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continues to be upon the same lofty plane as when the very life of the nation was in jeopardy. Precarious indeed is the position which depends upon the mere accidents of life. Already a cloud with an ominous fringe is looming up in the vicinity of the New York aqueduct. It may prove a mere summer shower, possibly pass away ́altogether, but, on the other hand, it may be a cyclone in embryo. It may be remembered that Grover Cleveland was Governor Cleveland when the aqueduct bill was engineered through the Legislature by Flynn and signed by the Governor. If the threatened disclosures materialize, the mischief may extend beyond the city and back to the very inception of the scheme. There are yet two years before the next Presidential campaign, and he would be a veritable dolt who should attempt to cast the horoscope of 1888 from 1886.

Congressman Burleigh, New York (Rep.), in Interview.

HERE in Washington the movements of Blaine's trusted lieutenants are and have been too transparent to deceive the most guileless. Last spring his bosom friend from Maine was here engaged in laying the ropes for Mr. Blaine's candidacy in 1888 under the pretense of securing speakers to take part in the campaign soon to be opened in Maine. If that was his sole purpose, the object could have been accomplished in two days, and did not call for his sojourn here of weeks that he was here button-holing those of the old Blaine guard. The party, I think, have had quite enough setting up of nominations in advance to gratify personal ambition. I do not think Blaine will be nominated in 1888. No Republican National Convention will repeat the blunder of the party of 1884. It was idle to nominate a man in an admitted close contest that the party was divided upon.

Memphis Appeal (Dem.).

FROM Maine to Texas, and from California to Florida, the people unite in the opinion that Cleveland is the greatest power in the land for good. They need him far more than he needs the Presidency. They have bestowed upon him the highest trust in their gift, and he has kept faith with them. He does not want a second term, but they know what he has done, and what he is trying to do, and they know that no other man can perform the same work so well. If they want the work to be continued, they know who is the man to carry it on, and will call for him in their own way when his present term is finished. Cleveland would be a stronger candidate in 1888 than he was in 1884. In the last contest people had to take him on trust, but he would go into the next canvass with a record true to his pledges.

New York Graphic (Dem.).

A CHANGE of 600 ballots in this State would have elected Mr. Blaine. It is not likely that the Democracy will gain more Republican converts two years hence than it had in 1884; perhaps it may lose many of them. Consequently it behooves the leaders of the party to strengthen and protect their lines at every menaced point. Mr. Blaine is very diligently and astutely angling for Irish Democratic votes, and he has clever lieutenants to assist him. One of their devices is to picture the present administration as pro-English in sympathy and to distort the purpose of the extraditiou convention. Of course, these charges are factitious, yet other leading Democrats as well as Secretary Manning should take pains to coun teract their effect.

Providence Journal (Rep.).

GOVERNOR LONG believes that Senator Sherman could carry New York and be elected. It is rather early to begin the campaign, although, in a sense, it has already begun. It is not probable that all the friends of Mr. Blaine will take the view presented by Mr. Long, but that some of them do or will is most certain. The contest will, in any event, be so close that a blunder will be a crime. There are indications that President Cleveland is not so absorbed in civil-service reform as to neglect the ordinary political management in the Empire State. The Republican party of the nation will need all its wisdom and all its patriotism to ensure the success which would be so beneficial to the country.

Philadelphia Inquirer (Ind.).

THE appointment of Mr. Magone has already caused alarm among the Mugwumps, and they have apprehensions that Postmaster Pearson, of New York, is to be replaced by a Tammany Democrat-a bid for the support of a powerful clique now at the Democratic National Convention in 1888. New York and the Solid South can choose the next President, and so the temptation to seize the prize is great. Will Mr. Cleveland resist it? Will he remember that" public office is a public trust" and "keep close to the people," or will he try to lengthen his tenure and augment his power by political intrigue?

Nashville Union (Dem.).

MR. EDMUNDS thinks that if the Republican party will nominate a clean, upright man, with an honest record on financial questions, a man who is above reproach, he will have seven chances out of ten of being elected. The only thing that worries the Republican party is where to find such a man. There is a taint of some sort attaching to every one of the Republican patriots that worries the g. o. p. greatly. Of course, Edmunds was drawing his own picture when he made this razzle-dazzle assertion, but the indications do not point to a cyclone up in the everlasting hills of Vermont.

Nashville American (Dem.).

If they get to pushing Brother Blaine on the temperance question, he will only wave the bloody shirt with increased vigor and fulminate more vindictive slanders against the South. Upon this question Mr. Blaine will find a pretty solid support from the conscienceless demagogues who control the Republican party in the North, and he understands the flunkeyism of Southern Republicanism too well to fear a protest from that quarter. It is safe to say that the temperance question will not distract Brother Blaine's attention from the ensanguined rag.

Pittsburgh Times (Rep.).

THE Vermont Senator said just enough to raise curiosity about his own ideas as to the man who would fill the bill. At the last convention, Logan, Sherman, Gresham, Harrison, Lincoln, Windom, 'Fairchilds, all Western men, had friends. To the list might properly be added Allison, Ingalls, and, perhaps, others. So it will be seen that the Republicans do not lack for Presidential timber in the West. Turn whichever way you will, there is plenty of it; but who will carry New York is the question that has priority of all others.

Florida Times-Union (Dem.).

MR. BLAINE is always at the front when there is not any danger. He has set out to make the Maine campaign a notable one and will call in Sherman, Evarts, and Logan to help him. Not that there is any danger of the Republicans losing the State, but it is such an excellent chance for safely manipulating the big guns and displaying the quartette that means to control the next National Republican ConMr. Edmunds does not see any national issue in the Maine campaign; he sees only a Blaine issue.

