less, one amongst them, a man somewhat noted for his shrewdness in curious investigation, placed himself in what, he concluded, must have been the post occupied by the murderer when the shot was fired:-then examining along the line of the direction of the fire, he discovered a small piece of letter paper, which manifestly, from the mark of powder and fire upon it, must have been part of the wadding of the gun. This paper had a single letter, m written upon it, and torn from the word to which it belonged. About the moment when this discovery was made, some one remarked, that Shannon, the son-in-law, had not been present that morning. His absence on such an occasion, was thought strange; and, forthwith, a general inquiry was made after him. With no stronger ground for suspicion than this fact, a search was immediately made to ascertain where he was. He dwelt on the opposite side of James River, some seven or eight miles distant; but, it was proved that he had been in Williamsburg the day before with a gun, which was without a lock. A blacksmith, who gave this testimony, stated, moreover, that Shannon had brought the gun to him to be repaired, and he not being able to repair it that day, it was taken away in the condition in which it was brought. A party now set out for Shannon's house. He was not there: he had not been there during the night. They pursued their quest and found him at last, thirty miles off, in a tavern, asleep, with his clothes on. Upon being arrested and examined, a few buckshot were found in his pocket, and a letter with one corner torn off, to which the fragment, picked up at the house of the deceased, was applied and found to fit, coupling the letter m with y and shewing its proper relation in a written sentence. These facts, it seems, were not strong enough to persuade the jury of the guilt of the prisoner. One of the twelve, more scrupulous than the rest, or, we may infer, more susceptible to the influences of the specious eloquence of counsel, who were, doubtless, very ingenious, as the phrase is, in the defence of the suspected culprit, "hung out," and, as a consequence, starved out his compeers, and so, brought them to the confession that they could not agree; and they were accordingly discharged, and Shannon was allowed to go forth unmolested, to claim the benefit of his successful speculation.

Wirt appears to have excited great expectations as the counsel in this case. The court house at Williamsburg was thronged

with visiters, a large number of ladies amongst the rest,—and his speech in the case is remembered as one of the best of his early displays at the bar.

In a letter to his wife written when this trial was about to come on, 29th Sept. 1803, there is the following reference to it:

"Only one Judge to-day-Winston. Parker is expected tonight.

"The gallery was full of ladies, expecting to hear (as C. tells me) Mr. W defend Shannon.-'Vain creature!' say you.— Vain enough; but not on this account. The man who knows and feels his own foibles, and can draw off from himself so far as to make a proper estimate of his own imperfections, will not be hurt by the flatteries of others.

"What do you think of Shannon's gallantry? Although in irons and chained to the wall and floor, he has made a conquest of the gaoler's wife, and she has declared her resolution to petition for a divorce from her husband, and follow Shannon, if he is acquitted, to the end of the world.”

In the month of December, Wirt took a house in Norfolk, and by the commencement of the new year, 1804, he removed his family thither, to make it, for the future, his permanent abode.

CHAPTER IX.

1803-1804.

THE BRITISH SPY.-ENEMIES MADE BY IT.-LETTERS TO CARR, WITH SOME ANECDOTES CONNECTED WITH THE PUBLICATION OF THE SPY.-HIS OPINION OF THAT WORK.

WIRT now appears in the character of an author. During the month of August, 1803, he commenced the letters of The British Spy. They were published in September and October, in "The Argus," at Richmond.

The popularity of The British Spy, had scarcely a parallel in any work, in the same department of letters, which had, at that date, been contributed to American literature. It may be regarded as having conferred upon its author a distinct and prominent literary reputation.

The reader of these letters, at this day, will express his surprise that the public judgment should have given such weight to a production so unlabored, and so desultory. He will not fail to perceive, it is true, in these essays, an agreeable foretaste of high literary accomplishment, but he will regard this, rather as the earnest of a talent to achieve a distinction in letters, than the achievement itself; and he will find occasion, in the singular success of this little book, to remark how eagerly the taste of this country was disposed, at that period, to welcome any clever effort to contribute even the lightest donation towards the increase of our small stock of national authorship.

