NEW YORK

Bills pending in Senate: (325) Demonstration farms and winter schools in counties as branches of State College of Agriculture. (346) Amending the Greater New York charter relating to salaries of members of supervising and teaching staffs. (376) Pensions for all teachers in state institutions serving the required time, maximum, $1,000. (384) Providing free text-books in all school districts. (486) Providing for kindergarten training and instruction of blind babies and children twelve years of age and under. (488) Authorizing the Trustees of the State School of Agriculture at Morrisville to acquire real estate by condemnation. (523) Establishing the New York State School for Rural Education on Long Island.

Bills pending in Assembly: (764) Appropriating $329,000 for development and extension of State College of Agriculture of Cornell University. (767) Establishing a state institution for the reformation and education of misdemeanant males between sixteen and twenty-one.

RHODE ISLAND

Law enacted: (H. 15) Authorizing cities and towns to provide free meals for school children.

Bills pending in House: (57) Special railroad rates for pupils in all public schools. (77) Raises the annual appropriation for free scholarships at the Rhode Island School of Design from $8,000 to $10,000. (83) Authorizing the city of Providence to spend annually $2,000 for public free lectures. Providing for a State Board of Examiners for trained nurses.

SOUTH CAROLINA

Bills passed Senate: Authorizing the appointment of the Assistant Superintendent of Education for Counties of a population from 82,000 to 85,000. Creating a State Commission of elementary agricultural education. Providing for medical examination of school children (vetoed by Governor).

Bills pending in Senate: Relating to establishment of libraries in rural public schools. Prohibiting the smoking of cigarettes. Creating a State Board of Examiners for teachers. Authorizing Boards of Trustees of Schools Districts to establish, accept and support public libraries and to levy a special tax, maximum one mill, for same.

VIRGINIA

Bills pending in Senate: (259) To establish a General Board of Directors of Reform Schools. (262) Providing for commitment to the General Board of Directors of Reform Schools of Virginia, of minors under eighteen years convicted of crime. (271) Repealing the Act of 1910, creating the United Agricultural Board, and appropriating $5,000 annually to be used by the State Board of Education for demonstrations and experiments in connection with the public schools. (300) Amending Act constituting a United Agricultural Board.

Bills pending in House: Requiring the State Board of Education to ascertain and report the amount paid by patrons of public schools for adopted school books. Requiring Board of Education to adhere to single list method of adoption of text-books and to prevent unnecessary changes. Raise in the age limit from fourteen, sixteen years for children subject to the child labor laws.

The

REVIEWS AND NOTICES

Catholic Encyclopedia; Volume XII. Philip-Revalidation. New York: The Appleton Company.

Each succeeding volume of the Catholic Encyclopedia demonstrates what an invaluable thesaurus the completed work will be for all who seek to be rightly informed on matters pertaining to the doctrine, philosophy, history and discipline of the Catholic Church. Volume XII has some especially valuable articles for the student of philosophy and history as well as for the general reader. Under "Philosophy," by Doctor De Wulf of the Catholic University of Louvain, are treated the various philosophical methods, the great historical currents of thought, contemporary orientations, philosophy and the sciences, philosophy and religion, the Catholic Church and philosophy, and the teaching of philosophy. The article is supplemented with a good bibliography. In the article on "Pragmatism," Doctor Turner, of the Catholic University of America, traces the origin of the system and shows its relation to religion and to Catholic philosophy. "Positivism" is presented in a critical and historical way by Doctor Sauvage, of Holy Cross College, Washington, D. C.

Among the historical articles one might select those on the Reformation, the Renaissance, the Pope, the Order of Preachers and the Reductions of Paraguay, as being especially attractive. Teachers and students of the history of education will be well repaid for a study of many of the general articles such as those on psychology, and the educational treatises like that on the Ratio Studiorum, or the biographical sketches of Cardinal Pullen, William Poynter, Rabanus Maurus and Reuchlin. While the article on Pope Pius II, Aeneas Sylvius, does not emphasize his influence on the humanist movement in education, nor mention his treatise on a liberal education, "De Liberorum Educatione," as a critical appreciation of his interesting career it leaves nothing to be desired.

PATRICK J. MCCORMICK.

Frederic Ozanam; His Life and Works of O'Meara, Kathleen. New York: Christian Press Association.

The life of Frederic Ozanam is a fine example of what can be accomplished by a devout and capable leader of the lay apostolate. His struggles and achievements as a young man in Paris in organizing little groups of Catholic students of the great Metropolis, in laying the foundations of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, and later, as a professor at the Sorbonne, in championing the cause of Christianity and Catholicism, have lessons full of meaning for the Catholic layman of to-day. Ozanam was a tireless worker for the spread of the knowledge of the truth and for the application of the teachings of the Gospel to the social needs of his time. He was largely responsible for the success of the early conferences of Father Lacordaire, and it was at his appeal that the famous preacher was brought to the pulpit of Notre Dame. If he had done nothing more for the Faith than to have prepared the way for the movement caused by these conferences the Church in France would have every reason to be grateful to his memory. This was, however, only one of his great services. The Society for charitable work among the poor which he founded, and which he organized even outside of France, has already by its innumerable good works proved him to be one of the greatest of modern social benefactors.

It is to be hoped that this new edition of his life and works will be well received and widely circulated among our Catholic men and our youth in schools and colleges. The preface to this edition is from the pen of Mr. Thomas Mulry, President of the Superior Council of the New York division of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, a leading Catholic charity worker who was awarded by the University of Notre Dame the Laetare Medal for 1911.

PATRICK J. MCCORMICK.

The Independence of Chile. A. Stuart M. Chisholm, Boston, Sherman, French and Co., 1911.

The present neat and attractive volume comes to us as an evidence of the increasing interest, not only in the commercial value of South America, but also in its history. As there is

neither preface nor introduction, we are left to glean from the work itself that the author was or is a resident of Chile, while the treatment of his subject shows a thorough familiarity with it. From the limited bibliography at the end of the book, we are led to infer what his sources were, though it is also clear that he had access to unpublished documents. The scientific and historical value of the book would, however, have been immeasurably augmented had he enriched his volume with notes and references. As it is now, the average reader must guess as to the authority of his statements.

As an instance of this, he puts forth the assertion, (p. 16) when treating of the colonial period, that "a royal decree commanded that all the youth who should distinguish themselves in study be compelled to take holy orders." It would indeed be most interesting had the author informed us where he found this decree.

On the previous page he pays his respects to Queen Isabella of Castile, to whose "intolerant genius" the Inquisition owed the eminence it attained. This is one of those inferences of the modern historian hardly warranted by facts. I prefer, with Prescott, to have a milder opinion of the Queen of Castile, in regard to the share she had in establishing the Spanish Inquisition, an act to which she yielded reluctantly.1

Taking it all in all, our author has made out a strong case against Spain in her treatment of the colonies; yet we can not but feel that there is something of the prosecuting attorney, rather than of the historian, in the first part of his work dealing with the Spanish colony. While we may agree with him regarding the great severity of the censorship of books, the "royal cult," as he calls it, and, above all, the pecuniary exactions and the discriminations against native born Americans, causes that, without a doubt, helped to bring about the Revolution, yet the fact must not be overlooked that there are many palliating circumstances that would place Spain in a fairer light were they considered. If his bibliography is an index of his reading, then the author has relied more on modern writers, like Miguel Luis Arnunategui and Jose Voc1 Ferdinand and Isabella, Part I, Chapter VII.