to us in the country than you are in town." We are getting weary of these details, but cannot refrain from noticing one flagrant error, which occurs in the tenth letter of this collection, directed "Carolo Dato." Speaking of his attachment to Florence, Milton appeals with true feeling and eloquence to the tomb of his lamented friend Diodati, "Testor illum mihi semper sacrum ac solenne futurum Damonis tumulum." Mr. Hall, not perceiving the force of this beautiful appeal, translates it, "I declare that the grave of Damon will be always sacredly regarded by me."

We might thus go on to the end of the book, if we did not think that we had proved our position, and sufficiently tried the nerves of scholars.

Not satisfied, however, with the mistakes into which his imperfect knowledge of the Latin language has caused him to fall, Mr. Hall must needs embellish his labours with notes, critical and historical, as if to force his incompetency upon his readers, even if they did not choose to go in search of it. We will select one of his confessions, conspicuous for its naiveté and childlike simplicity. The eighth letter in this collection is to Benedetto Buonmattei. Prefixed to Mr. Hall's translation is this

notice

"To Benedict Bonmatthei.

["In 1638, Milton travelled through France and Italy. At Florence, he became acquainted with Bounmattei, who was preparing an Italian Grammar. Whether his correspondent availed himself of the hints of the following letter on the subject, I have no means of ascertaining, not having found any information respecting either the grammar or its author, besides what the letter itself furnishes."]-Hall's Fam. Let. of Milton, p. 35.

Is it to be believed, that any one would undertake the illustration of Milton's letters, who was so little versed in Italian literature as not even to seem aware of the self-exposure which must result from the confession, that he knew nothing of Buonmattei, the celebrated Florentine priest, to whom is due the glory of having reduced the Tuscan tongue to order and regularity, the scholar who gave a name and a character to the sweetest language that ever flowed from the lips of man? We would enlighten Mr. Hall by referring him to Tiraboschi, but we are aware that it is a violation of all the rules of illustration, to elucidate "ignota per ignotiora."

We cannot conclude this article without giving a slight specimen of French criticism, and of the fair prospect we have of being properly appreciated in Europe. It seems, that the conductors of the Revue Encyclopedique have enstrusted the depart

ment of American literature to the tender care of Mademoiselle Louise Sw-Belloe, who after a most rapturous and sentimental preamble about Milton, thus notices this publication

"Toute trace d'un pareil homme, toute manifestation de sa pensée, est importante à recueillir et à populariser.-C'est le que M. Hall a fait; et il ne s'est pas bornè a une simple traduction du latin, il a joint aux lettres, des notes, qui prouvent une connaisance approfondie de l'histoire du poète, et du tems où il a vècu.”—Rev. Encyc. Sept. 1829, p. 657. -Louise Sw-Belloe.

ART. VIII.—1. Two Letters addressed to Joseph C. Cabell, Esq. on the Constitutionality of the power in Congress to impose a Tariff for the encouragement of Manufactures. By JAMES MADISON, late President of the United States. Washington. 1829.

2. Protest of the Legislature of South-Carolina against the system of protecting duties, &c. adopted on the last day of the session, 1828, and transmitted to the Senate of the United States, to be entered on its Journals. February, 1830.

THE deep and increasing excitement which pervades all parts of this State in relation to the tariff, makes it our imperious duty once more to call the attention of our readers to that subject. If the signs of the times are not less to be relied on than they ever were in any political conjuncture, an issue is likely to be made up in the councils of South-Carolina, which no man-who has either the head or the heart of a man-can contemplate without anxiety and alarm. We shall take it for granted, in what we have to say upon this subject, that our readers feel as we do, in relation to the unspeakably important interests involved in this discussion. We shall give them credit for a full share of that generous sympathy, of those comprehensive and ennobling national feelings, which grew out of, if they did not produce, the War of the Revolution. We shall suppose that the blood of brothers, poured out so freely in defence of each other's hearths and homes-and no where more freely than in SouthCarolina-does not cry to us in vain from the ground which it has consecrated forever. We shall take it for granted, that if the Federal Government may not still be pronounced, as we

were all once taught to consider it, a perfect model of political wisdom, the glory of our own land, the consoling hope and example of all other lands, it is, at least, better than any substitute for it, as yet thought of by the few, the very few persons amongst us who have avowed themselves its enemies in all events. We shall assume, that our readers concur with us in the opinion we have more than once expressed, that the rarest thing in the history of man, and the hardest thing in nature to preserve, is a popular government worth living under-that of all revolutions, the issues are wrapt up in darkness and full of peril, because it is not in human wisdom to direct, or in human strength to control their course-and that to justify us in subjecting the dearest hopes of millions already born, and hundreds of millions yet to be born, to the tremendous hazard of a convulsion, in which those who only thought to "sow the wind" may chance "to reap the whirlwind," as wise men, as virtuous and conscientious-not to speak of Christianmen, we should require an extreme, and, otherwise, hopeless case of wrong and suffering to be made out; and should be ready, on the other hand, to sacrifice as a peace-offering almost any merely pecuniary interest-much more an imaginary, or at least disputed interest, in a theoretical, experimental policy. In short, we shall address ourselves to those, and to those only, who know and feel the value of popular government and of that liberty-that only liberty worth the name-which the most sublime of its apostles and confessors has characterized as "rational liberty" "that always with right reason dwells, and from her hath no dividual being."

