649 DECEMBER, 1806. Librum tuum legi & quam diligentissime potui annotavi, quæ commutanda, qua eximenda, arbitrarer. Nam ego dicere vero assuevi. Neque ulli patientius reprehenduntur, quam qui maxime laudari merentur. ARTICLE 65. Travels in Louisiana and the Flor- bus orbem, Divisa arboribus patriæ. VIRG. 12mo. have THE immense price, we already paid for a part of the country, described in this book, and the value, attached to the rest both by its owners and by our gov ernment, renders every account of it interesting in a higher degree, than other travels. The knowl edge of the author might have been acquired by a two-months' residence at New-Orleans; but there are few men of education and leisure, who are desirous of a pilgrimage into that region, so little known to its possessors, and we must, therefore, acquiesce ma ny years in the relations of men, who enjoy few opportunities for inquiry, and exhibit little minute ness of investigation. The author was, as is conjectured by his translator, a planter of St. Domingo, driven by the blacks to seek a refuge on the continent, with any Vol. III. No. 12. 4K -PLINY. part of which he seems better the title-page we are informed that pleased, than with Louisiana. In the work is an account of travels in 1802; yet in the first sentence of the first chapter the writer tells us he has dwelt two years and a half in the colony. The Frenchman considers Louisiana and WestFlorida as one colony, but he was never a surveyor of boundaries, and for the demarkation of our sover politicians must look elsewhere eignty. We learn only, that on Mexico, and vast countries unexthe west we are bounded by 'Newplored.' United States, in a message to The President of the Congress, says, that Spain would confine our territory to a narrow strip of land on the west bank of the Mississippi; but, as we have long since sent a company across the continent, even to the Pacifick Ocean, it is presumable, that our government lays claim to all that tract, traversed by Capts. Lewis and Clarke. Yet it seems matter ter, whether our rights extend fifty of very little concern in this quaror fifteen hundred leagues beyond the Mississippi. But the translator, in one of his notes, attempts to raise a doubt, where we had thought ourselves most secure, It is a matter of mirth, what erroneous notions the world has relative to the cession of Louisiana If we take into consideration the whole extent of the tract, comprehended in the boundaries that have been just exhibited, the colony, under that point of view, includes an immense territory. But appreciating things by their real value, and considering the country in another point of view, both with regard to the nature of its soil and other local circumstances, without including Upper Louisiana, which begins at the thirty-first degree of latitude, and extends to the north and the east, an immense territory, wild and uncultivated, with a few partial exceptions, I am disposed to believe that this part of the colony, composed of Lower Louisiana and West Florida, situated at the thirtieth and thirty-first degrees of north latitude, and at the sixty-eighth or sixty-ninth degree of east longitude, from the meridian of Ferrol, where the principal settlements of the colony are established; this immense tract, I insist, comprehending a space of four thousand leagues, affords only five hundred square leagues of land adapted to the purposes of agriculture: of these too, seventy-five are upon the banks of the Mississippi, a hundred and twenty-five in the interiour of the country, and three hundred in the tract bounded by the Atacapas and the Apelousas; from which the inference is manifest, that only the eighth part of this vast country can be appropriated to the labours and residence of man, the remainder being covered with lakes, forests, and swamps, and dry and sandy deserts.' P. 4. In the second chapter we learn, The Mississippi, which divides the colony, and whose real name, in the language of the aborigines of the country, is Messachifi, which signifies the Father of Waters, is one of the most consid erable rivers in America.' P.7. Of the impediments to naviga tion, the rapidity of the current, the variation of the channel, and the bar at the mouth, we have all the information, we can desire. The 3d chapter is chiefly occupied by a minute description of the city and island of New-Orleans. Was it ever thought, that, in the hands of Spaniards,that city would have been a difficult conquest? The President of the United States talked of the rashness of attacking a place, whose walls were covered with cannon. But the traveller contemptuously asks, Must I make mention of Fort St. Charles, and its pretended ramparts? It would provoke the risibility of an engineer.' Such is New-Orleans at the present era. It deserves rather the name of a great straggling town, than