of "Dr. Lowell and his ministry,"-to whose flock our authoress belongs, and to whose church and its ministers the volume is dedicated. A PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATION OF WOMAN'S RIGHT TO LABOR.*What heart has not been touched to the quick by Hood's inimitably pathetic lyric, "The Song of the Shirt!" Any wise effort to benefit the starving needlewomen, and other women in like circumstances of dependence, are worthy of all commendation. It is a legitimate enquiry whether woman, as society is organized, is not unduly dependent, and whether her sphere of industrial activity and useful influence might not be greatly widened, with advantage both to herself and to society. The little volume before us-edited by Mrs. Dall, a zealous and efficient advocate of an improved public sentiment on this subject-is designed to throw light on these questions. The larger portion of it is an interesting autobiography of a living German lady, who, after thorough training in an important branch of medical practice, under distinguished professors in Berlin, came to this country, and here, after still farther perfecting herself in the theory and practice of her profession, and laboring with unwearied assiduity to promote the welfare of the degraded and suffering of her sex, has established, in the face of many obstacles, a respectable professional character, and now fills a responsible post in the Female Medical College at Boston. This autobiography, in the form of a letter from the lady herself to a lady friend in New York, is here published by Mrs. Dall, with the authoress' consent, as a good "Practical Illustration" of a previous work of her own, entitled "Woman's Right to Labor,"-which we have noticed on the preceding page-or, in other words, of what woman is capable of accomplishing for herself, even under the greatest disadvantages. LIFE OF JOHN HUNT.t-In this book we have a picture of the * A Practical Illustration of " Woman's Right to Labor;" or, a Letter from MARIE E. ZAKRZEWSKA, M. D., late of Berlin, Prussia. Edited by CAROLINE H. DALL, Author of "Woman's Right to Labor," "Historical Pictures Retouched," &c., &c. Boston: Walker, Wise & Co. 1860. pp. 167. A Missionary Among the Cannibals; or, The Life of John Hunt, who was eminently successful in converting the people of Fiji from cannibalism to ChrisVOL. XIX. 14 life of a devoted English missionary of the Methodist denomination, who for ten years labored with unwearied zeal and selfdenial, and with encouraging success, among the cannibals of Fiji, and died at his post in 1848, at the early age of thirty-eight. The volume is reprinted from an English edition, and is well adapted to promote the growth of deep, earnest, and self-sacrificing piety, and also of the most heroic type of the missionary spirit. SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF JAMES HILLHOUSE.*—In the August number of the New Englander for 1859 we gave some account of the Sketch of the Life of the Hon. James Hillhouse, which was prepared by Rev. Dr. Bacon for Barnard's American Journal of Education. We are pleased to see that this memoir of the eminent patriot and statesman, of whom the State of Connecticut has so much reason to be proud, and for whose many public services it has equal reason to be grateful, has recently been given to the public in a separate volume. LIFE OF GEN. JACKSON.†-Mr. Parton's Life of Gen. Jackson is now brought to a close. His three large and thick octavos bear ample testimony on every page to the diligence with which he has labored to draw a faithful portraiture of that extraordinary man, who, perhaps, more than any other individual of his times, has given shape to all the future destinies of this country. We say it with sorrow and humiliation, for we are reaping to-day some of the disastrous fruits of his policy. Without a doubt Gen. Jackson entered upon the duties of his office as President of the United States with the determination to serve his country well. Without a doubt he rendered many valuable services to the state. Sometimes he was right and then his rare courage and indomitable will made it sure that his purposes would be carried out. But these volumes abound with the most conclusive evidence of tianity. By GEORGE STRINGER ROWE. New York: Carlton & Porter, Sunday School Union, 200 Mulberry strect. 1860. pp. 286. * Sketch of the Life and Public Services of Hon. James Hillhouse, of New Haven. By Rev. LEONARD BACON, D. D. From Barnard's American Journal of Education. New Haven: 1860. Life of Andrew Jackson. York: Mason Brothers. 1860. By JAMES PARTON. New 8vo. pp. 46. what we have always been well satisfied, that he was of all men the most unfit for the high position which he so long held. Mr. Parton says, "His ignorance of law, history, politics, science, of everything which he who governs a country ought to know, was extreme. Mr. Trist remembers hearing a member of the General's family say, that General Jackson did not believe the world was round. His ignorance was as a wall round about him -high, impenetrable. He was imprisoned in his ignorance, and sometimes raged round his little, dim enclosure like a tiger in his den!" Mr. Parton says, again, "No man will ever be able quite to comprehend Andrew Jackson who has not personally known a Scotch-Irishman. More than he was anything else, he was a North-of-Irelander. A tenacious, pugnacious race; honest, yet capable of dissimilation; often angry, but most prudent when most furious; endowed by nature with the gift of extracting from every affair and every relation all the strife it can be made to yield; at home and among dependents, all tenderness and generosity; to opponents, violent, ungenerous, prone to believe the worst of them; a race that means to tell the truth, but when excited by anger or warped by prejudice, incapable of either telling, or remembering, or knowing the truth; not taking kindly to culture, but able to achieve wonderful things without it; a strange blending of the best and the worst qualities of two races. Jackson had these traits in an exaggerated degree; as Irish as though he were not Scotch; as Scotch as though he were not Irish." As further illustration of the character of this extraordinary man, we quote from what Mr. Parton