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the federal Parliament. It was he who, when Mr. Chamberlain told the British Australasian newspaper that he would be interested to know Australian opinion on his scheme, cabled to that journal that "the commonwealth government and all the governments of the separate states approve of Mr. Chamberlain's preferential trade proposals. Only the extreme section of the Free-Traders are opposed to them, and an immense majority is assured for the new policy when it is put before the country. Personally, I consider preferential tariffs an indispensable foundation of the empire." It was Mr. Deakin who invited Mr. Chamberlain to "star" in Australia, who took the first definite steps by the preferential trade resolutions which he moved in December, 1904, and who has now passed an act granting a customs preference averaging 10 per cent. upon British goods imported into the commonwealth in British bottoms manned by white crews. The act, which, when the relative scales of duties are considered, may be taken roughly as equivalent to the Canadian preference of 33 1-3 per cent., has been reserved for the royal assent on the ground of its conflicting with existing treaties.

Unfortunately, the National Review writer concludes, Mr. Deakin is a little weak as a leader, being "somewhat prone to magnify difficulties and to allow undue latitude to his lieutenants."

has been his weakness. For Mr. Deakin has all It is not paradoxical to say that his strength the strength of a man who pushes away from himself the fruits of ambition rather than jostle a fellow toiler on the path. It is magnificent, politicians of all countries. That Mr. Deakin, but it is not politics as understood by most with his genius for self-effacement, should so long have maintained his high position amongst Australian statesmen is an equal testimony to his own personality and worth and to the saving common sense of his countrymen. He is the one Australian statesman who is alike indispensable to the commonwealth and to the empire.

NEW IRISH PROBLEMS AS AN interesting, though lengthy, discussion of the Irish question is contributed to the Preussische Jahrbücher for December by Wilhelm Dibelius. This question, he says, has generally been considered an economic one since the land and the concomitant political privileges have passed into the hands of the English. But that is an erroneous view.

The Irish question has long ago ceased to be a merely economic one. While the economic problems have by no means been solved by the reformatory laws of the last generations, they have yet been brought much nearer to their solution. But a new difficulty has unexpectedly arisen in the Emerald Isle,-namely, the national

A GERMAN VIEWS THEM.

problem, which seemed to have been removed by the suppression of the Celtic elements. For the last thirteen years the English legislators have had to reckon with the Gaelic League, a wellconducted agitation of great vitality that has for its object to revive the dying Irish speech and make it the official language of the country. Founded in 1893 by Dr. Douglass Hyde, it now covers about 700 localities, with 60,000 members, and has a yearly income (1905) of £7268.

After two pages of interesting statistics showing the percentage of persons speaking Celtic in the several counties, the writer reaches the startling conclusion that Ireland has really ceased long ago to be a Celtic country, linguistically; Scotland has a much

better claim to that title, and Wales even scoldings and the lawlessness of that leader more so, for in two counties here the larger of discontent. Its program is, in brief, the half of the population speaks only Celtic, and development of the natural resources of Irein nearly all the coast districts nine-tenths of land, raising it to an industrial power and the population are bilingual. Yet the league thereby forcing the recognition of its indeis proceeding systematically with its work, pendence. The coal and minerals shall be organizing local festivals (Feiseanna), and mined, the land prepared for agriculture by the great national festival at Dublin drainage and irrigation, and the fisheries re(Oireachtas), where prizes are awarded for stored to their former flourishing state; and Irish poems, dramas, recitations, paintings, at the same time all things English shall be and drawings. Traveling teachers are sent boycotted. Here the temperance movement through the country and Irish periodicals are shall join hands with the Nationalists; ethics subsidized. The league also endeavors to and economics shall combine to oust the Enghave Irish officially recognized in public doc- lish; for every glass of whisky less will not uments and commercial paper, and in busi- only benefit the health of the people, but will ness life generally; in short, to make the also injure England financially, since the excountry bilingual. The government so far cise tax produces a considerable revenue. We has taken small cognizance of this movement, have here a striking instance of the mixture deeming the mere matter of language an un- of the ideal and the material tendencies so important one politically, since the Celtic characteristic of this movement. In summing Welsh are among the King's most loyal sub- it up the writer says: jects. The writer sums up his conclusion on this movement as follows:

The immense disproportion between the place occupied by the Irish language in public life and the demands of the Gaelic League is astonishing. Less than 2 per cent. of the population does not know English, and yet all the officials in the kingdom are required to be bilingual, even in the counties where there are hardly any Celts. In Dublin the magistrate decides to put only Irish superscriptions upon all official letters, and the citizens sign money orders and checks with arbitrary Irish names. As the Irish have an alphabet of their own, using the Latin of the early Middle Ages, which is also found in the AngloSaxon manuscripts, many characters of which are difficult to decipher, it is easy to see to what an extent all commercial intercourse would be impeded by its general adoption. Can the Post Office or the banks be expected to identify Baile atha Cliath with Dublin, Rogers with MacRory, Cole with MacCumhaill? Banking circles generally have therefore refused the Irish demands, and the government also has so far opposed them. Among the English the opinion is frequently expressed that a movement dealing with such palpable impossibilities cannot be taken seriously, but will soon die out again. But these are ostrich politics. The Czechs in Bohemia have shown how a moribund language may be revived and elevated almost into a dominant language; hence the "Bohemian War of Liberation plays a great rôle in Gaelic literature. And with a league that has succeeded in increasing the bilingual portion of the population from 13.05 per cent. to 13.9 per cent., and the number of school children studying Irish from 1400 to 36,100, within six years, such a movement cannot be passed by with a shrug of the shoulders.

An equally important phase of Irish politics is the more recent Sinn Féin movement, which has arisen since the downfall of Parnell and advocates work instead of the idle

It is noteworthy that this people, which so far indulged only in fierce declamation, is now called upon to do practical work, even if it were only to choose domestic instead of imported goods, and to refrain from whisky. There is progress when the people no longer plan how to kill the members of the English cabinet, and "giving trouble to government" is no longer the alpha and omega of all political wisdom, but when the people seriously consider how to develop the resources of their rich country. And if the Gaelic movement makes the Irishman love his nationality and his country and prevents him from casting longing eyes across the water to America after every poor harvest, then an ethical element is introduced into Irish politics that it has lacked for generations, which will result, economically at least, in a decreased emigration.

The writer finally sums up his views on the various forces at work in the regeneration of Ireland in the following sentences:

Changes are apparent in Irish politics which may decide the future of the island. Everywhere parliamentary declamation is giving way to the ideal of actual work, though in two entirely different directions, with diametrically opposed tendencies. The flourishing unions and the other workers in the Agricultural Department demand reconciliation with England as the only means of satisfying the economic interests of the country. The Gaelic movement, on the other hand, in widening the chasm between the two islands, tends to hasten the breach, for ethico-national motives, which Parnell and O'Connell sought to bring about for political ambition. The outcome of the Sinn Féin movement will tip the scales in either direction. Here we find ideal and material motives, blind passion and cool judgment, still so closely united policy of economic betterment can win over the that any prophecy is futile. If the government Sinn Féin movement, then the Irish question will remain a politico-economic one; but if, on the

contrary, the Gaelic movement succeeds in affiliating with itself the Sinn Féin tendencies, then the future of Ireland will be decided by national and linguistic questions, and serious complications will result. Nowhere else in European politics is the problem so clearly defined, whether

material or ideal factors shall decide a country's fate, as here, where a justifiable national desire for independence demands separation from England, while all the economic interests can be best served only in connection with the Anglo-Saxon policy.

INFLUENCE OF THE OCEAN ON CLIMATE.

