moval of Police Commissioners, with whom the appointment is vested, and the substitution of others upon whom Mayor Cooper, Governor Robinson and the old gentleman behind them both, could depend. A game of political pretences was thus played, in which persons were got rid of for reasons not allowed to appear on the surface of the proceedings against them. A policy of this sort cannot but be revolting to the conscience of any community. We expect every government to speak the truth, to pursue no bye-ends, to go openly and honestly to what it aims at. And to do one thing under the pretence of doing another, while it is the temptation and the sin of all political parties at one time or another, can never be attempted in any American city without exciting moral repulsion in the best elements of the community.

As regards the Republican nomination for the Presidency, there is one decided change in the situation. Mr. Sherman's name has evidently been withdrawn, either permanently or for the present. His supporters have evidently reached the conclusion that it is not easy to keep a candidate favorably before the people, while you are using him to secure private benefits and advantages from the government. And by this time even Mr. Sherman must see that it is possible for a public official to be too kind to the fine fellows who are taking such pains to promote his political welfare. At any rate, the newspapers whose editors could not sleep for thinking · of John Sherman in the White House, are suddenly silent about that combination of political ideas, and some of them are beginning to talk of Mr. Blaine in the same connection. We infer from this that Mr. Sherman is not to be transformed into a “ dark horse,” to be brought up at the last moment, but has entirely renounced his pretensions to the next nomination, and has begun to look for something more accessible. Perhaps he is is to be Secretary under Mr. Blaine; the two are exceedingly friendly. Perhaps he is to be Senator from Ohio, where Blaine has been working very hard for a Republican victory. It looks as if Mr. Sherman's supporters had been transferred to Mr. Blaine, for a consideration. We regret this very greatly. It will give Mr. Blaine a better chance of the nomination, if his rival has retired; it would have been better if their rivalry had forced the nomination of some better

man than either,—say General Garfield. And it will bring Mr. Blaine into office, if he be elected, under far worse auspices than any with which his name has hitherto been associated. We are not admirers of this preternaturally "smart" statesman, but hitherto we have never placed him so low as to think of him in connection with the Wall Street Ring.

If our construction of the situation be correct, the reasons for opposing Mr. Blaine's nomination are increased four-fold by this new combination.

THE Society for Organizing Charity in this city has reached the end of its year of service, so far as its ward organizations are concerned, and these latter have made their reports to their several constituencies. The General Society will hold its meeting in the Academy, November 18th.

The reports of these ward branches show that a very large volunteer force of men and women, especially the latter, has been secured to labor personally among the poor; that the funds needed to relieve actual necessity, and to pay the expenses of the work, have been, in most instances, secured without great difficulty; and that a large amount of charitable work, which needed to be done, was not accomplished by the organizations already in the field. The plan has been, in spite of the drawbacks which necessarily attend beginnings, a substantial success; and the dangers which were predicted for it, such as a recurrence to the wasteful and reckless policy of the older ward associations, and a dissolution of the associations at the return of spring, have been escaped. There are still some defects in the working of the Society, one being the need of a more public discussion of the great questions of charitable administration, so that the conclusions reached may be brought directly to the people. At least all the Ward Directors, and perhaps all the lady visitors, should be present when the reports on Employment and other subjects are presented.

Another is the need of a more substantial assistance to the poorer wards. It is true that several hundred dollars were thus dispensed during the past year; it is also true that there is great danger in extending too liberal aid. But much more might be done with perfect safety, and with great advantage. The downtown wards are obliged, by the present system, to look after their

own poor, as these are sent home to them by the ward offices elsewhere, and in several instances they have not the means to do this as it ought to be done.

The last great need is the thorough application of the principle laid down by the society-"To make employment the basis of relief." Something has been effected in several of the wards in the way of securing employment, but large sums have been spent in feeding those who were both able and – as a rule—willing to work. Perhaps this was unavoidable during the prostration of industries, out of which we are passing. For the future, the society is establishing a bureau of employment, with a branch in each ward office, and with connections extending into other parts of the commonwealth. In so far as the trouble arises from the labor being in one place while there is a demand for it elsewhere, this arrangement will obviate the evil. But there is also need to find some sort of local employment for the poor, especially those who can find work only in summer. This should be such as not to come into competition with the labor of persons already at work, and such as not to demand any large investment of capital. It is not easy to discover any sort of work which complies with both these conditions, but if it can be had, it would be a good step towards the solution of our difficulties.

The society, so far from being content with the really large amount of work already done, shows a wholesome dissatisfaction with it, and a purpose to aim at much larger and better results in the future.

