THIRTEEN YEARS OF THE WORLD'S HISTORY!

NOW READY, UNIFORM WITH THE PRECEDING VOLUMES, THE THIRTEENTH VOLUME OF

APPLETONS'

AMERICAN ANNUAL CYCLOPÆDIA.

THE ANNUAL CYCLOPEDIA stands alone among the successful literary enterprises of the day, and supplies a widely-extended want among all classes of readers that is not met by any other publication, native or foreign. Year-books are numerous in Europe; they are published in every language; but the best of them are merely compilations of statistics or government directions, while in those most widely circulated, as the " Almanach de Gotha; or, The Statesman's Year-Book," no space is generally given to the great public events, political, social, and industrial, that have everywhere occupied the minds of men during the year. In the United States numerous almanacs and other special periodicals are issued, but, excepting the one under consideration, there is no publication that aspires to the general character of an annual cyclopædia, giving fresh and much-sought information on all topics of public interest. The ANNUAL CYCLOPÆDIA has, then, no rival and no competitor, and, in issuing the first volume of this work in 1861, the publishers established an enterprise which met a wide-felt want, while the liberality and ability which have characterized the issue of each succeeding volume have been promptly recognized by a rapidly-extending list of subscribers.

It is important here to note the difference between the ANNUAL CYCLOPÆDIA and another work published by this house, and bearing the somewhat similar title of the AMERICAN CYCLOPÆDIA. Excepting this similarity of name, and the fact that both are general books of reference issued by the same publishers, these works have nothing in common. Not only are they under totally distinct and independent editorial supervision, each with an organization of writers wholly distinct from that of the other, but the plans and purposes of the two are entirely different. The publication of the NEW AMERICAN CYCLOPEDIA was begun in 1857 and completed in 1863, in sixteen volumes. The first volume of a new edition, under the title of the AMERICAN CYCLOPÆDIA, appeared in July, 1873. In May, 1874, six volumes had been published, and the remaining ones will be issued bi-monthly until the completion of the entire work in sixteen volumes.

The ANNUAL CYCLOPEDIA is published every year, and deals entirely with the present. Its recording pen is never still. While treating current events, its aim is to cover the entire domain of human activity, to gather promptly the results of men's thoughts and actions in every field, and to give them to the world year by year. That this statement is fully warranted in its widest sense is shown by an analysis of a single volume. Each volume contains about eight hundred octa pages, and presents not less than two hundred and fifty general subjects, occupying from a few lines to one hundred pages, which is the space generally allotted to the article on the CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. The range of these subjects is as wide as human knowledge.

In geography and political science-measures of the cabinet and movements in the field-every country in the world is represented; not only our own and the leading powers of Europe, but also the farthest countries of the South, the East, and the North, the political divisions of South and Central America, the half-civilized districts of Africa, the older governments of Asia and the Orient, and the sparsely-inhabited sections of northern latitudes. In each of these, all important political and military events, the social condition of the people, religion, schools, public institutions, financial measures, movements of commerce, progress of art, literature and industry, and enterprise of every character, are promptly recorded from the latest official material by writers thoroughly conversant with each subject.

In science no fact or result is neglected which is necessary to keep the reader abreast of the scientific thought and progress of the day. All the most recent observations and investigations, by eminent scientists in every country, are presented at length, in a style which is found clear by the general reader and accurate by the professional inquirer, in the articles ASTRONOMICAL PHENOMENA AND PROGRESS, CHEMISTRY, GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS AND DISCOVERIES, METALS, METEOROLOGY, and many others, in which special subjects are treated.

The busy activity in the world of authorship, American and foreign, is recorded in the article LITERATURE AND LITERARY PROGRESS, which comprises from thirty to fifty pages, in which are given the titles of the new books of the year, with a brief account of the character and contents of the more important ones in the various departments of science and philosophy, history, biography, poetry, essays and criticism, theology and religion, geography, travel and adventure, fiction, politics and sociology, law, medicine, the useful arts, text-books, juveniles, illustrated works, republications, etc. Not only is this important branch treated with reference to clas sified subjects, but also according to countries, so that the literary work and progress of each nation during the year may be seen at a glance.

Another most important feature of the ANNUAL CYCLOPÆDIA is the care and impartiality with which subjects relating to religion are treated. In this department all denominations, all sects and branches, are represented under a system which knows no sectarianism, the object being to afford the latest and most accurate information concerning the condition and doings of every denomination. For this purpose the proceedings of conventions, synods, councils, etc., membership, property, progress of opinions and numbers, and whatever of general interest has transpired during the year concerning the various branches of the Church, are prepared from official sources, and find a place in its pages. Special prominence is also given to the subjects of Biography and Necrology. The list of Obituaries, American and foreign, contains notices of all persons of note in any part of the world who have

