Great have been the achievements of American historical writers in the period under consideration. Prescott and Bancroft at once attained rank among the ablest historians of the age. Their works are among the most captivating compositions of the present century, and have added to the character and permanency of their country's literature.

Several local histories of more or less value appeared between 1820 and 1830, together with one or more historical works of a national character. In the decade under consideration Washington Irving first essayed history; and, in 1828, published his pleasing narrative of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus. The elegance with which the story of the great navigator is told, procured it immediate popularity, and encouraged the author to further exertions of the kind. Soon after he produced The Voyages and Discoveries of the Companions of Columbus, written in the same delightful style; and so widely was this work read in England, that its author received three thousand guineas for it from his London publishers, who, it may be remarked, a few years before declined the Sketch Book, on the ground that it did not possess sufficient merit to insure its success as a publication.

Another work, not so meritorious however in a literary point, but historically valuable, was published in 1832. Samuel G. Drake, of New Hampshire, who had edited, in 1824, an edition of Captain Church's History of King Philip's War, produced at the period named a comprehensive Indian Biography. This was followed, in 1833, by his Book of the Indians of North America-a work exhibiting vast research as well as great familiarity with the subject. As it was the first attempt to give an impartial account of the North American Indians, without respect to any one tribe, it rises to the dignity of history; and, having passed through eleven editions, it has just claims to be ranked among standard works, notwithstanding the unambitious style in which it is written.

As early as 1826, Jared Sparks, whose name is honourably connected with American literature, began to collect the Writings of Washington, which were subsequently published, and are now so valuable as a contribution to American history; and in 1828, he published the Life of John Ledyard, the American traveller, that being the first of his American Biographies. It soon passed through several editions, was translated into German, and published both in England and Germany. Mr. Sparks by these works became a pioneer in American literature of this description; and it is to his credit, as a narrator of history, that his Biographies are mainly drawn from the writings of the persons whose lives he has written. Since he turned his attention to this branch of letters he has enriched American literature by the publication of the Diplomatic Correspondence of the Revolution, the Biographies (written by himself) of Gouverneur Morris, Ethan Allen, Benedict Arnold, Father Marquette, De la Salle, Count Pulaski, John Ribault, and. Charles Lee. And to many undertakings of great worth, may be added the Life and Works of Benjamin Franklin, published in 1840; and, in 1854, the Correspondence of the American Revolution, edited from the original manuscripts. His writings are distinguished by clearness and force, and exemption from extravagance of fancy and redundancy of words.

As a worthy companion to the Biographies by Mr. Sparks, the Life of Elbridge Gerry, one of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence, by

James T. Austin, published in 1828, deserves special notice. It is a very excellent book, beautifully written, and exceedingly free from exaggeration.

Before the termination of this decade, a second edition of Holme's American Annals, enlarged, with a continuation, was published; and in the same period, Flint's valuable Geography and History of the Mississippi valley appeared.

Between 1830 and 1840, some of the best historical works yet produced in the United States were written, and issued to the public. Mr. Bancroft's first volume of the History of the Colonization of the United States was published in 1834, and met with immediate success. His second and third volumes were published respectively in 1837 and in 1840. Fennimore Cooper's able Naval History of the United States was published in 1839, and however much prejudice may impugn its accuracy, no candid mind will deny its literary worth. These masterly contributions to American literature were followed by many minor works our space will not allow us to name; and in 1843, Mr. Prescott gave to the public his accurate and elegantly written History of the Conquest of Mexico, and in 1847, his Conquest of Peru. These works at once attracted attention in Europe, and are justly esteemed among the ablest historical productions of the age. His Ferdinand and Isabella, and Philip the Second of Spain, the last published in 1856, have given durability to his fame. In fulfilment of his original design, Mr. Bancroft has brought his narrative down to a recent period; thus giving it the character of a true and comprehensive History of the United States, from the colonization to the present time, and enriching his country with a work that would honour any literature.

Washington Irving has recently employed himself upon a Life of Washington, which bids fair to be the most popular work of its kind yet written; and Mr. Motley has produced a History of the Dutch Republic, not inferior to the writings of Prescott or Bancroft. This young author has qualifications which give promise of greater eminence than he has yet achieved. Mr. Hildreth has written a meritorious History of the United States, valuable for its statements of facts and its general accuracy.

The very best History of Spanish Literature yet written is that by Mr. Ticknor. As an intellectual achievement it ranks with the best productions of our time, and is everywhere regarded by scholars as a standard authority. It was published in England in 1849, since which it has passed through one or more editions, notwithstanding its special character, and has been translated into several continental tongues.

