A History of the United States of America. By Josiah
W. Leeds. (Lippincott, Philadelphia, U.S.)—Mr. Leeds remembers in his youth how, being at school, he had to "rehearse the wars of his country," especially " the battles of the Revolutions and of the war of 1812." He and his schoolfellows thus became, he says, not only acquainted with these facts in a way that was quite out of proportion to their relative importance, while they were left in ignorance as to "matters relative to Indians, the slaves, &c." (an ignorance not much wondered at, under the circumstances), but also furiously hostile to England and Mexico. He now writes a history in which war, though it cannot be entirely got rid of, does not fill the most important part. Sketches of the Continent generally, of the English, French, and Dutch t settlements, of the early annals of the States, of their struggle for in-
dependence, and of their national history since that epoch, fill up an interesting and well-written volume. The young American will not read it without a salutary effect. He will hear less of the glories of Bunker's Hill and the frigates of the war of 1812, but he will get some real idea of what his forefathers were. Mr. Leeds does not fail in patriotism, but he is candid and just, not concealing, for instance, his opinion that the war of 1812 was not justified on the part of his countrymen. He belongs apparently to the Society of Friends, and hence he naturally enlarges on the persecution in which his heretical fathers suffered so severely ; but he tells this, too, without bitterness or exaggeration.
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