The Conservative. 11 ludod to by the English pnpor. If any fcoliug of caste exists in times of peace , it is completely burued away by tbu fierce flume of patriotism which blows across the country iu time of war. The dude fought splendidly by the side of the cowboy in the ranks of the rough riders and the butcher boy by the side of college graduate in the storming of the heights of San Juan. War is almost worth making and suffering when it teaches a lesson so effectively that "a man's a man fora' that , " no matter what kind of a coat ho wears. Tbo Lust Chemical Discovery. One never knows when now and in teresting discoveries will bo scored by scientific research. Neither can one bo sure that any such discovery , at first apparently of mere abstractor academic interest , may not soon prove to bo of great practical importance. Professor Dowar in London about three years ago amused audiences by his experiments in the liquefaction of gases. It was scarcely to be prophesied that it would soon prove to be revolutionary in some practical processes of great value , a fact which now seems probable. Cooke's "New Chemistry" in 1874 specified the existence of 63 elementary substances , nud five new ones have been rapidly added , the last three being heliou , argon and metargon , gases which almost re fuse to unite with any other substance , A few weeks ago the identification of another elementary gas was made known to the French Academy of Sciences by three Italian physicists , MM. R. Nasini , F. Anderliui and E. Salvador ! . The discovery came about by the agency of spectrum analysis , that all compelling tool of chemical and physical research. For many years the green line in the solar corona , known to spectrum analysts as 1474 K , was at tributed to the aurora , but it was finally believed to represent some elementary presence in the sun lighter than hydro gen , but nonexistent in the earth. The investigation , mentioned above , found the same line in the spectrum of the gases thrown off by the volcanic springs of Pozzaoli , and the inference was that it was the identical gas previously recog nized in the sun. This , it is believed , will soon be isolated and prove to be the lightest substance known to man. Commerce and War. It is customary to think of wars in the past as having been in large degree the fruit of lust of conquest , of greed of territory , of religious hate , of wound ed pride or of the ohivalrio desire to match the power of ono nation against that of a rival power. The modern war is associated with the more prosaic and practical origin. A little study , how ever , shows that the commercial spiril has been in the earlier ages of the world not le'3 potent than in our own us the radical inducement leading up to great conflicts , , some of which have shaken the world and molded succeed- ng civilization. Scanning remote an iquity , wo find the Ni'iovito kings , im pelled by the energy 01 their Assyrian subjects as active traders , to move for ward in their most ferocious conquests. Athens offended the Great King by its attempts to protect the commercial in- ; erests of its kindred cities in Asia ilinor , and so opened the way to the Greco-Persian wars , in which the fate of the world hung in the balance. The death grapple between Carthage and Rome was commercial in its inception. As an example , in the feudal period , the romantic and chivalrous epoch of civ ilization , we note the Hundred Years' war between France and England springing from a trade quarrel. This mid lamed struggle grow out of the ouopoly of the London guilds in deal ing with the woolen manufacturers oi Ghoufc and Liege. So.when wo return to our contemporary period and discov er England and Russia on the verge ot a great war over the issue of the larger control of the Chinese trade wo merely find the same old world's story in a modern form. People as nations indeed never went to war for the fun of killing each other. Curlism. So much bas been said about Carlism in Spain and its relations to the Spanish monarchy that a clear exposition of just what it means and its origin will be of interest to many readers. When Bourbonism was stamped on Spain by the accession of the grandson of Louis XIV of France , thus leading to what is known as the" War of the Succession , " the Salic law , as understood in France , was adopted. So the course of succes sion remained till the reign of Ferdi nand VII , who , for a long time child less , permitted his brother , Don Curios , to look on himself as the heir. But a daughter by a fourth wife was born , and the king induced the cortes to ap prove a revocation of the Salic law and restore the old pragmatic law of succes sion , which recognized female heritage of the crown. So the infant Isabella became queen under the regency of th < queen mother , the infamous Christina. Don Carlos at once took up arms , claim ing title by the double right of Salic- law and the ancient hereditary law ol Oastile , Aragou and Navarre , under which a woman could inherit only in default of a male heir. This iirst Carlist war was a veritable pandemonium for Spain , when the most terrible cruelties wore exercised on both sides , and the scenes of debauchery at Madrid were such as rivaled those at Rome -under Claudius and Nero , so striking lydepict ed in "Quo Vadis. " The pretender , Carlos , was finally beaten , and ho slunk out of the kingdom to die in disgrace nt one who had shown himself a curious compound of coward and imbecile. With the growth of Isabella to mature years and her marriage to Don Francis 1'Assissi , her cousin , the licentious at mosphere of the Spanish court became ven more rank than before , and high ociety at Madrid was the scandal of 3urope. Toward the end of Isabella's royal lareer came the second Carlist war. ? he new pretender was the son of the ecoud son of the first , known to his ad- lorouts as Carlos VII. Ho secured the upport of General Cabrera , who had Use been the right arm of his grand- athor and his uncle in their attempts o secure the throne , one of the ablest and the crudest soldiers of his time. Cho war proceeded , with an apparently oed chance of Carlist success , till Cabrera , who was as corrupt us ho was able , sold his patron and betrayed his rust. So the accession of Alfonso XII was ultimately assured after the short ived experiments of an Italian king and a republic. As the moral influence of Europe is opposed to the present Cares - os , as it was adverse to his grand father , the first pretender , Queen Chris- iina stands an excellent chance of keep- .ng the monarchy safe for her eon. The work before congress cut out by recent events is more delicate and diffi cult than any burden laid on legislation since the reconstruction period. It has the advantage , however , of being free from that passion of exacerbated parti sanship which made the debates of that time so extreme in their energy of expression. All parties can now join in discussion , however variant in their views , with a certainty of calm and impartial treatment. In view , however , of the subject in its different phases and the lack of accurate knowledge it is the growing conviction at Washing ton that it will be wiser to take more time and leave the new issues for an extra session. The forthcoming four mouths' session , it is felt by many , would better be devoted to the Nicara gua canal and ordinary business. The canal bill , indeed , may justly be re garded as an all important preliminary to an adequate settlement of the things beyond. Mrs. Lynn Linton , the well known English authoress , neb long dead , is the victim of some reminiscences in The British Weekly. In those she is said to have asserted her secret knowledge of unknown facts in the lives of Dickens and Thackeray , and that these great men could and did love deeply , passion ately , madly. Both those great geniuses lived so much in the light and blaze of the world's eye that it seems hardly possible that any great romance of their jives could remain unknown. The small worries of life wear out the spirit more than the great misfor tunes. Against the ono the mind re bounds and often gathers now strength. The attack of the other is the constant friction of the drontriuc water.