“

L E T T E R S

B R I T

BY WILLIAMWIRT , ESQ.

TENTH ED IT ION , REVISED AND CORRECTED .

T O \VHICH IS PREFIXED ,

A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR.

NEW-YORK

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY J. J. HARPER,NO. 82 CLIFF-STREET

,

AND SOLD BY THE PRINCIPAL

THE UNITED

!Entered according to theAct of Con gress, in the year 1832, by J. 65 J.

gar

get , in the Ofiice of the Clerk of the Southern D istrict of New

or

B IOGRA PH IC A L S K ET CH

WILLIAMWIRT .

IN reprin ting a portion of the literary production s of Mr . Wit t, the publishers have thoughtthat a few particulars might n ot be unacceptableto the reader

,of an individual who has long

been familiar to the public in other position svery differen t from that of the writer or mereman of letters . They are in debted

, in grea tpart

, for the opportun ity of giving these deta ils,

to materials collected by another hand, some timesin ce

,an d for another purpose. T he presen t

occasion may excuse a sketch which other obvious con sideration s

,however

,may render some

what meager. Biography has a delicate officewhile her subjects are yet living, as she may be

accused of flattery on the on e hand,and

, on the

other,may be thought to misplace and mistime

the impar tial cen sure which she,n o less than

History,owes to truth, when , like the Egyptian

tribun al, she sits in judgmen t on the dead.

10 B IOGRAPHY OF

With regard to the subject himself,the mind

most con scious of in tegrity, and the most happyin deserved success

,may n aturally shrink from

that scrupulous an alysis which is n ecessary toa full delineation of it. It is as n aturally averseto the relation of many things . trivial in themselves

,but characteristic, an d which on that

accoun t are eagerly sought when the actors aren o more

,though till then theymay fa il to excite

curiosity or in terest in the public. Con temporary actors have their sensibilities also ; a con

sideration which, in tracing the competition sand conflicts through which an individual haswrought his way to honour and influen ce

,may

require many sketches to be withheld, much of

the colouring soften ed, and much ofwhat may

be ca lled the material action suppressed .

It is not so much the brief memoir design edin the following pages that leads to these suggestion s

,as the observation how often they are

n eglected in the licen se of the press and the rageof anecdote. But even in th

i

s hasty sketch,it is

eviden t how man y passages of a life somewhatvarious and busy, and how many in ciden ts collected by his in timates

,from an acute observer

and lively describer,must thus

,be excluded

,

though at the expense of the vivacity of the

WILL IAM WIRT . 1 1

whole picture. At some future day, and bysome happier hand, a more minute delineationmight be profitably exhibited of sin gular meritgradually achievin g its own reward ; a careerthe more in teresting as descriptiveof a course offortune familial , though not peculiar indeed, toour happy coun try, where n ative talen t has a

fa ir field,an d where its acquisition s of honour

are more un question ably the fruit of its own

in trin sic vigour .

In poin t of pecun iary circumstan ces and earlyeducation , the subject of our memoir had whatmay be reckon ed middling advantages, con sidering the aspect of our coun try in both particularsat that early day . His paren ts left him somepatrimony, small in deed, but which was suffi

cien t to procure him the usual in struction of the

grammar—school . Hewas born at Bladen sburg,in Maryland

,on the 8th ofNovember

,1 772

,and

was the youngest of six children of Jacob and

Hen rietta Wirt. His father was a Swiss,his

mother a German ; the first died when he was

yet an in fan t, the latter when he was but eightyears old . An orphan at this tender age, hepassed in to the family and guardian ship of his

un cle, Jasper Wirt,who, aswell as his wife, wasa Swiss by birth, and then resided n ear the same

12 B I OGRAPHY OF

Village, not far, We thin k, from the Washingtonroad . Mr . Wirt retain s very vivid impression sof the character Of his aun t

,which are wort h

preserving, both as an amiable picture of a piousand con stan t temper

,an d as an eviden ce Of early

observation in the relater. He has always spokenof her as having a cast of character worthy of

the land of William Tell . She was tall an drather large framed

,with a fair complexion , an d

a face that must have been han dsome in -youth.

Her kindliness Of temper seems to have made itsusual in delible impression on sen sitive an d livelychildhood, whose little errors Often require thatten der disposition to excuse

, which is sure to berepaid by its warm gratitude.

~ With this allow~

an ce for the weakn ess Of others; she seems tohave had n on e of her own

,possessing a fin e

mind,an d an un common mixture of firmn ess

an d sen sibility. She was very religious, an d

a great reader of pious books, ofwhich one, anOld folio German Bible or family expositor

,in

its binding ofwood or black leather, with brassclasps

,was held in ven erable remembran ce by

the boy, struck, n o doubt,by the air and voice

Of devotion an d deep feeling with which she wasaccustomed to read the con solatory volume aloud .

