by the President of the South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company, of the efforts for building the line from Charleston, S. C., to Augusta, Ga., some 140 miles. There are also two letters of 1831 to and from James A. Meriwether, of Eatonton, Ga., touching on a project to cross the mountains, thus connecting the South and West. Incidentally the paper is invaluable for showing Southern attitude towards industrial advances, representing the keenest eagerness in an element of the people at least to take all advantage of this new power, steam. It might be well for the Mayor to allow Mr. Courtenay to do the choosing as usual, but to appoint an active editor to supplement him with notes.

Following this paper and completing the appendix are three selections of semi-historical nature, being so near the present: 1. Documents bearing on the location of a naval station at Charleston in the past three years (pp. 39-88); 2. The sanitary and drainage commission of Charleston (pp. 91-104); 3. Short Story of the South Carolina Inter-State and West Indian Exposition, by J. C. Hemphill (pp. 105171).

The whole volume as well known consists, besides the above, of the official municipal reports (8vo, pp. 288).

A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA CONVENTIONS. By J. N. Brenaman. Richmond, J. L. Hill Printing Co., 1902, 8 vo, pp. 122+87, flexible leather $2.00, law sheep $1.75, cloth $1.50.

This is a comprehensive, most excellent piece of work. The constitutions of the last two conventions are printed in full, and there are condensed summaries of the prior ones; giving in all cases lists of members and something of the issues and proceedings. Considerable research was necessary for getting the facts, especially about the earlier ones, but Mr. Brenaman, who was assistant secretary to the last convention, has gone back to the original sources as far as

possible, and has carefully included the references. The last constitution is official, having been printed from the plates the convention used for its own copy. What a pity that some far seeing official did not give sufficient encouragement to have had all the constitutions printed in full in this volume so that the whole organic life would have been there in one book.

THE LIFE OF JOHN ANCRUM WINSLOW, Rear Admiral United States Navy, who commanded the U. S. Steamer "Kearsarge" in her action with the Confederate cruiser "Alabama." By John M. Ellicott, Lieut. U. S. Navy. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London. The Knickerbocker series, 1902.

Such is the title of a book which we have before us. It is a handsomely bound, and well printed volume of 275 pages, with a frontispiece portrait of Admiral Winslow. He was of Puritan stock, descending from John Winslow, a brother of Edward, the Governor, and Mary Chilton, the first woman to land from the Mayflower. On the mother's side he descended from Col. Wm. Rhett, son of Sir Walter Rhett, a baronet in the times of Charles the Second.

The admiral was born in Wilmington, Nov. 19, 1811, and educated at Dorchester and Dedham, Massachusetts. Through the influence of Hon. Daniel Webster whose home was upon what was once a part of the Winslow estate he was appointed a midshipman in the U. S. Navy Feb. 1, 1827, and attached to U. S. S. Falmouth.

After service in the Brazilian squadron, on the frigate Missouri, and in the Mexican War, he was assigned to a command of some gunboats under Captain Foote at the beginning of the War between the States. He also commanded the gunboat St. Louis on the Mississippi. He was subsequently assigned to the command of the Kearsarge.

On the 19th June, 1864, near Cherbourg, France, occurred

the engagement between the Kearsarge under command of Capt. Winslow and the Confederate vessel Alabama, under Capt. Raphael Semmes, in which the latter was sunk. The engagement lasted about an hour when the Alabama struck and went down within twenty minutes, carrying a number of persons with her. During the progress of the engagement an English gentleman, Mr. John Lancaster, was watching the fight from his private yacht, the Deerhound. When the Alabama went down the Deerhound was near the Kearsarge and Capt. Winslow cried out, "For God's sake do what you can to save them." Mr. Lancaster immediately ordered the yacht pushed toward them, lowered his two boats and succeeded in saving Capt. Semmes, thirteen officers and some twenty-eight seamen. He then steamed for Southampton and landed them. Capt. Winslow complained very much that Mr. Lancaster landed the rescued men on British soil and insisted that he should deliver them up to him as prisoners. He wrote, "the officer who came to surrender was taken off with Semmes and other officers to England. I shall publish him as disgracing his flag. Had I deemed him mean enough to have done it, I would have opened my guns upon him."

