Comment on New Books

Fiction. Billy Bellew, by W. E. Norris. (Harpers.) To those condemned to read much of the fiction of the day, a new novel by Mr. Norris must always be heartily welcome, such assurance is there beforehand regarding certain desirable qualities which it will possess. His latest story, though by no means to be reckoned among his best, is no exception to the rule, having the usual agreeable style, easy but sure touch in characterization, and that perfect good breeding which we prize the more because of its present rarity, and which in no way detracts from the realistic truth of poor Billy’s history. The sketch of this simple-minded, unselfish, kind-hearted, and absurdly loyal young gentleman, whose weaknesses spring from his very virtues, is excellently well done, and many readers will probably be inclined to quarrel with the author for so ordering the destiny of his foolish, lovable hero that the final catastrophe becomes the only escape possible from his troubles. The illustrations, so called, which are scattered somewhat at haphazard through the book, had been better omitted. — The Martyred Fool, by David Christie Murray. (Harpers.) This is the best novel Mr. Murray has given us for a long time, and will rank with those early successes between which and his later work readers have been compelled to draw regretful comparisons. It is the history of the making, the brief career, the disillusion and death of an Anarchist, one who is at least sincere in his mad folly. It is almost of necessity sensational, but is full of vitality, and, especially in the Australian portion of the tale, of genuine and poignant human interest. The story is well constructed, vigorously and graphically told, and at no time loses its hold on the reader. — The Curse of Intellect. (Blackwood, Edinburgh; Roberts, Boston.) A story told partly by a cynical worldling, and partly by a monkey, in whom the strong-willed, misanthropic hero of the tale has, after years of labor, developed an intellect. Power’s Beast, though perhaps suggested by Peacock’s Sir Oran Haut-ton, is as unlike as possible the amiable, flute-playing M. P. for Onevote, a gentle animal to whom pessimism and our latter-day fiction were perforce unknown. The Beast views humanity very much after the manner of Swift, hating the intelligence that has been given him and the man to whom he owes it. As a social satire his story is unequal, being sometimes distinctly clever, and sometimes rather ordinary in quality. —The Judgment Books, by E. F. Benson. (Harpers.) One of those tales which owe their inspiration to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Frank Trevor, a successful artist, who has been leading for ten years a decorous life with a well-beloved wife, by finding an old programme of a concert at a café chantant has recalled to him certain Parisian experiences. He proceeds to paint his own portrait, a presentment which embodies all these evil memories, and rapidly obtains such a mastery over his later self that if his wife had not persuaded him to adopt the simple remedy of cutting the picture in pieces, we tremble to think what consequences might have ensued ; that is, we should tremble, but do not, for Mr. Benson, though he succeeds in being readable, neither thrills nor convinces. — Heart of the World, by H. Rider Haggard. (Longmans.) Mr. Haggard is an indefatigable discoverer of strange cities, unknown, lost, or forgotten, and the City of the Heart, which the heroes of this story reach after a painful pilgrimage, is as marvelous as any yet revealed to us. In truth, this pre-Aztec capital, somewhere in the wilds of Mexico, with its grass - grown streets, dwindling, spiritless people, and well-filled but useless treasure chambers, is an excellent invention. It shows praiseworthy moderation, we might almost say a touch of realism, on the author’s part, that his bold adventurers gain little hut disappointment and suffering from their hardly won entrance into Heart of the World. — Love in Idleness, a Tale of Bar Harbor, by F. Marion Crawford. (Macmillan.) The lightest and least of the stories of Mr. Crawford, whose genuine successes have never been won in dealing with American subjects. He could hardly write an unreadable tale, and certainly has not done so here, but, notwithstanding this, the book is in most respects unworthy of him. Apparently, he needs a more serious and complex subject, while the character-drawing is neither refined nor subtle, and in some instances more than verges on caricature. The volume is issued in attractive style and is generously illustrated.— A Little Sister to the Wilderness, by Lilian Bell (Stone & Kimball), is a wholesome little bit of realism : the portrait of a wild, beautiful creature, born and reared in the roughest and poorest part of the Tennessee bottom-lands, with the birds for her only companions until she is discovered and loved by a young preacher. If this sounds romantic, perhaps it is a mistake to call it realism. At least the picture has sweetness and charm, and (one guesses) a faithful local color. — Celibates, by George Moore (Macmillan), is another of the books which had much better have remained unwritten. Mr. George Moore is one of those persons who imagine that ugliness is tragedy, who never shrink from the revolting, who confound manliness with brutality, and, because they have forgotten delicacy themselves, fancy that sweetness and wonder have departed from the earth. And their ghastly inventions are condoned in the sacred name of art. — Colonel Norton, by Florence Montgomery. (Longmans.) We fear that this novel will prove a poor rival to its author’s children’s stories in popular esteem, partly, perhaps, because slie uses similar methods with older and younger readers, treating the former as persons needing much instruction and admonition regarding the conduct of life. The story (of which there is little, considering the length of the book) is loosely and not very artistically put together, the characterization is conventional, and, in brief, the tale is generally commonplace, and sometimes wearisome. That it is neither morbid nor unwholesome in tone we gladly admit. — A Sawdust Doll, by Mrs. Reginald de Koven (Stone & Kimball), a story of New York society, is not original in plot, though the handling of the material is careful, and the style even and not overstrained. The girl is well drawn, but the man’s lack of faith makes the denouement of the tale rather sinister than tragic. It is too ugly to be pathetic. — Forward House, a Romance, by William Scoville Case. (Scribners.) The scene of this melodramatic tale is supposed to be somewhere upon our coasts, but it might be the coast of Bohemia as well, so far as its characters and action are related to any life with which we are acquainted, even life viewed with the eye of a romancer. — In Deacon’s Orders, and Other Stories, by Walter Besant. (Harpers.) The title story, which fills nearly a third of this volume, is a study in religiosity, a quality which, as the writer explains, has no connection with any genuine belief in or practice of religion, but is simply a sensuous and very real delight in religious services and emotionalism allied therewith, and to this extent not necessarily hypocritical, though usually so designated. The history of Paul Leighan, who has an abundance of religiosity, and no morality whatever, is exceedingly interesting, and the improbable in it never quite becomes the impossible, though it must be owned that the boundary is approached very nearly. The ten brief sketches which complete the book show very plainly that the author’s gifts are only to a moderate extent those which go to the making of a successful shortstory writer. — A Scarlet Poppy, and Other Stories, by Harriet Prescott Spofford (Harpers), is a collection of some half dozen good-natured little social satires, neither too light nor too heavy for an hour’s entertainment. — A Truce, and Other Stories, by Mary Tappan Wright. (Scribners.) There is an intensity and a dramatic sense about these seaboard New England tales that gives them a good deal of power. In some of them, as in A Tone and From Macedonia, this intensity, this stress of passion, is too strong for perfect art. The tragedy is too harsh. In the second story, however, this vehemence of feeling is mitigated by the ghostly setting, and the result is a very successful piece of work. —A Man Without a Memory, and Other Stories, by William Henry Shelton. (Scribners.) The tale which gives its name to this volume is a modification of the Rip Van Winkle legend. A man, wounded in the head during the war, is restored to his memory after a lapse of thirty years. — Thistledown and Mustard Seed, by Andreas Burger (Elliot Stock), is a collection of pastels in prose, of a hundred words or so each. Some are wise, many are striking, and most of them have a terse quality that makes them easy to read. — The Crucifixion of Philip Strong, by Charles M. Sheldon. (McClurg.) — The Preacher’s Son, by Wightman Fletcher Melton, A. M. (Barbee & Smith, Nashville, Tenn.) — Crawford’s Mr. Isaacs has been brought out in Macmillan’s Novelists’ Library ; and God Forsaken, by Frederic Breton, and Elizabeth’s Pretenders, by Hamilton Aïdé, have been added to the Hudson Library (Putnams).—The Lost Paradise, based on Henry C. De Mille’s drama of that name, by Marie Walsh. (The Mascot Publishing Co.)