A little in ciden t exhibits a touch Of heroism in

W ILL IAM W IR T . 13

her not unworthy to be related . A thun derstormcame up one even ing unusually violen t, and as

the lightn ing became more terrific, the aun t gotdown her Bible, and began to read aloud. T he

women were exceedingly frightened, especiallywhen on e appalling flash struck a tree in the

yard, an d drove a large splin ter towards them .

They flew from their chairs in to the darkest cor~

n ers of the room. T he aun t alone remained firm

in her seat, at a table in the middle of the floor,and noticed the peal in no other way than bythe in creased energy of her voice. This con traststruck the young Observer, then not more thansix years Of age, with so much force, that hedescribes the scen e as fresh before him to the

presen t momen t, an d as

.

giving him an earlyimpression Of the superiour dign ity with

'

which

firmn ess an d piety invest the character.Most lively boys remember pretty faithfully

the picturesque scen es or in ciden ts of their childhood , the village green , the haun ted house, thefirst adven t of the rope-dan cer, an d those Circen sian games” with which they are as un iversally captivated as were ‘

the Roman Peoplethemselves . T he person ages also that figuredin the early scen e

, are remembered with somegen eral notion of their being venerable or ridicu

2

14 B IOGR A PH Y 0 1“

lous, good-n atured or cross, in the reputation Ofthe n eighbourhood, or in the apprehen sion Of theu rchin himself. Our futur e jurispruden t migh tbe thought to be born for a pain ter or a dramatist, to judge from his Oddly minute memory oflocalities

,person s and costume. T he village of

Bladen sburg was at this time the most activeand bustlin g place of trade in Marylan d . Itstands In the midst of a tobacco coun try, and

was then the great place of export for the state.

There was a large “ tobacco in spection ” there,

several rich residen t merchan ts, an d some Scotchand other foreign factors

,with large capitals .

During this its “ high an d palmy state,

”a lot in

it was worth the price Of three Of the best lots InGeorgetown , Belhaven , (now Alexandria ,) orBaltimore. It is now a decayed, ruinous hamlet, through which the late Attorney-Gen eral ofthe Un ited States has often passed

,in his profes

sioual journeys, with"

those n atural emotions,n o

doubt, which such a spot, revisited under suchcircumstan ces

,might excite in minds of less ,

poetical sen sibility than his . But if there is acomplacen t satisfaction to be envied on earth, itis that which must Often have ar isen in his mindin retracing this scen e of his childhood . At thatday the free empire in which he was to be an

WILLIAM WIRT .

’

15

ornamen t and a con spicuous actor,had not even

an existen ce ; an d little did those foresee, whocaressed him as an apt, imitative boy, that onhills almost within sight Of his humble patrimon ia l roof, proud domes were to arise in ‘which hewas to discharge the fun ction s Of the highestlegal Office Of the republic, and sit in coun cil onits most momen tous con cern s . When a few

years afterward it was a question with‘ his guar

dian whether to con tinue hiseducation with thesmall mean s devolved from his father

,an ex

pression was let fall by his worthy and not undiscern ing aun t, involun tar ily prophetic . In urgingthat he should be con tinued at school

,

“WhenI look at that dear child,” said she, “ he hardlyseems on e of us, and I weep when I think ofhim.

” They were doubtless tears Of joyful pride,the full measure ofwhich it is as n atural an dfrequen t a wish, as it is Often a vain one, thatthe ten der guardian s Of youthful promise mightOftener live to feel .In his seven th year he was sen t from home

to school ; a melan choly era in the memory ofmost boys . There was a classical school inGeorgetown , eight miles from Bladen sburg, un ~

der the direction of a Mr. Rogers,and the boy

was placed to board a t the house of a Quaker of

16 B IOGRAPHY OF

the name of Scholfield, who occupied a small loghouse on Bridge-street. His wife was a kindcreature

,whose good n aturewas touched by the

grief of the child at his first exile from home,and displayed itself in many characteristic topicsOf consolation , remembered to this day by a tem

per n aturally sen sitive and grateful . Amon gother little expedien ts by which the good-n aturedwoman sought to allay the burst Of boyish sor

row, she had recourse to the story of Joseph in

Egypt. She made him en ter in to the distressesof the son an d his aged father in their separation ,an d so forget his own ; in sinuating that, as the

separation had brought Joseph ,

to great honours,sohis might turn out equally fortun ate.

When the boy grew to be a man, he wen t to

see kin d Mrs. Scholfield,and a warmer meeting

seldom takes place between mother and son ;

Schools for teaching the classics were rare inthose days

,an d Mr. Rogers

’s con tained quite a

small army of boys and youn g men , Of whomRichard Bren t

,sin ce a member of Congress

from Virgin ia, was one. Our tyro remained atit less than a year, and never had much pleasurein recollectin g it

,perhaps from some injudicious

rigour, which he thought had the effect of breaking his spirit.

