The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

tuition TRADING Pusr. .IInatiguratiou of Fort Rouille- The Old French Fortâ€"Errand About the Middle of Last Century. The venerable Dr. Scadding prepared some years ago askctch and compilation from various sources of the history of the old French trading post known as Fort Rouillu, which was located at the south west corner of the present Industrial Exhibition Grounds, Toronto. The account is interest- ing, containing as it does references to To- ronto and its site by the early historians. Dr. Scadding has made the sketch as accur- ate as possible by consulting every available authority. REASON or THE OLD ruexcn roars EXLST' ENCE. The domain of the Five Nations of the Iroquois Indians, which extended along the whole of the south side cf Lake Ontario, was, for s. time, regarded, in theory at least, as neutral ground by the French of 1\cw France and the English of New England. But both French and English soon showed a desire to obtain a. good foothold there, first for the purpose of trade, and secondly with aview, it cannot be doubted, to ultimate possession by. treaty or otherwise. By permission of the neighbouring abo- rigines, La. Salle, in 1670, erected a small stockade at the mouth of the Niagara River to be simply a temporary receptacle for pel- tries brought down from Michilimackinac and Detroit, by way of Lake Erie, and a storehouse for goods to be offered in ex- change for the some; which stockade, by 172'"). had become the strong, solid fortress which, with some enlargements, we see to- day in good condition, commanding the communication between the lakes Ontario and Erie. Had Fort Toronto been longer- , lived than it was, it would have become, 8 without doubt, in a short time an armed {' military establishment, like the other posts. Following the French example, Governor Burnett, of the provmce of New York, after obtaining a nominal permission from the Iroquois, established in 1722, a small store-house or trading post on the westside of the entrance to the River Oswego, a stream by which a communication could be convenient-lymaintained between the waters of Lake Ontario and those of the Mohawk river, the Hudson and the sea. Its ostenv sible purpose was, at the outsct, the same as that of La Salle’s enclosure at the mouth of the Niagara; but in 1728, Governor Burnett took care, again after the French example, that the simple stockade should be transformed into a regular fortress of stone, memorable as being the first military work on Lake Ontario whence waved the flag of old England. The efiect of the English trading-post at the entrance of the Os wego river was soon felt by the French traffickers in furs at Forts Niagara and Frontenac; and it be- came manifestly important that something should be done to neutralize, as far as pos- sible, this unwelcome interference with the usual current of trade. THE: OLD FRENCH FORT FOUNDED. In an official Journal or Report on Cana- dian afiaips transmitted to France in 1749, by the Gpvernor-General of the day, the Count de a Galissoniere, the Government of Louis V was informed that directions had been liven for the building of a stockade or store]: use at Torontoâ€"so the “ pass” here betw en the lakes Ontgrio and Huron was at tl is time styled. “ On being in- formed,” the Report says, “ that the northern ndians ordinarily went to Choue- guen wit their peltries by way of Toronto, on the mrth-‘west side of Lake Ontario, twenty- ve leagues from Niagara and seven- ty-five rom Fort Frontenac, it was thought advisa e to establish a post at that place, and to end thither an officer, 15 soldiers ands cworkmen, to construct a. small stock de fort there.” (See Paris Docu- ments Colonial History, State of New York vol. X, p. 201. Albany, 1858, 4to). ame of the officer sent on this service was Portneuf. he authorities at Versailles were always ca tioning the governors of Canada against “pense. Galisoniere therefore thinks it rudent toobserve: “The expense will not be great: the timber is transported there and the remaining requisites will be conveyed by the barqnes belonging to Fort Frontenac.” He then shows how the new post may be sustained and how its main ob- ject can be secured. “Too much care,” he says, “cannot be taken to prevent those Indians (from the north) continuing their trade with the English ; and to furnish them at this post with all their necessaries, even as cheap as at Choueguen, Messrs. de la Jonquiere and Bigot,” it is added, “will permit sonte canoes to go there on license, and will apply the funds as a. gratuity to the officer in command there.” Moreover, it is said, directions must be given