Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 33.djvu/146

136 is the autobiography of a princess of the house of Zanzibar who became the wife of a German gentleman and made her home in Hamburg. The lady was a sister of the Sultans Madjid and Bargash; and her book is of interest as giving a representation of family life in Eastern courts. A darkly shadowed portrait is drawn of Sultan Bargash.

The collection of Mr. Beecher's Patriotic Addresses, published by Fords, Howard & Hulbert, contains the more important addresses and contributions to periodicals made by Mr. Beecher in America and England, from 1850 to 1865, on slavery, the civil war, and the development of civil liberty in the United States. The list begins with the article "Shall we compromise?" written in 1850, during the pending of Mr. Clay's "Omnibus Bill," when the issue on which the country was to divide politically was for the first time clearly defined and set forth, and closes with the eulogy on Grant. The intervening addresses—even though we may not agree with the editor in giving Mr. Beecher prominence after Lincoln and Grant, to the exclusion of others, in influencing the destinies of the country—are as essentially a part of the history of the times as any other single series of events. Mr. John R. Howard, the editor of the papers, who was a close personal friend of the author, introduces them with a well-balanced review of Mr. Beecher's remarkable personality and his influence on public affairs. Excellent portraits are given of Mr. Beecher in his mature manhood, at sixty-five, and a year before his death; and portraits, which ought to have been better ones, of the prominent men of the anti-slavery controversy.

The latest volume of Mr. Bancroft's History of the Pacific States (The History Company, San Francisco) is marked the ninth, and is the sixth and concluding volume of the History of Mexico. It gives the story from 1861 to 1887, with accounts of the invasion by the three powers and the setting up of Maximilian as emperor; the struggle of the Mexicans against the usurpation, ending in its final overthrow and the execution of Maximilian; and the presidencies of Juarez, Lerdo de Tejada, Gonzalez, and Porfirio Diaz. The general progress and present condition of the country are summed up in Chapters XIX to XXVI, under the heads of "Government, Finances, and Military"; "Mining, Manufactures, and Fisheries"; "Commerce and Railroads"; "Agricultural Resources;" "Ecclesiastical Affairs"; "Society"; and "Education, Science, Arts, and Literature." Of the condition of science in Mexico, we learn that the National Observatory, established in 1878, includes a meteorological and magnetic observatory, and maintains relations with the chief observatories of foreign nations and with many scientific associations. The Central Meteorological Observatory was established in 1877. A geological society was established in 1875. The Geographical and Statistical Society has contributed to the diffusion of knowledge on many subjects, particularly in connection with Mexico. "The conclusion arrived at, after a fair investigation of facts, is that many sons of Mexico have made great strides in the acquisition of science, and that a number of them have excelled in its several branches, and are doing their part well in the transmission to others of the knowledge they possess."

Except in the reduction of the pages to crown octavo size, The First Edition of Shakespeare, published by Funk & Wagnalls, is an exact photographic reproduction of the first folio edition of 1623. This edition is very rare, and of great value, principally because it is the only authority for the texts of "The Tempest," "Macbeth," "Twelfth Night," "Measure for Measure," "Coriolanus," "Julius Cæsar," "Timon of Athens," "Anthony and Cleopatra," "Cymbeline," "As You Like It," and "A Winter's Tale." It possesses an additional temporary value in view of Mr. Donnelly's Bacon-Shakespeare speculations, which are derived wholly from the peculiarities of this text. These peculiarities being given here in exact fac simile, those interested in the questions raised by Mr. Donnelly can by its aid make their own comparison of his deductions with his evidence.

The magazine entitled Woman (Woman Publishing Company, New York, $2.75 a year), whose first number was that for December, 1887, is largely literary in character, and devotes considerable space also to the religious, temperance, and political efforts of women. Household economy receives a moderate share of attention.