‘

He was tran sferred to a classical

W ILL IAM WIRT . 17

school in Charles coun ty,Maryland, about fortymilesfrom Bladen sburg, an d boarded with an

old widow lady of the n ame of Love. T he

school was kept by on e Hatch Den t, in the ves

try-house of Newport church . Here

, being a

lively boy, he was a great favourite in the family,an d seems to have been as happy as a boy can

be, separated from the n atural objects of hisaffection , and with nothing to mar his pleasureexcept going to school an d gettin g tasks in the

holydays, the latter OfWhich seems to have beenan ingen ious con trivan ce of our forefathers to deform the elysium of vacation s by an early hin t Ofthe transitorin ess of pleasure. In these changesfrom place to place

,he appears to have been

fortunate in finding kin d friends ; a circumstan cewhich

,as it arose ou t of a natural goodn ess Of

disposition , accompan ied him through life.

Mr . Den t was a most excellen t man,very

good-tempered, Who either found no occasion,

or, with the exception of a single application Ofthe ferrule, no in clin ation , to pun ish his youngpupil, who in two years advan ced as far as

Caesar’s Commen taries,though perhaps without

bein g properly groun ded in his author. Here,

as at Georgetown,there was quite a crowd of

boys, and several young men fully grown .

2x

18 B I OGRAPHY OF

Among the latter wasAlexander Campbell, whoafterward became well known in Virgin ia as

an orator, and still more for his un timely an dmelan choly death . This accomplished and unfortun ate gen tleman , ofwhose argumen t in thecase Of Ray and Garnett, reported in Washington ’s Reports, Mr . Pendleton , the Presiden t ofthe Cour t Of Appeals, is said to have spoken asthe most perfect model of foren sic discussion hehad ever heard, was then from eighteen to

twen ty years of age, man ly and dign ified in hisdeportmen t, and of a grave and thoughtful air,occasion ally, only, relaxed in to a gayer mood ,an d with that remarkable tremulous eye bywhich others of his family were also distinguished . He had just ga in ed the prize Of eloquen cein the school at Georgetown , an d his

‘man nersperhaps as much as his age procured him fromthe school-boys at Mr. Den t’s, the title ofMr .

Campbell . He began his career at the bar some

years after Chief Justice Marshal l and JudgeWashington , who must themselves have com

men ced practice after the Revolution ary War.

Edmund Ran dolph began a little before, or perhaps just at the breaking out Of the war, andPatrick Hen ry about fifteen years earlier. All

these celebrated men were still at the bar when

W ILL IAM WIRT . 19

Mr. Campbell appeared at it ; he was engagedfrequen tly in the same causes with them,

and itis a high praise to say that even among them hewas a distinguished man . Mr. Wirt has sa idOf him,

“ he did not wield the Herculean club ofMarshall, n or did his rhetoric exhibit the Gothicmagn ificen ce ofHen ry ; but his quiver was furn ished with arrows polished to the finest poin t,that were laun ched with Apollon ian skill andgrace .

” He was yet at the bar of the superiour

courts ofVirgin ia ,when Mr .Wirt had grown up

an d commen ced the practice Of law in the upperpart of that state, and was held to stan d in the

fir st rank of g en ius . T he latter adds,

“ Some

Of the most beautiful touches of eloquence I haveever heard, were echoes from Campbell whichreached us in our moun tain s .” This promisin gcareer was cut short by a lamen table death . He

left ‘

a whimsical will, in which, among otherodd things, was a request that no stone mightbe laid on his grave, for the reason that

,if a

ston e were placed on every grave, there wouldbe n o earth left for tillage .

From Mr. Den t’s, the subject ofour memoirwas removed in his eleven th year

,to a very

flourish ing school kept by the Rev. James Hun t,a Presbyterian clergyman in Mon tgomery coun ty,

20 B IOGRAPHY OF

Maryland . At this school he remained till it “

was broken up, that is, till 1787, and here, dur

ing a period of four years, he received the prin

cipal part of his education , being carried throughall the Latin and Greek classics then usuallytaught in grammar-schools, an d in structed ingeography an d some Of the bran ches Of themathematics, in cludin g arithmetic, trigon ometry,surveying, and the first six books

'

of Euclid’sElemen ts . During the last two years of thetime, he boarded with Mr. Hun t. This gen tleman was a graduate of Prin ceton college, Ofsome learn ing, fond Of conversation an d reading,and when engaged in the latter, of even ings

,

would sometimes read to the boys any in terestingpassages of the book before him . On e Of hisfavourites was Josephus, in which ou r youthwas as much taken with the accoun t of the historian

’s defen ce of the fortified town Of Jotapata ,

as K otzebue tells us he was captivated in likemann er by the story of the siege of Jerusalem .