Literature. Letters of Edward Fitzgerald to Fanny Kemble, edited by William Aldis Wright. (Macmillan.) The two volumes of Fitzgerald’s Letters already published included a few out of this series, but there is a fresh opportunity of knowing a man when we have a continuous collection of letters to one person, and Fitzgerald’s lovable and whimsical nature looks out from these pages. A mere nothing the book may be to a casual reader, but to one who attends, a delightful disclosure. By the bye, it is interesting to find the editor explaining, in a footnote, Fitzgerald’s east England phrase “out of kelter.” The phrase is common enough in New England, though we should spell it “ kilter.” — Essays on Questions of the Day, by Goldwin Smith. (Macmillan.) Mr.Goldwin Smith has long been known as a close observer of current events, and a caustic commentator on events of the day. A brilliant and not over-scrupulous advocate, he is carried away by a prophet’s vanity, until truth, in his eyes, wears the color of his own prognostications. But if one does not demand trustworthy information nor impartial criticism, one may enjoy some gracefully turned sentences in these essays on Utopian Visions, The Empire, Woman Suffrage, The Irish Question, and like themes. — A Companion to Plato’s Republic, by Bernard Bosanquet (Macmillan), is a running commentary adapted to the translation of Davies and Vaughan. The paragraphs of the book are numbered throughout with the page and line of the translation to which they refer, so that they form a series of extensive notes rather than a continuous essay. Though intended only for English readers, it will he extremely valuable even to students of the original. — Essays on Scandinavian Literature, by H. H. Boyesen (Scribners), is a collection of papers on Björnstjerne Björnson, Kielland, Jonas Lie, Hans Christian Andersen, Contemporary Danish Literature, Georg Brandes, and Isaias Tegnér. Mr. Boyesen’s training and education make him thoroughly at home in these subjects, and his acquirement of an admirable English style makes him always entertaining. Apart from some danger of becoming the advocate of a theory in literature, he has the good gift of words, and the better gift of enthusiasm. None but a Norseman, touched with the delight and wholesomeness of life, could do justice to Björnson, that leonine figure, so romantic, so real, whom Professor Boyesen portrays for us with much sympathy and acumen. — An Introduction to the Study of English Fiction, by W. E. Simonds. (Heath.) It is sufficient criticism of this indifferent little volume to mention that its author’s list of “ one hundred works of fiction which, for one reason or another, are quite worth reading,” contains five novels by Bulwer-Lytton, three by W. D. Howells, five by Marion Crawford, and three by Mrs. Humphry Ward, while Mr. George Meredith’s name does not even occur in the index. — An Introduction to English Literature, by Henry S. Pancoast. (Holt.) Mr. Pancoast has a just and temperate critical faculty and a sense of perspective, which make this survey of English letters from Chaucer to Browning of much more than ordinary value. It should fill a useful place between Mr. Stopford Brooke’s invaluable little primer and more extended critical works. There are careful appendices, study-lists, and references.— The Student’s Chaucer, edited by W. W. Skeat. (Macmillan.) This single, convenient volume of eight or nine hundred pages must supersede all other one-volume editions of the poet. The print is small but clear, the paper thin but opaque, and there is a thorough glossary. For students’ purposes, this edition is surpassed only by Professor tSkeat’s own six-volume edition, the text of which is here followed, while the casual reader who wishes to escape the old spelling as far as possible may be referred to Mr. A. W. Pollard’s excellent two-volume edition of the Tales. In an introduction of twenty pages, Professor Skeat has managed to present all the extant information on his subject clearly and concisely, under the headings, Life, Writings, Editions of Chaucer, Grammatical Hints, Pronunciation, Metre, etc. The hints on pronunciation and grammar are useful, but the remarks on versification are inadequate and misleading. However, even an editor is not infallible, and we must be grateful for the untiring effort and diligent research which have given us this definitive scholarly text of the great master.—The Temple Shakespeare (Dent, London ; Macmillan, New York) is enriched with two more volumes ; King Henry V., which has an etching of an old London street, and Richard III., which has one of the gateway of the Bloody Tower. A glossary in each volume makes a condensed substitute for many notes, and the plan of the edition provides for serviceable and succinct introduction and notes. — The ninth volume of De Foe’s Romances and Narratives (Dent, London; Macmillan, New York) is occupied with the famous Journal of the Plague Year. It does not relieve the reader much to know that the narrative is fictitious. But what an example to the ordinary reporter of city life the book is ! — Messrs. Roberts have added to their edition of Balzac in English two volumes : one, Lucien de Rubempré, the not ill-chosen title given by the translator to the first three parts of Splendours