places suspected of unlawful assemblages of slaves; and sect. 5 provides that any slave found at such assembly, or strolling about without a pass, shall receive any number of lashes, at the discretion of the patrol, not exceeding twenty. P. 604.

MISSOURI.-Laws I. Any master may commit to jail, there to remain, at his pleasure, any slave who refuses to obey him or his overseer. P. 309. Whether a slave claiming freedom, may even commence a suit for it, may depend on the decision of a single judge, Stroud's Sketch, p. 78, note which refers to Missouri laws, I. 404.

KENTUCKY.-Dig. of Stat., act Feb. 8, 1798, sect. 5. No colored person may keep or carry, gun, powder, shot, club, or other weapon, on penalty of thirty-nine lashes, and forfeiting the weapon, which any person is authorized to take.

VIRGINIA. Rev. Code. Any emancipated slave remaining in the state more than one year, may be sold by the overseers of the poor, for the benefit of the literary fund! Vol. i., p. 436.

Any slave or free colored person found at any school for teaching, reading, or writing, by day or night, may be whipped at the discretion of a Justice, not exceeding twenty lashes. P. 424.

Suppl. Rev. Code. Any white person assembling with slaves, for the purpose of teaching them to read or write, shall be fined not less than $10, nor more than $100; or with free colored persons, shall be fined not more than $50, and imprisoned not more than two months. P. 245.

By the Revised Code, seventy-one offences are punished with Death, when committed by slaves, and nothing more than imprisonment when by the whites. Stroud's Sketch, p. 107.

Rev. Code. In the trial of slaves, the court consists of five justices, without juries, even in capital cases. I. p. 420.

NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.

Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley; comprising the Results of extensive original Surveys and Explorations. By E. G. SQUIER and E. H. DAVIS, M. D.

THE appearance of this forthcoming work will be doubly gratifying. Not only do we rejoice to welcome such a rich addition to the history of the aborigines of our country, but we also are glad to know that the Smithsonian Institute is to do something more than erect a building and pay salaries. This work, now nearly ready for publication, is to be issued under its auspices, and at its expense. Judging from the specimen we have seen, it will be a volume of unusual interest. It gives a history of the Indian mounds of the Mississippi Valley, and proves that they formed a part of an extensive and magnificent chain of defences. Much light is also thrown upon the history and arts of the Indian tribes; proving that they were more advanced in civilization than we generally suppose. As the work will be of limited circulation, we promise our readers an abstract of its facts and conclusions as soon as it shall have appeared.

The Military Heroes of the Revolution; with a Narrative of the War of Independence. By CHARLES J. PETERSON. Philadelphia: WILLIAM A. LEARY. 1848.

THIS is really, to the eye, a splendid book. As a work for reference, it is undoubtedly one of the best, perhaps the best, which has appeared in this branch of American literature. In saying this, we must be understood to refer chiefly to the chronological correctness of the work. In the estimation of the character of his heroes, the author does not seem to aim to do any thing more than "strike a balance" between the two extremes of ultra praise and ultra blame, with which tradition and popular opinion have invested them. Oftentimes this rule is a safe one; but not always. For instance: in Mr. Peterson's article on Aaron Burr, there is continual reference to Burr's "profligacy" in private life. And if the comparison were only made between Burr's life and the true idea of chastity, there would be justice in the charge. But when a continual prominence is given to this, in the character of Burr, as distinguishing him from his compeers, nothing can be more unjust and false. What is flippantly called the "private life" of Hamilton, not to name others, was not a whit better than Burr's, if so good. It was only the political and popular prejudice excited against Burr that has kept so long prominent faults for which he was, justly speaking, in no wise distinguished from the men of his time and rank. In fact a majority of the public men, even at this day, who talk with such a good pious twang about the profligacy of Burr, would likely enough suffer by a comparison even with him. Thus it is that what is called HISTORY, becomes oftentimes little more than a record of authenticated falsehoods. The man, especially, who, from whatever cause, fills his own time full of a deep-seated and thorough prejudice against himself, has but a small chance of even justice from history for a century afterwards. Burr perhaps deserved his general fate-his political fate -somehow he must have deserved it; but much of the gossip and detail of history concerning him is ridiculously false and unjust.

There never was a greater insult offered to justice than this continual prating about the profligacy of Burr and the purity of Hamilton. In the popular acceptation of the word, Hamilton was the most profligate man of the two. So little did he himself respect a reputation for chastity, that he voluntarily confessed his amours with the wife of the unfortunate Reynolds, rather than stand convicted of the charge of "speculating." Even Burr's deep-seated hatred of Hamilton originated in a delicate affair. In political honesty only had Hamilton the advantage of Burr. In theoretical politics, and even in chastity of life, Burr was Hamilton's superior. A truthful and honest history of these distinguished men has yet to be written.

Christian Songs. By the Rev. JAMES GILBORNE LYONS, LL. D. Philadelphia: GEORGE S. APPLETON. 1848.

THE poetry of this book is all good-sometimes rising, indeed, into what may be called excellent. be called excellent. And we have seen no work of the kind from the American press which is " done up" with a more faultless taste.

A Grammar of the Spanish Language, based on the system of D. Jose D. Urcullu. By FAYETTE ROBINSON. THOMAS, COWPERTHWAIT & Co., Philadelphia. 1848.

THERE is in this country a rapidly growing taste for Spanish literature; and we are glad to see that there is an increasing dissatisfaction with the old tedious memorizing plan of most of the Spanish Grammars heretofore in use. The plan of Urcullu's Grammar is little encumbered with mere rules, and its great merit is careful analysis, and a direct comparison continually presented to the student's mind of the Spanish and English modes of expression. Mr. Robinson appears to have performed his duties with great fidelity and correctness.

The American Manual. By JOSEPH BARTLETT BURLEIGH. Philadelphia. GRIGG, ELLIOT & Co. 1848.

We have not space here to give the reader any satisfactory idea of the character of this work. It has, at any rate, the popular merit of the age, novelty and originality. As a school reading-book, it undoubtedly has great claims upon the public patronage.

History of France and Normandy, from the earliest times to the Revolution of 1848. By W. C. TAYLOR, LL. D. 1st American edition. COWPERTHWAIT & Co. Philadelphia.

So early a republication, in this country, of the last English edition of this excellent work of Taylor's, arranged also with questions, as a school-book, speaks well for the aptness and enterprise of the publishers.

The same house has also just published another excellent schoolbook, called "The Instructive Reader," by WILLIAM D. SWAN.

The Principles of the Chrono-thermal System of Medicine. By SAMUEL DICKSON, M. D. With an Introduction and Notes, by WILLIAM TURNER, M. D.

And

By the politeness of Dr. Turner, of New York, we have received an elegant London edition of this work. We can only say that every page of the work bears the evidence of great medical learning, and great earnestness and honesty. No man who looks into it at all, can lay it down carelessly. It deserves to be read by every doctor in the land. every well-informed man will find himself wonderfully instructed by a perusal of its pages. This mighty spirit of progress that is overthrowing thrones and material forms of religions, is not more merciful to many of the old theories and practices of Medicine.