The North American Review

ART. I. — 1. A History of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, from its Exploration and Settlement by the Whites, to the Close of the Northwestern Campaign, in 1813; with an Introduction, exhibiting the Settlement of Western Virginia from the first Passage of the Whites over the Mountains of Virginia in 1736, to the Treaty of Camp Charlotte, near Chilicothe, Ohio, in 1774. By MANN BUTLER. Second Edition; revised and enlarged by the Author. Cincinnati; published by J. A. James and Co. Louisville; by the Author. 1836.

2. Sketches of History, Life, and Manners in the West. By JAMES HALL. In Two Volumes. Philadelphia; Harrison Hall, 62 Walnut Street. 1835.

Two works on the important subject of Western History. Both of them are valuable, and we hail them as useful additions to the scanty library which contains our historical records. They are useful, however, in different ways. Mr. Butler's work contains the fruit of much patient research among family records, and public and domestic archives; and is a storehouse of facts and documents, far the most complete which has yet been given us upon western annals. It is the most thorough book on the subject. It is, what it professes to be, a history. The work of Judge Hall is written in his usual easy and graceVOL. XLIII. - No. 92.

ful style; it is calculated to interest readers who would not venture upon a regular history; without being very profound, it has an air of philosophy, well adapted to a parlour fireside; without much accuracy, it rambles over the whole ground, so as to satisfy an easy curiosity. It is the most entertaining book on the subject. It is, what it professes to be, a collection of sketches.

Judge Hall is a popular writer. He is known to the public by various essays and tales, which have appeared from time to time in periodicals. He is also the Editor of "The Western Magazine." A year or two since he published a novel, called the "Harpe's Head." He professes to be a western man; the scene of his stories is generally in the west; his incidents are taken from western life; but of the western character he knows little, and of the western spirit he possesses nothing. He wants the intellectual openness, which would enable him to catch the spirit of society. His mind is shut up in its own ways of thinking and feeling, and his writings, in consequence, give no true reflection of western character. In this respect,

he is the exact antithesis of Timothy Flint, whose writings, though sometimes inaccurate in detail, are always charged full with a western spirit. Flint's Ten Years' Residence" is one of our few genuine national works. It could have been written nowhere but in the Western Valley. It could have been written by no one, whose mind had not been moulded by a constant contact with western scenery and people. Judge Hall's books might all have been composed by one who had never been beyond the atmosphere of London, but who had heard a few anecdotes and read a few works about the western world. Judge Hall should not have been so positive in asserting in the Preface to the book before us, "that the works which have professed to treat of the whole western region have been failures." He will have added to his already wellearned fame, when he shall have produced such a "failure" as Mr. Flint's "Ten Years' Residence in the Mississippi Valley."

Judge Hall is not an accurate writer. In the work before us (Vol. I. p. 247), he informs us that Sir William Johnson purchased of the Six Nations, in 1768, their claim to the lands on the northwest side of the Ohio to the Great Miami. This does not appear on the treaty. Page 251 represents two grants from the Cherokees to Henderson and his company; whereas

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