FEINBERG/WHITMAN Literary File Prose "The Child-Ghost" (May 1842). United States Magazine & Democratic Review. Printed Copy. Box 31 Folder 5 EACH NUMBER EMBELLISHED WITH A PORTRAIT. Vol. X. New Series. No. XLVII THE UNITED STATES MAGAZINE AND DEMOCRATIC REVIEW. "THE BEST GOVERNMENT IS THAT WHICH GOVERNS LEAST." MAY, 1842. NEW YORK: J. & H. G. LANGLEY, 57 CHATHAM STREET. $5 per Annum. THE UNITED STATES MAGAZINE AND DEMOCRATIC REVIEW. SECOND SERIES. 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FOR LIST OF GENERAL AGENTS, SEE PAGE 3 OF COVER. Jordan & Halpin. very truly, yours A. H. Everett. Engd. for the U. S. Magazine & Democratic Review. J & H. G. Langley, New York. THE UNITED STATES MAGAZINE AND DEMOCRATIC REVIEW. Volume X. May, 1842. No. XLVII. TABLE OF CONTENTS. Page. I. EDINBURGH REVIEW ON JAMES'S NAVAL OCCURRENCES, AND COOPER'S NAVAL HISTORY . . . 411 II. JOHN JAMES AUDUBON . . . 436 III. THE CHILD-GHOST; A STORY OF THE LAST LOYALIST.—By Walter Whitman . . . 451 IV. BRAVERY.—By Anna Cora Mowatt . . . 457 V. POLITICAL PORTRAITS WITH PEN AND PENCIL.— NO. XXX.— ALEXANDER H. EVERETT . . . 460 (With a fine Engraving on Steel.) VI. SONNETS.—By J. R. Lowell . . . 479 VII. THE MINSTREL'S CURSE.—From the German of Uhland . 481 VIII. MR. HENRY A. WISE AND THE CILLEY DUEL . . . 482 IX. THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW YORK AND MR. WEBSTER, ON THE M'LEOD QUESTION . . . 487 Review of the Opinion of Judge Cowen, of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, in the Case of Alexander M'Leod. X. THE EXCHEQUER PROJECTS . . . 501 XI. MONTHLY FINANCIAL AND COMMERCIAL ARTICLE . . 505 XII. MONTHLY LITERARY RECORD . . . 511 1. Literary Intelligence. 2. American Literary Announcements. 3. English Literary Announcements. THIS NUMBER CONTAINS SIX AND A HALF SHEETS. THE UNITED STATES MAGAZINE AND DEMOCRATIC REVIEW. Vol. X. MAY, 1842. No. XLVII. EDINBURGH REVIEW ON JAMES'S NAVAL OCCURRENCES, AND COOPER'S NAVAL HISTORY. THE appearance of the last two works named in the heading of this article has, in a degree, revived the controversy concerning the nautical claims of the respective belligerents, during the wars between England and America. Agreeably to a species of tactics a good deal practiced among our transatlantic relatives, whenever a case affecting national interests or national reputation arises, different portions of the duty of defence have been assigned to different parties - each according to his habits and qualifications. In this particular instance, the scurrilous has been assumed by one of the professional magazines; while the Edinburgh has undertaken the artful and more dignified office of mystifying. As we claim a right to preserve our own self-respect, we shall say nothing to, or of, the former assailants of the American book, while we deem the matter sufficiently of national importance to lay a brief replay to the latter before our readers, in an examination of its facts and reasoning. The renown of the navy is a noble portion of the property of the republic; an, as we conceive that this singularly disingenuous and illogical article of the Scottish periodical may have a tendency to cast a doubt over merit that we hold to incontrovertible, when fairly considered, we shall depart from the usual practice of the craft, and review a reviewer. The war of 1812 gave birth to many ephemeral works on the subject of it's naval combats. Among others was a book written by a Mr. James, a person who had come to this country just before the commencement of hostilities, to seek his fortune as a veterinary surgeon; a profession which, of itself, offered no very probable qualifications to form a keen nautical critic. Mr. James remained in Philadelphia for some months after the 18th June, 412 EDINBURGH REVIEW ON JAMES"S NAVAL OCCURENCES, [May, but finally took refuge at Halifax. His peculiar situation had a tendency to sour his feelings, and he gave vent to his disappointments and antipathies in a pamphlet, in which he affected to expose the frauds and deceptions connected with the successes of the American marine. As this was a grateful subject to his countrymen, the success of the pamphlet gave birth to a thick octavo volume, which, in its turn, has been subsequently incorporated with a general and much larger work on the English Naval History. The peculiar felicity discovered by Mr. James in the art of extenuating want of success, and in calumniating America and her naval men, has largely contributed towards rendering him popular at home, and it is no unusual thing for even officers of experience in that country to refer to his pages as furnishing evidence and reasoning that are deemed conclusive; with how much justice, it will presently be our office to expose. The Edinburgh, it is true, admits his want of tone; but it insists on his accuracy, and throughout the whole of its article on the recent work of Mr. Cooper, falls back on the figures, statements, and asseverations of James, for its own authority. As some pretence for this course, the reviewer affects to bring both works under examination, though, after magnanimously admitting that Mr. James is scarcely decent in his treatment of the American officers and American nation, it quietly assumes all his facts, and glorifies all his logic. Whenever he is at variance with Mr. Cooper, he refers to the pages of Mr. James in justification of his own position, coolly assuming that all the figures, measurements, and allegations of the latter are true—for a reason no better, as we can see, than the simple circumstances that his author has been pleased to advance them. In this manner it is easy to maintain any theory, when one has had the precaution to settle his authorities to his own satisfaction. In answer to this, we now propose to show that Mr. James is a writer of so loose a character, as to deserve no respect whatever; and that in all which depends on his own assertions—no small portion of his book, by the way—he is rather to be distrusted than confided in, and that his reasoning is as hollow as his statements are inaccurate. In doing this, our limits compel us to be brief, but we shall look for such cases as, in demonstrating his inaccuracies, will, at the same time, enable us to vindicate some American from his calumnies. Having thus disposed of its great authority, we shall take a rapid review of the merits of the Scottish critic in his individual capacity. This double tribute will compel us to extend our notice to two numbers of the Democratic Review, though we trust the interest of the subject itself will prevent that of the reader from languishing. 1842. and Cooper's Naval History. 413 On the present occasion, then, our remarks will be confined exclusively to the "Naval Occurrences." The Edinburgh, probably perceiving the objections that might naturally be urged against the nautical knowledge of the veterinary surgeon, quotes an eulogium of Capt. Chamier on this same person's nautical dexterity, in which the latter defies Capt. Brenton to point out a single instance, "only one nautical error in the whole of James's history; and this is perhaps the most wonderful part of the work," continues Capt. Chamier; "every word is right, is strictly correct." It is not in our power to give Capt. Brenton's answer to this defiance, but we intend to give our own. Throughout this article we shall quote from the edition of the Naval Occurrences that was printed at London in 1817. In speaking of the action between the Wasp and Frolic, Mr. James says, p. 141, "But at that instant, the Frolic's gaff-head braces being shot away, and having no sail upon her main-mast, she became unmanageable," &c. &c. We suppose Capt. Chamier will admit there is no such thing in a ship as "a gaff-head brace." Mr. James might as well have talked of the carotid artery of a horse's hoof, as to talk of a "gaff-head brace." Nevertheless, he does speak of it, and attaches important consequences to its loss! The idea of a vessel's reeving a brace to the end of a gaff, and this, too, in heavy weather, is just as absurd to the seaman, as it would be to the naturalist to speak of a squirrel's bearing the burden of the camel. The solution of this blunder is very simple, and it goes at once to prove the truth of Capt. Brenton's remark, and the difficulty of a landsman's writing intelligently of things that are strictly nautical. Capt. Whinyates of the Frolic has a statement similar to this of Mr. James's, in his published official letter, but it is evidently a misprint; it having been his intention to say, "The gaff and head braces being shot away, the brig became unmanageable," as well she might, having no main-yard. If Capt. Chamier is not satisfied with this proof of absurd ignorance on the part of his author—of the difference between repeating like a parrot, and of understanding a subject—we can furnish him with a plenty of other instances. But, having thus accidentally commenced with the combat between the Wasp and the Frolic, we will inquire further into James's accuracy concerning the incidents of this short and bloody conflict. The account of the engagement between the Wasp and Frolic commences at p. 139 of the "Naval Occurrences." It contains the usual jeremiad about invalid seamen and other disabilities on the part of the English ship, with some very pretty exaggerations concerning the equipment of her adversary. "Never was a finer crew seen," he adds, "than was on board the Wasp. She 414 Edinburgh Review on Jame's Naval Occurences, [May, had four lieutenants; and while the Frolie had only one midshipman, and he a boy, the Wasp had 12 or 13 midshipmen; chiefly masters and mates of merchantmen, stout able men, each of whom could take charge of a ship," &c. &c. pp.150, 151. This is probably the first instance on record of such a disparity in midshipmen! Mr. James gives no proofs of what he says, but simply asserts. On our part, we will assert, too. Not a midshipman of the Wasp, so far as we can discover, and we knew most of them at the time, was ever the master or mate of a merchantman. Even the superior officers were far from being old seamen. The Wasp had an extra lieutenant in the present Commodore Biddle, it is true, though borne on the books; and Mr. Rapp, one of her midshipmen, acted in the place of the last Commodore Claxton, who was on the sick list. Capt. Jones had been a sailor 13 years when he took the Frolie; Mr. Biddle, 12; Mr. Rodgers, 8; Mr. Booth, 6; Mr. Claxton, 6; and Mr. Rapp, 5. Thus the majority of the ward-room officers were quite young seamen, ket the midshipmen have been what they might. Of the latter, there were but 6 or 8 on board, and most of them were young in years and young in service. We will now go into the arithmetic. Captain Whinyates, of the Frolic, says, in his official letter-- "At length the enemy boarded, and made himself master of the brig, every individual officer being wounded, and the greater part of the men either killed or wounded, there not being 20 persons remaining unhurt." Now as the English recaptured this brig within an hour or two after she was taken by the Americans, as the battle occurred on the 18th October, 1812, and as the letter of Captain Whinyates was written on the 23d of the same month, it is probable the latter had time and opportunity to ascertain the facts. But, in the steelyard and arithmetical war that succeeded, it was desirable to diminish this loss as much as possible, and Mr. James gives the following account of the matter, viz:-- Men. Boys. Passenger. Total. Killed. Wounded. Total K. & W. Crew of Frolic, 98 11 1 110 (p. 149.) 15 47 62 (p. 147.) To this our historian adds: "Not above 20 men remained on the Frolic's DECK unhurt, the remainder were below, attending the wounded, and performing other duties there." Here Mr. James endeavors to explain away Captain Whinyate's plain statement, of not "20 persons remaining unhurt," by confining the allusion to those on DECK. Let us see how his account of the matter will hold good:-- Crew. Killed and Wounded. Unhurt in all. Capt. Whinyates' unhurt. 110 62 48 20 62 62 20 48 Below, 28 1842.] and Cooper's Naval History. 415 Here then we have 28 men occupied below, in a sleep of war, at the most critical moment of a bloody battle! In addition, the on a sleep of war's berth-deck are almost as much exposed in action, as those on her spar-deck. If 6 men were stationed below, in such a vessel, it was probably ample, and this would leave 22 philanthropists attending to the 48 wounded, (half of whom were found lying on the upper deck, by the way,) with the enemy coming over the brig's bows! Mr. James put more than a fourth of the Frolic's men below, out of harm's way, in this extraordinary combat! In point of fact, but one unwounded man was found by the Americans, on the Frolic's decks. The remainder did what men of all nations will do, under such circumstances - they ran below. The brace fellow who remained was at the wheel, and Mr. Cooper mentions his firmness with commendation. the officers were found at their posts, as became them, but the seamen took shelter, as they had a right to do, when resistance was useless. There can be no manner of doubt that Captain Whinyates meant to say that not 20 of all on board were unhurt, and he was near the truth, for the Frolic lost from 90 to 100 men, probably somewhere between the two. Mr. James gives the world a specimen of private malignancy, in connexion with his account of this battle. While practising in his profession, it is understood that he had a misunderstanding with one of the Biddle family, which grew out of a the fate of a horse that paid the tribute of nature under his treatment. The feelings which this affair produced manifest themselves in the Naval Occurrences! he says, "Mr. Biddle's family" (Commodore Biddle is meant) "resides in Philadelphia, with-in a door of two of Mr. Clark's publisher; who therefore could do no less than insert his neighbor's account of the action. But, in justice to a gallant young man, it is but fair to state, that Lieutenant Rodgers, of the Wasp, was the first American office on board the Frolic." - p. 146. Now, in the first place, there is not the slightest evidence that Mr. Biddle, on his father, or any one of his name, had the least connexion with Mr. Clark's account, which Mr. James quotes ; and then it is a matter of history, that, when some discussion took place in the journals of the day, concerning the first officer on board, Mr. Rodgers himself, under his own name, frankly admitted it was Mr. Biddle. We can say, in addition, that we had this declaration ourselves, from Mr. Rodger's own mouth. The late George Rodgers was a brave fellow, and of an excellent heart, and he behaved well in the battle, but to use his own words, "Mr. Biddle had the chance, and he profited by it." A pretty historian this! 416 Edinburgh Review on James's Naval Occurrences, [May, 1842.] We will next turn to Mr. James's statements concerning the battle of lake Erie. These commence at p. 283, and are continued to p. 297. The documents connected with this part of the subject are to be found between p. lxxxii. and p. xcix., Appendix. At p. 284, we find the following table of the British force on the lake, in May, 1813 ; or, at a time when the Americans had not a single cruiser in those waters, viz :- Complements. Vessels. Guns. Canadians. Soldiers. Total. Tons. Queen Charlotte, sch. - - 16 40 70 110 280 Lady Prevost, sch. - - 12 30 46 76 120 Gen. Hunter, brig, 10 20 19 39 74 Erie, sch. - - - - 3 6 9 15 55 Little Belt, sloop, - - 3 6 9 15 54 Chippewa, sch. - - - 1 6 7 13 32 Total, - - 45 108 160 268 615 It is by documents like this, filled with a pretending particularity, that Mr. James endeavors to gain credit. Not a word does he say concerning his authorities, but who can dispute the veracity of a writer that knows the tonnage of the Little belt to have been exactly 54 tons, while that of the Erie was one ton more? In order to see how writers can differ, we shall give the following comparative view of this tonnage, placing Mr. James's statement alongside of that of certain appraisers, employed by the American government to ascertain the dimensions of these very vessels, when it became necessary to value them as prizes, viz. :- Mr. James's Tonnnage. Appraisers' Tonnage. Queen Charlotte, - - - 280 - - - about 400 Lady Prevost, - - - 120 - - - - 230 Gen. Hunter, - - - - 74 - - - - 180 Little Belt, - - - - 54 - - - near 100 Chippewa - - - - 32 - - - " 100 It was not to refute Mr. James by means of any appraisers, however, that we have given the foregoing table ; but to refute him by means of himself. In order to do this, a few explanations become necessary. All the vessels mentioned in Mr. James's table, as having been in service on Lake Erie in May, 1813, were in the battle of 10th September, but the Erie. Deducting the 15 men given as the complement of this schooner, the total of the five other crews would be as follows, viz :- Total of the six vessels - - - - - - 268 Deduct Erie's crew - - - - - - - 15 ____ Remainder - - - - - - - - 253 1842.] and Cooper's Naval History 417 According to Mr. James himself, then, the five vessels of the six he names in his table, that were in the battle, had crews of 253 men, in May ; or, at a moment when the Americans had not a vessel on the lake. Luckily, Mr. James also furnishes the proof - if proof of such a fact could be wanting - that these crews were increased in preparation for serious service. In his Appendix, p. xcvi., he gives us an extract from the minutes of the court which sat on the surviving officers after the battle of the 10th September. In these minutes, Lieut. Stokoe, of the Queen Charlotte, says, - " We had on board (the Queen Charlotte) between 120 and 130 men, officers and altogether." The mean of 120 and 130 is 125, and we have a right to take this number as that of the crew of the vessel in question, during the battle. This is an increase which, applied to the other four vessels, will give us the following proposition, viz. :- As 110, the Charlotte's crew in May, are to 253, the complement of the five vessels; so are 125, the Charlotte's crew in September, to the answer-or 110 : 253 : : 125 : 287 55/110 This, too, is on the supposition that the crews of the smaller vessels were only increased in the same ratio as that of the Queen Charlotte ; whereas it is scarcely possible any craft would be deliberately taken into such a fight with only 18 or 20. It is probable the crews of the smaller vessels were at least doubled for the occasion ; but, as our object is to discredit Mr. James by means of his own book, we will let the proposition stand as it is. It follows, then, that the five vessels mentioned in Mr. James's table, as having 253 men in May, must have had at least 287 in the battle. But there was a sixth vessel, the Detroit, much larger and heavier than the Queen Charlotte, put into the water between May and September, which was the commanding ship in the engagement, and which, out of all doubt, had a considerably stronger crew than the Queen Charlotte. She is stated to have been of about 500 tons, and her armament consisted of long guns, 24s, 18s, 12s, and 9s. If the Charlotte had 125 men in the battle, it is not at all probable that the Detroit had less than 150. Add this number to the 287 substantially shown by Mr. James's own statements to have been in the other five vessels, and we get 437 for the total of all crews. This is known to be some 20 or 20 men short of the killed, wounded, and prisoners found in the vessels, but we are now reasoning on Mr. James's own premises. Nevertheless, directly in the face of these truths, which ought to have struck every man who set about a serious inquiry as to the Vol. X., No. XLVII.-53 418 Edinburgh Review on James's Naval Ocurrences, [May, facts, this writer coolly says, p. 289, in speaking of the battle , "The complements of the six British vessels consisted of 50 seamen (including officers and boys), 85 Canadians of all sorts and sizes, and 210 soldiers of the Newfoundland and 41st regiments; total 345." Now, we will make two or three propositions in order to prove the value of this statement, which, it will be remembered, is produced with the same unhesitating partiularity as most of his other details; these details giving his work its exceeding value in English eyes. Queen Charlotte, as proved on oath - - - - 125 Lady Prevost, as stated in May - - - - - - - - 76 Hunter, do. do. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 49 Little Belt do. do. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 15 Chippewa do.do. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 13 --- 278 By deducting this number from number from 345, Mr. James's total, we get the following as the result, viz. :- 345 278 --- 67 men as the complement of the Detroit! Giving to the other vessels only the same rate of increase, in preparations for the battle, as is shown to have been given to the Charlotte, and we get the following, viz.:- 345 287 --- 58 as the complement of the Detroit, a much heavier ship in ton- nage and armament, had only the same number of men as the Charlotte , we get the following, viz. :- Detroit - - - - - - 125 men. Charlotte - - - - 125 proved on oath. Prevost - - - - - 76 as shown in May, Hunter - - - - - - 19 - 30 less than in May. Belt - - - - - - - - 00 Chippewa - - - - 00 --- 345 Mr. James's total. Once more: assuming that the Detroit had her fair proportion of men - which is probable, as Vapt. Barclay was in her, and she was his main reliance, theere being no scarcity of soldiers and Cana- dians certainly, to meet all his wants - and we get the following result, viz. :- 1842] and Cooper´s Naval History. 419 Detroit - - - - - - 150, probable. Charlotte - - - - - 125, proved. Prevost - - - - - - 70, 6 less than in May. Hunter - - - - - - 00 Belt - - - - - - - - 00 Chippewa - - - - 00 --- 345 Mr. James's total. After this, who can pretend that Mr. James's boasted details are anything more than impudent assertions, unsustained by evi- dence, and opposed to reason ? We are satisfied, after a minute examination of all the evidence, that this writer has diminished the total of the British crews in the battle of Lake Erie by about one-third ; but our aim has been to convict him "out of his own mouth." We will now turn to the battle of Plattsburg Bay. Mr. James's history of the movements on Lake Champlain com- mences at p. 401. Like all his statements, those connected with this part of the war are dinstinguished for hardihood of assertion and minuteness of details; the two combined forming his au- thority. Let us look a little into their value. Like all vulgar-minded men, Mr. James is most bitter against those who have gained most honor in the conflicts with his coun- try. The victory of Plattsburg Bay is oen of those which reflect the greatest honor on the American name, and our author betrays his bitterness in a very just proportion to the credit of the of the affair. He is particularly abusive of Capt. M'Donough, against, against whom he brings some charges of the grossest character, one of which in- cludes a direct imputation on that modest and upright officer's veracity. Passing over, in this, as in all the cases we introduce, a great deal of erroneous statement and crude reasoning, we will come at once to points that admit of the historian's being ex- posed without much circumlocution , or any means for cavilling. First, then, as to the force of the Confiance, the enemy' prin- cipal vessel. Mr. James gives it as follows, viz. : "The Confiance mounted 26 long 24s upon the main or flush deck ; also two car- ronades, 32-pounders, out of the bridle or bow ports, and the same out of the stern-ports. Upon the poop were mounted four car- ronades, 24-pounders; and upon the top-gallant forecastle two carronades, 24-pounders, together with a long 24-pounder upon a traversing carriage. But, in consequence of there being only a ridge-rope, or rail, round either the poop of the top-gallant fore- castle, the guns there stationed were disabled after the first dis- charge. They will, however, be estimated as pasrt of the ship's force; but not the carronades out of the bridle and stern ports, because they could not be used in broadside. Therefore al- 420 Edinburgh Review on James's Naval Occurences, [May, 1842] though the Confiance mounted, altogether, 37 guns, she fought 17 only upon the broadside." -- pp. 413, 414. Mr. Cooper makes the number of the Confiance's guns the same as Mr. James, with this important difference, however, that he makes all the main-deck guns long 24s, and all available in broadside. The first objection to Mr. James's account is in his reasoning. Had the Confiance a gun in the bridle-port, as stated, it might have been worked, since the Eagle lay on her larboard bow, and precisely in such a situation as would have rendered this gun, of all the Confiance's armament below, the most useful against that particular antagonist. The same would probably have been equally true as to a gun in a stern-port, the American line extending so far south as to permit a short gun in that situation to be trained on it. In a combat between single ships Mr. James's reasoning might apply ; but in a combat between 13 or 14 vessels of a side, it would not. But Mr. James's facts are even more faulty than his reasoning. He gives no authority for his statements whatever, satisfying himself with saying that the Confiance mounted only 13 long 24s, in broadside, on her main-deck, when, in truth, she mounted 15. We happen to have at our command two letters from competent witnesses on this subject, that we are permitted to publish. They are both addressed to Mr. Cooper, and have been written under the following circumstances: In 1817, the present Commodore Read, then a master commandant, went to Lake Erie to sit on a court-martial. After discharging his duty at Erie, this officer returned tot he coast by Montreal and Champlain, visiting the ships on both lakes. In New York he met Mr. Cooper, who had a conversation with him concerning the force of the respective squadrons, in the two battles of which we have been treating. Mr. Cooper got his first impressions of the great odds against which M'Donough contended from this interview, and recalling the circumstance, he, quite recently, addressed his old friend Commodore Read on the subject, and received the following answer, with liberty to publish it, if he saw proper, viz.: -- "Philadelphia, March 17, 1842. "My Dear Sir: I very well recollect meeting you in New York in 1817, on my return from the lakes, and of conversing with you about the vessels on Lake Champlain, in particular. I was then of opinion, and am still, that the English were greatly superior to the Americans in the battle of Plattsburg Bay, and that the Confiance, a ship which I examined very closely, was sufficient of herself, under ordinary circumstances, to have taken two or three such vessels as the Saratoga. The two ships lay alongside of each other at the time I saw them, and the English vessel was so obviously superior in tonnage and force, as to leave [May, 1842] and Cooper's Naval History. 421 little doubt on my mind of her ability, I might almost say, to defeat the whole of M'Donough's squadron. "I feel quite certain the Confiance was pierced for 15 guns of a side, on her main-deck, and I understand these guns were long 24s. Her armament was not in her, at the time of my visit, but some three or four guns that remained were of this weight. I do not think the Confiance had any proper bridle ports at all, though she may not have had the usual space between the forward gun and the eyes of the ship. I am, dear sir, Very respectfully yours, (Signed) Geo. C. Read. "J. Fenimore Cooper, Esquire." Here is an intelligent and careful officer giving his testimony, after a personal inspection, that the Confiance was pierced for 30 guns on her main-deck, or 15 in broadside ; whereas Mr. James asserts she was pierced for only 26, or 13 in broadside. But Mr. Cooper addressed another letter to Capt. Lavallette, on the same subject. This gentleman, then known as Lieut. Vallette, took possession of the Confiance when she surrendered, and remained in charge of her two months, or until she was laid up. Mr. Vallette commanded the ship six or eight times longer than any other man, while she had all her armament in her, and is the best witness the case allows.We are permitted to publish an extract or two from his letter to Mr. Cooper, also. They are in the following words, viz.:-- "Barnum's Hotel, Baltimore, March 18, 1842. "My Dear Sir: I am in the receipt of your letter of the 7th, which followed me round about, and found me here, sitting as a member of a general court-martial, and which may account for the delay in answering. In reply, I unhesitatingly allow you to make use of my name as authority for the following facts, in relation to the Confiance, captured during the late war, on Lake Champlain, and her opponent, the Saratoga." "Armament, in guns and metal, of Confiance: Main-deck, 30 twenty-four pound long guns. (Signed) E. A. F. Lavallette." We shall presently have occasion to quote farther from this letter. Now, here is unexceptionable proof opposed to Mr. James's assertion ; Mr. James, who never could have seen the vessel. The two officers quoted are men of high character, and every way competent to speak of what they saw and knew. So accurate have been the recollections of Com. Read and Mr. Cooper as to what passed between them, that the latter first stated to a friend what had been said, and then calling on Com. Read for his recollections, that officer repeated almost in the same language all that had passed nearly twenty-five years before. Mr. James adds: "Com. M'Donough, in a second official letter, says -- 'The Saratoga was twice set on fire by hot shot fired from the enemy's ship.' The latter part of this assertions is As 422 Edinburgh Review on James's Naval Occurrences, and Cooper's Naval History. [May, 1842] GROSS A FALSEHOOD AS EVER WAS UTTERED ; and, FROM THE NOTORIOUS FACT that neither the Confiance, nor any of the British vessels, had a furnace on board, THE WRITER MUST (shame to say!) HAVE KNOWN IT TO BE A FALSEHOOD." -- p. 415. This is a case of incorrectness united to indecency. When a gentleman is certain of his fact, he is usually guarded in his expressions of disbelief in others. But here is, substantially, the lie direct given to Capt. M'Donough, under circumstances which leave every reason to suppose that Mr. James proceeded on mere rumor. One would think the Edinburgh must have seen these truths, and that it would have felt shame at quoting authority so evidently intemperate as to excite distrust as to motives. Then the reasoning is as weak, as the statement itself is untrue. To add to the absurdity of the whole, Mr. James goes on to say: "Lieutenant (now Captain) Robertson, of the Confiance, has declared, that the Saratoga certainly received some hot shot in the action, but that it must have been from the American batteries -- much more likely places to find furnaces for heating shot, than on board the just launched, half-equipped Confiance." -- p. 415. We propose to examine these extracts, which form a continued paragraph in the "Occurrences," as to their reasoning and truth ; and this with the double view of defending the high-minded and regretted M'Donough from a foul aspersion, and of exposing to the world the sort of logic that the Edinburgh deigns to deem authority in matters affecting national renown. We will commence with the latter duty. "And from the NOTORIOUS FACT, that neither the Confiance, nor any of the British vessels, had a furnace on board," says Mr. James, "the writer must (shame to say) have known it to be a falsehood." Now, at the first glance, a fact like this mentioned by Mr. James could never be notorious. The knowledge would have been negative, in effect ; and who will say that a negative which can only be known by minute examination, and which might be converted into an affirmative fact, at any moment, by five minutes' work, could, in the nature of things, become notorious? The British had 15 or 16 sail of vessels, any one of which could have carried a furnace ; they were employed until the day preceding the battle (probably until late at night) taking in stores ; and what single individual even, except he who actually inspected each vessel after all communication with the shore had ceased, could take upon himself to say there was not a furnace in the squadron? Much less could this negative fact be notorious. Even the affirmative fact of the presence of a furnace could not be notorious, unless by open practice before all eyes ; while the Edinburgh Review on James's Naval Occurrences, and Cooper's Naval History. [May, 1842] 423 notoriety of the negative fact is very near a moral impossibility. Then comes the puerility of the argument, that a furnace could not be on board the "just launched, half-equipped Confiance." A travelling furnace, or a ship's furnace, could be hoisted upon the deck of a vessel like the Confiance in two minutes, by the watch, if not in less time. Mr. James admits there were 39 heavy guns on board this ship, and several furnaces could have been struck on the ship's deck while one heavy gun was going through the same process. Sir George Prevost's army, an invading and besieging force, could not have been without furnaces. But Capt. M'Donough says nothing of any furnace ; he merely says his ship was twice set on fire by hot shot, thrown from the Confiance. Shot, two shot especially, might have been heated in the galley fire, quite as easily as the leg of an andiron is thus heated in a common parlor fire. Then there is always the armorer's forge in a vessel of war, which will heat shot, like a blacksmith's forge. What adds to the absurdity of Mr. James's argument is, his own admission of the fact that the Saratoga was certainly set on fire by hot shot, but that he thinks these shot must have come from the American batteries. If true, it follows that the American ships, instead of being assisted by their own batteries, as was the original English excuse for the defeat, were set on fire by them! No English vessel was thus set on fire, and it would follow that the American batteries aided the enemy. But no American battery had anything to do with the action, or could have anything to do with the battle, with the exception of a small one-gun battery on Crab Island, that was suddenly manned by the seamen of the hospital, and which fired a shot or two into the Finch, when that vessel touched on the shoal, and compelled her to surrender. Capt. Print, in his official account of his own defeat, would scarcely have omitted so material a circumstance, had his opponents been aided by any batteries. He says not a word about them. But Mr. James himself subsequently admits that the American batteries did not fire! saying -- "Although the American batteries on shore, it is believe, did not fire, except at the Finch, (and yet, whence came the hot shot that struck the Saratoga?) they could completely cover the American gun-boats, in case any attempt had been made to carry them by boarding," &c.