Our clergyman , who in his suit of black velvetwas quite a stately and graceful person

,had a

pair Of globes and a telescope,with the aid of

which,an d by conversation , he gave his pupils

some smattering Of astronomy. Added to thesewas an electrical machine, with which he took

WILL IAM WIRT . 2 1

pleasure in making experimen ts,to the en ter

tainmen t and in stru ction not on ly of his scholar s,

but of the ladies an d gen tlemen Of the n eighbourhood . But the most importan t

,

part of his possession s was a good gen eral library

,in which

our youth, now a lad of twelve or thirteen,

firstcon tracted a passion for reading, or fed it rather,it being first kindled by “ Guy

,Earl of War

wick,” which he Obtained from a carpen ter in theemploy Of Mr. Hun t

,an d further fan ned by a

fragmen t Of Peregrin e Pickle, n either of whichfamous works, probably, was found in the library

i

of the reveren d preceptor. Those which madethe n earest approach to them were the BritishDramatists

, which our reader devoured withinsatiable appetite

,and

,having exhausted them

,

was driven from necessity on the works of Popeand Addison , and then on Home

’s Elemen ts ofCr iticism . As this

'

reading waswholly a volun

Itary, and somewhat furtive affair on his part, hedrifted along through the library pretty muchlike the hero ofWaverley and the historian of

Waverley himself, as chan ce or caprice directed,

mastering nothing perhaps, yet in creasing hisIsiD Ck of ideas

,and derivin g some cultivation of

taste from the exercise ; a sort of reading muchttoo captivating and absorbing to the youthful

22 B I OGRAPHY OF

mind not to impregn ate it with thought, and fitit,at all event s

,for better directed efforts ;

‘

as the

shedding from our forests prepares a richer soilfor the hand Of regu lar cultivation . T he discovery that Pope began to compose at twelveyears Of age, begat in ou r studen t the same sortof emulation as the like example in Cowley didin Pope. He reproached himself for his backwardness when he was now already thirteen .

T he first attempt was a little discouraging. Itwas in verse, and he was embarrassed as usualby the awkward altern ative Of sacrificing therhythm to the thought, or (which is the usualpreferen ce in such cases,) the thought to the

rhythm. He came to the disappoin ting con clu~

sion that he was n o post, but indemn ified himself by more lucky efforts in prose, on e ofwhichfalling in to the han dsOfMr . Hun t

,he expressed

his favourable surprise, and exhorted the adven

turer to persevere, who thus en couraged becamea confirmed reader an d author .

One of these juven ile essays was engenderedby a school in ciden t, and was a piece Of revenge,more legitimate than schoolboy inven tion is aptto inflict when sharpened by wrongs rea l orimagin ary. There was an usher at the school

,

and this usher, -who was more learn ed and me

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24 B IOGRAPHY OF

Logic herself, with her“ closed fist,” had dealt

it,felled our hero to the groun d .

“ I’ll pay you ,

for this, if I live,” said the fallen champion , as

he rose from the field.

“ Pay me, will you"

1”

said the usher, quite furious ; “

you will n everlive to do that .” “ Y es

,I will

,

” said the boy.

Our youth was an author, be it remembered,an d that is n ot a race to take an injury, muchless an affron t, calmly. T he quill, too, was a

fair weapon again st an usher, and by way of

ven t to his indign ation at this and other con

tinued outrages, but with n o view to what soseriously fell out from it in furtheran ce of his

,

revenge,he indited some time afterward an

ethical essay on Anger. In this after due exhibitiou of its unhappy effects, which, it may be,

would have en lighten ed Sen eca,though he has

himself professed to treat the same subject,he

reviewed those relation s an d fun ction s Of lifemost exposed to the assaults of this Fury . Aparen t with an undutiful son , said ou r moralist,must Often be very angry —a master with hisservan t, an in n -keeper with his guests —but itis an usher that must the Often est be vexed bythis bad passion , and, right or wron g, find himself in a terrible rage ; an d so he wen t on , in a

manner very edifying, and very descriptive of

WILL IAM WIRT . 25

the case, character and man ner Of the expou nderof Cicero. Well pleased with his work

, our

author foun d a most admiring reader in an elderboy, who, charmed with the mischief as muchas the wit Of the occasion , pronoun ced it a mostexcellen t performan ce, and very fit for a Saturday morn ing

’s declamation . In vain did our

wit Object strenuously the dangers of this modeOf publication . T he essay was “

got by heart,”

and declaimed in the presen ce of the school an dOf the usher himself

, Who, en raged at the satire,deman ded the writer

,otherwise threaten in g the

declaimer with the rod . His magnan imity wasn ot proof aga in st this

,an d he betrayed the

in cog n ito of our author, who happen ed the sameeven ing to be in his garrct when master u sher,the Obnoxious satire i n hand, came in to the

apartmen t below to lay his complain t before hisprin cipal . Mr . Hun t’s house was one of thoseone—story rustic man sion s yet to be seen in Ma~

ryland,where the floor Of the attic

,without the

in terven tion of ceiling, forms the roof Of theapartmen t below,

so that the culprit could easilybe the bearer

,an d even the partial spectator, of

the in quisition held on his case.

