Cassell's History of the United States. By Edmund Oilier. Vols.
I. and II. (Cassell and Co.)—The first volume carries the history from the planting of the first settlements in North America down to the victory won by Wolfe on the heights of Quebec, the second down to the conclusion of the war between the United States and Great Britain in 1815, though a very brief chapter follows, relating the history of the next eleven years in about as many pages. We are inclined to think this apportionment of space is a mistake. Most readers know some- thing of the story of North-American colonisation, of the Puritan settle- ments in Now England, of William Penn, of the struggles between France and England for the sovereignty of North America. The history of the War of Independence is still more familiar, and the struggle of 1813-15, though in some respect a still more painful subject, is at least as well known. Nor are other authorities on these matters wanting. What one really wants to have is the internal history of the United States, and it is something which it is not easy to find. We hope that in his third volume Mr. Oilier means to give it to us in full detail. Mean- while we have to thank him for two very interesting volumes. The narrative is vigorous, and the spirit in which it is written satisfactory, though our friends across the Atlantic will probably think it too favour- able to the British side. Perhaps it is well that they should be re- minded that all the justice and good-feeling were not on their side, nor all the wrong-doing on ours, Cultured Boston so far forgot itself as to tar and feather some ladies who had the misfortune to be related to a loyalist officer, while an officer in high command, who stabbed prisoners in cold blood, met with no more severe condemnation than that he had "acted with a degree of warmth which his best friends could not de- fend." The two volumes are handsomely and copiously illustrated. We may especially note a number of interesting fac-similes of autographs, contemporary documents, and the like.
Previous page
