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PUBLISHED.

Chaucer's select Works, 1 vol.
Donne's select Poems, Gower's select Po-

ems, Howard's (Henry, Earl of Surrey,
Poems, Wyatt's (Sir Thomas) Poems
1 vol.

Spenser's (Edm.) Poems, 2 vols

More's (Sir Thomas, Lord Chancellor) Utopia, Raleigh's (Sir Walter) political Works and Poems, Sidney's (Sir Philip)

Miscellanies and Poems. 1 vol. Bacon, (Lord Chancellor) his Novum Organum, with his Works in English, excepting his unfinished Works on Natural History, his treatises on Theology and Law. 3 vols. Shakspeare's Works, with the most approved Commentaries and Notes, 12 vols. Johnson's (Ben) select Works. 1 vol. Beaumont and Fletcher's select Works. 2 vols.

1 vol.

Hobbes on Government and Morals, Sid-
ney's (Algernon) select Works.
Butler's (Samuel) poetical Works. 2 vols.
Clarendon's (Lord) Works. 8 vols.
Milton's poetical Works. 2 vols.
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(Mat.) select Works, Waller's select
Works. 1 vol.

Taylor's (Jeremy) select Works. 2 vols.
Temple's (Sir Wm) select Works. 1 vol.
Dryden's poetical Works. 1 vol.
Locke's complete Works, excepting his
theological Works and Letters. 5 vols.
Otway's Works. 1 vol.

Swift's historical, political, satirical, and
poetical Works. 6 vols.
Shaftesbury's (Earl) Characteristics. 2 vols.
Addison's select Works. 4 vols.
Bolingbroke's (Lord) political and histor-
ical Works. 3 vols.
Watts' philosophical Works, and Poems.
1 vol.

Young's Works. 2 vols.
Pope's Works. 5 vols.
Gay's select Works. 1 vol.
Richardson's Novels. 10 vols.

Montague's (Lady Mary W.) Letters. 2 vols.
Chesterfield's (Earl of) Letters. 2 vols.
Warburton's select Works. 1 vol.
Thomson's (James) Works.
Fielding's Novels. 5 vols.

1 vol.

mighty rivers and inland seas, which intersect our country with a magnificence and grandeur un known in any other region of the globe, gave evidence that restless and destroying man had early tracked the untilled soil with steps of blood, and awakened the startled echoes of this new world, with the discord of his mad ambition.

Paley's Moral Philosophy. 2 vols.
Junius' Letters. 2 vols.
Fox's (Charles Jas.) select Speeches. 1 vol.
Pitt's (William) select Speeches. 1 vol.
Ossian's Poems. 1 vol.
Burn's poetical Works.
Sheridan's (R. B.) Works, including a se-
lection of his Speeches. 3 vols.
Erskine's (Lord Chancellor) select Speech-churches and seminaries for the instruction of

es. 1 vol.

1 vol.

Mitford's History of Greece. 7 vols.
Stewart's (Dugald) philosophical Works.

3 vols.

Mackenzie's Novels. 2 vols.

1 vol.

"Villages and towns now rise on the site of those forests which, forty-five years since, witnessed the fierce encounters of two adverse armies; and future patriots and statesmen occupy the spot, where the cruel savage immolated his unfortunate captive, or performed the superstitious rites of his untutored worship. The frowning wilderness has become the scene of gaiety and splendor, where Bloomfield's poetical Works, Wordsworth's vagaries of fashion, and the luxurious refinements the bloom and brightness of beauty, the enchanting poetical Works. of wealth unite their witching influence; where Campbell's poetical Works, Roger's poet- the graceful dance, the ravishments of music, and ical Works. 1 vol. every varying pleasure which invention can devise, Crabbe's poetical Works. 2 vols. conspire to charm away the hours of the gay and idle throng, who annually resort to taste the far Southey's poetical Works. 3 vols. famed waters of Saratoga. Nor can the foot of the An auxiliary work, in six volumes, un- American press the soil, mingled, as it is, with the der the title of MISCELLANIES OF ENGLISH dust of the great and the brave, without a thrill of LITERATURE, will contain a series of rare, national pride, as he recalls the events of the year choice, and curious productions, selected so glorious in the annals of his country, and which from various English writers, ancient and have shed a tinge of romantic, we had almost said of classic interest over the wild scenery of the modern, whose general works may be ei-north." See Vol. I. pp. 134-5. ther of too early a date, or not of sufficient interest to warrant entire publication in the preceding collection; it will also furnish many individual and fugitive articles, drawn from manuscripts, obsolete works, and other sources, not within the reach of general readers. It will, of course, contain many rich morsels and delicacies of literature.

