deathless issue of equal rights for all, special privileges for none, under the Constitution.'

THE NEGRO NOT LIKELY TO BE HARMED.

BISHOP J. W. HOOD, of the A. M. E. Zion Church, sees nothing in the condition of things that need cause the Negro much anxiety. He says:

There is now too much else to occupy public attention to leave much opportunity for the exercise of Negro hate. Indeed, we have come upon a time when very little can be done to injure one without hurting somebody else. Our interest is now to a large degree identical with that of the toiling masses of every race of American citizens. I do not admit it, but the Democratic party claims that its victory is largely due to the Negro vote. Right or wrong, it is necessary for them to hold what they claim to have gained in that direction. I am sure that no other Democrat could have been elected who would have given so little uneasiness to the colored people. If we must have a Democratic President, Cleveland is the best in sight by all odds."

CLEVELAND'S ELECTION A BLESSING.

T. MCCANTS STEWART has no misgivings, either as to the Negro race or the nation; and believes that Mr. Cleveland's victory has been the greatest political blessing of a quarter of a century, in that it was the triumph of a cause connected with the welfare of the masses of the people. He says:

"President Cleveland's administration will do much toward checking the aggressiveness of corporate and plutocratic power. It will inaugurate a system, both economic and governmental, that will equalize public burdens, distributing them among the rich as well as among the poor, and opening to every citizen an equal chance to enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi

ness.

THE CAUSE OF IT.

THE HON. B. K. BRUCE finds the chief causes of Republican defeat in the infatuation for tariff-reform and the farmers' idea that their stress could be relieved by the issue of money directly to them by the Government. He says:

'A close analysis of the vote throughout the country shows that the Democratic vote was not increased above its natural increase, while the Republican vote in the States which decided the result was greatly decreased-having gone to the people's party. This shows that the Republicans who deserted in this contest have not turned away from the fundamental principles of the party and become Democrats, but have simply side-tracked to wait for that train freighted with the good things that have been promised them. If this state of things shall not come about, we shall see in the contest of 1896 this great body of independent voters returning to the Republican party, and giving it such a victory as it has not had since the war."

CONSIDERS THE SITUATION HOPEFUL.

JOHN M. LANGSTON, while reiterating his own unalterable Republicanism, recognizes in Mr. Cleveland a wise man, and a statesman of no mean ability, sagacious and vigilant in the interest of his party. From what he knows personally of the President-elect, and judging from his former administration, Mr. Langston is led to have great hope of him so far as the colored American is concerned, and believes “that no action of his, tending to advance and promote the general good of the country, will be wanting."

UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE. J. T. BUYS.

Translated and Condensed for THE LITERARY Digest from a Paper (75 pp.) in Gids, Amsterdam, December.

THE AUTHOR of this paper, formerly a member of the Lower House of Holland, and at present one of the leading political writers of that country, endeavors to prove that Universal Suffrage has everywhere tended to depreciate the value of the assemblies elected. He warns against the dangers which may result from giving too much power to such an assembly, and seeks to show that in the two model republics, the United States and Switzerland, the people place comparatively little confidence in their legislators.

He says that all nations have been compelled to adopt safeguards against the possible vagaries of their legislative bodies-safeguards which have been gradually increased both

in the United States and in Switzerland, and asks-regarding the suffrage movement in Holland

"Taking for granted that the 800,000 voters, which the proposed Bill would give us, succeed in creating a Parliament that would be a pure mirror of their political will and thought -does it follow that this Parliament will also have a programme which its majority will adopt and which its leaders are able to execute? What is the work of such an assembly? If, as in the German Reichstag, the representatives are only sent to lay before the Government the wishes and complaints of the people, and to ward off all laws which might be prejudicial to the welfare of the nation, then, indeed, we could not object to Universal Suffrage; it would not seriously affect the action of the Government. This would be very different were such an assembly to become a governing power." The writer then proceeds to an inquiry into the results of Universal Suffrage in the United States.

the power of

H result from the power

́OW, now, does America escape the dangers which may of the representatives? Nowhere have people greater reason to put this question than in the United States itself.

The results of Universal Suffrage justify in but a small degree the illusory hopes of those excellent men who at Philadelphia framed the Constitution.

True we cannot well speak of disappointment in reference to Universal Suffrage to-day. But it is only because the present generation no longer shares the high hopes of its ancestors.

