return to public life? Of course, one will be told that such a notion is to the last degree absurd, and from the strictly party politician's point of view no doubt it is.” Notwithstanding this, Mr. Traill believes that :

"It would be safe for his party to welcome Mr. Gladstone back again, and to most of them-to all of them whose ambitions would not be crossed by it-it would be agreeable. That it might not be displeasing to Mr. Gladstone himself to return one can readily believe; indeed, there is no evidence that he ever wished to go. Why, therefore, though at present they may be quite unauthoritative, should not the rumors of his intended return to public life be true ?”

WANTED A NEW BRITISH MUSEUM.

Professor W. M. Flinders Petrie, the famous Egyptologist, embodies in an article entitled "The Study of Man a proposal to found a new British Museum, covering an area about the size of Bushey Park. He thinks the proposal is practicable, and would not cost much:

"We require a place where an example of every object of human workmanship can be preserved. A place where a hut or a boat of every race in the world can be kept; with an outfit of the clothing, domestic objects, weapons, decorations, games, and other products, arranged in due order. A place where complete tombs can be preserved with all the objects in position, like the splendid series in the Bologna Museum; where every series of results of excavation illustrating ancient civilizations can be at once and completely housed. A place where architecture can be studied from actual fragments, where a group of capitals or a stack of moldings can be kept, whether they belong to a temple or an abbey. In short, a place where nothing shall ever be refused admission and preservative care, unless it be a duplicate of what is already secured. We need for all the works of man what the British Museum Library does for literature and all printed and written matter. When we come to frame an actual estimate of the cost of land, building, repairs, and staff, the result is that we could provide an area equal to the whole exhibiting area of the British Museum for an annual cost of only 3 per cent. extra on the annual grant of that museum. We could double our accommodation for collections for an increase which would be scarcely perceived in the usual museum budget."

FAMILY COUNCILS.

Miss M. Betham Edwards describes very minutely the composition and working of that extraordinary legal tribunal in France known as the Conseil de Famille. She says it is:

"A domestic court of justice accessible alike to rich and poor and at nominal cost, occupying itself with questions the most momentous as well as the minutest, vigilantly guarding the interests of imbecile and orphan, outside the law, yet by the law rendered authoritative and binding. For hundreds of years the Family Council or informal Court of Chancery has thus acted an intermediary part."

After explaining the way in which it does its work, Miss Edwards says:

"In spite of certain drawbacks there seems no reason why a modified Conseil de Famille might not prove beneficial in England. The simplicity, the uncompromising economy of the system are highly commendable; the absolute impossibility of risking uncertain charges is a feature that contrasts favorably with our own legal pro. cedure. But the self-incurred responsibility, that enforce

Mr. Hugh Chisholm, in a financial article entitled "The Coming Crisis in Consols," calls attention to the financial mischief that is accruing from the gradual drying up of the funds available for investment with a government guarantee. He says:

"Is it not obvious that one of two things must happen-either we must 'slow down' in paying off a stock which, as an investment, is vital, and, as a national burden, is inconsiderable (the annual charge per head being 11s. 8d., and the capital value £16 11s.), or else, if this rate of payment is maintained, some other national stock, carrrying the national credit and safe as British solvency, must be brought into existence and added to the present fund?"

After discussing in detail the comparative advantages and disadvantages of either alternative, he says:

"Unless the present diminution of debt ceases, or the stock of consols is materially increased, a crisis is plainly in view for that investing public which demands, at whatever cost, the security of the national credit." THE SAFETY OF THE INDIAN NORTHWESTERN FRONTIER.

Sir J. D. Poynder, M. P., who has been making a trip to Baluchistan and the Northwestern frontier of India, describes what he has seen and concludes his observations in a strain of somewhat cheery optimism :

"Our position now along the north, as it is along the northwest, seems secure. We must keep the Hindu Kush at all prices as the natural boundary line between India and Russia. We have now a demarcated line from the Pamirs to the Helmund, which are at the two extreme ends of the northwest frontier, and among our principal Imperial duties is that of keeping watch and ward over this boundary, not merely by upolding its integrity, but also by refusing to tolerate the encroachments of foreign nations upon the strategic accessories to that frontier. With this policy clearly proclaimed and unfalteringly pursued, we need be under no apprehension as to the retention of our Indian Empire."

