from the consequences of our own indifference and neglect of civic duties.

Free Art in America at Last.

FOR many years the fight for free art has been continuously urged by American artists, and by those who are especially interested in the artistic and intelectual advancement of the United States, and sensitive concerning the fair fame of their country in the sisterhood of civilized nations. At last the battle has been wen, and won decisively, by the united votes of the rost intelligent members of both parties in Congress. In this successful "campaign of education" the artists have taken a leading part, and their persistence, the cogency of their arguments, the good spirit and devotion shown by them, the breadth and loftiness of the views promulgated, all are worthy of the highest praise.

It is necessary, also, to note the response of congressmen in this case to right ideas lucidly expressed and disinterestedly advocated; and the hopeful citizen of the republic has a right to take new courage when he is able to add so enlightened a measure to the gratifying list of lately accomplished reforms. Many rot old have seen, among other reforms, slavery and the slave-trade extinguished, polygamy crushed out, civil-service rules enacted and continually extended, our ballot laws improved, international literary piracy Lolished, and now the barbarous tax on painting and sculpture not reduced, but wiped out! Moreover, the Same Congress that has given us free art has estabashed the Federal Civil-service Commission on a Ármer basis than ever, by legislation which the leading advocates of the merit system declare to be almost as important as the original law creating the commission.

No one can say that American artists are afraid of competition. This new and generous legislation should put a new spirit into them, and should be a fresh reason for the complete removal of that neglect from which they have at times seemed strangely to suffer among their own people.

The Pictorial Side of the Life of Napoleon.

THE CENTURY'S series of "Battles and Leaders of the Civil War" was the record of a military struggle waged by communities at the time virtually without art; the "Life of Napoleon" now appearing in THE CENTURY is the record of wars engaged in by the most artistic of all modern nations. The Art Department of THE CENTURY MAGAZINE had a difficult task to make attractive the art side of the American war series, and the degree of success met with was all the more creditable from the obstacles encountered.

In the Napoleon series, on the other hand, the opportunity is unprecedented, and this series should prove artistically, in many respects, the most splendid papers of a historical character yet published in a periodical.

In the preparation of these illustrations, it is possible to draw upon the most desirable of the portraits and pictures made at the time, and upon the rich stores of French military art subsequently accumulated, and use can be made of the accomplished pencils of living military and other artists of France and America; and as the scene moves from country to country and from period to period,― the panorama meantime decorated by a brilliant multitude of historical characters, there should be no lack of variety in the story as to in the gallery of pictures which, from month to month, will illuminate the narrative.

I

Sloane's "Napoleon."

Tis almost as difficult to enumerate the qualifications requisite for a biographer of Napoleon, as it is to -ake a fair estimate of Napoleon himself. It is not artly necessary that he should be impartial and well 1 rmel; he must be able to penetrate the motive and weigh the worth of the most conflicting testimony, to travel the most intricate web of illusion and of de"raction ever woven about a human character and caeer. It is not enough that he should be familiar with the historical forces playing about Napoleon, and those *ch he set in motion, with the events that shaped or letermined his career, but he must be used to study and zase allowances for the surprises in human nature.

The time has not yet come when we can expect perfectly unprejudiced life of Napoleon from either a Frenchman or an Englishman. The tremendous pass of the Revolutionary era still survive on both sides the Channel. It is not historical knowledge or scienVOL XLIX-20.

tific method that is lacking in either case, but cosmopolitan impartiality. An American, who inherits English traditions and French sympathies, and is removed in space of time far enough to enjoy an undisturbed perspective, has a better chance of success. The American author of the present life has, to my mind, special qualifications for his great task.

William Mulligan Sloane is of Scotch Presbyterian stock, and was born in Richmond, Ohio, Nov. 12, 1850. He was graduated at Columbia College in 1868, and for some years taught Latin and Greek in the Newell Institute at Pittsburg, where his father (James Renwick Wilson Sloane) was pastor of a Presbyterian church. In 1872 he went abroad to pursue his studies in Germany, and attended lectures at the universities of Berlin and of Leipsic. At this time his attention was principally turned to Oriental studies, and it was at Leipsic in 1876 that he took his Ph. D., his theme being " Arabic Poetry before the time of Mahomet," with metrical versions. While in Berlin he was for a time attached

to the American legation, as private secretary to Mr. Bancroft, and gained large practical experience in research and methods, as the historian's assistant in the tenth volume of the "History of the United States." During his residence abroad he made himself master of German and French, and through his connection with the legation he obtained a large insight into foreign social and political life.

