as M. Dufief, Mr. Jefferson, and a little girl two years old, --that children learn phrases first, and single words afterwards ;--that the light and heat of the sun are of no use ;-that anarchy and self-government are better than virtue and social order ;--and that atheism and profligacy are more beneficial in their effects than are religion and sound morality?

For the present month, we will take leave of the Author of Nature Displayed, by applying to him the words of a wellknown author, whom we need not translate, as he writes in the French language.

"Il-(i. e. M. Dufief)-possede l'antiquité, comme on le peut voir par les belles remarques qu'il a faites. Sans lui nous ne sçaurions pas que dans la ville d' Athenes les enfans pleuroient quand on leur donnoit le fouet.-Nous devons cette decouverte a sa profonde erudition.

On second thoughts, however, we will translate this passage for the benefit of the mere English reader,-" He(i. e. M. Dufief)-possesses the knowledge of all antiquity, as we plainly perceive by the sagacity of his remarks. Had it not been for him, we should never have known that the children in Athens cried when they were whipped. We owe this discovery to his profound erudition."

(To be continued.)

AN INQUIRY into the present state of the foreign relations of the Union, as effected by the late measures of Administration, &c.

THE

(Continued from page 103. Vol. 2d. No. 2.)

HE aim and end of the work now under review are disclosed by the author in the following words:

"I would urge the inquiries;—Whether-(or not)—the national honour has been preserved untarnished? Whether-(or not) the national dignity had been ever kept in view by those, who are delegated to watch over it? Whether-(or not) the true

and solid interests of the country, as effected by the critical relations of the times, had been provided for with prudence and firmness? Whether (or not)—the resources of the country had been applied with economy and to their best possible purposes? And, in a word, Whether-(or not)—all difficulties had been encountered with a firm moderation, and an intrepid air of independant defiance, tempered with charity and attended by justice?"

Before we proceed in our examination of this work we beg leave to remark, that it is not correct to write the word whether without its respondent or, às thus-resolve whether you will or no-Shakspeare. When our foreign trade exceeds our exportation of commodities, our money must go to pay our debts, whether melted or not.-Locke.

We must also apprize our reader, that we intend to make large and frequent extracts from the work before us, because the importance of the matter which it contains, and the force and eloquence with which the sentiments of the writer are urged, require this tribute of applause to be paid to him, whose genius and knowledge confer honour on his country; whose manly intrepidity presses the most solemn and momentous truths upon the attention of his fellow-citizens; and whose strength of reasoning, and keenness of sarcasm, have unravelled and exposed the most intricate web, that fraud, and malice, and corruption, and hypocrisy, and cowardice, and treachery, and falsehood, have ever woven, against the welfare, the existence, the character, and the honour of a nation, throughout all its bearings, connections, and dependencies.

After proving, with an energy and precision of reasoning, which neither argument can oppose, nor sophistry elude, that America is, notwithstanding the rolling of the Atlantic main between her and Europe, intimately connected with foreign nations, through the medium of her extensive and increasing commerce, the author sketches this bold and masterly picture of the civilized world.

"Certainly, if there ever was a period, which demanded a wisdom, almost celestial, in the administration of human affairs, it is the period present with us. This is a crisis, which seems to display what has just passed within our memory, and what would, in other days, have astonished the world, as the mere prelude to changes, which no intelligence could foresee, and which no intelligence can

completely follow; as the mere sports of children to be outdone by the labours of giants. We see empires, states, kingdoms, republics, rising, falling, suspended, or destroyed, with the celerity of the air-built fabrics of the brain ;-the old potentates of Europe, seated upon trembling thrones, under which has been worked the mine of public opinion, ready to be sprung at any moment; or, else, tumbled from their proud exaltation, and made to give place to the bastard spawn of lawless royalty ;-kingdoms changed into republics, and, by a Napoleon process, again converted into kingdoms; the sceptre of the Bourbons gone to a man, who is but of yesterday, and a new Charlemagne trampling upon the nations of the west. We see arts, intrigues, treachery, force, persuasion, and whatever else can be devised in the councils of usurping ambition, used to annihilate every difficulty, that may possibly be found in its bloody road to universal empire, and to secure a supremacy among nations, by blasting the power of every people, who dare to hold up an independent front. A new arrangement of things, in which France is to stand as controller of the world, exalted in triumph, upon the ruins of liberty and right, seems rapidly progressing to a full accomplishment. The prospect may soon be converted into a fatal reality: a short interval was seen between the establishment of a dictator in Rome, and her conquest of the world: and the first generation of the legions of Marius, who saw Italy and the capitol well-nigh overwhelmed by the irruption of barbarians from the Baltic, reposed under the olive-trees of Antioch, and witnessed the profound stillness of universal peace, when Augustus received embassies from Scythia and from India, imploring his protection and purchasing his friendship.

