bill of 1832 to the acts of 1884 and 1885, showing that the parliament man has ceased to be a representative and has become a mere delegate, and that thus debates are ceasing to be more than a form, parliamentary votes being predetermined by a political programme - what we should call a platform." One chapter is devoted to the House of Lords as the exponent of historic privilege, and another to the socialistic tendency of democracy. In conclusion, there is a discussion of what the democrats want to do with the government when they get final control, and of the dangers implied in a socialistic democracy.

Mr. Dickenson's plea is more than plausible in some respects. The fact is that the tendency in England has been towards a democratic unicameral parliament — and that with cabinet government means simply the autocracy of the temporary majority among the masses. We in America with all our democracy have shunned such a democratic despotism by a most elaborate system of checks and balances. So far as form of government goes, it is only the existence of the House of Lords which now keeps England from the system of the French Convention of 1793. The American republic has a less democratic constitution than the British monarchy.

It is a curious fact that the law lectures of James Wilson have so long lain neglected in the original and scarce edition of 1804; they have been unused by students of law, little referred to by students of politics, and unknown to the ordinary reader of American history. Yet they contain an intensely interesting commentary on the Constitution, written by a man who was himself one of the greatest and ablest men of the Philadelphia convention. They are quite comparable to Blackstone's lectures in profundity and learning; and they give an illuminating example of how the founders of our government looked upon the fundamental principles of the

state.

A new edition of Wilson's Works has just issued from the press, edited by Mr. James De Witt Andrews (The Works of James Wilson, Chicago, Callaghan and Co., 1896, two volumes, pp. xlvi, 577, 623). It is unfortunate that the volumes do not reproduce all of the contents of the first edition, inasmuch as the title has been taken. The law lectures are, however, given in full and have been separately annotated. The editor has cherished the hope that the volumes would be used by law students as the basis of their studies; but there seems little ground for such expectation. The lectures are so crammed with erudite and obsolete learning, that they are oftentimes a weariness to the reader who seeks Wilson's idea of law and not his comments on the customs of the Medes or the Egyptians. The editor has been wise in not intruding his own ideas in the shape of useless notes. The lectures speak for themselves. To the first volume a long argumentative note is appended, which shows how completely the editor. has come under the spell of the author. Mr. Andrews argues with great earnestness that not the male voters, but the whole people — men, women,

and babes are the possessors of political sovereignty in America. Otherwise, what would become of Wilson's oft-repeated assertion that laws obtain their validity only from the consent of the governed? On the whole, the editing has been sensibly done, and students of history and law may be grateful that these profoundly interesting lectures are thus again made widely accessible. A. C. McL.

Mr. S. M. Hamilton, to whom every student of history who pursues researches in the manuscript collections of the Department of State at Washington is constantly indebted, proposes to issue an extensive series of facsimiles of manuscripts from the national archives. They will be published by the Public Opinion Co., Astor Place, New York City, as The Hamilton Facsimiles. Such a series of documents, showing perfectly the handwriting, erasures, interlineations, and signatures of state papers of historical importance, will surely be appreciated by scholars. The expense would ordinarily occur to the mind as an objection to the extensive use of collections so prepared; but Mr. Hamilton promises all possible cheapness. The first issue- a handsome thin quarto - contains documents relating to the Monroe Declaration; five letters which passed between Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe in October and November, 1823; the appropriate extracts from the message of December 2; and a letter of Richard Rush to Monroe, of January 28, 1824. Part II. will contain several famous letters of the Revolutionary period, and documents of the boyhood of Washington. The papers in the third part will relate to the treason of Benedict Arnold.

Miss Elizabeth H. Avery's The Influence of French Immigration on the Political History of the United States, a thesis for the doctor's degree at the University of Minnesota, deals with the influence of the Huguenots in the period before 1790, and with the history of the French Catholics in the Northwest and in the Louisiana Purchase, since their acquisition. Plainly no effort is made to take account of the French immigrants who flocked into the country at the time of the French Revolution, in consequence of the revolt in Santo Domingo, or in consequence of the fall of Napoleon. Within the limits of the subject as it is understood by the writer, she does her work carefully, modestly, and with good judgment as to the conclusions reached. It is not so clear that the necessity of working from the sources alone rather than from secondary authorities, as an essential characteristic of work for the doctor's degree, has been kept before the mind of the writer.

