This book, Mr. Atkinson asserts, will prove to the mind of every thinking man that, if we persist much longer in sustaining the acts of coinage and legal tender which now encumber the statute book, our national credit will be impaired and all our working people, whose wages are paid in money, will be subjected to the most injurious form of special taxation which could be devised; it proves that a considerable portion of their wages will be taken from them under due process of law without power of redress on their part, while the rich and astute advocates of the present system will reap wealth which they nave not earned by taking from the laborer apart of that which is his rightful due. It is therefore of inestimable importance as giving the general reader a clear understanding of the real condition of things, and educating him into the right method of thinking about these matters, which sooner or later, will have to be settled by the voice of the people. THE COUNTESS OF ALBANY. By Vernon Lee. Famous Women Series, Boston: Roberts Brothers. Price $1.00. In this volume we have a biography of a once famous, now almost forgotten, person. The Countess of Albany gained her prominence in the political and social world of the latter half of the eighteenth century, not by any greatness of character or of achievement, but solely by favor of Fortune; for it does appear as a compensation for the misery of her domestic life that she was accorded a position in the world gratifying to her nature to hold. Fate certainly owed the woman destined to live for a few years only, but those years long ones, the wife of that Stuart known as the Pretender, many years in which she could be mistress of herself and the recipient of kindly consideration, if not some measure of posthumous fame. The book gives us pictures not only of the countess, but of many persons of more or less renown with whom she was associated. We are introduced to a somewhat distinguished company of civil and ecclesiastical officials, persons of literary and artistic tastes--men and women yet of historic note. The pictures are sketched with great power and painted in solid. The subjects are mostly such as would have delighted a Flemish artist to paint, and they have received true Flemish treatment. The author displays not a little of Carlyle's power of characterization.