assistant geologist on the Geological Commission of Brazil. Later he was connected with the United States Fish Commission and the National Museum; and in 1887 became assistant in charge of the division of inquiry regarding food fishes in the Fish Commission, and at the same time honorary curator of the National Museum. In 1892-3 he represented the United States on the joint commission with Great Britain relating to the preservation of the fisheries in the waters contiguous to the United States and Canada.

Frequent comment has been aroused by the wonderful progress made in the education of Miss Helen Kellar, a blind and deaf girl, a native of Alabama. It was announced in October that Miss Kellar had passed with credit her examinations for the Cambridge (Mass.) School, a private institution, where she intends to pursue her studies preparatory to entering Radcliffe College, the women's department of Harvard University. Another

evidence of her progress is her success in passing on some of the preliminary Harvard

examination papers, which were submitted

to her as a test. In Copyright, 1896, Rockwood, N. Y. the judgment of the

Harvard examiners, 'Miss Kellar passed in English, French, German, and history, which were all the subjects tried. At the Cambridge School, Miss Kellar studies Latin, history, and arithmetic with the classes. A constant companion is her friend and teacher, Miss Sullivan. For the past two years Miss Kellar had been studying at the WrightHumason Institute in New York city.

The only other girl totally blind and deaf who has rivalled her in accomplishments, it is said, is Ragnhild Kaata, a Norwegian girl, older than Miss Kellar, but who began her course of study later in life, and to-day is not so far advanced as the American girl. A young

man who is totally deaf, but whose sight is not impaired, entered the class of 1900 in Columbia University, from the Wright-Humason Institute this fall.

A gift of $4,000,000, it was announced in October, has been promised to the University of California on condition that $500,000 be raised for the institution by the state. Mrs. Phoebe A. Hearst, widow of United States Senator George Hearst, who died in 1891, is named as chief donor to the fund.

Two distinguished Scottish literary lights visited America during the three months under review-J. M. Barrie, author of The Little Minister, Sentimental Tommy, and other novels and sketches of Scotch life; and the Rev. Dr. John Watson of Liverpool, Eng., whose nom de plume of "Ian MacLaren " has become familiar wherever English is spoken, as that of the author of Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush, Kate Carnegie, and other delightful tales and descriptions of Scotch life and character. Mr. Barrie was accompanied by Dr. W. Robertson Nicoll, the distinguished editor and critic, of London, Eng., who may be said to have "discovered" both him and Dr. Watson. Dr. Watson was selected to give the course of Lectures on Preaching" for 1896 at Yale University, since printed in a volume entitled The Cure of Souls. After filling his engagement at Yale, he visited many cities in this country and Canada, lecturing, preaching, and giving readings presenting the familiar scenes and characters of his Scotch tales.

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A prearranged railway collision was an event which drew thousands of spectators to a point on the Missouri, Kansas & Texas railway about fifteen miles north of Waco, Texas, on September 15. The trains, each consisting of heavy engines with several empty freight and stock cars, were started toward each other about a mile each side of the point of collision. The engines were completely demolished. Two of the spectators were killed outright by flying debris, the official photographer was very seriously wounded, and several others were injured.

On December 10 the Italian woman Maria Barberi was finally set free by the criminal part of the New York state supreme court, on the ground that, owing to hereditary tendency to epilepsy, there was a doubt of her mental responsibility at the time she committed the murder of which she was convicted (p. 382).

CANADA.

In after years students of Canadian history will probably set down the last two months of 1896 as marking a crisis the inauguration of a struggle between church and state, whose full significance the people of that time were unable to appreciate. It deeply concerned the preservation of the freedom of elections, the supremacy of the state in state affairs, and the freedom of the press; and it involved possibilities of race and creed antagonism which, if not alleviated, might have a deeper bearing upon political and constitutional development than any previous rivalries of that sort in the history of the country.

Manitoba School Question.-In past crises the French race in Canada, under the lead of able statesmen, whom it has always furnished in abundance, has learned the lesson of conciliation, and the necessity of reaching ends in the spirit of a generous compromise; and it is a fact that the Dominion has to-day no race question so difficult of adjustment as that which persistently survives in the American South. It is not to be assumed that even in the matter of the Manitoba schools would a similar spirit of conciliation not prevail, were the issue, in the opinion of the Roman Catholic hierarchy, one calling for adjustment in that way. It is not concessions which the minority in Manitoba and their compatriots in Quebec demand, but the restoration of established legal rights of which they have been deprived, and which, as they interpret the decision of the privy council, have been recognized by the highest civil authority in the empire. It would be most unfortunate if religious or racial prejudice should blind the electorate to the real, inner nature of the issue. It is a purely legal question; and all considerations of the relative value of separate and public schools, or of the difficulty, or even impossibility, of maintaining a separate school system in Manitoba, while they may have weight as moral considerations, are foreign to the legal point at issue. As long as a single legal resource remains, it seems to be the determination of the hierarchy to insist upon their rights pledged by the constitution of the province of Manitoba and, in their opinion, confirmed by the judg ment of the imperial privy council. Whether it would not be better for the Church, in view of the generally prevalent opinion throughout the country in favor of a compromise, and in view of the evil passions likely to be aroused if the question becomes one chiefly of religious animosity, to recede from its extreme position and accept

as well as make concessions if only as a temporary expedient, is, of course, another question, and one upon which it is quite possible that the electorate may have again ere long to record its opinion. It is yet a far cry to civil war and the disruption of Confederation, some of the United States newspapers to the contrary notwithstanding.