Subscriptions will be received by the publishers in Philadelphia, and by Cummings, Hilliard, & Co., Boston; E. Bliss & E. White, New York; E. J. Coale, Baltimore; P. Thompson, Washington; P. Cottom, Richmond; C. Bonsal, Norfolk; W. H. Berrett, Charleston; J. R. Arthur, Columbia; W. T. Williams, Savannah; W. J. Hobby, Augusta; W. M'Kean, New

Orleans.

Specimens of the work may be seen

LATELY PUBLISHED

Chatham's (Earl of) Works. 1 vol.
Johnson's (Dr Samuel) Works. 8 vols.
Hume's philosophical Works and History, at any of those places.
with its Continuations. 15 vols.
Sterne's Works. 3 vols.
Akenside's poetical Works, Collins' poetic-
al Works, Gray's poetical Works, Sav-
age's poetical Works. 1 vol.
Armstrong's poetical Works, Beattie's po-
etical Works, Cotton's (Sir R.) poetical
Works, Falconer's poetical Works. 1 vol.
Smollett's Works. 3 vols.
Robertson's Works. 8 vols.
Blackstone's Commentaries.
Smith's Wealth of Nations. 3 vols.
Chapone's Letters on the Mind, Gregory's
Legacy to his Daughter, Pennington's
Advice to her Daughter. 1 vol.
Goldsmith's Miscellaneous Works. 4 vols.
Burke's select Works. 5 vols.
Cowper's Works. 1 vol.

4 vols.

Berkley's philosophical and political Works.
1 vol.

Blair's Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles
Letters. 2 vols.
Gibbon's Works. 12 vols.

BY CUMMINGS, HILLIARD, & Co. and for
sale at their Bookstore, No. 1. Cornhill,
Boston, "Saratoga, a Tale of the Revolu-
tion." The portion of American History
with which this Tale is interwoven is that
of the Northern Campaign of 1777, which
terminated in the surrender of General
Burgoyne's army to General Gates. The
following extract is a fair sample of the au-
thor's manner of writing, and will serve, it
is hoped, to bring into more general notice
a work, which, in the popular style of ro-
mance, recapitulates a series of events
highly interesting to every citizen of the
United States.

"That part of New York which in the year 1777 was the scene of contest between the two experienced Generals, Burgoyne and Gates, exhibited at that period few marks of cultivation or improvement, except such as might be occasionally observed around the log hut of some enterprizing settler, who had De Lolme on the Constitution of England. ventured to invade the solitary wilderness. The remains of several forts also on the borders of those

1 vol.

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ART. XV.-On Rock Formations, by Baron Hum-
boldt.

ART. XVI.-Transactions of the Royal Society of
Edinburgh, Vol. X.
ART. XVII. Notice of the Attempts to reach the
Sea by Mackenzie's River, &c.
ART. XVIII.-Account of part of a Journey
through the Himalaya Mountains, by Messrs
A. & P. Gerard.
ART. XIX. Observations upon some of the Min-
erals discovered at Franklin, Sussex Co. New
Jersey.
ART. XX.-Account of the Earthquake which oc-

curred in Sicily, by Prof. Ferrara.
ART. XXI.-Remarks on Solar Light and Heat,
by Baden Powell, M. A. &c.
ART. XXII.-Of Poisons, chemically, physiologic
ART. XXIII.-Notice of some Parts of the Work
ally, and pathologically considered.
of M. Charles Dupin, on the Navy and Com-
merce of Great Britain.

