yond-must leave one thankful that the world's combined efforts to achieve beauty are doomed to perish with the year.

If I criticise, it is because, as I have said, the miracle on Lake Michigan led one to hope for the coming of the architectural millennium, and where should one expect it but in Paris? I understand the difficulties that confronted the French architect. grant that in no other city in Europe or America could so much have been made out of such a piecemeal enclosure and this, too, in the very heart, be it remembered, of a busy and crowded capital. But the disposal of the buildings is one thing, their architecture quite another; and my complaint is that in almost every case the architecture has ruined a general plan which is really admirable considering the special circumstances. The American architect in Chicago, it is said, succeeded by frankly copying old models; with him there was no endeavor The French archito originate, to create. tect, on the contrary, has seized with delight upon the opportunity presented by buildings that are to be pulled down as quickly as they were put up, to experiment, to venture upon entirely novel and original departures. Besides, his standpoint is altogether different. He, at least, never forgets that the Exposition, whatever else it may or may not be, is a world's fair, and gayety is his principal object. But there can be unity even in experiment, and gayety can be obtained by more legitimate means than a debauch of stucco. As you wander from big building to big building, you begin to believe there is something in Ruskin's definition of architecture as "the art which so disposes and adorns the edifices raised by man for whatever uses that the sight of them contributes to his mental health, power, and pleasure." It is a relief to leave the colossal palaces, upon which so much energy has been misspent, for some of the smaller foreign pavilions, or an occasional building like that in which the P. and O. Steamship Company have their offices, where the architect has relied for his effect solely upon a good design and appropriate decoration.

It seems as if with the French architect, as with the French painter and sculptor, the more deliberately he strives after originality, the more persistently it eludes him. Like the painter and the sculptor, he is thorough master of his trade. He is always an acThere complished craftsman.

are some

liberty and equality, they signed the treaty of alliance with their blood. Alsace was proud of being a part of the grande nation, and its vanguard." An Alsatian poet, Hartmann, says, "The triumphal crown of the French armies bears many gems which were conquered by Alsatian hands," and he cites Kléber, Lefebvre, Kellermann, Rapp, Walther, Berchheim, Schaal, Beurmann, Schramm. "Our valley has produced many a hero, from the head of the army to the corporal." In a report written after the return of the Bourbons, the Chevalier de la Salle, royal commissioner, writes in 1815, "This province is as French as the oldest provinces of the monarchy." After the disasters of 1812, Strasbourg and all the Alsatian cities equipped at their own expense a force of cavalry and guards of honor. Ministers, generals, prefects showed the greatest activity in their efforts to prepare the means of resistance in Alsace; the fortified places all made ready for a siege. Blücher and Gneisenau were in favor of a prompt offensive; they wished to cross the Rhine, and to push on directly to Paris, by way of Metz and Verdun. Schwarzenberg was more calm and methodical; he felt a sort of fear of entering the territory of France. He wished at any rate to be well supported on all sides. He wanted to occupy Switzerland before beginning an offensive campaign; in his eyes it would have been an unpardonable sin not to do so. To enter France through Switzerland was the way to turn the fortresses of the Rhine. 1814 than it was afterwards in 1815 (this Radetzky, his chief of staff, defended his

quet jumps over a long period to arrive at 1814, and deals with a subject which belongs to the Empire; but the Empire may well be considered as a continuation of the Revolution. The personality of Napoleon is such that the historian passes lightly over incidents in which he took no prominent part. The campaign of 1814 is well known; never did Napoleon show more military genius; never did he use with more boldness and skill the resources which were still at his disposal. The interest of M. Chuquet's book is almost independent of Napoleon. Alsace was a lateral field, so to speak, in the great struggle which took place; but it was not an unimportant field. M. Chuquet gives us very curious and interesting details regarding the situation in Alsace at the end of 1813; the campaign of Victor, the siege of the fortified places, and the conduct of their governors; the attitude the of their garrisons towards Bourbons; the siege of Huningue, which he pronounces to have been more heroic in

siege was chosen as the subject of one of the finest pictures of Detaille, our great war painter. He represents the coming out of the garrison after the capitulation). Though Phalsbourg and Bitche really belong to Lorraine, these two fortified posts are so near Alsace that M. Chuquet has given a place to their defence in his book, thus adding not inglorious pages to the history of the resistance which France offered in 1814 to the invasion of its territory by the Allies.

