loveliness of this Englishwoman's character. The reviewer's endeavor would be even more difficult than the biographer's. Born in 1807 of the best Quaker blood in England, Miss Pease married in 1853 Prof. of Scotland. Nichol, Astronomer Royal She was widowed in 1860, and survived until 1897. We are given three portraits of her. That which pleases us most is at the age of seventy, showing her still in the plenitude of her Her feapowers. tures, seventeen years later, in their almost leonine nobility, might well be taken for those of Mr. Gladstone. From Quakerism-at its best, as we have said-her mind expanded, mainly under the influence of the anti-slavery movement, to the broadest Christianity. She was actively engaged in all the liberal philanthropic movements of her time. Either as guests at her father's house in Darlington, at her married home in Glasgow, or her final retreat at in Huntly Lodge, Edinburgh, or spondence, there stud the pages before us the names of such men and women as Wilberforce and Clarkson, George Stephenson, O'Connell, Garrison, Phillips, Thompson, Harriet Martineau, and all the anti-slavery set; Cobden and Bright, W. E. Foster, Gladstone, John Dillon; Mazzini, Kossuth, and Garibaldi. corre For American readers, the chief interest in Miss Pease lies in her intimate relations to the American abolitionists, and especially to their leader; and these have been set forth on an ample scale in the Life of Garrison, to whom she was in England what Mrs. Chapman was in America. Before his first visit abroad, however, she was already schooled in the cause by assisting her father and his associates in abolishing slavery in the British West Indies, as later in terminating the apprenticeship system imposed by the half-hearted emancipation act of 1833. The methods of agitation and information of the public mind then employed were most sagaciously and industriously used for the overthrow of slavery in the United States by casting the moral weight of Great Britain into the scale against the power which was on the side of the oppressor. They were equally available on behalf of the natives of India as against the East India Company; or against the corn laws and in support of the Chartists; against male monopoly of the higher education; against the Contagious Diseases Acts; against cruelty to animals. No humane interest was foreign to her as Miss Pease or Mrs. Nichol, and she brought to each a rare degree of business and executive ability. Her old age was beautiful in the extreme, and, even when sightless, she was all alive to the politics and the philanthropy of the hour, as well as to her numerous friendships on both sides of the Atlantic. A perusal of this biography suggests a consideration of how much the world has lost in the practical abandonment by Quakerism-by British Quakerism, at least-of its most moving peculiarities (which, however, Mrs. Nichol never lost). Apart from church government and forms of worship, and as yet a lingering greater simplicity of social life, there is little now to distinguish Friends from members of other religious bodies. The scruples have mostly vanished. We have seen the list of Friend stock-broking firm, one of whose embers preaches in meeting, in which ires in taverns, breweries, and theatres a are advertised. We are not aware of any collective protest having been made by the Society against the Transvaal war even as war. On the contrary, more strenuous individual testimony against it has been borne by individual members of other bodies than by individual Friends. Friends now without objection don the military garb of Deputy-Lieutenants of counties. Entering the civil service and professions, they have lost their old independence of thought and action, and compound for (in the main) abandoning their old humanitarian rôle at home and abroad by principally devoting themselves to foreign missions, in which sphere they run no chance of endangering personal interests. It was not so when Quakerism gave birth to spirits like Elizabeth Pease Nichol. The Family of William Penn. By Howard M. Jenkins. Philadelphia: The Author. 