The news of the rebel invasion reached him August 8; he left Detroit October 7, with men said to have been 179 in number, went down the river, across the lake, up the Maumee to "Ome" (Indian village "aux Miamis," site of Fort Wayne), over to the "Ouabache" (Wabash), and so on to Fort Sackville in seventy-two days. This was the important Post St. Vincents, in the present Vincennes, Ind., which Clark had meanwhile garrisoned with a detachment under Capt. Helm, then reduced to twenty-one men, while Hamilton's force had increased to several hundred British, French, and Indians. Helm surrendered with honors of war December 17, and Hamilton held the fort.

career.

Chapter xii. continues with various important events on the Wabash in 1779. The cherished project of a campaign against Detroit was in abeyance, but one important expedition up the Wabash captured seven British boats and about forty men, with supplies intended for Fort Sackville. Bowman was dead. Clark returned to the falls of the Ohio and divided his troops between Vincennes, Cahokia, Kaskaskia, and the falls, by general orders of August 5, 1779, thus establishing possession of the country which had been for ever wrested from the British. The appendix to Volume I. is rich with contemporaneous documents of extreme value, relating to the events just sketched, some of them here appearing for the first time in print, and all being additional to such as we have in the main text. They include, among other letters and reports, Bowman's journal of January-March, 1779; Clark's own diary of December 25, 1776-November

at Fort Sackville, etc.

At Kaskaskia, Clark had but a few more than one hundred men, and could not have moved but for assistance from Francis Vigo (1747-1836), who furnished the sinews of war in an amount, $8,616, which became with interest over $149,898 when finally settled in 1875. On February 4, 1779, the Willing dropped down from Kaskaskia with forty-six men, under Lieut. Rogers: the land force was of four or five companies, in all about 170 men. The latter left next day under Clark, by the trail sometimes styled the "Appian Way of Illinois," en route to Vincennes, via present Sparta, Coultersville, Oakdale, Nashville, Walnut Hill, Salem, Maysville, and Lawrenceville, a distance of some 160 to 170 miles, then called 240. The Wabash was crossed just below the mouth of Embarras River February 21, and Clark was on the heights back of Vincennes on the evening of the 23d, after a terrible march, in part over country flooded with icy waters.

It is disputed whether the fort which Clark took is of 1713, named for one Jean Sacqueville, or 1769, for a Lord Sackville; there may easily have been two of different dates, with similar names. The one captured stood on the east bank of the Wabash, between that and First Street, and between Vigo and Baronet Streets, at the foot of Church Street, close to the St. F. Xavier Church of that time, in present Vincennes, Ind. A night attack was made on the 23d; a peremptory demand for surrender next morning; a truce for three days was rejected, a conference held, and Post St. Vincent capitulated, the garrison marching out on the 25th. Clark changed the name to Fort Patrick Henry. The boat Willing ar rived two days later. Insignificant as may seem to us now the forces in action, this completed the conquest of the North west in a short, spirited, and almost bloodless campaign, fraught with far-reaching consequences of great magnitude. It is sad to be obliged to add that the capture of Vincennes

Volume II. opens with chapter xiv., pp. 605-663, giving a long and circumstantial account of the captivity in Virginia of Hamilton and other prisoners, harshly treated in retaliation for cruelties to American prisoners in other quarters. By the end of the summer of 1779 the little garrison Clark had left on Corn Island had removed to the mainland on the Kentucky side and built a stockade in present Louisville, probably at the foot of Twelfth Street, thus laying the foundation of the city agreeably with Clark's plans. Meanwhile, Jefferson had succeeded to the governorship of Virginia, June 1, 1778. On September 30, 1779, Clark issued orders for a fort on the Mississippi near the mouth of the Ohio, and Fort Jefferson was built early in 1780, when Clark went with a few men to Iron Banks, in present Bullard County, Ky. The American position was still endangered by Indian hostilities, and insecure by reason of an invasion of the British from Michilimackinac. The latter was repelled by Clark, who made a counter raid from his rendezvous at the mouth of the Licking, on to the old Indian town of Chillicothe, with less than 1,000 men, and attacked Piqua, August 8, 1780. This same autumn De la Balme's expedition, with a few men from Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and Vincennes, against British posts on the lakes, was defeated by the Miami chief Little Turtle, in the vicinity of the present Fort Wayne. Such operations brought up again Clark's longcherished plan of an expedition against Detroit. Jefferson approved. Clark was made a brigadier, and arrangements were perfected by which he expected to leave Fort Pitt with 2,000 men in June, 1781. But he failed to secure Continental troops, and the failure of 700 others reduced his total force to about 400. He was to have been reinforced by Col. Lochry; but this officer reached Wheeling, August 8, one day after Clark left, and he was cut off by the Indians, who killed or captured his entire force. This was disaster in itself, and it also frustrated the Detroit campaign-probably the most bitter disappointment of Clark's life.

Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, Va., October 19, 1781. Indian troubles lessened when the natives were no longer instigated or led by the British; the provisional treaty of peace ensued, November 30, 1782; cessation of hostilities was agreed upon at Versailles, Janu ary 20, 1783, proclaimed by Congress April 11, concluded at Paris September 3, and ratified January 14, 1784. The cession by Virginia of all her lands northwest of the Ohio was effect

He

Northwest became organized under the ordinance of 1787. The seal bears date of July 13, 1787, with the motto, "Meliorem lapsa locavit." But before the great drama was ended, Clark was ordered off the stage of events. He was relieved of his command July 2, 1783—that is, he was simply dropped. He had never been an officer of the Continental army, and on the necessary reduction of Virginia troops he was thrown out "with thanks," but without the decencies or even the necessaries of life. retired to Kentucky to neglect, to humiliation, to dire stress of poverty, with the most injurious effect upon his health and morals. At that time the State actually owed him money; fifty years afterward there was judged over $30,000 due the administrators of his estate; it was not till twenty years after his dismissal, and six before his death, when he had become a maimed paralytic, that he was allowed a pension of $400 a year. In 1783 we have the spectacle of the conqueror of the Northwest in Richmond to beg for bread. In 1792 he was still struggling with poverty; a letter written to his brother Jonathan, May 11, 1792, speaks of his account against the State as being "as just as the book we swear by "; and bitter must have been the reflections of one who could then say with truth, "I have given the United States half the territory they possess."

No kindly light ever led Clark on after 1783. In 1786 he was put in command of some operations against Indians which resulted fruitlessly and ignominiously, by open revolt of his men from his authority. He retired to Vincennes, overwhelmed by this fresh disaster; his habits grew worse, and he did things which must bave pained his friends then, even as they still make the judicious historian grieve. "Clark is playing hell," was the word on December 12, 1786; and though Jefferson remained his staunch friend, and tried in 1791 to bring him up again, it was impossible to do so. In 1793 Clark made probably the greatest mistake of his life, enabling his enemies to affix a stigma of dishonor and even treason to a name already tarnished by private bad habits. He accepted a commission with the high sounding title of "Major General in the armies of France and Commander-in-chief of the revolutionary legion on the Mississippi River," against the Spanish, in violation of international law and under governmental condemna. tion. He may never have meditated action against his own country, but any such expedítion as he had in view was stopped by act of Congress of June 5, 1794, and proclamation of March 24, 1795, declaring the proposed operations unlawful. Clark's military career closed for ever, under a cloud.

The remainder of this extremely copious and intensely interesting work is largely occupied with minute details of the "Clark Grant," by acts of the Virginia Legislature of January 2, 1781, and of 1783, locating about 149,000 acres of ground for allotment in severalty to the officers and soldiers of the Illinois regiment. The survey of this land by one William Clark brings up the question of the three persons who bore that name, and Mr. English has succeeded in identifying them all. Surveyor William Clark, son of Benjamin Clark, brother of Marston Green Clark, and cousin of George Rogers Clark, deceased November or December, 1791, was not the jurist, William Clark, who died at Vincennes November 11, 1802, nor yet the William Clark of "Lewis and Clark" fame. A facsimile of the patent issued by Edmund Randolph, Governor of Virginia, December 14, 1786, is given, and also another, of the original

official plot, certified by Surveyor William Clark, with a roll of the men, sketches of the commissioners, and other biographical data of the greatest possible value. It seems that Gen. G. R. Clark attended the meetings of the board from 1784 to March 14, 1810, the date of his last signature, after he had become paralytic. This grant was the origin of Clarksville, Ind, and various other towns along the Ohio opposite Louisville and thence upward. The old general there dragged out many lonely years, in oblivion and intemperance. He was stricken with paralysis after a drinking-bout, fell in the fire, and so burned one of his legs before recovering consciousness that erysipelas set in and amputation became necessary. This was early in 1809, before the days of anaesthetics, and the grisly old warrior lost his leg to the music of drum and fife, played to distract bis attention from the misery of such an operation. One of the most persistent myths which have reached us is that when General Clark was presented with a sword, he cried, "Damn the sword!" etc., or said, "When Virginia needed a sword I gave her one. She sends me now a toy. I want bread." Mr. English's analysis of the traditions shows about as much truth in them as in the still more celebrated story of the "little hatchet" of Washington. General Clark was twice presented with a sword by the Virginia Legislature-June 12, 1779, and February 20, 1812-at which latter date he was placed on the pension list. He died at the house of his sister, Lucy Croghan, at Locust Grove, Ky., February 13, 1818.

founder of that system, and cannot be held responsible for it." However, we will defer further consideration of that point until we have made a brief examination of what precedes it.

