subdued by Ishak's unassisted efforts, and the Ameer has never ventured to interfere with his administration.

The Russo-Afghan Boundary.—The joint AngloRussian Boundary Commission completed the last stage of the boundary delimitation before the end of January, 1888, and dispatched the final protocol with maps of the frontier on February 4. The English commissioners, Maj. Peacocke and Capt. Yate, then returned to England over the Trans-Caspian Railway and through Russia.

The Central Asian Railway.—The Russo-Bokharan Railway, which was completed as far as Chardjui in 1887, was extended through Bokhara to the terminus at Samarcand, and opened with festivities in July, 1888. Gen. Annenkoff, who projected and directed the construction of the road, has been appointed chief director for two years, and has the disposal of 4,500,000 rubles, which is less than half the sum that the Department of the Imperial Control has decided to be requisite to finish the work, but more by 1,500,000 rubles than the general has declared to be sufficient. The total cost of the line has been 43,000,000 rubles. The whole length of the railway from the Caspian to Samarcand is 1,345 versts, or about 900 miles. The section from Kizil Arvat was begun seven and a half years before the completion of the work, but the whole line east of that place was built in three years, and the section from the Oxus to Samarcand, a distance of 346 versts, or 230 miles, was rushed through in six months. The cost of this section is officially stated at 7,198,000 rubles. The journey between St. Petersburg and Samarcand will not take more than ten days, after the railroad is in proper working-order.

Annexation of Pishin to British India.-By virtue of the treaty made by the Ameer Yakub Khan at Gandamak on May 26, 1879, the districts of Pishin and Sibi were assigned to the British Government for temporary occupation and administration. The revenues beyond what was necessary for the expenses of civil administration were to be paid over to the Ameer. After the abdication of Yakub Khan these districts remained in British occupation, whereas the Kunam valley was evacuated by the British troops in 1880, and handed over to the independent control of the Tussi. On the completion of the Sibi Pishin Railway in 1887 the occupied districts were formally incorporated in the Indian Empire, and placed under the administration of the chief commissioner of British Beluchistan.

AGNOSTIC. Although directly derived from the Greek ayvwσros (unknown, unknowing, unknowable), this word in its Anglicized form is not found in any of the standard dictionaries prior to 1869. Richard Holt Hutton is responsible for the statement that it was suggested by Prof. Thomas Henry Huxley at a social assemblage held shortly before the formation of the subsequently famous Metaphysical Society.

To Huxley in turn it was suggested by St. Paul's reference to the altar raised in honor of "the unknown God." An agnostic is one who holds that everything beyond the material is unknown and probably unknowable. In his view the whole visible and calculable universe is material in greater or less degree, and therefore to some extent knowable, but the unseen world and the Supreme Being are beyond human perceptions and therefore unknowable. The 66 Spectator " of Jan. 29, 1870, said of Prof. Huxley: "He is a great and even severe agnostic, who goes about exhorting all men to know how little they know." Again, in 1871, Mr. Hutton writes: "They themselves (the agnostics) vehemently dispute the term (atheism) and usually prefer to describe their state of mind as a sort of know-nothingism or agnosticism or belief in an unknown and unknowable God."

In 1874 St. George Mivart ("Essay on Religion") refers to the agnostics as "Our modern sophists . . . who deny that we have any knowledge save of phenomena." "Nicknames," says the 'Spectator" of June 11, 1876, "are given by opponents, but agnostic was the name demanded by Prof. Huxley for those who disclaimed atheism, and believed with him in an 'unknown and unknowable' God, or in other words that the ultimate origin of all things must be some cause unknown and unknowable."

Principal Tulloch in an essay on agnosticism in the "Scotsman" of Nov. 18, 1876, said: "The same agnostic principle which prevailed in our schools of philosophy bad extended itself to religion and theology. Beyond what man can know by his senses, or feel by his higher affections, nothing, as was alleged, could be truly known.'

Conder, in "The Basis of Faith" (1877), wrote: "But there is nothing per se irrational in contending that the evidences of theism are inconclusive, that its doctrines are unintelligible, or that it fails to account for the facts of the universe or is irreconcilable with them. To express this kind of polemic against religious faith, the term agnosticism has been adopted." Dr. James McCosh in an essay on Agnosticism as developed in Huxley's Hume "" ("Popular Science Monthly," August, 1879), writes: "I am showing that the system is false and thus leads to prejudicial consequencesfalse to our nature, false to the ends of our being."