This hasty and rather imperfect notice of several of the historical works of this period, will satisfy the most sceptical, that among living historians those of America are not inferior to the best European writers in the same branch of literature, either in respect of style, accuracy, descriptive painting, or philosophical deductions.

We have elsewhere mentioned Charles Brockden Brown as not only the first American who devoted himself to literature as a profession, but as the first American novelist. The success of his works early prompted others to attempt the same difficult path of authorship, and with what result is shown in the popularity of the writings of Cooper, Bird, Kennedy, Irving, Hoffman, and others. Cooper may justly be termed the most successful novelist

America has yet produced, his works being considered essential to every wellselected library. His first purely national novel-The Spy, a Tale of the Neutral Ground, was published in 1821, and its patriotic tone, admirable descriptions, and well-sustained narratives, obtained for it a popularity rarely equalled by a work of fiction. This was followed by the Pioneers, the Pilot, the Last of the Mohicans, and the Prairie, works which have made the name of Cooper familiar throughout the civilized world. In the Pilot he painted sea-life with a force and truthfulness never before depicted, invested his vessels with an actuality truly miraculous, and opened the ocean to the adventurous in literature. His Pioneers and Last of the Mohicans are not less remarkable for originality. They form the pillars of the literature of the forest and the prairie, and must ever please by the interest attached to their heroes.

In the period now under consideration Miss Sedgwick published several forcible novels illustrative of American life, Hope Leslie, and the Linwoods, or Sixty Years since in America, still maintaining a respectable rank among the fictions of the day. The female novel writers who have followed her are numerous, and the majority of them are extensively known in Europe. Miss Maria McIntosh has not been heralded to the world in florid language; but her captivating novels of Praise and Principle, Conquest and Self Conquest, and Charms and Counter Charms, will be read when much of the popular froth of the hour is consigned to forgetfulness. Her sensible and graphic story of the Lofty and Lowly is a picture of the life of the slave and the master in the Southern States her education qualified her to draw, and has the merit of being more truthful than any slavery novel we remember to have read. It is exempt from the stage embellishments so peculiar to the staple of its class.

A still more powerful female writer than Miss McIntosh, is Mrs. Lydia Maria Child. In the year 1824, she published a New England story, entitled Hobomok, which prompted her to further efforts in the same line, and she soon after produced a Revolutionary tale, called The Rebels. This introduces many prominent historical personages to the reader, and the nature of the work admitting of occasional speeches, the fair authoress produced one or more of great brilliancy. One of these, which she places in the mouth of the renowned James Otis, is so vigorous and ably sustained that it is often quoted as the actual production of that statesman; and, as such, has been incorporated into several popular American School Books.

Mrs. Stowe is well known to European readers. Her story of Uncle Tom's Cabin is probably the most popular fiction of the present century, and must ever mark an era in American literature. It has been so highly praised in Europe that we deem a quotation from a reviewer superfluous. Dred, her second slavery romance, did not meet with equal favour, but its literary merits probably surpass those of Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Among the prominent female fiction writers of this period it is proper to mention Mrs. Kirkland, Mrs. Southworth, Miss Leslie, and the Misses Warner. The New Home and Western Clearings of the former are well known to English readers. Mrs. Southworth's Mark Sutherland has been republished in this country, Miss Leslie's Stories are familiar to many, and the Wide, Wide World, Queechy, and Dollars and Cents, by the Misses Warner, have a

popularity in Great Britain only inferior to that enjoyed by Mrs. Stowe's first successful romance.

The works of Hawthorne were slow to reach a wide-spread circulation; but their unusual merit has secured them at last a permanent place in modern literature. His Scarlet Letter, House of the Seven Gables, and Blithedale Romance, are among the most delightful compositions of the age; and so widely has this been acknowledged, that his works are as familiar now to continental readers through the medium of translations as they are to the people of Great Britain.

Among recent novels based upon foreign adventure, the Omoo, Typee, and Mardi, of Melville, possess irresistible powers of captivation. Poe's Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, evince a lofty genius, acuteness of observation and masterly skill in composition. These have a European reputation equa to Hawthorne's works. And, although Longfellow is better known in Europe as a pcet than as a novelist, his Hyperion and Kavanagh fully establish his success as a writer of fiction.