GENERAL INTELLIGENCE. Comet of 1823.-Cabinet of Minerals at Cambridge.-American Geological Society.-Perkins Steam Engine.--Method of Cleaning Gold Trinkets, and of Preserving engraved Copper-Plates.--Height of Mount Rosa.-New Vesuvian Minerals.-Seal and Walrus.-Obituary.

CAMBRIDGE:

PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS,

BY

HILLIARD AND METCALF.

THE UNITED STATES LITERARY GAZETTE.

Published on the first and fifteenth day of every month, by Cummings, Hilliard, & Co. No. 1 Cornhill, Boston.-Terms, $5 per annum, payable in July.
VOL. I.
BOSTON, NOVEMBER 15, 1824.
No. 15.

REVIEWS.

Reminiscences of Charles Butler, Esq. of Lincoln's Inn. With a Letter to a Lady on Ancient and Modern Music. From the fourth London edition. New York. 1824. 12mo. pp. 351.

er the sudden transition from the walls of this holy | nothing but that experience, which they
retirement, into the allurements of pleasure, which cannot have, is able to impress upon them
every youth must encounter, the instant he steps the folly and criminality, and we are bound
into the world, is not likely to make him rush into
the opposite extreme of indulgence and dis-ipa- by a regard for their true happiness, which
tion; whether the strict state of coercion, in which is but another name for virtue, to shield
these students were educated, did not tend to break them from the whips, which are hereafter
their spirit;-whether their imaginations were not to scourge them. The protecting power
too much subdued by the awful view of the eternal must at last be withdrawn, it is true; but it
years thus incessantly presented to them ;-wheth-
er more of the world's morality ought not to be will be replaced by a regard to character,
taught to all, who are to live in the world,-in one
and the thousand helps, without which vir-
word, whether the general effect of the system was tue would so often faint. We say nothing of
not calculated to produce a feebleness of mind and religious principle, which rarely takes root
soul, that would shrink from contention, and give at any other season than the spring time of
the palm to the less religious, but bolder adven- life. We wish that, in one other particular,

turer,

some of our universities resembled more
nearly that of Douay-we mean in cheap-
ness. "The instruction," says Mr Butler,
"the dress, the board, the pocket-money,
the ornamental accomplishments of music,
dancing, and fencing, every thing except
yearly sum of £30."
physic, [!] was defrayed by the moderate

A MAN, who has spent more than half a century in literary and forensic pursuits in a metropolis, and that the metropolis of the British empire, must be a very dull one, if his reminiscences are not interesting. We took up this work, therefore, with the reasonable expectation of deriving much entertainment; and the rather as we per"Vincentem strepitus, et natum rebus agendis." ceived by the title-page that it had passed 'But, what is the end of our being?' asked a through four editions in England. We have priest, to whom, for the sake of obtaining his an not been disappointed. It has afforded us swer, the Reminiscent retailed these objections: an agreeable, and what is important to such Is it, what is usually termed, to succeed in life? gormandizers of new books, as we of the to deserve the praise of elegance? to obtain reperiodical pen are apt to become, a long done better than by protracting innocence as long nown? Is it not to save one's soul? Can this be intellectual repast. The author of this as possible? What can compensate its early loss? work is known to theologians by his Hora-You say that all this purity will shrink at the Biblicæ, an account of the New Testa- first touch of the world. Be it so; but the victim ment, its various readings and literary his will then only be in the situation in which he tory; to lawyers, by his Juridical Essays, if he had been educated in a dissipated school. would, in all probability, have been much sooner, but more especially by his valuable contin- Besides,--is it certain that this will be the case? uation of Hargrave's edition of Coke on Lit- Does experience show that the habits of years are tleton; and to politicians, by his exertions so soon over ome?-Admit however that it unforand writings in favour of Catholic emanci- tunately happens,-who is most likely to experipation. The temper of the man may be ence salutary compunction? and, when sober years, the retour de l'age, as the French describe learned from the concluding observation of this period of life, shall come on, who is most likehis preface. ly to return to religion and regularity,-he, whose youthful years were strict and pious, or he, to that this sequestered education and these submissive habits disqualify for active life: but don't they wonders and charms with which the pages teach obedience, teach modesty, teach duty? of the bard of Avon abound." Again,Now, what is the rank, what the pursuit, for which" Age, he believes, makes us fastidious in these do not eminently qualify? poetry, and feel much more than we do in youth the truth of the well known observation of Horace,

In the mean time there was no danger of any loss of the national feelings of the English boys, since "the salutary and incontroday, beat two Frenchmen, was as firmly vertible truth that one Englishman can, any believed, and as ably demonstrated at Douay and St Omers, as it could be at Eton or Winchester."

