Morning journal and courier., 1880-01-23

and the provinces of the Don was equal to 15. GOO, 900 roubles. Neglect and idleness have allowed the destroyer to multiply so fast that it will be very difficult now to check him. Wherever the ground has been dug up, enor. nous quantities of chrysalides have been found, which in spring will turn into beetles.
 Alaska may not be paradise, but if MT. John Muir, who writes to the San Francisco Bulletin concerning it, is correctly informed, it is not worthless. MT. Muir says: ''We ka will be found at least moderately rich ir the precious metals, and that gold-mining, notwithstanding the disadvantages of cl- mate, heavy vegetation and beds of glacial drift, will come to be regarded as one of the most important and reliable of her resources T
 The disclosures made at the inquest in the case of a New York man who died after eat. ing of a lemon meringue pie are rather inter esting reading. The chemist who analysed what was left of the pie told the coroner's jury that in the yellow filling of it he found dye possessing strong acid properties to the amount of four centigrammes to the ounce. The dye was strong aniline yellow, used for dying wool. He proved it's poison ous qualities by administering portion to s dog, which exhibited symptoms of acid poi soning. The dye formed one per cent. of the interior of the pie. Another chemist testified that he found traces of the same dye discov- cred in the pie in the stomach and liver of the dead man. The baker who sold the poison ous pies said that he used carmine for color ing cakes and jellies but not in pies, and he professed to believe that the poison was put in the pies by an enemy.
 In his last letter from Paris to the New York Evening Post Edward King gives some ac- count of remarkable article written for the Positivist Review by M. Littre. In the arti cle M. Littre lays down broadly rules for the future guidance of the French republics for eign policy. He does not mince matters al all he tells his fellow-countrymen fairly and squarely that they no longer can consider France great power; that there are but three countries left in Europe which are really first. class powers; and that they are Russia, Eng land and Germany. He considers that the first French republic succeeded in completing the project which had always been stubborn. ly pursued by the old monarchies in France, that of extending the frontiers in the direc. tion of the Rhine and toward the north. But now that all the advantages which had been gained only after centuries of aggression have been irreparably lost by the First and Third Napoleons, whom M. Littre considers to have been the scourges of France. and by series of overwhelming disasters which, to use his own sweeping language, were only accom- plished because of the incredible and fortuit
 ous combination of all the most criminal of follies in one moment at one point, and under one government, the country must no longer think of extending her boundaries by attack ing her immediate neighbors. She has, thinks the venerable philosopher and republican, a much better field and more glorious mission in devoting herself frankly to building up her neglected colonies, and in opening new ones in Africa and elsewhere. He thinks the chances for the revival of the English alliance which Louis Philippe had well established are very good, and points out that commercial in tercourse and the liberal institutions of the two countries are doing much for this. He announces his firm belief that it is for the good of all Frenchmen henceforth to under stand that they belong to second class pow
 CT, and to shun European entanglements by every means in their grasp. He recommends the democracy to have as little as it conven- iently can to do with the conduct of the coun. try's foreign policy, but to commit it to sound men, and then to give them time to carry i, out undisturbed. It will be strange if the Frenchmen follow such good advice as this.