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Cincinnati Commercial-Gazette (Rep.).

THE Payne crowd played Logan sadly on the Presidential question, and it's said while he was playing upon that string upon the floor of the Senate, those who had played him were in the gallery splitting with ill-suppressed laughter. We regret that Logan should have slipped, because the people of Ohio were his enthusiastic friends. We see no reason why he should not correct his error. Wise men sometimes review their judgment and opinions; there is a class that never do, and the latter class were not in favor with Solomon.

New York Star (Dem.).

THE Herald takes up the old song of the siren that would lure the Democracy of this State to ruin by the tale of Cleveland's and Hill's jealousies and differences. We must expect to hear this mournful tune in every key until 1888, but the voices who sing it are already strained and cracked, and public opinion is asking them to shut up or move on. The Herald is polite enough to wish to give Mr. Magone a chance. Why, then, set him up in the beginning as the most formidable obstacle to complete Democratic harmony?

Cleveland and Governor Hill for the Presidential nomination, which strife will pass far beyond the boundaries of the State of which both are citizens long before the Democratic National Convention meets.-St. Louis Globe-Democrat (Rep.).

THERE is hardly any doubt that the Republican party will come out openly for prohibition in the next Presidential election. That will necessitate on the other hand a stricter adherence of the Democratic party to the cause of personal liberty than has been the case of late. Washington, D. C., Sentinel (Dem.).

THE Departments are being packed with New Yorkers as fast as possible, and at home very few "offensive partisans" have been left in office. It is too soon to say what is going to happen, but Mr. Cleveland intends to be the choice of his party if he can control the choice.-Wheeling Intelligencer (Rep.).

IF the remainder of the Administration averages as well as its first eighteen months, the habitual disposition of the country to continue a party in power that has proved itself worthy and capable will make the task of electing the Democratic candidate in 1888 comparatively easy.-Boston Globe (Dem.).

JUST now the temperance question is very strong in the South, and Mr. Blaine believes the Solid South can be broken on that issue in 1888, and that it is essential for him to declare his allegiance to prohibition now in order to reap the benefit of a break down there. From a Bar Harbor Special.

THE friends of Jim Blaine, who are trying to create Presidential thunder for him by alleging a weakness in the region of the Secretary of State's spinal column, will please take notice that the country knows the difference between a brave man and a bragging coward.-Kansas City Times.

It seems that the Blaine fight against Senator Edmunds in Vermont has not only not subsided since the declaration of the Republican State Convention in his favor, but is becoming hotter than ever now that nominations for the Legislature are being made.-New York Times (Ind.).

SENATOR LOGAN thinks that the Republicans should go to the West for their next Presidential candidate, but he doesn't mean that they should go as far West as the Rocky Mountains.-St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Dem.).

MR. BLAINE is facile, oily, and friendly to Mr. Blaine. He may satisfy all of them-Germans, Prohibitionists, and all the rest-and he may not get the confidence of any of them.-Hartford Times (Dem.).

CLEVELAND and Hill are said to be working in harmony. Cleveland is to be renominated in 1888, and Hill is to take the cake in 1892. New York wants the earth. Augusta, Ga., Chronicle (Dem.).

THE heavy artillerists of the New York Democratic press are focalizing all their guns on the Cleveland boom, with evident intent to compass its annihilation.-National Republican (Rep.).

Ir now looks as if it would come to a direct conflict between Hill and Cleveland in New York, and as if the President would defeat the ambitious Governor.— Milwaukee-Wisconsin (Rep.).

SENATOR EDMUNDS, being himself left out in the cold, is trying to freeze out other Eastern Presidential candidates.-Richmond Whig (Dem.).

THE BANKERS ON SILVER COINAGE.

Boston Post (Dem.), August 13.

New York Times (Ind.), August 13.

THE temper of the Bankers' Association on the silver question is unequivocally expressed in the resolution adopted at yesterday's session of the convention. There are few in this section who will disagree with the opinion thus put forth that

The coinage of silver dollara under the compulsory law of 1878 is detrimental to the best interests of the people and dangerous to the welfare of the Government, and that the law should be immediately suspended, and remain inoperative until an international agreement with leading commercial nations shall give substantial assurance as to the future relations of gold and silver as money.

This view gains strength from the circumstances that it receives the indorsement not only of Eastern financiers, but of representatives of moneyed interests from all sections of the country gathered in this convention. In the same connection, the figures furnished by United States Treasurer Jordan afford some instruction. From these statistics it is seen that our silver coinage, amounting to $303,723,286, has a bullion value of only $213,061,252, or a difference between and actual value of $90,661,934. Further, that while little more than one in eight of the silver dollars put out by the Treasury last year remains in circulation, it has cost the Government $756,399 to transport these cumbrous coins about the country.

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New York Tribune (Rep.), August 15.

Boston Herald (Ind.), August 13.

Louisville Courier-Journal (Dem.), August 14.

THE passing of certain stereotyped resolutions is a harmless diversion which does not interest the public much, and yet creates a sort of a nominal piece de resistance around which the relishes, side dishes, and desserts, which form the real business of the meetings, may be grouped without too much sameness in the bill of fare. It is worthy of notice, however, that to ask a large political majority in Congress to voluntarily accept a muzzle from a small minority is refreshingly cool for the pres ent range of the mercury. The majority in favor of bi-metallism is large in both Houses of Congress, and is, of course, abundantly able to protect the interest of silver money, as on the basis of existing legislation; but if that majority should suspend silver coinage, it would be impossible to resume it without a two-thirds affirmative, as it would be obviously necessary to overcome a Presidential veto.

