the fair rent of the holding (or the net fair rent) is the gross fair rent less a reasonable annual allowance in respect of the sum which would represent the present value of the improvements for which, according to the acts, a deduction is to be made from the rent." Before passing from the subject of fair rent, the commissioners said: "We are convinced that the settlement of fair rents has been effected in an unsatisfactory manner, with diversity of opinion and practice, sometimes with carelessness and sometimes with that bias towards one side or the other which exists in many honest minds; but we are also convinced that the administration of justice has not been poisoned by any systematic endeavour on the part of the commissioners to benefit either side at the expense of the other."

As an alternative course of procedure the report suggested that two assistant commissioners should be sent to inspect the holdings, with power to listen to statements, not on oath, and also to consult their legal coadjutor; and in the event of a difference of opinion between the assistant commissioners, or in the event of a demand to that effect by either party, a court valuer might be called upon to inspect the land. The court valuer or assistant commissioners would then prepare a pink schedule, and supply a copy to each of the parties, each party to have liberty within a fixed period to require a hearing in court; but in the event of no requisition for a hearing being served, the pink schedule should act as a conditional order unless within a limited time cause be shown against it by either party. If cause be shown, the matter should be sent for hearing to the subcommission. As to purchase, the practice of the Land Commissioners was held to have been unnecessarily rigid. It was recommended that whenever landlord and tenant agreed upon a price, and the former was willing that the whole amount should remain as a guarantee fund, the advance should be made as a matter of course.

In conclusion, the report referred to the great staff of officials employed under the Land Acts, and the great body of solicitors and valuators who gathered around them, and submitted that if, by an automatic adjustment of rents, or by their conversion into rents-charge, or by any other means which the wisdom of the Legislature might devise, the unrest generated by the periodical settlement of rents could be stayed and the burden of perpetually recurring litigation cast off, a great boon would be bestowed on her Majesty's subjects in Ireland.

A perusal of the above summary will show that many of the principal charges made against the Land Acts as administered were acknowledged to be well founded. Some of the evils exposed were capable of being removed, or at least mitigated, by rules made by the Land Commissioners themselves, and during the year they did introduce certain modifications into the practice and procedure of the Courts under their jurisdiction, in view of the recommendations of the Fry Commission.

But on other important points, such as the increase of stability in the tenure of office by the Sub-Commissioners, the active concurrence either of the Government by way of legislation, or of the Treasury authorities, would be required to secure the improvements urged by the Royal Commissioners. From time to time representative meetings of landlords passed resolutions pressing upon Her Majesty's Ministers the duty of acting on the Fry Report, and also of recognising the claim of the landlords to compensation.

On the whole, however, the year was less remarkable for exemplifications of the divergent interests and aspirations of landlord and tenant than for a tendency on the part of those who had been long divided and estranged to find ground of common action. The new spirit showed itself in various directions. Very prominently it was illustrated by the cordiality with which (after some initial suspicion) the agricultural classes in Ireland adopted the principles and system of industrial co-operation enforced by Mr. Horace Plunkett and his coadjutors in the propaganda of the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society. According to an interesting statement in the Times at the end of the year, "the various branches of the society had been extended with such rapidity and success that no less than sixty-seven co-operative societies were registered since March 31, 1898. On December 17 the society had under its control eighty-seven agricultural societies with a membership of 9,000, and 155 dairy societies with a membership of 20,000. The output of butter from the creameries during the period between April 1, 1897, and December 1, 1898, amounted to 4,000 tons, valued at 353,850l., or about 94d. per lb. Twentyfive poultry and home industries societies were also in active operation. The most interesting development in the work of the society," proceeded the writer in the Times, "is, perhaps, the increase in the number of the credit banks which it has established under the Raiffeisen system. On October 1, 1897, there were four of these banks in Ireland. There are now fortyone, of which twenty-six have been established since March 31, 1898. The value of such a purely humane credit system, sufficiently safeguarded, but established for the benefit of borrowers, can hardly be overestimated in a country whose poorer agricultural classes have suffered so much at the hands of the city money-lender and the 'gombeen man.'

In the same connection may be mentioned the co-operation of a number of Irishmen of diverse politics and religions in an inquiry into the economic requirements of their country. This resulted in a movement, which received sympathetic treatment from the Government, in favour of an Agriculture and Industries Bill for Ireland. A like tendency, though hardly perhaps exercised in so hopeful a direction, appeared in the renewal of the agitation for a readjustment of the financial relations between Great Britain and Ireland, and the adhesion to that

movement, by a considerable majority, of the Corporation of Belfast.

The same disposition towards union, and obliteration of old, or recent, bitternesses was shown, perhaps, to some extent among the different sections of Nationalists. At any rate representatives of them all were content to participate in common in the various celebrations connected with the centenary of the insurrection of 1798. In Belfast some serious rioting ensued, but that, of course, was between the celebrationists and violent opponents of the idea for which Wolfe Tone conspired and died; and elsewhere order was preserved.

