written, which is saying not a little; Turgenef's "Antchar" has reached its third part; Mr. Justin McCarthy draws a portrait of Mr. Joseph Arch, the Englishman who has taught his fellow-binds to co-operate and agitate-agitate "A Snow Storm and a for four dollars a week of wages, be it remembered; Baby" is a rapid and fairly well told story; Mr. Bayard Taylor contributes "Life Assurance" a dignified sonnet; Professor Vau Amringe's essay on concludes with the third part; Mr. R. B. Kimball speaks a good word for Napoleon Third; and Mr. John Durand accomplishes the incredible by taking up "Hamlet" and saying something new and true-so far as our knowledge and our judgment go-in reference to that play. The character of Ophelia is the matter more especially under investigation, and Mr. Durand dissents from some of the common conclusions. He does not at all believe with Mr. Hudson that the unfortunate girl is perfection itself; nor will he, with Mrs. Jameson, declare that Ophelia loves in the silent depths of her young heart far more than she is loved." Mr. Durand, on the contrary, thinks that she treated Hamlet with less thau true loyalty, and, not to put too fine a point on it, angered him by joining with his enemies in a trick to deceive him, in prosecution of whieh scheme she told him a falsehood, wellmeant, perhaps, surely not ill-meant, but deliberate, and told at the moment when he was trying her to see if she were true. As to the other parts of Mr. Durand's essay, with some we may agree and about others say nothing; but that part of it for the sake of which it was written appears to us a good example of Shakspearian criticism of a kind needed. The multitude of critics and commentators has bred a lazy or a slavish set of readers, and an independent reader who does not go with the many but thinks for himself is not too common, nor indeed can he be.

Mr. Joseph Arch comes up again in Harper's, which has a portrait of him, and a sketch of his career, written apparently by Mr. M. D. Conway. Mr. Arch is clearly a man of mark and note, and if the accounts we get of him are unprejudiced, he most probably has a very useful future before him. The following is a glimpse of the misery which he and his coadjutors are now endeavoring—and here is a lesson for a Communist-to get into a Parliamentary Blue-book, after investigation made by a royal commission:

For

"Mr. Mitchell, the other laboring man who spoke, told a doleful story of how often he had suffered the pangs of hunger when, at eighteen years of age, he had followed the plough, working from six in the morning until ten at night without having twopenny-worth of food in him, and a little sour cider, which was called perquisites.' It was the third runnings. The wages were seven shillings a week. "The living was tea-kettle broth for breakfast. Two or three little pieces of bread were put in the breakfast pot, which held three quarts, and then the bread was soaked with hot water. For dinner they got a few potatoes and a square inch of bacon fried in the pan for a family of seven, the fat going on the potatoes, and the meat being the father's dinner. For tea they soaked burned bread, and put a little treacle on it, that being carried to the husband in the field by the woman. supper they got little pieces of bread and skim-milk cheese. As for dwellings, I have known thirteen huddling together in one room on what they called a "shakedown," like hounds in a kennel. Last week I spoke to an old man at Yeovil, whose master told him he could not give him more than five shillings a week, and who said he was then literally starving. I will do my best to elevate my countrymen, and run the risk of the horse-pond.'" The allusion in the last line is to what is now known as "the bishop's baptism." That right reverend father in God, the Bishop of Gloucester, substantially advised the farmers of his diocese to duck in the horse-poud any "agitator" who might come into their neighborhood. That, if the very worst phases of English peasant life were brought forward and insisted upon, Mr. Mitchell's picture might have been painted in still darker colors, is as wellknown as it is hard to tell in plain speech. But to work at ploughing for sixteen hours a day "without twopenny-worth of food in one," at seven shillings a week, makes a good enough grievance for the present.

The "Easy Chair" discourses upon Bulwer, the younger Dumas, and his reply to a German who wished to buy a play from him; and upon the eagerness of denunciation which has followed Mr. Colfax, who, the "Easy Chair" says, will probably have explained the charges against him before the reader gets the "Easy Chair's" words-as if there was much need of Mr. Colfax's explaining anything, after admitting his quarterly receipts from the beneficent Mr. Nesbitt.

