The Magazine of American History.

The April number of this magazine which has just been received is exceedingly attractive and interesting. The opening article written by Martha J. Lamb is an account of "Some Unpublished Washington Portraits." The relations which existed between Washington and the artists Robertson and Peele are recounted and a just appreciation manifested for the services which those artists rendered in preserving for posterity the features of our first President. "The Acquisition of Florida," a contribution from Hon, J. L. M. Curry, Minister to Spain, is a historical sketch of the troubles between the United States and Spain during the first years of the republic, and of the European complications which finally ended in the cession of Florida by Spain to the United States. This article is followed by a graphic description of the early methods of transportations and travel "Between Albany and Buffalo" in the days when railroads and canals were unknown, when roads were wretched and passable for wagons only in the neighborhood of the towns. When the packet-boat appeared after the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825, the traveller of that day thought that a wonderful advance had been made. In the paper on the "Fallacy of 1860," Mr. A. W. Clason enlarges upon the different interpretations which have been placed upon the words of the Constitution by the members of the different parties in the country. He finds that the only difference between the victor and the vaquished in the War of the Secession lay in the different construction of the word "people" in the Preamble. A few extracts from the diary of Rev. Manasseh Cutler follow, illustrating "Church-going in New York City in 1787." Mrs. Plongeon contributes the first part of a paper on the "Conquest of the Mayos." The writer gives a summary of what is known of the early history of Yucatan and adds an account of the battles between the Spaniards and the natives for the possession of the peninsula. Colonel Baillie, a member of the English Parliament, kept a journal while visiting this country in 1828, of which several portions are printed in this number. The impressions of the traveller in regard to American matters and the account of his journeyings are very amusing. The number ends with the usual departments.