carbon of the ordinary current kind, the resid uum of charred organic matter, the universal caput mortuum of the organic world. Graphite is the same substance modified by strong heat apart from extraordinary pressure. Diamond, finally, is the outcome of high temperature combined with great pressure. Now in pregeological times, when our globe was still liquid, its primitive store of carbon must have lain near at hand, awaiting the imperious calls of vitality; and M. Moissan opines it to have existed in the shape of metallic compounds, such as those produced with facility in his furnace. As cooling progressed aqueous reactions set in, carbides were replaced by hydrocarbons, and eventually by carbonic acid, huge volumes of which originally incumbered the atmosphere. Carbides, however, doubtless survived in subterranean cavities, and perhaps survive even now. Many volcanic phenomena might be explained by inrushes of water upon such Plutonic foundries. There is, moreover, strong reason to believe that they actually constitute the long-sought matrix of the diamond.

BUT HOW LIQUEFY CARBON?

That fused iron dissolves carbon is no recent discovery; but the affinity, illustrated in the Bessemer process, has been widely developed and investigated by M. Moissan. At the temperature of the electric furnace he finds this ordinarily in. tractible substance to be freely soluble in aluminum, chromium, manganese, nickel, uranium— above all, in boiling silver and iron. Unluckily it separates from them in cooling, as it is deposited after sublimation, not in the radiant crystalline form, but merely in dull flakes of graphite. Only by main force can the desired substitution of the one for the other be effected. It would seem that the intimate marshaling power in this kind of matter is virtually annulled by a trifling separation of the centers from which it emanates. It acts only when they are brought within striking distance by mechanical means. The difficulty thus raised is formidable, yet it must be overcome before the manufacture of the gems enters upon a practical stage.

COOLING MOLTEN CARBURIZED IRON.

M. Moissan was the first duly to estimate and successfully to cope with it. His experi ments were grounded upon careful inquiry into South African mining conditions. That they disclose great profundity of origin for the excavated objects was at once apparent to him, and underground factories, if placed deep enough, can avail to an almost unlimited extent of geocentric heat and geogonic pressure. The crux was to produce the same results without the

same facilities. Sufficient, heat was indeed at hand; the needful pressure was less easily evoked. But here a certain anomaly in the behavior of cooling iron came to the rescue. Pure iron follows the common rule of contraction in solidifying; but iron saturated with carbon expands, after the manner of water turning into ice. Silver shows the same peculiarity. Now, by suddenly refrigerating a mass of carbonized iron a hard superficial shell would obviously be formed, powerfully constricting the interior and hindering its natural expansion. Frost-burst water-pipes but too familiarly exemplify the all but irresistible strength of the molecular effort to get room under analogous circumstances. The tremendous interior pressure created by the restraint imposed upon it in M. Moissan's crucibles suffices to liquefy the carbon contained in them; and crys tallization ensues."

A TRUTH SET IN DIAMONDS.

Diamonds are, however, derived not merely from fiery underground pools" or "electrically heated furnaces." They fall from the sky, as in a rocky mass seen to descend at Novy Urej, in Siberia, in 1886. The reviewer concludes, from a reference to the Cañon Diablo diamonds, at first held to be aërolites, now found to be earth-born:

They assure us that in the bowels of the earth, in the electric furnace, and on the unknown bodies disintegrated into meteoric dust similar conditions have prevailed or do prevail. Everywhere alike, carbon crystallized out from an intensely hot ferric solution under great pressure. The recipe for diamond-making is the same in the Sirian as in the solar system. The universe is one, chemically and physically."

NEEDFUL PRECAUTIONS FOR OCEAN NAVI

GATION.