The fact seems to be, with regard to this book, that it is composed of articles published at various times during the last five years. The internal evidence proves this, but as no direct hint is given of this state of affairs, for the benefit of non-experts, the constant assumption that the whole has been written in the immediate present is frequently misleading to a serious degree; as, for example, when "the present Emperor" stands for Alexander III. instead of the actual occupant of the throne. Stepniak admits that matters change so rapidly in Russia that it is not possible for the revolutionists who live abroad to direct operations; they cannot even understand the conditions from the other side of the border. Consequently, a difference of five years, or even of much less time, plainly renders certain utterances less valuable, when it does not nullify them altogether.

Very few writers are as insidiously persuasive as Stepniak. He has the art of engaging our sympathies, and convincing us of whatever he pleases, unless we chance to be able to pin him down on one incontestable point, and so obtain the proper gauge of confidence which we must give to his arguments and illustrative anecdotes. It is very unfortunate that, in the hastily written first chapter, designed to introduce and bind together the scattered papers Much more than we can possibly outline here which form the book, he should have fallen is given in estimation of Clark's life and ser- into the grievous error of telling that anec. vices; sketches of many men who served under dote about Count L. N. Tolstoy's drama, "The him; and a full account of the handsome Dominion of Darkness." Stepniak's "trustmonument erected at Indianapolis February worthy source" has furnished him with a 25, 1895, mainly through the distinguished an- very good story, which runs, briefly, to the thor's own efforts to that end. We have also following effect: Alexander III. read and liked much Clark genealogy, especially full regard. "The Dominion of Darkness." His daughter, ing the brothers and sisters of G. R. Clark. Xenia Alexandrovna, who is the wit and liteThe appendix to this volume contains a great rary critic of the family, liked it still more, variety of interesting matter, including in full and she proposed that the play should be priClark's account against the State of Virginia, vately performed in one of the halls of the and the strange history of the bill in chancery Anitchkoff Palace. After the actors had been over his alleged will, filed May 6, 1835, and not engaged, and all the arrangements made, dismissed till November 20, 1865. It also ap Count Dmitry Tolstoy, Minister of the Intepears that the present work is but an instal-rior, agreed with the Head Censor that its perment of that which the author has in hand, and we trust sincerely that he will elaborate his other materials in the same fruitful man

ner.

STEPNIAK'S LAST WORK.

King Stork and King Log: A Study of Mo dern Russia. By Stepniak. London: Downey & Co.; New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1895.

WHATEVER else can be said about the late Stepniak's writings, it can never be asserted that they are not interesting as to matter and trenchant as to style. The very title of the book before us furnishes a proof, though some readers may question the propriety of calling the late Alexander III. "King Stork," and feel startled at the temerity which can decree to Nicholas II., after a reign of less than a year, the epithet of "King Log." If it is regarded as a valid excuse, in the case of Lord Salisbury, that a new Government inevitably inherits the policy and political debts of its predecessor, and must be allowed time to initiate gradual changes, it certainly is not unreasonable to claim some small measure of the same excuse for the corresponding autocrat in Russia. In fact, our author says in one place: "Alexander III. was not the

formance must be prohibited on the ground of its "immorality," and the imperial performance was stopped. When Xenia Alexandrovna mentioned the matter at a family party, at which some of the ministers were present, expressing her surprise, the Czar turned to his ministers and merely exclaimed, with a meek astonishment one does not associate with the idea of an all-powerful despot: "Yes, imagine! the play has been prohibited!" The date of this extraordinary tale is not given, but, as Xenia Alexandrovna was only fourteen years old when Count Dmitry Tolstoy died, in April, 1889, its apocryphal character is plain enough; an American girl would not be allowed to read that play at that age, much less a Russian girl. Thereafter the reader involuntarily questions the accuracy of every emphatic utterance, and all the utterances are emphatic. The anecdote is enlightening in another direction also, namely, as to the author's babit of using all arguments, no matter how contradictory, to assail the object of his dislike. He has already said of Alexander III.: "He had not the masterfulness of his grandfather, Nicholas I., a typical despot, and, unlike his father, he had a great respect for the laws passed by himself. His reign was the most lawless we have had since, perhaps, the time of the adventurers of the eighteenth cen

tury"; and then he criticises him for submitting to the law like an orderly person and for an example. The interpretation given to the anecdote about the thanksgiving mass at the Kazan cathedral offers another instance of seeing things in diametrically opposite ways, according as one has a point to prove or is merely a disinterested spectator.

