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March, 1885. and disorganised the narrower, but more matter-of-fact, movement of the English working class. At the very moment Chartism was bound to assert itself in its full strength, it collapsed internally, before even it collapsed externally on the 10th of April, 1848. The action of the working class was thrust into the background. The capitalist class triumphed along the whole line.

The Reform Bill of 1831 had been the victory of the whole capitalist class over the landed aristocracy. The repeal of the Corn Laws was the victory of the manufacturing capitalists not only over the landed aristocracy, but over those sections of capitalists too whose interests were more or less bound up with the landed interest: bankers, stock-jobbers, fundholders, etc. Free Trade meant the re-adjustment of the whole home and foreign commercial and financial policy of England in accordance with the interests of the manufacturing capitalists—the class which now represented the nation. And they set about this task with a will. Every obstacle to industrial production was mercilessly removed. The tariff and the whole system of taxation were revolutionised. Everything was made subordinate to one end, but that end of the utmost importance to the manufacturing capitalist: the cheapening of all raw produce, and especially of the means of living of the working class; the education of the cost of raw material, and the keeping down—if not as yet the bringing down—of wages. England was to become the “workshop of the world”; all other countries were to become for England what Ireland already was—markets for her manufactured goods, supplying her in return with raw materials and food. England the great manufacturing centre of an agricultural world, with an ever-increasing number of corn and cotton-growing Irelands, revolving around her, the industrial sun. What a glorious prospect!

The manufacturing capitalists set about the realisation of this their great object with that strong common sense and that contempt for traditional principles which has ever distinguished them from their more narrow-minded compeers on the Continent. Chartism is dying out. The revival of commercial prosperity, natural after the revulsion of 1847 had spent itself, was put down altogether to the credit of Free Trade. Both these circumstances had turned the English working class, politically, into the tail of the great Liberal party, the party led by the manufacturers. This advantage, once gained, had to be perpetuated. And the manufacturing capitalists, from the Chartist opposition not to Free Trade but to the transformation of Free Trade into the one vital national question, had learnt and were learning more and more that the middle class can never obtain full social and political power over the nation except by the help of the working class. Thus a gradual change came over the relations between both classes. The Factory Acts, once the bugbear of all manufacturers, were not only willingly submitted to, but their expansion into acts regulating almost all trades, was tolerated. Trades' Unions, lately considered inventions of the devil himself, were now petted and patronised as perfectly legitimate institutions and as useful means of spreading sound economical doctrines amongst the workers. Even strikes, than which nothing had been more nefarious up to 1848, were now gradually found out to be occasionally very useful, especially when provoked by the masters themselves, at their own time. Of the legal enactments, placing the workman at a lower level or at a disadvantage with regard to the master, at least the most revolting were repealed. And, practically, that horrid “People's Charter” actually became the political programme of the very manufacturers who had opposed it to the last. “The Abolition of the Property Qualification” and “Vote by Ballot” are now the law of the land. The Reforms Acts of 1867 and 1884 make a near approach to “universal suffrage,” at least such as it now exists in Germany; the Redistribution Bill now before Parliament creates “equal electoral districts”—on the whole not more unequal than thanthan [sic] those of France or Germany; “payment of members” and shorter, if not actually “annual parliaments” are visibly looming in the distance—and yet there are people who say that Chartism is dead.

The Revolution of 1848, not less than any of its predecessors, has had strange bed-fellows and successors. The very people who put it down, have become, as Karl Marx used to say, its testamentary executors. Louis Napoleon had to create an independent and united Italy, Bismarck had to revolutionize Germany and to restore Hungarian independence, and the English manufacturers had to enact the People's Charter.

For England, the effects of this domination of the manufacturing capitalists were at first startling. Trade revived and extended to a degree unheard of even in this cradle of modern industry; the previous astounding creations of steam and machinery dwindled into nothing compared with the immense mass of productions of the twenty years from 1850 to 1870, with the overwhelming figures of exports and imports, of wealth accumulated in the hands of capitalists and of human working power concentrated in the large towns. The progress was indeed interrupted, as before, by a crisis every ten years, in 1857 as well as in 1868; but these revulsions were now considered as natural, inevitable events, which must be fatalistically submitted to, and which always set themselves right in the end.

