advantages, while it obviates the inconveniences, peculiar to both, by affording an interval of time, not so great as to divest the historical and political disquisitions of the interest of novelty, and yet sufficient for the exercise of care and discrimination in the composition, the selection, and the arrangement of materials.

Whatever maxims of wisdom applicable to our institutions the best writers either ancient or modern can afford on the science of government, will be industriously sought and quo'ted, as well as such cases in the history of the past, as may serve to enlighten the public opinion, both with regard to our own situation and to the transactions of European powers. It will be made a principal object to furnish the readers of this miscellany with correct views of the true condition and policy of the two great belligerents by whose distant struggles our domestic peace is shaken, and in whose dispositions and projects our highest interests are deeply involved. Every document, therefore, calculated to throw light on this topic, and which an extensive correspondence and the best opportunities can yield, will be minutely examined, and rendered subservient to a purpose, on the importance of which it would be superfluous to dwell. The proceedings of congress will be vigilantly watched, and temperately discussed,-but not, however, without that degree of zeal which an ardent love of country naturally excites, and which, so far from proving an obstruction, is, in fact, auxiliary to the surest operations of the judgment. Genuine sentiment and sound policy can never be dissociated, and it is, therefore, that full scope will be given to the natural, elevated, warm feelings, and to the vehement, unsuborned, virtuous passions, of the heart, whenever the subject of discussion shall be those schemes of profligate ambition which now menace the liberties of all mankind, and those acts of portentous corruption,-the crimes of unexampled depravity,-which assail the moral and political order of Europe-and which awaken terror while they kindle indignation in the mind of every reflecting and honest individual of every country.

The utility of the present undertaking must be too obvious. to require a particular exposition, and should it be well executed-it is hoped that no necessity will arise for an elaborate appeal to the public on the score of patronage. A work of the nature now contemplated has been long desired by the most enlightened men of this country, and claims the cooperation as well as the protection of those who unite the ability with the desire of promoting the interests of freedom and of letters.

There is something in the melancholy character of the times, in the signal and extraordinary dangers with which the United States, together with the rest of the civilized world, are threatened,-that calls loudly for the utmost activity in the defence of those institutions and that system of knowledge, which constitute our best riches, and which ennoble and decorate human nature. At a moment when the whole continent of Europe is sinking under the ascendant of a military despotism, and the same dark cloud of ignorance and tyranny is settling upon it, which a few centuries ago was dispelled by the genius of commerce, it is incumbent upon the American public to encourage the development and the application of whatever resources may be found in the faculties of individuals, in order to secure from the same fatal influence, the inestimable blessings and the pure lights which this country drew from the very fountain that is now partly, and which may be hereafter, totally choked up and polluted.

A great historian remarks that "should the victorious bar"barians of the East ever carry slavery and desolation as far as "the Atlantic ocean, Europe might revive and flourish in the "American world already filled with her colonies and institu"tions." Montesquieu has predicted that when soldiers should be greatly multiplied, and the military system converted into a conscription, Europe would become a camp and Europeans resemble the Tartars-the barbarians to whom Gibbon alludes. The fears of the statesman are now nearly realized. Europe has become a camp-and a distinct race of spoilers not less ferocious than those of whom the historian speaks, has carried "slavery and desolation" over the continent of Europe, and left, in the other hemisphere, but one asylum for the principles and the arts of true civilization. Should this last sanctuary be violated, it will remain for this country to verify the hope which the philosophic historian-not stretching his imagination, however, to embrace a scheme of universal conquest of a character so anomalous and of resources so extraordinary as the present,-considers as in the highest degree rational and consolatory for the friends of the human species. It depends, perhaps, upon the exertions of the moment, whether "Europe shall revive and flourish in the American world;". whether the institutions of freedom, which, as has been said, give dignity and lustre to the human character;-the pursuits of liberal science, which alone nourish the virtues of the heart;the mild charities and the graceful refinements of private life, which wither and expire under the empire of the sword,

are not to be wholly banished from the face of the earth. Those who sincerely prize these blessings will not hesitate to second any suitable efforts tending to cultivate the public taste for English literature,-the fountain of solid instruction and the nurse of manly sentiment;-and applied to instil such maxims of public wisdom and virtue as may enable the people of these states to oppose a strenuous and successful resistance to the assaults of that horrible despotism which, in the lapse of a few years, has degraded the nations of the continent of Europe from the lofty height of moral and intellectual excellence to which, after many ages of toilsome ascent, they had victoriously attained.