UNDER this title Mr. John Hyslop makes in

the June Harper's some suggestions as to the proper handling of ships-suggestions no doubt prompted by the extraordinary list of terrible tragedies in ocean traveling that has marked the season of 1898-99. Mr. Hyslop asks whether, given a due complement of competent officers for the proper navigation of the ship, existing methods give full effect to their combined skill, care, and direction, or is it a fact that in important respects the captain is not only supreme, as he ought to be and must necessarily be, but that he is practically left without systematized help or check? Another point worthy to be noted is whether it is sufficient to merely provide for vessels boats of a sufficient number and size, even though the means of launching them are so utterly crude and inadequate that under conditions of much difficulty they cannot be safely gotten into the water within limited time. Mr. Hyslop calls to mind the catastrophe that overtook the Mohegan, which was lost last October by striking the Manacle Rocks, near Falmouth. The second and third officers were on deck, and it is supposed that the captain was, too, and he was a sober, careful, and capable man. Mr. Hyslop's theory of the mysterious and terrible mistake by which the vessel was being steered half a point more to the north than usual was that the very severe trials of physical hardship, responsibility, care, and exhaustive effort which come to shipmasters had unnerved Captain Griffith in this instance, and are likely to unnerve any sea-captain, no matter what his equipment of strength.

On this theory, when it is taken into consideration that a captain under the present conditions is apt to resent any examination of charts or questioning of his course by any other officer, Mr. Hyslop thinks that it is a dubious policy to leave a ship's safety wholly in charge of one man, who may be thrown out of his "form" by a headache or any unexpected physical disability. Mr. Hyslop suggests that instead of the captain laying the vessel's course, that should be made the ordinary routine duty of an officer under him, subject, of course, to the captain's concurrence. This would save the captain's dignity and would provide a new and valuable check. Certainly this would have saved the loss of the Mohegan.

Just as certainly it would not abolish all accidents at sea, for there are perils no human foresight or provision can prevent. Though this is true, Mr. Hyslop asks, Is it rational to have the present system of launching boats? and tells us a remarkable fact that on nearly all our large

passenger steamers the same kind of davits and the same means of launching boats are in use that were in use fifty years ago. Mr. Hyslop tells of the very elaborate movements that must be gone through with to launch a number of boats at once, and shows that a vessel carrying several hundred passengers and perhaps twenty boats may have only thirty or forty real sailors, the rest of the complement of the ship principally being made up of engineers, stewards, stokers, etc. These will do well enough if the boats are to be launched in daylight in smooth water, but it is in just the opposite kind of cir. cumstances that boats are usually to be launched in a hurry. He says that there are new systems of davits vastly superior to those generally in use, and that some of the more alert companies-for instance, the Old Dominion Line of steamers, plying between New York and Norfolk-have fitted their new vessels with boat-launching arrangements free from the most serious defects of the old-style swivel davits. The Society of Naval Architects at its next annual convention in New York is to have papers read on launching ships' boats, and it is to be hoped that some new and better methods will result.

A PLAN FOR THE UNITED STATES OF EUROPE.

N the June Cosmopolitan Dr. Edward Everett

He

Hale writes his belief that most of the old causes of war have died away, and speaks of the proposal of the Emperor of Russia to consider the maintenance of perpetual peace. Dr. Hale thinks it a pity that the proposition was not generally received with more enthusiasm. thinks it mean to ask if the Czar was in earnest. Dr. Hale believes that there is no more reason why the European states should not be at peace than there is why the United States should not be at peace with each other.

"The peace of the United States for one hundred and six years out of one hundred and ten has been guaranteed by the Supreme Court of the United States. This court is indeed supreme. It is higher than the President, it is higher than the Senate or the House of Representatives. It is higher than any governor

or any State. It speaks, and what it says is done. It is an international court between fortyfive sovereignties, each of which has its own local pride, many of which are wholly different from many others in origin, in race, even in language and religion.

For ten or twenty years past efforts have been in progress to bring about a similar international court between States which are even larger than New York, Virginia, or Missouri.

