question, the wisdom of checking undesirable additions to the population has long been firmly settled in the minds of most men. Again, the socialistic and communistic disturbances within the last few years have forced all intelligent people to consider whether much of the present immigration is not of an undesirable nature, and whether these social upheavals are not signs of serious danger in the national organism, which partial or complete restriction of immigration may be needed to avert.

In regard to the second means of protectionwhich is indeed in operation at the present timethere are grave doubts as to its wisdom. The most zealous arguments of protectionists have failed to secure more than a very qualified and partial support among economists. Your contributor holds that nothing which can be manufactured at home should be imported, and that a tariff sufficiently high to be prohibitory of such imports should be adopted. He says: "Is the assumption true, that by rigid enforcement of this rule, our foreign commerce would be entirely destroyed? In consequence of its enforcement would foreign nations buy from us appreciably less meat, grain, cotton, and so on, of articles which they must have, and cannot secure elsewhere on equally favorable terms?............. Foreign nations buy from us those commodities only which they cannot do without." This is simply advocating the reëstablishment of the Mercantile System, which finds few advocates if any among the thoughtful of the present day. Without any exception, protectionists and free-traders agree that there is a principle known as the Division of Labor. A majority even of protectionists admit that this principle has a territorial application as well as a purely local one. They, however, argue that industries natural and advantageous to a country do not always start of themselves; that a greater and more advantageous division of labor is secured by the process of restricting imports that compete with immature industries. It is evident that this cannot apply to mature ones, and therefore does not mean complete or permanent prohibition. Again, is it true that any nation is compelled in an absolute sense to buy of us? Are natural conditions so fixed and unalterable that no artificial barrier can change their tendencies? Is trade the result of perpetual effort to cheat somebody, or is it commonly of mutual advantage? Are the demands of trade fixed and unalterable in one country, and subject wholly or nearly to the will of man in another? It would seem rather that nations trade with us because it is advantageous, not because they are compelled to do so. By refusing to buy of them such things as

they can readily sell, we lessen by so much our own advantage in selling. If this is not correct then the Division of Labor is a delusion and snare, and man had best retire to a hut in the wilderness. Again, the writer says: "According to Mulhall, the national wealth of England, the great leading nation of the world in foreign commerce, was in 1880, $42,000,000,000. Thus we perceive that commerce and the vaunted free-trade accumulated nearly $5,500,000,000 less for England in 2,000 years than home industry and protection accumulated for the United States in thirty-six years."

sense.

This is impossible reasoning. It is only within the last two or three hundred years that ocean navigation has reached sufficient development to enable any nation to grow rapidly in the modern During all this time up to within about fifty years, England has been a protected and not a free-trade country. Indeed, it is only since 1849 that England has stood completely on the ground of free-trade. Freedom of exchange in its broadest sense means exchange without restriction— whether as to kinds of property, persons exchanging, or localities-other than nature interposes; and this really prevails more extensively in our Own country than in any other part of the world. The United States, including Alaska, occupies nearly as much territory as Europe, which is cut up into a very large number of political divisions, almost every one of which is hedged in by a protective tariff; while between the political divisions of our territory, absolute freetrade prevails. Hence any argument showing the advantages of labor in the United States as compared to those in Europe, is really an argument for free-trade.

In England moreover, the natural isolation of the country, its complete dependence on water transportation, the great lack of variety in its resources, the constant danger that foreign tariffs and wars present to its trade, and perhaps more than all, its own lack of free trade in land, unquestionably more than offset the injurious effects of prohibitory tariffs in the United States.

Let me add that there is one important direction in which American labor should be protected, which your contributor fails to mention. Is not protection against over-expenditure as important as against under-payment? Is not a penny saved a penny earned? Where do at least $500,000,000 of hard earnings of American labor go every year? Into the tills of liquor saloons. And this not so ofton because of the cravings of the laborer's own appetite as under pressure brought upon him by the practical exigencies of business and social life, under our present laws and customs. Does he not

account.

need protection by law from this pressure? Such a law may be frequently broken; so are all laws, yet no one would abolish government on that If prohibition stops one-half the useless consumption of alcoholic drinks in a place, it is a great protection. It must stop all except that which comes from deliberate intent to drink, and we know that constitutes only a moiety of the

present consumption. Governmental restrictions on trade should be mainly of that kind that restrict moral evils; for when people are really moral they are happy and even rich -- rich in all that makes life worth living for, if not in money. Morality tends to create and save wealth, or else the world's experience is at fault. Yours respectfully,

J. E. Cunningham.

William Henry Channing.'

