Can it be, that the citizens of the New World are contented with bequeathing to their posterity their lands and their laws,-and without handing down to them the names of the men by whom those lands were wrested from the wild savage and the wilder forest, or the progress of events by which those laws were won from anarchy and despotism?

A year ago!-and, had we asked this question, the answer must have been-"Strange, incomprehensible, unnatural as it may seem-it can be -for it is. It is true, that we, dwellers in the first land that ever advocated the equality of every civil right, and the toleration of every religious opinion that we, proud, justly proud, as we are, of our institutions, our prosperity, and our country-that we, Americans, possess no text-book, from which to teach our children, by whom those institutions were created, that prosperity fostered, that country redeemed!"

Books there have been, indeed, professing to be histories of our western hemisphere-books of which the folly was exceeded only by the falsity, from which every man of common understanding was compelled to turn away in loathing and disgust. Hence it is, that there are men-learned men-among us, to whom the records of Greece and Rome are familiar words, who have studied the annals of England and of every European clime with accurate research, and who are yet hopelessly ignorant of the early days of America. Hence it is, that a thousand ridiculous errors have been propagated, till falsehood has become time-honored, and, putting on the semblance, has gained the authority of truth. Hence it is, that it has grown almost into a creed to maintain that there are no subjects for romance, no chivalrous associations, no "songs of the olden time," to be found on this side the Atlantic. Hence it is, that it has been the fashion to wonder, by what means so pervading and indomitable a spirit of liberty should have sprung up at once from a dormant and imperceptible spark into a blaze that enlightened the universe, at the era of the Independence. Hence it is, that intellects have been tormented, and language exhausted, in the vain attempt to account for things, which cannot be accounted for, simply because they never existed.

Now, however, this reproach, for a reproach it was, is done away-this vacuum in American literature has been filled up, and filled up nobly. It is a common thing-too common-to say that this writer of a pretty poem, or that of an amusing tale, has conferred a benefit upon his countrymenbut we speak deliberately and advisedly when we apply these generally unmeaning terms to Mr. Bancroft. The attempt to embalm the great names and great deeds of a continent, even if it result in a failure, if unconnected with vanity or presumption, is in itself laudable-to succeed in such an event is great. And, in our opinion, Mr. Bancroft has emphatically succeeded. With a few slight exceptions his work is in all respects worthy of a niche in the great library of the world; and, if the succeeding volumes be found to equal that now before us, in accuracy of relation and soundness of opinion, and to surpass it in style, we dare prophecy that they will become the authority and text-book of future generations.

It will be remembered by our habitual readers that, from a very slight inspection, we ventured to hazard an opinion of this work in a former

number; since that time, we have perused it, with equal pleasure and profit, and hold ourselves justified in pronouneing it to be a book of strong character and sterling merit. The research, of which it is the fruit, must have been immense, new funds of information are opened to us in every page, and we know not whether most to admire the industry displayed in the collation of facts, the shrewdness in the deduction of events from causes, or the clear and consistent order, by which'the reader is led to perceive and appreciate the views of the writer.

We do not pretend, or presume, to say, that we have examined into the truth of all that our author has advanced, but we have done so sufficiently to satisfy ourselves of his perfect integrity, even had we not been satisfied without inquiry, by the air of candor which pervades his entire work, and by the modesty with which he states his grounds of difference from writers of more assurance, but far less certainty. Neither the time we have been enabled to devote to the perusal, nor the limits of the present notice, will permit us to enter fully into the details of this history, nor, in truth, is it compatible with the means or ends of a magazine to review at length a work of such magnitude and depth. To point out the beauties; to enumerate the merits; to notice with impartiality and candor the faults; to quote such passages as may induce the public to read for themselves if the book be a good one, or such as may induce the author to turn from his errors if otherwise; and, above all, to demonstrate the beneficial or evil tendency of the whole-these are the proper objects to be attained by the periodical critic, and to these we shall at present confine ourselves.

