American War of Independence belonged to the same series of struggles with the Barons' War of the thirteenth century and the Great Rebellion of the seventeenth. It was the struggle of a portion of the English people in defence of a great constitutional principle, and its victorious issue was a victory of English political ideas. It was in no sense of the words a struggle between one people and another, as the Seven Years' War had been a struggle between the France of the Old Régime and England-two nations representing totally different theories as to how the work of life ought to be conducted. It was a war, indeed, in which, under somewhat different circumstances, the end might have been attained and the colonists have carried their point without the necessity of a political separation from the mother country.

The question has sometimes been asked, What would have been the probable effect upon the material development of the United States if the ties of political union with England had not been severed, as might easily have been the case had Lord Chatham been Prime Minister, with a strong majority in the House of Commons? It has been suggested that in that case we should have become but a second-rate sort of nation, such as we are accustomed -rightly or wrongly-to consider Canada. It should not be forgotten, however, that the differences between Canada and the United States were far more strongly marked a century ago than they are to-day; and that, even had Canada joined us in our suc cessful War of Independence, these differences, which date from the times of Champlain and Winthrop, could hardly as yet have been quite obliterated. It should also be remembered that the growth of the American colonies before the establishment of independence was quite as rapid as the growth of the United States has been since that event. And it is difficult to see what circumstances consistent with the preservation of peace and political freedom could have availed seriously to check our rate of growth, whether our vague connection with England had been retained or not.

However this might have been, it is easy to point to at least one political advantage, of quite incalculable importance, which grew out of our separation from England. The difficult problem of framing a federal union would no doubt have had its solution much longer postponed had it not been for the War of Independence, which made some kind of confederation an immediate necessity. The solution of the problem, moreover, would have been needlessly complicated and encumbered by an attempt to include in the scheme our peculiar relations to a British sovereign and a British parliament. The experiment of federalism was one which it was in every way desirable that the American people should try for themselves, in accordance with the peculiar circumstances of their civilisation, and without the least possibility of outside interference. The experi ment of federalism, if we may so term it, as thus far illustrated in

the history of the United States, is one of the most interesting and wonderful phenomena in the whole history of mankind; for it is an experiment whose results shall determine whether it is practicable for fifty or sixty powerful states to exist side by side without custom-houses, or standing armies, or frontier fortresses, settling all their differences by law, and not by wager of battle. It is an experiment which, on a very small scale, Switzerland long ago succeeded in solving in spite of profound differences of language, race, and creed. The problem could hardly be approached for the first time on a great scale, as in America, save by groups of people speaking the same language and inheriting similar social and political traditions. Among the great countries of Europe, moreover, it was only England that could send forth groups of people politically capable of dealing with such a problem. Obviously the experiment of federalism could never be tried successfully except by a people of long political experience, and among whom the principal of local self-government had remained intact.

Such considerations lend thrilling interest to the remarkable series of events which resulted in the acquisition of the North American continent by men of English race. A crowd of new suggestions come up, throwing light upon America's place in history. We may begin to regard the settlement of this great country by Englishmen as equivalent to the planting of some of the noblest and most beneficent of political ideas on a fruitful soil so vast in area that their powerful influence shall grow until it sways the actions of men in all parts of the earth. To have established the federal system over one great continent is to have made a fair beginning towards establishing it over the world. And whatever may be the case with peoples less advanced politically, perhaps it may not be too much to look forward to a time when all the communities of English race and speech may be united in a bond which allows perfect local freedom to each community, but shall require all questions of international concern to be adjusted peaceably, in accordance with general principles, respected by all alike.

JOHN FISKE, in The Nineteenth Century.

RECENT AND FUTURE ARCTIC VOYAGES.

1. The Arctic Voyages of Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld 1858–1879. By Alex. Leslie.

2. The Threshold of the Unknown Region. By Clements R. Markham, C.B. Fourth Edition. London, 1876.

3. Mémoire sur la Possibilité de la Navigation Commerciale dans la Mer Glaciale de Sibérie. Par A. E. Nordenskiöld. Stockholm, 1879.

4. Expédition Polaire Suédoise de 1878-Passage du Nord-Est. A. E. Nordenskiöld. Traduit du Suédois. Par F. Schultess. Upsala, 1876.

THE leader of a Swedish exploring expedition has lately performed the feat, hitherto unaccomplished, of sailing from the Atlantic to the Pacific, through the Circumpolar Seas. The North-West passage, so long the dream of navigators, has baffled us, and baffles us still. The still earlier enterprise of the sixteenth century in search of Cathay by a North East passage has at length been accomplished at a single effort. The voyage is unprecedented, and Sweden, in the person of her explorer, scores the honours.

It is natural that we should look with curiosity for the earliest account of this great success, and welcome the earliest opportunity which presents itself of offering our congratulations to Professor Nordenskiöld, who has achieved it. The appearance of Mr. Leslie's volume gives us the required opportunity, but the book itself is disappointing. The North-East passage occupies but a single chapter, and that chapter contains no material particulars which have not already been given to the world in the pages of magazines or in the proceedings of Geographical Societies. Mr. Leslie says in his preface:

"With Professor Nordenskiöld's kind permission, I had undertaken to prepare from the abundant materials that were available, a popular account of his Arctic voyages, before the North-East Passage Expedition was planned; and not to leave my work incomplete I have added a sketch of the history, as far as it is yet known, of this memorable voyage, by which when it is finished the Vega will, for the first time, have circumnavigated the twin continents of Europe and Asia. The slight outline here given will I trust increase the reader's appetite for the fuller details of the narrative which the illustrious explorer will write on his return home."

