into the ranks. 'Lit for lighted has hitherto never been admitted into good company, and we hope never will be. At the entry of Washington into Trenton the young ladies inchantingly sung' an ode; but we wish the newspaper style had been changed. In a second edition, to which we ope Mr. Bancroft's essay will soon come, he may easily correct such trifling inaccuracies, as these, overcome at [by] the loss of ;' to [with] which the house concurred; the expectation that the war would this season terminate, as a dream passed away? The orthography of South-Carolina and New-York throughout the volume we dislike; and we believe the names of de Ternay and Destouches on page 268 are spelt wrong.

From either of these books the publick could not reasonably ex-, pect any information about projects or events, which may not be found in the valuable volumes of Chief Justice Marshall. In a note indeed Dr. Ramsay has informed us, we know not on what authori ty, that had Washington declined his appointment of commander in chief at the commencement of our war, that office was to have been conferred on general Ward of Massachusetts; and this is the only fact, which he could not have derived from Marshall. A very interesting relation is given by Mr. Bancroft of the kindness of Washington to the son of his old friend the Marquis La Fayette, which will undoubtedly be read with eagerness for its novelty and ten derness. We wish Judge Mar shall had comprized in his last volume a circumstance, that so

BOOK-MAKING has of late years been practised with great success in England; and it must be confessed, that in this country we have already made great progress in learning this valuable art. Some of the late travels in England are said to have been composed with out the labour of journies, by the assistance of former tourists, in the snug elbow-chair of a circulat ing library. The work before us was undoubtedly made in some such place; but Mr. Mease has improved upon the plan, and by using the words of the original au thors, has saved himself the trou ble of clothing their ideas in new language, which was before thought necessary. In future, any person wishing to become an author, need know nothing of the subject upon which he makes his book; he has only to take such works of his predecessors as are nearest at hand,and transcribe quantum sufficit. The work of Mr. Mease is composed of shreds from authors, who have written upon North-America. It is a patch-work, where, though we

recognise the materials of authors who had once afforded us instruction and pleasure, yet we find them so cut up, arranged with so little judgment, and joined in so clumsy a manner, that we forget the delight we had derived from the originals.

The first hundred and eighteen pages, upon the internal structure, the climate, and the winds of the United States, are abridged, with a few little alterations and some small additions, from the English translation of Mr. Volney's work on these subjects. Mr. Mease does not inform us of this. He says, indeed, in his preface: In treating of the climate, the geology and winds of the United States, the divisions and remarks of Mr. Volney have been assumed as the basis.' But this does not imply the superstructure and the whole edifice. Nor does Mr. Mease lead us to conclude, that he has copied the work of Mr. V. either by changing the first person of the verb in the original for the neuter third person; as, it is remarked, for I have remarked ;' or by citing, among other authorities, Mr. V. himself, to support his own text. A note, indeed, sometimes corrects the statement in the text, as if it was the work of some other person. We cannot give Mr. Mease much praise for this abridgment. He has inserted some of those absurd passages, which we only pardon in Volney for the excellence of the other parts of his work he has omitted some interesting details, and curtailed others. But as this part of the work will come under review, as the property of Mr. V. in some future number, we shall make po further remark upon it at present.

Mr. Mease next proceeds to

give a short account of each of the great lakes, which is principally taken from Morse's geography, and Mr. Morse's name is put at the bottom of the page. The account of lake Champlain however is transcribed from Williams' history of Vermont, but the name of Mr. W. is not mentioned.

From lakes Mr. Mease proceeds: to rivers, of which he mentions but a small number. The account of these is taken from Morse, Belknap, and several others, but is quite cursory. At the end of this article he says: A further description of the rivers of the United States would be unnecessary, and not consistent with the nature of this work; especially too as they are so fully described in the excellent geography of Rev. Dr. Morse, whose work should be in the hands of every one who wishes to become accu. rately acquainted with this coun try. This compliment, we sup pose, is meant to pay for the goods he has stolen from the Doctor.

The next chapter is upon the soil and vegetables of the United States. The first article is extremely superficial, and contains a short paragraph upon the soil of each state, mostly transcribed from Morse. He modestly allows, that the materials are principally from that gentleman. The other article upon vegetables does not inform us of any considerable number of the plants that grow in this country; but it contains a tolerable description of a few of those that are mentioned. The account of grasses is full and satisfactory; but we believe green-sward is not the only species that will root out clover the first year. The part upon oaks is from the valuable work of Michaux,

with pointing out the author of each particular paragraph. It will be sufficient to say, that we have found about three quarters of this book transcribed from Volney, Morse, Williams, and other writers upon North-America, in general literally, but sometimes the .words a little altered. Had we taken the trouble to have examined, we have no doubt but we should have found the greater part of the remainder transcribed in the same manner. Yet, with all this assistance, Mr. Mease does not give even a tolerable idea of the United States. Excepting in that part which is taken from Volney, no general idea is given upon any subject. He mentions but a small number of the rivers of the United States, and refers to Morse for the remainder. In the same manner he describes grasses and oaks minutely, while the greater portion of the vegetable tribe are passed over without notice. His account of birds includes only eleven species; and under the head of reptiles, we find an account only of the rattle-snake. We should likewise from this book suppose New· England destitute of minerals, nor should we know, that there were more than two bridges in the union. To have given a correct general idea of the United States, would have required judgment and investigation; Mr. Mease has exercised neither, but has content ed himself with giving whatever presented itself upon the subject of his work. He introduces sufficient original matter to let us know that he has strong American feelings. He would show, that our animals are larger, our soil more productive, and our country more salubrious, than those in Europe.

He would even attempt to prove, that the extreme variable

ness of our climate makes it more healthy. The account he introduces, attributing the superiour mildness of the English winter to the gulf-stream is certainly errorus; for when that stre: m strikes the banks of Newfoundland, although the greater part may be turned off towards Europe, yet a part returns in an eddy along the shores of Maine and Massachusetts, and would produce a greater effect upon our climate, than the larger body would upon the climate of England, (even supposing it reached that country) after having traversed the Atlantick.

The style must of course be as various as that of the authors, from whom Mr. Mease transcribes. We shall give one instance to show with how little ability, he has put his work together. In speaking of the Monongahela, he says: At sixteen miles from its mouth is Youghigeny; this river is navigable with batteaux and barges to the foot of Laurel hill. This river is four hundred yards wide at its mouth.' The transcription from Morse begins with this last sentence, and in his work applies to the Monongahela; but as it is introduced by Mr. Mease it is said of the Youghigeny. Morse says the Muskingum is one hundred and fifty yards wide at its mouth; Mease in copying says two hundred and fifty. It would be needless to point out other errors. Whether Mr. Mease meant to deceive the publick by passing this off for an original work, we know not. On the one hand, he generally refers to the authors, from whom he has borrowed; on the other, he speaks of using them only as guides and authorities. He never uses double commas, but for short quotations, and frequently does not refer to the author from