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of exacting tribute from persons or corporations interested in legislation. Their combination gives them the power to wield a compact body of votes for or against a measure, and makes it worth while for those interested in bills to propitiate them."

The people pay salaries to all senators, their representatives in Congress and state legislatures.

The description of the lobby tells a melancholy tale of impure republican institutions, and the following address, issued previous to the 1890 elections by the People's Municipal League in the city of New York, does not seem overdrawn :

"We make no charges against individuals, for we have confidence in many who are now in official positions, but we distinctly impugn the methods and habits that have for a

long time prevailed in almost every department of our city government.

"Men are placed in important posts

of honour and trust who are notoriously of depraved life, the frequenters of liquor saloons and houses of vice, and educationally unfitted for any municipal duties. They manage their official influence solely for their personal profit, or for the furtherance of the party that gave them their position. "All public interests under such control either languish or are directly injured. The immense income of the city is fearfully squandered, and under pretence of urban improvement, jobs are created which never realise the improvement, but put thousands of plunder into the pockets of contractors and their governmental allies.

"But this waste of money is the least evil. Loose views and practices are popularised. Dishonesty in many forms pervades the community and loses its disgraceful stigma.

"The police, who should be the picked men of character in the community, are notoriously in the pay of the law-breakers, the high officials and the courts of this department being thoroughly tainted with public suspicion.

"The Excise Board make it easy for the disturbers of the peace to ply their vocation, and protect them against the complaints of outraged citizens. Money is found to be the key to open any difficulty and to shut off the efforts of justice. The poor are therefore oppressed, and have no measure of relief.

"Every position, however humble, under the Government, must be bought. The poor man who cannot obtain the hundred or the thousand dollars necessary has no chance. Fitness for the place is of no account. Money and party are the only watchwords that gain an entrance. The effect of such an administration on public morals cannot be overestimated.

"In commercial circles the young men are tempted to follow the example of the officials who flourish by fraud, and as a consequence we have constant robberies by trusted clerks and defalcations by esteemed bank officers, so that public confidence is shaken in the institutions erected for public security. The whole tone of

intercourse between man and man, as seen from the records in the daily

papers, is lowered, and false dealing

is looked upon as a trifle."

was

The People's Municipal League started by clergymen and prominent citizens. It embraces clergymen of all religious beliefs, Roman Catholic, Jewish, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Reformed Dutch, Congregational, Methodist, &c. The address is more or less applicable to every township, village, county, city, and state in the Union.

To instance the extent to which the moneyed class can manage to escape their full share of public burdens, and consequently force the poorer classes to pay more than their share: The personal property of the city of New York was for taxation purposes valued at $1,638,000,000, and was, in terms of law, got reduced to $229,000,000 by those liable to pay tax, who "swore off," as it is termed. Thus, of over 24,000 who were assessed, only 13,980 paid tax on personal property. The population of the city is about 1,700,000, so it would appear that only one out of every 120 of the inhabitants pays personal taxes. It has been said that the rich man pays what he pleases, and makes his own terms with the authorities.

The above skeleton of what might be written plainly shows that the inalienable rights of man are no more respected in the United States of America than in any other civilised or uncivilised country upon the face of the earth. Republicanism as practised there is a snare and delusion. There is no worse tyranny or despotism to be found in any other country. How long shall it last?

Printed by William Blackwood and Sons.

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THE POPE AND HIS WRITINGS. BY DR SIGMUND MÜNZ,
CONTRAST. BY SIR HERBERT MAXWELL, BART., M.P.,
WAYS AND WHIMS OF FRESH-WATER FISHES.

749

765

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CHRONICLES OF WESTERLY: A PROVINCIAL SKETCH. CHAPS.

XI.-XIII.,

788

THE GROWING UNPOPULARITY OF MILITARY SERVICE. II.
BY MAJOR-GENERAL F. CHENEVIX TRENCH, C.M.G.,
A NIGHT IN A HAYSTACK; OR, A TRIAL FOR THE DERBY.

804

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SQUIRE DOOT OF DOOT HALL, DOOT HILL, IRELAND, .
RICHARD DE LA POLE, "WHITE ROSE." BY HENRY W. WOLFF,

823

831

:

A TROUBLE BEFORE AMERICA, BY WARNEFORD MOFFATT,
JEWISH COLONIES IN PALESTINE. BY MAJOR C. R. CONDER, R.E.,
INDEX,

848

856

871

NEW YORK:

LEONARD SCOTT PUBLICATION COMPANY,
231 BROADWAY.

WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS, EDINBURGH.

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IF we would know the true inner nature of the present occupant of St Peter's throne, Leo XIII., we should turn to his written utterances, and study the man as he reveals himself in his writings. Above all, this can be done in the poems which the Pope indites. It is evident that he has recourse to writing them whenever anything rouses him or moves him deeply; hence they form the most intimate expression of his being. True, out of these verses there issue none of those universal harmonies which would lead us to seek a world within the confines of one single personality; nevertheless, they are so integral that we gather from them the just impression of a life that is in itself a unity, complete and entire, and which throughout all outer phases has never changed its inner and harmonious character. The history of the Pope is that of a man who, thanks to his own character and endowments, has raised himself to the giddy height of papal power-a position in which he

VOL. CXLIX. - NO. DCCCCVIII.

has distinguished himself by solid capacity rather than by brilliant qualities.

In Latin distichs this PoetPontiff has told the story of his life. The poem was written by him while Bishop of Perugia-a position he filled for thirty years, his hold on that diocese coinciding with the pontifical reign of his predecessor, Pius IX.

"Umbros en iterum fines, urbemque revisis, Quam tibi divino flamine iungit amor."

What an epoch that was! Rich in battle, in suffering, in victory, and in defeat-eventful and ever memorable for Italy. And just as Pecci's pastorals distinguished themselves from those of the other Umbrian prelates by the vigour of their thought and expression, so did the man himself range head and shoulders above these same bishops by the manner in which he conducted the struggle of the clerical party against the military might of young Italy, which was ever pressing onwards from Pie3 c

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