Mr. Janfon met with a ftill more hazardous adventure in troffing a leffer fwamp of North Carolina. About midway, he faw a large quadruped climb a tree about two hundred yards before him. Advancing within fhot, he fired upon the animal, which he wounded, and brought to the ground. At the fame time his horfe took fright, and threw him; and on recovering his feet, he beheld a large panther flowly advancing towards him, while his negro guide exclaimed, "Maffa, Maffa, we are loft!" Though his gun was empty, he involuntarily prefented it towards his enemy, which had the defired effect; for the animal inftantly made a ftand, uttered a hideous roar, and retreated into the thickest the fwamp, where Mr. Janson prudently left him to his fate. part of This anecdote introduces the narrative of feveral mar. vellous rencontres between planters and bears, in which the man finally got the better of the beaft, even though deftitute of offenfive weapons; but not without fuffering feverely from the hugging and biting of his ferocious antagonist. We were furprized at meeting with nothing about the rattle fnake, the Boa-conftrictor, and the other tremendous reptiles with which thefe defolate American wilds abound. But to make amends, Mr. Janfon prefents us with a chapter on the mocking-bird, the red-bird, or Virginia nightingale, the wood-cock, the wood-pecker, and the whip-poor-will. After a moft fuperfluous and filly chapter, entitled Eccentric Advertisements, we advance in our journey as far as South-Carolina; and are prefented with fome obfervations on the ftaples of that rich and fertile district, and on the flave trade, which ftill continues to be practifed by the merchants of Charlestown. If we may rely on the flatements of Mr. Janfon, flaves are ftill treated with great rigour in many parts of the United States; and are fometimes wantonly killed by their favage mafters, for which crime the only penalty is a moderate fine. In a country profefling fuch an enthusiasm for liberty, this is peculiarly reprehenfible; and we entirely concur in the fentiment quoted by Dr. Morfe, and after him by Mr. Janfon, from an European writer: that" If there be an object truly ridiculous in nature, it is an American patriot, figaing refolutions of independence with one hand, and with the other brandifhing his whip over his affrighted flaves." The Southern States, where flavery chiefly prevails, derive an advantage from the practice, which we fhould never have looked for, viz. a proportional increase of their influence in the national legiflature. For, ftrange to tell! the negro population is in F 4 cluded cluded in the cenfus, which regulates the number of reprefentatives from each ftate. On this account the ftate of Virginia fends five more reprefentatives and five more elec tors for the prefident and vice-prefident than the ftate of Maffachufets, although the number of its free people is lefs by 40,160. A conftitution fo unequal in the diftribution of its rights cannot furely be of long duration and we may foon expect to fee a feparation between the northern and fouthern flates of the union: The number of flaves in the United States is estimated by Mr. Janfon at a million. Nine-tenths of these are found in the provinces of Georgia, South and North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, and Maryland. In Georgia and Kentucky their numbers have been rapidly on the increase, having lately doubled in the former; and increafed in the latter, in the proportion of 40 to 12. In the rest of the above-mentioned ftates the number of flaves is likewife on the increafe; in New-York it is nearly flationary; in Penfylvania and Delaware it has diminifhed; and in the New England fiates, flavery is nearly abolished... In the remaining chapters of this work, from chapters XXX. to XXXV. inclufive, Mr. Janfon proceeds, in the fame irregular and unconnected manner, to blend his own remarks on mifcellaneous fubjects, with narratives and details to which they have no manner of reference. He makes a tranfition from American agriculture to the yellow fever; from that to the profpects of an emigrant in the Trans-Atlantic regions; from that to the action between the Bofton and Ambufcade, and the hiftory of Captain Whitby and the Leander; and from that to the ufe of gypfum as a manure, and the life and converfation of Thomas Paine, and Counfellor Emmet. Mr. Janfon gives a very difcouraging view of the profpects of an emigrant to America, in whatever line he propoles to employ himself. If as a farmer or planter, he has to encounter in the first place the knavery of the landjobbers, "the very name of whom," fays Mr. Janfon, makes my pen recoil from my paper." Suppofing he has overcome this obftacle, and been able to obtain a good right to the lands for which he has payed his money; he has next to fruggle with the fquatters, who are certain families of white people that take poffeffion without any right, and are often able to keep their hold in defpite of the lawful proprietor. Even when thefe difficulties are furmounted, the great work remains fill to be accomplished; trees are to be felled, houfes erected, ground cultivated, and flock raised; in performing which the fettler finds fufficient leifure to repent his folly in quitting a civilized country for a defolate wilderness. If the emigrant betakes himfelf to commerce, he is expofed to long credits, bad payments, frequent loffes at fea by capture, and knavifh agents. The mechanic has a chance of faring better; but as his profeffion leads him to the great towns, he is peculiarly expofed to that bane of Europeans, the yellow-fever. The learned profeffions of law and phyfic are, according to Mr. Janfon, monopolized by the native Americans, who are able by their perfonal connections to exclude foreigners from a fair competition: "great intereft leaving little to fuperior abilities without patronage," With refpect to the liberal arts, America is certainly not their genial foil; nor will any artist of eminence meet at prefent with adequate encouragement in