of a city; though, even to merit that title, it would be required to be longer. In fact, the mind can, I think, scarcely image to itself a more disagreeable place on the face of the whole globe; it is disgusting in whatever point of view it be contemplated, both as a whole, separately, and the wild, brutish aspect of its suburbs. Yet it is the only town in the whole colony, and, in the ardour of admiration, it is called by the inhabitants the capital, the city! P.35. We are, however, told, and we believe it, that it is destined by nature to become one of the principal cities in North America. In a note upon this subject the translator quotes from another work, published at Paris, a political estimate of the importance of New-Orleans. 'But the grand advantage, which flows to the American states from the possession of the Mississippi, is, that the door is open to Mexico, and the valuable mines and provinces of Spain are exposed to an easy invasion. The Spanish possessions lie on the west and south. The road to them is easy and direct. They are wholly defenceless. The frontier has neither forts, nor allies, nor subjects. To march over them is to conquer. A detachment of a few thousands would find faithful guides, practicable roads, and no opposition between the banks of the Mississippi and the gates of Mexico. The unhappy race, whom Spain has enslaved, are without arms and without spirit; or their spirit would prompt them to befriend the invader. They would hail the Americans, as deliverers, and execrate the ministers of Spain, as tyrants.' P. 38. The manners of the inhabitants are described in the 4th chapter, and the subject is continued in the next, where their inhumanity is contrasted with the conduct of the inhabitants of the United States. The animation of the writer is here exhausted, and he concludes... May this page, while it transmits with infamy to posterity the onduct of the Louisianians, be a lasting monument to the magnanimity of the inhabitants of the United States. Time! scatter if thou wilt the rest of this volume to the winds of heaven, but let that be sacred, which records the generous spirit of Americans! P.76. On slavery, we observe an appearance.of argument to support the proposition, dearest to his heart. Negroes are a species of beings, whom nature seems to have intended for slavery; their plian cy of temper, patience under injujury, and innate passiveness, all concur to justify this position; unlike the savages or aborigines of America, who could never be brought to servile control.' P.82. A little further he declares, 'as the ox resigns himself to his yoke, so the bends to his burden." negro The question is at last settled, with perfect satisfaction and self-complacency, by the resistless power of general axioms: 'Nature may be modified, but cannot be essentially changed. It is not possible to impart to the dog the habits of the wolf, nor to the ape those of the sheep. This position cannot be refuted, Sophistry may for a while delude, but the mind reposes upon the stability of truth.' P. 84. Against a philosopher, in such impenetrable armour, who shall contend? The regulations of the slaves, published by the best governour, that Spain ever sent to Louisiana, are introduced in a note. Among these one seems to render even the single privilege of the negroes nugatory. It declares, Slaves may not sell any thing without the permission of their master, not even the productions of the waste lands allowed them.' Surely their tender mercies are cruelty, From the remainder of the volume, which treats of the tribes of Indians, of the diseases, of the ani, mals, of the principal settlements, of the population, commerce, and government of the country, we need not extract any thing, as these circumstances have become of little consequence to us by the cession of the country to our government, or they may be found at greater length in the publick state papers since that event. On the whole, this volume affords a great fund of information of that kind, which we most wanted, a complete character of the new subjects of our government. There is, also, a part, that may be serviceable to the mere merchant, and much of the characteristick levity of thought, united with violence of language, that will please every one, ART. 66. Biographical Memoirs of Lord Vis. count Nelson, with observations critical and explanatory. "Sparsa coegi." By John Charnock, Esq. F.S.A. author of the Bio graphia Navalis, and the History of Marine Architecture, e. c, Second American edition, Boston, published by Etheridge & Bliss, 1806. T. M. Pomroy, printer, Northampton. 