| Show CURRENT TOPICS IN EUROPE were it not so serious and were there oot not so many momentous issues at stake it would be positively amusing to see the amount of gush in which european journals indulge concerning cretan affairs airs while at the same time con actions equally barbarous are afflec ing largo large masses of the population tiou of central anti and western europe rrue frue jt is that durkish officers have inflicted many atrocities on the hapless inhabitants of that beautiful mediterranean isle but there are some alleviating aces connected with cretan affairs which do not extend to the affair of central europe in crete there is no pinching ald cu ad no frozen limbs aud and no starvation but when we turn our attention to the inhabitants of more northern latitudes we come face to face with the most intense and almost universal suffering what peu pen can describe the untold misery that at present prevails in austrian hungary in bohemia in westphalia and in belgium the fhe government of germany seems to be awakening to the mi miseries eiserle serle of the people as well as to the danger chat hat will certainly menace the empire if these abuses long continue without doubt the revolution in brazil is having a powerful reflex action in europe the fhe caricatures can agures representing the sovereigns of the various nations as so many skaters skating on thin ice while every now and then one or another breaks through and disappears has more foundation in fact than fiction it la evident that the rejection of the anti socialist bill in the reichstag some two weeks ago has had a mighty influence over public opinion in europe the sufferings of the millions of working people starving shivering dying in in their wretchedness is beginning to influence even the rulers it was indeed a bold act fur for the members of the german reichstag to hurl de defiance deblance at the govern government men t and virtually throw threw the antisocial anti auti social bill back into prince Bis marcks face the fact that the prince nee immediately resigned his position as minister of commerce which position is so intimately connected witia biti the interests of laboring men is itself significant this seems to have been done with the approval of the emperor who while he wishes to retain prince bismarck as the leader in the international afra affairs irs seems to wish to inaugurate a different internal policy from that pursued by the iron chancellor the recent proclamations of the emperor have taker taken i the people as well as the journalists by surprise the issue of these proclamations without the signature of responsible ministers is regarded in some quarters as an unconstitutional act and this feature Is much commented upon therease there Ther eare are some who claim that the emperor is really working in the interests of the laboring classes that he sympathizes with the suffering he sees around him and desires to alleviate it as far as possible there are others who perceive in all ah this only an attempt to gain the favor of the voters and thus prevent a socialist triumph at the coming elections the socialist democrats in germany are a great political force and all their energies are directed to reforms in the condition of labor the rhe emperor of germany like many others no doubt sees that is the problem of the day which must sooner or later be solved if a revolution tio n is to be a averted the internal politics lesof of the british empire at this time are well worthy of consideration the surrender of the times in the great parnell controversy is a very signi scant straw which shows very plainly the direction of the popular breeze As everybody knows the amee newspaper poses itself as the greatest of newspapers it may be safely asserted that the directors and supporters of the times have a wider portical political social and donled luene than those of any other journal on face of the globe for many years they have employed the very best journalistic talent available and sent correspondents to every quarter of the world atone at one period a word from the limes would elevate or depress stocks in any of the great exchanges exchange sor or money markets of the world happily that ti time noe is passed phe influence of the times culminated during the american civil war the times had ever been lieen ultra conservative but it was during that terrible war that it gave vent to its pent up rage and plainly showed itself to be the foo foe of demo ratio institutions the enemy of the rights of mati man since then the influence of the as its friends sometimes styled it has been decreasing society had seen it with the mask off the conduct of the times in the famous parnell controversy has not been such as to win friends to attempt to drive a political leader from public life by bringing brin glog against aga irist him film an atrocious charge to withhold with hold from him all means of testing or disproving it to trade on it for years aud and then when finally exposed to V say that the character they had been at such pains to take away was only worth forty shillings 10 this was not conduct to commend itself to fair minded men of any party and in their own interests te rests the proprietors of the times have done well to desist from it although the parnell commission has not yet maue made its report the counsel counselor coun of the times m de deau an offer to mr parnell to give him thousand dollars and pay the costs of the commission mr Parn elPs