The Making of the Great West. By Samuel Adams Drake.
(T. Fisher Unwin.)—This is a book intended in the first place for readers, especially young readers, on the other aide of the Atlantic. It follows op an earlier volume from the same pen, "The Making of New England." Mr. Drake's present theme is, for the most part, "the section lying beyond the Hiaaissippi. Another volume will deal with the Central portion of the States, and will complete the series. The Making of the Great West is divided into three group, as the author calls them,—(1), "Three Rival Civilisations" (i.e., Spanish, French,
and English); (2), "Birth of the American Idea," giving an account of the great expansion of the Republic by which Louisiana, Missouri, Oregon, Tema, and other Western territory, was acquired ; (3), "The Effects of the Gold Discoveries in California." Mr. Drake would have done well to be a little more emphatic in his remarks about the morality of his countrymen's dealings with Mexico. It might not have made his book more welcome—at least in the States—but it would certainly have made it more useful. Young Americans cannot be told too plaialy that their country's foreign policy at least has been one of the most unprincipled in the modern history of the world.
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