IT does not, perhaps, need much argument to prove that the countries of western Europe would have a far different history, and their peoples would now lead a far different life, if a change should come about in the conditions that prevail in the Atlantic Ocean, if its currents were to take a different direction, and its winds were to be of a different character from what they are at present. This becomes clear to all who compare the barren, almost uninhabited, rocky territory of Labrador, with its icy climate, with the countries lying on the opposite side of the ocean, with Great Britain and the Netherlands, Northern Germany and Denmark, which lie in the same latitude.

That a direct and intimate connection exists between the conditions of the Atlantic Ocean and the weather of western Europe, is the text of a thought-provoking article in a recent issue of the Dutch magazine Vragen van den Dag. It is a matter of universal knowledge, declares the writer of this article, that the reason why the countries of Europe lying in the same latitude as their opposites in America have a climate so much milder than the latter is to be found chiefly in the Gulf Stream, in connection with the prevailing west winds. Since, moreover, this general connection is known, a constant search is going on whether the alternations in the Gulf Stream may or may not be the cause of the less or more favorable weather conditions in Europe for any given year. If such a connection exists, the investigation of the nature and character of the Gulf Stream with its changes and variations may enable us to determine for a long period in advance what will be the general weather conditions of western Europe. Science might go even farther. By investigating more thoroughly the causes of the origin of that stream it might get at the first and chief influence that controls the state of the weather. This last mentioned question is discussed by Dr. Wilhelm Meinardus in the Meteorologische Zeitschrift, the final result of which study amounts to the following:

The Gulf Stream, that warm current which moves from the Antilles near the American rection and washes the west coast of Europe, is coast through the ocean in a northeasterly diset in motion chiefly by the winds that regularly blow from the west. The southwest winds, when they blow long enough and strong and thus cause the drift, or current, which is enough, push the water of the sea before them called the Gulf Stream. Other causes co-operate in this, as has been brought to light particfor the present. The more regularly and strongularly in recent days, but we may pass these by ly the southwest winds blow, e. g., from August to February, the greater the quantity of warm water that will be pushed from the southwest through the Gulf Stream along the coast of able influence on the atmospheric temperature Europe, and this warm water exerts a favorduring the spring months. The winds which drive the Gulf Stream are themselves again the result of the forming of a minimum of atmosthe Atlantic along the coasts of Europe are pheric pressure. And the southwest winds in chiefly controlled by a similar minimum of atmospheric pressure which occurs in autumn near Iceland, but is most prevalent there in January. This minimum is thus to be regarded as the originating cause at the same time of the direction of the wind and of the Gulf Stream, and, by the co-operation of both, of the chief characteristics of the weather in northwestern such manner are natural phenomena connected Europe during the first months of the year. In with one another by a concatination of causes and effects.

Dr. Meinardus compared the temperature of the sea with the alternations in the rapidity of the ocean currents of the northeastern Atlantic. These, again, are a result of the wind, and this itself of a difference in atmospheric pressure. And with this he found that an increase in the air and ocean currents in the Northeast Atlantic goes hand in hand with greater warmth of the waters of the ocean along the coast of Europe. Frequently the changes in the temperature of the sea occur from one to three months after the changes in atmospheric circulation.

On the west side of the Atlantic the Labrador stream comes out of Baffin's Bay and Davis Strait. This stream runs along the east coast of Labrador toward the south, carrying great quantities of ice either out of

the arms of the sea or such as originate along the shores, as floes, or floating icebergs, as is observed in the neighborhood of Newfoundland, and which, when seen, are always charted and indicated on maps.

the

Now this cold stream is always strongest when the atmospheric circulation in the North Atlantic is greatest, for which reason amount of drift-ice about Newfoundland is greater in proportion as the temperature of the ocean is lower. A strong atmospheric circulation in the North Atlantic, carrying a great quantity of warm water to its eastern parts (along Europe), produces in its western sections (about Labrador and Newfoundland) a very great amount of cold water and drift-ice, greatly lowering, of course, the general temperature. Entirely opposite effects, on the other hand, by a feeble atmospheric circulation.

