MR. BLAINE holds no office. He has no political power. He is solemnly declared by his antagonists to be the one person who cannot be nominated for office with any chance of success. He takes no part in public affairs, and his adversaries ceaselessly proclaim that his opinions are of no consequence to any body. Why does everybody care whether his cold proves serious or not? This plain citizen, who has no part in the government of the country or in the management of parties, continues to receive more constant abuse than any other man in the United States. Not a day passes that some journal does not declare Mr. Blaine a dead man, physically or politically, or both, until one begins to wonder why he should need so much killing. Every day the vials of wrath are emptied upon him by a great array of foes, who affirm that he is the one man who cannot be elected. If so, what is the use of saying any more about him? If he is dead, let the dead rest. Mr. Blaine is a private citizen, possessed of no power whatever, save that which the liking and confidence of certain voters may give him. Why all this fuss? Because his enemies know full well that they have wronged him and wronged a majority of the voters in this country by their abuse; that the liking and confidence of the people for him is a very real and large fact; and that it is so general that, were a convention to be chosen to-day of the great party to which he belongs, all its political leaders combined together could by no possibility prevent the choice of a convention disposed to express their confidence. Nor could any citizen of that party be named for whom so great a number of the opposite party would gladly vote. The existence of that popular feeling makes some persons beside themselves with rage. But they are not shrewd enough to see that their hatred and continued abuse form one of the chief causes of the popularity which fills their souls with stormy passion. "THE INDEPENDENT ELEMENT." St. Paul Press (Rep.). It is the blindest of folly to go on ridiculing the independent element because it has helped to do some extremely distasteful things in the past. The palpable fact is that it is a power to-day, and that the Republican party must listen to its counsels or voluntarily put itself in a permanent minority. The party itself created the independent spirit. It was part of its work to teach men that they must put principle into politics; that when they went to the polls they were not merely scrambling for spoils, but fighting in a high and holy cause; that it makes a difference whether a good man or a bad man is chosen to office; that the voter must carry his conscience with him to the polls just as much as to church. It is because the Republican party taught this that it drew to itself the strong and passionate youth of the country, the men of ideas and ideals. It cannot break them now. Nor can it bind again with the fetters of an unquestioning party obedience the white voter whom it helped to emancipate from partisan bondage, any more than its opponents could again rivet shackles upon the black. The revolt in Rhode Island was deliberate, ostentatious, determined, and successful. Nobody knows where the spirit of independence will break out next, but it lies very near the surface in every Republican State. It must be consulted, it must be placated by the nomination of men of high character and lofty political principles, and not by the meat offerings of patronage, if the party is to remain a power in politics and complete its yet unended mission. "THE PARTING OF THE WAYS." Philadelphia Press (Rep.). THERE are proofs that the civil-service reformers realize that they stand at the parting of the ways, and that their path and that of Mr. Cleveland must henceforth diverge. The Boston Civil Service Record for April points out the fact that the evening-up process by which the offices were to be equally divided between the two parties had been completed last year, and that then Mr. Cleveland allowed a golden opportunity for taking the civil service wholly out of politics to slip by. It adds that since that time there has been no diminution in the rate of removal of Republicans and the appointment of Democrats, and the faith of the Record in Mr. Cleveland as a civil service reformer evidently diminishes in inverse ratio to the rapidity of the changes. The Indianapolis Freeman, the civil-service organ of the West, dropped Mr. Cleveland months ago, and has since derided every attempt to defend the sincerity of his reform promises. The daily column of praise which graced the editorial page of a Boston Mugwump organ has likewise been absent of late or sadly diluted. All these facts are evidences that there is no longer that gushing cordiality and superheated affection between Mr. Grover Cleveland and his Mugwump friends which attracted admiration more from its warmth than from confidence in its staying qualities. PRESIDENT CLEVELAND AND GOVERNOR HILL. GOVERNOR HILL has become, in spite of his enemies and calumniators, one of the most prominent figures in the Democratic party. He is still a young man, at the outset of a singularly promising career. It is not true, as his malignant enemies and persecutors assert, that he is the enemy or opponent of President Cleveland. On the contrary, the truth is that the Democratic President and the Democratic governor are in cordial accord; their relations are friendly, as those of men loyal to a common purpose should be, and the attempt to alienate either from the other is as foolish and as unsuccessful as was a similar attempt to cause division and alienation between General Jackson and Martin Van Buren. History sometimes repeats itself. Governor Hill is still a young man, and, as everybody sees, a man with a future. Van Buren's loyalty to Jackson made Van Buren President after Jackson had been elected for a second term. It is on the cards that Governor Hill may be Mr. Cleveland's successor in 1892. He would be a blunderer in politics should he now try to distract and divide his party by attempts to break down its President, whose administration he has himself declared most successful. He is not committing so great a mistake as that. He looks to the future with an honest and loyal ambition, and strengthens the hands of the President because he sees that if it remains united, faithful to its