gradually dispersing all its foes. Yet at this very moment the Republic is not free from danger. It is but a thin plank that always seems to separate France from revolution, and that plank now and then shows ominous signs of cracking. Even now the hour has almost struck, but the man apparently is not forthcoming. The fall of the Republic cannot be called a probable event, but in France the improbable frequently happens. It would be a singular comment on the Pope's latest policy. It would perfectly demonstrate, as nothing else could, the absolute futility of his interference in secular matters; and it would teach more plainly than ever the lesson that the functions of the Papacy lie wholly within the spiritual world; and that outside that world the voice of the Vatican may be as vain as the sound of the wind in the tree-tops.

RUSSIAN VIEW OF THE PAMIR QUESTION.* ALASK.

TEL

Condensed for THE LITERARY DIGEST from a Paper (3 pp.) in Journal of the Military Service Institution, New York, January. ◄ELEGRAMS from India and London every few days tell of incidents in the Pamirs. This shows the uneasiness and displeasure with which the English view the movements of the troops under Colonel Donoff. The alarmist article of Professor Vambery in the Neue Freie Presse, Vienna, and the tone of the English press are already known. The French press, not so well informed, treats the party under Colonel Donoff as the escort of a scientific expedition.

In fact, the affair has passed the stage of scientific explorations, and it is now a question of establishing Russian authority in a country which has belonged to it since 1875, but which has not been occupied until it was needed. The troops of Colonel Donoff consist of all arms of the service.

Superior right to the Pamirs came to the Russians with the conveyance of the Khanate of Kokand. Up to the fall of Kokand, the Emir of that Khanate was the sole possessor of the Pamirs, from Alai Mountains to the Khanatis, Kunzoot, and Yessen-from Kashgar in the East to Badakshan in the West. As far back as 1872 the zones of the policical influence of Russia, Afghanistan, and East India, were designated by the Russian State Departments.

The Indian Government supporting its ally, the Amir of Afghanistan, permitted the deposition of the Khan of Badakshan, although such action was in violation of an agreement. After the conquest of Kashgar by the Chinese, undoubtedly instigated by the English, the former moved slowly out of Kashgar, on the slopes of the Pamirs; and the Afghans, in their turn, began to harass the small mountain Khanates, of Vakhan and Shugnan. At the same time, in the South, the English strengthened themselves by garrisons constructed at the important points, Konzort and Yassen. Grombcherski found on his last scientific travels that, on the Pamirs, in a southerly direction from the Trans-Alai range, there remained unoccupied only a narrow strip; the remainder was held by Chinese and Afghan advance-posts.

During all this time the English, under the pretense of hunting, have been making reconnaissances.

These circumstances induced Russia to send troops to the Pamirs, in order that upon the appearance of the Russian flag its rights to these elevated plateaus might be affirmed.

The troops of Colonel Donoff very quickly and effectively cleared the territory of the illegal Chinese authorities situated in the sparse settlement of the Eastern Pamirs. The Chinese fled at the first demand; with the Afghans it was a question of shedding of blood. The advance guard of Donoff was met on the Alichur Pamir by shots; part of the Afghan garrison was captured, part killed. The Afghans received a second bloody lesson at the hands of the Russians. This may possibly teach them to act more cautiously concerning the counsels and motives of the Indian Government.

*See also THE LITERARY DIGEST, Vol. IV., No. 3, p. 60.

At the time of the first-the Kushka-affair, in 1885, there was a great outcry in London; then followed the delimitation of South Turcomenia and Herat-provinces obtained by conquest-up to the Amu-Darya. Incidents of later years on the Pamirs show that the English consider that the frontier on the southeast of Turkestan is insufficiently determined, and they will probably again come forward with persistent propositions to divide the Pamirs amicably. At present they are acting through the Chinese Minister, but with China the affair will proceed very slowly, as the Pamirs are of no special interest to her.

As regards the Afghan Amir, he is less inclined than ever to enter into a decisive struggle with Russia. He is too much harassed by internal troubles. In a telegram from Simla it is stated that, although the Amir does not ask aid of the English, yet, considering that the supervision of exterior questions is in the hands of the British Government, he requests immediate counsel as to what to do, as he cannot permit his troops to suffer defeat a second time by the Russians. It is hence evident that he is in great anxiety, and determined to throw all responsibility on the English, for he dare not engage in an offensive or a defensive war againt Russia on the Pamirs.