The general conception of the economic cosmos existing in the mind of the workingman is undoubtedly the great obstacle in the way of his progress. He has been taught from his cradle up that mankind is divided into rich and poor; that the interests of these two classes are antagonistic; that the main object of the rich capitalist is to get as much work done for him by the poor laborer as possible at the least expense; that no matter how hard he may work, he will probably remain all his life in the same condition in which he begins it, if, indeed, he is lucky enough to remain where he is, and does not sink to a lower level; and he is taught at the same time certain general ideas as to justice and equality, which seem to him strangely in conflict with the actual condition of the world. Besides this he sees that riches do not by any means fall to the lot of those who work the hardest for them, but are quite as apt to come by lucky speculation, by mere chance, or even by fraud. It is hardly to be wondered at that, in an age of Fisks and Goulds, Crédits Mobiliers, and brummagem empires, the ambitious workingman should be led to thinking that, after all, pillage is the most profitable kind of labor; and, on the whole, if fortunes are to be acquired by any one unjustly, it might as well be by himself as by his capitalist employer.

In this

It is this conception which M. About desires to eradicate from the workingman's mind. The Commune has alarmed M. About, as it has most other people, and in the volume before us it is evident that the dangers of such socialistic revolutions are constantly before his eyes. With his usual skill, in order to remove the false impression in the minds of his hearers, he puts before them his picture of the social economy of the world in such persuasive and truthful colors, that no auprejudiced person can fail to be convinced. The world, he says, is no such fighting-ground as you have been taught to believe it. The world is a great workshop in which nature furnishes materials which man by his labor endows with utility. workshop it is only the idle and thievish who are out of place—the “parasites," as he calls them, who appropriate and waste the products of the others' labors-thieves, beggars, gamblers, communists. In this workshop each has his place, from the masters, who direct and employ, to the receivers of wages, who handle the machines, stoke the fires, and distribute the goods. No one can fail to be convinced of the truth of this picture, any more than he can of the other. Both are true. It is true that each man receives from the general fund of accumulated wealth in proportion to the labor he gives, and it is also true that some unscrupulous and clever men always get more than their fair share. In one case it is an Emperor, who gets hold of the revenues of a government by what he calls a coup d'état; in the next it is an employer of labor who gets fabulous wealth by what he calls a land-grant; again it is a physician who grows rich by the sale of what he calls a panacea, or a demagogue (a labor-reformer perhaps) who gets money by the sale of what he induces people to believe is eloquence. This has been going on since the world began, and will go on until it comes to an end. All we can do is to confine it within narrow limits, which we certainly do not succeed in doing now. The rest must be done by the gradual elevation of the working-classes themselves in intelligence and self-restraint. They have already taken one great stride from the condition of slavery into that of wage-receiving freedom. From this stipendiary state into that of industrial co-operation they are undoubtedly destined to pass, but only through a gradual change in

the mental and moral condition of the world.

Meantime, such books as this of M. About are peculiarly serviceable, as they put before the workingman a true picture of the relations of things as they look from the point of view of enlightened self-interest, as well as from that of unselfish sympathy with the struggles and sufferings of mankind. Teachers will find it an excellent vade-mecum.

Authors.--Tilles.

BOOKS OF THE WEEK.

Abbe (F. R.), The Temple Rebuilt...
About (E.), Rouge et Noir..
Brooke (H.). The Fool of Quality.

Publishers.-Prices
(Noyes, Homes & Co.)
. (Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger)
. (Macmillan & Co.)
(Noyes, Holmes & Co.)

Burr (Rev. E. F.), Pater Mundi; or, Doctrine of Evolution, second series....
Caddell (Cecilia M.), Wild Times

Czermak (Prof. J. N.), Ueber das Ohr und das Hören, ewd.
Daisy...

Dorr (Mrs. J. C. R.), sibyl Huntington..
Folsom (E. G.). The Logic of Accounts.
Freeman (E. A.), Historical Essays, second series.

