in its character and wording to that which broke down the Unit Rule at Chicago, binding the Grow men to stand united against caucus dictation. At this writing, repeated balloting in the Leglature has effected no change in the situation, while there has been a very general satisfaction among honest people with this revolt. against the tyranny of caucus rule.

IN West Virginia, Tennessee and Nebraska there have been dead-locks in the election of Senators. In the first and the last instances the issue at stake has been no larger than the comparative claims of statesmen of the dominant party in either State. In Tennessee it turns upon the prolonged struggle between the High and Low Taxation Democrats, i. e., between Democrats who wish to pay sixty per cent. of the State debt, and Democrats who want to pay forty or less. Neither party has a majority, and the Republicans have some hopes of electing Mr. Maynard, for whom they vote solidly. The Republicans in general favor the payment of the whole debt, although a majority of the State's creditors have offered to take the sixty per cent. offered by the better class of Democrats. It is to be hoped that they will make no descent from this platform to secure a United States' Senator or anything else. Great as may be the importance of a single vote in the Senate, the importance of keeping the record of the Republican party clean in this matter of the public obligations is still greater. It can better afford to have the Democrats rule the Senate than see the future mortgaged by degrading compliances.

IT is questionable whether the secession of Messrs. Forney, Sickles and Butler from the Republican party left a vacuum. If it did, there is some reason to fear that Senator Mahone of Virginia is about to rush in and fill it, and that he is to have the sanction of a certain class of Republican leaders in so doing. His recent manifesto, in which he gives the history of the party divisions in Virginia and their relation to the State debt, was not a spontaneous affair. It was carefully arranged by a set of Republicans of the Cameron stripe, more bent on getting one more vote to their side in the Senate, than on just dealing with either Virginia's creditors or her Democratic politicians. They set Mr. Mahone to whitewash his political record by pleading (1.) that the State cannot pay its

debts in full and that nobody in Virginia proposes that it shall; and (2.) that no party propose terms to the creditors of the State more favorable than those offered by his Readjusters. The manifesto was meant to cover Mr. Mahone's accession to the Republican ranks, and to show that he is a much misunderstood statesman. We are glad to see that the Democrats of the other and honester school have torn it to rags, and shown his allegations to be unfair and inaccurate at every point. They hold that Virginia can pay her debts, after deducting the fair proportion due for West Virginia; that Mr. Mahone's figures are based on false valuations as regards the wealth of the State, and that honest Democrats propose to do their utmost to secure to the State's creditors all that the State can pay and the creditors can fairly claim.

A CERTAIN class of Americans are always crying for a more drastic treatment of the Mormons, just as they cry for Prohibition and Compulsory Education, and as they used to demand "unconditional, immediate emancipation," and denounce the Republican party as half-hearted. The Governor of the Territory has earned their applause by refusing a certificate of election to Mr. Cannon, the Mormon candidate for delegate, who had 18,000 votes, and giving it to Mr. Campbell, the Gentile candidate, who had 1,300 votes. That is as it should be, in their opinion. They only wonder that it was not done before, for the man is a polygamous Mormon, and the Governor says he never was naturalized as a citizen. Now this is altogether wrong. Not even to put down the Mormons can we abandon our regular and constitutional mode of procedure. We cannot afford to pack juries, as was done in Utah a few years ago, for the simple reason that that is a precedent which might be turned on its inventors. Nor can we afford to have Governors undertaking to decide on the eligibility of those whom the people have elected to represent them in Congress. That duty belongs only to Congress; and however lax it may be in excluding polygamists or unnaturalized citizens, the whole control of the matter rests with it, and must be left there. For the sake of the whole frame of our liberties, we must take our measures against Mormonism within the line of strict legality and substantial justice.

WE cannot congratulate our Democratic friends upon their

mode of procedure in rallying their forces after their defeat in November. In their view, they owed that defeat to the dissensions. and treasons in their own camp, especially in New York city, and they proceeded to expel the supposed traitors from the camp, and to effect a local reorganization on new lines. We doubt the sufficiency of their theory of the defeat, and we think they have weakened themselves by their new measures. Mr. Kelly is still at the head of the Tammany Hall faction, and although considerably weakened by recent events, is still strong enough to repeat the tactics which resulted in Gov. Robinson's defeat. The bitterness which existed between the two factions, and which time might have mollified, has been made more intense. And the outlook for the Democracy of that State is distinctly worse than it was in November last. There is grave reason for the suspicion that the recent movements were designed less for the benefit of the Democratic party, than to gratify the revengeful feeling which Mr. Tilden entertains toward Mr. Kelly, who, by defeating Gov. Robinson, made Mr. Tilden's nomination at Cincinnati impossible.

