Bancroft Library p" RBU-.K MXTY.FOPRTH YEAR. NOV 5 1935 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. EDITED BY ALLEN THORNDIKE RICE. June, 1879. I. Mon Testament : fepitre k Chloe. An Unpublished Poem. Voltaire. II. National Appropriations and Misappropriations. .General Garfifld. III. The Stagnation of Trade and its Cause. . .Professor Bonamy Price. IV. The Education of Freedmen Harriet Beecher Stowe. V. Secret Missions to San Domingo Admiral D. D. Porter. VI. Sacred Books of the East Professor Max Muller. VII. Evolution and Theology Professor Simon Newcomb. VIII. The Pacific Railroad Henry V. Poor. IX. Current Literature Mayo W. Hazeltine. X. Will England return to Protection ? A Letter to the Editor. The Right Hon. John Bright, M. P. NEW YORK: D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 549 and 551 BROADWAY. LONDON: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle !*li NGIIAl: Kelly & Walsh. TEH Mre dollars H, year. Sin!p number. Fifty Cents. at the Poet-Officf \t New V 'V and .miiiied for transmission through the mails as sscond-clase matter. Volume 128 of the North American Review, NOW BEADY, COMPLETE. C03NTTE3STXS- JANTTARY. The Fishery Award. Senator George F. Edmunds. Unpublished Fragments of the "Little" Period. Thomas Moorb. Cities as Units in our Polity. William R. Martin. The Preservation of Forests. Felix L. Oswald, M. D. The "Solid South." Henry Watterson. The Pronunciation of the Latin Language, W. W. Story. Substance and Shadow in Finance. George S. Boutwell. The Cruise of the Florence. Captain H. W. Howgate. Kecent Fiction. Richard Grant White. FEBRUARY. The Conduct of Business in Congress. Senator G. F. Hoar. The Mysteries of American Railroad Accounting. An Accountant. A Statesman of the Colonial Era. General Richard Taylor. Reconstruction and the Negro. 1). II. Chamberlain. The Empire of the Discontented. A Russian Nihilist. The Scientific Work of the Howgate Expedition. O. T. Sherman. Sensationalism in the Pulpit. William M. Taylor, D. D. Mediaeval French Literature. Professor T. F. Crane. MARCH. Ought the Negro to be Disfranchised P Ought he to have been Enfranchised P Senator J. G. Blaine: Senator L. Q. C Lamar; Governor Wade Hampton; James A. Gab- field; A. H. Stephens; Wendell Phillii s ; Montgomery Blair; T. A. Hendricks. The Philosophy of Jonathan Edwards. Professor George P. Fisher, D.D. The Indian Problem. General Nelson A. Miles. Cryptography in Politics. John R. G. Hassard. Russian Novels and Novelists of the Day. S. E. Shevitch. Al'lUL. Retribution in Politics. Thomas A. Hendricks. The Public Schools of England. Thomas Hughes. German Socialism in America. A Friend of Lord Byron. Henry James, Jr. The Census of 1880. George Walker. The Pronunciation of the Latin Language. Part II. W. W. Story. An Indian's Views of Indian Affairs. Chiel Joseph. Hartmann's "Religion of the Future." M. A. Hardaker. Recent Miscellaneous Literature. A. R. McDonough. MA Y. Our Election Laws. Secretary George W. McCrary. Campaign Notss in Turkey in 1877-' 78. Lieutenant F. V. Greenb. German Socialism in America. Part II. Absent Friends. Rev. O. B. Frothingham. A Plea for Sport. Lloyd S. Brice. Notes on Recent Progress in Applied Science. President Morton. Law and Design in Nature, Professor Simon Newcomb; President Noah Pobtbb; Rev. Joseph Cook; James Freeman Clarke, D. D. ; President James McCosh. JVXE. Mon Testament. An Unpublished Poem. Voltaire. National Appropriations and Misappropriations. General J. A. Garfield. The Stagnation of Trade and its Cause. Professor Bonamy Pricb. The Education of Freedmen. Harriet Bfecher Stowe. Secret Missions to San Domingo. Admiral D. D. Porter. The Sacred Books of the East. Professor Max Muxler. Evolution and Theology. Professor Simon Newcomb. The Pacific Railroad. Henry V. Poor. Current Literature. Mayo W. Hazeltine. Will England return to Protection? The Right Hon. John Bright, M.P. Price, unbound, $2.50; bound in. cloth, $3.00; in half morocco, $4.00. Sent by mail on receipt of price. Address THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW, Nbw Yobk. THE J NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. I St JTOE, 1879. i^M * Ol, \r V\ UL No. 271. Tros Tyriusque mihi nullo discrimine agetur. NEW YORK: D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 549 & 651 BROADWAY. 1879. COPYRIGHT BY ALLEN THORNDIKE RICE. 1879. a. '4 i NORTH AMERICAN REYIEW. JUNE, 1879. Abt. Pagk I. Mon Testament. IMtre a Chloe. An Unpublished Poem. By Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire 565 II. National Appropriations and Misappropriations. By General J. A. Garfield. . . . 572 III. The Stagnation of Trade and its Cause. By Professor Bonamy Price .... 587 IV. The Education of Freedmen. By Harriet Beeches Stowe ..... 605 V. Secset Missions to San Domingo. By D. D. Pos- tee, Admiral, U. S. Navy . . . .616 VI. Sacred Books of the East. By Professor Max Muller . . . . . .631 VII. Evolution and Theology. A Rejoinder. By Pro- fessor Simon Newcomb . . . 647 VIII. The Pacific Railroad. By Henry V. Poor . 664 IX. Current Literature. By Mayo W. Hazeltine . 681 X. Will England return to Protection? A Letter to the Editor. By the Right Honorable John Bright, M. P. . . . . . 695 Publications* Received .... 697 Index ....... 699 The Editor disclaims responsibility for the opinions of contributors, whether their articles are signed or anonymous. NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. No. CCLXXI. JUNE, 1879. I. MON TESTAMENT.* tPITRE A CHLO& Par Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire. Quoi, ma Chloe ! le seul nom de ma mort T'a pu causer de si vives alarmes ! De ta raison j'attendais plus d'effort ; Sois digne en tout de me couter des larmes. Sur cette mort que la main de FErreur Peint si terrible au timide vulgaire, Apprends enfin le secret de mon cceur, Et que Famour te console et t'eclaire. Jnsqu'a present sur mille tours divers, Tel que Zephire jouant dans la prairie, * From an unpublished autograph MS. of Voltaire. Editor, vol. cxxviii. no. 271. 37 566 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. Les jeux, les ris, m'ont inspire des vers, Comme ils filaient tous les jours de ma vie. Plus que jamais dans ces derniers instans, Crois que je goiite et sens le bonheur d'etre. Cueille les fleurs que t'offre mon printemps ; Le noir cypres n'est pas loin de paraitre. Aimable objet dont je suis enchant e, Pourquoi faut-il qu'une chaine si belle Que des amours Taniour le plus fidele, Du sort commun ne soit point exceptee ? Quel plus beau titre d Fimmortalite ! Mais puisque tout dans la nature entiere, Du faible arbuste au cedre fastueux, De la cabane au palais somptueux, Ressent du temps Tatteinte meurtriere : Ecoute-moi : je veux dans ce moment, L'ceil eclaire des rayons de la joie, Le desoler en lui cedant sa proie, Et de ma mort parler en badinant. Vois quels seront & mon heure derniere Mes derniers vceux et mes derniers desirs. Belle Chloe ! la coupe du plaisir Change en nectar une liqueur amere. Que pretendaient ces monarques stupides En ecrasant TEgypte et ses enfants MON TESTAMENT. 567 De leurs tombeaux, enorcnes pyraniides, Masses d'orgueil, coupables monuments, Qu'admire encore un peuple de savants, De rien douteux, admirateurs avides ? La s'abimait dans une urne d'airain, D'un roi sans nom la depouille mortelle ; La se perdait une utile parcelle De ce grand tout ou rien n'existe en vain, Ou par un ordre immuable et fidele Tout fut place dans un commun rapport ; Oii rhomme enfin n'est meme apres sa mort Qu'un des anneaux de la cliaine eternelle. Belle Chloe ! n'interrompons jamais Les saintes lois qu'impose la Nature ; Nous, les suivons sous ces ombrages frais, Sous ces berceaux tapisses de verdure. Mais penses-tu que je borne mes voeux A t'adorer, te servir et te plaire ? . . . Tromper la mort, voiM, ce que je veux ! Oui, ma Chloe, que sa main mena^ante Tranche mes jours aupres de ces lilas; Je ne crains rien, sa rage est impuissante, Et je vivrai meme apres mon trepas. Helas ! Tinstant ou je te parle encore, De mes instants peut etre le dernier. 568 THE NORTE AMERICAN REVIEW. Par toi, Chloe, par tout ce que j 'adore, Accorde-moi la grace que j'implore ! L/amour en vain pourrait-il te prier ? Assure-moi de ma metamorphose, Que, depose dans ce jardin charmant, Py reparaisse au retour du printemps, Dans un ceillet, dans un bouton de rose. Mais, ma Chloe, qu'il soit cueilli par toi. Viens me choisir au retour de Taurore, Que ton beau sein se pare encore de moi, Que je le baise et le parfume encore. Paime a penser pour moi, pour mon bonheur, Que tu diras dans un moment d'ivresse, " Oui, cher amour, tu vis dans cette fleur ; Ce tendre eclat, cette vive couleur, Est de tes feux l'image enchanteresse. Tu sens encore et la main qui te presse Et le plaisir d'etre pres de mon cceur." MON TESTAMENT. 569 [translation.] MY WILL. AN EPISTLE TO CHLOE. What ! my own Chloe ! start thus at a sound ? Pay Death, the phantom, this tribute of fears ? Nay, let thy sense, like thy beauty, be found Worthy of worship and worthy of tears ! Leave the wild visions that error can feign To madden the vulgar with anguish and dread ! Clasped to my heart, let my reason explain How love may live on in the realm of the dead ! Not such the themes I have loved to rehearse ; Free as the zephyr that plays o'er the plain Sportive and smiling, I've woven my verse Joy was its burden, and laughter its strain. Yet, brighter than ever the moments appear Now that the tale of their number is told. Let us gather the spring, and the bloom of the year; Dark are the months of the cypress, and cold ! Why should it be, my enchantress, that Fate Not the most faithful of passions will spare ? Why must our raptures be bound by a date, Why of things mortal the destiny share ? Nothing around us against it is proof, Nor shrubs in the vale, nor cedars on high, Nor thatch of the hut, nor proud palace roof; All things are doomed but to be and to die ! Let us then baffle the triumph of Time ! Welcome the blow that w,e can not delay, 570 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. Yield him his prize, with a jest and a rhyme, Pass, at his summons, but smiling, away ! Lean then and listen, my Chloe, to hear What my last longing and wishes will be ; Though bitter the draught, 'twill nectar appear Held to my lips, my beloved, by thee ! What sought the dotards and tyrants that bowed t Egypt, in tears and in sweat, to their will, Loading the earth with their pyramids proud Tombs of their guilt and delusion that still, Awful and silent, with reverence thrill The open-mouthed, wandering, wondering crowd ? There, in the depths of a chamber, inurned, Sealed, and secluded, and wasting away, Lies what is left of a monarch who spurned Nature's beneficent beautiful sway ! Robbing the earth of the dust, that, returned, Blooms into glory again and the day ! Ah ! in this All there is nothing in vain ! Each thing to each everlastingly bound, This, that was Man, in the natural chain Finds its own place, and moves on in the round ! Not then by us be the laws disobeyed, Beautiful Chloe ! that Nature decrees, No ! we have followed them, here, in this shade, Broken with sunshine and stirred by the breeze ! But not alone to bear thy graceful yoke Or make thee happy Chloe ! is my dream Fain would I cheat of Death the final stroke, And foil the tyrant in his hour supreme ! Here let him find me with uplifted knife ! Here where our lilacs fragrant breathe and bloom ! I fear him not ! he can not take my life ! That life escapes him even in the tomb ! MON TESTAMENT. 571 Alas ! it may be even while I speak That my last moment sounds and all is o'er ! Grant me this boon ! the last that I may seek, Let not my love in vain this grace implore ! Chloe ! to thee my future I confide ! Here in this garden let my burial be ! Reviving here, with Spring's returning tide, In May's first rosebud let me bloom for thee ! Here come and pluck me when the morn shall break And Chloe ! deck thy bosom with me still ! Ah ! let me hope that Chloe, for my sake, My very inmost self with joy to fill May whisper gently, while her senses thrill: " Yes, dearest love ! thou livest in this rose ! Its tender bloom, its vivid hues disclose The image and the presence of thy flame ! And thou canst feel my soft caress the same, And, clasped upon my heart, thy being glows ! " II. NATIONAL APPROPRIATIONS AND MISAPPRO- PRIATIONS. Ax eminent French statesman has said : " A nation embodies its spirit, and much of its history, in its financial laws. Let one of our budgets alone survive the next deluge, and in it will plainly appear all that we are." If our republic were blotted from the earth and from the memory of mankind, and if no record of its history survived, except a copy of our revenue laws and our appropriation bills for a single year, the political philosopher would be able from these materials alone to reconstruct a large part of our history, and sketch with con- siderable accuracy the character and spirit of our institutions. Revenue is not, as some one has said, the friction of a govern- ment, but rather its motive power. As in the human body every motion is produced by an expenditure of vital force, so in govern- ment the exercise of the smallest function is accompanied, or rather is produced, by an expenditure of money. To collect, from the property and labor of a nation, a revenue sufficient to carry on the various departments of its Government, and so to distribute that revenue as to supply every part of the complicated machinery with adequate motive power, neither, on the one hand, crippling the resources of the people or the functions of the Government, nor, on the other, producing overgrowth and waste by lavish expenditure, is one of the most difficult and deli- cate problems of modern statesmanship. And this problem pre- sents itself, every year, under new conditions. An adjustment which is wise and equitable for one year may be wholly inadequate for the next. The expenditures of the Government form the grand level from APPROPRIATIONS AND MISAPPROPRIATIONS. 573 which all heights and depths of legislative action are measured. The increase and diminution of the burdens of taxation depend upon their relation to this level of expenditures, which being deter- mined, all other policies must conform to and depend upon it. The amount, character, and methods of public expenditure form the best test of the wisdom and virtue of a Government. Nearly all forms of official corruption will show themselves, sooner or later, at the door of the Treasury in demands for money. When, in outward appearance, the empire of the second Napo- leon was at its height of glory, a quiet student of finance compiled and published what he called " The Balance Sheet of the Empire," which showed that, during the first fifteen years of Napoleon's reign, the expenditures of his Government had increased $350,000,- 000 per annum. A large portion of this vast sum had been covered up by the various devices of book-keeping ; but the merciless statistician stripped off the disguise, and disclosed the inevitable ruin to which the empire was hastening. Underneath a gaudy exterior, during the whole reign, the solid foundations of France were being honey- combed^through and through by the waste and corruption of her finances ; and when, in 1870, she went down amid the smoke and desolation of war, it was only the culmination of a disaster already prepared by extravagant and corrupt appropriations. But it must be remembered that extravagance is a relative term. At one period, the expenditure of a hundred millions a year may be wanton waste ; while, at another period, five hundred mil- lions a year may be niggardly and dangerous economy. What, then, is the test by which the proper scale of national expenditure shall be determined ? In time of peace, perhaps the most important test is that of population. Doubtless the annual increase of national expenditures should bear some relation to the increase of population ; but it would be unphilosophical, in the highest degree, to insist that expenditures shall increase in the same ratio as the population increases. We know that population tends to increase in a geometrical ratio, that is, at a per cent, compounded annually. If the increase of expenditures were to follow the same law, we might well look to the future with alarm. Judged by the test of population alone, the total ordinary expenditures of a grow- ing nation ought to increase year by year ; but the amount ex- pended per capita ought not to increase, but should rather di- minish. 574 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. In a nation whose territorial boundaries are fixed, the increase of expenditures may be approximately gauged by the law of in- crease of population alone ; but in a country like ours the enlarge- ment of territory and the extension of settlements must also be taken into consideration. The expenditures of the Government, when the Union consisted of but thirteen States, form no just basis for judging of its proper expenditures when twenty-five more States and a vast territory have been added. Under the influence of these two elements increase of population and extension of territory the amount of proper and reasonable expenditures ought to increase more rapidly than those of almost any other nation. And our history confirms this view. From these elements, the just scale of increase could be readily ascertained, if all our calculations could rest upon the basis of per- petual peace ; but war, that anarchic element which Jeremy Ben- tham calls " mischief on the largest scale," overturns all ordinary calculations. Long after the fire and blood of battle have dis- appeared, the destructive power of war shows itself with relentless force in the columns which represent the taxes and appropriations to pay its cost. Far more than half of all the expenditures of civilized nations have been devoted to war and the support of armies and navies. Prior to the great wars against the first Napoleon, the annual ex- penditures of Great Britain were less than 20,000,000. During the twenty-four years which elapsed between the beginning of that remarkable struggle and its close, in 1815, at Waterloo, the expendi- tures of the United Kingdom rose by successive leaps until, in one year, near the close of the war, it reached 106,750,000. The great increase of the British debt, made necessary by that war, added to the normal increase of appropriations, rendered it impossible for England ever to return to her former scale of expenditures. It took twenty years after Waterloo to reduce the annual budget from 77,750,000 to 45,750,000, which last sum (the amount for 1835) was the smallest Great Britain has expended in any year of the present century. During the forty years of peace which followed Waterloo, her ordinary expenses increased at the rate of about four million dollars per annum. The history of the expenditures of the United States is worthy of special study. Omitting payments of the principal and interest of the public debt, the annual average may be thus summarized : APPROPRIATIONS AND MISAPPROPRIATIONS. 575 Beginning with 1791, the last decade of the last century showed an annual average of $3,750,000 ; the first decade of the present century, about 85,500,000. During the first twenty years under the Constitution, the annual average of expenditures was a little more than doubled. Then followed four years, from 1812 to 1815 (both inclusive), in which our war with England swelled the annual aver- age to $25,500,000. During the five years which succeeded that war the annual average was $16,500,000. The reduction from the war level continued until 1823, when the new peace level of $11,500,000 was reached, and the normal in- crease was resumed. From 1825 to 1830 the annual average was $13,000,000 ; from 1830 to 1835, $17,000,000 ; from 1835 to 1840 a period which included the Seminole war the average was $30,- 500,000 per annum ; from 1840 to 1845, it was $27,000,000 ; from 1845 to 1850, including the Mexican war, $40,500,000 ; from 1850 to 1855, 847,500,000 ; and from 1851 to 1861, the average was $67,- 000,000. This last may fairly be called the peace scale just before the .rebellion. From June 30, 1861, to June 30, 1866, the annual average was $713,750,000 ; while from 1866 to 1871 it was $189,000,000. These figures, it must be remembered, represent the annual expenditures, exclusive of payments of the interest and principal of the public debt. From the foregoing it will be seen that two forces have been in constant action in determining the tendency of appropriations while the nation was passing from war to peace : First, the normal increase of ordinary expenses, dependent upon increase of population and extension of settled territory ; and, second, the decrease caused by the payment of war obligations. The decrease due to the latter cause is greater immediately after a war than the increase due to the former ; but the normal increase, being a constant element, will finally overcome the decrease caused by the payment of war debts, and a point will be reached from which the annual expenditures will again increase. In a speech delivered in the House of Representatives, January 23, 1872, I undertook to estimate the reduction that could be made in our expenditures, and to forecast the date at which a further re- duction of the annual amount would cease. I venture to quote a few paragraphs from that speech, both as an illustration of the op- erations of the law of expenditure and of the risks one takes who ventures a j>rediction on such a subject : 576 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. Duration of War Expenditures. Throughout our history there may be seen a curious uniformity in the movement of the annual expenditures for the years immediately following a war. "We have not the data to determine how long it was, after the war of independence, before the expenditures ceased to decrease, that is, before they reached the point where their natural growth more than balanced the ten- dency to reduction of war expenditure ; but, in the years immediately follow- ing all our subsequent wars, the decrease has continued for a period almost exactly twice the length of the war itself. After the war of 1812-15, the expenditures continued to decline for eight years, reaching the lowest point in 1823. After the Seminole war, which ran through three years, 1836, 1837, and 1838, the new level was not reached until 1844, six years after its close. After the Mexican war, which lasted two years, it took four years (until 1852), to reach the new level of peace. When will we reach our New Level of Expenditures ? It is perhaps unsafe to base our calculations for the future on these analo- gies ; but the wars already referred to have been of such varied character, and their financial effects have been so uniform, as to make it not unreason- able to expect that a similar result will follow our late war. If so, the decrease of national expenditures, exclusive of the principal and interest of the public debt, will continue until 1875 or 1876. It will be seen by an analysis of our current expenditures that, exclusive of charges on the public debt, nearly fifty million dollars are expenditures directly for the late war. Many of these expenditures will not appear again, such as the bounty and back pay of volunteer soldiers, and payment of illegal captures of British vessels and cargoes. We may reasonably expect that the expenditures for pensions will hereafter steadily decrease, unless our legisla- tion should be unwarrantably extravagant. We may also expect a large decrease in expenditures for the Internal Revenue Department. Possibly we may ultimately be able to abolish that department altogether. In the account- ing and disbursing bureaus of the Treasury Department, we may also expect a further reduction of the force now employed in settling war claims. We can not expect so rapid a reduction of the public debt and its burden of interest as we have witnessed for the last three years ; but the reduction will doubtless continue and the burden of interest will constantly decrease. I know . it is not safe to attempt to forecast the future ; but I venture to express the belief that, if peace continues, the year 1876 will witness our ordinary expenditures reduced to $125,000,000, and the interest on our pub- lic debt to $95,000,000 ; making our total expenditures, exclusive of payment on the principal of the public debt, $230,000,000. Judging from our own experience and from that of other nations, we may not hope, thereafter, to reach a lower figure. Reviewing the subject in the light of subsequent experience, it APPROPRIATIONS AND MISAPPROPRIATIONS. 577 will be seen that the progress of reduction of expenditures from the war level has been very nearly in accordance with these expecta- tions of seven years ago. The actual expenditures since the war, including interest on the public debt as shown by the official record, were as follows : 1865, 81,297,555,224.41 ; 1866, $520,809,416.99 ; 1867, $357,542,675.16 ; 1868, $377,340,284.86 ; 1869, $322,865,277.80 ; 1870, $309,653,560.- 75 ; 1871, $292,177,188.25 ; 1872, $277,517,962.67 ; 1873, $290,345,- 245.33 ; 1874, $287,133,873.17 ; 1875, $274,623,392.84 ; 1876, $258,- 459,797.33 ; 1877, $238,660,008.93 ; 1878, $236,964,326.80. Omitting the first of these years, in which the enormous pay- ments to the army swelled the aggregate of expenses to $1,297,000,- 000, and beginning with the first full year after the termination of the war, it will be seen that the expenditures have been reduced, at first, very rapidly, and then more slowly, from $520,000,000 in 1866, to about $237,000,000 in 1878. The estimate quoted above was that in 1876 expenditures would be reduced to $230,000,000, including $95,000,000 for interest on the public debt. In 1877, one year later than the estimated date, the actual reduction had reached $238,000,000, including $97,000,- 000 for interest on the public debt. It is evident that in 1877 we had very nearly reached the limit of possible reduction ; for the aggregate expenditures of 1878 show a reduction below that of the preceding year of less than $2,000,- 000 ; and the expenditures, actual and estimated, for the current year ending June 30, 1879, are $240,000,000. It thus % appears that 1878 was the turning-point from which, under the influence of the elements of normal growth, we may expect a constant though, it ought to be, a small annual increase of expenditures. But, if the appropriations for 1880, most of which have already been made, are to be taken as an index of the future policy to be pursued by Congress, we are to see a sudden, capricious, and dan- gerously large increase. It has been a slow and difficult work to force down the scale of expenditures made necessary by the war. Even as late as 1874, more than fifty per cent, of all the payments over the national counter were made to meet war debts. Besides these payments a large increase of ordinary expenses was made necessary by the war. From 1860 to 1865, the harbors, lighthouses, and other public works in the States that went into rebellion, were of course wholly neg- lected by the national Government. To restore, preserve, and 578 THE NORTE AMERICAN REVIEW. place them again in a state of efficiency, has required unusually- large expenditures since the war. Several new bureaus, such as that for assessing and collecting internal revenue, and that for engraving and printing the public securities, have been created ; and a large increase of force in the several executive departments has been made necessary, to enable the Government to audit the accounts and disburse the vast pay- ments made necessary by the war. Methods of appropriating Hevenue. In its relation to good government, the amount of expenditure authorized by law is not so important as the methods adopted by Congress for regulating the appropriation and disbursement of revenues. In the early history of the Government all appropria- tions for the year were made in one bill, and in gross sums, to be expended by the several executive departments. Though the num- ber of leading officers in each department was fixed by general statute, yet large discretion was given to the heads of departments both in reference to the number of subordinates to be employed and to the special items of expenditure. In his annual message of December 8, 1801, Mr. Jefferson called attention to the careless methods of appropriation which had been adopted by Congress, mentioning the fact that many clerks were employed and their salaries fixed at the discretion of the executive departments ; and he urged upon Congress " the expediency of regulating that power by law, so as to subject its exercise to legis- lative inspection and sanction." In the following paragraph of that message, the necessity of Congressional control and limitation of appropriations, both as to amount and object, is admirably stated : It would be prudent to multiply barriers against their dissipation, by ap- propriating specific sums to every specific purpose susceptible of definition ; by disallowing all applications of money varying from the appropriation in object, or transcending it in amount; by reducing the undefined field of con- tingencies, and thereby circumscribing discretionary powers over money; and by bringing back to a single department all accountabilities for money, where the examinations may be prompt, efficacious, and uniform. These wise suggestions were not adopted by Congress at that time, and the loose method of appropriating in bulk was continued for many years. Until a recent date, Congress frequently empowered the Presi- dent to order transfers of appropriations from one branch of the APPROPRIATION'S AND MISAPPROPRIATIONS. 579 service to another. But this power was usually conferred for a limited time only. Occasionally a special bill was passed, making appropriations for a particular branch of the service ; but in the main, during the first forty years of our history, the appropriations were made in one act, entitled "An act making appropriations for the support of the Government." In 1823 the appropriations for fortifications were placed in a separate bill. In 1826 the appropriations for pensions were made in a separate bill. The first separate act for rivers and harbors ap- peared in 1828, and in 1844 the post-office and deficiency bills were first passed as separate acts. In 1847 the appropriations were made in nine separate bills : Pensions, Fortifications, Indians, Military Academy, Army, Navy, Post-Office, Civil and Diplomatic, and Deficiencies. In 1856 the consular and diplomatic appropriations were em- bodied in a separate bill. In 1857 the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Bill first appeared in the form which is still maintained. In 1862 a new bill was added, which has since been known as the Sundry Civil Bill, containing the various miscellaneous items not embraced in the other bills. Since 1862 there have been twelve regular annual appropriation bills, as follows : Pensions, Legislative, Executive and Judicial, Consular and Diplomatic, Army, Navy, Military Academy, Post-Office, Fortifications, Indian, Sundry Civil, Deficiency, and Rivers and Harbors. * In addition to these are the various relief acts making special appropriations. There is also a class of permanent appropriations, authorized by general statute, which do not appear in the annual bills such as payments of interest on the public debt and pay- ments on account of the sinking fund. It will be seen from the foregoing that, on the whole, there has been an increasing tendency to limit the discretion of the execu- tive departments and bring the details of expenditure more imme- diately under the annual supervision of Congress ; and this ten- dency has been specially manifest since the late war. As all the regular appropriation bills originate in the House of Representatives, the chief responsibility for the amounts authorized and for the measures adopted to regulate and restrict the uses to which the revenues may be applied, rests with that body Republican and Democratic Appropriations. During the last four years the Democratic party has had control 580 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. of legislation in the House ; and a comparison of their manage- ment of this subject with the Republican management which pre- ceded will not be without interest. Much credit is deservedly due to the Democrats in the Forty- fourth Congress for continuing the work of reduction which had been carried on by their Republican predecessors from 1865 down to and including the passage of the appropriation bills for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1876. On some subjects of reduction they could act more effectively and with less embarrassment than their Republican predecessors. They were less restrained by party asso- ciations from reducing the official force in the departments. The aggregate reduction of expenditures made by the Forty- fourth Congress for the fiscal years 1877 and 1878 was $20,000,000. This includes all the reductions made by the executive depart- ments, as well as those made by Congress. An apparent though not a real reduction of $1,500,000 was made by a change in the law relating to official postage-stamps. The last Republican House appropriated that sum for official postage for the several execu- tive departments, charging the amount to the departments as an expenditure, and crediting the Post-Office Department with the face-value of the stamps. This exhibited the whole transaction on one side of the ledger as revenue, and on the other as expenditure. The Forty-fourth Congress repealed that law, and authorized the departments to make requisitions upon the Postmaster-General for stamps, thus making an apparent reduction of $1,500,000, without changing the actual facts in the case. But the progress made in the direction of economy by the Forty- fourth Congress was far more than neutralized by the action of the last Congress. This will appear from a statement of the appropria- tions made during each of the four years of Democratic rule in the House. Omitting permanent appropriations, which do not appear in the annual bills, the appropriations voted during the last four years were as follows : For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1877 $124,122,010 For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1878 114,069,483 * For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1879 146,304,309 For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1880 161,808,934 To this last amount should be added $16,500,000, authorized by law at the last session but yet to be appropriated, to pay the arrears * No appropriations for rivers and harbors were made for this year. APPROPRIATIONS AND MISAPPROPRIATIONS. 581 of pensions, which will swell the amount of the appropriations au- thorized for the next fiscal year to $178,300,000. Even this large amount must be further increased by the deficiencies which will be required for that year. The appropriations authorized at the last session, not including these deficiencies, exceed by $54,000,000 the amount voted at the last session of the Forty-fourth Congress, and considerably exceed those of any year since 1869. Of course, the arrears of pensions, which are estimated by the Secretary of the Treasury to amount to $41,500,000, will not appear in the yearly expenditure hereafter ; but the Secretary of the Interior estimates that the application of this law to all new pensions hereafter al- lowed will increase the annual pension bill four or five millions each year for some years to come. As I have already shown, it would not have been reasonable to expect that the last Congress could continue to make reductions in the aggregate expenditures ; but the increased amounts which have been authorized greatly exceed the limits of just economy. In striking contrast with this increase of expenditures by Con- gress is the remarkable reduction of annual expenditures effected by the refunding operations of the Secretary of the Treasury. Since the first day of March, 1877, the Secretary has sold four per cent, bonds and four per cent, certificates to the amount of $803,095,700, and has redeemed and canceled a like amount of six per cent, and five per cent, bonds, thereby reducing the annual coin interest on the public debt by the sum of $13,638,651. This reduction was made possible by the legislation which brought resumption of specie payments, and has greatly strengthened the public credit at home and abroad. Important as are the amounts expended for the public service, the legislative methods of making and regulating appropriations are perhaps even more important. I shall notice some of these, and also the efforts that have been made to reform them. Permanent and Indefinite Appropriations. From the beginning of the Government there has been a ten- dency on the part of Congress to neglect that clause of the Con- stitution which declares that no money shall be drawn from the Treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law. This provision has been evaded by appropriating, for a given object, so much money as may be necessary, leaving the amount indefinite, and to be determined by the discretion of the executive depart- vol. cxxvin. no. 271. 38 582 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. ments. It was possibly not the purpose of the framers of the Con- stitution to compel Congress to act annually on all necessary appro- priations. The only express limit in this direction was placed upon appropriations to raise and support armies, which should not be for a period longer than two years. As early as April 25, 1808, Con- gress passed an act appropriating an annual sum of $200,000 to provide arms and military equipment for the militia of the United States ; and this law has been the only authority for the expendi- tures which have been made annually on that account ever since. If one appropriation may be made to run for seventy years without the supervision of Congress, the same method might be applied to all other appropriations except those for the army. The general rule of good government requires Congress annually to supervise all its appropriations. One exception is properly made to this rule. The payment of the interest on the public debt is made in pursu- ance of a permanent appropriation, in order that the public credit may not suffer from the neglect of Congress to make provision promptly, each year, for this class of obligations. At the close of the war it was found that more than one half of all our expenditures were authorized by general and permanent laws, and did not come under the annual scrutiny of Congress. Prior to the act of March 3, 1849, the expenses of collecting the rev- enue from customs were paid out of the gross receipts, and only the balance was paid into the Treasury. The act of 1849 was intended to correct this vicious method, which offered so many opportunities for abuse. It required the gross receipts from customs to be paid into the Treasury, and estimates to be submitted to Congress for the expense of collecting the revenues. By the act of June 14, 1858, a backward step was taken. A permanent semi-annual appro- priation of $1,800,000 was authorized, and authority was given to collectors to apply certain customs fees directly to pay the cost of collection. This unwise method of appropriation still continues ; but since 1861 Congress has placed many restrictions upon the dis- cretion of collectors and other customs officers, by regulating the number and salaries of employees. The Internal Revenue Bureau, established in 1862, has been sup- ported by annual appropriations made on detailed estimates, pre- sented to Congress in the regular way. Prior to the passage of the act of June 24, 1874, the expenses of the issuing, reissuing, transferring, redemption, and destruction of securities of the United States were paid from the permanent APPROPRIATIONS AND MISAPPROPRIATIONS. 583 appropriation of one per cent, of all securities issued during each fiscal year. Some years these expenditures amounted to $3,000,000, no part of which came under the previous scrutiny of Congress. By the act of June 20, 1874, all appropriations for that service were placed in the annual bills on regular estimates sent to Congress. Under the act of March 31, 1849, an indefinite appropriation was made to pay for horses, vessels, and other property lost in the military service under impressment or contract ; and large sums have been expended which do not appear in the annual bills. By the act of July 12, 1870, Congress attempted to repeal these per- manent appropriations and require estimates to be submitted for them ; but the old law appears by some blunder to have been re- enacted in the revised statutes. The Abuse of Unexpended Balances. Prior to 1872, an appropriation once authorized by Congress remained on the books of the Treasury as a continuous appropri- ation subject to be drawn upon at any time. The result was, that the unexpended balances of one year could be drawn against for subsequent years ; and these balances so accumulated in all the bureaus and departments that in the course of years they consti- tuted a large and forgotten fund which could be used for a great variety of purposes without the special notice of Congress. In a single bureau it was found that the unexpended balances the ac- cumulations of a quarter of a century amounted, in 1870, to $36,- 000,000. By a provision of law, offered by Mr. Dawes, chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, and approved July 12, 1870, it was enacted that all balances of appropriations contained in the annual bills, and made specifically for the service of any fiscal year, and remaining unexpended at its close, shall be applied only to the pay- ment of expenses incurred during that year, or to the fulfillment of contracts properly made within that year. And balances not needed for such purposes shall be carried to the surplus fund, and at the end of two years from the date of the law by which they were authorized shall be covered into the Treasury. In carrying this law into effect, two years afterward, over $174,000,000 of ac- cumulated unexpended balances were covered into the Treasury at one time ; and the temptation to extravagance, which this great fund had offered, was removed. By an act of June 20, 1874, the law was made still more stringent, and the old abuses which grew 584 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. out of unexpended balances may be said to have been wholly sup- pressed. In the same connection should be noticed a legislative device which has often been resorted to to cover up the actual amount of appropriations, under clauses which unexpended balances are reap- propriated without specifying the amount. The act of 1870 greatly reduced the scope of this pernicious habit. But indefinite reappro- priations by Congress of balances which, under the law of 1870 and 1874, can not be used without renewed authority, have recently reappeared in our annual bills. The just and safe method is to appropriate specifically the expenditures which Congress is willing to authorize, so that the law shall itself show, as far as possible, both the object and the full amount of the appropriation. Deficiencies. One of the vicious party devices too often resorted to for avoid- ing responsibility for extravagance in appropriations is to cut down the annual bills below the actual amount necessary to carry on the Government, announce to the country that a great reduction has been made in the interest of economy, and, after the elections are over, make up the necessary amounts by deficiency bills. This device has not been confined to any one party ; for it requires not a little courage to make increased appropriations just before a Con- gressional election. But it is due to the Republican party to say that, during the last few years of their control in the House, the deficiency bills were smaller in the amounts appropriated than in any recent period of our history, having been reduced to $4,000,000 for the fiscal year 1875, $2,387,000 for the year 1876, and $834,000 for 1877 the last year for which the Republicans made the appro- priations. This last sum was the smallest amount of deficiency in any year for more than a quarter of a century. In contrast with this statement is the fact that in the first year, for which the Democratic House managed the appropriations, the deficiencies were $2,500,000 ; the second year, $15,213,000 ; and for the third (the current fiscal year), $3,500,000 of deficiencies have already been appropriated ; and a large deficiency must yet be pro- vided for. Contingent Funds. Notwithstanding all the efforts that have been made to specify and limit the objects of appropriations, the custom prevailed until APPROPRIATIONS AND MISAPPROPRIATIONS. 