an Acco of the Defeat of the Tories by Col. Caswell, Brig. Gen Donald McDonald is taken Prisoner, Cap! Mac Leod and other Officers killed. Harrison moved that Gen Washington do discharge all the unarmed Men in his Camp when he has used his Endeavors without Success to arm them, which was carried after some Opposition. Mons le Chevalier de S Hillaire was made Cap! of an Independent Comp'y and ordered to Canada.

Friday 22 March. Votes read and Letters from Gen Wash L Stirling and others. D Franklin moved that 750 Doll: be advanced to the Baron de Woedtke out of his Pay and this was agreed to, he moved also to present the Baron with 250 Dollars to bear his Expences in coming over Sea and to buy Horses &c Lee and others supported the Motion which was opposed by Duane & al. and carried in the Negative Wyth reported the Preamble about Privateering, he and Lee moved an Amend! wherein the King was made the Author of our Miseries instead of the Ministry, it was opposed on Supposition that this was effectually severing the King from Us forever and ably debated for 4 Hours when Maryland interposed its Veto and put it off till Tomorrow, Chief Speakers for the Amend! Lee, Chase, Serjeant, Harrison, against it Jay, Wilson, Johnson. Willing presented Heard's Accounts and asked Whether Congress would allow Pay to the Minute Men who went on the late Expedition to Queens County, this was denied and the Acco! amounting to £2300 and upwards docked to £800 and odd, the Feriages being above £60 were allowed, Willing moved for a Standing Rule that only Half Ferriage shall be hereafter taken for Soldiers, but other Business intervened. A Petition from a Sufferer in the Disputes at Wyoming was committed to 3, after Objection that it was improper for our Cognizance. Agreed to grant Commissions to Cap! Wm Shippen and his Officers who are about to cruize in a Privateer on or out of Chesapeak Bay, agreed also to sell Him lb 300 of Powder.

Saturday I was not present but inter alia 30,000 Dollars were advanced to Commissary Lowrey.

Monday 25 March. Votes read and Letters from Gen Wash? President Tucker and many more. Howes Troops have abandoned Boston and our People are in Possession. John Adams moved that the Thanks of the Congress be given to the Officers there for their good Conduct and that a Gold Medal be struck with a proper Device and presented to M! Washington, accordingly J Adams and 2 more were appointed a Come for those Purposes. S Adams from a Come reported Major Brixon as fit to be Adjutant General in Canada with the Rank of Brigadier, this was objected to, by Allen particularly, and the Report recommitted. R H. Lee moved that Gen Wash" be directed to detach from his Army 4 Battal to Canada if the Service will admit, he was supported by Johnson and Duane and strongly opposed by Harrison but the Motion passed in the Affirmative, A Report for appointing a Commissary General in Canada was much agitated, M Price was proposed but it appeared that one Halstead was in Possession at Quebec, by Consent of Congress and that Walter Livingston had been appointed, the Report was negatived, an incidental

Question was debated Whether Schuyler or Thomas was to have the chief Command and whether Canada was a distinct Department. 20,000 Dollars advanced to the Virginia Troops. Johnson made a Report inter alia, that 2 Battalions now on Foot in South Carolina and 3 in Virginia should be put upon Continental Pay and Establish which passed without any Negative but my own.

Tuesday 26. a Come of 3 viz Hopkins, S. Adams and Wolcott named to take Order about the Funeral of Gov! Ward who died last Night of the Small Pox and to invite the Rev. M Stillman to preach a Sermon, the Congress agreed to attend the Funeral as Mourners, to wear Mourning for a Month, to invite the Gen Assembly and other Public Bodies and to do no Business till the Funeral is over, only Hooper going Home desired that North Carolina may, if they think it necessary raise Two more Battal upon Continental Pay and Establishment which was granted, no Man but myself dissenting. the Pay of the Maryland Minutemen who lately went to Virginia settled at 50/. Commodore Douglass ordered to his Command on the Lakes. Adj till Thursday 10 O Cloc

Thursday 28 March the Votes read and Letters from Prest Tucker and others our Colony has raised on their own Bottom 4 Companies to be stationed in Midd and Monmouth and our Militia are marching to N York or Staten Isla under their Brigadiers Dickenson and Wm Livingston. McKean informed Congress that the Tory Prisoners in Philad Goal have attempted an Escape and have provided Implements and a Ladder to escape this Night whereupon Mr McKean is to direct the Sheriff to confine Conolly Smith and Kirkland seperately and get a sufficient Guard from the Barracks. 20,000 Dollars advanced to Commissary Mease and 1000 to Fairlamb Commissary to Waynes Battalion. R. H. Lee moved sundry Resol which were negatived as for a Dep. Commissary General to be established in Virginia and for Aids du Camp to the Brigadier (Armstrong) commands there, he moved also for Two Engineers there which passed. Dugan of Canada presented with 1000 Dollars for his past Services. and created a Major with the Rank of L Col. he is to have the Command of 3 Companies of Rangers in Canada and to name all his Officers this was in Consequence of a Report made by Harrison from a Committee. R. Morris moved to purchase another Ship on Continental Acco in this Harbor to be fitted out for the Protection of Delaware Bay which was granted. A Petition from Tho: Walker of Montreal setting forth his Sufferings from Prescott and Carlton and praying Redress was considered and left undetermined, M! Walker soon after returned to Montreal without Redress and his Case on Oath was published in Bradfords Paper about I May. Ritzma elected Col. of a N York Battal?

