leadership of the minority, and his ascendancy over the House was such as no other man has maintained in recent years.

The latter part of his legislative life was spent in the Senate from 1876 to 1881, where he took an active and influential part and proved himself the peer of his associates, not only as a party leader and legislator, but also as a constitutional lawyer.

Mr. Blaine was always sound in financial matters. In the House he vigorously opposed paying the public debt in greenbacks, and urged the resumption of specie payments. In the Senate he resisted the policy embodied in the Bland Bill. He was a bimetallist, but would have none but an honest dollar, each standard so adjusted as to bear its just proportion to the other.

The second, and if possible the more important era in Blaine's career dates from the time when, as Garfield's Secretary of State, he showed his ability to deal with nations as before he had controlled men. At the helm of the diplomacy of the nation during two administrations, he gained an unsurpassed reputation as a diplomatist. Without loss of prestige to the nation, he solved the Fisheries question after his predecessor, an able man, had proved his inability to cope with it. He extricated us honorably from several awkward, complicated situations; and not only won the admiration of Americans, but has, it is said, been termed by foreigners the greatest Secretary of State this country has ever had. It was during this epoch of his political life that his enlarged ideas and plans for the greatness of our land shone with their full radiance. It was well said of him in the last years of his public service, that his mind was so concentrated upon his work, upon dreams of favor and honor for his country, that personalities became small in his sight except as means to an end.

Whatever he had possessed of the politician while a member of Congress, had ripened into the broad-minded, far-seeing statesman; and when failing health and exhausted frame obliged him to lay down his office, the people with one voice paid tribute to his greatness.

What has James G. Blaine's life taught the people of this country? We can read the secret of his power, first, in his ready interest and sympathy in whatever pertained to all persons with whom he was brought into contact, thus making them his friends and endearing them to himself. Second, there burned within his great heart the divine spark of patriotism with marvelous brightness. The people recognized that in the love of country, which was his one energizing force, there was contained an intense desire for the welfare of every one of them; and in compelling recognition of this quality lay Blaine's power of swaying the nation to sympathy with himself.

His example teaches that party success is desirable only as it subserves the interests of our fellow citizens. He instilled into the youth of the land a national feeling. He educated them to the thought that the aim of each should be the glory of his native land. Future writers can give Blaine no truer name than "The Patriot Statesman."

It, perhaps, cannot be claimed for Blaine that his fame will endure through many generations or that he will be one of our more permanent historic characters. His name is not identified with any great measure or system like that of Hamilton, nor with any school of political philosophy like that of Jefferson. Perhaps he will stand most conspicuous as a leader of men.

There is one enduring monument to his fame reflecting the true character of the man and his educating influence upon the country. With a literary ability seldom equaled even among distinctly literary men, and an impartiality and fairness in the treatment of opponents which would rebuke many wellknown historians, he gave to the public, in his "Twenty Years of Congress," a work which is authority on the period it covers. Subordinating his own part in the events of which he treats, Blaine, the author, in his discussion of great questions, preserves a neutrality which would do honor to a man who had taken no part in the hotly-contested battles of Congress; he presents to the world a book which, in the thorough treatment of problems of the epoch, possesses the rare merit of combining the function of the historian with the profound insight of the statesman.

THE

THE OLD IRISH PARLIAMENT.
Condensed for THE LITERARY DIGEST from a Paper in

All the Year Round, London, March.

HE old Parliament House in Dublin is still standing on College Green, its graceful classic columns relieving. the dark and heavy façades of the adjacent building of Trinity. College. Though the Parliament itself ceased to exist with the beginning of the present century, should any of its old members obtain leave to visit once more these glimpses of the moon, he would find himself fairly well at home in the precincts of the house, while he would not be startled out of his ghostly propriety by any marvelous changes in the general aspect of the Irish metropolis. Like the enchanted palace in the fairy-tale, the city seems to have enjoyed a hundred years' trance, troubled, perhaps, now and then by uneasy dreams, The scene is all there ready to be repeopled with actors that once graced the stage.

Fill the gallery with the beauty, rank, and fashion of the old Irish kingdom; remove the desks, the money-changers, the ledgers, and replace them with rows upon rows of benches, rising amphitheatre-wise, and crowded with eager Members of the House, all in full tenue, with powdered heads. The Speaker sits in his canopied chair with all the dignity of the first gentleman of Ireland; in front are the clerks at their tables within the gilded rails, where lies the massive gilded mace.

Now a thrill runs through the assemblage; all eyes are turned to the floor of the House; the ladies lean eagerly for ward pervading the whole House with the charm of their presence; the Speaker's sonorous voice is heard, and in response there steps forward a slight, bowed figure, with a rather wizened face, and dressed in the uniform of a volunteer of '82. It is Henry Grattan, and the House rises at, him and drowns his opening words in the enthusiasm of its greeting.