et Miseres des Courtisanes, the fourth and concluding division of which, The Last Incarnation of Vautrin, appears in the other volume, together with Ferragus, Chief of the Dévorants. The whole work is a sequel to Lost Illusions, which, in its different parts, has already been brought out in this edition, and both are, in a sort, a continuation of Le Père Goriot. In tales which present a rather severe test, Miss WormeIey’s work is, as usual, admirable ; and as her translation of Balzac cannot fail to be a standard one, it is a matter of regret that an introductory note, not except incidentally of a critical nature, giving the more important facts, bibliographical and otherwise, regarding the book, should not have been prefixed to each novel. Perhaps this may be done when the edition is complete and the volumes are arranged in their proper sequence. — Maid Marian and Crotchet Castle, by Thomas Love Peacock. Illustrated by F. H. Townsend. (Macmillan’s Standard Novels.) The true Peacockians, if cleveland enthusiastic, are hardly a large band, but their number will probably be appreciably increased by the reissue of these two tales : one, the delightful refashioning of the Robin Hood legend ; the other, perhaps the best work in the writer’s usual vein, that of a satirist of his contemporary world. By right, Mr. Saintsbury introduces the author to his new readers, and, in his interesting biographical and critical essay, claims that he has at last discovered the model which, consciously or unconsciously to himself, suggested to Peacock the method and manner of his “fantastic-sarcastic” stories.— Another reprint of The Annals of the Parish and The Ayrshire Legatees has appeared, forming the first two volumes of a new illustrated edition of Galt’s works, the text of which has been revised and edited by D. Storrar Meldrum, who has also, we suppose, contributed the interesting memoir contained in the first volume, and furnished some welcome annotations. This edition, which, wisely, is to include only the six tales of the author which have bravely stood the test of time, is well printed and attractive in its make-up. Of Mr. John Wallace’s illustrations, we note that, of the two devoted to The Annals, the first, of the year 1775, really represents persons of at least half a century later, while its companion of 180(3 gives correct eighteenth-century costumes. The latter can be excused, as old fashions doubtless lingered at Dalmailing, but the former hardly aids the pleasant realism of the story. (Roberts.) — Tales from Scott, by Sir Edward Sullivan, Bart., with an Introduction by Edward Dowden. (Roberts.) Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare evidently served as the model of this volume, which gives in outline the plots of nine of the immortal romances. Though this is, on the whole, not ill done, Scott’s lovers will find the book melancholy reading, as the stories here told bear the same relation to the novels that a skeleton does to a living man. Of Scott’s wonderful power of characterization, his large humanity and all-pervasive humor, these dry bones, of course, give no hint. Imagine The Bride of Lammermoor with Caleb Balderstone reduced to a mere name, or The Antiquary with Jonathan Oldbuck and Lovel as personages of equal significance. The best portion of the volume is the Introduction of Mr. Dowden, who carefully confines his commendations to the usefulness of these abstracts in recalling details of the plots to faithful readers. But the book is presumably intended for the young, to whom a single novel as it came from the author’s hand would he of infinitely greater value. — The reissue of Thomas Hardy’s novels now includes Two on a Tower, published first in The Atlantic. The author’s prefatory note is an amusing little apologia, and at the same time an incisive word on the moral of the story as it lay in his mind while he was writing it. So entertaining was the narrative that we suspect many readers at the time missed the moral. (Harpers.) — Great Expectations and Hard Times, by Charles Dickens. A new issue in the series appearing under the editorship of Charles Dickens the younger, who furnishes interesting introductions. (Macmillan.)—Washington Irving’s Tales of a Traveller, with an introduction by Brander Matthews and notes by George R. Carpenter. (Longmans.) A well-considered school edition. The introductory matter is fresh and to the point, and the notes are brief and precise. We are not sure that it is well to explain any unusual words contained in a good dictionary, but the editor certainly has not erred greatly in this particular. The annotation is conveniently at the foot of the page instead of at the end of the book, as in Putnams’ edition, edited by W. L. Phelps, though Mr. Phelps’s notes are in some instances fuller and more helpful. In general style the book accords with the well-known Riverside Literature Series. — Selections from Browning, edited by Charles W. French (A. Lovell), contains one or two of Browning’s masterpieces, amid a somewhat heterogeneous collection of his poems. A few of the more important poems have analytical introductions. — Late additions to Macmillan’s Miniature Series in paper are, From a New England Hillside, by William Potts, and The Pleasures of Life, by Sir John Lubbock.

