been small, and not to be compared to that from 1879 to 1887, when it advanced from 19,769 to 28,763.

The Pope has summoned the four Irish archbishops to Rome, and has commanded them to bring with them their senior suffragan bishops. The Irish politicians believe that this indicates the Pope's desire to assemble a representative council of the Irish Catholic Church, and to make an effort to assist the English Tories at a critical time. The Pope is interested in keeping the Tories in power, as a Liberal Government would not continue the negotiations in relation to Maltese marriages.

During the last year the amount of losses paid by the New York insurance companies to policy-holders or their heirs was $79,300,000, and the amount paid out during the same period by these same companies for commissions, salaries, medical fees, and other expenditures, exclusive of dividends, to either stock or policy holders, was $35,000,000. Thus the total expenditures were $114,300,000, and of this 314 per cent went for the various expenditures named; that is, it cost $31.50 to pay every $68.60 of just claim.

The Russianizing of Finland is pursued by the government with great energy. Since the Russian postal laws were introduced there, only about three months ago, the censor has taken hold of the Finnish press, and several editors have been heavily fined for writing against the encroachment of Russia upon the autonomy of the province. The Russian language will be a compulsory subject of instruction in the Finnish schools next season, and the curriculum of these schools has been fashioned in such a manner that within four years all subjects of instruction will be taught in Russian, and no schoolbooks but those of the general empire will be used.

Including seven stretched across the bed of the Atlantic between this continent and Europe, there are now in existence 949 submarine cables. The various overland telegraphic systems have a total of 1,680,900 miles of wire. The United States contains 776,500 miles of stretched wire, France 220,890, and Great Britain 180,000 miles. The number of messages sent last year over the wires in the three countries named was 136,000,000. Probably the total given includes the wire used in the telegraphic lines in China. That country is pretty well supplied interiorly, and just now arrangements are being made to connect its capital with Russian lines in the Amoor valley, which will place China in full electric communication with all parts of the civilized world.

TO-DAY, OCT. 30, 1890.

A record of the facts and considerations which show that Individual Liberty is good for the people of the United States, and that, therefore, Legislative Regulation is injurious for them.

J. MORRISON-FULLER, WALTER C. ROSE, Editors.

And, when one beats the man to his last hold, Policing people efficaceously,

More to their profit - most of all to his own. - Browning.

IV. It is an invariable rule that the sun rises in the east: how shall an invariable political rule be discovered? Certainly not otherwise than was the astronomical rule discovered. The facts must be collected and compared; if a common element is found running through them all, that will be an invariable rule. Men with sense enough to discover will have sense enough to profit by the discovery.

Backwards.

A dispatch from Logansport, Progressing Ind., gives an account of the return home of a girl who mysteriously disappeared from there ten years ago, at the age of sixteen. She proved to be insane, and the dispatch cheerfully informs the world that she has "partially recovered her reason since her confinement in juil.”

The opinion has become somewhat common of late that certain criminal instincts are allied to insanity; but one would hardly have looked for the inference that therefore the insane should be treated like criminals and confined in penal institutions. Such an instance does not bespeak a very high type of civilization; but the explanation is to be found in the fact that this was a case of public charity. Could any one have been found to suggest such a disposition of this woman, if it had not come to be accepted almost as a truism that the State should care for all the unfortunate?

The loving-kindness and tender mercies of city charity are well illustrated in those cities where police patrol wagons are used instead of ambulances for conveying the sick and the injured to hospitals.

These are generally open wagons, and they are seldom provided with mattresses and nicely adjusted springs, by which much of the pain caused to sufferers by jolting and jarring over pavements might be spared. It

may be said that if cities did not take this work upon themselves, no provision at all would be make for it; but the amount which is subscribed every year for charities much less imperatively necessary than this makes it probable that this would not be neglected. It would certainly be an anomaly to see private charitable institutions carting the sick and injured from one place to another in vehicles little better fitted for the purpose than truck or furniture wagons.

Trusts.

