the participle should be spelt (for he did not give participles in his Dictionary), and had altered six or eight words, as worshipper into worshiper, traveller into traveler, &c., the error would probably, by this time, have been wholly eradicated from our orthography, and Dr. Webster would have escaped much ignorant vituperation for following in the footsteps of Walker and of Lowth. Walker also says in his Aphorisms, "Why should we not write dullness, fullness, skillful, willful, as well as stiffness and gruffness?" The principles of our language plainly require us to do so; and Dr. Webster felt that the change might easily be made. The words which need to be reduced to this analogy are only about eight in number, including installment and inthrallment, which, if spelt with a single 1, are liable to be mispronounced instalment, &c. Again, the words expense, license, recompense, which formerly had a c in the last syllable, have now taken an s, because the latter consonant is the only one used in the derivatives; as, expensive, &c. A similar change is needed in only three words more to complete the analogy, namely, defense, offense, and pretense; and these Dr. Webster has changed. It is sometimes asked, "Why not change fence also?" For the simple reason, that its derivatives are spelt with a c, as fenced, fencing; and the word, therefore, stands regularly with others of its own class. Finally, Dr. Webster proposes to drop the u in mould and moult, because it has been dropped from gold, and all other words of the same ending. Such are the principal changes, under this head, introduced by Dr. Webster into his Dictionary. In the present edition, the words are spelt in both ways, for the convenience of the public, except in cases where this seemed to be unnecessary, or wa', found to be inconvenient. These changes, considering the difficulty that always belongs to such a subject, have met with far more favor from the public than was reasonably to be expected. Most of them have been extensively adopted in our country. They are gaining ground daily, as the reasons by which they are supported are more generally understood; and it is confidently believed that, being founded in established analogies, and intended merely to repress irregularities and remove petty exceptions, they must ultimately prevail.

--

The other class of changes mentioned above rests on a different basis. that of Etymology. These will be estimated very differently, according to the acquaintance of different persons with the languages from which the words are derived. When Dr. Webster substituted bridegoom for bridegroom, fether for feather, &c., the German critics highly applauded the change. They predicted its speedy and universal reception, because similar improvements, on a much broader scale, had been easily made in their language. But Dr. Webster found the case to be widely different among us. After an experiment of twelve years, he restored the old orthography to a considerable number of such words. In the present edition, it is restored in respect to nearly all that remain, from the full conviction, that, however desirable these changes may be, in themselves considered, as they do not relate to the general analogies of the language, and can not be duly appreciated by the body of the people, they will never be generally received.

On the subject of Pronunciation, much labor has been bestowed in the progress of this revision. A careful comparison has been made with the latest authorities, and wherever changes seemed desirable, and could be made in consistency with the Author's principles, they have been here introduced. The Key to Pronunciation has been somewhat enlarged, and placed at the bottom of each page, for greater ease of reference, and the pointed letters have been used to a still greater extent. Many thousand words have been re-spelled, and no efforts have been spared to render the work, in all respects, a complete Pronouncing Dictionary. In the progress of these labors, the Editor has been frequently struck with the wisdom of Dr. Webster, in not attempting too much as to marking the pronunciation. Most of the later orthoëpists, as Knowles, Smart, &c., have made their system of notation so extensive and complicated, and have aimed to exhibit so many nice shades of distinction, as in many cases to perplex, rather than aid.

The Publishers, being desirous to make this, in all respects, a complete work of reference, have introduced, at the close of the volume, a list of Greek and Latin Proper Names, with their pronunciation, prepared by Professor THACHER, of Yale College; a list of Scripture Proper Names, prepared by Professor PORTER, of Yale College; and a Pronouncing Vocabulary of Modern Geographical Names, prepared also under the superintendence of Professor PORTER. Of these a full account will be found in the several prefaces by which they are accompanied.

In conclusion, the Editor would acknowledge his obligations to the gentlemen who have aided him for more than two years in these labors - Mr. SAMUEL W. BARNUM, M. A., of Yale College, and WILLIAM G. WEBSTER, Esq., of New Haven. The intimate acquaintance of the latter with his father's views has made his counsel and co-operation of great value in the progress of this revision.