Among the Reminiscences of Classical Studies and English Literature we find some interesting materials for the history of mind. "It was not till the subtle thief of youth' had stolen all his early years, that

It is a great satisfaction to him [the Reminiscent] to reflect that none of his writings contain a sin- whose youth devotion was unknown? You say, the Reminiscent was really sensible of the

gle line of personal hostility to any one.

The reminiscences of the first chapter relate to education at the foreign Roman Catholic universities, in one of which, that of Douay, in France, the author received his own. He is, of course, a Romanist. The subject of education is one of such general interest in our time and country, that we venture, at the very threshold of our analysis, on an extract of some length.

We confess a great leaning to the opinions of the good ecclesiastic. We believe that the error of modern systems is deMediocribus esse poetis, cidedly on the other hand; that youth is Non Dî, non homines, non concessêre Columnæ." left, in too many particulars, to the blind There never was, all records show it, guidance of its own feeble judgment and Of gods and men, a middling poet. Every care was taken [at Douay] to form the in- limited experience, and that the inadequate We are not yet old enough to decide finalfant mind to religion and virtue: the boys were mean of persuasion is frequently employed ly on the justice of the author's opinions, as secluded from the world; every thing that could to attract the twig towards the right direc- expressed here and elsewhere, but we believe inflame their imagination or passions was kept at a tion, instead of the force which is able to them to be well-founded. Poetry may dedistance; piety, somewhat of the ascetic nature, was inculcated; and the hopes and fears, which bend and confine it there. Youth is about rive a short-lived popularity from brilliant Christianity presents, were incessantly held in their as ready to take the benefit of the experi-imagery or harmonious versification; but its view. No classic author was put into their hands, ence of others as a child is to take physic, descriptions and images, to be permanent, from which every passage, describing scenes of and we should have as little hesitation must be founded on truth and nature. But love or gallantry, or tending, even in the remotest about forcing down the unpalatable dose in time, experience, and observation are nedegree, to inspire them, had not been obliterated. How this was done may be seen by any person, one instance, as the other. We shall not cessary to enable us to appreciate the fideliwho will inspect father Juvençi's excellent editions attempt to enlarge upon this subject, though ty of description and exactness of similiof Horace or Juvenal. Few works of English the temptation be strong within us, but only tude; and much must be known of the writers were permitted to be read; none, which mention one argument, which seems to us world and of human nature before the exhad not been similarly expurgated. The conse- to have some weight in favour of strict quisite delineations of Shakspeare can be quence was, that a foreign college was the abode of precautionary discipline and inspection. properly understood. It requires years of innocence, learning, and piety." It has been questioned, whether this system of By these the young may be prevented from the lives of common mortals to imbue the education is perfectly free from objection;-wheth-committing many bad actions, of which mind with a knowledge of those lights and

shades which diversify character, which
“the eye in a fine frenzy rolling," conveys
to it at once, as it glances over them.
We are not prepared to grant to our
author that the works of Gray are much
more generally known by heart, than those
of Goldsmith, though we might admit his
inference that the muse of the former was
of the higher order.

ber of avocats, attornies, and officers of justice,
whom it would ruin: compassion for them made
the pen fall from my hand. The length and num-
ber of lawsuits confer on the gentlemen of the
long robe their wealth and authority; one must
therefore continue to permit their infant growth and
everlasting endurance.'

The difficulty of framing legal instru-
ments so as to provide for all the possible
contingencies in the case is well exemplifi-
ed in the following instance.

perhaps ever will, though any reasonable hope of piercing through "the cloak of darkness" is by this time well nigh extinct. Mr Butler offers this hypothesis,—that Lord George Sackville was Junius, and Sir Philip Francis his coadjutor and amanuensis; against this, however, we have the assertion of Junius, that "he was the sole depositary of his own secret,” but we have no warrant that Junius always spoke the truth. The author thinks that the possessor of the two vellum volumes was not unknown to Mr George Grenville.

