The regular fortnightly meeting of the Harvard Union was held in Sever 11 last evening. After the reading of the minutes the following question was chosen by a viva voce vote for the next debate: "Resolved, that a national divorce law should be enacted by Congress." Walter Scott, Sp., S. L. Friedenburg, '93, and C. Beardsley, jr., Sp., were elected members of the Union. It was moved by Mr. E. S. Griffing, and ordered by the Union that in the future the names of the executive committee be printed over the programme of the evening, and that a committee of two be appointed to consider the question of a later hour for meeting.

The debate of the evening was then, in the absence of Mr. H. A. Davis, '91, opened by his colleague, Mr. F. W. Coburn, '92. The question was as follows: "Resolved. That there should be free coinage of Silver," If the free coinage of silver, said Mr. Coburn, can be shown by political economists to be bad in theory, at least in practice it can be shown to work well. Gresham's law is counteracted by a multitude of causes. Some declare that in the event of free coinage, silver bullion will pour in upon us from other countries. But it is not to be supposed that the possessors of silver plate and silver ornaments will melt them up for our benefit. Moreover, we ought to have free coinage to protect the silver interest. We protect other industries and should not make an exception to the detriment of the silver men. We need an increasing currency to meet the constantly increasing demands of the business of the country. Almost the entire annual yield of gold is used in the arts, so that if we are to have more money it must be silver.

Mr. J. M. Perkins, '92, opened for the negative. Silver, he said, has driven gold out of every country that has at any time in its history adopted the less precious metal as a monetary standard and we have no right to assume that the contrary would be the case here. The class, moreover, that wants free coinage is so small that to protect it is to encourage a monopoly. The United States has made several attempts to induce other countries to enter into an agleement fixing the relative value of gold and silver, but these efforts have been entirely fruitless. For most of these nations have tried silver as a monetary standard and do not want to try it again. Moreover the political economists are everywhere agreed that gold is the only metal on which to base a monetary system. If we need an increase in the amount of money in circulation it does not necessarily follow that we need free coinage.

Mr. J. B. Scott, '90, consented to take the place of the absent speaker on the affirmative. He said that from Captain Kidd's day to the present silver had been the people's money. Miners on the whole do not make money, and therefore it cannot be objection-able to protect them. Mr. W. Wells, '90, closed the debate. In 1878, he said, the New York Clearing house refused to accept silver dollars except at their real value. A panic was only prevented by the passage of a law compelling national banks to receive the silver dollar at its face value. We ought not to run the risk of permanently impairing our credit merely for the sake of the senators who buy their seats with the silver they have made.

The voting was as follows: on merits of the question, affirmative 6, negative 8; on merits of principal disputants, affirmative 4, negative 12; on question as a whole, affirmative 4, negative 5.