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the briber left in ignorance; otherwise, his remedy does not appear very consistent with the rest of his dissertation.

M. Molinari speaks of the tariff as the citizen of a country whose commerce will be affected by the increased duties. He tells us that the Minister of Foreign Affairs was questioned in the French Chamber whether any negotiations had been entered upon with other European nations looking to modification of our custom laws, and that the question was followed up with threats of reprisal. After alluding rather slightingly to the notion of reprisals, M. Molinari begins the real subject of his article: the general state of public opinion in Europe on the question of protection or commercial liberty.

As regards France, the mass of the people were never really converted from protection, but free trade was forced on them by Napoleon, himself a convert of Michel Chevalier. But although freed from Napoleon after the war of 1870, the commercial treaties executed by him remained in force. In fact, the reaction from free trade began in Germany, where Bismarck set the example, soon to be followed by Italy, France, and the rest of the Continent, except Holland and Belgium. France entered upon a policy of protection gradually. In the first place, agricultural products were not covered by the commercial treaties, and these the Protectionists succeeded in covering with duties instead. In the second place, it was discovered that the treaties themselves were chiefly a matter of form, easily eluded by expert Protectionists. They discovered - Prince Bismarck being the promulgator of the doctrine - that commercial treaties were subject to the droits de combats. That is to say, it is possible to keep the letter of a treaty while violating its spirit. The mode of evasion employed in this case is interesting. Each country has two rates of tariff-the general tariff, which is applied to the products of countries with which no special treaties have been concluded, and the conventional tariff, as expressed in treaties: but so expressed, in "the most favored nation" clause, that the only stipulation is that the rates applied under it will be more or less scaled down from the general tariff. Now, whenever a country having "a most favored nation" treaty wished to raise its tariff against the products of the favored nation, the stipula

tions of the treaty were found to be satisfactorily conserved by simply raising the general tariff! If the treaty rate were, say, twenty per cent lower than the general rate, and the desire was to double the treaty rate, the Protectionists found it convenient to double the general rate. And beginning with Germany, this is the child's play in which continental governments have been indulging for ten years. And every time they had the satisfaction of feeling that the increase of the general rate acted against the United States.

Returning to the policy of this country, M. Molinari believes that it will carry its own cure, and regards the American market as too insignificant for European nations to think seriously of making reprisals specially against the United States.

Mr. Bland deserts the pages of the "Congressional Record" for those of the "North American" to criticise again the recent silver law, which he calls the "Janus-faced Statute." The double dealing consists in the fact that the provisions may be construed as favoring either gold or silver, the one view being intended for presentation in the Eastern States, the other for the delectation of Western audiences. He unites with Mr. Cockrell in asserting that the purchase of silver bullion is not required by the new law, but is left optional with the Secretary of the Treasury. This is said to result from the fact that he must determine the "market price" of the bullion, and that if none is offered at that price none will be purchased. So that if a secretary sees fit, he may determine a "market price" so low that the bullion will be withheld. But the chief objection to the new law lies in the fact that silver coinage is abandoned, and that the silver to be purchased will lie in the vaults as "a mere commodity." Thus silver will be debased and humbled in the dust. But the purchase of 4,500,000 ounces per month will silence the demands of the "silver men," for they will thus be furnished with a large market at an enhanced price. The latter part of the article, dealing with the settlement of California and the discovery of the Comstock lode in Neavda, bears on the question of coinage so obscurely, if it bears at all, that I caunot undertake to describe the writer's meaning.

M. Romero, the Mexican Minister to this country, begins an account of the so-called

Pan-American Conference. Evidently more is to follow, for this article is numbered, I. It deals with the political antecedents and the personnel of the conference. The state of international politics among the South and Central American nations at the time of the conference is briefly described; and much the greater part of the article is occupied either with the diplomatic formalities of organization or with personal matters of no general interest whatever. Much is made of the fact that so many delegates did not understand each other's tongue. The election of Mr. Blaine to preside is defended on diplomatic grounds; but no one is expected to overlook the political reason that Mr. Blaine was of more personal importance than the ten accredited delegates of the United States, as M. Romero puts it; and he might truthfully have added, than the whole conference put together.

