15.-SCOTT'S REPUBLICATIONS. The British Quarterlies, furnished by Messrs. L. Scott & Co., are always fraught with high interest-not that their teachings are such as suit, for the most part, our republican tastes, but they keep readers well “ posted up” in regard to events, and there is too much American intelligence to be misled by monarchial sophistries; and the Westminster is always an offset to the toryism of the London, and the fairness of the Edinburgh modifies to some extent the supercilious aristocracy of Blackwood. 16.-BERFORD'S WORLD AS IT MOVES. The second number of this highly interesting weekly is before us. It is a new enterprize of the publisher, and every way qualified to command attention. In addition to much original matter of high character, it presents the best selections from the leading European journals, Italian, French, German and English, and is published at the low rate of five dollars per annum. 17.—THE OAK Openings, or The BEE HUNTER. By J. F. Cooper. Burgess, Stringer & Co., New-York. We gave, in a former number, a short review of this work. We now again take it up for the purpose of expressing what we consider an error in etymology. When novelists choose to turn lexicographers, they should beware of lightly entertaining crude opinions and fancies in relation to the origin of words. We have no objection to the pedantry of the book-worm so long as it is backed by real learning. But the assumption without the merit of research or scholarship, is to us particularly obnoxious and offensive. Mr. Cooper undertakes to trace the etymology of the well-known American word "shanty" to the Canadian expression “chiente," signifying, as he tells us, a kennel. We doubted the accuracy of this derivation; we knew of no such word as "chiente" in the French language, and its creation by the Canadians appeared to us anomalous and strangely at variance with those analogies which govern, or should govern. the invention of new words. Distrusting, however, our own opinion, we wrote to a friend who resides in Canada, and this is his answer. 46 "Cooper's known genius for fiction has not failed him in tracing the derivation of shanty." At least I have questioned many Canadians here, and cannot find that they have any word at all corresponding to the Euglish kennel. I don't believe in fact that there is a dog kennel in Canada, or if there is one, they call it a cabin. A shanty means in this country a place for making timber, getting out logs, &c.; and the Freuch word for it is chantier. A Canadian does not know what you mean by chiente or even chenil; but that is not remarkable as they don't speak French." Without endorsing entirely the statement of our Canadian correspondent, we would here express an opinion that "shanty comes from the French chantier; in fact, the two words are pronounced almost exactly in the same way. 18.-ESSAYS AND REVIEWS. By Edwin P. Whipple. D. Appleton & Co., 200 Broadway. Inasmuch as that the works of English essayists have been collected and given to the world in complete volumes, it seems to have been deemed expedient to do the same by Mr. Whipple's writings in the North American Review and elsewhere, and two very presentable volumes are the result, containing the opinions of Mr. Whipple upon various literary matters and men; but these opinions are seldom sustained by argument or authorities, and oftener guided by prejudice than judgment. His thoughts seem to be far more taken up with English writers than with those of his own country, prompted, doubtless, by a sickly and absurd desire to be "noticed abroad" rather than to merit notice at home. The volumes nevertheless contain much that is interesting. 19.-RHYMES OF TRAVEL; Ballads and Poems. By Bayard Taylor, author of Views A-foot. George P. Putnam, 155 Broadway. With Mr. Taylor's Views A-foot, the public are well and favorably acquainted; and this first venture, as he informs us in a poetical way, will doubtless meet with the favor they merit. With two of the poems in the present collection, viz.: The Norseman's Ride". and " Upwards," published in the latter part of 1846, the readers of this Review are already acquainted. They were received favorably as of considerable merit, giving promise of much genius. The little volume has a portrait of the author in his travelling dress. Industrial Exchanges and Social Remedies, with a Consideration of Taxation. By David Parish Ba hydt, author of Letters from Europe. 2dLabor and other Capital, the Rights of Each Secured, and the Wrongs of both Eradicated. By Edward Kellogg, 3d-Essays on the Progress of Nations in productive industry, &c. By Ezra C. Seaman. II. THE FRENCH TARIFF AND THE DUKE OF HARCOURT. BY HENRY WIKOFF. PAGR 99 .110 III. THE WEDDING IN THE GATE OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS......................... 123 IV. TO VIRGIL.—(TRANSLATIONS FROM HORACE.)...... V. ROBESPIERRE........... VI. AMERICAN HISTORY..... A Pictorial History of America; einbracing both the Northern and Southern Portions of the New World. By S. G. Goodrich. Illustrated with more than three hundred Engravings. . 128 129 151 VII. TRANSLATIONS FROM HORACE.-THE POET TO HIS LYRE............ 162 VIII. PROPHECIES FOR THE PAST.... BY EUGENE LIES. IX. AWAKE THEE, AWAKE........... X. MINNA VON BARNHELM.