“ Let us seeth is Offen sive libel

,

” said the preceptor, an d awfulwere the first silent moments of its perusal,

3

26 B IOGRAPHY '

OF

which were broken , first by a suppressed titter,and finally

,to the mighty relief of the listener,

by a loud burst of laughter.

“ Pooh ! p ooh !Mr. this is but the sally of a lively boy,and best say n o more about it ; besides that, in

fora conscien tiw, we can hardly fin d him guiltyof the ‘publication .

’ This was a victory ; andwhen Mr . Hun t left the room

,the con queror,

tempted to sing his “ IO triumphe” in some songallusive to the coun try of the discomfited party,who was a foreign er, was put to flight by thelatter’s rushing furiously in to the attic

,and

sn atching from un der his pillow some hickories,the fasces of his Office, an d inflicting some smartstrokes on the flying Satirist

, who did n ot stay,like Voltaire, to write a receipt for them . T he

usher left the school in dudgeon n ot long afterward

,likethe worthy in the doggerel rhymes

,

“ T he hero who did ’sist upon ’

t

He wouldn ’

t be depu ty toMr . Hun t .”

Many years after, the usher and his scholarmet aga in . Age an d poverty had overtaken thepoor man

,an d his former pupil had the oppor

tun ity of showing him some kindn esses whichwere probably n ot lessen ed by the recollection of

this unpremeditated revenge .

Another little in ciden t that occur red at this

WI LL IAM WIRT . 27

school had some effect in shaping the fortunesOf the subject of this sketch . Mr . Hun t was inthe habit of giving his boys one day in the courtweek a t Mon tgomery court-house, to go an d

hear the lawyers plead . There were thensome distinguished men at that bar, and amongthem on ewho had just commen ced practice, thelateWilliam H. Dorsey. Thiswas a great treatto the boys

, who made their way on foot,early

of a morn ing, to the court-house,about four

miles ; took their position in some gallery or box ,from which they could hear and see all thatpassed ; an d looked an d listen ed with all the

greedy atten tion Of young rustics a t their firstvisit to a theatre. T he stru ggles Of young Dorseywith the veteran s opposed to him

,foun d most

favour in the eyesOf these et erick disciples Ofthe law! He was fluen t, keen , an imated and

dexterous, an d as Often the foiler as the foiled.

This sport was so delightful to them that theydetermined to have a court of their own , and

Wirt was appoin ted to draft a con stitution and

body of laws, which he reported accordingly,

with an apologetic letter prefixed . In this courthewas a practition er Of eminen ce. T he semi-ann ual examin ation s and exhibition s at the schoolrafforded another theatre of competition . On

28 BIOGRAPHY OF

these occasion s they delivered speeches and actedplays, and as Mr. Hun t had high notion s of oratory, an d duly in structed them in tone and gesture

,and as there were always large audien ces

Of gen tlemen and ladies, the occasion was fullof excitemen t an d emulation . Wirt bore Off on eof the prizes of eloquen ce at these exhibition s ;his speech was a prologue of Farquhar

’s,adapt

ed to the occasion by Mr . Hun t, and , young ashe was, he could not help suspecting that hisreveren d teacher’s partiality for his own workhad some share in the award of the preferen ce.

There was another exercise at this school, now,

we believe, fallen in to disuse, at least in America .

This was “ cappin g verses,

”as it is called

,-a

sort of game Of the memory to which we suspectth e orators of St . Stephen ’s chapel are as muchindebted for the quotation s from the classics invogue there

,as to any warm poetic sen sibility.

In this exercise,which Is not an unuseful on e

,

the boys became at length so well suppliedwith the appropriateweapon s, that the venerable .

teacher had to close it himself, which he waswon t to do with Virgil’s Clau

’

dite jam rivos,

pueri, sat prata biberu n t .”

