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sult of the Maine election that presents on the surface any indications of political progress. On the contrary the tendency seems to be in the opposite direction.

Pittsburgh Penny Press (Rep.), September 14.

BLAINE was the central figure in the Maine canvass. His speeches were read throughout the country as the remarks not of a local politician, but of a national character. The issue was, primarily, Blaine and anti-Blaine. The returns indicate that the Blaine element carried the State handsomely against the combined efforts of Democracy, Prohibition, and a so-called Labor ticket.

Buffalo Courier (Dem.), September 14.

THE fact that the Republicans have carried Maine means nothing except that the Republican party is not yet dead but remains one of the great organizations struggling for political ascendancy. The Republicans are entitled to all the comfort which they can derive from that fact.

Detroit Tribune (Rep.), September 14.

IN all respects, and in every feature of it, the Maine victory is sweeping and satisfactory, a splendid indication of the unassailable vitality of the Republican party, and a clear and unmistakable popular indorsement of the permanent wisdom of Republican principles and policies.

Boston Journal (Rep.), September 14.

THE Republicans have won a splendid victory by going before the people upon the issues of the hour and without other influence or aid. The result shows that the Republicans can hold their own in the Northern States if they have the courage of their convictions.

Worcester Spy (Rep.), September 14.

IT is not unpleasant to hear that ex-Governor Garcelon, the chief conspirator in the attempt to steal the State government some years ago, who was yesterday a candidate for Congress, is so far out of favor as to fall much behind other candidates on the ticket.

Indianapolis Sentinel (Dem.), September 14.

THE returns received from Maine indicate that the Democrats held their own, the Prohibitionists increased their vote 200 per cent., and the Republicans suffered large losses, though carrying the State. For a State naturally Republican it is a sorry showing.

MR. BLAINE held to order a part of the Prohibition leaders who worked for him, though Neal Dow opposed him. The Democrats had no hope of success, and went into the battle in a hopeless condition.-Hartford Times (Dem.), September 14.

THE result is one that the Republicans, and especially the Blaine Republicans, can not find much satisfaction in. So far as the Democrats are concerned it is better than they had expected.-Cleveland Plain Dealer (Dem.), September 14. THE results of the Maine elections are such as have been expected, with the exception, perhaps, that the Republicans have failed, even more than the Democrats, in getting out their vote.-Baltimore Sun (Ind.), September 14.

THE news from Maine will be heard all over the country this morning; and from the Republicans of every State and Territory will go up the shout: "Well done, Maine!"-Pittsburgh Times (Rep.), September 14.

1,838,000. Now these 12 States had a population in 1880 of over 15,230,000, so that as yet they are spending less than 70 cents per head annually for public educa tion. Massachusetts public schools in 1885 were attended by about 340,000 pupils, or nearly 20 per cent. of its population in 1880. The same enjoyment of school privileges in the South would bring over 3,000,000 children into the public schools. In other words, a little more than half the children to-day have school privileges in 12 States of the Union. The Post can not wipe out that fact. In Massachusetts in the same year $4,675,000 were raised by taxation for the support of the public schools in their current expenditures alone; including the income from funds, and the cost of new buildings, over $7,000,000 were spent upon public education in Massachusetts, or over $4 per capita of the population. The State of Vermont, from which the Post tried to draw a fearful moral, spends $1.50 a head, but $1.50 will go much further in a community where nearly every family takes a paper, and where a person who can not read or write is a curiosity. The whole environment is one of intelligence. In the South these favorable conditions are reversed, and the educational expenditure is correspondingly less effective and must be correspondingly greater and more strenuous. We submit that the above statistics show an appalling necessity for the consideration of the educational problem.

ALTOGETHER the result is very satisfactory to the Republican party, and it is an auspicious beginning to the fall elections.-Pittsburgh Commercial-Gazette (Rep.), September 14.

THE moral effect of the Maine election on the campaigns in other States must be to greatly strengthen the Republicans.-Pittsburgh Chronicle-Telegraph (Ind.), September 14.

MAINE appears to have gone for Blaine yesterday as it went for Governor Kent some years ago.-Washington Critic (Ind.), September 14..

THE Prohibition vote in Maine does not seem to have come up to anybody's expectations.-Ohio State Journal (Rep.), September 14.

THE Maine election news is summed in the statement that the Dutch have taken Holland.-Boston Herald (Ind.), September 14.

THE jump of the cat in Maine seems to be of the same old and familiar char acter.-Pittsburgh Dispatch (Ind.), September 14.

BLAINE is happy. Maine went Republican yesterday by the usual majority.Atlanta Constitution (Dem.), September 14.

MAINE went as usual, only not so much so.-Cincinnati Enquirer (Dem.), September 14.

SCHOOL APPROPRIATIONS NORTH AND SOUTH
Springfield Republican (Ind.)., September 10.

FRANCE AND EUROPE.

The Courrier des Etats-Unis, New York, September 11.
[Translated for PUBLIC OPINION.]