175

2.50 150

(Cath. Pub. Soc.) 1 50 ..(L. W. Schmidt) (J. B. Lippincott & Co.) 2 00 (J. B. Lippincott & Co.) 1 75 (A. S. Barnes & (0.) (Macmillan & Co.) etc... . (Ginn Bros.) (Geo. Routledge & sons) (L. W. Schmidt) (Lee & Shepard) 1 50 (T. B. Peterson & Bros.) Meyer (Prof. J. B.), Die Fortbildungsschule in unserer Zeit, swd. (L. W. Schmidt) Naumann (E.), Deutschlands musikalische Heroen, swd.. Oncken (Dr. A.), Die Wiener Weltausstellung 1873, swd. Sanders (Dr. D.), Wörterbuch der Hauptschwierigkeiten in der Deutschen Sprache. swd.

Halsey (C. S.), Genealogical Chart of the Rulers of England,
Hare (A. J. C.), Memorials of a Quiet Life..
Hillebrand (K.) Frankreich und die Franzosen, swd.
Hunt (L.), The Wishing-Cap Papers.
Leslie (Miss E.), New Cook-Book.

Sauzade (J. S.), Mark Gildersleeve

Shillaber (B. P.), Partingtonian Patchwork

The Workshop, No. 3, swd..

.(L. W. Schmidt)

(G. W. Carleton & Co.)

1 75

..(Lee & shepard) 175 ..(E. Steiger) 0-10 Clastin, keinen & Haffeltinger)

Whittlesey (Elsie L.), Hemlock Swamp and Wh te Sulphur Springs....

T

THE WEEK IN TRADE AND FINANCE.

MARCH 31, 1873.

A a special meeting of the directors of the Bank of England, on Tuesday,

the discount rate was raised from 311⁄2 to 4 per cent. At the regular Thursday meeting of the directors, contrary to general expectation, no further advance was made. During the week ending March 27, the Bank lost £945,000 in bullion, which is accounted for by the French indemuity payments to Germany. It was in consequence of this expected drain of specie from the Bank that induced the directors to advance the rate of discount, although it may be partly explained by the feeling on the other side that the practice of loaning sixty days' sterling bills to speculators in this market, upon stock collaterals, should be checked. The amount of sterling loans made in this city has been variously estimated from $20,000,000 to $50,000,000, and some apprehension has been expressed here about the loans being renewed when they fall due. Our information is that the leaus were mostly made with the privilege of one, and, in some instances, two renewals.

6

3

We have but to repeat that money has remained stringent in this market with to and interest, as the range of rates. We see no sign of any "let up" until the middle of April at least, and we doubt if, during the summer, money will be such a drug as it has usually been. Time money is in demand for six months at 11 and 12 per cent. upon stock collaterals of a desirable nature. Just at this time a large amount of currency is needed in the interior, especially in Pennsylvania, for the purpose of making settlements on the 1st of April; after that date the money will begin to return to the money centres, and by the 10th or 15th is usually all back again.

The stringency in the call money market keeps commercial paper dull of sale. The best names are quoted at 10 to 12 per cent., while paper of an inferior grade, but still quite good, has been sold as high as 18 per cent. and under.

The bank statement is unfavorable, showing a falling off of $867,600 in the reserve, against a reduction of but $1,092,700 in the liabilities. The banks now stand $377,200 below the required 25 per cent. reserve, but the deficiency is confined to the State banks, as the statement published below shows. The following is a comparison of the averages of the past two weeks:

the surplus property of the former amongst its stockholders. This consolidation will take place sooner or later, as the two roads run parallel to each other, and are under the same management, and it is very desirable that they should so remain. The Daily Bulletin, usually well informed, says:

"Late in the day a meeting was called of the directors of the N. Y. Central and Hudson and the N. Y. and Harlem Railroad Companies for next Tuesday morning, the business before the meeting to be the perfection of the lease of the Harlem to the Central and Hudson. The terms of the lease as it now stands are as follows: Only the Harlem Railroad proper, on which steam is used, is to be leased, and on this the Central and Hudson guaranty 8 per cent. annual dividends to the Harlem stockholders. The city railroads of the Harlem, which are to be reserved to the Harlem, already earn 3 per cent. on the entire Harlem capital. The city real estate of the Harlem is to be sold as soon as practicable, and the proceeds, estimated as equivalent to 30 to 40 per cent. of the Harlem stock, to be given also to the Harlem stockholders. These are the terms as given to us by those who should know and who have no interest to deceive."

