NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW AND MISCELLANEOUS JOURNAL. X0 XXVIII.Xew Series N0 III. JULY, 1820. A~ur. 1.Der Deutsche in .JVord-~dmerika. The German in .Nhrlh Jmerica. Stuttgard & Tiibingen, lt2ino, pp. 1~24. 1818. Tiiis work is avowed in the preface to be the production of a German of rank, M. Von Fiirstenw ~iither. He was sent to America by his half brother, the baron Von Gagern, rep- resentative of the German possessions of the king of the Netherlands, at the German d;et, a gentleman ~~ell known to such of our readers as have taken the trouble to follow the train of proceedings at Frankfort, as one of those who must bear a full portion of the blame, which attaches to that assembly, of having said much and (lone nothing. M. de Gagern, in an anonymous introduction to the work before us, (leclares that the extent, to which emi~rdion from Germany had icached, and the belief that in the present state of things this relief of the country labouriiig LIlldr a crowded population was rather a benefit than an evil, united with a desire of rescuing the poor emigrants from the suf- ferings and o~)pressions they had hitherto endured, were the niodves for send ing out an ambassador to the United States. [lie work accor(hingly consists of the instructions given by M.. de (iagern and his asso~atcs to the ambassador, with ex- tracts from the leUers of the latter, both before and after his arrival in America, a report drawn up from those letters, and an appendix of various articles of juformation relative to the country, and the state of German emi~rammts in it. These letters, as we are inF~rmed by M. de Fiirstenwarthei Vew Series, No. 5. 1 2 German Emigration to .tlmerica. [J lily, himself, in the second number of the Amerikanisclien An~ sichten, a respectable German paper lately begun in Phila- del1)hia, were sent to the press by M. de Gagerri, without having been (lesiglied by the author himself for publication. The instructions consist of twenty-seven articles, of which the first seems to indicate, on the part of the gentlemen concerned in this mission, a tolerably exalted opinion of its importance. 1 You shall and will de ote yourself to time service of time human race, and of your poor countrymen, whom want or the surplus population drives from Germany. And if destiny has precluded you from exerting in other ways a beneficial influence on the fortunes of the nations, your spirit may find its compen- sation in this. The instructions proceed to state, that tIre fortunes of the Germrmam~ and Swiss emigrants to America are but imperfectly known at home, and that many have attempted to call the attention of the German public to the subject. The mission of M. de Fiirstenx~~mtImer is intended to clear up these doubts, and he is directed to begin his inquiries in the ports of the Netherlands, examining into the facilities for embarkation and the nature of the ~)assage, and time sination iii which the emigiamit, ~)articiml~mly the pOom emigrant, finds himself on landing. Timis last is a favourite tohlic of declamation with those of tile German ~vritems, who are employed by tIme governments to wmite do~~n emigration, and to vilify Amer- ica, in order more effectually to dislieamten the emigrants. We have seen the most moving, and we may add, time most exaggerated accoimnts of the treatment of the red emaptiormers in this country, ~xho are stated by these writers to be sold as slaves in the American markets. The niuith article of M. de Gagerns instructions imidicates a more correct concep- tion of the state of the case. 9. It has been sai(l, that on the landing of emigrants without means, contracts of service are formed, by which the American pays the expermses of the passage, amid remunerates huinself by a terra of years of service. In this theme is no injustice, and it seems in fact imecessary. But are time conditions on hot Ir sides, in general, observed ?& c. The Rev. Mr. Weemq, in his Life of Washington, informs us, that amommg the methods which the iEmmglish ufficcis made 1320.] German Emigratian to .qmerica. S use of to inspire their Hessian mercenaries ~vith valour, it was tisual to tell them that the Americans ~ ere savages, and made a rule of eating their prisoners. A relic of sonic such lurking fear seems to ha~ e dictated the I 81h paragraph of these instructions, What are the relations ot the German planter with the savages ? The closin~ article in the instructions is thus conceived. 27. As there is through)ut nothing secret in your instruc- tions, you are at liherty to show theni and appeal to them on all occasions. You speak in the name of a society of respectable and philanthropic Germans, and upon objects, which, if duly explain- ed, must every where meet with open doors. We are resolved no longer to witness the scenes of suffering, which this ~ear has produced. nor this perplexity of n~tions and plans. XVe wish to exten(I a helping hand to a ll~ and to promote, with all our the good of both heniispheres. activity, This document being subscribed by M. de Gagern, as the minister 1)lemuipotentiamy of the king of the Netherlands to the German diet, and fortified as well with the Dutch seal of state, as the private arms of the ~vorthy plenipotentiary, may seem to deserve the formal notice we have thus takemi of it. M. de Fiicstenw~irthers first letter is dated Amsterdam, July 3, 1817. He thus expresses himself with regard to the condition of the emigrants in the Dutch ports. I have found the misery of the greater part of the emigrants greater, and the condition of all more forlorn an(l helpless, than I could have imagined. If our governments (10 not feel their obli- gation to (10 any thing to relieve it, humanity aid the honour of the German name call upon you, to do something forthwith to re- lieve the present distress ; and if further emigration is permitted in future, to devise some measures for its better regulation. On my journey hither, I encountered whole troops of returning families, who, deprived of every thing, were hegging their way back. At Cologne the government [the Prussian] had made that a great number should he stopped, taken care of, arm ~sent back to their homes. Inconceivably great however is the number of those unhappy persons in Holland, where all the towns ate overflowing with them. The Swiss emigramints, in general, are best oW Their govern- ment concerns itself more for theni. They do not lose their citi- zenship at home, as the Wiltembergers do; who are obliged to make a format renunciation of it in the passport, which they re~ 4 German Emigration to ~qmericcg. [J uly, ccive,to leave the kingdom. The Swiss, on the contrary, receive what is called a certificate tif home, and if they find themselves deceived in their expectations and choose to return, are welcomed back with paternal kindness. Nay, in such a case, each one re- ceives two Louis dors for his expenses bock, from the Swiss con- sul, with an addition of three. floritis a week to the sick. The same indulgences are also enjoyed by the emigrants from the VFieiich] provinces of Lothringia and Alsace. This humane and politic treatment of the unfortunate Swiss and French emigrants, forms a sinking contrast uith the neglect expemienced, according to M. (le Thirsten~x~rthers re- port, by tie Germans9 particularly the Wiirtembergers. We have been inFor~ied that a very onerous pioperty tax9 in addition to the renunciation of citizenship s imposed on all emigrants from the kingdom of Wiirtembcrg. It. is possible that this cruel imliositioli may have l,eeim abolished by the present king, who gave a proof of his humanity on his accession to the throne, iii the great year of scarcity, 1816, by selling the menagerie of his royal father, and distributing to the starv- ing populace of Stuttgard a large quantity of potatoes, which had been amassed for his majestys kangoroos and elephants. From the sketch of contract for the passage to America, we extract tile following articles. Such as are in a condition to (10 it, pay their passage in Am- sterdam, a man or woman 170 forms or 68 dollars. Children under four years are free. From 4 to 14 years 85 llorins or 34 dollars. From 14 years and onward 170 forms or 68 dollars. Those who are unable to pay in Amsterdam, an(l are to lay hi America, are charged a man or woman 190 forms or 76 dollars, an(l under 14 and over 4 years half that sum. Every omie, thus contracting to pay his passage in America, is bound to do it within ten days after his arrival. In case (if death, if it happen when the voyage is more than half made, the surviv- ing friends are Imolden to pay the passage of the deceased ; if be- fore the passage be half made, no passage money is to be paid. TI~e provisions stipulated are dealt out on the principb~ of full portions to those who pay full fare, half portions to the half fares, and children nothing, as follows Sundays, a lb. of beef with barley two cups to five fares, [in soup, we suppose ~ Mondays, a lb. of flour and a lb. of butter for the whole week. Tuesdays, -~ 1W fat boiled with pease, 3 cups lbr 5 fires German Emigration to .America. lV~ Wednesdays, a lb. of flour. Thursdays, a lb. of beet with potatoes, a quarter of a peck [Fass] to 5 fares. Fridays, ~ lb. of rice. Saturdays, ~ lb. fat with pease, 3 cups for 5 fares, a lb. cheese, and 6 lbs. bread for the week. A jug of beer and another of water per day instead of the beei xvtncb sours, water is given for a part of the voyage. More. over half the water assigned is for cooking. With regard to the persons, who conduct the trade of ship- ping these emigrants, we need add little to what is said page 343 of our last volume. It is enough to observe, that from the nature of the case, the commissaries employed in this business in the Dutch ports, are by no means likely to he~ Americans, and that the names given by M. de 1iiistenwiir- thee, as the names of the agents in this business, are all for- eign~ The following extract from a letter dated at the Hel- der~ July 7, 1817, will give our readers an idea of the extent of this sort of business. 1 ~vas this morning on board of a vessel, formerly (t Russian ship of the line, which a Dutchman had bought on account ot the Itudolfi whom I mentioned in a former letter, for the sake of carrying German emigrants to Philadelphia. There are already four or five hundred souls on board, and the vessel will not sail till she has her complement of passengers. The following facts may be new to some of our readers9 and will sho~v that the interest of these unfortunate emi- grants would have been promoted, had there been more truth in the assertion of our brethren of the Quarterly Review, that this trade is confined to American vessels. They are contained in a letter dated Philadelphia, Oct. 8, 1817. As soon as a vessel arrives with such passengers, it is imine- diately advertised l)y the captains in the papers. Mechanics and farmers, sometimes from a distance, repair to the vessel, select such persons as they wish, and pay their fare to the captain and a particular contract is made, by which they are bound to service for a term of years. Commonly also the vessels are vis ited l)y some members of the German society under whose in- spection these transactions take place. They also inform them- selves, as to the treatment of the passengers on the passage, and institute a strict investigation if circumstances seem to require it: but it stops here, except it be in the case qf .~rnerican ships. 6 German Emigration to .flmerica. ~July, Not a year since arrived a Prussian ship with passengers, whose captain had been guilty of the most shameful abuses, particularly of the females, on board. The affair excited universal indigna- tion in the city. An account of it reached Germany, and was inserted in the Gazette of Cologne, and orders were accordingly given to the Prussian consul, who arrived here a few days ago, to investigate the affair with the greatest severity, and report thereon. This summer also the treatment on board the bug Hope, captain Klein, of Amsterdam was highly reprehensible. I send yot~ the protocol of the investigation. The German society proposes only to relieve and assist, as much as possible, the destitute emigrants. They have done much for their German brethren. But the number ot emigiants this year was out of proportion of the means of the society. Their lumber is estimated at six thousand, and man more are still expected. p. 19, 20. We took occasion, in quoting the first article of M. de Ffwstenw~rthers instructions, to insinuate an opinion that the notions entertained by himself and the gentlemen who deput- ed him, of the importance of the objects of his mission, were somewhat too elevated. That this ~vas not an unnecessary remark, may be confirmed from the following murmur from a letter dated Nov. 15. I am just beginning to be known, and am obliged to put up with taking many a fruitless step. For you are not to imagine that a very great interest is felt here in my mission. This does nct lie in the American character. This is truly edifying; we have been so used to being com- plimented with these courteous salutations by our English brethren, that we had begun really to put on a little sad and sober diffidence, and doubt whether we were not after all a degenerate race. But to hear the deputy of the plenipoten- tiary of the Dutch king, at the German diet, because in seven- teen days after he had arrived in Philadelphia from Amster- dam, without speaking a word of the language, his mission had excited little interest, to hear this worthy gentleman talk- ing of ~vliat does or does riot (Iwell in the American char- acter, has cheered us up a little, and given us courage to en- counter the flattering notice which our brethren at Edinburgh or London may take of the calumnies of the next shop-keep- er sent out to explore us. Whatever they may now report to 1820.] German Emigration to America. our discredit, and however gravely their calumnies may be reviewed, we shall be able to say TMOL 4 xpa.~i~, sra.~ o$~npo, ~ Th~ followiag circumstance strikes as quite unexpected and curious. It is from a letter dated Baltimore, 26 Nov. 1817. There arrived this summer a ship from Amsterdam, address- ed to Mr. Graffi one of the richest merchants in this place. A ~ reate~ part of the passengers had not paid their freight. Two amities were bought by free negroes, of which there is a large number in Maryland. This disgusted the Germans in Baltimore to the Pegree, that they, and among them Mr. Graff himself the consignee of the ship, without whose knowledge the thing had tak- en place, immediately re-ought them, and formed an association to prevent the recurrence of any such degrading ab use. p. 27. We add, from the same letter, the following fact, in re- gaid to ~vhich ~ve al)l)rehen(l our author to labour under a mistake: the result of misinformation from the sugar-boiler. 1 have accidentally made the acquaintance of a German, who has been long an inhabitant of the state of Kentucky, and has es- tablished a sugar manufactory there. He has travelled through all the western states, an(l I am indebted to him for many noti- ces. He assures me that this summer Germans had been engag- ed by speculators, and publicly sold at auction to the highest bid- der, and, according to him, Dutch or while sLaves is there a com- mon expression. We are the more inclined to doubt a part of this anecdote, as we have observed our southern and western brethren to be very sparing of the word slave, even when applied to time blacks. The following extract will give our readers some idea of the views entertained by the American government, on the subject of encouraging emigration. It is from a letter dated Philadelphia, Dec. 28, 1$ 7. I have been presented in Washington by Tenkate ~7J to Mr. Adams, the secretary of state. 1 should have gladly avoided these formalities, but could not well excuse myself. Tenkate had fore- warned rue that I should find in the secretary of state a dry and extremely cold man. On the contrary, I found him extremely polite and friendly toward me. He heard me at first, with great attention, and interrupted me afterwards frequently in the course of my remarks. I gave him your pamphlet. On my second vis- it, he asked me if 1 had instructions. I felt myself obliged irm S German Emigration to slmerica. [July, truth to answer in the affirmative, and professed myself ready to show them. His reply in substance was as follows : That it had hitherto been the supposition of the government, that the Euro- pean states, and particularly the German powers, were not pleas- ed with emigration and that therefore from motives of poli- cy, an(1 not to disturb the friendly un(lerstan(ling with such pow- ers, it had not directly encouraged the emigration, or at any rate had avoided the appearance of wishing to encourage it. If how- ever it could be made certain, that the German princes would throw no obstacles in the way of emigration, there might perhaps arise a greater inclination on the part of the American govern- meat to conspire with them iii aiding it: though, added the secre- tary, rather out of kindness towards the emigrants themselves. For [this is the judicious remark of M. de Fiir~tenwdrther] either from principle and conviction, or national pride, they have or af- fect to have, throughout America, a great indifference toward for- to be ~ ...~,. fI.~.i ewn ~ appear ~ ~ even this aid, the population of the United States increases rapidly enough. pp. 28, 29. At the conclusion of the extracts from M. de Fiirstenw~r- theys letters, follows a report on German emigration to America, in which little is contained of moment, that had not previously appeared in the extracts. Some pains w eve taken in the Quarterly Review of Fearon, to impress upon the Brit- ish public the belief; that the trade in the transportation of redemptionems was confined to ourselves, and the reviewer was so nnguarded, as to assert in his own person, that the infa- mous traffic is confined exclusively to American vessels. In our notice of Mr. Walshs Appeal in the last number of this journal, we quoted the passage from his work, in which this false amid injurious statement is refuted. The following tes- timony of M. de Fiii~stenwaither will settle the question, if it ntill remain one. It is usually Dutch, but occasionally also American, Swedish, Russian, and English vessels, which transport the emigrants to America. The ships made use of iii this service are commonly of the worst quality, old, and unseaworthy, and the commanders sent in them ignorant, inexperienced, and brutal characters. Time ~1rneriean ships are the best, and deserve the preference before the others. 1 hey sail quicker, the treatment is better, and the re- snonsibility of the captains is greater. pp. 33, 44. Among the reasons ~vhich prevent the resort of this class of emigrant ~to N~w York, our author mentions a law of that 1820.] German Emigration to .~merica. 9 state, by which the captains of the vessels in which they come are obliged to give security that the emigrants shall iiot become a burden to the state or city. Several laws have been passed in the state of Pennsylva- nia for the protection of the redemptioners, and M. (le FiTh stenw~rther expresses his opinion that the provisions of these laws are a(Ieqoate. He complains, however, that they are scarce pretended to be 1)ut in execution against foreign ships, and that they are but imperfectly executed a~rainst the Aineil can captains. Among these laws is one, ~vhich obliges the cap~ tam of the vessel to support the redemptioners gratis for thir- ty days after their arrival ; after this period he is allowed to charge their board. In case the captain is compelled to bind out his redemptioiwrs for a less sum than the amowa of the passage, theii the persons so bound out are obliged to enter into a farther bond, to pay the remainder of the (Iebt. after the expiration of the first indenture. These indentures aie made under the illsl)ection of an officer apnoii~ted for that pur- pose by the government of the state, w ho keeps a list ot all the emigrants, with a note of the place where they are bound. Tue extreme term of service in ordinary cases liw adults is four years, an(l two years the shortest term. Child, en, tin- der four years old, are not hound, but follow their parents, and are at liberty when the parents are. M& es, over four years, are bo& ind to serve till they are t~~entv-one, and temales till they are eighteen years old. Six weeks schinolin~ annu- ally is stipulate(l for the chddren, and two suits of clothes, one of w hich is to be new, at the expiration ~f their terni of service. It is also proude(l by the law, that ro reolciuptioner shall be bound out of the slate of Pe~n~~l~ ania without his consent ; that man a(l wife shall not he sepatateol hut by mu- tual consent, nor child ien tai~n f~ ow their parents but in ex- treme cases. The e~Thts (,f the German societies are con fined to ~ relef ot the emigrants, who are wholly destitute, and their activity has been checked fom want of funds There ere two of these societies in Philadelphia, one in Nev York, and ~ne in Bali imore. From the 12th of July, tIme (lay of the arrival of the first ship with redemptioners in 1817, up to the beginning of 1818, there arrived nineteen vessels, bringing passengers of this class to the number of more thaim 60Q0. JVew Series, No. 3. 2 10 German Emigration to America. [July, So far from looking upon this indenture as a hardship, our author expresses his opinion that it is a benefit to the needy emigrant, and sa~ s, that many even of those who pay their passage in Holland, hind themselves, in like manner, on h ir arrival here, for the sake of being immediately provided for in a strange land,learriing the language by going of rarces sity into an American family, and laying up in the ptirchase money a little capital for future sIipl)ort. Our author adds, that the treatment ot the emigrants ~vhile in service is so kind and good, that just complaints are oftener made by the mas- ters, that their servants run away, than by the servants that they are ill treated. Among the classes of emigrants most likely to be employed, our author enumerates masons, carpen- ters, cabinet-makers, wagonners, coopers, smiths, shoed nak ers.tailors,and bakers; and as least likely to findemployrnent, all those whose trades are connected with the arts of luxury. Persons of both sexes, from fourteen to twenty years of age, are most sought for, and it is a great folly, says our judicious au- thor, ~vhen women of eighty years old wander over, as hap- pened in one instance last summer, The greater part of the German emigrants remain in Pennsylvania, from ~vhich with- out their consent they cannot be carried. Our author how- ever informs us, that he saw a letter from forty such peisons, who had entered into indentures in Ohio, and who were con- tented with their treatment and condition. The following observation ~vill show the correct and discriminating charac- ter of o~r authors observations. A great part~of the population of the United States consists of blacks, especially in the southern States. The German agrees but poorly with them. lie is regarded by them, with envy and jealousy. It is degrading to the German name and character, to have the German stand on a similar footing With theni. The ~zatural cunning of the .Negro, his superiour dexterity, and fluen- cy in English, give him too great an advantage over the simple, good-natured German peasant. lie considers himself [the Ne- gro] as of a higher nature, and looks down upon the poor German. The latter is confounded in treatment with the blacks, nay is often treated worse. p. 55. Our author, among other points, was instructed to inquire into the possibility of introducing an hereditary tenantry on large landed estates. He does not appear to have been in- formed of the state of our laws in this respect. 1820.] German Emigration to ./lmerica. 11 Hereditary contracts between large landed proprietors and colonists, in the German way, are not usual. I am unable to as- sign at this time the particular obstacles, that may stand in their way. Meantime there seems a general prejudice against them, as a feudal institution. It is only in New York that such large pro- prietors enter mb hereditary contracts with their tenantry, in the European manner, in which, however, they have more their own interest in view, than that of their tenants, [in Europe the land- lord having in view more the tenants interest than his own.] But these are only exceptions In this fzee country each one loves to possess a property of his own, and finds not ~nly a possibility but a facility of so doing. p. 64. The following pretty tender question in our authors in- structions Are the Germans esteemed in America? is an- swered in a calm, impartial way, ~x hicli we are sure ~vill please our readers. Is the German esteemed in America? Personally he is esteem- ed, like others, without reference to their (lescefit or nation, when he is rich or distinguished for public services. Schneider [Sny- der], the last governor of Pennsylvania, was of German origin. The path to offices and posts of honour is open to every German. He is in general esteemed for his industry, frugality, love of home, for his honesty, and his peaceable temper; qualities which still characterise the German and his descendants in America, particu- larly the farmers. Pennsylvania owes to the Germans her univer- sally ackno~vledged superiority over all the other states in respect to agriculture. The German emigrant is more ~velcome than the I- rishman or the Frenchman. The last particularly are no favour- ites with the Americans. Personally, they are disliked, notwith- standing the public sympathy once felt in the fortunes and prin- ciples of the French nation. But notwithstanding this, a great undervaluing of the German name and nation is evi(lent in America. The Americans, them- selves too young to deserve the name of a nation, possess neverthe- less a national pride beyond that of any people in the old world, and look down with disdain on those [?] from whom the first germ of their improvement came. Of none however have the Americans a poorer opinion than of the Germans. The main reason of this is perhaps the political insignificance of the German nation, and the consequent want of conscious importance and of arrogance of its individuals; to which cause also it is to be ascribed that so little justice is done to the Germans by the other European na- tions. With no land have the Americans had so few important relations, as with Germany. For want of other means of infor German Emigration to .~meri ca. [July, ination, they judged of her from the degree of improvement, froni the character, and the external appearance of the individuals, v~horn they were accustomed to see 1andin~ on their shores, of whom the mass certainly was not calculated to give them a fa- vourable opinion of their country. The number of Germans of education i~ho have visited this country or settled in it was al- ways very small. It is finally undeniable, that the irregularities and abuses in the emigrations of the last years, the wretched con- dition of the greater part of those who arrived here, and their still more wretched moral conuition, tended highly to strengthen these unfavoux~ie impressions. pp. 68, 69. The emigration from Germany to Pennsylvania began very early. In the time oF Penn, Germantown was founded by a Colony of emiorants from Griesheim in the Palatinate. In 177 the emigration ~xas so great, that the governor of the I):(bvilice expressed his apprehensions of the evil consequen- ces, ~vhich might result from having too many foreigners Coidigiious to each other, or, on the other hand, tot) many scatter( d separately among the Indians. In 1754, there land- ed 5000 emigrants in Philadelphia ; but we apprehend our aut~ior to have been misled by his authorities, when he styposes that half the population of Pennsylvania is German or of German descent. The German language is fast disappearing, particularly in the large towns, and 110 person is allowed to sit on a jury in Pen iisylvania, who cannot understand English. According to one author, the children of German parents are commonly ashamed of tile country and language of their fathers, so that iii the t!:ird genernion, at the present (lay, the traces of their origin disdppear. This (lisincliriation is greater in the higher than in the lower orders of society, arid in this respect, says M. (IC Fiirstciiwarther, the German society at Philadelphia is unworthy at least of its name, as a greater part of its mem- bees are desirous of having its transactions in English. Our author complains that the German language is not kept up in its purity in America, but is fast passing over into. a corrupted En,~iish dialect. We doubt not this remark is just, but we take the liberty to observe that it comes with no very good grace fnom M. de Fiirstenw~rther, whose own pages teem with words unacknowledged by the present stand- ards of his native language. In tIme very sentence, in ~vhicIi he announces the transition of the German into a corrupt En~hish dialect, he uses a barbarous word himself, and hi~ 1820.] 6~errnam Emigration to .~merica. is pages are full of such terms as details, prekcer, supponirt, djS- ponibet, progressive, and nivellirend, none of which ought to find admittance into the works of a correct writer of the German language. There are nineteen German newspapers in Pennsylvaila, and two in Ohio and Maryland. tnder the head of religion, M. de Fiirstenwiirther informs us, that thtre are eight hundred German churches in America. He complains of the gradual encroachments of the English language upon the pulpit. The Germans in America, ac- cordirr~ to his statement, evince much piety and religious zeal. The preachers complain that the brethren from their native coUntry, who have arrived within the last thirty years, are deficient in this respect, and set their faces against preaching three times a day. His remark that there is no theological faculty at the American universities, is singularly unfortu- nate, since it has been perhaps the fault of these establish- mints. a fault, if it be one, growing out of the nature of things, to have given a di3proportionate share of attention to theological education. M. (he Fiirstenwiirther, ~vhom we have observed in a con- tempoi ary German l)aper, the Deutscher Freund, published by Dr. Schmffer of New York, to be charged with a little aristocratical feeling, seems to hint ~vith no great complacen- cy at the political notions of his countrymen in America. The German in America, particularly in the country, distin- guishes himself for a trait of character not known at home, and for which he j~ there not thought calculated, I mean as a zealous demo- crat, though still as a quiet citizen. I cannot but add, that this new trait in his character, by being associated with certain other old and pernianer~t features, is far from rendering him more amiable. The Hessians ~vho, in the war of the revolution, served in the English army, and of whom the greater part remained in America, are said, to Ives in a peculiar man- in this respect, distin~uish themse ncr by their strong democratic politics, rudeness, coarseness, and obstinacy. p. 79. Our author, p. 79, & c. gives an account of the colonies founded on a large scale by foreign emigrants. That of Har- mony under Rapp is curious, but is well known to our readers from Melishs travels, Birkbecks letters, arid other sources. The Swiss colony called Vevay on the Ohio was founded iii i813. In 1~l4, the spot where the little town of Vevay stands, 14 German Emigration to .america. [July, was covered with wood. In February of that year the first house was built, and there are now (1817) more than eirht with several public buildings. A newspaper also is ~ v houses, printed here. This colony, as well as that of New Switzerland, also on the banks of the Uhio, has cultivated the vine with success. Their wine is placed by the side ot the best claret, [?] M. de Fi~rstenw~irther, afer a residence of four months in America, to which he probably caine unacquainted with the language, as we infer from the delight ~vith which he scatlers about his English words when his own tongue atlbrds thise which are perf~ct1y synonymous. and after hiving travelled tlwoughut the whole of America from Philadelphia to Wash in,gton, a distance of full one hundred and fifty geograohical miles, doses his report in the following highly pungent and philosophical strain. W~th such advantages, on the part of the United States, which eery impartial man will recognize with me, and wifh all the facility, particu~arlv of the m~terial life. I cannot conceal some defects and dark ~iles. In this country there is no idea, nay not a distant suspicion, of a higher and finer existence, at least on this earth. There is a want of every thing which can adorn and ennoble it, of every variety of better enjoyment and en- tertainment. Coarse materialism and interest are the character and lea1imng principle of the inhabitants :A want of sociality, contemptible pride, reserve, and coarseness, discover themselves in the niultitude, and repel the European of education and feelin~ Such an one will of course feel himself at first extremely - unhappy and solitary in this country ; it cannot please him. Although there be much in Europe. that he cannot anid ought not praise, com- parisons, which he will have daily occasion to make, will force from him the silent or open confession that still much is better there. If the Americans are justly proud of their civil freedom, and of their freedom in thinking, speaking, and printing, and in the social life, they still know not that high er freedom of the soul which is tj be found only in Europe, and Isay it boldly, most abundantly in Germany. With all their freedom, they are still slaves of their miarrow views, of their ignorance of every thing but vvhat is local and practical, and of their national prejudi- ces. Such are the impressions of all on their arrival in this coun- try, such are the coinciding feelings and judgments of all, even long after their arrival. By degrees only (10 they get used to the country, after they have formed to themselves a sphere of their 1820.] German Emigration to .~1meri ca. 15 own, or after their gradually awakening pride as free citizens ex- tin~uishes the recollections ot the advantages of their native land. pp. 90, 91. On the first perusal of these spirited remarks, we were, to use an expressive vulgarism, at a loss to know what Lhe author would be at. M e felt, to be sure, a becoming sympa- thy with M. de Fdrstenw~rther, in the distressing necessity in ~liicii we supposed he found himself of making a flourish, and sof;ening to himself the bitter pill of freedom in thinking, speaking, printing, and social life, which must have been so Opl)ressiVe to a nati%e of the Palatinate. Still, ho ever, we did not cx aetly understand, w hy America should pay so heavi- ly the penalty of his annoyance ; when it would have been quite as eloquent and sentimental to abuse the French or the English, who ha~e, it seems, hut an iufeiior portion of that higher freedom of the soul, which is for the most part on- ly thund in Germany. But we are helped to the key of these flue sentences, iut the publicaton of aconutrymari (in descent and language at least) of M. Fjicstenw~rther, the Deutschei. Freund, to ~vhicli we have already alluded. The passage is ~vorth translating. After quoting the sentences which we haie ourselves just given, the respectable e(hitor of the Deutscher Freund adds, Indeed where such defects and dark sides exist, things must, to be sure, be in a bad condi- tiori. But ho~v thankful might not we Americans to be, that after all we are no such moles. as the author would make us. It is some comfort to us 1)001 beings, that there are also just descripi ions of the American character in Germany. vfhIey kno~v very well there, that there is a want of a nobility in America. l)ut at the same time they have I)roofs enough there that we have in this country sonic ideas and suspicions of a higher an(l finer existence. God be thanked we have much here, on this American earl h. calculated to adorn and ennoble life. An order of nobility to be sure we have not. In America~ the little word von is not necessary to make a man noble. An apl)ertdix of twenty or thirty pages, concluding ~vith a pompons epilogue from M. (IC Gagern. closes this work. We have bitt a fe~v remarks to make on the general subject. The first is, that we cannot but wish our government might find it politically expedient, to hold out all fair and reason able encouragement to European, particularly Sw is~ 16 German Emigration to .Llmerica. [July, and German, emigration. We somewhat doui~t M. de Fur- stenw~rthers authority for his especially, attached to the German princes, when lie says Mi. Adams mentioned an Un- willingness to offend the foreign po~ers, as the cause why emigration is not encouraged by our government. So that England, and France, and Russia took no offence, we imag- ine little anxiety ~vould be felt by Mr. Adams, about what might be said of his policy at Stuttgard or Carisro he. But we cannot suppose that any of the German princes, surely that any one who has read M. de Fiicstenwiirthers book, could object to those measures at least being taken by our govern- inent, which would sa~ e the thousands of their poor loving subjects, which emigrate, from rotting on the ~)assage or starving in the streets of Philadelphia and Baltimore. We are willing to go farther, arid to say ihat we think our coun- try a gainer by this emigration. We have lan(l enough to support, and government enough to rule millions more than our country yet contains ;-and though we are far from thinking very highly of that finer freedom of the soul, which the German redemj)tioners bring ~vii.h tliem we do not know but they will stand a tolerably fair comparison with our own (lonJestic emigrants. They will want to be sure the Yankee enterprize and industry, which M. (le Fiirstenwiir- tlier well assigns as a reason, why they should not attempt to serve as pioneers, on the great march of population to~vard the west: but they are labourers, orderly labourers, and bring with them a better agriculture than they find. It has some- times occurred to us that German redemptioners might be made the means of gradually rooting out negro slavery from among us. Every one, who has speculated on the great problem of emancipation, has felt that the case in America l)resents a dif- ficulty unknown in the abolition of English villeinage, or the ancient Roman servitude, viz, that of ~)roc1iring a regularly and gradually increasing suj)phy of ~~hite labour, to take place of the gradually diminishing amount of black labour. We suppose that no free white would labour on a plan- tation, certainly not in a field, partly tilled by negroes. And thus it is impossible to take the first step. But here is a l)ractieahle mode of obtaining a su~)ply (if labour, to which this difficulty would not apply, and which is likely to be much more productive and efficient, than the purely involun- tary labour of slaves. A supply of this kind would tend te 1820.] German Emigration to ./Imerica. 17 diminish the demand for slaves, and of course to check t~ieir incme.~se, and in this only way lead to the gradual disappear- anc~ of the colour. For we are COfl~ inced that every scheme of colonization, if it do not act as a bounty on the multipli- cation of blacks, can have no effect in diminishing their num- bers in this country. The inevitable tendency of coloniza- tion ~vill be that, which is so much deph)red in poor laws, that of being regarded as a resource and provision for a certain amnouitt of biarks, and thus directly encouraging their in- crease. The objection, tbat the general cause of humanity would gain little by the substitution of a degraded class of the Ger- inian ~vIiite labourers, in the place of the black ones, disap- pears, when you recollect that the great dililulty in abolishing negro slavery, is the colour. You can do nothin~ with the inazi when you have emancipated him ; he is an inferior marked person, with whom you will not associate nor amalgamate; and who, in large numbers, bound together by this strong physical bond of community, may prove no agreeable mem- bet of your body politic. Once remove the obstdcle of colour, and the physical inferiority that commonly goes with it, and the case of American slavery would be that of English vii einage and ancient servitude all the world over :And the redemptioner, in a fe~v ages, might gro~v up into an enlight- ene(l citizen, by the same pUoCesS, which has turned semis and vassals into nobility, and gentry, and clergy. We have been unable to suppress our vexation at the nar- rowness of ~ie~v, betrayed by M. de Fiirsten~rthmer and his friend M. de Gagern, in wishing and striving to keep up the Germao pecnili;irities of their countrymen in Amnerica ; in sighing over the corruption arid approaching locs of the lan- guage ; and in projecting plans for counteracting the causes by ~vhich their amalgamation ~vifh the country in ~bichi they live is brought about. By what inconceivable perversi- ty are these gentlemen brought to think, that it is an advan- tage to speak a language ~~hich your neighbour cannot on- deistanid, to be ignorant of the language in which the laws of the land you live in are made and administered, and to shut yourself out, by a ,judaic nationality of spirit and manners, from hall the social privileges of life? M. de Fiirstenw~r- flier doubtless laments that a pestilent uniformity of language has taken place in Germany, to the confounding of those val- ~Yew Series, No. 3, 3 Ucrman Emigration to .~rnenca~ 18 [July, nable dialects of Celtic, Teutonic, Wendish, Magyar, Ro.~ man, and Turkish, which have penetrated the interior, or skirted the borders of his native country in various ages. How unfoitunate that the descendants of the iPicts and Scots, Danes and Normans, do not each speak the language which their ancestors spoke one or two thousand years ago in Eng- land; and how enviable the condition of that state, which M. de Fiiistenw~rthers half brother represents in the German diet, we mean the kingdom of the Netherlands, where the orators in l)arliatnent are obliged to debate in French, Dutch, and Flemish! Though we must own ~ve think this latter circumstance might have a happy effect in our country, in diminishing the zeal of debating, that sore evil in the land. Were our leaders in Congress, who think it incumbent on them- selves to make a long speech on every question that comes up, obliged to translate their harangue, Ii rst into Chickahominy, and then into Kickapoo, we apprehend it would prove a damper even to Mr. Randolph himself. We are not sure, in fact, that an attempt is not making to introduce this excel- lent practice of polyglot debate; having, in the reported speeches of the last session, observed many words and phras- es utterly foreign to any of the meagre list of languages with which we happen to be conversant ourselves. Till some such practice, however, be introduced, we recommend to all Ger- man and other emigrants, and particularly to their superiors who advise them, instead ot wishing to cherish and keep up their peculiarities of language and manners, to get over and forget them as soon as possible; remembering, that from the days of the tower of Babel to the present, confusion of tongues has ever been one of the most active causes of intellectual and political misunderstanding and confusion. Did we not fear that our comment had already outrun the importance of the text, we should hint at the state of things in Germany, disclosed by this prodigious emigration. We passed, not a year ago, through the kingdom of Wurtemberg, and along the banks of the Rhine, the countries from which the great march of emigration proceeds. All Europe does not afford a finer and more lovely land: the highest culti- vation, the finest forests, the richest l)r~duct5, the best roads, everything which would seem to belong to a happy country; all those advantages which we 5111)P050 M. (IC Fiirsten~ ~rther means by his material existence, and in ~vliich we really 1820.] Letters from Geneixi and France. 19 wish we were as ~vell off as he describes us. Yet it is from these delightful regions that every one, who can ride or walk away, from children at the breast to women eighty years old, is flying as from a pestilence, not tempted to stay by that \fine freedom of the soul,~of which our author will have it there is so much in Germany. Now we apprehend that it is precisely those fine moral comforts ~vhich are wanting in Eu- rope, nay we say it boldly, in Germany most of all. In some parts of Europe there is more vealth, in most there is more artificial refinement, and more learning, than in Ameri- ca; but in none is there much freedom either of soul or body; most in England, but not enough there. The tyranny is of a different kind in different places. In one it is the (lispropor- tionate wealth of the aristocracy, as in England; and in one it is the unbalanced despotism of the government, as in Ger- many: hut in all it is freedom, liberty, confidence, equality of rights, when there is equality of merit, which are wanted: a want which is poorly supplied by pictures and statues, by fleets and armies, nay by fine poetry and prose ;though these are all excellent in their way. ART. ILLetters from Geneva and France, written during a residence of between two and three years in diff~rent parts of those countries, and addressed to a Lady in Virginia, by her Father. Boston, printed for Wells & Lilly, I ~19. A BOOK of travels written by a countryman will probably be more useful, and will certainly be more interesting, than one of equal merit by a foreigner; it places us mole immediately among the scenes he describes; things, which would strike us as most strange, appear so to him, and the (omlnunity of feel- ing which exists between us and the author prepares us to re- fer manners, men, and things to the same standard. In read- ing the works of those who have been bred up under institu- tions different from ours, and in a different state of society, especially works which dwell so much on domestic and familiar topics as books of travels, we are often not sure that we rightly understand the author, that lie measures things by the same scale that we should, that he does not think highly of what would seem mean to us, that he does not approve or excuse what we should condemn. We are not sure that he does not pass over a thousand things, which would strike us as pecul

1820.] Letters from Geneixi and France. 19 wish we were as ~vell off as he describes us. Yet it is from these delightful regions that every one, who can ride or walk away, from children at the breast to women eighty years old, is flying as from a pestilence, not tempted to stay by that \fine freedom of the soul,~of which our author will have it there is so much in Germany. Now we apprehend that it is precisely those fine moral comforts ~vhich are wanting in Eu- rope, nay we say it boldly, in Germany most of all. In some parts of Europe there is more vealth, in most there is more artificial refinement, and more learning, than in Ameri- ca; but in none is there much freedom either of soul or body; most in England, but not enough there. The tyranny is of a different kind in different places. In one it is the (lispropor- tionate wealth of the aristocracy, as in England; and in one it is the unbalanced despotism of the government, as in Ger- many: hut in all it is freedom, liberty, confidence, equality of rights, when there is equality of merit, which are wanted: a want which is poorly supplied by pictures and statues, by fleets and armies, nay by fine poetry and prose ;though these are all excellent in their way. ART. ILLetters from Geneva and France, written during a residence of between two and three years in diff~rent parts of those countries, and addressed to a Lady in Virginia, by her Father. Boston, printed for Wells & Lilly, I ~19. A BOOK of travels written by a countryman will probably be more useful, and will certainly be more interesting, than one of equal merit by a foreigner; it places us mole immediately among the scenes he describes; things, which would strike us as most strange, appear so to him, and the (omlnunity of feel- ing which exists between us and the author prepares us to re- fer manners, men, and things to the same standard. In read- ing the works of those who have been bred up under institu- tions different from ours, and in a different state of society, especially works which dwell so much on domestic and familiar topics as books of travels, we are often not sure that we rightly understand the author, that lie measures things by the same scale that we should, that he does not think highly of what would seem mean to us, that he does not approve or excuse what we should condemn. We are not sure that he does not pass over a thousand things, which would strike us as pecul Leltersfrom Geneva and France. 20 [July, jarities, bitt which he has been used to at home.These re- marks would hold in any country. and be true of an English- man who should read the travels of a Frenchman, and of a Frenchman who should read the travels of a German. Still there is a greater similarity between all the countries of Eu- rope, ihan there is between America and any of them, and that interest which a citizen of any nation, for the reasons ~ve have stated, feels in a book of travels of a countryman, is much increased in the case of an American. We cannot trust theta abroad to speak of each other; or always understand them when they do. We hm~ve been led to these remarks by the contrast of the chaste and high-toned moral feeling pervading the work be- fore us, with the flippancy and profligacy of some late Euro- pean works of the same kind. It is the production of one of our fellow citizens in the South, who, from some cause which, in his preface, he invites and leaves us to conjecture, has not exhibited himself on the stage of public life, where talents and acquirements like his would have found a proper field for their exercise. The first volume contains a concise and well arranged his- tory of Geneva, a remark ably fine description of its scenery, and a fair and impartial account of its manners and customs. The author is a man of niuch observation, and there is at once a strength and ease in his descriptions, which ~ve have seldom seen surpassed; indeed we do not remember any wri- ter who retains his original sensations ~vith more freshness, and commit~s them to paper with more of the glow of the first impression. It needs but few pages to sho~v that lie is possessed of much more general information, and of a more minute and thorough acquaintance with classical literature, than a majority of those who have undertaken to amuse or instruct the world by their letters, travels or histories. He quotes freqiently, but with a hetter purpose than to show his reading. and makes his varied and extensive knowledge sub- servient to the illustration of every subject he touches. There is often wit and always pertinency in his allusions. Having risked our opinion in our authors favour so free- ly, it may be proper to bring him to confirm it. The follow- lug description of Mad. de Staid conveys a lively idea of her manners, and every one, who has mead her Germany, will ac- knowledge the justice of the critique on her ~ ritings. 18204 Lettersfrom Geneixs and France. 21 The first time I saw this celebrated lady was in her Castle of Copet, and when her mind was as yet strongly impressed with the loss of her father, of whom she never speaks but in terms of the highest affection and veneration. She was 5UrrOUfl(led, as usual, with a company of men, who hung upon all that she said. By de- grees, her natural cheerfulness prevailed, and placing herself very much at her ease, with her feet restiug upon an opposite chair, she ran on in a flow of lively conversation. She speaks, I think, even better than she writes, and is never at a loss for the happiest ex- pressions, colouring every thing after a manner peculiar to her- self, and deviating, at times, into anecdotes and descriptions which might offend your chaster ears, on the other side of the At. lantic. Her person is of a middling size; her features are not all of them good, and her complexion is bad; but she has a certain roundness and amplitude of form much admired and aspi~ ed to in this country, with a good natured, lively countenance and very fine eyes. With many of the graces of her sex too, and with a natu- rat desire for those triumphs and that admiration they are entitled to, she rather un wisely goe over to the other sex on some occa- sions, if I may use the expression, in her conversation and man- ners. The writings of Mad. de Sta~l bespeak an ardent imagina- tI)n, a warm heart and a considerable fund of various literature. She writes, in general, from accurate observation, or where her means of information fail, she guesses more happily than most people; confounding sometimes, however, it is said, fl~rgument with truth, and the art of reasoning with reason itself. Her sys- tern of liberty too might probably end in slavery, and her philos- ophy in ignorance, and her vision of perfectibility is contradicted by the experience of past ages and the events of the present. Her intended tour in Italy, next winter, will probably furnish her with materials for an interesting work, and particularly so, if she could submit to what she supposes a very inferiour department of literature, and would simply convey to her readers the iinpres- sions ma(le on her own cultivated mind. We sometimes meet with writers who give us animated descriptions of the scenery, manners, and habits of the peo- pie they visit, who have observation and judgment enough to glean all that may be necessary to give us a birds-eye view of society, but who go no farther ; who do not travel out of their way to draw comparisons or inferences, nor trouble themselves with tracing character to its sources, and investi- gating the modifications it receives from national customs or the peculiarities it exhibits in them. Now we do not, entire- Letters from Geneva and France. [July, ly, object to this, for it has saved us from many prosing essays and profound disquisitions, which would have left us about as wise and not quite as patient as they found us; bitt such writers cannot take a high stand in this golden age of litera- ture; they can furnish materials for the speculations of phi- losophy and theories of political science, and must be content to be useful without being very famous. To them, the re- mark which just closed our quotation, may be properly ap- plied; let them describe the manners, laws, and institutions of the people they visit, and they will be useful ; and let them describe the effects pioduced on their minds by the ob- jects which surround them, and if they have even a moderate share of talent, they will be sure to engage the attention; for things so strange and manners so different, as those of one nation must be from those of another, will produce an excite- ment of feeling and new sensations, differing in different per- sons, and interesting in all. But let them stop here; above all, let theni avoid analysing national character. We have been surfeited with descriptions of greedy, polite, fierce and fawning, tiger and monkey Frenchmen; of proud, independ- ent, bullying, factious Englishmen ; of dull, purse-proud, indefatigable Dutchmen; of heroic, sentimental, metaphysic- al Germans ; of voluptuous, refined, degraded Italians. Of these we have had enough, and more than enough; but, as we before observed, let travellers describe simply the manners of the people they visit, and their readers ~vill generally have formed a character of them full as vivid and probably more accurate, than could have been given them by a systematic analysis. But it is not for a mind like that of Madame de Stad to be tied do~vn with such restrictions; she was formed to rise higher and pursue a more brilliant career, exciting admi- ration by her beauties, and almost repelling criticism by the dazzling radiance which genius and imagination have thrown around her; and perhaps it is not of consequence to inquire it we receive much improvement from what so much delights us. Besides we are not certain that as much good, though of a different kind, does not sometimes result from an impetus thus given to the feelings arid imagination, as we should gain by sober instruction on Points of fact. The forms of society in Geneva do not differ much from our own ; their sunday evening parties, however, produce wore familiarity of intercourse, and an case of social life to 1820.] Letters from Geneva and France. which we are strangers. In their tea-parties, in the first of the evening, a circle of ladies sit guard round a huddle of gentlemen; at a certain hour, a table is introduced with tho tea equipage, and cakes and pastry are handed round; to this succeeds a number of card tables, and here is mani- fested the talent of the lady hostess, in arranging her com- pany. It has made me sorry, says our author, upon such occasions,, to see a delicate arid pretty woman toiling through a numerous company, with a pack of cards in her hands, inviting some and soliciting or commanding others to draw a card and to take their places; but it has been afterwards consoling to behold her rest- ing flow her labours, as she sat with self-complacency surveying the various groups she had so skilfully arranged. Bonaparte re- vie~ving his army after they had crossed the Alps could hardly have been more gratified. There are private balls also, from time to time, for dancing is a very favorite amusement, and it would be very agreeable to be present at theni, were they not so crowd- ed ; but one would think that every body here was of Miss La- rolles opinion, when she talks with delight of having been so squeezed ata ball that she could hardly breathe. We are not much pleased with the following account of the manner iii which the Swiss settled their religious disputes. It seems to be carrying into things which ought to be safe from its intrusion, that cold arid selfish prudence which is the dark side of the Swiss chriracter. Nothing, perhaps, is more expressive oC that ancient good na- ture and good sense, of which there are such valuable remains in Switzerland, than the peaceable and friendly manner in which the important question of religion was decided at the reformation. Having heard, as they supposed, all that was worth hearing on the subject, the people of each village and neighbourhood assembled on a day agreed on, and put it to the vote whether they should be catholics or protestants; iior was there an instance of the minor- ity making the least opposition to the decision.~ This may be a very. good natured way of settling a question of such importance, and might be a very good way if a matis conscience could be tied to his neighbours hands; but it would seem that religion could scarcely have had its proper influence over their affections and judgments, when the mode of its observance ~vas so indifferent to them. 1hey might have shown more good sense, ~tnd as much good Letters from Geneva and France. [July, nature, by agreeing to worship, each in his own way, with.. out molesting his neighbour, or insisting on his adoption of the same mode with liiwselt~ We meet with a siii~u1ar instance of the little importance so lately attached to America, in Europe. Our author, in conversing with a French general of division, was astonish- ed by the inquiry whether the Americans were really a sove- reign independent people or not; are too apt, says he to overrate our importance, as the fly does in one of IEsops Fables, and perhaps are not so superiour, as in our insolence of youth we are led to suppose, to what we are pleased to call the decrepitude of Europe. Fauchet gave a sad picture of us, and so (lOCS Volney. But the time ixill come, I trust, when the ardent spirit of money making will be more under the control of integrity; when every sort of intellect will have its occupation and meet with its reward; when we shall have poets and historians of our own; when the Belles Lettres of foreign languages will be more diffused, and when we shall blush that it should have been proposed in Congress to declare ourselves the most enlightened nation on the globe. We are not disposed to be ill-natured, and quarrel with our author for the expression of feelings, which were very common when this was written, and which by having become incorporated with general political viexvs, were often avowed unconsciously, without a mans giving himself the trouble to think whether he really felt arid thought as disparagingly of his country, as lie pretended to. Did we not think this cx- ~danation sufficient, we should ask what good purpose can be served by appealing to such incompetent authority as Fauchet ~and Volney: and, moreover, what moment more unlucky for quoting the judgments of respectable foreigners of America, than after having just recorded the anecdote, that a general of division had asked whether we were not still colonies? With respect to having poets and historiahs of our own, we should like it as xvell as our author. Meantime it is some comfort that we have them at all: and that we have a right to call the greatest masters of English literature our country- men. In fact we know not why we have not as fair a right to congrati~~ate ourselves on our affinity with those (listin- guished authors which have written in our native language, since our fathers left England, as before. If the glory of their works belong only to their actual authors, then it is no 1820.] Letters from Geneva and France. more credit to be of the same nation, town, or street than of the same hemisphere: If this glory, however, extend beyond the actual author, then we huml)ly think it is to be shared by all who are born to his language and who read, understand and admire his productions. We suppose that, in proportion to our population, Lnrd Byron and Walter Scott are more read in America than in England, nor do we see why we are not entitled to our full share oC all that credit, which does not rest incommunicably in the ~ierson of the author. Nor do we know any l)rillcil)le which shuts out America from this citizenship of the English literary republic, which ~vould not shut out half the towns and counties in England. In the second volume our author carries us to Paris, and we must confe~,s he does not please us so well as in the first. If we recall the excitement of feeling on political subjects, which existed in our country at the time these letters were written, the reason of this will readily appear; there are few of us whose prejudices have not been weakened and political feelings softened, since that time, and letters ~vritten under the influence of those prejudices and feelings in their full force, find now but little in us to correspond to them. Nor do our views of the French Revolution at all coincide with his. We make this reflection in the simple confidence of fact, without being deterred by the urifavourable remarks made in a respectable quarter on a quotation in our last number of Geoffroys observations upon Buonapartes accession to the throne of France. We shall not contest the propriety of calling those observations of Geoffroy an extravagant eulo~ giuin ~ we called them a piece of adroit flattery ourselves, and having just obser~ed that Buonaparte had no sentiment of true greatness, we tltotight we might venture on the quotation without a cwveat at the end of each sentence. And we would suggest to the respectable author of the criticism to which we allude the expediency of so much liberality of interpretation, as will still make it convenient in all similar cases to dispense with such narrow minded and timid reser~ ~mtions : an(l not while he co!utuen(ls us for political catholi~ cism insist that ~ve shall exercise it only in his way. To return to our author, Geneva ~vas for a time the place of his education, and associated with the enjoyments of his youth; we can pardon him, therefore, for the feelings with which he views the French revolution in its effects on a place which he seems to consider almost as his home; for it de. Abc Series No. 3. 