After so modest a disclaimer it may seem harsh to be too critical, but a slight outline, as Mr. Leslie calls it, of Professor Nordenskiöld's explorations is hardly up to the requirements of the time. Several accounts of them already exist, and if any fresh narrative at all is given, it should at least be distinguished by completeness and accuracy from those which have heretofore been written. This is by no means the case as regards the book before us.

Nordenskiöld's Arctic expeditions of 1858 and 1864; his attempt to reach the Pole in 1868; and his expedition to the interior of Greenland in 1872, are already well known to those who care about Arctic affairs. They have been read both in the original reports of Professor Nordenskiöld himself, and in an English dress in Mr. Clements R. Markham's "Threshold of the Unknown Region."

The latter work is, indeed, such a magazine of useful information as regards the history of Polar discovery, that to readers who

have not the time or inclination to go to the fountain-head and peruse the original narratives of the explorers themselves, it contains almost everything that can be desired.

Even to those who have from circumstances become familiar with the voluminous literature of Arctic exploration, Mr. Markham's book is an invaluable companion. It treats Arctic exploration in a way such a subject should be treated as a whole. It is not a mere record of adventures-the interest of such a record would soon fade-but it keeps the main objects of polar exploration steadily in view. Without them, voyages in the dismal icefields of the North would be a useless, not to say an unjustifiable, risk of life. With them, sufferings endured become not the mere reward of folly, but the heroism of peri s ucountered for duty's sake. We cordially acknowledge our indebtedness to Mr. Markham. The dates of voyages and the names of innumerable ships and explorers cannot easily be retained in the memory, and when referring for them to Mr. Markham's book, for the purpose of this review, we found ourselves impelled by the interest of the narratir to read on by no means for the first time. We closed the book with fresh admiration of the skill which had extracted the very pith and marrow of the narratives of the old sea-dogs whose writings Mr. Markham has epitomized. One of the greatest pleasures that reader can enjoy is the consciousness that he may give himself up to the interest of the subject-matter, secure in the conscientious accuracy of his author; and the reader of Mr. Markham's work feels at every turn the guiding-hand of the Scientific geographer, willing and anxious to prevent him from falling into the pitfalls of false names, distorted maps, and asserted priorities of discovery. Of such the geographical student learns betimes to be wary, for he knows by bitter experience how difficult it always is to unravel the tangled skein. Too often the map accompanying a volume of travel or exploration is a mere sketch for the purpose of roughly laying down on its surface the main rection of the traveller's route. But to a true geographer such a map is anathema. To adopt (with variation) an old saying, It is worse than a fault, it is a crime." Mr. Markham's maps are not only well executed, but are a real commentary on the text.

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To Mr Leslie we cannot with truth pay similar compliments. His book, dealing with well-known matter, had no legitimate raison d'étre, unless it gave, not a mere detail of adventurous or even of scientific achievement, but the means of forming what the French call a tableau d'assemblage, a general view of the subject of which the particular voyage or scientific investigation is one of the features. Four-fifths of the book are occupied with Nordenskiöld's examinations of Spitzbergen; the voyages extend over twenty years, and have been often published; there is therefore absolutely no excuse

a new account unless the narrative were exceptionally complete

and accurate, and the illustrations well executed. But the narrative fails in both particulars, and the maps are an encumbrance rather than a help they are inaccurate and incomplete to a surprising extent. Harbours into which the ships are driven by stress of weather, or even those in which exploring parties winter, are not entered. And when, as was usually the case, a number of exploring parties went forth from some central depot, mapping, geologizing, and botanizing, giving names to every unnamed headland or prominent hill, the reader at last becomes somewhat indignant at finding all these details, without which the book is of no interest whatever, unnoticed on the map. If the book should ever attain to the dignity of a second edition, we strongly advise Mr. Leslie to tear up his map of Spitzbergen, and adopt the spirit, if not the words, of the late Mr. Poole, who, when a customer justly complained of the misfit of a garment, handed the offending article to his foreman, with the remark, "Take this thing away, and make Mr. So-and-so a coat."

Inaccuracy in maps which are designed to illustrate Exploring Expeditions, and to give the latest information regarding coasts not finally surveyed, is not inconvenient only: it is often the means of perpetrating injustice. We do not speak only of injustice inflicted on the reader, by putting him out of temper and wasting his time: these are minor evils. But when the face of a map is used for the purpose of taking sides in a keenly-contested dispute without due notice of the fact, it becomes more than mere carelessness, and is distinctly unfair. To give an instance in point: the reader will find on Mr. Leslie's map, in latitude 78° 50', and longitude 26° 30′ E., a coast marked Giles land. Mr. Leslie, though he marks Giles land on his map, does not know what Giles land is or where it is. It is not for want of warning, for he has himself transcribed a page of Professor Nordenskiöld's journal, in which the professor assigns his reasons for assigning the name of Giles land to the large island which English geographers know as Wiche's Island, after a worthy citizen of London. Mr. Leslie also transcribes in another part of his book a passage from Nordenskiöld's journal, in which he retracts his name "Giles land," and adopts a different appellation. But though Mr. Leslie calls the island Giles land, he does not remember in his text where he has stationed Giles land in his map. On page 150 he says that Nordenskiöld in one of his voyages "intended to make for the Seven Islands,* and thence to undertake excursions to the north and east to the alluring Giles land das sagenhafte Land im Osten,' as it is called by the Germans." Now Nordenskiöld never intended anything of the kind. The land north-east of the Seven Islands, if it exists at all, which, as Nordenskiöld tells us, is uncertain, is not the place which Mr. Leslie has called Giles land in his map. Mr.

*Islands to the N. E. of Spitzbergen.