the house of lords while it is easy to Imagine the feelings of Sir William Vernon Harcourt who has so consistently voted against the woman suffrage S Sir William Lawson will argue against the dropping of the local veto plank and the Irish are annoyed at the fact that the platform contains no mention of home rule YUL ETIDES APPROACH In wonderfully mild weather everything every-thing betokens Christmas The shops i are crowded but many of the newspapers newspa-pers are protesting against the expensiveness expen-siveness of the smart set For the first time on the other hand British manufacturers manu-facturers are able to compete with Germany in cheap toys especially tin soldiers at which there is much exultation exul-tation The principal novelties in All the stores are motor cars driven by hot air and American Indian wigwams big enough to contain children in In S dian costumed Christmas parties are projected on an unusually festive scale particularly Blenheim where numbers of variety performers have been engaged Old fashioned Christmas sports will be indulged in-dulged in OSCAR WILDES APPEARANCE There is a controversy over the question ques-tion of Oscar Yildes reappearance asa as-a dramatist A prominent manager is preparing to produce his latest play under a thinly veiled pseudonym Thereupon the St James Gazette says The manager has failed to grasp the fact that this dramatists career at respectable re-spectable London playhouses must be considered closed Paris however does not share this I antipathy A theatre in that city announces an-nounces that a play written in French I by Oscar Wilde will be produced shortly S SIn S-In an interview published by the Gil Bias Oscar Wilde declares the British I will forgive anything in the case of one whoamuses them I AMERICAN AUTHOR CRITICISED Charles Dana Gibsons London appears ap-pears among the Christmas books and is much criticized by the artists and newspapers The Daily News says His people on Bond street are simply thepeopleofFifth avenue transferred They are lever here except as American I Amer-ican tourists His Hyde Park corner is crowded with these American invaders invad-ers while thefirst night is simply a practical joke of the same description His drawing room is a conceivable presentation of the White House It is certainly no function of Buckingham palace S I QUIT RACING Lord Roseberry at the dinner of the Gim Crack club at York on Tuesday advised all those who are contemplating contemplat-ing racing to refrain from doing so as it is expansive exceedingly and too enfrossing for anyone having anything etsp to do |