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CRITICAL NOTICES.

The Diplomatic and Official Papers of Daniel Webster, while Secretary of State. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1848. This volume contains the papers comprising the history of the North-eastern Boundary Treaty of 1842; correspondence with Lord Ashburton, relative to Maritime Rights, Impressment, Inviolability of National Territory, case of the Caroline, etc.; the case of McLeod; letters with Mr. Everett and Lord Aberdeen relative to the Right of Search; correspondence with Mr. Cass previous and subsequent to his retirement from France; the Boundary Treaty and Mr. Webster's great speech in defence thereof; papers concerning our relations with Mexico, Spain, etc. etc.-the whole being prefaced by an Introduction giving a full account of the settlement of the Treaty.

At the conclusion of the introduction, it is very justly remarked, that "although the papers contained in the present volume probably form but a small portion of the official correspondence of the Department of State for the period during which it was filled by Mr. Webster, they constitute, nevertheless, the most important part of the documentary record of a period of official service, brief, indeed, but as beneficial to the country as any of which the memory is preserved in her annals." Respecting the settlement of the boundary Treaty, to which the most important papers in the volume chiefly refer, the writer also adds: "Much is due to the wise and amiable negotiator who was dispatched on the holy errand of peace; much to the patriotism of the Senate of the United States, who confirmed the treaty by a larger majority than ever before sustained a measure of this kind which divided public opinion; but the first meed of praise is unquestionably due to the negotiator. Let the just measure of that praise be estimated by reflecting what would be our condition at the present day, if instead of or in addition to the war with Mexico, we were involved in a war with Great Britain."

One of the most interesting documents in the collection is the elaborate and severe, yet well merited rebuke of Mr. Cass, for writing from Paris a letter expressing dissatisfaction with the Treaty, after it had been concluded, and after he had demanded his recall. Mr. Cass took the liberty of informing the Department of State that no one rejoiced "more sincerely than he at the termination of our difficulties with Great Britain, so far as they were

terminated."

-But-" Our past history, however, will be unprofitable if it do not teach us that unjust pretensions, affecting our rights and honor, are best met by being promptly repelled when first urged, and by being received in a spirit of resistance worthy the character of our people and of the great trust confided to us as the depositories of the freest system of government which the world has yet witnessed.' He then goes into his view of the question of the Right of Search, and concludes by stating in substance his reason for having demanded his recall:-"I now find a treaty has been concluded between Great Britain and the United States, which provides for the co-operation of the latter in efforts to abolish the slave trade, but which contains no renunciation by the former of the extraordinary pretension, resulting, as she said, from the exigencies of these very efforts; and which pretension I felt it my duty to denounce to the French Government." From this it is very clear that had Mr. Cass officiated at that time as negotiator, the " pretensions of Great Britain would have been met by a spirit of resistance worthy, etc. ;" and that we should before this time have been, very possibly, involved in a war considerably more expensive and perhaps less glorious than our recent struggle to protect the national honor from the insults of the haughty Mexicans!

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But Mr. Cass was not aware that the whole question of the right of visit and of search had been gone over in a letter from Mr. Webster to Mr. Everett, and discussed in so masterly a manner that nothing of what Mr. C. is pleased to style "pretension" has been heard of from that time to this or ever will be again, it is probable, so long as the world shall endure. The silence of Lord Aberdeen, in reference to that dispatch, is an admission of the legality of Mr. Webster's views, which are, that unless by express treaty, no such thing as a right of visit, or search, exists between nations in time of peace; that such visit is therefore trespass; but yet that no flag can shield pirates-thus firmly declaring the ocean to be in law what it is often styled by a figure-the great highway of nations-where all have free right of passage without let or molestation except those of whom it must be presumed that the party interfering with them has perfect knowledge that they are felons or outlaws. That these must be regarded as now settled principles of international intercourse, the agreement of the two governments after so many years in which the subject has been pending,-the fact that four

years have elapsed since they were laid before | the British Ministry from our Department of State, and that during this time they have been suffered to remain, although presented in the course of a correspondence having special reference to the subject, without confutation, must be deemed conclusive evidence. Surely the spirit in which Mr. Webster so well laid down the law has proved more happy in its results than that which Mr. Cass would have had our government manifest on the occasion. Discusgion and concession-a desire, to use a homely phrase, "to do what is right," are much better calculated to promote those amicable relations on which depend the welfare of nations, than that spirit of resistance" which Mr. Cass deemsworthy the character of our people." The contrast between Mr. Cass's policy and the course of Mr. Webster is placed in strong lights in the course of the correspondence here published. Mr. Cass writes from an impetuous and choleric temper, that does not permit him to see how often he commits himself. Under Mr. Webster's clear examination, all he advances resolves itself into mere presumptuous wrongheadedness. Thus, for example, in the reply to the letter from which we have above quoted, Mr. Webster says:-

Your letter appears to be intended as a sort of protest, a remonstrance, in the form of an official dispatch, against a transaction of the government to which you were not a party, in which you had no agency whatever, and for the results of which you were no way answerable. This would seem an unusual and extraordinary proceeding. In common with every other citizen of the republic, you have an unquestionable right to form opinions upon public transactions, and the conduct of public men; but it will hardly be thought to be among either the duties or the privileges of a minister abroad to make formal remonstrances and protests against proceedings of the various branches of the government at home, upon subjects in relation to which he himself has not been charged with any duty or partaken any responsibility." P. 195.

