THE UNITED STATES : A HISTORY OF THREE CENTURIES.
The United States: a History of Three Centuries. By W. E. Chancellor and F. W. Hewes. Vol. II. (G. P. Putnam's Sons. 15s. net.)—This volume contains the period 1698-1774, under the special title of " Colonial Union." Chap. 1 treats of the growth of population in the first six decades of this period. The increase was very great, showing quite surprising figures. New Hampshire grew from 7,000 in 1697 to 50,000 in 1760: but the Carolinas showed a rise which far surpassed this,-8,000 to 210,000. But then in the. Northern States there were but 1,000 negroes ; in the Southern there were 115,000, already outnumbering the whites by 10,000. This leads us on to chap. 2, in which we have the slavery side of the subject. But here the figures are of a very sinister character. " A hundred thousand and not many more, voluntary European immigrants had increased in a century and a half to a million and a quarter, while more than half a million of compulsory African immigrants were represented by but half that number." The whole of this chapter is dismal reading. It is true that the horrors belong especially to the Colonial period ; but it is impossible to forget that half the nation fought fiercely to keep the system, and that of the other half only a minority were really opposed to it. Down to the middle of the nineteenth century Boston was as unsafe for an Abolitionist as Richmond. Our authors deal fully with the social life and the trade, as well as the government of the Colonies and their relations with the Indians. The book is, in fact, full of greet and varied interest. It is to be completed, we see, in ten
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