--p.423. This contradictory jumble passes for history with the Edinburgh! The assertion that batteries nearly two miles distant could have prevented the English boats from boarding the American, had the former venture on the experiment, is tantamount to saying that American gunnery is so exquisite as to single 424 Edinburgh Review on James's Naval Occurrences, [May, out an enemy from a friend in the mêlée and smoke of a battle, when guns must be greatly elevated to reach at all. The case now stands thus: Mr. James charges Capt. M'Donough with wilful falsehood in saying that his own ship was twice set on fire by hot shot from the vessel he engaged, when Mr. James allows that the ship in question was certainly set on fire by hot shot, though he confesses the American batteries could not have done it, and allows he cannot tell whence the missiles came. He plumply denies that they came from the British vessels, while he owns he cannot see that they came from any American source. It would be reasonable to suppose that such an injury came from an enemy, were that enemy less sublimated in his notions of honor than Mr. James affects to think his countrymen ; for he evidently takes the favorite English ground that it is dishonorable to fire red-hot shot from a ship, lest, forsooth, the enemy should be blown up! The solution of all this is very simple. England, having obtained an admitted superiority over other nations in ordinary nautical warfare, was deadly opposed to the introduction of any inventions—such as torpedoes, hot shot, or bombs—that might equalize chances and overcome that superiority ; and hence her writers long since set out moralizing on the infamy of blowing up a man afloat, while as many as you please may be blown up on shore : witness the Paixhan guns and Congreve rockets. It is a disciple of this subtle school of casuists that Mr. James so indignantly repels the charge that the Confiance used hot shot at Plattsburg Bay. We will now set the matter at rest by positive evidence. Capt. Lavallette, in his letter to Mr. Cooper, goes on to say -- "There were several hot shot truck the Saratoga, one of which set fire to the spanker, several feet above the deck. Another burnt the bulwark, and exploded the contents of a salt box, in passing through. Several explosions occurred in different parts of the ship, supposed to have been caused by hot shot. I remember to have reported to Com. M'Donough that there were a number of hot shot found on board the Confiance, immediately after the action; but I have forgotten what was the manner of heating them -- whether by a furnace expressly for the purpose, or whether by the ship's forge, or in what manner. Twenty-eight years have obliterated from my memory almost everything, except some of the most prominent points relative to the ships or action." This, we trust, will dispose of the matter. The shot that came through the bulwarks could not be mistaken, for its direction must have been known, and the shot found in the Confiance are unequivocal testimony. Even Mr. James helps us to convict himself. He not only admits the existence of the hot shot, and the injury they did the Saratoga, but in his list of the Confiance's crew he enumerates three Royal Artillerists, who, we persume, were put on board expressly to manage these very hot shot! We trust our objects is understood. It is simply to show the real value of Mr. James as an authority; since, by destroying him in that light, we necessarily destroy all that depends on him. In furtherance of his intention, we come next to the sie of the vessels in this very action, deeming it most expedient to adhere to the same events, for the purposes of clearness and connexion. It has been proven that the Confiance was pierced on her maindeck for 15 guns of a side, instead of 13, as asserted by Mr. James. This would make a material difference in dimensions, as each gun required room, But Mr. James has one of his admired tables of particulars for this ship, which he produces with his accustomed confidence, though he neglects to tell us whence it is obtained. We copy it: -- Gun deck. Actual keel. Extreme breadth. Draught of water. Tons. 146ft. 3in. 138ft. 36ft. 1in. 7ft. 10in. 831. (p. 420.) It must, indeed, be a bold man who dare contradict all these inches and half-inches! We shall, notwithstanding, assume the risk. The way to calculate the tonnage, (English tonnage is meant by Mr. James,) is to multiply 138, the actual keel, or "straight rabbit," by 36ft. 1 1/2in. or "breadth of beam," or "depth of hold," and then divide the last product by 94, which will give the tonnage. We have done this twice, rejecting the inches, and make the result a little more than 913 tons, instead of 831, as given by Mr. James. This is an essential mistake to start with. We will now probe a little deeper. Mr. James gives us the dimensions of the Endymion, a ship pierced for 13 long 24s of a side, and he makes her gun-deck 159ft. 3 5/8in., p. 451. The space between the guns is always somewhat regulated by the size of the guns. The guns of the Endymion and the Confiance were of the same weight; and as all these matters are generally subject to certain rules, is it probable that in the same service, a ship with 15 long 24s of a side, would be 13ft. 5 3/8in. shorter than one of 13 similar guns of a side? We think not. The Confiance and the American frigate Constitution had the same gun-deck armaments, and Mr. James makes the length of the Constitution's gun-dec 173ft. 3in. It is probable the Confiance had neither the length nor breadth of the Constitution, for the lake service did not require this of her, but she could not have been very much shorter. If the British observed the VOL. X., NO. XLVII, --- 54 426 Edinburgh Review on Jame's Naval Occurrences, [May, proportions of the Endymion in another 24-pounder ship the result would be as follows: viz.--13: 159: : 15: 183. But as the Endymion was a vessel of altogether peculiar construction, this is not probable. Mr. James quotes an extract from a Burlington, Vt. journal, of the day, which puts the gun-deck length of the Confiance at 460 feet. he admits that the 4 is probably a misprint. But make this length 160 feet, as was doubtless intended, and we get something, under all the circumstances, very like a reasonable length for the armament. The same account gives the ship 40 feet beam, which is also probable. Taking Mr. James's difference between the length of the gun-deck, and that of the "straight rabbit," at 8 feet, which is sufficient for a vessel with 8 feet draught of water, and we can come pretty near the truth. Here is our calculation:-- Straight rabbit, 94(120,000(1276596/4 English tonnage. say only 150 feet, allowing fractions. 94 40 breadth of beam. --- ---- 260 6000 188 20 depth of hold. ---- ---- 720 120,000 658 ---- 620 564 ---- 56 We had made this calculation, on the evidence we had, before Capt. Lavallette's letter was put into our hands. That gentleman says--"I believe the tonnage of the Confiance was 1120, and that of the Saratoga 630." This is American tonnage, which would make a small difference, raising the Confiance to 1200 tons, and the Saratoga to about 675--or thereabouts. it would follow from all this, that Mr. James has diminished the size of the Confiance by nearly one-third, and increased that of the Saratoga, which he puts at 800 tons, by more than one-seventh. We shall have occasion to touch on this battle again, when we come to deal directly with the Ediburgh. Let us now turn to the action between the Constitution and the Guerriere, the first serious engagement of the war. Mr. James opens his narrative of that affair in the following pathetic language:-- "Thus situated were the navies of the two countries, when His Majesty's ship Guerriere, with damaged masts, a reduced complement, and in absolute need of that thorough refit for which she was then, after a very long cruise, speeding to Halifax, encountered the U.S. ship Constitution, seventeen days only from 1842.] and Cooper's Naval History. 427 port, manned with a full complement, and in all respects fitted for war."==p. 97. The logic of this paragraph reverses the common sense mode of reasoning. A man of war seventeen days out, is assumed to be in a better fighting condition than one that has been cruising a twelvemonth. As well might it be pretended that a regiment of recruits is in better order than one that has had six months of severe drill. In point of fact, the Constitution received on board her crew (the last draft of about 100 men reaching her only on the 11th July, or the evening before she sailed from Annapolis) between the 1st and 12th July, and she took the Guerriere on the 19th August. As for the very long cruise of the latter ship, it is pure fiction. She was on the American station, and had been cruising for more than a year between Halifax and Bermuda, rendering it improbable she could seriously want for any thing. It is believed that all Com. Broke's squadron came out of Halifax together, after the arrival of the Belvidera, or about the close of June. The Guerriere, however, may have been met at sea, but she could not be in want of anything very material, because her ports were always at hand, she had quite lately been in squadron, and her prizes might have supplied her. As to the masts, Capt. Dacres, in his defence, says, "The main- mast fell without being struck by a single shot--the heart of the mast being decayed, and it was carried away solely with the weight of the fore-mast." This leaves us to infer that the two other masts were sound. But Capt. Dacres himself says, "The loss of the ship is to be ascribed to the early fall of the mizen- mast," a spar that was sound. Not a shot was fired by the Constitution after the Guerriere's fore and main-mast fell, and even Mr. James says, "The Guerriere was greatly shattered in her hull' so much so, that, in spite of all the efforts of the Americans, she, at day-light on the morning succeeding the action, was in a sinking condition."==p. 102. "The Guerrier's loss in the action was severe."--p. 102. Captain Dacres says, in his defence,--"She was so completely shattered that the enemy found it impossible to refit her," &c. "The Guerriere was so cut up, that all attempts to get her in would have been useless." The loss of the Constitution "was trifling." Now all this damage was done before the rotten mast fell, and consequently was quite independent of that defect; and yet we heard of nothing but rotten masts for six months after the battle. The facts are, the Guerriere was overmatched in force, and the Constitution, in addition, was the better fought vessel. An intelligent historian would have seen all this, and a manly writer would have said, it without entering into 428 Edinburgh Review on James's Naval Occurrences, [May, 1842.] and Cooper's Naval History. silly apologies about "very long cruises," and deficiencies that had no connexion with the result. It is in our power to explain one of the charges which Mr. James, less than usual in his random, ill-bred manner, brings against Capt. Hull. He deems it odd that this officer, in his published official report, does not mention the force of the Guerriere. The fact is undeniably so; and a certain sous-entendu about that letter had struck us as singular, and requiring explanation. In the indulgence of certain naval propensities, however, we have reached the solution of the difficulty. Capt. Hull wrote a full report of his battle, in the usual way, and sent it off, on reaching port; but, fearful of having said too much, he wrote a second, which went by the next mail, conveying a request in its envelope, that if either was to be published it might be the last; or, to use something very like his own language, "the less that was said about a good thing, the better." With so little art, however, was the second letter prepared, that is assumed the reader knew facts related in the first. Both letters are on file in the Department, and it might be well to publish the first, as an historical curiosity. It is a plain, good letter of which Capt. Hull has no reason to be ashamed. But Mr. James does not confine his charges against Captain Hull to the vagueness of the letter that was published, finding in it other grounds of accusation. He complains that Capital Hull should call the Guerriere a "fine ship," when he insists on it that the Constitution was a much finer. "By a fine ship is meant," he says, p. 113, "a ship possessing some extraordinary qualifications, either of size, force, or both. 'Fine,' is not an absolute, but a relative term. How then are we to judge of the officer, who, sitting in the cabin of, truly, so fine a ship as the Constitution, writes home to his government, that, with that ship under his command, he has captured 'so fine a ship as the Guerriere?'" In the first place, Mr. James does not quote Captain Hull fairly. The words of the officer are--"After informing you that so fine a ship as the Guerriere, commanded by an able and experienced officer, had been totally dismasted, and otherwise cut to pieces, so as not to maker her worth towing into port, in the short space of thirty minutes, you can have no doubt of the gallantry," &c. &c. This is a very different thing from dwelling on the abstract qualities of the vessel. It was the time and the manner in which the work was done, that are cause for just exultation in that battle, no nautical man doubting the Constitution's superiority of force. Then again, fine is a positive and not a relative term. "Finer" is relative, but "fine" is an abstract term, in its common 429 meaning at least, nor has it anything to do with force or size. A ship might be as large as the Pennsylvania, and anything but a fine ship. Our veterinary surgeon has been accustomed to hear large horses, like large women, called fine horses, as we say a fine woman, and has supposed the rule applies to ships. A fine ship is a good ship of her class and force, let these be what they may. Mr. James never hesitates about a fact. Particularity is his force, and he evidently fancies if he can appear to tell how many boys there are in a vessel, or how many inches or half-inches in her beam, the minuteness of his information must silence all objections. Perhaps the literature of the world does not contain a parallel instance of such pretending ignorance, to call it by a mild term, as this very book. Nor does the author seem to think it at all necessary to mention his own authorities, but he gives all the details of a foreign service, concerning which his proofs must be at least doubtful, with just the same confidence as he gives those of his own. Speaking of the force of the Chesapeake, in her encounter with the Leopard, he says: "The Chesapeake mounted, at this time, 28 long 18-pounders upon the main-deck, 14 carronades, 32-pounders (leaving a vacant port on each side) upon the quarter-deck; two carronades, 32-pounders, and two long 12-pounders (leaving three vacant ports on each side) upon the forecastle; total, 46 guns. This was her peace establishment. Her books bore the names of 440; but, among those, were 25 runnings and discharges: consequently, her actual complement consisted of 415; including 10 boys or lads."--pp. 70, 71. Now, all this confident detail is well calculated to impose on the ignorant. Mr. James, by this account, makes the Chesapeake pierced for 54 guns, although he places no armament in the waist. It is probable no ship that was pierced for only 28 guns below, ever was pierced for more than 22 on her quarter-deck and forecastle, viz.: 14 aft, and 8 forward. Mr. Cooper, with better means to get the truth than Mr. James, says that the Chesapeake mounted but 40 guns, in her encounter with the Leopard. We fortunately possess the evidence necessary to verify this statement. The court-martial that tried Commodore Barron, sat on board the Chesapeake. On that occasion, as a matter of form, it was thought necessary to ascertain the ship's force, by a question put to a single witness, who happened to be the present Commodore Crane, the first person examined. The answer was, "She carries 40 guns; 28 18-pounders, and 12 32-pound carronades." Captain Gordon was asked the number of the crew, and he said, "I refer you to the quarter-bill. I believe, about 375, however." Now, 430 Edinburgh Review on James's Naval Occurrences, [May, Mr. Crane made his statement in the ship itself, where any one might have stepped out of the cabin, and ascertained the truth with his own eyes, in a few minutes. Captain Gordon's statement, also, was in conformity with the practice of the navy, this being about the usual complement for ships of that size. The reader will understand we are not searching for misstatements of Mr. James, merely; these occur literally on nearly every page; but our aim is to point out such errors as will admit of the clearest refutation, at the least labor to ourselves. We shall next advert to a flagrant misrepresentation of the writer, in connexion with Commodore Chauncey, an officer who has perhaps had less justice done to his services than almost any other in the American marine. As this brave man is now dead, we feel a melancholy pleasure in relieving his memory from an elaborate bit of what may almost be called calumny, that Mr. James has heaped upon it. We undertake the office the more readily, because the Edinburgh Review appears to consider Mr. James, on this, as on other occasions, authority of the highest character. At the opening of the navigation on Lake Ontario, in 1814, the British had obtained a superiority of force, by building during the winter. They had got into the water two heavy frigates, the Prince Regent 58, and Princess Charlotte 42, and it became necessary for the Americans to remain in port, until they could get the Superior 62, and Mohawk 42, ready to meet them. During this interval Sir James Yeo appeared off Sackett's Harbor, blockading the port. Mr. James endeavors to show, by means of his usual circumstantiality, that Commodore Chauncey was blockaded at a time when he was materially superior to his enemy in force. His erroneous and vaporing account of the matter will be found spread over pp. 394, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 400, and 401. "Admitting it was prudent," he says, p. 399, "not to be provoked by Sir James's cannon at Oswego, (where he had one vessel short of the number comprised in the statement,) what reasonable excuse had Commodore Chauncey for submitting to the indignity of being blockaded; and that, too, by an officer whom he had boasted of having so often 'chased round the lake?' He says, further, p. 395, that Sir James blockaded Sackett's Harbor "till the early part of July;" having previously put into the water, by the Americans, all the vessels that were necessary to give them a superiority of force. There is not in the whole of the "Occurrences," a grosser instance of ignorant recklessness, or of deliberate misstatement, than all that is said on this subject. Not satisfied with enumerating vessels on the American side that had been converted into transports, or laid up as unfit for service, in his tables of comparative 1842.] and Cooper's Naval History. 431 force, Mr. James actually includes the Superior, the largest ship, at a time when she had no guns, and the Mohawk even before she was launched! This is easily proved by the dates. Sir James Yeo appeared off Sackett's Harbor on the 19th May. His Object was to intercept the stores of the Americans which were to be sent from Oswego, by water. The Superior had been launched only on the 2d; Mr. James himself putting it at the 1st. The Mohawk was laid down on the Superior's ways, and of course had been but 17 days on the stocks when Sir James's appeared. On the 30th the enemy chased Captain Woolsey into Sandy Creek, and made an attack on him, with a view to destroy the stores he had in charge. These stores consisted of 21 long 32s, all for the Superior; 10 ditto, ditto, 24s, for the Mohawk; 3 42lb. car., and 10 cables; principally for the two frigates. In the attack, the enemy was defeated and captured. Still, Sir James blockaded the port, and it was necessary to send the guns and cables to the Harbor by land. This was done in the course of the next few days, one frigate's cable having been carried the distance of eight miles on men's shoulders. Finding that he had no longer an object in remaining, Sir James raised the blockage on the 6th June, as is to be seen by the official reports in the office, and the journals of the day, and never re-appeared. Instead of blockading Commodore Chauncey one hour after that officer was ready to go out, he went off himself, and set about building the St. Lawrence, 100, before the Superior had all her armament, and five days before the Mohawk was even launched! Nor is this all. So great were the efforts of the Americans together out and meet the English, that the keel of the Mohawk was laid on the 2d May, and she was launched on the 11th June. After she was launched, Commodore Chauncey reported his squadron 500 men short of its complements; nor was the Mohawk ready, in the way of equipment, to go out, until the 25th of July, or forty-nine days after Sir James had raised the blockade! Thus, by enumerating the guns, tonnage, metal, and people of vessels that had been laid aside, as well as of vessels that were not armed, or manned, and of one that was not even in the water, and by extending his blockade a month after it was actually raised, Mr. James has succeeded in making one of the prettiest pages in English history, all illustrated and proved by tables, in which the arithmetic is unimpeachable! The best evidence of the state of Commodore Chauncey's squadron, in the early part of June, is to be found in the fact, that, with every inducement to take the lake, it could not get out 432 Edinburgh Review on James's Naval Occurrences, [May, until the 31st July, or fifty-four days after Sir James Yeo had disappeared. The English were immediately driven into port, and Commodore Chauncey, finding that his principal antagonist was in Kingston, with four of his heaviest vessels, and two or three lighter craft, went off that port, landed a few guns to bring the ships as near as possible to an equality, and maintained a close blockade for six weeks. As strict orders were given to the remaining American vessels to attend to other duty, the two squadrons in and before Kingston, with the occasional exception of a few hours, when American cruisers joined with reports, were composed of the following vessels: Americans. English. Superior, - 58--4 guns landed. Prince Regent, - 58 Mohawk, - 42 Princess Charlotte, 42 Pike, - - 28 Wolfe, - - - - 25 Madison, - 24 Niagara, - - - 24 _____ _____ 152 149 It is probable the Americans were still slightly superior, but the difference was so immaterial as to leave no doubt of Commodore Chauncey's disposition to fight. We believe he had an enemy worthy of him, but, the fate of a province depending on his movements, Sir James Yeo was compelled to act with caution. The sort of stuff that Mr. James frequently introduces in his blind charges against the American officers, sometimes approaches fatuity. We will now give a specimen of this nearly idiotic folly. He say:---"Commodore Decatur's assertion, 'that the Macedonian was at no time within the complete effect of his musketry and grape.' is untrue: for, long before the battle terminated, Mr. O'Brien, the Macedonian's surgeon, extracted from the right arm-pit of a midshipman an iron shot, weighing twelve ounces, which was either a canister or 'grape,' beyond dispute."--p.155. This is as characteristic a paragraph as the "Occurrences" contain, and might very fairly be cited as a specimen of the whole book. The particularity is intended to set cavilling at defiance, and the logic is to be swallowed whole. "Mr. O'Brien," the right arm-pit," and the "twelve ounces," leave nothing to be desired. Had it been the left arm-pit, one might have edged in an objection, but here we get the statement right end foremost. Now, to our plain faculties, these very circumstances, so far as they prove any thing, prove that Commodore Decatur's statement was true, instead of "untrue." When a grape-shot that weighs twelve ounces, lodges in the arm-pit of man or boy, it furnishes tolerably satisfactory evidence that it had ranged the better part of a mile 1842.] and Cooper's Naval History. 433 before it struck. Had it been discharged within "complete effect" of the missile, Mr. O'Brien would have been spared the trouble of the operation, for the missile would not have failed to extract itself. Mr. James has another passage in reference to this same engagement, that is worthy of notice. His forte, it will always be remembered, is detail; accuracy being but a very secondary consideration. In one of his usual accounts of the force of the two vessels, he says:--"It is probable, owing to the Commodore's (Decatur) complaint that he could not reach the Macedonian with his carronades, that one of the forecastle 24s, instead of the shifting carronade, was fought through the gangway port, and the latter placed upon an elevating carriage, so as to fire over all, in the usual manner, so as to present a broadside of 32 guns," &c.--p.160. A stranger jumble of nonsense and contradiction cannot easily be found. In the first place, the armament is exaggerated to get thirty-one guns in broadside; and then a probability which goes to contradict the statement hazarded about the grape-shot, (for what vessel would not use her carronades when within complete effect of grape?) is taken as authority for transporting a gun from the forecastle to the gangway. Not satisfied with this, after assuming that this gun has been thus transported, because the carronades were useless, this discerning writer coolly sets down all these carronades to the number of 12, according to his account, as part of the 32 guns in broadside: The armament of the United States consisted of 30 guns below, 16 on her quarter-deck, and 8 on her forecastle, or 54 in all. She may have used a shifting gun or not, as circumstances rendered it expedient. Were we to occupy ourselves with the task, it would be easy to collect a mass of contradictions from the "Occurrences," that would probably vex our Scottish contemporary. As one is, at this moment, under our eyes, we will give it, as a specimen of very many like it. Speaking of the Guerriere's crew, after her capture, Mr. James says:--"The Constitution's officers used every art to inveigle the Guerriere's men into their service. Sixteen or eighteen, Americans and other foreigners, and about eight British, who had been pressed in their way out to the United States, (emigrants are meant,) remained at Boston, when the cartel sailed. Most of the former, (that is, of the Americans and other foreigners,) and two of the latter (emigrants) had previously entered on board the Constitution."--p.107. When speaking of the Constitution's crew, after capturing the Java, Mr. James wishes to impress his readers with their excellence, particularly VOL. X. No. XLVII.--55 434 Edinburgh Review on James's Naval Occurrences, [May, as seamen and Englishmen. He says: "Some of the former (the men) had belonged to the Iphigenia, others to the Guerriere; and 40 or 50 were recognized as English." - p. 193. Now, we humbly submit, that we had just as good a right to the service of the "Americans and other foreigners," as King George III., even allowing that we had impressed them, as was probably the fact with the servants of that monarch; and a much better right, on the supposition that they entered into our marine voluntarily and for ample pay. As for the two men who had been "pressed on their way to America," Irish emigrants - haymakers at home, quite likely - we cannot think that the Java owed her defeat to their succor. In speaking of the Chesapeake, Mr. James says, that she was pierced "for the same number of broadside ports as the President; this may account for the Chesapeake's having formerly rated the 44 guns." - p. 246. The Chesapeake, so far from ever having been a 44, was much the smallest vessel of her rate in the American navy, and much the weakest. It is true she was miscalled a 44, for some times, but the error arose from her having been originally intended for a ship of that class; a size she never attained, in consequence of some mistake in her moulds. Another rare specimen of Mr. James's reasoning is to be found in connexion with his account of the proceedings on Lake Erie. After giving the table of the force and crews of the British vessels on that lake in May, in which all the people are set down either as "Canadians" or "soldiers," he goes on to add - "Not a seaman among them ; and, if we except the soldiers and provincial officers, (the latter included among the Canadians) not one on board that could speak English!" - pp. 284, 285. Here is the explanation of this passage. The English had a provincial navy on the lakes, previously to the arrival of the officers of the royal navy; just as they once had provincial vessels in this country, in the old wars. The sailors of these vessels are the men called "Canadians," and many of them were far better than the ordinary run of seamen on the ocean, being free from the enervating vices engendered in large seaports. Some, doubtless, were native Canadians; but many, we known from personal observation, were European seamen, who had found their way up to these waters. Mr. James, it will be seen, enumerates every "Canadian" as a "landsman," - a "peasant;" and not satisfied with this, he assumes that not one of them could speak English. Nay, he goes further: not an officer, even, was a seaman. Here then was the novel spectacle of a force, consisting of a ship, a brig, three schooners, and a sloop, armed with 45 guns, and manned with 1842.] and Cooper's Naval History. 435 268 souls, without a sailor among them! who rigged and sailed these vessels, he does not condescend to tell us. As if this were not enough, he adds that except the provincial officers (who could speak English, though no sailors) and the soldiers, not a man could speak the English language. Now, on board these six vessels there must have been, at the very least, 24 officers. Add this number to the 160 soldiers, and it gives an exception, according to Mr. James's own showing, of 184 who could speak English, out of a total of 268; making, in this instance, an exemplification of a dogma laid down by a celebrated critic of our own, that "exceptions sometimes form a general rule." But it is time to conclude with Mr. James. No ordinary motive could have induced us to notice his book at all. We hold it to be indecent in tone and language, audacious in assertion erroneous in spirit as well as in facts, puerile in reasoning, and contradictory and illogical in its inductions. Nevertheless, it is the sheet-anchor of the Edinburgh; without it, the articles of that Review would be all adrift. In what we have here said, then, we have aimed principally at showing the utter worthlessness of Mr. James as authority; and this, too, less by adducing evidence drawn from other sources, than by evidence drawn from himself. We hold, with Capt. Brenton, that a horse-doctor must, in the nature of things, make but an indifferent nautical critic; a fact of which we have met with a hundred proofs while running through the "Occurrences," though they have not been laid before the reader, inasmuch as his own want of technical knowledge might exact from us explanations and references that would fill the limits of an ordinary article for the Democratic Review. An instance of what we mean is to be found in this sentence, viz.: "But, in consequence of there being only a ridge-rope, or rail, round either the poop or the top-gallant forecastle, the guns there stationed were disabled after the first discharge." - p. 414. Now the man who fancies that a gun could have a breeching fastened to a ridge-rope, must take a very veterinary view of gunnery; and if Mr. James did not mean to infer this, what did he mean? If the guns were otherwise secured, what signifies the "ridge-rope, or rail?" and if he intends his readers to understand that they were thus secured, what signifies his seamanship? Here we dismiss Mr. James, though we may have one or two occasions to refer to him again, when we come to deal with our contemporary of Edinburgh. Our limits are now reached, and we must refer the reader to the next number for the conclusion of the subject. JOHN JAMES AUDUBON "That cheerful one, who knoweth all The songs of all the winged choristers, And in one sequence of melodious sound, Pours all their music." -Southey's Madoc in Aztlan. A FEW years ago there arrived at the hotel, erected near the Niagara Falls, an odd-looking man, whose appearance and deportment were quite in contract with the crowds of well-dressed and polished figures which adorned that celebrated resort. He seemed just to have sprung from the woods. His dress, which was made of leather, stood dreadfully in need of repair, apparently note having felt the touch of either laundress or needlewoman for many a long month. A worn-out blanket, that might have served for a bed, was buckled to his shoulders; a large knife hung on one side, balanced by a long rusty tin box on the other; and his beard uncropped, tangled, and coarse, fell down upon his bosom, as if to counterpoise the weight of black thick hair-locks, that supported themselves upon his back and shoulders. This strange being, to the spectators seemingly half-civilized, half-savage, had a quick glancing eye, an elastic firm movement, and a sharp face, that would no doubt cut its way through the cane-brakes, both of the wilderness of society. He pushed his steps into the sitting-room, unstrapped his little burden, quietly looked round for the landlord, and then modestly asked for breakfast. The host at first drew back with evident repugnance at the apparition which thus proposed to intrude its uncouth form among the company; some staring, some shrugging, and some even laughing outright. Yet, reader, there was more in that single man than in all the rest of the throng; he was an American Woodsman, as he called himself; he was a true genuine son of nature, yet who had been entertained with distinction at the tables of princes; learned societies, to which his entrance; kings had been complimented when he spoke to them; in short, he was one whose fame will be growing brighter, when the fashionables who laughed at him, and many much greater even than they, shall have utterly perished. From every hill-top, and every deep shady grove, the birds, those "living blossoms of the air," will sing his name. The little wren will pipe it with her matin hymn about our houses; the oriole carol it from the slender grasses of the meadows; the turtle-dove roll it through the secret forests; 438 John James Audubon. [May, sions of our publication were consistent with a full display of the simplicity, single-heartedness, enthusiasm, and perseverance of the subject of our brief talk; of that genius, as Wilson has it, "self- nursed, self-refined, and self-tutored, among the inexhaustible treasures of the forest, on which, in one soul-engrossing pursuit, it had lavished its dearest and divinest passion."