rate, and the incapable,-Mr. Wilkinson's claims could not be denied and would not be resisted. But if, on the other hand, public offices were instituted for public purposes; requiring the exercise of health, strength, knowledge, integrity and understanding, and necessarily connecting themselves with the high destinies of a great empire-then, we hesitate not to say, it was obviously the duty of the government to dismiss him.

It was our intention, when we began these remarks, to have extended them to the General's opinions, reflections and details, political and military-as intimated in the third page of our last number. But, besides that we have already given to his Memoirs fifty-three pages of this Review, we begin to feel that it is possible, to have too much even of a good thing; and not willing to subject our readers to a similar sensation, we hasten to take leave of the Memoirs and their author, with an assurance-not of our respectful homage-for that would be palpable irony;-but, (what will really show a disposition to serve him,) of our sincere prayers for his speedy repentance and radical amendment both as a man and a writer.

ART. II. An Appeal from the Judgments of Great Britain respecting the United States of America. Part First. Containing an historical outline of their merits and wrongs as Colonies; and strictures upon the calumnies of the British writers. By ROBERT WALSH, JUN. 8vo. pp. 512. Mitchell, Ames, and White. Philadelphia, 1819.

AGAINST the great objection to this work of Mr. Walsh, that it is calculated to excite and propagate among his countrymen, a 'general animosity to the British name, by way of counteracting, or revenging, the animosity which is supposed to be entertained ' against them by the English'a-Mr. Walsh is supported by the approbation of his countrymen. We are happy in thinking that he regards more the public opinion of his own country, than the judgment of any other tribunal on earth,—that his talents will henceforth be arrayed on the side of the general opinions and feelings of this people, and that, by concurring with their good sense and honest sentiments, he may possess an influence which will enable him to sway their opinions, on those points where the assistance of extraordinary acuteness and intelligence shall be requisite.-Public opinion, in every well-informed community, has more power over the conduct and condition of a people, than even the sacred injunctions (separately considered) of Religion. In this country, it

a See p. 355, of this No. Article from the Edinburgh Review.

controls the laws themselves,-not merely in their formation, but, when inconsiderately passed, in their execution. How important then, to have the public opinion formed, and the general sentiment moulded, upon the principles of justice and honour as well as morality. The exerted talents of one individual,--such is the state of intelligence in this country,-cannot now affect its public opinion, unless there is joined to the commanding genius of the man, the just esteem of his motives by the people.

That this work of Mr. Walsh has not a criminal, an unworthy and unwise object,'a would be 'we think' as easily to be demonstrated to Americans, as would be the assisting to repel and chastise the wanton aggressions of a powerful foe in the field,-though, at the same time, it might be very difficult to make one of the leaders of the enemy acknowledge the worthiness, the wisdom, or the civility, of such chastisement. Its necessity has been shown by the author in the course of the work itself; its propriety has been confirmed by the effects it has produced. It is remarkable how well Mr. W. has answered, in anticipation, all the objections which have been found to his book: he says in the preface to this first part,

"It is not offered as a digested book; but as a series of Notes and Illustrations; and it could not be other, from the shortness of the time within which it has been composed. The immediate object required, indeed, nothing more. I have to apologize rather for the bulk of the volume, which exceeds my own expectation; and is owing to the impression under which I proceeded, that the quotations, instructive in themselves, and useful towards elucidation and proof, should not be curtailed for the sake of economizing a certain number of pages. As respects diction, I have aimed at clearness and significancy alone. What has been instantly transferred from the desk to the press, must necessarily be liable to the reproach of diffusion and roughness. It is not a model of style or of epitome that is wanting on such an occasion as the British writers have created, for the exertion of our faculties of literary defence, whatever these may be; but an aggregation of facts pointedly told, and the production in detail of whatever tends to rectify perverse, or propagate just opinions.--My purpose in this undertaking generally, is not merely to assert the merits of this calumniated country; I wish to repel actively, and, if possible, to arrest, the war which is waged, without stint or intermission, upon our national reputation."

He expresses a liberal and just sense of the influence and general character of the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews, whose articles on the subject of America have given the immediate provocation to this appeal:

a Idem, p. 355, of this No.

:

"Those journals exert an unrivalled influence over the British public; they are not without considerable authority on the continent of Europe, where they are widely circulated; they have credit and sway with numbers of readers, even in the United States in the catalogue of their authors and special patrons we find men of eminence, both in letters and politics; some who have a material share in the public councils of their country, and whose writings, on other subjects than the affairs of America, possess a degree of excellence, which invests the pamphlets in question with a general character of great weight and value."

Mr. W. remarks that the hope was indulged, as the developement of the real condition and character of the United States became more conspicuous to the world, that the higher class of Englishmen, and the more intelligent, at least, of their literary censors, would have refrained from their misrepresentations and contumelious language concerning this country. But the notoriety of facts has not produced a tone any more conformable to truth or sound policy, nor repressed the indulgence of their spirit of envy and arrogance. So that the disappointment has become complete, to the Americans who were best affected toward Great Britain, of whom Mr. W. was certainly one, and to all who have observed the tenor of the late British writings and speeches, in which a reference is made to this nation.