4 26 Letters from Geneva and France. [July, stroyed its commerce, overthrew its independence, and in some manner changed its character; and any change would, probably, seem to him to be for the worse. But we are not pleased with the manner in which he refers to the revolution on other occasions and his blindness to the benefits arising from it. Great as were the horrors it produced, much as every principle of religion and virtue and every feeling of humanity were violated in its ~)rogress, and deep as were the moral corruption and degradation it caused, it certainly has resulted in benefits which in this country and at this time of day it ought not to be necessary resolutely to deny. The same strong good sense, ~ hich characterises in general our authors remarks on Geneva, is evinced in his observa- tions on what he sees in Paris. He carries us rather too minutely through the description of its public buildings, f~r scenes marked by the perpetration of such atrocities as were the greater part of them, are familiar to most readers, and they excite in him too much of that feeling to ~vhich we have just alluded, which gives an appearance of prejudice to his remarks on the nation. The Louvre, of course, would be one of the first objects to engage his attention, and the follow- ing remarks on its architecture and paintings are quite char- acteristic of his manner; witho ut the least pretension to con- noisseurship there is a freedom in his criticisms which reminds us of Simond; they are the remarks of one who ju(Iges for himself, and does not make it a point to admire because others do, and who is not afraid to ridicule what appears to him ridiculous. The fajade of the Louvre is, as I have mentioned, worthy of all that has been said of it. It is a handsome front, in which every ornament is connected with some apparent utility; the columns seem such as the weight to be supported requires, and the whole is a compound of uniform and regular simplicity. It is singular that every art should, in its utmost improvement, approach so near, in some respects, to the simplicity at which improvement began. It is so with architecture and so certainly with music, which, never, I have often had occasion to observe, commands such universal attention, as when, like Rousseaus, it belongs to that species of simple melody, which one might sup. pose to have been the music of Nature. The same observation might, perhaps, be applied to the manners of private life; the utmost refinement of which is to place every one at his ease; and yet, such probably was the case ma every assembly of say- 1820.] Letters from Geneva and France. a3es. before improvement commenced. In poetry too, the most difficult of all arts, one principle requisite of perfection is an apparent facility which seems the inspiration of nature. * * * At the flight of the holy family into Egypt we readily admit them to have been under the peculiar guidance of Pro~7idence; but the subject, all sacred as it is, is rendered almost ridiculous, by the representation of a great, stout, well made, broad shoulder- ed angel, who walks before, and leads the ass by a halter. The above observation is a part of his reply to the opinion of dAlembert, that nothing should be introduced into poetry, ~vhich will not bear representation on canvass. He quotes also the line of Goldsmith, Comfort came down the trembling wretch to raise,~ as conveying a very agreeable image to the mind, which, still, would not bear to be made the subject of painting. We are not sure here that Goldsmith in this line intended a dis- tinct personification, or meant any thing more than a meta- phorical use of language so common as to have lost its im- mediate signification. We are inclined to agree with our author, in his general dissent from the theory of dAlembert, that nothing should be admitted into poetry, that would not look well in a picture. Theoretical comparisons like this seldom sustain themselves in point of fact, and when applied to practice are of no value. The laws of imitation in the different arts are wholly different. Experience proves this, without our always being able to tell why. In Lessings Laocoon, an attempt is made to ascertain this very point, with regard to painting and the other arts; but the discussion soon loses itself in metaphysical refine- ments, which never aid the amateur in forming a judgment in actual cases of works of art to be estimated or compared. There are, no doubt, many things which l)OetrY would ex- clude, not because painting would exclude them, but on account of some quality which, in itself, makes them unsuitable for either. On the other hand, each may admit what the other would exclude. A human figure would look but oddly in a picture, ~vithout a nose; and yet we remember to have heard a question raised by one of the most distinguished living poets, whether the ~vord nose could possibly be admitted into serious poetry, without an unpleasant effect. It needs but a hasty coml)arison of the descriptions of beauty, in the poets of all nations and ages, to see how instinctively the mention 28 Letters fr(nn Geneva and France. [July, of this prominent feature is avoided. The same may be said of the arts of painting and sculpture; it is impossible to rea- son from on~ to the other, and there are innumerable things which are beautiful iii each, which the other excludes. A statue painted of five or six different colours, like a picture, would be as ridiculous, as a Picture all ~x hite like a statue. Yeu no metaphysical reason can be given why an imitation on canvass should a(lmit colour and one on maible exclude it. This comparison goes beyond colour. Painting seeks to mul- tiply. vary, afl(l spread out her creations ; she loves floating garments, and waving scarFs, and the contrast of forms de- lined. Statuary, conscious of the inflexibility of the materi- al which she ~vorks on, would contract and compose her forms, and reduce them as nearly as possible to a grave, we had al~ most said a lifeless simplicity. She disdains colour; every thing like dramatic attitude is an abomination. One need only compare the ancient Cupid and Psyche with that of Canova, to feel, notwithstanding the beauty of the latter, how much more chaste and elevated was the ancient taste in this respect. We make these remarks at the greater length, because in some public discussions on the statue of Washington, to which the article on Canova in our last number gave rise, ~ e observed that the argument from painting to sculpture was constantly made use of; and the authority of Messrs. Allston and West, to whose opinion in a question in their own pro- fessions, particularly to that of Mr. Allston, none would yield a more unhesitating deference than ourselics, was appealed to as decisive of the question. Whereas the laws of imitation in the two arts are so wholly different, that, considering the natural tendency of the human mind to judge on all subjects from the principles with wl)ich it is most conversant, we should feel rather induced to receive the opinion of a painter on a statue with some distrust :Thinking that whatever advantage he possessed from having made the forms of the sculptor h~s study as an exercise in drawing, this advantage was at least counterbalanced by the habit of applying the knowledge so acquired, according to principles of imitation wholly (lifferent. The Laocoon and the dying Gladiator, excited only disgust and horror in our authors mind, and he wonders why people should throng to view objects which can raise only such l)ain- ful feelings. It is the same principle which filled the Roman 1820.1 Letters from Geneva and France. amphitheatres with crowds to witness the cruelties which the statue represents, and to behold hundreds of fellow beings torn and mangled by ~ ild beasts; which sends Spaniards to the bull baiting and Englishmen to the boxing ring; which sends us to witness tue mimic horrors and sufferings of tragedy, arid would send us to witness the reality of it ; it is the combined operation of the love of excitement and curiosity, which fur- nishes the only answer to this paradox of receiving pleasure from witnessing suffering. We will add a few extracts, as specimens of our authors manner of description. Speaking of the opera at Paris, But I am shocked to hear a hero sing. All the eloquence of the reconcile such deoTadation poet cannot me to n the persons of Hector and Achilles, and much less so, in those of Cicero or Cato; and what think you of Regulus, who, after having urged his eountiymen, upon the most solemn and important of all oc- casions, to watch over the dignity and safety of the state, turns rOun(l and gives them a song before he ascends the Carthaginian vessel ? In modern operas, however, we are not shocked with such inconsistencies. The story is generally taken from some old romance or the Arabian Nights Entertainments, or the heathen mythology ; and the music, for which a certain number of lines of certain length have been ordered~ condescends, as little as possible, to borrow aid from sense~ The wonders which we read of in the Dunciad are here to be seen in all the perfection of extravagant absurdity. The angel of dulness here plants his standard, and scatters his magic charms in profusion. Monsters and gods, nymphs, shepherdesses, and furies are seen to dance or fight as the case requires ; it sometimes happens, too, from the course of the story made use of, that the horrors of the infernal regions are laid open ; the damned are seen rolling about in flames and sul- phur, and over them, at a distance, the mind is consoled with a view of the elysian fields, very much in the nature of a Mahometan paradise; and this medley of absurdities, ending as Pope says, by A fire, a jigg, a battle, and a ball, is received with as much applause as the victory of Austerlitz. Speaking of the style of opera dancing, he says, It is what Young calls a tempest ef ryility, a violent exertion of bodily force, a turning round with velocity, and jumping as high as possible to light on one leg ; like those leaden figures of Mercury you see on houses or on walls; and all this is attended with an exposure of the person in the female (lancers which ad- so Letters from Gene~va and France. [July, inits of no description. The exertions of a dancer are generally fatal to health in a few years, and this is said to be particularly the case with the female dancers ; who after a strange variety of fortune and situation, very often, if they live to be old, take their station as beggars at a church door and die in an hospital. The following is a description of the manner and address of Napoleon when lie me! die corps legislatif, which our au- thor witnessed from a gallery. The sIJeech, though short, he read. He was agitated I ob- served, and he breathed with difficulty ; and whether oppressed with the splendour which surrounded him, or out of patience at the tediousness of the ceremony, there was a mixed exprc~sioa of anger and of sorrow very strongly marked upon his counte- nance. I do not think that, in the whole course of my life, I ever saw a countenance which held out less encouragement to ally one ~v ho might be disposed to ask a favour from or throw himself upon the mercy of another. I now felt more torcibly than I had yet done in France, the blessing of being born in a free country ; and as we looked down on the plumes which waved below, it had the appearance of some splendid exhibition at the opera ; while the emperor, in his Spanish dress, received with shouts of applause and clapping of hands and saluted again in the same manner when he had finished speaking, instead of convey- ing to my mind any idea of regal dignity, made me think rath- er of some favourite actor in Richard Ill; nor would the expres- sions which the historian applies to this valiant usurper of the crown of England, be inapplicable on the present occasion. The book derives all its interest from the power of descrip- tion, the proper fenhing, and the strong vein of good sense vhich runs through it. Its style is far from being polished, and there is frequently an awk~vardness of expression which surprises us, from one who has enjoyed the advantages of an English e(lUCatioIl. A strong objection to it arises from the inveteracy of the pre~judice in favour of England and cvery thing English, which tinctures all his observations, and which is unpleasant, even to those who admire as much as we do her ~vell balanced constitution, her noble institutions, and the splendour of her literary character.~ But the objec- tion does not rest here; thieve are expressions which savour too much of aristocracy for a citizen of a great aiid happy re- public, an(l even something like an avowed preference for a monarchical government. Ffhiese sentiments can be traced so directly to education and early impressions, that we must 1820.] ~emoir of Dr. Williamson. 81 rather regret that his good sense should not have induced him to conceal them, than quarrel with him for entertaining them; for we believe so much in the white paper system of Locke, and in the omnipotency of these causes, that we can hardly find fault with a man for not erasing opinions and feeliugs which have been ingrained perhaps with the very texture of his soul. ART. III.~l Biographical J~femair of Thigh Williamson, .M~ D. LL. D. ~c. by David Hosack, ~L D. LL. D. s-c. New York. C. S. Van Winkle, 1820. pp. 91. DR. WiLLIAMSON ~S name is too well known to our readers from his writings, to have required a particular notice of a work like that before us. We call the attention of our read- ers to Dr. Hosacks biographical memoir, wholly on account of the anecdote contained in it of the famous letters of Hutchirison and Oliver. We give the anecdote as it stands in Dr. Hosacks words. We now come to an event, memorable by the commotion it ex- cited at the time, and by the magnitude of the eonsequences which have since arisen from it: I refer to the discovery of the celebrated letters of Hutchinson and Oliver: ~nd here [beg leave to call your notice to a few of the earlier circumstances of the late revolutionary ~var, in order to communicate a fact hitherto unrevealed. Although the (listurhances which originated in the famous stamp act, had nearly subsided with the repeal of that noxious measure, and returning sentiments of friendship were every day becoming more manifest, yet new obstacles to a permanent recon- ciliation appeared in the attempts of the British administration, to render certain officers of the provincial governin ents depend- ant on the crown alone. This measure of the court gave particu- lar oWence to the colony of Massachusetts, from the peculiarly oh- ~ioxious character of their governor, who, at times impelled by avarice and by the love of dominion, had, in furtherance of his schemes of self aggrandizement, uniformly manifested the most determined support to the views and measures of the mother country. certain it However discreditable to his reputation it may be, is, that governor 1-lutchin son was secretly labouring to subvert the chartered rights of the colony, whose interests he had sworn to protect. His agency in procuring the passage of the stamp

1820.] ~emoir of Dr. Williamson. 81 rather regret that his good sense should not have induced him to conceal them, than quarrel with him for entertaining them; for we believe so much in the white paper system of Locke, and in the omnipotency of these causes, that we can hardly find fault with a man for not erasing opinions and feeliugs which have been ingrained perhaps with the very texture of his soul. ART. III.~l Biographical J~femair of Thigh Williamson, .M~ D. LL. D. ~c. by David Hosack, ~L D. LL. D. s-c. New York. C. S. Van Winkle, 1820. pp. 91. DR. WiLLIAMSON ~S name is too well known to our readers from his writings, to have required a particular notice of a work like that before us. We call the attention of our read- ers to Dr. Hosacks biographical memoir, wholly on account of the anecdote contained in it of the famous letters of Hutchirison and Oliver. We give the anecdote as it stands in Dr. Hosacks words. We now come to an event, memorable by the commotion it ex- cited at the time, and by the magnitude of the eonsequences which have since arisen from it: I refer to the discovery of the celebrated letters of Hutchinson and Oliver: ~nd here [beg leave to call your notice to a few of the earlier circumstances of the late revolutionary ~var, in order to communicate a fact hitherto unrevealed. Although the (listurhances which originated in the famous stamp act, had nearly subsided with the repeal of that noxious measure, and returning sentiments of friendship were every day becoming more manifest, yet new obstacles to a permanent recon- ciliation appeared in the attempts of the British administration, to render certain officers of the provincial governin ents depend- ant on the crown alone. This measure of the court gave particu- lar oWence to the colony of Massachusetts, from the peculiarly oh- ~ioxious character of their governor, who, at times impelled by avarice and by the love of dominion, had, in furtherance of his schemes of self aggrandizement, uniformly manifested the most determined support to the views and measures of the mother country. certain it However discreditable to his reputation it may be, is, that governor 1-lutchin son was secretly labouring to subvert the chartered rights of the colony, whose interests he had sworn to protect. His agency in procuring the passage of the stamp .Afeinoir of Dr. Williawso,i6 [J~u1y, act was more than suspected, and apparently upon reasonable grounds. The illustrious Franklin, who had recently rendered himself conspicuous by his examination before a committee of the British privy council, and who at this period resided in London, as agent for the colonies of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, obtained pos- session, through the agency of a third person, of certain letters written by governor liutchinson ; secretary Oliver, afterwards lieutenant governor; Charles Paxton. Esq. and other servants of the crown, [Thomas Motfat, Robert Auchniuty, Nathaniel Rogers, George Romej; and sent them from Boston to Thomas Whately, Esq member of Parliament, arid a private secretary of Lord Gren- yule. After an account of Frankliiis appeaearice before the pri- vy council, and Mr. Wedderburnes insolent abuse of him, he adds, But it is time that I should declare to you, that this third person from whom Dr. Franklin received these famous letters, (and permit me to add that this is the first time the fact has been publickly disclosed,) was Dr. Hugh Williamson. I have before stated his mission in behalf of the academy. Dr. Williamson had now arrived in London. Feeling a lively inter- est in the momentous questions then agitated, and suspecting that a clandestine correspondence, hostile to the interest of the colo- nies, was carried on between Hutchinson and certain leading members of the British cabinet, he determined to ascertain the truth by a bold experiment. lie had learned that governor Hutchinsons letters were de- posited in an office difi~erent from that in which they ought regu- larly to have been placed; and having uiiderstood that there was little exactness in the transaction of the business of that office ; (it is believed that it was the office of a particular department of the treasury;) be immediately repaired to it, and addressed him- self to the chief clerk, not finding the principal within assum- ing the demeanour of official importance, he peremptorily stated that he had come for the last letters that had been received from governor Hutchinson and Mr. Oliver, noticing the office in which they ought regularly to have been placed. Without a question being asked, the letters were delivered. The clerk, doubtless, sul)posed him to be an authorized person from some other public office. Dr. Williamson immediately carried thenin to Dr. Frank- lin, and the next day left London for Holland. I received this important fact from a gentleman of high re- spectability, now living; with whom, as the companion and friend of his early days, Di. Williamson had entrusted the secret. i8~O.) Memoir of Dr. Williamson. 33 We shall not trifle long with the good sense of our read- ers, by discussing the morality (it this famous disclosure. We d~ not justify it upon the ground, that there is not a post of- fice in a capital city in Europe, unprovided with false seals, for tue more convenient opening and reading .of the letters that pass through it ; and that for an official agent to mur- mur that his correspondence has been violated, were as child- ish as for a general to complain that the enemy had attacked him, before his troops lIa(l had an opportunity to fortify them. selves with a hearty dinner. Nor did it ever occur to us, that the safrty of public documents in public offices was to depend on the good nature an(I delicacy of those whose most momentous interests were ~ rapped up in those documents ; but who ought not, for the world, to be guilty of so rude and disobliging an act, as helping themselves to them, when they have a chance. It is true, Mr. Wedderburne, who seems to have been very anxious to appropriate to himself as large a portion as could come to the share of a subaltern, of the glory and com~ fort of depriving his master of a continent, undertook to set up the distinction, that this was a private correspondence. A pri- vate correspondence indeed, between such simple, unofficial characters as governors, judges, members of parliament, and secretaries of ministers of state, upon such romantic and sen- time utal tol)ics as the state of the colonies, the views of the leading men, an(l the right and means of reducing them! And yet a distinction so insulting to the common sense of the privy council as this, was made by Mr. Weddeiburne the ground of the most abusive ribaldry toward Franklin, so indecent as to make the lords of the council laugh. aloud. Lords of council laughing aloud at Franklin! The true justification of the disclosure of these letters is that a state of war really, if not formally, existed between England and the colonies at the time. The letters them- selves ~vere actually hostile letters, traitorously written by his majestys servants in America, in the design and with the ef- fect of exasperating time government against the colonies. But we suppose no great doubt is now entertained that letters like these are a lawful prize, wherever foumuid. The on- ly question now of interest is the agency of Dr. Williamson in procurimig them. This agency is, as Dr. Hosack observes in his memoir, now for the first time made publickly known, ~7Vew Series, No. 3. 5 ~l4 .3lemoir of Dr. Williamson. [July, and the question naturally suggests itself, on what authority it is asserted. On this subject Dr. Hosack gives us no light but that which is contained in the following sentence. .1 re- ceived this iml)ortant fact from a gentleman of high respect- ability now living, ~ ith whom, as the compa;Aou and friend of his early days, Dr. Williamson had eiitrusted the secret. We have ourselves been favoured with an opportunity of readingthe letter of the gentleman here alluded to, and anotlwr of Bishop White of Philadelphia testifying to the respectability of its au- thor, both of which letters, with other documents relating to the same subject, ~vill, we understand, be gi~en to the public, among the transactions of the New York Historical Society. This curious anecdote, therefore, as the case stands, rests upon the authority of a gentleman of Philadelphia, of ascer- tamed respectability, the friend of Dr. Mdliamson from his youth, ~ ho professes to have recei~ed it from Dr. Williamson him~elf. We shall here state fairly our impressions as to the claim of the anecdote, under such circumstances, to be call- ed authentic, and the probability that it is so. In the first place, we do not agree with the opinion, which we have occasioiially heard expressed, and by respectable persons, that there is an antecedent presumption against the thing, and that the rules and practice of the offices of state iii London make it highly improbable that the letters could have been thus withdrawn without authority. We see no such improbability. There is none in their being in an office, for that ~vould be to allo~v the justice of the ridiculous pre- tence that they were private letters; whereas they were let- tersof public agents, to a member of parliament, secretary of a minister of state. That so iiany letters from so many persons should have been together, as upon almost any sup- position they must have been, at the time of their being tak- en, is also a circumstance, which r~nders it probable that they had been selected an(1 deposited for some public purpose, in a public office. We are equally unable to see any antece- dent improbability in their having been ~vithdravn from the office, in such a way as Dr. Williamson is described to have taken them. In a regular oflicial way, they could not have been withdrax~ n without a treachery on the l)aI~t of the prin- cipal or clerks, unlikely in itself, and very unlikely to have remained undiscovered. Mr. Wedderburne says, the letters could not have coIi~e to Dr. Franklin by fair means; the 1820.] Jiemoir of Dr. Williamson. ~35 writers did not give them to him, nor yet did the deceased correspondent, [Mr. Whatelyj who, from our intioacy, would have told me of it. This seems to us to be cot~ rectly reasoned, if you change fair into regular or official. And when it is said that the rules and practice of the offices of state make it impossible that Dr. Williamson could have gotten possession of the letters in the way stated in the anec- dote, we conceive that this amounts merely to the assertion, that they were not officially and regularly communicated to Dr. Franklin. This no one is disposed to deny. And no one can surely take upon himself to state, that the offices of state in London are so managed, that it is impossible a clerk should he imposed upon by an artifice like that to which Dr. Wil- liamson is said to have resorted. On the contrary, that some such means were practised, we cannot doubt, and for the reasons assigned by Mr. Wedderburne. It is very certain that Mr. Whately could not have surrendered them: it is equally certain that no clerk or principal in lord Grenvilles office would knowingly have entrusted them to Dr. Franklin, or any body likely to give them to him; and they must there- fore have been obtained by some surprize. It may be just worthy of remark, however, that Gordon intimates that a sus- picion attached to Mr. Temple. There is something myste- rious, says that writer, in this husiness, which it is appre- hended will not bear a discovery at present. It is suspected that the letters were procured out of some public qffice: and that Mr. Temple is not so perfectly ignorant of all circum~ stances as the doctors language seems to express. This suspicion, it is well known, led to the duel between Mr. Whiate-~ ly, the brother of the correspondent of th~ American function- aries, and Mr. Temple. 4 Whether the precise mode in which r. Williamson is said to have gotten them, and just thaf sort of deception which he is said to have put upon the clerk, in one of the offices of state, be credible or not, it is not worth while to discuss. The gentleman from ~vhom Dr. Hosack has derived the anecdote does not pretend to enter with precis- ion into these details; and in every transaction of this kind so much depends on personal qualities, local circumstances, coincidences, and chances, that it is impossible to reason safe- ly on any thing but a very accurate and minute detail. however, we see nothing improbable in the statement as it .itkmoir of Dr. Williamson. [July, stands, and as we have quoted it above from Dr. ijosacks jnemoir. So that the anec(lote is in itself credible, and is reported by a person of credibility, likely, as a friend of Di, Williamson, to have heard it, had it been true. This seems to be the amount of the presumption in favour of its aii. thenticity. We know of nothing that can be urged against the anec~. dote, but this, that the gentleman who communicates it to Dr. Hosack, and states that lie himself had it from Dr. Williamson, does not, if we have an accurate recollection of his letter, intimate that he received it, with any ir~jutiction of secrecy, nor that Dr. Williamson made a mystery of it, It seems to us therefore somewhat unaccountable, that the anecdote should have remained so long concealed. We know of no motive, that could have led Dr. Williamson to conceal it from the public, that would riot have led him also to conceal it from this friend as from every other, or it ho communicated it to him, to have done it ~vitti a strong injunc~ tion of secrecy. This there is no appearance that lie did. If our memory serves us, Dr. Hosacks informant in his letter, as yet unpublished, states that he repeatedly beard it from Dr. Williamsom, and drops no hint that the doctor at any time enjoined secrecy upon him; as he hardly could have failed to do, had it been a secret of the kind that it must needs have been; made known, as it would seem, but to one individual, and by him only promulged after Dr. Williamsons decease. Moreover, it is finally communicated to Dr. Hosack, not as a great mystery, of which the death of the principal person concerned h7~ at length broken the seal, but as ~ piece of informatioi~ accidentally sent to the author of th~ biographical mem$r, in consequence of inquiries made to Bishop White for Inaterials for such a biography ; and then it is communicated with as little ceremony or note of admira- tion, as any other historical anecdote. This seems to us in. consistent with the idea that Dr. Williamson could have com- municated it to his friend in strict confidence; as it seems to u~ equally difficult to explain how. without such strict confidence, the secret should have gone no farther. This wants explana- tion. The most probable explanation which suggests itself to us is, that it was in fact communicated under strict injunc- tion of secrecy by Dr. Williamson to his friend, a secrecy 8~O.3 Memoir ~f 1k. Williamson; 3? not to be violated during the doctors life time and that his friend, under what circumstances, and for what reasons, or by what accident, we know not, has omitted to make any mention of such an injunction. While we thererore wish ft~r farther information with regard to this curious anecdote, ~e confess ourselves, on the whole, strongly disposed to acknow- ledge its authenticity. We therefore feel grateful to Dr. Hosack for his instrumental- ity in making it public. We could wish that equal pains might be taken to ascertain and make public the authois of anoth- er of the acts, which engaged so much of the public atten- tion in our early revolutionary history, we mean the destruc. tion of the tea. Dr. Hosack, in the memoir before us, gives the name of one of those concerned in this bold and patriotic exploit, general Ebenezer Stevens. Other names are not till. known, and we believe there are individuals in our neighbour. li~od, abundantly able to furnish a list of all concerned iii this affair, with all the secret history belonging to it. Why should they be concealed? Why should facts, from the disclosure of which nothing but honour would redound to all concerned in them, be allowed to be forgotten,one after anoth- er, as the living depositaries of these secrets pass away? We are particularly anxious that transactions like that of the destruction of the tea, should receive every possible illustra- tion; for independent of the political importance of that af- fair, it is such things as these, ~vhich are to furnish materials, if any thing is to furnish them, for our future Waverleys and Hearts of Mid Lothian. It may seem a want of courtesy to summon an occasional pelioriflance, like that before us, to the bar of verbal criti- cism. We therefore but just observe in passing, that there is room for greater simplicity of style, that the poetical quo- tations are too numerous, an(I the translation of the Latin one, we trust, superfluous. The allusions to the religious character of the subject of the memoir seem to us occasion- ly to border on canting. The anecdote, in particular, of Dr~ Williamsons parents, page 12th, is singularly injudicious. 38 Sacred .)IThsic. [July, ART. IV. Templi Garmina. Songs of the Temple, or Bridge- water Collection of Sacred .Music. Seventh edition, irnprov- ed and enlarged. Boston, 1819. AT a time when music is beginning to claim a respecta- ble rank amongst the sciences taught in our country, it is gratifying to observe that the cultivation of psalmody is not altogether neglected. Until very lately, the musical compo- sitions, introduced into our worshipping assemblies, were such, as are altogether beneath criticism ; and the prevail. ing style of l)erfornlallce was quite deficient in solemnity, dignity, an(l decency. Among the cultivators of this musical trash, it is (lifficult to say which had been the most illiterate, the composers or the itinerant instructers. Equally deficient as they were in science, judgment, and taste, their misguid. ed efforts had been hut too successful in perpetuating a cor- respondent deficiency in others. In the midst of this declension of taste, however, a few in- dividuals, by the most unwearied and persevering exertions, succeeded in effecting a partial, though local reformation. A few congregations, in some of the most populous towns and villages of Ne~v England, were rescued from the prevail- ing degeneracy, the style of music ~vhich they adopted was comparatively excellent, the number of congregations where improvement was desired, was gradually increasing, illite- rate instructers were giving place to those that were more scientific and skilful ; and nothing, at length, seemed want- ing to effect a general and entire reformation, but an exten- sive circulation of chaste and classical tunes, sufficiently sim- ple to he adapted to the wants of choirs and of worshipping assemblies. Several laudable attempts, that have been made from time to time, to supply this deficiency, have been attend- ed with partial success ; and amongst these are justly to be reckoned the Templi Carmina. But the labour and the difficulties, to which the faithful compiler of church music necessarily subjects himself, are seldom duly appreciated. ruhoughi furnished with ample materials, it is by no means sufficient for him to sit down and form a mere index, or list of pieces for publication. Nor is a bare speculative knowledge of the rudiments of compo- sition sufficient to insure his success. For, among the end. less variety of psalm and hymn tunes that have obtained ex

38 Sacred .)IThsic. [July, ART. IV. Templi Garmina. Songs of the Temple, or Bridge- water Collection of Sacred .Music. Seventh edition, irnprov- ed and enlarged. Boston, 1819. AT a time when music is beginning to claim a respecta- ble rank amongst the sciences taught in our country, it is gratifying to observe that the cultivation of psalmody is not altogether neglected. Until very lately, the musical compo- sitions, introduced into our worshipping assemblies, were such, as are altogether beneath criticism ; and the prevail. ing style of l)erfornlallce was quite deficient in solemnity, dignity, an(l decency. Among the cultivators of this musical trash, it is (lifficult to say which had been the most illiterate, the composers or the itinerant instructers. Equally deficient as they were in science, judgment, and taste, their misguid. ed efforts had been hut too successful in perpetuating a cor- respondent deficiency in others. In the midst of this declension of taste, however, a few in- dividuals, by the most unwearied and persevering exertions, succeeded in effecting a partial, though local reformation. A few congregations, in some of the most populous towns and villages of Ne~v England, were rescued from the prevail- ing degeneracy, the style of music ~vhich they adopted was comparatively excellent, the number of congregations where improvement was desired, was gradually increasing, illite- rate instructers were giving place to those that were more scientific and skilful ; and nothing, at length, seemed want- ing to effect a general and entire reformation, but an exten- sive circulation of chaste and classical tunes, sufficiently sim- ple to he adapted to the wants of choirs and of worshipping assemblies. Several laudable attempts, that have been made from time to time, to supply this deficiency, have been attend- ed with partial success ; and amongst these are justly to be reckoned the Templi Carmina. But the labour and the difficulties, to which the faithful compiler of church music necessarily subjects himself, are seldom duly appreciated. ruhoughi furnished with ample materials, it is by no means sufficient for him to sit down and form a mere index, or list of pieces for publication. Nor is a bare speculative knowledge of the rudiments of compo- sition sufficient to insure his success. For, among the end. less variety of psalm and hymn tunes that have obtained ex 1820.] Sacred .Music. tensive circulation, few oniy have any claims to merit; and but a small portion of the compositions, even of distinguished masters, will be Ibund sufficiently well adapted to the ordina- ry wants of the religious community. Some of these ~vere designed h~r a congregation that would sing merely the air iii octaves and unisons to each other, with an accompanying organ ; others for a regular choir without accompaniment. Some, again, were designed for a single voice with an ac- companying instrument; and others, for a congregation, choir, and instrument united. Some were adapted to the wants of such as are refined in taste and skilful in perform- aiice; while others were designed for the unlearned, and the unskilful. The oldest psalm tunes, too, such as Old Hun- deed, Landaff, Wells, & c. having been originally composed without harniony, it was left for subsequent masters, illite- rate, as well as learned, to arrange them in two, three, four, or more accompanying parts, as best suited their whim or convenience; amid consequently so varied, and so multiplied are the different copies of these pieces, that scarcely any two editions of them will be found to agree; and what is still more unfortunate, the worst harmonies are every where the most numerous. Besides this, most of the psalm and hymn tunes published under the names of Steffani, Handel, Bon- noncini, Arne, Haydn, Mozart, & c. were not originally de- signed as such by their composers, but have since been extract- ed by hands, not always the most skilful, from such of their larger pieces, as oratorios, concertos, symphonies, masques, operas, & c. ; and hence, though well enough in their proper place, they are often too light arid secular in their char- acter; or too injudiciously arranged to answer the impor- tant purposes of sacred song. He, then, who ~vould form a judicious compilation from such materials as these, should be furnished with a cultivated and discriminating taste for psalmody, a thorough knowledge of practical music, and an intimate acquaintance with the leading principles of musical composition. A want of these qualifications, however, has been frequently manifested by Europeamas as well as Americans; and, if the editors of the ~vork Iefore us have proved themselves in any degree deficient, a consideration of the difficulty of the task, and the want of sufficient patronage, should undoubtedly entitle them to no small share of public indulgence. Had these editors made 4(1 Sacred ~1asic. [July, less pretensions, had their book been designed a~i a mere re- pository of the best of such pieces as are ulready in circula- tion, had they not presented us with unqualified recommenda- dations from two of the most respectable musical societies among us, we should have spared ourselves the labour of giv~ ing their book an attentive examination, and our readers the perusal of these remarks. But though a mere collection of 1)opular pieces may be considered, in some respects, an inoffensive, and even a con- venient thing; it is still doubtful whether a book that makes such high pretensions to correctness, may not, by offending the taste of the amateur arid the man of science, and by imper- fectly accommodating itself to the ~vants of choirs and wor- shipping assemblies, do something towards retarding, instead of facilitating the cultivation of church music. At a time like the present, when the public attention is inclining to- ~vards this object, and when the principles of musical criti- cism are~beginning to be better understood; certainly, the most obvious and prominent defects in composition will be more severely and extensively felt, than formerly; and more inju- rious in their operation on the public taste. Such are the reasons that induce us to offer to the consid- eration of our readers the following remarks ; and if the editors and publishers in question are sincerely desirous of rendering their work as perfect in all respects as possible; we trust that they will not be unwilling to receive them as friendly hints of improvement for a future edition. The pieces which compose this volume, may very conven- iently be divided into six classes. 1. Old tunes, with harmony that is decidedly incorrect. 2. Old tunes, partially correct. 3. More modern pieces, with one or two parts added to the score. 4. Pieces, ne~vly arranged or extracted from larger com. pd)Sitions. 5. Pieces, not before published in this country. 6. Pieces, that merit unqualified commendation. The intelligent musician will readily recognize such tunes as St. Martins, Plymouth, Dalston, New Fiftieth, Amster- dam, Easter Hymn, 01(1 Ten Commandments, Little Marl- borough, Bethesda, Cheshunt, & c. as belonging to the ~rst class. 1820.1 Sacred .~hssic. 41 As the editors do not pretend that pieces of this descrip- tion are harmonized on modern principles of correctness, it may be unnecessary, perhaps, to point out the false relations, false progressions, forbidden successions, & c. that perpetually OCCLiP: nor will we at present persist in saying, that they were under particular obligations to present these pieces to us in a different form.; since, notwithstanding their numerous defects, they have become our familiar acquaintances but we fear that their style of remark in relation to them is cal. culated rather to mislead, than correct or improve the public ta5te. Their language is as follows. Plain common chords were exclusively used in ancient church music, and applied, without regard to connexion, to six of the seven different notes of the scale; and it is doubtful if it has gain- ed much by the modern doctrine of relation. Palastrini, in his fa- inous Stabat Mater, as well as other celebrated authors, used per- fect chords of the same kind diatonically1 and every note in the scale except the 7th,as a fundamental base. And Dr. Burney,frorn whom most of this account is derived, says, the modulation was s~ qualified by thedisposition of the parts, that though it looked un~ci- entific and licentious on paper, its effects, of which no idea can be acquired by keyed instruments, were admirable. He farther says, that this disregard of relation is doubtless the true secret of ancient church music ; and the principal cause of its eili~cts so widely different from that of modern compositions: an effect com- pounded of solemnity, wildness, and melancholy. It should be distinctly understood, however, that the coin- positions to which the doctor here alludes, are of a species entirely different from any thing that appears in the Templi Carmina. They were produced indeed by men of distin- guished eminence in science and taste, for the times in which they lived; hut, though excellent compositions of the kind, they have long since fallen into disuse, and have ceased to be models for imitation. These old masters too had their own peculiar rules, to ~vhich they rigidly adhered ; and though a want of relation forms a (histinguishing trait in their compo- sitions, this want could have been atoned for only by the ex- istence of peculiar excellencies to which it gave rise and it is ~vholly owing to these excellencies that we are still able to listen to their music with so much satisfaction.* But the comu- So far is Dr. B. from countenancing a want of relation in modern mu- sic, that he compares it to a wantof grammatical conne~ion in language. .JVew Series, No. 3. 6 Sacred Jlusic. [July, positions that we Ii~ive now under consideration, are not cor- rectly harmonized on any principles, ancient or modern. At the time this harmony was written, it was justly to be consid- ered illiterate and tasteless; and of course can now scarce- ly be tolerate(l, except for the sake of convenience. The second class of compositions consists of such pieces as Funeral Thought, Durham, St. Anns, Wells, Greens iOtli, Aylesbury, Cu in bet] and, Rutland, Coichester, York, Win- chester, Dover, Quercy, Condolence, Handels Anthem, Ban- gor, Mear, Bath, & c. Since most of these are no~v so much changed in their ap- pearance, as to prevent us from feeling the j)artiahty inci- dent to acquaintance, we do not see why so many consid- erable defects are still permitted to remain. Why should not these pieces have been presented to us, either with their accustomed (lefects, or entirely without them. If they are to be given to us in a ne~v form, ~ve certainly wish to see them correct on some uniform principles, either ancient or modern. There is also a considerable difference between a sacred and a secular style of harmony. Many things that are prop. er. in the latter are wholly inadmissible in the firmer: nor do we wish to see, in sacred music, even those modern re- finements, that are indispensable in dramatic composition. But we fear, that, on a close examination of this class of pie- ces, their refinements will sometimes be found mixed with passages in the ancient as well as modern church style; and then, too, with some of the most palpable violations of all rule. But as this heterogeneous mixture of style, from the multiplicity of opposite principles it embraces, almost bids defiance to criticism, we shall confine our particular remarks to a fe~v individual pieces. I. Funeral Thought, p. 11. As this piece is otherwise in the modern church style, we see no reason why the first half- cadence in the third line of the alto should have so widely deviated from it. ~.. Durham, p. 1~. This tune begins with an unmeaning succession of unisons, in the tenor and base; the Wsd is omit- ted in the first half-cadence; the second line is in the mod- em church style; the third line contains a mixture of style; and the fourth a dominant, that carries, at the same time, a major and a minor third, forming the crude dissonance of the chromatic semi-tone. 18~O.1 Sacred .M~ISW. 43 3. St. Anns, p. 14. The first line contains, in the alto, a modulation to A major, which can scarcely find a parallel even among modern dramatic licenses. 4. Greens 100th, p. 10~. The second measure of the sec- ond line contains a diatonic succession of octaves between the alto and air; and in the next measure there is a similar succession of Sths between the tenor and alto. Nothing can compensate for the want of relation that is felt in this tune. 5. Aylesbury, p. 144. At the third line, the alto proceeds in G major, x~ bile the other parts form an ancient half-ca- dence in A minor. The chord ~- occurs too frequently, and with too little ceremony. 6. Dover, p. 132. The first note in the second measure of the alto should have been F; and the last note of the second line E. T lie third line contains two instances of consecutive Sths; and, at the close, the alto crosses the air without the least necessity or advantage. 7. Rutland, p. 133. At the end of the first and second lines and at the close, the alto crosses the air; and at the end of the fourth line, it continues in D major, while the other parts modulate to A major. The last note but one in the first tenor staff should have been A. 8. Quercy, p. 101. This piece contains consecutive octaves and 5ths, by the opposite motion (a license which should be seldom used in modern music) and in the second line between the tenor and air, a long and disagreeable succession of 4ths. P. Condolence, p. 176. Besides several smaller faults, this tune contains five instances of consecutive 5ths between the alto and tenor. 10. Handels Anthem, p. 245. A natural should have been prefixed to the first note in the tenth measure of the second treble. The last cadence in the first strain is preceded by an unparalleled succession of 7ths between the air and base. This, without doubt, was originally a typographical error ; and it ought to have been corrected. If in the first of these two chords the treble had taken the 8ve insteadof the 7th, the passage would then have been in the true style of Handel. A similar remark might be made respecting the third base note and fifth treble note of the following strain. The for- mer should, unquestionably, have been B, and the latter F. With regard to such errors as the foregoing, there can be but one opinion; and were ~ve disposed to swell the list, we 44 Sacred Music. [July, could mention innumerable instances of a disregard of rela- ti()n; the omission of essential intervals; the improper (le- scent of the leading note to the dominant; and an undue par- tiality for the 6th instead of the 5th in the subdominant liar- monv: but as our limits will permit us to notice only some of the most prominent defects, the foregoing must suffice. The tunes which compose this cla.~s are j)retty numerous; and ~e cannot but hope, that in a future edition they will be entirely renovated, or reduced at once to their former stand- ing. We will not pretend to say how the editors obtained these copies; hut we wish them to present us with better ones. Among the pieces that compose the third class, we shall confine ourselves to such as Locke, Dunstan, Blendon, Nant- wich, Kingson, Halifax, Pelham, Rushton, Hotham, Re- deeming-Love, Turin, Deptford, Hel msley, Welsh, Italian Hymn, Bramham, Dorset. Susscx, & c. which are to be found in the Lock Hospital Collection, not long since republished in Boston from a late London editim. In that work they are arranged in three parts with a figured base for the organ, in a style highly distinguished for simplicity, chasteness, and delicacy; and with fe~v exceptions the most scrupulous re- gard has been paid to the modern rules of composition. For- bidden successions, false progressions, false relations, defec- tive modulation, and every thing like mixture or impurity of style, have been studiously avoided and even the most excusable and inoffensive licenses have been used with a spar- ing hand. Many of these pieces, too, have been often re- l)iilited an(l extensively circulated in several districts of our country, until they have at length become the most intimate of our musical acquaintances And why may we not say, as our editors have done respecting a part of the old tunes, that having become familiar to us, more injury than benefit would prr)bably result from any supposed alterations of theni whatever? But the Templi Carmina presents these pieces to us in a style altogether peculiar to itself, and, in our opin- ion, the l)articLuIa~ unhappiness is, that the alterations they have now undergone are evidently and decidedly for the worse; and if we might he allowed to judge from the forbid- den successions, disregard of ielation, omission of appogia tures, after-notes, pauses, & c. that frequently occur; as well as from the fact that the score, previously rendered complete 1820.) Sacred Music. from the finishing touches given by eminent Euroliean mas- ters, has been uniformly cumbered .~ ith additional harmony: we should not hesitate to say that these alterations are lite- rally to be taxed on the editors themselves. And we conh~ss that it is difficult for us to see why the same reasons that pre- vented them from hazarding the necessary corrections of the old tunes, should not more especially have deterred them from applying the pencil of a novice to such pieces as, from their high state of finishing, had no need of correction. If it be said that the score in church music should always consist of as many as four parts, our reply is, that there is a difference of opinion on this subject. It is a more general, and probably a more correct opinion, that the number of parts ~hou1d vary according to circumstances. The more refined a melody is, the more we incline to limit our attention to it; and of course the accompanying parts should be proportiona- lily fewer arid more simple. This is one of those fundamen- tal principles of harmony, that should never be forgotten. We are aware that some of these pieces have been arranged in four parts by respectable European masters, hut instead of superadding to harmony that was previously complete, they have furnished a score entirely itew; and they have uniformly found it necessary to preserve, in the individual parts com- posing it, a much greater simplicity of melody titan would otherwise have been required. iNor have they been less stu- dious in cultivating purity and chasteness of style, than were the compilers of the Lock Hospital Collection ; and if our editors had availed themselves of their labours, and laid their own pencil entirely aside, there would have been much less reason to complain. But if a Madan, a Lockhart, an Ar- nold, a Giardini, and even a Buritey himself, have been wil- ling to risque their own compositions in three vocal parts, an(l especially if they have uniformly set such a base to their music, as on modern principles would be inadrnissi~le in a fuller score, an American editor, we think, might well have republished these pieces without furnishing any additional Jiarmony of his own in~ ention. But to proceed with the fourth class of pieces. Farina, Brattle Street, Italy, Interment, and Dirge, had their origin in secular music. Farina was an Italian song, a treble duet with base accom- paniment. If the alte in the Templi Carmina were omit- I 46 Sacred .Music. [July, ted, and the tenor given to the second treble, the arrangement would be similar to the original, and as we have formerly seen it. Brattle Street originated in an instrumental composition of Ileyels. We have more usually seen it with several of the ori- ginal appogiatures that are here omitted. rrhe last line but one is furnished, as it formerly has been, with a cadence that is truly barbarous. It should have been made similar to the first line. Italy had a similar origin with Parma. As a hymn tune it has pretty uniformly appeared in three parts; and if Sacchi- iii had thought an alto necessary, he could, doubtless, have furnished a better one. Interment and Dirge are indebted for their existence to Handels celebrated Dead March in Saul. The latter is too dissonant for common use, and the former is now depriv- ed of one of its most interesting strains. iPlyinpton, Sinai, and Aberdeen, in the original, were fine compositions. Plympton having first appeared as a short fugue in four parts, was afterwards reduced to three parts with plain harmony: and in this form it has been extensively and deservedly admired: and there seems little necessity for its no~v appearing in a third form. The two latter pieces have usually been reprinted without material alteration; but they are now quite transformed, and despoiled of their pecu- liar excellencies. Music was originally a beautiful movement in the overture of Dr. Arnes Artaxerxes. If the alto be omitted, (and it may very well be spared,) the arrangement will then be as we have often seen it, and similar to the original, if the edi- tors, however, prefer four parts in score, they will find a much better copy than the one they have given us, in the Hartford Collection, or in Arnold and Callcotts Psalms, from which it was taken. Messiah is an extract from Handels well known solo, I know that my Redeemer liveth. It has appeared in several different forms~ but till no~v we had thought it quite too delicate to furnish an ordinary score of four parts. A similar remark might be made respecting Stennet, which was originally extracted from Pergolesis Stabat Mater. Veni Creator atid Palmyra made their first appearance as extracts, in Arnold and Callcotts Collection. The present 1820. & wred .1ltu~ic. 47 arrangement would be more excusable if the last measure of the former had been deprived of its consecutive Sths, and the second measure of the latter of its crude dissonance. The remainder of this class appears less exceptionable, though Loin, page 115, furnishes us with two instances of a chromatic license, that we are not yet able to relish in psalmody. The fifth class presents us with a considerable variety of style. It sometimes happens that a worthless composition, when once before the public, ~vill acquire such a popularity as to refl(lCr it difficult for a compiler to reject it; and policy, perhaps, may (lictate that it should be suffered somewhat to outlive its popularity. But with regard to new music the case is quite different. No person is excusable, on any prin- ciples, for introducing as new acquaintances, such pieces as are not really deserving of patronage. Our country is al- ready deluged with musical trash ; and it is the duty of eve- ry editor and compiler to contribute his exertions towards diminishing the quantity. But while the work before us furnishes considerable new matteu that is valuable we are compelled to say that there is a larger quantity that is more or less indifferent; and not a little that is positively insignificant. Our readers will probably agree with us in thinking that such tunes as Pem- broke, Clifton, Tisbury, Ant~vorth, China, Lucerne, Hop- kins, Carmartlien, Allerton, Lothian, Prescot, Despondence, Courtney, & c. are unworthy of republication. Most of the compositions also of W. Arnold, J. Ainold, and of Husband, Walker, Leach, Peck, Chapple, Dalmer, and Dixon appear rather insipid to us. Some glimmerings of genius are here and there discoverable in their composi- tions, but not in general sufficient to rescue them from undis- turbed oblivion. Nor can we yet relish all the pieces that appear under the names of A. Williams, T. Williams, Smith, Taylor, Milgrove, and Costdlow, however much we admire some of them. A favourite author will sometimes be found to write insignificantly9 and it is only the best of his pieces that should be inserted in a collection for general use. But we hasten to speak of a sixth class where we are able to bestow commendation. Collimigharn, Babylon, Yar- mouth, St. Phillips, Munich, Dundee, Newton, Dod, hart- ford, Stade, Armley, Westbury, Kirkland, Fairfield, St. 48 Sacred .T~hi~tc. [July, Bridges, Bath Abbey, Charmouth, Walsal, Feversham, and a few others may be considered as possessing superior ex- cellence. Gregors Hosanna is composed in very fine style. The duet was originally designed for children to sing in response, and the chorus for the choir and congregation to unite with them; and hence, v~ hat might otherwise appear objectionable repetitions, will not fail to excite a good degree of interest, espe. cially when an organist furnishes us with the original accoin- paniment. Kents Anthem Blessed be thou, is truly excellent. The Heavens are telling is of classic celebrity ; though too difficult for most singers, it will be found an excellent exercise for such as wish to perfect themselves in reading chromatic music; and the amateur will find near the close of the piece a beautiful specimen of the enharmonic. Denmark, Herald- Angels, and Dying Christian, still continue in favour with the public; and they appear in their usual dress. This class of compositions may be cheerfully recommend- ed to public patronage, and though at present they form an inconsidemable portion of a volume, which otherwise would not abound in well founded pretensions to science or taste, we sincerely hope that in a future edition they will be found more numerous. The rudiments of music, contained in the work before us, are incomplete in some respects, and redundant perhaps in others. There is something in relation to time and to in- tervals that might very conveniently be exchanged for a more complete system of solmization. But the style in which the rudiments are written is surprisingly illiterate. The follow- ing will be deemed a sufficient specimen. Music is written on five parallel lines and their four interme- diate spaces; and are called a staff; making nine degrees, or places for the heads of the notes, and are counted upwards. It has already been stated that the key, pitch, or tonic, may be elevated or depressed by flats and sharps to any of the twelve semitones of the scale. Th is may be done by flats or sharps placed at the beginning of the tune, on such lines or spaces as are necessary to bring the tones and semitones into their relative and proper order, required by the alteration intended. And again, And having thus found ml, the notes above are fa, sol, la, fa, sol, Ia, and then comes mi againand below are Ia, sol, fa, la, sol, fit, and then comes mi again, as the foregoing examples will show. i820.] Slate of .~griczstture in Itai~. ART. V. Leltres ~crites dItalie en 1812 et 13, d .~L Chartes Pictet, tun des R~dacteurs de Ia BibIioth~qtw Britannique, par E~r~dcric Snilin de C/uiteauvieux. .~ Paris et Ci Gen& ve. 1816, 2 vols. l2mo. pp. 576. PElinArs there are none of our natural advantages which it still remains for us fully to appreciate and avail ourselves of, so much as those which respect the agriculture of our country. ~X itbout vunning into all the errors of the mconomists or adopting their entire theory, we trust that ~ve may assert the paralnouni importance of this pursuit, particulat~y to the United States. To every country it affords at least a partial~ arid ofteti a complete sul)sistertce for its 1)opIihItiofl ; it gives a constant and healthful emplo) nient to sometimes more than halt; and never less than a fifth of the community ; its pro- fits though not so large, are more certain than those in other employments of capital; and while it replaces the annual ad- vance investe(l, a surplus profit has accrued, and an accession of national ~veabh been secured, which can be employed as pri- vate interest awl the public good may require.* But in the IJnited States the cultivation of the soil has these and many more advantages; nay, it is intimately connected with our na- tional character, because it powerfully acts upon the morals an(l constitution of our citizens. If it be trite, that the torch of liberty has always burned with a purer arid brighter lustre on the mountains than on the plains, it is still more true, that the sentiments of honour and integrity more generally ani~ mate the rough bitt manly form of the farmer, than the debilitated body of the artisan. There is in that primitive and honourabie occupation, the culture of the earth, some- thing x~hich, while it pouts into the lap of the state an increase heyotid every other~ employment, gives more than the f.ihled tone, not only a subsistence but a placid feeling of content- * Farmers and country labourers, on the contrary, may enjoy corn pletely the whole funds destined for their own subsistence, and yet aug. ment at the same time the revenue and wealth of their society. Over and above what is destined for th& r own subsistence, their industry annually affords a neat produce, of ~vhich the augmentation necessarily augments the revenue and wealth of ther society. Smiths Wealth of Nations, vol. iii. p. 178. Farmers and country labourers, indeed, over and above the stock which maintains and employs them, reproduce annually a neat produce, a free rent to the landlord. Ibid. p. 186. A~ew Series~ No. % 7

