CE

and sympathizers who remained in the country; and in the course of 1884 the Department of Justice and Police ordered fourteen of the most active partisans of the "propaganda by action," all of whom were aliens, to be summarily expelled from the territory of the Confederation. These proceedings were followed by a series of events, culminating, as was believed at the time, in a conspiracy to blow up the Federal Palace at Berne, which are set forth in a report lately presented to the Federal Council by Herr Müller, procurator-general of the Confederation. This document, besides being historically valuable, unfolds a tale as strange, probably, as it ever fell to the lot of a public prosecutor to narrate.

fact, I have not mentioned at all Knares | Council deemed it expedient to take meas.
borough and Wellingborough, Aylesbury ures against those of their accomplices
and Tewkesbury, Finsbury and Shoebury,
Maryborough and Helensburgh. The en-
tire list of buries and boroughs for En-
gland alone would fill out a great many
closely printed pages. I will only give
one more example, and that (for the sake
of the bull) shall be a French one. Cher-
bourg is interesting as a burgh situated in
what is now a purely French district, but
its name was given to it by the Saxon
settlers of the fifth century, the very same
people whose piratical longships founded
at the same time the Saxon colonies on
the opposite coast of Hants and Dorset,
and whose half-mythical leader left his
own mark on his own bury at Hengistbury
Head. All the other towns or villages
from Caen to Cherbourg also bear purely
English names, a little twisted aside by
French spelling, but still unmistakably
betraying in etymology and meaning the
impress of their ancient Saxon origin.

From The Spectator.
ANARCHISM IN SWITZERLAND.

I.

The first of the expulsions in question took place on March 22nd, the last on December 15th (1884), and a month after that last named to be precise, on January 25th, 1885-the Federal Council received the first of a series of mysterious communications, the signature in each case being a figure or a letter, announcing the existence of a scheme for blowing up the Federal Palace "during the sitting of the Federal Assembly." The anony

explosives, sufficient to raze Berne to the ground, was already in their possession. This letter- there were four letters in all

SINCE the time when the English reg. mous writer added that seventeen " comicides found a safe asylum at Vevey, panions" were ready and willing to carry Switzerland has always extended a generout the scheme, and that a quantity of ous hospitality to the political waifs and strays of neighboring nations. Whether the refugee be a princely pretender with views inimical to the welfare of France, a came from St. Gallen. The others German minister fleeing from the wrath were posted at Frauenfeld and Winterthur. of Bismarck, a Communard, red-handed The one last received entered the most from a murderous conflict in the streets of fully into detail, saying, amongst other Paris, or a Russian revolutionist with a things, that the companion who had underprice on his head, he may count on a taken to play the part of Guy Fawkes quiet life and freedom from molestation possessed three passports in as many dif on the sole condition of respecting the ferent names, and that letters "containing laws of the land and refraining from acts instructions" had been addressed to him which might embroil the Confederation at divers places, which were mentioned. with foreign powers. As a rule, these One of these places was Wabern, in the conditions are observed, and instances of neighborhood of Berne, and there in effect refugees so far forgetting themselves as the police found a letter addressed to to render necessary their expulsion from Jacques Müller, Poste Restante, and bear. the national territory have hitherto been ing the postmark of Winterthur. It purremarkably rare. But last year, when it ported to be written by "Companion No. was discovered that a number of German 2" to "Companion No. 8," and gave inand Austrian Anarchists, who had so structions as to the manipulation of a journed in Switzerland - notably Kam- couple of infernal machines, or dynamite merer, Stellmacher, Kumics, Reinsdorf, shells, which were to be used for the deand Lieske -were implicated in serious struction of the Federal Palace. Did all crimes murders, dynamite explosions, this point to the existence of a real plot, and robberies, attempted or actually com- or was it a mere mystification imagined by mitted, in the Niederwald, Frankfort, a visionary, or a wicked hoax concocted Vienna, and elsewhere the Federal by a wag? Nothing is easier than to