Nevertheless, with all our involuntary doubts, it is of the highest interest to have these clear statements as to important events and measures, as viewed by the revolutionary party. Some of them are, it is true, utterly irreconcilable with everything which has been authoritatively stated hitherto-such as the nature of the document which Alexander II. was on the point of promulgating when he was assassinated. In this connection, it is rather surprising that Stepniak, while mentioning the Princess Dolgoruky. Yurievsky's pamphlet, does not also refer to the answering pamphlet which was written by one of the Court dames, and which might have furnished him with some telling points against the Princess, who misrepresented, as he thinks, his friends and the circumstances. His elucidation of the Slavophile doctrines is very good, and his exposition of the workings of the new District Commanders is extremely useful, and the most complete that is accessible. But why did he not do justice to the Government by stating the reason for the change contained in the appointment of these District Commanders? While no landed proprietor, in anticipation or in practice, approves, unreservedly, of that reform, it is certain that not one proprietor could be found who would not frankly admit that some radical change was necessary, owing to the peasants' abuse of electoral rights. Abuses of the same sort occur even in advanced republics, and it is not always easy to decide upon the best remedy for them under the most favorable circumstances-which is not the proper description for the Russian circumstances, it must be confessed.

"The establishment of the District Commanders is one of the sorest grievances of rural Russia. The emancipation of the serfs was not a great success. Even the partisans of the Government admit that now. It did not improve the material condition of the masses. But the former serfs became citizens; they recovered their personal independence and immunity from interference in their private affairs."

Americans who are conversant with the negro problem at the South will find no difficulty in understanding this.

More difficult to reconcile are such statements as those on pages 119, 120, in regard to the recent great famine, and the Government's efforts to keep it secret. "The editors of the papers received stringent orders not to publish, under the fear of suppression and other administrative penalties, any news about the famine likely to 'disturb the public mind.'" Yet it is asserted that Count L. N. Tolstoy's letter calling upon the Government to state plainly whether or not there was sufficient corn in the country to keep the Russian people until the next harvest, and to provide it, in case there was not, was not only printed but "quoted and endorsed by the whole press," and "Vyshnegradsky found it necessary to give it a reply."

Among the topics with which Stepniak deals is that of the Jews. "The classes which are at the head of the Russian anti-Jewish movement have long ago outlived the period of religious fanaticism," he says.

"With them the hostility towards the Jews is purely racial. With the masses, also, the

racial antipathy is also a much stronger ingredient in the anti-Jewish feeling than religion. Thus we may fairly describe the anti Jewish movement as racial. .. Everywhere the Jews almost monopolize the most lucrative calling in the community-that of middlemen. They come to constitute a class apart as well as a race apart, and racial hostility comes to embitter the struggle between the classes. ... In the Pale of Settlement the Jews, although forming but one-seventh of the population, have concentrated in their hands onehalf of the wholesale trade of the region, and have almost monopolized the retail trade."

This is the explanation of a friendly writer, it is to be noted. Very curious is the explanation of the anti-Jewish riots. A year before these occurred, the Emperor issued a manifesto denouncing the Nihilists, and calling upon all his faithful subjects to assist the police in exterminating them. The official name for Nihilists is kramolniki, which means, in Russian, rebels, state criminals. But in the south of Russia the peddlers and retail traders, who are all Jews, are popularly called kramorniki, The illiterate peasants, not unnaturally, got the two words mixed, and believed that the Jews were at the bottom of the trouble. Notwithstanding this, they behaved in a friendly manner, as Stepniak relates, to Jews who had been friendly to them.

Naturally, Stepniak has a good deal to say with regard to the political exiles in Siberia, and his narratives are of the most thrilling sort. But he is not quite just, in many instances; men whose sentences were pronounced in 1874-6 can hardly be regarded as, primarily, oppressed by Alexander III., whose reign dated only from 1881. At one point, also, he speaks of an exile having died at Berezoff, and, immediately afterwards, remarks: "But under Alexander III. it [leniency] was entirely thrown aside, and the practice of exiling people to places utterly unfit for human habitation was introduced on a large scale." Berezoff is included in that category, as recently introduced, whereas it was used as a place of exile in the middle of the last century-for Prince Mentchikoff and for Ostermann, among others. Stepniak's disregard of his country's history does not, of course, mitigate the horrors of Berezoff, but it increases the uninitiated reader's indignation against Alexander III. Another very confusing result of carelessness in writing and proof-reading arises from the different dates assigned to various events: for example, the Emperor Nicholas II.'s wedding manifesto is set down as having been issued on January 26, instead of on November 26, thereby ruining the argument of comparison be. tween it and another manifesto. Again, on p. 170, it is said: "Politically, the speech of December 20 [1894] marks an epoch in the history of our opposition movement." On p. 200 this speech is referred to as having been made on January 20 (1895). We must also allude to the errors which arise from Stepniak's imperfect mastery of the English past tenses of the verbs. Astonishing as was his knowledge of our language, he unwittingly leads the ordinary reader astray by inaccurate use of those tenses.

