to our native fields; there are, for instance, no true cornflower poppies, no gorse or broom, no snap-dragon or fox-glove, not even a primrose or a cowslip in all the land; while as regards indigenous plants, there are more remarkable deficiencies; no daffodil, snowdrop, or sunflower is to be found in all North America, neither is there any crocus, hyacinth, or lily of the valley. Yet most of these plants are not only abundant in England, but widely spread throughout Europe, and even extend to Northern Asia. Mr. Wallace has come to the conclusion that in no part of America, east of the Mississippi, is there such a succession of floral beauty and display of exquisite colour as are to be found in many parts of England.

MORE PICTURES OF AUSTRALIA.

Yet

Mr. Francis Adams describes social life in the Interior of Australia in a manner which will probably call forth a further article from the editor of the Melbourne Daily Telegraph, who is now in London. Mr. Adams presents a grim picture of "up country," where pastoralism, "thanks to reckless over-stocking and tree destruction, has pressed a pitiless stamp of desolation on to the face of the whole land; where there are great plains, treeless and grassless; where the eyes ache with looking towards the viewless horizon, smoking like a cauldron, and where the roads called 'lanes' are little more than brown, bare, rectilineal passages, whose sole ornaments are the telegraph poles and wires running exactly down the middle, and the skeletons and carcases of sheep or of some poor patient bullock who has done something more than his duty, are its only landmarks." within the memory of many these plains waved with grass so high that a horseman ceuld hide in them. Mr. Adams admits that there are other and more cheerful aspects of the Interior, when seasons of drought are followed by seasons of flood, and when sometimes even the land is blessed with mild and continuous rain; but when he comes to speak of the squatters, the powerful and unique national type yet produced in the new land," he tells us that they are being "gently transformed off the face of the earth." The other side of this unpleasant picture is given in the following paragraph :Nature, even in her most sinister aspect, has her divine consolations, and in the bush there are hours when her benignity soothes like the tender caress of a lover. Frankly, I find not only all that in is generally characteristic Australia and the Australians springing from this heart of the land, but also all that is noblest, kindliest, and best. There are cruel features in the life-there are horrible features in it; but even in these there is an intensity, a frankness, and a reality, which lift them, in my opinion, right above the eternally hideous and hypocritic vice of all the phases of our so-called civilisation.

one

Mr.

Describing the "selectors," the writer declares that democratic legislation has utterly failed to form anything like a yeoman class in the interior. "In Australia the money has been made"; and "the average selector finds it possible nowadays to gain little more than a mere living by the exercise of unremitting and monotonous toil," the "much deplored existence of the petty English farmer being far the more preferable of the two." Adams likens the Australian "selectors" of the interior to the "mean whites" of the Southern States of America. He, however, "recalls with a singular delight" his personal memoirs of the bush people, and even admits that there were communities in the Australian bush which, so far as social manners went, realised for him much of what he desired in a democracy; while he had found intercourse with bush children to be "one of the most charming things in life."

NATIONAL REVIEW.

THE first place in the National Review this month is devoted to an article on "Scotland and Her Home Rulers." The Scottish Home Rule Association, says Mr. A. N. Cumming, has for four years been endeavouring to cajole Mr. Gladstone into taking up its cause, and now it has resolved to coerce him.

Home Rule for Scotland should be made a test question in every election in Scotland, and no candidate ought to receive a vote unless he is a Scottish Home Ruler and pledges himself to do all in his power to procure the restoration of national self-government in Scotland; and no settlement of the Scottish Home Rule question is practicable which would not confer upon Scotland a separate Legislature and Executive to manage specifically and exclusively her national affairs, and which does not, at the same time. sacredly maintain the unity and supremacy of the Imperial Parliament to deal with all Imperial affairs.

Such, at least, is the text of the resolution of the Association at its recent meeting. But according to Mr. Cumming there is no immediate demand for Home Rule at all on the part of the people of Scotland.

THE "DRINK" QUESTION.