* Mr. Audubon was born about 1782, in the State of Louisiana, not Pennsylvania, as has been many times stated. His parents, who were French, were of that happy nature which disposed them to encourage the early indications of talent in the minds of their children. They early perceived in the subject of these remarks that love of the woods and fields, which has since made him so conspicuous as a naturalist among men. "When I had hardly learned to walk," says he, in the preface to the first volume of his Ornithology, "and to articulate those first words always so endearing to parents, the productions of nature that lay spread all around, were constantly pointed out to me. They soon became my playmates; and before my ideas were sufficiently formed to enable me to estimate the difference between the azure tints of the sky and the emerald hue of the bright foliage, I felt that an intimacy with them, not consisting of friendship merely, but bordering on phrensy, must accompany my steps through life; and now, more than ever, am I persuaded of the power of those early impressions. They laid such a hold of me, that when removed from the woods, the prairies, and the brooks, or shut up from the view of the wide Atlantic, I experienced none of those pleasures most congenial to my mind. None but aerial companions suited my fancy. No roof seemed so secure to me as that formed of the dense foliage under which the feathered tribe were seen to resort, or the caves and fissures of the massy rocks to which the dark-winged cormorant and the curlew retired to rest, or to protect themselves from the fury of the tempest. My father generally accompanied my steps; procured birds and flowers for me with great eagerness; pointed out the elegant movements of the former--the beauty and softness of their plumage-- the manifestations of their pleasure or their sense of danger-- and the always perfect forms and splendid attire of the latter. My valued preceptor would then speak of the departure and return of birds with the seasons; would describe their haunts, and, more wonderful than all, their change of livery; thus exciting *It is proper to say, that the narrative parts of our essay are mostly given in Mr. Audubon's own language, with such changes of tense and phraseology as the nature of the case demanded. His descriptions are so simple and pleasing, that to have altered them in any essential respect would have been to spoil them. 1842.] John James Audubon 439 me to study them, and to raise my mind towards their great Creator. A vivid pleasure shone upon those days of my early youth, attended with a calmness of feeling that seldom failed to rivet my attention for hours, while I gazed in ecstasy upon the pearly and shining eggs, as they lay embedded in the softest down, or among dried leaves and twigs, or were exposed upon the burning sand, or weather-beaten rock of our Atlantic shore. I was taught to look upon them as flowers yet in the bud. I watched their opening to see how nature had provided each different species with eyes, either opened at birth, or closed for some time after; to trace the slow progress of the young birds towards perfection, or admire the celerity with which some of them, while yet unfledged, removed themselves from danger to security." Nor did the tastes thus early implanted in the mind of the young enthusiast desert him in maturer years. "The sounding cataract Haunted him, like a passion; the tall rock, The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood, Their colors and their forms, were them to him An appetite; a feeling and a love That had no need of a remoter charm, By thought supplied, or any interest Unborrowed from the eye." "I grew up," he continues, "and my wishes grew with my form. These wishes were for the entire possession of all that I saw. I was fervently desirous of becoming acquainted with nature. For many years, however, I was sadly disappointed, and for ever, doubtless, must I have desires that cannot be gratified. The moment a bird was dead, no matter how beautiful it had been when in life, the pleasure arising from the possession of it became blunted; and although the greatest care was bestowed in endeavors to preserve the appearance of nature, I looked upon its vesture as more than sullied, as requiring constant attentions and repeated mendings, while, after all, it could no longer be said to be fresh from the hands of it's Maker. I wished to possess all the productions of nature,, but I wished life with them. This was impossible. Then, what was to be done? I turned to my father, and made known to him my disappointment and anxiety. He produced a book of Illustrations. A new life ran in my veins. I turned over the leaves with avidity, and although what I saw was not what I longed for, it gave me a desire to copy nature. To nature I went, and tried to imitate her, as in the days of my childhood I had tried to raise myself from the ground and stand erect, before 440 John James Audubon. [May, time had imparted the vigor necessary for the success of such an undertaking. How sorely disappointed did I feel for many years, when I saw that my productions were worse than those which I ventured (perhaps in silence) to regard as bad in the book given me by my father. My pencil gave birth to a family of cripples. So maimed were most of them, that they resembled the mangled corpses on a field of battle, compared with the integrity of living men. These difficulties and disappointments irritated me, but never for a moment destroyed the desire of obtaining perfect representations of nature. The worse my drawings were, the more beautiful did I see the originals. To have been torn from the study, would have been as death to me. My time was entirely occupied with it. I produced hundreds of these rude sketches annually; and, for a long time, at my request, they made bonfires on the anniversary of my birth-day." In his sixteenth year, that is, about 1798, he went to France to pursue his education. He received lessons in drawing from the celebrated David. But the "eyes and noses of giants, and the heads of horses represented in ancient sculpture," were not the themes he would be at; and, although he prosecuted his studies sedulously, his heart still panted for the sparkling streams and interminable forests of his "native land of groves." He returned home the following year, with a rekindled ardor for the woods, and commenced a collection of designs, destined shortly to swell into that magnificent series of volumes which the world has applauded as the "Birds of America." They were begun on a beautiful plantation which his father had given him, situated on the banks of the Schuylkill, and near a creek known as the Perkioming. There, amid its fine woodlands, its extensive fields, its hills crowned with evergreens, he meditated his simple and agreeable objects, and pursued his rambles, from the first faint streaks of day until late in the evening, wet with dew, and laden with feathered captives, he returned to the quiet enjoyment of the fire-side. Yet the passion for the birds did not seem to seal his heart to the influences of a still more tender and exalted passion. He married, and was fortunate in marrying a lady who in vicissitude has animated his courage, and in prosperity appreciated the grounds and measure of his success. "But who cares," says he, speaking of the event, "to listen to the love-tales of a naturalist, whose feelings may be supposed to be as light as the feathers of the birds he delineates?" For many years the necessities of life drove him into commercial enterprises, which involved him in a series of calamities. 1842.] John James Audubon. 441 His mind was so filled with Nature, that all his speculations proved unprofitable. From observation and study only could be derive gratification. He was compelled to struggle against the wishes of all his friends,--except of his wife and children, to their lasting honor be it said,--who strove to wean him from pursuits which, in the world's eye, are so barren and unproductive. But their importunities had an effect directly contrary to what they intended. Irritated beyond endurance, he broke at last through all bonds, and gave himself up entirely to his favorite pursuits. He undertook long and tedious journeys; he ransacked the woods, the lakes, the prairies, and the shores of the Atlantic; he spent years away from his family. "Yet, will you believe it," says he, "I had no other object in view than simply to enjoy the sight of nature. Never for a moment did I conceive the hope of becoming, in any degree, useful to my kind, until I accidentally formed acquaintance with the Prince of Musignano, (Lucien Bonaparte,) at Philadelphia, to which I had gone with a view of proceeding eastward along the coast." This was the 5th of April, 1824. But of his public labors we shall speak a word in the sequel. Let us, for the present, follow him in his solitary wanderings. Having lived on his beautiful plantation for ten years, he was induced to remove to the west. With a mattress, a few prepared viands, and two negroes to assist him in the toils of emigration, he departed, accompanied by his wife and child, for a residence which had been procured for him in the village of Henderson, Kentucky. The method of travelling at that day, which he has faithfully described, furnishes a striking contrast with the more easy and expeditious modes of modern conveyance. It was in the month of October that the small party set out. The autumnal tints already decorated the shores of that queen of rivers, the Ohio, along which they rowed their feeble skiff. Every tree was hung with long and flowing festoons of different species of vines, many loaded with clustered fruits of varied brilliancy, their rich carmine mingling beautifully with the yellow foliage, which yet predominated over the green leaves, reflecting more lively tints from the clear stream than ever landscape painter portrayed or poet imagined. The days were still warm. The sun had assumed the rich and glowing hue which at that season produces the Indian Summer. They glided down the river, meeting no other ripple of the water than that formed by the propulsion of the boat. Now and then a large catfish rose to the surface, in pursuit of a shoal of fry, which starting simultaneously from the liquid element, like so many silvery arrows, scattered Vol. X., No. XLVII.--56 442 John James Audubon. [May, a shower of light, while the pursuer with open jaws seized the stragglers, and with a splash of his tail disappeared from view. At night, the tinkling of bells along the shore told them that cattle were gently roving from valley to valley in search of food, or returning to their distant homes. The hooting of the great owl, or the muffled noise of its wings as it sailed smoothly over the stream, were matters of interest to them; and so was the sound of the boatman's horn, as it came winding more and more softly from afar. When daylight returned, many songsters burst forth with echoing notes, more and more mellow to the listening ear. Here and there the lonely cabin of a squatter struck the eye, giving note of commencing civilization. The crossing of the stream by a deer foretold how soon the hills would be covered with snow. Sluggish flat-boats were overtaken and passed; some laden with produce from the different head-waters of the small rivers, that pour their tributary streams into the Ohio: others, of less dimensions, crowded with emigrants from distant points, in search of "a new home." The margins of the rivers were amply supplied with game. A wild turkey, a grouse, or a blue-winged teal, could be procured in a few moments; and the voyagers fared well, for, whenever they pleased, they landed, struck up a fire, and, provided as they were with the necessary utensils, easily dressed a good repast. After jogging on for many days at this rate, they at last reached their habitation in the wilderness. "When I think of these times," says Mr. Audubon, at the close of the account of his journey, "and call back to mind the grandeur and beauty of those almost uninhabited shores; when I picture to myself the dense and lofty summits of the forests, that everywhere spread along the hills, and overhang the margins of the streams, unmolested by the axe of the settler; when I know how dearly purchased the safe navigation of that river has been by the blood of many worthy Virginians; when I see that no longer any aborigines are to be found there, and that the vast herds of elks, deers, and buffaloes, which once pastured on those and hills and in these valleys, making to themselves great roads to the several salt-springs, have ceased to exist; when I reflect that all this grand portion of our Union, instead of being in a state of nature, is now covered with villages, farms, and towns, where the din of hammers and machinery is constantly heard; that the woods are fast disappearing under the axe by day, and the fire by night; that hundreds of steamboats are gliding to and fro over the whole length of the majestic river, forcing commerce to take root and to prosper at every spot; when I see the surplus population of Europe coming 1842] John James Audubon. 443 to assist in the destruction of the forest, and transplanting civilization into its darkest recesses; when I remember that these extraordinary changes have all taken place in the short period of twenty years, I pause--wonder--and, although I know all to be fact, can scarcely believe its reality." His new domicil at Henderson gave him ample opportunities for the prosecution of his ornithological inquiries. He was accustomed to make long excursions through all the neighboring country, scouring the fields and woods, and fording the lakes and rivers. We think we can see him now, setting out early in the morning, with no companion but his dog and gun; the faithful tin box, containing his pencils and colors, slung to his side; now popping down the unconscious warbler that makes the air vocal from some neighboring tree; now hastening to the broad shelter of a venerable oak, to describe the form and paint the variegated plumage of his victim; now crouching for hours underneath some withered trunk, to observe the habits of some shy and timid bird; now climbing the jagged side of a rocky precipice, to find the nest-eggs of the eagle that screams and flutters upon the dry top of the storm-blasted beech still higher up; now treading upon the head of the serpent that hisses and wreathes among the thick leaves of the copse; now starting the bear and cougar from their secret lairs in the fastnesses; now cleaving with lusty sinew, his gun and apparatus fixed above his head, the troubled waters of a swollen stream; now wandering for days through the illimitable and pathless thickets of the cane- brake, at night sleeping upon the hard ground, or across the branches of trees, and by day almost perishing with thirst; and now hailing with pleasure, at sun-set, the distant but cheerful glimmer of the lonely log-cabin fire. The incidents, it must be supposed, of expeditions of this sort are many and striking. Exposed to danger on every side, by floods, by tempests, by fires, by wild beasts, and by the hands of man, his life was a perpetual scene of vicissitudes and adventures. Some of these it may be entertaining to refer to. At one time, in the month of November, travelling through the barrens of Kentucky, he remarked a sudden and strange darkness issuing from the western horizon. At first he supposed it might be a coming storm of thunder and rain. He had proceeded about a mile, when he heard what he imagined to be the distant rumbling of a violent tornado. He spurred his horse, with the view of galloping to a place of shelter, but the animal, apparently more sagacious than the rider, nearly stopped, or rather moved forward slowly, placing one foot before the other, with as much 444 John Jay Audubon. [May,1842] precaution as if walking on a smooth sheet of ice. He dismounted to ascertain what was the matter, when the steed fell to groaning piteously, hung his head, spread out his forelegs, as if to save himself from falling, and stood stock still. At that instant, all the shrubs and trees began to move from their very roots, and the ground rose and fell in successive furrows, like the ruffled waters of a sea. It was an earthquake. "Who can tell of the sensations I experienced," writes our naturalist, "when rocking on my horse, and with him moved to and fro like a child in his cradle, with the most imminent danger around, and expecting the ground every moment to open, and present to my eyes such an abyss as might ingulf myself and all around me? The fearful convulsion, however, lasted only a few minutes, and the heavens again brightened as quickly as they had become obscured; my horse brought his feet to their natural position, raised his head, and galloped off as if loose and frolicking without a ride." At another time, he had just forded Highland Creek, and was entering the tract of bottom land between that and Canoe Creek, when he discovered a hazy thickness in the atmosphere, and apprehended an earthquake; but his horse, as before, did not stop, nor exhibit any propensity to prepare for such an occurrence. He dismounted near a brook to quench his thirst. As his lips were about to touch the water, he heard a most extraordinary murmuring sound in the distance. He drank, however, and as he arose, looked towards the south-west, where he observed a yellowish oval spot, quite new to him in appearance. At the next moment, a smart breeze began to agitate the taller trees. It gradually increased, until branches and twigs were seen falling slantingly to the ground. Two minutes had scarcely elapsed, when the whole forest was in fearful motion. The noblest trees, unable to stand against the blast, were breaking in pieces. Before he could take measures for his safety, a hurricane was passing opposite the place where he stood. "Never can I forget," says he, "the scene which that moment presented itself. The tops of the trees were seen moving in the strangest manner, in the central current of the tempest, which carried along with it a mingled mass of twigs and foliage, that completely obscured the view. Some of the largest trees were bending and writhing under the gale; others suddenly snapped across; and many, after a momentary resistance, fell uprooted to the earth. The mass of branches, twigs, foliage, and dust, that moved through the air, was whirled onward like a cloud of feathers, and on passing, disclosed a wide space filled with fallen trees, naked stumps, and John James Audubon 445 heaps of shapeless ruins, which marked the path of the tempest. This space was about a fourth of a mile in breadth, and to my imagination resembled the dried-up bed of the Mississippi, with its thousands of planters and sawyers, strewed in the sand and inclined in various degrees. The horrible noise resembled that of the great cataracts of Niagara, and as it howled along in the track of the desolating tempest, produced a feeling in my mind which it is impossible to describe." Not to the fury of the elements alone was our intrepid man of science exposed. Once - and, singular to say, only once in wandering for twenty years - was he threatened with death by the hand of man. This was, when returning from the upper Mississippi, he was forced to cross once of the wide prairies of that region. We must let him relate it. Toward the dusk of the evening, wearied with an interminable jaunt over the prairie, he approached alight that feebly shone from the window of a log hut. He reached the spot, and presenting himself at the door, asked a tall figure of a woman, whether he might take shelter under her roof. Her voice was gruff, and her dress carelessly thrown about her person. She answered his question in the affirmative, when he walked in, took a wooden stool, and quietly seated himself by the fire. A finely formed young Indian, his head resting between his hands, with his elbows on his knees, was seated in the centre of the cabin. A long bow stood against the wall, while a quantity of arrows and two or three black raccoon skins lay at his feet. He moved not: he apparently breathed not. Being addressed in French, he raised his head, pointed to one of his eyes with his finger, and gave a significant glance with the other. He face was covered with blood. It appeared, that an hour before, in the act of discharging an arrow at a raccoon, the arrow split upon the cord and sprang back with such violence into his right eye, as to destroy it for ever. "Feeling hungry," Mr. Audubon continues his narrative, "I inquired what sort of fare I might expect. Such a thing as a bed was not to be seen, but many large untanned bear and buffalo hides lay piled up in a corner. I drew a fine time-piece from my vest, and told the woman that it was late, and that I was fatigued. She had espied my watch, the richness of which seemed to operate upon her feelings with electric quickness. she told me that there was plenty of venison and jerked buffalo meat, and that on removing the ashes I should find a cake. But my watch had struck her fancy, and her curiosity had to be gratified with a sight of it. I took off the gold chain that secured it from around my neck, and presented it to her. She was all ecstasy, spoke of hits beauty, 446 John James Audubon [May, aske me its value, put the chain around her brawny neck, saying how happy the possession of such a chain would make her. Thoughtless, and, as I fancied myself in so retired a spot, secure, I paid little attention to her talk or her movements. I helped my dog to a good supper of venison, and was not long in satisfying the demands of my own appetite. The Indian rose from his seat as if in extreme suffering. He passed and repassed me several times, and once pinched me on the side so violently, that the pain nearly brought forth an exclamation of anger. I looked at him. His eye met mine; but his look was so forbidding that it struck a chill into the more nervous part of my system. He again seated himself, drew a butcher-knife from its greasy scabbard, examined its edge, as I would do that of a razor I suspected to be dull, replaced it, and again taking his tomahawk from his back, filled the pipe of it with tobacco, and sent me expressive glances whenever our hostess chanced to have her back toward us. Never till that moment had my senses been awakened to the danger which I now suspected to be about me. I returned glance for glance with my companion, and rested well assured that, whatever enemies I might have, he was not of the number." In the mean time, he retired to rest upon the skins, when two athletic youths, the sons of the woman, made their entrance. She whispered with them a little while, when they fell to eating and drinking, to a state bordering on intoxication. "Judge of my astonishment," he says, "when I saw this incarnate fiend take a large carving-knife, and go to the grindstone to whet its edge! I saw her pour the water on the turning-machine, and watched her working away with the dangerous instrument, until the sweat covered every part of my body in spite of my determination to defend myself to the last. Her task finished, she walked to her reeling sons, and said: 'There, that'll soon settle him! Boys, kill yon ---, and then for the watch!' I turned, cocked my gun-locks silently, and lay ready to start up and shoot the first who might attempt my life." Fortunately, two strangers entering at the moment, the purpose of the woman was disclosed, and she and her drunken sons secured. But no earthquakes, not hurricanes, nor the carving-knife of the wild denizens of the desert, could afflict him half so much as he suffered in consequence of an attack by a wild and ferocious animal--neither more nor less than--a rat. It was a calamity, the like of which is seldom recorded in literary history. Edward Livingston, it is said, having finished his great code of Lousianian law, beheld the labor of three persevering years perish in an instant in the flames; Thomas Carlyle, when he had finished the 1842.] John James Audubon. 447 first volume of his French Revolution, had every scrap of it burned through the carelessness of a friend; and so Mr. Audubon, having wandered and toiled for years, to get accurate representations of American birds, found that two Norway rats had in a night destroyed two hundred of his original drawings, containing the forms of more than a thousand inhabitants of the air. All were gone, except a few bits of gnawed paper, upon which the marauding rascals had reared a family of their young. "The burning heat," says the noble-hearted sufferer, "which instantly rushed through my brain, was too great to be endured, without affecting the whole of my nervous system. I slept not for several nights, and the days passed like days of oblivion--until the animal powers being recalled into action, through the strength of my constitution, I took up my gun, my note-book, and my pencils, and went forth to the woods as gayly as if nothing had happened." Ay, go forth to the woods, divine lover of nature, with thy serenest hopeful heart! there is joy still for thee!--for the whole earth is laughing in its brightness and glory, and the forests re-echo the carols of innumerable sweet voices that call thee to duty. Does not a kindred spirit sing?-- "There are notes of joy from the hang-bird and wren, And the gossip of swallows through all the sky; The ground-squirrel gayly chirps by his den, And the wilding bee hums merrily by. "There's a dance of leaves in that aspen bower, There's a titter of winds in that beechen tree, There's a smile on the fruit, and a smile on the flower, And a laugh from the brook that runs to the sea."* He went forth, and in less than three years had his portfolio again filled. It was in 1824, we remarked, that Lucien Bonaparte suggested to him the idea of collecting and making public the treasures which had been amassed in his wild journeyings. For some time, in the depths of the solitudes, his mind brooded over the kindling thought. He resolved upon a visit to Europe, and with that instant action which has been the secret of his success, he prepared for his departure. He sailed--but maturer reflection taught him to approach the shores of England with despondency and doubt. There was not a friend in all the nation to whom he could apply. When he had landed, his situation appeared to him precarious in the extreme. He imagined, he says, in the simplicity of his heart, that every individual he was about to meet might be possessed of talents superior to any on this side of the *Bryant. 448 John James Audubon. [May, Atlantic. Traversing the streets of Liverpool for two whole days, he had looked in vain for a single glance of sympathy. But how soon did the aspect of things around him change! There are kind, generous hearts everywhere; men of noble faculties to discern the beautiful and true, and women of warm gushing affections. In a little while, he was the admired of all admirers. Men of genius, the Wilson, the Roscoes, the Swainsons, suddenly recognised his lofty claims; learned societies, without number, extended to him the warm and willing hand of fellowship; the houses of the nobility were opened to him; and, wherever he went, the solitary, unfriended American woodsman was the conspicuous object of a wide remark and love. Under such auspices, in 1831, at Edinburgh, he put forth his first volume of Ornithological Biography. Its striking and original merit procured him subscribers to the remaining volumes, from all parts of the kingdom. At once, he took rank as the most worthy ornithologist of the age,--able as an observer and describer to wear The mantle of the gifted Wilson, and, as a painter of animals, to take his place by the side of the equally gifted Barrabaud. From England, Mr. Audubon proceeded to France, where he received the homage of the most distinguished men of science of that learned nation' among the rest, of that gigantic but graceful genius, Cuvier, the glance of whose eye into the great valley of death, has infused life into the dry bones of a thousand years. When he returned to his native land, it was only to renew with more burning ardor his labors in the woods. His first expedition was to the coast of Florida, where, amid flocks of snowy pelicans and cormorants, tortoises and flying-fish, he laid up vast treasures of knowledge for his forth-coming volumes. Having examined every part of the coast, and of the different keys, passing even to the Tortugas Islands, he returned to Charleston, S.C., anxious to bend his course to the north-east, that he might keep pace with the birds during the migrations. Sickness detained him for the greater part of the summer at Boston, but having recovered about the middle of August, he left his Boston friends on his way eastward. He explored the whole of the State of Maine, the British province of New Brunswick, a portion of the Canadas, and then, when there were no more prizes in those districts to carry away, turned his steps to the dreary shores of ice- bound Labrador. His researches into the habits of the birds, beasts, and men of this hyperborean region were successful, and he returned, rich with materials, to the abode of his family and friends. Of the industry with which he pushed his inquiries, and of the startling and touching adventures to which his various 1842.] John James Audubon. 449 excursions gave rise, his volumes are full of entertaining and instructive proof. Our plan does not allow us, as we should wish, to introduce them here. Let us add, however, that his Ornithological Biography has expanded into five large books; that his "Birds of America" are finished in glorious style, and that his magnificent "Illustrations," being those birds drawn to the size of life, have, for some time, been the astonishment and delight of the cultivated world. Yet his wanderings continue, and he labors in the cause of his favorite science as sedulously as ever.* What a life has that been of which we have here given a faint outline! What a character is that of which we have made only a rough sketch! Is not John James Audubon, as we said in the outset, an admirable specimen of the Hero as a man of science? For forty years or more he has followed, with more than religious devotion, a beautiful and elevated pursuit, enlarging its boundaries by his discoveries, and illustrating its objects by his art. In all climates and in all weathers; scorched by burning suns, drenched by piercing rains, frozen by the fiercest colds; now diving fearlessly into the densest forest, now wandering alone over the most savage regions; in perils, in difficulties, and in doubts; with no companion to cheer his way, far from the smiles and applause of society' listening only to the sweet music of birds, or to the sweeter music of his own thoughts, he has faithfully kept his path. The records of man's life contain few nobler examples of strength of purpose and indefatigable energy. Led on solely by his pure, lofty, kindling enthusiasm, no thirst for wealth, no desire of distinction, no restless ambition for eccentric character, could have induced him to undergo so many sacrifices, or sustained him under so many trials. Higher principles and worthier motives alone have enabled him to meet such discouragements, and accomplish such miracles of achievement. He has enlarged and enriched the domains of a pleasing and useful science; he has revealed to us the existence of many species of birds before unknown; he has given us more accurate information of the forms and habits of those that were known; he has corrected the blunders of his predecessors; and he has imparted to the study of natural history the grace and fascination of romance. *During the last winter, which he spent in this city, (New York,) he has worked on an average fourteen hours a day, preparing a work on the Quadrupeds Of America, similar to his work on the Birds. The drawings, already finished, of the size of life, are master-pieces in their way, surpassing, if that be possible, in fidelity and brilliancy, all that he has done before. Early in the summer, he will depart to continue his labors in the woods. Vol. X, No. XLVII.--57 450 John James Audubon. [May, By his pencil and by his pen, he has made the world eternally his debtor. Exquisite delineations of the visible and vocal ornaments of the air, drawn with so much nicety, colored with so much brilliancy, as they are seen in their own favorite haunts, who can adequately describe ? We remember well the effect wrought on our mind, when we first saw the whole of his wonderful collection of paintings, as they were exhibited a few years since in New York. It produced an overpowering sense of wonder and admiration. As John Wilson has said of the same scene, shown at Edinburgh, the spectator instantly imagined himself in the forest. The birds were all there, --"all were of the size of life, from the wren and the hummingbird-bird to the wild turkey and the bird of Washington. But what signified the mere size ? The colors were all of life too, bright as when borne in beaming beauty through the woods. There too were their attitudes and postures, infinite as they are assumed by the restless creatures, in motion or rest, in their glee and their gambols, their loves and their wars, singing, or caressing, or brooding, or preying, or tearing one another to pieces. The trees on which they sat or sported all true to nature, in bole, branch, spray, and leaf, the flowery shrubs and the ground flowers, the weeds and the very grass, all American -- as were the atmosphere and the skies. It was a wild and poetical vision of the heart of the New World, inhabited as yet almost wholly by the lovely or noble creatures that " own not man's dominion." It was, indeed, a rich and magnificent sight, such as we would not for a diadem have lost. A peculiar ease, simplicity, and elegance mark Mr. Audubon's written style. His descriptions of birds in their various moods are not the dull and dry details of a naturalist, but the warm, lively, picturesque paintings of a poet. To open at any page of his volumes is to step at once into a region of agreeable forms and enrapturing sounds. He seems to enter into the very spirits of birds themselves, sings when they sing, and rises upon the wing when they fly. And his whole life, like theirs, seems to have been a perpetual and cheerful ascription of praise, to that " Power whose care Teaches their way along the pathless coast, The desert and illimitable air- Lone wandering, but not lost." 1842.] 451 THE CHILD-GHOST ; A STORY OF THE LAST LOYALIST. BY WALTER WHITMAN. Were it not from the evidence of my own ears and observation, I could hardly believe that any considerable number of persons exist among us, who give credence to accounts of spectres and disembodied spirits appearing from the dead ; - yet there are many such people, especially in our country places. Though the schools are gradually thrusting aside their superstitious relics of a by-gone time, it will perhaps be long before their influence is effectually rooted out. Guilt or ignorance, working through im- agination, has magic power ; and the ideal forms through which terror is thus stricken, produce a panic in the minds of their victims, as real as if those forms were of perceptible substance. The story I am going to tell is a traditional reminiscence of a country place, in my rambles about which I have often passed the house, now unoccupied and mostly in ruins, that was the scene of the transaction. I cannot, of course, convey to others that particular kind of influence, which is derived from my being so familiar with the locality and with the very people whose grandfathers or fathers were contemporaries of the actors in the drama I shall transcribe. I must hardly expect, therefore, that to those who hear it through the medium of my pen, the narration will possess as life-like and interesting a character as it does to myself. On a large and fertile neck of land that juts out in the Sound which stretches to the south-east of New York city, there stood, in the latter part of the last century, an old-fashioned country residence. It had been built by on e of the first settlers of this section of the New World ; and its occupant was originally owner of the extensive tract lying adjacent to his house, and pushing into the very bosom of the salt waters. It was during the troubled times which marked our American Revolution that the incidents occurred which are the foundation of my story. Some time before the commencement of the war, the owner, whom I shall call Vanhome, was taken sick and died. For years before his death he had lived a widower ; and his child, an only one, a lad of ten years old, was thus left an orphan. By his father's will, this child was placed implicitly under the guardianship of an uncle, a middle-aged man, who had been of late a resident in the family. As if to verify the truth of the ancient proverb, which declares that evils, when once started on their path, follow each other 452 The Child-Ghost ; [May, thick and fast--not two years elapsed after the parents were laid away to their last repose, before another grave had to be prepared for the son--the fair and lovely child who had been so haplessly deprived of their fostering care. The period had now arrived when the great national convulsion burst forth. Sounds of strife, and the clash of arms, and the angry voices of disputants, were borne along by the air; and week after week grew to louder and still louder clamor. Families were divided' adherents to the crown, and ardent upholders of the rebellion, were often found in the bosom of the same domestic circle. Vanhome, the uncle spoken of as guardian to the young heir, was a man who leaned to the stern, the high-handed, and the severe. He soon became known among the most energetic of the loyalists. So violent were his sentiments, that, leaving the estate which he had so fortunately inherited from his brother and nephew, he joined the forces of the British king. Thenceforward, whenever his old neighbors heard of him, it was as being engaged in the cruellest outrages, the boldest inroads, or the Most determined attacks upon the army of his countrymen, or their peaceful settlements. Though pleasant for an American mind to dwell upon the traits, --the unshaken patriotism, the lofty courage, and the broad love of liberty exhibited by our fathers in their leaders to that glorious epoch when the last waving of the royal standard was to flutter as it should be hauled down from the staff, and its place filled by the proud testimonial of our warriors' success. Pleasantly over the autumn fields shone the November sun, when a horseman, of somewhat military look, plodded slowly along the road that led to the old Vanhome farm-house. there was nothing peculiar in his attire, unless it might be a red scarf which he wore tied around his waist. He was a dark-featured, sullen0eyed man; and as his glance was thrown restlessly to the right and left, his whole manner appeared to be that of a person moving amid familiar and accustomed scenes. Occasionally he stopped, and looking long and steadily at some object that attracted his attention, muttered to himself, like one in whose breast busy thoughts were moving. His course was evidently to the homestead itself, at which in due time he arrived. He dismounted, led his horse to the stables and then, without knocking, though there were evident signs of occupancy around the building, 1842.] A Story of the Last Loyalist. 