honorable will be regarded as having | nate individual life to social life, and George wielded so good an influence over millions, Eliot, in "Theophrastus Such," confesses that you can, to some extent, ignore his in one place that you cannot afford to be influence on the units nearest to him; quite just, if you wish to be the instrument while one whose public life is selfish must of progress to society. If you are to be condenined, despite even great private measure too carefully your indignation virtues, because the lesser good is merged against cruelty, if you want to be quite in the greater evil. sure what you mean by guilt, before you call a person guilty, you will never, says the essayist, deal the strokes which mould anew the organization of the society to which you belong.* That is true, and yet it is not true that any one conscious that he was going to be unjust, could, in the name of progress, be thus unjust, and yet fail to injure his own character and the temper of the society to which he belonged. The tendency of the new school of morality, however, is to measure the effect on the individual by the effect on society at large, and that is a mode of measurement which can end in nothing but moral laxity and decomposition. If, for instance, from a deep sense that society requires to be made more merciful, you are to blaze out against the unmerciful with a mind purposely blind to the circumstances which attenuate greatly the guilt of the cruel persons against whom you inveigh, it seems to us quite certain that you will not do the good you intend to society, and will do a great deal of harm to yourself. Society is a web of individual life. An ideal society is an ideal web of individual life. It is simply impossible to deduce the true law of the web,- of the warp and the woof which constitute it, without asking what kind of life it is which you wish to develop in the individual, on that depends what sort of bond it is which you wish to create in the society. You may have, and often have had, even in human societies, social bonds much too strong, such as you have among bees and ants, social bonds which sacrifice the individual to the society. And the defect of the positivist morality is that it encourages this ideal of society, that it tries to deduce morality from the principle of human co-operation, instead of trying to deduce the measure of human co-operation which is possible and profitable to man, from the character of the beings who have to co-operate, and from that individ ual type of spiritual life which springs from the relation of the soul to God. We confess that we have no belief at all in this notion that the essence of morality consists in the satisfaction of social needs, and that you must, therefore, regard of fences which are offences against the many, and which, if multiplied, would render society plainly impossible, as very much graver than those which only affect a few, and which are consistent with a faithful discharge of obligations to the many. Tried as a test of guilt, this would make the man who is no politician whose mind does not take in, as many minds do not take in, the political horizon at all a much worse man than he whose mind in politics is active, energetic, sagacious, and disinterested, but who, in private life, shrinks into himself, and lives to his own interests, and to them alone. There are many persons of both classes, and we should have no doubt at all that the former class would be usually held by impartial judgment morally preferable to the latter, if the definition of "morally preferable" were but left open, and not pre-engaged to mean preferable for the purposes of society at large. To our minds, the moral law, though, of course, it does not ignore society, though, of course, it does not treat man as a solitary being, is not, and cannot be, truly conceived merely as a condition of successful social combination. It is a condition, and a most important one, of successful social combination; but it is a condition of successful social comSnation amongst creatures who have an individual ideal to reach, as well as a social Real, an ideal in God for each, as well as in God for all, and who, if they gave up everything for society, would not create a society worth preserving. The life of gregarious insects is much nearer, we suppose, than the human, to the type of life of which the sole condition is co-operation; 421 accordingly, in the life of sociable insects you see the instinct for the common coject absolutely predominant over all instincts which have in view anything like individual development. The tendency of the new school of moralists is to subordi • Theophrastus Such, p. 228. for THERE is no European country as much visited, as well known physically, morally as little known, as Switzerland, and yet none that more deserves to be known. Its small stage is really a microcosm, in some corner or other of which, if not on the stage at large, almost every experiment in political science has been, or is in process of being, worked out. But the difficulties of investigation