her-and be dashed if I like his looks! So Sir John told his tale, and the Princess sent me along with Master Prosper's letter of release. And here's a funny thing now!' wound up Billy, glancing at me. The Prince was willing enough your release should be sent, and even chose out that fellow Stephanu to come along with me. But something in his eye-I can't azackly describe it-warned me he had a sort of reason for thinking that 'twouldn't do you much good. There was a priest, too: I took a notion that he didn't much expect to see you again, sir. And this kept me in a sweat every mile of the journey, so that when you pointed your gun at me yesterday, as natural as life, you might have knocked me down with a feather.'

'Then it is settled,' decided my uncle as Billy came to a full stop. Sir John has gone north again, you say, and will be expecting us off the island? There's naught to prevent our starting this evening?'

'Nothing at all,' agreed Captain Pomery, to whom by a glance he had appealed. 'Leastways and supposing I can get my hawsers out of curl-papers.'

'That suits you, Prosper ?' asked my uncle.

I looked across the fire at Marc'antonio, who sat with his eyes lowered upon the gun across his knees.

'Marc'antonio,' said I, 'my friends here are proposing to sail northward to Cape Corso to-night. They require me to sail with them. Am I free, think you?'

'Beyond doubt you are free, cavalier,' answered Marc'antonio, still without lifting his eyes.

'Now for my part,' I said, 'I am not so sure. Suppose-look at me please, my friend-suppose that you and I were to go first to the Princess together and ask her leave?'

My uncle gazed up at Marc'antonio, who had sprung to his feet; and-after a long look at his face-from Marc'antonio to me.

'Prosper,' he said quietly, we shall sail to-night. If we sail without you, will your father forgive us? That is all I ask.'

'Dear uncle,' said I, for the life of me I cannot tell you; but that in my place he would do the like, I am sure.'

(To be continued.)

A NEW TALE OF TWO CITIES.

BY LAURENCE GOMME, F.S.A.

SOMETHING has happened. It is perhaps too early to gauge the full extent and force of the new position, but it is the proper time to note that just as it is being, or has been, discovered that the future centres of man's social and cultured life lie in the cities, the governing authorities of two great cities, and those two cities no other than London and Paris, have been exchanging visits, and have produced therefrom a sort of inter-municipal conception of things which has hitherto not found a place among the dominant forces of modern civilisation. It is not too much to say that the juxtaposition of theory and practice thus brought about is a remarkable fact which cannot be ignored. Communities of men are governed, as individuals are governed, by all sorts of influences which, working silently and unseen, produce results which are observable for the most part only when they have passed into history and have been subjected to the analysis of scientific inquiry. But the obvious significance of the present position is not a matter of history; it is part of the work of the present day. And the two cities have now a tale to tell, which it is worth while attending to, even while it is new. It is not mere accident that this psychological moment stands revealed so plainly. It is not mere accident that men engaged in the practical affairs of life find themselves for the moment standing aside, and discovering for themselves that at the back of municipal interchange of thought lies a whole realm of usefulness which has hitherto not been opened up to modern municipal ideas. It was partly recognised by the ancient Greek and Roman municipalities; it was faintly recognised by mediæval cities and towns. But if it becomes a concept of the modern system of governance, it is destined to assume far larger proportions than was possible to the older municipalities. At the most, the older idea of municipal inter-relationship was strictly limited. The leagues of the Greek cities were limited not only in geography, but in duration. The affiliation of the daughter cities of ancient Rome was marred by the aggrandising policy of the mother city. The

confederacy of the burghs of Scotland, the five Danish burghs of England, and the medieval league of the Cinque Ports are but partial exemplifications of the same tendency. London and Paris, however, have together begun a new phase. They have discovered in the idiosyncrasies of each other food for reflection and study, while in the common ground occupied by both cities they have found an extension of municipal possibilities, whose area and rate of development are scarcely measurable-in a word, they have discovered that municipal problems have to do with people's needs and rights, with some of the most important phases of modern civilisation, and that these may, nay must, be considered apart from the boundaries of nations, and apart from the conflict of national interests. Such a discovery does not rest even at this important stage, for it is obvious that the breakdown of international ignorance and jealousy must follow the establishment of inter-municipal aims and successes, and that in this way the surest path to the peace of civilised humanity has been laid down.

