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atomic weights. Lothar Meyer has constructed a graphic representation exhibiting the relation of the physical properties of the elements to their atomic weights and volumes. The elements are arranged at distances from the origin along the axis of abscissæ proportional to their atomic weights. The ordinates of the curve indicate their atomic volumes, and the curve the variations of these in their successive order. From the portions of this curve which have been determined, it appears that it represents also variations in the above-mentioned physical properties. It is seen that the position of the elements on the ascending or descending portions of the curve determines their properties, which may thus be very different for bodies possessing nearly the same atomic weight, and yet harmonize in a remarkable manner with the other terms of the theory. The light metals which occupy the summits and contiguous descending parts of the curve are ductile; and the heavy metals at the bottom and lower part of the ascending curve are partially ductile. In the fourth group the ductility is seen to increase and diminish twice in one period of the variations of density. Fusibility and conductivity, with increasing atomic weights, exhibit the same principle of variability. Crystalline form and expansibility by

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heat are found also to depend upon atomic weight, according to the same law of periodicity. Fizeau's experiments have proved that the co-efficient of expansion rises and sinks regularly as the atomic weight increases. long's law of relativity between atomic weights and specific heats, probably for lack of exact measurements, can only be determined in cases where atomic weights and atomic volume are both low. Dulong's law is not periodic, the specific heat being uniformly inversely proportional to the atomic weight. Lecoq de Boisbaudran has proved that, in the homologous series of elements, the wave-lengths of the luminous rays which they emit are proportional to their atomic weights. The electro-chemical character of the elements follows the law of periodic variations, the passage from the electro-positive to the electro-negative character taking place in certain groups twice in the same period of density variation. The electro-chemical condition governs the power of combination, to a certain extent; the stable protoxides, for example, being formed with electro-positive metals, and powerful acids rich in oxygen with electro-negative elements. Electro-negative hydrogen, on the contrary, forms its most stable simple compounds with electro-positive elements.

In each of the periodical series the capacity of combining with oxygen seems to increase up to a certain point, and then to decrease. The series headed by silver may be taken as a type of the oxygen compounds formed by the elements in the other periods, the formulæ being here doubled for the sake of uniformity:

Ag2O; Cd2O2; In2O3; Sn2O4; Sb2O5; Tе206; 1207; OsO4; IrO2; PtO2.

The first five members of every period but one follow these types exactly. The variations of affinities for chlorine and hydrogen within the groups are made evident by the following formulæ, combinations with hydrogen being confined to the last four terms of the groups: Li Cl; G Cl2; B Cl3; C C14. Na Cl; Mg Cl2; Al Cl; Si Cl. CH1; N H.; O H2; F II. Si H1; PH; S H2; C1 H. Dumas, to whom the merit of grouping the elements into natural families belongs, called attention again to Prout's neglected hypothesis in 1879. The French chemist discovered simple numerical relations between the metalloids and some of the families of metals belonging to each group. In the sulphur group, for instance, at the head of which oxygen is now placed, there is a progression representing additions to the atomic weight of the initial body of multiples of a common difference. Starting with oxygen, whose atomic weight is 8, the next member, sulphur, has the atomic weight 16, formed by the addition of the increment 8; selenium has 40, corresponding to the addition of four times this difference to the weight of oxygen; and tellurium 64, an increment of seven times the difference. In the lithium and magnesium groups there are like simple progressions. In the families of fluorine and nitrogen he has established arithmetical relations of a more complex order.

A recalculation of atomic weights, based on the determinations of Stas and other data, has impelled Professor F. W. Clarke, following Mallet and Dumas, to revive the abandoned hypothesis of Prout, according to which the atomic weights of all the elements are multiples of the atomic weight of hydrogen. Among the 65 determined elements when their atomic weights are referred to that of oxygen, in order to avoid the multiplication of the variation of oxygen from Prout's hypothetical law, it is found that 39, as calculated by Clarke, do not vary more than 0.1 from exact multiples of the atomic weight of hydrogen; and of the remaining 26, 3 are almost exact half-multiples; 5 are rare or vaguely determined elements; 2 are subject to the constant error from the occlusion of oxygen, detected by Dumas in the case of silver, potassium, and iodine; 1, thallium, is brought within the limit by a correction of Crookes's calculation; 2, glucinum and ytterbium, can also be brought by a recalculation within the limit; and 1, antimony, is almost an exact multiple of hydrogen, according to a recent analysis of the bromide; for 4,

mercury, chromium, vanadium, and gold, new determinations are wanted; and the remaining 8 are still subject to slight revision. Professor Clarke concludes, then, that as three fourths of the well-determined atomic weights agree with Prout's hypothesis, the seeming exceptions may be due to undetected constant errors, such as have been brought recently to light in some of the most familiar bodies in the entire list of elements.

