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control of the occupants and complete in itself, for from $1.50 upward per week, and this sum is within the means of the poorest paid class of breadwinners."

IN BOSTON.

The Rev. John Tunis, in the December number of Lend a Hand, under the head of "Tenement-House Statistics," gives some interesting facts for which he acknowledges his indebtedness to Horace G. Wadlin, Chief of the Bureau of Statistics of Labor.

Boston's population numbers 464,751. These are grouped in 89,716 families, counting in this number many isolated individuals. These families are housed in 52,669 dwellings, or an average of 81⁄2 persons to a dwelling. About one-quarter of all the people living in rented houses have a separate house. About one-half of all live in independent houses, or in houses containing two tenements, many of which are so arranged that the tenants are practically independent. About four-fifths of those renting homes live in houses of not more than three tenements. About thirty per cent. of the population live in the tenement house, strictly so called.

Of the 89.716 families, 1,175 pay a monthly rent of less than $5: 16,933 pay more than $5, and less than $10; 22,441 families pay over $10, and less than $15; 5,473 families pay from $20 to $25, etc., the number of families becoming less as the rental advances.

There are 3,829 families, 17,011 persons living two in a room; 1,301 families living over two and less than three persons to a room; and in 161 families the average number is three and over. Mr. Tunis says:

'On the whole it may be said that overcrowding is not a serious evil in Boston. It is interesting to note that the families occupying four rooms are smaller than the general average for all families. The average-sized family is 4.35, and this sized family is found in the tenement of five rooms.'

"

THE TENEMENT-HOUSE AND THE SWEATING SYSTEM.

Closely connected with the tenement-house problem is the dangerous sweating system in vogue in the manufacture of 'ready-made" clothing. The Dawn, of Boston, devotes the largest part of its issue of December 31 to this subject. It says:

The worst evil of the tenement is the tenement-house work in the clothing trade. This is the sweating system. Charles Kingsley saw its evil; every man and woman must see it who comes within its pale and has the heart to feel for sorrowing humanity. The sweating system takes the lowest form of the poorest paid industry in the land, and carries its deathly poison right into the very sanctuary of the home. We know of no other evil in this land, not even intemperance itself, that is the monstrous parent of The sweating system feeds so many monstrous ills. upon girls, mothers, little children, who are forced to succumb to its hideous power or to die. Intemperance itself is often due to the sweating system. Poverty, pauperism, unchastity, prostitution, the death of childhood, the destroying of love, the decay of character, these are other offspring of this fatal brood.

Dawn prints columns of interviews and investigation showing that one of the leading clothing-houses of Boston has about 75 per cent. of its clothing made in that city, about 20 per cent. in Maine and New Hampshire, and 5 per cent. in New York. Concerning goods that this house does not manufacture it appeared that 10 per cent, of the entire stock of the house was made in New York. It was claimed by the representative of the firm that the contractors or "sweaters" to whom the goods were farmed out to be made, were reputable manufacturers and did not permit, and would not be allowed by the firm to permit, any work to be taken home by the men and women in their employ. But investigation showed that in the case of all of them a large part of the work was taken home. Of one of these places to which work was taken the investigator says:

My heart almost stood still as I mounted flight after flight of winding narrow stairs at the bare thought of fire breaking out in such a death-trap teeming with humanity. [There had been a

recent fire in the building.] On the landing, clothes were strung out to dry, and rubbish, and barrels of refuse, and rotten garbage were met on every hand. Arriving at the top floor, we knocked at a door and entered. Before us sat three girls sewing as though for dear life. The youngest, who was fifteen, looked pale,spiritless, bent, and weary. The other two were pale but looked stronger. They were Italians. The space of the small room in which they sat was half used up by a bed, and we stood jammed together unable to turn. In addition to the three sisters, was the father, mother, and grandmother. For three small rooms they paid $12 per month. The clothing that we found in these foul, vermin-infested, lithal tenements, was of fine quality and would bring a good price.

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ANTI-TENEMENT-HOUSE LEAGUE.

