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CRIMINOLOGY:

A Psychological and Scientific Study of Criminals with Relation to Psychical and Physical Types, etc. By ARTHUR MAC DONALD, Specialist in Education as Related to the Abnormal and Weakling Classes, U. S. Bureau of Education, and U. S. Delegate to the International Society of Criminal Anthropology at Brussels, 1892, etc., etc. Introduction by Professor Cesare Lombroso of the University of Turin, Italy. In an Appendix is given an Extensive Bibliography of the Best Books on Crime, in the Several Languages. 12mo, Cloth, 350 pp, Price, $2.00. Post-free.

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HOURS WITH LIVING MEN AND WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION.

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A Psychological and Scientific Study of Criminals with Relation to Psychical and Physical Types, etc. By ARTHUR MAC DONALD, Specialist in Education as Related to the Abnormal and Weakling Classes, U. S. Bureau of Education, and U. S. Delegate to the International Society of Criminal Anthropology at Brussels, 1892, etc., etc. Introduction by Professor Cesare Lombroso of the University of Turin, Italy. In an Appendix is given an Extensive Bibliography of the Best Books on Crime, in the Several Languages. 12mo, Cloth, 350 pp, Price, $2.00. Post-free.

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Subscription price, $3.00 per year. Single Copies, 10 cents.

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OBSTRUCTION IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. VIEWED BY HENRY W. LUCY.

Condensed for THE LITERARY DIGEST from a Paper in

Strand Magazine, London, March.

T is thirteen years since a new Parliament started on its

I way with Mr. Gladstone sitting in the seat of the Premier.

Since March, 1880, a great deal has happened, not least, the change of circumstances under which the business of the House of Commons is conducted. The majority of the House of Commons may be Liberal or Conservative, but when presumptuous hands are stretched forth to touch the Ark of its procedure, its instincts are all Tory. Mr. Gladstone, driven to desperation in the second session of the Parliament of 1880-5,

endeavoured to reform procedure so that obstruction might be met on even terms, but he was met with such determined opposition that he succeeded only in tinkering the pot. Oddly enough, it was left for the Conservatives, when they came into office, to revolutionize the system upon which, through the ages, Parliamentary business had been carried on.

There was nothing in the reforms more startling to the old Parliamentarian than the proposal automatically to close debate at midnight. A dozen years ago, a debate carried on through several nights might appear to be approaching a conclusion. The Leader of the Opposition, rising between eleven o'clock and midnight, spoke in a crowded House. The Premier, or his Lieutenant, followed, assuming to wind up the debate. Members, wearied of the long sitting, were prepared to go forth to the Division lobby; when from below the gangway, on the left, there arose a familiar figure, and there was heard a wellknown voice.

These usually belonged to Mr. O'Donnell bent upon vindicating the right of a private member to interpose when the constituted authorities of the House had agreed in the opinion that a debate had been continued long enough. A roar of execration from the fagged legislators greeted the intruder. He expected this, and was in no degree perturbed. In earliest practice, he had a way of dropping his eye-glass as if startled by the uproar, and searched for it with puzzled, preoccupied expression, apparently debating with himself what this outburst might portend. He did not love the British House of Commons, but he knew what was due to it in the way of respect, and however angry passions might rise, however turbulent the scene, he would never address it, looking upon it with the naked eye. As his eye-glass was constantly tumbling out, and as search for it was preternaturally deliberate, it played an appreciable part in the prolongation of successive sessions.

The member for Dungarvan was, in his day, the most thoroughly disliked man in the House of Commons. The distaste for Mr. Parnell, and for Mr. Biggar in his early prime, was softened by contrast with Mr. O'Donnell's subtle provocation. He is gone now, but Mr. Seymour Keay and Mr. A. C. Morton continue his practices under greatly altered conditions. One of Mr. O'Donnell's famous achievements took place in the infancy of the Parliament of 1880-5, and apart from its dramatic interest is valuable as illustrating the change effected in parliamentary procedure by the New Rules. On that particular June night the paper was loaded with questions. Question No. 23 stood in the name of Mr. O'Donnell, and contained in his best literary style a serious indictment of M. ChallemelLacour, then just nominated by the French Government as their representative at the Court of St. James.

Sir Charles Dilke, the Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs, made categorical reply, directly traversing all the points in the indictment. When he resumed his seat, Mr. O'Donnell rose, in his usually deliberate manner, captured his eye-glass, and, having fixed it to his satisfaction, remarked, in his drawling voice, that it was "perfectly impossible to accept the explanation of the Government." Being interrupted with cries of "Order! Order!" he quietly played his trump-card: "If I am not allowed to explain,” he said, “I will conclude with a motion."

The House howled again, but it was a cry of despair. Mr. O'Donnell, they knew, had the whip-hand. Under the New Rules such obstructionists are easily disposed of, but in June, 1880, all the House could do was to roar with resentment. Mr.

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O'Donnell was used to this incentive. He produced a pockethandkerchief, took down his eye-glass and carefully polished it while members yelled and tossed about in their seats with impotent fury. There was no closure in those days, and Mr. Gladstone, after a hurried consultation with Sir Erskine May, hastily moved that Mr. O'Donnell be not heard. Then followed a scene of extraordinary tumult, and it was not until one o'clock of the following morning that Mr. O'Donnell, grateful for a pleasant evening, was good enough to state that before he recurred to the question he would give due notice. After an eight hours' wrangle, the Speaker called the next question on the paper, No. 24.