The numerical inferiority of the French armies in the campaign of 1814 was such that the Allies, said Ney, could have reached Paris in a few days if they had dared to do so. For a campaign in which Napoleon showed himself more audacious than ever, he had, to confront the deep columns of the Allies, a thin line of battle. He filled his regiments with conscripts, 120,000 of whom belonged to the class or annual levy of 1814 and to the anterior classes, and 160,000 were called in advance from the class of 1815. Napoleon had no idea that the Allies would attack him by way of Alsace. "It would be madness," said he. In his opinion the Allies would attack by way of Belgium. He thought that Alsace could be sufficiently protected by national guards; he left little artillery in Strasbourg, and sent all the guns he could to Metz and to Lille. He gave orders, however, that the national guards of Alsace should form legions for active service and belong to the regular army.

The sentiments of the Alsatians were not doubtful. Alsace, still German in language, as in its popular habits, was intensely French in feeling. The fusion with France dated from the Revolution. "After 1789," says M. Chuquet, "she united her destinies to those of France. Her children fought under the French flag for the triumph of

opinions, as Gneisenau defended the theory of Blücher; he considered the strategical line of offence of the Allies to extend from Holland to Switzerland, and looked upon Switzerland as the key to France. The Tsar objected that Switzerland was neutral, but had not Switzerland already sent some regiments to France? Finally, it was agreed that an army of the North, under the orders or Bernadotte, should enter Holland; that Blücher's army, called the Silesian army, should cross the Rhine between Mainz and Ehrenbreitstein; that Schwarzenberg's, or the Bohemian army or grand army, should cross the Rhine at Bâle, Lauterburg, and Schaffhausen, and advance towards Neuchâtel and Langres. The two armies of Silesia and Bohemia were to concentrate on the plateau of Langres, a very important position, as the point from which flow three rivers towards three different seas.

an

Schwarzenberg developed his front over enormous area, in this not following the strategy of Napoleon, who was always He lost in favor of rapid concentration.

in reality much time. He entered the Swiss territory on the 21st of December, the federal troops offering no resistance. The grand army crossed the Rhine at Bâle, and the sacred territory, as Napoleon called the French territory, was immediately invaded. Alsace with five Wrede entered divisions, three Bavarian and two Austrian. He had to watch Belfort and the valley of the Rhine. On the 22d of December he invested Huningue, sent one division towards Belfort, another towards Porrentruy. The Allies, said Rechberg, the commander of this division, wished only for peace; it was very painful for him who, a year before, was in the grand army of Napoleon, and who had had his feet frozen in Russia, to appear now as the enemy of France and

of the Emperor. This did not prevent him from making enormous requisitions.

The allied forces easily seized the castle of Blamont, sixty kilometres from Besançon, the only fortified place between Belfort and the fort of Joux; as well as Landskron, which is near Huningue, on the summit of the Blauen, one of the last ramifications of the Jura. The French had the advantage in two engagements fought at Sainte-Croix, a large village on the road between Bâle and Colmar, at a short distance from Colmar. Victor, Duke of Belluna, who was charged with the defence in the east of France, expected to be reinforced by Marmont, Duke of Ragusa, and thus to be able to turn Wrede out of Alsace. But the Tsar was at Rastadt, with a corps of 40,000 men, and on the point of crossing the Rhine. He crossed it only on the 13th of January, as he wished that the crossing should take place on the first day of the Russian year. The arrival of the Russians changed the situation. Wittgenstein took Fort Vauban, the former Fort Louis, seven leagues from Strasbourg, on an island of the Rhine, and almost defenceless. The French fell back on the Vosges. Ségur was in the rear guard; on the 4th of January he entered Reichshoffen, a name which received in 1870 a terrible notoriety. He marched on Saverne, and crossed the Vosges in the night of the 6th of January. He was accompanied to the end by brave Alsatians, who formed for him a guard of honor. "My regiment," he wrote in his report, "marches well, and takes good care of itself; I have not left a man behind me in nine days."

