'importance to the minutest incident connected with it. Like the 'fly, that has plunged into the consecrated chalice, its insignificance gives place to a new character, communicated to it by asso'ciation.' While men govern the world, their passions govern 'men, and trifles act upon the passions, trifles will have much 'to do in the affairs of mankind. From the war that desolated the kingdom of Priam, founded that of Rome, changed the 'face of conquering Greece, and gave two immortal poems 'to the world, to that which broke its rage upon the icebergs 'of Russia, gave a new master to Europe, and chained its 'old one to a sea-girt rock, like the unhappy Andromeda, many have been the mighty conflicts that have been pro'duced by trifles. When the quaiì escaped from beneath the 'cloak of Alcibiades, and the assembled people of Athens 'ran obsequiously to catch it, who would have imagined this 6 to be the first link in the chain of incidents that should de'prive that people of liberty, and their country of the domi'nion of Greece? How sovereign must have been the reign ' of trifles, when the mistress of the world was herself govern'ed by the pecking of a chicken, or the perching of a crow! 'And where was there ever a spectacle exhibited of abject 'subjection to trifles, more conspicuous than when in the 'plains of Platea, the congregated armies of Greece, awaiting the issue of a battle decisive of country, family, free'dom, life, crouched beneath their shields, could abide the 'pelting of the Persian darts, while an ignorant fanatic was slaughtering oxen, to find the prophetic speck which chance might place upon their intestines.' Our author may, and very probably will, think it unjust, thus to stigmatize the finest parts of his work, and to put out the very eyes of his discourse." But he ought to know that ornaments have their proper places, and that as no one but a savage would hang a diamond to his nose, so no practised and well instructed writer would exert his strength in showing the value of trifles.*

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5th. It often borders on the extravagant or hyperbolical; as when in speaking of his hero he says, he exhibited a splendour of military character, excelled only by him [Washington] whom none can equal.' Of the same person he says,

*The phraseology of this passage is not its greatest fault; if regarded as an argument it is worse, for it defeats itself, and before it ends, stigmatizes as blockheads both Greeks and Romans, for their " abject subjection to trifles."

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(after stating his acquisition of Turenne's Works, Sharp's Guide, Plutarch's Lives, and Cæsar's Commentaries,) he 'read and studied, with a military eye, the history of all the wars of celebrity.' Again-' Advantages in early life he had none:' yet, in the same paragraph we read, that Greene was a striking instance of what good examples, 'sound principles, and industrious habits can accomplish.' And afterwards, speaking of the character and conduct of the General's father, he adds, 'Nor did he fail to inspire them, '(his eight sons,) with the most elevated principles of moral conduct, or to form them for the conscientious discharge of those duties, which constitute the good man and the useful citizen.' We know not how Mr. Johnson may estimate these things; but in our opinion they were advantages. Of Marion's activity it is said-' the movement of this officer was that of light, and his actions partook of its purity.' In the preface, we have the following passage: 'It cannot be denied, that 'there exists a considerable defect in all the histories of that ⚫ period [the revolution] that have as yet been written. For although the military and more public events, may have 'been accurately narrated, the intrigues that agitated Congress, and a variety of events, explanatory of their acts and 'their errors-remain in utter obscurity. Of all these, Mr. 'Read could have furnished the most perfect narrative.' If these intrigues were as numerous or complicated as this passage would induce us to believe, a perfect narrative of all of them, would be not merely extraordinary, but miraculous, and, of course, very much beyond the powers of Mr. Read, or of any other man.

6th. The sentences are sometimes involved and obscure, as in the following instances: Some years since I was con'sulted by Mrs. Shaw, &c. Until that time, I had never un'derstood,' &c. What time is meant by some years since? That time is a definite expression, referring to some month, or day, or year; and when we make use of it, the time referred to ought to be specified, otherwise the expression conveys no precise idea. "Over the whole country, as far as the li'mits of New-York, or to the Pacific Ocean,' as though these were synonymous terms.

'General Sumpter retired across the Santee, and Marion into the heart of his brigade, to undergo any of those military transformations, to which he, in common with the other state commanders, was constantly subjected.' Vol. ii. p. 177.

The field of battle (Eutaw Springs,) was, at this instant, rich in the dreadful scenery which disfigures such a picture. On the left, Washington's cavalry, routed and flying horses, plunging as they died, or coursing the field, without their riders, while the enemy with poised bayonet, issued from the thicket, upon the wounded or unhorsed rider in the fore ground, Hampton covering and collecting the scattered cavalry; while Kirkwood, with his bayonets, rushed furiously to revenge their fall, [Whose fall?] and a road strewed with the bodies of men and horses, and the fragments of dismounted artillery."

"Notwithstanding the defection of his militia, and the retirement of the legion, Sumpter had still a sufficient number of troops, to have held the enemy in a state of investment, whilst he tried the effect of his artillery; but finding that it brought with it no supply of ammunition, being but twenty miles from Charleston, and at a place accessible by tide water, having heard that Lord Rawdon had moved down in force from Orangeburgh, being himself now fifteen miles below Monk's corner, which is but sixteen from Goose-creek bridge, where Lord Rawdon's force might already have arrived, there being serious ground for apprehending disaster, General Sumpter resolved to retreat across the Santee.' p. 174.

