exterior which interests and captivates vulgar imaginations, but he had sterling qualities of mind and character, which made him one of the most useful and valuable, as he was one of the best and most amiable, men of his day; filling with propriety the station in which fortune had placed him, and making the best use of the abilities which nature had bestowed upon him. Modest without diffidence, confident without vanity, ardently desiring the good of his country, without the slightest personal ambition, he took that part in public affairs which his station and his opinions prompted, and he marched through the mazes of politics with that straightforward bravery, which was the result of sincerity, singleness of purpose, the absence of all selfishness, and a true, genuine, but unpretending patriotism. His tastes, habits, and turn of mind were peculiarly and essentially English; he was a highminded, unaffected, sensible, well-educated English gentleman, addicted to all those rural pursuits and amusements which are considered national; a practical farmer, and fond of field sports, but enjoying all things in moderation, and making every other occupation subordinate to the discharge of those duties to his country, whether general or local, the paramount obligation of which was ever uppermost in his mind. In his political principles he was consistent, liberal and enlightened, but he was too much of a philosopher, and had too deeply studied the book of life to entertain any wild notions of human perfectibility, or to countenance those extravagant theories of popular wisdom and virtue, which are so dangerous to peace, order, and good government. He observed, therefore, a just proportion, and a perfect moderation in his political views and objects, firmly believing in the capacity of the Constitution to combine the utmost extent of civil and religious liberty with the predominance of law and a safe and vigorous administration of public affairs. His whole life, therefore, was devoted to the object of widening and strengthening the foundations of the Commonwealth, of abrogating exclusive and oppressive laws, of extending political franchises, of giving freedom to commerce, and by the progress of a policy at once sound and safe, to promote the welfare and happiness of the mass of the people, and the power and prosperity of the country. Lord Spencer came into office as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons with Lord Grey's Government in 1830; on the death of his father in 1834, his elevation to the House of Lords obliged him to relinquish that office, upon which (as is well known) King William dismissed the Whig Government, on the pretext that it was so weakened as to be unworthy of public confidence, and incapable of carrying on the business of the country. This was, indeed, only a pretext for getting rid of an obnoxious Ministry, but the King's venturing upon so bold a step upon such grounds, affords a convincing proof of the high consideration which Lord Spencer enjoyed in the House of Commons, and in the country. Nor, indeed, was it possible to exaggerate that consideration. The greatest homage that ever was rendered to character and public virtue, was exhibited in his popularity and authority during the four eventful years, when he led the Whig Government and party in the House of Commons. Without one showy accomplishment, without wit to amuse

or eloquence to persuade, with a voice unmelodious, and a manner ungraceful, and barely able to speak plain sense in still plainer language, he exercised in the House of Commons an influence, and even a dominion, greater than any Leader either after or before him. Neither Pitt the father, nor Pitt the son, in the plenitude of their magnificent dictatorships, nor Canning in the days of his most brilliant displays of oratory and wit, nor Castlereagh, returning in all the glory of an ovation from the overthrow of Napoleon, could govern with the same sway that unruly and fastidious assembly. His friends followed this plain and simple man with enthusiastic devotion, and he possessed the faculty of disarming his political antagonists of all bitterness and animosity towards himself; he was regarded in the House of Commons with sentiments akin to personal affection, with a boundless confidence and a universal esteem. Such was the irresistible ascendency of truth, sincerity, and honour, of a probity free from every taint of interest, of mere character, unaided by the arts which captivate or subjugate mankind. This is the great practical panegyric, which will consecrate the memory of Lord Spencer, and transmit it nobly to the latest posterity; but it is a panegyric, not more honourable to the subject of it than to the national character which is susceptible of such impressions, and which acknowledges such influences. We may feel an honest pride and a happy confidence in the reflection, that it is by such sterling qualities, by the simple and unostentatious practice of public and private virtue that men may best recommend themselves to the reverence, the gratitude, and the affection of their countrymen, and be remembered hereafter as the benefactors of mankind.'

No. CCXCVI. will be published in October.

VOL. CXLIV. NO. CCXCV.

THE

EDINBURGH REVIEW,

OCTOBER, 1876.

No. CCXCVI.

ART. I. The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America. By HUBERT HOWE BANCROFT. 5 vols. 8vo. London: 1875-76.

THE

HERE is no field of inquiry more fascinating to the student of human progress than that offered by the great continent of America, in which the native races, shut off from contact with the old-world civilisation for an untold number of centuries, have found room for development in various directions. In it the theories of civilisation, as propounded by Mr. Buckle and others, may be brought to a practical test, for it presents us with peoples in each of the different stages which connect the rude savage with the culture of Mexico and Central America. Man may be studied as a hunter, fisherman, farmer, as a rude and unlettered worshipper of fetishes, or as the possessor of an elaborate literature, burdened with as complex a ritual as that of the Egyptians, and bound fast by strict rules and observances in every phase of social life. In that vast continent, at the time of the Spanish Conquest, there was represented every phase of progress through which man in Europe has passed, in emerging from a condition of the rudest savagery to the comparatively high culture exemplified in the bronze age of the Etruscans. The subject has excited the imagination of many writers, and many have been the speculations regarding the derivation of the native tribes and of the American civilisations, in which, for the most part, each writer has accommodated his facts to his prejudices. It has been reserved for Mr. Bancroft to collect together for the first time, in the five bulky volumes before us, the facts necessary for a preliminary inquiry into these questions. His work is a most laborious encyclopædia of all that is known up to to-day of

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the native races of the Pacific States, and it embraces all the inhabitants of the region to the west of the Mississippi from the Arctic Sea to the Isthmus of Panama. His aim, as he tells us in his preface, is not so much to write history as to provide materials out of which it may be eventually written by others. With infinite trouble he has brought the ore to the surface, and piled it up in full faith that it will undergo eventually those processes by which the dross is purged away, and pass current as the bright metal of history. His aim is modest, and implies true nobility of mind.

The book is remarkable in many ways. Its author, a bookseller in San Francisco, when he set himself to his work in 1859, found that the necessary books and manuscripts existed in no library in the world, and he therefore began with characteristic energy to secure everything within his reach in America. He then spent two years in obtaining all available materials in Europe, being singularly favoured by fortune in his enterprise. On the dispersal of the library of the unfortunate Emperor Maximilian, he obtained three thousand volumes; in 1869 his library had developed into sixteen thousand books, manuscripts, and pamphlets, irrespective of maps and newspapers, in English, French, German, Spanish, Latin, and Mexican; and he soon discovered that the materials for history which he sought were so copiously diluted with trash, 'that it would be impossible to follow his different subjects in "the manner in which he proposed with but one lifetime to 'devote to the work.' In this emergency he devised a system of indexing the facts in such a manner that all the authorities could be brought to bear on any given point. This was done by employing a large staff of assistants to read the books and write down references on little cards labelled according to the subject. When we visited him in San Francisco, in 1875, we saw the work in full operation, and were struck with astonishment at the fact-catalogue' of the library, which consisted of packs of cards, each under its own heading, and each giving a bird's eye view of the whole subject with the necessary references. In this manner Mr. Bancroft has collected materials which would have taken one man, so he tells us, about sixty years to bring together, and these he has used in the books before us, which are remarkable not merely for the vast number of facts which are recorded, but for the singular manner in which they have been collected together by the indomitable perseverance of one man. From his method of work it was impossible that dross should not be mingled with the ore, but this can easily be removed by the hot fire of

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