Mr. Cass, in reply, says that his letter is not "a protest or remonstrance," and defends himself as follows:

"Is it the duty of a diplomatic agent to receive all the communications of his government, and to carry into effect their instructions sub silentio, whatever may be his own sentiments in relation to them? Or, is he not bound, as a faithful representative, to communicate freely, but respectfully, his own views, that these may be considered and receive their due weight in that particular case, or in other circumstances involving similar considerations? It seems to me that the bare enunciation of the principle is all that is necessary for my justification." P. 106. ** "And I may express the conviction that there is no government certainly none this side of Constanti

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nople-which would not encourage, rather than rebuke, the free expression of the views of their representatives in foreign countries.” P. 207.

To which Mr. Wesbter strikingly and conclusively answers :-

"What other construction (than as a protest or remonstrance) your letter will bear, I cannot perceive. The transaction was finished. No letter or remarks of yourself, or any one else, could un do it, if desirable. Your opinions were unsolicited. If given as a citizen, then it was altogether unusual to address them to this Department in an official dispatch; if as a public functionary, the whole subject-matter was quite aside from the duties of your particular station. In your letter you did not propose anything to be done, but objected to what had been done."

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P. 214.

Like all citizens of the republic, you are quite at liberty to exercise your own But neither your observations nor this concession judgment upon that as upon other transactions. cover the case. They do not show that, as a

public minister abroad, it is a part of your official functions, in a public dispatch, to remonstrate against the conduct of the government at home in relation to a transaction in which you bore no part, and for which you were in no way answerable. The President and Senate must be permitted to judge for themselves in a matter solely within their control. Nor do I know that, in complaining of your protest against their proceedings in a case of this kind, anything has been done to warrant, on your part, an invidious and unjust reference to Constantinople." P. 216.

struck with the extreme propriety and elegance In reading this passage, one cannot but be of Mr. Webster's diplomatic style. His mind seems to select from a hundred points of view the precise one which best illustrates a subject, and he gives it in language which, though careful, grave, and dignified, is yet natural. For this quality we admire these letters more than his early orations.

Angela. A Novel. By the Author of "Emilia
Wyndham,"
""Two Old Men's Tales," etc.
New York: Harper & Brothers. 1848.

In moral bearing, and so far as we have been able to examine it, in the conduct of the story, this tale is unexceptionable. But the characters are elaborated with a minuteness that is not sustained by depth of thought, and in a style not poetic and elevating, but too intense, real life. The tale is probably intended, and and too close an imitation of the language of readers. But we dislike to believe, either that will be generally recommended for young lady it will be very popular with them, or that we have grown so old and wise as to be no longer able to judge of what interests them.

In the first chapter we have a description of a young man reposing under "that wild,

straggling hawthorn, where the huge twisted branches, hoary with age, have assumed almost the character of those of a forest tree." This is interrupted by an apostrophe to the "teens," from which we extract the following:

"The teens! Oh what a gush of promise is there in that first burst of fervent life into flower! But the wind of the desert has passed over the blossoms, and where are they?

"What is the summer to this spring? "Alas! alas!

"Most deeply, deeply pathetic sight! "He was like the rest of them, dear, earnest, delightful young creatures"

How much of such writing must a critic read in order to form a respectable opinion upon it? If twenty pages, there is one that must resign the profession.

On turning over the leaves we find that the whole book is paragraphed as in the extract

above.

Whence has arisen this fashion of making each separate sentence stand by itself? From imitating Tupper, cockney philosopher?

We do not know.

Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights are print

ed in this fashion also.

Was it invented by printers to save labor in the correcting of proof? They have lately taken in hand our orthography. A boy who, at school, should persist in spelling theatre "theater," as the Messrs. Harpers do now in their books, should be reprimanded, and if that did not suffice, chastised, until he amended.

Possibly this overmuch paragraphing was invented by the printers; but very plainly, however it came into use, it is only a new device of the enemy of souls, who wills not that men should love what is beautiful, but delights to have them running into all manner of foolishness.

Behold how easy it is to follow his suggestions!

But let all earnest, delightful young gentlemen and ladies be watchful not to fall into vulgar and degrading affectation. It is the peculiar literary vice of our time. Often, when we consider how it infects and spoils our whole literature, we fancy that we have fallen upon dry days—days when the truly poetic is no longer sought for or felt when found.

