has been a drunkard applies for such license, he must produce sufficient proof of reformation to warrant his receiving it. Dr. Franklin thought that judges ought to be appointed by lawyers, for, added the shrewd man, in Scotland, where this practice prevails, they always select the ablest member of the profes sion, in order to get rid of him and share his practice among themselves. Lord Erskine's humanity toward animals is perpetuated in his bill " For the prevention of cruelty to animals," in one of his speeches upon which measure he passionately observed : " As to the tendency of barbarous sports, of any de scription whatsoever, to nourish the natural char acteristic of manliness and courage — the only argument I ever heard on such occasions — all I can say is this, that from the mercenary battles of #ie lowest of beasts — human boxers — up to those of the highest and noblest that are tor mented by man for his degrading pastime, I enter this public protest against such reasoning. I never knew a man remarkable for heroic bear ing whose very aspect was not lighted up by gentleness and humanity; nor a kill-and-eat-him countenance that did not cover the heart of a bully or poltroon." LITERARY NOTES. One of the most readable of our legal exchanges is The Brief, a new English law journal. Like The Green Bag, it devotes itself to the bright and " en tertaining" phases of the law, its contents being made up of legal gossip, anecdotes, legal miscellany etc. We wish our trans-Atlantic contemporary the greatest possible success. If it keeps on as it has begun it will certainly achieve it. The Popular Science Monthly for December contains a valuable and interesting paper on " Re sponsibility in Crime from the Medical Standpoint," by Dr. Sanger Brown. He takes the ground that it is the physician"s province to determine the part played by bodily defect or disease in the commis sion of crime, and that then society in general must, with this information, determine the degree of re sponsibility and decide upon the punishment. The other contents of this number cover a wide and varied field, and are of unusual interest.
"Mental Training : A Remedy for Education" is the title of a radical paper by William George Jor dan in the current New Science Review. Mr. Jordan makes a strong plea for a mental training that will exercise all of man's faculties and quicken his mind so that it will be ready on the instant. The method proposed is a system based on analysis, law and analogy, three cardinal points of the process. It is clearly outlined and illustrated in a very practical way and contains many original ideas and sugges tions. It is based on the truest psychology and is thoroughly natural and simple in its working. The system covers constant exercises in training the senses, in observation; the use of words, illustration, des cription, quickness in expression, etc., all following a prescribed order. In its completeness it is a forti fied attack on the weaknesses of our educational system that deserves and will probably receive careful criti cism. The December number of the North American Review is noteworthy for a number of important and very valuable articles. Hon. Wade Hampton contributes a timely paper on " Brigandage on our Railroads"; and the Comptroller of the Currency, Mr. James H. Eckels, discusses "Our Experiments in Financial Legislation." "Consular Reform," by Henry White, is a strong plea for reform in our Con sular service. Henry Cabot Lodge pays a fitting tribute to Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Prof. Goldwin Smith has a delightful paper on James An thony Froude. The other contents of this number are unusually readable and interesting. The Christmas number of Harper's Magazine comes in a cover printed in colors from a special design, and is unusually strong in artistic features. More than one hundred pictures, signed by wellknown names, illustrate its stories, poems, and gen eral articles. The special features of the number are "The Simpletons," by Thomas Hardy; "An Ara bian Day and Night" (illustrated), by Poultney Bigelow; " Evolution of the Country Club (with eight fullpage illustrations), by Caspar W. Whitney : "The Time of the Lotus" (illustrated), by Alfred Parsons; "Taming of the Shrew" (with nine illustrations by Edwin A. Abbey), by Andrew Lang; " Show Places of Paris by Night " (illustrated by C. D. Gibson), by Richard Harding Davis; and short stories by Robert Grant, Gertrude Hall, L. B. Miller, Julian Ralph, Harriet Prescott Spofford, and Ruth McEnery Stuart. In McClure's Magazine for December, Miss Tarbell's second paper on Napoleon treats of Napo