585 1874 of appropriating considerable sums to each department under the head of " contingent expenses," the- disbursement of which was left to the discretion of the heads of bureaus and executive depart- ments. But in one of the annual bills of 1874 all these appropri- ations were carefully classified ; and definite amounts were granted for different specific purposes, so that the sums left to be ex- pended at the discretion of bureaus of departments were greatly reduced. This practice has since been followed in making up the annual bills. Recent Examples of Bad Legislation. In further illustration of reckless methods of appropriation, I cite two items in the legislation of Congress, at the last session. By the act of July 19, 1848, three months' extra pay was granted to the officers and soldiers of our volunteer army who were engaged in the war with Mexico, the purpose of the act being to pay each such soldier, on his discharge from the army, a sum necessary to cover the time that it would be likely to take him to return home and secure employment. About $50,000 of this extra pay is still due, and a bill was introduced to appropriate a sufficient amount of money to complete the payment. An amendment was added to the bill, which so enlarged the provisions of the original act of 1848 as to grant three months' extra pay to all officers and soldiers of the regular army, and all officers, petty officers, seamen and marines of the navy and revenue marine service, who were, at any time, employed in the prosecution of the Mexican war. This gratuity had never been asked for, and the provision probably passed without much notice of its real character. As estimated by the accounting officers of the Treasury Department, the amount appropriated by this act, thus enlarged, is three and a half million dollars, while the sum actually due was only $50,000. The other instance marks the introduction of a still more dan- gerous kind of legislation. A bill was passed on the last day of the late session, creating an irredeemable debt of $250,000, the annual interest of which is to be paid to the trustees of a "Print- ing House for the Blind," at Louisville, Kentucky, an establishment chartered by the State of Kentucky. The act puts the appropria- tion in the form of a national obligation, which cannot be repealed without the repudiation of a portion of the public debt. General Legislation on Appropriation Bills. Perhaps the most reprehensible method connected with appro- 586 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. priation bills has resulted from a change of one of the rules of the House, made in 1876, by which any general legislation germane to a bill may be in order if it retrenches expenditures. The construc- tion recently given to this amended rule has resulted in putting a great mass of general legislation upon the appropriation bills, and has so overloaded the committee in charge of them as to render it quite impossible for its members to devote sufficient attention to the details of the appropriations proper. If this rule be continued in force, it will be likely to break down the Committee on Appro- priations, and disperse the annual bills to several committees, so that the legislation on that subject will not be managed by any one committee, nor in accordance with any general and comprehensive plan. It is of the first importance that one strong, intelligent commit- tee should have supervision of the whole work of drafting and put- ting in shape the bills for the appropriation of public money. That committee ought, every year, to present to Congress and the coun- try a general and connected view of what we may fairly call our budget, showing not only the aggregate of expenditures, but the general distribution of revenue to the several objects to be sup- ported. To accomplish this work thoroughly and comprehensively is all that any one committee can do ; and any attempt to load general legislation upon their bills will be disastrous not only to general legislation, by making it fragmentary and incomplete, but especially so to the proper management of our fiscal affairs. This unwise rule furnished the temptation to the Democratic caucus to tack upon the two appropriation bills which failed at the last ses- sion of Congress the political legislation which has caused the extra session, and has done more to revive the unfortunate memories of the rebellion than any political event of the last ten years. The true policy is to separate all financial questions as far as possible from mere partisan politics, and bring to their discussion and management the best intelligence of all parties. James A. Garfield. IIL THE STAGNATION OF TRADE AND ITS CAUSE. The nations of the world are suffering severe commercial de- pression. The public press in many countries abounds with unceas- ing comments on this painful fact. Public men of every kind, economical writers, and men engaged in industry, ardently discuss its nature and its consequences. The charitable come forward to relieve the sufferings which it creates, and plunge into discussions on the nature and fitting limits of beneficent charity. Writers of great power debate the causes and the presumptive remedies of this depression. Heavy reductions of wages are demanded by employ- ers who have lost all profit, amid a war of strikes, in the name of the stagnation of business. The workmen retort that they are vic- tims of the oppression of capitalists. Traders, under the impulse of severe losses and the agitations of despair, challenge the con- victions of their reason, and, abandoning reflection and judgment, seek help from the delusive follies of protection. A kind of chaos seems to have come over the minds of mankind in this very grave matter. Amid these sufferings and these anxieties spread over so many countries one fact presents itself which is calculated to excite sur- prise. The depression has gone on and has been keenly discussed for years, yet its true nature and the real cause which has generated it do not yet seem to have been recognized. Every kind of expla- nation is given of it. It is made to be the offspring of multitudi- nous causes ; nevertheless, a clear perception of its true character, and of what has brought it to pass, is still wanting. Even cham- bers of commerce, filled with men of the highest commercial abil- ity, appear to have some, if not theory, at least special view, of their own. Statesmen, too, speak of it as a subject which they do not understand. Not, indeed, that the right explanation is abso- lutely wanting in some quarters it has been distinctly pointed 588 THE NORTE AMERICAN REVIEW. out but it has not yet reached the stage of a publicly recognized fact. Yet to know what this fearful commercial depression means, and what brought it into existence, are matters of supreme im- portance for warning and for cure. There are misdoings on which responsibility for the calamity mainly lies, and there are mistaken practices to be shunned, and right action to be adopted, to bring the suffering to the earliest practicable end. What, then, is commercial depression ? Want of buyers. And how come buyers to be few and weak ? Because there is an im- mense diminution of the means of purchasing. And in what does the power of buying consist ? In goods to give in exchange with the exception of a relatively small amount of articles previously made, in commodities produced for the very purpose of being exchanged with one another. This is the one characteristic peculiarity of the economical life of man. Particular goods, needed by the whole community, are made by special makers, and they are distributed to those who require them for use, that is, to consumers, by the makers obtaining from each other what they want for their own needs. The baker makes bread for the town, and he gets from the hat- ter, the grocer, the tailor, the supply of his wants. When the va- rious producers are fairly occupied with their several industries, many exchanges are carried out, much buying and selling takes place, and trade is said to be prosperous. Commercial depression is the exact reverse. It is stagnant trade trade paralyzed, and mills and factories work on a smaller scale or are closed, banks and commercial firms break, wages are lowered, workmen and their families are reduced to destitution. All this misery comes from a single cause : there are fewer goods to buy with, less wealth to be exchanged, diminished supplies of food, capital, clothing, and raw materials wherewith to keep laborers at work. They are unable to maintain the full production of those commodities which society requires. In other words, simply and plainly, commercial depres- sion is poverty poverty among consumers and would-be buyers. This poverty first springs up among those who have been deprived of the ordinary products of their industry, and then it passes on to sellers who find that buyers fail them from lack of means wherewith to buy, lack of goods to give in exchange. Mere truisms these, we shall be told ; what help can they bring ? The knowledge, be it answered, of the malady from which the world is now suffering, of the cure to be adopted, and of the bad practices to be avoided in the future. They are every-day truths, THE STAGNATION OF TRADE AND ITS CAUSE. 589 no doubt, but such common truths are emphatically the strength of political economy, and of the proper conduct of business. The practices which they speak of, known as they are to all, are the very things which occur to no one when unusual pressure steps in, and are the very forces which make nations rich or poor. They reveal the essence of all industry and of all trade, common and obvious though they be. At the present moment they give rise to the critical question, How has it come to pass that the goods wherewith to buy have become so few ? Diverse answers are given to this question, which are not tru- isms very far from it especially when they fall from the lips of traders. " There is no money to buy with," exclaim shopkeepers ; but such an answer does not throw the faintest light on the dark problem. Nations are not made poor, nor their mines and factories shut up, nor emigrant laborers driven back to their old homes, be- cause gold and pieces of paper are in one place rather than in an- other. Money, whatever be included under the term, is a mere tool, absolutely nothing else. It renders no other service to man- kind than to place property in different hands ; it does not add to or diminish commodities. As well explain the badness of the wheat crop by talking of the farmer's carts. Whether a country is pros- perous or depressed, the quantity of money contained in it varies by very trifling amounts. The means with which every man buys are his income, and incomes, be they rent, profits, wages, or divi- dends, are nothing else but the share each man obtains of the com- modities produced. These shares may become much larger or much smaller by the common stock from which they are taken being increased or diminished, and yet no change will have taken place in the quantity of coin in the country. Money, then, reveals nothing which will help us to understand the causes of the commercial depression. A far more favorite explanation is found in the phrase "over-production." It seems supported by such visible evidence. Vast stocks are piled up at mines and factories waiting for buyers, but none come. Merchan- dise is offered in every market all over the world, but no orders for shipment arrive. Production, people say, has been overdone; the natural wants of consumers have been grossly exceeded by specu- lative manufacturers; can any one wonder that purchasers can not overtake them ? That there is over-production now going on, with much harm to traders, is an undeniable fact. The existence of the excessive stocks and the dismissals of workmen are proofs of over- 590 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. making which can not be gainsaid. How this over-production has been brought about will be explained presently. Nevertheless, it is not the cause of the commercial depression; it is the second stage of the disease, not the first. It is a common occurrence that particular markets should be brought under severe reduction of prices and difficulty of sales by an over-supply of commodities; but this over-supply is local, tem- porary, and speculative. It tends rapidly to cure itself. Mer- chants and producers, with heedless eagerness, have taken an exag- gerated view of the capacity of a particular market to dispose of a large amount of their goods. They make ventures, which are essen- tially experiments whether the market will take off the wares haz- arded. Such miscalculations were frequent in the colonial trade when the colonies were smaller, and the steamboat and the telegraph had not yet come forward to reveal the true state of the markets. But these miscalculations speedily cure themselves. Traders are not permanent gamblers, and this kind of over-production soon reckons up its losses and ceases. The depression which now weighs upon the world exhibits fea- tures of a* different kind. Its distinguishing characteristic is that it sweeps over many countries. It presses, so to speak, on the whole civilized world. It is easily conceivable that England should have produced more goods than China could buy under her circumstances, or India, or America, or Russia. She may have reckoned on the ordinary demand from one of these countries; it may have failed her through causes peculiar to each case, and then her goods may have found no buyers. The consequences to some may have been painful factories for a while over-stocked, and makers and men involved in temporary trouble. But general over-production, ex- tending over many countries simultaneously, is a totally different matter; it can not be regarded as possible. The world is far short, as yet, of that stage when there is already wealth enough when no one desires to have more enjoyments, and when he will make no industrial effort to obtain them. The maximum of necessaries and gratifications has not yet been reached by mankind. The reverse is true millions of men and women have not enough to consume. They want more and work for more, and this means that by pro- ducing more there is more trade, and that all are better off. This increased production moves upon the old lines. Each branch of in- dustry furnishes more goods, and these can be sold easily, because each producer has a larger supply of his own products wherewith THE STAGNATION OF TRADE AND ITS CAUSE. 591 to purchase those of others. Great production on every side can not imply scarcity of purchasing power and of buyers, but the di- rect contrary. The continuance of production after the means of buying have disappeared may easily become excessive, and generate mischievous effects; but that excess will be the offspring of under- production in some quarter which has suspended its ability to trade. We thus arrive at over-consumption, that is, the consuming and destroying more wealth than is made, as the true explanation of that commercial depression which may be termed universal. Sub- sequent partial over-production has aggravated it, but was not its original parent. It thus becomes a matter of surpassing interest to inquire, if possible, what are the causes which have brought the world into this condition. How has it happened that so many na- tions have been impelled to consume more than they restored by their industry, and thereby have landed themselves in impoverish- ment and distress ? We may hope to learn from such an inquiry some lessons that may guard against the recurrence of so great a misfortune. How, then, has it come to pass that the means of buying, that the quantity of goods to exchange, have been so fearfully reduced ? Let us turn our eyes, in the first place, to India and to China: these countries will furnish us with terrible illustrations of over-consump- tion. They were visited with great famines; and there is no over- consumption severer than that created by famine. The cost of cul- tivation is increased, laborers are fed and clothed, tools bought and used, seed destroyed, a whole year's capital annihilated, and there is no crop; no replacement of the things destroyed. The popula- tion is ground down to poverty, many perish as Ireland testified in 18-47; a second outlay of food and clothing has to be expended for one crop ; the power of buying is annihilated. Comforts and luxuries became of impossible attainment, and the demand for goods to be supplied to China and India all but vanished from English and American markets. How was Manchester to sell cal- ico, and Bradford woolen cloth, to the East when there was nothing to pay for them no Chinese and Indian wealth to send back in ex- change ? Depression and its cause here present themselves very viv- idly to the eyes of all who have the will and the intelligence to see. Let us now turn to the United States: they have instruction to give us of the highest value. They occupy a prominent place in this cycle of depression. In no small degree they set it revolving. The part which America took in creating the commercial depression was 592 TEE NORTE AMERICAN REVIEW. of her own choosing : China and India suffered from a dispensation of Providence. America never gave a thought to the obvious law that to consume more than is restored by subsequent industry lands man and nation in impoverishment. She constructed railways with mad eagerness in the wilderness, never stopping to inquire what it was that she was doing. She never deigned to ask herself whether she could afford the cost. What so prolific of wealth as railways ? Had not Robert Stephenson pointed out years ago that the railways had paid off the national debt of England ? These iron roads were the very contrivance for making the American people rich; they would bring their vast fields and enormous products into close neigh- borhood with the markets of the world. Those who had settled, or were intending to settle, in the far West, investors eager to employ their capital, speculators on the stock-exchanges, all rushed forward to build railways. They fed and clothed countless laborers, burned huge stocks of coal in making iron, emptied the warehouses and stores of the Eastern States on the busy workers in the West, con- sumed and destroyed immense accumulations of wealth. The goods perished; but by what were they replaced ? By rich agricultural crops, by manufactured products streaming forth from mills and factories ? By nothing of the kind. The consumption of wealth made tunnels and embankments, and long lines of rails, and that was all. The effect for the time, and for long afterward, has been identically the same as if the energetic laborers of America had been set to dig holes in the ground and to fill them up again. Here was over-consumption indeed. But, it will be asked, Does the construction of railroads neces- sarily impoverish ? No, not necessarily ; but the distinction merits the most careful attention from all who wish well to their country. Railways, docks, factories, mines, and similar constructions, are what political economy calls fixed capital, of which the distinguishing characteristic is that their cost, the capital consumed in construct- ing them, is not repaid at once, but only after a period more or less long, generally for years. A small portion of what they use up in being made is replaced out of profits each revolving year ; the re- mainder, though a diminishing quantity, continues to be an uncom- pensated loss. If, therefore, the construction of fixed capital is car- ried out to excess, diminution of wealth is the necessary conse- quence. But what is excess ? What defines it ? Excess is what goes beyond the amount of uninvested savings available at the time. But what are savings ? The amount of wealth produced, the surplus TEE STAGNATION OF TEADE AND ITS CAUSE. 593 beyond what restores all the capital laid out in production, profits and wages included. Savings are really surplus income coming in beyond what the owner had to spend naturally, or the manufacturer requires to replace all his cost. That surplus may be consumed in any way without harm ; it may be thrown into the sea, and no pov- erty is incurred. It is not savings yet ; it becomes savings when it is not laid out in luxuries or increased enjoyment, but is applied as capital to enlarging the means of future production. The man who has ten thousand pounds a year, which he can spend lawfully with- out injury, if he devotes three thousand pounds to the draining of his estate, spending only seven thousand pounds on his living, saves. He makes his land a more productive machine for wealth, and its produce is permanently larger. Precisely in the same man- ner, if a nation construct railways or other fixed capital out of sur- plus wealth saved, there is no over-consumption, no impoverish- ment. Every expense of the nation had been provided for what had been won over and above could be disposed of in any way without loss. The United States built railroads, not out of savings, but out of capital, and became poorer and depressed. But the mischief does not end here. Over-consumption brings in those leaps and bounds in trade of which Mr. Gladstone speaks. It makes a nation bubble over with excitement. The demand for commodities is unnaturally increased. The railway works call for iron and coal, and endless other articles. The supply gave rise to higher profits and wages ; the movement was felt in every store. Luxurious expenditure raised its head ; multitudes of bankers, stock-brokers, engineers, manufacturers, multiplied their purchases, and enlarged their destruction of wealth. Then burst forth new speculations, fresh enterprises, the undulation of excitement and consumption ever expanding. The laborers feel the impulse ; and, if they are Englishmen, and not Frenchmen, their outlay on drink and personal indulgences will keep pace with the universal move- ment. They marry in greater numbers and at an earlier age, thus sowing in this artificial ground the seed of much misery in the fu- ture. Then at last comes the rebound. There is no more to buy with, and overwhelming is the collapse. Commercial depression avenges the universal misconduct with sufferings whose acuteness is but too well understood. Such was the course pursued in America, and what have been its consequences ? From 1873 until the last bountiful harvest brought back a portion of their lost wealth to the wasteful, a commercial 594 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. depression weighed down the country severer yet than that which overtook England. Coal and iron mines stopped working, blast- furnaces were blown out, factories stood still, hundreds of thou- sands of working people were reduced to idleness, wages rapidly fell, railway traffic declined, immigrants fell away, destitute laborers left the country, strikes broke out into open rebellion, and a wide- spread mercantile stringency harassed the whole nation for years. If we cross the Atlantic to Germany the same phenomena pre- sent themselves the same sequence of cause and effect. In 1870 Germany waged a mighty war with France and what but famine can vie with war in destructiveness to wealth ? Think of the mul- titudes of men whom it converts from producers into consumers only ! "War replaces nothing that it destroys ; impoverishment is its inevitable offspring. But did not the indemnity make all right for Germany ? What might not two hundred and twenty million pounds effect in the way of remedy ? Everything, if only they had reached Germany in the shape of goods, of useful wealth, to re- place as capital what had been consumed. But what could gold avail for the relieving of German distress ? The currency of Ger- many was not deficient, and the new gold could be applied to no restoring process. It could not be turned into wheels for moving machinery, not become food and clothing for a laboring and dis- tressed people. So long as it remained in Germany, all that it could accomplish was to put material wealth into different hands, and this it could do and did in very mischievous ways. Far better would it have been if it had been locked up and hoarded, if it was bound to remain in Germany. A large portion of this gold was applied to military purposes, to the building of fortresses. Their cost was enormous ; they consumed without reproducing, precisely as the American railroads, with this difference, however, on the bad side, that in the end the railroads will repay their cost and be permanent increasers of the national wealth. Nor was this all the harm that the indemnity gold did. Another portion the Government lent to speculators, who retained it within the country. They bought German goods in abundance: prices rose, brilliant profits were realized, and the same fatal tale was repeated. Luxurious consumption spread; instead of restoring what the war had destroyed by parsimony, prodigality magnified the disaster, and the French gold wore the appearance of a clear contrivance devised by France for avenging her reverses. France presents a spectacle of a different kind ; yet France, THE STAGNATION OF TRADE AND ITS CAUSE. 595 too, was a victim of over-consumption. She was devastated by a great war carried on within her territory. Her fields were laid waste, her food for men and horses destroyed, her factories widely suspended where contending hosts were struggling, her laborers called away from their industry and enrolled in unproductive regi- ments, her capital annihilated in guns and gunpowder. Then came the indemnity ; but, fortunately, her thrifty peasants had piled up hoards in their rural homes: it could be lent to the French Govern- ment, and leave France without any injury to her industry or her practical wealth. But what was not gold had to be sent away in material wealth, and each year as it revolves finds France pressed with an increase of taxation, amounting to thirty millions of pounds sterling. If ever nation might have been expected in modern times to exhibit the picture of universal ruin it was France. It was far otherwise. France astonished mankind with a power of fighting depression, a strength of recovery, unequaled in history. Her peo- ple suffer, but with no sense of overwhelming poverty. The piled- up load of her taxation is borne with ease. And to what is this wonderful sight due ? To the practice of the greatest of economical virtues. France saved. She met impoverishment with parsimony. She diminished the consumption of enjoyments, to apply the re- sources thereby gained to the maintenance of her capital employed in production. These are the realities of practical political economy, and what fruit do they not bear ? England now comes upon the stage. She is found walking in the same path of over-consumption. Since 1870 England has been busy with destroying more wealth than she made, to a degree une- qualed by any other country except, perhaps, America. Innumerable are the forces which bear on her commercial position. She trades with all the world, she manufactures for many nations, her industries depend on their power of purchasing; their fortunes she necessarily shares. If her customers thrive, she prospers; if their means of buy- ing fail, the blow is felt in every corner of her land. Their pros- perity and their adversity are really also her own. This community of interest between England and other countries takes us round the world in exploring the causes of her suffering. She was a partner or a victim of their over-consumption, besides what she practiced on her own account. One mode of destroying wealth she abstained from: till quite recently, she did not indulge in the over-consumption of war and great armies. Yet war has affected her deeply war carried on by her customers. At an earlier period 596 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. the great war of the American secession created the cotton famine of Lancashire, stripped her of the means of manufacturing, and threw vast masses of her population into destitution. The Austro-Prus- sian and Franco-German wars, the devastating hostilities carried on by China in the far East, the struggles in Servia and Turkey, the ex- aggerated armaments of Russia and Germany, wasted an immense capital, and vastly diminished their power of supporting British in- dustry. Further yet, England took a part in the rashnesses of other countries. She gave help in the invasion of the American wilds by railroads ; she bought a colossal amount of American bonds which had been issued for their construction in other words; she gave away her iron and other wealth, and got only paper documents in return. Thus she practically consumed her wealth for to lend it is to lose it for the time without replacing it at home with new products obtained from abroad, and consequently shared in the penalty which had fallen on the Americans for over-consumption. But England did much more in promoting the process of over- consumption. She imitated the American proceeding of creating an excess of fixed capital. She poured out loans in splendid pro- fusion upon foreign countries, nominally for the development of their industry by railways and other instruments of production. Some she gave to solvent debtors, others to insolvent ; but the ef- fect in both cases was identical as to the diminution of her wealth. For the time, for the creation of depression, it matters not whether 6he lent to a country which would repay or to one which would not. She parted with her capital : she lessened her stock of goods and of means of reproducing ; she sent away that which, if it had re- mained at home, would have amply restored its consumption. The loans were reckoned as money ; but money was not the thing lent. England has no money, no gold and silver, to lend ; commodities are all that she can give to borrowers. If she bids them draw bills upon her, she can obtain money, if demanded, wherewith to face those bills by purchasing it with her merchandise. To lend became a devouring passion on the Stock Exchange of London. Peru and Venezuela, Honduras and Guatemala, Turkey and Egypt, swallowed up countless millions of English wealth. The grand colonies came forward with a sounder plea for borrowing. They pointed to their vast, expanding trade, to their tillage and their flocks, and they dwelt on the mighty help which railroads and other machinery could render them in developing the natural resources of their coun- try. England relied on excellent interest and a brilliant future. THE STAGNATION OF TRADE AND ITS CAUSE. 597 Her hope and her faith were not misplaced ; but again she forgot that she was over-consuming that she was losing more capital than she had to spare or could replace. Another counter-clap fell at home on the unhappy British wealth. The working-classes were impelled by the loans to figure, and to figure largely, in the universal over-consumption. The loans went out in commodities, and the commodities were made by Eng- lish labor. Ironclads for Turkey, rails and locomotives for Amer- ica and the colonies, clothing for their men and women, now pros- pering on what they had borrowed, were energetically supplied from England. Sales were enormously increased ; labor was in vigorous demand by employers reveling in large profits ; prices of all articles advanced ; iron mounted to twenty pounds a ton the same iron which now fetches only six pounds and luxurious en- joyment broke out on every side. Who stopped to inquire whether this roaring business was legitimate ; whether England was mak- ing for eager borrowers, getting nothing but acknowledgments of debt in return ? Masters and men were not responsible for these loans ; that was the affair of Stock-Exchange men and bankers. All that they knew was, that their products were in great demand, and were handsomely paid for. The increase of wages led to a further immense over-consumption ; for English laborers do not save. The wealth of the nation was largely destroyed in drink and luxuries. But this was not all. The union leaders took advantage of the situation to enforce that ignorant policy which has led to so many disastrous rules for withholding the worth of wages, and pre- venting the workingmen from giving back work worth what they received. Strikes, with their suspensions of industry, while con- sumption was going on at an accelerated pace, followed in numbers. It would seem as if men had enlisted themselves in a race how to impoverish themselves and their country most swiftly. Nor does this end the catalogue of woes. Profits would not be outdone by wages in the pleasant function of over-consuming, of living on the destruction of capital ; never heeding that they were galloping into poverty. New enterprises were pushed forward ; new factories and other fixed capital created ; new mines opened ; new stocks accumulated. No one dreamed of the day, so dark upon the world now, so slow to set, when over-production would rear its unwelcome head ; when buyers would die away ; when markets lately so brilliant would be overloaded, and commercial depression would reign supreme in the darkness. vol. cxxviii. no. 271. 39 598 THE NORTE AMERICAN REVIEW. Thus opens upon us the second scene in this wonderful drama, the second stage in the process of over-consumption the period of over-production. The curtain was first lifted in America. In 1873 the American people found that the poverty-creating practice of building an excess of fixed capital could be carried on no longer. The day of reckoning broke upon the promoters of illegitimate rail- roads. A severe crisis fell upon the money markets of the United States. A shock struck American credit, and Europe would buy no more American bonds with her goods. The concussion propagated itself over the mines and factories of Europe, especially over those of England, which had supplied so many materials for the American railways. Loans died away, and with them the demand for those manufactured products in which they were lent. Buyers vanished. The iron and the coal, the cotton goods and the woolen cloths of the new factories were not wanted nor inquired for ; profits were converted into losses ; the rate of wages became intolerable. As trade fell away, the thought of a temporary lull, to be followed by a revival of the former briskness, fed hope in anxious makers. They shrank from reducing or stopping their works ; they recoiled from dismissing workmen whose services they might soon be eager to re- gain. But the sting of their trouble lay in the new works added on to the old ones the extended factories, the mines sunk down at great depths. So they struggled on into over-production. They went on making, as buyers went on failing the over-consumption of fixed capital sentenced them to the sufferings of over-production. But the stern facts of the situation became visible at last. Mills and mines were then closed in numbers for the laws of trade, like those of nature, are peremptory. Where buyers are wanting, manu- facturing and exchange must cease, whatever men and masters may say or do. Many men could find no employment, and were thrown upon public support over-consumption thus everlastingly repeat- ing itself, for these men lived, and did nothing for their livelihood. Wages were reduced and men struck, and fearful was the loss which the strikes made and are still making. On those who still remained in the mills, reduction after reduction was successively imposed; for still buyers failed to present themselves in expanding numbers. The cost of production has been lowered for many goods, but custom- ers have not yet recovered their power to buy ; time still is want- ing for them to acquire wealth wherewith to purchase. But the evil of over-production is gradually healing itself. The stoppage of works and diminution of manufacturing have gone on THE STAGNATION OF TRADE AND ITS CAUSE. 599 for some time, and vast accumulations of unsalable stocks have wellnigh disappeared. The great evil, indeed, of over-consumption still remains, bt not in so acute a form. The trouble which weighs down the whole commercial world is still excess of mechanical and manufacturing power in the face of decayed ability to buy ; but this excess is found now, not so much in the new works erected in the day of excitement, as in the ordinary natural manufacturing machinery. The poverty of buyers has been brought down by the over-consumption below the former level : consumption can not pur- chase even up to the old customary extent. If the word production is to be used in this relation and it is ever on the lips of many over-cost of production would be the phrase that would best describe the actual commercial situation. The goods offered for sale are too dear for the means of consumers. Uncontrollable forces place them out of their reach, except at lower prices, or compel them to go without them altogether. Reduction of the cost of production, therefore, is the only outlet by which employers can escape the abandonment of their business, until other forces have restored to the nations their ancient power of purchasing. It is a situation identical with that created by famine. What happened to Ireland in 1847 has now befallen wide regions of the civilized world. And, now, what are the remedies to be applied for the mitiga- tion and ultimate termination of this depression with all its suffer- ings? Many of various kinds are proposed with much passion. One especially is advocated with great fervor by the working classes and their advocates. It takes its stand on the assumed fact of over-production. It imputes the blame of the calamity to this alleged proceeding, and proclaims that the cure will be obtained from its direct opposite. More goods, it argues, are made than consumers can be found to buy ; and they sink to prices which can not meet the cost of production. Reverse the practice make less, it is vehemently urged ; work short time and a cure will be effected. It is admitted that the market can not clear off the goods at existing prices, and that the laborers must receive less remunera- tion. Let the reduction be taken in five or four days' work a week instead of six the rate of wage per day will then be kept up. The over-production will be stopped, all the goods made will be sold, and in good time the sunshine will again reappear. This policy is founded on a complete misunderstanding of the nature of that industry which supplies the life of mankind with 600 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. those commodities which are summed up in the word wealth. A country is rich when much is produced ; it is poor, and its people live at a low level, when there is little made, little to divide among them. Now, what does this policy counsel ? Make less ; let there be less wealth. Work four days a week instead of six ; let the price of the goods and the rate of wage remain where they are now. And this advice to keep goods dear is urged at a time when all the commercial distress is the consequence of the one fact that there is little to buy with, little to give in exchange. Are such men unable to perceive the obvious truth that, if every man in a nation worked half time and produced half the quantity of goods, every man would be only half as well off ? But worse still. The preachers of this policy make two assump- tions which are perfectly false. They take it for granted that the cost of production of the goods and their price will both continue unchanged. The very reverse of this will take place : the goods under short time will be dearer to make and will be dearer to sell. In every manufacturing business there are heavy charges to be faced which will not be reduced by working fewer days in the week. Interest on capital will be the same, so also the rent of the buildings, the expense of pumping up the water from the mine, the charges for superintendence and office-work, the wear and tear of the machinery. These expenses were charged on the produc- tion of six days ; they will now fall on the goods manufactured in five or four, and inevitably they add to their cost of production, and consequently to the price which must be demanded for pro- ducing them. Many of the buyers who bought the goods of the five days will now be unable to afford them ; the over-production will be increased, the depression more intense, and the necessity for a further reduction will become irresistible. And who will be the sufferers ? If this principle is sound in policy, it will be applied to all trades, and goods dearer in every shop will be the inevitable consequence. The working classes are the greatest buyers and consumers in a nation ; their money, even if not diminished, will encounter higher prices, and will not go so far in purchasing ; they will have condemned themselves by short time to live upon a lower scale, with fewer comforts to enjoy, by their own act. Can it be a matter of surprise if the counselors who urged the enforcement of short time were described as advising workmen to commit suicide ? What a contrast does the opposite method of proceeding pre- sent ! The laborer would receive the same diminished wage for THE STAGNATION OF TRADE AND ITS CAUSE. 