to regu- late the prices at the other posts. “It wi be necessary to order the commandants Detroit, Niagara. and Fort Frontenac, to b careful that the traders and store-keepers of those posts furnish goods for two or three years to come, at the same rate as the Eng- lish; by this means the Indians will dis- nccustom themselves from going to Choue- guen, and the English will be obliged to abandon that place.” (It is scarcely nec- essary to say that Choueguen is the same name as Oswego, with an initial syllable dropped and a final it retained. The M. dc laJonquiere mentioned is Galissoniere’s suc- cessor, just arrived, and M. Bigot is his co-adjutor or Intendant, as the expression was. It may be mentioned that a fort at the “pass at Toronto" had been suggested some years before. namely, in 1086, by Gov- ernor-General'lc Denonville, but its situa- tion was to have been at the Lake Huron end of the “pass,” and of a. military char- acter, so that English men, should they chance to trespass that way, might “have some one to speak‘to," No action, however, was taken on the suggestion.) As to the form and size of the fort at Toronto erected in 1749, we obtain very precise infornation in the “Memoir upon the late I‘lar in Forth America, in 1750-00,” by Capt. l'ouchot, the late French com- mandunt at Fort Niagara. “The Fort of Toronto,” Poucliot says (p. 110, vol. 11.), “is at the end of the Bay (i. v. West end), on the .idc which is quite elevated, and covered (1'. e. protected) by flat rocks, so that vessels cannot approach within can- non-shot.” The rock that crops up just below the site of the fort in flat sheets, is very conspicuous when the lake is calm. Pouchot had seen the forts but he writes in the past tense, after its destruction. “This fort or post,” he says, “was a. square about -M ‘7 thirty toises (180 feet) on a side externally, with flanks of fifteen feet. The curtains formed the buildings of the fort. It was very well built, piece upon piece ; but was only useful for trade. A league west of the fort,” he adds, “is the mouth of the Toronto river, which is of considerable size. This river communicates with lake Huron by a. por:age of fifteen leagues, and is frequented by the Indians who come from the North." The Humber Was known then as the To- ronto river, because it 161 northward to- wards Lake Toronto (i. (. Lake Simcoe), just as the Montreal river falling into Lake Superior was so styled beciuse it indicated one of the canoe routes to Montreal, and as Canada. Creek, an allluent of the Mohawk river, was so called, because its channel was a water-way northwards towards Cau- ada. For the same reason Matchedash Bay, on the old maps, was 'l'oronto Ray. (Bale de Toronto), as penetrating for inland towards Lake Toronto in a southeastern direction; and similarly, even the lakes forming the communication with the River Trent and the Bay of Quinte, were collect- iver the “Toronto Lakes”) \Ve learn from Capt. (lather Mann's now celebrated “ Plan of the Proposed loronto Harbour,” ctc.. dated “Quebec, 6th Dec, 1788,” that there were five buildings within the Stockade. He delineated them dis- tinctly in his plan, as well as the bounds of the quadrangle enclosed by the palisudes. The remains were then so prominent to the view and tangible as to justify the applica- tion to them of the term “Ruins.” The group is labelled on his map, “ Ruins of 4 Trading Fort, Toronto.” Probably ii; 173%, when Gother Mann examined the spot, some of the pickets Were still in position, and the charred remains of the cedar posts which supported the building would still be stand- ing. These in later years had disappeared, utilized as fuel' probably, by camping~ parties from time to time; but the long shallow trenches Where the palisades had been planted in the ground, and the pits and irregularities in the surface of the sod, showing in the usual way where buildings of perishable materials had once been, were very conspicuous down to the year 1R7R‘: space once enclosed within the palisavles had fallen into the lake. (The writer him- self reincmbers when the area showing the remains of the old French fort was much larger on the southern side than it was in 1878, through the extension of the clitl" out into the lake considerably beyond the line of the present shore. He also well remem- bers a vertical stain (as from decayed wood) extending some way down on the face of the cliff where the land had fallen off: this was the place, as he believed, where the flag- stafl' had been inserted in the ground: also a number of flag-stones from the adjoining beach, roughly laid down on the surface of the soil, where, as is likely, some great