Such a moment was that of the famous declaration by Henry Grattan of the independence of the Irish Legislature in 1782, when the Parliament reached its culminating point in power and influence. Among its members, distinguished for wit and brilliancy in debate, was John Philpot Curran, the delight of the Irish Bar; yet singularly mean and sottish-looking, and a sloven among associates distinguished by their ele gant manners and foppish exteriors. But when he opened his lips, all this was forgotten, and few ventured to measure wits with him in debate, so keen was his sarcasm, and so ready the retort that covered his adversary with confusion. Yet the great wit, towering in his pride of place, was once brought down by a humble mousing-hawk in the shape of Sir Boyle Roche.

'Sure, Mr. Speaker," said Sir Boyle on the occasion that made him famous, "how could a man be in two places at once -unless he were a bird?"

Sir Boyle is no mere creation of legend. He was a real, living man, a fine bluff, soldier-like old gentleman, holding some post at the Viceregal Court, sitting for a Government borough, and always voting faithfully for the "Castle." The debate one night was on sinecures which Curran had indignantly denounced; and twitted by one of the opposite side on some personal inconsistency in the matter, he replied hotly: 'Sir, I am the guardian of my own honor." To which Sir Boyle neatly replied:

"Then the gentleman has got a very pretty sinecure." As Catholics were excluded to the last, the House could hardly claim a representative character. Yet it did, to a greater degree than might have been expected, represent the country, its feelings, its emotions, and aspirations, and it represented still more strongly the characteristics of the Irish gentleman of the period. Never was such a time of feasting and jollification as in the palmy days of the old Irish Parliament. The county elections were a continued scene of fighting, fun, and revelry. It is one continuous Donnybrook Fair, and the county elector,

with a good coat on his back, and money clinking in his pocket, Steps into a tent just to spend half-a-crown,

Steps out, meets a friend, and for joy knocks him down With his sprig of shillalah and shamrock so green. With the same gayety of heart the gentlemen fought their battles with more deadly weapons.

At that time duelling was a recognized part of the social code. The "thirty-six commandments" arranged by the gentlemen of Galway, formed a complete set of rules on all the punctilios of the duello. According to the printed rules of Galway, seconds, if desirous, may exchange shots at right angles to their principals.

But when the elections had been fought out, and the consequent duels, it was with joyous anticipations that the newly-elected member took his departure for the opening of Parlia.ment in Dublin, generally in a chariot drawn by six horses.

But the last hours of the old Irish Parliament were approaching. The House hardly numbered a majority against the Union. The first day of the session was at hand; the Bill of Union would be brought in, and only feeble voices would be brought against it. Happily, there was a vacancy for Wexford; and Grattan, elected by a coup-de-main, rose from a sick bed, and, being carried into the House by two friends, his old spirit revived as he found himself in the scene of his old triumphs. He delivered an impassioned oration against the Union. Hearts were moved, enthusiasm was excited, the Government began to fear for its majority.

But Lord Castlereagh held his majority together by stronger ties than those of enthusiasm, and the division showed the .decisive majority of one hundred and fifty-eight against one hundred and fifteen for the Union. The last scene of all was passed before almost empty benches, and the Speaker's voice was heard for the last time in the Irish House of Commons when he pronounced the Bill read a third time, and passed.

FRO

A THEORY OF SMOKING.
H. BOULT.

Condensed for THE LITERARY DIGEST from a Paper in The Gentleman's Magazine, London, April. ROM the moment of its introduction by Sir Walter Raleigh, tobacco in some form has been the favorite narcotic of Europe, and every form has been more or less injurious. The quid, the snuff-box, the pipe, the cigar, the cigarette-each embodies a phase of error. Tobacco consists of the leaves and stalk of a plant charged with an aroma, purifying, sustaining, exhilarating, and fragrant to the human being. Like the aroma of a rose this aroma should be inhaled, in the form of a cool vapor, by the human nose. The chewer uses the tobacco at the right temperature, but in the wrong 'form, and puts it into the wrong place. The snuffer reduces the leaves and stalks to powder and puts it up his nose. He uses the tobacco at the right temperature, and puts it into the right place, but in the wrong form. The cigar-smoker gets the tobacco into the right form, but puts it at a wrong tem¿perature into a wrong place. The cigarette-smoker blends paper with the tobacco. The pipe-smoker puts his tobacco into a receptacle which is used for an indefinite time, is very diffiult to clean, and tends to produce cancer of the tongue and lips.

