NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETYThe first of the autumn meetings was held October 7. The Librarian reported a long list of additions to the Library since the last meeting, and the thanks of the Society were voted to Mr. Lewis M. Rutherfurd and Mr. A. V. W. Van Vechten for valuable donations. The Librarian also reported an addition to the department of Art of a handsome and faithful bust of the late Louis Durr, founder of the Durr Gallery of Paintings, in the Society's possession.

The paper of the evening, which was listened to with great interest, was read by Rev. John H. Heywood, of Cambridge, Massachusetts. The lecturer graphically presented the salient incidents of the varied and romantic career of the pioneers, together with many other interesting facts connected with. the early history of Kentucky, and in a keen, philosophical analysis, derived from the sturdy woodsman's deeds, from his physical and mental gifts, his early associations and training, and from the notable spirit of enterprise which was cherished in Devonshire, the home of his ancestors, his belief in his heroic mission, and his eminent fitness for it, as the standard-bearer of Anglo-Saxon civilization in its march to the great West. Resolutions on the death of the late Royal Phelps, of the Executive Committee, were reported by that committee and adopted by the Society, and a memoir of Charles Fenno Hoffman was presented for the records.

MARYLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY

the summer vacation was held on Monday evening, October 13. During the four months since the last meeting, the Committee on Publication has issued, in the beautiful style characteristic of all its publications, two papers possessing a special local interest, but which are a genuine contribution to the colonial history of the country. These are entitled, "Captain Richard Ingle, the Maryland Pirate and Rebel,'" a pamphlet of fiftythree pages, and "Sir George Calvert, Baron of Baltimore," a pamphlet of one hundred and seventy-two pages. evince careful research among original papers, in the true historic spirit-and throw light upon several disputed questions touching the early affairs of the province of Maryland.

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Both

The Committee having supervision of the publication of the Archives of the State, reported that the second volume had passed through the press, uniform in style with the first volume, which met with such favorable reception and high commendation, and would be given to the public within the next few days. It makes a handsome quarto volume of 600 pages, and gives the acts and proceedings of the provincial government from April 1666 to June 1676-possessing all the excellencies that characterized the first volume of the Archives.

WYOMING HISTORICAL AND GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY held its regular quarterly meeting at its rooms in Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, September 11, 1884, Hon. E. L. Dana, LL.D., in the chair. Col. Wm. L. Stone, the historian, was elected

Reynolds, the Treasurer, read a very interesting paper on Rev. Barnard Page, the first Church of England minister who officiated in Wyoming Valley, presenting much heretofore unpublished matter, with several original letters from Rev. Mr. Page.

Rev. Horace Edwin Hayden also read a paper, entitled, "A brief account of various silver and copper medals presented to the American Indians by the sovereigns of England, France and Spain, 1600-1800, and especially of four Indian peace medals of George I. of Great Britain, now in the possession of the Society and its members." These four medals were displayed.

land almanacs, their early use, and the almanacs published in New England outside of Rhode Island. The paper touched upon the number of books of this character in the possession of the Society, and also stated the number of volumes necessary to complete the different sets.

After a few words on the importance and benefit of the study of history, and the progress now being made, the meeting adjourned.

lication committee.

RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY -The quarterly meeting was held on Tuesday evening, October 7, the President, Prof. Wm. Gammell, in the chair. Among other interesting features of the meeting was the reading of a letter from Charles H. Dennison, upon the importance of preserving early local records. The secretary reported additions to the library since the last meeting of ninetyfive bound volumes, and seven hundred and eighty-eight pamphlets.

The President read a communication from the Buffalo Historical Society, inviting representatives of the Rhode Island Society to attend the ceremonies at the interment of the Indian orator and statesman, Red Jacket, and other distinguished chiefs of the six nations, at Forest Lawn Cemetery on Thursday, October 9.

The Secretary, Mr. Amos Perry, then read an interesting paper on New Eng

President, in the chair. Resolutions of respect were reported by Hon. Nathaniel F. Safford, to the memory of two deceased members, Hon. William A. Whitehead of Newark, and Hon. Stephen Salisbury of Worcester, which, after appreciative remarks by Rev. Dr. Lucius R. Paige, Rev. Edmund F. Slater, and Col. Albert H. Hoyt, were unanimously adopted. A large number of valuable donations to the Society since its last meeting were reported.

