rious to the people of the latter than of the two former cities; but this is a diversity only in degree; the mischief is precisely of the same nature. But though there be no obligation, arising from an imaginary contract, in the government of the United States to continue at Washington, there is another obligation incumbent on the legislature in this as in all other cases: that of consulting the happiness and welfare of the citizens. In this, as in other cases, the legislature ought to intend, in the formation of laws, the good and not the evil of their country. The community is composed of individuals, and that which affects the happiness of individuals has a proportional influence on the well-being of the whole. In resolving to remove from Washington, the congress will be wise in proportion to the comprehensiveness of their view; in proportion as they extend their regards to all the consequences of the law. They will be criminal if they overlook totally the interest of the inhabitants of Washington, but they will likewise be criminal if they suffer the interests of this part to outweigh, in their breasts, the interests of all the other parts, or if they inflict an injury upon others by staying where they are, greater than that which will befal the people of the territory by removing elsewhere. There is, however, an obvious method of reconciling all claims. The claims of the proprietors of ground in Washington to the presence of congress, let it be ever so sacred, cannot be more so than the right which every man enjoys to the possession and use of his own property; and yet, when the public benefit requires a new road to be carried through a district, or a street to be widened in a city, it has never been thought a breach of justice to extort from every man so much of his ground as the projected avenue requires, in spite of his resistance or refusal. This outrage on the sacred right of property is thought to be completely justified,

merely by paying a reasonable compensation to the owner. If, therefore, the government should resolve to change its residence, it would fulfil every duty, both that arising from the sanctity of public faith and that arising from the relations of justice and beneficence which the state bears to all its citizens, by making a reasonable compensation to every one who shall suffer by the change. Preposterous as it may appear to some, to reimburse the expences of a house built with a view of finding a tenant in a public officer, and rendered useless by the removal of that officer elsewhere, yet this might be done, and the nation, on the whole, considerably benefited by the change.

This, though more than the strictest justice demands, would by no means still the clamours of those who wish the government to continue where it is, not to repair a loss actually incurred, or prevent one which the removal would occasion, but merely to secure to themselves the profits which they anticipate from the future progress of the city. Mankind are as much displeased by missing an advantage which they have in view, as by losing one they have in their possession; and those who owned their present property before the foundation of the city, and whose golden dreams a removal will dissipate, will be quite as loud in their reproaches and strenuous in their opposition, as those who have actually purchased ground and built houses since that event, and in consequence of their belief that the city would be permanent. It is evident that the complaints of the first deserve no regard. They lose nothing. They merely miss an opportunity of gaining; and if from the claims of the latter all that loss be deducted which has been already incurred, by the progress of the city being slower than was generally expected, how small will be the remaining balance which will justly be chargeable to the account of removal!

PRESTO.

For the Literary Magazine.

AMERICAN PROSPECTS.

I HAVE often heard it observed by travellers, that America contained nothing of the picturesque. This is very unaccountable. That part of the picturesque which arises from the elaborate arrangements of art, and especially from the architectural monuments of ancient times, it is true, we do not possess. No crumbling walls are scattered over our vallies; no ivy-clad tower reposes on the brow of our hills. How much the imagination is inspired by these memorials of former gene rations, with what solemn and ennobling elevation they fill the mind, are easily conceived, and these adjuncts are certainly wanting to the scenes of our country. Those who are accustomed to see nature constantly accompanied by ancient turrets or modern obelisks, by palaces and spires, by artificial lakes and water-falls, grow fastidious.

The face of uncultivated nature, which contains no vestige of other times, nothing to hint of battles, sieges, or murder, is to them dreary, blank, ⚫ and insipid.

Of those scenes, however, which are composed of the rude members of nature, of valley, precipice, and stream, it cannot be conceived that America is more destitute than other countries; and those districts, which have been settled eighty or a hundred years, cannot be denied to abound with all those ingredients of the picturesque, which arise from a full, though recent, population.

I have no where met with a more characteristic prospect than occurs in the travels of Mackenzie. It is worthy of the study of the Claudes and Poussins of the age, and will be read with uncommon interest by the people of a future age, who are acquainted with such scenes only by description.

"The precipice on which I stood," says this ingenious traveller, "rises upwards of a thousand feet above the plain beneath it, and com

mands a most extensive and romantic prospect. Hence the eye looks down on the course of the little river, by some called the Swan, and by others the Clear Water and Pelican, beautifully meandering upwards of thirty miles. The valley, at once refreshed and adorned by it, is about three miles broad, and is confined by two lofty ridges of equal height, displaying a most delightful intermixture of wood and lawn, and stretching on till the blue mist obscures the prospect. Some parts of the inclining heights are covered with stately forests, relieved by promontories of the finest verdure, where the elk and buffaloe find pasture. These are contrasted by spots where fire has destroyed the woods, and left a dreary void behind it. Nor, when I beheld this wonderful display of uncultivated nature, was the moving scenery of human occupation wanting to complete the picture.