Maximilien Gerber has sought to determine common factors in the atomic weights of the component members of each of the elemental groups, and has determined empirically certain common divisors in the several groups whose multiples vary but slightly from the experimentally-determined atomic weights. In the group of mono-atomic elements the common factor is 0.769. The alkaline metals, lithium, sodium, potassium, rubidium, and cæsium, which combine with oxygen after the type RO, and with chlorine according to the formula R Cl, have, excepting the last named, the additional common factor 3. The non-metallic halogens, fluorine, chlorine, bromine, and iodine, are another division of this class, and are likewise multiples of 0·769.

The atomic weight of hydrogen is related to this number in the ratio 10: 13, and that of silver is an exact multiple. The di- and tetraatomic elements have the common divisor 1.995. Oxygen has an atomic weight equal to eight times this number, and the weights of sulphur, selenium, and tellurium ere multiples of that of oxygen.

The alkaline-earthy metals, magnesium, calcium, and strontium, which have the combining formula RO, have the quadruple of the original factor for a divisor; but barium, which belongs to the same group, does not. Carbon, silicon, titanium, zirconium, and tin, have only the one common factor. Mercury, molybdenum, tungsten, and uranium, are also multiples of this number. The tri- and penta-valent elements, the group of nitrogen, boron, etc., which form a stable oxide of the type R2Os, and chlorides of the types RC, or RCls, have most of them the common factor 1.559 in their atomic weights. The fourth and most numerous class, combining into the oxides RO and RO,, have atomic weights which are approximate multiples of 1.245. Gerber's provisional determination of common divisors is found to agree with two recent corrections of atomic weights: that of tellurium, which, as redetermined by Will, is 127-8, a number which accords better with Mendelejeff's scheme; and that of glucinum, which, according to the findings of Nilson and Petterson, should not be classed among the diatomic alkaline-earthy metals, as its oxide is of the type R2Os, as originally established by Berzelius, and its atomic weight must therefore be taken as 13.65.

AUSTRALIA AND POLYNESIA. I. GENERAL STATISTICS.-The area (in square kilo

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An intercolonial conference of statesmen convened in Sydney, in January, to consider in what particulars and by what methods federal action would at the present time be desirable. It was the continuation of a conference which was held in Melbourne in the latter part of 1880, which discussed an arrangement regarding the border customs between New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. Those three colonies alone participated in the former conference. In the present one all the colonies were represented, informally, by prominent administrative officials. It was composed of the following members: Henry Parks, Colonial Secretary of New South Wales, chairman of Conference; Graham Berry, Chief Secretary, and William M. K. Vale, Attorney-General, Victoria; James Watson, Colonial Treasurer, New South Wales; Thomas Dick, Colonial Secretary, New Zealand; William Morgan, Chief Secretary, and C. Mann, Treasurer, South Australia; A. H. Palmer, Colonial Secretary, and Boyd D. Morehead, PostmasterGeneral, Queensland; W. R. Giblin, Colonial Treasurer, and W. Moore, Colonial Secretary, Tasmania; Chief-Justice Wrenfordsley, Western Australia.

The final federal union of the Australasian colonies has been looked forward to since the

The movement of population in the several release of the principal colonies from crown colonies was as follows in 1878:

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administration alike by British and colonial statesmen. Confederation might have been accomplished with less difficulty at the time when the right of self-government was first conferred, and before the development of divergent policies. The conflict of policies and diversity of laws since the growth of population and material prosperity has brought the colonies into closer contact afford the real incentive, while constituting a serious practical difficulty, to the movement, which has been begun, toward conformity and federation.

The greatest actual obstacle in the way of a federal union is the opposite commercial policies pursued by the two leading and contiguous colonies, Victoria and New South Wales. Victoria has lived ten years under a tariff framed for the encouragement of domestic industries, and her people tenaciously adhere to the protective idea. Her neighbor and rival, New South Wales, is equally attached to her revenue tariff, and the people are thoroughly devoted to free-trade principles. The less populous colonies incline to the British doctrine, and have constructed tariffs which do not differ

The commercial statistics for 1879 were as greatly from that of New South Wales, and follows:

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can, without friction, be brought into exact conformity. The Intercolonial Conference did not hesitate to attack the vital subject of a customs union, although an immediate agreement is out of the question. Amid the protests of Mr. Berry at the proposed "insulation" of Victoria, the conference voted that a joint commission be appointed by the autonomous colonies to construct a common tariff.* Vic* West Australia is the only Australasian colony which

toria cast the only dissentient vote. This colony may appoint delegates to the tariff commission, but will not be disposed to abandon easily a tariff system under which powerful interests have grown up.

