ute to the late Mr. Froude, thus sums up the method of modern historians: "Macaulay believed that the greatness of England was due to the patriotism and enlightenment of one party in the State, and he set himself down to write the history of that party; Taine, listening as an invalid to the speeches of the Revolution contained in Buchez and Roux, divined the intellectual inferiority of the Jacobins, and projected an inquiry into the causes which had raised them into prominence. Carlyle wrote a prose epic; Froude an impassioned protest against the Papacy and the High Church movement; Guizot an analysis of the growth of civilization; the Bishop of Oxford an encyclopædic blue-book on Constitutional Antiquities Every method of approaching the past is justifiable so long as it does not land you in misrepresentation." RUSSIAN POLICY IN THE BALKANS. Mr. Edward Dicey ventures to put in a feeble protest against the universal tribute which Europe has paid to the memory of the peace-keeper. He says that Alexander III might not have gone to war, but that he did not promote any anti-Russian development of autonomy in the Balkan peninsula. He says: "Alike in Roumania, Servia, and Bulgaria, the influence of Russia throughout the reign of the late Czar has been steadily and actively exerted to hinder the progress of these states, so long as that progress is not in accordance with the theory that the Sclav countries of Southern Europe are to be mere satellites of Russia. Such, in brief, has been the policy pursued by the government of St. Petersburg under Alexander III, and I see no reason to suppose it will be materially different under Nicholas II." the city would require a circuit of one hundred miles and an army of one million, four times as many men as in 1871. Rations were then the chief difficulty inside; but now, thanks to improved methods of preserving foods and pasteurizing milk "it is difficult to believe that any future siege will last long enough to exhaust the huge accumulations" permanently in readiness. The line of approach to Paris from the east and northeast so bristles with fortresses and intrenched camps that Mr. Clowes thinks it almost impracticable. He suggests that Germany might choose the sea as the nearest road to Paris. Her navy should now be strong enough to destroy or shut up the moiety of the French fleet not required in the Mediterranean. She might send after her fleet a flotilla of crowded transports, and land her troops in the mouth of the Seine and find no fortresses worth mentioning between them and Paris. "And then the French defense might probably be broken with comparative ease," under attack from before and behind. THE WESTMINSTER REVIEW. WE regret to notice that Dr. Chapman, who has been so long connected with the Westminster Review, has passed away. The current number contains several articles, but none of very great interest. The most interesting paper in the number is that which describes how woman suffrage got itself established in New Zealand. It was passed by one vote only in the Upper House, where the Minister who introduced and voted for the bill spoke against it. It was treated as a huge joke, and was put in the forefront of the government programme in the hope that the Upper House would suffer by rejecting it The net effect of the woman's vote in the first election in which it was exercised was to emphasize the drift of public opinion. The writer, Mr. Norwood Young, thinks that women are like men, only more so, and that women's votes will generally be found on what is supposed to be the winning side. An anonymous writer suggests as an eirenikon to socialists and individualists that the very young and the very old should be treated by socialistic methods, while the strong and middle-aged should be allowed to take their stand on individualism. THE FRENCH REVIEWS. HE November numbers of the Revue de Paris are M. Leroy-Beaulieu sums up briefly the reign and personali y of the late Czar of Russia, and Gaston Paris continues his account of the Provençal poet Frédéric Mistral. THE INCOME TAX. French readers must find almost a painful interest in Funck Brentano's exhaustive article on the income tax, for it is the one means of raising public money against which the whole nation has determinately set its face, from the peasant, whose worldly goods are kept and added to in the traditional old stocking, to the wealthy stockholder, whose income fluctuates from day to day. According to M. Brentano, the tax, while causing the greatest inconvenience and annoyance, will make no real difference to the wealth of the whole country, and he points out triumphantly that in neither Great Britain, Germany nor Italy, in all of which countries excellent results have been achieved by means of this tax, has it solved the social question. Making a comparison between the rich man and the beggar, he points out that each on the whole pays out what he gets in. In place of the impôt direct, M. Brentano, if we understand him truly, would prefer to see everything in the way of actual production taxed rather than individual incomes at one per thousand; thus the workman who earned $200 a year would pay 20 cents, the small shopkeeper who turned over $3,000 a year about $1.25, and the great barrister or famous artist making his $100,000 a year, $100. M. Brentano carefully avoids pointing out the fact that, directly or indirectly, the French citizen, especially the landowner and peasant