igment, the title is too ambitious.

- any such sense as the works of eritical histories. It is an account,

operations in the middle section of nach sensible criticism.

as no rival in the possession of maPreface: "No sooner had the war nd addressed myself to this work in rts, despatches, and memorials poured at, respecting every important action ere were brought to my hand, not only its corps, division, and brigade comof its inner life and history, a prodigte-books, despatches, letter-books, etc." at he had access to much contempora

aral; and that, since the war ended, he aversations with the chief officers of both ete set of "Reports of the Army of Northuscript reports and documents forwarded mais especially "the invaluable gift of the thly returns of the Confederate Army e close of the war."

mass of valuable material with a good cnation he has derived from Confederate mmportant; but the disposition shown all lerate officials, civil and military, high and ail they did and little or nothing of all we istrust of all testimony coming from that

was gravely suspected of not being as truthy in the matter of his denial of the statement ny of a portion of his rear-guard when he Wiamsport, after his defeat at Gettysburg. sund occasion to pronounce one statement of official report, "too absurd to require serious The arrogant spirit which possessed many of the

strated by a speech made by one of their nk it was, to some of our officers whom he De James River soon after the "Seven Days." Firth New York Volunteer Infantry, one of ahe service, to whom he had been opposed at othing better to say than this: "I never saw han those fellows in red breeches."

That a great amount of valuable information is to be derived from Confederate sources we do not doubt; but we think that the spirit shown by the Southern people, press, and officials, all through the war, makes it important to examine all information so derived in a spirit of scepticism, and we incline to the opinion that Mr. Swinton has been quite ready enough to believe all that Southern officers have told him.

We have said that Mr. Swinton has used his material with a good degree of diligence. That is going quite as far as we are disposed to go. As an intelligent account of the campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, and a sensible statement and discussion of the military principles applicable to the conduct of those campaigns, his volume is satisfactory, but it is not to be regarded as entirely trustworthy in its descriptions of particular battles. We find more fault with him for his omission of facts which he either knew or ought to have known, than for incorrectness in what he does state; but there is room for complaint on each ground. The animus of such a book, coming from a man in such a position as that of Mr. Swinton, is a matter of no small importance. So far as the Army of the Potomac, regarded as a whole, is concerned, it is all that could be desired. He is the faithful champion of that army, which, in his own words, "losing again and again the component parts of its structure, thinned by death and wounds and wasting disease, and filled up again and again by the unquenched patriotism of the people, never lost its individual being, but remained the Army of the Potomac still." He celebrates "the unswerving loyalty of this army, that ofttimes, when the bond of military cohesion failed, held it, unshaken of fortune, to a duty self-imposed." He undertakes to follow it through a checkered experience, in a tale commingled of great misfortunes, great follies, and great glories; but from first to last it will appear, he says, "that amid many buffets of fortune, through winter and rough weather,' the Army of the Potomac never gave up, but made a good fight, and finally reached the goal."

Though he is so true to the name and fame of the army as an army, the manner in which he has ascribed praise and blame to particular commands will hardly be approved by those competent to judge. There are even passages which are hard to understand, except upon the theory that he has bestowed his praise in accordance with suggestions contained in the memoirs and private note-books of which he says so many have poured in upon him.

Mr. Swinton is a man of decided opinions, and he expresses them without reserve. In the first chapter of his book he says that the Army of the Potomac never had a great, and generally had commanders of moderate ability; and the proposition thus stated is mild in comparison VOL. CIII. NO. 212. 19

The

ivances. He says in his Preface, "It sere rendered of the successive commandnay in some cases be found to run counrese a reversal of, popular estimates." → ve ink that the popular mind is settling down A Vita most of his estimates. His book will ing for General Pope, General Burnside, General Banks will find a crumb of comfort ier à great many, and we can imagine that it will Avatever house General Warren may occupy.