HENRY CHARLES CAREY.

N the death of Mr. Henry C. Carey, Philadelphia has lost her most widely known citizen, and economical science its greatest American representative. Aside from these mere public aspects of our loss in him, a wide circle of attached friends has to mourn the death of one who was endeared to them by his many personal qualities,—who was a social centre around which were gathered many of the most delightful elements of our city's social life.

us.

Mr. Carey was in his eighty-sixth year when he was taken from His father, Matthew Carey, was a native of Ireland, and a

printer by trade, but had been obliged to leave the country, while still a young man, to escape the hostility of the Irish government, because of his attacks upon its treatment of the Irish Catholics. He first went to Paris, where he had letters of introduction, and afterwards he came to America, in 1782, and settled in this city, which was the largest in the Union, and the centre of such literary activity as then existed. He started a newspaper, and subsequently published The American Museum, (1787-93), the most important periodical that had been ever attempted in America, and specially commended to his countrymen by General Washington. In 1789 Mr. Carey entered upon his career as a book publisher, in which he took the first place in America, carrying on his business with an enterprise and audacity which would not shame our own times. In 1825 he retired from the business, but until his death, in 1839, he continued his career as an author, having produced during his lifetime some sixty books or pamphlets, containing nearly twenty-five thousand octavo pages. Many of these were devoted to the defence of the Protective policy, but that of most permanent value is his account of the Yellow Fever in 1793. He was one of the small band, numbering John Barclay, Stephen Girard and others, who “stood between the dying and the dead" in that year of calamity, and his whole life corresponded to the promise of that year. Philadelphia had no more public-spirited citizen than Matthew Carey:

His eldest son, Henry, was born December 15th, 1793. His father took especial charge of his education, and imbued him at once with a love of books, and with a keen practical outlook upon life. The lad began his study of that especial science in which he was to become illustrious, while he walked the streets of the city, holding his father by the hand, and listening as the elder Carey pointed fact and inference from fact to his attention. In 1802 he attended in New York the first Literary Fair-the forerunner of the Trade Sales and did business on his own account with a quantity of books which had been given him. They called him "the bookseller in miniature." He was much impressed with the straggling character of the city, and especially remarked the old-fashioned appearance of the City Hotel, with sheets hanging in front of the door. It and the Tontine Coffee House were the only places of public entertainment.* In 1804, in his twelfth year, he took sole * Letter of Mr. Eugene L. Didier: New York Tribune, October 15th, 1879.

charge for six weeks of his father's branch store in Baltimore. In 1812 he marched with the State Fencibles to Camp Dupont, to help to avert the danger of a British invasion of the city.

From 1814 till 1838 he was himself a publisher, first as his father's partner, and then in partnership with others. His firm bore successively the style of "M. Carey & Sons," (1821-5), "Carey & Lea," " Carey, Lea & Carey," "Carey, Lea & Blanchard," (1832-6), and after his retirement, "Lea & Blanchard." The firm of Carey & Hart, now Henry Carey Baird, was formed by a secession from the original firm.

In 1824 Mr. Carey originated the system of Book Sales, which had been foreshadowed by the earlier Literary Fairs, and which still form the chief channel of literary interchanges among our publishers. In 1828, he became Washington Irving's publisher, and remained such for many years. Mr. Irving wrote from Spain, “I am glad to have such spirited, off-hand book-sellers to deal with in America as the Careys." His friend, Sir Walter Scott, did not so much admire the enterprise with which they managed to bring out. their American reprint of the Waverly novels ahead of all competitors, and used to tell with high glee of the trick by which he furnished them with an utterly ridiculous ending to one of his novels, while the genuine ending was printed in a different Edinburgh office. But the Careys were among the first, if not the very first, to set the example of paying English authors for the privilege of reprinting their works in this country. Mr. Carlyle wrote to Carey & Hart: "I cannot conclude without expressing my sincere acknowledgments, my hearty approbation of your honorable conduct; I accept the money as a very gratifying proof that there are mennot very frequent, Alas!—who do not need the admonition of the constable to do what beseems them in matters of business.”

About 1833 Mr. Carey purchased a country seat near Burlington, N. J., where he resided until 1855, when he returned to Philadelphia. Until 1842, he spent the winter in the city, and the rest of the year in the country. He invested a portion of his fortune in a manufactory of paper in New Jersey, and sustained severe losses in the prostration of all business which then prevailed.

Mr. Carey's career as an author began in 1835, a few years before his retirement from business. His Essay on the Rate of Wages which appeared that year, was in the main a reply to Mr. N. W.