plications of physical forces. The book is done in the same splendid style, and we should wonder where so expensive and luxurious a scientific book could find buyers, did we not remember that the two editions in French and English make it accessible to the largest portion of the readers of the civilized world. It is difficult to convey a just idea of the scope and detail of this work, with its thirty-eight elaborate chapters and its four hundred and sixty-seven admirable illustrations, and we can only say that it is the most elegant and exhaustive pictorial work on the applications of science in its great leading departments that has yet appeared.
The Bench and Bar of Saratoga County; or, Reminiscences of the Judiciary and Scenes in the Court-room from the Organization of the County to the Present Time. By E. R. Mann. Ballston, New York: Waterbury & Innman. Pp. 391. Price, $2.
Besides its waters, which are of interest to chemists, geologists, and invalids, and its gay summer life, so dear to the devotees of fashion, which combine to make Saratoga famous, the place is also celebrated for its lawyers. A county which has given to the bench such men as Cowen, Walworth, Willard, Bockes, and Spear, and to the bar such pleaders as Hill, Reynolds, Porter, and Beach, certainly deserves to have its legal history written out, and Mr. Mann has accordingly done it in a very creditable manner. In giving a sketch of the legal profession of the county, which has of course been closely associated with the growth of its population, the author has brought out various points of incidental interest. It appears that about 1790, before Saratoga Springs or Ballston Spa had yet been heard of, the town of Ballston included all the western and northern portions of the county, stretching away toward the Adirondacks. In that year two man, named Palmer and Gorden, were candidates for the supervisorship of this extensive region. The election for that spring was called to be held in the Milton Hill meeting-house. The day was bright and balmy, and so it was suggested that the election take place outside the church, and one of the justices, taking a suitable position, declared the polls open. The votes were taken viva voce, and "the people" went strongly for Gorden, who had been supervisor for several years before. Palmer, seeing he had no chance, drew off one of the justices, quietly went into the church and opened another poll, where thirteen men voted for him. The town-meeting had been appointed to be held in the church, and so Palmer was proclaimed unanimously elected by the citizens of Ballston. Gorden protested, but Palmer was "counted in," the same as nowadays. A feud followed between these office-seekers, the public espousing the causes of the rivals, and promoting their ambition. The knavish trick of the town-meeting ended in making both men county judges, and in sending each for two terms to the National House of Representatives. It is evident that Saratoga early furnished an excellent soil for the production of lawyers.
The first court-house and jail were erected at Ballston Centre, at a cost of $6,500, and were ready for use in 1796. Justice was dispensed there for twenty years, when it was burned down, with the following accompanying circumstances: Raymond Taylor, the jailer, was a man very full of the dignity and importance of his position, and would tolerate nothing that derogated from it in the prisoners under his charge. One named Billings had ruffled the jailer's complacency by some disrespectful words, and so Taylor had him securely fastened to the floor by a large ox-chain, riveted round his body by a blacksmith, and riveted also to the sill of the floor. Another prisoner set fire to the wall of his cell to burn his way out, and, as the flames rapidly extended, efforts were made to rescue Billings, but they could not loosen the chain, and so he was consumed with the burning court-house. As a further illustration of how modern politics is developed from its early germs, it may be stated that there was a law forbidding the jailer to furnish the prisoners with lights, so Taylor arranged with another man to furnish them, and divided the profits.
In a history of nearly a hundred years, only two men have been publicly strangled in Saratoga County in the interest of justice, and the first of them, hanged in 1820,