A more interesting article at this moment is Dr. Mortimer Granville's on "Drink: Ethical Considerations, and Physiological." The following quotation shows the line taken :

There are very few horses that can be driven without a whip through a crowded thoroughfare; and the highway of life is very crowded, and it takes a lot of driving to go straight. There must be stimulation, because there must be momentum; and this is not to be obtained without alcohol. If there were no alcohol at all in the diet of the abstainers themselves, they would, in spite of all their fussiness, die out of sheer inertia. Alcohol was given to man for his mental and nervous stimulation; "wine, to make glad the heart of man "-not unfermented wine, which never made any man's heart glad, or could be called "good wine." A truce to the silly pretence that the wine mentioned approvingly a score of times in the Scriptures was incapable of making people drunk if they took too much of it. It would have been worthless if it had been so!

THE MAHATMA BOOM.

"The Mahatma Period," is, of course, an article on the present "Mahatma Boom." Says Mr. W. Earl Hodg

son:

It is a little disconcerting to learn that Madame Blavatsky was not a Mahatma. It seems that "she had a very decided human side to her character, and that a Mahatma has not. Madame Blavatsky was a woman with two sides the human, which was very ordinary, the other, which was very majestic." What troubles us in our surmise as to the identity of the English Mahatma is Colonel Olcott's stipulation that to be a Mahatma you must not have a human side. It is because he wishes to have "a clear life, an open mind, a pure heart, an a brotherliness for unveiled spiritual perception, and all," that Mr. Burrows accepts Theosophy; and we take it for granted that it is may for the same reason, strengthened by a tired perception of the unromantic character of matter, that Mrs. Besant corresponds with Mahatmas on their own terms. There we have the explanation of the Mahatma Period. Our storm-tost souls yield themselves up to Theosophy because in the nature of things it is absolutely necessary that we should believe in a Divine power, in a categorical imperative, and in Providence.

:

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. THE Nineteenth Century for October is a fair average number. I quote elsewhere from Mr. Lefevre's and Sir Charles Tupper's articles.

MR. GLADSTONE'S LATEST DEVELOPMENT.

Mr. Gladstone discusses "Ancient Beliefs in a Future State" in an article which he has been provoked to write by Prof. Cheyne's remark in a Calcutta review, which implied that the idea of the immortality of the soul was born late into the world, and was entirely unknown by the Jews at an early stage in their history. Ir. Gladstone takes up the cudgels for the opposite thesis, which he thus defines :

1. That the movement of ideas between the time of civilisation in its cradle, and the time of civilisation in its fullgrown stature, on the subject of future retribution, if not of a future existence generally, was a retrograde and not a forward movement.

2. That there is reason, outside the Psalter, to think that the Old Testament implies the belief in a future state as a belief accepted among the Hebrews, although it in no way formed an element of the Mosaic usages, and cannot be said to be prominent even in the Psalms.

3. That the conservation of the truth concerning a future state does not appear to have constituted a specific element in the divine commission entrusted to the Hebrew race, and that it is open to consideration whether more was done for the maintenance of this truth in certain of the Gentile religions.

Mr. Gladstone's essay is a lay sermon. It is to be he cannot deliver it from the pulpit of Westminster Abbey.

MR. GOLDWIN SMITH ON DISESTABLISHMENT.

There is an excellent article by Mr. Goldwin Smith, in which he discusses the question whether disestablishment is close at hand or not. His survey of the state of religion in countries where disestablishment has been carried out is very interesting, and on the whole reassuring. He thinks that the Establishment is bound to go, a he makes the following suggested compromise, which, to use a vulgar phrase, is enough to give the Anglican clergy the creeps:

It would seem that a wise Churchman would be likely to think twice before he rejected a compromise on the lines of Irish Disestablishment, which, taking from him the tithenow reduced in value-as well as the representation of the Church in the House of Lords, would leave him the cathedrals, the parish churches, the rectories, the glebes, the recent benefactions, and give him a freedom of legislation, by the wise use of which he might, supposing Christianity to retain its hold, recover, by the adaptation of institutions and formularies to the times, a part of the ground which, during the suspension of her legislative life, his Church has lost. Democracy is marching on, and the opportunity of compromise may never return.