Western Union has been weak on a moderate amount of business. At the commencement of the week Pacific Mail and Panama were strong, Lut at the close prices on both stocks fell off, especially on Panama, which, for some reason, has been pressed for sale; the price on Tuesday reached 1163%, from which price there was a gradual decline until Saturday, when the lowest point reached was 110%. From recent accounts, the grand railroadsteamship-sewing-machine combination has become considerably mixed up, the property of one company having been mortgaged to another, and from present appearances we should judge that no man seeth the end thereof. The property of the Howe Sewing-Machine Company is reported to have been mortgaged for $1,140,000 to the Pacific Mail Steamship Company by Mr. Stockwell, who is the largest stockholder in the former and president of the latter.

The earnings of the Union Pacific R. R. Co. for the month of February and since the beginning of the year have been as follows:

N. Y. C. & H. R.
Lake Shore..
Erie...

Union Pacifle.
Chi & N. W

Do. pid...
N. J Central.
Rock Island.
Mil. & St. Paul....
Do.

Monday. Tuesday. Wed'day. Thursday Friday. Saturday. Sales Sh's 101% 10% 01% 102% 102 102% 102 10:34 102 1024 101% 102%) 93% 914 93% 94 93% 93% 93% 91 93% 93% 94 93 65% 65% 64%% 65% 64% 65% 64% 65% 65% 66 65% 654 84% 35% 5% 35% 85% 85% 85% 85% 83% 354 34% 35% 81 80 82 80 8: 82 8814 88% +84 83% 103% 104 101

87.000

46,600

66,300

58 000

400

700

104% 10%

1.400

115% 115 115 115% 115% 57% 57% 59% 59% 60% 59% 60

15,100

70,100

112% 1124 45% 45% 45% 46% 45% 46% 39% 40% 29% 40 39% 39% 84 86% 85% 86% 85% 86% 6% 58 56% 58% 56% 57%

25.100

21.000 135,000 201,800

Wabash.

pfd.

D. L. & Western.
B. H. & Erie..

C. & Alton..
O. & M..

90 884 69 103% 115 115 114 115 114 115 115 56% 571457 57% 57 75% 75% 75% 76% 75% 7844 78 78 734 72% 101 101 100 101 1014 414 43% 3% 4% 2% 8% 112 113

112%

Total. $274,348,700

16.179 100

38,729,800

193,508,700 27,635,700

The Treasury gives notice to-day that during the month of April it will purchase $500,000 5-20s on the 9th and 23d of the month, and sell $1,500,000 gold on each Thursday.

The Government bond market has been very strong throughout the week. A great scarcity of bonds has existed, and the demand for them for shipment to Europe has been steady. Prices at the close on Saturday show a handsome advance as compared with those at the beginning of the week. The firmness of gold strengthens Government bonds so long as the price in Europe holds its own.

The feature of the different markets has been gold. The price on Monday was 1152, from which a gradual advance continued until the close (Saturday) when the price was 117. The imports for the week were very large, amounting to $13,884,598. The possibility that the Treasury will flood the market with new legal tenders keeps up a feeling that gold is good property to hold, and forms a basis upon which the "clique" can a. vance the price. The large imports are taking a large amount of gold from the la..Is, as it is needed to pay duties at the custom-house. Altogether the outlook in the gold-room is favorable for the "bulls," and from the fact that 1 per cent. bonus is bid for the privilege of calling it at 120 at any time within four months, it is probable that the price will advance to that figure before the summer is over.

NEW YORK, THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 1873.

The Week.

