The casting vote is the vote by which the chairman or president of a meeting is generally empowered to cast the balance on the one side or the other, where the other votes are equally divided. As the position is a delicate one, it is usual for the presiding officer to vote in such a way as to give the body an opportunity to reconsider its decision. Where the merits of the matter cannot be avoided, the casting vote may be according to the conscience of him who casts it.

There were six Secretaries of State who afterward became Presidents, namely, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Van Buren, and Buchanan. Monroe was Secretary of War for a short time after he had served in the State Department, and General Grant was Secretary of War ad interim. There have been no Secretaries of the Treasury, the Navy, or the Interior, nor any Postmasters or Attorney Generals who have become President. Jeff Davis was Secretary of War under President Pierce.

Not for mere pastime are the so-called Blue-books, the name popularly applied to the reports and other papers printed by the English parliament, because they are usually stitched up in blue paper wrappers. Some departments, however, issue their proceedings in drab, and some in white covers. The official books of other governments corresponding to these blue-books are designated by the color of their covers. The principal are: France, yellow; Germany and Portugal, white; Italy, green; and Spain, red.

The Reichstag is the diet of the German empire. Since the establishment of the empire under the king of Prussia the legislative council has consisted of one representative to every one hundred thousand inhabitants. As the entire population is about forty-seven millions, this will give four hundred and seventy members to the legislative assembly. The delegates of the confederated governments form the " Bundesrath," and whatever passes the two houses and is signed by the king-emperor becomes binding on all the twenty-six states.

The cabinet is a council formed of the chief ministers of state, who formulate and carry out a policy. The cabinet was known in England as early as 1690. In the United States the members of the cabinet are the heads of departments, who act in an advisory relation to the President. They are the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of War, the Secretary of the Navy, the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Attorney General, and the Postmaster General. The salary of a cabinet officer is $8,000.

The two legislative houses of Norway combined are called the Storthing or Storting. It is elected once in three years, and for business purposes divides itself into two chambers - the Lagthing and the Odels-thing (the legislative house and the "house of commons"). All bills originate in the Odelsthing, and are sent up to the Lagthing for approval or disapproval. If assented to they are submitted to the king. If the king dissents, they are returned to the Storthing (or combined house), and whatever passes the Storthing thrice becomes law, whether the king approves it or not.

A tariff is a table of duties charged on the imports or exports of a country. The word is said to be derived from the Moorish port of Tar-ifa, where duties were levied on African commerce. In Great Britain the tariff imposes no export duties, and applies only to import duties levied for purposes of revenue. In the United States, also, the term is applied exclusively to import duties, which are fixed by Congress, and levied for purposes of protection. The McKinley tariff, placing a high duty upon all foreign imported goods, with the view of protecting native manufactures of the United States, came into operation October, 1890. Protective tariffs are in operation in most of the continental countries Canada, and Australia.

The Cincinnati Association is a society or order founded in the United States (1783) by the officers of the War of Independence, "to perpetuate their friendship, and to raise a fund for relieving the widows and orphans of those fallen during the war." It derived its name from the appellation given to those who, with Washington at their head, had left their rural occupations (like Lucius Quintus, Cincinnatus, 458 B.C.), to fight for their country. The badge of the society is a bald eagle, having on its breast a figure of the Roman Dictator receiving the military ensigns from the senators. It is suspended by a dark blue ribbon, emblematic of the union of France and America. Motto: Omnia relinquit servare rempublicam. In several states the order still exists, and holds triennial meetings of its delegates.

The term "Whig" in United States history denotes those who in the colonial and revolutionary periods were opposed to the British rule; and also it is the name adopted in 1834 by the survivors of the old National Republican party, after its overwhelming defeat by Jackson in 1832. Jackson's bold action in dismissing members of his cabinet, and his relentless war upon the United States Bank, made him in their eyes a tyrant little less hateful than George III, and the old name of Whig was chosen as expressive of their revolt against one-man power. Webster, Clay, and other National Republicans and old Federalists readily accepted the name, under which they were defeated in 1836, and in 1840 won their first great victory in the return of President Harrison. The party died in 1852, slain by the hands of its own dissatisfied members.

The Ku-Klux Klan (1868-1871) was a secret society of ex-Confederate soldiers. "Ku-Klux" is meant to represent the click in cocking a rifle. The "Klan" was an offset of the "Loyal League," and its ostensible object was to "repress crime and preserve law in the disturbed Southern States." In 1871 Congress, resolved to put down the association, suspended the Habeas Corpus Act (under what is generally called "The Ku-Klux Law") in nine counties of South Carolina. This law and the employment of the military brought the "Klan" to an end.

The legislative assembly of France is divided into Right and Left. The Right includes the Legitimists, the Orleanists, and the Imperialists. The Left includes the Republicans and the Radicals. The Legitimists are those who favored the fortunes of the older branch of the Bourbon family, represented till 1883 by the Comte de Chambord, who was called by them "Henri V." The Orleanists favored the Louis Philippe branch of the Bourbon family. On the death of the Comte de Chambord, in 1883, the Legitimists and the Orleanists became united. The Imperialists favor the family of Napoleon. The Legitimists used to constitute the "Extreme Right," the Orleanists the "Right Center." The Radicals sit in the "Extreme Left," and the Republicans in the "Left Center."