principles, the Democratic party has before it a long career of success. LINCOLN AND HILL. Atlanta Defiance (Rep.). SENATOR JOSHUA HILL was in Congress before the war, and beat Governor Joseph E. Brown for United States Senator. He is an able, powerful man, and very popular with the old Whigs. Senator Joshua Hill would command a big vote among the whites, and, added to the very heavy vote among the colored people that Lincoln's magic name would call out and poll, would make even Georgia a very doubtful State. In 1860 the Empire State of the West and the Empire State of the South battled under the same banner for Stephen A. Douglas and Herschel V. Johnson. It would be a repetition of history if these two great States should in 1888 stand in line as they did in 1860, by nominating this ticket: For President, Robert T. Lincoln, of Illinois; for Vice-President, Hon. Joshua R. Hill, of Georgia. Brooklyn Union (Rep.). impregnable to Democratic assault. It would make doubtful States ReTHE magic of Lincoln's name would render every Republican State publican. It would turn some Democratic States doubtful. It would sweep the North like wildfire. It would beyond question produce a break in the Solid South. Before its irresistible advance the opposition would vanish like stubble before a prairie fire, and the Republican party, under the banner of Lincoln, would again be restored to power in the Republic. It will not do for the Republican leaders, in preparing for 1888, to leave the son of the martyred President out of their calculations. MR. CURTIS AND THE INDEPENDENT VOTE. MR. CURTIS does not predict Blaine's defeat, if he is renominated, and if Cleveland should be his opponent evidently believes that Blaine will be successful. The drift of the prophecy, therefore, is in the direction of the nomination and election of Blaine, the nomination and defeat of significance arises from the fact that it comes from a Mugwump leader, Cleveland, and Mugwump confusion and discomfiture. And its special a bitter opponent of Blaine, and a warm admirer of Cleveland. New York Herald (Ind.). We don't suppose there is a boy in the country over fourteen years old whose opinion about politics, or public opinion, or public men, or the condition of parties, or the probable results of an election, would be worth so little as that of Mr. George William Curtis. "JOHN SHERMAN'S BOOM GOES MARCHING ON." Chicago News (Ind.). A SHORT time since it was the free traders of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, now it is the irrepressible independent in Rhode Island, which State has gone Democratic for the first time in a quarter of a century, that troubles the souls of the Blaine men. It really now looks as if the State that gave birth to the rebellious Dorr, away back in the 30's, was about to hatch a fresh brood of the same pestiferous species. Then there are the young men who will vote for the first time in 1888. As to how they feel in New England was developed a few days since at the Harvard union university debate. The question was that “the best interests of the Republican party require the nomination of James G. Blaine in 1888." The votes in this stood: Before the debate, affirmative 80, negative 70; on the merits of the argument, affirmative 50, negative 112; on the merits of the debate, affirmative 30, negative 47. And so, as the plumed knight's weakness is further exhibted, John Sherman's boom, like the soul of old John Brown, goes marching on. "THE CAUSE OF INTEGRITY AND FREEDOM." Is there be not a clear issue here between the Democratic and Republican parties, then we may as well join forces and issues upon a common Presidential ticket and platform. There is no change of opinion whatever in Kentucky on this vital question. God Almighty has made us a tariff high enough for all the purposes of protection in our soil and climate, which teem with untold riches. We need not to rob our neighbors in order to develop these riches. They will develop themselves. And, when the iron scepter passes to our hands, as it will, in the great good Lord's own good time, it will not be stained with the blood of men, women, and children, slain upon the altars of the Money Devil, but, like the sword of the spotless Chevalier, will "Shine with the splendor of Heaven's best light," and will be drawn alone in the cause of integrity and freedom, the cause of the many who toil as against the cause of the few who grind their millions out of the bones of the poor. MR. SHERMAN AND HIS STATE. Boston Herald (Ind.). THE New York Sun thinks that if John Sherman should go into the Republican national convention with the enthusiastic, undivided support of all Ohio behind him he would play a very important part in the nomination and election. The "if" here is important. Were it not to be next year in the way, it would afford proof of a marked advance in the popularity of Mr. Sherman in his own State. He has been a statesman there and a highly creditable one-for over a quarter of a century, and he has been a candidate for the Presidency before several national conventions during that time. In no one of these did his own State ever give him the support such as the Sun describes as his strengthening equipment for the object of his ambition. Neither is it at all certain that she will do so next year. If she should, Mr. Sherman will still have the obstacles to contend with that Ohio has had her share of Presidents of late years, and that her vote is assured to the Republican candidate, no heed whoever is nominated. MUST BE "AN HONEST FRIEND OF LABOR." Albany Times (Dem.). THE Democratic party cannot afford to place in nomination on State or national tickets any candidate who has not the confidence and good will of the working people. The last Presidential election came within an ace of being wrested from Democratic hands by the blunder of Mr. Cleveland's nomination, with his record, in the defeat of much-needed labor measures, to excite the oppo-ition of the masses. No sensible man attributes the narrow margin of his election to aught else than the hostility or apathy of Democratic workingmen, and no one with a similar record will be able to pull through again even by the slender plurality which he obtained. It is essential that the next Democratic nominee for the Presidency shall be a man known and proved to be an honest friend of