Biographical Annals of the Civil Government of the United States
during its First Century. By Charles Lanman. (Washington, U.S.; Anglinn.)—This is a large octavo of nearly seven hundred pages, closely printed in doable columns, containing the record of the official services of more than six thousand persons who have been concerned in the public government of the United States since 1776. For the most part, the information is of an impersonal kind, details of offices held, itc., but sometimes the writer feels obliged, as it were, to relieve the monotony by something more enlivening, as when he tells us of one gentleman that he "measured six feet five in height, and weighed three hundred and seventy pounds, and strange as it may seem, was one of the most expert trout-fishers in the country." Mr. Leaman is quite impartial in his biographies. He adds what he calls "tabular records," accounts, i.e., of the Presidential elections, with number of votes and lists of electors, names of persons who have represented the country
at foreign Courts, &c. This is a valuable book, which might with advantage have its counterpart in this country.
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