One more paragraph has caught our eye, which is so nice it must be given :

"He was a tall, fine young man-not very tall, neither, for he was beautifully proportioned-a very model-the very ideal of the English youth. His eye so sweet, so ingenuous, so almost child-like in its truth and innocence, yet so deep, so thoughtful, so full of indistinct meaning and hidden melancholy (bad grammar); his mouth was rather full, and the soft, silken moustache just gave character to the upper lip.”

What a love of an animal! How delightful! But not half so poetic as Amanda Fitzalan in the Children of the Abbey.

"He lay-lounged, I should say-under this old, twisted hawthorn tree, upon a bank covered with that green branching moss which is so soft and so beautiful; and the harebell and the lichens, and the little white starwort were growing, with a few lingering primroses and violets in the shaw (how intensely Saxon!) which stretched behind and beside him. This hawthorn tree stood out by itself a little in front of the shaw (O pshaw!) which stretched along the field upon that side in front of a very high and thick hedge of hawthorn and maple, traveller's joy (new plant) and brambles, honeysuckles and eglantine, such as our youth loved in his heart.”

The London Critic ranks this authoress "at the head of female novelists;" the London Spectator thinks her "Norman's Bridge surpasses everything" this writer or perhaps any chef d'œuvre; the John Bull thinks her humor other writer has done, if we except Godwin's approaches that of Molière and Addison.

The American Review begs to be excused luctantly compelled to admit that the above from perusing this, her last work, and is respecimens of puffing, bad as they are, cannot London press than it did already. The novel make it think more lightly of the opinion of the is well enough, perhaps, as a softly book—God forbid we should be thought angry with itbut it is not to be compared with any of Mrs. Austen's or a hundred others.

The Seat of Government of the United States. By JOSEPH B. VARNUM, Jr. New York: Press of Hunt's Merchant's Magazine. 1848.

This is a full history of the City of Washcontains a review of the discussions in Conington, and view of its present condition. It gress and elsewhere on its site, and plans and including a particular notice of the Smithsonian minute descriptions of its public works, &c., Institution, with a map. It is published in a pamphlet form, and must necessarily, from the interest of the subject and the industry and good sense which is manifest in the work, command a very extensive sale.

ERRATA.

In the article on the "Adventures and Conquests of the Normans in Italy, during the Middle Ages," in the June number, the following errors occurred, in consequence of inability to send a proof to the author:

On p. 619, for Mons Fovis read Mons Jovis.
On p. 622, et seq., for Malfi read Melfi.
On p. 627, for Palermo read Paterno.
On pp. 629, 630, for Barajgoi read Βαράγγοι.

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OF

THE AMERICAN REVIEW:
A Whig Journal, Devoted to Politics and Literature.

JAMES D. WHELPLEY, EDITOR: WITH THE ASSISTANCE, IN THE POLITICAL DEPARTMENT, OF THE HON. DANIEL D. BARNARD.

In the original Prospectus of the AMERICAN REVIEW, issued at Washington by Mr. Colton, its former proprietor and Editor, a number of the leading Whig Members of the Twentyseventh Congress (1845-6,) subscribed their names to the following resolution :

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Earnestly approving the plan of such a National organ, long needed and of manifest importance, the undersigned agree to contribute for its pages, from time to time, such communications as may be necessary to set forth and defend the doctrines held by the united Whig Party of the Union. Signed by Geo. P. Marsh, Daniel D. Barnard, J. McPherson Berrien, J. R. Ingersoll, E. Joy Morris, T. L. Clingnan, Daniel Webster, R. C. Winthrop, Thos. Butler King, Hamilton Fish, J. P. Kennedy, J. Collamer, Wm. S. Archer, Rufus Choate, Alexander H. Stephens."

By an agreement with the present Proprietors, Mr. Barnard continues his political connection with the Review as an adviser and regular contributor.

An engraved portrait of some distinguished person will be found in every number of the Review. These will usually be portraits of living American Statesmen, and whenever that is possible, will be accompanied with an authentic Memoir of the person represented.

The first objects of the Review are of course political: it is designed to set forth and defend the principles, the measures, and the men of the UNITED WHIG PARTY of the Union. It has been a matter of just reproach to that Party, that, though it embraces in great part the intelligence and learning of the country, it has had no Quarterly or Monthly organ devoted to the expression and defence of its opinions and measures. The conductors of the American Review, have done what in them lies to remove this reproach by securing contributions from sources of undoubted ability and truth. It is their intention, if possible, that no Whig in the Nation shall want either Arguments to defend, or Authorities to support his opinions.

The literary department of the Review will agree in spirit with the political. The conductors believe that there is learning and originality enough in this country to sustain their enterprise to the full.

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