To the overseers of the mechanical execution of this work, at the BOSTON TYPE AND STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY, the Editor would likewise make his acknowledgments, for many valuable suggestions, during the progress of the revision, and for the watchful care and assiduity with which they have performed the difficult task of giving accuracy to the details of this volume.

NEW HAVEN, September, 1847.

NOTE. Among the sources from which words not in former editions have been derived, mention should be made of a catalogue of between five and six thousand, furnished by President ALLEN, late of Bowdoin College, which were collected by him in the course of his reading, during a period of forty years, from several hundred volumes of general literature, and given for the most part with authorities annexed. This catalogue, added to a similar list formerly furnished to Dr. Webster, makes an aggregate of some thousands of new words placed in the hands of the Author and Proprietors of this Dictionary, thus contributing materials for its improvement.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO
TO THE EDITION OF 1828.

In the year 1783, just at the close of the Revolution, I published an elementary book for facilitating the acquisition of our vernacular tongue, and for correcting a vicious pronunciation which prevailed extensively among the common people of this country. Soon after the publication of that work, - I believe in the following year, that learned and respectable scholar, the Rev. Dr. GOODRICH, of Durham, one of the trustees of Yale College, suggested to me the propriety and expediency of my compiling a Dictionary which should complete a system for the instruction of the citizens of this country in the language. At that time, I could not indulge the thought, much less the hope, of undertaking such a work, as I was neither qualified by research, nor had I the means of support, during the execution of the work, had I been disposed to undertake it. For many years, therefore, though I considered such a work as very desirable, yet it appeared to me impracticable, as I was under the necessity of devoting my time to other occupations for obtain ing subsistence.

About thirty-five years ago, I began to think of attempting the compilation of a Dictionary. I was induced to this undertaking, not more by the suggestion of friends, than by my own experience of the want of such a work while reading modern books of science. In this pursuit I found almost insuperable difficulties, from the want of a dictionary for explaining many new words which recent discoveries in the physical sciences had introduced into use. To remedy this defect in part, I published my Compendious Dictionary in 1806, and soon after made preparations for undertaking a larger work.

My original design did not extend to an investigation of the origin and progress of our language, much less of other languages. I limited my views to the correcting of certain errors in the best English dictionaries, and to the supplying of words in which they are deficient. But after writing through two letters of the alphabet, I determined to change my plan. I found myself embarrassed, at every step, for want of a knowledge of the origin of words, which JOHNSON, BAILEY, JUNIUS, SKINNER, and some other authors, do not afford the means of obtaining. Then, laying aside my manuscripts, and all books treating of language, except lexicons and dictionaries, I endeavored, by a diligent comparison of words having the same or cognate radical letters, in about twenty languages, to obtain a more correct knowledge of the primary sense of original words, of the affinities between the English and many other languages, and thus to enable myself to trace words to their source.

I had not pursued this course more than three or four years before I discovered that I had to unlearn a great deal that I had spent years in learning, and that it was necessary for me to go back to the first rudiments of a branch of erudition which I had before cultivated, as I had supposed, with success.

I spent ten years in this comparison of radical words, and in forming a Synopsis of the principal Words in twenty Languages, arranged in Classes under their primary Elements or Letters. The result has been to open what are to me new views of language, and to unfold what appear to be the genuine principles on which these languages are constructed.

After completing this Synopsis, I proceeded to correct what I had written of the Dictionary, and to complete the remaining part of the work. But before I had finished it, I determined on a voyage to Europe, with the view of obtaining some books and some assistance which I wanted, of learning the real state of the pronunciation of our language in England, as well as the general state of philology in that country, and of attempting to bring about some agreement or coincidence of opinions in regard to unsettled points in pronunciation and grammatical construction. In some of these objects, I failed; in others, my designs were answered.