wood-stove, or the oven of the fort, had stood. SAME AND NATURE or THE OLD FRENCH FORT. The name officially conferred on the new- ly-established post was Fort R-ouille, in I compliment to Antoine Louis Rouille, Count de Jouy, Colonial Minister of France, 1749-54, in succession to theCount Maurep- as. This Count de Jnuy was a. distingish ed personage, not only on account of the many high positions in the state which he had held, but also by reason of his patron- age of literature. He was for a time at the head of the Royal Library, and was instrumental in having translations made of De Thou, Guicciardini, and other impor- tant writers. (He died in 1761). But not- withstanding the eminence of the Minister in these several directions, his name as con- nected with the new trading post on the shores of Toronto Bay quickly tell into disuse. The expression Toronto was already familiar to the popular ear and in the pop- ular speech as denoting the important canoe-landing near by. for the “pass at Toronto;" and the post became commonly known as Fort Toronto. 1', e. the trading- post at the Toronto landing. By that ap- pelation it came to be generally spoken of very soon after it was first established. In a despatch addressed by M. de Longueuil, Governor~General, to Rouille himself in 1752, we had both expressions used. Speaking of a missing soldier who had re- cently been sent with despatches from the post of Niagara to the post of Fort Fron- tenth (Kingston), via. Toronto, he says: “The commandant at Niagara, M. de la. Levalterie, bad detached a. soldier to con- vey certain despatches to Fort Rouillc, with orders to the store-keeper at that post to transmit them promptly to Montreal. It was not known,” he then adds, “what be- came of that soldier. About that time," he continues “ a Mississaga from Toronto ar- rived at Niagara, who informed M. de la Levalterie that he had not seen that soldier at the fort nor met him on the way. It is to be feared that he has been killed by the Indians, and the despatclies carried to the English.” Then in a passage of the same communication, which will be given here- ter, M. de Longueuil makes use of the expression, Fort Toronto. tendant Bigot also again and again the establishment as Fort Toronto in the elaborate “Memoir” prepared by himin reply to certain charges of misman- agement brought against him on his return to France in 1763, and printed at Paris in that year, making, however, the incidental remark, that it was for some time known as Fort Rotiille. We learn from the same Memoir that Fort Toronto was from the outseta Royal Post, i. e. that the trade carried on there was for the benefit of the King’s Exchequer. In a dcspatch to Rouille himself, copied in the Memoir, he refers to great expenses incurred at Fort Oswegat- chic (Ogdensburg) through the necessity of supplying food to the Indians there; but then he hopes, he says, to recoup himself for these expenses by the trade carried on at Toronto, “ where large quantities of goods (‘ ellects’) are required for that pur- pose,” TRADE AT THE OLD FRENCH roar. During the brief span of its existence, there was not time for Fort Toronto to de- velop into a first-class trading-post. From its proximity to Niagara it was, in certain points of view, a dependency of the fort there. In 1754 the occupants of Fort Nia- gum. were twenty-four soldiers, five officers, two sergeants, one drummer, a chaplain, a surgeon, and a store-keeper ; and the num- ber of canoes annually despntched thither with supplies Were ten ; while at Fort Toronto there were only five soldiers, one. otlicer, two sergeants, and a store-keeper ; and the number of canoes sent up with goods was five. Each canoe destined for the although by that time a good deal of the, and the price given for good beaver was from three livres ten sons to five livres prr pound. As we havcalreadyseen,aconsider- ablc supply of “ effects” was required at Fort Toronto to make it answer the purpose of its establishment. From the outset it was foreseen that the business done there would diminish that done at Forts Front- enac and Niagara. But it was argued : “If there be less iradeat these two last mention- ed forts, there will be less transportion of merchandise : what will be lost on the one side will be gained on the other, and it will amount to much the same thing in the end. The King will even reap a great advantage, if we can accomplish the fall of Choucguen by disgusting the Indians with that place, and this can be affected only by selling cheap to them." Smsou after season then, for ten years, we may suppose a great variety of scenes occurring within and around the palisades of Fort