centuries ago, however, even the chief city of the world had no police department, while within the memory of men now living our cities depended upon volunteers for protection against fire. In these matters the obvious lesson of experience has been thoroughly learned. Professional police and fire departments are the standing armies of our cities, highly organized and constantly alert to protect them from the perils of disorder and fire. The American people will not permanently be content to display a lower order of intelligence in national affairs than it does in those of merely municipal concern. Too long, however, have we confided the protection of our national existence to Providence. We believe it to be the duty of every citizen to exert the full measure of his influence upon his governmental representatives to the end that now, before national disaster shall have overtaken us, a permanent military policy adequate to our protection be adopted. AN APPRECIATION AND A SUGGESTION The September number of the MAGAZINE contained news of the bequest to the Society by Miss Genevieve Mills of Madison of her interest in the parental homestead. We return to the subject now for a twofold reason. In the first place it is proper to render adequate formal acknowledgment of the fine gift made by Miss Mills to the Society. Of vain or ill-advised memorials to the departed, America affords numerous examples; the wisdom and appropriateness of Miss Mills’s memorial to her parents appears, by contrast with some of these, all the more obvious. Money which might have gone to the building of a useless pile of granite has been devoted to the perpetual enrichment of the commonwealth, to the upbuilding of which Simeon and Maria Mills dedicated their lives. To illustrate concretely the work which the Mills bequest will perform, the annual income from the estimated value of the estate will suffice to pay the entire cost of publication of this magazine; or it will print annually such a volume as those included in the _Collections_ of the Society. If the cost of authorship as well as printing be charged against the fund, it will suffice to produce a volume of our _Collections_ every two or three years. And this work, without exhausting the principal of the fund, is to go on perpetually.