Citizenship and Suffrage in Maryland, by Bernard C. Steiner (Baltimore, Cushing and Co., 1895, pp. 95), is both historical and descriptive. Mr. Steiner discusses the methods by which citizenship has been attained in Maryland since the foundation of the colony, and the privileges granted to aliens, gives a history of the suffrage

laws, and then an analysis of the present election laws of the state. The study is a careful piece of work, and is a contribution both to local history and to an important branch of political science in the United States. The general awakening to an interest in good government, state and municipal, it is to be hoped will yield still further fruit in the scholarly study of the evolution of existing state institutions.

Stimmrecht und Einzelstaat in den Vereinigten Staaten von Nordamerica, von Dr. Otis Harrison Fisk (Leipzig, Duncker and Humblot, 1896). This discussion of essential points in the political system of the United States is addressed to a German audience. Its aim is to elucidate the legal status of the states as related to the Union and to explain the basis of suffrage in the several states. The author takes the ground that there was no legal government common to the Union until the adoption of the Constitution; that during the Revolution the states were sovereign; that the Confederation was a league of sovereign states; and that state sovereignty was surrendered only under the Constitution. He explains clearly the dual system of our government and shows how the sovereign people have distributed governmental powers between the two agencies, federal and state. Dr. Fisk has done his work with commendable thoroughness, and the minuteness with which he has cited his authorities point by point is especially Germanesque.

A handsome and interesting volume, commemorative of Thomas. Corwin, has been prepared at the instance of various friends and neighbors in Lebanon, Ohio, where he lived (Life and Speeches of Thomas Corwin, Orator, Lawyer, and Statesman, edited by Josiah Morrow, Cincinnati, W. H. Anderson & Co., 1896, pp. 477). They spent some years in gathering and preparing materials, and confided to Mr. Morrow, Corwin's last law-student, the work of editing them. He has prepared a brief biography, of less than a hundred pages, in which the greatest amount of new matter is that relating to Corwin's first entrance into political life and his first election to Congress. The remainder of the volume is taken up with Corwin's speeches, delivered in Ohio and in the federal Senate and House of Representatives. The volume is supposed to contain all his speeches that were reported and revised for publication in his lifetime. They are not arranged in a chronological order.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL

1. Proceedings, etc., of Early Party Conventions.

[Believing that interest in the history of the nominating convention will, during the present summer, be especially active, and hoping that this interest may lead various investigators into those local studies from which alone the history of the institution in its earlier stages can be elaborated, the managing editor presents the following list. His intention has been to include all pamphlets emanating from party conventions (of delegates, not mass conventions) during the period from 1789 to the end of 1832, to a time, that is, when the practice of making presidential nominations through conventions had become fully adopted by the national parties. A few pamphlets published by individuals have also been included, which show the existence of certain conventions that did not themselves publish their proceedings. The capital letters at the end of the titles indicate the presence of copies in the following libraries, respectively: A, the Astor Library; AAS, the library of the American Antiquarian Society at Worcester; B, the Boston Public Library; BA, that of the Boston Athenæum; BU, that of Brown University; C, that of Congress at Washington; E, that of the Essex Institute at Salem; H, that of Harvard University; L, the Lenox Library; M, that of the Massachusetts Historical Society; NYH, that of the New York Historical Society; NYS, that of the State of New York at Albany; PH, that of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; PL, that of the Library Company of Philadelphia; Y, that of Yale University. The order is chronological. The list is no doubt incomplete and otherwise imperfect. Titles have in many cases been taken into it at second hand from catalogues. But it is thought that it may serve the uses of historical students almost as well as if, after long labors and delays, it were based upon a personal inspection of every pamphlet mentioned. For a considerable part of the details embraced in the list, the compiler is indebted to the members of his seminary, and to the several librarians. Their aid is gratefully acknowledged.]