Friday 29 March. Votes read and Letters from the Come of Safety at New York, from Gen Schuyler, Gen Wooster and a Letter from Vice President Fisher of New Jersey praying Congress to reconsider Heards Acco and grant Pay to his Minute Men On Motion of Lee a Report was taken up on Canadian Affairs and after Debate M: Price was elected

Deputy Commissary with a Salary of 60 Dollars & Month Trumbull the Commissary General has 80 Dollars @ Month M: Price is to have the Canadian Department, some Articles of the Report were expunged our Com of Safety have ordered £200 for the Use of their Delegates here.. the Modes of suppiring the Treasury were considered.

Saturday 30 March. I was not present but among other Things at andin. Heards Acco were reconsidered and the whole Demand allowed. I went Home to Burlington on Sunday having suffered in my Health by a close Attendance on Congress.

REVIEWS OF BOOKS

A Lecture on the

Study of History.
By Lord ACTON,

Delivered at Cambridge, LL.D., D.C.L. (London

June 11, 1895.
and New York: Macmillan and Co. 1895. Pp. 142.)

If this little volume is stimulating from one point of view, it is depressing from another. It stimulates with its eloquent presentation of high ideals of the value and uses of history; it depresses by conveying to the reader the conviction, which Rasselas formed from Imlac's definition of a poet, that the necessary qualifications can never be found united in a single individual. Patient and endless delving amid forgotten documents and accumulated archives, and the inflexible resolve never to accept a statement without sifting it to the bottom, are the first indispensable requisites, to which are to be added knowledge of the world and of men, familiarity with policies and statecraft, clear insight, accurate judgment, and literary skill. It is well to hitch one's wagon to a star if only one can reach the star — and, as it is the duty of a teacher to train his pupils to strive for the highest excellence, no fault is to be found with Lord Acton for the lofty standard which he thus presents to their youthful energy and ambition. Worthy work is performed only in the endeavor to attain the unattainable, and he who puts forth his whole powers must perforce abide by the result, although it will always fall short of his hopes and aspirations. It is not so easy to agree with the lecturer on another point of the highest importance-a point, in fact, on which turns the whole question of the objects and methods of history: He appears (pp. 44 seqq.) to set small store by impartiality. The task of the historian is not simply to discover the truth and set it forth so that its lessons shall teach themselves; in his view the student of history is "the politician with his face turned backwards" (p. 58). Superhuman wisdom might, perhaps, educe from the past permanent rules for the guidance of the present and the future, but, human nature being what it is, the historian, who conceives it his duty to investigate and present his facts with a view to a moral suited to his own time and his own opinions or prejudices, will be tolerably sure to distort the past, while the moral sought for to-day may perhaps be something wholly different to-morrow. We can none of us be sure of absolute impartiality; with the most resolute effort to worship pure truth alone, there will always be a residue of prepossession or prejudice, and the wisest advice that can be given to the student is to cultivate sedulously the judicial habit and to beware, above all things, of becoming an advocate. In any

other frame of mind the investigator is apt to become the victim of expectant attention.

There are other matters on which, if space permitted, issue might fairly be taken with Lord Acton; for the lecture touches, incisively if briefly, on almost every disputable question connected with its subject. All are treated acutely, with the immense and varied erudition for which the author is distinguished, and the book will be profitable reading for every one who is interested in the study or teaching of history.

HENRY CHARLES LEA.

Constantinople. By EDWIN A. GROSVENOR, Professor of European History at Amherst College. With an Introduction by General Lew Wallace. (Boston: Roberts Brothers. 1895. Two vols., pp. xxii, xiii, 811.)

CITIES are open to detailed description either in their organic growth and government, in their relation to the general current of history or in their monuments. Professor Grosvenor has adopted the last course. He has written an archæological tour of Constantinople and its environs. He comes to his task with unusual personal qualifications; for twelve years a professor in Robert College, a member of the Hellenic Philologic Syllogos of Constantinople, of the Society of Mediaval Researches in the same city, and of the Athenian Syllogos Parnassos, he has shared the labors of local archeologists, and his text breathes their enthusiasm, and sometimes, one must add, their inevitable lack of perspective. The entire work is written in the key of constant and sometimes overstrained personal interest. This has its advantages in accumulating detail, and lending life and local color. It has its disadvantages in a style which might without loss be soberer and less Byzantine.

On its archæological and local side, the volume stands alone. Many books of travel have dealt with Constantinople. No technical description of the city exists in English. Its last minute account, Ball's translation of Petrus Gyllius, 1729, is approaching the end of its second century, and the descriptions published in connection with editions of Byzantine historians deal with this aspect. In these two volumes, the reader of Gibbon has at length, in the same tongue which the great historian selected for his monumental work, a picturesque and copious account of the great city about which his history centres, and which alone among earth's cities has been for a millennium and a half without interruption the seat of empire and of rule.

Beginning with a sketch of the site, somewhat deficient in its treatment of physiographic conditions, Mr. Grosvenor narrates the history of the city in successive chapters, and passes to a minute account of the region about Constantinople in the light of the historic incident which has made each spot memorable. This occupies the first volume, part of which, with all the second, is devoted to the monuments of the city. Sancta Sophia has