"From this elevated situation I beheld my people, diminished, as it were, to half their size, employed in pitching their tents in a charming meadow, and among the canoes, which, being turned on their sides, presented their reddened bottoms in contrast with the surrounding verdure. At the same time, the process of gumming them produced numerous small spires of smoke, which, as they rose, enlivened the scene, and at length blended with the larger columns that ascended from the fires where the suppers were preparing. It was in the month of September when I enjoyed a scene of which I do not presume to give any adequate description; and, as it was the rutting season of the elk, the whistling of that animal was heard in all the variety which the echoes could afford it.”

For the Literary Magazine.

PEMMICAN.

THE Canadians and northern Indians prepare meat in a way deserving of imitation. Armies, and

all those whose business it is to travel in desolate countries, without much equipage, in great numbers, or with great expedition, would find their account in a knowledge of the mode of making pemmican. The following is the method of preparing it :

The lean parts of the flesh of the larger animals are cut into thin slices, and placed on a wooden grate, over a slow fire, or exposed to the sun, and sometimes to the frost. These operations dry it, and, in that state, it is pounded between two stones; it will then keep for several years. If, however, it is kept in large quantities, it is liable to ferment in spring and summer, when it must be exposed to the air, or it will soon decay. The inside fat, and that of the rump, which is much thicker in wild than in domestic animals, is melted down and mixed, in a boiling state, with the pounded meat, in equal proportions; it is then put in baskets or bags, for the convenience of carrying it. Thus it becomes a nutritious food, and is eaten without any further preparation, or the addition of salt, spice, or any vegetable or farinaceous substance. A little time, reconciles it to the palate.

For the Literary Magazine.

ON THE TITLE OF EMPEROR.

BONAPARTE having lately as sumed the title of emperor, as the greatest his ambition could aspire to, naturally suggests an enquiry into the significance and history of this envied title. The veneration and splendour still annexed to this title is a striking proof of the permanence of political forms and national ideas. At very early periods, in the history of Europe, the chief of a tribe or nation seems to have been distinguished by an appellation equivalent to the Roman word rex, or the English word king. In one of

the minute clans of Italy the rex being a hereditary dignity, and pertaining to a certain family, a petty revolution, by banishing this ruling family, and substituting an annual and elective chief instead of a perpetual and hereditary one, of course involved the ancient title in disgrace and odium. In the course of a thousand years, this state underwent the most extraordinary changes: from a territory ten miles square, and a population of two or three thousand, the territory enlarged into five mil lions of square miles, and their numbers swelled into a hundred millions. Still the head of this nation, though endowed with unlimited and hereditary power, adventured not to insult the prejudices of the Romans so much as to assume the title of rex. The title they bore was imperator, which really meant, in its original, no more than a successful military leader, was addressed tumultuously by soldiers in a conquering army to their general, and was retained by the chiefs of the state as their peculiar distinction, in addition to the legal or civil titles of dictator, consul, censor, pontifex maximus, and tribunus plebis.

The chiefs of the conquered nations and tribes were called reges, and this name, by belonging to strangers and subjects, became gradually to imply, in itself, less power and less dignity than imperator, the appellation of the head of the Roman state. The barbarous tribes who destroyed this mighty state, and parcelled out its provinces among themselves, generally retained their pristine title of rex. Ancient opinion had consecrated that of imperator, not only to a more extensive dominion than any of these invaders had acquired, but to a power whose residence and centre should be Italy. The title, therefore, was perpetuated long after the empire that pertained to it had shrunk almost to limits as narrow as those of ancient Latium. Italy itself, however, was finally overwhelmed, and the name of emperor became extinct, till, in process of time, one among the bar

barian kings arose, who extended his dominion over Italy and many of the western provinces of the fallen empire. Pontifex maximushad meanwhile become the title of the head of the Roman religion, and the Roman religion had become that not only of the new dynasties who had started up in the Roman empire, but of tribes who continued to dwell far beyond its ancient limits. By the consent of Rome and Italy, and the pontifex maximus, this mighty chief was installed imperator Romanorum, and his posterity retained this title, with its prerogatives, till Italy fell under subjection to a new family, the seat of whose pow. er was placed in a country which lay beyond the limits of the ancient empire. This chief being a prince of Germany, and Germany forming one great political body, subordinate to one head, this head became emperor, and Germany forming the largest portion of his empire, acquired the title of the German empire.

