LITERARY NOTICES. 



273 



opposed in principle and in purpose. Tlie 

 vigilance committee is not a mob ; it is to 

 a mob as revolution is to rebellion, the name 

 being somewhat according to its strength. 

 Neither is a tumultuous rabble a vigilance 

 committee. Indeed, prominent among its 

 other functions is that of holding brute force 

 and vulgar sentiment in wholesome fear." 

 It is founded on a principle, and this is 

 that " the people, or a majority of them, 

 possess the right, nay, that it is their bound- 

 en duty, to hold perpetual vigil in all mat- 

 ters relating to their government, to guard 

 their laws with circumspection, and sleep- 

 lessly to watch their servants chosen to exe- 

 cute them. Yet more is implied. Possess- 

 ing this right, and acknowledging the obli- 

 gation, it is their further right and duty, 

 whenever they see the laws which they have 

 made trampled upon, distorted, or prosti- 

 tuted, to rise in their sovereign privilege, 

 remove such unfaithful servants, lawfully if 

 possible, arbitrarily if necessary. . . .When 

 law fails — that is to say, when a power rises 

 in society antagonistic at once to statutory 

 law and to the will of the people — the peo- 

 ple must crush the enemy of their law or 

 be crushed by it. A true vigilance commit- 

 tee is the expression of power on the part 

 of the people in the absence or impotence 

 of law." ... As defined in this book, " the 

 principle of vigilance takes its place above 

 formulated law, which is its creature, and 

 is directly antagonistic to the mobile spirit 

 which springs from passion and contempt- 

 uously regards all law save the law of re- 

 venge." As may be inferred from these 

 quotations, Mr. Bancroft is rather warmly 

 in favor of California " vigilance," and ap- 

 preciates highly the fruits which San Fran- 

 cisco has reaped from the exercise of it. 

 lie has obtained the materials for the his- 

 torical record of its operations from first 

 hands. Besides printed books, manuscripts, 

 and the several journals of the period advo- 

 cating both sides of the question, he se- 

 cured all the archives of the San Francisco 

 Committee of Vigilance of 1851, and had 

 free access to the voluminous records and 

 documents of the great committee of 1856. 

 Further than these, he personally questioned 

 the actors in the scenes who were living, 

 and, after a little difficulty in overcoming the 

 reserves of some of them, obtained such 



VOL. XXXII. — 18 



information as they could give him. The 

 questioning, he thinks, was done at a most 

 opportune time. " Ten years earlier, the 

 actors in these abnormal events would, on 

 no account, have divulged their secrets ; ten 

 years later, many of them will have passed 

 away, and the opportunity be forever lost 

 for obtaining information which they alone 

 can give." The story is of the most fasci- 

 nating character ; and did not require, to 

 intensify its interest — which is marred rath- 

 er than heightened by it — the sensational 

 style, hardly befitting a sober history, which 

 the narrator has employed in some parts of 

 his account. About four hundred pages of 

 the volume are taken up with the history 

 of the San Francisco Vigilance Committee 

 of 1851 ; the rest is devoted to the opera- 

 tions of the " country committees of vigi- 

 lance," and of popular tribunals in other 

 States and Territories of the West, British 

 Columbia, and Alaska. 



English History from Contemporary 

 Writers. Edward III and his Wars. 

 Arranged and edited by W. J. Ashley. 

 The Misrule of IIenry III. Selected 

 and arranged by Rev. W. H. Hutto.n. 

 New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1887. 



The study of history in the usual way, 

 though it gives a comprehensive view of the 

 subject in the language of our own time, 

 has nevertheless its drawbacks. However 

 scientific the historian's work may be, and 

 however entertaining his story, it does not 

 give us that vivid and characteristic view of 

 an age that we get from the contemporary 

 writers. A consciousness of this fact has 

 led to the preparation of this series of vol- 

 umes on the history of England. They 

 consist entirely of extracts from writers 

 who lived in the times treated, with only 

 such brief notes and introductions as are 

 necessary to explain their significance and 

 connection. The authors from which the 

 compilation is made are of course the me- 

 diaeval chroniclers, such as Froissart, Mat- 

 thew of Paris, and others, while laws and 

 other public documents are cited as occa- 

 sion requires. The volumes now before us 

 treat of the thirteenth and fourteenth cent- 

 uries, and others are projected covering the 

 whole period of mediaeval and Renaissance 

 history. The series is under the editorship 