When Mr . Hun t’s school was broken up, his

pupil was but '

fifteen,and his little patrimony

WILL IAM WIRT . 29

being in sufficien t either to support him at collegeor meet the expen se of a profession al educationhe was exposed to the danger of an idle residen cein the village of Bladen sburg, un der no othercon trol than that which his guardian thoughtproper to exercise

,which practically was no con

trol at all. From the dangers of this situa tionthe “ con stitution ”

and prefatory letter beforemen tion ed, chan ced to be in stru men ta l in deliy ering him. Among the boys at school whenthat juven ile trifle was produced , was Nin ianEd tvards, the late govern or of Illinois, the sonofMr. Benjamin Edwards

,who resided in Mon t

gomery coun ty,and subsequen tly represen ted

that district in Congress . On his return home,young Edvvards took with him the aforesa idcon stitution an d letter for the amusemen t of hisfather ; and tha t gen tleman fan cied that he saw

something of promise in the letterwhich deserveda better fate than the young author’s seemedlikely to be. On the eviden ce of this littleessay

, for he had n ever seen him,and learn

ing that he had completed the course Of thegrammar-school

,and had not the mean s to push

lhis education further ; perhaps, too, on the fa

vourable report Of his school-fellows, he kindlyw rote to invite him to take up his residen ce in

396

30 B IOGRAPHY OF

his family, where, he said, he could prepare thewriter’s son and n ephews for college

,while he

could at the same time con tinue his studies withthe aid Of the small library there. T he invitation was accepted, and fortun ately so, it beingMr. Wirt’s con viction , often expressed, that itwas to this gen tleman ’s peculiar and happy castOf character that he owed most ofWhat may bepraiseworthy in his own . Mr . Edwarde’s education was limited but he had that n atural vigourOf min d which more than atones for its defects .He had foun d leisure, n evertheless

,amidst his

occupation s as plan ter and merchan t, to acquain thimself with the historian s, from whom he hadimbibed as lively a ven eration for the Catosand Bru tuses as Algernon Sydney himself.His own person and presen ce had much of theheroic character . T o

'

these he added a politeand easy man ner

,which, though a little stately

abroad, was sportive and facetious in private.

This gen tleman, so well adapted to win the

regard of a young man,while his character pre

sen ted a model very proper to be imitated, wasalso a n atural orator

,un affected

,but with all

that un ction which n atural benign ity imparts .On some occasion that con cern ed the in terests Ofhis country, be pronounced a maiden speech in

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32 B I OGRAPH Y OF

to speak Of him more at large,took great pains

to draw ou t the qualities and talen ts of the youthfrom the cloud Of a n atural bashfuln ess . Thistirn idity was so great that he could scarcely getthrough a sen ten ce in telligibly ; an d to correctthis bias of temper, his frien d en deavoured tora ise his estimate Of himself

,kindly remindin g

him of his n atural advan tages, and that, in thecommon phr ase

,t he game Of his fortune was in

his own han d . He poin ted his a tten tion to

many men who had emerged from an obscurecon dition by force of their own exertions effortsto which our political in stitution s were especiallypropitious, as they threw open the lists Of honourto gen erous emulation . Mr . Dorsey

,

” said he,

“whom y ou so much admire,andMr. Pinkney

,

whom you have n ot seen , but who is more worv

thy still of your admiration , are making theirown way to distin ction , under as great disadvantages as any you have to en coun ter .

” Theseen couragemen ts an d assuran ces were regardedby the youth as kindly overcharging his advi,

ser’s real estimate of him

,and as a kind of pious

fraud, in tended for his good ; till many yearsafter, when he was chan cellor a t Will iamsburg,in Virgin ia , he rece ived a long letter from his Oldfriend, reminding him Of these prediction s, and

WILL IAM WIRT . 33

adding that he con sidered his career asi

only

begun .

Mr. Wirt’s enunc iation was at this time of

life thick and hasty, and he was altern atelycoun selled and rallied on this defect by hisfriend, whose discernmen t and native goodnessof heart, seem equally to have engaged him in

developing the mind and manners Of the youn gman

, and u rging him upon a career befitting hisnatural good parts . As this impeded utteran cearose chiefly from the bashfulness which Mr.Edwards, as we have said, took

‘ such kindmean s to coun teract

,the latter

,among other ex

amples Of en couragemen t,used to tell the story

of his own d ebu t in the Maryland Assembly,

when , as he declared, his alarm spread such amist before his eyes that he spoke, as it were, inthe dark, an d was surprised to find from Mr.Chase’s congratulation

,that he had even been

talkin g sense. He at the same time directedour youth’s atten tion to historical studies, whichhad formed no part of his reading in his miscellan eous and acciden tal selection s from Mr.Hun t’s library.

Un der the roof Of Mr. Edwards, or in his

immediate n eighbourhood, the subject Of our

memoir remained about twen ty mon ths, in the

34 B IOGRAPHY OF

Occupation s already described . These in creasedhis familiarity with the Latin and Greek classics

,

an d led him to exercises of his own pen , whichOften served for the declamation s of the boysunder his in struction . Thus,at a most criticalage, and under circumstances which but for Mr .

Edwards, might have plunged him in to thatidle careerwhich is Often the con sequen ce Of discouraging prospects, he was engaged in a courseof life highly favourable to his men tal habits

,

while in the lesson s an d example of a valuablefriend

,he foun d n ot less propitious impulses to

his morals, and to raising his hopes an d views inlife. It Were ascribing too much sway to mereacciden t in shaping our ends

,

”not to in terpose

a remark which these anecdotes may havealready suggested . Doubtless the merit was n otsmall which could awake so frien dly and ten dera con cern ; and must, un der any circumstan ces,haveattracted regard, an d foun d efficien t friends .