"It was, too, believed by many, that the British writers would assign some bounds to their attacks, as long as we forbore to recriminate; and it was thought harsh and uncharitable to touch the sores and blotches of the British nation, on account of the malevolence and folly of a few individuals, or of a party, within her bosom. The whole is proved to be mere illusion. There is no intemperance of provocation, which could have excited more rancour, and led to fiercer and wider defamation, than we find in the two articles of the forty-first number of the Quarterly Review, which treat of American affairs. The whig journals have begun to rail in the same strain: the Opposition have joined, with the ministerial party, even on the floor of parliament, in a hue and cry against "American ambition and cruelty;" and in affecting to credit the coarse inventions of Englishmen who have either visited us for the express purpose of manufacturing libels, or betaken themselves to this expedient on their return home, as a profitable speculation."

Of these British writers, politicians and voyagers, he says"We cannot defeat their purpose as far as their countrymen are concerned; but we may guard the better against the effects of the hatred and contempt which they labour to inculcate, by acquainting ourselves thoroughly with the true nature and scope of their designs. If we have, as I verily believe, a band of implacable and

indefatigable foes, in those who direct the public affairs, and mould the public mind, of Great Britain, we should be fully alive to the fact, and alert in using the means in our power, of restraining the effusions of their malice." Mr. W., as if he had anticipated the cry of those, who, having committed the first outrage, now appeal for protection to the principles of 'generous philanthropy, a remarks that "National antipathies are to be deprecated in themselves; to excite them wantonly, is an offence against humanity and religion; but we are not censurable, if they are produced incidentally, by the course which self-defence may require of us to pursue. It is the English writer who becomes doubly culpable, if his pertinacity in defaming the United States, be such as to leave to the American, whose right it is to check this as well as every other form of hostility, no resource for the purpose, but the exhibition of what is odious and despicable in the character, conduct, and composition of the British nation."

Mr. W. justly intimates, that the principal source of the aspersions against the United States, is the vanity of British superiority. The British writers and orators would have it believed, that "it is the excellence, the purity, and the liberty, and the comfort, which they see at home, which quicken their sensibility and embitter the expression of their hate, to the evils and abuses abounding on this side the water." We therefore concur with him in the decision that "to expose their real spirit and aims, and to fortify the confidence in our relative merit, necessary to us in this struggle with systematic detraction we are compelled to investigate and set forth the misery and turpitude by which they are surrounded, and the wrongs and insults of which we have had constantly to complain. This is not mere recrimination; it is resistance to degrading comparisons and injurious pretensions; we tear off one of the many disguises which our enemies assume to facilitate their project of bringing us into disrepute with mankind.

"It is, certainly, wretched sophistry to argue, as they do, from single instances of disorder and vice; and neither fair nor charitable to display only what is bad in a mixed system, in which the good may greatly predominate. We would not be entitled to follow this example, but for the purpose of repressing it, by showing how severely Great Britain may suffer in her turn from its adoption elsewhere. Upon the principles of the logic which she has used against the United States, she might be proved to be the most miserable and wicked nation that has ever existed."

In the task Mr. W. has assumed, he appeals for proofs, to no scrutiny of his own, to no statement which he has drawn up of his own observations and examinations-nor to any American

a See page 384, this No.

writings or journals of travels,-much less "to obscure and vulgar witnesses, labouring under the suspicion of national prejudice, personal pique, or gross venality,"-" but to British authorities of the highest standard; to British historians and legislators, and even to the very journals," to which British authors look up for judgment, and the writers of which assume the authority to judge of the character as well as capacity of other nations. Mr. Walsh will be found to use, "not suspicious foreign, but, in almost every instance, unquestionable British statements; not the allegations of General Pillet-quite as trustworthy as those of the Jansons and Fearons-but the records of Parliament and the oracles of the British empire. Here, it cannot escape the reader, how much more dignified and warrantable the retaliation, than the attack; and that, in repelling aggression with evidence derived from these sources, we do not descend to the level of those who bespatter us with the collections of natural or hired scavengers of their own blood and temper."

We cordially approve of the method of response and appeal which Mr. Walsh has adopted; and we are convinced that in the execution of it, he has done great credit to the country. We must be permitted to extract two passages from the North American Review on this work, as we are glad to sustain our opinion, by a reference to so high an authority.

"We have heard objections to the general design of Mr. Walsh's book. It is a common remark, at least in this part of the country, that the unavoidable tendency of such vehement recrimination as it is supposed to contain, is to widen the breach, to perpetuate hostile feelings, and to awaken or cherish a bad spirit in our country toward the country with which some tender associations connect us, and with which as we are to have most of our dealings, it were best to be on courteous terms. We have been calumniated, they say, it is true, but this has mostly been by illiterate and itinerant pretenders, and if the war of defamation is not to be carried on ad internecionem, a stop must somewhere be put to it, and we ought to set the example. This course of remark breathes a spirit, which one must commend, but justifies itself by incorrect assumptions. It is not wholly by illiterate and ignorant itinerants that we are calumniated, but by the highest political and literary authority, in the most respectable journals, and on the floor of parliament. That the calumnies which have received the seal of these grave authorities are derived from ignoble and contemptible sources is true but it is partly this very thing which constitutes the injury, and makes it necessary to vindicate ourselves from charges, which not only their own grossness, but the poor authority from which they are derived have not rendered duly suspicious. Neither does it seem to us correct to accuse Mr. Walsh of having taken an injudicious course, VOL. I.

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