The tendency to think that every institution which springs up will be permanent unless artificial means are taken to repress it is well illustrated by the popular demand made upon legislators that they devise some means for suppressing "trusts." Thus far the laws adopted have not been very effective, their chief influence having been to cause a few of the trusts to change their names. The conditions, the chief of which is the tariff, seem to be favorable to the formation of trusts; and when any mode of business is exceptionally profitable, very stringent laws are necessary to prevent men from following this method.

But it is not likely that the conditions will be permanent. The people will not probably always submit to the exactions of the present tariff, and the more exorbitant the exactions are the sooner they will be abolished. In order that a trust may be successful it must virtually control the business in which it is formed; and the growth of the country alone will make this more and more difficult. Moreover, the complexity of modern business is continually increasing, and this makes its management by several persons almost impossible.

"The monarchical structure of money business increases as society goes on, just as the corresponding structure of war business does, and for the same reasons. In primitive times a battle depended as much upon the prowess of the best fighting men― of some Hector or some Achilles - as on the good science of the general. But nowadays it is some man at the far end of a telegraph wire, - a Count Moltke, with his head over some papers, who sees that the proper persons are slain, and who secures the victory. So in commerce. The primitive weavers are separate men with looms apiece, the primitive weapon-makers separate men with flints apiece; there is no organized action, no planning, contriving, or foreseeing in either trade, except on the smallest scale; but now the whole affair is one of money and management; of a thinking man in a dark office, computing the price of guns or worsteds. No doubt in some simple trades

these essential calculations can be verified by several persons, by a board of directors, or something like it. But these trades, as painful experience now shows, are very few; the moment there comes anything difficult or complicated the board' does not see its way'; and then, except it is protected by a monopoly, or something akin to a monopoly, the individual capitalist beats it out of the field."- BAGEHOT, "Postulates."

Reciprocity.

Occasionally some of the advocates of a high tariff are disturbed by doubts whether such a policy is not selfish and "egotistical," and whether other nations would not be justified in adopting a retaliatory policy towards us. It is, perhaps, well for us to be filled with a sense of our own importance; we are a great country, as our orators are so fond of pointing out. Wheat, and corn, and cotton we can produce in quantities unequalled, and in some branches of manufacturing we surpass any other nation. But it is also well to recognize the fact that the earth is a great deal larger place than the United States; the sixty-five millions of population which we still claim, notwithstanding the last census, is less than five per cent of the population of the world; if we can get along very well without the world, it is still more certain that the world can get along very well without us. This being so, we need not shrink from reproaches of selfishness if we lay out our national policy with a sole regard to our own interests. If of two policies equally beneficial to us one would be much more beneficial to other nations, I suppose even the most demagogic Republican politician would not make objection to pursuing that one. In strictness, however, other nations have no claim upon us even for this regard of their interests only that our policy shall not be one of aggression upon them.

But we are not willing to get along entirely without the rest of the world. We produce more wheat and cotton than we can consume, and we have a strong desire to sell the surplus to other nations. They, however, are not willing to confine the trade entirely to wheat and cotton; they wish to extend the trade to other articles in which it would be profitable to them (and to us also, otherwise there would be no need of laws forbidding it). Suppose, in consequence of our refusal to do this, they should say, "Let us speak to these Americans in the only language they can un

derstand that of dollars; let us supply them a clear mercenary motive for abandoning their restrictions upon trade; let us discriminate against American wheat and cotton in favor of the wheat and cotton which come from Russia and India, which are already strong competitors in our markets." This country would certainly have no just ground for complaint. England, and France, and Germany have a right to buy their wheat of Russia, instead of from us even to pay more for it than we ask, if they choose. If our policy of restriction is likely to have that effect, and there are some signs that it is likely, then that must be taken into account in determining the wisdom of the policy.

--

Justice.