The Anti-Tenement-House League, of Boston, Dawn tells us, was organized some two years ago, through the energetic efforts of its Secretary, Mr. John Crowley, a young man who from the age of sixteen had been connected with the clothingtrade, and" by personal experience and immediate acquaintance knows its complete ins and outs." Dawn says:

The aim of the League is to protect the Home. Of the population of Boston 67 per cent. live in houses that they do not own. Of this 67 per cent. only 16% per cent. live in single tenements; all the rest crowding together in tenements occupied by two or more families. This is for the city. Of certain wards it may be said that they are "wards without a home." Do we know that a tenement-house is not, and never can be, a home? Do we realize that our cities are becoming collections of tenements? Woe unto us if we do not realize these things. The home is well-nigh the most sacred sanctuary of humanity.

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The League has thus far largely devoted itself to the exposure and breaking up of the sweating system; but is now actively engaged in a project for building cottages in the suburbs for workingmen. The organization is officered by the Rev. Emory J. Haynes, D.D., President; ex-Governor J. Q. A. Brackett, Treasurer; and the Rev. Dr. Miner, Mr. George E. McNeil, the temperance orator, and the Rev. W. D. P. Bliss, Rector of the Church of the Carpenter and Editor of The Dawn, Executive Committee; and Mr. Crowley, the indomitable Secretary already mentioned.

IN PHILADELPHIA.

As bearing upon the topic under discussion the following, from the New York World of January 5, is of interest:

Philadelphia maintains her reputation of being the city of homes. During the five years ending Dec. 31, 1891, there were erected there 24,173 more new buildings than in New York, and 5,162 more than in New York, Boston, and Baltimore combined. This great lead was due in large part to the custom in Philadelphia of building small houses for one family rather than huge structures of flat" tenements. When we observe the cost of new buildings the story is a different one. The average cost of these erected last year in Philadelphia was $3,338.88, in Boston $6,548.67, and in New York $17,509.58.

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THE LARGE TENEMENT-HOUSE DEFENDED.

In an article, entitled "The Home in the Tenement-House," in the New England Magazine for January, Lucia True Ames comes to the defense of the large tenement-house; though it is rather the tenement-house as it should be than the tenementhouse as it generally is, that is defended. She maintains that the large tenement-house can be much better managed than the small one; holding that for the very poor and ignorant it presents a great advantage over the separate cottage-having especially in mind "such poor people as have irregular work, or where the women and children aid in the support of the family-washwomen, hucksters, and the poorer paid factory

workers."

The first advantage claimed for the large tenement is that it makes a resident agent or janitor possible. The writer says:

The importance of having some responsible person in a tenement-house to assure its cleanliness and order, and to exert a friendly, educating influence over its occupants can hardly be overestimated. Clean halls, stairs, and closets, with occasional glimpses of the agent's tastefully furnished rooms with flowers in

the window, can give an ideal of living and a standard of housekeeping which will unconsciously, but surely, have its effect on the Polish Jew-pedler, or the Irish street-sweeper, who, if left to themselves, would live in their filth and squalor with perfect conThe smallest death-rate that I have ever yet discovered was in an East London model tenement-house, which is stated to be much less than the general average for London, which rate is itself much lower than in many of our American cities..

tent.

The second advantage claimed for the large tenement is that it permits the elimination of the cooking-stove from each household, the heat being supplied from a central source too expensive in small tenement-houses, and the meals furnished at cost from a common kitchen on the topmost floor of the building, while washing and ironing would be done in a common laundry, so situated and arranged that there need not be the slightest interference of one family with another. The unquestionable advantages of removing cooking, with its accompanying dish-washing, swill-pail, and garbage from the living rooms are pointed out.

A third advantage set forth is that such a structure could provide a room for educational and amusement purposes, and one or more bathrooms. The author does not approve of the plan of providing a tiny bathroom for each family. She says: Families who live in three rooms would not take daily tub-baths. They would simply use the tub as a receptacle for pota

toes or soiled clothes.