i820.] Slate of .~griczstture in Itai~. ART. V. Leltres ~crites dItalie en 1812 et 13, d .~L Chartes Pictet, tun des R~dacteurs de Ia BibIioth~qtw Britannique, par E~r~dcric Snilin de C/uiteauvieux. .~ Paris et Ci Gen& ve. 1816, 2 vols. l2mo. pp. 576. PElinArs there are none of our natural advantages which it still remains for us fully to appreciate and avail ourselves of, so much as those which respect the agriculture of our country. ~X itbout vunning into all the errors of the mconomists or adopting their entire theory, we trust that ~ve may assert the paralnouni importance of this pursuit, particulat~y to the United States. To every country it affords at least a partial~ arid ofteti a complete sul)sistertce for its 1)opIihItiofl ; it gives a constant and healthful emplo) nient to sometimes more than halt; and never less than a fifth of the community ; its pro- fits though not so large, are more certain than those in other employments of capital; and while it replaces the annual ad- vance investe(l, a surplus profit has accrued, and an accession of national ~veabh been secured, which can be employed as pri- vate interest awl the public good may require.* But in the IJnited States the cultivation of the soil has these and many more advantages; nay, it is intimately connected with our na- tional character, because it powerfully acts upon the morals an(l constitution of our citizens. If it be trite, that the torch of liberty has always burned with a purer arid brighter lustre on the mountains than on the plains, it is still more true, that the sentiments of honour and integrity more generally ani~ mate the rough bitt manly form of the farmer, than the debilitated body of the artisan. There is in that primitive and honourabie occupation, the culture of the earth, some- thing x~hich, while it pouts into the lap of the state an increase heyotid every other~ employment, gives more than the f.ihled tone, not only a subsistence but a placid feeling of content- * Farmers and country labourers, on the contrary, may enjoy corn pletely the whole funds destined for their own subsistence, and yet aug. ment at the same time the revenue and wealth of their society. Over and above what is destined for th& r own subsistence, their industry annually affords a neat produce, of ~vhich the augmentation necessarily augments the revenue and wealth of ther society. Smiths Wealth of Nations, vol. iii. p. 178. Farmers and country labourers, indeed, over and above the stock which maintains and employs them, reproduce annually a neat produce, a free rent to the landlord. Ibid. p. 186. A~ew Series~ No. % 7 50 Stale of .llgiiculturc in italy. t.JuIy, ment; not only creates the appetite to enjoy, but guarantees its continuance by a robust constitution, fortified ~vith the safeguards of temperance and virtue. The anxiety of our countrymen to possess in fee a spot of ground however small, and the consequent paucity of leases, is a fact no less curious than it is solitary. 1his is not the case, or at least in any considerable degree, in any other country. Such in(leed in Britain ~ere tormnerly those small proprietors called Franklins, who possessed a keer~ sl)lrit of in- dependence and a determined ol)position to oppiC55IoIa ; frel~ ings, which, ~vith the alienation of their farms, have gradu- ally departed from the breasts of their descendants. Notwithstanding, ho~~ever, the ease with ~vhich the pride of independent possession may be gratified, it is not the less true, that agriculture, instead of being a favoured, has been a degraded and unpopular pursuit; that instead of cherish- ing every motive which miNit Iea(l to its honourable exten- sion, we have endeavoured gradually to weaken its legitimate eflbrts. It is indeed a singular inquiry, why the cultivation of the soil among us should have been so little encouraged, when every state in Europe, since the peace of Aix-la-Cha- pelle, has turned its most assiduous attention to this most im- l)ortant department of domestic meonomy, an(l ultimately borrowed from it the resources which have carried them through the prodigious conflicts of the last generation. There have been many causes, certainly riot all of equal ef- ficacy, which have co-operated against the interests of agri- culture. But there is a prominent one to which ~ve can but just allude. During a very considerable period, since the peace of 83, the peculiar situation of Europe has afforded opportunities for commercial enterprize too tempting to be resisted. American merchants received, in the lapse of a very few years, the most astonishing accessions of ~vea!th; and fortunes, ordinarily the fruit of a laborious life, and never the portion of many, were amassed ~vith unparalleled rapidi- ty, and by large numbers. O~r domestic prosperity moro than equalled the extension of our trade. It was then that the compting-houses of our merchants were filled ~vith youth from the country, who forsook the sV)wer but surer emolu- ments of agriculture, for the mushroom but unsubstantial fortunes of commerce ; nay, ~vh: preferred the meanest drudgery behind the counter of a retail-dealer, to the manly l8~O.] State of .Agrieultu2e in ItalV. 51 and invigorating toil of the cultivator of his paternal acres. Unfortunately this spirit of migration was encouraged by too great a success in trade. Feelings of vulgar pride contract- ed in town caused the manual labour of the farmer to be re- garded as degrading; this unworthy sentiment spread with baleful influence, and when the conipting-houses became over- stocked and afforded no longer a resource, it was no uncom- Ilioll thing to see a young man with no qualifications but a lit- tle bad Latin picked up at a miserable village school, for- sake a large and fertile farm and apprentice himself to a poor country attorney. Another cause of the depressed state of agriculture, men- tioned in a late publicatioii,* is the constant emigration to the west. There must necessarily be a tendency to a most impoverishing system of cultivation, where people feel that after having extracted all the richness of the soil, they may throw it up and remove to a country, ~vhich offers them an un- touched surface, and needs no artificial aid of composts or manure. The land, besides suffering from negligence conse- quent on the prosl)ect of departure. will be worn out by suc- cessive crops, and long be rendered unfit for the more valua- ble dispositions of the agriculturalist. Indeed we have been in- formed, that in many instances, when the land is almost ruined by the continued culture of tobacco, it is sold by the l)lanter to some enterprizing and laborious individual, who may restore it by his patience and attention, while he himself removes to another spot, where the same wretched system of exhaustion may again be renewed. rrhere are other causes we might mention, such as the unwieldy size of our farms, and particu- larly the want of a regular, enlightened farming system. But we cannot now stop to enter on these topics, but may notice them hereafter. If then agriculture be so important an item in a nations resources, affording subsistence to its population, and a sur- plus capital to be employed in the various ob~jects of national industry and enterprize, it would seem to follow, that notli- ing but very imperious circumstances should induce any gov- ernment to repress its vigor or palsy the exertions of those devoted to it. Immediately connected with such an attempt was the late bill before Congress, establishing a new tariff of duties. But why go back to a bill ~vhich ~vas rejected? We * Letters on the Eastern States. State of .i~gricu1titre in Italy. LJuly, answer, that it is not to be forgotten that private interest is one of the most powerful incentives to action, that the manu- facturing interest is large and increasing, that one defeat will not discourage its l)artisans, and lastly, extraordinary as the fact may seem, that the bill in question, fraught with such varied evil, was thrown out by a majority of only one vote in the senate. The tendency of this j)roject, was not only to in- troduce an unequal system of taxation, but first, by the de- struction of a large part of our foreign commerce, to dimin- ish very materially the market for our home products, and secondly, to divert a large portion of agricultural industry into the ser~ ice of the loom and spinning jenny. But it will be asked, are manufactures then to be entirely neglected? Most certainly not. Still there is a certain limit, in a newly settled country with a thin population, beyond which their establishment is not only useless to government but a burden to the people. It is undoubtedly true that the manut~tcture of articles of immediate necessity or ~ery gene- ral circulation ought to be encouraged by a wise and provident people ; but it ordinaiily happens that these need no extraor- dinary patronage; their extended use soon gives a facility to the artist, which enables him to enter into competition with the foreigner, provided the ra~v material is to he found at home in any tolerable abundance. Thus ~ve find that bats were manufactured in the colonies at a very early period; togeth- er with household furniture, saddlery, & c. they have long since ceased to be an article of importation. It is necessary for the ~vell-being and security of a nation, that certain arti- cles should be manufactured ~vithin its limits, such as gun- I)oWder, coarse clothuiiig, and some others of a similar ule- scription.* But the moment a people attempt to force by means of high duties on foreign imports the production of a commodity, which, by reason of the extravagance of the wages of labour and other causes, must necessarily be sold at a much greater price than the imported one, their conduct would seem no less an affront to common sense, than a sole- cisni in political mconomy. The United States possess a very restricted capital, and as the tilling of the soil requires comparatively much fewer advan- ces than any other department of industry, that capital became immediately invested in agriculture. Land, cheap and fertile, See OUr last number, p. 323, & c. 1S2O.~ State of .~gricu1ture in 1tat~. constituted a fund which gave a certaiii profit. And as the pro- ductions of the labour of more thaii five-eights of our popu- lation went to purchase foreign articles either of luxury or necessity, a great and profitable intercourse was constantly maintained with Europe. Under an equitable system of for- eign (luties, arising from this commerce, the expenses of government were defrayed, our debt gradually extinguished, and by a po~verful but necessary reaction our agriculture un- proved and extended. But the tariff bill restricted a large and valuable commerce principally with Britain. it is not to be supposed that, while we refused the broadcloths and hard- ware of England, she would still continue to buy the same proportion of our cotton and tobacco. Our market then for these articles would be so far lost; and if we no~v feel the ef- fects of a diminished demand for our produce in coiisequence of the establishment of peace iii Europe, how can it be thought a wise policy to suffer other embarrassments and losses, by excluding ourselves entirely from every foreign port where we might calculate upon its sale? Where then is our j)rod tice to find a vent? For assuredly the most enthusiastic friend of domestic manufactures could never imagine, that the most extensive establishment of them could ever give an adequate consumption for the present amount of our agricultural pro- ductions. The bill then imposing heavy duties on foreign articles, besides diminishing the number of the cultivators of the sod, would in some degree operate as a tax on its fruits, be- cause, while the price of manufactures was enormously in~ creased, the value of produce would be more than l)rop~rtion- ally dii-niriished. For the cultivator, not only deprived of the benefit of a cornpetition between the domestic and foreigii consumer in the sale of his articles, is obliged to l)urcbase those of his neighbour, at any price ~vhich his cupidity arid the tariff may determine. The expenses of the state being ~till the same and its usual resources dried up, a general but unequal system of taxation would he adopted, ~vhen in fact, the farmer bending under the weight of this partial policy, is less able to pay whatever contribution may be levied. These assertions are by no means novel, they are mere co- rollaries from the plainest and most undoubted principles of political oeconomy. Dr. Adam Smith, the great father of the science, and all whose views on this sobject, though not act~ 54 ~~tate of .~griculture in Italy. [3u1y~ ed upon in a country whose domestic policy was too firmly es- tablished to be changed without a most serious revolution, ought to have great weight with us in the adoption of any permanent system, speaks in this decided manner in his Wealth of Nations, vol. iii. p. 2o1. It is thus that every system which endeavours, either by extraordinary encou rage.. inents, to draw towards a particular species of industry a greater share of the capital of the society, than what would naturally go to it; or, by extraordinary restraints, to force from particular species of industry some share of the capital which would otherwise be employed in it; is in reality sub- versive of the great purpose which it means to promote. It retards instead of accelerating the progress of the society to- wards real wealth and greatness; and diminishes instead of increasing the real value of the annual produce of its land and labour. All systems, either of preference or restraint therefore, being thus completely taken away, the obvious and simple system of natural liberty establishes itself of its own accord. Every man, as long as he does not violate the laws of justice, is left perfectly free to pursue his own interest his own way, arid to bring both his industry and capital into com- petition with those of any other man oi- order of men. M. Say, a man no less remarkable for his practical knowledge of manufacturing industry, than his profound acquaintance with every branch of ceconomical science,has given his mark- ed disapprobation of that system which we are discussing. Lorsquau travers de cette marche naturelle des choses, says he, lautorit~ se montre et (lit le produit, quon vent cr3er, celni qui donne les meilleurs profits, et par consequent celui qul est le plus recherch~, nest pas celui qui convient, il faut quon soccupe de tel autre; elle dirige evidemment une partie de Ia production vers un genre, dont Ic besoin se fait sentir davantage.Trait6 dEconomie Politique, torn. i. p. 168. We can only refer to pages 172 and 201 for the expan- sion of these ideas. It is thus we find that the arguments adduced in favour of this system neither accord with the con- victions of fact nor the suggestions of reason. Whenever the increasing capital devoted to tIme land can no longer be profitably employed, then manufactures will flourish and the surplus profits of agriculture be legitimately devoted to their support. 1820.] State of .~gricuUure in Italy. 55 During the late war, the prospect of large gains caused by the extravagant price of all European commodities, caused many persons in our country to embark their fortunes in cot- ton and woollen factories. These factories were brought into being by a temporary and unnatural state of things. On the return of the peace of 1814, many of these manufacturing establishments came of necessity to an end. Some establish- Jishments remain arid ought to succeed, because they prove that the profits of their capital may enter into competition with that employed in agriculture. In this case the transfer is not only natural but conducive to national wealth. But we are asked to patronize manufactures at the expense of agriculture, on the ground of our being rendered really more independent by them. This is, however, but an at- tempt to conceal I)Iivate interest under the garb of patriot- ism,* and ought at least to awaken suspicion. We are not to be called dependent merely because a state of war might give rise to many inconveniences. We can do without silks or broadcloths, while ~ve possess the real means of sustenance and defence. But these factories once established, say the advocates of this interest, the citizens ought to support them in their present languishing condition, and therefore ought not to buy, even at a much less price, foreign articles in pre- ference to our own. The force and propriety of such rea- soning would appear to be similar to that of a gardener, who having in winter devoted himself to the cultivation of flowers & c. by means of artificial heat, should in the spring apply for an act of the municipal authority, forbidding all persons to pluck a daisy or violet in the field, and requiring them to resort to his hot-house. So far from there being a neces- sity for any interference on the part of government, we be- lieve we may assert that our manufactures never were so flourishing as since tl~e peace. It is true that many estab- Qul est-ce qui sollicite des prohibitions ou de forts droits dentr~e dans ~in ~tat? ce sont lea producteurs de Ia denr~e dont ii sagit de prohiber la concurrance, et non pas les consommateurs. us disent cest pour im- t~r~t de 1Ctat; mais ii est clair que cest pour le leur uniquement.Nest-ce pas Ia m& ne chose, continuent-ils, et ce que nous gagnons nest-il pas autant de gagn~ pour notre pays? point de tout :ce que vous gagnez de cette manidre est tire de la poche de votre voisin, dun habitant du m& me pays; et si 1on pouvait compter lexc~dant de d~pense fait par les con- sommateurs, en const~quence de votre monopole, on trouverait quil sur- passe le gain que le monopole vous a valu. Traitd dEconomie Politique par Jean-Baptiste Say, torn. i. p. 203. 56 tState of .~Ig.tcuiturc iii ilaly. [July, lishments have been broken up and much capital sunk, but it is a fact that those factories which are in the hands of indi- viduals, have generally been successful, while those conduct- ed by incorporated companies wanting the circumspection and prudence of private interest, have as often~become bankrupt. In the vestern states this branch of business has greatly un- proved, and recent information enables us to affirm, that the profits which are no~v realised are iiearly as large as those dur- ing the war. In the east, we might cite an instance, which must put down all cavil on this subject. The cotton factory at Waltham near Boston,* begun when manufactures were by no means in so promising a situation as at present, is a triumph- ant answer to every one who demands additional encourage- inent for the loom, and a new tax on his brethren to extend its operations. But we hasten to return fro~u our wandei~ings, and to in- troduce our readers to the work, of which we have prefixed the title to this article. It is in the form of letters addre~sed to Professor Pictet of Geneva, from various places in Italy, and contains the authors remarks upon that country. He dwells not on the palaces of Venice, neither worships at the altar of Roman genius in the Pantheon, but taking his silent way through the fields, he describes that ~vhich gave birth to both he informs us of the processes of Italian farming, of the effects of irrigation, and of the general state of Italian agriculture. And, in our opinion, he has shewn as much taste in the execution of his design, as those travellers who have employed themselves upon inquiries commonly thought as interesting, but certainly not as useful. M. de Chateauvieux appears to be an enthusiastic admirei~ of the subject on which be writes, as well as to have a l)ractical knowledge of all its details. his book is very little known among us, though it has lately been translated in England, and tormerly occupied the attention of a celehrated critical journal of that country. It is our intention in this article to put our readers in mind of its existence. The author divides Italy into three regions, distinguished by their (lifferent systems of cultivation. The first extends fi~om mount Cenis and the Alps of Suza to the shores of the Adriatic. The fertility of Lombardy is proved by the con- stant succession of its crops, and to this province he has given * See Letters on the Eastern StatesLetter on Manufactures 1820.] Slate of agriculture in Ital ~i. 5? the name of Pays de Culture par assolement, or the district of culture by rotation of crops. The second of the regions reposes on the southern declivity of the Appennines, from the frontiers of Provence to the boundaries of Calabria. This is called the District of OLve trees, or, by an association somewhat forced, of Canaanitish culture. The third region is that of .Atalaria or patriarchal cultivation, from a supposed resemblance, which we are still less able to enter into, be- tween the shepherds of the ol(ler and the present time. it is found from Pisa to Terraciiia, and comprehends the plain be- tween the sea and the first ridge of the Appennines. Lombardy has been often called the Garden of Europe, and seems abundantly entitled to the appellation. The soil is not only rich and alluvial, hut deep and perfectly level. The climate is humid, and the system of irrigation supplies water to almost every field. These circumstances, united to the heat of a southern sun, cause a most rapid and luxurious veg- etation. Nothing can be more important in the mconomy of a farm than the situation of the farm-house and its out-build- ings. In this respect our American farmers are lamentably deficient, and though we would not recommend as a model the one described by de Chateauvieux as common in Lombardy, still we think it would afford some valuable hints. The buildings raised on the four sides of a square, present on one side a central elevation of two stories. Th~ lower part for tl;e farmer, the upper story for his grain. Adjoining this, at each end, is a stable plastered so as not to let the dust de- scend, for the cows and oxen; the other three sides of the square are enclosed by a sort of portico, open within an(I supported by columns, which serves as a depository for straw, hay, & c. This structure is about twenty-four feet broad and fifteen high. Half the court is l)aved, the remain- der is used for threshing out the corn, which, in the primitive way, is still done by horses. The place for manure is out- side of the court. This plan presents the most space with the least building, arid assures the preservation of every product. The farms in Lombardy are small, and do not often con- tain sixty arpents ;* notwithstanding M. de Chateauvicux as- serts against Arthur Young, that they bring more to market than the large farms, and that there is no country in the An arpent is to an acre nearly as five to fern. .Vew Series, No. 3. 8 State of .Ilgricuilure in 1ta~j. [July, world which can dispose of so large a portion of its produc- tious as Piedmont. If the fact be so, it may possibly arise from the j)eculiar character of the persons who cultivate the land. Our author, however, remarks, that this system of small farms can never take place till the advances of capi- tal have carried agriculture to its highest, point. Lombardy is cultivated by a species of farmers, called meta!,ers. They pay a small fixed rent, valued at one half the I)roduce of the meadow, or forty francs the arpent. The clover belongs to them entirely; the crops of wheat, Indian corn, and flax, aiid the wine and silk are equally divided between them and their landlord. The latter advances nothing but the taxes, and of course must find such an arrangement singularly advantage- ous. Father and son continue the same engagement without the formality of a lease or any registry of the contract. M. Say regards this system as unfavourable to agriculture, and in his treatise on Political Econonty, book ii. chap. 9, vol. 2, says, ii y a des cultivateurs qui nont rien, et auxquels le proprietaire fournit le capital avec la terre: on les appelle des M~tayers. us rendent commun~nient au proprh~taire la moi- ti~ du produit brut. Ce genre de culture appartient ~ ~tat peu avanc~ de lagriculture, et il est le plus d~favorable de tout aux ameliorations des terres; car celni des deux, du proprietaire ou du fermier, qui ferait lamdioration ~ ses frais, admettrait lautre a jouir gratuitement de Ia moitie do linteret de ses avances. 7Ihougl~ the cultivation of land by umetayers may be unfavonrable to its amelioration, still it may he easily imagined, that the smaller products of every little farm will be greater, as each must possess both a gar- den and a poultry yard. Every field in Lombardy is encir- cled with a band of poplars, mulberries, oaks, & c. and they are often so thick that the eye can scarcely I)enetrate the rich growth of leaves. From the boughs, luxuriant vines hang in festoons, and present to the passing traveller a scene of rural beauty and enjoyment which he may search for in vain in other countries. TrIme shade of the trees does not injure the crops, such is the invigorating effect of a humid soil and an Italian sky. Of the constant succession of crops we here know very little ; indeed it is the result of experience alone. So much depends on climate, that we imagine the rotation practised elsewhere can never afford certain information to us. Th~ .4 l820.j State of .~1griculture in Ital~j. 59 largest quantity of the most valuable produce, which may be taken from a spot of ground in any number of years, is a problem whose solution is of the greatest importance. In Piedmont the rotation is generally as follows: f Indian corn, manured, 1st year, Beanshemp. 2d Wheat. 3d Clover, turned up after the first cutting and followed by a fallow. 4th Wheat. This rotation, says M. de Chateauvieux, is one of the most abundant, and may be pursued indefinitely, notwithstanding the recurrence of wheat, though perhaps the result may be at- tributed to the abundance of manure furnished by a meadow cut three times. After stating that a farm of sixty arpents support- ed a family of eight or nine persons, who kept twenty-two head % large cattle, of which two oxen and a cow are fattened every year, as well as one or two hogs, that it gave about one hundred and twenty-five dollars worth of silk, and fur- nished more wine than could be consumed, that the prejlara- tory crop of Indian corn and beans almost subsisted the me- tayers, and that nearly all the grain might be sold, as well as a great quantity of smaller products, he celebrates the indus- try and management of the Piedmontese proprietors in the following terms: It will be easy for you, after this, to con- ceive how Piedmont is perhaps, of all countries, that where the economy and management of land is best understood, and the phenomenon of its great population and inimense ex- portation of produce will thus be explained. In the neighbourhood of Piacenza, cattle rather than grain constitute the wealth of the farmer. The cows and oxen are distinguished by immense horns and beautiful figures, and we believe that our American race is in no way to be com- pared with them. Their origin is said to he Hungarian; the males are noble animals, but the cows give little milk. To remedy this inconvenience, two thousand cows are imported from Switzerland, and the valuable qualities of the animal are thus perpetuated. The cattle are almost universally of a slate-grey colour. The rotation of crops is here as follows: I st year, Indiaii corn and hemp, manured, 2d Wheat, 3d Winter beans, State of Jlgricuttttre in Itai~f. LJuIy, 4th -year, Wheat, manured, 5th Clovei~, ploughed after the first cutting, 6th Wheat. This succession, however, can only be pursued in a rich soil, which is manured every three years. There is one ar- ticle we beg leave to notice particularly. We imagine that the winter bean migh easily be introduced among us and with great a(lvantage, as it is capable of su~)pf)rting the cold of the severest winter. It is sown in the beginning of Sep- tember, and it must have considerable growth before autumn to resist the attacks oC the cold. The stalk then perishes by the frost, but at the moment the genial warmth of the spring is felt, two or three ne~v stalks arise, which bloom in the month of May, and the beans are fit to gather at the end of July. The management of this important vegetable we give in the words of the author. La culture est extr~mement simple; apr~s Ia r~c4te du bl~ funt~, on retourne Ia terre par un seul labour et on Ia laisse ~mietter par linfluence de Ia saison. Aux premiers jours de Septembre on s~me les f~ves, soiL en les enterrant ~ ha charrue, soit en hes recovrant ~ ha heise, soit enfin avec le semoire, qui hes place par rangees, de maniere ~ pouvoir au printemps les sarcler avec la houe a cl!eval. Si on ne suit pas cette derni~re methode, ii faut les sarcler a ha main, daris he courant davrih. The culture of the winter bean is suited to argillaceous soils, and while it allows the proper intervals between ploughing the ground and - sowing wheat which succeeds, it is admirably calculated to maintain the fertility of the ground. The plaitis which border on the Po, in the vicinity of Par. ma and Lodi, support those fine animals, whose niilk is con- verted into the celebrated Parmesan cheese. The grass is here far more valuable than any crop of grain. In the sum- iner the cows are housed and fed with the green grass of the first and second mo~vings: that of the third is converted in. to hay. At the end of autumn the cows are alhowed to pick up ~vhatever may he left in the fields. These meadows are perhaps the most fertile on earth; they are generally mowed four times a year. The cheese is here never made from less than fifty cows, and as the farms are small, there is one corn- mon establishment, to which the milk is brought twice during the day; an aocount of it is kept by the chees& maker and 1820.] State ~f agriculture in Italy. 61, settled in cheese every six months. The same plan has been introduced in Switzerland. In the Milanese, the farms are larger than in other parts of Italy, because the culture of the grasses demands less care and labour than other branches of farming, and fewer advances. Irrigation is here carried to such an extent, that every two or three arpents can be inundated by its own ca- nal. The good quality of the grass however in time becomes deteriorated, other plants gradually spring up in the place of the grasses; the sluices are then closed, and the ground is ploiaghed for hemp; after which, and a crop of legumes, oats. and wheat, it is again laid down in grass. A meadow will generally last fiftoen years, and the course of harvests re~ urns every five. M. de Chateauvieux gives the following re- markable outline: 1st year Hemp, followed by legumes, 2d Oats, Sd Wheat, followed by legumes, 4th Indian corn, 5th Wheat, 15th Natural meadow, dunged every three years, and mowed four times a year. 20 years 67. Of these sixty-seven crops from the same ground there are sixty-one for the use of animals, five for the sustenance of man, and only one for his clothing. There is perhaps no country on the face of the earth which can boast such a proportion of agricultural products. To obtain this result, the ground is manured, very profusely however, five times in twenty years, and it is a singular fact that this manure is applied always to the grass and never to the grain. The culture of rice occupies a part of Italy, and is a source of great profit to the owner of the soil. The difficulties in its cultivation are so trifling, that contrary to the usual cus- tom, the ground is let out at a fixed rent of one hundred and sixty francs the arpent; three crops are received every five years. As with us, these rice grounds are most unhealthy, and the stagnant water which covers them produces disease in all the surrounding country. The unfortunate peasant rare- ly escapes its deleterious effect, and the government, sensible of this constant draft on human life, have prohibited the fur~ ther extension of the culture of this grain. State of agriculture in 11a4,. [July, One of flue most singular features in the physical charac- ter of Italy, is the constant elevation of the beds of rivers, particularly the Arno and the Po, by means of depositions of earth and stones, brought down by the heavy rains from the mountains. This had become so alarming, that the raising of dykes yielded to a very ingenious operation called fJolrnata, by which the water of the river was al1o~ved to overflow a certain space, and this very deposition, about three or four inches iii a year, made to raise the level of the adjacent shores. But this process, which is fully described by Sismondi, must necessarily have a limit. Embankments are resorted to, and in some places the bed of the Po is ab- solutely thirty feet above the level country. The Po even now frequently overflows and devastates its banks; the inhabitants, provided always for the calamity which unfortu- iiately is not unfrequent, take to their boats and wait till the inundation has subsided. There would seem to be little doubt that at some day not far distant, the whole delta of the Po, or il3olesino, as it is called, will become one wide and wretched marsh. Even now the roads are often impassable. Ferrara, consecrated by the genius of Ariosto and Tasso, will be extinguished, and RaTenna, already fallen from its high honours, be known only as the deserted capital of a potentate of the lower empire. M. de Chateauvieux, climbing the mountains which sepa- rate Tuscany from Modena, and leaving behind him the fertile plains of Lombardy, entered those lofty regions, where the earth does not produce sufficient sustenance for the inhabi- tants, who are employed with their flocks of goats and sheep, in constantly traversing the mountains in a manner somewhat similar to that of the Spanish shepherds. The author em- ploys himself in describing the scenery of the Corniche, and though it is perhaps among the finest in Europe, and he might have felt all its changeful beauty and sublimity, still we think that he is far more fortunate in his delineations of rural economy. The agriculture of Tuscany has been so fully and ably investigated by Sisinondi,* that little was left to M. de Cha~ teauvieux. The valley of the Arno, in truth the only fertile part of the dukedom, (foi. the rest is composed of precil)itons mountains, or that silent and hideous district the Maremma) Tableau de lagriculture Toscane, par J. C. L. Sismondi. 1820.] State of dI~rieu1tnrt~ in Italy. stretches from Cortona to Pisa, and forms about one sixth of its whole territory. The farms are very small, being front three to six arpents, so that one pair of oxen supplies the necessities of ten or twehe metayers, in the working of thei2 little plat of ground. They manifest, however, their extrav~ agance in maintaining a horse, which may transport their produce to market, and their wives and daughters to mass or a rustic ball. The most general rotation of crops is I~ere, 1st year, Indian corn, beans, peas or other legumes. dunged. 2d Wheat, sd Winter beans, 4th Wheat, 5th Clover sown after the wheat, cut in the spring and followed by sorgko. This sorgho is a sort of parsnip, which is reduced into flour, of which they make a bad soup and a poor polente. The ground is manured only once in five years, a circum.. stance which abundantly proves the richness of this deep alluvial soil. Notwithstanding all this fertility and a cidti- vation which resembles rather that of a garden, than a farm, the country does not produce enough to resist the effects of a bad year. The metayers live with the greatest economy, and though their cottages are built with a taste which seems indigenous to the country, the interior exhibits a total ab- sence of all the conveniences of life, and supl)lies but a frugal subsistence. Such is the view which M. de Chateauvieux has taken. But in our opinion the peasantry of Tuscany under all circumstances, are not only more neat in their persons, but better clothed and apparently enjoying more happiness, than that of any other district in Italy. There can be little doubt, that all this distress and privation arises from the system of the metayers; a system which, deriving its exis- tence from the feudal state, is equally to be deprecated, whether we consider the political character of the com~nunity or the individual happiness of its members. The man who has no other possession than his industry, arid who cannot hope to change his situation, can never have such a stake in the state, as to render him either an intelligent or valuable member of it. On the other hand, the metayer bound to furnish half the seed and to divide and sell the produce. 64 State of .agricutture in Italy. ~JuIy, pretty generally consumes one year the fruits of the last; or if there be a surplus, how is it to be invested? There would seem to be no other mode, than in the sticks which he is bound to supply, for the support of the vines, for the landlord provides the stock and repairs the house. He then can only lay up his money in his chest or spend it on his pleasures. Thus the end of a year finds him no better off than at its commencement, for want of such an interest in the soil, as would secure him from the effects of his negli- gence and indifference in its cultivation. Before leaving this part of italy, we ought to mention a subject which is of some little importance; the manufacture of straw hats, which has just commenced in our country. It is doubtless a most profitable exertion of industry. Thu raw mateiial costs nothing, and M. de Chateauvicux informs us that this branch annually amounts to three millions (we presume) of francs. The straw is of beardless wheat, cut before it is ripe, and whose vegetation has been thinned (~tiok~e) by the sterility of the soil. This soil is chosen among calcareous hills; it is never manured, and the grain is sown very thick. The womeu who are employed in wiaking the Leghorn hats, earn from about thirty to forty cents per day, no trifling sum in Italy. The Maremma or country of the Malaria forms the third district, extending from Leghorn to Terracina, and from the. sea to the mountains, and having a width of twenty five or thirty miles. M. de Chateauvieux speaks of this singular country in the following terms: Le ciel reste ~galement pur, ha ~erdure aussi fraiche, lair aussi calme; la s~r~nit~ de cet aspect semble devoir inspirer une enti~re confiance, et je ne saurais cependant vous exprimer 1 esp~ce detfroi que lon ~pronve malgr~ soi en respirant cet air ~ ha fois si suave et si hineste. A country so very singular in its character would necessarily require a very peculiar system of man- agement. Our author develops this system in a visit he made, to a domain called Campo Morto, in the most deserted part of the Maremma. Here was a Fattore, charged with the adminstration of the farm. The whole Maremma of Rome is in the hands of eighty proprietors, who are called mercanti de tenuti, and reside as well as their Fattori in the city. On this farm there were four hundred horses, of which one hundred were broken, t~vo thousand hogs, which 1820.] State of ~gricutture in Itat~. 65 ran in the woods and fed on the acorns; some hundreds of cows, who g~e no other revenue than the sale of the calves, which is estimated at about eight dollars each cow; one hundred oxen used to the plough, and about four thousand sheep. The rent of this farm was about eighteen francs the arpent of cultivated land, amounting in all to about $22,000. ilie annual l)rofit ~vas about ~ 5000, besides interest at five per cent. on the capital of the flocks. In the midst of this establishment there was a vast casate or t~trin-hotise, destitute of furniture and inhabited but a very few days in the year. Every thii~g around breathed the most perfect desolation; all was vast and silent. The harvest had just commenced and a thousand labourers, of whom one half were women, had descended from the moun- tains to gain a small pittance during a few days, by reaping the rich grain of six hundred arid sixty arpents for the lordly proprietor, and if they did not perish at their toil, to go back after having respired the elements of a miserable death. Some days had elapsed since the harvest began, and only two labourers had been attacked by the fever of the Malaria; every day would, how& ver, increase the number, till at the completion of their task, scarcely half of thei~ would remain. What then becomes of these unfortunate people? said M. de Chateauvieux. They get a piece of bread and are sent off, was the inhuman reply. But where do they go to? To the mountains; some stop on the road, some die, others get home almost expiring with misery and famine, only to follow the same life the next year. The Malatia is one of those singular phenomena whose origin has baffled every effort at discovery, an(l the remedy for which has never yet been ascertained. Attempts have been made to cultivate the soil of the Maremma, and cokrnies were established within its circuit, but the resistless scythe of sure and sileot death swept a~vay the presumptuous in~ truders. During half of the year, a few miserable beings, armed with lances and clothed iii skins, the living images of death, wander over these (1e~oted plains ~vith their flocks ; and if accident should delay their return to the mountains, fall certain victims to this fatal disease. Immense numbers of sheep, cows, horses, arid goats Ihad a subsistence on these wastes and supply the markets of Rome and the Val dAruo. A~w Series, No. 3. 9 66 state of .lgricutture in Italy. [July, The soil is extremely steril; the whiteness of the pure argil b:ing only alloyed by a mixture of sulphur, whi4i is produced in gteat profusion. The cause of the Malaria, as ~e before remarked, has escaped all the investigations of science; it still remains a m~ stery no less profound, than its effects are dreadful. Some have supposed it to arise from the low pools of stagnant waters, ~vhich collect on the face of the Marem- ma; but the disease prevails on the heights of Radicofani and within the lofty I)recincts. of Volterra. Some have supposed that the disease was caused by ex- posure to the sudden changes of temperature at the going down of the sun.-* This is supported, it is true, by the very weighty fact related by (IC Bonstetten in his Voyage au Latiinn, of a man who resided at Ardea sixteen years without being indisposed. But we doubt whether any solution that has ever been proposed was so perfectly ridiculous or so completely destitute of foundation. Do the people then die in the towns of this disease, where we know it to be a custom not to go out after (lark, of mere exposure to a changing atmosphere? A short distance from the Porta del ropolo at Rome are two villas, one on each side of a small lane, but both situated on high ground. We ~vere informed that (luring the summer season, a man would run very im- minent danger of death in sleeping in one, ~vhile he might remain in the other with perfect impunity. How is this to be reconciled with the doctrine that the disease caused by the Malaria is nothing but fever and agile, brought on by exposure? The truth is, this dreadful enemy every year makes further inroads; no longer satisfied with pursuing the wretched thousands of enervated labourers and shepherds, who at evening crowd for safety into Rome, it is advancing into the city in the midst of darkness, and spreading from the Porta del Popolo, on the one side, and from the Palatine on the other, up the sides of the Quirinal. In 1791, says M. de Chateauvieux, Rome had a population of 160,000; at the time of this visit, it numbered only 100,000, of whom more than 10,000 were gardeners, shepherds, and vine-dressers. Four years afterwards we heard it computed at from 80 to 90,000. Undoubtedly political events have had no small effect in diminishing the number of inhabitants; but still ~ve believe the Malaria must have had a no less l)o~verf1ml in- * See Edinburgh Review for March 1817, p. 57. 1820.] State of ~2gricutture in Italy. 67 fluence. Annually it roams over the finest villas without the walls and ravages large districts of the town within; and neither the magnificence of the villa Borghese, nor the luxuriant beauty and to~vering pines oC Doria Pamfihi, can resist the assaults of this silent and deadly foe. Time seems to hold its mantle over the queen of cities, and to prepare by a fate as extraordinary as its former history, to blot it out fiom the admiration of mortals. Encompassed already by the awful stillness of a desolate waste, once filled up ~~ith sixty towns, which the antiquarian in vain attempts to trace, perhaps her OWfl site may be hereafter unknown; and some future traveller may boast with enthusiasm of having once again penetrated its (leserted streets, of having visited the spot ennobled by the heroic virtue of Junius Brutus, or the eloquence and wisdom of Cato the censor. But we must leave a subject, on which we could dwell still longer with delight, and conclude our notice of a book, of which we ~vould hope our readers have received a favourable impres- sion. The subject of the work is not only important in itself, but most interesting to us. Italy is essentially an agricultural country; she is neither a manufacturing nor a commercial state. It is by her agriculture, that she supports more than 17,000,000 of inhabitants, or about 1237 to a square league; a population far superior to that of France or England. It is her agriculture which laid the foundations of those splendid cities which crowd her plains; it is her agriculture, vhich, should it ever be protected by an enlight- ened government, will again yield nourishment to the prin- ciples of liberty, and raise her to a level with the most respectable nations of Europe. M. de Chateauvieux has devoted himself to the illustration of this noble subject, and we are confident that his work will not only afford many valuable hints to the practical farmer, but some lessons to our statesmen, in any future attempts which may be made, to elevate manufactures at the expense of the most dear and invaluable interests in our country. 68 Letters on the Eastern Slates. Puly, ART. VI..Letters on the Eastern States. New York, l2mo, pp. 356. Kirk & Mercein, 1820. IT is not easy to conceive a more delicate employment than that of tracing the distinctions of national character. Besides the usual difficulty and ambiguity of all discussions of a moral nature, it involves obstacles peculiar to itself, and which increase of course in proportion to the importance of the individual subject of inquiry. We have all the varieties of national and local prejudice, all the influence of different policy, habits, and language to overcome, before we can pretend to consider ourselves as prepar& d to judge with accuracy of the phenomena which are constantly presented to us in the course of public events. How ninth more difficult is it then, to attempt not only to follow ~ ith tolerable success the course of foreign policy, aiid to enter however imper. fectly into the public sentiment abroad, hut to study the grounds of such policy and the nature of such view s as existing in the character of nations. A still more difficult and uncertain kind of speculation is founded on those vari- eties of character and habits, which are supposed to be peculiar to nations, when not displayed so much in the policy of the government, as in the domestic manners, the degree of refinement, and the peculiarities of the internal society of a people. It certainly ~vill be well for the cause of public improvement, when those, who undertake the exercise of this delicate and important part of duty, shall be led to con- sider themselves less as partizans and theorists, and more as observers and historians. We know of nothing more vexa- tious, than to encounter a man possessed of all the requisite literary qualifications, and who has enjoyed the advantages of a difficult and expensive voyage, to regions with regard to which we have a lively curiosity, and who yet presents you in his report such a strange compound of prejudice, favorit- ism, theory, and party interest, that nothing short of a laborious analysis will enable you to get at the truth which may lie at the bottom. One would think, however, though this held true of missionary and diplomatic voyages to the East, or colonization expeditions to Africa, that still we might expect the result of calm and philosophical observation, in the pro. ductions of men of leisure and accomplishments relating to their neighbours, with whom it is their duty and policy to be

68 Letters on the Eastern Slates. Puly, ART. VI..Letters on the Eastern States. New York, l2mo, pp. 356. Kirk & Mercein, 1820. IT is not easy to conceive a more delicate employment than that of tracing the distinctions of national character. Besides the usual difficulty and ambiguity of all discussions of a moral nature, it involves obstacles peculiar to itself, and which increase of course in proportion to the importance of the individual subject of inquiry. We have all the varieties of national and local prejudice, all the influence of different policy, habits, and language to overcome, before we can pretend to consider ourselves as prepar& d to judge with accuracy of the phenomena which are constantly presented to us in the course of public events. How ninth more difficult is it then, to attempt not only to follow ~ ith tolerable success the course of foreign policy, aiid to enter however imper. fectly into the public sentiment abroad, hut to study the grounds of such policy and the nature of such view s as existing in the character of nations. A still more difficult and uncertain kind of speculation is founded on those vari- eties of character and habits, which are supposed to be peculiar to nations, when not displayed so much in the policy of the government, as in the domestic manners, the degree of refinement, and the peculiarities of the internal society of a people. It certainly ~vill be well for the cause of public improvement, when those, who undertake the exercise of this delicate and important part of duty, shall be led to con- sider themselves less as partizans and theorists, and more as observers and historians. We know of nothing more vexa- tious, than to encounter a man possessed of all the requisite literary qualifications, and who has enjoyed the advantages of a difficult and expensive voyage, to regions with regard to which we have a lively curiosity, and who yet presents you in his report such a strange compound of prejudice, favorit- ism, theory, and party interest, that nothing short of a laborious analysis will enable you to get at the truth which may lie at the bottom. One would think, however, though this held true of missionary and diplomatic voyages to the East, or colonization expeditions to Africa, that still we might expect the result of calm and philosophical observation, in the pro. ductions of men of leisure and accomplishments relating to their neighbours, with whom it is their duty and policy to be 18204 Letters on the Eastern States. 69 best acquainted. Mr. Irving indeed, in his Sketch Book, re- marks that he would trust an English traveller sooner in an account of a remote and unknown region, than of a neighbour- ing kingdom. And yet one is grieved to see a traveller passing through France, so infected with political prejudice, as to find there nothing but suffering and crime; or returning from every delightful excursion in Italy, with nothing but illustrations of her political infirmities. With regard to ourselves, we may not have those claims which italy and France present to the indulgence of travellers. We have been sometimes visited, indeed, but principally by those, who, like the ancient philosopher, were willing to suck some profit from our courtesy. After our complaisant guests have received the applause of their employers at Birmingham and Glasgow, for their accuracy in accounts of the state of the market and the nicety of their calculations of the prices of stock, they have commonly applied their en- lightened and accomplished habits of observation to our moral and national character. And while one half of their reports has served to direct their employers in their shipments of broadcloth and hardware, the other has furnished the mate- rials from which critics, philosophers, and statesmen flatter themselves that they are well acquainted ~vith the American character. How safe a dependence may be placed on ~these materials, even when presented on somewhat higher author- ity than that of merca~tihe clerks and agents, is seen in the assertion of Ensign Hall, who judiciously remarks, at the close of an elaborate essay on the internal politics of Amer- ica, that the late war was unsupported by either party, who were desirous of shifting each upon the other the odium of projecting it. It has, indeed, been unfortunate f~. us that we have laboured under such peculiar disadvantages in the course .of our examination before the very impartial tribunals of for- - eign supervision. This, however, begins to he understood, and at any rate we may congratulate ourselves on the deter- initiation ~vhich seems to have been lately made among ,us, not to plead guilty to every charge, however boldly and confidently preferred. Not to engage in the discussion so often repealed, why America is not a book-making country, nor to insist on the difference between this and a book-reading and book-under- 70 Letters on the Eastern States. ~July, standingcountry,we may remark, that in noconnexion has the want of book-making among us been productive of more visible evil, than in this, that we leave it to foreigners to describe us. It is some excuse for believing, we had almost said for fabri- cating false accounts of us, that we ourselves, whose business it is, have done so little toward furnishing the ~vorld with true ones. The work before us is entitled therefore to the higher commendation, as being, on the ~iiole. the most respectable cfThrt which has been made toward a description of the local manners, character, and peculiarities of any portion of our country. So long as its author chooses to remain anonymous, a protection from criticism, which, we assure him, lie has no need to assume, we must content ourselves with pronouncing his work to be evidently that of a scholar and a gentleman, of an impartial observer, a temperate champion, a liberal op- ponent, and a correct writer. Were we to speak of any gen- eral fault, it would he an occasional paucity of facts, which are the life, and substance, and foundation of all interest in works of this nature; a fondness of running a little too far into disquisitions, which, however judicious, are not always sufficiently pertinent; and a want, at times, of a liveliness in the style. But we are sure these defects are more than atoned for by the manly and nafional spirit which breathes in the work, by the true candour not consisting in insincere compli- ments to political adversaries, but in as fair an estimation as a person fond of one opinion can ever make of another, by singular freedom from the morose irony of sentiment, if we may so call it, which is remarkably infecting the literature of our countrymen beyond the sea, and by a correctness of language not often equalled by our American writers. The work contains sixteen letters. They bear rather a desultory air in their titles, but seem nevertheless to be in fact systematically arranged. The importance of their subjects varies from literature, commerce, politics, and the fine arts, to certain funeral ceremonies: the least important, though not the least pleasing of the letters. We shall make sever- al extracts from them, with such remarks as they suggest to us. The following account is given of the funeral ceremonies in the south of Italy. In the south of Italy, the last care of friends is to array the deceased in a full dress : if a man, his hair is powdered, a sword 1820.] Letters on the Eastern States. 71 put by his side, and a bouquet at his breast, and then the body is delivered to monks, or to one of those benevolent fraternities that devofe themselves to the service of the hospitals and the burial of the dead. It is taken by them through the streets, exposed in the coffin serving for many generations, and carried to some church, where a mass being said over it, the sexton receives it into his possession, strips it naked, and burns it. Nothing can be moie repulsive to unaccustomed eyes than this hideous contrast of ghastly death with the gaudy trappings of dress. p. 9. Without undertaking to dispute what is thus asserted with.. out hesitation, we can only say that the burning of the dead, at the present day, in Italy, is a fact that had not before come to our knowledge. In those of the Italian cities, where we have had opportunies of making observation, the rich and no- ble are deposited beneath the churches, and the poor thrown into public vaults. Notwithstanding some revolting circum- stances in the Italian funerals, few sights are more striking than that of a funeral train in the evening at Rome, compos- ed of one or two of the fratei~nities alluded to in the extract just made from our author, all clad in a uniform, often white, with a mask of linen over the face, sweeping through the dusky streets with their lighted torches, and chanting, not rarely with fine voices, the solemn funeral service. The Turkish burying grounds present a more grateful spectacle to the eye, than any of which we have an account. At the head and foot of each grave, in those parts of the Turkish empire where the climate will allow it, is planted a cypress; that beautiful tree, which our severe winters unhappily deny to us, and which our author inadvertently recommends as an or- nament in our grave yar(ls. As the depositories of the de- parted are held sacred in Turkey, these groves of tall, rich cypress are never invaded, and increase with every year about the gates of the large cities. Without some of the gates of Constantinople, are funeral groves of this kind, covering many acres, and resorted to as an evening l)rolnenade. You literally pass through a city of the dead on the way to the city of the living ; and the aspect of these trees shading the departed generations, the white grave-stones surmounted by turbans ~vhich are occasionally painted green, the grave- stones themseles coVere(l with Turkish inscriptions and texts of the Koran, in raised characters, the groups seen walking, or reclining and smoking among them, while a Cafegy sets up Letters on the Rastern States. [July, his little apparatus on the tomb-stone perhaps of an Ernie, to furnish coffee to those who come to sit an hour beneath the cypress trees, form altogether one of the most picturesque scenes of the venerable East. The chapter on politics, that subject which seems hopeless even in the hands of candour herself, is temperate and phi- losophical. The writer shows himself to be one who has been brought up in the old federal party ; arid goes quite as far as a majority of his co-members will go with him, in corn- inenting on the present dissolution of that party, and in fact, of that OppOSe(l to it, and the train of events by which this has taken place. As we hold it very important that some such views as our author entertains should be urgently iricul- cated on the American community, we request our readers attention to the following extracts. The federal party has in fact been e~tinct for some time. You will excuse me for dwelling at all on so obvious a truth, be- cause a number of demagogues here have a lively interest in main- taining the contrary, as it gives them a pretension to that exclu- sive favour at XVashington, which they would else be without. We also see occasionally some peol)le at the south, beating the air with the cry of federalism, probably from habit. if the ma- jority of people in the state of Maryland do not choose to be governed by the banditti of Baltimore; or in Massachusetts are unwilling to displace a gallant revolutionary patriot, against whom no shadow of reproach can be cast; and if these people are called federalists, it is still idle to talk of the federal party. In some states it had never any existence at all, and in many others has long ceased from any exertion. As its extinction was announced by no formal act, it cannot be dated exactly it may be said to have terminated when the late war commenced, though an oppor. turaity was then furnished it for renewal, which was lost, per- haps fortunately so; or at least it expired with the termination of that ~var, and since the last presidential election, not a trade~ of it as a national party can he found. p. 23, 24. If this should seem like hurrying off with too little cere- mony a political association of a character so respectable, and of claims ~o high as the federal party, it will be consid- erably softened to those, ~ ho still cherish the distinction, by the followiig qualifications. This party will have justice done to it by posterity. Its ser- vices or its errors I neither wish to magnify, nor extenuate. 