601 the week, but he works and produces during six days. The price of the goods can be lowered, for the reduction of wages has dimin- ished the cost of production, and there are as many things made as previously. Fresh buyers come in who could not afford the former price. Even if the employer earns no profit, he may be saved from loss till the wealth of the country has expanded. More is produced on such a system in the various industries all round. The power of buying is thus increased, for there is more to give in exchange. The depression is attacked, face to face, in its very heart ; the waste which created that depression is gradually restored by en- larged production, and, with the growth of commodities made, profits and wages are benefited together. But there is another additional fallacy contained in the demand for short time. It involves the assumption that a minimum rate of wages can be decreed and enforced at the pleasure of the laborers. No more egregious delusion can befall wretched mortals. In all purchases the buyer is supreme. He decides whether the article shall be bought ; and, if the price exceeds either his means or his desire to acquire the article, there will be no purchase. Nor will he be without other resources. He will betake himself to other sellers ; he will fall back upon the competition of foreign pro- ducers, who work longer hours, and probably with more good will. This is a consideration of very serious import to a nation like Eng- land, which owes her commercial greatness, and with it the very existence of a large portion of her population, to her command of distant markets all over the world. The demand for a minimum wage, if one could conceive it to be persisted in, might bring count- less English laborers, not only to the workhouse, but to starvation. The sufferings of stagnant trade have brought home this thought of foreign rivals to the feelings of impoverished masters and work- men in many countries. Even in England, the stronghold of free trade, the cry for protection is increasingly heard. Not that pro- tection is demanded in plain terms ; for the people of England are profoundly convinced that protection is nothing but pure folly. It is disguised under the pleasant name of reciprocity, which is simply protection with an excuse for it. " The French refuse to buy our cottons," exclaims the embittered cotton-spinner ; " let England re- taliate by refusing to buy French silks. We shall thus accomplish two things : we shall punish France, and do good to the distressed silk-manufacturers of England. They will be protected against competing strangers with their long hours of working and low 602 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. wages. The national industries shall not be extinguished by an in- vasion so cruel." But will this do any good to the cotton-spinner himself ? for there is the rub. In truth, this language is scarcely rational to be excused by a natural feeling of resentment for a supposed .wrong. Reciprocity asks for the imposition of protection when it dares not say that protection can be defended, least of all by a motive which has no connection whatever with the trade in whose behalf it is demanded. Protect the silk-maker because the cotton- spinner is hurt : this is reciprocity in its full nakedness. A few truisms, it is believed, will suffice to make this clear. The first thing that protection does is, to ask where the goods were made ; its action turns upon the nationality of the merchan- dise. But what has the place where the goods were made to do with the buying and the selling of them ? What rational principle can be pleaded for thrusting in the nationality of the goods be- tween buyer and seller ? The price and the quality of the goods are the only things which concern them. Be the two men of the same nation, or be they, one a Frenchman, the other an Englishman, Tros Tyriusve, what matters it ? " Oh ! " the thoughtless reply, " the English buy French goods, but the French will not buy Eng- lish goods in return." Then with what does the Englishman make the purchase ? Trade is nothing but an exchange of goods of equal value. No one, be it man or nation, can buy unless it also sells. The English must give the French what their goods are worth, or they will never get them. " Exactly so," it is replied. " The French may choose to say that they want nothing which England pro- duces ; they may insist on being paid in money. If so, what is the harm ? " Money is ever introducing confusion into this very simple subject. England does not grow gold in her fields. If the French- men insist on having gold, then England can not buy the French goods, unless some other country has given her gold in exchange for her goods ; she passes that gold on to the French, and there the mat- ter ends. She has indirectly, but very really, given goods for goods ; she has sold as much as she has bought. There is no loss on either side ; each produces an equal worth of goods to exchange. It may make the explanation clearer if it be allowed to repeat here a pas- sage which bears directly on this subject : The truth stands out in clear sunshine. Free trade can not and does not injure domestic industry. Under free trade foreign countries give in every case as much employment to English workmen and capitalists as if nothing THE STAGNATION OF TRADE AND ITS CAUSE. 603 had been bought abroad. English goods of the same value must be purchased by the foreigner, or the trade comes to an end. There must be an equal amount of English goods made and sent away, or England will never obtain the foreign commodities. Free trade never does harm to the country which practices it ; and that mighty fact alone kills protection. Let those who are backsliding into protection be asked, Can and will the foreigner give away his goods to any country without insisting on receiving back, directly or in- directly, an equal quantity of that country's goods? Let the question be pushed home, and all talk about injury to domestic industry must cease (" Chapters on Practical Political Economy," p. 307). But how does protection act ? It imposes a duty on the foreign- made article, and not on the one made at home. Thus, the price of the foreign commodity is raised always to a height sufficient to make it dearer than its domestic competitor, or even to exclude it from the home market altogether. By this intervention, the home commodity, which was driven from the market by its naturally higher price, becomes the cheaper of the two, and commands the market in consequence. But who pays the duty, or else the excess of price, of the domestic above that of the foreign article if it had been allowed to come in free ? The home buyers ; that is, the whole people of the country which imposes protection. They pay more to their own countrymen than they would have had to pay to the foreign maker. The difference is a tax imposed to support cer- tain persons who would be unable to maintain themselves by the trade in which they are engaged. Clearly, then, it is a poor-rate paid by the protecting nation at its own cost, given to the home makers, an impoverishment of the public wealth, which they con- sume and destroy without giving any compensation for it beyond what the foreigner would have bestowed at his lower price. Protection is an erroneous policy ; but it raises a fair issue : Shall the supplies w T hich a nation wants be made at home or abroad ? And it can allege reasons plausible at first sight. But reciprocity, as it is now put, can plead none but childish reasons in its own behalf. It does not say that protection is a wise policy : far from it. But it says, in England, for instance : " The American diminishes our trade by putting a duty on English iron. He diminishes his own trade also, it is true, and he puts a tax on the American people, which they themselves have to pay. Still, he hurts us : let us hurt him in turn." " But what good will that do us ? Will it increase our trade ? Will it cure our depression ? " " Not at all. But it will punish him ; and let us have this gratification, even though we can obtain it only by 604 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. taxing ourselves, and in addition contracting our already depressed trade." Is it possible that any one grown up to man's estate can utter such absurdities ? The demand for reciprocity is the child of a radical misconcep- tion of the want of perception of a very simple fact. It mixes up and confounds together into one, two things which have no connec- tion whatever with each other. It chooses to regard two separate trades as one ; and on this blunder its absurd advice is founded. It does not see that the production of silks is a business which stands by itself. England decides not to protect her silks, but to buy the French silks, thereby saving wealth and avoiding the losses which protection always entails. There the matter ends. The French pursue the reverse policy. They protect their cottons, and will not buy those of England. That is a foolish proceeding, for France puts a tax upon herself, and restricts the trade between France and Eng- land. But what motive does the bad form which France gives to her cotton trade furnish to England for altering the sound organiza- tion she has bestowed on the silk trade ? That organization was settled on its own merits without reference to anything else but silk. How can it be affected by what happens to cotton ? How can a bad form given to the cotton-supply be a reason for a bad form also being given to the production of silk ? Silk and cotton are perfect strangers to each other, touching at no point. Reciprocity may try for ever, but it will never find a reason why a country having received a hurt in one trade should, on that account, of her own doing, hurt herself in another. Finally, what is to be done to end the commercial depression ? Reverse the process which created it. Instead of over-consuming, make more wealth. Produce much, with earnestness and continuance of work, restoring the consumption that does and must go on with new wealth making an addition to it by saving. The savings will be capital, instruments for increased production, and for accumulating a larger stock of wealth to be divided over the whole people. This enlarged stock will strike at the heart of the depression, as has been so manifestly shown by the effects on the commercial stock of the American people of the grand addition made to its wealth by the abundance of its harvests. That was a production of more, effected by the hand of Providence, but setting up a noble example for imi- tation and proclaiming the great economical truth that to make much all round is the root of all prosperity. Bonamt Price. IV. THE EDUCATION OF FREEMEN. The short period of fourteen years that has elapsed since the late war has been witness of a more wonderful moral and political revolution in these United States than has ever been recorded in history before. Between four and five million human beings, who had hitherto been deprived of every right of human nature, have been sud- denly precipitated into freedom and invested with the rights of republican citizens. There have been instances before of the sudden emancipations of oppressed masses, but their results have been so fearful as to fill thoughtful minds with a just terror. The French Revolution with its sansculottism, its untold horrors, ended perforce in a despotism, and it was not without cause that an English thinker treated of our emancipation act as " Shooting Niagara." We have shot Niagara, and are alive and well. Our ship of state has been through those mighty rapids and plunged down that awful gulf, while nations held their breath, expecting to see her go to pieces. But lo ! she has emerged, stanch and steady, and is now sailing on. That the passengers have been somewhat tumbled about and shaken, that here and there a timber has cracked or a joint started, that there have been whirlpools and eddies, and uncomfortable sail- ing, we all know. But the miracle of our day is that the ship is sailing on, in better order than ever before in better order, for that unwieldy stowage of oppression which she was obliged to carry has been thrown overboard, and she sails free ! In order justly to estimate the present state of education and progress among the freedmen of the United States, we must glance 606 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. back to the condition in which they were under slavery. A slave could hold no property, had no rights, could not testify either in a court of justice or a Christian church, could not contract a legal marriage, had no legal rights over his children in short, was a hu- man being carefully, legally, and systematically despoiled of every right of humanity. To teach a slave to read and write was forbidden, under heavy penalties. In some States the penalty for teaching him to read was far heavier than for maiming him or putting out his eyes. As the soil in certain States became exhausted, breeding slaves for a more southern market became a systematic process, and was reported upon in agricultural papers and meetings in much the same terms that might apply to the breeding of horses and mules. In the Northern States, the colored people were generally disfran- chised, and, if not forbidden education by law, were repelled from the schools by prejudice, and prejudices apparently far more bitter at the North than at the South. In 1832 Miss Prudence Crandall undertook to open a private boarding-school for young colored girls, in Canterbury, Connecticut. The enterprise was denounced in advance, by the people of this place, in a public meeting. When the term opened, with fifteen or twenty young girls from Philadelphia, Boston, New York, and Providence, storekeepers, butchers, milkmen, and farmers, with one consent, refused to sell provisions to the school, and supplies had to be brought from expensive distances. The scholars were insulted in the streets ; the door-steps and doors were besmeared with filth, and the well filled with the same ; the village doctor refused to visit the sick pupils ; and the trustees of the church forbade them to set foot in their building. The house was assaulted by a mob with clubs and iron bars ; they broke the glass of the windows and terri- fied the inmates. Finally, the State Legislature passed an act mak- ing this school an illegal enterprise, and under this act Miss Cran- dall was imprisoned in the county jail. This apparently unaccountable sensitiveness of the Northern mind becomes intelligible when we consider that there were as really slaveholders in the Northern as the Southern States. Ne- gro slaves were the assets of every Southern estate, plantation, and firm ; they were offered as security for debt, and the large commercial business of the North with the South was carried on upon this basis. There were abundance of rich slaveholders in Northern churches, who felt with the keen instinct of self -inter- THE EDUCATION OF FREEDM.EN. 607 est anything which interfered with their gains, and who did not wish to have trouble of conscience, and they hated the negro because he aroused this uncomfortable faculty. The Northern abolitionist proclaimed that to buy, hold, or sell a human being for gains was a sin against God, and, like all other sins, to be immedi- ately repented of and forsaken. Now, when a New York merchant got a letter from his lawyer, apprising him that he had taken twenty thousand dollars' worth of negroes as security for his debt, and returned answer to sell and remit, it was but natural that he should hereafter be very excitable under such teachings, and de- nounce them as incendiary and fanatical. The bitterness of Southern slaveholders was tempered by many considerations of kindness for servants born in their houses, or upon their estates ; but the North- ern slaveholder traded in men and women whom he never saw, and of whose separations, tears, and miseries he determined never to hear. The great consolatory doctrine that soothed the consciences both of Northern and Southern slaveholders was that the negro was unfit for any other condition than that of slavery ; incapable of culture, education, and self -guidance, and therefore, both North and South, efforts to educate him aroused special opposition and resistance. One of the leaders in this Canterbury affair expressed briefly the sense of the whole pro-slavery party North and South : " We are not merely opposed to that school. We mean that there shall never be such a school set up anywhere in our State. The colored people never can rise from a menial condition in this country ; they ought not to be permitted to rise here. They are an inferior race of beings, and never can or ought to be recognized as the equals of the whites. Let the niggers be sent back to Africa, and there improve themselves as much as they may. The condition of the colored population of our country can never be essentially improved on this continent." This was the vital point of the conflict, briefly stated. The abolitionists set themselves, therefore, to the education of the black race. Oberlin College, founded in 1835, in Oberlin, Ohio, was the first permanent endowed institution avowedly opened to give impartial privileges of education without regard to color. In our national capital a brave, heroic woman, named Myrtella Miner, consecrated her life to founding a school for the young colored women of the District of Columbia, who had hitherto been left to ignorance and 608 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. vice. Miss Miner wore out her strength and shortened her life in this cause, but the school she founded still exists, and is doing a good work in Washington. In memory of her heroism the ladies' hall in Howard University is called Miner Hall. Let her memory be blessed ! In 1855 John G. Fee, the son of a Kentucky slaveholder, founded in the little village of Berea, in Madison County, Kentucky, a school in which white and colored were to be admitted to equal privi- leges. Young Fee renewed in his experience the virtues and the perse- cutions of the primitive Christians. For preaching the duty of emancipation and the sinfulness of slavery in his native State, he was disinherited by his father. His whole private patrimony he expended in redeeming a slave woman, whom his father had sold away from her husband into Southern bondage. The woman was a member of the same Christian church with himself. Her ransom left to Fee only a pittance for self-support, and he became a mis- sionary under the care of the American Missionary Society, a so- ciety formed on expressly antislavery principles. In his labors young Fee encountered the fury of mob-violence. Two or three times he was seized, his colored assistant brutally flogged before his eyes, and himself, with rope adjusted round his neck, threatened with hanging, unless he pledged himself to abandon his enterprise and leave the State. With Christian calmness he kneeled down, saying : " I can bear any suffering, but I will give no such pledges " ; and to-day Berea College, with an endowment of between eighty and one hundred thousand dollars, is the monument of his perseverance. Thus we have seen that until the time of the late war the condi- tion of the African race in these States was, for the most part, a condition of hopeless bondage to ignorance. The efforts for their education were a few twinkling, scattered stars in a night of ray- less darkness. Here we must not omit to do justice to a large class of conscien- tious Christians among the Southern slaveholders, who felt deeply and oppressively their responsibility to their slaves, and labored sincerely to impart instruction to them within the limits allowed by law. Occasionally individuals were found who took upon them- selves the responsibility of disregarding the penalties of law, and teaching their slaves to read and write ; but, in the very nature of the case, such instances were exceptional. Yet undoubtedly the kindly relations engendered between servants and masters and mis- THE EDUCATION OF FEEEDMEN. 609 tresses, in these efforts to impart Christian instruction, were the reason why there was no painful uprising or insurrection attending the war. Christianity, however imperfectly apprehended, was a bond of peace between masters and servants. At last came the war, and in the beginning of that conflict the best political friends of the African race, the antislavery Presi- dent and Cabinet, and all concerned in the Government, took pains to affirm that emancipation was no part of the object or intention of that war. But it soon became evident that the liberation of the slave was the, object and intention of " Him that ruleth in the armies of heaven." The cause of the African was pleaded according to his fashion who hath said, "By fire and sword will the Lord plead with all flesh, and the slain of the Lord shall be many." The time came when the nation was forced into emancipation as a war measure, and, having liberated the slave, she enrolled him in her armies. Having done this, the national honor became pledged to the protection of the race thus set free, and the right of suffrage and the provisions of the civil-rights bill followed as a necessary consequence. For years patriots, statesmen, conscientious and Christian men, had toiled and agonized over the inscrutable problem, How could slavery be abolished without ruin to the country ? Madison, Jef- ferson, Washington, all had their schemes all based on the idea that after emancipation it would be impossible for the whites and the blacks to live harmoniously together. Sudden emancipa- tion was spoken of as something involving danger, bloodshed, and violence ; and yet, as no one could propose a feasible system of preparation, the drift of the Southern mind had come to be toward indefinite perpetuation and extension. Our emancipation was forced upon us it was sudden ; it gave no time for preparation, and our national honor forced us to give, not only emancipation, but the rights and defenses of citizenship. This was the position in which the war left us. We had four million new United States citizens in our Union, without property, without education, with such morals as may be inferred from the legal status in which they had been kept ; they were surrounded by their former white owners, every way embittered toward them, and in no wise disposed to smooth their path to liberty and competence. That in such a sudden and astounding change there should have been struggle and conflict ; that the reconstruction of former slave 610 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. States, in such astonishingly new conditions of society, should have been with some difficulty, wrath, and opposition ; that there should have been contentions, mistakes, mismanagements, and plenty of undesirable events to make sensation articles for the daily press, was to be expected. But wherever upon God's earth was such an unheard-of revolu- tion in the state of human society accomplished with so little that was to be deprecated ? For in this year, 1878, certain propositions of very great signifi- cance bear assertion, and can be maintained by ample proof : 1. The cotton crop raised by free labor is the largest by some millions that ever has been raised in the United States. That set- tles the question as to the free-labor system. 2. The legal status of the negro is universally conceded as a finality by the leading minds of the South. 3. The common-school system has been established throughout the Southern States, and recognized in theory by the wisest South- ern men as to be applied impartially to whites and blacks. 4. All of the large religious denominations are conducting edu- cational movements among the f reedmen on a large scale. There are scattered through the Southern States, under the patronage of differentd enominations, thirty-nine chartered and endowed institu- tions for the higher education of colored people as teachers, minis- ters, physicians, farmers, and mechanics. Besides these, there are sixty-nine schools of a lower grade. It is calculated that in the last sixteen years twenty million dollars has been contributed and in- vested in the work of educating the freedmen. 5. Leading and influential men at the South are in many cases openly patrons of these educational efforts. Several of these insti- tutions have been generously assisted by the States in which they are founded. The last reports of all these institutions represent them as in a successful and flourishing condition. 6. The colored race is advancing in material wealth and pros- perity. The bounds of an article are too limited for the abundance of proof that might be cited under these heads. "We shall do our best to select from this abundance, and in the first place we shall consider what is being done for the education of the colored race by the common-school system. In 1867 Congress created a National Bureau of Education in Washington, to collect statistics upon education and diffuse such THE EDUCATION OF FREEDMEN. 611 information as shall aid the citizens of the United States in the establishment and maintenance of efficient school systems. The first report of the Commissioner, in 1870, contains this passage (p. 13) : The information contained in the accompanying papers, in regard to edu- cation in the States where emancipation has lately taken effect, contains fea- tures in marked distinction from those where freedom has been longer uni- versal. It is gratifying that slavery exists nowhere any longer in the land, to close the door effectually against universal education. It is gratifying to observe the avidity with which those lately slaves have sought the primer and the means of higher instruction. It is gratifying to know that the large- hearted Peabody and many benevolent associations have done so much to facilitate and encourage education among all classes in the South. It is gratifying to reflect that the Government, through the Freedman's Bureau, has accomplished results so vast in this direction, being able to show that in July last, in day- and night-schools, regularly and irregularly reported, 11ft,- 581 pupils had been in attendance. It is gratifying to know that under the restoration policy of Congress the reorganized State governments have adopt- ed Constitutions making obligatory the establishment and conduct of free public schools for all the children of school age, and that laws have been enacted and the work of education so generally commenced under them, or- ganizing superintendence, employing teachers, and building schoolhouses, introducing here and there the germs of systems which have been tried else- where and proved most successful. The report then goes on to mention each Southern State in detail, from which it appears that a movement for common schools had been set on foot in every one of the Southern States, but was meet- ing with active and powerful resistance. It was a new movement ; the States were all poor, embarrassed by the results of the war, and little disposed to submit to any tax for that purpose, and, as usual, those were most opposed who most needed education. The report of 1871 shows the same conflict. It reports an earnest desire on the part of the colored people for education, and in many sections a blind prejudice against any efforts to give it to them. The work of building schoolhouses for the colored people and of supporting teachers was divided between the Freedman's Bureau and the vari- ous religious bodies whose missionaries were in the field. Thus we see that the difficulty of securing common-school pro- vision for the colored population was only part and parcel of the objection to the common-school system itself in the Southern States. The men who have gallantly fought that battle for the whites were the wisest, the most enlightened in their several States, and were 612 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. fully sensible of the need of education for the colored race ; but they had first to conquer the prejudices of an unenlightened commu- nity against any system of common-school instruction. In Febru- ary, 1878, a Southern Educational Convention was held in Atlanta, Georgia, with a view to memorializing Congress for aid in popular education. Over a hundred delegates from the eight following States were present, viz., Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Missouri. A noticeable paragraph in the memorial is the following : Resolved, That as the educational laws of the several States represented by us make no discriminations in favor of or against the children of any class of citizens, and as those charged with the administration of these laws have endeavored, in the past, to have them carried into effect impartially, so do we pledge ourselves to use our influence to secure even-handed justice to all classes of citizens in the application of any educational funds provided by the national Government. In another part of their memorial they say : In the altered condition of society, brought about by the late war, every man is a voter; and the safety of republican institutions depends upon ex- tending to the masses the benefits of education. On the ground of the large addition of population to be taught in the persons of the freedmen, and of the losses by depreciation of property consequent on the war, they ask for a larger government- al aid than would be given to the settled Northern States. What is to be noticed in this appeal is, that it fully assumes on the part of these States the duty of giving equal school privileges to all children of the State, without regard to color or condition. In short, in regard to this branch of the subject, our conviction, based on an examination of the yearly reports submitted to the National Bureau, is that, in the main, the leaders of State education at the South have been well disposed to the colored race ; that in theory they regard them entitled to an equal share in State education, and have extended it to them in practice so far as the means have been in their power. We come now to consider what has been done for the freedmen by the Christian Church in America. Very early in the war it was decided to receive and protect fugitive slaves, and our armies became cities of refuge for them. " Their advance," says a writer, " was a signal for a rally of slaves from all the country round ; they flocked in upon the line of march THE EDUCATION OF FREEDMEN. 613 by bridle-paths and across fields old men on crutches, babies on their mothers' backs, women wearing cast-off blue jackets of Yankee cavalry -men, boys in abbreviated trousers of rebel gray some- times lugging a bundle of household goods, sometimes riding an old mule borrowed from * massa,' but of tener empty-handed, with nothing whatever to show for a lifetime of unrewarded toil. But they were free ! And with what swinging of ragged hats, and tumult of rejoicing hearts, and fervent ' God bless you ! ' they greeted their deliverers ! " The year of jubilee, for which they had prayed and waited so many years, was come ! In time, four million of these bondmen were made free by the war power. The same writer from whom we have quoted thus sketches their condition : " They were homeless, penniless, igno- rant, improvident ; unprepared in every way for the dangers and duties of freedom. Self-reliance they never had had the opportu- nity to learn, and, suddenly left to shift for themselves, they were at the mercy of knaves ready to cheat them out of their honest earnings. They had been kept all their lives in a school of immo- rality, so that even church-membership was no evidence that one was not a thief, a liar, or a libertine." Their former masters were so impoverished by their emancipa- tion and other losses of the war that they had little ability ; and . were so exasperated that they had less disposition to help them. But poor, ignorant, and simple as this emancipated mass were, they differed in one respect from the masses liberated by the French Revolution, and from all other suddenly liberated masses of which we have read in history. Their enthusiasm and impulse was not for plunder or for revenge, or for drink, or any form of animal indulgence, but for education. They rushed not to the grog- shop but to the schoolroom they cried for the spelling-book as for bread, and pleaded for teachers as a necessary of life. This enthusi- asm to learn on the part of the liberated slaves was met by an equal enthusiasm to teach on the part of Northern Christians. Every religious denomination sent its teachers Unitarians and Orthodox were here of one heart and mind, and their teachers followed the course of the armies, and penetrated wherever they could find pro- tection. Long before the war closed, there were teachers and schools in our camps and in all the region where our armies pro- tected the settlements of fugitive slaves. The nation took these people as her wards, and appointed a Freedman's Bureau to superintend their affairs to regulate their vol. cxxviii. no. 271. 40 6X4 TEE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. wages and work, and to provide for them schoolrooms, schools, and teachers. We have before us, through the kkdness of General Howard, a volume of the reports of this Bureau from January, 1866, to July 1, 1870. The first report says : " The desire of the freedmen for knowl- edge has not been overstated. Their freedom has given a wonder- ful stimulus to all effort, indicating a vitality that augurs well for their future." The report goes on to say that " all classes, even those advanced in life, are beginning the alphabet coming to evening and Sabbath schools, and may be seen along railroads, or off duty, as servants on steamboats, or in hotels, earnestly studying their spelling-books. Regiments of colored soldiers are all improving and learning and the officers deserve great respect for their efforts for the education of their men. The 128th U. S. Colored Troops, at Beaufort, were found gathered into school in a neat camp schoolhouse, erected by the regiment, and taught by regularly detailed teachers from the line officers the colonel commanding superintending the arrange- ments with deep interest." The report goes through each Southern State in detail, giving an account in each of the general educational revival. One passage is specially noticeable : " Through the entire South efforts are being made by the col- ored people to 'educate themselves? In the absence of teachers, they are determined to be self-taught, and everywhere some element- ary book, or fragments of it, may be seen in the hands of negroes. They communicate to each other that which they learn, and with very little learning many take to teaching. Not only are individuals seen at study under the most untoward circumstances, but in many places I have found native schools, often rude and imperfect, but there they are, a group of all ages trying to learn. Some young man or woman, some old preacher, in cellar, shed, or corner of negro meet- ing-house, with spelling-book in hand, is their teacher. . . . Again," says the reporter, " I saw schools of higher order at Goldsboro, North Carolina ; two young colored men, who but a little time before had begun to learn themselves, had gathered one hundred and fifty pupils, all quite orderly and hard at study." The report also speaks of schools taught by colored men at Charleston, Savan- nah, and New Orleans. One in the latter city, he says, would bear comparison with any Northern school ; he says that in this school very creditable specimens of writing were shown, and all the older THE EDUCATION OF FREEDMEN. 615 classes could recite or read fluently both in French and English. This was a free school wholly supported by colored people. He says that he gave special pains to ascertaining facts upon this sub- ject, and reports that schools of this kind exist in all the large places, and were making their appearance through the entire South- ern country. The Superintendent of Schools in South Carolina as- sured him that there was no place of any size where such a school was not attempted by the colored people. He remarks, in conclu- sion: "This is a wonderful state of things. We have just emerged from a terrific war peace is not yet declared, there is scarcely a beginning of reorganized society at the South yet here is a people long imbruted by slavery and the most despised of any on earth, whose chains are no sooner broken than they spring to their feet, an exceeding great army, clothing themselves with intelligence. What other people have shown such a passion for education ? " It must be borne in mind that this is a report in 1866 in the very incipiency of the enterprise. These semi-annual reports to the Freedman's Bureau contain a most wonderful and interesting his- tory of their progress toward education and competence. In the last report of the Freedman's Bureau, which closed in 1870, they speak of 247,000 children under systematic instruction, with 9,307 teachers and 4,239 schools. They also record in the Freedman's Savings Bank, the total deposits of freedmen, from 1866 to 1870, as $16,960,336.62. Haeeiet Beechee Stowe. V. SECRET MISSIONS TO SAN DOMINGO, In response to reiterated urgent appeals from the Republic of San Domingo for recognition by the United States Government and for protection against the attacks of its next neighbor, the Republic of Hayti, President Polk's Cabinet in the spring of 1846 resolved to send out an agent who should report upon the condition of the Dominican Republic socially, industrially, and politically, its naval and military forces, and the real value of certain privileges which the Dominicans were willing to accord to the Government and citi- zens of the United States. This honorable commission having been intrusted to me, I in April sailed from Pensacola in the United States brig Porpoise, and on May 6th we dropped anchor off the ancient city of San Domingo. The commander of the Porpoise, Lieutenant Hunt, fired a salute in honor of the Dominican flag, and soon we were boarded by a ragged officer from the castle, who came to borrow the powder necessary for a response. Our first duty was to pay a visit to the President, General Pedro Santanna, a light mulatto about forty years of age, who received us in his shirt-sleeves, with a bandana handkerchief bound round his head, nor did he appear to be in the least disconcerted by the splen- dor of our uniforms. Only a few years before, San Domingo had been visited by Mr. Hogan, who, like myself, had been sent to report on the state of the country, and President Santanna was much surprised that our Gov- ernment should now send another commissioner on the same errand. However, his Excellency promised to give me every facility for traveling over the island, and regretted the inability of his Govern- ment to bear the expense ; "but," said he, "we have no money." Indeed, the Dominican finances were in a deplorable condition. The small amount of specie in the country was in the hands of Jews. The currency consisted of paper and copper tokens, and twenty SECRET MISSIONS TO SAN DOMINGO. 617 paper dollars were equivalent to one in silver. Whenever the Gov- ernment wished to pay off its debts, it would raise the price of cop- per coin. Directly afterward copper would fall and paper would be in the ascendant. Those speculators who were informed of the secrets of the Treasury made money by both of these operations, but the mass of the people were always sufferers. Everywhere were to be seen evidences of the abject poverty to which the people were reduced ; their once flourishing commerce had been annihilated ; education was a farce ; and even the ceremonial of their religion had fallen into neglect. Horses were needed for my proposed expedition, but with the best endeavors I only succeeded in procuring five sorry beasts, not over forty-four inches in height in fact, not much larger than good- sized mastiffs. The price paid for these animals was, in appearance, exorbitantly high twenty-five hundred dollars currency for the lot and the transaction reminded me of the stories told of our grand- fathers going to market with a basketful of Continental money. One of my horses was burdened with the currency requisite to pay my daily expenses. I had thousands in one-dollar notes, each the size of a sheet of commercial note-paper. But this large sum, when re- duced to its real value, amounted only to seven hundred and twenty- five Spanish dollars, which, however, I found to be in excess of my wants ; and I was even enabled to indulge in all the luxuries afford- ed by the wayside inns bananas, yams, ginger, tea, and occasionally an egg. A detailed account of my peregrinations through the Dominican Republic would be instructive, while many of the ludicrous inci- dents would require the humor of a Mark Twain to do them jus- tice ; but my space is limited, and I can deal only in generalities. From its historical associations the city of San Domingo is one of the most interesting in the New World, and Irving and other writers have invested it and its surroundings with an air of romance. But, for those who see it in its present condition, unless their imagi- native faculty is strongly developed, the romance appears to have vanished. The great cathedral, commenced in 1514 by Diego Columbus, in which the ashes of the great navigator once rested, still remains, besides ten or twelve churches and chapels ; and the ruins of the Jesuit College, of the palace of Diego Columbus, and of the convent of San Francisco, to this day attest their former grandeur. The outer walls of the city are a fine specimen of Spanish engi- 618 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. neering, though allowed to go to ruin, and the sea-wall, with its once imposing line of guns, must have bidden defiance in the olden time to many a hostile squadron, though it could not resist the at- tack of Drake, who nearly destroyed it in 1586. Good houses are few and far between, the streets are ill paved and hardly safe after nightfall, and the people, sunk in poverty, are only interesting from the humility with which they bear their mis- fortunes. So much for the city of to-day. The harbor of Osima, once the emporium of an important com- merce with,Spain, now has not water enough to admit a ship of war, and is accessible only to very small merchant vessels. Before leaving the city for the interior, I received the following communication from the Dominican Secretary of State, who did all in his power to facilitate my investigations : J5anto Domingo, May 14, 1846. Sir : I have received your note of the 14th inst., in which you request a passport to travel through the interior of our republic. . . . My government not only is disposed to grant the passport you have soli- cited, but also charges me to perform whatsoever you may esteem necessary to the success of your enterprise ; and accordingly we offer you a guide to accompany you. . . . As one of the objects of your Government is to inform themselves of the disposition of this Government and people with respect to friendly and com- mercial relations between the two countries, the undersigned is authorized to inform you that, inasmuch as this Government has no other desire than to see the advancement of the country in the path of civilization, they will neg- lect no means compatible with the national honor to obtain the closest rela- tions with all civilized people, and above all with those who, on account of their physical position and their political institutions, are apparently des- tined to form only one family ; and as regards the people you can judge from your own observation their good feelings and their morality. God preserve you many years ! [Signed] Ricabdo MnrcA. To D. D. Pobteb, Commissioner from the Government of the United States. On the 15th of May, 1846, 1 left the historical city of San Do- mingo, accompanied by an officer of the Government as guide, as far as the town of Azua, and a muleteer to take care of my animals, and with the prospect of hearing nothing from home until I arrived at Porto Plata, on the north side of the island, where the Porpoise was to call for me in one month's time in case I did not join her earlier at Samana Bay. There was a very small specimen of a newspaper published in SECRET MISSIONS TO SAN DOMINGO. 