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markets during the past century, and that in con sequence competition begets industrial rout similar to that in an inadequately organized army under unusual strain. Among the subjects with, which this book deals are Industrial Equilibrium — The Organization of Industry — The Connection Be tween Crises and the Accumulation and Use of Capital — The Influence of Recent Changes on the Remuneration of the Wage-earner. Another and hitherto little developed side of the subject is dealt with in the chapter on " The Psychology of Crises." An Outline of Political Growth in the Nineteenth Century, by Edmund H. Sears, A. M., Principal of Mary Institute, St. Louis, Missouri, has been written with a view to covering the entire political field and giving a succinct account of every nation which is, even supposedly, under popular government. It therefore attempts what has never been undertaken before. It shows with considerable detail the course of political events the world over for a hundred years : and at the same time its treatment is so far philosophical that it will help the reader to under stand whether or not democratic institutions are proving themselves a failure. An extensive biblio graphy is given at the end of the volume. Pub lished by The Macmillan Company. JACK LONDON isa name which has been appearing for some time with increasing frequency in period ical literature. It is that of a very young man who promises to take a prominent place among American writers of romance and adventure. His experience has been such as to eminently qualify him for suc cess in this field. At fifteen he began his career as a connoisseur of the romance of real life, knocking about the docks and waters of San Francisco Bay. At seventeen he went to sea before the mast. Out of his personal experience ashore he has vouched for the accuracy of Josiah Flynt's pictures of life "on the road." His Klondike experiences and observa tions furnished the material for The Son of the If'ol/, a book of short stories abounding in graphic de scription and virile narrative which will be brought out this month by Houghton, Mifflin & Co. The book reveals one of the author's strong beliefs : that the Anglo-Saxon is the salt of the earth and bound to be the master thereof, albeit the Slav may object thereto and seek to make his objection valid by force of arms. A Friend of Ccesar is the title of a historical nevel, by William Stearns Davis which The Macmillan Company have just issued. The story which is laid in Rome, begins when Julius C;esar is just rising into power, and ends with his great victory anil the

establishment of his empire. It is a novel of wide scope, vigorously written, and the author has at tempted to put the reader on an intimate footing with the people of the Rome of Cœsar's days. The plot is stirring, as a truthful portrayal of such times would hardly fail to make it; it shifts from a Roman country house to the capital and thence to Syria and THE first important book on the Anglo-Boer War from the standpoint of an Englishman strongly op posed to the policy of the English government has just been published by The Macmillan Company. It is called The War in South Africa; Its Causes and Effects, and is by J. A. Hobson who was recently the correspondent in South Africa for the Man chester Guardian. There are many Americans who are firmly convinced that this war is not only unne cessary but essentially unjust, but who have no reli able data with which to fortify their beliefs. Mr. Hobson's book is a sober, restrained account of the whole business by a trained observer. THE author of Knights in fustian, a story of •• Copperhead " plotting in Indiana during the war for the Union, is a young woman, native to the scenes of which she writes. Caroline Brown is one of the names frequently seen in the lists of contributors to periodical literature, but Knights in Fustian is her tfirst large essay in fiction. The book has an effect ive descriptive quality, a strong native insight into human nature, and a grasp of character unusual in a new writer. Humor is said to be lacking in the feminine literary equipment. Of Miss Brown, this is not true, for the humorous element is well in evi dence in Knights in Fustian; and in an episode in the love story, in which the hero seems to neglect his sweetheart, the humor of the situation is devel oped to the fullest extent. The volume is published by Houghton. Mifflin & Co. Notes on the Bacon-Shakespeare Question, by the Hon. Charles Allen, just published by Houghton, Mifflin & Co.. is a digest of the evidence, direct and indirect, bearing on the authorship of the plays and poems attributed to Shakespeare, from every available Shakespearean student, commentator, and editor, and a minute study of the legal terms used by Shakespeare and by contemporary writers. It is shown by the study of the terms that so learned a jurist as Bacon could not have written into plays and poems such poor legal knowledge as Shakespeare displays. As Judge Allen sums up. Shakespeare was a great dramatist but an ordinary, not to say very poor lawyer, while Bacon, great in the law, was, as shown by his own works, a great jurist but no poet.