1820.] Letters on the Eastern States. 73 When contemporary partialities and enmities shall be forgotten, it will be considered one of the most illustrious combinations to be found in the annals of freedom. But this is not the time to write its history; there are too many yet alive, to borrow a fig- ure of Mr. Gr~ttans, who have sat by its cradle, and who have followed its hearse. Called into existence to administer and Support that glorious constitutjon, which the wisdom of the states had adopted, it commenced its career with the purest feelings of patriotism. The nation held in pledge for an upright manage- ment of its afEsirs, the noblest reputation which modern times have known. Almost all the survivors of the revolutionary strug- gle, who riad been eminent in the council or the field, were to be flhund in its ranks, and they who had achieved the independence of their country, were called upon to preserve it. Surrounded with difficulties in the outset, struggling againstthe undis~uised ill will of one nation, and the insidious friendship of anoti~er, they had all the departments of the public service to create, and at the same time to adjust the machinery of a new government on a young, restive, and expanding nation. Envy, jealousy, and am- liltion were soon busily employed, to impede their progress, mis- represent their actions, and exaggerate their errors. The uni- versal frenzy of the French Revolution brought timely aid to their exertions ; mens minds became so excited by the electric state of the times, that all sober judgment was prevented, and passion decided on the results of calculation. Fortunately it withstood the torrent long enough to save the nation from the incalculable evils of an alliance with revolutionary Europe ; in ~~hose vortex, if we had once been involved, we should, when the whirlpool had subsided, like some others, have (lisappeared altogether, or rose to the surface disfigured, disgraced, an(l mutilated. When this party was thrown out of power, its conduct in op- position, with very few exceptions. added new dignity to its for- nier character. Exposed to a proscription the most universal, it received the assurance that there was no hope for personal ambi- tion in its ranks, conveyed in the remarkable compliment, that the thne did not exist when it could only be inquired respecting a candidate for office, is he honest? is he capable? is he attach- ml to the constitution ? Yet with true magnanimity, they strug~ gled hard to defend, for thc interests of the nation, those institti tions from which they were precluded, against the short.sighted ness, bigotry, and zeal of an increasing, angry, intolerant party. They strove to preserve the edifices from which they had been driveii, and to keep those who were in possession from devastat- ing an(l destroying them. Their efforts were iiot wholly unavail- ing; the army, navy, finance, judiciary, all sulThred dilapidation, .New Series, Yo. 3. 10 74 Letters on the Eastern States. [July, and the nation enormous loss and subsequent mischief; but the foundations remained ; and after a period, when some very poig~ nant lessons had been inflicted by events, those who had exulted in the (lemolition, began to assist in their re-construction. pp. 24, 25, 26. These general views we think just; coming from a fed- eralist, they are magnanimous. It is a more curious ques- tion, than the causes which have weakened the old party discussions, what new divisions will succeed them. One is rather timi(l in hazarding 1)rophe~ies, when one reflects what a caprice discovers itselt in the organization and fortunes of parties in free countries, arid remembers that it was the death of Pompeys wife, which overturne(l the Roman re- public. For ourselves, we are inclined to think Ihat there will be no permanent new division of parties at present. The Missouri question, which came as near forming such a new division as coul(l have been done by any single question, nay by a large series of common liolitical controversies, failed even in the moment of its own decision, to produce a I)erfect geograj)hiCal organization - And notwithstanding the excitement felt at the time, it does not appear that a single subsequent vote, on any disconnected topic, was affected by a reference to the Missouri question. We doubt moreover whether any party, purely and unanimously geo- graphical, can subsist among us. The old party divisions were nourished and kept up, by having, not state against state nor section against section, but town against town, aye, family against family, and the son against the father, and the son-in-law against the father-in-law, so that a mans foes were those of his own household. This makes hatred keen, deep, and precious. You do not care enough about people two thousand om~ one thousand miles off, to ~vage a specula- tive war with them, upon an interest in which you have only a limited community. It is when party spirit comes into the city, the village, and the house, and beats up for recruits among the thousand personal associations, old family quar- rels, parish jealousies, neighbourly slights and affronts, rancorous recollections of school boy days, pinings at your neighbours wider acres, or more numerous ships, or brighter children; when party spirit can mix up all these bitter drugs in her cup, it theu acquires a rare and genuine bitterness. So long, therefore, as the question of slavery produces unan 1820.] Letters oiz the Eastern States. 75 imity among our Southern and Western brethren, (and there was not a single deh~ction among them in the last session, for we consider the states north-west of the Ohio as nat- urally prone here to go with the non slave holding states,) we think there is no danger of its becoming the ground of a permanent j)arty division. Nothing, we think, can ever become the ground of such a division, which does not pierce through the great masses of the country, and set its individ- ual atoms at war with each other. Separations of the states or sections of the states may indeed grow out of controver- sies, which produce an unanimous geogra~)hical opposition of opinion; but notwithstanding the unpleasant frequency with which allusions were made to a severance of the union, during the Missouri controversy, we apprehend no such disastrous result from any such measure. No separation of the states can ensue, but from vast positive inconveniences and suffer- ings bearing upon one portion of the states, in consequence of the union. No such oppression of the Northern states results from the existence or diffusion of slavery, since there is little doubt that the five slaves, who have three votes in Congress, fill up the places of at least five freemen on the soil, and that the slave-holding states really lose by this check on their white population, more than they gain by the ratio of representation. For the same reason, that we do not think there was any danger that a new division of parties would grow out of the Missouri question, we are inclined to differ from a large num- ber of our politicians, who look forward to an ultimate geo- graphical division of the country into the Atlantic and Wes- tern parties. The same considerations hold here, that we just adduced in reference to the Missouri question. There is no ground of party animosity, in the circumstance of belong- ing severally to the Atlantic and transmontane states. There is nothing for the hostile feeling to begin upon. Moreover, the general national interests of the Atlantic and Western states are the same. The western regions will always wish for the naval power of the littoral states, to keep open the Mississippi; and on the other hand, every thing that could make it an object with arty foreign po~ver to be in alliance with the western country, would make it tenfold an object wrth us to continue in the same confederacy with them. No perfection9 to which the navigation of the Mississippi can be 76 Letters on the Eastern States. [July, brought, will ever make the internal market of supply in the West a matter of indifference to the Middle States on the coast. And just in proportion to the increase of the western products in amount and value, will it be the interest of the navigating states to secure theta to themselves for consump~ tion or the carry irg trade. We here leave out of view all those higher national and moral associations, which we think are gainitig strength daily, and heightening the sympathy be tween the East and the West. We re,joice that there are such associations, to come in aid of considerations of interest, in strengthening the bonds ot union. We rejoice in every thing which tends to call these associations into notice ; and for ourselves, instead of sharing the discontent, which has been felt, not extensively we trust, by some of our fellow citizens of New Xork. that the name of Ohio was given, by lot, to the fine silil) lately launched from their dock yar!s, we should rather congratulate them on having their ship kno~vn by the nameot a free republic, that has grown up from the wilderness with a rapidity, which seems to carry us back to the ages of romance. We do not see, with respect to the main question before us, on what a new party division can be founded. That some- thing will turn up to produce one, can hardly be doubted ; but whether it ~vill be any thing more, for a long time, thau an electioneering organization, growing out of personal attach- ment to various candidates for the ~)residency, we cannot say. For ourselves, we should deprecate such a state of things; for netwithstandiug all the evils resulting from an obstinate di~ ision of the country into two hostile l)arties, we think that a (livision lroducetl or regulated merely by the personal in trigues of rival candidates for the presidency would be still more pernicious and corru~)tir.g. It will depend on each individual readers previous opin- ions, what ,justice he will ascribe to our authors general de- lineation of the principles of the federal party. It will be al- lowed, on all hands, that they are at least stated with clear- ness and moderation and there will he, we imagine, but one opinion of the justice ot the following remarks at the close of the chapter. Much of this is o~ving to local position, but it would be fal~e inode~ty to leny, that much of it is owing to ourselves, to the patriotism, iniegrity, ability and moderation of our public men, 18~O.] Letters on the Eastern States. 4 and to the intelligence and morality of our citizens at large. Our character arid condition attract daily more and more of the atten- tion of the world. The late war was productive of inestimable ben- efit in this way; it made us known and respected by other nations. Our youth and our distance had made us little regarded, often misrepresected, and very falsely appreciated. Dragged into war at the end of a long quarrel, which had desolated every nation in Europe, ard given military glory an unfortunate supetiority over all others, we soon gave decisive proofs that peace had not made us timid, nor liberty ungovernable. Ihe vulgar glory which aris- es from gallantry and skill in war, we showed ourselves capable of attaining, not by an equivocal struggle with a weak nation, but in a hardy conflict with the strongest. Foreigners who see us abroad, or visit us at home, estimate us more justly, since recent events have dissipated so many prejudices. The old routine of calumny begins to be discontinued, and though some exaggeration may grow out of the re-action, we shall hereafter be better under- stood. pp. 58, 59. We quote these remarks, not as being new, but as beingjust and seasonable ; and as conveying a great truth that our po~ political and social privileges go far toward recompensing us for what acomphishments we still need. The author of an abstract of Sey beets Statistics, in the last Edinburgh Review which has reached us, besides asking who ever looks at an American l)icture or reads an American book,* would also do well to ask, ~~ho ever saw an American popular assembly trampled down by dragoons, or heard of an American habeas corpus act suspended. The Corinthian capital may be quite becoming, but after all is riot so necessary as the shaft. Let the walls of our cities sleep like Platos on the ground, if we can have men within the simple furrow of the republic. And to any reproaches, which may be made on us for our deficiency in the accomplishments of an old, luxurious, and corrupted state of society, let us have our answer in the words of the honest barbarian: EAEY9EP1A~ i~EO~L& OVP ~ y~p ~ ~nc~i, x~i c~VThV iAer.~E~pov e7v~zi ~aa ~rccir~s eAeveEpiaV acG7~?4rr$1Y. We should reeommend the putting of the first of these questions to the Marquis of Stafford and Marquis of Lansdowne, who, if we are not nisiuformed, have not only looked at the pictures of Allston and Leslie, i)Ut actually bought them and the other question, to the author of a late article in the, Edinburgh Review, in which Mr. Cleavelands Mineralo- gy is called the best work os the subject in the English language. Letters on the Eastern States. [July, The letter on Religion contains considerable good matter, and is as judiciously written as you cart expect trouri a lay- man. It is not quite rich enough in fact, arid the attempt particularly to give a sketch ot the history of religious tib~r- ality in Boston is deficient itt correctness. This is a very curious question, to be solved by art iniestigatioti running far hack into our history, and by ito means t~ be settled by a few candid paragraphs. It stands on the covers of our Review, that it is devoted to ito theological sect. And though some honourable men have paid their consciences the conipli- ment of denying this, our readers can bear us witness that it is true; and it is in the full intention to be faithful to this pledge, that we except to the remarks on the subject of Eprscopahiartism, witich close the third letter. As far as a Written form of prayer is concerned, Presbyterians as we are, we are inclined to prefre it; well aware ntotwithstand- ing, that it is liable to some objections, particularly to the very one, usually made by Episcopalians to the j)ractice of extemporaneous pu~yer, viz. the impropriety of committing tlte sAe.ntn duty of praying for you, to another man. This is done equally by the Episcopalian arid the Presbyterian. The Presbyterian contftdes this duty to the minister, who has grown up in the satre region, perhaps in the same neigh- bourhood, whose utind is ttrined on the same model, who is personally connected with him, by the most sacred ties, arid enabled in consequence of all this, if a man can ever be ena- bled to do it, to enter into the spirit and feelings of those, with whom and for whom he prays. While the Episcopalian confides this duty to the English J)relates, who two hundred years ago compiled the book of Common Prayer from the Roman catholic missal, with as few alterations as their doc- trines rrqntired ; a coinl)ilation, which, in a few political articles, has been adapted to American use. Which prayers promise to be best adapted to the worshippers personal need? But, says the Episcopalian, I have my prayer written, I can examine it before hand, and satisfy myself that it con- tains rtothing which I disapprove; while the Presbyterian is at the mercy of the preachier, who may bolt out rio one can foresce with hat offensive matter. But this objection is theoretical, arid of rio practical importatice among us. Were our ministers l)resented to their livings, it might be another thing. But where the people choose their minister, as with 1820.] Letters on the Eastern States. 79 us, there is really no danger of his shocking them, by putting up petitiolis, or expressing feelings, in which they cannot join. Arid surely no candid Episcopalian will deny, that there witi as often be cases, in which the mind or conscience of an indi~idual Episcopali~tn will be so peculiarly con- structed, as to take offence at some portions of the printed service, as cases in which the extemporaneous devotions of the Congregational minister will be offensive to the feelings of his flock. And if it were supposed possible that prayers coniposed in another country an(l two centuries ago could pros e perfectly and unanimously acceptable arid appropriate to the feelings and characters of christians at the present day, then it is very cleat that this cod(l only be in conse- quence of a cold geterality, by ~vhich they would lose as niucli in immediate j)ertinency, as they gained in comprehen she appropriateness. Again, if a prii~te(l service fixes attention, repetition de- stroys interest, and leads to formality arid lip-service. It is no uncommon thing to see the eyes wandering, while the lips are repeating by rote, what long familiarity has divested ot its solemnity. For this reason, though ~ve have said above that we should on the whole be l)leased to have a form of written prayer introduced into our congregational churches, ~ would by no means have it confined to a single form of morning amid evening prayer, but we would have a large collection of services, which would prevent the recur ren(e of th~ same form, more than three or four times a year. A good specimen of such a collection of services is found at the end of the prayer-book of King-s chapel in Boston; though we are not able to say whether any public use is ma(le of them. They would fill to great advantage the place which is taken up in the prayer-book of the episcopal church, by the barbarous translation of the Psalter. The letter on commerce contains many fine remarks on the spirit of modern society, in opposition to that oh the ancient world, and the agency of commerce in forming this spirit. We have no (loubt that the authors (Joctrine would bear pushing even farther than lie carries it, in the follo~~iuig observations. The state of commerce, as it now exists in the world, has ren- dered many prejudices, originally just, and lorm~ hereditary, now obsolete. When the merchants of the world were in proportion 80 Letters on the Eastern States. [July, to its commerce, and little more than a groupe of peddlers and usurers, it was allowable to view them with contempt or hstred. But when their operations have extended, till a single individual employs mote persons, and receives a greater income, than some princes, the case is altered. We have lately seen, that one of them might almost be considered a party at the Congress of Aix le Chapelle, without whose agency, at least, the sovereigns could not have terminated their arrangements. Mercantile transactions, by the extension of commerce, are widely diffused, and every man who has any thing beyond his own wants, is obliged t opar- take of them. The agriculturist, who employs any capital, must be extensively.engaged in buying arid selling; and he must be conversant with many commercial transactions. and keep in view the general state of commerce, or he will be a great loser. Toere are, besides, a large number of individuals, who as bankers, in- surers, stockholders, or adventurers in different voyages, employ their capital in trade, though in a manner that leaves them great leisure for amusements or instruction. It is these numerous classes of individuals, with characters mome or less elevated, that connect the profession of commerce with the leading ranks of society. Education in a free country is the chief test of respec- tability, and as the sons of merchants receive the same education with those of princes, and often profit by it more, it is the fault or the choice of the individual if his station be not conspicuous. pp. 113, 114. It is not uncommon to hear persons, who ~vould be thought to reason not blindly from national prejudices and habits, but philosophically from the nature of things, assert the advantage and ornament resulting to society, from an hiered- itary order of nobility, and maintain that the want of such an order throws a vulgar, mercenary, business-like air upon the institutions and character of a nation. rrhey say that there should be a class of men born and educated to admin- ister the state; inert whom high birth and hereditary fortune make independent of the patronage of the government, and the favour (if the people, and men in whom the elegances and refinements of life may be cherished and descend improved, by transmission, from generation to generation of affluence and ease. This sounds tolerably well iii theory; the only misfortune is, that all the truth, which it contains, is appli~ cable only to ages long sim1ce, with all their institutions, numbered ~xith ~vhat has been; and that in our modern state of society not a word of these fancied privileges holds in 1820.] Letters on the Eastern States. 8I point of fact. Six centuries ago, when the soil was covered with villains, when the population, as our author correctly states it, was divided between baron, priest, and peasant, it was a convenience to have an hereditary class, born to infor- mation and cultivation enough to administer the state. That is to say, as the feudal system ~hoIIy incapacitated the mass of the people from understanding or pursuing their interests, or rather left them no interests to understand or pursue, it was well that it left a certain class in a condition to manage the privileges xvhich it secured to them. But all this is al- tered now. You allow the chance of birth to distinguish a man an(l to confer on him important rights, although he is not in consequence of this birth a whit better educated, better bred, or richer than many of his neighbours. It is impossible to distinguish au Earl or a Marquis in a drawing room or at a dinner table by his dress, by his manners, by his infor~ mation; by any thing, in short, but a deal of cotirtesy which you see lavished upon him, for no mortal reason that you perceive, till the secret is disclosed to you, by hearing the magical my lor(l. In this state of thimi~gs, the conferring of great civil privileges upon the chance of birth which brings no other immunity with it, instead of a benefit, is arm injury to society. Common sense teaches this, amid observation teaches it too. The house of lords in England, though tin- questionably die richest body of its size in the world, would find it hard perhaps to establish a proportionate character J~ independence. They are not a hairier between the people and the crown, but of necessity the allies of the crown against the people. Moreover, the gradation of ranks pro- vides a bribe large enough and temj)ting enough to assail the sternest fortress of lordly independence; and an Earl with 50,000 a year, who would fain be a Marquis, or a Duke who would gladly be a minister, is as dependent on the fountain of hio~iour, as the candidate, who has to coax the populace for their suffiages. Besides, these same hereditary honours bear other fruits than those of good manners and courtesy; they often end in profligacy and imbecility, and the great characters of a nation, like the finest fruits, are oftener found wild in the forest of society, than raised from the seed. Nature, it is true, in scattering her gifts indis- criminately, does not withhold them from the aristocracy; but even in England, where birth enjoys such a paralyzing .~Vew Series, No. 3. 1) 8~2 Letters on the Eastern S~tates. [July, predominance, it is the rank of active, professional, middle life, that furnishes the state with its wisest, greatest, and most honourable servants. And where the children of the aris- tocracy have distinguished themselves and gained a miame as enlightened, practical, successful politicians, statesmen, and civilians, it is not in virtue of any quality derived from their parents, from any superior hereditary skill, but by being obliged, from the state of society, to descend more or less into the ranks of the people; it is from being disciplined in the house of commons, to which they are admitted in conse- quence of that curious evasion of the English constitution which regards the son of Peer as a Commoner; it is by being forced to march in the ranks and put their shoulders to the wheel, and live, and study~ and ~vork like citizens, that so much good has been brought out of the aristocracy in England. We have but one more remark to make on this subject, that aftem~ all, it is not so much birth as rich birth, ~vhich is respected in that country. If it be objected to us, that we have no aristocracy in An~rica, hut the mercenary one of wealth, we may with truth reply, that the case differ5 hut by a hair in England. The prodigious influence of the nobility, in that country, is mostly owing to their overgrown estates. A POOP lord is as cold and powerless an existence, as the shad- o~v of a withered branch cast by the waning moon on the waters. Moreover, there is no coronet so bright, which is not ready to restore its jewels from the mines of the city. The sons of Dukes marry the (laughters of bankers, and the impoverished sultanas of the West end form alliances with the offspring of the nabobs of Lombard street, whom a nnivemsity education, a tour on the continent, a commission in the army or navy, or a seat in parliament, if well backed with three iwr cent consols, polishes up into fit partners for the proudest daughters of dilapidated nobility. Now where the hereditary aristocracy is itself to be bought and sold, we hold it to be somewhat idle to sneer at an aristocracy of wealth. rIme true aristocracy, that which is most favorable to virtue and knowledge, would he the simple aristocracy of moral goodness. The condition of human nature requires that to this should he added the additional quality of intel- lectual talents, since mnere goodness does not qualify a man to manage great concerns. The happiest state of society. 1820.] Letters on the Eastern States. es and that most favourable to the development of the highest models of character, would therefore be that where there were no other aristocracy but that of virtue and talents. But in proportion to the refinement and extent of social relations, the in)portance of wealth and the influence which it gives increase, and so a third element comes to be added to that combination of advantages, which we call aristocracy. Let but this wealth, by a constant partition of cstates, return into the channels of society ; (10 not put it into the power of profligacy, intemperance, (lebauchery, and gaming, in vio- lation of the laws of nature, to remain rich, and to transmit a princely estate to the heir of these vices, throw open all the paths of industry to all, who are willing to walk in them, and you will not much pervert the standard of things, by allo~ving to wealtir that influence in society, which, under such circumstances, it may almost be sai(l to deserve. But if you go further, if you take this wealth out of the market of merit, if you lock it up in iron mortmain, from which no industry or skill can draw into the public stock, nay, ~vhich profligacy and vice cannot, by the only redemption that be- longs to profligacy and vice, scatter abroad for the public good, then you have, in the truest sense of the word, a mer- cenary aristocracy; an aristocracy purely and exciesively built on money; not alleviated, as with us, by the dependence of this wealth on many good qualities commonly necessary to acquire or keep it; but resting on the grossest and basest foundation of a lucre, which no industry has acquired, nor temperance preserved, nor providence handed down, but which comes in a vile physical transmission. Our authors letter on the literature of the Eastern States contains a series of just remarks, not confined in their perti- nency to this part of the country, but equally applicable to the whole Union, and as interesting as any remarks upon this trite subject can be. We should not have reverted to it, but have considered the case too well understood by all sensible foreigners to need farther prosing, had not the article, in the last Edinburgh Revie~v which has reached us, sagaciously started the whole controversy anew. The ingenious author of the abstract of Seyberts Statistics, in that number, appears highly pleased with a discovery which he has made, that the Americans have neither manufacturing, mechanical, literary, nor scientific skill; and asks who sleeps on an American 84 Letters om Ike Eastern States. [July, blanket or reads an American poem, in the same breath, and apparently with the same estimation of the degree ot power displayed in the two productions. We wish we were able to give him as satisfimetory an answer to the one question as to the other; butare sorry that while our blankets are quite as warm, and twice as cheap as the Etiglish, we have not yet been able to get a supply of native poetry into the market, at all adapted to the taste of the people, or proportioned to the consumnpton. But we take great pleasure in assuring our brethren abroad, whose confidence and want of inb)rmation on American concerns stan(l, if they will believe us, in most ludicrous contrast, that the literary inanul~tcture and literary I)rofession is looking lip among us. To talk seriously, we know of no subject on which so much has been said, with re- gard to ~vhich the judgments, even of respectable foreigners, have been marked with such a strange unfairness as this. We are at one time called a young country, and reproached with having produced none of the fruits of an age of primeval and Homeric freshness. As it a colony drafted from England in the seventeenth an(l eighteenth centuries, arid kept con- nected hy a constant commercial, political, and literary inter- course, could be young in any respect that is favourable to originality of literature. While on the other hand, this our just defence is turned into a battery against its; and we are asked by other detracters why, with all this connexion and unity with the parent state, we have not produced, in our proportiou~ a literature equal to hers ; without adverting to the condition of a handful of men thrown upon a hemisphere where every careen s open to every man, and the mind is either forced or drawn away from severer literary (liscipline by the hardships of an early setdenent, or the want of pat- ronage in a scattere(l community, or the se(luction of pursuits which are more tempting to the love of pover or of mommey. In short, xvhv ~vill any judicious European so stultify himself, as to maintain a natural inferiority of American intellect; or denying any such inferiority, ~~by will he not allow that eve- ry tIming else must be the effect of circumstances, which are so rapidly ceasing to exist and operate, that before it crosses the Atlantic his censure often ceases to be deserved? Our lite- rary (haracter is advancing with our political and civil pro- gress; we produce more and better books every year, our places of education are constantly improving, the tone of lite ia~O4 Letters on the Eastern ~S~1ates. 85 rary intercourse is regularly elevated, and the public taste growing daily more simple and pure. If this does not satis- fy our brethren abroad, we are unable to satisfy them; and nothing is left to us hut to hold on our way; and if we cannot congratulate ourselves upon their civility and sympathy, be stung at least to greater zeal by their taunts. We shall, for the edification of our readers at home, allude to one circumstance which has had an uiifavourable influence on our literary ~Iogress, to which, if we mistake not, our author has not adverted, viz, the miiimber of our large towns that divide the patronage, which were scarce enough if col- lected, and thus leave us without a literary metropolis. We have three or four cities sufficiently large, wealthy, and refin- ed to require no contemptible amount of literature to give a savour to their social intercourse. A division and disper- sion thus ensues, and the evil, in itself great, is so aggravated by the want of mechanical accommodations, that it is much easier to send a small packet of books to Li~erpool than to Philadelphia. We do not mean to say that this want of a literary metropolis is an insuperable obstacle to a high degree of literary eminence. Germany ~vould furnish a remarkable refutation of such an assertion, did v~ e make it. But in Ger~ many the natural effect of scattering the learned throughout the cities and universities of that extensive country, is coun- teracted by the extreme density of the population, the want of paths by which the superfluous throng can travel the wea- ry pilgrimage of life, the want of commerce to carry away the ardent or avaricious, the l)olitical tyranny that shuts the ambitious out of the administration, the feudal tenures that lock up the laud, and the defined boundary (Irawn round each of the states of the old world, and thus cutting off at once that ever- lasting migration by which our generations are sown broad- cast from the Alleghanies to the Rocky Mountains. All these causes, we say, unite to counteract the want of a literary me- tropolis in Germany. When these causes shall exist with us, or the sole cause a dense population, we shall less feel the want of a literary centre. But it is obvious that in propor.. tion to the number of large to~vns in the country, which act as centres to that portion of the literary comm unity within their attraction, the period necessary to fill up the intermedi- ate spaces, and bring upon all the salutary pressure of a keen competitiou~ must he protracted. It has some times occurred 86 Letters on the Eastern States. [July, to us, meantime, that a little might be done toward producing a greater sympathy and concert among the distant members of our literary community. Why might not our scientific and philosophical societies in Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, be united into one respectable institute, whose joint ef- forts an(l resources would be adequate to the stated l)libliCatiOfl of a volume of transactions that ~vould do honour to the coun- try, whose meetings arid conferences could not but nourish a larger and more catholic spirit than now pre~ ails in our lite- rary community, and thus bring to bear on one point, with proportioned efficacy, the forces that are now exerted to far less purpose in so many different directions. In his letter oti the fine arts, our author indulges in some anticipations of our improvement, which, we hope, while lie utters theni, are proving just. Though it has been the stand- ing shame of the metropolis of the Eastern States, that it has remained so long without an instituti.mn for the fine arts, or at least the common conemiience of an exhibition-room, we are not without hope that this reproach will be soon wiped away, and as we are now producing pictures worth looking at, that ~ve shall not continue without a hail that is fit to show them in. With respect to architecture, the remarks of our auihor are so just arid seasonable, that we cannot forbear a long extract of them. There is one of the arts that is so indispensable in almost all climates of the world, that every people, above the condition of troglodytes, are obliged to recur to it. Shelter, in many coun- tries, is as necessary as food, yet how imperfect with us is the art that prepares it. How tew buildings in this country, either public or private, are constructed with a due regard to the prin- ciples of beauty, or a wise distribution as to convenience for the occupants. How often are they left to mere mechanics, who erect them with the aid of the Builders Assistant, with about the same degree of success that would be obtained in a correspon- dence, guided by the Complete Letter Writer. Surely, next to agriculture, architecture should receive the fostering care of the state, when so much of the economy, the appearance, and the comfort of a country, (lepen(l on its being well understood, and thoroughly adapted to all the wide variety of purposes to which it is subservient. A foundation for a school of architecture is now peculiarly necessary. Our buildings, public and private, are every year hecomi ng more important and expensive. Our race of wooden 1820.] Letters on the Eastern States,. 87 buildings are annually (lecaying, and more permanent ones erect- ing in their stead. Bad and inconvenient plans and designs, violating the principles of the art, are now more than ever to be deplored; because, when of wood, they might have decayed, or been burnt up; but now, all blunders will last for centuries. Al- most every year there are some churches building ;what a pity that we could not get a styie of building better suited to the pur- pose of religious worship, than those awkward wooden lanterns, that are almost every where exhibited. The period has now gone by, when the spirit of religious dissent, which proscribed the Lords Pra,er, and the reading of the Bible, determined also to dispense with every thing like dignity and solemnity in churches, as abominations, that would lead to dangerous errors. Probably, in many parishes, they might now he brought to give up having a window to each pew, out of which they could all stare at any passing object, whilst the minister was performing their duty of devotion; and they might be induced to have their meeting-house so constructed, that the congregation should be separated from all exteriour objects, and being freed from the glare of sunshine and cioss lights, find, in the solemnity of more sober tones and perfect seclusion, appropriate situation for the exercises of de- votion. 154156. Milizia, the most approved modern writer on architectuie, has a memai~k to the following effect: The main cause which has produced the decline or impeded tIme progress ot~ the arts and sciences, is the ignorance of its professors. But in architecture, another most powerful cause conspires with this, the ignorance of employers. It is not enough to have intelligent architects; it is necessary that those, who employ them, should also have a competent acquaintance with the art.* This remark of the Italian author may serve as a preface to the following statements from the work before us. Trinity church, in the Gothic style, at New Haven, is the handsomest church in this part of the ~Union; there are in Boston, Providence, and in some other towns, places of public worship that are not destitute of merit, but it is united with great defects. It would he an invidious task to point out all these, but there are two cases when bad taste has operated to (lestroy a good effi~ct, where it might have been produced, that may be mentioned as examples. A church was built a few years since in Boston, for which the original design was very handsome. It was intended * Principj di Architettura Civile di Francesco Milizia, 3za Ed. J3as- sano. 1812. tom. iii. 219. Letters oiz the Eastern States. [July, to be a parallelogram, with a Doric portico; the walls were plain, with lar~re Wifl(IOWS, making only one story, and built ot a beauti- ful white granite. Thus far the original (lesign; but the plans of an architect have to pays through the hands of a committee. The first thing that was (lone, was to a(ld a steeple; a very pretty one; and this though a sort of monster in the architecture, is justifia- ble, from the agreeable effect it produt~es at a distance: no church indeed ought to he built without one; a village spire is always picturesque, and awakens pleasing emotions; and the effect of steeples and domes, in giving an air of animation and grandeur to a town, may be judged of negatively, by seeing what a dull, life- less, unmeaning aspect Philadelphia presents to the observer without, though it is such a handsome city within. The next alteration was to change the form to an octagon, a figure which is appropriate enough tor a crystal, but is an absurdity in archi- tecture. The portico was l)oric, but these columns, though made of wood, were with an Ionic proportion thus mutilating and destroying its whole beauty. To remedy this glaring fault, an addition, which oes not belong to the order, was put on at the bottoni, to diminish their dyspeptic appearance, that only increas- ed the disorder. If it had been proposed to paint one red, one green, one blue, one yellow, it would have been scoffed at as absurd ; and yet it would have been a less grievous blunder than has been committed now; for it is not uncommon in Italy to see columns of different coloured marbles in the same edifice where the proportions are all alike. Fortunately these deformed col- ums are of wood, and must soon grow shabby. [hey will then perhaps be replaced by columns of the Nova Scotia freestone, which is easily worked, and is now getting into use here, for every thing where the chisel is required. 157159. So long as our churches are likely to constitute by far the greater part of our public edifices, it were much to be wished that our taste should take a decidedly good direction in their construction. Mitch certainly has been done in this way. The new church in Baltimore is probably not surpassed in Ameri- ca for the pure and classic merits as well as the imposing qualities of architecture ; and to say that it is not perfect is merely to say that it is a modern building. The new episco- pal church in Boston presents a front more purely classical than the church at Baltimore, and ~vith such good examples iii this generation. who knows but our posterity may get to relish the simple Doric majesty, fi~om ~vhich the art for more than two thousand years has been declining. i~8QO.] Letters on the Eastern States. $9 The seventh letter is on the relative rank of Americans, or rather on the absence of such a distinction. This is a subject, which one must have been the witness of a foreign aris- tocracy and the full grown babyisms of European heraldry, fully to understand. There is one thing which has always amused us, the simplicity with which some of the Eng- lish censors have reprobated our use of titles; and as ye have nothing more to the purpose of our own on this topic, we will venture to make a short extract from the resolutions to be proposed in the house of representatives, which we quoted in our last number. Wheieas no little pleasantry and ridi- cule have, by various English writers, been thrown upon Americans for the assumption of such titles as his excellency, the hononrable, & c. to which pleasantry and ridicule this house does not churlishly object, (being fond of a joke, so it be but a good one.) although these titles are not arbitrary, but always indicate some present or former post or cham;ge, and are there- fore convenient bigns, and not empty names; resolved further, that a joint committee of the several antiquarian societies of America be raised, to examine into the origin of all those pa- tents of nobility, in virtue of which sundry persons, subjects of H. B. majesty, do assume and take to themselves the de- signation of his grace, my lord, and most noble; to inquire whether the application of these titles be in any degree con- nected with personal merits, or trusts conferred on the bearer of them, whether a majority of them may not be traced to the exploits of cruel and barbarous ages, to the pleasure of corrupt or frivolous princes, unhappily regarded as the fountains of honour, to violent and rapacious seizure of estates by military force, and in all but a few instances to pure arbitrary descent, and ~vhether under these premises the persons taking such titles and the people bestowing them can fairly ridicule those few simpic designations, applied in some portions of America to those who have been raised by their fellow-citizens to offices or trusts thereby indicated. The eighth letter is on the character and condition of women. In the middling classes of life, women as well as men, abating a fe~v peculiarities incident to climate and geo- graphical circumstances, are much the same, all the world over. The human nature, where it is not force~i to the high extremes, imor sunken ~o the low ones, tends to a fe~v simple conditions and habits, which are found almost every where. .Vc~w Series, No. S. 90 LLters on the Lastern States. [July, flut iii the highest and lowest ranks of life, the great national differences exist, and in nothing more than in the character and condition of women. The corrupt influence and po~ver, which they acquire, in the higher ranks ol most ot the coun- tries in the o~d world, by sacrifires fatal to the true excellence of female character, produce a state of intercourse in those ranks, of which ~e have happily in this country not even a conception; while the out doors slavery, to which the female peasantry is subject in a greater or less degree, all over Europe, forms a spectacle equally abhorrent to our feelings and habits. Shepherdesses and ha~ -makers, with their straw hats on one ear, and clean white rakes, make a pretty figure in eclogues, on the stage, or on old fashioned patch furniture cour.terpanes and bed-curtains, but in real life it is something too much, to see the weaker sex condemned to both parts of the curse; in sorrow to bring forth children, and with the sweat of their face to till the ground. Savage, and barba- rotis, and over civilized life all tend, in this respect, to the same misery; and in the ~vretched provinces of Turkey, the rich counties of Germany, italy, France, and England, and our own squalid Indian villages, the same spectacle of female toil and wretchedness is to he witnessed. We know of no community on earth where the natural destination of women to household and domestic life is so completely ful- filled ~rnong the labouring classes, as in our own countryb In France, in the season of harvest, you may see the roads cov- ered with reapers, women as well as men, travelling, for a hundred miles, from the more thickly settled districts, up to the wheat provinces, as the poor Irish come over to reap the English fields. The following remarks of our author are perfectly just. To begin with the most numerous order,with those who commence life with nothing but strength to labour for subsistence, and the hope of future competence :In the country, or the towns, the females in this class are never exposed to work in the open air. All that is required out of doors is performed by the men. That the women are very assiduouiy, and even laboriously em- ployed, every one may witness,but their labours are almost wholly domestic, and performed under shelter. They are not seen driving market carts, standing in the streets, carrying heavy burdens, or engaged from morning to night in the open fields. They are not exposed to the inclemency ef the ~veather, to the iSQO.] Letters on the Eastern States. promiscuous mingling with the crowds of a city, or ii~ large ~roupes in the toils of the field. They live secluded in the per- ~o~inance of their household labours, and rarely meet in any as- seniblage, except when they go in their best attire, with decency and solemnity, to public worship. Besides, they have higher hopes than the labouring classes in Europe. The journeyman may look forward with certainty, to become, in a few years, if he has common skill and industry, a master workman in his turn. The farmer is not, as in Europe, a mere peasant, labouring on land which he never (Ireams of own- ing; ~ut he is here a proprietor, and though he begins at first with only a log-house, and a piece of forest to be cleared, he is sure that, in the end, he shall possess a productive farm, and the means of comfortable subsistence. The women in these classes, who are often more refined an(l ambitious than the men, conduct them- selves with a view to their future situation, and often stimulate their husbands to those exertions for acquiring ~)roperty and im- proving their children, in which they are willing to participate. This prospect of bettering their condition, operates very favoura- bly to them, since it encoura~es the men to domestic habits and economy, by knowing their savings will all be productive of very compound advantage, arid that, as they advance in life, they may look forward to a comfortable support from the results of former labour. 177, 178. Having, both in this and the preceding number of our journal, had occasion to express our ol)imoIlS freely on the subjects of Agriculture and Manufactures and their respective importance to our country, it is unnecessary to (Iwell much on the letters in which these subjects are treated. With regard to the former, the author gives a preference to the use of oxen over horses, (p. 203) in which we believe the modern theories and most approved practice in agriculture, will not go along with him; though we should have been sorry to have missed his remarks on the subject, had their omission cost us, at the same time, the amusing picture of the skilful teamster, that is introduced to illustrate them. No person who has explored any portion of our sea-coast, and cast his eye on the thousand broad meadows which are given over, for want of a dike, to everlasting sterility, ren- dering our rivers near the coast almost inaccessible, and their banks unprofitable, but ~vill join our author, in the fol- lowing observations. There is another description of land, of which very large Letters on the Eastern States. CJuly, tracts nrc found on every part of the sea-coast, which is a reproach to our agricultural management. I allude to the salt marshes. These are generally composed of a fat, rich soil, often several feet in depth. At present they produce a crop of hay, which is worth only half the price of the upland produce. Attempts have been made in many places to dike out the sea-water; in some few, the most luxuriant crops have followed ; in most others, the natural grasses have been destroyed, the land run to waste, and after a few years, the salt water has been again admit- ted to cover them. Doubtless, the growth they furnish, the depth of soil, and other circumstances, may make some of these lands more difficult to be reclaimed than others. But I doubt whether most of the experiments have been well conducted, and whether they have not tailed from being made imperfectly. Though the tl(le has been kept from overflowing the surface, the water withia has been kept too near its level to permit the soil being properly freshened. Thousands and thousands of acres of land in Eng- land, th~it were once overflowed by the tide, have been embanked, and now produce the richest crops. In Flanders and Holland, half the country must have been originally in this situation; and lands now below the level of the tides produce not only the finest hay, but are cultivated with vegetables and grain. Some of the richest lands we have might be made to do the same here, and would afford the richest returns, instead of a sorry crop of salt hay. It is a prominent object in our agriculture, that a full ex- periment, on a large scale, should he made with these valuable lands, of which we possess such extensive tracts. pp. 20~, fi06. Such an attempt, we understand, is now making near New York, and it is perhaps to be wondered at, that the diking spirit of its original settlers had not broken out before. When one beholds the delightful meadows, which are thus rescued from the barren ocean in Holland and turned into an ever- lasting garden, one is tempted to wish that the Pilgrims had abode a little longer at Amsterdam and Leyden, before they came over to Plymouth; and then brought with them a taste for fresh meadows and embankments. It must be allowed, however, that it would wear rather a Quixotic ap- pearance, to begin to make land on the east of our continent, while we have still to be settled a square of 8000 miles toward the west; nor can it in human fairness he asked of men to stand up to their middles in marsh mud, in order to make a dike, when for the wages of one days labour in it, they can buy an acre of land, which will yield 50 bushels of wheat. V 18~O.] Letters on the Eastern States. 93 With all this, we confess we should rejoice to s~e some meas- ures taken, to enlarge the limits of our Eastern metropolis, and to turn that abomination of desolation, which unites it ~vith the continent, and is given over to salt herbs and the execu- tioner, into a wholesome lawn or public walks or gardens. An expense, which the town would not feel, would be amply sufficient to exclude the tide, and admit of the space on either side in rear of the street being converted into parallel shaded approaches to the town, scarce inferior in beauty to the champs etys~es at Paris. There are not many ways in which a generation can connect itself with posterity, by more grate- ful associations, than by these public works. A few acres of land left in common, and a few score elm-trees planted, in the first settlement of Boston, have given our town its greatest ornament, furnished It with the scene of all its festivities, with the place for convenient and wholesome exercise, and essentially increased the solid rational comfort of every class of the citizens, particularly of the poorer class. What has been done by the present generation, still farther to adorn this beautiful spot, will give them a proportionate place in the gratitude of posterity. Long after we, ~vith all our gossipping vanities and intrigues, and insincere public services performed from private interest and ambition, and our gross luxuries in mahogany, rose-wood, and good cheer are l)assed by, and no memorial is left of our existence, a line row of trees, which we had planted, would be a more beautiful and precious mon- uncut, than all that ever rose in brass or marble. This is generally enough admitted, when thus stated; but in point of practice, we are commonly content to imitate the example of the elder laird of Dumbiedikes, whose dying charge it has to his son: Jock, when ye hac naething else to do, ye may be aye sticking in a tree; it will be growing, Jock, when ~ere sleeping. My father tauld me sac forty years sin, hut I neer fand time to mind him. The twelfth letter treats of the past, present, and future state of the Indians; a subject, ~vhich involves some questions of casuistry, and some of policy. It is a point sometimes mooted, not indeed by sincere moralists, but by political railers, wli~ seize at any handle of national calumny, what right we or our fathers have or had to dispossess the aboriginal lords of the soil. This is an excellent question for disputation. for many of the arguments are on one side, while most of the truth 94 Letters on the Eastern States. ~July, is on the other. Nothing seems clearer, in the abstract, than that the original incumbents are the rightful proprietors of the soil; that it is not within the right ~f foreign intruders, under the pretence that they are civilized, whije the incuui- bents are savage, to expel them from their possessions; nor is such a right, not naturally possessed, to be acquired by such sort of purchases, as are commonly made by civilized colonists of savage owners. In short, half taught casuists are apt to shrug up their shoulders and look wise, when the subject of such purchases is mentioned, and leave to be shrewdly suspected, that the transaction is, after all, no better than a legal or a pious fraud. We are not at leisure to enter into the inquiry, how far the temper and character of our Qarly settlers, or the actual policy of our government toward the natives, may justify this supercilious righteousness of censure. rfhere may have been something suspicious in the tone of feeling of the early colonists, a little too frequent aliti- sion to the invasion of Canaan, and an ominous disposition to return thanks for driving out the heathen. Our early histo- rians exult, ~vith an alarming complacency, over a pestilence, which is said to have raged among the natives a year or two before the landing at Plymouth, and to have covered the country, which first presented itself to our forefathers, with graves. But notwithstanding all these incitements to mild and charitable judgments, it must not be forgotten, that the property which rests in the mere right of possession depends on an extremely vague and indefinite tenure. It can scarcely be understood to extend beyond the limits of one organized civil society, ~vhere the established compensations, by which every citizen pays all the rest for protecting him in his pos- sessions, may seem to furnish an equitable ground on which those possessions are held by him. This right of property may even acquire a benevolent extension, beyond the pale of the pOhiti(al organization that immediately protects it, and may be recognized by all similar organizations; that is to say, there is a sort of common bond among all civilized na- tions, to respect certain pretensions to property over the soil occupied respectively by each other. And yet so extremely feeble is this right of property, as recognized by one nation in another, that two princes have but to affront each other and go to war, and all the stipulations supposed to exist are swept away, and you turn in your troops without scruple upon 1820.] Letters GU the Eastern States. the peaceful village of your neighbour. If such is the ac- knowledged frail foundation of the right in nations, who pro- fess to be in alliance with each other by the bonds of civiliza- tion, on what good ground can a savage tribe lay claim to all the land that they can wander over in the chace, and to every forest, in which the deer seeks refuge from their arrows? Who has recognized their property, and what treaty has mankind entered into with them, to give them up fair conti- nents to be so poorly improved? Naturally speaking, all men have a right to live on the earth; and a ships company of exiles, forced by persecution, or a crowd.d population, or any other cause, to a barbarous coast, have as good a natural right to land and settle on it, as the native tribes to continue there to hunt and fish. To avoid present inconvenience and war, it is usual and most prudent to attempt to purchase a right of the incumbents, but it is clear, that they have no more natural property in the soil than you. If it be said in answer to this, that a tribe of savages might with equal reason invade a cultivated shore, and claim an equality of right with its civilized inhab- itants, arguing that they were their own judges how a region ought to be inhabited, and that they held hunting and fishing to be a more proper mode of existence than tilling and pas- turage, we answer, that in the dry, special pleading of thc theory, this is true; and they must go to war, and the strong- est be the rightful owner; as the barbarous nations did, ~vlmen they came down from the wall of China, and took possession of the fair shores of the Mediterranean. But in common sense and practice, there is no confusion in this case; nor would any sincere moralist he inclined to put the settlement at Ply- mouth on the footing of the invasion of Great Britain by a horde of Es~juitnaux. What ought to he ocr conduct, in the l)resent state of timings, towards the Indians, is a niore important ques~ion. because it is one, which will decide our treatment of a large class of fellow men. It is tolerably well ascertained, that they (annot sup- port the neighbourhood of cix ilization. Foreign and ignorant ,judges may sneer at this; but it is a simple fact, ascertained by experience. It would not be easy to substantiate a single act of violence, far less any systematically oppressive treat- ment toward the savages in this state, for instance, since the time when they had thirty churches in the neig~~bourhood of Boston, and some of them served by ministers of their own Letters on the Eastern Stateg. [July, race. And yet those churches, like so many others through- out our country, have vanished, an(1 what is the cause? Situ- ply this, that the Indians have either mingled with the whites, and thus been confounded ~vith the mass, which has hapl)ened to so small a degree, as scarce to deserve to be mentioned; or remaining distinct have dwindled away in consequence of necessary checks on their increase, not implying a volun- tary oppression on our part. Drunkenness and other vices, of which the. aliment has been imparted to them, have thinned their numbers. They lived by hunting and fishing; we have cut down the forests, and killed the deer and the bears, and put to rout the beavers, and have built mill-darns across the rivers, arid trightened away the salmon, and come in all hungry to divide the spoil of the shad and alewives. They must always have covered a very large tract with a very small population; arid ~~ould naturally disappear, long before they had alienated all their lands. To take measures to preserve the Indians is to take measures to prcserve so much barbarity, helplessness9 and want, to the exclusion. of so much industry and thriftiness. No personal injus- tice should be or is tolerated, but the laws ~vlrich have for their end to keep up the existence of large bodies of half clad barbarians, who will riot or cannot sustain themselves by the arts of civilized life, are laws to prevent comfort and im- provement from taking place of misery and want. The object of true humanity is not blindly to better the condition of a given individual, ~vhether he will be bettered or not, but to put a happier individual in the place of a less happy one. If it can be done by changing the nature of the latter, it is ~vell; if it cannot, leave him to the operation of his character and habits; do not resist the order of providence, ~vhich is carry- ing him a~vay, and when lie is gone, a civilized man ~vill step into his place, and your end is attained. Had the British government, ~x hen our settlements began, placed the whole of America under the administration of commissioners, and re- tained a right of preemption over all the lands, the United States ~vould have been to this day a greatperhaps not a greatMassapee or Herring-pond parish. Little, however, as we join the regret ~vhich is sometimes expressed at the vanishing of the Indian tribes, we heartily participate the wish that, before they are gone forever, no pains should be spared and no time be lost in collecting their 1820.] Letters on the Eastern States. traditions, describing their manners, and above all preserv- ing specimens of their language; which the late investigations have sho~vn to he a philological phenomenon of the most strikin~ kind. We are sure a great deal might be done in this way, by those who have the means ot doing it, with a certain prospect of carrying the public curiosity and interest along ~vith them. If the officers, who in the late war were sta- tioned oii the frontiers, and those whose oflicial duty carries them in various civil capacities to the regions still inhabited by the Indian tribes, ~vould but favour the public with their ob- servations, and particularly with vocabularies of words, they would contribute to the only means now existing of tracing the descent of these ouce mighty nations, and o( solving the great problem of the settlement of America. In want of any accurate information of this kind, we are somewhat at the mercy of vague and exaggerated reports, which we know not when or with what abatement to believe. Thus it was currently stated in the late war, that Tecumseh had conceiv- ed the plan of a grand confederacy of the Indians against the whites, and travelled from the northern lakes down to the Creeks and Seminoles to bring it into operation. This, for several reasons, seems to us unlikely ; the more so, as it is an extremely obvious fabrication. Precisely the same story is told in Welds travels of the famous Brandt. As far as it is in either case true, it probably is limited to this, that these en- terprizing chiefs attempted to organize a confederacy among the neighbouring tribes, to a greater extent and on a more of- ficient footing than the common alliances. That any thing more than this could he conceived by a savage chief, eveti with the (lisiuterested aid of white hunters and fur-traders, is from the nature of things scarcely c~edible. The following account of the vagrant Indians one some- times sees is curious. It is remarkable, how few of the natives are to be found in our population, and how rarely they blend ~vith it. The discol- ourings from Indian are inliaitJv fewer than those arising from Negro mixture. The few that remain are not SO numerous as the gipsies in many parts of Europe, to which they may in many points be compared. Two or three, or sometimes a larger groupe, perambulate the country, offering medicinal herbs, or brooms for sale, almost the only article they manufacture. They are a harm- less set of beings, and lead a lif~ ot hardship, though not of Ia .Vew Series, No. 3. 