Our author speaks approvingly of "one of the Cherry Street model tenement-houses in New York" which she visited, and where, on a hot summer afternoon

Two little girls were amusing twenty or thirty tiny children who were their neighbors in this building. In a large room, used in the morning as a kindergarten, they had gathered the little ones, and in a patient, orderly fashion were guiding their charges through the games or songs with which all were more or less familiar. Without such a room, the children would have been

in the dirty streets or worrying their tired mothers at home. In the evening the room was used by the older tenants; and, if I remember rightly (the gift of a piano making music possible), singingclasses were conducted and various kinds of club-work made possible.

"THE

POLITICAL ECONOMY.

"

HE study of Political Economy in the United States forms the subject of an interesting and timely article in the initial number of The Journal of Political Economy, a substantial and handsome Quarterly issued by the Department of Political Economy in the University of Chicago. The article is from the pen of the Editor, Professor J. Lawrence Laughlin. Starting with the frank admission that the influence of scientific economic thinking has little influence or authority with the people of the United States, he says, that the advance of economic thinking and the spread of sound ideas can be attained in no way so effectively as by criticism, examination, and judicial coolness. Continuing, he says:

Advance in the subjects which touch human interests most profoundly, more than in the physical sciences, is likely to be retarded by personal and sentimental reasons; and yet the practical gains of mankind from the work of physicists and chemists must necessarily have been preceded by purely scientific investigation of the ahstract principles of their sciences. Science must exist before there can be application of science.

As a

Professor Laughlin holds it useless to try to teach the masses through the usual channels of economic writing, and that the great working-classes can be reached only by the literature which comes from within their own ranks. reason for the existing looseness of thinking in political economy, he cites the comparative newness of the subject in America. It has been a serious study in our schools for so short a time that its influence cannot be great. Before the Civil War, purely political questions absorbed the attention of the country. The last fifteen years has marked a striking development of the study of political economy. Soon after 1876, strikes and the activity of labor-organizations opened

up a general interest in industrial and social questions, in which ethical, moral, and religious forces have been warmly enlisted. Our author says:

Whether the participants in the discussion were well-grounded or not in the knowledge of social and economic principles, clear it is that, in the organs of public influence, the pulpit and the press, dogmatic statement and vigorous denunciation have been only too frequent. The extensive hold which this kind of writing and teaching has obtained upon the country may be partially explained -apart from the inability of persons untrained in economics to examine such statements logically-by the unmistakable prejudice of men in the so-called practical occupations against the value and usefulness of academic training. The scientific student of political economy has often been contemptuously waved aside by the man of affairs as a doctrinaire. But the expansion of the courses of study, the development of the true university spirit with its love of truth, and the bringing of the education of the university into touch with the real life of our people, have been slowly undermining this erroneous estimate, and giving to scientific study its proper place of influence in this as in other sciences. Political economy is a means of analyzing the play of economic motives, of measuring their force, of discovering and explaining the relations between concrete truths, and of ascertaining their causes and effects. We cannot foretell economic results, for the reason that, in each future case the facts, although similar to past cases to the casual observer, are in reality different. If we could be certain of all the facts affecting the case, we could prophesy; but in the nature of things we never can be sure of them.

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Professor Laughlin next refers to the changes in the points of view of economic writers which have taken place since 1876, and thence proceeds to consider the prospect for progress of economic thinking in the United States. Closing, he says:

It seems that a distinct place exists for a journal of political economy which, while welcoming the discussion of theory, may be devoted largely to a study of practical problems of economics, finance, and statistics. Inasmuch as existing scientific journals have a tendency largely toward the discussion of theory, and as popular journals do not usually treat practical economic problems scientifically, the Journal of Political Economy may, therefore, find for itselt in the scientific study of this latter class a free field.

INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOUTH. RICHARD H. EDMONDS.

Engineering Magazine, New York, January. IN PREVIOUS numbers of the Engineering Magazine, the writer has outlined the condition of the South during the period of reconstruction, and traced the steady growth of industrial development in the interval. In the present number he presents the South of to-day in contrast, in its industrial aspect, with the South of 1880. In his general summary of changed conditions, he says:

WIT

cent.

