22 JULY 1876, Page 22

The American State and American Statesmen. By William Giles Dix.

(Ester and Learjet, Boston, U.S.)—This is a somewhat fierce indictment against the American politics of the present day. In effect it states that Government has fallen into the hands of men inferior in principle and in ability to those who administered the Republic in earlier days. It looks back to a golden age of which Calhoun and Webster were heroes. On this side of the Atlantic the difference naturally does not seem so great as it does to Mr. Dix. Those who can remember the management of the great Boundary dispute cannot so readily distinguish between the diplomacy of the present era and that of tho past. Nor are we qualified to judge of internal politics. But Mr. Dix's book is worth reading, and its utterances are certainly significant. We may differ here toto ccelo about the merits of various statesmen, but no responsible Englishman has ever yet written what Mr. Dix deliberately writes of his own country,—" In America, great men are regarded as curses, not as blessings."