The Appointment Of M. V.

ery of Lansing, to the office of cornmissioner of patente, gives universal satisfaction to the democraoy of Michigan . The office sought the man. Malcolm Hat, a lawyer of Pittsburg, Pa., has been appointed assistant postmaster-general. This is the officer who has the appointment of nearly forty thonsand postmasters - all postmasters, indeed, whose salaries do not exceed one thousand dollars per year. There are several offices in this county, like Dexter and Saline, which Mr. Hay will have to act upon. These, offices are not oommissioned for four years - like thoee appointed by the president- and can be removed at any time. So we eau be sure that when Mr. Hay gets fairly settled down to business he will have his hands fulL It is not expected that the guillotine will get into good working order before June or July, but it is to be hopéd that, in the interest of civil service reform, a head will drop now and then before that time. Democrats must be patiënt. The country is to have the benefit of a reform of the civil service. President Cleveland will go slow but before the close of his administration " none but democrats will be found on guard " - or on deck, to put it in another way. The studente of Harvard have almost unanimously petitioned the faculty to be released from the profitless bore of attending morning "exercises" in chapel nnless that attendance is desred by their parents or guardians when the student ia under eighteen years of age. The faculty has refused this reasonable request. Attendance upon chapel is compulsory. Bachelors of arts can be excused from Qreek and need not know much Latin, but they must be on hand at chapel if they would secure the coveted degree. Of course the chipel exercises at Harvard, as they are at any other college, are a farce. Of all the college graduates in this country not one of mature years or ordinary capacity has even y et had the cheek to declare to the world that he ever received any benefit, moral, spiritual or intelectual, from attending chapel "exercises." Harvard's chapel "exercises" cost flve thosand dollars per annum. The money might as well be thrown into Charles river. With us in Ann Árbor chapel attendance is voluntary, showing that in this respect, as well as in others, the young university of Michigan is in advance of the venerable Harvard Hkobhtabt Whitnky, of the navy department has cecured the services of one of the best accountants in the country to investígate the books and accounts of his department. The same course is being pursued by Mr. Mnning, secretary of the treasury. who has appointed a commission to examine the books of hu department. It is nearly twenty-fiv years since these books have been overhauled and examined by any boíl y but nterested parties. The country may expect rich developments in due time. Secretary Whitney has put a stop to naval junketmg. The Talapoosa which the republicana had fitted up at great expense to transport office-holders and their wives, at the expense of the taxpayere, from one port to another, has been broken up and commissioned to carry material from one navy yard to another. Not one month has passed since the democracy came into power, and yet useless and extravagant expenditures have been loped off which have cost the people more than one hundred thousand dollars annually. The people will pardon the president for going to breakfast in his shirt sleeves if he continúes such reforms as these. " ' m The studeuts of the medical school at Harvard are anxious that lectures upon homeopa th y be given in the regular school, the studente in this regard thus showing themselves far more liberal and open-minded than their professors, who oppoBe it. The same narrow bigotry against homeopathy has always prevailed among the professors in the medical school here. It was predicted when the homeopathie department was established that the students of the two schools would be in a continnal quarrel on the campus ; on the other hand the most friendly relations have existed between them, notwithstanding two or three profesBSors have never let silp an opportunity, in their classes or out, to créate between them. It is an animosity a curious and encouraging fact that there are medical students at Harvard and at Ann Arbor as well, who wish to know aü there is upon the subject of medicine, and that the only persons who oppose this honorable and laudable desire are the professors - a state of things as pitiable or contemptable as that "code of ethics" which forbids an old-school physcian from consulting with an intelligent homeopath, even in case of life or death. A committek of the legislature has reported in favor of the abolition of the contract system in our prisons. It goes without saying that this is a menace to the tax-payers of the state. Under the contract system the prisons have become practisally self-supporting. Under any other system the tax-payer