¢ 697 ) 
HALF-YEARLY RETROSPECT OF AMERICAN LITERATURE. 
/ 
POLITICS. 
NE of: the molt important works 
publifhed in America during the pre- 
fent year is intitled *¢ Difcourfes on Da- 
vila ; a Series of Papers publifhed on Po- 
litical Hiflory;” by an AmMeRIcAN CI- 
TIZEN. 
Thefe Difcourfes were originally writ- 
ten in the year t790, with a view to what 
was pafling in France, and then publifhed 
in the Gazerte of the United States. At 
that period the National Affembly was 
the governing-power in France. It was 
divided into different parties, and, of 
courfe, various theories of government 
were broached, according to the ideas of 
each party. Thele, at length, led to the 
Gefruction of thofe ranks and orders 
which had been long efteemed as facred. 
The author of the Difccurfes on Davila, 
after inquirisg into the nature and ten- 
dency of the love of rank, orders, titles, 
&c, juitifying the ancient French fyftem, 
thews the neceffity of different branches 
and balancing-powers. in government, 
,and exhorts his own countrymen the 
Americans to rejoice in their eflays to- 
wards a well-formed conftitution. 
Though the fentiments contained in 
this work are not always congenial to our 
own, though the language is frequently 
harfh and unpolifhed, yet it may be recom- 
mended to thofe who make politics their 
ftudy, as containing many maxims and 
truths which in the ardour of debate are 
too apt to be forgotten. 
In * Obfervations on Trial by Jury,” 
addreffed to the Citizens of Pennfyivania, 
the author traces with learning aed dif- 
crimination the origin of tee trial by jury, 
and fhews, by appropriate extracts from 
the bef authors in the Englith lanouage, 
that, among all their popular dinftitutions, 
there is none to which the people of Eng- 
land have adhered with grea'er firmnels, 
and noge which they have guarded with 
greater jealoufy. He then fnews, that it 
was the birth-right of their American an- 
ceffors, and is fecured as a conftitutional 
right to evéry citizen of the United States; 
that it has always been confidered as the 
darling prerogative of the people, which 
they would not foffer to be violated with 
impunity ; that the depriving them of it 
in foie cafes was one of the grievances 
fated in the Declaration of Independence 
as aground of feparation from the Go- 
vernment of Great Britain ; and that the 
Montary Mac, No. 131- 
intervention of a jury is indifpenfable in 
every judicial tribunal of common law 
jurifdiction within the United States,— 
The author, in inveftigating thefe feveral 
topics, {peaks with indignation againtt 
thofe, who, under the pretext of being 
.the exclufive friends of the people, have 
attacked «* this bulwark of their perfonal 
and private rights, this fortrels againft 
petty and private oppreffion.” 
«© Letters of Shahcoolen, a Hindi Phi- 
lofopher, refiding in Poiladelpbia, ‘to his 
friend E] Haffan, an inhabitant of Delhi,”’ 
are wretched attempts to imitate Lord 
Lyttl-ton’s Perfian Letters. The volume 
comprizes fourteen letters, which are ge- 
nerally of a local nature. The firit four 
contain an account of the new philofophy, 
and its practical influence on the United 
States. The others are extravagant ca- 
ricatures onthe fcllies and vices of the 
Americans, which, however, are ill fup- 
ported, and by no means juflified by fatts, 
and the prefent manners of fociety. 
THEOLOGY. 
Dr. PriestTLey’s ‘* Notes on all the 
Books of Scripture”’ are finifhed ; in the - 
Jatt volume are inferted feveral ufeful in- 
dexes. ‘The notes on the Four Evange- 
lifts would have been better adapted to 
general readers had they been arranged in 
the order of the books, rather than as notes 
to a Harmony of the Gofpels in which the 
four are incorporated. “Lhe executors of 
this great man have alfo publifhed an In- 
dex to the Bible, which was finifhed be- 
fore the Doctor’s death; and anew and 
enlarged edition of his Comparifon of the 
ancient Philofophers with Chrift and his 
Apottles. We look with anx:ety for the 
Life of this philofopher and Chriftian, 
which, we underftand, is in a ftate of con- 
fiderable forwardnefs, and will be pub« 
lithed in America early in Auguft. 
«© The Oration delivered by Mr.Curis- 
TIE at the Grave of Dr. PriEsTLEy,” 
has been ‘ublithed, but it con’ains very 
little that is intereiting. TUhe auchor has, 
in an Appendix, quoted two paflages 
from Dr. Priefiley’s works, as fpecimens 
of remarkabie brilliancy and eloquence. 
Unfortunately for Mr. Chrifiie, one of 
thefe paflages was wriiten f> many years 
ago, as to give the autnor time to change 
his fentiments completely on the fubjeét 
Jong before his death, and as fuch it is by 
no means appropriate to the ocdafion.— 
From Dr. Bartron’s * Eutogium,” iead 
4X | betore 