An American would probably be very much astonished were we to ask him if the representatives at Washington can in any measure be said to picture the views of the American people. He would most likely reply that politics is simply a matter of business and money-making.

The foul play which is so closely bound up with the exercise of the right to vote, proves a most sorrowful fact prominent in the political life of the States; the fact being that the best, the purest, the most able and most advanced men more and more refrain from participating in the elections, because they will neither become victims nor accomplices of such foul play. And thus the very nation that has given the widest scope to selfgovernment, is least attracted by political questions.

A few months before the Presidential election this antipathy of course ceases. But it is mostly for personal reasons. It is the chance of their particular candidate which attracts the sport-loving Americans.

The daily papers do little to keep public attention fixed upon the actions of Congress. Their account of the proceedings is usually very short and of little importance. For the publicity of parliamentary sessions is nowhere so purely nominal as in the United States. Matters of importance are with few exceptions settled in secret sittings and committees.

Yet, the people are often unjust in their criticism of their representatives. Americans aver that their legislators stand as a body far below those of other nations. But this is only partially true, especially with regard to those who meet at Washington.

It is true that one will not find men of high culture among them, nor men of science and learning. But they are a more uniform body than the men who people European parliaments, and there cannot be pointed out such absolute nonentities as in the English House of Commons during the golden days of the "rotten boroughs." They are plain business men, certainly not wanting in common sense. The want of a higher type of men is very much felt, but many causes act together to make their presence impossible.

On account of the partition of the legislative and executive branches of the Government, Congress cannot become a school for statesmen. The highest offices are generally given to men who never were members of an assembly, or at least played but a secondary part in it. But there are causes still stronger than these, causes not established by law but by usage, yet so firmly established that they cannot be removed. Members are seldom elected more than twice. Thus men whose views

are broadened by a long term of service are an unknown quantity, and representatives are always elected from the inhabitants of their own district.

This may be quite right from an American point of view. These delegates are expected to look after the interest of the district, and who can do this better than a man who lives in it? But many districts are totally wanting in proper candidates; for in America, as everywhere else in the world, the elements most fitted for a good representation gather together in the larger cities. Out of all these talented persons only one can be chosen, the others are not eligible unless they change their residence.

The power of the House of Representatives is much less than that of the Lower House of any of our constitutional monarchies. In these the majority of the house becomes also the Government, and directs the administration. In the United States, the Ministry is altogether outside of the parliament.and does not even attend its meetings. The Cabinet is chosen by the President at his discretion, and its members are responsible to him alone for their actions.

It may be asked if this sharply-defined dualism of the executive and legislative powers does not weaken the State. But the public is not blind to the fact that the State must be a unit and obey but one will; and this will is centred in the people. themselves. We, the people of the United States"-these opening words of the Constitution define the sovereign power from which all authority is derived.

There are also some powerful weapons to prevent the House from rising to undue prominence. The strongest of these is the Senate, undoubtedly the most powerful Upper House in the world, for it rests upon as strong a basis as the lower Assembly. If the latter represent the people, and therefore individuals, the Senate represents States. The Union is just as much concerned for the independence of its States as for the national unity. The two Houses are entirely independent organs of the two great principles of the Union, that which gives the Lower House its greater influence in other parliaments, the fact that it directs the movements of the Government, is altogether wanting here, for this right belongs to neither of the assemblies. If either, the Senate has more weight not only because it has more influence in some of the departments, notably the foreign relations, but also because it is better organized.

Next to the control exercised by the Senate comes the supervision by the President, who can veto all resolutions and bills passed by Congress.

This is only the same right which is given to the ruler in constitutional monarchies, with the difference that it is but seldom used in the latter, while in the States it is regularly exercised, often with the extreme approbation of the people.

To all this must be added that the United States Supreme Court can set aside all laws which, in its opinion, are contrary to the Constitution—a right which is given nowhere else to a judiciary body.

Thus we see that the United States is well prepared to repel all arbitrary actions of the people's representatives, although, unfortunately, neither the President nor the courts use their power as much as could be wished.

NOW

THE FRENCH IN WEST AFRICA.
ARCHER P. CROUCH.