proprietor, is already exceedingly heavily taxed, and looks forward with horror to any increase of what is significantly called abroad imposition. THE FRENCH NAVY. M. Loir discusses at some length the armament of the naval reserve of France. Thanks mainly to the efforts of Admiral Gervais, the French navy is now in an extraordinarily efficient position; each summer everything is put on a war footing, and both men and officers become thoroughly familiarized with their work; during the winter months all is arranged on a reduced level, but can again be brought up to full strength in an incredibly short time. M. Loir considers that the naval war of the future will take place in the Mediterranean. GENERAL GRANT'S GERMAN SYMPATHIES. In an article headed "General Grant and France," Mr. Theodore Stanton attempts to disprove the generally credited idea that the great American soldier considered himself during the Franco-Prussian War the enemy of France and the moral ally of Germany; even Victor Hugo mentioned him with horror in his "L'Année Terrible;" and yet, according to Mr. Stanton, there was literally a great deal of smoke without fire in the whole idea; so far from disliking France, Grant was only prejudiced against the Bonapartes. The often reiterated assertion that he had sent telegrams of felicitation to the German Kaiser after each Prussian victory in 1870–71, is, asserts Mr. Stanton, an absurd fiction. LOTTERIES AND ART. In the same number M. Serre makes an eloquent plea in favor of a larger yearly grant to the galleries and museums of France, holding up as an example Great Britain, who subsidizes her National Gallery to the tune of $160,000 a year; and Germany, who allows the state galleries $100,000 a year; while in France the Louvre, Luxembourg, Versailles and St. Germains divide between them the miserable income of $32,500! This is the reason why no important additions to French galleries are ever made, save in the way of private gifts by public-spirited donations. Many foreign schools are still unrepresented in the Louvre, which, it seems, lacks a Turner to this day. M. Serre proposes an issue of lottery bonds similar to that which met with so prompt a success during the Exhibition of 1889, and points out that in this fashion a really large sum might be raised to form a permanent art fund. In the second number two novelists, the late Guy de Maupassant and Pierre Loti, are given the first place. M. Leroy-Beaulieu discusses at some length, under the generic title of "Studies in Sociology," the part which is, and should be, played by luxury in human life. "There is nothing," he observes shrewdly, "more difficult to dedefine that the word luxury; what is a luxury to some is a necessity to others," and he offers himself the following definitions: "Luxury consists in those superfluities which exceed what the general population in any given country and at any given time consider as essential, not only to their absolute needs of existence, but to those affecting decency and comfort." The moralists and politicians of all ages have joined with economists in considering luxury a kind of crime, and M. de Laveley declared that although luxury increases the love of the beautiful and ideal, it also strongly appeals both to the vanity and sensuality of human nature; and Rousseau somewhat rashly asserted that if there were no luxury there would be no poverty. M. Leroy-Beaulieu considers that civilization and humanity would both lose much if all luxury were eliminated. 66 FROM RUSKIN TO PEARS' SOAP." M. de la Sizéranne continues in both numbers his really remarkable account of contemporary English art and painters. He defines Mr. Watts' work as being essentially mythical art, and quotes a phrase lately used by the great painter to a friend: "I paint ideas, not objects." Mr. Holman Hunt is, according to the French critic, the English exponent of Christian art, and he tells the story of how the painter of "The Light of the World" went and worked'in Palestine, quoting the following sentence written by Holman Hunt from Jerusalem to a friend: "You know how far above my human affections is my love for Christ." With Sir Frederick Leighton, M. Sizéranne is apparently less in sympathy; he observes that the president of the Royal Academy, though officially the head of English artists, is in reality the most continental painter in England. He has visited every country, frequented every school of art, learnt all languages, reproduced all styles. Mr. Alma Tadema is noted as being essentially an historic painter, and declared to be, though a Dutchman, thoroughly English in his art. Passing on to Sir John Millais, M. de Sizéranne tells the following anecdote: "Some years ago the painter of The Huguenots' was taking a walk in Kensington Gardens with a friend; suddenly stopping before the Round Pond, he observed, 'How strange it is to think that once I also was a little boy fishing here for sticklebacks, and now here I am again, become a great man ; I am a baronet, have a fine house, plenty of money, and all y heart longs for,' and with these words walked on quickly. On this remarkable utterance M. Sizéranne builds up many conclusions, and finally declares that John's career' might be written under the title of 'Ruskin to Pears' Soap, or the Stages of a Perversion.'" Herkomer is cited as a great portrait painter, alone capable of showing an English man and an English woman of the present day as they really