Union just as soon as coercion is begun there.

Home Rule is repudiated by the writer, because of the personal character of the political leaders, and this is a pen picture: The twenty thousand outrages which have been committed during Mr. Parnell's period of leadership, the details of which may be studied in all their horrible reality by anyone who chooses, were the work of Mr. Parnell's adherents, acting, or at any rate (sic), claiming to act, under his orders, in pursuance of his policy, and in the certain assurance of his support, both moral and material." All of which has been rendered familiar during the aforesaid tragic farce. J. B. U.

TRUSTS.-The leading commercial journal of Austria, Das Handel's Museum, has just published a careful list of trusts in all countries. It is not complete, and, with trusts extending over all lands, it would not be easy to make such a list absolutely accurate. But the record as it stands is a reasonably fair statement of the condition of affairs compiled by an impartial observer. The Museum finds thirty-four trusts in Germany, fourteen in Austria-Hungary, six in Belgium, ten in Great Britain, ten in the United States, three in France, three in Russia, two in Switzerland, and three in Asia. Besides these, eighty-five in number, each limited to its own country, the Austrian paper names ten which are international, and all but one of which are organized outside of this country. Out of ninety-five in all, therefore, the

United States, with a larger manufacturing output than all England, a larger mineral production than Europe, and an agricultural product equal to Great Britain and Continental Europe combined, has eleven, or a ninth.-Phila, Press.

THE JUDGE'S SAFE.-A Judge in Bennington, Vermont, some time ago, concluded to buy a safe. The fact became known and two rival safe agents called, each of whom had so much to say in favor of his own particular safe that the Judge was quite at a loss which to buy. In a happy moment he thought of Burglar Price, whom he had himself sentenced, and going to the jail he obtained this expert safebreaker's opinion and then gave the order.

AN UNFAIR COMPARISON.-In considering the appointment of Walker Blaine to the position of Examiner of Claims for the State Department, which office was held by the late Dr. Francis Wharton, a comparison has been made between the two gentlemen named by persons unfriendly to the present Secretary of State, and very much to the prejudice of the younger Mr. Blaine. These unfriendly and unfair critics proceed upon the theory that Secretary Blaine should have secured a gentleman to succeed Dr. Wharton who would be, approximately at least, his equal in intellectual force, profound knowledge of the law and extended and varied experience. They do not stop to consider that the services of men like Dr. Wharton cannot be secured for a

total compensation of $3,500 per annum. Dr. Wharton was a great student and authority on international law. He was a man of wealth, who had retired from the practice of his profession and devoted himself to the literature of the law for pleasure and fame rather than for profit. He was a warm personal friend of Secretary Bayard, and was induced to accept the office of Examiner of Claims, not for the love of office or the hope of pecuniary gain, but from a feeling of regard for Mr. Bayard and to assist that gentleman with advice and counsel in the administration of his office.

Dr. Wharton was a private councillor of the Secretary of State rather than an Examiner of Claims, the duties of which office are purely routine and comparatively unimportant. Walker Blaine was not selected as a successor to Dr. Wharton, in the strict sense of that term in this connection, but to perform the duties of Examiner of Claims, for which he is abundantly competent. The man who preceded Dr. Wharton, and who held the office for many years, is as inferior to Walker Blaine in all the qualities required to successfully administer its duties as Walker Blaine is inferior to the late Dr. Wharton in intellectual force, general culture and valuable experience. Dr. Wharton was too big a man for the office of Examiner of Claims. Walker Blaine is not. The latter gentleman should be considered in connection with the duties of the office and not stood upin comparison with the profound jurist and eminent scholar who preceded him.-Philada. Ledger.

THE REGISTERED LETTER SYSTEM of the United States postal service has, time and again, by numerous and systematic losses, proven its utter insecurity and unreliability as a means of transporting moneys and valuables. Its purpose is merely to procure for the sender a receipt of its delivery at destination. A registered letter receives no greater care, and undergoes the same careless and reckless handling in its journey to its destination as does a simple postal card or a worthless circular. There is no recourse for nondelivery, or abstraction of a part of or the whole contents. It is, therefore, no wonder that some insurance companies find a large field in engaging in the precarious business of insuring registered letters against such happenings. But not even this can make the registered mail department of the United States postal service in the leastwise competitive with the safety and security of the express. Express Gazette.

THE INTEGRAPH is one of the new wonders of the scientific world. The object of the machine is to determine by mechanical processes the areas enclosed by curves of any shape, however irregular. It is the invention of Professor Abdonk Abakanowicz, of Paris.

