Walsh entirely of any malice. It is evident that he suspected no wrong. But a "member of the New York Bar" ought certainly to know something more about the value of the authorities he quotes, in matters of law! At any rate it does not speak well for him that he has been caught with such chaff!

REPRINT OF THOMAS LECHFORD'S "PLAIN DEALING."*_This Thomas Lechford—who is known as the "first Boston lawyer "had been a "practiser at law" in London. In 1637, he incurred some kind of punishment for having assisted in the defense of Prynne, the famous author of Histriomastix. At that time he seems to have been an attendant upon the ministry of Hugh Peters. In 1638, he came to Boston, with the intention of "joining" the "churches" there. But from the hour of his landing he was regarded with distrust; partly because he was a lawyer, and partly because he "differed from the received belief of the Massachusetts churches," in that he held "that the Apostolick function was not yet ceased: but that there still ought to be such, who should by their transcendent Authority govern all churches." It can easily be imagined that a lawyer who sought to propagate such views could not live long in harmonious relations with the good people of Boston. We do not propose to follow the editor -Mr. Trumbull-through the details of the story, which he has given in full. But at the end of some three years, it appears that Lechford had become so established in his unpopular views, and so satisfied of the error of the New England Churches, that he gave up in disgust; declared that "all was out of joint in Church and Commonwealth; " confessed his own error in having taken part in England against the bishops with Burton and Prynne; went back to London; and "returned humbly to the Church of England."

After reaching his old quarters at Clement's Inn, of course he "put out his book," which he called "Plain Dealing, or News from New England." And it is this old book, now grown extremely rare, that has been published as "No. IV." of the "Library of New England History." It has had the good fortune to fall into the hands of the Hon. J. Hammond Trumbull, and it bears throughout, and especially in its numerous annotations, the

Plain Dealing, or News from New England. By THOMAS LECHFORD. W th an Introduction and Notes by J. HAMMOND TRUMBULL. Boston: J. K. Wiggin and Wm. Parsons Lunt. 1867. 8vo. pp. xi., 211.

marks of his careful and accurate editing. Of Lechford's book, Mr. Trumbull says: "It is a view of New England-more particularly of Massachusetts-taken upon the spot by an intelligent observer, who, though unsympathizing, was not in the main unfriendly; and who, while he certainly did naught extenuate,' cannot justly be charged with setting down aught in malice. His mistakes are comparatively unimportant; and the information he gives of the country, civil and religious, from 1638 to 1641, is valuable enough to render this book nearly indispensable to the study of New England institutions."

PALGRAVE'S ESSAYS ON ART.*-The most of Palgrave's "Essays on Art" appeared originally in the Saturday Review. On looking over the titles, and considering the subjects of these papers, one is tempted at first to infer that they must be uninteresting and unprofitable for American readers, from the circumstance that they consist so largely of criticisms on particular works of English painters as presented from time to time in the public exhibitions. But as we look more closely into their contents, we find that these personal and special criticisms, into the spirit and meaning of which most American readers cannot fully enter, involve principles that are so fundamental and important as to impart a permanent interest and value to what would otherwise have a merely local and transient interest. Of one thing we are certain that there is no description of criticism which is so unprincipled and extravagant, so ignorant and pretentious, so positive and malicious, as the productions of many, not to say most, of the so-called art-critics in our American newspapers. If the republication of these Essays should serve no other purpose than to furnish an example of artcritism of a better sort it would be of immense value to the country, provided the example should be followed.

THE OPEN POLAR SEA.f-The name of Dr. Hayes, so familiar to the readers of Dr. Kane's narrative of the second Grinnell expe

Essays of Art. By FRANCIS TURNER PALGRAVE, late Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. New York: Hurd & Houghton. 1867. 12mo. New Haven: Judd & White. Price $1.75.

The Open Polar Sea. A narrative of a voyage of discovery toward the North Pole, in the Schooner United States. By Dr. I. I. HAYES. New York: Hurd & Houghton. 1867. pp. 454. New Haven: Judd & White.

Price $8.75.

dition, is invested with a special personal interest to the thousands who, in 1858-9, in various parts of the country, listened to his lectures on Arctic Explorations and Scenery. In the handsome volume before us we have a most interesting narrative of the Expedition to which those labors pointed. Starting from Boston in July, 1860, in a little schooner of 133 tons, with fourteen companions, he made his way to Smith's Sound, penetrating the ice with his vessel as far as 78° 17′ N. L. Here he was closed in by the ice and made his winter quarters in a bay which he called Port Foulke. His plan had been to reach a higher point on the Western Coast, and thence push over the land and ice in dogsledges, carrying boats, with the view of reaching the Pole either by land, or (what he more expected) by the Open Polar Sea, whose existence was in dispute. The narrative repeats the old story of disappointments to which Arctic explorers seem doomed. He was forced by the ice upon the Eastern side of the Sound, which proved a serious obstacle to success. A pestilence had just swept off the dogs of the region so completely that it was impossible to obtain anything like the number he required. Having with great effort collected thirty-six, all but nine died on his hands. His second in command, and main reliance, Mr. Sonntag, a young man of brilliant talents and acquirements, undertook a journey to remedy the loss and perished in the course of it. Finally, by the opening of spring, he had been able to get together fourteen dogs in all, good, bad, and indifferent, not one-third the number he required, had all the conditions been favorable. With these, and with twelve men, he set out April 3d, 1861. His first effort was to cross Smith's Sound to the West Coast. The distance was eighty miles. In 1854 he had crossed in two days, but so terrible was now the condition of the ice that it occupied him thirtyeight days-barely two miles a day! The account of this journey across the Sound is of the most exciting interest, and discloses a resolution, fortitude, and perseverance against overwhelming difficulties and trials, worthy of the highest admiration. The ice was piled in enormous masses, so that climbing over it " was like crossing New York on the house tops." The attempt to get the boat across was soon given up as an absolute impossibility. After twenty-five days of incredible struggle, less than forty miles having been accomplished, his men were broken down and could go no farther. He sent back all but three, and with these and his dogs toiled on. Two weeks more of fearful labor brought him to