Moreover, in all forms of smoking, the tobacco becomes saturated with the smoker's breath. This seems to be almost poisonous. It is this which causes the lower half of a smoked cigar, if left on the table for a few hours, to become indescribably rank; it is this which makes the smoke of tobacco in a foul pipe noxious, and the smoke of tobacco not pressed down to the bottom of a clean bowl, nauseous even to the smoker himself. For wholesome smoking, the lower half of the cigar or cigarette should be thrown away; the pipe-bowl should be kept as clean as the stem, the tobacco pressed well down in it, and the contents, when three-quarters have been consumed,

shaken out. All the injury to the smoker will then arise from the red-hot smoke, ashes, and dirt with which he plasters his mouth, throat, and stomach.

A child What is

Nature protests as best she may against this varied abuse of her bounty, she tweaks the incipient sufferer's nose with endless "magnificent sneezes." She weakens the cigar-smoker's heart, and sometimes threatens him with paralysis; she inflicts cancer of the lips and tongue upon the pipe-smoker. who sucks a fcul pipe she sometimes strikes dead. the lesson she is trying to teach? What is the right mode of using her delightful gift? Obviously to reduce it to vapor, to cool the vapor, and to apply the cool vapor to the nose. For this end a combination of the hookah and Rummel's odorator is all that is needed.

In the United States the cognate idea was recently suggested of manufacturing pure tobacco smoke and distributing it like gas. If this idea were carried out the air of hospitals, theatres, law-courts, churches, sick-rooms would cease to be poisonous, and would become fragrant and exhilarating. Smoke would supersede scent in Romish chapels, and stuffiness in Protestant churches. Indignant ladies might even be found complaining that the pew, the opera-box, or the railwaycarriage was not pervaded enough by the deodorizer. To be sure it would be a shocking thing.

The Game of Wei-Chi.-At a meeting in Shanghai of the Chinese branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, M. Volpicelli read a paper on the game of Wei-chi, the greatest game of the Chinese, especially with the literary class, and ranked by them superior to chess. Like chess, this game is of a general military and mathematical character, but is on a much more extended scale, the board containing 361 places and employing nearly 200 men on a side. All of the men, however, have the same value and powers.

The object is to command as many places on the board as possible this may be done by inclosing empty spaces, or surrounding the enemy's men. Very close calculation is always essential in order that a loss in one region may be met by gains in another, thus employing skillful strategy when the contestants are evenly matched. The game has come down from great antiquity, being first mentioned in Chinese writing about 625 B.C. It was in all probability introduced by the Babylonian astronomers, who were at that time instructors of all the East. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1893.

What a Baby Is. Did you ever try to formulate your exact opinion of a baby-not your own baby, but the tiny morsel in the abstract? A London paper offered a prize of ten dollars for the best definition. Here are some of those sent in, the last of which won the prize:

The bachelor's horror, the mother's treasure, and the despotic tyrant of the most republican household.

The morning caller, noon-day crawler, midnight brawler. The only precious possession that never excites envy. The latest edition of humanity of which every couple think they possess the finest copy.

A native of all countries who speaks the language of none. About twenty-two inches of coo and wiggle, writhe and scream, filled with suction and testing apparatus for milk, and automatic alarm to regulate supply.

A quaint little craft called Innocence and laden with simplicity and love.

A thing we are expected to kiss and look as if we enjoyed it. A little stranger with a free pass to the heart's best affections.

That which makes home happier, love stronger, patience greater, hands busier, nights longer, days shorter, purses lighter, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten, the future brighter.

A tiny feather from the wing of love, dropped into the sacred lap of motherhood.—Munsey's Magazine, New York, April,

BOOKS AND BOOK-WRITERS.

THE

EDWIN ARNOLD AS DRAMATIST.

HE Athenæum, of London, deals more tenderly with Edwin Arnold's new four-act drama* than The Critic of New York deals with it. The latter, after a clever but satirical recital of the plot, closes as follows:

"To the wide circle of Sir Edwin Arnold's admirers this volume will be as dear as the dust of the rose's heart is to the perfume-seller. Regarded as poetry, it is dear to us at $1.50. This is not a review of the book. It is an appreciation.'

