Postscript.

THE SECOND VOLUME OF THE DEMOCRATIC REVIEW.

Throughout the progress of the Second volume of the Democratic Review, completed by the publication of the eighth, or July, number, it is gratifying to announce, that the same liberal amount of public encouragement, with which the work was commenced, has been steadily continued. Since the completion of the First volume in March, to the date of the present publication, twelve hundred and fourteen names have been added to the subscription list of the Review, all of whom, with the exception of about one hundred and thirty obtained by agents, have been voluntary accessions. This encouragement, felt to be doubly valuable in the universal commercial embarrassment which has prevailed, abundantly proves the necessity of such a work; and, apart from any considerations arising from the manner in which it has been conducted, constitutes a homage to the principles which this journal has been established to advocate, from which their friends and professors will be glad to recognise a strength and prevalence of attachment to them, of the happiest augury for their continuance and advance

ment.

The incipient difficulties attending the establishment and early progress of an undertaking, so important and extensive, have still, in some measure, prevented that full and vigorous efficiency in all the departments of such a work, which its secure establishmentnow becoming more and more a matter of certainty-will soon enable the editors to effect. On this subject, however, in a general sense, they have found such a liberal appreciation on the part of the public, of what they have done, that they should not deem any recurrence to it here necessary, were it not proper to announce in this place, one alteration in the plan of the work, as detailed in the prospectus, which its progress so far has demonstrated to be

necessary.

That plan, it will be recollected, contemplated the devotion of a considerable portion of each number to such a chronicle of foreign and domestic events, and statistical facts, as would form, in a separate volume, a general register of occurrences for the

year. The first attempt to realize such a plan demonstrated its impossibility, within the limits necessarily prescribed to them, and satisfied the editors, that to give any thing approaching to a satisfactory summary of general events, and executed in a suitable manner, would so much abridge the space requisite for the more important and peculiar functions of this journal, that even the attempt, in an extended sense, was given up, and a series of connected narratives of important transactions, each complete in itself, was resolved to be substituted in its stead. Of these historical narratives the Retrospective View of European Politics, and of the South American States, the History of the Extra Session of Congress, and of the Canadian Revolution, have already appeared, and the manner in which these papers has been received, has satisfied the editors that in the care and expense employed in their preparation, they have much better consulted the public taste than by giving, from month to month what, at the best, would be but an imperfect and defective array of isolated events selected from the newspapers, and in such a form of little or no permanent value. It is proposed to continue this plan throughout the year, by completing the History of the Twenty-fifth Congress, after the conclusion of its respective sessions, and by giving, from time to time, narratives similar to those already published, of several other important transactions, at home and abroad. In other respects, and at a greatly increased expense, the publishers have exceeded the proposals of the Prospectus, as well in giving a much greater quantity of original matter than at first contemplated, as in the commencement of a biographic gallery continued with each number, and accompanied by the novel and expensive illustrations of etchings from the life, of the subject of each memoir.

Whether the importance of carrying out the original project of a complete Historical Register, would not justify an extension of the plan of this work, so as to combine the Monthly Review and Magazine with a publication at more frequent intervals, exclusively devoted to the preservation of historical facts, and to notices of literature and politics, of themselves interesting and important, but necessarily excluded from the more limited scope of a monthly periodical, is a question, respecting which the publishers have not yet the means of forming an accurate opinion, but which is sufficiently important to merit their attention,-when, if it should be found practicable or desirable, it will be properly announced.

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