And the condition of the working class during this period? There was temporary improvement even for the great mass. But this improvement always was reduced to the old level by the influx of the great body of the unemployed reserve, by the constant superseding of hands by new machinery, by the immigration of the agricultural population, now, too, more and more superseded by machines.

A permanent improvement can be recognised for two “protected” sections only of the working class. Firstly, the factory hands. The fixing by Act of Parliament of their working day within relatively rational limits, has restored their physical constitution and endowed them with a moral superiority, enhanced by their local concentration. They are undoubtedly better off than before 1848. The best proof is that out of ten strikes they make, nine are provoked by the manufacturers in their own interests, as the only means of securing a reduced production. You can never get the masters to agree to work “short time,” let manufactured goods be ever so unsaleable; but get the workpeople to strike, and the masters shut their factories to a man.

Secondly, the great Trades' Unions. They are the organisations of those trades in which the labor of grown-up men predominates, or is alone applicable. Here the competition neither of women and children nor of machinery has so far weakened their organised strength. The engineers, the carpenters and joiners, the bricklayers, are each of them a power, to that extent that, as in the case of the bricklayers and the bricklayers' labourers, they can even successfully resist the introduction of machinery. That their condition has remarkably improved since 1848 there can be no doubt, and the best proof of this is in the fact that for more than fifteen years not only have their employers, been with them, but they with their employers, upon exceedingly good terms. They form an aristocracy among the working class; they have succeeded in enforcing for themselves a relatively comfortable position, and they accept it as final. They are the model working men of Messrs. Leone Levi and Giffen, and they are very nice people indeed nowadays to deal with, for any sensible capitalist in particular and for the whole capitalist class in general.

But as to the great mass of the working people, the state of misery and insecurity in which they live now is as low as ever, if not lower. The East-end of London is an ever-spreading pool of stagnant misery and desolation, of starvation when out of work, and degradation, physical and moral, when in work. And so in all other large towns—abstraction made of the privileged minority of the workers; and so in the smaller towns and in the agricultural districts. The law which reduces the value of labor-power to the value of the necessary means of subsistence, and the other law which reduces its average price as a rule to the minimum of those means of subsistence: these laws act upon them with the irresistible force of an automatic engine, which crushes them between its wheels.

This, then, was the position created by the Free Trade policy of 1847, and by twenty years of the rule fo the manufacturing capitalists. But then a change came. The crash of 1868 was, indeed, followed by a slight and short revival about 1873; but that did not last. We did not, indeed, pass through the full crisis at the time it was due, in 1877 or 1878; but we have had, ever since 1876, a chronic state of stagnation in all dominant branches of industry. Neither will the full crash come; nor will the period of longer-for prosperity to which we used to be entitled before and after it. A dull depression, a chronic glut of all markets for all trades, that is what we have been living in for nearly ten years. How is this?

The Free Trade theory was based upon one assumption: that England was to be the one great manufacturing centre of an agricultural world. And the actual fact is that this assumption has turned out to be a pure delusion. The conditions of modern industry, steam-power and machinery, can be established where-ever there is fuel, especially coals. And other countries beside England: France, Belgium, Germany, America, even Russia, have coals. And the people over there did not see the advantage of being turned into Irish pauper farmers merely for the rest of the world; and the consequence is, that the manufacturing monopoly employed by England for nearly a century is irretrievably broken up.

But the manufacturing monopoly of England is the pivot of


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72 Baisemeaux reflected; he perceived, at a glance, the consequence of this withdrawal of a prisoner by means of a forged order; and, putting in the scale the guarantee offered him by the official order of the general, did not consider it of any value.

Aramis divined this.

"My dear Baisemeaux," said he, "you are a simpleton. Lose this habit of reflection when I give myself the trouble to think for you."