are, although the painter, like Holbein, is a German. PIE THE NOUVELLE REVUE. IERRE LOTI'S "The Desert," an account of his late journey to the Holy Land, is still the feature of the Nouvelle Revue; and as usual Madame Adam devotes much of her space to Russia and things Russian, including an excellent article dealing with the judicial revision now taking place in that empire, and a fine prosepoem addressed from France to Russian womanhood. Under the form of a letter to a young diplomat, the Count de Mouy sums up his ideas of modern diplomacy, and points out how one engaged in the making and unmaking of history should conduct himself. He counsels "" an amiable reserve," and considers as essentials, tact, good breeding and gentleness of manner; whilst above all things he insists on the absolute necessity of high private character. "Let a diplomat's dirty linen," he observes significantly, "be always washed at home." The anonymous account of the judicial revision which is apparently about to take place in Russia seems inspired from some official source. It is interesting to learn that Nicholas Mourouvieff has been placed at the head of a commission whose duty will consist of inquiring into and revising the whole of the Russian judicial system. The Russian Minister of Justice has addressed a long report to his confrères on the subject; in this he points out that simplification rather than elaboration is the object to be aimed at by the commission when drawing up new laws and regulations. A violent anti-English article by Colonel Chaillé-Long deals with Kassala and the Egyptian Soudan; but what the author contributes contains nothing new about the vexed questions with which he deals. The second number contains only one article likely to be of interest to foreign readers-namely, that contributed by Mrs. Matilda Shaw on the Chinese population of New York, its haunts and habits. THE NEW BOOKS RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS. HISTORY, POLITICS AND SOCIOLOGY. History of the United States. By E. Benjamin Andrews, President of Brown University. Two vols., octavo, pp. 422-355. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. $4. President E. Benjamin Andrews, of Brown University, who is well known to our readers through his contributions to the REVIEW OF REVIEWS, and various works noticed from time to time in these columns in the domain of history and economics, has performed another important literary task, and is announced for still another. He has written the history of the United States in two readable volumes, which are at once scholarly and attractive. He has not chopped American history up into numbered paragraphs, but has given us a continuous narrative, well proportioned and full of human interest. It is the kind of a book which might well be read by the whole family at home on winter evenings, as collateral with the school work in American history that a boy or girl may be doing perfunctorily. It should also find a welcome place in the hands of public school teachers, who wish to read something fresh, vivid and authoritative, in order that they may be able to put more life into their daily teaching. President Andrews, as announced, is about to furnish Scribner's Magazine with a history of the United States since the War, to be published in installments, which will sum up important phases of our recent history. It is a courageous man who will venture to deal candidly with these still controverted topics. The Winning of the West. By Theodore Roosevelt. Vol. III. Octavo, pp. 339. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. $2.50. The first two volumes of Mr. Roosevelt's work, completed several years ago, brought the story of Western settlement and exploration down to the close of the American Revolution. The present volume, third in the series, covers what Mr. John Fiske has aptly termed the critical period in our history-the seven years succeeding the treaty of peace in 1783. During these years the constitution was adopted and a union of the States established; west of the Alleghanies the foundations of new States were laid. Mr. Roosevelt gives a full account of the Indian wars and treaties of the period; of the extraordinary immigration movements; of the curious career of the State of Franklin; of the various attempts of separatists to alienate the Western settlements from the union, and finally of the successful organization of the Northwest and Southwest Territories and the State of Kentucky. In this narrative are embraced the most important facts connected with the origins of at least three commonwealthsKentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio. Mr. Roosevelt has made much use in this volume of the Draper collection of manuscripts in the library of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Whether he has in all cases discriminated properly in his treatment of the events under review, we leave to the historical experts to determine; we are content to commend the form which he has given the story, as well as its historical perspective. The volume is a worthy continuation of a work which has earned the praise and gratitude of Americans generally, and especially of that numerous class of Americans the land of whose birth lies west of the Alleghanies. A History of the United States Navy from 1775 to 1894. By Edgar Stanton Maclay, A.M. Two vols., Vol. II. Octavo, pp. 656. New York: D. Appleton & Co. $3.50. We have already