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to feed on it you found it was powdered glass, and you had been eating the deadliest poison." These are but a few of the examples that abound in contemporary literature. For Prof. Huxley's own views, the reader is referred to his works, especially such essays and chapters as are semi-religious or speculative. While Prof. Huxley is, as has been seen, popularly and no doubt rightly credited with having originated the term agnostic, in its modern acceptation, he is by no means the founder of the school that holds to a belief solely in material things. The Grecian sophists, and probably more anciently still the various Chinese and Oriental schools, taught and teach similar theories. In more recent times Descartes, Kant, David Hume, John Stuart Mill, and others have followed out trains of thought more or less identical, but all suggestive, whether just or not, of atheism. With Huxley the repudiation of atheism was strongly emphasized, but his orthodox opponents have never been willing to admit that he and his contemporaries succeeded in freeing themselves from the implied charge. As popularly phrased by the "Saturday Review," it is held to be "atheism writ large"; and yet, when candidly examined, the agnostic creed can hardly be distinguished from those of the more liberal Christian sects. It is an accepted principle of law that a court may properly decide as to the scope of its own jurisdiction, and a school of religion or philosophy should in like manner, and in good faith be permitted to interpret its own belief. While repudiating the charge of atheism, the agnostics have frankly admitted their inability to define or individualize their conception of a deity. Perhaps it is not unnatural that those sects which accept the teachings of the Old and the New Testament, in this regard, should consider non-acceptance as equivalent to atheism. Some of the more important of the essays bearing upon this subject are as follows: "Agnosticism," sermons delivered in St. Peter's, Cranley Gardens, by the Rev. A. W. Momerie, (Edinburgh and London, 1887); Agnosticism and Women," "Nineteenth Century," vol. vii, by B. Lathbury; "Agnosticism and Women,' a reply, "Nineteenth Century," vol. vii, by J. H. Clapperton; "Confessions of an Agnostic," "North American Review"; "The Assumptions of Agnostics," "Fortnightly Review," vol. xiii, by St. George Mivart; " An Agnostic's Apology," Fortnightly Review,' vol. xix, by Leslie Stephen; "Variety as an Aim in Nature," "Contemporary Review," November, 1871, by the Duke of Argyle.

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ALABAMA. State Government.-The following were the State officers during the year: Governor, Thomas Seay, Democrat; Secretary of State, C. C. Langdon; Treasurer, Frederick H. Smith, succeeded by John L. Cobbs; Auditor, Malcolm C. Burke, succeeded by Cyrus D. Hogue; Attorney-General, Thomas N. McClellan; Superintendent of Public Instruction,

W

ure, Rufus F. Kolb; Railroad Commission Henry R. Shorter, Levi W. Lawler, Tunstall; Chief-Justice of the Supreme Co George W. Stone; Associate Justices, Da Clopton and H. M. Somerville.

a

Finances. The balance in the treasury Oct. 1, 1887, was $276,488.82, and on the s date in 1888 it was $555,587.87. During year, in accordance with a law passed by last Legislature, the entire school-fund, hith to retained in the counties and disbursed the was paid into the State treasury. Of this fur there was in the treasury at the latter da $181,301.21; leaving the actual balance general purposes, after deducting this other special funds, $316,916.39. The bond debt of the State remains the same as in 188 An act of the last Legislature providing for r funding the 6-per-cent. bonds amounting $954,000 into 3-per-cents. has not yet bee complied with by the Governor, as the forme bonds are not redeemable till 1890, and he ask an extension of his power till that time. tax valuation of the State in 1886 was $173,808, 097; in 1887, $214,925,869. And for the pres ent year about $223,000,000.

Th

Education. The report of the State Superin tendent of Education for the year ending Sept. 30, 1887, presents the following statistics: Outside of the cities and special school districts. 3,658 schools for white pupils and 1,925 for colored pupils were maintained; the total number of pupils enrolled in the former being 153,304, and in the latter 98,396. The average daily attendance was 93,723 in the white schools, and 63,995 in the colored. During this time the total number of white children within school age was 272,730; of colored children, 212,821. There were 2,413 male teachers in the white schools and 1,237 female; 1,264 colored male teachers and 569 female. The average length of the school year was only 705 days, a decrease of over sixteen days from figures of the previous year, due to the omission of returns from the city and special district schools in this report. The total sum available to the State for school purposes during the year was $515,989.95, and the expenditures amounted to $527,319.88, necessitating the use of a portion of the unexpended balance of former years. The schools of the State stand in urgent need of stronger financial support. For several years the school fund has been increased but slightly, while the school population has been steadily growing in numbers, being 32,614 greater at the close of the school year in 1887 than in the previous year. The per capita disbursement by the State in 1887, being about seventy cents, is less than in many of the Southern States.

