RECENT LITERATURE.

The student of social problems is likely to find the discussion of the Outlook in Missions the most suggestive portion of Dr. William Newton Clarke's "Study of Christian Missions." (Chas. Scribner's Sons, New York.)

The foreign missionary is on trial before the educated classes in the Western World, where an account of the practical and visible results of a completed century of missions is distinctly demanded. It is perhaps less obvious to the lay reader than it is to the author that the frank criticism and diminishing contributions of the age are due to its warlike ambitions and worldly living. At a time when sentiment counts for less in the affairs of life than at any period of modern history, it is not unnatural that even good men should ask for the reckoning, for a trial balance in the best sustained effort of Christianity since the rise of Islam. It is not the decadence of spirituality in Protestant countries: it is its extraordinary continuance during a hundred years of preliminary and experimental effort in exotic climes among peoples for the most part grossly misunderstood, that is the really surprising feature in the missionary record. If the missionary and his board will submit to the same business standards by which a secular world estimates and approves such organizations as the Salvation Army and the Young Men's Christian Association, there will be no failure in funds for the future. Clarke's volume is admirable in its wise and temperate tone in discussing a question of the very highest cultural and economic importIn its way nothing better has been written since Lawrence's "Modern Missions in the East," a classic on the subject which appeared six years ago. Its only defect is in the limitation involved in the author's plan, which addresses the missionary and his supporters rather than the wider audience of those who would willingly be convinced by full discussion of the effective administration of enormous sums of money and educational establishments carried on in distant and difficult countries.

ance.

Dr.

The significance of environment upon the evolution of political institutions is made the subject of an elaborate speculation by Giacomo Pagano in his "Le Forme di Governo e la loro Evoluzione Popolare." (Tipografia Editrice, "Lo Statuto," Palermo, 2 vols.) It is to be regretted, however, that the author has enveloped a few

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valuable ideas in a mass of phrases, which bewilder rather than instruct the reader. If he could have sacrificed his ideal of completeness to the extent of omitting the speculations about "sidereal environment" and other equally intangible phenomena and restricted himself to a rigorous analysis of the influence of physical and social environment, he would have produced a much better as well as a much smaller book. The best part of his work is in the second volume.

The essays in Mr. Alfred Russell Wallace's two volumes of "Studies Scientific and Social" (The Macmillan Co., New York) comprise his contributions to the periodicals for thirty years on a wide range of subjects in natural and social science. The political and social studies are mainly in the second volume and are devoted to practical questions in public finance, land reform, social progress, education, and public and private ethics. Of especial immediate interest are the papers on White Men in the Tropics; How to Civilize Savages; The Causes of War and the Remedies; Temperate Forest Regions.

Extended comment on such work as Mr. E. C. Stedman's admirable American Anthology (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co.) will not be looked for in a technical periodical. Yet it is perhaps not devoid of interest to students of social questions to remark the very slight degree in which social struggles or problems have inspired good poetry in America. The slavery question alone seems to have struck deeply enough to compel such utterance. One can hardly believe that the song of the new century will be so confined to the expression of individual moods or of aesthetic appreciation of nature, art, and of historic memories.

Professor J. Shield Nicholson's "Treatise on Money and Essays on Monetary Problems" has appeared in a fifth edition (London: A. & C. Black; New York: Macmillan). It differs but slightly from the former editions which have appeared since the first in 1888. An appendix is added which contains the familiar monetary statistics, and a very concise review of recent currency legislation in Japan, in the United States and in India. It is to be regretted that the author has not discussed in full the striking monetary changes in India, which one would have expected from the great attention he has given to the bimetallic controversy.

F. L. Hoffman's "History of the Prudential Insurance Company, 1875-1900 (The Prudential Insurance Co., Newark, N. J.) was prepared as part of the company's exhibit at Paris during the past

year. As a history of that company's growth it gives an insight into the internal organization of a most complicated business enterprise, its growth and success in overcoming difficulties. The book is also interesting as dwelling upon thrift among the working classes. The essential elements of industrial insurance as now practiced are clearly brought out,-the fixed premium purchasing an amount of insurance varying with the age of the insured, the weekly houseto-house collection, the generous provisions of re-instatement after lapse, and the absolutely immediate payment of claims. Of more technical interest are the discussion of the lapse problem, the classi·fication of deaths by occupation and the like. On the latter point any data the insurance companies see proper to publish are of the greatest importance.

One of the most recent issues in the series of Temple Primers is an admirably clear sketch of International Law, by F. E. Smith (The Macmillan Co., New York). It is provided with a list of authorities and of leading cases.

