success of his last and greatest effort. Those, however, who had always regarded him as a useful Annalist, assiduous in the collection and faithful in the enunciation of facts, sufficiently perspicuous both in style and arrangement, for ordinary purposes, but incapable of excelling as an historian-were not disappointed when they found that he had, by no means, in the present performance, supplied the great desideratum-a suitable History

of the United States.

The Sketch which he has given in his first volume, of the establishment and progress of the Thirteen Colonies, will not be preferred to that which constitutes the Introduction to Marshall's Life of Washington. He has improved but little his former account of our Revolution, and scarcely done justice to the interval between the capture of Cornwallis, and the year 1809, the period to which his posthumous work extends. His narrative is for the most part tame, his diction never elegant nor elevated, and his general reflections have rarely any depth or novelty. We owe, however, weighty obligations to this author for having rescued much of our Revolutionary History from at least a temporary oblivion, and reduced it into a shape so regular and creditable as that in which it came from his hands.

As for the "Continuation" down to the era of the Treaty of Ghent, "by the Rev. Dr. S. S. Smith, and other literary gentlemen," it is an appendage such as, I am sure, Dr. Ramsay would willingly have dispensed with for his labours. The chief sponsor, Dr. Smith of Princeton, though he has failed, unaccountably, in this instance, enjoys great celebrity among us, richly earned by many valuable writings. His Lectures on Moral "and Political Philosophy, published in 1812, form one of the best treatises extant in this department of knowledge, and are admirably fitted for the use of our colleges. A similar remark may be made in relation to the Lectures on Rhetoric and Oratory of the Hon. John Q. Adams. With these two works at their command, our youth need not look abroad for instruction on the subjects of which they treat.

If the production of Dr. Ramsay be not all that could be wished in respect to our National History, much less can this be affirmed of the three huge volumes which General Wilkinson has lately conferred upon the public. They bear the imposing title of Memoirs of his own Times, but prove to be little more than memoirs of the individual. The second and third volumes, making altogether more than twelve hundred pages, are entirely devoted to a personal concern" the illustration of his persecutions."

A few years ago, came forth a couple of stout octavos, ycleped Memoirs of General Wilkinson;-to the three now given, are to be added three more of equal bulk, as he has not been "able to touch the last twenty-five years of his public life." If then, perchance, his Times should be finally allowed their due proportion of space,

in what number of tomes can the tale be comprized? He has put chronology and method at utter defiance. Whatever his memory or bureau could furnish is thrown in pêle mèle. The confusion is increased by the animosities which were suffered to preside over the composition of almost every page. It is curious to observe their influence in this respect, in tracing the name of Mr. Madison through the summary of the contents of each chapter. All who rely upon the fidelity of General Wilkinson's gallery of portraits, must believe that our federal government has been peopled with a race of monsters. To characterise the late President of the United States, he searches for an archetype, among the tyrants of the classical era of Roman Despotism! Such exaggeration recoils, and defeats every purpose of History.

The Chapters which reflect most credit upon the author's sagacity and talents, and possess the greatest intrinsic value, are, perhaps, those wherein he analyses the battles fought during the late war: Yet, even here, the predominance of private resentments is so sensible, that it has the effect of destroying, with the mass of readers, all confidence in his judgments, and of leaving as they stood in common estimation, the military merits of the commanders whom he so earnestly labours to depreciate.

From the same cause his patriotism becomes suspicious in in those parts of his work, which might otherwise obtain for him the credit of a triumph over natural predilections fortified by habit. I allude to the vehement and studied declamations of this veteran general against standing armies and war! He has even, with a superserviceable zeal, fiercely denounced the National Bank, and most of the arrangements of the late administration upon which the newspapers had already rung all the changes. This sweeping, stern censorship might provoke his enemies to exclaim in the spirit and language of Juvenal,

In the number of interesting facts and documents which General Wilkinson has communicated to us, in the intelligence of his criticisms, in the vivacity and fluency of his diction, there is sufficient evidence that he was capable of making valuable additions to the stock of American history, and of writing so as to win the favour of more fastidious critics than myself;—if he could but have suppressed the memory of his alleged wrongs, thought more of the example which Cæsar has set in his Commentaries, and bestowed the considerable time and care indispensable as well for order and compression in the matter, as for correctness and precision in the style of memoirs of such compass and variety.

As our late war is a magnetic subject, it does not want for chroniclers. They have appeared over the whole surface of the Union, many with the widow's mite; but even this is to be welcomed and hoarded. The "Sketches" of John Lewis Thompson, and the History of Mr. Brackenridge, are meritorious in their way; so, though in a less degree, are some other popular narratives of the contest, of more limited scope, which have been written in the West. The Exposition of the Causes of the War, ascribed to the pen of the late Mr. Dallas, and the Historical Memoir of Major Latour, are of much higher aim and desert.

In Capt. James Riley's Narrative of his sufferings among the Arabs, we have an earnest of a species of literature destined to be very prolific among us Americans. The book of Capt. Riley must be acknowledged to be a curious and entertaining one, although it is far from being unexceptionable. There is a tone of exaggeration throughout which raises distrust; it is overwrought in the style and descriptions; it deals in miraculous dispensations of divine providence; it borders too much on cant in its perpetual, sanctimonious reference to scriptural topics. It opens no scenes new to the world, nor does it, in reality, shed any new light on the geography of the interior of Africa. The main story is old, as the narratives of Brisson and Saugnier, will singly testify. We should be grateful to Captain Riley, however, for his intentions, for the amusement which he affords, and for the edification of his example as a christian and a man, during the period of his captivity.

regret much that I am compelled to restrict myself to the mere indication of works possessing such solid titles to esteem, and destined to prove so beneficial to the country, as the Treatise on Mineralogy and Geology by Professor Cleaveland, of Bowdoin College-the Course of Legal Study by Mr. Hoffman of Baltimore,-the Hebrew Grammar of Professor Willard-the Vocabulary of Mr. Pickering-Colden's Life of Fulton-the "Physical Observations, &c. on the Topography of Louisiana," by Dr. Heustis-the Entomology of Mr. T. Say, of Philadelphia, &c. &c.

Among the works announced for publication, or understood to be in a state of forwardness, are some with regard to which we may cherish high expectations. Of this number are the "Vegetable Materia Medica," of the United States, by Dr. W. P.. C. Barton of Philadelphia, and the similar undertaking of Dr. Bigelow of Boston;-the Life and works of A. J. Dallas, Esq. announced by his son;-the Biography of Patrick Henry by Mr. Wirt of Richmond, and that of the justly celebrated Dr. Rush: --the Account of the States of New England, and of the State of New York, by the late Dr. Dwight;-the Essay on General Grammar of the Rev. Dr. J. P. Wilson of Philadelphia, &c.