The sun., 1905-08-06
SOME NEW Booxs.
/, sasnn,ns,s History es the United states,

: saannlns's History os the United States
4 We have before US the first volume Of
sThe History Of the United States by
I Edward Charming (Macmillans). The au'
thor's purpose, as he tells us In . preface
is To give an account Of the development
OF The people inhabiting the United States
from the discovery OF America to the close
(. OF the nineteenth century. As the present
volume only carries us to the year 1900.
we Assuri p that half dozen volumes will
be requi7sd for the whole narrative. The
present work diGerI from most other his
tories 1ealing with the same subject In
respect Of the points Of view from which
the, subject Is regarded. The author
reminds us that other writer's on Ameri-
can history have usually regarded the
colonists as living life somewhat apart
from the rest Of mankind Moreover.
they have been apt to treat the founding
Of each colony and State as II 1t had been
unlike the founding Of other colonies and
Etates and they have generally traced
the story OF each isolated political unit from
the point Of view Of the antiquarian. Mr.,
Channings mode OF survey is different
He looks upon the colonies as parts Of the
that political fabric, and as having simply
pursued course of institutional evolution
unlike that of the branch OF the English
race which remained behind in the old
homeland across the Atlantic In still
another particular our authors point OF
view differs from that OF most, II not al,
of his predecessors. He has proceeded
on the assumption that the most important
single fact in our development has been
the victory Of the forces Of union over those
Of particularism. He has considered it
essential that the forces and institutions
which have made for dsunion should be
treated at length and in a sympathetic
spirit, but he has deemed 1t even more
necessary that the forces and institutions
which have made for union should be con-
stantly borne in mind by the writer and
continually brought to the attention Of
tho reader for 1t is the triumph Of these
which has determined the nation g fate.
The first les pages, which treat Of the
events preceding the landing at James
town in 1907 and which include Whist the
author has to say about the discovery OF
the New World and the first European
settlements therein suggest comparison
with the first volume Of tho History OF
the New World, Called America" by Ed
ward John Payne, which is also published
by the Macmillans. Tho space here de-
voted to the discovery Of the New World is
relatively brief. Mr.. Charming accepts. OF
course, the discovery Of the American
mainland by the Northmen about A. D.
1000 as historically proved. but he allots
much less space to it than does Mr.. Payne
u> ho ~ Nt
pre- Columbian discoveries. Mr. Payne.
though he passes over the alleged voyage
Of Buddhist monks from China to Mexico
some 500 years before the landing Of North
men in Vinland, comedies the possibility,
II not probability, that the American main
land or Its adjacent islands may have been
reached by the Phnnicians, who circum-
navigated Africa in the reign Of Pharaoh
Necho (eOO B. C.). or by their Carthaginian
descendants. TO whom Madeira and the
Canaries were known. and also the Azores,
II 1t be true that Carthaginian coins have
been found on one OF the islands Of the
last named group. There il reason, also.
70 believe. though, - We recall. neither Mr..
Payne nor Mr.. Claiming mentions the fact,
that tho Azores were discovered, II not
occupied. by Moors from the Iberian
Peninsula generations before the aoquisi-
tion Of those islands In the fifteenth oen-
tury by tho Portuguese. Having got 20
far, 1t is not improbable that they may
have gone further across the Atlantic.
Mr.. Payne thinks that the story Of the
Western voyage Of Madoc, the Welshman. in
the twelfth century may possibly belong to
genuine history, but neither he nor Mr..
Claiming pays any attention to the stories
Of Irish, Dieppois and Basque pre-Colum-
bian discoveries Of the New World. though
Il Is tolerably certain that Iceland was
known to the Irish before the occupation
OF that island by the Northmen, and, II
Irishmen got to Iceland, why may not some
Of them have been impelled to Vinland
by tho same ocean current that sfterward
bore thither Biarne Herjuhson and Left
Eicsonf