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The article focuses on several socio-political issues. The diversity of character and interest in the smallest of the colonies is another illustration of the truth taught by Greek and Italian history, that it is not always the largest states that afford the most instructive data for political history. The revolution which will occur in the laws of Germany at the beginning of the year 1900 is the subject of an article in the October number of the periodical Forum. The Roman judicial code has been recognized as the common law of Germany since the close of the fifteenth century.

The article discusses the social and political situation in Germany. According to the author, while it is true that the German government by resorting to the harshest measures, has won a temporary victory over the insurgents in Berlin, Halle, Liepzig and elsewhere, it has had to compromise by promising the permanent inclusion of workers' and peasants' councils in the new constitutional arrangements. The moral superiority of the Allies is steadily waning and a bitter hatred, particularly against the French, which did not exist there at the time of the surrender, is rising in Germany. The result is there is now talk of revenge which was not heard before. Everything is uncertain in industry and business, because of the delay of peace conditions, and the people are much stirred by the reports from Paris partitioning Germany and demanding immense war indemnities.

The bill with scheme for taxing speculation has been carried through various stages, and was made law on May 19, 1885 in Germany. It is printed in full in a recent number of the "Jahrbücher für National-Oekonomie." As compared with what was originally proposed, the law is a very mild measure, and one hardly likely to have any great results. But it still deserves attention because it is very characteristic of public opinion in Germany on economic and social subjects, and also characteristic of the present condition of German politics. As an economic measure, it is the first practical outcome of the agitation against speculative gambling in stocks and goods which has been going on for the last ten or fifteen years, and which is only one manifestation of the whole movement of German thought on economic matters.