at Lincolnton while court was sitting there, on the ground that it would lead to the mobbing of the hotel.-Captains Porter and Willis, of the Freedmen's Bureau, and the Sheriff of Little River County, Arkansas, were killed on the 27th Oct. by the Ku-Klux.

-The campaign in the Northern States has been conducted with less violence, but not without loss of life. At Pittsburgh, Pa., on October 7, a Republican torchlight procession was attacked, about fifty shots fired, and several persons, including the Mayor, were severely injured. Bloody riots occurred in Indiana. Eleven persons were shot on election day, October 13th, in Philadelphia, three of whom, Policeman John Young and the brothers Byrnes, of whom one was a deputy sheriff, were killed. Severe riots occurred at Scranton, Pa. It is said that 5,000 roughs went from New York and Baltimore on the 12th to vote in Philadelphia. Ex-Governor Beall of Wisconsin, a gallant Lieutenant-Colonel of the war, a well-known writer, and a son-in-law of Fenimore Cooper, was killed at Montana by Geo. M. Pinney, Editor of the Montana Post, on account of a political quarrel growing out of an article published in the Post. In New York City, on October 30, Christopher Pullman, an active Republican exCouncilman, engaged in challenging persons applying for registration under alleged fraudulent naturalization papers, was waylaid and clubbed nearly to death by parties who have not yet been arrested. All the above enumerated murders, by a singular coincidence, were assassinations of Republicans by Dem

ocrats.

We have searched carefully for instances of the opposite kind, and find none.

-The naturalization frauds in Philadelphia and New York have attracted much attention. In both cities many thousand papers were issued by Democratic judges in blank, sold for small sums to persons not entitled to be naturalized, and used at the election. The facts painfully suggest the necessity of revising the naturalization laws so as to render such abuses impossible.

-Howell Cobb, Esq., Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ex-Governor of Georgia, Secretary of the Treasury under Buchanan, Chairman of the Provisional Confederate

Congress, and Brigadier-General in the Rebel Army, died at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York, on October 9th, at the age of 53.

-The election in Connecticut, October 5th, for town-officers, resulted in a net Republican gain of 2,626 votes in 110 towns out 164, reversing the Democratic majority of 1,760 in the State, and leaving a net Republican majority of less than 1,000.

-The State elections in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana, on the 13th of October, which were looked to with so much interest, resulted in a sweeping Republican triumph, though the majorities were moderate. Pennsylvania elected her Republican State ticket, consisting of Hartrauft, Auditor General, and Campbell, Surveyor General, by a majority not yet officially determined, but which cannot vary 100 from 10,000. Indiana elected her Republican Governor, Conrad Baker, and eight of the State Officers, by about 1,000 majority. Ohio elected Isaac R. Sherwood Secretary of State and four other officers of the State ticket by about 17,000 majority. The Republicans, however, lose eight Congressmen in these States and gain one. They gain, however, two United States Senators, one in Indiana and one in Pennsylvania. Nebraska elected David Butler (Repub.) Governor and the entire State ticket by about 2,000 majority. West Vir

ginia, on October 22d, elected a Republican Governor and entire State ticket by 4,000 majority, all the Republican candidates for Congress and a majority of between 30 and 40 on joint ballot of both houses of the Legislature, thus securing the election of a Republican United States Senator in place of Peter C. Vanwinkle. Colorado elected Bradford (Repub.) delegate to Congress by an official majority of 17.

-Throughout the 21st, 22d, and 23d of October severe shocks of earthquake occurred throughout California, shattering buildings in all the principal cities, though destroying but five or six lives and about $2,000,000. Unlike the agitations in South America and the Pacific Islands, that in California was not accompanied by any tidal wave or other sign of submarine disturbance, except that the vessels in the harbors were struck as if by coming on a rock.

THE works of the Rev. JNo. S. C. ABBOTT are too well known and widely circulated to need description or criticism. We are not sure, however, that his place among American writers has as yet been clearly defined. We should be tempted to call him our most brilliant romance writer. We say this after carefully weighing the respective merits of the many claimants for the position; we have not forgotten "Uncle Tom's Cabin," "Norwood," or "St. Elmo," or "Wind and Whirlwind," but we consider that in dramatic conception of plot, in vivid description of scene, and in original creation of character, Mr. Abbott far surpasses the authors of those popular works, and his ingenuity in weaving into his narratives the events of history, and assigning to his heroes the names of historical characters, gives them an interest unknown to ordinary romances. We remember in days gone by to have been much fascinated by a work in the shape of a biography called the Life of "Napoleon Bonaparte." We prefer red it to "Robinson Crusoe," we gladly abandoned in its favor the " Arabian Nights," and we still regard it as one of the most attractive books for young folks ever written.