The troops of Colonel Donoff have now been reinforced, and will pass the winter there.

It will be difficult for the Amir to show any right to the Western Pamir, or to his occupation of Badakshan in violation of agreement. Further action of the Afglians in Shugnan and Vakhan only reveals their perfidy. It will be still more difficult for the English to formulate their pretenses, as they have never yet thoroughly established their authority in the Khamates of the Himalayas, between the Pamir and Kashmir.

Thus there is full reason to hope that Russia's right to the Pamirs will be shown and recognized.

SOCIOLOGICAL.

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC LEGISLATION OF THE STATES IN 1892.

WILLIAM B. SHAW.

Condensed for THE LITERARY DIGEST from a Paper (6 pp.) in
Quarterly Journal of Economics, Boston, January.

MR. SHAW regards the State legislation of 1892 affecting social
and economic interests as less important than that of some
other years, because only a few Legislatures were in session,
and, as a rule, the laws enacted were of minor consequence.
His summary does not include temperance legislation.
HE Maryland law defining the duties of the Bureau of
Industrial Statistics has been revised and amended. It
is made the business of the Bureau to investigate the agricul-
tural, mining, and transportation interests of the State, and to
keep a "bureau of general information.'

THE

In Ohio eight additional inspectors of workshops and factories have been appointed.

The New Jersey Arbitration Law is very similar to that of New York. It is intended to apply to all grievances or disputes "growing out of the relation of employer and employés." The local board for the adjudication of such differences is to consist of five persons, two of whom are to be designated by the labor organization whose members are involved, and two by the employer, while the four thus chosen are to designate a fifth person to act as chairman of the board. An appeal may be taken to the State Board of Arbitration, which is a permament commission of three members holding office for terms of five years each, one of the three being a member of a bona fide labor-organization of the State.

In New York the so-called "Anti-Pinkerton Bill" was finally passed. This measure is similar to those brought for

ward during the past two years in other States, and simply forbids the employment of peace-officers who are not citizens. Essentially the same law was passed in Massachusetts.

Ohio limits the number of inmates of prisons, reformatories, and workhouses who may be employed in the manufacture of any kind of goods to 5 per cent. of the total number of free laborers in the State engaged in the same industry, except in manufactures employing not more than fifty free laborers.

The New York Statute relating to the sale of clothing made in dwellings is more radical than that of Massachusetts. It not only provides for inspection and supervision, but goes so far as to absolutely prohibit the manufacture of clothing in rooms used for eating or sleeping, except by members of the family occupying such rooms.

In Massachusetts, the labor of women and of minors under eighteen in factories, was restricted to a maximum of fiftyeight hours per week. New Jersey factory-employés secured the Saturday half-holiday. Beyond these two instances there was little general legislation relating to hours of labor.

Other laws especially affecting the laboring-classes are: those of Iowa, Maryland, and New Jersey, for the protection of labor-unions in the use of trade-marks and labels; those in South Carolina, Virginia, and Utah, establishing "Labor Day"; the Iowa law requiring manufacturing and mercantile houses to provide seats for female employés; the Massachusetts enactment prohibiting the coercion of employés into agreements not to join labor-organizations; the Virginia prohibition of attempts to prevent discharged employés from obtaining work; and the New York ten-hour law applying to railroad employés,

In Iowa provision is made for two additional forms of insurance-that of employers against losses caused by the acts of employés, or by accidents to persons or property, and against loss from steam-boiler explosions.

In Maryland coöperative insurance companies are henceforth required to deposit not less than $10,000 with the Insurance Commissioner.

The changes in the Virginia law for the regulation of common carriers are deserving of attention. A greater charge for a shorter than for a longer haul, under similar conditions, is forbidden. Definite provision is made for the interchange of traffic between roads, for the publication of rate-schedules and notice of advance in rates, for the maintenance of telegraph-offices in depots, and the management of ticket-offices, and for punishment in case of infraction of these regulations by the companies. Mississippi also enacts a long and short haul clause, and other safeguards against discrimination. The powers of the Georgia Railroad Commission are extended to express-companies and telegraph-companies.

..

Louisiana has passed a second Anti-Trust Law, more rigorous than the first, and operating on foreign corporations with especial severity.

Apparently in anticipation of an increase in the number of local experiments in municipal ownership of lighting-plants, the Massachusetts Legislature has made a requirement that all cities and towns report to the State Board of Gas and Electric Light Commissioners on the purchase or establishment of plants and on the fixing or changing of the price of light.