Condensed for THE LITERARY DIGEST from a Paper (14 pp.) in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, January. OW that the campaign of the French troops in Dahomey is at end, conjectures as to the fruits of that arduous undertaking naturally present themselves to consideration. General Dodds, the successful commander of the expedition, recommends that the whole of the coast-line, including the towns of Whydah, Grand Popo, and Kotonou, should be annexed by France, the rest of the country being divided up

into three territories under native chiefs, subject to French protection. The capitals of these districts would be Aboniey, Allada, and a town on the Ouémé river, and strong garrisons would be left in each of them. The French Government has approved of the first part of the scheme, and the coast towns are now being taken over. The question, however, of the occupation of the interior has been postponed, and not without reason. Dahomey is composed for the most part of malarious jungle and marshland, alternated with densely wooded forests. The oppressive moist heat is almost insupportable to Europeans, and scarcity of fresh water is a formidable difficulty. Its natural products are altogether insignificant, and offer no opening for European commerce. From such a country the French can hope to gain nothing in return for the lives and money they have expended, and the Government shows its discretion in refusing to entertain without further consideration the question of its annexation.

Whatever may be the future policy of the French with regard to the recent annexation of Dahomey, there is no doubt that in another portion of West Africa they have been adding to their territory year by year with a steady and unvarying success. Soudan Français, as they term a vast area of land watered by the Senegal and the upper reaches of the Niger, is the growth of a single decade. In 1880 a few isolated posts on the banks of the Senegal represented all the land possessed by them in this wide-reaching territory. The town of St. Louis itself, which is the centre from which both the colony of Senegambia and Soudan Français have sprung, is only of comparatively recent origin, and was not finally assured to France till 1817. From that date to 1854 St. Louis made but little progress. From 1860 to 1880 the French confined themselves to sending peaceful missions from St. Louis to explore the interior. By 1888 the line of posts between the Senegal and the Niger had been completed, while several towns on the upper reaches of the Niger above Bammako had been taken and fortified.

With the rapid growth of Soudan Français, St. Louis, the centre from which all this territory has been acquired, has increased proportionately, till she is now undoubtedly the best-built, and contains the most Europeans, of any town on the west coast of Africa. St. Louis stands on a small island or sand-bank, formed by two branches of the river Senegal, and is only a mile and a quarter long by a quarter of a mile broad. The population at present is said to be from 18,000 to 20,000 inhabitants. A bridge of boats connects St. Louis with the island of Sor, which a second bridge on piles puts into communication with the true southern bank of the river. It is in this island that the railway which runs between St. Louis and Dakar, lying about 100 miles south, just below Cape Verde, has its terminus. Dakar is the port of St. Louis-for only ships of very light draught can pass over the bar at the mouth of the Senegal; and the railway, which was completed in 1885, is of great importance to the capital. St. Louis has much more of the garrison town than the trading settlement in its appearance and composition. It is the depot from which the military stations throughout Soudan Français are supplied, and everything is made subservient to military interests.

The future of Soudan Français offers a large field for speculation. There is no reason, indeed, why the French should receive any serious check in their armed progress across Africa, as long as they are willing to pay the cost of their annual expeditions. So far as the supply of native soldiers is concerned, little difficulty is encountered, for during the campaign prisoners and slaves who have escaped from the enemy are incorporated in the regiment of tirailleurs. Ransomed slaves are also brought to St. Louis from the southern rivers and enrolled in the native corps, which now numbers some twenty companies. The territory actually under occupation by France includes the country watered by the Senegal, and also the upper reaches of the Niger from Segou almost to its source. But French influence extends from Soudan Français to French

possessions on the coast between Bathurst and Sierra Leone, and also to the settlement on the Gold and Slave coasts. A French explorer, the young Lieutenant Mizon, is now on a second expedition up the river Benue to Yola. His avowed object is to discover the possibility of winning over to France the country between the higher reaches of the Benue and Lake Tchad, so that an unbroken empire should extend from the banks of the Senegal to those of the Congo. But a portion of this territory is already under British influence; and the rest, by a treaty made between Germany and France, Dec. 24, 1884, was to be regarded by those two countries as neutral ground. The Temps, however, in support of Lieutenant Mizon, declares that this treaty possesses only a theoretical character.

But after all, is that vast tract of country which the French seem so eager to obtain worth the expenditure of the lives and money which its acquisition entails? If properly cultivated the land would no doubt yield a rich return, but the labor question is the great difficulty. A glance at the annual exports of St. Louis will show that they bear no proportion to the vast extent of the area from which they are drawn. In 1890 the total value of exports was £473,652, of which £300,000 represented the value of ground-nuts, and £120,000 of gum arabic.

MORE

SOCIOLOGICAL.

