LITERARY NOTICES. 



557 



19th, and 20th, of November, 1884, and was 

 attended by two hundred and forty -two fel- 

 lows. The titles of fifty papers to be read 

 were entered on the official programme of 

 the meeting, by members representing fif- 

 teen counties of the State, besides papers 

 the titles of which were received after the 

 programme was published. Of these pa- 

 pers, seventeen were on topics of surgery, 

 fifteen on medicine, eleven on obstetrics and 

 gynaecology, three on ophthalmology, two 

 on materia medica, one on physiology, and 

 one on insanity. The present volume con- 

 tains three papers, with the president's 

 (Henry D. Didama, M. D., of Onondaga 

 County) annual address, lists of officers and 

 council, fellows, etc. ; the " Articles of In- 

 corporation and Constitution and By-laws " ; 

 the " Code of Medical Ethics " ; the " Pro- 

 ceedings of the Annual Meeting" ; and the 

 " Report and Minutes of the Council." 



Representative American Orators. To 

 illustrate American Political History. 

 Edited, with Introductions, by Alex- 

 ander Johnston. New York : G. P. 

 Putnam's Sons. 3 vols. Pp. 282, 314, 

 405. Price, $3.75. 



The present generation of Americans is 

 far behind the one that preceded it in a 

 realizing knowledge of the political history 

 of our country and of the principles on which 

 our government is founded. The civil war 

 and its sequences seem to have obscured the 

 living knowledge of our earlier history, and 

 left it nearly as colorless as some matter of 

 a remote age ; while the anomalous meas- 

 ures that have had to be devised to meet 

 the unprecedented exigencies of the last 

 twenty-five years have tended to consign 

 the safe traditions of our old statesmen to 

 oblivion, and contributed to the spread of 

 novel and dangerous heresies. Hence we 

 regard anything that will help to make liv- 

 ing again among us the fundamental prin- 

 ciples of American politics and the debates 

 of the past, and the ultimate objects which 

 our statesmen sought to reach, as of public 

 benefit. We can conceive nothing better 

 adapted to set these matters vividly before 

 American youth than the orderly present- 

 ment of the best and most pertinent words 

 of the best orators who took part in the 

 shaping of them, such as Mr. Johnston has 

 aimed to make in these three volumes. His 



compilation is divided into seven parts, il- 

 lustrating seven epochs in our history: 

 "Colonialism, to 1789"; "Constitutional 

 Government, to 1801 " ; " The Rise of De- 

 mocracy, to 1S15"; "The Rise of Nation- 

 ality, to 1S40" ; " The Slavery Struggle, to 

 1860 " ; " Secession and Reconstruction, to 

 1876 " ; and " Free Trade and Protection " ; 

 in all of which, except the last, a kind of 

 chronological order is maintained. In each 

 of these epochs the orators are presented, 

 so far as is found practicable, on either 

 side, whose voices were most potent in put- 

 ting the issues into shape and molding 

 opinion upon them. The earlier periods are 

 represented, among other oraters, by Patrick 

 Henry, Hamilton, Washington, Fisher Ames, 

 Jefferson, Randolph, Quincy, Clay, Hayne, 

 and Webster ; the issues of the antislavery 

 struggle by Phillips, Clay, Sumner, Douglas, 

 Preston Brooks, Burlingame, Lincoln, Breck- 

 inridge, and Seward ; and the periods of se- 

 cession and reconstruction by other names 

 equally prominent and representative ; while 

 the question of " Free Trade and Protec- 

 tion " is illustrated by Henry Clay's " The 

 American System," and Frank Hurd'a 

 "Tariff for Revenue only." Each of the 

 groups of orations is preceded by an intro- 

 duction giving the historical thread by which 

 the speeches were connected, and describing 

 the condition of the questions to which they 

 related. 



Afghanistan and the Anglo-Russian Dis- 

 pute. By Theodore F. Rodendough. 

 New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 

 139, with Maps and Illustrations. Price, 

 50 cents. 



This is a convenient hand-book for per- 

 sons wishing to follow the Afghanistan 

 question, which is yet, despite the seemingly 

 smiling aspect of the negotiations, far from 

 settled. It gives a plain view of the situa- 

 tion as it was at the moment when the re- 

 cent passages between England and Russia 

 began to be lively. It first relates the suc- 

 cessive steps by which Russia has advanced 

 during the last century and a half from the 

 Ural into Central Asia, and to its present 

 position near the Afghan frontier. Thi3 

 history is followed by accounts of " the 

 British forces and routes," and " the Rus- 

 sian forces and approaches," and by a review 

 of the military situation. 