Among the other topics of vital moment which are bere treated are: the situation in Finland and Poland; the character of the Russian peasants, to whom Stepniak pays the high tribute which is their just due, but which they rarely receive from foreign writers; Nihilism, of which he gives the first and best summary, in its strikingly varied phases, from its inception to the present day; and the revolutionary view of Nicholas II., and his brief reign to date. As to the spirit of the latter, it can only be said

that the judgment must, of necessity, be superficial and hasty; that it is not softened by even so much as the suggestion that a vast empire cannot be switched to another track in the course of a few months; and that, while the author hotly champions the cause of the peasants, he blames the Emperor for paying too much heed to them as well as for oppressing them. "Relentless, implacable hostility toward the whole of enlightened, educated Russia, and patriarchal benevolence toward the peasants, such is the policy of the new Czar," he says, just as he has violently attacked Alexander III. for being "the Peasant Czar" and upholding the peasants by entirely different methods. In short, it is unjust irrevocably to condemn Nicholas II. as "King Log" for inaction, and Alexander III. as "King Stork," the devourer of his people, when it is plain that no consistent canon of conduct exists even in the mind of the implacable judge who seeks thus to sentence them to eternal opprobrium.

We return, last of all, to our former assertions, that the two volumes are interesting and entbralling to the highest degree, but that we dare not accept them as finally authoritative, either as to concrete statements or as to the general impression produced, after the speci. mens of inaccuracy which we have selected for illustration.

Chess Sparks.
Green & Co.
Chess Novelties. By H. E. Bird.
Warne & Co. 1895.

By J. H. Ellis. Longmans, 1895.

this year he has constantly taken part in tournaments and matches, and, while never in the very first rank of players, he has met with enough success to entitle him to a hearing on behalf of his particular theories. At the outset he disavows any claim to absolute originality in his chess ideas, but he has always been known as a believer in certain irregular openings-particularly P to K B4-and his book is a somewhat rambling but decidedly entertaining plea for such openings, and in general for brilliant as opposed to "drawing-master's" chess. He points out that whereas, in the great match between Labourdonnais and McDonnell in 1833, no less than sixteen different openings were tried, the modern masters rarely venture beyond the Ruy Lopez or the queen's gambit. This lack of variety he attributes to the high stakes now played for, which give an undue importance to the mere fact of winning, with a resulting unwillingness on the part of the players to risk any but the safest and most deeply analyzed openings.

It is certainly curious that so little that is novel has been attempted in the openings during the last fifty years. In the 'Modern Chess Instructor,' published by Steinitz in 1889, the only two original suggestions, viz: P to Q 3 in the Ruy Lopez, and Kt to K R 3 in the Two Knights Defence, have not stood the test of practice, and have been abandoned by their author. On the other hand, it seems very doubtful whether Mr. Bird's elaborate arguments in favor of his special openings will carry conviction to the minds of other players. Frederic Writing before the recent meteoric appearance of young Pillsbury, Mr. Bird evidently regarded himself as almost the sole survivor of the school of Anderssen and Morphy, who aimed to mate or win, while the other players of the day had become imbued with the theories of Steinitz, who aims to avoid losing and to be certain of a draw. But, since this book was printed, a second Morphy has astonished the chess world, and the St. Petersburg tournament just over proved that some of Mr. Bird's theories will probably require revision. None of the four masters engaged in that tournament will be found to have offered a P to K B 4 opening.

In a letter about chess written some years ago, John Ruskin remarked: "I may tell you one thing much in my mind-the possibility of assigning value to games, primarily by the fewness of moves, secondly by the fewness of cap. tures. Exchange games, where, after a hundred and fifty moves, the victor wins by an odd pawn, may contain calculations enough for next year's almanac, but they are quite out of my horizon of chess." Impelled, no doubt, by similar views, Mr. Ellis has made a most fascinating collection of games in which a winning position was attained in twenty moves or less. Many of these games were played by celebrated masters, and are more or less wellknown specimens of brilliancy, while others are perhaps more remarkable for brevity than scientific skill. Among the examples of eighteenth-century play is a delightful giuoco piano of sixteen moves, won by Jean Jacques Rous seau in 1760 from the Prince de Conti, another proof-if proof were needed-of the versatility of that remarkable intellect. Abundant diagrams make it easy for the reader to follow the more complicated games, and Mr. Ellis has further supplied him with an index of players, a table of solutions, and a chronicle giving the results of all the important chess matches and tournaments from 1824 to 1894. Typographical errors, of the kind so common in chess books, are pleasantly lacking.

