thing in sight. It would be the first step toward the settlement of a difficult and delicate problem on an honest and satisfactory basis."— The News and Courier (Dem.), Charleston.

"It is not until Mr. Cleveland enters upon a consideration of the financial situation, laying bare its nature and cause and suggesting a remedy, that he furnishes a companion piece to his famous single-shot message on the tariff. Here the President shows that firm grasp of his subject, that clear conception, rugged common sense, and robust integrity of purpose that have won for him in so eminent a degree the confidence of all adherents of an honest and sound financial policy." —The Courier-Journal (Dem.), Louisville.

Foreign Relations.

Will Bring Encouragement and Joy.-"This [the Venezuela utterance] is impressive testimony to the strength and extent of the public sentiment demanding that our foreign relations shall be managed at Washington on American principles. It will surprise and distress only those alien souls who, hoping and expecting from Mr. Cleveland's performances in other quarters that he would be' 'a strong enough man' to repudiate the Monroe doctrine utterly, have been denouncing the 'traditional and established policy of this Government' as a foolish and obsolete thing. will now be compelled either to attack the President as a jingo, or to change the prevailing cuckoo note. To all other citizens this part of the message will bring encouragement and joy. If Mr. Cleveland lives up to the words and the spirit of his present declaration, not only with regard to Venezuela, but in every case where the same principle is involved, his Administration will become truly and illustriously American in the last few months of its existence."-The Sun (Dem.), New York.

They

The

An Approach to Vigorous Americanism; but No Sympathy for Cuba. "There is only one point in the message which looks like any approach to conscious or vigorous Americanism. tenor of the despatch which went to the British Government last July demanding the arbitration of the whole dispute with Venezuela is only briefly given; but if this brief description can be accepted as reflecting its spirit, it appears to have been a temperate but firm and adequate assertion of the Monroe doctrine...

"Next to this question that which will excite most interest is the President's treatment of the Cuban struggle. Here he is cold, reserved, and unsympathetic. If he has any kindly feeling for the patriots who are fighting for liberty, he carefully conceals it. With his declaration of our legal obligations in the present situation no fault is to be found; but he might well have indicated, as President Grant and Secretary Fish did during the former Cuban rebellion, that this country could not be indifferent to the indefinite prolongation of the devastating warfare, and that if the Spanish Government could not establish its undisputed power within a reasonable period it would be for us to consider what common humanity and our own interests might require.' The Press (Rep.), Philadelphia.

"

Disqualifying Ourselves as Arbitrators by Taking Sides."The President's observations on the Venezuela matter will probably satisfy neither our own jingoes nor the British. He leaves the main points of the controversy in obscurity. He'protests against the enlargement of the area of British Guiana in derogation of the rights and against the will of Venezuela.' But this is begging the question. It is taking the side of Venezuela in the controversy, and thus disqualifying ourselves for acting as arbitrators should we be asked to do so. It assumes gross wrongdoing on the part of Great Britain before her side of the case has been heard. If Great Britain is really seeking to extend her territory, 'in derogation of the rights and against the will of Venezuela,' there is nothing to arbitrate. We have only to consider whether or not we will take up arms in behalf of Venezuela.”— The Evening Post (Ind.), New York.

Not a Touch of Jingoism.-"Venezuela, Turkey, and Cuba are the topics to which the average American citizen will turn with the most lively interest and perhaps with the greatest expectation of discovering something sensational. But the President, according to his well-established character, has refrained from sensationalism. There is not a touch of jingoism, not a display of the spread-eagle in the whole paper-nor is there a suggestion of the poltroon. It is clearly his belief that the national dignity may be maintained without bluster, and his report

of the action taken in the only serious international complication which have beset the nation shows that every step necessary for the vindication of the nation's honor has been taken with dignity, promptness, and determination."-The Chronicle (Dem.), Chicago.

Too Cold Toward Cuba.-"He makes a fairly good showing of having displayed spirit in enforcement of the Monroe doctrine in behalf of Venezuela, but England's attempt to bully that brave little republic will not be relinquished unless she is made to understand beyond all peradventure that it can not be persisted in without involving her in war with the United States, which have assumed the position of big brother to the little republics of this hemisphere and intend to prevent their weakness being imposed upon by the powerful monarchies of the Old World. His utterances concerning Cuba will fall upon unresponsive hearts, for liberty is too highly appreciated in this country to permit its citizens being indifferent to the struggles of those who fight elsewhere in that sacred name. While in an abstract view of the case he may be right in demanding cold neutrality, Americans are too firmly wedded to the cause of liberty to take an abstract view of any struggle in behalf of that cause."-The Register (Dem.), Columbia.

