and appreciated the great value of this collection of legal forms. Numerous additions have been made in the present edition, and the selection of forms as they now stand is in every respect admirable. The practical notes which accompany them add greatly to their value. The vast field covered by this work may be seen from a list of the subjects treated, which is as follows : Acknowledgments, Agreements, Appoint ments, Apprenticeship, Arbitration, Assignments, Assignments for the Benefit of Creditors, Powers of Attorney, Auction Sale of Real Estate, Bills of Sale, Bonds, Building Contracts, Charter Party, Composi tion with Creditors, * Declarations of Trust, Deeds, Guaranty, Leases, Mortgages, Mortgages of Rail roads, Notices, Partnership, Party-Wall Agreements, Patents, Pledges and Collateral Securities, * Protests, •Railroad Car Trust Agreements, Railroad Consolida tion, Releases, Separation Deeds between Husband and Wife, Settlements, Trade-Marks, Wills. The starred topics are new with this edition, as are also notes, adapted to the several States, upon the subjects of Witnesses to Deeds, Seals, Dower and Cur tesy, Homestead Exemptions, Dower and Homestead Releases, Competency of Testators as to Age, and Witnesses to Wills. The Genesis of the United States : A narra tive of the movement in England, 1605-1616, which resulted in the plantation of North Amer ica by Englishmen, disclosing the contest be tween England and Spain for the possession of the soil now occupied by the United States of America; set forth through a series of historical manuscripts now first printed, together with a reissue of rare contemporaneous tracts, accom panied by biographical memoranda, notes, and brief biographies, collected, arranged, and edited by Alexander Brown, with one hundred por traits, maps, and plans. Two vols. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston, 1891. No work has been published in recent years of such historical interest and importance as these two volumes by Mr. Brown. The titlepage well de scribes its scope. The period covered is one con cerning which but little has heretofore been written, and yet it was the eventful time during which the foundation of our national history was being laid, and without a knowledge of which one fails to compre hend and appreciate fully the status of the early col onies. Mr. Brown gives us not only a history of the movement in England, with biographies of those engaged in it, but he has, as far as possible, made the
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book a work of reference for all that pertains to the men and motives of the movement in England which gave birth to this nation. Years of labor and re search have been spent by the author in gathering the material necessary for. the work, and his unre mitting efforts have been crowned with marvellous success. One is amazed at the vast amount of valu able information he has collected. Many of the manuscripts embodied in the work have never before been printed, and many are for the first time trans lated into the English language. Many old and rare piaps and plans are reproduced, and the illustrations, including one hundred and ten portraits of the indi viduals instrumental in making the settlement in North America, are interesting in the extreme. The great value of the documents which form a large por tion of the work cannot be overestimated. Their especial purpose is to convey to the reader as fully and as clearly as possible the ideas, motives, and general surroundings of the movement in England. The three leading objects of this movement were to spread the commerce, the Commonwealth, and the Church of England (or Protestantism). Among the documents not hitherto printed here are : — First. A good many official publications and papers of His Majestie's Council for Virginia, which throw more valuable and authoritative light on all the mo tives, objects, etc., then obtaining in the matter than any other evidence whatever. Second. Several sermons, discourses, &c, of the clergy never so fully reprinted or collected together before, which convey most important information re garding the objects of the Church. Third. The extracts from the records of the city companies of London. These meetings of the great guilds were among the most important events con nected with the movement. The spreading of the commerce of England was probably the leading object, and it was largely upheld by these merchants. In fact, the stationers and their press were instrumental in advancing all the objects. No class of men had a greater influence in shaping the destinies of the New World than the old mer chants and business-men. The especial manage ment of the Virginia enterprise was largely in their hands during the formative period. Fourth. The enclosures in the Spanish papers are very important, and the papers proper show the part taken by the rulers and governments mostly interested pro and con in the commonwealth object. They give us for the first time-correct ideas regarding the most important surroundings of the movement.
