"I hold the document in my hand-in his own autograph-unmistakable and real. It is indorsed in the handwriting of Henry Strachey, who was then Secretary to the Royal Commissioners, Lord and Sir William Howe."

We have not space to go into further details respecting this treasonable correspondence with the enemy. Every intelligent student of our history will understand the importance of the discovery.

American press.

This paper which Mr. Moore read before the Historical Society is now given to the public in a handsome volume of the clearest and most beautiful typography. We have seen nothing superior to it from the The work is illustrated with a fine engraving of General Lee; and with a copy of a most amusing carricature, which, notwithstanding, was allowed by all who knew him, to be "the only successful delineation of his countenance or person." There is also a fac-simile of the original "Plan of Treason." The work reflects great credit upon the author.

MEMOIR OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.*-This is a book which has already been before the public for a year or two, but we take the occasion of the publication of a new edition to bespeak for it fresh attention. It is an admirable book for the times. No one can read this history of the public career of the "old man eloquent," without feeling his blood stirred within him, as by the blast of a trumpet. Now that the friends of freedom everywhere are uniting for an effort to put a limit to the further extension of slavery, the widest circulation ought to be given to everything that will throw light upon the history of the aggressions of the slave propagandists, and the methods by which they have maintained their ascendancy in the national councils. Few works are better fitted to do service, in this way, in the present presidential campaign, among those who have leisure and inclination to read and think, than this memoir by the venerable Josiah Quincy, of one whom he declares to be second to none of his contemporaries in laborious and faithful devotion to the service of his country. We regret to say that the memoir is only of his public life. The allusions to his private life, or even to the traits of his personal character, are very rare, and of the most formal kind. We look forward eagerly to the day when some competent person shall give us a complete biography which shall be

Memoir of the Life of John Quincy Adams. By JOSIAH QUINCY, LL. D. Boston: Crosby, Nichols, Lee & Co. 1860. 8vo. pp. 429.

worthy of the genius and the virtues of this many-sided and laborious scholar and statesman.

We do not propose to follow the biographer as he has recounted the various public services which Mr. Adams discharged so advantageously to the country, and so honorably to himself. The story is all told, fully and faithfully, from the day he went to St. Petersburg, at the age of fourteen, as the private secretary of the minister to Russia, to the day he was elevated to the highest office within the gift of the nation, and then to the day when death overtook him in the discharge of his duties within the walls of the capitol at Washington. As we have followed the history, we have again and again felt the crimson of shame as we have read the proofs of the hypocrisy and corruption, the meanness, the incompetency, and the boorishness of many who stood high in public life at the same time with Mr. Adams, and we have rejoiced that one statesman of so much ability, culture, integrity, and acquaintance with affairs, was spared so long to the country.

MEMOIR OF THE DUTCHESS OF ORLEANS.*-We opened this book with expectations highly raised; not because some of the events in the life of the Dutchess of Orleans are a part of the history of her times; but because this German Protestant Princess, who became the wife of the heir apparent of the throne of France, ever maintained her Protestant principles, and the character of a truly religious woman, both in the days of her prosperity, and afterwards in all her misfortunes and wanderings. The book, however, though full of interest, is not all we hoped. As we turned over its pages, our respect and sympathy for the illustrious exile were constantly called forth, but the memoir seems by no means equal to what such a character and such a life deserve and demand.

We will mention some of the more prominent events of her early years, which will serve to give some idea of the scope of the book. Helena Louisa Elisabeth was the daughter of the hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg Schwerin. Her early years were passed in retirement, under the care of several accomplished instructors, now at some one of the palaces of her father on the sandy plains of his dutchy, and now at Doberan, or some other village upon the Baltic. Occasionally

Memoir of the Dutchess of Orleans. By the MARQUESS DE H—. Together with Biographical Souvenirs and Original Letters. Collected by Prof. G. H. DE SCHUBERT. Translated from the French. New York: Charles Scribner. 1860. 12mo. pp. 391. Price $1.

she made visits to Weimar, to the palace of her grandfather, the Grand Duke Charles Augustus, the friend of Goethe and Schiller; and on one occasion she accompanied her mother to the Baths of Toeplitz, where she made the acquaintance of the old King of Prussia, who was so impressed by her good sense, beauty, and gentleness, that, through his influence, a matrimonial alliance was soon proposed by the young Duke of Orleans. The marriage was solemnized according to the rituals of both the Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches, and thus this German princess became a member of the family of Louis Phillippe, which has the reputation of having been "the most accomplished family in Europe." The events in her life subsequent to her marriage, are too well known to need recapitulation. It is enough to allude to the sad accident which in 1842 deprived her of a husband, and France of a prince upon whom the affections of the whole nation seem to have been fixed;-to the memorable days of the Revolution in 1848, when she played so prominent, yet so unavailing a part in the efforts which were made to preserve the throne of France for the house of Orleans;—and then to the ten long years of her exile.