"

The Athenæum seems, on the contrary, quite carried away with the story of the drama, though by no means carried away with the treatment given it by Mr. Arnold. It says:

"This true story of the old Japan' is, as a story, singularly fine; so full, indeed, in itself of tragic import that it requires for its due handling a master of tragic writing, and that Sir Edwin Arnold assuredly is not. The story might almost be called a Japanese 'Othello,' with variations in the manner of 'Le Roi s'amuse.' It tells how Adzuma, the true wife of Wataru, a Japanese nobleman, gave her life for the sake of her honor-for the very ideal of honor, thinking life unbearable if her chastity should be so much as suspected. Caught in the toils of villainy, and seeing no way to escape suspicion, she bids her lover, if he would have his way with her, first kill her husband, and so takes the husband's place and dies in his stead, for the sake of his peace. The story-in its exaggerated nobility of sentiment, its romantic extravagance of devotion, with its opportunities for the finest kind of melodrama, for a wronged and spotless heroine, a villain scheming with destiny against innocence-would certainly have tempted the dramatists of the age of Elizabeth had they known of it. And we can imagine with what fluid pathos it would have been treated by Fletcher in the romantic spirit, and with what keen literalness Ford would have presented to us the hard and bare outline of a stony grief. Victor Hugo alone, in our days, might have done it justice; in his hands the pity of it would have become terrible, heartrending, intolerable. Sir Edwin Arnold has approached this great tragic motive in the idyllic spirit; he has attempted to render it in the gentle meandering verse of The Light of Asia,' or rather in a manner which does but attempt variations upon that; and he has succeeded in presenting to us so moving a story without once moving us-whether to pity of the faultless wife, of the noble husband in his despair, or of the not ignoble inurderer in his remorse."

A

.

ITALIAN INDEPENDENCE.

CAREFUL review of William Roscoe Thayer's new workt appears in The Tribune of Chicago. The following extracts indicate the nature of the book and the critic's estimate of it:

"The drama of Italian emancipation divides itself naturally into five acts. The first act embraces the Carbonari insurrections of 1820-21; the second act ends at Novara; Magenta, Solferino, and the expedition of the One Thousand are among the stirring scenes of Act III.; the fourth act closes with the liberation of Venice, and the fifth with the consummation of Italian unity. Only Acts I. and II. are included by Mr. Thayer in these two volumes. He describes the aspirations of Italy, her struggles, and her crushing defeat; he does not show us the renewal of the strife, the successive victories and final triumph of the good cause. One hopes that he will not rest satisfied here, but will paint the glorious morning as well as the gloomy' dawn of Italian independence.'

"Over a hundred pages of the first volume are devoted to a retrospect of Italian history prior to the Congress of Vienna in 1815. Why was it that Italy, the first country to revive from the torpor of the dark ages, did not revive as a nation? Three causes,' says Mr. Thayer, opposed the tendency to a national union in Italy and doomed her to a thousend years of thralldom, discord, and shame; these were, first, the papacy, which, in spite of its Italian origin and methods, strove to extend its sway over Christendom instead of confining itself to the peninsula; second, the empire, whose head, a foreigner, being the nominal King of Italy, brooked no native rival; and, third, the astonishingly rapid development of small States from the Alps to Sicily. The French Revolution brought new forces into play. Napoleon, himself an Italian, galloped down into Italy, swept the armies of Austria before him, appealed to the Italians to strike for freedom, promised them independence, and then, caught in a frenzy of selfish ambition, he broke his promise and made Italy an appendage of his empire.' But incessant campaigns and the military conscription not only made the Italians fighters-between 1796 and 1814 Italy furnished 360,000 soldiers to the Imperial armies-but also broke down

*"Adzuma; or, the Japanese Wife." A Play in Four Acts. By Sir Edwin Arnold. Scribners.

+"The Dawn of Italian Independence." By William Roscoe Thayer. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, & Co.

provincial barriers and encouraged national spirit. It was something to fight for the Kingdom of Italy, though that kingdom had a foreign sovereign. The Lombard who marched side by side with the Romagnole or the Neapolitan felt that they came of the same kindred and had interests in common. Above all, Italy learned that her petty princes, and even the Pope himself, whom they had regarded as necessary and incurable evils, could be ousted by a strong hand. In spite of certain faults, his book is as powerful as it is picturesque. He is not always impartial, we think; his language is too violent and sarcastic at times and in style also he shows a lack of restraint. These faults are redeemed by his marked individuality as a writer, by his ardent sympathy for the patriotic cause, and his generous wrath at the wrongs inflicted on Italy by foreign oppressors.

A review in The Times, New York, also expresses the hope that Mr. Thayer will supplement his work with later volumes following the "dawn" of Italian independence down to the noonday. The following is an extract from The Times's review:

"Mr. Thayer's style is always vivacious and picturesque, and often eloquent. It has faults, among them being that of pursuing even trite metaphors through many successive sentences. But there is a plenty of vigor and enthusiasm, and a plenty of epigram and go' in the story, with no dullness anywhere. He says at one point in his work: 'I am not one of those historians whose self-confidence suffices, in the lack of an authentic clue, to guide them through the labyrinth of dark and tortuous events.' And again he tells us that the supreme value of history depends upon the truthfulness with which it traces the great currents of human life rather than upon its ability to explain why some particular eddy or ripple disturbs the surface of the stream at a given point.' It will be seen, therefore, that our author has

views of his own as to how history has been and should be written, while care in presenting Italian authorities for his assertions and opinions is evident at every point."

