This work consists of a series of letters written by the author during a residence in London, and addressed to a friend in Massachusetts, his own native State. The letters are dated from June 19, 1802, to September 15, 1803. The first letter opens: I have just arrived in the land of our ancestors, a land not much less strange to me, than were the shores of New England to Standish, Carver, Winslow, and the other adventurers. They were awfully impressed with the grandeur of nature, before she yielded to cultivation: I am apprehensive I shall not be less affected with the excesses to which pride, vanity, and ambition carry those, who, endeavouring to rise above, sink far below the standard of nature . . .

Jefferson, President at the time, is mentioned in two of the letters. In Letter V, August 20, 1802, occurs the passage: . . . Who supports our constitution? Who supports the administration of our government? Mr. Jefferson? No, no: the strength of the government of the United States is founded only in legitimate strength, in popular sentiment, in popluar [ sic.-- Ed.] affection. We have no personal attachment to our presidents and governors, and ought not to have: we respect them only as constitutional statesmen. Such a government might be a laughing stock in Europe--more shame to Europeans . . .

Letter XV, January 17, 1803 closes with the paragraph: . . . Certainly, no man can contemplate with indifference the chief magistrate of six millions of people, dispari genere, alius, alio more viventes, mixing like a plebian with plebians, and feeling more secure in the midst of his fellow citizens, than if he were guarded with a legion of cavalry. Would not Mr. Jefferson be mortified if Congress should vote him a guard? Would he not say, “I never feel more secure, than when surrounded with my fellow citizens: have I lost their confidence that personal protection is thought necessary?” I should love to dwell on this subject, but it might appear invidious.

William Austin, 1778-1841, was born in Lunenburg, Massachusetts. He went to England in 1802 to study law at Lincoln’s Inn, and earned his passage by serving as schoolmaster and chaplain on the United States frigate Constitution, which is said to be the first appointment of a navy chaplain by government commission. Austin returned to the United States in 1803.

This book seems to have been purchased in England; it is entered by Jefferson in his undated manuscript catalogue, with the price 4/0.

William Coxe, 1747-1828, English historian and arch-deacon of Wiltshire, travelled in Switzerland while acting as tutor to the son of the Earl of Pembroke, to whose mother this work was dedicated from Vienna, June 26, 1778. First printed in 1779, it is written in the form of letters to William Melmoth (1710-1799[)], English author, and was immediately translated into French. In 1789 the work was enlarged and republished in England with a different title.