Address of a Convention of Delegates from Twenty Towns and five Plantations within the Counties of York, Cumberland and Lincoln, met by Adjournment at Portland, . . . the Twenty Eighth . . . of January One Thousand Seven Hundred and Ninety Five, to the People of Said Counties on the subject of their Separation from Massachusetts. Portland, [1795.] Pp. 31. Sabin 43901. AAS, BA, H, M. Address of the State Committee of Correspondence to the Citizens of Pennsylvania [No title-page]. Pp. 10. [Dated Philadelphia, July 25, 1808. Appointed by the Convention, held at Lancaster, March 7.] NYS.

Essex Resolutions. At a meeting of Delegates from the several Towns in the County of Essex, at Topsfield, on Thursday, October 6th, 1808, assembled for the purpose of taking into consideration, etc. Newburyport, [1808.] Pp. 14, (1). Sabin 23007. AAS, BA, C, E, H, M, NYH, PH, Y.

Proceedings of the Grand Caucus, composed of Delegates from the several Towns in the County of N[orfolk]. Assembled at Mr. H[oare's] Inn, in D[edham], Thursday, February 9-1809, Pro Bono Publico; and to examine into the present state of the union, whether the people of New England are ripe for rebellion, and whether means are to be used to prevent their resistance to measures of government. Massachusetts, February, 1809. Pp. 8.

B, BU.

An Address to the People of the County of Hampshire, By A Committee appointed for that purpose [a meeting of Federalists, held at Northampton, Mass., Feb. 22, 1809, composed of Delegates from 51 towns in the County of Hampshire.] Northampton, March 15, 1809. Pp. 20.

NYH.

An Address to the Independent Electors of the State of New York on the present state of public affairs and on the ensuing general election. [At a very numerous and respectable meeting of electors from different parts of the state, assembled in Albany, 16th Feb. 1810, to consider of persons proper to be nominated as candidates for the offices of Governor and Lieutenant-Governor.] Albany, n. d. Pp. 16. NYS. Republican Nominations. Nomination of Lieutenant-Governor. [No title-page. March and April, 1811. Contains reports of various county meetings of delegates.] Pp. 29.

NYS.

Journal of the Proceedings of the Convention held in New Haven, May, 1811. New York, 1811. Pp. 36. Sabin 15753, 52982. M. Barnstable Congressional Nomination, and Statement of Votes in Congress, By Isaiah L. Green, Esq. . . . Boston, 1812. Pp. 16.

Sabin 28525. BA, M.

An Address to the Citizens of Norfolk County, exposing the absurdity of the arguments most commonly urged against the justice and expediency of the present war; and showing the necessity of electing a member to the next Congress, who will support it. By a citizen of Norfolk. [Erastus Worthington, Esq.] Dedham, 1812. Pp. 24. BA, BU.

Address to the Free and Independent People of Massachusetts. "A large and respectable convention of citizens from all parts of the Commonwealth," etc. [Boston, Feb. 21, 1812.] Pp. 8. AAS, BA, BU, NYH, Y. Address of a Convention at Worcester, March, 1812. [n. p. n. d.] Sabin 45581. AAS. Proceedings and Address of the Convention of Delegates to the People of New Jersey. Trenton, 4 July, 1812. Pp. 20. Sabin 53204. BA.

8vo.

Address of a Convention of Delegates of the People of New Jersey held by public appointment . . . Trenton, 4 July, 1812. Canandaigua, N. Y., 1812. Pp. 8. Sabin 53050. BA, NYS.

Proceedings of a Convention of Delegates from the Counties of Hampshire, Franklin, and Hampden, holden at Northampton the 14th and 15th of July, 1812. Northampton, 1812. Pp. 14.

Sabin 65783. AAS, BA, BU, M, NYS, Y. Address to the Friends of Independence, Peace, and Union in County