From the Reminiscences of eminent judi

From the Reminiscences of Jurisprudence we learn that judicial offices in A gentleman, upon whose will the Reminiscent France, before the revolution, were always was consulted, had six estates of unequal value, venal and hereditary. When the king and wished to settle one on each of his sons and erected a new court, he also specified the his male issue, with successive limitations over to Isum which should be paid for each office the other sons and their respective male issue, incial characters we intended to make an exthe ordinary mode of strict settlement; and with a provision, that, in the event of the death and fail-tract, but are unable to select, where all are ure of issue male of any of the sons, the estate de- so interesting. We shall content ourselves vised to him, should shift from him and his issue with a note of the author, which contains male to the next taker and his issue male, and fail- some encouragement for novel readers. limitations; with a further proviso, that such next ing these, to the persons claiming under the other taker's estate, should then shift in like manner to the taker next after him, and the persons claiming under the other limitations. It was considered, at first, that this might be affected by one proviso; then, by tw); and then by six; but upon a full investigation, it was found that it required as many provisos as there can be combinations of the number 6;-Now,

by the successful petitioner, in whose family it became perpetual, and whose heirs might sell it, with the consent of the government, the purchaser paying a certain sum into the royal treasury. The petitioners, however, were obliged to be in general of respectability, and, in some districts, noble; they also possessed fortunes, which placed them above want; and were further obliged to undergo a pretty severe examination. It was customary for the suitors in court, or their friends, to make regular presents to the judges; as well as to solicit them personally. Mr Butler tells us that the opinions of learned and wise men have been divided on the expediency of the heirship and venality of the judicial offices, and is of opinion that the presents and solicitations were always harmless. The practice, however, will hardly be considered a safe one in these degenerate days, when every theory of government seems to involve the proverbial notion, that no honesty is the worse for being watched.

The difference between England and France in the number of their courts of justice is very remarkable.

1X2 X3 X4 X5 X6 = 720. Consequently, to give complete effect to the intention of the testator, 720 provisos were necessary. In another instance, a deed, if it had been framed so as to effect the intention of the maker, would have required the estate in question to be subjected to as many possible mortgages as there can be combinations of the number 10, and as each of these mortgages must have paid a stamp duty of £25, the stamps alone would have amounted to ninety millions, seven hundred and twenty thousand pounds. It is hardly necessary to mention that the execution of

this deed was declined.

An anecdote respecting the Jesuits' college of Clermont is introduced, while the writer is treating of the best method of

It is known that his lordship [Lord Camden], like many other distinguished personages, was a great reader of novels; and surely the hour of relaxation is as well employed in reading Tom Jones, or Clarissa, or any of the novels attributed to Sir Walter Scott, as in the perusal of the productions of party pens.

At a house of great distinction, ten gentlemen of taste were desired to frame, each of them, a list of the ten most entertaining works which they had read. One work only found its way into every list.-It may amuse the reader to guess it.-He will not be surprised to find it was-Gil Blas. If the Reminiscent may be allowed to give his opinion,-the Conjuration contre Venise of the Abbé de St Réal, is the most interesting of publi

cations.

Mr Butler next treats of parliamentary eloquence, with descriptions of the manner of several eminent orators, particularly Lord Chatham, and the effect produced by their speeches. Nothing can exemplify better the power of eloquence, than the despotic authority exercised by this personage over the house of Commons; he could silence opposi tion and paralyze debate by the thunders of his voice and "the lightnings of his eye." That an assembly, constituted as that house was, of some of the most eminent of the naThe college, falling into decay, it was re-edified tion, should have submitted to such dominaby Louis the Fourteenth, and received the appella- tion, excites our wonder and admiration. tion of the College de Louis le Grand. Upon this The reality of this astonishing power is occasion, a poetical exercise alluding to it was required from the students.-The city of Nola had proved by a variety of anecdotes; one is of recently given them the Collegio del Arco, and they Mr Wilkes, who was not remarkable either were in possession of the College de la Flêche, in for modesty or timidity. He mentioned to France. Alluding to these, a saucy boy wrote the the Reminiscent that on a certain occasion, following verses, and the professor good humour-when "Mr Pitt rose and began to speak in edly assigned him the prize: a solemn and austere manner,"

