Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/676

 666 Reviews of Books settle the question of national supremacy. He did not see the ulti- mate result upon the aspirations of the Anglo-Saxon across the sea, which was so pronounced in 1776; but he saw that with the thousands of miles of frontier between the English and the French of America, with immediate contact down the Mississippi valley, there never would be peace until it was made by a decisive victory. The correspondence therefore of the minister with Wolfe, Saunders, Monckton, Murray, and Townshend concerning the expedition to the St. Lawrence, although much of it has been printed before, will be read again in these volumes with interest and profit, as it really forms a condensed history of the siege of Quebec. Although the letters emanate from widely divergent places' and em- brace a variety of topics, Pitt seems never for one moment to have lost his grasp of the situation as a whole. At one time we find him instructing a governor as to the course he should pursue in his rela- tions with the people, at another he is administering a rebuke, planning a campaign, or attending to the equipment of a vessel in its smallest detail. This careful attention to the minute details of his department had much to do, no doubt, with his successful administration of af- fairs so far removed from his personal supervision. For it is often the omission of apparent trifles that is responsible for the failure of great projects. Colbert in earlier days exercised a watchful, almost paternal care over the infant colony of New France, and it might prove a profitable study to institute a comparison between the two men in this respect. The letters may be read with special advantage by those who are taking up the study of the campaigns of 1756-1760, and they are full of interest to the average reader, since they contain much of the thought of the greatest statesman England can claim for three hundred years. The books are well printed and are unusually free from typographical errors, although there are one or two slight topographical slips in the volumes, such as placing Bic off the Saguenay River. The Navy of the American Revolution: Its Administration, its Policy, and its Achicz'cmcnts. By Ch.rles Osc.^r P.ullin, Ph.D. (Cleveland: The Burrows Brothers Company. 1906. Pp. 549-) After reading Dr. Paullin's book carefully I am inclined to think that he has in his preface written the best possible review of his own book. As to criticism, he has so carefully guarded himself, by accu- rate, scholarly methods of work, against the critics, that those " cut- throat bandits in the path of fame " get little opportunity for attack. It is in fact a masterly little book, well conceived, thoroughly studied, and judiciously written. It is a real contribution to the study of the American Revolution. As Dr. Paullinsays, the book is written from the point of view of the naval administrators, and not from that of the naval officers. It is