Marshal Victor retreated on Raon-l'Étape and Baccarat by the Celles valley. He was followed up by the Russians, and had to go to Lunéville. The retreat had fairly begun, and the allied armies in Alsace and Lorraine had nothing to do but to make sieges. Even the passes of the Vosges were not defended. In vain did Napoleon send orders for the organization of new divisions in Alsace; at the very time he was dictating them, the Allies were massing their forces before Colmar, and Victor was in full retreat. The anger of Napoleon fell upon him. He may perhaps have retarded the movements of the enemy, but his old audacity was gone; he was discourag

ed and fatigued. He had only 18,000 men in hand, and with such a force, how could he defend Alsace and the line of the Vosges against overwhelming and constantly increasing armies?

The close of M. Chuquet's interesting volume is full of details concerning the occupation of Alsace by the Allies, and their operations against the fortresses, which, one by one, fell into their hands. The new administration of Alsace by military governors was a series of requisitions. M. Chuguet cites a place, named Blotzheim, which was one of the étapes on the military road from Bâle to Troyes, and which, from the 22d of December, 1813, to the 29th of June, 1814, had to lodge 63,807 officers, to receive 32,620 horses, and eleven headquarters. The people of Alsace were kept in absolute ignorance of the operations of the campaign which was fought on the other side of the Vosges. They hoped at times that Napoleon would suddenly make his appearance, and succeed in cutting the communications of the Allies in the east. The little garrisons left in the fortresses were yet more ignorant than the population of the plains;

even after the abdication of Napoleon and the restoration of the Bourbons, the governors of some fortresses refused to capitulate and to obey any orders but those of the legal government. The story of these small sieges is a very honorable page in the annals of Alsace. The resistance of the fortresses of Brisach, Huningue, Belfort, Landau, etc., was carried as far as it possibly could be under the most unfavorable circumstances.

Correspondence.

CHARLESTON AND PORT ROYAL. TO THE EDITOR OF THE NATION:

SIR: In reply to Mr. J. C. Hemphill's letter in the Nation of June 7, permit us to say that any of your readers who may happen to be in Charleston, and at the same time to be impelled by a sense of curiosity to wend his way through the quiet streets to the generally empty wharves of the city, will be able to count all foreigngoing vessels on the fingers of his left hand. For this decadence of its commerce reference is made to the official report of the Chief of Engineers, U. S. A., for 1899, page 1546, from which it appears that the number of vessels cleared in 1878 for foreign ports was 483, and that this number has dwindled from year to year until in 1898 the number was reduced to 86.

Gazing towards the east, the stranger will discern in the distance a very small island, Castle Pinckney, devoid of vegetation, even so much as a tree whereunder to seek a grateful shade from the sun's rays in this semi-tropical clime. Partly surrounded by marsh, barren, uninviting, and repellent, is this spot which the people of Charleston are desirous that the Government should occupy as a sanatorium.

From the same vantage-ground, gazing towards the south, the line of the jetties is discernible. These, with other improvements to the harbor of Charleston, have, according to the report of the Chief of Engineers, U. S. A., for 1899, page 1543, cost the Government, up to June 30, 1899, $4,037,256.70. Major Ruffner of the Engineer Corps estimates that it would require an additional $2,408,552 (vide report as above, p. 1551) to secure a channel depth of twentysix feet at low water from Charleston to the ocean. The non-utility of this harbor, notwithstanding this great expenditure, was made evident during the Spanish war, when the transport Yale and cruiser Columbia were ordered to Charleston to embark troops for Cuba. Not being able to enter the harbor, these vessels had to lie at sea, and the troops to be sent on board in barges (vide annual report for 1889 of the Chief of Engineers, U. S. A., page 1550).

To the north across the river will be observed a stretch of land extending along the eastern shore, and should the stranger's curiosity prompt an inquiry, a truthful person would inform him that during the malarial or summer season few, if any, white people can live in that neighborhood. This is the location where the Charleston people want a navy yard established in place of the health-giving locality of Port Royal. But the real question at issue is, as to whether the naval station at Port Royal should or should not be practically abandoned and removed from a superior to a