ITH an increase of less than 25 per cent. in its population since 1880, the South has increased its annual output of agricultural and manufactured goods nearly 100 per In 1880 the value of its chief agricultural products was $749,000,000, and of its manufactured products $475,000,000, a total of $1,206,000,000. Now agriculture yelds to the South from $950,000,000 to $1,000,000,000 a year, while its other industries are producing at least $1,200,000,000 a year, and the excess is a steady-growing one. Again in 1880 the value of agricultural and manufactured products per capita was $73, in 1890 the average, in consequence of enlarged opportunities, was $109 per capita.

But notwithstanding the great expansion of industrial interests during the past few years, there is still a large amount of surplus labor in the South available for further industrial expansion.

[Here follows a presentation in detail of the increased production under various heads, in a tabular statement which gives also the increase in assessed value of property, in railroad mileage and receipts, in the number and capital of national banks, in exporttrade, etc. The writer contrasts increase of railroad mileage for the same period with that of the group of States embracing Illinois, Northern Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, North and South Dakota, and Missouri, showing a wonderful difference in favor of the South under all heads of activity. To take a single

example, the total railway earnings for the decade have increased 122 per cent. in the South, against 62 per cent. in the Western States named. From the Census figures, too, he shows the growth of manufactures and of capital. invested, which is equally gratifying.]

The regeneration of the South-he then goes on to say-its redemption from the chaos and poverty which followed the war, and which continued for ten years or more after that great struggle-probably has no equal in the world's history. The statistics summing up the progress of the last decade tell something of what was accomplished during that period, and give some hint of the vast possibilities of the future. Thus far only the foundation-work has been done. The financial success of Southern iron-making through the severe depressions that have fully demonstrated its right of living because of the "survival of the fittest"; the wonderful increase in cottonmanufacturing, extending to a gradual advance in the production of the finer goods; the steady growth of diversified ironindustries, such as locomotive-building, iron- and steel-ship yards, machine- and engine-shops, pipe-foundries, and similar enterprises; all unite to give assurance of strength and permanency to the South's rapid industrial advance in the future.

Here is a region of unequaled natural resources, of coal and iron in inexhaustible quantities in close proximity, and at low cost of production, of great timber-wealth, of soil adapted to every branch of agriculture; in fact, a combination for the creation of wealth, greater than is possessed by any other equal area in the world. Its population is still sparse, its manufacturing and mining interests still in their infancy, its towns and cities less numerous than in any other part of the country. Every manufacturing enterprise now in existence from Mason and Dixon's Line to the Rio Grande might be located in Alabama, and still that State, with far greater resources than Pennsylvania, would not equal it in its present industrial product.

There is no danger, therefore, of Southern development

reaching the limit of profitable advancement. Many thousands of miles of new railroads can be wisely built into virgin mineral and timber-regions, which will afford paying traffic from the day the first train rolls over them, and also into settled parts of the South, now without transportation facilities. The growth of coal-production from 6,000,000 to 23,000,000 tons can be duplicated for many decades, and a market found for it. Producing nearly two-thirds of the world's cotton-supply-9,000,000 out of a total of 15,000,000 bales--but having only 2,000,000 out of a total of over 80,000,000 spindles in the world, the South has room for multiplying indefinitely the increase already made in cotton-manufacturing.

AN EXCHANGE OF POPULATION.

C. CHRYSSAPHIDES.

Translated and Condensed for THE LITERARY DIGEST from a Paper (5 pp.) in La Nouvelle Revue, Paris, December 15.