This particular merit is not shared by Mr. Bird's book, which contains plenty of instances of K instead of Kt, and even K to Q3 instead of Kt to Q B3. Other merits, however, it certainly possesses. In the first place, the veteran author is an interesting personage in the chess world. As long ago as 1847 he was playing matches with that admirable performer Buckle, the historian. In 1851 he played on even terms with the great Anderssen, and in 1858 he made a very fair showing against the invincible Paul Morphy. From that time up to the Hastings tournament of

Two Years on the Alabama. By Arthur Sinclair. Boston: Lee & Shepard. 1895. THIS book has a right to exist. Written by one of the line officers of the Alabama after a service coincident with the cruise of the vessel, it has certain advantages over Semmes's narrative in consequence of the subsidence of war passions and the settlement with England of the Alabama question. Semmes's narrative was in a turgid and inflated style, and bitter in partisanship and denunciation of the North. Sinclair, it is true, professes only to give a personal narrative of the cruise, but this practically includes all that is of general or professional interest, while in narration of facts he writes more pleasantly as well as more correctly than Semmes. He has taken considerable trouble to verify his statements, and he has also profited by data and criticisms that were probably unknown to Semmes.

After all that can be said as to the great vexation and pecuniary loss brought about during the civil war by the cruise of the Ala. bama, the fact remains, and stands out in clear light, that her career had no vital effect upon the course of the war. Semmes saw this, and laments it in his book, while Sinclair in turn remarks that, parallel with the success of the Alabama in her latter days, was the steady

failure of the war against the Union and the approaching downfall of the Southern Confederacy. Too much prominence cannot be given to the policy of Secretary Welles, steadily persisted in and so well justified by results, not to weaken the pressure of the blockade on the Southern States by a large diversion of force against the Confederate cruisers. The maintenance of this great naval operation was a vital element in the subjugation of the Confederacy, by destroying its commerce and depriving an agricultural country of manufactured articles which included military supplies of all kinds, and also gradually closing to it the market for its staple article, cotton, upon the sale of which it relied for outside aid and assistance-financial, political, military, and naval. The commerce destroying of the Alabama was insignificant in its results compared to this commerce suppression; and the command of the sea always with the North, despite the raids of the Confederate cruisers, not only kept the blockade intact, but brought the pressure from the sea responsive to that by land which encircled the States in rebellion and caused the success of the Union cause.

Lieut. Sinclair brings out more forcibly than most writers the English character of the crew of his vessel. The sympathy of English officials and of colonial authorities is an old story, but it is interesting to note what is said on page 146:

"The English," he says, "the foster-fathers of the Alabama, are naturally proud of their creation, and they appear to be also in sympathy with us and our cause. Our crew are about one half English man-of-war's men, and have found among the sailors of the English squadron here many old shipmates, and doubtless they have already planned a glorious time together on shore the first liberty day."

The author's criticism of the neglect of our Navy Department to station a vessel at such salient points as the vicinity of Cape St. Roque, the Cape of Good Hope, Singapore, and similar positions, is well founded, and the neglect re flects upon the good judgment and wisdom of the naval advisers of Secretary Welles. Credit is given to Capt. C. H. Baldwin, commanding the Vanderbilt, for the best display of judgment in the pursuit of the Alabama. Humanly speaking, had it not been for the detention of the Vanderbilt by Admiral Wilkes, and (at a later time) for the enormous consumption of coal by the Vanderbilt, the captor of the Ala. bama would have been Baldwin instead of Winslow, and its fate met off the Cape of Good Hope or in the Indian Ocean rather than in the English Channel off Cherbourg. The greater part of the cruising and most of the captures of the Alabama were made under sail. Excellent sailing vessel that she was, her powers of keeping the sea far exceeded those possessed by the cruiser of to day-the so-called commerce - destroyer - whose sail power has disappeared, and whose coal consumption, reduced by modern improvements, is newly taxed by the daily domestic demands for distilling, heating, electric lighting, and auxiliary engines. We prophesy that the next great war will witness the commerce-destroyer principally occupied with the duty of scout and convoy, commerce itself being duly convoyed or carried by vessels having swift pairs of heels. Agreeing with Bullock, the author pays a high tribute to the special qualifications of Semmes for the work upon which his fame rests. One of these special qualifications was his knowledge of international law, which stood him in good stead in the many controversies he was engaged in during his cruise. It is probable, as the writer states, that Semmes,

having made an especial study of this branch of naval training, had no equal in eitber navy. As a requisite for a well educated naval officer it has not lost its importance in these later times, either in time of war or in the more extended period of peace.