The subject of this memoir was a nephew of Dr. William Ellery Channing, and connected both on his father's and mother's side with some of the best New England families. He inherited not wealth, but brains and an environment of refinement, culture, love of country, hatred of oppression, and deep religious feeling. To understand his character and life, as told in this book, one must picture to himself a sensitive, imaginative, intellectual youth, stimulated by his surroundings, conscientious to the last degree, educated for the ministry but unable to make his beliefs fit in to any creed. When his education was complete, he was ordained by the Unitarians, but soon found that he was not in full accord with them; still he remained in that denomination all his life, fraternizing, however, with Episcopalians, Catholics, Buddhists, Methodists, and those of all faiths. His spirit is, perhaps, best shown by giving the names of some of the books that he tells a friend he always kept by him for his morning hour as his best spiritual friends. The list is too long to quote entire, but it names Confucius, Buddha's Laws of Life, Xenophon, Plato, Aristotle, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Philo, Origen, Chrysostom and Augustine, Thomas á Kempis, St. Francis de Sales, Madame Guyon, Fenelon, "the 119th Psalm, Isaiah, the golden lipped, and sublime Jeremiah. The central morning and noontide sun, of course, has been and ever more radiantly bright, the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

The writer of this biography tells us frankly that W. H. Channing's life has been called a failure; he also tells us of his unselfish work in Washington during the war and gives letters from many who

Memoir of William Henry Channing. By O. B. Frothingham. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1886. For sale in San Francisco by Chilion Beach.

had found his preaching helpful. George William Curtis is quoted as saying that he was moved to tears in hearing him speak, but adds that he is not practical. The latter part of his life was spent in England, returning for longer or shorter intervals to this country. His son was educated at Oxford, where he took high honors, and afterwards became a member of Parliament. His daughter became the wife of Edwin Arnold, author of "The Light of Asia."

The memoir of a man who advocated women's rights and opposed slavery, forty years ago; who was a Christian socialist, had part in the Brook Farm experiment, was the friend of Emerson and Margaret Fuller, cannot but be interesting, whatever may be one's impression of his character; but we think that it is certain to impress every reader as a lovely if not a strong one.

Briefer Notice.

Meditations on the Bible Heaven consists of articles first published in the New York Independent, and now gathered into a book; taking, the author tells us, a somewhat different form on that account. It has been said by some one that the word "Heaven," on the outside of the book was enough to sell it; and the intense desire to know something of that world, especially in the presence of bereavement, makes this somewhat probable. While under the shadow of the recent loss of his wife, Doctor Spear made these studies of the Bible teachings about Heaven. Of course they are in no wise imaginative speculations like Miss Phelps's or Mrs. Oliphant's. but rigidly confined to Bible authority. To the believer this must be of the utmost value as the only positive knowledge attainable of what awaits us after death.