EVENTS which unfold themselves in the East are still full of obscurity, and it
would be very rash to venture to predict the final issue, or to presage the compli
cations to which they may give birth. But if the future is still veiled in obscurity,
there are in the present truths which predicate themselves, and which it is useful
to verify. If it be true that M. de Giers, the Russian prime minister, has threat-
ened to withdraw from the triple alliance in the event that Germany should per-
sist in sustaining Prince Alexander, we would have the key of the sacrifice which
M. de Bismarck has made of the interests of Austria, and of his adhesion to the
measures which have virtually nullified the Berlin treaty. This threat has brought
the Man of Iron to a settlement. He knew that if the feeble ties of the triple al-
liance, which hold to the thread of Emperor William's life, should be broken, under
existing circumstances, Russia would be led to accept the intimate alliance into
which France has been disposed to enter with her for so long a time past. That
M. de Bismarck fears to look this eventually in the face proves that he appreci
ates, at their just value, the military resources of France. This involuntary reve-
lation of his true sentiments, and this acknowledgment that in future he has to
reckon with the French army, cannot fail to produce a deep impression upon Eu-
ropean diplomacy, and to contribute notably to restore France to her old place
among the great powers. It is unquestionable that the French army is about twice
as strong as that of Austria, while Russia can put in the field more men than Ger-
many; so that the forces of an Austro-German league would, at the outset, be in-
ferior to those of a Franco-Russian coalition. France, by lending her credit, more-
over, to her ally, could prolong the struggle with relative facility. England alone
would be capable of furnishing equivalent financial resources, but Bismarck cannot
hope to be assisted on that side, whilst the necessity of defending the Indian em-
pire against a Muscovite invasion' ties the hands of England. It can, then, be
readily understood that the Chancellor does not wish, in order to favor the designs
of Austria upon the Balkans, to hazard the fate of the German empire on a doubt-
ful issue of a conflict between Russia and France. Thus, it is the consciousness of
the role that France can play upon the European boards; it is the formal knowl
edge of the military power of the Republic, which has forced Prince Bismarck to
renounce the scheme conceived at the Congress of Berlin of placing Austria at
the head of the Sclav States of the South. Without raising a finger, the French
government, by the single fact of the existence of great military and naval forces,
which it could combine with those of the Czar, has annihilated the hopes of its
mortal enemy, and destroyed the entire diplomatic plot to which, for eight years,
he has directed all his energies. Events have been too imperious for the Chan-
His star, although yet high in the firmament, has passed its
zenith, and the eclipse of France, which he wished to believe eternal, is very near
reaching its full term. Such are the opinions expressed by all the continental press,
even by that of countries which, like Germany and Austria, are obliged to bend
under the tempest which has overthrown their scaffolding so laboriously built, and
even by that of England, touched in one of her vital interests, which is the pivot
of her secular politics.

THE New York Evening Post, by an adroit use of statistics a few months ago, tried to show that the Southern States were getting on about as well as the average Northern State in matters of education and really needed no help from the Government of the United States. It now prints as confirmatory of this view a table from the New Orleans Times-Democrat of the school attendance and appropriations in the 12 Southern States. These appropriations for 1880 amounted to $6,415,000, when 1,439,000 children were in attendance. In 1885 the appropriations amounted to $10,389,000, and the number of children in attendance reached

cellor of Iron even.

L'Eco d'Italia, New York, September 13.

[Translated for PUBLIC OPINION.]

POOR France! She is struck with the persecution mania; the infirmity has been discovered by the Milan Pungolo, which has made of it the following diag nosis: The whole of Europe hates France. Italy, it is useless to repeat, is a great ingrate; they say and resay it every day-the journals which are published in the eighty-seven departments into which the Gr-r-rande Nation is divided. Italy is the natural enemy of France-the Journal des Debats has solemnly affirmed it. Italy is ungrateful, because she thinks she has paid France with the present of Nice and of Savoy. Of Spain, we do not speak; she, too, is an ingrate, because she forgets that Louis XIV, after having presented her with his grandson, wanted to wipe out the Pyrenees, forgets that Paris has received with joy the adipose Isabella II-forgets it all, and to-day is trying to poison her by sending into France from across the Pyrenees, German spirits. England is still the "per fidious England," who, instead of aiding her in her wild enterprises, egotistically looks after her own interests. Austria, another ingrate, who has made herself a handle for Germany, instead of throwing herself, heart and soul, into the arms of Ftance. It appeared, until the other day, that Russia made an exception, but Russia has clearly shown she will not lend herself to be the cat's-paw of France, and now Russia is put to the ban with the other nations. We now come to Ger

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many, the "bete noir" of France. The French papers vie with each other in pulling to pieces a book which has just come out, entitled Germany and the Germans," from the pen of a certain Jacques Saint Cere. Everything which is found in my book," says Mr. Jacques, "is true, and the Germans will, with difficulty, excite a doubt as to the truth of one of my affirmations. I have lived,. "he continues, "for seven years the life of a German. I have mastered their language, and have undertaken, in good faith, to write this book." This does not prevent his saying, in "good faith," that the Emperor William, the god of the Germans, is a "lady-killer"; that General von Molkte is a "poseur"; that Bismarck is a "bull-dog"; and that, finally, all social classes in Germany are vicious and immoral, and that, to describe them, one should consult several editions of the Pall Mall Gazette. And Mr. Jacques, the man of "good faith," who has lived seven years in Germany and is master of the language, ends his book with the remark: "That which is taught to children from the age of five years, that which is kept alive in the breast of students of twenty years, is hatred of the French." And while Mr. Jacques reproaches. Germany with the iron discipline which reigns in all institutions, whilst he says, ironically, that the schoolmaster in Germany is accounted to be supernatural, that master who teaches respect for father, superior, laws, the emperor, the Gaulois writes a melancholy article upon the deplorable condition in which discipline is found in the French army, although in the military regulations there is written "Discipline is the principal force of armies!" As regards us Italians we are looking out, and will do our best to learn something from the examples of others.

THE OBLITERATION OF ENGLAND.
Courrier des Etats-Unis (Ind.), New York, September 10.
[Translated for PUBLIC OPINION.]