The clergy will go farther and they will fare worse.

HOW TO RESTRICT FOREIGN IMMIGRATION.

Mr. W. H. Wilkins, in an article upon the immigration troubles of the United States, describes the legislation which has been forced upon the American Congress, and suggests that England would do well to follow suit.

Section 1 specifies the classes of aliens henceforth to be excluded from admission to the United States, viz. :—“ All idiots, insane persons, paupers, or persons likely to become a public charge, persons suffering from a loathsome or a dangerous contagious disease, persons who have been convicted of felony or other infamous crime or misdemeanour involving moral turpitude, polygamists, and also any persons whose

Cornelia Sorabji gives us "The Stray Thoughts of an Indian Girl," in the course of which she states the Indian_conception of marriage. Curiously enough, Mrs. Lynn Linton seems to have fallen very much in love with the Indian woman's view of marriage, which is as follows:

From the woman's side (1) that she may have some male in whose rear she may walk into heaven, for her own good deeds gain her no entrance there; or (2) if she has no brothers, that the said male may lead the family procession within the gates. Viewed from the father's side it is that he may leave behind him some one to pray his soul out of hell (pat), and offer sacrifices to the supernal and infernal deities.

OTHER ARTICLES.

The other articles in the review, although some of them are interesting, hardly call for more than mention here. They are, "The Private Life of Sir Thomas More," by Miss Agnes Lambert; "A Bardic Chronicle," by the Hon. Emily Lawless; "Welsh Parties," by Professor Rhys; "The Wild Women as Social Insurgents," Mrs. Lynn Linton's latest; and Mr. Edward Wakefield's "Wisdom of Gombo," the proverbial philosophy of the West Indian negroes.

SCRIBNER.

THERE are several good things in Scribner. In the series on the "Great Streets of the World," Mr. W. W. Story describes the Corso of Rome. A capital natural history paper gives us the "Biography of the Oyster," adding that if it had been allowed to exercise its full power the oyster would have flooded the world years ago, and there would be no land in sight; for a single maternal oyster can produce sixty million eggs per annum! Any one can calculate what that would mean were there no gourmands on the earth and foes in the water to correct such overproduction. Mr. E. C. Martin has also a short article on Carlyle's Politics," which may be read in connection with "Carlyle's Message to His Age," treated in another magazine.

66

THE ARENA. THE Rev. Dr. George C. Lorimer has the first place and the frontispiece in the Arena for September. He discusses the " new heresies" with a cheerful optimism.

THE NEW HERESIES.

He reminds those who are alarmed by the present-day departures from the ancient doctrines or symbols, that the new heresies have three distinct marks which should Teassure the timorous. First, they do not challenge the truth of Scripture inspiration, but only the form of such inspiration; secondly, they do not depart from Christian doctrine, but only from creeds which assume to authoritatively define such doctrine; thirdly, they are not revolts from the scriptural high ideal of Christian life, but only a noble protest against a narrow interpretation of that life.

IN PRAISE OF UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE.

Another reverend doctor, Carlos D. Martyn, protests against the tendency now visible in America to advocate a restriction of universal suffrage. Universal suffrage, he says, is the normal school, the people's college, whose failure is due, not to its intrinsic vice, but to the corner grog shop, that "blazing lighthouse of hell." Aside from the great centre of population, the common people are more trustworthy than the corporations, the colleges, or the newspapers. The selfishness, the preoccupation, the anti-R publicanism of these are proverbial. Who would exchange universal suffrage for college suffrage, or corporation suffrage, or newspaper suffrage? Dr. Martyn also thinks another illustration of the un - Republican trend is the obsequious attitude of the United States Government towards monarchs and monarchies. What is wanted, he insists, is a revivalism of Republicanism directed against flunkeyism, which lies at the bottom of human nature. Send devitalised Americans to Coventry and make all offices elective.

