orbidding them to disclose communications of patients, but the
statute only applies to civil cases. More States provide for verdicts
by a majority of the jury. Maryland goes Pennsylvania one better in
extending the professional privilege to newspaper reporters; that is
to say, we find a statute that they may not be compelled to disclose
their sources of information, an excellent statute for the yellow
journal. In 1897 California abolishes capital punishment; there has
been a general tendency in this direction, of recent years, although
some States, having tried the experiment, have returned to it again,
as has the Republic of France. In 1899 the privilege from testifying
is extended in one State also to trained nurses, and in others to
physicians, even in criminal cases, although they may testify with the
patient's consent. The same law was adopted in Iowa in 1900, Ohio does
away with the common law of libel, except the plaintiff can prove
actual malice. By this year, seventeen States expressly allow women
to practise law, and twenty-eight do so by implication. The Colorado
statute for a three-fourths verdict is held unconstitutional.

The regulation of the liquor traffic is, perhaps, after the labor
question, the most universal subject of legislation in occidental
nations. Experts on the matter tell us (E.L. Fanshawe, "Liquor
Legislation in the United States and Canada," Report to Parliament,
1892) that there have hitherto been but three, or possibly four,
inventions--universal or State-wide prohibition, local option,
license, high or low, and State administration. The last was recently
tried in South Carolina with more or less success. Prohibition by
a general law does not seem to be effective; local option, on the
contrary, does seem to be so. But the general consensus of opinion,
to which Mr. Fanshawe comes, and which seems still to be held by most
intelligent American publicists, is that on the whole high license
works best, and this the women themselves have just voted in Denver;
not only because it actually prohibits to a certain extent, but it
regulates and polices the traffic, prevents the sale of adulterated
liquor, and to a considerable extent the grosser disorders and
political dangers that attend the bar-room. On the other hand, the
power of licensing should never be granted to any political body,
but should be granted under fixed rules (determined by geographical
position and the local opposition or desire