are very great. With the exception of the French-speaking population of the south-west corner of their country, the Swiss are the most unliterary as well as the best educated population in Europe. They very seldom take the trouble to write anything about themselves, and when they do, they generally have to get what they say printed elsewhere. Even a popular author, when they have one, such as Gottfried Keller, has his "Züricher Novellen" published at Stuttgart. If any work issues from a Swiss press, it is most likely some publication of a Radical or Revolutionary foreigner, which cannot get printed elsewhere. All the more grateful should we be, therefore, when some observer of foreign birth takes the pains to sketch for the world at large a picture of what is going on in this interesting little political laboratory, where problems, elsewhere generally of mere theory, such as the direct participation of the people in legislation, abolition of capital punishment, the free exercise of the legal profession, are being submitted to the test of practice. Professor Gustav Cohn's pamphlet on the legislation of Switzerland under the new Constitution* (published, of course, at Jena) confines itself, indeed, to one portion of the subject, the carrying out by legislation of the various principles laid down by the Swiss Constitution of 1848, as revised in 1874, as to the competency of the central authority in economic matters. But his sketch will be found full of information by the statesman, and in part, by all who take an interest in the higher politics. One of the most striking facts which he brings out is that the so-called "Referendum," or the right to refer all laws for approval to the people at large in the shape, at least, in which it has been admitted by the new Constitution, viz., on the proposal of thirty thousand voters, or of eight Cantons-has acted hitherto in a purely conservative sense, or * Die Bundesgesetzgebung der Schweiz unter der Neuen Verfassung. Von Gustav Cohn, Professor in Zurich. Jena: Gustav Fischer. 1879. as Dr. Cohn expresses it, "as a House of Lords," working as a clog upon all novelty in legislation. The recent popular vote on the subject of the restoration of capital punishment, though the actual effect of it may have been misapprehended, gives additional force to Dr. Cohn's observation. The branches of legislation with which Dr. Cohn's pamphlet occupies itself are those relating to railways, forest conservation, and field sports, the hours of labor in factories, the tax for exemption from military service, finance generally, and the currency. Under the first head may be noticed the political history of that constantly talked about but very little understood matter, the St. Gothard Railway, a story which is almost dramatic in some of its incidents. In speaking of the new law as to the inspection of forests, Dr. Cohn brings out a curious fact illustrative of the steady conservatism which lies at the root of the Swiss character. The Swiss forest inspectors, are, it seems, elected only for three years, though their office is one especially requiring stability and sequency in its operations, and the fact has been pointed to by German economists as a striking instance of the "rash democratic mutation of officials in Switzerland," and of its "unfavorable working on forest conservation." But Dr. Cohn declares that although most functions both of the Cantons and the Bund are conferred only for short periods of time, three, six, or (exceptionally) ten years, re-election of the same officer is the well-established custom, and takes place as a matter of course. Even State functions of a specifically political character, dependent upon popular election, are always preferably conferred on the previous holders, so long as they themselves exhibit no wish to withdraw from them, and it amounts almost to a revolution when the highest political functionaries are not re-elected. What is true of political functions is "three or four times" as much so of public offices not of a political nature, so that it "perhaps happens as seldom as in Germany that a public officer is changed for political reasons. But above all, is this true of the central authority. The Council of the Bund, although elected only for three years by the Assembly, has now for thirty years been more stable in character than any ministry in a monarchical State. Once chosen, every member has kept his place till resignation or death. Hence, for all the subordinate offices of the Bund of a technical or scientific character, the democratic form of frequent re-election is almost without practical meaning; and the same with those created by central legislation, like that on forest conservation. The details which Dr. Cohn gives as to Swiss forest legislation are very interesting, and show that the subject has been worked out in a thoroughly scientific way. The Swiss forest system extends over the whole high mountain region (Hochgebirge), comprising seven entire cantons, and the "high mountains" of eight others. Within the forest jurisdiction are