the people, of Great Britain. Let it, however, be remembered, that the author is writing to Americans as well as to Englishmen; that his countrymen may be supposed to regard this part of their history with peculiar fondness and exultation; and that these details may therefore be perused by them, not only without impatience, but with avidity.

Although this work is evidently the performance of an ardent admirer of American independence, we have hitherto remarked none of that furious and intemperate zeal which has frequently distinguished the advocates of that cause whose success he has recorded. Though a sincere patriot, Mr. Marshall cannot be charged with political bigotry and enthusiasm. But a warm attachment to our country is hardly consistent with perfect historical integrity; and the chief-justice has, perhaps unconsciously, admitted some partial statements which an unbiassed lover of truth might be pleased to see corrected. He seems to entertain no very keen sense of cruelty and bad faith except when committed by the British. He has also omitted to stigmatize with the reprobation they deserve, the refusal of congress to allow other prisoners to be returned in exchange for those liberated by the English after the affair at the Cedars (Vol. II. P. 433); and their still more disgraceful resolutions to prohibit the embarkation of general Burgoyne and his forces for England, according to the express stipulations of their surrender at Saratoga, on the unworthy pretext that the convention had been violated on the part of the British by their having omitted to deliver up a few belts and cartouch-boxes! Vol. III. P. 424.

We know not whether the author hoped to exalt his hero by magnifying the skill and conduct of the enemy whom he successfully opposed; but he has shewn considerable anxiety to rescue the character of sir William Howe from the prejudices generally indulged against him in England. (P. 407.) The obligations of America to the sagacity, firmness, and activity of Washington, will readily be admitted: but respecting his antagonist, we believe there is but one opinion in this part of the world; which is, that he contributed nearly as much as Washington to the ruin of the cause of Great Britain, and to the salvation of that of America.

On the style of this performance we have but little to remark: it is frequently hasty and unpolished; in many parts languid, in others somewhat deficient in perspicuity; and it seldom rises above the level of sober, unambitious mediocrity. The fault of the narration is, that it perpetually oppresses and entangles the memory with a multitude of subordinate and needless circumstances.

These pages are also disfigured by some words and expres

sions which, though they may be perfectly legitimate in the country of the author, will scarcely find an undisputed currency on this side of the Atlantic. We read of influential men,' dominant principles,' and 'demoralizing systems.' We hear of the fall succeeding the permit to settle the country. We have resemblage' for 'reassembling.' The writer informs us that the object of punishment was to coerce obedience;' that the parliament of Carolina 'could initiate nothing,' that the recruiting service progressed heavily,' that Massachussets 'produced a cautious neutrality,' and that general Washington possessed too much discernment to be dazzled with the false brilliant presented by those who urged the necessity of storming Philadelphia.' If the commander-in-chief really did assure his army that any officer, soldier, or corps, which should distinguish him or themselves,' should meet with notice and rewards, he may be forgiven for neglecting the niceties of language in the tumult of a camp; but his historian will not so easily be excused for admitting such unskilful and inelegant combinations as all-important, all-essential, and water-force' for forces employed by water.

We despair of being able to entertain our readers by the production of particular passages, and therefore shall not swell our pages by useless transcription. A few short extracts will be sufficient. The following is from a letter of Washington to a friend in New England, who had expressed some apprehension, occasioned by a report that the malice of an illiberal faction formed against him in congress had driven him to the resolution of resigning his command. It is stamped with the dignity of conscious virtue.

I can assure you that no person ever heard me drop an expression that had a tendency to resignation. The same principles that led me to embark in the opposition to the arbitrary claims of Great Britain operate with additional force at this day; nor is it my desire to withdraw my services while they are considered of import ance in the present contest: but to report a design of this kind is among the arts which those who are endeavouring to effect a change are practising to bring it to pass. I have said, and I still do say, that there is not an officer in the service of the United States that would return to the sweets of domestic life with more heart-felt joy than I should. But I would have this declaration accompanied by these sentiments, that, while the public are satisfied with my endeavours, I mean not to shrink from the cause: but the moment her voice, not that of faction, calls upon me to resign, I shall do it with as much pleasure as ever the weary traveller retired to rest.' Vol. III. p. 365.

General Conway, who had been a very active enemy of Washington, was engaged in a duel with general Cadwallader,

in which he received a wound, for some time supposed to be mortal. The following letter was addressed to Washington by Conway, when his recovery was despaired of, and when his mind was in a temper which could admit no interest or passion to interfere with truth. It may therefore be read as the purest encomium on the character of the commander-in-chief.

Sir, I find myself just able to hold the pen during a few minutes, and take this opportunity of expressing my sincere grief for having done, written, or said any thing disagreeable to your excellency. My career will soon be over; therefore justice and truth prompt me to declare my last sentiments. You are in my eyes the great and good man. May you long enjoy the love, veneration, and esteem of those states whose liberties you have asserted by your virtues.' Vol. III. P. 413.

Washington was in an eminent degree master of those qualities which the desperate situation of his country required in her protector. His temper was subject to no eccentric and irregular impulses; he was exempt from the dominion of that impatient desire for distinction which often loses itself by searching for the shortest way to success. He was content to pursue the happiness of his country through the most rugged and circuitous path. He had a steadiness of good sense, which no combination of mischances could disconcert; and a sober inflexible intrepidity, which forbade him ever to despair. His activity. was without rashness, and his valour without tumult or ostentation. He exhibited in a wonderful degree that difficult species of heroism by which Fabricius saved Rome; and which can encounter the clamours of prejudice, ignorance, and temerity, with the same indifference that it defies danger, pain, and death. To these we learn that he added other qualities no less essential to the success of a commander.