labor. "THE DEMOCRACY HAS STAYING QUALITIES." St. Louis Republican (Dem.). SOME of the so-called Labor organs are joining with the Republicans in predicting that the Democratic party will "go up the spout" in 1888 as a result of the Labor movement. It might be well for these organs to be moderate in the prediction business. The Democratic party has been declared dead so often, its obituary has been so often written, and its obsequies so frequently anticipated that prophetic forecasts concerning its future have earned a reputation for utter unreliability. The difficulty with anti-Democratic prophets is that they too often mistake the indications of a Democratic holiday for symptoms of a Democratic funeral. The "Labor organs" are yet young and tender; when they grow older and wiser they will be apt to arrive at the conclusion that the Democratic party is a tough customer to handle. The Democracy has staying qualities. VARIOUS PRESIDENTIAL SPECULATIONS. THE growing necessity in the Republican party to decide upon a conservative candidate has brought John Sherman into the foreground, and at present he has undoubtedly the best chances of receiving the nomination. We believe that Mr. Sherman would be a tolerably strong candidate for the party, and, although he has grown up under the corruption of his political associates, he has, in general, preserved his reputation, and can, at least, lay greater claim to the predicate of "statesman" than any other of the gentlemen whose names have been associated with the next Presidential candidacy of the Republicans. To us, Mr. Sherman is objectionable on account of the role that he played in the coup d'etat of 1876, and more recently for his attempt to get the soldiers' vote, to which he sacrificed his opposition to the soldiers' pension bill. It is said that Mr. Blaine, in vexation at the progress that Sherman's boom was making, and especially in consequence of an intrigue of the Tribune (Reid's), who is endeavoring to found a journalistic alliance in favor of Sherman, de sires to play off Hiscock against the latter, and has it in mind, under the administration of Hiscock, to assume the same role that he played under Garfield's until Guiteau's revolver abruptly ended the game. Savannah News (Dem.). SENATOR ALLISON, while not a magnetic man, is popular. Men like him because he is approachable and appears to be sincere. There is no doubt his party has him in mind in connection with the Presidential nomination. But how about his record? At this time, when party lines are so clearly drawn on the tariff question, the Republican party must have a Presidential candidate who stands squarely for protection. Nobody seems to know exactly how Senator Allison stands on that question. He hasn't talked about it much since he has been in the Senate. When he was in the House, however, he was regarded as a pretty good tariff reformer. He comes from a section of country that doesn't take much stock in protection, and in his early public life he spoke his senti ments freely and made a record. It is probable that he finds this record on the tariff rather inconvenient at this time. Baltimore News (Dem.). WITH Blaine out of the way there would spring into notice any quantity of new aspirants, and room would be made for a fresh start on both sides. For while Mr. Blaine is conceded to be the strongest Republican, the Democrats regard him as the weakest candidate that could be selected. Hence if he was out of the way the element of uncertainty, the dread and prospect of the Republican party becoming united and fighting the next contest with old vim and vigor would cause misgivings that would make the Democrats very uneasy. At present they pin much of their confidence of success to Mr. Blaine. If the latter is nominated he will receive a divided Republican support; if some friend or favorite of his is nominated it will be the same thing; if some Republican rival, then the latter will suffer from lack of Blaine help. Denver Republican (Rep.). IF an election were to take place to-day, with Cleveland and Blaine as the leading candidates for the Presidency, there are thousands of Democrats who would either vote for Blaine or not vote at all. There is no enthusiasm, no affection for Cleveland. He is looked upon in the West as autocratic, opinionated, and ignorant of the extent of the West and importance of its interests. For these reasons the Western Democrats would support him with only a lukewarm spirit. Such a support would not enable him to carry Indiana, which is the great pivotal State of the West. The same indifference to the re-election of a President like Cleveland would, to a greater or less degree, exist among the Democrats of the East and South. Virginia and Tennessee would be in jeopardy, and New York would almost surely be lost. New York Star (Dem.). IT would not be true to say that either Vest or Beck, or, for that matter, any prominent and well-informed Democrat, ever seriously doubted the President's Democracy, but it is quite true that many leading men waited with deep anxiety to see whether methods so radically at variance with theirs would answer, and now that time has weighed the issue, and the fruits of Mr. Cleveland's unique and vigorous policy have revealed themselves to the understanding of the humblest, there is no longer any doubt that the party destiny is safe in his hands. Messrs. Vest and Beck express only the matured judgment of the Democracy when they declare that Mr. Cleveland is right, and that the party may confidently go before the country after four years of his clean-handed stewardship. Troy Telegram (Rep.). Ir is doubtful if Mr. Blaine, defeated twice in convention and once at the polls, could bring out the vote. He would attract no Democrats, for members of that party would solidly support Cleveland on the belief that half a loaf is better than no bread. They would be convinced that Blaine would find a way to turn every Democrat out of office, if he was elected, civil service law or no civil service law. Mr. Blaine could not win the great body of independent voters. Many may be displeased with Mr. Cleveland, but they would certainly reject Mr. Blaine. Wheeling Register (Dem.). THERE seems to be a general demand among the Democrats throughout the Northwest that Mr. Cleveland shall be renominated in 1888. Grady, of the Atlanta