SPELLING REFORM IN FRENCH.

PROFESSOR F. MAX MÜLLER, in The Contemporary Review,

April, comments upon the fact that a committee appointed by the French Academy, “which,” he says, "in literary matters is not less dictatorial than Bismarck himself," has reported in favor of a number of spelling reforms to be introduced in the next edition of its famous dictionary.* Hyphens are to be abolished in such compounds as eau-de-vie, likewise the apostrophe in such words as entr'aides. Foreign words, such as break and spleen, are to be written brec and spline. Latin plurals like errata are to take an s, as erratas. Ph is to become ƒ, and in plurals x is to be changed to s." The Professor thinks that this "premier pas" will cost the Academy a great deal of trouble.

a

more

"Bismarck (in the spelling reform in Germany) was able to say, so far and no farther'; but in a republic the large number of spelling reformers, now that they have tasted blood, will not be satisfied till they get great deal than such small concessions. Spelling reform is one of those questions where the argument is all on one side, but the heavy weight of unreasoning authority all on the other. The supporters of the Fonetik Nuz in England have been indefatigable, but they are not popular, and what results can they show except here and there a newspaper venturing to spell program instead of programme; or committing itself to the etymological anchronism of writing honor instead of honour. We wish every success to the spelling reformers of France. The reforms which they propose at present are certainly very moderate and reasonable. But no nation is more sensitive to what is pedantic and awkward than the French, and it is not likely that they will ever tolerate such words as filosofie and téologie.”

I'

A SEARCH FOR A RELIGION.

T is doubtful if the theosophic" fact " will gain much progress from the report which Edward Carpenter brings us of the teachings of its high-priests in India. His book, "From Adam's Peak to Elephanta," is spoken of as follows in The Arena:

"This book, as a mere record of travel, would have its own value. That it is far beyond this arises from the fact that it is a serious, patient, and judicial attempt, first to learn, and then clearly to expound, the fundamental conceptions of Hindu philosophy.

are discredited, Christianity declined as any satisfactory substitute, and agnosticism the portion of most of the younger generation. The author disclaims ability to sum up conclusions for so enormous a country with its myriad shades of faith; but it is evident at once that he succeeded singularly well in getting at the genuine attitude of both the doubters and the faithful."

The Evening Post speaks of the book as more instructive and withal entertalning than many more voluminous and pretentious volumes." The author's endeavors to obtain theosophist truth are thus described in The Post's review:

"Mr. Carpenter went to the Orient in search for a religion. He encountered one sage of India who might have been a descendant from the Gymnosophist of whom Alexander inquired how a man might become a god. At all events, this Guru, or Illuminated Master, so impressed the traveler that he sat for weeks at his feet, though he had found nothing to reverence in Christendom. The seer was as affable as the archangel to Adam, ' only requiring a question to launch off into a long discourse-fluent and even rapt for an hour or two.' This was the more remarkable because his speech was an unknown tongue to his English disciple, who could not even count in Tamil. Thanks, however, to an interpreter, Mr. Carpenter gathered enough of the hidden manna to fill several chapters of his book. The aspiration of the Gnanis, or Theosophists, is to a new order of consciousness-cosmic-universal-passing into ecstasy. Among the methods of attaining to this exaltation of one vere adeptus, who 'swims into identity with the universe,' are self-torture, Pythagorean silence for years, repeating the same word for days together, fixing attention for as long a period on his own breathing, effacement of all thought, and at last of every desire. These austerities gave the English inquirer no great shock. But hearing that the fault is in the stars and not in ourselves if we are underlings, that copper may be turned into gold, and that the earth is flat, the sun at night hiding behind Mount Meru, he could not repress some skeptical doubts. The only answer he got was 'These things are so, such has been the tradition from a time beyond all memory. They cannot be spoken against.' Mr. Carpenter had a similar experience at the temple of Tangore. When a priest told him that the temple never casts any shadow, he said: Why, we are now walking in its shadow, and would be sunstruck if we did not.' The answer in substance was, 'We must never trust to our senses when they run counter to tradition. They may delude; it cannot.' On the whole the religious pilgrimage of Mr. Carpenter was less successful than that of the Magi. He was, indeed, deeply impressed by the sincerity, earnestness, and whole personality of his great master, the Guru Ramaswamy, yet was not ready to do him homage with gold, frankincense, and myrrh. The only missionaries he notices were the Salvationists, and these he admired greatly."