1899. In this considerable work Mr. Jenkins has collected all that he could gather on the genealogy of the Penn family. He has not undertaken to make it a history of the Penns, for that would have led him far into the rise and position of the Quakers in England and the founding and early records of Pennsylvania. Confining himself as he does to the immediate family, he has been obliged to omit much of a more general interest bearing upon the intentions of the colonizers and their relations to state policy. As it is, the record was not a simple one to compile, for authorities have been contradictory, and the loss or absence of important links in the chain of evidence has given occasion to conjecture. The name and tradition point to a Welsh origin for the family, but the first authentic records begin with the fourth generation from William Penn, and locate his ancestor in the County of Gloucester. It was Admiral Penn who gave the family prominence, and he would not be so well known but for the many references, complimentary and otherwise, given to him and his doings by Pepys. The son of the Admiral was William Penn, whose religious experiences and the hardships and reputation gained through them, are too familiar to need summarizing. Mr. Jenkins refutes the story that Penn died insane, but shows him embarrassed in means, in spite of his American principality. His widow was at times hard pushed to obtain so small a sum as ten pounds. Among the original documents printed by Mr. Jenkins are some interesting letters of Hannah, the wife of William Penn, They throw light upon the household of the founder, and incidentally point to her struggle to obtain the means to meet the current expenses of her family. Some slaves were included in the estate, and she wrote: "The young Blacks must be dispos'd of to prevent their increasing Charge. I have offer'd my Daughter Aubrey one, but she does not care for any. I would, however, have ye likelyest Boy reserv'd, and bred to reading & sobriety as intending him for my self, or one of my children." The worthless son, William, sought to overthrow his father's will, and laid claim to the proprietorship of Pennsylvania, but was defeated in the attempt, and died soon after. His half-brother, Thomas, became principal proprietor, and held the trust for nearly thir ty years, although residing in America only nine years. It was his nephew John who was Governor of Pennsylvania when the Revolution caused the collapse of all the Penn interests in the colony, with a loss amounting to nearly $7,500,000, the larger part of which was represented by unsold lands. Pennsylvania voted him a large sum after the peace, and a royal pension was given to him for his loyalty. The early marriage of John is lightly touched upon, but not explained, and the family history of the brothers is given. Mr. Jenkins has drawn largely from the manuscripts of the Pennsylvania Historical Society, and has made an interesting compilation, of which the general accuracy is very high. The book has many portraits. A Political History of Europe since 1814. By Charles Seignobos. Translation edited by S. M. Macvane. Henry Holt & Co. 1899. Whenever translation renders an important work accessible to a large audience which would otherwise be deprived of its use, the translator's services should be swiftly recognized and defined. Prof. Macvane says, with studied moderation: "The Histoire Politique de l'Europe Contemporaine,' by Prof. Seignobos, seems to me to merit larger use among people of English speech than it is likely to receive in the original French"; and, in fact, the book in question is one of very high importance to all who read history, and especially to such as are not engaged in its professional study. If a reader is prevented by circumstances from making his own investigations, he is a good deal at the mercy of his author, and, accordingly, the latter's fairness or unfairness becomes of the first consequence. Most of all is this true where recent history is concerned. Now Prof. Seignobos, apart from his splendid store of knowledge, both mediaval and modern, his skill in putting a statement clearly, and his general cleverness, yields to no one in sincerity of tone. Prof. Macvane counts among his author's various good qualities a "thorough freedom from national or other prejudice." The praise is just, and carries a special meaning when elicited by a work upon the present subject. For instance, if one were comparing Seignobos with Fyffe in the matter of impartiality, the Frenchman would be called quite the more impersonal of the two. Prof. Macvane found the English chapters of the book less satisfactory than the others, but none of their shortcomings can be ascribed to a polemical spirit. Seignobos is learned, accomplished, clear, and the appearance in our language of his 'Histoire Contemporaine' must be a source of satisfaction to others besides college teachers and their classes. The translation, with its index, contains more than 880 pages (or about four-fifths of the number in Fyffe), and is accordingly so long that we are unable to analyze the body of contents; but, with the aid of the author's preface, we shall try to explain the purpose which the work contemplates. Seignobos begins with a query. Having admitted his rashness in publishing a one-volume history of contemporary Europe, he proceeds: "The