gramme when it undertook the expedition to Egypt.

"As in the time of Alexander," said Renan, "the conquest of arms was a conquest of science. The 24th of December, 1798, our illustrious colleague, Gen. Bonaparte, left Cairo, accompanied by Berthier, Monge, Berthollet, and several other members of the Institute, and of certain merchants who had obtained permission to join his escort. On the 30th he found, to the north of Suez, the remains of the ancient canal, and followed it for five leagues; on the 3d of January, 1799, he saw near Belbes the other extremity of the canal of the Pharaohs. The researches of the Egyptian Commission were the starting-point of all the subsequent designs. One error only, the belief in an inequality of the levels of the two seas (always denied by Laplace and Fourier), was mixed with these valuable researches, and it delayed for half a century the execution of the work planned by the heroic engineers of 1798."

The origin of the enterprise goes back to 1854. Mehemet Ali was in the Libyan Desert with eleven thousand men, and his camp was near Lake Mareotis when he was joined by Lesseps, who had known him in Paris. Lesseps obtained there the concession of the canal. He made a preliminary exploration of the country with Mougel and Linant Bey; he verified the equality of the level of the two seas, which had already been demonstrated by Paulin-Talabot, the creator of the railway which joins Paris, by way of Lyons, with Marseilles.

Notwithstanding the strenuous opposition of Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, then English Ambassador at Constantinople, Lesseps secured the approbation of the Grand Vizier. After some negotiations, it was agreed between the Governments of France and of England that the two would leave the affair of the Suez Isthmus to itself, and would consider it a mere commercial and industrial enterprise. M. de Lesseps met, nevertheless, with much opposition in England. Lord Palmerston was very hostile to the project, and his hostility was felt at Constantinople. After four years of appeals to public opinion, Lesseps dared to make an appeal to the European public. The capital of the company was fixed at two hundred millions of francs, divided into 400,000 shares of 500 francs. He reserved 85,506 shares to England, Austria, Russia, and the United States; the rest was offered to the French public. The emission was covered, and the Society was legally constituted.

was

The work to be executed extended for 130 kilometres, and five years were judged necessary for the maritime canal, which was to be eight metres deep and to have a breadth on its surface of fifty-six metres. It is not easy to imagine now all the difficulties with which Lesseps had to contend, financial, technical, economical. Mehemet's successor, Said, died in 1863, and replaced by Ismail Pasha, who received the title of Khedive, and substituted free labor for the forced labor or corvée. It was thought that this reform would ruin the company, but the use of improved and gigantic dredging-machines saved it. The inauguration of the Canal took place on the 17th of November, 1869, with great pomp. The Empress Eugénie, the Emperor of Austria, the Khedive Ismail, the Princess of Holland, the heirs presumptive of the crowns of Prussia and of the Netherlands, a host of Russian and German princes, witnessed the ceremony, as well as the Emir Abd-el-Kader. Who would have believed, in those triumphant days, that not many months afterwards the Empress Eugénie

would have to flee from the palace of the Tuileries, and, curiously enough, that M. de Lesseps would be one of the few friends to help her to escape?

From the day of the inauguration to the end of 1870, 486 ships crossed the isthmus through the Canal. The cost of construction had been, as we have said, estimated at 200,000,000; but in 1870 the Company had expended as much as 432,000,000, and was obliged to issue debentures and to make loans. The financial difficulties became very great, but the receipts rose gradually; they amounted in 1871 to 7,595,000 francs, in 1872 to 14,377,000, in 1873 to 20,850,000, in 1874 to 22,667,000. In the year 1875 the Khedive Ismail, whose expenses had been excessive, sold the 176,602 shares which he possessed to the English Government at the price of a hundred millions of francs, which represented a value of 568 francs per share. When these shares were offered to England by the Khedive, Parliament was not in session, but Lord Beaconsfield boldly bought the shares, had them paid for temporarily by the Rothschilds, and asked Parliament for a bill of indemnity, which he had no difficulty in obtaining. In consequence of this purchase, the English Government obtained a representation on the board of directors. If the

English shares were sold at the present market value, England's profit would be about 528,000,000 francs.