When he returned to America in 1877, although he had a powerful impulse toward metaphysics and history, his chosen field was Oriental languages, and he went to Princeton in some expectation of making use of his Arabic and Hebrew. But as there was little call for his services in either, he became an instructor, and shortly after the professor, in Latin. In the reorganization of Princeton in 1883 upon a broader basis, he took the chair of professor of the philosophy of his tory, in which he at once distinguished himself as a most brilliant and inspiring lecturer. His scheme of philosophical exposition included universal history, but he brought this philosophy to bear chiefly upon modern times, and lectured especially on the English, American, and French revolutions. The only published result of this work is a successful volume devoted to our period of the French war and the revolution, which has received the highest critical indorsement for its philosophic interpretation of causes and events. In his connection with Princeton he has been recognized as one of the chief forces in the new era of the college.

Before he conceived the idea of writing the life of Napoleon, he had, by repeated and sometimes protracted visits to France, and residence in the provinces and in Paris, become familiar with French life and character, and had given much study to the French educational system. It was probably through his intimacy with M. Taine that his attention was finally directed to this work, and that he was given uncommon opportunities for investigation. I have heard that M. Taine said of him that "he knew France better than any other foreigner he had ever met."

With his accustomed thoroughness, industry, and vigor, he threw himself into the long preparation needed for this work. He had access to the archives of the French Foreign Office (the only ones not heretofore thoroughly studied), to papers examined, indeed, by no one so fully before, except by Lanfrey. His study of these papers was particularly concerned with the two obscure periods — the beginning and the end of Napoleon's career. He has also investigated documents little used, and in some cases little known, in Florence and in the British Museum.

But he has not contented himself with the literature or the written records of the subject. He has traveled more or less over Napoleonic ground, and made himself familiar, to a considerable extent, with the fields of the emperor's combinations, and victories, and defeats.

Aside from Professor Sloane's historical learning and power of investigation, I think I should put his fit ness for this work upon his knowledge of the world, and his combination of openness of mind to new ideas with conservative habits of thought. He sees clearly and far, but he is little subject to illusions. It is rare also that so excellent and trained a scholar is so much a man of the world, so interested in whatever is vital, or simply entertaining, in social and political life, so well

informed of what is going on around him. This keer sense of life, with his stores of information and experi ence, his dialectic power, his dramatic force of narrative and his charm of expression, makes him equally wel come in the club and the drawing-room. I mention these various qualities that seem to me desirable in on who attempts to interpret the character and career of Napoleon. Charles Dudley Warner.

A Coincidence in Napoleon's Life. THE facsimile of the last page of Bonaparte's exercise book at school [printed on page 19] is one of the mos curious human documents, to use a current phrase, tha it would perhaps be possible to find. It treats of the youth of the great Napoleon. A mine of unexplored documents full of curious revelations has come down to us- - documents, be it well observed, that are authen tic and above all suspicion. During the Consulate Napoleon, who already saw himself in history, as h said later at St. Helena, was mindful to place in safet all the papers that referred to his youth. He put then in a large official envelop on which were placed the words: "Correspondance avec le premier consul. This inscription he canceled with his own hand, t substitute the words: "A remettre au Cardinal Fesch seul." The envelop, which was wrapped in pape ruled in colored squares and fastened with a larg seal of red wax, on which can still be seen the impres of the imperial eagle, remained in the hands of the Cardinal Archbishop of Lyons until 1839, the year in which the prelate died. The envelop survived th glorious fortunes of the Empire and the Restoration and, after having passed into the hands of variou owners, fell into those of Guglielmo Libri, an Italia who had extraordinary honors and favors showered o him in France, where he rose to be professor of mathe matics at the Sorbonne, and in which country he als wrote his celebrated "Histoire des Sciences Mathe matiques." He closed his brilliant career in obscurity under the accusation of having collected with too grea zeal documents and codices from French libraries tha had been given over to him to inspect. Libri sold thes precious documents, together with his valuable library to Lord Ashburnham. After the latter's death his librar was disposed of, partly in England, partly in Italy, an partly in France. The Napoleonic documents were in cluded in the lot which were acquired by the Italia government in 1884, for the sum of 585,000 franc and which now, together with other codices of grea value, are preserved in the historical and monumenta Biblioteca Mediceo-Laurenziana, Florence, where th curious document is exposed, under a glass case, t public view in the new and splendid exhibition room devoted to manuscript treasures.

Bonaparte was never a literary man, or even a co rect writer. French orthography ever remained a grea mystery to him, and the desire to hide this lacun caused him to employ an undecipherable calligraph well adapted to cover his orthographical defects. is said, in connection with this, that in the early day of the Empire a man of very modest aspect presente himself before the emperor.

"Who are you?" asked Napoleon.