619 the city, but no post to cany it through the country, and therefore I was not likely to be much edified by the press, whose motto might well have been, " Here no one writes because no one reads, and no one reads because no one writes." In fact, to all intents and pur- poses, I was penetrating an unknown region, where nothing from the outside world would be likely to reach me even at the stopping- places on my route. Once outside the city walls, I plunged into a wild, uncultivated country, dotted with the ruins of once flourishing haciendas which attested the wealth and magnificence of the old hidalgos. Here the followers of Columbus and their descendants had lived in luxury and state, but now there was nothing to mark the site of their once splendid abodes but shapeless heaps of stones. A few miles from the city we crossed the Hayni and the Nigua Rivers, two small streams. In one of them we saw two mulatto boys washing out gold the only sign of human life visible in the country around. Their gleanings for the day amounted in value to perhaps twenty-five cents, but it was gold, and with them that was a paramount consideration, for this mixed Spanish race seem to inherit the mania for the precious metals from their Castilian pro- genitors. Along the banks of these rivers fluttered flocks of birds of gor- geous plumage, and numerous wild fowl swam so near our horses as we forded the streams that I could have shot them with my pistol, for the natives having no guns do not molest them, and birds of all kinds are consequently quite tame. The few people residing along the road were negroes of the lower order, who lounged at the entrances to their reed huts, too indolent to cultivate the fertile soil on which they dwelt. Yams and bananas were supplied by nature ; each family pos- sessed a few pigs, a goat or two afforded them milk, the bread-fruit tree furnished shade and the staff of life, and the flower of the fur- tree material for mattresses. The people were cleanly in person and courteous in manner, and with Spanish hyperbole "placed every- thing they owned in the world at our disposal " ; but the perform- ance did by no means square with the profession. Toward evening we reached San Christoval, twenty-five miles from San Domingo. I rode up to the quarters of the commanding officer of the troops of the district, an ancient negro, to whom I delivered my circular letter of introduction from President San- tanna. 620 THE NORTE AMERICAN REVIEW. The General scrutinized the document very carefully, examined the seal a dozen times, and at length shouted lustily for his secre- tary, Don Jose Brune, who rushed on the scene in a state of undress befitting the climate, followed by the regiment of six soldiers and the sentry on guards, The whole command now strove in vain to decipher the letter, and after an hour had passed the document was stuck in the sentry's hat-band, while the General disappeared to take his siesta. I took possession of his front room, and was soon fast asleep in my hammock, closely watched by the sentry, the first duty, no doubt? that he had performed for an indefinite period. The old General was, no doubt, much put out by my coming, be- cause it interfered with the trial of a lawsuit which he had taken out of the hands of an alcalde. The subject of litigation was a tres- pass committed by a poor old donkey, and, from what I saw of the mode of meting out justice by the military authorities on the occa- sion, I concluded that Coke and his precedents would be considered superfluous in this part of the world. At daylight next morning, I started to visit the mines of San Christoval, twenty-six miles from the town. After a brisk ride of five hours we reached a settlement called Tabblasso, where I was hospi- tably entertained by the natives. Wandering rather incautiously into the forest, I was attacked by five dogs, and so roughly used by them that it was three days before I was able to travel, my wounds being in the mean time dressed with leaves and roots from the woods, according to the medical system of the people. These dogs afford one of the principal means of livelihood for the natives in the interior of San Domingo, who depend largely upon the flesh of the wild boar for food. I was present at one boar-hunt near Tabblasso, where forty dogs overcame a huge boar with tusks as sharp as knives. The animal squealed as lustily as any other of the pig family, and I knew from sad experience exactly how he felt. It took five hours of hard riding to bring us to the mine of San Christoval. This is the only copper mine I visited while on the island, though I passed near several others of note. All these mines are reputed to be of great value. That of San Christoval possesses ore veins of considerable extent, and from seven to four- teen feet in thickness, which yield to the blowpipe from thirty to forty per cent, of pure copper. Gold has been found in the copper in sufficient quantity, it is asserted, to pay for working the mines. The only mode of transporting the product to San Domingo SECRET MISSIONS TO SAN DOMINGO. 621 (twenty-five miles distant) would be by panniers on the backs of mules. The copper mine in the mountain of Maimon is spoken of as the finest in the Antilles the ore yielding from forty to eighty per cent, of pure copper, and there are many other mines of this metal in good repute ; in fact, the island is filled with minerals. It was with regret that I bade adieu to the little valley of Tab- blasso, and, after a ride of eleven hours over a parched but fertile country, I reached Bani, fifty-five miles distant. The population of this district of San Christoval was, as near as I could ascertain, 7,000 souls, 3,960 of whom were women. One third of the popula- tion might pass for white, a somewhat larger proportion were mu- lattoes, and the remainder negroes of the most pronounced type, whom all authorities agreed in declaring to be anything but a blessing to the country. Some of the so-called whites are the proprietors of vast estates, extending from the seacoast on the south side to the river Yuna, comprising rich alluvial soil, covered with the choicest woods of the tropics, and valuable mineral lands. This land could have been bought at an average price of one cent an acre, and dear enough it was at that when we consider that it was constantly liable to the hostile incursions of the negroes from the west end of the island. The road over which I was now passing had shortly before been traversed by a Dominican army, who consumed nearly everything eatable on the route, so that we began to suffer greatly for want of food ; but we could get water, and occasionally a few bananas, and so we managed to ward off starvation until we arrived at Azua, on the 24th of May, after eight days of the hardest riding I ever ex- perienced. "We passed through several pleasant villages on the way Bani, with a hundred inhabitants ; Paya, with three hundred ; and sev- eral times crossed the beautiful Nisao River. All this country is famous for its dye-woods, and its mahogany is the finest in the world ; but quantities of these valuable products are going to decay for want of means to convey them to the coast. On reaching Azua our first care was to get something to eat, our next to purchase a new supply of horses, for the old set were worn out, not having been properly attended to by my worthless mulatto muleteer, who merited and would have received a sound threshing at my hands, had such a proceeding comported with the dignity of a United States commissioner. 622 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. The village of Azua is beautifully situated in the bight of the great bay of Neyles, in whose harbors the navies of the world might ride. A large trade in mahogany is carried on at this place, and the surrounding country has many fine plantations, producing sugar-cane, bananas, etc. From Azua I traveled westward for some days, but, finding that my natives were breaking down under the difficulties of the road, I returned on my course, and took the path from Azua across the mountains of Maniel, which rise 2,000 feet above the sea, and which were supposed to be impassable for horses. I made the entire march over these mountains on foot, literally working my passage, for in some instances the horses had to be hoisted over declivities. If there was any road, our guide would not show it, for the Domini- cans look upon the Maniel range as their Gibraltar, in case they should be overcome at all other places by the Haytians. In fact, a Leonidas would not require more than his three hundred to hold these heights against a mighty army. Five hundred Haytiens once tried to force the passage, and were slaughtered almost to a man. The village of Maniel is situated on a fertile plateau of many thousand acres, producing every article of commerce to be found in the island, and, from its height above the sea, enjoying a delightful climate, averaging in the month of May 75 at noon, and not over 60 Fahr. at night. Here the people lived in perfect comfort, and in as high a grade of civilization as is usually to be found in the interior of a West India Island, or as could be expected where there is an almost total lack of education. After a sojourn of three days at this secluded place, I started on the 30th of May to go up, up, up, over the Lomas Kemados. The painful and toilsome journey over these hills a feat seldom at- tempted by white men, and dreaded by the hardiest natives I shall never forget. In three days I had accomplished the task, crossing the Banilejos, -a rapid stream, fifty-six times in a heavy rainstorm. My horses were under water a dozen times, and once we were carried over the rapids and had to swim for our lives. The river-bed was' the only road, and we had often to pass from one side to the other to avoid deep water, and to obtain a footing for the horses. Such is traveling in San Domingo. My fiat currency got extremely wet, in common with everything else; so I halted at a deserted hut in the forest, and spread it out to dry, to the amazement of flocks of paroquets, which hopped about and seemed astonished at the sight of so much wealth. SECRET MISSIONS TO SAN DOMINGO. 623 The country through which I then was toiling is as much a terra incognita to-day as it was three centuries ago. The native who is compelled to force his way through these wilds gladly bids adieu to the gloomy forests when once he has left them behind, nor does he trouble his head about their resources. The wealth in these hills is, however, illimitable, the fertility of the valleys unsurpassed, and thousands might here enjoy a degree of luxury unknown to the greater portion of mankind. Oranges, plantains, bananas, coffee, cocoa, all grow wild. The cotton-bush, yielding cotton of the nan- king tint so much prized in China, is frequently met with. There are over forty different trees producing woods fit for furniture and joiner-work, and coal crops out at many points from the hillsides. All that is needed is American energy and industry. It would be tedious to recount all the difficulties and dangers I met in the mountains, but I finally reached the valley of the river Maimon late at night, and took up my quarters in a hut inhabited by fourteen negroes, who gave me space to swing my hammock. On awaking next morning I found to my horror that I had been sleeping in a hut inhabited by lepers, and, although I had had no- thing substantial to eat for twenty-four hours, I rushed out of the hovel, and, calling to my muleteer to follow with the animals, I swam across the river in my haste to get as far from the frightful disease as possible. After I had gone ten miles I was overtaken by one of the negroes whom I had so unceremoniously quitted. He brought me my gold watch, which in the hurry of my departure I had left hanging on a nail in the hut ; which proves that a man may be a leper and yet be honest. The next day, after a toilsome ride, I reached the gold mines of Maimon, which I had come a good deal out of my way to examine. I saw no evidence that these mines had ever been worked ex- cept by digging into the sides of the mountain, the depth of the excavations in no case exceeding ten feet, by a width of twenty feet. There were no shafts sunk and no machinery, and I could learn nothing on the spot concerning the former yield or the history of the mine, although there were marvelous reports of the amount that had been realized here ; when no one could say. No doubt in the first settlement of the island the Spaniards ex- tracted a considerable quantity of gold from these mines by pressing the poor Indians into service and working them to death. The work must have been of the crudest kind mere surface-digging 624 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. yet we are informed that single masses of ore, one containing $3,600 worth of gold, another $4,280 worth, and many smaller speci- mens, were sent to Europe. It is asserted that during the adminis- tration of the Spaniards the yield of gold from two mines in the department of Buenaventura amounted to 81,150,000 yearly ; but the mines of San Domingo have doubtless never been fairly worked, and would yield more to systematic and scientific exploitation than the Spaniards ever realized by their crude and wasteful methods. Of the other gold mines of the island I can give no account. They are mentioned by the various historians ; and Charlevoix, in parti- cular, declares that several districts of the island abound in gold and silver, and indeed minerals of all kinds, which is doubtless the fact, as we may infer from the geological formation of the country. I have seen quantities of coal cropping out of the ground, and iron mines enough to supply the West Indies if they could be made accessible. At the house of the proprietor of the gold mines, who is at the same time the owner of large estates on the Maimon River, with herds of cattle and every comfort in life, I obtained the first sub- stantial meal I had eaten since leaving the city of San Domingo. After partaking of this feast I pursued my journey, along the banks of the Maimon until I branched off on the road to Cotuy, through one of the loveliest countries I ever beheld, and struck the Yuna River, which disembogues into the gulf of Samana after innumer- able windings through rich valleys, including the district of La Vega, known to the Spaniards as the garden-spot of the island. With little labor this river could be cleared of its obstructions, and small steamers and flatboats could transport to the sea the im- mense quantities of coffee, sugar, cotton, mahogany, copper, etc., which the region should produce, and a city would spring up in the gulf of Samana equal to any in the West Indies. I lingered as long as possible on the banks of this beautiful river, swinging my hammock at night under the wide-spreading mango-trees, and lulled to sleep by the murmuring waters. The banks of the Yuna abound in flowering plants that would set a botanist wild with delight, while flocks of paroquets, with their cheery notes, help to dispel the gloom of solitude. Sickness may be said to be unknown in this part of the country, as the prevailing breeze from the mountains seems to bring health upon its wings. What a climate for our invalids to visit ! Herds of cattle were frequently seen standing in the river shal- SECRET MISSIONS TO SAN DOMINGO. 625 lows. White Guinea fowl would fly over our heads by the hundred, with a whirr like the sound of a hurricane, and, as they alighted at a distance, much resembled snow-flakes driven by the wind. I have seen at least a thousand of these birds feeding together on the bor- der of the forest. One night I slung my hammock in a schoolhouse at Cotuy, re- ceiving the hospitality of the master who had no scholars and, though the accommodations were of the rudest description, the place seemed delightful after what I had just passed through a ride of sixty miles on a sorry horse. Next morning I was aroused by a tumult outside my lodgings, and, springing from my hammock, I was confronted by a throng of citizens, headed by the cura, who charged me with being a spy, and demanded to see my passports. I soon quieted the suspicions of these worthy people in a speech of the purest Castilian, and my elo- quence pleased them so much that they presented me with some yams and bananas, and, when I departed, escorted me some distance from their town. In fact, the people everywhere, when informed of my official character and the purport of my visit, treated me with the greatest kindness and consideration. It must not be supposed that I merely followed the highways in my journeyings. I started always on my day's march at 4 a. m., and generally averaged about two and a half miles an hour up to 4 p. m. ; but, after a long day's ride and an hour's rest and refresh- ment, I frequently mounted a fresh horse and scoured the country for miles around, guided by the natives, who were anxious to show me everything, until the approach of night reminded me that I must retrace my steps. In my travels there were few of the towns and villages of the Dominican Republic that I did not visit, and I took the census of every settlement through which I passed. From Cotuy my course was through the beautiful district of La Vega, so graphically described by Irving as the land of the Cacique Guarionex, who lived here with his tribe on a soil unsur- passed in fertility, from which they derived substantial treasures ; while the purblind Spanish adventurers, heedless of all wealth except the precious metals, wasted their lives in seeking rich placers and golden streams, and starved in the midst of plenty. As I traveled toward the gulf of Samana I sometimes followed the course of the Yuna, and sometimes crossed ranges of hills seven or eight hundred feet in height, sloping into beautiful valleys watered by the tributaries of the Yuna. That river, by the time THE NORTE AMERICAN REVIEW. it reaches Samaria Gulf, becomes quite a respectable stream, navi- gable for small vessels for some distance into the interior. Before I had arrived within sight of the gulf of Samana, two of my horses had died of exhaustion, and the rest were completely broken down. As for myself, what with swimming rapid streams, plunging through forests, falling among rocks, etc., my clothes were all in rags, and my limbs so swollen as to give me constant pain, and I had to wrap my feet in rawhide like the natives. It was absolutely necessary to retrace our steps, and after a toilsome journey I reached the little town of Maccoris, whence after recruiting and obtaining fresh horses I pushed on to Santiago, a pretty town of five thousand inhabitants, eighty miles from Porto Plata. From Santiago I traveled more than two hundred miles to different points in the La Vega district. Having finished this re- connaissance, I judged that I had accomplished the object of my mission, and had examined the country. The third day after my arrival at Santiago I came across a num- ber of " Galignani's Messenger," and read there an account of the opening of hostilities between the United States and Mexico, and the death of my brother, killed while searching for the body of Colonel Cross. I purchased the best horse to be procured, and next day set out for Porto Plata, eighty miles distant, which I reached in eighteen hours, stopping but twice on the road to refresh myself and horse. I arrived at Porto Plata on the 13th of June, one day later than the time appointed, having been constantly in the saddle over some of the roughest roads one can imagine, and having averaged nearly thirty miles a day, equal to eight hundred and seventy miles, with at least two hundred and fifty miles of detours additional. On my return home in the Porpoise from Porto Plata, I made a full report in duplicate one for the State and the other for the Navy Department but both of these disappeared from the depart- ments prior to the breaking out of our civil war in 1861. During President Pierce's Administration, an officer of engi- neers was sent to the gulf of Samana in the frigate Raritan to ex- amine into its adaptability for a naval depot and its capacity for defense. Mr. Jefferson Davis, the then Secretary of War, being a man of large views, no doubt saw the necessity to this country in the future of such a naval depot as the gulf of Samana, or he may have had other ideas which it is unnecessary now to surmise. SECRET MISSIONS TO SAN DOMINGO. 627 Soon after the Southern Confederacy assumed the form of a government, and began to fit out vessels to prey upon our com- merce, we had to prepare a set of fast cruisers to meet these priva- teers, for they could scarcely be termed ships of war ; and, as the Sumter was seizing our vessels in the West Indies, cruisers were sent in that direction. While Confederate vessels were allowed to obtain coal and pro- visions in all the- West India ports and to sail when it suited their convenience, our ships met with vexatious delays, and, if a Confed- erate vessel was in port, we were not allowed to sail until the enemy had been gone twenty-four hours, during which time the latter might destroy a million dollars' worth of property. I know how this system worked, for I chased the Sumter in a slow, old ship, for ten thousand miles, never being off her track, and always arriving in port a few hours after her departure. Had I not been detained purposely at every port but one where I coaled, I should have captured the Sumter at Para, where I ar- rived twenty hours after she sailed. There was a great sympathy everywhere for this Sumter, due probably to the prodigality with which the officers threw money about, but probably also it was due to the feeling which always ex- ists in favor of the weaker party. This feeling was worth more to the Confederates than tons of coal and miles of speed. St. Thomas was the only port in the West Indies where we were received on an equal footing with the Confederates ; in fact, the sym- pathy seemed there to be in our favor, if I could judge by the alacrity with which the necessary supplies were furnished to us, enabling us to pursue the Sumter without loss of time. The difficulties our ships encountered and the losses sustained by our citizens in the West Indies engaged the serious attention of the distinguished statesman who managed our foreign affairs during the civil war with such consummate ability. After the fall of the Confederacy, it occurred to Mr. Seward that the island of St. Thomas would be of great value to the United States in time of war as a naval depot where our vessels could procure coal and pro- visions without returning home. I had the honor to enjoy the confidence of Mr. Seward, and he consulted with me on this subject. I prepared the necessary charts and obtained all the requisite information to enable our Government to treat for the purchase of the island. When the matter was ar- ranged, Mr. Seward requested me to go out in a ship of war and take 628 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. possession of the new territory on behalf of the United States, but that duty I persuaded him to assign to Rear- Admiral Palmer. Congress readily voted the money for the purchase, and, had it not been for the terrible earthquake which occurred just at that moment and put an end to the negotiations, St. Thomas and all the contiguous islands would have been ours. Admiral Palmer's flagship was driven on shore by the mighty wave which rolled into the harbor of St. Thomas ; houses were thrown down, hillsides rent, and the wharves submerged ; even the character of the bottom of the harbor was changed ; and it was con- cluded that St. Thomas would be of no use to us. Mr. Seward, therefore, receded from the inchoate bargain just as a man declines to pay for a horse which tumbles in a fit while he is negotiating its purchase. The Danish Government found no fault with our action^ although naturally disappointed at not receiving the money, which was of more value to them than their far-distant colony. Shortly afterward the Swedish Government offered to the United States the island of St. Bartholomew, about a hundred miles to the windward of St. Thomas, almost as a free gift, with the proviso that a few old pensioners should be supported during their lives. After a full inquiry Mr. Seward declined the offer. St. Bartholo- mew has no ports, and vessels lying in the open roadstead could be easily destroyed by ships lying off the island. Mr. Seward was, however, bent upon obtaining in the West Indies a port of refuge for our ships of war and merchant vessels) and of all harbors in that quarter the gulf of Samana appeared to be in every respect the most eligible place for the purpose. It com- mands the Mona Passage, through which all American and European commerce passes on its way to the Caribbean Sea, Honduras, coast of Mexico, etc. The gulf and its harbors are perfectly healthy, with north winds and sea-breezes the year round. Then if we could obtain the isthmus of Samana .we should have entire control of a considerable extent of country and all the harbors on the north side of the gulf. Besides this, the Dominicans wanted us to have the place, and to manage the affairs of the island. As soon as Mr. Seward saw his way clear, he determined to send his son, the Hon. Frederick W. Seward, Assistant Secretary of State, and myself as Commissioners to purchase or lease the gulf of Sa- mana, together with the adjacent territory. In December, 1866, we embarked at Annapolis, Maryland, on board the U. S. S. Gettysburg, with full instructions and a large amount of SECRET MISSIONS TO SAN DOMINGO. 629 hard cash. A few minutes after leaving the dock the pilot ran the ship hard and fast on an oyster-bank ; the wind came out strongly from the north, and in a few hours a man could walk all around her. I therefore telegraphed for the IT. S. steamer Don, into which my passengers were transferred, and we got along well enough until off Cape Hatteras ; there we encountered a terrific gale, which tore the ship almost to piece^ and blew one of her masts over the side, where the iron rigging fouling the propeller rendered the Don almost a wreck. We managed to get back to Hampton Roads, and, meeting the Gettysburg coming down the bay, Mr. Seward and myself again embarked in her ; and, after a series of mishaps sufficient to dampen the ardor of the most enthusiastic dip- lomat, we cast anchor off the city of San Domingo. We at once opened negotiations with the Dominican authori- ties, giving them to understand that we had gold enough on board to redeem all their elastic currency. We told them that we wanted the gulf of Samana, including every harbor and all the isthmus, with such rights in the adjacent country as would insure the United States against any interference from the Dominican Government. In fact, we wanted all the Dominicans were willing to let us have. I am sorry to say that our mission was unsuccessful, though we were treated with the greatest courtesy ; and, when we shook the dust of the island off our feet and departed, tears stood in the eyes of the administration at the thought of so much specie being car- ried away which ought to have belonged to them. The obstacle in the way of our success seemed to be the fact that the Government of San Domingo had just emerged from a revolution, and a powerful party in the country was bitterly hostile to it. There were still many predatory bands that had not laid down their arms ; therefore the Dominican Government, although greatly in need of money, and desirous to have us for neighbors, did not dare to accept our proposition. We had no authority to offer the Government protection from foreign or domestic violence, and we could advance no money until the territory of Samana was made over absolutely to the United States. Mr. Seward, senior, was greatly disappointed, but never gave up the hope of finally accomplishing his purpose. In his project of acquiring territory in the West Indies he was fully sustained by many of his old colleagues in the Senate, to whom, no doubt, he had confided his views. Even Mr. Sumner, who so opposed the San Domingo idea of President Grant, ap- vol. cxxviii. no. 271. 41 630 TEE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. proved Mr. Seward's plan. Other statesmen, too, who had favored the purchase of St. Thomas, Samana, and Alaska, under the lead of Mr. Seward, afterward took opposite ground, for reasons which were doubtless satisfactory to themselves. President Grant was not slow in following Mr. Seward's initia- tive, and in endeavoring to obtain possession of the gulf of Samana. He fully understood its value as a naval and military station, and earnestly desired its acquisition ; besides, the President of the Do- minican Republic had laid before our Administration the advantages such a cession of territory would be not only to the United States but to his own country, which sadly needed money, and had no par- ticular use for Samana. My readers will doubtless recollect the bitter opposition Presi- dent Grant encountered in his patriotic desire to secure for this country a cession of territory that would be invaluable to us in case of war with a naval power, an opposition that could not be justified on reasonable grounds, but was to the last degree unwise, as, from my knowledge of the island and sentiments of the inhabitants, I am certain that it must necessarily become in the future a territory of the United States, unless, in contempt of the Monroe doctrine, we suffer it to fall into the clutches of some European power. I have merely glanced at what ought to be an interesting sub- ject to the people of the United States. A detailed account of the climate, resources, exports, natural history, etc., of San Domingo, would set young America to thinking on the matter of acquiring a foothold in the gulf of Samana. David D. Poetee. VI. SACRED BOOKS OF THE EAST. In order to have a solid foundation for a comparative study of the religions of the East, we must have, before all things, complete and thoroughly faithful translations of their sacred books. Extracts will no longer suffice. We do not know Germany, if we know the Rhine; nor Rome, when we have admired St. Peter's. No one who collects and publishes such extracts can resist, no one at all events, so far as I know, has ever resisted the temptation of giving what is beautiful, or it may be what is strange and startling, and leaving out what is commonplace, tedious, or it may be repulsive, or lastly, what is difficult to construe and to understand. AVe must face the problem in its completeness, and I confess it has been for many years a problem to me, ay, and to a great extent is so still, how the sacred books of the East should, by the side of so much that is fresh, natural, simple, beautiful, and true, contain so much that is not only unmeaning, artificial, and silly, but hideous and repellent. This is a fact, and must be accounted for in some way or other. To some minds this problem may seem to be no problem at all. To those, and I do not speak of Christians only, who look upon the sacred books of all religions except their own as necessarily the out- come of human or superhuman ignorance and depravity, the mixed nature of their contents may seem to be exactly what it ought to be, what they expected it would be. But there are other and more rev- erent minds who can feel a divine afflatus in the sacred books, not only of their own, but of other religions also, and to them the mixed character of some of the ancient sacred canons must always be ex- tremely perplexing. I can account for it to a certain extent, though not entirely to my own satisfaction. Most of the ancient sacred books have been handed down by oral tradition for many generations before they were consigned to writing. In an age when there was nothing cor- 632 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. responding to what we call literature, every saying, every proverb, every story handed down from father to son, received very soon a kind of hallowed character. They became sacred heirlooms; sacred because they came from an unknown source, from a distant age. There was a stage in the development of human society when the distance that separated the living generation from their grandfa- thers or great-grandfathers was, as yet, the nearest approach to a con- ception of eternity, and when the name of grandfather and great- grandfather seemed the nearest expression of God.* Hence, what had been said by these half -human, half- divine ancestors, if it was preserved at all, was soon looked upon as a more than human utter- ance. It was received with reverence, it was never questioned and criticised. Some of these ancient sayings were preserved because they were so true and so striking that they could not be forgotten. They contained eternal truths, expressed for the first time in human lan- guage. Of such oracles of truth it was said in India that they had been heard, sruta, and from it arose the word sruti, the recognized term for divine revelation in Sanskrit. But besides such utterandlfe which had a vitality of their own, strong enough to defy the power of time, there were others which might have struck the minds of the listeners with great force under the peculiar circumstances that evoked them, but which, when these circumstances were forgotten, became trivial and almost unintelli- gible. A few verses sung by warriors on the eve of a great battle would, if that battle proved victorious, assume a charm quite inde- pendent of their poetic merit. They would be repeated in mem- ory of the heroes who conquered, and of the gods who granted victory. But when the heroes, and the gods, and the victory which they gained were forgotten, the song of victory and thanksgiving would often survive as a relic of the past, though almost unintelli- gible to later generations. Even a single ceremonial act, performed at the time of a famine or an inundation, and apparently attended with a sudden and almost miraculous success, might often be preserved in the liturgical code of a family or a tribe with a superstitious awe entirely beyond our understanding. It might be repeated for some time on similar emergencies, till when it had failed again and again it survived only as a superstitious custom in the memory of priests and poets. * Bishop Callaway, " Unkulunkulu, or the Tradition of Creation, as existing among the Amazulu and other Tribes of South Africa," p. 7. SACRED BOOKS OF THE EAST. 633 Further, it should be remembered that, in ancient as in mod- ern times, the utterances of men who had once gained a certain pres- tige would often receive attention far beyond their merits, so that in many a family or tribe the sayings and teachings of one man, who had once in his youth or manhood uttered words of inspired wisdom, would all be handed down together, without any attempt to separate the grain from the chaff. Nor must we forget that though oral tradition, when once brought under proper discipline, is a most faithful guardian, it is not without its dangers in its incipient stages. Many a word may have been misunderstood, many a sentence confused, as it was told by father to son, before it became fixed in the tradition of a village community, and then resisted by its very sacredness all attempts at emendation. Lastly, we must remember that those who handed down the an- cestral treasures of ancient wisdom would often feel inclined to add what seemed useful to themselves, and what they knew could be preserved in one way only, namely, if it was allowed to form part of the tradition that had to be handed down, as* a sacred trust, from generation to generation. Thepriestly influence was at work, even before there were priests by profession, and, when the priest- hood had once become professional, its influence may account for much that would otherwise seem inexplicable in the sacred codes of the ancient world. These are a few of the considerations which may help to explain how, mixed up with real treasures of thought, we meet in the sacred books with so many passages and whole chapters which either never had any life or meaning at all, or, if they had, have, in the form in which they have come down to us, completely lost it. We must try to imagine what the Old Testament would have been, if it had not been kept distinct from the Talmud ; or the New Testament, if it had been mixed up, not only with the spurious gospels, but with the records of the wranglings of the early councils, if we wish to understand, to some extent at least, the wild confusion of sublime truth with vulgar stupidity that meets us in the pages of the Veda, the Avesta, and the Tripitfaka. The idea of keeping the original and genuine tradition separate from apocryphal accretions was an idea of later growth, that could spring up only after the earlier tendency of preserving whatever could be preserved of sacred or half -sacred lore had done its work, and wrought its own destruc- tion. 634 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. In using, what may seem to some of my fellow workers, this very strong and almost irreverent language with regard to the an- cient sacred books of the East, I have not neglected to make full allowance for that very important intellectual parallax which, no doubt, renders it very difficult for a Western observer to see things and thoughts under exactly the same angle and in the same light as they would appear to an Eastern eye. There are Western expres- sions which offend Eastern taste as much as Eastern expressions are apt to offend Western taste. A symphony of Beethoven's would be mere noise to an Indian ear, an Indian Sangita seems to us with- out melody, harmony, or rhythm. All this I fully admit, yet, after making every allowance for national taste and traditions, I still con- fidently appeal to the best Oriental scholars, who have not entirely forgotten that there is a world outside the four walls of their study, whether they think that my condemnation is too severe, or that Eastern nations themselves would tolerate, in any of their classical literary compositions, such violations of the simplest rules of taste as they have accustomed themselves to tolerate, if not to admire, in their sacred books. But then it might, no douj^t, be objected that books of such a character hardly deserve the honor of being translated into English, that the sooner they are forgotten the better. Such opinions have of late been freely expressed by some eminent writers, and sup- ported by arguments worthy of the Caliph Omar himself. In these days of anthropological research, when no custom is too disgusting to be recorded, no rules of intermarriage too complicated to be dis- entangled, it may seem strange that the few genuine relics of an- cient religion which, as by a miracle, have been preserved to us, should thus have been judged from a purely aesthetic, and not from an historical point of view. There was some excuse for this in the days of Sir W. Jones and Colebrooke. The latter, as is well known, considered "the Vedas as too voluminous for a complete translation of the whole," adding that " what they contain would hardly reward the labor of the reader, much less that of the translator." * The former went still further in the condemnation which he pronounced on Anquetil Duperron's translation of the Zend-avesta. Sir W. Jones, we must remember, was not only a scholar, but also a man of taste, and the man of taste sometimes gained a victory over the scholar. His controversy with Anquetil Duperron, the discoverer * Colebrooke's "Miscellaneous Essays," 1873, vol. ii., p. 102. SACRED BOOKS OF TEE EAST. 635 of the Zend-avesta, is well known. It was carried on by Sir W. Jones apparently with great success, and yet in the end the victor has proved to be the vanquished. It was easy, no doubt, to pick out from Anquetil Duperron's translation of the sacred writings of Zoroaster hundreds of passages which were, or seemed to be, utter- ly unmeaning or absurd. This arose partly, but partly only, from the imperfections of the translation. Mi*ch, however, of what Sir \Y. Jones represented as ridiculous, and therefore unworthy of Zo- roaster, and therefore unworthy of being translated, forms an in- tegral part of the sacred code of the Zoroast-rians. Sir W. Jones smiles at those who "think obscurity sublime and venerable, like that of ancient cloisters and temples, shedding," as Milton expresses it, "a dim religious light." * The sacred code of Zoroaster or of any other of the founders of religions may appear to us to be full of absurdities, or may in fact really be so, and it may yet be the duty of the scholar to publish, to translate, and carefully to examine those codes as memorials of the past, as the only trustworthy documents in which to study the growth and decay of religion. It does not answer to say that if Zoroaster was what we believe him to have been, a wise man, in our sense of the word, he could not Have written the rubbish which we find in the Avesta. If we are once satisfied that the text of the Avesta, or the Veda, or the Tripifaka is old and genuine, and that this text formed the foundation on which, during many centuries, the religious belief of millions of human beings was based, it becomes our duty, both as historians and philosophers, to study these books, to try to understand how they could have arisen, and how they could have exercised for ages an influence over human beings who in all other respects were not inferior to ourselves, nay, whom we are accustomed to look up to on many points as patterns of wisdom, of virtue, and of taste. Accurate, complete, and unembellished versions alone will enable historians and philosophers to form a true and just estimate of the real development of early religious thought, so far as we can still gain a sight of it in the literary records to which the highest humaa or even divine authority has been ascribed by the followers of the great religions of antiquity. It often requires an effort to spoil a beautiful sentence by a few words which might so easily be sup- pressed, but which are there in the original, and must be taken into account quite as much as the pointed ears in the beautiful Faun of * Sir W. Jones's "Works," vol. iv., p. 113. 