On former occasions we have expressed our approbation of the plan of this popular work, and our satisfaction with the general execution. The present volume, just issued from the press, contains, among the additions by the American editors, biographical notices of James Monroe, Gen. Richard Montgomery, Gen. Daniel Morgan, William Morgan, Robert Morris, Gouverneur Morris, Gen. William Moultrie, William Vans Murray, James Otis, Robert Treat Paine, Theophilus Parsons, and C.W. Peale (the founder of the Philadelphia Museum.) It is to be regretted that the department of American Biography presents generally only a few meager details.[...]

The world has just passed through an agony of pain compared to which the French Revolution was a mere incident. The shock has been so great that it has killed the last spark of hope in the breasts of million of men. They were chanting a hymn of progress, and four years of slaughter followed their prayers for peace. “Is it worth while,” so they ask, “to work and slave for the benefit of creatures who have not yet passed beyond the stage of the earliest cave men?” [...]