Toronto, characteristic of the pe- riod and the speeial,‘circumstances and con- dition of the immediate locality, Along the Indian road or trail from the North, hands of Miss-lasagna (who were simply Otchipvrays from Isakes Huron and Sup - rior), would come dmvn,bringiug with them the furs collected during the hunting sea‘ son, together with other articles of mer- chandise, the handiwork of themselves and their squaws, in the lodges during the Winter months. Bands bearing the same tribal appellation, and laden with similar burdens, would arrive also from the \Vcst, travelling along through the “ Mlssissaga Tract" by path on the north shore of the lake ; and some, moreover, would make their way thither from the westward in canoes. The trees which lined the broad sandy beach from the mouth of the Humber to what in modern days has been known as the Dugway, was a very favourable situa- tion for ciicanipments. This space would be dotted over with numerous temporary wigwams ; and a double file of traffickers, male and female, would be seen on the track leading eastward toward the Stock. ade on the cliff a little way down the bay, â€"some going, eager to effect sales, others returning, pleased, or the contrary, with terms secured, or gloating over some useful or showy purchase just made. At this Stockade on the cliff were thus spread out. for the first time in these parts the products of human industry, for criti- cal inspection and mutual interchange. Impaiirnee While we don’t approve of preaching in newspapers, it is really necessary to say something, outside the pulpit, about one of the worst characteristics of the age and that is impatience. We observe that it is responsible for many of the derangements of society and speak of it from a. purely worldly point of view. There are any num- ber of religious people, regular church~ gocrs and good Christians at that, who have not the slightest control of their tempers and break out into the most unseemly and unnecessary violence of speech upon the slightest provocation. They are to he met with in social and public relations and their conduct in this respect is not at all edify- ing. This reprehensible weakness often precipitates differences and misunderstand- ings that make one sometimes extremely weary, if not actually ashamed of his Chris- tian associates. The quality of patience is often held at a discount as belonging to slow and stolid people, and not at all char- acteristic of bright, wideawuke, intelligent people. It is a. great mistake to confound stolidity with patience. They are entirely different in their nature and their results. Patience is not a passive quality. It must be exercised by those who are quick in their feelings. Real patience is one of the best manifestations of mental and moral force. It implies self-content and resolution of no small order, and it also implies abil- ity to reason fairly, to judge correctly and to abide by the results. Increasing intelligence has so fully ex- posed tbe folly of certain kinds of impa- tience as to render them perfectly ridiculous. The person who, irritated by accident for which no one is responsible,vents his wrath upon inanimate things,or upon the accepted laws of nature is simply laughed at and when the excitement passes away, he, too, realizes the absurdity of his conduct. To be angry for nothing, to swear at the cat and to damn the weather are now recogniz- ed as irrational emotions and altogether in very bad form. There are times, no doubt,when everything seems to go wrong, when our efforts fail, when our hopes are disappointed. when our fears are unbound- ed and imaginary troubles surround us on all sides. Then we become petulant, cross and unreasonable. We try to throw the blame on something or some one outside ourselves and as we do not pause to calmly investigate the real source of the trouble we allow ourselves to become generally con- tentions and disagreeable. In this respect we are much inferior to the pagan philoso- phers who behaved with the greatest pa.