VA

ARIOUS projects have been proposed to prevent the diminution of population in France. Some of these are a tax on bachelors, a simplification of the formalities of marriage, a bounty to the father of several children, and exempting large families from tax. Much more practical and efficacious than any of these, would be modifications of the Naturalization Laws so as to render the acquisition of French nationality easy for foreigners. There are thousands and thousands of foreigners who live in France and consider it their second country, but shrink from being naturalized on account of the onerous formalities required by law. Besides, there are others who have strong sympathies with France and yet for the same reason do not come to live in it. Among these latter are the inhabitants of the provinces of Turkey in Asia. Thousands of these emigrate to the United States by the way of Marseilles. They have no especial predilection for the American Republic; but they are received there with open arms, while in the French

Republic all sorts of obstacles are put in their way. Remove these obstacles and the Syrians, instead of merely touching at a French port, would gladly remain in France, for the majority of them have been acquainted with the French language from their infancy and would here feel themselves at nome, especially as most of them are Roman Catholics or members of local churches which do not differ much in dogma and ritual from the Roman Catholic Church. If it be objected that it would be ungenerous and illiberal to tempt the inhabitants of a friendly country to leave their native land, the answer is easy. It would be but an exchange of population. During some years past, the Algerians have emigrated in crowds to Turkey, and the Turkish Government encourages this immigration by giving the Algerians subsidies in money, building for them houses and schools, exempting them for twenty years from military service. Still further, Greece has at the present time an epidemic of emigration. The inhabitants of the Peloponessus, abandoning their villages and their fields, have gone by thousands to the United States, with no intention of returning to the country of their birth. This emigration is a bad thing for Greece, which is insufficiently peopled, and has need of hands to till her land, and soldiers to fill the ranks of her army. What makes the matter worse is that all these people who leave her are splendid fellows, strong and robust young men of 18, 20, 25, or 30 years of age. It is to be wished that Greece could keep these sons of hers at home. Since, however, she cannot, it is far better for them and for us that they should come to live in France, and I am sure they would be glad to do so, if only the way were made easy for them.

T

IS THE IRISH LICENSED TRADE IN DANGER? Condensed for THE LITERARY DIGEST from a Paper (6 pp.) in Lyceum, Dublin, December.

HE Irish Licensed Vintners's Protection Association, previous to the General Election, issued a manifesto to the

spirit-grocers and publicans of the country, in which they were

summoned to demand of each candidate in the various constituencies a declaration of his views upon the liquor-trafficto support him, if he advocated favorable views, and to exert all their power to defeat him, if he proved lukewarm or hostile. The Annual Report for 1892 announces that there is now no member of Parliament returned from Ireland on the prohibitive or restrictive ticket, while many have contracted to promote the interests of the trade."

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First, and before all, the liquor-trade has to be considered; whatever threatens its welfare has to be combated at all costs and at all hazards. The Legislature, on this theory, is merely the obliging tool of the Licensed Vintners; it is to be controlled by their wire-pullers, and its laws to be shaped in conformity with their exclusive interests. Henceforth our dictionaries must alter their definitions, just as the Constitution must alter its character. MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT will stand explained as a delegate of the Licensed Vintners," and PARLIAMENT an assembly to promote the consumption of intoxicating drinks."

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Their denunciation of all Bills designed to restrict the sale of drink in Ireland is on a par with the opinions on the choice of the people's Parliamentary representatives. The Lord Mayor-elect announced himself opposed to all such legislation. What most of all incurred his eloquent wrath was the Intoxicating Liquors Local Bill, which proposes to confer on a twothirds majority of the qualified voters of any town, district, or division, the absolute right to totally prohibit the sale of intoxicants in that town, district, or division. He maintained that this proposition is, and foreshadows, abominable tyranny; it aims at enabling "two-thirds of the community to absolutely dictate to the other third what they should drink." He supposed that in some time to come, they would have dictation as to what they should eat and what they should wear.

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MR. FROUDE'S INAUGURAL LECTURE.

Longman's Magazine, London, December.

To dictate what a man is to drink is one thing, to insist that EDUCATION, LITERATURE, ART. he shall not drink such liquors and such quantities of liquors as will result in injury to himself and danger to the community is quite a different thing. Mr. Shanks seems to forget that "what we eat and what we should wear are even now controlled by legislation. The butcher is prohibited from selling diseased meat; the dairyman from adulterating his milk; and the privilege of walking abroad in the breezy costume of Eden is denied to every citizen alike.