noticed the first volume of this elaborate work. (See REVIEW OF REVIEWS, April, 1894). The second and concluding volume fully sustains the reputation won by the first. In the opening chapters the story of the naval war of 1812-15 is brought to a close; seven chapters are then devoted to a review of the minor wars and expeditions in which our navy took part during the years 1815-1861; of this period the chief episodes were the war with Algiers, the suppression of piracy, and the expedition to Japan under Commodore M. C. Perry; then follows the narrative of the naval exploits of the Civil War, in twenty chapters, and the three concluding chapters of the book describe the navy of to-day. It hardly need be said that the author's work throughout is characterized by painstaking attention to details, but this does not mar the fluency or grace of the narrative. Seldom in this country has a literary task of like magnitude been so satisfactorily wrought out in the compass of two octavo volumes. The illustrations and maps are abundant, and of uniform excellence. The index, which fills twenty-five pages, seems to be This work merits distinction, if for no other reason, for its very laudable attempt to fairly present the respective points of view held by the Northern and Southern people at the outbreak of the War. About half the present volume is devoted to this task, while the general narrative is brought down to the opening of the campaign of 1862. That Mr. Ropes possesses unusual powers as a writer on military topics has been shown more than once, and we are glad to be able to commend as equally satisfactory his skill in depicting the march of political events. The text is supplemented by five excellent maps. The Southern States of the American Union, Considered in Their Relations to the Constitution of the United States and to the Resulting Union. By J. L. M. Curry. 12mo, pp. 256. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. $1.25. The reader who wishes to supplement Mr. Ropes' admirable chapters on the South's attitude at the beginning of the Civil War with a more detailed study of the subject will find in Mr. Curry's book a full exposition of the Southern view of the Constitution. It may be doubted whether such an explanation of the South's course as is offered by Mr. Curry is as much needed in the North now as it was a few years ago, but it is in no sense out of order at any time, and the younger generation of students of American history would be unwilling to impugn its general truthfulness. The Colonial Cavalier; or, Southern Life Before the Revolution. By Maud Wilder Goodwin. 12mo, pp. 304. New York: Lovell, Coryell & Co. This little book modestly disclaims all pretension to the dignity of a history; in our opinion it really contains more history of a genuine and highly valuable sort than many of the conventional "histories "which are constantly issuing from the press. It describes social life in the South before the Revolution. The author rightly affirms that our comprehension of the Maryland and Virginia Cavalier has been far less distinct than our knowledge of the New England Puritan; we think that this book will do much to clarify popular ideas of the Colonial Southland. It describes the Southern colonist as he was in his home life, in his courtship and marriage, in his dress and manners, in his trade and travel, in his amusements, his church relations, his school training, his government, and finally in his sickness and death. The illustrations, spirited and appropriate drawings of colonial scenes and costumes, do much to embeilish the text, which is written throughout in a charmingly graceful and unpretentious style. The Old Church in the New Land. Lectures on Church History. By the Rev. C. Ernest Smith, M.A. With Preface by the Bishop of Maryland. 12mo, pp. viii, 279. New York: Longmans, Green & Co. $1.25. As may be inferred from its title, this volume of lectures is concerned with the history of the Anglican Church, and more especially with the progress of that church in the United States. The point of view of the lecturer is that of one who is able to believe that the Protestant Episcopal Church, throughout this country, is the church of the whole people and the "national" church, while the Roman Catholic Church is nothing but a missionary body among us, and "the sects have no real status. Those who accept this explanation of facts as adequate will find in the book an interesting exposition of their views of church history, while the many who dissent will probably refuse to be converted to the positions taken by the lecturer. General Hancock. By General Francis A. Walker. "Great Commanders" series. 12mo, pp. 332. New York: D. Appleton & Co. $1.50. The latest volume in the "Great Commanders " series is an important contribution to the history of the Second Army Corps, as well as a sketch of the military record of the officer who so ably commanded that body of troops. General Grant attested Hancock's pre-eminence as a corps commander when he said of him that his name was never mentioned as having committed in battle a blunder for which he was responsible. While General Walker devotes most of his attention to the military career of his hero, he does not neglect those episodes in his civil history which deserve recounting. The story of General Hancock's ill-starred candidacy for the Presidency in 1880 is dismissed in three pages; his reputed characterization of the tariff as "a local issue" is set down as a blunderhead's distortion of a remark of the general. The Life of Robert Ross, Sacrificed to Municipal Misrule. By Rev. James H. Ross. 12mo, pp. 180. Boston: James H. Earle. 