of all the documents, and then returned to America to put in a book the result of his investigations. He has not submitted his work to the King, and what he says is altogether a matter of personal responsibility.

Any one who looks at the map of Africa will see that the Congo Free State lies in an altogether uncomfortable position between Cairo and the Cape. It reminds one of how the Dutch here at New York had in olden times "butted in" between New England and Virginia, and how the Juggernaut of Empire had, as a consequence, to roll over them to make a continuous territory for English colonization. It looks as if history were going to repeat itself in Africa to-day. Mr. Wack is convinced that the agitation is all an affair of commerce and that Liverpool is behind the movement, making use of the English and American missionaries to effect its purpose.

The Protestant missionaries were first in the field; they are plentifully supplied with funds, have a numerous contingent of male and female workers, but on the whole, in his opinion, are not an apostolic success. Some of them unite the evangelical and commercial characteristics in a most remarkable degree. Mr. Wack is apparently not a Catholic, but he declares very candidly that the sisters and priests, barring, of course, some exceptions on the other side, are the only uplifting power in that part of the Dark Continent.

The machinations resorted to in England and America are minutely detailed, and, for those who have been watching the development of the struggle, are of great interest. President Roosevelt, we are told, received the envoys who wanted to embroil us in the controversy, but, while he was very gracious, he was very non-committal. The Boston Congress, where Cardinal Gibbons' strong letter of condemnation did so much to nullify the action of the agitators, is also described. It is rather a reflection on British fair play to find that it was next to impossible to get the Belgian statement of the case in the English papers. The book is profusely illustrated and very timely, and is serviceable also as a verification, if any were needed, of Mr. Mohun's articles in THE MESSENGER. Its information will be of great value; for, though there is a lull at present, the fight is not ended.

Report of State Superintendent of Public Instruction, New York.-The first article in this report is a "History of the Common School in New York," which, of course, is interesting, especially from the fact it announces that the first public school in the country was in New Amsterdam in 1633, with Adam Roelandson as its master. This precedence is disputed, it is said, but without reason. In 1642 the General Court of Massachusetts ordered the establishment of schools "to thwart the designs of that old deluder Satan," but before that, the charter of New Amsterdam given in 1629, enjoined upon "the patrons and colonists to find out ways and means whereby they might support a minister and a schoolmaster, that thus the service of God and zeal for religion may not grow cool and be neglected among them." Roelandson's school was under the direct supervision of the deacons, and was sustained by the consistory of the Reformed Church. During Stuyvesant's administration there were schools in every town and village, "drill in catechism not being omitted." The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, founded schools here in 1704, for the purpose of "uniting the growing generation in their language as well as in their religious principles."

In 1805 what is known as the Public School Society was established in New York. It continued in existence till 1853. It met first at the house of

John Murray, in Pearl Street, and was intended for "the education of children outside the denominational schools." In 1808 it became "The Free School Society of New York," and its scope was enlarged to take in "all children who are the proper objects of a gratuitous education." In 1826, it was called "The Public School Society of New York," and then proposed "to provide for the education of all children whether such children be or be not the proper objects of gratuitous education, and without regard to the religious sect or denomination to which such parents or their children belong." The scheme was supported by public moneys. It was professedly undenominational, but proposed "to inculcate the divine truths of religion and morality contained in the Holy Scripture, and the reading of the King James Bible, and lessons thence drawn were prescribed in the curriculum.” This arrangement was denounced at the time as being itself denominational and as undemocratic, because a private corporation was thus wholly supported by public funds. Archbishop Hughes, Governor Seward, and John C. Spencer, Secretary of State, attacked the system, while Theodore Sedgwick, Hiram Ketchum, and Gardiner Spring sustained it. In 1853 the association surrendered all its real and personal property valued at $454,421.85, including seventy-eight schools, into the hands of the Board of Education, which was then established, and has been in control ever since.

Le Gesù de Rome. The Church of the Gesù in Rome. A Historical and Descriptive Sketch. By Rev. P. J. Chandlery, S.J.

Father Chandlery is well known by his much valued Pilgrim-Walks in Rome, a new edition of which, in form of a guide book, is now being prepared, to the great satisfaction of English-speaking pilgrims. This present smaller work, Le Gesù de Rome, gives us a wealth of historical, archæological, artistic, and devotional knowledge about the famous modern Church of the Gesù, but with a touch possible only to one who has lived in Rome and loved the places described. It consists of sixty-three large pages, very portable because in paper covers, printed in clear type, on excellent paper, with copious and beautiful illustrations. It is written in French for the greater convenience of travelers, but we hope to see it translated into English. This little book is a treasure, and we commend it heartily to all who are interested in Roman treasure houses. Father Chandlery gives the history of the site on which the church stands and of its neighborhood, the history of the church, a description of it, with an account of the relics hoarded here, of the illustrious dead who rest beneath, of the services and religious associations. There is, finally, a most interesting account of the famous Professed House of the Society of Jesus, which stands beside the Church.