8vo. THIS publication is merely a narrative of Lord Nelson's victo: ries, diligently collected and compiled from the various official statements. It is a work, that must be ever particularly interesting to Englishmen, as it comprises a history of their greatest naval engagements, and the most important anecdotes of their greatest naval hero, whose name will de scend in glory to the latest pos terity of Britain. The original part of Mr. Char nock's labours in this production (the only part, perhaps, which can be justly considered amenable to criticism) is very limited; the events themselves having been previously related, and their arrange, ment following the order of time. This, however, is not so dignified, as might have been expected in the execution of such a task. His style is indigent; his collocation oftentimes impure. In many instances he obviously evinces a disposition to give importance to tri, fles, which tends rather to lessen, than augment the splendour of his subject. We can say little only in praise of the "observations" in these me. moirs, and it would be unjust to judge them with all the rigour of criticism, since the author himself claims nothing but the merit of a faithful collector and reporter of that authentick ins formation, which before was widely scattered under the publick eye. His only design is, by this miniature representation of Lord Nelson, to correct the defects and mistakes of such miserable sketches as have already appeared, and to furnish an outline to those, who may in future be inclined to am plify on a subject, which affords clusion he assures the reader, that such boundless space. In conif a work of this kind should not be undertaken by any one else, he may, at some future time, produce his best endeavours to such effect; to which he intends devoting all the leisure hours, which indisposi tion and private concerns may leave him." In the performance of such a plan, should Mr. Charnock retain his resolution, we wish much suc cess. The Life of Lord Viscount Nelson, executed by a man of talents and information, would doubt less be a work of no inconsiderable value. The history of the age, in which he lived, will be as much the subject of admiration with posterity, as perhaps any period, which can be contemplated in the retrospect of time. He will be recorded amongst the chief opposers of the torrent, which threatened to deluge the continent of Europe and the world, and that infatuated ambition, which, regardless of every tie, sacrifices to its gratification the dearest pledges of national honour and national tranquillity, "hated through the coast Of Ralestine, in Gath, and Ascalon, And Accaron, and Gaza's frontier. bounds." The task of biography is laborious and difficult; for, as it is the most entertaining kind of history, in which truth may be embellished with the painting of romance; so it is the most arduous successfully to perform. Biography should be written with the pen of the poet in the hand of the historian. But at present as little ceremony is used in this species of composition, as that in filling up the blank parts of a mittimus. The writer seizes on the most important actions of the subject, taken from the nearest source; he rivets them together with observations critical and explanatory; and, in a week, produces a chain of three hundred folio links!It would be an excellent amendment, if the High Court of Criticism could issue a DE LIBRO INSPICIENDO, previous to the author's delivery at the press, The prosperity of bibliothick commerce is oftentimes fatal to the best interests of literature, The chief agents in this lucrative profession watch the demise of a great man with all the vigilance of his undertakers; and generally adver. tise memoirs, sketches, and annals of his life on the day, in which his funeral ceremony is to be per, formed. ART. 67, The complete Justice of the Peace; containing extracts from Burn's Justice, and other justiciary productions. The whole altered and made conformable to the laws and manners of administering justice, particularly in the state of New Hampshire, and generally in the other of the United States; com→ prising the practice, authority, and duty of justices of the peace, with forms and precedents relating thereto. By a gentleman of the profession. Printed and published according to act of congress. C. Peirce, Portsmouth, and S. Bragg, jun. Dover, N, H. 8vo. $2,50. Nov. 1806. THIS work is printed on very good paper, with a clear type, and appears in the common law binding. It seems to have been originally intended by the compiler as an abridgement of Burn's Justice; but the sessions, for which that work was more particularly calcu lated, being abolished, made every thing in Burn, excepting the forms, of little use. It contains, however, the greater part of that author's treatise on arbitrament. In the arrangement of the matter the compiler has generally followed Dalton, and the substance of the forms, as far as they were applica ble, is from Burn. Little can be said of a compilation of this nature from works already established in their reputa |