1846,) á l'occasion de l'anniversaire du 8 Janvier. Par L'Abbé A. Rouquette, de la Louisiane. Paris Librarie de Saivangnat. 1846. : 8vo. pp. 40. La Thébaïde en Amerique, ou Apologie de la vie Solitaire et Contemplative: par L'Abbé Adrien Rouquette, (de la Louisiane.) Nouvelle Orleans: Imprimiere Méridier. 1852. 8vo. pp. 144. Reflections on the Operation of the Present System of Education. By Christopher C. Andrews, Counsellor at Law. Boston: Crosby, Nichols, & Co. 1853. 8vo. pp. 29. Lord Wriothesley's Speech in the House of Lords, on the 26th April, 1853, on Lieut. Maury's Plan for improving Navigation. London: James Ridgway1853. 8vo. pp. 34. The History of the Restoration of the Monarchy in France. By Alphonse de Lamartine. Volume IV. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1853. 12mo. The Life and Letters of Stephen Olin, D. D., LL. D., late President of the Wesleyan University. New York: Harpers. 1853. 2 vols. 12mo. : Civil Wars and Monarchy in France, in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries a History of France principally during that Period. By Leopold Ranke. Translated by M. A. Garvey. New York: Harpers. 12mo. pp. 484. 1853. Memorials and Correspondence of Charles James Fox. Edited by the Right Hon. Lord John Russell, M. P. Philadelphia: Blanchard & Lea. 1853. 2 vols. 12mo. A Treatise on the Law of Insurance. By Willard Phillips. Boston: Little, Brown, & Co. 1853. 2 vols. 8vo. The Hive and the Honey-Bee, a Bee-Keeper's Manual. By Rev. L. L. Langstroth: Hopkins, Bridgman, & Co. 1853. 12mo. pp. 384. Exposition of the Grammatical Structure of the English Language; being an attempt to furnish an Improved Method of teaching English Grammar : for the use of Schools and Colleges. By John Mulligan, A. M. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1852. 8vo. pp. 574. The Helping Hand, comprising an Account of The Home for Discharged Female Convicts, and an Appeal in Behalf of that Institution. By Mrs. C. M. Kirkland. New York: Charles Scribner. 1853. Small 4to. pp. 141. Woman and her Wishes, an Essay. Inscribed to the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention. By Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Minister of the Worcester Free Church. Boston: R. F. Wallcut. 1853. 8vo. pp. 26. NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. No. CLXI. OCTOBER, 1853. ART. I. The Institution of the Society of the Cincinnati, formed by the Officers of the American Army of the Revolution, for the Laudable Purposes therein mentioned, at the Cantonment on the Banks of the Hudson River, May, 1783; together with some of the Proceedings of the General Society, and of the New York State Society; also, a List of the Officers and Members of the New York Society, from its Organization to the Year 1851. Printed by order, and for the use of the Members, of the New York Society. J. M. Elliott, Printer, 133 Water Street, New York. 1851. 8vo. pp. 120. THE neat little volume before us, the title of which we have placed at the head of this paper, is one probably utterly unheard of and unknown by the larger portion of our readers. Nay, the very subject to which it relates — though one of the most curious features in our past revolutionary history — is perhaps equally strange to many of them. And yet it would seem hardly credible that a matter which occupied so large a portion of the thoughts and cares of the men whose actions and sentiments we, in these latter days, are constantly and curiously seeking to trace out and make manifest, could have remained for so long a time obscured to the world at large, and, at best, but imperfectly comprehended even by historical students generally. In the course of our remarks, perhaps the immediate causes of all this may appear more plainly; but there are other and more philosophical reasons why so much that relates to the earlier days of our country should have hitherto remained in obscurity. The unwearied industry of the writers of this generation has, however, done very much to elucidate the dark pages of the past; and perhaps the wonder is, not that we do not know more, but that we do not know far less of our fathers and their conduct. In this respect, we are fortunate in being a new people; our historians may begin at the beginning, and complete their tale, without being compelled to invoke the aid of superstition or imagination. As a nation grows in power and strength, it continues to delight to dwell upon the story of its birth-sequi vestigia rerum—to strive to pierce the misty veil of antiquity that enshrouds its source; even so far as to find a divine sire in the shepherd's hut whence issued the two robber-kings, whose mud-built walls inclosed the cradle of the future Mistress of the World. If we turn over the pages of history, we shall see that, “in the most high and palmy days of Rome," the people were enabled in their legends to invest with fabulous honors the ancients of their state. For them, when his race on earth was ended, the heavens opened to receive their fratricidal chief; for them, the shady groves of Caparella's valley — lucos, amœnæ Quos et aquæ subeunt et auræ were hallowed by the footsteps of the goddess who gave wise counsel to their king, around whose brows