of Mobile Bay and Grouchy
controversy,--all, with the exception of the last two, bearing upon the
operations of the Army of the Potomac in 1862 and 1864, and including
discussions from different standpoints of the objects and general plans
of the several campaigns and battles in which it participated, and of
the controverted questions that have arisen concerning them. The first
printed volume of the Society contains the following papers:--"General
McClellan's Plans for the campaign of 1862, and the Alleged Interference
of the Government with them," by John C. Ropes, Esq: "The Siege of
Yorktown," by Bvt.-Brig.-Gen. John C. Palfrey, U.S.A.: "The Period
which elapsed between the Fall of Yorktown and the Beginning of the
Seven-Days-Battles," by Bvt.-Brig.-Gen. Francis W. Palfrey, U.S.V. "The
Seven-Days Battles--to Malvern Hill," by same author. "The Battle of
Malvern Hill," by same author; "Comments on the Peninsular Campaign,"
by Bvt.-Brig.-Gen. Charles A. Whittier, U.S.V. All of these are earnest
discussions,--but of unequal worth--of the various merits or demerits
of General McClellan in the Peninsular campaign, or the attitude of the
government toward him at that time. The ground is traversed as often
before; all the old arguments are again brought into comparison, and
a very small amount of _new_ evidence is discovered. What has
previously been said in many books and pamphlets and by a score of
writers, is here said in one volume by three writers. But nothing
appears to be _freshly_ said, and, as usual, the conclusions
reached are colored by the political likes or dislikes of their several
writers. The sole merit of the volume lies in the fact that its papers
embody a mass of very valuable material, gleaned from trustworthy
sources, for the future historian. It is very safe to assume, however,
that the future historian while expressing gratitude for their
investigations, will not be tempted to place much weight upon the
conclusions of the gentlemen who hold the monopoly of this volume but
have not solved a single mooted question.

LIFE OF JAMES BUCHANAN, Fifteenth President of the United
States. By George Ticknor Curtis. 2 vols. octavo, pp. 625, 707. New
York: Harper & Brothers, 1883.

The second volume of this exceedingly painstaking and meritorious
biography sheds much light upon the events preceding, and those
transpiring during, the civil war. As another writer has remarked,
"there is something very pit