A REVIEW OF THE HALIFAX FISHERY AWARD AS IT STRIKES A PRIVAte citizen. By ALEXANDER BLISS. 8vo, pp. 24. Washington. 1878.

The American mind is fully made up as to the injustice of the award of the Commissioners in this long protracted dispute. In this argument Mr. Bliss considers the subject fairly and dispassionately and shows clearly that the award was based upon incorrect and unjust premises, and extravagant in amount. The President, to whom it was referred to decide whether the sum awarded be now paid, or further delays had, has very properly ordered immediate payment. Mr. Bliss justly remarks, "The saddest result perhaps of this award will be the shaken confidence of the American mind in the efficacy of arbitration as a remedy in international disputes." The diplomatic management of this dispute on the American side is severely criticised.

As

G. P.

BRYANT AMONG HIS COUNTRYMEN: THE POET, THE PATRIOT, THE MAN. An Oration before the Goethe Club, Wednesday evening, October 30, 1878. By SAMUEL OSGOOD, D.D., LL.D. 8vo, pp. 34. PUTNAM'S SONS. New York, 1879. To us of New York one of the most pleasant recollections of the poet-sage of America was the reception given to him by the Goethe Club at the art rooms of Mr. Kurtz in the fall of 1877. In reply to the welcome words of Dr. Ruppaner, the honored guest made a response which can never be forgotten by those who listened to it. The close thought, the choice and appropriate English clothing in which it was rendered were anticipated; but the vigor of utterance, the unfaltering, unwavering diction were simply a marvel coming from one of his venerable years. Not Everett himself in the plentitude of his powers was ever more precise, more accurate in his delivery. It was with appropriate reverence and a just conception of the fitness of things that the Goethe Club, which he had so honored, paid a tribute to his character and genius. Nor could peculiarly fitted to render that tribute, in the precise measure that became the occasion, have been selected than the accomplished scholar, orator and man of letters, whose relations with Mr. Bryant had combined those of pastor and friend.

an orator more

In nothing has the hold Mr. Bryant had upon the thought and the affection of the community been more strikingly shown than in the diversity of the tributes paid to his memory. No single biographer could have displayed his multiform nature as happily as it has been presented in separate detail, just as the precise place of a star

in the galaxy of heaven is best ascertained by distinct observations from different points of view. Perhaps one quality of his writings alone remains untouched-his wonderful mastery of the strongest, simplest forms of the English tongue, in which Milton in poetry and Webster in prose were alone his equals. Superiors in his happiest moods he had none. To this quality no adequate tribute has yet been paid.

The examination of Dr. Osgood is essentially phsycological in its treatment. He analyses the elements of his moral and intellectual character, and shows the influence of each upon the other, and of both upon the society in which he moved and the larger world whom his poetic power reached and instructed. Most pleasing is the orator's description of the softening influence of age upon his nature, and the mellowness of the sunset of his years.

ARTIST-BIOGRAPHIES-ALLSTON. 16m0, pp. 192. The Riverside Press. HOUGHTON, OSGOOD & Co. Boston, 1879.

In this short, but pleasing and readable sketch all that is known of this distinguished artist, whose fame was once national, has been gathered with tender hand. His own sayings have been carefully preserved, and every allusion to him culled from the memoirs of his artist contemporaries, with many of whom he was on intimate terms. Mr. Sweetzer considers him one of the highest products of American civilization and European culture combined, possessed of the full affluence of literary genius, artistic knowledge, refinement, purity and religion, as few other men of the Western World have been before or since. He was perhaps better known in England, where he painted many of his earlier pictures, than at home, and was elected an associate of the Royal Academy without the usual form of solicitation.

His correct taste early led him to avoid the mannerism of West, misnamed classical, and to follow nature closely, while his ambition was not content except with the most sublime subjects, and on the largest scale. Of these his most celebrated treatments were the great painting of Belshazzar's Feast, which was never wholly completed; Elijah in the Desert, now in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and Jeremiah, the property of Yale College.

For his richness of coloring, he received at Rome the name of the American Titian; yet in no work of his life did he realize the promise of his genius. His versatility may have been the cause of this. It is not to every one that the gods have permitted, as to Michael Angelo, to be great in everything. In this the life of Allston may serve as a lesson to artists. It is here written in a graceful and pleasing manner.

