Government, a Christian government, gives us a feast every now and then; it agrees, that is to say, a majority in both houses agree, that for certain crimes it is necessary a man should be hanged by the neck. Government commits the criminal's soul to the mercy of God, stating that here on earth he is to look for no mercy. Keeps him for a fortnight to prepare, provides him with a clergyman to settle his religious affairs (if there be time enough, but government can't wait), and on Monday morning, the bell tolling, the clergyman reads out the Word of God : " I am the resurrec tion and the life "; " The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away "; the government agent seizes the prisoner's legs and another human being is strangled according to law. — Thackeray.
LITERARY NOTICES. The Atlantic for April contains a third article upon Presidential Candidates. The Presidency and Senator Allison is discussed with the same high, non partisan spirit which characterized former articles upon Mr. Reed and Secretary Morton.
President Andrews's great serial history of " The Last Quarter-Century," an enterprise that has met with increasing success, is concluded in Scribner's Magazine for April. This installment is entitled "The Democracy Supreme" and brings the narrative down to the overthrow of Tammany and the Presi dent's message on the Venezuela Question. It is an nounced that the author will revise and enlarge the work, and it will then be issued in book form with many additional illustrations.
The Century for April contains a paper by Victor Louis Mason of the War Department entitled " Four Lincoln Conspiracies," which presents a large amount of new material relating to the assassination of the President, and a quantity of illustrations, many of them from the secret archives of the War Depart ment. The April Arena is peculiarly strong. Its one hun dred and seventy-six pages are literally crowded with live, vigorous, able and wide-awake discussions of present-day subjects, covering a wide range of research. Justice Walter Clark, LL.D., continues his scholarly paper on " Mexico in Midwinter, which is profusely illustrated with admirable half-tone illustrations.
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Is the expansion of the British Empire fraught with danger to the United States, and hostile to the interests of civilization at large? Is the policy of Great Britain, as " a land-grabber," and as a ruler of alien peoples in all parts of the world, one which must be execrated and opposed by Americans? These ques tions are considered by Mr. David A. Wells in the North American Review for April, in an article entitled, " Great Britain and the United States : Their True Relations. " Mayo W. Hazeltine in the same number discusses the " Possible Complications of the Cuban Question," indulging in some very in teresting speculations regarding the international al liances which might be formed should Spain declare war against the United Slates.
The names of David A. Wells, Herbert Spencer, and Cesare Lombroso on the cover of Appi.eton's Popular Science Monthly for April at once arrest our attention. Mr. Wells in this number brings his account of " Taxation in Literature and History" down through the middle ages, and shows that squeezing the Jews was then the makeshift for a fi nancial system with many European potentates. Mr. Spencer concludes his seriesiof papers on " Professional Institutions" with a general review of the subject, calling attention to the necessity in past times of dom ination that now appears irksome to many, and show ing how useless are statutes that do not conform to the natural laws of society. Prof. Lombroso has writ ten for the Monthly an account of " The Savage Origin of Tattooing," showing also its development among criminals. Pictures of the highly decorated bodies of three malefactors illustrate the text.
The March issues of Littell's Living Age give the usual feast of good things brought from the fields of history, biography, discovery, travel, romance and poetry. Among the many valuable papers which ap pear in these numbers may be mentioned: "John Stuart Blackie," by A. H. Miller; "Our Limited Vision and the New Photography," from the " London Lancet "; " Reflex Action, Instinct and Reason," by G. Archdall Reid; " A Sister-in-Law of Mary Queen of"Scots," from " Blackwood"; "The Two Dumas," by C. E. Meitkerke; "The Evolution of Editors," by Leslie Stephen; and "Florian," by Augustus Mansion. In Lippincott's Magazine for April, I.J. Wistar, in a brief but very solid article on "Penal Adminis tration in Pennsylvania," tells what has been done and what may or should be done in the way of prison reform.