write an anonymous letter, and it was not | Berne, an order was issued for the immelikely that people engaged in a murderous diate arrest of all the Anarchists living at conspiracy of the sort suggested would those places "considered to be dangerproclaim what they were about, much less ous." But nothing compromising was send repeated warnings to their intended found either on their persons or at their victims. On the other hand, it is beyond lodgings, and a month later most of them dispute that anonymous letters do some. were either unconditionally released or times convey warnings which it would be summarily expelled from the Confederadangerous to despise. If Lord Montea- tion. During this interval, however, facts gle had treated with contempt the myste- came to light which convinced Herr Mülrious communication from a "Friend of ler that the plot to blow up the Federal the Throne and Religion" which led to Palace was no mere mystification. After the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot, the the close of the preliminary investigation fifth of November, 1605, would probably on March 25th, warning and threatening have been marked by one of the greatest letters were sown broadcast, some being disasters that ever befell a nation. The addressed to the Federal Council, others Federal Council had also before them the to the editor of the Bund, one to the police facts that for a whole twelvemonth they of Frankfort. For a long time the police had been fiercely assailed by the Freiheit tried in vain to discover the author, but and the Rebelle, papers which openly ad- accident in the end gave a clue to the vocated "propaganda by action," that mystery. On November 13th, 1884, there is to say, by murder, robbery, and fire- had been arrested at St. Gallen a young raising, or by any means likely to put the man of the name of Huft, on a charge of bourgeoisie into bodily fear, and prepare stealing a pair of shoes from the Môhrlin the working classes for "social war," Hotel. But as the offence imputed to him and that the writers who used this lan- could not be proved he was discharged, guage were known to be friends, if not after a detention of twelve hours. In accomplices, of men who in Austria and some of the Swiss cantons it is the cusGermany had carried their theories into tom when a man has been imprisoned on practice with deadly effect. In these cir- a baseless charge to grant him an indemcumstances, the Federal authorities felt nity. Huft, however, by giving his name that to turn a deaf ear to the warnings at the hotel as "Von Strauss" forfeited they had received would be a positive his right to the usual allowance. He dereliction of duty. The public buildings nevertheless wrote several letters to the of Berne were, therefore, placed under local police authorities demanding, in the protection of the police, and the De- rather violent terms, a payment of fifty partment of Justice was instructed to take francs, "neither more nor less," as comstringent measures against "the individ-pensation for his temporary imprison. uals calling themselves Anarchists, who, on Swiss soil, have incited to the commission of crime, whether in this country or abroad, or in any other manner have sought by violence to overturn the established constitutional order and disturb the public peace."

ment. The police did not give him the money, but, unfortunately for him, they kept his letters. When Herr Müller began his investigation, one of his first proceedings was to get photographed facsimiles of the mysterious letters received by the Federal Council and to send them To this end an investigation was or- to the police of the various cantons. dered, and its management entrusted to Some of these copies came into the hands Herr Müller, who showed himself fully of Herr Maggion, the commandant of competent for the task, which, by reason gendarmes at St. Gallen, to whom Huft of every canton having its own criminal had addressed his demand for fifty francs, code and separate police system, proved" neither more nor less.' The commanto be exceedingly onerous. For instance, one of the Anarchists most seriously compromised was only arrested (at Thurgau) by accident (with enough poison in his possession to kill forty persons), while another was expelled from Geneva without the fact being brought to the knowledge of the Federal authorities. As it appeared from information gathered by the police that the headquarters of the Anarchist agitation were St. Gallen and

dant had all along entertained the idea that Huft was at the bottom of the business, and a comparison of the writing of the fac-similes and of the letters in his possession went far to confirm this idea. He communicated his suspicions to Herr Müller, and on March 31st (1885) Huft was arrested at Heiden. The principal and, up to this point, the only evidence against him was that of the experts in handwriting, who testified that, in their

