BOOK NOTES.
**Any book mentioned in this
department can be obtained through the Pub.
lisher of the QUARTERLY.
AMERICAN STATE CONSTITUTIONS; A Study of
their Growth. By Henry
Hitchcock, LL. D. New York and London:
G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1887.
This little volume is No. XXXVII of
"Questions of the Day." It is an
interesting study of certain currents of
political thought in the United
States, as seen in State Constitutions,
and was originally delivered as an
address before the New York State Bar Association.
Private conversation,
the utterances of public journals, party
platforms, the speeches of party
readers, and particularly statutory
legislation are a meter of the movement
of political thought; but, manifestly,
this meter is a poor one as compared
with "the conclusions of a free
people as to what changes in their organic
law will best promote the common
welfare." " Wise or unwise, wholesome
or dangerous, these conclusions reveal,
in some measure at least," says Mr.
Hitchcock, "the drift of that
people's thought,-the goal to which, con-
sciously or unconsciously, it is
tending; as Agassiz demonstrated from the
sluggish flow of the Mer de Glace past
the stakes which he had planted at its
former verge, not only that the large
glacier was a slowly moving river of
ice, but also the rate and direction of
its irresistible drift into the valley
beneath." Mr. Hitchcock finds that in the one hundred and ten years
since the Declaration of Independence,
" the total number of distinct consti-
tutions, either newly adopted or
completely revised, which have been pro-
mulgated in these thirty-eight states is
one hundred and nine," and to these
constitutions "two hundred and
fourteen partial amendments have been
adopted at different times, some of less
and some of greater importance."
To measure the direction and volume of
political thought is an important
office of history, and we are glad to
commend this "study" to such of our
readers as are interested in such
subjects as the appointment and tenure of
the judiciary, qualifications for the
suffrage, and corporations. We notice
two minor errors. The first Constitution
of Ohio was not submitted to the
people, as is implied on page 16; and in
1800 there were sixteen states in
the Union, not fifteen, as stated on
page 47. It is strange, indeed, that a
New York man should forget Vermont, the
admission of which to the Union
caused that State, first and last, so
much trouble.
THE AZTECS; their History, Manners and
Customs. From the French of
Lucien Biart. Authorized translation by
J. L. Garner. Pp. 333. Chicago:
A. C. McClurg & Co., 1887.
In this book a brief history of the
Aztecs is followed by a description of
their government, industries, arts,
religious and social customs. While con-
taining little that is really new, the
work will prove instructive to most
readers, and owing to its compact form
will be useful, and as valuable,
probably, as any work that cites no
authorities, and hence gives the reader
no guides for verifying or amplifying
its statements.
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