What is of pre-eminent interest to the Catholic visitor to Rome is the sacredness of every foot of ground in the city. The blood of martyrs was sprinkled everywhere, their bones lie in the churches, the footprints of saints are everywhere. On the hearts of the young particularly these memories come like an intoxication.

"The churches of Rome," writes Father Chandlery, "form, from the two-fold point of view of art and history, the most beautiful collection of sacred edifices in the world. All ages, from Apostolic times, are here represented. Fabulous wealth has been expended; the most eminent architects have contributed their labor, the most precious materials have been employed; no sacrifice, no treasure, no effort has been spared." We have the churches of the early Christian ages with their extraordinary historical in

terest, those of the Middle Ages scarcely less interesting, finally the modern with greater richness and beauty. Amongst these, one of the most important, is the Gesù, "eminently dear and sacred to all Jesuits, whether they live in Rome or elsewhere." For here reposes the body of their founder, the great Ignatius of Loyola, and around him are gathered the precious relics of many of the Saints of his Order. Here, too, are sleeping many of the most illustrious men of the famous company-Cardinals Bellarmine and de Lugo, Ven. Joseph Pignatelli, Fathers Polanco, Nadal, Bartoli, etc., with the Fathers General from Father Mercurian (1580) to Father Roothan (1853). "This church and the adjoining residence were for three centuries, it may be truly said, the heart of the Company of Jesus, the centre of its life, the stimulus of its energies. All the labors, all the struggles of the Society, all its sufferings and its martyrdom, all its consolations, successes, victories, have all been felt here with their response of joy or sorrow. Here have resided nearly all the Generals who have guided the Society through the tempests of its glorious career."

It is interesting to notice that the Church of the Gesù stands on the historic Campus Martius, the Field of Mars, at first a weedy marsh, then, when drained, the place of games for Roman youth, and later covered over with magnificent monuments, the enormous shrine of Isis and Serapis, with a worship too unclean even for pagan Rome, the Septa Julia for the assemblies of the people, etc. In the Middle Ages there stood where now stands the Jesuit church a much-venerated sanctuary of Our Lady, which the people called Santa Maria della Strada, Our Lady of the Wayside, or, as some say, Our Lady of the Spearmen. Many of the ancient churches which rose over the ruins around Santa Maria were historically associated with the great labors of St. Ignatius for the good of souls. The first Italian member of the Society, Father Codaccio, gave over Santa Maria della Strada to St. Ignatius and his companions, who were accustomed to celebrate here the sacred mysteries and to preach. The foundations of a new and larger church, surrounding the old, were laid by St. Francis Borgia. A plan prepared some years later by Michelangelo, "out of pure devotion and without any profit," could not be followed because of the opposition of neighboring proprietors; but Cardinal Alexander Farnese, afterwards Pope Paul III, raised the present edifice; and another Cardinal of the same name, the adjoining professed house. The architects were the best of their time; but the second, Giacomo della Porta, is blamed for having departed from the classic design of his predecessor, Vignola, and adopted the degenerate Renaissance façade. The interior is extremely rich and beautiful, the greatest treasures being the body of St. Ignatius, the right hand of St. Francis Xaxier, with which he baptized 500,000 infidels, the bodies of several martyrs, and the heads of a great many more. The reader, especially if a pilgrim to Rome, will follow with intense pleasure the abundant details given by Father Chandlery, concerning the history and treasures, artistic and sacred, of this great church and the professed house which stands beside it.

LITERARY NOTES.

Some time ago when Brunetière uttered the famous phrase about the "bankruptcy of science," a howl of execration went up against him from the whole anti-Christian world. He has lacked advancement ever since, except in the esteem of those whose opinion is worth having. Now comes another

proclamation from Emil Reich, in the Contemporary of February, that there is also a "bankruptcy of higher criticism." His attack is made chiefly on Delitzch's well known and hitherto supposedly well-grounded conclusion, that the doctrines and legends of the Hebrews were all derived from the Babylonians. Now, says Mr. Reich, out in East Africa there is a negro tribe which never could have had any intercourse with either Babylonians or Hebrews, and yet which has all the doctrines of the Old Testament up to the giving of the Old Law. How did they get it? Perhaps it is a reminiscence of old Christian missionaries. Not at all. They know absolutely nothing at all about the New Testament. He thinks that this African discovery disposes absolutely of Delitzch's whole theory. The fundamental vice of higher criticism, says Reich, is its absolute faith in philology. Some obscure German professor devotes his life to the study of Babylonian inscriptions, he then discovers what he thinks to be similarities between one race and another, all based on the inscriptions of a tablet; no one is able to contradict him, and, as his fancy leads him, he concocts all sorts of wild theories which pass for miracles of learning, and the world accepts his fabrications as a new gospel. This craze for philological research, says Mr. Reich, has made people completely neglect genuine history, with the present muddle as a result. Whether the discovery of the African with his accurate knowledge of the Mosaic cosmogony is going to have any effect on the domain of what is called science we have to wait to see. The Contemporary thinks it important enough for its pages. Will Mr. Reich share the fate of Brunetière?

