be adjusted, not primarily according to the degree of criminality in the act punished, but primarily with reference to the cure of the criminal. Ideally the criminal should be simply sentenced to prison; in prison all his work, all his education, all his discipline, should be carried on with reference to reforming him; and when he gives satisfactory evidence of being reformed that is, of possessing, first, ability to earn an honest livelihood, and, second, an enduring and to-be-trusted purpose to earn an honest livelihood, with respect to the rights of his fellow-men-he should be discharged. This principle, if it were fully carried out, would work, and, where it has been carried out, has worked, in two ways: it does not discharge a prisoner to go back and prey upon society merely because he has, as the saying is, paid the penalty for a past misdeed; and it does not keep a prisoner in confinement at the cost of the State after he has proved himself intellectually and morally fit to be discharged and to live again as a man among his fellow-men.

We believe that this principle is thoroughly sound. It is recognized as sound by many, if not most, leaders in penological science; not merely by the theorists, but also by the men of practical experience in dealing with criminals. But, whether sound or not, it has been adopted by the New York Legislature, with a qualification. The object of this qualification is to combine the reformatory with the retributive idea; to allow the judge to fix certain minimum and maximum limits to the penalty, so that neither shall a great crime receive an insignificant penalty nor an insignificant crime receive a too great penalty, while between these two limits there shall be lodged in a tribunal at the prison power to retain or discharge the prisoner according to the character acquired by him under its restraint and discipline. As our charge against the Court of General Sessions in this city is a serious one, we quote the statute in full, that our readers may judge for themselves what was the intent of the Legislature in enacting it:

years or less, and sentence to a State prison, shall be sentenced thereto under an indeterminate sentence, the maximum of which shall not be less than one year, or in case a minimum is fixed by law, not less than such minimum, and the maximum of which shall not be more than the longest period fixed by law for which the crime is punishable of which the offender is convicted.

"Shall be sentenced under an indeterminate sentence:" the meaning of tat law seems to us perfectly clear; and it also seems to us perfectly clear that the following sentences, taken from the records of the Court of General Sessions, are, not an attempt to execute the will of the Legislature, but a skillful and successful evasion of that will. The first column shows the minimum, the second column the maximum, of each sentence: thus, John Caney was sentenced to be imprisoned for not less than one year nor more than one year, Henry Miller for not less than four years and nine months nor more than five years. It is clear that these sentences are in no true sense "indeterminate" sentences. Their duration is very definitely determined by the judge.

A person never before convicted of a crime punishable by imprisonment in a State prison, who is convicted in any court in this State of a felony, the maximum penalty for which, exclusive of fines, is imprisonment for five

It may be claimed by the judge or judges who gave these sentences that the law is impracticable or even pernicious. But that is not a question for the judiciary to decide. Their duty is to interpret and enforce the law, not to determine whether it is politic or impolitic, righteous or unrighteous. The Legislature has given the judges a discretion, and certain of the judges have used that discretion to nullify the act of the Legislature. The remedy is one which the Legislature can easily apply it can take away the liberty which it has conferred. It can enact that all criminals condemned for felony the maximum penalty for which is five years or less, which would except all the more serious felonies, shall be sentenced for an indeterminate term, not less than the minimum prescribed by statute nor more than the maximum pre

scribed by statute, and that the length of the sentence between this minimum and this maximum shall be determined at the prison by a tribunal there, and shall be determined in accordance with the progress and character of the prisoner and his practical response to the reformatory influence of the prison discipline. We should like to see the Legislature apply this remedy.

But it is certainly a matter for regret that a court whose function it is to interpret and enforce law should ever use its judicial power to evade law and set it aside.

A National University

This

Last week was made memorable in the history of education in this country by two princely gifts. Mrs. Stanford, by the generosity of whose husband the Leland Stanford University was founded, conveyed to that institution property amounting in the aggregate to not less than thirty millions of dollars. That portion of this immense estate which is represented by land is likely to greatly increase in value with the later development of California; and the entire estate is said to exceed the valuation which has been put upon it. is the largest single gift ever made to education, either by an individual or by a State; and it is believed that Leland Stanford has now the largest endowment which any educational institution in the world has ever received-an endowment so large as to equip it for the most thorough educational work in all departments in which it chooses to enter, and giving it the opportunity, therefore, of becoming a great center, not only of thorough training, but of the higher civilization on the Pacific coast.

