y had been a huge commercial concern, save
for the fact that the chief object was efficiency and not
profit-making.

Money was abundantly plentiful, and the necessaries of life were
cheaper than they had ever been before. Perhaps the principal reason
for this happy state of affairs was the fact that law and politics
had suddenly ceased to be trades at which money could be made. People
were amazed at the rapidity with which public business was
transacted.

The President and his Council had at one stroke abrogated every civil
and criminal law known to the old Constitution, and proclaimed in
their place a simple, comprehensive code which was practically
identical with the Decalogue. To this a final clause was added,
stating that those who could not live without breaking any of these
laws would not be considered as fit to live in civilised society, and
would therefore be effectively removed from the companionship of
their fellows.

While the internal affairs of the Federation in America were being
thus set in order, events had been moving rapidly in other parts of
the world. The Tsar, the King of Italy, and General le Gallifet, who
was now Dictator of France in all but name, were masters of the
continent of Europe. The Anglo-Teutonic Alliance was a thing of the
past. Germany, Austria, and Turkey were completely crushed, and the
minor Powers had succumbed.

Britain, crippled by the terrible cost in ships and men of the
victory of the Nile, had evacuated the Mediterranean after
dismantling the fortifications of Gibraltar and Malta, and had
concentrated the remains of her fleets in the home waters, to prepare
for the invasion which was now inevitable as soon as fair winds and
fine weather made it possible for the war-balloons of the League to
cross the water and co-operate with the invading forces.

The Tsar, as had been expected, had not even deigned to reply to
Tremayne's summons to disarm, and so the last arrangements for
bringing the forces of the Federation into action at the proper time
were pushed on with the utmost speed. The blockade of the American
and Canadian coasts was rigidly maintained, and no vessels allowed to
enter or leave any of the ports. All the warships of the League had
been withdrawn from the Atlantic, and the great ocean highway
remained unploughed by a single keel.

On the 10th of October the _Ithuriel_ had returned from her second
trip to the West, with the refusal of the British Government