According to the New York Times, which generally looks at England through a rose-colored lens, that power, which formerly played so grand a part upon the theater of the world, has decidedly fallen into a third-class role as respects European politics. She no longer holds the place of a supernumerary even in the affairs of the East, where of late she cut so grand a figure. The Times, from an American point of view, attaches no great importance to the mode of settling finally the Bulgarian question; but that which interests it, as an independent spectator, is the manifest intention of arranging this affair without taking England into account any more than if she were not in existence. Russia, Germany, and Austria clearly intend to settle the matter at their own convenience. England is left completely outside. What follows presents the position of Great Britain in Europe, under an aspect as piquant as novel. In point of fact, for some years past Europe has not preoccupied herself very much with England's opinion upon questions of continental politics, properly so called; but Englishmen have not comprehended or have appeared not to comprehend the depth of this sentiment of indifference, masked by a show of deference which sufficed to keep up their illusions while flattering their pride. The opinion of the English government has always been asked, for form's sake, as if there were an intention of conforming to it, and she was content with this prestige. At the Berlin conference, eight years ago, England posed in all her theatrical glory. Lord Beaconsfield succeeded in flattering the amour propre of the English people by persuading them that it was he himself who was the leader of the orchestra of the European concerts, and that Lord Salisbury, then his lieutenant, had exercised a sovereign influence in making "peace with honor" issue from an apparent inextricable chaos. In a word, John Bull triumphed along the whole line, and Lord Beaconsfield was the greatest statesman of Europe. England has since had two opportunities to give the measure of her political ability, in Egypt and in Asia. The English people have none the less preserved their high opinion of themselves and of their government, and this conviction has been sustained by the consideration shown them by the other powers. But the veil is now torn off, and the hollowness revealed. Whilst appearances were respected the English saw nothing beyond. Bnt their eyes are being opened and their susceptibilities aroused at a time when, to their great astonishment, the affairs of the world are being regulated without even asking their advice. Alone, and without an ally, England is radically impotent, and a demonstration without. fruits would only the more compromise whatever of her dignity is left. These considerations are not merely a thesis-the issue of a visionary conception, which the situation does not warrant. They are not less evident to the eyes of Englishmen than of Americans, and the London Times is drawn into the current. Speaking of the policy of Germany, it shows M. de Bismarck very indifferent to the interests or to the sentiments of England. The alliance of Russia he has much more at heart than the good graces of Great Britain. He leaves to the latter the sole charge of her interests, "because he is somewhat sceptical touching the aptitude to do it with success." This latter sarcasm (is it not of a bitter keenness?) M. de Bismarck would have indulgence toward England if he considered her powerful and serviceable. But he believes her hardly capable of protecting her own interests and he abandons her to her fate. This is typical, and it is the great London journal which makes this avowal the supreme cry of a lacerated heart.

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THE COMING NO-RENT WAR.

The Irish World, September 11.

THE scene enacted in Galway recently on the Clanricarde estate forcibly reminds us that a species of civil war exists in Ireland. A tenant who was to be evicted converted his house into a sort of fort, and there, with the aid of his neighbors, defended himself for several days. A force of police and soldiers were ordered to take the house by storm. The people for many miles around assembled to witness the fight between the agents of the land-thieves and the brave fellows who were defending the extemporized fort. The latter, with no better means of protecting themselves than boiling water, fought bravely, but as they were out

numbered, they were finally obliged to surrender. Land-thief Clanricarde, who, by the way, resides most of his time in London, where he spends the rack rents he wrings from his tenants, has apparently won a victory in his first encounter with his tenants. But he and his fellow-thieves will not have long to wait before they find out that such victories are practically useless to them. The spirit that prompted those brave fellows in Galway to defend that besieged house in the way they did is capable of creating a revolution powerful enough to sweep every vestige of landlordism from Ireland. Suppose every Irish home the crowbar brigade attempts to destroy were as stoutly defended, does any one suppose that the landthieves would have the least chance of succeeding in their war on the Irish people? But it would by no means be necessary that every attempt at evicting should meet with such stout resistance as was offered by the brave fellows in Galway. All that is required is that a percentage of evictions be resisted. If that should happen the land-thieves, even though backed by all the resources of the English government, would not be able to successfully carry on their war of extermination. The enormous cost of their doing so would of itself defeat them. The total amount of rent collected in all Ireland would be a mere trifle compared with the expense that would be incurred if attempts at evicting were met with anything like general resistance. The English government knows this very well. Hence the dread it has shown of a general strike against rent. It is conscious that if ever such a strike takes place it will not be able to put it down. The English government and the land-thieves hope that by using vigorous measures in isolated cases of resistance to rent-paying they will succeed in stamping out anything like a wide-spread antirent movement. The traveler across a prairie who discovers a fire that has been just started knows that his life depends upon his ability to quench the flames before they spread and convert the prairie into a roaring furnace. So it is with the land-thieves. They feel that if the incipient rebellion against rent-paying be not stamped out it will spread and spread until it finally destroys landlordism root and branch. This explains the readiness the English government displays just now in assisting the land-thieves in the work of evicting. It proceeds on the principle of resisting the beginnings. We very much mistake the spirit that actuates the Irish people if they are intimidated by this display of England's willingness to help the land-thieves. The seed sown by the Land League agitation has not been sown in vain, as is shown by the determination everywhere displayed to fight landlordism to the death. In the coming war that the land-thieves have wantonly provoked we believe the Irish people will be in a better position to win than they ever were before. When they were last called upon to wield the no-rent weapon they had no practical experience of its efficacy. Now, however, they know that if they have the courage to faithfully stand by the no-rent programme it will be impossible for the land-thieves to drive them from their homes. We confidently expect that the knowledge of this fact will encourage the Irish people to stand out against the payment of rent. If the events of the next few months confirm this expectation of ours landlordism will receive a blow from which it will never recover.

WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN ENGLAND.

Boston Journal (Rep.), September 10.

UNDER the auspices of the English Women's Suffrage Society, a woman sufHouse of Commons. The bill is not regarded with satisfaction by some suffragists frage bill has been drawn up, for which Mr. Woodall is to stand as sponsor in the for the reason that, while it provides in substance that women are to have the same voting rights as men, this is straightway limited by a provision "that nothing in this act contained shall enable women under coverture to be registered or to vote at such elections." In other words, the bill enfranchises only widows and spinsters, but gives no privileges to rent-paying wives. Those who defend this provision do so on the ground that while parliamentary opinion is sufficiently advanced to give votes to single women it is opposed to granting them to wives. To this the rejoinder is made that in this case there could be no objection to accepting, as an installment, a bill simply enfranchising widows and spinsters, but that this ought not to be accompanied with an explicit denial of the right to married women. The dissentient members of the society claim that it is illegal to use the organization, which was founded and maintained solely to enfranchise women, to deprive any qualified women of the right of voting.

CANADIAN ANNEXATION.

Chicago Tribune (Rep.), September 14.