THE facts, so far as they have been developed, with regard to the loss of the Atlantic on Meagher's Rock, are these: The vessel left England insufficiently coaled and insufficiently provisioned. On the 31st of last month, when she was 460 miles from New York, there were, according to Captain Williams's statement, only 127 tons of coal and barely two days' provisions left, and the captain, considering that the "risk was too great," determined to run into Halifax. The position of the Atlantic was got by "observation and chronometer," and at twelve o'clock midnight was reckoned to be 48 miles off Sambro Light, at the entrance of the harbor, the light bearing almost due north. The speed was then about 12 knots per hour. Captain Williams had never brought a ship into Halifax, and knew nothing about the coast except what is known to every one, that it is perhaps the most dangerous in the world; the third officer had been in the harbor twice; none of the other officers had ever been there. It will be seen that, going 12 knots an hour, the vessel was rapidly nearing the coast; she was already "within soundings." Under these circumstances, the captain, at 12.40, went to bed (no soundings having been made), with orders that he should be called at three o'clock, relying on the clearness of the night, and the certainty of Sambro Light being seen, and intending on getting near the coast to lay to. As a matter of fact, he was utterly mistaken either as to position or else direction, for he was carried miles to the westward of Sambro Light, and driven right on to the coast. At three o'clock the vessel struck. Captain Williams admits that had he taken soundings the loss would not have occurred. Some of the newspapers find fault with the construction of the vessel, and maintain that she was too long for her width, and that if she had been properly constructed she would have "held her own" when she got on Meagher's Rock. Captain Williams, however, whose interest it certainly is to find fault with her construction if it is any one's, says nothing of the kind; and it should be remembered that the Atlantic was built for a sea-going vessel, and not for a rock boat.

That Captain Williams was perfectly sober at the time of the wreck, and that he did all in his power to save life, seems to be established, but there are some facts connected with his previous career which have been thus far covered up, but which ought to be stated, as they have a very direct bearing on the culpability of his employers-the White Star Line. Captain Williams was formerly on the Williams and Guion line, and while in the employ of that company so thoroughly disgraced himself by drunkenness that, on the representations of one of the passengers who crossed the ocean in a vessel of which he was in command (he having been helplessly drunk all the way over), he was removed or allowed to resign. This is the real truth of the story that his dismissal was "owing to a difficulty with some of the passengers." The Williams and Guion officials then gave him a letter of recommendation, on the strength of which he got a command from the White Star Line. This makes the shameful story complete. One company dismisses a man for beastly drunkenness; a second company places a thousand lives in his keeping on the strength of a recommendation from the first company. To save a little money, the vessel is insufficiently coaled; and to supply her, she is taken directly on to an unknown and frightfully dangerous coast, the man in charge going to bed while she is running on. It would be worth while knowing what excuse the White Star Line can give for employing an officer dismissed for any reason whatever by another company.

The recent Rhode Island election is hardly worth speaking of. It was a complicated matter, with many interests and issues involved, but all of them local. The Republican candidate for LieutenantGovernor was beaten, there being a temperance candidate in the field, and no choice by the people. It was thought the presence of a temperance candidate in Connecticut might also have had some effect even upon the choice for the governorship, and it had some, but, as it seems, not very much-prohibition still being a highly fancy stock in State politics, and used mostly in illegitimate operations. More important seems to have been the dissensions among important politicians, which cut down the Republican vote for Mr. Haven in New Haven City by just about the majority which it is now asserted-without corrected returns, however-that Mr. Ingersoll, the Democratic candidate, has obtained. It is said that the Democrats have also carried the House, while the Republicans control the Senate. The chief contest was in the Congressional districts, which stand as before-Mr. Hawley's majority running well up to 1,300 apparently, against 633 last year, when he was elected over Mr. W. W. Eaton, a tried wheel-horse of the straitest Connecticut Democracy. The increase of his majority will be generally looked upon as caused by his anti-back-pay and anti-corruption attitude in the last House, where, although a new member, he was an old enough politician, and near enough to the inner priesthood, to be allowed to make a great deal of noise. On the whole, then, the election is of no particular significance, except as showing that "the people" are not yet up in arms, and that "every man round us may rob as he please," as the song (prematurely) said on the occasion of Mr. Blueskin's cutting the throat of Mr. Jonathan Wild.

