realize the most from their steam, and to enable others to see where and how they should be used. The whole book is interpaged with blank leaves, on which students can record their notes as they go along.
Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science. Fifth Series. No. VII. The Effect of the War of 1812 upon the Consolidation of the Union. By N. M. Butler. 25 cents. No. VIII. Notes on the Literature of Charities. By H. B. Adams. 25 cents. No. IX. The Predictions of Hamilton and De Tocqueville. By James Bryce. 25 cents. Baltimore: The University. 1887.
These latest issues of this interesting series treat a variety of topics. Professor Butler's work is designed to show how the War of 1812, by uniting the people for the purpose of the common defense, and by stimulating the sentiment of national pride, contributed to produce a more truly national spirit than had prevailed in the country before. He shows how strong the sectional spirit had been before that time, and even during the war itself; and makes it clear that the war was one of the most potent agencies in creating a better public opinion.
The pamphlet by Mr. Bryce is on a more difficult theme, being a review of the opinions expressed by Hamilton and De Tocqueville, respectively, in regard to our national Government and the perils attending its future. The chief dangers, in the view of both writers, were the tendency to sectionalism and disunion, and the apprehended tyranny of the majority. That there was ground for fearing the disruption of the Union, we now know; yet neither the American nor the Frenchman saw that slavery was the prime source of danger. Some of their predictions have proved very far from true; but Mr. Bryce shows that they were much wiser than the opponents of the Constitution in 1788, whose objections have all turned out to be groundless. On the other hand, some of the evils that have actually developed in our politics, and are most observable to-day, such as the abuse of party machinery, the spoils doctrine, and the corrupting influence of wealth, were not foreseen by any one. Mr. Bryce himself carefully abstains from prophesying, believing that predictions in morals and politics are of little value.
The little work by Professor Adams, on the literature relating to charity will doubtless be useful to special students of that subject. It describes the publications of a large number of charitable organizations, together with many works in general literature bearing upon benevolence.
On the Warrior Coal-Field. By Henry McCalley. Montgomery, Ala.: Barrett & Co., State Printers. Pp. 571.
This volume is one of the reports of the Geological Survey of Alabama, which is conducted under the superintendency of Mr. Eugene Allen Smith, State Geologist. It contains descriptions, by counties, of all that has yet been made visible to the surveyor and miner of one of the thickest and fullest coal-fields in the world, the quality of the product of which is, moreover, not excelled by that of any other. The coal lands of Alabama, which belong to the great Appalachian coal-field, comprise, altogether, an area of 8,660 square miles, but are divided up by anticlinal ridges into three parts—the Warrior, the Cahaba, and the Coosa coal-fields. Of these, the Warrier field is very much the largest, for it embraces an area of 7,810 square miles. It is a broad, shallow, tray-shaped depression, sloping toward the southwest, with its southwest end covered by a newer formation, and its southeast side complicated by folds and fractures. It has been conveniently divided into a plateau and basin area, which gradually merge without any distinct line of demarcation. The coal seams range in thickness from a few inches to about fourteen feet, the thicker seams always containing more or less slate or clay as partings. There appear to be about thirty-five of these seams eighteen inches and more in thickness, of which fifteen are of two feet six inches and over, and six are four feet and over; but they thin out toward the northeast. The quantity of coal is estimated at 113,119,000,000 tons, of which 108,394,000,000 tons would be available coal or contained in the seams of eighteen inches or more in thickness—or about three times as much as the estimated available bituminous and semi-bituminous