W. Gilmore Simms, a southern gentleman, who has devoted himself exclusively to literature as a profession, has written several successful fictions; and it is apparent to all who may take the trouble to investigate the subject, that to his works Mrs. Stowe is largely indebted for the materials of her famous romance. His first contributions to American literature date as far back as 1825, since which period he has given to the world upwards of twenty volumes, mostly however of a miscellaneous character. His style is vigorous and flowing; and his narrative never descends to positive dulness. The Yemassee, a novel descriptive of early Carolina adventure and Indian life, is probably the best of his numerous romances, and must maintain a prominent place amongst American works of fiction.

In descriptions of domestic life among the ancients, William Ware has been eminently successful. In 1836 he published an elaborate and pleasing work of this description, entitled The Fall of Palmyra, and in 1838, Probus, or Rome in the Third Century. These were soon reprinted in England, under the titles of Zenobia and Aurelian, respectively, changes indicating a dishonest motive in the publishers; but which, strangely enough, have since been adopted by Mr. Ware. As literary performances these books are not inferior to those of Mr. Lockhart of the same nature, and we believe nothing superior to them has been achieved since their publication.

Thomas S. Arthur, another writer of fiction, whose subjects are of a domestic nature, and peculiarly American, deserves mention for the moral influence his unpretending writings are now exercising among a class of readers, both on this and on the other side of the Atlantic. Many of his books have been reprinted in England, not for their extravagance of description, or appeals to passion, but on account of their moral value, and their truthfulness to nature. His Ten Nights in a Bar Room, Tired of House Keeping, and True Riches, or Wealth Without Wings, have all the beauty of Sandford and Merton, and inculcate lessons of the soundest philosophy.

Other Americans have produced excellent novels since 1820; but those mentioned are probably the representatives of their distinctive classes, and therefore further reference in detail is unnecessary.

This would seem to be the age of travel-literature, judging from the many narratives now published, and the general excellence of such works. No nation has given more good books of this class to the world since 1820 than the United States, considered either with regard to style or information.

The veteran traveller and author, Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, published in 1820 a pleasing narrative of explorations made on the Upper Mississippi-and Missouri, in 1819, which was soon republished in London in Sir Richard Phillips's Collection of Voyages and Travels. Since that period Mr. Schoolcraft has done as much as any person living in exploring the North-Western Territory east of the Rocky Mountains; having among other achievements, as early as 1832, successfully penetrated to the source of the Mississippi, at Itasca Lake. The account of his adventures and discoveries, entitled the Exploration of Itasca Lake, the Actual Source of the Mississippi, was published in 1834. It is a most entertaining and instructive narrative of wilderness adventure and discovery.

Timothy Flint, in 1826, published a narrative of a Residence and Wanderings in the Valley of the Mississippi, which may be regarded as the precursor of this species of Western literature.

It is

Want of space admonishes us to be brief in our notices of travellers, and we are obliged to be satisfied with a hasty reference to the most prominent. only necessary to name John Lloyd Stephens, in order to recall his many pleasing volumes to the intelligent reader. His first work, Incidents of Travel in Egypt, Arabia Petræa, and the Holy Land, was published in 1837, meeting with remarkable success, not only in the United States, but in Europe. His travels in Greece, Turkey, Russia, and Poland appeared in rapid succession ; and in 1841, his great work on Central America was published at New York, and, like its predecessors, was at once successful. Mr. Stephens was the pioneer in Central American exploration, setting the example to E. G. Squier and others, who have so thoroughly explored that most interesting country. Mr. Squier's works are of a more scientific character than those of Mr. Stephens, and furnish us with descriptions of a country not explored by the latter. His observations take a wide range, including everything worthy notice; and his Nicaragua, its People, Scenery, and Monuments, first published in 1852, induces us to believe him to be the best informed on Central America of any man now living. His first visit to Nicaragua was in 1848. In 1853 he again visited parts of the same country and the States lying further north, and shortly after published his adventures, entitled Honduras, Historical and Statistical. Both these valuable books have had an extensive sale in Europe.

Since the publication of Lewis and Clarke's, and Long's Narratives of Adventures on the Plains and Rocky Mountains, Washington Irving has written his admirable books descriptive of the exploits and explorations of Mr. Hunt and Captain Bonneville, the first of these works being widely known as Astoria. The Government has since then fitted out several expeditions to those regions, and their success has added much to this description of literature. Colonel Fremont's various Reports of his discoveries and adventures possess considerable literary merit, and always amply compensate the reader.

Other travellers and navigators despatched on distant and hazardous undertakings, by either public or private munificence, have produced entertaining