THE FRENCH IN THE UNITED STATES.
French Colonists and Exiles in the United States. By J. G. Rosengarten. (J. B. Lippincott Company. $1 net.)—This little book is written in so condensed a style that some pages are not much more than a list of names. It is worth reading, however, and especially for students of the eighteenth century, during which the French flocked to America in great numbers; not only the many soldiers and men of military turn who went as com- manders or adventurers to help in the wars, but the emigrants who were attracted by more or less rascally agents of land com- panies. For instance, just at the time of the Revolution, one Barlow "sold title-deeds to estates in the West at five shillings the acre," and his deceiving descriptions drew hundreds of poor people to a country where they mostly perished or lost every- thing they had. Earlier stories are connected with the Huguenots who took refuge in America, and whose descendants are now to be found there, their names sometimes preserved, with an echo of noble old families in France; sometimes altered almost beyond recognition. It is the same with the emigrants and refugees of the Revolution. Many a romance is more hinted at than told at length in Mr. Rosengarten's pages. When he allows himself a story, he tells it well and vividly, so that the book is a curious mixture of bare statistics and picturesque comment.
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