Philadelphia Times (Ind.), August 13.

THE redemption of Government bonds and the consequent reduction of national banking currency are contracting the circulating medium all the time to an extent that can not be realized, while business is dull and the demand for money is light, The danger from a continuance of silver coinage will be full upon us when there is a general revival of trade, causing a demand for currency at home which can only be met by the issue of silver certificates based on depreciated dollars, and an increase of imports that may be expected to send gold out of the country and make the silver dollar decline to its intrinsic value. Congressional candidates should, one and all, be made to declare how they stand on the silver issue, and should be supported or scratched accordingly.

Chicago Tribune (Rep.), August 14.

IF the silver problem involved no other issues than those stated by the bankers' convention, it would have been met at the last session of Congress by a temporary suspension of the coinage, adopted as a measure of prudence and with a view to the establishment of bimetallism by international agreement. The chief difficulty in the way of such a solution is the fact that the repeal of the Bland act would wipe out the only kind of money not subject to the manipulation of the banks, and give the banking combination exclusive control over coin and currency of every description. Such a step the people regard as one to be taken only when unavoid. able, and they will hardly regard the bankers' disclaimer of self-interest or sordid motives as entirely reassuring.

Boston Journal (Rep.), August 13.

THE emphatic declaration of the Bankers' Association ought to counteract the falsehoods which have been used to prejudice the minds of thousands of wellmeaning people in regard to the desires and purposes of the banks and bankers. They desire to give silver the fullest money power, to rescue the metal from the low estate into which it has fallen, and to restore it to the confidence of the commercial world. By the adoption of an international ratio they would make the silver coin representing the same value as the gold legal-tender money throughout the commercial world. In other words, the American Bankers' Association represents those who are the only real friends of silver money.

Albany Journal (Rep.), August 13.

THE most practical way to remove the danger is to elect Congressmen this fall who will vote to stop the coinage of the silver dollar immediately. If the Bankers'

Association will freely circulate the documents explaining the need of such action, they will aid in arousing popular sentiment on the question. The Republican party has always striven to maintain the financial credit of the nation. It is time to take up cudgels against the silver heresy. Nó man should be nominated for Congress this year who favors the Bland dollar.

Denver Tribune (Rep.), August 13.

In order to show how much the disinterested labors of the bankers are appreciated, it is the duty of "persons of limited means, and particularly earners of wages," to hold mass-meetings, and unequivocally endorse the noble action of the Association of American Bankers. Down with the monopolists, but do not forget the champions of "persons of limited means and particularly earners of wages." All honor to the unselfish bankers!

Omaha Bee (Rep.), August 14.

NOTHING is more sure than that the United States can not control the matter of the value and distribution of silver, and the sooner we give up the idea that we can do so, and submit to the immutable and imperative law governing this question, the better it will be for the future of the country, both in its domestic business and its financial and commercial relations with other lands.

CONGRESS ON TRANSPORTATION QUESTIONS.

The Railway World, August 14.

AFTER devoting a considerable amount of time to the discussion of questions that have important bearing on transportation, Congress finally adjourned without perfecting any measures of that class of material importance except the river and harbor bill. The prosperity of the country, in its present stage of industrial development, is so largely dependent upon the exportation of immense quantities of comparatively cheap and bulky raw materials or crude products that the sums judiciously expended for the improvement of approaches to ports are beneficial to the entire country. At all events, works which facilitate the approach of large vessels to numerous points on our extensive coast are of national importance, and without their aid American staples could scarcely maintain their foothold in some of their most desirable competitive foreign markets. Interior projects, like the Hennepin Canal, which failed to receive the support of the House, are of an entirely different class. In no event can they be of very great consequence, and artificial interior water channels over routes now gridironed with railways represent a class of improvements which scarcely seem deserving of extensive support from the United States Government. In reference to interstate commerce legislation, it is reported that the passage of the Cullom bill by the Senate and the Reagan bill by the House, and the failure of a committee of conference to reconcile this disagreement, has been followed by manifestations of a desire on the part of Mr. Reagan to make an earnest effort to perfect legislation on this subject at the next short session of Congress by an abandonment of a number of the provisions of his favorite measure. Much was said and comparatively little done at the late session in regard to the forfeiture of land grants and an adjustment of the matters in dispute between the Pacific roads that have received United States bonds to promote their construction and the GovernA number of land forfeiture bills were passed by the House, however, and it is stated that laws were enacted at the late session forfeiting 23,871,360 acres of Atlantic and Pacific land and 7,000,000 acres of land granted to various Southern railroads.

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CONCILIATION BY SPLENDOR.

Pittsburgh Dispatch (Ind.), August 12.

It is interesting and important to learn that Lord Londonderry has deeply matured plans by which he intends to more than rival the popularity of the Aberdeen viceroyalty, and to make the Irish people forget their detestation of the name of Castlereagh. The Aberdeen government won the affections of the Irish by the simple method of doing them justice; but Lord Londonderry proposes to outshine any such ordinary, every-day virtue as that, and will capture the Hibernian heart at a single blow. The details of this master-stroke of policy are given by Mr. Smalley:

The new viceroy proposes to make his state entry into Dublin at the end of September, and intends to surpass all his predecessors in magnificence and in expenditure while holding office. He will send over thirty-two carriage horses, requires his coachman to be able to turn out four four-in-hands simultaneously, and takes with him a large'hunting stud, including ten hunters besides those for his own riding. Lady Londonderry shares her husband's ambition to make his viceroyalty memorable for splendor.