opinion, the requests for compensation the same correct yet pretentious literary
addressed to the authorities of St. Gallen, style, interlarded with scraps of Latin.
and the warning letter to the Federal Huft seemed less concerned to protest
Council, dated from Winterthur and found his love than to vaunt his learning, and
at Wabern, were written by one and the show his sweethearts how clever he was.
same person. Huft, nevertheless, vehe. With men, on the other hand, he was very
mently repudiated the charge; but his an- reserved, his only friend being an Anar-
swers being contradictory and his bearing chist of the name of Klinger, to whom he
suspicious, he was remitted to prison seems to have been much attached.
pending further inquiry, especially as to
his antecedents and recent movements.
The German police were next communi-
cated with, and by means of information
obtained from them and from other sources
Herr Müller was enabled to draw up a
fairly complete biography of his prisoner,
which, as that of a typical Anarchist of the
period and a leader of the great Socialist
army of Germany, possesses more than
ordinary importance and interest.

Huft was born at Freiburg, in Breisgau, in 1858, and, after receiving a good education, learnt the trade of hairdressing. During the whole of his apprenticeship, moreover, he was a diligent student at the industrial school of Schopfheim (in the grand duchy of Baden). When he be came a journeyman he set out on his travels, and after working a year or two at Ludwigsburg and Tübingen, he visited successively Russia, Sweden, England, France, Spain, and Switzerland. Having regard to the quality of instruction given in German schools, and the experience and knowledge of languages acquired in his travels, it is more than probable that this wandering Haarkräusler was better educated than many middle-class Englishmen. Herr Müller mentions, among other things, that Huft had "literary aspirations," and that he wrote easily and correctly on many subjects, using, for the most part, the nom de guerre of "Von Strauss." It is a fact not without significance that this ultra-Socialist should have adorned his pseudonym with the aristocratic particle. He contributed largely to a journal called the Friseur; several German-Swiss papers printed his articles, and he was much given to the discussion of social and political questions. All his spare time was spent in studying and writing. Huft, moreover, was a remarkably sober man, never drinking anything stronger than beer, and that only on Sundays. With women, however, he played the part of a Lothario, for he was in correspondence with no fewer than five young women, every one of whom thought herself sure of his heart. The police secured some of the missives addressed to these confiding damsels. All were written in

On May 13th Huft was examined again, and, as it turned out, for the last time. He still denied being the writer of the Wabern letter, and contended "that, from a juridic point of view," the opinion of experts in handwriting was not evidence on which a man could be convicted. The examination over, Huft withdrew in his usual nonchalant manner. Half an hour later the judge wanted him a second time, "to be confronted with another Anarchist." But when the warder went to his cell to fetch him, he found Huft hanging to the door of his cell-dead. This incident, as the report quaintly puts it, "singularly embarrassed the inquiry." But it appears to show that Huft really knew so much, and feared so much from the investigation, that he thought death preferable to awaiting the result of the judicial inquiry.

From The Globe.

ENGLISH HISTORY IN DANISH
ARCHIVES.

THE researches that have been carried on for some years, under the direction of the master of the rolls, among the State papers of foreign courts, have already thrown much light on English medieval history and the relations of England with her neighbors three or four centuries ago. We have given on a previous occasion some interesting passages from the Venetian archives examined by the late Mr. Rawdon Brown, and we find in this year's report of the deputy keeper of the public records a full account of the Danish and Swedish papers, which, by the courtesy of the gentlemen in charge of them, have been overhauled, and to very excellent purpose, by the Rev. W. D. Macray. In the course of thirty days spent at Copenhagen, Mr. Macray was able to calendar a valuable series of State papers (mostly in Latin) from the time of Edward III. to Elizabeth, including a large number of letters from the queen herself to the Dan. ish sovereigns. In papers relating to the early part of the reign of Henry VIII.