It is not only important, but in a degree necessary, that the people of this country should have an American Dictionary of the English Language; for, although the body of the language is the same as in England, and it is desirable to perpetuate that sameness, yet some differences must exist. Language is the expression of ideas; and if the people of one country can not preserve an identity of ideas, they can not retain an identity of language. Now, an identity of ideas depends materially upon a sameness of things or objects with which the people of the two coun tries are conversant. But in no two portions of the earth, remote from each other, can such identity be found. Even physical objects must be different. But the principal differences between the people of this country and of all others arise from different forms of government, different laws, institutions, and customs. Thus the practice of hawking and hunting, the institution of heraldry, and the feudal system of England, originated terms which formed, and some of which now form, a necessary part of the language of that country; but, in the United States, many of these terms are no part of our present language, and they can not be, for the things which they express do not exist in this country. They can be known to us only as obsolete or as foreign words. On the other hand, the institutions in this country which are new and peculiar give rise to new terms, or to new applications of old terms, unknown to the people of England, which can not be explained by them, and which will not be inserted in their dictionaries, unless copied from ours. Thus the terms land-office, land-warrant, location of land, consociation of churches, regent of a university, intendant of a city, plantation, selectmen, senate, congress, court, assembly, escheat, &c., are either words not belonging to the language of England, or they are applied to things in this country which do not exist in that. No person in this country will be satisfied with the English definitions of the words congress, senate, and assembly, court, &c.; for although these are words used in England, yet they are applied in this country to express ideas which they do not express in that country. With our present constitutions of government, escheat can never have its feudal sense in the United States.

But this is not all. In many cases, the nature of our governments and of our civil institutions requires an appro priate language in the definition of words, even when the words express the same thing as in England. Thus the

English dictionaries inform us that a justice is one deputed by the king to do right by way of judgment; he is a lord by his office; justices of the peace are appointed by the king's commission-language which is inaccurate in respect to this officer in the United States. So constitutionally is defined, by CHALMERS, legally, but in this country the distinction between constitution and law requires a different definition. In the United States, a plantation is a very different thing from what it is in England. The word marshal, in this country, has one important application unknown in England, or in Europe.

A great number of words in our language require to be defined in a phraseology accommodated to the condition and institutions of the people in these States, and the people of England must look to an American Dictionary for a correct understanding of such terms.

The necessity, therefore, of a dictionary suited to the people of the United States is obvious; and I should suppose that, this fact being admitted, there could be no difference of opinion as to the time when such a work ought to be substituted for English dictionaries.

There are many other considerations of a public nature which serve to justify this attempt to furnish an American work which shall be a guide to the youth of the United States. Most of these are too obvious to require illustration. One consideration, however, which is dictated by my own feelings, but which, I trust, will meet with approbation in correspondent feelings in my fellow-citizens, ought not to be passed in silence. It is this: "The chief glory of a nation," says Dr. JOHNSON, "arises from its authors." With this opinion deeply impressed on my mind, I have the same ambition which actuated that great man when he expressed a wish to give celebrity to BACON, to HOOKER, to MILTON, and to BOYLE.

I do not, indeed, expect to add celebrity to the names of FRANKLIN, WASHINGTON, ADAMS, JAY, MADISON, MARSHALL, RAMSAY, DWIGHT, SMITH, TRUMBULL, HAMILTON, BELKNAP, AMES, MASON, KENT, HARE, SILLIMAN, CLEAVELAND, WALSH, IRVING, and many other Americans distinguished by their writings or by their science; but it is with pride and satisfaction that I can place them, as authorities, on the same page with those of BOYLE, HOOKER, MILTON, DRYDEN, ADDISON, RAY, MILNER, COWPER, DAVY, THOMSON, and JAMESON.

...

A life devoted to reading and to an investigation of the origin and principles of our vernacular language, and especially a particular examination of the best English writers, with a view to a comparison of their style and phraseology with those of the best American writers, and with our colloquial usage, enables me to affirm, with confidence, that the genuine English idiom is as well preserved by the unmixed English of this country as it is by the best English writers. It is true that many of our writers have neglected to cultivate taste and the embellishments of style; but even these have written the language in its genuine idiom. In this respect, FRANKLIN and WASHINGTON, whose language is their hereditary mother-tongue, unsophisticated by modern grammar, present as pure models of genuine English as ADDISON or SWIFT. But I may go further, and affirm, with truth, that our country has produced some of the best models of composition. The style of President SMITH; of the authors of the FEDERALIST; of Mr. AMES; of Dr. MASON; of Mr. HARPER; of Chancellor KENT; [the prose] of Mr. BARLOW; of Dr. CHANNING; of WASHINGTON IRVING; of the legal decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States; of the reports of legal decisions in some of the particular States; and many other writings, in purity, in elegance, and in technical precision, is equaled only by that of the best British authors, and surpassed by that of no English compositions of a similar kind. The United States commenced their existence under circumstances wholly novel and unexampled in the history of nations. They commenced with civilization, with learning, with science, with constitutions of free government, and with that best gift of God to man, the Christian religion. Their population is now equal to that of England; in arts and sciences, our citizens are very little behind the most enlightened people on earth-in some respects they have no superiors; and our language, within two centuries, will be spoken by more people in this country than any other language on earth, except the Chinese, in Asia and even that may not be an exception.

