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that it will ever be superseded. The qualities which distinguish it insure to it à permanent place in our literature. It is a monument to the industry, the patience, the accuracy, the sound judgment, the good sense, of its author. It must be henceforth the handbook of every student and every lover of New England. But the cost of its three large volumes renders it inaccessible to a very large number of those persons who desire to become acquainted with the records of their ancestors, and its elaborate fulness of detail unfits it to be a popular manual.

"I presume," says Dr. Palfrey, at the close of the Preface to his abridgment, "there is one third of the white people of these United States, wherever now residing, of whom no individual can peruse these volumes without reading the history of his own progenitors." It is for the great mass of these children of New England that he has prepared the work before us. They will not be ungrateful to him for this labor. These two volumes of moderate size supply all that need be known of the events that attended the foundation and establishment of the New England Colonies, of the motives, principles, and characters of the men who moulded their institutions and gave form to the nas

cent state.

In this history lie the origins of the liberties of America, the sources of the strength and glory of the United States. From New England have been derived those principles and methods, and that civil, political, and social organization, which are both the causes and the effects of the distinguishing traits of our national character and development. New England is the home of modern democracy and of genuine republican liberty. Her history is one by itself and apart. She established a new era in politics, and gave a new meaning to such words as people, government, and state. She made the greatest advance in political science which it was ever given to any community to make, and for the first time in the history of the world practically established and defined the relation of politics to morals. Her fame is the property not only of her own descendants, but of every man who believes in and advocates the rights of man in whatsoever land. For here those rights were first acknowledged, first asserted and maintained in the moral order of a civilized community. It is as absurd to talk, as Mr. Sunset Cox and other silly orators sometimes do, of getting rid of New England ideas, and of leaving New England out in the cold, as it would be to talk of getting rid of Christian ideas. Her ideas have become the instincts of freemen. They are in the very fibre of their hearts. Mr. Lincoln the Kentuckian was a genuine son of New England, and it is the greatest misfortune of Mr. Johnson that he has so little of New-Englandism in

his nature. This war, which is now drawing to an end, is the war between the new ideas of New England and the old ideas of the Old World. The victory is to make the United States a larger, happier, completer New England. With this victory New England will drop from history. Her work will be accomplished.

Dr. Palfrey's book is, then, not merely a history in the ordinary sense, it is a manual for the political student, a compendium of the origin of American political ideas. It is a book to be in the hands of every American who would thoroughly comprehend the nature of the institutions which he bears a part in maintaining, and of the principles from which they sprang.

The abridgment is executed with great felicity. It has none of the stiffness and jejuneness which commonly attend such works. On the contrary, the narrative is full, easy, accurate. The spirit of the original is not lost. The compression has been effected mainly by the omission of notes and citations of authorities, and by a judicious condensation of those portions of the larger work which relate mainly to the contemporary history of the old country.

Here and there Dr. Palfrey has introduced some fresh matter into the abridgment, and we find throughout evidence of the most scrupulous care and skilful handling. It may be commended without reserve; and it is a satisfaction of no common order that so excellent a popular History of New England is given to the public.

22.

History of France, from the most remote Period to 1789. By HENRI MARTIN. Authorized Translation from the Fourth Paris Edition, by MARY L. BOOTH. Vols. XV. and XVI. The Decline of the French Monarchy. Boston: Walker, Fuller, & Co. 1866. 8vo. pp. xvi., 546; viii., 623.

Of the general qualities of M. Martin's History we spoke in noticing the former volumes of this translation. It is the work of a man of liberal and enlightened mind, of active intelligence, and of great industry. If rarely profound, M. Martin is seldom shallow. His style is more animated than elegant. He writes with the ease and often with too much of the fluency of a practised contributor to the daily press, and his judgments sometimes bear the marks of the haste and looseness of this sort of composition. His book is not of the first order, but is one of the best of the second order of historical works. The scholar will find it of real value as a compendious and connected narrative of the long stretch of French history, and as indicating the best sources of

Sabin's Reprints.

information upon special points, while the unlearned reader will derive 641 from its animated pages both entertainment and instruction.

The volumes of the translation now before us cover the years from 1715 to 1789. They embrace the story of the decline of the French Monarchy, the fall of the old régime, and the approach of the Revolution. It is a story hardly surpassed in interest by that of the Revolution itself. It exhibits a picture of the break up of feudal institutions, and of the corruption of the society that had been founded upon them. It is full of picturesque contrasts and impressive lessons. There is, perhaps, no passage in the history of the world in which the moral forces that regulate events are to be seen more distinctly in action, in which the inevitable consequences of human conduct are more clearly exhibited, and in which a blind fate or chance appears to have so little share.

M. Martin tells this story with a lively sense of its meaning and importance, and his volumes form an excellent introduction to every history of the subsequent Revolutionary period.

The translation of this part of the History seems, upon the whole, to be more carefully executed than that of the preceding volumes. It is, however, far from being satisfactory. Similar faults to those which we pointed out in our former notice are still manifest. The translator ought to submit her work before publication to much more careful and scholarly revision than it now receives. She shows such industry and good intention that we regret not to be able to commend fully the results of her labor. We trust that the succeeding portions of her task may be so accomplished that we shall be able to speak of them in terms that will be not less agreeable to ourselves than to her.

