Virginia Caro/arum, 1625-1685. By Edward D. Neil. (J. Mansell's Sons,
Albany, N.Y.)—Much curious and interesting matter may be found in this volume, though not, it must be confessed, without some considerable labour. It is a small quarto of more than four hundred pages, with a vast number of details crowded into it, some of them scarcely interesting, at least outside the borders of Virginia. Still, it is a book worth possessing by students of American history. Others, too, may be interested in such parts as that, for instance> which rescues from oblivion the name of Benjamin Symmee, the earliest benefactor of education in the States. (llis legacy preceded that of John Harvard by four years.) He gave two hundred acres of land, " with the milk and increase of eight cows, for the maintenance of a learned and honest man, to keep upon the said ground a free school," eso. It is a pity that Mr. Neill tells us nothing about the history of the endowment. Anyhow, it was not so famous as the New England foundation. Virginia seems to have anticipated in those days a Church polity which has not wanted favourers since :—" The vestrie of every parish shall from henceforward have power to elect and make choyce of their ministers."
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