Religion and Ecclesiasticism. Thoughts on Religion, by the late George John Romanes (Open Court Publishing Co.), is edited by Canon Gore, and is made up of fragments and one completed essay left by Mr. Romanes. The author’s work as an evolutionist, and as the writer of Darwin and After Darwin, lends interest to these philosophic speculations ; and his conclusions as here presented show, as his editor thinks, “ the tendency of a mind from a position of unbelief in the Christian revelation towards one of belief in it.” — The Gospel of Buddha, by Paul Carus (Open Court Publishing Co.), is a compilation from the best sources of the life and teachings of Gautama. Many parables and stories are also included, illustrating his doctrines. A glossary and an index add to the usefulness of the book ; and there is a table of reference showing parallel passages in the New Testament. — The Parables by the Lake, by W. H. Thomson, M. D., LL. D. (Harpers.) — Matter, Force, and Spirit, or, Scientific Evidence of a Supreme Intelligence. (Putnams.) — The Structure and Authorship of the New Testament, by I. Panin.—The Use of Ecclesiastical Vestments in the Reformed Episcopal Church, by Bishop James A. Latané, D. D, in three parts : 1. A Letter on Vestments. 2. The Reply to an Open Letter of Bishop Charles E. Cheney, D. D. 3. A Review of the Arguments for and against the Surplice and the Bishop’s Robes.