453 the traveller made his entrance as composedly and boldly as though he were master of the whole establishment. Now it had happened that the house being in a measure deserted for many years, and the successful termination of the strife rendering it probable that the Vanhome estate would be confiscated to the new government,--and aged, poverty-stricken couple had been encouraged by the neighbors to take possession as tenants of the place. Their name was Gills; and these people the traveller found upon his entrance were likely to be his host and hostess. Holding their right as they did by so slight a tenure, they ventured to offer no opposition when the stranger signified his intention of passing several hours there. The day wore on, and the sun went down in the west. Still the interloper made no signs of departing. But as the night fell, (whether the darkness was congenial to his sombre thoughts, or whether it merely chanced so,) he seemed to grow more affable and communicative. "Tell me." said he to his aged host, when they were all sitting round the ample hearth, at the conclusion of their evening meal, "tell me something to while away the hours." "Ah! sir," answered Gills, "this is no place for new or interesting events to happen. We live here from year to year, and, at the end of one, we find ourselves at about the same place which we filled in the beginning." "Can you relate nothing, then," rejoined the guest--and a singular smile passed over his features; "can you say nothing about your own place? this house or its former inhabitants, or former history?" The old man glanced across to his wife, and a look expressive of sympathetic feeling started in the face of each. "It is an unfortunate story, sir," said Gills, "and may cast a chill upon you, instead of the pleasant feeling which it would be best to foster when in strange walls." "Strange walls!" echoed he of the red scarf; and for the first time since his arrival, he half laughed, but it was not the laugh which comes from a man's heart. "You must know, sir," continued Gills, "I am myself a sort of intruder here. The Vanhomes--that was the name of the former residents and owners--I have never seen; for when I came to these parts the last Mr. Vanhome had left, to join the red-coat soldiery. I am told that he is to sail with them for foreign lands, now that the war is ended, and his property almost certain to pass into other hands." As the old man went on, the stranger cast down his eyes, and 454 The Child-Ghost; [May, listened with an appearance of great interest, though a transient smile, or a brightening of the eye, would occasionally disturb the serenity of his deportment. "The old occupants of this place," continued the white-haired narrator, "were well off in the world, and bore a good name among their neighbors. The brother of Sergeant Vanhome, now the only one of the name, died ten or twelve years since, leaving a son--a child so small, that the father's will made pro- vision for his being brought up by his uncle, whom I mentioned but now as of the British army. He was a strange man, this uncle; disliked by all who knew him, passionate, vindictive, and, it was said, very avaricious, even from his childhood. "Well; not long after the death of the parents, dark stories began to be circulated about cruelty, and punishment, and whip- pings, and starvation, inflicted by the new master upon his nephew. People who had business at the homestead would fre- quently, when they came away, relate the most fearful things of its manager, and how he misused his brother's child. It was half hinted that he strove to get the youngster out of the way, in order that the whole estate might fall into his own hands. As I told you before, however, nobody liked the man; and perhaps they judged him too uncharitably. "After things had gone on in this way for some time, a country- man, a laborer, who was hired to do farm-work upon the place, one evening observed that the little orphan Vanhome was more faint and pale even than usual, for he was always delicate, and that is one reason why I think it possible that his death, of which I am now going to tell you, was but the result of his own weak constitution, and nothing else. "The laborer slept that night at the farm-house. Just before the time at which they usually retired to bed, this person, feeling tired and sleepy with his day's toil, took his light, and wended his way to rest. In going to his place of repose, he had to pass a chamber--the very chamber where you, sir, are to sleep to- night--and there he heard the voice of the orphan child, uttering half-suppressed exclamations, as if in pitiful entreaty. Upon stopping, he heard also the tones of the elder Vanhome, but they were harsh and bitter. The whacking sound of blows followed. As each one fell, it was accompanied by a groan or a shriek; and so they continued for some time. Shocked and indignant, the countryman would have burst open the door and interfered to prevent this brutal proceeding; but he bethought him that he might get himself into trouble, and perhaps find that he could do no good after all, and so he passed on to his room. 1842.] A Story of the Last Loyalist. 455 "Well, sir; the following day the child did not come out among the work-people as usual. He was taken very ill. No physician was sent for until the next afternoon; and though one arrived in the course of the succeeding night, it was too late-- the poor boy died before morning. "People talked threateningly upon the subject, but nothing could be proved against Vanhome. At one period there were efforts made to have the whole affair investigated. Perhaps such a proceeding would have taken place, had not every one's attention been swallowed up by the rumors of difficulty and war, which at that time were beginning to disturb the country. "Vanhome joined the army of the king. His enemies said that he feared to be on the side of the rebels, because if they were routed his property would be taken from him. But events have shown, that if this was indeed what he dreaded, it has happened to him from the very means which he took to pre- vent it." The old man paused. He had quite wearied himself with so long talking. For some minutes there was unbroken silence. "Did you say that Vanhome had left this land and sailed for Europe?" at length asked the stranger; who, when Gills con- cluded, had raised his face, pale, and with eyes glittering like one in great perturbation. "So we hear," returned the old man. Again there was silence, which no one seemed inclined to break. Presently, the stranger signified his intention of retiring for the night. He rose, and his host took a light for the purpose of ushering him to his apartment. "What of this chamber which you mentioned?" said the traveller, pausing as he stood with his back to the fire, and looking not into the face of the old man, but as it were into vacancy. The host started, and it was evident the question had awakened agitating thoughts in his mind; for his face blanched a little, and his glance turned feverishly from object to object. "It is said," answered he, in a low stealthy tone, "that the spirit of the little orphan child haunts that chamber in the silent hours of the night!" The stranger wheeled, and looked full into the face of the speaker. A convulsive spasm passed over his features, and from his eyes came the flashing of condensed rage and hideous terror. "Hell!" uttered he, furiously, "am I to be taunted by ghosts, and placed amid the spectres of puling brats? Find me, hoary 456 The Child-Ghost; [May, thief!--find me some other sleeping place; else will I have you dragged forth and lashed--lashed before the whole regiment!" His cheeks were white with excitement; ferocity gleamed in every look and limb; and the frightened Gills and his wife shrank back in very fear that he would do them some bodily harm. They thought him mad; his words were so incoherent and strange. But not quicker passed away is the lightning's flash--not in the swiftest night-storm does a cloud flit more quickly over the face of the moon--than was the clearing up of the stranger's countenance, and the clothing of his face again in its former mantle of indifference. "Forgive me!" and he, with a bland smile, "I am too hasty. In truth, I have a horror of these superstitious stories; they fret me. But no matter. Do not think I am so silly as to fear this child-spirit you have spoken of. Such nonsense is for the ignorant and the credulous. Again I ask pardon for my rudeness. Let me now be shown to this chamber--this haunted chamber. I am weary. Good night, mistress!" And without waiting for an answer, he of the red scarf hastily pushed the old man through the door, and they passed to the sleeping room. When Gills returned to his accustomed situation in the large arm-chair by the chimney hearth, his ancient help-mate had retired to rest. With the simplicity of their times, the bed stood in a kind of alcove, just out of the same room where the three had been seated during the last few hours; and now the remaining two talked together about the singular events of the evening. As the time wore on, Gills showed no disposition to leave his cosy chair; but sat toasting his feet, and bending over the coals -- an enjoyment that was to his mind very pleasant and satisfactory. Gradually the insidious heat and the lateness of the hour began to exercise their influence over the old man. That drowsy indolent feeling which every one has experienced in getting throughly heated through by close contact with a glowing fire, spread in each vein and sinew, and relaxed its tone. He leaned back in his chair and slept. For a long time his repose went on quickly and soundly. He could not tell how many hours elapsed; but a while after midnight, the torpid senses of the slumberer were awakened by a startling shock. It was a cry as of a strong man in his agony-- a shrill, not very loud cry, but fearful, and creeping into the blood, like cold, sharp, polished steel. The old man raised himself in 1842.] A Story of the Last Loyalist. 457 his seat and listened-- at once fully awake. For a minute, all was the solemn stillness of midnight. Then rose that horrid tone again--wailing and wild, and making the hearer's hair stand on end. As it floated along to the chamber-- borne through the darkness and stillness-- it brought to the mind of Gills thoughts of the howlings of damned spirits, and the death-rattle of murdered men, and the agonies of the drowning, and the hoarse croak of the successful assassin. He sat almost paralyzed in his chair. Then came an interval; and then another of those terrible shrieks. One moment more, and the trampling of hasty feet sounded in the passage outside. The door was thrown open, and the form of the stranger, more like a corpse than living man, rushed into the room. "He is there!" said the quivering wretch, pointing with his finger, and speaking in low hoarse tones; "he is there, in his little shroud! And he smiled and looked gently upon me with those blue eyes of his--O, how much sharper than a thousand frowns!" The man shook, like one in a great ague, and his jaws clashed against each other. "All white!" continued the miserable, conscience-stricken creature; "all white, and with the grave-clothes around him!-- One shoulder was bare, and I saw," he whispered, " I saw blue streaks upon it. It was horrible, and I cried aloud. He stepped toward me! He came to my very bed-side; his small hand was raised, and almost touched my face. I could not bear it, and fled!" The miserable man bent his head down upon his bosom; convulsive rattlings shook his throat; and his whole frame wavered to and fro, like a tree in a storm. Bewildered and shocked, Gills looked at his apparently deranged guest, and knew not what answer to make, or course of conduct to pursue. " Do you not believe it?" furiously exclaimed the stranger, with a revulsion of feeling, in consistence with his character; " do you think me a child, to be frightened by a bugbear?-- Come!" continued he, seizing the alarmed old man by the shoulder; "come hither, and let your own eyes be blasted with the sight!" And dragging the unresisting Gills, he strode to the door, and dashed it open with a loud and echoing clang. The house was one of that old-fashioned sort, still to be met with occasionally in country villages, the ground floor of which was comprised of two rooms, divided by a hall--the door of each room being off against the other; so that the old man and his companion had a full view of the adjoining apartment. Though Vol. X., No. XLVII.--58 there was no light there, Gills fancied he could see everything distinctly. In one corner stood the bed from which the stranger had started -- its coverlets and sheets all tumbled and half dragged down on the floor. A few feet on one side of its head, was the hearthstone; and the sight thereon, as Gills strained his eyes to behold it, was drunk in with chilling terror to his heart. Upon the hearth-stone stood the form of a boy, some ten years old. His face was wan and ghostly, but very beautiful; his hair light and wavy; and he was apparelled in the habiliments of the tomb. As the appalled Gills looked, he felt that the eyes of the pale child were fixed upon him and his companion -- fixed, not as in anger, but with a gentle sorrow. From one shoulder the fearful dress had fallen aside, and the appearance of gashes and livid streaks was visible. " See you ! " harshly shrieked the stranger, as if maddened by the sight; " I have not dreamed--he is there, in his snowy robes--he comes to mock me. And look you! " he crouched and recoiled, "does he not step this way again? I shall go mad! If he but touches me sight that little hand, I am mad! Away, spectre! boy-phantom, away! Or I die too upon this very floor!" And thrusting out his arms and his extended fingers, and bending down his eyes, as men do when shading them from a glare of lightning--he staggered from the door, and in a moment further, dashed madly through the passage which led through the kitchen into the outer road. The old man heard the noise of his flying footsteps, sounding fainter and fainter in the distance, and then, retreating, dropped his own exhausted limbs into the chair from which he had been aroused so terribly. It was many minutes before his energies recovered their accustomed gone again. Strangely enough, his wife, unawakened by the stranger's ravings, still slumbered on as profoundly as ever. Pass we on to a car different and almost as thrilling a scene--the embarkation of the British troops for the distant land whose monarch was never more to wield the sceptre over a kingdom lost by his imprudence and tyranny. With frowning brow and sullen pace, the martial ranks moved on. Boat after boat was filled; and as each discharged its complement in the ship's that lay heaving their anchors in the stream, it returned, and was soon filled with another load. And at length it became time for the last soldier to lift his eye, and take a last glance at the broad banner of England's pride, which flapped its folds from the top of the highest staff on the Battery. Proud spectacle! May the flag which was planted in the place of the blood-red cross, waft out to the wind for ages and ages yet--and the nations of earth not one so glorious as the which claims the star-gemmed symbol of liberty for its token! As the warning sound of a trumpet called together all who were laggards--those taking leave of friends, and those who were arranging their own private affairs, left until the last moment--a single horseman was seen furiously dashing down the street. A red scarf tightly encircled his waist. He made directly for the shore, and the crowd there gathered started back in wonderment as they beheld his disheveled appearance and his ghastly face. Throwing himself violently from his saddle, he flung the bridle over the animal's neck, and have him a cut with a small riding-whip. He made for the boat; one minute later, and he had been left. They were pushing the keel from the landing--the stranger sprang--a space of two or three feet already intervened--he struck on the Grunwald--and the Last Soldier of King George had left the American shores. POLITICAL PORTRAITS WITH PEN AND PENCIL. NO. XXX Alexander H. Everett. (With a fine Engraving on Steel) Mr. Everett's paternal ancestors came from the west of England, and were among the first settlers of the Colony of Massachusetts. The name appears in the oldest records of Boston; Richard Everett, the immediate ancestor of this branch of the family, being one of the petitioners to the General Court for the incorporation of Dedham, in the county of Norfolk, Mass., about the year 1630. He resided through life at Dedham, and the family has ever since been somewhat numerous in that, and other towns in the neighborhood of Boston. His paternal grandfather, Ebenezer Everett, was a lineal descendant from Richard, and lived in Dedham, in easy circumstances, drawing by the labor of himself and his sons a comfortable subsistence from a small landed property. He was the father of nine children, eight sons and a daughter—the youngest of the sons, Oliver, being the father of the subject of the present memoir. Mr. Everett's father was a clergyman of worth, learning, and eminence. Soon after graduating at Cambridge, he was invited to the charge of the church in Summer street, Boston, now under the care of Mr. Young. He remained in this position until the year 1792, when his declining health compelled him to relinquish it. He then left Boston, and took up his residence in the adjoining village of Dorchester, where he passed the remainder of his life. After his removal to Dorchester, he was appointed a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for the County of Norfolk. He was subsequently invited to become a candidate for the representation of the Norfolk District in Congress; but declined, on account of the state of his health. The only occasion on which he appeared in public after his retirement from the pulpit, was the funeral solemnity in honor of Washington, when he delivered an address to the inhabitants of Dorchester. He died at that place in December, 1802, at the age of fifty, leaving a family of a widow, six sons, and two daughters. Alexander was the second of the sons, and was born in Boston on the 19th of March, 1790—receiving the name of his maternal grandfather, Alexander Hill. His childhood was passed in Dorchester, at the free school of which place he was prepared for Cambridge, which he entered in the year 1802, a few months before the death of his father; being then in his thirteenth year, and the youngest member of his class —in which, however, he graduated with the highest honors in 1806. Among the other members of the same class, who have acquired distinction, were Judge Preble, some time Minister to the Netherlands, J. G. Cogswell, now Editor of the New York Review, and Dr. Bigelow, one of the most learned and accomplished physicians in Boston, we may indeed say in the country. After leaving college, he passed a year as assistant in the Phil-lips Academy at Exeter, N. H., and in 1807 entered his name as a student for the bar in the office of John Quincy Adams at Bos-ton. He had but little inclination, however, for the practice of the legal profession, and at this time took no interest in politics—his passion being entirely for letters. Soon after he came to Boston, he was invited to become a member of the Anthology Club, an association formed for the publication of a literary journal, called the Monthly Anthology. The association comprehended a number of the most distinguished literary men of the time, among whom may be mentioned the late lamented Buckminster, Judge Thacher, and his brother, the late Rev. S. C. Thacher, Dr. Gar-diner, the Rev. Mr. Emerson, father of the present well-known Rev. R. W. Emerson, Dr. Bigelow, Prof. Ticknor, Mr. Savage, and others. They had a social meeting, with a supper, one evening in every week. Being mostly either mere tyros, or professional men in full employment, and too constantly occupied to give much time to letters, the published product of their labors was of no very great value; but the work, as a whole, was distinguished by a somewhat better taste than had previously prevailed in our periodical literature, and gave indications of a tendency toward improvement. On the appointment of Mr. Adams as Minister Plenipotentiary to Russia, in 1809, Mr. Everett accompanied him to Europe, and resided at St. Petersburgh as a member of his family, and formally attached to the Legation, for about two years; employing this time in the study of the modern languages, public law, political economy, and history. In the summer of 1811 he left St. Petersburgh, and proceeded through Sweden to England, where he passed the following winter. In the spring of 1812 he made a short visit to Paris, and in the summer of the same year returned to the United States in a licensed vessel, which sailed after the declaration of war. Soon after his return from Europe, he was admitted to the bar, and opened an office in Boston. But the state of political affairs was at that time of so exciting a character as to render it almost impossible for any young man of ardent temperament and en- Political Portraits. - No. XXX. [May, larked views to avoid taking part in them. The war had just been declared, and had exasperated almost to madness the hostile feelings that previously existed between the parties. Mr. Everett had naturally, while abroad, acquired the habit of looking at our foreign relations with an exclusively American eye ; and though his personal friends and connexions were generally of the Federal school, he could not sympathize with them in their justification of Great Britain, and their attacks on our Government. In the year 1813, he wrote in the "Patriot," then the leading Democratic paper at Boston, a series of Essays upon the topics at issue between the parties, which were afterward published in a pamphlet entitled "Remarks on the Governor's Speech." This attracted much attention, and fixed his position among the friends of the administration. He continued, as long as the war lasted, to contribute articles, from time to time, to the "Patriot," and wrote, in particular, a series of essays in opposition to the Hartford Convention, about the time when that celebrated body was preparing to hold its meeting. The same year he was proposed as one of the Democratic candidates for the State Senate from the county of Suffolk ; but, from the preponderating majority of the Federal party in the county, was, of course, not elected. During this period, he wrote several articles for the literary journals, particularly a review of the Volksmaerchen of Musaeus, and of the Martyrs of M. de Chateaubriand, for the Cambridge Repository. He also, by request of those associations, delivered public addresses before the Massachusetts Charitable Fire Society, and the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard College. For the latter occasion, he selected the character of Burke, for whom he cherished a just admiration, though he did not, like some others, make him an object of blind and indiscriminating idolatry. After dwelling with enthusiasm upon his character as the philosopher, the statesman, the friend of freedom and America, he intimated with some distinctness his doubts whether his opposition to the French Revolution was not too bitter, and whether the regicide war which he urged upon his government was really of any advantage to the world. These intimations, though moderately expressed, as with no application to our own politics, gave dissatisfaction to the Federal portion of the audience, which comprised, probably, nine-tenths of the whole. The society, however, agreeably to usage, requested a copy of the performance for the press, and a committee was appointed to communicate the vote to the author ; but the chairman, a strong Federal partisan, was so much scandalized by the heterodox character of 1842.] Alexande H. Everett. the politics, that he abstained from performing his duty, and the address has consequently never been printed. A little incident occurred at the public dinner of the society, on the day when this address was delivered, which we are tempted to insert here, as illustrative of the state of party feeling of that day and region. The society, which is not what it was in-tended to be, a purely literary institution, was then a mere political club. The toasts, songs, and speeches at the public meeting were of precisely the same character as at a professed party carousal. The meeting in question was held near the end of August, 1814, within a few weeks after the taking of Washington by the British, and this event was at that time the leading topic of political conversation. The proceedings at the dinner, after the cloth was removed, were an uninterrupted overflow of exultation at the success of the British troops, mingled with furious invectives and utter sarcasms against the administration. At length a member, somewhat noted for wit and drollery, was called upon for a song, and began a sort of doggrel ballad upon the taking of Washington, in thirty or forty stanzas, to the tune of Yankee Doodle ; in which he exercised his sportive chin entirely at the expense of poor Mr. Madison, and for the glorification of honest John Bull. The whole was received with bursts of applause ; but when he had got about half way through, the president of the day considered that his duty required him to invite the minstrel to suspended his strains long enough to allow the company to drink a glass of wine, which was, of course, to be prefaced by a toast. Mr. Everett happened to be the next person, and was called upon to five it. He had been for some time bursting with patriotic zeal. It was necessary, however, to combine some discretion with valor, as the company were, almost to a man, against him. He luckily bethought himself at the moment of the sentiment given, we believe, by General Pinckney, on some public occasion during the quasi war wit hFrance, in the time of John Adams, and accordingly offered from his place, with a perfectly distinct enunciation, as a toast - "The old Federal sentiment : millions for defense, not a cent for tribute." It fell like a familiar sound upon the ears of the audience, and was received with a hearty round of applause, perhaps before they recollected the distinction implied between the old Federal sentiment and that of the actual occasion, together with its general bearing upon the politics of the day. The minstrel, however, with a more quick apprehension of the rebuke, took the matter in dudgeon, and declined to go on with his song, remarking, that if the company did not agree with him in opinion, he had no wish to disturb the harmony of 464 Political Portraits.-No. XXX. [May, the meeting. Satisfied with the effect of his well-timed and well-aimed shot, Mr. Everett readily joined with the others in urging him to proceed, but it was a long time before he could be brought into better humor. A few months after, the treaty of Ghent terminated for a while these bitter dissensions. About the same time, Gov. Eustis of Massachusetts was appointed Minister to the Netherlands, and at his suggestion Mr. Everett received from Mr. Madison the commission of Secretary of Legation. After remaining a year or two in that situation he returned to the United States, and on the retirement of Mr. Eustis was appointed by Mr. Monroe to succeed him, with the rank of Charge d'Affaires. He occupied this post from the close of 1818 till the spring of 1824. The commercial relations between the two countries, and the claims for spoliations during the French ascendency, constituted here, as at most of the legations, the principal objects of attention. His correspondence with the government to Congress, a bears honorable record of the ability and zeal which he brought to the discharge of his public duties. A good deal of leisure was at the same time afforded him for the indulgence of his favorite literary pursuits, a part of which he employed in preparing a work, which was published at London and Boston in 1821, under the title of "Europe, or a General Sur-vey of the Political Situation of the principal Powers, with Conjectures on their future Prospects: by a Citizen of the United States." This work attracted some attention both in Europe and America. As at the same time a testimony to its merit, and a sample of the English criticism of American writing of the day, we may mention that the London Morning Chronicle remarked, that the designation assumed by the author on the title-page must be a mere cover, the language being not only in general too purely English, but too idiomatically, even in its occasional errors, to have proceeded from a foreign pen. The work was immediately translated into German, and published with a commentary by the celebrated professor Jacobi, of the University of Halle. It has since been translated into French and Spanish. The tone throughout is decidedly though moderately liberal. The information contained in the chapters on France and Germany was in part new to the English and American public. In the chapter on the 'Balance of Power,' the effect of the recent growth of Russia on the condition of the political world is indicated with a dis-tinctness which gave to this portion of the work an air of novel-ty. In a separate chapter on the British navy, the course pur- 1842] Alexanger H. Everett. 465 sued by Great Britain in regard to neutral rights, during the then recent war, is severely censured, and n total abstinence from the seizure of private property at sea is recommended as the only just and consistent plan of maritime warfare. In the following year, he published at London and Boston a work entitled, "New Ideas on Population, with Remarks on the Theories of Godwin and Malthus." This is an essay on the relation naturally existing between the state of population and the supply of the means of subsistence. In studying the theory of government, with the feeling of a friend of liberty and social I'm-provement, he had found himself compelled to encounter at the threshold of the subject the chilling and discouraging paradoxes of Malthus upon Population. This write had undertaken to prove, that by a standing law of nature, there is everywhere a necessary disproportion between the demand for, and the supply of the means of subsistence ; that this disproportion is the real cause of the misery of the great mass of the people throughout the world ; and that as their misery does not result from gad government, so it cannot be prevented by good ; and that the attempts to ameliorate the condition of society, by supposed political I'm-provements, are, of course, perfectly useless. For the same Rea-son any attempt to ameliorate the condition of individuals by charity, public or private, is entirely illusory ; what is given to one, being in fact taken from the mouth of another claimant, who would otherwise have it, and is now left to starve. Marriage, the fatal fountain which is continually swelling this flood of population that threatens to overwhelm the world, though not entirely inadmissible among the rich, is to be discouraged in every imaginable way among the mass of the people, and regard-ed as the principle of every individual and social evil. The extent ti which these strange paradoxes held at one time, and in fact still hold possession of the public mid in England and America, will be regarded hereafter as one of the curious aberrations of the human intellect. The absurd and unnatural character of the practical conclusions drawn by the author from his theory, and which in fact flow if his reading be admitted, must of themselves satisfy every person of good sense and for-rect feeling, that the system must be false. But the error in the argument had not been distinctly pointed out, and the proudest thinkers bent their necks to the conclusions, however offensive, as to an inevitable necessity. Lord Brougham declared publicly in the House of Commons, that he could not see the error in the argument, but that he was disgusted with the conclusions, that hw Ould vote a civic crown to the person who would prove the Vol.X.,No.XLVII.-59 theory to be untrue. Various unsuccessful attempts were made to solve the problem. Godwin denied that there was any such power of increase in population as Malthus supposed, and undertook to prove that the increase in this country had been owing entirely to emigration from Europe. Mr. Sadler, a member of Parliament, and a person of considerable talent and the best intentions, published an answer to Malthus in volumes 8vo, in which the point relied on as a reply to his main argument is, that after population has reached a certain density, there is a special interference of Providence to render the human body less prolific. Carlyle, though he rejects the conclusions with the bitterest scorn, has nothing better to propose in reply to the argument than emigration--which is simply giving it up. Alison, the latest writer on the subject, and one who has treated it elaborately in a work in two vols. 8vo, points out with correctness the increase in wealth that uniformly attends the increase of population, but makes no attempt to state the reasons of this phenomenon, or to indicate with precision the errors of Malthus. The English school of political economy, with M'Culloch at their head, are still firm believers in his doctrine, and Christopher North, the Coryphæus of the other political school, in reviewing the work of Alison in his number for December of 1840, re-asserts it with perfect gravity as an undeniable truth. In his work of which we have given the title, Mr. Everett undertook, in the first place, to establish the following propositions: 1. Every individual being at once a laborer and a consumer, any increase of population increases the amount of labor in exact proportion to the increased demand for its products. 2. The increase of population is the immediate cause of the division of labor. 3. The division of labor is the immediate cause of the increase of its productiveness: --therefore, 4. The increase of population produces an increase in the supply of the products of labor, as compared with the demand ; or, in other words, produces a relative abundance, instead of a relative scarcity of these products. Thus far the argument proceeds prosperously without any obstacle ; but at this point we encounter as an objection the theory of Malthus. 1. Every community must necessarily subsist upon the produce of its own territory. 