13 98 Letters on the Eastern States. [July, hour. I have sometimes thought, when I have seen some of these poor Indians, on the revolving turns of fate ; that here were the descendants l)erhaps of the Sachems, who once held the coun- try, and made treaties with our ancestors, when they might have annihilated them, gaining a scanty livelihood from the charita- ble purchases of their posterity. They preserve most of the traits of the Indian character, though imbedded in civilization, and knowing no other language than the English. They are set- doin seen to laugh, are prone to intoxication, yet obliged, from poverty, to have intervals of sobriety ; and in traversing the country, while they commonly n-rake use of our roads, they re- tain a knowledge of its natural topography, and are never afraid of being lost in a forest. as they always know their direction, and ~ften traverse the country, as was the primitive practice, from one stream to another, at the shortest carrying place, and still are ac- quainted with all the rivers and ponds, and the most probable places for finding game. pp. 237, 238. A small party of vagrants, of this description, was lately arid is perhaps now wandering in our neighbourhood. One might easily have mistaken them for gipsies, but for the shade of copper colour, instead of the dark olive in their complex- ions. T tions, of heir party of six or eight consisted of three genera- whom the two first retained a little acquaintance with their native Indian dialect, which in the third was lost. They did not appear to share the quality, which is said to sit deep in gipsy blood, that ot~ mistaking their neighbours hen400st for their own. ~Vlrether they would have been able lo hold fast their integrity, through the tempting season of June-eating and early Catherine pears, we cannot undertake to say. While they honoured us with their presence, they le(l a mighty honest life of basket-~veaving; and it was no unpleasant sight, in the evening, to see the red flames and the heavy smoke curling up round a comfortable iron pot, which they understood how to keep boiling as well as their neigh- bours. Neither can they be said to have been devoid of taste; for they took up their abode on about the pleasantest spot which the district contains, and added, by their romantic en- campment, a new beauty to Jamaica Pond, of a kind ~ve sup- pose not wholly to the taste of the neighbouring municipali- ty; who soon approved their descent from the pilgrims, and after a lapse of two or three wecks drave out these heathen without further ceremony. 18~O.] Letters on the Eastern States. 99 We quote the following passage from the letter on scenery and climate, as a favourable specimen of the style of this work. It is an additional commendation, that there is no ex- aggeration in the comparative picture it presents of our own and the Ausonian climates. In connexion with our climate, the appearance of our atmos- phere may he considered; and the lover of picturesque beauty will find this a fruitful source of it. The same inequalities will be found here that take place in the measure of heat and cold, and an equal number of contrasts and varieties. We have many of those days, when a uXurky vapourishness is diflhsed through the air, dimming the lustre of the sun, and producing just such tones of light and colour as would be marked in the calendar of Newfoundland or the Hebrides, for a light, fair day. We have again others, in which even the transparency and purity of the tropics, and all the glowing mellow hues of Greece and Naples, are blended together, to shed a hue of paradise on every object. I have already spoken of the intense brilliancy of a winter moon- ~,ht, when the air has a polar temperature ; the same brilliancy and a greater clearness is often found in the month of June, and sometimes in July, with the warmth of the equator. There is, occasionally, in the summer and autumn, such magical effects of light, such a universal tone of brilliant colouring, that the very air seems tinged ; and an aspect of such harmonious splendour is thrown over every object, that the attention of the most indiffer- ent is awakened, and the lovers of the beautiful in nature enjoy the most lively delight. These are the kind of tints which even the matchless pencil of Claude vainly endeavoured to imitate. They occur a few times every year, a little before sunset, and under a particular state of the air and position of the clouds. These beautiful appearances are not so frequent indeed here, as they are at Naples ; all those warm and delicate colours which we see in Neapolitan pictures, occur there more often ; but I have frequently observed the hills to the south of Boston exhibit- ing, towar(ls sunset, the same exquisite hues which Vesuvius more frequently presents, and which the Neapolitans, in their paintings of it, always adopt. The vivid beauty which I now speak of, is rare and transient ; but we often enjoy the charms of a transparent atmosphere, where objects stand in bold relief, and even distant ones will present all their lines and angles, clean and sharp, from the deep distant sky, as on the shores of Greece; and we gaze at sunset on gorgeous skies, where all the magnifi- cence, that form and colour can combine, are accumulated, to en- rapture the eye, and render description hopeless. pp. 264.266. 1 N) Leiters on Ihe Eastern Slates. [July, As the author has, if we have not overlooked it, made no distinct mention of the Indian summer, so called, of which a pleasing account is contained in Dr. Drakes view of Cincin- uiati, we cannot forbear to quote the note descriptive of this sea~n from the Rev. Dr. Freemans occasional sermons ; gladly seizing this only opportunity presented us, since the commencement of our critical Jabours, of paying Our feeble testimony to the almost unequalled merit of these admirable discourses, and making ourselves the organ of the literary and religious community, in earnestly expressing the hope, that they are not all vith which we shall be favoured and instructed, from the same quarter. The southwest is the pleasantest wind, which blows in New England. in the month of October, in particular, after the frosts, which commonly take place at the end of September, it frequently produces two or three weeks of fair weather, in which the air is perfectly transparent, and the clouds, which float in a sky of the purest azure, are adorned with brilliant colours. If at this season a man of an affectionate heart and ardent imagination should visit the tombs of his friends, the southwestern breezes, as they breathe through the glowing trees, would seem to him almost articuli~te. Though he might not be so wrapt in enthusiasm, as to fancy that the spirits of his ancestors were whispering in his ear; yet he would at least imagine that he heard the small voice of God. This charming season is called the Indian Summer, a name which is derived from the natives, who believe that it is caused by a wind, which comes immediately from the court of their great and benev- olent god Cautantowwit, or the southwestern god, the god, who is superiour to all other beings, who sends themii every blessing which they enjoy, and to whom the souls of their fathers go after their decease. Having expressed ourselves fully on the subject of univer- sity education, as it exists among us, in oui~ number for Janu- ary last, we have no occasion to enter into an examination of our authors fourteenth letter, which is on harvard Univer sity. We might not, any more than himself, be likely to pass for impartial critics on this point, and have no ~vish to play the part of champions. There is one hint only of our authors, ~vhich we feel desirous to repeat, viz, that the spirit of this university is in no degree proselyting, and that no effort is made to impose on those, who resort to it, or even to recoin- mend to them any particular system of theological doctrines. 1& 20.] Letters on the Eastern States. 101 All men who think and reason, or who read and hear without thinking, must needs have their own opinions; and it wouI(l be ridiculous to wish to have it thought, that there is no pre- vailing current of opinion at Cambridge. Still it is true, that no pains are taken to draw into this current those, who, at any stage of their education, resort thither, and that many pass through and receive the honours of the university, with- out having received any doctrinal bias from the atmosphere supposed to prevail. We make these remarks, by no means to conciliate favour to the university. Of that it has no need, and it is quite content with its solid, un.asserted claims to pub- lic confidence, and quite willing that the young men of our country should go wherever they can receive more thorough instruction, can be helped to form a chaster and purer taste, or be imbued with a more manly spirit. We are not sure that we should even have alluded to the subject at all, if we had not happened to know that pains have been taken, by ~vord of mouth and in writing, to convince the public at a distance, that we partake at Cambridge the proselyting char- acter of some of our sister institutions; the late distinguished head of one of which was wont to say to his pupils, as we have been informed by one of the most respectable of them, Unitarianism is the half way house to hell- the traveller stops and rests at it, looks round him, and goes on his way. From judgments and from language like this we abstain. We have even been told that attempts have been made, and not without success, to instil into our distant brethren of the Episcopalian communion, a jealousy of our university. This is the more unpardonable, as express provision is made for permitting all, who ask it, to attend worship in the Episcopal church in Cambridge. This work closes ~vith two letters on Boston and the charac- ter of its inhabitants. We have been too liberal already in our extracts, to admit of any more, or to make any more necessary for the purpose of giving our readers an idea of the work. Having, in the beginning of our article, bestowed a hearty and sincere commendation upon it, and particularly comI)limefited the correctness of the style, we must find fault with the latter for being tainted by a few Americanisms, the last thing we wish to see in American language. Location and gade, our old enemies, are fir too useless to be admitted into pages. in general so correct: nor do we see any good io~ Letters un the Eastern States. [July, reason for eternally using the word commence instead of begin. There are two or three italian scraps, which have each an er- Ior, and there are one or two other mistakes, which we also suppose to he errors of the press; such as placing the ias- saic falls in Rhode Island, (p. 275.) Is there not moreover an error libraril in the following sentence ? The town was first called by the whites Trernont or Trimount, from the predominance of three conspicuous hills ; afterwards called Boston, from a clergyman of tha.t name, much respected by some of the first settlers, and who was expected to become their pastor, but he never came over. To conclude, this work, though local in its design and 3ubjects, is enlarged and patriotic in its spirit. We hope it will not he long, before no comparisons between the East, ai~d the South, and the West, shall be made, with less intelligence and forbearance, than those before us. All we want is to know each other better. We have now before us a letter from a gentleman, who crossed the Alleghany mountains, little mok e than thirty years ago, in which he complains of his discoveries being misrepresented; and which, though he seems to have descended the Ohio no farther than Louis- ville, appears to have excited, as well it might, the attention due to a voyage far beyond the extreme point of civilization.* He might now pass to the Mississippi and discover nothing on his way hut cultivation, wealth, and plenty, fertile fields, and plantations, inhabited by free and intelligent men; And hills all rich with blossomed trees, And fields which promise corn and wine, And scattered cities crowning these. He would find one of these towns, in its growth of twenty years, a third part as large as Boston, and three others a fifth, though it is neither the habit nor the policy of the in- habitants to settle in large cities. He would find the popula- tion of one of these young states, greater than that of Massa- chusetts, and another nearly double. Or, if he travelled on the great watery turnpike of the ~vest, he would descend it, together with an immense amount ot 1)roduce and population, on its nuif ural railways, and meet its thousands of tons of steam navigation returning with the conveniences and luxuries, which this produce had purchased. lie would find the Indian * Nernoirs of the American Academy, vol. ii. part 1. 1820.] Dr. Jarvis Discourse. 103 population extinct, and an individual of their nation a spec- tacle in the streets; and in its place an enlightened society, with the vigour and spirit of youth, and the habits of hardi- hood and intelligence, which belong to the nature of the en- terprise they have just achieved. And lastly, he would see in the spirit of emigration, so universally extended, the means provided by nature to assimilate and unite these spreading bands of Citizens into one national character. ART. VIL..il Discourse on the Religion of the Indian Tribes of .JVorth .~1merica; delivered before the .~V~ew York Historical Society, December 20, 1819. By Samuel Farmer Jarvis, D. D. .11. .11. S. 8vo, pp. 64. [With .JVoles and Illustrations, pp. 46.] New York, 1820. THE history and character of the Indian tribes of North America, which have for some time been a subject of no in- considerable curiosity and interest with the learned of Europe, have not till lately attracted much notice among ourselves. The very circumstance of our living so near to them, that we could at any moment make such inquiries as should be wished on any point relating to them, has, no doubt, contrib- uted much to our neglect of this part of the history of our continent. While Europeans, ~vho from their remoteness cannot, if we may use the expression, ~vithout difficulty obtain specimens of this portion of the human race to complete their collections, have long esteemed the American Indian as one of their most curious subjects of investigation. Just as we remember some years ago to have seen among the curiosities of an European museum an article, which would have excited but little interest in an American, though it is in itself not among the least curious productions of naIure,~we mean, that common plant of our continent, the indian corn. But as the Indian nations are now fast vanishing, and consequently the individuals of them come less frequently under our observa- tion, we, also, as well as our European brethren, are begin- nitig to take a more lively interest than ever, in the study of their character and history. The immediate impulse has been given at the present time by the important and interesting publications of Mr. Dupon- ceau and Mr. Heckewelder, of which we gave an account in

1820.] Dr. Jarvis Discourse. 103 population extinct, and an individual of their nation a spec- tacle in the streets; and in its place an enlightened society, with the vigour and spirit of youth, and the habits of hardi- hood and intelligence, which belong to the nature of the en- terprise they have just achieved. And lastly, he would see in the spirit of emigration, so universally extended, the means provided by nature to assimilate and unite these spreading bands of Citizens into one national character. ART. VIL..il Discourse on the Religion of the Indian Tribes of .JVorth .~1merica; delivered before the .~V~ew York Historical Society, December 20, 1819. By Samuel Farmer Jarvis, D. D. .11. .11. S. 8vo, pp. 64. [With .JVoles and Illustrations, pp. 46.] New York, 1820. THE history and character of the Indian tribes of North America, which have for some time been a subject of no in- considerable curiosity and interest with the learned of Europe, have not till lately attracted much notice among ourselves. The very circumstance of our living so near to them, that we could at any moment make such inquiries as should be wished on any point relating to them, has, no doubt, contrib- uted much to our neglect of this part of the history of our continent. While Europeans, ~vho from their remoteness cannot, if we may use the expression, ~vithout difficulty obtain specimens of this portion of the human race to complete their collections, have long esteemed the American Indian as one of their most curious subjects of investigation. Just as we remember some years ago to have seen among the curiosities of an European museum an article, which would have excited but little interest in an American, though it is in itself not among the least curious productions of naIure,~we mean, that common plant of our continent, the indian corn. But as the Indian nations are now fast vanishing, and consequently the individuals of them come less frequently under our observa- tion, we, also, as well as our European brethren, are begin- nitig to take a more lively interest than ever, in the study of their character and history. The immediate impulse has been given at the present time by the important and interesting publications of Mr. Dupon- ceau and Mr. Heckewelder, of which we gave an account in 104 liv. Jarvis Di~coursc. [July, a former volume.* On that occasion we exprc~sctl very fully OUP opinion of the great value of those works, which we had no doubt would be received by the learned of Europe, par- ticularly the Germans, with the utmost avidity; and we are happy to find by one of our own valuable periodical publica- lions, devoted to the literature of Germany, that the high opinion we had formed of those works is confirmed by the judgment of distinguished literary journals in that country4 While, however, we remark that the immediate impulse has been given to the study of Indian affairs, by the invaluable works abovementioned we are not unmindful of what is due to our own Massachusetts Historical Society, which has for many years past been steadily, though unostentatiously, ren~. dering essential services to this, as well as other parts of the history of America; services, which deserve the greater praise, as the society began its labours at a time ~vhen there was so little zeal in literary pursuits of any kind, and so few induce- ments either of profit or fame to engage in them. This society may justly boast of having, taken the lead in the study of American history, and under the inauspicious circumstances which we have just mentioned; and it ~vas in emulation of the honourable example of the Massachusetts Society, though without aiming to be rivals of it, as our brethren of New York have respectfully assured the public, that the founda- tion was laid, fifteen years ago, for the society, to whom the discourse now before us was addressed.t The author of this discourse is the learned and respectable clergyman, who has been invited to take charge of the Epis- copal society in Boston, for whose use the new stone chLrch is now building; and, though ~ve judge of him from the present publication alone, and without any personal acquaintance North American Review, vol. ix. pp. 155 and 179. ~ See the German Correspondent of May 23, published in English at New York, under the superintendance of the Rev. Mr. Schxfl~r, whose learning and talents are well known, and to whom we have already alluded as the editor of the Deulseker Freund. The number of this journal, we have here referred to, contains notices of many American publications, with extracts from different reviews of Mr. Duponceau and Mr. Hecke- welders works, published in the Leipsic monthly journal,entitled ~Amerika (largestelit durcli aiClz selbet, (or, America represented by itselt,) and the .~l1egemeine Literatur Zeitung~ (or, General Literary Intelligencer.) We Qbserve also that a German translation of Mr. Heckewelders book by Prof. Schultz, of Gbttingen, is already announced. * Address of the New York Historical Society to the public, 1805. 1820.] Dr. Jarvis Discourse. 105 with him, we feel no small degree of satisfaction in being able to congratulate our friends in the metropolis upon the acqui- sition of a divine, whose general learning promises to reflect honour upon our country, and to cooperate with his profes- sional knowtedge in promoting just views of the sacred volume ~vhich he is ordained to interpret. rrhe subject of Dr. Jarvis Discourse, as already appears from the title above quoted, is the Religion of the indian tribes; but as the investigation of this is intimately connected with the origin of those tribes, the author is naturally led to consider the opinions of several writers on that j)oint also, aud to examine briefly the proofs of the affinity of the Indians to the nther inhabitants of the globe. He accordingly con- siders the religion, the manners and customs, and the langua- ges of the Indians, as compared with those of the Eastermi continent; and as the languages of different people afford the most satisfactory means of tracing their common origin, Dr. J~rvis has, ~vith a diligence and zeal worthy of the greatest praise, ilevoted a considerable portion of his notes to the subject of the Indian languages. We shall bricfly con- sider each part of his ~vork by itself. After noticing the great difficulties attending an inquiry into the religion of the Indians, on account of their extreme reserve on that subject, Dr. Jarvis refutes the unfounded opinion of Volney and many other ~vriters, who have assert- ed, that the Indians have no religion ; and in his notes the author particularly cites Hearne and Colden, the former of whom says in the most decided terms: Religion has not yet begun to dawn among the Northern Indians; I never lound any of them that had the least idea of futurity. Colden speaks with more hesitation; ohserving, that they have no kind of public worship, and 1 am told they have no radical word to express God, but a compound ~vord, signifying the Preserver, Sustainer, or Master of the universe; neither could I ever learn what sentiments they have of a future existence. If Ilearne had heen giving an opinion upon any point that ~vas directly to affect the interests of the Hudsons Bay Com- pany, .(for ~d~om, if we rightly remember, he undertook his travels,) such a palpably unfounded statement might, perhaps, be traced to some other cause than simple ignorance of facts; for, unless we are misinformed, much of the colouring, if not .JVew & ries, No. 3. 14 ioG Dr. Jarvzs Thscourse. [July, the design, of his publication was, at the time, attributed to a desire of promoting the interests of that company, rather than to the liberal and disinterested intention of adding to our stock of knowledge. Colden, undoubtedly, makes his state- merit U.)Ofl the best information he could then. obtain from odier persons; but he was evidently misinformed; and Dr. Jarvis very properly opposes to the opinions of these writers, the testimony of Charlevoix, Adair, Mackenzie, and Hecke- welder, the latter of whom, by an acquaintance with the Indians as their missionary for forty years and a thor~igh kno~vledge of that ~vide spread dialect, the Delaware Ian.. guage, is probably better qualified to give an opinion on this point than aiiy man ~vlso has ever written upon the subject. This truly venerable missionary says of them. Habitual de- votion to the Great First Cause and a strong feeling of grati- tude for the benefits which lie confers, is one of the prominent traits which characterize the mind of the untutored Indian. . He believes it to be his duty to adore and worship his Creator and Benefactor, & c. Historical ./Iccount, p. 84. To the testimony here adduced by Dr. Jarvis, might have been added, it he had thought it worth while to swell the list of authorities, several of our New England historians, from the first settlement of the country. Gookin (in 1674) says-. Some, for their God, adore the sun ; others, the moon; some, the earth; others, the fire, and like vanities. Yet, generally, they acknowledge one great supreme doer of good; and him they call Woonand or Mannitt; another, that is, the great doer of evil or mischief; and him they call Mattand, which is the devil, & c.* Roger Williams says lie that questions whether God made the world, the Indians will teach him. I must acknowledge, 1 have received in my converse with them many confirmations of those two great points, Heb. xi. 6. viz. 1. That God is. 2. Tlsathe is arewarderof all them that diligently seek him..... If they receive any good in hunting, fishing, harvest, & c. they acknowledge God in it.t To these old accounts we will Mass. Hist. Collections, vol. i. p. 154. ~ Williams Key into the Language of America (chap. xxi.) published at London in 1643, and republished in Mass. Histor. Collect. vols. 3 and 5. \Villiams also, in speaking of theiv opinions of a future state, observes that at the south-west, as they say, is the Court of their great Cod Cautantowit; at the south.west ~re their forefathers soules ; to the south- west they goe themselves when they dye. Preface to his Key. Among the many curious old books, relative to our country, the follow- 1820.] Dr. Jarois Discourse. only add one of modern date, respecting the Indians on Long Island, in the very state where Colden wrote, which we have taken from a statement of the Rev. Sampson Occum, an Indian convert, whose preaching is still remembered by persons now living. The account was written iii the year 1761, and is to be found in the Massachusetts Historical Collections, vol. x. p. 108. They imagined, says the au- thor, a great number of gods.......But they had a notion of one great and good God, that was over all the rest of the gods, which they called Cauhiuntoowut, which signifies one that is possessed with supreme power. And as to their notions of a future state, in addition to the intimation above from Roger Williams, the writer last cited, who kept a school and also preache(l to them for some years, expressly says, that they believed the existence of their souls after their bodies were dead. Their souls go to the westward a great way off, where the righteous, or those that behaved themselves well in thi~ world, will exercise themselves in pleasurable singing and dancing forever, in the presence of their Sawwonnuntoh or their western god, from whom they have received Iheir beans and corn, their pumpkins, squashes, and all such things. They suppose the wicked go to the same place or country with the righteous; but they are to be exercised in some hard servile labour, or some perplexing exercise, such as fetching water in a riddle, or making a canoe with a round stone, & c. These were common notions with all Long island Indians. But, ~vithout multiplying quotations, we may ask, if the Indians in general have not some settled opinions oC a Supreme Being, how has it happened that in all the confer- ences or talks of the ~vhite people with them, they have constantly spoken of the Great Spirit, as they denominate the ruler of the universe? ing deserves to be remembered. Phcenomena qundam apocalyptica ad aspectum Novi Orbis configurata; or some few lines towards a description of the New Heaven, as it makes to those ~vho btand upon the New Earth. By Samuel Sewall, A. M. and sometime Fellow of Harvard College at C~m- bridge, in Ne~v England. The second edition. l3oston, printed by Bart. Green, 1727, in quarto, pp. 64. To which is annexed a Sermon hy Samuel Willard, (originally published in 1700,) Teacher of a Church in Boston, and Vice President of Harvard College. The writer of the Pho2- nosnena seems inclined to the hypothesis that the Indians are descendants of the Israebtes; and he adopts, after the learned Mr. Nicholas Fuller, the name of Columbina (not Columbia) for the name of this continent. lOS 1k. Jar~vis Discourse. [July, Dr. Jarvis next takes notice of an old hypothesis, which formerly was a favourite one ~vith European ~riters, and which, as our author observes, has been revived and brought before the public by a venerable member of this society, [Dr. lioudinot] ~hose exalted character renders every opinion he may defend a subject of respectful attenti~m ; that is, that the Indians are the descendants of the ten tribes of Israel. In a note on this part of the discourse, the author gives a very brief account of some of the writers who have embraced this hypothesis, and whose opinions are collected in Charlevoixs work; and he inf~rms us, also, that the excellent dissertation of Professor Vater, which contains a review of all the opinions on this subject, and is undoubtedly the best work extant, is now translating by Mr. Duponcean. Dr. Jarvis himself, without considering all the arguments of these writers at large, proceeds directly to one which, as he observes, after Charle- voix, affords the most unequivocal means of tracing their origin ; that is, the languages of the Indians; and this test, as he remarks, will be found very fatal to the theory in question. Besides, as Dr. Jarvis very justly remarks, the thiee primitive languages of the North American Indians, according to Mr. Ileckewelder, are the Iroquois, the Lenap~ or Delaware, and the Floridian; and these three are so distinct as to have no perceivable affinity. Now all these, continues our author, cannot be derived from the Hehre~v; for it~s a contradiction in terms to speak of three languages radically different, as derived from a common source. Which then, we may well ask, is to be selected as the posterity of the Israelites; the Iroquois, the Lenap~, or the Southern Indians. pp. 12, 13. The same difficulties pressed them- selves upon our New England ancestors at a period when we could boast of at least as many good Hebrew scholars, in prol)ortion to our population, as we can at this day, and when the Indian dialects of this part of the continent were much more familiarly known to our scholars than they now are. Roger Williams says, Others and myselfe have con- Ceive(l some of their words 1o hold affinity with the Hebrew~ but afterwar(ls he adds, Yet againe I have found a greater affinity of their language with the Greek tongue. Preface to his Key. Hubbard says, though probably speaking more upon the authority of others than from his own examination, Doubtless theire conjecture, who fansy them [the Indians] to 1820.] Dr. .farvis Discourse. 109 he descended from the ten tribes of the Israelites carried captive by Salmaneser and Esaihaddon, bath the least shew of reason of any other, there being nue footsteps to bee observed of their propinquity to them mote titan to any other tribes of the earth, either as to their language or manners. General History of .TVew England, ch. 6. Dr. Jarvis, in his Notes, pursues this inquiry into the affini- ty of the Indian and Hebrew languages at sonic length. In the course of his notes upon this subject, we are glad to see that he considers the points as a part of the hebrew language, instead of an unwarrantable addition to it. it is time that this language should be studied like all others, that is, as we find it, and not as we woul(l titake it, by stripping its fabric of every appendage which the whims of one student or the indolence of another shall dictate. Dr. Jarvis institutes a comparison between the Hebrew and Irt(hian numerals, the separable and inseparable pronouns, the fbrms of nouns with the pronouns affixed and suffixed to them, and the conjugation of a verb, to love, through all our modes an(l tenses. We will here stop to make a remark suggested by Mr. Heck- ewelders publication, on the numerals, which are so often made the subject of comparison by travellers and authors; that is, that the numerals differ very much in languages de- iived from the same stock. From this fact it is obvious, that we should not hastily draw inferences from these alorte, respecting the similarity or dissimilarity of the indian dia- lects, but should extend our comparison to other classes of words. At p. 82, Dr. Jarvis subjoins a specimen of the Chero- kee language, which belongs to the Floridian family or class, and is essentially different from the other classes of primi- tive Indian languages. This was communicated to Dr. Jar- vis, it appears, by Mr. Duponceau, in the original man- uscript of the Rev. Mr. Buthrick, who has for two or three years past been a missionary among the Cherokees. The specimen here given of their language comprises the con ju~ gation of a verb, Ise ne yu U, to take, through our common (livisiort of tenses, an active, passive, and middle voice, and a singular, dual, and plural number. We should have been glad to have been more particularly informed here, whether what is called a dual number by Mr. Buthrick is, strictly speaking, like, the dual of the ancient languages confined to 110 1k. Jarvis Discourse. [July, two persons or things, or whether it is what the German mis- sionaries, the Rev. Mr. Dencke among the Chippeways, and the Rev. Mr Heckewelder, denominate the particular plural, that is, a limited plural, embracing an intermediate but not definite number between one individual and all of any class of objects, which the Indians use when they speak of a fami- ly or any association or company of persons, in contradis- tinction to men in general. We are strongly inclined to think, as Mr. Duponcean does in the case of the languages of the Greenlanders, that what is called the dual in the (her- okee will be found t(~ be a limited plural of this kind~ If, however, this number is, strictly speaking, a dual and not, a limited plural, or middle number, as it might perhaps be de~ nominated, the Cherokee differs from other Indian dialects in one of the most striking peculiarities of that class of lan- guages. In going through this specimen of the Cherokee, and in- deed the other Indian specimens in this work, we have had constant occasion to lament the ~vant of a systematic orthog- raphy for all these languages; which would much facilitate the study of any one of them, and would be of still more use in giving us the means of easily comparing the different dialects with each other. In the present instance the marks of long and short quantity, and the accents, are employed to denote modifications of the vowels, but we ohserve no mark to indicate the accented syllables of the words, nor any key to the pronunciation. Thinking it probable, however, that the Rev. Mr. Buthrick, from whose manuscript this speci- men of Cherokee was taken, had been accustomed to the sys- tem adopted in the key to Perrys Dictionary, we turned to that work, and upon comparing it with the table in the Cher- okee Spelling Book, published by Mr. Buthrick and his asso- ciate, Mr. Brown, we found that our conjecture ~vas right.* Tsvlvki Sqclv Ch~ that is, Tselokee, or as we write the name, Chero- kee Spelling Book, written by D. S. Buthrick and I). Brown. Printed at Knoxville, 1819. The title of this book, if we rightly comprehend the authors system of orthography, which, however, we are not quite sure of, is to be pronounced Tsuls-luh-kee Sqsia-luli-alnli; the latter part being composed sqclv, spelling, and clv, a boak. This use of the consonant c to denote the vowel a in hate, seems to us peculiarly objectionable in the orthography adopted in this spelling book as does also the plan of turn- ing some of the letters upside down; for example, n denotes a in part; o, the sound of e in met, & c. But the orthography will undoubted be im- proved as these languages become more and more the subject of atten- lion with philologists. Mr. Butlirick and his associate deserve much 1820.] Dr. Jarvis Discourse. Ill For the convenience, therefore, of such readers as may wish to examine this specimen of Cherokee, we will just remark, that the a sounds as in hate, ~ as in hail, 6 as in mete, i as in pine, i as in pin, 6 as in pro~ve, ii as in duck. The necessity of some improvement in the mode of writ- ing these languages, may be seen in the following coinpara- tive specimen of Cherokee words. From Prof. Yater. From Mr. Busthrick. Waterom malt, awwa, uMv (amiih.) ammab. Fatherchatokta (your.) e ste ta tu (istitawtuh.) aketohta (my.) c ta tu (etawtu.) Earcheelane. kv Lc iii (kuhl6ni.) After giving an example of the mode of conjugating verbs in the Cherokee language, and also in the Delaware, without, however, attempting to exhibit a full vie~v of the exuberant richness of their grammatical construction, Dr. Jarvis comes to this conclusion, It will immediately he seen, that a lan- guage 50 remarkably rich in grammatical forms, as to sur- pass even the Greek, differs lob coelo from the Hebrew, one of the simplest of all languages. p. 87. This extraordinary pro- fusion of grammatical forms in the languages of the Indians, is indeed a most curious and interesting subject of investigation with philologists. Nor is it less a subject of surprise with those persons, who have been accustomed to consider the Indian lan- guages as so pOOL and barren that they do but just answer the most necessary purposes of life, to be informed of the great num- ber of words which they use to express the same action when applied to different objects. In the Cherokee language, for ex- aInl)le, as we learn by a communication from Mr. Buthrick, for which we are in(lebted to an obliging friend, thirteen different verbs are used to express the action of washing, as follo~vs: Cii tii w6, I am washing myself, as in a river. Cii 16 st l~, my head. T~6 stii l~, another persons head. Cii cii squ~i, my face. T~6 cii squ6, an~Ahers face. rila ca SLL Ia, my hands. praise for having accomplished as much as they have, dLring~ their short residence with th2s tribc; whose ~angu~ge too is said to be much more dif- ficult than either the Creek or the Chactaw. 112 Dr. Jarvis J)iscourse. [July, Ta co su hi, Tats~yasiihi, Ta cling k~ Ja, T~ ts~ yiirig k~ hi Tacu t~ ya, Ts~ yii wa, Cow~ la, I am washing anothers hands. my fret. anothers feet. my clothes. anothers clothes. dishes, & c. a child. meat. This difference of words, adds Mr. Buthrick, prevents the necessity of mentioning the object washed. So also with the verbs love, take, have, leave, die, weigh, & c. Upon read- ing this part of Mr. Buthricks communication we had thu curiosity to look into father Ralles MS. Dictionary of the iNorridgwock, or Abenaki, language, which we mentioned in our review of the Correspondence of Mr. Duponcean and Mr. Heckewelder ;~ and under the French verb layer, to wash, we found the following various examples; in which, it is to be observed, the Indian words are to be I)ronotlnced as a Frenchman would sound them: Nekeseb~hadoun Je le lave, I ~vash him or it. Nekeses~ghenemen, [skins, I men, & c. vel Nekesestaghenemen, Je lave dii peau, linge, & c. I wash Nekeses~ghenan v. g. une chemise, I wash [a shirt. Nekesigona, I wash my face. Nekesesigouenan, I wash his face. IN ekesiretsa, I wash my hands. Nekesiretsenan I wash his hands. Nekesebahad6unar, I wash my feet. Nekesesesitenan, I wash his feet. Arter such evidence of the copiousness of these languages, what shall we say to the theories of ingenious men, who have represented them as destitute of almost all the powers of the cultivated languages? In the instance from Mr. Buthricks communication, we see there are no less than thirteen words to denote the same action when applied to different objects. Now in our own, or in the French language, which last we cite as the most familiar of the foreign languages to readers in genural, what instance can be produced that can be corn- Je (me) lave le visage, ~lui, les mains, ~ilui, les pies, Mui, Vol. ix. p. 184. 1320.] Dr. Jarvis Discourse. is pared with this? In some cases, it is true, we have terms somewhat resembling these Indian verbs; as for example, the verb to eat implies taking food that is solid, and the verb to drink, that which is liquid; to walk signifies to go on foot, and to ride is to go on horseback, as the English generally use it, or, to go either on horseback or in a carriage, accord- ing to the use of the word in this country. For either of thcse words we may, in our 1an~ua~ employ a more ~ ~e, general te~rii as the verb, and then subjoin the noun which shall desi~,nate the kind of food we take or the umuner of going from one place to another. But the Indians express modifi- cations or circumstances attending the action spoken of, by single verbs and to a vastly greater extent than we can do. For exaniJ)le, to take an instance from father Ralles Dic- tionaiy again~ the word nepangoudfr ddmen signifies, I eat only meat; nebarrgoui0 nougou6, I eat only the fat; neban gaudttegou4 1 eat only acorns, or mast, & c. Again, I walk in the water is expressed by the word nepeinansough~ I walk in a bad road, nesaagouss~ I walk or go upon my knees, nedatsitegouak ess~ I go on all fouis, nepernigonsi; I walk in the rain, nekegIreranrouss~, & c. We have dwelt the longer upon this part of Dr. Jarvis subject, from a desire to draw the attention of our philolo- gists to the curious structure of these languages; being strongly inclined to believe with Mr. Dnponc~au, that we have yet much to learn upon the subject of universal or philosoph~ ical grammar. Will it be asked of what use is it to exam~ me the structure of languages in which there is no literature to compensate us for our labour? If, indeed, our only mo- tive in the study of languages were to repay ourselves by time stores of learning locked up in them, we should be but l)oorly rewarded for the labour of investigating the Indian dialects; but if ~ve wish to study human speech as a science, just as we do other sciences, by ascertaining all time facts or l)henomnena, and then proceeding to generalize and class those facts for the purpose of advancing human knowledge; in short, if what is called philosophical grammar is of any use whatever, then it is indispensable to the philologist of com- prehensive views, to possess a knowledge of as many facts or phenomena of language as possible; amid tlmese neglected (ha- lects of our own continent certainly (10 offer to time philosoph- ical inquirer some of the most curious and interesting facts of any languages Witl~ which we are acquainted. ~New Series, No. ~. 15 ~14 Trial of Goodwin. [July, ART. VIII.Trial of Robert .At Goodwin, on an indictment of manslaughter, for killing James Stoughtois, Esq. in Broad- way, in the city of .New York, ~c. Taken in short hand by William ~ampsou, Counsellor at Law. New York, pp. 195. 1820. IN that part of criminal law, which may be denominated the penal code, the legislation of this country seems to have reached as near pertection. as the infirmities of human nature and human institutions will allow. The punislimetit of crimes is at least quite as mild as is consistent with the object of all punishment, and is graduated by a scale as accurate as the na- ture of the subject will admit. Butthat l)amt of this law which relates to the definition of time offence, the process, time trial, time rules of evidence, and every thing v~ hich i)retedes the infliction of punishment, may l)erhaps still be considered as requiring the interference of a prudent reformer to si~npli1~ its details, to settle its principles and reduce them to a text, amid purify it from many deformities, the gr~vth of a barbarous age. Fortunately for mis, the comparatively pure source, from which we have drawn our legal institutions, has transmitted to us none of those glaring abuses in the adnministratiomm of penal law, which the eloquent pens of Beccaria and Voltaire expos- ed to the public eye during the last century, and too many of which have never ~et been abolished, or have recently been revived on the European continent. That hateful sys- temn of torture, of secret trial, anmi of self cri!nination, which rendered even the mind of a Pothier incapable of fulfilling the duties of a criminal judge, in the most enlightened age of French jurisprudence, ~vhen it ~vas adorned by this accom- plished lawyem, and by a DAguesseau and a Montesquieu, has ever been unkno~vn to us and our ancestors. But it does not therefore follow, that this branch of the administration of justice is yet brought to that degree of perfection of which it is susceptible, in reSl)e(t to the precision of its rules and the certainty of their application. It is evident that the crime of homicide mnay involve various degrees of guilt. to which it would be un~vise and unjust to apply the same term of reprobation and the same measure of punishment. From the slightest degree of culpable negligence, by which a himman being is deprived of that existence which is the gift of his Creator, to the atrocious guilt of the assassin

~14 Trial of Goodwin. [July, ART. VIII.Trial of Robert .At Goodwin, on an indictment of manslaughter, for killing James Stoughtois, Esq. in Broad- way, in the city of .New York, ~c. Taken in short hand by William ~ampsou, Counsellor at Law. New York, pp. 195. 1820. IN that part of criminal law, which may be denominated the penal code, the legislation of this country seems to have reached as near pertection. as the infirmities of human nature and human institutions will allow. The punislimetit of crimes is at least quite as mild as is consistent with the object of all punishment, and is graduated by a scale as accurate as the na- ture of the subject will admit. Butthat l)amt of this law which relates to the definition of time offence, the process, time trial, time rules of evidence, and every thing v~ hich i)retedes the infliction of punishment, may l)erhaps still be considered as requiring the interference of a prudent reformer to si~npli1~ its details, to settle its principles and reduce them to a text, amid purify it from many deformities, the gr~vth of a barbarous age. Fortunately for mis, the comparatively pure source, from which we have drawn our legal institutions, has transmitted to us none of those glaring abuses in the adnministratiomm of penal law, which the eloquent pens of Beccaria and Voltaire expos- ed to the public eye during the last century, and too many of which have never ~et been abolished, or have recently been revived on the European continent. That hateful sys- temn of torture, of secret trial, anmi of self cri!nination, which rendered even the mind of a Pothier incapable of fulfilling the duties of a criminal judge, in the most enlightened age of French jurisprudence, ~vhen it ~vas adorned by this accom- plished lawyem, and by a DAguesseau and a Montesquieu, has ever been unkno~vn to us and our ancestors. But it does not therefore follow, that this branch of the administration of justice is yet brought to that degree of perfection of which it is susceptible, in reSl)e(t to the precision of its rules and the certainty of their application. It is evident that the crime of homicide mnay involve various degrees of guilt. to which it would be un~vise and unjust to apply the same term of reprobation and the same measure of punishment. From the slightest degree of culpable negligence, by which a himman being is deprived of that existence which is the gift of his Creator, to the atrocious guilt of the assassin 18~O.] Trial of Goodwin. ,~15 and the poisoner, there are various shades of criminality, which require the application of different co~Asiderations in the judgment that in~ty be formed (if them by human tribu- nals. Iii all of them however it ~vould seem, such is the in- firmity of human judgment, that it must necessarily enter into the very idea and definition of the crime that the corpus delicti should not be wanting; that death should ensue the act by which it was intended to be consummated. Yet by the civil law it was the intent and not the event which constituted the essence of the crime. Thus by the tornelian law de Sicariis, made by Sylla himself the greatest of mur- derers, in order to restrain the excesses produced by the bloody scenes of the civil ~vars in which he was the chief actor, Si quis hominem occiderit,aut hominis occidendi vel furti curn telo ambulaverit, au.t qui hominis necandi causa venenum con~ecerit,in all these cases the offender was punished capitally. This extreme severity was probably necessary to strike terror into the aimed bands of robbers and assassins, who prowled over Italy in those ferocious times; but it was subsequently applied so as to confound all distinction bet~veen the intent to commit homicide and the actual consummation of the crime. Nihil enim interest an quis hominem occident, an ejus vit~ attentaverit quamvis non occidat. So also by the old French law, if a person struck or wounded another, with intent to kill, the offender was punished capitally, in the same manimer as if death had ensued. Doinat, Loix Giviles, torn. ii. p. 209. Denizart, torn. i. p. 585. The Roman law determined the criminality of an action by the intent and not the event, in those offences only, which were emphatically called malejicia; such as treason, assassi- nation, parricide, poisoning, & c. In these cases, where the intent was clearly manifested by some overt art, it drew after it all the consequences of a capital crime, although not con- summated by the death of the person against whom it ~vas directed. Maleficiis voluntas spectatur, non exitus. But in all other cases it adopted the safer rule of determining conjointly by the motive and the event of the action. Byn- kershoek, Obser-v. Jar. Porn. iii. 10. This rule of the civil la~v was once attempted to be applied in the tribunals of our own country, to supply a defect in their jurisdiction. By the act of Congress of 1790, for the punish- Trial of Goodwiiz. [July, ment of ccrtain crimes against the United States, cognizance was given to certain cor.rts of murder, & c. committed on the high seas, and in foreign ports arid harho~rs. In the case of Mr. Gill, which will be found reported in Dallas 4th ~volume of Reports, p. 4~6, the mortal blow was given in a foreign port on the water, and the person on whom it was inflicted died on shore. Of course, according to the common law definition of the crime, it was not consummated within the limits of the jurisdiction given to the court by the act of Congress. But as this jurisdiction was conferred as a part of the admiralty jurisdiction granted to the federal govern- ment by the constitution, and as the proceedings of the admi- ralty are, in general, regulated by the Civil or Roman law, in the absence of any starutory pr~ovision to the contrary, it was insisted by the counsel for the prosecution, that the offence ~vas consummated, according to that law, within the limits of the jurisdiction of the court, as prescrihed by the act of Congress. But this position was overruled by Judge Washington, who held that ~ve could not escape from the silence of our own code by invoking that of the Civil law and we were to look to the common law for the definition of the crime of murder, when made punishable, eo nomine, in an act of the legislature not but that Congress had competent authority to pros ide for such a case; because havieg P~~~ to define and punish felonies committed on the high seas, they might declare that a mortal stroke given on the seas, of which the party died else~i here. should be a capital felony. But that they had not in fact made provision for such a case. It is stated in Mr. Christians Notes to Blackstones Com- mentaries, that the distinction of manslaughter from murder is not recognized by the Civil law. In the Civil law and the law of Scotland, the distinction doth not exist; an(l per- sons tried at the Admiralty Sessions, where the judges pro- ceed according to the rules of the Civil law, must either be convicted of murder, or acquitted. As to the law of Scotland, it is true that by a modern statute, the distinction is taken away. But it is equally true that by the old law of Scotland, which is principally derived from the Civil law, it was clearly laid (lown. The distinction, says Erskine. which obtained in our ancient law, between slaughter premeditated, or upon foreihaught friony, and that which was committed on a sud- denty, or chaud india, indulging to the last the privilege of 1820.1 Trial of Goodwin. 117 girth and sanctuary, was taken off by 1661, c. 2, (copied often 1649, c. 19,) which supposes homicide to be a capital crime without any such distinction. Erskiites Institutes of the Law of Scotland, lib. 4. t. iv. s. 19. Arid as to the practice of the Admiralty, Sir Leoline Jenkins, in his char,ge to the jury at the Admiralty Sessions at the Old Bailey, in 1668, lays down the law of homicide with the usual distinctions of murder and manslaughter, not even intimating that there was any differ- ence in this respect between the common law of England and the Civil law, as administered in the Court of Admiralty. Sir L. Jenktns Works, vol. i. p. xciii. The only express text of the Pandects on this subject: Leniendam pcrnarn ejus qui in rixti causa magis quain votunt ate hoinicidiurn admnisit. Dig. tib. 48, t. viii. s. 1. Dr. Brown understands as indicating a distinction similar to that known to our law, Browns civ. and ~1dm. Law, vol. i. p. 42~. But this may posssibiy be supposed to exclude the idea of an intention to kill, since the case put by Marianus is not of the use of a deadly weapon, but of an ordinary implement, davis (tnt cucuma; and Huberus informs us that in the practice of his country, which professed to be founded upon the Roman law, homicide com- mitted in a sudden affray, with a deadly weapon, was pun- ished capitally in the same manner with premeditated murder. And he says that those who contended for a contrary inter- pretation were compelled to resort to a new reading different from that of the Florentine MS. substituting for the words Sed si clavi percussit aut cucuma in rixa, quamvis ferro percusserit, leniendam p~nam ejus, & c. these, Sed si clavi percusserit aut cucuma, autferro in rixa, quamvis percusserit: thus extending the mitigation of the offence, when committed in a sudden affray. to cases where it was committed ~vith a deadly weapon. But Huberus remarks upon this bold attempt: Sed maneat laus ingenii, salva ratione et auctoritate juris : qri~ hoc loco plane dictat, ~ ~xb~itov ~~ev.v, nihil esse cans~ tur- bandi limpidam. Huber us, Prcdaeci ones, torn. iii. pp. 1 ~s3, 1534. The old French law, which it is well known was built mainly upon the Roman law in criminal matters, (and in the pays du droit i~crit, entirely, as to civil cases also,) mitigat- ed the offence of homicide, wherever it was co~~mitted under those circumstances in which our law wculd consider it as manslaughter, if it was attended with these favourable cir 118 Trial of Goodwin. [July, cumstances, viz, if he who killed was first attacked; if he did not use deadly weapons; and if he did not strike, or at- tempt to strike at those parts of the body ~ here wounds are mortal. Dornat, Loix Civiles, torn. ii. p. 209. And the new penal code of France, al;hougli it does not in terms speak of any intermediate shade of offence between murder, whhh it defines to be homicide voluntarily commit ed, and justifia- ble or excusable homicide ; merely designating the more odious species of murder by the terms (1ssa~s~nat, parricide, ir~fanticide, empoisonnement, & c. yet as it punishes only these last with death, and every oilier case of voluntary homicide, with i;nprisonnicnt. and hard labour for life, except lorsquil aura pi& ~d~. accompagne ou silivi Un antre (rime ou ddit. Un(ler wlich circumstances it is capital; this code may be considered as substantially analogous to our own law, an(l to what may be considered as the concurrent voice otreasoii ar4 the common consent of nations in almost every ~ which have thought some allowance was due to the infirmity of human passions in this respect. Gode Penal, 1. 3, 1. ii c. 1, s. 1. Quant an meurtre d~iau~ de toute esp& e de circonstances aggravantes, il sera pUni de la peine qui suit immediatement celle de mort, cest-a-(lire de la peine des travaux forces ii perpetuite. D~s que cc crime nest point Ic r~sultat dun dessein form~ avant laction, d~s quil ne pr~sente aucun des caract~res dont nous avons parl~, ii est sans contredit moms grave que lassassinat, et d~s lors ne doit pas emporter Ia m~me peine; autrement cette juste proportion quon ne sau- rait observer avec trop de soin entre les d~lits et les p~ines, et cette gradation qui en est Ia suite n~cessaire, tie subsister- aient pas. Expos~ des Motjfs dn Code Penal. In other respects, the civil law contains similar provisions with our own as to excusable and justifiable homicide. Thus it is excusable by both codes when committed in self defence; but under what circumstances depends upon a vast variety of considerations. The casuist~, among the Jesuits, relaxed this principle so far as to excuse, or rather to justify, homicide committed in defence of ones honour, or good name, or of the minutest article of property, or against the most trifling personal injny. Their abominable maxims are exposed with admirable ~ability by Pascal in his Leltres Provinciales, the fourteenth number of which DAguesscau compares for 1820.] Trial of Goodwin. 119 eloquence with tho Phillipics of Dernosthenes and Cicero.