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 7 6 4 Reviews and Literary Notices. [June. fence of General Sullivan. It is not by gar- bled extracts or contemptuous denial, that writings, based as these are upon documents of unquestionable authenticity, are to be met. If Mr. Bancroft's ninth volume is to stand as the true history of the decisive period of our Revolutionary struggle which it covers, he must give document for document, and proof for proof, for every point which has been called in question by each and all of the adversaries whom his undocumented asser- tions have raised up against him. The clearness, precision, and good taste of Mr. Reed's pamphlet will commend it to the confidence of the reader. We are glad, too, to bear our testimony to the self-con- trol with which he has spoken of his oppo- nent. It is no easy task to give calm ex- pression to warm feelings, or defend the sa- cred memory of an ancestor against charges of treason, without using harsh language. Mr. Reed has not used it. A Historical Inquiry concerning Henry Hud- son. By JOHN MEREDITH READ, Jr. Albany : J. Munsell. AMERICANS are usually supposed to live in the present and the future, and to dis- card the past as a worn-out garment. But if the tide sets this way, there is neverthe- less a strong undertow, which, from what- ever cause it proceeds, is a phenomenon very marked and noteworthy. No people are more addicted than Americans to rum- maging among genealogies, and tracing out the sources of surnames, as a very copious literature to be found on the shelves of his- torical and genealogical societies can attest. Moreover, a very large proportion of what little the country has achieved in literature belongs to the department of history. We have a profusion of histories of all kinds, good, bad, and indifferent, and "historical collections " without number, many of them hasty, crude, and superficial, and some, too, evincing the most thorough ac- curacy. The work which furnishes the text of these remarks is a most scholar! ike and ad- mirable example of a species of investiga- tion which lies at the base of all accurate and trustworthy history. Its subject is a discoverer who holds a conspicuous place in the early annals of this continent, but whose life has nevertheless been wrapped in an almost impenetrable obscurity. We hold it to be a duty, when so much that is trivial, crude, and superficial is daily thrust before the public, often, too, in an imposing garb of elegant typography, to call atten- tion to a volume embodying the results of a genuine research concentrated on an object truly historic, and producing results of a real interest and value. Those not versed in the secrets of sur- names will be surprised at the derivation of Hudson's name, thus : " Many persons called Roger and Rogerous occur as ten- ants in Domesday. From it are formed Rogers, Rodgers, Rogerson, etc., and from its nickname, Hodge, we get Hodges, Hodgson, Hodgkin, Hotchkin, Hotchkins, Hotchkiss, Hodgkinson, Hockins, Hodson, Hudson. The Norman patronymical form is Fitz-Roger, and the Welsh Ap-Roger, now Prodger." Mr. Read traces the descent of the navi- gator Henry Hudson from the eminent merchant of the same name who was the founder of the Muscovy Company, and one of the leading spirits in that course of mer- cantile adventure which, in the sixteenth century, resulted in discoveries so glorious to the British name. It was the effort to retrieve the waning commerce of England by finding a Northwestern or Northeastern passage to the riches of India, and by open- ing a trade with the then barbarous empire of Russia, that gave the first impulse to the vast maritime growth of England. With these schemes are connected the names of Willoughby, Davis, the Cabots, Frobisher, the elder Hudson, and at a later period his more famous descendant. Among those who invested their property largely in these bold schemes of commercial enterprise ap- pear the principal nobility of the kingdom, assuming for the nonce the character of merchants, and setting at naught the feudal prejudice which held trade derogatory to the character of their order. The most interesting part of the book is that which relates to the voyage of Hud- son in the service of the Dutch East India Company, but we have no space to dwell upon it.