Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/941

 Minor Notices 931 it had but a small collection, the great mass of his papers being then still in the custody of the Department of State. Now that nearly the whole is in the Library of Congress, a systematic attempt to make the most important portions available has been undertaken. Naturally a beginning was made with the most important of all, the correspondence of the General with the Congress from 1775 to 1783. This has been calendared in a chronological order, with a full alphabetical index, the whole, so far as a reader can judge, exceedingly well executed. The material is. brought together from the various series of the Washington Papers, the Papers of the Continental Congress, and the Robert Morris Papers. There is a prefatory account of the manuscripts, a useful list of aides-de-camp and secretaries, and a series of facsimiles of their handwritings as seen in drafts among the papers calendared. Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, seventh series, volume VI. (Boston, 1907, pp. xv, 472.) This is the second and con- cluding volume of the Bowdoin and Temple Papers, of which the first was published by the society in 1897. The manuscripts are a portion of the Winthrop Papers. The first volume ended with 1782, the present extends from 1783 to 1812, when the younger James Bowdoin died. The close relation existing between the Bowdoin family in Massachu- setts and the Temple family in England brings into the first part of the volume many interesting letters illustrating the relations between the two countries in the years immediately after the peace, when the elder James Bowdoin was still living. But the best letters of this part are those which relate to the insurrection of Daniel Shays, which occurred while he was governor. The latter half of the volume is mostly occu- pied with the diplomatic career of the younger Bowdoin. Early in Jefferson's administration he suggested to Dearborn who, as the letters show, owed him money, that he should be appointed to London, as successor to Rufus King. He was appointed to Madrid. His health was not sufficient to enable him to go to Washington for his instructions, nor to go farther into Spain than Santander. He retired to Paris, where he remained more than two years, being joined in an unhappy union with Armstrong in the vain endeavor to obtain the Floridas from Spain through the aid of France. His own letters, made needlessly hard to read by the printing of y'^ instead of " the ", reveal no con- siderable diplomatic or political talents; but there is interesting matter in the letters of his correspondents. El Clero de Mexico y la Gucrra de Indepcndcncia. [Documentos Ineditos 6 Muy Raros para la Historia de Mexico, publicados por Genaro Garcia, Tomo IX.] (Mexico, 1906. pp. 272.) This volume contains about seventy-five documents emanating from or relating to the clergy of Mexico during the period between September 24. 1810, and September I, 181 1. The greater portion of them are printed from originals now in the Museo Nacional but formerly in the archives of the archbishopric of Mexico. None of these, it seems, have hitherto been