A Proposed Settlement.-Negotiations between the Laurier ministry and the Greenway government of Manitoba have resulted in an agreement for final disposal of the controversy which has disturbed the politics of the Dominion since the enactment of the Manitoba school law of 1890. On November. 20 the official details were published, outlining the plan of legislation which the Greenway government agreed to submit to the provincial legislature in lieu of the existing statute. It is in the nature of a compromise. It does not propose to restore separate schools, but provides for religious instruction in public schools and for the teaching of both French and English.

In brief, religious instruction for half an hour in the afternoon may be authorized by board or by petition of parents. Forty Roman Catholic pupils in cities or towns and twenty-five in rural dis tricts may have a certificated teacher of their own faith; and, where there are ten French-speaking pupils, they shall be taught in French and English on the bilingual system. The following is the official

statement:

1. Legislation shall be introduced and passed at the next regular session of the legislature of Manitoba embodying the provisions hereinafter set forth in amendment to the Public School Act,' for the purpose of settling the educational questions that have been in dispute in that province.

2 Religious teaching to be conducted as hereinafter provided:-(a) If authorized by a resolution passed by a majority of the school trustees, or (b) if a petition be presented to the board of school trustees asking for religious teaching and signed by the parents or guardians of at least ten children attending the school in the case of a rural district, or by the parents or guardians of at least twenty-five children attending the school in a city, town, or village.

"3. Such religious teaching to take place between the hours of 3:30 and 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and to be conducted by any Christian clergyman whose charge includes any portion of the school district, or by any person duly authorized by such clergyman, or by a teacher when so authorized.

"4. Where so specified in such resolution of the trustees, or where so required by the petition of the parents or guardians, religious teaching during the prescribed period may take place only on certain specified days of the week instead of on every teaching day.

5. In any school in towns and cities where the average attendance of Roman Catholic children is forty or upwards, and in villages and rural districts where the average attendance of such children is twenty-five or upwards, the trustees shall, if required by the petition of the parents or guardians of such number of Roman Catholic children respectively, employ at least one duly certificated Roman Catholic teacher in such school. In any school in towns and cities where the average attendance of non-Roman Catholic children is forty or upwards, and in villages and rural districts where the average attendance of such children is twenty-five or upwards, the trustees shall, if required by the petition of the parents or guardians of such children, employ at least one duly certificated non-Roman Catholic teacher.

6. Where religious teaching is required to be carried on in any school in pursuance of the foregoing provisions, and there are Roman Catholic children and non-Roman Catholic children attending such school, and the schoolroom accommodation does not permit of the pupils being placed in separate rooms for the purpose of religious teaching, provisions shall be made by the regulations of the department of education (which regulations the board of school trustees shall observe) whereby the time allotted for religious teaching shall be divided in such a way that the religious teaching of the Roman Catholic children may be carried on during the prescribed period on one-half of the teaching days in each month, and the religious teaching of the non-Roman Catholic children may be carried on during the prescribed period in one-half of the teaching days in each month.

7. The department of education shall have the power to make regulations, not inconsistent with the principles of this act, for the carrying into effect the provisions of this act.

"8. No separation of the pupils by religious denominations shall take place during the secular school work.

9. Where the schoolroom accommodation at the disposal of the trustees permits, instead of allotting different days of the week to the different denominations for the purpose of religious teaching, the pupils may be separated when the hour for religious teaching arrives, and placed in separate rooms.

10. Where ten of the pupils in any school speak the French language (or any language other than English) as their native language, the teaching of such pupils shall be conducted in French (or such other language) and English upon the bilingual system.

11. No pupils to be permitted to be present at any religious teaching unless the parents or guardians of such pupils desire it. In case the parents or guardians do not desire the attendance of the pupils at such religious teaching, then the pupils shall be dismissed before the exercises, or shall remain in another room."

When the law of 1890 went into effect, the total population of Manitoba was 152,506. The Roman Catholic population of 20,571 was widely scattered. The school population was 36,459, with 32,680 enrolled, and an average attendance of 16,260. Only 3,116 Catholic children were on the rolls, of whom on an average 2,267 attended, being distributed among ninety-seven schools. Of these schools eleven were in Winnipeg, ten in St. Boniface, and seven in St. Norbert, the remaining sixty-nine being spread over the province. The figures show that about 2,000 Catholic children either attended no school or the public schools where they had no religious instruction in and no teachers of their own faith.

Under the settlement now proposed, these children will, where their numbers warrant it and their parents desire it, have both; and in Winnipeg, St. Boniface, and St. Norbert, and possibly other places, there will be certificated Roman Catholic teachers. In no place, however, will the management of the schools be under control of the ecclesiastical authorities. In that respect the schools are to remain national public schools, in the same position in which they were placed by the law of 1890. There are to be no separate schools save such as