the Judiciary balances the power of the central and state governments. The American people believe that justice, protection and the common good ought to be the aim of human goverments; that the Constitution is the embodiment of that fundamental principle, and that the true meaning of the Constitution is better interpreted by the Judiciary than by the legislature. Since the time of the Great Charter and the Petition of Rights, that institution known as the Common Law has directed the people in the performance of their duties and the enjoyment of their rights. The people have received their political education from the Jurists.

Such has been the increase of power which our legislative department has acquired at the expense of the other two coördinate branches. The dangers which have arisen from the exercise of this power by Congress in its relations to the people may next be considered.

Bagehot, Wilson, Bryce and other political writers claim that there is lack of unity and consistency in our legislatures; that it is impossible to place the responsibility for good or bad laws; and that there is a loss of force by friction between the different departments of government. These faults exist and the European systems are less liable to them than the American. Owing to the close connection between the executive and legislative branches in England and France, there is more unity in legislation. By their cabinet systems, responsibility is placed directly upon the ministers, while in America it is indistinct.

Yet these are defects in the system. The one great danger which has repeatedly threatened our government, and threatens it to-day, is the passage of laws which sacrifice the welfare of the nation to sectional or partisan interests. Originally the people chose representatives to Congress, leaving them unfettered by express injunction. The caucus has changed the independent representative into the instructed delegate. Legislative measures are

introduced, not for the general good, but to favor and foster special interests in special sections of the country.

The struggle over the tariff bill now pending in Congress, which involves the gravest principles of public policy and political economics, has degenerated into an unseemly endeavor of so-called statesmen to secure a selfish end regardless of the general welfare. Territories have been recently admitted to statehood, not because of their fitness, but to strengthen the power of the dominant party. It was the principle of Sectionalism which prompted the members from the silver states to obstruct all legislation, although they might force ruin upon a nation already staggering with financial disaster.

The same evil is found in the legislation of our state governments. Bryce has said that the average general assembly is lacking in point of knowledge, skill and often of conscience. But the curse of state governments is Special Legislation. Private bills outnumber public or general bills in every state. This class of law is dangerous because it is inconsistent with the statutes, invites corruption and benefits a few at the expense of the majority.

It will be seen that the stability of the nation is threatened by legislative encroachment and that the ancient lines of the constitution should be preserved. Further, that the legislative machinery is defective. But that the great danger in Congress which menaces good government at the present time is the predominance of sectionalism or partisanship. It is from this lack of statesmanship that all the evils of obstruction and hasty and pernicious legislation arise.

This unfortunate condition is not without remedy. Unity and consistency in law making may be secured by a better understanding between the legislative and executive departments. Responsibility for the passage of bad laws may be fixed by the selection of leaders in Congress. Special legislation in state governments may be remedied to a great degree by constitutional enact

ment.

The remedy for the predominance of sectionalism and the lack of statesmanship rests with the people themselves. The standards of government have been lowered.

Public affairs suffer from the lack of honest and intelligent administration. There is an indifference to the grave responsibilities and splendid possibilities of political life.

Foreign immigration has largely contributed to this condition, and the time has come for the state to close or at least to guard its gateways in order that our institutions may be preserved. Requirements of naturalization should be raised. The admission to franchise should be coupled with higher requirements of character and intelligence. The solution of social and political problems requires the efforts of the educated classes. Then will our government be directed by those, whose superior capacity entitles them to govern, who are true leaders of the people, and whose course of action will be united and consistent. Statesmen, as defined by Nicoll, who will watch public opinion as the seaman does the compass, not to go where it points but to learn the ever-varying conditions of his course.

We stand to-day at a most critical period of our history. Broad questions of foreign and domestic policy confront us. The increasing struggle between labor and capital, the agitation of socialistic questions among the people, important legislative problems affecting our financial and commercial systems, all will test the strength and efficiency of our governmental machinery.

The realization of these indispensable elements of security demands the combined efforts of patriotic citizens regardless of political affiliations. The corruption and gross misgovernment of our largest municipalities are already arresting public attention to the perils that threaten republican institutions. Public conscience once awakened will sweep away with resistless energy all obstacles to pure government.

While lawless violence and disregard of duty may seem for the hour to control, yet that patriotic virtue which has never failed the republic when imperiled, will still rule and preserve. The instincts of liberty which the enjoyment of free institutions inspires and nourishes are the strong bulwarks of our defense and protection. The mists

and darkness which seem to obscure and threaten to-day, will disappear before the sunlight of a new and brighter to-morrow made possible by the united and courageous action of the best elements of America's best citizens.

THE KNIGHT AND THE LADY.

He leaped upon a prancing steed,
A doughty Knight for gallant deed,
And clinked the spur and rein.
"So now I ride to war " he said
"And back return again."

This song had mellowed all his mood
As he went riding through the wood
And banished all his care:
"The roses in my Lady's cheek
The lilies in her hair."

Among the bristling spears he pressed
A bright blade flashed above his crest
And clove his helmet wide.

He kissed the baldric on his breast
And smiled as e'en he died.

A saddened look my Lady wears
She never seeks relief of tears;

And sings the minstrel there:
"The lilies in my Lady's cheek
The blown rose in her hair."

When slumber steals within her eyes
A cold and bleeding form he lies
And folded in a shroud:
My Lady walks a cloistered way
Her head with sorrow bowed.

Chauncey Wetmore Wells.

NIFTY FLYNN.

NIFTY leaped ashore and tied the "Slugger" to a

convenient pile. Then he rammed his cap down over his eyes and seated himself on a hawser post, surveying the scene before him with complacency.

Long Wharf was empty, save for two persons, a man and a girl who were approaching him. Only the idle churning of a lumber schooner moored half way down the dock, and voices from a drunken fight in a neighboring barrel shed broke the quiet. Nifty felt extremely well satisfied with himself, and grinned as he saw the wharf policeman leaning against a lumber pile some rods away. He glanced at a rowboat bobbing on the waves by Fort Hale and chuckled. It brought back the whole day to him, his meeting with the "gang," their theft from the tobacco schooner, the hurried escape of the rest to Fort Hale in the rowboat they had stolen from the wharf, and the case of cigarettes and tobacco stowed away in the hold of the "Slugger.'

Nifty Flynn was the best known man in the harbor. He had been pilot boy to the coal schooners that come in from the South for years, and at one time had occupied the lofty position of first mate on a private oyster tug. Nifty's boat was as well known as Nifty himself. It was named the "Slugger" in memory of the well known shipcarpenter of that name who had lost one eye, and several teeth in a casual dispute with Nifty as to the rightful ownership of the boat.

When there was no piloting to be done it was Nifty's habit, as on this afternoon, to join himself to a "gang" of down town roughs, whose amiable intention it was to live by means of harbor plunder. Nifty saw no wrong in this, except when the wharf policeman caught him, when he either knocked him down in open combat, or spent a month in jail for stealing.

The two strangers were quite near to him now. Away in front lay the harbor, with the East shore sloping to a