from her husband's house, which was her prison. Guido pursued the fugitives, and overtook them at Castelnuovo. Had he there and then wreaked his vengeance upon them, he might have pleaded his outraged honor as an excuse. But fear or hesitancy stayed his hand, and he permitted the law to take its course. Caponsacchi was condemned to three years at Civita Vecchia, and Pompilia was sent to a convent, a sentence which proves that the law took a more lenient view than did Guido of his wife's character. For the moment quiescent, Guido yet meditated revenge, and when a few months afterwards Pompilia had been permitted to return to her parents' house, he went thither with a band of hirelings and took the vengeance of a savage. The Comparini were stabbed to death, and Pompilia was left a-dying, with twenty-two wounds upon her frail body. The case, which engrossed the gossips of Rome for many a day, ended in the just condemnation of Guido Franceschini and his accomplices, and the one word that can be said in favor of Guido himself is that he died with courage. "When he had mounted the platform," says the Yellow Book, "he asked pardon for his sins, and begged them to pray for his soul, adding that they should say a Pater, an Ave, and Salve Regina for him. When he had made the confessor announce that he was reconciled, he adjusted his neck upon mannaia, and with the name of Jesus on his lips he was beheaded. The head was then shown to the people by the executioner." Thus died the infamous Guido Franceschini, who, but for the accident of the Yellow Book falling into the hands of Robert Browning, would long ago have been forgotten. The accident, which gave Guido immortality, was happy for the poet. The theme was perfectly suited to Browning's talent and temperament. The life which burns in every line of it gave his dramatic genius its best opportunity. Even those for whom, as for ourselves, Browning's style is a thing of corners and rough edges, cannot but admire the amazing vitality of "The Ring and the Book." Here we are confronted not so much with poetry as with life itself. Guido and the Abate Paolo speak and move as they spoke and moved at Arezzo. The hapless and injured Pompilia suffers again the cruellest tortures. The characters and incidents of the tragedy are alike so real that you forget the words in which they are clothed: you look upon them disembodied of their art. And the comparison of the Yellow Book with the poem reveals most vividly the poet's method. In many a passage he keeps so close to his original as to reproduce word for word the actual speeches of the dead. Then by a flash of insight he shows you how little he is trammelled by the literal truth. The characters of the drama are realized with an understanding which will astonish all those who read the Yellow Book, at once by its simplicity and by its justice. The raw material is all there, to be sure, but how wonderfully it is transformed by the magician's wand! And in one respect the poet gives us the same impression as the record in prose. He, too, like the Yellow Book, turns the story this way and that, looks at it from everyone's point of view, and snatches the heart of truth from the body of discordant statement. On every page the strange process of translation from prose to verse is visible. But nowhere can you judge better of the charity with which Browning has put his case than in the two books entitled "Half-Rome" and "The Other Half-Rome," which give in plain substance two pamphlets, written, while the case was pending, for and against the infamous Guido. outlines of an ancient and bitter tragHere, then, is a book which we edy, but lights up in a sudden flash may commend to all readers, which the inward processes of a poet's not only sets before us the clear Blackwood's Magazine. brain. "AN INSPIRED LITTLE CREATURE." 1 To the Editor of the Fortnightly Review. Sir, Since the publication in The Fortnightly Review for last November of an article by me entitled "An Inspired Little Creature' and the Poet Wordsworth," the missing National Anthem, written by the "Inspired Little Creature" at Wordsworth's instigation, has been discovered among some papers in the possession of a member of the Wordsworth family. I cannot refrain from sending it to you, because perhaps those of your readers who were interested in the story of Wordsworth's marvellous little poet cousin, may be further interested in reading her version of the National Anthem. The facts, as told in my article, were briefly these: Mrs. Fisher, wife of the Rector of Poulshot in North Wilts, and a cousin of William Wordsworth's, had a little daughter who distinctly possessed that elusive but unmistakable quality that we call genius. When the child was but twelve years old, her mother sent some of her poems to Wordsworth, and the great man wrote back in amazed admiration. It is impossible to foretell what may come in future time out of these promises, but I have met in the language of no age or country with things so extraordinary from so young a Perall that can be desired, an observant eye, feeling, thought, fancy, and above all imagination part of these last three is the very spirit of Milton himself. son . in In a subsequent letter, the future Poet Laureate handed on an "order" to little Emmeline 1 "The Living Age," . The verses upon the Queen are exquisite, and tempt me to ask, though not without