at

much inferior port, like that of Charleston? In denying the wisdom of such a removal we make the following assertions, as of well-known facts: That the dry dock at Port Royal is the most valuable timber dock on the Atlantic Coast; that it is commodious enough to hold safely the largest vessel in our navy; that in proof thereof the Indiana, one of our largest battle-ships, was successfully docked Port Royal, without a mishap; that no structural weakness has developed in the dock since it was built; that the foundation of the dock is unusually firm and solid, as shown by a recent test of a pressure of 200 tons to 140 superficial feet with a depression of but three-sixteenths of an inch; that the dry dock was built at a less expense to the Government than any other dock erected by it; that the average yearly expenditures for repairs have been less than on any other dock on the Atlantic Coast; that it is in condition to-day to dock successfully the largest vessel in our navy; that the recently built brick and steel shops, with their complement of modern machinery, are capable of making all ordinary repairs to men-of-war; that the officers' quarters are commodious, as are the barracks and hospitals which make up the marines' quarters, and that the building, the store-houses, paint-house, coal sheds, electric light and water plants, wharves, roadways, etc., which go toward making up this plant are answering the purpose for which they were intended.

administration

Finally, as regards the harbor of Port Royal, it is superior to any and all on the South Atlantic and Gulf Coasts. There can be no comparison between this royal harbor, within whose confines the whole of the American navy can safely lie at anchor, and the artificial harbor at Charleston. The one is nature's handiwork, and is to-day as it was 340 years ago, when Capt. Ribault first entered it; the other, in a great measure, the handiwork of man, with the aid of dredges and scows, and the yearly raid upon the national Treasury in order to preserve this year the work that was accomplished the previous year.

We contend that, under these circumstances, it would be a crime to transfer the present naval station from Port Royal to Charleston-a crime as involving raids upon the Treasury, as involving a blow at the national defence; a crime against the nation and against posterity.

BEAUFORT NAVAL STATION COMMITTEE. BEAUFORT, S. C., June 19, 1900.

[We cannot publish any more letters on this subject.-ED. NATION.]

ONLY ONE ISSUE IN KENTUCKY. TO THE EDITOR OF THE NATION:

SIR: I am pretty well in touch with the anti-Goebel party of Kentucky, which comprises, almost without exception, every decent man in the State, whether Democrat or Republican; and I can assure you that "we" are fully satisfied with Gov. Taylor's unwillingness to make himself a martyr and to rot in jail, and we are thankful to Gov. Mount for not delivering him up to his enemies. His act may be revolutionary and a bad precedent, but let us hope that the infamous action of the Goebelites, in first turning the Governor elected by the people out of office, without even the pretence that

he was not elected, and then prosecuting him for murder on trumped-up charges before a packed grand jury (the action which led to Gov. Mount's righteous if unlawful refusal), will not become a precedent for traitors against right and justice in other States.

The Legislature which met in January had a Goebelite majority in both branches. How was it obtained? The tools of the arch-conspirators, though restrained by the fear of the lamppost from throwing out whole Republican counties, cleverly overlooked a few precincts here and there, and refused to count a few informal ballots elsewhere, and thus stole a Senatorship and three seats in the House; and, still finding himself one vote short in the Senate, Mr. Goebel bought it for cash and an office. The Legislature thus constituted unseated Taylor.

The people of Kentucky know of no other issue in this year 1900 than that of righting this wrong. We care nothing for Filipinos or Boers, nothing for tariff or currency, for Expansion or Trusts; we want to restore freedom in our own commonwealth by piling up so big a Republican majority for Governor in November that the three ballotstealers at Frankfort will not dare to disregard it. If you cannot help us in this matter, Mr. Editor, please stand aloof.

Truly yours, LEWIS N. DEMBITZ.

LOUISVILLE, KY., June 24, 1900.

No

SIR: Is there any way of putting a tourniquet on an author to prevent his bleeding to death in a serial? Surely Mr. Barrie needs such treatment in the case of "Tommy and Grizel.' Sentimental Tommy has from the start been to many of us a disagreeably sappy youngster-a kind of Scotch Little Lord Fauntleroy, in tartans and unbreeched. But we used to fancy that Mr. Barrie had "caught him young enough" to make something worth while out of him. "Tommy and Grizel' has destroyed any such vain expectations. Moreover, it has also destroyed the fond illusions of the really ardent admirers of Tommy, who used to fancy that Tommy was Mr. Barrie himself in his prehistoric periods. reader of "Tommy and Grizel' can hold to this theory; for we all know that Mr. Barrie is a sweet and healthy and simple-minded Scotchman, whereas Tommy is fast becoming a monster of sappy self-consciousness, priggishness, and poltroonery, whose only "finish" should be a sanitarium. Every one remembers Oliver Wendell Holmes's asylum for decayed punsters. Let us have as well an asylum for used-up characters in fiction, and let Mr. Barrie be urged to commit Tommy to it promptly. Nobody doubts that Mr. Barrie has a very pretty genius for sentimental garrulity; he is a kind of nineteenthcentury Sterne, warranted safe for misses in their teens. Can't he be persuaded to put an end to Tommy in three chapters and an epilogue, and then to turn back to his 'Auld