23.-Sabin's Reprints. Quarto Series. Joseph Sabin: New York.

1865.

1. An Account of the late Revolution in New England. By MR. NaTHANIEL BYFIELD. 1689.

2. A Relation of Maryland. 1635.

3. The Light appearing more and more towards the Perfect Day. By HENRY WHITfield.

4. Certain Inducements to Well-minded People, 5. Strength out of Weakness. 1652.

1643.

6. Progress of the Gospel among the Indians in New England. 1659. 7. The Clear Sunshine of the Gospel. By THOMAS SHEPARD. 1648. 8. Further Queries upon the Present State of New-English Affairs. 1689-90.

VOL. CII.

- NO. 211.

41

Octavo Series. New York. 1865.

1. The Journal of Major George Washington. 1754.

2. A Journal of two Visits made to some Nations of Indians. By the REV. DAVID JONES.

1774.

3. Vindication of the Captors of Major André. [By EGBERT BENSON.]

1817.

4. A Brief State of the Province of Pennsylvania. 1755.

Second Series. New York. 1865.

1. The Narrative of COLONEL DAVID FANNING, a North Carolina Tory. 1775-1783.

IN these reprints Mr. Sabin has taken advantage of the prevailing taste for bibliographical rarities to do a service to the students of Amer ican history. His selection of works for reprinting has been judiciously made, and the typographical execution of the reprints is altogether excellent. We have little doubt that their correctness is equal to their beauty, but we have made no collation of them with the originals, and are therefore unable to state how far they will bear the application of this test. If they are made with the exactness which we have reaso from Mr. Sabin's reputation as a careful bibliographer to expect, are well worthy a place in every historical library which does not p sess the original works.

Six of the tracts in what Mr. Sabin calls his "Quarto Series" (if we include "New England's First Fruits," &c., 1643) relate to the attempts to convert to Christianity the Indians of New Eng land. This series of tracts is of the first importance in illustrating that portion of the early history of New England to which they refer. They have long been familiar to the students of our local annals, and, with the exception of the tract published in 1659 and the latter portion of the "First Fruits," have all been reprinted in the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society; with the addition also of two belonging to the series, which Mr. Sabin would do wel to reprint with the others; viz. "Tears of Repentance: or a further Narrative of the Progress of the Gospel," &c., London, 1653; and "A Late and Further Manifestation," &c., London, 1655.

Some of these tracts were originally published by the corporation in England for Propagating the Gospel among the Indians; others were printed through the influence of particular friends of the cause.

The "Relation of Maryland," &c. is a valuable historical tract, inasmuch as it is undoubtedly the first colonizing programme, and the first full description of that Province * issued after the grant to Lord Balti

* See Historical Magazine for October, 1865.

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more of 20th June, 1632. As the title-page of the work indicates, it embraces, first, "A Relation of Maryland"; second, "A Map of the Country"; third, "The Conditions of Plantation"; and fourth, "His Majesty's Charter to Lord Baltimore translated into English."

The reprint of this tract is unfortunately defective, for the good reason that the original from which his transcript was made was wanting in an essential particular, namely, in "his Majesty's charter." This original was furnished by Dr. F. L. Hawks, who edits the reprint, and who seems not to have been aware that his rare little quarto was unfortunately curtailed of its fair proportions; although the titlepage of the work clearly indicates that "His Majesty's Charter to Lord Baltimore " is a part of its contents. Mr. Sabin, having been informed since the reprint was issued that this large and important part of the original tract was wanting in his edition, intends, as we understand, to supply from another and complete copy of the original this deficiency, a reprint of which will be sent to all his subscribers.

In his "Prefatory Note" Dr. Hawks says: "Among the rare tracts concerning the settlement of Maryland by Lord Baltimore, this, if not the earliest, is certainly among the first that were published. The editor of this reprint believes it to be the first, and has never seen any other copy of it except that in his possession, from which the present edition is printed. He thinks, however, that a few other copies are in existence, one of which is in the British Museum. The researches of the editor have not enabled him to discover the author."

Dr. Hawks is right in supposing that this was among the first of the rare tracts relating to the settlement of Maryland, but it was not the earliest. In the year before this tract was issued, there was published "A Relation of the successful Beginnings of the Lord Baltimore's Plantation in Mary-land; being an Extract of certain Letters written from thence, by some of the Adventurers to their Friends in England. Anno Domini 1634." Small quarto. The first colonial expedition which Lord Baltimore sent to the Chesapeake was accompanied by his two brothers, Leonard and George Calvert. The former was commissioned as Governor. A few "Gentlemen adventurers, and their servants to the number of near 200 people, imbarked themselves for the voyage, in the good ship called the Arke, of 300 ton and upward, which was attended by his Lordship's Pinnace, called the Dove, of about 50 ton." They weighed anchor "from the Cowes in the Isle of Wight, about ten in the morning," on Friday, the 22d of November, 1633, and arrived at "Point Comfort on the 24th of February. On the 3d of March they left Point Comfort, and proceeded to the Potomac River. After spending some weeks in exploring this

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