This is great Tory statesmanship, and, of course, can not fail of brilliant success. It has long been a maxim of the Bourbon philosophy that the common people could be captured by the display of the luxury of their rulers, and Lord Londonderry is going to work the idea to its utmost extent. The Irish peasant may be starved, but he will forget the pangs of hunger in the delight with which he witnesses the viceregal four-in-hands. His children may be turned out of the little home which he and his father built up, because an excessive rent is unpaid; but what is that beside the glorious fact that their ruler parades thirty-two carriage horses? The Irish people's delusion that they should have control of their own affairs to institute needed reforms will, of course, vanish at the sight of Lord Londonderry's ten hunters, and the heresy that the English government ought to deal out equal justice as between the people and their landlords will be entirely extirpated by the splendor of this viceroyalty. Dickens, in the "Tale of Two Cities," sketches the result of such splendors in the French court just previous to the revolution; but the result was quite different from that which the Tory statesman

hopes to produce in Ireland. There the luxury of the ruling class set the starving and oppressed people to considering how they might tear down the social fabric which evolved such contrasts. The Tories, like the Bourbons, do not seem to learn very much from the progress of events, when a statesman in the latter part of the nineteenth century hopes that he can make good the grievances and wrongs of an unjust system by an exhibition of troops of four-in-hands and a long string of hunters. But it is hardly certain that we in this country need exalt our superior intelligence over the Londonderry idea. Very able writers in the United States are engaged in demonstrating to the public how much they are benefited by the existence of such financial monuments of greed and injustice as the Standard Oil and Pacific Railway millions.

PROHIBITION IN THE SOUTHWEST.

New Orleans States (Dem.), August 12.

PROHIBITION is, no doubt, a very good thing, but it is being carried too far in Mississippi. Advices from that State show that the prohibition movement has engendered a bitter feeling among the people, and that threats have been made to put a stop to the whisky traffic, even if it is necessary to use the shot-gun in order to attain the result. Many prominent men have injured themselves in a social and business way because of their opposition to the prohibition furore, and some of them, it is understood, have been almost ostracized on account of the speeches they made against it, in which they declared the movement to be an attempt to interfere with the personal liberty of citizens, and in direct opposition to the idea of a free government. There is no doubt that prohibition in Mississippi is rapidly becoming a religious craze, owing to the fact that the influence of the church has been enlisted in behalf of the movement, and it in turn has brought the ladies to its support. For the first time in the history of Mississippi ladies have been seen marching in processions about the villages and soliciting votes around the polling booths, unsexing themselves at prohibition picnics and barbecues, presenting the lamentable spectacle of ladies of education and refinement waiting on ignorant and loud-smelling negroes and coaxing their votes. This gives a fair idea of what would follow were women granted the right of suffrage. There is reason to believe that the present anti-whisky craze, like all crazes of the kind, will be of a temporary character and soon disappear, but while it is raging Mississippi will be puritanized to a certain extent. The fact of the matter is, in certain localities where the prohibitionists are largely in the majority, the feeling is so strong that persons opposed to prohibition are compelled to think and act with the majority or hunt other pastures.

MISREPRESENTATION IN ENGLAND.

Chicago Tribune (Rep.), August 11.

MR. MATTHEW ARNOLD'S recent letter to the London Times is a fair illustration of one of the sources whence British ignorance of popular sentiment in this country is derived. Mr. Arnold writes: "The main motive Americans have for sympathy with Mr. Gladstone is the temptation to please the Irish." Mr. Arnold has been in the United States on two occasions, during which he has delivered some entertaining lectures and been himself entertained by fashionable people. These people have been the sources of Mr. Arnold's ignorance of popular sentiment here concerning Mr. Gladstone. But there is another source of English misinformation on the same subject which is less pardonable, as being involved in opinions on English politics expressed by the United States minister in London. Our minis. ters abroad, occupying purely representative positions, have no justification in expressing toadying opinions of British affairs; but it is a fault into which they are constantly falling, especially in London, either by reason of their aristocratic tendencies at home or their snobbish desire to be popular and affiliate with the reigning classes in England. The disposition to appoint citizens eminent on account of scholarship and social attainments as ministers to England has been evinced by every President from Washington down to Cleveland, except, perhaps, General Grant, and except upon occasions when conspicuous diplomatic and legal ability has been indispensable, as in the case of Mr. Charles Francis Adams. Since Mr. Adams' mission there has been no great question between our Government and that of Great Britain, any large share of the settlement of which it has been found necessary to confide to the American minister at London, and consequently Mr. Adams has had no successor conspicuous for anything else than the representation in his person of the highest attainments of American scholarship and culture. Messrs. Motley and Lowell are examples of that class. General Schenck was eminent as a lawyer, although not altogether a fortunate appointment; Mr. Welch was not conspicuous for anything in particular, and not one of the four was a true representative of average American sentiment. The present minister is coming into prominence on account of anything but commendable qualities. He had not been in London very long before he began to talk about American sympathy with Ireland being confined to the "politicians" and the "lower classes in his own country, and from that time to this he has continued in the same strain. Now it is reported that he expressed the opinion to the French ambassador the other day that coercion was the only solution of the Irish problem. In that opinion, however, he has gone so far that he represents no American but himself, and yet the opinion is accepted to a certain extent in England. Obviously the "History of the United States " is the best reference work for persons who wish to learn about American sympathy with Ireland. Some time ago Mr. Henry Watterson wrote from London that Mr. Phelps was not attending to his duties, not the least of which is the preservation of an impartial bearing toward all questions of internal British politics. Mr. Phelps is too garrulous; he should paste the legend, “Silence is golden," in his hat.