The commercial rivalry between the two older colonies has entered a sharper stage since the completion, in the early part of 1881, of the railroad from Sydney to the Murray River, where it meets the railroad from Melbourne. The New South Wales ministry have fixed the freight rates at a low figure, in order to attract the trade of the extensive Riverina district away from Melbourne to Sydney. This is a reversal of free-trade principles which provokes the sarcasm of the Victorian statesmen; but against its economic effects they can have no remedy except to conform their tariff to that of the sister colony.

The only actual result of the conference, besides the majority vote in favor of a tariff commission, and the only unanimously approved proposition, was the decision in favor of the establishment of an Australian Court of Appeal. A project was drawn up and adopted for a law to be brought before each of the colonial Parliaments, and then submitted for ratification to the Imperial Government. Fugitives from arrest on criminal charges, or men who have abandoned wife or child, may be apprehended, according to one of the provisions of the proposed legal convention, upon warrants taken out in any one of the colonies, or upon telegraphic notification that the warrants have been issued.

The intercolonial conference in discussing plans looking to confederation did not commit themselves to the conjugate principle of selfmaintenance, for, on adopting a resolution recommending the increase of the naval squadron, they rejected a proposal that the colonies should bear half the cost. With reference to outrages committed by islanders in the South Seas, the conference proposed that the High Commissioner who has jurisdiction in such cases should be granted extended powers, but that in felony cases appeal should lie to the Supreme Court of one of the colonies against his decisions. The murders of Bishop Patterson and Commodore Goodenough, and more recent outrages committed by the natives of the Solomon, New Hebrides, Santa Cruz, and New Ireland groups, were probably reprisals provoked by the atrocities of the cruisers for laborers to supply the sugar-plantations of Queensland and other demands for "Karnackies." The practice of kidnapping, and other cruelties of this form of slave-traffic, have continued to the most recent years, if they do not still take place.*

remains under the control of the British Parliament and is governed from Downing Street. For the three classes of British colonies see "Annual Cyclopædia" for 1879, under GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.

* During the year 1881 natives of the Pacific islands have taken reprisals on one British labor-ship and on a French vessel which was probably mistaken for a labor-cruiser. The

In regard to Chinese immigration the harmonious action of the colonies is difficult. The Government of West Australia issued an order encouraging this immigration at the public expense-a step which was condemned by the representatives of all the other colonies. Queensland and South Australia, which also possess territory within the torrid zone, favor limited immigration, while in New South Wales and Victoria intense hostility to the Chinese prevails. The conference embodied their objections to the importation of these laborers by the Government into the crown colony of West Australia in a memorial addressed to Lord Kimberly, British Secretary for the Colonies.

The New South Wales Parliament gave their principal attention, upon convening in the summer, to an act restricting Chinese immigration. A poll-tax of ten pounds is levied on every Chinaman upon landing, and ship-masters are forbidden, under a heavy penalty, to bring more than one to every one hundred tons of ship's burden. The Government is also empowered to quarantine, indefinitely, any vessel carrying Chinese passengers-a provision intended as a menace to deter the importation of these unwelcome producers.

By the returns of the late census it appears that the area of wheat cultivation in Australia has doubled in ten years. South Australia leads in this product. The Australian crop is only one third as great as that of the British Islands, although the area sown is nearly the same. Only about one half of the crop is available for export, and the prices must be high enough to amply remunerate the British wheat-grower before the Australians can export wheat to Europe with a profit. The prospects of gold-mining in all of the colonies are better than they have been for years. New fields have been opened on the northern coast of Australia. In New South Wales new diggings of remarkable richness have been discovered. The opening of gold and tin mines in Tasmania has given that colony a commercial impulse, and produced an influx of capital and immigration such as never were known before.

The revenues of New South Wales continue to increase beyond current wants from the sales of land. The revenue for the year ending March 1, 1881, exceeded that of the preceding year by £1,080,000. The revenue for the fiscal year 1880 was £4,912,000. The Treasurer's estimate for 1881 was £5,440,000, which was considerably exceeded in the receipts for the first half of the year, and promised to reach £6,000,000.

outrages committed by the crews of labor-vessels, notably the brig Carl, were made the subject of a Parliamentary investigation eight years ago, and measures were taken by the British Government to suppress the evil. The employers of Polynesian coolies in Queensland are obliged, under a law of the colony, to return them, on the expiration of their term of service, to their native islands. The familiar term for the South Sea coolies among Australians, Karnackie, is a corruption of Kanaka, the native name for the Sandwich Island

ers.

