between the Spaniards and Moors, which soon became a favourite in the United States, and was produced at Sadler's Wells Theatre, London, in 1849, with much applause. He has written several plays since; and it is but justice to say that all go to establish his claim to an honourable position among the dramatic writers of the age, European or American.

We refer to these contributions to the drama of the United States rather as indications of awakening genius than as works destined to endure,—as productions forming the foundation of a national dramatic literature, and although abounding in faults when tested by fair and severe criticism, still rich in literary beauties. They are but little known on this side of the Atlantic; and those which are, owe their place on the stage mainly to the actor, although abounding in fine poetic passages.

A majority of the great minds of America, whose fruits must yet become an honourable part of the nation's literature, is found among her orators. The speeches and writings of Clay, Webster, Calhoun, and others, whose talents have adorned the Senate of the United States, considered merely as literary productions, excel the efforts of many who aim at a purely literary reputation. They are among the greatest intellectual triumphs of the country. The Speeches and Forensic Arguments of Daniel Webster, to say nothing of those of the distinguished men above named, is a contribution to his nation's literature, not less valuable than are the works of Burke to the literature of Great Britain. Webster was an intellectual giant. The ponderous force of his mind strikes every reader of his speeches, and he will ever be regarded as one of the first, if not the very first, statesman of his age. There is a vigour, a power, and a manliness of style about his writings which the scholars, the orators, and the statesmen of future times cannot fail to admire. We look upon his published works as affording the best specimens of American eloquence, and as unsurpassed by anything of the kind in the English language.

CHAPTER V.

SECOND AMERICAN PERIOD, CONTINUED.

In an examination of American literature one is forcibly impressed with the fact that much of it is adapted to the practical purposes of life, and it would seem that in every generation since the formation of the government, the United States have furnished their proportion of this class of writings. Their increase, however, is more marked in the period now under review than in that from 1770, to 1820, and it is but fair to state that their literary excellence and general improvement keep pace with their numbers. It is since 1820 that the legal writers of America have gained the attention and approbation of Europe. There are several names in this department of American authorship which take rank with the ablest British juridical writers. Mr. Alison, who is by no means given to praising extravagantly anything American, says, "this class exhibits a degree of learning, judgment, and penetration, which, honourable to

any country, is in the highest degree remarkable in one, the career of which has so recently commenced." And this, it may be observed, is a far more weighty compliment than a superficial reading would convey. There must be mind of the first order to merit such praise, and that America should so early have given birth to such is a fact of which the countrymen of Story, of Keut, and of Wheaton, may justly be proud.

We must content ourselves with a rapid reference to the more prominent of these American jurists, and shall confine ourselves to a few names. Judge Kent published the first volume of his excellent Commentaries on American Law in 1826; his second, third, and fourth, between that and 1830. He little expected they would meet with a favourable reception by the public; but they at once took a high place in legal literature, and are now universally considered the first authority of their kind. The clearness with which the writer states his cases, the force of his reasoning, and correctness of his conclusions, are not common to authors of the class.

Wheaton's great works on International Law have supplanted many older authorities of reputation. It would be useless to multiply commendations of this writer. Two of a decided character are deemed ample. The last section of the "Regulations for the Examination of Paid Attachés before the Civil Service Commissioners, approved by the Earl of Clarendon, 1st January, 1856," specifically provides that candidates, on being examined on promotion, “will further be required to satisfy the Commissioners that they possess such a knowledge of International Law as can be acquired from 'Wheaton's Elements of International Law,' and 'Wheaton's History of International Law."" And the first named of these has recently been formally adopted by the University at Cambridge, England, as the very best work of its kind extant, and as a manual for tuition by the Professor of Legal Science.

Judge Story, whose name is honourably known in Great Britain, produced some minor works prior to 1820; but the writings for which he is most celebrated in Europe-his Commentaries on the American Constitution, and on the Conflict of Laws—were not published until 1832 and 1834, respectively. The first of these at once secured attention in the Old World, and was translated into both French and German. Since then his Commentaries upon Equity Jurisprudence has added to his reputation as a profound lawyer, and no modern legal author is so highly honoured or respected by the profession in Great Britain as Judge Story.