We do not ourselves believe in the necessity or advisability of all juvenile books being instructive or supplied with a moral. Boys, like older people, need amusement and relaxation in the intervals of their work, and we would advise parents that they could not easily find a book with the attractiveness and powers of fascination possessed by Abbott's Napoleon Bonaparte."

In his new work Mr. Abbott describes how France, weary of tyranny, exhausted by anarchy, was waiting expectant for a hero, a man who should restore, re-organize, save; how this hero, commissioned by kind Providence, made his appearance, and claimed recognition and obeisance; how in spite of his hereditary claims, in spite of the divine rights of his uncle, emanating, as Mr. Abbott often repeats, from the will of the people, in spite of his personal qualifications, this recognition and obeisance were for a long time denied, and instead were given ridicule, banishment, imprisonment, and other annoyances; how in spite of such obstacles his hero at last succeeded in enforcing the acknowledgment of his claims for homage, and having with some trifling friction placed himself in possession of the supreme power, graciously permitted VOL. II-48

the people to exercise their sovereign rights in regard to the disposal of said power, on condition that their will should agree with his; and how, since said auspicious choice, France has gone on her way rejoicing in the possession of peace, contentment, and prosperity at home, and in the exercise of a controlling and healthful influence abroad, and how the perfection of a hero sent by kind heaven to perform this mighty work was called Louis Napoleon Bonaparte.

The difficulty in treating Mr. Abbott's works as histories lies in the fact that his characters are not described as men fallible, liable to error and to wrong, but as perfect beings, filled with grand purposes of doing good to mankind, and moving on to the completion of their work with unerring wisdom, and unfailing virtue. We should have been tempted to doubt à priori the truthfulness of such pictures even if we had no other source from which to obtain a knowledge of their subjects. Mr. Abbott appears to have taken as the key-note of his history the idea of the Emperor expressed by the French Commander in Mexico: "He is too great to do wrong." If he had admitted that Napoleon came within the pale of fallible humanity, and had been guilty of some few mistakes and errors of judgment, we should have been more inclined to accept with credit his florid descriptions of the benefits conferred by the Emperor upon France and Europe.

Louis Napoleon has done work for France worthy of praise; he has proved himself in many respects a more serviceable ruler than the never-learning Charles the Tenth, the back-bone-less Louis Philippe, or the inharmonious Provisional Government. Under his reign order has been preserved, the internal resources of the country have been developed, the large cities embellished, and commercial enterprises extended, while his Empire has preserved a prominent and at times a commanding position among the nations of Europe. To these things, the blessings resulting from a strong government, controlled by a single and able head, Mr. Abbott rightfully calls our attention; but why, as a faithful biographer and historian, does he fail to inform us at what cost these blessings have been obtained-to tell us that the resources of France have been drained, its burden of debt indefinitely increased, and its best working power absorbed to sustain a vast army,

needed as much to repress discontent at home, as to enforce influence abroad; that owing in great part to the ambitious love of notoriety of the Emperor, his continual threatening preparations, his enigmatical utterances and devious policy, all Europe has been kept in a state of feverish dread and excitement, and immense sums of money have been directly expended, and still larger sums indirectly wasted, in keeping up exhausting war armaments; that in spite of this great expenditure of power on the part of France, her influence abroad has decreased, her efforts at interference with the affairs of other nations have proved costly failures, and the policy of her government has been thwarted; that at home, in spite of the beautifying of the cities, in spite of the Great Exhibition, and the outer brilliancy of the Empire, the people are dissatisfied with the burden of taxation, and the thraldom of an irresponsible government, discontented with the present, and looking forward fearfully to the future; and that so little has Napoleon succeeded in establishing a permanent or satisfying government for France, that almost all parties look forward to his death as the sign for a new revolution, in which the spirit of French liberty (united perchance with that of French anarchy) shall again break loose and demand expression and representation? We regard Mr. Abbott's book as especially pernicious in tendency at this period of our history, because it attempts to exalt the blessings of imperialism and magnify the dangers of republicanism at a time when we are ourselves longing for a stronger government than we now possess, to rescue a large part of the country from anarchy and discord, and restore unity, peace, and harmony to the nation.