It has been my aim in this work, now offered to my fellow-citizens, to ascertain the true principles of the language, in its orthography and structure; to purify it from some palpable errors, and reduce the number of its anomalies, thus giving it more regularity and consistency in its forms, both of words and sentences; and in this manner to furnish a standard of our vernacular tongue, which we shall not be ashamed to bequeath to five hundred millions of people, who are destined to occupy, and I hope to adorn, the vast territory within our jurisdiction.

If the language can be improved in regularity, so as to be more easily acquired by our own citizens and by foreigners, and thus be rendered a more useful instrument for the propagation of science, arts, civilization, and Christianity; if it can be rescued from the mischievous influence of sciolists, and that dabbling spirit of innovation which is perpetually disturbing its settled usages and filling it with anomalies; if, in short, our vernacular language can be redeemed from corruptions, and our philology and literature from degradation, it would be a source of great satisfaction to me to be one among the instruments of promoting these valuable objects. If this object can not be effected, and my wishes and hopes are to be frustrated, my labor will be lost, and this work must sink into oblivion.

This Dictionary, like all others of the kind, must be left, in some degree, imperfect; for what individual is competent to trace to their source, and define in all their various applications, popular, scientific, and technical, seventy or eighty thousand words! It satisfies my mind that I have done all that my health, my talents, and my pecuniary means would enable me to accomplish. I present it to my fellow-citizens, not with frigid indifference, but with my ardent wishes for their improvement and their happiness; and for the continued increase of the wealth, the learning, the moral and religious elevation of character, and the glory, of my country.

To that great and benevolent Being, who, during the preparation of this work, has sustained a feeble constitution, amidst obstacles and toils, disappointments, infirmities, and depression, who has borne me and my manuscripts in safety across the Atlantic, and given me strength and resolution to bring the work to a close, I would present the tribute of my most grateful acknowledgments. And if the talent which he intrusted to my care has not been put to the most profitable use in his service, I hope it has not been "kept laid up in a napkin," and that any misapplication of it may be graciously forgiven.

NOAH WEBSTER.

MEMOIR OF NOAH WEBSTER.

BY CHAUNCEY A. GOODRICH, D. D.

the summer of 1779, resided at Hartford, Connecticut, in the family of Mr., afterwards Chief Justice, Ellsworth. An intimate friendship was thus formed between these two gentlemen, which was interrupted only by the death of the chief justice.

It is natural for those who make frequent use of a work like this, to desire currency (then worth about four dollars in silver), and told him that he must some knowledge of the author's life, and especially of that long course of thenceforth rely on his own exertions for support. As a means of immeintellectual labor by which he contributed so largely to the literary treasures diate subsistence, he resorted to the instruction of a school, and, during of our language. To gratify this desire is the object of the present Memoir. A brief outline will be given of the leading occurrences of his life, with particular reference to the occasions which called forth the principal productions of his pen. The materials of this sketch were obtained from Dr. Webster himself, about ten years before his death, and were first used in the preparation of a memoir inserted in the "National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans," in the year 1833. That memoir has been re-written, with large additions, and is now brought down to the period of the author's death. NOAH WERSTER was born in Hartford, Connecticut, about three miles from the center of the city, on the 16th of October, 1758. His father was a respectable farmer and justice of the peace, and was a descendant, in the fourth generation, of John Webster, one of the first settlers of Hartford, who was a magistrate, or member of the colonial council from its first formation, and, at a subsequent period, governor of Connecticut. His mother was a descendant of William Bradford, the second governor of the Plymouth colony. The family was remarkable for longevity. His father died at the advanced age of nearly ninety-two. He and one of his brothers lived considerably beyond the age of eighty. His remaining brother died in his eightieth year; and of his two sisters, one was advanced beyond seventy, and the other had nearly reached the same age, at the period of their death.

