persons and ordinary corporations might deduct the amount of the mortgages given by them from the assessment of their mortgaged property, this privilege should not be allowed to railroad corporations. Thus a very marked distinction was made, and very much, as would appear, to the disadvantage of the railroad. But instead of proving an injury, the provision has turned out to be Still another provision of the new constithe contrary. Within a very few months it tution which has substantially failed in its has been pronounced by the U. S. Circuit purpose is that by means of which it was Court to be in contravention of the four- intended to compel the courts to render teenth amendment of the constitution of the decisions, no matter what the character of United States; and though it may be ad- cases or the rush of other business before mitted that it seems a new and strange them, within ninety days after submission. doctrine that a State cannot make such It is true that the courts have endeavored distinctions as it sees proper in reference to to comply with the provision and even with its own revenues and its own citizens, yet its spirit; and that they have in their enwhen the fourteenth amendment is critically deavors to do so performed very great labor. examined, it will be found to be radical, But in practice the ninety-day rule does not positive, and far-reaching in its terms. But stand much in their way, because if the under almost any circumstances, as the calendar is overcrowded or the court does controversy stands, whether the railroad not so desire a case need not be submitted; escapes taxation or not, the provision re- and if it is submitted, it is a very easy thing ferred to presents another instance in which to open the submission. No attorney ever the practice under the new constitution is at wants his case decided if the court has not had variance with the intention of the framers of time and opportunity to consider it fully.. the instrument. form of law, to be "improved out of his property." Some relief was unquestionably demanded. But it is very poor satisfaction to grant that relief in the shape of virtually putting an entire stop to all street improvements, until a still newer constitution or constitutional provision on the subject can be adopted. There are many other respects in which the theory of the new constitution is not carried into effect; and it is exceedingly doubtful if it ever can be. Take the provisions, for instance, in reference to the government of cities and towns. It may be, perhaps, that a system of general laws for their government satisfactory to their citizens can be devised; but, if so, it is likely to be by making almost as many different classes as there are cities and towns. It must be evident, however, that such a classification would not be what the constitution intended. So, too, it is exceedingly doubtful whether the provisions in reference to street improvements can ever be successfully carried out. All persons familiar with the subject must admit that under the old statutes, particularly those relating to the City and County of San Francisco, many wrongs and frauds were committed; and that it was no uncommon thing for a citizen, under the There are a few points in respect to which the operation of the new constitution has been beneficial. One of these has been to bring franchises on the assessment rolls. But it must be plain to every one that, inasmuch as a franchise is property, it was properly taxable under the old constitution as well as under the new one. Another and perhaps the greatest benefit secured by the new constitution, is the inhibition of special legislation. But even the provisions on this subject cannot be regarded by any means as pure and unmixed benefits. The difficulty with them is that they go entirely too far. Almost as much is lost by preventing the legislature, in this too sweeping and indiscriminate manner, from passing beneficial laws in certain cases, as is gained in other cases by preventing it from passing injurious laws. While it cannot be denied that great wrongs were committed under the old system by special legislation, yet at the same time it is clear that such legislation was the fault, not of the old constitution, but of the legislatures which the people of the State saw fit to send to Sacramento. Taken altogether, it appears there is hard ly a particular of any importance in which the new constitution differs from the old one, in which the intention of the framers in making such difference is, or can be, carried out in practice. In several of the points in which these differences occur, and in which we know as a matter of history that the new constitution-makers intended radical changes, judicial construction has decided the new provisions to mean substantially the same as the old ones. In several other respects, the new provisions cannot be carried into effect because they are in opposition to the constitution of the United States. And in still other respects there are provisions that cannot be carried out at all, for the reason that they are impracticable. Under the circumstances the new constitution is not a document for which anybody Nor can have any great amount of respect. is it deserving of any great amount of reIt was framed and adopted at a spect. time when the people were too angry and too desperate to make a constitution. recur to a former figure, the new constitution entered the arena too much like a "hoodlum.” For being too aggressive, it got an eye blacked on one side and an eye gouged on the other. It threw stones at the Chinaman, when it had no business to meddle with him, and got a set-back for acting the rowdy. It took a foul hold of the railroad, when it ought to have dealt a full, fair, and telling blow above