question is, not whether this history be worth reading, but whether it can be written." An overwhelming sup ply of material blocks the way, for since vigorous historical method demands the direct study of the sources, the conscientious inquirer is brought to a halt. "The life of one man would not be long enough, I do not say to study or to criticise, but to read the official documents of even a single country of Europe." A modern author must yield to practical necessities, and make his attempt under limitations which are none the less strict because inevitable and clearly defined. Thus beset, Seignobos falls back on "monographs, special histories, and annual publications, all made at first hand." These furnish a solid framework of fact, and, where doubt arises over their accuracy, they can be easily controlled by comparison and other simple tests. A second difficulty, that arising from the citation of authorities, is partially met by frequent reference to selected bibliographies. The chapters are short, and at the end of each a list of sources and works is given. By avoiding the establishment of disputed facts and the discovery of new ones, the text is still further compressed. Lastly, the author has renounced "all attempts at full narrative, all descriptions, character-sketches, and anecdotes; such things being nearly always matters of dispute." We dwell at length upon the method which Seignobos employs because his book is extraordinarily useful and its scope should be fully outlined. Erudition, controversy, and picturesqueness he eschews in order to accomplish one end. "My aim has been to enable my readers to comprehend the essential phenomena of the political life of Europe in the nineteenth century, by explaining the organization of the nations, governments, and parties, the political questions which have arisen in the course of the century, and the solutions they have received. I have tried to write an explanatory history." Social, intellectual, and artistic phenomena are strictly excluded, and if any non-political facts are used, it is simply in a context which connects them with politics. Seignobos's 'Contemporary Europe' is, then, a masterly explanation of political movements. It begins at the Congress of Vienna, and reaches a very recent date in the case of each country or of each episode considered. The author does not commit himself, hands bound, to any special form of treatment, whether comparative, chronological, or geographical. Throughout the greater part of the work he follows a geographical line of division, beginning with England, "which furnished the model of political organization for all Europe," and ending with "the group of eastern states, Ottoman and Russian, which have longest retained the political forms of the eighteenth century." When he wishes to consider the material conditions of political life, the state of the Roman Church, and the international parties of revolution, he uses a comparative method. And when he passes the external relations of states under review (e. g., the System of Metternich, Rivalry between Russia and England, the Nationalist Wars, and the Armed Peace) he observes the order of time. Each passage is carefully wrought, and the combination of passages forms a luminous whole. Prof. Macvane is responsible for the quality of the translation, but it will be noticed that on the title-page he speaks of himself as an editor. "Most of the actual labor of translation has been done by another." The English version is correct and smooth, and a good index has been added. Prof. Macvane, however, has not limited himself to contributing the preface. He has "freely revised and partly rewritten the chapters on England" because they seemed not quite to equal the remainder of the volume in excellence. We need only say of the changes that they have not reached the point of structural alteration, and are an improvement upon the original. We have described the character of this treatise so far as possible in its own words and from its own standpoint. Its value is so great because it represents admirable knowledge and discernment, together with skill in the rapid explanation of large questions. For the early stages of university work it is too advanced, but for maturer undergraduates as well as for adults it must prove an invaluable guide. Under Three Flags in Cuba. By George Clarke Musgrave. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. 