Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/414

 404 Reviews of Books Digest of the International Laiv of the United States contains much and Moore's International Arbitrations still more, and these works are not cited. Prentiss Webster's works on Citisenship and Naturalization are here, but Alexander P. Morse's Treatise on Citisenship and Naturaliza- tion (Boston, 1881) and Van Dyne's Citisenship of the United States (Rochester, 1904) are not, and they are works of far greater weight than Webster's. There is no mention of the great report on naturaliza- tion and allegiance made by the British Commission of 1868. It can be found, among other places, in Opinions of the Principal Ofticers of the Executive Departments and Other Papers relating to Expatriation, Naturalization, and Change of Allegiance (Government Printing Office, 1873), and in the same volume are the notable letters of President Grant's Cabinet officers, which are also omitted from this bibliography. It ought to include also Lord Chief Justice Cockburn's treatise on Nationality, which was written because of the British Commission's report. Gaillard Hunt. The Purchase of Florida: its History and Diplomacy. By Hubert Bruce Fuller, A.M., LL.M. (Cleveland: The Burrows Broth- ers Company. 1906. Pp. 399.) This is a disappointing book. For the most part, the story of the complicated transactions that led up to the Florida Treaty is entirely familiar, but it is to be found only in scattered chapters of the history of the first forty years of our national life. A complete, coherent, and continuous narrative of the events on both sides of the Atlantic which resulted on the one hand in the surrender by Spain of her most cherished colonial policy, and on the other in rounding out the territory of the United States and extending it to the Pacific, would be a most interesting and useful work. It might be much more; but so much at least the student who takes up this handsome and portly volume has a reasonable right to expect. He will not, however, discover in its pages much that is new, nor will he find what is old rearranged in a particularly attractive form. Mr. Fuller has failed to give us a clear account of the unusually intricate transactions with which his book must deal, and this failure is chiefly owing to his sins of omission. There is so much to set down, and the sources of information are so numerous, that the most practised skill would be needed to marshal all the relevant facts. Mr. Fuller has left large and fatal gaps in his narrative, and the result is disastrous. As an example of his method, the case of the Texas boundary may be mentioned. The final negotiations between Adams and de Onis were almost solely concerned with this subject. For months they con- tended over the question whether the Rio Grande, the Colorado, the Sabine, or some more easterly line should be adopted as the western boundarv of the United States. For months they went over the well-