says respecting Gen. Jackson's intense hatred of Mr. Clay for the part he took in the election of Mr. Adams, in 1825. "If he did not invent the bargain and corruption lie, he did worse, he believed it. To be willing to believe so scandalous a tale respecting such men, except upon what may strictly be called evidence, is not creditable to the heart or the understanding of any man. To persist in believing it for fifteen years, after it had been completely disproved, to avow a belief in it, for political purposes, just as he was sinking into the grave, revealed a phase of character which we have a right to call detestable. We owe it to the interests of human nature to execrate such conduct." Of Jackson's "appointment and removal policy," Mr. Parton says, "I consider it an evil so great and so difficult to remedy that if all his other public acts had been perfectly wise, yet this simple feature of his administration would suffice to render it deplorable rather than admirable." And, in conclusion, he sums all up with a paragraph to which we most heartily and emphatically subscribe. "I must avow explicitly the belief, that, notwithstanding the good done by General Jackson during his presidency, his elevation to power was a mistake on the part of the people of the United States. The good which he effected has not continued; while the evil which he began remains, has grown more formidable, has attained such dimensions that the prevailing feeling of the country, with regard to the corruptions and inefficiency of the government, is dispair. I will also avow the opinion, that, of all men sent to Washington, the man surest to fall a prey to the worst influences of the place is your honest country gentleman, whose intentions are excellent, and whose ignorance is almost as complete as his innocence. I find in General Jackson's private writings no evidence that he had ever studied the art of governing nations, or had arrived at any clear conclusions on the subject. Except the Vicar of Wakefield,' it is doubtful if he had ever read any secular book through. That solitary exception is creditable to his taste and feelings as a human being, for no man can be altogether despicable who keenly relishes the Vicar of Wakefield.' But a President of the United States should know all books, all times, all nations, all arts, all artifices, all men. It is essential that he should be a man of culture. His culture may not prevent his falling into error, but a cultivated man is capable of being convinced of his errors. He cannot be a cultivated man without having learned, over and over again, how fallible his judgment is; without having often been sure that he was right and then found that he was wrong. It must be admitted, that General Jackson, when his purpose was formed, when his feelings were roused, was not capable of being convinced. His will tyranized over him, over his friends, over Congress, over the country. No Dionysius of old was more the autocrat than he. Unapproachable by an honest opponent, he could be generally wielded by any man who knew how to manage him, and was lavish enough of flattery. "Andrew Jackson, in fact, was a fighting man, and little more than a fighting It was not till political controversy became personalized, that his force and strength were elicited. He hated the Whig party much, but Henry Clay more; nullification much, but Calhoun more; the bank much, but Biddle more. He was a thorough-going human fighting-cock-very fond of the hens of his own farm-yard, giving them many a nice kernel of corn, but bristling up at the faintest crow of chanticleer on the other side of the road." pp. 694, 695. man. Such, in brief, are Mr. Parton's views of the character of Andrew Jackson! Such his estimate of his qualifications for the presidency! True, he "loved the people," and verily "thought he was fighting their battles and doing their will." But, igno rant, pugnacious, violent, headstrong, prejudiced, he did vastly more harm than good. We have already in a former number spoken of the style in which the book is written. We have heard it characterized as that of a successful newspaper reporter. Mr. Parton holds a ready pen, and writes in an easy, bold, dashing way,-at times with carelessness-but so as to be always sure to arrest and keep the attention of the reader. As a good illustration of the manner in which he is able to sustain the interest of his descriptions we refer to the account of the duel with Dickinson in the first volume, which we should like to give in full on our pages. It remains only for us to say that we consider the book to be a really valuable contribution to the history of the country. third volume covers the period from General Jackson's defeat at the presidential election of 1825 to the closing scenes of his. life at "the Hermitage," on the eighth of June, 1845. LIFE OF JOHN A. QUITMAN.*-We should be glad to give a more extended notice of these volumes, than we have time or space for at present. They contain matters of much interest, both historically and politically. Gen. Quitman was born in the State of New York, the son of a Lutheran minister, and commenced his education for the pulpit; but finally chose the bar, and went south, to seek his fortune; obtained, by marriage, a plantation in Mississippi; rose to eminence in southern politics, distinguished himself in the Mexican war, and became an ultra champion of nullification and of all the most radical of southern principles. He was a man of good abilities, untiring industry, and great energy of character. His career is fully delineated in the volumes before us, by a most appreciative and friendly hand. In the present state of our national politics, this work may be read with profit, as throwing no little light on the general current of opinion and feeling at the south, on the subjects now in controversy. The biography of a northern man of extreme southern principles, by an ultra southerner, is of course fully southern in spirit, and like most of the modern southern literature, whether political or theo * Life and Correspondence of John A. Quitman, Major-General U. S. A., and Governor of the State of Mississippi. By J. F. H. CLAIBORNE. In two volumes. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1860. pp. 400, 392. |