Xeriev of Rerieics, J/?/0«. 



History of the Month. 



31 



Russia s First General Election; Polling in St. 



In favour cf Government ownership of railroads and 

 telearoph lines and municipal ownership of the 

 mon^opolies of public service. The Alliance asserts 

 that the w idespread corruption in civic life and the 

 dominance of political bosses have produced a condi- 

 tion more dangerous to the life of the Republic than 

 that which led to the Civil War. Apropos of the 

 nationalisation of railways, Mr. R. P. Porter has 

 just reminded us that, thanks to Mr. Gladstones 

 clause in the Railwavs Act of 1844, the British Go- 

 vernment has a statutory right to buy up nearly all 

 our railwavs at three months' notice at twenty-five 

 years' purchase on the average of the three preced- 

 ing years' divisible profits— claims for prospective 

 profits being referred to arbitration. In 1904 

 hTi 208.500.000 was invested in Bntish railways, 

 ■£,82 000.000 of which paid no dividend. The whole 

 capital yields on an average 3ji percent, interest. 



The Visit There is reason to hope that next 



of tlie year, instead of spending six weeks 



King and Queen [^ the Mediterranean, the King and 



to America. jj^g Queen will visit the American 



Continent. The Canadian House of Commons has 



unanimouslv invited their Majesties to visit the Do- 



Petersburg for Candidates for the Duma. 



minion. The original proposal was that they should 

 open the new Quebec Bridge. The date was altered, 

 at Sir W. Laurier's suggestion, in order to suit the 

 Royal convenience, and to increase the chances that 

 the Kino- and Queen would come to the New World 

 for the purpose of building a new bridge between 

 the two great branches of the English-speaking race. 

 Canada is doing excellent work just now, and tul- 

 fillin<^ the destinv I predicted for her long ago— 

 that of being the 'wedding-ring of the Anglo- Ameri- 

 can marriage. Of course, the King and Queen will 

 cro to the United States. It is no further in point 

 of time from Southampton to New York than from 

 London to Athens. There is nothing the King would 

 like better than to revisit the new New W^orld which 

 has sprung up and almost obliterated the old New 

 World which he visited forty years ago. Sir Wilfrid 

 Laurier, whom Mr. Carnegie acclaimed last month 

 as one of the five greatest men in the world (query, 

 who are the other four ? Roosevelt, the Kaiser, the 

 Kn-i<r and— Mr. Carnegie?) took occasion last month 

 to affirm more emphatically than ever his adhesion to 

 the principle of which " The Review of Reviews was 

 founded to proclaim. In language which might have 

 been quoted from our columns Sir W. Launer said 



