The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 16, No. 97, November, 1865

Love and Money. By J. B. Jones, Author of "Wild Western Scenes," etc. Philadelphia. T. B. Peterson & Brother. 12mo. pp. 407. $2.00.

Histoire de Jules César. Par S. M. I. Napoléon III. Tome Premier. New York. D. Appleton & Cie. 12mo. pp. 396. $2.50.

Beatrice. By Julia Kavanagh, Author of "Nathalie," etc. New York. D. Appleton & Co. 12mo. pp. 520. $2.00.

Lessons from the World of Matter and the World of Man. By Theodore Parker. Selected from Notes of Unpublished Sermons. By Rufus Leighton. Boston. C. W. Slack. 12mo. pp. 430. $2.50.

Sibyl. A Tragedy in Five Acts. By John Savage. New York. James B. Kirker. 16mo. pp. 105. 75 cts.

Life of Marcus Tullius Cicero. By William Forsyth, M. A., Q. C., Author of "Hortensius," etc., and late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. In Two Volumes. With Illustrations. New York. Charles Scribner & Co. 12mo. pp. 304, 341. $5.00.

Know the Truth. A Critique on the Hamiltonian Theory of Limitation, including some Strictures upon the Theories of Rev. Henry L. Mansel and Mr. Herbert Spencer. By Jesse H. Jones. New York. Hurd & Houghton. 12mo. pp. x., 225. $1.25.

Janet Strong. By Virginia F. Townsend. Philadelphia. J. B. Lippincott & Co. 12mo. pp. 314. $1.50

Voices of the Morning. By Belle Bush. Philadelphia. J. B. Lippincott & Co. 18mo. pp. 270. $1.25.

A View at the Foundations: or, First Causes of Character, as Operative before Birth, from Hereditary and Spiritual Sources. Being a Treatise on the Organic Structure and Quality of the Human Soul, as determined by Pre-Natal Conditions in the Parentage and Ancestry, and how far we can direct and control them. By Woodbury M. Fernald. Boston. W. V. Spencer. 16mo. pp. 210. $1.25.

The Iliad of Homer, rendered in English Blank Verse. By Edward, Earl of Derby. In Two Volumes. New York. C. Scribner & Co. 12mo. pp. xiv., 430; viii., 457. $5.00.

History of England, from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of Elizabeth. By James Anthony Froude, M. A., late Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. Vols. I. & II. New York. C. Scribner & Co. 12mo. pp. 447, 501. Per vol., $2.50.

Fairy Fingers. A Novel. By Anna Cora Ritchie, Author of "Autobiography of an Actress," &c. New York. G. W. Carleton. 12mo. pp. 460. $2.00.

The Graver Thoughts of a Country Parson. By the Author of "Recreations of a Country Parson." Boston. Ticknor & Fields. 16mo. pp. iv., 332. $2.00.

Hugh Worthington. A Novel. By Mrs. Mary J. Holmes. New York. G. W. Carleton. 12mo. pp. 370. $1.75.

Essays. By R. W. Emerson. First and Second Series. Boston. Ticknor & Fields. 32mo. Blue and gold. pp. viii., 515. $1.50.

Superior Fishing; or, The Striped Bass, Trout, and Black Bass of the Northern States. Embracing full Directions for Dressing Artificial Flies with the Feathers of American Birds; an Account of a Sporting Visit to Lake Superior, etc. By Robert B. Roosevelt, Author of "The Game Fish of North America," etc. New York. G. W. Carleton. 12mo. pp. 304. $2.00.

Hypodermic Injections in the Treatment of Neuralgia, Rheumatism, Gout, and other Diseases. By Antoine Ruppaner, M. D., Fellow of the Mass. Med. Soc. Boston. T. O. H. P. Burnham. 16mo. pp. 160. $1.25.

notes

1

I find in my journal the following:—"August 17, 1857. Read over to the Baron von P– the Putkammer narrative; and he assented to its accuracy in every particular."

2

This story is given in Garinet's Histoire de la Magie en France, p. 75.