At

When Mr. Blaine called together his Pan-American Congress in 1890, it was with the hope that such a tribunal might be arranged as an international tribunal between all the republics of America. While the congress was in session Brazil ceased to be a part of the empire of Por tugal and became an independent republic. once Brazil sent a delegation to what was well called the Pan-American Congress. The PanAmerican Congress made the plans for an international tribunal, which would examine any case of difficulty which arose between the sixteen nations represented there.

"When Mr. Blaine presented this plan to the world in his farewell address to the Pan-American Congress he said:

"If in this closing hour the conference had but one deed to celebrate, we should dare call the world's attention to the deliberate, confident, solemn dedication of two great continents to peace and to the prosperity which has peace for its foundation. We hold up this new Magna Charta which abolishes war and substitutes arbitration between the American republics as the first and greatest fruit of the international American conference. That noblest of Americans, the aged poet and philanthropist, Whittier, is the first to send the salutation and benediction declaring: If in the spirit of peace the American conference agrees upon a rule of arbitration which shall make war in this hemisphere wellnigh impossible, its sessions will prove one of the most important events in the history of the world."

"From that time forward similar plans have been proposed by different bodies. That which has attracted most intelligent attention is the plan of the New York State Bar Association. The bar of New York State is composed of gentlemen who are not accustomed to dream; they are not given over to theories or fallacies. But lawyers always believe in law. Lawyers know what is the power of justice. As Mr. Depew said admirably well in an address on this subject, it was the lawyers of England who beat Charles I. and who introduced constitutional government into the world. The lawyers of New York three years ago tried their hand on the forming of a plan for an international tribunal between the great states of Europe and the great states of America. Their plan has the very great merit of simplicity and it is almost automatic.

"It proposes that each of the nine principal powers of the world shall be invited to select a judge who shall sit in this central tribunal. And so as to be free from political entanglements or from the delays which would follow in the various changes of administration of these nine states,

it proposes that in each the highest court shall appoint from its own number the judge who is to sit upon the central tribunal. Thus the Supreme Court of the United States would choose one of its judges to be a judge in the international court, and the High Court of Justice in England would choose another from its own number. The requisites for the judgeship are thus stated : . . . Such representative to be a member of the supreme or highest court of the nation he shall represent, chosen by a majority vote of his associates, because of his high character as a publicist and judge and his recognized ability and irreproachable integrity. Each judge thus selected to hold office during life or the will of the court selecting him.'

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As soon as three of these nations should have appointed their judges the court would meet. It would appoint its officers, it would announce the places of its sessions, and it would be ready to administer justice. As one of the gentlemen of the commission who framed the plan said, it would nail up its sign and say, International Justice Administered Here.'

"It would probably be some little time before any nation would dare bring a case before it. Meanwhile the judges would be conferring together on points of international law which have not yet been decided in form. They would be publishing from time to time reports or statements with regard to these matters. They could, if they pleased, be reviewing all the international law of the past. They could be preparing a formal and official statement of the results which the world has arrived at on what the Emperor of Russia calls those great principles of right and justice on which are built the security of states and the welfare of peoples.'

to.

The New York bar would not compel nations to appear before its tribunal unless they chose I may think my neighbor's bees hurt my peaches, but I do not go to law about it unless I choose. This freedom is the strong point of its plan. A certain supposed compulsion in the Olney-Pauncefote treaty was the only reason assigned for its failure. But there is no danger but that two nations who have some difficulty which escapes the clumsy meshes of our oldfashioned diplomacy will be glad enough to try a court of such prestige and dignity. Here is this knotty question of the Newfoundland fisheries between England and France. It is the curious question whether in the language of diplomacy in 1783 a lobster was a fish. The treaty of 1783 gives France the undoubted right to cure fish on the uninhabited parts of the western coast of Newfoundland. May she therefore can lobsters there ? If the lobster is a fish, yes! If he is a

crustacean, no! This must be decided by a court. And if such a court had existed this question would have been submitted years ago. This is but one of many different suggestions which are before the international conference. It is worth the detail with which I have described it, because it was prepared by a commission ap pointed by some of the best lawyers in the world."