there are documents which illustrate the The writer adds that he will do all he can strenuous efforts made by Francis I. of to promote the object which the Danish France to set up Richard de la Pole, who chancellor had urged an alliance beclaimed to be Duke of Suffolk, as king of tween Denmark and England. The relaEngland, in right of his mother, the sister tions of the two countries in the sixteenth of Edward IV. One original letter of the century were very intimate, though not claimant himself is preserved. The writer, always friendly, despite the bond of union it may be added, fell at the battle of Pavia, supplied by their common Protestantism. fighting for his French patron. The In the previous century the religious quesseries includes also twelve letters and tion had not arisen, but we find many papers of Edward VI., and among those references to the commercial intercourse of Mary's reign is one from the queen to which subsisted between England and King Christian III., replying to his inter her Scandinavian neighbor. The earliest cession on behalf of Coverdale, the Bible is a commendatory letter from Henry VI. translator, and Bishop of Exeter, who was (1439) to Eric, king of Denmark, on beat the time in prison. The queen asserts half of one Robert Chapman, a merchant that Coverdale's life was not in danger, of York, who was desirous to buy rye and and denies that his imprisonment was on wheat, of which they had heard there was account of his religion. It was really, so abundance in Denmark, while the crops her Majesty assures the Danish king, for had failed in England in consequence of non-payment of some money- first fruits, the prevalence of floods. The letter conMr. Macray suggests - which had been cludes with a promise that like kindness due from him since the previous reign. should be extended to Denmark in EnThis letter, which is in Latin, is dated gland, if the circumstances ever came to June 1, 1554, and is countersigned by be reversed. In 1480 a commercial treaty Roger Ascham, who was probably its was concluded between the two countries, composer. The remonstrance to which one concession in which, on the part of it was a reply is printed by Foxe, in his Denmark, was that the English should "Acts and Monuments," but the queen's have liberty to trade with Iceland on obletter is not given by the martyrologist, taining a fresh license every seven years. though he seems to have been aware of The references to Iceland suggest that it, since he speaks of her Majesty as the island was of greater value four hun using a colorable excuse for shifting off dred years ago than it is at present. In the matter." Very many references to or about 1513 it was mortgaged to the the Reformation struggles are found in king of England as security for a loan. the papers examined. In a letter of May, Another treaty of commerce and naviga1539, the king of Denmark earnestly begs tion was concluded apparently about 1510, the king of England to consider that if he but the paper is undated. During the would join heartily with the Evangelical reign of Henry VIII. the Icelanders comprinces, the work of throwing off the plained to their king that they had been Papal yoke would be happily accom-ill used by Englishmen. The complaint plished. Elizabeth, replying to a letter of congratulation from King Frederick 11. on the suppression of the Throckmorton conspiracy, says (April, 1584) that she has been hitherto too lenient in the treatment of those ravening wolves, the Jesuits, who are sent everywhere by the pope to contrive plots against the lives of religious princes, and by whom great disturbances have been excited in Ireland. The importance of union among the Protestant sovereigns was recognized on all hands if the machinations of the Papacy were to be successfully resisted. An instance is afforded in a letter of Sir Francis Walsingham (1588) to the chancellor of Denmark, regretting the death of the king, which Walsingham says is an occasion of great grief at a time when the enemies of gospel truth are banded together to oppose in all ways the cause of pure religion.

66

was transmitted by Christian III. to Henry, whose reply (1538-9) is to the effect that the charges are too vague for him to entertain, and he suspects that they are fictitious. Henry adds that the right of the English to fish at Iceland is established by old custom, and he protests against a threat, which seems to have been held out, of reprisals. In 1585 we have a letter of Elizabeth thanking the Danish king for his offer of assistance against Spain. The queen desires to know how many ships the king can supply, and when. For, her Majesty adds, although it was believed in England that the English could sweep the ocean themselves, yet, as the Spaniards were obtaining help from Italy and Venice, it was needful for her also to look up her friends. Elizabeth further requests the king to prohibit the Hanse Towns from carrying

From St. James's Gazette.