THE HISTORY OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE RIGHT HONORABLE FREDERICK TEMPLE, EARL OF DUFFERIN, LATE GovERNOR-GENERAL OF CANADA. BY WILLIAM LEGGO. 8vo, pp. 901. LOVELL PRINTING AND PUBLISHING CO., Montreal. G. MERCER ADAM, Toronto. 1878.

In this elaborate volume Mr. Leggo, a wellknown barrister of Ottawa, has collected from the State papers of Canada all that concerns the administration of its late enlightened, liberal and distinguished Governor-General, and added all of his speeches on occasions of public interest, festive as well as political. No small task, when we consider the facility with which the Earl undertook the work of oral instruction whenever an opportunity presented itself; and they were not rare, as any one who has experienced the hospitalities of our kinsmen over the border, public and private, will understand. The purpose of the book, the author announces, is to point out the gradual development of the system of "Responsible Government in Canada, the central stone in the now complete arch, of which he ascribes to the Earl of Dufferin the honor of posing. It is not to be expected that the people on this side of the line will take much interest in the detail of this movement, although its general bearings are not without their consequence to us. Those who are personally acquainted with the late Governor will find interest and amusement in his speeches, which are replete with the humor peculiar to his Irish origin, a humor with which we also are not without means of large acquaintance. Of this class of oratory, the most characteristic is his reply to the joint address of the municipal corporation of Ontario on his departure from Canada, in which he claimed all mankind as kin, because, with rare exceptions, of Irish descent, or the next thing to it; Lord Lorne, his successor, included. Not the least difficult of the tasks of the husband of the Queen's daughter will be that he has to succeed a man as genial and a statesman as liberal as the Earl of Dufferin.

NEW PERIODICALS PROGRESS; A MIRROR FOR MEN AND WOMEN. [A weekly periodical; pp. 20.] JOHN W. FORNEY, Editor and Proprietor. Philadelphia, 1878.

The first number of this excellent weekly periodical appeared on the 16th of November, 1878. It has since continued to grow in grace and favor. No man in this country knows better what the American people need in the way of periodical instruction and amusement than the accomplished gentleman who has taken this new start in journalism, and leaping from the

traces of established usage has led the way in a new style, which he appropriately terms Progress. Abandoning the old practice of long and labored editorials, he treats of all that affects our life in short and pregnant paragraphs. Politics, old and new history, biography, foreign travel, the drama and opera-all receive appropriate attention; and indeed no one of these fields has been explored with more profit to American culture than by Mr. Forney himself. None so well fitted as he to direct an enterprise where each of these subjects has its assigned place.

We most heartily wish him a complete success. THE SATURDAY MAGAZINE; A JOURNAL OF HOME AND FOREIGN LITERATURE, [A weekly periodical.] 8vo, pp. 32. LEE & SHEPARD, publishers. Boston.

This new periodical announces its intention to be mainly a selection from the best material of foreign periodicals. It is printed in the style so familiar to us in a number of the lighter and more popular English issues of this character. The editors ask for opinions and suggestions as to its conduct. We venture the opinion that it devote a part of its pages to translations of the French and German reviews. Here is a field almost untouched and full of rich material. There is not a number of the Revue des Deux Mondes or the Contemporaine which does not contain something attractive. Take, for instance, Admiral de la Gravière's sketch of the navy of the past and of the future. Not all the published histories of Greece contain such vivid accounts of the great battles between the hosts of Xerxes and the Grecian bands as this masterly exposition; or look again at the descriptions of ancient architectural Rome as drawn from recent explorations, which appeared last year.

These are hints which may or not be valuable. In its greeting the editors announce that the magazine means to be "agreeable, useful, cleanly and honorable; a fountain of pleasant thoughts and fresh knowledge, and a helper of all that is good." That this it would be the names of the editors gave sure warrant. That this it is the reader can easily see for himself. We commend it heartily to every household. Its success is certain. It is the very thing for an after-dinner lounge of man or woman, youth or damsel of good degree.

NOTICE

The page entitled Letters from Washington, and signed by the Editor, which prefaces this number, was accidentally omitted from the February (Washington) number by the binders. In binding the volume at the close of the year it can be transferred to its proper place.

EDITOR