The bombardment of Alexandria in 1882 and the victory of Tel el-Kebir gave England a predominant influence in Egypt. M. de Freycinet asked the Chamber for a credit with a view to the protection of the Canal; this credit was refused by 416 votes to 75, and the French fleet retired from the Egyptian waters. The English became practically the masters of Egypt; but they did not abuse their victory with regard to the Canal. Lord Granville, at the beginning of 1883, addressed a circular to the great Powers; an international commission was appointed and sat in Paris; the discussion lasted several years, and an international convention was signed on the 29th of June, 1888, in virtue of which the neutrality of the Suez Canal was formally recognized. England, notwithstanding her peculiar situation, enjoys no privilege in the Canal and has no right of police over it.

By degrees, many improvements have been executed in the Canal, so as to shorten the time of passage. In 1882, ships spent nearly fifty-four hours in transit. Much time was lost in the places where the ships passed each other and during the night. Methods had to be devised to secure continuity in the passage the Canal had to be deepened and widened; but the success of the enterprise was such that money could be easily found for these improvements. The use of electric light on the sides of the Canal and on the ships made navigation as easy by night as by day, and nearly doubled the capacity of the Canal. Three cities owe their existence to the Canal-Port Said, Ismailia, and Port Tewfik; the first being the only one which has a true commercial importance. Ships do not stop any more at Suez, but coal at Port Said. This place has now 49,000 inhabitants, of which number the Egyptians and the Arabs count for 24,000. Coal is the chief item of importation to Port Said; more than a million tons being brought yearly to it.

At the late meeting of the British Association at Dover, Sir William White made

a report on the progress of steam navigation, and gave curious statistics on the subject from 1870 to 1898. In the course of twenty-eight years, the net tonnage which passed the Suez Canal rose gradually from 436,609 to 9,238,603 tons; the receipts from the special navigation duty on the Canal rose in the same period from 4,345,758 to 82,657,420 francs. The number of passengers increased from 26,758 to 219,554, and the receipts arising from the passenger tax from 263,552 to 2,195,545 francs. Postal navigation, which assures rapid and regular communication between the various countries of Europe and the East, and which receives Government subventions, has increased rapidly and is constantly increasing. In the present state of the East it may be said that India absorbs nearly 50 per cent. of the transit. This proportion explains the immense importance which England attaches and is obliged to attach to the Suez Canal. The population of India exceeds 250,000,000 of inhabitants; England has built in her vast Indian Empire more than 35,000 kilometres of railroads, which in 1898 transported 151,000,000 of passengers and 36 million tons of merchandise. It is not surprising if this great development of India has contributed to the movement of merchandise between Europe and India. The regions which, after India, draw the largest proportion of traffic to the Canal are the French colonies of Indo-China, China, and Japan. China proper and Mantchuria have between them a population nearly equal to that of the whole of Europe-that is to say, 350,000,000 to 360,000,000 inhabitants. All the European nations are eager to trade with China, to build her railroads, to increase their sphere of influence in that enormous and still mysterious Empire. The number of free ports is now thirty-four, and the rivers in all the provinces having treaty ports have been opened to navigation. The inner lines of customs, which are a great inconvenience to trade, will by degrees be removed.

To sum up, the maritime movement of the Suez Canal had attained in 1898 more than nine millions of tons; the increase in the fifteen years which preceded 1898, was 15 per cent. It is highly probable that the same rate of increase will continue, and that in 1903 from ten to eleven millions will go through the Canal.

Correspondence.

THE STRUGGLE IN SOUTH AFRICA. TO THE EDITOR OF THE NATION:

beSIR: The present unfortunate war tween the English and the Dutch in South Africa recalls vividly the collisions between the two nationalities in the past, and the cause of their unnatural quarrels. Springing from a common stock, menaced by the same enemies. actuated by similar political impulses, and inspired by the same religious reform movements, the two nations in bygone days should always have been friends; but commercial rivalry and opposing trade interests intervened to make them foes.

