Dolly Madison. By Maud Wilder Goodwin. (John Murray.)— This volume
is one of the series of "Women of Colonial and Revolutionary Times in America." It covers a period including both the War of Independence and the war of 1812-14. Of the former, indeed, we do not hear much ; the latter makes a striking picture, for Mrs. Madison was the wife of the President when Washington was burnt by the British troops. Dolly Madison was by birth a Virginian, and—it seems a strange combination- s Virginian Quaker. The situation, indeed, did not suit her father, for, having first set free his slaves, he migrated to Philadelphia. There Dolly, his eldest daughter, married a lawyer, Todd by name. Left a widow after a few years, she took for a seaond husband James Madison, a statesman of some repute,—a repute which would never have been damaged had he not become President, cannium consensu capar imperii, nisi imperasset. She survived her second husband about ten years. There was nothing particularly great about her; but for her second marriage this generation would scarcely have heard her name. But she always is a gracious figure, from the first that we see of her till the last. She was never a Friend at heart; the love of fine things was strong in her heart. As time went on she even used cos- metics, to please others, of course, not to gratify herself ; but this is always said. This is a very pleasant narrative, carefully worked up out of a largo stock of materials ; and there are some specially good things in it,—the bon mot, for instance, of the riveter who said that "water had always tasted of sinners since the Flood," and the kindly jest which was the last thing James Madison uttered. He could not swallow the food they brought him. "What is the matter. Uncle James ? " asked his niece. "Nothing more than a change of mind, my dear." The next minute he was dead.
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