In several States attention was given to the important question of highway-improvement. In Massachusetts a Commission of three persons has been appointed to investigate methods of road-construction and maintenance. The law creating this Commission provides that one member shall be a highway-engineer. Under the General Road Law of Georgia, Commissioners of roads and revenues, Ordinaries, or County Judges, have power to open, change, or continue roads. There is also a system of "registration" of roads to guard against encroachments.

The Irrigation Laws of our Western States and Territories have to do with interests which are rapidly growing in import

ance, and which involve to a great extent the agricultural and commercial development of vast areas. In Utah, as elsewhere in that region generally, ditch and reservoir companies have the right of way over private property. This year provision has been made by the Territorial Legislature for cases of disagreement between the construction-companies and the owners of lands. Hereafter, in such cases, three resident landholders of the county are to be chosen as appraisers; but an appeal may be taken from their findings by either party to the District Court at any time within ten days after the appraisement. Pending such appeal, the construction of the works may proceed. The construction-company is made liable for damages to the surrounding land from overflow. Companies are also granted the right to enlarge ditches constructed by other parties, to whom compensation is to be awarded for damages in the same way as the owners of the lands in case of original construction.

In Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, and Louisiana laws were made for the protection, regulation, and development of the oyster-industry of the coasts and bays of those States.

AMONG THE GERMAN SOCIALISTS.
GERHARD GRAN.

Translated and Condensed for THE LITERARY DIGEST from a Paper (15 pp.) in
Samtiden, Bergen, December.

BEF

EFORE I went to Germany, I conceived a Social-Democrat to be a harmless, poor sort of devil, full of great thoughts and big words, but without any ability to revolutionize history. But my visit to Germany converted me to other views.

as,

One does not stay long in a German town before the laborquestion is forced upon one's consideration; it is in the air, and appears to some as a threatening ghost, to others as a vision of hope. You cannot converse with anyone longer than a few minutes before the question comes up; you cannot look into a bookseller's window without seeing the titles of many books on the subject, nor can you listen long to a debate in the Reichstag before the speaker refers to it, or a SocialDemocrat makes himself heard. Take up a technical paper, for instance, a school journal, and you will see the Emperor's proclamation about the schools as a defense against SocialDemocracy, or, that the doctrine of the perniciousness of Socialism ought to be added to the curriculum. One day, I picked up Vorwärts, the Berlin central organ of the party, and turning to the advertisements, a new world revealed itself to me-a world which has its own periodicals, restaurants, theatres, varieties, congregations, cemeteries, libraries, booksellers, humorous papers, stores—in short, all the organs and means of civilized society, as far as such find way into public advertisements. The readers of Socialistic periodicals move in a world, breathe an air, and act in a way that no traveler discovers, unless he hunts up these people. The life of the ordinary German citizen gives no clue to it. It is a world peopled by millions, a State in the midst of the German military Empire, a Labor State, a Social-Democratic State,

I examined many articles in various papers, and found them all "dipped in the same source"-an inveterate hatred of the existing order of things, and a longing for a new world to come. If there be anybody who has learned the subtle effects of repetitions, he must be found among the Social-Democrats. It is the same old story, but treated in a new way, and always fascinating. Every political event, every financial failure, every crime, every fatal accident, furnishes a theme for the repetition that society is rotten; and a certain red line runs through everything with this meaning: “Proletarier aller Länder, vereinigt Euch!" (Workingmen of all countries, unite!)

In Dresden I sent a letter to the editor of the Sächsische Arbeiterzeitung, asking for an interview. I addressed my communication to the editor named on the paper, Herr Löbtau, and did not get any reply till a week after, when Herr Gradnauer

invited me to call. I then learned that Herr Löbtau was only Sitzredacteur—that is, the man who goes to prison whenever "the editor" is found guilty of using language offensive to the Government. Herr Gradnauer explained at length the advantages of the system. He was, I found, a graduate of the Halle University, and ready to take his Doctor of Philosophy degree and begin to lecture as privat-docent in history, when politico-economic studies led him upon Marx's theories. He attended labor meetings, was converted, gave up his career, and, after much troublesome experience, finally appeared in Dresden as the editor of the Socialist paper. I ascertained that many men had had experiences much the same as those of Herr Grad nauer. Thus the party has acquired its intelligence, and become a power in Europe.

