On the history of New England the best general works are Palfrey, _History of New England_, 4 vols., Boston, 1858-75; and Doyle, _The English in America--The Puritan Colonies_, 2 vols., London, 1887. In point of scholarship Dr. Palfrey's work is of the highest order, and it is written in an interesting style. Its only shortcoming is that it deals somewhat too leniently with the faults of the Puritan theocracy, and looks at things too exclusively from a Massachusetts point of view. It is one of the best histories yet written in America. Mr. Doyle's work is admirably fair and impartial, and is based throughout upon a careful study of original documents. The author is a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and has apparently made American history his specialty. His work on the Puritan colonies is one of a series which when completed will cover the whole story of English colonization in America. I have looked in vain in his pages for any remark or allusion indicating that he has ever visited America, and am therefore inclined to think that he has not done so. He now and then makes a slight error such as would not be likely to be made by a native of New England, but this is very seldom. The accuracy and thoroughness of its research, its judicial temper, and its philosophical spirit make Mr. Doyle's book in some respects the best that has been written about New England. Among original authorities we may begin by citing John Smith's _Description of New England_, 1616, and _New England's Trial_, 1622, contained in Arber's new edition of Smith's works, London, 1884. Bradford's narrative of the founding of Plymouth was for a long time supposed to be lost. Nathaniel Morton's _New England's Memorial_, published in 1669, was little more than an abridgment of it. After two centuries Bradford's manuscript was discovered, and an excellent edition by Mr. Charles Deane was published in the _Massachusetts Historical Collections_, 4th series, vol. iii., 1856. Edward Winslow's _Journal of the Proceedings of the English Plantation settled at Plymouth_, 1622, and _Good News from New England_, 1624, are contained, with other valuable materials, in Young's _Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers_, Boston, 1844. See also Shurtleff and Pulsifer, _Records of Plymouth_, 12 vols., ending with the annexation of the colony to Massachusetts in 1692; Prince's _Chronological History of New England_, ed. Drake, 1852; and in this connection Hunter's _Founders of New Plymouth_, London, 1854; Steele's _Life of Brewster_, Philadelphia, 1857; Goodwin's _Pilgrim Republic_, Boston, 1887; Bacon's _Genesis of the New England Churches_, New York, 1874; Baylies's _Historical Memoir_, 1830; Thacher's _History of the Town of Plymouth_, 1832.