"Mr. Cleveland may in times past have given them some encouragement, but when put to the real test he shows himself a statesman of broader mind and truer insight than they in their folly have imagined. They confidently expected him to pinion and muzzle the Monroe doctrine in English interests. On the contrary, he has reasserted it with a force which it has not felt since thirty years ago it sent the French eagles whirling out of Mexico. To this part of his message, Mr. Cleveland's enlightened and patriotic fellow countrymen, of all shades of politics, will respond with grateful rejoicing."-The Journal (Rep.),

Boston.

"His thorough Americanism upon all these questions is in fact one of the marked and distinguishing characteristics of President Cleveland's policy. It is not the blatant noisy jingoism of some of our Republican 'statesmen,' the Chandlers, Lodges, and others of that ilk, who, in their wild talk, emulate the gentleman at Donnybrook fair, who begged that somebody would tread on the tail of his coat, and who seem to be sedulously striving to create the impression that they live on the smell of gore and would much rather fight than eat. President Cleveland's patriotism is less bellicose."— The Sun (Dem.), Baltimore.

"The brevity of the President's remarks about Venezuela in his message should not discourage the patriots who were pleased some time ago to learn that once in a while the Administration could show a determined front to Great Britain. The little paragraph on this subject contains the Monroe doctrine in a nutshell. It is so pleasing to those who believe in Americanism that there would doubtless be widespread rejoicing if the President would soon again utter another declaration like that of last July. The people are ready for more of the same kind."-The Star (Ind.), Washington.

"In the discussion of the present relations of the United States with foreign governments a characteristic conservatism is shown. There is not the slightest suggestion of 'jingoism' in any of the President's recommendations." The News (Ind.), Indian

apolis.

"The message fails lamentably to reflect the true American spirit in its references to Cuba and the Monroe doctrine. There is no vigor, no earnestness in its tone on any of the questions at issue between us and foreign nations. There is comfort in it only to the foreign aggressor. The nearest approach to anything like a positive conviction is found in the President's mild insistence upon the arbitration of all the points in dispute between Great Britain and Venezuela. And even this is chilly enough to give a true believer in the Monroe doctrine the ague."—The Journal (Rep.), Detroit.

"The President's attitude on the Venezuelan question, and on the enforcement of the Monroe doctrine has been none the less firm and none the less determined because it has been free from bluster. It was generally hoped that the President would have a word of comfort to offer Cuba. He did not, but this can not be attributed to timidity."-The Times-Union (Dem.), Jacksonville.

THE TASK OF THE PRESENT CONGRESS.

FORECASTS of the work of the present Congress are gener

ally felt to be futile, in view of the complications which are likely to arise owing to the division of authority, and the gravity of the problems with which it is confronted. Most of those who write upon the subject prefer to express their opinion as to what ought to be done, abstaining from predictions of what will be done. In a symposium in The North American Review (December) Mr. M. H. Hazeltine, of the New York Sun, and Representatives Catchings, Dolliver, Southwick, and Bell advance a number of suggestions and recommendations for the benefit of Congress. Mr. Hazeltine confines himself to the Venezuelan dispute, which he reviews very thoroughly from many points of view. He argues that the question is eminently suited for arbitration, and that the Monroe doctrine fully and strictly applies to it. He also tries to show that the situation is such that the United States must stiffly adhere to the "doctrine" and prevent the establishment of a precedent "big with peril to the safety of many weak commonwealths in the New World." Even at the risk of war, he says, we are bound to protect Venezuela, and he continues as follows:

'A glance at the map will show that the same game of successive encroachments which is being played to-day at the cost of Venezuela may be practised to-morrow to the detriment of Brazil. On the south British Guiana is bounded with convenient vagueness by the Brazilian Republic, and the east fork of the Parima River, one of the most important northern members of the Amazon River system, takes its rise in British territory. If, under color of frontier disputes, which she refuses to refer to arbitrators, England is now allowed to deprive Venezuela of the Orinoco basin, what is to prevent her from depriving Brazil hereafter of the vast valley of the Amazon? Then, again, why should not a precedent, once established for South America, be followed in Central America as well? If, proceeding from Guiana as a basis, England is suffered to absorb a large part of Venezuela, why should she not, starting from the territory of Belize, manage gradually to swallow Honduras, Guatemala, and Yucatan?"