From what has been said it may be concluded that it is entirely possible to deduce beforehand, from the atmospheric circulation and the speed of the ocean currents, the general weather conditions in western Europe, and the significance of any given quan

tity of drift-ice found along the northeast coast of North America.

Upon a survey of the conditions, therefore, we find the following phenomenon to correspond:

A. (1) Feeble Atlantic circulation, from August to February, corresponds with, (2), a low water temperature along the west coast of Europe from November to April, and with, (3), a low atmospheric temperature in central Europe from February to April. (4) One result of Europe. At the same time there is, (5), a great this is bad harvests of grain in northwestern diminution of ice about Newfoundland during the spring, and, (6), an increased amount of ice lantic circulation from August to February proin the region of Iceland. B. (1) Strong Atduces, (2), a high water temperature along the coast of Europe from November to April, and, (3), high atmospheric temperature in central Europe from February to April. One result of this again is that, (4), the weather is favorable for the raising of grain and that good harvests may consequently be expected. At the same time with this condition, (5), there is much driftNewfoundland, and (6), much less ice during ice during the spring in the neighborhood of the same season in the region of Iceland.

THE EFFECT OF CLIMATE ON CHARACTER.

IT
T is one of the truisms of anthropology
that human beings reach their highest
development in the temperate zones, and de-
velop less completely in the torrid zone and
the frigid zones. An interesting and sug-
gestive article on "Psychic Life in Cold and
Warmth," by C. D. Pflaum (published in the
Illustrirte Zeitung), not only marshals and
regards relevant facts from somewhat unus-
ual viewpoints, but more especially dissects
and lays bare (in the light of the most recent
knowledge, sometimes very curious) the hid-
den processes of the molding of character
by temperature.

EXTENT OF THE EFFECT.

Temperature, to which all our life we are exposed, and which by affecting our ancestors also has affected the inheritance of propensity and civilization received by us from them, exerts, we are told, a greater effect upon character than we commonly suppose. One reason of this is that our perceptions of temperature, coming to consciousness in the midst of other perceptions, are but little noticed by us separately; and hence we do not realize how important a part they play. Moreover:

on its whole expanse, after a moment of transition, are no longer directly perceived as such. in so far as they morc materially differ from the On the other hand such stimuli of temperature, usual temperature of our environment, acquire even increasing meaning for our consciousness, with the degree of this difference and by reason of the duration of the effect of the changes so arising in our organism. Such meaning, acclimatization (the self-executed adjustment of the individual to the world around him) is wont to veil, and there is needed an observation widereaching in every respect, of one's own soul and of men, to bring it to light.

CHARACTER IN A COLD CLIMATE.

As to the effects of a cold climate upon character, this writer goes on to say:

Cold contracts the blood

Cold furthers (as physico-chemical experiments also have proved) the chemical decay, and weakens the energy of all the organic processes of life. vessels and prevents the organs from being sufthe rhythm of the breath, and produces a tremfused by a greater quantity of blood. It hinders bling of the muscles which at every moment brings with it new positions of the muscles. This constitutes a real hindrance to the coming into existence and the persistence of the ideas, against which even voluntary attention can do little or nothing. In cold, further, the automatic activity of our organs of sense is lessened. This involves a diminution in the number of the sense impressions and little experiences. In Stimuli of temperature that affect our skin cold, then, there are wanting the most impor