Constitution, says it is the same way down South. General Bragg, of Wisconsin, who was reported a few days ago'as being hostile to the Administration, replies in this: "There is no hostility in my State to Mr. Cleveland's renomination. I am in complete sympathy with Mr. Cleveland's administration, and I do not believe it can be improved upon in honesty of purpose. For deliberate, determined execution it will stand out pre-eminent in the history of American Government. The President is as true a Democrat as ever lived." ayed under San Francisco Chronicle (Rep.). On the Republican side the contest seems at this time to be between Blaine, Sherman, and Allison. Were the convention to be held this spring the general opinion seems to be that Blaine would be nominated with scarcely any opposition; but a year may make many changes, and John Sherman is not the man to neglect any opportunities. The sentiment of this coast is unquestionably in favor of Blaine, and probably will remain so until he is finally out of the contest. Allison has come into prominence lately, and it may be that the anti-Blaine element of the party would more readily agree upon him than upon Sherman. St. Paul Globe (Dem.). THERE is a singular concurrence among all the leading journals of the country that the lesson of the recent spring elections throughout the country is that the independent voter is becoming more of an important factor than formerly. It may not mean a recasting of party lines, or of a disbandment of party organizations as they now exist, but it certainly does mean that party ties sit more lightly on the average voter than they once did, and that there has been a lusty growth of political independence throughout the entire country. Party discipline is losing its grip on the voting population. The machine methods of former days are impotent in holding the people to political organizations and orders. Pittsburgh Dispatch (Ind.). It is beginning to be suspected that the only real Democrats in these United States in their own estimation are Henry Watterson and Charles A. Dana. The circumstance that these gentlemen hold opposite opinions on important subjects complicates their Democracy a trifle, it is true, and renders the problem of what is true Democracy somewhat intricate to the minds of plain people. The fact that they agree in opposing the administration whenever possible is, however, a strong bond of union, but they can hardly hope that this opposition can be made into a platform which will carry the Democratic party to victory in 1888. The Craftsman (Labor). Ir is argued in some publications that Mr. Cleveland will not be renominated because he has never been west of Cleveland, Ohio, nor south of Richmond, Va. This fact served so well to defeat him when he was a candidate in 1884 that it was to have been expected that it would be brought up again now. A good many ex-officeholders in the far West are willing to testify that he has been in their neighborhood in spirit if not in person. Nashville, Tenn., National Review (Rep.). ANY allusion to Democratic suppression of the colored vote is met with insane ravings and frenzied shrieks all over the Solid South. Again we are told that when Republicans cease to proscribe Democrats for proEcribing the negro and his party friends they may find a respectable following in the South! Democratic inconsistency would be laughable, indeed, were not the issues involved so portentously grave. Galveston News (Dem.). THE Hill boomers may pretend that Governor Hill can carry the labor vote, but it is a false representation. The Labor party will run its own candidates and any Democracy which noses around after stray Labor votes will be a miserable failure. If there were any policy in compromise, the compromise would have to be upon far broader lines than any man of the Hill pattern could effectively represent. Cincinnati Enquirer (Dem.). It seems not a little amusing to see how great statesmen are announc THE rebuke to monopoly and corruption is timely and severe. The old rons. New York World (Dem.). THE old parties are either lingering in the graveyard of dead issues, or standing divided and impotent in the presence of living questions. They must adjust themselves to the issues of the hour, sooner or later. Whether the Labor movement will prove to be the disintegrating force depends upon the wisdom with which it is directed, and upon what the Democratic party shall do between now and next year. The weakness of the Labor party, as a permanent and growing power is that it is animated by a common sentiment but is not united in a common purpose or based upon a fixed principle. It might defeat the Democrats, but it has no settled policy of its own. Cincinnati Commercial-Gazette (Rep.). NEW YORK State, carried for Cleveland by 1,047 plurality, is supposed by the Mugwumps to have spoken the divine voice, though 25,000 votes were fooled away on the stupid fraud St. John. Now the only possible party to defeat the Democratic raid upon the Government next year is the Republican party. The Prohibition party could not do it-and has no capacity to bring the question of prohibition, even if it was worth while to take it up, before the people of the United States. All the force expended on it is thrown away. The same may be said of the Labor party. That party can do something less than nothing for labor. St. Albans, Vt., Messenger (Rep.). Ir has been so long since the Presidential election of 1884 that the Democracy have worked themselves into the belief that Cleveland's election was the result of a tremendous popular uprising. Blaine's vote was 4,851,981, and Cleveland's 4,874,986, giving Cleveland the lead by only 23,005, according to the figures the Southern returning boards were gracious enough to allow. Having got in by this "narrow squeak," the administration has been fortifying since for the party to hold its position for time to come, and it has made a mess of it. New York Sun (Dem.). WE have not yet received any evidence to show that there is a single county in the State of New York which would choose delegates in favor of a second term for Mr. Cleveland, if the question had now to be decided. We shall be very glad to receive such evidence, if it exists; and if there is any probability that the actual state of feeling on this subject will be changed, through the