died during the year; while, in the case of persons of marked eminence in any field of labor, or in any country, the career, public services, and achievements of the deceased, are set forth at such length as the importance of the subject, or the general interest, may demand. Thus among the most illustrious of the dead of 1873 were Napoleon III., Chief-Justice Chase, Agassiz, John Stuart Mill, and Dr. Livingstone, each of whom, as well as many others, forms the subject of an extended biographical notice in the ANNUAL CYCLOPÆDIA for 1873. In some instances biographical sketches of living men have been given, and it is proposed hereafter greatly to extend this feature so as to present notices of all of the more prominent men in the world. Notwithstanding the wide range of the subjects above indicated, and the fullness with which they are treated in each volume of the ANNUAL CYCLOPÆDIA, the prominence given to matters more especially pertaining to the United States gives to this work a value possessed by no other publication. In the article CONGRESS a clear and comprehensive summary of the proceedings and discussions of that body, during an entire session, on all the great political questions before the people, is given, embracing the votes thereon and the pith of the speeches by the leading members. All important state papers, messages, orders, treaties, committee reports, platforms of national parties, official correspondence, etc., between the Government of the United States and foreign nations, are given entire in the articles DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE, and FOREIGN RELATIONS, and PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. Information on military and naval affairs is afforded by the articles ARMY and Navy. The important subjects relating to finance, the resources and expenditures of the Federal Government, the decrease of the public debt, and the reduction of taxation, are treated with great care in the article FINANCES. A careful watch is likewise maintained of the general commercial and industrial interests of the country, the movements of commerce, progress of manufactures, agriculture, and mines, measures for increased transportation facilities, foreign and internal, and public improvements of every character, all of which receive due consideration in the articles on the several States and under such heads as COMMERCE, COMMERCIAL CONVENTIONS, AGRICULTURE, RAILROADS, TElegraphs, IMMIGRATION, COTTON, etc.

Besides the above general titles, and that of the UNITED STATES, the affairs of each State and Territory are treated under separate heads. The proceedings of the Legislature, the finances of the State, its debt and resources, the progress made in relation to educational, charitable, and penal institutions, the various political conventions of the year, with their nominations and platforms, election results, internal improvements, and whatever has occupied the attention of the people of the State during the year, may be found recorded from official sources year by year in the ANNUAL CYCLOPÆDIA. Here, also, appears a clear and impartial account of any public excitement or political agitation that has disturbed the quiet of the State during the year. Thus the volume for 1873 contains a clear and impartial account of the political warfare in Louisiana and Texas, the excitement consequent upon the disclosures of senatorial corruption in Kansas, the great uprising of farmers in the Northwestern States, and their contest with the railroad corporations in Illinois, and other public movements of a similar character. Due prominence is also given to other matters less exciting, perhaps, but not less important—such as the provisions of the new constitution in Pennsylvania, the improvements in the Fox and Wisconsin, and other Western rivers, the construction of the bridge over the Mississippi River at St. Louis, the completion of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, thus affording another great

channel of communication between western waters and the Atlantic seaboard, and the opening of the Hoosac Tunnel in Massachusetts, etc.

The above sketch may serve to illustrate how indispensable each volume of this work is to every reader who desires to keep informed of the progress of men's thoughts and actions in every civilized country. No public speaker or writer can afford to be without it; for, as the office of such persons is to instruct and inform others, their first duty is to be informed themselves. Here the political speaker, whether in the halls of Congress, or on the popular stand, will find his most effective weapons-facts-while the academic or lyceum orator may here gather the most instructive lessons and illustrations to grace his rhetoric. The importance of the work to the journalist need not be pointed out, and those who would be eminent as teachers of religion, or in the law or medicine, must also see the importance of keeping abreast of the progress made in those departments in other fields of labor. Besides the general reader and those engaged in professional pursuits, two classes of persons will find the ANNUAL CYCLOPEDIA especially serviceable in the performance of their duties. The first includes all public officials in States, such as members of the Legislature, executive and judicial officers, and officers of educational and other State institutions; for such persons may find here, in a convenient form for refer ence, not only what has been done during the preceding year in their own State, in which they themselves were actors, but what has been accomplished in the same department in other States, embracing matters of legislation, public improvements, movements of parties, progress of schools, experiments in charitable and reformatory institutions, prison discipline, judicial decisions, etc. The other class comprises those engaged in commerce, manufactures, agriculture, transportation, or any department of industry or trade, for the treatment of these subjects is a prominent feature of the ANNUAL CYCLOPÆDIA, which neglects nothing of importance showing the condition and progress of invention, the yield of the field and the mine, the products of the workshop, the extension of transportation facilities, the movements of imports and exports, and, in general, those matters which have a prominent influence upon the regulation of supply and demand. Each volume has a full index, so that the reader may at once be referred to the page where any subject is treated. The text of the ANNUAL CYCLOPEDIA for 1873 is illustrated by a large number of maps and cuts, besides steel portraits of the Czar of Russia, the President of Mexico, and the Hon. Charles Sumner.

Price, per volume, in Cloth, $5.00; Library Leather, $6.00; Half Turkey, $6.50; Half Russia, $7.50.

D. APPLETON & CO., PUBLISHERS,

549 & 551 Broadway, New York.