Hon. Horatio King, of Washington, D. C., read an interesting paper, the result of careful research, on the battle of Bladensburg, and capture of Washington, August 24, 1814.

President Wilder stated that Rev. Samuel F. Smith, D.D., author of the patriotic hymn "America," was present, and called upon him to address the meeting. Dr. Smith responded in a felicitous manner, and praised the work of the Society in collecting the materials of American history.

TIMORE.

SIR GEORGE CALVERT, BARON OF BALA paper read before the Maryland Historical Society, April 14, 1884. By LEWIS W. WILHELM, A. B., Fellow in History, Johns Hopkins University. 8vo, pp. 172, pamphlet, 1884, Baltimore. Maryland Historical Society Fund publication.

Sir George Calvert, the Privy Counselor and Minister of State to King James, the colonist of Avalon, where he spent £30,000, and the true founder of the Commonwealth of Maryland, is a strong and important character in the life of his time. Mr. Wilhelm has given us a piece of work carefully wrought out, well arranged, and finely expressed. The style possesses the great merit of clearness, and shows the grasp of a mature and well trained mind. The volume necessarily deals with English and Continental politics, and the dangers of irrelevant detail and lack of proportion must have been great; but the author has kept steadily in view his object, to study Calvert's influence on the economic and institutional development of the people of the American Colonies.' It is perhaps in reference to the Colony of Avalon that Mr. Wilhelm's original investigations have borne the most fruit, and his access to the manuscripts and records of the society under whose auspices his work appears, has enabled him to give his monograph a permanent value. If the time has come for an authoritative history of all the Calverts and their part in American life, Mr. Wilhelm is evidently well equipped for the undertaking, and we hope he will next study the career of Cecilion Calvert, lord proprietor of Maryland for nearly fifty years. The only fault we can find with this publication, and it is a very serious one, is that through some strange neglect, there is no index whatever. Five pages of wellarranged cross-index would double the value of Mr. Wilhelm's painstaking work for every student and library in the land. Pamphlet publications do not always need indexes; in fact often have little to index at all, but this life of the first Lord Baltimore certainly does need a good index.

CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY, OR MEN OF BUSINESS WHO DID SOMETHING BESIDES MAKING MONEY. A book for young Americans. By JAMES PARTON, 16m0, pp. 399. Boston, 1884. Houghton, Mifflin & Co.

A more apropriate title has rarely if ever been chosen for a delightful book. Mr. Parton presents in these pages examples of men who shed luster upon ordinary pursuits, either by the superior manner in which they conducted them or

by the noble use they made of the leisure which success in them usually gives. It is a volume ripe with suggestion for the young mind. "I can tell you, boys," says Mr. Parton, "that a great number of the most important and famous business men of the United States struck down roots where they were first planted, and where no one supposed there was room or chance for any large thing to grow." From David Maydole, who made the best hammer in use, to the inventor of the steam engine, we have in this work not less than forty-five industrial characters sketched by the skilled hand of an author entirely at home with his subjects, and in full sympathy with eager and appreciative boy readers. Not all mechanics were these captains of industry. James Gordon Bennett, who achieved the largest income ever recorded from journalism in the United States, founded the New York Herald in a veritable cellar-the furniture of which was as follows: "one wooden chair, two empty flour barrels with a wide dirty pine board laid upon them, to serve as desk and table. End of the inventory.' The two barrels stood about four feet apart, and one end of the board was pretty close to the steps, so that passers by could see the pile of "Heralds" placed upon it every morning for sale. Scissors, pens, inkstand, and pencil were at the other end, leaving space in the middle for an editorial desk. Bennett was probably no more persistent in his line of effort, than were Myron Holley, John Bright, Peter Cooper, Horace Greeley, Robert Owen, and a score of others, in theirs. We wonder how many of the present generation of boys could tell us (without referring to any printed book) what the men above named really have done of importance to the world in the great realm of business? These sketches represent no insignificant amount of labor and research, and in their present readable form will have an influence for good not easily estimated. We commend the book to every household in the country. There is no better book to place before the rising generation, and its charm will not decrease as the years roll on.

THE LETTERS AND TIMES OF THE TYLERS. By LYON G. TYLER. In two volumes. Vol. 1, 8vo, pp. 633. Richmond, Virginia, 1884. Whittet & Shepperson.

