protection, the very logic of whose honest application compelled the taxation of an almost innumerable list of articles and the general introduction of ad valorem rates, vastly complicated the problem. It has brought in devices to deceive the Government, and "this seems to be the legitimate outcome of any system of ad valorem duties," while the introduction of the consignment system has thrown the business of importing largely into the hands of unnaturalized foreigners. But there has been, on the whole, a steady development toward more stringent supervision, regulation, and control over the importer.
The Hon. Andrew S. Draper, State Superintendent of Public Instruction of New York, desiring to get a view of the workings of the Prussian educational system from the observations of an expert, commissioned Mr. James Russell Parsons, Jr., an experienced officer of the public schools, on his being appointed United States consul at Aix-la-Chapelle, to examine the schools of the country and report upon them. The fruits of Mr. Parsons's observations are now published in the volume Prussian Schools through American Eyes, by C. W. Bardeen, Syracuse, N. Y.
Problems of the New Life is the title of a book of essays on social and labor questions by Morrison I. Swift, and published by him at Ashtabula, Ohio, The author writes with much ability from the point of view that the social organization is wrong, and a remedy is to be sought by agitation. The first paper is on The Social Ordeal of Christianity, and the burden of it is that the Church has failed to regenerate society. The ethical culture organization is contrasted with it as having recognized the progressive tendency of the time and placed itself in the current with it. In the paper on The Old and the New Life exception is taken to the attention given to mental culture as at the expense of physical development, and the accepted criterions of social esteem are decided to be wrong. Other essays concern Education and Power, The Extension of Culture, Nationalism, The Awakening of the Farmers, The Growing Revolution, etc. The conclusion of the last is that "the death of the old order is declared."
In Politics and Property, or Phronocracy (G. P. Putnam's Sons), a compromise is proposed by Slack Worthington between democracy and plutocracy. Causes are recognized for the existence of discontent and strife, but it is also seen that they can never be entirely annulled; that poverty can never be eradicated from society any more effectually than disease from the human body. But it can be ameliorated by the timely enactment of intelligent laws. The author opposes both plutocracy on the one hand and socialistic tendencies of all kinds on the other, and advocates a reasonable or conservative position between the two, which he calls Phronocracy, or the rule of reason, prudence, and understanding. He holds that the property rights of men shall, to a reasonable extent, be fully recognized and sedulously protected, but that the masses have grievances that must not be ignored. He further advocates the curtailment of the elective franchise by property and educational qualifications.
The American Citizen (D. C. Heath & Co.) is intended by the author, Mr. Charles F. Dole, to supply in part the growing demand for the more adequate teaching of morals in schools, especially with reference to the making of good citizens, and to show in this case the practical application of the precepts to the duties of life. It aims, not merely to state the facts about the government of our country and our social institutions, but also to illustrate the moral principles that underlie the life of civilized men. The work is intended for youth in the higher schools, and for adults who may wish to make a beginning in the study of citizenship; and the author hopes to leave such an impression as to lead his more thoughtful readers to take up a more thorough course of study.
The publication (by Macmillan) of the Encyclopædia Britannica's article on War in a separate volume gives the author, Colonel F. Maurice, opportunity to insert a few remarks on the probable influence on tactics and warfare generally of the latest improvements in destructive agencies, of which the most important are smokeless powder and the introduction of "high explosives" into shells. The general effect of the former element will probably be to render a defensive position more difficult to approach, while the assailants will continue to be completely exposed to view. The effect of high explosives
