The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-02-17
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History of New England. BY John .Gorham Palfrey
Volume l. Boston: Lutte, Brown, \ Co. 1s5e. For
sale by w. NJ. Morrison, PeDnsy wanna avenue, Wash
ngion, ID C.
We have read this book with no ordinary in
terest and delight. Written, on the one hand
hand, by a descendant of the men whose deeds
he relates, and, on the other, by one whose
religious faith, as his preface declares, would
have prevented his admission to any OF their
churches, and consequently to their councils,
and whose propagation of that faith might have
caused his exile from their territory-we find,
as we have right to expect, a noble and hearty
appreciation, guided by cool, impartial reason;
grateful and tender admiration of the heroes
of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay, joined
with perfect iberality of sentiment towards those
who " went out from them because they were
not of them" Every page exhibits extensive
research, careful analysis, an intelligent COLA
ton of facts and an unlimited exercise of the
right of private judgment on the part Of the
writer, with abundant margin for the same al
lowed to the reader.
| This first volume opens with view of the
Physical Geography of New England those
conditions Of formation, climate, and soil, which
have so great an influence in determining the
character of country's Inhabitants COM
prehensive account of the physical, intellect
ual and social state of the aborigines who, in
the authors hands, comport but ill with the
Indian of romance and poetry--a brief resume
of the early voyages and explorations sketch
of the rise and progress of Puritanism in Old
England, without which New England might
now have neither historian nor existence and
then, the planting in weakness and tears OF
the seeds of that tree whose leaves, We trust,
will be for the healing the nations.
In these latter days, when we are said, per-
haps with too much truth, to be drifting away
from the principles Of our fathers we cannot
be too often set face to face with their stern
integrity their unyielding courage, their inhex-
ible adherence to the "Higher Law" their emer
gy to do, their fortitude to bear, and their child
like, unfailng faith in God, and the ultimate
triumph of right. Whatever may be our opin
ion of the wisdom of some of their measures,
there can be but one of their heroism. To two
or three points, however, in which they are often
attacked, and which here find abundant vindi-
cation, we wish to call particular attention.
There is a more or less prevalent impression,
that in their dealings with the Indians they
were tricksy, dishonest, and cruel. On the
contrary it is shown that they occupied land
which was deserted by the Indians, gave fair
equivalent for whatever provisions they OBJ
tanned, and took up arms solely in self-defence.
They are also charged with the same narrow
minded bigotry, and desire to control opinion,
which, on the part of the churchmen of Eng
land, caused their own expulsion from the
mother country; but an unbiased investigation
shows that they banished, not for opinion, but
for action; that the questions raised with Roger
Williams were questions Of political rights and
the administration of civil government, and not
Of religious faith that the proceedings of Mrs.
Hutchinson and her adherents were politically
seditious and rebellious, threatening anarchy
and dissolution. Furthermore we are apt to
forget, if we are so fortunate as to know that,
by their organization and their chartered rights,
they were owners Of Massachusetts in fee, by as
good title as that by which any freeholder held
his English farm; and as they had abandoned all
that was dear to them in England for the sake
e s-...- IL
with their own ideas of right, they cannot be
blamed for jealousy excluding all disturbing
intruders. Their earliest purpose was the en-
joyment Of religious liberty. The design of
forming a great nation, around this central,
governing principle, probably grew up gradu-
ally. That the supplemented peasants of
Scrooby were not sustained in their sufferings
by vision of the grand results which should
flow from them, does not detract from the sub
Unity of their devotion. They builded better
than they knew, and bequeathed to US another
illustration of the important truth, that right
doing belongs to ourselves--consequenc to
God.
Episodes of French History during the Consulate and the
First Empire BY Miss Pardoe, author of Court
and Reign of F, ancis b. Life of Marie de Medics ,
" Louis XIV and the Court of France in the Seven
teenth Century" &c New York: Harper & Brothers.
1889. For sale by Taylor Maury, Washington, D. C
1t would seem, from the authors preface,
that she once designed writing the Life of Ma
poleon. So, at least, we conjecture, as she men
tons royal biography and these sketches
mostly relate to that extraordinary man, either
as their subject, or introduced as the narrator
Miss Pardoe has chosen to occupy her active
mind and facile pen with events and charac-
tiers connected with the history of France. Her
former volumes show this and the present one
likewise points to the same favorite ground.
She has made book which for many reasons
is an attractive one. The persons, the Incl
dents, and the contrasts of life presented, rem
der it So Napoleon, Josephine, Pauline, Mad
anne Tallien, Fouche Talleyrand, Pope Plus
VII, and others, appear upon the stage, and
some Of the scenes are strange and startling.
For pleasant, easy sketches, few writer's are
more successful and these twenty-five chap
tiers, filling some three hundred and fifty pages,
are decisive evidence of her talent in this re-
spect
The Laird of Norlaw; ScOuish Story BY the author
of "Margaret Maitland" "Lillieseaf" Orphans,
"The Days of My Life" &c. New York Harper
Brothers. 1859 For sale by Taylor Maury, Wash
ington, ID. C.
Just such a story as We love to read. Graphic,
natural life-like indeed, yet easy-told with no ev-
ident aim at effect-ti is the same mind and the
same pen that first awakened our deep interest in
Margaret Maitland" We regard her as one of
the best of the female writer's of fiction of the
present day. and she is here on her own chosen
field. There is deep pathos in some of the
scenes of trial, the exhibition of noble manly
and womanly feeling, beautiful development
of character, all SO BETTING and blending into