Page:American Historical Review vol. 6.djvu/160

150 youth," etc.; whereas all the travelling ever done in Oregon, or west of the Rocky Mountains, by Sir George, was when he was on his journey from Montreal to Vancouver to inspect the forts on the northwest coast, and especially to settle some troubles at Sitka, whence he departed for Siberia, and reached London in due time via Petersburg, Russia; never in his lifetime, so far as discovered, having been in Washington, or having discussed international questions with American statesmen. Sir George was simply a fur-trader.

There are many more unjustifiable instances of this struggling after dramatic effect in serious matters in Mrs. Dye's book. In unimportant matters, such as representing Eloise McLoughlin as an equestrienne, we must say "wrong again." At Vancouver the rules of the Company forbade the participation of women in any social functions, and Mrs. McLoughlin and her daughter were forced to live in almost conventual seclusion. With her nimble pen our author ought to improve upon this performance.

2em

The History of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty. By, Ph.D. [Publications of the Michigan Political Science Association.] (Ann Arbor. 1900. Pp. ix, 312.)

has produced a valuable monograph on a subject which has been little discussed in its historical aspects. Begun as a doctor's dissertation but afterwards enlarged, it embodies the results of extensive and careful research and of candid deliberation, and presents a comprehensive review of the various questions of which it treats. The first chapter is devoted to an examination of the British claims to territorial dominion in Central America. This is followed by a review of the conditions that existed at the time of the conclusion of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty. The negotiations are next described,; and we are then led up to the controversies that arose, soon after the conclusion of the treaty, as to its construction and enforcement. The methods of settlement proposed form the topic of yet another chapter, concluding with the arrangement effected in 1860, to the expressed satisfaction of the United States. The history of the treaty since 1860 is then exhibited; and the volume ends with a chapter in which the author's conclusions are set forth. He maintains, on the whole, that the British claims to dominion in Central America were not in their origin legally justified; that by 1850, however, it had become necessary, in order to secure by peaceable means the freedom of the canal from British domination, to enter into a conventional agreement for that purpose; that the Clayton-Bulwer treaty embodied the best arrangement that could be made under the circumstances; that the controversies that ensued were so settled as to give substantial effect to the purposes then entertained by the United States with reference to the canal, and to the views which it had maintained as to the proper construction of the treaty; that the demand which subsequently arose for an