the Western Coast. His progress northward was now far easier, but was by no means free from difficulty. His best man became disabled by an accident, and after two or three days' effort to carry him, he was forced to leave him behind in charge of a companion with five dogs. With one attendant and nine dogs, and a scanty supply of food, he pressed northward. At length, May 18th, 1861, his progress was arrested by the open water. In latitude 81° 35', he saw the Open Polar Sea-saw, but could not navigate. Returning without delay, he picked up his disabled man, and made good his retreat across the Sound (the ice in which was now rapidly breaking up) and reached his vessel after two months' absence, alive but utterly exhausted.

The schooner being too much injured to push farther north, Dr. Hayes resolved to return home, refit, and the next year renew the attempt to reach and navigate the Polar Sea by the aid of steam, and a hunting colony, to be established at Port Foulke, as a base of operations and supplies. Full of this design, he returned to Boston He arrived there at evening, and went imme

diately on shore.

*

*

Before I had

"A news boy passed me. I seized a paper, and the first thing which caught my eye was the account of the Balls' Bluff battle, in which had fallen many of the noblest sons of Boston. * * I turned back sad and dejected, and found my way on board again through the dull, dull fog. reached my cabin, while my friends were yet in ignorance of our presence in the Bay, I had resolved to postpone the execution of the task with which I had charged myself; and I closed as well the cruise as the project by writing a letter to the President, asking for immediate employment in the public service, and offering my schooner to the Government for a gun-boat."

The style of the narrative, though in places rather overburdened with "fine writing," is, on the whole, very good and appropriate. The story never flags nor wearies, and maintains (as what Arctic narratives do not?) an absorbing interest to the close.

We cannot refrain from alluding to Dr. Hayes' naïve account, in the preface, of the trap into which he fell by generously presenting, on his return, his principal records and materials to the Smithsonian Institute "for publication." More than five years later, no part of them having been printed, he proposed "to embody some leading facts" in a short appendix to his volume, and was coolly informed by the Secretary that they could not be published except by the Institution. The chart which he had perfected, and which he had relied upon for the correction of the maps in his book, was in like manner withheld, so that he is compelled to

"This

apologize for any inaccuracy that they may exhibit. explanation," he quietly adds, "is made in view of the possible contingency of the Smithsonian Institute publishing the map for some years past in its possession, an event which I think unlikely to happen." We heartily sympathize with the Doctor in his manifest disgust at this scientific quackery and snobbishness, qualities which are sufficiently hard to bear when displayed in similar cases by a Government "Department;" but which, when exhibited by an Institution founded by private endowment, expressly for the Diffusion of Knowledge, and especially toward the donor of the very materials which it is desired to make available, are, to the last degree, discreditable. We imagine that, after the experience of Dr. Hayes, very few explorers in the field of science will trust any information they may wish "diffused," within the jaws of the Smithsonian Institute.

WAR POETRY OF THE SOUTH.-The South in itself is an object of thought and interest at the present time, to almost every mind, and anything which comes from that portion of the country and bears witness of the sentiments of its people, is calculated to awaken attention. The poetry of the South has a peculiar interest, because, like all the literature of which it is a part, it has so peculiar a character-a character which distinguishes it from that of all other countries, and renders it easy to trace the authorship, whether it appears in Virginia or in England, in the Richmond Enquirer or the London Times. But the war poetry of the South-how many things it suggests to us, and calls up to our remembrance from the past years! The martial enthusiasm with which South Carolina called upon her sister States to join her in a conflict with the Northern barbarians, that was to end only in their complete overthrow, and in the full establishment of the new independent confederacy; the sublime contempt for Yankees and hirelings with which each "noble Southron" marched forth to battle, ready to meet in the deadly affray any number of the pusillanimous cowards who had been accustomed, for so many years, to submit to his dictation, but were now attempting to resist his lordly will; the heroic spirit which led them to the desperate resolution to perish "in the last ditch," rather than lose the cause for which they strug

War Poetry of the South. New York: Richardson & Co.

Edited by WILLIAM GILMORE SIMMS, LL. D. 1867. 1 vol. 12mo. pp. 482.