Diplomatic History of the Southern Confederacy. By James Morton Callahan,
Ph.D. (Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, U.S. 6s.)—This volume is the first fruits of a benefaction by which Dr. Albert Shaw, of New York, has enabled the Baltimore University to give a series of lectures on diplomatic history. It relates affairs in which Britain was critically interested, both actually and potentially. We turned, of course, to Dr. Callahan's narra- tive of the Mason and Slidell incident, and found it highly satis- factory. The United States Government behaved with a self- restraint which cannot be too highly praised. President Lincoln compares favourably with President Cleveland a generation later. It is a curious circumstance that the courtesy of Commodore Wilkes in allowing the Trent' to proceed on its journey after he had seized the envoys prejudiced the United States case. The presence of despatches from the Confederate Government would have rendered the Trent' liable to seizure, a fortiori the presence of envoys.
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