Our Kin Across the Sea. By J. C. Firth. (Longmans.) — Mr.
Fronde speaks very highly of the author of this volume, in a pre- face which is prefixed to it, as one of the oldest and most distin- guished of New Zealand colonists, a large landowner who has been a merchant, known in private life "as a gentleman and a man of honour," and as having in public thrown the weight of his character "on the side of measures calculated to further the moral improvement of the population." Mr. Firth shows himself also a keen observer and a simple, straightforward writer in this volume, in which he gives his impressions of America from a visit which he paid it. Mr. Fronde says he believes Our Kin Across the Sea for the first time gives such impressions from the standpoint of a colonist ; but we do not see that they differ materially from those which have been published by Anglo-Saxon travellers who have preceded him. What we notice most in Mr. Firth's book are his admirable clearness and condensation of state- ment, his arrangement of the information he supplies under appropriate headings, and the healthy old-fashioned morality which pervades every page. Mr. Firth sees very much that is good in America and its people, and he predicts a great future for both, if they will accept their "manifest destiny," and enter what he terms "the confederation of the English-speaking race all over the world." But he sees and observes the chief Trans- atlantic weaknesses,—hurry to secure wealth, conceit, individual and national, speculation, overwork, and luxury. Mr. Firth, who is clearly a God-fearing man of the old school, has some plain words to say about a problem in morality which is vexing the United States at the present time, and if we allow that it was necessary to speak out upon this matter at all, the work could scarcely have been performed with more taste or judgment. Altogether, this is an interesting and valuable book, which Americans ought to find specially instructive, but which Englishmen will also find thoroughly profitable reading.
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