"Opposed to an inundation so threatening, our attention is arrested by the open and covert machinations or force, and all that is left of the old pride and strength of the remaining independence of Europe, brought as protecting bulwarks and mounds of defence. And first and foremost in the gallant contest for the liberty of the world, and mainly fighting for existence, Great Britain is seen moving on the wings of the wind, and carrying the tempests of her indignation, and the thunders of her vengeance, into every climate; or she is beheld, seated on the proud cliffs of her island, looking with contemptuous triumph, towards the fields of Agincourt and Cressy,-determined to maintain her glory untarnished, and the integrity of her empire untouched, she is resolutely fixed. in opposing her mortal enemy, Napoleon, with all her strength, and will hold out the contest, until honourable peace shall close the strife, let the fortune of the other powers of Europe, be propitious, or humiliating as they may.

"This is a tremendous contest, the struggles and throes of which, conjoined with the uproar of the tearing up of the foundations of Europe, excite a political tempest, the wind of whose commotion reaches the western shores of the Atlantic, and comes in blasts loud and strong enough to awaken us from our slumbers. Is it nothing to know, that the face of the world is changing? That VOL. II.

X

France rules the continent of Europe, with an almost uncontrolled dominion, and that Great Britain reigns unresisted mistress of the ocean? Is it nothing, that new relations, new concerns, new commercial and political maxims, and an altered state of things, calling for corresponding changes of measures, are every where rising to view? Is this radical revolution in the world to leave us, alone, unaffected; and shall we be able to journey in the beaten track of ancient times, and meet no crossings nor dangers in our way? Is this a season for acting, as if the old apparatus of politics was still in motion, when all the turns of government were nothing but the mere operations of machinery? Do the navigators of our vessel of state see no indications of approaching hurricanes, against which to provide with expedition and firmness? Or shall we, by the miraculous interference of heaven, ride safely over the yawning waters, that have swallowed up so many others in their merciless fury?"

The author then points out the necessity of a wise and an efficient administration of government in this country, in order to preserve to us our property, our liberties, and our lives, from the hand of the spoiler; and glances, with admirable sarcasm, at the puny and ineffectual resolves of those would-be statesmen, and soi-disant philosophers, who have never yet done aught, but woo, with shameless and unabashed front, the means of weakness and debility ;-who, like the plagues, that were scattered over the land of Egypt, have withered and destroyed the prosperity of this country;-who have made their native land the victim of their vices, reducing it to the humiliating necessity of supporting their temporary consequence, and of sinking under their crimes; like the lion, that perishes, by the poison of those vermin, which find shelter in his mane, while they are stinging him to death.

"To derive the full and ample benefits of such a temper and zeal of independence, we should know, that they can come only from legislators and statesmen, who are disposed in principle to deal with men and with realities, and not from speculators, given to devising schemes for a state of things never to be seen, and to weaving moon-beam mantles for aerial beings, the nameless progeny of a morbid imagination. We should be aware, that much wisdom, great firmness, and an entire exemption from the visions of Utopian doctors, are requisite for the practical management of the concerns of a great empire. We should feel assured of the important truth, that these iron times cannot be worked upon by rules, which would be too fanciful, and too refined, even for a gold

en age and we should remember, that the fabrication and the show of philosophic gew-gaws belongs to other hands, than those entrusted with the keeping of our national safety.-A misplaced confidence in visionary theorists and projectors may make their folly the more conspicuous, but it would be an aggravated self-reproach, for men, mourning over the ruins of their country, to reflect, that the folly, which destroyed them, drew all its mischief from their own infatuation."

The author, now, takes a view of our foreign policy; and, first, of the policy, which we have pursued towards Great Britain. He shews, that, from the recent improvements in the art of navigation, distant countries are brought so much into contact with each other, as to render foreign relations an object of the utmost weight and importance to every enlightened statesman. He treats, with the most lordly and sovereign contempt the moon-struck visions of those petty pedlars in politics, who declare, that America ought to "abandon the ocean,” —and—"to relinquish commerce altogether.”—His words are these,

"This visionary spinning and weaving of new-fangled, unprofitable stuff, should be confined to the damp vaults of the under-ground, mystery-work rooms of the doctors of political bedlam.-The labour may serve to amuse them, and to entertain their successors with the rarest of cobweb-texture; and I care not how fine they make their work, if it be even too subtile for the touch, and elude all the powers of the most perfect natural vision.”

The author, then, shows, very forcibly, the great benefits resulting to America from her foreign commerce; and, likewise, that all the nations in the civilized world are straining every nerve in order to extend their commercial interests; that Britain chiefly owes her present lofty and dignified situation, as the great bulwark against the menaced desolation of the human race, to the extent of her commerce; and, that, notwithstanding the apparent influence of France," the balance of the world must lie in the hands of that nation, which holds the commanding sceptre of the ocean."

The necessity of peace,-of honourable peace, is strongly inculcated, as conducive to all the best interests of America, on account of her scattered commerce, the infancy of her state