And at another gesture he made, Baisemeaux bowed again.

"How shall I set about it?" he said.

"What is the process for releasing a prisoner?"

"I have the regulations."

"Well, then, follow the regulations, my friend."

"I go with my major to the prisoner's room, and conduct him, if he is a personage of importance."

"But this Marchiali is not an important personage," said Aramis carelessly.

"I don't know," answered the governor; as if he would have said, "It is for you to instruct me."

"Then, if you don't know it, I am right; so act toward Marchiali as you act toward one of obscure station."

"Good; the regulations so provide. They are to the effect that the turnkey, or one of the lower officials, shall bring the prisoner before the governor, in the office."

"Well, ’tis very wise, that; and then?"

"Then we return to the prisoner the valuables he wore at the time of his imprisonment, his clothes and papers, if the minister's orders have not otherwise directed."

"What was the minister's order as to this Marchiali?"

"Nothing; for the unhappy man arrived here without jewels, without papers, and almost without clothes."

"See how simple it all is. Indeed, Baisemeaux, you make a mountain of everything. Remain here, and make them bring the prisoner to the governor's house."

Baisemeaux obeyed. He summoned his lieutenant, and gave him an order, which the latter passed on, without disturbing himself about it, to the next whom it concerned.

Half an hour afterward they heard a gate shut in the court; it was the door to the dungeon, which had just rendered up its prey to the free air. Aramis blew out all the candles which lighted the room but one, which he left burning behind the door. This flickering glare prevented the sight from resting steadily on any object. It multiplied

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Rh tenfold the changing forms and shadows of the place, by its wavering uncertainty. Steps drew near.

"Go and meet your men," said Aramis to Baisemeaux.

The governor obeyed. The sergeant and turnkeys disappeared. Baisemeaux re-entered, followed by a prisoner. Aramis had placed himself in the shade; he saw without being seen. Baisemeaux, in an agitated tone of voice, made the young man acquainted with the order which set him at liberty. The prisoner listened, without making a single gesture or saying a word.

"You will swear (’tis the regulation that requires it)," added the governor, "never to reveal anything that you have seen or heard in the Bastile?"

The prisoner perceived a crucifix; he stretched out his hands, and swore with his lips.

"And now, monsieur, you are free, whither do you intend going?"

The prisoner turned his head, as if looking behind him for some protection, on which he ought to rely. Then was it that Aramis came out of the shade.

"I am here," he said, "to render the gentleman whatever service he may please to ask."

The prisoner slightly reddened, and, without hesitation, passed his arm through that of Aramis.

"God have you in His holy keeping," he said, in a voice the firmness of which made the governor tremble as much as the form of the blessing astonished him.

Aramis, on shaking hands with Baisemeaux, said to him:

"Does my order trouble you? Do you fear their finding it here, should they come to search?"

"I desire to keep it, monseigneur," said Baisemeaux.

"If they found it here, it would be a certain indication I should be lost, and, in that case, you would be a powerful and a last auxiliary to me."

"Being your accomplice, you mean?" answered Aramis, shrugging his shoulders. "Adieu, Baisemeaux," said he.

The horses were in waiting, making the carriage shake again with their impatience. Baisemeaux accompanied the bishop to the bottom of the steps. Aramis caused his companion to mount before him, then followed, and without giving the driver any further order, "Go on," said he. The carriage rattled over the pavement of the courtyard. An officer with a torch went before the horses, and gave orders at every post to let them pass. During the time taken in opening all the barriers, Aramis barely breathed, Rh

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MARS AND SATURN

Diameter—4230 miles

orbit of the little planet Mars, 141,000,000 miles from the sun, encompasses the orbits of Earth, Venus and Mercury, and forms the boundary line between the four inner planets and the planetoids or minor planets. Beyond the planetoids are the four great planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