We have faith enough, however, in the American people to believe that they are able to discriminate between strength and tyranny, between enforcement of laws and usurpation of rights, and that however much respect they may have for Mr. Abbott as a clergyman and a citizen, they will decline to allow themselves to be misled by his glittering generalities into a false worship of imperialism and an acceptance of Napoleons as examples for rulers and for mankind.

Essays Philosophical and Theological, by JAMES MARTINEAU, is one of those books of solid value which William V. Spencer, of Boston, takes such generous delight in giving to the world, though doubtless something much more trashy in its character would be

The

much more advantageous to his till. The title "Essays Philosophical and Theological," belong less to this volume than to the series of which this is one, one other of which has been already published, and still other volumes are promised if the reception of the present volume is as generous as that accorded to the last. If it should not be, we trust that Mr. Spencer will not be greatly disappointed, not but that the intrinsic value of the articles in this volume may be as great as that of those printed in the last, but they are of less general and stirring interest, and are moreover of less recent date. The articles in the last volume treated of men and subjects fresh in the public mind, as, for example, Comte, John Stuart Mill, the position of Mr. Mansell, the Psychology of Bain. It was comprised mainly of articles written for the National Review, to which Mr. Martineau was the leading contributor. Its oldest article did not go back further than 1858, while the freshest article in the present volume does not come down to that period. The volume is made up of Mr. Martineau's earlier essays, contributed to the Prospective Review. subjects treated of were at that time of vital interest—at least mainly so—and were treated with that thoroughness and brilliancy which Mr. Martineau brings to the treatment of every subject that he chooses to consider. The first two articles, on Whewell, will get something of additional interest for the reader at this present time, from his comparatively recent death. The review of Oersted may be the means of reviving interest in a book by no means antiquated, and will at any rate recall it pleasantly to those who knew it of old; the articles on Plato and Sir William Hamilton are as pertinent to-day as when they were first written. Kingsley's "Phaethon" is so dead a book that it was hardly worth while to exhume it at this distance from its death, but his "Alexandria and her Schools," is quite a different matter. Of Mr. Martineau, more than of any other writer of our time, it can be said, "Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary." He unites in a singular degree the qualities of the metaphysician and the poet. Doubtless there are times when, if his diction were less rich, it would be more clear, but they are not many, and upon the whole what is lost in definiteness is more than made good by the suggestiveness which is eminently characteristic of his form of thought.

The woman question having occupied so

large a portion of the public mind of late, we are not surprised at the welcome given to "Modern Women, and What is Said of Them," a reprint of thirty or forty essays which have appeared during the last year in the Saturday Review. Many of these essays have been copied by the local press all over the country, and one could hardly take up a paper with any pretensions to literary merit without seeing "Spoilt Women," Plain Girls," "Ideal Women," "Foolish Virgins," or woman in some other of the many phases under which she is here represented. As for the opening article, " "The Girl of the Period," in England it created such a sensation that an edition of twenty-four thousand copies was sold in two-penny form. The subjects are certainly treated in a rare manner-such brilliancy of style and keenness of satire are very uncommon, and, though fortunately, British matrons and girls are the unhappy victims, yet "the cap fits" a good many of our fair Americans. There is enough truth in these essays to make the ridicule telling, but on the whole they are shallow, and lacking in that earnestness essential for a serious consideration of the much vexed question. Still, ridicule will goad some people on to better things, who would be unaffected by an appeal to nobility of purpose, and some eyes may be more widely opened to the evils of our social system by this book. There has been much discussion as to the authorship of these articles, and especially has the question of sex been widely mooted. But after reading them, how can any one imagine that the hand which penned them was other than masculine?

We are glad to see by the imprint, J. S. Redfield, that an old friend has rejoined the ranks. The book is neatly produced, with clear, pleasant type.

"A Man in Earnest: Life of A. H. Conant," by ROBERT COLLYER, is a little volume creditable to the writer's heart, but which will not add any thing to his fame. By far the best part of it is the capital sermon delivered at the grave of Mr. Conant several years ago. It was evidently for writing sermons, not biographies, that Mr. Collyer, the most eloquent preacher of his sect, was raised up. And yet it is very doubtful whether many other persons could have made as much of Mr Conant's life as has been made by Mr. Collyer. It was a singularly uneventful life, that of a Western Clergyman in a small Western town. Some of the entries in

his journal are very strange, as for example, where on one day he ministers by the sickbed of one of his parishoners, on the next makes her coffin, on the next attends her funeral. He appears never to have been an independent thinker, and to have had a mind more remarkable for its lack of original ideas than for any thing else. To those who knew him, this tribute to his moral excellence must be very welcome, but it makes little or no demand outside the circle of his friends.