With the exception of a few local jurisdictions, the judicial establishments in England are confined to the chancellor, the vice-chancellor, the master of the rolls, twelve judges, six masters in chance-regulating courses of study. ry, and some masters or officers resembling them in the other courts; in France there are at least 600 courts, and 5,600 judges:-in addition, each kingdom has its justices of peace; in France, they

amount to 27,000.

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When the affair of the necklace of the late queen of France was in agitation, a person observed to Lord Thurlow, that the repeated examinations of the parties in France had cleared up nothing: True,' said his lordship, but Buller, Garrow, and a Middlesex jury, would, if such a matter had been brought before them, have made it all, in half an hour, as clear as day-light.'

If the anecdote here given of the Chancellor d'Aguesseau be correct, the gentlemen of the bar should hold his memory in high respect.

The duke de Grammont asked the chancellor d'Aguesseau, on some occasion, whether with his experience of chicanery in legal processes, and of their length, he had never thought of some regulation, which would put an end to them?-'I had gone so far,' replied the chancellor, as to commit a plan of such a regulation to writing; but, after made some progress, I reflected on the great num

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'Arcum Nola dedit patribus, dedit alma Sagittam
Gallia, quis FUNEM quam meruêre, dabit?'
The saucy boy was afterward the Cardinal de Po-
lignac.

Of which, we offer, as we did above, an im-
perfect imitation, after the manner of the
good baron of Bradwardine, who usually
favoured his friends with translations of his
Latin quotations, not very much exceeding
our own in point of literary execution.

He thought the thunder was to fall upon him;

and he declared, that he never, while he was at

Westminster, felt greater terror, when he was called up to be chastised, than he did while the uncertainty lasted; or felt greater jubilation when he was pardoned, than when he found the bolt was destined for another head.

Another is still more striking. Mr Pitt had been speaking at Murray, afterwards Lord Mansfield,—

Nola gave the good fathers a bow, After Murray had suffered for some time, Pitt An arrow from France they inherit, stopped, threw his eyes around, then fixing their Where a friend's to be found I don't know whole power on Murray, said, 'I must now address To give them the string which they merit. a few words to Mr Solicitor;-they shall be few,About thirty pages of this work are de- but shall be daggers:' Murray was agitated;—the look was continued, the agitation increased :-voted to the inquiry respecting Junius;Judge Felix trembles!' exclaimed Pitt, in a tone thread-bare as this subject now is, it still of thunder, he shall hear me some other day. retains its power of exciting interest, and He sat down; Murray made no reply; and a lan

guid debate is said to have shown the paralysis of
the house.
Mr Butler quotes from Glover's Memoirs
the following notice of the session of

1755-6.

constitution, his eloquent vituperations of those, whom he described as advocating the democratic spirit then let loose on the inhabitants of the earth, and to assist him in defending their all against it, and his solemn adjuration of the house, to defend were, in the highest degree, both imposing and During this whole session Mr Pitt found occa- conciliating. In addition, he had the command of sion, in every debate, to confound the ministerial bitter, contemptuous sarcasm, which tortured to orators. His vehement invectives were awful to madness. This he could expand or compress at Murray; terrible to Hume Campbell; and no male-pleasure: even in one member of a sentence, he factor under the stripes of an executioner, was could inflict a wound that was never healed. Mr ever more forlorn and helpless than Fox appeared Fox having made an able speech, Mr Erskine folunder the lash of Pitt's eloquence, shrewd and able lowed him with one of the very same import. Mr in parliament as Fox confessedly is; Dodington Pitt rose to answer them; he announced his intention to reply to both; but,' said he, I shall make no mention of what was said by the honourable gentleman who spoke last; he did no more than regularly repeat what was said by the member who preceded him, and regularly weaken all he repeated.'

sheltered himself in silence.

We cannot refrain from one more extract while on this subject.

