make it an effectual instrument, within and without our fold, in the great work of restoring belief in the Eye that seeth, the Ear that heareth, and the Voice that speaketh now as of old!

1. The Workingman's Way in the World, being the Autobiography of a Journeyman Printer. New York: Redfield. 1854. 12mo. pp. 359.

2. Merrimack, or Life at the Loom, a Tale by DAY KELLOGG LEE, Author of "Summerfield, or Life on a Farm," &c. New York: Redfield. 1854. 12mo. pp. 353.

THESE books belong to a class of writings which could not have seen the light in any age previous to this, and which may fairly be numbered amongst the distinctive products of the times, along with India-rubber cloth, Daguerreotypes, and frictionmatches. The experiences of workingmen and workingwomen are in these days everywhere said or sung, and those who have mournfully come to the conclusion that we shall have no more epics must gather what comfort they can from this new form of literature, and try to be thankful that, although national armories are even more flourishing than heretofore, although sword-factories stand side by side with plough-factories, nevertheless the songs of the loom, the anvil, and the plough are taking the places of battle-songs, and the shirts which are sung of now are made, not of iron, but of cotton. We recommend every one whose temperament inclines him to look only on the dark side of life to read largely in this department of modern literature; even here he will find something that may feed his melancholy, for existence will never wholly part with its burden and its mystery; but with a little that is threatening in its aspect, there is a great deal more which is encouraging a healthy tone of practical Christian sentiment. Indeed, we are satisfied that few persons have any adequate conception of the amount of vitality, intellectual and emotional, which is realized in the more ele. vated portion of the laboring classes of modern society. We were inclined at first to the opinion, that the life at the loom described in "Merrimack " could not be the real thing at all; that sentiments and tastes are attributed by Mr. Lee to operatives, to which they very rarely rise. But upon reflection, we are satisfied that his delineations and reports are upon the whole just. One half of the world, it is said, do not know how the other half live; and the remark is quite as applicable to persons who live just round the corner, to the machinists, for example, who, as we write, are assembling for their dinner in the house

Undoubtedly

across the street, as to the remote sea-islanders. we overrate the amount of intellectual culture amongst the wealthier portion of society, but we underrate just as much the gifts and attainments of the humbler classes. We shall learn by and by that it is a great error steadily to associate ignorance with the necessity of labor.

The volumes before us are interesting and profitable, each in its kind. Both of them are animated by a pure spirit, and are commended by a pleasant style. We hope that they will be extensively read by the classes whose fortunes they delineate, and by their employers also. The "Autobiography" proved to us the more attractive of the two, because it seemed to be not a fiction founded upon fact, but the true story of an actual human life. Personal narrative, when it is not disfigured by conceit, and when the narrator is gifted to tell his tale with feeling and good taste, hardly ever fails to be interesting, even though the story may include no remarkable adventures. The very quietness of the picture may be its chief charm. The workingman's story is a very pleasant one, and he has written it out in a very simple and clear workingman's style. It may be that we have been very ignorant and unobserving, but it is true that his book has opened for us a fresh view of life, and he commends himself all the more to the reader by the healthy moral sentiment and vigorous English common sense which shielded him so completely against infidelity and socialism, and taught him that the workingman's reliances are God and his own energies.

The United States Grinnell Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin. A Personal Narrative. By ELISHA Kent Kane, New York: Harper & Brothers. 1854.

M. D., U. S. N. 8vo. pp. 552.

THIS expedition, as is well known to all our readers, was a joint undertaking on the part of the United States government and of a public-spirited merchant of New York,- Mr. Henry Grinnell, of that city, furnishing the vessels, and the Navy Department providing the officers and men. It consisted of two small vessels, of an aggregate tonnage of only two hundred and thirty-five tons, and was manned by thirty-three persons, including the commanders, Lieutenant Edwin J. De Haven, and Acting Master Samuel P. Griffin. Dr. Kane accompanied the expedition in the capacity of surgeon of the larger vessel, the Advance; and in the volume before us we have a general history of its VOL. LVI. 4TH S. VOL. XXI. NO. III.

39

operations, chiefly prepared from his private journal. The nar rative is written with great spirit and vivacity, and will compare favorably with any previous history of Arctic adventure, both for the variety and intrinsic interest of its topics and the literary skill exhibited in their treatment. Several of the chapters are valuable contributions to science; such as that on the formation of icebergs and floes, and on the disintegrating processes which result in their destruction. Others have a more popular interest, and are full of exciting scenes.

The expedition sailed from New York on the 22d of May, 1850, and anchored at the Whale Fish Islands on the 24th of June. Here they remained several days to procure furs and complete the preparations for their perilous voyage. Starting again on the 29th, they prosecuted their search through the Middle Pack, as it is called, and amidst all the vicissitudes of Arctic navigation, until the middle of September, when they were frozen up in Wellington Channel, in about 75° of north latitude and 93° of west longitude. And here commenced a drift absolutely unparalleled in the history of navigation. The two vessels, now fast frozen in an immense ice-field, continued to drift in a northerly direction until the 2d of October, when they reached a point in latitude 75° 24′ 52′′ north, and longitude 93° 31′ 10′′ west. Here they met another current which bore them back again on their dim and perilous way, through Wellington Channel, Barrow's Strait, and Lancaster Sound, into Baffin's Bay, until the 7th of June in the following year, when the ice broke up, in 66° 20′ 18′′ north, and about 59° west, and they were finally released from their long imprisonment. Upon making sail again, they directed their course once more towards the Whale Fish Islands, and, after recruiting for a short time, again commenced their search. But the great extent and compactness of the ice which filled the bay compelled them to return after an ineffectual attempt to penetrate it; and early in the autumn our voyagers arrived in New York, after an absence of a little less than a year and a half.