636 TEE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. the Capitol. We want to know the ancient religions such as they really were, not such as we wish they should have been. We want to know, not their wisdom only, but their folly also ; and, while we must learn to look up to their highest points where they seem to rise nearer to heaven than anything we were acquainted with before, we must not shrink from looking down into their stony tracts, their dark abysses, their muddy moraines, in order to com- prehend both the height and the depth of the human mind in its searchings after the Infinite. There are philosophers who have accustomed themselves to look upon religions as things that can be studied as they study the manners and customs of savage tribes, by glancing at the entertain- ing accounts of travelers or missionaries, and then classing each religion under such wide categories as fetichism, polytheism, mono- theism, and the rest. That is not the case. Translations, it may be said, can do much, but they can never take the place of the originals, and if the originals require not only to be read, but to be read again and again, translations of sacred books require to be studied with much greater care, before we can hope to gain a real understanding of the intentions of their authors or venture on general assertions. Such general assertions, if once made, are difficult to extirpate. It has been stated, for instance, that " the religious notion of sin is wanting altogether in the hymns of the Rig-veda," and some impor- tant conclusions have been based on this supposed fact. Yet the gradual growth of the concept of guilt is one of the most interest- ing lessons which certain passages of these ancient hymns can teach us.* It has been asserted that in the Rig-veda Agni, fire, was adored essentially as earthly sacrificial fire, and not as an elemental force. How greatly such an assertion has to be qualified, may be seen from a more careful examination of the translations of the Vedic hymns now accessible.! In many parts of the A vest a the fire is no doubt spoken of with great reverence, but those who speak of the Zoroastrians as fire-worshipers should know that the true followers of Zoroaster abhor that very name. Again, there are certainly many passages in the Vedic writings which prohibit the promiscuous communication of the Veda ; but those who maintain that the Brahmans, like Roman Catholic priests, keep their sacred * M. M., " History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature," second edition, 1859, p. 540, seq. f Ludwig, "Rig-veda, iibersetzt," vol. iii., p. 331, seq. Mulr, "Sanskrit Texts,'' vol. v., p. 199, seq. On the later growth of Agni, see a very useful essay by Holtz- mann, " Agni, nach den Vorstellungen des Mahabharata," 1878. SACRED BOOKS OF THE EAST. 637 books from the people, must have forgotten the many passages in the Brahmarcas, the Sutras, and even in the Laws of Manu, where the duty of learning the Veda by heart is inculcated for every Brahma;ia, Kshatriya, Vaisya, that is, for every man except a udra. These are a few specimens only to show how dangerous it is to generalize even where there exist complete translations of certain sacred books. It is far easier to misapprehend, or even totally to misunderstand a translation than the original, and it should not be supposed, because a sentence or a whole chapter seems at first sight unintelligible in a translation, that therefore it is indeed devoid of all meaning. "What can be more perplexing than the beginning of the Kfikn- dogya-upanishad ? "Let a man meditate," we read, or, as others translate it, " Let a man worship the syllable Om." It may seem impossible at first sight to elicit any definite meaning from these words and from much that follows after. But it would be a mistake, nevertheless, to conclude that we have here only vox et prceterea nihil. Meditation on the syllable Om consisted in a long-continued repetition of that syllable with a view of drawing the thoughts away from all other subjects, and thus concentrating them on some higher object of thought of which that syllable was made to be the sym- bol. This concentration of thought, ekagrata or one-pointedness, as the Hindoos called it, is something to us almost unknown. Our minds are like kaleidoscopes of thoughts in constant motion, and to shut our mental eyes to everything else, while dwelling on one thought only, has become to most of us almost as impossible as to apprehend one musical note without harmonics. With the life we are leading now, with telegrams, letters, newspapers, reviews, pam- phlets, and books ever breaking in upon us, it has become impossi- ble, or almost impossible, ever to arrive at that intensity of thought which the Hindoos meant by ekagrata, and the attainment of which was to them the sine qua non of all philosophical and religious speculation. The loss may not be altogether on our side, yet a loss it is, and if we see the Hindoos even in their comparatively monoto- nous life, adopting all kinds of contrivances in order to assist, them in drawing away their thoughts from all disturbing impressions and to fix them on one subject only, we must not be satisfied with smiling at their simplicity, but try to appreciate the object they had in view. When by means of repeating the syllable Om, which originally 638 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. seems to have meant " that " or " yes," they had arrived at a certain degree of mental tranquillity, the question arose what was meant by this Om, and to this question the most various answers were given, according as the mind was to be led up to higher and higher objects. Thus in one passage we are told at first that Om is the beginning of the Veda, or, as we have to deal with an Upanishad of the Sama- veda, the beginning of the Sama-veda, so that he who meditates on Om may be supposed to be meditating on the whole of the Sama- veda. But that is not enough. Om is said to be the essence of the Sama-veda, which, being almost entirely taken from the Rig-veda, may itself be called the essence of the Rig-veda. And more than that. The Rig-veda stands for all speech, the Sama-veda for all breath or life, so that Om may be conceived again as the symbol of all speech and all life. Om thus becomes the name, not only of all our physical and mental powers, but especially of the living princi- ple, the Prana or spirit. This is explained by the parable in the second kha/ic?a, while in the third khac?a that spirit within us is identified with the spirit in the sun. He therefore who meditates on Om, meditates on the spirit in man as identical with the spirit in nature, or in the sun, and thus the lesson that is meant to be taught in the beginning of the JSTtandogya-upanishad is really this, that none of the Yedas with their sacrifices and ceremonies CQuld ever secure the salvation of the worshiper i. e., that sacred works per- formed according to the rules of the Vedas are of no avail in the end, but that meditation on Om alone, or that knowledge of what is meant by Om alone, can procure true salvation or true immor- tality. Thus the pupil is led on step by step to what is the highest object of the Upanishads viz., the recognition of the self in man as identical with the Highest Self or Brahman. The lessons which are to lead up to that highest conception of the universe, both sub- jective and objective, are no doubt mixed up with much that is superstitious and absurd ; still the main object is never lost sight of. Thus, when we come to the eighth khancfa, the discussion, though it begins with Om or the Udgitha, ends with the question of the origin of the world, and though the final answer namely, that Om means ether (akasa), and that ether is the origin of all things may still sound to us more physical than metaphysical, still the description given of ether or akasa shows that more is meant by it than the physical ether, and that ether is in fact one of the earlier and less perfect names of the Infinite, of Brahman, the universal Self. This, at least, is the lesson which the Brahmans themselves read in SACRED BOOKS OF TEE EAST. 639 this chapter ; * and if we look at the ancient language of the Upani- shads as representing mere attempts at finding expression for what their language could hardly express as yet, we shall I think be less inclined to disagree with the interpretation put on those ancient oracles by the later Vedanta philosophers, f or, at all events, hesi- tate before we reject what is difficult to interpret, as altogether devoid of meaning. This is but one instance to show that, even behind the fantastic and whimsical phraseology of the sacred writings of the Hindoos and other Eastern nations, there may be sometimes aspirations after truth which deserve careful consideration from the student of the psychological development and the historical growth of early reli- gious thought, and that, after careful sifting, treasures may be found in what at first we may feel inclined to throw away as utterly worthless. Let it not be supposed that a text, three thousand years old, or, even if of more modern date, still widely distant from our own sphere of thought, can be translated in the same manner as a book written a few years ago in French or German. Those who know French and German well enough, know how difficult, nay, how im- possible it sometimes is, to render justice to certain touches of ge- nius which the true artist knows how to give to a sentence. Many poets have translated Heine into English or Tennyson into German, many painters have copied the Madonna di San Sisto or the so-called portrait of Beatrice Cenci. But the greater the excellence of these translators, the more frank has been their avowal that the original is beyond their reach. And what is a translation of modern German into modern English compared with a translation of ancient Sanskrit or Zend or Chinese into any modern language ? It is an undertak- ing which, from its very nature, admits of the most partial success only; and a more intimate knowledge of the ancient language, so far from facilitating the task of the translator, renders it only more hopeless. Modern words are round, ancient words are square, and we may as well hope to solve the quadrature of the circle as to ex- * The Upanishad itself says : " The Brahman is the same as the ether which is around us ; and the ether which is around us is the same as the ether which is within us. And the ether whick is within, that is the ether within the heart. That ether in the heart is omnipresent and unchanging. He who knows this obtains omnipresent and unchangeable happiness." {Kh. Up. iii., 12, 7-9.) f Cf. Ved&nta-sutras i., 1, 22. 640 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. press adequately the ancient thoughts of the Veda in modern Eng- lish. We must not expect, therefore, that a translation of the sacred books of the ancients can ever be more than an approximation of our language to theirs, of our thoughts to theirs. The translator, however, if he has once gained the conviction that it is impossible to translate old thought into modern speech, without doing some violence either to the one or to the other, will hardly hesitate in his choice between two evils. He will prefer to do some violence to language rather than to misrepresent old thoughts, by clothing them in words which do not fit them. If, therefore, the reader finds some of these translations rather rugged, if he meets with expressions which sound foreign, with combinations of nouns and adjectives such as he has never seen before, with sentences that seem too long or too abrupt, let him feel sure that the translator has had to deal with a choice of evils, and that, when the choice lay between sacri- ficing idiom or truth, he has chosen the smaller evil of the two. I shall give one instance only. One of the most important words in the ancient philosophy of the Brahmans is Atman, nom. sing. Atma. It is rendered in our dictionaries by " breath, soul, the prin- ciple of life and sensation, the individual soul, the self, the abstract individual, self, one's self, the reflexive pronoun, the natural tem- perament or disposition, essence, nature, character, peculiarity, the person or the whole body, the body, the understanding, intellect, the mind, the faculty of thought and reason, the thinking faculty, the highest principle of life, Brahma, the supreme deity or soul of the universe, care, effort, pains, firmness, the sun, fire, wind, air, a son." This will give classical scholars an idea of the chaotic state from which, thanks to the excellent work done by Boehtlingk, Roth, and others, Sanskrit lexicology is only just emerging. Some of the meanings here mentioned ought certainly not to be ascribed to at- man. It never means, for instance, the understanding, nor could it ever by itself be translated by sun, fire, wind, air, pains, or firmness. But, after deducting such surplusage, there still remain a large variety of meanings, which may, under certain circumstances, be ascribed to atman. When atman occurs in philosophical treatises, such as the Upani- shads and the Vedanta system which is based on them, it has gener- ally been translated by soul, mind, or spirit. I tried myself to use one or other of these words, but the oftener I employed them the SACRED BOOKS OF TEE EAST. 641 more I felt their inadequacy, and was driven at last to adopt self and Self as the least liable to misunderstanding. No doubt in many passages it sounds strange in English to use self, and in the plural selfs instead of selves ; but that very strange- ness is useful, for, while such words as soul and mind and spirit pass over us unrealized, self and selfs will always ruffle the surface of the mind and stir up some reflection in the reader. In English to speak even of the I and the Non-I was till lately considered harsh ; it may still be called a foreign philosophical idiom. In German the Ich and Nicht-ich have, since the time of Fichte, become recognized and almost familiar, not only as philosophical terms, but as legiti- mate expressions in the literary language of the day. But while the Ich with Fichte expressed the highest abstraction of personal existence, the corresponding word in Sanskrit, the Aham or Ahaw- kara was always looked upon as a secondary development only, and as by no means free from all purely phenomenal ingredients. Be- yond the Aham or Ego, with all its accidents and limitations, such as sex, sense, language, country, and religion, the ancient sages of India perceived, from a very early time, the Atman or the self, in- dependent of all such accidents. The individual atman or self, however, was with the Brahmans a phase or phenomenal modification only of the Highest Self, and that Highest Self was to them the last point which could be reached by philosophical speculation. It was to them what in other systems of philosophy has been called by various names, rb ov, the Divine, the Absolute. The highest aim of all thought and study with the Brahman of the Upanishads was to recognize his own self as a mere limited reflection of the Highest Self, to know his self in the Highest Self, and through that knowledge to return to it and regain "his identity with it. Here to know was to be, to know the Atman was to be the Atman, and the reward of that highest knowledge after death was freedom from new births, or immortality. That Highest Self, which had become to the ancient Brahmans the goal of all their mental efforts, was looked upon at the same time as the starting-point of all phenomenal existence, the root of the world, the only thing that could truly be said to be, to be real and true. As the root of all that exists, the Atman was identified with the Brahman, which in Sanskrit is both masculine and neuter, and with the Sat, which is neuter only, that which is, or Satya, the true, the real. It alone exists in the beginning and for ever ; it has no second. Whatever else is said to exist derives its real being 642 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. from the Sat. How the one Sat became many, how what we call the creation, what they call emanation (rrpoodog), constantly pro- ceeds and returns to it, has been explained in various more or less fanciful ways by ancient prophets and poets. But what they all agree in is this, that the whole creation, the visible and invisible world, all plants, all animals, all men, are due to the one Sat, are upheld by it, and will return to it. If we translate Atman by soul, mind, or spirit, we commit, first of all, that fundamental mistake of using words which may be pred- icated, in place of a word which is a subject only, and can never become a predicate. "We may say in English man possesses a soul, man has lost his mind, man has or even man is a spirit, but we could never predicate atman, or self, of anything else. Spirit, if it means breath or life ; mind, if it means the organ of perception and conception ; soul, if, like iTaitanya, it means intelligence in general, all these may be predicated of the Atman, as manifested in the phenomenal world. But they are never subjects in the sense in which the Atman is ; they have no independent being, apart from Atman. Thus to translate the beginning of the Aitareya- upanishad, Atma va idam eka evagra asit, by " This (world) verily was before (the creation of the world) soul alone" (Roer), or, "Originally this (universe) was indeed soul only" (Colebrooke), would give us a totally false idea. M. Regnaud in his " Materiaux pour servir a Phistoire de la philosophic de l'Inde" (vol. ii., p. 24) has evidently felt this, and has kept the word atman untranslated, "Au commencement cet univers n'6tait que Patman." But while in French it would seem impossible to find any equivalent for atman, I have ventured to translate in English, as I should have done in German, " Verily, in the beginning all this was Self, one only." Thus again when we read in Sanskrit, " Know the Self by the self," atmanam atmana pasya, tempting as it may seem, it would be entirely wrong to render it by the Greek yv&Ot oeavrov. The Brahman called upon his young pupil to know not himself, but his Self, that is, to know his individual self as a merely temporary reflex of the Eternal Self. Were we to translate this so-called atmavidya, this self-knowledge, by knowledge of the soul, we should not be altogether wrong, but we should nevertheless lose all that distinguishes the Indian from the Greek mind. It may not be good English to say to know his self, still less to know our selfs, but it would be bad Sanskrit to say to know himself, to know our- SACRED BOOKS OF THE EAST. 643 selves ; or, at all events, such a rendering would deprive us of the greatest advantage in the study of Indian philosophy, the oppor- tunity of seeing in how many different ways man has tried to solve the riddles of the world and of his soul. It is impossible to find an English equivalent for so simple a word as Sat, to ov. We can not render the Greek to ov and to firj ov by Being or Not-being, for both are abstract nouns ; nor by " the Being," for this would almost always convey a wrong impres- sion. In German it is easy to distinguish between das Sein, i. e., being, in the abstract, and das Seiende, to ov. In the same way the Sanskrit Sat can easily be rendered in Greek by to ov, in Ger- man by das Seiende, but in English, unless we say " that which is," we are driven to retain the original Sat. From this Sat was derived in Sanskrit Sat-ya, meaning originally endowed with being, then true. This is an adjective, but the same word, as a neuter, is also used in the sense of truth, as an abstract, and in translating it is very necessary always to distinguish between Satyam, the true, frequently the same as Sat, to ov, and Satyam, truth, veracity. One example will suffice to show how much the clearness of a translation depends on the right rendering of such words as atman, sat, and satyam. In a dialogue between Uddalaka and his son /Svetaketu, in which the father tries to open his son's mind, and to make him see his true relation to the Highest Self (iT/? tindogya-upanishad vi.), the father first explains how the Sat produced what we should call the three elements,* viz., fire, water, and earth, which he calls heat, water, and food. Having produced them (vi., 2, 4), the Sat en- tered into them, not with its real nature, but only with its " living self " (vi., 3, 3), which is a reflection (abhasamatram) of the real Sat, as the sun in the water is a reflection of the real sun. By this apparent union of the Sat with the three elements, every form (rupa) and every name (naman) in the world was produced, and therefore he who knows the three elements is supposed to know everything in this world, nearly in the same manner in which the Greeks imagined that, through a knowledge of the elements, every- thing else became known (vi., 4, 7). The same three elements are shown to be the constituent elements of man also (vi., 5). Food, or the earthy element, is supposed to produce not only flesh, but * Devatas, literally deities, but frequently to be translated by powers or beings. M. H. Kunte, the learned editor of the Vedanta-sutras, ought not (p. 70) to have ren- dered devata, in Kh. Up. i., 11, 5, by goddess. 644 TEE NORTE AMERICAN REVIEW. also mind ; water, not only blood, but also breath ; heat, not only bone, but also speech. This is more or less fanciful ; the important point, however, is this, that, from the Brahmanic point of view, breath, speech, and mind are purely elemental, or external instru- ments, and require the support of the living self, the ^ivatman, be- fore they can act. Having explained how the Sat produces progressively heat, how heat leads to water, water to earth, and how, by a peculiar mixture of the three, speech, breath, and mind are produced, the teacher afterward shows how, in death, speech returns to mind, mind to breath, breath to heat, and heat to the Sat (vi., 8, 6). This Sat, the root of everything, is called para devata, the highest deity, not in the ordinary sense of the word deity, but as expressing the high- est abstraction of the human mind. We must therefore translate it by the Highest Being, in the same manner as we translate devata, when applied to heat, water, and earth, not by deity, but by sub- stance or element. The same Sat, as the root or highest essence of all material exist- ence, is then called a?iiman, from awu, small, subtile, infinitesimal, atom. It is an abstract word, and I have translated it by subtile essence. The father then goes on explaining in various ways that this Sat is underlying all existence, and that we must learn to recognize it as the root, not only of all the objective, but likewise of our own subjective existence. "Bring the fruit of a Nyagrodha-tree," he says, " break it, and what do you find ? " " The seeds," the son replies, " almost infinitesimal." " Break one of them, and tell me what you see." " Nothing," the son replies. Then the father con- tinues, " My son, that subtile essence which you do not see there, of that very essence this great Nyagrodha-tree exists." After that follows this sentence : " Etadatmyam idam sarvam, tat satyam, sa atma, tat tvam asi /Svetaketo." This sentence has been rendered by Rajendralal Mitra in the following way: " All this universe has the (Supreme) Deity for its life. That Deity is Truth. He is the Universal Soul. Thou are He, O tfvetaketu." * This translation is quite correct, as far as the words go, but I doubt whether we can connect any definite thoughts with these * Anquetil Duperron translates : " Ipso hoc modo (ens) illud est subtile : et hoc omne, unus atma est : et id verum et rectum est, Sopatkit, tatoumes, Id est, ille atma tu es." SACRED BOOKS OF TEE EAST. 645 words. In spite of the division adopted in the text, I believe it will be necessary to join this sentence with the last words of the preceding paragraph. This is clear from the commentary, and from later paragraphs, where this sentence is repeated, vi., 9, 4, etc. The division in the printed text (vi., 8, 6) is wrong, and vi., 8, 7 should begin with sa ya esho 'mma, i. e., that which is the subtile essence. The question then is, What is further to be said about this sub- tile essence ? I have ventured to translate the passage in the fol- lowing way: " That which is the subtile essence (the Sat, the root of every- thing), in it all that exists has its self, or, more literally, its selfhood. It is the True (not the Truth in the abstract, but that which truly and really exists). It is the Self, i. e., the Sat is what is called the Self of everything." * Lastly, he sums up, and tells /Svetaketu that, not only the whole world, but he too himself is that Self, that Satya, that Sat. No doubt this translation sounds strange to English ears; but, as the thoughts contained in the Upanishads are strange, it would be wrong to smooth down their strangeness by clothing them in lan- guage familiar to us, but, for that very reason, failing to startle us, and, failing to startle us, then failing to set us thinking. To know one's self to be the Sat, to know that all that is real and eternal in us is the Sat, that all came from it and will, through knowledge, return to it, requires an independent effort of specula- tive thought. We must realize, as well as we can, the thoughts of the ancient ifo'shis, before we can hope to translate them. It is not enough simply to read the half-religious, half-philosophical utter- ances which we find in the sacred books of the East, and to say that they are strange, or obscure, or mystic. Plato is strange, till we know him ; Berkeley is mystic, till for a time we have identified ourselves with him. So it is with these ancient sages, who have become the founders of the great religions of antiquity. They can never be judged from without, they must be judged from within. We need not become Brahmans, or Buddhists, or Taosse altogether, but we must for a time, if we wish to understand, and, still more, if we are bold enough to undertake to translate their doctrines. Who- * The change of gender in sa for tad is idiomatic. One could not say in Sanskrit tad atma, it is the Self, but sa atma. By sa, he, the Sat, that which is, is meant. The commentary explains sa atma by tat sat, and continues tat sat tat tvam asi (p. 443). vol. cxxviii. no. 271. 42 64c6 THE NORTE AMERICAN REVIEW. ever shrinks from that effort will see hardly anything in these sacred books or their translations but matter to wonder at or to laugh at; possibly something to make him thankful that he is not as other men. But to the patient reader these same books will, in spite of many drawbacks, open a new view of the history of the human race, of that one race to which we all belong, with all the fibers of our flesh, with all the fears and hopes of our soul. We can not separate ourselves from those who believed in these sacred books. There is no specific difference between ourselves and the Brahmans, the Buddhists, the Zoroastrians, or the Taosse. Our pow- ers of perceiving, of reasoning, and of believing may be more highly developed, but we can not claim the possession of any verifying power, or of any power of belief which they did not possess as well. Shall we say, then, that they were forsaken of God, while we are his chosen people ? God forbid ! There is much, no doubt, in their sacred books which we should tolerate no longer, though we must not forget that there are portions in our own sacred books, too, which from the earliest ages of Christianity have been objected to by theologians of undoubted piety, and which can now often prove a stumbling-block to those who have been won over by our missionaries to the simple faith of Christ. But that is not the question. The question is, whether there is or whether there is not, hidden in every one of the sacred books, something that could lift up the human heart from this earth to a higher world, something that could make man feel the omnipresence of a higher Power, something that could make him shrink from evil and incline to good, something to sustain him in the short journey through life, with its bright moments of happiness, and its long hours of terrible distress. There is no lesson which at the present time seems more impor- tant than to learn that in every religion there are such precious grains; that we must draw in every religion a broad distinction be- tween what is essential and what is not, between the eternal and the temporary, between the divine and the human; and that, though the non-essential may fill many volumes, the essential can often be comprehended in a few words, but words on which " hang all the law and the prophets." Max Muller. VII. EVOLUTION AND THEOLOGY. A REJOINDER* In the last number of this Review four distinguished represent- atives of the theological school of thought discuss the compatibil- ity of the views of Nature on which the scientific philosophy of the present day is founded with sound doctrine in general, and with the doctrine of design in Nature particularly. To form a clear concep- tion of the field occupied by the discussion, we shall recapitulate the circumstances which gave rise to it, beginning with some pre- liminary considerations of a general character. All reasoning is useless unless the person to whom it is addressed admits the premises on which it is based; and all profitable dis- cussion must either commence with some common basis on which both parties agree or must be directed toward finding such a basis, and then ascertaining at what point their lines of thought begin to diverge. Now, in the discussion of the theory of evolution in its various phases, which has been going on for the last twenty years, the point of divergence has never been clearly brought to light. The theory in question, as we shall endeavor to show hereafter, is founded on a certain fundamental postulate respecting the course of Nature. This postulate, being, as is supposed, proved by induc- tion from present observations, has been used as a general key for explaining the operations of Nature during unlimited ages past, and for forming a theory of those operations which it is supposed may hold good through the whole universe of phenomena. In entering upon this daring flight of thought, scientific thinkers have met with unceasing opposition from a school which we may term that of the- ology. But an examination of the objections of this school fails to show where their line of thought begins to diverge from that of the school of science. They have either built their arguments on * See, in our preceding issue, the symposium on " Law and Design in Nature."" 648 TEE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. an entirely independent foundation, or they have attacked the con- clusions of the other school at special points, without making it clear whether they admitted or denied the general principles on which these conclusions were founded. The first step in a profitable discussion of the subject must, therefore, be to state those princi- ples, and ascertain whether the two parties agree respecting their validity. It was with this object that the writer opened the discussion and propounded the question which will be found in our last number. He entered the list not as a partisan of either school, but only as an independent thinker desirous of ascertaining the truth. To him the doctrines of the one school appeared clear and simple, while those of the other did not. He therefore propounded the fundamental postulate of the scientific philosophy in its most comprehensive form, explained it in all its bearings, illustrated its scope by exam- ples and suggested special questions by answering which a decisive conclusion might be reached. The eminent thinkers whose views follow were then asked to explain how far they considered the pos- tulate to be consistent with sound doctrine. They were not, as one of them seems to suppose, expected to accept the whole or none. On the contrary, they were left at liberty to accept or reject any portion, and to state any definite limits within which they would be willing to admit it, but without which they were not willing to do so. In order that they might proceed in a way to be fully under- stood by the opposite party, the propositions on which they were asked to pass judgment were explained point by point. Finally, as they might object that they were incompetent to express opinions upon scientific questions, and especially to decide whether a scientific doctrine, that of evolution, for instance, was or was not proved, and ought not to be asked to commit themselves to theories of the basis of which they might be doubtful, they were not asked to accept anything as absolutely proved, but only to state whether it would be consistent with sound doctrine to accept it. Such was the case as it will be found presented. After a most careful study of the answers, the writer confesses himself unable to form a clear idea whether his interlocutors accept or deny the pos- tulate, and can not reach any other conclusion than that they are unwilling to commit themselves decisively one way or the other. At least one or two evade the question presented in a manner which it is extremely difficult to account for on any other ground. For instance, Dr. Porter begins by describing the opening writer as EVOLUTION AND THEOLOGY. 649 giving his views of the position of the theological school, and as failing of success in doing so. But if the reader will refer to the first and second pages of the opening article he will find that the writer makes no attempt to state the position of the theological school. On the contrary, he makes it clearly known that the raison d'etre of the whole discussion is that he does not know what the posi- tion of the school in question is, and desires it to be explained. Then Dr. Porter goes on to speak of the arguments arrayed by his sup- posed opponent against a purely theological doctrine. Here again he is equally at fault. No attempt was made to argue in favor of the position taken by the scientific school, and it was distinctly an- nounced in the opening of the paper that no such attempt would be made. Although the question of evolution is almost purely a scien- tific one, that of the relation of evolution to religious doctrine is not, and belongs to a class with which the scientific thinker as such is incompetent to deal. The most he can do is to assist in the prep- aration of some logically coherent principles on which both parties to the discussion may unite. What follows of Dr. Porter's paper has so little reference to the questions actually propounded that only a single point need now be touched upon. He criticises the various defects of the postulate, and especially its limitation to the succes- sion of phenomena. This objection is difficult of comprehension. In the opening paper it was distinctly stated that the object of such a limitation was to ascertain whether the two schools agree about phenomena. Admitting the existence of another universe than that of phenomena, does this afford a sufficient reason for declining to express an opinio'n about the latter? So far as any clear, consistent, and decisive expression of opinion upon the admissibility of the postulate is concerned, all the answers are of the same class. All, indeed, have this in common that they argue vigorously for the truth of a proposition which, so far as the writer is aware, has never been denied on scientific grounds namely, that there is design in Nature. But they leave their an- swers to the special question propounded to be inferred from the general tenor of their reasoning. In answer to the bearer of the flag of truce who asks to know what terms of peace can be ob- tained, a general alarm is sounded, and the theological artillery thunders forth in every direction, but the flag-bearer receives no answer from which he can clearly see how the war is to end. All he can do is to make a study of the returns, and see what he can gather from them respecting the views of the other party. On the 050 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. minuteness of this study will very largely depend the nature of the conclusions he reaches. The cursory student, taking for granted that the smoke and din of battle necessarily imply a conflict be- tween two opposing forces, may infer that the postulate is uncondi- tionally rejected. But the more careful reader who knows the po- sition of the enemy and the grounds on which the supposed defense is conducted, may see strong indications of a readiness to surrender all that part of the field which can reasonably be claimed by the scientific philosopher. To appreciate the situation we must bear in mind that the ques- tion was that of the compatibility of two schemes of doctrine, one of which we may designate in a general way as that of the univer- sality of natural law, and the other as that of sound theological doc- trine. As an example of the latter, the idea of design in Nature was suggested, but the interlocutors were of course expected to take the term in its widest sense. It was therefore to be expected that those who believed law and design to be inconsistent would, as theolo- gians, reject the postulate ; while those who held the two to be com- patible would be ready to accept it, or at least to assure the reader that there was no occasion to oppose it on theological grounds. But, curiously enough, instead of taking either of these views, we find that all make a show of opposing the postulate, and yet all unite in saying that there is no incompatibility whatever between natural law and design. That is, they argue on both sides of the question propounded in such a way as to leave the reader in doubt which side they are on. It is true that between these two mutually destructive positions an apparent avenue of escape is kept in view by the theologians. The turning-point of opposition to the postulate is found in that portion of it which asserts that human investigation can trace no regard to consequences in the operation of natural causes, and it seems to be taken for granted by all that this, in terms, excludes design from the universe. Surely there must here be some mis- apprehension. It is evident that, if, from the proposition that no design can be traced in Nature by human investigation, our theolo- gians draw the conclusion that none can exist, they can justify this inference only by taking as the major premise of their argument the general proposition that there can be no design in the universe except such as human investigation can trace. In other words, they assume that man may by scientific investigation become acquainted with the ends which the Author of Nature designed to accomplish. EVOLUTION AND THEOLOGY. 