NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11369, 11 May 1900, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS .

In mere area, for example, the colonial dm, sessions of France come not very far shV of those of England. But French on L bear to France almost the relation foil aphides do to a cabbage. They add nothing ! to its strength; they drain it of blood and treasure. France has spent, in the vein' betwixt 1890-99, nearly £33,000,000 on her colonies, while the Colonial Office in Paris has a staff of 231 officials, as against a staff of 79 employed in the British Colonial Office ' Of the total cost of her colonies,' nearly 50 : cent, falls on the French taxpayer. '" Every loan a French colony raises has to be guaranteed-and not seldom actually repaid —by the mother country. And yet, eyen when thus spoon-fed, the French colonies dedine to live, or maintain only a sort of mi. vanised existence. The total number of emigrants from France for the three years end.' 1 ing in 1896, scarcely amounted to'sooo per . sons. French colonics are mainly colonised, by officials appointed from Paris. In Guideloupe there is one such official to every 145 inhabitants; in Dahomey there is a whit/ population of 33 colonists—of whom only lj are Frenehmen-aiid they are managed by m fewer than 533 officials—about 15 French;., officials, that is, to one French colonist! And France, even on these terms, 'cannot \ secure the trade of her own colonies."" ft flows, somehow, as though by the force of gravitation, to foreign pockets. "A mar-'' ket worth 95,000,000 francs," M. Meline, the French Premier, dolefully says, " costs lit ; 80,000,000 francs a year. Foreign countries' have a market worth 125,000,000 francs, without loosening their purse strings'." .v'- :: *

The death of Count Benedetti recalls Bismarck's boast of having forced the Franco- > German rupture of 1870 by tampering; with a message so as to represent King William as the victim of an affront by the llionFrench Ambassador. There.were several interviews between the King and the Count at Ems. The King was annoyed by the demand made at the last minute by Franc* 1 that not only should the Hohenzollern candidature to the Spanish Throne be discontinued, but that he should pledge himself that it should never be renewed. But tie 1 famous telegram sent by Abcken at the lung's command to Bismarck at Berlin, still left the negotiations open. Bismarck, however, did not want peace, and he succeeded' in making it impossible. The facte are set out fully by Dr. Busch in" Bismarck-Some Secret Pages of His History." Quoting from his diary, Busch represents Bismarck, some seven years after the war, as saying :-"! . soon noticed that he (the king) was beginning to take fright, and was ready to pocket; another Olmutz. ... I accordingly telegraphed to him that I requested my dismissal from office if he received Benedetti again. No answer came, and I telegraphed once more that if he had now received Bejie- '■ detti I should regard it as an acceptance of my resignation, and return to Varzin. Then came a telegram of 200 lines (doubtless : words) from Abeken. I thereupon invited Moltke and Roon to a dinner of three, and : told them how the matter stood. Boon was beside himself, and so was Moltke. I asked if we were quite prepared for such a war. < He replied that so far as it was humanly,; possible to foresee we might hope for victory. I then took the 200 lines and, without altering a word of the king's, reduced them to 20, which I read over to them. They said it would do in that form, and I then had it sent to all our Embassies, with the exception of Paris, of course, and got it inserted in the Berlin papers. And it really did so. The French took it excessively ill" Bismarck foresaw that the subedited message would " have the effect of a red rag on a Gallic bull." He was not mistaken. War was immediately proclaimed.

At the present moment, when the meeting of the National. Council of Women at Dunedin is giving prominence to the new positions which women are occupying in tho world, the following account of the jubilee commemoration of Frances Mary Buss, held in London, on April 3, will be of special interest,:— notable milestone on the now ever-broadening road of women's education was reached (says the London Morning Leader) when the jubilee serviefl in commemoration of the founder and benefactors of the Frances Mary Buss Schools was held in St. Paul's Cathedral.. Despite the unfavourable weather, large crowds gathered and besieged tho Cathedral before tho opening hour, and at seven o'clock not a vacant seat was to be found, and scarcely standing room. One hundred and fifteen women graduates led the way in the procession up the aisle-Bachelors of Arts, Science, Medicine, Music, and Law, in gown and hood and college cap. Masters of Arts, and Doctors of Medicine and Science followed, their brown, purple and red, or scarlet and yellow hoods flaming out from the sombre shadows of the gowns. The Teachers Guild followed, and then the University Association of Women Teachers, the College of Preceptors in their wake. The Cambridge and Maria Grey Training Colleges also were represented, together with the LondonSchool of Medicine for Women, the University Colleges of Sheffield, Bangor, and W followed by the Durham College of ScienceNewiiham, Girton, and Bedford Colleges also sent representatives; while of the universities of London, Wales, G«*": gow, and St. Andrew's were foUoWM-W others from Oxford and Cambridge. n Goldsmiths' Company and the ClotJiW 0 * 1 * Company, together with members of F> *■ school companies, brought up the "*""".. was a very simple order of service, , ff [ ■• ning with the "Old Hundredth." The son was taken from Proverbs, aad. ff as &v-------mon's eulogy of the virtuous ' won """ ;,. commemoration of .the founder and ben fTj tors of tho schools was read by the J. Buss, referring to "Frances Mary who did, in the year 1850, found a <*>» girls in North London, and under who*: taring care for forty and five yf 18 0 and studies grew and'prevailed..J? i < im it attained to its full growth in W jM ■ schools • now. called by her- name. . .. /

|fe?vCompanies of Brewera and ° u, who' have rendered excellent CI° t | lW " Schools; were also mentioned; ' 1 benefactors who furnished enent in the "latter of, scholarships couragerfl .v „,■ g Archbishop of Canterbury ,nd ffi the text, Prov. xxxi. 10, p IT ,»n find a virtuous woman? for her and his very P " CB it sermon on the place of woman in •'T.reation, and the education necessary &SS£foVit/ was listened to with cloSe ' f n "* condemn strongly," said the M'shop " tne P rinci P le ivuich ' instead ', vine into the man or woman and seeing C K there is to cultivate, merely thinks fie purposes that are 9 be fulfilled and Its education on those limited lines. If *W&e' services women can render, but 1 Sail herself who is above rubies, and I man who' fails to see this inverts the 1 and mistakes the place of woman in * he $M of God."

,Addressing the Primrose League, Lord -oibury said the turn in the tide of Im--Ba!'hlism was traceable to the stain of Ma- •'■'•■ 'h Hill and the Gordon blunder- General Son's death had been avenged, and the later humiliation of Majuba was about to ■ - rased. : The restoration of South Africa • V British control was the only chance of '■'■• c' > The British forces continue to ad-:-;-2in the Free State, and the Boers are % Seating northwards. Many of the enemy •'. ,re surrendering their horses and Mausers. ; ;' : The 1 Boers Jit' Fourteen Streams fled preJ cipitately, abandoning everything. In Katal General Buller is completing his transport arrangements preparatory to an ad- ' Lee. At a "dinner at the Conservative >■:• oub Mr. : Goscben taid the people of Aus- /:' tralasia had become co-partners through tics ;;; formed on tM battlefield. China has been :; ; forced to consent to Russia building the rail':py between Pekin and Kiao-Chau. The ... plague iasbroken out in Alexandria, but is decreasing throughout India.