this volume has not to deal. The subject has been introduced here only to give readers some idea of the conditions under which arose one of the most remarkable struggles between an Eastern State and a great European Power known to all history. Russia could hardly be described merely as one of the European Powers, for her vast Siberian territory with its growing civilization and its lines of railway was rapidly developing for her a wide new field in the Far East, and was bringing her more and more every day into collision with a rising Asiatic State like that of Japan. The Japanese had been growing rapidly in all the arts recognized as characteristic of Western civilization, and they had been making it evident that their destiny as well as their desire was to become one of the great States of the modern world. Every step in their progress marked them out more decisively as Russia's rival in the East, and Russia's own practical interests, along with her desire for conquest in war, made her inevitably the enemy to the supremacy of Japan. The world was destined soon to see those rival claims submitted to the arbitrament of war. Even at the time which belongs to the events of this volume the foreseeing observer must have already made up his mind that the struggle for the ownership of Corea had been given over to the eager hands of Russia and Japan. China, whatever her future destinies may be, seemed at that time to have faded as an influence into the infinite azure of the past. Japan was suddenly springing up into a life of fresh and marvellous energy, quick with every new idea which modern science, art, commerce, and craft could give. Russia was becoming a great Asiatic as well as European Power, and was threatening the decaying empires of the old East with the aggressive Imperialism of the new. The lists were therefore fairly cleared for the encounter between Russia and Japan, but years had yet to pass before

the newest of European and the newest of Asiatic great Powers were to come into actual conflict for supremacy of influence in the Far East.

The East, near or far, has for many generations kept the mind of Europe, and especially the mind of England, almost constantly occupied in watching the forecasts of warlike disturbance. At this period there seemed no immediate prospect of any serious antagonism among the great Powers of Europe, but the relations of some at least of those great Powers with the movements of events in the East appeared to sound many a note of alarm. It was evident, as we have said, that China as an Imperial State was losing her place in the Eastern world, and that the great Empire was about to undergo some process of dismemberment or dissolution. China had not up to this time played a part of much importance in the life of the Eastern Hemisphere, but her negative influence in acting as a huge barrier between this or that rising Power had been highly useful, although without any such intention on the part of China herself, in maintaining the interests of peace. A general impression now prevailed in the West that the Chinese Empire was breaking up, was ceasing to be of any use for the preservation of peace, even as a barrier, and that her condition was likely to hold out irresistible temptation to newer and more rising Powers for the gratifying of ambition and the extension of empire.

Statesmen in Europe began to ask themselves what European Power would be likely to derive most benefit from the break-up of China, and which European Power would be the first to try its fortune in that way. So far as the Eastern hemisphere was concerned nothing could be more clear than the evidences that the position and ambition of Japan were certain to make her prompt and keen in any such competition. Among the States of

Europe it was manifest that England, with her great Indian Empire, must ever be deeply interested in every change which might affect the conditions of Asiatic States. France, for the time, was occupied more in Africa than in Asia; but Germany was extending largely her shipping enterprises, and was naturally anxious to secure landingplaces on Chinese and Japanese coasts, while Russia was regarded as a Power from which at any moment fresh disturbance might be created in the Far East.

Russia, indeed, began once again to be a sort of hobgoblin to the civilized Powers of the Western world who had any interest, commercial or territorial, in the Far East. Among political men in England Russia became the synonym for threatened peril to England, and that important historical personage, the man in the street, was often in the humor to set down a failure of the crops anywhere to the plottings and perfidies of Russia. There were, meantime, the usual troubles to the English Government about the arrangements which they were perpetually called upon to make, unmake, and remake concerning the frontier lines of their Indian and other Eastern territory to secure the inhabitants of the British possessions against the incursions of native tribes. Much was heard about the efforts of the Mad Mullah, as he was usually called in England, to disturb the British settlements and to compel some of the native rulers to join him in his enterprises. The Mad Mullah, whose madness appeared to have had now and then an amount of method in it, actually gave a native ruler his choice between joining him in his attempts on British territory or being himself invaded and conquered. The British Commander-in-Chief had to send troops to sustain the native ruler thus threatened, and some encounters more or less serious took place. The Mullah was completely routed for the time, but he made his escape and was to be heard of again before very long.

There was trouble of a most serious order in the Bombay region, where a new attack of plague, that ghastly and not unfamiliar visitant of Indian Provinces, began to make its appearance once again in the early part of 1898. It was shown by figures at the time that the total mortality from the malady was more than 100,000, some 28,000 deaths occurring in Bombay city and over 70,000 in the Presidency and Sind. The Annual Register for that year tells us that a commission of scientific experts was appointed to inquire into the origin of these outbreaks of plague, the manner in which the disease had been communicated, and the value of certain curative measures which had been recommended by medical science. The Annual Register says that "from evidence it appeared that the classes most affected were low-class Hindoos, and that Mohammedans were not so liable to infection." It goes on to say that "most of the cases were among the poor; and as the granaries were the first places infected. in Bombay the plague was spread by means of rats which were subject to the disease." A strict medical examination of all persons coming by road or rail into a district, and the complete disinfection of clothing, was ordered by the Bombay Government "as preferable to detention camps for travellers and the irksome system of passes that had previously been enforced."

But these needful measures, taken especially in the interests of the poorer classes among the natives, led in several instances to serious disturbances. We have had many experiences even in modern Europe of popular resistance offered to the carrying out of measures for the prevention of disease, and this temper was shown very strongly in some quarters of Bombay city. The authorized examiners in one case endeavored to discover the nature and the cause of a plaguelike malady affecting a Mohammedan woman, and the family and friends of the

woman absolutely refused to allow any medical examination. The police were called in to enforce the Government order; the mob of the quarter attacked the police, and thus created a riot which the troops of the garrison had to be called out to repress. Many European officers, soldiers, and police were badly injured before the riots could be entirely suppressed. So strong was the feeling among the natives in some parts of the city that Europeans passing quietly through the streets and having no connection whatever with carrying out the sanatory measures were attacked, beaten, or stabbed, many of them receiving dangerous injuries. The ambulances that were used for the removal of sufferers were set upon here and there, and the European nurses had to be guarded by the troops in order that their lives might be saved from further and more dangerous assaults. Attempts were made to set fire to the hospitals, and in one instance the house surgeon was severely wounded before effectual help could be obtained, and the mob had to be finally driven back by volleys of rifles from the troops who were summoned to defend the place.

In order to restore something like quiet to the neighborhood, the authorities thought it needful to make official proclamation that the sanatory measures instituted were only intended for the relief of the actual sufferers from plague and the prevention of its spreading abroad over the community; that no steps would be taken in any case for the detention and the inspection of corpses, or for any delay in the celebration of the funeral rites which the families of the dead felt it their duty to carry out according to their own religious forms. We can all remember what surprise and horror were created here in England when the news of these riotous uprisings against the sanatory policy of the Government in Bombay was announced, but it has to be remembered that the duty im