FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



569 



him. The point of chief importance, how- 

 ever, to be observed in this account is the 

 large part which vanity and a desire for 

 the widespread public attention which 

 such crimes bring about plays in recon- 

 ciling the criminal to his fate, and even 

 leading to the commission of the crime 

 in cases where the mental balance is very 

 unstable. Hence this class of criminals 

 should always be tried and punished 

 with as little publicity as possible, not 

 only because this policy deprives the 

 individual of a show, with himself as 

 the center, but also because every such 

 public trial is liable to lead to the com- 

 mission of similar crimes by other men- 

 tally unsound degenerates, who are sure 

 to attend such spectacles whenever it is 

 possible. 



Bounties and Free Trade. — Much 

 discussion is going on in England over 

 the question of bounties and the pro- 

 priety of putting a tariff on those im- 

 ported articles which, owing to bounties 

 or other form of government aid at their 

 place of manufacture, can be sold " too 

 cheaply." The following paragraphs are 

 taken from an article in the London 

 Spectator : " In our opinion there can be 

 no question between the policy of free 

 and open market and the policy of only 

 allowing goods to be sold here ' at the 

 natural price of the world's market.' 

 We hold that the maintenance of an 

 open and unhindered market is essential 

 to our welfare; . . . that is the real prin- 

 ciple involved, and that is the ground on 

 which this question of bounties must be 

 fought out. It is not Cobdenism or free 

 trade that is involved, but that which 

 underlies them both — the great principle 

 of the free and open market. . . . We 

 attach such immense importance to the 

 open market because we believe not 

 only that our internal prosperity is es- 

 sentially bound up with the right, not 

 merely of consumers, but of producers, 

 to buy as cheaply as they can and where 

 and how they will, but that the empire 

 itself rests upon the preservation of a 

 free and open market. Mr. Morley never 

 spoke a truer word than when he insisted 

 that Cobden and Bright and the old free 

 traders were empire builders. That they 

 were so and that our empire could not 

 possibly have grown up except with the 

 help of free trade and a market always 

 open must be clear to all whose eyes are 



not blinded by that evil and foolish spirit 

 of conunercial jealousy under which a 

 man, in order to injure his neighbor, 

 wounds himself. Free trade made our em- 

 pire possible and created what the world 

 before had never seen, overwhelming 

 commercial power wielded without jeal- 

 ousy or narrowness and based on wide 

 and liberal ideas. How long would our 

 colonies have tolerated the connection 

 with us had we been forever worrying 

 them with tariff's and excluding this of 

 that product because it was unnaturally 

 cheap? ... As it is, we bid all men wel- 

 come in our markets and none are ag- 

 grieved. . . . Foreign powers may hate 

 us for our wealth and prosperity, but not 

 one of them would care to spoil their best 

 market. How would the commerce of 

 France, or Germany, or Russia get on if 

 England were ruined and the English 

 market destroyed? The principle of 

 maintaining a free and open market, 

 coupled with our moral and physical en- 

 ergy, and our liberal aims and aspira- 

 tions have given us a great and splendid 

 empire. Are we to risk its destruction 

 because the sugar refiners grumble, and 

 because the words of Cobden on another 

 subject may possibly be interpreted to 

 show that he would not, were he alive, 

 have voted against the imposition of 

 countervailing duties? " 



Forest and Animal Life of the 



Catskills. — The interior region of the 

 Catskill JNIountains surrounding Kaat- 

 erskill Junction is assigned, by Dr. E. A. 

 Means in a paper of the United States 

 National Museum, to the Canadian 

 faunal region, with a slight mixture of 

 the Alleghanian in the farming lands 

 on the banks of Schoharie Creek. A few 

 mammals of the Upper Austral zones, 

 however, such as the New England cot- 

 tontail, the deer mouse, and the gray 

 fox, appear to have extended their ranges 

 into the locality by following up the 

 clearings. Though the region is now 

 again well wooded, only the barest tags 

 and remnants yet remain of the splen- 

 did forests that once covered the area. 

 All is second growth except in the rocki- 

 est gulches, whence the lumber can not 

 be extracted, and about the rocky sum- 

 mits of a few mountains of the East Jew- 

 ett ranges. While the original forests 

 seem to have been of conifers, the woods 

 are now very thoroughly mixed, and the 