90 cents. This story of a martyrdom to civic duty was written for the worthy purpose of aiding what Dr. Strong calls the present revival of municipal patriotism in our land. The fact that Robert Ross, who was murdered at the polls in Troy, N. Y., March 6, 1894, was a member of the Society or Christian Endeavor, has special significance in view of the advanced ground taken by that organization within the past two years in relation to efforts for purer politics. This young man evidently took his religion into his politics, and by his death as well as his life promoted the cause of good government. He was truly a martyr of to-day. 99.66 History for Ready Reference. By J. N. Larned. Five Vols. Vol. III-Greece to Niebelungen Lied. Quarto, pp. 794. Springfield, Mass.: The C. A. Nichols Co. We have previously commented on the general features of Mr. Larned's scheme for the effective massing of historical literature for purposes of reference. Among the important topics grouped in the third volume of the work are: "Greece, "Hawaiian Islands,' India," "Hungary." "Ireland," "Italy," Japan,' Jesuits," Jews." " 'Law," "Libraries," "London," Medical Science," "Money and Banking," "Netherlands," "New England," and "New York." Each of these topics is treated chronologically, so far as may be, and the treatment of each chronological division of the general subject is assigned to a writer of literary and historical standing in that special field. In the case of an ordinary cyclopædia the method is the same, except that the collaborators are all living writers and do the work especially for the cyclopædia; in Mr. Larned's undertaking the co-operation of the writers of all time, past and present, is enlisted. The Meaning of History, and Other Historical Pieces. By Frederic Harrison. Octavo, pp. 490. New York: Macmillan & Co. $2.25. The title chosen for this volume of Mr. Harrison's essays wholly fails to define the topics treated. Indeed, the range of these topics is such that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to construct a title sufficiently inclusive to characterize the subject matter of the book as a whole. It is simply a group of essays on various subjects, most of which have some relation to history," using the term in a broad sense. The first four chapters are quite in line with the suggestions of the title, while the remaining thirteen wander delightfully from the text and give us less and less philosophy of history in the abstract and more and more concrete illustrations of how history should be written and studied. The essays on "The City-Ancient, Medieval, Modern and Ideal," "Constantinople as an Historic City," "The Problem of Constantinople," Paris as an Historic City," "The Transformation of Paris," and "The Transformation of London," will attract and charm all students of the city problem who believe there is something more involved in its solution than the digging of sewers and the cleaning of streets. A good part of the present volume has already appeared in the form of contributions to the Fortnightly Review and other periodicals. Mediæval Europe (814-1300). By Ephraim Emerton, Ph.D. 12mo, pp. 632. Boston: Ginn & Co. Of Professor Emerton's qualifications for preparing a text book on European history it is not necessary to speak. The very general use and acceptability of his little "Introduction to the Study of the Middle Ages," published a few years ago, should afford ample assurance of his peculiar fitness for such a task. A word should be said about Professor Emerton's voluntary limitation of field. He has chosen to narrow the application of the term "Medieval" to the period beginning with the death of Charles the Great and ending in the thirteenth century. This period, the author thinks, has a distinctness that cannot be attributed to the "Middle Ages" as commonly understood, embracing several centuries before Charlemagne and several centuries later than the thirteenth, centuries which, in each case, the author contends, were years of transition in a special sense, and not years to be properly included in a well-defined historical period having a distinctive character of its own. Professor Emerton furnishes a valuable bibliographical introduction to the history. The excellence of the maps and illustrations leads one to wish that there were more of them. The book will doubtless find large use in the colleges and universities of the country. The French Revolution. Tested by Mirabeau's Career. Lowell Institute Lectures. By H. Von Holst. Two vols., 8vo, pp. 258–264. Chicago: Callaghan & Co. Professor Von Holst disclaims any attempt to produce a systematic treatise on the French Revolution; the two volumes which he has published are composed of lectures delivered at the Lowell Institute. of Boston, and he assures us that, except for the addition of notes referring to authorities, etc., the process of editing has made no change whatever in the body of the lectures, which reveal in various ways the personality of the lecturer and his attitude toward the men and measures of 1789. His portraiture of Mirabeau is most effective, and the lecturer shows himself a master of the subject in hand. Memoirs of the Duchesse de Gontaut. Translated from the French by Mrs. J. W. Davis. Two vols., octavo, pp. 226-252. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. These volumes record the personal experiences of a governess at the French Court at the time of the Restoration. The Duchesse de Gontaut was eighty years of age when she wrote these memoirs (in 1853) and much time had elapsed since the occurrences narrated. It would hardly seem safe to rely implicitly on the historical accuracy of such writings; but they have a peculiar interest for students of the period, and need not be permitted to seriously mislead the intelligent reader who knows the circumstances of their origin. England in the Nineteenth Century. By Elizabeth Wormeley Latimer. 12mo, pp. 451. Chicago: A. C. This sketch of English history in the present century is chiefly remarkable, we should say, for the amount of information about distinguished personalities that it contains. There are very few works in this field embodying in the same compass so great a range of personal anecdote. Not only members of the royal family, but public characters like Canning, Peel, Wellington, Beaconsfield and Gladstone. are clev. erly and distinctly portrayed in this interesting fashion. The portraits accompanying the text-twenty-seven in numberare well executed half-tone reproductions. City Government in the United States. By Alfred R. Conkling. 12mo, pp. 239. New York: D. Appleton & Co. $1. Mr. Alfred R. Conkling, of the New York State Legislature, has prepared a little volume which collates much useful information about the government of our cities, and which presents a high ideal of municipal life. It has grown chiefly out of Mr. Conkling's experience in New York City, where he has rendered valiant service as a municipal reformer, and has helped to expose and punish corruption at the polls. Suggestions on Government. By S. E. Moffett. 12mo, pp. 200. Chicago: Rand, McNally & Co. These "Suggestions "include the referendum, a scheme of simultaneous popular assemblies, and proportional representation-reforms which are advocated by nearly every ambitious political prophet in these days. The author naïvely admits the difficulty of combining all conceivable improvements in government in one system," and in this concession he betrays a diffidence not common to his class. He goes a long way, however, toward the realization of such a "system-on paper, and gives us quite enough material for reflection. His description of existing abuses, while at times exaggerated, is truthful in many respects, and deserves consideration, whether Mr. Moffet's remedies for the ills that the political flesh is heir to shall ever be adopted or not. The Banking System of the United States and Its Relation to the Money and Business of the Country. By Charles G. Dawes. 12mo, pp. 83. Chicago: Rand, McNally & Co. 75 cents. The chief aim of this little book seems to be to elucidate the relation sustained by what the author terms the bankcredit money of the country to the money of the government. The book has a special timeliness, in view of the propositions of the Bankers' Association, of President Cleveland and of Secretary Carlisle, relative to currency reform. It is calculated to inform and instruct the people concerning the lessunderstood phases of the question. It is candid in its presentation of argument, but it seems to us that the author has seriously erred in insisting that the number of promises to pay, in use at a given time, has a greater effect on the value of the standard of payment than the amount of that standard has on the value of such promises or checks. Water Transportation and Freight Rates. By James Fisher, M. P. P. Paper, 12mo, pp. 34. Brandon. An interesting argument in favor of a scheme for connecting the Red River with Lake Superior by way of the Lake of the Woods, thus affording a water outlet for the great Manitoba region. Ninth Annual Report of the U. S. Commissioner of Labor, 1893. Building and Loan Associations. Octavo, pp. 719. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1894. Following the custom of his department. Commissioner Wright has devoted his entire report to a single topic. The subject of building and loan associations is of growing importance in this country. Col. Wright's investigations comprehended nearly 6,000 such organizations, distributed through every State and Territory. Col. Wright well says: "These private corporations, doing a semi-banking business, conducted by men not trained as bankers, offer a study in finance not qualed by any other institutions." He finds that the total dues paid in on shares in force, plus the profits, amount to the enormous aggregate of $450.667,594. Besides complete and elaborate statistical data concerning the status of these associations, the report contains full expositions of premium plans, plans for the distribution of profits, and rules for withdrawals. There is also a compilation of State and Territorial laws relating especially to building and loan associations. The History of Marriage-Jewish and Christian-in Relation to Divorce and Certain Forbidden Degrees. By Herbert Mortimer Lucock, D.D. 12mo, pp. 326. New York: Longmans, Green & Co. $1.75. This is a very scholarly treatise, written wholly from the ecclesiastical point of view, and hence possessing greater interest for the churchman than for the nonconformist-for the Englishman than for the citizen of a country like ours, where the place of marriage as a civil function is well