Edmund Livingston's System of Penal Laws for the United States displays vast knowledge of the subject, and forms the basis of much that is good in modern jurisprudence. It was first published in 1828. It materially modified the penal laws of the world, and may properly be considered the first complete penal system, based upon philanthrophy, and designed to substitute mildness for severity in the punishment of criminals.

Although Judge Bouvier was by birth a Frenchman; and, according to our arrangement, should be ranked among Foreign writers in America, we deem it not improper, for several reasons, to introduce him here. He went to the United States at an early age, but was not at first designed for the law. His mind, however, was peculiarly adapted to the Legal Profession, and he became an eminent Judge. His two books, The Institutes of American Law, and

Dictionary of Law, are among the best works of their kind, and are so considered in Europe. The celebrated Germán jurist, Mettermeyer, recommends them to European lawyers, as the books they will have to look up to as the great authorities on American practice; and their wide circulation in the United States, and extensive use there, give them a position equal to the works of the ablest American jurists, amongst whom Judge Bouvier may justly be classed.

Other branches of legal research have been treated in a masterly manner by Americans; and some of their works on commercial and maritime jurisprudence supply decisions and elucidations of value. Our space forbids further reference to individual authors, but probably those named have accomplished more that is truly honourable in this branch of American literature than others whose names do not now occur to us, and the high position their works hold in Europe is presumptive evidence of their intrinsic worth.

It is almost universally conceded that the Theological writers of America are among the ablest of modern times. They have opened new stores to the student in Divinity, illumined what was heretofore obscure, and successfully combated the inroads of modern scepticism. Those of the class since 1820, have devoted themselves rather to practical illustration than to theoretical speculation, and the majority of their works breathe far more of the broad Spirit of Christianity than might be expected from persons of such opposite creeds in this age of creed bigotry. Of the authors in this department, Robinson, Stuart, Barnes, Norton, Channing, Spring, Cheever, Bush, Alexander, Boardman, Baird, Dewey, Beecher, and Wayland, fairly represent the leading religious literati of the United States. Their works are known in both hemispheres, and those of Professor Robinson, Moses Stuart, and Mr. Barnes, have become standard authorities with all classes of Protestant Christians.

Moses Stuart was not alone a Theologian. He was a philologist in the most comprehensive sense, and "the great merit," says one of his American eulogists, "and one for which the gratitude and respect of American scholars must ever be his due, lies in the zeal and ability he has exhibited for a long series of years in bringing to the notice of the English-reading public the works of many of the soundest philologists, and most enlightened and unprejudiced theologians, of Germany; for to his exertions it is in a good degree owing that the names of Rosenmüller, Gesenius, Ewald, De Wette, Hupfeld, Rödiger, Knobel, Hitzig, and others, are now familiar to the present race of biblical students in this country, and to some extent in England.”

Since 1820, America has added much to our stores on language. It is indisputable that one of the best Dictionaries of the English Language is an American production; and it is equally indisputable that to America England is indebted for several valuable works on many of the heretofore sealed lan. guages of Asia and Africa, to say nothing of those on the various idioms of the American Indians.

Dr. Webster was engaged on his great work 36 years. The first edition was issued in 1828, in New York, when he was in his 70th year. There were 2500 copies printed in the United States, and 3000 in England. It met with success, and the many editions since demanded by the public indicate its high position in general estimation.

In 1840, a new American edition appeared with several thousand words added, and a revised appendix was again published in 1843. Since then several editions have been published both in England and America, the best being that edited by Professor Goodrich, of Yale College.

Of Webster's Dictionary the London Times says, we can have no hesitation in giving it as our decided opinion that this is the most elaborate and successful undertaking of the kind which has ever appeared;" and the English Journal of Education pronounces Dr. Webster "the greatest lexicographer that ever lived."

In continuation of the labours of Dr. Smith Barton, and acting on his suggestions, John Pickering early turned his attention to the language of the North American Indians. His articles in the Memoirs of the American Academy, On the adoption of a Uniform Orthography for the Indian Languages of North America; and his article in the Encyclopædia Americana, on the Languages of America, are profoundly philosophical, displaying a mastery of his subject, and a knowledge only procurable by immense labour and research. The first of these was published early in the decade from 1820 to 1830; since which it has passed through several editions. The Remarks on the Indian Languages of North America made its appearance in book form in 1836.