MISCELLANEOUS.

THE DISPOSITION OF GREAT FORTUNES.-Many of the possessors of the greatest fortunes won in this country have died within a comparatively few years, and dis tributed their wealth by will. Let us see how they have done it.

George Peabody, who died in London on the 4th of November, 1869, had not, it is true, accumulated all his vast property in the United States, but he laid the foundations of his fortune here, where he started life as a poor Massachusetts boy, and it was afterward greatly increased by his American investments. Mr. Peabody had given away many millions during his life, the sum of his more conspicuous benefactions reaching about $7,000,000. When he died he made bequests to objects of public utility, but the residue of his fortune was enough to enrich his relatives with about $5,000,000.

His greatest benefactions were $2,500,000 as a fund for the building of lodginghouses for the London poor, and $2,100,000 as a "Southern educational fund." However great has been the sum of the actual benefits conferred by these princely gifts, after the lapse of nearly a quarter of a century it is not too much to say that it has been far below the expectation of the philanthropist. The London poor are no better housed than they were in his day, and the Peabody lodging-houses are the object of much criticsim. Now the cry is that the government itself must do the work of improvement, for all England has lately been aroused by descriptions of the awful misery of the poor crowded in London hovels. In spite of his gift for the benefit of Southern education in 1866, Congress in 1886 has had before it a bill to distribute many millions of the public money for the same purpose. Mr. Peabody's benefaction was only as a drop in the bucket.

John Jacob Astor died on the 29th of March, 1848, at the age of eighty-five, leaving his estate, with the exception of a bequest of $400,000 for the Astor Library and some minor legacies, to his son, William B. Astor, who died on the 24th of November, 1875, leaving his estate to his sons, less a legacy of about $250,000 to the Astor Library. The vast Astor estate, the greatest landed estate in America, has thus come down substantially intact from its founder, and the only conspicuous benefaction of the family has been the establishment and enrichment of the splendid library which bears its name. But the Astors, all the same, have been and are public benefactors. In founding the library the first creator of the fortune did an inestimable service to society, for the Astor Library is one of the choicest and most useful collections of books in the United States, and supplies a want which all students know to be imperative. Besides that, this family has administered its vast landed possessions in New York with a wise method which has greatly served the interests of the public. They have expended their wealth in building up the city, and are known and honored throughout its limits as the justest of landlords. They have also made many benefactions for public objects, which have been the more praiseworthy because they were unostentatiously and most intelligently bestowed. Of all American estates of magnitude the best preserved has been that of the Astors.

The late Johns Hopkins died at Baltimore, December 24, 1873, at the age of 78 years. He was one of the most penurious and miserly of men, but he surpassed even Mr. Tilden in the magnificence of his benefactions. He gave to the foundation of the Johns Hopkins University and the Johns Hopkins Hospital in all eight millions of money, and they are two of the greatest monuments that any citizen ever raised to his own memory. If he gave twice as much to the public welfare as Mr. Tilden did, it was simply because he happened to have twice as much. Besides, his eight millions atoned for and in a certain degree justified his personal career, whereas Mr. Tilden's four were used to express the fitting and modest climax of a life of devotion to unselfish interests. Like Mr. Tilden, Mr. Johns Hopkins was a bachelor.

A. T. Stewart died in New York on the 10th of April, 1876, leaving a widow, but no children. He was reputed to be one of the richest men in the United States, the others being Commodore Vanderbilt and John Jacob Astor, the younger, who had a few weeks before Mr. Stewart's death inherited the bulk of the Astor estate. Mr. Stewart had made his great fortune in this country, and because of his lack of children there was much curiosity as to the will of the sagacious merchant. Before his death he had started two vast enterprises for the benefit of the public, or, rather, for the good of special objects of his consideration. These were Garden City, on Long Island, to provide homes for industrious mechanics and other deserving persons of moderate means, and a home for working girls on Park avenue, in this city. Garden City is now a rather fashionable center, being frequented by the golden youth who hunt the anise-seed bag. The working women's home has been transformed into a hotel in which no working girl can afford to live unless she goes there as a servant. A grand cathedral has been erected at Garden City in memory of the dead man, but the crypt provided for the reception of his body is vacant, for his corpse was stolen from St. Mark's churchyard, and no one knows where it has crumbled to dust. By his will the vast estate of Mr. Stewart, with the exception of legacies of $1,000,000 to Judge Hilton, one of his executors, and $325,000 to his employes, was left to his wife. After his decease, first his wholesale business was substantially closed up by its removal from the warehouse at the corner of Chambers street and Broadway, which was the pride and the wonder of old New York, and then his famous retail house passed into other hands. It is supposed, too, that his estate in the possession of his wife has greatly diminished, for his vast manufacturing interests seem to have been sold at a sacrifice. At any rate, the Stewart estate, once so provocative of envy and astonishment, has ceased to dazzle the public with its grandeur.

James Lick, who had worked himself up from poverty to affluence, died at San Francisco, October 1, 1876. Two years before he had placed all his property in the hands of trustees for various public purposes, but subsequently he revised that disposition, reserving to himself $500,000, and giving to his son $150,000, and sums varying from $2,000 to $5,000 to his relatives. His most conspicuous gifts were $700,000 for an observatory with the most powerful telescope ever made, $540,000 for a California School of Mechanical Arts, $150,000 for free public baths

in San Francisco, $60,000 for a monument to Francis Scott Key, the author of the Star-Spangled Banner," and $100,000 for a group of bronze statuary in San Fran. cisco, representing the history of California. His benefactions amounted to about $2,000,000.

