probably of European make, the prefatory remarks being in pica Italics. On Wednesday, the twenty-eighth of May, 1788, the following advertisement in The Independent Journal; or The General Advertiser, announced the publication of the second volume of the work: TH This Day is published, The FEDERALIST, VOLUME SECOND. HIS ineftimable Work is offered to Non- The feveral matters which are contained in *Subscribers are requested to fend immediately for their Copies to the Printing-Office, No. 41, Hanover-Square, four Doors from the Corner of the Old-Slip. Thofe Gentlemen who were intrusted with Subfcription-Lifts are requested to return them to the Printer immediately. New-York, May 28, 1788. The volume which was thus announced bears the following title: "The Federalist: | a collection | of | essays, | writ "ten in favour of the new constitution, | as agreed upon "by the federal convention, | September 17, 1787. | "In two volumes. | Vol. II. | New-York: | Printed and "sold by J. and A. M'LEAN, | No. 41, Hanover-Square. | "M,DCC,LXXXVIII." It forms a neatly printed duodecimo of three hundred and ninety pages, which are thus arranged: Title-page, as above; verso, blank, — both unpaged; iii. to vi., "Contents "; 1 to 365, "The Federalist: addressed to the People of the State of New-York "; 366, blank; 367 to 384, "Articles of the New Constitution; as agreed upon by the Federal Convention, September 17, 1787." In every other respect than the number of pages it contains it is uniform in appearance with the first volume which has been already described; and both volumes are entirely without illustrations. The text of Numbers I. to LXXVII., inclusive, which was produced in this edition of The Fœderalist is, with very slight alterations, that which had been previously published and circulated in the columns of the various newspapers of the day, - indeed, the "additions thereto, which had been promised in the Proposals, are very few in number, and possess no importance whatever; that of Numbers LXXVIII. to LXXXV., inclusive, is from the author's manuscript, and is, therefore, the only authentic and authorized version of that portion of the work. The "alterations" in the earlier numbers, also, possess no interest beyond the confusion which they have produced in the numbers which are prefixed to the several essays, from Number XXIX. to the close of the work. In this new edition, the editor divided the original Number XXXI. into two distinct parts, (XXXII. and XXXIII.,) and the greater part of the original Number XXXV. he transferred, and with it formed a new Number XXIX. Of course the original Numbers XXIX. and XXX. became new Numbers XXX. and XXXI. ; the original Numbers XXXI. to XXXIV., inclusive, became new Numbers XXXII. to XXXVI., inclusive; and the original Numbers XXXVI. to LXXVI. became new Numbers XXXVII. to LXXVII. From the same cause when the Numbers LXXVIII. to LXXXV. of this edition, in which, as has been stated, they originally appeared, were reproduced in The Independent Journal; or, The General Advertiser, they were designated, in continuation of the series which had been commenced in that paper, Numbers LXXVII. to LXXXIV., inclusive; and there was no Number LXXXV. whatever in the latter. At the same time that these changes in the numbers of the essays were produced by the simple "alterations" which have been referred to, the change which was made by Messrs. M'LEAN in the mode of publishing the work, by their original publication of the latter part of it in book-form instead of in The Independent Journal, when combined with the other cause of confusion, produced another singular result. The original Number LXXVI. as it appeared in The Independent Journal on the second of April, 1788, was reproduced as Number LXXVII. in this first collective edition; while the original Number LXXVIII. as it appeared in this collective edition on the twenty-eighth of May was reproduced in The Independent Journal on the fourteenth of June, 1788, as Number LXXVII.; there was, therefore, no original Number LXXVII.; and the several original Numbers from LXXVIII. to LXXXV., inclusive, as they were first published in this edition, became respectively Numbers LXXVII. to LXXXIV., inclusive, in the reprint of them in the newspaper. Such were the "alterations" which were promised in the Proposals for this edition. It requires a larger * Ante, page xxiii. amount of unsuspecting credulity than has fallen to ordinary men to believe that the systematic mind of Colonel HAMILTON ever led him and his readers into such great confusion; and the existence of that confusion confirms, if confirmation were needed on that subject, the testimony which has been received of the resolute firmness with which, to his latest days, the principal author of The Federalist maintained the sole authority of the original text of that work. It remains only, in this connection, to notice the assumed authority under which the several alterations from the original text of The Federalist, were made by the editor of this edition of that work. This work had been written by three persons and addressed to a particular, specified body-politic, for the purpose of inducing that body to do that which it had previously declared, informally, through the greater number of its members, individually, it would not do; and terms had been submitted, through the arguments and statements of The Fœderalist, by which it was hoped that community might become reconciled to "the new system," and approve, instead of reject, the proposed Constitution. The terms, it is said, had been accepted; the reconciliation of many members of that body-politic, it is admitted, had been effected; and "The People of the State of New York," to some extent at least, taking the interpretation, by "PUBLIUS," of that Constitution, as the true one, had determined to acquiesce in its establishment between itself and the other States of the Union. At the date of the publication of these volumes, therefore, The Federalist was no longer within the control of the authors themselves, much less within that of any other person. It was no longer an executory writing; it had been executed, in spirit if not in fact; and as well might the five distinguished men, or any of them, who had reported the Declaration of Inde pendence, have undertaken, covertly, to "correct" that instrument weeks after its publication, or at any time after it had passed beyond their control, by their submission of it to the House, as the three who had submitted. The Federalist, or any of them, to withdraw that paper or any part of it, covertly, from before the People, for "correction" or for any other purpose. Again: when three persons jointly submit terms to other parties, on any subject whatever, a minority of the proposers, even if a majority possesses any such authority, which is not admitted, cannot properly mutilate that proposition without the assent of its associates: how, then, could Mr. MADISON- the only person who has even tacitly acquiesced in any of these alterations—or either of his associates properly mutilate that to which there were other responsible parties, who had not directly consented to such mutilations? Under these circumstances the real value of the text of this edition may be understood, wherein it agrees with the version which was originally published by the authors and assented to by the People to whom it had been addressed it possesses value, and wherein that version has been departed from, except for the correction of obvious clerical or typographical errors, it is not trustworthy. This neat little edition is scarce; there does not appear to be a copy of it in any public library in Boston, although it may be found in the Society and the Apprentices' Libraries, and in those of the New York Historical Society and the Mercantile Library Association, in the city of New York, of the Library Company in the city of Philadelphia, and of the Congress of the United States, in Washington. The only fine paper copy which I have examined is that in the library of the New York Historical Society. The second edition of The Federalist appears to have |