Men seldom achieve more than they deserve ;a proposition for the most part den ied by thoseon ly who in some way have been wan ting tothemselves .In this year, 1789, showing some symptoms

of what was feared to be con sumption,he was

advised, by his physician , to pass the winter in

WI LLIAM WIRT . 35

a southern climate. He wen t accordingly on

horseback, as far as Augusta,in Georgia

,and

remained there till the following spring. On hisreturn , he commen ced the study of law at Mon tgomery court-house

,withMr . William P . Hun t,

the son of his Old preceptor ; this he pursuedsubsequen tly with Mr. Thomas Swan n

,n ow the

Un ited States’ Attorney for the District of Columbia

,on whose application , aided by his good

Offices,he Obta in ed a licen se for practice in the

autumn Of 1792 . In the same autumn he -re

moved to Culpepper court-house, in Virgin ia ,an d commen ced his profession al career there,bein g at the time on ly twen ty years of age.

His health had now become con firmed,and

he en tered with the advan tage Of a vigorouscon stitution , on a profession whose toilsomen essrenders that advan tage hardly less essent ial tosplendid success, than , in the Opin ion of the

Great Captain of the age, it was to military fortune . He had, from n ature, the further recommendation Of a good person and carriage

,and

Of a prepossessing appearan ce . T he urban itywhich now be longs to him,

was then alloyed bysome impetuousn ess of man n er . It arose, webelieve, chiefly ou t of his own diffiden ce, a feeIing which Often makes the expression turbid,

36 B I OGRAPHY OF

and gives an air of vehemen ce to what is on lyhurry. His utteran ce was still faulty . A friendwho knew him a little after this period says

,that

when heated by argumen t,his ideas seemed to

outstrip his power Of expression ; his tongueappeared too large ; he clipped some of his

words sadly ; his voice, sweet and musical inconversation , grew loud and harsh, his articulation rapid, indistin ct and imperfect . With theseadvan tages and defects, such as they were, hewas to begin the competition s of the bar in a partof the coun try where hewasquite un known , andwhere much talen t had preoccupied the groundwith experien ce on its side, and acquain tan cewith the people and their affairs. There is nopart of the world where, more than in Virgin ia ,these embarrassmen ts would be lessen ed to a

n ew adven turer ; as there is n owhere a morecourteous race of gen tlemen , accessible to the

prepossession s which merit excites . There washowever another embarrassmen t ; our lawyerhad n o cause but he encoun tered here a youn gfrien d much in the same circumstan ces, bu twho had a single case

,which he proposed to

share with Wirt as the mean s Of making a join td ebu t and with this small stock in trade, theywen t to attend the first coun ty-court.

WILL IAM WIRT .~ 37»

Their case was on e Of join t assault and battery, with join t judgmen t aga in st three, ofwhomtwo had been released subsequen tly to the judgmen t

,and the third, who had been taken in

execution , and imprison ed, claimed the ben efitof that release as enuring to himself. Underthese circumstan ces, the matter Of dischargehaving happened since the judgmen t, the Oldremedywas by the writ Of au dita qu er ela . ButMr. Wirt and his associate had learn ed fromtheir Blackstone that the indulgen ce of courts inmodern times, in gran ting summary relief

,in

such cases, by motion , had , in a great measure,

superseded the use Of the Old writ ; an d accordingly presen ted their case in the form of a mo

tion .

T he motion was Open ed byWirt’s friend

,with

all the alarm of a first essay. T he ben ch wasthen , in Virgin ia coun ty-courts, composed of theordinary justices of the peace ; an d the eldermembers of the bar, by a usage the more n eces

sary from the con stitution Of the tribun al, frequen tly in terposed as amici cu r iae, or informersOf the con science of the court. It appear s thaton the case being open ed , some of these customary advisers denied that a . release to o ne afterjudgmen t released theother, and they

"den ied also4

38 B I OGRAPHY OF

the propriety Of the form of proceeding. T he

ire Of our begin n er was kindled by this receptionof his fiiend

,and by this volun tary in terferen ce

with their motion ; an d, when he came to reply,

he forgot the n atural alarms of the occasion,and

main tained his poin t with recollection an d firm

n ess . This awaked the generosity Of an eldermember of the bar, a person of con sideration inthe n eighbourhood, an d a good lawyer . He

stepped in as an auxiliary,remarkin g that he

also was amicn s am ine, an d perhaps as muchen titled to act as such, as others ; in which ca

pacity he would state his conviction Of the pro

priety of the motion , and that the cou rt was n otat libert y to disregard it ; adding that its havingcome from a n ew quarter gave it but a strongercla im on the candour and urban ity of a Virgin ianbar

’

. T he two friends carried their poin t intriumph

,an d the worthy ally told his brethren

,

in his plain phrase, that they had best make fairweather with on e who promised to be “

a thornin their side.