WANTED-PROTESTANT LITTLE SISTERS OF THE POOR. Mr. Bernard Holland, in an article entitled "The Christian Motivé," points out with great force the contrast between the workhouse service of nurses in England, which is recruited solely on financial grounds, and the Little Sisters of the Poor in France, who tend the sick for the love of God. Mr. Holland says:

"If a religious order of women could be formed with the special object of attending the aged inmates of workhouses, they might find in the love of God and the esprit de corps of their order a compensation, not to be given by fair wages, rations, and a uniform, for the lack of interest in the cases,' the dullness of the life, and the absence of professional prizes. The dullness itself would be diminished by means of the circulation from place to place, which is possible in a religious order, since the members are bound by no local ties and are under the central control of their superiors. At any rate, the dullness, with such alleviations, would hardly be so great as that from which many unemployed. or half-employed women in the middle classes suffer-women, that is, who are above the plane of manual or factory labor, but who do not possess those means of slaying the hostile hours which are given by the possession of wealth."

This suggestion has often been made. Is it not time that the call came to some good woman to carry out the suggestion?

CANADA AND THE FUR SEALS.

Sir C. H. Tupper, in an article entitled "Crocodile Tears and Fur Seals," stoutly denies that the Canadians are exterminating the seals, and declares that the whole outcry on the subject is due to the American monopolists, who wish to restrict the supply of seals to seals killed on land. Sir Charles Tupper says:

"So long as a sealing fleet can catch over 70,000 skins a season and land them for from $8.00 to $10.00 a skin at Victoria, B. C., it is clear there is no great fortune in a lease which allows a few citizens of the United States to kill 100,000 a year on the Pribilov Islands upon payment of a royalty of over $11.00 a skin.

"The Regulations of Paris practically gave to the United States an extension of her territorial limits in Behring Sea from three to sixty miles, while in many other respects they imposed new and severe restrictions on Canadian sealers. Canadians were prepared for legislation on the part of the two powers to give effect to

these regulations, but it was a matter for astonishment when the Imperial act went far in advance of the Paris award. The penalties are needlessly and unusually severe, and the concessions of the right of visit and search, as well as of seizure, to foreign vessels over British, is regarded in Canada as odious and unwarranted."

The Canadians contend that it is much more humane to kill the seals at sea, and their spokesman protests indignantly against the proposition that their liberty to kill seals in the open sea should be still further curtailed to please United States monopolists:

"Canada has lived up to the spirit and letter of this award. The views of Canadian pelagic hunters are, in fact, shared by the citizens of every country which does not own islands frequented by seals, and consequently, if the facts were known, the majority of the people of every country would support the case of Canada, rather than the greed of a powerful combination of leaseholders under the United States Government."

The only other article is Mr. A. F. Leach's paper on "The Origin of Oxford."

THE REVUE DE PARIS.

HE most interesting articles, from the general and

the late Edmond de Goncourt, noticed elsewhere.

Of the great Russian writers the most popular among French readers is still Ivan Tourguenieff. He spent much of his later life on the banks of the Seine, in a charming villa at Bougival; but although he was the centre of a literary and artistic society he rarely alluded to his youth, and until quite lately little or nothing was known of his early life, or of the conditions which led to his becoming a great writer. M. Haumant has been at some pains to fill in the blanks, and the material he here presents will be of the greatest value to Tourguenieff's future biographers, and to those concerned with the evolution of the Russian novel.

Like Tolstoï and Pouchkine, the author of "James Passynkow" was of noble birth, and French, not Russian, was the language currently talked by his parents and playfellows; indeed, he owed much of his intimate knowledge of peasant life to his nurse, who was fond of telling him weird stories and legends, many of which afterward found their place in his writings. His education was conducted, first at Moscow, and later at St. Petersburg, where he made the acquaintance of Pouchkine shortly before the latter's tragic death, and took what corresponds to the B. A. degree. A sojourn in Berlin, which lasted some two years, does not seem to have done more than provide the future novelist with "copy" of a kind not flattering to his Prussian hosts. In Ivan Tourguenieff's curious and complicated personality it is easy to understand the elements which made of him, at least during his later and working life, a Franco-Russian of the most pronounced type.