We have already said the memoir is by no means equal to the subject; but still it is well worth the reading. We have been particularly interested in the glimpses it gives of the method of education pursued in European palaces; of the home life of the royal family in the Tuilleries, in the days of Louis Phillippe,-of the consolation the widowed Dutchess found in her religious faith, when she was able to write, in 1842, to a friend: "Thank God for me. He has wonderfully sustained me. He has granted me his peace, his presence. He has strengthened and revived my poor, withered, stricken heart. My soul is filled with gratitude to God, whose mercy has caused such sweet consolation to spring up in the very bosom of death." And we must not omit to mention the beautiful exhibition presented, in the last years of her life, of a Christian mother's love and watchfulness over the education of her sons. Perhaps no portion of the memoir is more affecting than the pages in which we are enabled to trace the happiness she experiences in finding her sons, the Count de Paris and the Duke de Chartres, developing their characters according to her heart's desire, strengthening in right principle, and endeavoring to make constant advancement.

MEMORIALS OF THOMAS HOOD.*-No name stands higher among the humorous writers of the English language than that of Thomas Hood. None is more deserving of respect. Who has not laughed over his strange conceits, and the brilliant flashings of his wit? Yet Thomas Hood did more than seek to amuse. He has proved himself to have been no aimless writer. Who in our day has done better service in battling against the social wrongs of the nineteenth century than the author of that "Song of the Shirt," whose tender pathos has moved thousands to tears? Who has shown more sympathy for the poor, the oppressed, and the wretched? Who has dealt stouter blows against the oppressor, the bigot, the pedant, the quack, and against shams of every name?

The two volumes of "Memorials" which have just appeared, give some biographical details respecting him, but consist, for the most part, of his family letters, and his letters to his more intimate friends. They have been arranged and edited by his daughter, who has been assisted by her brother. Two more readable, genial, fascinating volumes, we have rarely taken up. Full half of these letters were written from the region of the Rhine, where Hood spent the years from 1835 to 1841. He had become involved, "by the failure of a firm," in pecuniary difficulties. But he bravely bore up under his embarrassments, and set himself to work to retrieve his affairs by means of his pen. It seems to have been for economical reasons, principally, that he established himself with his family in one of the towns on the Rhine. But he could hardly have hit upon a field more rich in material for his purposes. That he made a good use of his observations upon men and things, the warm welcome which the British public gave to all his various publications,-"Up the Rhine," "Hood's Own," &c., abundantly testifies.

But not the least interesting to us, among his works, will always be these letters. They are, as we have already said, "family letters," written without the remotest thought of publication, abounding with the most humorous accounts of all the little daily home occurrences, both joyful and sorrowful. They exhibit him as the most tender of husbands, the kindest of fathers, and the warmest of friends; and they

* Memorials of Thomas Hood. Collected, arranged and edited, by his daughter. With a preface, and notes, by his son. Illustrated with copies from his own sketches. In two volumes. 12mo. pp. 310, 327. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 1860. Price $1.75. (T. H. Pease, New Haven.]

breathe such a spirit of cheerfulness and of hope, that it is impossible to read them without catching something of the elastic joyousness with which they seem to have been penned. Yet we are told by his children that his life was one "long disease;" so long and so severe that it was "wonderful that his sensitive mind and his frail body did not sooner give way." For years, too, they tell us, he had "a hand-to-hand struggle with straightened means and adverse circumstances." Yet these volumes testify with what a brave spirit he met sickness and suffering, and how cheerfully, and courageously, and lovingly, he worked on for the dear ones that were dependent upon him. Few biographies teach such lessons of patience and quiet heroism as are to be found everywhere in these pages.

We ought, perhaps, to give at least a single specimen of the fun which characterizes these letters. We select at random. The Duke of Devonshire had written to him that he was about to have "a door of sham books" constructed at Chatsworth, for the entrance of a library, and asked his assistance in giving him inscriptions for these unreal folios, quartos, and 12mos. Hood sent a long list of titles, of which we will

"Macintosh, Maccullock and Macaulay. On Almacks."

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS OF C. R. LESLIE.*-The autobiographical recollections of C. R. Leslie, R. A, present us with a charming memorial of an eminent painter and an excellent man. The editor, Tom Taylor, to whom was also entrusted the autobiography of Haydon, has allowed the Artist, so far as he could, to speak for himself. The early portion of the volume contains Mr. Leslie's autobiographical notes, written in an easy and unmethodical manner, abounding in anecdotes of

* Autobiographical Recollections. By the late CHARLES R. LESLIE, R. A. Edited with selections from his correspondence, &c., by Toм TAYLOR, Esq. With portraits. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 1860. Price $1.25. [T. H. Pease, New Haven.]