included all "protective woods," viz, all such as by their position on heights or stiff slopes, the banks of rivers or watercourses, etc., or by reason of the small amount of wooded surface in a particular region, may serve as a protection against climatic accidents, damage by winds, avalanches, the fall of rocks, landslips, floods, etc., together with the woods belonging to the State, to the communes, or to corporations. The Swiss laws on hunting, shooting, and fishing are also noteworthy. Not only, as with us, are a number of particular birds placed under protection, but all bird-catching by means of nets, call-birds, or other apparatus, is forbidden; and the educational authorities are enjoined to teach children in the public schools which are the protected birds, and that they ought to spare them. So, as respects fishing, there must be no standing nets to cover more than half the waterway; a minimum mesh is fixed, and the use of all means of stupefying fish, as well as of explosives or firearms for catching them, is forbidden, and also the throwing into fishing waters of any matters of a nature to injure or drive away the fish. Salmon and trout under certain dimensions cannot be sold. The account of Swiss factory legislation should be commended to those who wish to see our own country retrace her steps towards longer hours of labor. Switzerland-that wonderful little country, which, without being able to obtain a pound of cotton except by transit through regions of hostile tariffs, has raised up a cottonmanufacturing industry holding its place among the foremost on the continent of Larope instead of allowing greater latitade than England in the employment of labor, allows much less. Whilst England permits the employment of children in factories or workshops from the age of ten, under the condition that until thirteen they shall only work half-time, in the interest of their education, or if employed on alternate days, shall not be so on work-days for more than ten and a half hours, exclusively of meal-times, and simply restricts to the same period of ten and a half hours the labor of young persons (from thirteen years of age) and of women; Switzerland forbids all employment in factories of children under fourteen, fixes eleven hours for young persons between fourteen and seventeen as the sum-total of the hours of daily labor, education, and religious instruction (neither of which latter is to be neglected for the former), and forbids Sunday and night work before the completion of the eighteenth year. But more than this. Whilst it has been almost axiomatic in English factory legislation that the labor of adult males was not to be restricted by law, Switzerland has not been afraid, after years of examination and discussion, and the experience since 1872 of one of her own manufacturing cantons, Glarus, to fix eleven hours as the legal maximum of factory labor for adults of both sexes; so that the most enlightened of all our Continental competitors, as well as the one which has to carry on her manufacturing industry under the most unfavorable material conditions, actually imposes more restraint upon factory labor, instead of less, than ourselves. The details which Dr. Cohn gives of the tax imposed on Swiss citizens and resi dent foreigners who do not render military service, belong to an order of facts so entirely remote from our own experience, that the interest attaching to them is for us one of curiosity only. Suffice it to say that this tax, which partakes of the character of a property and income tax, may rise from six francs a year, or say less than 55., to 3,000f., or £120,- certainly something very different from the remote liability of an Englishman to be "balloted " for the militia! The writer's sketch of the Swiss financial system, which dates only from the Constitution of 1848 (till, then the confederation had no permanent income), is a valuable one. He shows the Swiss customs system to be exactly the reverse of the English one. Instead of raising import duties only on a limited number of articles in large demand, Switzerland raises duties on all imports whatsoever, and these the Federal Council has recommended to be fixed on certain definite principles. Raw materials would be charged one per cent. ad valorem, only ; partly manufactured articles two per cent. ; manufactures, three; made-up goods, not being articles of mere luxury, five; objects of luxury, ten; while spirits and tobacco are subject to exceptional duties. A commission of the Federal Assembly has, however, proposed more searching measures, which would include internal duties on spirits other hand, the initiative which is left to and tobacco, as well as a tax on bank- the people of deciding upon constitutional notes. The financial 'condition of the changes-it being the right of fifty thouBund in the meanwhile is not satisfactory, sand voters to demand that the question there being a chronic, though small deficit. of a revision of the constitution be put to Details as to the part taken by Switzer- the popular vote-affords henceforth a