* Ecoutons done le langage de votre Ecole, et deniandons ~os Auteurs: Quand on nous donne Un souffiet, duit-on 1endurer plutot que de tuer celui qui le veut doiiner; ou bien, est-il permis de titer pour & iter cet affront? II est permis, disent Les~i us, Molitia, Escobar, Reginald us, Filiuti us, J3a1- dellus, et auties J~suites, de luer celni qui nous veut donner un soi~fJiet. Est ce-la Ic langage de Jesus-Christ? Repon- dez nws encore. Seroit-on saits honneur en sonifrant tin soufilet, sat as tuer ccliii qul Ia donrie ? Nest ii pa~ veritable, dit Escobar, qae landis, quun homme laisse vivre ceiui qui Lui a donn~ un soi~ffiet, ii demeure sans honneur? Oui, rues peres, sans cet Itonneur pie Ic diable a transmit de~ son esprit superbe en ccliii de ses supt ebes enfants. Cest cet honneur qui a tou~ jours ete lidole des hommes possedes par Pesprit du monde. Cest pour se conserver cette gloire, dont le demon est le veritable distributeur, quils mi sacrifient leur vie par Ia fureur des duels ~ laquelle us sabandonnent, leur honneur, par lignorni~ie des supplices auxquels us sexposent, et leur saint, etc. Letires Prcrvinciales, JVo. 14. But ~ve must advert ti) the work before us. It contains a most laborious, faithful, and instructive account of a very interesting criminal case. it i~ not a mere popular narrative intended to gratify the vulgar lose of the nar~ellous arid the horrid; hut is such a report of a celebrated cause as will satisfy pr~atessuouia1 readers, whilst it gratifies the natural curiosity of the public respecting such transactions. All the procedure is niirmutely detailed, and we are informed that the speeches of the counsel are taken down with verbal accu- racy, which indeed we might presume would he the fact, from time known reputation of Mr. Sampson as a short-hand waiter and his experience ira criminal law. It appears to us that this species of literary labour is rather undervalued. We do not mean that the exertions of the learned reporters, who record the debates and (lecisiolls on matters of law in the supreme courts of justice, are not adequately appreciated, but that too low an estimate is al)t to be formed of the quali- fications necessary to give a faithful narrative of the more * La quatorzieme Lettre sur tout est un chef-d~uvre dEloquence qui peut le disputer ~ tout ce que lAntiquit~ a le plus admire, Ct je doute que les Phillipiques de D~mosth~ne et de Cic6ron offrcnt rico de plus fort et de plus parfait. Wuvres de D~guesseau, torn. i. p. 407% IQO Trial of Goodwin. [July, dramatic incidents which occur in an interesting trial before a jury. It requires considerable technical knowledge to ex- ecute this task with ability. Such works too are always useful, and often more instructive than general history; and sometimes rival the most ingenious fictions, in the interest and animation of their details. They illustrate the history and manners of the age more clearly than many works of greater pretention. The subjects of some of the best novels have been taken from the Causes ~el6bres; and who is there ever so little versed in Scotch law that does not read with lively interest the accounts of those state trials, from which the greatest novellist of the present day has worked up some of his finest narratives? In the present case, which was a trial for manslaughter in killing a counsellor at law in a public street of the city of iNew York, in December last, during an affray between him and the prisoner, which Originate(l in a quarrel between them, on account of some proceedings in a law suit commenced by the counsellor against the prisoner; some of the most impor- tant legal questions which can arise in a case of homicide were discussed by the court and bai, with great learning, elo- quence, and ability. The result was that the jury, not having agreed on a verdict, was discharged; and the question is now pending before the Supreme Court of New York, ~vhether the individual can be again put on his trial for the same offence. A preliminary point was first debated, whether the prisoner was entitled to be bailed or not; which was decided against the application by Mr. Colden, the Mayor of the city of New York, and afterwards determined favourbly by Mr. Chief Justice Spencer. The former application was made previous to the tm~ial, the latter after the jury had been dis- charged, and the case continued to another term of the court. As the opinions delivered by the two judges upon this occa- sion appear to us to afford a favourable specimen of judicial talents and learning, we take the liberty of making the fol- lowing extracts. It seems to be admitted, says the Mayoi, that where a per- son is charged with any felony above the degree of petit larceny, as to which there is a statutory provision, he cannot demand bail as a course, and that the court or magistrates, having the power, are to bail him or not at their discretion. 1820.] Trial of Goodwin. Legal discretion never means, either in criminal or civil law, arbitrary will. Legal discretion is always to be governed or directed by known and established rules, arid in truth cannot be otherwise applied than to decide whether facts bring the case within the operation of such rules. The well established rule of law applicable in this case is, that a person fully and explictly charged with a felony cannot be bailed, unless there he something presented in opposition to the clrarg~ which may raise a presumption in favour of his innocence; or at least it must appear indilThrent to the court or magistrate called on to bail him, whether he be guilty or not. it is unnecessary to recapitulate the authorities which have been cited to this etli~ct. it has been the law of England and of this country since the time of the statutes of Edward the First. No cane has been cited to the contrary. And I never knew of any practice of this court, or any other, that violated a rule, the strict observance of which appears to me to be absolutely neces- sary to a due arid impartial administration of law ; of that admin- istration which shall put the pool and the rich on an equal footing in a court ofjustice. This rule is not disputed by the counsel for tire prisoner: they contend, however, that the maxim of law that every man is to be presumed innocent till he he found guilty, applies to this case at this time. But it is obvious that this argument would lead us too farf~m if it would now apply, it would at all times reach every case. And if it is always to be adopted, then it would follow that in every case the accused must be let to bail. The truth is, that this just and benign princip!e is not applicable, except when time accused is on his trial : tir the ~UF~O5CS ot securing hi~ person to ans~ver to a (lirect and positive charge, made in due form, and to bring him to that trial, we are bound to treat huun as if he were guilty : at least we must do so until some matter be presented in his favour, which in the exercise of our discretion we shall judge a presumption of his innocence. In this case nothing of that nature is offered. The prisoner is not only committed on a charge of felony fully and explicitly ex- pres~ed jn the warrant of commitment, but he stands charged with a felony of manslaughter, by the indictment on the files of this court. It appears to me in vain to say that the public prosecutor is to produce frirther evidence of the guilt of the accused, than the com- mitment or indictment, since the law says that he must raise a presumption in favour ot his own innocence. It can only mean .M~w Series, No. 3. 16 Trial of Goodwin. ~July, that he must destroy the presumptions which must necessarily arise against him from these accusatory documents. In some instances indeed the magistrate or court may look into the testimony on which the accusation is founded; and if it af- fords the presumption in favour of the prisoners innocence, he may he bailed. A second ground however of this application is, thatthe trial of the prisoner on the indictment for manslaughter has beeui so long delayed that he is entitled to be bailed, if not discharged. Mr. Chief Justice Spencer says, Manslaughter is a felony, and it is punishable, on convictiow by imprisonment in the state prison for a term imot less than threc years, nor more than fourteen years. And it has been argued, that it being a felony thus punishable, it is a case in which the party accused ouott miot to be bailed, unless it be shown that there is a strong presumption of innocence. I am satisfied that the prisoner cannot demand it as a matter of right, to be admitted to bail, and that it is a question rcstin~ in the son nd legal discretion of the judge awarding the writ. Hawkins, b. d, ch. 15. 40 and 80, lays down the law to be, that if it stands indifferent whether a person charged with a felony is guilty 01 not, he ought to be bailed; aimil that even in capital cases, where there is any circumstance to induce the court to sup. pose he may be innocent, they will bail~and that the judges will in general exercise the power of bailing in favour of a prisoner in every case [lot capital, though they will not exercise it when the prisoner is notoriously guilty, by his own confession or otherwise~ without the existence of some special caases to induce it. There are several cases in which peinsons charged with man- slaughter have been bailed, where there has been no presumption of innocence. Thus in Rex v. Dalton, (2 Str. 911) the defendant was committed on a coroners inquest for manslaughter, an dwas brought before Lord Ray mond, chief justice, on habeas corpus, at his chambers. He held that if the depositions show that the of- fence was murder, he would not bail; but if it amounted only to manslaughter, he would bail; and he bailed the prisoner. So also in Rex v. .iiagrath, ~ Str. lQ4~, the defendant was committed for manslaughter, and it appearing to be no more, upon the deposi- tions taken before the coroner, the Court of Kings Bench admit- ted him to hail. In Lord .ilfohuus case, which was belore Lord lb It, at Chambers, (1 Salk. 104) he held, that if a roan be found guilty of murder by the coroner~s inquest, he is aometimes bailed, because the coroner proceeds upon depositions taken in writing, 1820.] Trial of Goodwin. 128 which may be looked into; otherwise, if a man be found guilty of murder by a grand jury, then the court cannot take notice of their evidence, which they are bound to conceal; and it appears by the cases before cited from Stran~e, that Lord Mohun was bailed first by Holt, and afterwards by the Lords, after an in. dictment for murder. In some later cases, bail has been refused when the olThnce was a felony, punishable with transportation; as in ~2d D. & B. 77, and sd East, 157, afl(l there is therefore no fi~~ed or certain rule in cases of felony, each particular case depending on its pe- culiar circumstances. The object and end of imprisonment be- fore trial and conviction, is to secure the forthcoming of a person charged with the commission of a crime; and it is never intended as any part of the punishment; for until the guilt of the party he legally ascertained, there is no ground for punishment, and it would be cruel and unjust to inflict it. The laws of every free government estimate Personal liberty as of the most sacred char- b acter, and it ought not to be violated or abridged before trial; but in cases where there are strong presumptions of guilt, and although the nature and kind of punishment which awaits those whose guilt is legally established, does not alter the turpitude of the offence, it must enter into the consideration of the question of bad, for if the punishment would be a pecuniary infliction, then bail in more than the amount of the probable fine, answers every purpose: if the punishment be death or corporal imprison- ment, a consciousness of guilt would probabl v induce to flight, and an evasion of the punishment; and in admrtting to bail, there- fore, regard must be had to the probable guilt of the party, and the nature of the punishment denounced. It appears to me, that from the facts before me, the conclusion is inevitable, that it is quite doubtful whether the prisoner is guilty; and I think it stands inditferent whether he is so or not. After a long and laborious trial, the jury have not been able to agree, and what proportion of them were for convicting, and what for acquitting, has not been shown. No inference can be drawn from the fact that the foreman pronounced a verdict which was dissented from by the third juror, that all the other jurors were for convicting the prisoner; and it may well be that a bare ma- jority of the jury agreed to the verdict as announced by the fore- man; and I perceive that all the jurors viewed the case as of a mitigated character, by their recommendation of the prisoner to mercy. I must presume that the jurors were impartial, and that their final disagreement proceeded from a conscientious difference in opinion as to the prisoners guilt; and I am therefore bound to conclude, that the prisoner may be innocent of the offence. In Life am? Writings of .Wadarne de Stael. PM [July, such a case, as I understand the law, he is entitled to be bailed, if he can give it iri an amount, and by persons of sufficient ability, alThrding a reasonable expectation, from the impending forfeiture of the recognizance, that he will appear and stand trial. We had intended to examine the legal doctrines discussed iii the course of the trial, because it appears to us that there is, in general, a prevailing tendency in this country to relat the wholesome principles of the law of homicide, and to give too much indulgence to the licentiousness of human passions. Our law, when soundly interpreted, is sufficiently mild in this respect. Nor was it the fault of the court, if it was not duly executed in the pi~esent instance ; for it seems to us that the principles of la~v laid down in the charge to the jury as applicable to manslaughter in general are perfectly correct, and such as the peace of society requires should be asserted and enforced in the administration of,justice. How far they ought to have contributed to the conviction of the prisoner in the present case we preten(l not to ,judge; but the legal doc- trines expounded by the court are the only doctrines on the subject which can be reconciled with the law of nature, or with what is, or ought to he, the municipal cO(le. We for- bear, ho~vever, for the present, from any further discussion of the subject. ART. IX.Atices sur le caract~re et les ~crits de .Miadame la Baroanc ac Slaci Holstein, par .Nladarne .N~~cker. Paris, Bvo. 1819. I~ is difficult to appreciate fairly an author or a hook that has been much praised. With most readers public opinion is omnipotent ; they are sure to admire xvluate~er book is in fashion, not only because it is troublesome to reflect and form an opinion for oneself, hut because the popularity of a work actually makes it of more valise, as it adds to its power of arresting their attention. A book, xvhicli every one is read- ing an(l ad miring, toe that very reason excites more hope and expectation, and is read with snore interest and pleasure, than one which wants this adventitious aid. Another class of readers ; they whose opinion is uttered less loudly, but is sure in the end to be heard inure (histinctly, and is spread ~ider and lives longer; they whom much learning has made

Life am? Writings of .Wadarne de Stael. PM [July, such a case, as I understand the law, he is entitled to be bailed, if he can give it iri an amount, and by persons of sufficient ability, alThrding a reasonable expectation, from the impending forfeiture of the recognizance, that he will appear and stand trial. We had intended to examine the legal doctrines discussed iii the course of the trial, because it appears to us that there is, in general, a prevailing tendency in this country to relat the wholesome principles of the law of homicide, and to give too much indulgence to the licentiousness of human passions. Our law, when soundly interpreted, is sufficiently mild in this respect. Nor was it the fault of the court, if it was not duly executed in the pi~esent instance ; for it seems to us that the principles of la~v laid down in the charge to the jury as applicable to manslaughter in general are perfectly correct, and such as the peace of society requires should be asserted and enforced in the administration of,justice. How far they ought to have contributed to the conviction of the prisoner in the present case we preten(l not to ,judge; but the legal doc- trines expounded by the court are the only doctrines on the subject which can be reconciled with the law of nature, or with what is, or ought to he, the municipal cO(le. We for- bear, ho~vever, for the present, from any further discussion of the subject. ART. IX.Atices sur le caract~re et les ~crits de .Miadame la Baroanc ac Slaci Holstein, par .Nladarne .N~~cker. Paris, Bvo. 1819. I~ is difficult to appreciate fairly an author or a hook that has been much praised. With most readers public opinion is omnipotent ; they are sure to admire xvluate~er book is in fashion, not only because it is troublesome to reflect and form an opinion for oneself, hut because the popularity of a work actually makes it of more valise, as it adds to its power of arresting their attention. A book, xvhicli every one is read- ing an(l ad miring, toe that very reason excites more hope and expectation, and is read with snore interest and pleasure, than one which wants this adventitious aid. Another class of readers ; they whose opinion is uttered less loudly, but is sure in the end to be heard inure (histinctly, and is spread ~ider and lives longer; they whom much learning has made 1820.] J4fe and Writings of Madame de Staa. 125 captious and hypercritical, who have bartered for knowledge aH(l fame, the power of receiving pleasure from sources whicit supply it ahundantly to less cultivated arid less fastidious tastes, are apt to run into the opposite extreme and (lefly the degree of praise justly due. Thus has it been with the reputation of Madame de Stael. Few books in modern times, which ~vere not practical, nor scientific, nor directly subservient to the comforts of man and the l)uIPoses of socie- ty, have been read so cage rly and universally, and knowii so far as hers. And now whenever they are spoken of by any but professed critics, or those who would be so, it is general- ly With extravagant and indiscrimin ate praise. There are, in fact, many readers in our country that read a good many books, ~vhose literary range offers them few or none better than Madame de Stads ; and it is natural that those of this class, which we hope are nearly all of them, who have moral- ity enough to hate the vice, and good taste enough to be dis- guste(l with the superhuman absurdities of lady Morgans Wild Irish Boys and Girls, and the numerous heroes and he- roines of a similar construction, should a(lmire and praise works which, like the more popular writings of Madame de Sta& l, amuse and seem to instruct, and yet do not call upon them for any very vigorous effort of attention or reasoning. On the other hand, the degree of commendation which she indeeti merits, is apt to be withheld by thinking and studious men, ~vlio as a novelist, disregard her, and if they read her as a philosopher, do it from a motive of curiosity, wishing to see ~vhat sort of a philosopher a woman makes. Her sex increases the difficulty of judging her aright as an author. If we would estimate fairly the strength and char- acter (if her mind, we must forget that she ~vas a ~~oman, and the greatest woman whom this age has seen ; certainly the greatest who has ~vritten and lived for the public. Tlii~ ~ve admit would not be treating her fairly, if the question were, not what sort of mind she had, but how much energy of character, and loftiness of ambition, and strength of will she has displayed ; for we should then remember, that she was one of a sex whose minds are trammelled and attenuat- ed by the customs of society, just as their bodies are apt to be by fashion ; whom the institutions of social life exclude from intellectual pursuits, lest they should sometimes presume to ~valk there by the side of their lords, and so collision and 126 Ltfr and Writings of Jiadame de Staci. [July, strife ensue between man and his helpmeet; a sex from whom little mental effort is expected, and by whom therefore little is apt to be made. But it is time to come more directly to Madame de Sta~l. We wish to give our readers as fair an estimate as we can of the strength and character of her mind, and a brief histo- ry of the principal events of her life. We shall most easily achieve bofli purposes, by an account of her books, taking them hI the order in which they were published ; for upon them must rest her pretensious to intellectual I)re-ern inence, and their appearance fkrmed the titost iiuj)ortant epochas of her lil~c. She was born at Paris, 1766. her father, M. Necker, was unquestionably a man of more than ordinary powers, but their extent was exceedingly disproportionate to his influence in France, and upon the world. Of humble birth, a protest- ant and a foreigner, he overcame the obstacles which his re- ligion and his country interposed between him and the lofti- est station to which a French subject could aspire. He be- came the prime minister of Louis XVI. and the effective ruler of the French monarchy; but lie was wholly unable to ~vield the power which he had acquired, and his incapacity and ignorance did more perhaps than any other single cause to hasten the revolution. Madame Necker, in point of talent a very ordinary wo- man, was ambitious of literary fame both for her daughter and herself. Site published some books and pamphlets, which were little read then and are wholly forgotten now; but it shows some intellectual resource, that she was able to make her house the common and favourite resort of the most cele- brated men of the day. Diderot, Thomas, Marmontel, St. Lambert, Buffon, and Grimm visited her upon terms of fa- miliar intimacy, and it was in unrestrained intercourse ~vith such minds, that the vigorous intellect of her daughter grew up into its full and perfect stature. Their conversation en- riched and strengthened her mind, their fame stimulated her ambition, and their encouragement gave her confidence and self-reliance. If we may believe the accounts which the friends of Madame de Stai~l give of her early life, she passed at once from infancy to youth; she seems never to have been a child. We ~vill give our readers an extract from a sketch of her early life, written by Madame Rillier, then Madame 1820.] L~fe and Writings of .~fadame de Stad. 127 Huber, her intimate friend in youth and through life. At the period, to which the passage ~ve quote refers, Madame de Stad was eleven years old. We entered the drawing room; by the side of M. Neckers chair was a little wooden stool, on which his daughter seated herself. Scarcely had she taken her place, when three or four 01(1 persons came to her, and addressed her with affectionate tenderness. One of them, who had on a little hob-~vig, took her hands in his, and held them a long time, conversing with her as if she had been five an(1 twenty. ~ was the Abbe Raynal. The others were Thomas, and Marmontel, the Marquis of Pesay, and Baron Von Grimm. Wlieii we sat down to table, you should have seen ho~v attentive she was. She uttered not a word, yet she seemed as if speaking in her turn, so eloquent was the expres- sion of her flexible watures. After dinner a great deal of company came in. Every one on coming up to M. Necker had something to say to his daughter, either complimenting or joking her. She answered all with ease or elegance; they took pleasure in attacking her, embarrassing her, and excit- ing in her that iinagination~ which already appeared so bril- liant. The men most distinguished for their talents were those who were most eager to make her talk. They asked an account of what she was reading, pointed out fresh subjects to her, and gave her a taste for study, by conversing ~vith her on ~vhat she had learned. At fifteen she made extracts from the Spirit of Laws, with remarks, and the Ahb~ Raynal wished her to ~vrite something on the revocation of the edict of Nantes for his great work. It was in 1789, in the second ministerial reign of her father, which soon ended in a second exile, that Madame de Stai4 began her literary career, with publishing her letters upon Rousseau. She of course defends him, and with ability and eloquence, but in a different way, and upon (lifferent grounds, from those she would have chosen in maturer age. Her work is principally curious, as it proves that at this early age she had (liscovered, or believed, that happiness is not at all corn- mensurate with success in life. rrhe letters abound with such passages as tIme following: Cest en vaimi quapr~s avoir tout connu, tout senti, tout eprouv~, il [Rousseau] secrie, Na[ lez pas plus avant, je rev iens, et je nai ilen vu qui vahfit ha peine du voyage. Cest peut-etre aux (lepens du bonheur quon obtieimt ces succes extraordinaires dus m des talen Lje and Writings of .4adame de Stad. tJuly, sublimes. La Nature, epuisee par ces superbcs (buS, refuse souvent aux grands hommes, les qualit~s qui peu~ent rendre heureux. QaiI est cruel de leur accorder avec taut de peine, de leur envier avec tant do fureur cette gloire, seule jonissance quil soit peut-etre en Jour pouvoir de gouter. We have called this book the first fruits of a genius, which afterwards bore so luxuriantly; but she had previously printed an essay on fictions, and one or two other small works, which were little noticed. These letters, on the contrary, drew upon her a great deal of attention, arid subjecled her to more animad- version and ridicule, thaut she was inclined to bear patiently. She ~vas told very directly, that it did not become one of the fairer and veaker sex to be quite so l)hilosophical and meta- I)hysical, as she at least tried to be. Accordingly, to a sub.. sequent edition of the book she prefixed a preface, in which she defends zealously, and with a good deal of success, the intellectual iights of women. Our limits do not allow us to consider this question, a circumstance by which our readers are saved a (hiscussion, which might weary, and a conclusion which would perhaps startle them. The expediency of ciii- tivating the intellect of mait is pretty well settled at the pres- ent day, and it seems difficult to imagine ~vhy that of woman should be neglected. If it have similar powers and equal strength, it is as deserving of care, and will repay care as well; if it be weaker and narrower, it needs the more to be strengthened, enlarged, and disciplined. If the purposes of society and of life vould be promoted by the establishment of domestic slavery, then every spark of intellectual light in the female Helot should be carefully extiruguished; just as birds in a cage are blinded, that they may not look upon the forests and fields, the blue heavens and the green earth, and long to be abroad 01)011 the air, till melancholy should stop their song. Bra religion and policy alike revolt at this. Mans best happiness, like c!maritv, begins at home, and, like that, is apt to stay there ; an(l home is sure to be just what the wife fl-may make it. Now if it were true that a oman, who can do any thing besides making a pudding or mending a stocking, does these necessary things less willingly and well, than one who can (10 nothin~ else were as ~~- it is .; if it true, cerLamnly not, that a wife submits to conjugal authority, just in proportion as she is igmuorarut amid uncnltivated, how can the great pur- pose of marriage, the mutual armd reciprocal improvement of 1820.] Ljfe and Writings of Madame de Sta~t. 129 the moral and intellectual natures of the sexes, be promoted by an union upon such unequal terms; arid what must we think of a husband assez orgueilleusement modeste, to wish from his wife an unquestioning obedience, instead of a sy Inl)athy of thought, and taste, and feeling? It is sometimes urged that, if a womans mind be much enlarged, and her taste refined, mlie is al)t to think differently of the duties of life, to require different I)IeasLIres from the rest of her sex; that her feelings leave the channels which the institutions of soci- ety have marked for them, and run riot, and bring her use- fulness and happiness into danger. NOW the plain answer to this is, that these evils happen, not because her reason was cultivated, but because it was not cultivated well; and because the taste and intellect of women generally do not receive due culture. We cannot resist the temptation to close these re- marks by quoting, for the edification of our fair readers, the following passage from the preface, of which we spoke. Un homme ~ Paris se baissait toujours, en passant sous Ia porte St. l)erils, bien quehle f4t haute de cent pieds; ii en est de meme des fenimnes qui se vantent (le ciaindre Ia ceIebrit~, sans avoir jamais en les talens mn~cessaires pour Pacquerir. Ces talens ont sans doute leurs inconveniens, comme toutes les plus belles choses du monde; inais ces jiconveniens meines inc sembleut preferable aux langeurs dune esprit horn~, qui tantot denigre cc quil ne pent atteindre, ou bien aifecte ce quiI ne sauroit sentir. Enfin en ne considerant que nos rapports avec nous memes, une plus grande intensit~ de vie est tonjours une augmentation de bonheur: Ia douleur, il est vrai, entre plus avant dans les ames dune certaine energie; mais a tout prendre, II nest persolmne, qni ne duive remercier Dieu, de mi avoir donna une facnit~ de plus. In 1T96 Madame de Sta& l published an essay on the influ- ence of the iassnrns upon happiness. This ~vork was well received, and extended the reputation of its author, not only in France, hut in England arid Germany. It is full of ingen- ious and sometimes profound remark, and its style has much of the strength and elegance, and still more of the obscurity, which characterize her later works. It is ho~vever but little read now, having been in a manier supei~sede(l by her book upon the influence of literature on society. The subjects of the t~ o works seem very distinct ; she however borrowed ia the last very largely from the first, and made it a much ~ Series. No. $. 1 so Ljfe and Writings of Madame de Stai~1. [July, greater book, both in its size and character; and upon it must rest principally her pretensions to fame as a philosol)her arid reasoner It would in(leed he an arduous task,too mudi so, one would think, for any woman to undertake or br any man to execute,to consider in detal all the literatures, wlich have existed in the world ; and to consider them not only in them- selves, but in their relations and bearing upon society, in their influence upon time religious, moral, arl(I l)olittcal l)rospeIity of the nations among which they originated and dwelt. Yet in this attempt she succeeded ; for it was one in which any thing short ot absolute failure must be consilere(l success. If we except the terrible mistake of speak lug of Ossian and Homer in the same chapter, of taking it for granted, that the one ~vas tIme first. in time, if not in excellence, of the northern school of poetry, as the other was of the southern ; and thus confounding an antiquity ot thirtyfive years with one of as many centuries ; ii we except thisand it is a ntis take, into which she has fallen in common with almost all the continental critics, amid from which we ought, therefore, to derive a lesson of (listrust of all foreign criticism, at home or abroadher views are generally ingenious and correct. The system of perfectibility is a great favourite with Mad- ame de Staiii, and althow~h she (lOCS not argue (hirectly for it in this work, yet all the principles and reasoning in it refer to the gradual but sure amid ceaseless amelioration of human nature, and in Talleyram~ds Report on public instructiomi, made to the National Assembly, of which she ~vrote several liamts, she has l)ut the argument in a more logical form, and made it the basis of the whole Qystem (levelol)e(l in that curi- ous document. Never lies the doctrine of the perfectibility of human nature found so able and eloquent an advocate as in Madame de Stail; and heartily sorry are we, that it hap- pens to be so directly opposed to all right reason and tolera- lily fair argument, that even her eloquence cannot give us the consolation of believing it. rrliere are moments ~vlien ~ve remember how much good christianity has (hone and is (loing for maim, when we think of the power and erect of the social institutions of modern times, in repressing the morl)i(I energy of the passions, and in making the selfmsh maim perceive that the best way to do himself goo(i is to (10 others good; and still more when we reflect, that rrason and religion have at last taught man to place woman by his side and in his heart, 1S20.] ~fe and Writings of Madame de Stuet. I31 and have thus rescued from the captivity of disregarded, and ~~lmat is worse, conscious and contenten inferiority, one halt of the world, and refined and exalted the happiness of the other half; that these recollections almost bring with them a belief that the world is really better than it u~eU to be, arid that there is now-a-days more virtue, more wisdom, and more happiness, than was to be found here in the days of our tathers. But to say nothing of the evil that has come with all this good, imoth- ing of the fact that society represses and controls the p~ssions of bad men only by its power of assimilation, the (lirect ten- dency of whmh is to destroy all high individuality of charac- ter, alike the good and the bad, and thus to crush many a wholesome plant, together with the ~veeds that spring up about it; that if in some arts an(l sciences we have advanced far beyond the ages that have gone by, in others ~ve are far behind them ; while, even in those in ~vhich we think our- selves most superior, ~ve seem sometimes but to have recover- ed what ages passe(l away and forgotten once possessed and lost; so that the spirit of modern curiosity and research, as it clears away the rubbish, which time has heaped over th~ remains of antiquity, discovers every day ne~v traces of the art and science, that built the pyramids and templi s of Egypt and India, and watched from their summits the hosts of heaven: not to dwell upon these facts, nor y~t upon the mighty catastrophes of human institutions, w imich some ages have witnessed, we would remark that we make an infrrenmce rather disproportioned to our premises, when we raise a sys- tem, which embraces all foturity and the whole earth, ilpoll an experiment which has been going on but a few centuries, anil in a part of civilized Europe. Africa is still a desert, where the savage yet exposes his child and sells his captive. In Asia4 in the vast and populous empires of India and China, humanity, advanced half way from barbarity to civilization, has stopped arid stagnates; and in America, the surplus su- perstition and cruelty of Europe has found rehrge in its southern half; and impon the eastern border of time northern continent an experiment is making, which may teach our childrens children, whether man may by possibility be good and happy for any length of time upon earth, or must, by the inevitable necessity of his nature, abuse and forfeit every blessing and advantage, which God can grant. To the works we have mentioned succeeded, after an inter.. 1 s~ Ljft and Writings of Jladame de Sta~l. [July, val ot some years, the reflections upon suicide. This book was written by Madame de Stai~l, we believe, as a recantation of some opinions respecting suicide, incidently expressed in her work upon the l)assiOns. Site then seemed to consider it as a victory of strength of mind and will over the veakness of our nature, which bids us hope when there is no hope, and shrink with horror from a change,which must be cessation from one kind of misery, and may be rest from all. This was very weak, and in process of time site discovered it to be so; and expresses lter change of opinion in the following curious man- ncr: Jai lo~ie lacte du suicide, dans mon ouvrage sur Iinfluence des passions, et je me suis repentie depuis de cette parole inconsider~e. Jetois alors darts tout Iorgueil et Ia vi- vacit~ de Ia premiere jeunesse; mais ~i qtoi servirait-il do vivre, si ce netait dans lespoir de sameliorer. It is rather singular, that a question like that of suicide, of its moral rectitude and possible expediency9 should never have been fairly and fully discussed. This ltas been because ~vise men~ in modern days, have felt so strongly the conviction of its hilly and ickedness,that they have never tltought it worth while to refute the various sophistries, which go to defend the inno~ cence and wisdom of the self-murderer. It is, too, a subject on which few men form an opinion for themselves; the happy do not think of it at all, and when the various misery of life chances to force upon any one the thought that death is near* and waits but his bidding; the fear of death, of its pains and its consequences, makes him at once cling to life, and hope for relief from some change, less appalling than that which must be the last. But much crime might have been l)revente(l, perhaps, if tlte question had been settled by fair and rational argument, distinctly stated, for we (loubt not titat a large proportion of those, who have thrown life away, have done so after much deliberation, unhappily delayed until their minds were ~veakened and distorted, and their moral sense palsied * There is somethng sublime in the stern copiousness, with which the Stoics dwelt particularly on the fhcility, with which suicide may be com- mitted. Ante omnia cave, ne quis vos teneret invitos; patet exitue. Si pugnare non vultis, bcet fugere. Ideoque cx omnibus rebus, quas esse vobis necessarias volui, nihil feci facilius qu~m mon. Attendite modo et videbitis quarn brevis ad libertatem et quam expedita ducat via. Non tarn longas in exitu vobis quam intrantibus moms posui: & c. Seneca de Provideatia in fine. See also Epist. lxx. 1820.1 Ljfe and Writings of .Aladarne de Stad. 133 by suffering; until immediate and severe misery iwessed hard upon theni, and shut out the prospect and hope of the future. At such times reason cannot do its office; and if it could, the passions exasperated by misery can be withstood only by habitual and settled convictions. Madame de Stael has treat- ed the subject with considerable ability and a great deal of eloquence, but she has hardly enforced sufficiently the argu- inent against this crime, which may be drawii from the use of that l)ortion of existence we pass on earth. We are wise and goo(l, just in proportion as we consider an(l treat Iifi~ and all its incidents, as moral means to a great end. Upon eve- ry moment of time an eternity is dependent; an(l when- ever we sacrifice a moment, we throw away an instrument, by which we might have created an eternity of happiness. Different individuals are l)rovided with different means; these may be pain or pleasure, plenty and happiness, or privation and suffering; the tools ~vith which we are to work may be inconvenient and burthensome, or light and plrasant; but they must he the most useful and efficaciousq or they would not be put into our hands at any rate they are all we have. We cannot fix too deeply in our minds the truth that life is not an absolute, but a relative existence, as in its relation to the eternity, with which it is connected, consists all its value and importance; and this conviction comes very seasonably and is then most useful ~vhen life seems worthless and death welcome. Madame de Stahl had too much sense not to detect and expose the vulgar notion, that suicide is an act of cowardice. To call it so is a poor abuse of language, which never persuaded any body. If there be such a thing as conr~ age, if the ~vord means any thing, it is the encountering im- minent danger, or the self-infliction of severe and immediate pain, in order to avoid or prevent a distant but greater evil. Now if he is a coward who, made miserable by causes which must continue to operate while he lives, thinks himself doom- ed to wretchedness as lasting as his life, and determines to shorten as much as possible the period of his suffering, al- though in so doing he must endure the terrors and agonies of death, if he is a coward ; then certainly he is also one, who extracts an aching tooth, because he does not like to pass his nights in pain and sleeplessness; and 50 is lie, who amputates a gangrened limb, because he has not resolution enough to lie still and die of mortification and so too is lie who goes 154 Lffr and Writings of .Madame de Staci. rJuly, upon the field of battle, and sets his life upon the cast, because he cannot endure the pain of living undistinguished, or of see- ing his country harmed. Fortitude is one thing and courage is another; the evils which the one l)atientlY endures, the other resolutely shakes off, and however weak and impolitic it may be to die before we must, it is idle to call it cowardly. The father of Madame de Stai~l had retired to Copet arid she ~~as with him, when the French troops entered S~vitzer- land. M. Necker, by a decree passe(1 (luring the leiwli of terror, had beeii 1)1~ICed upon the list of einigtauts, and of course (loomed to (leath, whenever and wherever (aught by French troops; but such was the ascendency of his daugh- ters genius or his own fame, that the decree was disregard- ed and the generals of the army treated him with great Fesl)ect. This moderation induced Madame de Stad to return to France ~vhere her husband resided; she soon, however, grew tired of the persecutions and insignificmce ~vhich she was obliged to elI(Iire thete, and returned to her father, extremely angry with herself becauRe she could not, like him, live contentedly in solitude. But she had been too long used to the exciting stimulus of coirspetition and suc- cess, which doubles ones existence and powers, to get on comfortably without it. In 1~98 she returne(l to Paris to see her husband (lie, an(l then ~vent back to her t~thier at Copet. In 1800 Buonaparte passed through Geneva and visited M. Necker. It is said that Madame (le Sta& l requested a private audience, and availed herself of it, to descant most eloquently upon the means, w hich his high office gave him of advancing the happiness of Fiance, and gently hinted to him certain plans of her own w hich she thought singularly well adapted to promote this object. The First Consul list.. ened to her in profound silence and with apparent attention, an(l when she had done, replied by asking, who educates your children, Ma(lame ? It was chiefly in Sxvitzerland that Delphine was writ- ten ; it was printed at Geneva in 1802. Its ~)opularity was very great when it first appeared, but 500fl (lied away. Once read eagerly and every where, it now descends from the shelf of a circulating library scarcely once in a twelve- month. It is certainly written in a most captivating style, and with a brilliancy and energy of language, that all French 1820.] J4fe and Writings of .AIadame de Sta~l. 1c~ i.)j literature can scarcely equal; but as a story it is very dull, and its morality isoi rather is notvery questionable. The hero and heroine are the best people in the world, accidentally ruined by the error and vice into which they happen to fall. Ther~e is not a character in the book which it would be safe to propose an(l dwell upon as a model; though to the princi- pal personages there are given quite as much virtue and princil)le and good sense, as ~vere at all consistent with their being very imprudent arid sinful. The book was attacked very generally and severely, and the author found it neces- sary to make a regular defence of her system of novel writ- ing. She did it upon these grounds, that none can be improved or injured by (lCScril)tioIls of character and life but the ~veak an(l honest. They who are fixed in goodness do not need instruction of this kind ; they ~vho are radically vicious will not regard it. Now the best thing to be done to him, who wishes to be good and wants not correctness but firmness of l)1IIp05C, is to inSpire a dread of faults, which they whose feelings are pure and delicate and whose intentions are good, coin nit when l)laced under tempting circumstances and stimu- lated by l)assion. She adds, that a ~vriter may be equally a severe moralist, whether he describe vice and its punish- ment or virtue an(l its reward. In 1803 Madame (le Sta& l again appeared in the capital of France, ~vith the intention no doubt of being very brilliant in the court of the First Consul and the coteries of Paris, and of gathering in the tribute of praise (Ine to her last lit- erary success. But unhappily the watchful activity of her acute arid energetic mind was still feared, or she was a little too sarcastic in her remarks upon the passing events of the day, or Buonaparte was incait enough to revenge upon the dauglt~r, the crime of the father, in publishing a book against the consular government; for he soon pronounced aeainst her a sentence of banishment to a distance of forty leagues from Paris. After the sentence was made kno~vn to her, she saw her arch enemy, and said to him, you are giving me a cruel elebnity; I shall occupy a line in your history. She attenq)ted to reside at Ronen, about thirty two leagues from Paris, and atterwar(15 in the valley of Nontmnomency, which was still nearer the capital, but was ordered to withdraw beyond the interdicted limits, and she then ;vent with her daughter and her friend and protector, 136 Life and Writings of .Madame de Stad. [July, Benjamin Constant, to Frankfort. Here she found herself so scantily supl)lied with deference and admiration, which ~vere to her necessaries of life, that she left the to~vn in the midst of a severe winter and repaired to Berlin, where she succeeded as perfectly as in her beloved Paris; and as there was competition enough to make success gratifying, she remained here, enjoying highly the society of the city, till the spring of 1804, when, on the 18th of April, she received intelligence of her fathers sickness. She immediately sat off, and until she reached Weimar, the idea that she had been deceived, and that her father might be no more, never en- tered her mind. She learned them~ that he had died at Geneva on the 9th, after a short but very painful illness. The grief occasioned by this unexpected misfortune, pre~ vented Madame de Sta& l from attempting any thing of a literary kind for some months, (luring which she indulged her sorrow in solitude and inaction, and when she resumed her labours, it was for the purpose of publishing the best of her fathers manuscripts, vith a short account of his charac- ter and private life. She was, we had almost said ineami enough, to insert among them the following compliment to Buonaparte. Ce qui distingue ~minemment he Premier Consul, cest la fermet~ et Ia decision de son caract~re, cest tine superhe volomit~ qui saisit tout, r~gle tout, fixe tout, et qui s& end ou sarr~te ~ propos. Cette volont~, telle que je ha depeins dapr~s un grand mod~le, est ha premiere qua- lit6 pour gouverner en Chef un grand Empire. On tinit par considerer cette volontt3 comme un ordre de ha nature, et toutes les oppositions cessemit. Cest aux secondes places que he vouloir est g~n& , iarce que toutes sortes de m~nage- mens sont alors necessaries, et quil faut y destiner une par- tie de ses moyens. This flattery, however, did no good; her sentence of banishment ~vas not revoked, and the paradise of Parisian society was still closed on her. But the world was all before her, and she endeavoured to dispel the gloom and sadness which oppressed her spirits, by a journey through Italy. In this happy land she remained, and listened to its delicious music, and breathed its perfumed atmosphere, and looked upon its sky which seems spread out over the creep- ing things of the earth, as if to tell them of the calm and purity of heaven, and communed with the mighty dead amidst the ruins which attest their might and glory, till 1820.] Ljfe and Writings of.Aladame de Stael. 1ST her talents and enthusiasm revived and her mind recovered its wonted elasticity. It is to this journey that Europe is indebted foe Corinne, which of all our authors books is perhaps that ~vhich is most read and by which she is best known. Faulty, very faulty, as it certainly is, in the grotesque mixtur~of the philosopher, the antiquarian and the novelist, it must be regarded with admiration for its splendid literary execution and its strains of touching powerful eloquence. Of the story we need say nothing, as it must be familiar to our readers; the language, much more chaste and polished than that of Deiphine, is equally animated and sparkling, and her remarks upon the natiotial character of England, France, and Italy are gener- ally ingenious and correct. As a novel it is certainly a bad one ; the incidents are improbable, not to say impossible, and more unnatural and wild conceptions than Oswald and Co- rinne never yet were embodied in jrose or poetry. Yet it will al~vays amuse and interest the reader from the ingenuity of her remarks, and the vivacity and sometimes sublime eloquence with which she expresses her opinion and feelings. In 1810 do lAlletnagne ~vas finished, and the manuscript delivered for examination to the censors, who suppressed many passages, and then licensed its l)ublicatioll. It was ac- cordingly put into the hands of her l)riI~ter, and ten thousand copies were struck oft, when an order was received from the minister of police, that the whole impression should be de- stroyed. Au moment om?n cot ouvrage alloit parottro, et lorsquo?i atoit d~j~n tire les dix mule exemplaires do la pro- mi~re ~dilioii, Ic ministie do la police, conms sous le nom G~n& a1 Savarq, envoya ses gendarmes chez le libraire, avec ordre do mettic en pieces tonte l~dition, et d~tablir des son- tinelles aux di~erses issues du magasin, dans Ia crainte quun soul exemplaire do cc dangereux ~ctit no put s~chapper. Un coinmissaire (10 l)olicc fut charge do surveiller cette expddi- tion, damis laquelle Ic G~n~ral Savary obtint ais~ment Ia vic- toire, et cc pauvre commissairo est, dit on, mort (105 fatigues quil a dprouv~es en sassn rant avec trop do detail, (10 Ia des- truction dun si grand nombre do volumes, ou plut6t do leur transformation en un carton parfaitement blanc. sur leqitel ancurie trace do Ia raison Imumaino nest rest~e ; la valour in- trins~que do cc carton estim~e h vingt louis est le soul d~dom- mnagoment qne Ic libraire ait obtenu dii gdim~ral uministre. .7V~w& ries,No. 3. 138 L1fe and Writings of~lfadarne de Sta~t. [July, As soon as the impression had been entirely destroyed, she ~~as ordered to surrender the copy, by which it had beeti print- ed, and to leave France in twenty-four hours. She wrote to Savary that she could not make the necessary arrangements for her journey in less than eight days, and was permitted to delay her departure as long as she had requested. The let- ter in which this permission is granted is very curious. The minister begins with telling her to depart instantly after the eight days should expire, and then says that she must not imagine that this exile was meant as a punishment for her neglect in not mentioning the emperor in her book on Germany, as this omission was rather meritorious than censurable, inasmuch as no place coul(l have been found in the ~vork which would have been worthy of his name ; but that her general con- duct for a number of years had imposed upon the govern- ment the necessity of compelling her departure from France. He then adds very civilly, II ma paru quo lair (10 co pays ci, ne vous con venait paint, et norm nen sornmes pas en- core r~du its ~r chiere her des modeles dans les peul)les que vous admirez. At last Bonaparte carried his revengeful persecu- tion so far, as to banish some of her friends, who had the generosity to visit her, and thus she expresses her indigna- tion. Cen etoit troJ) porter a~ec soi Ia contagion dii maiheur, ne pas oser sapprocher de ceux quon aime, craindre do leur & rire, do prononcer leur noin, & tre lobject tour ~ tour, ou des preuves daffection qui font trembler pour ceux qui ~oris les donnent, ou des bassesses raffin& ?s quo Ia terreur inspire, cetoit une situation ~r laquelle ii falloit so soustraire si lon vouloit encore vivre. Various are the opinions respecting the merit of de lAlle- magne. The remarks upon the German character and cus- toms, and upon the lighter literature of Germ any are gener- ally allowed to be correct ; but the account of German phi~ losophy and metaj)hysics is thought obscure arid unintelligible. We are, however, inclined to think the difficulty arises, not from any indistinctness in the authors ideas, or in her mode of expressing them, but from her supposing a much greater previous acquaintance with the works of Kant, Jacobi, and Schelling, than falls to the lot of many of her rea(lers. it is well known that Madame do Stad was in habits of great intimacy ~vith the Scidegels, arid the best hart of hercrit- icism has been atteibtited to them. This, however, has been 1820.] 14fe and Writings of .7~Iadarne de Staet. 139 done upon no other ground than general probability. We happen to know that Frederick Schiegel, who taught her German in Paris before she went io Germany, has declared that he read wit Ii her most of the books of which she has spok- en in her de lAl1em~gne, and that she was sufficiently ac- quainted with German literature to have written the work ~~ithout assistance from any ono; and that August Wilhelm Schiegel equally disclaims all participation in its opinions or its composition. Moreover, i~ was not for a mind like Mad- ame de Sta~ls to burrow tamely from any one. The last and best of tier works, that upon the French re- volution, we noticed in a former number. it should have been, as it was, the best of her works, for she lived where the springs of the revolution had their sourcein the saloons of Paris. She listened to the murmuring of the waters ere they broke forth, and sa~v them as they rose, and ~~atched their desolatiog j)~g~ess. She lived early enough to remnem- her well the face of the country through which they passed, the magnificence, the beauty, and the foul and stagnant cor- ruptions which they overwhelmed; and she lived long enough to see the waters subside, and the seeds they deposited germi- nate, and promise an abundant and wholesome growth and she lived perhaps long enough to see how many poisonous plants sprang up and flourished with rank luxuriance, and to feel the sting of the reptiles who were bred in the slime which the troubled waters left behind them. This book is destined to live long; and we venture to prophecy that it will go (lo~Vn to posterity by the side of Burkes Reflections. Higher praise than this it does not need and could not receive. Upon the whole, we think Madame de Stai~l was a most ex- traordinary ~voman, and the greatest female that has ever written. Other women have made books as directly useful, and in a certain sense of the word, as sensible ; but no one has displayed a mind of such power and extent, so well cul- tivated and filled ; no one has done so much to vindicate the intellectual equality of woman with ~man, for she not only stated the argument for it strongly and eloquently, hu~ illus- trated it well. The character of her mind was formed by a combination of qualities which rarely meet together. With an imagination luxuriant to excess, she reasoned acutely and sometimes profoundly ; and while her understanding acted with such rapidity and promptness that it almost seemed in.~ 140 On Chancery Jurisdiction. [3uly, stirict, its grasp was wide arid strong.. There are shades in her character, on which it would give us no pleasure to dwell; but which we rejoice to think had no necessary or even natu- ral connexion with the superiority of her talents or of her education. ART. X.Repor~ of C~1 adjudged in the (Jaurt of Chancery of .JVew York. By IJ zllzum Johnson, Counsellor at Law. Vols. I, II, and 111. Albany, 1816, 1818, 1819. MR. Chancellor Kent was appointed a puisne judge of the Supreme Court of New York on the sixth of February 1798, Chief Justice of the same court on the second of July 1804, and upon the resigiiation of Mr. Chancellor Lansing, suc- Ceede(l to the distinguished station of Clian~ellor of New York, on the 25th of February 1814. He has been long, there- fore, before the public in a judicial character, which lie has sustained with increasing reputation, a reputation as pure as it is bright ; and lie is, at the ~ery moment we are writing, (leoting himself to the labours of jurisprudence ~~ith a dili- gence and enthusiasm, which excite the admiration of the vet.. eran counsellor at the bar, even more than of the ambitious studeiit just struggling for distinction. He has always been re- markable for an unwearied attention to business, a prompt and steady vigilance, and a sacred reverence for juridical author- ities. For him the easy course of general reasoning. popular analogies, and fanciful theories, has no charms. LIe does not believe that judicial discretion is the arbitrium boni judi- cis, much less hon yin ; or that lie is at liberty to l)Iomul~ gate rules, either of law or equity, measured by his own ab- stract notions of what is fit or reasonable, lie contents him- self with adniinistering the common law as he finds it, with- out the rashness to presume himself wiser than the law, or the ~anity of distinguishing himself by innovations. His life has been (IC voted, sedulously and earnestly, to profession- al studies. He has fathomed the depths and searched the recesses of the ancient law, the black lettered relics of for- mer tunes, so much disparaged, and yet of such inestimable value. He has traced back the magnif.cent streams of juris- prudence to their fountains, lying dark and obscure amidst the rubbish cf monkish retreats, or stealing silently from the

