ART. III. An Estimate of Commercial Advantages, by Way of Mississippi and Mobile Rivers to the Western Country; Principles of a Commercial System; and the Commencement and Progress of a Settlement on the Ohio River, to facilitate the same: with a Statement of Facts. 12mo. pp. 70. Nashville. M'Laughlan. 1799.

E who desires to peruse the narrative of an attempt to

a

the mouth of Cumberland river, in the year 1798, may be gratified by procuring the publication now before us. It was proposed to call it Smithland; but the views of the settlers not according at that time with the policy of the national government, then on the brink of war with France, and unwilling to provoke the hostility of the native Indians, the project was interrupted by public authority. Mr. Zechariah Cox, who seems to have been the leading man in that enterprize, appears also to be the writer of these pages. The greater part of them is a kind of appeal to the public, as a vindication against the wrongs he supposes himself to have suffered, and defending his reputation against the aspersions which had been thrown upon it. Into these it would be foreign to the purpose of our review to make inquiry.

The most interesting part of the work is the geographical; and this consists chiefly of the distances, portages, and prices of conveying produce, from the Ohio, through the Mobile and Mississippi, to the Gulf of Mexico, and vice versa. In pursuing this object, Mr. C. states, that Mobile Bay, which receives the Tombigbee and Alabama rivers, is navigable, by means of the former of these streams, to the lat. 31 deg. 30 min., N. by sea vessels. This is half a degree north of the Florida line, and to this point the tide ebbs and flows. From the Tombigbee, boats of fifty tons burthen may enter Sipsey's river, and proceed up it as far as lat. 33 deg. 45 min. and the same may be done on the Tombigbee itself. From the head of this navigation to the main river, Tennessee, is about fifty-five miles; and to the nearest branches of the Tennessee, extending from the lower and upper ends of the Mussel-shoals, only thirty-five miles. Between these head waters the country is level, and well adapted for forming a portage to convey country produce and merchandize. The distance from the head of Mobile Bay to the head navigation of Tombigbee and Sipsey's rivers, is about three hundred miles by water. A boat of twenty-five tons

burthen can pass and repass, in thirty days, with the strength of ten men. From the head navigation of the southernmost streams which fall into Tennessee river to Knoxville, on Holstein river, he computes the distance to be about three hundred and fifty miles. The time of passing backwards and forwards between these two points, in a boat of twenty-five tons, worked by ten men, is thirty-three days.

Having thus computed the distance and time of going to Knoxville, by the Mobile, the Tombigbee and the Tennessee, Mr. C. contrasts the expense of transporting goods by this route, with that which is paid for carrying them to Knoxville, across the country from Philadelphia, and shows that the latter is, by a vast difference, the most expensive. And he applies the like reasoning and calculations in favour of getting goods by the Mobile, up to Nashville, on Cumberland river, about four hundred and sixty miles distant from the southernmost streams of the Tennessee. Mr. C. then endeavours to prove, that goods cannot be carried to Nashville from any of the Atlantic ports by the way of Pittsburgh, and down the Ohio, by a large difference so cheap as by the Mobile, &c. &c. He next makes an estimate to show, that even the people at the falls of the Ohio, which are about seven hundred miles below Pittsburgh, can be supplied cheaper by the south, from the Mobile, Tennessee, &c. than from any port of the eastern shore of the Atlantic.

Not content with these interesting views of our western inland navigation, this exploring genius next makes an effort to prove, that the transportation by the Mobile, or the Mobile Commerce as he calls it, will be found easier, quicker, cheaper, and safer, than that on the waters of the Mississippi itself; and that by the former of these routes, merchandize can be delivered at the junction of the Ohio and the Mississippi upon considerably cheaper terms than by the latter. This is owing to the impetuosity and turbulency of the Mississippi current.

Zealous for the interest of the western states, Mr. C. afterwards contrasts the Mississippi's commerce, inferior as it is to the Mobile commerce, with that carried on to the western regions, by the way of Philadelphia. By calculation, he endeavours to show, that Knoxville, Nashville, Rapids of the Ohio, and even Pittsburgh, can be furnished with foreign merchandize, by the Mississippi, Ohio, &c. difficult as their navigation is, upon terms greatly preferable to those which the conveyance from Philadelphia affords. In short, according to Mr. C.'s view of the subject, the Mobile commerce is the best

for the western states, the Mississippi commerce next in value, and the Philadelphia commerce less advantageous than either.