1899. This narrative purports to be "a personal account of the Cuban Insurrection and Spanish-American War." According to his story, the author joined Ruis Rivera's western army, as a newspaper correspondent, just after Maceo's death; made his way into the Spanish lines; went familiarly about Havana, attended executions at Cabañas, chatted with Weyler and had some thought of kidnapping him; worked eastward again among the insurgents, meeting Gomez, Garcia, and the insurgent Government in Camaguey; saw a number of fights; returned to Havana, was imprisoned as a spy, transported to Spain, and released as a British subject in time to witness the Santiago campaign. An author with such opportunities should have written a memorable book. Perhaps the seizure of his original manuscript, "together with three hundred photographs of Weyler's régime in Cuba and some historical letters that had passed between the Captain-General and Premier Cánovas," accounts for his failure to do so. Barring his picture of the horrors of a Spanish transport and the common ill-treatment of Spanish conscripts, there is nothing new in the whole volume. Moreover, the writer's chronology is so incoherent that one follows his wanderings with difficulty; and his personal story is lost in a jungle of hearsay and extraneous matter. Even in what he describes as an eye-witness, the "journalistic" habit distorts his vision. The "swells of the organ" and "the voices of the choir" "wafted across the bay" from the Cathedral, steal upon the ears of the dying patriots at Cabañas. From Marianao (which he calls "Mariano") just beyond the River Almendares (which he calls "Almanares"), he notes the moon's "pure radiance lighting up the distant spires and domes of Havana," resting on "massive guns" where "the great Santa Clara and Vedado batteries loomed grimly in the distance," "making them gleam like polished silver," etc., etc. This is a sublimation of hearing and eye-sight-like listening to the choir of Trinity from Columbia Heights, and watching the ferry-slips at Cortlandt Street from Spuyten Duyvil! The book is characterized throughout by such loose and bom bastic writing, by misstated facts of common knowledge, and misspelled names in common use. The author claims a part in the rescue of Evangelina Cisneros, and betrays in an unconscious note (p. 104) how far the irresponsible vagaries of "yellow journalism" may go for mischief: "Mr. Decker, during the winter, formulated a plan to rescue Capt. Dreyfus, which Mr. Hearst wished to effect without causing international complications, . . . but the Maine disaster and the war diverted this unprecedented journalistic enterprise." Sextus Empiricus and Greek Scepticism. By Mary Mills Patrick. Cambridge, Eng.: Deighton, Bell & Co. 1899. it The movement called Scepticism-for cannot be called a philosophy-has never laid strong hold of the imaginations of men. There is in the human being an ingrained loye of dogmatizing; and a method which is: entirely negative and cffers nothing in place of the belief that it destroys, has little chance of taking root. The very name of the founder of the sceptic school, Pyrrho, is a secret of scholarship; for the agnostics of Greece, like their modern imitators, were not represented by any figure so commanding as to compel the attention of the ignorant. Pyrrhonism and Pyrrho are mere shadows. What layman off-hand could come within a century of the date of Sextus Empiricus, perhaps the greatest of them all? Yet, with these two men, Scepticism was much more than the mental laziness that is often the only basis of agnosticism. When we call a man a sceptic, we imply merely that he does not hold certain conventional beliefs. The followers of Pyrrho sc. directed their reasoning powers to suspend their judgment that they saw both sides of every question with perfect impartiality. Absence of dogmatism was their aim; but what actually resulted was a state of mental equi librium that cannot be distinguished from. the æquus animus of the Stoic dogmatist. Apathy follows this sort of agnosticism as if by chance, as a shadow follows the body; and this is the most positive side of a philosophy that was unique in that it drew no moral conclusions, had no criterion, and could never state the grounds of its negations. To do sc would be to dogmatize. We fear that Mrs. Patrick's volume will never reach those whose ignorance of Sextus. Empiricus it is intended to dispel. Her thesis is admirable for its purpose as a doctor's dissertation (accepted at Berne in 1897). and, as a supplement to Zeller, will be read with interest by students. Sextus Empiricus was a sceptical doctor who lived (probably) at the close of the second century A. D. He spent his life in attacking Stoic dogmatism and, in general, all the sciences that men have labored to construct. We have the "Hypotyposes," the public lectures in which he tried to demolish dogmatism, and not the least valuable part of the present work is the translation of these by the authoress. There is an interesting chapter on the