Art. The Madonna of St. Luke, the Story of a Portrait, by Henrietta Irving Bolton. (Putnams.) In this attractive little volume, Mrs. Bolton gives the history of the portrait in the Borghese Chapel, together with notices of other works attributed to St. Luke, and also considers the influence of this much - venerated ancient picture of the Madonna upon religious art. The authentic story of the painting does not begin until the thirteenth century, the legendary not earlier than the sixth, and the author concludes that nothing is known of its real origin or its early history. One fact alone, that the Divine Child is depicted holding a bound book with clasps and giving the papal benediction, places the portrait centuries later than the beginning of our era. — Technique of Sculpture, by William Ordway Partridge. (Ginn.)

History and Politics. The Life of Samuel J. Tilden, by John Bigelow, LL. D. (Harpers.) It may fairly be claimed for Mr. Bigelow’s volumes that they will take a place among the important political biographies of our time, in spite of the fact that, following the current fashion in biographies, they are far too large. The books are full of important information, but they are not an artistic biography, because the narrative runs too far afield into the general political history of the period. But the material is authentic, and it is so used as, in spite of diffuseness, to give a very clear understanding of a very remarkable personality, — a clearer understanding, indeed, than most of his contemporaries or even his companions had. — The Meaning of History, and Other Historical Pieces, by Frederic Harrison. (Macmillan.) This collection of lectures, addresses, and reviews, so grouped as to give a certain logical continuity of topics, throws side-lights on a wide range of historical subjects. Mr. Harrison is a man always of positive, and sometimes of radical convictions, and of a very independent mind ; and no essayist of our time writes in a more animated style. — Canadian Independence, by James Douglas. (Putnams.) This is a series of essays on Imperial Federation, Annexation, and Independence, considered as possible solutions of the problem of Canada’s future, and was primarily “ written for Canadian readers by a Canadian long resident in the United States.” Mr. Douglas has the ingratiating temper and the freedom from prejudice so commendable in political criticism. — The Armenian Crisis in Turkey, by Frederic Davis Greene. (Putnams.) A group of letters from residents in Armenia, most of them apparently missionaries, concerning the massacre last year at Sassoun, followed by descriptive, historical, and documentary chapters about this unhappy land. The author, himself formerly a missionary, has written in a somewhat hortatory style, and has done his work too much after the newspaper fashion to give the book permanent value. — Common Sense applied to Woman Suffrage, by Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi. (Putnam’s Questions of the Day Series.) A vigorous brief for woman suffrage, and the best literary result of the recent agitation of the subject in New York. — Short Studies in Party Politics, by Noah Brooks. (Scribners.) — How the Republic is Governed, by Noah Brooks. (Scribners.) — Municipal Reform Movements in the United States, by William Howe Tolman, Ph. D., with an Introductory Chapter by the Rev. Charles H. Parkhurst, D. D. (Fleming H. Re veil Co.)