This elegantly printed volume gives evidence of the most conscientious care, and exceptional skill and taste in its preparation, and while its title might lead to the conclusion that it is a mere family record, the reader need only glance through its table of contents to become aware that it presents a panorama of American History, from the Revolution to the beginning of the

Civil War in 1861. It is ably written, clear, concise, and readable, and the author is to be congratulated on the success he has achieved in bringing such a mass of valuable information within reach of the intelligent public in a form so attractive. The space given to the genealogy of the Tyler family is small. Judge John Tyler, the father of President Tyler, was in close association with all the great public characters of his time in Virginia. During the period of his governorship the continent of Europe was convulsed with the throes of Napoleon's gigantic wars, and America was in a condition of indescribable turmoil. The picture of Virginia affairs (taking in also those of the whole country) is admirably painted. And the book is brightened with a variety of captivating side-lights, turned upon the dinner table, after dinner speeches, the personal characteristics of many great men, together with illustrative anecdotes. The administration of President Tyler is reviewed with discrimination, although from a son's standpoint; and the Missouri compromise, the compromise of 1833, and the issues in the canvass of 1840 receive an interesting exposition. It is a work that all libraries, whether public or private, should possess.

A HISTORY OF PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS. By EDWARD STANWOOD. 12mo, PP. 407. Boston, 1884: James R. Osgood

and Company.

This timely production issued by the enterprising Boston publishers, James R. Osgood and Company, is a collection of facts and incidents concerning the entire catalogue of Presidential elections in this country. It has been prepared with painstaking care, and while it professes to be little more than a hand-book of useful information, it contains documents of importance not easily accessible in any other form, and references to the chief events in American History of surpassing value to students and writers. It is a work destined for the study table, and is so well constructed that it will commend itself to all book buyers.

ALLAN DARE AND ROBERT LE DIABLE. A Romance. By ADMIRAL PORTER.

To be completed in Nine Fortnightly Parts. Parts I. and II. 1884: New York, D. Appleton & Co.

A romance of extraordinary length, with an extraordinary title, published in an unusual manner, and coming from a source never hitherto suspected of literary leanings, are facts in themselves sufficiently novel to attract attention and pique the curiosity of the world. And when the scope and nature of the romance come to be known the public interest is likely to be greatly

increased, for this book is almost an embodiment of everything that is picturesque, romantic, startling and mysterious in the domain of literature. One reads a little and he recalls some of the wonders of "Monte Christo," a little further and he recalls Sue's "Mysteries of Paris," and other books of the romantic school occur to him; not that Admiral Porter has imitated any of these books, but his story is planned on a similar scale, and is equally startling and romantic in the vicissitudes which his characters undergo.

The story opens eighty years ago, in Manchester, on the eastern shore of Massachusetts, where we are presented with a vivid picture of the place and the period, and a really grand portrait of an old retired sea captain. We do not recall a more striking figure in fiction than this of Captain Samson Goliah, nor anything more pathetic than his long search for his stolen grandchildren-two twin boys of seven years-and his death, heart-broken at their loss. There is in this portion of the book a description of a long race between two ships sailing from Canton on the same day, that is as vivid and dramatic as anything in Cooper's sea tales. Nothing in its way has been better done. There is a gap of twenty years, and the story reopens in Newport city, in 1820, where we encounter the heroes, Allan Dare and Robert le Diable, these being the two stolen boys, now developed into men of splendid physique and Herculean strength. The brothers are unknown to each other, but opposed in two lines of remarkable action-one of them being a detective and the other under suspicion of being at the head of a gang of robbers. In the second part we have told the history of one of the boys after his abduction, and certainly the lover of romance and strange adventure could not wish for anything more piquant and stirring. If the two parts so far published are a fair sample of the story, we shall have in the whole book an immense variety of intrigue, mystery and adventure, and see life in a vast variety of forms.

Admiral Porter is clearly a natural writer of romance. He believes in romance, and he does not stop half-way either for lack of invention or in doubt of the soundness of his theory. His incidents are sometimes extravagant, but the situations come naturally. His style lacks some of the minor graces of literary art, but it is very clear and correct, and fully serves his purpose. He has the art of telling a story, the art of portraying character, and supremely the art of being interesting, which in romance writing is an accomplishment that outweighs all others; and if the reader is not entertained by the wonderful doings of his people, he is at least sure of being amused by them.