Mr. Webster commenced the study of the classics, in the year 1772, under the instruction of the clergyman of the parish, the Rev. Nathan Perkins, D. D., and in 1774 was admitted a member of Yale College. The war of the revolution, commencing the next year, interrupted the regular attendance of the students on their usual exercises, and deprived them of no small part of the advantages of a collegiate course of instruction. In his Junior year, when the western part of New England was thrown into confusion by General Burgoyne's expedition from Canada, Mr. Webster volunteered his services under the command of his father, who was captain in the alarm list, a body comprising those of the militia who were above forty-five years of age, and who were called into the field only on pressing emergencies. In that campaign, all the males of the family, four in number, were in the army at the same time. Notwithstanding the interruption of his studies by these causes, Mr. Webster graduated with reputation in 1778.

Not having the means of obtaining a regular education for the bar, Mr. Webster, at the suggestion of a distinguished counselor of his acquaintance, determined to pursue the study of the law in the intervals of his regular employment, without the aid of an instructor; and, having presented himself for examination, at the expiration of two years, was admitted to practice in the year 1781. As he had no encouragement to open an office, in the existing state of the country, he resumed the business of instruction, and taught a classical school, in 1782, at Goshen, in Orange county, New York. Here, in a desponding state of mind, created by the unsettled condition of things at the close of the war, and the gloomy prospects for business, he undertook an employment which gave a complexion to his whole future life. This was the compilation of books for the instruction of youth in schools. Having prepared the first draught of an elementary treatise of this kind, he made a journey to Philadelphia in the autumn of the same year, and, after exhibiting a specimen of the work to several members of Congress, among whom was Mr. Madison, and to the Rev. S. S. Smith, D. D., at that time a professor, and afterward president, of the college at Princeton, he was encouraged by their approbation to prosecute his design. Accordingly, in the winter following, he revised what he had written, and, leaving Goshen in 1783, he returned to Hartford, where he published his "First Part of a Grammatical Institute of the English Language." The second and third parts were published in the years immediately following. These works, comprising a Spelling Book, an English Grammar, and a compilation for reading, were the first books of the kind published in the United States. They were gradually introduced into most of the schools of our country; and to so great an extent has the Spelling Book been used, that, during the twenty years in which he was employed in compiling his American Dictionary, the entire support of his family was derived from the profits of this work, at a premium for copyright of less than a cent a copy. About twenty-four millions of this book have been published, down to the present year, 1847, in the different forms which it assumed under the revision of the author; and its popularity has gone on continually increasing. The demand for some years past has averaged about one million copies a year. To its influence, probably, more than to any other cause, are we indebted for that remarkable uniformity of pronunciation in our country, which is so often spoken of with surprise by English travelers.

The class to which he belonged produced an unusual number of men who were afterward distinguished in public life. Among these may be mentioned Joel Barlow, author of the Columbiad, and minister of the United States to the court of France; Oliver Wolcott, secretary of the treasury of the United States under the administration of Washington, and subsequently governor of the State of Connecticut; Uriah Tracy, a distinguished member of the Senate of the United States; Stephen Jacob, chief justice, and Noah In entering thus early on his literary career, Mr. Webster did not confine Smith, associate judge, of the Supreme Court of Vermont; Zephaniah himself to the publication of his own works. At a period when nothing Swift, chief justice, and Ashur Miller, associate judge, of the Supreme had as yet been done to perpetuate the memorials of our early history, he Court of Connecticut; besides a number of others, who were either mem-led the way, in this important branch of literary effort, by the publication of bers of Congress or among the leaders of our great political parties at the that highly valuable and characteristic work, Governor Winthrop's Journal. commencement of the present century. Having learnt that a manuscript copy was in possession of Governor Trum bull, of Connecticut, he caused it to be transcribed at his own expense, by the governor's private secretary, and risked more than the amount of his whole property in its publication. The sale never remunerated him for the expenses thus incurred.

