Hollis: TJie Frigate Constitution 82 i of it in late years. The same is true of land campaigns : Germany, under certain conditions, overcame France in six months ; England, on the other hand, is taking two years to finish her campaign against the Boers. History tells us that naval engagements last about four to five hours ; Lissa and the Yalu were not different in this from Salamis and Lepanto. The same principle applies to campaigns, and the question will always be one of endurance. If only one side had the steam-engine wars might be shortened and campaigns and battles as well, but both have it, and armor and modern guns, in equal measure. The essential factor is now, as always, not the tool but the hand that uses it ; not the weapon but the weapon-wielder. The author is at his best in the chapters which deal with our war with Tripoli. His gift of description and clearness of style give great value and effectiveness to his brief but lucid narrative of the Constitution and our fleet on the Barbary coasts. The same praise is due to the chapters from seven to eleven, in which the author records in the same excellent fashion the prowess and high deeds of our noble frigate during the war of 1812. Perhaps, however, we should assign the greatest credit to his last chapter where he sums up " what we owe to the Constitution ; " for it is there that we perceive most clearly the philosophic turn of the author's mind. "It is seldom the event," he says, "which forms character, but rather the revelation of the possibilities within." "Slowly amid nu- merous humiliations and trials the common people of this country had been acquiring confidence in their union without knowing it." Some great event was needed to show them to themselves. This shock, open- ing their eyes to the truth, was supplied, our author tells us, by the vic- tory of the Cojistitution over the Guerriere, and "brought to the surface the real feeling of the New England people." This and other similar evidences of clear thinking make Professor Hollis' s book highly valuable as a contribution to history, and we venture the hope that he has much of such future historical work in prospect. Lieutenant Bennett's book is full of clearly presented truths. That he should in the opening lines have upheld the fallacy that "The steam- engine has made the nineteenth century a period of marvellous advance- ment," is not important, because many people who read the book will agree with him. There are some persons of observation and intelli- gence, who believe that great events must be accounted for by some one special concrete cause. Their minds cling to the needle-gun as the factor which defeated the Austrians in 1866 ; it is more pleasing to some imagi- nations that the needle-gun should have done it rather than the laborious toil of thousands of Prussian officers through half a century, building up gradually great qualities of discipline and efficiency. The steam-engine did not greatly affect the nineteenth century, and is only one of numerous fruits of the growth of the race during that century indicating the quality and temper of this stage of national development. The steam-engine is a product of civilization, but not itself a producer ; it is an effect not a cause.