land in the proceedings of what is known safety-valve against revolution which, it as the Latin Monetary Union complete may be hoped, will prove one of the most the sketch. effectual character. It is obvious that the tendency of the Composed as it is of the three leading Swiss polity is towards the increase of the races of western continental Europe, the central authority, both in respect of ex- German, the French, and the Italian, tent and of what may be called intensity of Switzerland is invaluable to each, as showaction. It is, however, equally clear that ing, on a small scale, almost all that can this process develops itself under condi- or cannot be done by each. Moreover, the tions which render its working singularly fact that although particular cantons may steady and safe. Cantonal experience is often be led into political follies and exone of its safeguards; so far as respects cesses, yet the general conduct of the internal legislation, the Bund cannot prac-affairs of the Bund has remained, as a tically introduce any novelty, which has not been tried in one or more of its constituent cantons. Then the reference of the laws to the popular vote on the application of a considerable minority, whether of states or of individuals, acts, as has been said, in a purely conservative sense, and prevents the passing of laws which have not really commended themselves to the great bulk of the population. rule, eminently wise and dignified, affords strong ground for thinking that diversity of race, where the equal rights of all are respected, is rather an advantage than a hindrance to a nation. It is difficult to believe that a Switzerland all German, all French, or all Italian would ever have been what Switzerland is, the brightest jewel among the states of continental EuOn the rope. are grown to be admired for their beauty should be supported in the neatest manner possible; therefore wire trellises and "rissels" made for the purpose may with advantage be employed, especially when the peas occupy a prominent situation in the garden. Familiar Garden Flowers. A suc THE SWEET PEA. It is a singular circum- | eat may be supported roughly, but peas that stance that the sweet pea has been commonly regarded as a half-hardy annual, whereas it is as hardy as any pea in cultivation, and the seed may not only be sown in February in the open ground, but in November, and if the mice do not eat it the winter will not kill it, and in due time the plants will appear with the sunshine of the early spring. But this fine plant deserves extra care, and should never be grown in a careless manner. It is the custom with many gardeners to sow the seed in pots and nurse the young plants in frames, but we prefer to sow them where they are to remain, and to defer doing this until the middle of March, for if the plants come up with a flush of warm weather before the frosts are over they are apt to be nipped, and transplanting puts them back, so that to raise them in pots for the purpose is decidedly objectionable. Thus we simplify the ordinary cultivation, but we must urge that what is done should be done well. A piece of mellow soil in an open situation should be prepared, by being well dug and rather liberally manured, in autumn or winter, and when the seed is sown this should be dug over again and the lumps broken to make a nice seed-bed; then sow in a neat drill an inch and a half deep, and very soon after the plants appear put to them stakes of brushwood about four feet high, selecting for this purpose the neatest and most feathery peasticks you can find. Peas that are grown to THE BISHOPRIC OF JERUSALEM. cessor is to be appointed to Bishop Gobat, the reformed bishop of Jerusalem; and surely he ought to be a man learned in the Jewish lore, a real Hebraist, and thoroughly familiar with the teaching of the great Jewish schools of thought. One of Bishop Gobat's chief duties was to superintend the missions for the conversion of the Jews, and clearly those who try to convert the Jews ought to know well the character of their predominant schools. Besides, Bishop Gobat had many dealings with those Eastern prelates who were most anxious for a reformed Church; and without great knowledge of the East, and especially the Semitic portions of the East, no bishop would be able to wield much influence over the Catholic prelates of the East. The successor to Bishop Gobat should not be a mere mis sionary. He should be a man of appropriate learning and of some presence, if such there be amongst the possible candidates. Spectator. For EIGHT DOLLARS, remitted directly to the Publishers, the LIVING AGE will be punctually forwarded for a year, free of postage. An extra copy of THE LIVING AGE is sent gratis to any one getting up a club of Five New Subscribers. Remittances should be made by bank draft or check, or by post-office money-order, if possible. If neither of these can be procured, the money should be sent in a registered letter. All postmasters are obliged to register etters when requested to do so. 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