That justice is an expensive comQuick Tariff, Slow modity in the United States will need no proving to those who have made the trial. Many special illustrations might be given. In Wisconsin the habit of transferring cases from the State to the fcderal courts whenever the circumstances made it possible became such a serious injury to citizens that a law was passed there revoking the license of foreign corporations which so transferred suits against them. The federal courts were so overcrowded that the trial of cases before them meant interminable delay and interminable expense. Congress has not attended to the relief of these courts. Justice limps and lawyers ride. At first glance it may not seem that justice belongs among the commodities whose price is raised by the tariff. But this is a mistake. No less surely than the price of a tin cup is the price of justice raised by the tariff. At the last session of Congress the price of justice was raised. Attendance to the tariff has prevented attendance to justice. Congressmen were studying the "interests" of their constituents: what time have they to study justice? what time have they to study the dockets of the courts? And just as every citizen in the United States will have to pay more for what he eats, drinks, and is clothed with, so will every citizen find that the price of justice has been raised by that same tariff, by whatever indirection. Nor need any one think that he will escape simply by keeping outside the courthouse. The cost of law gets distributed as surely as a tax. The mode of distribution need not be very clear in order that its reality may be recognized. The rate of interest is

probably the lever by which our pockets will be lightened on account of the law's delays.

Federal

As the political campaign proElections. gresses, the effectiveness of the Republican advocacy of the Federal Elections Bill may be approximately estimated. The reception accorded to this bill is of a kind to afford encouragement to those who believe in popular government. That the people have not been more deceived by the somewhat specious arguments put forward seems to show that the demagogues have underestimated their intelligence. There seems to be little public sentiment in favor of the bill in any section of the country. The majority of white men in these United States are Democrats. A constantly decreasing minority seeks, by alliance with an inferior race, to retain control of the Government. The attempt does not excite much enthusiasm among members of the white minority, and the negroes seem to be rather apathetic. It is certain that no alliance of this sort could be permanently successful; every party which has made the negro a chief factor in its influence has come to grief, and there is every reason to think that a dishonest device like the Lodge Bill would be even less effectual than other and bolder ones which have already been tried.

An Assault

ular Idol.

It has been remarked that this upon a Pop- is an age of iconoclasm, and now Mr. Robert Lincoln comes forward and does his best to shatter almost the last popular idol left us. He probably knows his father's character better than we who have formed our opinions of it from books and hearsay, and he writes from England to tell us that if Abraham Lincoln were alive now and living in Pennsylvania he would support the Republican ticket in that State. Accord

ing to the popular estimate of Abraham Lincoln's character, he would conscientiously inquire which party is in the right, and would not help elect as governor a known wire-puller, or worse, at the dictation of the party he helped to found, in order to vindicate another known scoundrel. If Abraham Lincoln could come back now and make the acquaintance of the Republican party as it is at present, he would not claim any credit for being identified with such a party as one of its founders, unless the popular idea of him is completely erroneous.

A few weeks ago the obscure Barbarous editors of To-DAY were described Charity.

by Mr. T. W. Higginson in Harper's Bazar as the advocates of a course of action characterized by him as "scientific barbarism." Now" scientific," coming from Mr. Higginson, is a word of very questionable significance; but of the meaning of "barbarism "there can be little doubt. The particular design thus affiliated with barbarism was the opposition to the public schools, one ground for the opposition being the fact that, by means of these schools, unearned benefits are conferred on unfit persons. That unearned benefits might also be conferred on fit persons if such a statement be not selfcontradictory—has never been denied by us. Even if this be granted, the fact that benefits are conferred on untit persons can hardly cease to be an objection on that account; and just why insistence on this objection should be characterized as barbarism has never been quite so clear to us as we might desire. We now wait to see whether Mr. Higginson will choose the appropriate columns of Harper's Bazar in which to express his opinion of the statements of a less obscure writer, statements to very much the same purpose and effect, although not applied to the public schools. In the Contemporary Review for October, Sir Morell Mackenzie says:—

I do not hesitate to say that the out-patient department in hospitals where patients contribute nothing towards the expense of their treatment is the greatest pauperizing agency at present existing in this country.* It is quite hopeless to expect that ignorant people will make any provision against a possible day of sickness as long as they can, without payment, command what they believe to be the best medical skill in the country, for anything that may happen to them, from a cut finger to a tumor in the brain. So far from thinking it any disgrace to accept medical charity, they come to look upon treatment at a hospital as something altogether different from outdoor relief, -something, in fact, to which they have a natural right, and which blesseth both him that gives and him that takes. This spirit is too often encouraged by subscribers, who give "letters," without regard to the patient's circumstances, etc.

