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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



perform the duties of citizens ; and, in the 

 second series, to show how our diplomacy 

 has been practically useful in furthering our 

 commerce and navigation. Under the for- 

 mer head are the chapters on " The Depart- 

 ment of State," "Our Consular System," 

 and " Diplomatic Officials," in which the his- 

 tory, theory, purpose, and operations of those 

 services are fully described ; and under the 

 second head is shown M how we asserted our 

 rights to freedom of navigation, freedom 

 from tribute such as was paid to the Bar- 

 bary pirates, freedom from the police super- 

 vision of the ocean which Great Britain at 

 one time wished to obtain, and freedom 

 from the restrictions on the free navigation 

 of rivers and seas, about which we had dis- 

 putes with powers so remote as Spain, 

 Great Britain, Russia, Denmark, and Bra- 

 zil." Chapters have also been devoted to the 

 fishery question, and to the efforts of our 

 Government to conclude commercial treaties 

 with foreign powers. The whole subject is 

 a very large one, and Mr. Schuyler calls at- 

 tention to the fact that several points still 

 remain to be considered. 



Dutch Village Communities on the Hud- 

 son River. By Irving Elting. Pp. 

 68. Town Government in Rhode Isl- 

 and. By William E. Foster. Pp. 36. 

 The Narragansett Planters. By Ed- 

 ward Channing. Pp. 23. Pennsyl- 

 vania Boroughs. By William P. IIol- 

 comb. Pp. 51. Baltimore: N. Murray. 



These monographs, Nos. 2 and 3 being 

 bound together, form the first four num- 

 bers of the fourth series of " Johns Hop- 

 kins University Studies in Historical and 

 Political Science." The interest of the 

 studies shows no signs of flagging; there 

 appears to be abundance of material at 

 hand on which to base the successive new 

 researches, and it is well used by the several 

 authors. Concerning the lessons that may 

 be learned from the studies, Mr. Foster 

 remarks, in the opening of his paper, that 

 " the application of the comparative meth- 

 od to the study of early American history 

 has within recent years been attended with 

 results of the most substantial value. The 

 scattered communities along the Atlantic 

 coast which, since 1776, have been united 

 in a common bond of government, had 

 their origin in widely diverse sets of condi- 



tions. While, therefore, their development 

 has been characterized by institutions bear- 

 ing a general analogy to each other, there is 

 sufficient individuality and local differentia- 

 tion to be observed, in any one instance, to 

 render a somewhat close comparison of 

 their points of resemblance and difference 

 extremely serviceable. It is plain, more- 

 over, that the further down in the scale of 

 local division we can go, the more fruitful 

 will be the study of these local institutions." 



Mr. Elting's paper, on "Dutch Village 

 Communities on the Hudson River," shows 

 how these communities, which were in fact a 

 secondary though more natural form of or- 

 ganization supplementing the first artificial 

 and unsatisfactory aristocratic form, were 

 really the outgrowth of German institutions 

 that are known to have existed at least as 

 far back as the time of Julius Caesar. The 

 same idea of community in the ownership 

 of the land appears to mark them both. In 

 conclusion, the author asserts, with consid- 

 erable boldness, we think, that " from the 

 banks of the Rhine, the germs of free local 

 institutions, borne on the tide of Western 

 emigration, found here, along the Hudson, a 

 more fruitful soil than New England af- 

 forded for the growth of these forms of 

 municipal, State, and national government, 

 which have made the United States the 

 leading republic among the nations." 



Mr. Foster, in his " Town Government in 

 Rhode Island," dwells upon the independent 

 origin and independent action of the towns, 

 which prevented them from associating 

 themselves together except under great 

 stress of circumstances, and then under 

 reservations which fixed a stamp on the 

 character of the State ; and this trait of 

 original organization explains the hesitation 

 which was shown by Rhode Island in adopt- 

 ing the Federal Constitution. In the " Nar- 

 ragansett Planters," Mr. Channing describes 

 a peculiar landed aristocracy possessing 

 large estates, who, obtaining a holding on 

 Narragansett Bay, produced a state of so- 

 ciety which had no parallel in New England, 

 and "was an anomaly in the institutional 

 history of Rhode Island." 



In " Pennsylvania Boroughs," Mr. Hol- 

 comb glances at the antiquity of the borough 

 in England, considers the meaning of the 

 term, especially as used in Pennsylvania, in 



