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most states have owed their ruin to this cause. monwealths were maintained by the spirit of patric all their citizens together for the general safety. ney has become its substitute; this is now the univ you have it not. The spirit of purse-pride infects all pa mineers at court; every thing has become venal, and ar confounded. Since the dismissal of Messrs d'Argenson and 1 your ministers are without genius, and without capacity for bu You alone are blind to their inefficiency, because they bring to the work of clerks somewhat abler than themselves, and pass it fe their own. They carry on the business by experiments from day to day; but there is nothing like a government. The army is disgusted with the changes in the military administration; and the best officers are retiring from it. A seditious spirit shows itself in the Parliaments; you betake yourself to the resource of corruption, and the remedy is worse than the mischief; it is introducing vice into the sanc tuary of Justice, and infecting the noble parts of the State. Would a corrupted Parliament ever have braved the fury of the league to preserve the crown for its rightful sovereign?

We here must close our account of this curious Journal, and of the volume to which it belongs. If, in the course of our remarks upon French intrigue in former times, we may seem to have dwelt much upon the vices of the old Government, it is only because we feel the importance to France and to England of correct notions being entertained upon the subject. There is a senseless and a profligate party in both countries, whose efforts are, without intermission, directed to the praise of the old, and the disparagement of the new order of things, established among our neighbours. Nothing but the grossest ignorance, can obtain a hearing for such miserable folly on either side of the Channel. But it is the duty of every friend of his country, and of human improvement, to contribute his efforts towards withstanding and exposing the attempts thus made to effect a counter-revolution, which could only, if it succeeded, lead, through confusion and slaughter, to a renewal of systematic misgovernment and oppression. Happily, indeed, its success now seems wholly out of the question; but the attempt would ensure vast temporary misery to France herself, and would endanger the peace of all her neighbours. How far the present. government of that country is the best of which the nature of things will admit, is another question, into which we forbear entering on this occasion. We are disposed, however, to regard it with a very favourable eye, and to give all credit to those who have of late so steadily administered it. Certainly its prodigious superiority over the former constitution is too manifest to admit of a doubt; and those who are impatient to see it still

Here nearly resemble our own, should reflect, that ours was not ve work of contrivance, but of time; that there is an essential liifference in the present political character and habits of the two nations; and that the peaceful continuance of the existing order of things, by preparing our neighbours for a still greater share of liberty, will, in all human probability, ensure to them the possession, with the capacity of enjoying it.

ART. IV. 1. Observations on the Geology of the United States of America. By WILLIAM MACLURE. Philadelphia, 1817. Pp. 127.

8vo.

2. An Elementary Treatise on Mineralogy and Geology. By PARKER CLEAVELAND, Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, and Lecturer on Chemistry and Mineralogy, in Bowdoin College. Boston, 1816. 8vo. pp. 668.

IN

N a former Number, we gave an account of a new Mineralogical Journal, published in America by Dr Bruce of New York. We hailed the appearance of this work as a proof of the attention that had been excited to this interesting branch of science, in a field so sure to yield an abundant harvest; and it was with regret that we learned, that a Journal which promised so well at its outset, had very soon been discontinued.

We have now great pleasure in introducing to the notice of our readers, two very excellent publications, which abundantly prove that the study of Mineralogy is pursued with no less eagerness and success in the United States, than it has been for some years past in most of the countries of Europe. There is not perhaps any department of science which, at the present time, merits a greater degree of attention in that great and prosperous country, from its various practical applications to some of the most important sources of national wealth and power; and the more especially that, from the limited researches already made, Nature appears to have added, in abundance, some of her most valuable mineral productions to the other internal resources which she has lavished in that part of the world.

The geological part of Mr Maclure's book was first published in the sixth volume of the American Philosophical Transac tions; in the present edition there are some additions and corrections, besides two new chapters, which the author informs us in his Preface, are an attempt to apply Geology to Agricul

* Vol. xvii. p. 114.

ture, in showing the probable effects the decomposition of the different classes of rocks may have on the nature and fertility of soils. It is the result of many observations made in Europe and America, and may perhaps be found more useful in the United States than in Europe, as more of the land is in a state of nature not yet changed by the industry of man.'

Mr Maclure appears to be very thoroughly conversant with his subject, and to have studied with great attention the geological structure of a considerable part of Europe. He is a dis-ciple of Werner; but we recognise him as such, more by the descriptive language he employs, than by his theoretical opinions. His general views are much more enlarged and philosophical, than is usually met with in the geologists of that school; and, like most of those who have had opportunities of extensive observation, he has found that the theory of the Freyberg professor is of a very limited application. The following remarks in his Preface are a sufficient proof that his geological creed is not that of Werner,

In all speculations on the origin, or agents that have produced the changes on this globe, it is probable that we ought to keep within the boundaries of the probable effects resulting from the regular operations of the great laws of nature, which our experience and observation have brought within the sphere of our knowledge. When we overleap those limits, and suppose a total change in Nature's laws, we embark on the sea of uncertainty, where one conjecture is perhaps as probable as another; for none of them can have any support, or derive any authority from the practical facts wherewith our experience has brought us acquainted.