When by limitation of time New Jersey became free from the the future of the new invention could be foreseen, it was hoped that power ignorantly granted to the railroads in the days when little o she might become wholly free. The New Jersey Transportation Company and the Camden and Amboy were, however, too much for the efforts of the State, and since the beginning of 1867, when the alliance between these two powers became firm, the two companies have been as strong at Trenton as ever; and to think of the amount of money paid out for their strength is no consolation when we reflect on the persons to whom it was paid, and the lessons it has taught. The last Legislature, however, has secured the gratitude of the country by passing a general railroad law, very good in principlewhatever its working may be in the face of its bitter and able enemies-a law whose passage is a proof of the inherent honesty of the Jerseyman. Their surface history, hampered as they have been by their contract with the companies, and afterwards exposed as they have been to some of the wealthiest corruptors in the world, may seem to indicate something very different from inherent honesty. And an obstinacy, almost of conservatism, has caused the Jersey community in general to fall into the bad graces of some of us; but whoever knows the people of the State, knows that the most conspicuous part of their past history badly represents them, and that the ordinary Jerseyman is as honest a man as can be found anywhere. With rare exceptions, we surmise, other American communities that have sneered for so many years at Jersey may probably look at home.

The Illinois farmers met yesterday week in a convention that must have formed an animated contrast to the regular cut-and-dried American convention, as known to the last thirty or forty years of our politics. Nearly three hundred farmers were present from almost three-quarters of the counties of the State, and these delegates are said to represent about one hundred thousand Illinois electors, and to have been mostly Republicans in politics. A vote to invite Gov. Beveridge to address the convention failed to pass when first offered, but on a reconsideration was got through, in spite of "much opposition" and many voices in the negative, and the governor made a

speech, in which he began by saying that he "recognized the fact that the producing interest in all lands, especially in this Prairie State, the richest country on God's green earth, was the grandest and noblest interest asking for our protection, our fostering, and our care (applause).” The Governor admitted, also, that the railroad companies had been extortionate, and thought it must be admitted that other interests as well as those of the farming classes had suffered. But just how this was to be remedied it might not be so easy to say; all the evil could not be remedied that afternoon, nor that year probably, and perhaps not for five years or twenty-five. He had appointed a good railroad commission, all of the commissioners being farmers who meant work, and intended that the railroads should be the creations of the people's representatives and obey the popular will. An amendment of the Constitution of the United States might be necessary, but it would be easy to get if the farmers showed persistency, and it would at once and for ever abrogate the famous "Dartmouth College decision "-secured by Daniel Webster, Jeremiah Mason, and Jeremiah Smith, pleading before Chief-Justice Marshall against William Wirt, William Pinckney, and John Holmes, in behalf of the college corporation and against the New Hampshire Legislature, which had set aside the college charter. The farmers were at first angry enough to forget all the legal bearings of the work they have gone at with so much zest; but before they got together in convention, they seem to have settled into a fair degree of coolness, and to mean business very distinctly. Their "granges," so called, or anti-monopoly clubs, are now to be found in Illinois, Iowa-where the movement began, and where they are said to have fifty thousand men enrolled-Kansas, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

After Governor Beveridge's speech, General John M. Palmer made a speech a good deal less conservative than the official's, and which had for its most important point the suggestion that railroad stocks should be taken by law out of the category of personal property, and thus "withdrawn from speculation." After these preliminaries, and while the Committee on Resolutions were making ready to report, a resolution was offered and adopted which "emphatically placed the seal of our condemnation" upon the increase of the congressional salaries and the securing for each of the senators and representatives "a bonus of $5,000 for services already rendered." The President was also censured by the convention, and we observe that a resolution the same in substance was at the time pending in the Illinois House and Senate. The real business of the convention then began to come on in the reading of the resolutions, which were no less than eighteen in number, and very thoroughgoing; after which adjournment till evening was voted. The evening session was at first confused and noisy, the firebrand being the free-trade resolution calling for the "repeal of the protective duties on iron, steel, lumber, and other materials which enter into the construction of railroad cars, steamships, agricultural implements," etc. It is stated by one correspondent-who represented an entirely free-trade journal-that "a Radical ring," consisting of "Mr. A. B. Meagher, of the National Protective Association, Mr. J. C. Seanlan, of the Irish Industrial League, Mr. John Harper, United States Collector, and Judge Bradwell, the Republican leader in the House," was formed to prevent the farmers from saying anything upon the tariff question, and confine them to attacking the railroads. The resolution passed, however, in spite of interruptions and disturbances of a most unseemly character, due to the late arrival of the elected officers of the convention.