IN

RECOLLECTIONS OF TOLSTOÏ.

N The Academy, London, James Ashcroft Noble reviews, in an appreciative vein, the new book* by C. A. Behrs, Count Tolstoi's brother-in-law.

He says:

"Mr. Ruskin has frequently said that he has written nothing that he would object to see published; Count Tolstof has more than once justified beforehand the existence of a work like the present by declaring to his biographer, 'I have nothing to hide from any one in the world-all may know what I do.' Indeed, the world can hardly fail to be better for knowing all that is to be known about a life characterized by such instinctive simplicity, such dominating selflessness, such uncompromising practical loyalty to every ideal seen to be lovely and of good report. It is clear, too, that Tolstof has the saving common sense the lack of which is the one defect by which idealism in everyday life is generally discredited. Mr. Behr's sketch of the happy family life of Count Tolstof, full as it is of delightful homely detail, would in itself suffice to give to his record an almost unique charm, so natural is it, so simple, and yet, because perfectly instinctive, so unstrained and winning in its simplicity. It would be pleasant to give illustrative quotations, but brief extracts such as could be made here would give no adequate idea of the attractive naïveté of both theme and treatment. The book is one to be read, not to be sampled; and no one who reads it will fail to feel that we have at least one living man of genius whose life and work are in beautiful and satisfyIng accord."

NOTES AND OPINIONS.

ALPHONSE DAUDET is reported to have said that a New York publisher recently offered him the editorship of a magazine "to be backed by one million dollars capital," and that he "declined this very flattering proposal." To get a French writer to be an American editor was a bold thought, but it was the boldness of those who rush in where angels fear to tread.-The Critic.

SINCE his death [M. Taine's] new proofs have accumulated of his freedom from that rage for exhibiting themselves which makes so

* "Recollections of Count Leo Tolstol." By C. A. Behrs. Translated from the Russian by Charles Edward Turner, English Lecturer at St. Petersburg.

many of our notabilities uneasy when not in the focus of the public gaze. He had long kept a diary, in which he was in the habit of writing down every day, for his own eye, his impressions of the men and events of his time. This he committed bodily to the flames a few days before his death. What a waste! It must have contained material for wrecking a dozen reputations, for inflicting exquisite torture upon the families of a score of his contemporaries. Was there no Froude by to pluck such precious brands from the burning?—The Nation.

Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther. Walter F. Adeney, M. A., Prof. New-Testament Exegesis and Church History, New College, London. A. C. Armstrong & Son. Cloth, $1.50. This is the sixth volume of the sixth series of The Expositor's Bible. Edited by the Rev. W. Robertson Nicoll, M.A., LL.D., Editor of The Expositor.

Gospel of the Kingdom. A Popular Exposition of the Gospel According to Matthew. C. H. Spurgeon. With Introductory Note by Mrs. C. H. Spurgeon, and an Introduction to the American Edition by Arthur T. Pierson. Baker & Taylor Co. Cloth, $1.50. Spurgeon's last work.

Greek Poets and English Verse. W. H. Appleton. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co., Boston. Cloth, $1.50.

Greeley on Lincoln. With Mr. Greeley's Letters to Charles A. Dana and a Lady Friend. To which are added Reminiscences of Horace Greeley. Edited by Joel Benton. Baker & Taylor Co. Cloth, $1.25.

Horatian Echoes. Clara Louise Burnham. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co., Boston. Cloth, $1.50. Poetry.

Individuality, Philosophy of. Mrs. A. B. Blackwell. G. P. Putnam's Suns. Cloth, $3.

Italian Renaissance (the), The Skeptics of. John Owen. Macmillan & Co. Cloth, $3.50.

Laws and Properties of Matter. R. T. Glazebrook, M.A., F.R.S., Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. D. Appleton & Co. Cloth. The fifth volume of modern science series, Edited by Sir John Lubbock, Bart., M. P.

Life. The Meaning and Method of. G. M. Gould. G. P. Putnam's Sons.. Cloth, $1.75

Lincoln (Abraham). John T. Morse, Jr. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co., Boston,. Cloth, $2.50. Biographical.

Little Miss Muffet. Rosa N. Carey. J. B. Lippincott Co., Phila. Cloth, Illus., $1.25.

Manual of the Holy Family. With the Rules and Prayers of the Association of the Holy Family. Compiled from Approved Sources by the Rev. Bonaventura Hammer, O.S.F. Benziger Bros. Cloth, 60c.