Independently of such considerations as these which affect our highest interests and appeal to the nobler feelings of the breast, there are others of secondary importance, which operate as a recommendation to an undertaking like the present and are not to be overlooked. The critical examination of European works particularly of those which come to us from England, will be made to enter, as has been before stated, into the structure of this journal. Whatever may be the ability with which the English reviews are conducted, it is certain that truth in them is often distorted or wholly suppressed,-that their decisions are materially influenced by the spirit of partythe suggestions of private friendship, or the authority of popular names; and not unfrequently, by the prejudices of literary patriotism and the intolerance of national pride. The formation therefore, of a domestic tribunal exempt from the operation of feelings which vitiate the taste, and mislead the judgment, and whose province it shall be both to vindicate our own merits when injuriously attacked, and to exhibit faithfully those of foreign writers when erroneously reported, cannot but be productive of the most beneficial consequences, not merely in relation to the purity of our relish for elegant literature, but also to the accuracy of our opinions on questions connected with the domestic politics of another country, of the utmost importance to our own national welfare.

Another topic which it is deemed expedient to urge in favour of a journal on the plan mentioned above, is, the apparent necessity for some such enterprize with a view to the promotion of the literary fame of this country. The period has arrived when a platform at least, should be laid, and it is in this mode onlyunder the peculiar circumstances of our condition-that the object can be accomplished. If the foundation were once settled, there remains no doubt but that with the scaffolding of English

literature, a fabric of literary reputation might be ere long erected, of materials which both for their variety and excellence would delight and surprise the nations of Europe. It is certain that our means are not duly appreciated abroad;-that we ourselves have not done justice to our resources, either of genius or of learning. Whatever may be said by the prejudiced or the uninformed critics of Europe, there is, nevertheless, among us an ample portion of the "ethereal spirit," and an abundant store of erudition, competent to extend the limits of human knowledge and to shed lustre on the national character, -as there is, also, a solid fund of legislative wisdom and public virtue fitted to raise us to a proper standard of estimation in the eyes of the world, and to fashion and fortify this republic into a "deeplaid indissoluble state."

But through the agency of a combination of unavoidable circumstances in the one case, and of a train of unfortunate contingencies and lamentable errors in the other, all these advantages lie inert and obscure, and mankind judging only from external indications and practical results, have come to this fallacious but natural conclusion, that we are no less miserably deficient in the treasures of learning and in the powers of genius, than ridiculously weak in our public councils, and improvidently backward in the organization of our physical strength. From the actual composition of our deliberative assemblies, and the measures of our cabinet, they infer that we are altogether without that gallantry of spirit, that generous and lofty enthusiasm, the liberal studies, and enlarged “courageous wisdom" which, if they had uniformly presided over our affairs, might have given an irresistible momentum and a most imposing attitude to a nation so singularly favoured by nature and fortune. They make the rarity and insignificance of our productions in literature, the criterion of our ability to produce, and imagine that a mercenary, groveling, narrowminded system of policy is accompanied by a correspondent poverty of conception and scantiness of knowledge.

It shall be one of the ends of this journal to refute these imputations, and it is one of its chief advantages that it may itself become a practical illustration of their falsehood. The sound doctrines and the elevated sentiments of which it may be made the receptacle, and which, together with habits of profound investigation and a rich fund of political science, belong to so many individuals in this country, may serve to convince the world that it is to causes merely accidental that we owe the coarse texture of our legislative bodies, and

the abject spirit of our administration. It may be asserted without presumption that this country has not shone in periodical literature rather on account of the absence of proper excitements and of suitable repositories for the productions of taste and learning, than for any want either of capacity or leisure. The analysis of important works and the literary disquisitions which fall within the scope of the present publication, will afford an ample field for the display of ingenuity and of erudition, and should the materials of this description which may form a part of the first numbers, be wrought with skill and elegance, a spirit of emulation, the natural effect of classical models,-may be excited, so as to lead to efforts of the highest and happiest order.

In Europe, profound statesmen, eminent authors, brilliant scholars, cooperate ambitiously in journals of this nature,-and communicate to the world, through such channels, their most elaborate researches, and their most finished productions. They know that in so doing, they derogate nothing from their own dignity, while they contribute infinitely to the advantage of the public. Sound doctrines are, in this way, more widely disseminated, a more habitual and certain influence is given to the principles of taste, and a more prompt and diffusive fame secured to the labours of learning and of genius. The delicacy and solidity of the tissue which they weave, the rich and lasting colours which they employ, counteract the perishable nature of the frame in which they exhibit their productions; and it may, therefore, be asserted with confidence, that such disquisitions as those of the Edinburgh Review and the Mercure de France, will be no less durable, as they are no less elegant and instructive, than the most formal or ambitious treatises, however profound or original. The enlightened and the patriotic of every country will always zealously advance the progress of letters and will not disdain to become, as it were, militant themselves, in a cause which is inseparable from that of pure morals, of national glory, of refined humanity, of generous and elevated sentiment, of true policy, and heroic conduct.

The illustrious example just quoted should be here imitated by those whose proper stations in our political world have been usurped by the most incapable and contemptible men that ever presumed to be ambitious; by men who are no less devoid of the accomplishments of liberal and useful science than of all the distinguishing qualifications of real statesmen;-who are not the guides but the instruments of the people;-who are at once the shame and the scourge of their country. This exam