The account of the final engagement of the Alabama is excellent. It is the best that we know of and is without hyperbole or exaggeration.

The intention of Semmes to board the Kearsarge is dwelt upon, and the advantage that the superior speed of the Kearsarge gave in the avoidance of this purpose is well brought out. The failure to board, and the damaged condition of the Alabama's powder, the author seems to think were the principal causes of the defeat. The statement of the master of the Deerhound, the yacht which picked up Semmes, was, however, that "it was a fair stand-up fight. The two vessels were constructed of the same materials, and the chances at first seemed to be even enough." As to the use of the anchor chain of the Kearsarge for protection amidship, the author frankly acknowledges that Semmes knew of this use of the chain cable of the Kearsarge, and also that he could have adopted the same scheme from his own resources had he so desired. But the protection thus afforded was insignificant, as a perusal of Winslow's reports and the appendices giving the hits made and their localities will show. In regard to the mistake made by Semmes in consenting to an engagement, which in a large sense may be called a strategic mistake, the writer professes ignorance of its purpose. It was probably the mistake of a brave man stung by taunts as to want of courage to meet an equal. It is quite certain, too, as the author mentions, that a long detention for repairs at Cherbourg would have brought about that port a fleet of Union cruisers which would have prevented her safe departure.

The story of the cruise is as a whole well written, clear, and consecutive, excepting a pardonable repetition on page 114. This volume, with Bullock's account of the Alabama's origin and Semmes's account of her career, will probably constitute the definitive presentation of the remarkable cruise of the Alabama from the side of those who cruised in her.

Personal Reminiscences of Notable People. By Charles K. Tuckerman. 2 vols. Dodd, Mead & Co. 1895.

THESE two costly volumes purport to be only a réchauffé of what has already appeared in various magazines. They cover very different ground, the first dealing with the reminiscences of the author's earlier life, encountering various great men in America; the second founded on his diplomatic experience in the East, at Athens and Constantinople. It is hardly necessary to say that the latter series of anecdotes is much more novel and interesting than the former. The chapters which show the incurable procrastination and chicanery of the Turkish Government are well worth reading at the present day, when the great Powers of Europe and America, untaught by the experience of generations, are waiting for the Sultan to keep his engagements-in other words, for the Bosphorus to run dry. The rest of the book is gossipy, and of but little permanent value. A large number of stories, e. g., that of the Duke of Wellington (i. 271), are distinctly stale; others, as that of Butler (i. 89), pretty flat. But the whole book produces an uneasy feeling from the frequent insertion of anecdotes leaving a mean impression of the individuals to whom they relate,

with little or nothing to counteract it. Mr. Seward is almost the only person who, after passing under Mr. Tuckerman's eye, has not had some rip or tear in his moral garb exposed, or what is meant to appear such. Sometimes this effect is produced at the price of very inadequate knowledge. To say that Edward Everett "felt the leaden weight of disappointed ambition" (i. 33), that Abbott Lawrence (indicated as Mr. L―) acquired his manner by "studying his Talleyrand," is to convict Mr. Tuckerman of the most superficial knowledge of these eminent men.

These volumes, though generally written in good English, contain some disgraceful blunders-whether of author or printer is not always clear. "Blaine Washburne" appears (i. 84) as one person, between Thaddeus Stevens and Reverdy Johnson. Lord Ronald Gower becomes (i. 127) Lord Gower, by the eternal American blunder in similar titles. Two pages further on we have statu quo in the nominative for status quo. A well-known quotation has its point nearly spoilt by being given, "From grave to gay, from serious to severe" (i. 153). "Sonnambula" is twice printed "Somnambula" (i. 164, 190). "Maria Stuarda" becomes "Maria Stuarta" (i. 181). The famous answer," Qu'il mourût," which our author puts into the mouth of Rachel, as Cumille, belongs to the part of the old Horatius (i. 185). The French word embonpoint is wrongly used (i. 305), and Simon Pure (i. 319). Joaquín Miller is printed Joachim, as if it were a real name (ii. 13), "Petits Lundis" loses an s (ii. 105), "Le Japon" becomes "La Japan” (ii. 166), "Jeunesse dorée" loses its final e (ii. 245). The phrase genus homo is used as equivalent to the male sex (ii. 281). "Grande Rue" is altered to "Grand Rue" (ii. 341). When one has to pay five dollars for two small volumes, this is an extra allowance of mistakes.

Mars. By Percival Lowell. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1895.