M. Larroumet, inspired by a late visit to Greece, gives an interesting and learned little account of the Acropolis, "the red rock dominating Athens, respected both by the old city and the new, calling to mind alternately a citadel, a pedestal, and an altar." The French traveler tells in brief the story of the famous spot, and recalls the fact that from 1000 B. C. to 1827 the Acropolis was

constantly in a state of siege, being attacked in turn by Spartans, Venetians, and Turks. These few pages, admirable alike in substance and literary style, will be found of real help to any visitor to Athens familiar with the French language, for M. Larroumet has here written a travel paper which is a model of what such writing should be.

The loves of "Elle et Lui "-i.e., George Sand and Alfred de Musset-seem a source of perennial interest to French writers and readers. M. Clouard, who apparently holds a brief for the family of the poet, publishes a fresh version of the affair as explained by a number of hitherto unpublished letters written by the lovers to various mutual friends. As a psychological cas passionnel the case will remain to the end of time of extraordinary interest to the few who care for such things, and to them may be commended the new light thrown by M. Clouard on the strange unnatural relations which once existed between two of the greatest writers France has ever had, and an obscure Italian doctor, whose part in the drama has conferred on him unsought immortality.

Other contributions comprise a brief retrospective view of the Hungarian Exhibition, a colorless diary written during the coronation fêtes at Moscow last spring, and an historical paper describing the intrigues which brought about Mme. Du Barry's presentation at court. Fiction is well represented by Sudermann, Allais, and Chênevière.

administration, the liberal professions, and lastly, persons living exclusively on the proceeds of their invested capital. This is practically the classification employed in the official statistics. If M. Benoist's plan were adopted the Chamber of Deputies would have 225 representatives of agriculture instead of 38 as now, 164 of industry instead of 49, 65 of commerce and transports instead of 32, 8 of the public administration instead of 43, 13 of the liberal professions instead of 296, and 25 of persons living on the interest of their investments instead of 97. It is easy to see from these simple figures what a revolutionary change M. Benoist is proposing in the personnel of the Chamber of Deputies. If this change were carried out-an improbable "if "-the whole character of French legislation and of the proceedings of the Chamber would be transformed, probably very much for the better. M. Benoist's theory is that the Chamber should represent the individual elector, and the Senate the various groups of electors. Thus, while the representation in the Chamber would be according to population, in the Senate every department, large or small, would have three members, elected one by the Council General of the department, another by the Municipal Councils of the department, and the third by the corporate bodies, such as universities, academies, chambers of commerce, legal corporations, and so on. Unfortu nately, M. Benoist's scheme, before it could be carried out, would have to be submitted to the judgment of the professional politicians whose occupation it would in all human probability destroy.

FOURIER AND HIS PHALANSTERY.

M. Faguet contributes a study of Charles Fourier, whose ideas form a most curious chapter in the history of social philosophy. Fourier, who was born in 1772 and died in 1837, taught that association would produce general riches, honesty, attractive and varied industry, health, peace and universal happiness. He believed in a universal harmony flowing from God, the author of all harmonies, and he tried to discover the form of human society which was most in obedience tc natural laws. This he considered he found in what he called the "phalanstery," consisting of four hundred families or one thousand eight hundred persons, living in one immense building in the centre of a highly-cultivated domain and furnished with all the appliances for industry and amusement. The whole product of each phalanstery he proposed to divide into twelve parts, of which five he assigned to labor, four to capital, and three to talent. The weakest point of his system was that he proposed that all the passions of the human soul should have full scope.

A FRENCH VIEW OF AUSTRALIAN PROBLEMS.

M. Leroy Beaulieu, in pursuing his studies of Australia and New Zealand, contributes a paper on the woman movement and other social experiments in the colonies of Australasia. He has grave suspicions of the raw socialism to be met with in these colonies. Side by side with the woman movement he notes a steady postponement of the age at which the women marry, a symptom which is bound to curtail the natural expansion of the population so necessary to these new and little developed countries. However, he has confidence that the practical common sense of the Anglo-Saxon race will check any further advance in the path of reckless and grandmotherly legislation on which Australasia has started.

against which he thinks there is a general prejudice, is a good example of the kind of article which the French reader likes and the English reader skips.

In the second August number of the Revue the place of honor is given to Count d'Haussonville's paper on the journey from Turin to Fontainebleau, in continuation of his series on the Duchess of Burgundy and the Savoy Alliance under Louis XIV.

M. Dubufe writes on the ideal and the future of art. He sees a new religion, or a new form of the eternal religion, which renews ideas, civilization and arts. Without some conception of divinity, no ideal and consequently no art is possible. But this other religion differs from Christianity, in that it has not yet brought together a sufficient body of proof to be believed, nor has it attracted to itself enough love to secure obedience to its precepts.

