war of the Revolution; and thither, in the early years of the present century, came the flower of the energetic, educated, conscientious people of the New England States. So distinctly have the descendants of these pioneers retained the characteristics of their ancestors, that the Western Reserve' is to-day more like a portion of Massachusetts or Connecticut than any other similar district west of the Hudson river. It is a reading, thinking, praying community, which is remarkably fastidious in its choice of political representatives, keenly watchful of their conduct, and loyal to them against all opposition so long as they are faithful to their trusts.

The honour this constituency conferred on the young majorgeneral was soon reflected on themselves. On entering the House, he was at once assigned to the Committee of Military Affairs, and he soon became almost the controlling influence there. But this paper is far too limited to allow of even the slightest sketch of his multifarious labours both in and out of Congress. From the head of the Military Committee he became, after the war was ended, chairman of the Committee on Banking and Currency, and, still later, chairman of the Committee of Appropriations. This committee deals with all governmental expenditures, including those of the army and navy, the postal service, the improvement of rivers and harbours, the consular and diplomatic and other services, preparing estimates and schemes for the disposal of Congress. He strenuously opposed the false measures in reference to paper money which produced the panic of 1873, and contended for a measure which should restore money to its proper value. A passage from one of his speeches has reference to one of our English sovereigns:

Mr. Speaker, I remember that on the monument of Queen Elizabeth, where her glories were recited and her honours summed up, among the last and the highest, recorded as the climax of her honours, was this-that she restored the money of her kingdom to its just value. And when this House shall have done its work-when it shall have brought back values to their proper standard-it will deserve a monument.

This subject of finance had been one of close study with him, especially English finance. The entire record of British legislation on commerce and currency for two hundred years had been so studied that he had all their most important facts at command. And therefore, when several prominent statesmen brought forward in Congress plans for meeting the difficulties of the Government which would amount to an absolute repudiation of their promises, Garfield stood up and fought the battle of justice and right. His words on this occasion are worth recording:

The dollar is the gauge that measures every blow of the axe, every swing of the scythe, every stroke of the hammer, every faggot that blazes on the poor man's hearth, every fabric that clothes his children, every mouthful that feeds their hunger. The dollar is a substantive word, the fundamental condition of every contract, of every sale, of every payment, whether from the national Treasury or from the stand of the applewoman in the street. Now, what is our situation?

There has been no day, since the 25th of February 1862, when any man could tell what would be the value of our legal currency dollar the next month or the next day. Since that day we have substituted for a dollar the printed promise of the Government to pay a dollar. That promise we have broken. We have suspended payment; and have, by law, compelled the citizen to receive dishonoured paper instead of money.

After pointing out the errors and wickedness of this system, he concluded by urging the gradual restoration of the ancient standard of value, which will lead us,' he said in conclusion, by the safest and surest paths to national prosperity and the steady pursuits of peace.'

The obnoxious measure was defeated; but in July of the following year, a Bill was introduced to tax the United States' bonds. Garfield was again a stout opponent. He concluded an able speech by saying, in tones which produced their due effect on the House :

Mr. Speaker, I desire to say, in conclusion, that in my opinion all these efforts to pursue a doubtful and unusual, if not dishonourable policy, in reference to our public debt, spring from a lack of faith in the intelligence and conscience of the American people. Hardly an hour passes when we do not hear it whispered that some such policy as this must be adopted, or the people will by-and-by repudiate the debt. For my part, I do not share that distrust. The people of this country have shown, by the highest proofs Nature can give, that wherever the path of duty and honour may lead, however steep and rugged it may be, they are ready to walk it. They feel the burden of the public debt, but they remember that it is the price of blood-the precious blood of half a million of brave men who died to save to us all that makes life desirable or property secure. I believe they will, after a full hearing, discard all methods of paying their debts by sleight of hand, or by any scheme which crooked wisdom may devise. If public morality did not protest against any such plan, enlightened public selfishness would refuse its sanction. Let us be true to our trust a few years longer, and the next generation will be here with its seventy-five millions of population and its sixty billions of wealth. To them the debt that remains will be a light burden. They will pay the last bond according to the letter and spirit of the contract, with the same sense of grateful duty with which they will pay the pensions of the few surviving soldiers of the great war for the Union.

The matter was justly deemed to be of so grave a character, and the fear was with equal probability entertained that the sentiments of the inflationists would compromise the national credit abroad, that the Secretary of the Treasury had the two speeches of General Garfield printed in pamphlet form and sent to the leading statesmen and financiers of Europe. A copy came into the hands of Mr. John Bright, who showed it to Mr. Gladstone. They marked their sense of appreciation of the speeches by nominating their author as an honorary member of the Reform Club, a motion which was readily carried, and which General Garfield regarded as a high compliment.

British economists may possibly take exception to General Garfield's views on the tariff, but the result might be different if they could look at the subject from his side as well as their own. 'As an abstract theory,' he remarks, 'the doctrine of free trade seems to be

universally true; but, as a question of practicability, in a country like ours, the protective system seems to be indispensable.' The fact is, he takes a middle course, and contends for protection not for its own sake, but as a means to an end. 'I am for a protection,' says he, which leads to ultimate free trade. I am for that free trade which can only be achieved through a reasonable protection.'