the belt; and as a consequence it got ruled out of the ring. It bullied over its predecessor, who was a very modest and respectable gentleman of the old school; and now, on account of its arrogance and deserved blows and bruises, there is none so low to do it reverence. We are sorry to say it, but the truth must be told: it is in too many respects a bad character! Theodore H. Hittell. PALOS AND COLUMBUS. Spain its interest for Phenician navigators. In nearly four centuries since Columbus's time the current of the river has been depositing silt in what was then the port of Palos, and this port is now entirely filled up. With the destruction of the harbor, the town has gone to ruin. The few white'specks which my Spanish friend pointed out to me in the THE end of a long, lovely summer day; the western sun, low in the horizon, is streaming in through the windows of the railway carriage. The Spanish gentleman on the eastern side is looking watchfully across the marshes and the river; and at last, as some mound of sand is passed by the train, and opens a full view to the other side of the wide estuary, he raises his hand light of the evening sun, marked the place and says, "Palo!" Of We were all silent for a moment. I think he knew something of my feeling. And I I found I cared for Palos more than I had supposed possible. I had crossed Spain with the intention of seeing the place. I had overcome some local and accidental difficulties in the way, but I had not at any moment pictured to myself the gulf between 1492 and 1882; nor even asked myself to try to imagine Columbus and Martin Pinzon at work on the equipment of the ships. a sudden, all the features of the contrast presented themselves. Enough, perhaps, that, as we dashed on in the comfort of a railway train, we were looking across the desolate marshes to the forsaken village, where hardly a few white houses could be made out, and told ourselves that from the enterprise and courage of that place the discovery of America became possible. The sea-port of Palos in the time of Columbus was a place so important that the crew and vessels for the first expedition were all gathered there in face of the difficulties which the superstition of the time and the terrors of the voyage presented. I do not suppose it to have been a sea-port of the first class, but it was a considerable and active town. It was on the eastern side of the estuary of the Tinto River, a considerable stream, known to navigators as far back as the first history of navigation. It takes its name Tinto from the color which it brings from the copper and iron mines above, which are the very mines which gave to of the few houses in which a hundred or two poor people are living, where were once the dock-yards and warehouses of the active town. The rival town Huelva, which was even in Columbus's time a place of considerable importance, takes all the commerce of the estuary. I think not even a fishingboat sails from Palos itself; its name will not be found on some of the best recent maps of Spain, and is in very few geographical indexes. Huelva is a port where large steamers can lie at the pier, and is now a place of active and apparently successful trade. An English company, which is developing the mines, has built a good system of railroads, which unite Huelva, with its mining establishments and with Seville, from which beautiful city I had crossed in a four hours' ride. The distance by rail is sixty-six miles, the railway not being very direct. I will say, in passing, that the excursion from Seville is an agreeable one for travelers in the south of Spain. There is a new hotel at Huelva, where we were comfortably accommodated. I was interested to see that all the furniture, which was new, was American manufacture, coming very likely from Worcester County, Massachusetts. Thus far, at least, have we been able to pay our debt to Columbus and to Palos. I was wakened the next morning to hear the singing of birds in a lofty orange-tree in the front of my window, that we might embark at once on our visit to the convent of Rabida, and if possible to the ruins of Palos. A fine half-decked boat, such as one might have hired in Marblehead for a like purpose, with a skipper who looked precisely like his Marblehead congener, but with the lateen-sail which is so curiously characteristic of southern Europe, was ready for our little voyage. We passed heavy steamers, which suggested little enough of Columbus; but there were finelooking fishing-boats, which suggested the plucky little Niña of his voyage; and their seamen are probably dressed to-day much as the men who landed with him at San Salvador. A run of an hour brought us to the fine headland on which the convent of Rabida, or of Sta. Maria de Rabida, stands; scarcely changed, if changed at all, from the aspect it bore on the day when Columbus "asked of the porter a little bread and water for his child." Lord Houghton, following Freiligrath, has sung to us how the "Palm-tree dreameth of the pine, and in his delicate imaginings the dream is of two continents-ocean-parted—each of which longs for the other. Strange enough, as one pushes along the steep ascent from the landing at Rabida up the high bluff on which the convent stands, the palm-tree and the pine grow together, as in token of the dream of the great discoverer who was to unite the continents. In this convent Columbus made his home while the expedition was fitted out, Palos hard by and quite accessible. Hither the Pinzons and the learned physician, Garcia Fernandez, were summoned by the good prince Marchena, Columbus's steady friend, for the great consultations from which the discovery grew. The convent is a large, rambling building, of Moorish lines and aspect, built around several patios, or gardens. Hardly any