It is definitely known that Mr. Carnegie has offered ten millions of dollars to endow a National University in the city of Washington, but no official statement has yet been made to Congress or to the public, and the precise scope and intention of the gift are so far largely a matter of surmise. There is very little doubt, however, with regard to the character of the institution which Mr. Carnegie proposes to equip for exceptional service. From the earliest history of the Government the idea of a National University of

Washington has been in the air, has from time to time invaded the imagination of people in different parts of the country, and has inspired more than one organized effort to give it substantial basis. Most of the plans which have been made looking to this end have contemplated the establishment of a National University planned largely upon the lines of the State universities; the creation, in other words, of a new institution not differing in kind or purpose from any other university already in existence throughout the country, but simply enlarged in scope. Several years ago, when the agitation for the creation of an institution of this kind, which would involve chiefly the duplication of educational instrumentalities already at work and needing in almost every case additional endowments, was pressed with unusual vigor, a number of educators, after mature consideration, proposed the establishment of an educational institution at Washington which should have a private foundation, independent of Governmental support or control. This institution, it was proposed, should facilitate the use of the resources of the Government for research and cooperation with universities, colleges, and individuals in securing for the proper persons opportunities for advanced study, the control and management of this institution to be vested in a board of fifteen trustees, with an advisory board composed of heads of executive departments and bureaus.

For the furtherance of this plan a Board of Trustees was nominated, including Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, Acting President of Columbia; Dr. Gilman, then President of the Johns Hopkins University; Dr. Hadley, of Yale, Dr. Harper, of Chicago University, Dr. Alderman, of Tulane University, Dr. Dabney, of the University of Tennessee, Dr. Northrop, of the University of Minnesota; Mr. Carroll D. Wright, Commissioner of Labor; the Regent of the Smithsonian Institution, and various others. Dr. Gilman was elected Director of the institution; Mr. Wolcott, Director of the United States Geological Survey, President, and Nicholas Murray Butler, Secretary of the Board of Trustees; while the advisory Board was made up of the President of the United States, the Chief Justice of the

Supreme Court, the members of the Cabinet, the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, the Commissioner of Education, the Librarian of Congress, the Commissioner of Labor, the Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, the Presidents of the Civil Service Commission, National Academy of Sciences, National Educational Association, Association of American Universities, and Association of Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations, and Dr. Charles W. Eliot.

This plan was devised for the purpose of realizing the ambition to create at Washington a great educational institution, worthy of the National capital, which should not duplicate existing institutions; which should be free from political control; which should utilize the immense resources of the Government for educational purposes, and which, instead of competing with existing colleges and universities, should co-operate with and supplement their work. It is along the lines thus roughly outlined that the new institution which Mr. Carnegie proposes to endow will unquestionably be established. It will aim at research, and it will co-ordinate for educational purposes the immense resources of the various departments of the public service in Washington. Those who have studied the matter have long realized the need of such an institution. The material for research in various directions in the National capital is practically unlimited. The Department of Agriculture, for instance, spends about four millions of dollars per year in strictly scientific work; the Interior Department spends more than one million, and the Treasury Department as much more along the same lines. The Navy Department, War Department, Fish Commission, the Botanic Gardens, Smithsonian Institution, and the Library of Congress spend eight million dollars in the aggregate. The Government, in order to carry on its scientific work, the extent and importance of which are simply suggested by these expenditures, is compelled to train the great majority of its own specialists. The Smithsonian Institution has made it possible for students to carry on advanced work within its own walls. There is a kind of training-school under the direction of the Department of Agriculture, a group of men receiving nominal pay being

permitted to use the laboratories for their own investigations; in the Geological Department a group of field assistants enjoy the same privileges; and there is another group of students in the Department of Agriculture to whom are extended the same facilities. The Librarian of the Congressional Library has shown great zeal and energy in putting the resources of that institution at the service of working men of letters and students in all departments. It will be seen, therefore, that a beginning has been made towards the utilization of what the Government has to offer in the way of opportunity and material for advanced work; but it is only a beginning. The institution which Mr. Carnegie proposes to endow will organize those facilities, co-ordinate this material, and furnish the machinery by which all the resources of the Government, in its various departments, can be utilized along well-defined lines and in an orderly and systematic fashion.

The value of such an institution need not be pointed out. It would be a very great service to the Government, which is now obliged to do this work on a very small scale and in an incidental way; the new institution would train in an orderly fashion a body of men who would be of immense service in carrying on the public work along scientific lines. It would also strengthen American education where it needs to be strengthened, at the top. It would make the National capital a center for advanced work, for original research, offering facilities which would enable promising students to carry on their work long enough to make themselves masters of the material and of their tools. In this way it would aid all the educational interests of the country. Nothing is more sorely needed for this purpose than the endowment of research; and Mr. Carnegie, whose magnificent gift of an equivalent sum to the University of Scotland last summer, largely in aid of students, will be remembered, will, by this latest act of generosity, stimulate the entire educational life of the country, add a new and commanding element of influence at the National capital, and give to the city of Washington an importance, a dignity, and an atmosphere which can be developed and diffused in a great city only by a great university.