With regard to the working of the Local Government Act, there was considerable division among the Nationalists as to the duty of running the elections for the new councils on strictly political lines. Mr. Redmond, while insisting that there must be a Nationalist majority wherever there was any chance of obtaining it, urged also that, for the rest, it was desirable that competent and experienced persons should be chosen for the conduct of local business, irrespective of their political or religious opinions. His object, as he avowed, was to secure that local affairs should be administered so efficiently that the self-governing capacity of the Irish people should be demonstrated to the world. Mr. Redmond's views on this question, however, though by no means peculiar to him, did not appear to obtain general acceptance from his followers. Numerous adherents of Mr. Dillon and Mr. O'Brien set themselves, under their inspiration, bitterly against any compromise with the opponents of Home Rule. The prospect as the year closed appeared to be that in a large number of districts of the South and West of Ireland no Unionist or Protestant would have a chance of securing election to the bodies to be formed for the administration of local affairs. Some sensation was caused in that connection by the announcement of the conversion of Lord Emly to Nationalism of an aggressive and exclusive type. In that spirit he presented himself as a candidate for the Limerick County Council, on which also he undertook, if elected, to be to a large extent a representative of Labour. In view of such facts as these the outlook for the inauguration of local government in Ireland on democratic lines did not appear as cheerful as was to be desired. In the West, again, where a failure of the potato crop caused much distress, which, however, was substantially relieved by Governmental action and public charity, Mr. William O'Brien's United Irish League furnished possibilities of renewed agrarian disorder. On that subject the Lord-Lieutenant speaking at Belfast felt constrained to utter a warning. Nevertheless, on the whole, the year 1898 presents signs of encouragement which, though they may be slow in attaining fulfilment, distinguish it pleasantly from many of its recent predecessors.

FOREIGN AND COLONIAL HISTORY.

CHAPTER I.

FRANCE AND ITALY.

I. FRANCE.

"THE Dreyfus year" will be the title by which in future times 1898 will probably be distinguished by the historians of France. The Dreyfus trial, or its revision, was the all-engrossing subject of controversy, and the source of perpetual political and judicial conflicts. Throughout the year, without intermission, it sufficed to arouse and fix the attention of the public to the exclusion of almost all other topics, and excited in all classes an interest which, whether harmful or the reverse, gathered in intensity as the controversy progressed. Moreover the Dreyfus affair succeeded in effacing old party lines, which had outlived their usefulness, and in facilitating new grouping of parties, of which the country had for some time felt the need, but was unable to settle the plans. Although the struggle over the unfortunate officer-condemned in 1894-had been commenced before the year began, and its conclusion was not reached when the year ended, but during its course the most important steps were taken towards a decisive solution of the drama.

The unanimous acquittal of Major Walsin-Esterhazy by the military court caused but little surprise; it was foreseen, and in the absence of precise information as to how the case had been tried, it was generally supposed that serious State reasons had influenced the military judges. It might, therefore, be affirmed with truth that at the beginning of the year the great majority of those who really reflected upon public affairs and took an intelligent interest in the good government of the country leaned rather to the view that the Dreyfus case should not be reopened.

At this moment, however (Jan. 7), the Siècle newspaper published the report of Major Besson d'Ormescheville on the case of M. Alfred Dreyfus, and that of Major Ravary upon the case of Major Walsin-Esterhazy. These were the charges upon which the two courts martial of 1894 and 1897 had given judgment. It was impossible not to recognise how vague and

puerile were the charges against the former, and how complacently appreciative was the whitewashing of the latter. These documents thus placed side by side were a formal condemnation of the manner in which the officials employed to act before military courts drew up the cases entrusted to them.

It was under the feeling of doubt and mistrust aroused by this publication that the parliamentary session opened. In the Chamber the former officers were reappointed without opposition; but in the Senate one of the vice-presidents, M. ScheurerKestner, paid the penalty of his honesty and courage. On the same day appeared in L'Aurore a letter addressed by the eminent writer, Emile Zola, to the President of the Republic, under the heading "J'accuse". In this letter M. Zola arraigned the Ministers of War of 1894 and 1895, the chief of the general staff, General Boisdeffre, and others whom he named, accusing them of lèse humanité and lèse justice, and acting either under clerical pressure or from that esprit de corps which aimed at making the War Office a sacred ark which was absolutely beyond the reach of attack or even of criticism. "Finally, I accuse," he wrote, "the first Conseil de Guerre of having violated justice by condemning a prisoner upon a secret document unknown to him or to his counsel; and I accuse the second Conseil de Guerre of having condoned this illegality by order, and thereby committing a judicial offence by acquitting an accused whom they knew to be guilty."

The publication of this letter provoked the keenest excitement, which showed itself by disorders in the streets of Paris, and soon after in Nantes, Marseilles, Châlons-sur-Saône, Bordeaux, Angers, etc. The anti-Semite feeling speedily spread itself, especially in provincial towns, where the shops of Jewish traders were threatened. The Patriots' League, which had been invisible since the Boulanger collapse, once more appeared upon the scene, and took a prominent part in the demonstration which marked the retirement of General Saussier and the appointment of General Zurlinden to the governorship of Paris.

After five days' hesitation and reflection the Minister of War, as chief of the Army, and in the name of the Conseil de Guerre which had acquitted Esterhazy, decided to take legal action against M. Zola, and at the instance of the procureur général, M. Zola and M. Perreux, editor of the Aurore, were cited to appear before the Seine Assize Court. The principal defendant replied by a letter to the Minister of War, in which he reproached the latter with having shrunk from a fair and open fight, and by having recourse to legal quibbles hoped to obtain a victory upon which he could not otherwise count. "I shall prevail, he wrote, "by the force of justice, I shall carry conviction to the conscience by the truth." Strong words like these, whilst causing the impartial to hesitate, at the same time aroused throughout the country an outburst of that temper which had marked the days of Boulangism. The committees which had