Licht Idylls' or 'When a Man's Single'? As for Grizel, doubtless she was studied from life and Mr. Barrie has already married her; at any rate, the naïve reader may be permitted to hope so.-Yours very truly, LEWIS E. GATES. CAMBRIDGE, MASS., June 21, 1900.

Notes.

'Familiar Fish, their Habits and Capture,' about to be brought out by D. Appleton & Co., will have an introduction supplied by President Jordan of Leland Stanford Junior University.

A. S. Barnes & Co. will shortly publish a biography of Joel Dorman Steele, the wellknown teacher and text-book maker, composed by Mrs. George Archibald.

A reprint of Mrs. Gaskell's 'Life of Charlotte Brontë' is not out of place in the "Haworth Edition" of the "Life and Works of the Sisters Brontë" (Harpers). This is the more evident when one considers the number of letters and conversations (principally Charlotte's) which this memoir contains. In the present edition, material of the sort is sensibly increased by Mr. Clement K. Shorter's notes, who, for this volume, supplants Mrs. Humphry Ward as editor. It cannot be said, however, that his annotations add much except in the way of biographical and chronological accuracy, though some of Charlotte's letters to her publisher are both new and interesting. But Mr. Shorter had, of course, already exhausted the main interest of his special Brontë studies in 'Charlotte Brontë and her Circle.' He himself modestly explains his present function as that of simply introducing afresh a charming biography, which remains, after all that minute research has since discovered, its own excuse for being.

A revised edition of Captain Eardley-Wilmot's book, "The Development of Navies during the Last Half-Century,' reviewed in these columns, has been imported by Charles Scribner's Sons, and is now entitled 'Our Fleet To-day, and Its Development during the Last Half-Century.' The changes are mainly the elimination of the chapters on foreign navies contained in the previous publication, thus confining the scope to a description of the British Navy as it is, and adding a chapter upon the lessons of recent naval wars. Of course our late Spanish war occupies a large part of this chapter, and the author seems to have a just idea of what was done, and where the merit especially might be found. Unlike those who of late seem to desire to depreciate the victor and victory at Manila Bay, he remarks with good judgment that it was for the operations preceding this fight that Dewey should receive the highest commendation. The entry into Manila Bay, with its boldness in conception and promptness of execution and personal leadership, is what stamps the Admiral's greatness. As to the defects in the naval campaign in the West Indies, the author does well to call attention to the fact that successful war at sea, as on land, depends much on efficient scouting, and this cannot be achieved without adequate numbers. This little volume has been improved by revision, and will be found to be a good handbook of the British Navy.

A life of 'Stephen Decatur' appears as one

of the handy Beacon Biographies of Eminent Americans published by Small, Maynard & Co. of Boston. It is by the Rev. Cyrus Townsend Brady, a clergyman who is a graduate of the Naval Academy at Annapolis, and, previous to his taking orders in the church, served in the navy. It is consequently not wholly strange to find that Mr. Brady has produced an excellent memoir of the American seaman who, ranking with Paul Jones and Farragut, is distinguished from both of these naval heroes by being more characteristically American in birth while Paul and lineage than Farragut, Jones's career touched America as one only of several countries under whose flag he served. Decatur is to our mind more nearly the Nelson of the navy of the United States than any other officer, and, while superior in personal character to Nelson, he certainly lacked none of his personal bravery and professional skill as a ship commander. Denied the opportunity afforded Nelson as a fleet commander and strategist, the comparison cannot be carried further. We can cordially commend the little volume to those who wish to refresh their memories, or to make an immediate acquaintance with a man who gave us a high standard of what an officer of the navy of the United States should be in peace and war.

