Page:American Historical Review vol. 6.djvu/586

 576 Reviews of Books not only declares Bonavista to have been the landfall in 1497 but it gives a picture of the spot. This is the first instance of what may be called the "philatelic method" in history. It is heroic and disposes summa- rily of Gordian knots. Some of the notes suggest remark. In Art. 374 there is a slip (prob- ably in transcription), for Haliburton gives Trinity Bay, Ne^i'foioidland, as the landfall, not Nova Scotia. The note on Article 89 (the Desce- liers map ) follows Mr. Coote's opinion that the map shows the results of Cartier's first voyage ; but Mr. Harrisse was unquestionably right, in the discussion which followed its publication by Lord Crawford. It really contains all the results of Cartier's second voyage. There is also a mis- leading note at Art. 218 (Thome's map) referring the legend solely to the Labrador coast. This map is in Hakluyt's Divers Voyages. There is a reproduction of it in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada for 1897 at p. 192 and it will be seen at once upon inspection that the legend covers the coast from latitude 40° northwards. The La Cosa map (Art. 84) hardly receives the attention due to its importance. Mr. Ganong (Art. 359) is entitled to the entire credit of having first demonstrated that the Island of St. John in the 1544 map was not intended for Prince Edward Island, but for the Magdalen group, and, in Art. 398, it would have been more precise to have said that the Rev. Moses Harvey was the yf/T/' to suggest the quadri -centennial of 1897, omitting the word "among." Trifling matters such as these found after a close perusal of a volume containing so many thousands of references and critical estimations over the immense extent of the Cabot literature, establish the painstaking ac- curacy of this most valuable book. Every Cabot scholar should have it and if he should at any time be reproached with the unpractical nature of his studies he may refer to Art. 549 and point out that the rights of property abutting on the public streets of New York depend upon the common law of England and not on the Roman Dutch Xdcw for the reason that John Cabot antedated Henry Hudson. S. E. Dawson. The Clergy in American Life and Letters. By Daniel Dulany Ad- dison. (New York and London : The Macmillan Co. 1900. Pp. ix, 400.) There are no publishers in America more worthily respected than the Macmillan Company. There is no American scholar or man of let- ters more deservedly eminent than Professor Woodberry, of Columbia University. And among our younger Episcopal clergy, of the more liberal kind, there is none more energetic and devoted than the Reverend Daniel Dulany Addison. No book, then, could have a much happier origin than one which should proceed from his authorship, through the editorship of Professor Woodberry, to the lists of the Macmillans. Whoever takes up The Clergy in American Life and Letters, with the agreeable anticipations thus e.xcited, must feel, as he turns the pages, a growing sense of disappointment. In plain truth, the book proves to be