American republic were laid. A general spirit arose in politics and embraced all Europe. The art of negotiation was improved, and became more liberal and certain. Wars were sooner terminated, and their rigor was lightened by a more humane law of nations. In one part of Europe, the church ceased to form an extraneous State within a State; from which it was easy to foresee that this change would one day be effected through the whole of it.

The reformation must be considered as a necessary product of a new age, as a manifestation of a new spirit. What Dante and Petrarch were to poetry, Michael Angelo and Raphael to the arts of drawing, Bacon and Descartes to philosophy, Copernicus and Galileo to astronomy, Columbus and Gama to the science of the earth, such was Luther to religion. Organs of the universal mind, these eminent men expressed correctly what was lurking in a great number of their contemporaries, and at one stroke, satisfied the wants of their time. As soon as the spark flashed from their genius, the flame, ready to appear, spread in all directions.

8.-Library of American Biography. Conducted by Jared

Sparks. Contents of the first volume: Life of John Stark, by Edward Everett; Life of Charles Brockden Brown, by William H. Prescott; Life of Richard Montgomery, by John Armstrong; Life of Ethan Allen, by Jared Sparks. Boston: Hilliard, Gray, & Co. 1834. pp. 356.

THE plan of this library embraces the lives of all persons, who have been distinguished in America, from the date of its first discovery to the present time. Arrangements have been made for publishing four volumes within the compass of a year. After this trial, should there be found sufficient encouragement, the work will be continued, and a volume published quarterly. Each life will be prepared expressly for the work, except, perhaps in a very few instances, where, to give completeness to the collection, it may be deemed advisable to reprint articles of standard value, which could not be amended by writing them anew. The authors' names will in all cases be prefixed to their performances.

The present volume has all the beauty of typography and of entire execution, which would be expected from the publishers and from the Cambridge press. A likeness of general Stark, and fac similes of the handwriting of each individual are given. We are particularly pleased with the manner in which the biography of Stark is executed. The events of his life are told without effort, and with just such a selection of incidents as gives interest and clearness to the whole narrative, while at the same

time the biographer shows a perfect acquaintance with all the great events of the revolutionary period, in one part of which general Stark was so prominent an actor. Mr. Brown's memoir is that of a retired scholar, one of the few in this country, who has been by profession a literary man. In a little more than ten years, for he died in his thirty-ninth year, he published not less than four and twenty printed volumes, not to mention various pamphlets, anonymous contributions to divers periodicals, as well as more than one compilation of laborious research, which he left unfinished at his death. "His peculiar merits," says Mr. Prescott, seem to rely on deeper sensibilities than most men possess, and tax the reasoning powers more severely than is agreeable to readers who resort to works of fiction only as an epicurean indulgence." General Montgomery's life is despatched in about forty pages, and is the least satisfactory of either, owing perhaps, to the scantiness of the materials. Ethan Allen's biography closes the volume, and occupies about one hundred and sixty pages. It is narrated, as far as we can judge, with fidelity and discrimination. It exhibits many proofs of the great obligations which the people of Vermont owe to Allen's rough but effectual vindication of their early State rights.

9.-A Treatise on Roads; wherein the Principles upon which Roads should be made are Explained and Illustrated, by the Plans, Specifications, and Contracts, made use of by Thomas Telford, Esq., on the Holyhead Road. By the Rt. Hon. Sir Henry Parnell, Bart. London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longman. 1833. pp. 438.

THE invention of paved roads is ascribed to the Carthaginians. The first road which the Romans made was the via Appia, the second the via Aurelia, the third the via Flaminia. In the time of Julius Cæsar, the principal cities of Italy communicated with Rome by paved roads. During the last African war, the Romans made a road with rectangular broken stones from Spain through Gaul to the Alps. Augustus conducted roads into the Alps. His plan was to extend them to the eastern and western extremities of Europe. Agrippa in Gaul ably seconded Augustus. Four great roads were made by him with a large number of branches. The Romans had columns placed from mile to mile, to mark the distance from one place to another; blocks of stone for foot travellers to rest upon, and to assist horsemen to mount their horses; and also temples, triumphal arches, mausoleums, and military stations. Such was the solid construction of the Roman highways, that their firmness has not entirely yielded to the effect of fifteen centuries. From the wall of Antoninus in Britain, to Jerusalem, through Rome,

there was a great chain of communication from the northwest to the southeast part of the empire, drawn out to a length of 3,740 English miles.

Among the modern nations, France is one of the most distinguished for the attention she has bestowed in forming numerous roads. Under the reign of Philip Augustus, the city of Paris began to be paved. In 1787, an "Ecole des ponts et chaussées was established. This school is under the minister of the home department. All the principal roads of France are now committed to the management of the department of the ponts et chaussées. In 1830, the sum of £1,800,000 was granted by the Chambers for their support. With the exception however, of those parts of the main roads leading from Paris which are paved, the condition of the roads is evidence of the system of management being extremely imperfect. In Spain, with the exception of some few high roads, there exists scarce a wagon or cart track throughout the country. In Salamanca, wheat has been actually known to rot, because it would not repay the cost of carriage. The expenditure is about £90,000 per annum. In the most populous districts of the Russian and German dominions, the chaussée, or paved road, similar to that of France, is common; but over a great part of those countries the roads are but little more than formed, being almost wholly without any prepared surface. The roads in Holland are generally carried in undeviating straight lines along that flat and low country, between a double row of trees, with a ditch on each side. The Swedes have long had the character of being excellent road engineers. In the United States, the principal lines of roads are similar to the generality of English roads. Italy still preserves its celebrity for interior

communication.

