and light and cheap presents for the Indians, would be all the apparatus they could carry, and with an expectation of a soldier's portion of land on their return, would constitute the whole expense. Their pay would be going on, whether here or there. While other civilized nations have encountered great expense to enlarge the boundaries of knowledge, by undertaking voyages of discovery, and for other literary purposes, in various parts and directions, our nation seems to owe to the same object, as well as to its own interests, to explore this, the only line of easy communication across the continent, and so directly traversing our own part of it. The interests of commerce place the principal object within the constitutional powers and care of Congress, and that it should incidentally advance the geographical knowledge of our own continent, can not but be an additional gratification. The nation claiming the territory, regarding this as a literary pursuit, which it is in the habit of permitting within its own dominions, would not be disposed to view it with jealousy, even if the expiring state of its interests there did not render it a matter of indifference. The appropriation of two thousand five hundred dollars, "for the purpose of extending the external commerce of the United States," while understood and considered by the executive as giving the legislative sanction, would cover the undertaking from notice, and prevent the obstructions which interested individuals might otherwise previously prepare in its way. INTRODUCTORY TO BOOK IV. THIS fourth and last division of the work contains a large mass of very valuable and interesting miscellaneous matter-everything, indeed, valuable and interesting written by Mr. Jefferson, and not embraced in the previous divisions of the work. To the general reader, it will be found much the most instructive and entertaining portion of the publication, ranging, as it does, over a vast field of discussion-unless, perhaps, the latter portion of Mr. Jefferson's Correspondence be excepted, say, from 1812 to the end of his life. Among the interesting papers contained in this division of the work, may be enumerated the "Notes on Virginia," biographical sketches of distinguished Revolutionary characters, Mr. Jefferson's argument in vindication of his official action while President of the United States in connection with the Batture at New Orleans--the celebrated Anas, Resolutions defining the relations between the State and Federal Governments, and believed to be the originals of the Kentucky Resolutions of 1799, &c. These are but a few of the interesting papers comprised in Book IV. There are many others possessing great intrinsic interest and a very considerable historical value, as throwing much light upon the early history of our country. And nowhere does the genius of the distinguished Author, and the richness and diversity of his resources, more impress the reader than in the mass of miscellaneous matter collected in this last division of the work. II. A notice of the rivers, rivulets, and how far they are navigable, III.—A notice of the best seaports of the State, and how big are the ves- XII-A notice of the counties, cities, townships and villages, XIII. The constitution of the State, and its several charters, XIV.—The administration of justice and the description of the laws, XV. The colleges and public establishments, the roads, buildings, &c., 391 XVI.—The measures taken with regard to the estates and possessions XVII. The different religions received into that State, XVIII. The particular customs and manners that may happen to be re- 248 CONTENTS TO NOTES ON VIRGINIA. XIX. The present state of manufactures, commerce, interior and exterior XX.—A notice of the commercial productions particular to the State, and of those objects which the inhabitants are obliged to get from Europe and from other parts of the world, XXL-The weights, measures, and the currency of the hard money. Some XXIII. The histories of the State, the memorials published in its name in the time of its being a colony, and the pamphlets relating to |