Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 39.djvu/144

134 The Mineral Waters of Henry, St. Clair, Johnson, and Benton Counties, by A. E. Woodward.

The sixteen-page monthly journal, formerly called The Naturalist, now comes as The Kansas City Scientist, and as the organ of the Kansas City Academy of Sciences, with R. B. Trouslot as chief editor. It is filled with original papers, which in the present number (January, 1891) relate to owls—those of Chester County, Pa., and those of eastern Iowa—geological observations in Colorado; the movements of animals; and other matters of personal observation. Price, $1 a year.

The first of a series of three volumes under the general title Epochs of American History, has been published (Longmans, $1.25). This volume deals with The Colonies: 1492 to 1750, and the author is Reuben G. Thwaites, Secretary of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. The editor of the series, Dr. A. B. Hart, of Harvard College, states that the purpose of these books is to "show the main causes for the foundation of the colonies, for the formation of the Union, and for the triumph of that Union over disintegrating tendencies. To make clear the development of ideas and institutions from epoch to epoch." Hence no attempt is made to include all the facts that would belong in a complete record. To aid readers who may wish to go into the details of narrative and social history, each chapter throughout the series is to be provided with a bibliography. Historical geography will receive especial attention. The present volume contains four maps, one showing the physical features of the United States, the other three showing how the country was divided among England, France, Spain, etc., at different periods. The author of the first volume, in mentioning some of the topics he has treated, says: "The social and economic condition of the people is described, and attention is paid to the political characteristics of the several colonies, both in the conduct of their local affairs and in their relations with each other and the mother-country... . Attention is called to the fact, generally overlooked, that the thirteen mainland colonies which revolted in 1776 were not all of the English colonial establishments in America; a chapter is devoted to a description of the several outlying sister colonies, showing wherein they differed from the thirteen, and why they did not join in the revolt." The matter of the volume is conveniently arranged, and is fully indexed.

Recognizing the interest which students of American history and politics must take in the study of federal government as being in effect a study of the principles underlying their own institutions, Prof. Albert Bushnell Hart has prepared for the series of Harvard Historical Monographs (Ginn & Co.) an Introduction to the Study of Federal Government. The development of the federal system is noticed as having been one of the most striking political tendencies of the last century, and has been exemplified on a considerable scale in Switzerland, Germany, England and Us colonies and dependencies, Canada, the South American states, and, pre-eminently, the United States. The present monograph gives, in its first part, an outline of the political history of the several confederations, beginning with the ancient Grecian and Italian leagues and closing with those of Latin America; and in the second part a parallel view of the four leading federal constitutions now in operation, in which each constitution is made to serve as a practical commentary on the others. In a chapter on The Theory of Federal Government, the doctrine of sovereignty is defined, certain new federal combinations of states are described, the nature of fed eral government is analyzed, federal governments are classified, and their political conditions are considered.

The French Invasion of Ireland in '98, an episode of the French Revolution that has heretofore received little attention, has been made the subject of a volume by Valerian Gribayédoff (C. P. Somerby, New York, $1.50). The story is told in a popular way, and is attractively illustrated. The pictures include battle-scenes and portraits, most of the latter being drawn by the author. The record is substantiated by frequent reference to contemporary accounts, and the appendix contains several letters bearing on the events of the campaign.

Political Americanisms (Longmans) is a convenient and useful glossary of terms and phrases current at different periods in American politics, by Charles Ledyard Norton.