laws. New desires will be excited, and new passions called into existence. Avarice will seize upon new sources of accumulation: envy will seek to destroy the happiness beyond its own reach; and fraud and oppression, must follow in their train. It is not our design, however, to write a history of the discovery of America; and we shall, therefore, confine our views to one of the many important events, to which that discovery led-leaving it to the philosopher, and general historian, to settle the question, whether the sum of human happiness has been augmented or diminished, by the adventurous spirit of Columbus.
It has been well said, by one of the fathers of our independence, that the revolution was finished, before the war commenced; and the reader will find more than one occasion, in the following pages, to observe the truth of this remark. But before we enter upon the immediate execution of our task-a record of the events of our Revolution, in its broad and common acceptation-we must beg permission to detain the reader with a few general observations, such as the occasion seems to demand. It is a delicate, and perhaps a presumptuous task, to attempt to fix the causes, which have produced the revolutions of kingdoms and empires. The various and conflicting motives, which may be supposed to influence the historian, should be carefully examined and ascertained, before confidence is given to the truth of his narration, or reliance placed on the soundness of his judgment. If, like Bishop Burnett, he is the recorder of events, in which he was, himself, a conspicuous actor, he may naturally be supposed to sit down to the task, with a mind under the influence of the selfish and stormy passions of a party. He may be