will have to put his hand into his pocket to help support, feed and slothe the pickpockets, thieves. burglarn and murderers, who, it seems, when confined, are to prey upon society as well as when they were at large. The contract system bas two advantages which no other 6ystem has it makes the criminal self-supporting and it tends more than any other system to reform him. It is well-settled that one of the great causes of crime is idleness and poverty. Under the contract system the pnsoner for a term of years hai an opportunity to learn a useful trade itnd he goeeout of prison a tkilled laborer, able to secure employment at good wages, and ene great motive to continue in a life of crime is removed. Intelligent and lic niest members of the legialature - no5 the ignorant demagogues who are howling against the contract system - nhould know that a larger proportion of the prisoners under the contract system pursue honest and industious lives after their discharge tlinn priaoners employed under any other system. Statistica prove this. Coinmon sense ought to decide the legislator to vote to raaintain that eystem whicli has been proved to be the nearest self-sustaining and the most reformatory - a system which at once protects the tax-payer and sa ves the criminal. i The power and inHuence of Parnell and tbe Irish nationalist party grows apace. Only the other day Parnell announced in parliament that, in consideration of the Irish votes, the ministry had agreed to change the Irish constabulary at least once in thrce years, a ohange eamestly desired by the Irish members. Gladstone and Bright, indeed the whole liberal party in' England, is just coming to the conclusión that the only just and satisfactory way to deal with Ireland is to treat her as parliament bas treated Scotlaud. For many years it bas been taciily understood that whatever the 3ootch members desirc for Scotland must be granted by parliament. Why should not England treat Ireland in the eame fair, just and honorably way ? What Irish members desire for Ireland, within the constitution, parliament should grant. Ireland could then have no grounds for complaint ; hei demand !or a parliament would cense, becausa there would be no occasion for it, and íhe same friendly and harmonieus rela;ions could then exist between England and Ireland is have existed nearly two centuries between England and Scotland. The cause of Ireland is just and raust eventually triumph. in some form, as every cause must triumph which is back" ed by the public opmion of the civilized world. Thebe is pending in the Michigan legïslature a bilí providing for the representation of minoritics in corporations, on the cumulative plan. Every stockïolder is to have the rig'it to vote, in jerson or by proxy, the nuinber of shares of stock owned by him for as many persons as there may be directora to be elected, or to cumúlate such votes upon sucb candidates as he may please. Under this provisión, with equal effort and skill on both sides, the represen tation in he boaid will correspond as closely as ossible to the relative strength of dif'erent interests. The minority wil! then lave, as they have not now, the right to )e present at meetings of the rlirectors, o examiue the books, to know what is jeing done in the company, and to be ïeard in opposition to any mensuro which hey consider adverse lo their interests. A similar provisión was put in the constitution of Illinois i 1870, and has worked well ever since ; was mcorporated in the constitutions of West Viriinia in 1872, Pennsylvania in 1873, and Missouri in 1875, and has been of marked service in all those states. This measnie is opposed only on the ■round that it is desired by the minoriies in certain important corporations for :heir own defence. But this doeB nol seem to be a reason for rejecting, but rather a reason for adopting it. Even in jolitical mattere, the tendency of profress bas been toward greater defence ind recognition of the rights of minoriies, while in a business Corporation it is a well understood principie that each individual stockholder has rights of which ie can not be lawfully deprived by the action of a majority. But the defence of those rights througli the courts is at all times diilicult, ccstly and attended with delay, and, moreover, the mjury to ;he Corporation resuliing f rom litigation and exposure of its operations is often so serious that minorities endui e great innstice rather than resort to such a remedy. In all partB of the country the frowing abuse of corporate power las become a fruitful source of financial and industrial difliculties. It is reasonable to believe that the adoption of the measure pending in Michigan, by preventing such abuses, and giving minori;ies power to protest auainst tliem in season, and if need be to defend their rights by timely legal proceedings, would 3rove incalculably benefleial to business ntereets and would promote the welfare of the