SOME OTHER ARTICLES.

A Japanese, Kuma Oishi, discusses the question whether or not Japanese constitutionalism is destined to overrun Asia, and English constitutionalism overrun Europe. He thinks that its progress will be retarded by the ignorance, antiquarianism, and large territory of Asia, and also the lack of any desire on the part of the Asiatic populations for constitutional government. Notwithstanding their ignorance, Mr. Oishi thinks that the Asiatics are well adapted to constitutionalism in every respect but one; that one is vital-they have no desire to have it. Professor Willis Broughton, of the Ohio State University, describes the University Extension Movement in its latest phases. A large part of his paper is devoted to a eulogy of the American National Society for University Extension, whose work he thus describes:

It has employed a corps of practical business men to systematise the work, and to attend to the necessary details; it is publishing a monthly journal called University Extension. for the purpose of gathering and disseminating information regarding the movement; it publishes syllabi and furnishes them to the student and to the public at the lowest possible cost; and it employs organisers to help in the formation of local centres, and to ge. them in working order.

THE AUSTRIAN POST OFFICE SAVINGS BANK.

Mr. Postmaster Wanamaker is proposing to adopt the Austrian banking system in the United States. Mr. Sylvester Baxter describes that system in an article, of which the following is the salient passage :

When Austria established its postal savings bank, in 1882,

a regular check and clearing system was made a feature thereof. This, offering substantially the same convenience as our ordinary private or national banks in this country, together with the additional advantages of absolute security of deposits, and cheques good in all parts of the country, has become enormously popular with the mercantile public, so that the regular banking department has quite overshadowed the savings department, important as the latter is.

Every post office in Austria, therefore, has the function of both a savings bank and a bank of deposit. A permanent deposit of one hundred florins, or forty dollars, is sufficient to make a person a member of the cheque and clearing department. No limit is placed on the amount that may be deposited, but a single check cannot be drawn for more than ten thousand florins [four thousand dollars]. Interest is paid on deposits at a rate not exceeding two per cent., while the interest on savings may not exceed three per cent. A charge of two. kreutzers [eight milles] is made for each entry, together with a commission of one fourth per mille. Another function of the postal bank is the buying and selling of Government securities, for which a commission of two per mille is charged, with a commission of one per mille for the cashing of coupons.

A CRITIC OF NEWMAN.

Mr. William Salter gives us another view of Newman, which is sympathetic. His standpoint is described in the following passage :

Reluctant as I was to admit it, struggle as I might against it, the share of Jesus in the errors and illusions of His time (the sense of which grew upon me) made it impossible for me at last to absolutely trust His consciousness; however great, however sublime a figure He was, it appeared that He belonged after all to our fallible humanity. Hence in my view we were thrown back on ourselves; we may have great and consoling beliefs about life and its purpose, about death and what lies beyond, about the fathomless Power from which we come and on whose bosom we rest; but a revelation we have not; they are beliefs which we ourselves form and do not receive from without. Rationalism, though not in the sense in which Newman used it, becomes the only method.

WESTMINSTER REVIEW.

UNDER the title of "The Ordeal of Trade Unionism," the Westminster discusses some features of militant trade unionism as it exists at the present moment, and sums up: "In the first ple, trade unions must, I believe, become more conciliatory in tone and less despoticin action. Secondly, it cannot be denied that unionism is a conspicuous fact in modern industrial development. Another point which ought to be borne in mind is in reference to the claims made for trade unions as solving the perennial problem of the relation of labour to capital. Lastly, while every material point examined leads to the conviction that unionism is fundamentally a salutary economic agent, the truth is also suggested that it is a system which demands enlightened management, temper, and moderation. It will be fatal to unionism and to national prosperity if men lose sight of the necessity for the constant application of other than economical motives to determine their action in society. That the present development of trade unionism is not in any sense a final and complete one, but only a tentative step in the direction of more vigorous self-help and more extended combination, is a proposition which, as I apprehend, is supported by the facts of reason and of experience."