THE DEARNESS OF CHEAP LABOR.

́ORE than a century ago, Adam Smith declared that "the wages of labor are the encouragement of indusry, which, like every other human quality, improves in proportion to the encouragement it receives." His theory was whistled down the wind. The practical man would have none of it. It has, however, saved itself alive, and is now in the air everywhere. "The Dearness of Cheap Labor" is the title of an article in the Fortnightly Review for January, by David F. Schloss, who adduces a large array of evidence in support of the conclusion that high wages are not only compatible with a low cost of production, but by promoting the efficiency of the laborer, tend to economy in production. He cites the case of the coalminers in America, who receive double the wages received by their brethren in Belgium, while the labor-cost of each ton of coal is actually 8%1⁄2 per cent. in favor of the country employing dear labor. But the beneficial result of higher wages is more readily demonstrable in those industries in which the labor of the workmen admits of being aided by labor-saving contrivances. On this point he says:

'In most forms of modern industry, the abundant use of machinery, especially of machinery driven by motive-power, plays

and in this connection it is of to

sweating system is a necessity, would only erect proper factories. provided with improved machinery, run by steam-power, then, with suitable organization, they would find it perfectly feasible to sell their goods as cheap as ever, and yet to pay decent wages to their work-people. This is no wild hypothesis. It has been actually done at Leeds, where the factories pay good wages, and are still easily able to keep pace with the sweating dens' in the race for cheapness of production."

The writer next fortifies his position by arguments drawn from the great textile industries, his facts all tending to show that the best paid labor is the most profitable, and concludes with the assertion that—

Whatever the difficulties with which our manufacturers have to contend, the comparatively low rate of wages obtaining in other countries cannot be reckoned among the obstacles to the success of English enterprise. On the contrary, the higher remuneration which our work-people receive, accompanied, as the higher remuneration of labor invariably is, at once by the superior proficiency of the operatives, and by the superior efficiency of the methods of production, creates for English as well as for foreign industry advantages of the most precious character. Wanton indeed would be the folly which, by reducing the well-earned wages of our skillful and energetic work-people, would imperil the retention of these advantages. It is scarcely too much to say that the most serious danger which British trade has at this moment to encounter, arises from the improvement which is taking place on all sides in the position of the work-people in rival countries."

Similar conclusions are reached by Mr. E. R. L. Gould, of the Department of Labor, chief of the Commission appointed by the American Congress in 1888, to investigate the labor problem by an enquiry into the conditions of labor at home and abroad. In his report, which first appeared in pamphlet form in this country, and is now published in the current number of the Contemporary Review, he says:

"The real explanation I believe to be, that greater physical force as the result of better nourishment, in combination with superior intelligence and skill, make the workingman in the United States more efficient. His determination to maintain a high standard of life causes him to put forth greater effort, and this reacts to the benefit of his employer as well as to his own. The credit is due to the workingman himself who will not work for less than will enable him to live on a high social plane. That he can carry out his policy with but little disadvantage to his employer in economic competition teaches a lesson of far-reaching importance. Instead of a Ricardian régime, where the wages of labor become barely sufficient to permit a sustentation of effort and reproduction of kind, it looks as if, erelong, the world's industrial supremacy would pass to those who earn the most and live the best.'

COOPERATIVE INDUSTRY.

E. E. HALE.

Condensed for THE LITERARY DIGEST from a Paper (4 pp.) in

Cosmopolitan, New York, January.

NOÖPERATIVE industry is one of the possibilities which

ments constitutes a very potent means of keeping down the cost of production, nothing so strongly tends to promote the introduction of perfected machinery as the prevalence of high wages. So long as an employer can get his labor cheap,' he does not bother his head about labor-saving appliances. Thus it was only after the Gas Light and Coke Company had been obliged to concede the demand made by their men for the introduction of an eighthours' working-day, and had thereby incurred an extra expenditure in wages of £70,000 a year, that these employers thought of adopting machinery for the purpose of drawing and charging their retorts; nor until their coal-porters insisted on having their wages raised very considerably, did the Company begin to make use of mechanical appliances, which now enable them to get the work done at a rate lower even than what it had cost them before this demand for increased wages was made. There can be no question that the high remuneration of labor affords a most valuable stimulus to the energy and inventiveness of employers: while absolute and wasteful methods of production will be found to prevail where low wages are the rule.

