Page:Federalist, Dawson edition, 1863.djvu/73

 views of the former on the relative merits of the three authors of the work, and the identical words which General had dictated to him, to be employed instead of his own in the Preface of the work, concerning the merits of Mr. and Mr. in the original authorship of the numbers, were known to Mr. in all their minutiæ; and as it can scarcely be credited that any other person than the editor himself was, or could be, personally acquainted with all these circumstances, it appears highly probable that Mr. himself was the "gentleman of competent literary talents" who had undertaken "to make the first verbal corrections" in the original text, to which he referred. There are other circumstances connected with this subject which confirm this view of it, and indicate Mr. as the anonymous editor of this edition, not the least of which are the flagrant violations, by that editor, of the positive instructions which, according to Mr., General had given for his guidance in making the "corrections" referred to.

Concerning the "corrections" which were introduced into the text of The Fœderalist by the editor of this edition of that work, the general remarks which have been made concerning the alterations which were introduced into the first collective edition are entirely applicable and need not be repeated,—that no person, even the distinguished authors themselves, had they been disposed to do so, could have made, or have authorized others to make, any alterations whatever in the original text. But, in the instance now under consideration, there is another and special reason why the "corrections" of that text which were made by the editor of this edition are untrustworthy,—Mr. , its publisher, has expressly acknowledged to two different gentlemen that General Hamilton had positively forbidden