Mr. Lancaster made rejoinder that Captain Wislow's request was not accompanied with any conditions, and that he was under no obligation to consult Captain Winslow as to the disposal of the men rescued.

There was considerable discussion of the case, but opinion now seems settled that Mr. Lancaster's action was generous, noble and humane.

The victory received great applause. The crew was also officially thanked. Captain Winslow was made a commodore, and in 1870 was promoted rear admiral and assigned to the command of the Pacific station. His health failing, he sailed for South America July 4, 1872, and returned in April, 1873, to Washington, without any improvement. He

went from there to Boston, where he died Sept. 29, 1873, in the sixty-second year of his age.

In 1837 Captain Winslow was married to his cousin, Catherine Amelia Winslow,

The Johns Hopkins University has issued a very tasteful volume of the ceremonies at the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the institution and the inauguration of Professor Ira Remsen as President, February 21, 22, 1902 (8 vo, pp. 182, boards). For summarizing what higher education stands for, for defining a university, for setting forth the ideals of scholars, for expressing the dependence of ideals upon material things, there is nothing more authoritative in the language than this score of addresses by college presidents and professors. Naturally the most important utterances are those of the retiring officer, D. C. Gilman, and the incoming one, Ira Remsen. Especially emphatic was the tone of both that a great university can only be made by a great teaching corps.

Professor D. D. Wallace, Spartanburg, S. C., has written up the tea agitation in South Carolina preceding the Revolutionary war, as A Chapter of South Carolina Constitutional History. The public protests against the importation and use of this product led to the formation of extra-legal committees that paved the way for the more important uprising against England a short time after. The study is based on original sources, almost entirely on the S. C. Gazette, and contrary to general belief, shows that the tea was not patriotically allowed to rot in cellars, but was prosaically sold and the money applied to public use. (No. 4, Publications of Vanderbilt Southern History Society, paper, pp. 8, 1900, Nashville, Tenn).

Not even the largest of our universities can show in their

publications a stronger instance of the spirit of pure scholarship than Colorado College has in "The Earliest Life of Milton" (Vol. X of Studies, paper, pp. 46, March, 1903, Colorado Springs). This sketch of Milton, author unknown, was found in 1889 in the Bodleian Library, and is now first printed, one page being given in facsimile, all comprehensively edited by Prof. E. S. Parsons. While not adding greatly to our knowledge of the poet, this manuscript supplies the source for nearly half of the first printed biography of Milton, that by Anthony Wood in 1691. A second contribution to this volume is Professor H. A. Smith's “La Femme dans les Chansons de Geste," a study of the life of woman in the Middle Ages. A third paper is on magnetism by Professor J. C. Shedd.

General M. C. Butler's very thoughtful and comprehensive address on Wade Hampton, delivered before the S. C. Legislature January 23 last (noted on p. 124 of present vol.) has appeared in pamphlet form (pp. 23, 1903, Gibbons Bros., Washington, D. C.).

Perhaps some day the librarian of Congress or some other official will see what a waste of money it is to get out bibliographies that are nothing but a string of titles, when their value could be enhanced a thousand fold by a slight additional expense for the services of an authority to edit them. Lately, 1903, under the direction of A. P. C. Griffin, chief of division of bibliography, there have appeared (4 to, paper, except last in boards) ten of these "lists" of “references" or "books" on following topics: Constitution of the United States (pp. 14); Old Age and Civil Service Pensions (pp. 18); Cabinets of England and America (pp. 8); Negro Question (pp. 28); Anglo-Saxon interests (pp. 12); Labor and strikes (pp. 65); Federal Control of Commerce and Corporations (pp. 8); Government ownership