Foster : A Century of American Diplomacy 587 (pp. 15-16). The failure of the Company of Royal Adventurers was due to the Dutch War, not to "interloping," ships. The consequences of interloping are correctly apprehended, but they cannot be assigned to this date, (pp. 15-16). The contracts to furnish 3,000 slaves a year were not with the British West Indies (p. 15), but with certain Spaniards, for the Spanish trade. The "new company" (p. 16) was the Royal African Company. But it was not " chartered " to monopolize the slave- trade under the famous Assiento contract with Spain," (pp. 95, 96), for that contract was not made until forty-one years after the company was chartered. As regards the Assiento, it cannot be true that "only the Royal Company was named in the agreement," (p. 17), for no specific company was named in it at all. ^Vhen it was awarded it went to the South Sea Company. It could hardly be that under it "all British traders were to participate in the trade," (p. 17), for the South Sea Com- pany contracted with one concern alone for the entire 4,800 slaves an- nually, to be delivered in specified numbers, at stated times, at certain places on the African coast. Such instances of carelessness do not estab- lish confidence in any of the author's unsupported statements. The chapter "On the Slave Coast" bears no resemblance to such work as L. Peytraud's corresponding chapter in L' Esclavage aux Antilles Fra>i(aises. On the growth of the trade there is no tabulation, and no classified or chronological treatment to adequately represent its develop- ment, such as Williams appended to his book. As to the volume of the traffic there is no accurate statement. As to the distribution of the slaves in America nothing is said. We find no sufficient analysis of the causes of mortality in the middle passage, no computation of its amount. These might properly find a place in a "history of the American slave-trade." On its suppression one wonders that the author wrote at all, having be- fore him the excellent work of one whom he calls "the distinguished historian of the negro race." Edward D. Collins. A Century of American Diplomacy. By John W. Foster. (Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Co. 1901. Pp. xiii, 497-) This work is the outgrowth of a series of lectures delivered by the author in the School of Diplomacy of the Columbian University. It is a review of the foreign relations of the United States from 1776 to 1876. The book is divided into twelve chapters and the treatment is chrono- logical with the exception of the last chapter which deals with the Mon- roe Doctrine. In the field of diplomatic history the limitations of the chronological method are at once apparent, but Mr. Foster has performed the task which he undertook with a high degree of success. He has produced a very readable book and one which will give many Americans a higher opinion than they at present entertain of the achievements of our diplo-
