at
second-hand through Mansel, (I. 61,)--that Mansel some of whose
doctrines he elsewhere proclaims to be "the most morally pernicious now
current." (I. 115.) He afterwards makes it a sort of complaint against
Hamilton, that he had read "every fifth-rate German transcendentalist";
but if this was so, surely a competent critic of Hamilton should have
followed him at least through the first-rates. This unfairness,--if,
indeed, these surmises be correct,--although it seems very much like the
Englishman whom our current prejudices represent, seems very unlike John
Stuart Mill.

As the ablest work that modern British philosophy has produced, this
book will doubtless have many American readers, and well deserves them.

_Speeches of Andrew Johnson, President of the United
States._ With a Biographical Introduction, by FRANK MOORE.
Boston: Little, Brown, & Co.

The publishers have done well in placing this volume before the public.
One among the most important results of the war is that of vastly
increasing the practical, however it may be with the theoretical, power
of the executive. It has done this, in the first place, by direct
addition. The "war powers of the President," though beyond question
legitimate, made him for the time being wellnigh absolute; and now that
overt war is ended, it is found impracticable to return immediately to
the ancient limits of executive authority. Exercises of sovereignty,
accordingly, which would once have been called most dangerous
encroachments upon coordinate branches of government, pass without
protest, it be with general approbation. An instance of such is seen in
the appointment of Southern governors who by an explicit law of Congress
are ineligible. But, in the second place, this power is increased,
perhaps, even more by the marked disposition of the people to accept the
initiative of the President. The prodigious bids made by the Democratic
party for his countenance, and the extreme reluctance of the Republicans
to open an issue with him, illustrate this disposition, and are of great
significance.

We are stating facts, not complaining of them. A great change has
undoubtedly taken place in the practical economy of the Government,--a
significant change in the relative importance of its coordinate
branches. It may not be permanent, but it can scarcely be brief.

A the same time the importance of the Government as a whole has been
greatly enhanced. We have reached a