MR. LOWELL'S book is charming in more ways than one. His facile pen would make easy reading of the driest subject; and when it deals with a theme so fascinating as that of the conditions of life on another planet, hardhearted indeed must be the critic who does not find himself ready to embrace conclusions which he would have contemptuously rejected if reached by a rougher path. The author's enthusiasm for his subject is shown even more strongly by the enterprise on which the book is based than by what the latter sets forth. It is no commonplace spectacle, that of a man of not very easy leisure, perhaps in a situation where the ordinary mortal would have been completely engrossed in business, abandoning his home for nearly a year, and fitting up at no little expense an establishment in the deserts of Arizona, for the sole purpose of seeing from the best point of view what is going on in Mars. We feel that such an enterprise deserves some good result, and some more cheering word than that of the astronomer who remarked that Mr. Lowell had been very successful in discovering what he had announced his intention of finding before he set out.

From our guide over the oceans and continents of Mars we learn that our neighboring planet really has an atmosphere, though serious conflict with Prof. Campbell's opposite view is avoided by that atmosphere's being rarer than ours is at the tops of the Himalayas. Clouds rarely obscure the sunny skies, yet there is enough of watery vapor to condense into a snow-cap around either pole during its winter.

As spring advances, the cap slowly begins to melt away and form an ocean of blue water around its contracting boundary. Water is very scarce on the planet, and is growing scarcer from age to age, owing to its absorption into the body of the planet. The inhabi tants have utilized the diminishing supply by an elaborate system of irrigation. Canals are dug which annually convey the water melting at either pole to the equatorial regions. A broad belt, thus watered into fertility, skirts each canal, and these belts, distinguished, by their vegetation, from the arid plains which form all the rest of the planet's surface, are seen from the earth as a network of fine lines. The author cannot be charged with ignoring any obvious objections to his views. The latter are sustained by a wealth of illustration and a completeness of argument which leave nothing to be desired except credibility of foundation and conclusion. We do not object; we only feel that we know so little of the possible conditions on the surface of Mars that the chances are scores to one against any theory we can now frame being a true one. While commending Mr. Lowell's production to the general reader, we cannot deny that astronomers would every where have felt more confi. dence in his observations if he had been satified to confine himself to describing and picturing what he saw, without attempting to frame any theory, even in the innermost recesses of his mind. Without this precaution the most careful observer is liable to become a dupe of the "expectant attention" of the psychologists, and to see things in accord with his preconceived notions rather than with the facts. Especially is this the case in tracing markings so faint and shadowy as those on the surface of our neighboring planet.

other extreme, he attempts to delineate indi vidual character on too extensive a scale, his work will be little better than a voluminous compilation of biographies. The history of a city-especially of a relatively young citypresents a more circumscribed field; but if the first danger is minimized, to avoid the last is still more difficult; the founders, the actors in the development of the city are so near to us that the story of their deeds, transmitted by word of mouth from one generation to another, has all the charm or force of actuality. Tradition has not had time to become legendary. Corroborative evidence is not lacking. Hence, the temptation to write of individuals rather than of events must be great.

Miss Grace King bas avoided both dangers in her new work on New Orleans. The accuracy of the historical part of the book is unimpeachable, and the documentary proofs testify to the industrious researches of the author. But the facts are presented in Miss King's usual graceful style, and there is nothing dry about them. Nor does the history proper form, as it were, a separate chapter, a narrative, soon ended, to introduce biographical compilations as is the case with some other books on New Orleans. Here, from beginning to end, from the first exploration of the Mississippi to the present day, we see a succession of panoramic views, of tableaux vivants, in which the dramatis persona-be they LaSalle, Iberville, John Law, the Regent, Louis XV., O'Reilly, Villeré, Napoleon, Jackson, Lafitte the pirate, or Ben Butler, be they far or near -appear in a life like delineation. It is history acted, not told. And while the eventful growth, the rise and fall of the old French city and its new life, are thus faithfully portrayed, the place itself, with its fading land. marks, its gayeties and days of mourning, its local celebrities and quaint characters, its he

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ness of touch, a pathos and humor, which keeps the interest awake. The reader is loath to lay aside this handsome volume, profusely illus. trated, with rare fidelity, by Frances E. Jones. The Creoles are noted for their enthusiastic attachment for their city, and Miss King, herself a native, may be charged with partiality by those who do not know New Orleans; but to those who do, her book bears the stamp of truthfulness as well as of a generous enthusi

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asm. It will please the general reader also by the piquant show of manners, and customs with which it abounds. Admirers of General Butler and of the carpet-bag régime, however, had better skip chapter xiii.-the only one which treats of "our late unpleasantness."

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