In its main object, the expedition was unsuccessful; but this object had been faithfully prosecuted under more than ordinary difficulties. Some important results, however, were obtained, among which the first place must be given to the discovery of Grinnell Land, at the northern end of Wellington Channel. It is true that this discovery has been claimed for the English expedition, then in the Arctic Sea. But the very strong arguments so clearly presented by our author leave little or no doubt that this claim is unfounded, and that the honor must really attach to our countrymen.

In addition to his own personal narrative, Dr. Kane's volume

contains, in an Appendix, the letter of instructions addressed to Lieutenant De Haven by Secretary Preston, the official report to the Navy Department, several valuable meteorological and other tables, and an interesting and suggestive lecture by our author on an open Polar Sea. The volume is also handsomely illustrated with numerous engravings, which add much to its interest.

History of Oliver Cromwell and the English Commonwealth, from the Execution of Charles the First to the Death of Cromwell. By M. Guizot. Translated by ANDREW R. SCOBLE. In two volumes. Philadelphia: Blanchard & Lea. 1854. 12mo. pp. 426, 511.

Ir is a fact not less remarkable than it is undoubted, that the best History of the English Revolution has been written by the great philosophical statesman of France. Across that period, so long sacred to partisan bigotry and misrepresentation, his History proceeds with an impartiality as rigid and unswerving as Mr. Hallam's, and with a fulness of detail, a justness of remark, and a breadth of philosophy, which leave little to be desired. In the volumes before us, he resumes his narrative at the point where it was interrupted many years since, when his powers were yet in the vigor of middle life, and carries it forward with the same impartiality, the same entire control of his subject, and under the guidance of the same enlightened principles which he then exhibited. The period of which they treat is scarcely less eventful, and is intimately allied with that which. engaged his attention in his former work. Indeed, in M. Guizot's view, it forms only an integral portion of the same grand historical era, extending from the accession of Charles the First to the abdication of James the Second. There are doubtless strong reasons for thus regarding it, and giving to the whole course of events that dramatic unity which they thus acquire. Yet, with all our profound admiration of M. Guizot and of the other eminent scholars by whom this thesis is maintained, we have never been able to convince ourselves that it is, upon the whole, better thus to reconcile the distinctive characteristics of the Revolution of 1640 and the Revolution of 1688. Between these two great struggles we perceive radical distinctions which it seems unwise to wink out of sight.

Cromwell of course forms the central figure in M. Guizot's work, and around him nearly all the interest revolves. The delineation of him offers little that is novel; but it is remarkable for its discrimination of the conflicting elements in his complex

character, for its moderation, and for its careful avoidance of all extreme opinions. M. Guizot neither bestows on Cromwell the absurd praise, nor deals out the unjust censure, which are alike lavished upon him by partisan historians. The other prominent actors are also portrayed with great fairness and candor in balancing their opposing merits and defects. If any exception may be justly taken to the manner in which our author has executed this portion of his work, it is that the uniform coldness and austerity of his judgment have led him to regard with too little leniency those errors which it was inevitable for the English Revolutionists to commit, in the difficult position into which they were forced, and that he expresses himself in language too little animated by an active sympathy with either party. His style, so far as its characteristics may be ascertained through a translation, though marked by dignity and elegance, is never impassioned, and rarely becomes eloquent. In its entire freedom from passion and its disregard of rhetorical ornaments, it differs very widely from the style of almost every other modern French historian, and also, in a lesser degree, from the style of some of his own earlier works.

M. Guizot devotes considerable space to the diplomacy and foreign relations of the Commonwealth and the Protectorate. His opinions on these points have much interest, as they are the views of a great theoretical statesman who has also enjoyed long practice in the diplomatic, legislative, and executive departments of his government; and he has illustrated his work by some valuable extracts from the Archives des Affaires Étran gères of France. His Appendices fill nearly two hundred and sixty pages, and contain a large number of interesting documents, of which a considerable part are now first printed. They throw new light on some doubtful points, and are a most welcome addition to the documentary history of the period. In his criticisms on the diplomacy of England at this time, M. Guizot seems to lay rather too much stress on the vacillating and undecided course which the Commonwealth adopted in its relations with France and Spain. Yet it may well be doubted whether it would have been wise for the Parliament to have more actively espoused the cause of either of those great powAnd as regards the war with the United Provinces, it is certain that England's maritime superiority dates from that period, and was in no small degree due to the wise policy begun by Vane and continued by Cromwell.

ers.

In a few other particulars, our author's views admit of some qualification; but in the main they are just and well considered, and but little objection can be raised to the accuracy of the picture which he presents of this portion of English history. His