foliage; weeds and insects do not annoy, nor thieves break through and steal.

That the books which stand at the head of this article have fostered this style of gardening somewhat, we do sincerely believe; and if so, it is by no means to their discredit.

We could wish that the love of gardening, both the useful and ornamental, might increase and spread through all ranks of our people, especially that our farmers and landholders might become more familiar with the principles of landscape improvement, and be imbued with a hearty and practical interest in the embellishment of the country, for in their keeping a large portion of our scenery lies. Well would it be if every owner of an acre of ground endeavored to enrich and adorn it to its utmost capacity. And what we could so much desire is slowly coming to pass. The old love of gardening is reviving with new spirit. Every year an increasing number of persons resort to the country to engage in fruit-culture, and to establish pleasant rural homes for their families.

May we be allowed to close our remarks with a word of exhortation to this brotherhood of planters ? To be most successful and happy in your work, do it not altogether by proxy. Grasp it with your own hands, and identify yourselves, soul and body, with it. Mr. Downing never uttered truer words than these:

"We have little doubt that he who [in laying out his grounds] directs personally the curve of every walk, selects and plants every tree and shrub, and watches with solicitude every evidence of beauty and progress, extracts from his work a more intense degree of pleasure than he who only directs in a general sense the arrangement of a vast estate.

. . . We can hardly conceive a more rational source of enjoyment, than to be able to walk, in the decline of years, beneath the shadow of umbrageous groves planted by our own hands, and whose growth has become almost identified with our own progress and existence."

"Ah, sir, that is all very well; but we may not live to enjoy the trees we plant. Have you never heard of the student who, on being told that the crow would sometimes live a hundred years, bought a young crow to try the experiment?". Yes, indeed, we have heard of him,—the irony is excellent,—

and of Dr. Johnson's growl about "the frightful interval between the seed and the timber." Still, we say, plant trees. They who plant at once, instead of wasting their breath in selfish complaints of the shortness of life, find luxuriant foliage waving over them much sooner than they expected. But, whether you live to see the maturity of your trees or not, be benevolent enough to plant for posterity. Transmit to your children the inheritance of rural beauty received from your fathers, greatly augmented. By all means plant, and plant well, and the result will overpay the labor. And let not your work end with planting. Feed your trees from year to year with generous food, and guard them from injury. And, in the words (slightly altered) of an old planter: "What joy may you have in seeing the success of your labors while you live, and in leaving behind you, to your heirs or successors, a work that, many years after your death, shall record your love to your country! And the rather, when you consider to what length of time your work is like to last." If you have country homes to embellish, be content with simplicity. Remember that a great establishment is a great care, and that the proprietor is apt to become a slave to it. Let your dwelling-places be marked with what painters call "repose." Make them the abodes of comfort and refined enjoyment, places which will always afford you agreeable occupation, but not oppress you with care. Of this mode of rural life, it may be said, as of Cleopatra's beauty, —

"Age cannot wither, custom cannot stale

Its infinite variety."

Proceeding in this way, you will certainly find in your work, from year to year, as pure enjoyment as ever falls to the lot of mortals. And if, as it is said, there are a hundred thousand species of plants known, and at least thirty millions of varied combinations of landscape scenery possible, you will not soon lack for employment.

But we must stay our pen: Non omnes arbusta juvant. The volumes which have suggested our remarks are honorable to the taste and enterprise of the mother country and our own. We heartily commend them to the reading public.

ART. III.—The History of North Carolina: with Maps and Illustrations. By FRANCIS L. HAWKS, D.D., LL. D. Vols. I., II. Fayetteville: E. J. Hale and Son. 1857-58. 8vo. pp. 254, 591.

WE are glad that the task of writing the history of North Carolina has been undertaken by one whose devotion to his native State will prompt him to consecrate his best energies to the illustration of her annals. We have now some assurance that this much desired work will be completed, and in a style befitting the manly deeds of those whose achievements are to be recorded, and the calm and constant prosperity of that steadfast commonwealth. The task is undertaken by Dr. Hawks with many and great advantages over his predecessors, and the work is commended to the public by the high prestige of his widely extended reputation. He has been, for many years, well known, both at home and abroad, as one of the ablest and most eloquent divines of the Episcopal Church; his previous publications have made him familiar with the mysteries of authorship; and he is understood to have been long engaged in gathering the materials for this favorite work. Of the value of these, and of the skill with which he uses them, the two volumes before us will enable us to judge.