The first, and only volume, as yet published, of Mr. Bancroft's History, professes to contain a clear and corrected narrative of all the events pertaining to the colonization and growth of the American colonies, from the first discovery of America, to the restoration of the Stuarts. This period naturally divides itself into three distinct parts-the era of the early voyages of discovery and attempts at settlement, by adventurers of all nationsthat, of the seizure by the English of the north-western continent, with their fluctuating attempts at permanent colonization-and that, of the growth of the provinces now firmly settled, and gradually growing in civil and religious knowledge and power.

The first of these periods, as contained in Chapters I and II, are not inferior, save in style, to the admirable writings of Irving on the same subject, and are of course replete with interest and romance, while they contain much, which, if not absolutely new, is so infinitely superior in clearness and power of writing to any previous account we have seen, that it has all the charm of novelty. The expedition of Cartier, the wondrous march of Soto, and the struggles of the French and Spaniards for the possession of Florida, are exquisite gems of history. A portion of the latter passage, as containing a fact, which, we presume, is for the most part unknown to our readers, and is a singular picture of characters, we shall at once extract.

Meantime, news arrived, as the French writers assert, through the treachery of the court of France, that the Huguenots had made a plantation in Florida, and tha Ribault was preparing to set sail with reinforcements. The cry was raised, that the heretics must be extirpated; the enthusiasm of fanaticism was kindled, and

Melendez readily obtained all the forces, which he required. More than twentyfive hundred persons, soldiers, sailors, priests, jesuits, married men with their families, laborers and mechanics, and, with the exception of three hundred soldiers, all at the cost of Melendez, engaged in the invasion. After delays, occasioned by a storm, the expedition set sail; and the trade winds soon bore them rapidly across the Atlantic. A tempest scattered the fleet on its passage; it was with only one third part of his forces, that Melendez arrived at the harbor of St. John in Porto Rico. But he esteemed celerity the secret of success; and, refusing to await the arrival of the rest of his squadron, he sailed for Florida. It had ever been his design to explore the coast; to select a favorable site for a fort or a settlement; and, after the construction of fortifications, to attack the French. It was on the day which the customs of Rome have consecrated to the memory of one of the most eloquent sons of Africa and one of the most venerated of the fathers of the church, that he came in sight of Florida. For four days, he sailed along the coast, uncertain where the French were established; on the fifth day, he landed and gathered from the Indians accounts of the Huguenots. At the same time, he discovered a fine haven and beautiful river; and, remembering the saint on whose day he came upon the coast, he gave to the harbor and to the stream the name of St. Augustine. Sailing, then, to the north, he discovered a portion of the French fleet, and observed the nature of the road, where they were anchored. The French demanded his name and objects. "I am Melendez of Spain," replied he; "sent with strict orders from my king to gibbet and behead all the protestants in these regions. The Frenchman, who is a catholic, I will spare; every heretic shall die." The French fleet, unprepared for action, cut its cables; the Spaniards, for some time, continued an ineffectual chase.

It was at the hour of vespers, on the evening preceding the festival of the nativity of Mary, that the Spaniards returned to the harbor of St. Augustine. At noonday of the festival itself, the governor went on shore, to take possession of the continent in the name of his king. The bigoted Philip II. was proclaimed monarch of all North America. The solemn mass of our lady was performed, and the foundation of St. Augustine was immediately laid. It is, by more than forty years, the oldest town in the United States. Houses in it are yet standing, which are said to have been built many years before Virginia was colonized.

Passing on, contrary to our inclination, over much that is valuable and entertaining, we come to the second period, occupying Chapters III and IV. Of this portion of the work, although by no means inferior to that which precedes it, we shall say less, inasmuch as we conceive it to treat of matters more generally understood than those which went before or follow it. Merely premising that the narrative is lucid, though made up of anecdotes, and quoting the account of the first attempt at permanent colonization by the English on the shores of Labrador, we shall pass to the third period, wherein our author has exerted all his powers.

