from works long ago known to the public. No official documents, no new facts or conclusions, are brought forward to justify a new publication. We had looked for original information on a subject marked by a constant variation of features. But no such thing. The author had no new discovery in political economy to announce, and he has given us no new facts to sustain or illustrate his theory. That he should thus content himself with giving to the public what the public long before possessed, we cannot help thinking a piece of most unexampled generosity, as well as a voluntary sacrifice of time and expense. Should wonders not haply have ceased, and this book come to a second edition, we must insist, in behalf of the literary community, that it be altogether new modelled, the speculations upon England, the view of society, literature, and manners in this country, his anecdotes and small talk, his sectional politics, and his roarings against the French, be forthwith irrevocably expunged, and the residue served as the sagacious physician did the cucumbers his patient had prepared with such elaborate solicitude. The statistics of Mr. Pitkin, with a few other books familiar to every reader in the United States, contain all the real information of the work before us; and it is quite unnecessary to pay for the repetition of a tale twice told.

The reader will look in vain in this work for what he probably expected in a book of five hundred pages, announced under such an imposing title. Though aware of the talents of Mr. Bristed, we had allowed ourselves to hope for accurate details of the amount of tonnage at the several ports, the value of imports and exports, distinguishing the different articles, to the latest period, which would have afforded a valuable supplement to Mr. Pitkin's tables, and furnished some light to enable us to judge of the effects of universal peace on our trade. We looked for the amount of duties collected at the different custom-houses, specifying their origin; the number of persons engaged in maritime pursuits, distinguishing the fisheries, the seamen in our public vessels agreeably to the returns in the navy department, the complement of our ships of war, their stations, with the number now building, the navy yards, founderies of cannon, armories, manufactories of gunpowder, the amount of the military force in detail, with its general distribution, and the number of our militia-for every thing, in fact, which, from a book of the size and title of the work before us, we had a right to expect. But grievous was the disappointment of our expectations, and grievously should the author answer for his deficiencies.

He may urge perhaps in his defence, that such information is not accessible to a person who does not choose to go to the seat of government for it, a piece of condescension hardly to be expected from a writer who seriously affirms in his present work, that it is almost impossible that there ever can be a wise and efficient administration of the American government while its seat continues at Washington. The unequalled simplicity and presumption of this assertion, and the reasons he gives for it, we shall expose more

particularly in the proper place. All we will say at present on the subject is, that if Mr. Bristed did not know how, or did not choose to take the trouble, to gain the information which alone can justify the publication of such an expensive work, he ought, in justice to himself and his readers, to have spared our country the additional burthen of sustaining such a weight of stale lumber as he has thus piled upon her.

After these general observations, we shall endeavour with due labour and pains to decompose the multifarious materials of this weighty heterogeneous mass, and reduce them to simple elements.

The geographical advantages of our situation are such, that the most superficial observer, who casts a look at futurity, may safely indulge the most sanguine predictions, that the highest rank among agricultural and commercial nations is our birthright. Placed between two oceans, and with one of our future borders on the Pacific, nearer to India and China than any European nation, we seem destined to outstrip every other in the race of enterprise and prosperity. The genius of the people for maritime pursuits displays itself in fearlessly embarking on the most distant and perilous enterprises-the perfection of their ships-their safety combined with swiftness-the skill with which they are navigatedand the deadly efficacy with which they are fought. The amount too of agricultural wealth, at all times increasing, has no bounds, as in Europe, and the decided tendency of the population to traverse westward in search of new lands, promises at no distant period to realize the wish of a free communication with the Pacific Ocean. The hunter is on the track-the woodcutter is at his heels--and the new settler purchases as he recedes, and acquires permanent dominion over a region without boundary, and without limits.