The population was found by the census to exceed 750,000, showing an increase of 250,000 in the ten years. Owing to its vast area of attractive land, it has gained upon the much smaller but still more populous colony of Victoria, the difference between their populations having fallen in the ten years from 250,000 to 100,000. The debt of New South Wales amounts to about £15,000,000; but of this at least £12,000,000 is invested in railroads.

The enormous railroad construction which has been carried out by the Government in New South Wales received its first impetus from the circumstance that the Government found coming into its hands large sums of surplus revenue derived from the sales of public lands which the prosperous sheep-graziers, who had rented them of the Government at d. an acre, commenced to buy in vast blocks at the upset price of £1 per acre. The railroad system, well started with these means, has been extended by loans raised in London. At the beginning of the year, 679 miles of new road were under construction, and surveys for further extensions had been made.

The railroad earnings in 1880 were £1,594,000, being £89,000 more than the Treasurer's estimate, and yielding 44 per cent on the capital invested. A still larger profit was expected in 1881.

Victoria has for the last four years been passing through a constitutional crisis. Conflicts between the two Houses of the Legislature mark the advances in popular self-government made in the British colonies. In the transition from crown administration to autonomy, the Council, composed of appointees of the crown, is the vehicle, through which the Government refuses the popular demands emanating from the representative hall. Under responsible government the Legislative Council is balanced against the popular Assembly as the representatives of the property-holding class, the conservators of the interests of wealth, and the only repository of the veto-power and check upon immature and democratic legislation. This branch thus represents an entirely different constituency from that of the Assembly, which body is elected on the broad basis of universal suffrage. Party majorities in the Upper House for this reason, and because the Councilors hold their seats much longer than delegates in the Assembly, do not change with the transfer of power in the Lower House and the consequent change of ministers. Frequent "dead-locks" are the unavoidable result. The whole political machinery is clogged, useful legislation is rendered impossible, and political passions are excited simply through this defect in the Constitution. This unwholesome condition of affairs has become chronic of late years in the prosperous and democratic colony of Victoria. Mr. Berry, the Premier and Liberal leader, has brought in various bills for the popularization of the Legislative Council. An active Reform League has kept the question before the pub

lic, and pressed it in the Legislature. The Liberal party made it their sole issue, and were supported by a great popular majority. The Legislative Council and their electors were naturally loath to abandon the only conservative safeguard-the right of those who hold a stake in the country to control the will of the absolute numerical majority.

For four years the ministry were supported by the people in demanding a reform, until all grew tired of the fruitless agitation. An appeal had even been made to the Imperial Government. In March Mr. Berry introduced into the Assembly a final compromise measure, reducing the tenure of seats in the Council, one third of which should be refilled every three years, from ten to six years, and lowering the limitations of the franchise. The bill passed the Legislative Assembly but was rejected by the Council, March 25th, on the ground that a bill affecting the powers and composition of that House should originate there. The Council had itself passed a reform bill of its own. The subject was next discussed in a joint committee, but without result. The Berry bill was finally, considerably altered by the amendments, passed by the Council in the middle of May. The measure reduces the property qualification for Councilors to £100, and fixes the qualification for freehold electors at £10, and for occupiers at £25 annual rental. The qualifications for electors and candidates under the old law were respectively a freehold of £50 and one of £250 annual value. The number of electors is increased by this sweeping reform from 32,000 to 108,000, and the number of members from thirty to forty-two. There are supposed to be only about 80,000 citizens, who vote for members of the Lower House, that are not possessed of sufficient property to qualify them as electors of members of the Council.

The reform act which was the final outcome of the long struggle was not satisfactory to the people. The Legislative Council had given up the limited franchise to the extent of reconstituting itself on nearly as broad a basis of popular representation as the Lower Chamber. It had abandoned the controlling voice of property; but it had not sacrificed any part of its coequal legislative authority. The public looked upon the reform act as an extension rather than a curtailment of the powers of the Council. It was supposed to contain no remedy for the "dead-locks," which were the actual ground and reason for reform. As a result of the popular disappointment in the measure, the Legislative Assembly in the beginning of July passed a vote of want of confidence in the ministry. The Governor refused to dissolve Parliament, and, upon the resignation of Berry and his colleagues, called upon Sir Bryan O'Loghlen to form a Cabinet, in which, after some difficulty and delay, he succeeded.

The returns of the decennial census place the population of Victoria at 845,977, composed of 438,186 males and 407,791 females.

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