James Florant Meline [pp. 92-99]

96 JAMES FLo~ANT MELINE. [Oct.,
vigorous health and sowed the seeds of the disease which ultimately caused his death.
In 1865 and i866, making a tour of inspection with General
Pope through Colorado and New Mexico, Colonel Meline embodied the result of his observations in the sprightly volume, Two
Thousand Miles on Horseback-an entertaining m6lan~e of description
of scenery and character-etching, containing much new and valuable historical information especially concerning the Spanish
conquest and occupation of the Western country. His health
being seriously impaired, Colonel Meline severed his connection
with the army and was about taking up his residence in New
York, with the view of using his pen as a means of support, when
he was once more summoned to public duty as chief of Burcau
of Civil Affairs in the Third Military District, including Georgia,
Alabama, and Florida. Entering upon the duties of this post, he
continued in the work of reconstruction for two years, living in
Atlanta, attached to the staff, first of General Pope, then of
General Meade (his successor), until the State governments were
reorganized-all the time acting as correspondent of the Cincinnati Commercial and the New York Tribune.
Going then to New York, Colonel Meline at once took a
prominent place among the writers for the Cala~y, Nation, and
THE CATHoLIC WORLD, being foreign critic for the two former,
besides contributing numerous essays, among them one on "The
Man with the Iron Mask" which excited much interest and discussion. The subjects treated in THE CATHoLIC WORLD were
chiefly historical-viz., "Sixtus V.," afterwards published in a
volume; "The Fable of P~pe Joan," "Jerome Savonarola," "Columbus at Salamanca," "Sanskrit and the Vedas," "Vansleb, the
Oriental Scholar and Traveller," "Montalembert, a Son of the
Crusaders," "Galileo," "Mary Queen of Scots," etc. In an
article entitled "An Uncivil Journal" a scathing rebuke was administered to Harper's Weekly for its unscrupulous and scurrilous attacks upon the church and its disgraceft~l caricatures of the
Holy Father.
But the crowning effort of his life, securing for him solid
eminence in literature, was his Mary Queen of Scots and her
Latest Historian. It is an expansion of four articles that appeared originally in THE CATHoLIC WORLD, controverting
with great ability Mr. Froude's treatment of the character of
Mary Stuart in his History of tn~land~ Renewed interest in the
subject was awakened by the appearance of Mr. Froude in the
United States as a lecturer upon "Ireland" shortly after the