satisfaction to the advocates of this new method of vindicating the majesty of the law. We heartily agree with Dr. George F. Shrady, editor of the " Medical Record," who expresses himself as follows : " The experiences in the Kemmler case, in spite of all the precautions taken, have shown many difficulties in the way of the adoption of the method. It is far from simple in its application. It requires elaborate and careful preparation; it multiplies machinery which, without expert manipulation, is liable to fail in its working, and bring about disastrous results; it may be a source of danger to the executioners and spectators; it increases the expense of executions; but worse than all in the necessary preparation of the victim, there is crowded upon him in a few seconds an amount of horror and suspense which has no compari son with any other forms of rapid demolition save those of being thrust into the muzzle of a loaded cannon or dynamite bomb. When it is assured that the 6nds of justice and humanity are not reached by the contrivance in question, and when it must be admitted that even this method cannot be divested either of cruelty or barbarity, the way seems to be open for the discussion of the abolition of capital punishment altogether. From physical, humanitarian, and judicial stand points, the time is ripe for its consideration. We venture to predict that public opinion will soon banish the death-chair as it has done the rope, and that imprisonment for life will be the only proper punishment meted to a murderer." If Kemmler's death results in the abolition of capital punishment, a good end will have been accomplished, even though the means may have been of doubtful expediency.
REVIEWS. The Juridical Review for July is an unusually interesting number. J. G. Bourinot contributes the second part of his article on "The Federal Constitution of Canada." Dr. Edward F. Willoughby writes on " The Criminal Responsibility of the Insane." Articles on " Foreign Compa nies under the French Law," by C. A. Kennerley Hall; " The Dc Facto Principle in Jurispru dence," and "The Work of the West Indian Commissioners," by A. Wood Renton, make up
the other contents. An admirable portrait of Lord Selborne is given as a frontispiece. Scribner's Magazine for August is a fiction number, containing six short stories, five of them illustrated. As is usual in this magazine, a number of entirely new writers are brought for ward with stories of striking originality. They show great variety of scene and subject, and in clude a newspaper story, a tale of army life, a California story, a Maine woods story, and a New York City story, besides Mr. Bunner's capital burlesque modernization of Sterne's "Sentimental Journey." There is also the be ginning of Part Second of the remarkable anon ymous serial, "Jerry," which brings the hero to manhood and opens his adventurous career. In this new phase of the novel the writer exhibits virile characteristics which were not de manded in the pathetic descriptions of Jerry's youth. The fiction idea of the number is fur ther carried out in the very richly illustrated article by the Blashfields on " The Paris of the Three Musketeers." The veteran London pub lisher and close friend of Stanley, Mr. Edward Marston, tells, with striking illustrations made at Cairo, " How Stanley wrote his Book." There are also poems by Thomas Bailey Aldrich and Andrew Lang. It is because " The Anglomaniacs " presents a novel aspect of New York life with uncommon pith and wit that the third part, in the August number of the Century, will be probably that portion of the magazine to which most readers will first turn; and they will find this instalment quite as interesting as those which have preceded it. In the new chapter of Mrs. Barr's striking novel " Friend Olivia," the heroine sets sail for America with her father, who goes in search of religious freedom and converts. The short story of the number is entitled " The Emancipation of Joseph Peloubet," by John Elliott Curran. Few readers will reach the end of the second paper by Dr. T. H. Mann on his experiences as "A Yankee in Andersonville " without being profoundly touched by the pathos of his helpless journey to his home in Boston. The realistic pictures, made from photographs, add to the in terest of the narrative of life in the prison-pens at Andersonville and Florence. Another article
