, and when once
aroused to a knowledge of not only their wrongs, but the source of such
wrong-doing, are terrible in their wrath. The hour seems dark, but it
may be the hour before dawn. We remember the millions that in casting
their votes were counted for free trade and all reform. Aided by the
suffering that comes of abuse we will yet win.

In all the gloom of disaster and defeat it is a comfort to know that our
President stands higher in his loss of office than the incoming
nonentity in his success. He leaves the Executive Mansion with the
respect of a people, and will go down to history as the one President
who dared offend his own party in the high discharge of his great
office. The intellect and honesty of the land follow him in admiration
to his retirement. No cause is wholly lost that is supported by such a
statesman and such a following.

THE BALANCE OF TRADE.

There is no phrase in our political discussions so little understood and
so generally employed as the above. Its use and abuse serve to
illustrate the strange ignorance of political leaders and pretentious
journalists. When a Senator at Washington, of the length and solemnity
of the Hon. John Sherman, lifts a warning voice while calling attention
to the "balance of trade" against us in our trade with the Canadas, we
are enabled to measure the density of the fog-bank called the Senate,
and why it is that fog-horns have taken the place of the persuasive
oratory that awoke musical echoes in the days of Webster.

As we reserve a corner of our magazine to the better instruction of
Senators in political economy ($2.50 per year, invariably in advance:
now is the time to subscribe), we requested our accomplished friend John
McClung to put in brief a clear, concise, and correct definition of the
phrase "balance of trade." We begged our able contributor to treat the
subject as if he were preparing a lesson for the use of schools--say
children of tender years--so that our Solons at the national capital
might comprehend without too great a strain upon their Senatorial
brains.

Here is Mr. McClung's effort at instruction, and we commend it to our
law-makers and the gentlemen of the journalistic pen as an easy lesson
on a subject that it is not of any great credit to comprehend, but
utterly disgraceful to be ignorant of.

THE SO-CALLED "BALANCE OF TRADE."

That it is good for a country to have its exports exceed its imports is
a notion that has been widel