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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



is the autobiography of a princess of the 

 house of Zanzibar who became the wife of 

 a German gentleman and made her home in 

 Hamburg. The lady was a sister of the Sul- 

 tans Madjid and Bargash ; and her book is 

 of interest as giving a representation of fam- 

 ily life in Eastern courts. A darkly shad- 

 owed portrait is drawn of Sultan Bargash. 



The collection of Mr. Bcecher's Patriotic 

 Addresses, published by Fords, Howard & 

 Hulbert, contains the more important ad- 

 dresses and contributions to periodicals 

 made by Mr. Beecher in America and Eng- 

 land, from 1850 to 1865, on slavery, the 

 civil war, and the development of civil lib- 

 erty in the United States. The list begins 

 with the article " Shall we compromise ? " 

 written in 1850, during the pending of Mr. 

 Clay's " Omnibus Bill," when the issue on 

 which the country was to divide politically 

 was for the first time clearly defined and set 

 forth, and closes with the eulogy on Grant. 

 The intervening addresses — even though we 

 may not agree with the editor in giving Mr. 

 Beecher prominence after Lincoln and Grant, 

 to the exclusion of others, in influencing the 

 destinies of the country — are as essentially a 

 part of the history of the times as any other 

 single series of events. Mr. John R. IIow- 

 ard, the editor of the papers, who was a 

 close personal friend of the author, intro- 

 duces them with a well-balanced review of 

 Mr. Beecher's remarkable personality and 

 his influence on public affairs. Excellent 

 portraits are given of Mr. Beecher in his 

 mature manhood, at sixty-five, and a year 

 before his death ; and portraits, which ought 

 to have been better ones, of the prominent 

 men of the anti-slavery controversy. 



The latest volume of Mr. Bancroft's His- 

 tory of the Pacific States (The History Com- 

 pany, San Francisco) is marked the ninth, 

 and is the sixth and concluding volume of 

 the History of Mexico. It gives the story 

 from 1861 to 1887, with accounts of the in- 

 vasion by the three powers and the setting 

 up of Maximilian as emperor ; the struggle 

 of the Mexicans against the usurpation, 

 ending in its final overthrow and the execu- 

 tion of Maximilian ; and the presidencies of 

 Juarez, Lerdo de Tejada, Gonzalez, and 

 Porfirio Diaz. The general progress and pres- 

 ent condition of the country are summed up 

 in Chapters XIX to XXVI, under the heads 



of " Government, Finances, and Military " ; 

 " Mining, Manufactures, and Fisheries " ; 

 " Commerce and Railroads " ; " Agricultural 

 Resources ; " " Ecclesiastical Affairs " ; " So- 

 ciety " ; and " Education, Science, Arts, and 

 Literature." Of the condition of science in 

 Mexico, we learn that the National Observa- 

 tory, established in 1878, includes a meteoro- 

 logical and magnetic observatory, and main- 

 tains relations with the chief observatories 

 of foreign nations and with many scientific 

 associations. The Central Meteorological 

 Observatory was established in 1877. A 

 geological society was established in 1875. 

 The Geographical and Statistical Society has 

 contributed to the diffusion of knowledge on 

 many subjects, particularly in connection 

 with Mexico. "The conclusion arrived at, 

 after a fair investigation of facts, is that 

 many sons of Mexico have made great strides 

 in the acquisition of science, and that a 

 number of them have excelled in its several 

 branches, .and are doing their part well in 

 the transmission to others of the knowledge 

 they possess." 



Except in the reduction of the pages to 

 crown octavo size, llie First JEdition of 

 Shakespeare, published by Funk & Wag- 

 nails, is an exact photographic reproduction 

 of the first folio edition of 1623. This 

 edition is very rare, and of great value, 

 principally because it is the only authority 

 for the texts of " The Tempest," " Macbeth," 

 " Twelfth Night," " Measure for Measure," 

 " Coriolanus," " Julius Caesar," " Timon of 

 Athens," "Anthony and Cleopatra," " Cym- 

 bcline," " As You Like It," and " A Win- 

 ter's Tale." It possesses an additional tem- 

 porary value in view of Mr. Donnelly's 

 Bacon-Shakespeare speculations, which are 

 derived wholly from the peculiarities of this 

 text. These peculiarities being given here 

 in exact fac simile, those interested in the 

 questions raised by Mr. Donnelly can by its 

 aid make their own comparison of his deduc- 

 tions with his evidence. 



The magazine entitled Woman (Woman 

 Publishing Company, New York, $2.75 

 a year), whose first number was that for De- 

 cember, 1887, is largely literary in character, 

 and devotes considerable space also to the 

 religious, temperance, and political efforts of 

 women. Household economy receives a 

 moderate share of attention. 