"Of course, if one were to ask a wholesale tailor, who gets his garments made up under the 'sweating system,' he would say that the keenness of competition makes it out of the question that the workers should receive better pay than at present. But if the manufacturers who ask us to believe that the retention of the

everybody" would give a little more attention to details; for it is just in the detail that what is called coöperative industry has not yet won the visible success which is so clearly accorded to it in theory.

And yet there are certain lines of work in which it has succeeded, I may almost say perfectly and easily. The New England fishermen form a case in point, their achievements as coöperative associations have never been equaled by any nation engaged in this particular industry.

The whale-fishery is not what it was. Still, in the last five years, more than 1,500,000 gallons of oil were brought in from the ocean. Now, for two hundred years, every teaspoonful of this oil has been brought in by coöperative industry.

In the whale-fishery each man and each boy has an interest in the voyage. The common sailors' varies from 1/170 to 1/125. Boat steerers receive larger shares, and the captain and mate still larger.

If, when the New Englander was poor, he had engaged in manufacturing industries on a considerable scale, he would

probably have devised some such principle of profit-sharing for all who coöperated. Unfortunately the large manufactories of New England were copied from the mother-country and adopted the wages-system.

The question for our own time is whether the American system can be introduced in other industries than the fisheries.

It must be observed, that the whaler's plan and the plan of the fisheries do not involve an equal division of the profits of the voyage. The "lay" of the different seamen is proportioned to their skill, and the "lay" of the captain is the largest of all. Most important in all this is the fact, that there is a captain. New England, with all her democracy, has always understood that some one must take the command, somebody must lead; and no men are more amenable to discipline than those who know that, in good time, they, too, may be leaders. The great mistake, so far as I have observed, in all the paper plans for coöperative industry is, that they do not provide for this captain. They seem to suppose that a mill is to be run by a caucus, and to sell its goods as a caucus may decide. Mr. Weeden, in his "Social Law of Labor," is the only writer known to me who has in print thrown out the suggestion that in all these enterprises the existence of this captain, or skipper, is to be allowed for.

There is abundance of capital which the owners do not want to risk, and do not know how to employ profitably. They will take as low as three per cent. if they can place it absolutely without risk. The average socialistic writer then says: "Let the people who want to work, and know how to work, let them coöperate, let them use this capital, and pay the capitalist his three per cent."

They try to do this, and they fail. That is because they do not know how to adjust themselves to the conditions of the market. They do not know how to borrow money or how to spend it. They do not know how to place their goods on the market. This, as Mr. Weeden says, requires a Napoleon. This Napoleon is the man who stands between the capitalist," as he is called to-day, and the "workman," as he is called to-day. He is able to persuade the capitalist that he can use his money to advantage. He is able to take in hand the product of labor, and place it where the margin of profit shall be the largest. So far from trying to push this man out of sight, we should realize that he is the most essential factor in the enterprise..

It seems to me that the beginning which will certainly be made, will be made as it was in Nantucket for the whalefishery, or along the coast of New-England for the cod- and haddock-fishery. That is, a body of workmen will themselves combine; they will not attempt the folly of managing their affairs by a caucus, but will select some one of their own number, probably, in whom they have confidence, and give him so much annual salary, or such a share or "lay" as is proportioned to his special capacities.

Is it difficult to suppose that twenty workingmen, and twenty workingwomen, who know, for instance, the details of the manufacture of flannels, should associate themselves in a corporation to make flannels? They should draw out of the savings-bank an average of $200 apiece, and, with this capital of $8,000, they could go to work and rent a mill; appointing as leader one of their number whom they know to be honest, and gifted with the divine instinct for trade. Such a man would inspire confidence, and be able to rent a mill; and there is the beginning of one of Mr. Weeden's coöperative industrial companies. It is not a company on the Socialists' principle, because it recognizes and gives due importance to the captain, and gives him a larger share in the profits. At the same time it gives the energy, quickness, hopefulness, and enthusiasm to each individual among the workingmen, which adds so much

to success.

Coöperation in the buying and selling of goods has suc

ceeded. Coöperation in building houses has succeeded. When coöperation succeeds in manufacture, its success will come exactly as the Rochdale success came-that is, some few spirited men and women will begin. They will succeed. They will enlarge their operations, and then there will be larger success. I have no expectation that such success will come without fit recognition of the value of the captain.

A

PHASES OF ITALIAN LIFE.

Condensed for THE LITERARY DIGEST from a Paper (5 pp.) in
Leisure Hour, London, January.

