Congress began to draw on him bills at sixty or ninety days. No doubt they were under the most woful necessity, but at the same time it caused the minister the greatest perplexity and embarrassment. Franklin was able by the influence he had with the court of Versailles to meet those drawn on him and to help other ministers not so happily placed, but his tone of indignant remonstrance grew stronger and stronger, until he declared that if any more were drawn they should go to protest, be the consequences what they might. It is not a pleasing thing to look closely into the early financial policy of the country on either side of the water, it hurts the sense of patriotic pride to learn of the abject attitude of the Congress toward the French court to see it begging for money and imploring help and alliance in the humblest terms. Rather is it edifying to think of Valley Forge and Bunker Hill, of brave endurance and bold fighting. But through all these perplexities Franklin commanded the respect and affection of the best Frenchmen, and his wisdom it was that laid down the cardinal principles that have been the redeeming features of our diplomatic history ever since.

The authors have allowed the history to tell itself as far as possible in the newly-discovered documents, chiefly letters to and from Franklin. They deal with a multitude of subjects for Franklin's occupations were multifarious - with the doings of privateers, some of them very Alabama-like on our part, with the exchange of prisoners and the care of prisoners not exchanged, with the science and philosophy of the day, and something of the society as well; but the recurring note is bills, the financial straits they caused, and the worriment and anxiety. There are three new portraits of the philosopher showing a somewhat different aspect from the conventional one.

A word as to the authors: It is pleasant to find that Mr. Hale has a son that he can associate with himself in a literary work of the magnitude of the present one, and enough of praise to the younger member of the partnership to say that there are no marks of joiner's work in the book nothing to show that one hand did not do it all. Now and then there is a touch that could hardly come from another imagination than the tricksy one that has delighted the world these many years, but Mr. Hale's Pegasus works quite steadily in the heavy harness of solid historical work, with seldom a fling of the hoof that shows his preference for the lighter work. It is to be hoped, then, that the work will be continued by these competent hands until the whole of the new documents are in the possession of the public framed in the pleasing and lucid narrative of the present volume.

Briefer Notice.

Thirty Thousand Thoughts' is a work evidently designed to aid writers upon religious topics, especially ministers in the preparation of their sermons. Volume V only, is now before us: but the plan of the series seems to be to supply a sort of cyclopedia of extracts upon religious subjects, topically arranged. The range of authors is wide. We note selections from Henry Ward Beecher, Canon Farrar, John Angell James, Epictetus, Augustine, Edwards, Ruskin, etc. There is always a danger

in quotations, viz., that they do not fairly convey the whole view of the writer: but if not leaned upon too much, or made a substitute for closer reading of authors, the collection is a serviceable one.Uniform with the edition of the works of Thomas Middleton, the publishers have issued the works of John Marston, another of the old English dramatists. The volumes commend themselves by their beautiful paper and large, clear type. They have undergone the careful editorship of Mr. Bullen, and include all the dramas extant of the author, with the comedy of Eastward Ho, the combined work of Chapman, Jonson, and Marston, together with the poem, Pygmalion, The Satires, The Scourge of Villany, The Entertainment, The City Pageant and the Mountebank's Masque. Only a small edition of 750 copies have been printed, 400 for the English, and 350 for the American market. Though bearing an American titlepage it was printed by the English house of Ballantyne, Hanson, & Co., and will fill the demand for such fine work from students and libraries. A Treatise on the Law of Divorce is intended primarily for the "lay" reader, but also for lawyers. It gives a résumé of the statutes of the different States and Territories relating to divorce, of leading decisions of appellate courts, and divorce statistics; condemns the divorce a mensa et thoro; discusses the subject of invalid marriages; explains the method of procedure in divorce suits; treats of alimony, the status of the children of divorced persons, resumption of maiden name, re-marriage, Some historical mention of divorce under the Roman Empire, and a consideration of the policy of the Roman Church, and of the Protestant nations of Europe are added. It an interesting and trustworthy treatise.

etc.

Thirty Thousand Thoughts. Edited by the Very Reverend H. D. M. Spence, M. A., Reverend Joseph S. Exell, M. A., and Reverend Charles Neil. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.

2The Works of John Marston. Edited by A. H. Bullen, B. A. In three volumes. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifllin, and Company. 1887. For sale in San Francisco by Chilion Beach.

3 A Treatise on the Law of Divorce. By A. Parlett Lloyd of the Baltimore Bar. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, & Company. 1887. For sale in San Francisco by Chilon Beach.

suffering by the pest of them.

When he killed four

had been there a year he had hundred and fifty ladrones and thought it might be well for Gonzales to remove him as he felt himself wilting for want of more thieves to kill.

That he disposed of so many before the disorder was stamped out shows what a grip the calling had on the Mexican; for which, too, there is plenty of reason though not much of it to his honor. There was but little adventure in the life and no chivalry; for he never faced a fair fight. But he lived without work, his first essential; also he lived on horseback, his delight; he traveled in crowds and was always drunken, his paradise.

No woman going home from the market of Guadalajara, was too old and poor for plunder, and no man too rich and grand. Yet "dos Yankees infernales” in a stage were its certain safeguard; and no Yankee alone was ever tackled squarely, save by three or four ladrones in a gang.

There were comedies and tragedies in the road; and the early work of Don Mariano, before they came to know his meaning, was done upon men who had never doubted that they owned the highway. He began by outlawing certain chiefs and offering cash rewards for every prisoner taken in crime, to whom he promptly applied the ley de fuga, shooting him in flight. The opening chapter of his life in the district is worth telling.

Pedro Bareto was returning from the plaza of Guadalajara to his home in the mountain of Mezquital. He rode gravely on one donkey and drove two before him. He had met a good day in the market; had taken under his waistcoat a good half-gallon of new pulque and his alforjas contained a bottle of tequila; he was contented, and as nearly happy as any Mexican has been since the death of Montezuma.

Pedro was thinking pleasantly of home also, from which he had been absent nearly three days and to which he was now carry

ing his treasure and tangible evidence of his thought of them all. He had a wonderful new straw hat, trimmed with a fine great bunch of purple grapes, a beautiful sunflower and a smart red ribbon for Mariquita, the mother of his children, which he piled on top of the hat he was wearing as the easiest way of carrying it and showing the people how lucky was the woman of his choice. He had, morever, a brilliant yellow gown with a red vine running all over it and a pattern flounce, also an imitation amber necklace for Anita; these he felt would finish Pablo, for no other girl in Mezquital could revel in such luxuries. And he was taking a real little poncho for Pedrocito, while in his kerchief was tied up strongly the balance in silver of his sales in the plaza.

If you had met Pedro and his three donkeys in their journey you would not have seen a more decided expression upon one face than another of the four companions, they were equally solemn in their comportment, and equally satisfied with their progress towards home.

The little caravan was turning a point on the mountain above Ocoti, where the narrow mule path winds around a sharp spur, on the lower side of which the sheer cliff, a hundred metres down, falls into the torrent of the Santiago. It must be owned that at this point what with the heat and the pulque Pedro had become a little drowsy, when he was startled by the sudden presence of two masked men in the road before him. He was awake in a second and in that time had compassed the fact: "These men," he said, "are my neighbors; after they rob, they will murder me to save themselves." Before he could discuss the matter he was dragged from the saddle, the contents of his pockets taken possession of by the smaller of the two, while the other, a giant beside Pedro, was hurrying with the struggling Indian to the edge of the precipice.

Pedro knew his fate. Murmuring a few aves he silently determined that if he must