The community may not safeguard its property, its peace, and its morals—that would be oppression; but a publican may oppress an aspirant to the sacred collegium of vintners, when the interests of the trade are at stake."

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Another argument advanced in the same speech was this: "The licensed trade for a long time has been a source of profit to the State, and if the State now chooses to dissolve partnership (sic) simple justice ought to be dealt out to the men who had invested their money in this property.' If the State assumes the right of restricting the liquor-traffic, it can determine the conditions under which it will issue licenses. The granting of such a license is a privilege. If the man who receives the license chooses to invest a large capital in using his privilege, that is entirely his own affair. If he holds, as he must hold, his license from the State, it is a recognition on his part that the State is the competent authority to grant it and to control the exercise of it.

From certain speeches one would be led to suppose that the licensed traders and distillers were the victims of cruel persecution, that they were oppressed men against whom a wicked conspiracy had been formed, and who, by sheer dint of hard fighting, were maintaining their position against cruel odds. But, are not things going well with the trade? Is it not the industry which flourishes best on Irish soil?

An increase in the distilled product of nearly 2,000,000 "proof gallons of British spirits" is not by any means a symptom of languishing manufacture, nor is an increase of over a million and a half gallons in the amount drunk an evidence of diminishing consumption. Here in Ireland we have increased our production of whiskey by the respectable addition of nearly half a million gallons. We are also steadily keeping up Our consumption. The last Report of the Dublin Metropolitan Police shows that the city of Dublin, which, in a Police District including 352,000 inhabitants, can furnish 11,651 cases of drunkenness in a year, does its part to account for the increase in the consumption of spirits.

The Alcohol Question in Switzerland.—W. Milliet, of Berne, in the Annals of the American Academy for January, points out the most important features of legislative action concerning what he calls "the war against the misuse of intoxicating drinks." While the most radical means of opposition to alcohol are legal prohibition and total abstinence, yet there has never been any serious discussion of the introduction of prohibitory laws, nor has total abstinence, except as a rule for children, and a remedy for intemperance, ever found much encouragement.

On the supposition of the existence of different degrees of harmfulness in the various beverages, "the aim of the Government was, in substance, to improve the quality of brandy, and, to check its consumption by substituting for it the less harmful wine and beer."

The writer notices the "agitation against the tavern," and declares his opposition to "any regulation of the sale of liquor which may be proposed under the title of the question of consumption," but welcomes "all efforts to obtain a higher level in the character of the license-holder, which harmonize the location and internal arrangements of the tavern with considerations of public good, which provide for proper food and entertainment, and which exclude immoral influence.

Considerations of this nature induced the Swiss Federal Government to abandon a proposed amendment to Art. 31 of the Federal Constitution," for the reason that "it seemed undesirable to allow the whole movement to fall in a futile struggle against taverns."

The writer then shows in detail the working out of the liquor problem in the substitution of wine and beer for strong drinks, and in the improvement in the quality of the latter.

He emphasizes the increase in the cost of distilled liquors by the imposition of Federal and cantonal taxes, and the cheapening of fermented liquors, and concludes that, from the statistics of late years. "the result seems a favorable one," and the evils of alcoholism have decreased.

THIS LECTURE, delivered by Mr. J. A. Froude before the ViceChancellor and the University of Oxford, Oct. 26, 1892, upon assuming the Chair of Modern History, to which he was appointed after the death of Professor Freeman, fills twentythree pages of Longman's. We can do nothing more than present a few interesting extracts:

MR.

[R. FROUDE spoke impressively of the changes in the atmosphere of Oxford in the last half century.

