long pending in the island of Cuba with the provincial government of Spain, came to a crisis. On the 8th of March the American merchant steamer Allianca was fired on off the east coast of Cuba by the Spanish cruiser Conde de Venadido. An insurrection gathered head in the island, and the patriots, who were the insurgents, found a great leader in General Antonio Maceo. Spain, for her part, sent additional troops to Cuba, and the local government was assigned to the provincial governor-general Weyler, between whose administration and the Cubans the utmost animosity began to prevail.

The insurrection assumed revolutionary proportions, and for the ensuing two years a cruel provincial war was waged between the Cubans and their Spanish oppressors. Late in 1896 General Maceo was killed in an ambush, and the Cuban cause seemed about to perish with him; but the sympathy of the United States, the secret aid given to the Cubans, and their own spirit in contending with their oppressors, led to a continuance of the struggle. On the 12th of June, 1895, President Cleveland issued a proclamation forbidding citizens of the United States to aid the Cuban insurgents, but the proclamation was little regarded.

Meanwhile the political affairs of Central America tended to a complete transformation of the isolated States of that region into the Central Republic. A difficulty arose between the Nicaraguans and Great Britain. The pro-consul of the latter power, representing the British government at Bluefields, was illegally expelled from his place, and for this Great Britain demanded reparation, including an indemnity of $77,500. This demand being refused by the Nicaraguans, a body of English marines seized the customhouse at Corinto and held it with a threat of further retaliation. At this juncture the government of San Salvador offered to mediate, and this offer, being reinforced with a

guarantee of the payment of the indemnity, Great Britain relinquished the custom-house, and things went well again.

It has been mentioned above that, as a part of the work of the Fifty-third Congress, a tax of two per cent. was laid on incomes amounting to more than $4,000 annually; that is, the excess of incomes over $4,000 was to be taxed at the rate of two per cent. This law, if it had become effective, would have greatly increased the revenues of the government by compelling the rich to pay a reasonable proportion of the taxes of the people. But wealth does not readily assent to be taxed. A strong combination was made against the law, and a suit to test its validity was instituted and carried to the Supreme Court of the United States.

Before the judges of that tribunal the cause was argued with the greatest ability and persistency. At length a decision was rendered, upholding a part of the law and condemning the remainder; some clauses thereof were said to be constitutional and the others unconstitutional; but before this decision was fairly and fully promulgated, the court reversed its own decision and declared the whole income-tax law to be unconstitutional. This was accomplished by the vote of a single justice, who changed from the affirmative to the negative side of the question, thus making a vote of five to four against the law-being a majority of one. The result was disappointing to the great mass of the people of the United States; and the disappointment found expression, as we shall see, in the platforms of one of the leading parties in 1896.

Several matters may be mentioned incidentally at this period that may be properly regarded as historical. One of these was the combination of the Astor, Lenox and Tilden Libraries in New York City. For a long time the first two of these had existed as separate institutions. Samuel J. Tilden, near the end of his life, provided in his will for the

institution of a new library in the city to bear his name; but the will of the great lawyer was assailed by some of the collateral heirs and was set aside as invalid. The heirs, however, agreed that a considerable portion of the money bequeathed for that purpose should be given to the project which Mr. Tilden desired to promote.

This circumstance led to the combination of the three libraries under one management. A great library building had been erected on Fifth Avenue, looking into Central Park. This building was first intended for the Lenox Library; but the new scheme contemplated the establishment therein of the Tilden Library as well, and of the removal thereto of the Astor Library from its old station in Lafayette Place. Thus the city of New York secured a public library of fully 300,000 volumes, with property estimated at about eight million dollars. The final arrangement for this was effected on the 2d of March, 1895.

Another incident was the opening of the Harlem Ship Canal, by which the Hudson River and the East River and Long Island Sound were connected with a channel sufficiently wide and deep for the passing of ships. The visitor to the scene of this great internal improvement can but be struck with the immense possibilities that are provided by nature and man for the future of Manhattan Island. So far as human foresight can discern, this island, bearing the city of New York, must be destined to hold a conspicuous place in the civilization of many centuries to come. Provision has now been made for the passage of ships of large burden entirely around Manhattan by way of the Hudson (or North) River, through the canal and the Harlem River into East River, and thence into the harbor again. Fancy and patriotism can easily foresee a time when all this vast extent of much more than forty miles of shore will be occupied throughout with sun-walled and stone-paved docks

and slips immutable as the ages; more elegant and commodious even than those of the Mersey, into which the ships of all nations shall go and there be anchored, in safety, to the shores of what was once a forbidding and desolate island which was sold by the Indians to the whites for $20! Such is the work of man on his way from barbarism to civilization and power.

The by-elections, which were held during the year 1895, resulted generally in favor of the Republican party. The country had now been suffering for more than two years from the effects of a disastrous financial panic, from the lack of money for the prosecution of enterprises, from low prices, and, indeed, from almost every economic hardship. These things were charged up to the administration of Cleveland, which became more and more unpopular as time went by. The results of the November elections this year greatly encouraged the Republicans. They were able to claim victories in New York, New Jersey, Iowa, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and even in Maryland and Kentucky. It was at this juncture that the first general election was held in the State of Utah; and this also resulted in a Republican victory-though Republicanism in that region meant the free coinage of silver together with the reinstitution of protective duties-this against the sentiment of the Republicans in the commercial centers of the East.

CHAPTER LII.

WHEN the first session of the Fifty-fourth Congress convened on the 2d of December, 1895, the President in his message recommended several financial measures which on the whole were calculated to continue and intensify, rather than break, the strain and hardship of the country. He would have the treasury notes issued by the government, years ago, and long used as currency, to be retired by means of an issue of bonds bearing interest at a low rate. He would also have the tax on the national banks reduced to a nominal rate-this in the hope of stimulating those institutions to a greater liberality toward their customers and the people at large.

On the 17th of the month the President sent a special message to Congress, calling attention to the fact that the British government had refused to submit to arbitration her dispute with Venezuela relative to the so-called Schomburgk line, which was claimed by Great Britain as the boundary of her possessions in that country. This claim, if admitted, would include many of the Venezuelan gold fields with the British possessions. It was the policy of Great Britain at this time—or at least of her subjects-to get possession of nearly all the gold mines of the world, with a view to putting herself in a position where she might sell her gold to all those nations using that metal as a basis of their currency. In following this policy of fastening the gold corner with immovable anchors, she thought to secure from Venezuela the largest possible extent of territory.