But even if Congress should decline to back Venezuela in the boundary dispute, there is another expedient pointed out by Mr. Hazeltine-namely, application for admission to the American Union. He says:

"Venezuela has no present advantages to lose, and immense future advantages to gain, by following the Texan precedent. Within twenty-four hours after her admission to the Union she would witness a striking and gratifying change in the attitude of the British Foreign Office, which would show itself as eager to invoke a decision by impartial umpires concerning the Guiana frontier, as it did in the matter of the Oregon boundary controversy, when, as George Bancroft noted, it proposed arbitration no fewer than six times. In truth, the mere agitation in Venezuela of the question of annexation to the great American Republic would in all likelihood bring the English Government to terms. One of the last things that Englishmen desire is to have American citizens for neighbors of their lucrative possessions on the mainland of South America and in the Antilles. They are quite sufficiently worried by our proximity to Canada."

Representative T. C. Catchings (Dem.), of Mississippi, touches briefly on a number of topics. With regard to finance, he favors the retirement of the greenbacks and the substitution of bank-notes rendered safe by adequate regulations. He indicates more radical changes in the following passage:

"The tax on the issues of State banks should be repealed. The repeal, if deemed desirable, might be accompanied by such conditions as would satisfy the public that their notes would be safe and in all respects entitled to credit. The cost of Government bonds is such as to practically preclude the possibility of any material enlargement of the circulation of national banks. Indeed, they have already become little more than banks of discount and deposit. The national banking laws might readily be remodeled so that all of their features that are so objectionable to

many would be eliminated, and their monopolistic tendencies eradicated. This done, the capacity of national banks to serve the people by supplying them with a sound and abundant currency would soon place them beyond the reach of criticism or complaint..

"The gold reserve could then be abolished and the Treasury confined to the simple function of collecting and disbursing the revenues. When conditions required it, gold would still be exported, but the exporter would procure it as best he could, and the operation would neither disturb business nor excite comment." Representative J. P. Dolliver (Rep.), of Iowa, opposes any attempt at overthrowing our present banking system. He believes in retracing every recent step in the direction of free trade and in devising means to rescue the country from unfavorable business relations which necessitate gold exports. He favors an immediate increase in revenue. Representative G. N. Southwick (Rep.), of New York, says that Republicans will oppose. to the bitter end proposals to increase the internal-revenue tax on beer and ale, and favor tariff revision with the view of aiding the Treasury and restoring prosperity to the wage-workers. Representative J. C. Bell (Popul.), of Colorado, is opposed to the "Eastern policy" of high tariff, "sound money," and privileges for the few. Referring to the greenbacks and the drain on the gold reserve, he says:

ernment.

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"This supposed malady can be removed by simply going back to the correct principle and paying all public obligations in any kind of legal-tender money that is most convenient to the GovThe correct principle is followed in France, and in all other governments having more than one kind of legal-tender money, with a perfect success. It does seem that for the past quarter of a century financial legerdemain, that has greatly enriched the money-dealer and impoverished and humiliated the Government, has taken the place of good governmental financiering. Party platforms and political convictions of public men have become as 'erratic as the phantasm of a morning dream.' "With a Democratic Adminstration advocating a single gold standard and an unbridled bank currency in the face of the teachings of the party for nearly a century, viz. : 'We declare unqualified hostility to bank-notes. because gold and silver is the only safe and constitutional currency,' and with the great Republican Party entrenched in Congress advocating the same ruinous doctrine in the face of the teachings of the patriotic Lincoln, who largely enunciated the original principles of the party, and who unerringly taught that 'if a Government contracts a debt with a certain amount of money in circulation, and then contracts the money volume before the debt is paid, it is the most heinous crime a nation can commit against a people'- -we can rely upon no past by which we can safely judge the future.'

"

Suggestions in the Department Reports.-There has been a great deal of comment in the press, chiefly of a favorable character, on the recommendations made in the reports submitted by the Secretaries of the Cabinet. Secretary Smith, of the Interior, referring to the Pacific Railroad debt, states that the property is worth more than the first mortgage bonds and suggests that the Government's interests can be protected by taking up these bonds. The credit of the Government, he thinks, would enable it to renew them at three per cent. (instead of six, which they are bearing now), and thus render it easier to collect the debt due on the subsidy bonds. The Secretary is inclined to favor the creation by the Government of a great through line from the Missouri to the Pacific. The Secretary of War, Mr. Lamont, recommends that the size of the standing army should be increased one sixth, and calls for larger appropriations for coast defenses. The Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Herbert, calls for increased naval appropriations, and recommends the building of two new battleships and twelve torpedo-boats. Attorney-General Harmon recommends that appeals in criminal matters (except capital cases) should not be taken to the Supreme Court, and that certain abuses of the writ of habeas corpus should be corrected. We refer else. where to the suggestions of Postmaster-General Wilson,

THE able editors in all parts of the country have. by this time, all gone on record to the effect that the President's message is a work of unqualified excellence or of unsurpassed inferiority.-The Star, Washington.