Old Holland has now settled down to a comfortable old age, having made her fortune, and being content to enjoy it in peace, reaping the benefits of past enterprise from her still vast Oriental empire. But her chil

about a mile and a half; but when I left home, now over thirty years ago, there was nothing at Lowgill but the station buildings and a few cottages for railway employees. Lowgill station is on the main London and North Western line, and is the junction-station where the line which passes Leeds, Skipton, Ingleton, Kirkby Lonsdale, and Sedbergh joins the main line. There is no town or village nearer to Gateside than Sedbergh.

If the tradition I have given be true, it is practically certain that Washington's English forefathers were, like my own, whose old homesteads have all been within four or five miles of Gateside, "dalesmen" and "statesmen" (estatesmen) or yeomenthat is to say, farmers who owned the land they farmed.

It is possible that the Sedbergh Parish registers may yield some information in regard to Washington's family; but a search which I had occasion to make during a visit home some twenty years ago of the registers of the adjoining Parish of Kendal,

times and for short intervals at my father's house after he went to live there, it may be that I have not been quite accurate in some of the distances I have given. W. F. LAMBRIGG, QUEANBEYAN, NEW SOUTH WALES, November 15, 1899.

[We print the above letter since so much has been said about the Washingtons of Yorkshire as a possible link in the pedigree of George Washington; but we must say that the present bit of evidence is very shadowy, as the authenticated facts will show.

The two emigrants, John and Lawrence, were born in 1634 and 1635, in Tring. Their father, Rev. Lawrence W., was born in 1602, in Northamptonshire, as his matriculation record shows, being the son of Lawrence Washington of Brington, who was son of Robert Washington of Sulgrave, County Northampton, whose father, Lawrence, Mayor of

I may state that Gateside now belongs to my only brother; but he does not live there, but at another farm of his in Lambrigg, about five miles distant; and a tenant is probably in occupation of the farm. The house is a rather old stone building, but I should think not so old as to have been dwelt in by the Washingtons. Although a single building, it is usually occupied by two families, the front and one end being for the gentler folks, and the remainder for the farmer who rents the land. After my father's death, the gentler-folks' part was, I believe, let to the widow of a clergyman. The house, in fact, is such as would be likely to be built by a well-to-do "statesman" for his

own use.

In regard to my father as an authority for this tradition, I may state that he was born in 1804 at Wythmoor, in the Township of Lambrigg, in the County of Westmorland. As Wythmoor is distant only about four miles from Gateside, and the loss of the American colonies was then a recent event, there would most likely be much interest taken in Washington during my father's boyhood; and his father, who had been born in 1767 in the adjacent township of Grayrigg at the farm of Blacket bottom, which is about five miles from Gateside, would have been likely to have told him of the tradition. It is possible, also, that some special reason may have existed for my family retaining their interest in their old neighbors, the Washingtons; but of this I have received no tradition. Since I left home, the old people who knew of the tradition will have died; and it may even be that by this time it has been lost to the district altogether.

grave, 30 Hen. VIII., A. D. 1539. We know that Rev. Lawrence W. married and had children at Tring, County Hertford, 1635-1641, soon after he became a Fellow of Brazenose College, Oxford. In 1633 he obtained the living of Purleigh in Essex, from which he was expelled in 1643, and he then lived in poverty at Maldon until his death in 1652. Thus, we have five generations of the ancestors, covering the period from A. D. 1539 to 1652, all accounted for as living in Northamptonshire and Essex. Before that, three generations are said to have lived in Lancashire, but we need not go so far back.

Mr. Farrer's father was born in 1804, and his grandfather in 1767, and it is only thought possible that the latter gave the tradition about the Washing

tons.