relation of Pyrrhonism and the Scepticism of the Academy. If we had thought that the English of the President of a college must be above suspicion, the writer's style would be a disillusion. On p. 29 we encounter this curiously compounded sentence: "He threw the sponge at the picture that he had used to wipe the colors from the painting with." The fol lowing positively de analysis: "He states that a philosopher himself is a part of the discord, and to be judged, rather than being capable of judging” (p. 45); "Suisset is cor ... but it is not correct rect in saying . . . when we consider" (p. 57). A thesis which is published in book form invites criticism and should at least be free from bad grammar. On p. & the phrase Antigonus of Carystius is presumably a slip. A World in a Garden. By R. Neish. London: J. M. Dent & Co.; New York: Macmillan. 1839. It is the hard-won Scotch garden which, in its owner's esteem, surpasses all others. and the enthusiasm with which this author! writes of his brief northern blooms would scem exaggerated to the South, where flowers are matter of course the whole year through, and no long winter sleep adds intensity to the common joy in spring's awakening. But the "world" held by this garden is more than a collection of vegetable life. Poetry, religion, and philosophy are discussed with the plants, which our auchor finds appreciative, perhaps instructive, interlocutors; even doting upon the absence of more disputatious human neighbors. Why, then, should he seek the audience he professes to scorn, or at least disregard? The assumption that his personality is of general interest is, of course. necessary to the man who sits down to write a personal book; but when we are le into a garden only to talk about its owner, we feel a little tricked, and inclined to doubt the genuineness of his enthusiasm as a gardener, and to wonder if in other circumstances he might not have unfolded himself just the same on the text of carpets and furniture. "I have always loved Chippendale chairs," tells as much of a man's character as, "I have always loved lilies"; and equally invites the reply, "Lucky dog, to have some to love." BOOKS OF THE WEEK. Alden, R. MacD. The Rise of Formal Satire in B.S . J. Growth of Nationality in the United Bernard. Rev. J. II. The Pastoral Epistles. Mactalan. The New Democracy. Macraian. $2. Hewlett, M. Earthwork out of Tuscany. New ed. London: J. M. Dent & Co.; New York: Putnams. $2.50. Hiatt, C. Henry Irving. London: George Bell & Hons: New York: Macmillan. $3. Hast, Violet B. Prisoners of the Tower of London. London: J. M. Dent & Co.; New York: F. P. Latton & Co. $2.50. Hutton, C. A. Greek Terracotta Statuettes. Macmilian. $2.50. Jaces Emily. The English Woman's Year-Book and Directory. London: Adam & Charles Black; New York: Macmillan. $1.50. Jethaca, H The Real French Revolution. milian $1.75. Kinz Prof. F. H. MacIrrigation and Drainage. Mac ....13. $1.54. Lasciani, Prof. R. Macmillan. Left worth. W. P. Care and Treatment of EpiPutnams. $4. Letters of Benjamin Jowett, Master of Balliol College. Arranged and Edited by Evelyn Abbott and Lewis Campbell. London: John Murray; $5. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. Lily. W. 8. First Principles in Politics. Londen: John Murray: New York: Putnams. $2.50. Mac Han. H. Gleanings in Holy Fields. Mac$1.50. The Destruction of Ancient $2. Main E. Cities and Sights of Spain. London: George Bell & Sons: New York: Macmillan. $2. Mas. Rev. A. J. The Five Theological Orations of 67-285 of Nazianzus. London: C. J. Clay & Sons New York: Macmillan. $1.50. Mather F. J. Chaucer's Prologue, The Knight's Tule and the Nan's Priest's Tale from the Can* Tales. Hington, Mifflin & Co. 40c. Malfe, J. S. Mythology for Moderns. Life Pub. C $1 MR. M Die Deutsche Litteratur des NennJalchanderts. Berlin: Georg Bondi; ... Yk: LeneKe & Buechner. Men, C. G. The Bible for Home Reading. MY GUN D. Parts 1 and 2. A 34 Istion & Co. $1. Brows. Prof. W. J. Political Study. By. Bistop R. de. Phil biblon. New York: Myer Bs. & Co. $2.50 Charles, Rev. R. H. A Critical History of the Poet:le of a Future Life in Israel, in Judais.. London: Adam & Charles and in Christianity. $5. Black: New York: Macmillan. Chiniqy. Rev. C. Forty Years in the Church of $2.50. Fluing H. Rv11 Co. Christ. Cowell, B. The Hungarian Exiles. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co.; Milwaukee: Young Church an Co. $1. Crokes. Sir W. The Wheat Problem. London: $1.25 John Murray: New York: PutramDS. Cruttwell, Maud. Luca Signorell. London: George $1.75. Beil & Sons; New York: Macmillan. Dearmer, Mabel. The Book of Penny Toys. Maemillan. $2. Consumption and Chronic Dis Voices of Freedom and Studies in Boston: Richard the Philosophy of Individuality. Earle, J. Microcosmographie, & Co.: New York: Macmillan. Emerson. F... jr. Pepys's Ghost. G. Badger & Co. $1.25. Fernald. J. C. True Motherhood. Funk & Wagnalls Co. Fortesene. J. W. A History of the British Army. By MINOT J. SAVAGE, D. D. Life Beyond Death Being a review of the World's Beliefs on the Subject, a consideration of Present Conditions of Thought and Feeling, leading to the Question as to Whether it can be Demonstrated as a Fact Third Impression. 8vo, $1.50. “The book is a sane. wholesome, sunny view of Fuman nature and religions thought, ani wheth te will enjoy er a m. is very religios or Lot reading it. if is a think NZ DA. It is a bok which will bl a at mary ple, and it ought to have a wide sal."-Washington Times. This volume is dedicated to the sa who was snddenly called last spring from a life of promiso and usefulness into the great beyond; and Dr. Savage pours out his soul in the mingled lanof scrrow and faith, which puts into his hope the emotional teper of Channing and the int 11 etual spirit of Parker. It shows the strug inspiration that governs the work, and which halan's all the moral, religions, and seintide fore s world between the elaitas of scientine method the ideal of religion. The book taquestion ally naiks a tremen one naeffen against the materialism of the past. -hristian Register. in G. P. Putnam's Sons, 27 AND 29 WEST 23D ST., - NEW YORK A Handbook of CUBA, PORTO RICO, HAWAII, and the PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. OUR ISLAND EMPIRE By CHARLES MORRIS. With Maps. 12mo, cloth, $1.50. For sale by all booksellers. J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, Publishers, Phila. N $2.50. D. A. Plate Trigonometry for Colleges Seondary Schools. Longmans, Green & Co. Bastido the Soul of Japan. Philadpla: The Levis & Biddle Co. $1. Highways and Byways in York$2. 3. A H Rye, Prof. J. Macmillan. $3. Suskespeare, W. One Year of Sunday-School The World and the Individual, Tempest. Bos X NEW YORK, THURSDAY, JANUARY 25, 1900. The Week. The agreement reached in the Senate fixing the 15th of February as the day to vote on the currency bill is the most encouraging event that has taken place in Congress since the bill was first reported to the House. This agreement is an assurance that the bill will pass; but that assurance has been given in other ways, and more especially in the manifest indifference of the Democrats to the whole subject. Their opposition has been growing fainter and fainter all the time. The Democratic newspapers throughout the country treat the bill for the most part with silence. Even the speech made by Senator Teller on Wednesday week was much less forceful and energetic than his former efforts. It betokens clearly that he, for one, has thrown up the sponge. If we contrast this vapid and spiritless behavior of the silver men with their fight against the repeal of the Sherman law in 1893, when it seemed as though we were on the eve of a revolution because the Democrats would not allow a vote to be taken, it needs no oracle to tell us that the end has come, that the question of the monetary standard is at last definitively settled, and will vex the hearts of the business men no more. The Democrats are trying to retire under cover of the national-bank question, and it is well enough to let them do so. The maxim which says, "Build a bridge of gold for your retreating enemy," here has a double meaning. The fate of the Samoan Islands is too small a matter to interest a public having to consider the Philippine situation, and the treaty disposing of them was ratified by the Senate without consideration. But a report that the President regarded the treaty as giving him sovereign powers over the island of Tutuila aroused Senator Jones of Ar kansas to somewhat belated opposition, and the treaty has been recalled from the President. The statement is made not apply to foreign tourists or to immigrants. It will be remembered that, when the new law went into effect, an attempt was made to execute it by private enterprise-that is, by placing unofficial persons on the steamer docks to inspect the baggage of arriving passengers-and that passengers were subjected to such insult and outrage that the Treasury Department issued an order forbid it is to have the effect of annexing more tion except the regularly appointed customs officers. Since that time there has been no complaint of the ill-treatment of the public on the docks. The business of baggage inspection goes on as before. It is more rigid than in any European country, but it causes no unnecessary delay or friction. The danger of political consequences disastrous to the Republican party, at one time imminent in consequence of the indignities put upon