How long will it be before our public men become but a race of Medicean princes without the learning or the arts of Florence, and the Presidential chair itself a simple commodity to be knocked down to the highest bidder?-Henry Watterson.

PROFESSION VERSUS PRACTICE

The pre-eminent significance of the SpanishAmerican War lies in the fact that it has uncovered the essential humbug of the Declaration of Independence, and has demonstrated to the world the pretence and insincerity of America's devotion thereto. There should now follow a cessation of vain and inconsistent prating over the "consent of the governed" and other such claptrap phrases of the demagogues that we are accustomed to declaim on patriotic occasions, and to incorporate into our political platforms for the purpose of catching votes. America is engaged in building an empire and is to-day more than ever an imperialistic nation. But the American will not admit that the basic principle of his empire is the domination of

force, for he has an inherent hostility to calling things by their right and truthful names. -Professor Dickson, in the Arena.

Atrocities in the Philippines-Americans who shudder at reading of the cruelties of the Duke of Alva in the sixteenth century, tolerate the perpetration of equal atrocities under the American flag in this twentieth century.—New York Herald.

A country like the United States of America; founded on a struggle of our Revolutionary fathers for liberty and independence, should never be at war except for the defence of its honour and integrity.-Cincinnati Enquirer.

I want no prisoners. I wish you to kill and burn. The more you kill and burn, the better you will please me.-Order of General Smith to his soldiers before they set out on an expedition.

[The General was sent by the American government to the Philippine Islands to instil Christianity into the natives.]

They say Cuba is free and that we liberated her. Is Cuba free? I say no! She is simply annex, and the question is whether she is an

nexed for freedom and independence or for plunder and oppression. America has been prolific in euphonious words while it grasped at material advantages. The fact that Cuba is calling out to us to-night in a voice of supplication, instead of making a demand, proves she is not free-that she is merely one of our territories. Hon. Wm. J. Bryan.

I am opposed to the course of the American government because it is steeped in cant and hypocrisy. There is something fine in the unsimilated strength of a wild beast, but when a nation steals the soil from under your feet and enslaves you to its own uses, and in the meantime prates of Christianity and civilization and benevolent intentions, it turns the stomach of an honest man. We have lied to Cuba point blank and misled the Filipinos. Yet we go on bragging of our philanthropic work as if falsehood were bred in our bones. I am opposed to the American policy, it distracts our attention and our material resources from the problems which beset us at home. We should reform ourselves before we undertake to reform others, or

I

How can we,

undertake to preach a crusade. with our slums, our lynchings, our race problems, our labor questions-how can we decently assume to teach mankind? Americans are the only civilized people who practise burning at the stake, and we wish to soften the manners of the isles of the sea!-Ernest Crosby.

Among the consequences are America's disregard for the rights of free speech and press; censorship and suppression of news; the growth of military spirit with its glorification of brute force, and branding as traitors those who protest against such.-Bolton Hall.

The Declaration of Independence has become an "incendiary document" in the Philippine Islands, and an exponent of exploded eighteenth century ethics in America.—Thomas Elmer Will.

If to anyone such a forecast seems visionary, let him ask himself whether, a few years ago, he could have dreamed that the principles of the Declaration of Independence would be disregarded and derided in America.-Professor Goldwin Smith.

There would be no cause for surprise if Roumania should petition the Powers of Europe to use their influence to break up the habit of burning negroes alive in the United States.-Kansas City Star.

The history of Hayti, since it began to work out its own destiny, is that of a steady reversion to heathen savagery. If a foreign Power should suggest that a refusal on our part to clean up Hayti or to let any one else attempt that Augean labor would be making the Monroe Doctrine a plea to justify the attitude of the dog in the manger, we really do not see what good answer we could return to such an expostulation.-New York Times.

UNPLEASANT CONTRASTS,

The individual in England has greater reedom of speech and action, and more privileges than the individual has in America. In American cities there is an extent of petty officialism and dictation that the English people would not endure a day.-The Philistine.