140 On Chancery Jurisdiction. [3uly, stirict, its grasp was wide arid strong.. There are shades in her character, on which it would give us no pleasure to dwell; but which we rejoice to think had no necessary or even natu- ral connexion with the superiority of her talents or of her education. ART. X.Repor~ of C~1 adjudged in the (Jaurt of Chancery of .JVew York. By IJ zllzum Johnson, Counsellor at Law. Vols. I, II, and 111. Albany, 1816, 1818, 1819. MR. Chancellor Kent was appointed a puisne judge of the Supreme Court of New York on the sixth of February 1798, Chief Justice of the same court on the second of July 1804, and upon the resigiiation of Mr. Chancellor Lansing, suc- Ceede(l to the distinguished station of Clian~ellor of New York, on the 25th of February 1814. He has been long, there- fore, before the public in a judicial character, which lie has sustained with increasing reputation, a reputation as pure as it is bright ; and lie is, at the ~ery moment we are writing, (leoting himself to the labours of jurisprudence ~~ith a dili- gence and enthusiasm, which excite the admiration of the vet.. eran counsellor at the bar, even more than of the ambitious studeiit just struggling for distinction. He has always been re- markable for an unwearied attention to business, a prompt and steady vigilance, and a sacred reverence for juridical author- ities. For him the easy course of general reasoning. popular analogies, and fanciful theories, has no charms. LIe does not believe that judicial discretion is the arbitrium boni judi- cis, much less hon yin ; or that lie is at liberty to l)Iomul~ gate rules, either of law or equity, measured by his own ab- stract notions of what is fit or reasonable, lie contents him- self with adniinistering the common law as he finds it, with- out the rashness to presume himself wiser than the law, or the ~anity of distinguishing himself by innovations. His life has been (IC voted, sedulously and earnestly, to profession- al studies. He has fathomed the depths and searched the recesses of the ancient law, the black lettered relics of for- mer tunes, so much disparaged, and yet of such inestimable value. He has traced back the magnif.cent streams of juris- prudence to their fountains, lying dark and obscure amidst the rubbish cf monkish retreats, or stealing silently from the S 1820.] On Chancery Jurisdiction. 141 chivalric heights of feudal grandeur. His researches have been, amidst the dust and the cobwebs of antiquated lore, pursued in the unfashionable pages of the Year Books, and Glenville, and Fleta, and Britton, arid the almost classical Bra ton. He has dared to examine the abrdgments of Brook, and Fitzherbert, and Statham; books, from which the modern student starts back with dQubt and apprehension, as the great reservoirs, whence have been drawn the best princi- pies of modern times, and whence must be drawn the body and the soul of that learnirig which distinguishes the professor from the sciolist. He has not stopped short at a survey of the mere Gothic structures of the Ia~v; but has examined with eager arid enlightened curiosity the beautiful systems with which the commercial law has been adormied in our day. He has mastered all their refinements, and has in no small degree contributed to their beauty arid perfection. He has dra~vn deeply from the commercial law of foreign nations; the works of Straccha, and Rowe, arid Vahin, arid Pothier, and Emerigon are familian to his thoughts and his writings. He has there found the sources, from which our own juris- prudence is to be illustrated; and one is at a loss which most to admire, the incomparable discernment of the Judge, or the attractive excellence of the materials. IC his attainments had found their boundary here, they ~vould have entitled him to great praise; but he has nobly extended his inquiries be- yond the common and commercial law, and exl)lored the Roman jurisprudence through its texts and commentaries, with uncommon acuteness and accuracy. This has been done with no idle view, to gratify a mere speculative curiosi- ty, or to gather rip the fragments of antiquarian fame ; like all his other studies, this has been made subserient to time great purposes of his life, the promotion of ,justice, aind time establishment ot a solid jurisprudence founded in the most enlightened policy. In his decisions we can every ~ here trace the happy use of that marvellous system of doctrines which Justinian collected with so much care, all(l which stands unrivalled in tIne world for its geim~ral equity, and nice a(laptation to the necessities of mankind; a system, which was gradually matured by the labouns of jurists and prretors, during centuries, in which Rome was the mistress of the world, and ~vhich had the singular advantage of being the combined resnit of experience an(l general reasoning amid S 142 On chancery Jurisdiction. [July, judicial interpretation, aided very little by imperial rescripis, arid rarely marred by imperial interl~rence. Let those, who iiow doubt the iluporratiuc of the study of the civil law by Common lawyers, read diligently the opinions of Mr. Clsan- cellor Kent, and they sill find all the objections raised by insolence and ignorance and prejudice p iacticaly refuted, and the civil law triumphantly sustained. They will perceive the vivid lights, which it casts on the paths ot juridical science, an(l they will be instructed and cheered in the pursuit, though they may not hope to move in the brilliant career of such a judge with equal footsteps. it required such a man, with such a mind, at once liberal, comprehensive, exact, arid methodical; always reverencing authorities and bound by decisions, true to the spirit, yet more true to the letter of the law, pursuing principles with a severe and sc1ul)~ilous logic, yet blendingwith them the most persuasive equity ; it required such a man, with such a mind, to unfold the doctrines of chancery in our country, an(1 to settle them upon immoveable foundations. Without doubt, his learned predecessors had done much to systematize and amend the practice of the court. But it cannot be disguised, that the general state of the profession was not fa~ ourable to a very exact and well regulated hJr~tctice. There were, comparatively speaking, few lawyers in the country, who had (levoted them- selves to Courts of Equity. In general the ablest men found the courts of com muon law the most lucrative, as well as most attractive, for the (lisplay of their talents. rj~liey contente(I themselves with occasional attendance at the Chancery bar, and placed their solid fame in the popular forum, ~vhere the public felt a constant interest, and where the great business of the country ~vas done. In many of the states no Court of Chancery existed. In others it was a mixed jurisdiction, exercised b~ courts of common law, and in those, where it was administered by a distinct judicature, there is great rea- son to fear that the practice was veiy i~oor, arid the principles of decision built upon a rational equity, resting very much in tliscretion, arnl har(liy limited by any fixed rmiles. in short, the (loctrines of the courts depended much less upon the set- tled analogies of the system, flharm upon the character of the particular ju(lge. If he possessed a large an(l liberal mind, he stretched them to a most unwarrantable extent; if a can- tious and cold one, the system fainted and expired under his 1820.] (in Chancery Jurisdiction. 143 curatorship. This description was applicable, Ierhaps, without any material excej)tions, to the equity jurisprudence of our country, and New York comes in j)robably for a full share of it. At least there are in the volumes now before us abundant proofs that neither the practice nor j)rinciples of the Chancery of that state had, previous to the time of Mr. C han- cellor Kent, assumed a steady and well defined shape. We see, for instance, that points of practice are often most elab- orately reasoned out by this learned Chancellor in various opiuions, as if the case stood (he novo before him, and he was cafled upon fir the first time to apply the English practice to our owii. This could hardly have occurred, if there had been a constant, settled channel, in which it had previously flowed. Nor is it difficult to a(connt for this state of things, con- sistently with the highest deference for the learned Ju(lgeS, who had administered e(~uity. In England the Court of Chancery is, and for a long time has been, the most active an(l most extensive ju(licature in the kingdom. 1~rom the existence of a law of descents, x~hich gives to the eldest son the exclusive hIeirshiil) of real estate, there arises a necessity for complicated tuarriage sett.le~~iei~ts, apportioning the h)roperty among all the children, and looking to very remote contingences for their coml)letion. The same circumstance makes last wills and testaments extremely intricate and pet 1)lexed, and fills them with p~~isions for younger sons an(h daughters and remote relarions, which may not be exhausted in a century. Hence we find complex entails, springing uses, contingent relnain(lers, and eXl)iess or resulting trusts, sj)reading over almost every estate in the kingdom, an(l weaving a net-work, ~vhich at last becomes so close and so embarrassing, that a l)ri~ate act of Parliament is the only effectual remedy to dis. entangle the title. It is scarcely possible to form the most simple marriage settlement without incorporating some trusts into it. And as to last xills, even if they furnish no (hirect case for the application of Chancery ~jnris]iction, which rarely happens, yet they almost invariably fall within the cognizance of that court, in virtue of its general jurisdiction as to legacies. oi~ to compel a settlement of the accounts, and distribution of the estate. So that it has been remarked, and l)i~obabl~ ~vith great correctness, that in the course of halt~ a century almost every estate in the kingdom passes 144 On chancery Jurzsdictio,i. [July, tinder the judicial review of the Cliancellar. Nor is this to be wondered at, when we consider, that no trustees can safely act, without the direction of a Court of Equity; and that in complicated settlements and x~ills, there must be a great ta- riety of clauses, ~those exact meaning and extent can never be ascertained, until they receive a judicial interpretation. This is an inexhaustible source of hostile or amicable litiga- tion ; and of itself woul(I create more business, than the dili- gence and talents of a half dozen chancellors could despatch, within any reasonable time. And it often happens, ~vith all the exertions of the chancellor, the master of the Rolls, the Vice Chancellor, the Chancery Court of the Exchequer, and many local Courts of Equity, that suits of this nature are still pending, after the lapse of twenty years, and sometimes survive all the original l)arties and their immediate descen- dants and representatives. It is fortunate for our country, that the genius of our institutions, and the happy structure of our laws of descents, by dividing and subdividing property among immediate and remote relatives, by equitable rules, silently lirovides for ninety-nine cases out of a hundred of all the objects of an anxious 1)arent or friend. We hear, there- fore, of few cases of settlements, and com~)aratively few of wills, which are not extremely simple and are not exhausted with the breath of the first limitation. Entails have practi- cally ceased among us, from the facility, with which they may be turned into a fee; and indeed under the l)resent cir- cumstances of our country, they would be likely to generate family feuds and difficulties, rather than accomplish any valuable purl)ose. We may therefore easily see in the past circumstances of our country very strong reasons, why the chancery jurisdiction has hitherto had but a limited scope for its powers ; and ~vhy its Princilles and practice have not hitherto assumed a very scientific cast in our o~vn tribunals. it is but a few years ago, that our common law courts were governed by a very lax jurisprudence. There are few reports older than twenty years; and those few leave us little regret for the total oblivion cast on all preceding time in our legal an- nals. There were, without doubt, acute and able lawyers, and learned judges, but they were few in number, and the defects of the judicial system and practice, and the narrow walks of business, precluded any great improvements. We had scarce- ly any commercial law; and very fe~v contracts on which it 1820.] On Chancer~j Jurisdiction. 145 could operate; and the generalizing spirit of the present day had scarcely shed a doubtful twilight over us. Our suits principally respected titles or trespasses to land, or personal wrongs, or penalties, or local topics, or debt, or bonds, or assumpsits on contracts for labour, or services and goods sold in small parcels. Policies of insurance, bills of exchange, and promissory notes, and shipping contracts and charter parties are the growth of a thriftier trade, aud more extensive mercantile enterprise. They have grown up among us almost in our own day. Indeed, in England they are not in a practical sense much older titan the (lay of Lord Ilolt; and as to in. surance law, it was almost contemporaneous ~vith the reign of George III. If then our courts of common law were so limited and lax in their practice, it is not to he supposed that our Chancery Courts could have been very exact or method- ical. Their business was of a nature not to attract the high- est talents; and before the revolution, in some of the states, the office of Chancellor was but a political appointment. We find it stated by Mr. Johnson, in the preface to the pres- ent reports, that in New York, the erecting of a Court of Chancery by an ordinance of the 2d of September 1701, to consist of the Governor and Council, rendered it extremely unpopular; and frequent but fruitless attempts were made by the Assembly to destroy the court. It continued to be held under that ordinance, though little business appears to have been transacted in it, until its organization in March 1778, under the constitution of our state. What is trite with res- pect to the Chancery of New York is probably true with respect to most of the other equity courts in the Union. They had little business before the revolution. The revolution it- self ~vas not a season for building up a judicial establishment, and the ti~nes that succeeded, until after the adoption of the constitution of the United States, were times of so much dif- ficulty and (listress and want of capital and ~vant of confi- dence, that there was little inclination to become either an equity lawyer or an equity ju(lge. In better times many years must have elapsed before there was a regular current of business; and that was, from obvious causes, slow and uncertain, and not always the clearest. Without going more into detail, it may at once be seen why, even in the busy state of New York, we are driven almost to the time of Mr. Chancellor Kent in our search for a systematic compend in .Ne~w series, No. 8. 19 146 On Chancery Jurisdiction. [July, Equity. The fault was not in the learned Chancellors, but in the materials, arid in the organization of the system, and the difficulties of the times, and the lax state of the profession. It may perhaps be asked, as it has been heretofore asked, whether Courts of Equity be on the whole of any serious importance in our country, considering that many of the most fertile sources of litigation are here completely dried up, or spring up in courts of common law. We have already alluded to some of these sources; but before ~ve proceed to answer this inquiry, it may not be improper to advert to a few more of the subjects of Chancery jurisdiction in England, which are not likely to have an extensive ol)eration here, or at least to be (Irawn here within the same jurisdiction. We may at once dismiss all consideration of the common law jurisdic- tion of the chancellor, such as his authority of granting suits of scime l~cias to repeal patents, l)etitiolls and monstrans de droit, traverses of office. scire facias upon recognizances, & c. These properly fall within the cognizance of our courts of common law, and are no appendages of chancery. In re- spect also to the statutable jurisdiction of the Chancellor, such as that under the bankrupt la~vs, little need be said, be- cause it must depend upon the ~vill of time legislature to whom shall be entrusted the siminmary powers exeI~cise(l in such cases. Another important branch ot the Chancehlois jurisdiction is exercised partly under statutes and partly under his general chancery authority and partly under his sl)ecial authority, as the immediate delegate ot the crown. acting as parens patriae. We allude to his jurisdiction in cases of charitable uses, a subject of great extent and difficulty, and of the deepest interest to the whole comumnunity. The English system on this subject has beemi built up with wonderful ingemmuity; and the statute regulations are entitled to our most serious con- sideration. Mr. Wheaton in his valuable reports, adorned as they are with much of his own exact learning, has given us a sketch of the English law of charities in the appendix to his fourth volume. We merely mentiomi the fact with the recommendation to all our legal readers, and particularly to those who are or expect to be legislators, to peruse it with the utmost diligence, as worthy of all their most serious re- flections. Having alluded to the great statute of charitable uses of 9 Geo. 2. cli. 36. he emphatically concludes with the following remarks. And it deserves time consideration of 1820.] On Chancery Jurisdiction. 14~ every ~vise and enlightened American legislator, whether provisions similar to those of this celebrated statute are not proper to be enacted in thk country with a view to prevent undue influence arid imposition upon pious and feeble minds, in their last moments, and to check that unhappy propensity which sometimes is found to exist nuder a bigotted enthusi- asm, the desire to gain fame as a religious (lelTotee and bene- factor, at the expense of all the natural claims of blood and parental duty to children.Already charitable donations, to an immense extent, have been bestowed in our country, ~vith- out any check being interposed by the legislature. We are in some danger, and from the same natural causes which are forever at work in all ages and in all countries, of having our most valuable estates locked up in mortinain, and our surplus wealth pass away in specious or mistaken charities, founded upon visionary or useless schemes, to the impoverishment of friends, and the injury of the l)OO~ and deserving of our own countrymen. Let us but look for a moment at England, where, not~vithstanding all the legislative and judicial guards inter- posed from time to time, abuses of the most digraceful and dangerous nature have grown up, under the administration of their charities by trustees and by corporations, and which parliament are no~v seeking to redress, and let us ask our- selves whether we can hope for a better state of things, when we have not a single guard, legislative, executive, or judicial, either to check improper donations procured by fanatical or other delusions, or to secure the just administratio~n of them from the most gross abuses. We are not aware that any adequate authority at present exists in any of the United States for such purposes; and certainly in our own state there is not a pretence to say that ~ve have any real substan- tial security. A Chancery Jurisdiction on this subject to the fullest extent seems indispensable to ensure justice as well to the intentions of the benevolent donors, as to time objects of the donations. Remedies, in courts of common law, are and must forever he utterly inefficient and i!lusory. We have been unexpectedly led to these remarks by a deep sense of their immediate and pressing importance. and we quit the subject ~vith great reluctance, believing that a full development of it could not fail to be interesting to all well wishers to our country, and to statesmen, to la~vyers, to pious and benevolent men, to those who love and those who cm~hti 14~3 On Chancery Jurisdiction. [July, vate literature, the arts, or the sciences. But this is not the time or occasion for such a discussion. At present we must go drily on with our examination of the Chancery Ju- risdiction. We may, however, say, that as long as charita- ble uses shall exist, and in a pious, refined, and elegant society, they must always be cherished, there is a necessity to follow up their administration ~vith the cogent process of chancery visiting, quickening their diligence and their virtue. There is another authority, which has been from time im- memorial, or at least for several hundred years, exercised by the chancellor, which is said to belong to him not in his official capacity bitt as personal delegate of the crown. We allude to his jurisdiction in the cases of idiots and lunatics, as to the guardianship of their persons and the management of their estates, and the protection of their rights. Of an analogous character is the authority of the chancellor as to the care of infants. The king, as parens patri~, is entitled to the care of infants, and this care is delegated by him to the Court of Chancery, and as it seems to this court alone. The Court of Chancery, therefore, exercises a most extensive jurisdiction as to the custody of the person and estates of infants, their maintenance, and marriages. In our country, as well from public convenience, as from considerations drawn from respect for private interests, this jurisdiction generally belongs to Probate and Orphans Courts, which are instituted in every small district or county for the pur- pose of granting administrations, guardianships, & c. These tribunals are so domestic an(l popular and convenient, that it is highly probable they will always retain, if not an exclu.. sive possession of this jurisdiction, at all events such a concurrent jurisdiction as will absorb the great mass of cases, and for general purposes be as efficacious and salutary as a Court of Chancery. In New York, however, it appears that the Chancery exercises a general superintending author- ity in these cases, in many respects analogous to that in England. In New England we believe the Probate Courts exercise an exclusive authority as to the appointment, and removal of guardians, and a concurrent, and sometimes an exclusive authority, in the settlement of their accounts. There is another class of cases of every days occurrence in England, which belongs exclusively to the Court of Chan 1820.] On Chaucer!, Jurisdiction. 149 cery, and must probably have an existence in every Court of Chancery acting ex ~quo et bono. We allude to bills for specific performance of contracts in constradistitiction to mere actions for damages for the breach of such contracts. The doctrines of courts of equity on this head have spread into numerous branches; and the system itself has become not a little complex and unsatisfactory. The notion that a Court of Equity is at liberty to dispense with a strict com- pliance with the terms of the contract, when no accident, mistake, or fraud in a strict sense, has intervened to prevent an exact compliance by the parties; arid that the court may interfere with these terms, and as to time dispense with them altogether upon the footing of mere discretion, is so repug- nant to a just conception of the obligation of contracts, and of the right of the parties to stand upon their own stipulations, as well as to general convenience and justice, that one won- ders that such an extraordinary authority should have ever been assumed or tolerated. Yet it has become an inveterate rule in equity, that time is not, or at least may not be, of the essence of a contract; and, consequently, that a party may be entitled to relief and a specific performance, if a contract for the sale of lands be decreed, although he has utterly failed to comply with the conditions of sale within the period stipu- lated by the express letter of his contract; and this, too, to make the case stronger, rests not on a notion, that there has been fraud or circumvention or inevitable accident, (casus fortuitus,) or mutual and innocent mistake, but upon the mere will, we had almost said caprice, of Chancery, acting upon a thousand fancies of imaginary hardship. The old doctrine on this subject was most extravagant; and it seems the inclination of the j)resent times to narrow the ground and re(luce it more to principles of common reason and convenience. But still there is enough of difficulty and doubt in the cases that arise, to make us wish for a thorough reformation of the whole doctrine; and to put it upon this intelligible ground, that where the party seeks a specific L)crformance, he must shew a strict compliance with the terms of the contract, or stand for relief upon some other real principle of equity. We our- selves have known specific performance decreed of l)urchases of real estate, after twenty years from the time of the contract, when the property had changed its value exceedingly three or four times in opposite ways. during the intervening period. 150 On Chancery Jurisdiction. [July, We have also known specific performance sought and reluc- tantly denied, after the lapse of more than thirty years, when all the original parties were dead, and the land, which was a wilderness, was become a settled and cultivated country. If there ever was a case for a statute prohibition of suits, ex- cept they are brought within a very short period, as a lawyer might say, by jonrucys accounts, bills of this nature would furnish the most striking occasion for salutary legislation. Still it is not, on the whole, probable that this head of equity will in our country ever embrace a very extensive jurisdiction. The reasons, which in England have conduced to raise up so many suits of this nature do not, and l)erhaPs never will exist in a corresponding degree iii our country. In England, from causes already attended to, conveyancing has become extremely coml)licated; titles are buried under loads of parchment; and the intricacy of the trusts and uses, present and future, springing an(l resulting, of po~vers gross or al)purtenant, of entails, and contingent provisions, espe- cially if the estate has passed through two or three great landholders hands, or has been linked to a marriage settle- inent, becomes so perplexing, that it requires a vast deal of time anti money to evolve its material munirnents, and arrive at any thing like certainty even as to the transmission of the title. Now and then, to be sure, a fine or a common reco~very, cures all latent defects, and gives a new start to the title; but in many cases these remedies are impracticable, and sometimes they fail, (as unfortunately happens in respect to remedies administered for physical diseases) even in the most skilful hands, and a latent taint first infects, and in the hands of a cunning s4dicitor soon eats up or destroys the title, though cased, as it were, in its trij)le mail of parchment, and sur- rounded by its concords and its vouchees. Henco it rarely happens upon the purchase of an estate in England, if it be of any considerable value, that conveyances are immediately executed. The title deeds are first to be thoroughly examin- med through perhaps a century ; and diligent search made, not, as we might hastily imagine, into a fe~v short deeds of a folio page in length, but into volumes of dark and mouldy l)arcbmellt, rolled up like ancient manuscripts, and requiring as much time to unravel and study them. Abstracts of these lities are to be made out and laid before counsel for their (Nmsideratn)n atid opinion. If a doubt of fact or law occurs, 1820.] On Ohancery Jurisdiction. 151 the search is to be renewed; outstanding terms of years are to be asccrtained to be either satisfied and attendant on the inheritance, or to be subsisting for trusts, which are exhaust- ed or still to be fulfilled; mortgages are to be traced, either as dead or livingfungi on the trunk of the title through one or two generations; the records of courts are to be searched for liens of judgments and conveyances; and it is to be as- certained what limitations have taken effect or failed, and at what time and under ~hat circumstances. It is to be con- sidered too, that in general, deeds of lands are not recorded, as in our country; so that it is not easy to trace even the deeds through the various depositories. And, finally, a suit in Chancery for a discovery often becomes necessary to com- pel a reluctant or obstinate party to discover the title, by which lie claims an interest in the land, or which lie unjustly withholds from the legitimate owner. These are not exag- geratious of the actual state of things, though perhaps to a careless observer, or a young lawyer accustomed merely to our local practice, it might seem othervise. A treatise has already appeared, or is just about appearing, and a most important one in a practical sense it must be, on the mere subject of abstracts of tiles, showing what a purchaser has a right to require, and what a vendor is bound to give, as to the history of his title to the land, before he can call on the former for payment or specific performance. From these remarks it must abundantly appear how it happens, that in England few important purchases are made, except by an executory contract, or in other words, a contract of sale, in which there are covenants to give a good title, on one side, and on the other to accept and pay the l)urchase money at a stil)ulatcd period. From unforeseen difficulties, from unexpected occur- rences, and from indolence or a lax reliance upon the re- deeming power of Chancery, it frequently happens that the conditions of the sale are not complied ~vitlm ; and thus the parties are prepared for a suit in Chancery. In due time it comes, when the parties are a little quickened in their course, and after references to a master in Chancery, to report Ul)O~ the title, and other interlocutory proceedings, a decree in the course of four or five years is obtained, requiring that to be douc, which some or all the above causes had contributed to leave utterly undone. Many of our rea(lers. we dare say. remember the (bPow. 15~2 On Chancery Jun sdict ion. [July, ing remarks of Tristram Shandy: Upon looking into my mothers marriage settlement in order to satisfy myself and reader in a point necessary to be cleared up before ~ve could proceed any farther in this historyi had the good fortune to pop upon the very thing Iwanted before I/Lad read a day and a half straight frrwardsit might have taken me up a month. If we have at all impressed our readers with our own views, they will begin to perceive that what they took for the colour- ing of romance, a bright and beaming fiction, was, or at least might have been, like many of Sternes most beautiful and touching sketches, a mere matter of fact. There are, without doubt, many titles in England that could not be thoroughly investigated even upon parchment, without months of close and vigorous study. Now the state of things is, as we all know, very different in our own country. Titles are generally very simple, and from obvious causes xviii probably always remain so among the bulk of our landholders. A few hours or days of diligent study will generally give us all that is worth knowing, as to the titles of estates offered for sale. In cases of sales, the deeds of con~ veyance are usually contemporaneous with the contract of sale. In cases where it is otherwise, the contract contains few pro- visions, and the period for its fulfilment is rarely distant; and at the stipulated period it is usually either fulfilled or aban- doned altogether, or a new contract is substituted. This is so generally true, or at kast a specific performance is so little in- sisted on, that bills for this purpose are of not very frequent occurrence in states accustomed to the exercise of Chancery jurisdiction. And we believe and hope that this happy state of things will long continue. A strict equity on this subject is the best equity. It discourages sloth, and chicane- ry, and management; compelling parties to forego the unjust advantage of speculating on the future chances of a profita- ble rise, in the value of estates contracted to be purchased4 if they rise, then at the fortunate nioment, long after the time fix- ed for the performance of the contract is gone by, to insist up- on a specific performance; if they fall, then to leave the pro- perty to the owner with a claim for damages or a suit in Chan- cery on his hands. There is so much good sense in the re- marks of Mr. Justice Livingston on this subject in Hepburn v. Auld, (5 Cranch, R. 262,) that we cannot forbear to quote them. The learned Judge on that occasion said, The reme 1820.] On Chancery Jurisdiction. 1 5~ dy by a decree for the specific performance is a departure from the common law, and ought to be granted only in cases where the party who seeks it has strictly entitled himself to it. It is said that by the English authorities, the lapse of time may be disregarded in equity, in decrceing a speCifiC eXecution of a contract for land. But there is a vast difference between contracts for laud in that country and in this. rfllere the lands have a known, fixed, and stable value, here the price is continually fluctuating and uncertain. A single day often makes a ~rea1 difference; aud in almost every case time is a material (irct1u~stalice. Having glanced in a cursory manner at some of the sub- jects of e(juity jurisdiction, which will be found of but limit- ed application in the United States, we may now turn to other suhjets, in which it will forever operate with a constant and salutary influence. These are cases where relief becomes necessary from accident or mistake of the parties; cases of corn 1)1 icated accounts, whether bet weeti partners9 or factors, or merchants, or assi,gnees, or executors and administrators, or baile~s, or trustees ; cases of fraud, assuming myriads of vivid or of (larkened hues, and as prolific in their brood as the moles floating in sunbeams; cases of trust an(l confidence spreading through all the concerns of society, and sinking their roots (leep and firm through all the foundations of refitt- ed life aII(l domestic relations ; cases, where bills of discove- ry are indispensable to promote public justice ; and lastly, cases, where bills of injunctions are the only solid security against irreparable mischiefs and losses. Some other cases might be mentined ; but those abovenamed must constitute the body of every equity ~jurisprudence adapted to our coun- try. And in the times to come they will probably give ample employment for all the learning, and acuteness, and diligence of the ablest chancellors, in states where conrts of equity are estal)iished. The inquiry then, whether courts of equity are, on the whole. of any serious importance to our country, is in some measure answered by a mere reference to the subjects of its jurisdiction; are these of any seriouS concern to societies or- ganized as ours are ? Is it important to administer substan- tial justice, to suppress frauds, to relieve against inevitable. casualties, to succour the injured, to interpose l)reventi~~e. .Vew Series9 No. 3. 20 154 OiL Chancery Jurisdiction. [July, checks against malice and oppression, or mistaken claims of rights? But it may be asked, why all these objects are not and may not be as fully accomplished by courts of law? To a cer- tain extent they undoubtedly are accomplished by these courts, for it would be strange if court~i, created for the ad- ministration of justice, should wholly fail to answer the pur- poses of their institution. The true inquiry, therefore, is not whether they are not of very great utility, which will be ad- mitted by all persons of reasonable intelligence and honesty, but whether they accomplish all that, in a refined and elevat- ed system of jurisprudence, it is desirable to attain. No~v, we venture to say, that no person of competent skill in the science of law, or of comprehensive knowledge as a states- mami, can fairly answer in the affirmative. There are many cases in which the parties are without remedy at law, or in which the remedy is wholly inadequate to the attainment of justice. Courts of law proceed by certain established forms, and administer certain kinds of remedies ; their judgments are almost invariably general, for the plaintiff or for the de- fendant. If a case arise, in which the remedy already ex- isting at law is inapplicable, or the established forms cannot he pursued, there is an end of relief. Now it is very easy to see that such cases must frequently arise ; for human ac- tions, and contracts, and torts assume an infinite variety of shapes, and become fashioned by an infinite variety of cir- cumstances. The relief must, in many of these cases, be necessarily upon principles of equity of a mixed nature, and to a certain degree in favour of both of the parties. It may be wholly unjust to grant the plaintiff all that he asks, and as unjust to dismiss his suit without any relief. The parties in the defence too may have different rights, and different equi- ties, and a judgment against them in the aggregate, or without adjusting these equities, might lead to the most mischievous results. Now a court of law cannot shape its judgments ac- cording to interfering equities of this sort. It cannot mould them so as to impose conditions and exceptions on the rights of one party, and give effectual aid to the interests of the other. It can only pronounce whether the plaintiff has or has not a legal cause of action and sustain the suit or dismiss it accordingly. Farther, a court of la~v cannot grant spe- cific relief. It can, with few excej)tions, award damages on- 1820.] On Chancery Jurisdiction. 155 ly ; these are, in many cases, utterly worthless as a compen- sation or a remedy. If in some cases, as in ejectments, real actions, and replevins, it acts in rem, it touches only the gross and palpable interests of property; but it cannot an(l does not pretend to reach the subtle rights growing out of inci- dental trusts or equitable claims and liens. If we are still pursued by the inquiry, why courts of law may not do all these things ; we answer that they may, but it must be by a change of their organization and character; and by invest- ing them in form and in fact with all the forms of a Court of Equity. While they remain with their present powers and distinctive character they are prohibited by the cogent man- dates of the law from such unhallowed usurpation. In short, such an inquiry might be at once stopped by a question of another sort; why may not courts of equity perform all the functions of a court of law? But the true answer is, that each is adapted to its own objects, and cannot accomplish the objects of the other without breaking in upon all the set- tled analogies of the common law, and shaking its oldest and most venerable foundations. Lie who is bold enough for such an undertaking may applaud himself as possessing the temer- ity of Pla~ton, with the perfect certainty of not escaping his fate. We have yet a few words to say as to the question of the general utility of courts of equity, which we the more readi- ly offer at the present moment, because if a convention should be called to revise the constitution of this state, it is not im- probable that a proposition will be made to provide for the distinct and independent establishment of such a court; at all events, the subjects will more and more engage the atten- tion of thelegislature, as well as of the profession of the law; and it is very desirable, whatever may be the result, to act on such subjects with all the light which experience or general reasoning may throw in our path. And we think, in the first place, that if a system of equity jurisprudence is to be introduced into this Commonwealth, its utility ~vill principally depend upon the nature of the sys- tem which we take for our guide. If, for instance, we take the equity jurisprudence of England, or which is tIme same thing, of New York, so far as it is al)plicable to our situa- tion, and adhere to it with a rigid and undeviating firmness, following closely its priciples, and walking within its ac 256 On Ghancery Jurisdiction. [July, knowledged limits, there can he rio doubt that it would be a real blessing. But it cannot be (lisguised that there is too strong a ten(lency, not merely in the legislative bodies, but in some of the courts of law, arid still more in some of the courts of equity in the United States, to give a popular cast to our jurisprudence ; to make it a sort of arbitration law, or to decide cases tll)Ofl their o~ a peculiar circumstances, without reference to any general principles. Now this is precisely the worst state of things, both for the profession and for the uublic; and yet in poliular governments the mass of the community are most unaccountably wedded to it. The maxim of common sense, as well as of profound investigation, is misera est servitus, ubi jus est vagum ant incertum ; and yet what can more tend to perpetuate this uncertainty than to escape from exact and leading principles and to plunge in- to decisions upon all the circumstances of cases ? It is a very easy, but a very dangerous course, and often occasions apostacy from the Jaw. Mr. Justice Buller has somewhere emphatically said, that he had a (Iread oh hard cases ; they were the shipwrecks of the law. The same observation ap- 1)lies quite as forcibly to the l)1~actice of mixing up all sorts of consideraions arid circumstamces in Ju(licial decisions~ It confounds all clear distinctions of right. arl(l wrong, aiid be ~vilders and sometimes betrays us into unfrequented laby- rinths, where there is not a single thread of the law to guide us onwards, arid a thousand spectres prevent us from retrac- ing our ste1)s. In respect to equity jurispru(lemlce, ~~1mere so much is necessarily left to discretion, we mean lo judicial, not arbitrary discretion, it is of infinite moment that it be administered upon determinate principles. Lord Camden on one occasion l)l~)tested in strong and indignant eloquence against the exercise of such (liscretion, ~ hich lie signifi- cantly observed, was the length of my Lord Chancellors foot. Without meaning to become his followers in this pro- test, we have no hesitation iii (leclaring our opinion, that the boundary cannot be too sedulously marked out or too watch- fully guarded. If a Court of Chancery be at liberty to deal in all sorts of inquiries as to mere hardship, incomivenience, and conjectural imposition if it may in(lulge in notional equi- ties upon its own views of what may lie fair and reasonable arid accor(limg to good morals between the l)arties: if it may remove time barriers and bars of the law, because there may 1820.1 On Chancery Jurisdiction. 157 not be much honour or honesty in a partys availing himself of their protection if it may cover lij) deviations from set- tled rules by encouraging lax practices arid aiming to cure all the blunders of unskiltiil or rash persous, we have as little hesitation in declaring that we think Massachusetts is better ~vithout such a court. ~Xe have now at least the security of settled rules to guide us to our claims of property. We are accustomed to considerable exactness and regularity in the transaction of our business~ We know ~vhat our remedies are, if we pursue the usual forms of completing contracts ; arid ~vhat is a still more powerful admonition, we kno~v what they are not, if we neglect to give certainty and accuracy to to our contracts. If ~ve mean to be secure, we now take the prOper stel)s to give that security a tangible shape, such as the law may grapple with and protect. We do not consider how little may be done mud just save us by its grace but how much ought to be done to make our sales and our pur- chases sOli(l and safe. There is now a wholesome thrift an(l accuracy about our concerns that disciplines us to close atten- tion, aui(l gives us an almost instantaneous perception of ~vhat is proper. We have at all times, and almost instinctively, the air, and character, and pride of real business-men, who look at th~ir title-deeds before they lock them tip, arid what is ot quite as much consequence, look at them diligently af- terwards. We (10 not slumber over our rights, hut are in~ stant mi season and out of season ; and we do not awaken from the dreams of indolence for the first time after the lapse of t~venty and thirty years, and then consult a solicitor as to the best mode of framing a bill that shall relieve us from all the ill effects of delay, and forgetfulness, and hard- ship, and folly. Our laws hitherto have secured only the vigilant, and not the sound sleepers. Vigilantibus non (br ruientibus leges subvenierit. Now, it is most (lesirable to perl)etuate this course of things, to prevent litigation, ali(l to encourage legal certainty. And all this, a good c(iult oh equi- ty, sustained by a learned, intrepid, and discriminating than cellon, such as Lord Eldon or Mr. Chancellor Kent, would accomj)lish ; but all this would be lost tinder different auspi- ces, as may be seen in some parts of the Union. Without adverting to the learned Judges of our state heoch, ~ve could name agem~tleman at the bar of Massachusetts, whose cantitus, ~~ell instructed, modest, powerful mind, ~vould adrn such aim e qi mity bench and create an equity bar. 158 On Chancery Jurisdiction. [July, In the next place, we think that the administration of equi- ty should be by a distinct court, having no connexion with, or dependence upon, any court of common law. There are many reasons which urge us to this conclusion. The sys- tems of equity and law are totally distinct in their relations and objects. The practice and proceedings have little or nothing in common. The principles of decision are in most cases exceedingly different. A life devoted to either study will not more than suffice to make an eminent judge; a life devoted to either will be filled up with constant employment. There is some danger where both systems are administered by the same court that the equity of a case will sometimes transfer itself to the law side of the court; or the law of a case narrow down the comprehensive liberality of equity. The mixture, whenever it takes place, is decidedly had in fla- vour and in quality. Tibi Doris amara suam non intermisceat undam. Besides, we all know that nothing is moie distract- ing to the mind than a variety of Pursuits. A steady devo- tion to one gives great accuracy and acutenegs, and keeps the whole current of thought fresh and transparent. We do not say that a judge may not be, with great advantage, transferred from one bench to the other; for this has been of- ten done with splendid success. Witness the cases of Lord llardwicke, and Lord Kenyon, and Lord Eldon. What we contend for is, that the same judge should not at the same time administer both systems. In this, as in many of the arts, the subdivision of labour gives greater perfection to the whole machinery. A man may he a great common law judge ; but may have no relish for equity. The talents re- quire(l for hoth stations are not necessarily the same; and the cast oC mind and course of study adapted to the one may not insure success in the other. There is another reason of no inconsiderable weight, founded upon the nature of the duties to he l)erformed in equi- ty. It is no small portion of the business of such a court to grant injunctions upon judgments obtained at law. This is a delicate duty, ar~d should l)e entrusted to an independent court, which has as yet received no impressions of the cause, and to whom its previous merits are unknown. We might suggest many other reasons, hut we have not time for an ample discussion of such a sul~ject. There is one abjection, however, which we have heard repeatedly urged i8~2O.] On Chancery Jurisdiction. 159 against these suggestions, which requires some answer. It is stated that the courts of the United States are examples of the union of the powers of courts of law and equity, and that hitherto no inconvenience has been felt from this circum- stance. Without stopping to inquire into the accuracy of this statement, we may be permitted to suggest that there are some distinctions in reference to those courts which deserve consideration. In the first place, those courts exercise but a limited jurisdiction in equity cases. This arises not from any restriction of their powers upon the subject matter, but from the qualified nature of their authority over persons. They can, in general, take cognizance of suits in equity on- ly where the United States, or aliens, or citizens of other states are parties. Now it must be obvious that the great mass of equity suits in every state must consist of controversies betveen citizens and inhabitants of that state; and that local laws will greatly swell that mass. Where there are few cases, a court either of law or equity may transact the whole busi- ness without any serious inconvenience. But it is far other- wise where suits mix up with all the concerns of society, and may have an indefinite multiplication. Besides, there is, or at least seems to be, under the constitution of the United States, an inherent difficulty in separating the supreme juris- diction at law from that in equity. And precisely the same difficulty exists in the constitution of this state, and most ur- gently requires to be removed by an amendment. We hope that this subject will not escape the attention of the conven- tion which may be called to amend the constitution, whether it be thought best to create or not to create a court of equity at the present time. If ever such a court be created, it should be capable of having a distinct and independent ex~ istence given to it. But to return; another circumstance as to the courts of the United States is, that in six out of the seven circuits, state courts of equity have an existence either connected ~vith the courts of law or with an independent or- ganization. So that the learned judges have the fullest op- portunities of becoming familiarly acquainted with the prac- tice and principles of eqnity through their whole profession- al career; and thus rarely transfer into the circuit courts the local practice of the states within their circuits. Such is not the case in general in INew England. These are consid- erations, which in a combined view ought very much to abate 160 On Chancery Jurisdiction. [July, the strength of the objection raised from the example of the judicial legislation of Congress on this subject. In the next place, if a Court of Equity is to be established and appeals are to be allowed from its decrees, those ap- l)eals ought not to be to any court of law; but to a distinct tribunal created for the purpose. From causes which will readily suggest themselves to every juridical mind, and to ~vhich we have, in some measure, already alluded, a court of law, as such, cannot be presumed to l)e thoroughly conveis- ant with the (loctr1tte~ and practice of equity. Atid if it be entrusted with a sUI)erintendenCe over that subject, it must happen that decrees will often be reversed without sufficient reasons, and the Court of Equity sink front its natural eleva- tion to the level of the interior courts in the state, 8nd that the personal character of the Chancellor will settle the au- thority of decisions, and titus open the path to personal influence an(l judicial jealousies; or that the decrees will be aflirined without much consideration, leaving to the court of appeals little more effective power than that of registering the decrees. We are among tltose who believe that tlte ex- istence of rival co-orditiate courts has the most salutary influence upon all judicial proceedings. They act as checks and balances to each other ; and if theii~ J1t(lgtI~ents are to be reviewed, it sitould be by a tribunal of a distittct or- ganization, common, if you please, to both, but sufficient in independence and (lignity to prevettt any undue ascendancy by either. England owes much of the perfection of lterju- risprudence to this striking feature in tite structure of her government. She has rival tribunals of law and equity, wltere the pride and learning of the p~~ofession and the bench are stimulated to the noblest purposes, the advancement of justice, and the redress of injuries, by that perpetual watch- fulness, which keen intelligence, and sincere devotion to the law never fail to stit up in ambitious minds. While on this subject we are dispose(l to recall tite l)ublic attention to a report made to the legislature of Massachusetts, and printed by its order, in the year 1808, recommertding the estal)lishment of an independent Court of Equity. We (lare say tltis (locumnent is totally forgotten. as most of our unsuccessful legislative proceedings are, by the public at large, and perhaps by most of the committee, ~vlto reported it. It has been con- signed, as most of other state papers are, to some dark and ob i8~O.] On Chancery Jurisdiction. 16t scure corner of some lumber-loft in the State house, there to await th~ (ljSSOltltiOH of their mortal remains by the gradual ol)eratiorl of time, and moulds, and vermin, un~ept, unhon oured, arni unsung. Would it not be for the reputation and dignity of our state government, if, instead of leaving our pub- lic legklative documents to perish, some pains and some mon- ey wri e employed to preserve a number of copies bound and lettered in the state archives, that posterity may know the pro- guess of our legislation ; and find some public indices to those subjects wl~icli interested the public mind, and gave a new di- rection to l)ubhic inquiry? We doubt, ~vhether there exists in the wh4)le commonwealth at this moment a single regular se- ijes of the reports, bills, and other proceedings of our legisla- ture,wlmich have been printed at the expense of the govern- ruent, even within the last twenty years. Surely this is a most wanton in(hilference to our l)ublic concerns, and it will be regretted, deeply regretted, when it can no longer be ~ ithin the reach of common diligence to collect theni. It should be made the special duty of o~r Secretary of State to have bound and kept in his office at least t~venty copies of all documents printed by order of the legislature; and to have a transcript in bound volumes of all manuscript proceedings, reports, hills, & c. acted upon in any shape by the legislature at every session, with a suitable index for reference. In this way the next generation would not be in utter and irretrieva- ble ignorance of our domestic legislative history, full of in- struction, as it must be, both as to what we ought to avoid, an(l what we ought to cherish. But to return to the report to which we have alluded, and ~vhich we accidentally found in searching our papers for another l)urpose. It contains a summary of the l)ractice and principles of courts of equity, in sonic of the points most applicable to our jurisprudence. Since the period in which it was made. the legislature has by law cured some of the defects enumerated in the report; but the substance of it is just as true now as it was at that time. We transcribe from it the following paragraphs, which we commend to the care- ful perusal of our statesmen and jurists. Courts of Equity. as contradistinguished from Courts of law, have jurisdiction in cases, where the latter, from their manner of proceeding, either caunot decide at all upon the subject, or cannot .Vew Series, No. 3. 162 On Chancery Jurisdictian. [July, decide conformably with the principles of substantial justice. Whenever a complete, certain, and adequate remedy exists at law, Courts of Equity have generally no jurisdiction. Their peculiar province is to supply the defects of law in cases of frauds, acci- dents, mistakes, or TRUSTS. In cases of fraud, where an instrument is fraudulently suppressed or withheld from the party claiming under it; where an unconscientious advantage has been taken of the situation of a party; where a beneficial property is injuriously rnisappropriated; equity interferes, and compels complete resti~ tutio:i. In cases of accident, or mistake, where a contract has been made respecting real or personal estate, and by reason of death it cannot be completed; or where, by subsequent events, a strict performance has become impossible; where, in consequence of a defective instrument, the intention of the parties is in danger of being defeated; or where a want of specific performance cannot be compensated in damages ; equity administers the proper and effectual relief. In cases of trust, where real or personal estate by deed, will, or otherwise, is confided to one person for the hen- etit of another; where creditors are improperly preferred or ex.. cluded; Where numerous or discordant interests are created in the same subject matter ; where testamentary (lispositions, for want of a proper trustee, are not fulfilled ; and where fiduciary estates are, by connivance or obstinacy, directed to partial or un- just purposes; equity applies the principles of conscience, and enforces the express or implied trusts according to good faith. Sometimes, by fraud or accident, a party has an advantage in proceeding in a court of ordinary jurisdiction, which must neces- sarily make that court an instrument of injustice, if the suit be suffered; and equity, to prevent such a manifest wrong, will interpose, and restrain the party from using his unfair advantage. Sometimes, one party holds completely at his mercy the rights of another, because there is no witness to the transaction, or it lies in the privity of an adverse interest; equity in such cases will compel a discovery of the facts, and measure substantial justice to all. Sometimes, the administration ofjustice is obstructed by certain impediments to a fair decision of the case in a court of la~v; equity, in such cases, as auxiliary to the law, removes the impediments. Sometinmes, property is in danger of being lost or injured, pending a litigation; equity there interposes to preserve it. Sometimes, oppressive and vexatious suits are wantonly pur- sued and repeated by litigious parties; for the preservation of peace and of justice, equity imposes in such cases an injunction of forbearance. These are a few only of the numerous cases, in which univer. sal justice requires a more elThctual remedy, thami the courts of 1820.] On Chancery Juiisdiction. 163 common law can give. In proportion as our commerce and manufactures flourish, and our population increases, subjects of this nature must constantly accumulate; and, unless the legisla- ture interpose, dishonest and obstinate men may evade the law, and intrench themselves within its forms in security. One or two striking instances, applicable to our present situation, will illus- trate these positions. In this Commonwealth no adequate remedy exists at law to unravel long and intricate accounts between mer~ chants in general; and between partners the remedy is still less efficacious to a(ljust the partnership accounts. A refractory or fraudulent partner may seize the books, papers, and effects of the firm, and cannot by any process be compelled to disclose or produce them. In many instances, therefore, neither debts can be recovered, nor accounts be adjusted by them, unless both par~ ties are equally honest, and equally willing. Great evils have already arisen from this cause, and still greater must arise, unless equity be brought in aid of law. In cases of pecuniary and specific legacies, no complete remedy lies to compel a marshalling of the assets, or an appropriation of them according to the inten- tion of the testator; and where the interests of the parties are complicated, great injustice must often ensue. In cases of trusts, created by last wills and testaments, which are already numerous, no remedy whatsoever exists to compel the person on whom the fiduciary estate devolves, to carry them into operation. He may take the devised property, and if his conscience will permit, may defy all the ingenuity and all the terror of the law. .4lortgages afford a great variety ot questions of conflicting rights, which, when complicated, are beyond the redress of the ordinary courts; nay, more, may often be the instruments of iniquity under their ju(lgments. A discovery on oath seenis the only effectual mean of breaking down the barriers, with which the cunning and the fraudulent protect their injustice. The process, by which the goods, effects, and credits of debtors are attached in the hands of their trustees, is often inefficient, and sometimes made the cover of crafty chicanery. Perhaps too in assignments of dower and partition of eMates, where the titles ot the parties are questionable an(l intricate, or the tenants in possession are seized of particular estates only; it will be found that Courts of Equity can adminis- ter the only safe and permanent relief Thg committee are not aware of any solid objection to the establishment of a Court of Equity in this Commonwealth. The right to a trial by jury is preserved inviolate; and the decisions of the court must be governed as much by settled principles, as courts of law; precedents govern in each, and establish rules of proceeding. The relief granted is precisely what a court of law 164 On chancery Jurisdiction. [July, would grant, if it could ; for equity follows the law. The leading characteristics ol~ a Court of Equity are, the power to eviscerate the real truth by discovery of facts upon the oath of the party charged; the power to call all parties concerned in interest, how- ever remote, before it; and the power to adapt tl~e form of its. judgments to the various rights of the parties, as justice and con- science may require.~ We have yet many things more to say on this subject, but time fails us, and we have wearied ourselves, and we fear that our readers also are wearied ~vith the length of this discus- sion. Perhaps at some future time we may resume it. At present we are willing to pass the short remainder of our journey in such good company as Mr. Chancellor Kent and his excellent reporter. Mr. Johnson, if we do not mistake, began the business of reporting in February 1806. Since that period he has pub- lislied in an uninterrupted series all the decisions of the Su- iweme Court of New York down to the liresent time, in six- teen goodly voluines He has also published three volumes of rel)orts of the cases in the period immediately preceding Mr. Caines reports in the same court. Unwearied in his labours, he has now added to our obligations to him, by presenting us the three volumes of Chancery cases, whose title is l)Jefixed to this article. He has been so long before the public in this most respectable and useful character, that we know not if it be not superfluous to say a word upon the merits of his re- l)orts. We will venture however to give them a passing no- tice, at the hazard of repeating what almost every body knows, and none ~voul(l incline to dishelieve. He is a gentle- man, as we have the pleasure to know, of great literary accomplishments, ~vell instructed in the law, and of most comprehensive researches. He loves tooarid it is no in- Consi(lCrablC praise in what are called these degenerate days he loves the law with all his heart, and has a sincere and unaffected enthusiasm for its advancement. his reports are distinguished by the most scrupulous accuracy, good sense and good taste. lie gives the arguments of counsel with force, precision, and fluency, transfusing the spirit, rather than the letter of their remarks into his pages. One is never puzzled by unintelligible sentences, impertinent sallies, or disproportionate reasoning in his volumes. rfhere is an ex- actness and symmetry about them, that satisfies the judgment. 1820.] Qit Ghancer~j Jurisdiction. 165 His notes too are all good; so good, that we wish we had a great many more of them. He leaves little causes to tako care of themselves, and assigns them a brief space. But when lie comes to great arguments, where research and talent are brought out with vast power and authority, he pours their whole strength before the reader, giving him all the materials of an independent judgment. He can, if he pleases, repeat such cases for himself, by the aid of the reporter. As to the opinions of the court, we have not any necessity to say much. it is, and always has been, a very able court, whose decisions any man might be proud to report; and the highly commenda- ble diligence of the judges, in committing all their important opinions to writing, while it gives the impress of authority, at the same time secures the court from the inaccuracies and mistakes of oral opinions. It gives dignity to the bench, and certainty to the law. Who but must read with delight and instruction the opinions of such men, as Chief Justice Spen- ser, to say nothing of his learned coadjutois and predecessors? For ourselves, we have no hesitation in avo~ving the opinion, that the New York reports for the last twenty years will bear coml)arison with those of an equal period in the best age of the English law, begin the selection where you will. And this, whether we examine the well considered and ingenioas arguments of the bar, or the deep reasoning and learning of the bench, or the accuracy and ability of the reporter. And as to the chancery decisions of Mr. Chancellor Kent, they are as full of learning and ~)ains-taking research, and vivid dis- crimination, as those of any man that ever sat on the English woolsack. Enough has been said, and more than enough, to attract the attention of our professional readers to the volumes at the beginning of this article. If we had room, we might be tempted to extract a case or two for perusal, on account either of its general interest, or the acute and learned discussion it contains. There may be some few cases, in which jurists might venture to hesitate, as to the extent of the Chancel- lors decision; at least where there might be a measuring cast in mooting the law. But these cases, (if any such exist) are so few and so unimportant, that they are lost in the hulk of the volumes. And criticism is never employed to so little advantage, as in attempting to revise the sentences pronounced by courts of justice. The only fit and efficient tribunal, ex 166 Privateering. [July, cept in very gross cases, seems to be that provided for by the law itself, an appeal to a higher tribunal to review the sen- tence, or to the same court to reconsider at another time its own judgments. We cannot quit these volumes, however, without expressing our gratitude to Mr. Johnson for present- ing them to the public. No lawyer can ever express a better i~ish for his countrys jurisprudence, than that it may possess such a Chancellor and such a reporter. ART. XI.4. .1hz .Ilppeal to the Government and Congress of the United States against the depredations committed by .~nerzcan prrcatcers on the commerce of nations at peace with us. By an .flrneri can citizen. New York, pp. 100. 1819. 2. ~/I proposed .~Iemoriat to the Congress of the United States. Boston, pj). 8. 1819. THE writers on national law distinguish between rules deduced by just reasoning from certain princil)les, and those which derive their force from common usage and consent. The former are of universal obligation, and are properly the law of nature applied to communities of men. The latter are fitted not so much to the goodness of an uncorrupted nature, as to the wants of one, that is depraved ;* they are neither binding upon all, nor at all times; they are brought gradually into use, are received by sonic sooner than by others, and may be changed without any violation of natural j ustice. There is not much difficulty in defining the rights of prop- erty and the obligations of contracts, as they exist between nations. Public justice differs not essentially in these res.. pects from private. The facts once settled, it is as easy to decide by what acts one nation has injured another in a state of peace, as to determine when the rights of one individual have been invaded or withheld by another; a~ easy to pro- nounce what is a just cause of war, if we allow war for any cause to be lawful, as to judge of the grounds of a lawsuit. In most cases, indeed, it will be found that neither party in Jue gentiutn secundarium dicitur, quod accommodatum [est], non tam ~ncorruptn natur~ bonitati, quam depravat~u necessitatibus. Voet. ad Pand. L. i. t. 1. n. 18.