The orbit of Mars is very eccentric, more eccentric, in fact, than any other planet in the solar system with the exception of Mercury. At its nearest approach to the earth's orbit it is only 35,000.000 miles away, while at its furthermost point it is distant 62,000.000 miles. The two planets, however, when at different points in their orbits, may be over 200,000,000 miles apart. This eccentricity in the orbit of our neighbor Mars causes it to differ in brightness as we see it shining as a star, for, although it is always large and beautiful, at its nearest approach to the earth it shines with more than tenfold the brilliancy of a first magnitude star. At such a time its fiery light attracts the attention of everyone. Such extreme increase in light can only occur in the months of August and September and then only about every fifteen years. This was a much heralded astronomical event of the year 1924, when the two planets were closer together than any other time during more than a hundred years. However, Mars was low in the sky and not in such a good position for observation as it will

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 be two years from that date when at a higher altitude, even though it will be at a greater distance from the earth. During shorter periods at intervals of two years and two months, the earth passes between Mars and the sun; Mars then shines in our night-sky as an especially red and lovely star with a well-illumined face just right for observation.

Mars is a much smaller globe than either the earth or Venus, but it is larger than the planet Mercury. Its diameter of 4230 miles is only a little more than half that of the earth, although its period of rotation is almost the same, the earth gaining by two-thirds of an hour. Its day therefore is only about 40 minutes longer than ours. The seasons of Mars are twice as long as ours, and its year equals 687 of our days, or 669 of its own.

The atmosphere of Mars is very rare and thin, more rare and thin than that surrounding the peak of Mount Everest, our highest mountain. Being less than one-fourth as dense as that found on the earth, one may see through it easily and discern the perma-

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 nent markings on its surface. The first thing one notices through a telescope is the ruddy color of its surface and the dark belt across the equatorial regions. The ruddy color is presumed to be the characteristic color of its soil, five-eighths of which is in a desert condition; there are also regions of other colors which are subject to change, and a white cap marking either pole.

The two white caps about the poles increase greatly during severe months of winter and vanish to small spots during the warmth of the Martian summer. These are the reservoirs of moisture for the planet. A series of photographs illustrating the phenomenon of the increase and decrease of these caps is very interesting, for at the height of the Martian winter, for instance, the north polar cap extends to the temperate zone while during the summer it dwindles until it is but a tiny patch a few hundred miles across. As the polar caps melt, they are bordered by a blue belt and this blue belt is only visible as the brilliant caps disappear. Judging from the same phenomena which are manifest on our earth, these polar caps were supposed to be snow. Through the aid of the spectroscope, they are now known to be snow.

The ruddy areas on Mars are interpreted as desert regions—great unfertile tracts of land but little affected by changes in climatic conditions, while the large irregular dark or blue-green regions are regarded as marshes or areas covered with vegetation, since they invariably grow darker during the Martian summer and reveal themselves in massed colors changing from the initial blue-green to ocher and finally to chocolate-brown. These changes follow the melting of the polar caps and each hemisphere undergoes the change in turn. Mars, however, is best known and famous for the theory of its so-called "canals."

The "canals" were first observed by Schiaparelli, the distinguished Italian observer, in 1877. Schiaparelli thought that the dark irregular areas were oceans and that they were connected

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 by these narrow streaks which he called "canale" or "channels." Unfortunately the word was not translated as "channels" but as "canals," which implies artificial construction, and this latter does therefore not convey the idea which the astronomer sought to convey. These black lines, or "canale," are generally straight and although spoken of as narrow, must be at least 12 miles in width and from a few hundred to three or four thousand miles in length. Starting from points near the polar caps, they follow the arcs of great circles, proceeding to what seem to be centers in the middle of the continent where, most surprisingly, they meet other lines which have come to the same spots. Schiaparelli says that "every channel opens at its end either into a sea or into a lake or into another channel, or else into the intersection of several other channels." "None of them as yet have been seen cut off in the middle of a continent, remaining without beginning or without end by preference they converge toward the small spots which we have given the names of lakes." These lakes are sometimes several hundred miles in diameter, although many are very much smaller.