7th. Our last assertion under this general head is, that some of our author's terms, though sufficiently common, have been totally and shamelessly misapplied. Tired, however, of word-catching, we shall give but a few instances of this fault. Speaking of General Greene's papers, he says, 'I 'learnt that they had been carefully husbanded, and never yet 'submitted to the examination of any one, with a view either 'to add to the materials of general history, or furnish 'those of a biography of the great man,' &c. But husbanding a thing, always implies a use of it, though a frugal one, and of course does not express Mr. Johnson's idea. Speaking of the old congress, he says, 'A variety of events, explanatory of their acts and errors, which transpired with closed 'doors, or out of doors, remain in utter obscurity.' To transpire at all, is, as we believe, to escape from concealment to publicity, or from darkness to light; but how a thing, which has transpired, either with closed doors or out of doors, can remain in utter obscurity, is what we do not comprehend. So, in describing the battle of Eutaw Spring, he represents the left wing of the British line as having fallen into irretrievable disorder; yet this very wing regains its order, unites in an attack on the American troops, and wrests from them a victory, which they had half won, and ought to have completed. Lastly, and to crown all, he tells us gravely, and

not in a whisper, as if there was any thing wrong in the circumstance, that his hero had always entertained a contemptible opinion of General Conway. On this we only remark, that a writer who does not know the difference between a contemptuous and a contemptible opinion, ought to be put into a short jacket and petticoat, and sent to school, with a horn-book and primer, to begin his education. We now proceed to our second general head, viz. the faults of Mr. Johnson's book, as a chronicle, or register of public

events.

As no one can be more sensible than ourselves, that "art is long and life short," we shall neither waste our own time, nor that of our readers, in proving, what is sufficiently known already,-that without truth, history becomes romance; and that, though it may amuse the imagination, it can never be made a rule of human conduct, either in acting or in judging. What is perhaps less obvious is, that deficient veracity may be the result of different causes; some of which involve a high degree of moral turpitude in the writer, while others impeach only his diligence or his capacity. The effects of these several causes are, however, nearly alike; and the credit of a person, or of an action, may be sent down to posterity as effectually obscured or destroyed by the ignorance which does not know, or the folly which cannot learn, as by the malignity and falsehood that designedly and mischievously misrepresents the truth. We make these remarks, with no ill will to the author of the work under examination, but, on the other hand, for the express purpose of acquitting him, at the threshold, of all voluntary misrepresentation; and the more so, as he has rendered every imputation of this kind wholly unnecessary, by candidly acknowledging a state of feeling, towards his heroes and demi-gods, far surpassing the effects of the nitrous oxide gas; and which, however excited, is quite incompatible with that fair, and sober, and quiet exercise of the faculties, that ought always to characterize the writer of history.

Without farther introduction, we proceed to examine the author's relation of what he denominates the two conspiracies, which disfigure our revolutionary story,-the one, to put down Gen. Washington;' the other, 'to close the war in usurpation and monarchy.'

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Of the former, he says, 'We know not if there exists, or ever was

published, a detailed account of this mysterious affair; and at this late day, it may be an object of curiosity with our readers, to know what were the received opinions on the subject, of the best informed persons of that day. This we shall present from original papers in our possession.

'When Gen. Washington was hesitating what course to pursue, on the embarkation of Sir W. Howe from New-York, in 1777, Gen. Mifflin, then Quartermaster General, was exceedingly importunate with him to hasten to the protection of Philadelphia. General Washington was unwilling to march southwardly, as long as it remained doubtful whether Howe had not sailed for Boston, or might not suddenly return and ascend the North River, in co-operation with Burgoyne. But to pacify Mifflin, he submitted the subject to a council of war, and at that council Gen. Greene incurred the unrelenting hatred of Mifflin, by opposing successfully his wishes to march immediately to Philadelphia;--not that Washington or Greene had any serious doubts with regard to the real destination of Howe, but they thought his fleet would be sufficiently delayed in ascending the Delaware, to enable them to reach Philadelphia in time to oppose him; and there was, therefore, no necessity to leave him scope for a coup de main.'

"In the midst of the excitement that had been produced by Gen. Mifflin's complaints, the news arrived of the surrender of Burgoyne. The battle of Brandywine had then been lost, Howe was in possession of Philadelphia, and congress had fled to York Town. The honours of Washington appeared to have been cast into shade by the brilliant successes of Gates. Impartial history will one day decide, whether the latter did not reap the laurels that ought to have graced the brows of Schuyler, of Starke, and of Arnold.

"It is certain, that invidious comparisons, unfavourable to Washington, were at that time too much the fashion of the day. But the nation and the army knew well his worth, and frowned his enemies into silence. Yet certain it is, that at that time he had enemies, and among them, were ranked Samuel Adams, the Lees of Virginia, Wilson of Pennsylvania, and some minor characters. Whether the design was to substitute Gates or Lee, appeared to have been unsettled among the party; but certainly to substitute one or the other. -Whether General Mifflin ever entered deeply into the views of the party, cannot now be ascertained. It is, however, very certain, that, but for the clamour which he had so successfully excited against the commander in chief, Conway never would have dared to prosecute his machinations. The conformity of their views fastened upon them, in the public estimation, a co-operation in design.

'An opinion was entertained, on some evidence against Gates and Conway, which was probably not unfounded in truth, that Samuel Adams, R. H. Lee, and Mifflin, had it in contemplation, to substitute General Lee for Washington, but that Gates and Conway thought it a favourable opportunity to make use of the discontents of that party to supplant him themselves.