The survey of our foreign relations which ex-Secretary John W. Foster has given in his "Century of American Diplomacy" (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co.) will appeal to the general reader rather than to students. The space at the author's command and apparently the time at his disposal forbade detailed investigation and discussion, and he has been content to provide a clear and readable narrative of the facts accessible in the general histories. That the author has not kept abreast of the latest knowledge in this field is evident in his discussion of the Genet episode, the Louisiana purchase, the John Henry affair, the opening and closing of the Mexican war. On page 316, in following Rhodes, he repeats the error of dating the elections to the 30th Congress after the victories of the Mexican war. In the chapter on the Civil war, the indebtedness to Rhodes in the text and notes is more than would be suspected from the occasional references. On page 345, the reader would be led to suppose, in accordance with a prevalent error, that the Ostend "manifesto" was made public at the time of its adoption by its authors. Some other minor errors might be noticed.

As a whole, however, Mr. Foster's book may be heartily commended as a successful attempt to provide an interesting and well balanced account of our foreign relations from the Declaration of Independence to the end of Grant's administration.

The new and revised edition of Prof. J. P. Gordy's "History of Political Parties in the United States" (Henry Holt & Co., New

York) may be cordially commended as a valuable contribution to the literature of American politics. We believe it would have been wiser to call it a History of American Politics, for such it is and as such it promises to be the best general work of its scope available for students and teachers. While availing himself of the help of the best secondary authorities, Prof. Gordy has conscientiously studied the original documents and his narrative everywhere shows the evidence of his own thought. If in the future volumes he gives equal attention to foreign affairs, his work will be a convenient manual of our diplomatic history. One or two points suggest criticism. The account of Genet, page 179, contains some serious errors, and in discussing his mission to the United States, Prof. Gordy has not availed himself of the new material brought to light by the MSS. Commission of the American Historical Association. Genet had not revolutionized Geneva nor annexed it to the French republic. That annexation did not take place until Genet had been in the United States five years. Again it seems to us inappropriate to call the high Federalists radicals (page 368). They were the "extreme right" in American politics and represented a reactionary conservatism, while the word radical connates innovation or a complete cutting loose from the traditions of the past. This first volume covers the period from 1783 to the end of Jefferson's administration, and the work will be completed in four volumes.

In Mr. John M. Taylor's "Roger Ludlow, the Colonial Lawmaker" (G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York) will be found a painstaking collection of all that is known of Roger Ludlow, who is supposed to have drafted the first constitution of Connecticut, and who drew up the Code of 1650. Mr. Taylor's method, however, indicates a lack of training in historical research.

A timely republication is that of Professor Alfred Rambaud's essays on the "Expansion of Russia" (The International Monthly, Burlington, Vt.) The earlier part is almost too condensed to be easily assimilated. Of more immediate interest to-day are the chapters on the Colonization of Siberia and the Means and Methods of Russian Expansion. An absolute government and an assimilative population without religious or race prejudices simplify for Russia some of the phases of expansion most perplexing to the more sophisticated western nations.

By the use of thinner paper and narrower margins, the two volumes of Professor C. M. Andrews's "Historical Development of Modern Europe" (G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York) have been

reissued in a convenient single volume. For students who are looking for a clear exposition of the political evolution of the leading states of Europe from the French Revolution to the present day, this book may be recommended as presenting the results attained in their respective fields by the leading historians of France, Germany and Italy.

The convenient and serviceable collection of Representative British Orations, edited sixteen years ago by Charles Kendall Adams, has been reissued by the publishers (G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York) with an additional volume under the editorial care of John Alden. In the new volume place is found for one speech each from O'Connell, Palmerston, Lowe, and Rosebery, and for two short ones by Joseph Chamberlain. The earlier edition was almost wholly devoted to the period since 1765, and this preponderance of the modern is greatly increased in the new issue. Mr. Alden's introduction and notes will prove helpful to the reader, although his enthusiastic tribute to Justin McCarthy's "History of Our Own Times" as his main source of information does not inspire confidence in the range of his studies. Such a reference as that on page 277, "The National Biographer says," etc., shows the hand of the novice. Two conspicuously admirable biographies have been added to the series of "Heroes of the Nations" (G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York). In both Mr. Firth's "Cromwell" and Mr. Perkins's "Richelieu," we have subjects of abiding interest treated by writers of rare qualifications. Mr. Firth has given more attention to Cromwell's colonial policy than preceding biographers and the results of his own researches into the history of the army, of Cromwell's battles and of the political radicalism of the time are succinctly presented. Mr. Perkins in his Richelieu has not confined himself to narrow bounds, but has given a general picture of the economic and political condition of France in the age of Richelieu, which is among the best accessible to the English reader. Both volumes are illustrated from contemporary portraits and engravings.