IN Philadelphia politics, the Ring have got over the fright occasioned by the organization of the Citizens' Committee, and have made up the regular ticket much after the old fashion. Mr. Stokley is renominated for Mayor, as everyone expected. Mr. West is renominated for City Solicitor, although singularly incompetent for that office, as he is not a lawyer of any standing in his profession, and has low ideas of his duty as an official. Mr. Pierie, the secretary of the Corn Exchange, is nominated for Receiver of Taxes, and does not lack for ability, nor perhaps for good intentions, but he will have very hard work indeed to give the public an honest administration of that office, and to prevent the Ring from using it as an instrument of public corruption. On the whole, Mr. McManes might have done worse for us, but it would not have needed much insight and skill to have done a great deal better.

Of the gentlemen nominated by the Citizens' Committee, Mr. Caven declines the nomination for City Solicitor, Mr. Hunter accepts that for Receiver of Taxes, and Mr. Stokley, while quite willing to accept that for Mayor if not asked too many questions, is withdrawn by the Committee itself because he will not sign its declaration

of principles. The Committee's action in Mr. Stokley's case has the appearance of haste and the want of due consideration. But this, they say, was not their fault. They had made up their minds not to nominate Mr. Stokley until they could have further conference with him; but their hand was forced by Mr. Drexel and some others who would hear of no delay. We think the whole situation offers sufficient evidence that the Committe adopted a wrong mode of procedure throughout. Making nominations should have been their last resort, instead of their first. They thus came before the public in the attitude of a third party, having men of their own to urge on its attention, and robbed their movement of the power it had against the Ring. Had they simply stood on the alert, they would have had far more influence to prevent the making of bad nominations, and to make doubtful nominations good by exacting definite pledges.

MR. GOLDWIN SMITH has been on a visit to our city, to inspect our system of Charity Organization, and to get such hints as it may furnish for a similar movement in Toronto, of which he has been chosen Chairman. Young as Canada is, Canadians find, as we do, that this is a vital issue with them. The movement is advancing in all the great cities of both Europe and America. Of Boston and Buffalo we have spoken formerly. Cincinnati is now fully organized, on the same footing as Philadelphia. Glasgow, which more than half a century ago cast out Dr. Chalmers's grand experiment with scorn, is taking up his ideas again, as they come back with the approval of the civilized world. And New York is laboring after something of the kind, although the peculiar position of her city charities makes its attainment exceedingly difficult.

THE PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS IN GERMANY.

PHILADELPHIA, January 24, 1881.

R. EDITOR-I do not know whether it is the policy of your

MR

magazine to publish letters, especially such as complain of your writings, but whether you choose to print this or deem it fitter for the waste-paper basket, I feel impelled, as an American Jew, to say something concerning the sentiments expressed in the paragraph on the anti-Jewish agitation in Germany, contained in "The Month" of your January number.

Leading principles of liberty, such as the right of every man to his religious opinions, and the responsibility of each individual for his own acts and his irresponsibility for those of others, ought not to be overlooked, even by accident, in a magazine bearing the great name of Penn and claiming to represent distinctively American thought. Yet even the least interested reader must have noticed that you wrote as if these ideas had not been In your view.

In apologizing for the course of Chaplain Stacker and his party, you appear to think that the writings of certain editors of the Jewish faith, and the avocations of certain other persons of the same faith, are reasonable causes for the passage of punitive laws against the Jews as a class. If the writings and avocations alluded to are injurious to the public weal, doubtless every good citizen of Germany has the privilege and duty to favor the passage of laws punishing them, and no Jew, at least no American Jew, can be found who would utter a word by way of protest. What we denounce, and what you ought to have condemned, is the indiscriminate attack upon all persons of the Jewish faith, regardless of their guilt or innocence in the respects complained of.

But are your facts sure? Did I not know to the contrary, the tone of your article would certainly have inspired the conviction that both premises and conclusion had been filtered through the brain of a Teutonic Jew-hater; for you should know that the mania for persecuting the Jews is nothing new in Germany, even in modern times. In periods of excitement, it has always been the fashion of the rabble to shout "Hep! Hep!" and to annoy, injure and oppress the Jews. It happened in 1818-19, and again in the exciting season of 1848-49, and at other odd times before and since.