The Chautauquan is nearly three years old. In honor of its fast-approaching birthday it has donned a new cover, and comes to its readers asking for the approval of not only its contents but of its improved appearance also. The cover has been carefully selected. It is sincerely hoped that it will meet with the approval of our friends—we feel sure that it will. The design will be full of meaning to every ardent Chautauquan. Not fancy alone, but a tender memory of the “Society of the Hall in the Grove,” the “League of the Round-Table,” “The Order of the White Seal,” “The Guild of the Seven Seals,” and, above all, the dearly-loved C. L. S. C., has suggested the really beautiful and chaste design. The cover has not only artistic value, but, by it, the size of the magazine is increased four pages: thus we give our readers seventy-six instead of seventy-two pages. From the first The Chautauquan has aimed at keeping its price down, while in a healthy, vigorous way, it increased in value. When in September, 1880, the first number of the magazine was issued, it contained forty-eight pages; since, we have increased to seventy-two; now, we offer seventy-six—but we make no increase in price. We believe that both in appearance and contents The Chautauquan will now compare favorably with any magazine of its age in the world, and certainly its cost is far below that of any magazine of equal merit.

To be an efficient and useful organ of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle has been its aim. The enthusiastic reception with which it has met leads us to believe that it has not failed. We say enthusiastic reception, for The Chautauquan finds, on looking over its visiting list, that it numbers tens of thousands. It goes into every one of the States and Territories to regular subscribers; also across the Atlantic, in Europe, it goes to England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Sweden, Germany and Italy; it is sent to the East and the West Indies, to Africa, China, India, New Zealand, and the Sandwich Islands. The number of post offices receiving it in the United States is as follows: New York 819, Pennsylvania 500, New Jersey 128, Ohio 456, Illinois 345, Iowa 239, Indiana 179, Michigan 219, Minnesota 67, Wisconsin 140, Maine 151, New Hampshire 92, Rhode Island 35, Connecticut 160, Massachusetts 373, Vermont 109, Virginia 25, West Virginia 16, Maryland 26, North Carolina 10, South Carolina 24, Georgia 24, Alabama 15, Tennessee 28, Florida 27, Louisiana 5, Mississippi 25, Arkansas 15, Kentucky 26, Delaware 12, District of Columbia 3, Texas 42, Missouri 70, California 137, Oregon 15, Nebraska 55, Kansas 110, Dakota 37, Idaho 10, Montana 8, Colorado 42, New Mexico 4, Arizona 2, Washington Territory 13, Wyoming Territory 5, Indian Territory 3, Utah 7, Nevada 6, Canada 210, giving a total in the United States and Canada of 6,069. In short, The Chautauquan goes to more than six thousand post offices; nor does this represent our circulation. During the present volume we have printed twenty-six thousand copies each month.

We call the attention of our readers to the combination offer. As the Assembly approaches, and The Assembly Herald will be issued as a daily, we offer the daily for 1883, and the fourth volume of The Chautauquan for two dollars and twenty-five cents, providing the subscription price be sent before the first of August; after that time the price will be two dollars and fifty cents.

This number of The Chautauquan brings the announcement of the C. L. S. C. course for the coming year. With no little interest will the members, young, old, and prospective, read and compare with those of the preceding years. Without disparagement of the past, it is safe to say that the course for next year will be the best of all thus far. We expect to be able to say the same a year hence with reference to the course for ’84-’85, for experience is ever suggesting where changes and modifications may be made, which are entitled to be called improvements. Thus it is hoped that each new year will have greater attractions and greater facilities and benefits to offer.

It will be observed that the next year’s course is divided into five general departments. At the head of the list, as heretofore, stands history. This is the logical order, for history is the map or guide book to the student in all other fields of inquiry. With it as the chart, or lamp, in hand, the student is ready to begin the study of the literature, art, science or religion of a people. A wide range of historical readings, including Roman, German, French, and American, will be published in The Chautauquan. Several of the now famous Chautauqua text-books of history will be used, and those attractive “stories” in English history will continue, and will be edited by C. E. Bishop, Esq., already favorably known by his work in the course of this year.

In the studies of science and literature it is the aim to secure, if possible, even more thorough work than ever before. The superintendent of instruction and his counselors, whilst adhering to the design to give to the student the widest and best “outlook,” have kept steadily in mind the quality as well as the quantity of the work, and it is their purpose not to sacrifice the former for the sake of the latter. In each of these departments will be found names of authors of established reputation, who, either as writers of special text-books, or of articles for The Chautauquan, are to be teachers in the school of the C. L. S. C. for the year to come.

The department of distinctively religious readings still holds the large place that ever has and ever will be assigned it in the C. L. S. C. course. It has never been disguised that the culture at which this organization aims is Christian culture. It is the inspiration and reward of him whose brain and heart have toiled unceasingly in its behalf, that such an aim is being now realized in thousands of homes. It will be gratifying to those who have perused the Sunday Readings in The Chautauquan this year to know that they are to go on through the next year, and that the same taste and discrimination will characterize their selection.

