CURRENT LITERATURE.

"Leo XIII. and the Social Question" is the title of an interesting article in the North American Review, by the Rev. J. A. Zahm Professor of Physics at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana. A peculiar interest attaches itself to this contribution as having formed the subject of a conversation between his Holiness and Fr. Zahm. "The Turning of the Tide," by Worthington C. Ford, Chief of the Bureau of Statistics at Washington, shows conclusively that the financial depression of our country is at an end, and that a bright prospect is before us. "The New Administration in England," by Sir Charles W. Dilke, M. P., is an interesting and instructive article on British Politics.

One of the subjects which is interesting the scientific world at present is Argon, the newly discoverd constituent of the atmosphere. This forms the subject of an interesting article in August Popular Science Monthly, by Dr. John Tappan, Professor of Chemistry in Smith College. Among the illustrated articles in this month's issue is an interesting discussion of "Apparatus for Extinguishing Fires," by John B. Morse. It gives the history of fire-fighting in the United States from the time when each inhabitant of Salem, Massachusetts was ordered to "be supplied with a ladder under penalty of five shillings," to the present day of self-propelling steam fire engines.

"International Law in the Japanese War is one of the most interesting topics discussed in the July number of Littell's Living Age. The writer, T. E. Holland, Chichele Professor of International Law and Diplomacy in the University of Oxford, takes up each rule of warfare which governs civilized nations and shows how it was regarded or disregarded in the recent eastern conflict. A unique article appears in an early number of the month on “Advertising as a Trespass on the Public." In it Richardson Evans makes a plea for country roads, whose beauty he claims is fast being defaced by unsightly bill-boards which are an eyesore to the public.

Public Opinion is catering to the popular demand for something about Napoleon. This "Napoleonic craze," as it has been aptly termed, has provided a fruitful subject for a great many writers, Some of their productions have been worthy, while others under ordinary conditions would have been given an early consignment in the waste-basket. Foremost among the former class is the life of Napoleon by Miss Tarbell, which appeared serially in McClure's Magazine. This is now published in a handsome cloth bound volume, profusely illustrated, and is given by Public Opinion to its new subscribers.

The August American Magazine of Civics contains two interesting articles on that all absorbing topic "Money," "Bimetallism and Currency," by Joshua Douglass, and "A Plea for a Sound Currency and Banking System," by Allen Ripley Foote. The former article is one of peculiar interest at this time when the subject is receiving so much attention from all sections of the country and all classes of people. It gives a very good idea of the legislation on the subject in this country and presents a strong case for the silver side. Other articles in the August number are "A Cure for the Gerrymander," by John Haynes; "The True Basis of Political Reform," and "The Necessity of State Labor Tribunals."

The August Review of Reviews contains "Theodore Roosevelt," a Character Sketch, by Julian Ralph; "The Clearing of Mulberry Bend," the story of the rise and fall of a typical New York slum, by Jacob A. Riis; "The Third Salisbury Cabinet," by W. T. Stead. Among the leading articles of the month discussed are “Six Years of Civil Service Reform." "Suggestions from New Zealand," "Our Surplus Grain." "Wendell Phillips on Public Speaking," and "The Brighter Side of Chinsse Life."

MIGHIGAN LAW JOURNAL.

VOL. IV.

SEPTEMBER, 1895

No. 9.

ADDRESS OF WELCOME DELIVERED BY HON. DON M.
DICKINSON BEFORE THE AMERICAN
BAR ASSOCIATION.

It was with one voice that the bar of Michigan, intending in the selection to show you the highest consideration in our power, named as our spokesman to greet you and to welcome you to the state, our beloved and distinguished leader, George V. N. Lothrop.

It is with regret, therefore, that I am compelled to announce that his condition of health will prevent the appearing before you in this place, and that the office has been allotted to me to tell you how glad we are to have you here. The state of Michigan opens her great heart to you, and her inland seas send you a smiling welcome on the face of their blue waters that pass our doors on their way to Niagara and the Atlantic.

As a representative here of all our people, chosen to speak for them on this occasion, I do most heartily thank you for coming to us, and bid you a most cordial welcome. At the same time, whether we say it or not, the most of us feel way down in our innermost hearts, that you are to be congratulated because of your happy lot of being in Michigan, even for a short time, and upon your exceptionally felicitous choice of Detroit as a place of meeting. We look about us upon our intelligent people, our peerless system of education, our natural resources, our mighty commerce, our beautiful land and our great waterways, and seeing our possessions and what we have done withal, we reflect that we are not as the rich and effete east, or as the cruder and sometimes rude and strident west, or as the fullblooded and impulsive south, and we, admiring ourselves, say, that we are the true mean among them all, and that it is good to be truly the mean. Then we thank God, satisfied, and look out upon the rest of the world ready to make allowances for faults, foibles and shortcomings, in a spirit of broad Christian charity. Nevertheless, we like to be visited, so that those learned in our history and

importance, may come to an appreciation of their knowledge, and so that the unlearned may become wise.

A few days ago a senator of the United States from the great state of New York referred to the city of Detroit as situated on the shores of Lake Michigan!