hesitation, that as Emmie has, I am told, such a fine feeling for music, she would make an attempt to fit the noble music of "God Save the King" with better and more appropriate words than are ordinarily joined with it. A request to this effect was made to myself, from a person high in office. I tried, but could not succeed-your inspired little creature may be more happy in her effort, and so I told my correspondent. this discouraged me so that, tho' I did compose 2 stanzas in place of the vulgar stuff about "knavish tricks," &c., I did not think it worth while to write them, and they are now forgotten. My young Cousin, for I love to call her so, found, I suppose, the same difficulty unsurmountable; and has given me an entirely new thing, with which we are not a little pleased; and perhaps I may forward it, with your permission, to my friend Mary Spring Rice (who, as you know, is one of her Majesty's Maids of Honor). But, though the young Queen Victoria evidently did receive the Anthem (a gracious proof of this remains -a little silver ink-stand with the Royal Arms and "Emmeline" engraved on it), no copy of the verses themselves was discoverable when I wrote the article for The Fortnightly Review, and this to me was a matter of surprise; and also of deep regret, for I could present only the setting, without the jewel. One thing that stood out very clearly in the whole story of the "Inspired Little Creature"-and that perhaps explained why there were no carefully kept copies of the Anthem and of all the poems that were sent to Wordsworth and that he read and eulogized -was that Wordsworth, though he was so charmed by the poetic gift of his "little Cousin," and wrote so generously and highly of her work, yet saw, in such powers when possessed by a woman, only the necessity for repression. And now it re-appears, this Anthem, seventy-five years since the little slender anxious fingers penned it; and Wordsworth has been dead for over half a century, and the poetess lies beneath the grass of an English graveyard; and we are on the eve of another Coronation, and again all our minds are busy with loyal thoughts and wishes. And so I venture to think that this discovered Anthem, which pleased Wordsworth "not a little," will be read now, in this Coronation year, with peculiar interest. Is it not wonderful, when one remembers it was written by a little maid of twelve-twelve summers spent in a happy English rectory? Is it not descriptive of Queen Victoria's reign? The Fortnightly Review. ACCESSION OF QUEEN VICTORIA. God save our Queen. God save the Queen! May she a planet rise, Ocean's fair Queen. Guide Thou her ships afar. God save the Queen. God save the Queen! Bless England's Queen. It was never sung in honor of the Queen to whom it was written-the "vulgar stuff about 'knavish tricks' has continued to be vociferated by loyal voices through the years; but is not the Anthem of the "Inspired Little Creature" not only beautiful and dignified and thoughtful. but even prophetic? "Ships afar"-"rightful war” -"deathless fame"-all these we associate with the name of Victoria the Good; and the fourth verse-well, might it not almost be said to foreshadow "Thinking Imperially," if not, indeed, Preference within the Empire? Rosaline Masson. THE EMPIRE OF OIL. It is not without significance that the two articles of commerce which have recently held the first position in the public mind, oil and rubber, should also hold the record for sensationalism in the modern romance of trade. The misdeeds which redden the career of rubber in Africa and Mexico have, in large part at any rate, been laid bare to the public eye. The story of the great Oil Trust of America has been told perhaps in more intimate detail than that of any other business enterprise, and Mr. Lowes Dickinson made it the obvious subject of his powerful play, "Business." But the very intricacy of its tortuous and criminal career has served in some measure as a protective cloak. Some of the more sensational charges have sounded so incredible as to be discounted heavily by sober-minded persons, while other incidents have demanded for their appreciation a more exact understanding of business methods than most readers possess. But to those who desire to know what modern business at its very worst may mean, we commend a perusal of "The Great Oil Octopus" (Fisher Unwin), republishing a series of articles which recently appeared in "Truth." Most of the material, here presented in portable shape, has been already made public in Henry D. Lloyd's "Wealth against Commonwealth," and in the more erudite "History of the Standard Oil Trust," by Miss Tarbell. Drawn chiefly from records of the Law Courts, and other public documents, its accuracy is unimpeachable. The Oil Kings are far too astute to court more publicity than has fallen to their lot. This in the main is the story. Oil came on in a rush in the 'sixties and early 'seventies. The valleys of Pennsylvania suddenly blossomed with busy towns and oil fields. Wells were sunk, refineries sprang up, hundreds of business men were on their way to fortunes, and high wages brought prosperity to whole communities. It was an age of enterprise and speculation. Upon a brief era of this prosperity collapse supervened, and out of the ruin emerged one little group of oilmen rapidly forging to the front, and absorbing more and more of the profitable business. The