The British people participate in the fame which attends the spread of their language over the globe, and yet they are probably unconscious of the labours of Americans in this respect. Not only have they extended it by honourable acquisition of territory, through purchase, and never by the sword, but they have through Missionary enterprise made it in some degree familiar to the Central African, and the Sandwich Islander, the native of Burmah, and the dweller on the Euphrates. It is no exaggeration to say that European scholars are much indebted to Americans for their investigations of the Karen, the Siamese, Asamese, Burmese, Chinese, and a whole host of African languages; and to the same for grammars and dictionaries of the Burmese, the Hawaian, the modern Armenian, modern Syrian, and Chaldee tongues. Dr. Judson's Burmese Dictionary, Wells Williams' admirable English and Chinese Vocabulary, and Mr. Mason's Grammar and Dictionary of the Karen Language, are a few of the works of this class in this era which add not a little to the honour of the United States in the philosophical investigation and successful reduction of foreign and comparatively unknown languages, to a system and grammar by which they can readily be acquired by Europeans.

That a country of so vast extent as the United States should have competent naturalists might be reasonably expected; but it is note-worthy that it has produced one, at least, in every respect qualified to describe both the Ornithology and Quadrupeds of America. John J. Audubon first began the publication of his Birds of America in 1825, in folio numbers, each containing five plates. The work had a limited circulation, and the first volume was not completed until 1829. The second and third in 1834 and 1835, respectively, and the fourth, or last, on the 20th June, 1838, or more than 12 years after the first number. The original price to subscribers was about 200 guineas, and it is creditable to America that, of 175 subscribers, full one half were Audubon's countrymen. This speaks forcibly for the taste and public spirit of the people of so new a country, and refutes the musty slander that Americans

are incapable of properly appreciating the higher branches of human science and art.

A smaller edition of this work, in 7 volumes, was completed in 1844; and in 1848, the first volume of the Quadrupeds of America appeared in quarto, similar to the first edition of the Birds of America. In this Audubon had the assistance of his two sons, and Dr. Bachman. In addition to these works, he published an Ornithological Biography, but his fame rests mainly upon the larger productions. Of the first, Cuvier said, on the receipt of a copy by the Royal Academy of Sciences of Paris, "it can be described only by calling it the most magnificent monument Art has ever raised to Ornithology;" and the work on Quadrupeds merits equal praise. Audubon was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of London, as well as of several scientific bodies on the continent. Since the death of Audubon the subject to which he devoted his life has been creditably pursued by Messrs. Cassin and Giraud, whose excellent contributions to our information on American Ornithology entitle them to rank with Audubon as naturalists. The Illustrations of the Birds of California, Texas, Oregon, and British and Russian America, by Cassin, published in Philadelphia, in numbers, from 1853 to 1855, and the Birds of Long Island, by Giraud, give promise that those gentlemen may yet complete the history left unfinished by the lamented Audubon.

The United States Government has published, in a style of art equal to that of any works of a similar nature, several volumes of the scientific discoveries of the Exploring Expedition, under Captain Wilkes; and of these we may specially notice the Treatises on the Crustacea, Zoophytes, Geology, and Botany.

Several individual branches of natural history have received the attention of competent investigators. The North American Herpetology; or, a Description of the Reptiles inhabiting the United States, by Dr. John E. Holbrook, Professor of Anatomy in the Medical College of South Carolina, of which State he is a native, published in royal quarto in 1843, with accurate plates, is really a work of stupendous magnitude, upon a field heretofore almost a desert. The difficulties under which the author laboured would have effectually discouraged any but an extraordinary man, and the manner in which the work has been accomplished is a triumph of patient industry. It must last as long as science has a votary. Since its appearance Professor Holbrook has begun the publication of the Ichthyology of South Carolina, in numbers, at Charleston, and the parts which have come under our notice warrant us in expressing the opinion that this work on the fishes of the Southern States will fully sustain the high scientific reputation which Professor Holbrook now enjoys. Agassiz says his descriptions are the clearest and best he ever met with.

Tired with metaphysical investigation, as were the scholars of England, the educated men of America, early in this century, turned their attention to Geology, Botany, Chemistry, Mineralogy, and the kindred sciences, with excellent results. So rapid indeed was the spread of these branches of knowledge when Dr. Webster revised his Dictionary in 1840, that he found it necessary, after a lapse of twelve years, to add several thousand words in order to express the ideas which had passed from technological science into our common language.

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