THE NEW YORK EXCISE LAW.-As the nature of this law seems to be widely and grossly misunderstood, we give the following facts:

In 1855 the legislature passed what was known as the "Maine Law," which forbade the public sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage. In 1856 the Court of Appeals declared this law unconstitutional. In 1857, nine years ago, the legislature passed the Excise law, confiding its execution to local commissioners, who, in the counties of New York, Kings and Richmond, were openly defied and overawed by an organized and wealthy combination of rumsellers. The only change mady by the law of 1866 was to provide means for enforcing the existing law, by intrusting the granting of licenses in those counties to the Metropolitan Board of Health. Things are changed in those counties only in the fact that the law is, for the first time, enforced.

EVADING A LAW.-A good example of the way in which a coach-and-four can sometimes be driven through a law, even in partly despotic countries, is found in L'Association, the organ of the Co-operative societies of France. It was lately suppressed by the government, whereupon the same parties who had been concerned in its publication established a new journal called La Cooperation, and went on as before.

GOVERNMENT WITHOUT TAXES.-The city of Bremen is governed without taxes. The City Senate states to the people every year what sum will be needed to clean and light the city, &c., for the ensuing twelve months. They advise that each citizen shall contribute a given per-centage of his income for the purpose. Every one then gives what he pleases. The names of the contributors are published; and so many wealthy persons take pride in contributing more than their share, that the money received is usually larger than the amount required.

CONVICTS' EARNINGS.-A step which is needed in the improvement of our prisons is the recognition of the right of the convict to the profits which he has honestly earned, instead of having them go into the Treasury of the State. The knowledge that he will, when he leaves the prison walls, not be without means of immediate support, and that they depend on his conduct within those walls, will be a powerful inducement to good conduct while in prison. The existence of this chance to begin well on leaving jail might also be made to depend on his conduct; this would be a still stronger inducement to good behavior.

LIBEL LAWS.-Even if these statutes are at all congruous with freedom, there is one part of them which is utterly indefensible that which forbids those to whom small debts are owed to make the facts known, and thus to bring public opinion to bear on their debtors. It is a tyranny and a mockery to say to a man to whom each of twenty men owes five, ten, twenty or fifty dollars: "You may sue each of your creditors separately; but you shall at your peril try to use any remedy which does not cost nearly as much as the amount which you seek to recover." Instances are very common. Here is one several persons who sent us their names as subscribers last year have continued to receive the Review this year without objection, and now refuse to pay for it. We adhere, of course, to payment in advance as a rule; but from various causes there are occasional exceptions. The simple publication of their names would compel these exceptions to act fairly; but this step the law of libel forbids us to take.

Such instances, we believe, are within the knowledge of every publisher of a periodical. If no other change is to be made in the law, its operation might well be limited to cases where the amount in dispute exceeds fifty dollars.

A GOOD APPOINTMENT.-Alex. Delmar, former editor of the SOCIAL SCIENCE REVIEW, has lately been appointed Director of the Bureau of Statistics in the Treasury Department at Washington. His appointment was due to his labors as editor, which showed his great ability as a statistician. We feel safe in saying that the public may now expect to see governmental statistics made up in such a way as to possess real worth.

NEW PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

The Trial of the Constitution. By Sidney George Fisher. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co.

The Law of the Territories. By the Same.

The Laws of Race, as connected with Slavery. By the Same. Philadelphia: Willis P. Hazard.

A National Currency. By the Same. Philadelphia: Lippincott & Co.

Rustic Rhymes. By the Same. Philadelphia: Payne & McMillan.

Winter Studies in the Country. By the Same. Same Publishers. (A number too late for acknowledgment.)