Mr. Talbot's first public service of note was as Representative from Billerica in the Legislature of 1852, and he was a member of the Constitutional Convention the following year. He was elected a member of the Executive Council in 1864, and served five years in that honorable capacity in association with Governors Andrew, Bullock and Claflin. In 1872 Mr. Talbot was elected by the Republicans as Lieutenant Governor upon the same ticket with Hon. William B. Washburn, who was elected as Governor. Re-elected with Governor Washburn in 1873, he became Acting Governor when, during the legislative session of 1874, Governor Washburn was elected as United States Senator to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Hon. Charles Sumner. One of the first important acts of his official life after this event was the approval of the "Ten-Hour bill." In the same year Mr. Talbot received the Republican nomination for Governor but was defeated by Hon. William Gaston. In 1878 he again had the nomination, and was elected over Gen. Butler, Judge Abbott and A.A. Miner. He was presidential elector in 1876 and 1884, and was chairman of the State Board of Health, Lunacy and Charity from its establishment in 1879 to 1884. Mr. Talbot was strictly a temperance man and was a professed Prohibitionist. * * * * * AMONG THE BOOKS. The preparation of elaborately illustrated editions of standard poems especially for the holiday trade has become a very prominent feature of the book publishing business. Every year seems to mark an increased beauty and variety in the work which the artist contributes to these holiday books, and many classic works of literature are read with clearer meaning and vastly greater delight, by reason of the intelligent interpretations often given in the illustrations of our best artists of the day. Among the most tasteful as well as sumptuous art volumes of the last three years have been James R. Osgood & Co.'s "The Lady of the Lake," "The Princess," and "Marmion." For a similar book for this season, Messrs, Ticknor & Co., the successors of the old firm, have taken as a subject Lord Byron's _Childe Harold_.[6] Of the poem nothing need be said here, for it is universally accepted as Byron's greatest and best; but of the illustrations, pages of praise could easily be written. The poem itself has been a fertile theme for the artists, for the scene is made to shift from one to another of the most beautiful and romantic localities of the Rhine, of Spain, Italy and Greece, and most of the illustrations are true representations of castles, ruins, palaces and natural scenery in these ancient countries. All of the illustrations in the volume are from wood, in the production of which the most famous American artists and engravers have given their best work, all of it having been under the supervision of Mr A.V.S. Anthony. * * * * *