al by
President Cleveland. In answer to an unknown correspondent in
California, the English minister wrote expressing his views as to the
pending Presidential election--a thing in violation of all diplomatic
custom. The letter was published and used as a campaign document.
President Cleveland at once demanded his recall, and Lord Salisbury not
acting with sufficient promptness, the unlucky minister was given his
passport on October 30th.

England and Germany are contending for supremacy in East Africa, the
latter by bombarding the natives of Zanzibar into submission, and the
former by the peaceful methods of trade. Portugal is to join England and
Germany in a naval blockade of Zanzibar to suppress slave-dealing, and
the Pope has sent $60,000 to Cardinal Lavigerie for the same purpose.
The Cardinal is raising a volunteer corps with which to fight the
slave-dealers of Central Africa. The Congo Free State, the only absolute
free-trade country in all the world, is being rapidly opened. The first
section of the trans-African railway, from St. Paul de Loanda to Ambaca,
has been completed. Stanley has been heard from indirectly, but the news
is eleven months old and his present position is unknown.

Russia came near losing her ruler in a railway accident not far from
Tiflis on October 29th. As the Czar and Czarina were returning from the
Caspian to the Black Sea, the train left the rails and was wrecked.
Twenty-one persons were killed and thirty-seven injured, but the Czar
escaped with a slight injury to his foot. Balkan questions still cloud
the political horizon. Austria is contemplating the occupation of
Servia, a step which would be followed immediately by Russia occupying
Bulgaria. King Milan has got his divorce from Queen Natalie. He pointed
out to the Metropolitan of the Servian Church that the sovereign of
course was superior to all law in such little matters as marriage-ties,
and the Metropolitan obediently issued a decree granting the divorce.
Queen Natalie has appealed to the Greek Patriarch at Constantinople.
Meanwhile Roumania is trying an experiment in self-government, having
introduced a system of elections for members of a Chamber of Deputies,
for which all citizens paying taxes are electors.

Emperor William has returned from his junketing tour. His reception by
the Italian people was enthusiastic, but his interview with the Pope was
hardly a love-feast. Pope and Kaiser met face to face for the first time
s