The period at which Mr. Webster entered upon life was an unpropitious one for a young man to be cast upon the world without property. The country was impoverished by the war to a degree of which it is difficult, at the present day, to form any just conception; there was no prospect of peace; the issue of the contest was felt, by the most sanguine, to be extremely doubtful; and the practice of the law, which Mr. Webster intended to pursue, was in a great measure set aside by the general calamity. It was under these circumstances that, on his return from the Commencement when he graduated, his father gave him an eight dollar bill of the Continental

At the period of Mr. Webster's return to Hartford, in 1783, the state was agitated by violent dissensions on the subject of a grant, made by Congress to the army, of half pay for life, which was afterward commuted for a grant of full pay for five years beyond their term of service. To this grant it was strongly objected, that, if the army had suffered by the reduced value of the

In the autumn of the same year, encouraged by the prospect of increasing business, Mr. Webster married the daughter of William Greenleaf, Esq., of Boston, a lady of a highly cultivated intellect, and of great elegance and grace of manners. His friend Trumbull speaks of this event in one of his letters to Wolcott, who was then at New York, in his characteristic vein of humor. "Webster has returned, and brought with him a very pretty wife. I wish him success; but I doubt, in the present decay of business in our profession, whether his profits will enable him to keep up the style he sets out with. I fear he will breakfast upon Institutes, dine upon Dissertations, and go to bed supperless." The result, however, was more favorable than it appeared in the sportive anticipations of Trumbull. Mr. Webster found his business profitable, and continually increasing, during his residence of some years in the practice of the law at Hartford.

bills in which they were paid, the country at large had sustained an equal | ment, a freedom from all affectation and exuberance of imagery or diction, loss by the depreciation of the currency, and by other causes. So strong which are often best acquired by the salutary use of ridicule, in the action was the excitement on this subject, that public meetings were held through- and re-action on each other of keen and penetrating minds. It had, likeout the state, to prevent the laws of Congress from being carried into effect; wise, a powerful infinuece on the social circles in which they moved; and and at length a convention met at Middletown with the same design, at the biographer of Governor Wolcott has justly remarked, that at this time which two thirds of the towns in Connecticut were represented. In this "few cities in the Union could boast of a more cultivated or intelligent state of things, Mr. Webster, though only twenty-five years of age, came society than Hartford, whether men or women." forward to vindicate the measures of Congress, and wrote a series of papers on the subject, under the signature of HONORIUS, which were published in the Connecticut Courant, and read extensively throughout the state. The effect was great. At the next election, in April, 1784, a large majority of the legislature were supporters of Congress in their measures. So highly were Mr. Webster's services appreciated on this occasion, that he received the thanks of Governor Trumbull in person, and was publicly declared by a member of the council, to have "done more to allay popular discontent, and support the authority of Congress at this crisis, than any other man." These occurrences in his native state, together with the distress and stagnation of business in the whole country, resulting from the want of power in Congress to carry its measures into effect, and to secure to the people the benefits of a stable government, convinced Mr. Webster that the old Confederation, after the dangers of the war were past, was utterly inadequate to the necessities of the people. He therefore published a pamphlet, in the winter of 1784-5, entitled “Sketches of American Policy," in which, after treating of the general principles of government, he endeavored to prove that it was absolutely necessary, for the welfare and safety of the United States, to establish a new system of government, which should act not on the states, but directly on individuals, and vest in Congress full power to carry its laws into effect. Being on a journey to the Southern States, in May, 1785, he went to Mount Vernon, and presented a copy of this pamphlet to General Washington. It contained, the writer believes, the first distinct proposal, made through the medium of the press, for a new constitution of the United States.

This employment he was induced to relinquish, in 1793, by an interesting crisis in public affairs. General Washington's celebrated proclamation of neutrality, rendered necessary by the efforts of the French minister, Genet, to raise troops in our country for the invasion of Louisiana, and to fit out privateers against nations at peace with the United States, had called forth the most bitter reproaches of the partisans of France; and it was even doubtful, for a time, whether the unbounded popularity of the FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY could repress the public effervescence in favor of embarking in the wars of the French revolution. In this state of things, Mr. Webster was strongly solicited to give the support of his pen to the measures of the administration, by establishing a daily paper in the city of New York. Though conscious of the sacrifice of personal ease which he was called upon to make, he was so strongly impressed with the dangers of the crisis, and so entirely devoted to the principles of Washington, that he did not hesitate to accede to the proposal. Removing his family to New York, in va, and afterward a semi-weekly paper, with that of the Herald-names which were subsequently changed to those of the Commercial Advertiser, and New York Spectator. This was the first example of a paper for the country, composed of the columns of a daily paper, without recomposition -a practice which has now become very common. In addition to his labors as sole editor of these papers, Mr. Webster published, in the year 1794, a pamphlet which had a very extensive circulation, entitled “The Revolution in France."

