466 



LITERATURE, AMERICAN, IN 1882. 



which the courts will protect against unlawful seizure 

 or appropriation by others, and on the dissolution of 

 the company he will receive a proportionate share of 

 its assets. Now, if a statute of the State takes the 

 entire property, who suffers loss by the legislation ? 

 Whose property is taken ? Certainly the corporation 

 is deprived of its property ; but, at the same time, in 

 every just sense of the constitutional guarantee, the 

 corporators are also deprived of their property. 



.Decisions of State courts, in harmony with the 

 views we have expressed, exist in great numbers. 

 But it is unnecessary to cite them. It is sufficient to 

 add that in all text-writers, in all codes, and in all 

 Kevised Statutes, it is laid down that the term person 

 includes, or may include, corporations, which amounts 

 to what we haVe already said, that whenever it is 

 necessary for the protection of contract or property 

 rights, the courts will look through the ideal entity 

 and name of the corporation to the persons who com- 

 pose it and protect them, though the process be hi its 

 name. All the guarantees and safeguards of the 

 Constitution for the protection of property possessed 

 by individuals may, therefore, be invoked for the 

 protection of the property of corporations. And as 

 no discriminating and partial legislation, imposing 

 unequal burdens upon the property of individuals, 

 would be valid under the fourteenth amendment, so 

 no legislation imposing such unequal burdens upon 

 the property of corporations can be maintained. The 

 taxation, therefore, of the property of the defendant 

 upon an assessment of its value, without a deduction 

 of the mortgage thereon, is to that extent invalid. 



An appeal from this decision was taken to 

 the Supreme Court of the United States, where 

 the case was argued toward the close of the 

 year. The importance and far-reaching con- 

 sequences of its expected opinion can hardly 

 be overestimated, for it will affect not merely 

 the railroad companies of California, but all 

 corporations, other than municipal, throughout 

 the United States. 



(For the opinion of the United States Supreme 

 Court on other important constitutional ques- 

 tions, see POLITICAL ASSESSMENTS and POWERS 

 OF CONGRESS OVER WITNESSES ; for the inter- 

 pretation given by the courts to the anti- Chi- 

 nese law, see IMMIGRATION; for the opinions 

 in the Virginia and Louisiana bond cases, see 

 OBLIGATIONS or CONTRACTS.) 



LITERATURE, AMERICAN, IN 1882. 

 The productiveness of American literature dur- 

 ing the year has been very remarkable. It has 

 exceeded all previous years, in the several de- 

 partments of human knowledge. As in the 

 past year also, American literary effort has 

 manifested itself in translations of foreign 

 books, and the editing and making additions 

 to English publications for the home market. 

 At the same time it must be confessed that 

 the number of really great and important 

 works of the year has not been as large in 

 proportion as might have been expected. 



According to "The Publishers' Weekly,^' 

 which is regarded as the organ of the Ameri- 

 can book-trade, the following list gives the ap- 

 proximate numbers of books of various classes 

 issued in 1882 (being 481 more than in 1881, 

 and 1,396 more than in 1880) : 



CLASS. No. of works. 



Fiction 76T 



Theology and religion ! 326 



Juvenile books 2T8 



CLASS. No. of Work.. 



Law 261 



Education : language 221 



Medical science : hygiene 188 



Description, travel, etc 185 



Biography, memoirs, etc 184 



Poetry and the drama 182 



Literary history and miscellany 155 



History 118 



Social and political science 112 



Physical and mathematical science 106 



Fiue arts : illustrated works 



Useful arts 



Books of reference 



Humor and satire 



Sports, amusements, etc 



Mental and moral philosophy 



Music-books (chiefly si nging-books) 



Domestic and rural economy 



Total. . . . 



91 



87 

 86 

 85 

 28 

 21 

 21 

 20 

 8,472 



In THEOLOGY AND RELIGION there has been 

 about the usual activity on the part of 

 American authors; but it must be admitted 

 that no works of surpassing merit or impor- 

 tance have appeared. American theological 

 scholars and teachers of religion (perhaps even 

 more than others of their countrymen) are 

 forced to compete, not only with each other, 

 but with the entire British press ; and the year 

 1882 has been, like previous years, noted for 

 numerous republications of English works in 

 this department. So long as there is no inter- 

 national copyright law, this must be the regular 

 result. In the w r ay of sermons and lectures 

 American writers have published freely. Among 

 these may be named here, Rev. Alexander 

 CrummelPs "The Greatness of Christ, and 

 other Sermons " (New York, T. Whittaker) ; 

 " Three Hundred Outlines of Sermons on the 

 New Testament," by eminent English and 

 American clergymen (New York, A. C. Arm- 

 strong & Son) ; " Sermons preached in Plym- 

 outh Church," by Henry W. Beecher (New 

 York, Fords, Howard & Hulbert), these last 

 marked by all the peculiarities of the some- 

 what notorious author. To these add Dr. 

 Phelps's " Men and Books, or Studies in Homi- 

 letics " (Scribner's Sons), and a new and en- 

 larged edition of Professor Hoppin's " Homi- 

 eltics " (New York, Dodd, Mead & Co.). The 

 Bedell Lecture for 1881, by Bishop Williams, 

 of Connecticut, entitled " The World's Testi- 

 mony to Jesus Christ, or The Power of Chris- 

 tianity in developing Modern Civilization," 

 (New York, Putnam's Sons), is one of the most 

 thoughtful and valuable volumes of the year. 

 A number of excellent volumes of sermons and 

 expository works have been reprinted, such as 

 Principal Fairbairn's "Studies in the Life of 

 Christ " (New York, D. Appleton & Co.) ; W. 

 Robertson Smith's "The Prophets of Israel 

 and their Place in History, to the Close of the 

 Eighth Century, B. C.," a companion volume 

 to his " Old Testament in the Jewish Church " 

 (same publishers); the late Dean Stanley's 

 " Westminster Sermons " (New York, Scrib- 

 ner's Sons) ; " The Pulpit Commentary," edited 

 by Canon Spence, with the aid of Canon Far* 

 rar, Principal Tulloch, and others (New York, 

 A. D. F. Randolph & Co.); Rev. Andrew 

 Jukes's " Types of Genesis " (T. Whittaker) ; 