that country. Literature too is rather at a low ebb. Newspapers, magazines, and political pamphlets, form nearly the whole intellectual food for which there is a regular demand in the United States. Of thefe there i indeed a confiderable fupply. "Several hundred different newfpapers," fays Mr. Janfon, "are daily diftributed by the public mail, in all parts, to fubfcribers, at the fmall charge of one or two cents, at moft, for poftage; but printers exchange their papers with each other, by that mode, free of any charge. I have often feen a printer receive as many newspapers by one mail, as would fill the room of feveral hundred letters." With refpect to the original authors of America, they have hitherto been very few in number, and with the exception of Dr. Franklin, of very fubordinate merit. Of the American tafte for profe compofition, the following extract from a treatife called the " Hiftory of the three Judges," published by Dr. Efra Styles, prefident of Yale College in 1795, furnished by Mr. Janfon, may afford a specimen. "What I have before narrated is delivered upon fure documents. I fhall now narrate what is only conjectural, and leave it to every one's judgment, only obferving, that if it ever did take place, no one will doubt but that Dixwell was concerned in it. There is fomehow preferved, not in univerfal or general, but in particular and ftrong lineal tradition, at Newhaven, which is to be confidered more largely hereafter, that another *This narration confifted of extracts from Hutchinfon, copies of old records, letters, &c. &c. of the regicides, befides Dixwell, lies buried in our burying. place, and that this other was Whalley. This is particularly preferved among the fextons or grave-diggers, who, it feems, for many years, and perhaps even from the time efpecially of Dixwell's death, have fhewn the ftone marked E. W. for Whalley, as they have that marked J. D. for Dixwell, I have not found the leaft tradition of Goffe, till I myfelf conjectured it, January 1793, inferring in my own mind, without a doubt, that if Whalley, who certainly died at Hadley, was afterwards removed here, Goffe must be here alfo. But of this, I mean as to Goffe's being here alfo, I can find no tradition, yet I find it tenaciously adhered to, especially in the line of the grave-diggers, that Whalley is here. I have often examined the E. W. ftone, but confider the matter without proof, yet poffible, but by no means certain. Nor do I with, and least of all attempt, to gain any one's credulity to it, leaving every mind perfectly free and unprejudiced. But as I know that whoever take the pains that I have done, to trace out, and collect, and digest the traditions in Newhaven, will find this among others, however it originated among us; fo, after this precaution and notification, I fhall proceed, &c.!!" P. 54. In poetry the Americans have to boast of their epic, dramatic, lyric, elegiac, and fatiric writers; but all, as far as we have learned, are of the order of mediocres poetæ, on whom Horace paffes unqualified condemnation. We are told by Mr. Janfon that Mr. Feffenden is "the Hudibras of America." The following is a fhort fpecimen of this gentleman's pointed fatire. "Step forward, demagogue Duane, Than whom a greater rogue in grain, "Law, order, talents, and civility, Before your worshipful mobility, Muft bow, while you their thinking man, Lead by the nose your kindred clan. "Thou art indeed a rogue as fly, As ever coined the ready lie, Amongst the Catilines of faction, None calls more energies in action," P. 200. Thus have we endeavoured to enable our readers to judge of the contents of this large and coftly volume; which, in his * See our account of his Poems, Vol. XXV. p. 196; and of poem on the Tractors, Vol. XXI, 552, proportion proportion to its intrinfic value, could hardly have been too low priced. The original information refpecting America, which it conveys, might be comprised in a nutshell; and if deprived of the materials which it has borrowed from the newspapers and periodical works of the day, it would indeed be thorn of its beams. As a literary compofition it defies all criticifm; for it aims neither at perfpicuity of method, arrangement of materials, nor correctness of style. ART. X. The Claims of the Establishment. A Sermon, preached Auguft 30, 1807, at Croydon, in Surrey, by John Ireland, D. D. Prebendary of Westminster and Vicar of Croydon. 8vo. 26 pp. 1s. Hatchard. 1807. THIS HIS is a very mafterly difcourfe, and difcuffes a most momentous fubject with great energy of language and due force of argument. A great deal has been faid on what are called the Claims of the Roman Catholics, and the affertors of those claims have of late affumed a bolder tone. Dr. Ireland in this Sermon vindicates the claims of the Establishment. The text is 2 Tim. xi. 25.—“ In meeknefs inftructing thofe that oppofe themselves." The preacher begins by obferving, that the Church has lately been called upon to confider the principles of toleration, but that the advocates of the fuppofed fufferings of thofe who diffent from it pay no attention to the claims of the Establishment. It is proper, therefore, to enquire why the Catholics and other Diffenters are excluded from political power? The first question is, to whom does the headfhip of the church belong? The right of the fovereign of these realms to fuch headship, was denied at the Reformation, alike by the Catholics and the Calvinifts. But against fuch pofitions uncontrovertible arguments were brought by our ancestors, and in particular by the immortal Hooker, whofe eighth book of Ecclefiaftical Polity puts the matter for ever at reft, and proves that the refufal of obedience to any branch of government is an impeachment of the principle of fovereignty itfelf. With this partial refufal of obedience the Catholics of thefe dominions are chargeable. Religious toleration may indeed in this abfolve from punishment, yet it does not raife the recufant to an equality of privileges with thofe fubje&s whofe obedience entire. The |