passengers, was averted. A movement to restore the law which was in force before the passage of the Dingley bill was started in New York, Boston, and Chicago simultaneously, and Mr. McCall's bill is the outcome of it. It ought to be passed without opposition. The amount of goods which one person can bring in being restricted to articles necessary to his journeying and his present comfort and convenience, it is not likely that any more would be brought in than comes in now. As regards the revenue, it has been shown that the baggage tax yields only $140,000 per year, although the wise Dingley estimated it at $10,000,000. The objection may be raised to the McCall bill that it reopens the whole tariff controversy, but, in fact, that controversy has already been reopened by the Administration's policy of free trade with Porto Rico. According to Senator Morgan, it is ex- that the President contemplates no such The damage heretofore done by Appraiser Wakeman to the commerce of New York cannot be repaired, but his powers in this department of human activity are somewhat curtailed by the decision of the Board of General Appraisers adverse to his ruling on paragraph 313 of the present tariff. This paragraph is too technical to be explained to the general reader. It relates to the method of introducing figures into certain cotton goods in the process of weaving. Wakeman, in his search for ways and means to harass importers, ordered his subordinates to change the classification of the goods in question, so as to make them subject to an increased duty of two cents per square yard. This order inflicted a heavy pecuniary loss upon the houses which were importing such goods, since it increased their expenses by the amount of the new duty; and in cases where they had made contracts or booked orders ahead of arrival, they could not charge the additional cost to the buyers. They might possibly, after some years and at the end of a lawsuit, get their money back from the Government, but they would lose the interest on their capital meanwhile, and would have heavy bills to pay for legal services. It Wakeman had any sense of shame, he would now resign, and if the Government had a proper sense of its duty to citizens engaged in an honorable and lawful vocation, it would eject him from office at once. The true animus of the attacks on Commissioner Evans was revealed the other day in the debate on the passage of the pension bill. In 1898, the first year of Mr. Evans's administration, he paid out to pension attorneys, more than half of them in Washington, the sum of $730,000. Last year he paid them but $477,000. These attorneys, as was observed by Mr. Mahon of Pennsylvania, created the agitation among the old soldiers in order to make business for themselves, and a reduction of their fees by one-third is sufficient to produce a tremendous crop of complaints against any Commissioner. Fortunately Congress has not yielded, on this occasion, and Mr. Evans's hands have been strengthened, rather than weakened, by the debate. As might have been expected, the decrease in the pension rolls, which had been hopefully reckoned upon by some statesmen, is to be postponed on account of the claims of the veterans of the Spanish war. As the war with the Filipinos is a much more serious matter than that with Spain, an increase in the pension payments may reasonably be anticipated. The strongest point made in the majority report of the committee of the House of Representatives on the Roberts case is that the State of Utah, in his election, violated an “understanding" by which it secured admission to the Union. The legal and constitutional effect of such an understanding, however, is somewhat obscure. It may have been violated "explicitly and offensively," but was there any penalty for such violation provided in the understanding? If not, it does not appear where the power to inflict the penalty resides. During the reconstruction period, Congress made repeated attempts to regulate the behavior of the Southern States by "conditions subsequent." These States were admitted with certain constitutions, not merely on the "understanding" that these constitutions were not to be altered, but, in the case of Mississippi at least, with that express provision. But it was found impracticable to maintain this position, and the fifteenth amendment was finally resorted to in order to accomplish the purpose of Congress. It would no doubt be correct to say that, when the recon structed States were admitted, it was in Legislature for a law giving a large sum of damages to the family of any one lynched hereafter, to be paid by the county in which the lynching occurs. Another law recommended provides that the office of a sheriff or constable who