eral years, and have been generally commended as carefully prepared and useful manuals of instruction in the rights and duties of citizenship. Their purpose is to answer the continually recurring question, What is the relation of the citizen of the United States to the governments under which he lives? The first step in giving the answer is to gain some knowledge of the machinery of government, its organization and manner of acting; together with the methods of choosing the agents of State action, and the more important points regarding official responsibility and the civil service. These subjects are treated of in the first part of the book, the original first volume. In the second part are considered the governmental duties of protection to life and property, the particular functions of the Federal and State governments, and questions of State finances.
History of the Appointing Power of the President. By Lucy M. Salmon. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 129. Price, $1.
This is one of the papers that were read at the meeting of the American Historical Association at Saratoga in September, 1885. It considers the subject of the appointing power of the President as presented in four periods: First, in the theoretical stage, 1787-1789, or the question in the Philadelphia Convention and the first Congress; second, in the period from 1789 to 1829, or, as exercised by statesmen, both Federalist and anti-Federalist; third, in the spoils period, 1829-1861, including President Jackson's interpretation of the Constitution and the results of that interpretation; and, fourth, in the reform period, including the culmination of the spoils system and the attempts to check the evil. In conclusion, though the last period has indeed been one of reform, though a practical civil-service bill has been passed, political assessments done away, and a temporary check given to the "courtesy of the Senate," yet after all it has been but an entering wedge. "The four years' limitation law is still on the statute-books; the Pendleton bill applies to only one seventh of our civil officers, and can be broken in spirit if not in letter; our consular service is still a refuge for those who desire to travel abroad at Government expense; foreign courts have rebuked our diplomatic system by refusing to accept representatives appointed for other reasons than that of fitness for place; 'offensive partisanship,' when other pretexts fail, can be made to cover a multitude of removals; in our State and local administrations scarcely an attempt at reform has been made. A fourth [fifth] period in the history of the appointing power is to come—a reformed period; when the chief Executive can boast like the great Premier that his sole patronage is the appointment of his private secretary; when every legislator can say, with a leading member of the House of Commons, that he is without power to influence in the smallest degree the appointment of a custom-house officer or an exciseman; when both Executive and Congress, freed from their duties of dispensing office, can turn their attention to more important questions of state; when our civil service will be in reality, and not in the idle jest of a politician, 'the best in the world.'"
First Steps in Scientific Knowledge. By Paul Bert. Translation by Madame Paul Bert. Revised and corrected by William H. Greene, D. D. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company. Pp. about 400. Price, 60 cents.
The author of this manual was one of the most eminent scientific men in France, and for some years filled the post of Minister of Public Instruction under the republic. If we recollect aright our reading of the French scientific journals of the time, he took particular delight in the preparation of the primers embodied in the volume, in simplifying science, and making it attractive to the children over whose educational interests he was engaged to watch. The "First Steps" are based on the principles of object-lessons. They are prepared so that they may be taught experimentally by skilled teachers, or with the aid of the objects themselves; or, if that is not convenient, abundant illustrations are furnished, through which the most important facts are exemplified by accurate pictures. The work is complete in seven parts, which are devoted respectively to animals, plants, stones and rocks, physics, chemistry, animal physiology, and vegetable physiology. The American editor has made only such changes and additions in Madame Bert's translation as
