EDITORIAL NOTES.

THE UNVEILING OF THE PERRY STATUE.-The Turner statue of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, erected by the city of Newport and the State of Rhode Island, was unveiled with appropriate ceremonies, on the 10th instant, at Newport. That this event took place at such a late day seems to be another demonstration not only of the dilatoriness of republics, but that heroes, like prophets, are not appreciated in their own generation. It may be self-praise for the present generation, but late commemorations of national events seem strongly to indicate that there is a great deal more patriotic appreciation at present of the valor and deeds that our grandfathers achieved in what has been most appropriately christened "The second war for Independence" than existed in the generation immediately following.

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That the erection of this monument was undertaken at so late a day depreciates not one whit, however, the merit and honor due the man and victory it celebrates. If Sir Edward Creasey is right as to what constitutes a decisive battle, the battle of Lake Erie was surely No battle of the Revolution was fraught with results more important to the nation than was Perry's victory. It retrieved the disgraceful surrender of our troops in the northwest, and we do not think that it is too much to say that without it the war of 1812 might have had a different termination; and the successful result of that war established our permanency as a nation.

The address of the governor of Rhode Island upon the occasion of the unveiling of this statue was as follows:

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"FELLOW-CITIZENS,-A little more than one hundred years ago was born, and on his birthday died, in 1819, at the early age of thirty-four, the man who, on the 10th of September, 1818, took for his battle-cry a flag, on which were inscribed the dying words of the gallant Lawrence, Don't give up the ship,' achieved the battle of Lake Erie and announced it in the memorable words, 'We have met the enemy and they are ours.' He there commanded the first American fleet that ever in line of battle encountered an enemy, and had the proud distinction of capturing the first British fleet that had ever been captured since England had a navy. "What manner of man he was, and how he lived his life, you have learned from the eloquent and instructive address which we have just listened to.

To-day, on the seventy-second anniversary of the battle and sixty-six years after the death of Perry, opposite his last residence, surrounded by representatives of his family, of the national, State, and foreign governments, of the army and of

the navy of the United States, and of our municipal authorities, we have unveiled this statue.

"In thus performing an act of tardy justice, may we not help to prove that, after all, republics are not altogether forgetful or ungrateful of their heroes, and that we in the very tardiness of our action pay a greater tribute to approved merit?

"The State, this city and our people, have erected this statue,-a monument to the worth and valiant deeds of other times; and we commit it to the future to be reverently cared for as long as courage, energy, resource, generosity, and humanity are held in honor."

An important fact, it is pleasant to remember, is that Commodore Perry was but twenty-seven years of age when he fought this battle. The Hon. Wm. P. Sheffield, the orator of the day, concluded his address with the following interesting sketch :

"August 23, 1819, at the age of thirty-four, he died of yellow fever, at Port Spain, in the island of Trinidad. His remains were brought to Newport in a government ship; and were here interred December 4, 1826. They were conducted to their final resting-place by a funeral cortége such as up to that time had never been equaled or approximated in this State, and up to the present tine has never been surpassed. This is but a glance at the man and the event to which we are here to-day to rear this tribute of our gratitude. There are other names and other figures that come up to view in the memory and gather around the name of Perry, of men who were efficient auxiliaries in the conflict, shared the dangers, and participated in the glory of the battle of Lake Erie, and who are inseparably connected with the event.

"Turner, Taylor, Champlin, Almy, Breese, Brownell, and the acting fleet surgeon Parsons were from Rhode Island; Forest, Brook, Stevens, Hambleton, Yarnell, and others not less distinguished, were from other States; and the gallant commander of the northwest army, and his comrades in arms, whom Perry accompanied to the field on the 5th of October, in the battle of the Thames, where Perry's victory was made complete, and its results secured by driving the organized forces of the enemy from Upper Canada, are deserving of our remembrance to-day.”

THE COMMAND OF THE ARMY.-The controversy which has been brought to light between the lieutenant-general of the army and exSecretary of War Lincoln, as shown by the correspondence recently published in the Service papers, revives a very old question, and one which we should like to see agitated until Congress shall settle it, as some day it certainly must. In this controversy we confess our sympathy is strongly with the commander of the army. In the discussion of this same subject in 1828, the then Secretary of War adopted the views of General Porter (the previous Secretary), who placed himself on record as follows: "The civil avocations of the Secretary of War are so numerous as to put it wholly out of his power to attend to the daily orders and complicated routine of duties which appertain to the command and discipline of an army. . . . The functions of a Secretary of War are of a civil and not of a military character, and are administrative rather than executive. His business is more to superintend the

general arrangements of the service, regulate its expenditures, and enforce responsibility than to exercise command. It can rarely happen that he possesses an acquaintance with the details of service or experience in the art of war. . . . To devolve the peculiar duties of a commanding-general upon an adjutant-general would be making him, in fact, the commanding-general.

