770 Chapter XXXI
tholicism was being called into question. The French invasion of Holland and
Switzerland, two Protestant countries highly regarded in America, made an unfa-
vorable impression. In addition, by 1795 and 1796, party lines were being sharply
drawn over the Jay treaty. Federalists became more committed to England than
ever, and one way to expose and refute Republicans in America was to circulate
increasing numbers of English books.
The waves of British writing against the French Revolution, as described in the
last chapter, now began to wash over the United States. Of books actually im-
ported there can now be little trace. It is possible, however, to identify reprintings
made and sold by American booksellers, some of whom made a specialty of litera-
ture of this kind.^39 One of these was William Cobbett; another was Paul Nancrède,
a Frenchman who had been in America since 1785, detested the French Revolu-
tion, taught French at Harvard, and sold books in Boston.
Burke’s Reflections had two American printings in the 1790’s, one at New York
in 1791, and one at Philadelphia in 1792. There were none thereafter; it is hardly
surprising that the book had little appeal for Americans at that time. In 1795 Cob-
bett reprinted Playfair’s book on the “crimes and perfidies” of Jacobinism, to which
he added an appendix of his own on American democrats. Cobbett likewise, with
associates in New York, brought out an American edition of Robison’s Proofs of a
Conspiracy in 1798. The English translation of Barruel, in four volumes, appeared
in 1799 at Elizabeth, New Jersey. Works by Mallet du Pan were printed in New
York as early as 1795. Nancrède reprinted the EngIish versions of Barzoni’s Ro-
mans in Greece, and Mallet du Pan’s History of the destruction of the Helvetic union
and liberty.^40 A short work called Cannibals’ progress, or the dreadful horrors of French
Invasion, brought out in England but apparently not very successful there, was
printed in 1798 in at least fourteen different American towns, mostly in New En-
gland, and obviously by prearrangement. Five thousand had been sold at Philadel-
phia in a few days, according to the New Haven Gazette, which perhaps exagger-
ated in order to sell it in New Haven. “The despots of France,” said the American
introduction to Cannibals’ Progress, after enslaving France and desolating all Euro-
pean republics, “have insulted America and demanded of her a tribute.” The refer-
ence was to the XYZ affair; and foolish American republicans were to learn from
the horrors in Germany, where there had at first been many sympathizers with the
French Revolution, what fiends the French republicans really were—they tied
women to trees for wholesale rape, and butchered civilians without mercy.^41 Cob-
bett sold this tract for $3.50 a hundred. Another Philadelphian, Joseph Hopkin-
son, who wrote Hail Columbia in preparation for war with France, made a contri-
bution toward restoring the balance of trade in this kind of commodity. One of his
39 See C. Evans, American Bibliography: A Chronological Dictionary of All Books, Pamphlets and
Periodical Publications Printed in the United States of America [from 1639 to 1800], 14 vols. (Chicago,
1903–1959).
40 For these books see above, pp. 401, 556–60, 682, 732.
41 Anthony Aufrere, The cannibals’ progress; or the dreadful horrors of French invasion, as displayed by
Republican officers and soldiers, in their perfidy, rapacity, ferociousness and brutality, exercised towards the
innocent inhabitants of Germany. Translated from the German. (London, 1798.) The British Museum
lists only one English edition. It is not clear whether Aufrere, an English antiquarian, really translated
this work or wrote it himself. References here are to the Albany edition (1798), 3–4, 23.