SPECIAL NOTICE.-Twenty-five cents will be paid for copies of AMERICAN LAW REGISTER for November, 1857. Must be in good condition. J. C. JOHNSON, 1128 Walnut street, Philadelphia, Pa.

THE assertion has sometimes been made that the scope of the Constitution has been unwarrantably expanded by construction so as to strengthen the Federal government beyond what was intended, but Judge Cooley points out that any accession of Federal strength through construction is insignificant as compared with what has come from the gradual march of events which has made the powers of government signify vastly more than they did at first. Such has been the case with the congressional power to regulate interstate commerce, which had so little immediate interest when the Constitution was adopted that it scarcely afforded occasion for the slightest forensic discussion, but which now has attained such an immense scope. between the power as it was a century ago and the power as it is to-day furnishes an illustration of the change which has been wrought in government by the application of steam to locomotion and of electricity to correspondence, a change relatively as great, Judge Cooley says, as has been wrought by the introduction of those forces in the industrial world.-Bradstreet's.

The difference

SIDNEY BARTLETT, who died at his home, in Boston, on March 6, having attained the great age of ninety years, was a recognized leader of the Massachusetts bar for more than half a century. Beginning his career as first the pupil and then the partner of the famous Chief Justice Shaw, he became the contemporary associate and dreaded antagonist of such old-time giants as Webster, Choate

and Jeremiah Mason, and remained in active practice until his death. The history of the profession furnishes no parallel to this remarkable record. Mr. Bartlett was a typical American lawyer of the highest class. His long life reflected honor upon the profession which he loved with an undivided devotion, and whose best traditions have gained new luster from his career and example. JAMES C. SELLERS.

"THE term Debenture is a comparatively new one in American finance. It has been used both here and in England to denote a species of Custom House Certificate, entitling a merchant to receive payment in cases where a drawback or bounty is allowed. The term was also applied to a paper which secured arrears of pay to the soldiery in Cromwell's time, under the Commonwealth, and earlier still, the same form was issued to officers of the King in payment of their salaries. Written in Latin, it began with the words Debentur mihi, and the certificate itself was designated by its first word. Shakspeare does not use the word, but Richard Edwards, in his play of "Damon and Pythias," first published in 1571, makes one of his characters say:—

"Let us riffell him so that he have not one pennie to bless him,

And steale his debenters, too." But in its modern sense a debenture is applied to a species of bond or acknowledgment of indebtedness, given by a corporation who deposits at the same time in the hands of a trustee a bond and mortgage as collateral security for the payment of the debt."

Book Notices.

THE BIBLE AND LAND, by James B. Converse, of Morristown, Tenn., is a book advocating the imposition of all taxation upon land only, but possesses an interest to lawyers as well as economists, from the use I made of Blackstone's principles, and a too literal application of them to affairs in this country. The author makes a too common error of reprobating laws as unconstitutional which are merely not consonant with his opinions. It is better to adhere to the truth and recognize that no law is intrinsically unconstitutional, but only as the law conflicts with the written constitution.

There is such a thing as the mural being of the nation, but it is not in the keeping of the courts. If the people will have immoral laws, the courts have no power to restrain their creators and nullify the will of the people. Consequently, all arguments founded upon the responsibility of the

government" to the Creator, are based upon a false premise. The people are responsible, primarily, and their chosen legislators, secondarily; for, under our form of government, the executive and the judiciary are bound to execute and enforce the laws under penalties for disobeying the popular will, which is free, under responsibilities afflicting the whole people, and not simply the "government."

This book will impress most readers as an attempt to deny the so-called nationalization of land, by establishing individual ownership as intended by the Creator. The argument fails in passing from the

last premise to the final conclusion: because there is nothing to show that a gift to the children of Israel was a gift to particular Jews or for division amonst the individuals. The only true argument is the historic, from the change of ownership in common amongst the nomads to the special, individual use amongst the highly civilized. The assertion of an individual right of land ownership compels the author to characterize it as a monopoly, to be regulated by the "government" as the ordained "powers that be." But this, again, is a misapprehension of the constitutional right of the people to bar entails, to prescribe the cause of descent and to limit all actions for the recovery of rights, even rights to land. They are all founded on the rights and duties of the people, collectively and individually, and not on individual claims-"Ye are all members, one of another."

A careful reading of Mulford's Nation would clear up some of these inaccuracies.

ROUGH NOTES and Finch's Insurance Digest are to be submitted to the practical test of office use in the editorial work on THE REGISTER, because they seem to be handiest and best in the extended sphere of insurance. A general digest is not handy and not edited by a specialist, and not satisfactory when a good special work is at hand. This is the reason that the editorial force of The American Law Register is being strength ened in the addition of specialists, rather than general writers.