appointment of postmasters or other Government officers, between now and the time of choosing the delegates, we shall be very glad to be informed respecting that matter also. New Orleans Picayune (Dem.). IF the Democratic party shall choose to be listless in respect to its duties as the exponent of popular rights, it must yield to the inevitable and Democratic parties. It is full fourteen months before either nomination will be made, and history has taught us that it is the latter end of the struggle which most counts. Still, it is a harmless sort of talk, and one not without interest. Augusta, Ga, Chronicle (Dem.). THE farmers and planters of the South will have nothing to do with labor candidates or labor organizations, because they consider the labor organizations hostile to their interests. The labor party in the South is necessarily confined to the cities, and in no possible event can it affect the vote of any Southern State in the next Presidential election. Augusta, Me., Journal (Rep.). THE intense activity of the opposition to Mr. Blaine's candidacy for President, at the present time, manifested particularly in the false statements published concerning him, is the very best evidence that his popularity is on the increase, and his selection as the Republican candidate for President becoming more and more a certainty. Hartford Times (Dem). MR. CLEVELAND has served the country with ability and fidelity. No country in the world is so prosperous-in no country are the people of all classes so well provided for. There is no good reason for defeating Mr. Cleveland next year in convention or at the polls, and it will be a poor sort of Democrat who opposes his re-election. Omaha Republican (Rep.). WE hope the Democratic party will do the Republican the grace to recollect that it first named Hill and Voorhees as the next Democratic ticket. We hope also that the Bepublican party will bear in mind that we sug gested Sherman and Allison. Not because we wanted anything, but simply to sustain a reputation as a prophet. New Orleans Picayune (Dem.). THE fact is that the Sun's opposition to Mr. Cleveland was a foregone conclusion from the day of his nomination, and its right to speak for the Democratic party reposes upon no better basis than its devotion to the person and cause of that somewhat questionable Democrat, General B. F. Butler, in the last national canvass. Denver News (Dem.). THERE seems to be a small show of friction between the Blaine and Sherman booms. Well, this was to be looked for. Fire and water do not always agree, but both might be used to clear the way for Judge Gresham, of Indiana, or Allison, of Iowa. Chicago Tribune (Rep.). THE indications are that the remnant of the labor movement will be the fourth party in 1888 and about an offset to the Prohibition party. The latter draws mainly from the Republican and the former from the Democrats. MISCELLANEOUS. GREAT SPEECHES."-One of the most striking illustrations of the absence of really exciting questions in the political arena is the decline among us of serious oratory, and the disappearance of "the great speech from the political literature of the day. It may be safely said that from the foundation of the Government down to the close of the war the country never was without one or two orators, and sometimes there were half a dozen, who, in the course of the year, made one or two speeches, on some stirring topic, which were reported and circulated and eagerly read as "great speeches." No discussion used to be complete until Webster, or Clay, or Calhoun, or Seward, or Sumner, or Trumbull, or Fessenden, or half a score of others had said their say in a long and more or less elaborate oration which the newspapers reported in full, which was read at every fireside in the country, which played a very important part in shaping public opinion, and which supplied quotations and catchwords to the newspapers and minor orators for months afterward. Moreover, tens of thousands of voters all over the country used to refrain from making up their minds until their favorite orator had been heard from, and the orator himself knew what was expected of him. His failure to produce "the great speech" would have been considered a neglect of the duties of his position which nothing but ill-health could excuse. His friends in the press, too, prepared for it long in advance by announcing that he was at work on it, and predicting that when it came off it would probably be "the greatest effort of his life," which it generally was. The occasion, too, which imposed the production of the "great speech" on the man in public life also furnished a lecture to the literary man, and the lecture differed from the speech mainly in being rather more elaborate, and in being capable of indefinite repetition. The political orator could not give the speech more than once, but the lecturer carried his all over the country, and the oftener he was asked to reproduce it the more successful it was considered to be. All this may be said for a good many years to be completely at an end. We have hardly a speaker left in public life whose utterances are looked for with anything but languid curiosity, or are searched for anything but dexterous “bids” for a nomination, or are quoted or discussed, except by opponents as examples of inconsistency or evasion. In fact, it is hardly too sweeping to say that Col. "Bob" Ingersoll is almost the sole representative of the old school of orators and lecturers-that is, the only speaker who draws large houses to hear him on serious topics. Whatever one may think of the topics or of his way of treating them, it must be acknowledged that it would be hard to say to what better place than one of his lectures one could take an inquiring foreigner, who wished to see a specimen of the American platform in the old days before and during the war. On the other hand the public dinner has received an enormous development, as a means of letting the public hear from anybody about whom it is supposed to have any curiosity, or who is supposed to have something on his mind which it would like to hear. Its use as "an occasion" has increased wonderfully during the past twenty years. The English used to be the foremost nation in the world in turning it to account, but we have far surpassed them in the frequency with which we resort to it. The French