" Of

of General McClellan's military capacity is 1 a way in which we are disposed to agree: 14, he does not belong to that foremost category

He

those who have always been successful, and strious names, neither does he rank with that ave ruined their armies without fighting. le category of meritorious commanders, who, like and William of Orange, generally unfortunate e words of Marmont, never destroyed nor dise ways able to oppose a menacing front and make or what he gained.'" ...r. Swinton's criticisms upon the doings of Pope,

6

Halleck are fully justified by the facts. The the first three had charge were extremely disasgraceful; and the more we know of the history of chce becomes our conviction that General Halleck's inA good his intentions may have been, was all for evil. wd we do not believe the soldiers of the Sixth Corps Swinton has given their true-hearted leader, Genpe credit he deserves. The general tone of his men

As for General Meade, he holds the balance quite he whole leaves upon our minds the impression that, te has won all the fame that was his due. It is ceriday tactical failures attended the movements of the sburg in 1864; and it is extremely difficult to form these failures were the fault of General Meade, duates, and to what extent they resulted from the ties that stood in the way of the forces taking the offenlag country, where woods, streams, hills, and ravines ruct the sight, hearing, and movements of the troops. wach interests us most in this book, and which seems

greatest value for the thoughtful reader, are its

incidental discussions of the curiously unsettled question of General Grant's military capacity. Success is usually the sufficient test of merit to the popular mind; and the man who took Vicksburg and carried the heights of Mission Ridge, and then took in a firm grasp the scattered masses of our army and moved it so irresistibly upon the enemy that in one short year the military fabric of the Confederacy passed like a wreck away, can never be otherwise than a great soldier, in the eyes of his contemporaries at least. But it is a curious and interesting question for inquiring minds, whether the foremost soldier of the great Rebellion was really a great soldier, or only a man of much good sense and almost unequalled tenacity of purpose. It is obviously impossible to so much as lay out the outlines of such a discussion in an article like this. It is enough for us to say that Mr. Swinton often touches on this question; that his statements bearing on it are clear, strong, and precise; and that he indicates, without expressly declaring it, that, in his opinion, the Lieutenant-General falls within the latter description.

The portraits which illustrate this volume are admirable. It has the valuable addition of an Index; and the maps are convenient in form, and seem to us, in a hasty examination, to be excellent. The book is very entertaining reading, though there is no such writing in it as makes some of Napier's pictures of battles models of their kind. It is far less dramatic than the letters which its author used to send to the New York Times; but that was to be expected in the attempt to compress so long a story into such a narrow compass. Its new material and its able criticisms combine to give the book great value, and only leave us to desire that we might feel something more of confidence in the accuracy of its details.

7.- The Daily Public School in the United States. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1866. 8vo. pp. 158.

THIS careful-looking pamphlet is devoted to an exposure of the shortcomings of our system of Common Schools. It is based on an analysis of the system as it exists in four leading States, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Massachusetts. The analysis, indeed, is not quite so thorough or so methodical as it might seem at a hasty glance, — the author's mind being apparently too full of what he considers the defects common to all to dwell much upon individual peculiarities; but it is evidently the work of a man of sense, candor, and considerable experience, and his opinions are the better worth listening to because they are

=

mens. There is, perhaps, no covert Imagine it would be more difficult to Parade Common School. Here he ex

མཱམསྶ

ne admiration of the civilized world, -refered to his superiority by the envy stocratic scoffers of Europe. This is asters and popular orators. One of the untry lately urged, as an argument in the opening it would give for the inand in due course our methods of popuThere is no doubt some ground for this selfwholesome temper, and it hinders prores which we may be sure exist. Of late, and warning voices. Professor Atkine Institute of Instruction at New Haven, with all our boasted improvements, if our cotbearer to the ideal perfection of cotton-spin

the ideal perfection of teaching, they would iders." And whoever has compared some published in England with the products of ndustry in this country, or has noticed the us of popular education are taking there, will or the disquieting conclusions at which our auour firm belief," he says, "that the confidence mon-school system is delusive, and that, while owledge have advanced in later years, and some have been greatly widened and improved, the great body of the school-children of the country ensibilities of life is very imperfectly done."

culty in fixing a standard. To determine, y persons in a given district can read and write hard as to determine how many of them are dad which he proposes cannot certainly be called He would only require "that every individual beyone may have the opportunity to be well taught writing, grammar, geography, and arithmetic";

the course of fifty years' pretty close observation men and women of diverse temperament, social and pursuits, we have scarcely found one in a thouread, write, or speak their mother tongue with hservation of many thousands of children and

that (p. 11) "nine in ten of them are incompe