Of the memorials of past events which are necessary for the clear understanding of the history of North Carolina, it is very evident that Dr. Hawks has succeeded in obtaining large numbers, and those of inestimable worth, which were beyond the reach, or escaped the research, of the previous historians of that State. Many of them we owe to his examination of the repositories of public records in England, and many also have been brought out from their hiding-places in old chests and clerks' offices, at the bidding of one who, it was believed, would keep them safe and use them to an excellent purpose. We speak of safe-keeping advisedly, as it is well known, and deeply regretted, that a great part of the documents on which some of the former historians of North Carolina relied for their representations are now lost beyond the hope of recovery. They have been taken away from the State, and no

knowledge of them now remains. The historical inquirer is therefore compelled to depend simply on the declaration of some who have gone before him, (and this in matters involving the good name of large bodies of men,) and cannot test their accuracy by an appeal to the testimony on which they rested. If in any quarter he finds statements conflicting with theirs, it becomes no easy matter to decide how much credit is to be given to those who quote no authority, or an authority which they themselves have caused or allowed to disappear. Within a few years, however, a new sense of the value of such treasures, and a new interest in the disclosures to which they lead, seem to have been awakened in that region. The result has been the bringing to light and use of a vast number of important documents whose existence had not been suspected; and the further result, almost of course, must follow, that many transactions about which men had made up their minds are to be re-examined, and a new verdict rendered. The same may be true again. The discovery of new testimony hereafter may enforce a revision of our judgments also. Tryon, Martin, and Howard may lose some portion of the opprobrium that now rests on their names, as we see Mr. Froude has cleared away the reproach from Henry VIII. But certainly, in regard to the richness and value of his materials, Dr. Hawks has vastly the advantage of his predecessors, while in historical judgment, and in skill as a writer, he has no very formidable competitors among them. Indeed, it is a cause of wonder that the people of North Carolina have been so long content with a meagre outline, and an unskilfully written compilation.

The earliest permanent settlements in North Carolina were made about the time when the first charter was granted to the Proprietors by Charles II., in 1663. The earliest historical account of the country was written by John Lawson, and published in 1709. Lawson came to this State, from England, through Charleston, in 1700. Leaving that city near the close of that year, he started on an overland expedition, by a route which it is now difficult to trace, though his narrative of it is very curious, and came finally to Bath, on the Pamlico River, where he established his head-quarters. In 1711 he was the Surveyor-General of North Carolina. This office demanded

skill, energy, integrity, and some measure of learning; and as it conferred a rather high social rank, and brought him into frequent association with the leading men of the Province, it implied a general confidence in him, and authorizes us to suppose him in every way a man of worth and a gentleman. Of the events of his personal history little is known except the tragical circumstances of his death. The Indians who dwelt on the borders of the white settlements, especially the Tuscaroras, feared and hated him; for they looked upon him as the main agent in depriving them of their lands. Speedily after Lawson had traversed the country with his surveyingchain, portions of these lands, one after another, passed under the claim and into the possession of their grasping neighbors. Well aware, no doubt, of the danger into which he was entering, though not aware of the conspiracy the savages had already formed to exterminate at one blow all their enemies, Lawson, in company with the Baron de Graffenried and a single servant, started from Newbern to ascertain how far the Neuse River was navigable, and discover what kind of country there was farther on. They were seized by the Indians, brought before a numerous council of chiefs, and sentenced to death. This sentence was executed on Lawson with every refinement of savage cruelty. "They stuck him full (so the Indians said) of fine, small splinters of torch-wood, like hog's bristles, and so set them gradually on fire." This was on the 22d of September. On the same day, the whole region along the Neuse and Pamlico rivers was made desolate by one universal act of horrid massacre, of which Lawson's murder was the first scene, and a specimen only of its hideous cruelties. In every settlement, at almost every house, the slaughter was begun, and that by Indians who had become inmates or welcome guests in the households, where they entered with smiles for purposes of death. In two hours' time one hundred and thirty were slain. For three days the slaughter raged, passed the Chowan, and ravaged the whole district north of the Albemarle. The planter was shot down in the field, the traveller was waylaid in the forest, and the blood of old men and maidens dyed their own hearthstone. In the alarm it excited, the manly resistance and punishment it called out, and