- tience and dignity under the most disturbing conditions. The hasty and impatient man may be a very good-natured, generous fellow under ordinary circumstances, but he is not a gentleman. This assertion may disturb some people but it goes. The essential quality of a gentleman is not to get vulgar- ly angry but to preserve his soul in pa- tience under the greatest provocation. With regard to impatient people, the great probability 15 that the true cause of their dis-comfort lies within themselves. They have failed to adapt themselves to some law of nature or some spiritual func- tion and are simply sufi‘ering the inevitable consequences. If people were truly phil- osophic, they would he more tranquil and instead of giving away to useless impatience and indiscriminating anger, they would quietly examine into the source of the trouble and then take all legitimate means to remove it. In this way we would be- come a. dignified, wellpoiscd people and win the admiration of surrounding nations. WM. “ ‘Age comes to every man,’ but fate Is kind to woman fair For when she reaches twenty-eight She stops right then and there." “ You seem to have a good deal of faith in doctors,” said the friend of the sick man. “ I have,” was the reply ; “a. doctor would be foolish to let a. good customer like me die.” “ What are marsupials ‘2” asked the French teacher, “Animals which have pouches in their stomachs,” said the boy. “ Correct. And what do they have the pouches for ‘3” “ To crawl into and con- Westcrn forts was froighted with a cargo ceal themselves in when they are pur- worth about seven thousand French livres, sued l" CAIYSED BY UNDERGROUND SPRINGS. Result of lnvcstlgnllon of the Catastrophe In the Vaerdul. A Copenhagen special says :â€"A thorough investigation has been made into the caus- es of the catastrophe, that, has overtaken the “ Betutiful Valley," the Vaerdal in the Trondhch district, in which more than 1:30 persons lost their lives, which was brought about, it appears, by the action of under- ground springs beneath the range of hills overlooking the Vaerdal river, and dotted with country houses and cottages. The landslip came so suddenly that great mass- es of earth were hurled across the river to the opposite bank. The earth and clay in the valley and river formed a dam, and the surrounding country was in a. short space of time turned into a great sheet of thick, muddy water in which human beings, horses, cows, pigs, sheep and fragments of houses and furniture were floating. The disaster came likea thief in the night, so that many of the unfortunate inhabitants were overwhelmed in their sleep. The landslip was accompanied by a. roar like the discharge of artillery, which was heard at a. distance. A few of the people in the. houses when the landslip occurred managed to reach the roofs and were saved. Some heartrending stories of escape are told. M. Rostad, an engineer, and his four children and some of his servantsâ€"â€"-ten persons in allâ€"were carried along on the top of their house from Fallo to Rosvald, ex- posed to the cold, and splashed from head to foot with the icy cold clay and mud. None of the party had on anything but their nightdresscs to protect them. His wife’s body was afterward found at Rosvald. She had jumped out of a. window in the attempt to save herself. The body of their young- est child, who perished, has not yet been recovered. A poor cottager came home to find that his wife and five children with the hut and all his small belongings had been swept away. A mother and her babe of 18 months were in a house when the walls fell outward. The mother saw her child and four others sink from sight in the dreadful mire. She herself, though badly injured, was saved . The Sennaes farms along the southern bank of the river were destroyed, but most of the inhabitants managed to save them- selves on the top of their houses. The horses in the stables, sunk in mud up to their threats, were afterward shot, as were a number of cows and other animals, hope. lessly injured. An old man and his wife, who was ill in bed. were on the round floor of their house, the doors being locked by the clay, and to escape, the man cut a hole in the ceiling with his pocket-knife, whence they escaped to the floor above. Many ap- parently lifeless bodies were restored to life by proper treatment. Many gallant acts of rescue were performed by those who exposed theiriives to save their fellow creatures. One man even tried to cross the horrid gulf of mud on snowshoes. Detachments of troops render all the assistance they can to the inhabitants, who are bereft of every- thing, even to their clothing. Protection to Forest. Mr. Henry Gannett, Chief Geographer of the U. S GcologicalSurvey, has lately caused to be published through the newspapers and in a thin pamphlet for wide distribu- tion. an article intended to show the folly, in his opinion, of extending any Govern< ment or State protection to forests. The first part of the article is devoted to argu- ment in opposition to the general belief that forests have an influence on climate and soils, or tend to conserve rainfall for use in summer after spring rains are over. Since long continued observation in large sections on the Continent of Europe has proved the general opinion to be based on actual facts, Mr. Gannett’s