"Sire, I had the honor at Brienne for fifteen month to give writing-lessons to your Majesty.”

Among other documents we find in one of his copybooks, made of hand-made paper of a bluish hue, extracts from the French budget in conformity with Necker's famous report, extracts of opinions taken from the journals and other public papers, and critidisms on various personages of the period. At the close are several geographical-statistical minutes.

The document referred to at the beginning of this etter is from an early copy-book devoted to the "Pos. sessions des Anglais," and ending abruptly in this wise: "Cabo Corso en Guinée, château assez fort. A coté est le Fort Royal, défendu par 16 pièces de canon. Sainte Hélène, petite île."

Strange, truly strange, is this document, that causes the beholder to meditate and to shudder. Libri drew attention to it in an article published in the "Revue des Deux Mondes" in 1842; but as no one had seen the autograph, it was held to be one of those tales which grow up around great names for the benefit of the Bakers of biographical dictionaries. The authentic document helps to strengthen the belief of those who hdd that a mysterious fatality hung about the destiny of this great man, who as a mere lad at school, when samming up the geography of that world which seemed narrow to his ambition, obstinately studied all that bore on England, the great adversary of his fortune, anged into the history of the Arabs and the Egypans, stopped at the Pyramids, halted at Venice to scrutinize and condemn its odious policy, took a cursory survey of India, which he dreamed of conquering, and then fell with broken wing on that little island of St. Helena, where his genius, like that of Prometheus, was aled to the rock.

Guido Biagi,

Librarian of the Biblioteca Mediceo-Laurenziana.

The Government of Cities.

MYCH attention has been turned of late upon the wrak point of our political system- the government of cities. The experiments made in Brooklyn, Philadelia, and other cities, with a concentrated and responThe executive, and the attempts made in Nashville and sewhere to govern by means of triumvirates or other hydra-headed executives, show that the public mind is work upon the problem. It is evident that the tency of intelligent public opinion is in the direction the centralization of executive power and responsity, and away from the device of legislative boards commissions, so much resorted to in years past. This is a sign that the truth is dawning upon the prosperous citizens that they must take into their own ands the business of governing their cities. Hitherto they have been fain to pass by on the other side while he thieves were plundering the treasury; or else, when the case grew desperate, they rushed to the capial and begged the legislature to turn the old gang out and put a new gang into power. They are beginning to comprehend that it is vain to trust in legislatures; that the gods, in a republic, will help to govern no munity that will not govern itself. When the principle of home rule is once fixed upon, the principle of responsible government seems to be

much attention in some of the ring-ridden municipalities, and many cities are framing charters upon this plan. In the mean time the students of political science have been making careful investigation of the methods employed by European cities. The organization of Glasgow, of Birmingham, of London, has been minutely described; and the contrast between the framework of government in these cities and that which is commending itself to municipal reformers in this country excites some surprise. It is notable that the English cities, instead of centralizing authority, distribute it widely. The city council is the supreme power; the executive officers are committees or appointees of the council. In this respect the English municipalities follow the analogy of their Parliament. In Glasgow the council is composed of fifty men, and in Birmingham of fortyeight. The different departments in the latter city are in charge of committees of the council, sixteen of them, consisting of eight members each. A committee of eight supervises the public works, a committee of eight appoints and governs the police, and so on. The American municipal reformer is confounded by this revelation. He has learned to think that such a distribution of executive power is the device of feebleness and corruption: the history of his own continent is contradicted by the experience of the other.

The contradiction is not, after all, so pointed as it seems. The committees of council in the English municipalities, appointed by the council, responsible to the council, reporting all their action to the governing body, and submitting to its constant supervision, are of a very different complexion from those boards and commissions to which the work of the cities of this community has been farmed out by acts of the legislature. And the council itself, in Birmingham, Glasgow, or Berlin, is something the like of which we are not wont to see in republican America. For some reason or other, the best men of those European cities readily accept seats in the city councils. The half-hundred rulers of the great British towns are men of character, of intelligence, of experience. There seems to be no suspicion that they are, serving their own interests in these positions; it even appears to be supposed that a man who was suspected of this selfishness would find his political career cut short. There is a measure of municipal patriotism in these English boroughs to which republican America has not attained. The wealthy and intelligent citizens of the great European towns are, no doubt, to be commiserated. They are not getting rich nearly so fast as our own plutocrats; they know less about organizing real-estate booms and continental combines; they must have much less time and money to spend upon their own diversions; but this crumb of compensation is theirs: they have the satisfaction of knowing that their cities are well and economically governed, and that though their individual fortunes are growing much less rapidly than those of their republican neighbors, the safety and peace and welfare of the communities in which they live are much more effectually secured. It is a small satisfaction, of course, compared with that which is derived from the colossal egoisms of our own financial booms, but the subjects of effete monarchies may find it worth some labor and sacrifice.