Travel. My Early Travels and Adventures in America and Asia, by Henry M. Stanley. (Scribners.) These two volumes of letters to newspapers, descriptive of military campaigns among the Indians in the West (1887), and of the Suez Canal, of a journey up the Nile, of a visit to Jerusalem, and of a trip to the Caspian Sea and through Persia (1869-1870), contain some well-told adventures and vivid descriptions scattered through narratives of long journeys, now become stale. The sporadic stories of adventure are yet interesting, but the mass of these letters, whose substance was at best perishable, has little permanent value beside the more systematic writings of later travelers. These volumes, however, make Mr. Stanley’s “works ” of adventure and exploration complete, and thereby serve the purpose to cover the spirited period of apprenticeship of a very remarkable career. — Literary Landmarks of Jerusalem, by Laurence Hutton. (Harpers.)

Science. A Primer of Evolution, by Edward Clodd (Longmans), not only deals with the evolution of organic forms of life upon the earth, but gives us also a luminous sketch of the origin of the universe, so far as knowledge has gone, and shows the necessary connection between physical science and sociology. Mr. Clodd’s statements are clear and succinct ; and this valuable little book will be a distinct help to the spread of scientific truth.

Economics and Sociology. Trusts or Industrial Combinations and Coalitions in the United States, by Ernst von Halle. (Macmillan.) This volume is the outgrowth of a report made by the author on industrial combinations in the United States for the Verein für Social-Politik, as a part of such investigations in all countries ; and it has the merit of an independent study of the facts by a trained student from a point of view outside the current controversies in our own country. The book (with its appendices) contains more definite information than can elsewhere be so conveniently found ; and the author has no theory to propound, to say nothing of a remedy to prescribe. He shows great confidence in publicity as a preventive of many evils, and the only definite recommendation that he offers is that corporation laws be made uniform throughout the United States. — Outlines of English Industrial History, by W. Cunningham and Ellen A. McArthur. (Macmillan.) There could be no better corrective of dangerous or vague economic theories than such a bookas this, which sets contemporaneous industrial forces in proper relation to one another by tracing their gradual development. It is a history, beginning at the dawn of industrial activity in England, and explaining its changes and developments into the present complex social and political problems. — The Rights of Labor, an Inquiry as to the Relation between Employer and Employed, by W. J. (C. H. Kerr & Co., Chicago.) — Wheelbarrow on the Labor Question. (Open Court Publishing Co.) — The Free Trade Struggle in England, by M. M. Trumbull. (Open Court Publishing Co.)

Finance. Joint-Metallism, by Anson Phelps Stokes. (Putnams.) A book that grew out of a newspaper discussion, in which Mr. Stokes made a plea for a plan of coining silver and gold in quantities determined by their relative market value at the time of coinage, — a plan that he thinks would permit the safe use of both metals as money, and would automatically regulate the quantity of each. It is an ingenious and whimsical theory, upon which a man of unselfish purpose and public spirit has spent industry and some research, and for which he pleads with great earnestness, but it is one of the oddest of many odd theories cast up by the recent tide of financial discussion. — The Money we Need, by Henry Loomis Nelson. (Harpers.)

Humor. Mr. Bonaparte of Corsica, by John Kendrick Bangs (Harpers), is hardly equal to the Comic History of England or the Comic History of Rome, which delighted our childhood ; and one has opportunity, while perusing it, to think many sad thoughts on humor as a profession.

Books of Reference. Harper’s Book of Facts, compiled by Joseph H. Willsey, edited by Charlton T. Lewis. (Harpers.) Suggested by Haydn’s Book of Dates, this much larger volume covers an encyclopædic range, with emphasis on American subjects. History, to a less degree biography, literature, the practical arts and sciences, and even “ curious information ” come within its scope. Under every State of the Union, for instance, are a brief geographical explanation, a chronological table of the principal events in the State’s history, a list of Governors, and a list of United States Senators. Every American city of more than two hundred thousand inhabitants is similarly treated. Similarly treated, also, but briefly, is the history of other countries.

The very practical purpose is kept in view to enable the reader to find quickly the single fact that he is looking for, whether it be a record of sports or the date of a battle. It is a book that will be used of teller, perhaps, by persons who have it than any other single-volume book of general reference. — The American Congress, a History of National Legislation and Political Events, 1774-1895, by Joseph West Moore. (Harpers.) A useful book of reference, which would be more useful if it were more a simple chronicle, and less a running narrative. Mr. Moore has done for Congress a service similar to the service done for presidential elections by Mr. Stanwood in his History of Presidential Elections.