THE Separationists in the lower Canadian provinces who disclaim all desire for annexation to the United States fail to appreciate or are at present unwilling to announce the logic of their situation. They are oppressed by the tariff laid on them by the upper provinces to force them to trade in Quebec, and yet they continue to find their markets in Boston and Portland. An average customs tax of 25 per cent. is easier to bear than the costly transport from the "home market," and as the Canadian tariff has failed to reach the results desired by the upper provinces they are tempted to increase its rigor rather than make any concessions to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. The upper provinces have an overwhelming majority in the Dominion Parliament and can act as they see fit. The maritime provinces cannot make much progress toward separation until they enlist the friendly interest of an outside power, but even if they should get themselves out of the confederation and resume the status of self-ruling British provinces they would doubtless have to depend for revenues on a tariff of 10 or 12 per cent. as before the federation, and thus they would only cut the evil down one-half instead of getting rid of it altogether. The maritime provinces sell their products and buy their goods in the United States, and they cannot flourish with a tariff wall between them and their natural market. Annexation to the United States is inevitable, but when Lower Canada comes it must be of its own choice,

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THE NEXT PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN.

WHAT IS SAID OF MR. BLAINE.

Brooklyn Times (Rep.).

FOR a played-out politician, a broken-down adventurer, a political charlatanfor a man who has been found out, beaten at his own game, discountenanced, shelved, retired; one who has been branded by the American public as an outcast and a dishonorable man, Mr. Blaine, we notice with interest, still continues to receive a good deal of attention from the Mugwump papers. One can't pick up a copy of the Times or Post without seeing a full column of leaded brevier denunciation of the Maine demagogue, and anywhere from one to three columns of solid nonpareil. On Shakespeare's grave was carved a curse upon those who disturbed his mortal remains. The old proverb which forbids one to speak of the dead anything but good has passed into every modern language. If Mr. Blaine politically dead, as these unco guid people say, why in the name of common decency can't they let him rest quietly in his grave? The Mugwumps will have a sweet time of it in November, 1888, weeping and condoling with each other, if a certain political resurrection that we can imagine really takes place. * Mr. J. S. Moore, the special crank of the New York Times, makes an admirable suggestion. It is contained in the following paragraph:

* *

The best solution would be to have the next national ticket headed "Blaine and Randall." In that case Mr. Blaine would not only get all the Republican protection vote, but would also get the Randall protection Democratic vote, whatever there is of it, while Mr. Randall would, of course, catch on and succeed.

Mr. Moore undoubtedly means this for sarcasm, but it wouldn't be a bad idea all the same. According to the accepted standard of division Mr. Randall isn't much of a Democrat anyhow. At any rate, he is a good enough Republican for the Times if he will only leave the ill-starred Morrison-Carlisle ring to their fate. Certain ancient peoples attached great importance to the utterances of idiots, regarding them as inspired. Perhaps there was some sense in the superstition after all.

Baltimore Sun (Ind.).

EVERYBODY remembers the amusing cartoon of "Me and Jack," which said so little and expressed so much in a humorously satirical way. But the Me and Jack who sat together so affectionately side by side on a very narrow plank during the last Presidential campaign have since separated their political fortunes, and each is going his own way in his ambition to reach the seat to which both aspire. Mr. Blaine, the "Me" of the cartoon, has emerged from his seclusion and has been making speeches in Maine, ostensibly to carry that State this fall, but in reality to sound the keynote of that greater campaign of which he hopes to be the standardbearer. It must be confessed that Mr. Blaine has learned something during his retirement. The bitter attack he made on the South and "Southern brigadiers" immediately after his defeat at the polls was found to be so little in accord with public opinion that very few even of his most devoted followers took up the cry, and those who did so soon found it politic to drop it. Mr. Blaine now seeks to fight the battle of the future on two different issues-one of them old and the other altogether new. The leading issue is the protective tariff; the secondary issue the terrible fate that is impending over the white workingmen of the country by the irruption into the Northern and Western States in the near future of hordes of Southern colored mechanics. This is the new theme on which he dwells with a gravity that might be alarming if intelligent workingmen did not know that the number of colored mechanics is comparatively small, that in competition with the skilled workmen at the North and West their inferiority would speedily manifest itself; that the controlling power of the unions would presently make itself felt, and finally and conclusively, that there is work enough for Southern mechanics to do at home without their entering upon an unequal contest with the white mechanics of other States.

Boston Herald (Ind.).

THE action of Mr. Edmunds in the latest Presidential campaign was the first exhibition of independence of party that has come from him. It may not be the last. He is not of the class of minds that are whipped into the party traces when their convictions are involved. If the Republican party shall repeat its action of two years ago in the contest which is to come two years in the future, it may be sure that the Vermont Senator will meet it again at Philippi. He will be the Vermont Senator still on that occasion. The election of Tuesday has settled that point. Mr. Edmunds made no apology for his action in refusing to speak for Mr. Blaine. He simply explained that this was impossible without a sacrifice of manliness on his part. The voters of Vermont understood the situation, and they have acted in view of it. Some of them called their Senator a Mugwump in the canvass. It is clear that the term at least partially applies to him, but it had no terrors to Vermont voters. They have sustained Mr. Edmunds just the same. He will go back to the Senate with the consciousness that, if his action was not approved, the exhibition of manhood out of which it came was fully indorsed. Vermont stands by her strong men now, as always, and * * * Mr. Blaine's recurrence to the she glories in their strength. Southern issue recalls his violent speech in the Senate, for the purpose of "making an issue," after which he put his arm around a Southern friend and assured him that the speech was "for home consumption." The partridge is a silly bird. It hides its head under a leaf and thinks it is invisible because it cannot see. Mr. Blaine's record on the Southern issue is well known. He can scarcely think that there is "another President in the bloody shirt."

Albany Journal (Rep.).

THE friends of Mr. Blaine do not forget that for a quarter of a century he has been a prominent figure in public life. In all that time, during most of which he was a very conspicuous and active participant in public events, he has had nothing but the highest commendation from the best men in both the great political parties.

