ART. I.-The Life of General Washington, Commander in Chief of the American Forces during the War which established the Independence of his Country, and first President of the United States. Compiled under the Inspection of the Honourable Bushrod Washington, from Original Papers bequeathed to him by his deceased Relative. To which is prefixed an Introduction, containing a Compendious View of the Colonies planted by the English on the Continent of America. By John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States. Vols. I. and II. (1804), and III. (1805). 4to 17. 115. 6d., and 8vo · 10s. 6d., each volume, boards. Phillips.

THE predominant feelings with which we perused these volumes, were fatigue and disappointment: fatigue, at the prolixity of the narration; and disappointment, at the variance between the contents of the work and the promise of the titlepage. Moreover, the joy which we were ready to indulge on the accomplishment of our task, was greatly repressed by an advertisement of the publisher, threatening us with one, if not two, more volumes, which we presume will make their appearance in the course of the spring. The same advertisement, however, promises, as an appendix to a future volume of the English edition, an original and most important communication from an illustrious statesman in this country, relative to the secret causes which brought about the peace of 1783.

With whatever veneration the character of Washington may be regarded, it will probably be asked by most of our readers, why his biography should be swelled to so unreasonable a bulk? It may possibly lessen their surprise without adding to their satisfaction, to inform them, that the pages before us contain rather a history of America, than a life of the father of her inCRIT. REV. Vol. 4. April, 1805.

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dependence. A delineation of the private life of this illustrious man may, we presume, be reasonably expected in the volumes. which are yet to appear, and which may perhaps on that account excite much more lively interest than has been raised by the incidents recorded in the first part of the work.

The present compilation, we are informed (Pref. p.xviii), has been chiefly extracted from the immensely voluminous collection of letters which passed to and from the commander in chief during the war, and which have been carefully preserved. The object of the learned chief-justice, in his selections from this correspondence, seems to have been to illustrate the events of the war by the light of manuscripts of which the authority is unquestionable; and to present the public with a distinct view of the opinions, the schemes, and the feelings, of this illustrious man, while environed with a frightful complication of difficul ties and dangers, which, though they often rent his heart with anguish, never seem to have disconcerted his firmness, or clouded his discrimination.

Of these papers, however, we are greatly tempted to wish that the author had made a more limited and judicious use. We are well acquainted with the difficulty of selection; and are on that very account more seriously disposed to regret the impatience of the subscribers*, which has dragged the present publication into premature existence, disfigured by imperfections which leisure might have reformed, and loaded with redundancies which deliberate judgment might have retrenched. The public have certainly some reason to complain, that the burthen of literature has been increased by the addition of a large book, merely because the precipitation of certain individuals has denied the author time to compose a small one. But good and evil are in this world inseparable. The facility of communication which contributes so essentially to the diffusion of knowledge, and forms the pride and the happiness of modern days, also threatens frequently to overwhelm learning with its own weight. It has multiplied beyond the example of former times the stock of materials easily accessible to every literary adventurer in the lottery of fame and profit. In no departments of literature is its diseased and dropsical exuberance more plainly visible than in those which are occupied by the compilers of biography and history. It is difficult to contemplate without dismay the alarming growth of their labours:

Oblita modi millesima pagina surgit

Omnibus, et multâ crescit dammosa papyro. Juv.

Preface, page xxv.

To exhibit the character of general Washington in such a manner as to secure to it the admiration it deserves, it was necessary to present the reader with a minute and faithful display of all the difficulties which obstructed his way; and of the feebleness of his means, compared with the effects they accomplished under his direction. Perhaps there are few characters in the records of history whose greatness is more independent than that of Washington. His fame is a plant which rooted itself in the midst of gloom and tempest: it was seldom warined in its growth by the fostering sunshine of good fortune; but it clung to the rock with a closeness proportioned to the violence of the storm which assailed it. On his own heroic equanimity alone did he rely for support in the midst of disaffection and dismay. From the serenity and firmness of his countenance were his exhausted, spiritless, and naked soldiers, to draw that courage which only could invigorate them to resistance against an enemy superior in numbers, highly disci plined, and completely appointed.

At the head of troops, most of whom were perpetually raw, because they were perpetually changing; who were neither well fed, paid, clothed, nor armed; and who were generally inferior, even in numbers, to the enemy; he derives no small title to glory from the consideration that he never despaired of the public safety, that he was able at all times to preserve the appearance of an army, and that, in the most desperate situation of American affairs, he did not, for an instant, cease to be formidable. To preserve an army when conquest was impossible, to avoid defeat and ruin when victory was unattainable, to keep his forces embodied, and suppress the discontents of his soldiers, exasperated by a long course of the most cruel privations, to seize with unerring discrimination the critical moment when vigorous offensive operations might be advantageously carried on, are actions not less valuable in themselves, nor do they require less capacity in the chief who performs thein, than a continued succession of battles.' P. xvi.

