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Willard, and Professor Cleveland, now of Bowdoin College; and four of the General Repository and Review, a quarterly publication of over two hundred pages in a number, were issued at the same place in 1812 and 1813. The latter had a Theological, a Miscellaneous, and an Intelligence department, and a department of Reviews. Mr. Norton, its editor, received contributions from twenty-seven gentlemen, all then, or since, of unquestioned distinction, and some of the first eminence, in our republic of letters. The fourth volume was published under the direction of an association of gentlemen, and with it the work was discontinued.

The North American Review was established by the late lamented William Tudor, afterwards Chargé d'Affaires of the United States at the court of Rio Janeiro, in May, 1815. It was originally published every two months, in numbers of a hundred and fifty pages each, which included, besides reviews, the variety of miscellaneous and poetical articles usually found in magazines. In March, 1817, the work was transferred by Mr. Tudor to Mr. Willard Phillips, and by him, in the course of the same year, to a small association of gentlemen, who took measures for carrying it on, at frequent meetings, the execution of their arrangements being confided to Mr. Sparks, then a tutor at college. After the seventh volume, the work was published quarterly, in numbers of two hundred and fifty pages each, the departments of poetry and intelligence were suppressed, and the contents were made to consist entirely of reviews and miscellaneous essays. On the removal of Mr. Sparks to Baltimore, in 1819, the management was transferred to Mr. Edward T. Channing; and on his appointment the same year, to the Professorship of Rhetoric and Oratory in Harvard University, which he still holds, it was again transferred to Mr. Edward Everett, who had recently returned from Europe. At this time, a new series commenced, in which the miscellaneous department was omitted, and the work conformed throughout to the type of European publications of the same character. Under the administration of Mr. Everett, its circulation increased with so much rapidity that it became necessary to print two or three successive editions of some of the earlier numbers of the new series, and to reprint several of those of the first series, in order to supply the augmented demand for the whole. In 1822, the work was again transferred to Mr. Sparks, and in 1830 it passed into the hands of

the present editor. Under all the changes in its editorial management it has been chiefly sustained by the labors of the same persons who were originally the principal contributors, and to whose valuable aid our readers are still indebted for much of whatever entertainment and instruction may be found in its pages. Some of these, including Mr. Tudor, were among the members of the Anthology Club, so that the work may be considered as in some sense a continuation of the Anthology. It has long been our intention to offer a tribute to the memory of the accomplished founder, who died at his post in Rio Janeiro in the year 1829. Accidental circumstances have hitherto defeated this purpose, but we still hope to be able to carry it into effect at no distant period.

In 1827, those enterprising publishers, the Messrs. Carey of Philadelphia, established the American Quarterly Review on the same plan, placing it under the conduct of Mr. Walsh, who, having returned from Europe with the fame he had won by his Letter on the Genius and Dispositions of the French Government, and by contributions to the Edinburgh Review, had previously, in 1811 and 1812, published four volumes of the American Review and Repository, and two volumes of an Annual Register in 1817. The number of such publications, which was diminished last year by the discontinuance of the Western and Southern Reviews,-the former commenced in 1827, in Cincinnati, by Mr. Timothy Flint, the latter in Charleston, in 1828, under the editorship of Mr. Legaré, now our Belgian Chargé d'Affaires,-has been kept full by the institution of Mr. Leonard Woods, Jr.'s Quarterly, in New York, and the United States' Review in Philadelphia. Mr. Blunt's American Annual Register, which enlists some of the high talent of the different sections of the country, has been published at New York since the beginning of 1827.

A character mainly the same with that of the leading Reviews last mentioned, attaches to the Christian Examiner and General Review, published in Boston, and the Christian Spectator, in New Haven, with the difference that each is devoted to the defence of a system of theological opinion. The second series of the latter work, by which we suppose it is principally known, was begun in 1827. The former was first issued monthly for six years, from 1813 to 1818, under the name of the Christian Disciple, by that eminent philanthro

pist, Noah Worcester of Brighton, being in his hands chiefly devoted to the cause of international peace. With the second series, begun in 1819, and continued through five years, was assumed a controversial character. In 1824, it took an enlarged form, along with its present name. During these changes, it has been in the charge of different individuals, generally clergymen of Boston.