It is absurd to say that it would be possible for him to have achieved his pre-eminence if he had been leading a double life, posing as an upright, conscientious man of integrity in public and conducting himself in private like an immoral, dishonest. creature of circumstances. Whether or not it was judicious to have nominated Mr. Blaine in 1884, or whether or not it will be the policy to nominate him again in 1888, we do not undertake to say. That is for the mass of the Republican party, in whom we have every confidence, to decide. We do say, how ever, with sufficient knowledge of what Mr. Blaine has been and what he is to satisfy us, that no man has ever suffered greater contumely or been more scandalously assailed on account of his devotion to his party than James G. Blaine. These malicious and wicked assaults, as much as his eminent talents and prodigious party service, have endeared him to Republicans all over the country. If Mr. Blaine shall be nominated in 1888, it will be not only because his party believes in him, but because it means to vindicate him from the slanders of an unlicensed press,. of unscrupulous demagogues and their treacherous allies.

Washington Sunday Gazette (Rep.).

IT IS not Republican success per se that Mr. Blaine wants-it is the prominently bringing of Mr. Blaine before the public that induces him to take the lead. He forgets he is jeopardizing his party's interests, or rather he does not care. As in New York, in 1882, he would rather see the party defeated than Blaine take a back seat. Like Caius Cæsar, he prefers to be foremost in a village than second man in Rome. Probably he will succeed. It is to be conceded that because of his past, because of the record he has made, which record is now finished and sealed up, he will for some time be the foremost man of his party in Maine. But in national affairs he can not be even second. His race is run. Henceforth, to him the contest for the Presidency must be one in which he will be simply a spectator.

New York Times (Ind.).

WE had hoped that Mr. Blaine would explain these letters during the Maine canvass. These and the other epistles of the famous Blaine-Fisher correspondence defeated Mr. Blaine when he was running for the Presidency in 1884. They will defeat him again, and very much more disastrously, when he runs for the Presidency in 1888, unless meanwhile he shall put forth a perfectly sound and satisfactory explanation of his part in the transactions to which they relate. It is at present the firm conviction of a very considerable majority of the American people that Mr. Blaine parted with his honor in these transactions. Mr. Blaine must remove that conviction before the ambition of his life can be gratified. We repub lish the letters in order to call his attention to this urgent necessity.

Florida Times-Union (Dem.).

THE Overwhelming victory of Senator Edmunds in Vermont is an equally overwhelming defeat for Blaine. The Vermont Senator made no secret of his opinion that Blaine is an unfit man for the Presidency and his attitude during the cam-paign of 1884 cost Blaine thousands of votes. The Blaine men are keenly aware of this, and in revenge set out to defeat Senator Edmunds' re-election by every art that demagogues and tricksters know how to use. The election of Tuesday shows two things: first, that Edmunds will be re-elected by an overwhelming majority; second, that in the most solidly Republican State in the Union don't impair a man's strength to have Blaine oppose him. It is the worst blow Blaine has received since Mr. Cleveland's election.

Washington Sentinel (Dem.).

Ir is poor policy for the great Republican leader, Mr. Blaine, to resort again to the exploded fable that the negroes of the South are the political chattles of the Republican party; that while they are counted as a basis of representation they are excluded from the ballot-box, and that thus every white man in Mississippi has practically two votes against the one vote of every citizen of Maine. The pretense that all the colored voters of the South are Republicans is unwarranted and absurd. It would be most unfortunate if it were true.

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WHAT IS SAID OF MR. CLEVELAND.
New York Evening Post (Ind.).

GENERAL CLARK, the clerk of the House of Representatives, has been traveling about among the people, and has discovered that the President stands better with the voters than the Democratic Congressmen have supposed. He predicts that there will not be a word of opposition to the Administration from the Democratic politicians this fall, and says that all the grumbling Congressmen of the last session have changed their tune.

It would astonish you to talk with those men. Thoy have been among their people and learned something. The strength of Mr. Cleveland among the people is something be yond the conception of an ordinary politician. Democrats and Republicans are alike for him, and his party critics are not saying a word. I have met a great many prominent men who have heeded what was going on about them, and they all say the same thing. I met a party of New York business men, bankers and merchants, men of wealth and prominence. You ought to hear them talk. Several of the most prominent told me that they had been Republicans all their lives and had voted for Blaine at the last Presi dential election, but that they were going to vote for Cleveland in 1888. They did not care, thoy said, who nominated him, he would get their votes, and the votes of thousands like them would go for him. They predicted that if the Democrats failed to nominato him, if he got no nomination at all, the people would elect him. They claimed that what they said was no more than was said by the majority of the mon they met in bustness life. But they were not the only ones I heard express themselves with this wild en

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thusiasm. I heard it everywhere I went. The politicians are taking it up. Representative Matson says he was astonished when he got home. The people in Indiana are all for Cleveland. He could carry the State to-day, Matson says, by 25,000 majority.

This experience is not novel. Everybody who travels about the country at all has had a similar one. A gentleman who passed through New England recently said on his return that he everywhere encountered Republicans who said, "Cleveland was good enough for them-they liked the way he was going on and did not see any reason for a change."

Cincinnati Commercial-Gazette (Rep.).

WE regard it as settled that Grover Cleveland will be the candidate of his party for re-election. One reason is that they have not anybody else. With the possible exception of Mr. Pendleton all the old Democratic leaders are antiquated, obliterated, decayed on their feet, or dead. Seymour and Tilden, McClellan and Hancock, and Hendricks have passed away. But they are not any more dead in a political sense than Bayard. There is not a possible Presidency in Carlisle, Morrison, or Randall. Judge Thurman can hardly be considered eligible. Judge McDonald has become stale, and we have heard it said that Judge Hoadly is out of politics. The ponderous President has the field to himself. He is the most intensely ignorant man who has reached the Presidential chair, but he sits down with great weight. He has no such thing as a policy, but that does not harm him, for his party is wholly unprincipled. He has not the slightest influence with Congress, and that does not matter, for the Democratic majority in the House did not know what to do with it, and did nothing. They produced harmony in that way. There is an evident purpose on the part of the Democrats to do something of the wild-cat stripe in financiering, but this was balanced by the conservatism of the Secretary of the Treasury. The Democrats begin to see that the President has done about all he could for them in the distribution of offices, and that while he has professed mugwumpery he has performed as a spoilsman, ready to bestow the richest rewards for the meanest services. The Mugwumps seem to like it and the Democrats have nothing to complain of. Cleveland is their great and only great man.