J

THE SUPREME COURT NOMINATION.

UDGE RUFUS W. PECKHAM, of the New York Court of Appeals, has been nominated by President Cleveland to fill the vacancy on the United States Supreme Bench caused by the death of Justice Jackson. The selection is generally regarded as an admirable one. Judge Peckham is a brother of Wheeler H. Peckham, whose nomination to an Associate Justiceship was rejected by the Senate, under the leadership of Mr. Hill, less than two years ago. He is fifty-seven years old, and has had considerable training on the bench. He was admitted to practise when very young, and

JUDGE PECKHAM.

after photo

soon became district attorney of Albany county. A few years later he was elected Justice of the Supreme Court of New York, but resigned after three years' service to accept the office of Judge of Court of Appeals, which he still holds. While he has been an active Democrat, he has not been involved in any factional conflicts, and there is no opposition to him. We give a few press opinions on his nomination:

"The selection of Judge Rufus W. Peckham for the high office of Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States is possibly the very best choice the President could have made within the ranks of his party in this State. He belongs to a family distinguished in the judicial history of New York, his ability is conceded, and his character is without the shadow of a stain."-The Recorder (Rep.), New York.

"The President has done well not only in restoring to New York her proper measure of judicial influence and authority, but in nominating to succeed Justice Jackson a man so thoroughly equipped for the place as Judge Peckham. He has learning, experience, and an unblemished character, and the prospect of many years of usefulness on the Supreme Bench."- The Tribune (Rep.), New York.

"His confirmation will restore to New York the representation on the Supreme Bench at Washington to which the State is entitled and of which it was deprived two years ago. It is a commendable appointment, which shows Mr. Cleveland's regard both for the requirements of the Supreme Court and the interests of the country."-The Herald (Ind.), New York.

"The President's choice of a Supreme Court Judge is an admirable one. Judge Peckham is well qualified by character, ability, and temper for service on the bench, and he has now the added advantage of many years' experience as a judge, first of the Supreme Court of this State and later of the Court of Appeals, upon which he now sits. His training has thus been of the very best, and he will enter our highest tribunal with every promise of rendering effective service for a good many years."-The Evening Post (Ind.), New York.

"The nomination of Judge Rufus W. Peckham of the Court of Appeals to the Supreme Court of the United States is in every way admirable. As a lawyer of this State, the President is aware

of the necessity of putting upon the bench of the highest court a lawyer familiar with the class of business which goes to that court from this State, and which constitutes one of the most important classes of the court's business. . . . The President has very happily averted the only cause of controversy that could have arisen over the retention of a New York lawyer for a place where one is needed. And Judge Peckham is admirably qualified for the place by integrity, by learning, by judicial temper, and by judicial experience."-The Times (Dem.), New York.

SOUT

TILLMAN AND EVANS IN ATLANTA. OUTH CAROLINA DAY at the Atlanta Fair was signalized by some striking utterances of Governor Evans and Senator Tillman, who are being severely criticized for turning the celebration into a sectional demonstration and making an attack upon the union principle. Senator Tillman spoke of the " enormous drain" upon the resources of the South involved in the payment of pensions to the Union army veterans. Since 1861, he said, four hundred millions have thus been taken from the South, and the wonder is that she was able to hold such a remarkable fair under conditions so unfavorable. "I don't know," he is further reported as saying, "how much money the North has invested in the South, but it is a tithe compared with the tribute we have been compelled to pay to the United States Government." If the South, he continued, had been given an equal chance, if the tariff had not robbed the farmers, and the finances of the country had not been allowed to concentrate in the hands of a few, there is no conjecturing what the Exposition would have been. Governor Evans expressed the hope that "by the help of God, the South would yet rule this country again," and declared that the only genuine democracy remaining in America is in the heart of the agricultural region of the South.