The substance of the principal resolutions is as follows: The railroad companies of the world, wherever governments have not controlled them, have proved themselves as extortionate and opposed to free institutions as the robber-barons of the Middle Ages; their despotism shall be subverted and destroyed; the State, in the convention's belief, did not and could not so far part with its sovereignty as ever to create a corporation that could not thenceforth be controlled by its creator;

the railroad corporations (representing in Illinois $250,000,000 of money in the hands of a few men, and representing in the whole country $4,000,000,000) are to be viewed with alarm; the General Assembly must pass laws "fixing reasonable rates for freight and passengers"; the present statute providing for the "classification" of railroads, so as to adjust the tariff of charges according to gross amount of earnings, is a "delusion and a snare," for the roads classify themselves as they please; a bill should be passed which, "recognizing the principle that railroads are public highways," shall compel the companies to make "actual connections" between roads that meet and cross each other; the Legislature should pass a law making it a misdemeanor for a legislator to travel on a free pass from a company; whereas the Constitution of 1848 forbade special charters (except for municipal purposes), it is extremely doubtful whether all Illinois railroad charters granted since 1848 are not invalid; and whereas the Constitution of 1870 forbade the watering of stock, and whereas nearly every railroad in the State has since then issued watered stock, it is the duty of the Railroad Commissioners to institute proceedings against the companies. Of these resolutions all passed without material alteration, as well as the tariff resolution of which we have spoken, and the convention laid on the table a resolution declaring it the duty of the National Government to improve the Illinois River, an affluent of the Mississippi, which waters Central and Western Illinois for a distance of about 500 miles, and is navigable with good luck and sufficiently small craft for about half its length. The farmers were, however, bent on having railroads, and no proposition looking to old-fashioned internal improvements had any chance with them.

"Under instructions of the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. E. 0. Graves, of the Civil-Service Board, went South in the middle of last weck, accompanied by Mr. S. I. J. Kimball, of the Revenue Marine Bureau, to visit the principal Southern Custom-houses and subtreasuries, and to put in operation the civil-service rules, which will be substantially the same as those at the New York Custom-house. Mr. Kimball goes also in connection with the Life-Saving Service, but Mr. Graves goes with special reference to putting the public service on a civil-service footing. The examination of the 565 applicants for the 40 vacancies in the Treasury was concluded yesterday, and it will be two or three weeks before the result can be written up and tabulated. The candidates for each day who came up to an average of 80 are not more than ten per cent. of each day's list." This we give as semi-official, and the latest news that we have anywhere seen concerning this greatest modern source of interminable and flatly contradicting assertions. From the same authority we quote these further facts, which we leave our readers who know Mr. Collector Arthur and his friends to reconcile as may best be done. "Mr. Curtis alone"-it is about Mr. Curtis's resignation that the correspondent is writing-" warmly espoused the promotion of Mr. Benedict because it would be a conspicuous thrust at the politicians." Except by Mr. Curtis, the promotion was not urged, strange to say; "but the President responded to Mr. Curtis's appeal, and appointed Mr. Benedict." Upon this, "the Senate laid the resolution on the table, and to save it from rejection it was withdrawn." In other words, the Senate would have its way, for what

ever reason.

Mr. Albert S. Stickney, who gave signal proof of his ability as an investigator in the Barnard impeachment case, was wisely selected some time ago by the Erie Investigating Committee to conduct their examination for them, and the result has been "astonishing developments." The committee has now had before it an array of swindlers, thieves, "corruptionists," lobbyists, bribers, operators, and other habitual criminals such as probably were never before in the history of the world subpoenaed in any one matter. The testimony lately taken has referred chiefly to the sums of money paid out of the Erie Treasury at one time and another to the various members of this crew. To James Fisk, for instance, one item of $3,000 appears to have been paid for "carriage hire and services";