478 GEOGRA PHIC L1TERA TUBE 



the Sandwich islands, leaving for his last word a forcible plea for the 

 construction of the Nicaragua canal. The book is timely, valuable, and 

 an occasion for congratulating the Land Office on this new display of 

 interest in public affairs. 



W J M. 



The State: Elements of Historical and Practical Polities. By Woodrow Wil- 

 son, Ph. D., LL. D., Professor of Jurisprudence and Politics in Prince- 

 ton University. Revised edition. Boston, D. C. Heath & Co., 1898. 

 8°. Pp. xxxv, 656. 

 This work, issued in 1889, several times reprinted, now revised, pre- 

 sents an outline of government from primitive forms to typical states — 

 ancient Grecian states and Rome, present France, Germany, Switzer- 

 land, Austria-Hungary, Sweden, Norway, Great Britain, and the United 

 States. By rearrangement, Hellas, a region, precedes Sparta and Athens. 

 Changes in the text upon Rome, France, Germany, or Great Britain in- 

 volve more space than those relating to the United States, to which im- 

 mediate interest and limited space mainly restrict these notes. The 

 work includes three topics, regarding which confusion often exists in 

 text-books of geography, history, and government : I. Cession of terri- 

 tory ; II. Towns or township ; III. Cities. 



I. The difference between cession of jurisdiction and giving title in fee 

 is clearly recognized in this work, but absolute accuracy is not maintained 

 in particulars. 



After stating (sec. 1266) that Maryland and Virginia granted territorial 

 jurisdiction for a seat of national government, and that the government 

 buys sites for arsenals, dock yards, forts, and light-houses, receiving from 

 states exclusive jurisdiction, to lapse when the public use of the property 

 ceases (sec. 1269), the author says (sec. 1272) : " The post-offices, federal 

 court chambers, custom-houses, and other like buildings erected and 

 owned by the general government in various parts of the country are 

 held by the government upon the ordinary principles of ownership, just 

 as they might be held by a private corporation. Their sites are not sep- 

 arate federal territory-" 



The Constitution of the United States says : " The Congress shall have 

 power ... to exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever 

 over such district as may . . . become the seat of the Government 

 . . . and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the 

 consent of the state in which the same shall be for the erection of forts, 

 magazines, arsenals, dock yards, and other needful buildings." (Art. I, 

 sec. 8, clause 17.) 



The United States statutes prescribe that "no money shall be ex- 

 pended upon any site or land purchased by the United States for . . . 

 any . . • public building, of any kind whatever, until the written 

 opinion of the Attorney General shall be had in favor of the validity of 

 the title, nor until the consent of the legislature of the state in which 

 the land or site may be to such purchase lias been given." (U. S. Rev. 

 Stat., 1878, sec. 355.) 

 The laws of Massachusetts provide that the United States, with the 