Brooklyn Union (Ind.).

THE clerk of the House of Representatives has been talking with the people in the Western States, and he thinks that "the strength of Mr. Cleveland with the people is something beyond the conception of the ordinary politician," and that "Democrats and Republicans are alike for him." Senator Cockrell, too, says that he has been "around among the farmers of Missouri a good deal lately, and they are satisfied with him." It is hardly true that there is anywhere any such popular hero-worship of Mr. Cleveland, as there was in many Democratic communities of Mr. Tilden or even of Mr. Hendricks, or there is in certain Republican communities of Mr. Blaine and Mr. Logan. It is rather the approval of the people than their affection that Mr. Cleveland has gained. Those who have respect for the people's judgment have long been aware of this popular approval, and the only significant fact in the reports made by these observers in the West is that the Democratic politicians are discovering the indifference of the people to their personal grievances and their low selfish view of politics. Now the fact that they are as full of praise for the President as so many of them a while ago were full of wrath and evil predictions, does not mislead the people into giving them the same approval they give the President. And the President and his party are as far as before from being convertible terms. The mistake that the Democratic politicians now seem likely to make is to infer that the popular favor in which Mr. Cleveland is held includes them and their party.

Omaha Bee (Rep.).

THE zeal of the leading organs of the Democracy in New York to depreciate President Cleveland in connection with a renomination, and to elevate Governor Hill as a possible Presidential candidate in 1888, is not receiving that general encouragement which the supposed influence of these journals might be expected to command. In fact, it is not apparent that beyond the confines of New York they are making any impression whatever adverse to the chances of Mr. Cleveland, but on the contrary it is not improbable that the satirical flings of one of them and the faultfinding of the other are really doing him a service in unexpected localities.

Terre Haute Express (Rep.).

THE exigencies of the situation at Charleston demanded the utmost promptness in offering assistance and relief, and Congress would not only have made good any expenditure, but would have commended the men who had sense enough to dispense with official notice to act. The President should by all means make the most of his vacation. When his present term of office expires he will not be tendered the loaves and fishes of his high position a second time. He will recreate in the Adirondacks as a private citizen and Messrs. Whitney and Endicott will keep him company.

WHAT IS SAID OF GEN. LOGAN.

Portland Oregonian (Ind.).

LOGAN'S speeches and action on the Pacific coast have done him great mischief with the G. A. R., whose good will he has anxiously sought to secure. When he first arrived he was justly very popular with the veterans, because of his brilliant military services and his clean personal character, but he lost ground rapidly with the ablest and most thoughtful men in the order from first to last. He was in charge of Gov. Alger, a lumber millionaire of Detroit, and between Logan and Alger it was soon made clearly evident that Logan did not come to the Pacific slope as a veteran to meet on equal terms his comrades of the G. A. R., but came on a stumping tour -for Logan. Logan did not for a moment mingle with the G. A. R. as Gen. Sherman did. While Sherman and the other soldiers talked no politics, Logan and his adjutant, Alger, talked nothing else. Logan never lost a chance to deliver himself on the Chinese question, and Alger when he was not holding Logan's hat

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was taking off his own to the anti-Chinese agitators. Logan pushed himself to the front everywhere, to the indignation and disgust of the friends of Gen. Fairchild, the newly-elected commander-in-chief, who is a gentleman in manners and speech. Logan made a long political harangue on every trivial occasion, delivered demagogue tributes to the soldier, declaimed in favor of extravagant pension legislation that the G. A. R. condemn, and Alger went so far as to say that he was in favor of giving every Union soldier, sick or well, a pension of $8. This last proposition was one that excited the indignation of all intelligent veterans, one of whom told us that had he been an orator he would have then and there denied that the ablebodied or self-supporting soldiers, like himself, who gave to the country only what the country had a right to demand, wanted any pension of the Government. "Today," said he, "I am proud of my service, but if, as an able-bodied, self-supporting man, I should accept a Government pension, I would part with my finest selfrespect." Threadbare and stilted apostrophes to the flag, specious talk about politics, pensions, Chinese acts, was the staple of Logan's talk everywhere; he was not a comrade at all, like Sherman, Fairchild, Beaver, or the other leading soldiers, he was really using the G. A. R. as a good opportunity to bid for the "soldier vote and capture the anti-Chinese party. When he came he was the idol of the G. A. R., but he goes back with the loss of the support of hundreds of veterans, who came here his warm friends and admirers, because they soon saw that he did not come as comrade Logan, but as politician Logan, playing the order for what it was worth, and arrogantly forcing even the officers of the order to take a back seat whenever he was present. He always had a political speech in his mouth; he had the first place, the best seat, the best horse, because he assumed them with that divine right of kings in politics before which all courteous regard for the rights of the G. A. R. officers was sent to the wall. He opened his mouth and forgot to shut it until it was too late. Comrade Logan has slain himself in the house of his friends. Of his military ability there is no doubt, and the value of his services to the Union were very great. Logan is a man of clean personal character, and a good deal of robust vigor in mind and body, but he is not a statesman, chiefly for the lack of saving common-sense, and self-restraint in speech and action. He talks fustian; he loses his temper in the Senate on trifling provocations; he lacks that self-respecting habit of absolute self-command that made Grant an impressive figure in war or peace, in the camp or the White House.

