by the British government.  The book was an arraignment of tyranny in church and state, and was quickly followed by ‘The Conspiracy of Kings,’ an attack in verse on those European countries which had combined to kill Republicanism in France.  In 1792 Barlow was made a citizen of France as a mark of appreciation of a ‘Letter’ addressed to the National Convention, giving that body advice, and when the convention sent commissioners to organize the province of Savoy into a department, Barlow was one of the number.  As a candidate for deputy from Savoy, he was defeated; but his visit was not fruitless, for at Chambery the sight of a dish of maize-meal porridge reminded him of his early home in Connecticut, and inspired him to write in that ancient French town a typical Yankee poem, ‘Hasty Pudding.’  Its preface, in prose, addressed to Mrs. Washington, assured her that simplicity of diet was one of the virtues; and if cherished by her, as it doubtless was, it would be more highly regarded by her countrywomen.

Between the years of 1795-97, Barlow held the important but unenviable position of United States Consul at Algiers, and succeeded both in liberating many of his countrymen who were held as prisoners, and in perfecting treaties with the rulers of the Barbary States, which gave United States vessels entrance to their ports and secured them from piratical attacks.  On his return to Paris he translated Volney’s ‘Ruins’ into English, made preparations for writing histories of the American and French revolutions, and expanded his ‘Vision of Columbus’ into a volume which as ’The Columbiad’—­a beautiful specimen of typography—­was published in Philadelphia in 1807 and republished in London.  The poem was held to have increased Barlow’s fame; but it is stilted and monotonous, and ‘Hasty Pudding’ has done more to perpetuate his name.

In 1805 Barlow returned to the United States and bought an estate near Washington, D.C., where he entertained distinguished visitors.  In 1811 he returned to France authorized to negotiate a treaty of commerce.  After waiting nine months, he was invited by Napoleon, who was then in Poland, to a conference at Wilna.  On his arrival Barlow found the French army on the retreat from Moscow, and endured such privations on the march that on December 24th he died of exhaustion at the village of Zarnowiec, near Cracow, and there was buried.

Barlow’s part in developing American literature was important, and therefore he has a rightful place in a work which traces that development.  He certainly was a man of varied ability and power, who advanced more than one good cause and stimulated the movement toward higher thought.  The only complete ‘Life and Letters of Joel Barlow,’ by Charles Burr Todd, published in 1888, gives him unstinted praise as excelling in statesmanship, letters, and philosophy.  With more assured justice, which all can echo, it praises his nobility of spirit as a man.  No one can read the letter to his wife, written from Algiers when he thought himself in danger of death, without a warm feeling for so unselfish and affectionate a nature.