decade after decade, against the bitter opposition of an elsewhere powerful interest, among a not particularly visionary people, among a people, in fact, of more than the average independence of judgment and practical hard common sense, must amount to something. This inference I assert to be a correct one. The people of Vermont have sustained the prohibitory law for over thirty years, and will continue to sustain it—not as a lovely theory or a "barren ideality," not as a panacea for all social evils, not as necessarily the best thing for all States and all communities, in their existing conditions:
but as the system which is better for them than any other they know of; as a system which in spite of the hindrances, detects, and perversities which largely obstruct all moral effort and must be expected, especially, to hinder an effort to curb the gratification of an appetite as general and powerful as that for strong drink, does practically, here in Vermont, restrict the liquor-traffic to a greater extent, and so proves itself a better ally to moral effort to resist intemperance than any other method of restriction they have ever tried, or seen tried elsewhere.
MEETING OF THE AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION.
THE thirty-third meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science will take place this year at Philadelphia, beginning on Thursday, the 4th of September, under the presidency of Professor J. P. Lesley, Chief of the Geological Survey of Pennsylvania. In order to allow an interchange of courtesies between the American and the British Associations, the latter of which meets the previous week in Montreal, the American meeting is put at a later date than usual. The Council of the British Association has invited the fellows of the American Association to Join in the meeting at Montreal on the footing of honorary members; and the American Association and the local committee of Philadelphia have invited the members of the British Association and their relatives who may be with them to take part in the Philadelphia meeting. Invitations have been sent to the leading scientific societies abroad, asking them to send delegations to the Philadelphia meeting, so that it is expected to be largely international in its character and it is likely that steps will be taken to form an International Scientific Association. An International Electrical Exhibition, under the auspices of the Franklin Institute, will be open at the same time, and the American Institute of Mining Engineers and the Pennsylvania State Agricultural Society will hold sessions at Philadelphia during the same week. On various accounts, therefore, the occasion will be one of unusual interest, and the meeting will probably be fully attended, while the large local committee of Philadelphia may be trusted to make every arrangement possible to conduce to the pleasure and profit of the visitors.
THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION—INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE.
The British Association for the Advancement of Science holds its fifty-fourth annual meeting this year at Montreal, commencing on the 27th of August under the presidency of Professor Lord Rayleigh, of the University of Cambridge. This is, perhaps, the largest and most powerful scientific society in the world, and its coming from Europe to America is a new departure in its history, of such considerable significance that we may profitably give some attention to it.
The British Association was established in 1831, over half a century ago, and held its first meeting in the city of York. It came into existence in obedience to a growing demand for what may be termed scientific expansion, or
