so far as the like desire and the like liberty have existed, equality has come already.

Which is the better singer? Is it the man or the woman? It is the woman. No man, as a singer, has ever equalled Jenny Lind or Patti. Which has been the better orator? The man. No woman, as an orator, has ever equalled Demosthenes or Sheridan or Ingersoll. But why does the woman outsing the man? and why does the man outspeak the woman? It is simply a question of desire, of facility by practice, of the hereditary streak created by freedom to do the given thing. Woman has been free to sing and man has been free to speak. For singing the woman has been applauded, and for speaking she has been satirized. She has responded to both stimuli. Man has been applauded for speaking and called effeminate for singing. His character has been formed under both influences. He has been free to speak, but not free to sing. She has been free to sing, but not free to speak. Hence the hereditary streaks in each. Make them equally free and they will be freely equal. As long as woman blossoms under praise and wilts under ridicule, as long as man responds to the stimulus of applause and cowers under sarcasm, as long as freedom and immunity are not conceded to both equally to do all proper things freely according to their desires and ambitions, the hereditary streaks of action and art and privilege will continue to prevent equality.

Equality comes by freedom. All creatures will be equal when they are free-each in his order and according to his kind.

"We do not take possession of our ideas, but are possessed by them. They master us and force us into the arena,

Where, like gladiators, we must fight for them."-Heine.

F

ROM oversea, in the midday of our national turmoil, comes a wave of sentiment breaking on our shores and pervading our atmosphere. It is a call to our people to enter into alliance with the Mother Country. It is not Great Britain herself who calls, but rather her representatives. The invitation is given by those who in some sense speak in her name. They represent at least the present temper of the British nation. Their call for an Anglo-American alliance is caught in the great sounding-board of British journalism, and is flung almost vociferously abroad wherever the English language is spoken. The answering soundingboard of American journalism catches the echo and flings it back with hilarious approval. Thus, for the time, an international enthusiasm has broken out in favor of some kind of union between Great Britain and the United States of America. Certainly the enthusiasm has been a long time coming!

On the morning of June 6, 1898, the writer attended the anniversary celebration of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Boston. This event is always a great occasion. The anniversary has been observed for two hundred and sixty years. The exercises were held in the New Old South Church, with its stately medieval tower over

topping the Public Library of Boston, in Copley Square. The élite of the city sat in the auditorium. There were the Governor and his staff. There were many of the dignitaries of the city and the commonwealth. The principal speaker was Dr. R. R. Meredith, of Brooklyn, New York. His address was a plea for the proposed Anglo-American alliance. He openly advocated the acceptance of the overture. Not in an uncertain and tentative manner did he rush forward to grasp the proffered hand. Not timidly did he brush aside the old patriotic sentiment of the American people for independence and a separate nationality. He went the whole length of the trail. He pulled up the anchor and sailed away. He reviewed the doctrines of the fathers and put them aside as if they were naught. He ridiculed, in particular and by name, the Farewell Address of Washington, and proposed that it should be framed and hung up as a ridiculous memento of an age no longer admirable, and a doctrine no longer applicable to the political life of the American nation. For all this he was roundly applauded. The applause was not universal or uproarious, but it was general and satisfactory. His principles were approved with the clapping of hands, and with laughter at the speaker's ridicule of the Farewell Address. By mentioning these facts I hope to give them a wider publicity than they might otherwise enjoy!

For myself, I say that an American orator who, in the capital of New England, or in any other capital of this our noble democratic empire of States, should propose to frame and hang away the Farewell Address of Washington as an absurd relic of the past is himself no American; and if I do not mistake the conditions that still exist in the United States, he is no expositor of the hopes and aspirations of the American people. Aye, more; I have a well-defined notion that such an orator would better emigrate for the good of the Republic.

I purpose in this article to look dispassionately at the proposal to form an Anglo-American alliance. It is of the utmost importance that this question should be calmly and patriotically considered. It is unworthy the thinkers of