I went to many mass-meetings, but I never noticed any expression of fanaticism or hatred in the faces of those present. I except, of course, the few cranks, seen there as elsewhere. I compared my impressions to the ones received at the antiJewish meetings, and the contrast was striking and in favor of the Socialists. Their behavior in their assemblages was remarkable for quietness and self-control. They listened to what was said with a devotedness astonishing to me. Socialism seemed to be to them a religion, resembling other religions in viewing this world as a vale of tears and in holding forth the promise of a happy future.

They attain their great influence by incessant agitation. The "poison" of opposition is always at hand and freely distributed. Spontaneous remarks and insinuations seem to be their most powerful arms, and they all possess ability to use them. A stranger may study their public agitation, but he cannot penetrate this mystery. Outside society knows nothing of the distinctive methods of training which prevail among the Socialists, and these are to be learned only by means of avowed membership. But membership is not secured by the asking. I got a little inside view. The Socialists support Arbeiterbildungs-Vereine (workingmen's educational societies), seldom consisting of more then twenty members. The object of each society, is the education of the members in democracy and the art of public speaking.

THE legal persecution to which the Jewish inhabitants of

Russia have been subjected for the last ten years assumes proportions more and more disquieting. There is an antiSemitic movement in other countries of Europe, but that has neither the gravity nor the importance of the persecution in Russia. In France and in Germany, for example, where the Jews are not numerous, they have all the rights of Christians and are not distinguishable by their language or dress. In those countries numbers of them have become rich, and it is only envy of their wealth which makes people reproach them for their creed and their race. In Russia and Poland, the Jews, always treated like foreigners, have never become mingled with the Christians; they remain a separate race, preserving their own language, their own customs, and their dress of the Middle Ages, driven, by their exclusion from a great number of occupations, to engage in trade almost exclusively. They live in extreme misery, which is aggravated by the rites of their faith. Moreover, they marry very young and have large families, among the members of which the property of their parents is divided equally. In this way the class of penniless people is constantly and largely recruited. All this is no reason that the Russian Government should hate and

persecute the Jews, and it is impossible to find a rational cause for the measures taken against the Jews in Russia. I can only mention in what way I suppose this treatment of the Jews has come about.

I must begin by reminding my readers of the well-known antipathy of Christians to Jews in general. For this there are historic causes. This dislike has been transmitted from father to son, and it will be a long time before the old hatred will disappear entirely. There appears to be a deep-rooted impression that a Jew is not a man like a Christian. People say invariably, "I saw a man and a Jew." In the statutes of mortality caused by the cholera, published at the present time in the newspapers, the Jews are always classified apart.

Up to 1880, the Russian Jews, although subjected to some special laws, were treated with tolerance. From 1882 the persecution became systematic and legal. The principal accusations against the Jews in the last-named year were their want of commercial honesty, their defrauding the Government by smuggling, and the efforts they made to escape military serv

ice.

Besides, in the year mentioned, in which occurred the memorable Nihilist movement, it was claimed that, in proportion to the number of Jews living in the Empire, the Jews who took part in the movement were very much more numerous than the Nihilists belonging to other religions. The Jews claimed, unsuccessfully, that this calculation was altogether at fault. In spite of their efforts to clear themselves, they have continued to be regarded as a very dangerous, revolutionary element, threatening to trouble the peace of the country. To this is generally attributed the treatment of the Jews by the Government, and the series of oppressive laws, the first of which bears date May 3, 1882, and the number of which, now more than 200, is constantly increasing,

The exact truth about the Jews in Russia, however, stands thus. Brought up from infancy in their schools of supersti. tion and fanaticism, strangers to the people about them and the language of the people, with whom the Jews have nothing in common, they live quite apart, strongly united with those of their own faith by ties of race, of religion, and a spirit of common defense. Encountering at every step innumerable obstacles in the way of earning their bread, they owe their wretched condition to a terrible struggle which never stops, and, not being able to get a subsistence honestly, they often cheat and defraud. Their filthy habits, the inseparable companion of misery, also make them repulsive. When any of them become rich, they bear in mind their struggles, their mortification, the injustice of which they have been the victims, and they revenge themselves, becoming arrogant and impertinent, caring for naught, but increasing the fortune, to which alone they owe what consideration they may enjoy. As to their sons, brought up in opulence and luxury, they become, for the most part, worthless idlers, spendthrifts, gamblers, like all those brought up in like fashion. The same causes produce always the same effects. What I have just said, Shylock said. three centuries ago, and assuredly it does not lie in our mouth. to reproach the Jews with their defects and wrong-doing. It would be astonishing, if they were different from what they are..

