Louisiana' was full of difficulties of a kind not discoverable at a first glance. It was not a history that was demanded of me, but something more and something less than a detailed record of all the events of interest connected with the birth and growth of the great Commonwealth under consideration. It must be a connected, succinct story, free from dreary statis tics and relieve-d of everything like political or social philos Ophy, and yet bearing upon its current the very sheens and shadows of the life it is meant to re?ect, and containing in its substance the essential truths of the history it represents.