regulated by international agreement led to the negotiation of a treaty with China, under date of March 17, which was reported by the committee on foreign relations to the Senate, March 28, without amendment. The treaty provides for the prohibition of the entrance of Chinese laborers into the United States except in the following cases: (1) A laborer registered under the laws of the United States may, on going out of the country, by giving a written description of his family or property or debts, obtain a certificate which shall entitle him to return within a year; (2) the privilege of transit across the territory of the United States is assured to Chinese laborers, under proper regulations to prevent abuse. Chinese officials, teachers, students, merchants or travelers, who are not laborers, are not affected by the exclusion. The Chinese government agrees to the enforcement of the registration acts in the United States, and the United States recognizes the right of China to enact corresponding laws in reference to American laborers in China. The treaty is to run for ten years. The disturbed condition of affairs in Central America has given rise to several minor diplomatic incidents. An American mail steamer, whose captain refused to give up a passenger at the demand of the authorities in a port of Honduras, was fired upon, November 6, by the military, though without damage. A demand for reparation brought a prompt apology from the government of Honduras, and a disavowal of its officers' acts. More interest was excited by incidents on the Mosquito Coast of Nicaragua. In connection with the war with Honduras (infra, p. 376), a Nicaraguan force took possession of Bluefields, the chief town of the Mosquito reservation. Some friction arose between the Nicaraguans and the Mosquito authorities, the latter claiming local autonomy under a treaty of 1860 between Great Britain and Nicaragua. On its way to Bluefields, where American interests are important, the United States corvette Kearsarge was wrecked on Roncador Reef, and a British war vessel, having reached the town, landed a force for a time and maintained order. To questions put by the United States, the British government replied that the purpose of this action was solely the security of life and property for foreigners, and that no protectorate over the Mosquito Indians was desired or intended. Bluefields is about 100 miles north of Greytown, the terminus of the Nicaragua Canal, and falls under the provisions of the ClaytonBulwer Treaty of 1850. During April considerable friction was reported between the Nicaraguans and the American residents, and a man-of-war was kept in the vicinity.

INTERNAL ADMINISTRATION. — The report of the secretary of the treasury, transmitted to Congress December 20, opened with an estimate that the year ending June 30, 1894, would show a deficit of $28,000,000. To meet this situation he suggested various measures, apart from the recasting of the revenue system. Regarding it as undesirable to use the power already existing to put out high-rate and long-term securities, he asked for authority to issue a three per cent bond, redeemable

in five years, and recommended that the denominations be low, so as to enlist the interest of the masses of the people, and that the bonds be disposed of through sub-treasuries and post offices, so as to save commissions. Another suggestion for meeting the emergency was the issue of a three per cent one-year bond, to be sold or paid out to government creditors at par. Mr. Carlisle described the decrease in the gold reserve for greenback redemption, and dwelt upon the necessity of some scheme which should enable him to keep up that reserve, as well as to pay the current expenses of the government. While endorsing the principles of the tariff bill pending in the House of Representatives, he thought it would bring a revenue some $50,000,000 less than what would be necessary, and to meet this deficit he advocated an increase of the tax on distilled spirits, and the imposition of new taxes on cigars and cigarettes, cosmetics, perfumeries, legacies and successions, and incomes from investments in corporate securities. — From the beginning of the period under review the condition of the treasury, which the secretary's report showed to be so bad, grew worse and worse. Expenditures ran steadily far ahead of receipts, and the balances on hand, both of gold and of currency, tended rapidly to extinction. On January 13, Secretary Carlisle submitted to the finance committee of the Senate a statement showing that the excess of expenditures over receipts to that date had reached $43,000,000, and that at the same rate the deficit for the year would be $78,000,000, or nearly three times what he had estimated in his report in December. The gold reserve was down to $74,000,000, and the secretary declared that the ordinary expenses of the government would soon have to be paid wholly out of that fund. Unless something were promptly done by Congress to authorize the issue of low-rate bonds, he announced that he would put forth high-rate bonds under the power granted by the Resumption Act of 1875. No steps having been taken by Congress, on January 17 the secretary announced a bond issue of $50,000,000. The bonds were to be redeemable after ten years, and to bear five per cent interest, payable in coin. No bid would be accepted lower than 117.223, the equivalent of a three per cent bond at par. The Treasury's policy was immediately antagonized by the silver party, who wanted the financial emergency tided over by the coinage of the seigniorage (see below, p. 353). The House judiciary committee adopted a resolution denying the power claimed by the secretary to use the proceeds of the bonds for paying the current expenses of the government, and under the auspices of the Knights of Labor a suit was brought for an injunction to restrain the secretary from issuing the bonds. Financiers found fault with the method of the issue, and claimed that there was absolutely no chance for profit under the terms imposed. On the last day of the term allowed for bids, however, the New York bankers, after several consultations with Mr. Carlisle, decided to sus¡tain him, and subscribed for some $45,000,000. The subscription terminated February 1, and the total amount called for was about $58,000,000. The treasury gold balance, meanwhile, had run down to $65,500,000, but the pro

