the bottom of the rocks winds a branch of the saline, keeping its course parallel to the rocks. On the west a ridge inclines towards the south, and is soon lost in the valley. The materials must have been brought from the creek. It is evident that a great length of time has elapsed since the erection of this work, from the growth of timber, which is as large as that in the adjoining grounds. In the middle of the enclosed ground is an elevated pile of stones.

LITERARY INTELLIGENCE-FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

"A Treatise," containing a plan for the internal organization and government of Marine Hospitals in the United States; together with a ❝Scheme for amending and systematizing the medical department of the navy." By William P. C. Barton, A. M. M. D. Member of the American Philosophical Society, and Surgeon in the navy of the United States.

Ir is with great pleasure and not a little instruction, that we have looked into the pages of this valuable and interesting volume. Such a work has been long and loudly called for by the interests of the American navy, and Dr. Barton has certainly done much towards satisfying the demand. He has condensed into a narrow compass-the digest, well arranged and handsomely expressed, and free from every thing foreign and useless-all the more important matter relating to marine hospitals that is to be found in preceding writers, scattered over a wide extent, and buried under a mass of irrelevant matter. Nor has he confined himself merely to the office of a compiler. Profiting by an experience of several years in the capacity of surgeon in the navy of the United States, he has added, from his own resources, many things that are practically important. Believing the work to be superior, as a copious manual for the naval surgeon, and a code of directions to those who may hereafter superintend the establishment of our marine hospitals, to any publication that has appeared in this country, or, as far as we know, in any other, we cannot do less than recommend it to public attention, and wish it a circulation as wide as that department, the interests of which it is intended to subserve. ED.

"MEMOIRS of the life of David Rittenhouse, LL. D. F. R. S. late president of the American Philosophical Society, &c. Interspersed with various notices of many distinguished men: with an appendix, containing sundry philosophical and other papers, most of which have not hitherto been published. By William Barton, A. M. counsellor at law, member of the American Philosophical Society; the Mass. Hist. Society, and the Royal Society of Valencia, in Spain.

This is a large volume, amounting to upwards of six hundred pages, octavo, and containing a great and multifarious mass of matter, much of it not a little interesting and curious. Intending hereafter to take from it such extracts as will constitute for the Port Folio a biographical notice of the late Dr. Rittenhouse, we shall dismiss the work for the present, by simply remarking, that in our estimation, it is worthy of a much more liberal share of patronage than it has hitherto received. ED.

Select American Biography, or an account of the lives of persons, connected by nativity or otherwise, with the history of North America, since, &c. &c. See prospectus.

Proposals for a publication entitled as above, to which is subjoined a well written prospectus, have been just deposited in our hands. A want of room prevents us from doing more, at present, than merely expressing a hope, that every work recording in a suitable style and manner, the lives and characters of such American worthies as have not already been honoured with that place in the "written roll of fame" to which they are entitled, will receive encouragement from the American people. En.

THE CHRONICLE.

In the Press-The Chronicle, or An Annual View of History, Politics, and Literature, Foreign and Domestic; by John E. Hall, Member of the American Philosophical Society and Professor of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres in the University of Maryland.

The publishers of the American Register, lately edited by Charles B. Browne, Esq. of Philadelphia, naving declared their intention to discontinue that work, the present is considered as no

unfavourable moment, to offer to the public a similar Repository of History, State Papers and Literature, on a more enlarged and methodical arrangement. The Register was brought down as late as the middle of the year 1809; at which period the Chronicle will commence. The subscribers to that work, are therefore respectfully informed that this publication will enable them to preserve a complete series.

The Chronicle shall be devoted to the following subjects:

I. An Annual History of Europe.

II. A Congressional History of the United States, with occasional notices of important proceedings in the State Legislatures. III. Public Documents.

IV. A Register of Remarkable Occurrences.

V. Biographical Sketches of Persons distinguished at the Bar or in the Pulpit, in the Closet or the Field.

VI. Proceedings of Learned Societies, at home and abroad. VII. An Annual History of Literature, Foreign and Domestic. VIII. Essays on Miscellaneous Topics, and Poetical Effusions. IX. Statistical Reports.

CONDITIONS.

The Chronicle shall be published in quarterly numbers, consisting of at least 250 pages each, at six dollars per annum, payable on the delivery of the second number in each year.

It will be printed in double columns: and to each volume will be added a minute index, referring to every character and event of consequence.