The late Dr. Lowell, splendidly equipped with an observatory 7000 feet above sea-level in the clear air of Flagstaff, Arizona, maintained that each "canal" marked the route of a waterway, and that the visible mark is not the "canal" itself, but a broad band of vegetation irrigated from a narrow channel. He studied and mapped 522 of these canals, 56 of which were double. He also mapped the "lakes" which he called "oases." Dr. Lowell wrote a very interesting book on "Mars as the Abode of Life" as a result of his observations. He explains the "strips of vegetation" in this manner:

Since Mars is fast approaching a desert condition, there is a great scarcity of water, the only reliable source of supply coming from the melting of the snows at the polar caps. With the ad-

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 vance of spring the white caps begin to recede and a dark band appears around the edge. The water thus formed then flows away from the poles over the flat, dry surface, collects in the greenish areas (which are probably marshes) and from there is led into the canals. These canals do not begin to appear until the snows begin to melt and are always in the same position each season. The land is then moistened with water, the process starting near or around the melting polar caps and gradually moving down toward the equator. This water takes about 55 days to reach the equator, vegetation springing up along the way. At the end of the season, the fresh green withers and dies down. The spots, or oases, always connected by a canal to the rest of the dark area, appear and disappear, like the canals, with seasonal changes. These start faint in tone as large as they are to be, then darken throughout.

Since the vivifying water advanced from the south pole toward the equator and also toward the equator from the north pole, Lowell concluded that it must have some propelling force behind it, at least in one direction. This presupposes the directing influence of an intelligence.

Accepting the theory that Mars is inhabited by intelligent beings, it is presumed that the water resulting from the melting of the snow caps is consciously controlled and turned over certain designated portions of its surface, otherwise the tremendous floods "would prove more of a curse than blessing." The picture is one of a high order of intelligent beings realizing that their water is gradually disappearing and that their planet is rapidly becoming a desert, and who are struggling heroically to prolong its life. There are many objections to this theory, but at least it is an interesting hypothesis presented by a noted astronomer who possessed a splendid telescope erected in the clear air of Arizona, and who spent his life in a study of this planet.

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 The entire surface of Mars is about equal to the land surface of our earth. The density of the planet is only 73% that of the earth and the force of gravity on its surface is 35% as great as on the surface of our world. The lesser force of gravity, also the lower temperature and rare atmosphere, would all have their influence on any life found on Mars with the result that beings found there might be constituted physically in a very different way from ourselves. The temperature of Mars was computed lately at the Mount Wilson and the Lowell observatories and the results obtained at the two observatories were in excellent agreement. Although it was found to be 94 degrees below zero at one pole and 96 degrees below zero at the other pole, the average temperature on other parts of the planet during the brightest parts of the day averages between 40 to 60 degrees F. This would be a livable temperature for life as we know it, although another fact is commented upon which might cause curious complications. Since the blanket of air surrounding the planet is not of sufficient thickness to hold the heat on the planet, most of it may escape during the night-time, thus causing the temperature to drop to over 112 degrees below zero. If intelligent life wished to survive from day to day it would have to hibernate, perhaps in heated underground galleries, during the night half of its existence. The question as to whether or not there could be life on this planet has been hotly disputed by astronomers for years. It is certainly one of the most interesting aspects of astronomy to the public at large. It is often argued that since Mars is smaller than the earth it must have cooled down millions of years before the earth reached a similar stage, and that its organic life must therefore be proportionally farther advanced. Others have contended that it is past the age where it would be able to support life of any kind.