2. Population advances geometrically--or, to speak less technically, indefinitely ; while the means of subsistence that can be drawn from any given territory are necessarily limited in quantity ; therefore, 3. The time must come, sooner or later, to every community, when there will be an actual deficiency of the means of subsistence. This period, according to Malthus, has in fact arrived long ago in all parts of the world. In his own language, "the period when the number of men surpasses their means of subsistence has long since arrived. This constantly subsisting cause of periodical misery has existed ever since we have had any histories of mankind ; does exist at present ; and will for ever continue to exist, unless some decided change takes place in the physical constitution of our nature." To this objection, Mr. Everett replies: 1. That there is no appearance, in fact, of any such increase of population in any community, as to exhaust the supply of provisions furnished by their territory. On the contrary, the increase of population has been everywhere attended with a more than proportional increase of the means of subsistence from the territory itself. This point has been well shown by Alison and others. But were it even true, the population naturally increases with great rapidity, it would not follow that there is any danger of scarcity ; for, secondly, (as this is the precise solution of the principal difficulty): 2. It is not necessary that every community should draw its means of subsistence from its own territory. The products of labor may be and naturally are realized at every point on the earth's surface, in the form in which they are there wanted. If a community is so dense as to more than exhaust the supply of provisions from its own territory, it then produces something else, which by the invariable laws of demand and supply, through the great distributing processes of commerce, is realized in the form of provisions. The supply of provisions being therefore unlimited in quantity, at least until the whole resources of the globe are exhausted, not only be the cultivation of its whole surface, but by the exhaustion of all possible improvements in method, and scientific inventions to facilitate and increase production, the objection of Malthus disappears, and the conclusion drawn from the former argument applies to the means of subsistence, as well as to every other product of labor. The progress of population is therefore a principle of abundance, and not a principle of scarcity. This is the outline of the argument which is developed and illustrated at moderate length, but with great logical clearness and ability, in Mr. Everett's work, forming an octavo volume of about a hundred pages. It was very favorably received in the United States, and has met the approbation and concurrence of many eminent judges. It has also been translated into French, and received with favor at Paris. In England, where the leading journals were mostly committed to the opposite side of the question, is attracted less attention. When the work was ready, Mr. Everett visited London for the purpose of putting it to press; and while there, took an opportunity to converse with Mr. Malthus upon the subject. He found him, however, so entirely wedded to his theory, that, though in general a candid man, he could not bring himself to look at it from a new point of view. After the work was published he found it more convenient not to notice it, than to attempt to refute the argument; and having led to no discussion, it has never been fairly brought before the British public. Whenever it shall be, it will be found a satisfactory refutation of the celebrated paradox in question; and can scarcely fail to produce on the mind of every reader the salutary effect which it produced on that of its author; to relieve the mind from the gloomy impressions which the doctrine of Malthus, if true, is fitted to produce; and to authorize him to continue a cheerful and hearty believer in the liberal creed of progress and social improvement. During his residence in the Netherlands, he contributed frequently to the North American Review, which had taken the place of the Repository and Anthology, as the leading literary journal at Boston, and was then under the direction of his brother Edward, now our Minister at the Court of St. James. Not having very free access to recent English works, and living in the midst of the contemporary French publications, he commonly selected his subjects from the latter. They were as follows; French Dramatic Literature; Louis Bonaparte; Private Life of Voltaire; Literature of the Eighteenth Century; Dialogue on Representative Government, between Dr. Franklin and President Montesquieu; Bernardin de St. Pierre; Madame de Stael; J.J. Rousseau; Mirabeau; Schiller; Chinese Grammar; Cicero on Government; Memoirs of Madame Campan; Degeando's History of Philosophy; Lord Byron. In the year 1824 he returned to the United States, on leave of absence, and passed the following winter at home. In the spring of 1825 he was appointed by Mr. Adams, then recently elected President, Minister Plenipotentiary to Spain, the place having been vacated by the resignation of Mr. Nelson. This appointment was an entirely spontaneous act of Mr. Adams, performed without any solicitation on the part of Mr. Everett, or that of any of his friends. Soon after his election by the House of Representatives, he intimated to Mr. Everett his intention to odder it to him. Mr. Everett said to him in reply, with proper acknowledgments for so flattering a proposal, that if he thought the appointment of a known personal friend would be likely to injure him with the people, he hoped he would not think of it. This difficulty was treated very lightly by the President, and Mr., Everett consented to accept the place. Such was the only conversation or communication of any kind that passed in the subject. The Spanish mission, though not in all respects the most attractive, nor generally the most important, was, at that moment, perhaps, the most interesting of all the foreign legations. Independently of the super intendance of the commercial relations between the two countries- the claims for spoliations, and the negotiations for commercial treaties, form the regular business of our minister abroad, the legation at Madrid was particularly charged with the affair of the independence; Great Britain was preparing to follow her example, but had not yet come to a decision; the Continental powers were all enlisted on the side of Spain. The Minister of the United States was, therefore, the only diplomatic agent at the Court of Madrid, representing a government which had acknowledged the new American powers; and Mr. Everett was particularly instructed to attend to their interest. By the effect of these circumstances, he became the virtual representative of the new Spanish American States, as well as of his own government. The immense addition of responsibility and labor which was thus thrown upon him, may easily be conceived. He was fully aware of the delicacy of his position, and determined, tot eh extent of his ability, to do justice to it. Soon after his arrival at Madrid, he prepared and presented to the Spanish government a long Memorial in behalf of the new states, detailing the reasons in favor of an immediate recognition of their independence. This memorial was transmitted to the other legations, to be used in their courts in persuading them to unite in the same policy. It has since been printed by the order if Congress, and is a paper well worthy of its author and its object. During his residence at Madrid, the subject was renewed as frequently , and urged as strongly, as propriety would permit. His connexion with the affairs of the new American states also made it necessary for him to keep up a constant personal communication with the private agents of these 470 Political Portraits.-No. XXX. [May, 1842] states at Madrid, and by letter with those at the courts of Europe. In addition to the voluminous correspondence required by the negotiations, Mr. Everett transmitted regularly to the government, as often as once or twice a month, full information respecting the political events that successively transpired in Spain, and to some extent in other parts of Europe. In this way it may be readily conceived how actively his time was occupied, though he cheerfully devoted the whole of it to the public business, never leaving his post for a single day, or the capital for any other purpose than necessarily to attend the court in its occasional excursions to the country; mixing very sparingly in merely fashionable society, and hardly allowing himself any recreation, excepting the devotion of a few leisure hours to literary studies. We are induced to mention one circumstance, growing out of Mr. Evererett's connexion with the affairs of the Spanish American States, which constitutes a reminiscence which we trust will not be forgotten as a precedent at two of the legations of our country, where we should be glad now to see our Ministers 'go and do likewise' - one of those legations being the one presided over by Mr. Everett's own brother. We refer, of course, to the American prisoners now languishing in Van Dieman's Land and Mexico. A privateer in the service of the Republic of Columbia - now broken up into fragments, but then the most flourishing and active in the new states - had been wrecked upon the Spanish coast, and seized with her crew by the government. Among the crew were a number of citizens of the United States. Being found in the armed employment of persons regarded as rebels by the Spanish government, they were punishable, according to the strict usage of nations, with death. The minister of their country had no right of course to claim them in his official character, for in entering the service of Columbia they had violated the laws of their own country. Considering, however, the offence, under all the circumstances, as not of a very heinous character, he determined to make a personal application to the King in their behalf. He accordingly solicited a private audience for this purpose, represented the case in a favorable manner to the King, and placed in his hands a written memorandum on the subject. The next day he had the satisfaction of receiving from the Secretary of State a note, informing him that the King had placed the persons in question at his disposal. He directed the Counsul at the nearest port to receive them, and furnish them with the means of returning to the United States. For his conduct in this matter he received, though their private agent at Alexander H. Everett. 471 Madrid, the thanks of the Columbian government, as he also was well entitled to the gratitude of his own countrymen. In the midst of the various and urgent official labors devolving on him at Madrid, Mr. Everett still found some leisure for literary pursuits, and employed a part of it in composing a work entitled "America, or a General Survey of the Political Situation of the principal Powers of the Western Continent, with Conjectures on their future Prospects, by a Citizen of the United States." This was intended as a complement to the similar work on Europe, which he had published while in the Netherlands, and finished the outline there commenced, of the political aspect of Christendom under the new state of things which had gradually grown up within the last century, and had become for the first time distinctly apparent since the fall of Napoleon. The extension of the European, or rather Christian political system over the whole world; the comparative decline of the great continental powers, Spain, France, Austria, and Prussia, which had successively been at the head of this system under its former more limited dimensions; the rise of England to the rank of a first-rate power; and the recent appearance of two new powers, the United States and Russia, forming, with England, the three leading powers of the Christian world; these, with a careful and able investigation of the political institutions and revolutionary history of the american republics, constituted the principal topics of the work. It was received and well-deserved favor by the leading journals at home; and, like its predecessor, was translated into the German, French, and Spanish languages. The general views, which were at the time in some degree new, and which were pronounced by some American critics as in part doubtful, have been fully confirmed by the developments of the subsequent ten years. During this period, Mr. Everett also continued his contributions to the North American Review, which was no under the direction of Mr. Sparks. He wrote, while in Spain, articles on the following subjects: McCulloch's Political Economy; Authorship of Gil Blas; Baron de Staël's Letters on England; Paraguay; The Art of being Happy; Politics of Eurpoe; Chinese Manners; Irvings's Columbus; Definitions in Political Economy by Malthus; Cousin's Intellectual Philosophy; Canova. In the addition to these able and active efforts of his own pen in the cause of letters, Mr. Everett never failed to take pleasure in employing his official influence in aiding the efforts of others in kindred literary pursuits. He invited Washington Irving to come to Madrid, gave him the character of attaché to the Legation, to -which he has recently proceeded as its head, and procured him access to the public archives from which he drew in part the ma-terials for his beautiful and valuable works on Spanish subjects. He attached to the Legation, as interpreter, the late lamented George Washington Montgomery, one of the most accomplished scholars and elegant writers, both in Spanish and English, of the day. He also transmitted to Mr. Prescott a large portion of the materials for his work on Ferdinand and Isabella; and gave to Professor Longfellow and Mr. Slidell, now Capt. Mackenzie, who visited Madrid during his time, all the encouragement and aid in their literary pursuits which lay within his power. In the management of the public affairs, he placed in the hands of the Spanish government projects of conventions on the subject of indemnities and of reciprocity in tonnage duties; and pressed forward the negotiation on both these subjects with all the ur-gency that propriety would admit, as long as he remained at Madrid during his time,all the encouragement and aid in their literary pursuits which lay within his power. In the management of the public affairs, he placed in the hands of the Spanish government projects of conventions on the subject of indemnities and of reciprocity in tonnage duties; and pressed forward the negotiations on both these subjects with all the urgency that propriety would admit, as long as he remained at Madrid. At the time of his departure there was a good prospect of success, which has since been confirmed by the conclusion of agreements in regard to both, substantially on the basis of his proposals. In the autumn of the year 1829, he returned to the United States- desirous and determined to devote himself per-manently and more fully than heretofore to liberty pursuits. From his long connexion with the North American Review as a contributor, he had become strongly interested in that journal, and soon after his return from Spain, by an arrangement with Mr. Sparks, who was desirous of devoting his time to the publication of the works of Washington, he became his time to the publication of the works of Washington, he became its proprietor and editor. He conducted the work with tone of ability which needs no eu-logy at our hands, for about five years, and mad it during that time the principle object of his attention. Besides a large num-ber of editorial notices with extracts, and other articles of less consequence, he prepared during his this time elaborate papers on the following subjects: British Opinions on the Protecting System; Politics of Europe; Tone of British Criticism; Stewart's Moral Philosophy; The American System; Life of Henry Clay; Life and Writings of Sir James Mackintosh; Irving's Alhambra; Nullification; The Union and the States; Hamilton's Men and Man-ners in America; Early Literature of Modern Europe; Early Lit-erature of France; Progress and LImits of Social Improvement; Origin and Character of the Old Parties; Character of Jefferson; Dr. Channing; Thomas Carlyle. In the last of these articles, which terminated his long connexion with the Review, he introduced to the American public a wri-ter then almost unknown even in England, but who, in the short period of four or five years which have since elapsed, has risen so rapidly in reputation, as to have not only completely justified the high commendation which he bestowed upon him, but to have become, notwithstanding some eccentricities, perhaps the most conspicuous person in the whole compass of contemporary Eng-lish literature. Although he had determined on his return from Spain to devote himself chiefly to literature, he yet felt no repugnance to taking a part in political affairs, so far as his friends might desire his aid, and as he could give it consistently with the necessary attention to his principal object. He accordingly assented to the proposal, which was made to him soon after his return, to become a candidate for the State Senate. There was, at that time, an "era of good feelings" in Massachusetts, and the six Senators representing the county of Suffolk, in which he resided, were ta-ken in equal number from the two old parties. He was electied in 1830 as one of the three Democratic candidates, and was annually re-chosen to that or the other branch of the Legislature for the next five years. As a member of the Legislature, he took an active and promi-nent part in the current business. He was the author of numer-ous able to reports and valuable projects of law, upon which we can-not afford to dwell in detail. He attended the Tariff convention held at New York in the year 1833, and as chairman of a commit-tee of that body, prepared the memorial which was presented in their name to Congress at the next session, as a reply to the me-morial prepared by Mr. Gallatin for the Free Trade convention previously held at Philadelphia. Mr. Everett was at this time a firm believer in the policy of encouraging domestic manufactures by protecting duties. Though not insensible to the truth and importance of the great principle of the Liberty of Trade, he con-sidered it as a not less certain and important principle, that a country derives an immense advantage from possessing within it-self manufactures of the most necessary articles, and indeed of all articles which it is fitted by situation, soul, and climate, to produce. Believing also that manufacturers on their first establish-ment may require some positive encouragement to enable them to struggle with foreign competition, and that in this country a duty on the similar foreign article was the best mode of giving this encouragement, he considered the case as one of the few exceptions to the general doctrine of the perfect freedom of trade. These views were developed at considerable length in the memorial just mentioned, and in several articles in the North American Review, particularly those entitled "British Opinions- 474 Political Portraits. -- No. XXX. [May, the Protecting System," and "The American System." Our own views on this subject are known to our readers. We are not aware that Mr. Everett has changed the views which he then entertained, excepting, perhaps, in regard to the last of the above stated principles, viz., that in this country a duty on the foreign article is the best mode of encouraging the manufacture of the domestic one. The full discussion of the Currency question, which has taken place within the last five years, has thrown a new light upon many points connected with that subject, and particularly upon the influence of the state of the currency on domestic industry, to which Mr. Everett's clear and discriminating intelligence has not been blind. A fluctuating currency holds out, in its periods of expansion, a bounty on the foreign article far more than equivalent to the encouragement given by protecting duties to the domestic one. In the great expansion of 1836, for example, our imports rose to nearly $200,000,000, against about $120,000,000 of exports. The specie all went to Europe to pay the balance; the banks exploded; and the industry of the country suffered a shock from which it has not yet recovered. The present tariff party are insisting, as a remedy for the evils occasioned by these fluctuations, the imposition of protecting duties; regarding these as tending to produce a sound state of the currency, by preventing specie from being carried out of the country. It is clear, however, to common sense, that the protecting duty, which is added to the price, and paid by the consumer, in no way diminishes the advantage drawn by the foreigner from the unnatural prices occasioned by an expanded currency, and has little or no tendency to prevent him from taking out specie. The true and only remedy for the evils occasioned by these fluctuations, and the best protection which the domestic manufacturer can possible have against foreign competition, is a stead and natural state of the currency, which can only be brought about by a reform of the abuses of the present banking system. The New England manufacturers, who, from some inconceivable blindness, are among the strongest opponents of this reform, have a deeper interest than any other class of persons in the community in seeing it realized. This view has, within two or three years, begun to attract a good deal of attention. It is developed at some length in two articles on the Currency, which he contributed to the Boston Quarterly Review for July, 1839, and January, 1840. The whig leader, and particularly Governor Davis of Massachusetts, perceiving the effect which the argument, if well understood, must inevitably produce, attempted to evade it by sophistically describing the proposed reform as intended to reduce wages, and thus diminish the reward of labor. It is hardly necessary to say that this mode of representing the subject was adopted ad captandum vulgus, and did no credit to the honestly of the persons who pretended to regard it as a just and correct one. During General Jackson's first term, Mr. Everett stood ranged -- naturally enough under the circumstances -- in the party of oppositions. Mr. Adam's accession, after the close of Monroe's no-party presidency, had considerably divided the old parties. Having been himself one of the old war Republicans, he carried many of them with him at this period. It is not surprising that Mr. Everett sectional position and personal relations with Mr. Adams made him one of these. He had been abroad nearly the whole of the time. On his return, he was not ungrateful or false to his friends. In the convention held at Baltimore at the close of the year 1831, for the purpose of nominating a candidate for the Presidency, he attended as one of the delegates from Massachusetts; and in that body, as chairman of a committee, wrote the address which was issued in their name, recommending Mr. Clay. The election which took place in the autumn of the following year, decided the question in favor of General Jackson. Immediately after, the Nullification troubles came to a crisis, and the famous proclamation was issued. The stand taken by the President on that occasion was much approved by all parties in Massachusetts, and there was a general disposition to terminate opposition, and support the administration. A public meeting was held at Faneuil Hall, at which Mr. Webster moved resolutions highly favorable to the policy of the general government. His friends in the Legislature introduced resolutions inviting the President to visit the State the following summer. This he accordingly did, and was received with an enthusiasm not inferior to that which attended the presence of Washington. The whole proceedings amounted to an adhesion on the part of Massachusetts to the administration. Mr. Everett had not taken a leading or active part in these proceedings, but cheerfully concurred in them, and thought them in part dictated by the true policy of the State. The original differences between Mr. Adams and General Jackson had been rather personal than political; and as neither of them would ever be again a candidate for the Presidency, there was no reason why their competition, which had now become a matter of history, should be permitted to disturb our present or future politics. The questions which had agitated the country during General Jackson's first term, were, in one way or another, disposed of. The removals, right or wrong, were made, and could not be unmade; -- the friends of the Indians had acquiesced in 476 Political Portraits. - No. XXX. the action of the government; - the Tariff question was settled by compromise, and all minor matters being absorbed in the immense question of the Union, on which the course of the administration gave universal satisfaction, there was nothing to prevent the existing opposition from rallying to the standard of the country, supporting the administration, and joining with its friends in electing Mr. Van Buren, who possessed qualification equal to those of any candidate before the public, and was certainly the only person having the least chance of being elected by the people. This was the view which Mr. Everett took of the subject, and upon which he acted. It would probably have been taken universally in Massachusetts, and indeed throughout the country, had it not been for the Bank question, which became at that time and has been ever since the main point of controversy between the parties. As General Jackson, on entering upon his second term, manifested the determination to adhere to his policy of not assisting in the recharter of a National Bank, the portion of the then existing opposition party, who considered this question as paramount to all other considerations, persisted in opposing his administration, and reorganized the party under the new name of Whigs. Another portion, with which Mr. Everett acted, and which consisted chiefly of the democratic members of the party, who naturally took the old democratic view of the bank question, concurred with the administration on this subject, and having no motive to oppose it on any other, fell at once into the ranks of its supporters. As respects the subject of this memoir, he had, before his return from Europe, paid less attention to the bank question than to some other in political economy, considering it as settled by the practice of the country; and, though fully aware of the danger of abuse, had been rather disposed to take a favorable view of the existing system. But the conduct of the United States Bank toward the close of its charter, and under its new name, with the disastrous events of the year 1837, completely, satisfied him of the demoralizing character of this system, and its utter inconsistency with the principles of a republican government. Indeed, the full discussion of the currency question, which has taken place within the last five years, and the practical illustration which it has received from the events of that period, have brought it, for the first time, distinctly before the public mind in its true character. In the midst of the full flood of light which has thus been thrown upon the subject, it has always, we know, been to Mr. Everett a matter of unmingled astonishment, that so many men of superior talents, and, it must be presumed, good [May, 1842.] Alexander H. Everett. 477 intentions, should be found willing to perpetuate a system so ruinous to the wealth, morals, and happiness of the community. In the year 1836, he removed from Boston to the neighboring village of Roxbury, which is within the precincts of the County of Norfolk, and the ninth Congressional district. He was invited soon after by the Democracy of that district to be their candidate for the seat in Congress which had just become vacant by the retirement of Mr. William Jackson. Consenting to this proposal, he received the vote of the party at the elections of that year and of 1838 and 1840. With a strong Federal majority in the district, and in the highly excited state of parties which then existed, there could, of course, be very little expectation of success; but he regarded it as a duty not to refuse, when requested, his aid, in whatever mode it might be demanded, to principles which he thought so important. During the administration of Mr. Van Buren, he took an active part in the political movements of his friends in Massachusetts and New England. On the fourth of July following the explosion of the banks in 1837, a meeting was held on Bunker Hill, for the purpose of expressing an opinion upon that proceeding. The chair was occupied by the Hon. W. Foster, of Boston, one of the soundest republicans and most enlightened political economists of the country. Mr. Everett made the draft of the resolutions adopted on that occasion, which contain a lucid and summary exposition of the theory of banking and the currency, and addressed the meeting with great force in support of them. This was one of the earliest demonstrations that took place after the explosion of the banks. and at least as much as any other public document of the day, had its influence in giving to public opinion the direction which it afterwards took, and into which it is now rapidly and conclusively settling down, in regard to this subject. During all this period, he was also frequently called upon to deliver addresses at political meetings, and also on occasions of a literary and philanthropic character. These were always received with admiration due to the chaste eloquence of style in which they conveyed the enlightened views and liberal sentiments of the mind and heart from which they proceeded. A number of them have been published at the request of the hearers. Among the subjects which have been thus treated of by Mr. Everett, we may specify the following: - The Progress and Limits of the Improvement of Society; The French Revolution; The Constitution of the United States; Moral Character of the Literature of the last and present century; Literary Character of the Scriptures; 478 Political Portraits.--No. XXX. [May, 1842.] Progress of Moral Science; Discovery of America, by the Northmen; German Literature; Battle of New Orleans; Battle of Bunker Hill. In the Winter of 1840, it was thought necessary by the government to send a confidential commissioner to the Island of Cuba, for the purpose of exercising a general superintendence over the consulate during the absence of the Consul, and of investigating the truth of charges that had been made against him for sanctioning the abuse of the American flag, for the purpose of covering the slave trade. At the urgent request of the President, Mr. Everett accepted this commission, and passed two months at the Havana in the execution of it. In the autumn of the same year (1840) he returned to Havana on private business, and, while there, received a letter from the Governor of Louisiana, requesting him, in the name of the board of directors of Jefferson College, in that State, to accept the presidency of that institution. After some consideration, and a personal visit to the college, he accepted the proposal , and entered on the duties of the office on the first of June; and the last of his publications we have met, is the address delivered on his first public appearance as President, which is well befitting that extended and established a reputation, as an accomplished scholar, an elegant writer, and a correct and liberal thinker, which procured for him the unusual honor of such an invitation from so distant a section of the Union. We congratulate the institution and the State upon the acquisition they have thus secured. And as Mr. Everett, still in the full vigor of his powers, is now placed in a position so congenial to his tastes, habits, and pursuits, we trust that in addition to those labors, of which the immediate benefits are to be confined to the students under his administration of the college, he will be able to adorn the literature of his country with many a future contribution, not less valuable to it and worthy of himself, than those of his past career, up to the point at which we have now to suspend the task of the biography's pen. The engraving accompanying this slight sketch of one in regard to whom, as both a personal friend and a contributor to the pages of this work, we have felt under some restraints which all can appreciate, upon the freedom of even just praise, is taken from a very fine portrait painted a number of years ago in Paris, by the celebrated Girard, now in the possession of Ex-President Adams. Though the progress of time may have made some change in its original, his friends will not fail to recognize in it a resemblance which will give it an interest and value second to none of the former numbers of this series. 479 SONNETS. BY J. E. LOWELL. I. As the broad ocean endlessly upheaveth, With the majestic beating of his heart, The mightly tides, whereof its rightful part Each sea-wide gulf and little weed receiveth, -- So, through his soul who earnestly believeth, Life from the universal Heart doth flow, Whereby some conquest of the eternal Wo By instinct of God's nature he achieveth: A fuller pulse of this all-powerful Beauty Into the poet's gulf-like heart doth tide, And he more keenly feels the glorious duty Of serving Truth despised and crucified,-- Happy, unknowing sect or creed, to rest And feel God flow for ever through his breast. II. Once hardly in a cycle blossometh A flower-like soul ripe with the seeds of a song, A spirit foreordained to cope with wrong, Whose diving thoughts are natural as breath, Who the old Darkness thickly scattereth With starry words which shoot prevailing light Into the deeps, and wither with the blight Of serene Truth the coward heart of Death: W o if such spirit sell his birthright high, And mock with lies that longing soul of man; Yet one age longer must true Culture lie, Soothing her bitter fetters as she can, Until new messages of love outstart At the next beating of the infinite Heart. III. The love of all things springs from love of one; wider the soul's horizon hourly grows, And over it with fuller glory flows The sky-like spirit of God; a hope begun In doubt and darkness, 'neath a fairer sun Cometh to fruitage, if it be a Truth; And to the law of meekness, faith, and ruth, By inward sympathy shall all be won: This thou shouldst know, who, from the painted feature Of shifting Fashion, couldst thy brethren turn Unto the love of ever youthful Nature, and of a beauty fadeless and eterne; 480 Sonnets. [May, And always 'tis the saddest sight to see An old man faithless in Humanity. IV. A poet cannot strive for despotism; His harp falls shattered; for it still must be The instinct of great spirits to be free, And the sworn foes of cunning barbarism. He who has deepest searched the wide abysm Of that life-giving Soul which men call fate, Knows that to put more faith in lies and hate Than truth and love, is the worst atheism: Upward the soul for ever turns her eyes; The next hour always shames the hour before; One beauty at its highest prophesies That by whose side it shall seem mean and poor; No Godlike thing knows aught of less and less, But widens to the boundless Perfectness. V. Therefore think not the Past is wise alone, For Yesterday knows nothing of the Best, And though shalt love it only as the nest Whence glory-winged things to Heaven have flown. To the great Soul alone are all things known, Present and future are to her past, While she in glorious madness doth forecast That perfect bud which seems a flower full-blown To each new Prophet, and yet always opes Fuller and fuller with each day and hour, Heartening the soul with odor of fresh hopes, And longings high and gushings of wide power, Yet never is or shall be fully blown Save in the forethought of the Eternal One. VI. Far 'yond this narrow parapet of Time, With eyes uplift, the poet's soul should look Into the Endless Promise, nor should brook One prying doubt to shake his faith sublime; To him the earth is never in her prime And dewiness of morning; he can see Good lying hid, from all eternity, Within the teeming womb of sin and crime; His soul should not be cramped by any bar,— His nobleness should be so Godlike high That his least deed is perfect as a star, His common look majestic as the sky, And all o'erflooded with a light from afar, Undimmed by clouds of weak mortality. BOSTON, April 2, 1842. 1842.] 481 THE MINSTREL'S CURSE. FROM THE GERMAN OF UHLAND. A castle stood in olden time, so lofty and so grand, Far o'er the plain its splendor shone unto the blue sea's strand, And round it fragrant gardens a blooming garland made, Where freshest foundations springing forth, in rainbow glory played. There sat a haughty monarch, rich in land victories, He sat upon his throne, so pale, with darkness in his eyes; For all his thoughts are horror, and all his looks are rage, His words are scourges, and he writes in blood upon the page. Once drew there toward this castle a noble minstrel pair, The one in golden tresses, and the other gray of hair; The old many with his harp was seated on a charger pied, And blithely stepped his blooming mate in beauty at his side. The old man to the youth thus spake: "Prepare thee now, my son! Bethink thee of our deepest songs—tune to the fullest tone,— Gather thy strength together, the gladness and the pain! For the king's stony heart to-day must melt beneath our strain." Already stood the minstrels in the pillared hall of state, And on the throne the monarch and his gentle consort sate; The king in fearful splendor, like the bloody northern light, Tender and mild the queen, as if the full moon made her bright. The old man struck the harp-strings, and he struck so wondrously, That richer, even richer, swelled their rising melody; Then streamed with heavenly clearness forth the young man's tones of fire, And the old man's song was heard between, list a misty spirit choir. Of love and spring they're singing, of the happy golden time, Of freedom, manly worth, of faith and holiness sublime, And all things sweet that thrill the breast of man are in their lays, And all that have a lofty spell the heart of man to raise. The jest has died upon the lips of the gay courtier crowd, And the king's stalwart warriors before their God are bowed, The queen, her soul all melted with mournfullest delight, Throws to the minstrel pair a rose from off her bosom white. "Ye have seduced my people, entice you now my wife?" Raves the fierce king, all trembling with passion's fearful strife; Sudden his sword, light lightning, at the youth's fair breast he flings, And forth, 'stead of the golden song, a bloody torrent springs. VOL. X. No. XLVII.