Misrepresentation of Judaism.-The Christian religion rests. upon the Jewish Bible as upon a rock, and takes from it its. credentials for Divine authority; nay, more, every Church in Christendom proclaims the Divine character of the Old Testament, and anathematizes all who dare to express any doubt of its verbal and spiritual inspiration. Despite thereof, the most preposterous stories about the religious practices of the Jews, their creed, their teachings, and morals are believed by people. There is no superstition too senseless to be ascribed to the Jews without contradiction. If we would believe antiSemitic demagogues, the Jews are veritable ogres who eat the flesh of babes and drink the blood of sucklings. Not only does. the German rabble accept the most ridiculous accusations as founded upon facts, but the Government, in all seriousness, appoints commissioners to inquire into the teachings of the Jews in their religious schools. In no case has the old maxim, andacter calumniare, semper aliquid hæret, been applied with. greater truthfulness than in the case of the Jews.-M. Ellinger,, in The Menorah Monthly, New York, January.

CRUELTY AND PITY IN WOMAN.

GUILLAUME FERRERO.

Condensed for THE LITERARY DIGEST from a Paper (14 pp.) in

SPEN

Monist, Chicago, January. (PENCER says that, among savage nations, the women are as perverse as the men, and that if they do not work so much evil it is because they are less able to do so. This is not entirely true; doubtless women among savages are much more inclined to cruelty than to pity, but, generally speaking, woman, even at the very beginnings of human evolution, is less cruel than man.

Woman, even among savage nations, is rarely a warrior. Generally speaking, the savage woman plays a secondary part in war; she acts as an auxiliary, picks up arrows, throws stones from a distance, and carries the provisions, etc.

It is above all in revenge that feminine cruelty shows itself the most terrible. Man is capable of destroying whole families or nations to satisfy a particular revenge; but nothing equals the ingenuity of woman, in slowly torturing her victim, in gloating over his sufferings and lengthening them out in order that her enjoyment of vengeance may endure as long as possible.

During periods of great national excitement, such as revolutions, feminine cruelty shows how far it can go. The women, writes M. Du Camp, were the fiercest heroines of the Commune it was a woman who incited the assassination of the Dominicans. When the hostages were shot, they surpassed the men in cruelty; they taunted them with not knowing how to kill. When employed to seek out the insurgents they were implacable; when acting as infirmarians, they killed the wounded by giving them brandy to drink. At the time of the French Revolution, on the days of execution, writes M. Legouvé, the front rows nearest the guillotine were reserved for the women of the political clubs. They even hung on to the boards of the scaffold, in order to hear the death-throes of the condemned, and drowned the cries of the victims by their peals of laughter.

But again we find a series of contradictory facts which bear witness that the sentiment of pity also is much keener in woman than in man.

Is woman kind or cruel? Can we reconcile these two series of facts, so contradictory in themselves? Let us seek, first of all, the origin and the genesis of feminine cruelty,

We have seen women exhibiting great ingenuity in torturing; she does not wish to destroy her enemies, but to tormenc and torture them; she seeks to protract their pain as long as possible, and to lengthen out her enjoyment of vengeance. This aptitude in inflicting pain is an outgrowth of weakness. We know from the Darwinian theory of natural selection, and from the struggle for life, that every living being must be provided with a certain number of means of defense and offense, and amongst these must be classed many instincts and sentiments which spring from natural selection, adaptation, and heredity. The cruelty of woman is one of these instincts and sentiments. Woman not being powerful enough to destroy her enemies, had to seek for the means of defending herself, by wounding their more delicate organs, by inflicting such acute pain as would serve to disable them.

And now we must seek for the genesis of the other phenomenon, pity. It is a notorious fact that maternity being the great function of woman; through the whole order of animal life, with the exception of some few fishes, it is always the female who is thus the benefactress of the race. Maternity is always an altruistic function, in the inferior orders this altruism is a purely physical act, and consists merely in a material sacrifice (the detaching of a portion of the internal body, under the form of bud or egg); in the higher orders this altruism becomes psychical and consists in a conscious sacrifice of self and of vitality in the interests of the race.