Master-Builder (The). A Drama in Three Acts. By Henrik Ibsen. Trans. from the Norwegian by Jno. W. Arctander. Waldın. Kriedt, Minneapolis. Cloth, $1. With Portrait. The translator makes the claim that this is "a scrupulously faithful rendition of the original, exhibiting all of Ibsen's peculiarities "

Mexico and Peru, The Conquest of. Prefaced by the Discovery of the Pacific.. An Historical Narrative Poem. Kinahan Cornwallis. The Daily Investigator. Cloth, $1.

Modalist (The), or The Laws of Rational Conviction. A Text Book in Formal or General Logic. Edward Jolin Hamilton, D.D., Albert Barnes, Professor of Intellectual Philosophy in Hamilton College, N. Y. Ginn & Co., Boston. Cloth, $1.40.

Ornament, The Birth and Development of. F. Edward Hulme, F.I..S. Macmillan & Co. Cloth, $1.25.

Orthometry. R. F. Brewer. G. P. Putnam's Sons. Cloth, $2. Treats of Versification.

Photography (Amateur). A Practical Guide for the Beginner. W. I. Lincoln Adams, Editor of The Photographic Times, etc., etc. Baker & Taylor Co, Paper, Illus., 50c., Cloth, $1.

Plants, The Food of. An Introduction to Agricultural Chemistry. A. P. Laurie. M.A. Macmillan & Co. Cloth, Illus., 35c.

Redbank: Life on a Southern Plantation. M. L. Cowles. Arena Pub. Co., Boston. Paper, 50c. A story of Southern life after the war, written by a Southern

woman.

Riddle (A) of Luck. Cloth, $1.25.

A Novel. Mary E. Stone. J. B. Lippincott Co., Phila.

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Witness to the Deed. A Novel. George Granville Fenn, Author of "Nurse Elisia." Cassell Pub. Co. Cloth, $r.

Year (The Devout). The Rev. R. F. Clarke, S.J. Short Meditations for Advent, for Christmas, for Lent, for Easter. for May, from the Ascension to Corpus Christi, for June, for July, and for November. Benzigar Bros. Cloth, $1.

The Press.

SOUTHERN PROBLEMS.

The convention of Southern Governors held

in Richmond the other day, has called special attention to the South, its present needs, and its social and industrial future, which were the subjects the convention met to consider. We present herewith extracts (1) from editorials of Southern journals, and (2) extracts from Northern journals.

THE SOUTHERN PRESS. There is general recognition by the Southern editors of the fact that the South does not receive her share of the immigration and should do something to secure it. It is significant that at the very time there is going on in other sections a strong agitation to diminish immigration, the South should be devising ways and means to increase it. It will be noted that in many cases the large negro population is assigned as an important reason for the failure of immigrants to seek the South.

"

The News, Baltimore.-Maryland, it will be observed, has a goodly number of foreign

born aniong its population, though even in Maryland the proportion falls somewhat below ten per cent. But in all the other States, and especially in Mississippi and the Carolinas, the number is insignificant; North Carolina, for example, a great State with a population of over 1,600,000, having but 3,702 foreign-born persons within its borders. In climate, in fertility of soil, and in natural resources of every kind, the South surpasses every other section of America. The only reasons which can account for the choice of other districts by immigrants to America are the competition of negro labor and the neglect of the Southern States to properly advertise their advantages. The first of these bars to immigration will never be let down until the negro problem is solved, but the Southern Governors may do much to make known to those who are seeking tions of the South. new homes the superior advantages and attrac

where.

The Chronicle, Augusta, Ga.-The effect of a convention of this kind will be good in attractThe Dispatch, Richmond, Va.-It is as cer-ing the attention of the outside world to the tain as anything can be that the presence of fact that the South is so earnest in its desire to a large population of negroes in Virginia keeps welcome settlers here, that the Governors of foreigners without her borders, and the the Southern States went into formal conven"toleration which is wanting is a defect, if tion to unite in an invitation to seekers after defect it be, in the character of the would-be homes to come South before settling elsesettler. It is these objectionable colored The great trunk-lines of the natives that cause so many more foreigners to West have done much with their immigrant settle in the Northern, Western, Northwestern, trains to keep the tide of immigration flowing and Pacific States than in Virginia and the in that direction, and the union of the Govother Southern States. Virginia possesses ernors of all the Southern States can do much everything but a white laboring population in the direction of enlisting Southern railroads that would induce immigrants to spread over to adopt a policy which will divert some of the all her hills and valleys. Suppose stream in this direction. Excursions once a month to the South of through trains from the North and West could be made to pay the year round, and if the railroads will take hold in earnest of this matter themselves, and not leave it to the sporadic efforts of individual organizations they could soon pour into the South a constant stream of humanity.

there were 635,000 whites in Virginia where now there are 635,000 negroes. What would result? Good schools, good churches, good farms, and whatever else we need. But Caucasians are not going to send their children to schools which any considerable number of negroes attend, and we in Virginia shall have to continue to pay the penalty of having once had negro slaves to do all of our hard work for us.