This would at best be a whole century after the emigrants left for Virginia; and when they went, their property and interests were clearly connected with Tring in Hertfordshire. For two centuries, therefore, we can see no possibility of any of George Washington's ancestors having lived at Sedbergh, to say nothing of the improbability of any tradition of such residence surviving during a period when the Washingtons were of no account. fact, until 1775, no Englishman, pecially in a. small village, would have any reason to ask who the Washingtons were. Even in Virginia in 1775, no one unconnected with the family could have told who George Washington's great

In es

WILLIAM FARRER.

P. S.-As it is now over thirty years since I was at Gateside, and I only resided a few

then, could the villagers at Sedbergh know it? The emigrants were certainly in Virginia in 1677. There were Washingtons in Yorkshire, and one may have lived at Sedbergh. There were several emigrants of the name who came to America; but no one cares for any line except the one glorified by the immortal George.-ED. NATION.]

IRREGULAR DEGREES.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NATION:

SIR: A prominent religious weekly had, not long since, in its personal items the following announcement: "The Western University of Chicago, Ill., has conferred, as the result of examination, the degree of Ph.D. on the Rev. Mr., rector of Church," etc. In its last number it says: "In reference to the statement published in this column, December 9, that the Western University of Chicago had conferred the degree of Ph.D., we are informed that the Western University, though chartered, has no resident faculty or college buildings."

The last report of the Department of Education of the State of Illinois in its list of

colleges does not mention the name of this institution, neither does the last report of the United States Commissioner of Education.

The bestowal of degrees by one other institution in Chicago in an irregular manner has previously occasioned public protest. Is it not possible for educators in Illinois to secure State control of advanced degrees? The reckless manner in which such degrees are conferred in several professional schools of Chicago has led to Government action in France against the holders of all similar American degrees. H. CORNELL UNIVERSITY, December 25, 1899.

"IMMIGRANT."

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NATION:

SIR: In the notice of the last section of the Oxford Dictionary, your reviewer referred to "the American origin of immigrant in 1792, its inventor being Jeremy Belknap" (Nation, November 9, p. 354). Three years earlier, Jedidiah Morse had written: "Besides the Dutch and English already mentioned, there are in this state [New York] many immigrants from Scotland, Ireland,

Germany, and some few from France" (American Geography, 1789, ix., 253).

There is also a still earlier alleged example. On January 15, 1788, in the Massachusetts Convention for ratifying the Federal Constitution, Rufus King is reported to have spoken as follows: "The immigrants from Massachusetts, who settled on Connecticut River, appointed representatives to meet in the General Court of that colony for only six months." (In Life & Corr., 1894, 1., 296, taken from Elliot's Debates, 11. 35.) Suspecting that there might be an error, I examined two editions (1827, 1861) of Elliot and three editions (1788, 1808, 1856) of the 'Debates, Resolutions, and Proceedings' of the Massachusetts Convention, and found that in all five the word in question reads "emigrants." Hence Morse's use of immigrant in 1789 is the earliest thus far recorded.

BOSTON, December 30, 1899.

Notes.

A. M.

The authorized biography of the late Dwight L. Moody is to be prepared by his son, William Revell Moody, who desires that any letters or information of special interest for the work may be addressed to him at East Northfield, Mass.

In furtherance of an historical task, Miss Alice B. Adams, No. 93 Hancock Street,

Auburndale, Mass., desires to learn where she may find the following documents: Reports of the American Convention of Delegates for the Abolition of Slavery, for the years between 1798 and 1809 (there should be six of them); the Report of the same Convention for the year 1815; and the ninth volume (or, new series, vol. 3) of the Genius of Universal Emancipation, from August, 1828, to January 3, 1829.

'Men and Things I Saw in Civil War Days' is a collection of sketches of a dozen prominent men of the civil war, mostly generals in command of armies, but including Lincoln and Johnson. James F. Rusling, the author, was an officer in the Quartermaster's Department, both in the field and at supply depots, and has put his recollections of leading men he met into lively chapters, which must be read as presentations of off-hand opinions and predilections rather than critical estimates of historical value.