PEOPLE on whom lie the various strata of ancient Roman superstition, of that and their Teuton invaders, of the vulgar religious beliefs of the Middle Ages, of the prejudices derived from nearly three centuries of diffused ignorance, must naturally retain a residuum of ancestral credulity; but this superstition, by reason of the clear sky and the mild climate under which they live, does not assume the mysterious and gloomy coloring of the folk-lore of the north. The Italian is not, and cannot be, a mystic. In Celtic Italy we sometimes meet with prejudices resembling those of the Loire, Switzerland, and Germany; they are born of mists and snows, and derived from the configuration of the land. Only last year a poor woman was beaten nearly to death at Milan because held to be a witch. During the last cholera epidemic, the old story of the “unction" reappeared, but it was in Genoa and not in Naples, the home of San Gennare's blood, of the jettatura, and other absurd ideas. In the south it now never enters into any person's head to revive this credence in the unholy origin of the disease.

The country has its own rural superstitions, while those of the towns are distinct. The Italian country (campagna) remains the ancient pagus, where the last idolators found refuge, hence the name pagan. Yet for all this, Italy's folk-lore is poorer than that of other lands.

Sicily is not the place where most folk-lore may be found, but where it has been most thoroughly studied, thanks to Professor Pittré, who has paid incomparable attention to the theme and studied it with loving activity.

The Italian people cannot be said to have any pet credulity, except that of interpretation of dreams for special application to the lotto. Under the name of Maffia, Cabala, or Seminary, there exists a booklet, also called the Book of Dreams, which is a characteristic type of the popular literature. It gives rules for the interpretation of any dream, or even of current events, from which are deduced certain numbers to be played in the public lotto. In Naples alone in one year 27,000 copies of this

book were sold.

This lotto is the scourge of the nation, and leads to great disasters. Unhappily, it brings into the National Treasury over 40,000,000 francs per annum. It has also taken such deep root, especially in the more imaginative, more idle, and more ignorant regions, that it would not be easy to abolish it at one fell swoop. It is scandalous to see how even the best newspapers will permit advertisements to appear of impossible promises concerning lucky numbers, which they will reveal in return for a consideration; and still more scandalous that Italian magistrates, so ready to condemn light offenses, have never yet prosecuted these men who sell chaff for wheat.

The Italian loves his family, and they accompany him to all his amusements. At the theatre, his favorite pastime, may often be seen the father, mother, children, and even the baby in arms, carried either by the mother or by the little maid-ofall-work, who goes also. This group is also frequently met with in the suburban hostelries, where, especially in summer, the family goes to sup economically, saving fire and fatigue, often eating nothing but five or six slices of watermelon. Theatres and restaurants are frequented by all Italians; both are low in price, fairly well appointed, and the company, though

The extremes of wealth and poverty do not exist in Italy, because the scanty riches are fairly distributed. This removes the bitterness apt to exist between the upper and lower classes, and disarms that jealousy which has often caused tumults and risings abroad.

The Italian woman has not yet taken her true working place in society. She is generally handsome, rarely corrupt in the strictest sense of the word, though by no means a moralist, fairly unselfish in her loves, which, when they are dishonest, she prefers to keep secret. At home she rules, outside she exerts no influence whatever. The political woman is as yet unborn. A few literary women exist, but among them are only one or two who rise above the average. The Italian woman is nearly always a good mother; even when a bad wife she follows impulse rather than reason in her actions, and this to a greater degree than her sisters in any other European nation. During the national uprising she was hopeful, but she remained humble, and never became ambitious. Madame Ratazzi, who tried to meddle in politics, had to desist. Outside her domestic circle the Italian woman does not work, except in the lower classes, and then she uses rather her physical than her intellectual strength. The business woman, like in France, is not met with except in Piedmont and Milan. The State has not been able to find woman other official employment than that of school-mistress in small communes, and of telegraph-clerk on a limited scale. Italian Freemasons have often discussed at meetings the emancipation of women, but as yet they have taken no active steps to further this end.