GERMAN RATIONALISM.

American readers will be more interested in M. Goyau's series on the "Evolution of German Protestantism.” His paper on this occasion deals with the doctrinal tendencies of Germany. The two main lines of theological speculation may be called supranaturalistic and rationalistic, the former leading to a passive faith and the other to absolute negation. M. Goyau, like a true Frenchman, notes at once the lack of homogeneity which characterizes Protestant dogmas. He explains the extraordinary influence exercised on German Protestantism by Schleiermacher's little book published in Berlin a few months before the dawn of the nineteenth century under the title "Of Religion: Discourse to Cultivated Spirits among its Detractors." This brochure has reigned, so to speak, over German Protestantism for nearly a century, It teaches a kind of patheism. The universe is God considered in His multiplicity, just as the universal Being is God considered in His unity. Every man is an emanation or phenomenon of this essence. This was the great service which Schleiermacher rendered. brushed aside the fine-spun subtleties of supranaturalism and rationalism alike, and restored Luther's greatconception of placing man in a personal relation with God. He made faith a matter of experience, gained by the whole Christian community through the centuries, and miracles, prophecies and inspiration he relegated to a secondary place as details about which the old schools were continually arguing. This conception of religion earned the easy jeers of Hegel, who argued that on Schleiermacher's theory the dog ought to be the most religious of creatures, but Hegel himself attempted a reconciliation of Christianity and Pantheism.

He

The other articles include one by M. Bonet-Maury on the French precursors of Cardinal Lavigerie in Mahomedan Africa, in which we have a terrible picture of the ravages the old corsairs of Algeria and Tunis inflicted on the merchant marine of Christian Europe.

TILSKUEREN.

Interesting Impressions from London. IN Tilskueren for July, the most interesting article is Dr. George Brandes' "Impressions from London," continued from the previous number. Of the many notable personalities of whom Dr. Brandes gives pleasant and sympathetic portraits-Stepniak, Prince Krapotkinand others—perhaps he evinces most admiration for courageous, exiled Vera Sássulitch (whose name once rang throughout the whole of Europe), working away steadily

and modestly under an assumed name in the pathetic loneliness of her London quarters, while her heart turns ever homeward to her Russia. She is simplicity itself, with most beautiful gray eyes, earnest, careworn features, older than her years, but with an inner energy. a fiery animation of gesture, and a fascinating fluency of speech that give an impression of unweakened youthfulness. "My English acquaintances," says Dr. Brandes, "were wont to pass jokes, between whiles, on my odd penchant for the society of murderers' and murderesses in London. But I can honestly assert that, when I had spent an evening with my 'murderers,' and was next day invited to an aristocratic dinner-party, I had the feeling of having sunk from the higher and better society into one of much lower grade."

Writing on Prince Krapotkin, Dr. Brandes finds fault solely with his optimism and lack of selfishness. He is fully at one with him in his condemnation of the presentday order of society, and finds no expression of Prince Krapotkin's too strong. But "those who would build, must build on granite, and the granite-layer in humanity's nature is self-love, which Krapotkin wholly thrusts aside. His great merit is that he has brought together powerful evidence of a strong desire for mutual help; but to build a system and a future on optimism is to build on sand."

One of the most interesting portions of Dr. Brandes' "Impressions" is that in which he deals with Armenian matters, and describes his meeting with Avetis Nazarbek, the real chief of the Armenian rebellion-" a young, strikingly handsome man, beautiful as an Italian portrait ideal from Anno 1500." Dr. Brandes felt a painful interest in the Armenians, and Avetis Nazarbek told him much about his people-a people, strange and highly intelligent, who, in position and in energy, and in so much more, remind one so strongly of the Israelitesa nation of some four millions, with one of the oldest cultured languages in the world, and the educated people of which speak, beside their mother-tongue, the neighboring Turkish, Persian, and Russian languages. Avetis gave. Dr. Brandes also an outline of the history of the Armenian newer literature and some idea of the influences, mostly French and English, which had affected it. With a certain pride the Armenians remember still that Byron, while in Venice, studied their language under the monks of San Lazaro.

