The initial volume of American Commonwealths, edited by Horace E. Scudder, and published by Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston, was Virginia:  A History of the People, by John Esten Cooke.  This is followed by Oregon:  The Struggle for Possession, written by William Barrows.  The books are intended to give a rapid but forcible sketch of each of those States in the Union whose lives have had “marked influence upon the structure of the nation, or have embodied in their formation and growth, principles of American polity.”

A History of the American People, by Arthur Gilman, published by D. Lothrop & Co., Boston, I vol.  Illustrated.  This is a compact account of the discovery of the continent, settlement of the country, and national growth of this people.  It is treated in a popular way, with strict reference to accuracy, and is profusely illustrated.

History of Prussia to the accession of Frederick the Great, 1134-1740, by Herbert Tuttle.  Published by Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston, I vol.  The author, who is Professor of History in Cornell University, “spent several years in Berlin, studying with the greatest care the Germany of the past and present.  The results are contained in this volume, with the purpose to describe the political development of Prussia from the earliest time down to the death of the second king.”

The Magazine of American History, No. 30 Lafayette Place, New York.  Terms, $5 per annum, single numbers 50 cents.  Mrs. Martha J. Lamb, editor.

This is the only periodical exclusively devoted to the history and antiquities of America; containing original historical and biographical articles by writers of recognized ability, besides reprints of rare documents, translations of valuable manuscripts, careful and discriminating literary reviews, and a special department of notes and queries, which is open to all historical inquirers.

This publication is now in its seventh year and firmly established, with the support of the cultivated element of the country.  It is invaluable to the reading public, covering a field not occupied by ordinary periodical literature, and is in every way an admirable table companion for the scholar, and for all persons of literary and antiquarian tastes.  It forms a storehouse of valuable and interesting material not accessible in any other form.

Mrs. Lamb is the author of the elaborate History of the City of New York, in two volumes, royal octavo, which is the standard authority in that specialty of local American history.

We welcome The Magazine of American History, and thank the accomplished editor for her appreciation of our own more especially New England enterprise.

The Magazine of American History, has one element which insures its merit and its permanence, and that is its list of contributors.  Its previous editors have included John Austin Stevens, the Rev. Dr. B.F.  DeCosta, and others.  Its contributors include such names as Bancroft, Carrington, DePeyster, George E. Ellis, Gardner, Greene, Hamilton, Stone, Horatio Seymour, Trumbull, Walworth, Rodenbough, Amory, Cooper, Delafield, Brevoort, Anthon, Bacheller, Arnold, Dexter, Windsor, etc.