For other features of General Garfield's public work, and for the steps which led to his election by a good majority to the Presidential chair, reference must be had to Captain Mason's excellent sketch. We will only add here that General Garfield has a wife who is worthy of him, the choice of his early days, and one who is not carried away from her simplicity of living by the sudden elevation of her husband, and who is well fitted to be his patient helper and peaceful solace amid all his weighty cares, as also to train their five children to follow the worthy example of their father. The mother of the President, who fought so nobly the difficulties and endured so patiently the trials of her early widowhood, still lives to meekly share the blessings Providence has sent her family. In the plain but comfortable brick house which the General built some years ago in Washington, or in the neat Gothic farmhouse, a few miles east of Cleveland, the country home of her son, she spends her now declining days in peace, contented and happy, but looking forward to that home above where there are no partings and no tears.

ROBERT SHINDLER.

INTELLIGENCE OF ANTS.

II.

I HAVE now presented some of the most curious and interesting facts concerning the intelligence of ants in general; I shall next proceed to state some of the more remarkable facts concerning the intelligence of certain species of ants in particular.

Leaf-cutting Ants of the Amazon.-The mode of working practised by these ants is thus described by Bates:

They mount a tree in multitudes. . . . Each one places itself on the surface of a leaf, and cuts with its sharp scissors-like jaws a nearly semicircular incision on the upper side; it then takes the edge between its jaws, and by a sharp jerk detaches the piece. Sometimes they let the leaf drop to the ground, where a little heap accumulates, until carried off by another relay of workers; but generally each marches off with the piece it has operated on, and, as all take the same road to the colony, the path they follow becomes in a short time smooth and bare, looking like the impression of a cart-wheel through the herbage.

Other observers have since said that this herbage is regularly felled by the ants in order to make a road. Each ant carries its semicircular piece of leaf upright over its head, so that the home-returning train is rendered very conspicuous. Keener observation shows that this home-returning, or load-carrying, train of workers keeps to one side of the road, while the outgoing, or empty-handed, train keeps to the other side; so that on every road there is a double train of ants going in opposite directions. When the leaves arrive at the nest they are received by a smaller kind of worker, whose duty it is to cut up the pieces into still smaller fragments, whereby the leaves seem to be better fitted for the purpose to which, as we shall presently see, they are put. These smaller workers never take any part in the outdoor labour; but they occasionally leave the nest, apparently for the sole purpose of obtaining air and exercise, for when they leave the nest they merely run about doing nothing, and frequently, as in mere sport, mount some of the semicircular pieces of leaf, which the carrier ants are taking to the nest, and so get a ride home.

From his continued observation of these ants Bates concludesand his opinion has been corroborated by that both of Belt and Müller-that the object of all this labour is a highly remarkable one.

The leaves when gathered do not themselves appear to be of any service to the ants as food; but when cut into small fragments, and stored away in the nests, they become suited as a nidus for the growth of a minute kind of fungus on which the ants feed. We may therefore call these insects gardening ants,' inasmuch as all their labour is given to the rearing of nutritious vegetables on artificially prepared soil. They are not particular as to the material which they collect and store up for soil, provided that it is a material on which the fungus will grow-orange peel, certain flowers, &c., being equally acceptable to them. But they are very particular regarding the ventilation of their underground store-houses, on a suitable degree of which the successful growth of the fungus presumably depends. They therefore have numerous holes or ventilating shafts which lead up to the surface from the store-houses or underground gardens, and these they either open or close according to the horticultural requirements as regards temperature and moisture. If the leaves are either too damp or too dry, they will not grow the fungus, and therefore in gathering the leaves the ants are very particular that they should neither be the one nor the other. Thus Bates observed :—

If a sudden shower should come on, the ants do not carry the wet pieces into the burrows, but throw them down near the entrances; should the weather clear up again, these pieces are picked up when nearly dried, and taken inside; should the rain, however, continue, they get sodden down into the ground, and are left there. On the contrary, in dry and hot weather, when the leaves would get dried up before they could be conveyed to the nest, the ants, when in exposed situations, do not go out at all during the hot hours, but bring in their leafy burdens in the cool of the day and during the night.

Dr. Ellendorf made the experiment of interrupting the advance of a column of these ants, with the interesting result which he thus describes in a letter to Büchner:

Thick dry grass stood on either side of their narrow road, so that they could not pass through it with the load on their heads. I placed a dry branch, nearly a foot in diameter, obliquely across their path, and pressed it down so tightly on the ground that they could not pass underneath. The first comers crawled beneath the branch as far as they could, and then tried to climb over, but failed owing to the weight on their heads. Meanwhile the unloaded ants from the other side came on, and when these succeeded in climbing over the bough there was such a crush that the unladen ants had to clamber over the laden, and the result was a terrible muddle. I now walked along the train, and found that all the ants with their bannerets on their heads were standing still, thickly pressed together, awaiting the word of command from the front. When I turned back to the obstacle, I was astonished to see that the loads had been laid aside by more than a foot's length of the column, one imitating the other. And now work began on both sides of the branch, and in about half an hour a tunnel was made beneath it. Each ant then took up its burden again, and the march was resumed in the most perfect order.

The operations here described show clearly that these ants act upon the principle of the division of labour. In this connection I may