Happily for America there was in the character of Washington, something which enabled him, notwithstanding the discordant materials of which his army was composed, to attach both his officers and soldiers so strougly to his person, that no distress could weaken their affection, nor impair the respect and veneration in which he was held by then. To this sentiment is greatly to be attributed the preservation of a respectable military force, under circumstances but too well calculated for its dissolution.' Vol. III. P. 401.

On the whole, we must allow to this performance the praise. of an industrious compilation. Nor does the author appear to claim for it a higher character. It would be unjust not to notice the modesty of his pretensions, and his fears lest the expectations of the public should be disappointed.* We are

willing to regard these declarations of his diffidence as virtual engagements to render his work more worthy of the public attention, if another edition shall be called for; and this, we think, he cannot more effectually accomplish than by a judicious contraction of its dimensions.

We shall be careful to announce the remaining volumes, as soon as they make their appearance.

ART. II.-History of the Progress and present State of Animal Chemistry. By W. B. Johnson, M. B. 3 vols. 8vo. 11. 45. Johnson. 1804.

CURIOSITY has stimulated experimental philosophers to investigate the nature, properties, and constituent parts, of almost every inanimate substance: metaphysicians have treated copiously on the nature and powers of the human mind: anatomists have accurately developed the mechanism of animals: but there seems to be a natural repugnance to explore the component principles of animalized bodies. Any attempt, therefore, to collect the scattered opinions and isolated experiments of the philosophic investigators of animal substances, must be hailed alike by the speculative chemist and the physiologist, as a work calculated to be of primary utility. To the former it should present a mirror in which the imperfections and deficiencies of his science are displayed: to the latter, suggest new analogies, new combinations of medicines to augment their curative powers, and facilitate the progress of the healing art. From the experimentalist, whose mind, ever intent on new discoveries, is devoted to the accurate observation and examination of all the numerous appearances, affinities, and new results, of his operations, little critical arrangement is to be expected. It is the business of the historian, unoccupied by original inquiries, to combine, arrange in chronological order, and collect into a small but powerful focus, detached facts and explanatory opinions, in order to present a complete view of the origin, progress, and actual state, of any science. But what shall we say to the mere historian, who, totally regardless of dates and the natural progress of knowledge, presents us with an irregular mass of incoherent experiments and opinions, translated or transcribed with all that verbosity which an over-anxiety to be perspicuous often erroneously adopts? A protracted history of experiments, in a monotonous style so much more tedious than that of the originals, that it conveys no idea of the idiosyncracy or point in view of the different operators, replete with unimportant repetitions (pages 19, 21, &c.), without any attention to eras, to philological accuracy, and still less to the relative

quantities of the results of chemical analysis-Such, we fear, will be found the present work.

The author, after referring to the system of Dauberton,-a work too modern to be original, and too old to contain the late discoveries, proceeds to divide the animal substances that have been submitted to any chemical analysis, in the following manner: 1. Fluids: 2. Solids: 3. Hard Parts: 4. External Parts : 5. Oils: 6. Acids: 7. Poisons: 8. Aromatics: 9. Colouring Matter: 10. Concretions: and 11. Excrements.' (P. 2.) A recapitulation of the component parts of animal bodies; and an ap-, pendix of oviparous quadrupeds, insects, &c. terminate the second volume: and the third is on life-irritability, respiration and animal heat-death-putrefaction.'

The division is at once extremely inaccurate, redundant, and incomplete. The terms solids' and hard parts' may serve for the purposes of surgery, but are too inaccurate to be tolerated in the modern language of chemistry. Animal 'oils' rarely or never exist naturally in the fluid state, and therefore might have been treated as 'solids.' 'Aromatics,' under which indefinite term we find only ambergris, castor, civet, and musk, are so nearly allied to animal 'concretions,' that it will only perplex the memory and propagate false notions, to treat them under distinct heads. Almost every animal substance has its peculiar aroma, or odoriferous principle; but on that account must not be placed in a distinct division.-Nor do we find more accuracy or perspicuity in the subordinate arrangements. The author presents us, throughout the work, with a crude collection of experiments which are presumed to be the actual state of our knowledge, then subjoins a general recapitulation: thus reversing the order of his title, and the natural progress of human science.

. Dr. Johnson, after slightly mentioning the different methods of analysing animal substances, commences with experiments on eggs, which Fourcroy supposes to be coagulated by the magie powers of oxigen. Carradori, however, more correctly shews that oxigen is not even absorbed by the white of eggs; the volume of which is not changed either in the coagulated or liquid state. He attributes coagulation to a change produced by the solvent power of caloric, and the disposition of the integrant parts of the white to obey the force of cohesion.

By analysis the blood is divided into three parts 1st, The white serum (which contains albumen and gelatin): 2d, The red serum, or colouring matter: and 3d, The fibrin. The white serum is more abundant than the fibrin, and the red the least.' Its component parts consist of oxigen, azote, hydrogen, carbon, sulphur, phosphoric acid, soda, lime, iron, and a peculiar aroma. To these we might add caloric; and, however they may be actually component parts according to the nature