3

Yet in a recent case, occurring in England, and authenticated in the strongest manner, the "sound of carriages driving in the park when none were there" is one of the incidents given on the authority of the lady who had witnessed the disturbances, and who furnishes a detailed account of them. See "Facts and Fantasies," a sequel to "Lights and Sounds, the Mystery of the Day," by Henry Spicer, London, 1853, pp. 76-101.

4

See "Westminster Review" for January, 1826.

5

The Chinese Government has been informed by the Russian Ambassador that the Russian portion of this line to Pekin will be completed by the first of January, 1868.

6

Mr. Riethmüller, in his volume on "Hamilton and his Contemporaries," coolly assumes that Hamilton would have opposed the late war for the maintenance of the Union, had he been living! Anything more absurd than such a view of Hamilton's probable course, under circumstances like those which occurred in 1861, it would be impossible to imagine. Hamilton would have been the firmest supporter of the war, had he lived to see it, or had such a war broken out in his time. His principles would have led him to be for extreme measures. It is easy to see why Mr. Riethmüller thus misrepresents Hamilton's opinions. Living in London, where it is thought that every foreign nation should submit to destruction, if that be desirable to England, he wrote under the influence of the place. The English do not take the same view of Secession, when it comes home to them. They think as unfavorably of that repeal of the Union which the Irish demand as we thought of that dissolution of our Union which South Carolinians demanded; and they moved against the Fenians much earlier than we moved against the Carolinians. Mr. Riethmüller's assumption is pointedly disclaimed by General Hamilton's representatives, who declare that it is a palpable misrepresentation of their father's views: and no one who is familiar with Hamilton's writings and history can honestly say that they are wrong. To say that Andrew Jackson, who crushed Nullification, would have been a Secessionist, had he been living in 1861, would be a moderate assertion, compared to that which places Alexander Hamilton in the list of possible Secessionists, had he survived to Secession times.

7

History of the Republic of the United States of America, as traced in the Writings of Alexander Hamilton and his Contemporaries. By John C. Hamilton. Seven Volumes. 8vo. New York: D. Appleton & Co. A work in every respect deserving of the closest and most attentive study, replete as it is with valuable and well-arranged matter and able writing.

8

The Federalist: a Commentary on the Constitution of the United States. A Collection of Essays, by Alexander Hamilton, Jay, and Madison. Also, The Continentalist and other Papers, by Hamilton. Edited by John C. Hamilton, Author of "The Republic of the United States." 1 vol. 8vo. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co.—This is by far the best edition of "The Federalist" that has appeared, and should alone be consulted and read by Hamilton's admirers. The Historical Notice with which Mr. Hamilton has prefaced it is a noble production, and worthy of the subject and of his name.

9

Burr, in his correspondence with Hamilton just before the challenge that led to the duel, said,—"Political opposition can never absolve gentlemen from the necessity of a rigid adherence to the laws of honor and the rules of decorum. I neither claim such privilege, nor indulge it in others." This has been called affectation; but we have no doubt that Burr uttered the truth in the sentences quoted. He was exactly the man to observe the rules of decorum, and those of honor, as he understood them, in political warfare. The strong language that is so common in political disputes is proof as much of the abundance of men's sincerity as it is of their want of good breeding. They are honestly moved by the evil words or deeds, or both, or what they consider such, of their opponents, and speak of them coarsely. The man who is indifferent to all opinions, principles, and actions, but who is nevertheless ambitious, is never tempted to the utterance of disparaging language concerning his political foes. He may laugh at their zeal, but he cannot be offended by it. Burr was utterly indifferent to all political principle. He never really belonged to any party, and was as ready to act with Federalists as with Democrats; and it was only through the force of circumstances that he did act generally with the latter. A party man never would have done as Burr saw fit to do when the Presidential election of 1801 devolved on the House of Representatives. The party to which he professed to belong intended, as everybody knew, that Jefferson should be President; and yet Burr allowed himself to be used against Jefferson. That "all is fair in politics" was his creed. He may have been "a man of honor," but what Lord Macaulay says of Avaux is strictly applicable to him, namely,—"that of the difference between right and wrong he had no more notion than a brute."