Cornelius Vanderbilt died at New York on the 4th of January, 1877, at the age of eighty-three years, leaving an estate which was estimated at from sixty to one hundred millions, all of which sum, except about fifteen millions, was bequeathed to his son, William H. Vanderbilt, and a memorable and most deplorable contest occurred over his will. During his life he had given toward a million to found Vanderbilt University, at Nashville, Tenn., a now prosperous and useful institution, which was further and handsomely endowed by his son William. William H. Vanderbilt died in this city on the 8th of December of last year at the age of sixty-four, and about eight years after the death of his father had put him in possession of so vast an estate; but his life was kept in turmoil for the first year or two by the bitter and mortifying contest over the testament of the old Commodore, so that the period during which he enjoyed his wealth was quite short. Yet he was commonly reported to have doubled his inheritance, and that increased estate, with the exception of, perhaps, a million for charities, he divided among his widow and eight children, his two oldest sons receiving the lion's share. Before his death Mr. Vanderbilt had given large sums to Vanderbilt University, and had bountifully contributed to the College of Physicians and Surgeons, a medical school of this city, which has been further benefited by his heirs, who also have undertaken the foundation of a handsome-club house for their railroad employes.

James Lenox died at New York on February 18, 1880, at which time he was held to be one of the five wealthiest men in the city. Previous to his death he had founded and endowed the Presbyterian Hospital at Seventieth and Seventyfirst streets, expending about a million dollars. He also spent over half a million in building the Lenox Library, and subsequently stocked it with his remarkable collection of books and works of art; but, as yet, the library has been of little use to the public, for admission to it is difficult, and students even do not take full advantage of the books. It is a most imposing building architecturally, it is beauti fully situated, many rare editions are on its shelves, and it contains pictures and sculptures of great value and beauty, but they are still almost as much locked up, so far as the people are concerned, as if they had been buried in Mr. Lenox's tomb.

We must not omit from this list Girard, of Philadelphia, who left more than $2,000,000, together with a plot of ground, to found Girard College in that city; Stevens, of Hoboken, who bequeathed $1,000,000 to complete the Stevens Battery and $1,000,000 for the Stevens Institute at Hoboken; Roosevelt, of New York, who left about a million to found the hospital that bears his name; and William W. Corcoran, of Washington, who has given about $2,000,000 during his life to establish an art gallery and a home for decayed gentlewomen there.

Of other rich men who have died of recent years are the Goelet brothers, great landlords, but their property has all gone to their natural heirs and their relatives, who are now among the richest people in New York.

Samuel J. Tilden, who died on the 4th of this month, left about $5,000,000, all of which, except about $1,000,000, goes to public objects—a magnificent bequest. But his will seems to transfer from himself to his executors the responsibility for devising the means through which the benefaction shall go. They have pretty full discretion, and the good the public will derive from the liberality of the great statesman will largely depend on the wisdom of these three men. The main intention of the testator, to provide a grand free library for New York, was worthy of the sagacity so conspicuously manifested in the accumulation of his vast fortune, but even with respect to such an institution the executors are allowed full discretion and power of decision. They are public-spirited men, and they know the wishes of the deceased. Therefore we can expect from them that his munificence will be so administered as to best serve the interests of the people among whom he was an honored figure.

But, looking over all these various dispositions of a fortune, what one affords the best guide for a rich man who would most wisely distribute his possessions?—New York Sun, August 15.

DEAD LIONS.—It is not always wise to speak only good of the dead. The biographer may have a sacred duty to perform in holding up the true character of one who did evil in his time as a lesson both to the living and to the generations to come. Most writers and speakers, however, shrink from such delineations, and whatever may have been the errors of the life the obituary is almost always the language of eulogy. The historian of times long past will give freer license to his pen, but in the presence of the cold clay, not yet returned to its original dust, the most relentless of critics will usually leave out the harsher lines of the picture, and present his subject in the fairest guise he can adopt without manifest misrepresentation. Within a few months many noted public men have passed away, leaving behind them a finished record that must be unchanged forever. The bitter. est partisan tongue, the most unscrupulous political writer or speaker, has not said of either one of these since his demise what was often uttered in fierce denunciation of his motives and conduct while he was living. Is it because the ear is closed, the flash has gone out of the eye, the hand is still and weaponless, and it is mean and cowardly to strike at a fallen foe? Or, may it not rather be that in the presence of the great leveler there comes a truer estimate of the rounded life? What seemed like crimes have shrunk into defects. Recalling the past, in the presence of the pallid face so calm and silent, the conduct that was so bitterly condemned does not wear the fiendish aspect once ascribed to it. Envy and jealousy can not add their sombre colors now, for the object which provoked such resentment has left the pinnacle and lies low in the great defeat that must come to all.