The Convict System. The contracts under which the convicts sentenced to the State Penitentiary had been previously employed, expired by their terms on the first of January, and, in accordance with the law, proposals were issued

for a new lease, which was awarded to the East Tennessee Coal, Iron, and Railroad Company. The convicts are to be employed in the Pratt coal-mines, near Birmingham, where the company agrees to build prisons and to maintain schools for the benefit of the convicts. Female convicts are exempted from this lease, and also all those who by reason of age, infirmity, or physical defect, were unable to perform hard labor. The class of convicts last described are gathered at the walls of the old Penitentiary at Wetumpka, and are engaged in such employments as are suited to their condition.

"In accepting this proposal,” remarks the Governor in his last message to the Legislature, "whereby the continuance of the present lease system in Alabama appears to be fixed for a term of ten years, I do not intend to give the sanction of my judgment to the perpetuation of the lease system. I thought, however, and still think, considering the state of our finances, which does not yet justify an entire disregard of pecuniary considerations, and considering also the characteristics of those who constitute very largely the criminal class, that the lease system could not at present be dispensed with."

Railroads. The report of the railroad commissioners for this year shows that there are 3,205 miles of railroad, including branches and sidings, in the State. During the year, 530 miles of new railroad were constructed, indicating an unusually rapid development.

Yellow Fever.-Great alarm was felt throughout the State, in the latter part of September, over reports of the existence of yellow fever in several localities. These reports proved unfounded, except in regard to Decatur, where, about September 20, several well-defined cases appeared. The disease soon became epidemic, and all who were able to leave the city, at once fled, leaving scarcely 500 persons remaining out of a population of several thousand. Quarantine regulations were enforced against the city, and the regular course of business was suspended. Although the epidemic was at no time violent, one or more new cases appeared almost daily for about two months, when the frosts of the latter part of November put an end to the scourge. The total number of cases reported up to November 1, was 123, of which 30 terminated fatally. The cases reported in November increase these figures but slightly. Contributions were received from several Northern cities in aid of the sufferers. Sporadic cases among refugees from Decatur occurred in other parts of the State, but there was no epidemic.

Decisions.-A decision of the State Supreme Court was rendered in March, declaring unconstitutional the act of the last General Assembly making appropriations for the establishment and support of a State University for colored people. The act provides that the sums appropriated shall be taken from that part of the common-school fund set apart for the education of

the colored race in Alabama. The opinion holds that this university is not a part of the commonschool system of the State within the meaning of the Constitution, and that the act under consideration, in declaring that the sum appropriated shall be taken from that portion of the common-school fund given to the colored race destroys the equality of the apportionment of that fund between the white and colored races required by the Constitution.

Earlier in the year another act of the same General Assembly, requiring locomotive engineers to obtain a license from the State, was passed upon by the United States Supreme Court and upheld. It was urged that the act, when enforced against engineers running into the State from outside points, became in effect a regulation of interstate commerce, and, therefore, unconstitutional, but the court refused to consider it as such.

In October the same court decided that the law prohibiting the employment of color-blind persons by railroads and requiring all railroad employés to have their sight tested by a board of experts was not a regulation of interstate

commerce.

Political. The first State Convention of the Labor party, which assembled at Montgomery on March 22, was the earliest political movement of the year. The delegates voted to present no separate State ticket, but advised that Labor candidates for the Legislature and for Congress be presented in the several districts. A platform was adopted, of which the following is the more important portion:

We favor such legislation as may lead to reduce the hours of labor; to prohibit the competition of convict labor with honest industry; to secure the sanitary inspection of tenements, factories, and mines; to compel corporations to pay their employés in lawful money of the United States at intervals of not longer conspiracy laws. than two weeks; and to put a stop to the abuse of

We also aim at the ultimate and complete ownership and control by the Government of all railroads, telegraph and telephone lines within its jurisdiction. We would have the General Government issue all moneys without the intervention of banks, and postal savings-banks added to the postal system. We also desire to simplify the procedure of our courts and diminish the expenses of legal proceedings, that the poor may be placed on equality with the rich, and the long delays which now result in scandalous miscarriages of justice may be prevented.

