afterward was connected with several of the
leading publishing houses of this city. His tastes were always literary,
and for the past forty years he has devoted himself to literature and
study, except when he held the office of postmaster, 1857 to 1861. He
was appointed postmaster by President Buchanan, and it was during his
term of office that the postoffice was removed from the Merchant's
Exchange building to Summer street at the corner of Chauncy street,
where it remained for about a year and a half. He mapped out the free
delivery system, and was the first postmaster in the country to
establish the outside letter collection boxes. Mr. Capen has written
(most of them anonymously) and has published many books, scientific and
political, and was a very liberal contributor to the newspapers and
magazines. He was a sound thinker and was considered an able writer. His
last work, on which he has been engaged for twenty-five years, is a
history of Democracy. The first volume has been published, and the
remaining three have been written and are ready to be printed, except a
portion of the last.

LITERATURE AND ART.

_History of the Civil War in America.[H]_ The deep and widespread
interest which is being felt in this country in all that relates to the
late war is likely to receive increased stimulus from the appearance of
recent instalments of the translation of the "History" of the Comte de
Paris. The fact that the narrative is written by a foreigner, not so
much for the information of American as of European readers, will in no
way interfere with the profound interest Americans themselves must feel
in what, when finished, will probably be, if not the most impartial yet
the most accurate, comprehensive, complete, and reliable record of that
long, lamentable and costly struggle. The interest in American affairs
which has culminated in the production of this history had been a
long-cherished feeling with the author before he conceived the purpose
which he has so far executed so admirably. For years materials of all
kinds that promised to shed light upon his subject and assist him in his
undertaking had been industriously collected. He enjoyed, besides, the
great advantage of having personally served on the staff of General
McClellan, in this way attaching to himself many friends, who, after his
return to Europe, continued to keep him posted up in all that related to
the movements of the belligerents, and the incidents