had prevailed in Mexico to a council of war in which generals, officers, and privates should decide questions by a majority vote; and he desired to confine political power to the well-to-do classes, who had an interest in maintaining order. In 1842 he earnestly recommended this plan to Santa Anna, who had been given an opportunity to reshape the destinies of his country; but Santa Anna did not follow the advice, and Paredes (though ostensibly for another reason) inaugurated the revolution which overthrew him in December, 1844. The preliminaries of that movement form the second principal subject, with which portions of the first half (notably pp. 57-62) and the greater part of the latter half of the volume are concerned. Particularly interesting (p. 182) is the mention of rumors in October, 1844, that two revolutions were already afoot: one in favor of the Congress, and the other to make Santa Anna supreme protector, that is to say, permanent autocrat. Numerous light but valuable editorial touches are to be commended, and also the intimation of the preface that more of these important papers are to be printed.

JUSTIN H. SMITH.

La Intervención Francesa en México segun el Archivo del Mariscal Bazaine. Decima Parte. [Documentos Inéditos ó muy Raros para la Historia de México, publicados por Genaro García. Tomo XXXIII.] (Mexico, Bouret, 1910, pp. 264.) This tenth volume of documents from the papers of Marshal Bazaine contains seventy-six letters and telegrams originating between September II and November 15, 1865. Interest in the contents of the volume will centre in the evidence presented upon the relations of the United States with the contending parties in Mexico. It cannot be said that the publication necessitates modification of already established views upon that situation. Yet here are useful detailed reports from Vice-Consul Wurtemberg and General Mejia, stationed in Matamoras, upon the assistance given to their Republican opponents from the Federal headquarters at Brownsville. Wurtemberg considered that the greatest danger sprang from inability to place any reliance whatever upon loyalty of Mexicans in Matamoras to the French and the Empire. Then there are significant negotiations between Bazaine and certain Texans, looking to service against any Federal forces that might invade Mexico.

Señor García has sad difficulty in printing the English text of certain letters (see pp. 45, 50, 243, 250). A reviewer may not safely proceed. very far upon inference as to the probable reading of manuscripts, but certainly the editor who occasionally inserts the warning "[sic]" after an error may be held responsible for many more of the same kind which are not thus noted. Accurate editing and careful proof-reading are minimum requirements for the printing of documents.

C. A. DUNIWAY.

TEXT-BOOKS

Notes on British History. By William Edwards. Part IV. From the Treaty of Versailles to the Death of Queen Victoria, 1783-1901. (London, Rivingtons, 1910, pp. xii, 641-1050, xxiii-xli.) This is a cram. book, but a most excellent one. It is not simply a list of events, but it states adequately the causes of the events and their results. It also arranges the facts under distinct topics, instead of merely following the chronological order. This necessitates some repetition, but the plan is worth more than it costs. Further, the writer gives a summary of the career of each of the prominent men of England in the nineteenth century which is well worth while. The book is also very inclusive. It treats of the entire empire, and not merely of Great Britain; it gives summaries of foreign events, where these in any way involved Great Britain; it treats not only of political history, but of the history of religion, education, public health, science, trade, and industry. In every one of these respects the book commends itself for its completeness and usefulness.

It can be said, too, that the writer is wholly unpartizan, whether he is treating of home or of foreign politics. It would be difficult to determine from his book what opinions Mr. Edwards holds either in politics or in religion.

The author furnishes a bibliography with each summary. But these bibliographies are extremely limited, and quite inadequate, at least for the use of American teachers. Moreover, the books cited are not always the best for the purpose.

The accuracy of the work is admirable. Of course mistakes are inevitable in a book of this character. Naturally they are more frequent in the summaries of foreign affairs than in those of domestic affairs. I note the following: The quotation from Fox on page 653 is not exact; the statement that the peasantry under the Old Régime retained only eighteen francs out of every hundred earned is probably incorrect (p. 657); the representatives of the people were not "refused admission to the Assembly by the nobles and clergy" in 1789; on page 660 Place de la Révolution should be Place de la Nation; Jacobins should be Montagnards (p. 660); it would be more accurate to say 75,000,000 francs instead of 60,000,000 (p. 678); the summary about Germany (pp. 805-806) seems to me inaccurate; 1812-13" on page 692 should be "1812-14"; American ship" (p. 694) should be American man-of-war "; Ney did not promise to bring Napoleon to Paris "in an iron cage"; a summary of the French Revolution which does not mention Danton is inadequate. The facts about Schleswig-Holstein (p. 852, par. 1) are all wrong. On page 854, under (3), Hongkong should be Canton; Lincoln was not an Abolitionist (p. 857), nor were the Abolitionists in a majority in Congress in 1860 (p. 356); Northerners on page 859 should be United States; the pope was left with something more than the Vatican after

66

the taking of Rome in 1870 (p. 307); while what Edwards says about the outcome of the Venezuela affair (p. 978) does not seem to be quite

correct.

