ew years historians have begun to see this
defect, and such men as Green, Lodge, and MacMaster have undertaken to
give us histories of the people, the first and last taking the lead on
their respective sides of the Atlantic. MacMaster's work is excellent as
far as it goes. His first volume is deep and scholarly, and does credit
to American literature. It is clear that the task of its preparation was
immense, and more time must have been spent in merely collecting
authorities than has been bestowed altogether on more pretentious
histories. Where Mr. MacMaster found all these authorities is a puzzle,
for even such libraries as those in Boston and Cambridge have not all
the materials for such an undertaking. Yet even he leaves many points
untouched, or cursorily disposed of. Among the subjects referred to, of
which we would like to learn more, may be mentioned: the township system
of the West, the development of American municipal institutions, and,
above all, the origin and rise of the various centres of population and
business which we call cities.

The history of a nation should be compiled in the same way that the
French people of the _ancien regime_ compiled their lists of grievances
to be presented to the king. In the early States-generals the deputies
of all the orders received from the electors mandates of instructions
containing an enumeration of the public grievances of which they were to
demand redress. From the multitude of these _cahiers_ (or codices), the
three estates, that is, the clergy, the nobility, and the third estate
(the people), compiled each a single cahier to serve as the exponent of
its grievances and its demands. When this complex process had been
completed and the three residual cahiers had been given to the king, the
States-general, the only representative body of France, was dissolved.

Thus it should be with our national history. Already the clergy have
presented their cahiers in the shape of church histories and theological
essays innumerable. The nobles, that is, the statesmen and politicians,
have formulated their lists of grievances in such works as Thirty
Year's View, The Great Conflict, Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in
America, etc. But where is the cahier of the third estate? The
States-general has met and the _tiers etat_ is not ready. What excuse
have they? Quick comes the answer: "Our electors have sent in but few
cahiers, and these are defective. We cannot tell our king, the na