the great plans for governing the world, is the love of small things that occupied Prince Albert, his regretful complaint, that on the day he and the Queen entertained the Emperor and Empress of France, it was only on going to bed that he found time to read Jane Eyre, and in a whole month he was so engrossed in business that he read only one book, and that a novel, Kingsley's Two Years' Ago; while in December, the next month, he read Trollope's Barchester Towers, Whately on the Mind, and The Memories of Prince Eugene, not very solid mental food. Yet he found time to watch The Times, and to sneer at it for its frank and outspoken tone about Albert the Good and the French Alliance. There are some curious and significant hints in the memoranda made at the time, as of Napoleon's statement that Cherbourg was intended to protect him against the world, and the fort that crowned its works to protect him against Cherbourg,—and Persigny's cynical frankness in speaking of his master's faults making him, his own ambassador, unhappy. The loyalty of the Queen is well shown in her interpretation of Napoleon's mystical phrase in conversation with Cavour, that there but three men in Europe, and they were two of them, he would not name the third; but Mr. Martin, inspired by the royal widow, suggests that Prince Albert must be he. Rather a poor return for the compliment, when the Prince writes to his German relatives, that he and the English Foreign Secretaries, Lord Clarendon and Lord Malmesbury, are busy keeping Napoleon straight and helping him out of scrapes. It is no wonder that he was a busy man, for he prepared for the Princess Royal, to help her fill her new place as Crown Princess of Prussia, an essay on the advantages of a Constitutional Government, and he certainly gave her sound advice when he told her that the great advantage of free masonry was that it obliged husbands to keep its secrets from their wives. He evidently thought himself much shrewder than Palmerston, and points out the blunder the latter had made in telling Napoleon what he ought to do for Italy and Austria after the peace of Villa Franca had put both countries in his power, how Lord John Russell, on the other hand, conciliated the Royal pair by writing to the Queen that the Cabinet quite concurred in her views on the Italian question, and while he did his best to prevent Parliament from disliking the constitutionally doubtful intervention of the Queen and her husband in government, he could not prevent their very great dislike for Parliament, as a body that stood in no awe of them and acted quite independently of their opinions.

Prince Albert found it easier to preside over the British Scientific Association, or to organize volunteers by a circular adopted by a Tory Minister, than to influence the House of Commons, or to lead the Whigs to adopt his views. He died, perhaps, too soon for the comfort and happiness of his wife, but the Prince of Wales

can hardly look back with much pleasure on the complete system of education prescribed for him by his father, which included, during his brief stay in Edinburgh, lectures by Playfair on Chemtry, with practical illustrations, by visits to the great factories; on Roman History, by Schmitz; lessons in Italian, German and French; exercise and drill with the 16th Hussars; and lessons in law and history. Even more characteristic of the thoroughly German training of the Prince Consort, is his constant reference to his old friend and guide, Baron Stockmar, of all questions great and small, public and private, political and personal, with an evident feeling that the man who had made him, could solve all his doubts. through life. The picture, drawn by the Queen's hand, is, on the whole, a pleasing one,-his life had, of course, some small griefs and anxieties, but it was cast in pleasant places, and he certainly strove conscientiously to discharge the duties of his position so as to do honor to the Queen for her choice of a husband. The fact that he resisted the temptations that surround all who are in the purple, and retained a fair share of manly independence of thought and art, in spite of courtiers, is his best title to popular respect and affection, but his name can hardly gain much glory from his memoirs.

HISTORY OF AMERICAN POLITICS. By Alexander Johnston, A. M. Pp. x, 274. 12 mo. New York: Henry Holt & Co.

THE NATURAL RESOURCES OF THE UNITED STATES. By J. Harris Patton. Pp. ix, 115. I 2mo. New York: D. Appleton & Co.

These two little books are intended to promote a popular acquaintance with our own country, and each of them supplies a real want in our literature.

Mr. Johnston's is one of a series of "Hand-books for Students and General Readers." It is just the thing for a young voter to read and to keep for consultation. It relates the events of our political history in a terse, accurate and thoroughly "objective' way. We have gone through it with some care, to see to which of our political parties the author belongs, and found ourselves unable to decide. We think he is a Republican, but it may be he is a Democrat; we suspect him of being what is called in America a Free Trader—as he says, we have no real Free Traders—but it may be that he is on the other side, as we hope he is, for he seems to be a sensible man.

In treating his difficult topic, he shows that the principle of strict construction or that of loose construction of the Constitution, has been throughout the principle of Party existence in America. Not that either party has always been faithful to the principle. On the contrary, they have often changed weapons and fought still.

But the recurrence to the original type in each has been constant, and on the whole it has been on this line that our parties have fought.

The political events of each Administration, the important debates and measures of Congress, and the forces which inclined the scale in Presidential nominations and elections, are briefly indicated, and the story is brought down to the inauguration of President Hayes. In the appendix are given the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution, Tables of the Presidential vote and some useful tables of Population. That of the Presidential vote is very clearly and happily arranged.

We take issue with Mr. Johnston in describing the Tariff of 1842, as "a tariff designed to afford revenue" merely, and as "the low tariff of 1842." It was one of the best and most protective laws ever passed. His description of that passed in 1846 is not full enough for those who do not understand allusions to the Horizontal Tariff," and "the Dallas Tariff." the Dallas Tariff." Nor can we agree that the responsibility of the defeat of Clay in 1844 rests with the Anti-Slavery Whigs and the Free Soilers. It rests with Clay himself, whose wretched tergiversation made it impossible for any Anti-Slavery man to support him.