Charles Martindale has a note on "Childsaving Legislation," two thirds of which is devoted to the description of recent statutes in Indiana and Michigan, which aim at the protection of children from the evil result of being born of vicious parents. The writer takes it for granted that the statutes, if they are enforced, as to which he has some doubt, will attain their object. The other third is of his article is a disquisition on the legal status of the child. Fact and inference are not kept separate with sufficient accuracy. He expresses a current doctrine in words so forcible and audacious that I will give them at length:

"It is a vulgar supposition that the parent has some natural property in his children; that children "belong to their parents." Such is not the legal status of the infant. From the time of its birth the infant is a subject of the State, having an individuality separate from its parents, with distinct rights of person and property, with separate obligations to and claims upon the sovereign. The only right of the parent recognized by the law is one of guardianship. The right of custody and control of their children comes to the parents, however, not by the course of nature, not by birth or blood, but is derived from the State, and must be exercised under the authority and supervision of the State."

As the supposition here denominated "vulgar" is one held with much tenacity by the editor of To-DAY, I may be pardoned for

exceeding the limits of a descriptive notice to the extent of applying an epithet to the contrary supposition, expressed with so much force by Mr. Martindale. The supposition that children do not belong to their parents is damnable.

The "Nineteenth Century " for September contains several political articles, but nothing of general interest.

A Private Soldier on a Private Soldier's Wrongs rehearses the hardships to which this arm of the Government is subjected in the various kinds of service he is called on to render. The interest in the article lies in the light it throws on the recent "insubordination" of the Second Battalion. It is clearly shown that the life of the British soldier is by no means an easy one, and the cause of much of the unnecessary hardship to which he is subjected seems to that universal cause of government inefficiency - red tape and officialism.

Behind the Scenes in English Politics is the attractive title of another article, whose contents, however, hardly fulfil the promise. They are really notes of conversations held by Mr. Nassau Senior with some of the leading politicians in the year of the Crimean crisis, 1855. They represent, but in a very slight manner, educated public opinion in 1855, when ministers were resigning, governments being defeated and new ones formed at home, while regiments were being slaughtered abroad. The notes are very gossipy, but interesting, after a fashion, on that very account. We are somehow made to realize that things were very different then in parliamentary politics from their present condition.

The Civil Service is discussed in a very trivial article by Sir Robert G. C. Hamilton. It seems that a movement is gaining headway to introduce an almost military system of promotion into the service. Persons who think that this practice is desirable seem to forget that in time of war, when men are falling right and left, grades are disregarded, and the endeavor is to pick out the right man for promotion, were he a drill sergeant. For the purpose of comparison, the civil employees should be regarded as constantly as military service. The remedy proposed by Mr. Hamilton is an extension of the system

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"This body is growing in importance. It is here, if anywhere, that our country must ultimately find the anchor of her safety; and if the Constitution is to perish, which may God avert, and which I do not believe, its dying agonies will be seen on this floor."

Mr. Burr's foreboding of the throes through which the Constitution was to pass and his premonition of the "agony" which the Senate was to witness, probably related to the scene in the chamber on July 9th, 1890, when Mr. Cockrell addressed to the Senate the following dirge:

"You say to silver to-day, bound hand and foot, bucked and gagged, and upon its back as a mere commodity, while gold, enrobed in its monopoly robes, stands before the world equipped with all the requisites of money, - you say to silver, Stand up like a man beside your gold dollar, that has been endowed by law with free coinage, absolute legal tender, and an equality between coin and bullion.' You might as well say to a twin-brother of two great athletes, who has been bucked and gagged, and bound hand and foot, and prostrate on his back; 'Stand up by the side of your twin-brother here, and show yourself a man,' as to say to silver, bucked and gagged, and cast down, as it is, Stand up on an equality or parity with gold.''

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SECOND CITY FATHER. "You're right there. What's best to be done to it?" "Let's have it dug up for a sewer." "But would n't it be proper to pave it first?" "Of course. I supposed you understood that. Then, after it is paved and a sewer put in we'll have it repaved."

"All in readiness to be dug up again for the gas pipe? I see you understand the principles of municipal economy. And after we have had it repaved a second time, then what?"

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Well, then, it will be in order for widening. There's nothing I admire so much as system in the care and improvement of our roadways." — Boston Transcript.

"The judges of the Superior Court in this county are engaged in making citizens at the rate of nearly a hundred a day. The judges have different sets of questions, each being guided by his own opinion as to what should constitute the qualifications for citizenship.

"Judge Shafter illustrated his method on Monday in the case of Joano Cordoza Graviella, WHO COULD NOT SPEAK A WORD OF ENGLISH, AND SUBMITTED TO EXAMINATION THROUGH THE INTERVENTION OF AN INTERPRETER.