ON A HOUSE-BOAT.

on their contraband traffic of munitions of of to-day. There were some, at any rate,
war and provisions with the Spaniards. who knew how to treat a gobemouche as
In 1595, the queen writes that as the king he deserved.
of Spain is preparing to make war against
her with an immense fleet, she must beg
the king of Denmark first to prevent his
subjects from furnishing her enemy with
ships, and next, to lend herself eight of
his largest vessels. The diary kept by
Peter Suaventius, who was Danish am. SLEEPING with my window open
bassador to Henry VIII. in 1535, is an which may always be done with safety
amusing document. It is much to be when the river is free from mist - I am
hoped that the political news which the wakened soon after dawn by the song of
writer sent home was more trustworthy birds. I can hear the soft gurgling of the
than the general information which he stream, and presently, as the air grows
seems to have taken exemplary pains to warmer, a subdued hum as the bees "set
collect and record. His experiences in toil to music." For the house-boat is
Scotland, as here detailed, were of a suffi- moored close to a flowery bank, so that as
ciently remarkable character. At Jedwart I lie I can see waving grass and nodding
he encountered a hermit, one John Scott, blossoms. I can also see a patch of sun-
who had left a beautiful wife and children ny blue sky, across which a branch of elm
to live alone on bread and water. This is now and again swayed, the leaves danc-
recluse was accustomed to fast, by the ing lightly. It is delightful to blink at
help of the Blessed Virgin, for forty days these things in a half-dozing way, the
at a stretch; so he told the ambassador, while meditating lazily on the pleasurable
and so the ambassador appears to have occupations of the coming hours. A
believed. Suaventius asked (whether of cheery voice cries, "Ready for a dip?"
the hermit or not does not appear) whether and in less than two minutes we have
it was true, as he had apparently been plunged out into mid-stream. The cur-
told, that there were trees in Scotland rent here is very slight, so that one can
which produced living birds. The answer idle about in the water. When we come
was worthy of the question. The story, out we indulge in a sun-bath on the
it was replied, was undoubtedly true, and roof- —a rare and a real luxury. Then
some very interesting particulars were we make the beds and turn them up in
added. Those birds which fall from the the bedsteads - an arrangement exactly
trees into water become animated, those suited to the economy of all but the larg
which fall on the ground do not. Figures est house-boats. Next, while my com-
of birds, added Suaventius's veracious in-panion, who is the cook of the establish-
formant, were found in the heart of the ment, puts the kettle on the oil-stove and
trees in question and on the roots. The gets out the breakfast-things, I punt off
birds thus abnormally produced are said to the village five hundred yards away
to be very delicate eating, but it is not to buy fresh eggs, milk, and fruit. Re-
clear whether the ambassador speaks on turning, I find the bacon frizzling and the
this point from experiment or hearsay. coffee ready. Breakfast over, we enjoy
Among the other Scottish marvels re- that most odorous of all burnt-offerings
corded is the existence of a district where -the morning pipe. My intention is to
cocks never crow. There is also a bird, spend the early hours in fishing, for the
as marvellous as those produced from water looks like being the haunt of chub.
trees, which lays only one egg, and The preparation of rod and lines, and bait,
hatches it under its foot. Modern Scots so tedious under ordinary circumstances,
may be surprised to learn that, according exactly suits the lazy atmosphere of the
to this chronicle, they had ancestors three house-boat. When I am ready, my friend
centuries ago, who lived in the woods, and I drop down in the punt to a quiet
"like Scythians," eating no bread and spot which commands a view of a pictur-
subsisting on raw venison. It may be esque old red-brick farmhouse which he
news to them, also, that there was near is anxious to sketch. I set to work, and
Edinburgh a volcanic mountain like Etna. so does he. There is no necessity to talk.
Suaventius saw this volcano, but not ap- I catch a few fish, and he makes fair prog-
parently when it was in a state of erup-ress with the background; the river gur-
tion. It will be hardly said, after this,
that medieval Scotchmen had no sense of
humor, whatever may be true of the Scots

66

gles, the birds sing, the insects hum, the trees wave, the hours drift away, and we are perfectly happy.