admitted, likely to outwit him. That respecting money may rest upon an unsophisticated belief that if there were as much money in the country as there should be he would certainly get more of it. Then, Governments have sometimes paid debts in debased coinage, and where there is a Government of the people the question may be raised, Why should not the people follow this plan? The sentiment for the exact fulfilment of contracts has in many cases given way before the difficulties involved. The following petition, for which local branches of the Alliance are responsible, speaks for itself:

To the Hon. M. B. Nicholson, Judge of the Eighth Judicial District of Kansas: —

In view of the disastrous failure of crops and the general stringency of money matters, we, the undersigned petitioners, do hereby most earnestly request that proceedings in the foreclosure of all real-estate `mortgages now pending, or that may be commenced within one year from date, be delayed.

The people of this country do not permit any one to suffer to the extreme the consequences of his misfortunes or follies, and in some of the Western States this feeling has carried them so far as to make the collec

tion of debts uncertain; but this is the frankest avowal in that line which has been made. For what does the petition seek? That the contracts shall be broken, that the debts shall not be paid this year; and if crops are bad next year there would be the same cause for further delay.

Other schemes advocated by the Alliance, some in one locality, some in another, are that the Government shall loan its credit to farmers, and thus enable them to redeem their mortgages, that eight hours be fixed as a day's work "except on farms," that the Supreme Court be abolished, that the administration of justice be made cheaper and more expeditious, that interest be reduced, that mortgage indebtedness be deducted from the tax on realty, and still other dissimilar measures might be named. None of these, however, represent the universal wish of the Alliance like the hostile legislation towards banks and railroads. Still, that farmers are trying to think for themselves, even with not very good results, instead of blindly voting for "the party that saved the Union and protects the negro," may be an instance of progress.