The complete reform of the civil service means the complete removal of this fund as a temptation to the predatory politicians. Cut down the number of elective offices, and cut off the corporate and municipal plunder and the tariff, and the Boss's occupation will be gone; politics will again become a representative career, and nominations will be free. If the view of those who insisted thirty years ago that the abolition of the spoils system was the necessary first step towards this goal was correct, then in another generation, or even sooner, we ought to see the final extinction of the present system of boss encroachments on the right to nominate for office. If they were wrong, then free government on this continent is certainly doomed. age, local, State, and national. All attempts to avert this fate by legal remedies have hitherto proved unavailing, and, if our analysis is correct, must continue to prove so. Even if we could imagine the primary perfectly protected by legal supervision, it is impossible to compel the good and wise to take part in it, and the real "machine" is only a congeries of voluntary meetings of those who wish to accomplish a certain end. To suppose that those who wish to make a free nomination of the best man for a given office (for this is always the object of an election, so far as the public at large is concerned) can unite in a choice with those who wish to select the tool of a ring, is nonsense, because no two persons who have opposite and conflicting objects in view can unite to carry them out, and no law can enable them to do it. The only thing which those who desire better nominations than the primary produces can do is exactly what they are doing-abandon the primary and nominate for themselves. All that the law can do is to make this easy. We see no reason why the State should not permit any one to be a candidate for any office who will give a bond with sufficient sureties to reimburse the State for the additional expense which his candidature causes. However this may be, there can be no doubt that the more freely men of character and position can come forward and enter into honorable competition with the creatures of the machine for the right to discharge a public trust, the sooner will the grasp of the masters of the latter upon the government be unloosed. School-Boy Life in England: An American View. By John Corbin. Harper & Bros. 1898. This is an entertaining and valuable book, but to a superficial or ill-informed reader the entertainment is not unlikely to obscure the real value. The author, from residence at the University of Oxford, and the personal acquaintance which such residence naturally develops with sons of the great English public schools, is able to draw a very vivid, but decidedly rose-colored picture of the occupations, sportive and serious, the temper, and the traditions of those extraordinary institutions. He has selected Winchester, Eton, and Rugby as his special themes; and those among us who fancy that the last of the three overtops all other English schools may be surprised to be told, what is perfectly true, that Winchester is fully the equal of Eton and above Rugby in general English estimation, and that Winchester men say that Arnold's work at Rugby was simply a de velopment of what he learned at Winchester. Rugby boys pulled up the stakes set out Mr. Corbin regrets that his space does not Ornamental Design for Woven Fabrics. By C. Stephenson and F. Suddards. London: The Americans are said to be an orna- to the public, so that men of any class may roux. use BOOKS OF THE WEEK. Clark, Rev. G. W. Romans and Corinthians. [A Cortina, R. D. Verbos Españoles. 5th ed. R. D. Downer, A. C. The Odes of Keats. With Notes Fincham, H. W. Artists and Engravers of British Goode, G. B. The Smithsonian Institution, 1846- Grinnell, G. B., and Roosevelt, Theodore. Trail Haliburton: A Centenary Chaplet. Toronto: William Briggs. $1.25. Northern Huntington, A. M. A Note-Book in Johnson, C. F. What Can I Do for Brady? and Newcomb, C. B. All's Right with the World. Porter, Rose. Daily Souvenirs. For My Lady's Rand, T. H. At Minas Basin, and Other Poems. Gelehrten Stickney, J. H. Earth and Sky: A First Grade Van Siclen, G. W. Bearing of the Greater New Van Siclen, G. W. Promissory Notes, Checks, NEW YORK, THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 1898. The Week. The debate over civil-service reform in the House is proving most fortunate for the believers in the merit system. The spoilsmen are more open and unblushing in their attitude than ever before, and they are thus making the cause which they champion more offensive than it has previously appeared. Gen. Grosvenor of Ohio on Thursday confess ed that he and his kind sympathize with Tammany in this city because the two sets of politicians hold the same views about patronage. "Hundreds of thousands of Republicans," he said, "felt a secret sympathy with Mayor Van Wyck, who announced that none but Democrats would be appointed to office under the new city government." Gov. Black said in his message that when what Gen. Grosvenor called "the late unlamented Republican government of New York" came into power, there were 15,000 Tammany men in office, and when it expired there were still 15,000 Tammany men on the pay-rolls; and Gen. Grosvenor declared that "the Republicans had been justly punished for keeping these enemies in their camp." The friends of the merit system have made very effective replies to the assaults of the spoilsmen upon it, but these replies were hardly necessary. Such diatribes as Gen. Grosvenor's answer themselves, and make votes for the reform. The attacks on the federal civil-service law which were daily made during the debate in the House, suggest the desirability of an "eligible list" from which the people could select a candidate for Congress. It is safe to say that, under the present system, constituencies know almost nothing of the views of the men they vote for as regards public questions at large. There is usually some one subject on which a candidate must be "sound"; that condition being met, all others are disregarded. The necessity for some protection of this kind against charlatanism received a striking illustration in Monday's debate in the House, when a New England constituency, undoubtedly composed largely of reputable and churchgoing people, was put to shame by the speech of its Representative. The speaker was "Cy" Sulloway of New Hampshire, a country lawyer "with chin whiskers." After attacking the supporters of the civil-service law as "the eunuchs of politics," he went on to say: some of the golden streets, he would have to apply to this commission to get a list of eligibles, and, when the list was submitted, if it was like the average list, the good St. Peter would be impelled to say: 'My God, I have not seen such a gang since the day I was crucified!'"' We should not care to insult any New England constituency with the assumption that it would allow a man to remain on its "eligible list" of congressional candidates after reading such a speech by him. We fear that Secretary Gage has inadvertently given aid and comfort to the spoilsmen by some of his remarks about the need of exempting from the classified service various positions in the Treasury Department included in President Cleveland's order of May 6, 1896. As to the advisability of exemption we say nothing. We will concede, if any one insists, that it may be an open question whether the order was not too sweeping. But Mr. Gage's argument for exempting deputy collectors of internal revenue seems to us not to have its eye on the fact. He says that a collector, responsible as he is legally and financially for his deputies, ought not to be compelled to select them from "an eligible list, the names on which he may know nothing about," but should be allowed to choose "men concerning whose personal characteristics and integrity" he has knowledge. But supposing the eligible list abolished, will the collector be allowed to choose his own deputies? Not at all. Before he gets his office as a condition of getting it--he has to agree to a "slate" of appointees to every position in his gift. It comes down to an alternative between an eligible list about which he knows nothing, and a "slate" thrust in his hands by the boss who creates him, about which he also knows nothing. The idea that any collector is nowadays left free to look about him and choose his own subordinates is absurd. He ap points the men he is ordered to appoint. Imagine the scornful laughter of a boss who should find his collector wanting to know about the deputies on the "slate." "That's my affair," he would say; "I am responsible for them, not you." The bosses will all endorse Secretary Gage's reasoning, but they will do it, not in order to improve the service as the Secretary intends, but to debauch it as they intend. In Mr. Bryan's speech at Chicago on Saturday we read his desire that the campaign of 1898 and the greater one of 1900 shall be fought on the silver issue pure and simple. We read also his apprehension lest this issue shall be "Why, If St. Peter was on earth to-day complicated with the banking question. as an official of the United States Government and wanted to hire gate-keepers for His attempt to lug in Gen. Jackson and his fight against the Bank of the United States is very significant. Jackson was one of the "gold-bugs" of the period in which he lived. The gold bill was passed by his friends, during his administration, and it bears his signature. Gold had been driven out of circulation by the legal ratio of 15 to 1, and there was a loud demand, especially among the Jackson men, that the ratio should be changed in such a way as to banish silver and supplant it with gold. Benton was the leader of this movement in the Senate, and Benton was also the leader of the Jackson men in that body. He fought for the gold bill and secured its passage. To claim Jackson as a silverite in the face of these facts implies either dense ignorance of history or a remarkable development of "cheek." Mr. Bryan's use of the phrase "national bank" is equally deceptive. He said in his Chicago speech: "It is especially fitting that at this time the American people should recall the name of Andrew Jackson and gather inspiration and encouragement from his public career. We are engaged to-day in a contest very similar to that in which he played so conspicuous and honorable a part. During his term of office the national bank attempted to overawe the representatives of the people and control the Government. He grappled with it and overthrew it." Why did not Mr. Bryan call the bank which Jackson overthrew by its right name, viz., the Bank of the United States? Evidently because the phrase national bank needs only the addition of an to make national banks, thus assimilating the fight which Jackson made to the one which the Populists and some Democrats are carrying on now. The truth is that the whole force of Jackson's animosity against the Bank of the United States was directed against it as one corporation enjoying the deposits of the money of the Government; that is, a monopoly. His veto of the bill rechartering the bank was grounded upon that idea alone. He had no objection to banks generally. He had none to those that were not monopolies. A good deal might be said to show that his fight against the Bank of the United States was a fight against a windmill which he mistook for a giant. In this case, however, he demolished the windmill instead of being unhorsed by it. The material fact is that he removed the deposits from the big bank because it was big, and put them into other banks because they were small, or at all events not open to the charge of being monopoNow we have no such case at the present time. There is no monopoly bank. All the banks that we have are of a kind that Jackson would have fa lies. vored if there had been any in his day. Mr. Bryan's uneasiness on the subject is very easily explained. He fears lest the bank question may supersede the silver question as a political issue. Hence his gross perversion of history in dragging Jackson into a controversy so unlike the one in which he took part. Hence his bitter attack on Secretary Gage. they expect us to act on the Scriptural The developments about the nomination of Charles P. Bryan as Minister to China illustrate perfectly the absurdities of the system by which places in the Americans are the proudest as well as the freest people on earth, intensely jealous for their liberties and fiercely resentful of any encroachment upon their rights. We know this because we have heard it said. But. for such a nation, we do delight in submitting without a murmur to every annoyance and interference and maddening espion-diplomatic service are apportioned. Mr. age and regulation that our rulers take it into their heads to inflict upon us. Was there ever such a bit of small-minded and vexing tyranny of power as our new Treasury regulations about sealskin cloaks? Ladies sailing for Europe have to get a "certificate" that their cloaks are really their own, and that they were made up before pelagic sealing was made illegal; otherwise, their property will be confiscated on their return. Arriving passengers will for some days be in uncertainty and in terror lest their sealskin garments be stripped off them in the custom-house, and they turned out shivering into the streets of the second city in the world. On Sunday in Detroit, family groups strolling on the bridge to the Canadian shore were stopped and warned that if the ladies wanted to bring their sealskin cloaks back they would have to take out the "certificates." The vexation and meddling could not well be more intolerable. But does anybody complain? Does any indignant husband write to the papers? Does any exasperated woman acquire an unwonted volubility on the subject? Are there protests and appeals addressed to Congress? No, the untamed American takes it meekly. It is just one of those "queer" things about the tariff which we shrug our shoulders at and say nothing. But if such a thing had been attempted in an enslaved country like England, the papers would have been filled with angry communications, the Government would have been deluged with inquiries and threats. A mere dog-muzzling order last summer raised such a row that the Ministry were frightened out of their senses. Such an offensive law as this stealthy enactment of ours about sealskins would be enough to upset an English government. But the haughty American bows his neck and bares his back without a whimper. We must say that there is something significant in these attempts of our rulers to take away our clothes. First they made their lawtheir "breech-clout legislation," as we called it at the time-to prevent people from bringing clothes from Europe. Now Eryan had no fitness for the Chinese The discursiveness of Gov. Black's message is a distinct sign of Plattism. During the city canvass we could not get a Platt man to discuss city affairs. He always wanted to discuss silver, and Hawaii, and the tariff. Nothing is a better mark of good government than the practice on the part of officials of keeping to matters which concern them. Relevancy is the chief mark of efficiency. For instance, the Governor admits that the State, through its "labor bureaus," has done all it can for labor. But he then goes on to talk of things with which he has, as Governor, nothing to do, and what is worse, which he evidently does not understand, making one regret more than ever that he should have said so much about the civil service. Lamenting over disputes between laborers and employers, which are simply disputes about prices, and are no more preventable than disputes about the cost of clothing, he makes the fol. lowing remark: "If present conditions continue, disputes will frequently arise, and I believe it would be wise to encourage the method of university settlement. No man can be a fair judge who does not understand both sides, and while he may acquire this understanding after the trouble has arisen, his capacity to effect a settlement is greatly reduced because of the inflammation which invariably goes with a declared grievance. It is not only harder to settle a dispute when opponents have come face to face, but in the case of labor troubles large sums of money are lost while the dispute goes on. The plan of university settlement is not so much to compose differences as to prevent their occurrence. Its wisdom is obvious." Now, this makes a little "intolerant criticism" absolutely necessary. There is no such thing as "a method of university settlement," either for composing differences or preventing their recurrence. If the Governor knew what a "university settlement" was, he would not have made this ludicrous observation. He made somewhat the same mistake last year, but as no one in politics called his attention to it, he seems not to have given himself the trouble to make inquiries about the matter. A "university settlement" is so called because, as a rule, provided by university graduates, here and in England. It consists in a house built or hired or furnished by such men and their wives, like Toynbee Hall in London, and in which they reside all or part of the year, for the sole purpose of promoting friendly social intercourse between the different classes of society, by lectures, concerts, conversaziones. No university settlement has ever thought of acting as an arbitrator in labor disputes. If it did, it would soon become worthless. The settlements have no qualifications for such a task. There is no "university settlement" method of doing so. The whole scheme and purpose of these settlements was explained by Canon Barnett of Toynbee Hall in the Nineteenth Century for December. The rôle the Governor has assigned them is the product of a lively imagination. It was clearly a Tammany belief at the opening of the legislative session that a "deal" with Platt at Albany might be arranged, otherwise Tammany statesmen would not have been introducing measures which could be passed only with the aid of Republican votes. They have presented in both houses a bill to give the Mayor power to remove members of the Board of Education, and have been considering the preparation of others to abolish the Court of City Magistrates and possibly the Board of Rapid Transit Commissioners. There could be no hope of passing such measures except through a "deal," and it is difficult to see why they should have been presented if there had been no expectation of passing them. At the same time, a "deal" to be effective must include acquiescence by the Governor in the resulting legislation, and even so defiant a scorner of "intolerant clamor" as Gov. Black might well hesitate before openly allying himself with Tammany Hall. Indeed, the announcement is made, apparently by authority, that he will not sign any bills of this sort. The fact is recalled that he blocked some measures of the same nature which were favored by the Platt machine at the last session, and there is certainly every reason why he should maintain such opposition now. We are glad to see that the CivilService Reform Association is determined to keep up the fight for reform more vigorously than ever. The curse of our politics is that the old American tradition which made graceful submission to defeat at the hands of honorable opponents who were only seeking the same ends in a different way, is still preserved in dealing with people who are no more a political party than a party of safe-robbers, and seek nothing from the community but its money. It is almost ludicrous to see self-respecting citizens kissing the hands of these people as their masters, and offering to help them, simply because they have been knocked down and their purses taken. Tammany is to-day making a clean sweep of the city offices. There ought to be a political party to resist the process, as far as the law allows, in the name of good government. There is no such party. Our policemen have joined the burglars, and they are all "having a little something" together. We must, therefore, be grateful to the Civil-Service Reform Association for keeping the flag of decency and order and law still flying, by reminding the eminent Coler that the civil-service rules of December 31, 1897, are still in force, that under them no man can be appointed except after open competitive examination, and no member of the classified service can be removed with out reasons in writing and opportunity of defending himself. Consequently, if Mr. Coler pays any man who has not been so appointed, he is personally liable for the amount he pays; if he refuses to pay a man who has not been so dismissed, he can be enjoined. The Association will put the law in force if necessary. We only hope the office-holders will assist it by standing their ground. The practice of running away when a Tammany man appears to take the place, is treason to the government and the law. Aldridge of the Public Works Department, upon the subject of canal improvements, depicts what has been from the outset the inevitable sequel of the latter's appointment by Gov. Morton in 1895. Mr. Aldridge was credited with saying at the time of his appointment that it was his intention to "make the canals Republican." Mr. Roberts shows that this is what he has been doing. Mr. Aldridge had been an active Platt politician for several years, and was an avowed believer in machine politics. Almost his first act on entering office was to defy the civil-service law of the State in regard to the selection of subordinates in his department, and nothing but a decision of the Court of Appeals availed to convince him that he must obey the law. He seems to have been taking the same contemptuous view of the law in regard to the expenditure of the $9,000,000 voted by the people for canal improvement. As Mr. Roberts says, the people voted this expenditure upon the statement and understanding that the contemplated work could be completed for that sum. Mr. Aldridge has been at work on a totally different basis, knowledge of which he has concealed from at least two of his fellow-members in the Canal Board, the Comptroller and the Attorney-General. These officials say that they gave their approval to the plans for the expenditure of the $9,000,000 with the belief, based upon Aldridge's statements, that the entire work would be completed within the appropriation. Now they learn from Aldridge that at least $7,000,000 more will be necessary to complete the work, and they are asked to support him in a request to the Legislature to authorize this additional best opportunity in the world for all sorts of wild fears to be excited in connection with them. If the army is as unready as it was in 1870, if the plans of mobilization are sold to the Germans, Frenchmen think themselves "betrayed" again, and there is no more furious being in the world than a Frenchman who thinks himself betrayed. But the peculiar exasperation due to dislike and dread of the Jews has to be added in to account for the pitch of popular frenzy which the Dreyfus affair has touched. Other officers have been tried and convicted for selling documents relating to the national defence, and no national explosion followed. In 1890 Lieut. Bonnet was convicted at Nancy of this offence; in 1888 an adjutant was found guilty of a similar crime; the same charge was fastened upon Capt. Guillot in 1895. But they were not Jews, and Dreyfus was. That he was rich, and that therefore no motive for his treachery could be produced, of course only heightened his offence in the popular mind; it was just that kind of causeless crime which his race was famous for. As the Anti-Semite Libre Parole said, from the beginning, "The officer is a Jew," and that was enough. The Minister of War and the court-martial continue to assert that the proof against Dreyfus was conclusive. It would seem highly desirable to publish it then, inasmuch as the only documents which have been published turn out to be far from conclusive. The German logic in the argument for a big navy is as hard to follow as that of our own reasoners on the same subject. Look at our beggarly array of war-ships, said William to the Reichstag; actually fewer now than in 1885. How can you expect to develop a foreign trade with no fighting-ships to protect your merchant marine? But we thought, timidly interposed some one, relying on parliamentary privilege to escape a prosecution for treason--we thought our foreign trade had been increasing rather re expenditure. The Comptroller refuses to would only half do the work." This style The extraordinary excitement in France over the Dreyfus affair, renewed as it is just now in the trial of Count Esterhazy, arises from the stirring of two powerful passions-those connected with the national defence and with anti-Semitism. Anything that touches the army has, since 1870, touched the heart of "mutilated" France. Plans for revenge on Germany are no The letter which Mr. Roberts. Comp- doubt extremely vague in the French troller of the State, has addressed to Mr. mind, but their very vagueness gives the Of course it has been, triumphantly reply the German Admiralty,` and print figures to show that Germany's foreign commerce expanded more than $200,000,000 between 1881 and 1895. Well, how could that be with the battle-ships actually diminishing? And if trade has been doing so well without a big navy, why must we have a big navy in order to make trade do well? This might look, to the merely human intellect, as the theologians say, like a "poser"; but naval logic is not at all embarrassed by it. The answer to it is, (1) trade has increased because we are a strong, enterprising, inventive people, but we shall not remain so a day longer without a lot of war-ships; (2) your view is colonial, provincial, and altogether outgrown; (3) we are going to have ships, anyhow, and you had better look out, or you will be in jail for lèse-majesté. THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND CURRENCY REFORM. The prompt and cordial response given on Thursday by the Chamber of Commerce to the call for the reassembling of the Indianapolis convention was a very encouraging symptom. The remarks made by Mr. Rhoades, Mr. Dodge, and others, implied that the commercial interests of New York approve of the report of the Monetary Commission, and that they may be counted on as the supporters of a vigorous movement for currency reform. The brief speech of ex-Secretary Fairchild, giving some account of the reasons governing the commission in reaching their conclusions, received the warm applause of the Chamber. In this speech we desire to draw attention particularly to the concluding portion, which explains why the commission saw fit to endorse the plan for banknote issues based upon the assets of the banks. It is agreed upon all hands that if such note issues can be made safe that is, if they can be so made that the noteholder shall in no case be a loser by accepting them-then such a system is much to be preferred to the present system of bond-secured note issues. The reasons why it is better are that it is less expensive, more convenient, and more responsive to the exigencies of trade. It is less expensive because the bank is not obliged to invest its capital at the outset in Government bonds which command a high premium in the market. The primary object of banking is to collect the little streams of floating capital in the community into a common reservoir and use the same for the discount of commercial paperin other words, to furnish ready means to the producers and dealers in goods, thus quickening the industries of the locality and bringing a return to the owners of the capital so employed. This is the main part of the credit system of modern times, of which banknote issues are one branch, but not the largest division. The largest branch is the system of checks and deposits, as to which no Government-bond security is required, and upon which no limitation is put by law except that a certain reserve of cash shall be kept in proportion to the deposits. Note issues are liabilities of the bank of identically the same nature as deposits, differing only in the time that they usually remain outstanding. They circulate rather more widely than checks, but they are payable out of the same fund, and usually in the same way. Ordinarily the notes would be as safe as the checks. even without any Government interference. But it is indispensable, for various reasons, that the notes should be safer than the checks-in fact, that they should be perfectly safe. It is acknowledged that anything short of this-any system which should leave a workingman ex posed to the loss of his wages by bad banknotes-would be swept aside with popular fury upon the first occasion of such loss. No such system could sur. vive, or ought to. The plan proposed by the Monetary Commission has certain safeguards intended to prevent any such loss. These are matters of detail. The fundamental principle, as stated by Mr. Fairchild, is that everything of a pecuniary nature, including the Government credit, is based upon the business transactions of the people, that these business transactions are for the most part carried on through the medium of the banks, that the assets of the banks are the kernel and essence of the whole mass, and that if, at any particular time, they are not sound, we are all bankrupt, the Government included. This is demonstrably true. It is patent at a glance. Therefore, the plan of banknote issues based upon the assets of the banks is philosophically sound, and it is only necessary to provide against sporadic cases of failure, and against premeditated swindling, in order to make such issues safe in all cases. This it is proposed to do in part by a system of mutual insurance through the medium of a common guarantee fund. pectation that he should be able to meet his notes at maturity, and were to say, "I do not know exactly, but I am a lucky fellow; no serious misfortune has ever happened to me, and I feel sure all will come out right in the end"-would the bank or a fellow-merchant be satisfied and let him have the money? If the general of an army opposed to Napoleon, or Moltke, or Grant, were asked for what reason he thought he should beat him, and were to answer that he had no rea son except the abundance of his resources, or the goodness of his cause, would his Government be apt to let him try his fortune? Would it not be dreadfully frightened, and look about at once for somebody who had a plan of campaign and knew how to manœuvre an army? Is there any department of human activity, except government, in which an optimist has any standing, or is listened to? None, so far as we know. In human business, naked, unaided optimism, optimism which has nothing to rest on except buoyancy of temperament, has no place. It would speedily ruin any human undertaking. What successful business rests on is thinking clear and seeing straight, and leaving nothing to chance which can be kept from chance. What the business man seeks is a clear, dry light, not a rosy light, or a pink light, or a "dim religious mistic dry-goods house would soon have a visit from the sheriff. An optimistic business man would soon become a penniless laughing-stock. The type of such men is Wilkins Micawber, who is always waiting for "something to turn up," and believing that it is sure to do The advantages of such a system in a financial sense have been often explained. Are there not advantages of a poli-light." An optimistic bank or an optitical sort also to be looked for? The demand for the free coinage of silver in the Southern States (without whose cooperation free coinage as a political issue would disappear in a twinkling) has been based on the idea, honestly entertained, that that was the only way by which a sufficient amount of currency could be obtained to meet the wants of trade. It is useless to argue with a man or a community in whom this conception has gained lodgment. The only thing to do is to put before that community some better remedy for the supposed evil. That the South is open to conviction in this way there is abundant reason to believe. At all events, the present is a most favorable time for test ing the disposition of that section. If her people are offered the opportunity to issue banknotes without a previous pledge of Government bonds, but with adequate safeguards for the goodness of the notes, and if they still prefer the free coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1, then we shall at least know where we stand. We may begin to buckle on our armor for the same sort of campaign in 1900 that we had in 1896. But in no case should we support any system of banknote issues that we did not regard as absolutely sound. OPTIMISM AND PESSIMISM. If a business man, seeking credit from a bank or from a fellow-merchant, were asked on what he based the ex But this optimism, which has to be so sternly denied a place in business undertakings, actually has complete control of our government-so much that any attempt to question, decry, or criticise it is treated as what is called "pessimism," which to many minds is a kind of disease, whereas in nine cases out of ten it is simply the application to politics of business principles. It is passing judgment on politicians and measures by the same rules by which men carry on trade or commerce, and keeping a constant watch against selfdeception. Baseless optimism is the characteristic of children. A child, from want of experience, thinks he shall be happy and well to-morrow because he has been so to-day, and he naturally hates the man who bores him with warnings about the quicksands and snares of life. A successful man knows something of contingencies, and succeeds by providing against them. A very striking illustration of the way optimism works in politics may be found in Mr. Dingley's financial career. In Congress, he alleged, without any data to go on, that the additions to the tariff which he proposed would increase the |