every one that the builders of America were men of deep conviction, and that the foundations of democracy were firmly laid. As their task proceeded, a unity of purpose grew up which embraced the immigrants flying from European tyranny, and who, according to Bancroft, "renounced their nationality to claim the rights of Englishmen." With the achieve ment of independence, however, and the cessation of all dread of outside interference, local interests rose in prominence till the civil war became necessary to reassert harmony of action. Since then the material progress of the country has been so abnormal, so stimulated by the Protective spirit, that internal matters have been overlooked, and, as a natural result, are once more coming to the front. They have taken their coloring from the policy of the States, which, as we have said, has pursued a course of selfishness toward the commerce of the world, but in particular to that of the United Kingdom, and are now so far developed as to render it almost certain a real source of danger is at hand. The "typical immigrant," as the author of "Our Country" remarks, "is a European peasant whose horizon has been narrow, and whose ideas of life are low." He has migrated to such an extent, that there is now a large population of foreign extraction; but instead of its being the means of concentrating experience, it furnishes the greatest percentage of crime. Whole colonies of these immigrants annually go West, where, in defiance of the example of their wiser predecessors, they retain their nationalities and free themselves from American influences. Already at Chicago, we are told, the great majority of the people are foreign by birth or parentage; and even in the city of New York, if all foreigners qualified themselves for the franchise, they could easily outvote the real Americans; while numbers scattered over the country" are apparently under the impression that the ten commandments are not binding west of the Missouri." In the course of a few years, almost at present within view, as the centre of population advances, the West must dominate the East, must "elect the executive and control legislation;" for under manhood suffrage every man has an equal voting value. It is of little moment that the population of American-born persons of

American parentage may be nearly twothirds of the whole; for the American franchise has been SO easily obtained, sufficient time has not elapsed to allow of the absorption by the Anglo-Saxon American of the heterogeneous Europeans who, until that occurs, cannot be termed Americans in the sense the original owners of the country understand. The significance of all this has been so thoroughly grasped, that a new party is said to have been formed some time ago, "to uphold American ideas of law, order, and education," but into which no foreigner is admitted. What, then, is in the future for the American people, as viewed through the light of the present tendency?

The authors of the tariff are the capitalists of the East, who, having had so far the voting power in their hands, have been able to maintain exorbitant duties for their own benefit. The West was opened up at a ridiculous expense, the rate on pig-iron, an article which most directly affects the farmer, as it is the basis from which all his tools are made, has been at about $7, or 30s. a ton. A high cost of production had therefore to be and still is supported, which, as already declared, places the Western wheat grower in difficulties that have risen out of the competition of other nations, until it is almost a matter of existence to be able to produce cheaper. He is forced, however, by the tariff to supply his wants through the Eastern manufacturer, who cannot allow duties to be effectively reduced without being satisfied to work in the light of competition at the minimum of profit, a thing he has not even brought himself to think about. The M'Kinley bill shows, too, he will not allow them to be reduced. There is therefore to be seen, in the difference between the interests of the East and the West, all the elements of political discord and disruption, so that when Congress is controlled by the West, a reversal of the policy of the East may be expected. It is true a portion of the West has lately favored the tariff, but it was only a part of the political game, which will disappear as the centre of power is transferred, and the inhabitants understand that development has been made at their expense, most notably in the matter of railway extensiou through the former monstrous price of steel rails. When this reversal takes place it can only lead to furious dis

as gross as

in the literal meaning of the term, he subjects him to its equivalent in an industrial bondage which saps out existence by hopeless despair. Whatever may be the military requisites of Europe, on which a justification of Protection is partially based, there is no reason why the tariff should be maintained in America, save the impossibility of reducing it without creating dissatisfaction, and, in some respects, disaster among the manufacturing classes. The evil, however, is working to the point when the heroic remedy must of necessity be soon applied or not at all. Nor, in expressing this, are we without an historical parallel, as may be seen in the secular history of the Jews just prior to the commencement of the Christian era. The nation at the epoch was as full of intelligence as the America of to-day, and the people were, according to Dr. Geikie, looking forward to a future Mahomet's paradise." They were thirsting in the same way as nations still are, for all the blessings of material gain, to obtain which the fulfilment of the law was the ideal aim. This spiritual protection, which isolated them from the rest of mankind by drawing round Palestine a barrier as effectual as a modern tariff, was a base corruption of the Mosaic institutions, and created a spirit of hate that "embittered even private life." Not only did they hate and injure one another, but "all alike hated whole classes of their own nation and the whole heathen races." Ancient exclusivism, adopted for the sake of worldly dominion and prosperity, became the means of annihilating a race, and, whatever way we may look at it, the most important race of antiquity. Under the new conditions of modern progress the very same state of affairs is thus working up again, without, however, an atom of spirituality as a redeeming feature, and called by the name of "patriotism. America, the nineteenth century "land of promise," has consequently before her eyes the warning of the past; but where, in the recurrence of the world to heathen ideals, and worse, in its denial of Godfor at least the belief in the gods was the making of Greece and Rome-will arise the Spirit that rescued mankind from the chaos of their own forming, and inaugurated a bond of union known by the name of "love"?

It is by no means, therefore, with a

selfish view that the British people advocate the extension of free exchange. It is the only thing that can reconcile the interests of humanity all over the world, by distributing the inhabitants at the places most suitable for their support, and thus deciding the position of each individual in

life on the basis of an unfettered competition. In the chaining up of competition by Protection lies the secret of half the industrial troubles, as over-production in the modern sense could not otherwise take place, but would be limited by the natural operation of the laws of Free Trade, when the interests of the farmer and the artisan would remain iden

With the destruction of Protection, therefore, in America, the condition of that country will be radically changed; and there cannot be a doubt that when it occurs, a genuine impulse must be given not only to the well-being of the people, but to the well-being of all peoples. The reason of the success so far of democracy lies in the fact that it promotes the greatest good of the greatest number; but this cardinal principle is being forgotten in America, and outside of the British Isles or in portions of the empire has only a semi-existence. The foolishness of stimulating production in the United States and excluding the competition of the world, is seen in the inability to lighten taxation by reducing the annual surplus, which curtails the operations of business by causing a constant flow of currency to the Treasury. The surplus is thus a rock of offence" to every one engaged in agriculture and commerce, and cannot be maintained to benefit the manufacturer. Already the farmers' alliances are multiplying in every direction, all breathing bitter sectarianism and full of economical fads for the begetting of a money millennium. There are, accordingly, some hard times before democracy in the United States; but the strangest thing connected with it is the deliberate manner Americans have worked up trouble for themselves in the very spirit of that Navigation Act they once so fiercely denounced. If, in the land of its early development, democracy can make no advance on the victory of the rights of man, its day is done there, great and splendid as its service has been. The people of the United Kingdom have improved upon it by the

Frenchwoman, with whom he has an intrigue, he almost breaks the heart of Susanna Vaselkamp, the old Puritan, who, however, resolves that her nephew shall expiate his sin by marry. ing the adventuress. It is discovered, unfortunately for this scheme, that the lady has a husband living. Nothing daunted, thinking only of the sin and nothing of the possible evil of the connection, when legalized, to Oostrum, the old maid, who is cast in an iron mould, spends her money lavishly in seeking to secure a divorce, so that the guilty ones may marry. She is well summed up in the verdict of Parson Jacob, another character, who tells her, "You are one of God's fanatics, but you do the devil's work." The character is drawn with remarkable strength, and is the central figure of the book. Oostrum is a joyous, devil-may-care fellow, who sins easily and repents quickly, but is full of good and attractive qualities in spite of his sins, which are those of a bright and vivacious young fel. low, who has seen but little of the world, One does not care much for the French viscountess in spite of her Parisian fascinations, and is disposed to wonder how so sturdy a fellow at bottom as Oostrum should be be guiled from his sweet little adorer Dorothy by the foreign enchantress. A great charm of the book is found in the racy pictures of the minor personages, who are so natural and hearty as to take strong hold on the reader's affections. It is a story in the best vein of realism, though we suspect that the author would resent being classified with many of the best-known writers of this so-called modern school of fiction. Mr. Maartens has effectively followed up the impression made by "Joost Avelingh," which, we believe, was published by the Appletons in their "Town and Country Library.”

Maxwell Gray has given American readers another strong story in the new novel, "In the Heart of the Storm." "The Silence of Dean Maitland" was one of the great English books of its year, and though the first and best the author has written, she has not failed to show the same artistic touch and vigorous grasp of her material in her succeeding books. Much of the present story is connected with the great Indian mutiny, and one is tempted to comment on the fact that this remarkable episode has never lost its fascination, in spite of the fact that it has been made the theme of innumerable stories by English writers. Its

interest seems inexhaustible, like that of the French Revolution or of our own great Civil War. Philip Randal, the English officer in India, who, brought up as an adopted son of an old miller, does not know his true lineage, is scarcely less unhappy in his passion for a beautiful and highly born girl than is his adopted sister (also his betrothed), Jessie Meade, in her romantic and tragic attachment to Claude Medway, who tries in vain to make her consent to an illicit connection. The interest of the book is equally divided between these two, and both are portrayed with strength and nobility of treatment. The adventures of Philip amid the terrible surroundings of the mutiny, specially that episode wherein he saves Ada Maynard and restores her to her friends after the massacre of Cawnpore, are related with great verve. The gallant young soldier's sweetheart is one of the finest types of the high.bred English gentlewoman, strong, gentle, self-sustained, a blend. ing of courage and womanly sweetness quite delightful. But we suspect the reader will be still more in love with Jessie Meade, who fights a battle at home in her spiritual stress, quite as severe a test of strength as any fought with sword and musket in India. The brave and sorely tried girl, persecuted by the pas sion of the man she loves, misconstrued in her own circle by the harsh judgments of her friends, flies to the stony heart of London to hide herself amid its millions, and perchance to earn her bread by her cleverness as an artist. There is no tragedy so pathetic and terrible as that of a young and beautiful woman alone in a great city, without money or friends, helpless except so far as she can help herself, exposed to insult, face to face with starvation, oftentimes with no relief except a leap in the river, if she would remain true to herself and self-respect. The chivalry of man in such cases proves a reed no less rotten than the forbearance of the savage. Jessie Meade does not leap from London Bridge, however, and is rescued for a brief period of happiness. We do not propose to show the outcome of the touching story, which is managed by the author with a keen sense of all the possibilities of the interest of the situation. Nor is it needful to tell our readers how Philip Randal found his birthright and what he did with it. Those who read the book will admire the delicacy and skill with which the fine touch and true feeling of the writer have evolved the tangled web of her