Mercury_
(Oct. 30, 1740) gives the prospectus of a magazine to be edited by
John Webbe and printed by Andrew Bradford; while in the _Pennsylvania
Gazette_ (Nov. 13, 1740) Franklin announced _The General Magazine and
Historical Chronicle for all the British Plantations in America_. A
bitter controversy soon arose,--Franklin claiming that Webbe had
stolen his plans, and Webbe accusing Franklin of using his position
as Postmaster to exclude the _Mercury_ from the mail. Both magazines
were issued in January, 1741; Webbe's journal, _The American Magazine;
or a Monthly View of the Political State of the British Colonies_, ran
for three months and Franklin's for six months.[21] With these, then,
the investigation for the present subject begins. As has been
indicated, the work has been extended to the end of the year 1840.
After that, German literature was established as a well known factor
in our intellectual development, as is shown by the numerous books of
translations and imitations, and the magazines were, henceforth, less
important in this particular. The period here treated extends only to
the end of 1810. These years witnessed the beginning of the movement
and the first period of considerable activity in this field. During
the years immediately following 1810 there was a decline in the German
literary influence in the American magazines.[22]

[Footnote 21: John Bach McMaster, _Benjamin Franklin as a Man
of Letters_, Boston, 1887, p. 129 seq.]

[Footnote 22: A similar decline in the German literary
influence was noticed also in England after 1810.]

To estimate definitively the amount of literary activity in America
with respect to things German, as illustrated by these translations
and poems, would require considerable information concerning the
translators. If the translator lived in England and his work was
simply reprinted in an American magazine, the literary activity
belongs more to England than to this country; but the fact that the
poem was reprinted shows a desire to acquaint readers here with
foreign poetry, the only difference being that the influence came
through England and not from Germany direct. Where the works printed
are from the pen of an American, they represent not only the ability
of the writer to appreciate German, but also the active interest to
reproduce it for the American public; the translation is then entirely
an American product. As to Englishmen here doing this kind of wo