Life and Administration of Abraham Lincoln. Compiled by G. W.
Bacon. (Sampson Low; Bacon.)—This volume contains a variety of useful matter. We have a biography of the late President, the programmes of the different political parties before the Lincoln election, the ordinances of secession, whicli are exhibited in contrast with the original articles of confederation of the United States, and the modified form that these assumed in the Constitution, speeches and letters of Mr. Lincoln's between 1858 and 1865, and finally, the notices that appeared in the European papers on his assassination, including the excellent lines from Punch, which described at once tho character of the man and the changes of opinion that the world passed through with regard to him. The book is therefore useful for reference; we cannot say that the late president is presented to us vividly in it, or that there is anything attractive in the style, but we can learn from it a good deal about him, and the circumstances in which he was placed. Whether the world will require a distinct picture of the simple man from the ranks, who astonished it by his keen appreciation of facts as they accumulated day by day, and by never being too soon or too late in taking action upon them, we do not know ; there is nothing of the kind in this volume, and it may be that in the rapid progress of events the late President will be remembered only by his melancholy end.
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