With these propensities in the nation--with the evidence of such qualities inherent in a people endowed with uncommon penetration and intelligence--universally educated-skilled in all the operative employments and useful arts-brave, but humane--possessing a thorough knowledge of the invaluable blessings they enjoynursed in the lap of Liberty, and jealous of prerogative--enterprising in the pursuits of peace as well as war--judicious to plan what they execute with vigour and celerity: with all these characteristicks and constituents of greatness-such a people, in such circumstances, must and will, fill an orb of primary magnitude. But after all, the main cause to which we are to look for the present prosperity, and future glory of the United States, is to be found in the nature of our government, which combines all the best principles favourable to human liberty--discards all those favourable to aristocracy-guards against the encroachments of executive -power, and at the same time, checks the extravagance of popular feeling in such a way, as to prevent its excesses from endangering the Constitution. In this view, it does seem to all human prudence, prepared in wisdom, fortified by experience, confirmed by practice, and as might be expected, supported with zeal and firmIt is a government calculated above all others to gain pro

ness.

selytes, as being economical-unfelt in its pressure-securing to each and all, the free enjoyment of the fruits of their labours-the produce of their property-recognizing no distinctions but such as spring from a difference of virtue and talent, and protecting the meanest citizen in the exercise of his religious and political opinions.

The moral effects of this devotion to a system of government, appealing thus forcibly to the hearts of men in all countries, and attaching its citizens so peculiarly to itself-to conciliate, in short, the suffrages of all mankind-have been too generally overlooked, as forming a most important item in the resources of the United States of America. They seem not to have entered into the comprehension of Mr. Bristed, and we have therefore been induced merely to hint at them, as forming, in our opinion, a most essential object of any work pretending to develop the sources of our present strength and prosperity, the causes of our future grandeur, and the means of our permanent safety. It is sufficient to hint at the fact, of that proneness to desertion exhibited by British soldiers and sailors, whenever they touch the soil of our country, to see at once, the moral effect of the universal opinion among the poor and middling classes of every country where the name of America has ever been heard, that this is the home of the poor man, and the refuge of the oppressed.

Having pointed out the general deficiencies of this work, we will now proceed to give the titles of each chapter, in succession, making such observations as occurred to us in the course of a cursory examination. It is but fair, however, to state here, what we before omitted unintentionally, that Mr. Bristed expressly disavows any intention of giving us a statistical view of the United States.' His object, he says, ' is merely to give a brief outline of the physical, intellectual, and moral character, capacity, and resources of the United States, with an entire determination to steer clear of all undue bias for or against either of the great contending political parties, which divide, agitate, and govern this ever-widening republic.' Having done the author this justice, we will take the liberty of observing, it appears a little singular that such being his intention merely, he has thought proper to swell his work into five hundred pages, for such is the size of this brief outline,' by incorporating with it an hundred pages of statistics copied literally from Mr. Pitkin and others. Nay, we will make free to ask him further, why he gave his book the high sounding title of Resources of the United States of America; or a View of the Agricultural, Commercial, Manufacturing, Financial, &c. capacity of the American people.' We are at a loss, simple as we are, to conceive how a work deserving such a magnificent title-page, could be otherwise than a statistical work; since statistical tables could alone afford data to enable the author to arrive at just conclusions.

The 'introductory remarks' consist of honest truisms and common place matter, remarkable only for being delivered in a clumsy, verbose, and inflated style, occasionally diversified with

such rare phrases, as rapidly-rising;'humorously-speaking;' 'ocean-chain;' 'broad source of ignorance;' 'bursting with vice and folly;' 'slang;' and many others--quos nunc prescribere longum est. In it we find a considerable deal of information, familiar to every person we presume, who is expected to read this work. We learn, that this country is destined to become exceedingly powerful, that it possesses great facilities for internal and external commerce-that besides the Atlantic states, the new empire in the west has two thousand miles of lake, one thousand miles of gulf, and one hundred thousand miles of internal ship and boat navigation, and that the whole country is one continued intersection of rivers, communicating with each other: the very information without a single addition, and delivered almost in the very words of Mr. Brown, in his preface to the Western Gazetteer. Indeed, and in honest truth, our author seems to have waited and watched patiently, during the eight years employed in compiling his book, to catch every thing that appeared in print, which could be useful to his purpose, and to have pressed it into his service just as he found it, without giving himself the trouble of either disguising the plagiarism, or deserving our forgiveness, by adding something valuable of his own. There is certainly no harm in gaining knowledge in this way, but we see no particular reason why a writer should think proper to publish a book of five hundred pages, without either adding to the stock of public information, or public amusement. The works from which he has copied (perhaps it would be more polite to say, borrowed) his information, are within the reach of all, and we fancy, are just as likely to be read as that of the citizen Bristed.