Working-Days in Various Countries.-The following figures, compiled by a Polish statistician, show the standard number of working-days per annum in various countries. The inhabitants of Central Russia, as might be expected, labour fewest days in the year, namely, 267. Then comes Canada, with 270, followed by Scotland with 275; England, 275; Portugal, 283; Russian Poland, 288; Spain, 290; Austria and the Russian Baltic Provinces, 295; Italy, 298; Bavaria, Belgium, Brazil, and Luxemburg, 300; Saxony, France, Finland, Würtemburg, Switzerland, Denmark, and Norway, 302; Sweden, 304; Prussia and Ireland, 305; United States, 306; Holland, 308; and Hungary, 312. It will be observed from this that while the Canadian working man has only to toil statutably 270 days out of 365, he frequently crosses the boundary-line into the United States, where he is expected to labour for 306 days. The Irishman and the Prussian are in the same category with 305 days, or 30 days more than the Englishman and the Scotsman.-Engineering, London, January 13.

Startling Statistics.-The Thirty-fifth Report of the Reformatory and Refuge Union states that in Great Britain and Ireland 145,000 persons are every year committed to prison as drunkards, of whom 112,000 are men and the rest women.

An English paper, from statistics taken from the press of the United Kingdom, reports the records of murders of women by inebriated husbands, since January 1, 1889, to January 1, 1891, to be 3,004.

In a late debate in the German Reichstag it was stated that there are at present 11,000 persons in hospitals and insaneasylums who are suffering from delirium tremens.

The police report states that the licensed houses in London, England, number 14,085, giving one to every 413 of the population.

Of the 30,000 criminals in German prisons, 14,000 were arrested for crimes committed under the influence of intoxicating drinks.-New York Medical Times, January.

BACON vs. SHAKESPEARE.
ANOTHER BRIEF FOR THE DEFENDANT.

PROFESSOR W. J. ROLFE.

Condensed for THE LITERARY DIGEST from a Paper (12 pp.) in Arena, Boston, January.

II.

THIS BRIEF by Professor Rolfe in behalf of the title of Shakespeare to the plays and poems which bear his name, was begun in THE LITERARY DIGEST for January 14 (Vol. VI., No. 11). Previous discussion of the subject may be found in Vol. V., Nos. 12, 15, 16, 20, and 25, and Vol. VI., Nos. 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.

SHA

HAKESPEARE'S use of his historical material is another striking illustration of his want of learning and literary training. In the Roman plays. for example, he draws his material almost exclusively from Plutarch. Bacon was familiar with Plutarch in the original Greek, and had he written the plays would have gone to the original, rather than to a translation of a translation (Sir Thomas North's Englishing of Bishop Amyot's French version); or if, for convenience, he resorted to a translation, he would at least have corrected the palpable misprints in North's book. Shakespeare was not familiar enough with Roman history to put " Decimus Brutus" in place of " Decius Brutus," or Calpurnia as the name of Cæsar's wife, instead of the impossible Latin form, Calphurnia. Bacon gives both these names correctly in a passage in his Essay on Friendship," which is quoted by Judge Holmes to illustrate the similarity in style between the essay and the play. Yet nothing can be clearer than the fact that the essayist knew what the playwright did not know. In I Henry IV. (i., 1, 71) the King speaks of

Mordake the Earl of Fife and eldest son

To beaten Douglas;

but he was not the son of Douglas, but of the Duke of Albany. Shakespeare was misled (as Bacon could not have been) by the accidental omission of a comma in the edition of Holinshed, which he followed.

Again, in Henry V. (i., 2, 56 fol.), he copies an arithmetical error from Holinshed without detecting it. Canterbury says: Nor did the French possess the Salic land Until four hundred one and twenty years After defunction of King Pharamond.

He proceeds to state that Pharamond died in the year 426, while it was not until the year 805 that Charlemagne conquered the Saxons and extended the French domain beyond the River Sala. But 426 from 805 leaves 379, not 421, as Holinshed and Shakespeare make it. A man of Bacon's training and habits could not make such repeated and preposterous mistakes, especially in history, where he was thoroughly at home.

"

I pass to a line of argument in which I believe I may claim to have been a pioneer in dealing with these Baconian heretics-the bearing of the folio of 1623 upon the question. Mr. Donnelly tells us that this first collection of the plays, published seven years after Shakespeare's death, was most elaborately revised and "doctored by that eminent dramatist, Francis Bacon, in order that it might preserve to coming generations the cryptogramic evidence that he, and not Shakespeare, was the author. The differences between the early quartos and the folio are said to be due to the revision of the plays by the author. Both Judge Holmes and Mrs. Potts lay much stress on this, and both give illustrations of the changes made, because of Bacon's increased knowledge and new interests."

Now, if we assume the folio to be just what it purports to be-a collection of plays made after the author's death by two