The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-04-18
SOME NEW BOOKS.
France IN America.

',
Commissioner Of Education Of this
State and president OF the university
Of the State tScribners), expecting
TO find retclling Of the history i'm
MORALLY set" by the Homeric"
Parkman. DR.. Finley does tell of
the early missionary explorers, the
Gray Frars and Black Gowns; of
Cartier, Champlain. La Sale Father
1Ienncpin. Marquette. the brothers
."snndrye, Radisson and Groscillicrs,
fh~ Seur d'lbcrvillc. the coure,ir,
de bois, pcrrot, Brnle Nico,ct But
It Is clear that the heart of which
he writes IL not so much tho geo.
graphical as the sentimental core: not
of the land but Of the people. These
chapters were written in France and
addressed, in lecture form. to the
French people. with the object of
"freshcning and Frightening for them
the memory of what some of them
had seemingly wished to forget. and
to visualize to them the vigorous.
hopeful. achieving life that is passing
before that background " Gallo
vcnturing and praying" The motive
Is historical as an epic poem is his
torical: not annalistic. not photo
graphic. Tho history is the means
to an end, the promotion of interna-
tlonal friendship.
From Labrador to the Lakes the
French tide travelled, from the Lakes
down the great river to the Gulf The
valleys of the st. Lawrence and the
Mississippi became New France"
penning the English colonies in be-
tween the mountains and the sea:
scene for dream OF empire indeed.
But, as historians of to-day agree.
and as statesmen of the time per-
ceived more or less clearly. that oh
stacle to territorial expansion held the
seaboard colonies in compulsory con-
federation of interests. fostcred soli-
darity and actually enforced coopcra-
ton and q homogeneity that might
have been dssipated in the westward
wilderness. but with the final sudden
removal of the barrier made them III
and ready for the conquest of a Conti-
nent. On the Heights Of Abraham
Wolfe sealed the fate of the independ-
ent republic; John Richard Green
(the Richard Henry Greene" IT
page 1922 fixed the date. What n
convocation OF wise heads was that
English commission that long de-
hated the relative value Of the eastern
half of that inland empire and the
islet Of Guadcloupe. and finally at
tained business of appraisal under
guidance of the American good sense
In Ben Frankln's advice. And NJ.
Choiseul ChuCkled when England took
Canada. New France. ILLNESS and
Louisiana instead Of the island and
Spain accepted of his magnanimity
the undesired region beyond the
Father of Waters. So much do em-
pire builders really know what they
are doing. In the next thirty years,
there at the end of the eighteenth CEN
fury, France coveted that territory
between the river and the Rockies,
dreaming again of New France {:
Talleyrand urged the acquisition as a
curb to the aspirations of Americans
"devoured by pride. ambition and Gu
pidity." But the day of France in
the heart of the land had passed. how
ever dear France might remain to the
heart of the people.
NapoleCn's scheme of American en-
pire. beginning with Santo Domingo
then Florida and Louisiana. making
the Gulf a French lake and extending
Louisiana to the Lakes and the St
Lawrence. never got beyond Santo
Domingo. Plague and Toussaint
L'Ouverture wiped out his forces in
the West Indies. and he Sensihly de-
cided to leave the matter of Western
rivalry of England's power To the
American republic, whose hands for
this purpose it would he well wort b
his while To strengthen. In his own
words:
know the full value Of Louisiana, AM
have been DESTROYS Of repairing the fau,
OF the French negotiHtor who abaudone,
L.. In 1868. Tho English
shall not have the Mississippi which
they coyet think OF ceGini
Louisiana to the United states. ] car
scarcely say that oeic it to thon. fo
II IL not vet in our posse ss,ou. n, ho"
ever ! leay" tho least time TO our enc
mics shall only transmit an oup'" III,
20 those republicans whose friendship
seek. ALREADY consider nj
colony as entirely lost. and 1t appears t.
me tina in the hands Of this Erowiul
Power # viii Ice more useful to the poiicl
and even 10 the commerce Of France thar
~ should attempt 20 keep H.
And so it was Napoleon who CAV,
the United States it's most marked
impetus in the early path toward tn,
position of a world Power.
When the Colonies on the Atlanti,
coast won independence and the new
nation was formed, there were in tn
Mississippi Valley only a few thousan,
settlers, French 1000 at Detroit
4 900 at NinCennos on the Wabash
and small towns along the Mississippi
north of the Ohio. Then Boom
crossed the Aiicghanies. followed b,
an army OF traders and trappcrs. an,
then the tide that DE TOcQucville de
sCribed. romantiCdlly enough. as g;
deluge of men, rising unabatedly an,
driven daily onward by the hand o
God AS Dr. Finley, with an ~,
III the picturesque, remarks, this ANA
basis that has had no katabasis' oc
CURED Simultaneously with that othc
exodus, the fight of the kalmucl
Tartars. half a million of semi bar
harians from Nolga banks to the Dor
derland of China, whereof De Ounce,
wrote with So much illumination
The American emigration, les
trimmed with sound and color thai
the Aslatir MISUNDERSTANDING wa
Infinitely more consequential in tn
history Of the human race 1t Wa
an exodus that occupied hundre
years. and caused "mOuntall
change" in every member of the emf
grant horde, Amba ssador Bryce sad
What Europe IL To Asia what Eng
land is Ia tho rest of EIlrODp. Whl