'I have come back to Oxford," said he, “but no more to the Oxford that I knew. I left an Oxford which was a centre of vigorous intellectual life, with a circle of remarkable men carrying on a great movement and making their mark on the outer world. Doubtless it is the same now, but my old friends are iu their graves. Their work lives after them, but in forms which they did not expect, while the floods which Keble watched from Bagley Wood, washing round the towers and churches of Oxford, but failing to reach them, have risen at last over the enclianted city. The revolution which he dreaded has come upon it. It still stands; it is full of animation and energy; but Keble aud Newman are gone, and the system which produced such men is gone with them. New schools have sprung up and new modes of teaching. Greek and Latin have lost their old monopoly. Modern languages are studied, and modern history, and modern philosophy and science. Athletics, which used to be a plaything, have become a serious pursuit, as if we were to have the Olympic Games again. The celibate seclusion of college life has broken down, and ladies, the horror of the scholastics, have invaded the sacred precincts In all this I feel like Epamenides, after his forty-five years' sleep. Few, very few, of my contemporaries now survive, and our gray hairs tell us that we shall soon follow, and that in this new birth and regeneration our own past can be but a brief one.

"I am here to teach modern history," continued Mr. Froude, "and I am reminded at the outset that this is changed too, and that there is no such thing as modern history. History is one and continuous from the beginning of things. I must humbly answer that I never doubted it. I never supposed that the human race was created fresh at the Christian era. We always knew that the modern world inherited language, laws, and literature from antecedent ages, and that the actions and thoughts of Jews, and Greeks, and Romans, have helped to mould the minds of all that have come after them.

'Divide history as we will, the surface is still immense. The modern side of it embraces the fortunes of mankind for sixteen hundred years, event piled on event, over the whole area of the globe, with no visible coherance, or visible purpose. Students may wander about it, as in some vast forest, and never meet. To examine it all in the detail, to learn what those millions of millions of human creatures really did, and what they were really like, is obviously impossible. Impossible from the extent of the subject and impossible from the nature of it, because the inquirer himself has no fixed point to stand upon. The astronomer, when he is examining the motion of star or planet is himself moving as he observes. The astronomer knows it and allows for it. The historian is moving too, but does not know it or forgets to allow for it. He has to interpret his discoveries by his own general theories and his own estimate of probabilities; and lights and shadows change their places, and what seems likely and reasonable to one age seems unlikely and even impossible to another."

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been the best educator of mankind-Greek and Roman, Frank and German, Celt and Saxon, have learnt there, more than anywhere, to admire and love what is brave and beautiful, and to despise what is cowardly and base.

"The great poem of human history, if read in the same way, may have the same value for us; and if it has, we need not ask for more. All depends on what human life means. Assume any purpose which suits your inclination; you will easily find evidence for it."

Mr. Froude unfolded and discussed admirably some of the leading suggestions of the general theme of the study of his

tory.

Speaking of his own predilections and method, he said:

"Like my predecessor, Dr. Freeman, who along with his asperities had strong masculine sense, I have a high respect for the method of study pursued here before the modern changes. For men who wished to improve themselves I believe it to have provided as good an education as was ever tried. We had certain books, the best of their kind and limited in number, which we were required to know perfectly. We learnt our Greek history from Herodotus and Thucydides, our Latin history from Livy and Tacitus. We learnt our philosophy from Aristotle; and it was our business to learn by heart Aristotle's own words, weighing every one of them; and thus the thoughts and language of these illustrious writers were built into our minds, and there indelibly remain. I asked myself whether there was any book on English history which could be studied with the same exactness. The Chronicles' were too loose in their composition. They were to be read, but were insufficient. The famous modern writers, studying the past as we study the stars from a moving platform, were being continually corrected from a change in the point of view, and the shifting of the lights and shadows.

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We are all fond of our peculiar methods, perhaps too fond, but I can afford to be amused with the airy verdicts of selfconfident critics.

"In conclusion, I have only to add that if I am to be of any use in my present office, I must follow my own lines. I cannot at my age work in harness with the athletes of the new studies. All that I can do will be to interest students in aspects of their subjects which lie apart from the beaten roads. I cannot teach a philosophy of history, because I have none of my own. Theories shift from generation to generation, and one ceases to believe in any of them. I know nothing of, and care nothing for, what are called the laws of development, evolution, or devolution, extension of constitutional privileges from reign to reign, to end in no one knows what. I see in history only a stage on which the drama of humanity is played by successive actors from age to age."