Another writer, taking for his subject "History and Radicalism," concludes: "It is to the natural aspirations of the suffering masses of mankind, far more than the wisdom and condition of the fortunate, that we owe the political progress of the past; and it is to the former, rather than the latter, that we must look for the sins of the future."

THE FORUM. THE Forum for September is dull. One of the most interesting papers is the shortest and the last.

THE CASH VALUE OF A LIMB.

Mr. Pitcher, writing "On Accidents and Accident Insurance," tells us that the first railway accident insurance company was started in London in 1845. In 1849 London also led the way with the first general accident insurance company. It was not until 1864 that one was started in America. In the last fourteen years it has become very popular. The following is a scale of payments to the holder of a thousand pounds accident policy in case of permanent injury of a serious nature:

For an injury permanently disabling him from attending to business he is entitled to 2,500 dols.; for the loss of two limbs, 5,000 dols. ; for the loss of the right hand or of either foot, 2,500 dols.; for the loss of the left hand, 1,250 dols. ; for the loss of one eye, 650 dols.; for the entire loss of sight, 5,000 dols.

It is interesting to compare these figures with the rates of indemnity offered to the soldiers of Holland by the Government during the war with England in 1665. These rates were For the loss of both eyes, 315 dols.; one eye, 73 dols; both arms, 315 dols.; right arm, 94 dols.; left arm, 75 dols.; both hands, 250 dols; right hand, 70 dols. ; left hand, 63 dols.; both legs, 147 dols; one leg, 73 dols. ; both feet, 94 dols.; one foot, 43 dols.

The American accident insurance companies issue tickets by the day, sixpence each, covering £600 insurance. Mid-winter and mid-summer are the most accidental periods of the year. Nearly one-half of the accidents are caused by falls.

The statistics of one large company show that one is two and a half times as likely to meet with a fatal accident as to lose limb or sight accidentally; that one is as likely to lose an eye as a foot, and two-thirds as likely to lose an eye as a hand. These results are not surprising, but it is difficult to understand why one is eighteen times as likely to lose the left hand as the right hand, and more than five times as likely to lose the left foot as the right.

GOOD NEWS FOR AUTHORS.

Mr. George H. Putnam, writing on Authors' Complaints and Publishers' Profits, criticises Mr. Besant's contention, especially taking exception to his assertion that there are no such things as publishers' losses. He

says:

If the accomplished secretary of the Authors' Society really could discover the golden secret of conducting the publishing business without serious risk and serious losses, he could be guaranteed a far larger income as an advisory partner in a publishing firm than he is probably able to earn even from his successful books.

The good news to authors is, however, that Mr. Putnam thinks the application throughout all the states of the world of the principle of international copyright will much increase the returns to popular authors.

The author should be able, while asking from each reader but a trifling payment, to secure from his constantly increasing circles of readers throughout the civilised world indefinitely increasing returns, and there seems to be no reason, therefore, why the author of the near future (that is the effective author) may not look forward to the " "potentiality of wealth beyond the dreams of avarice." Let us hope that the author will make better use of his wealth than the brewer.

WHISKY AS THE FOUNDATION OF FINANCE.

Mr. Edward Atkinson, in a paper on 66 The Government and the Taxpayer," sets forth the debtor and creditor account of the United States revenue, from which a very

remarkable fact appears, that the taxes on liquor and tobacco, without any other tax whatever, would be sufficient to pay the whole cost of the civil and military departments. The other taxes are only required for interest on public debts, and pensions. The whisky tax, which amounts to nearly £50,000,000 sterling, pays for the entire cost of the military and naval departments. He thinks that in 1893 the Secretary of the Treasury will report that the taxes and duties on liquors and tobacco will be large enough to cover the whole expenses of government, and also the interest on the public debt. There will only be pensions to be provided for, and the sinking fund.

