Lincoln, the Greatest Man of the Nineteenth Century. By Charles
Reynolds Brown. (Macmillan. 55. net.)—Mr. Brown's enthusiastic little essay on Lincoln is the more noteworthy because the author comes of an old Virginian family and remem- bers his grandfather shedding tears over Pollard's Lost Cause. Mr. Brown thinks that he has found an unpublished Lincoln story :-
"There was a certain measure in which the President believed strongly. He brought it one afternoon into a Cabinet meeting. Ho found that his Secretaries, to the last man, were all strongly opposed to it. Ho spent considerable time explaining it and seeking to bring them to his way of thinking, but apparently without much effect. The time came, however, when a vote must be taken as other business had to be transacted. Lincoln put the motion : All those in favour of this measure will say Aye.' The Secretaries sat there as silent and as well- behaved as a company of nuns at Vespers. All those who are opposed will say No.' Every man instantly voted a stout, loud No.' There came a look of disappointment in the President's face and then a twinkle in his eye. After a significant pause he remarked, ' The Ayes seem to have it. The motion is carried.' " The story seems not unfamiliar but it is worth repeating.
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