Now, we would have him know, and all the rest of our friends of the Atlantic coast, who have never been west of Buffalo, know, that a commerce passes the port of Detroit in but the seven months of open navigation, seven times as great, in tonnage of merchandise as the entire year's carrying trade of the North Atlantic highway, and more than twice as great as the combined entries and clearances of the whole world at the ports of New York and Liverpool together. In the summer of 1893, a member of the Supreme Court of the United States-one of the most eminent men produced by this republic, and one of the greatest judges who ever wore the ermine, spent a month within sight of the two endless processions of shipping that pass each other on this water road. Mere statistics had

not greatly impressed him, but the actual view of the living facts filled him with astonished conviction. To that visit more than anything else, I believe, does our fresh water Neptune owe his belt and spur of knight; for in December, 1893, the court gave to our lakes and connecting rivers the full legal title and dignity of "high seas," rankiug with the oceans and seas of the world. I say, in passing, that now, with our sister states of the northwest, we are asking, with more and more urgency-nay, we will soon demand, from the United States, a free, and above all, a wholly American outlet to tide water, so that we may ship our goods to every open. port on the earth without change of bulk.

In agriculture, Michigan's resources can feed all nations; in building material we can build cottages and palaces for them all; we can gridiron the world with our iron and steel, and from our manufactories can equip the lines with rolling stock. We produce the most and best iron of any state or nation.

Our copper product is now at least half of the world's supply. Copper mining is remunerative, but I suggest to our fellow-citizens of the United States from abroad, that it would pay us better if the government would open its mints to the free and unlimited coinage of copper as money, impose the legal tender quality, fix a ratio (at) any figure that is not material) with gold and silver, and then maintain the parity of the three metals with all the financial resources of the republic, “independently of and without waiting for the

assent of foreign nations." Michigan would like this, and if it should turn out well, we might, following Lycurgus, try it with our iron by and by. But that's another story, as Kipling would say.

And I want to tell you something about your immediate hostess, the fair city of Detroit. You have been introduced-you do not know her.

Some one said, not long ago, that the founders of our town modeled it after the city of Washington, as Washington was modeled from Versailles, and Versailles from a cobweb. But before Louis XIV. had finished his palace at Versailles-the beginning of the city-before Washington was dreamed of-nay, before the Father of his Country was born, and while his father Augustine was yet a child of 8 years, Detroit was founded.

As English song and story impress one with the mistiness of the long past, by the admixture of Celtic myth with history, when they tell of King Arthur and Sir Lancelot and Guinevere, so the beautiful tale of Evangeline, like another Aeneid, relating the expulsion and the wanderings of a people from their country, seems of a time almost lost in an age long gone. Yet Detroit had been a vigorous historic fact for half a century when her citizens opened her gates and their hearts and homes to many of the sad and weary Acadian exiles, driven from their homes by England. Nay more, we "Gave them of the corn land

That was of public right,

As much as two strong oxen

Could plow from morn' to night."

And they and their descendants have abided with us unto this day. Before St. Petersburg was founded by Peter the Great-Detroit

was.

More than six decades before the birth of Napoleon; when Louis the Grand had turned pious and was in the zenith of his power; when James II. of England was living an exile at the court of France; when William of Orange was England's sovereign, and Peter the Great ruled Russia and was the dread of Europe-this town had come to stay.

When Cotton Mather published his Magnalia; twenty years before potatoes were known in America; before there was a newspaper or postoffice in the colonies; before the great war of the Spanish secession; more than forty years before the Highlanders went down with King Charlie before the English at Culloden; nearly sixty years before Wolfe died on the plains of Abraham and Canada be

came English; fifty years before Washington, in his early 20s, was with Braddock at Fort Duquesne, and fifty years before Franklin flew his kite; long before George III. was born-Detroit was receiving visitors within her borders, with the same warmth of hospitality with which we greet you. We had passed three score and ten when Boston gave her first sucessful tea party; when the first cabin was built in Kentucky; when Daniel Boone was first heard of; when the embattled farmers stood and fired the shot heard around the world. Before New Orleans was thought of; when Baltimore and Savannah were founded; before there was an English settlement in VermontDetroit had twice enlarged her stockade to take in the population for whom there had ceased to be room within it.

Detroit's sons have shed their blood in all the wars of the colonies and of the republic. They have charged for the golden lilies of France, defended the cross of St. George, and been represented in every battle on the side of Old Glory since it first floated.

We take just pride in our ancestors, and their descendants from gallant France; aside from these, Michigan's people are great grandsons and grandsons of New England, and sons and grandsons of Central and Northern New York-albeit, we are broader and cleverer Americans than our forbears.

Such as we are, Michigan and Detroit salute you with honor. We wanted you to know that we receive you on classic ground, with the influence of nearly two centuries of an always progressive civilization about you. It is fitting that the representatives of the bar of this country should meet in the state of that bench, whose judgments were and are confidently cited as authoritative wherever law is administered-the bench of Campbell, Cooley, Christiancy, and Graves. We greet you in the federal circuit of such jurists as McLean, Waite, Swayne, and of him who has lately gone to his reward of a life well lived and of a judicial career unexcelled for rectitude, justice and ability by any one of them-I refer to the lamented Howell E. Jackson.

we wish you success in your We would like this meeting to would not interfere with your economy of time dictates that

Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, deliberations in the broadest sense. be a memorable one; and while we labors, we must insist that the best you shall occasionally turn aside from the road you are following, for rest, and while you are in this pleasant land, we propose to lead you by the still waters and make you to lie down in green pastures. And so good-night.