622 



PENNSYLVANIA. 



PERSIA. 



you were members of the Legislature. Individually, 

 I feel a pity for your situation, but as Judge of the 

 Court I must carry out the law. The beggar in rag. s 

 who steals a loaf of bread, or the millionaire in broad- 

 cloth, is treated the same. It can not be pleaded that 

 the bill was highly meritorious, for if. it had been it 

 would have passed the Legislature. You arc not like 

 some who come here. You can not be excused on the 

 ground of ignorance, because you are all intelligent 

 men. You went into this thing with your eyes open, 

 because you knew many members of the Legislature 

 were corrupt. The sentence of the Court is that each 

 of you pay a fine of one thousand dollars, the costs of 

 prosecution, and that you serve a term of imprison- 

 ment of one year in the Eastern Penitentiary." 



Considerable excitement was occasioned by 

 the sentence, and new efforts were made to 

 save the offenders from the punishment of the 

 law. These resulted in a new intervention of 

 the Board of Pardons and the adoption of the 

 following recommendation: 



To Ms Excellency HENRY M. HOYT, Governor of Penn- 

 sylvania : 



The Board of Pardons recommend that so much 

 of the sentence of the Court of Quarter Sessions of 

 Dauphin County imposing imprisonment by separate 

 and solitary confinement at hard labor in the Eastern 

 Penitentiary on William II. Kemble, Jesse R. Craw- 

 ford, William F. Eumberger, Emilc J. Pctroff, and 

 Charles B. Saltcr, for the crime of corrupt solicitation 

 of members of the Legislature, be remitted, and that 

 the remainder thereof imposing payment of fine and 

 costs and disqualification to hold any office of trust or 

 profit under the commonwealth, be executed, for the 

 following reasons : 



The act of 1874 defining the crime of corrupt solici- 

 tation provides for simple imprisonment. No power 

 is lodged in the courts by the Constitution or laws to 

 add to or impose conditions not contained in the stat- 

 ute. The sentence in these cases superadds to the 

 statutory punishment the conditions that the imprison- 

 ment shall be by separate and solitary confinement at 

 labor in the Penitentiary, and that the prisoners shall 

 be fed and clothed as provided by law. In numerous 

 analogous cases the Supreme Court of the State have 

 decided such enlarged sentence unlawful, and by the 

 common law imprisonment in the Penitentiary has 

 always been regarded as infamous. In view of the 

 foregoing facts and of the severity of the punishment 

 remaining to be executed for an offense recently made 

 punishable, and for which these arc the first convic- 

 tions, we make the foregoing recommendation. 



HENRY W. PALMER, 



Attorney- General. 



M. S. QUAY, 



Secretary of Commonwealth. 



AARON K. 'DUNKEL, 



Secretary of Internal Affairs. 



CHARLES W. STONE, 



Lieutenant-Governor. 



This was promptly acted upon by the Gov- 

 ernor, the pardons were signed, the fines paid, 

 and the prisoners discharged early in the month 

 of May. 



The General Assembly, in 1879, by joint 

 resolution, directed the Attorney-General to in- 

 stitute proceedings against the American Uni- 

 versity of Philadelphia for abuse of its fran- 

 chises "in the unlawful sale of diplomas to 

 persons who had not pursued the prescribed 

 course of study, and who were unfitted, by 

 reason of ignorance, to practice medicine." 

 Writs of quo warranto were sued out against 

 the American University of Philadelphia, and 



the Eclectic Medical College of Pennsylvania, 

 an institution of the same character and con- 

 trolled by the same persons, and the result was 

 the forfeiture of their charters, and the con- 

 viction and imprisonment of the manager and 

 official head, known as "Dr." John Buchanan, 

 for violating the laws relative to the sale of 

 diplomas, and for other crimes. When evidence 

 was first obtained against Buchanan of dealing 

 in bogus diplomas, he endeavored to escape 

 arrest by a ruse, pretending to jump overboard 

 from a ferry-boat and drown himself. This 

 was discovered to be a trick, and it was found 

 that Buchanan had fled to Canada. He was 

 arrested at St. Clair, Michigan, in September, 

 and speedily brought to justice. 



PERSIA, a country of Asia. Reigning sover- 

 eign, the Shah Nasred-Din. Born April 24, 

 1831 ; succeeded his father, Mohammed, in 

 September, 1848. The heir-apparent to the 

 throne, Muzaffer-ed-Din, was born in 1854, and 

 ha two sons. 



The area of Persia is about 1,647,070 square 

 kilometres, or 637,000 square miles. The popu- 

 lation is given by the " Gotha Almanac," ac- 

 cording to a correspondence from Teheran, as 

 7,000.000,* among whom there are about 80,- 

 000 Armenians (and Nestorians), 20,000 Israel- 

 ites, and 8,500 Parsees. The population of 

 the principal cities is as follows : Teheran, 

 200,000; Tabreez, 120,000; Ispahan, 60,000; 

 Meshhed, 60,000 ; Resht, 60,000. 



The first regular postal service was opened in 

 January, 1877. The number of letters sent in 

 that year was 366,000 ; the number of postal 

 stations, 43. The number of telegraph-offices 

 was 71 ; the aggregate length of the lines wns 

 5,432 kilometres, of wires 9,113 kilometres; 

 the number of dispatches sent in 1878, 500,- 

 000 ; the receipts, 350,000 francs. 



The close connection existing between Persia 

 and western Afghanistan, where the Persian 

 language isalmostexdusively spoken, fnaturally 

 involved the Persian Governmentin the negotia- 

 tion concerning a final solution of the Afghan 

 question. The British Government offered to 

 release Persia from the engagement to which 

 it had long been held not to occupy Herat, in 

 return for which Persia was expected to con- 

 cede to English companies certain rights within 

 its territory, and to consider England rather 

 than Russia as its friend and ally. An an- 

 nouncement, which was made on the subject in 

 the British Parliament, created a great deal of 

 uneasiness in Russia. Before availing itself of 

 the English offer, the Persian Government de- 

 sired to obtain some guarantee on the part of 

 England thnt it would be eventually assisted 

 by that power in maintaining its position at 

 Herat, and a suggestion was made by the Per- 

 sians that a convention should be concluded 

 between England and Persia similar to that 



* "The Statesman's Manual" for 18S1 gives Persia only 

 4,400.000 inhabitants, composed of about 1.000,000 inhab- 

 itants of cities. 1,700.000 belonging to wandering tribes, and 

 1,700,000 inhabitants of villages and country districts. 



t See " Annual Cyclopaedia " for 1879, p. 7. 



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