organizing mind was that of Mr. John D. Rockefeller who, starting in Cleveland first as a book-keeper and small partner in a country store, soon plunged into the oil business as a small refiner and merchant. He was not a discoverer or an inventor. He "struck" no oil, methods of refining owed nothing to him, the pipe-line, tank-car, and other improvements which have helped to build the fortune of the Company were all due to outsiders. His was the business mind without fear or scruple. Corrupt and illegal bargains with railway officials were the foundations of success. Starting in a comparatively small way as shippers of oil, the company induced the freight managers of all the railroads passing through the oil regions to cheat their shareholders by a system of rebates and other discriminative methods. The South Improvement Company, their early name, was to pay the same freight-rates as their competitors, but there was to be a secret rebate upon all the traffic done by the Company or its competitors, which was to be divided between the conniving officials and the Company. This rebate with other modes of discrimination and "terminal facilities" were simply bludgeons with which Mr. Rockefeller and his confederates struck down their competitors or forced them to sell their businesses to the South Improvement Company for stock or cash at the latter's valuation. By 1872 Mr. Rockefeller had succeeded in bringing four-fifths of the refining firms into a National Refiners' Association, with himself as President. This organization lasted long enough to break the Oil Producers' Union, and then collapsed, leaving Mr. Rockefeller free to carry out his more durable project, the formation of the Standard Oil Trust, in 1874. Under the pressure of the rebate and the discriminating rates, competing refiners were forced one by one into selling themselves to the Standard Oil Company for Stock in that Company, retaining in many instances the semblance of independence in order to deceive the public. Such was the nucleus of this first and most powerful of American Trusts, which for a whole generation has held a virtual monopoly in the United States of an article that is almost a necessary of life, and has of recent years stretched out its tentacles into the remotest villages of the civilized and uncivilized earth. Beyond all doubt the largest and most profitable business in the world, its central company has settled its legal home in the complacent State of New Jersey, company controls nine other refining companies in various States, a group of lubricating oil companies, crude oil producing companies, pipe-line and tank-car companies, natural gas companies, and a large number of commercial companies in the United States and abroad. This The supreme interest in this history consists in the fact that it furnishes the most complete and varied refutation of the maxim that "Honesty is the best policy." At every step in its successful career the Standard Oil Company has shown an utter disregard for legal obligations, private honor, and the public interest. Summoned before Commissions or the Law Courts, its principals have persistently refused to answer, or have falsified the facts, uttering direct lies in the witness-box whenever it was necessary. The famous Archbold letters, published three years ago, convict them of paying hard cash to senators to defeat anti-trust legislation, and of bringing influence to bear on high politicians for the appointment of Judges and Attorney-Generals favorable to the oil interests. That a great business man could be found writing to the Governor of a great State in the following terms to urge an appointment to the Supreme Court Bench is a really amazing glimpse into the relations between business and politics in America: My dear Governor.-I am sure you will pardon any seeming presumption on my part in writing you on a subject in which, both personally and on behalf of my Company, I am greatly interested. It is to urge the appointment, if at all consistent, of Judge Morrison, of McKean, to the Supreme Court Bench, vice Mitchell, deceased. Judge Morrison's character for ability and integrity needs no words at my hands, but aside from these great considerations, his familiarity with all that pertains to the great industries of oil and gas, in the important relations they bear to the interests of the Western part of the State, makes him especially desirable as a member of the Court from that section. To such business men nothing comes amiss. The pages of their history are strewn with attempted or successful bribing of employees in rival firms, of inspectors, law officers, with espionage and threats to ruin purchasers of competing oil. The famous charge of incitement to the blowing up of a rival refinery, for which their agents were condemned, is once more re-told; and we have the whole complicated story of the complete failure of the forces of law and order to compel obedience to the law, or to punish infractions, ending with the formal infliction of the five million dollars fine four years ago. The Standard Oil Company is above law and morality. As it can defy the law, so it can square the forces of morality. This can be done through the Churches. For Mr. Rockefeller is described as "an excellent Baptist," and he has applied to religion his clean-cut business principles. "According as you put something into the Church or |