THE FREE COINAGE OF SILVER.

It is a curious illustration of the different view which two able men can take of the same position, that while Mr. Atkinson tells us that the Free Coinage Bill is almost dead, Mr. H. C. Lodge, whose paper immediately follows, declares that there can be very little doubt but that the next Congress will pass a Free Coinage Bill, and that the question will be the main issue at the next general election in the United States. After Free Coinage comes Tariff Reform, while behind these again comes the question of the restriction of immigration.

AN ENGLISH EXAMPLE FOR AMERICAN INVESTORS.

Mr. R. J. Selwin Tait holds up the practice of the English investor in capitalising industrial properties so as to make them available for investment to American investors. The mortgages on the homes and farms of the United States, occupied by their owners, amount in round numbers to five hundred millions sterling. He specially calls attention to the English idea of always offering three kinds of stock-the mortgage debenture bonds, preference shares, and ordinary stock. The investment companies also, which are a corollary of the industrial capitalisation movement, he regards as worthy of particular notice, as they enable the British investor to spread his investments over a large number of securities of a similar class. One of these companies invested in no fewer than 120 different securities, which are spread as follows:

Invested in industrial concerns, £777,879; in the colonies £712,826; in financial and land investments, £454,170; in government and corporation loans, £169,518; gas and water companies, £35 537; banks, £21,628; tramways, £11,453; in surance concerns, £2,657; invested in Great Britain, £794,797, in the colonies, £91,411; in the United States, £782,786; in North America, £177,279; in South America, £223,478; in Europe apart from places mentioned, £101,252; in Asia, £15,327; and something in Africa.

SOME EDUCATIONAL PAPERS.

There is a tendency on the part of some American writers to indulge in a good deal of commonplace flapdoodle. Of this we have an example in Mr. Henry A. Coit's description of an American boys' school as it should be. Mr. David S. Jordan, in his account of the ideals of the New American University, says they can discard the worn-out parts of educational methods and the machinery of past ages and other lands, and can address themselves directly to the work and life of the people of a great republic, and of the coming of the twentieth century. Its essential quality is individualism; its essential method must be instruction by investigation; it can treat its students as men, not as children, and free itself from the shackles of the examination system, and demand to have students trained to see and to think.

NOT SO MUCH ANTI-JEW AS ANTI-GERMAN. Mr. Isaac Besht Bendavid answers Mr. Goldwin Smith. He warmly repudiates the accusation that the Jews are a parisitic race, quotes Frederick the Great's saying that to oppress the Jews has never brought prosperity to any government," and maintains that the persecution of the Jews is really a form of panslavic hostility to the Germans. For the Jews maintain relations with their brethren in Germany, and so are able constantly to reinforce the German element in the Russian Empire. It is to prevent this, he thinks, that the present persecution is set on foot. DO DOGS THINK?

Yes, says Ouida in her paper in praise of dogs.

Now, that a dog can and does think, and think to much purpose, there can be no doubt whatever in those who have studied dogs in life with sympathy and attention. I am quite sure that a dog thinks in exactly the same manner as ourselves, although in a different measure.

Dogs have very strongly marked volition, inclination, and powers of choice, and their wishes are too often neglected and set aside or brutally thwarted.

And it is this greatness of soul which makes the dog so interesting, so mysterious, and so pathetic a personality to me, associated, as it is, with the frank animation of their bodies and the sad servitude in which they are generally kept by the human beings whom they adore. About the dog there is to me something of the faun, of the forest-god, of the mingling of divinity and brutality such as met in the shape of Pan, of an earlier, fresher, wilder world than ours; and from the eyes of the dog, in their candid worship, in their wistful appeal, in their inscrutable profundity, there is an eternal and unanswerable reproach.

Ouida describes their likes and dislikes, protests as usual against the muzzle, and in her zeal for the dog must go out of her way to say a depreciatory word of his ancient enemy the cat, a creature which Ouida declares is in civilisation but not of it.