Now, mutatis mutandis, everything here said against miscellaneous hospital charity because of the pauperizing effect is of course equally true of tax-supported schools, and I have quoted the statements not less,

* England.

but more, willingly because they refer directly to something else, the relation to the public-school question being left to inference. Some who believe with us that it is worse to make two paupers live than to let one die would be inclined, perhaps, to say that the pauperizing tendency of the schools is much greater than that of the cruel charity Dr. Mackenzie describes. But, avoiding even the appearance of exaggeration, let us say that the effect is equally bad. Such a result constitutes an objection to the public schools, - not a conclusive objection, to be sure, but still an objection; for conclusivenss in these complex matters is seldom found so near to hand: for that we must labor long and hard. Mr. Higginson says that this objection savors of scientific barbarism—whether it is barbarously scientific or scientifically barbarous does not appear, nor does it matter. What has he to say to Dr. Mackenzie?

Parental Rights.

The Connecticut" Board of Luand Charity" in November, nacy 1888, got possession of the children of a man named Kelley, now living at Killingly, Conn. At that time the family lived at a town called Berlin. The commissioners, in the exercise of the power committed to them by the people of the State, and of such discretion as Providence had granted them, decided that these children were growing up" without education or salutary control, and in circumstances exposing them to lead an idle and dissolute life," and accordingly they took possession of the children. I give the names, place, and date because it seems from the report that this is a somewhat unique case. Apparently, the children of Connecticut are fortunate beyond all other children in this world. The commissioners, in the fulfilment of their appointed duty, sought out a family in which the children were growing up without "salutary control, and in circumstances exposing them to lead an idle and dissolute life!" Why, anywhere else such a commission would have to turn the whole State into one great asylum of "Lunacy and Charity !" How is it that in Connecticut a case like this happens so rarely that reports of it are sent out to newspapers over the country? Are these children then (and one or two others, let us suppose, whom the commissioners had already rescued) the only ones found there "in circumstances exposing them to lead an idle and disso

lute life "? closely:

At that time the father and children were living in the town of Berlin, and complaint was made . . . Stop! Stop right here till you have understood what that means: complaint was made.. Does not this suggest a possible explanation of the fact that the whole State of Connecticut is not an asylum of lunacy and charity, but, on the contrary, a prosperous American commonwealth? By whom was the complaint made? The report does not state, but we shall not be far wrong in assuming that it was by some neighbor - they are always ready to look after other people's children at a third party's expense. Well, then, in Connecticut, when a neighbor has complained that another man's children are exposed to the temptations of "an idle and dissolute life," the commissioners of lunacy and charity intervene and take possession of the children. Pleasant little device that. If it were not in Connecticut, one would be tempted to recall the fact that spite and malice have been known ere now to control men's action. But at any rate the Superior Court gives the children in charge to the commissioners till they shall have reached the "age of twenty-one years, unless, in the judgment of the board, the object of the commitment should be sooner accomplished."

(Twenty-one, you know, is a magic age, after which no thought or deed can taint the youthful mind). And the children being "committed"-quite an appropriate term on the whole-are placed in an asylum, or public house of some sort. These institutions from time immemorial have been models of virtuous influence. No breath of scandal has ever been breathed against their sanctified domesticity. Outside, children may lack education, and be placed under conditions. leading to idle and dissolute habits. But within! The home of thrift itself, and a very shrine of purity. There they are rescued from the evil contamination of a parent's ways, saved from a parent's neglect, savedby the Commissioners of Lunacy and Charity. Meanwhile, the father, freed from the charge of support, freed from the few remaining bonds which had held him to the family, emancipated at last from the unwelcome constraints of blood and opinion, plunges deeper into the mire of vice, and soon into crime. But the State has saved the children. Is it not so? Again let us consult the report: