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TEE AUGUST MAGAZINES. ,
The Bov, Dr. R. n. Newton contribute! to
the North American Jlevieto a paper, in which .
he strongly advocates tho importance of pro- .
viding for moral instruction in the public
schools. Ho urges that in any rational theory
of education everything should, lead up to
character and conduct, and that the interests
of society aro not secured in n system which .
turns ont brains minus a conscience. Tho r
opening exercises of the schools, he suggests,
might include choice ethical readings, brief _
accounts of noblo mon. and women, tales of 3
brave and fine actions, golden sayings, para
bles and allegories of great teachers, illustrat- ,
ing character and conduct. Thero is no lack r
of material for such readings. . . Eveiy, form .
of personal goodness, every phase of social ,
righteousness finds ample illustration in tho
recorded anecdotes of actual men and women,
The daily incidents of the newspapers furnish,-,
affecting models of heroism and tragio .o£- .
nmples of the consequences of vice. " Tho sagas
of tho ancients abound in ethical parables, i
nature myths woven into heroic legonds. ,
ICingsIey's Heroes aud Hawthorne's TFon-
der Book aro charming specimens of . the
ethical power of these old stories. Scenes and ,
sketches from our great novelists and passages
from the great poets might well form part of ,
such readings. The golden words of all tho l
great Bibles of humanity Bhonld bo utilised in ,
the some way. These righteousness readings
might pursue a systematic order, covering in
the course of a school year several times all v
tho great personal and social virtues without ne
cessarily laying bare to the children the frame
workof the classification. Farsuchreadingsthcre
should bs prepared a rich anthology, as a
basis on which each principal could build bis
own soleetion. Instruction could also, it is ,
remarked, be given, and perhaps with most
effectiveness, in on indirect manner, through ,
come of -the special departments ; while per- ,
haps the most important change to be made .
in tho discipline of tho public schools is in the
introduction or higher motivities. Merit must
be rewarded, and faults must be punished, but
rewards and punishments alike need to be
lifted to a higher plane. Mr, W, A. Ham
mond, discussing the position of women in
politics, takes the view that there aro many .
offices, .the functions of which are of a clerical
or other routine character, for which, she ii
admirably qualified, and whiob, therefore aho .
could fill with advantage to herself and the
public.; but those in which force -of intelleot, ,
a power of disinterested judgment, and en- .
larged views of public policy are required,
must ever continue to be occupied by man, .
In on article on the Unsanitary Homes of, tbe
Rich, Mr. C. -F, Wingate directs attention .to
the necessity for taking greater care of tile
drainage arrangements of houses, which are
often singularly neglected in first class dwel-. ,
lings.- . .
Harper bos an interesting article on Ameri-
can Horses, accompanied by excellent illustra
tions. It seems that the training of trotting
horses has made great advances in the last
half century. The beat trotters that flourished
about 1830 could not do a mile under 2.50, but
in 1856 Flora Temple reduced the time to'.?
2.214. In 1866, Woodruff's pride, Dextor, ".:
under the saddle, did . the mile at Buffalo in '
2.18, and in the following year in 2,174, Sinco .
that time Mr. Bonner's famous llarus, :
Goldsmith . Maid; Lulu and . others, have <
trotted their mile in 2.15 or less. But horses '
like these jut . mentioned are nothing to the
wonderful trotters of ' to-day. Maud 3;, the :
q\ieen: of the tori, reduced the time at Ro
chester, to 1880; to,2.10£ ; and In 1881, ovor
ths samo course, she.trotted a mile .in the uu- '
paralleled time of 2.10 4. The first half of the
BocheBter track is by no means good ; had it
all been equal to the last half, she would
have made the distance in 2,10. As a bus- -
itained performance, however,' her- achievement '
at Betmont Park, Philadelphia; in July, aur- -
passed all previous' record. She trotted three '
couseoutlre heats in 2,12, 2.13J, 2.121.- Her
slowest heat beat RarUB's best at Hartford .:
in 1878, when the record was ' 2.13J,
2.I84 and 2.15. Maud S. has' now tho
glory of- having achieved tho fostest'
heat, the fastest two conseautive heats,
and the fastest threo consecutive heats that '
have- ever been seen. If MandS. is the queen
St. Julien is the king of the trotting turf. Ho
stands Becond to licr alone with his last
year's record of 2 1 1 . The speed of tho
American trotting horses cannot be approached
by the hnimals of any other country. It has
beon attained, to quote from Hiram Wood-
mff's book, " by our method of breeding, train
ing and driving trotting horses, aided by the
enterprise and ingenuity which provide vehicles,
harness and all the paraphernalia of that
combination of lightness with strength which'
is modelled upon the plan of the best trotting
horse himself."
' A Memoir of Francis Gai-nier, in Sfacmillan,
gives Bomo phftieulars of the career ' of this
eminent French explorer in tho far bast of Asia,'
which are of special interest at the present
time. Gamier died ten years ago at the same
spot where Commandant Ririore haB lately1
fallen and under very similar circumstances. '
He spent his life and lo3t it in the cause of
French expansion in tho far East. A man of '
science, and oiie of the most distinguished nnd
accomplished of modern geographical explorers,
all tho principal undertakings of his life were
dictated quite as much by an eager desiro to
further French interests and enlarge French
boundaries in Eastern Asia as by the passion
of the geographer. " Nations without colonies,"
he believed, " aro dead, for they are hives
which do ndt swarm." He was boo of tho \
lhoat eager opponents of tho project, for i timo
entertained by the authorities at home,
of restoring French Cochin-Chiua to Anam.
The guiding idea of Garnior's later years
was the discovery of a new commeroinl routo(
between Southern China and Europe, which
should both open up the rich inland provinces
watered by the Yang-tse-Kiang and its
affluehts to European commerce, and make
the French port of Saigon, to the south of the
Cochiu China peninsula, the entrepot between
China and the west, father than the English
ports of Shanghai and Hong Kong, which havo
hitherto attracted and distributed the products,
of ' Chinese trade. One has only to glance at
the history of this question of now commeroinl
communications with Southern China, observes
the writer, to appreciate the fascination and
the excitement of a x>roblem, for the solution,
of which France aud England daring the last
15 years have been running one long eager,
race, ' The English for almost a generation
havo been mrtbiug effort after effort to reach;
the fertile and densoly populated slopes of
Southwestern China from India or from.
Burmah. The schemes of Major Sladen and.
Captain Sprye, the tragio journey of. Mr,.
Margary, the recent wanderings of Mr..
Colquiipun, , the establishment of an English,
consul at Yunnim are all so many Btages in
the long struggle destined to ctrry England
towards the coveted goal—the disopvery of a
uow channel of communication between the
workshops of Iyurope and the thickly peopled
valleys of ihe Celestial Empire, between the
raw materials of a teeming and bonndless soil
and tho skilled , labor of nations who are the
world's artificers. .The extraordinary French
expu'Vinnof 1873 to the Yong King River'
Gamier s capture of Hanoi and of six adjacent
provinces with two gunboats and a force of 200
men, bis administration of, the conquered terri-7
tory for a month, aud the attaok in which ho
fell, are events which havo been variously judged '
even in Frapce. A Sketch bf Ranclie Life in,
tho Far West of America is a practical account:
of tbe difficulties attending settlement and
stock breeding in those regions. Mr. Mowbray.
Morris contributes a readabier paper on Some
Recent Theatrical Criticisms, and with refer
ence to the relative importance of actor and
author says: — "He. who clearly understands
how vast ths gulf whioh separates) and must
ever separate, the aotor from such poet m

Shaluprere, will have done far more to leaaen
the gap than he who claims for hiu&elf a plaoe
with the poet on tho farther side."
SL". L£on Say discaises in the Fortnightly
the relations of TVanco and Tlngland to Egypt.
He is of opinion that thero is but uno political
opect of the matter — the maintenance of a
company, which, French by origin, is English
.as much as French in its intorests, and which
has the right to be treated conformably with
justice. The Earl of Lyttou, in tho second
part of his article on The Stago in Relation to
-Literature, giVet some remarkable instances of
his father's conscientious and painstaking
.method of work. ' After remarking that Mr
2rfocre»dj's Influence as an aotor inspired the
production of a number of new plays, all of
them representing serious literary effort and
purpose, he proceeds to observe that one
would like to see Mr. Irving' a command
ing fnftuence directed with a like anccess to a
new school of literary dramatists, and the train
ing of a now group of imaginative actora, capa
ble of supporting high endeavor, to bestow upon
his" country and his ago tho much needed gift
of a genuine national drama.' An article on
the Radical programmo submits that effect can
not be given to the wishes of tho majority in
the constituencies until manhood suffrage,
equal doctoral districts, and payment of mem
bers have'been granted. That ultimately every
male adult in the United Kingdom will re
ceive a parliamentary vote, the writer says, no
one doubts. Sir Julias VogeT contributes a
paper on Now Guinea and Annexation, in which
he strongly favors compliance with tho views
of the annexationists. He urges that to the
future of England the colonies are of aupreme
importance that if tho national life is to be
restored, if the unoccupied people are to find
happy homes, and those thoy leave behind are
to prosper, the colonies and India must be the
chief factors in such results. The annexation
of Hew Guinea, he suggests, might be made
the starting point for discussing the question
of a navy supported by the whole British em
pire ; and he brings forward many reasons
why it Is not safe to leave nndecided England's
policy in the South Pacific. Dr. Donkiu
throws a considerable amount of cold water on
miracles and medium craft.
Writing Undet tho titlo of Why Not Pur-
chose the Suez Canal ? Mr. Edward Dicey, in
.the Nineteenth Century, te commends that the
Canal Company should be offered reasonable
terms for the surrender of their rights, and
'that in the event of this hot proving satisfac
tory competing canal or canals should be
constructed and managed by independent com
panies. In any case, he says, it is England's
manifest destiny to become mistress of the
canal, as she has already beoomo mistress of
Egypt. Captain Bozier takes a gloomy
Tisw of the British army, whose con
dition he contrasts with that of Germany,
and ' remarks that the English alone of
all European nations appear blind to the
fact that ipilways and telegraphs hare
entirely ' re vohitionised the progress of military
events. Aprgp-js of -Mr. Jeaifreson's new book;
Mr. J. A. Eroude contributes A Leaf trom the
Real Life of Lord Byron, which gives strong
evidence of tho author's inaccuracy on many
points,- and seems to effectually dlsprovo a
discreditable accusation against the poet
Shelley,. Women and Representative Go
vernments is the subject of a well
written paper by Mrs. Fawcett, who pnts in
a strong plea for tho right of women to vote,
and to the removal of other disabilities in
connection with the divorce laws and the
legal control of children. Mr. ,G. J. Hol-
yooke's Discursive American and Canadian
Notes record the fact that Catlyle'a sister,
Mrs. . Hanning, residing near Niagara,
when asked to sign a memorial for the
suppression of Fronde's biography of the
Chelsea .Seer, replied, "No; my brother
trusted Mr. Fronde. He whom my brother
trusted I could trust, and X thought the
family shonld. I wanted nothing artificial
written .about my brother. He was for the
truth, and ao am I." It is alsoBtated that the
American interviewer was a disturbing
person to Mr. Herbert Spencer. He shunned
him Us an instance of literary malaria ; and
lie , 'objected to being cross-examined under
penalty of having ill-natured' thing3 said of
hire. Lord Ripon's Indian policy is defended
by Florence Nightingale, who submits that the
Viceroy's acts ore eminently satisfactory to the

TJonservativo instincts of the Hindoo race;
while by his cautions yet comprehensive
scheme of local self-government he has gone
to the root of tho whole matter, restoring life to
-the ancient village and municipal institutions,
undswhich, with dneqguidonce, therealneedsof
the people can be supplied, cheaply and with
out oppression, by and through the people
themselves. A paper by F. F. Franklond, on
Cholera and Water Supply, shows bow vitally
the health of a town, especially in times of
epidemic disease, is connected with its water
supply.
Some noticeable observations on the punish-
.ment of penal servitude are made in the Content-
jporary by Mr. Michael Davitt, who has had nino
: years' experience of convict life. The writer
mentions that " religious " prisoners aro gene
rally the moat hardened criminals, experienced,
calculating thieves, and diplomatic Btvindlers,
: who are/too wary to quarrel with the prison
rule6, and too accustomed to the practice of .
deception to refrain from imposing, as far as
possible, upon priest and minister. Separate
'confjpement, he says, has no reforma-
itive, effect whatever npon this class
of i criminals, though it exercises a
certain punitive one. Mr. Dnvitt's observa-
'tion of tHh effect which separate confinement
fcfns npon all criminals leads him. to the conclu
sion that half the " solitary" at the com-
(zncncemcnt of tho sentence, and half at the
end, would be 'better than the whole in the
initial stage. Tho one thing most dreaded by
the old gaol bird is work requiring bodily
exertion. . To be exempted from hard labor is
the one object which occupies every mental
resource of experienced criminals from the
time.of sentence until the medical inspection .
shall 'determine what is to be the class of labor
in which the remainder of the sentence is to
be passed. It is during " solitary " that tho
plans are laid by which the doctor is to be
persuaded that hard labor can only be per
formed at the risk of certain death, and it is in
this Btoge, likewise, that malingering and
kindred practices are resorted to in hopes of
qualifying for an invalid prison. Mr. Davitt
is strongly opposed to long sentences. He
remarks that there is scarcely a crime possible
for man to bo guilty of, short of murder,
which should not, in strict justice, be expiated
' by seven years' infliction of a punishment that
has been brought to sucli a n/cety of calcula
tion that there is the closest possible surveil
lance of everyone nndergoing it night and day,
together with un unceasing conflict between
every feeling in the prisoner that is superior
to a mere condition of animal existence, and
the everlasting compulsion to refrain
from almost all that is natural for man to
db, and to do what it is to the last degree
repugnant to? any rational being to consent to
perform. . Yet wretches, who have had a Lon
don gutter or a workhouse for their only moral
'.training school, and who have been subse
quently nurtured in crime by society's other
licensed agencies of moral corruption, re
ceive ten, fifteen and sometimes twenty
i years ' for ' thefts and crimes which
should, in justice, he expiated by a
i twelve months' duration of bucIi punish
ment. He believes that it is theso horribly
unjust penalties that beget tho desperadoes of
, Portland, Chatham and Dartmoor, the znur-
'( dcrcrs of warders, the malingerers, and the
partial maniacs ; and which implant in
dio.'minds of convicts that ferocious animosity
against law and society which "turns so many
of them into reckless social savages. Mr. J,
' A. Fronde concludes his interesting paper on
Luther with the remark : — A living belief
can rise only out of a believing human soul,
nA that any faith, any piety, is alive now in

Europe, even in the Roman Church itself,
whose insolent hypocrisy, benumbed into
shame, is due In largo measure to the poor
miner's son who was born in a Saxon village
400 years ago. ' A review of Renan's memoirs
of himself quotes the nil to biographer-' a saying,
" Few persdns have a right not to believe in
Christianity," It was only after close and pro
longed study that he himself abandoned it,
His lifo has sinco been govorncd mechanically
by tho faith whichho once held. 1m foidiepnrue,
la morale rette- It was the pretension of infalli
bility by which he tried the Bible, and found
It wanting. But, apart from Christianity, he
knows of no ground of hope, no root, of
morality, no harmony in life or in the world.
In a notice of contemporary life ond thought
in Gormany, it is observed of Bismarck : —
He hns long ago ceased to tolerate an opinion
differing from his own, or even to listen to it.
The members of his Cabinet are not Minis
ters, bat mere clerks, who have tho choice
either to register his decrees ond to find the
means for executing his will, or to go. More
over, tho Ministers often remain for a long
timo without any connection with the Chan
cellor, who does not take the trouble to
answer their questions, and remains inacces
sible in his palaco or country seat, except to a
few elect, to whom his colleagues do not be
long, till from tho clnnds of uncertain rumors
as to his designs there issues a new nkaso. If
the Emperor objects to soma now and startling
measure, the Chancellor pots ' tho Cabinet
question, nnd the Soverign is obliged to sub
mit, as ho is convincod that Prince Bismarok
is necessary for maintaining tho prestige, of tho
empire.
Blacheood contains n pleasantly written de
scription of the Belka Arabs. The writer has
arrived at the conclusion that tho Arab is an
unimprovable savage, with all the craft, the
cruelty, the deceit and the cowardice whiob
are usual among savages, and with ail tho
affectation of courage, nobility and honesty
which is equally common to tho wilder races.
When civilisation is at a low ebb, ho say3,
and government is weak, the Bedouin chief
flourishes and spreads terror ; before a Btrong,
settled population he retreats to the howling
wilderness, which he does not love, or sinks to
tho level of a poor cultivator or despised
" cousin of gypsies." Much as one may re
gret all that is romontio and picturesque in
decaying Bedouin life, it is the fate of wild
rnoesso to yield to the more energetio and
civilised, and the material for a future con
quering and progressive race Is not to be dis
covered among the Semitic nomads of Syria
or Arabia. The death of King Mtffsa, the
most remarkable of African potentates, who
was first introduced to Europeans by Captain
Spoke, more than 20 years ago, forms the sub
ject of a very readable sketch, Mt&a, King of
Uganda, was a great ruler, and possessed of
personal qualities which raised him far above
the level of the ordinary African despot. Ho
had none of tho fierce brutality of Theodore,
the late Negus of Abyssinia ; and no one who
knew his character would for a moment com
pare him with such bloated tyrants as Cete-
wayo, or with the savage kings with whom
England has been brought into contact in
Western Africa. Ho was an African Louie
XTV. in his observance of all those formalities
and minutiie which feuce in the person of a
king. Ho upheld hiB popularity and the
rigorous etiquette of the Court of Uganda —
accounted a most brilliant one throughout
equatorial Africa — with the firmness and de
corum which in the early days of his
reign so ' greatly impressed Captain Speke.
It was an everyday oconrrence that
from one to two hundred generals, with
little armies of their followers, attended
his receptions at the palace in licbt costume ;
and Beveral hundred women, the pick of equa
torial African beauty, daily, waited at the
" drawingroom" parties held by tho King.
Each and every one present, from the com
mander-in-chief to the page of ten years old,
was dressed with scrnpnlons neatness on
these occasions ; and though the altera
tions in conrt costume which were
carried oat in Mtloa's later years de
prived these ceremonials of the primitive
dignity which characterised them in the days
of Speke anil Grant, the innovations appear to
have been accepted by the people as great
marks of progress and evidences of the in
creased wisdom and power of the monarch.

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