RALPH C. H. CATTERALL.

English Political Institutions: an Introductory Study. By J. A. R. Marriott, M.A., Lecturer and Tutor in Modern History and Political Science at Worcester College, Oxford. (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1910, pp. viii, 347.) "This book ", says Mr. Marriott, "is intended as an introduction to the study of English Politics. . . . My primary object has been to set forth the actual working of the English Constitution of to-day, and to do so with constant reference to the history of the past.” The work is well done and on the whole successfully done. Marriott has undertaken to classify constitutions, to point out the salient features of the English Constitution, to discuss the executive, legislative, and judicial powers, to treat of Parliamentary procedure, of local government, and of the relations between the British state and the empire. In every case he has preceded the political science of his subject with its history. Of course everything he says is based upon secondary sources, but the books he relies upon are the best in their various fields and he shows a thorough comprehension of what his authorities are talking about. His remarks on the growth of the executive at the expense of the legislature, on the powers of the crown to-day, and on the distinctions between constitutional law and constitutional conventions, though not original with him, are well stated and properly emphasized.

The book will be useful to all teachers of the subject in elementary classes. For their use, it could hardly be better. The criticisms to be made are few and mostly have to do with matters of detail. The writer fails occasionally to give references which are sufficiently exact. For example, a reference to Clarendon's History of the Rebellion is not a sufficient reference. He is a little careless, too, in his verbatim quotations. Moreover, it is not scientific to quote from the Grand Remonstrance or the Petition of Right as if they were authorities for the facts of Charles I.'s reign. I do not agree that the absence of the monarch from the cabinet is one of the marks of the cabinet. It was necessary to the growth of the system, but that is all that can be said. In speaking of the three estates, Marriott always names the nobility. first, which is incorrect. The clergy is always the first estate. What he says about the power of the House of Lords in the eighteenth century does not seem to square with what he later says about the power of the Commons in the same century. Chapter v., on the Civil Service, seems to me inadequate. The power to elect a mayor was not first granted to London in Magna Charta.

RALPH C. H. CATTERALL.

COMMUNICATION

NEW ORLEANS, February 10, 1911.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW:

My dear Sir:

IN reviewing a certain book, I stated that Aberdeen's note of September 11, 1843, to Ashbel Smith, the minister of Texas, contained the word "improperly". This was denied by the author in the January number of the REVIEW, page 403. As the shortness of the time that could be allowed me for replying to him did not permit me to offer a positive confirmation of the excellent authority upon which I had relied, I confined myself to indicating the basis of my statement (ibid., p. 405); but I have since received from Hon. W. B. Townsend, Texas Secretary of State, a copy of Aberdeen's note, and there find the word in question. This copy is enclosed herewith for preservation in your files. Obviously, since the note passed into the hands of Texas, the decisive answer to any question regarding it is to be looked for in the archives at Austin.

Respectfully yours,

JUSTIN H. SMITH.

NOTES AND NEWS

AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION

The second volume of the Annual Report for 1908, a volume of nearly 1600 pages, completing the Diplomatic Correspondence of the Republic of Texas, will probably be ready before the issue of the next number of this journal. All galley-proofs of the Annual Report for 1909 have been read, including "Writings on American History, 1909 ".

The Committee on Bibliography is privately circulating, for corrections preliminary to final print, its list of volumes of sources for European history contained in American libraries.

The preparation of the Association's biennial Handbook is at such a stage that members sending prompt notice of new addresses and other corrections may still hope to be in time to have them entered.

In the series Original Narratives of Early American History, the volume of Narratives of Early Carolina, edited by Mr. A. S. Salley, Jr., is published by Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons at about the same date as this journal.

At the instance of the American Historical Association Mr. David M. Matteson has begun the preparation of a General Index to all the publications of the Association including the five volumes of Papers and the whole series of the Annual Reports. It may be expected that the index (probably two volumes) will be ready for publication in 1913.

PERSONAL

Father Charles de Smedt, S. J., for many years president of the society of the Bollandists, died at Brussels March 4, aged seventy-eight. Besides collaboration in several volumes of the Acta Sanctorum, an edition of the Gesta Episcoporum Cameracensium (1880), and many contributions to learned periodicals, he was noted for mastery of historical criticism and as the author of two excellent books upon its methods, Introductio Generalis ad Historiam Ecclesiasticam critice tractandam (1876) and Principes de la Critique Historique (1883). He was the chief founder of the Analecta Bollandiana.

Rev. Hereford B. George, senior fellow of New College, Oxford, died on December 15, at the age of seventy-two. He was the author of Genealogical Tables illustrative of Modern History and of The Relations of Geography and History, both of which had passed into their fourth editions.

We notice with regret the death of Mrs. Alice Morse Earle. Her many books on the manners and customs of America in the colonial and Revolutionary period have given great pleasure to thousands of readers,