We could add largely to the list, from memory; and the Analectic Magazine, furnished with its biographies of naval worthies by Irving, and for some time edited by Paulding,—and the Red Book, the most successful experiment perhaps at imitation of Salmagundi, by Mr. Cruse of Baltimore, one of the precious victims to the late dreadful pestilence, would demand particular commemoration. There was the Thespian Mirror at New York, a specimen of wonderful precocity of genius, edited by John Howard Payne, in his fourteenth year. At home, there was the Gleaner, published by Mrs. Murray in a separate form, after the pattern of the Spectator; the Ordeal, by a now valuable civic magistrate, which, though a magazine, magnified its office into the assumption of a political character, containing letters, on the model of Junius, in the high party times of 1808; the Polyanthus, issued from the press of the present editor of the New England Magazine, and ornamented with prints from the graver of that remarkable young orientalist, Harris, who came to an untimely death, while a member of college, bathing in the Charles river. There was the Emerald, an octavo magazine, issued from the office of his Honor the present Lieutenant Governor, continued through the years 1806 and 1807, and then merged, along with the Times, a weekly quarto literary newspaper, in the Mirror, also a weekly newspaper on the same plan, but of a larger size. This was issued, (under the management of J. H. Payne, then preparing here for his scenic laurels,) from the office of Mr. Monroe, since the able conductor of the Baltimore Patriot. But it is impossible so much as to name all such undertakings, except in a barren catalogue, nor does any eligible principle of selection appear.

We will add only some brief statements, touching the comparative amount of periodical publication at different periods of our history. In the year 1750, four newspapers only were issued in New England, all of them in Boston, and seven in the other colonies, viz. two in New York, three in Pennsylvania, one in

Virginia, and one in South Carolina. In 1775, there were seven in Massachusetts, one in New Hampshire, two in Rhode Island, and three in Connecticut, (thirteen in all New England,) three in New York, eight in Pennsylvania, two in Maryland, two in Virginia, two in North Carolina, three in South Carolina, and one in Georgia; making twenty-one in all, in the Southern provinces, and thirty-four in the territory of the now United States. Soon after the Revolutionary war, daily papers, instead of weekly as heretofore, were introduced in Philadelphia and New York; but we had none here, till so late as 1813. In 1800, according to Thomas, at least one hundred and fifty newspapers were printed in the United States; and in 1810, three hundred and fifty, already nearly half as many again as in the British islands. The same writer computed the number of single papers, then annually issued here, at twenty-two millions and a half. A French document, inserted in the American Almanac of the current year, gives the number of newspapers in the United States at eight hundred and forty, while all Europe has only a little over two thousand, all Asia but twenty-seven, Great Britain four hundred and eighty, Austria and Russia each eighty, and Spain but twelve; making in the United States a newspaper for less than every fourteen thousand souls; in Europe, one for every hundred and six thousand souls; and in Asia one for every fourteen millions; or a thousand times as many, in proportion to the population, in our country, as in the latter continent. The learned editor, however, of the Almanac, reckons the number of our newspapers last year at not less than twelve hundred ; the number in Massachusetts alone having reached a hundred, including forty-three in Boston. The other periodical literature in Boston, last year, was diffused through no less than forty-seven publications, viz. three semi-monthly, twenty-two monthly, five two-monthly, seven quarterly, one semi-annual, and nine annual, including six almanacs. We have heard it confidently stated, in a highly trustworthy quarter, that, apart from newspapers and religious magazines, the periodical publications of this city exceed the sum of those of the rest of the country. But we cannot ourselves vouch for the fact. VOL. XXXIX.—No. 85.

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ART. II.-Diplomatic Correspondence.

The Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States of America, from the signing of the definitive Treaty of Peace, 10th September, 1783, to the Adoption of the Constitution, March 4th, 1789, being the Letters of the Presidents of Congress, the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, American Ministers at Foreign Courts, Foreign Ministers near Congress, and Reports of the Secretary for Foreign Affairs on various Letters and Communications, together with Letters from Individuals on Public Affairs. Published under the direction of the Secretary of State, from the original Manuscripts in the Department of State, conformably to an Act of Congress, approved May 5th, 1832. In seven volumes 8vo.

In our number for October, 1831, we reviewed 'the Diplomatic Correspondence of the Revolution,' the work of which that now under consideration is the Sequel. In that review we observed that, in obedience to the terms of the resolution of Congress of 1818, ordering the publication of various portions of the contents of the Archives of the old Congress, the Diplomatic Correspondence, selected for the press, terminated abruptly at the close of the war, in 1783. We expressed ourselves strongly in favor of the continuation of the work, down to the time of the adoption of the Constitution in 1789. We observed that a resolution had been reported to the House of Representatives at its preceding session, (that of 1830— 1831,) authorizing the Secretary of State to continue the work down to that period, under the editorship of Mr. Sparks. The committee, that reported this resolution, recommended that the proposed work should be entrusted to the editorship of Mr. Sparks, in consequence of the extraordinary qualifications known to be possessed by that gentleman, for an undertaking of this kind, and the success with which he had performed the duty of an editor toward the Diplomatic Correspondence of the Revolution. He was known to have bestowed more attention upon the general subject, than any other individual living. In his laborious researches in the public offices of Great Britain and France, he had collected ample materials,