At one of Mr. Douglas Sladen's receptions, Dr. Brandes fell in with Mr. Kingeast Tseng, son of the famous Marquis Tsêng, and had some conversation with him respecting literary and social matters in China—a conversation which Dr. Brandes had opened with the remark that he was well acquainted with the name of Mr. Tsêng's father. To which remark Mr. Tseng, with a slight, smile veiled, but, nevertheless, apparent touchiness, replied, "I may point out, however, that I here represent not my father but the Chinese Government." The conversation, nevertheless, flowed on very smoothly and pleasantly, and Dr. Brandes learned that in China the author derives no pecuniary benefit from his book. The honor of being read and known is considered reward sufficient. There is no literary copyright, and whosoever desires so to do may reprint the book. "It is a democratic principle," said Marquis Tsêng, "and we

Chinese are democrats. I consider the system advantageous and good."

THE

THE ITALIAN REVIEWS.

HE Civiltà Cattolica (August 15), following up the Jesuit crusade against Freemasonry, has an article intended to prove the widespread existence of Satanism in the English Masonic lodges.

Criticising in the Nuova Antologia (August 1) the most recent Papal encyclical on the Reunion of the Churches. Signor Chiappelli affirms that the Pope has taken up a far less liberal attitude toward the separated churches than in his previous pronouncements, nor does the author anticipate that any good or visible results will spring.from it. To the same number Professor Pasquale Villari contributes an able and sympathetic article on the industrial conditions of the "trecciaiole," the picturesque straw-plaiters of Tuscany, who may be seen by all travelers busy with their work before their cottage doors. Serious rioting among this usually peaceful population has recently drawn the attention of the authorities to their economic condition, and Professor Villari shows conclusively that they have fallen on very evil days. Early in the century the earnings of a strawplaiter amounted to two shillings a day; now the same work has to be performed for twopence or threepence ! The workers, mostly women and girls, are at the mercy of the middlemen, and often as many as three of these men intervene between the straw-plaiter and the wholesale merchant, each of whom expects to make a living out of the transactions. Various causes are given by the professor to account for the fall in prices: the rapid change of fashions with which the Italian peasantry do not keep in touch, the large demand for cheap machinesewn straw hats, and finally the competition of China and Japan. As a remedy to the undoubted poverty of the workers, the author suggests the establishment of technical schools, in which the quick-fingered Tuscan peasant could be trained in more profitable fields of labor. M. Paul Sabatier, in the mid-August number, still occupied with St. Francis, describes the original foundation of the "Pardon" of Assisi, known as the Partiuncula Indulgence, by the Saint, according to some recently discovered documents.

MA

COSMOPOLIS.

AX MÜLLER contributes a valuable article on "Prehistoric Antiquities of the Indo-Europeans " in the form of a review of the work of the late Professor Jhering.

Prof. J. P. Mahaffy writes on "Baireuth in 1896;" his article, in the main, is a critique of Wagner.

Mr. G. Bernard Shaw describes the proceedings of the recent International Socialist Congress in London from the point of view of the Fabian Society.

The German section of Cosmopolis contains an account of the principal modern English artists by Herman Helferich. Maurus Jókai writes on the Hungarian millennial celebration and exposition.

HISTORY AND SOCIOLOGY.

Social Forces in German Literature: A Study in the History of Civilization. By Kuno Francke, Ph.D. Octavo, pp. 577. New York: Henry Holt & Co. $2. Professor Francke's volume is an ambitious attempt to trace a people's history in the national literature. Despite the great difficulties of the task, a gratifying measure of success has been attained, and the methods of treatment adopted by the author have been justified in the results of his labors. We now have for the first time in English a systematic study of German literature from the point of view of the observer of social and intellectual movements, rather than from that of the linguist or critic. The author defines his fundamental conception of the development of German literature as that of "a continual struggle between individ. ualistic and collectivistic tendencies, between man and society, between pers nality and tradition, between liberty and unity, between cosmopolitanism and nationality." L'Évolution Française sous la Troisième République.

(The Evolution of France under the Third Republic). Par Pierre de Coubertin. Paper, octavo, pp. 452. Paris E. Plon, Nourritt et Cie. 7 fr. 50.