ceeds of the bonds contributed to raise it well above the $100,000,000 mark. In April, however, a foreign demand for gold set in, and by the close of this RECORD the surplus over this sum had again about disappeared. — The work of the pension bureau in weeding out irregularities has been continued on the lines described in the last RECORD. A number of additional frauds were discovered, and prosecutions of offending agents were instituted. A provision attached to a deficiency appropriation bill passed in December forbade the suspension of a pension pending an investigation of the right to the pension or of fraud in obtaining it. The commissioner accordingly ceased the practice, though, on the advice of the attorney-general, he refused to remove the suspensions pending at the passage of the act. In replying to a resolution of Congress touching this matter, the commissioner took strong ground against the claim that a pension is a "vested right," and held that it is only a bounty, subject to the will of the donor. — The Department of the Navy was called upon in the fall to deal with evidence of illegal practices by the employees of the contractors who were engaged in the production of armor plates for the government. Plates of less than the best quality were found to have been imposed upon the inspectors, though none that were under the lowest limit of tolerance specified in the contract. After careful investigation the secretary of the navy, while absolving the members of the contracting company from knowledge of the frauds, decided, nevertheless, that damages must be paid to the government, and, on appeal to the president, the decision was affirmed, though the amount of the assessment was reduced. The company, accordingly, on January 17, paid to the treasury under the decision $140,484.94. Reports of further frauds were circulated later, and are under investigation at the close of this RECORD. In connection with the civil service, the course of the administration has continued to excite serious criticism from the advocates of reform. Particularly hostile comment was excited by the Van Alen case. Mr. J. J. Van Alen was nominated as Minister to Italy, and was confirmed at the end of October. As it became known that Mr. Van Alen had been a large contributor to the campaign fund in the last election, it was charged that his nomination involved practically the sale of the office. On November 20, Mr. Van Alen addressed to the secretary of state a letter declining the appointment. He acknowledged his gratification at the honor done him, declared that his financial assistance in the campaign had been due to a profound conviction that the success of the party was necessary to the country's good, and that the contribution had never been regarded by him as creating an obligation, and confessed his inability to see that it was less patriotic to aid a cause in which one believed by money than with voice or pen. But as the criticism of his appointment had put him in a false position, and as acceptance would bring undeserved rebuke upon the administration, he felt bound to decline. The president urged him to reconsider, but in vain, and the place was filled by the appointment of Wayne McVeagh, of Pennsylvania. — The Civil Service Commission was remodeled

