as an
accumulation of $138,000,000 in the United States treasury, nearly all
of it gold, representing forty per cent. of the outstanding bonds. The
mere knowledge of this fact so strengthened the public credit that,
instead of the anticipated rush on the 1st of January, only $11,000,000
was offered for redemption. The problem of specie payment proved to be a
bugbear.

[Illustration: GRANT AT WINDSOR CASTLE.]

THE FISHERY AWARD.

By the treaty of Washington, signed in 1872, Americans were allowed to
take fish of every kind, except shellfish, on the seacoasts and shores
and in the bays, harbors, and creeks of the provinces of Quebec, Nova
Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward's Island, and the adjacent islands,
without restriction as to the distance from shore. In return for this
privilege, our government agreed to charge a duty upon certain kinds of
fish brought by British subjects into American harbors. There were other
mutual concessions, and, in order to balance matters and make everything
smooth, the whole question was placed in the hands of an arbitration
commission, which began its sessions in the summer of 1877, at Halifax.
The commission included a member appointed by the Queen, one by the
President, and the third by the Austrian ambassador at the Court of St.
James. Our country was astounded by the verdict of this commission,
which was that the United States should pay the sum of $5,000,000 to the
British government. Even England was surprised, and our government was
disposed to refuse to accept the verdict; but to do that would have
established a bad precedent, and the sum named was paid to Great Britain
in the autumn of 1878.

THE YELLOW FEVER SCOURGE.

Yellow fever has been one of the most dreadful scourges that our country
has suffered. It first appeared on this continent in 1780, when Boston
was ravaged in the summer of that year. It afterward appeared in New
York and Philadelphia, especially in 1793 and 1797, after which its
visitations have been mainly confined to the South, where the sanitation
measures have been less rigid than in the North. It has been proven that
strict quarantine and absolute cleanliness are safeguards against its
entrance, though, after the frightful plague has once appeared in a
place, it is impossible to stamp it out. It subsides before the approach
of frost and cold weather, and the cure for those smitten is to carry
them to cool elevations. Thus far science has not been