use it now and then, but are more frequently content with the offer of "un punch" which sufliciently furnishes the "to-asts" which draw out the orator. The growth of wealth, the improvement in hotels and restaurants, and the reluctance of busy men to quit their homes in the evening except to dine, have doubtless all contributed to this tendency to substitute the dining-table for the rostrum. But the effect on all our oratory, political as well as other, has been very marked. Nothing can ever prevent a dinner's seeming to the guest a social occasion, or even make them willing, after dinner, to respond to any heavy demands on their powers of reflection or attention. Every man, after a good dinner, and still more after a bad one, in his secret heart expects to be amused, or at all events entertained in some light way. He will not follow a train of reasoning, or respond readily to a call for high resolves or noble aspirations. Gentle ridicule pleases him over his cigar and coffee far more than the most lucid exposition or triumphant logical refutation. This use of the diningroom, too, as an occasion for public speaking has produced in England and America a distinct type of oratory unknown either to the ancients or to the nations of Continental Europe-but known to everybody here as the "after dinner speech." Now the essentials of an after-dinner speech are that it should be humorous or lively; that it should touch every topic lightly, and should make no heavy or prolonged draughts on any one's sober-mindedness; that it should not be an attempt to edify or instruct. In fact, the more it makes people laugh the more successful it is. It is accordingly to-day the style of oratory most cultivated among us. Nothing to-day gives a man more of a certain kind of fame and popularity than excellence in it. Indeed, we may say that through no channel can a man acquire so much influence with so little expenditure of labor or money. Our young men are to-day really more anxious to acquire it than any other style of oratory. There is far more demand for it than for any other. A man's chances of being called on to speak at a dinner are twenty times greater than his chances of being called on to speak on any other occasion. The style acquired for success in afterdinner oratory is accordingly carried into all oratory. At public meetings nowadays every speaker tries to be jocose as his first duty. He opens his speech with a joke more or less elaborate, and a vein of humor is apt to run all through it, the seriousness only appearing at rare intervals.New York Evening Post. THE MAGNETIC INFLUENCE OF GREAT CITIES.-That mysterious force named gravity, which gives to all bodies mutual tendencies toward each other, varying according to their masses, has a parallel in human society. A man, as a man, has a peculiar attractiveness to every other man. The attractive power of a group of men is greater than that of an individual; and the larger the group, the greater the mass of human life, the stronger is its influence in drawing outsiders to itself and in holding those who have come into it. As a race we love not solitude, but there is built into us a fondness and a strong necessity for fellowship with our kind; for since thought is awakened by thought alone, love by love, and passion by passion, the mind depends upon contact with other minds, not only for its exercise, growth, and enjoyment, but even for life. What food is to the body, that intercourse with other minds is to the mind of man, with the difference that the mental appetite is insatiable, and grows with feeding. There is, therefore, nothing more natural in the craving which drives the wild creature forth to its hunting-ground than in the social instinct which draws men into the currents and centers of life. This universal force of human attraction, like the force of gravitation, is, of course, frequently modified and even nullified in its action by other forces. Race and family affinities bind one more firmly to his kith and kin than to others. Peculiarities of taste and temperament lead some to love solitude and hate society, and make certain sides of human nature particularly interesting to certain persons, and others distasteful. In some the manhood is of a fuller, higher type than in others, and they are correspondingly more attractive; while from many, vice, poverty, and oppression have so beaten humanity out that little remains to invite the fellowship of men. Yetall these disturbing influences do not, on the whole, affect the operation of the great law, that man attracts man; and that the greater the mass of humanity gathered about a center, the more powerful upon the average outsider is the force of its attraction. Every town and city is therefore a magnet constantly drawing the people from without toward itself, and binding together those within its walls with a power directly proportionate to its size. The magnetic influence of a great metropolis becomes so potent that multitudes find it too strong to be resisted. Thousands every year force their way into the midst of London, Paris, and New York, having no reasonable prospect of winning a livelihood, and insist upon staying there in miserable want rather than move out to more comfortable quarters elsewhere. The very vastness of the manifold life that throbs and thrills about them has a certain subtle fascination so intoxicating that they regard the idea of living in any lesser place as quite insupportable. Juvenal shows that old Rome bewitched her populace by the same powerful spell. They used to pay for little, dark, wretched rooms a yearly rent great enough to have purchased a cheerful, comfortable dwelling in one of the lesser towns of Italy; but they could not be prevailed upon to leave the capital. In a great city every man finds in its highest development the side and sort of life that pleases him best. For the vicious, there are unbounded opportunities for vice; for those who love God and men, extraordinary advantages for philanthropic work and Christian fellowship. Many with special musical, literary, or artistic talents are quite alone in a small community, with neither opportunity or stimulus for growth in the directions toward which their tastes incline them; but upon entering a city they find surroundings so congenial that they can never again be persuaded to quit