labored argu- ments fall to the ground. In the last por- tion of his paper he asserts that the tim- ber supply of the United States is “ suffi- cient to withstand the great and increasing demands upon it.” He says the timber is growing faster than it is cut, and proves this position, as he supposss, by stating that the timber area of the United States is in round numbers 750,000,000 acres, each acre of which has a growth, or increase, of 40cubic feet of solid timber every year, making the total annual increase of the timber supply 30,0t)0,000,000 cubic feet. The annual con- sumption, he says, is between 20,000,000,000 and 24,000,000,0(i0 of feet, leaviugau annual increase of 6,000,000,000 to 10,000,000,01)0 of cubic feet. Any one who has eyes, and takes thought on the matter, knows that there is scarcely a locality in the United States (except in some portions of the form- erly treeless prairie country at the West, where timber planting has been promoted by legislative encouragement), Where the timber area has not been steadily diminish- ishing since the settlement of the country by whites. North or South, on the Atlan- tic slope or the Pacific, the aim of nearly every settler or farmer has been to destroy the timber and increase the area devoted to cultivation. There is a. small increase in some of the New England towns, because of the growth of timber on abandoned farms, but this growth nowhere equals 40 cubic feet per annum ofmarketable timber, or even 10 cubic feet available for anything except fuel. ___+__.. Justice ls Blind. Justice may well be typified as blind- folded, for she distributes her favors most unevenly. In one country a poor fellow receives six months in jail for shooting a wild rabbit to provides. sick wife with food while a ruffian gets off with a fine of three shillings for pounding his spouse’s head into a jelly. In another country a fiend de- bauches five children under twelve and is given his liberty for $300, as if any money can pay for so awful a crime, and a. poor waif receives six months in a house of in- dustry, without the option of a fine, which he couldn't pay anyway, because “one of the finest ” having brutally clubbed him for sleeping on a doorstep past all en» durauce he meekly remonstrates and fin- ally clings so tenaciously to the blue-coated minion that in the efforts of the latter to get away the buttons of his coat come off. In a third country men get from six months to five years for comparatively petty thefts whilea c.erk in a. position of trust who systematically robs his employers to the extent of thousands of dollars, and is brought back from a foreign country after much labor and at great cost, gets a paltry three months, or exactly the same punishment as another poor wretch is undergoing nominally for con- tempt of court but practically for debt. Justice appears as fickle a ju'lc as fortune, at whose shrine she is a u orshipper. CROP CONDITIOS‘S IN RUSESS. DISH-lots Which Snfl'cred Last Yciu- Arc ll Distress New. A Vienna special says :â€"In presence of the contradictory rumors that hare been current respecting the state of crops in Rus- su. the following facts, derived from official publications, are of interest. In the south- west districts, up to the northern frontier of the governments of Kiefi‘ and Podolia and Indeed. in most places on both sides of the railway situated on the frontier between the governments of Kieff and Podolia and the government of Cherson, the winter sowing IS ingreat part destroyed. The peasants in particular, whose grounds are worse tilled than those of the larger proprietors, have suffered severely. More than three-fourths of the wheat sown in the winter months is entirely lost, while the rape is almost com- pletely destroyed and the rye is seriously damaged. The apples have suffered consid- erably, but the pears have escaped uninjur. ed. In many districts summer corn and fodder plants were sown in place of the us- ual winter wheat. Precisely those districts are affected in which :bad harvests wow the rule last year. The governments of Kieff and Podolia are the worst off, the condition of Tcherui- gaff being somewhat better and that of Volhynia still more favorable. In the last pained government an average wheat crop is expected, while it is hoped that the rye crop Will be better than usual. In the gov- ernments of Cbarkofi'and Polfava favorable weather has greatly improved the outlook. In general 11'! southwest Russia, if the wea- ther remains fine, a crop between 30 and 40 per cent. under the average may be looko ed for. The sowing of the summer corn is almost everywhere completed. Complaints as to a scarcity of fodder