ETC. TENNYSON has gone to his grave, full of years and honor. His work was done, and his passing away could not in any event have been postponed but a few years. The world must bury the great bard with that proud mourning, that sense of a fully lived life, that causes the heart to swell rather in gratitude that Tennyson has lived, than grief that he has died. The sadness comes with the thought that there is left no one to fill his place. The king is dead, and there is no heir apparent, not even a heir presumptive in whom the heirship is not less marked than the presumption. It brings an overwhelming sense of the poverty of English poetry to read the names suggested for the laureateship. Swinburne, Edwin Arnold, William Morris, have all been mentioned to prove unavailable. Jean Ingelow better than any of them has not been spoken of at all. Austin Dobson has never taken himself seriously enough to be thought of for the place, and nobody except himself has ever taken Oscar Wilde seriously enough to think of him. Edwin Morris, the most eminent candidate according to the English press, is less known in America than any of the names we have considered. It would seem far better in the face of this condition of things to allow an interregnum in the laureateship. The vacant throne would stir the ambition of those that would be chilled into silence by the thought that an unworthy successor sat in the place of one who received This laurel greener from the brows MR. CLEVELAND'S letter of acceptance has appeared during the month-a shorter and more readable one than Mr. Harrison's, but not a "ringing document." It makes its meaning clear enough, and does not go into detail argument, but is written in the cumbrous style Mr. Cleveland is liable to when he takes a good deal of pains. When he writes, apparently without much reflection, straight from his impulse, he has command of a good terse English, and has more than once proved the originator of current phrases. Neither letter is unworthy of the occasion. Each very fairly sums up the position of the contestants, but neither will play a very important part in the campaign. Indeed, as November approaches without any of the expected signs of "warming up," it begins to seem within the possibilities of hope that we shall not have a campaign at all, and that the people will vote in cold blood,thing not always to be desired, but apparently op propriate to a verdict on a financial question, after four years' discussion. -a IN some of the Eastern States there seems to be more political excitement than here,-more excitement concerning the presidential election, that is to say. In California, municipal and State matters are diverting attention to an unusual extent. The struggle of the Non-Partisan organization for recognition has brought out a most satisfactory decision from the Supreme Court,-that there shall be no party headings on the ballots. This decision improves the secret ballot law, as adopted in this State, decidedly. The point of party grouping and party headings was conceded with reluctance by the friends of the law, to save the rest of the bill; and the partial defeat of this provision now leaves the law hampered by no serious defect, except the great number of petitioners required for an independent nomination. The nomination once accomplished, independent voting will be decidedly facilitated by the law as at present construed. THE list of officers and students of the Leland Stanford Junior University for the current year reports a total of 692 students, of whom 161 are special, and 51 graduate, leaving 480 in the regular The selection of major undergraduate courses. courses is instructive, and recalls the saying that where young students are given absolute liberty to "follow their bent," it usually proves to be a bent away from the stiff courses. Of the 692 students, 13 have elected Greek as a “major," 4 philosophy, 29 economics, 37 mathematics, 6 physics; but 167 English, 63 history; and the only subjects usually recognized as " stiff," that are sought by more than forty, are engineering courses, where the professional purpose is expected to weigh for more than the educational. also his minor courses, in which it is the business of Of course, each regular student has the professor to see deficiencies of the major as far supplied as possible. Coplas de Manrique. ALTHOUGH the Coplas de Manrique are known to all lovers of English poetry through Longfellow's noble English version of them, it is extremely difficult to find the text of the Spanish original. The OVERLAND MONTHLY has therefore thought to do a service to Spanish schola rs, (of whom it numbers many among its readers) by reproducing here a copy kindly given us by Mr. John T. Doyle. The following account of the author and subject of the verses Longfellow prefixes to his translation : "Don Jorge Manrique, the author of the following poem, flourished in the last half of the fifteenth century. He followed the profession of arms, and died on the field of battle. Mariana, in his History of Spain, makes honorable mention of him, as being present at the siege of Ucles; and speaks of him as 'a youth of estimable qualities, who in this war gave brilliant proofs of his valor. He died young; and was thus cut off from long exercising his great virtues, and exhibiting to the world the light of his genius, which was already known to fame.' He was mortally wounded in a skirmish near Canavete, in the year 1479. "The name of Roderigo Manrique, the father of the poet, Conde de Paredes and Maestre de Santiago, is well known in Spanish history and song. He died in 1476; according to Mariana, in the town of Ucles: but, according to the poem of his son, in Ocana. It was his death that called forth the poem upon which rests the literary reputation of the younger Manrique. In the language of his historian, Don Jorge Manrique, in an eloquent ode, full of poetic beauties, rich embellishments of genius, and high moral reflections, mourned the death of his father as with a funeral hymn.' This praise is not exaggerated. The poem is a model of its kind. Its conception is solemn and beautiful; and, in accordance with it, the style moves on,- calm, dignified, and majestic.-H. W. L.” COPLAS Que hizo Don Jorge Manrique á la muerte de su Padre, Don Rodrigo. Recuerde el alma adormida, Avive el seso y despierte, Contemplando Como se pasa la vida, Como se viene la muerte, Tan callando. Cuan presto se va el placer, Como, despues de acordado, Da dolor; Como, á nuestro parecer, Cualquiera tiempo pasado Fué mejor. Y pues vemos lo presente, Si juzgamos sabiamente, Por pasado. No se engañe nadie no, Pensando que ha de durar Lo que espera, Mas que duró lo que vió; Porque todo ha de pasar Por tal manera. Nuestras vidas son los ríos, |