Mr. Patton's little book is equally interesting in its view of our country from another side. Its chief fault is its unequal execution. The articles on coal, iron, gold and silver are reasonably full, but others are very meagre. For instance, in treating the marbles of the United States, hardly any are mentioned outside those of Vermont, the immense wealth of Tennessee being quite unnoticed. So, in treating of other building stones, the bluish-gray limestones which beautify St. Paul and other cities, are passed in silence, as is our own green serpentine. Nor is anything said of the deposits of good clay for brick-making, to which our own and some other localities owe so much. The book contains a great deal of useful information, but is very far from a complete account of the subject. DICKENS'S DICTIONARY OF LONDON. 1879. An unconventional Hand-book. New York, Macmillan & Co.

We cannot recommend this little book to readers whose eyesight is weak,—at least not for continuous reading. But it is, in its very brief compass, a store-house of information about the greatest of cities, such as is to be found nowhere else. Every side of London life, from the Court to the courts, is touched, and the information, instead of being of the cut and dried sort, usually furnished in such works, is fresh, to the point, and of interest even to those who never saw London. For such readers, a general map of the city, instead of the sectional maps distributed through the work, would be desirable.

But such books are always to be caught tripping at some point. If a reader should desire to know where to find our minister, he would naturally look under the head "America." There he would find a further reference to "United States," and, on following up the reference, would find there is no such article. Or, if interested in the Workingmen's College in Great Ormond street, where Tom Hughes now presides, he would look for it in vain under any head. So, again, we fail to find, in the charities, "The Society for Organizing Charitable Relief and Repressing Mendicity," although, under the head" Beggars," the reader is advised to join the "Society for the Suppression of Mendicity, . . . which has been established upward of sixty years." The description answers closely to that of the younger society, but the addresses differ, and the latter is only ten years old.

We are pleased to see in the article on Chess Clubs, among the frequenters of Lewis's rooms is mentioned "Pratt of Lincoln's Inn, the author of a book on chess that was described by Professor Allen, of Philadelphia, as a marvellous mixture of schoolmaster's English and Johnsonese.

THE STORY OF THE BIBLE, from Genesis to Revelation. Told in Simple Language for the Young. Tenth Thousand. Revised, enlarged and newly illustrated. Pp. 703. 8vo. Philadelphia: Charles Foster.

From the very invention of wood engraving, it was abundanly employed in illustration of the Scriptures. Even before the invention of printing, the block-book Biblia Pauperum, told the story of the Old and New Testament to the common people, and with the rise of the vernacular versions of the Bible, which began with Luther's, the art received a great impulse in this direction. Holbein, Dürer and Cranach, besides a host of lesser men, contributed to the work, and some of the old editions of Luther's Bible and of the Latin Vulgate are sought after with great eagerness, as masterpieces in this branch of art. In the 17th century, copper plates superseded wood engraving, and although Merian, Lyken and others accomplished great things in this branch, the change was, in general, mischievous. Instead of the vigor, the freedom, and lifelikeness of the older artist, there came in a cramped, painful and elaborate style, without artistic motive or power to please an unsophisticated eye. Still worse was the more modern and English practice of illustrating by steel engravings, chiefly of landscape,– a mode which has left us nothing worth remembering, except Finden's Bible Illustrations.

In our own times, the revival of sound taste has caused a recurrence to the older style of illustration, while the art of wood

engraving has been carried forward on purely modern lines. The Cotta's of Stuttgart have published a very beautiful edition of Luther's Bible, with engravings taken from the old masters of xylographic art, and there are at least two others of equal or greater merit in the German market. We have as yet no really well illustrated edition of the English Bible, and the attempts at such a work have been prepared by persons devoid of an adequate knowledge of the principles of this art and of its past achievements. The book before us is decidedly the best we have seen. The engravings are, for the greater part, well conceived and well executed, and they are such as to command at once the attention of children. No attention is wasted on needless details, and the central motive of the picture is kept well in view. We have tried it on actual children, with satisfactory results. As the publishers tell us nothing of the origin of these illustrations, we infer that they have taken them mostly from good German models, and a few from other quarters. Indeed there are clearly four sorts of wood engravings in the two hundred here given. First, a few are in the antique style of the fifteenth century, as for instance, that of the Feast of Tabernacles, on page 143. Secondly, the great majority are in the modern German style of adaptation from the older masters. Thirdly, a goodly number suggest the pages of the modern magazine, as for instance, "Nehemiah, the Cup-bearer," on page 481. Fourthly, some are in the style of the modern Sunday school book and paper, as for instance, "The Death of Sapphira," on page 636. The omission of the fourth, and perhaps of the third of these classes, would not deduct from the value of the book.

The text of the book has stood the test of repeated editions, at first without illustrations of any sort. It is simple, clear, connected, and suited to the capacity of children, without stooping to any puerility. But we are puzzled with some parts of the arrangement; e. g. why does the Book of Jonah come between Ruth and I. Samuel?

EPIPHANIES OF THE RISEN LORD. By Rev. George Dana Boardman. Pp. 289. 8vo. New York, D. Appleton & Co.

STUDIES IN THE MODEL PRAYER. By the same author. Pp. 201. Same publishers.

PARABLE OF THE SHREWD STEWARD. By the same author. Pp. 28. Philadelphia, The Chandler Printing House.

Dr. Boardman has long been known to Philadelphians as one of the most thoughtful and suggestive of our preachers. It is only recently, we believe, that he has begun to give to a wider circle the results of his studies and labors in preparation for the pulpit. The Christian ministry, in general, displays a great amount of reserve