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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.
I.

THIS DISCUSSION, which has attracted a great deal of attention, was begun in the July number of the Arena, and has been fully summarized in THE LITERARY DIGEST, beginning with Mr. Edwin Reed's opening for the Plaintiff, in Vol. V., No. 12, p. 316. This was continued in No. 15, p. 402; No. 16, p. 432; No. 20, p. 540; and No. 25, p. 679. In Vol. VI.. No. 3, p. 63, Mr. Reed begins a brief for the defendant, which is continued in No. 4, p. 91; and No. 5, p. 120. Dr. A. Nicholson's contribution, traversing the plaintiff's brief, was begun in Vol. VI., No. 6, p. 148, and corcluded in No. 7, p. 177. Professor Rolfe's brief for the defendant is now begun.

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The theory is literally a baseless one. The fundamental principle on which it rests is utterly false; namely, that Shakespeare could not have written the works, and Bacon could have written them. Every careful student or critic is inevitably forced to the conclusion that the works must have been written either by Shakespeare or by some one whose education and experiences were like his, so far as we have become acquainted with them, while it is absolutely impossible that they could have been produced by a man whose training and fortunes were what we know Bacon's to have been.

The facts concerning Shakespeare's personal history that have come down to us are few indeed, but they are important and significant in the study of his works. His life is a key to much that would otherwise be perplexing in his writings, and, on the other hand, the writings throw light upon the life, and assist us in filling out the meagre outlines of the biographer. The Baconians assert that every new fact concerning Shakespeare or Bacon drops neatly into its place in their theory; but this is strikingly true in regard to the orthodox view, as we may call it. The better we understand the order and history of the plays, the clearer it is that they were the work of a playwright who began his career, and who went on, step by step, in that career, as we believe Shakespeare did. It is evident that the author was not an amateur, writing plays in the intervals of his more serious occupations, but a man who had his fortune to make, and who, after securing some humble position in the theatre, worked his way up as actor and dramatist, until he had gained reputation and wealth by his labor. His first literary work was evidently such as a manager would entrust to a promising tyro in that day-the retouching of old plays in order to give them a new lease of life on the boards. The earliest plays, as the critics almost unanimously agree, are of this sort, not the finished compositions of an amateur in dramatic composition, like the Bacon of the theorists. Next we find our playwright trying his hand at original pieces-light comedies, followed by historical dramas of the same general character as those he had formerly retouched for the stage. but all showing the practical man of the theatre, no scholar, but familiar with the obvious requirements of his profession, and endowed with genius that made him, to a great degree, independent of learning and literary culture. From first to last we recognize him as the same man, and a man as unlike the learned and cultured sage of St. Albans, amusing himself with occasional writing of plays in the seclusion of his closet, as can well be imagined.

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The point to be emphasized is that Shakespeare was not a learned man, and that the author of the plays was not, as the Baconians assume, a learned man. It is amazing that any Shakespearean scholar or critic should conceive that there is evidence of learning in the plays, when the proof of the contrary is so manifest and incontrovertible. The misconception could only have been possible (except to a Baconian) before the plays had been minutely examined, their anachronisms and other literary faults and defects carefully scrutinized, and their relation to the sources whence their materials were drawn, critically investigated. Such study shows conclusively that, marvelous as was the genius of the author of the plays, and the insight into human nature and all its capabilities which that genius gave him, he not only was no scholar, but had not the scholarly or critical way of working. If he had possessed the learning of Bacon, added to his own natural gifts, he would have done his work differently and in some respects better.

The anachronisms in the plays are illustrations of Shakespeare's lack of learning, and of themselves a sufficient refutation of the Baconian hypothesis. Baconians tell us the plays are so full of evidences of erudition that, if they had come down as anonymous productions of the time, we should at once recognize them as Bacon's; and yet these occasional anachronisms were deliberately inserted to prevent our suspecting

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