are almost universal in the government of Podo- lia and very eneral in Kiefi' and in certain districts of olhynia, Poltava and Tcherni- golf. There is a dearth of straw as well as of hay. The cattle are literally starving, and fodder has reached an unprecedentedly high price. In many villages, through lack of other fodder, the cattle are fed with rye straw from the roofs of the houses. This is cut up, steeped in hot water and mixed With meal or bran. Agricultural work has been greatly hindered, there being a un- usual fatality among animals, partic ulary horses, while those that remain are so weak that it is difficult to make use of them. It is a singular fact that the increased cost of fodder is accompanied by a similar rise in the price of horses, a pair of year-old cart horses costing from 40 to 50 roubles, and an average pair of working horses from 100 to 120 roubles, prices which only the larger proprietors can afford to pay, so that the peasants are obliged to hire the cattle they require. This rise in value is owing to last year’s failure of the summer corn, which led to a large number of horses being sold at nearly nominal prices, sometimes as low as 3 roubles apiece, thus bringing about the present scarcity. nrltish Trade. The dockers and other workingmen con- nected with the shipping trade in Great Britain could scarcely have chosen a. period more unfavorable than the present to the successful issue of any kind of strike. Official statistics show that since 1890, when the United Kingdom did a foreign trade valued on the blue-books at £749,000,- 000 sterling, its external commerce has been constantly falling off. In 1891 it de- clined to £744,000,000 sterling, but there was a much more serious drop in 1892, when the aggregate value was only £715,- 000,000, or about £33,500,(X}019ss than in 1890. As the prosperity of the working classes of Great Britain depends to a great extent on foreign commerce, it was hoped that there would be a. change for the better in 1893. Four months of the present year have already elapsed, and the Board of Trade has published the oficial figures, which show that the falling-off so far is even more serious than in 1892. In the first four months of last year the total value of foreign trade was nearly £242,000,- 000 sterling. In the same period this year the aggregate value only amounts to a little over £221,000,000. This is a. drop of nearly £21,000,000 in four months. Were this rate of decrease to continue for the rest of the year the foreign trade of the United Kingdom would show a falling-03 of £60,- 000,000 sterling as compared with 1892, and of more than £90,000,000 sterling as compared with 1890. Unless matters take a turn for the better in the near future the coming winter is likely to lring greater trials and hardships to the laboring classes than any of those immediately preceding it. Causes of Cholera. At its session in Milwaukee last week the American Medical Association received frbm Dr. Ernest Hart, editor of the British Med- ical Journal, an elaborate statement in re- gard to cholera. Dr. Hart sketched the progress of the disease through different countries and the mode of its propagation, With especial reference to the affirmation that “cholera. is a filth disease, carried by dirty people to dirty places, and there spread by the use of dirty water.” This is proved by the history of its spread in Eng- land, France, Russia, India, and other countries. In every case where the facts could be ascertained with sufficienct close- ness to warrant the deduction the outbreak of the disease was traceable to the use of contaminated water. It may be considered as demonstrated that there is no value in the theories of cholera contagion being due to anythingelse than specifically polluted water. This is not merely an occasional or adjuvant cause, but the prime cause of al- most every great epedemic of Asiatic chol- era. Further, when the use of the poison- ed water had been abandoned or out off the epidemic has ceased. Hence we should aim at securing purity of water, air, soil and habits. This achieved, cholera need be feared no longer. Eve j means should be employed for impressing hese facts upon the popular mind and to use the knowledge as a. powerful lever to push forward the war against filth already so well begun. “ Oh, AuutCora,” said Alf-at the dime festival, “ I want to show you my best girl. There she is, eating ice cream, with a pink dress, and she is ever so much prettier than she looks.” Just one baby boy Is a. well-spring of joy, ’Tis a pleasure to list to its coo ; Yet but few parents care To own babies a pair, They think twins are ii. little two two.