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have any associations with the old town of Durham. The ministries of its various clergymen, the subject of education, and the biographical notices are all treated in a most agreeable manner. The same may be said of the chapter on "Durham in the wars," though it must be confessed, that had a patriotic and loyal sentiment breathed itself out a little more freely in the brief notice of the Great Rebellion, which is styled a "civil war," it would have furnished a most suitable embellishme it to the story of sacrifice, of suffering, and death, which eighty-five of the young men of Durham proved themselves ready to meet, and which a large number of them patiently endured. The officers should have been arranged by themselves, their rank indicated, and the company, and regiment to which both officers and men belonged, and the length of service, when it could be obtained, distinctly stated. This was due to the citizens generally, but more especially to the young men whose sacrifices conferred imperishable honor upon the town of Durham.

The last half of this book, which we excepted in our commendations, contains a large amount of valuable material; but, in our judgment, not, as the author states in his preface," digested into a shape for publication." Births, baptisms and marriages are apparently transferred to its pages just as they stood in the original record, without any order or arrangement by which any individual or family can be found. The author says, "it should be kept in mind that a principal object of the town, in publishing this book, was to preserve the Records and place them in the hands of the inhabitants in a form convenient for reference." Any thing but convenience! Two hundred pages of items, every one of them valuable in themselves, mingled together in chaotic jumble! They should have been arranged in families, and in alphabetical order. Then the record would have been convenient for reference. But the crowning defec of all, and one not very common in local histories of recent date, is its want of any sort of an index. We hardly know how to express in suitable terms our painful appreciation of this most deplorable defect. We have no right to be indignant, but we are sure that scores of persons will be indignant, who may be compelled to spend hours in looking through this whole volume for a single item, which they ought to have been able to find without the loss of a moment's time. A local history, never designed to be read consecutively, but chiefly valuable for reference, sent from the press without an index, containing the name of every person mentioned, and the title of every subject treated, must be regarded as in an unfinished state. It is a defect for which no excellence in other respects can possibly atone.

E. F. 8.

History of Norwich, Connecticut; from its possession by the Indians to the year 1866. By FRANCES MANWARING CAULKINS. "Many of these little things, which we speak of, are little only in size and name. They are full of rich meaning. They illustrate classes of men and ages of time." Published by the Author. 1866. 8vo. pp. 704.

A history of this town was published in 1845 by Miss Caulkins, in a thick duodecimo volume. It was a work of great merit, and the edition being soon bought up, it has for a long time been difficult to obtain. The present edition "has been entirely rewritten, and is, in fact, a new work." The author states that she is "now enabled to speak with more certainty than in the former history upon many points, and particularly concerning the ancestors of families. Yet the work is designed to be strictly a History, not a collection of Genealogies. The field was too opulent in narrative materials to leave space for following out the family branches of so large a surface, and to map out the descendants of a few fathers of the town and not all, would make the work a failure."

The book, though not so rich in genealogical material as some works of the kind, has more of that description of matter than the average. Eighty-two pages are devoted to memorials of the original proprietors and their descendants; and twenty-one to other early inhabitants: while a thorough index of surnames makes every genealogical item in the entire work available.

The arrangement of the matter here is much like that in the author's History of New London; and the present work is quite as exhaustive and satisfactory as that. Sixteen steel portraits are given, among them those of Governors Huntington and Buckingham, General Ebenezer Huntington, a colonel in the Revolutionary Army, Mrs. Sigourney, and Senator Foster. Numerous fac-similes of autographs and imitations of gravestone inscriptions add to the interest of the book.

In these seven hundred pages is preserved a vast amount of material illustrating the

phases of social life of Norwich in the various epochs of its history-material that will be of great service to the future historian of our country, who endeavors with the spirit of a Macaulay to bring before his readers a picture of the past.

Besides the index of names before mentioned, a good "General Index" is also furnished.

An Oration delivered at the Dedication of the Soldiers' Monument, in Evergreen Cemetery, Brighton, Mass., on Thursday afternoon, July 26, 1866. By Rev. FREDERIC AUGUSTUS WHITNEY. With an Appendix, containing the other Exercises, and Notices of the deceased Soldiers. Boston: S. Chism. 1866. 8vo. pp. 62.

The oration by Rev. Mr. Whitney is very appropriate to the occasion. He glances at the dedication of the Cemetery sixteen years before, when he himself delivered the address of consecration, and at the civil war, so little dreamed of at that time, which has since desolated so many firesides in the land; speaks of monuments to commemorate the dead in all ages, and gives a list of those erected in this country, beginning with that placed at Sudbury, by the filial piety of President Wadsworth of Harvard University, in memory of his father and his brave soldiers slain there in a sanguinary fight with the Indians in 1676. He also refers to what the men of Brighton did in the Revolutionary war, as well as in that just closed.

In the Appendix, biographical sketches of the twenty-three deceased soldiers, whose memory this monument is intended to commemorate, are given. They are very precise in facts and dates, and must have cost Mr. Whitney a great deal of labor. The whole pamphlet is a model for such productions.

The Historical Magazine and Notes and Queries concerning the Antiquities, History and Biography of America. Morrisania, N. Y. : HENRY B. DAWSON. 1866. Small 4to.

This periodical, which has frequently been noticed and commended in the pages of the Register, passed, in July last, into the hands of Mr. Dawson, the well-known historical writer. The varied knowledge and unwearied industry of that gentleman are eminent qualifications for the task which he has taken upon himself.

