ded makeweight in the bargains of foreign princes.

_F. X. Martin_, the author of the work now in our review, has held for
many years the high station of a Judge of the Supreme Court of
Louisiana; respected for the learning and integrity with which he
discharges the duties of his office, and equally so, in all his public
and private relations. He, also, is at once the historian and the
witness of some of the interesting transactions he narrates; and the
veracity of his testimony is unquestionable, as to those matters of
which he speaks from his personal knowledge. Being as independent in his
circumstances as he is in his principles, and having no resentments, of
which we have heard, to gratify, by calumniating any man, there is
nothing to draw him from the line of rectitude, and we presume that no
errors, at least of intention, will be imputed to him.

With this acquaintance with the character of the author, and his means
of information, we may open his book with more than the confidence
usually due to similar productions.

Before we introduce our readers to the materials of which these volumes
are composed, we would say a word, and do it frankly, upon the plan
adopted by the author in presenting them to the world. We speak not of
the language or style of the composition, which is sufficiently clear
and correct to be secure from criticism, especially under the apology of
the writer, that "as he does not write in his vernacular tongue,
elegance of style is beyond his hope, and consequently without the scope
of his ambition." We are not so well satisfied with his reasons for the
wide range he has taken over time and space in a "History of Louisiana."
He has commenced, as every annalist of an American village has done,
with the discoveries of Columbus; he has given us, with considerable
detail, the circumstances which attended the settlements of the English
and French provinces in this hemisphere; and has drawn "the attention of
his readers to transactions on the opposite side of the Atlantic,"
which have no apparent connexion with his subject. The "chronological
order" which he has adopted, is not confined to the affairs of
Louisiana, but comprehends occurrences in every part of the globe, and
sometimes brings together on the same page such a heterogeneous mass, as
to force a smile from us in spite of the official gravity which belongs
to the office of a reviewer. The assemblages of events are often so
unexpected and gr