them. Great cities have a special fascination for young men. They offer, to the successful, high and tempting prizes. There is little in the position of leading merchant, lawyer, or physician in a country town to spur the ambition of the young, but those who hold the like positions in the cities are the princes and mighty men of the time. Ambitious fellows prefer a hard race with high stakes to one on an easier course with fewer competitors and contemptible prizes. Hence, they have flocked to the cities until a new attorney's sign has become a by-word, and a single advertisement for a bookkeeper enough to bring an army about your door. Besides all the special attractions for special classes, who can measure the fascination, for the masses of mankind, of the great city's unequaled facilities for instruction and amusement? The churches and the schools, the theaters and concerts, the lectures, fairs, exhibitions, and galleries, how widely on every side are the doors of life opened! Even the streets and the shops are an attraction that few can deny. But above and be yond all this is that vague delight at being one in the midst of a great multitude of men and women, which, though it may not often be defined or expressed, is the greatest of all the causes which contribute to the cities' growth. The wisest effort of philanthropy will not be spent in the vain effort to prevent the incoming of men to them, but in the endeavor to make them better places for human habitation; not in checking their growth, but in quenching their iniquity.-Samuel Lane Loomis, in The Andover Review for April. OLD LETTERS.-Old letters are the dry, dead leaves of the spring time and the summer of life. As trees do not put forth buds in autumn, and as in the winter their branches are bare of leaves, so in middle life and old age men and women receive but few letters that are preserved until the thoughts they express become dry and withered memories of the heart. The letters of childhood are the immature, imperfect leaves of spring. They fall early and seldom endure through the warm days of summer until the autumn. The leaves which are blown here and there by the winds of early winter, whether they are gathered about the base of a monument or are heaped above a grave, are the leaves which matured and came to their perfection in summer. The letters of early manhood and womanhood are those which become the dead leaves of the autumn and the winter of life. Looking through such letters is a painful and profit less task. They would better be suffered to life undisturbed in the little FINANCE AND COMMERCE. principle that it is just as wrong for a state to rob an individual as for one individual to rob another. Theft is regarded as theft, no matter by whom committed nor under what pretense. Consequently, when a state takes possession of land the private ownership of which is vested in an individual, it is considered bound to pay such owner the value of the real estate so taken. But, even by such payment, a state has no recognized right to take land from one man for the purpose of conveying it to another. Resumption of ownership of a piece of land, by the state, can only be effected when the land is needed for public purposes and after making the owner due compensation.-John Philip Phillips in The American Magazine. AMERICANS SHOULD OWN AMERICA.-The evil of alien landlordism is felt with special force in Illinois, as in that State large tracts of land are held by a foreigner who has made himself very obnoxious to citizens by his brutal methods. It will be remembered that Congressman Payson, who represents an Illinois district, was active in the last Congress in pushing a bill to regulate land ownership by foreigners throughout the Territories. His interest in the subject was excited by the evils which he saw flowing from an alien landlordis n at home and his feelings are shared by the citizens of the State. The proposed federal legislation failed, but it is regarded as practically certain that the pending bill in the State legislature will become a law. Under its provisions an immigrant must declare his intention to become a citizen before he can acquire land, and unless he elapse his land is to revert to the State. It is provided farther that all shows his good faith by taking out naturalization papers before six years aliens who now hold land in the State must become citizens within three years or forfeit their possessions. The wisdom of this policy can scarcely be questioned. It interferes, to be sure, with the natural laws of trade, but it grows out of the requirements of a "higher law" which demands that the soil of a country shall be owned by its citizens. The benefits which may come in certain cases from the enlistment of foreign capital in the work of developing our waste places do not compensate for the indifference to local needs and interests which generally characterizes the management of land held by alien proprietors. The same evil exists in a modified degree even where land is held by American citizens or corpothemselves by discriminations in the taxation of real estate and other rations whose home is remote, so that new communities often protect expedients designed to keep the ownership of land local. But this evil appears to be in an aggravated form when the owners give no allegiance to the nation and do not consult its interests in the management of their property. The soil of America should be owned by Americans. That is the natural, safe, and proper policy. It is, also, the one in vogue throughout the civilized world. In adopting it the country would only conform to an accepted axiom of state policy. We trust, therefore, that Illinois may soon have the pending alien landlord law on her statute-book, and that her example may be followed by the other States and the Federal Government. It may be added, while dealing with this subject, that another great movement of population from Europe to America seems to have begun. Only a few days ago there were 4,400 immigrants landed at this port in one day. And we read that so great is the eagerness of the masses to come here that all the railroads leading to Queenstown are pushed to their utmost capacity, and that the hotel accommodations at Queenstown are unable to provide for the emigrants, who are forced to camp in the streets. It is becoming a question of grave practical importance how best to deal with these vast companies of strangers who rush to our shores from all other lands. Some of them are undeniably hard to digest. Others of them come to us desiring to identify themselves with the interests of the country. And, so far as this is the case, we can afford to give them a hospitable reception. Better an incursion of five thousand strangers each with a little capital of health and hope than one grasping speculator whose investments are made without regard to local interests. There is still land and labor enough in this country for all who honestly wish to conform to the conditions of success. But we have no acres to spare for men who would use this country "for revenue only," and not as a home.