Minor Notices 43 r the American Republic "'. Perhaps Farnham Iiad something to do with '• saving "' Oregon. The latter portion of the second volume is taken up with the letters of Father Pierre Jean de Smet, a Jesuit missionary, who was engaged in the pious work of his order in Oregon — " Oregon Missions and Travels over the Rocky Mountains in 1845-46 ", reprinted from the edi- tion of 1847. The narrative naturally has to do with missionary enter- prise among the Indian tribes, and with accounts of Indian customs, but it also treats of general frontier conditions in part and tells of adventures. These volumes, as is usual in the series, are well edited. The re- viewer suspects — only suspects because he has not been able to compare the reprint with the original edition — that there are a few errors in proof-reading; but these would not be worth mentioning were it not for the high standard already set for the workmanship of the series. Should not "seat" (XXVIII. 13) be zeal? "Fiesta" (xhid., 14) certainly is meant for siesta. Is not "pipes" (XXIX. 390) printed for pikes? Mexico durante su Guerra con los Estados Unidos. By Jose Fer- nando Ramirez. [Documentos Ineditos 6 muy Raros para la Historia de Mexico, edited by Genaro Garcia and Carlos Pereyra. Tomo III.] (Mexico, Bouret, 1905, pp. viii, 322.) The title of this volume is some- what misleading. The book is in no sense an account of the military operations of the war between Mexico and the United States. Nearly one-half of it is a chronicle in diary form of the events late in 1845 ^"d early in 1846 surrounding the downfall of the Herrera government and the Paredes revolution. The other half, with the exception of one letter to Santa Anna (postdated one year) and another from that Mexican leader in which he testifies to the patriotism and virtue of Ramirez, con- sists of letters written by Ramirez to a friend during the period from August, 1846, to October, 1847, Ramirez never played a sufficiently prominent part in Mexican public life (he was a subordinate official in the department of foreign relations during the war) to give his memoirs positive value as an original source of information. His diaries and let- ters, now first printed, have little to do with warfare, for he was a rara avis in Mexican society, having no taste or capacity for a military career. The editor of the volume states that Ramirez " saw in wars merely super- ficial and passing events ; he scorned them by seeking in more profound studies the explanation of our [Mexico's] disasters ". The pessimistic comments of Ramirez upon Mexican politics and life can hardly be termed profound, for they frequently descend to the level of gossip. He is a usually temperate but not wholly original critic of his contem- poraries. He bewailed the weakness of Mexico, to which her traditional misgovernment and corrupt leaders had reduced her. When Slidell ar- rived as minister from the United States, prior to the Paredes revolution. Ramirez realized the hopelessness of any effort by Mexico to defend her territory. With the final defeat of Santa Anna he admitted that, sad as