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EASTERN Contemporaries are drawing very unwarranted inferences from the hearty welcome accorded General Logan in Minnesota last week. We must confess to amusement when we read that the Illinois Senator "succeeded in making heavy inroads upon Blaine's strength and popularity" in this State. There was nothing whatever to indicate that Logan's visit had any political purpose on his part or resulted in affecting the Presidential preference of a single voter. He was welcomed by the veterans as a gallant soldier and a leading spirit in the Grand Army. By citizens generally his visit was deemed an honor, because of his splendid career and conspicuous public services in war and in peace. But we are not aware of anybody who treated General Logan's visit as having a bearing upon the Presidential nomination. The convention of 1888 is still nearly two years remote, and no man can tell what two years may bring forth. But it now seems fairly probable that Blaine and Logan will again appear as candidates. If we are not wholly mistaken, a majority of Minnesota Republicans are to-day and will remain in favor of Mr. Blaine's renomination. They will not, however, entertain other than very cordial feelings toward General Logan's candidacy. Apropos to this subject, it is interesting to note that the Chicago Tribune, on Sunday, declared that General Logan ought to have a solid delegation from Illinois in the convention of 1888. This declaration is to be interpreted as an announcement that the Tribune will, in good faith, support the Illinois candidate; and it is the more significant because in 1884 Mr. Medill was for Blaine, and sought to secure a Blaine delegation. The Chicago Tribune is, of course, still friendly to the Maine statesman, but it proposes this time to stand by the candidate of its own State. Neither Mr. Blaine nor General Logan would find the atmosphere of Minnesota prejudicial to his interests, and both, we believe, will assent to the proposition that Minneapolis is the best place for the next national convention.

Baltimore Sun (Ind.).

GEN. LOGAN has just visited sixteen States and Territories to show himself to the people and to make friends of them wherever he could. The other States he had visited before, and he has thus completed his project of "swinging round the circle." He has pleased the Pacific States by pronouncing the Chinese a nuisance, and Dakota and Washington Territories by declaring himself in favor of the immediate admission of those Territories to the Union. He has kept himself from making political speeches, but at banquets and receptions he was immense. He poses everywhere as the soldiers' friend, and believes that all the pensions that can be given them, their widows, sisters, aunts and cousins, imperfectly measures the gratitude of the country for their services in behalf of the Union. He therefore occupies a conspicuous place at every meeting of the Grand Army of the Republic and at every fragment of it. Above all, he has a profound belief in Gen. Logan and the high honors in store for him, and never more so than since the dissolution of partnership has been declared between the old firm of "Me and Jack."

Chicago Times (Ind.).

GEN. LOGAN'S observations upon the Pacific slope have convinced him that the Chinese are not wanted in this country. He thinks Congress should not permit any more of them to come, because, he says, "they do not assimilate to our institutions." The general says he took this view in his California speeches, and the presumption is, therefore, that he has laid the foundation for a healthy boom on the slope. General Logan's frankness on the Chinese question, coupled with his unwonted reserve on all other political topics, would seem to justify a suspicion that he was an aspirant for the Presidency but for the fact that he so stoutly insists to the contrary. The general is the best authority on the subject, and everybody knows that anything savoring of tergiversation is foreign to his nature. He must,

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OTHER PRESIDENTIAL SPECULATIONS.
Washington Star (Ind.).

ALTHOUGH the Presidential election is still more than two years away, there is
already much activity among the adherents of the several aspirants to the Chief
Magistracy, and in some instances the aspirants themselves are actively at work,
and by the most direct methods. In the Democratic party the only men now seri-
ously spoken of for the place are Cleveland and Hill; but the last-named gentle-
man appears to be brought forward rather to kill off the present incumbent than
because he has any real strength of his own or prospects of winning the prize,
though his friends stoutly claim that he could certainly carry the State of New
York, and with it the rest of the country. With the Republicans material that is
supposed to be available is much plentier, and sentiment consequently more di-
vided. As yet there appears to be but little opportunity to judge of the relative
strength of those most frequently mentioned for the first place, but there can hardly
be a doubt that Logan's chances have waned considerably in the last two months,
while Blaine looms up more conspicuously than was thought possible eighteen
months ago. Indeed prophecies are plenty to-day that the heads of the tickets in
1884 will again be pitted against each other in 1888. This is, however, by no
means certain.
Mr. Cleveland may make grave mistakes in two years' time, and
one or two men in the Republican camp who were prominent in 1884 seem to be
stronger with the party now than they were then, and one or two others not then
much talked of may now be regarded as probable dark horses, with a pretty fair
prospect ahead. As stated above, there has been so far no chance to accurately
learn public opinion on the subject. The nearest an opportunity yet afforded was
that presented by the Republican State convention in Indiana last week. The
members of that body were carefully interviewed on the subject of their Presi-
dential preference by representatives of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, who seem
to have been intelligent in the prosecution of their inquiries and unbiased in stat-
ing the result, and the replies, which are published in that paper in full, show the
widest variety of opinion. Briefly, the Indiana sentiment as expressed there may
be summarized as follows, to use the language of one of the correspondents:

The preferences avowed show what Indiana men think of Harrison and Porter as a matter of State pride; but local affection seems utterly swallowed up in the feeling for Logan, Blaine, and Sherman, The most.unqualified admiration is expressed for Sherman, while Blaine is idolized in one direction and doubtfully regarded in another. Logan figures prominently for first and second choice, with varying opinions as to his course regarding the Payne investigation. But one delegate favored Gresham.

The friendly feeling here indicated for Sherman is significant, because it is in the direct line of expression now quite common in other parts of the country. There can be no doubt that Mr. Sherman is very strong, not only with the rank and file of his own party, but with the conservative elements of the Democracy, in certain quarters; and if Ohio should go into the national convention solid and enthusiastic for him his chances for nomination would be very good. The possibilities of Mr. Allison as a Republican candidate have been discussed considerably in some quarters lately; but, curiously enough, he does not seem to have impressed himself much on the Indiana mind, and what is true of that State is perhaps true of others.

Wilkes Barre Union-Leader (Dem.).