THE TROUBLE IN FINLAND.

ARTICLES on Russia's dealings with Fin

land, written from the Finnish point of view, are appearing in the English reviews. Dr. J. N. Reuter, of Helsingfors University, contributes to the Nineteenth Century an article on Russia and Finland." It is a well-written article, and useful, inasmuch as it begins with a sketch of Finnish history, and gives a precise statement as to what it is that the Russians have actually done in the grand duchy.

Dr. Reuter gives a very striking account of the wide diffussion of education in Finland. He says that there are at present as many Finnish secondary schools, preparatory to the university, as Swedish ones, that the periodical press numbers about 120 Finnish newspapers, that many lectures at the University of Finland are delivered in Finnish, and that the Finnish tongue is, equally with the Swedish, acknowledged as the official language of the grand duchy.

THE NEW MILITARY LAW.

This is Dr. Reuter's account of the present disagreement with Russia over the proposed military conscription law:

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The first blow that fell on the country was the imperial proposal for a new military law, which was to be laid before the estates summoned to assemble in January of this year to an extraordinary Diet. The summons was issued in July, 1898, thus before the Czar's peace proposal was offered to the world. In October the proposition was sent to the Senate, and shortly after its main features became known to the public.

"By the existing military law of 1878 the conscription system was introduced into Finland with a view to the establishment of a Finnish army intended for the defense of the country, an army under the command of Finnish officers and with a Finnish staff, ultimately subordinate to the governor-general, who, while likewise commanding any Russian troops that may be located in the country, is the chief of the Finnish army.' The standing army is limited to a number of 5,600 men. To reach this amount,

out of the annual contingent of about 8,000 young men of the proper age for conscription (twenty-one years) and fit for military service, about 1,920 are annually, after balloting, placed under the colors, where they serve for three years, on the lapse of which time they are transferred to the reserve, where they remain for two years, and ultimately stand in the militia until they have completed their fortieth year. The rest are at once placed in the reserve for five years, and undergo in the first three years military training not exceeding ninety days altogether.

The new military scheme proposes that no fewer than 7,200 (out of 8,000) should be every year placed on the active service list for five years, and afterward for another period of thirteen years should stand in the reserve, and then in the militia, as before. The army in Finland would, however, not be increased, but the surplus of 5,280 men every year be sent to serve in Russia beyond the frontier of their native country with a service period of five years; this means a force of 36,000 men. This enormous increase of the Finnish army naturally implies a proportional augmentation of the expenses, while at the same time it directly deprives the country of an immense amount of labor-so much needed in our country, where the earth yields her fruits only as the result of very hard work-and indirectly by inducing many young men to seek their fortunes in America.

6

The new military proposal further contains statutes to the effect that Russian officers henceforth should have a right to serve in the Finnish army, contrary to the fundamental laws of the country (Par. 10 in the Form of Government' of 1772, Par. 1 in the Act of Union and Security of 1789, and Par, 120 in the Military Law of 1878, being one of the fourteen paragraphs in this law which are ratified as · fundamental laws). The Finnish military staff would be abolished and the army become directly subordinate to Russian military authorities.

"One of the first consequences of the Czar's manifesto will concern the work of the present Diet. In the middle of April a communication has been made to the Diet that the Emperor has approved the proposition of the minister of war that the army proposal, now under discussion by the Finnish Diet, shall be considered as 'pos sessing an imperial interest,' and thus to be dealt with in the way indicated in the manifesto of February 15, 1899-i.e., the Diet has only to give its opinion.

"It lies, of course, in the discretion and goodwill of the Czar to listen to the opinion expressed by the Diet or to take the advice of his Russian

ministers. So strong is even now in Finland confidence in the Czar that the hope is by no means extinguished that he will follow the former course; and it is very generally believed that if only the true facts could be brought home to him, he could not fail to reëstablish Finland's constitutional rights."