One object of Mr. Webster's journey to the south was, to petition the state legislatures for the enactment of a law securing to authors an exclusive right to the publication of their writings. In this he succeeded to a considerable extent; and the public attention was thus called to a provision | November, 1793, he commenced a daily paper, under the title of the Minerfor the support of American literature, which was rendered more effectual by a general copyright law, enacted by Congress soon after the formation of our government. At a much later period (in the years 1830-31), Mr. Webster passed a winter at Washington, with the single view of endeavoring to procure an alteration of the existing law, which should extend the term of copyright, and thus give a more ample reward to the labors of our artists and literary men. In this design he succeeded; and an act was passed more liberal in its provisions than the former law, though less so than the laws of some European governments on this subject.

On his return from the south, Mr. Webster spent the summer of 1785 at Baltimore, and employed his time in preparing a course of lectures on the English language, which were delivered, during the year 1786, in the principal Atlantic cities, and were published in 1789, in an octavo volume, with the title of "Dissertations on the English Language."

The year 1787 was spent by Mr. Webster at Philadelphia, as superintendent of an Episcopal academy. The convention which framed the present constitution of the United States were in session at Philadelphia during a part of this year; and when their labors were closed, Mr. Webster was solicited by Mr. Fitzsimmons, one of the members, to give the aid of his pen in recommending the new system of government to the people. He accordingly wrote a pamphlet on this subject, entitled an "Examination of the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution."

In 1788, Mr. Webster attempted to establish a periodical in New York, and for one year published the "American Magazine," which, however, failed of success; as did also an attempt to combine the efforts of other gentlemen in a similar undertaking. The country was not yet prepared for such a work.

The publication of the treaty negotiated with Great Britain by Mr. Jay, in 1795, aroused an opposition to its ratification of so violent a nature as to stagger for a time the firmness of Washington, and to threaten civil commotions. Mr. Webster, in common with General Hamilton and some of the ablest men of the country, came out in vindication of the treaty. Under the signature of CURTIUS, he published a series of papers, which were very extensively reprinted throughout the country, and afterward collected by a bookseller of Philadelphia in a pamphlet form. Of these, ten were contributed by himself, and two by Mr., afterward Chancellor, Kent. As an evidence of their effect, it may not be improper to state, that Mr. Rufus King expressed his opinion to Mr. Jay, that the essays of CURTIUS had contributed more than any other papers of the same kind to allay the discontent and opposition to the treaty; assigning as a reason, that they were peculiarly well adapted to the understanding of the people at large.

When Mr. Webster resided in New York, the yellow fever prevailed at different times in most of our large Atlantic cities; and a controversy arose, among the physicians of Philadelphia and New York, on the question whether it was introduced by infection, or generated on the spot. The In 1789, when the prospects of business became more encouraging, after subject interested Mr. Webster deeply, and led him into a laborious investhe adoption of the new constitution, Mr. Webster settled himself at Hart-tigation of the history of pestilential diseases at every period of the world. ford in the practice of the law. Here he formed or renewed an acquaintance The facts which he collected, with the inferences to which he was led, were with a number of young men just entering upon life, who were ardently embodied in a work of two volumes, octavo, which, in 1799, was published devoted, like himself, to literary pursuits. Among these may be mentioned both in this country and in England. This work has always been considhis two classmates, Barlow and Wolcott; Trumbull, author of McFingal; ered as a valuable repository of facts; and during the prevalence of the Richard Alsop; Dr. Lemuel Hopkins; and, though somewhat older, the Asiatic cholera in the year 1832, the theories of the author seemed to Rev. Nathan Strong, pastor of the First Congregational Church, who, in receive so much confirmation, as to excite a more than ordinary interest tommon with the three last mentioned, was highly distinguished for the in the work, both in Europe and America. penetration of his intellect and the keenness of his wit. The incessant contact of such minds at the forming period of their progress, had great influence on the literary habits of them all in after life. It gave them a

During the wars which were excited by the French revolution, the power assumed by the belligerents to blockade their enemies' ports by proclamation, and the multiplied seizures of American vessels bound to such ports,