The biographical sketches are followed by a hundred and fifty pages of the author's private letters of the period, containing a good deal of interesting matter, which would have been improved by passing through the hands of an editor of severe good taste, condensing and making excerpts, with suppression of the too abundant "display" letterheads, to use a printer's phrase. The book is well printed and the portraits are generally well chosen. Eaton & Mains are the publishers.

Those who wish a small Bible dictionary and who are satisfied with the position of the Princeton School, will find exactly what they want in the 'Dictionary of the Bible,' by Prof. John D. Davis of the Princeton Theological Seminary (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press). It is a very straightforward, plain little book of some 800 pages; there is no doubt as to its meaning, and that meaning belongs to the Year One. Some one said of Dr. Hodge that he knew all the systems of philosophy and all the different ways of being an unbeliever, and they had all had no effect on him. Here, too, there is no trace of effect by modern criticism. The book is adapted for those who can walk unshakingly in the old paths; those who are already wandering in darkness will find no help in it.

The last instalment of Hugo's 'Choses Vues,' recently noticed at some length by our Paris correspondent, has been published in an English dress by the Messrs. Dillingham. This translation, by Mr. John W. Harding, has the merit of clinging to the text so closely as to reproduce with great accuracy the jerky effect of Hugo's staccato sentences. Further, it is for the most part correct in its renderings. But when the original says of an old book "n'ayant plus de sa reliure que le dos," the translator should give some explanation for his stating (p. 20) that "the binding was missing from the back." The front-door is a doubtful equivalent for "porte-cochère." Without discussing either the general question of slang or its international correspondences, we hesitate to accept chestnut as admissible, while "galette" passes current in French. Hugo says that Blanqui, when in prison at Vincennes, lived chiefly on bread and pommes crues; the translator, remembering that pommes frites is restaurant French for "fried potatoes," makes out the unfortunate conspirator to have been fed on tubers, not fruits.

So admirable, quaint, and fascinating are

the many stories of the 'Decameron' suited to the taste of the reading public of today that it is surprising how seldom the idea of selection has been adopted. About fifteen years ago Henry Morley reprinted an archaic and most unsatisfactory rendering of some of the stories, but this was one of the cases where the traduttore was a veritable traditore. The translation was colorless and full of ridiculous blunders. And now comes Mr. Joseph Jacobs with his "Tales from Boccaccio' (Truslove, Hanson & Comba). He has selected the four wellknown stories of Griselda, Torello, Federigo's Falcon, and Lisabetta, and has printed them in a volume which owes a very large part of its attractiveness to Mr. Byam Shaw's illustrations. The choice of stories is a good one, because, apart from their obvious merits, three of them have been incorporated in English literature by Chaucer, Keats, and Tennyson; but we cannot commend Mr. Jacobs's rendering, which is rather a paraphrase than the scholarly translation we had expected. For instance, in the story of Lisabetta, Boccaccio says that her brothers decided to conceal their knowledge of her amour with Lorenzo until a favorable opportunity offered: "Nel quale essi, senza danno o sconcio di loro, questa vergogna, avanti che più andasse innanzi, si potessero tôrre dal viso"-that is to say, an opportunity to rid themselves of this ignominy before it went any further, whenever it could be done safely. Mr. Jacobs's rendering is as follows: "To the end that, when the time came when they could take vengeance without loss or damage to themselves, it would come about better if they could take him out of sight." Syntax, idiom, and sense are here alike missed. There is plenty of this sort of thing and of slipshod English throughout the book, and it is clear that the ideal rendering is still to

come.

We can hardly more than mention the extensive "Treatise on Crystallography,' by Prof. W. J. Lewis, published by the Cambridge University Press (New York: Macmillan). It will be indispensable to all who have to do with crystals. We will, however, permit ourselves a single observation. Seeing that every descriptive notation for a crystal-face is nothing but a way of writing the analytical geometer's equation for the intersection of that plane with the plane at infinity, it would seem that to undertake the study of crystallography without having first mastered the modern methods of plane analytical geometry would be one of those feeble, half-prepared ways of working that vernacular speech calls "slouchy," and which no course of instruction ought to contemplate as admissible. But a student who has thus prepared himself will find a great part of Prof. Lewis's work tedious, because it is needlessly prolix and is complicated with such inessentials as a third dimension. It is true that the final chapter partly remedies this fault, in the same sense that the fatigue of a five-act drama might be said to be relieved if, at the end, the green curtain were to be rung up for a oneact condensation of it. Yet even this supplementary chapter is not as modern as it should be.