conduct in accepting the times offer instead of pressing on the action vindictively Is in keeping with the dignity and magnanimity nani mity he has shown throughout under the most painful ordeal to which any public man in great britain has been subjected during the present century under thene theme circumstances it is not wonderful that what has bas been known as Glad gladstone stones policy 91 is gaining adherents the recent elec tion in glasgow was virtually a victory for reform inasmuch as aa the conservative serva tive majority was reduced more than six aix hundred it is not I 1 surprising then to gee fee even mr balfour changing his hie position and at the very opening of parliament offering Dg a hill bill for the purchase of lauds lands und and tie te alleviation of distress in the thickly populated districts of ireland to some it may seem strange that mr balfour who is mostly known by his stringent rule over ireland should be the one to propose a reform measure but then this is not the first time that politicians have sought to make a virtue of a Decess necessity ity and have acquiesced in measures they could no longer prevent the tenure of land in ireland is indeed contrary to the spirit of the age and to a certain extent the same may be said of other parts of the british islands the british traveler on the continent can scarcely fail to notice how much more equitable the laud land is there divided than in his own country the close of the period the british people posse possessed smi a greater liberty than their continental neighbors but several events have transpired since then the reconstruction of the swiss republic has made the land tenure better for her people the french rc revolution like a whirlwind swept away the feudal privileges and territorial rit orial claims ot clergy and nobles napoleon with his bis terrible plowshare war made havoc with the aristocratic ant hills bills of german counts and barons and last but by no means least italy threw aside her petty governments confiscated large tracts of land occupied by the clergy and petty rulers and then divided the patrimony among her children rhe fhe COD consequence sequence is that in regard to the tenure of land great britain is far behind her continental tin neighbors the boasted freedom of great britain is little more than a shadow so sn long as thirty thousand landowners can say to the remaining thirty millions of their fellow citizens this is our land you shall not till it nor shall you live upon it without our permission but the toiling milli millions of great britain and I 1 reland ireland keep asking how did these landowners get possession of this land if we go back a few generations we shall find that the crown held this land in trust as it were for the use of the common people previous to the reign of henry vill VIII the monasteries held possession of nearly oneth one th rd of the domain but they were only permitted to retain possession of it on condition that they might be better able to relieve the poor the abuses that had crept in under this monastic rule was a pretext for king henry to take these lands from them but even this bluff monarch did not dare to touch that which was considered private property in the absolute sense tided aped at the present time from the earliest jays the principle of absolute ow ownership was u unknown down rhe nobles held the land in trust from the crown and for abe privilege of using it they hal had to render certain military service to the state fur for example each earl or knight had to find arm and rayj tain a number of soldiers at his own expense in view of the perpetual perpetu sl wars then raging it is toot hot surprising that this military service proved irksome to the aris aria bo cravy but it took them thein several centuries to throw these warlike burdens on the shoulders of the poor in the form forin of tax and to transform themselves from merely feudal lords and assume tie me title of land owners goldsmith has given us a picture of england in the medi seval veval days A time there was ere En glands grief began bean when wh every rood of ground maintained its man for him light labor spread her wholesome store just jnet gave what life required but gave no more fits bis best companions innocence innocenc ce and health and his best riches ignorance of wealth the phe grand old artisan of five hundred years ago was not hurried over his work he took his time over it and threw his soul into it hence the paintings the sculptures the buildings and those marvelous examples of smith work of the middle ages which one ode sees now and then in castles or maseu museu museums we all bear the impress of independence beauty can never be from the slavish soul those rhose who sigh over the decadence of the artistic sense among the mafes maises should remember that the one great reason why art has been so sedulously rul in frince france and italy is because the great majority of those people have free and independent homes when men and women are i cooped by hundreds in factories and alad made into machines they must inevitably loose some of that splendid self reliance which is the soul of a geat g eat people these are some of the thoughts which are agitating the public lindof mi nd of britain today will the rulers heed this agitation a igi tation or is I 1 it possible that after the calm c ain will wil I 1 come the whirlwind J H WARD EUROPE Eu pAPE february 1890 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