What, then, is the essential nature of these altruistic sacrifices? Maternity is protection given to weakness; for the infant is above all other created things a being requiring

succor.

It is thus that, the images relating to the state of weakness being in great numbers strongly impressed on the minds of women, when one of them presents itself to her, by the law of association it awakens all those maternal sentiments whose function it is to help the weak. At first, motherhood only extends from a woman's own children to those of others; this is the first stage of pity, such as we find it in animals and among many undeveloped savage people. Afterwards in a region of higher psychical development the sentiment of pity broadens till it embraces a wider group, the sick, the aged, those condemned to death; for all those unfortunates who claim the pity of woman are the weak appealing for help to the strong. It is only the weak who can inspire pity, Thus pity, in woman, is but the outgrowth of the maternal sentiment applied to a larger class of helpless people.

sense of that word. Prior to that time our students, who, during their college course, had become imbued with the desire for something more, went to Europe, as a matter of course, in order to obtain it. As these men returned to the United States in larger and larger numbers, they brought back the desire for similar developments upon this side of the ocean. As a consequence, a most marked development in higher education in this country during the last twenty years has taken place in the direction of university instruction. The most fruitful influence in this direction, in my judgment, has come from the Johns Hopkins University. Having the opportunity to start afresh, unhampered by traditions or complicating conditions of any kind, the Johns Hopkins University struck out for itself a new path, so far as this country was concerned, and brought to practical test the possibility of developing here a higher grade of scholarship than had previously been developed, save in occasional instances. So far as practicable, the methods adopted were, in effect, those of the German university. The results which have followed this fruitful experiment are to be seen, not only in the success of the Johns Hopkins University itself, but in the strong influence it has had upon the older foundations, and the newer as well, in leading them to move in the same direction. Twenty years ago there was almost no graduate-study carried on in the country. To-day it is a marked feature of the higher education everywhere, Another influence having the same tendencies seems to have proceeded simultaneously from Harvard University. At a period considerably earlier than the foundation of Johns Hopkins University, Harvard began its tendency towards the elective system. Whatever criticism may be justly made upon

the system in its application throughout the whole of the college course, there can be no doubt, I think, that its general tendency is to promote scholarship. The elective system does not of itself make a university, but it certainly is an essential feature of a university. As I have thought about it, it seems to me clear that at some point or other in the student's career the elective system is not only desirable, but essential. The question which is open to debate, in my own mind, is as to the point in the student's career at which this system lias its proper beginning. I am not convinced that it is wisely

applied without limitations, at the beginning of the college

course.

The fact that a new aim has become commonly recognized in higher education in this country since 1870, does not signify in any degree that the old aim is not still as worthy of pursuit as it ever was. In my own opinion, it would be a profound misfortune for this country, if the effort to obtain at home what an advanced student could formerly obtain abroad only, should result in depriving our college men, as a whole, of the benefits formerly conferred by the American college. In a greater or less degree it may be said of all our colleges what President Dwight said the other day concerning Yale, that "during all her history Yale had been a school for captains." The American colleges have not themselves produced great scholars, but the American colleges have produced in great numbers broad-minded men, of large views, of high ideals, and of a lofty patriotism. Scattered over all the land, they have been everywhere as salt among the people, an influence, at once to preserve and to purify. I do not say that the two aims are altogether inconsistent with each other; but I do say that,

This reform has already begun in many schools, and it is in the hands of men who do not mean failure. Upon the success of this revolution in our lower school depends, it seems to me, the future of our higher education. Slovenly and ungrammatical English should no longer be accepted at the examination for admission, even if three-fourths of the candidates are conditioned."

In the same magazine, Charles P. Ware, '62, has a paper headed, "Harvard Graduates in the Civil Service," in which he attempts to answer the question of the "carping critics," who ask, "What have the graduates of the College done for their country?" For argument he presents a list of the Harvard men who have been Presidents and Vice-Presidents of the United States, Cabinet Officers, and Ministers Plenipotentiary, and leaves the assailers of Harvard and her methods to

deal with the facts in accordance with the laws of evidence.

EDUCATION IN THE PREPARATORY SCHOOLS.