From Lemcke & Buechner we receive the 137th issue of the 'Almanach de Gotha,' which flings down the glove to heretics on the century question by speaking of "1900, the last year of the century now closing."

Nevertheless it chooses this last year rather than the first of the twentieth century for turning over a new leaf by a change to a slightly larger form, thus keeping down the number of "signatures"-in other words, the thickness; yet the quantity of matter is greater than ever. In the genealogical portion several improvements are noted, including a hint how to address any member of a family inserted in the 'Almanach.' A new state, "Crete," has swept into the editor's sky; and behold a chapter, "Notice statistique sur les États protégés Colonies des États-Unis," which must swell our protectionist President with pride: Guam, Hawaii, Philippines, "Portorico" (this for the benefit of purists who reject our English name Porto Rico and overlook the Spanish adjective "portoriqueño," Porto Rican), and Cuba. Of the four regulation steel portraits, the most eminent is President Loubet's.

The tenth volume of the 'Cotta'sche Musenalmanach' since the revival of the annual in 1891 under the editorship of Dr. Otto Braun, has just appeared (Stuttgart). The contents consist of two novels, both excellent, but wholly different in character"Mater Dolorosa," by Frau Henriette Keller-Jordan, and "Das Stumme Klavier," by Ernst von Müllenbach-Lenbach-and a variety of poems by Martin Greif, Isolde Kurz, Julius Grosse, Max Haftung, Max Kiesewetter, Irene von Schellander, Eduard Paulus, Carl Weitbrecht, and many other writers of epic and lyric verse. Especially noteworthy are Prince Emil von SchönaichCarolath's "Hans Habenichts," a series of "Landsknechtlieder," Hermann Lingg's "Carmen Saeculare" in praise of "Die Elektrische Kraft," Wilhelm Hertz's "Lautlose Nacht," and Max Haushofer's "Der Gast der Einsamkeit." There are six full-page illustrations.

The fourth volume of 'Franz Liszt's Briefe, gesammelt und herausgegeben von La Mara' (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel) contains his letters to the Princess Carolyne Sayn-Wittgenstein. There are 360 letters, all in French and extending over a period of about twelve years, from July, 1847, to December, 1859. They were obtained by the editor from the Princess Marie Hohenlohe, daughter of the Princess Wittgenstein. There are also portraits of Liszt and the Princess, and a biographical sketch of the latter. We may add that a most interesting account of the friendship between the composer and this lady is given by their mutual friend, Malwida von Meysenbug, in her recently published volume, 'Der Lebensabend einer Idealistin.'

A valuable contribution to the already voluminous Bismarck literature is 'Meine Erinnerungen an Bismarck,' by G. v. Wilmowski, edited by his son, and just published by Trewendt in Breslau. The author was Bismarck's legal counsellor and a Liberal in politics, and his reminiscences are the more interesting and instructive from the fact that he was not always in sympathy with Bismarck's policy, although fully appreciating his ability and integrity as a statesman. It is a record of intimate intercourse and interchange of thought on public affairs from 1867 to 1870, three eventful years in the history of Germany.