windows open through the outer walls; but the life of the building engages itself in and around the patios within. Here cloisters, made by columns with arches, surround the pretty inclosures; and here one dines, writes, takes his siesta, or does nothing. Columbus's room, as a fine chamber up-stairs is called, has a large table in the middle, on which is Columbus's inkstand. All, around the room there now hang pictures: some of him, one of Isabella, one of the good old prior, and some by modern painters of different scenes in the great first voyage, and of his experiences after his return. The chapel of the convent is down-stairs. It is neat and pretty, and worship could be renewed there at any time. The Duke of Montpensier, who married a sister of Isabella II., the late Queen of Spain, arranged to have it all put in proper order. The nation maintains the place, and a charming family of Spaniards-grandfather, grandmother, son, daughter, and three nice boys, Christopher, Immanuel, and Joseph-keep the place in order. The Spanish historians now think that Columbus came to Rabida with the very purpose of interesting Marchena, the good prior. Marchena was interested, and recom mended him first to the Bishop of Palavera. But, alas! he thought Columbus was a madman. King and queen alike were occupied in fighting the Moors. The council of wise men at Salamanca, to whom Columbus's plans were referred, decided unfavorably. Columbus did receive some favorable messages from France. Wholly discouraged in Spain, six years after his first visit here, he came again-from Cordoba this timewhere were the relations of his wife and of his son Diego. He came to say that, as Spain had given him up, he should give Spain up, and see if the King of France would not fit out the expedition. The good Friar Marchena was dismayed at this. He could not bear to have the glory lost to Spain. He sent for Garcia Fernandez, a doctor in Palos, who had been interested when Columbus was here before. He sent for Pinzon, a rich merchant of Palos. They all talked it over again, and the friar wrote to the queen this time, not to any bishop. The queen sent back word that Columbus was to come himself to explain the plan; and the sadness of the convent was changed to joy. Columbus's mule was saddled at once. He started that night for Santa Fe, and had an audience from Isabella. She heard and believed. She promised her support. And Columbus wrote this letter to the brother here at the convent: "Our Lord God has heard the prayers of his servants. The wise and virtuous Isabel, touched by the grace of heaven, has kindly listened to this poor man's words. All has turned out well. I have read to them our plan; it has been accepted, and I have been called to the court to state the proper means for carrying out the designs of Providence. My courage swims in a sea of consolation, and my spirit rises in praise to God. Come as soon as you can; the queen looks for you, and I much more than she. I commend myself to the prayers of my dear sons and to you. ing remains-even for a fishing-boat of five tons. If the señor wished, it would be necessary for the boat to come to anchor, and the señor must be carried on the back of the skipper for three-quarters of a mile or more—on the flat under water, which has formed where proud ships once rode. The señor declined this proposal, and bade the boatmen take him to the bar of Saltes, the little island in front of Palos and Huelva, where Columbus's vessels lay, and from which he sailed at eight o'clock on the morning of Friday, August 3rd, 1492. The run from Rabida, tacking back and forth with a brisk breeze, was perhaps an hour or a little more. The island, which was the last of Europe for the great navigator, can be scarcely changed. The island is a narrow bar, high enough to break the force of the south and south "The grace of God be with you, and may west winds as they sweep in from the our Lady of Rabida bless you." Atlantic, and thus makes the admirable harbor of Huelva. After a visit full of interest to Rabida, we returned to our boat, and I directed my seamen to take me to some landing, whence I could go into the very street of Palos or what was left of it. To my surprise, I was told that this was impossible. No such land We discharged the grateful duty of collecting some memorials of a place so interesting; and then, by a rapid run before the wind, returned to the pier at Huelva, which is some six miles up the river. Edward Everett Hale. COREAN MEDICAL SCIENCE. MEDICINE seems to be the only branch of science in which the modern Coreans have made progress. Their system is borrowed from China, and for centuries their medical literature and many of their choicest drugs have been imported from the Middle Kingdom. Almost the only surgery known is chim, acupuncture, or the introduction of needles of silver, steel, or gold, an inch or more into the tissues of the body, to restore the equilibrium of health. This art, which is not yet altogether abandoned in Europe, but which has been left behind in the proggress of science, is largely resorted to with great success; and several treatises on the science and practice, which have been composed by native physicians, are still in use. Ipen-chak, an ancient worthy, is the father of Corean medicine. For the instruction of medical students, models of the human body made of iron wire are set up, and the parts safely vulnerable to the needle are shown, and illustrations of the operation given. The comparative excellence of this method of healing is proved by its general use, both in Japan and China. The French missionaries in Corea bear witness to many instances of prompt relief in serious cases of treatment. Small-pox is common, and vaccination, introduced from China, is now in vogue; |