UNDER

NDER this head there are two papers in the January number of the Harvard's Graduate Magazine, the one by C. F. Adams, '56, entitled The Classics and Written English, the other by W. W. Goodwin, '51, entitled The Root of the Evil. Mr. Adams, following in the lines of President Eliot's article in the December Forum, condemns the present system of teaching English composition by means of Classical translations as inadequate to the formation of a good style. In support of his position he cites the examination-papers in advanced Greek and Latin presented by the candidates for admission to Harvard in June last; the papers, some three hundred and fifty in number, selected for criticism, were taken from the twelve schools and academies, which fit for college one-third of all the students who enter Harvard. The samples given, which, it is claimed, are fully up to the standard, certainly appear to justify his contention that the free rendering of classic writers is not the best method of imparting that first essential of education,-the faculty of expressing one's self in one's own language with facility and precision.

Pointing to a remedy, he cites a statement of the principal of one of the London schools, that "good teaching is impossible, if an examination by an outside person is to be prepared for," and then goes on to say:

"To the same effect the Secretary of the Connecticut State Board of Education uses the following language.-a conclusion reached in the course of one of the boldest, most thorough, and most creditable report ever made by such a board in America; a report in commendation of which it would not be easy to use words of too great strength. The influence of secondary schools on primary education has been disastrous. It has directed the energies of teachers and scholars to the end of passing examinations to enter secondary schools. Primary education for its own sake has been disparaged because another end was in view.' Substitute in aforegoing the word 'college' for secondary schools,' and the word preparatory for primary, and it applies exactly to the case under discussion."

Mr. Goodwin follows in the same vein. After commenting on the low standard in English composition which the College feels compelled to accept for admission, he says:

There is no conceivable justification for using the revenues of Harvard College, or the time and strength of her instructors in the vain attempt to enlighten the Egyptian darkness in which no small portion of our under-graduates are sitting.

"There is no hope of a substantial change for the better until the elementary studies which now occupy the years from fifteen to nineteen are put back where they belong, so that young men can devote themselves in earnest to studies which belong to their age.

CONSTANT TROYON.

Condensed for the THE LITERARY DIGEST from a Paper (3 pp.) in The Art Journal, London, January. ROYON is one of the painters of the nineteenth century whose works have become famous in many countries. As an animal-painter of the first order, his pictures have been well appreciated in Great Britain, and his reputation on the Continent and in the United States has always been of the highAs an artist who thorougly mastered his métier, Troyon is a very satisfactory painter to study. His subjects are well conceived, well carried out, and chosen as much for their interest as for their artistic points. In his best works his drawing is usually correct, the result of knowledge acquired by long and careful study. His color is always fine, and frequently this quality in his pictures rises to the very highest point reached by any animal painter.

est.

Constant Troyon, who was born at Sèvres on August 28th, 1810, and died in Paris fifty-five years later, painted only landscapes with figures, until he was thirty-six. In 1846 he went to Holland, where he was much influenced by the famous Dutch masters, and especially by Paul Potter, whose wellknown. "Young Bull" still attracts great attention. After that, Troyon occupied himself with the study of cattle for his pictures, until he gradually developed into an animal-painter. His landscapes are admirable, however, and occasionally, in later years, he painted pictures without cattle, which are perfect examples of fine color.

Troyon's experience at first was rather unfortunate, for his father, being one of the artists employed at Sèvres, the son acquired many of the conventional tricks of the porcelainpainter, and it was a number of years before he rid himself of their teachings. After his father, Constant's chief instructor was Camille Roqueplan, a painter little known nowadays except to connoisseurs. Roqueplan took a fancy to Troyon, and introduced him to Rousseau, to Diaz, and to Jules Dupré. In 1833 Troyon began to exhibit at the Salon, and had the usual difficulties until he had thoroughly learned his art. Later he achieved considerable success, was awarded medals, and decorated with the Legion of Honor. Probably he asked a tenth part only of the prices now paid for his work, but that seems the usual fate of a clever artist. He seems never to have lacked friends. Napoleon III. was his patron, and did what he could to help him, although the later years of the artist's life were very unhappy. Not very long before he died he had to be placed under restraint, and it was feared he would never recover his reason. He rallied, however, and hopes of his recovery began to be entertained when he grew worse, and died on the 20th of March, 1865.

At his death, Troyon left a considerable number of canvases unfinished. These were afterward sold at auction, each example being marked "Vente Troyon." Of these works there are some on both sides of the Atlantic, many being in Scotland. These "Vente" pictures, as they are called, are not monetarily as valuable as finished and signed paintings, but