While we acknowledge the valuable information which this little work conveys, we cannot bestow any praise on the manner in which the materials are put together. There is a great want of method and arrangement; for, although the author has laid down a very good plan, he has not adhered to it, but has mixed up one part of his subject with another, so as to cause considerable confusion; and, were it not for the accompanying coloured map, it would often be very difficult to comprehend his descriptions. In attempting to give a sketch of the contents of the book, as we cannot afford the same assistance to our readers, we shall not follow the author in these deviations, but preserve the order in which it appears to have been his original intention that his observations should be set down.

Along the eastern side of the Continent of North America, there runs an extensive range of mountains, generally called the Alleghany, in a direction nearly NE. and SW. between the rivers St Lawrence and Mississippi, The most elevated parts of the range are in the North-eastern States: the White Hills

in New Hampshire appear to be the most lofty, and their height is somewhat more than 6000 feet above the level of the sea. The most elevated parts, as well as the greatest mass of this range, consist of primitive rocks; but, as it approaches the Hudson river, and where it traverses the State of New Jersey, these rocks decrease in height and breadth. In Pensylvania and Maryland, the primitive rocks occur sparingly, the highest parts of the range consisting of transition rocks, with some intervening valleys of secondary. In Virginia, the primitive rocks increase in breadth and in height; and they form the greatest mass, as well as the most elevated points, of the range of mountains in the States of North Carolina and Georgia, where it takes a more westerly direction.

Besides this great range, there is an extensive district, occupied by primitive rocks on the west side of Lake Champlain, having that Lake, and Lake George for a boundary on the east, joining the primitive rocks in Canada to the north and north-west, and following a line from the Thousand Islands in St Lawrence, running nearly parallel to the Mohawk river, until it meets Lake George on the southwest. These primitive rocks run across the Mohawk at the Little Falis, and near Johnstown on the Mohawk, where they are covered by limestone; they occupy all the mountainous country between Lake Champlain, the St Lawrence, and Lake Ontario,' p. 38.

From near Kingston on Lake Ontario, to some distance below Quebec, the country is principally primitive; and, from all the information I could collect, that great mass of continent lying to the north of the 46th degree of latitude, for a considerable distance to the west, consists mostly of the same formation: from which it is probable, that on this continent, as well as in Europe and Asia, the Northern regions are principally occupied by the primitive formation.' p. 58.

Throughout the greatest part of the northern and north-eastern States, the sea washes the primary rocks; but at Long Island there commences an alluvial formation, which, increasing in breadth as at stretches southward, covers a great part of both the Carolinas and Georgia, and almost the whole of the two Floridas and Lower Louisiana. This vast alluvial formation is bounded on the east by the ocean, and by a line commencing at the eastern end of Long Island and passing through Philadelphia, Washington, Richmond in Virginia, Halifax in North Carolina, Columbia in South Carolina, Augusta on the Savannah, and thence to Natchez on the Mississippi. The tide water ends in all the rivers from the Mississippi to the Roanoke at the distance of from thirty to one hundred and twenty miles from the western limits of the alluvial formation; from the Roanoke to the Delaware, the tide penetrates through the alluvial, and is stopped by the primitive rocks. In all the northern and east

ern rivers, the tide runs a small distance into the primitive formations. In the Southern States the alluvial formation is elevated considerably above the level of the sea; but as it approaches the north, it rises very little above it.

On the western side of the great range of mountains, there is a long narrow zone of transition rocks, beginning on the eastern side of Lake Champlain, and extending in an undulating line in a south-westerly direction, to a point between the Alabama and Tombigbee rivers, in latitude about 34 N. and longitude about 85 W. It is generally broadest where the primitive formation is narrowest, and vice versa; and runs from twenty to a hundred miles in breadth.

On the north-west of those transition rocks commences an immense region of secondary rocks, extending beyond Lake Superior to the north, and some hundred miles beyond the Mississippi to the west, not far distant from the foot of the Stony Mountains, forming an area of about fifteen hundred miles from east to west, and about twelve hundred miles from ∙ north to-south.

The Volcanic Fires which constitute so grand a feature in the Geological History of South America, have not extended their dominion to the northern continent, nor have any productions been discovered which indicate that volcanoes have at any time existed there.

The direction of the stratification in the primitive rocks runs nearly north and south, eastward of the State of New York, with an eastern dip. In the State of New York and to the south and west, the stratification runs nearly NE. and SW., the dip still continuing to the east. The dip is generally at a greater angle than 45°, and sometimes the strata are almost vertical. The direction of the strata in the Transition rocks is also from north and south to north-east and south-west, dipping generally to the north-west, at an angle in most places under 45°. On the edge of the primitive rocks, there is a deviation in some places from this general rule; the dip being, for a short distance, to the south-east. The outline of the mountains of this. formation is almost a straight line, with few interruptions, bounding long parallel ridges of nearly the same height, declining gently towards the side where the stratification dips from the horizon, and more precipitous on the opposite side where the edge of the stratum breaks out to the day.

Of the primitive rocks Granite forms but a small part; but it is found both on the tops of the mountains and in the plains. There are many varieties of it, in regard to the size of its constituent parts; and it is occasionally mixed with hornblende.