Having thus given us a specimen of style exceedingly unfortunate, when we are aware that he is about to act the part of critic in the course of his work, and a sample of his information not less unlucky, our author proceeds to attribute the want of correct information abroad concerning the United States, which he proposes to supply, to the unfounded narratives of travellers; a sentiment in which all must concur, and all have of late concurred. Of course we are not indebted to Mr. B. for any new information on this head. But not content with this honest truism, he couples it immediately with its contrast, by roundly asserting that the overcharged descriptions of the advantages we possess, are given by persons frustrated in their pernicious hopes at home, and sometimes smarting from the recent scourge; men who have been arraigned at the bar of justice in their own land, as traitors and felons, and who exchanged the well-merited gallows for an ignominious exile. These, and these alone, it seems, are the writers who have praised this country, as the seat of superior purity and universal happiness.

We will here take leave to retort the charge of misrepresentation full upon Mr. Bristed, in thus broadly stating what has no foundation in fact. We demand of him to name what writer under any of these circumstances, is known to the public as the author of a book of travels in this country. We summon him to adduce one solitary fact in support of his unwarranted assertion, and in

justification of this illiberal stigma thus attempted to be cast on unfortunate men, whom a great majority of his fellow-subjects, and a still greater majority of his fellow-citizens know to have been innocent victims of a relentless system of oppression. If he cannot do this, we shall without hesitation place this arrogant assertion to the earnest desire, every where actively employed under cover of affected impartiality, of casting a stigma upon certain republican principles cherished by our people, and upon the people themselves, by thus openly insinuating that the writers who have spoken most favourably of them, were traitors and fugitives from justice, who praised our country only to be revenged on England. Such however is the great mass of this work-a regular alternation of contrast between well known and obvious truths, generally made the basis of erroneous reasonings, and absurd general conclusions from assumed facts, of which we have no proof. He very seldom, we have observed, reasons right but from wrong premises, and hardly ever arrives at a just conclusion, except through the medium of a chain of reasoning most preposterously independent of the facts on which it is founded. We will instance a case in point, which will explain what we mean. It occurs in the fifth chapter, treating of the laws of the United States. The author says, crime committed in one state is not punishable in another.' 'Under such circumstances,' he adds, 'the only chance of punishing the culprit, lies in a provision of the federal constitution, which "declares that a person charged in any state with treason, felony, or other crime, who flies from justice, and is found in another state, shall on demand of the executive authority from whence he fled, be delivered up to be removed to the state having jurisdiction of the crime."

a

Now this is one of those facts known to all. It is noticed by M. Beaujour as a great defect in our system, and if we mistake not, he instances the very case cited by our author, as a proof of the ill consequences of this pretended peculiarity in our laws. From the fact, however, Mr. Bristed as usual, draws conclusions that have in no instance resulted from it, and in imitation of M. Beaujour, adduces a case having no application whatever to the subject, namely, that of Gen. Hamilton who was killed in a duel in the state of New-Jersey, by Mr. Burr, an inhabitant and citizen of New-York.

The same clause of the constitution alluded to, which directs the state executive to surrender a criminal, also enacts that 'the citizens of each state shall exercise all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states.' It follows that they can, and do, in every case procure the issue of warrants to take into custody criminals in every part of the United States, escaping from another part. When lodged in jail, a demand is made of the executive officer to deliver them up, in order that they may be tried where alone they ought to be tried-at home, where they committed the crime; where if guilty, the proofs of their guilt are most kely to be obtained, and if innocent, they stand the best chance