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BOOKS RECEIVED.

Botany. By J. D. Hooker, C. B., P. R. S. With illustrations. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1876.

Paper Money Inflation in France. How it came, what it brought, and how it ended. By Andrew D. White. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1876. Les Français en Amérique, avecune préface par M. Edouard Laboulaye. Paris Charpentier et Cie., Libraires editeurs. [F. W. Christern, New York. 1876.

Half-Hours with Insects. In

Half-Hour Recreations in Natural History. sects as Mimics. Part IX. Price 25c. By A. S Packard, Jr. Boston: Estes & Lauriat.

Two Years in California. cloth. Price $1.75. Pp. 238. ton, Ramsen & Haffelfinger.

By Mary Cone. With illustrations. 12mo.,
Chicago: S. C. Griggs & Co. 1876. [Clax.

Words; Their Use and Abuse. By Wm. Mathews, LL.D. Cloth 16mo. Price $2.00. Pp. 384. Chicago: S. C. Griggs & Co. [Claxton, Ramsen & Haffelfinger. 1876.

The Andes and the Amazon; or, Across the Continent of South America. By Jas. Orton, A. M. 12mo. cloth. Pp. 645. New York: Harper Bros. 1876. [J. B. Lippincott.

THE

PENN MONTHLY.

AUGUST, 1876.

THE MONTH.

ERVIA has taken her opportunity, and the great struggle be

SERVIA

tween the Osmanlis and their Christian subjects in Europe has begun. It is quite impossible to say how the conflict goes on, but it seems that up to this writing no decisive battle has taken place, although half a dozen great victories have already been claimed on either side and denied on the other. Both the generals seem to fear the result of a decisive battle, and to confine themselves to a straggling war of posts, while their newspaper representatives magnify every advance and every skirmish into a Thermopylæ or a Marathon. The Montenegrins seem to be fighting to their own hand in Herzegovina, and to have done better on the whole than the Servians. The gallant Roumanians, of course, are valiantly staying at home, and laboring to extort concessions from the Porte in return for their indifference to the fate of their Christian brethren. Roumanian valor shines most brilliantly in mobbing Rabbis and massacring Jewesses.

Whatever the immediate result of the struggle, whether Servia is successful or defeated, we trust that the end of Moslem rule on European soil is at hand. It may not come to day nor to-morrow; Prince Milan may not live to see it. But the permanent infliction, upon a Christian majority, of a rule which is at once anarchy and despotism, and is exercised by a minority alien in faith and manners to all the civilizations of Europe, cannot long continue possible!

The Porte is helping to open blind and unwilling eyes by its policy in the present war. The hordes of Circassians (Tscherkesses) who migrated into Turkey when Russia conquered and annexed their territory-all of them Murids, and therefore as full of fanaticism as the Wahabees have been let loose upon the suspected provinces. Their atrocities are those of the usual Mohammedan "war of zeal;" unoffending villages burnt to the foundations, every man, woman and boy put to the sword, and the girls carried off to Constantinople to the harems of the Pashas.

THE meaning of the revolution in Constantinople clears itself up, as the accounts by letter reach us. The deposition of Abdul Aziz was brought about by a coalition of the two active parties, old and young Turkey-by those who think that nothing is needed except a violent revival of religious zeal, and those who wish to make Turkey keep step with the rest of Europe. The Sultan by his apathy and self-indulgence had managed to give equal offence to both factions, and they united to get rid of him. But the zealots have lost their head and leader, and Turkey its best general, by the assassination of Hussein Avni, and the control of affairs seems to have fallen into the hands of his colleague, Midhat Pasha, who represents the other side of the coalition. As to the new Sultan, he is a mere cipher_a coward and a debauchee like his uncle, and only anxious to pay his debts out of the treasure accumulated by his predecessor.

