PREFACE. 



THE volume of this work for 1881 is the sixth of the new series and the 

 twenty-first of the whole series. It has grown in size to meet the increased 

 activity in human affairs, and to present the interesting public questions and 

 scientific developments which have arisen, and the discussions of their principles. 



A special article is devoted to the affairs of each country and to each State 

 of the United States, which contains a sketch of its history during the year, the 

 administration of its government, and its legislation ; full official information on 

 its area, population, education, military force, commerce, industry, finances, and 

 the public questions agitated and reforms effected. ~No efforts are spared to 

 secure the fullest information from all parts of the world, and it is considered 

 that in its several departments the work may be safely consulted as the com- 

 pletest and most reliable book of reference. At the same time its record of 

 scientific developments and progress will be found most valuable and unsur- 

 passed. 



In this volume the sad history of the fatal wounding and slow decline of 

 the President are given in the article on " Garfield," a summary of the points 

 in the trial of the murderer is recounted, the important medico-legal question 

 of "Insanity as a Defense" is discussed, and the constitutional question of 

 "Presidential Inability" is presented, with the views of public men. 



The change of administration, the "legislation of Congress," with the de- 

 bates, the " special sessions " and proceedings of the United States Senate, and 

 the records of each of the States, and especially the political history of New 

 York, are given fully. The movements and statistics of " Commerce and Finance 

 in the United States," and the " Finances " of the Government of the latter, by 

 ex-Assistant Secretary Upton ; the "Exposition of Cotton Products at Atlanta," 

 by Professor William M. Browne ; the report of the " Mississippi Eiver Im- 

 provements " ; " the Panama Canal question " ; the important diplomatic corre- 

 spondence of " Peru, Chili, and the United States " ; the question of " Bi-metal- 

 lic Currency " with the results of the conference at Paris ; the recent progress 

 of " American Constitutional Law " ; the validity of the " Naturalization Papers 

 of the United States " are subjects of permanent and historical importance. 



The stirring events which have occurred in foreign countries are scarcely 

 of less interest. The agrarian question in Ireland as well as in the other coun- 