Mr. Bernard Bosanquet's 'Education of the Young in Plato's Republic' (Cambridge [Eng.]: University Press; New York: Macmillan) is a translation of the greater part of the second and of the whole of the third and fourth books of Plato's immortal dialogue, with an introductory essay on Greek education and a considerable number of simple and helpful footnotes. It is a gallant attempt to render the reforming wisdom of the Athenian aristocrat acceptable and intelligible to a modern democracy, and as such is deserving of all success, even though we may feel that the educational ideal which seemed best for a leisured class dedicated solely to war and politics, and never destined to be industrially productive, requires to be materially modified in the case of those who have to learn how to make their living under the complex conditions of modern society.

The series of "Oxford Classical Texts" now issuing from the Clarendon Press (New York: Henry Frowde), can hardly receive too high praise; except for the price, the volumes may be called luxurious. The typography, paper, and margins leave practically nothing to be desired; the various readings and emendations are conveniently placed at the foot of the page. They are edited by scholars of distinction, and of special study and fitness in the work each has undertaken. The latest additions to the Greek texts are Eschylus by Sidgwick, the 'Argonautica' of Apollonius Rhodius by Seaton, and a first volume of Aristophanes by F. W. Hall and W. M. Geldart. The first volume issued of the works of Xenophon is the 'Hellenica,' by E. C. Marchant. Simultaneously appears as a companion to this text 'A Commentary on the Hellenica of Xenophon,' by C. E. Underhill, which discusses minutely points of chronology and history, as well as the curious problem of the origin of the work, and the source of its inconsistencies and inequalities.

Eveleen Harrison's 'Home Nursing; Modern Scientific Methods for the Care of the Sick' (Macmillan), gives in a condensed, clear, and readable form suggestions which

in the main are excellent for the purpose designated. It seems to have been written by one who has herself had good training as a nurse; and for those to whom it is addressed-namely, such persons as are beyond the reach of the daily visit from a good physician-the advice given is wholesome and helpful. The objection to the book is one which it shares in common with all treatises on household medicine, that at times it trenches too far on the province of the doctor, making statements which might lead the patient now and then to avoid sending for the medical attendant at a time when the responsibility should be in his hands only.

The remarkable function assigned in August, 1373, by the Signoria of Florence to Boccaccio, of public lecturer on Dante, bore fruit, as is well known, in the commentary which was cut short at the 17th canto of the "Inferno" by Boccaccio's death in January, 1374. Along with its preeminent merits this commentary had the usual characteristic of its class, prolixity and discursiveness. It has occurred to Prof. O. Zenatti to extract from the mass narratives, lively anecdote, descriptions of persons and places, moral considerations, and like matter of permanent worth and interest. Hence a not large volume, 'Giovanni Boccaccio: Dal Commento sopra la Commedia di Dante: Letture Scelte' (Rome: Dante Publishing Society). This pious labor is commended as a manual of school reading.

The 'Anatolische Landwirthschaft,' by Richard Herrmann (Leipzig: Grunow), is a book quite out of the ordinary in the multitude of Oriental works of the present day. It treats, not of the past, but rather of the present and the future possibilities of Anatolia. The author, formerly a professor in the Agricultural College in Bonn, has for six years been the "Kulturinspector" of the Anatolian Railroad, with the special purpose of investigating the economic and agricultural condition of the territory opened up by this new enterprise; his mission including also the instruction of the Turkish farmers in better methods and manners. His report of what he saw and accomplished is very favorable; he believes the Turks will be apt pupils, should agricultural colonies from Europe take possession of this farming land.

dices called common sense." The work is the more interesting because of its apt and spirited renderings of representative passages in Homer and Hesiod.

It is announced that the Popular Science Monthly, established by the Appletons in 1872, has passed into the hands of McClure, Phillips & Co., under the conduct of Prof. James McKeen Cattell of Columbia University, also editor of Science.

In the April number of the Mayflower Descendant (Boston) will be found a clear photoprint of the John Robinson tablet set nine years ago in the front wall of St. Peter's, the Lutheran Cathedral Church of Leyden; with some account of the dedication exercises. In the same number, under the heading "The Mayflower Genealogies," Mr. George Ernest Bowman gives an alphabetic exhibition of the "vital statistics of the Mayflower passengers." The authority for each particular of parentage, birth, marriage and death is reserved for the family genealogies to which this list serves as a prodrome.