by the removal, November 29, of Mr. Johnson, of Louisiana, who declined a request to resign, and the appointment, as his successor, of John R. Procter, of Kentucky. The nomination to fill the vacancy in the United States Supreme Court led to a conflict between the president and Senator Hill, of New York. Mr. W. B. Hornblower, a New York lawyer belonging to the faction of the Democratic Party opposed to Senator Hill, was nominated for the justiceship in the autumn, but on January 15 the Senate adopted, by 30 to 24, a resolution of the judiciary committee rejecting the nomination. Eighteen Democrats voted with the minority and twelve with the majority. Lack of reputation and experience were alleged as grounds for voting against Mr. Hornblower, though Senator Hill made much of the fact that the president had not consulted him about the nomination, and thus appealed to the custom of "senatorial courtesy." On the 22d of January the name of Wheeler H. Peckham was sent in for the justiceship. Mr. Peckham's reputation and experience were greater than those of the former nominee, but his political attitude toward Senator Hill was even more antagonistic, and the senator was consulted in his case no more than in the other. A sharp struggle between the factions in the Senate ended in the rejection of the nomination, February 16, by 41 to 32, with 15 Democrats in the majority and 23 in the minority. The president then, giving up the attempt to appoint a New York man, on the 19th sent in the name of Senator White, of Louisiana, who was immediately confirmed. Other appointments during the period were as follows: Assistant Secretary of War, Joseph E. Doe, of Wisconsin; Assistant Secretary of Agriculture, C. W. Dabney, Jr., of Tennessee; Minister to Bolivia, Thomas Moonlight, of Kansas; Minister to Sweden and Norway, T. B. Ferguson, of Maryland. CONGRESS.—The first regular session of the fifty-third Congress began December 4, just a month after the end of the extraordinary session. The president's message contained no points of especial interest in respect to foreign relations, the Hawaiian matter being relegated for discussion to a promised special message. On the currency question Mr. Cleveland expressed his satisfaction at the action of Congress in the special session, and his conviction that no further action should be taken until financial and commercial conditions became more settled and the effects of the new law were fully revealed. He announced that, having no definite proposition ready for submission to the monetary conference, which was to have reassembled November 30, he had agreed to a further postponement. respect to the Postal Department, the president referred to the growing deficit, which was estimated at eight millions for the current year, and suggested a curtailment of the matter carried free, and a relinquishment of the policy of extending the free-delivery system. The condition of the treasury was made the ground also for the suggestion of caution in further appropriations for the new navy. Pension frauds were vigorously denounced, and the president protested that "those who attempt in the line of duty to rectify these wrongs should not be accused of enmity or indifference to the

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claims of honest veterans." The message contained an earnest denunciation of the abuses of the free distribution of seeds through the Agricultural Department. During the last fiscal year there were sent out enough cabbage seed to plant 19,200 acres, enough beans to plant 4000 acres, enough sweet corn to plant 7800 acres, etc., etc. To stop this abuse it was recommended that the appropriation be reduced from $135,000 to $35,000. The message presented a strong endorsement of the work of the Civil Service Commission, and concluded with an earnest plea for tariff reform in the direction of free raw materials, with a small tax on corporate incomes. The primary work of Congress was in connection with the Tariff Bill, the progress of which is described under a separate head. While this was engaging the attention of the House, the Senate took up the bill for the repeal of the Federal Election Laws, and passed it, February 7, by 39 to 28, substantially a party vote. By the signature of the president on the following day, this relic of Reconstruction was removed from the statute-book. Following this came a lively struggle over the Seigniorage Bill. This measure, introduced in the House by Mr. Bland, provided for the immediate coinage of silver in the treasury to an amount equal to the difference between the cost and the coin value of the bullion purchased under the Sherman Act, which difference amounted to about $55,000,000. The bill provided that certificates should be issued on this seigniorage as fast as coined, or faster, if the needs of the treasury required. A second section directed that, after the seigniorage was disposed of, the remaining bullion in the treasury should be coined, and the treasury notes based on it should be redeemed and replaced by silver certificates. This bill was passed in the House, March 1, by 168 to 129, the majority consisting of Democrats and Populists, with 19 Southern and Western Republicans; the minority, of Republicans, with 49 Eastern Democrats. In the Senate the friends of the bill took parliamentary advantage of a little carelessness on the part of its adversaries to cut off the long debate that was expected, and on March 15 the bill passed by 44 to 31, ten Republicans for, and nine Democrats against it. On the 29th President Cleveland vetoed the bill. His general position was that of favor to the idea of coining the seigniorage, but of hostility to this particular bill, and especially to the second section, which went beyond this simple idea. He objected to the phraseology of the bill, which was in places ambiguous, but found a wider ground for his veto in the belief that "sound finance does not commend a further infusion of silver into our currency at this time, unaccompanied by further adequate provision for the maintenance in our treasury of a safe gold reserve." As to the second section, he considered ill-advised and dangerous the scheme by which it was proposed to replace legal-tender treasury-notes, redeemable in either gold or silver, by silver certificates which are not legal tender, and are redeemable only in silver. Such a proceeding, he held, would inevitably stimulate the withdrawal of gold from the treasury, and render more difficult than ever the maintenance of parity between the metals in our currency.