LITERARY NOTICES. 



2 7S 



of the old " Monroe doctrine," the re- 

 ply is that this doctrine does not touch 

 the case, and the action of the Govern- 

 ment proves it. The doctrine was pro- 

 claimed by Mr. Monroe to prevent Eu- 

 ropean powers from " oppressing " or 

 "controlling" in any way the young 

 American republics, and it has been 

 construed only as against the attempts 

 of those powers to found new colonies 

 or make territorial acquisitions on this 

 side of the Atlantic. That it was not 

 held by the Government to exclude 

 foreign participation in the construc- 

 tion and protection of such a work as 

 the Isthmus Canal, is attested by the 

 facfthat in 1835, long after its promul- 

 gation, the Congress of the United 

 States resolved, and four years later 

 the Senate of the United States re-re- 

 solved, " that the President be request- 

 ed to open negotiations with other na- 

 tions " for the purpose of " ascertaining 

 the practicability of effecting a commu- 

 nication between the Atlantic and Pa- 

 cific Oceans by the construction of a 

 ship- canal across the Isthmus, and of 

 securing for ever, by suitable treaty 

 stipulations, the free and equal right of 

 navigating, such canal to all nations." 

 This view was, moreover, embodied 

 more than thirty years ago in a treaty 

 of our Government with England, in 

 which both parties agreed, with refer- 

 ence to any possible future ship com- 

 munication across the Isthmus, that 

 "they will guarantee the neutrality 

 thereof so that the said canal may be 

 for ever open and free'" ; that "vessels 

 of the United States or Great Britain 

 traversing the said canal, shall, in case 

 of war between the contracting parties, 

 be exempted from blockade detention or 

 capture by either of the belligerents " ; 

 and furthermore, " that neither the one 

 nor the other will obtain or maintain 

 for itself any exclusive control over said 

 ship-canal; agreeing that neither will 

 ever erect or maintain any fortifica- 

 tions commanding the same or in the 

 vicinity thereof'' 



Are we to understand, then, that 

 there neither has been, nor is there in- 

 tended to be, any departure from this 

 deliberate, long-estahlished, and honor- 

 able policy of the Government of the 

 United States ? 



M. Delauney, a French savant, has 

 been studying the problem of woman 

 from an anthropological point of view 

 to determine her intellectual status, 

 which he maintains to be inferior to that 

 of man. He intimates that " sentimental 

 pretensions " being now made the basis 

 of a political movement, it is necessary 

 to deal with the subject scientifically. 

 The investigation is of course a proper 

 and an important one ; but it has had a 

 somewhat curious reception from the 

 press or those editors, perhaps, who 

 suspect that the women may yet vote, 

 and will remember things. These de- 

 clare this article to be most horrible, 

 but contrive, with a good deal of depre- 

 cation, to get as much of it before their 

 readers as they seem to dare. We have 

 had it translated for the benefit of such 

 dauntless souls as are prepared to take 

 their lives in their hands, and go 

 through with it. Our own special troub- 

 le is, that in about six weeks we shall 

 get a bushel, more or less, of answers 

 to it, written very much alike, all in 

 " hair-marks," and with very pale ink. 



LITERARY NOTICES 



INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC SERIES, 

 NO. XXXVI. 



Suicide : an Essay on Comparative Moral 

 Statistics. By Henry Morselli, M. D., 

 Professor of Psychological Medicine in 

 Royal University, Turin ; Physician-in- 

 Chief to the Royal Asylum for the In- 

 sane. New York: D. "Applcton & Co. 

 Pp. 388. Price, 81.75. 



Some two or three years since, the author 

 of this book contributed quite an elaborate 

 work in Italian to the " International Scien- 

 tific Series." It at once took high rank as an 

 authoritative presentation of the subject, 