the thunderbolt of Jove played idly, but smote not. And yet the Alban colonists, who raised upon the banks of the yellow Tiber the first walls of the Eternal City, were really men of no greater mark-no more the favorites of supernal powers-than they whom this mighty land to-day salutes as fathers and creators; their career was signalized by events of as little note as those which attended the planting of the Colonies in America. Had it not been for the magnificent future of Rome, rest assured we should never have heard of its past. Mr. Macaulay well suggests that the faint memories of Arthur and the ancient British glories, as doubtfully preserved by “High-born Hoel's harp or soft Llewellyn's lay," may give us some idea of what we might possibly now know of the she-wolf of the Lupercal, or the deeds of the brave Horatius "who kept the bridge so well," had Rome fallen before the sword of Lars Porsena, or the swarthy arm of the Carthaginian. Therefore, let us not take it amiss that we too have had small beginnings; let us rather be thankful that we are as we are, and that, from being as the small cloud in the west, scarce the compass of a man's hand, the providence of God has raised us up a powerful empire, whose realms extend from the east unto the west, from the frozen waters of the north to the clear blue waves and spicy gales of the tropic seas. And while we contemplate, with all the pride of a Roman citizen, the world-wide domain of our inheritance, let us quietly reflect upon the seed from which all this mighty harvest has sprung. Let us regard events as they actually were, not judging of their value or importance by what has come after them, and we shall see from what humble means, with what weak, unpromising tools, the destiny of the New World has been wrought. And we think the contemplation will bring more satisfaction to our minds, more gratitude for that Divine protection, under which we have been but as clay in the hand of the potter, than if we indeed should trace our lineage to a subverted throne, and our first settlements to the migration of a mighty empire. In every step, we cannot fail to recognize that power which moulds the destinies of nations, and in whose continuing care we may more safely put our trust than in horsemen or chariots: Si Deus pro nobis, quis contra nos? Considered in this light, there are but few events in the early history of the American Colonies of sufficient intrinsic importance to either attract or deserve the notice of an historian. Suppose the later pages of the volume of our national fate to be as a sealed book to the investigator of a future age-let all records of the progress of the New World during the past century be blotted out-let it even be otherwise than it is; and how obscure and trivial would what remained appear in the eyes of those who, in far distant times, should look back. into the history of the nations, as we to-day inquire into that of the Phoenician colonies, or of those days when, "sitting on some pleasant lea," the Etrurian shepherd "Had sight of Proteus rising from the sea, Or heard old Triton blow his wreathed horn!" It is mainly in the fact that we know every thing of primary importance about our origin, that the course of our career differs most from that of other nations. The acorn that was planted within the memory of man, has towered into a deeprooted oak in days when the pen is in every hand; and instead of following with uncertain eye the wandering track of some Phoenician barque or Viking's galley, instead of poring over the dubious inscriptions of the Skald's Saga or an Etruscan tomb, the historian of the United States is as the historian of yesterday. Then, the nation spoke as a child, and it saw as a child, and its future was but visible through a glass, darkly; but in two centuries the child has shot up into vigorous manhood, and few could have foreseen, in its infancy, the advent of the triumphs that have enwreathed its brows. For, in truth, its germs were of but little worth in the eyes. of any contemporaneous human observer. The departure of the emigrants-whether animated by hatred of oppression, love of adventure, or longing after lucre- was scarce observed in Europe; nor did their arrival in America attract the attention of any but a nation of savages. Every thing in the early annals of the Colonies (considered without reference to results which could not then have been calculated upon) bears the stamp of insignificance. The population was small and scattered; the governments weak; the legislation trifling; the battles but skirmishes; the treaties mere bargains. The first symptom of emergence from their original obscurity was the selection, by the two rival empires of the Old World, of the soil of the New as the arena wherein to grapple, in the death-struggle, for the privilege of possessing that which belonged to neither. The union of the Colonies, for the purpose of resisting the authority of Great Britain, was followed by a series of events, certainly interesting in the highest degree to the parties concerned, but not perhaps, per se, of the most striking character. A few battles, in which, compared even with the European annals of the present century, the contending forces were |