Whether these calculations and estimates are just, time will discover. The possession of the mouths of the Mobile, and the Mississippi, will give a new direction to much of the pecuniary and physical power of our citizens. Then, and then only, will the interests and experience of men of business determine by what route articles of foreign manufacture, intended for domestic consumption, can be brought to their doors at the most convenient and economical rate. And from the present aspect of affairs, it is highly probable the active and laborious writer of the piece under review, may live to see how well his speculations will correspond with events,

ART. IV. List of the Post Offices in the United States; with the Counties in which they are situated, and their Distances from Washington City. 8vo. pp. 39. Printed by Order of the Post-Master-General. 1803.

HERE are very few things which give a more striking idea of the progress of settlement and improvement in a country, than the post roads which pass through it, and the post offices established thereon. By these institutions we learn, that the face of the land has laid aside its savage features, and assumed a mild and civilized aspect. Forest trees, and sylvan plants give place to grain and herbage, affording nourishment to man and domestic creatures. Neighbourhoods thicken, villages spring up, towns are peopled, and intercourse is multiplied. Industry wishes a market for her supplies of produce; the introduction of taste and elegance brings home foreign manufactures; in short, highways are made safe and convenient ; travelling is frequent, fashionable, and necessary; and intelligence sought after with a proportionate eagerness and appetite.

The growth of the business, and of the curiosity of a people, is manifested in the most unequivocal manner, by the letters, newspapers, and pamphlets which circulate among them. And as these are conveyed by the mails along the post roads, and are received at, and distributed from certain offices, fixed at proper distances from each other along those roads, the intellectual, as well as manual employment of the inhabitants, car

be, in a good degree, judged of by the sealed parcels which they send to others, and which are sent to them.

Judging by this rule, the enlarged population in the United States is accompanied with a full proportion of mental and corporeal activity. An enumeration of the post towns, which occupies thirty pages of close octavo print, is a proof of the surprisingly rapid advances of the numbers and powers of our citizens. With a spread and multiplication which, perhaps, has no example in any age or region, these public ways are length ening and ramifying through every part of the country, and bearing to the neighbouring inhabitants commercial advices, political news, republican discussions, literary speculations, and scientific intelligence.

By this catalogue of Gideon Granger, Esq. the present Post Master-General, it appears that there are already, with a trifling abatement, thirteen hundred Post Offices in the United States! and at each of these a deputy Post-Master. Under the direction of that able and enterprizing officer has this account of the different post towns been compiled from authentic documents. Though this is but one, among many, examples of the improvements which he has made in his department.

The titles of the post offices are arranged alphabetically, which makes it as easy to find such a word as any term in a common dictionary. Each page is divided perpendicularly into four columns. The first contains the nie; the second the county; the third the state; and the fourth the distance from the General-Post-Office at Washington, in English miles. The book is full of instruction; and, considering the indication it gives of the actual increase, employment, and information of the citizens of the United States, and the prospect of their augmented resources, happiness, and knowledge, we must confess this publication of the Post-Master-General is one of the most interesting that has issued from the press since the commencement of our labours as reviewers.

On this occasion, we cannot forego the mention of that liberal provision which our government has made, for the dif fusion of knowledge through the medium of the Post-Office. When the mode of conveyance, and the size of the mails will admit of it, magazines and pamphlets may be transported in the mail, at one cent a sheet (sixteen printed, pages 8vo.) for any distance not exceeding fifty miles, at one cent and one-half for any distance over fifty and not exceeding one hundred miles, and two cents for any greater distance. And the PostMaster-General, in any contract he may enter into for the con

veyance of the mail, may authorize the person with whom such contract is made, to carry newspapers, magazines, and pamphlets other than those conveyed in the mail.

To the readers of the Medical Repository, in particular, we would thereupon suggest, that a quarterly number of that periodical work costs a subscriber, living at the greatest distance from the place of its publication, only thirteen cents, which, on the supposition of its containing one hundred and four pages, or six sheets and an half, exactly amounts to that sum. This is more moderate than the postage of a single letter for the same distance. Gentlemen, in different and distant parts of our country, may thus be enabled, by a cheap, expeditious, and certain mode of conveyance, to receive the Medical Repository immediately after its issue from the press, and thereby keep up the circulation of the work, and diffuse the information which it contains.