The Journal, Atlanta, Ga.-It is said that the average immigrant is under misapprehensions as to our climate and soil. He does not The Times, Richmond, Va.- We do not know that the South has the most delightful want an importation of European paupers, climate on this continent, and that its soil is criminals, Socialists, Anarchists, or Nihilists. capable of a greater variety of products than We prefer to remain with many thousands of that of any other part of the United States. our acres unoccupied, rather than have them This ignorance is partly responsible for the settled by these. The self-respecting European trend of Immigration in other directions, but, workman, whether mechanic or farm laborer, perhaps, the controlling reason is the aversion will not come here to work in competition of the foreigner to competition with negro with our negroes. So that the prospect of labor.

securing any important acquisition to our

The Delta, New Orleans.-Let the cotton

acreage be even reduced below the figures of 1892, and the land put into corn and other crops for home use. That is the only safe policy for the South to pursue for the next two or three years.

lack of skill.

INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION OF NEGROES. The News and Courier, Charleston, S. C. The most ignorant and incompetent workingmen in the Union to-day are the colored workingmen in the South. There are very few places where they can learn to do good work, and they and the communities in which they work suffer together in consequence of their A great deal of good will be accomplished by training the mass of such workers to do better work, and that, we think, is the object which the trustees of the Slater There is no place fund should keep in view. anywhere in the Southern States for highly educated colored artisans. There is a steady demand for those who are competent to do ordinarily good work. The trustees should endeavor to supply this demand, and should be well content with accomplishing so much for the present.

The Constitution, Atlanta.-Undoubtedly, it would be more sensible and practical to expend this [Slater] fund-the annual interest on $1,000,000-in giving the negroes an indus. their living, instead of using it in teaching them trial education that will enable them to earn Greek and Latin and all the branches of higher education. The present system turns out too many negro professors and scholars vainly hunting a job; but the proposed change would equip its beneficiaries for steady and remunerative employment, and make them self-supporting, at the shop or on the farm.

News and Observer, Raleigh. N. C.-On the whole, education of all kinds is now within easy reach of the colored people, and the next generation will doubtless feel the beneficial ef fects of these advantages.

The Picayune, New Orleans.-One thing is certain, the negroes make admirable laborers to tend the coking-furnaces and the iron-mills. During the Civil War they were very largely employed at the puddling-furnaces and the rolling-mills of the Tredegar Works at Richmond. Not only are they muscular and stand the fire better than most white men, but they soon acquire great skill and dexterity in handling ironblooms and puddle-bars.

population by immigration is not one that com- The Commercial, Memphis, Tenn.-It is only mends itself to us as having possibilities in it in the South that the blood of the fathers of worth attention. The negro in many respects makes us a valuable addition to population, but he effectually bars us out from any increase of population except what comes from the natural increase of each race now residing here. The world has received the impression from the bloody-shirt Northern politicians that we are a turbulent, disorderly people amongst whom neither life nor property is sale. This idea does the South an essential harm, and keeps away any addition to our population which we might, perchance, secure. And it is an idea which is not based upon fact. Let them [the Governors] take steps to have the world informed of the proportion of crime to population in the South as compared with the

COTTON.

The Journal, Atlanta, Ga.- The way to poverty and the sheriff's hammer lies through the overproduction of cotton. The way to independence and comfort lies through cottonfields of proper size and a good supply of hog and hominy

other States of the civilized world. We will thought at one time that the appeals to the come out of the contest easily victors far and away ahead. Let them have the facts concerning every lynching that has taken place in the South collected from trustworthy sources and published as a separate volume, to be distributed gratis to all who wish to read it.

The Times-Democrat, New Orleans.-It was farmers not to plant too much cotton had had effect, but this is not so certain now. A number of the best authorities on this subject express great fears of an excessive acreage, and all the indications point in that direction. A big acreage, therefore, will not only have the effect of reducing prices next year to below the cost of production, but it seems to have made

bagger elements, whose control of them has prevented their advancement, and proved the crowning curse of their race.

THE NORTHERN PRESS.

The Post, Washington, D. C. There is a good, healthy American notion that every man should be judged on his merits. No matter how distinguished one's ancestry may have been, this fact should not operate as a license to permit him to prey on the business intel ligence of others. If the Southern Governors succeed in inaugurating a strong public sentiment against some of the business traditions of that section they will accomplish a great good for the people. When this shall have been done, capital will go to the South as naturally as it has sought employment in other sections of the country.

The Times-Star, Cincinnati.-Eleven States wish their material resources developed. How