But credulity is apt to be self-willed. What is there which the passion for gold will not prompt? It defies danger, and laughs at obstacles; it resists loss, and anticipates treasures; unrelenting in its pursuit, it is deaf to the voice of mercy, and blind to the cautions of judgment; it can penetrate the prairies of Arkansas, and covet the moss-grown barrens of the Esquimaux. I have now to relate the first attempt of the English, under the patronage of Elizabeth, to plant an establishment in America.

It was believed, that the rich mines of the polar regions would countervail the charges of a costly adventure; the hope of a passage to Cathay increased; and for the security of the newly discovered lands, soldiers and discreet men were selected to become their inhabitants. A magnificent fleet of fifteen sail was collected, in part, at the expense of Elizabeth; the sons of the English gentry embarked as volunteers; one hundred persons were selected to form the colony, which was to secure to England a country more desirable than Peru, a country too inhospitable to produce a tree or a shrub, yet where gold lay, not charily concealed in mines, but glistening in heaps upon the surface. Twelve vessels were to return immediately with cargoes of the ore; three were ordered to remain and aid the settlement. The northwest passage was now become of less consideration; Asia itself could not vie with this hyperborean archipelago.

The third period, commencing with the 17th century, we agree with our author in considering as the most important of American history, excepting always the era of the revolution of which it was the germ. It is in this that he has labored, with splendid success, to trace not only the events whether civil or religious which occurred during the stormy times of the Stuarts, but their causes, discoverable in the political feelings of the times, and in the then state of society throughout Europe, as well as their results, impressed, we trust for ever, on the character of our countrymen, and the spirit of our constitution. The effects of the various reverses and successes at home--which befell the most inefficient and unfortunate line of princes that ever held or lost a throne, rendering their history one romanceupon the affairs and institutions of the colonies, are related in a manner that reflects the highest credit upon the author, not merely as a compiler, but as a man of comprehensive and philosophic mind. His estimate of the characters of the English rulers of the period is extremely sound, and the light which he has thrown upon this highly interesting period, concerning which the utmost error has obtained, is equal and novel.

He proves to our complete satisfaction, that the spirit of democratic selfgovernment was ever alive among the cavaliers of Virginia, no less than among the puritans of New England; that from a very early age, even prior to the British revolution of 1646, there was a constant struggle for the superiority of privilege to prerogative; that the characters of the various governors, and particularly that of Sir William Berkeley, have been grossly misrepresented; and that although, at the first outset of the commonwealth, a love of ancient institutions induced the old dominion to support the cause of Charles, she readily fell into the enlightened views of that wisest of usurpers, Cromwell, and so gained an extension of liberty at the time, as well as an increase of the spirit, which led her in after times to combat the usurpations of the succeeding Stuarts-the spirit which never slept, from that time to the glorious days when Patrick Henry gave it life by his patriotic eloquence.

From these chapters, wherein every page is an epoch, it is far from being easy to quote aptly, or to find passages capable of isolation—we have, however, selected one passage, containing a summary of the situation of Virginia under the commonwealth, so beautiful, and as we fully believe so true, that it would be a sin to omit it.

Religious liberty advanced under the influence of independent domestic legislation. Conformity to the church of England had, in the reign of Charles, been enforced by measures of disfranchisement and exile. Under the commonwealth, all things respecting parishes and parishioners were referred to their own ordering. Unhappily, the extravagance of a few wild fanatics, who, under the name of quakers, were charged with avowing doctrines, than which none are more offensive to the society of Friends, gave such umbrage, that Virginia was still excited to an act of intolerance. All quakers were banished; and they, who should obstinately persist in returning, were ordered to be prosecuted as felons.