These letters are written in a polished and elegant style, exhibiting, very notably, a most accurate study and appreciation of the best standards of English literature. They deal with such topics of superficial observation as a casual residence in Virginia, and particularly at Richmond, might be supposed to supply to an educated foreigner. The distinctive traits of Virginia society, manners, opinions and popular institutions, are glanced at with a happy facility of observation; some geological questions are discussed VOL. 1-10

with an acuteness of remark and fullness of information which demonstate that the science to which they refer was a favorite study of the author. But the chief topic, and one which, it is evident, furnished the predominant motive to the writing of the letters, is that which leads him to a dissertation upon modern eloquence, and the illustration of it by a picture of some of the leading lawyers of Virgina. To this theme he had obviously given a careful study, and sought to embody its conclusions in these letters. He performs this duty with the love of a student expatiating on his chosen pursuit. The British Spy may, in this respect, be considered as the treatise "De Oratore" of one who was no small proficient in the art, and, in that light, may be read with profit by every aspirant to the honors of the public speaker. He who does read it will regret that a master who could so happily instruct, has not, at greater leisure, with larger scope and at a maturer period of his life, given to the world a volume on this topic enriched by his own varied experience and profound philosophy.

The success of these letters astonished no one more than their author. They were written rapidly and committed, almost as soon as written, to the columns of a newspaper, where they appeared with every blemish and imperfection to which such a medium of publication was liable. Although a studied concealment of the authorship was preserved, during the period of publication and for some time afterwards, this did not protect the writer either from vehement suspicion at first, nor from the final determination of the paternity of the book by the community.

In some of the portraits which the author drew of his contemporaries at the bar, he is said to have given offence, and to have brought upon himself threats of reprisal. At the present time, so remote from that which witnessed these agitations, we marvel that comments, so little derogatory to the personal excellence of the subjects of them—which, in fact, rather infer and sustain their reputation, as men sufficiently prominent to form examples and studies that these should have embittered any one against their author. It is, nevertheless, true, as we shall see in some of the correspondence of this period, that the author did not escape without making enemies by his book.

It is pleasant to know, however, that these enmities were not long-lived, and that some of the most intimate friends and associates of Mr. Wirt's subsequent days were those with whom he was supposed to have too freely dealt in the letters.

The asperities which arose out of this publication did not check the author in the career of his humor, nor disturb his equanimity. Nor did they disable him from his defence, as may be seen from the perusal of the volume.

Extensive as was the popularity of this small work at the time of its first appearance, it is but little read at the present day. Forty years bring a severe test to the quality of any book. They are generally fatal to the million of light literature. There was a time when few libraries in this country were unsupplied with a copy of the British Spy. It is not so now. The overteeming press pours forth its stream with such torrent-like rapidity and fullness, that the current has well nigh swept away the light craft of the last generation-even such as were supposed to be most securely moored. We must look for them now only in those nooks and occasional havens where the fortunate eddy has given them shelter against the pressure of the flood. The British Spy is still worthy to be refitted and thrown once more upon the wave. The two following letters to Carr, furnish some pleasant anecdotes connected with the production of this little book. In the second of the two, the reader will mark some new aspirations towards literary enterprise, agreeably mixed up with some details of professional occupation, and with a grave dissertation upon a subject of growing importance in the mind of the writer.

MY DEAR AMINADAB:

TO DABNEY CARR.

NORFOLK, January 16, 1804.

Yours of the 31st ult, reached me by the last mail. I am rejoiced that this silence is at last broken. I was several times on the point of breaking it myself, although, as you acknowledge, you were a letter in my debt; but some perverse circumstance always thwarted the intention. Indeed, like Martha, I have been busy about many things; though I hope that, like Mary, I have chosen the better part.