8 SCIENCE. 
a list of remarkable blunders in an article 
on meteorology which that magazine had 
published. The criticism is accepted in a 
most good-natured fashion, and Mr. Lowell 
explains how he proposes to make acknowl- 
edgment of the mistakesin the Monthly. Itis 
to be done by a humorous editorial, in which 
the blame for accepting the unfortunate 
article is to be thrown upon the ‘ Msthetic 
Editor,’ who ran the establishment all alone, 
during the absence of the ‘ man of science ;’ 
and all this, Mr. Lowell says, because ‘‘ no 
right-minded magazine can allow itself to 
be corrected ab extra.”” One might almost 
conclude that modern journalism had 
learned some of its lessons from this ven- 
erable and always proper and respectable 
periodical. 
A note from Charles Sumner, written at 
Washington in 1863, reveals something of 
the anxiety by which men’s minds were 
filled in those days. It concludes: ‘ I wish 
Icould talk with your brother for halfa day. 
Remember me to him most kindly. I know 
he keeps his loyalty. But what does he say 
of England—our England—and her short- 
comings ?” 
Indeed there is nothing in these volumes 
more impressive or more worthy of the dis- 
tinguished man whose life they unfold than 
the continued utterances of patriotism and 
loyalty in which his letters during the war 
period abound. In giving full weight to 
this statement it must be remembered that 
the greater part of Professor Rogers’s life 
was spent in the South; that he grew to 
maturity amid Southern influences and that 
he numbered among his personal friends 
many who were afterwards prominent in 
the attempt to overthrow the government. 
During the early ‘fifties’ there are fre- 
quent references in his letters to the storm 
which he distinctly saw was threatening 
the Republic. His faith in the indestructi- 
bility of the Union was lasting and strong. 
In 1856, writing of the difficulties in Kansas, 
[N.S. Vou. VI. No. 131. 
he said: ‘TI am, however, of those who 
think that our Union is too strongly framed 
in Constitutional right, and bolted together 
by mutual interest, to be severed by even 
such a shock as this.” In 1858 he wrote 
to Henry: “I see with sorrow and indigna- 
tion that Senator Mason contemplates some 
general provision for bringing new States 
into the Union by pairs, so as to maintain 
the present balance between the slave and 
free States! But this cannot be done.” 
Early in 1861, again to Henry: “The fears 
of State Street and the prejudices of Beacon 
Street may have some effect, but the great 
mass of New England and, I think, of the 
free States in general, will refuse a compro- 
mise which claims national protection to 
slavery far beyond the extent of the 
present Constitution.” And a few days 
later: ‘‘Should the Gulf States remain out 
of the Union I see little reason to expect a 
better fate for them than is seen in the deg- 
radation, destruction and fickleness of the 
South American Republics.” 
During the years in which the Civil War 
was waged Professor Rogers was especially 
active, through his brother Henry, in striv- 
ing to enlighten the people of Great 
Britain as to the real situation in this 
country, and there can be no doubt that the 
excellent social relations which the two 
brothers enjoyed with people of rank and 
influence in London, Edinburgh and Glas- 
gow contributed largely to this end. Im- 
mediately after the firing upon Fort 
Sumter William wrote to Henry at great 
length, saying, among other things: “It is 
of great importance that the position of the 
free States and National government in 
this contest should be truely known in 
England. Every word of sympathy, or 
even of toleration, for the South arising 
from Europe, and especially from England, 
is magnified by the excited people there 
and does great harm. * * * It grieves 
and mortifies me to see several of my old 