WE regret that we cannot admit into the Port Folio, the whole prospectus of this interesting and necessary Journal. We call it interesting without having seen it, because the field it covers is so extensive, rich and varied, as to render it capable of being made so, and from the talents, learning, and industry of its editor, we are persuaded of his competency to the honourable execution of the task he has undertaken.

The plan and conditions of the Chronicle being before our readers, it is proper that they should be possessed of some information touching the character which it promises to assume. will be, as it ought, in the true sense of the word, a national work,

It

disdaining to submit to the trammels or to wear the livery of either of the two political parties into which the people of the United States are unfortunately divided. Breathing the lofty, unbending and dignified spirit which honoured our country in better times, it will be such a publication as men of each party may read without offence, and as every American ought to encourage. In evidence of the assurance here given, we need only extract from the prospectus the following paragraph.

ED.

The History of the Congress of the United States will present a comprehensive and faithful account of the foreign and domestic relations of the country. We have not been inattentive to the difficulty of compiling a history, copious without redundancy, compact without obscurity, and dignified without turgidness. But the historian of the day is not to be judged by the same rules that are applied to him who describes the events of a century, when the angry passions have subsided, and the halo of greatness no longer diverts the rays of truth. As we aim only at producing an artless and faithful relation of facts, we shall not bewilder ourselves in endless digressions, nor mislead our readers by superficial conjectures. In commenting upon the various means of artifice or force by which our trade has been vexed and our independence threatened by the powers of Europe----in ridiculing the absurdity of the doctrine of retaliation where there has been no offence, and stigmatizing with energy, that of confiscation where there has been no crime, we shall show that we are sworn to no leader, nor enlisted under the banners of any sect. We are for the country, honestly: promptly and without fear; a country never surpassed in any age, for the excellence of her political institutions, and the integrity of her people: where the persecuted of every nation may claim a home, and the honest of every denominatiou may find a friend: a country where liberty is firmly fixed in a generous soil, like a luxuriant tree by whose delicious fruits the eye is captivated, and beneath whose pleasant shades the weary are invited to repose. In those political speculations which the course of our history may demand, we shall neither seduce the people into the slumber of a pernicious apathy, nor stimulate them to an impertinent interference with the constituted authorities. He whose happy lot has placed him in this country, should be profoundly grateful when he surveys the conditiou of his neighbours. He should teach the people to be satisfied with the ample share of felicity which they enjoy; and not, by grasping at more, to jeopardize that which they already possess to await with patience, the regular and constitutional means of manifesting these sensations of discontent which their rulers may have excited; and, above all, to regard the slightest addition which is made to the sum of public wealth by the invasion af individual rights, as one of the most dangerous and deceitful steps towards the tyranny of despotism. He should inculcate

the most sacred respect for truth, which is the best safeguard of a representative democracy: an habitual reverence for those establishments which wisdom has devised and experience has sanctioned: a liberal though not un, qualified confidence in the sagacity, the spirit and the integrity of the public rulers. He should strive to enlighten the ignorant and repress the ambitious; to prevent the poor from being entangled in the mazes of vice, and the opulent from being intoxicated by the fumes of insolence. Such are the maxims by which this Journal shall be conducted. The editor disdains the trammels of any party, but will devote his best endeavours to the establish ment of order, the promotion of industry, and the diffusion of knowledge. He wishes to behold justice brought to the edifices of the rich, and the cabins of the poor: to see power acting but as the handmaid of reason, and to excite that spirit of emulation, in every rank of the community, which springs from the best affections of the heart.

Delaplane's Repository of the Portraits and lives of the Heroes, Philosophers, and Statesmen of AMERICA.

THE intention of the proprietor, touching a publication bearing the above title, we had the pleasure of making known to the readers of the Port Folio in our May number. On that occasion we were obliged to confine ourselves to a brief and simple annunciation of the fact, being destitute of materials which might enable us to do more. At present, however, the case is different. We have it, at length, in our power to communicate to the public such a view of the subject, as will enable them to judge of it, each one for himself. Nor is it without feelings of peculiar gratification that we embrace the opportunity. There is now before us a specimen of the work, containing a well written preliminary essay, the life of Christopher Columbus, and the portraits of six distinguished personages, each one of which is to be accompanied by a Biographical Memoir. The entire performance, is such as elicits not merely our cold approbation, but our honest applause. America may own and foster it without a blush. The composition not only abounds in justness of remark and strength of argument, but, in point of scholarship, is creditable to the writer. The paper is large and of superior quality, the typographical execution correct and excellent, and the portraits finished in a style of elegance peculiarly honourable to the present state of the Fine Arts in our country.