LITERARY NOTICES. 



6 33 



count for but little, against any new onset 

 of popular passion, or in the face of a sud- 

 den exigency of the Government. From 

 this danger a people receiving into circula- 

 tion an inconvertible paper-money can never 

 escape. A single weak or reckless adminis- 

 tration, one day of commercial panic, a mere 

 rumor of invasion, may hurl trade and pro- 

 duction down the abyss." 



This and Part III., on " Convertible 

 Paper-Money," are able discussions, and 

 timely, for we fear they are over-sanguine 

 who think that the day of our danger from 

 papev inflation is past. 



Mr. Walker discards altogether the word 

 currency, for reasons which he gives fully, 

 and which are not without force. He also 

 substitutes the term " common denominator 

 of exchange" for " measure of value," in 

 defining one of the functions of money a 

 change which we indorse without reserva- 

 tion. There is a copious index, and the 

 book is in all respects well gotten up. 



Monet and Legal Tender in the United 

 States. By H. R. Linderman, Director 

 of the Mint. New York: G. P. Put- 

 nam's Sons. Pp. 173. Price, $1,25. 



There is given to the public in this little 

 book a brief but comprehensive history of 

 American coinage, by a man thoroughly 

 conversant with his subject, and competent 

 to point out clearly the lessons' to be drawn 

 from our experience. 



The various laws regulating the coinage 

 and the workings of the mint are given. 

 The terms used in treating of bullion, coin- 

 age, and money, are defined. A short chap- 

 ter states what constitutes a legal tender. 



Accounts are given of the paper-currency 

 since 1863, of fractional notes, coin-certifi- 

 cates, funding operations, etc. 



Beginning with page 100 is a discussion 

 of the proposition to remonetize silver. It 

 is a straightforward, common-sense state- 

 ment of the question, stripped of illusions 

 and technicalities, that we should be glad 

 to see widely circulated. 



In the appendix are conveniently tabu- 

 lated useful statistics concerning the produc- 

 tion of silver, its use, movements, and prices, 

 the ratio between it and gold, the coinage of 

 the United States mints, etc. 



It would be hard to find a book better 

 adapted to clear away the fogs, which just 



now beset the subject of currencies and 

 standards, than this volume of Dr. Linder- 

 man's, if the public could only be induced 

 to read it. 



An Epitome of the Positive Philosophy 

 and Religion explanatory of the So- 

 ciety of Humanity in the City of New 

 York, together with the Constitution 

 and Regulations of that Society ; to 

 which is added an important letter 

 of Harriet Martineau in regard to 

 her Religious Convictions. Second 

 edition. Pp. 59. Published by the So- 

 ciety of Humanity, 141 Eighth Street, 

 New York. 



This pamphlet will interest many as an 

 exposition, in brief, of the religious basis of 

 positivism. A society has been formed in 

 New York devoted to these ideas, and this 

 is its platform or confession of faith, various 

 points of which are elucidated, and numer- 

 ous authorities quoted, who have expressed 

 sentiments in sympathy with the ideas here 

 presented. It is an earnest and well-written 

 document, evidently by a thorough-going 

 adherent of the system, and is by no means 

 strictly confined to the considerations of 

 religious questions. It contains some new 

 schemes or charts, presenting classifications 

 and methodical arrangements of scientific 

 and philosophical ideas that are filled out 

 with a symmetrical completeness which 

 seems to leave no room for improvement. 

 The blank squares are all filled up so that 

 the system looks finished, and there seems 

 to be a perfect correspondence between the 

 geometrical spacings of the map and the 

 divisions of human knowledge. These tab- 

 ular arrangements are, however, undoubt- 

 edly not designed to be final, but to be open 

 to future revision, and they are of a very 

 suggestive nature. Into the theological ques- 

 tions raised by this brochure we cannot now 

 enter, but may note the manifest humility of 

 the new sect, as there is not a name to be 

 found of anybody connected with it, or of 

 the authorship or publication of the mani- 

 festo, or of any human personality, repre- 

 sentative of the " society." This is some- 

 what remarkable, as the propagandists of 

 the new faith of Positivism 'are somewhat 

 notorious for their free handling of person- 

 alities with whom they differ ; and it seems 

 still more surprising when we remember 

 that the religious polity of positivism is so 