THE IDEAL SUNDAY.

The Rev. Dr. E. Eaton writes on the Ideal Sunday. His idea of the ideal Sunday is that the morning should be devoted to worship and that in the afternoon there should be free concerts, and that all the museums and picture galleries should be opened. This is the way in which he meets the objection that the attendants would have to sacrifice their day of rest :

The rich and well-to-do who have leisure could take the places of attendants, and perhaps give simple talks on the objects of art and history which should engage the attention of visitors. What new sympathy would result from such a mingling of classes in these institutions! How greatly it would assist in binding together the members of the family of God! How certainly it would aid in beating down suspicion, pride, and jealousy! Open these buildings at two o'clock, giving all who desire opportunity to attend morning services in places of public worship. Close all places of public amusement established as business ventures and which charge admission for private profit. Without money and without price throw open the treasure-houses of art, science, and history.

CONFESSIONS OF AN ACTRESS.

Miss Clara Morris (Mrs. Harriott), who is one of the most famous of American actresses, contributes some

reflections which will be read with interest. She is now forty-five years of age, and looking back on thirty years of stage life, says that imagination is the chief quality in the making of an actor. They must be as little children, not having realised self-consciousness. When she studied for Cora she went to lunatic asylums and made note of the gibbering laugh, swaying body, and broken ncoherent speech of the inmates. Much worse was that which took place when she played the heroine in "Miss Multon," who dies of heart disease. She had to express by attitude and features the speechless, almost breathless agony of that awful torture, angina pectoris. In order to study this from nature a doctor ran a female patient up a long flight of stairs, and thrust her into the room beside the actress. It was, as she says, a cruel thing, for which, though she does not say it, the doctor deserved to be horse whipped.

Shall I ever forget that woman's face as she stood swaying, clinging to the door frame, her ghastly, waxen pallor; the strained, scared look in her eyes; the dilating nostrils; above all, the movement of the muscles about the mouth, which contracted the upper lip at every hurtling, gasping breath!

The following passage describes her emotions at the end of a play in which she has to portray a scene of anger reaching the very verge of frenzy :

My muscles become rigid, I am held, possessed, tormented by one intense desire to close my hands about his throat and clench, and clench, until I may stand in that red mist alone. I am neither actress nor woman, but for just that one hot furious moment I am murder. So, between the imagination and the excitement of applause, the deed is done. I forget myself, and pass into another form of being.

HAYTI AND THE UNITED STATES.

In our last number we published an article setting forth the American plea for keeping Pearl Harbour and the Sandwich Islands. The Hon. Frederick Douglass vindicates himself from the reproach of having been indifferent to the acquisition of a naval station in Hayti. He tells the inner story of Admiral Gherdi's attempt to obtain a naval station at the Mole San Nicholas, and protests that so far from being indifferent to this object of American policy he has always advocated a policy of extension. He thinks

it was a shame to American statesmanship that, while almost every other great nation in the world had secured a foothold and had power in the Caribbean Sea, where it could anchor in its own bays and moor in its own harbours, we, who stood at the very gate of that sea, had there no anchoring ground anywhere. I was for the acquisition of Samana, and of Santo Domingo herself if she wished to come to us. While slavery existed I was opposed to all schemes for the extension of American power and influence. But since its abolition I have gone with him who goes farthest for such extension.

A PLAIN WORD ON AMERICAN MANNERS. Mr. O. F. Adams has the boldness to tell his fellowcountrymen that their manners are dreadful. The following passage, it is to be hoped, will not expose him to the major excommunication on the part of his fellowcountrymen :—

The plain, unpalatable fact must be stated that, in spite of the presence among us of many persons whose lives are regulated by a spirit of the finest, most thoughtful courtesy, as a people we Americans are noisy, boastful, aggressive, glorying in our push" and self-assertiveness, and quite content that those most disagreeable features of our national character should obscure our better and nobler qualities which lie beneath.