Soon after the death of Ludwig Bamberger, on the 14th of March, it was announced that his reminiscences had been found among his posthumous papers. These

autobiographical records have now, been published under the title, 'Erinnerungen von Ludwig Bamberger, aus dem Nachlass herausgegeben von Paul Nathan' (Berlin: Reimer), with a portrait of the deceased and a brief introduction by the editor. The volume begins with charming details of Bamberger's boyhood in Mayence, his native town, followed by descriptions of his life as a student in the University and as a young lawyer. In 1848 he took part in the Revolution, and a year later was a political fugitive in Switzerland and England. Extremely interesting are his experiences as a merchant in Holland, and especially as a banker in Paris, where he associated intimately with Renan, Jules Simon, Crémieux, Sainte-Beuve, Littré, Turgeneff, Caroline Jaubert, Juliette Adam, and other men and women of note in the city on the Seine. The work concludes with his return to Germany and the renewal of his political activity, with characterizations of prominent statesmen and leaders of parliamentary factions, Bismarck, Lasker, Windthorst, Forckenbeck, Twesten, Johann Jacoby, and others. Bamberger is a delightful causeur; and although he did not live to complete these recollections, which end abruptly and do not include his later brilliant career till his retirement from public life in 1893, they give an attractive and instructive retrospect of the formative period of his development during his sojourn in foreign lands, and are an admirable supplement to the 'Charakteristiken,' 'Studien und Meditationen,' and other essays in the five volumes of his "Gesammelte Schriften" published by Rosenbaum & Hart in Berlin.

Since Cromwell is "in the air," one must mention "The Cromwell List,' a charming brochure, "being Notes for the Study of Oliver Cromwell," published by the City Library Association of Springfield, Mass. What is singular about this bibliography is, first, that it has special reference to an historical novel, by Arthur Paterson, 'Cromwell's Own,' selected, we are frankly told, not because it is the best novel of its class ever written, "but because it is a new, wholesome story," etc., etc., and fits in with the prevailing Cromwellian revival. (This booming of a work of fiction has evidently great possibilities.) Next it is provided with excerpts from the major poems on the Protector-Milton, Marvell, Byron, Swinburne, Lowell; and, finally, loosely inserted are photographic copies of Bernini's bust of Oliver, an old Dutch print of him, and portraits of Ireton and Vane. The whole is most daintily printed and embellished with initial letters, headpieces, etc., and is put on sale at 25 cents.

An offprint has been made from the United States Fish Commission's Bulletin for 1899 of Capt. R. W. Shufeldt's paper entitled "Experiments in Photography of Live Fishes." This delicate operation, conducted in an aquarium, holds out a great temptation to ambitious amateurs. Capt. Shufeldt's success has been notable, as his beautiful plates show. His experience is set forth for the benefit of whom it may

concern.

Mr. Norman Hapgood's article on "The Theatrical Syndicate," in the first number of the International Monthly (Macmillan), does not cast much new light upon the subject, but sums up the existing situation very fairly. It bears most severely, if unintentionally, upon the actors who, having

induced some of their associates to join them in a combination against "The Trust," as it is called, promptly deserted them and went over to the enemy for a pecuniary consideration. This inability of actors, on account of their mutual suspicions, jealousies, and rivalries, to stand together, is one of the chief secrets of the Syndicate's power. It is a case of men of business, intent solely upon their own welfare, profiting by the incompetency and general silliness of the geese who lay for them the golden eggs. As yet, the public is not suffering much from the monopoly, which is giving the best of modern plays in very creditable style. The great evils of the system, upon which Mr. Hapgood does not sufficiently insist, are that the men who have seized upon the direction of the theatre know nothing and care nothing about it except as a speculation, and have devised a scheme which, although it is putting money into their pockets, and, in a measure, into those of actors also, is striking at the very roots of the "profession," by cutting off the means of good theatrical education. There will be good plays in the future, as there have been in the past, but, unless there is a speedy change for the better, there will be no one capable of acting them.

Mr. Hapgood's article is one of five (but not the fifth, as represented in the unpaged table of contents on the cover), the others being "Later Evolutions of French Criticism," by Edouard Rod; "Influence of the Sun upon the Formation of the Earth's Surface," by Prof. N. S. Shaler; "Organization among American Artists," by Charles De Kay; and "Recent Advance in Physical Science," by Prof. John Trowbridge. The number gives evidence of haste in preparation.

The running-title, International Monthly, is repeated on every page, thus making it extremely difficult to find a given article; and the proof-reading leaves much to be desired.