651 Evidently this is the only ground on which the inference which the theologians seem to regard as self-evident can be based. Yet it can hardly be supposed that they will openly maintain this claim ; in- deed, Dr. McCosh expressly admits that there may be cases in which we can not find out the purpose of the Creator. We can hardly suppose, therefore, that this portion of the argu- ment against the postulate was founded on anything but an inad- vertence. We are, however, relieved from the necessity of further argument on this point by the subsequent course of our interlocutors in demolishing the only foundation on which their argument of in- compatibility could be based. This they do by further arguing that there is no incompatibility between natural law and design, and do in a manner so complete and satisfactory that their scientific oppo- nents are relieved from all necessity for maintaining the orthodoxy of their doctrines. True, there is still one point on which it would seem that the contest might be maintained namely, that the sci- entific side conceives of natural causes as acting without regard to consequences, while theologians do not so conceive them. But is it not of the very essence of all law that consequences shall be dis- regarded in its enforcement ? We conceive that if we accept the fundamental conception of law entertained by all men, no power whatever, not even the Power which made it, or that which executes it, can hold it at his arbitrary will or can execute it in different ways according to the result to be obtained. A law which could be wield- ed in this way would be no law at all. A human judge must not regard a man's business or family in passing sentence, and, just so far as he is allowed a discretion in the matter, so far he is relieved from the prescriptions of law and not governed by it. In other words, his action is governed partly by law and partly by his own judg- ment. If the idea of the laws of Nature expressed in the scientific philosophy is correct, then they are absolutely inexorable, leaving nothing to an arbitrary judgment, and thus fulfill a condition to which human laws only approximate. If, then, in arguing the com- patibility of natural law and design, our theologians entertain what we conceive to be an almost universal idea of law, their argument is altogether on the side of the scientific postulate. If, on the other hand, they have a different idea of law, and infer that a result can be one thing or the other according to the consequences to follow, and yet be determined by law, they entertain an idea of law which must at least need further definition and illustration. The question reduces itself to this : Can a law which is enforced 652 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. with an absolute disregard of consequences fulfill a purpose ? Each of our four theologians argues so vigorously both on the negative and affirmative sides of this question, that the scientist might pru- dently refrain from attempting a decision. Important though this question of abstract definition may be, and much as we might desire to know what definition of .law the theological school would give us, we are relieved from the necessity of such an inquiry by the circumstance that the whole question can be settled by a decision of special concrete cases. Now, it is re- markable that, although the views and arguments presented by all the theological interlocutors may be clear and satisfactory so far as regards abstract generalities, they almost entirely refrain from answering any of the special questions suggested by the writer, which would enable us to infer their opinion of the question under discussion. Perhaps the most decisive concrete question presented was that of the adaptability of the theories of the motions of the planets, where seeming absolute certainty in regard to the future is attained, with the general doctrines of design and Provi- dence. Either of two replies might have been made to this ques- tion : It might have been maintained that the courses of the planets did not symbolize the whole course of Nature, but that there are certain limits of time beyond which our inductions will not hold, or certain realms of Nature where things are not deter- mined by laws of the same fixed character as those which deter- mine the motion of the planets. Or, on the other hand, it might have been maintained that results as certain as the future conjunc- tions and oppositions of the planets, and the past and future paths of eclipses, were especially designed. Of course, these two answers might have been further limited in various ways, but the reader will find no meeting of the question in either way. Dr. Porter alone discusses it, and he jumps to the conclusion that the first writer would have us conclude that the possibility of inferring a visible purpose is excluded if design is admitted. He then presents what appears to be an unqualified acceptance of the second of the above suggested answers. Then, in reply to what would seem the very pertinent question, why the theologians contest a question the truth of which they do not deny, he replies that they would not do so if the scientific men would insist that the course of Nature manifests design as truly as it does the succession of phenomena. So far as his position can be inferred, it seems to be about this : If you will admit and maintain our proposition, we will maintain and admit EVOLUTION AND THEOLOGY. 653 yours ; but, since you refuse ours as having no scientific value, we are bound in retaliation to attack yours. This decisive question is carefully avoided by all three of the other disputants. What we have said of the different conclusions which the reader will reach according as he reads rapidly or studies the papers closely, will be most clearly seen in the contributions of Drs. Clarke and McCosh. The latter, after an introduction which is very clear so far as the general principles stated are concerned, attacks the second question as the only one in dispute between us : " In the action of Nature is there any regard to consequences traceable by human in- vestigation, or necessary to foresee the consequences ? " He regards this as equivalent to the inquiry whether the existence of God is shown by his works, and of course contests what he supposes to be the scientific view. Most curious of all, however, is his remark that the opening writer evidently regards law and design as inconsistent with each other in fact as opponents and rivals. We say this is curious, because the writer, desirous of saving his interlocutors from wasting their arguments by proving the abstract possibility of de- sign in Nature, went out of his way to say that the scientific postu- late was not opposed to the doctrine that all things are determined by Divine will, and were designed to be as they are. It would seem that orthodoxy of doctrine is not to be tolerated in any advocate of the scientific school, but that he must be preserved in his hetero- doxy, in order that the latter may be duly refuted. Putting the construction he does upon the question, he of course combats it, and thus satisfies the casual reader that he can be relied on to resist the encroa'chments of the scientists. Then he proceeds to what is really an argument of the most conclusive kind in favor of the scientific hypothesis, by showing that under any other system " no one could foresee the future or provide for it, could know that fire would prepare his food for eating, could have even a motive to partake of food, for he could not know whether food would nourish him." As this argument is clear and conclusive, we accept it in preference to the first. The duplex character of the theological position is perhaps shown most clearly in the argument of Dr. Clarke. The reader being assured that, in formulating the postulate, the word " antece- dent " was intended to mean antecedent in time, will perceive that he begins by contesting the postulate on the same ground as his fellows, namely, that it excludes design. He then proceeds with a 654 TEE NORTE AMERICAN REVIEW. very vigorous but somewhat old-fashioned argument for design. Finally, he meets the question which is really the one at issue, Did the cosmos that we see come by design or by law ? But he thinks this question is not the fundamental one, because, admitting it to have come by law, we must then inquire, Did these laws come by chance or design ? But, in thus trying to jump over the head of the only question at issue, he makes what is really a complete change of base. Scientific philosophy never raises the question whether the laws of Nature came by chance or design, or were eternal. The question asked was one respecting the course of Nature under exist- ing laws. The only method which science has of inferring the course of Nature outside the sphere of immediate observation is founded on the hypothesis that the laws of Nature are invariable, and the same outside this sphere that they are inside. Therefore, when we come back to the beginning of these laws and ask how they commence, you pass completely out of the sphere of science and of the scientific philosophy. It is not of the slightest use to tell the scientific school that they ought to consider this question. Even if we granted that they ought to do so, they can still justly claim that we must agree upon what the course of Nature actually is under the existing laws of Nature before we can discuss the beginning of those laws. There- fore the question, did the cosmos that we see come by design or by law, is the living one which Dr. Clarke entirely evades, though indirectly he so far admits it as entirely to destroy the basis of his opening argument. His position seems in brief to be this : I claim that the present state of things came by design and not by law ; but, since you may possibly prove, after all, that they came by law, I then take refuge in the fact, which you can not contest, that those laws came by design. On this latter point the scientific philosopher will not join issue with him, because he is concerned only with things which he believes to be within the realm of natural law. The most lamentable waste of argument is found in the contri- bution of Mr. Cook. He devotes the greater part of his paper to the refutation of the ancient doctrine that adaptations in the uni- verse came by chance a doctrine which, so far as the writer knows, has not been maintained by any one for many centuries, and which the school of evolution seeks to dispose of for ever by showing that they came by law. He shows very clearly, as hundreds have shown before him, that the adaptations which we see in Nature ne- cessarily require a precise reason for them ; but, when he comes to EVOLUTION AND THEOLOGY. 655 the question whether the reason given by the school of evolution can be accepted, he " passes by on the other side." The results of our examination of the four answers may be summed up as follows : Considered as arguments for the abstract proposition that there is design in Nature, they leave nothing to be desired. The scien- tific philosopher can have nothing to say against them, because, whether he admits them or denies them, it is entirely outside his province to pass judgment upon them. Considered as throwing light on the question how far the scien- tific philosophy in general, and that of evolution in particular, can be admitted without rejecting final causes in some of their forms, they must, we conceive, be regarded as unsatisfactory. It is true that, on the whole, they are favorable to the idea that there is no necessary antagonism between the two systems. We find in more than one place statements which, carried to their legitimate logical conclusion, would imply that any man who maintained that the theory of evolution is in any way inconsistent with design in Na- ture is on the high-road to atheism a proposition which we think will not be received with favor by all theologians. If this view had been consistently adhered to throughout the whole discussion, there would have been scarcely anything to say in reply, and the reader might safely have been left to compare the attitude of the writers with that of the churches which they represent toward the theory of evolution during the past twenty years. That they should have avoided giving a direct and unconditional positive or negative reply to the question propounded was to be ex- pected. An affirmative reply and acceptance of the scientific postu- late, as at least consistent with sound doctrine, whether proven or not, would have been an admission that the great war which has been waged by theology against evolution during the past twenty years was without justification. A very attractive field of contro- versy would thus have been abandoned. On the other hand, an unconditional denial of the proposition, as inconsistent with sound doctrine, would have been equivalent to maintaining that the whole progress of science during the past three centuries tended to the discredit of religious doctrines, and that the latter could find no foot- hold whatever in fields which Science had conquered. Every phe- nomenon, after being reduced to natural laws and explained on scientific principles, would have become a weapon wrenched from the hand of Theology and turned over to its enemy. It could hardly 656 THE NORTE AMERICAN REVIEW. be expected that a whole school of thinkers would be ready to take either horn of this dilemma. But the writer will confess that he did expect them to grapple with the problem a little more closely, and to make the exact position of Theology in relation to evolution more consistently clear than they have done. In the minute examination we have been giving to the argu- ments and positions of our theological interlocutors, and the remarks respecting the position of the scientific philosophy which have been occasionally thrown in, the reader may have failed to gather a view of the actual line of battle ; he may be especially bewildered to learn which side the opposing parties are taking in respect to the general compatibility of natural law and design. We must, there- fore, ask him to ascend to a higher plane, and trace the line of con- flict from its beginning in a single comprehensive view. If in doing this we shall fail to point out anything which has not been shown over and over again during the past ten years, we can only excuse ourselves by a seeming failure on the part of large numbers of thinking men to grasp the real points at issue. The whole question turns upon a differentiation made by the human mind in all ages between the processes of Nature and the acts of mind. When a tree was felled, or a piece of coal dug from the earth, the operations were those of a directing mind having an end to gain by them, and were not the result of any law of Nature. It was and is quite obvious that there is no law of Nature prescribing that coal shall be dug from the earth or trees be cut down at certain times. These are acts of will and not processes of Nature. On the other hand, when the fuel burns we have a natural process which is the result of an invariable law of Nature. We have repeatedly given what seems to us the clearest definition of the distinction to be made between these two classes of causes, by showing that the one class go on entirely without regard to consequences, while the other have reference entirely to the results to follow. Thus we have a wide and unbridgable chasm between the operations of mind and the laws of Nature a chasm which, as just remarked, has been recognized by thought in all ages. We trust that the reader sees clearly this dis- tinction between acts of will, so far as we know them here around us, and natural processes. In early stages of human thought all natural operations were not looked upon as belonging to the second class. It was very well un- derstood that the acts of visible, conscious beings, whether man or animals, might belong partially or wholly to the first class, and that EVOLUTION AND THEOLOGY. 657 the operations of inanimate Nature belong principally to the second class. It is with this definition of the operations of Nature proper that is, all of those processes which have not been designed by the individual will of man or animals that we are alone concerned, and which we alone include under the term "course of Nature." The processes involved in this course of Nature were in the beginning of thought supposed to be divided between the two classes already described. Some were supposed to go forward in accordance with invariable natural laws, acting without regard to consequences ; while others were viewed as the acts of beings for the most part in- visible, possessing the power of modifying these natural processes, and so changing them from time to time to compass their ends. Thus a conception of Nature which has been termed the dualistic has been the one almost universally entertained in all ages. As an example of dualism we remark that in medieval times the revolu- tions of the heavens, the falling of heavy bodies, the course of the ordinary breezes, the combustion of fuel, and the deaths of men from common diseases, were all viewed as natural processes ; while the appearance of the comet, the rush of the tornado, and the out- break of the pestilence were viewed as partially the direct result of will, acting independently of the laws of Nature, and so having a supernatural origin. While this classification on the dualistic system was clear in its general conception, it was by no means clear in its application to special cases. As Nature was investigated, it was found from time to time that operations which had at first been supposed to belong to the supernatural could be fully explained by natural laws. Thus, there was a constant tendency to transfer events from the one class to the other. There were also great changes in the conception of the characters supposed to possess these supernatural powers. From being divided among a great number of spirits, many of the lowest, but none of the highest order, the power was gradually concentrated under the monotheistic system into the hands of a single Supreme Being, Maker of heaven and earth. As knowledge increased it became more and more evident to careful thinkers that the operations, at least of contemporary na- tures, all belonged to the class of natural processes, and thus men divided into two classes. These were, on the one side, the devout and religious, who still held that certain occurrences, of which the cause and natural relations were obscure, and in which the interests of mankind were deeply involved, might occur one way or the other 658 THE NORTE AMERICAN REVIEW. according to the arbitrary fiat of the Supreme Will. The other in- cluded the less devout or wholly irreligious, who maintained that the classification was founded wholly upon our ignorance, and that an increase in our knowledge of natural laws would result in ex- plaining all occurrences by purely natural processes. Thus arose the monistic school, which maintained the absolute unity of Nature, and claimed that all events were to be explained by natural law. This school gradually triumphed in so far that intelligent men gradually ceased to make any specific and well-defined claim that the course of Nature was modified or turned aside in any visible manner or in any concrete case by the action of the Supreme Will. But there was one field into which it was entirely unable to enter, namely, that of the adaptation of living beings to the circumstances by which they were surrounded. The structure of the human eye, hand, and ear revealed a harmony with the world in which we were placed, and an adaptation to the purposes they were to subserve, which must have been the result of an adequate cause. It was clearly seen that no doctrine of fortuity could account for such adaptation. The resemblance to the works of ingenious men who make machinery to carry out preconceived processes was so great that only one explanation seemed possible. Man and animals were the direct work of a designing Mind, possessed of a knowledge and ingenuity far exceeding that of man. Thus arose our modern nat- ural theology, devoted to showing final causes in Nature and relying for its proof principally upon those adaptations which we see in an- imate Nature, which could not have been the result of chance, and which to all appearance could be accounted for only by the doctrine of final causes. Connected with these ideas is the popular cosmog- ony of the present day. At some time far back in the ages, matter was created and endowed with certain properties of attraction, re- pulsion, and affinity by the Omnipotent, Self -existent Mind. At an- other time the heavens and the earth were constructed by Divine art, and the materials so wisely adjusted that their operations should go on for ever in exact accordance with a prearranged plan. At another time plants were started growing and imbued with the power of continuing their kind. At another, animals were brought into existence in the same way, each species being an independent creation. The spectator, looking down upon the earth at one time, would have seen a tree or forest, at another a lion, at a third a full- grown man, possessed of all his faculties, made out of the dust of the earth, as a watchmaker makes a watch. Perhaps he would also EVOLUTION AND THEOLOGY. 659 have seen the denizens of a higher sphere walking the earth and singing together in joy over the new creation. With this theory- is associated the sublimest conception which has come down to us through the ages that of a day when all the men who have lived on the earth shall meet face to face ; when every wrong shall be righted; and when a new heaven and earth, free from all the imperfections of the present, shall be created. This theory may be considered as holding supreme sway until very recently. It could be opposed only on grounds of general skepticism, but could not be supplanted by any other equally defi- nite. It is true that, toward the close of the last century, the promulgation of the nebular hypothesis accounted for a large por- tion of what had been before considered creation in a different way. But, beyond making the creation of the world as we find it a natural instead of a supernatural process, the reception of this the- ory did not make any radical change in the ideas of men. It was also too recondite in its nature, and too far removed from ordinary ideas, to be appreciated by any but the learned. Most of all, the creation thus accounted for was not one which had been supposed to show any striking adaptations or marks of design. For this last reason the nebular hypothesis never became a bitter bone of con- tention between the monistic and the dualistic schools. Twenty years ago the contest assumed an entirely new phase by the promulgation of the theory of evolution in Darwin's "Origin of Species." The object of this work was to show that all living beings, with their adaptations to external circumstances, were really the product of natural laws, and were not especially created. The attempt was made to show that these beings had originated in the very smallest and lowest forms of life, in collections of matter which could hardly be defined as living or dead, and had attained to their present development by purely natural generation. The processes of Nature by which this result was brought about were clearly enunciated and classed with gravitation, chemical affinity, and other previously known laws. Thus the monistic philosophy sought at one step to take possession of almost the whole field which had hitherto been occupied by natural theology as its exclu- sive domain. The progress of the new idea was bitterly contested at every step on the part of Theology. It was clearly seen that, if once ac- cepted, it involved the genetic connection of man with the lower animals, and the elimination of the supernatural from creation. Nat- 660 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. uralists themselves were at first so much divided that it was difficult to say which side would eventually triumph. But the more care- fully the theory was examined, and the more minutely the relations of structure between allied species of animals were studied, the more clearly it appeared that they all pointed to the common origin of all animal life. The opponents of the theory gradually fell away, and none entered to fill their places. So complete has the revolu- tion now become, that it is hardly possible to name a biologist of distinction who still opposes it. It is taught by naturalists as an established law. It is even used as a key for explaining the struc. ture of animals, and among a certain class of thinkers it is rapidly becoming the basis of a new theory of the mental faculties, as well as of the material structural organization of man. The mind of man is now viewed as containing an epitome of the mental history of his ancestors, in which those faculties inherited from the brute nature can be differentiated from such as are the product of civili- zation. Intellect is thus studied as a slow development through countless generations. This almost universal acceptance of evolution, by the men who ought to be best qualified to judge of its truth, is a fact of to-day to which it would be folly to shut our eyes. How far their views are well founded, and what objections they might be subjected to on sound philosophical grounds, are questions upon which it is im- possible for us now to enter at length. We shall only remark in general terms that, in the present state of biological knowledge, it does not seem possible to frame arguments for evolution which are not based on the theory of uniformity in the methods of Nature. The theory of special creation has this vantage-ground, that, once adopted, it will account for anything. It is just as easy to suppose one thing created as another the most complex animal as the most insignificant mass of protoplasm. Special creation being thus sufficient to account for anything, the only possible objection to it can be compressed into the single as- sertion that that is not the way in which Nature does business. Evo- lution presupposes that we have discovered the plan and method of Nature by induction from processes that we see going on around us. The most general result of that induction is, as the writer conceives, formulated in the postulate with which he opened this subject, namely, that the course of Nature, considered as a succession of phe- nomena, is determined solely by antecedent causes, in the action of which no regard to consequences can be traced by human investi- EVOLUTION' AND THEOLOGY. 661 gators, or is necessary to foresee the result; Evolution itself being founded on this postulate, we are justified in taking the latter as an expression of the highest generalization of science, respecting the course of Nature. With this generalization, evolution, and every other conclusion respecting things which lie without the range of observation, must stand or fall. If we accept this postulate with all its logical consequences, how far must we give up or modify religious doctrine ? This is a ques- tion which the scientist is entirely incompetent to answer, and which, so far, the theologians have utterly failed to answer in a satisfac- tory way. It is one on which the evolutionists differ as widely as others. We may contribute a single suggestion toward an an- swer, by stating what we conceive to be the relation of the scien- tific postulate to design in Nature, premising that our views have here no scientific weight whatever, and that they are put forward only because the subject is neglected by those who are more com- petent. That there is no antagonism between the scientific postulate and the abstract doctrine of design in Nature is an opinion which the writer has repeatedly expressed, both in these papers and else- where. The abstract doctrine alluded to may have various forms. It may be supposed that the whole course of Nature is ultimately to converge toward some end which we are still unable to foresee, but which is completely planned out from the beginning ; or it may be supposed that everything in Nature was designed to be exactly as it has been and as it will be. In these and allied views there is no- thing to conflict with the scientific postulate nothing, in fact, which has any relation to it. But when we inquire whether we know what these ends of Nature were and are whether we can use such knowledge in the scientific explanation of the course of Nature, or whether the latter can be scientifically explained without reference to design we reach questions of an entirely different class. It is one thing to say that there is design in Nature, or that all things were designed to be as they are, but an entirely different thing to say that we know these designs, and are able to explain and predict the course of Nature by means of them. The scientific philosophy entirely excludes design as affording that explanation of Nature which it desires, that is, such an explana- tion as will enable men to foresee the course of Nature. It is true that until recently the theory of design did serve a certain purpose in explaining the structure of animals, and in giving that foresight vol. cxxvui. so. 271. 43 662 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. which is the requirement of science. But it was gradually found that, as a scientific theory, it wholly failed in the element of gener- ality of application, and led to greater and greater difficulties the further knowledge advanced. Finally, in the opinion of the large majority of naturalists, it was rendered entirely unnecessary by the theory of evolution, and therefore had to be dropped as a method of scientific explanation. It was maintained that nearly or quite every circumstance, which had before been accounted for on the theory of design and special creation, could now be better ac- counted for on the theory of certain permanent, natural processes, determined by invariable laws. Thus it is sought to relegate de- sign entirely to the province of the theologian, who can place it behind all natural laws, but is not to use it as a scientific theory. The relation of evolution to design may be seen in a yet differ- ent light, by regarding the scientific postulate as expressive simply of the unity of Nature with respect to plan and method. All defi- nitions of the phenomena of Nature, in general and abstract terms, such as we have used in formulating the postulate, are subject to this inconvenience : that we apprehend the meaning of the terms used only by their unconscious reference to special objects. As our ideas of a man, an animal, a metal, or a color are derived only by having special objects presented to us to which we have learned to apply these names, so the ideas which we attach to the most general philosophic terms are derived in the same manner. We may, therefore, avoid a possible failure to understand correctly the idea presented, by dispensing with general definition of the course of Nature, and considering the postulate as expressive of the doc- trine that Nature always has been what we now see it, and is in all its realms as we see it around us every day. This doctrine is some- times known under the name of mo?iism, to distinguish it from the dualistic conception of Nature, which views the latter as involving two distinct classes of causes, the natural and supernatural. Unfor- tunately, however, the term has been applied, not only to the doc- trine of the unity of Nature, but to that of the unity of mind and matter, which is an entirely different and, in some aspects, an an- tagonistic one. We have, therefore, preferred the term scientific philosophy to that of monistic philosophy, in treating of this sub- ject. Which term so ever we use, the result of the doctrine is, that there is neither more nor less of design in any one process or result of Nature than in another. It does not deny the striking harmonies EVOLUTION AND THEOLOGY. 663 cited by Dr. Clarke from Janet, but only maintains that these har- monies, like all others, are products of natural laws. It objects to making such harmonies the basis of the conclusion intended to be drawn from them. It is not that the conclusion is necessarily false, but that they are no better fitted to sustain the conclusion than are other striking harmonies which we see before us every day, and which we at once recognize as results of well-known natural laws. Without attempting to penetrate into the origin of the creative power, the doctrine maintains that this power was never exerted in any more striking manner than it is exerted before our eyes at the present time. The creation of all living beings and their adapta- tions to the conditions which surround them are results of a process which we see going on around us every day, and which depend upon laws as certain and invariable in their action as those of chemi- cal affinity or of gravitation. It sees throughout Nature a certain life-evolving power which shows itself in various forms, as heredi- ty the continual increase of life the vis medicatrix naturae. If you ask, Whence this power ? it replies, Whence gravitation ? whence the chemical properties of matter ? whence Nature itself ? It sees this life-evolving power exerted in a certain relation to sur- rounding circumstances, so that every form of animal life has a ten- dency to adapt itself to those circumstances. All life not adapted to its surroundings is necessarily destroyed, thus leaving only what is so adapted. Thus Nature is viewed as one grand whole, the basis of which is involved in mystery in every direction, and which the scientist studies simply to understand the relation of its phenomena. Everything which lies behind or above this he leaves for investiga- tion by other methods than those with which he is conversant. Such is the highest generalization of the scientific thinker re- specting the method of Nature. Is it only a daring flight of the imagination, and its supposed foundation on observed facts only an idol of the tribe, which a rigorous logic will show to be entirely without justification ? This is a scientific question which may yet loom up into greater importance than it has heretofore. Is it con- sistent with religious truth ? This is a question for theologians, and one which we hope they will answer a little more boldly than they now do. Simon Newcomb. VIII. THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. The discovery, in 1848, immediately after its annexation to the United States, of deposits of gold of marvelous richness in Califor- nia, created an excitement hardly less universal and intense than that which followed their first discovery in the New World. Cali- fornia was another Mexico and Peru, far richer than these in its mineral wealth, and far more inviting in its geographical position, in its general aspects, as well as in climate and in soil. The new State, with its harbor of unrivaled excellence, was mistress of the Pacific, a name the synonym of everything mysterious and grand; it fronted the great empire whose population makes up more than one half of the human race, and which, with all the fabulous wealth of the Indies, was now to be brought into immediate connection with our own. Our new Pacific possession, whose area exceeded that of some of the most powerful kingdoms of the Old World, and whose wealth of minerals and soil was generously thrown open to the en- terprising and adventurous of all nations, became almost instantly by magic, as it were a State of first-rate magnitude and impor- tance. Between the Pacific and Atlantic slopes, however, there was no geographical relation whatever. Between them were vast moun- tain ranges, penetrated by no navigable watercourses, and oppos- ing impassable barriers to commerce; and which could be crossed only by daring but feeble bands of pioneers, sufficient neither in numbers nor in wealth to found populous and prosperous commu- nities. The new State had to be reached, if reached at all, by the long, expensive and unhealthy routes by way of Panama and Cape Horn. The obvious mode of uniting the two slopes the two widely separated geographical systems of the continent was by railroads, the marvelous capacities of which were then beginning to be understood. To the construction of such works an insuper- THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 665 able obstacle was opposed by the attitude of the Federal Govern- ment. For nearly 2,000 miles the route lay through the public do- main. According to the popular construction of the Constitution a construction of almost equal force with the Constitution itself the nation was incapable of aiding such works, or even of granting charters for their construction. So far from being able to add to its means of well-being by a liberal exercise of its powers, never was there a more helpless and incompetent organization than the Gov- ernment of the United States at that time. The ardent and enthu- siastic might demonstrate, beyond question, the almost infinite im- portance of a railway across the continent; nay, might prove to the satisfaction of all that such a work was the only means by which the Pacific and Atlantic slopes could be united so as to form a political as well as geographical unit, and that without it the two must speedily become the seat of rival and perhaps hostile empires the traditionary policy of the Government could no more be over- ruled than the stern decrees of Destiny itself. All that the more patriotic could do was to submit to the inevitable, and picture to themselves what might have been, had the bettering of the condi- tion of the people been one of the purposes for which our Govern- ment was formed. The period of emancipation at last came. The Southern States, seeing that they could no longer wield the Government in the inter- est of slavery, determined upon nothing less than its complete over- throw. The crisis was no sooner upon it than the North, then con- stituting the Government, inferring its powers from its necessities, instinctively and instantly made a bold and masterly stroke for empire as well as for freedom. The Pacific slope was loyal, and the Atlantic, without hesitation or doubt, determined to render that loy- alty a matter of interest as well as of sentiment. On the 1st day of July, 1862, as soon as the exigency of the war would permit, Congress chartered the Union Pacific Railroad Company, committing to it the construction of a railroad from the Missouri River to the harbor of San Francisco, California; making at the same time a grant to it of its bonds to be issued at the rate of $16,000, $32,000, and $48,000 per mile, and in ratio to the cost of the several sections to be built; the bonds to be secured by a first mortgage on the road, to bear interest at the rate of six per cent., and to be payable in thirty years. In addition, an absolute grant was made of all the odd sections of land (640 acres) within twenty miles of each side of the line, or 12,800 acres to the mile of road. Similar provisions were made in THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. favor of the Central Pacific of California, a company previously- chartered by that State, and which, by the act referred to, was authorized to enter upon the construction of the western portion of the main line, and proceed easterly till it met that of the Union Pacific Company. By the terms of the act, the corporators of the Union Pacific Railroad Company (the Central Pacific being already organized under the laws of California) met at Chicago on the 1st day of Sep- tember, 1862, for the purpose of forming a provisional organization, and electing as officers a president, treasurer, and secretary, who were charged with the duty of procuring subscriptions to the amount of $2,000,000 to the capital stock of the company, upon which, at the time of subscribing, ten per cent, was to be paid. The officers elected for such purpose were William B. Ogden, of Chi- cago, President, Thomas W. Olcott, of Albany, N. Y., Treasurer, and the writer of this article (then of New York) Secretary. The officers so chosen immediately began a canvass for subscriptions to the stock, which was diligently pursued till the 25th of September, 1863, when, after great effort, the required amount was obtained. Pursuant to the provisions of the charter, a Meeting of the sub- scribers was then called for the 27th of October following, for the purpose of effecting a permanent organization of the company. At this meeting the Hon. John A. Dix was elected President, the Hon. John J. Cisco, Treasurer, and the writer of this article, Secre- tary. Although the amount ($2,000,000) of stock necessary to the per- manent organization of the company was obtained, and*ten per cent, paid in, there was still a general indisposition on the part of the subscribers to make any further payments ; the terms of subscrip- tion creating no obligation therefor. The feeling prevailing in all circles, at the time, in reference to the enterprise, was well expressed by the Hon. J. S. Morrill, of Vermont, then a member of the House of Representatives, in a speech in opposition to the measure, in which he said : I am not to be deceived by any promises that this is to be built and run by any other parties than the United States. Every dollar that it takes to construct the road is to be contributed by the United States. There is not a capitalist that will invest a dollar in it if he is to be responsible, for any con- siderable distance. ... If it could be constructed, it could not be kept in operation except at the expense of the Government. If this road were built to-day, therefore, and given to the United States, the United States are not THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 667 in a condition to accept it, even as a gift, if compelled to run it ; nor will they be till the population has so far increased as to give the road some freight and some local business. As a commercial and economical question such road is utterly defenseless.* Mr. J. H. Campbell, of Pennsylvania, chairman of the commit- tee which reported the bill for the road, in a speech in its support, said : This road never should be constructed on terms applicable to other roads. Every member of the House knows that it is to be constructed through almost impassable mountains, deep ravines, cafions, gulfs, and over sandy plains. The Government must come forward with a liberal hand, or the enterprise must be abandoned for ever. The necessity is upon us. The ques- tion is, whether we shall hold our Pacific possessions and connect the nations on the Pacific with those on the Atlantic slopes, or whether we shall abandon our Pacific possessions. Gentlemen are not to apply ordinary rules concern- ing roads in the Western States to this great enterprise.t The enterprise was indeed hazardous in the extreme. Vast wastes, nearly 2,000 miles in extent, were to be traversed, of which the far greater part was rainless, and consequently destitute of wood. The rich deposits of coal upon the central portions of the line, without which, if built, the road could hardly have been run, were not then known. Three lofty mountain ranges had to be crossed, presenting obstacles far more formidable than those ever encountered by any similar work. For nearly 1,500 miles the line was elevated more than 4,500 feet above the sea. At the time the road was chartered, no railroad had been constructed within 200 miles of its eastern terminal point, which was nearly 1,500 miles distant from the Atlantic coast. The whole material for the super- structure, excepting that for the wood-work of both roads, had to be taken from the Eastern States, or from England ; that for the Central Pacific to be transported 12,000 miles by sea before reaching San Francisco, the western terminus of this road. The officers of the provisional organization shared in the prevailing sen- timent, and appealed, in their canvass for stock-subscriptions, to the patriotism rather than the capital of the country, to come forward and save the charter which otherwise would lapse, in the belief that the Government would make such further provision as would en- * "Congressional Globe" second session, Thirty-seventh Congress, p. 1708. f Ibid., p. 1712. 