2

which they naturally presented to each other's circulation. This objection to their journals, the editors have always been anxious to remove, and they believe that they have succeeded in doing it by the present arrangement. At all events, they are confident of their power to present their readers in future with a greater variety of matter. The main object of the editors has hitherto been to furnish a seasonable and complete view of the progress and state of our national literature. This purpose will not be essentially changed, although they may hereafter embrace within their scope more topics of general interest to the public, and offer occasionally an article upon some of the principal traits in the policy of our national government.

The arrangement of the articles in the new journal will not materially vary from that of its predecessors. A place will be allotted to a REVIEW of such new works, as, from the nature of their subjects, or other reasons, may seem to require to be considered at some length. The journal will also contain a department for MISCELLANY, and one for ORIGINAL POETRY. Among the CRITICAL NOTICES the editors hope to be able to give a brief account of nearly all the works published in this country, which may be thought deserving of notice in a literary journal. No pains will be spared in the collection of literary and scientific INTELLIGENCE; and a monthly catalogue will be given of all NEW WORKS published in the United States. A Literary Advertiser, of

3

eight pages, will be appended to each number, which subscribers will receive gratis.

The work will be published simultaneously at New York and Boston, on the first of every month. Each number will contain 80 pages, octavo, making two volumes a year, of 480 pages each, exclusive of the Literary Advertiser. It will be printed with new types, and on paper of the same quality, with that of the late numbers of the Literary Gazette, and be sent to distant subscribers on the day of publication, by mail, or in any other way they may direct. It will be forwarded, also, to any part of the United States to new subscribers, on the receipt of one year's subscription, five dollars. All letters and communications relating to the editorial department of the journal must be directed, free of postage, to WILLIAM C. BRYANT, care of G. & C. Carvill, Publishers, New York, or to CHARLES FOLSOM, care of Bowles & Dearborn, Publishers, Boston.

Subscriptions are received by the publishers at New York or Boston, or by any of their Agents throughout the United States.

The Diplomacy of the United States; being an Account of the Foreign Relations of the Country, from the First Treaty with France in 1778, to the Treaty of Ghent in 1814, with Great Britain. Boston. Wells & Lilly. 1826. pp. 381.

WHEN We read the political writings, in which the question of our independence was originally discussed, they appear to be still a contemporary matter. We recur to the pages of Adam Smith, for example; we ponder the observations of the cool, calculating economist, where he sets a value on the fame and character of the founders of our political greatness, as phlegmatically as he would appraise a bale of cotton; and we ask ourselves,-Can it be, that all this has ceased to be speculation, and has now

become history? "The persons," he says, "who now govern the resolutions of what they call their Continental Congress, feel in themselves at this moment a degree of importance, which, perhaps, the greatest subjects in Europe scarce feel. From shopkeepers, tradesmen, and attorneys, they are become statesmen and legislators, and are employed in contriving a new form of government for an extensive empire, which, they flatter themselves, will become, and which, indeed, seems very likely to become, one of the greatest and most formidable that ever was in the world.”

Who are these upstart "shopkeepers, tradesmen, and attorneys," thus cavalierly condemned? Raised to a giddy elevation amidst the turbulent movements of rebellion, can it be, that they possess integrity of character, experience of affairs, firmness of purpose, and vigor of intellect, sufficient to sustain them in their novel situation? Has the "shopkeeper" Hancock acquired skill at the counter to conduct the deliberations of a revolutionary Congress? Will the "tradesman” Franklin quit the narrow walk of a mechanic art, and expand at once to the full proportions of a statesman and legislator? In such an emergency, "when the high roads are broken up, and the waters out; when a new and troubled scene is opened, and the file affords no precedent," must not the "attorneys," Adams and Jefferson, be overwhelmed in the stormy elements, which, like Massaniello, they could rouse into fury, but cannot control?

The lapse of a few years already furnishes a complete answer to these questions. Heaven has affixed the sanction of unparalleled success to "the resolutions of what we call our Continental Congress;" and the glory of a nation made free by their magnanimity, of a world filled with the principles of liberty, which they dared to maintain, immortalizes the memory of that august assembly. They knew their own strength. They well appreciated the future destiny of their country. Sustained by the one, and animated by the contemplation of the other, they obeyed a voice within, which told them;

That, which in mean men we entitle patience,

Is pale, cold cowardice in noble breasts.

And the infant republic, to which they then gave being, is now, under the influence of the institutions they established, hastening onward with a giant's steps in the path of greatness and of honor.

These reflections very naturally pass through our minds on rising from a perusal of the history of our Diplomacy;—the history of our negotiations, upon equal footing, with the mighty and the ancient states of Europe. This work exhibits our country as a member of the great family of civilized empires; no longer a poor dependent colony; no longer an humble province, receiving laws at the dictation of a foreign master, but herself imposing terms of peace, pacis imponere morem,—and her alliance eagerly sought after by the proudest nations of the world. And had the author extended his researches to the present time, he would have shown her to us, the exemplar and