1 Meditations on the Bible Heaven. By Samuel T. Spear, D. D. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. 1887.

Whist Scores and Card Table Talk', will be interesting to card players. It is full of illustrations of ancient and modern forms of cards and information about the growth of customs connected with the playing cards as now known. The illustrations are mainly copies of cards in the Smithsonian Institute's collection, and show the Chinese, Hindustani, Saxon, Spanish, French, and Italian cards, and even the buckskin cards used by the Apaches. Every other page is printed in a blank whist score, with room for the tally and notes on the game.- -Carving and Serving is a book of directions to the head of the family in regard to his duties as carver and helper or server at table. There are directions for all kinds of carving, from grouse and turkey to fish and roast beef; various tools are described-the breakfast or beefsteak carver, the slicer, jointer, game carver, game scissors, etc. It seems a practical and convenient book for its purpose.- -We acknowledge receipt of Roughing it from California through France3 — -an account a of California newspaper man's travels abroad.- -Mr. Eliot's' book on Alaska has been both blamed and praised by the critics-blamed because of the lack of frankness in printing matter as new that had already done service in a Government report, and praised for its own merits. We are inclined to forgive the offense and to join the approvers of the book. It would require no little search to find a case in literature where such careful and devoted study has been given to the habits of any animal as Mr. Eliot has lavished on the fur seal and on the sea otter. The chapters containing these studies are as interesting reading as was ever written on a subject in Natural History. It is so photographic that the reader feels on finishing the account, that a year's stay on St. Paul would give him no new impression or fact of importance. The remainder of the book is rather hurried and is evidently written as a setting to the central chapters, to which it is unequal in every respect.Joseph Cook's lectures, however they may please Whist Scores and Card Table Talk; with a Bibliography of Whist. Rudolph H. Reinhardt. Chicago: A. C. MeClurg & Co. 1887.

Carving and Serving By D. A. Lincoln. Boston: Roberts Brothers. For sale in San Francisco by S. Carson & Co.

3 Roughing It from California through France. By Ben Goodkind. Sacramento: A. J. Johnston & Co. For sale in San Francisco by Joseph A. Hoffman.

4Our Arctic Province. By Henry W. Eliot, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1886. For sale in San Francisco by A. L. Bancroft & Co.

5Orient. Boston Monday Lectures. By Joseph Cook. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1886. For sale in San Francisco by Chilion Beach,

as heard from the platform, are not edifying when read in a critical light. His ideas when stripped of their oratorical trappings do not hear a cool scrutiny. They are then seen generally to be commonplace, sometimes paradoxical, and often are of exceeding small dimensions when compared with their grandiose verbiage. But it is hardly fair treatment to subject what is intended merely for delivery to so severe a test as this. Joseph Cook's dogmatic assertions on abstruse points and his sententious utterances on great themes, his brilliant figures and swelling periods, have undeniably been efficient in satisfying many a shallow doubter who could not have been reached by sounder argument. This most recent volume is occupied by the lectures that tell of a journey around the world. Mr. Cook visits foreign shores, and as soon as he lands he is able to point out to the astonished natives the strong and the weak places in their civilization, to suggest remedies and forecast the future. To any sugges tion as to the need of somewhat longer study to enable anybody to do this, Mr. Cook would reply that in his possession are certain immutable and universal principles on which an a priori judgment can be based so surely that no further investigation is needed. This may be very true, and yet it is not easy to put the implicit faith in Mr. Cook that he puts in himself; and his statements are too often devoid of that Socratic humility that is sometimes supposed to mark the truest wisdom. There are none the less wany eloquent and striking passages in the book, and some of them are of the kind that elings firmly in the memory; as for instance this of college professors: "Let them be rivers and not glaciers, even if they are on the stately summits of Harvard."- -Lee & Shepard issue as Easter publications, card-bound copies, reduced in size, of the illustrated hymns, Rock of Ages, Abide with Me, My Faith Looks up to Thee, and Nearer my God to Thee,' which they have for some years issued in different forms. They also publish in larger editions, bound in pale pink or blue and gold, Kingsley's See the Land her Easter Keeping; Arise, my Soul, Arise, by the author of Nearer my God to Thee;" and The Message of the Bluebird;-all illustrated, the latter by Irene J. Jerome, whose drawings have already been noticed here.

Rock of Ages By Augustus M. Toplady.-Abide with Me. By Henry Francis Lyte -My Faith Looks up to Thee. By Ray Palmer.-Nearer, my God, to Thee. By Sarah Flower Adams.-See the Land her Easter Keeping. By Charles Kingsley.-Arise, my Soul, Arise. By Sarah Flower Adams.-The Message of the Bluebird. By Irene J. Jerome.-Boston: Lee & Shepard, 1887. For sale in San Francisco, by Samuel Carson,

Doctor Jesus Jimenez may have been a learned man; he was not a wise one.

