cuse. One wonders, when
reading the book, whether the author has ever taken the trouble
to glance at Hening's Statutes, for he repeats old mistakes that
were pointed out by Hening one hundred years ago. The style is
entertaining and has given to the work a popularity out of
proportion to its historical worth.

Dinwiddie, Robert.--The Official Records of Robert Dinwiddie.
Introduction and notes by R.A. Brock. Virginia Historical
Society, Richmond, Va., 1883. Two volumes. A large number of
manuscripts of various kinds relating to the administration of
Dinwiddie have been printed for the first time in this work.
Great light is thrown upon Braddock's disasterous expedition and
other important events of the French and Indian War. Dinwiddie's
account of the obstinacy and unreasonable conduct of the
burgesses should be studied in conjunction with the journals of
the House which have recently been published.

Fiske, John.--Old Virginia and her Neighbors. Two volumes.
Houghton, Mifflin and Company, Boston and New York, 1897. This
work is written in the delightful and entertaining style so
characteristic of the author, and like Macaulay's History of
England holds the interest of the reader from beginning to end.
Only a portion of the colonial period is covered, and this in a
general and hap-hazard way. The narrative is not equally
sustained throughout, some periods being dwelt upon in much
detail, and others, equally important, passed over with but
cursory mention. Fiske did not have access to many of the
sources of Virginia history, and this led him into repeating
some old errors.

Fithian, Philip Vickers.--Journal and Letters, 1767-1774. Edited
for the Princeton Historical Association, by John Rogers
Williams. One volume. Fithian was tutor at Nomini Hall, the home
of Col. Robert Carter, during the years 1773 and 1774. His
observations upon the life in the midst of which he was thrown,
the life of the highest class of Virginians, are intensely
interesting and very instructive. The author was a young
theologian, who had received his education at Princeton, and who
seemed strangely out of place in the gay society of aristocratic
Westmoreland. For this very reason, however, his journal and
letters are interesting, for he dwells with especial emphasis
upon what was new or strange