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 430 Revicivs of Books "The treaty", says Lucas (pp. 254-255). "was beyond question a tri- umph for American diplomacy. They had received back far more than they gave ; they had successfully withstood nearly all the British claims. Though consenting to a provision on the subject of the Indians, they had eliminated from it nearly all its sting and force ; and, unaided by the battle of New Orleans which was yet to come, they had brought their country unscathed out of a most dangerous position in which it had been placed by a policy which had aimed at conquest and had ended in failure." Mr. Lucas says that in Great Britain the war has never been con- sidered as of consequence. It brought little credit and apparently no result. Great Britain entered into it unwillingly and was glad to get out of it, and to forget it, especially because her navy had lost in reputa- tion. The war brought no great exploits and no great military com- manders on either side ; but from the standpoint of colonial history it was fruitful of important issues, for it was a successful struggle on the part of Canada to save her country, and it showed that colonial patriot- ism had not left the British Empire when the United States left it. It brought the races together, and was the national war of Canada. It determined definitely that Great Britain should keep her place in Xorth America.- Volumes XXVIII. and XXIX. of £(j)7r Western Travels (Cleveland, Arthur H. Clark Company, 1906, pp. 380, 424) deal in considerable measure with Oregon and furnish exceedingly valuable material for the early history of the far northwest. The longer of the two narratives is " Travels in the Great Western Prairies, the Anahuac and Rocky Moun- tains, and in the Oregon Territory ", by Thomas J. Farnham. The re- print is made from the London edition of 1843. Farnham was a young Vermont lawyer, who had moved to Illinois in search of health and variety. An enterprising and venturesome body, he was stirred to inter- est and excitement by the tales of the fair Oregon country which were told by a travelling missionary, Jason Lee. This was in the autumn of 1838; and under Farnham's leadership a small band of adventurers, assuming as a motto " Oregon or the Grave ", started out the next year on the long trip to the coast. Of course there were dissensions, disap- pointments, and hardships, but Farnham, who at least lacked neither enthusiasm nor courage, found his way to Oregon, saw the country in some degree, and became acquainted there with the missionaries and their work. The story of adventure is told with very unusual literary skill and, while one is tempted on account of the very eloquence of the narrative and the ease with which the writer masters dramatic language to distrust some of his conclusions and reflections, the talc will iiave permanent interest for the reader and value for the student of Western history. Farnham was instrumental in preparing and in forwarding to Congress, early in 1840, a petition from some seventy Americans on the •coast, asking for a territorial govornnicnt and " the civil institutions of