Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1881-05-26

different and incompatible things to prepare
| scholars for scholarly lives, and to prepare
| men and women for life's practical duties,
| aud the result is they fit college boys badly
| for college, and fit the average citizen badly
| for his citizenship. The two things are both
ssirable neither is in dignity and worth
superior to the other, or if either, then it is
| that which the common school ought to do,
| for it is the greater task, and, if well done,
confers immediate and direct benefit upon
the greater number. The public school, if it
cannot do both, must choose that which is
plainly public function, to give that train
ing which the great majority of the people
require to make them intelligent and useful
citizens. As Mr.. Hall well says: ''The
nine -tenths of our population who do not go
to college deserve school system complete
in itself, and adapted to their special needs
system with beginning, middle, and an
end; system in which the entire machinery
of public instruction shall work intelligently
to make skillful, thoroughly equipped citi-
zens"
The st. James Gazette undertakes the
rather ungrateful task of defending opium eat
ing in China. Malarious fever, it says, is
one of the scourges of the population, and
opium is known to have been one of the ear
iest remedies for ague before the discovery
of the Jesuits' bark and of quinine. Even
now the Fen populations of England are said
to have the habit of indulgence in laudanum
in preference to alcohol Therefore that
vast quantity of opium should be smoked in
China is natural and inevitable, and to limit
the supply would be raSmo facie the most
gratuitous cruelty. There is, moreover,
another reason why sedatives should be
largely resorted to by the Chinese. The agi
tators for total abstinence are finding out to
their dismay that their recommendation of
tea and coffee in substitution for alcohol is
stimulants in excess, which are even worse
in their way than those resulting from
drunkenness. There is strong reason for
believing that largely tea-drinking popula-
ton cannot safely dispense with either alco
hol or opium. There has never been any
such controversy among medical men re
specting the absolute usefulness of opium as
has arisen on the subject of alcohol. In
some quantity or other, the products of the
poppy are invaluable and nearly the latest
and perhaps the greatest of medical discover
les consists in the injection of one of them
into the blood. This fact, the Gazette de-
clares. is by itself enough to necessitate
revision of the whole argument about the
opium traffic.
The Legislature of New Hampshire will
come together next Wednesday. The ques
ton as to whether not the successor to
United States Senator Rollins shall be chosen
by this or the next Legislature is one that |
promises to occasion much discussion. |
There is in the minds of eminent lawyers
difference of opinion as to which Legislature
is entitled to elect under the terms of the
United States statute Two years before
Senator Wadleighs term expired Congress |
man Blair made special effort to induce the
Legislature to elect his successor, and such
eminent senators as Edmunds, Carpenter
and Conkling agreed with his view. But he I
did not succeed in convincing the Legisla- |
ture, and in March. 1879, Senator Wadleigh's |
term expired, and the Legislature
A special session of Congress was
called, Governor Prescott appointed the |
Hon. Charles H. Bell, of Exeter, as Senator, |
and after protracted discussion he was ad- |
mitted to seat, but Edmunds, Carpenter |
and Conkling voted against him. on the |
ground that the preceding Legislature ought !
to have elected. Since that time Senator |
Rollins has labored assiduously to secure the |
passage of an act defining the matter, SO that |
no misunderstanding could exist but in this |
he has failed, and now the question presents |
itself anew whether this Legislature shall |
elect and thus secure perpetual representa-
ton of the State in the Senate, or whether |
it shall be allowed to go to the Legislature Of |
1888, and leave the State unrepresented from
March to June of that year. 1t is under |
stood that Senator Rollins favors an election !
by the present Legislature, and it is equally |
understood that his competitors are disposed |
to oppose an election. There are strong ar
guments on both sides, and what the outcome
will be no one can safely predict.