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statesman, he said, "this book, Sir, is written with great ability: it displays vast reach of thought and variety of erudition; and the style,considering the gentleman has not been used to write, is excellent.

It is not, of course, intended to notice all the writers who have by their talents and information shed a lustre on the United States, but merely to mark out a few examples of different species of literary excellence. It would, however, be quite unpardonable to omit the name of Mr. Walsh, who is, confessedly, the first man of letters we have on this side of the Atlantic. His information on general literature, politics, and history, is copious and accurate. His style of writing is elaborate, vigorous, splendid, and eloquent; with, perhaps, rather too frequent a use of the sesquipedalia verba, and of French words and phrases, which weaken the strength, and mar the uniformity of the composition. The English language is sufficiently comprehensive and energetic to give adequate expression to any sentiment, however sublime, or tender, or indignant, or pathetic: the whole compass of the human heart and head may be struck upon its chords, and every tone made to discourse most excellent music. Dr. Johnson, in animadverting upon the gallicisms of Mr. Hume, said, "that if they were suffered to gain ground, England would soon be reduced to babble a dialect of France." What is now said is by no means said for the purpose of depressing or detracting from the great merits of Mr. Walsh, from whose writings, (to use a strong expression of Lord Bacon,) "he who does not receive instruction and delight, must be more than man, or less than beast." And, might I be permitted to add, that splendid and vigorous as are the writings of Mr. Walsh, his conversation is still more rich, instructive, and interesting?

The United States ought to cherish the efforts of a man so gifted and so adorned, who devotes to the prosecution of letters talents and learning, that, otherwise directed, would command any height of exaltation and influence which our community can give. Mr. Walsh's Lettter on the character and genius of the French govern

ment is a peculiarly splendid production, and contains some very valuable information, altogether new, when promulgated, on the finances and internal administration of the imperial revolutionary government. It was profusely praised by both the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews, and cited with great applause by Lord Chief Justice Ellenborough, from his seat in the King's Bench. Mr. Walsh's American Review, in four octavo volumes, contain much very interesting information on the state of society and manners, in France and England, which ought to be published in a separate form, as a most acceptable boon to every reader. This review also exhibits some sound criticism on American productions, and considerable information on foreign literature, particularly the French, German, and Italian; and, above all, a lofty and sustained effort to raise the 'tone of literature in the United States, and make his country sensible, that no nation ever can become really great and permanently prosperous, until it protects and cultivates letters. In his correspondence with General Harper, on the probable result of the conflict between revolutionary France and the rest of Europe, the same characteristics of copious information and splendid eloquence appear: his remarks on the portentous power of Russia, doubtless, the European sovereigns now feel to be true and just.

In his American Register, of which two octavo volumes have appeared, he takes a wider range, as may be seen by a reference to his very admirable introduction to the first volume. He gives an able and interesting bird's-eye view of the political state of Europe, the domestic occurrences of the United States, the congressional and parliamentary debates on the most important topics of finance, navigation, and general policy; and exhibits a fine panorama of American and European literature. He particularly presses upon his countrymen the necessity and importance of a wider system of education, and a more extended circle of literature: his observations on the benefits of a national university are replete with wisdom and eloquence.

Sufficient juctice has not been rendered to Mr. Walsh's literary efforts in the United States; in Britain he is better appreciated. There they demanded four editions of his Letter on the French government in a few weeks; whereas here his own countrymen have suffered a second edition to languish uncirculated through the space of several years. It was a duty to say thus much of one, from whose lucubrations I have received so much pleasure and instruction; and I have nothing further to add, than to express my warmest wishes for the continuance of his literary career, in the words of his own favourite poet:

"I, decus, I, nostrum, et melioribus utere fatis !"

Medical science appears to have made by far the greatest improvement of any intellectual pursuit in the United States; and the schools of New-York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Baltimore, are so well supplied with able professors and lecturers, as to supersede the necessity of our medical students resorting to Edinburgh, London, or Paris, for instruction in any one' branch of the healing art. A medical school has also been recently established in Kentucky, under the most favourable auspices of able teachers, and a strong inclination on the part of the western states to support the institution with funds, and supply it with pupils. Several able medical periodical works are continually issuing from the American press.