Readers of the REVIEW OF REVIEWS need no introduction to the Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who contributes to this magazine from time to time, and whose very valuable paper upon the late Jules Simon appears in this number. M. de Coubertin represents the best type of French republican: ism, prizing modern progress and liberty, yet conservative as regards the propositions of the Radicals and Socialists. He has published works upon education in England and America, and was the organizer and chief promoter of the recent revival of the Olympian games in Athens. This attractive volume, which has just come to us from Paris, deals in a more satisfactory way than anything else we have ever seen with the political and constitutional history of France since the Franco-Prussian war. It is frank, thorough and sincere, and written from the point of view of a man who, while firm in French patriotism and hopeful for the future of his country, is a constant reader of English and American books and periodicals, and is not hampered as so many French writers are by lack of comparative political knowledge. The volume discusses French colonial and foreign policies, the relation of the republic to the church, the progress of education, the military situation in France, and concludes with chapters upon opinions, manners and morals, and upon the social question. The volume should be promptly translated into English.

The History of Mankind. By Professor Friedrich

Ratzel. Translated from the German by A. J. Butler, M.A. With an introduction by E. B. Tylor, D.C.L. Vol. I. Quarto, pp. 510. New York: Macmillan & Co. $4.

The truly "monumental" works of lit rature are so rare, while the term is applied so indiscri: inately, that we hesitate to use it, and yet we can find no other word which so fitly characterizes such a book as this-the labor of a great German anthropologist, illustrated with the greatest care, and translated into Engli with painstaking fidelity. Says Professor Tylor in his introduction of the work to English and American readers: "It is especially because the present work comes under the class o. popular illustrated books that it is desirable to point out that this does not detract from its educational value, but on the contrary makes it good for providing a solid foundation in anthropological study." The translation is from the second German edition of 1894-95, revised and condensed from three to two volumes. The illustrations, 1,160 in number, including many colored

plates, are remarkable both for range of subject and excellence of execution; they add greatly to the usefulness and efficiency of the book. With such a manual as this in general circulation, it surely is not too much to hope that the science of anthropology will take an increasingly important place in both Europe and America.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives. By M. P. Follett. With an Introduction by Albert Bushnell Hart. 12mo, pp. 404. New York: Longmans, Green & Co. $1.75.

Miss Follett, a student of Radcliffe College, has made what is described by Professor Hart as "the first elaborate and thorough study of the Speaker of the House of Representatives." The number of important facts brought to light by this investigation (which occupied more than half of Miss Follett's time for four years) is remarkable. The study must take rank among the most important contributions to American history made in recent years.

The Province of Quebec and the Early American Revolution. A Study in English-American Colonial History. By Victor Coffin, Ph.D. Paper, octavo, pp. 300. (Bulletin of the University of Wisconsin.) Madison, Wis. 75 cents.

The excellent reputation of the historical department in the University of Wisconsin is fully sustained by the uniformly high character of the publications issued by that department. The literary and scholastic standards to which the University bulletins are made to conform are certainly as high as those set by any institution in the country. Dr. Coffin's paper gives the results of an exhaustive inquiry into the attitude of Canada at the outbreak of the Revolution. The question why Canada did not join the other colonies at that time is reopened by Dr. Coffin's vigorous assertion that "not only was the Quebec act not effectual in keeping the mass of the Canadians loyal, but that what effect it did have was in exactly the opposite direction." What. then, kept the Canadians from open revolt? Dr. Coffin says that it was largely mismanagement of the revolutionary cause, coupled with singular ability and vigor on the part of the British defense.

The People's Standard History of the United States. By Edward S. Ellis. Paper, octavo, pp. 1920 (in 30 parts). New York: Woolfall Company. 50 cents each part. The plan of publishing American history in sections, each elaborately illustrated, has been revived on a large scale by the Woolfall Company of New York City. Their project includes the production of not less than one thousand drawings of historic scenes, portraits, and maps especially prepared for the work. In the six parts that have thus far appeared the illustrations are spirited and well executed. It is early to speak of the qualities displayed in the text, but the authorities from which the compilation is made seem to have been carefully selected.

The Evolution of an Empire: A Brief Historical Sketch of the United States. By Mary Platt Parmele. 12mo, pp. 312. New York: William Beverley Harson. 75 cents.

Those who are familiar with Mrs. Parmele's "England," "France " and "Germany" in "Evolution of an Empire" series, will best understand the method of treatment adopted by her in this sketch of United States history. The book is in no sense a "manual" of the subject; as a cram book " it would be a dismal failure. Its value does not lie in the multitude of tacts which it contains, but rather in the lucid, natural way in which a few really important facts are presented and grouped, and in the stimulus which it imparts to a rational study of our country's history.