With respect to Italy and Germany, the title is accompanied by genuine prerogatives and precedences, but, in the rest of christian Europe, the supreme dignity among its potentates has always been assigned to the emperor in consequence of the veneration that followed this dignity in ancient Roman times, and which has been transmitted though the medium of popular opinion. For a long time this dignity, in Europe, like that of pope, was thought to be indivisible, and the simple phrase, “the emperor," was always clearly understood. At the commencement of the eighteenth century, however, the lord of the Russian deserts, whose domains were situated without the pale of the great European republic, was seized with a strong desire of becoming a member of that great republic. He imagined himself entit led to enter on the scene in the most dignified guise, and therefore claimed the name of imperator, which seems to have been either expressly or tacitly allowed to him by other

VOL. III. NO. XVII.

princes, though the Roman pontiff, in spite of very strong solicitations, always refused to sanction this pretension in him and his successors.

It is now easily perceived by what motives Bonaparte, whose power is as absolute as that of any prince in Europe, and whose subjects are more numerous and potent than any other of its nations, should be satisfied with no title less than that which usage and opinion has considered as the highest. He has, therefore, dubbed himself emperor. This dignity, being hereditary in him, was of course superior to that of the German or Roman emperor, which, though really hereditary, is nominally elective. The Austrian, therefore, to be even with the Frenchman, has, we are informed, determined to assume this title as a hereditary appendage. Some hints have been given us, indeed, that Spain and Prussia are seized with the same mania. If the new line of French emperors continues, Europe will no doubt be crouded with self-created emperors, and this title, sacred and venerable for eighteen centuries, will, like all other things, become insignificant by becoming common.

R. M.

For the Literary Magazine.

IMPROVEMENT OF GEOGRAPHY, TOPOGRAPHY, &c.

IT is a matter of the utmost importance, to every country, to possess a complete knowledge of the ground. Now, since the sciences of geography and topography appear hereto. fore imperfect, an easy and accurate method of laying down maps of mountainous countries and estates will perhaps prove useful, as it will show, at a single view, the true shape and comparative height of the ground, without the art of painting.

Seeing mountains are apt to eclipse each other, a perspective view is seldom very extensive, the

3

rules of which fall short of giving an accurate idea of any hilly country, because such a view, put upon paper, if strictly true in one particular place, can be so in no other. The altitudes of mountains appear in proportion to the distance from the eye, and no rule in geometry has proved sufficient to determine distances from any single station. Neither can a bird's-eye view of an estate ascertain the depth of vallies or the height of mountains.

Because it is equally capable of showing the true shape of any ground, above or below water, the proposed improvement may be successfully applied to sea charts, which will prevent much confusion, arising from the tiresome method of distinguishing soundings by great multitudes of figures, and will be found to possess the following advantages, with many others, too tedious to mention :

1st. One great pleasure of travelling lies in seeing the infinite variety in different countries composed of uneven ground. This method will afford, at a single view, the true shape of the surface, and will extend the pleasures of a journey to the shades of retirement.

2d. Experience has sufficiently shown, that the inhabitants of low grounds are subject to the yellow fever, and other kinds of sickness, which those living at places elevated to a certain degree are not subject to. A map on this improved plan will point out the most proper situations for building dwelling houses; it will be useful to the botanist for discovering or cultivating some kinds of plants, which flourish best at particular distances above the level of the sea; and will describe the line of vegetation on the sides of lofty mountains, whose tops are covered with eternal snow.

3d. Some high lands are known to produce good grain, while low land affords grass more abundantly: but most grounds produce good grass, over which a moderate quantity of running water can be conveyed. A plan of any country, in this way,

will show all the ground that can be irrigated, where navigable canals may be cut, and where highways and rail roads may be laid out on the best and most level ground.

4th. The subterranean treasures of the mineral and fossil kingdoms are generally found in strata; if not truly horizontal, they make a certain angle with the horizon. A map on this projection will enable the mineralogist to examine any one stratum, at places far distant from each other, with more ease and accuracy.

5th. Commanders of armies are acquainted with the many advantages always to be gained from the possession of high ground. Thus we are enabled to give the comparative height of every hill, also the best rout where the heavy burthens may be drawn up with the most

ease.

EXPLANATION.

To lay down the shape of Great Britain. First an accurate map of the outlines is laid down, in the common way. Then horizontal lines are run all round the island, at 100, 200, 300, 400 feet above the ocean. These may be taken with a good theodolite and spirit level annexed. To prove the work, the courses and distances will be cast up with tables of the difference of latitude and departure: if no error, each line will end where it began; and if the bearing and distances of these several horizontal lines are truly laid down on the map, the crooked courses of them will clearly show the true shape of the ground over which they pass, as the distances between the horizontal lines will be proportioned to the declivity. For example, if any horizontal line passes on the side of any steep hill or cleft, as at Dover, it will incline towards the ocean, or approach the next horizontal line below it. Again, when the same line crosses a valley, the said line will naturally incline towards the centre of the island, until it can