tant premises of intellectual work; there is wanting especially the sense-material, the quota of fresh perceptions which would assume relations with each other and with our previous intellectual possession. A shivering person is satisfied with vague impressions, he lays no weight upon the clearness of his ideas and the precision of his concepts and judgments. A shivering person, too, is satisfied with the immediate impression of the stimuli; he does not follow them up and neglects to compare them, to distribute them into their places in the whole of his previous experiences, and to appraise them. For example, on hearing the various noises coming from the street, a shivering person regularly neglects to realize to himself the visible pictures of the things and actions producing the noises. One who is shivering relates poorly and listens poorly, neglects above all to make comparisons and to reflect upon the situations. The actor at the rehearsal in the unheated theater is but superficial with his rôle, he does not live in it, and is only up in its words and coarser gestures at the given moments. The shivering hearer in a cold church follows at best with self-mastery the sermon and understands of its spirit, if any. thing at all, but little. . . . . As to the influence of cold upon remembrance and recollection especially.... Ribot [in his book upon the diseases of the memory] tells of a traveler who, in a considerable experience of cold, declared that each time his memory was weakened, while he could not reckon nor make the simplest calculation. With this statement of Ribot's agrees the fact that in the Russian campaign of 1812 a striking loss of the memory of names appeared among the French soldiers, to such a degree that they could no longer name the commonest things. The study of the manner of living and the peculiarities of the Esquimaux will yield us still further interesting facts from the view point here under consideration..... Read Nansen's statements (in "In Night and Ice") as to the Esquimaux, as to their characteristic condition of lack of interest, of laziness, and the dreamy state that befell Nansen and the crew of the Fram during their "lying still" in the winter and spring of 1895. A very noticeable peculiarity of the psychic life lived under the influence of the cold is, finally, the slight inclination for esthetic or moral estimates. The most beautiful winter landscape, the grandest music (and, on the other hand, just as much what is ugly and otherwise repugnant) leaves one who is shivering tolerably "cold." His interest in moral questions, moreover, is weak.

A WARM CLIMATE AND CHARACTER.

The method of the influence upon character of a constantly or predominantly warm temperature is then described. Like cold, warmth "releases chemical wholes, but it also furthers the formation of new wholes. It furthers, especially, organic union, and it is an indispensable condition for the birth and successful continuance of the functions of life, in so far as it does not exceed certain limits and become heat. Heat also produces decay, destroys organic action."

The effects of warmth (on the whole favorable) last only to a very moderately high limit; beyond which, with the change of the warmth into heat wholly contrary, i. e., increasingly unfavorable, effects set in upon the psychic action. The heat... lessens the vegetative activities of the organism, and causes its muscles to relax. Warmth and heat keep from frequent motion and quickly occasion fatigue. In warmth the blood vessels indeed have their greatest amplitude, and the quantity of blood supplying the organs of the body has its maximum; but the blood is consumed much more quickly and its quality becomes poorer, unless the increase of nourishment opposes this deterioration.

To perceive such effects of high temperature upon psychic life, however, it is by no means necessary to observe the uncivilized inhabitant of the torrid zone. The Italian's enthusiasm for dolce far niente is to be explained by the high average temperature in which he lives. No less is it a peculiarity of blacksmiths, locksmiths, bakers, and others (such persons as usually work over fire) to react promptly to suggestions. They have, as we are wont to say, much temperament, lack self-control, and proceed quickly to acts of violence.

Though we may say that a warm temperature is helpful to the esthetic in life, it must be confessed that too warm a temperature has the opposite effect.

One encounters among inhabitants of the torrid zone very grotesque adornment, extravagant overloadings, senseless and aimless ostentation, and, accordingly, a half-ripe, because undisciplined, and not intellectualized kind of artistic manifestation. On the other hand, it is universally true that in great warmth, in heat, a very is present: dirty fluids, an insect in the soup, marked repugnance from everything unesthetic and the like, offend in heat more than in cold.

As to the esthetic in the life of warmer average temperatures, the attention that Southrons under all circumstances and in every matter pay to the formal, to the manner of appearing, deserves to be especially emphasized as characteristic.

Particularly the way of speaking that the Southern Frenchman or the Italian has is fitted to teach us that the greatest weight is laid upon the meaning gesture and upon gesticulation generally. The German or the Englishman, even if no other marks be noticeable on him, will be recognized in comparison with the Frenchman and Italian by the fact that the lively gesturing and gesticulation peculiar to the latter is wanting in him.

Warmth of the higher degree no less than cold, brings with it peculiar changes of the psychic action, in its entire character as in details.

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