While the trouble with the Transvaal was still pending, there came a still more formidable surprise from a quarter whence it was little expected. A controversy between Great Britain and the insignificant South American Republic of Venezuela had been dragging its course for many years on the subject of a disputed frontier between the latter country and British Guiana. Suddenly, on December 17, President Cleveland startled the world by a message to Congress declaring that the action of the British Government in this matter was an infringement of the Monroe doctrine; that it was the duty of Congress to resist the infringement of that doctrine, and that a Commission should be appointed by the Executive to examine and report on the rights of the case. Then, continued the President, it would be "the duty of the United States to resist by every means in its power, as a wilful aggression upon its rights and interests, the appropriation by Great Britain of any lands which, after investigation, may be determined of right to belong to Venezuela." This was open menace, and it required the utmost forbearance on the part of the British Cabinet to avoid precipitating a conflict. Finally, the question of the Venezuelan Frontier was referred to arbitration, and diplomacy seems in a fair way to earn one of its best merited triumphs. [Illustration: _Chevalier de Martino._} {_From the Royal Collection._ THREE GENERATIONS AFLOAT. To the right is the Queen's steam yacht _Victoria and Albert_; in the centre the Prince of Wales's _Britannia_; and to the left the German Emperor's _Meteor_.] CHAPTER XVIII. Material Progress during the Reign--Modern Locomotion--The Bicycle--Motor Carriages--The Proposed Channel Tunnel--Steam Navigation--Ironclads--The Telephone--The Phonograph--Electricity as an Illuminant--Photography--Its Effect on Painting and Engraving--Victorian Architecture--Absence of Principle in Design--Universal Education--Its Effect on Moral Character and Literary Habits--The Predominance of Fiction--The Growth and Character of British Journalism--The Advance of Natural Science--Surgery and Medicine--Vaccination--Antiseptic and Aseptic Treatment--Bacteriology--The Röntgen Rays--Sanitary Legislation--Conclusion. [Sidenote: Material Progress during the Reign.] Allusion has been made in earlier chapters to the development during the reign of Queen Victoria of the powers of steam applied to locomotion, of electricity applied to the conveyance of news, to the institution of the penny post, and to the invention of anæsthetics in surgery. But no survey, however brief, would be satisfactory which took no note of a few other stages in the progress of applied knowledge--progress which, up to the present moment, shows no sign of slackening. [Illustration: _From a Photograph_} {_by F. W. Burgess, Ringmer._ AN EARLY BICYCLE.