To be entirely candid one must admit that an addi

tional reason for the superiority of the European city councils is found in the limitation of the municipal suffrage. Householders, whether male or female, whose taxes are all paid, vote for municipal councilors in Glasgow and Birmingham. There are slight exceptions, but this is the general rule. This cuts off at once a large class of irresponsible persons, unmarried young men who have no stake in the welfare of the community. The non-payment of rates also reduces the voting-lists. The better class of working-men in Glasgow," says Dr. Shaw, " of course pay their rates, take an active interest in public affairs, and do not fail to vote. But there is a very large population of the degraded poor which does not, in fact, participate in elections, and is not of the slightest service to 'ward politicians'-a genus which, by the way, is rarely found in British cities. What I may call the self-disfranchisement of the slums is an important consideration in Glasgow's municipal government." Besides, these cities permit the owners or renters of business places to vote in municipal elections, even though they do not reside in the city, if their homes are within seven miles of the corporation limits. What a change would be made in the complexion of the voting-lists of New York if all the business men and professional men who occupy stores or offices in the city, but who reside on Long Island or Staten Island, or on the Jersey shore, or in the Westchester suburbs, within seven miles of the corporation boundaries, were permitted to vote in the municipal elections! Those effete monarchies, with their confused notions respecting the supremacy of the slums, recognize the right of such persons to take part in the government of cities. It is evident that with the municipal franchise thus regulated, it would be much easier to secure the services in the governing body of such men as we find in the British municipal councils. The demand of the voters would be imperative. And when such men are ready to assume these responsibilities, the problem of municipal government is practically solved. Any city on this continent could safely intrust its affairs to fifty of its best citizens, and let them manage the administration to suit themselves. .

There is no prospect, however, that we shall secure the services of such men in the councils of our Ameri. can cities. Our men of substance and intelligence are too busy with their own personal affairs to take upon themselves these burdens. And it is doubtful if, with the suffrage in its present form, they could be elected if they would serve. The irresponsible classes are naturally averse to putting the power into the hands of the responsible classes; and the absurd extension of party politics into municipal elections gives to the irresponsible classes the balance of power. It seems, therefore, that the English plan is not adapted to the present condition of American cities. When the constituency is highly intelligent and virtuous, the administrative power may with safety be widely distributed; when the character of the voting population is greatly degraded by the admission to the suffrage of vast masses of ignorant and disorderly persons, the policy of concentration is wiser. The American municipal reformers are not mistaken in thinking that the Brooklyn plan is better suited to the needs of our cities at the present time.

The Brooklyn plan puts the executive power into the hands of the mayor, and holds him responsible for the

whole administration. He appoints, without confirmation, the heads of all departments, and they are directly responsible to him, as he is to the people. The heads of departments are his cabinet, and they go out of office with him. The people can, therefore, through the mayor, who is chosen for a short term, reach directly and effectively the whole field of executive authority; their hand can be laid at the first election upon every department of the government. The mayor can secure the popular approval only by holding all his subordinates to a strict account. They are his appointees, and he is responsible to the people for their conduct.

It sometimes seems to be regarded as some sacrifice of popular sovereignty to commit so much power to one man. It is said to be the setting up of a dictatorship. But why is it any more a sacrifice of popular sovereignty to commit the executive power to one man, than to commit it to twenty men? If the people give it away, it passes out of their hands as truly if twenty men have it as if one man has it. The people are no more divested of their power under one executive than they are under twenty executives. But they do not truly di vest themselves of their power; they loan it or delegate it. Those into whose hands it passes are their agents or representatives. And if they put it into the hands of one man, he is their representative as really as the twenty men, and can be made to feel his responsibility to them far more keenly than the twenty could be made to feel it.

The fact that a bad man could do great harm with so much power is often urged as a reason for withholding it. This is true; but it does not seem to be considered that twenty bad men might do considerable harm also.

There are two fundamental assumptions to the one or the other of which all our governmental machinery must be adjusted. We may assume that municipal executives are likely to do more harm than good with the power intrusted to them. On this assumption we shall give them as little power as possible. We shall say to them, in effect, “We know that you are rascals, and that you are sure to abuse power, therefore we have tied you up with all manner of restrictions; we have tried to put it beyond your power to do much mischief." This is not an inspiring summons; the official is apt to take it as his warrant to do what mischief he can. Of course he finds it quite impossible to act effectively in the public interest; from that obligation he feels himself absolved; in depriving him of the power to de harm, the power to protect the community and to pro mote its welfare is also taken away. This is the logic of despair as applied to popular government; but it is to this pessimistic standard that our governmental pol icy has been largely adjusted.