"Do you belong to any labor organization or union?' asked the Court.

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WHEELBARROW ARTICLES AND DISCUSSIONS ON THE LABOR QUESTION.

By M. M. Trumbull. The Open Court Publishing Company.

LIVE QUESTIONS, INCLUDING OUR PENAL MACHINERY AND ITS VICTIMS.

By J. P. Altgeld. Donohue, Henneberry & Co.

ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE KING'S PEACE, AND THE ENGLISH PEACEMAGISTRACY.

By G. E. Howard. University of Nebraska. THE LAW OF WAGES, THE RATE AND AMOUNT.

By J. Richards. San Francisco Indus. Publishing Company.

THE ANNUAL STATISTICIAN AND ECONO

MIST.

L. P. McCarthy, editor and publisher. CRIMINAL CODE OF OHIO, WITH FORMS, PRECEDENTS, AND DIGEST OF DECIS

IONS.

Robert Clarke & Co.

THE PACIFIC REPORTER, Vols. XXII., XXIII.

Containing all the decisions of the Supreme Courts of California, Colorado, Kansas, Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Washington, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico. West Publishing Company.

UNITED STATES BUREAU OF STATISTICS.

Abs. No. 12: Finance, Coinage, Commerce, Immigration, Shipping, Postal Service, Population, Railroads, Agriculture. Government Printing Office.

WISCONSIN UNDER FRENCH DOMINION.

By S. S. Hebberd. Midland Pub. Co. CUSTOMS ADMINISTRATIVE ACT.

With digest and explanation of its provisions.

By W. McKinley. R. F. Downing & Co.

POWER AND WEAKNESS OF MONEY.
By J. H. Worcester. Presb. Pub. Co.
AMERICAN AND ENGLISH ENCYCLOPÆDIA
OF LAW, Vol. 13. [Least to Marl.]

J. Houston Merrill, Ed. E. Thompson Company.

PAPERS OF

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ASSOCIATION.

G. P. Putnam's Sous.

CONFLICTS OF CAPITAL AND LABOR HISTORICALLY CONSIDERED.

A history and review of the trade-unions. By G. Howell. Macmillan & Co. HANDBOOK OF POLITICS FOR 1890.

A record of important political action, legislative, executive, and judicial; national and state. August, 1888, to July, 1890.] By E. McPherson. J. J. Chapman. SUPREME COURT OF MICHIGAN.

Cases decided from Feb. 8 to June 7, 1889.
Callaghan & Co.

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL HISTORY OF NEW
ENGLAND.

By W. B. Weeden. Houghton, Mifflin & C'o. WANT AND WEALTH.

A discussion of some economic dangers of the day.

By E. J. Shriver. G. P. Putnam's Sons. SUPREME COURT DECISIONS OF INDIANA, for November, 1889, MARYLAND COURT OF APPEALS, for April and October, 1889, NEW YORK COURT OF APPEALS, from March to October, 1889.

NEW YORK CODE OF CIVIL PROCEDURE.
Annotated and indexed to June, 1889.
II. B. Parsons.

AMERICAN AND ENGLISH CORPORATION CASES, both private and municipal.

J. C. Thompson, Ed. E. Thompson Co. THEORY OF CREDIT, 2 vols.

By H. Dunning McCleod. Longmans, Green & Co.

A VINDICATION FROM A NORTHERN STANDPOINT OF GEN. ROBERT E. LEE AND HIS FELLOW-OFFICERS FROM THE CHARGE OF TREASON.

By Talbot Sweeney. H. M. Stark & Co.

A RARE OPPORTUNITY.

The following miscellaneous list of books we will furnish, for thirty days only, at fifty per cent discount from the list price. When copies are ordered by mail, ten per cent of the list price must be added for postage:

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The Life of Young Sir Henry Vane - James K. Hosmer
Napoleon in Exile (2 vols.) Barry E. O'Meary

Payen's Industrial Chemistry

History of Astronomy during the Nineteenth Century - Clerke
The Thoughts of the Emperor M. Aurelius Antoninus

Translated by Long.

Eighteenth Century Essays - Austin Dobson

British Novelists and their Styles - Masson

English Humorists Wm. M. Thackeray

Great French Writers: George Sand, Montesquieu, Victor Cousin,

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Heartsease; or, The Brother's Wife Charlotte M. Yonge

1.00

Alfred Mudge & Son, Printers, Boston.

Address.

TO-DAY, 3 Beacon Street,

BOSTON, MASS.

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