668 TEE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. able private enterprise and capital to undertake the work with some reasonable hope of success. As the law stood, not a dollar of the Government subsidy could be made available, as forty miles of the road was to be constructed as a condition precedent to the issue of a proportional amount of bonds. These, when issued, were to have, by way of security, preference over all others. Nothing, conse- quently, could be done pending further action of Congress, but to make surveys to determine the route proper to be adopted. The exigency was promptly met, Congress passing, on July 2, 1864, an act which provided for an issue of bonds by the companies of an equal amount to those to be issued by the Government, the former to have precedence by way of security. Such provision practically doubled the means of each company, securing to the Union Pacific fully $50,000 per mile in place of $25,000 as pro- vided in the original act ; and to the Central Pacific a still larger sum per mile, from the greater cost of its line. With the means so provided both companies fell manfully to work, constructing the whole line within a period of a little more than five years, joining their lines on November 6, 1869, in the heart of the continent ; the Union Pacific constructing 1,034 miles and the Central Pacific, starting from Sacramento, 743, and anticipating by eight years the time allowed therefor by the act of 1864. The following statement will show the number of miles con- structed annually by each company, and the total mileage for each year : YEARS. Miles construct- ed by Union Pacific. Miles construct- ed by Central Pacific. Total construct- ed annually. 1865 40 265 245 350 134 56 38 44 362 243 96 1866 303 1867 289 1868 712 1869 377 1,034 743 1,777 The road of the Central Pacific was subsequently extended from Sacramento to San Francisco, a distance of 140 miles ; the total length of line from the Missouri River to that city being 1,917 miles ; and from the harbor of New York, 3,322 miles. Its general direction is almost exactly east and west, very nearly upon the parallel of 40, and very nearly upon that of New York, Chicago, Salt Lake City, and San Francisco. THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 669 When the obstacles encountered are considered, the rapidity with which the Pacific Railroad was constructed has no parallel in the history of any work of the kind. The line crosses three lofty mountain ranges, the Rocky, the Wasatch, and the Sierra Nevada the first at an elevation of 8,240 feet, the second at an elevation of 7,500 feet, and the third at an elevation of 7,042 feet above the sea. The summit of the Rocky Mountains was reached by a com- paratively easy ascent, 516 miles west from the Missouri ; that of the Sierra Nevada at a distance of 125 miles from tide-water at Sacramento. When the base of this range was reached, 31 miles from Sacramento, the average ascent to the summit equaled eighty- three feet to the mile. At numerous points it was much more rapid. The eastern face of the Sierra Nevada is exceedingly pre- cipitous, and is everywhere broken by deep ravines or canons, in- volving in the construction of the road numerous and expensive tunnels and bridges. A most formidable obstacle to the running of the trains was snow, which, during the winter season accumu- lates in the passes to a depth of thirty feet. To avoid this ob- struction, forty miles of line had to be inclosed in sheds. Another great difficulty, after this range was crossed, was the want of water upon the lofty and arid plains between it and the summit of the Rocky Mountains. The Sierra Nevada, the summits of which reach an altitude of 12,000 feet, arrest the passage inland of rain- bearing clouds, and condense their moisture on its western face. Upon the Great Plains the water necessary for running the trains had often to be transported long distances, till wells could be sunk and the water raised through the instrumentality of windmills and steam-engines; yet, in face of all these obstacles, such were the vigor and capacity with which the work was pushed that, in 1868, 712 miles of road were constructed and put in operation, or nearly two and a third miles for each working-day, and that, too, in the very heart of the continent, in which there were no people except scattering settlements of Mormons, the road itself being the only means by which labor, materials, and supplies could be brought forward for its own construction. The road was no sooner opened, than its value to the Govern- ment proved to be far greater than the most sanguine had ventured to predict. According to the report of the Secretary of War, made under date of March, 1862, the average cost to the Govern- ment for the five years previous, of transporting the mails, troops, 670 THE NORTE AMERICAN REVIEW. and munitions of war between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and intermediate points averaged $7,309,341 annually. The route for the mails was by way of Panama and Nicaragua, through foreign states ; the time required for their transmission between New York and San Francisco averaged forty days. The cost to the Government for a far greater amount of service of the same kind performed by the railroad does not now exceed $2,000,000 annually. The yearly saving, assuming the service not to have been increased, equals $5,309,431 ; the total, for the nine years the road has been in use, equaling $46,547,155. The interest accruing on the bonds issued to the two companies equaled, during the same period, $30,750,316. The saving that will be effected previous to their maturity will ex- ceed the whole amount of their principal sum, and all the interest accruing on the same. But such saving is by no means the only nor perhaps the chief advantage resulting directly to the Govern- ment from the construction of the road. The facility with which troops can, by its use, be thrown either upon the Pacific or into the interior of the continent, relieves it from the necessity of maintain- ing permanently large bodies of them at points likely to be menaced. The road, in fact, supplies the place of a very considerable standing army, with all the vast expenditure and evils resulting from such an establishment. The superiority of the Pacific Railroad over all other highways may be well illustrated by the results of two memorable expeditions across the continent. In 1804 the Government of the United States determined upon an exploration of its Pacific possessions, then just acquired through the purchase of Louisiana. In the early part of May of that year, an expedition known as Lewis and Clarke's, organized under its auspices, and furnished with all the means and material it could supply, started for the Pacific coast, taking the route of the Missouri and Columbia Rivers. The point of departure was St. Louis. The first season only sufficed for it to reach the Mandan villages upon the upper Missouri ; the next to cross the mountains and reach the Pacific coast, near the mouth of the Columbia River, where it passed its second winter. Eighteen months were consumed in reaching the Pacific coast. It reached St. Louis, on its return, on the 23d of September, 1806, having been absent nearly two and a half years. For more than two years no tidings whatever had been received from it, and for more than a year it had been given up for lost. THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 671 On the first day of June, 1876, an expedition under the auspices of Mr. Thomas A. Scott, President of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, started from the city of New York, 1,200 miles east of St. Louis, for San Francisco, and reached that city in eighty-three hours and fifty-three minutes consecutive running time, the distance be- tween the two cities being 3,322 miles. The weight of the train was 126 tons. The rate of speed for the whole distance, including stops, equaled forty miles the hour. The distance between New York and Pittsburg, 444 miles, was run by one engine (without stopping) in ten hours and five minutes; that between Pittsburg and Chicago, 469 miles, in eleven hours and thirty-one minutes; that between Chicago and the Missouri River, 494 miles, in eleven hours and thirty min- utes; that between Council Bluffs and Ogden (the western termi- nus of the Union Pacific road), 1,034 miles, in twenty-four hours and fifty minutes ; that between Ogden and San Francisco, 883 miles, in twenty-three hours and thirty-eight minutes. The route was across four formidable mountain ranges: the Alleghanies, at an elevation of 2,250 feet above the sea ; the Rocky Mountains, at an elevation of 8,242 feet ; the Wasatch, at an elevation of 7,500 feet ; and the Sierra Nevada, at an elevation of 7,042 feet. Meals were regu- larly served in one of the cars. Another was divided into commo- dious sleeping-apartments ; so that the party traveled with every luxury the best public-house could supply, and reached San Fran- cisco with no extraordinary fatigue. No more striking illustra- tion can be given of the progress in the science of locomotion, and none of the value of the Pacific Railroad as an instrument of commerce and social intercourse, and as an arm of the Government. With the use of the telegraph, time is no longer an element in the transmission of intelligence between the Atlantic and Pacific slopes. With the railroad, a day will now accomplish, in the transmission of persons and merchandise between them, that for which, within the memory of man, a year would hardly suffice. At a comparatively early period the movement of the population inland of the United States necessarily followed the line of navigable watercourses, not only as a means of reaching new lands, but of sending their products to markets which were either upon the Atlan- tic coast or in the Old World. Where such natural avenues did not exist, canals were for a long time regarded as their proper substitute. These works gradually gave place to railroads. A canal could not be constructed across the continent; neither could a railroad, at the 672 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. time, without the aid of the Government. The railroad accom- plished, a million square miles of new territory which had been pre- viously inaccessible was at once opened to the enterprise and capi- tal of the country. They were no sooner made accessible, than it was discovered that the sterility of the soil was fully compensated by their wealth in the precious metals. To reach these deposits branch lines were speedily opened, the resources of the sections traversed supplying, in great measure, the means therefor. These laterals have already a mileage threefold greater than that of the main line. But this is by no means all: no sooner was the construc- tion of the Pacific Railroad assured, than great numbers of lines were projected, in all the extreme Western States and Territories, for the purpose of forming a connection with it. The following statement will show the area of these States, the present extent of the mileage of their railroads, the construction of which is in great measure due to that of the Pacific Railroad, and the progress of such mileage, with that of their population, from 1860 to the present time: Area, Sq. Milet. RAILROAD MILEAGE. POPULATION. 1860. 18TO. 18T. 1800. 1870. 18*9. 88.531 65,046 81.818 75,994 104,500 150,928 84,476 104,125 188,982 95,274 97,888 69,994 73i 28 1,092 2,688 1,501 705 157 65 257 598 925 159 459 2.532 4,825 2,521 1.341 1,288 305 506 681 2,165 284 465 206 275 172,028 674,918 107,206 28,840 34,277 4. 32 7 40:278 6,857 879.494 52,465 11,594 489,706 1.1 94.020 864,399 122,998 89,864 14.181 4 -.4:11 680347 90,928 9.118 23,955 760.000 . 750,000 8O0.00O Kansas 120,000 75,000 130,000 Utah 100,000 California 1 120,000 -SIMM K) 60,000 Total 1,192,045 754 | 8,596 16,794 1,512,769 2,988,688 4,885,000 The States included in the preceding statement have an area of nearly 1,200,000 square miles, embracing almost every variety of climate and of agricultural and mineral resource. The greater part of it has been opened to settlement by the Pacific Railroads and their laterals. Its population now numbers only four to the square mile. The ratio of its railroad mileage to population is one of the former to 290 of the latter. The conditions here presented show the almost infinite room and opportunity still before our people. Extensive portions of this territory can be cultivated by irrigation, the lofty summits sending down an abundant supply of water. The greater part of what was once supposed to be worthless for agricul- THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 673 ture, and which can not be irrigated, is found to be admirably- adapted to grazing, and is being rapidly occupied for this purpose, the Government allowing its use to the first comers without charge till it can be sold. These lands are rapidly to become the great seat for the production of wool on this continent, and promise, in a very short time, to compete with the Australian product in the markets of the world. The spring rains are sufficient for abundant crops of grass. Nowhere else can wool be so cheaply grown. There is no charge for lands. The animals require no provision nor protection for winter, while transportation can now be had at rates which, a few years ago, would have been considered as merely nominal. The chief attraction, however, at the present time, of the great region traversed by the Pacific Railroad, is its mineral wealth. The first discoveries of silver within it were made in 1859. At that time the total product of the United States equaled only $200,000 an- nually. The product the past year equaled $46,720,314, of which $41,311,677 was from the States and Territories tributary to the Pacific Railroad. The following official statement, by the Superin- tendent of the Mint will show the product of gold and silver in them for 1877 and 1878 : California... Nevada Utah Colorado Oregon Washington Dakota Total. . , 1877. Gold. $15,000,000 13,000,000 850,000 3,000.(100 1,000,000 800,000 2,000,000 $39,050,000 Silver. $1,000,000 '26,000,000 6,076,000 4,500,000 100,000 50,000 1878. Gold. $15,260,670 19,r>46.513 892,000 8,366,404 1,000,000 800,000 8,000,000 $36,725,000 | $42,865,596 Silver. $2,878,337 28,180380 5,288,000 5,894,940 100,000 25,000 $41,311,677 The total amount of gold and silver produced in the United States in 1877, according to the same authority, equaled $84,050,- 000, of which $45,100,000 was gold, and $38,950,000 was silver. The amount produced in 1878 equaled $93,952,421, of which $47,226,107 was gold, and $46,726,314 was silver. The product of the United States for 1878 equaled one half that of the world ; that of the territory opened by the Pacific Railroad for the past year equaled $84,176,273, or nearly one half of the product of the world. The rapid increase in the product of silver in the United States is one of the remarkable phenomena of modern times. Since the discoveries of silver in 1859, its total product in the United 674 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. States has equaled $356,367,103. It seems not improbable that the product for the next five years will amount to an equal sum. These figures have great significance from their bearing upon the much- vexed question as to the probable future price of silver. The fall in its value may be readily accounted for by the enormous increase of the product in this country. The same influence is to act with far greater force in the future. With the free coinage of gold, no more silver can be forced into circulation in this country ; so that what- ever is produced in it, not required in the arts, must be exported. Nothing has contributed more to the financial or monetary in- dependence of the United States than its enormous wealth in the precious metals. In 1876 the Government began to make prepara- tions for resumption of specie payments, which by the act of 1875 was to take place on January 1, 1879. On the first day of January, 1876, the total amount of gold and silver in the national Treasury equaled $79,824,448 ; on the first day of January, 1877, $96,517,- 418 ; on the first day of January, 1878, $139,518,405, and on the first day of January, 1879, when specie payments were resumed, $224,865,477, the accumulations in three years equaling $145,041,- 029 ; during the same period the exports of specie over imports equaled $13,324,963. Resumption can be accomplished in the United States without drawing a dollar from the hoards of the Old World, and without creating any disturbance in its financial circles, or a matter of great importance to us diminishing its power to con- sume the products of our agricultural and manufacturing industries. It is the peculiar felicity of the United States that not only does the increase of its population, which is at the rate of one million annually, tend to afford, from a correspondingly increased consumption, a speedy relief to industries whose production, for the moment, has exceeded the demand ; but that the vast area of its territory, possessing every variety of resource, everywhere made accessible, and everywhere capable of being turned to account by labor unassisted by capital, as readily if not as profitably as where the two are combined, exerts a constant influence to draw off the excess of numbers from our overcrowded communities. It is im- possible to estimate sufficiently the value of such a beneficent influ- ence or condition. With us, the greatest evils to which modern civilization is subject work out their own cure. Self-dependence, another word for independence, which our condition begets, not only saves us from a vast amount of indigence and vice, but tends THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 675 to keep alive a manly spirit among our people. No sound man among us feels that he can plead, as an excuse for want, our govern- ment, our institutions, or the oppressions of capital. He can readi- ly transplant himself to some plot of government land, his entry giving him the right to acquire the title at a price which is hardly more than nominal, and for which the first crop will ordinarily suf- fice. While the Old World is vexed by questions of labor, and industries are destroyed by constant strikes, there never was a pe- riod in this country when so many opportunities opened to labor and capital as the present, and never one in which the material being of our people was so well assured ; the chief factor in all this being our crowning achievement in the physical sciences the Pa- cific Railroads. These roads were no sooner opened than their financial success was as striking as were the advantages which they secured, both to the Government and to the people. California had at the time be- come a rich and prosperous State, the value of her agricultural prod- ucts far exceeding that of her mines. San Francisco had become the center of a vast trade. It is and must always be the grand entrepot for the whole western coast of the continent. It is to that coast what New York is to the eastern. It is only thirty years since it was founded, and it now contains a population of 250,000. No city has greater elements of prosperity or a more promising future. With all that has been achieved, only a lodgment has yet been made upon the western slope of our continent. The Pacific islands are still in the hands of their original savage populations. The trade with China, with the Eastern Archipelago, and with Australia, great as it is, is yet in its infancy. For this trade, to which there is to be hardly a limit, the Pacific Railroad is the avenue to the interior of our continent and to the Atlantic coast. Already does the Mississippi Valley receive its teas and silks and other products of the East over it. The " through " freight over the roads last year equaled nearly 200,000 tons. The way freight of both roads, consisting largely of high-priced ores, equaled last year 1,000,000 tons. This kind of freight is increasing with great rapidity, keeping pace with the discovery of new deposits which is constantly being made, and with the enlarged working of the old mines. The following statement will show the length, cost, and the gross and net earnings of the two roads from their opening to the present time : 676 TEE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. UNION PACIFIC. CENTRAL PACIFIC. YEARS. Ltngffc of line worked. Cost. Gross earn- ings. Net earnings. Length of line worked. Cost. Gross earn- ings. Net earnings. 1870.... 1871.... 1872.... 1873.... 1874.... 1875.... 1876.... 1877.... 1878.... 1S79.... Miles. 1,034 1,084 1,084 1,083 1,088 1,088 1,038 1,042 1,042 1,042 $106,762,812 112,396,812 112,001,512 111,620,812 112,843,812 115,767,812 115,355,612 115,019,012 114,69-\01'2 114,186,812 $8,125,212 7,563,006 8,659,081 10,666,117 10,884,661 12,481,204 *7,786,'578 1^.776.714 12,756,354 +7,128,S08 $1,889,880 8,793,843 8,260.007 5,184,391 5,441,826 6,481,688 3,088,807 8,817,091 6,642,946 4,44ft,623 Miles. 821 997 1,158 1,221 1,216 1,218 1,218 1,218 1,213 $12S,217.180 128,810,180 134,715,180 186,465,180 136,962,180 187,521.180 137.588,180 187.016,180 187,000,000 $7,488,970 8,662,054 11.963,640 12,863,640 18,611,080 15.665,081 15,811,088 16.9^5.926 17,580,658 33,774.951 5,021,251 6.952.361 7. -94.6-1 7,611,012 5,525,823 t 99,712,670 48,548,084 120,582,281 62,959,671 All the controversies that have so far arisen between the Gov- ernment and the railroad companies relate to the loan to them of money or bonds. The loans were by their terms to be due in thirty years. No part of the interest was due till the bonds were due. They were to be secured by a second mortgage on the respective roads. The Government, as consideration for the loans, was to retain one half of the transportation charges on its account, and five per cent, of the net earnings of the companies, to be applied to any purpose it saw fit. It is needless here to repeat the argument urged at the time, or to restate the emergency. Congress would have the road at any cost. If necessary, it would have made its loans a present outright to secure an object so much desired. It would gladly have agreed to forego all repayment could it have been assured that the line would have been completed in 1869 instead of 1877, the time fixed for opening it by the act of 1864. Instead, however, of inquiring what might have been, let us see what is now the legal status of the companies. No sooner was it seen that the road was to be a success, and its owners likely to receive some return upon their investment, than Congress began to show a disposition to repudiate the contract into which it had solemnly entered. On the 3d day of March, 1873, it passed a law directing the Secretary of the Treasury to make no payments to the companies on account of Government transporta- tion, in order that the whole amount might be applied to the pay- ment of its loans. It had the grace, however, to permit the bringing of a suit by the companies, in the Court of Claims at Washington, to test the question of the rights of the two. This court gave judgment against the Government for the sum of 8512,632, being * For eight months. f For six months ending January 1, 1879. THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 677 one half of the charges for transportation on its account for 1874, the period covered by the suit. From this decision an appeal was taken by the Government to the Supreme Court of the United States, which fully affirmed the action of the court below. A sin- gle quotation of ten lines from a very elaborate opinion by Mr. Justice Bradley is all that need be given for a full and complete understanding of the whole matter in controversy : The proposition for the Government to retain the amount due the com- pany for services rendered, and apply it toward the general indebtedness of the company to the Government, can not be construed into a requirement that the company shall pay the interest from time to time and the principal when due. It was in the discretion of Congress to make this requirement, and then, as collateral to it, provide a special fund or funds out of which the principal obligation could be discharged. This Congress did not choose to do, but rested satisfied with the entire property of the company as security for the ultimate payment of the principal and interest of the bonds delivered to it. In other words, Government having made the Company a loan of money on thirty years, can not change the contract so as to make it payable in one year. It is bound, like an individual, by what it has undertaken, and is, like an individual, subject to the restraints and requirements of law, as determined, not by itself, but by the Supreme Court of the United States. The act which authorized a suit on behalf of the company against the Government, also directed the Attorney-General to bring a suit on behalf of the latter against the former, for the pur- pose of recovering back moneys alleged to have been wrongfully received by parties connected with the construction of the road the real purpose being to overhaul the famous " Credit Mobilier," that terrible raw-head and bloody-bones whose flagitious conduct so shocked the moral sense of members of Congress, the action of which in this matter makes one of the most striking and discredit- able chapters in the legislative history of our country. I have already shown that those who undertook the construction of the Pacific Railroad were leaders of a forlorn hope. To be con- nected with it was enough not only to imperil one's money, but to forfeit one's reputation for business sagacity. It was natural, there- fore, that those engaged in such a chimerical scheme should seek some mode by which they could define and limit the degree of their liability. In casting about them, they came across a charter granted by the State of Pennsylvania, incorporating a " construction " com- pany, in which the liability of its incorporators was limited by vol. cxxvin. no. 271. 44 678 THE NORTE AMERICAN REVIEW. the number of their shares. This charter was secured, and a por- tion of the Union Pacific road built through its instrumentality. There was nothing whatever improper in the purpose which led to the use of this intermediary nothing improper in its use. The result, fortunately, showed such use to have been wholly unneces- sary. The stockholders of the Union Pacific would have risked nothing by becoming full partners in the work of construction. The enterprise was an entire success. Every person to whom a cent was owing was fully paid. Not a dollar was made by parties interested in the road by the use of the " Credit Mobilier," that would not have been made without it. As things turned out, it would have been better had it never been resorted to ; but neither in motive nor in act should such resort have reflected the least dis- credit upon the parties to it. Nor was there anything in its opera- tions that might not have properly been laid open to the light of day. So much for a great scandal which was no wrong till made such by the fear, the jealousy, or something worse, of Congress, which, by its utterly groundless attacks and insinuations, lashed the whole nation into a paroxysm of passion almost as fierce and as groundless as that occasioned by the famous Titus Oates's Popish plot, which, for a time, deprived the people of England of all sense and reason, and led them into excesses which rendered the name of their authors the synonym of criminality and folly, and left an in- delible stain on the age in which they occurred. To the suit brought by the Government in the Circuit Court for the District of Connecticut, all connected with the " Credit Mobi- lier " or the Union Pacific, that could be reached, were made parties. Legal ingenuity was exhausted in framing charges, the act giving the widest tether possible. The world, of the United States at least, was racked for evidence to criminate the defendants. No sooner, however, was argument had in the Circuit Court, than the Government the plaintiff was politely bowed out of it, on the ground that no cause of action whatever had been shown or even alleged. The defendant owed it nothing. An appeal was taken to the Supreme Court of the United States, with the same result, that tribunal reiterating its previous decision that the controversy arose out of a contract for money ; that this contract, which had been kept by the defendant, had been violated by the plaintiff ; and that the latter had no cause of action, and no standing before it. Government having been foiled in the suit brought by the com- THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 679 pany, the decision in which covered the whole ground of contro- versy, it would have been supposed that Congress, pending the action it directed to be brought, would have quietly awaited the result. Instead of this, it took the law into its own hand, and on the 8th of May, 1878, passed the famous " Thurman Bill," which, among other things (section 4), provided that There shall be carried to the credit of the said (sinking) fund (created by this act) on the first day of February in each year the one half of the com- pensation for services hereinbefore named, rendered for the Government by the said Central Pacific Railroad Company, not applied in liquidation of in- terest ; and, in addition thereto, the said company shall, on said day in each year, pay into the Treasury, to the credit of said sinking fund, the sum of $1,200,000, or so much thereof as shall bo necessary to make the five per centum of the net earnings of its said road payable to the United States, un- der said act of eighteen hundred and sixty-two, and the whole sum earned by it as compensation for services rendered for the United States, together with the sum by this section required to be paid, amounting in the aggregate to twenty-five per centum of the whole net earnings of the said railroad com- pany, ascertained and defined as hereinbefore provided, for the year ending on the thirty- first day of December next preceding. The preceding provision was by a subsequent section made appli- cable to the Union Pacific Company. The penalty for not making payment of a debt before it was due was the forfeiture of the char- ters of the companies, although that of the Central Pacific was de- rived, not from the United States, but from the State of California ! The act in effect said to the companies that, " unless you pay your debts before they are due, your charters, with all your rights, priv- ileges, and property, shall be taken away," involving, perhaps, the entire loss of their investments by the unsecured bond-holders, without whose contributions the roads could not have been built, and which added an equal amount to the value of the Govern- ment security, which, without such contributions, might not have had the value of a dollar ! Such are Congressional ideas of fair play ! Fortunately, the will of Congress is not the law of the land. That will is made to depend upon a power higher than its own. When an individual violates a law of the Government, the latter can punish him only through the instrumentality of a court of law. It must proceed in the same manner when it would punish one of its own creatures a corporation. It may allege an offense, but this is all. By virtue of such corporation, capital may have been invested which Government can no more disturb or seize than it can that of an individual. It " may add to, alter, amend, or repeal 680 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. the charter of the Union Pacific Railroad Company, having due re- gard to the rights of the latter." Who is to pass upon these rights ? Certainly not a party to them. Congress is not a court of law. A declaration by it that the charter of this company was forfeit would not necessarily carry any greater legal force against it than a^similar declaration by the Parliament of Great Britain. Should Congress declare its charter to be forfeit, and, with no other warrant, proceed to act in the premises, it or its agents would be instantly restrained by a power higher than its own. We need not, however, enlarge upon this point by recapitulating rules or principles familiar to every tyro in the legal profession. The Thurman Bill was simply a gross and unwarranted assumption of power. It assumed to constitute Congress a judicial as well as a legislative tribunal, and that too in open violation of the Constitution. Its framers, in sepa- rating the two by vesting in the Supreme Court the authority to declare what is law, had in their minds a contingency precisely like the present. But for their wisdom we should be living under a des- potism of caprice or passion, or something worse ; not under the be- nign reign of law. The Thurman Bill, should it stand, is anarchy is revolution. If not the first, it is the most fatal stab which, in this country, social order and the rights of property have yet received. Henry V. Poor. P. S. The preceding article was sent for publication before the decision was had in an action to which the Central Pacific was party, and which presented the question of the constitutionality of the Thur- man Bill. The ink which recorded the solemn declarations of the Supreme Court in the two preceding cases, that Government could not, until it was due, enforce the payment of a debt due to it, was hardly dry, before these declarations were disavowed by the very tribunal which uttered them ; the Court in the latter case holding that, under the provision authorizing the amendment of the charter of the company, the Government could enforce the payment of a debt before it was due ! It could take every dollar of the net earn- ings without reserving a cent for the unsecured bondholders, with- out whose money it could not have had adequate security for its loan. If possible, the Supreme Court has shown far less sense of justice and consistency than Congress itself. There now appears in this Government to be no barrier to the reckless exercise of self- will, passion, caprice, or lust of power on the part either of its executive or legislative departments. IX. CURRENT LITERATURE. 1. Smith's Carthage and the Carthaginians. 2. Seeley's Life and Times of Stein. 3. De.Broglie's Le Secret du Roi. 4. Sime's Lessing. 5. Howells's The Lady of the Aroostook. There is a strange fascination in what may be called the victims of history in those vanquished and extinguished nations whose literature perished with them, or is suffered to molder in the dust of labyrinthine libraries. In such cases the generous and truth- seeking student feels himself impelled to hold a brief for the de- feated and discredited party, to scrutinize the indictment, and dis- sect the evidence brought forward by the stronger side with pecu- liar wariness, and, whenever ground for it may be discerned, to in- terpret shortcomings and explain untoward facts from the most lenient and favorable point of view. Such an attitude was taken by Conde, whose " Dominacion de los Arabes y de los Moros en Espana " drew for the first time from Arabic sources and in Ara- bic colors the story of the prolonged triumph and the long agony of the Spanish Moslems. A like service for the disinherited of history was attempted by Gustave Flaubert, when he gave some years of his life, and the singular power of synthesis and divina- tion revealed in Madame Bovary, to the resurrection of Cartha- ginian life and the portrayal of the father and the sister of Han- nibal. In " Salambo " all the faint and scattered rays cast by history and archaeology on the social and domestic aspects of the Punic world, and on the personal fortunes of the house of Barca are condensed into a focus, and made to infuse a notable degree of warmth and vitality into the romancer's pages. What was needed, however, was a comprehensive history written in the same sympa- 682 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. thetic spirit, and with the same cautious treatment of Roman asser- tions, and this has at last been furnished, or rather a creditable effort has been made in this direction, by Mr. Bosworth Smith, the author of a well-known work on " Mohammed and the Mohamme- dans." * Whether the native literature of Carthage has indeed utter- ly perished, or whether part of it may survive, at least in the form of Arabic translations, can not be determined with absolute certainty, so long as the great repositories of manuscripts thought to exist in Fez and Morocco are wholly unexplored. The rich contents of the Carthaginian libraries were turned over by the Romans to Xumidian chieftains, and it appears that Sallust had some of these books in his hands a century afterward. That certain of them may have outlived the Roman and the Vandal periods, until northern Africa once more was conquered by a Semitic race, and may then have tempted the Saracenic scholar amid the intense fever of research which fired the schools of Cairwan and of Fez, is, at all events, not impossible. Meanwhile the jejune and partial accounts known to have been written by Greek or Roman authors have, for the most part, come down to us only in fragments. Of these the most cov- eted document, namely, the pro-Carthaginian narrative of the first Punic war, by Philinus, a Greek of Agrigentum, we know only from some criticisms of Polybius. This chronicle, however, and the lost books or fragments of the other alien historians who treated of the western Tyre, may yet come to light, and complete the pic- ture, such as it is, which the Greek colonists in Sicily or the Romans who had tested for themselves the patience of Hamilcar, and felt the weight of Hannibal's arm, could form or chose to paint of their redoubtable antagonists. There are still extant the text of three treaties with Rome, the log-book of an adventurous Punic admiral, some precepts of an African agriculturist, a speech or two of a vagabond Carthaginian in one of Plautus's plays, a few inscriptions buried twenty feet below the surface of the ground, and lately dis- lodged by the efforts of archaeologists, and a few coins whose numis- matic value is questionable. These, with some aqueducts and sub- structions too massive to be destroyed, are the only native or semi- native sources from which the story of the great Phoenician empire city can be constructed. The writings of no native analyst, orator, philosopher, or poet, enable us to know Carthage as we know Athens * Carthage and the Carthaginians. By R. Bosworth Smith. London : Longmans, Green & Co. CURRENT LITERATURE. 683 or Rome ; that is to say, from its own citizens. Mr. Bosworth Smith is, of course, constrained to eke out his narrative from a few chapters of reflections by Aristotle, who describes a state of things extinct at the date of the Punic wars from the late Roman chroni- clers who saw everything with Roman eyes and from a few anti- quarian remarks of the Greek historian Polybius, who beheld Car- thage only at the moment of her fall, and was the comrade of her destroyer. Mr. Bosworth Smith concedes that a universal Carthaginian Em- pire could have done for the world, " as far as we can see," nothing comparable to that which the Roman domination did for it. But perhaps we can not see far enough. At all events, the author's ad- mission seems to have been made pro formd ; for we find it sub- stantially effaced by a multitude of counter-considerations adduced in the course of the narrative. The inability of Carthage to as- similate or even to cultivate, to any sensible extent, her Berber subjects proves nothing ; for the race has shown itself equally intractable in Roman, Vandal, Arabic, and French hands. On the other side may be set some significant facts. That the earlier frame of government compelled the esteem of Aristotle we know ; and that the subsequent administration of affairs by the Council of One Hundred was more wise and equitable than that of the Ro- man Senate seems to be attested by the almost total absence of popular insurrection, or of insubordination on the part of military leaders. As to the lenity of the Carthaginian rule in Sicily, we have the decisive testimony of Greek subjects who refused to mi- grate into the Syracusan territory. Certainly we should look in vain for such vouchers of just dealing with Sicilians on the part of the countrymen of Verres. The character of the Carthaginian policy in Spain is demonstrated by its extraordinary success, which pre- sents the most suggestive contrast to the prolonged and bloody record of the Roman efforts at annexation. Only twice, in fact, has the unfortunate Iberian Peninsula known the stimulating bless- ings of just government, and it owed them in each case to Semitic rulers, the chiefs of the house of Barca sharing with the Ommyade princes of Cordova the honorable distinction. Perhaps the most striking tribute ever extorted from prejudice and rancor was the judgment pronounced by Cato the Censor, who, remarking the great public works which had survived the Punic commander, and the reverence which kept him in still livelier remembrance, declared with surly emphasis that " there was no king like Hamilcar." We 684 TEH NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. may add that the charges leveled at the Carthaginian character are most of them refuted by the admissions or the contradictions of their enemies ; and that, if we consent to regard the overwhelming preponderance of evidence, fides Homana, and not Punic faith, should have become a synonym for oath-breaking. When we weigh these fragmentary but pregnant data wrung from reluctant witnesses, we can not but regret that Sallust, who had access to the Carthaginian books preserved by King Hiempsal, could not forget, or venture to brave, Rome's inextinguishable prejudices. When the historian of the Jugurthine war reaches the point where he would naturally re- cite the story of Carthage, it is with a touch of sadness, not unmixed apparently with shame, that he stays his pen. "Of Carthage," writes Sallust, " I say nothing, for I deem it better to speak no word about her than to say too little." ii. The creation of a German nation on the dual basis of unity and parliamentary institutions is plainly the most impressive and mo- mentous phenomenon of our time, but for its interpretation the Eng- lish student needed just such a work as Professor Seeley has now completed.* Any discussion of the events which, since 1866, have aggrandized the house of Hohenzollern, musts needs be sterile, any estimate of the social questions now perplexing the German people must prove the idlest word-shuffling, unless the last dozen years are illumined and deciphered by the reforms accomplished, the prin- ciples established, and the movements begun in the first quarter of this century. Only by such a retrospect can we account for the splendid results of Sadowa and Sedan as distinguished from the un- substantial fruits of Leuthen and of Rossbach. Only thus can we explain the prompt acceptance of Prussian hegemony, the irresisti- ble drift toward fusion on the part of long-segregated states, and the peremptory demand for constitutional guarantees and local-self- government. To changes likewise in the structure and regulation of the Prussian commonwealth introduced more than sixty years ago we must look for the secret of the conditions under which, strangely enough, not France but Germany has become the classic ground of Socialism. In a word, German politics of our day can have no significance to him who knows little or nothing of German politics in the hour of the national uprising. Without Stein, Bis- marck is inexplicable. * Life and Times of Stein, by J. R. Seeley. Boston : Roberts Brothers. CURRENT LITERATURE. 