allows a prisoner to be taken from him shall become vacant. These are all admirable suggestions. Should they become law, Governor Longino will be entitled to the thanks of the whole country. The battle of the breakfast-table in this city on Saturday ended most ingloriously for both combatants. Neither Roosevelt nor Platt showed a scratch when he emerged from the room in which the well-advertised contest was to take place. More remarkable still, the historian of war, the man who celebrates the martial achievements of the English Cromwell in a past century, and of an American Cromwell in Cuba during this century, had "nothing whatever to say." Most remarkable of all, the exponent of "a strenuous life," though ap Statisticians will read with sinking hearts the debate in the House of Representatives on the passage of the supplementary census bill last week. The returns of the census of 1890 were deprived of much of what value they ever would have had by being delayed for years in publication. The complaints on this account were so loud and so well founded as to lead to an attempt to save time in completing the next census by business-like arrangements for printing. Nothing more revolutionary was proposed than an amendment to the bill authorizing the Director, if the report's could probably not be published by the Government Printing-Office within the pe-parently unscathed, admitted that he had riod prescribed by law, to contract for their printing and binding by private parties. In support of this amendment, it was stated that the Public Printer would require 300 full working days, with the present force, under the most favorable conditions, to do the work projected by the Director of the Census. To propitiate the politicians, the chairman of the census committee offered to accept an amendment that the printing should be done by union labor. Nevertheless the whole scheme was rejected by an overwhelming majority. This is attributed to the influence of the typographical unions, which are opposed to having any Government printing done outside of the Government Office, administered as it is according to their exactions. Congress has passed a bill requiring the publication of the census returns to be completed by June 30, 1902. It is a safe prediction that an extension of time will hereafter be granted, for it is hardly possible that the Government Office can discharge the duty now laid upon it. Coming immediately after the imprisonment for life of two Texas lynchers, the denunciation of mob violence by Gov. Longino, the new executive of Mississippi, gives added reason for believing in a change in Southern feeling upon this vitally important matter. He not only called attention in his inaugural last week to the economic dangers of mob law in driving capital and investors out of the State, but laid stress upon the lynching of suspects for many other crimes than rape, to punish which it was first employed. But the Governor had a remedy to propose, as well as scathing words for the increase of lawlessness in the State. He called upon the consented to an armistice, and allowed his antagonist time to strengthen his lines of battle. Was it only for this lame and impotent conclusion that a Governor came to the metropolis from Albany and a United States Senator from Washington? Wherein does either party cut a better figure than a member of the Peace Society? Everybody else sees, even if the Governor does not, that the cause for which he stands is weakened by such dilly-dallying. The principles which Platt and Roosevelt represent in this matter are irreconcilable. Platt wants to avoid the contest over Payn's successor altogether, if possible. If Payn must go, the boss desires that his successor shall come as near as decency will permit to the Payn level. "The organization" showed its hand clearly on Saturday when it brought forward as its first choice the deputy superintendent. Of course Roosevelt saw in a moment that he might almost as well let Payn stay. What he does not seem to see is, that the machine will not name anybody as a compromise candidate of whose loyalty to itself, rather than to the interests of the State, it does not feel thoroughly assured. The organization regards the Insurance Superintendency as a place to be "worked" for the Republican politicians. The Governor is bound to treat it as a trust, to be administered in behalf of the people. Payn's begging letter to Mr. Whitney would constitute an absolute disqualification for the office of Superintendent of Insurance, if he were not already disqualified for it by a thousand other considerations. For a man in his position to be exposed as a Wall Street speculator, on "margin," would be simply fatal in any system of government |