412 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The avowal of principles and acceptance 

 of innovations that flew in the face of 

 the custom of the ages often demanded 

 much courage, but he never lacked it ; 

 and the wisdom of his course was usu- 

 ally justified in the event. 



The opening of the School of Mines 

 gave an opportunity to enlarge the plan 

 of studies in favor of science, and to 

 encourage the preference of students 

 who desired to give it predominant at- 

 tention. Similar liberality toward oth- 

 er departments facilitated the ultimate 

 adoption of elective studies. This is a 

 factor that is changing the whole aspect 

 of college life. Columbia College is not 

 alone in the movement toward flexibility 

 in the curriculum ; but it is most largely 

 due to Presideut Barnard that it is in 

 it at all, and has been able to turn it 

 to advantage. It can not be doubted 

 that his positive attitude and example 

 have been influential in promoting its 

 extension and its advance elsewhere. 

 The truth of the remark with which 

 our " sketch " of Dr. Barnard in May, 

 1877, opened— that few men among the 

 promoters of science and liberal culture 

 t in our time had labored more efficiently 

 and successfully than he — was made 

 more and more plain during the suc- 

 ceeding years of his life, and was never 

 more evident than on the day when he 

 resigned the presidency of Columbia 

 College. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



The American Commonwealth. By James 

 Brtce, M. P. London and New York : 

 Macmillan & Co. Two Volumes. Price, $6. 



The comprehensiveness and importance 

 of Mr. Bryce's book place it with Von Hoist's 

 ijreat work in the first rank of treatises on 

 the political institutions of America. It is 

 not a history, though its statements are 

 elucidated here and there by historical ma- 

 terial ; it is not a treatise on constitutional 

 law, though the general character and nota- 

 ble features of the Federal and the sev- 

 eral State Constitutions are pointed out; 

 its fifteen hundred pages comprise an ac- 



count of the present condition of the Ameri- 

 can nation. In the words of the author, 

 " There are three main things that one wishes 

 to know about a national commonwealth, 

 viz., its framework and constitutional ma- 

 chinery, the methods by which it is worked, 

 the forces which move it and direct its 

 course." These three things it has been bis 

 task to tell about the United States. Part I 

 deals with the three divisions of the Federal 

 Government — the executive, the legislative, 

 and the judicial. It describes the relations 

 of the national power to the several States. 

 It discusses the nature of the Constitution 

 and shows how this stable instrument hasbeen 

 in a few points expressly, in many others 

 tacitly and half-unconsciously, modified. Part 

 II deals similarly with the State governments. 

 There is also given some account of the 

 systems of rural and city government which 

 have been created in the various States. Mr. 

 Bryce commends our rural governments, 

 but condemns the government of our cities 

 as " the one conspicuous failure of the United 

 States." Part III contains a sketch of the 

 party system and of the men who " run " it. 

 The author is conscious of especial difficulties 

 in making such a sketch, because the system 

 is so different from what a study of the 

 Constitution would suggest, because there 

 are no existing authorities on the subject, 

 and knowledge must be gleaned from news- 

 paper articles, conversation, and a variety 

 of occurrences, which together constitute a 

 floating and uneven basis for the work. 

 But what Mr. Bryce deems the most difficult 

 and most vital part of his task is to describe 

 public opinion in America, and this subject 

 forms Part IV. Public opinion, he says, 

 " stands above the parties, being cooler and 

 larger-minded than they are ; it awes party 

 leaders and holds in check party organiza- 

 tions. No one openly ventures to resist it. 

 It determines the direction and the character 

 of national policy. It is the product of a 

 greater number of minds than in any other 

 country, and it is more indisputably sover- 

 eign." In order to illustrate the statements 

 made in treating of parties and public 

 opinion, the author gives in Part V accounts 

 of the Tweed Ring, the Philadelphia Gas 

 Ring, and Kearneyism. He follows these 

 with discussions of territorial extension, the 

 laissez-faire doctrine, and women's suffrage, 



