h details the
history of our time from the outbreak of Secession to the death of
President Lincoln. To maintain the interest attached to that work, a
second and concluding volume ought to have been published ere this.
Indeed, the public had a right to expect it. But, now, another bid for
public consideration and favor has been put forth under the rather
attractive title of _Three Decades of Federal Legislation_.[7] The
author is the Hon. S.S. Cox of New York, at one time a formidable
opponent of Mr. BLAINE in the halls of Congress, and at the
present time American minister to Turkey.

Mr. COX was a member of Congress for twenty-four years, his
four terms from an Ohio district covering the war and the period
immediately preceding it. As a politician, he was always ranked on the
Democratic side, and was universally regarded as one of the closest,
most competent and most conscientious observer of men and things. His
acknowledged literary skill and his passion for accuracy rendered it
almost certain that his history would be both fascinating and truthful.
Contemporary history is at the present moment in high favor. All
intelligent people realize that the records of the last fifty years are
of more vital importance to living Americans than are the annals of all
previous eras. Hence, when a man so thoroughly equipped with the gifts
of mind and of expression as Mr. Cox has shown himself to be in earlier
books from his pen,--we say when such a man sets out to relate the story
of his time, it follows without further argument that his work will not
only be sought but will be read.

The narrative covers the eventful work of Congress for the past thirty
years, and gives a much fuller inside view of Federal legislation during
this period than can be obtained from Mr. BLAINE'S more pretentious
work. No period in our national history is so full of interest as the
times of which our author writes. The revolt from English rule and the
establishment of our national government was one of the grandest epochs
in history. In that period were determined the issue of national
independence; in this epoch of even greater magnitude, the issue of
national existence. Both periods alike witnessed the most terrible
conflicts of armies, of bloodshed and suffering in both periods was
shown the exercise of the highest and most brilliant statesmanship;
and in both periods the Federal Legislature was witness to events
scarcely less exciting and decisive