Such was Washington; and such it is the object of this work to represent him. It will, however, be very difficult to persuade us that this object might not have been accomplished fully to the satisfaction of his most ardent admirers by one, or, at the utmost, two modest octavos; nor have we been able to discover to what purpose these volumes have been swelled by the details of every battle and every skirmish, collected and related with the laborious accuracy and minuteness of a gazette. The description of military operations can rarely be rendered interesting to the generality of readers, unless recommended by the charms of historical painting; nor is it likely that they should ever be useful to those whose profession is war, unless he who relates them was himself a soldier, and present at the

engagements he describes. It were devoutly to be wished that the compilers of history either knew, or would recollect, the advice of old marshal Schomberg to bishop Burnet. He earnestly cautioned the historian to beware of encumbering his narrative with a minute and detailed account of battles: the multitude could seldom be amused or instructed by such relations; and in all the histories he had ever read, he declared there was generally some error in the military descriptions, which rendered them entirely useless to military men. Had this very sensible admonition been present to the mind of our author, we should possibly have been relieved from many a weary page, concerning the fall of a redoubt, or the fate of a detachment; nor should we have been regaled with such liberal extracts from the annual registers, and the dispatches and correspondence of the day. The tormenting prolixity with which the expedition to fort Du Quesne is related (Vol. II. page 80 & seqq.), may exhibit a fair specimen of the severe experiments made by the author on the patience of his readers in the course of this performance.

The Introduction, which presents a compendious history of the growth and maturity of the British colonies in America, occupies the whole of the first volume. It commences with the discovery of Newfoundland by John Cabot, in 1498; and concludes with the expulsion of the French from Canada, and the peace of 1763.

The work appeared to the author to be most sensibly incomplete and unsatisfactory, while unaccompanied by such a narrative of the principal events preceding our revolutionary war, as would make the reader acquainted with the genius, character, and resources of the people about to engage in that memorable contest. This appeared the more necessary, as that period of our history is but little known to ourselves. Several writers have detailed very minutely the affairs of a particular colony, but the desideratam is a composition which shall present, in one connected view, the transactions of all those colonies which now form the United States.

The materials for the complete execution of such a work are perhaps not to be found in America; and, if they do exist, their collection would require a length of time, and a labour of research, which neither the impatience of the public, nor the situation of the author, would enable him to bestow on the subject. Yet he thought it more eligible to digest, into one volume, the most material of those facts, which are now scattered through several books, than to commence his history abruptly with the war between Great Britain and her colonies." P. XX.

If this be not a necessary, it is at any rate a very acceptable, introduction to a history of the American revolution. Though it is deficient in the graces of style, and in that charm of nar.

ration which invites and detains the attention; though it exhibits little of that enlightened spirit of philosophy which converts facts into precepts, and out of the records and documents of the annalist extracts a digest of moral and political wisdom; yet the nature of the subject, and the sober good sense which predominates in its management, cannot but communicate to it à considerable portion of interest. It is impossible not to be gratified with a view of the infancy of those states which have contributed so powerfully to the commercial strength of this country; which from the moment of their existence displayed that inflexible attachment to freedom which ended in their separation from Britain; and in which many have affected to see the future asylum of liberty, when the gigantic predominance of some particular power shall deny her a longer residence in Europe. One most important lesson is to be learned from this account of the British colonies:-that, of the numerous manufacturers of constitutions who were proud to shew their wisdom by providing governments for the new-born states, none were found to succeed so happily, and to consult so effectually the practical convenience of the settlers, as those who followed most nearly the model of their native country.

The curiosity of our philosophical readers will probably be gratified by an account of the original constitution of Carolina, which, it is well known, was furnished by Locke. This province was granted by the crown, in absolute property, to several noblemen, one of whom was lord Clarendon. The proprietors made several unsuccessful attempts to provide their new settlement with a government which should secure its prosperity: till,

Dissatisfied with all their own systems, the proprietors at length applied to the celebred Locke, for the plan of a constitution adapted to their infant colony. They supposed that this profound and acute reasoner on politics as well as other subjects, must necessarily be deeply skilled in the science of governing men. He framed for them a body of fundamental laws, which were afterwards, in 1669, approved and adopted. By them a palatine was to be chosen for life, from among the proprietors, who was empowered to act as president of the palatine court, composed of all those who were entrusted with the execution of the powers of the charter. A body of hereditary nobility was created, to be denominated landgraves and caciques, the former to be invested with four baronies, consisting each of four thousand acres, and the latter to have two, containing each two thousand acres of land. These estates were to descend with the dignities for ever.

The provincial legislature, denominated a parliament, was to consist of the proprietors, and in the absence of any one of them his place was supplied by his deputy chosen by himself; of the nobility; and the representatives of the freeholders of every district.