Congress. It was the Republican party, in a word, that fostered the monster growth of corporations in this country, and that has condoned and tolerated them in their wrong doing, receiving from them in return financial and other aid that was the chief factor in retaining them in power for so long, an influence far greater than that of the offices, potent as that was. The Democratic party, on the other hand, has practically nothing of this kind to answer for. It was founded in jeal ousy of centralized power of all kinds, and while, we repeat, some of its representatives have departed from the teachings of their fathers and given the enemy aid and comfort in this regard, its record as a party is clean of all responsibility for the wrongs of corporations of which the people are now so loudly and justly com plaining. The growth of the labor unions, their tendency to political action; the increasing interest of the farmers, as such, in matters political; the speech of the people and of the press everywhere-all these things plainly indicate that the party which is to carry the country and elect the President in 1888 must be a conservative anti-monopoly party, and that, in view of its past, the Republican party never can be.

Mansfield, Ohio, Herald (Rep.).

FROM a very general interview of the members of the late Indiana Republican State convention made by the representatives of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, there appeared to be a great diversity of preferences for Presidential candidates As was very natural, many prominent Indianians were found to have their admirers, but the leading candidates spoken of were Blaine and Sherman. It is quite evident from these interviews that Mr. Blaine still maintains a strong hold on Indiana politicians. But large numbers of the leading delegates express serious doubts as to his present availability. Having been so long before the public either for nomination or for election, and always having been defeated, and having been found to be so easily and dangerously assailable, they regarded his renomination as exceedingly hazardous. Were it not for this almost fatal objection Blaine would evidently be the choice of the Indianians. Those who expressed their preferences for Mr. Sherman were among the most judicious and influential men of the State. They express themselves not only as thoroughly convinced of his superior qualifica tions for the office, and his very general availability, but they expressed no criti cisms on his private character or his long and successful public life. While no great reliance is to be placed upon such interviews, yet these two points of differ ence between these two candidates are worthy of careful consideration. While it is very generally admitted that Mr. Blaine, if elected, would make a good Presi dent, yet both his public and private character are at least so far assailable by the opposition as greatly to injure his popularity and strength as a candidate. It at once places the Republican party on the defensive, when, as a matter of wise policy and as a well deserved right it should assume a bold and offensive warfare on its opponents. In fact it is hardly probable that Mr. Blaine will place himself and his party in this position again; but as with these interviews, so with the country over, all admit the superior qualifications of Mr. Sherman, not only as a candidate, but for the Presidency; and do not, and can not, urge any objections whatever against either his public or private character. With him as a candidate, therefore, the party would have no defense to make. It could at once advance on the enemy's works and put to flight all opposition except "the solid South." It would appear from these interviews that General Logan and Senator Evarts have almost disappeared as Presidential candidates in the West. Their own blunders are fast sealing their fate.

THE voice of labor on the farm and in the workshop will designate the next President of the United States, whether it be the present incumbent or some other man, and the paramount intention will be to give force to the rapidly growing sentiment that corporations are exerting too much power in and out of legislative halls and other official places, and absorbing too much of the wealth of the country. The Republican party cannot possibly be the representative of this sentiment. It was under Republican rule that the corporations complained of grew to their present mammoth dimensions and began and have prospered in their arbitrary dominations. It was the Republican party, as represented in Congress, that gave certain of them millions of acres of the people's lands and loaned them the public credit, an obligation they steadily refuse to make any provision for repaying. It is a Republican Senate that has stood in the way of a restoration of such of these acres as have not passed wholly beyond control to the public domain. They are chiefly Republicans who have made great fortunes in public life catering to the wishes and serving the arrogant demands of these corporations, though it is unfortunately true there are some so-called Democrats among the number. It was Republican votes in the Senate that defeated the resolution of Senator Beck, which sought to make the eminently just and certainly reasonable provision that no Senator should accept a fee as an attorney from any railroad company interested in measures pending in

New York Sun (Dem.).

THE most conspicuous Hoosier of last week was, without doubt, the Hon. Joseph E. McDonald. He appeared as the accepted arbitrator of an unexampled quarrel over the Congress nomination in the seventh district, and the calm ability with which he filled the role is yet the admiration of the Indiana press of both parties. But instead of sending Mr. McDonald to Congress from that district, as might have been done after the two contesting candidates had been cleared away, the Democrats nominated Mr. Bynum, and left the usefulness of Old Saddlebags to bide its chance. For a number of years past the hearts of the Indiana Democrats have been warm with the thought that in Mr. McDonald they had a candi date for President. Mr. Hendricks led the State delegation to Chicago in 1884 with Mr. McDonald's name on their banner. They pulled it down, it is true, and hoisted the name of Hendricks, but that was the irresistible effect of thirty good minutes of roaring cheers which burst from the convention at the first mention of Mr. Hendricks' name. It could not be helped. Now, when the Hoosiers might have given Mr. McDonald the chance of making himself the candidate of other States and sections than Indiana by letting him again take a hand in the field of active politics, they slide him back into the comfortable but well-worn niche of local friendship, to continue his life in the uneventful style of the past six years. The opportunity thus lost was so evident as to suggest a question as to its cause. Will Indiana bring no candidate to the Democratic National Convention in 1858, or is that honor reserved for the Tall Sycamore of the Wabash, the Hon. Daniel

W. Voorhees ?

Kansas City Times (Dem.).

hence.

At the late interesting convention at Rolla the enthusiastic Democracy of the Eleventh district not only complimented its Congressman, Mr. Bland, by a renomi nation, but strongly urged his claims as a Presidential candidate two years It will not do to dismiss this in the language of the day as mere "taffy on a stick, for there are doubtless many worthy citizens in the Eleventh district who believe that Missouri and "Old Silver Dick" have fairly earned the honor. There is also every reason to believe that Mr. Bland would make an admirable and efficient President and carry out all the principles of Jeffersonian simplicity and reform. At the same time we do not consider Missouri's chance of recognition in the next national convention flattering, because of a haunting fear that while a Missourian might sweep the prairies like wildfire, and even carry Indiana out of all whooping, a narrow and blinding prejudice might work to his disadvantage in the im portant States of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

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