There is a lesson

in this that ought to be carried with every one into the heat of life's conflict, to temper his judgment of his fellows, to soften his tone to his rivals, and in every political campaign to smooth some of the asperities of party warfare. Over against the blackened sketch which party hate would make of the opposing candidates there is the setting sun, near at hand for us all, and the twilight hour full of re

pentant memories. These ought to be weighed with each other while the hand can still cling to the balance; and if this was done the cruel slander, the bitter, angry word, the implacable passion that can see no good in the foe who walks under another banner, would not as often haunt the after-life and the closing hour. Not one of the illustrious dead of the last hundred years has escaped the assaults of venomed tongues. Fierce attacks were made on George Washington while he was President, and he was openly accused of the vilest crimes, personal and political. We saw not long since, in the columns of an old paper published during his term of office, an editorial in large type, in which he was openly charged with being a defaulter, and with having robbed the public treasury. As there were no railroads in that day, he had laid in a winter's supply of stores for his use at the White House by vessel to Georgetown before the port became ice-bound, and had drawn his orders in settlement of the cost, which much exceeded his pay up to that date, if the $25,000 a year appropriated for his support was to be divided into monthly installments. This was the after explanation, but at the time he was openly denounced in terms more gross than are now applied to the fugitive who crosses the Canada line with the assets of a bank in his pocket.

Thomas Jefferson was fiercely assailed by the Federal party, including nearly all of the clergy of the country, as not only depraved in heart and life, but as a blatant infidel, for whom the yawning abyss of woe, with its eternal torments, was none too severe a doom. Not long since a man died at Rhinebeck who, when an infant, was taken into the Reformed Dutch Church in that town to be baptized. After the clergyman had received the child in his arms the father gave the name to be applied as "Thomas Jefferson," who was then President. "It would be blasphemy," said the minister, "to call that name in the house of God; this child's name is John," and he finished the christening, the boy bearing the name thus given to the day of his death. Andrew Jackson was grossly maligned by his opponents of the Whig party. He was charged with being illiterate, debased, drunken, licentious, profane (blasphemous oaths being quoted as from his lips), satanic in disposition, and utterly vile. In our native town two members of the orthodox church voted for him and received church censure for it, as for conduct unbecoming a professor of the Christian religion. There was not one word of truth in all these charges. He was a well-educated, sober, chaste, honest, Godfearing man, a tender, devoted husband, and a true patriot. Few of the statesmen and heroes who have lived and died since his day have escaped the tongue of slander; and of the dead Presidential candidates who have gone from our sight within a few brief months how cruel were the falsehoods uttered. Hancock was not only belittled in every way, but he was actually charged with cowardice, that sharpest sting to a soldier's pride. Seymour was accused of being false to his country in the hour of its greatest need, and we have seen his effigy with the brand of "Traitor" in large capitals across his breast. McClellan, who will one day be held among the dearest names cherished in American hearts, was openly charged not only with imbecility, but with disloyalty to every trust, and the great statesman and leader for whom the flags were lately bending in sorrow was assailed in like manner in terms too freshly used to need repetition here. Not one of all the grosser charges against any of these noble men was true, or had any excuse or justi fication whatever. They were not perfect men, for no mere mortal, living or dead, may claim that title; but they were worthy of respect and esteem, and will live in history among the great and good who are entitled to an honored memory. The past is beyond recall. If they who, in the heat of passion or the malignity of partisan hate, uttered the slanders and made the cruel accusations, shown to be wholly false, were living now, they could not undo the wrong, however sincere their penitence. Winged words never return to the window whence they issued, and for good or evil they must be abroad for evermore. But the lesson is for us, and the people of our day. Abuse of men in public life, and depreciation of candidates for the suffrages of the people, which have no real foundation, being wholly the offspring of an overheated imagination or the invention of minds maddened by party strife, are altogether too common. Let us not wait for death to soften our animosities and correct our judgments, but give to the living while we may the honor that is their due. It will thus be better both for them and for us. It will save them many a needless pang, and will lighten the burden on our hearts when we, too, come to the hour that sets all things even.-New York Journal of Com

merce.

ROMAN MONEY AND LUXURY.-In the infancy of Rome there was very little treasure or large landed property, and one and a half acres of land constituted an estate. Pliny writes that Marius Curius (464 B. C.) said he considered a citizen dangerous who was not content with the possession of at least six acres of land. The estate of M. Scarius, the first senator, was valued at $50,000, and he kept only six slaves. Augustus issued a decree that no one should possess property beyond the value of $5,000; Julius Cæsar changed the amount to $85,000. When the dominion of Rome increased, many of the lower classes became wealthy, and among the trades, shoemakers, dyers, &c, gave public shows to the people. No interest for money lent by the ancient Romans was allowed, but on money lent to foreigners interest was charged and allowed by the law. This law became obselete, and, with the growth of Rome, interest for money rose and was exacted monthly. The usual interest was one per cent. monthly, but it rose much higher. Verres was intrusted with the public money to purchase corn for the city, and Cicero accuses him of lending it out at two per cent. monthly. The ambition of the Romans to become rulers required money to purchase the freemen's votes, and the evil of bribery was the ruin and downfall of the Roman republic. A barber became richer than any of the nobles, which wealth he acquired by exacting exorbitant interest. Riches accumulated in the hands of many citizens. Pliny relates that Cælius Isedorius left at his death nearly $3,000,000, besides 3,600 yoke of oxen and 260,000 other cattle, although he had lost much in the civil wars. Lentillus, the augur, was worth $32,000,000. Croesus, whose name became a proverb for riches, was the grandson of a high priest. His ambition was for power. He was very decorous and religious, giving the tenth of his estate to Hercules. He accumulated money and was accused of covetousness, from his peculiar faculty of turning public calamity to his profit in money. Yet he on one occasion sustained

the people of Rome in food for three months at his own expense. He was a great patron of the arts and manufactures, and possessed slaves who were professors, whom he lent out to teach the arts and sciences. Slaves who could read were much higher in value than common laborers. Pliny relates that the slave Daphnis, the grammarian, was purchased for $20,000. Slaves who performed on the stage were even more valuable. Roscius gained yearly for his master $20,000. Some Roman citizens, for mere show, had 10,000 slaves.