defined and all legislation concerning it pertains to the state alone. The work consists of two parts-the first dealing with marriage in its relation to divorce and explaining the practice of the Jewish and Christian churches relative thereto, and the second treating of the several forbidden degrees. A Discussion of the Prevailing Theories and Practices Relating to Sewage Disposal. By Wynkoop Kiersted, C. E. 12mo, pp. 196. New York: John Wiley & Sons. $1.25. Mr. Kiersted discusses the various methods for the puri. fication of sewage-those now in use and those proposed-and reviews the principles involved in water and land disposal respectively. The purely mechanical side of the problem receives less attention, perhaps, than might have been expected in a civil engineer's treatment of the subject; principles, rather than modus operandi, are explained and enforced. The methods chiefly considered are those of dilution, irrigation, intermittent filtration and chemical precipitation. Social Reform. By 12mo, pp. 336. New $1.50. Practicable Socialism: Essays on Towards Utopia: Being Speculations in Social Evolution. An edition, for American readers, of a book which appeared in London early in 1893. The author holds a conserva tive view of the possible regeneration of society. It is evident that he has been profoundly influenced by the writings of Herbert Spencer. He undertakes to point out certain natural processes which may be developed and followed for the general improvement of social conditions. His tendency to an individualistic conception of society forbids his acceptance of so-called social "panaceas." The book makes many sensible suggestions, which may be safely acted on by us all, whether we count ourselves social reformers or adherents of the existing order. Labor and the Popular Welfare. By W. H. Mallock. 12mo, pp. 385. New York: Macmillan & Co. 90 cents. A new edition of a book that has given rise to much discussion in England. The author maintains that labor is the gainer from every new addition to the nation's total income, and that hence the laboring man should be content with the present social system. The socialists, on the other hand, challenge Mr. Mallock's interpretation of statistics, asserting that he has shown an absolute but not a relative gain in labor's income, and that he overlooks the present enormous waste in production due to the competitive system. Still Mr. Mallock makes a vigorous presentation of his case, and seems undaunted by the attacks that have been made on him in England. The controversy has run on long enough to disclose the vulnerable points in the arguments on each side, and for the American reader it has a certain interest as showing the status of socialistic agitation in England at the present time. Evolution and Ethics, and Other Essays. By Thomas H. Huxley. 12mo, pp. 347. New York: D. Appleton & Co. $1.25. and The vital portion of this volume consists of Professor Huxley's lecture on the Romanes foundation at Oxford in 1893, with an elaborate introduction and notes; this is followed by characteristic papers entitled "Science and Morals," "Capital-the Mother of Labor." The latter half of the book is made up of the author's letters to the London Times in 189091 attacking General Booth's "Darkest England" scheme and all the plans for social reform advocated by the Salvation Army. American readers, at least, will not be ready to admit that the last word has been said on that subject, nor that Mr. Huxley's ipse dixit, weighty in certain departments of scientific research, is of equal weight in the vast domain of sociological controversy; but even if not always a trusted authority, Huxley never fails to be interesting and suggestive. Tenure and Toil: Land, Labor and Capital. By John Gibbons, LL.D. 12mo, pp. 347. Chicago. Law Jour. nal. The second edition of a book which was first published in 1888. It derives temporary importance from the chapters it contains concerning the Pullman corporation, and recent court proceedings in Chicago involving the motives of its author, now a judge on the bench of that city. The book discusses the rights and wrongs of property and labor with considerable fullness; the author believes that trusts can and should be crushed by legislation. Early Landmarks of Syracuse. By Gurney S. Strong. 12mo, pp. 393. Syracuse, N. Y.: Published by the Author. $2,50. The Rights and Duties of Citizens of the United States. By Dr. Edward C. Mann. 12mo, pp. 148. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company. 75 cents. ESSAYS, CRITICISM AND BELLES-LETTRES. Letters of Emily Dickinson. Edited by Mabel Loomis Todd. Two vols., 16mo, pp. 454. Boston: Roberts Brothers. $2. The publication of Emily Dickinson's poems a few years ago created no little interest in literary circles. Many intel ligent readers cannot make much out of them," and they are often very distressing to those who have any sense of artistic form. Nevertheless they are poems and notable poems. They stand almost as much alone in our annals of American verse as the productions of Jones Very's peculiar genius. The individuality of Emily Dickinson is an interesting one. As a recluse, a solitary, she left Thoreau far in the shade; by comparison, that much abused walker and hunter after the secret of nature was a man of the world. It is easy to trace Puritan and New England influences in the recluse of Am herst, and she is also distinctly a woman, in her prose as well |