the attention of the country to the fact that the tax was paid during 1868 by only 250,000 persons out of the entire population of almost 40,000,000, and yet that the returns of these persons represented an aggregate income of not less than $800,000,000. Even allowing for the families of these 250,000 contributors, it is evident that only about a million of the population were interested in having the tax repealed, while the remaining 39,000,000 out of 40,000,000 of people in the United States, were interested in having it maintained.

Both the Secretary of the Treasury and the Commissioner of Internal Revenue supported the recommendation of Special Commissioner Wells in 1869-70 that the income-tax should be retained, although willing to have it reduced to a uniform rate of three per cent on incomes exceeding $1000, with a proper minimum exemption on account of the rent of a family. The question came up in Congress two or three times before the impending expiration of the income-tax by limitation of law. After something of a contest, the tax was renewed for one year only, by act of July 14, 1870, the rate at the same time being reduced to 2 per cent. The exemption was increased to $2000, so that nobody paid the tax for the year 1870–71, except those in such easy circumstances as to be in receipt of more than $2000 per annum. Pending the discussion in the Senate in 1871, on the bill to repeal in effect all income-tax, the tax was opposed by Mr. Scott, of Pennsylvania, Governor Buckingham, of Connecticut, and others, while it was strongly defended by Senator Sherman, and Mr. Morrill, of Vermont. The repeal finally passed the Senate, January 26, 1871, by the close vote of 26 yeas to 25 nays.

In the House of Representatives, the question was raised of jurisdiction between the two Houses, the Senate having presumed to pass a bill connected with the income-tax, while the Constitutional provision declares that all bills for raising revenue must originate in the House of Representatives. This controversy was finally compromised, however. The House, on the 9th of February, 1871, came to a vote on the question of taking up the Senate Bill to repeal the income-tax, when the yeas were 104 and the nays 105, thus showing about as close a division of opinion on the measure as in the Senate, which passed the repeal by one vote only. Thus the matter ran on to the very last day of the session, March 3, 1871, when the House, without taking the yeas and nays, concurred in the report of a committee of conference, which indorsed the Senate Bill, and thus gave effect to the income-tax repeal. The last taxes levied under the law were paid in the year 1871.

A SCOTCH laborer being asked the meaning of metaphysics, defined it as follows: "When the chiel wha listens dinna ken what the chiel wha speaks means, and when the chiel wha speaks dinna ken what he means himsel', that's metapheesics!'

FREE HOMESTEADS ON THE PUBLIC LANDS.

THE fact is not so widely known as it should be, that any one willing to work can secure a farm on the public domain of the United States, free of cost.

By our present laws, any citizen or applicant for citizenship, over twenty-one years of age, may enter one quarter section (that is, 160 acres) of any unappropriated public lands, which are subject to preemption at $1.25 per acre. Or he may enter by pre-emption 80 acres of such unappropriated lands, valued and classed at $2.50 per acre by the Government.

This privilege extends to women who may be the heads of families, and each person availing himself or herself of its benefits must make affidavit before the Register of the Land Office of the district in which the entry is to be made, that he or she is the head of a family, or else twenty-one years of age. The affidavit must also set forth that the land entered is for the exclusive use and benefit of the applicant, and for the purpose of actual settlement and cultivation, and not either directly or indirectly for the use or benefit of any other

person.

The applicant under the Homestead Law must pay the sum of ten dollars, on filing his affidavit with the Register, and is thereupon permitted to enter the 160 acres, or 80 acres, on payment of five dollars, as the case may be. But no certificate is given or patent issued for the land until the expiration of five years from the date of the entry above provided for. If, at the expiration of five years, or at any time within two years thereafter, the person making such entry or his direct heirs shall prove by two credible witnesses that he, she, or they have resided upon and cultivated the land for five years immediately following the date of its original entry, and shall make affidavit that no part of the land has been alienated, then the settler is entitled to the issue of a patent for the land, without further delay. This patent is a valid title from the United States, and those who have earned it by actual residence and cultivation of the land during the full term of five years have nothing to pay, except the original ten dollars for 160 acres, or five

dollars for an 80-acre homestead. Any one who chooses to complete his title before the expiration of the five years, with a view to sell or remove, can do so only by payment to the United States of the valuation price of the land, at $1.25 or $2.50 per acre, as the case may be. But he has at all times the prior right to do this, and so become full owner of the land he has settled, as against any other person.

There is a proviso in the law, that no lands acquired under the provisions of the Homestead Act shall be liable for any debts of the settler, contracted prior to the issuing of the patent for his homestead.

There is another proviso, intended to guard the interests of the Government, and compel all pre-emptors of public lands to act in good faith, which declares that if, at any time after the filing of the required affidavit, and before the expiration of the five years' probationary residence, the pre-emptor shall change his residence, or abandon the land for more than six months at any time, then the land shall revert to the United States Government. No individual is permitted to acquire more than 160 acres under the provisions of the Homestead Act; but there is no limit to the quantity of land which may be purchased by individuals. All existing pre-emption rights are maintained unimpaired by the provisions of the act.

The five years' residence required of all other settlers under the Homestead Law, is waived in favor of all soldiers or sailors who served ninety days or longer in the United States army or navy during the war of 1861-65, and were honorably discharged. Every such soldier (or his widow, or children, in case of his decease) is entitled to free entry of 160 acres of the public lands on condition of actual residence and cultivation of the same for one year only.