Under its new management, the Magazine has been enlarged to double the previous number of pages, and new and attractive features have been added to the work.

The volumes already published contain an immense mass of matter relating to American History and kindred studies, such as cannot be found collected elsewhere, rendering it a work absolutely necessary in all libraries." The Magazine is published monthly, in numbers of sixty-four pages each, at five dollars a year.

Demorest's" Young America" for November, 1866. Small 4to. pp. 32. Illustrated.

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This is a charming little magazine for the young folks-sprightly, varied, goodnatured, captivating. It is neat and artistic in type, engraving, coloring and covering. Yes, our quick-eyed responsibilities" reply to me," splendid!" It is certainly in advance of any thing of the kind we have yet seen, and marks a new era in our juvenile literature. It is published by W. Jennings Demorest, 473 Broadway, New York, at $1.50 per annum.

Verba Nominalia, or Words derived from Proper Names. By RICHARD STEPHEN CHARNOCK, Ph. Dr. F. S. A., &c. &c., also Corresponding Member of the N. E. Historic-Genealogical Society. ("Nomina si nescis, perit cognitio rerum."-Coke on Littleton.) London: Trübner & Co. 8vo. pp. 357.

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We have had several excellent works on the derivation of proper from common names, but here the process is reversed, and a vast number of common names and adjectives are curiously traced to their true original proper names; as for example, "tobacco," to the Island of Tobago; "cereal," to Ceres the goddess of corn; linsey woolsey," to Lindsey in Suffolk, England, where this kind of stuff was originally made. It is very easy to find fault with any work dealing so largely in etymologies which, from the very nature of the case, must be often fanciful or traditionary; but from a careful perusal of " Verba Nominalia," article by article, as William Pitt once read Nathan Bailey's Dictionary, we have come to the conclusion that Dr. Charnock has brought

a rich and varied fund of philosophical information to bear upon a task which he has performed carefully and well, and that his admirably printed volume will prove a valuable acquisition to the library of the antiquary and the man of letters.

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Record of the Hoyt Family Meeting, held at Stamford, Conn., June 20 and 21, 1866. Prepared for publication by DAVID W. HOYT, Providence, R. I. Boston: published by Henry Hoyt. 1866. pp. 64. The Hoyt family is large, social and wide awake. It must have had a very merry meeting in old Stamford in the last rosy month of June. All told, 527 of kith and kin were in attendance; and what with introducing, talking, singing, eating, drinking, speechmaking and the like, the occasion must ever remain a " way mark in the progress of the family. The oldest member present was Mr. Caleb Hoyt, of Salina, N. Y., now over 90. He supervised the construction of the first cotton gin invented by Eli Whitney, at New Haven, and was a friend of Robert Fulton. He is hale and hearty still. It does not appear when the first Hoyt came to this country, though Simon Hoyt was in Salem, Mass. before, and in the year 1629. The William Hoyt, said to have emigrated to America, from John Robinson's congregation, Leyden, was undoubtedly by mistake in spelling, William White, who married Anna Fuller and afterwards came to this country.

It would be highly gratifying to this family, which has appointed Mr. David W.. Hoyt to write its history, to learn whence and where the first of the name came over, and where the first settlement was made.

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We have read with peculiar pleasure this memorial of one of our notable New England families; we have enjoyed the wit, the humor, goodnature and the little harmless vanity manifest on every page. It promises well for the times when families thus assemble" In union sweet and dear esteem to search out their pedigrees, to honor those that are gone and to encourage those that remain. This is one result of the earnest labors of the N. E. Historic-Genealogical Society, and who will aver that it does not greatly tend to cherish love of country, love of learning, love of liberty? Who will dare assert that it does not elevate, ameliorate, invigorate, awaken and call forth the noblest and the best emotions of the soul !

By

Military Measures of the United States Congress, 1861-1865. HENRY WILSON, Chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs. New York: 1866. Royal octavo. Pp. 88, with a portrait of the author.

Here we have in a solid and compact form the Congressional measures, and a synopsis of the arguments thereupon, which drew forth, organized, sustained and directed the military establishment by which the most formidable rebellion of modern times was overthrown. The bills were drawn and carried as the exigence demanded; they received in many instances bitter opposition; but they nobly met the occasion; they brought the country into an attitude to assert and to maintain its power-and now that the conflict has subsided, we look with admiration upon that wise and prompt course of military legislation, by whose efficient aid our arms achieved success; and while we honor the brave soldier for his deeds of valor on so many bloody fields, we cannot the less recognize the value of those labors, contests and victories on the floor of Congress which summoned up, projected, formed, and in one sense controlled the whole military organization. Of these important measures, the able and acomplished chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs in the Senate, is to a large extent the author; and most fortunate was it for the country in its heaviest trial, that while it had such a patriot as Abraham Lincoln to execute, it had such clear-headed statesmen as Henry Wilson to frame its laws.

Oration delivered before the City Authorities of Boston on the Fourth of July, 1866, by the Rev. S. K. LOTHROP, D.D., together with some account of the Municipal Celebration of the Ninetieth Anniversary of American Independence. Boston Alfred Mudge & Son, City Printers, 34 School Street. 1866. Pp. 73.

A happily conceived and well written production, founded on the thought that history is the unfolding of the will of God. The subject, though sufficiently trite, is discussed earnestly, forcibly and eloquently; and the peroration, referring to the moral future of our country, is truly grand. The whole performance is worthy of the man and the occasion. The typography is admirable.

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