Let it not be inferred from our indulging in this strain, that we have changed any of our opinions or bated one jot or tittle of our zeal to bring back the government of the United States to what we conscientiously believe to be its true principles. Rather let the very reverse be inferred. The dangers with which the present crisis seems to be pregnant, undoubtedly had their origin in a violation of those principles. We shall endeavour to shew this more clearly hereafter; but in the mean time, without going into details, we appeal to all thinking men, whether there has not been, for the last fifteen years, too much legislation at Washington. We do not speak as party men, for we know that this censure lights upon the heads of some of our best friends-that it, in a manner, lights upon our own heads, as well as upon other people's. But this makes no difference in the conclusion to which all considerate minds are coming, from a comprehensive and deliberate survey, in the clear light of experience, of the general state of our government and country.

We are happily able to vouch a witness above all exception. We call up, with equal pride and gratitude, to the support of our opinions and of what we conceive to be the interests of the Southern States, that great man whose genius has formed an æra in the literary history of his country, and whose virtues are admitted, even by his adversaries, to be quite equal to his genius. Our readers have anticipated us in naming Dr. Channing. In an admirable article published some time ago in a contemporary journal, that excellent person has gone so fully into this subject, that he has left very little to be added to his masterly view of it. He has "calculated the value of the Union"-but he has done so, at once, with the wisdom of a sage and the holy, filial solicitude and sensibility of a true patriot. He thinks and justly thinks, that the preservation of that magnificent scheme of liberty and peace, ought to be the capital object of our national policy, to which all other objects, however important in themselves, should be made to yield without reserve. He teaches and wisely teaches, that the influence of government upon society, is never so salutary as when it is almost exclusively negativethat it should protect mankind against force and fraud, and enable them to pursue their own happiness and improvement, under the shelter of equal laws and a vigilant police, without presuming to dictate to self-interest in the choice either of its objects or its means-and that in such a country as this, especially, so vast, so diversified in its moral as well as natural features, the administration of affairs ought to be distinguished by the most guarded moderation and a religious respect for the interests, the opinions, and even the very prejudices of every considerable part of it. These are fundamental and precious truths unhappily little attended to in theory, and still less respected in practice by the rulers of mankind. But applicable as they are to all forms of polity and all conditions of society, they are, as the most thoughtless must perceive, entitled to the especial consideration of our statesmen. Nobody pretends to deny, that except for a few designated purposes, the Federal Constitution is a bond of Union for distinct and independent commonwealths. Those purposes, we admit, are of paramount importance, and we are by no means inclined to stint the government in the means of accomplishing them. We fearlessly appeal to the history of the past, to shew that the South has never hesitated when efforts were to be made, never murmured when sacrifices were to be submitted to, for the common glory and well-being.

Why was this work of wisdom and peace omitted in the collection of Dr. C.'s Writings?

All that we have ever required of the Government is, that it should administer the affairs of the confederacy in good faith and with a truly paternal impartiality, 'within its ascertained constitutional sphere. We remember with a melancholy pleasure, what a romantic enthusiasm, what a generous and confiding spirit of hope and brotherly love, once warmed the bosom of this whole State in relation to our glorious republic. It is but a very few years since the word "sectional" was even heard among us. Would to God that our lips had never been forced to pronounce the barbarous and ill-omened sound!

It results, we contend, from the very nature of all confederacies, however intimate and permanent, that their common concerns should be administered with exceeding moderation. Whoever looks into the theory of such political associations will be satisfied of this. The great difference between a Consolidated and a Federal Government is, that in the former, the body politic is supposed to constitute one integral, indivisible whole, in which all the separate parts are completely merged and melted away; while, in the latter, they are allowed for all purposes but those falling within the casus fœderis, to retain their individuality and independence. In the one case, the interests of the whole and the interests of every single part are in theory so completely identified, as to be incapable of being separated, even in imagination. In the other, they are so far from being identified, that it is the very object of the fundamental compact (whatever it may be) to keep them carefully distinguished. It is the law of all simple corporate bodies, that ubi est major pars ibi est tota, as the books express it, and it follows, in the absence of any express regulation, that in a consolidated government, the majority represents the whole, to all intents and purposes whatsoever-feels, thinks, speaks, acts for the whole without reserve-and sacrifices, without scruple, to the conceived interests of the whole, those of any individual part. So say all publicists. In a Federal Union, however, be it never so intimate, this unbounded control over the interests and resources of the society, is inconsistent with the separate existence, the individuality of the parts. As to all purposes, not designated in the compact, it is supposed, by the very theory of the government, that there is no community of interests among them. Each has its own peculiar policy to pursue, its individual prosperity to take care of. The meaning of this is, that a citizen of Virginia, for instance, is supposed by the very frame of the Constitution, to be more concerned in the well-being of Virginia, than in that of New-York or PennVOL. VI. NO. 11.

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