An admirer of the great Coligny, the famous leader and quasi proto-martyr of the Hugenots, who was supposed to have been assassinated by the orders of the Duke de Guise, admits, strange to say, that the Hugenots and even Coligny himself were guilty of the greatest atrocities. In this new Life of Coligny, by A. W. Whitehead, we read of "the now usual holocausts of priests;" we see Coligny permitting "the butchering of innocent victims, rape, pillage and its thousand and one horrors, refusal of quarter, etc." This will be news to some people.

Father Ehrle, S.J., who is the Vatican librarian, lately bethought him of adding a Russian section to the library. He wrote to Russia to ask for books. The invitation was accepted with enthusiasm. In St. Petersburgh alone sixteen societies began to pour in their contributions. Moscow has followed suit, as well as Kiev, Odessa, Tiflis, and Kazan.

SCIENCE.

Developments in Electric Traction. The great problem before the electrical engineering world just at present is long-distance electric traction and, as an essential connection, power transmission. It is now admitted that on a line of heavy passenger traffic, with many stops, electric traction is superior to steam traction of the best design.

The New York Central Railroad, one of the largest in the world, is about to spend $50,000,000 in the beginning of a scheme which may eventually lay a third-rail from New York to Chicago. A project involving such an outlay cannot be called an experiment.

A comparison of the latest type of express steam locomotive, probably the most powerful in the world, on the New York Central, with the new electric locomotive built for the same road, is very much in favor of the

latter. The steam locomotive, with tender, is 62 feet long, weighs 162 tons, with only 55 tons on the drivers, and can develop 1,800 horse-power. The electric engine is only 37 feet long, weighs only 95 tons, with 69 tons on the driving wheels and has an output of 3,000 horse-power, its ordinary power being 2,200. The starting pull of the steam engine is 25,900 pounds, that of the electric being 32,000; and as the speed of the steam locomotive increases, its pull, or power, drops and at seventy-five miles per hour it is less than one-sixth of the starting pull. This is largely due to the increased back pressure on the exhaust side of the pistons, owing to the fact that the exhaust steam, at high speed, cannot make its way out through the ports fast enough to avoid crowding.

No such drop occurs on the electric locomotive, whose pulling power remains steady long after the steam locomotive has reached its accelerating limit. The great advantage of the electric locomotive may be summed up as follows: Wheels of small diameter, consequently greater stability, the centre of gravity being nearer the track; more weight on the drivers, therefore greater track adhesion at the points of application of power; steady pull without drop; continuous turning force or torque, as opposed to the reciprocating action of the steam locomotive, with subsequent absence of track pounding.

The armatures, or rotating parts of the motors on the New York Central locomotive are attached directly to the axles, without any gearing; and when the current is picked up, the electric force, with mysterious giant grasp, whirls the armatures, the axles and the wheels so rapidly that a four-car train, weighing 265 tons, will have a thirty-mile speed thirty-seven seconds after starting. This is called rapid acceleration. We know what this means practically, when we board a delayed trolley car and the irritated motorman turns on full power just as we begin to walk up the aisle.

In the tests so far on a four-mile track, too short to show the capability of the electric steed, a velocity of 63 miles was easily reached with an eightcar train of 336 tons' weight, and with a 170-ton 4-car train, seventy-two miles an hour.

In electric traction the current is usually generated at the power house, sent out as a moderately low tension direct, or for distance work, as a high tension alternating current, which is "stepped down" to lower voltage for use, as alternating, or sometimes changed to direct. In the New York Central experiments an 11,000-volt alternating was transmitted and converted to a 600-volt direct current and so fed to the third-rail. In general a high tension current can be transmitted through less expensive conductors more economically than the low voltage current; and it is commercially easier to obtain high tension alternating than direct.

The power is taken by the trolley wheel from an overhead wire, or is picked up from a third-rail by a contact shoe; on the score of economy, the "underground trolley" would not be used outside cities. For low speeds the trolley wheel is certainly successful; for high speeds, it wears quickly and tends to jump; the bow-trolley, used in Europe, does not seem to be an improvement. For heavier currents, usually the third-rail and shoe are employed. The third-rail, if exposed, is dangerous, and may easily be rendered unserviceable by sleet and snow, and at crossings it must be replaced by an overhead conductor. At high speed the shoe is apt to be thrown from the track by any slight obstacle, causing excessive "arcing" and loss of power.