30 OCTOBER 1897, Page 25

The Romance of Colonization. By G. Barnett Smith. (S. W.

Partridge and Co.)—The special subject of which Mr. Barnett Smith treats in this volume is the " United States." He begins with the legends of discovery by Scandinavian voyagers, and then goes on to write of Columbus, Cabot, and the long line of explorers who followed them. He does not, we see, always keep within the boundaries indicated by his title. Jacques Cartier, for instance, was a pioneer of Canadian discovery. Surely Mr. Barnett Smith is not infected with Mr. Goldwin Smith's heresy, so that he reckons Canada among the States, as if that were her inevitable destiny. Is he not somewhat hasty when he writes : " In 1580, he [Robert Browne] began his campaign against the order and dis- cipline of the Established Church, and soon afterwards formed a distinct Church on apostolic and congregational principles at Norwich." If " congregational " and " apostolic" are convertible terms, cadit quaestio. Mr. Smith becomes enthusiastic over the Pilgrim Fathers, nor do we quarrel with him for it, but it cannot be repeated too often that the only religious liberty which they understood was liberty to follow their own way.