There is also to be a department of readings described as general. This includes works about the arts and artists, and descriptions of their master-pieces. It will also contain articles on commercial law, and various questions of political economy. Taken all in all, here is a plan for a year’s study which is self-commending. It is clear that the C. L. S. C. has long since passed beyond the domain of experiment, and is become an established fact. The coming year, like each successive year in its history, will witness a widening of its sphere of influence and good.

For many months the hostile attitude assumed by the leaders of the Irish people toward the British government has been the most exciting topic of the current news. It has been the most important as well as the most perplexing problem with which the present British ministry have had to deal. The serious nature of the disturbances which have arisen is evident from the fact that they seem to increase rather than diminish with the lapse of time.

The attitude of the Irish toward England betokens the most intense hatred and the bitterest rancor. It is indicative of an uncompromising determination to accomplish their purposes, even by the most foul and unscrupulous methods. Assassination, boycotting, deeds of violence of every sort, are the deliberately chosen weapons. The ultimate design of the Irish leaders is not only to obtain redress for present grievances, but also to deliver Ireland from English rule, and to establish its independence. But it is by no means necessary to perpetrate revolting crimes in order to secure a country’s liberty. When the American colonies determined to free themselves from what they considered the oppressive tyranny of Great Britain, there was no resort to assassination in all its horrid forms; there were no Guy Fawkes plots, no boycotting, no bloody deeds of violence, but the simple and determined uprising of an united people in might and majesty. The assassin’s dagger, infernal machines and dynamite explosives are poor arguments with which to convince the world that the Irish people are deserving of being freed from English rule, or are fitted for taking a place among the nations of the earth. The spirit which has been manifested by the representatives of the Irish people in carrying out their plans is not only hostile to England, but also to the welfare of society in general, and to government of all kinds. England has sought with patient forbearance and wise legislation to modify or eradicate the evils of which its Irish subjects justly complain. All its overtures have been met of late with threats of violence, or vandal attempts to destroy the public buildings of the realm.

The sympathy which has been manifested toward the Irish people since the outbreak of the present troubles by many of those familiar with the story of their ancient wrongs is steadily decreasing, because of the violent measures adopted by the would-be champions of the Irish cause. The barbarous methods which have been employed to carry out their designs have not only alienated the sympathies of the civilized world, but have also demonstrated that the Irish, at present at least, are utterly unfit for self-government. If, by any combination of circumstances, they should be able to secure national independence, the result would doubtless be productive of a state of anarchy, or even of a return to barbarism. Only the utmost cruelty and tyranny exercised by a government toward its subjects can justify violence in order to secure what they think to be their rightful liberties.

The facts are, that not liberty, but license and lawlessness are the necessary outcome of the methods employed by the unprincipled and unscrupulous men who now are in the ascendant in Irish affairs. If the Irish people would meet the overtures of the English government with a like conciliatory spirit, and heartily second the efforts of the present administration to secure a speedy and thorough redress of all grievances; would cast the mantle of oblivion over the past, and devote their energies to developing the varied resources of their beautiful island, in a very brief time peace and harmony would be restored to their distracted country; Ireland would enter upon a career of prosperity that would rival, if not excel, anything ever recorded in its previous history.

The political parties are beset with moral reforms—prominent among these is the temperance cause. The friends of prohibition propose to introduce their principles into the dominant political party; or, if they fail, to grow a party of their own. This has been the policy of a certain class of temperance people in some sections of the country for several years. As an independent party they have never polled a very large vote for a National or State ticket, nor do we think that they expect ever to do so. But they have, in many elections, held the balance of power, particularly where the great parties were evenly balanced. On account of this the prohibitionists have compelled the Republican party to legislate in the interest of temperance. The radical temperance people, who have bolted the Republican ticket where prohibition has been denied them, or when men unfriendly to the cause have been set up as candidates for office, have done more for temperance by what they failed to do, than the independent temperance organization has done. It is this policy which has caused the Republican party to become the prohibition party in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Iowa, and Kansas, and other states. We have no reason to believe that this party would have enacted temperance laws but for the proposed action of temperance voters. Its fundamental doctrines as a party were on another line of reform: both the leaders and the rank and file had to learn the prohibition lesson. This the temperance people have been teaching them, and with marked success. But what of the future? Will this policy win, or will temperance people be obliged to adopt a new plan of campaign, a new method of work? The cause of prohibition is just. The traffic in spirituous liquors must be struck at the root; but how? How to get prohibition into law, and keep it there, is the problem that no politician, statesman, or philanthropist has yet solved. However just the cause may be, it is hard to deal with old party leaders, trained, as they have been, in the political schools of the past twenty years, and entrenched in strong organizations. A good cause deserves wise management, especially so when it is beset with tacticians who are backed by the power of money and of great organizations. Temperance leaders must consider carefully before going much farther; for the sake of the cause they must be cautious. All signs in the political world point to the breaking up of the old political organizations—certainly, neither one of them is cemented by a grand moral question. The party of the future must have some law of right in its creed before it can depend upon the support of the masses. Is prohibition a broad enough platform for a great national party to stand on, is a question that will be settled in the near future.