-A COMEDY, IN FIVE ACTS...... XI. FINANCIAL AND COMMERCIAL REVIEW.. ..163 175 176 XII. GOSSIP OF THE MONTH... XIII. NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS... ..180 185 .138 It is worthy of remark, that nearly all the books published in the United States upon Political Economy, or its several branches and collateral issues, are on the monarchical side of the question, inculcating individual dependence upon government aid in all the active pursuits of life. A large majority are by mere theorists, who have apparently imbibed a superficial notion of the subject which they attempt to handle from English authors, and this dependence upon English ideas is a lingering remnant of our colonial condition. Happily, however, the nature of our institutions, the circumstances attending the first settlements of the country, the character of the people, and of their relations through a long colonial servitude to the mother country, all conspired to foster a determined, self-reliant independence, entirely at variance with the theory of government supervision of individual concerns. The great evil which besets the people of Europe at this moment exists in the fact, that the centralization of the government has been carried to such perfection, that the chief executive interferes with the most minute transactions of village economy In Europe all the enterprise of the people receives its impulse from the central head. 'Those few and unimportant branches of industry which the goverment can "protect" by conferring monopolies, maintain a sickly existence, without energy and without progress. Those occupations which embrace four-fifths of the people, and for which government can do nothing, but which are the victims of the protection granted to others, languish in hopeless misery. The large majority of the agriculturists of France, and some of those of the British Islands, use at this day implements that were common to the * Industrial Exchanges and Social Remedies, with a consideration of Taxation. By David Parish Barhydt, anthor of Letters from Europe. George P. Putnam. 2d-Labor and other Capital; the rights of each secured, and the wrongs of both eradicated. By Edward Kellogg. 3d.-Essays on the Progress of Nations in Productive Industry, &c. By Ezra C. Sea man. Romans. There has been little or no progress, and chiefly because the theory and practice of the governments have been guided by that "protective principle" which has been sought to be carried out in this country under the name of the "American system." From the earliest settlement of the United States the principle of" association" has been the means of progress. By it the greatest difficulties have been overcome, and the most surprising physical and moral results attained. While in America no man thinks of requir ing the government to undertake individual business, in Europe none think of any other means of attaining a desired object. De Tocqueville gives an instance of this difference: 66 The first time I heard in the United States that a hundred thousand men had bound themselves publicly to abstain from spirituous liquors, it appeared to me more like a joke than a serious engagement; and I did not at once perceive why these temperate citizens could not content themselves with drinking water by their own firesides. I at last understood that these hundred thousand Americans, alarmed by the progress ef drunkenness around them, had made up their minds to patronise temperance. They acted just in the same way as a man of high rank who should dress very plainly, in order to inspire the humbler orders with a contempt of luxury, It is probable, that if these hundred thousand men had lived in France, each of them would singly have memorialized the government to watch the public houses all over the kingdom." This idea of looking to government is the ground-work of the protective system, and that system carried out to its extent would inevitably throw into the hands of the government all the business of the country. The existence of this strong independent individuality among the people of the United States has preserved them against the influence of that manufacturing aristocracy which was called into existence by the war of 1812, and was one of the lasting evils of that war. The oppression which the colonies suffered from the mother-country for long ages, produced a strong feeling among the colonists adverse to the protective system, of which they were too evidently the victims, to be cajoled into the idea that it was doing them good. Hence, on the first emancipation of the states, free trade was the rule, and the commerce of the country increased, while its capital multiplied in proportion. Manufactures were coming also into existence under the operation of increasing demand resulting from agricultural prosperity, based upon a large export trade. Before, however, these manufactures reached a point which would supply the demand, the war supervened, and by cutting off foreign supplies produced war prices" for most manufactured articles. It followed that the capital of commerce, turned from its usual channel, was embarked in manufactures called into existence in an unusual manner. On the return of peace the influx of foreign goods competed severely with those homemade articles, and the class interested in them clamored for protection. It has required the enactment of five tariffs, and the lapse of 33 years, to do away with the evil influence of the protection then accorded. The manufacturing interest has been active and persevering in its endeavours to perpetuate its privileges, and has skilfully made use of the national feelings aroused by the war, to urge the protection of "home manufacture" against the British, and they have succeeded by its means in building up a great and powerful monied aristocracy. All the writers upon this subject have, as we have said, espoused the cause of this aristocracy. It is always more easy to fall in with and flatter popular prejudices once excited, than patiently to investigate and develope a great principle from the clouds of ill-considered theories by which it may be enveloped. Whenever sound and practical men have treated of the subject, a flood of lighthas been poured upon the operation of free trade. |