One cannot, of course, say what were the precise events or moments during the ceremonies which took place in either city which best represent this new idea. In London, we think it must have been present when the King met the municipal representatives of his own great capital city and their guests, the municipal representatives of Paris, on the occasion of the opening of Aldwych and Kingsway. King and people on common ground celebrating the completion of a great municipal undertaking, opening out new methods of dealing with the problem of replanning London to meet modern requirements-the occasion was a great one, and both King and people recognised it as such. And it must have flashed across the minds of the municipal administrators taking part in this ceremony that they were not only bidding farewell to much that had become obsolete in our methods, but welcoming something which was new. They probably did not formulate their thoughts. But they were brought sharp up against a wholly different experience which must have produced, by the very clash of events, the first recognition of the new state of things. For in direct contrast to the ceremonial function at Aldwych, revealing splendour and wealth, was that other memorable function, the drive to the East End of London, where those who governed London were bent upon showing their visitors some of the grim realities of life which it is their mission to ameliorate on behalf of the helpless and the unfortunate. They showed them, however,

much more than this; for on that occasion was realised the inner gentleness of the Englishman's character, when, without word or order, thousands of workpeople and thousands of young children substituted for the English hurrah of welcome and its accompanying noise and clamour the most impressive silence born of respect, and accompanied by the lifting of hats and the making of a simple bow of welcome to the Paris guests, because it had come to be understood that Frenchmen always adopted these forms of politeness to each other, and would understand them better than the English methods. There was no more impressive spectacle than this in all London, and the representatives of London must have been proud of this sparkle of touching sympathy on the part of the people who sent them to administer affairs. Such a sight must have told them of the things that are to be expected of municipal government with greater force than almost anything that could have been devised for the purpose. It was no doubt born of the schools, but its life lasted beyond school-time, and showed itself just at the moment when it was needed.

There was greatness in both these events. London in gala dress and happiness, and London in workday routine and costume, surely affords a sight worth seeing. For it was London which was then being revealed to her guests-London, the great city, one and indivisible, not the separated parts which have been used to tear the heart out of the greatness of which London is capable. Perhaps at no other time has London so revealed herself. It is certain that since that time London has become conscious of what it owes to itself; of what the whole of it can do for every part of it, if only it will act as a whole. We fancy that the Londoner now stands revealed to himself as a unit in a great community, instead of a mere wanderer in familiar streets or a casual dweller in the midst of thousands. It is a great work to have accomplished if this result has indeed occurred, and the London County Council of 1905–6, having been the chief agent in the work, will appear in the history of municipal development as one of the greatest administrative bodies of the period.

London has stood on one side for so long a time. Its natural growth to one of the greatest communities the world has ever seen has never been recognised, and it was only the lucky accidents of political partisanship that first gave it the chance of consolidation, and then later on preserved it from the graver peril of destruction. That danger is now past and gone. It is, and must ever be, the

greatest representative force in the country after Parliament, and it
is not inclined to stand aside longer, allowing its natural growth
to be stunted by lack of power. It understands, or is beginning to
understand, its needs too strongly for this to be.
The proud
significance of the ancient city area as the home of London com-
merce is contrasted with the silent trend of dock and port further
down the river, and the inadequacy of narrow and confined streets
to meet the requirements of the commercial community. The spread
of industrial London into the more exended area of the county, if
not beyond that area also, is noted as the great cause for wider and
more completely equipped roadways, radiating from the centre to
all parts. The tendency of residential London to find its way
back again towards the older centres, accompanied by the relief
which railways and motor-cars afford for supplemental cottage
homes, is hailed as a change in London life which brings in its
train new requirements. The varied beauty of its streets, at once
a museum of vast accumulations of shop-displayed wealth in art
and practical objects and the gathering-ground of streams of
human beings, more eloquent of attraction to the thoughtful than
all other phases of nature, is brought sharp up against the hideous
stupidities which have been allowed to destroy so many new
regions of undeveloped beauty. The newly developed taste in
street architecture is recognised as one of the expressions due to
the invigorated consciousness of London that it has not only a
history, but a future. The gradual but sure development of traffic
communications is demanded as a necessity of the times which is
not only going to allow of the natural development of its business
and industrial activities, but is going to teach Londoners that the
isolation of parts is not the way of city life, and need no longer be
the way of London life. And, above all, the concentration of educa-
tion, first by the establishment on broad and capable lines of the
university; and, secondly, by the municipalisation of secondary,
technical, and elementary education, is revealing to the future
generations of citizens new hopes and thoughts having for their
centre-point the sense of patriotism within the great city.

These are but a few of the touchstones of events which have cropped up now that there is once again the chance of telling a tale of two cities. Bright and hopeful as they appear, it must not be forgotten that they cover a multitude of other matters not bright and hopeful in the least, matters which point to the degradation of our city instead of to its uplifting. Our French guests

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