On the other hand, we may assume that the munici pal executive is likely to do more good than harm with the power intrusted to him; that his function is to be "the minister of God for good" to the community which thus delegates to him its sovereignty. We may assume that men can be found who will take this view of public office and act accordingly. If this is our assump tion, we shall wish to give them the power that they will need for the execution of such righteous and pa triotic purposes.

It would be well if every community would soberly face the fact that its municipal government must be

founded on one of these two assumptions. Either involves some risk: which involves the greater risk? Is the logic of despair or the logic of confidence the better basis for popular institutions? Your representative may be a rascal; is it best to assume that he will be a rascal, and grade our government down to that assumption, or to make the contrary assumption?

If, however, the people assume that their representatives will be capable and trustworthy men, they must at the same time assume the responsibility of electing such men. Faith is better than despair, but faith without works is dead, being alone. The best municipal machinery in the world will never release the citizen from his political obligations.

Washington Gladden.

Old Dutch Masters.

BARTHOLOMEUS VAN DER HELST. (1613-1670.)

VAN DER HELST was one of the most distinguished of the Dutch portrait-painters of his time. He was born at Haarlem about 1613, and removed while young to Amsterdam, where he married in 1636, and where he died in 1670. His teacher is supposed to have been Nicolas Elias, an eminent master in the art of portraitare; it is also thought that he was instructed by Franz Hals. More than this is not known of his life. He flourished at a time when Rembrandt ceased to be understood. He captivated by a surprising realism of treatment and a living individuality of character in his beads, to which was added a naturalistic coloring, unisturbed by any conscientious scruples of chiaroscuro. To mderstand him in relation to Rembrandt one should see him at the Ryks Museum, Amsterdam, where, in the Rembrandt Sala, are two of his largest and finest works Lung on either side of the "Night-Watch." These are corporation pictures, representing assemblages of military officers, all life-size. One of these great canvases, called the "Schuttersmaaltyd," represents a banquet given by a company of the civic guard of Amsterzam, in commemoration of the peace of Westphalia in 1648, at which the Spanish ambassador is present. It was of this painting that Sir Joshua Reynolds said, "This is perhaps the first picture of portraits in the world." Startling and impressive as this work is at first

sight, from its realism and the sense of vitality in the heads, it yet fails to charm because of its want of atmosphere and chiaroscuro. The main object in these splendid groups by Helst is strong and truthful delineation of every part, both in form and color: we note the fine drawing of the hands, so characteristic of each sitter; the powerful and clear coloring, and the excellent execution of the details. But the general effect is monotonous and cold, and there is no attempt to unite the various parts into a whole, and thus to create a picture. It was said that Rembrandt's treatment of his heads in the "Night-Watch" gave occasion of demur in some of his sitters, because he had not depicted them with the same distinctness as those placed in the foreground. Van der Helst gave no occasion for such complaint, but gave every man his money's worth.

Of the single portraits by Van der Helst, that of the painter Paul Potter (shown on page 99) is among the most interesting. It is to be seen in The Hague Museum, and measures 384 inches high by 311⁄2 inches wide. It was painted in the last days of his sitter, and shows him still at his easel with palette and brushes in hand, though in the last stage of consumption. The peculiar sallowness of the complexion is heightened by the rich velvet of the dress. From the palette we can see how few were the colors that the Dutchman needed to produce these marvelous effects.

Postscript on "Sophie Germain."

T. Cole.

MRS. CHRISTINE LADD FRANKLIN desires us to add in supplement of her article on Mlle. Sophie Germain, the mathematician, in the October number, that the grave at Père la Chaise, spoken of as neglected, has now been put in good condition. No portrait of her exists, but there is a mask in the collection of the museum of the Louvre after which a bust has recently been made by Zacharie Astruc.

A note of Mlle. Germain relative to an experiment of Wheatstone's in elasticity, all trace of which had been lost, has recently been discovered in the British Museum. The second edition of her "Considerations on the State of the Sciences and of Letters" is now exhausted.

At Candle-lighting.
THINK it better to believe,
And be even as the children, they
The children of the early day,
Who let the kindly dreams deceive,
And joyed in all the mind may weave
Of dear conceit - better, I say,
To let wild fancy have her way,
To trust her, than to know and grieve.
A poet of old Colophon

A notion held I think was right,
No matter how or whence he gat it:
The stars are snuffed out every dawn,
And newly lighted every night.
I hope to catch the angels at it.

John Vance Cheney.