The emperors' possessions were immense and their prodigality and rapacity pro. portionate. Nero told his tax-gatherers that his requirements were such that, if no one else possessed anything, he must receive all. The extravagance for eating was ridiculous. Lucillius paid for his suppers in the Apollo $8,000. Claudius Æsopus, the tragedian, paid for one dish $25,000; but his son, the captain, treated each guest with a cordial in which costly pearls were dissolved. Vitellus had four meals and a collation every day, and his expenditure for them was $17,000 daily.. Caligula expended on one supper $400,000. Large sums of money were expended on fish, and a fish called a scarus was the price of a principality. The cost of a smelt was $450. The whiting was a fashionable fish, and the bearers of the dish brought it to the table with coronets on their heads. The lamprey was considered inestimable. Very large ponds of fish were kept by the Romans. Oysters and snails were in great repute. Julius Hyrpanus had a nursery for snails, and they were fed with bran boiled in wine. The capacity of some of the shells was such as to contain ten quarts of liquid. The Romans reposed on couches when eating. Three couches were placed against the edge of the table, and on the one side the table was in the form of a horseshoe. The waiters, generally boys, with their faces colored and hair curled, brought and placed the dishes on the table. The tables were made of the most expensive woods, with legs of ivory and inlaid with silver and precious stones, and the couches and pillows covered with the richest stuffs of gold and silk that could be manufactured. Philo renders a long description of the adornments, etc., of these feasts. The sideboards were decorated with drinking cups of the richest workmanship. Cooks were very clever in imitating birds and fish, in default of obtaining real ones. Exorbitant sums of money were expended on clothing and jewelry. Seneca writes that the thin gauze worn by the Roman ladies was much too thin. Julius Cæsar forbade clothing of a purple color to be worn by any but men of a certain rank, and then only on special occasions. The fashionables of both sexes hung from their necks a jewel set with precious stones, and in the form of a heart. This jewel was called bulla. The popes afterward hung the jewels from their necks, whence the name of bulls, as decrees from the pope are termed. Immense sums of money were expended on carpets, and Nero paid for a Babylonian carpet $160,000. Toward the last days of Rome, men and women used paints and perfumery on their persons. Satirists censured their vulgarity. Pictures and statuary were highly prized. The houses of rich citizens occupied more space than, in the early days of Rome, would have constituted an estate. The Jewish Messenger.

MR. GLADSTONE'S HOME-Six miles from Chester, in Flintshire, Wales, is Hawarden Castle, the residence of Mr. Gladstone, but the property of his wife, who inherited from her father, Sir Stephen Glynne. Spelled Hawarden, it is always called, when pronounced correctly, Harden. The parish of Hawar.len numbers about 13,000 acres, and of these 9,000 belong to the Gladstone estate. The village, in itself neither pretty nor picturesque, is outside the gates of the park, which stretches away grandly from the manor house. Oaks, limes, or lindens, and elms are thickly set over the grounds, and at the left, on a commanding height, is the ruin of the ancient castle, which, with its magnificent ivy and its traditions of more than ten centuries, looks down somewhat haughtily upon its castellated successor, which is now the home of the greatest living statesman of the age. There can be no doubt but Mr. Gladstone is the most eminent of all the owners of Hawarden, though they have been De Montforts, Montholts, and Stanleys. The last lost it when Earl Lorne was beheaded in 1657. A Sergeant Glynne bought it under the Sequestration Act passed by Parliament in the same year, and for a song. He was an ancestor of Mrs. Gladstone, and his portrait hangs over the mantel in her drawing room, but she is not very proud of his record. At the northern end of the village is the church, a plain, low building, with a squatty tower and a dwarf spire. Its interior having been totally destroyed by fire about thirty years since, it has been restored at a great cost and with some taste. Of this church the premier's second son, Stephen Gladstone, is rector, and the living is said to be worth $20,000 a year, exclusive of the rectory. Mr. Stephen Gladstone is an earnest and instructive preacher, and much beloved by his parishioners, but it is not for the sake of hearing him that the great crowds flock to Hawarden church, for they only come when his father is known to be in residence. Almost directly in front as you enter the church is the reading desk, where every Sunday, when he is at home, Mr. Gladstone reads the lessons of the day, rising for that purpose from a wooden bench which is his usual seat. He joins heartily in response and song, but listens to the sermon with his head thrown back and eyes partially closed; and only in that attitude does an observer see how much paler than formerly is his gnarled and rugged face. When he leaves the church, and passes through a narrow lane which leads to his son's house, all stand uncovered on each side of the way, and often in ranks three, even four deep.

He is very popular in the neighborhood, making himself acquainted with the opinions of all classes of men; takes an interest in the young men's debating society, and is accessible to his tenants and the villagers to such an extent that it is doubtful if they do not think Mr. Gladstone owes as much to Hawarden as Hawarden does to Mr. Gladstone. Indeed, an old dame boasts that she frequently tells him all that is in her mind, and a couple of very mild-looking old men often come to his library to let him know how that last speech of his sounded down in Hawarden." Mrs. Gladstone has a large orphanage for girls close to her own house, in the stable-yard; in fact, where they are carefully taught to use their hands as well as their minds, and are watched over tenderly until time proves they are able to live honest, useful lives. Mrs. Gladstone has often held the post of matron to the orphanage for a month at a time, and it is told in the village as evidence of her remarkable liberality of opinion that if the parents of the orphans had been dissenters,