tutions. As many of the subjects connected with this course are also treated in other courses in the University, care is taken to devote chief attention to those topics which are not otherwise discussed, so that there shall be no actual duplication of work. To the seniors is given a course, three hours a week for one year, on public finance, a large portion of which, say one-third, is devoted to the financial history of the United States, beginning with the financial policy of the Revolution and closing with the financial operations of late years. This course involves the discussion of the tariff, internal revenue, direct taxes, public lands, postoffice, Mint, &c., so far as they have proved elements in the public revenue system of the country. It includes, also, a history of American theories on taxation and other sources of public income. Care is here taken to avoid duplication of instruction in the various courses. The work in the political science seminary is almost exclusively in connec tion with American subjects, as the following topics assigned during the year 1885-'86 for special study and investigation will show: System of convict labor in the United States; anti-rent riots in New York; taxation in Pennsylvania, in Massachusetts, in South Carolina; munici pal finance in the United States; local government in the United States; city government of Philadelphia.

In order to offer to the students of the Wharton School the means of acquiring a more complete knowledge of American economics, courses covering four hours a week are also given through the year, in which systematic instruction is given by lectures, texts, essays, investigations, and discussions. The topics presented are, inter alia, the extent, nature, and ownership of the soil; mines, fisheries, transformation and transportation of products, and modes of exchange; banking, functions of middlemen, stocks, railroads, and railroad legislation; public grants by cities and towns; tariffs, pooling arrangements, and mercantile law and practice in the United States. (Prof. A. S. Bolles.)

Special courses of lectures are also given by graduates of the University, fellows of the University, and men in public life on subjects taken entirely from American History and Economics, such as Comparative State Constitutional Law (Dr. F. N. Thorpe), Taxation (J. C. Jones, esq.), and Methods of State Legislation. (Hon. Robert Adams, jr.)

HARVARD UNIVERSITY.

The work in American history at Harvard, under Dr. Albert Bushnell Hart and Dr. Edward Channing, and at Pennsylvania, under the direction of the historian, John Bach McMaster, proceeds, to use the language of Von Ranke, "to tell just how things came about." History is the development of the life of the nation. It does not begin, as taught there, by assuming to know just how things came about; history is not forced into an empiricism; its own mirror it holds up to the organic life of the nation, and the historian and the student of history must tell of that life as he sees it, and not merely as he desires to see

it. The people is greater than the camp, and the mind of the people than the mind of its legislators. At Harvard and at Pennsylvania the student, as he pursues his course in American history, has put into his hands a set of outlines for his guidance; those by Dr. Hart are published; those by Professor McMaster are in manuscript. As an index to the work attempted in these two universities, we give a brief por tion of the Harvard plan. It may be said to represent the best attempts now making in our schools in the study of American institutions, and is substantially an outline of the courses and the work at Columbia, Cornell, and Johns Hopkins.

At Harvard University history is taught by seven men, two of whom devote their strength to the teaching of American history; courses in American economics are also given by two other men. The courses in American history may be briefly described as follows:

(1) A course in English and American political institutions, designed as an introduction to later courses and devoted chiefly to American history. (Three hours a week for one-half year, Professor Macvane.)

(2) A course in American history to 1783, dealing especially with the institutional development of the colonies. (Three hours a week for the year, Dr. E. Channing.)

(3) A course devoted to the history of the United States from 1783 to 1861. (Three hours a week for the year, Dr. A. B. Hart.)

(4) A course devoted to the history of the United States from 1783 to 1861. (Three hours a week for the last half of the year, Dr. Hart.) (5) A course designed for advanced students who are investigating the period from 1861 to the present time. (Three hours a week through the year, Dr. Hart.)

(6) A course in special research for advanced students, the subjects selected bearing on our territorial growth and our institutional history. (Three hours a week for the whole year, Dr. Channing.)

(7) The history of the tariff and financial legislation of the United States, two half courses counting as one full course. (Three hours a week through the year, Professor Dunbar; Assistant Professor Taussig.)

Each instructor conducts his own class as he deems best, and his stu. dents investigate such topics as seem desirable.

In the colonial course there are three lectures a week throughout the year. In these lectures it is intended to treat in considerable detail the more important topics, leaving the student to fill in the gaps. To enable him to do this, as well as to avoid a waste of time in copying in the class-room, a set of "Topics and references in American colonial history" is provided by the instructor and printed at the expense of the instructor and students. This is not designed to take the place of "Notes," nor is it an outline of the lectures or of the course. The object is merely to furnish the students with a brief bibliography of the more important books bearing on the subject of their year's work. It