690 
afforded Mr. Dickinfon an opportunity 
of placing the American claims on what 
he conceived to be their proper footing 5 
and we have here a very ne foals defence of 
the rights of his countrymen on the fub- 
jeét of taxation. The weakneis and. in- 
confiftency, as well as the ob{equioutnefs of 
the petitioners, are pointed out with great 
force of argument and propriety of illu 
tration. 
But the Farmer’s Letters muft be con- 
fidered as the moft important article in 
this collection, and that on which the dif 
tinguifhed reputation of Mr. Dickin‘on 
was princ.paliy ere&ed. Titey were pub- 
hithed in. 1767, and were read with great 
jntereft both 1» Great Britain and in the 
American Colonies. [n thefe celebrated 
jetters, the auchor appears on the [it of 
the moft eloquent advocates and moit 
powerful promoters of the Revoluiion. 
After the much wiser expanfion of the 
doétrines mainteined in thefe letters, which 
Jater times have exhibited, it is me 
high praifeof them to ease that they ftill 
retain a larger portion of the intereft which 
they originally poficfled. 
The “* Effay on the Unconfticutional 
Power of Great Britain over her Colonies,” 
which ftands next in- order after the Far. 
mers Leiters, may be faid to contain, in 
conjunction. with them, nearly all the 
more weighty of the learned and intereft- 
ing topics which that memorable contro- 
verfy brought into view. 
The ** Addrefs of Congrefs to the In- 
habitants of Quebec,”* came from the pen 
ef Mr. Dickinion, and holds a place in 
this colleétion, It abounds in fine {peci- 
cimens of the fpirited, graceful, elegant, 
and per/uafive manner, which ditinguifkes 
all his writings. The petition of the 
fame body to the king was likewifle 
Graughted by Mr. Dickinfon,- and fully 
deferves tie warm encomiums pronounced 
on it by Mr. Belfham. 
The ‘* Declaration of Conerefs,’? on 
the 6th July, 1775, at a moit momentous 
period of the American Revolution, when 
the dangers were impending on every fide 
which ‘tried men’s fouls,” is alfo placed 
is this collection as proceeding from the 
pen of Mr. Dickinfon. It is an oration 
delivered at the bar of the civitized world, 
at an aweful moment pregnant with «vents 
of the highef intereit, in-detence of an 
enlightened and magnanimous people. 
The energy, dignity and fublimity of the 
orator im no degree fell fhort of the mag- 
nitude cf' the cauvfe, and the — cha- 
raéter of the audience. 
By way of repelling the charge of pre- 
: —wiat T wifh to for get. 
Retrofp:& of American. Literature, — Politics, 
— 
judice in favour of France, and of enmity 
to Great Britain, in one of the lateft of 
Mr. Dickenton’s performances, under the 
fignature of Fabius, he exprefles himfelf 
in the following terms which cannot but 
be acceptable to every ttue Briton. 
<< What real American can defire the 
defolation of that Jand, the birth place of 
heroes, patriots, fages, and faints—from 
which we have derived the blood that cir- 
culates in our arteries and veins—from 
which we have received the very current 
of cur thoughts—a -land, whofe meads, 
hills, and fireams, point ott the {pots 
where her galiant fons met death, face to 
face, for LIBERTY—a land, ideal kind- 
headed nobies, in every chaste wrenched, 
in atteftation of their freedoms, from the 
gripe of tyranny, inferted claufes in 
favour of the Commons, while the nobles 
of fome other countries, after involving 
the people in their felfifh quarrels, pretend- 
ed to be leagues for public good, left 
them naked to injuries, and made {plendid 
bargains with their. monarchs for them- 
felyes. The after-reckoning foon follow- 
ed; their provoked kings broke is upon 
them 5; in difmay they cried out for help, 
but experienced the holy power of that 
eternal trath, that they who are fale te 
others, are falfe to themjelves. There was 
no help 
es to this difference of behaviour, the 
nobles of Britain, at this day, in a great 
mealure, owe that portion of feécduns in 
which iliey partake with the people, when 
the nobles of fome other countries are 
So much avifer 
and better is it 10 communicate than to mo- 
mopolixe thofe things ia which ali ought to 
gis 
“ Another praife is due to Britain, for 
the purity of her tribunals in the admini- 
Rration of juitice. The hiltory of man- 
kind, as far as 1 am acquainted with it, 
does not afford an inftance where the 
fream has flowed fo clear, forfuch a length 
ci time. Power or faction has not been 
able to pollute it. 
rich, the jabourer and the nobleman, have 
equal rights to the wholefome draughts. 
There even peers are blamelefs.” 
Such 
of the American Revolution, the pafriotic, 
and the admirers of elogium, will all find 
much to amufe and pleafe them in the i an 
rufal of thefe elegant volumes. 
Under the head of pelitics may be men- 
tioned «* The Hiftory of the Adminiftra- 
tion of John Adams, late Prefident of 
the United States, by J. Woop”; for it 
cannot with any propriety be confidered 
among 
The poor ard the 
as are anxious.to trace the courfe 
— 