Some of the Southern papers that are not specially friendly to Governor Evans or Senator Tillman applaud their utterances as timely and appropriate, but most of the papers, North and South, condemn them as sectional and demagogic.

Not Exponents of Southern Opinion.-"Both in the speech he made himself yesterday and in the one he dictated Tillman used his old trick of trying to array section against section and class against class. He represented the men of the North who have invested many millions of dollars in the South as being animated by no other motive than the desire to rob our people. We do not suppose that Northern capital has come into the South on benevolent or charitable considerations. It has been invested because the South offered fine opportunities and such transactions have been mutually beneficial.

"The South invites both capital and settlers and is to be built up, not by the Tillmans who denounce those who come in to aid in the development of this region, but by those fair-minded citizens who believe that this is one country and has a common destiny.

"Fortunately for the South, it has only one State under the domination of a vicious demagog of the Ben Tillman stripe. South Carolina has put him in power and held him up as her leading representative and statesman, and South Carolina will have to make the best of her bargain.

"We pity the old State, but we insist that Tillman must not be considered an exponent of Southern, opinion."-The Journal (Dem.), Atlanta.

The Complaints Unjust and Fallacious.-"By what process of reasoning the speakers established the truth of their declaration that the States paid the pension money is not set forth in the despatches, but the usual argument is the bare statement of the speakers. There is a vague impression among the people that the States contribute only internal-revenue taxes to the funds with which the Government discharges its obligations., If the South has paid $400,000,000 in whisky and tobacco taxes, it has two industries which are fairly prosperous despite the awful 'incubus' of pensions.

"But it needs no argument to show the injustice of the complaint, to say nothing of the fallacy of the statements. The people of the South do not share the sentiments expressed by Evans and Tillman. It is only to be regretted that the splendid work of the Exposition, in healing old wounds and bringing all sections of the country together, should have been marred by the exhibition of the Governor and the Senator."-Journal (Rep.),. Kansas City.

Pertinent and Appropriate Statements of Cold Facts."Some criticism has been evoked by the speeches of Senator Tillman and Governor Evans on Thursday because, as stated 'up to that time all the speeches delivered at the Exposition, whether by Northern or Southern men, have been pitched on the keynote

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of fraternity and national unity;' 'no one heretofore has uttered a note of sectionalism;' and 'Governor Evans and Senator Tillman struck out on a different line in contrast with what had gone before.' . . . Every word that he said was true, and he confined himself to the mere statement of facts and figures. It was not his fault if the truth did not accord with 'the keynote of fraternity and national unity,' which had been sounded so loudly and so persistently by the sweet singers who preceded him. If the mere statement of the facts was 'a note of sectionalism,' what is to be said of the facts themselves!

"The speeches of Senator Tillman, Governor Atkinson, and Governor Evans were wholly pertinent and proper to the occasion in our judgment. Northern newspapers very generally insist at all times that the New South,' as they like to call it, has been redeemed from a condition of ignorance, dulness, and sloth by 'Northern enterprise and capital' charitably employed for our benefit. The Exposition itself is very freely cited by them as an illustration of what they have enabled us to accomplish by the use of their money. The Exposition grounds were the proper place certainly to remind them that 'no foreign capital has come here except for profit in lines' tried by native enterprise, and that for every dollar that has come from the North since the war for investment here for profit, the Southern people have sent ten or twenty in pension and tariff taxes to the North for which they get nothing in return. The Senator and the two Governors simply coldly stated cold facts, we repeat. They are not responsible in any degree if the truth does not chime with the song of fraternity and national unity as sung on the Exposition grounds or anywhere else. - The News and Courier (Dem.), Charleston.

Right Time and Place. "If Tillman told the truth-and even The News and Courier has not the temerity to deny it—no better time or place for its telling could have been selected. His words delivered at the Atlanta Exposition will receive far more attention than would be accorded the same truth told elsewhere. Criticism, even such harsh and unjust criticism as that of the Atlanta Journal, will not harm Tillman. He has succeeded in South Carolina politics in spite of—if not because of-such criticism, and it would not be surprising if the same fate attended his career in national politics Tillman tells plain truths, and, while they may be bitter and unpalatable to some people, there are always many people who are eager to hear them and grateful to those who speak them.”—The Register (Dem.), Columbia.