Petty Tyrannies of the Russian GovernorGeneral.

In the Contemporary Prof. Edward Westermarck, another Finnish gentleman, says that the popular view holds Bohrikoff, the governorgeneral of Finland, responsible for the changes, and says of him :

"He is a perfect stranger to the spirit of our national life. He has displayed a contempt for the press which to our mind is truly cynical. Already he has suppressed one [newspaper], while he has suspended the publication of two others.

Ever since his arrival, and especial

ly after the manifesto, the country has been troubled with spies and gendarmes. Children are pounced upon in the streets and asked what they are taught at school or what their parents have been saying at home, money being offered as a reward if they tell the truth. We do not know if the governor general takes any direct part in this abominable system of espionage. At all events he has done nothing to suppress it, and it was unknown in Finland previous to his arrival. We are treated as rebels, although there is not the slightest symptom of rebellion. Even persons suspected of being agents provocateurs have failed to drive the populace to violence. The regard for law and order so deeply rooted in the Finnish people cannot be shaken by any provocation whatsoever."

The writer says, 66 We want an express ex. planation from our sovereign." He has been badly advised."

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Of a rebellion no one even dreams in Finland. We shall offer peaceful resistance to everything which is contrary to the sworn laws of our country. . . . The only weapon in which we put trust is that culture of mind and character which is involved in our Scandinavian civilization. Our Russian antagonists have no idea of the strength of this weapon."

Finland's Home Rule.

Mr. R. Nisbet Bain writes in the Fortnightly upon "Finland and the Czar.' He disavows all imputations against the personal honor of the Czar. He thinks that the Finnish people have suffered grievous wrong at the hands of the imperial authorities.

He sets out by saying that for more than

two centuries (since 1587) the Finlanders have enjoyed political freedom." During their union with Sweden they sent their deputies to the Swedish Parliament, and when subjugated by the Russians under Alexander I., in 1808, they were granted a Landtag modeled on the Swedish Riksdag. The four estates (gentry, clergy, burgesses, peasants), having received assurance from the Czar of his purpose to reign as constitutional monarch, swore allegiance to him as Grand Duke of Finland. Of the constitution granted in 1809 Mr. Bain says:

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Practically it was based on the constitutional compromise invented by Gustavus III. of Sweden in 1789, when he attempted to combine a strong monarchical government with a subordinate but still (within certain well-defined limits) free and independent parliament. The balance of power, in every direction, unmistakably inclined to the side of the monarch. He was the fountain of honor and justice, the commander-in-chief of the forces, the sole medium of communication with foreign powers, the head of the executive at home. The Landtag could assemble only when summoned by its Grand Duke; he could dismiss it whenever he thought fit; its deliberations were for the most part to be confined to the propositions which he might think fit to lay be fore it, and its jurisdiction did not extend to imperial measures or to the so-called economic or administrative legislation. But, on the other hand, no new law could be imposed and no old law abolished, nor could the fundamental statutes be in any way altered or amended, without the previous consent of the estates. Moreover, the Landtag was to coöperate in all legislative measures, in the proper sense of the word, comprising every question relating to the fundamental laws, the privileges of the estates, the civil law, criminal law, maritime law, ecclesiastical law. They had also a voice in all legislation relating to the coinage, the national bank, the organization of the army and navy, etc., although, as already stated, the Grand Duke in all these matters had the right of initiative. Moreover, the estates in general retained the right of self-taxation, although the regulation of custom-house dues was expressly reserved as a prerogative of the crown. It will thus be seen that the Finnish constitution was an innocent affair enough. The most jealous autocrat ran very little risk in bestowing such a harmless gift upon a portion of his subjects."

For ninety years this constitution has worked successfully. Instead of restricting it, Alexander 11. actually extended it. The summoning of the Landtag, previously left entirely to the arbitrary discretion of the Grand Duke, was in 1869 made periodical, at intervals of not more