A GENEALOGICAL MEMOIR OF THE LOLATHROP FAMILY IN THIS COUNTRY,

embracing the descendants, as far as known, of the Rev. John Lothropp, of Scituate and Barnstable, Mass., and Mark Lothrop, of Salem and Bridgewater, Mass., and the first generation of descendants of other names. By the Rev. E. B. HUNTINGTON, A. M. Svo, pp. 457. 1884: Mrs. Julia M. Huntington, Ridgefield, Conn.

This handsome and ample volume brings down the history of the Lathrops to our own time. The pioneer of the name in America, Rev. John Lothropp (according to his orthography), was a deserter from the Church of England, who took up his abode in Massachusetts, in 1634. He was an interesting character, and the worthy founder of a large and notable family. The list of eminent men in the several generations includes clergymen, educators, soldiers, publishers, artists, lawyers, doctors and missionaries, many of whom are of national fame. The celebrated John Lothrop Motley, historian and statesman, was one of the descendants. Mr. Huntington, the author of this admirable genealogical work, died before it went to press, and it devolved upon a member of the family, who modestly withholds his name, to assist under many difficulties in editing the manuscript for publication. The record is one in which all who bear the family name or possess the blood may justly take pride.

The book is printed from clear type on heavy laid paper, with broad margins and uncut edges. It is finely illustrated, containing sixteen steel portraits of prominent representatives of the family. Also a very realistic view of the Old Lowthorpe Church, in the East riding of Yorkshire (dating from the time of Edward III.), showing with minute accuracy the building as it now appears, with the restored nave buttressed by the quaint and ruinous medieval tower. is a publication that will prove a treasure to all genealogical investigators and scholars.

man.

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STEPHEN HOPKINS, a Rhode Island StatesA Study in Political History of the Eighteenth Century. By WILLIAM E. FOSTER. Two parts in one. 8vo, pp. 196 and 289. Providence: Sidney S. Rider, 1884. (Rhode Island Historical Tracts.)

The instructive and interesting career of Stephen Hopkins, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, a career identified with the whole political development of the century in which he lived, is admirably presented in the pages of this volume. He was born in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1706, and died full of years and honors in 1785. He left behind him at his death an invaluable collection

of papers and discussions, not merely in the form of correspondence, but in documents bearing upon such obscure historical subjects as the Stamp-Act discussions, the Albany Congress, and the various plans of uniting the Colonies, which men talked over long years before the Revolution. Chapter VI., entitled "The Statesmanship of the Albany Congress," can be profitably studied by all lovers of history. Hopkins returned to his home in Rhode Island, and with the most persistent industry and the aid of every agency of tongue, pen, type, and personal influence, during the next twenty years, worked for the development of a public sentiment which should sustain and heartily approve the measures to be undertaken. His public services culminated in the Act of Independence. The chapter which dwells upon that portion of his life in which he as a citizen of Providence was identified with every measure of public improvement, is most entertaining. Stephen Hopkins was never idle. "The careful study of such lives as his must always be an inspiring and elevating influence in the development of American citizenship."

FIFTY YEARS' OBSERVATIONS OF MEN AND EVENTS, Civil and Military. By E. D. KEYES, Brevet Brigadier-General, U. S. Army; late Major-General U. S. Volunteers, commanding the Fourth Corps. 12mo. pp. 515. 1884. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.

This work opens with a graphic description of General Winfield Scott, when he was president of the Board of Visitors at the West Point Military Academy in 1831. The reader is carried along with a pleasant-flowing current of words, and introduced to many of the great men of the five decades which the work covers. The author says, in relation to the three illustrious statesmen whose names were heard every day all over the Union for nearly a quarter of a century, that the order in which they were mentioned was in accord with the estimation in which they were held in the different sections; thus, in the East and North it was Webster, Clay, and Calhoun ; in the West it was Clay, Calhoun, and Webster; and in the South it was Calhoun, Clay, and Webster.' Anecdotes of Jackson, of General Brown, of Benton, and particularly of General Scott and his numerous associates, are interspersed freely, illuminating the pages of the volume and adding to its attractions. The author was the military secretary of General Scott, and consequently brought in contact with the actors in the exciting events of 1860 and 1861. "I find by my journal," he writes, "that I was in Washington with General Scott from May I to May 19, 1860, and that we lived at Wormley's, where we had our private table. In his company I attended a series of splendid din