With regard to the fine arts, our sculpture extends but little beyond chisseling grave-stones for a church-yard; and our painting, for want of individual wealth, is chiefly confined to miniatures, portraits, and landscapes: the only splendid exceptions, are Mr. Trumbull's historical paintings of the Battle of Bunker's Hill, the Death of Montgomery, the Sortie from Gibraltar; together with some Scripture pieces, and the great national pictures which he is now preparing for the capitol at WashingBut American genius is equal to that of Europe for the fine arts, as is evident from the United States

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having produced West, Trumbull, Stuart, Copeley, Alston, and Leslie. The Academies of the fine arts, at New-York and Philadelphia, contain some fine paintings, and a few good pieces of sculpture, imported from Europe. Boston, New-York, Philadelphia, and Washington, contain some very handsome public buildings; the city-hall of New-York, a marble edifice, probably surpasses in magnificence and beauty every European building out of Italy.

Mr. Walsh, in the second volume of his Register, in translating M. de Marbois's preliminary discourse, says, "Hitherto the Americans have not made great progress in the elegant arts: their public libraries, their museums, would not in Europe be thought worthy to decorate the mansion of an opulent amateur. They style the edifices in which their legislators assemble capitols; and this appellation, which is now held ambitious, will one day appear quite modest. They have no cirques, amphitheatres, nor mock sea-fights. It will never perlaps be necessary for them to construct citadels, or environ their towns with ditches and ramparts. There will not be seen among them, either pyramids, or proud mausoleums, or basilicks, or temples, like those of Ephesus and Rome. Ages must revolve before they will erect those edifices, of which the idle and barren magnificence imposes heavy sacrifices on the present generation, diverts their industry towards objects of mere parade, and entails wretchedness on posterity. The time of the Americans is wisely divided between permanently useful labours and necessary repose. They employ themselves in preparing their fields for the production of food; in rendering their dwellings commodious, in opening roads, and digging canals. Commerce and navigation already supply them with wealth; the arts of real utility embellish their cities; and Europe, which so long stood single, as the country of the sciences and human wisdom, now shares with America this noble distinction."

The genius of America is peculiarly distinguished for its invention in the useful mechanics arts: in allusion to this, the late Mr. Gouverneur Morris, a few months be

fore his lamented death, said, "there are persons of some eminence in Europe, who look contemptuously at our country, in the persuasion that all creatures, not excepting man, degenerate here. They triumphantly call on us to exhibit a list of our scholars, poets, heroes, and statesmen. Be this the care of posterity. But, admitting we had no proud names to show, is it reasonable to make such heavy demand on so recent a people? Could the culture of science be expected from those, who, in cultivating the earth, were obliged, while they held a plough in one hand, to grasp a sword in the other? Let those who depreciate their brethren of the west remember that our forests, though widely spread, gave no academic shade. In the century succeeding Hudson's voyage, the great poets of England flourished, while we were compelled to earn our daily bread by our daily labour. The ground, therefore, was occupied before we had leisure to make our approach. The various chords of our mother tongue have, long since, been touched to all their tones, by minstrels, beneath whose master hand it has resounded every sound, from the roar of thunder rolling along the vault of heaven, to the lascivious, pleasings of a lute.' British genius and taste have already given to all the ideal forms that imagination can body forth, a local habitation and a name. Nothing then remains for the present age but to repeat their just thoughts in their pure style. Those, who on either side of the Atlantic, are too proud to perform this plagiary task, must convey false thoughts in the old classic diction, or clothe in frippery phrase the correct conceptions of their predecessors. But other paths remain to be trodden, other fields to be cultivated, other regions to be explored. The fertile earth is not yet wholly peopled: the raging ocean is not yet quite subdued. Be it ours to boast, that the first vessel successfully propelled by steam was launched on the bosom of Hudson's river. It was here that American genius, seizing the arm of European science, bent to the purpose of our favourite parent art the wildest and most devouring element. This invention is