—61 482 Mr. Henry A. Wise and the Cilley Duel. [May, Then, as by tempest, scattered is all that listening swarm, The gentle youth had breathed his last upon his master's arm, He binds him with his minstrel cloak firm upright on the horse, And from the castle turns his steps, with the beloved corse. But yet before the lofty gate pauses the minstrel gray, There seizes he his cherished harp, the glory of its day ; Upon a marble pillar dashed, by his stern hand, it lies, Then calls he until tower and grove ring with his fearful cries. " Wo unto you, proud halls! no more your empty vaults along The minstrel's string shall tremble, shall gush the poet's song! No! sighs and groans shall echo there, and the slave's step of dread, Till the avenging spirit o'er your mould'ring dust shall tread. "Wo unto you, sweet gardens! in the lovely light of May, I show to you the features marred of him who's passed away, That ye thereat may wither, and your every stream be dry, That ye, all turned to stone, one day may waste and desert lie. " Wo unto thee, foul murderer! thou curse of MInstrelsie! In vain thy striving for the crown of bloody fame shall be, Forgotten be thy name for aye, in endless night enwreathed, Let it, as an expiring gasp, in empty air be breathed!" The old man's voice has called it down, the ear of heaven has heard; The sinking walls, the ruined halls, fulfill his parting word; One pillar yet remains to mark the glory that has gone, And that, already crumbling, may fall ere morrow morn. And round it, 'stead of gardens fair, a barren desert land, No tree may cast its shadow there, no spring may pierce the sand; The monarch's name no song, and no heroic page rehearse, Deep sunken and forgotten- that is the Minstrel's Curse. MR. HENRY A. WISE AND THE CILLEY DUEL. In the Number of the Democratic Review for March, 1838, under the title of "The Martyrdom of Cilley," we published an article not yet probably forgotten by some of our readers, some portions of which, now sincerely regretting to have printed or written, we are as sincerely anxious to retract, and to atone for to the fullest extent that either justice can claim, or generosity could suggest. The article referred to was written almost as it were by the very side of the dead body of the friend whose unhappy fate 1842.] Mr. Henry A. Wise and the Cilley Duel. 483 created the occasion for it, and awoke the spirit which it breathed. The profound sensation which electrified the heart of the whole country on the announcement of that terrible tragedy, there are few doubtless who do not remember. What must have been the emotions of those who stood at the very centre of this deep and wide population agitation - who in its victim mourned a friend and recent companion- and whose sight was still haunted by the image of the good, the gallant, and the gentle, stretched before them in the ghastly awfulness of such a death - language could with difficulty utter, and memory shrinks from attempting to recall. If there was any thing in the article in question of a character too vindictive and merciless, it is a duty to conscience and to Christianity to express for it that regret which, at a calmer season of more just and charitable retrospection, ought to arise in every human heart which has even been hurried by natural passion to indulge such a sentiment towards any fellow human being. We will only say, that if there was in it any spirit of vengeance, it was that unconscious vengeance which so often believes itself to be but the righteous resentment of justice. That it was both sincere, and prompted only by motives of a high public duty, may be assumed as sufficiently proved by the slightest reference to the great personal peril at which such an article was necessarily written and published, under the existing circumstances of time and place. Mr. Wise was treated, in the article, as the true author of the death- the death which was regarded as the murder- of poor Cilley. It was indeed very unfortunate for that gentleman that the general complexion of the evidence of the case, so far as it was then spread before the public eye, was such as to fasten this imputation upon him, as the principal figure of the whole horrid transaction, with a terrible degree of concentration and force. We will not recapitulate it- we have no desire to preserve its recollection. So general and so strong was the effect this produced, that the echo has never yet entirely died away from the land, of the expectations which were then heaped upon his name from every quarter of its wide extent. A general impression has prevailed that he fomented this wretchedly groundless quarrel, urged forward its consummation, and, in a spirit of deadly ferocity that knew no ruth not relenting, forced it on to its fatal issue, not only without any of the conventional justification to be derived from the laws of the "code of honor," but in opposition to its clearest principles. Many personal and political friends, doubtless, took a different view of the matter, but in the minds of a great majority of the people, such was the pervading impression left behind; and when the death of Cilley was remembered, the image of Wise, more than that of Graves, was associated with the event as its truly guilty and responsible author. Though the latter was condemned, with a less unforgiving reprobation, as having evinced a wicked weakness of conduct throughout the affair, the former was regarded as the master spirit of the mischief, and as having shown himself in it a man of dark and malignant soul, of bad and bitter heart. The recent publications which have been made on this unhappy subject, have satisfied us that in all this a great and serious injustice has been done to Mr. Wise; and if we in an degree contributed before to aggravate that feeling, we hasten- equally now as then, unsolicited and unprompted- to volunteer the expression of out regret, and of our desire to apply such remedy as may be in our power. No man, but One, has ever yet trod the earth, who, in the judgements of his fellow-men upon him and his life, did not need more than justice, charity, even as mercy could be his only hope in the judgements of his God. It is especially our duty to judge men, when we venture to judge them at all, with reference to the standard of right to be sought in those codes of practice and principle to which they have been educated, and by the influences of which they have continued in life surrounded. Without carrying this rule to the false length which would substitute the accidental laws of circumstance for the immutable ones of the universal justice and right, and find an excuse for all wring by transferring its responsibility to others- ancestors, parents, associations, the world- the sternest moralist will not refuse to take these at least charitably into account; if not to change his decision, yet to soften the severity of the penalties with which he would visit the authors of human offences, which in themselves would sometimes seem to be beyond the reach of forgiveness. The even to which we have referred above was in itself a most foul deed, and most heinous crime - and constitutes one of the most startling illustrations ever presented to the public mind, of the foolishness and the wickedness of that code of barbarian "honor" to which poor Cilley fell a victim. Its goof effects have, doubtless, not been lost in awakening in many minds those reflections upon the absurdity and atrocity of the whole institution of the Duel, which will eventually draw out of the present and partial evil a lasting and extended good. It is to be hoped that its moral influence in this way has not been lost upon those themselves engaged in it. Mr. Wise in this matter acted as a duelist, as he carried out the laws of the code under which, in the character of a second, he placed himself, with a terrible sternness and unbendingness of purpose. Further than this we are now satisfied that he neither went, nor evinced a desire to go. For this, in view of his education and associations, we cannot extended to him, individually, that condemnation due to the system, which he merely had not the courage and clearness of moral vision to raise himself above. It is to be presumed he thought, as it thought by a body of public opinion in his country too large to be treated with entire contempt, that dueling was one of the necessary evils of society, for the prevention of greater ones - like hanging, for example; and if his friends choose to even to claim a credit for the fires and vigor with which he carried out the duties imposed upon his position by the principles of the Duel, we can scarcely see how any one who would applaud the display of the similar faculties in the administration of that other institution of kindred barbarity and absurdity, can have much ground on which to dispute their right to do so- relative as such terms are, in their common application, as either merits or crimes, according to the public opinion, usage, and the motive or spirit by which the individual may have been actuated. With respect to the latter, it appears to us to be made fully manifest that, instead of the duel having been urged on by the counsels of Mr. Wise, the course pursued had been resolved on independently of them; that is was followed out without his approval; that after the announcement of the weapons chosen by the challenged party, he even wished to arrest it, on the ground of their unusual, and, as he assumed, ferocious character- a ground overruled by the other counsellors engaged in the affair; and that on the field, in the seemingly ruthless determination evinced by him to extort an unreasonable and impossible concession from Mr. Cilley, he followed only the written instructions drawn up by the rest before setting out. It is also made clear and certain that the point of view in which Mr. Wise regarded the matter from the beginning, was that of a direct issue of veracity between the two parties; entirely disapproving that in which it was exhibited throughout the written record of the case, - namely, that of the vicarious vindication of the honor of a third party; in whose behalf an acknowledgment was to be extorted, that no disrespect had been intended toward him in the refusal to accept his challenge. It is to Mr. Clay that the error is chargeable of placing the matter on this latter absurd ground. His motive was, doubtless, a good one, that of facilitation a settlement, according to his view of the probabilities, by making it a question of formality, rather than the more difficult one of veracity. But its effect has been very unfortunate for Mr. Wise and all concerned; since it was out of the very breadth of the contrast between the unrelenting spirit with which it was carried out to its deadly end, and the absurdity of the ostensible reason or motive of the whole, that proceeded a great part of the public odium which has gathered and settled like a black cloud over the heads of the parties involved on the challenging side. So much in justice to Mr. Wise. We think it due to him, since the recent publications on the subject, that this justice should be tendered to him by all those who either publicly or privately contributed to swell the torrent of general indignation against him, by which at the time, he was almost swept away to destruction; and especially is it due that it should not be withheld, nor ungraciously bestowed, by all that great institution and power in society, of which we have spoken the sentiments of one of the constituent units- the Press, As for Mr. Graves, there is nothing in the recent publications we have alluded to, (and which we have neither time, space, nor inclination to refer to in details,) which calls for any particular remark in relation to him. Whatever his crime may have been, it has not been unattended by a full measure of punishment- to which we have no desire to add. We are willing in charity to concede, that in his interview with Cilley he understood the latter in accordance with the sense which he afterwards insisted that Mr. Cilley should express in a written form. But that that was a total misunderstanding, growing out of the uncertainties of verbal communications on such occasions, we are well assured, - knowing as we do how uniform were Mr. Cilley's representations on the subject to his friends from the beginning; and how indignantly he saw in the insolence of this demand that evidence of a determination to force him to the crime of fighting, or to the disgrace of insult and outrage, which led him in that fatal hour to accept that fatal challenge. Of the part which Mr. Clay appears to have performed in this dread drama, we have nothing else to say than this- that while he was undoubtedly at the time actuated by a sincere desire to avert any fatal consequences in the affair, yet as to his subsequent course, in allowing his friends to keep so closely drawn the veil of secrecy over the extent of his participation in it, and in abstaining from coming to the rescue of Mr. Wise from the terrible pressure of the public sentiment against him, in the manner so easy for him to do with conclusive effect, we find it hard to reconcile it with all we have heretofore been proud and happy to believe of Mr. Clay's manly magnanimity, honor, and frankness of character. Let there by now no further revivals of all these wretched recollection. We should have never again alluded to the sad subject, but for the purpose of doing the act of justice now, we trust, sufficiently performed. The dead are gone. Of them let nothing but the good be remembered or spoken. And for the living, let them be forgiven, by all but those who never expect themselves to need forgiveness at the hand of man or God. THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW YORK, AND MR. WEBSTER, ON THE M'LEOD QUESTION, This is the second edition of a carefully elaborated pamphlet dedicate to Daniel Webster, the avowed object of which is to show that the Supreme Court of New York ought to have discharged M'Leod on habeas corpus. It will be recollected that M'Leod stood indicted for the murder of one of our citizens; and his discharge was demanded by the British government on the ground that if he was guilty of homicide in any sense, it was as one of a military expedition ordered out by the Canadian provincial authorities for the purpose of destroying the steamboat Caroline, the known to be lying in our waters at Schlosser. The boat belonged to Mr. Wells, a citizen of Buffalo, who was suspected of an intention to use it in aid of the rebels at Navy Island in the winter of 1837; and the expedition being designed to frustrate such supposed purpose, the Queen of England three years afterward avowed the act, and demanded the release of M'Leod-a demand which Mr. Webster at once hastened to concede to be proper, in language which we shall presently notice. As the case is now before the public in extenso, both in the reports of Mr. Hill and Mr. Wendell, we shall not enter further upon its details. To one unacquainted with the deep interest which Mr. Webster has in the questions discussed in the Review under consideration, its publication at this time might seem a work of supererogation. M'Leod has been acquitted and has returned to Canada, where he and all concerned in the affair of the Caroline will probably choose hereafter to remain. There is, therefore, no purpose of criminal justice to be subserved by the discussion. Much less can any advantage be gained in a national point of view from a vindication of the by-gone demand which England made upon our government; for we cannot believe that Mr. Webster's pliant concessions to Mr. Fox are to be repeated as a basis of the approaching negotiations with Lord Ashburton. But some effort to sustain Mr.Webster's legal and political character was undoubtedly necessary. He had granted the right of England to demand the surrender of M'Leod, on a distinction quite novel- not to say suspicious. In a letter to Mr. Fox, while strongly insisting that England was herself in the wrong, he held the following language: - "The government entertains no doubt that after this avowal of the transaction as a public transaction, authorized and undertaken by the British authorities, individuals concerned in it [ M'Leod included] ought not, by the principles of public law, and the general usage of civilized states, to be holden personally responsible in the ordinary tribunals of law their participation in it." The argument of Mr. Webster in the letter containing the clause cited, when divested of its rhetorical embellishments, will be found to amount to little short of this: The transaction was illegal. England has no power to enter our territory, and burn the property and take the lives of our citizens. But although she had no such rights, she could impart them to M'Leod. She might give what was not hers. A derivative right is better than a primary one. The agent may have a higher authority than his principal- the inferior, than his superior- the bailiff than his landlord! This, Judge Cowen, delivering the unanimous opinion of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, denied. That Court held, first, with Mr. Webster, that the English functionaries concerned in this matter had acted without right: but they held further, that England having no means of defending herself against the imputation of wrong, could impart none to M'Leod; that the burning and homicide being without authority, he was, like one of our citizens, amenable to all the requisitions of criminal justice; that England had, by the avowal become an accessory to the crime after the fact, but that the establishment of such a relation took nothing from the guilt of the principal offender. It is obvious that a view so consistent, so much in accordance with the common sense of mankind, and with every principle of law which had yet found its way into the books, was calculated to make a powerful impression upon the general mind. The decision had doubtless been anticipated. In a few days after it was announced, Judge Tallmadgem of the Superior Court of the city of New York, a zealous political friend of Mr. Webster, drew up and published in the "New York Times" the substance of what is contained in the work before us, which he soon afterward expanded to the dimensions of a pamphlet calling it his first edition. This was, with very equivocal propriety, printed by Mr. Webster himself, at the public expense, from the contingent fund at the disposal of the Department of State, and extensively circulated. That the political associated of Mr. Webster should have been disposed to render him every aid at a crisis thus momentous to him- in which his standing as a jurist, a statesman, and an American, was so unfortunately involved- was to be expected. Even in this, however, we are disappointed; for among the thousands of those associates whose abilities are acknowledged, we now, on the appearance of Mr. Tallamadge's second edition, find only two- the late Chancellor Kent and Chief Justice Spencer- who indeed seem prepared to second his efforts by a general endorsement. These, we concede, are distinguished jurists; and had they not been equally distinguished for the ardor of their attachments to the political school of which Mr. Webster is the pride and boast, we should certainly have to congratulate the reviewer on the accession of such illustrious proselytes. We are not disposed to deny, nevertheless, that on whatever grounds these gentlemen may have joined Mr. Tallmadge, they have entitled his work to a consideration which, it is believed, no one understanding the subject would have accorded to its intrinsic force. Chancellor Kent, in a letter acknowledging the receipt of a copy, declares the Review to be precise, accurate, and conclusive; and Chief Justice Spencer, that, by it, he considers the opinion of Judge Cowen most amply overthrown. Each authorized his letter to be appended to the second edition of the Review, and those letters are so appended. We consider ourselves entitled, therefore, to treat the writers of them as holding the same relation to Mr. Tallmadge, which the Supreme Court of New York adjudged England to hold toward M'Leod, viz, not that of principal offenders, but accessories after the fact. Let us first consider some express admissions of this high court of Review, which has thus taken an appellate cognizance of the case, as it was adjudged by the Supreme Court of the State of New York. And here we must do them to the justice to say, that they concede away the main question raised by M'Leod's counsel, and indeed the only one which seems to have created any serious embarrassment in the mind of the Supreme Court. They agree that that tribunal has jurisdiction both of M'Leod's person, and of the subject matter of the indictment; in other words, that the Court had power, in their discretion, to send M'Leod down for trial, as they did. Indeed, like those who saw Columbus set up the egg, they are astonished that the power should ever have been doubted; and they think that, in discussing this point at all, Judge Cowen, to use the somewhat overstrained figure of the Review, "must have been fighting a shadow of his own casting." We have their admission, then, that the Court did nothing more than they had a most clear right to do in their discretion, 490 The Supreme Court of New York, [May, and the question is narrowed down to the manner in which that discretion was exercised. The Court examined that case in this view, and came to the conclusion that, so far from M'Leod's counsel having shown a want of jurisdiction, they had not even presented matters on which he could defend himself before a jury. Again- the Review admits that, assuming England to have been at war with individuals, and the United States to have held the position of a neutral nation, the transaction was "absolutely unlawful;" and we also understand the concession to be clearly made, which, it is true, is denied afterward, that if the two countries were at peace, - M'Leod, provided he participated in the transaction, was guilty, and could not legally have been discharged. That the history of the two countries ever since 1816 shows them to have been at peace, is not questioned. Neither is it denied that there was and still is a treaty of peace between them; nor that such treaty is the law of the land, which all courts must judicially regard and pronounce binding, until one of the two countries shall have instituted war. That either country had issued a declaration of war, is not pretended; and we agree with the critics we are criticising, that this was not necessary for M'Leod's defence. It would have made only one of the two kinds of lawful war, viz, that known in the code of nations as"perfect war." There is no doubt that without a general declaration of war, England may send her military and naval force to make war upon the United States, and thus impart protection as against our criminal tribunals to her soldiery and sailors. She may do this by particular commission; and that would constitute the second kind of lawful war, called in the code "imperfect war." These are the only two kinds of public war which could have been insisted on as justifying M'Leod. This, also, is conceded in one part of the pamphlet before us; for the necessity had not yet occurred of resorting to a quasi war, to which it is ultimately driven. Thus the Review seemed approaching an issue tendered by the opinion of Judge Cowen. We shall presently see how far it has ventured to accept it. He had denied that the trespass on Well's boat, and the incidental destruction of life, without the intent to make war on the United States, would constitute "imperfect war!" He insisted that an attack of one nation upon 1842.] and Mr. Webster, on the M'Leod Question. 491 * See an authoritative adjudication by the Supreme Court of the United States as to what constitutes imperfect war, in Bas v. Tingy (4 Dall. 37.) This case, besides being in entire accordance with the doctrine maintained by Judge Cowen, suggests two test which may be applied to the circumstances of the M'Leod affair. Suppose the Caroline, instead of having been sent over the falls, had been taken to Chippewa, and there condemned as lawful prize: would our courts have recognized the title of a purchaser under the decree? Or, suppose she had been the private property or person of the citizens of another, though, under circumstances, a justifiable cause for war, was not war perse of any kind; that to constitute it such, it must have been intended as an act of national aggression upon the one side, with a view of influencing national will, at least, upon the other. That as to the affair in question, there was no such object; but, on the contrary, the sole purpose was to cripple Well's boat, and prevent his conveying munitions to Navy Island. That, in effect, it was no more war against the United States, than if England had sent her sailors to cut a mast on Well's farm against his consent, for the purpose of repairing a ship in the royal navy. That the whole was a mere trespass, subjecting the agents to civil or criminal responsibility, according to the nature of the offence committed. That the act, being in time of profound peace, was without color of authority; and therefore, if M'Leod had burned, he was legally guilty of arson- if he had taken life, he was legally a murderer. Several pages of the opinion of the Court are occupied in presenting and enforcing this controlling feature of the case; and we must confess our astonishment on finding that its reviewer has neither attempted to meet it, nor even given it any allusion. This brings us to notice those qualities ascribed to the Review by Chacellor Kent, and for which he so much admires it, viz, its precision and accuracy! Does he mean that it is "precise and accurate" when it says, Judge Cowen denied imperfect war to be lawful by the law of nations? and when it makes him say, there cannot be a lawful war without a public declaration, by which the entire peace of the country is broken up? It is due to the learned Chancellor, perhaps, that, with a view of appreciating the force of his endorsement (if we may be allowed to use a convenient though not very classical commercial phrase), some portion of the language of the Review should be here stated. At p.13, after quoting Rutherford, the Review proceeds: - "In opposition to this authority, it will be seen that Judge Cowen starts with the proposition, that, so long as the entire peace of the two nations is not broken up- in other words, until Congress shall declare war against England, or the Queen of England against us- there cannot be a state of war that will warrant the destruction of property, or the taking of life in conflict on either side." Again, p.14, after quoting Vattell, the Review adds further: - "Vattell does not, like Judge Cowen, call all wars unlawful that are not formally and solemnly declared by the war-making power of a government," rescued from her Canadian captors by some other American vessel: would a claim for salvage have resulted and been sustained in our admiralty court? It is believed that no intelligent lawyer can be found, except perhaps Judge Tallmadge, who would venture to answer either of these questions in the affirmative. And then some dozen or more pages are occupied in extracts from various books, to show that war, though imperfect- i. e. made without formal or solemn declaration - is lawful. Now we unhesitatingly admit that, had the Judge advanced the position here imputed to him, he must have done so in disregard of the whole current of authority since the time of Grotius. The fact, however, is directly the reverse; and the Review in this respect exhibits as cool a piece of controversial fabrication as was ever penned. No doctrine of the kind is contained in the opinion if Jude Cowen, and none is even inferrible from it. On the contrary, after carefully defining the two kinds of war, "perfect" and "imperfect," he distinctly affirms and decides that "both sorts of war are lawful;" giving, as the reason, that both "are carried on under the authority of a power having, by the law of nations, a right to institute them." (See 1 Hill, 409 to 411; and 25 Wendell, 576 to 578.) He then proceeds to show the absurdity of considering the Caroline affair as a war of either kind, and in the course of his observations cites the identical books quoted in the Review. This was the turning question in the cause- one which was made to assume a prominence in the discussion of counsel, and in the opinion of the Court, which could not be overlook; and yet Judge Cowen's observations upon it, instead of being met, and, as Chief Justice Spencer is pleased to say, refuted and overthrown, have been simply perverted and falsified by it. The Review, moreover, is likely to retain quite as much distinction for its logic, as for its precision and accuracy. Its author, notwithstanding the experience he ought ti have acquired both at the bar and on the bench, seems not to have been aware that a minor proposition is at all necessary to constitute a perfect syllogism. Its style of argumentation, disdaining the slow process of the schools, proceeds thus: "Imperfect war is lawful, and will entitle those engaged in it to protection against a criminal prosecution: - therefore, M'Leod was entitled to such protection!" Even Master Hedge would have told Judge Tallmadge, that to render the argument complete it was necessary to show M'Leod to have been engaged in an imperfect war. This does not seem to have occurred to him; or if it did, he preferred a more compendious mode of reaching his conclusion. We admit he rambles through some dozen pages of quotation, acting all the time as if he intended to bring M'Leod within his labored category of imperfect war; and should some jaded reader stop midway among his scraps, picked up at random, and so colored by comment as occasionally to look like meeting the case, he might be left under the impression that the pamphlet did, or would somewhere and somehow, seek to protect M'Leod as a bona fide warrior. In this, however, he would be greatly deceived. The Review does not pretend that the affair of the Caroline was imperfect war; indeed, it is constrained to admit that it was just no war at all! Not that it means to abandon M'Leod's justification, but to place it on new and curious ground, viz. : that although the affair was not imperfect war absolutely, yet it so nearly approached or resembled it, that the Supreme Court should have recognised the likeness as being the thing itself, and let M'Leod go free at once. Its language it as follows: "We feel great confidence in saying, that we have by the most ample authority maintained,- 1st. That a hostile attack and violation of our territory, in time of general peace, by the authority of the British government, with apparent cause, is [not imperfect war, but] so FAR a lawful war of the imperfect sort, as to furnish impunity to the military engaged in it." Thus, instead of regarding nations as necessarily occupying relations of either war or peace, and their subjects as at all times amenable to the laws of the one or the other, the Review imagines that it has discovered a "middle passage" for M'Leod, or rather, perhaps, that it has picked out and patched up, even from authoritative publicists, a sort of international purgatory- neither peace nor war, but quasi war - SO FAR a lawful war of the imperfect kind, as to afford impunity to lawless violence, and even hireling assassination. We recollect that some ingenious friend of Mr. Webster, in Congress, thought M'Leod irresponsible to our civil tribunals, because the expedition sent against the Caroline came with "the giant tread of war." The bearing of a single musket, then, a cutlass, or even a blugeon, by M'Leod would, in the judgement of some of them, have been "SO FAR a lawful war of the imperfect sort," invading our territory with "giant tread," as to warrant Mr. Webster's obliging offer to surrender him. Man-worship is not idolatry in their sight; and to sustain their favorite, right or wrong, is their vocation. We are desirous of according full force to their arguments, when we can bring ourselves to see that they have used any. We sincerely wish Mr. Webster's conduct could be vindicated by truth and just reasoning; but we protest against the gross perversion of both, even in behalf of so eminent a public functionary as a Secretary of State. Above all, we protest against the sort of rude arrogance with which the Review censures the Supreme Court, for not adopting distinctions so puerile, that M'Leod's counsel out of self respect forbore to urge them; nay, which any student who has read his Blackstone might blush to advance. In the same spirit, the Review, at p.36, cites the concessions of Mr. Webster to Mr.Fox, which we mentioned in out introductory remarks. It there represents him as saying, what it does not venture to say for itself, that the relation of the two governments was that of "imperfect war." Now the declaration of Mr. Webster, whatever it may have been, was intended by him as no more than what it imports, viz., a mere opinion. This is entirely obvious. Yet we find the Review quoting and pressing it into its service as a constitutional decision, definitely settling the general relations of peace and war between England and the United States, and absolutely binding our courts of justice. In other words, the Review considers that the Supreme Court was no longer to regard the treaty of peace as in force, because Mr. Webster had declared that it should be suspended for the special benefit of M'Leod. Mr. Webster, however, had declared nothing of the kind. He put what he said on the law of nations, without reference to the question, whether the two countries were in a state of peace or war. The avowal of England was enough, in his opinion, to protect M'Leod, though he had been an acknowledged assassin in time of peace. He nowhere hinted that we were at war; for he knew better. We admit, his remarks are a direct authority for the immunity of M'Leod. The misfortune of the Review is, that it has been unable to adduce any other. But when it places him in the attitude of undertaking to settle the question of peace or war, and of pronouncing a judgement binding in the courts, it pushes him not only beyond his meaning, but beyond his power.