166 Privateering. [July, cept in very gross cases, seems to be that provided for by the law itself, an appeal to a higher tribunal to review the sen- tence, or to the same court to reconsider at another time its own judgments. We cannot quit these volumes, however, without expressing our gratitude to Mr. Johnson for present- ing them to the public. No lawyer can ever express a better i~ish for his countrys jurisprudence, than that it may possess such a Chancellor and such a reporter. ART. XI.4. .1hz .Ilppeal to the Government and Congress of the United States against the depredations committed by .~nerzcan prrcatcers on the commerce of nations at peace with us. By an .flrneri can citizen. New York, pp. 100. 1819. 2. ~/I proposed .~Iemoriat to the Congress of the United States. Boston, pj). 8. 1819. THE writers on national law distinguish between rules deduced by just reasoning from certain princil)les, and those which derive their force from common usage and consent. The former are of universal obligation, and are properly the law of nature applied to communities of men. The latter are fitted not so much to the goodness of an uncorrupted nature, as to the wants of one, that is depraved ;* they are neither binding upon all, nor at all times; they are brought gradually into use, are received by sonic sooner than by others, and may be changed without any violation of natural j ustice. There is not much difficulty in defining the rights of prop- erty and the obligations of contracts, as they exist between nations. Public justice differs not essentially in these res.. pects from private. The facts once settled, it is as easy to decide by what acts one nation has injured another in a state of peace, as to determine when the rights of one individual have been invaded or withheld by another; a~ easy to pro- nounce what is a just cause of war, if we allow war for any cause to be lawful, as to judge of the grounds of a lawsuit. In most cases, indeed, it will be found that neither party in Jue gentiutn secundarium dicitur, quod accommodatum [est], non tam ~ncorruptn natur~ bonitati, quam depravat~u necessitatibus. Voet. ad Pand. L. i. t. 1. n. 18. 1820.] Privaieering. 167 a war is entirely right, or entirely~rong, and through the mist of mutual crimination and defence, manif~,stoes, answers, insults, aiid aggressions, it will be difticult to discern the first offence. But this is a difficulty not attributable to any d~frct or uncertainty in the code of public law. But there is also a law of war, and it forms by far the most important branch of the jus gentiurn. Whence is this to be deduced? How far are the reciprocal rights and duties of nations at peace destroyed by a state of war, arid ~vliat are the new obligations, that grow out of this state? What are the limits to the right of destruction, and how are they to be knowii? Who shall say to mad revenge, It is enoughstay thy hand? Where is the precise boundary, on one side of which are glory arid honour and victory ; on the other, rapine and murder? It will be obvious, that there must be great uncertainty, as to the extent of the power given to enemies over the persons and goods of each other, and that wars will be carried on with more or less cruelty, as nations are more or less advanced in humanity. Reason will afford little aid, and the restraint ~xill be rather the effect of milder feelings, than of more correct judgment. The conqueror will be deterred from a passionate an(l vindictive abuse of his power, more by the fear of being disgraced as a barbarian, than of being con- deinned as a violator of public law. What was once a theme of applause will in time be followed by reproach and shame. What is fit and right to be (lone towards an enemy will de- pend more on usage, varying at different times arid among different people, than on any conclusions of reason. We would be understood to speak, as most writers on national law have done, without reference to the commands or the counsels of religion, whether natural or revealed. rfliese writers seem to have adopted, as a truth, the poetic declaration, nulla fides. pietasque viris qui castra sequuntur. They have pro- ceeded upon false principles. As some political sophists have derived the pr~iciples of the social compact from a supposed natural state of men, when every one stood single and inde- pen(lent, free to give or retain that entire sovereignty, which he er~joyed over himself; so jurists have sought in the condition of savage nature for the rights and relations of political societies. They have therefore considered a state of hostility, as a (lissolution of all ties, arid a license to all mis- chief. An enemy, in their view, cannot be injured. Charity 168 I? rivateering. [July, and humanity may be offended; the atonement exacted may be greater, than would consist ~vith that generosity and ten- derness, which we esteem men the more for possessing; but the sufferer cannot consider himself wronged, nor is any pos- itive and binding law broken it stands to reason, says ileineccius, that against an enemy all things are permittcd.* And Puffendorf thus explains both the rights of belligerents, and the restraints, which humanity would impose upon the exercise of them from the moment, that any one declares himself our enemy, since we have every thing to fear on his part, we are authorized, as far as in us lies, to use acts of violence against him to any extent,t and with no other limit, than our will ;t but humanity requires, that as far as the rules of military art allow, we do no more injury to an enemy, than is necessary for our defence, for the vindication of our rights, and for our future safety. Non id solum considerari vult, quid hostis citra injuriam possit pati, sed et quid humanum, adde et generosum victorem facere deceat. Grotins indeed limits the rights of war to what is necessary for attaining the end proposed, ~vhether of self-preservation, just repara- tion, or merited punishment. [Lib. 3, cap. i.] But this, how- ever just in theory, is too indefinite to afford any practical rule; especially when it is considered, that hostilities are allowed to be continued, until satisfaction is obtained, not only for the original wrong, which was the cause of the war, but for all the expense and injury sustained in prosecuting it. And we learn from the same enlightened and benevolent jurist, that by the laws of nations, the possessions of one party in a war are to the other, in all respects, as things without a proprietor,~ and that all are accounted slaves, who are made prisoners in solemn public war, nor is an offence necessary, but the lot of all is the same, even of those, who, on the sudden breaking out of war, may be so unfortu- Hosti enim in hostein omnia licere rationi consentaneuni est. Dc .Aat,. ob vect. .~jc. commise. ~ A toute outrance. IJarbeyrac. ~ Licentizun concedt vim contra ipsum exserendi in infinitum, aut quantum sailli videatur. Dc Jure .7Vatur~c, Uc. lib 8. cap. vi. ~ 7. Dc qfflciie Mm & c. lib. 2 cap. xvi. E5 6. ~ Gentibus placuisse, Ut res hostium hostibus essent non alio loco, quam quo sunt yes nullius. bib. 3. cap. vi. ~ I V Privateering. 169 nate, as to be found in the enemys country.* Cocceins, the corn inei~tator of G~otius, goes somewhat further, and main- tains, that an enemy is to be regarded as a criminal, deserv- ing of death ; hence, when the govcrumeut declares war against any o;ie, by that very act it gives to every citizen the right to inflict on him any degree of evil, to lay waste and plunder his possessions, & -c. Let us not, however, forget what we o~ve to Grotius. rrlie lessons of moderation and humanity, which he gave as a(Imonitioris, have so approved themselves to the reason of mankind, that they have acquired the force, if not the character, of laws; and cruelties, of ~vhich lie contented himself with saying, certe oinittantur sanctius, et cum majori aI)ud bonos laude, would now cover with (hisgrace the conqueror, whu should practise them. Thus have the rights of war been deduced from the assumed position, that an enemy cannot be injure(l ; that by the injus- tice or violence, which gave occasion to the war, he has for- P~ited all rights, and become as an outlaw; that his life, liberty, and property are at the mercy of the conqueror; that to spare may indeed he praiseworthy, but cannot be enjoined as an act of justice. And, as between nations there is no ar- biter, each j)arty in the war has all the rights of the injured, and is subject to all the penalties of the guilty. Justice must always i)C 1)resurned to reside with good fortune or sut)erior strength. Every subject, too, of the warring state, however ignorant he may be of the causes of the war, however peace- Pd and unoffending, has incurred a deadly guilt in the acts of his superiors, and is the object of unsparing vengeance, and u ul i mite(1 punishment. Whatever temperaments Ii ave been admitted in the conduct of ~vars, have been the result of Thehings and notions of humanity more or less refined, and ~iews of policy more or less enlightened, as dilThrent (k~rees of knowledge and improvement have prevailed. Every l)eoI)le has a law of nations. r1~l1e Mohawks even have theirs. 171mev eat their l)risoners, it is true, but they send and receive embassies, and acknowledge the rights of war arid peace; the mischief is. that their law of nations is not founded upon true iwinciples. ~Vontesq. Esp. des LoL~, lib. 1, ch. ii. What Bar- * Par omniurn sors est, etiarn eurum, qul, fato sno, ut diximus, cum bellum repente exortum esset, intra hostium fines (leprehevuiuntur. Lii,. ~. cap. vii. ~ 1. .Vew Series. No. S iro Pri~vateering. [July, beyrac, in his eloquent and beautiful discourse on what the laws only permit or allow, has said of civil laws, applies ~vith still greater force to national jurisprudence. We learn from the monuments of antiquity, that the first laws had scarcely any other origin, than custom, which is often a wretched master. Rules thus introduced are commonly established ~vith little examination or reflection. Ignorance, prejudice, passion, example, authority, caprice, have manifestly a great- er share in producing them, than reason. It is rather the opinion and decision of a blind multitude, than of the ~vise and virtuous. Had religion and the morality of the gospel been made the foundation of the rights and (luties of states, in war as well as in peace, it is probable that many customs derived to us from ruder ages, perhaps even war itself would long since have disappeared. But rights have been sought for in another source, and religion has been permitted to interpose her counsels, not her authority, to moderate the use of that power, which reason and nature have been thought to bestow. Is it not probable, that some usages yet remain, which habit and prejudice, and an imaginary interest alone, prevent our regarding with the same abhorrence, ~vith which ~ve should now look upon the reducing of captives and their posterity to perpetual and irredeemable slavery? Have we yet confined the license of war within those bounds, ~~hich the law of charity would assign to it? Do we not even receive as prin.- ciples of justice, some things ~vhich have no better support than the practice of earlier and less enlightened times, justi- fied by an artificial reasoning, ~vhich, taking things as they are found, invents a plausible defence for whatever custom allows? We have made these remarks move especially with a view to the practice of privateering. It is matter of just aston- ishment, that a species of warfare so repugnant to all our better feelings, so estranged from all that is deemed noble and hon- ourable among men, should so long have I)revailed. It is a l)ractice, which can l)oast nothing of the chivalrous spirit, which we have been taught to admire in the warrior. It begins and ends in pure uninixed selfishness. It seeks neither fame nor power, hut wealth; wealth, not the fruits of patient industry or honest skill, but wrested by the hand of violence or stolen by sui~prise and stratagem. It makes every 1820.] Privateeriug. 171 other consideration yield to a sordid avarice. In its greedi- ness it hardly distinguishes between friend and foe, and is ever ready to pounce upon its prey, whether it be the proper- ty of an enemy, or that of a fellow citizen, which, by the rigid rules of war, has become the subject of confiscation as prize. The means, which it employs, are not less cruel and disgraceful, than its purpose is unworthy. It can make its way through blood to the treasure it. gloats upon, lure by false snAles to destruction, advance securely to its object under the guise of friendship, ensnare by treachery, deceive by perfidy, and secure its unrighteous gaitis by shameless perjury. Not that every one who engages in this practice is under the influence of the vilest passions, insensible to shame, or stained with the blackest crimes. Many, ~ve donbt not, whose lives prove them to be friends to religion and human- ity, and.~vho would scorn to enrich themselves by fraud or dishonesty, have adventured in privateering without reflect- ing upon its nature and tendency. They have been deceived by the legality of the l)ractice. Perhaps, even, they havo persuaded themselves that, while they improved their own fortunes, they were displaying a patriotic zeal for the service of their country. As long as privateering is countenanced and encouraged by public authority, there will be many esti- mable men, who, looking no farther than to what the law allows or forbids, are blind to the immorality of preying upon their follow creatures. A solemn responsibility, then, rests upon those who govern. Nations, by a common con- sent, should relinquish a custom so inseparable from abuse and licentiousness, so vexatious to commerce, and so little under the control of wholesome laws. There is no doubt that great antiquity may be pleaded for the practice of plundering. For several ages after the ir- ruption of the NQrthern barbarians, war and plunder might almost be considered as individual rights. Every petty baron enjoyed the privilege of taking up arms, and every vassal was free to seek his fortune in predatory incursions upon the enemy, whether by land or sea. The infidel pow- ers, which bordered the Mediterranean, covered that sea with small piratical vessels; and the Christian states, whose com- merce suffered from their depredations, partly in self-defence and partly in the hope of gain, fitted out small cruisers or armed their merchant ships. It was most common for man 1 Th2 Privateering. [July, persons to unite for this purpose in a sort of partnership. No public commission was requlre(I. Against infidels it was the right and duty of every Christian to wage incessant hostility, and to (10 them all possible injury.* At the same time, the inhabitants of the Noitli sent their fleets to make (lescents upon the coasts and enrich themselves with the wealth and luxuries of the South.t They were most often conducted by private adventurers, whose bravery or skill caused them to be selected as chieftains. Piracy was a com~ mon trade, and the word was far from carrying with it the ideas of criminality and disgrace, which we no~v attach to it. Selden cites a passage from Asserius, who was the preceptor of king Alfmed, in ~~hich lie says, that this prince caused long ships to be built for the purpose of defence against enemies approaching by sea~impositisqILe piratis in illis vias mans custodiendas commisit; on which Selden remarks, that this word pirates is not here used for robbers, as it now commonly is, but for such as attacked the enemys fleets in naval warfare ~ So the term corsair, from the Italian ~Jorso, is the generic term of pirates and pnivateers. .Alartens on Privateers, p. ~. note. The truth is, that in an age when the obligations of humanity were neither acknowledged nor understood, amid every person might make such use of his strength his cunnino as seemed to him best, so as he did or not invade the property of those to whom he was bound by the tie of a common allegiance; and when the sanction of the prince ~vas not necessary to enable priv ate persons to attack and plunder the enemy, there could be no distinction between authorized atRI unauthorized (lCpICdations on the ocean. The Gauls, says Cleirac, regarded alt strangers (IS ene- mics, and not only robbed them of their goods, bnt put them ceLmelly to death, offering them, as bloody sacrifices, to their false gods.~ And Boucher: In the height of the feudal Martens. The ravages of the Normans arc hardly mentioned before Charle- inagrie. It was then they began those cruises, which made them the terror of other nations. Boucher Consul. (IC Mer. p. 494. t Seldens Mare Clausum, bib. 2. cap. 1O.quoted Robinsons Coil. Mar. p. 21. and embarking pirates in them employed them to guard the approaches by sea. Las gaulois rdputaient tons les etrangers pour leurs ennemis, et ne ICS expoliajent pas seulement de leurs biens, mais en outre us les mettai. e~t cruellement ~ mort, et en faisajent de sanglans sacrifices i\ leurs faux ~iaux. Us et Cout. de mer. p. 95. 173 iSQO.] Jrivateering. anarchy, that is to say, in the ninth century, every person might act the part both of judge and executioner, without any incompatibility iii the two conditions and without dis- grace. ./It that period mariners were a set of robbers. Consul at. de .Mer vol. i. p. 74. The inhuman law of wreck, first relaxed in England by the act of Henry I, providing, that the property should be saved from forfeiture, if any person escaped alive from the ship, is a memorable instance of the same savage state of manners. See Hume, reign Qf Henr!I II. Black. Cam. chap. 8, book i. Boucher, Consul. (le Mer. vol. i. p. 490. It is in vain then for the apologists of privateering to have recourse to these remote ages in support of the assertion that the practice has long or always existed.* Even ~vere antiqui- ty a less doubtful l)lea titan it is, the argument proves nothing, but that in those benighted ages men robbed of their own heads, and that in these more civilized times we have so far improved, as to sanction the proceeding by public authority. The modern practice is better than the ancient, inasmuch as some excesses may now and then be pre- vented by the controul of government over privateers, and it is convenieiit to be able to denote piracy by the absence of a lawful commission ; but the question remains, whether it is morally right, or politically expedient, for governments to grant such commissions, or for individuals to act tinder them? And this question can never be answered by saying that men were accustomed to rob for a long time, before it began to be necessary to have a public commission for doing it. It was found necessary to impose restraint upon private and unan. thorized violence, even between the subjects of hostile pow- ers. This was a declaration, that the ancient practice was only fit for a state of society, as barbarous as that in which it existed. Something, doubtless, has been gained by the re- striction of acts of ~var to those, ~vhose hands are armed by the sovereign po~ver; but ~vhether this gain has been great, or the most essential evils connected ~vith vrivate plunder have been remedied, let history speak. We appeal to the loud an(l incessant complaints of neutrals, of whose com- merce privateers have been justly called the scourge; and to the tortures and. cruelties inflicted by these judges and cxc- * See note to Martens on Privateers, p. 20. Wi11enberg~ derives priva- teers from Theute, queen of Illyriaand Valin maintains that they have existed a all timer. 174 1rivateering. [July, cutioners, of which the annals of privateering, ancient and modern, afford so many examples. It is probable that the practice of nations in the disputes arising between them or their subjects, has followed the same course of improvement with their municipal laws. Every one, who has attended to the history of criminal jurispru- dence, kno~vs that, not many ages since, every individual pos- sessed the power of punishing, and the avenging of wrongs was left to the injured party or his friends.* But as the world grew wiser and more inclined to peace, a check was put upon the right of private revenge, and tribunals began to inquire into the fact, an(l to measure the punishment in propor- tion to the guilt. So, among nations, the frequent broils oc- casioned by the hostile attempts of individuals, gave rise by degrees to the custom of granting letters of reprisals. At first, doubtless, they were only given in a few instances, and subjects continued to attack and plunder without asking the permission of the sovereign. rrhe Consotato del .M~ire con- tains an entire chapter regulating with great precision the conduct of armed cruisers, and the division of their plunder. Not a syllable appears of any public commission being neces- sary, or even a judicial contlemnation of prizes. The publi- cation of the first Catalan edition of this collection is suppos- ed by Boucher to have been about 1494, and he carries the compilation as far back as the beginning of the tenth century. But its origin is fixed with more probability between the years 1250 and 1266.t This code is commonly supposed to have been first compiled in Barcelona, and it is in the Mediterra- nean, where commerce was I)reyed upon by the Barbary corsairs, that we should expect to find the practice of private cruising most prevalent. Letters of marque and reprisals were issued upon the petition of a subject, who complained of injustice done to him by some foreign prince or subject, and they empowered the party receiving them, whether an in- dividual or a community, to obtain satisfaction by seizing the goods of any subject of the offending state. They were lim- ited to the restitution of what had been unjustly taken or withheld, or compensation in damages for the injury suffered. See Kames Historical Law Tracts. ~ Martens, p. 6.and this is the assertion of Giannoni, in his History of Naples, book xi. chap. 6 But see note to thc preface of Robinsons trans- lation of the prize chapters. The chapters relating to this subject were probably added at a period subsequent to the original compilation. 1820.] Privateering. 1,5 Reprisals are sometimes spoken of, as a means of preserving peace, because wrongs were thus remedied by a sort of vio- lence, which is compared to that used in the execution of le~ gal sentences between subjects of the same state, without the extreme resort of war.* The earliest instance of reprisals recorded in England, was in 1295, when Edward I. granted to a subject, licentiam marcandi homiiies et subditos de reg- no Portugalihe et bona eorum per terrain et mare. Rymer,vot. 11. p. 691. .iinderson, vol. i. p. 136. It does not seem to have been considered necessary to be provided with letters of repri- sals until the fourteenth century, and no mention is made of them in treaties prior to that time. .T4iartens, note, p. 10. The right of making reprisals is said to have belonged to every magistrate and even to private subjects until the reign of Charles VII. in France.t Puffendorf, de Jure .TVat. tIC. lii.. 8, chap. 9. ~ 13, not. 2. A law was made in France con- cerning them in 1345. .Martens. There are frequent instan- ces in Rymer in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries4 An act of the English parliament of the year 1353, 27 Edward III. provides, that no foreign merchant shall be troubled or izii- pleaded & c. provided, that if any of our liege subjects, mer- chants or others, be injured by any lords of foreign lands, or their subjects, and the said lords, upon due i~cquest, refuse to do justice, we shalt have the rig/it of mark and reprisals, as has been used in times past. .Martens, p. 12, note. An or- dinance of Charles VI. of Fiance of 7 Dec. 1400, forbids Puffendorf defines them, violentze executiones in cives aut bona civium alterius reipublic~, qux justitiam administrare detrectat. De Lure .Aat. & c. lib.8,c.6,E~ 13. t This is probably a mistake for Charles Vi. See his ordinance mention- ed afterwards. * Vol viii. p. 96Fr. ed vol. iii. part 4, p. 166, year 1399letters granted by Henry IV. commanding his admirals and other officers to seize the ships and goods of subjects of the Earl of Holland in English ports, reciting with great care the previous demands and refusal ofjustice. ilyrner, Fr. ed. vol. iv. part 1, p. 161,year 1409granted by Henry IV. to the Sire de Casteil ion to enforce the performance of contracts made with him by the subjects of the king of Arragon, commanding all public officers to assist him, and to keep all prizes safe in their fortresses till the contracts are fulfilled. Ry- men, Fag, eel. vol. viii. p. 717, year 1411against the Genoese. Rymer. Fag. eel. vol. viii. p. 755, year 1412against the persons and goods of the French, limited to the satisfaction of the actual damage.~nderson, vol. i. p. 239, another instance against the Genoese, limited in sum, year 1413. In the year 1379, Richard II. is said to have granted to the l)eOPlC of Dart mouth a general cruising commission against the French, and in 138-5, tbe~ inhabitants of that town took some French vessels. 176 Privateerin~. [July~ any subject to fit out ships at his o~vn expense for carrying on war against enemies, without license first obtained from the admiral or his lieutenant. Code des P rises, toni. I. p. 1. Rob- inson, Coll. Mar. 75. .Martens, p. 1 8.* From this ordinance and from other documents, it is probable, that in the fifteenth century commissions began to be issucil to private subjects in time of war, similar to those which were granted for making reprisals in time of peace. rL~hey retained and still retain the name of letters of marque and reprisal, and, at this day, the issuing of them is often the first declaration of war. It is, however, very certain, that the practice of granting coin- missions to privateers did not become general before the end of the sixteenth century. The first instance, in which their aid appears to have been considered important in carrying on the war, was in the contest between Spain and her revolted provin- ces of the Low Countries, which began in 1569. In 1570, the Prince of Orange, in the hope of replenishing his impov- erished finances by seizing on the money sent from Spain to the Netherlands, issued commissions to many of his adherents, authorizing them to cruise against the shij)5 of Spain. A considerable fleet was equipped, and, increasing daily in num- ber, they soon became terrible by their depredations not on- ly on the commerce of Spain and the Netherlands, but on that of their own and of other countries. It is said, that their country suffered from them not less than from the des- potism and cruelty of Alva. As the confederated reformists had themselves been called in derision gucux, or beggars,~ these free-booters were called gucux 1e iner, or sea-beggars. Eng~ Univ. Hist. vol. xxvii. p. 888. Many of them were 1)unished by Spain and other nations as pirates, not so much, it is said, on account of their excesses, as of the suppos- ed illegality of their commissions. Martens, chap. i. ~ 7. The French, however, may probably claim the distinction of having first sent out, in any considerable numbers, these scourges of the sea. rl7hejr code exhibits the most ancient regulations concerning privateers, and it is well known, that their maritime laws have always been the most severe against the commerce of neutrals. Dc Thou relates4 that in 1555, An English act of Parliament to the same effect was passed A. D. 1414, 2 lIen. V, c. 6; and a law of the emperor Maximilian respecting the admi- ralty of the Low Countries in 1487, ordered, that no person should fit out a ship for a cruise without the express permission of the admiral or hir lieutenant. .Ibrtens on Pr-cateers, p. 18. ~ De Th8u, torn. v. ~ Hist. torn. ii. p. 633. 1820b] Privateering. 177 the French king, having received advice that sevetal Dutch ships of great burthen were returning from Spain, laden ~vith every sort of valuable India goods, gave orders to the inhab- itaiits of Dieppe, unquestionably the most experienced mari- ners in France, to equip such vessels as they could find in the ports on the coast of Normandy, and seize this rich fleet. The privateersmen of Dieppe,* having fitted out for cruising nineteen ships and six brigaiitines, under the command of Epineville, a celebrated mariner, met the Dutch opposite to 1)over. A most obstinate battle ensued, which lasted six hours. Many ships on both sides were burned; the flames drove the French from their own ships into tl~ose of the enemy, and having more men, they made i~any of them prizes. The Dntch lost a thousand men, and the French four hundred. TI1e English seem not to have been slow in imitating the examl)le set them by the French and Dutch. In the year 1586, we are told by the author last quoted,~ before war had been declared between England and Spain, Philip II. seized and confiscated the goods of time English merchants. The English, under pmetence of reprisals, set themselves to pirating over the whole ocean, harassimig the navigation not only of the Spanish and their allies, but even of the j)eople of the Lo~v Countries, whom they robbed vithout distinction. The mnerchamits of the United Provinces in vain sought re- dress in the English admiralty. But the queen, Elizabeth, wearied by the complaints which came to liner from all quar tees, made severe regulations, requiring cruisers to give secu- rity not to meddle wilhi any ships but those of Spain, and not to dispose of their prizes till they had been regularly con- (lemned iii the admiralty. The l)iIacies, says De r1~hou, were checked tor a time by these decrees; but means ~vere 80011 found to evade them, under pretence of ~)rivileges, or by means of subtleties, ~xhich persons in power connived at.t ~ Les arnzateurs de Dieppe ayant arms en course, & c~ ~ 1)e Thou. Hist. tom. ix. p. 545. t See in ilohinsons Coil. Mar. a proclamation of Elizabeth of the yeai~ 1602, reciting the great extent of the piracies complained of, and forbid- ding any man of war to be fitted out without license and surety. The preamble refers to other laws and orders lately published, upon the growing on of these fowl crimes and piracies colored by other voyages. And in the Statuta Admiralitatis of Master llowghton, printed in Clerkes Praxis, p. 161. we have an ordinance of 1591, requiring presentment to be made of all those, that since the late proclamation have had traffic with the .New Series. No. S. 1 7~8 Prrcateering. [July, Spain and England, shortly after the depredations committed under the commissions of the Prince of Orange, issued coin~ missions to great numbers of privateers. The expeditions of Drake and Frobisher are said to have been of this nature.* In 1625, James I. hmnd it necessary to issue letters patent addressed to the High Admiral, reciting the great losses and damages sllstaine(I by many of his subjects, by the surprising and taking of their ships and goods by the subjects of Spain in the Low Countries, and by those ot~ the States Geueral, and that justice having been demanded in vain, his subjects had made humble suit to him for letters of reprisals. lie, therefore, re(lUires the ,Admiral to grant commissions for taking the ships of the Lo~v Countries and States General to such ~if his subjects as had been so damnified.t hi 1627, Chaiks I. granted reprisals against the French to such of his subjects as had had ships or goods taken by the French, and a x~ar followed in the same year. ~qndcrson, vol. ii p. 27. In that same year too, we are told, that Charles was obliged to fit out an armament to protect the coal tratle against pri- vateers from the Spanish Netherlands. .~ndcrson, vol. ii. p. 29. The Dutch war for independence ended in 1648. Towards leaguers in France, and of all who have set out ships without commission, and to inquire what ships an(l goods have been taken at sea without corn. missions, and of breaking bulk and disposing of prizes before sentence of the admiralty, and what captains & c. under colour of commissions of re- prisal have boarded, taken, & c. ships of England, France, & c. Holland, Zealand, & c. Martens, p. 26. And in the debate upon Pulteneys Act for encouraging- privateers, 1739, Pulteney argues from this, as an instance of the spirit and power, with which private adventurers could act. It was, he says, to private adventurers, that all the success of Sir Francis Drake was owing. Pan. Dab. xvii. p. 415. We have great doubts, however, wheth- er these expeditions are to be classed with cruises of privateers. Drakes was an expedtion fitted out for the purpose of attacking Spain in her home dominions. Elizabeth furnished about 30,0001. and several ships, and Drake and his associates supplied the residue. The spoils were to be equally divided between the queen and the fleet. lie Thou, vol. a. p. 693. There is an important difference between the employment of ships equipped at private expense, but hired by the public and sailing in fleets with the public forces under the government of nav~l officers; and cruises perform- ed by one or more ships under the orders of private adventurers. See also Lee on Capture,, p. 199. It seems to have been an ancient practice to use,iu warlike expeditions ships under the wages of the king, and to give them a part of the prizes. See the ancient articles of the admiralty suljnincd to Clerkes Praxis, p. 163, A. 19. f Rymer, Fr. Ed. vol. vii. part 4. p. 135. 1820.] Privateering. 179 the close of it, in 1643 and 1645, the placarts or decrees of the States General held out great encouragements to priva~ teers. .Atartens, 26. In that long continued contest the use of these instruments had become familiar. r1~reaties and laws were made for defining their rights, and preventiiig the abuses to which they were found to have so strong a tenden- cy.* But new discords kept alive the spirit of plunder, and privateers still found favour, as a cheap means of carrying on war through the instigation of private avarice. In 1634, disputes began between the English and Dutch. The North- ern fishing, and the sovereignty claimed by the British in the narrow seas, were the chief subjects of contention. Eng- land, in the mean while. ~xas disturbed by civil wars, and the parliament party was not likely to omit any means of an- noyance, which had lier~tofore been employed with success. In 1643, exasperated by the cessation of arms in Ireland, they forbade all masters of ships to bring over any officers or soldiers, on penalty of the forfeiture of their vessels, and gave letters of mark to merchants and others, who would fit out ships at their own expense, impowering them to take to their own profit all such ships and goods as they should meet coining over with soldiers or warlike stores 1~r the king.~ The friends of the king were not slow in retaliating this measure, for in 1644 the goods of the merchants trading in France were seized, and letters of marque granted against all that adhered to the Parliament. Wititelocke, p. 130. Of the activity of private cruisers in the hostilities which en~ sued, the reader may satisfy himself by referring to the book last quoted, where he will find instances of mutual lepreda- tion, moie numerous than we have any disposition to record. Doubtless, the practice was attended with much abuse and licentiousness. In the yeai 1650, April 16, an act passed for preventing wrongs and abuses done to merchants at sea, Martens, p. 26. Voet ad Pand. vol. 2. p. 602, speaks of the naves privatorum pr~datorias permissione ordinum instructas, and cites the Admiralty instructions of 13 Aug. 1597, and decrees 1 April 1602, and 28 Jan. 1631, and lie adds, that the decrees of 9 Aug. 1624, and 22 Oct. 1627, required all prizes to be brought into port before breaking bulk, that the republic and others might not be defrauded of their due portion of the plunder. j- Neals History of the Puritans, ch. 12. Whitelocke says, they grant- ed letters of marque against all such as had taken up arms against the Parliament, or assisted the Irish rebels. .7lfernorials, p. 76. sear 1643. I ~() Privateering. ~July, and prohibiting mariners from serving foreign princes or states without license. Whitetocke, P. 451. Soon after this, in 1652, the Parliament and the Dutch came to open hostili~ tie!~, and an active course of j)rivateering commenced between them.* From their near neighbourhood and their former habits, there can be ~o doubt that during this two years contest they kept up this sort of warfare in its worst form. The restoration of the king made no alteration in the pol- icy of the English as it respected their rivals, the Dutch. The scheme of maritime superiority ~vas carried on in the same spirit which had dictated the navigation act. Priva- teers found gi~eat favour in the eyes of the court,t and the passage we are about to quote from the Life of Clarendon ~vih1 show, that this is an important epoch in the history of the practice. It is the more remarkable, as it is from the pen of that virtuous chancellor himself. It relates to the period, 1664, ~vhen the ministers of Charles II. l)rovoked a new war with the Dutch, in the prosecution of their great design of becoming the exclusive masters of commerce. It ~vas resolved, that all possible encouragement should be given to privateers, that is, to as many as would take commissions from the admiral to set out vessels of war, as they call them, to take prizes from the enemy; which no articles or obligations can restrain from all the iillany they can act, and are a people, how countenanced soever, or thought necessary, that do bring an unavoidable scandal, and it is to be feared a curse upon the justest ~var that was eves made at sea, iBesides the horrible scandal an(l clam~ * July 19. New letters of marque granted by the states against the English. 12 Aug. A Dutch private man of war taken and sunk by two ~nglish ketches. Wisitelocke, p 539541. and see pages 545547. ~ This may be inferred from the treaty made between the Dutch and Charles 11. in 1674, which Postlethwait, [Dict. .~rt. Privateer] says, is fit to be a standard to all nations. The preamble runs thus: and where. as the masters of merchant ships, and likewise the mariners and passen. gers do sometimes sufliar many cruelties and barbarous usages when they ~re brought under the pn~ver of ships, which take prizes in time of war, the takers in an inhuman manner tormenting them, thereby to extort from them such confessions as they would have to be made; it is agreed that both his majesty and the Lords, the States General, shall by the severest proclamations or placarts, forbid all such heinous and inhuman offences There wrts aa article with France to the same purpose in the treaty of tT~re~1it 1820.1 Frivateeriug. 181 our that this class of men brought upon the king and the whole government for detect of justice, the prejudice, which resulted from thence to the public, and to the carrying on the service is unspeakable. Au seamen run to them, and though the king now assigue(l an ample share of all prizes taken by his own ships to the seamen, over and above their wages; yet there was a great difference bet~veeu the condition of the one and the other. In the kings fleet, they might gain well, but they were sure of blows ; nothing could be got there with- out fighting. With the I)rivateers there was rarely fighting. They took all ~vho could make little resistance and fled from all who were too strong for them. And so these fellows were always well manned, when the kings ships were compelled to stay many days for want of men, who were raised by pressing, and with great difficulty. p. 242. From this time privateers have been common in all wars between maritime countries, and governments have endeavoured, by the most liberal en- couragements, to increase their number, and whet their thirst of plunder. At the same time, the evils suffered from them and the loud complaints of neutrals, have caused vari- ous expedients to be resorted to for checking their excesses, while their use has been continued. The great increase and wider extent of commerce have added to the opportunities and the temptations for growing rich by this sort of author- ized violence; and it has hitherto been found impossible to impose any effectual restraints upon forces of so low a char~ acter, and called into action by motives so un~vorthy and soi.did.* From this historical deduction, it appears, 1. That the practice of privateering is truly what it has been called, a remnant of the ancient piracy, and has its root and origin in the general license of plundering, which we justly regard as the vice of a barbarous and lawless age. 2. That the public commissions, under which it is now carried on, were expedients adopted, ~vhen the world began to assume a more regular and settled form the first ste1) to~vards a state of society more consistent with reason and humanity. S. That Immediately after the war of 1755 had commenced, the English pr~ vateers began to swarm in the channel, and to commit depredations upon the commerce of friendly nations. The Dutch complained, and in 1759 an act was passed, prohibiting commissions to any vessel under one dred tons burthen and forty ~ ~rnr~/ tt~ (io~tu vol. 6. p. 151294. 182 Privateeriu~. [July, at first, letters of reprisals authorized the seizing of goods on the land, as well as at sea.* 4. That the first notice we have of privateering to any considerable extent is the measure, to which in the outset of the war of the Netherlands, poverty and revenge drove the Prjnce of Orange; and that these privateers became notorious fbr their piratical (lepredations. If before that it was practised by the French, it was not lin(lcr circumstances more honourable, nor vith less cruelty. 5. That the practice has always continued to answer well to its original; privateers having been, in earlier and later times, the scourges of neutral commerce, a continual theme of coInl)laint to neutral powers, the causes of new wars, sub- jects of negotiation iii treaties, and of frequent restrictive laws; but still eluding all attempts to put a stop to their abuses, and reverting to their primitive character. It is now time to turn our attention for a moment to the practice of war upon land, arid here we are at once struck with a strange difference i~i conduct and opinions. It would seem, that while we have been growing more refined and generous in hostilities by land, we have certainly not improv- ed, and it is to be feared, have even become less attentive to consi(lerations of equity and humanity, in our maritime war- fare. We can claim, in this respect, no superiority ovei the men of t~vo centuries ago. Like them, we set upon the peace- ful merchant to rob him of his property, and if those, to whom he has entrusted it, defend it faithfully, we suffer no tender- ness for life to keep us from our booty. On the land, do we ever hear of an honourable commanders delivering up to pillage a captured city, unless induced by some extraordinary violation of the rules of lionourable warfare in the enemy ? Does lie ever seize the merchandize of the inhdbitants or disturb them in the exercise of their trades? Why, then, on the sea should captured ships and the goods they are freight- ed with, pursuing peacefully their course, and engaged in the useful interchange of the products of different lands, become a prey to the rapacious cruiser? The most, that is allowed upon the land, is the exaction of a tribute, an(l even of this, we suspect the instances are becoming rare, and it is regarded as somewhat disgraceful. But if even the commander of an * See letters granted by Edward I, ante, p. 175, and the form in Ilymer, torn. iv. part 1, p. 16, French ed. 1820.] iPnvateertng. 183 invading army forbears to touch any property, but that of the sovereign, what should we say, if bands of private adven- turers were commissioned to enter the enemys borders to rob and pillage for their own profit? Should we not regard it much in the same light, as ~ve should the use of poison, or assassination, or internal machines ?* llo~v, then, shall x~e reconcile this inconsistency? A late writer has, we think, given the true account of it. The jeal- ousy of commerce has entered much into all the wars between maritime countries from the time of Cromwells war with the Dutch. lo exhaust the commerci~ resources of the enemy, and so to cripple his trade, that he may not be able to resume it upon fair terms of competition, when peace shall be restored, l)as been one of the objects pi-oposed by one or the other of the l)elli~erent Piivateers, most destructive as the assailants of commerce, have for this cause been encourage(1 an(l protected. and the exemption granted upon the laud to the property of peaceful subjects has been denied at sea. From thence arises that striking inconclusiveness,t [incoIi~ sistencyl ~vhich has been so frequently declaimed against, that, ~vhilst in ~vars on the continent, the civilized nations of Europe (so long as they do not betray that character) en~ deavour to make the burthen of it fall as lightly as possible on the peaceable subjects of the enemy, and that they respect their property in consideration of a contribution levied, by authorizing pillage only in some extraordinary cases, the barbarous practice has been retained, in maritime wars, of depriving hostile subjects of their ships and their cargoes, by 1)rol1ibitin.~ no~v, aIm ust universally, the acceptance of a ran- som.t .Miartens on Pri-cateers, p. 22. That some cause, like that here suggested, has retarded the progre. s of civilization in the customs of maritime ~var, As to what are unlawful arms, see Martens, Precis dii droit (los gens, t. ii. p. 351, and also as to the difference in the rules respecting property on land and at sea. ~ We copy from the English translation, published in 1801. t It appears that in holland, by an edict of the Earl of Leicester, of 4 Apr. 1586, all captures, whether by land or sea, were brought before one tribunal, and the counsellors of the states of Holland, formerly, as appears from their ancient forms in 1590, adjudged upnn the plunder obtained by the soldiers on the land. But, says Bynkershoek, I do not find this in their new form, 4 Oct. 1670, nor is it observed in practice. Quest. .Tirn. Pub. lib. i. cap. 18. 184 r~va1cer~n~. rJu1y~ can hardly be doubted, when we consider how many of the most distinguished writers, ancient and modern, have declared their disapprobation of the practice of privateering. To begin with Albericus Gentilis, who was professor of law in one of the English universities, from the year 1532 to his death in 1603. Privateers, as we have seen, had then first begun to be used to any considerable extent, and to be recognized by stipulations in treaties,* Gentilis, in his book de .~dvocatione Hispanica, speaks of them tinder no other name thami pirates, and ~vill not admit them to be entitled to army better consider- ation. Grotius says, it ~s ~vorth inquiring, how far the right of private captures may be carried, without violating internal justice or charity.~ And after showing that by the law of nature no injustice is done to the enemy, if the plunder be confined to a compensation for the injury which caused the ~var, lie adds, that although justice, strictly speaking, may not be violated, yet there may be an offence against that moral duty, which consists in loving others, as by the law of christianity we are especially commanded; as if it should appear that such depredation will fall, not upon the hostile commonwealth, or time sovereign, or those, who are in them~ selves guilty, hut UL)Ofl the innocent, and that it ~vill reduce them to such a measure of distress, as it would not he lawful for us to inflict even upon our private debtors. But if, in addition to this, such depredation will ieither be of great ef- fect in putting an end to the war, nor in cutting off time enemys strength, then indeed an honest man, and more especially a christian, will scorn to profit by the calamity of the times. Lib. 3, cap. xviii. ~ 4. From this and other passages of Gro- tins, it cannot be doubted, in what light Imeregarded priva- teering, as in fact carried on. We have already quoted the winion of Clarendorm, than ~vhmichm none can be entitled to greater respect. The treatise of Molloy de Jure .Maritirno Bvnkershoek, Q. J. 1. Lb. i. cap. 18, seems to refer the origin of priE vateering~ to the war of the United Provinces ~vith Spain, for he mentions no earlier instance. Ohm in Belgio F~derato fuerunt privati, qui ipsi flave3 behhicas exercebant, quibusque, pr~ter 1)remia, ex captis et recupe. ratis navibus redacta, ex publico arario numerabatur certa pecunia pro modo expensarum, et pro inodo temporis, quo operam belhicam prastabarit. like naves privatorum dicebantur K~uyssera, lisque adversus Ilispanos cum maxirne usi sunt Ordines Generales. t id vero quatenus procedat, ihlxsa justitia interna et charitate, non immerito qu~-eritur. Lib. 3, cap xviii. ~ 2. 1820.] Prtvateering. 185 was first published in 1676; many editions have been pub- lished since that time, and its reputation is deservedly great. Most certain, says this writer, these sorts of capers or privateers, being instruaients found out but of later ages, and tis well known by whom, it were well they were restrained by consent of all princes; since all good men account them but one remove from pirates, who, without any respect to the cause, or having any injury done them, or so much as hired for the service, spoil men an(l goods, making even a trade and calling of it, amidst the calamities of war. look 1, ch. iii. ~ 15. The comI)ilation, entitled Sea Laws, was published early in the last century. We find in it this passage, Our laws take not much notice of these privateers, because the manner of warring is new and not very honourable, bitt the diligence of our enemies in this JJ?ratical way obliges us to be abo as diligent for the preservation of our conirnerce. p. 472. So Beawes, whose Lex Mercatoria was compiled in 1750, The use of these sort of vessels we were taught by our neighbours, and obliged by their example to encourage them, & c. p. 207. Loccenius, who was professor at Upsal in 1670, seems, like Gentilis, to have known no distinction between privateering and piracy. His words are, When a naval war is uiiavoidable, it is far better to assail the enemy with domestic levies or hired marines, under officers and discipline, or to depend on the aid of allies, than to give license to pirates, the vilest of mankind, who, once authorized to plunder, soon forget all restraint, and spare not even friends, nor those, who have never injured them or their employers.* If we come down to more modern times, we find Mably~ and Galliani,t supporting the justice and expe- diency of exempting commerce from the calamities of war. But especially Linguet, whose essay we would quote entire, if it were possible, has exposed in the clearest manner the absurd contradiction in practice, to which we have already referred.~S It is, to use his words, one among a thousand Sed et si belli maritimi necessitas incumbat, pr~stat delectis domes~. ticis, aut militibus nauticis mercenariis, qui sub duce et disciplina degant, aut sociorum ope, quam colluvie pessirnorum hominum, piratis, adversua hostes uti, qui licentiam spoliandi nacti, facile prxsc.riptos fines excedunt; Ut ne quidem arnicis aut aijis, a quibus vel ipsi, vel eorurn patroni nun~. quarn lxsi sunt, parcant. Dc Jure Mar. et A/av. lib. 2, cap. iii. ~ 4. tDrot Publique, tom. 2, cap. xii. * Lib. 1, cap. 10. See this able paper in Annales Politiques, torn. v. p. 51g. .iVew Series, No. 3. 186 Privateering. [July, proofs of the confusion, barbarism, and extravagance of all our principles, of every sort. Whence comes this difference between fleets and armies, squadrons and regiments, corsairs and hussars ? He thus concludes a glowing description of the circumstances which piucipally give a character to pri- vateering; It is cowardly, for its object is to attack the un- armed ; it is odious, for it has no other l)rinciple than a base self-interest; it is barbarous, for the flying merchant-ship is compelled to submit by murderous broadsides; nor is it Un- corn mon for a part of the crew, at the moment of striking the flag, to be slaughtered by the balls that brought the order for striking. Martens has expressed himself in language not less clear and decisive. Glory and duty call an officer to light the enemy, whenever the interest of his sovereign is concerned, and honour is the best reward for his labours and his dangers; it is not so vith the privateer. Indifferent to The fate of the ~var, and often of his country, he has no oth~ or inducement hut tl~e love of gain, no other recompense but his captures and the prizes conferred by the state on his pri- vileged piracies. To encourage individuals to fit out priva- teers at considerable expense, it is necessary to present them the allurement of a rich booty, and, by prescribing them a modeiatio:i, which they are fully determined not to observe, not to intimidate them by imposing on them too many re- strictions. p. 24. The opinion of Dr. Franklin we shall have occasion to quote hereafter. The apologists of priva- teering have, we believe, rested its defence on the sanction given to it by law, and have contented themselves ~vith show- ing, that there is a real and substantial (listinction between privateers and pirates. Azuni, one of the latest and most distinguished of these apologists, after mentioning the opin- ions of Galliani and Mably, adds, that he respects their opin- ion, and would adopt it, if he were speaking as a mere phi- losopher. it is wonderful, when we consider how much the commerce of neutrals has suffered from privateer~, that more frequent efforts ha~e not been made to put a stop to the practice by the general consent (if nations. Our own history furnishes in- deed a fact, which cannot fail to gratify the feelings of an American. As early, says the Memorial before us, as 1785, the celebrated philosopher, Dr. Franklin, in a letter to a friend, observed, that the United States, though better 1820.] Privateering. 1S7~ situated than any other nation to profit by privateering, are, as far as in theni lies, endeavouring to abolish the practice, by offering iii all thcir treaties with other powers an article engaging solemnly, that in case of a future war, no priva- teer shall be commissioned on either side, and that unarmed merchant-ships on both sides shall pursue their voyages un- molested. p. 6.* It was accordingly stipulated in the 28d article of the treaty vith Prussia, in 1785, as follows And all merchant and trading vessels employed in exchanging the products of different places, and thereby rendering the neces- saries, con eniencies, and comforts of human life more easy to be obtained and more geheral, shall be allowed to pass free and un- molested ; and neither of the contracting powers shall grant or issue any commission to any private armed vessels, empowering them to take or destroy such trading vessels, or interrupt such commerce. Marteust has taken notice of this article, adding, that this example, worthy of imitation, has not been hitherto fol- lowed by other states. Dr. Franklin, to whom, (loubtiess, the credit of this humane scheme belongs, has elsewhere ex- pressed his opinion in emphatic terms. The author of the Appeal, mentioned at the head of this article, quotes a pas- sage from the propositions relative to privateering, commu- iiicated by Dr. Franklin to Mr. Oswald, 14 Jan. 1783, in which the principal reasons of policy for abolishing the prac- tice are forcibly stated. ft is for the interest of humanity in general, that the occasions of war, and the inducements to it, should be (liminished. if ra- pine is abolished, one of the encouragements to war is taken away, and peace tlerefore more likely to continue and be lasting. The practice of robbing merchants on the high seas, a remnant of the ancient piracy, though it may he accidentally beneficial to particular persons, is far from being profitable to all engaged in it, or to the nation that authorizes it. In the beginning of a war some rich ships, not upon their guard, are surprised and tak- en. This encourages the first adventurers to fit out more armed Letter to B. Vaughan, Esq.Franklins Works, vol. ii. p. 448. j Essay on Privateers, p. 31, note.The only instance of a similar at- tempt, mentioned by him, is that of the agreement between S~veden and the United Provinces, when at war in 1675, that neither they nor their allies should make use of privateers~but the ag-reement was not per- formed. 18S Privateering. ~July, vessels, and many others to do the same. But the enemy, at the same time, become more careful, arm their merchant-ships better, and render them not so easy to be taken ; they go also more under protection of convoys ; thus, while the pm ivateers to take then are multiplied, the vessels