Professor W. H. Pickering has advanced a new speculative theory called "The Theory of Aerial Deposition." According

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74 and you might have heard his "sealed heart knock against his ribs." The prisoner, buried in a corner of the carriage, made no more sign of life than his companion. At length, a jolt more severe than the others announced to them that they had cleared the last watercourse. Behind the carriage closed the last gate, that in the Rue St. Antoine. No more walls either on the right or left; heaven everywhere, liberty everywhere, and life everywhere. The horses, kept in check by a vigorous hand, went quietly as far as the middle of the faubourg. There they began to trot. Little by little, whether they warmed over it, or whether they were urged, they gained in swiftness, and, once past Bercy, the carriage seemed to fly, so great was the ardor of the coursers. These horses ran thus as far as Villeneuve St. George's, where relays were waiting. Then, four instead of two whirled the carriage away in the direction of Melun, and pulled up for a moment in the middle of the forest of Senarl. No doubt the order had been given the postilion beforehand, for Aramis had no occasion even to make a sign.

"What is the matter?" asked the prisoner, as if waking from a long dream.

"The matter is, monseigneur," said Aramis, "that before going further it is necessary your royal highness and I should converse."

"I will wait an opportunity, monsieur," answered the young prince.

"We could not have a better, monseigneur; we are in the middle of a forest, and no one can hear us."

"The postilion?"

"The postilion of this relay is deaf and dumb, monseigneur."

"I am at your service. Monsieur d'Herblay."

"Is it your pleasure to remain in the carriage?"

"Yes; we are comfortably seated, and I like this carriage, for it has restored me to liberty."

"Wait, monseigneur; there is yet a precaution to be taken."

"What?"

"We are here on the highway; cavaliers or carriages traveling like ourselves might pass, and, seeing us stopping, deem us in some difficulty. Let us avoid offers of assistance, which would embarrass us."

"Give the postilion orders to conceal the carriage in one of the side avenues."

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 to this theory the major canals are natural marshes fed by storm laden air currents. These marshes furnish Mars a substitute for our oceans. Without them "the water evaporated from the summer pole would find its way too rapidly, through the natural general atmospheric circulation of the planet, to the southern polar regions, where, wrapped at this season in the long winter night and subjected to the cold of space, it would quickly be withdrawn from further use in support of vegetal and perhaps animal life. The function of the so-called canals or marshes in the economy of the planet is in short to furnish a substitute for our oceans, and to furnish by evaporation during the Martian summer a steady and continuous supply of water after that derived from the northern snows has appreciably diminished." The above is quoted from a report on Mars by Professor Pickering in the January number of Popular Astronomy, 1918. Professor Pickering believes that the "canals" "are either bands of moistened soil or vegetation growing on moistened soil" and that they cannot be anything else "for we know of no solid in the mineral world that darkens and then fades out in the sunlight." He does not think that the major canals are necessarily the work of intelligent beings, but they do serve the purpose of furnishing the northern hemisphere with a supply of water in the form of natural marshes during the long northern summer until the southern polar cap starts to melt at the coming of the autumnal equinox.

Professor Pickering, who has written a book called "Mars," gives the following interesting information as to how the planet appears through the telescope at Flagstaff: "We may examine the moon some night through a small opera-glass. The sharpness and amount of detail visible in the two cases will be similar, although the appearance of the two bodies is quite unlike."

General public interest in Mars is probably keener than in any other planet and since the great event of August 23rd, 1924, when

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 "Won't some of his other lieutenants question your authority?"

"Maybe. But they won't question it more than once." Tony patted the automatic and the glance he gave Flanagan was significant.

"Well!" exclaimed the captain. "This is news. Though I been wonderin' lately if Johnny hadn't lost his nerve or somep'm. This mob's been pretty quiet for a while."

"Too damn quiet!" agreed Tony, his eyes snapping with energetic resolve. "But all that's goin' to be changed now and changed damn quick."

"That'll be interesting to the other mob leaders."

"Let 'em find it out. They don't have to be told anything. I don't want this change spread around or leakin' into the papers. But I wanted you to know about it so that if I give you a ring some day and want a favor done in a hurry you'll know who I am."

Tony sneered at the captain's broad back as Flanagan departed. There, he thought, was a good example of the men who are supposed to stand between the lawless and the law-abiding citizenry. Trafficking for his own profit with those he had sworn to hunt down. That was the nub of the whole matter, Money. The underworld

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