The This Abraham Lincoln. By William Eleroy Curtis. (J. B.
Lippincott Company. 10s. 6d. net.)—It is not likely that there is much in this volume which is not to be found in the massive work of Messrs. Hay and Nieolay ; but without doubt it is a very careful and generally admirable study of the subject. It does not change in any important respect our conception of the great man, but it certainly deepens and defines it. The picture that it draws for us of the President is one of the strongest ever seen. Was there ever such a ruler of men ? His boundless treasure of good stories; his habit of wandering about, often with some book, from which he would read to. some. incongruous person, at some incongruous time, some passage which had struck him ; his absolute freedom from all kinds of ceremony,—these and other like things were more than mere oddities. They were the relief of a mind and soul which bore an almost intolerable burden. Nothing, it must be remembered, stood between Lincoln, in the days of his Presidency, and the work he had to do. The formalities of Monarchy are a protection ; but he had nothing of the kind. Nor was he much helped by his Cabinet; a more unmanageable team was never harnessed together. But somehow he contrived to manage it. Some great mistakes he made. The worst was probably his urging the veteran Scott, who, feeble as he was, knew his business as a soldier, to make the advance which ended in the Bull Run disaster. The public cried out for action, and he yielded to the cry. The appointment of McClellan turned out to be a mistake; but he had seemed to be exactly the right man. He was young, with a brilliant reputation. The "Young Napoleon" he was called. He really was •a "Young Mack." Then came a succession of unlucky appointments, unlucky, for it is difficult to see how Lincoln could have done better. Of one important thing Mr. Curtis reminds us. Lincoln was not in advance of his time. He was one of the "spoils to the conqueror !" persuasion. Absolutely devoted to his country, he could only think of serving her by devotion to his party. "He would have rejected with scorn the demands of the Civil Service reformers of the present day." The book abounds with anecdote; humorous and pathetic. Nothing was dearer to him than to exercise the prerogative of mercy. He reduced the commanders pa the field to despair by what they regarded as an ill-timed clemency.
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