Prof. W. Dilthey of the University of Berlin contributes to the June Rundschau a first article on the Berlin Academy, "Die Berliner Akademie der Wissenschaften, ihre Vergangenheit und ihre gegenwärtigen Aufgaben." Coming fresh from the reading of Harnack's recent monumental history of the Academy, the writer is prompted to arrange his comments and his own thoughts on the subject in the form of an historical retrospect. He describes the birth of the institution through the plannings and activity of Leibnitz-to whom the greater and most interesting part of the essay is devotedand leaves himself little space for an account of its wretched existence under the first two Prussian kings. But one almost wonders at Professor Dilthey's courage in recalling even the few revolting instances of the humiliation to which the so-called Academy was subjected by the brutality of Frederick William the First.

Two articles in Hochschul-Nachrichten for May relate to phases of the strife between the different types of educational institutions in Germany-a matter of more than local interest in view of the changing social conditions which are at the bottom of it. In the first, Prof. Klein, the mathematician of Göttingen, defends himself against Professor Slaby of Charlottenburg, who, for the first time, represents the technical high schools in the Prussian Herrenhaus, and there accused Professor Klein of transgressing his functions as university professor to the prejudice of the technical schools. The second is from the pen of Oberbürgermeister Dr. Adickes of Frankfurt, who justifies the demand for the admission of graduates from the Realgymnasia to the legal career. Both these men are in accord with the past in their respect for knowledge and culture for their own sakes, the one being distinguished in pure mathematics, the other as a highly cultured jurist; both, on the other hand, are new men in that they believe that adaptation to the practical wants of humanity cannot derogate from the dignity of any man, science, or institution.

faculties of Science, Arts, and Medicine Faculty of Commerce. With the view of preventing the University from degenerating into a mere teaching and examining machine, provision is made in the charter that it "shall further the provision of original research in all its branches." Another provision, which bears a truly mediæval character, is that by which the "Guild of Undergraduates" will elect three members to the supreme governing body. Power is given to admit women to the medical as to the other faculties, and to seats on the governing bodies.

The annual report of Mr. W. E. Foster of the Providence Public Library gives in the appendices the usual careful analysis of the library work for the past year. It is significant of the trend of public interest that the class of books having the largest number of accessions was social science. Attention is directed to the need of a more liberal financial support on the part of the city, now that the new building removes many of the restrictions which heretofore have hampered the library's work and impaired its usefulness. An interesting feature of this work, not mentioned in the report, is that in connection with the children and the schools. There is provided, not only a children's reading-room, but an apartment designed for the use of school-teachers and their classes for the study of special subjects. Here, on a day's notice being given, a teacher desirous of instructing her class on some topic, as in art, history, or geography, will find the library's collection of books on this subject. This is perhaps the most advanced development of the coöperation of the library and school, first publicly advocated in this country, if we are not mistaken, nearly twenty-five years ago at Quincy, Mass., by Charles Francis Adams, the younger.

-Among the cadets just graduated at West Point, Pillsbury, born in Massachusetts, stood highest in class rank-and he is the only native of that State who has gained that honor since 1879. His name has appeared in countless newspapers, and in the Army Register will fill the first line of the page which forms its terse chronicle year by year of distinguished cadets. The provenance of each individual cadet who has been thus first among the foremost in each former year becomes a matter of special interest because West Point is, beyond all other institutions, characteristic of our nationality, having from the outset had a proportional representation from every State. The origin, however, of those cadets who were preeminent in early classes is not now ascertainable. Graduates were sent forth in 1802 and onward, but no class rank was established till 1818. In that year Delafield, of New York birth, was the first recorded leader of the five most distinguished cadets. Within the sixteen previous years one hundred and seventy-nine cadets had graduated, but not one of them was officially graded. In Gen. Cullum's three heavy biographical tomes of West Pointers, the birthplaces of the seventy-three foremost cadets from 1818 to 1890, inclusive of both, are indicated, but no two of these places are set down together, or so that they can be detected and coördinated without something of research; yet in gathering them up and classifying them, we reach results that pay for our pains, being surprising and puzzling as well.

-The Army Register during most years