On another occasion, immediately after he had finished a speech, in the house of commons, he walked out of it; and, as usual, with a very slow

step. A silence ensued, till the door was opened
to let him into the lobby. A member then started
up, saying, 'I rise to reply to the right honourable
member-Lord Chatham turned back, and fixed
his eye on the orator,-who instantly sat down
dumb his lordship then returned to his seat, re-
peating, as he hobbled along, the verses of Virgil:
'Ast Danaúm proceres, Agamemnoniæque phalan-
ges,

Ut vidére virum, fulgentiaque arma per umbras,
Ingenti trepidare metu,-pars vertere terga,
Ceu quondam petiêre rates,-pars tollere vocem
Exiguam,-inceptus clamor frustratur hiantes.'
Then placing himself in his seat,-he exclaimed,
Now let me hear what the honourable member
has to say to me.' On the writer's asking the gen-
deman from whom he heard this anecdote,-if the
house did not laugh at the ridiculous figure of the
poor member? No, sir,' he replied, we were all
too much awed to laugh.'

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Every American has perused the speech of this noble orator on the employment of savages by the British during our revolution. The effect of this, when recited by an ordinary declaimer, is great; what must it have been from the lips of Chatham him

self.

Lord North, according to Mr Butler, was a gentleman, in the most extended sense of that comprehensive word. Without aspiring to the higher eloquence, he was a very skilful debater; but was most remarkable for a kind of good-natured and inoffensive wit, of which the following is a good specimen.

The assault of Mr Adam on Mr Fox, and of Colonel Fullarton on Lord Shelburne, had once put the house into the worst possible humour, and there was more or less of savageness in every thing that was said:-Lord North deprecated the too great readiness to take offence, which then seemed so possess the house. One member,' he said, who spoke of me, called me, "that thing called a minister:"-to be sure,' he said, patting his large form, I am a thing;-the member, therefore, when he called me a thing, said what was true; and I could not be angry with him; but, when he added, that thing called a minister, he called me that thing, which, of all things, he himself wished most to be; and, therefore," said Lord North, I took it as a compliment.'

The following parallel between the parliamentary talents of Pitt and Fox will be read with interest.

It is difficult to decide on the comparative merit of him and Mr Pitt; the latter had not the vehement reasoning, or argumentative ridicule of Mr Fox: but he had more splendour, more imagery, and much more method and discretion. His long, lofty, and reverential panegyrics of the British

It was prettily said by the historian of the Roman empire, that Charles's black collier would soon sink Billy's painted galley:'-but never did horoscope prove more false;-Mr Fox said more truly- Pitt will do for us, if he should not do for

himself.'

earnest.

Mr Fox had a captivating earnestness of tone and manner; Mr Pitt was more dignified than graceful; Mr Pitt's cannot be praised. It was an The action of Mr Fox was easy and observation of the reporters in the gallery, that it required great exertion to follow Mr Fox while he was speaking; none to remember what he had said; that it was easy and delightful to follow Mr Pitt; not so easy to recollect what had delighted them. It may be added, that, in all Mr Fox's speeches, even when he was most violent, there was an unquestionable indication of good humour, which attracted every heart. Where there was such a seeming equipoise of merit, the two last circumstances might be thought to turn the scale: but Mr Pitt's undeviating circumspection,-sometimes tended to obtain for him, from the considerate and concealed, sometimes ostentatiously displayed, the grave, a confidence which they denied to his rival:-Besides, Mr Pitt had no coalition, no India bill to defend.

Much, that awes by power or charms by beauty, Fox spoke, his argument only was thought of; was heard in the harangues of both: but, while while Pitt harangued, all his other excellencies had their due measure of attention. Each made better speeches than Lord Chatham; nither of them possessed even one of those moments of supreme dominion, which, (he is sensible how very imperfectly,) the Reminiscent has attempted to describe. titions,—Mr Pitt by his amplifications. Mr GratBoth orators were verbose: Mr Fox by his repetan observed to the Reminiscent,-that no person had heard Mr Fox to advantage, who had not heard heard him before he quitted office. Each defended him before the coalition; or Mr Pitt, who had not himself on these occasions with surprising ability: but each felt he had done something that required defence:-the talent remained, the mouth still spoke great things, but the swell of soul was no more. The situation of these eminent men on these occasions, put the Reminiscent in mind of a remark of Bossuet on Fénélon,- Fénélon,' he said, 'has great talents: much greater than mine: it is his misfortune to have brought himself into a situation, in which all his talents are necessary for his defence.'