And since the ballot is the only means by which in our republic the redress of political and social grievances is to be sought, we especially and emphatically declare for the adoption of what is known as the "Australian system" of voting, in order that the effectual secrecy of the ballot and the relief of candidates for public office from the heavy expenses now imposed upon them may prevent bribery and navor of the rich and unscrupulous, and lessen the intimidation, do away with practical discrimination pernicious influences of money in politics.

The Prohibitionists met in convention at Decatur on April 18, and made the following nominations: Governor, J. C. Orr; Secretary of State, L. C. Coulson; Attorney-General, Peter Finley; Auditor, M. C. Wade; Treasurer,

N. F. Thompson; Superintendent of Education, M. C. Denson.

A platform was adopted demanding, in addition to prohibition, national aid to education, a residence of twenty-one years by foreigners before voting, better election laws, and the abolition of the internal-revenue system.

On May 9 the Democratic Convention met at Montgomery, and nominated the following candidates: Governor, Thomas Seay; Secretary of State, C. C. Langdon; Treasurer, John L. Cobbs: Auditor, Cyrus D. Hogue; Attorney-General, Thomas N. McClellan; Superintendent of Education, Solomon Palmer.

Brief resolutions were adopted as follow: That the firmness, ability, and statesmanship displayed by President Cleveland in the administration of his high office entitle him to the confidence and support of his fellow-citizens. That we indorse and approve his administration, and especially his action and efforts to make a reform and reduction of the tariff, and we believe that the interests of the country demand his re-election, and to that end our delegates to the National Convention are hereby instructed to vote for his nomination.

That we are unalterably opposed to the present war tariff. We demand reform of the tariff and a reduction of the surplus in the Treasury by a reduciton of tariff taxation.

That we indorse the administration of Gov. Seay, which has been so eminently satisfactory to the whole people of Alabama.

That we favor a liberal appropriation for public schools, in order that the means of acquiring a knowledge of the rudiments of education may be afforded to every child in the State.

That we favor the encouragement of immigration to this State, and to that end we recommend such wise and judicious legislation by the General Assembly as will best accomplish that result.

The Republican State Convention met at Montgomery, May 16, and nominated the following ticket: Governor, W. T. Ewing; Secretary of State, J. J. Woodall; Auditor, R. S. Heflin; Attorney-General, George H. Craig; Treasurer, Sam T. Fowler: Superintendent of Education, J. M. Clark. This ticket was considerably changed before the election, Robert P. Baker being the candidate for Secretary of State, Napoleon B. Mardis for Attorney-General, and Lemuel J.Standifer for Superintendent of Education. The following resolutions were passed:

That while we depreciate all sectional issues and wish for harmony between all the citizens of our great country, we demand as the legal and constitutional right of the people that the exercise of the right of suffrage shall be full and untrammeled, and that the ballot shall be counted and returned as cast in all sections of this great republic, and to help secure this end we favor a national law to regulate the election of members of Congress and Presidential electors, and demand that the election laws of Alabama be so amended as to hinder fraud and not encourage it.

That we condemn President Cleveland's tariff mes

sage and the Mills tariff bill as tending toward free trade and to the destruction of American industries and to the degradation of American labor to the servile condition of European labor, and we favor liberal protection to all American industries and labor.

That we condemn Senator Morgan's declaration that the vast mineral wealth of Alabama is a "doubtful blessing," because it tends to increase the laboring

An

At the election, August 6, the Democratic ticket received its usual large majority. The Legislature elected is overwhelmingly Democratic, 32 out of 33 Senators and 91 out of 100 members of the House being Democratic. amendment to the State Constitution, designed to reduce the amount of local and special legislation demanded at each legislative session, failed of adoption, receiving fewer than 50,000 votes out of a total poll of over 180,000. the November election a Democratic delegation to the national House of Representatives was chosen. The Democratic presidential ticket received 117,310 votes; the Republican, 57,197; the Prohibition, 583.