He had been made President of Costa Rica by the army, and as soon as he got supreme power in the Republic, he gave that important body the cold shoulder.

It was a mistake. He should have borne it to the front, giving it prominence; wearing it, so to speak, like a rose in his top button hole on dress occasions. On the contrary, he treated it contemptuously; sneered at its prettiness and flummery, and degraded its officers.

What can a single Doctor of Medicine do against one entire regiment of infantry and a two gun battery of flying artillery? Nothing, absolutely nothing. His brass mortar and pellets are but trifles against a howitzer and bullets.

But the army was also in an awkward fix. For the army, as I said, had made Doctor Jimenez president, by a coup d'état. A second coup following so soon on the steps of the former would never answer. The army would lose its prestige. Still, some

thing must be done, for the most popular officers and their friends in civil life were being banished in crowds from the Republic. The difficulty was solved by Colonel Tomas Guardia.

His brother was in command of the one regiment of infantry. It was only necessary therefore to get possession of the artillery. So one morning the great gates of the barracks were opened, and two wagon loads of freshly cut grass passed in as usual, and the gates were closed. Whereupon, there suddenly uprose the two loads of grass; and fourteen men, led by Don Tomas Guardia, pointed fourteen revolvers at the few halfawake soldiers in the patio, and the job was done; killing only one foolish officer, who attempted resistance to "the revolution of the people."

A lieutenant with a few men waited on

Doctor Jimenez, and told him he could resume the practice of medicine, as the public would not require his services any longer at the palace."

Nothing could have been more satisfac

tory to Doctor Jimenez. He really didn't want power, and only accepted it because he couldn't see his way out of it.

At nine o'clock he mounted his saddle mule with his alfarjas, and went around among his patients; quietly said to his friends that he was informed that Tomas Guardia was in possession of the supreme government, and that he would be able to give his business better attention than he had during the past few months.

Before he returned to his house for breakfast, he called at the palace, smiled and nodded towards the guard, and sent his card up to the new president.

You will naturally suppose that Don Tomas, on hearing of this sudden appearance of the dethroned ruler in the place where he had reigned but yesterday, summoned his guard, buckled on his sword, capped several revolvers, ordered a squad of detectives to usher him in and watch his every motion.

He did nothing of the kind, for two reasons There never lived any one man of whom Tomas Guardia was afraid; and of all men in the world Doctor Jesus Jimenez was the last man for anybody to be afraid of.

Therefore, when they met, the inquiring, somewhat serious, look of Don Tomas disappeared before the cordial, pleased smile of Doctor Jimenez; they embraced with the fervor of old friends.

"A line of railroad in Costa Rica! you can't do it."

"Ah! so my friends said when I proposed this revolution. But I will. We have a large surplus revenue. The politicians have robbed the country for themselves.

I will hypothecate our customs to pay the interest on a loan. Every man in the republic will be employed at good wages for the next twenty years. The intelligent will find a market for intelligence, the laborer a field for his labor, the teamsters who take coffee to the coast will bring up rails and railroad supplies to the interior, for we shall not attempt too great economy. I propose to have railroad lines about the capital first of all.

"Occupy the people, and so keep every man interested in preserving the peace; that is, divide the surplus revenue among the people instead of stealing it. The army does not amount to much, and will be ornamental to the capital. We soldiers are vain fellows, and love to display our epaulettes and buttons. They shall all have a chance to do so."

Here was a revolution and a policy.

The new President lost no time in beginning his work, and in 1871 the present writer, who had been banished by Doctor Jimenez from the capital to Puerto Limoa on the Mosquito Coast, as the place most likely to kill with least appearance of mur

from that part southward for a pass through the Andean ridge to the capital.

It was hoped by this expedition to embrace within the scope of improvement a fine valley said to exist in that direction, occupied exclusively by the Chiriqui Indians, to reach which we must traverse a forest as yet untrodden by the foot of man, savage or civilized.

Expecting to arrive in a region of abundance in about a week, we started out with liberal supplies for that time-a party of twenty men, of whom six transported the