e following year
he was appointed clerk of the House of Representatives of Maine. At
twenty-seven he was chosen state attorney for his native county. At
thirty-one he was elected to the State Legislature as a Democratic
representative. In 1849 his political career culminated in his election
to Congress. He retired from public life in 1851, and settled down to
the practice of his profession in Portland. His son is vice-consul at
Havre, France.

* * * * *

April 10.--Sudden death at Dallas, Texas, of John T. Ferris, manager of
the Union Mutual Life Insurance Co., of Portland, Me. He was a man
greatly esteemed in his large circle of acquaintances.

* * * * *

April 12.--Death of Thaddeus Fairbanks of St. Johnsbury, Vt. He was born
at Brimfield, Mass., Jan. 17, 1796, and went with his father to St.
Johnsbury when he was twenty years old. His many inventions in the line
of weighing-machines are too familiar to need enumeration. He was the
only American who was honored at the Vienna Exhibition by being made a
Knight of Imperial Order of Francis Joseph. To his munificent gifts the
academy at St. Johnsbury owes its worth.

* * * * *

April 12.--Dr. Abram M. Shew, superintendent of the Connecticut Hospital
for the Insane at Middletown, died suddenly at the age of 45. He was
appointed assistant physician of the New York Asylum for Insane Convicts
at Auburn in 1862; in 1866 he went to Middletown, to superintend the
building of the Connecticut Hospital for the Insane, and had since
remained in charge of that institution. He was a native of Watertown,
N.Y.

LITERATURE.

It is with a much more than ordinary degree of expectancy that the
literary public has awaited a complete and adequate biography of the
poet Longfellow. It comes to us at last as the work[11] of the poet's
own brother, Samuel, who has, however, modestly assumed to have only
edited the elaborate volumes which have recently come from the
publisher's hands. This is true to a large extent, for the Life is for
the greater part composed of portions of Longfellow's voluminous diary
and correspondence; but these are interspersed throughout with his
brother's own narrative, full of reminiscences and charming comments.

[11] Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. With extracts from his Journals
and Correspondence. Edited by Samuel Longfellow. 2 volumes. Boston:
T