-New York Commercial Advertiser. IS IT A CRIME TO OWN LAND?-It has been said that a man's private ownership of land is necessarily an injury to all other men. This is equivalent to saying that it is a public injury to allow a man to reap the full benefit of the labor which he has so performed as to make its value inseparable from the land upon which it has been spent. Such a saying assumes that work devoted to the permanent improvement of land is so much less meritorious than other forms of labor that it is contrary to public policy to allow its full reward to be received by him who performs it. The attempt has been made to prove that the private ownership of land is in itself an evil by asking, What would happen if one man owned all the land in the world and refused to sell or rent any part of it? It might be asserted that the private ownership of grain and all kinds of seeds was a public injury, and, in proof thereof, it might be asked, What would happen if one man owned all the grain and seed in the world and refused to let any one have a particle of them? Such foolish questions ignore the broad distinction between things bad in themselves and the perversion and misuse of good things. The earth contains land enough for all the dwellers thereon. If one man have absolute ownership of a portion of the earth, he does not thereby necessarily debar other men from ownership of land. If one man own a large amount of land and unfairly hinder other men from becoming the owners of the ground requisite for their needs, without doubt he injures other men. The same thing is true of the ownership of a very large amount of money, machinery, provisions, or any other form of personal property, when such ownership is virtually made a source of oppression. But in both cases the private ownership is not of itself the essence of the evil. The wrong is simply a misuse, a perversion of a man's natural right to create and own the wealth which is separable from land, and is therefore called personal estate, and to create and own the form of wealth which is inseparable from land, and is therefore called real estate. * Some persons imagine that the rich have obtained their wealth by monopolizing land, thus levying tribute from a large number of persons. But a little reflection will show that such conduct is ordinarily only possible to those who are already rich. The rich men of this country have mostly become so by themselves or their ancestors dealing in personal property. More than half the total wealth of the United States is owned in a few cities, and is chiefly in the hands of persons skilled in buying, managing, and selling personal property. To such men it matters but little who owns the land so long as they can compel all the products of both land and labor to pay them a liberal commission for their services in handling and distributing such products to the consumers thereof. * * Instead of a policy which would make it impossible for any individual to ever become the absolute owner of a homestead-that would make mankind more nomadic and lessen their interest in and affection for their homes-the state should encourage every man to get a piece of ground and a home of his own. To this end, all homesteads, to a limited amount of value, should be exempt both from taxation and from attachment for debt. The tendency of such a measure would be silently to prevent and cure the evil of a monopoly of land by a comparatively few, as well as the evil of a tenant population with little interest in the soil upon which their toil and lives are spent. * Taxes can be fitted to a man's income. When individuals have a fair chance to do so, the tendency is for each man to adapt the amount of all his expenses, including taxation, to his income. But a government which virtually attempts to fit each man's income to his taxes attempts an impossible task. * But, after centuries of controversies and bloody struggles, all enlightened nations now recognize the * * * OVERPRODUCTION AND MIDDLEMEN. (1) When production and exchange are free all kinds of production tend constantly to an equilibrium, as water tends to a level. Overproduction in one direction is the correlative of underproduction in other directions, just as congestion of blood in one part of the system is the correlative of insufficient blood in other parts; and as tendencies to congestion in the human body are overcome by free circulation, tendencies to overproduction in the social organism are overcome by free production and exchange. By placing all taxes on land values we secure this freedom. The producer then pays nothing on his products or for the right to produce, but only for superior advantages, and for them he pays to the community, of which he himself is a part, instead of paying, as he does now, to some privileged member of the community. If, with a tax exclusively on land values in operation, an overproduction of anything, whether of wheat, corn, cattle, houses, watches, or machinery, was indicated by declining value, labor and capital would drift at once into those employments in which there was an underproduction, and speedily restore the equilibrium. But this drift of labor and capital would be a drift and not a leap. When a dam backs the water of a stream up over the banks and upon the level land beyond, the level land may be reclaimed by tearing away the dam. But if that be done the atoms of water on the level land will not leap away; they will drift away as the atoms nearer the dam make room for them. So in free production and exchange. The farmer whose products were becoming a glut, for ex |