Note 81 — Chapter I · (continued 2)

This book of Mr. Biddle was published in London in two editions, 1831 and 1832, and in the United States, 1831, all without the name of the author, an eminent jurist and statesman of Pittsburg, Penn., who was born in 1795, and died in 1847. It is a work of great value for its authorities, and displays much critical talent; and though composed with little system and with a strong bias in favor of Sebastian Cabot, whom the author makes his hero, it may be regarded as the best review of the history of maritime discovery relating to the period of which he treats, that had appeared.