Any settler on the public lands who has set out and cultivated for two years as much as 5 acres of trees on an 80-acre homestead, or 10 acres on a homestead of 160 acres, is entitled to receive a free patent for his land at the end of three years, instead of five. And any person who has planted and cultivated for ten years 40 acres of timber on any quarter section of the public lands is entitled to a patent for each 160 acres so improved, on payment of $10, provided that only one quarter in any section shall be thus granted. This is the only exception to the limitation of free homesteads to 160 acres to any one person, unless in the case of a settler under the army provision, who is not debarred, through having occupied a homestead under the law previously, from acquiring a second 160 acres through his service in the army.

Such is a succinct outline of the terms under which the unoccupied public lands of the United States are open to settlement. For information as to what portions of the public domain yet remain unappropriated, direct application should be made by letter to the Commissioner of the General Land Office, Washington.

[Condensed from the Revised Statutes of the U.S., pp. 422-426, 454.]

CENTENNIAL INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION OF 1876.

[Compiled, with additions, from the Philadelphia Ledger Almanac and Johnson's New Universal Cyclopædia.]

THE International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures and Products of the Soil and Mine, provided for in Acts of Congress approved March 3, 1871, and June 1, 1872, providing for the appointment of the Centennial Commission and the Centennial Board of Finance, was officially opened in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, by the President of the United States, May 10, and officially closed by him, November 10, 1876. It was open for pay admissions one hundred and fifty-nine days, the pay gates being closed on Sundays.

In the following tables and text we present information showing the number of nations represented at the Exhibition, the amount of space occupied by the exhibitors of each nation, the number and character of the buildings erected within the enclosure, and a table of the number of admissions to the Exhibition for the whole season.

Nations Represented at the Exhibition, and the Space Occupied by them in the Principal Buildings.

Other principal exhibition buildings not heretofore mentioned were the following:

WOMEN'S PAVILION.-This building was 208 by 208 feet. The following nations occupied in the aggregate one fourth the floor space: Great Britain and Ireland, Canada and colonies, Brazil, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Italy, Germany, Spain and colonies, Tunis, Japan, Egypt, and Mexico. There was a separate Art Gallery in the Women's Pavilion, the wall space of which was also largely occupied by exhibits from the women of the above nations.

SHOE AND LEATHER BUILDING.-This was 314 by 160 feet. Great Britain occupied 615 square feet, Germany 580 square feet, and Russia 850 square feet. POMOLOGICAL BUILDING, 182 by 192 feet, used for successive exhibitions of fruits and vegetables according to season, and finally of poultry.

BREWERS' HALL, for the exhibition of brewing apparatus and materials, 272 by 96 feet. This was constructed wholly at the expense of American brewers. FARM WAGON ANNEX to Agricultural Hall, 144 by 196 feet.

SAW MILL ANNEX to Machinery Hall, 276 by 80 feet.

MACHINE SHOPS AND BOILER HOUSES, annexes to Machinery Hall.

CAR HOUSE, for the exhibition of railroad freight cars, 140 by 44 feet.

BUTTER AND CHEESE FACTORY, annex to Agricultural Hall, 100 by 116 feet. Occupied jointly by exhibitors of dairy products from the United States and Canada.

THE STOCK YARDS.—As an auxiliary to the agricultural exhibits, an area of 20 acres at Belmont and Girard avenues was enclosed, in which successive exhibits were made of horses and dogs, sheep, goats and swine, and horned cattle. The exhibits were almost wholly from the United States and Canada.

PRIVATE EXHIBITION BUILDINGS.-There were thirty or more exhibition buildings erected on the grounds by individual exhibitors from the United States, some of them scarcely inferior in interest to the principal buildings mentioned above.

THE AUXILIARY BUILDINGS.-At the time of the opening of the Exhibition there were 190 buildings within the inclosure, and before the close there were upward of 200. Of these, 101 were buildings used for exhibition purposes or for State or national headquarters. The remainder were ornamental structures and pavilions, restaurants, bazaars, boiler-houses, guard and fire-engine houses, offices, etc., used solely for the transaction of business, official or private. The dimensions of the five principal exhibition buildings are given in the preceding table,

The following nations had buildings on the grounds:

Austro-Hungary, Hungarian pavilion; Brazil, Commissioners' pavilion; Canada, log and timber house for exhibition of woods and lumber; Chili, frame structure for exhibition of models of amalgamating machinery; France, government pavilion for exhibition of illustrations and models of public works, charts, etc., 100 by 50 feet, also three individual exhibition buildings; Germany, Commissioners' pavilion; Great Britain and Ireland, three government buildings for use of Commissioners from the United Kingdom, and a boiler-house; Japan, Japanese dwelling for workmen, 102 by 48 feet, and Japanese bazaar; Morocco, Moorish villa, 17 by 23 feet, for display and sale of national products; Portugal, Commissioners' pavilion; Spain and colonies, Government exhibition building, 80 by 100 feet, and building for Spanish soldiers, also Cuban acclimation garden; Sweden, Swedish school-house, 40 by 50 feet, and meteorograph; Tunis, café and bazaar; Turkey, Turkish café, 51 by 65 feet, sponge-fishers' building, and numerous small bazaars under various designations; United States of America, Government building, 504 by 306 feet, area 102,840 square feet; ordnance laboratory, 53 by 23 feet; U. S. Army post hospital, 40 by 14 feet; transit of Venus buildings, including transit house, photographic house and equatorial house; also lighthouse and steam syren for fog signal and fog bell, and U. S. signal stations. Twenty-six States were represented by 26 buildings erected either for exhibition of State pro