MR. H. P. LIDDON has the reputation of being the best preacher in the Church of England, as well as one of her ablest scholars and divines. A volume of Sermons preached before the University of Oxford by him, evince a high order of merit; and though, as was to be expected from the place in which they were delivered, and the audience usually gathered there to listen to the select preachers, the topics chosen, and the style and tone of the sermons, would be somewhat special and not entirely adapted to ordinary congre gations; yet the sermons are most excellent reading, full of suggestive matter and conveying the profoundest truths in chaste and eloquent language. No intelligent Christian can peruse them without profit. (E. P. Dutton & Co.)

The Life and Public Services of Schuyler Colfax; with his most Important Speeches. By E. W. MARTIN. Portrait, 8vo. New York (U. S. Publishing Co). This clearly printed volume is an account of the public career of Mr. Colfax, sufficiently well told. Its record value is higher than its biographical, however. It gives a useful series of Mr. Colfax's speeches and debates, which show plainly his remarkable combination of able statesmanship, parliamentary dexterity, unfailing devotion to principle, and equally unfailing kindness of heart and suave popularity of manner. Probably there is not a more perfectly sweet-natured man alive than Schuyler Colfax; nor one in whose rectitude of purpose and action more undoubting confidence may safely be placed.

Men of Our Day; or Biographical Sketches of Patriots, Orators, Statesmen, &c., &c. By L. P. BROCKETT. Portraits. 8vo. Philad. (Zeigler, McCurdy & Co.) Biography is, perhaps, next to Romance, the most universally interesting kind of reading. This collection of short sketches is intended to gratify that temporary intensification of the interest which has

AMONG the standard books for libraries lately published must we chronicle old ISAAC DISRAELI'S Literary Character of Men of Genius, which Mr. W. J. Widdleton has added to his Riverside Classics, completing with this volume his handsome edition of Disraeli's Works. The fact that there is a growing demand in this country for literature of this character, shows an increase in the number of a class of readers heretofore few among Americans, who are possessed of leisure and scholarly tastes; for Disraeli's books, though reflective and full of quaint and unique information, are somewhat aimless and gossipy, and can only be enjoyed when one has a consciousness of time to spare, and a mind unharassed by the remembrance of pressing duties.

Life Below, in seven poems, published by Messrs. Hurd & Houghton, is an anonymous publication, which we should like to praise most heartily; for it is never pleasant to speak ill of books, especially when we do not know the author's name. But while this volume docs great' credit to the liberal and humane sympathies of its author, proving

him to be a person all alive with the most noble spirit of the time, it does not give him any high rank as a poet. In fact, his book is very hard reading. It is as ponderous in style as Milton, without any of Milton's inward ponderousness of thought and glory of imagination. The effect is rather ludicrous. It has been observed, "We do not need a yoke of oxen to draw a cart-load of apples over a smooth road." The author of "Life Below" thinks otherwise. And, what is worse, his apples are of an inferior quality and still far from being ripe.

MESSRS. LITTLE, BROWN & Co. have published a fifth edition of Mr. JNO. BARTLETT'S collection of Familiar Quotations. The work has been long before the public, and is too well known to call for description or comment. It is the fruit of scholarly and patient research, and contains much valuable and curious information. The book is one of that class so frequently referred to, that no gentleman's library should be without, but unlike some others usually included in this category, when placed in said lib: ary, it will be honored by frequent reference. This edition has been carefully revised, and largely added to, and is issued in an exceedingly attractive shape.

The Dictionary of Congress, by CHARLES LANMAN, published by Belknap & Goodwin, of Hartford, has reached a fifth edition, which includes the statistics of the Fortieth Congress. It is a compilation containing much useful information that may "serve for the history of our times," and containing also a mass of biographical matter of very little interest, and of doubtful utility. The plan of the work made it necessary to include the biographies of all who have served their country as Congressmen, but it is a little unfortunate that so many of the men whose records are thus handed down to posterity, seem to have performed no service worth chronicling except that "they died."

American Fish Culture, embracing all the Details of Artificial Breeding and Rearing of Trout, Salmon, Shad, and other Fishes. By THADDEUS NORRIS. Illustrated. Philadelphia (Porter & Coates). Fish, say some of the learned, are phosphorescent in substance; the human brain consumes phosphorus in the processes of its mental agency; therefore a fish diet is good for the intellect, and fish culture is a main hope of human intellectual advancement. To this reply others of the