The House proved, however, capable of dealing with Mr. O'Donnell, and it must be a consolation to him in his retirement that it was he who directly brought about the appointment of the Parnell Commission with all it effected.

It is the same with others of less strongly marked character. Vanity or garrulity may force, a new member into a position of notoriety. He may, according to his measure of determination, try a fall again and again with the House, and may sometimes, as in the case of Mr. O'Donnell, seem to win. But

in the end the House of Commons proves victorious. It is a sort of whetstone on which blades of various temper operate. In time they either forego the practice or wear themselves away. In either case the whetstone remains.

BIENNIAL ELECTIONS AND LEGISLATIVE SESSIONS. RAYMOND L. BRIDGMAN.

MA

Condensed for THE LITERARY DIGEST from a Paper in

New England Magazine, Boston, April.

ANY people would have both State elections and legislative sessions biennial. Others would prefer biennial elections and annual legislative sessions. I believe that both of the proposed changes-in many States they are, of course, effected changes-would be unwise, and would work to the serious injury of the State. Having once thought otherwise, and been compelled, in candor, to change my views because of increased familiarity with facts as they are to be observed at the State House and in State politics; having also had better facilities for observation than most people, it may be pertinent to set forth the reasons for my conclusions.

The demand for biennial sessions is based on the belief that the Legislature spends much time foolishly, that the sessions are needlessly long and expensive, that it is unwise to keep up a constant tinkering of the laws, that business suffers by frequent disturbance of the laws, that lawyers protest against constant revision, and the common people cannot keep up with the new legislation, that many “cranky" matters are introduced, and, in short, that the real needs of the State would be amply served by a session once in two years, to the great relief of the apprehension of the people, and the saving of their money.

It is beyond dispute that there is need of reform in legislative methods, and that some of the popular criticism is richly deserved. But the reform does not lie in the direction of less frequent sessions.

The history of Massachusetts, at least in recent years, proves beyond question that the necessary course is not in less frequent attention to the needs of the State, but rather in more faithful watchfulness over them. It is every year more evident that the growth of the State demands frequent opportunities for adjustment, for adaptation of the laws to the rapidly developing needs of the times. In the face of the alleged popular demand for less frequent sessions, legislation grows in quantity and the future holds no prospect of any diminution. The fact that people bring enough business to the Legislature for a long annual session, shows how they practise their theories. They demand biennials, but they must have annuals.

The impression that old questions form the main business

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of the Legislature year after year, rests on a very narrow basis. Taking out the questions which require an agitation of two or three years for their settlement, but which mark a real development, there is nothing of consequence left as a basis for the: charge that each legislature merely works over the old business of its predecessor. There is now only one "hardy annual” at the State House, except biennials, and that is Woman Suf-frage. Many advance movements which have encountered serious obstacles have finally achieved success. Woman Suf-frage only stands where it did twenty years ago. This may be contemptuously classed as rubbish "; but it has the support. of Henry L. Dawes, George F. Hoar, and distinguished men and women of the State in numbers sufficient to prove that. the success of a petition before the Legislature is not the only indication of the intellectual calibre or general good sense of the petitioners. In the esteem of the great corporations, the demands for an Employers' Liability Law and for weekly payments of wages were at first "rubbish," and they were so treated by successive Legislatures. Years of earnest agitation were necessary to give them a standing in the Great and General Court. Yet those years were a period of growth, of develop-ment in the State, and what was at first believed to be "rub-bish," was found to be not only good sense, but a positive benefit to a large class of people.

It is urged that there is too much special legislation; that general laws ought to be passed that would obviate the necessity of special laws. Certainly; but the criticism fails to perceive that special Acts must often precede general Acts.

A study of the business of the courts of the State reveals an immense increase in its volume. As it is with these courts, from the Supreme to the lowest, so it is with the Great. and General Court. The pressure which is felt at every county seat, is felt most of all at the State House. Yet in this court, which makes the laws which control the other courts, it. is proposed to cut down the number of sessions by one-half, and into that half to crowd the accumulations of two years. and to tell the people to make the best of it they can. The proposition is ridiculous, and it only needs this comparison with the other court business to show how little real attention can have been given to the matter by the friends of biennial sessions. Their opponents might rest their entire case on this. argument alone, if the facts were fully understood by the people.

A weighty reason for annual sessions, as well as for annual elections, is that the people should keep nearer their representatives than is possible by a biennial session. The quality of legislation is affected by the sense of nearness, and annual accountability. Not only would there be a higher plane of legislative morality in a body elected every year, but the needs of the people would receive more prompt and immediate attention. Members are elected with some reference to local and current issues.

The objection on account of the greater expense of annual sessions is not to be considered for a moment in comparison with the good to be obtained by prompt attention to the wants of the people.

To sum up: the objections to annual sessions are founded upon mistaken beliefs as to facts and upon a conservatism which fails to recognize the growth of the community.

The objections to annual elections are summarized as follows by the Hon. Henry L. Pierce, in his argument before the Legislative Committee on constitutional amendments:

The admitted evils of the present system, concisely stated, are, first, incessant political agitation; second, overmuch legislation; third, instability and uncertainty in the laws; fourth, unnecessary and wasteful expenditure of money.

The second of these objections has already been considered herein; the third objection has also been answered. The fourth objection and the first may be considered together. It is true that money will be wastefully spent in annual elections;

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