1 76 Rez'iczi's of Books example, the statement that the election law of 1759 was the regulation until the Revolution (p. 11), and the inference that the common pleas and general sessions formed only one court (p. 21). The principal criticism to be made, however, is that the work is entirely too brief for a period of such length and of so much constitutional importance. The years before 1765 are disposed of in a few pages. The Stamp Act, the circuit court acts of 176S and 1769, and the dispute in regard to the ap- propriation for the Wilkes fund are, however, considered more in detail. W. Rov Smith. Old Trails on the Niagara Frontier, by Frank H. Severance. (Buf- falo, N. Y., 1899, pp. -xii, 321.) The nine essays of this book illustrate early periods in the history of the region lying between Lakes Erie and Ontario. The volume is addressed rather to the general public than to the historical student and the essays are too brief to serve for much more than an index to point the enquirer to broader fields. The " Niagara Country " has not yet received the attention it deserves from historians and Mr. Severance has done well in calling attention to the fact. Fort Niagara naturally holds the principal place in his pages and the local coloring of that lonely post tinges them all. He has drawn freely from the Jesuit Relations and other original sources. His essays are of unequal worth. "The Cross Bearers" is an attempt to specify the work of all the early missionaries. Father Dallion (1626) the first white iwaxi known to have visited the region (for of Brusle whom Parkman calls " that Pio- neer of Pioneers," we have little real knowledge), the Jesuit Brebeuf, one of the grandest figures in the annals of the Order, DoUier, De Gallinee, La Salle, Hennepin, Gabriel (65 years old when he stepped upon the banks of Niagara), Watteux, Lamberville, and all the heroic band of seventeenth-century workers live again in these pages. The second essay relates, in fictitious narrative, the real conditions prevailing at the fort in 1 68 7-88 during the French possession. "With Bolton at Fort Niagara " deals with the British occupation. It is drawn almost entirely from the Haldimand Papers of the British Museum, and is perhaps the most valu- able portion of the book. Many will be surprised to learn that Hessians were employed at Niagara during the Revolution. Colonel Bolton found them most unsatisfactory soldiers and got rid of them as soon as possible. They would neither fight Indians nor work on fortifications and were continually selling their equipments for rum. Even their commander was officially reprimanded. It would appear that even in those heroic da3-s advantage was sometimes taken of the "Noble Red Man." Ex- periments showed that garrison powder would throw a 46-lb. shell 240 yards — three times as far as powder issued to Indians would carry it. With musket balls the same remarkable difference was noted. Even garrison rum " carried " in similar proportions — suffering a change before passing from thecommissarj^'s hands, in which the Niagara played an important part. The paper compiled from the MS. journals of John Lay gives a glimpse of business conditions on the frontier in 1810-23
