Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/669

 Frans : Kolonisation des Mississippitales 659 fair to call Henry VIII., with all his faults, an " eruption ", even if Sir Harry Vane may have been " a pretty fleck of cavalier color on a sombre Puritan canvas — a fresh-blown English rose blooming in a bed of New England immortelles" (p. 278). It should be admitted, how- ever, that these rhetorical embellishments are not so common as in the first volume, nor do the tripping jingles in the text set the mind so oft a-dancing. In the realm of misunderstanding and misstatement, the chapter on the " evolution of the English colonial system " needs a thorough re- vision. Not only does it ignore the share of Parliament in the growth of imperial administration, but it makes a large number of assertions which are either erroneous or so vague as to create impressions alto- gether false. Elsewhere in the volume questionable statements like the following may be found: that under the charters of 1609 and 1612 "Virginia held until the formation of the federal constitution in 1788" (p. 53); that in 1621 the "termination of the continental wars threw the services of gallant thousands upon a glutted market " (p. 73) ; that King James was laying plans for the marriage of his son to the sister of the Spanish monarch (p. 75), and to the daughter of that ruler (p. 76) ; that in 1624 Virginia "again" became a royal province (p. "j"]^ ; that Spain had obtained from the New World no profits other than plunder (p. 80) ; that the title "king of France" borne by the English king in 1620 was "sixty-two years behind the truth" (p. 117); that the Swedish settlement on the Delaware was " the only colony ever planted by that nation " (p. 229) ; and that " the idea of local self-govern- ment . . . was a leading principle of the primeval polity of the Goths " (P- 343)- The word " Antinomian ", finally, is often used without a definition of its concrete meaning in Massachusetts history ; and the typographical errors on page 273 seem quite inexcusable. Despite all these shortcomings, the reviewer adheres to the opinion expressed in his critique of the first volume (American Historical Review, X. 852-856), namely, that Dr. Avery's work promises to be the best popular history of the United States which has yet appeared. William R. Shepherd. Die Kolonisation dcs Rlisslsslppltalcs bis cttui Ausi^aiigc dcr fran- Mslschcn Hcrrschaft. Eine kolonialhistorische Studie von Alex- ander Franz, Ph.D. (Leipzig: Georg Wigand ; New York: G. E. Stechert and Company. 1906. Pp. xxiv, 464.) As the publication of a new work on the Mississippi valley seems to require some justification, the author states with care the causes that have led him to produce this rather bulky volume. First, he has found no scientific work of a comprehensive character which deals with this particular period in the history of the valley. Among the American authors the lack of a thorough, scientific treatment is marked ; among French authors, Villiers du Terrage has, indeed, covered a por- AM. HIST. REV., VOL. XII. — 43.