The principal article in the Geographical Journal for December is Mr. W. R. Rickmers's account of his travels in eastern Bokhara, of which the most interesting part is the description of the gold-washing in the mountain valleys. The yearly output is estimated at $150,000, "a mere trifle considering the potentialities of the alluvial deposits." By the primitive method of treating the gravel and sand "all gold in the shape of dust is lost, some of the rougher particles only being secured." The deposits are very extensive, the gold occurring "exclusively in tablet form, grains and nuggets being nowhere found." Mr. C. Raymond Beazley gives an estimate and summary of what has been done recently for the study of medieval geography, and Mr. L. H. Moseley describes some littleknown regions in the valley of the Benue, the eastern tributary of the Niger. He passed through a district in which, though the natives go entirely naked, "save for a beautifully woven grass cap," they build "large two and three-story houses, beautifully made of a hard red clay over a foundation of fan-palm stalks, having windows and doors with well-fitting frames, roofs of a pyramid shape, with rafters of the same palm, perfectly thatched with special grass. Furniture of a useful and comfortable kind, consisting of well-made bamboo beds, wooden chairs, and couches, is found inside. The formation of the chief town is quite European in its style-straight, wide roads,

with squares at intervals, the houses being built with even frontage and the whole kept beautifully clean."

The Consular Reports for December contains a detailed description of an electric dredge just built at Hoboken, near Antwerp, for the River Volga. The entire equipment was supplied by the General Electric Company of New York, and it was demonstrated at the official trial that "the electric features have manifestly added enormously to the effective use of the dredge, and have minimized all possible interference with commerce." Other articles are upon the dried-beef industry of Uruguay and the Argentine Republic, the motor-carriage exposition at Berlin, with plates, and French savings banks, in which children are largely represented as depositors. "In the common schools the children deposit with their teachers from one sou upward, and a representative of the savings bank comes around once a month to collect these little hoards. If a child deposits but one sou, he receives in return a very small livret, or bank-book. When his deposits reach the sum of one franc, his importance entitles him to a "grand livret." An interesting list of flowers, grasses, vegetables, and grain grown in the Yukon territory shows the agricultural possibilities of the Klondike. Wheat sown May 22 was harvested August 28. The season lasts five months in the lowlands and two to four weeks longer on the hillsides with southern exposure.

Thousands of suburban residents, tourists, pleasure-seekers on foot or on the wheel, owners (actual or prospective) of real estate, have profited by the maps forming collectively the topographical State Atlas of New Jersey. This pioneer work, begun in the lifetime of the late Prof. George H. Cook, State Geologist, could not fail, after the lapse of a decade, to be out of date in more than one particular, especially in densely peopled and rapidly growing sections. A resurvey was accordingly undertaken last year, but no longer on a scale of one inch to the mile, The new sheets give nearly two and a half inches to the mile, and are blocked out quite differently from the old. They are about 21x30 inches in dimension, and, while preserving the figured contour lines, the roads, the shore and river soundings, take notice of some economic features such as quarries and pits, reservoirs and pumping stations, cemeteries, steam and electric railways, etc. Four sheets have thus far appeared, designated respectively Jersey City, Newark, Paterson, and Hackensack, and embracing the environment of those places. They are already for sale, at the old price of twenty-five cents apiece, and may be had on order at the office of the Geological Survey at Trenton.

-Concerning the 'Lectures on Memory Culture, consisting of the Famous Lectures Delivered throughout the United States and England,' etc., by "Dr. Edward Pick, Ph.D., M.A.," etc., etc. (E. L. Kellogg & Co.), Prof. James certifies that "there is absolutely no element of charlatanry about them," and that they "are based on solid psychological principles." For a man who appeals to the million to unite those two contrary virtues is harder than to pass through the eye of a needle, since the profession of psychology, like that of medicine, inculcates a little imposing upon people. The mnemotechnic systems of Loisette and White, as well as earlier ones, whose absurdities Dr. Pick puts