of

South Carolina's New Constitution.-"The Constitutional Convention, in South Carolina, has finished its work and adjourned. The new constitution goes into force without ratification by a popular vote. Among the important clauses which have attracted wide attention are: the electoral qualification, which is expected to disfranchise most of the negroes; the prohibition of the passage of divorce laws or the recognition of the divorce laws of other States; the anti-lynching law; the liquor-dispensary law, etc. The failure to submit the new constitution to the people has provoked considerable criticism in the North. Thus the New York Evening Post says: 'There is not a State in the North where such a thing would be thought of, because the people would not endure what would now be considered as a usurpation power by their servants. The feeling would undoubtedly be the same among the whites of the South if new constitutions were summarily declared in operation which took the suffrage from a large proportion of the white voters. As the new qualifications, however, are not designed or expected to disfranchise whites, but only blacks, this method of accomplishing the desired result provokes but little protest from among those who have the means of affecting public opinion. Apparently most of the whites are satisfied to live under a constitution which they have never indorsed, but which accomplishes the main purpose for which a new constitution was desired." The Philadelphia Telegraph says it would be gratifying to have an opinion from the Federal Supreme Court on this question, and The Ledger, of the same city, remarks: "If this action is to stand, South Carolina will be, indeed, a ‘sovereign State,' beyond the usual acceptance of the

words."

A SENSATIONAL TRIAL AND RECORDER GOFF'S PREDICAMENT.

A

DRAMATIC ending to an extraordinary criminal trial was witnessed in this city in the Aub-Langerman case, in the court presided over by Recorder Goff, of Lexow Committee fame. Langerman, a law clerk, had been convicted of a felonious assault upon a young woman named Barbara Aub. Recorder Goff, who presided over the trial, charged the jury in a way which provoked a great deal of adverse criticism in the press. A verdict of guilty was returned. On Monday of last week Langerman was brought before the Recorder for sentence, and everybody expected the imposition of a long term of imprisonment. Motions of arrest of judgment were made and overruled, the Recorder emphatically stating that the evidence clearly and irresistibly established the defendant's guilt. Then to every body's amazement, instead of passing sentence, the Recorder proceeded to read a confession by Miss Aub that she had committed perjury and that Langerman was not guilty of assault. The confession had been made to Recorder Goff himself in the presence of witnesses, and nobody else knew of the existence of this new evidence. The Recorder explained that, in spite of

the conclusiveness, from a legal standpoint, of the evidence against Langerman, he had been harassed by doubts and misgivings, and had decided to make a personal investigation. As a result of several private conferences with Miss Aub, the written confession of perjury was made. The Recorder, while realizing the unprecedented character of the method employed by him, thought that the law and the requirements of justice entitled him to assume the responsibility of discharging Langerman. In doing so, however, he took occasion to denounce the latter in bitter and stinging terms for alleged past offenses similar to that with which he had been falsely accused by Miss Aub, and to accuse him of having led a vicious and wicked life. The press severely assailing Recorder Goff for this treatment of the defendant, and characterizing it as gratuitous and unwarranted by Anglo-Saxon ideas of a court's prerogatives. In many quarters, Recorder Goff is declared to be wholly unfit for his judicial office. We give a number of comments on the many sensational features of this extraordinary case:

Recorder Goff's Attitude Should Have Been Apologetic."It would be interesting to know, for purposes of metaphysical and psychological research, just what the 'intimation' or 'inspiration' was that led Recorder Goff to believe that Barbara Aub had not told the truth about her relations with Walter L. S. Langerman, after the Recorder had made a charge to the jury, in which he gave them—and all others who heard or read the charge-to understand that he was confident of the guilt of the man she accused of crime.

Recorder Goff is a conscientious man, and it seems to be quite within the confines of possibility that a vague consciousness that he had been unduly severe-and being unduly severe in a case like the one under consideration is not a trifling matter—in his charge to the jury may have led bim, without being himself aware what the motive was that impelled him, to make further inquiries regarding the guilt of the prisoner before passing sentence upon him.

"Be that as it may, the Recorder was certainly convinced of Langerman's innocence of the charge against him when he was brought to the bar for sentence on Monday. The attitude of the Court in these circumstances should have been one of apology for an almost irreparable injury done a man who, in the eyes of the law, was absolutely innocent. The personality of the prisoner does not enter into the argument at all, so far as the Recorder is concerned. The circumstance that Langerman may be an irredeemably licentious and corrupt debauchee does not affect his guilt on the charge of rape after his innocence has been estab lished—from a legal point of view-any more than if he had been tried for forgery.

"Recorder Goff, as the representative of blind Justice, should not have allowed his personal sentiments concerning the manner of life of the man whom he knew to be innocent of the crime of