The first attempt in England to put the roads in order occurred when the turnpike system was introduced. In 1750, most of the goods conveyed from place to place in Scotland were carried on horseback in sacks or baskets, suspended one on each side of the horse. The common carrier from Selkirk to Edinburgh, thirty-eight miles distant, required a fortnight for his journey between the two places going and returning. It took a stagecoach a day and a half to travel from Edinburgh to Glasgow, which is now accomplished in four or five hours. In 1763, there was but one stage-coach from Edinburgh to London, and it set out only once in a month, taking from twelve to fourteen days to perform the journey. Now six or seven coaches set out every day from both cities, and perform the journey in from forty-five to forty-eight hours. After 1760, the general spirit of improvement led to that of the roads; and in the fourteen years from that period, to 1774, no less than 452 turnpike acts were passed. Turnpike roads are now extended to nearly 23,000 miles. Still, however, there are great defects existing in most of the roads.

No system for forming roads on scientific principles has been devised. Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, are much in advance of England in this particular.

The first chapter of Mr. Parnell is taken up in giving rules for tracing the lines of a new road, including surveys, mountains, hills, valleys, rivers, bogs and marsh-ground, materials, exposure, evaporation. An inclination of 1 in 35 is found by experience to be just such an inclination as admits of horses being driven in a stage-coach with perfect safety, when descending in as fast a trot as they can go. The great fault of all roads in hilly countries is, that after they ascend for a considerable height, they constantly descend again before they gain the summit of the country which they have to traverse. In the road from London to Barnet, a horse must ascend more than 1,300 feet, although Barnet is but 500 feet above London. In general, rivers have been allowed to divert the direct line of a road too readily. It is a great advantage to have a road on the north side of a valley fully exposed to the sun. All woods, high banks, high walls, and old fences ought to be avoided. Trees are particularly injurious, by not allowing the sun and wind to have free action on the surface of roads in producing evaporation. Cool air is also important for the powers of a horse. Chapter 2d is on the principles of road-making. One of the most important of these principles is that which requires a road to be made of such a degree of substance, as shall be in a due proportion to the weight and number of the carriages which are to travel over it. The external forces which diminish or destroy the momentum of carriages, are collision, friction, gravity, and air. Mr. Telford's plan of making a regular bottoming of rough, close-set pavement, is one that secures the greatest hardness that can be given to a road, and it is also attended with much less expense than in using a bottoming of broken stones. On a well made pavement, the power required to draw a wagon is 33 lbs. ; on a road made with a thick coating of broken stone laid on earth, 65 lbs.; and on a road made with a thick coating of gravel laid on earth, 147 lbs.

In the 3d chapter, the rules for forming a road are given; in the 4th, the subject of drainage is treated; and in the 5th, the different kinds of road. These are iron rail-ways, paved roads, roads partly paved and partly made of broken stones, roads with a foundation of pavement and a surface of broken stones, roads with a foundation of rubble stones and a surface of broken stones or gravel, roads made with broken stones laid on the natural soil, and roads made with gravel laid on the natural soil. average expense of making a rail-road in England is £4,000 a mile, allowing a double set of tracks. Mr. Tredgold estimates the annual repair at £557 a mile. The expense of carrying goods by locomotive engines on rail-ways, much exceeds that on canals or on rail-ways with horses.

The

Chapter 6th is on fences; chapter 7th on road-masonry, including bridges, retaining-walls, breast walls, fence-walls, crossdrains, inlets, outlets, depóts, toll-houses, toll gates, lamps, and mile-stones. Chapter 8th is on the management of road work, giving directions in regard to the drawings, specification in detail of executing the work, estimate of the expense, making a contract for the work, preparing a deed of contract, and appointing an inspector to lay out the work. Chapter 9th is on improving old roads; chapter 10th on repairing roads; chapter 11th on road instruments and tools; chapter 12th on road legislation. An appendix of about 120 pages, containing various documents, concludes this interesting and highly useful volume.

10.-Narrative of a Journey to the Falls of the Cavery; with an Historical and Descriptive account of the Neilgherry Hills. By Lieutenant H. Jervis, H. M. 62d regiment. Illustrated with plates. London: Smith, Elder, & Co. 1834. pp. 144.

THE embellishments in this volume are lithographed, and of the first order. They are on the following subjects. Fort of Soosily on the Cavery; Fall of Gungan Chuckee; Fall of Bir Chuckee; a Toda Village; View at Oatacamund; Lake at Oatacamund; Officers' Quarters at Poonamallee ; Situation and Hills of Vellore; Mausoleum of Laulpett; Olsoortank, Bangalore; Officers' Burial-ground at Bangalore, and Town of Closepett. These objects are seen in visiting the noble river Cavery, and the Neilgherry hills. The advantages of these hills as a place of resort for invalids, were not apprehended till 1819. After Mr. Lushington's accession to the Madras government, the local authorities gave a uniform and zealous encouragement to the enterprise of effecting a settlement.

"A mistaken notion has prevailed with some persons," says Mr. Jervis, "that the climate of the hills does not contribute to the permanent re-establishment of health. This is a delusion, contradicted by the evidence of facts in the case of every patient who has been properly sent there. Where there is inflammation of the liver, or serious organic affections, perfect quict in the low country, or a voyage to sea, are previously necessary. But for the recovery of lost strength, or the effectual and lasting removal of debility, from whatever cause arising, and for the continued preservation of health, there is no place in India, say all those who have any experience of the Neilgherries, that can be compared with them, and, perhaps, no part of the world, for the whole period of the year." Very good accommodations for travellers are now furnished. A church was consecrated by bishop Turner on the 5th of December, 1830. The atmosphere at the foot of the hills is at 82° or 850; it is down at 48° or 45°