"All that would be gained would be a change of title, and instead of a major-general commanding the army, an adjutant-general would do so.

"The nature of the duties of the office of adjutant-general is wholly different from those of the commander.

"He is, in fact, the adjutant of the commander; and we might as well abolish the office of colonel of a regiment and place its adjutant in command of the lieutenant-colonel and major, as to place the adjutantgeneral, whose official rank is that of colonel, in command of brigadiers." These views, we take it, embrace all that has ever been claimed by a commander of the army, and are the common-sense of the whole

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THE INTERNATIONAL YACHT RACE.-When Sir Richard Sutton issued his challenge to the holders of the Queen's Cup, won in 1851 by the yacht "America," he undoubtedly possessed accurate information that we had no yacht capable of outsailing his own yacht, the "Genesta," but he failed to take into consideration our capacities for building one, before the contest would take place, that would be a match for his own. That we were able to do so is a source of national gratification. The contest, however, was so close, and the victory achieved by so narrow a margin, that our English visitor must be almost as well satisfied with the result as ourselves. International contests of this character must ever be productive of an increase of good feeling and respect between the two great English-speaking nations. No Englishman who has ever visited our shores has ever taken back with him more honest respect and good will than does the owner of the "Genesta."

THE NEW YORK CUSTOM-HOUSE.—The removal of an efficient officer by Collector Hedden from an important position in the New York Custom-House, and the substitution of a low ward politician, presumably for the benefit of Mr. Hubert O. Thompson and that very disreputable portion of the local democracy of New York who are his followers, has brought about a strong feeling of indignation against the administration. It is a peculiar historical fact, which seems

strangely to have been overlooked by the President, that the four past administrations have found their greatest stumbling-blocks in the selection of collectors of the port of New York. Mr. Cleveland has undoubtedly made the vital mistake in his career in the appointment of an unknown man, Mr. Hedden; or, worse still, a man who is only known as the minion of Mr. Thompson. The reinstatement of Mr. Bacon to the position from which he has been removed will not restore that confidence in the President that he has heretofore enjoyed, unless he shall supplement it by the permanent retirement of Mr. Hedden.

BOOK REVIEWS.

A HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES, FROM THE REVOLUTION TO THE CIVIL WAR. By JOHN BACH MCMASTER. Vols. i. and ii. New York: D. Appleton & Co.

One of the most interesting phases of our later literature is the change in the direction of historical writing. This change goes far to support the theory of those who hold that the political, social, and religious conditions of a people are always reflected in their contemporary literature. The new historical method is due, we have no doubt, to the growth of democratic ideas. When it was generally believed that kings were divine or semi-divine beings, and that their power was derived directly from the Almighty; that a privileged aristocracy was hardly less sacred; that the priesthood of a State church was a supernatural institution and the exclusive repository of truth; and that the people existed only to work hard, to pay taxes, and to serve in armies: when these were the prevalent views, history waited obsequiously upon monarchs, had much to do with the life of palaces and castles, with the tents of generals and fields of cloth of gold, and with the imposing ceremonies of great cathedrals. In her descriptions there was much of battles and the movement of armies, of treaties and the machinations of ministers; but the muse of history was much too stately and high-stepping a dame to have much to do with so common a thing as the people. But all this is being changed; history is being rewritten from the standing-point of the people. The pictorial element of historical writing, which naturally drew its materials from courtly shows and ceremonials and the splendors of war, has now been subordinated to the broader spirit of liberty and humanity; and we are bound to say that the change has given a higher interest to history. For instance, the aristocratic historians had long held up ancient Greece as a frightful example of the evils of democracy, when Grote took up the theme, and with vast learning and under the inspiration of broad liberality, rewrote the history of Greece, and showed that the splendid record of her civilization was the record of a splendid people, and that even in her fall she achieved an intellectual triumph over her military conquerors; and the work of Grote remains pre-eminently the history of Greece. Macaulay chose the history of England, and tracing the growth of the English people, as shown in the increasing power of the House of Commons, and describing their municipal, rural, and domestic life, produced a work of unmatched brilliancy and interest. Green,dead, alas too soon,-following in his footsteps, has left us, in his history of the English people, an imperishable monument of liberality and learning.

And now we have on our side of the Atlantic a new historian in John Bach McMaster, who has given us two volumes of what he entitles not the history of the United States, but a "History of the People of the United States." At first sight it would appear that his title is one of supererogation. The case of a republic in which all public acts are regarded as really those of the people, acting through their chosen representatives, would seem to differ very widely from that of a monarchy in which, even though constitutional, there is a wide interval between the throne and its subjects. But Professor McMaster seems, while fully aware of this