Virginia was the first state in the world, composed of separate townships, diffused over an extensive surface, where the government was organized on the principle of universal suffrage. All freemen without exception were entitled to vote. An attempt was once made to limit the right to house-keepers; but the public voice reproved the restriction; the very next year, it was decided to be "hard and unagreeable to reason, that any person shall pay equal taxes and yet have no votes

in elections ;" and the electoral franchise was restored to all freemen. Servants, when the time of their bondage was completed, at once became electors; and might be chosen burgesses.

Thus Virginia established upon her soil the supremacy of the popular branch, the freedom of trade, the independence of religious societies, the security from foreign taxation, and the universal elective franchise. If, in following years, she departed from either of these principles, and yielded a reluctant consent to change, it was from the influence of foreign authority. Virginia had herself established a nearly independent democracy. Prosperity advanced with freedom; dreams of new staples and infinite wealth were indulged; while the population of Virginia at the epoch of the restoration, may have been about thirty thousand. Many of the recent emigrants had been royalists in England, good officers in the war, men of education, of property, and of condition. But the waters of the Atlantic divided them from the political strifes of Europe; their industry was employed in making the best advantage of their plantations; the interests and liberties of Virginia, the land which they adopted as their country, were dearer to them than the monarchical principles, which they had espoused in England; and therefore no bitterness could exist between the partisans of the Stuarts and the friends of republican liberty. Virginia had long been the home of its inhabitants. "Among many other blessings," said their statute book, "God Almighty hath vouchsafed increase of children to this colony; who are now multiplied to a considerable number;" and the huts in the wilderness were as full as the birds-nests of the woods.

Nearly as we have approached our limits, we cannot refrain from extracting two more gems, each of which go to prove what we have asserted concerning the soundness of Mr. Bancroft's judgment on points of character, while the two taken together, at once establish his claims to be considered one of the most impartial of historians.

The persons to whom they relate stand equally pre-eminent above all humbler names, yet as far removed one from the other, as the antipodes. Walter Raleigh, and Oliver Cromwell.

The name of Raleigh stands highest among the statesmen of England, who advanced the colonization of the United States; and his fame belongs to American history. No Englishman of his age possessed so various or so extraordinary qualities. Courage, which was never daunted, mild self-possession, and fertility of invention, ensured him glory in his profession of arms, and his services in the conquest of Cadiz, or the capture of Fayal, were alone sufficient to establish his fame as a gallant and successful commander. In every danger his life was distinguished by valor, and his death was ennobled by true magnanimity.

He was not only admirable in active life as a soldier; he was an accomplished scholar. No statesman in retirement ever expressed the charms of tranquil leisure more beautifully than Raleigh; and it was not entirely with the language of grateful friendship, that Spenser described his "sweet verse," as "sprinkled with nectar," and rivalling the melodies of "the summer's nightingale." When an unjust verdict, contrary to probability and the evidence, "against law and against equity," on a charge, which seems to have been a pure invention, left him to languish for years in prison, with the sentence of death suspended over his head, his active genius plunged into the depths of erudition; and he, who had been a soldier, a courtier, and a seaman, now became the elaborate author of a learned history of the world.

His career as a statesman was honorable to the pupil of Coligny and the contemporary of L'Hospital. In his public policy he was thoroughly an English patriot; jealous of the honor, the prosperity, and the advancement of his country; the inexorable antagonist of the pretensions of Spain. In parliament he defended the freedom of domestic industry. When, by the operation of unequal laws, taxation was a burden upon industry rather than wealth, he argued for a change; himself possessed of a lucrative monopoly, he gave his vote for the repeal of all monopolies; and, while he pertinaciously used his influence with his sovereign, to mitigate the severity of the judgments against the non-conformists, as a legislator he resisted the sweeping enactment of persecuting laws.

In the career of discovery, his perseverance was never baffled by losses. He joined in the risks of Gilbert's expedition; contributed to the discoveries of Davis in the northwest; and himself personally explored “the insular regions and broken