Hppletons' /IJ>ontbl£ Bulletin. 



were the two arms of our maritime serv- 

 ice. 



"In the War of 1S12 the regular navy 

 of the United States on the ocean num- 

 bered only twenty-three vessels, carrying 

 in all five hundred and fifty-six guns. This 

 force captured two hundred and fifty-four 

 of the enemy's craft. In the same period 

 we had five hundred and seventeen priva- 

 teers, aggregating two thousand eight hun- 

 dred and ninety-three guns, which took no 

 fewer than thirteen hundred prizes. 



" Looking at it from the financial point 

 of view, we find that the money value of 

 the prizes and cargoes taken by the Govern- 

 ment cruisers during the Revolution — al- 

 lowing an average of thirty thousand dol- 

 lars for each — to be no less than six million 

 dollars, and allowing the same average for 

 the privateers, we have a total of eighteen 

 million dollars. In the second war with 

 Great Britain we find, on the same basis of 

 calculation, the money value of Government 

 prizes to be six million six hundred thou- 

 sand dollars, while that of the privateers 

 was thirty-nine million dollars. Taking 

 the entire maritime forces of the United 

 States, both navy and privateers, into con- 

 sideration, we find that about eight hun- 

 dred vessels wei'e captured from the Eng- 

 lish in the War for Independence, valued at 

 twenty- three million eight hundred and 

 eighty thousand dollars, while the prisoners 

 could not have been short of sixteen thou- 

 sand ; and in the second war against Great 

 Britain the value of the prizes was forty- 

 five million six hundred thousand dollars, 

 while there were no fewer than thirty thou- 

 sand prisoners. Against these figures we 

 have some twenty-two thousand prisoners 

 taken by our land forces during the Revolu- 

 tion, and about six thousand taken in the 

 War of 1812." 



* * 

 The rank which Mr. Maclay's His- 

 tory of the U?iited States Navy has 

 earned for itself as the one final and 

 authoritative work upon the subject is a 

 sufficient guarantee of the treatment 

 which the historian will give to the 

 Spanish-American War. Neither the 

 author nor publishers would consent to 

 the making of a " timely " book, hastily 



4 



prepared from newspaper articles. Very 

 recently the appearance of reports and 

 other papers in this country and in Spain 

 has amply justified adherence to true 

 historical methods. The official docu- 

 ments relating to the war, the various 

 monographs, published logs, and special 

 reports, and the accounts of officers who 

 took a leading part in the war, have been 

 carefully collected by Mr. Maclay, and 

 his history will represent a sifting of 

 evidence and a free access to revised 

 and reliable data which no other writer 

 on the entire subject can equal. Mr. 

 Maclay is also enjoying the advantage 

 of the aid afforded by some of the chief 

 actors in the scenes which he describes. 

 The publishers announce that the new 

 edition of the " History of the Navy," to 

 appear probably in the autumn, will be 

 in three volumes. The second volume 

 will close with the Civil War. The third 

 volume will include naval experiences 

 since the Civil War, the building of the 

 new navy, and the history of the Spanish- 

 American War in full, including the work 

 of the navy in the Philippines to date. 

 There will be a closing chapter upon 

 the new ships now in progress of con- 

 struction. The chief feature of this 

 volume will, of course, be its presenta- 

 tion of the authoritative naval history of 

 the war with Spain. 





The late David A. Wells left behind 

 him a last great work which will take 

 rank as one of the most important of 

 American contributions to economics. 

 The larger part of his Principles of 

 Taxation had already appeared in 

 Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, so 

 that the work had the benefit of the 

 author's revision for the press. The 

 consequence of this book need not be 

 emphasized. 



* 



The reminiscences of the late John 

 Sartain include his early life in London. 

 Various distinguished people, interesting 

 historical happenings, quaint features of 



