CONTENTS OF No. IV. 1. Sketches of a Naval History of the United States. By Thomas 2. The United States' Naval Chronicle. By C. W. Goldsborough. 3. Report of the Naval Committee of the House of Representatives. 4. Bill for the gradual Improvement of the Navy. 1827. 5. Annual Report of the Secretary of the Navy. 1828. 6. Report of the Secretary of the Navy, covering a plan for a Naval III. SPARKS' LIFE OF JOHN Ledyard, The Life of John Ledyard, the American Traveller; comprising selections from his Journal and Correspondence. By Jared Sparks. Journal, Acts and Proceedings of the Convention, assembled at Phi- ladelphia, on Monday, the 14th of May, and dissolved on Monday, the 17th of September, 1787, which formed the Constitution of the United 1. Message from the President of the United States, transmitting the information in relation to expenditures incident or relating to Inter- nal Improvements, for the years 1824-1825. (April 3, 1826.) 2. Letter from the Secretary of War, transmitting information re- specting the surveys of Roads and Canals, and of their relative im- portance. (February 19, 1827.) 3. Documents accompanying the President's Message to Congress at the commencement of the first Session of the Twentieth Congress. 4. Letter from the Secretary of War, transmitting the information, in relation to the amo nt deemed necessary in the execution and completion of each work of Internal Improvement, specified in the Report made on the 4th of March, 1828. (April 29, 1828.) 5. Speech of the Hon. William Smith, of South-Carolina, in the Senate of the United States, on the bill making appropriation for Internal Improvements, delivered on the 11th of April, 1828. VIII. THE ROMAN ORATORS, History of Roman Literature, from its earliest period to the Augustan Age, in two Vols. By John Dunlop, Author of the History of Fiction. IX. GEORGIA CONTROVERSY, Report of the Select Committee of the House of Representatives, to which were referred the Messages of the President of the United States, of the 5th and 8th of February, and 2d March, 1827, with accompanying documents; and a Report and Resolutions of the Legislature of Georgia, March 3, 1827. X. THE TARIFF, 1. Address of the Committee, on behalf of the General Convention of Agriculturalists and Manufacturers and others, friendly to the encouragement of the Domestic Industry of the United States. 2. Report of a Committee of the Citizens of Boston and vicinity, opposed to a further increase of Duties on Importations. 491 541 582 ART. I.-A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus. By WASHINGTON IRVING. 3 vols. 8vo. NewYork. 1828. IN the natural progress of things, this country seems to be fairly arrived at a new era. The educated citizens of the United States are gradually addicting themselves more and more to literary pursuits, and the talents which have hitherto so honourably distinguished them in every undertaking in which they have seriously engaged, will, we confidently believe, become no less illustrious in the department of letters, than in arts, in commerce, and in arms. Among the writers who have hitherto been celebrated for their successful exertions, who have been increasing the reputation of our country while weaving a chaplet for their own brows, no one has been more generally, nor more deservedly popular in the United States, than Washington Irving. His earliest publications were remarkable for their vivacity, their graphic delineations of persons and of character, their racy humour, the delicacy and truth of their reflections, and the freedom, yet correctness of their style. His later productions have, we think, lost in ease and vigour, all that they have gained in the more polished structure of their sentences- and in the works published since his residence in Europe, there is, apparently, more restraint, more effort to be correct, and, consequently, more tameness, than in those of his earlier years. He no longer laughs with the hearty and cordial glee of inborn cheerfulness. In his later works, it is only when he reverts to his native land, to the scenes of his youth, to the traditions which beguiled and enkindled his awakening imagination, that we can discover the felicitous graces of his earlier writings, and the charms of his playful and interesting narratives. VOL. II.-No. 3. 1 108 Nor can we wonder at this difference. In these domestic legends, he feels himself in full possession of his subject, revisits in fancy old and familiar scenes, recalls well remembered incidents, and moves with the certainty and confidence, with the buoyant step and firmness of one perfectly assured of his acquaintance with the ground on which he treads, while in treating of European topics and manners, his imagination is comparatively shackled, his mind oppressed with the constant apprehension of error, with the fear of trespassing unwittingly on some "bienséance," on some fact or opinion moral, political, topographical or mythical, (for each country has its fables) and he must, therefore, write with reserve and diffidence. It has, in consequence, happened, that his first publications continue to be more read, and are universally more popular than those which have succeeded them. The authentic history of Diedrich Knickerbocker may be considered among the permanent monuments of our literature. If the design has not the merit of originality, the outline has been filled up with so many diversified and fanciful details, ornamented with so many amusing, even if sometimes grotesque illustrations, as have sufficed to render the perusal of it delightful to all classes of society. Within the last two years, Mr. Irving, like the great author of Waverly, has directed his attention to new objects, and leaving the pleasant regions of fancy and of fiction, has undertaken to record the life and fortunes of one of those extraordinary men, whose genius may be said to have changed the current of human affairs, and extended the limits of human knowledge, enterprise and power. We rejoice in this determination—we rejoice that the fine talents of Mr. Irving have not been exclusively devoted to temporary subjects, to publications which, even if they possess a momentary popularity, may not secure him a substantial and enduring fame. He has now connected his literary fortunes with a name of great celebrity and of peculiar interest in the Western hemisphere, and we trust he will diffuse widely his own reputation, while making more familiar and more accurately known the life and adventurous voyages of Christopher Columbus. Through our journals it is generally known that within a few years past, Don Martin Fernandez de Navarrete, one of the few names that now adorn the literature of Spain, had been permitted to withdraw from the recesses, where by a cautious and jealous cabinet they had long been concealed, and to publish to the world, some of the original documents relating to the early |