ENGLAND'S European policy is again become a matter of interest to the world. To keep Russia out of Constantinople is a thing of primary importance in the eyes of all English statesmen, and under whatever pretence their action in bolstering up Turkey is hid, it has no grander purpose. Curiously enough, the possession of her Indian Empire helps to bind England to the Porte. The Sultan as Caliph is the spiritual head or pope of all orthodox Mohammedans, and as all the Indian Moslems, except those of Oude, are Sonnites, the Moslem interest in India expects England to support Turkey. Yet the Crimean war did not prevent the Mohammedans of India from rising in 1857; and when they were charged with ingratitude they replied that England, being herself in spiritual subjection to the

Caliph, did no more than her duty and had no claim to their gratitude.

THE opposition to Queen Victoria's imperial title has taken a new and unforeseen shape. In most cases the passage of a law by Parliament is a final decision of the question; but when Parliament, as in this case, enacts a social usage, it puts it into the power of every dissentient to offer effective resistance. Sir Salar Jung, an Indian grandee, gave a great banquet to the Prince of Wales and sundry members of Parliament, and very naturally toasted "the Empress of India." Anybody could have foreseen that such a toast would be proposed, but some were among the guests who had no intention of responding to it. Mr. John Bright kept his seat when the rest rose, and other members of Parliament drank simply to "the Queen." The matter is made rather worse than otherwise by the Prince of Wales asking an explanation, and thereby giving Mr. Bright a chance to publicly assail the new title.

THE Democratic Convention-in spite of the two-thirds rule— has succeeded in doing what the Republican could not do, in nominating the man who is actually the choice of the majority of the party -Mr. Samuel J. Tilden, Governor of New York. His candidacy has long been expected; from the very opening of his Governorship, he was evidently working toward the higher place, and his name has been more prominently associated with the demand for Reform, than that of any other man in prominent office. That his record will bear a searching examination, we do not believe. In the earlier days of the Tweed Ring, when the character of that body as the leaders of the most unscrupulous and unintelligent part of the populace of New York was perfectly understood, Mr. Tilden gave them his very hearty co-operation. He presided (either for a time or permanently) over their notorious Rochester Convention, and spoke in words of compliment of the character of a body the most infamous that ever met to represent the Democratic party. He threw Tweed and his associates overboard just at the nick of time, when the disclosure of their robberies had broken down all party lines, and had united all honest men in opposition to them. An active and zealous politician, he never uttered the word Reform until it became the cry of the day; and although behind the scenes in the politics

of his State, he raised no voice in denunciation of the gigantic abuses and thefts of the party leaders, until The Times had published the exposure of their misdeeds. To those, indeed, who regard all Hard Money talk as a certificate of the talker's honesty, Gov. Tilden comes with large authentication; but he accepts a nomination on a platform which demands the repeal of the Resumption Act, and with the certainty that if elected he would, in case of his death before the expiration of his term, be succeeded by one of the most pronounced opponents of Hard Money principles that the country has to show-one of those whom Mr. Tilden denounced in no sparing terms a year ago as advocates of national dishonesty. -Thomas A. Hendricks, of Indiana; and as Mr. Tilden is a man advanced in years and not of robust health, the possibility of such a succession is not to be ignored either by himself or his wing of the party.

THE Democratic platform is well drawn and would make an effective newspaper article; but it is painful to see so much good writing wasted on a document of so little importance. As coming after the Republican platform, it makes just one square issue of principle. It demands, indeed, the repeal of the Resumption Act; but the Republican Platform did not dare to give that act its approval; so that on this point there is no issue. The denunciation of the Tariff is the sole point of absolute difference; and if elections went by platforms, the coming one would be a test of the strength of the Free Trade and the Protectionist parties. But the Free Trade wing of the Republican party, Messrs. White, Schurz, Wells, Grosvenor, Seelye, Bowles and company-with the solitary exception of Parke Goodwin-have given their adherence explicitly to Mr. Hayes, declining to make their especial hobby the issue of the campaign.

Gov. HAYES's letter of acceptance has strengthened his candidacy very notably. It is a well-written, manly document, and the part relating to the South has been especially welcome as indicating that "our next President" will not foster sectional or local animosities either directly or indirectly. Mr. Hayes comes well out of his obscurity, so far; his attendance at our Centennial celebration, and his simple, modest, dignified bearing, have created a good feeling for

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