* Besides, the Review would bring its illustrious client- not to say patron- into disgrace; for according to such a representation of him, his desire to serve England was so overweening and undisguised, that he decided for an imperfect war, on a case which the Review itself concedes was not such, but only an approximation to it. Mr. Fox, also, sought to justify the outrage, independently of the question of peace or war. Judge Cowen asserts that he had not called the affair of the Caroline a war. The Review admits this to be so; but because Mr. Fox spoke of a transaction, which it has ventured to say was "very like" a war, it cites Cowen's Treatise to show that he might be considered as announcing war by equivalent words. Quoting a treatise upon the civil jurisdiction of a justice of the peace, to settle a grave point arising under the law of nations, is what we should scarcely have noticed, had it not been so entirely in keeping with the general want of pertinence of quotation by which the Review is characterized, and the kindred puerilities with which it abounds. The truth is, this idea of the two nations being at war, never entered into the mind of any one, until Mr. Webster's strange opinion came to be discussed in Congress. His friends then made the discovery that he could not be sustained without a war, or, at least, the pretence of one. England, however, had steadily refused to treat the matter in that light, and even when pressed by the arrest of M'Leod, would go no further than to call it "a public transaction" under the authority of the Queen. Hence it became necessary for Mr/ Webster's friends to avail themselves of the doctrine of relation; and to this end, to falsify the declarations of Mr. Fox. The phrase- "a public transaction"- selected by the latter apparently to avoid compromitting his government on the question of war or peace, must in order to subserve their purposes, be understood, not as importing merely an act of lawful magistracy, but as a dainty, decorous, and dignified way of saying that the affair of the Caroline was war. And thus, as was hoped, through an assumed avowal operating nunc pro tunc, they might establish a constructive war three years before, between two nations who had all along been most affectionately protesting to each other and before the world that they were at peace, and neither of whom would admit itself a party to the war in any sense, or at any time! England had indeed avowed the transaction as a public one. Such also it would have been had Colonel M'Nab done nothing more than send over a gang of soldiers or volunteers to rob a flour-mill for the sake of the flour; and Mr. Webster's friends might with as much propriety of language talk of war in the one case as in the other. If the disciples of Mr. Webster will look into their books, instead of hastily yielding any and every point, because they imagine England has made it, they will find that in the time of Grotius, nothing short of perfect war could take from a hostile soldiery the character of criminals in the eye of the municipal law; that afterward, the rule was modified, and extended to imperfect war; that it has always, however, been confined to war between two nations in their corporate capacities, denominated public war; and that here the indulgence stops. So long as these gen- 496 The Supreme Court of New York [May, tlemen shall struggle to protect, by the authority of England, such of her agents as in time of peace perfidiously burn the property or take the lives of our citizens on our own soil, under circumstances which are beneath the chivalry of the tomahawk and scalping-knife, so long they will find the common feeling not only of the country, but of mankind, against them; and be as wretchedly straitened for written authority as they have been heretofore. But the worst feature of the Review here reviewed remains to be noticed. Judge Cowen's final answer was, that even if a good defence on the merits had been shown, M'Leod was not, after indictment by a grand jury, entitled to his discharge on habeas corpus. The Judge's language was in effect this:- "M"Leod has been indicted for murder. He is brought before us on habeas corpus, and insists that he is able to show his innocence by affidavit. The grand jury have said in their indictment that he is guilty. He has pleaded not guilty; and the true mode of trying that issue is before the petit jury. We cannot in this summary way determine the question of guilt or innocence, or listen to evidence which detracts from the force of the indictment in this respect. Such is the settled practice of the English courts as well as our own under the habeas corpus act, and there is nothing in this case calling for a departure from it." The above is the substance of what the Judge said, and what every one understood him to say. Now, at p. 36 of the Review, instead of making him simply repudiate the proposed proof of innocence as a ground for admitting to bail, or discharging one who had been indicted, he is presented as holding that such a man cannot be bailed or discharged under any circumstances. This the reviewers italicise, repeating it in the same marked and emphatic manner at a subsequent page. To any person acquainted with the matter, it is needless to say, that the unqualified proposition here attributed to the Judge neither belonged to the case, nor was it advanced by him even as a dictum. But having thus made him speak broadly enough to suit its purpose, the Review goes on citing case after case where individuals indicted have been let to bail under some circumstances; but under what circumstances- whether on hearing proof in opposition to the indictment, or otherwise- it in general takes no trouble to inform us. We shall not follow it in its ramblings, but simply request a perusal of the cases as the reviewer himself has stated them. With a single exception, which we shall presently notice, even an unprofessional reader will at once be struck with the entire impertinence of its quotations. The Supreme Court had not only stated the legal doctrine applicable to the question before it, but gave the reason for it, and cited authorities to establish both. The opinion of Judge Cowen said, the Court would not inquire into the merits, because the evidence before the grand jury who found the indictment was secret, and could not be disclosed. 1842.] and Mr. Webster, on the M'Leod Question. 497 That therefore the cause should go to the petit jury, where all the witnesses might be examined and their truth fairly tested. Did the reviewer mean to be regarded as serious when, in answer to views like these, he cited cases relating to the general power of the court; or cases where the prisoner's sickness was the ground on which he was bailed; or where the like result followed from a disagreement of the jury? Does this quadrate with Chancellor Kent's notions of precision and accuracy; or Chief Justice Spencer's mode of overthrowing a judicial decision? But the reviewer did find an anonymous case, in the third volume of Bacon's Abridgment, 436, which is in conflict with Judge Cowen's opinion. We admit it is entitled to an answer; and it shall receive it. Let us then consider the intrinsic worth of this case. It is not found in any regular book of reports. Neither did it arise in a court of ordinary criminal jurisdiction, but in the admiralty- an inferior court, which the King's Bench, the highest criminal court in the kingdom, were in the daily habit of controlling by prohibition. Judge Cowen cited and relied on the opinions of several judges of the latter court, directly impugning the authority of this case- opinion which have been followed by the best approved British writers on criminal practice. But more: two American cases, the authority of which will not be lightly estimated even by the reviewer of his learned endorsers, are in direct conflict with the one in question, and as directly in favor of the opinion of Judge Cowen. The first was decided by the Supreme Court of Louisiana, and the second by Marshall, the Chief Justice of the United States. In the former (Territory v. Benoit, 1 Martin's Rep. 142), the Court, after admitting that a prisoner may be bailed, notwithstanding a coroner's inquest finding him guilty of murder, add:- "But as the evidence before the grand jury is not written, and cannot be disclosed, the same discretion and control cannot be exercised; and the Judges cannot help considering the finding of a grand jury as too great a presumption of the defendant's guilt to bail him. We recollect no case in which it was done." In the other case, Chief Justice Marshall bailed Colonel Burr on a charge of high treason before he was indicted; but after indictment he refused to take bail, though an offer was made to show that the indictment had been obtained by perjury. He conceded that his power was the same as it would be in a case or murder; but neither he, nor the distinguished counsel of Colonel Burr, could find any reliable authority warranting the exercise of the power to bail under such circumstances. (See references to Burr's Trial in 1 Hill, 393, note C.) These cases arose long after the publication of Bacon's Abridgment, and yet this admiralty decis- VoL. X., XLVIL.-63 498 the Supreme court of New York, [May, 1842] ion, cited by the Review from that book, was not regarded as of sufficient authority to be noticed; nor was it even referred to by McLeod's counsel. It would be strange indeed, if, on questions of practice, especially among the bail courts and commissioners, a straggling decision might not be found favoring almost any extravagance. Delay of a trial on the part of the government is regarded as a strong ground for letting prisoners to bail; and this delay was indeed the mail evil intended to be mitigated by the habeas corpus act. Accordingly, even where the delay was excused by an attempt and failure to procure the attendance of a material witness, Pattison J. let the prisoner to bail, though he had been indicted. On being applied to subsequently, however, in a like case, he said, in reference to his former decision - "I have reason to believe that I acted incorrectly. In cases of this serious nature (rape), where the grand jury have found a bill, I cannot allow the prisoner to be admitted to bail." (Regina v. Guttridge, 9 Carr & Payne 228.) He cited a previous case (Regina v. Chapman, 8 Carr & Payne 558), where the like question arose on postponing a trial for murder. On Sergeant Talfourd moving in the latter that the prisoner be admitted to bail, Lord Abinger C. B. answered - "I cannot do it have a bill for murder has been fund by the grand jury. After a bill has been found for murder, I know of no case in which it was ever done." Talfourd observed, "It is entirely in your lordship's discretion." To which Lord Abinger replied - "But it is a discretion which has never been exercised." If the judges of England, therefore, may be supposed capable of understanding their own rules of practice on habeas corpus, this admiralty decision may be set down as a legal nullity - a case not only without a n name, but without any claim to respect. The Review seems sadly perplexed by several extreme hypothetical cases which is has instanced; and among others, that of a prisoner indicated for the murder of one who, on a subsequent examination before Judge Cowen upon habeas corpus, should turn out to be alive. It asks, if the Judge would refuse to discharge under such circumstances? In the absence of other modes of relief, no doubt any judge would feel a strong inclination to make so striking a case an exception to the general rule. But that would be unnecessary; for if the circuit was remove, the Attorney General would at once interpose and enter a nolle prosequi. During the sitting of the circuit there would be still less difficulty, as then the Circuit Judge might either authorize the District Attorney to enter a nolle prosequi, or empannel a jury pro forma, and direct an acquittal. The same may be said in regard to each of the other cases supposed by the Review. and Mr. Webster, on the McLeod Question. 449 Among all the points of attack chosen by Mr. Webster's friends from the opinion of Judge Cowen, though it wsa to be expected they would be eager, if not unscrupulous in the assault, we confess we had set down as the very last and least promising to them, that part relating to the question of practice on habeas corpus. No one whose hot zeal had not overleaped all the bounds of discretion, would have ventured on such a selection. the opinion has been successively reviewed in two legal periodicals in Boston, edited by political friends of Mr. Webster, and under all the lights furnished by Mr. Tallmadge's first edition. Both put forward their best energies in behalf of the Websterian code of national law, but neither denied, while one expressly admitted, That the Supreme Court were entirely right in remanding McLeod for trial. One of the articles did insist indeed on the jurisdictional point; and was characterized moreover by such a tone of partisan ill-nature, as to leave little doubt of its disposition to go to the utmost verge of plausible fault-finding. We owe the remark to both, however, that they are free from those glaring errors which we have felt it our duty to expose in the present article. One work in parting, both the Boston and New York disciples of the Websterian code. Should they ever find leisure to examine Grotius, they will there learn that a nation is but a large corporation - an artificial being - enjoying nearly the same rights and capable of committing nearly the same wrongs as a natural person. Among the latter are corporate trespasses against the rights of individuals - a kind of injury well known to publicists as the subjects of redress upon principles both of municipal and international law. The nation and its agents n the transaction are alike responsible. The wrong is the same in both. The only difference lies in the form of the remedy. against the agents, you proceed by an ordinary civil suit in the municipal courts of the country where the wrong was committed; or, if it rise to the dignity of a criminal offence, by indictment. Against the nation itself, no action, technically so called, can be maintained; but you may resort to a war. Whether you will adopt the later alternative or not, however, is entirely at your option; as much so as whether you will proceed by civil or criminal prosecution against the agents in a municipal court. But in neither aspect is the trespass itself a war. The error of Mr. Webster lies in not having adverted to this distinction. He confounds the wrong with the remedy. and yet, if his friends are correct in their views of the doctrine he holds, had the agents of England come in any other guise than that of soldiers - had any other class of Canadians committed the outrage in question, he would have had no difficulty in sanctioning both the action of trespass and the 500 The Supreme Court of New York, etc. [May, indictment. But no sooner is the agent clad in a red coat, and furnished with a musket, than straightway Mr. Webster's faculties become confused. The whole then looks "so far like lawful war," that both the civil remedy and the indictment are merged. So he instructed the Attorney General of the United States to tell Governor Seward, and the state of New York. "If Governor Seward will not yield," was virtually the substance of his language, "go into court and plead the red coat and the musket, backed by the corporate seal of England." Gov. Seward was unrelenting, and refused to be frightened by this "giant tread of war." He therefore united with New York in a demurrer to the plea; and the Supreme Court felt bound to allow the demurrer. Are Mr. Webster and his friends really aware of the miserable aspect with such a plea presents? There are said to be at least ten thousand troops in Canada, and the number can at any moment be indefinitely augmented by volunteers. Mr. Webster declares by his plea that all these, and any others suitably tricked out for the occasion in military costume, their leader bearing the corporate seal of England, may, singly or in files, enter our territory, arrest deserters, criminals, and rebellious "patriots," forage on and kidnap our citizens, burn, kill, and perpetrate every imaginable outrage-and if such soldiers, instead of being shot down as Vandals, are pursued by the common remedies of our municipal laws, the sufferers are to be told that they are without redress; that they must drop their prosecutions, and be content with a windy remonstrance like that of Mr. Webster, to be followed by a certain number of words in the form of diplomatic negotiation, the fruits of which may be realized after a repetition of the outrage shall have sent them to their graves! Such we aver to be the natural tendency and true character of the doctrines of the Websterian school. The obvious want of either principle or authority to support them, must be our apology for leaving the opinion of Judge Cowen to speak for itself, to all who have a disposition to understand it. Perhaps we have bestowed more attention upon the pamphlet in question than its claims will justify. We have, however, deemed it proper to point out some of the more gross perversions with which it abounds. In doing so, we have necessarily been obliged to restate several of Judge Cowen's propositions. To notice the numerous minor departures from the rules of fair and manly criticism, which present themselves at almost every page of the pamphlet, would so swell this article that, as regards them, we must content ourselves with giving what the lawyers call equitable notice; that is, enough to put on their guard such parties as may be concerned to know the truth. 1842.] 501 THE EXCHEQUER PROJECTS. Having received a communication from Mr. Cushing, impugning the accuracy of our remarks in our last Number upon his Exchequer project, it appears but an act of justice to that gentleman, as well as to the subject, to give his letter entire, though its insertion curtails the space we had desired to bestow upon a more extended examination of the three Exchequer plans now pending before Congress: HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Washington, 8th April, 1842. TO THE EDITOR OF THE DEMOCRATIC REVIEW: I have been accustomed to read with interest the successive numbers of the Democratic Review, and more especially, in each of the more recent numbers, the "Monthly Financial and Commercial Article," and I cheerfully bear witness to the intelligence and ability with which (upon the assumed premises of the particular opinions of the writer) those articles are written. But in the article for April, in the remarks upon the several Exchequer bills, there is an error of fact, which I beg permission to correct. You say, (p. 403,) "General Jackson's plan embraced the issue of no paper, with the exception of bills of exchange, which might be sold for cash, at one point or another. The new proposition is, to add to that issue of paper dollar for dollar of the specie kept on hand in the Treasury. This system of issue has been found to work well in the case of the bank of France, where the amount of specie in the vaults is always equal to the paper outstanding. * * * * That system offers all of the advantages of paper, with all the security of specie, without any of the fluctuation and risks attending credit issues." In another part of the article (p. 401) you say: "The reputed authors of them (that is, the Exchequer Bills) have only taxed their ingenuity to engraft upon it a borrowing and expanding principle, that will be open to corruption, and allow of those violent fluctuations which throw the property of the industrious into the hands of the designing, in spite of all the foresight and prudence that can be exercised." Now, if there be in either of the two Bills reported by the Select Committees any " borrowing and expanding principle," it is wholly unknown to me. As to the Bill reported by the House Committee, certain it is, that the 'authors" of that Bill "taxed their ingenuity," not "to engraft upon it is a borrowing and expanding principle," but, on the contrary, utterly to exclude from it any such principle. Accordingly, it gives an issue of paper, only dollar for dollar, as you perceive and have stated; and if in the case of the Bank of France "that system issues has been found to work well,"—if in the cashew of the Bank of France"That system offers all the advantages of paper with all the security of specie, without any of the fluctuation and risk attending credit issues,"—if all this be so in the case, as stated by you, of the Bank of France, how can it be otherwise in the case of the proposed Exchequer? I have sought in vain to see what provision it is of this Bill which involves, in your estimation, a "borrowing and expanding principle." The Bill does not, in any way, recognize the deposite of the public funds in Banks to be discounted on by them, nor the employment of Banks as agents of the Exchequer. It authorizes the Exchequer "to sell bills of exchange to private individuals 502 The Exchequer Projects. [May, 1842.] at a moderate premium," as proposed in General Jackson's Message of 1830. But the adoption of this part of General Jackson's plan cannot, of course, be intended by you as being a provision "to engraft upon it" any new and exceptionable principle of borrowing and expansion. It is in fact no such thing. The bills are to be sold for cash only. The Bill authorizes the Exchequer and its agencies to issue $20,000,000 of certificates of deposite, dollar for dollar, on the specie kept in the Exchequer. It authorizes the mint and its branches to issue like certificates of deposite, without limitation of amount, on all bullion or foreign coin deposited in the mint or its branches for coinage. In all this there is no borrowing and no expansion. Such are the powers given by this Bill, and which powers embrace nothing whatever in the nature of credit, or susceptible of ' violent fluctuations.' You speak of the clause of the Bill concerning the purchase of Exchange, which you truly describe as being " under the restriction, that they are to be only for the necessary transmission of the Government funds;" and you add,--" This latter is a great objection, and liable to great abuse and losses." But I submit to you whether it would be judicious to provide by law that the Secretary of the Treasury shall never be suffered to authorize the purchase of a bill of exchange, though it be for " public use, and for no other purpose whatever," which is the restriction of the bill. Must it not necessarily happen, in some of the multifarious transactions of the Federal Government, that it may have occasion, and that it may be wise and proper, in the transmission of its funds, or for some other public purposes, to purchase a bill of exchange? Would you deem it a just provision of law that no merchant should ever purchase a bill, and peremptorily require him, in every case of the transmission of funds, to do it by the transportation of coin? And why impose such a troublesome necessity upon the Government? The nature and object of this provision in the Bill reported by me to the House seem to have been generally misapprehended, in consequence, I suppose, of the impression left on the minds of men by the very different provision in the draft of a bill presented to Congress by the Secretary of the Treasury. Allow me to say a few words in explanation of it. The bill proceeds throughout upon the idea of devolving on the Exchequer and its officers the various operations of receiving, safe keeping, and disbursing the public moneys, and transferring and transmitting the same, --of paying all drafts, warrants, or orders,--of receiving, transferring and transmitting the same,--of paying out pensions,--and performing all other like duties, in behalf of the Government. In the class of the fiscal duties of this description, to be performed by the Exchequer, is that of purchasing bills, when requisite for the public service, and even then only upon the special order of the Secretary of the Treasury. I think, when you reflect more maturely upon this provision of the bill, considering that it is a power which the Government now holds, and exercises when occasion requires, and that all that bill does is to devolve the function upon the Exchequer, with very precise limitations, you will be induced to concede that the provision is not of that objectionable character which has been hastily ascribed to it. At any rate, it cannot be this provision of the bill which has led to the construction, erroneously imputed to it, of being a measure of borrowing and expansion. I will not trouble you with any remarks of a controversial order on the general question, my only object in this communication having been the desire that your estimation of the bill might not be affected by errors of fact. Very respectfully, C. CUSHING. The Exchequer Projects. 503 It is certainly a remarkable fact, that three prominent members of the party by which General Jackson was so bitterly denounced and vilified--in all the three departments of the Federal Government, the executive and the two legislative bodies--should have all concurred in drawing from his hints the general outlines of the financial systems which they now propose for our adoption! And it is still more remarkable, that one of them should address a letter to the Democratic Review, repelling as an unjust aspersion the charge of a departure from General Jackson's plan, and seeking, substantially, to recommend his project on the ground of the absence of any feature of difference between the two. A brief reply will meet Mr. Cushing's objection. The point in question is the right of purchasing domestic bills of exchange. Now, what occasion can the government possibly have for such a transaction? New York is the great metropolitan depôt to the whole general commerce of the country, and exchange is always in its favor from every direction of the Union. Two-thirds of the public revenue is collected at that point ; and for the transmission of its funds to the other sections; nothing more can ever be needed than to sell its own bills upon New York in this respective sections--which must always command a premium. A private merchant is never so situated ; so that Mr. Cushing's argument, derived from the absurdity of placing such a restriction upon him, amounts to nothing. To purchase bills is a very different affair. This can only take place at a place where the government has funds, upon one where it has none, but where the seller of the bill which it buys has them. Now, if the government pays cash for the bill, it virtually lends the money to the seller, whose bill, thus discounted, may or may not be paid, precisely as the note discounted in the bank may or may not be paid at maturity. If it does not pay cash, but waits for the reception of advice of acceptance and payment before doing so, why would it not be much simpler and better to reverse the operation, and to sell its bill, at the distant point where it wants money, upon that where it has its surplus funds? This feature of Mr. Cushing's plan could not do any conceivable good ; nor serve any other purpose than, wherever of whenever a disposition might exist to abuse the law, to afford the convenient ways and means for doing so. Mr. Cushing has no right to complain that the addition of this noxious excrescence to the original plan of General Jackson's suggestion should have been regarded with some suspicion, as designed to leave open a door by which the insidious evil of credit in the fiscal action of the government might still creep in. We cheerfully, on his own as- 504 The Exchequer Projects. [May, surance, acquit him of any such intention, at the same time that we recommend him to expurgate this obnoxious provision from his project as soon as possible. It is not contained in Mr Tallmadge's bill, which on this point, therefore, is superior to that of the House Committee; though, after all, this evil sinks into insignificance in comparison with that which is evidently made a cardinal idea in the project of the distinguished champion of "the credit system" in the Senate-namely, the use of banks as the agents of the Exchequer. Nor is the feature in Tallmadge's bill less objectionable, which would virtually permit an issue of paper money by the government in the proportion of four to one, to the specie on hand-namely, by issuing dollar for dollar in paper on the specie deposited, and also, in addition, Treasury paper to the public creditors in the payment of their claims, to an amount not exceeding three times that of the specie on hand. The plan of the Secretary of the Treasury is far worse than either of the other two, and may be left entirely of out view, as already decisively stamped by public opinion with the condemnation it merits. For our own part, we are free to confess our hope that Congress may not agree upon any of these pending plans. We shall then get along for another year or two under the present laws regulating the Treasury Department, and the first act of the next Congress will be the restoration of the Independent Treasury. Some of our friends deceive themselves with the idea that this issue of government paper on a specie basis of dollar for dollar will be a good thing in itself. It is, of course, far preferable to the issue of anything in the nature of a credit paper; and we have always contended that some places of public deposite where the convenient form of paper, for large transactions, could be given to the solid substance of specie, were very desirable. The proposed machinery for that purpose is, however, objectionable in several points of view, on which we regret that our remaining limits forbid us at present to dwell. It would interfere with the free self-regulation of the internal exchanges, if these government certificates of deposite, wherever made, were made everywhere receivable for the public dues, without any charge corresponding to the existing rate of exchange, or expense of transporting specie. It would bear with a severity far greater than that imputed to the late Democratic policy on the banks and the classes of the community dependant on them; and would soon excite against it so powerful an interest, that it could not stand long unchanged. Give us back again the Independent Treasury-the whole Independent Treasury-and nothing but the Independent Treasury! 1842.] 505 MONTHLY FINANCIAL AND COMMERCIAL ARTICLE. THE general features of the market, as described in our last, continue to characterize the present state of affairs; but the extraordinary depression which has taken place in values and prices of all commodities, is of itself an earnest that a reaction must soon take place. During the month which has elapsed, a vast number of failures have taken place in all sections of the country, in both banks and commercial houses. The amount of liabilities of the latter may be computed at several millions in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, and are a reflection of those which have taken place in the suspended districts, caused by the severe restringent course of the banks of those sections, in the manner pointed out in a previous article. These will probably continue through the coming month, which is the period when the heaviest dry-good payments fall due. The grocers have long since got through their payments with little difficulty. The resumption of the banks in the suspended districts, although it is attended with disastrous loss to mercantile men, whose credits were too much extended, will probably prove the immediate cause of reanimation of trade. Hitherto the circulating medium of those sections has consisted of irredeemable paper, in which but a partial confidence existed. The banks which issued that paper held a large amount of specie, probably from $15,000,000 to $20,000,000 locked up in their vaults, a burden to themselves and a loss to the community. This may have been represented by double the amount of paper afloat, which passed from hand to hand as a local currency, but was available only at a loss in the great markets of the north. The consequence was, a sluggishness of movement that rendered its efficiency as a circulating medium much less than would have been that of half the sum of specie. The driving in of this paper, releasing the specie, has the effect of reducing prices, but forms the basis of renewed activity. The general result is, then, abundant products at extraordinary low prices. While, on the other hand, the stores in the interior and in the cities are full of merchandise, the imports of last year, which has not been sold. The farmers, finding prices falling, and the markets sluggish, have restricted their purchases. The country dealers having stocks on hand, and unable to obtain bank accommodation, have not remitted, and do not feel encouraged to extend their purchases. Hence we find that the hotels, which are usually full at this season, are now comparatively empty. The steamboats, running to and from the city, have but half freights; the city merchants daily failing in their contracts, and when their stocks are put upon the market they bring scarcely 50 per cent. of their cost. This is the present position of the markets; but an element of recovery is indicated in the present state of the foreign exchanges, which are as follows at New York:- Nov. 15. Jan. 31. Feb. 28. April 1. April 15. London,..........10 a 10 1/4........8 a 8 1/2................8 a 8 1/4.....................5 1/2 a 7 1/2.........5 a 7 1/4 France,...........5 20 a5 21..........5 28 3/4 a 5 30......5 27 1/2 a 5 28 1/4...5 37 1/4 a -............5 37 a5 45 Amsterdam...40 3/8a 40 1/2....39 1/2 a 39 3/4.....39 1/4 a 40................38 1/2 a 39 1/2.....39 a 39 1/4 Hamburg,......36 1/2a 30 5/8.....35 1/2 a 35 5/8.....3 35 1/8 a 35 1/4......34 1/2 a 35............35 a 35 14 Bremen,........78 1/2a 78 3/4......76 3/4....................76 2/4 a 77................76 3/4 a 77............75 1/2 a 76 1/2a 78 At these low rates of bills, specie begins to flow from Europe to the United States. Already large amounts have been received from abroad, and larger sums are under policy in our insurance offices. The low prices of produce are attracting the precious metals in exchange for them. The result will be, that coin will pour from New York all over the specie-paying districts, performing the double operation of diminishing the stocks of produce, and raising their prices under the effective demand, at the same time filling the channels of trade with a sound currency, restoring confidence, and increasing the power to purchase merchandise. VOL. X., NO. XLVII.-64 506 Monthly Financial and Commercial Article. [May, At the commencement of the month money was very hard to be obtained, but under the operation of causes pointed out, has gradually become more plentiful. That is to say, the call for money is naturally very small when the amount of business done is limited; and the same quantity of money when prices are very low, bears a much greater proportion to that business than when prices are high. This is very clear, but we may illustrate it as follows:-- In January, 1840, the price of English bar iron in New York was $75 per ton; at present it is $55 per ton. If business is active and money plenty, and a large dealer wished to purchase 1,000 tons when the former price was current, the operation would require $75,000 of money or bills. At present, business is less active, and the same dealer may buy but 500 tons, which would cost but $27,500. The same general proportion may run through all the markets. Hence, half the value of the currency now, would cause money, apparently, to be more plentiful than would have been the case with any given amount at the former period. This apparent plenteousness of money must continue, until absorbed by rising prices, and increased activity in the markets. It is evident, while such is the state of the market, that a more favorable time for the government to make its loans could not exist; and a loan would undoubtedly be taken at a short period, at very favorable rates, if the example of New York in providing for its liabilities was in any degree followed by the Federal government. The vacillating and suicidal policy hitherto pursued, has been such as to counteract the returning health of the commerce of the country, instead of assisting to restore it by making the Federal treasury a rallying point for mercantile confidence. That the government is seriously involved in debt, admits of no cavil; also, that its revenue is short of its expenditure by many millions; and again, that this state of things has been directly the result of the mistaken policy pursued during the past year. The whole state of financial affairs, both of the government and of the public at large, appears to have reached that crisis when a firm perseverance in the policy of the last administration would realize for the country all the advantages contended for through three administrations. The following is a statement of the actual present public debt from official sources:-- Loan. Amount. Redeemable. Rate. Annual in'st. September 1841,................................16,000.............1844............5 2/5.....................864 " "................................3,213,000.............1844............5 1/2............176,705 " "................................2,439,000.............1844...............6.................166,360 ___________ ________ Total old loan,..............................$5,668,000.........................................................323,909 Treasury notes,...............................8,569,000..yearly average,..5 1/2............471 295 " " to issue,...............2,500,000......"............"...............6..................150,000 New bill, balance of old loan,...6,332,000...6 months to 20 years...6......379,920 Additional,........................................5,000,000.......".............."..............".........6.....300,000 ___________ ________ Total,...............................................$28,069,000....................................................