At

1630, and the descendant of the former, Capt. John, who held a commission from his kinsman Gov. Trumbull, lived on his father's estate, "Spindle Hill," where his grandson, Amos Bronson, the son of Joseph Chatfield and Anna Bronson Alcox, was born. "My father was skilful in handicraft, and in these arts I inherited some portion of his skill, and early learned the use of his tools," wrote Mr. Alcott in his diary, when describing his life in the primitive days of New England. In 1814 he entered Silas Hoadley's clock-factory in Plymouth, and at the age of sixteen began to peddle books about the country. In 1818 he sailed to Norfolk, Va., where he hoped to engage in teaching, but, failing in this, he bought silk and trinkets and made a peddling tour in the adjacent counties, where he enjoyed the hospitality of the planters, who, astonished at the intellectual conversation of this literary Autolycus, received him as a guest. He spent the winter of 1822 in peddling among the Quakers of North Carolina, but abandoned this life in 1823, and began to teach. He soon established an infant-school in Boston, which immediately attracted attention from the unique conversational method of his teaching; but this was in advance of the time, and he was denounced by the press and forced to retire. He then removed to Concord, Mass., where he devoted himself to the study of natural theology and reform in civil and social institutions, education, and diet, and frequently appeared on the lecture platform, where his originality made him attractive. In 1830 he married Miss Abby May, a descendant of the Quincy and Sewall families, and removed to Germantown, Pa., but in 1834 he returned to Boston, and reopened his school, which he continued for several years. His system was to direct his pupils to self-analysis and self-education, forcing them to contemplate the spirit as it unveiled within themselves, and to investigate all subjects from an original standpoint. A journal of the school, kept by one of his pupils, Elizabeth P. Peabody, was published under the title of "A Record of Mr. Alcott's School" (Boston, 1834; 3d ed., 1874). The school suggested to his daughter that of "Plumfield," which is described in "Little Men."

At the invitation of James P. Greaves, of London, the friend and fellow-laborer of Pestalozzi in Switzerland, Mr. Alcott went to England in 1843, and Mr. Greaves having died in the mean time, Mr. Alcott was cordially received by his friends, who gave the name Alcott Hall to their school in Ham, near London. On his return he was accompanied by Charles Lane and H. G. Wright, with whom he endeavored to establish the "Fruitlands," in Harvard, Mass., an attempt to form a community upon a philosophical basis, which was soon abandoned. After living for a while in Boston, Mr. Alcott returned to Concord, where his life was that of a peripatetic philosopher. For forty years he was the friend and compan

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ion of Emerson, who described him to Carlyle as "a majestic soul, with whom conversation is possible." He frequently gave conversations" in cities and villages, on divinity, ethics, dietetics, and other subjects. These gradually became formal, and were continued for nearly fifty years. They have been thus described: "He sits at a table or desk, and after his auditors have assembled begins to talk on some scientific subject mentioned beforehand. He continues this for one hour exactly-his watch lying before him-in a fragmentary, rambling manner, and concludes with some such phrase as 'The spirit of conversation is constrained tonight,' 'Absolute freedom is essential to the freedom of the soul,' 'Thought can not be controlled.' Then he stops, and the next evening begins with another theme, treats it in the same desultory way, and ends with similar utterances."

The opening of the Concord School of Philosophy, in 1878, gave him new intellectual strength, and he was prominent in its proceedings. The last years of his life were spent with his daughter Louisa, in Boston. He was the intimate friend of Channing, Hawthorne, Garrison, Phillips, Emerson, and Thoreau. The latter describes him as "One of the last philosophers-Connecticut gave him to the world; he peddled first her wares, afterward, as he declares, her brains. These he peddles still, bearing for fruit his brain only, like the nut its kernel. His words and attitude always suppose a better state of things than other men are acquainted with, and he will be the last man to be disappointed as the ages revolve. He has no venture in the present. . . . A true friend of man, almost the only friend of human progress, with his hospitable intellect he embraces children, beggars, insane, and scholars, and entertains the thought of all, adding to it commonly some breadth and elegance. Whichever way we turned, it seemed that the heavens and the earth had met together since he enhanced the beauty of the landscape. I do not see how he can ever die; Nature can not spare him."

Besides numerous contributions to periodical literature, including papers entitled "Orphic Sayings in "The Dial" (Boston, 1839-'42), he wrote "Conversations with Children on the Gospels" (2 vols., Boston, 1836); "Tablets" (1868); "Concord Days" (1872); "TableTalk (1877): "Sonnets and Canzonets" (1882); and "The New Connecticut," an autobiographical poem, edited by Franklin B. Sanborn (Boston, 1887).

His daughter, LOUISA MAY, author, born in Germantown, Pa., Nov. 29, 1832; died in Boston, Mass., March 6, 1888, was educated by her father. Her first literary attempt, "An Address to a Robin," was made at the age of eight, and she soon began to write stories. In 1848 she wrote her first book, "Flower-Fables," for Ellen Emerson, but this made no impression on its publication in 1855. In 1851 she