On two occasions, Mr Pitt and Mr Fox may be thought to have brought into the field, something like an equality of force. When the attack was made on the coalition, Mr Pitt had the king.-Mr Fox a great majority of the members of the house of commons, on his side: when the regency was debated, Mr Pitt had the same majority in the house, Mr Fox had the heir-apparent :—the tug of war was great: but may it not be said, that, on each occasion, Mr Fox facilitated by his imprudence the victory of his adversary. Give me,' said the Cardinal de Retz, to a person who had tauntingly observed to him the superiority of Cardinal Mazarin over him,- Give me the king but

227

for one day, and you'll see which has the real superiority.'-Mr Fox never had the king with him, even for an hour.

Burke was inferior as a speaker, but greatly superior if judged by his speeches as they are published.

In familiar conversation, the three great men, whom we have mentioned, equally excelled: but

even the most intimate friends of Mr Fox com

plained of his too frequent ruminating silence. Mr Pitt talked ;-and his talk was fascinating. A good judge said of him, that he was the only person he had known, who possessed the talent of condescension. Yet his loftiness never forsook him; still, one might be sooner seduced to take liberties with him, than with Mr Fox. With each the baton du général was in sight, but Mr Pitt's animation and playfulness frequently made it unobserved: this was not so often the case with Mr Fox. Mr. Burke's conversation was rambling, but splendid, rich, and instructive beyond comparison.

We shall conclude our notice of parliamentary eloquence, by an extract from the account of Lord Thurlow.

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At times, Lord Thurlow was superlatively great. It was the good fortune of the Reminiscent, to hear his celebrated reply to the Duke of Grafton, during the inquiry into Lord Sandwich's administration of Greenwich hospital. His grace's action and delivery, when he addressed the house, were singularly dignified and graceful; but his matter was not equal to his manner. He reproached Lord Thurlow with his plebeian extraction, and his recent admission into the peerage.-Particular circumstances caused Lord Thurlow's reply to make a deep impression on the Reminiscent. His Lordship had spoken too often, and began to be heard with a civil but visible impatience. Under these circumstances, he was attacked in the manner we advanced slowly to the place, from which the have mentioned. He rose from the woolsack, and chancellor generally addresses the house; then, fixing on the duke the look of Jove, when he has grasped the thunder ;- I am amazed,' he said, in a level tone of voice, at the attack which the nosiderably raising his voice, I am amazed at his ble duke has made on me. Yes, my lords,' congrace's speech. The noble duke cannot look before him, behind him, or on either side of him, without seeing some noble peer, who owes his seat in this house to his successful exertions in the profession to which I belong. Does he not feel that it is as honorable to owe it to these, as to being the the language of the noble duke is as applicable and accident of an accident?-To all these noble lords, as insulting as it is to myself. But I don't fear to meet it single and alone. No one venerates the say that the peerage solicited me,--not I the peerpeerage more than I do,—but, my lords, I must age. Nay more, I can say and will say, that, as a peer of parliament, as speaker of this right honourable house, as keeper of the great seal,as guardian of his majesty's conscience,-as lord high chancellor of England, nay, even in that character alone, in which the noble duke would think it an affront to be considered,--but which character none can deny me, as a MAN, I am at this moment as respectable;-I beg leave to add,-I am at this time, as much respected, as the proudest peer I now look down upon.' The effect of this speech, both within the walls of parliament and out of them, was prodigious. It gave Lord Thurlow an ascendancy in the house, which no chancellor had ever possessed; it invested him, in public opinion, with a character of independence and honour; and this, although he was ever on the unpopular side of politics, made him always popular with the people.

Alliance, the present state of Europe, and The author's speculations upon the Holy the prospects of legitimacy, are full of interest. Through the whole work he exhibits a constant and deep interest in the

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