$1,625,124 Debt of Dis. Col.,.............................1,440,000.......................................................................... Old Funded Debt,...............................233,163......................................................................... Unfunded ".......................................35,417......................................................................... Grand Total,.....................................29,777,589......................................................................... Estimated expenditure for 1842,...........................................$33,000,000 Less Treasury Notes falling due,.................................................7,000,000 $25,000,000 Estimated receipts from customs this year,.........................13,500,000 " Duties last year payable this,....................................3,600,000 ___________ Total receipts,..........................................................................................................$17,100,000 Deficit,.............................................................................................................................8,900,000 Treasury notes to be redeemed,..................................................7,000,000 New loan may realize,...................................................................10,198,800 ___________ Deduct surplus,............................................................................................................3,198,800 __________ Deficit,..............................................................................................................................5,701,200 Add interest on debt not included in expenses,..............................................1,475,124 __________ Deficit at the end of the year,................................................................................$7,176,324 Add debt as above, less treasury notes redeemed,---------------------22,777,580 __________ Debt at the close of the year 1842,....................................................................$29,953,904 1842] Monthly Financial and Commercial Article. 507 If the floating debt which will accumulate through the year should be funded in a six per cent. stock, the annual charge will by $2,955,709, a sum equal to 15.22 per cent. on the whole annual income of the government, according to the admission of the chairman of the Senate committee of finance, leaving but $11,444,297 to meet the gross expenditures of the government, which, shoud they even be reduced to $20,000,000 in 1843, will leave an addition to the debt of $8,555,703. This will make the debt at the close of that year $38,509,607, with an annual interest of $2,571,045, showing a fearful increase in the liabilites of the government in a ratio that will soon absorb the total revenue. In the following year, 1844, the $5,668,000 of the loan of the Extra Session falls due, and is to be redeemed. The prospect is, that it can be done only through a new loan. The only resource then is supposed to be, a revision of the tariff. A bill to effect this object has been reported in the House of Representatives. The bill is based upon the supposition that the expenditures for the future will not average less than $27,000,000 per annum, including the charges on the debt, and a revenue estimated, under the supposition that the compromise act would continue in force, at $15,600,000, leaving a yearly deficiency of $11,400,000. The committee, although professing to have in view only the best means of raising a revenue, have made a purely high tariff report. All its arguments and facts are difrected only to demonstrate how great a tax consumers must pay to support any particular interest. Every measure recommedned is supported by arguments like the following:--"The committee are satisfied that, under an advalorem duty of 30 per cent., this business could not be sustained. The country would be flooded with the cheap labor of France, Germany, and Italy,"--clearly showing that the object of the committee was not to raise a reveue, but to exclude foreign goods to the greatest extent, in order to protect home manufactures at the expense of the people at large. Under these circumstances the bill, as reported, contains the following leading principles:-- 1. The cash duties are to be retained in connexion with warehousing. 2. The home valuation is to be modified with a fixed value of dutiable articles like the "official value" of the English system. 3. The duties are levied partly ad-valorem, and partly specific. A general advalorem duty of 30 per cent., where the duty is now on that principle; a discrimination for protection by specific duties; and, as a general principle, the duty on articles subject to discrimination to average at the rates under the bill of 1833, before the deduction of 4/10 of the excess over 20 per cent.; and an additional retaliation duty of 10 per cent. on the goods of certain countries, to continue in force until the municipal regulations of those countries are altered in favor of certain products of the United States. These are the leading points of the bill, and the probability is, that scarcely more revenue can be collected under it than under the compromise act. It is calculated to effect the object which the committee have in view, viz.: to exclude foreign goods in order to favor certain interests, without regard to the revenue. The present and prospective state of the currency of the country, coming down as it is to the level of the constitutional standard, is a sufficient protection to home manufacturers against the imports of foreign goods, even at the lowest rates of the compromise tariff, and any increase of those rates must tend to prohibition. The large income derived form the customs in former years had its origin in the inflation of the currency, and also in the amount of money borrowed abroad. When paper mony was very abundant, and prices relatively high, goods came here to sell on foreign account, and any parties who had remittances to make to this country did so in those articles which would afford the most profitable means of re- 508 Monthly Financial and Commercial Article. [May, remittances. In those years, say from 1835 to 1839, it is estimated that near $175,000,000 were borrowed in Europe. The proceeds of these loans were sent home in goods. Probably $50,000,000 in those articles which paid no duty, and the remaining $125,000,000 bore an average duty of 25 per cent. This operation therefore, put into the Treasury $36,500,000, or an average of $8,325,000 per annum. The average receipts from the customs in those years was $28,255,806; if then, we deduct the customs from proceeds of loans, it will leave but about $20,000,000 as the customs revenue from the regular trade of the country, which is $2,000,000 more than in 1840, when no foreign loans were contracted. That means of revenue will cease to exist for the future, and the imports, consist- ing only of the proceeds of produce sold, cannot, in a dear currency, bear a very high per centage of duty, lest specie become the most profitable means of remit- tance, and the government be deprived of its revenue altogether. The business and the financial affairs of the country at this moment indicate that state of languor incident upon a recovery from overwrought excitement caused by the paper system. The wealth of the country is now rapidly accumu- lating under that productive industry, which was interrupted in its operations by the mania of bank speculations. This effect of paper credit was once forcibly expressed by Governor Wolcott, some years since, to the Legislature of Connec- ticket, in the following language:-- "If any principles are demonstrable by reason and experience, they are, that paper money is an interruption to productive industry; that industry is the main source of wealth; and that whatever diminishes production, is injurious to the lenders of capital." Who that reflects upon the occurrences of the past few years, its scenes of riot and speculations, resulting in individual, corporate, and State dishonor, can fail to respond to the truth of the above remark? By the seductive influence of Bank facilities, the populace of these United States were diverted from their industrial employments, and drawn into expenditures and speculations which impoverished the country by the rapid progress of consumption simultaneous with non-pro- actions. These expenditures have resulted in mercantile dishonor, so general, and involving want of confidence to so great an extent, that, although a return to industry is rapidly increasing the productive wealth of the country, trade and commerce, which should facilitate the interchange of these commodities, remain stagnant and prostrate. The old credit operations have nearly ceased to be prac- ticable; vast amounts of capital engaged in trade have been swallowed up by the speculative character given to the markets by bank paper, and capitalists will not hazard their fund s[?} in new commercial enterprises until assured that the prices have reached their minimum. This state of affairs necessarily leave without business and without funds a great number of persons who have been heretofore engaged in commerce. For, as we explained in a former number, the operation of bank- ing is not to encourage the development of wealth, but merely to promote the ex- change of wealth after it is created. Hence, when bank credits are most abun- dant, many persons cease to produce in order to trade. When the revulsion which is inevitable overtakes banking, these persons lose that capital, by the fall of the goods in which they deal, which they formerly employed in productive indus- try. They are therefore ruined past remedy, and become among the most clam- orous for a return of speculation, that they may retrieve their desperate fortunes. When money is plentiful, it is very easy for a person with a little capital to increase its nominal amount by exchanging his own obligations for those of a chartered corporation, to increase his business and extend his enterprises; but when all is lost, and universal distrust prevails, he is without the means of re- (right column) 1842.] Monthly Financial and Commercial Article. 509 turning to his former employment. This appears to us to describe the state of affairs at this juncture, and explains the apparent anomaly of the enormous socks of produce at mere nominal prices, which are crowding the great national thor- oughfares on the oe hand, which on the other the stores of the merchants are overflowing with goods and half prices, and they themselves are failing on all sides. That class of men whose small capitals and shrew dealings effected the inter- change between the merchants and the producers, seem to have been crushed be- neath the wheels of the Juggernaut of paper money. The wealth of the soil has accumulated with the revolving seasons, but the pure stream of trade on a metal- lic basis has to yet broken through the dross and rubbish of the paper system. We have here endeavored to point out those general causes proceeding from the paper system which appear to have produced the present state of financial affairs in the United State. For the future it appears to us that there can be no return, at lease for many years to come, to a paper expansion. The losses, disasters, ruin, and distress which attend the transition from a cheap to a dear currency, have been encountered in most sections of the Union, and the people will not again voluntarily encounter the distress, for the purpose of a little temporary speculation. The country is now rich in everything, except, perhaps, there may be a little deficiency in the precious metal to perform the office of a circulating medium; but a metallic currency, like every other description of property, is to be acquired only by labor and industry, and when once acquired it is not merely money, but wealth--treasure; it is a commodity for which all things may at all times be obtained; and if used for money it may be for three reasons, viz.; to pre- vent the disastrous losses and ruinous consequences which inevitable grow out of a paper currency;--also, to give that regularity, consistency, and stability to the affairs of the community, which cannot fail to have place under such a system; --and lastly, to relieve the people of that enormous tax which otherwise they must pay to the issuers of paper money. The use of the previous metals for money does not deprive them of their quality of wealth. It is the safes and cheapest manner in which a nation may invest its surplus money. It is then ready for all contingencies of war or otherwise; for we are not of that class of economists, who consider the specie of a country as dead capital, and who, to prevent the loss of interest, as they imagine, displace the specie with paper. The specie then goes abroad in payment of silks and wines, which are consumed by bank customers, who in their turn take the benefit of the bankrupt law, and thus extinguish all remind of the specie of the country. We have said that the use of specie for money relieves the people from a tax, which they otherwise would have to pay to the issuers of bank paper. We will endeavor to make this position sufficiently clear. The following table will show from the best sources, the comparative currencies of France, England, and the United States:-- CURRENCIES OF FRANCE, ENGLAND AND THE UNITED STATES IN DOLLARS. France. England U.States. Species currency ............500,000,000 .....................112,500,00...................75,000,000. Paper " ............. 50,000,000.....................146,150,000................149,869,000 Total..................................550,000,000......................258,650,000...............224,560,000 Excess of paper...............................................................33,650,000...............70,800,000 " of specie...............450,000,000 We have here, for the purpose of comparison, taken the quantity of the currency of each nation for 1837. It thus appears, that in the article of money alone, the wealth of England is double that of the United States, which that of France is more that four times as great as that of England. If we assume that the rate of interest in France and England was 4 per cent., and in the United States 6 per i 510 Monthyl Financial and Commercial Article. [May, cent., at the period mentioned, we shall find that the inhabitants of each nation paid the follow sums as a tax to the issuers of paper money. Amount of paper money. Interest on issues. Paper money tax in France.............. $50,000,000...................4 per cent.............$2,000,000 " " " " England...............146,150,000...................4 " "....................5,844,000 " " " " U.States..............149,560,000....................6 " "...................8,973,600 Total, three countries.........................#345,710,000.............................................$16,817,600 This is independent of the losses occasioned by the destruction of the paper, which greatly exceeds that of the abrasion of a metallic currency. The mere expense of a paper currency is estimated at 1/2 per cent., while that of a metallic one is 1/10 per cent. per annum. Thus the expense of the $500,000,000 of metallic currency in France, is $500,000 per annum, while that of the $50,000,000 of paper money is $250,000. Again, the actual expense of $150,000,000 paper money in the United States is $750,000 per annum, while that of the metallic currency is $75,000 only. This is the actual bona fide cost of creation. Now when paper money is created, a charge of 6 per cent. is made upon the community in the act of uttering it, and this is the only instance in the history of commerce where the borrower receives interest from the lender for that which he borrows of him. The more the public debtor, which is the bank, multiplies its debts, and the longer it refuses to redeem them, the more it increases its income. This monstrous anomaly in mercantile operations, against all reason and common sense, is thrust upon the people as a blessing in time of peace, and strangely enough, when a government does the same thing in time of war, it is called a "necessary tax." This was the case with the famous assignats of France, and the continental paper of the United States. In the first named instance, the creators of that famous bubble advocated it on the ground that "it was the best way of taxing the people," because, issued of all denominations, it fell into the hands of all classes in proportion to their means. He who was rich received more money than he who was poor, consequently, the depreciation and ultimate loss fell upon each individual according to his means, and therefore each paid a just share toward the expenditures of the government. In a time of peace and general prosperity, the several State governments in this country authorized corporations to issue similar money; they then authorized them to refuse to redeem it; and finally the banks stopped, throwing the loss upon the people. The losses from this source during the past 5 years amount to $150,000,000. For whose benefit was this tax imposed, and why should it be continued? It may be urged, that the interest charged by the issuers of paper money cannot be called a tax on the circulation, because the issuing of the paper is an exchange of obligations between the bank and the person whose note is discounted, and the charge is a fair rate for the superior credit of the institution. The operation is different, however, in the use of these credits as a currency. For instance, an employer owes his workman at the end of the week $20 for his wages. He gives him in payment the promises of the bank. By this operation the bank assumes the debt of the employer to the employed, and it becomes a direct debt from the bank to the workman, and as long as those bills remain out of the bank, the institution draws interest on the debts which it owes to the operatives, and which the latter pay in the enhanced price of all that they consume. This enormous import bears heavily upon the resources of the industrious many, for the sole benefit of the banking few. 1842.] 511 LITERARY INTELLIGENCE. We have heard it rumored, that the MSS. and Correspondence of General Andrew Jackson are about to be committed to the editorial charge of George Bancroft, Esq., who, it is said, will prepare them for publication, together with a biographical Memoir of the Life and public services of the General. If this be so, no historian could have been selected better adapted for such a task, and the history of few individuals now living, will awaken so general an interest as that of the venerated hero of New Orleans. Mr. JOHN KEESE is, we observe, preparing for speedy publication, "The Literary Remains of the late Lucy Hooper," including her poetical writings, &c. The editor will confer a deserved tribute to the genius of this lamented authoress, and an equally acceptable offering to the many admirer of her muse. We look with impatience for the appearance of the volume. (S. COLMAN, publisher.) Mr. PRESCOTT, we have heard, contemplates publishing an Abridgment of his "History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella." This will be a popular idea, and vastly beneficial to a large portion of the reading community, to whom the more extended work has, from its expensive form, been hitherto inaccessible. It is by such works as these, that our American literature is fast acquiring a reputation and nationality worth of the name; and we rejoice to learn that both this able historian, as well as Mr. Bancroft, are now engaged in the preparation of other new and important historical works. AMERICAN LITERARY ANNOUNCEMENTS. J. & H. G. LANGLEY have just issued the New Work by the author of "Intermarriage," &c., entitled "Pathology founded on the natural system of Anatomy and Physiology." This last production of Dr. Alexander Walker, is a popular and philosophical treatise on that branch of medical science, in which the natural classification of diseases and the distinction between morbid and curative symptoms, afford by pain or its absence, are pointed out, as well as the errors of Homoeopathy and other hypotheses. The other new work by the above author, - "Physiognomy founded on Physiology, and applied to various countries, professions, and individuals," with illustrative engravings, is also in press, and will be published shortly, printed uniform- ly with his previous works. 1vol. 12 mo. The same firm have just issued a new edition of the uniform stereotype edition of M. Be Tocqueville's "Democracy in America," in two handsome volumes, 8vo, with statistical map, an original analytical index, notes, &c. &c. Dr. Martyn Paine's new work, "A Physiological View of the Materia Medica, with an arrangement of the articles in their several groups, according to their relative value," &c. This new manual has, we hear, been highly approved by the members of the schools and faculty generally The new work by Dr. Samuel Forry, "The Climate of the United States and its Endemic Influences," announced in uor previous number, has already been highly flattering, and what we predicted for this important work is now no longer a matter of doubt---its success is certain. Not only is it the first attempt to systematize the phenomena of our climate, by means of positive and long-established data, thus developing many new and interesting meteorological laws, with their influence up- on the human organization, but the subject being presented in language divested of technicalities, is peculiarly adapted for the general reader. Independent of the numerous complimentary notices of this work by the several medical journals of the country, it has been received with the highest favor by those purely literary D. APPLETON & Co. have just published Mrs. Ellis' new book, "TheDaughters of England," a work which we doubt not will become exceedingly popular, as indeed are all the productions of this favorite authoress. They will also speedingly issue a new series of Juveniles under the general title of "A Library for my Young Countrymen," which will include several works illustrative of the annals of American History, and some by the editor, whose previous writings under the signature of "Uncle Philip," are already well known. Mr. Cooley's long-promised work on Arabia Petraea and the Holy Land is nearly completed ; it is to be copiously illustrated, and we are informed, is likely to prove an exceedingly attractive book. The Sketch of the Life of Peter Van Schaack, LL. D., including his literary remains and correspondence, is now ready. The same firm also announce for publication the following valuable standard works: Bishop Burnet's History of the Reformation, edited by Dr. Nares, with twenty-three portraits. An Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles of the English Church, with notes, by Rev. J. R. Paige. Bishop Pearson's Exposition of the Creed, with notes, by Rev. W. S. Dobson, &c. They have nearly completed an exceedingly instructive and entertaining work, to be published early next month, entitled "A Description and Historical Account of Hydraulic and other Machines for raising water; with observations on various subjects connected with the Mechanic Arts, including the progressive de- 512 Monthly Literary Record. [May development of the Steam Engine, &c., by Thomas Ewbank." The above explanatory title will afford some idea of the practical value of this work, which we doubt not will, on its appearance, attract very general public attention. Nearly ready, A Manual for Communicants, by Archdeacon Wilberforce, adapted for the use of the American Service. 18mo. A History of the Anglo Saxons, by Sir F. Palgrave. 12mo. Also, beautiful uniform editions of Scott, Milton, Cowper, and Burns, with illustrative titles, -- editions in 12mo and 18mo. Guizot's Essay on Civilization, with notes, by Professor Henry, new edition. M.W. DODD has in press a new and thoroughly revised edition of Rev. Joseph Tracey's History of Missions, considerably enlarged. The same publisher has just issued, a Treatise on Punishment by Death; by George B. Cheever: and Moral Tales for Children, by Uncle Arthur. WILEY & PUTNAM have in press the following: "Poems, chiefly of early and late years, including the Borderers, a tragedy," by Wm. Wordsworth, 1 vol. 12mo. The Pilgrim of Glencoe, and other Poems, by Thos. Campbell, 1 vol. 12mo. Poems, chiefly lyrical, by Alfred Tennyson, 2 vols. in one, 12mo. Captain Barclay's Agricultural Tour in the United States and Upper Canada, with miscellaneous notices, 1 vol. 12mo. Rutillius and Lucius, or Stories of the third age, by Robt. J. Wilberforce, 1 vol. 12mo. The Kingdom of Christ Delineated, by Archbishop Whately, with an Introduction by Dr. Skinner. "A Dictionary of Science, Literature, and Art, comprising descriptions of every branch of human knowledge," &c., edited by W.T. Brande, F.R.S., assisted by other eminent scientific writers. The same firm have just issued a fine edition of Mr. Borrow's long-promised work, entitled "Zincali, or an account of the Gipsies of Spain," &c. This is a book of singular cast, and one that will doubtless awaken much public attention, as it relates to a race as anomalous in their character as they are curious in their history. ---------------------- ENGLISH LITERARY ANNOUNCEMENTS. Among the latest Announcements of the English press, we observe that of "A Life of Admiral Viscount Keppel, first lord of the Admiralty in 1782-3, by the Hon. Thos. Keppel," in 2 vols. 8vo, with portraits. "Travels in Kashmere, the Himalaya of the Punjaub, including the mountain course of the Indus, through the valleys of Great and Little Thibet," &c., by G. T. Vigne, Esq., 2 vols. 8vo, with numerous illustrations by the author, with maps, &c. (Just ready.) Romantic Biography of the Reign of Elizabeth, edited by W. Cooke Taylor, LL. D. Also, the following new works of fiction: -- Lady Anne Granard, or Keeping up Appearances; a novel, by the late Miss Landon. (L.E.L.) Sowing and Reaping, a novel, edited by Capt. Chamier. The two Admirals, by the author of "The Spy," &c. Newstoke Priors, a novel, by Miss Waddington. London Legends, by Paul Pinder, Gent., with illustrations, in 2 vols., and two new novels, edited by Mrs. Charles Gore, one entitled "fascination," and the other "Modern French Life." A curious and unique early English Romance is in press, edited by Mr. Halliwell, of the Society of Antiquaries, entitled "Torrente of Portugal," said to be full of romantic adventures, encounters with giants, &c. "Popularity, a Tale of the World," by Mrs. C. Baron Wilson, and a new Historical Romance, entitled "The Traduced," by the author of the "Fatalist," &c. The following are among the latest issues: "Excursions in Albania," by Capt. Best -- "Father John, or Cromwell in Ireland," by the author of "Richard of York," -- Narrative of the late Expedition to Syria," by W. Patison Hunter, "The Rhine," by Victor Hugo, &c. &c. Miss Pickering's new Novel, "The Expectant," is now ready. A new work is shortly forthcoming, by the author of "Elphinstone," entitled "The Herberts, or the Way of the World." "The Book of Thought," is the mysterious appellative of another forthcoming novelty. Maxwell, whose new work ("Recollections of a Soldier of Fortune") is very popular, has announced a periodical work, in shilling numbers, to be called "The Fortunes of Hector O'Halloran." Theodore Hook's last novel is nearly ready for publication. It is said to be highly comic, and is yclept, "Peregrine Bunce, or settled at last." Miss Stodart announces a new volume "On Female Writers, their Powers, Duties, and Dangers," &c. An interesting volume, the Memoirs and Travels of the Duke d'Enghien, has been ushered into the world within the last few days by the Comte de Choulot. It forms a valuable addition to the historical works of this century. M. Thiers is stated to be writing a history of the German empire, and his late tour in Germany, to be connected with his historical inquiries. A New Work by John Burke, Esq., author of the Peerage, &c., is in press, entitled "A General Armory of England, Scotland, and Ireland, founded upon Gwillim, Nisbett, and Edmonson." The work will be embellished with 30,000 coats of arms, &c. AGENTS. MAINE, NEW HAMPSHIRE, VERMONT, AND MASSACHUSETTS. SAXTON & PEIRCE, 133 1/2 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON. RHODE ISLAND - - - - - B. CRANSTON, PROVIDENCE. NEW YORK NEW YORK CITY, AND LONG ISLAND, E.B. FELLOWS; ALBANY, W.C. LITTLE AND PHILIP PHELPS; AUBURN, J.C. DERBY; BUFFALO, O.G. STEELE; HUDSON, P.D. CARRICQUE; KINGSTON, R.A. CHIPP; NEWBURGH, J. CROWELL; OSWEGO, S.G. BALDWIN; POUGHKEEPSIE, WM. WILSON; ROCHESTER, LUTHER MOORE; SCHENECTADY, B. F. POTTER; SYRACUSE, THOMAS EARLL; UTICA, J.B. LOAK. PENNSYLVANIA DRAW & SCAMMELL, PHILADELPHIA. MARYLAND - - - - - N. HICKMAN, BALTIMORE. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA - CHARLES MURRAY, WASHINGTON CITY. VIRGINIA NORFOLK, R. NORTHINGTON; RICHMOND, J.W. RANDOLPH & Co. SOUTH CAROLIN - - GEORGE OATES, S. BABCOCK & Co., CHARLESTON. OHIO AND MICHIGAN - - - D. & H.N. WADSWORTH, TOLEDO. ALABAMA - - - - - - JOEL WHITE & Co., TUSCALOOSA. LOUISIANA - - - -- J.F. CURNS & Co., NEW ORLEANS. --------------------------------- TRAVELLING AGENTS. MAINE, NEW HAMPSHIRE, VERMONT, AND MASSACHUSETTS. Mr. JOHN THORNTON is our duly authorized agent in the above States, for obtaining subscriptions to the U.S. Magazine and Democratic Review. SAXTON & PEIRCE, BOSTON. GENERAL TRAVELLING AGENT. ISRAEL E. JAMES, assisted by H.M. LEWIS, JAMES K. WHIPPLE, O..P. STEM, BENJAMIN GARDINER, CHARLES S. JAMES, and D.K. MUSTIN. OHIO AND MICHIGAN. Mr. D. WADSWORTH has been appointed General Agent for the above States, which he will shortly visit, for the above purpose, as well as for the canvassing of new subscribers to the work. KENTUCKY, INDIANA, ILLINOIS, AND MISSOURI. The Publishers of the Democratic Review have the pleasure to announce that Mr. JOHN SIMPSON, to whom they have intrusted the Agency of these States, will commence his tour with all convenient speed, for the like objects, and by whom they respectfully solicit the payment of all subscriptions that may be due, as well as the names of all who may feel disposed to give their support to the work. LOUISIANA. Mr. J.D. TOWNSEND is empowered to act as General Agent for the Democratic Review in the above State, to collect payments, and appoint local Agencies, for the purpose of reducing, as much as possible, the charges incident to the transmission of the work. Besides the above, commissions as local agents have, at various times, been issued to different gentlemen. --------------------------------------------------- NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS. The heavy expenditures attending the publication of THE U.S. MAGAZINE AND DEMOCRATIC REVIEW, render it necessary for us to solicit the prompt payment of your subscription, as the success of the work depends as much upon the punctuality of its receipts as the extent of its patronage. It is earnestly hoped that you will afford us all the accommodation in this respect compatible with the true spirit of business. In assuming the publication of the Democratic Review, we beg to assure subscribers that the utmost attention will be given to insure the prompt delivery of the work on the 1st of each month, and that arrangements are being made to reduce, as far as practicable, the expenses of postage to distant subscribers, and in the principal cities to have it transmitted free of all cost. Subscribers are cautioned against paying their subscription to any persons except those holding the certificate of the Publishers. J. & H. G. LANGLEY. IMPORTANT NEW PUBLICATIONS, BY J. & H. G. LANGLEY, 57, CHATHAM-STREET, NEW-YORK. ______________________ LIFE AND TIMES OF RICHARD COEUR-DE-LION. By G.P.R. JAMES, Esq., author of "Richelieu," "The Ancient Regime," &c. &c. A REPORT ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. By JOHN L. O'SULLIVAN, Esq. 1 vol. 8vo. THE MADISON PAPERS Comprising his Debates in the Congress of the Federation of 1782-83 and 1787, with Letters and other extracts; also his Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787. Illustrated by fac-similes of the original manuscripts including that of the Declaration of Independence. Three large 8vo. vols. Printed under the authority of Congress. THE AMENITIES OF LITERATURE By J. D'ISRAELI, Esq., author of "Miscellanies of Literature," "Curiosities of Literature," beautifully printed in 2vols. 12mo. Second edition. THE PROGRESS OF DEMOCRACY Illustrated in the History of Gaul and France, from the earliest period to the present day. Translated from the French of ALEX DUMAS, by an AMERICAN. "As a historian our author has displayed eminent ability, as the work now before us abundantly testifies; its style, moreover is the most delightfully interesting, that we remember ever to have met with" — Knickerbacker. "The political theory of the work is original, striking, and beautifully developed." —Phila. Ledger. "One of the most valuable as well as interesting compends that has appeared." —Boston Atlas. MISCELLANIES OF LITERATURE By J. D'ISRAELI, Esq., author of "Curiosities of Literature." New Edition, with numerous Additions and Revisions by the Author. 3 vols. 12 mo. "In the volumes before us there is not an uninteresting line from the title paged to finis."—Evening Tattler. "It is a work that enchants you from beginning to end; in the perusal of which you feel reluctant to pause, till you find yourself compelled by the unwelcome finis."—Merchant's Magazine. "Indeed for casual or curious reading D'Israeli is incomparable."—N.Y. American THE LIFE AND LAND OF BURNS, BY ALLAN CUNNINGHAM: with Contributions by THOMAS CAMPBELL, Esq., author of"The Pleasures of Hope.", to which is prefixed an Essay on the Genius and Writings of Burns, by THOMAS CARLYLE, Esq. "This book is invaluable as completing the works of Burns, and as being also illustrative of them."—Cincinnati Gazette. "Written with all a poet's thought and feeling."—Tattler. DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA. BY ALEXIS DE TOQUEVILLE. Translated by Henry Reeve, Esq., with Introductory Prefaces, by the Hon. John C. Spencer New Edition in 2 vols. Corrected and enlarged, with a Map and original Index, "This work is one of the most profound and philosophical ever written upon the character and institutions of our country." Bos. Trav. "As a study of political science this book stands unrivaled in our times, equally remarkable for lucidity of style, acuteness and delicacy of reasoning, and for the moral and intellectual vigor with which it has been conceived and completed."—London Times. "We recommend M. De Tocqueville's York, as the very best on the subject of America we have ever yet met with."—Blackwood "In our deliberative judgment this is the most original, comprehensive, and profound treatise that has ever appeared regarding our republic. A treatise which is destined to live and take rank with the master works of former ages. It is a text book for those who wish to arrive at a right understanding of the political and social structure of the institutions of our country."—Merchant's Magazine. BACCHUS. THE NEW TEMPERANCE PRIZE ESSAY. An Essay on the Nature, Causes, Effects and Cure of Intermperance. By RALPH BARNES GRINDROD. Second American, from the Third English edition. Edited by CHARLES A. LEE, A,M., MD., &c. "We never met with a work on any subject more comprehensive; it embraces all possible historical, statistical, medical, and moral information on the subject of which it treats, and is so clearly and methodically arranged, that it makes an excellent volume of references for every library. In its influence it must be wide as excellent."—Tattler LECTURES ON THE HISTORY OF LITERATURE. By FREDERICK VON SCHLEGEL "A wonderful performance; better than any thing we have as yet have on the subject in any language."—Lond. Quar. Rev. "It is alone almost sufficient to make a reader a literary person."—Lit. Gaz THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL WORKS OF ALEXANDER WALKER New Complete Uniform Edition, in three volumes. "If ever writer chose an attractive theme, Mr. Walker is certainly that writer. His volumes contain a vast fund of original, profound, acute, curious, and amusing observation, highly interesting to all."—London Literary Gazette. "A rich accession to our literature in every sense. The author comes to the performance of his work with qualifications of a high order and has supported it with extensive philosophical research, and delightful attractions in illustrative anecdote."—Spectator. Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.