685 The Germans are accustomed to colossal accumulations of data strung together on the thread of an eventful life indeed, the volu- minous work nominally devoted to Baron Stein by Pertz is a notable instance. But, with the exception of Masson's " Life of Milton," we know of no English biography comparable with Professor Seeley's book for comprehensiveness of design and abundance of material. It is not so much a memoir of the Prussian statesman as a history of Germany throughout the turbulent and pregnant years from 1806 to 1822. Indeed, the requirements of his theme compel the writer to keep in view the political situation of the whole of Europe at that epoch, seeing that the fortunes of the Napoleonic system turned on Germany as on a pivot, while the subsequent settlement of that country was the superlative concern of the Congress of Vienna. No one who has felt the want of a sufficiently wide and adequate treatment of that critical era in a single English book will regret the extensive scope given to the present undertaking. Professor Seeley is disposed to set Stein on a higher plane of greatness than that on which the judgment of his contemporaries placed him ; but probably the majority of German Liberals, at the present day, would accept the writer's estimate. Of course, no in- dividual brain can be supposed to have supplied the whole impulse, much less the whole momentum, of any great popular upheaval, but it seems clear that Stein stood in a much more generative and dynamic relation toward the reconstructive nisus of Germany than did any single leader of the States-General or the Convention toward the French Revolution. And here we may point out some of the capital marks of likeness, and equally decisive marks of dif- ference, between Stein's reforms and the changes effected by the first republic in the political and social fabric of France. In the field of legislative melioration there is a complete parallel up to a certain point. By the abolition of serfdom and the obliteration of all hard and fast lines of status, Stein bestowed a healthy power of circulation and growth upon the political organism. A conclusive proof of the new tendencies is the gradual partition of the land among peasant proprietors, a process which has been carried to con- siderable lengths in Germany, though not yet so far as in France. That he strenuously favored responsible government for the whole Confederation is well known, as also that he considered it less essential in the separate affairs of Prussia. Within certain limits he followed the French Convention in its perilous extension of cen- tralization theories, and he was more amply justified by his situa- 686 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. tion, dealing as he did with a loose congeries of provinces owning no common tie except the duty of obedience to the same dynasty. It is, however, the specific merit of his system that he introduced a powerful corrective to centripetal forces by the creation of mu- nicipal franchises on a great scale. Thus, at the very time when the habit and even the conception of local self-government seemed to be vanishing in France, it was impregnably rooted in north Germany. Therefore it is. that Stein's reforms, like the evolution of English liberties, having begun at the bottom, were builded on broad and sure foundations ; while in France the work of recon- struction, beginning at the top, was and is in constant danger of disturbance and overthrow. As we have said, Stein's fame was to be chiefly posthumous. When he died in 1831, at the age of seventy-four, there was no such universal sense of bereavement among his fellow countrymen as might have been looked for at the departure of one who should be called the founder of the modern German nation. The great men of the Fatherland were still poets and philosophers, or else they were kings. It had been a rare, exceptional case when Stein himself, in 1808, had for a moment excited popular enthusiasm ; otherwise no one had ever heard of a German statesman who was more than a mere official, or whose death could much concern the general weal. It was reserved for Bismarck to change this, and to reflect a part of his own glory on the sterling worth of his pre- cursor. in. The volumes of secret correspondence published by the Due de Broglie,* if they did not actually prompt, go far to justify the view taken of Louis XV., by Victor Hugo in his "Pitie Supreme." The name of the monarch credited with the aphorism, Apr&s moi le dklage, was even more closely identified, in common repute, with weakness than with vice, and his extravagant sensuality has been deemed rather the index and complement than the cause of his political ineptitude. The testimony to his natural gifts and the relatively effective training which he was said to have received seemed to be discredited by the irreconcilable facts of his later life, and the seemingly complete surrender of oversight and authority in affairs of state to the adroit purveyors for his brutal appetites. It is now known, however, and we owe the information in a distinct^ conclusive form to the Due de Broglie, that the son of the Due de Le Secret du Roi, par le Due de Broglie. Paris : Calmaiin-Le>y/ CURRENT LITERATURE. 687 Bourgogne discovered to the last some traces in his plans and intentions of his high-minded father, that for twenty years there was no move on the diplomatic chess-board, no change in the map of Europe, which was not scanned, pondered, and discussed in the King's private cabinet by men unknown, or at all events unf eared, by the reigning favorites and responsible ministers, yet commanding the King's confidence in not infrequent moments of good impulse and generous aspiration. It is, indeed, a curious fact that what the unstable sovereign should so long have taken pains to mask from the world was the best side of his character. While he aban- doned the public exercise of power to courtiers and concubines, he seems to have continually cherished an inchoate purpose of self- government, and to have sought in secret the frank and austere counsels of able and honest men. In their society and under the seal of communications in cipher the comrade of the Du Barry, and the patron of the Pare aux Cerfs, struggled with a pitiable persist- ence to keep alive the sentiment of personal dignity, and a linger- ing regard for the public weal. Thus it is that the Due de Broglie's book derives a singular interest from the contrast between the giddy demonstrations of license and frivolity on the public stage and the fitful whispers of good sense, probity, and patriotic ardor that are breathed behind the scenes. By a strange paradox the record of intrigue and indecency, all the piquant details of scandal circulated in the " (Eil de Bceuf " are marshaled in the foreground of history, on the surface of the King's life, whereas the mysterious transactions and clandestine machinations laid bare in his secret papers disclose capabilities, designs, and sympathies of unsuspected scope and dig- nity. The documents now brought forward and deciphered by the Due de Broglie are substantially new, although fragments had been printed, and although the existence of the correspondence was sus- pected during the lifetime of the monarch interested. But the object of the mysterious business, the nature of the King's secret, with which these papers were concerned, seems to have been quite unknown to contemporary historians, nor were they always able to identify the confidants and instruments of his clandestine projects. It is sufficiently attested, however, by these volumes that the most trusted and efficient among the King's unavowed agents was the Comte de Broglie, great-uncle of the compiler, and brother of that Marechal de Broglie who will be remembered as the victor over the Prussians in the battle of Berghen. His handwriting appears in 688 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. many of the papers now unearthed from the archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and many of the data disclosed in this corre- spondence are verified, supplemented, or interpreted by his private letters. The manner, by the way, in which the bulk of these in- teresting documents came into the hands of the Government is well worth mention. They seem to have been minutes of inter- views and instructions taken down by the Comte de Broglie as vouchers for his authority, perhaps without the knowledge of the King, and confided to some faithless depositary, who sold them after the Comte's death, and when the emigration had scattered his whole family. By 1810 they had come into the possession of a well-known antiquarian, one Giraud Soulavie, who offered them to Napoleon I., and they were subsequently purchased of his heirs for four thousand dollars. The authenticity of the papers seemed to be well established, but no satisfactory explanations could be obtained at the time from Soulavie touching the source of his acquisition. Heretofore, the worst taint on the memory of Louis XV., from a political point of view, has been the indifference of France to- ward the dismemberment of Poland. It has been supposed that the French sovereign had neither the perspicacity to discern the plot while it was preparing, nor the courage to prevent its execution, and the editor of these volumes justly remarks that the abandonment of an ancient ally to flagitious mutilation betrayed an amount of folly and poltroonery which a spirited and sagacious nation has not yet learned to forgive. Of the two reproaches leveled at the French ruler, it is clear from these pages that only one is fairly chargeable upon him, though its elimination doubtless aggravates the other. The misfortunes of Poland were no surprise to Louis XV. Con- trariwise, that unhappy country formed the principal and for some years almost the sole object of his industrious though sterile diplo- macy. It seems to have long been the mission of the secret agents to arrange for the accession of a French prince to the Polish throne, with the supplemental purpose of bestowing the protection of France. Regarded in this light, the clandestine machinations here disclosed become a species of monument to the upright intentions at least of Louis XV., while at the same time they attest the incurable infirmity of his character. He came, we must bear in mind, in col- lision with the most astute and dexterous statesman of his century. Frederick II. had devised the partition of Poland as a means of reconciling and employing conflicting ambitions, and of converting CURRENT LITERATURE. three rivals into three accomplices. We may add that another mysterious phenomenon in eighteenth-century politics, the Franco- Austrian alliance, which is commonly referred to the spite of Ma- dame de Pompadour and the weakness of Louis XV., is quite other- wise accounted for by a recent work of high authority. We refer to the revelations contained in the " Memoires et Lettres du Car- dinal de Bernis," whose publication lately followed that of the Due de Broglie's book. It appears that it was Frederick II., and not the French Ministry, who took the initiative in the rupture between France and Prussia, and who was really responsible for the Seven Years' war. Returning to the volumes under review, we may state that the mass of materials is admirably assorted and disposed, and happily illumined with interjected note and comment. We need not say that the style is marked by the lucidity of exposition and felicity of epithet that justified the author's admission to the Aca- demie Francaise, and which we might reasonably expect would prove hereditary gifts in a grandson of Madame de Stael. IV ' Bancroft Lif>r If any man doubt whether Englishmen of the present genera- tion are less insular, if not wiser, than were their fathers, let him read in the " Edinburgh Review " for April, 1806, the criticism on " Nathan der Weise." That masterpiece is there pronounced " as genuine sourkraut as ever perfumed a feast in Westphalia." From such grotesque indifference toward a regnant name in German let- ters we can not but recognize an impressive advance in the discrim- inative and exhaustive survey of the man and of his works pre- sented in Mr. Sime's " Life of Lessing." * In the interval, however, of three quarters of a century, the appreciation of that writer in Germany itself has been signally widened and intensified. During his lifetime Voltaire altogether eclipsed him, and, for a season after his death, Goethe, Schiller, Kant, and Fichte overshadowed his kin- dling fame. Even the perfunctory labors which absorbed much of his time and energies were ill paid. At a date when contempo- rary quill-drivers were earning handsome sums in London and Paris, he sought in vain to win the means of subsistence from hack-work in literature. Well known he was, but his notoriety was due, perhaps, quite as much to acrimonious controversies as to the eager, unquestioning homage of competent opinion. "Minna von Barnhelm," for example, which Lessing's countrymen still wit- * Lessing, by James Sime. Boston : James R. Osgood & Co. 690 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. ness with so much pleasure, was regarded by Goethe as a meteor whose brilliance would soon fade. So late, too, as 1830 Goethe wrote of "Emilia Galotti," which has been translated into half a dozen languages, and still keeps the boards, that the only respect due to it was "that belonging to a mummy which may give evidence as to the high dignity of the dead." Kant, who was by five years the senior of Lessing, and who became a sort of supreme arbiter in aesthetic science, seems never to have even read the "Laokoon," whose direct or mediate influence on European thought has certainly been noteworthy. And even " Nathan der Weise," the ripest fruit of the author's genius, and now an unchallenged gem of the Ger- man theatre, could not be produced until two years after Lessing's death, and even then was played to an empty house on the third night. Of all his compositions, indeed, the notices of plays pre- pared for a Hamburg newspaper under the name of "Hanibur- gische Dramaturgie " attracted the promptest and widest atten- tion. It is just this collection of jottings, curiously enough, which at the present day is least read out of Germany, and the credulous student of English and American journals would be surprised to learn how many reputations have been made by dramatic critics through the patient conning and judicious culling of Lessing's hints and formulas. Upon that considerable class of English readers who would fain know something about Lessing, and ponder at first hand his ger- minal suggestions, but who at the same time lack the leisure or the patience to learn German, Mr. Sime has conferred a veritable boon. Of all the more admirable and fruitful achievements of his author he exhibits the substantive contents, the vital core of original and characteristic thought, in a condensed and denuded, but perspicu- ous and accurate form. The summaries, for instance, of the " Laokoon " and the " Hamburgische Dramaturgie " are particularly lucid and complete. As regards Lessing's plays, the biographer could, of course, offer nothing more than an analysis of the plot, coupled with some indications of the dramatist's felicity in por- traiture, and a reference to the scope and purpose of the piece. From the other works philosophical, polemical, and occasional so much has been drawn as seemed requisite to interpret the writ- er's personality and his precise attitude toward the intellectual movement of his country and his time. Mr. Sime has worked on the sound principle pf allowing his subject to expound himself, and so far as possible in his own words. No doubt, such a method has CURRENT LITERATURE. 691 constrained him to expand his book to somewhat unusual propor- tions, owing to the extraordinary range of Lessing's acquisitions and inquiries. The result is not so much a biography as an endur- ing monument of critical exposition. These volumes constitute the first adequate tribute paid by an English student to one of the most fecund, vigorous, and unconventional thinkers of the eighteenth century. Lessing's hold, indeed, upon posterity can hardly fail to prove more tenacious than Voltaire's, for in the former the revolu- tionary instinct was united with the constructive faculty. These tendencies, so seldom found in association, had at their command an intellect of splendid strength and flexibility an instrument, moreover, that obeyed the impulse of the two noblest passions, a love of truth for its own sake, and an undying love of man. v. "When it was remarked of an accomplished Bostonian that he gave you the impression of a sick Englishman, the key-note was struck of a movement which has already borne wholesome fruit in literature, and is not unlikely to exert a bracing influence on the national character. The criticism, by the way, was by no means leveled at the local affectations of a particular community : it was an argument a fortiori ; it recognized in the society of a given city more successful adepts in imitative efforts practiced elsewhere with considerable assiduity ; and the rejoinder was obvious that it is better, as regards robustness, genuineness, and elevation of type to resemble an invalid Englishman than, let us say, a moribund Gaul or a con- sumptive Italian. Of late, Mr. Howells and Mr. James have under- taken to interpret the profound concern and secret uneasiness of American society touching the judgment of foreign observers ; to portray its studious approximation toward the English diction and point of view, and to indicate the shortcomings in the most pains- taking reproduction. So far as their transcripts of life stopped short with the exposure of deficiencies and the dissipation of illu- sions, they were fraught with the delightful pungency but also with the sterility of satire. They pointed out in an effective and cap- tivating way the more or less diverting failures to solve a certain problem, but they did not squarely pose the fundamental query, whether the problem, after all, is worth solution. It is because Mr. Howells has gone much further in his latest work because he has not only disclosed the inevitable miscarriage of t^e Anglicizing aim, but has laid bare the mental obliquity of such a purpose, as well 692 THE NOBTH AMERICAN REVIEW. as the species of moral torpidity entailed by it that we are led to pronounce " The Lady of the Aroostook " * the most virile, healthful and estimable achievement in recent American fiction. It is the scope and lesson of Mr. Howells's new novel to which we would especially direct attention. It would be superfluous to dwell on the artistic gifts which have been attested and developed by successive experiments, on the power of sharp characterization and the constructive skill too seldom found united in English novels, or on the Protean forms of a humor that knows no sting, but is now condensed into a grateful, subacid irony, now sublimated to a mild aroma. All these are the recognized professional qualifica- tions, so to speak, of the advocate who has consented to hold a brief in the cause of American ideals, manners, and diction, versus English formulas and standards. But we ought to glance at the artist's thorough mastery of the subject-matter at his exhaustive and wellnigh irreproachable exhibition of the models whose au- thority he disputes. If any American can reproduce the English speech in precise conformity to the idiom sanctioned by the best London society, it would seem to be Mr. Howells. This he had already demonstrated, and he offers cumulative proof in the book before us. As regards the main texture of the story, where the author speaks in his own person or through the mouths of those whom he means to be authentic exponents of right colloquial use, we can note but three insignificant marks of inadvertence. Once, we light on the word " stylishness," employed as an equivalent to the last century term " modishness," for which we believe a paraphrase is now employed in Belgravia. So, too, the verb " to keep," which, if we are not mistaken, is always transitive or reflex- ive, is used in accordance with a New England idiom in such a phrase as " I can not keep from doing it." To these trivial over- sights may be added the occasional employment of " won't " for the third person singular of the future indicative in the negative conjuga- tion. Against these microscopic slips maybe set the most complete and curious catalogue of American solecisms and archaisms that has ever in our recollection been collected in a work of fiction. The pre- texts and devices, by means of which the writer contrives to float these curiosities of our Yankee tongue on the swift movement of his story, are most dexterous and satisfactory. With these revelations * The Lady of the Aroostook. By W. D. Howells. Boston : Houghton, Osgood &Co. CURRENT LITERATURE. 693 are adroitly interwoven suggestions of all those English words and turns of phrase most calculated to startle and depress the modest American whose energies are given to the secret and patient meliora- tion of his native speech. To this end the author introduces two distinct types of the semi- Anglicized Bostonian. On the one hand we have the young man who, as yet unenlightened by foreign travel, essays to make good his loss by minute research, painstaking syn- thesis, and cautious divination who ransacks English novels, note- book and pencil in hand, and drinks with hungry ear the colloquial droppings of British tourists. Ascending one step in the scale of oral accomplishment, we have the traveled Bostonian who has man- aged not only to remodel in a large measure his vocabulary, but has even superadded some tricks of intonation exercising, moreover, these acquisitions with a facility which might seem second nature but for a strong infusion of self-complacency. When, beside these types of successive degrees in approximation is placed the genuine thing itself namely, a well-born Englishman, possessed too of a ma- nia for exploring the mysteries of the American language from the point of view of the philologist we can not but acknowledge the perfection of Mr. Howells's machinery for evolving the points of likeness and difference in the British original and its Boston counter- part. After this demonstration of his perfect right to pronounce judg- ment in the premises, Mr. Howells silently inculcates through the action of this story and by the eloquence of example his conviction that the imitative attitude is essentially abortive and inane. To this end he is careful riot to choose for his heroine a daintily-nur- tured and closely-environed girl like Miss Bessie Alden, or even an affluent but ill-schooled and frivolous young person whose trans- gressions after all might be confined to occasional walks with mas- culine companions in the public thoroughfares of European cities. He has boldly grappled with the most awkward and unpromising materials ; he has selected a young woman whose social status may be precisely though crudely defined by the epithet "a Yankee schoolmarm," and he has placed her, not in a foreign town with her kinfolk within call, but on shipboard not only unchaperoned, but utterly unprotected, without a relative on board or another person of her own sex in the ship's company. Among her fellow passen- gers are two more or less Europeanized Bostonians, and a third quite obnoxious individual, properly described in the British dialect as an acutely accented specimen of the genus "Cad." Such are vol. cxxvni. no. 271. 45 694 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. the elements of the situation presented in the cabin of the Aroos- took ; and it must be admitted that the objectionable features of our indigenous social code are here exhibited in an intensely aggra- vated f orm,. In a word, this is an extreme case ; and, if Mr. How- ells has succeeded in subverting the prejudice provoked in some of her fellow passengers by the unconventional isolation and colloquial deficiencies of Miss Lydia Blood, he will have gone far to stem the Anglicizing mania. He will have done much to rehabilitate the robust, unsuspicious simplicity of our native manners, and to pro- mote that decisive act of social autonomy suggested by the late Mr. Motley, namely, the affirmation of a distinct American language, and the adoption of independent canons of speech. Mayo W. Hazeltine. x. % WILL ENGLAND RETURN TO PROTECTION? 132 Piccadilly, London, April 25, 1879. My dear Sir : I have no difficulty in replying to your letter of the 31st ult. I do not think there is any chance of a return in this country to the doctrine of Protection. We export everything but agricultural produce ; to protect our manufactures is manifestly impossible ; from another cause, the protection of our land produce is not more possible. Half our population exists on imported food ; to limit this import by customs duties, in order to raise the price of home- grown food, is a proposition that can not be entertained for a mo- ment. Such a scheme offered to Parliament and the country would destroy any Government and any party. We are passing through a time of commercial depression ; its causes are apparent to those who examine and consider the facts of recent past years. But, in times of trouble, ignorant men seize upon unlikely and impossible propositions and schemes for relief. There is no special medicine for this malady. Time, patience, the work- ing of natural laws, the avoidance and cessation of the excitement and half madness of the past, and a general economy, will bring about a cure, not without some or much suffering, but without failure. We adopted free trade in the year 1846. But our land-owners and farmers, and multitudes of our people, did not comprehend the principles we taught, and now a new generation is on the stage, ill- acquainted even with the facts of forty years ago. There has been no great distress since our Corn Law was abolished ; and now, when trouble has come for a time, some of the sufferers, and some of the quack doctors who are always ready to prescribe for the public, cry out for protection, as if we had never tried it before, and as if it had been found a specific in other countries. 696 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. There is no danger of our going back to protection. The pres- ent trouble will pass away. It has been aggravated by the evil policy of our Government, and that also will pass away ; and the simpletons jvho are looking for relief to an exploded doctrine and practice will relapse into that silence and obscurity which become them. It is a grief to me that your people do not yet see their way to a more moderate tariff. They are doing wonders, unequaled in the world's history, in paying off your national debt. A more moder- ate tariff, I should think, would give you a better revenue, and by degrees you might approach a more civilized system. What can be more strange than for your great free country to build barriers against that commerce which is everywhere the handmaid of free- dom and of civilization ? I should despair of the prospects of mankind if I did not be- lieve that before long the intelligence of your people would revolt against the barbarism of your tariff. It seems now your one great humiliation ; the world looks to you for example in all forms of freedom. As to commerce, the great civilizer, shall it look in vain ? Believe me very sincerely yours, John Bright. A. TnoENDiKE Rice, Esq., New York. The above letter, as will be seen, was written in reply to one from the editor of the " Review" asking Mr. Bright's opinion as to the nature and extent of the alleged movement in England looking to a readoption of the protective system. Mr. Bright having kind- ly volunteered his permission, we take great pleasure in giving this interesting communication to the public. Editor. PUBLICATIONS KECEIYED. Deutsche Geschichte im neunzehnten Jahrhundert. Von Heinrich von Treitsche. Erster Theil. Bis zum zweiten Tariser Frieden. Leipzig: Ver- lag von S. Hirzel. 8vo, pp. 790. Journal of a Tour in Marocco and the Great Atlas. By Joseph Dalton Hooker, K. C. S. I., C. B., and John Ball, F. R. S., M. R. I. A. With an Appendix, including a Sketch of the Geology of Marocco. By George Maw, F. L. S., F. G. S. London : Macmillan & Co. 8vo, pp. 499. Wanderings in Patagonia, or Life among the Ostrich-Hunters. By Ju- lius Beerbohm. New York: Henry Holt & Co. 16mo, pp. 294. A History of the Mass and its Ceremonies in the Eastern and Western Church. By Rev. John O'Brien, A. M. New York : The Catholic Publica- tion Society. 12mo, pp. 414. HaecheVs Genesis of Man ; or, History of the Development of the Human Race ; being a Review of his Anthropogenic, and embracing a Summary Expo- sition of his Views and of those of the Advanced German School of Science. By Lester F. Ward, A. M. Philadelphia : Edward Stern & Co. 8vo, pp. 64. VAssommoir: A Novel. By Emtle Zola. Translated from the French by John Stirling. Philadelphia : T. B. Peterson & Brothers. 16mo, pp. 380. An Accomplished Gentleman. By Julian Sturgis. New York : D. Ap- pleton & Co. 24mo, pp. 258. Ruslcin on Painting. With a Biographical SJcetch. New York : D. Ap- pleton & Co. 24mo, pp. 210. The Ages before Moses : A Series of Lectures on the Boole of Genesis. By James Monro Gibson, T>. D. New York : Anson D. F. Randolph & Co. 12mo, pp. 258. Health of John Bull, Esq. By George Langlands, F. R. C. P. E. H. Dundee : Printed by James P. Mathew & Co. 12mo, pp. 47. Falconberg. By Hjalmar II. Boyeson. New York : Charles Scribner's Sons. 12mo, pp. 287. Gleanings of Past Years, 1843-'78, 1851-'77. By the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M. P. Vol. III., Historical and Speculative : Vol. IV., Foreign. New York : Charles Scribner's Sons. ; 16mo, pp. 273, 365. The Disturbed Condition of the Country : its Cause and the Remedy. In Three Parts. By James W. Green. Washington, D. C. : W. H. Moore, Printer, 8vo, pp. 52. 698 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. Progressive Japan : A Study of the Political and Social Needs of the Em j>ire. By Genebal le Gendbe. San Francisco : A. L. Bancroft & Co. 8vo, pp. 370. Willoughby. By Edwaed F. Haywaed. Boston : W. B. Clarke. 12mo pp. 130. The New Tendencies of Political Economy. By Emile de Laveleye New York : Office of the " Banker's Magazine and Statistical Register." 8vo pp. 27. Notes by a Naturalist on the Challenger, being an Account of Various Ob servations made during the Voyage of H. M. S. Challenger round the World in the Tears 1872-1876, under the Commands of Captain Sir G. S. Nares R. N, K. C. B., F. R. S., and Captain F. T Thompson, R. N. By H. N, Moseley, M. A., F. R. S. London : Macmillan & Co. 8vo, pp. 620. An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, arranged on an Historical Basis. By the Rev. Walteb W. Skeat, M. A. Part I., A Dor. Oxford : At the Clarendon Press* Royal 8vo, pp. 176. Renaissance in Italy. The Fine Arts. By John Addington Symonds. New York : Henry Holt & Co. 8vo, pp. 550. The Art of Figure- Drawing, containing Practical Instructions for a Course of Study in this Branch of Art. By Chaeles H. Weigall. Edited by Susan N. Caetee. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 16mo, pp. 53. Thoughts on the Religious Life. By Joseph Alden, D. D., LL. D. With an Introduction by William Cullen Bey ant. 16mo, pp. 129. Proposed Legislation on the Adulteration of Food and Medicine. By Ed- waed R. Squd3b. New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. 12mo, pp. 57. The Secret of Success ; or, How to Get On in the World, with some Re- marks upon True and False Success, and the Art of making the Best Use of Life. By W. H. Dayenpoet. Adams. New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. 12mo, pp. 389. Communism in America. By Heney Ammon James, B. A. New York : Henry Holt & Co. Royal 8vo, pp. 86. Faith and Rationalism, with Short Supplementary Essays on Related Topics. By Geoege P. Fisheb, D. D. New York : Charles Scribner's Sons. 12mo, pp. 188. Rudder Grange. By Feank R. Stockton. New York : Charles Scrib- ner's Sons. 16mo, pp. 270. Conference Papers ; or, Analyses of Discourses, Doctrinal and Practical ; delivered on Sabbath Afternoons to the Students of the Theological Seminary, Princeton, N. J. By Chaeles Hodge, D. D. New York : Charles Scribner's Sons. 8vo, pp. 273. INDEX TO THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-EIGHTH VOLUME OF THE $Lovtf) Umivitun liriHcu) Absent Friends, 493. " Accountant." Mysteries of American Railroad Accounting, 135. Appropriations and Misappropriations, National, 572. Blaine, J. G. Negro Suffrage, 225. Blair, Montgomery. Negro Suffrage, 262. Books Reviewed, 97, 212, 326, 438, 681. Boutwell, George S. Substance and Shadow in Finance, 74. Bright, John. Will England return to Protection? 695. Bryce, L. S. A Plea for Sport, 511. Byron, Lord, A Friend of, 388. Campaign Notes in Turkey, 462. Census of 1880, 393. Chamberlain, D. LI. Reconstruction and the Negro, 160. Cities as Units in our Polity, 21. Clarke, J. F. Law and Design in Nature, 557. Conduct of Business in Congress, 113. Cook, Joseph. Law and Design in Nature, 548. Crane, T. F. Mediaeval French Literature, 213. Cruise of the Florence, 86. Cryptography in Politics, 315. Current Literature : Smith's Carthage and the Carthaginians; Seeley's Life and Times of Stein ; De Broglie's Le Secret duRoi; Sime's Lcssing ; Howells's The Lady of the Aroostook, 681. Edmunds, George F. The Fishery Award, 1. Education of Freedmen, 605. Edwards, Jonathan, his Philosophy, 284. Election Laws, Our, 449. Empire, The, of the Discontented, 174. Evolution and Theology, 647. Finance, Substance, and Shadow in, 74. Fisher, George P. The Philosophy of Jonathan Edwards, 284. Fishery Award, The, 1. Forests, The Preservation of, 35^. Freedmen, The Education of, 605. Friend, A, of Lord Byron, 388. Frothingham, 0. B. Absent Friends, 493. Garfield, J. A. National Appropriations and Misappropriations, 572. Garfield, J. A. Negro Suffrage, 244. German Socialism in America, 372, 481. Greene, F. V. Campaign Notes in Tur- key, 462. Hampton, Wade. Negro Suffrage, 239. Hardaker, M. A. Hartmann's " Religion of the Future," 434. Hare, W. H. Introduction to Young Jo- seph's Narrative, 412. Hartmann's " Religion of the Future," 434. Hassard, John R. G. Cryptography in Politics, 315. Hazeltine, Mayo W. Current Literature, 681. Hendricks, T. A. Negro Suffrage, 267. Hendricks, T. A. Retribution in Politics, 337. Hoar, George F. The Conduct of Busi- ness in Congress, 113. Howgate, H. W. The Cruise of the Flor- ence, 86. Howgate Expedition, its Scientific Work, 191. Hughes, T. Public Schools in England, 352. Indian, An, his Views of Indian Affairs, 412. James, H., Jr. A Friend of Lord Byron, 388. Joseph, Young. An Indian's Views of In- dian Affairs, 412. Lamar, L. Q. C. Negro Suffrage, 231. 700 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. Latin Language, Pronunciation of the, 59, 405. Law and Design in Nature, 537. Literature, Recent Miscellaneous : Weisse's Origin, Progress, and Destiny of the English Language and Literature ; Holmes's John Lothrop Motley; Con- way's Demonology and Devil-Lore; Kemble's Record of a Girlhood; Ty- ler's History of American Literature, 438. Martin, William R. Cities as Units in our Polity, 21. McCosh, J. Law and Design in Nature, 558. McCrary, G. W. Our Election Laws, 449. McDonough, A. R. Recent Miscellaneous Literature, 438. Mediaeval French Literature: Aubertin's Histoire de la Langue et de la Litterature Francaise ; Gautier's Epopees Fran- caises ; Sepet's Drame Chretien ; Q-uiU laume de Palerne, etc., 213. Miles, Nelson A. The Indian Problem, 304. Mon Testament, 565. Moore, Thomas. Unpublished Poems, 15. Morton, H. Recent Progress in Applied Science, 526. Muller, Max. Sacred Books of the East, 631. Mysteries of American Railroad Account- ing, 135. National Appropriations and Misappropri- ations, 572. Negro, The, ought he to be Disfranchised ? ought he to have been Enfranchised? 225. Newcomb, Simon. Evolution and Theolo- gy, 647. Newcomb, Simon. Law and Design in Nature, 537. Notes on Recent Progress in Applied Sci- ence, 526. Oswald, Felix L. Preservation of For- ests, 35. Our Election Laws, 449. Pacific Railroad, The, 664. Phillips, Wendell. Negro Suffrage, 257. Philosophy of Jonathan Edwards, 284. Plea for Sport, 511. Politics, Retribution in, 337. Poor, Henry V. The Pacific Railroad, 664. Porter, David D. Secret Missions to San Domingo, 616. Porter, Noah. Law and Design in Na- ture, 543. Preservation of Forests, 35. Price, Bonamy. Stagnation in Trade and its Cause, 587. Pronunciation of the Latin Language, 59> 405. Protection, Will England return to ? 695. Public Schools in England, 352. Publications Received, 111, 221, 335, 446, 697. Railroad Accounting, American, Mysteries of, 135. Retribution in Politics, 337. Recent Fiction : Trollope's Is he Popenjoy ? James's The Europeans ; James's Daisy Miller ; Black's Macleod of Dare ; Bur- nett's That Lass o' Low-Tie's, 97. Reconstruction and the Negro, 160. " Russian Nihilist." The Empire of the Discontented, 174. Russian Novels and Novelists of the Day : Diary of a Sportsman ; Smoke ; I r irgin Soil ; Childhood and Youth ; War and Peace ; Anna Karenina, 326. Sacred Books of the East, 631. San Domingo, Secret Missions to, 616. Schools, Public, in England, 352. Science, Applied, Recent Progress in, 526. Scientific Work of the nowgat Expedi- tion, 191. Sensationalism in the Pulpit, 201. Sherman, O. T. Scientific Work of the Howgate Expedition, 191. Shevitch, S. E. Russian Novels and Nov- elists of the Day, 326. Socialism, German, in America, 372, 481. "Solid South," The, 47. Stagnation in Trade and its Cause, 587. Statesman, A, of the Colonial Era, 148. Stephens, Alexander H. Negro Suffrage, 240. Story, W. W. Pronunciation of the Latin Language, 59, 405. Stowe, Harriet Beecher. The Education of Freedmen, 605. Substance and Shadow in Finance, 74. Taylor, Richard. A Statesman of the Colonial Era, 148. Taylor, William M. Sensationalism in the Pulpit, 201. Theology, Evolution and, 647. Trade, Stagnation of, and its Cause, 587. Turkey, Campaign Notes in, 462. Unpublished Fragments of Moore's " Lit- tle" Period, 15. Voltaire, Francois Marie Arocet de. Mon Testament, 565. Walker, F. The Census of 1880, 393. Watterson, H. The " Solid South," 47. White, Richard Grant. Recent Fiction, 97. Will England return to Protection ? 695. THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. EDITED BY ALLEN THORNDIEE BICE. VOL. CXXVIII. Tros Tyriusque mihi nullo discrimine agetur. NEW YORK: D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 549 & 551 BROADWAY. 1879. COPYRIGHT BY ALLEN THORNDIKE KICE. 1879. CONTENTS OF VOL. CXXVIII. PAGE The Fishery Award. By George F. Edmunds, U. S. Sen- ator 1 Unpublished Fragments of the " Little " Period. By Thomas Moore 15 Cities as Units in our Polity. By William R. Martin 21 The Preservation of Forests. By Felix L. Oswald, M. D. 35 The "Solid South." By Henry Watterson . . .47 The Pronunciation of the Latin Language. By W. W. Story 59 Substance and Shadow in Finance. By George S. Bout- well 74 The Cruise of the Florence. By Captain H. W. Howgate, U. S. Army 86 Recent Fiction : Trollope's Is he Popinjoy ? James's The Europeans ; James's Daisy Miller ; Black's Macleod of Dare ; Burnett's That Lass o' Lowrie's. By Richard Grant White 97 Publications Received Ill The Conduct of Business in Congress. By G. F. Hoar, U. S. Senator 113 The Mysteries of American Railroad Accounting. By an Accountant 135 A Statesman of the Colonial Era. By General Richard Taylor 148 iv CONTENTS. PAGE Reconstruction and the Negro. By D. H. Chamberlain 161 The Empire of the Discontented. By a Russian Nihilist 174 The Scientific Work of the Howgate Expedition. By O. T. Sherman, Meteorologist in charge . . . .191 Sensationalism in the Pulpit. By the Rev. William M. Taylor, D.D 201 Mediaeval French Literature : Histoire de la Langue et de la Litterature Francaise au Moyen Age ; Les Epopees Francaises ; Le Drame Chretien au Moyen Age ; Les Prophetes du Christ ; Guillaume de Palerne ; Les Sept Sages de Rome ; Miracles de Nostre Dame ; Aiol. By Professor T. F. Crane 212 Publications Received 221 Ought the Negro to be Disfranchised? Ought he to have been Enfranchised ? By James G. Blaine, U. S. Senator; L. Q. C. Lamar, U. S. Senator; Wade Hampton, Governor of South Carolina; General James A. Garfield; * Alexander H. Stephens ; Wendell Phillips ; Mont- gomery Blair; Thomas A. Hendricks . . . 225 The Philosophy of Jonathan Edwards. By Professor George P. Fisher, D. D 284 The Indian Problem. By General Nelson A. Miles, U. S. Army 304 Cryptography in Politics. By John R. G. Hassard . 315 Russian Novels and Novelists of the Day : The Diary of a Sportsman, and other Novels ; Smoke : a Novel ; Virgin Soil : a Novel ; Childhood and Youth ; War and Peace ; Anna Karenina : a Novel. By S. E. Shevitch . . 326 Publications Received 335 Retribution in Politics. By Thomas A. Hendricks . 337 The Public Schools of England. By Thomas Hughes, Q. C. 352 CONTENTS. German Socialism in America 372 V PAGE A Friend of Lord Byron. By Henry James, Jr. . . 388 The Census of 1880. By George Walker . . . 393 The Pronunciation of the Latin Language. Part II. By W. W. Story 405 An Indian's Views of Indian Affairs. By Young Joseph, Chief of the Nez Perces. With an Introduction by the Right Rev. W. H. Hare, D. D 412 Hartm ann's " Religion of the Future." By M. A. Har- daker 434 Recent Miscellaneous Literature : Weisse's Origin, Progress, and Destiny of the English Language and Literature ; Holmes's John Lothrop Motley ; Conway's Demonology and Devil-Lore ; Mrs. Kemble's Record of a Girlhood ; Tyler's History of American Literature. By A. R. McDonough 438 Publications Received 446 Our Election Laws. By George W. McCrary, Secretary of War of the United States 449 Campaign Notes in Turkey, 1877-78. By Lieutenant F. V. Greene, U. S. Army 462 German Socialism in America. Part II 481 Absent Friends. By the Rev. O. B. Frothingham . . 493 A Plea for Sport. By Lloyd S. Bryce . . . .511 Notes on Recent Progress in Applied Science. By Henry Morton, Ph. D., President of Stevens Institute . 526 Law and Design in Nature. By Simon Newcomb, LL. D. ; the Rev. Noah Porter, D. D., LL. D., President of Yale College ; the Rev. Joseph Cook ; the Rev. James Free- man Clarke, D. D. ; the Rev. James McCosh, D. D., LL. 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