” T he advice was, we dare say,

un n ecessary. T he bar of that coun ty wantedn either talen t n or court esy ; and the championhaving vindicated his preten sion s to en ter thelists, was then ceforward engaged in many a

courteous passage at arms .

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40 B IOGRAPHY OF

that gen tleman , n ear Charlottesville. T he familywith which he formed this conn exion

,was in

the first ran k of society,a condition which it'

adorn ed with substan tial excellen ce, with the

graces that give elegance to life, an d with a fullshare of Virgin ian hospitality. His father-inlaw was among the most emin en t physician s Ofthe day, but n ot more distinguished for profession al skill than for his classical learn ing an dhis eloquen ce ; and he is well remembered inVirgin ia for a flow of pure, n atural wit ; towhich he added the higher charm ofwarm be

n evolen ce . Of these qualities his daughter inherited a large portion , an d was a woman of

rare endowmen ts both Of mind an d heart . T he

removal of Mr . Wirt brought him in to a veryagreeable an d desirable n eighbourhood, an d in

troduced him to the acquain tan ce Of many person s Of much worth

,some Of them of high

celebrity, among whom it is sufficien t to men

tionMr. Mon roe an dMr. Jefferson,whose cordial

frien dship he ga in ed an d held withou t abatemen tto the end Of their lives . D r. Gilmer was the

in timate friend an d con stan t associate of boththese gen tlemen

,aswell as ofMr . Madison, who

lived in the n ext coun ty,an d was in the habit

of visiting Mon tic ello and its n eighbourhood ; a nd

WILL IAM WIRT . 41

he thus brought his son -in -law in to an in tercourse with these emin en t men . Mr . Wirt’sserious association s in life have been of this un iform stamp. Doctores sapien tiae secutus est

,

qui sola bona quae hon esta , mala tan tum quaeturpia .

” It was here, in the latter part of 1796,that the gen tleman to whose sketch we havemen tion ed ourselves to be . indebted

,first saw

an d made acquain tan ce with him. He had

n ever, he says, met with any man so highlyengaging an d prepossessing . His figure wasstrikingly elegan t an d commanding

,with a face

of the first order ofmasculin e beauty,an imated

,

and expressing high in tellect . His mannerstook the tone of his heart ; they were fia nk

,

Open and cordial and his conversation,to which

his reading and early pursuits had given a classic tin ge

, was very polished, gay an d witty.

Altogether,his fiien d adds

,he was a most fasci

n ating compan ion , an d to those of his own age

irresistibly and un iversally win n ing. This wasa fdangerous emin en ce to on e of his social turnan d mercuria l temperamen t, as the young and

gay sought his company with eagern ess . T he

in tellectual bias,however

, was that which prevailed, and filled his hours of retiremen t withbefitting studies . He read an d wrote con stan tly

4-16

42 B I OGRAPHY OF

and habitually, earn estly employing the periodsthus “ dedicate to

’

closen ess an d the bettering ofhismin d

,

” in studying the fathers Of English literature

,Bacon

,Boyle

,Locke

,Hooker an d others

,with

whose works the excellen t library of D r . Gilmerabounded . In this course of study and socialenjoymen t in terchanged

,his mind imjrroved by

habitual in tercourse with men whowere alreadythe person ages Of history

,he con tinued to reside

at Pen Park, practising profession ally in the surroundi ng coun tles.

His business was rapidly in creasing,an d he

was already con sidered as well on e of the bestlawyers in the circle of his practice

,as destin ed

to greater eminen ce, when , in September, 1 799,he lost his wife, towhom he was ten derly attached

,an d with whom he had lived most happily .

Their un ion was n ot blessed with children .

This even t fell heavily on his spirits,an d broke

in,for a time, on his profession al occupation s

an d a ims ; an d with a View, we believe, to

diverting his chagrin by change Of scen e, hisfrien ds urged him to allow himself to be n omin ated in the n ext election Of Clerk of the HouseOf Delegates . This was pressed a lso by severalmembers Of influen ce in the House. He con

sen ted, and was elected. T he duties Of this

WILL IAM WIRT . 43

office occupied on ly a few of the win ter mon ths .A respectable salary was attached to it, an d ithad been held by several person s of characteran d ce lebrity, -by John Ran dolph, by his sonEdmund

,and by Wythe, the venerable Chan

cellor ofVirgin ia. It brought him in to familiarin tercourse with an other circle of the active andvigorous minds of the state, among them manychoice

, gay spirits, to whom the wit and otherfascin ation s of ,the n ew clerk carried their usualalluremen t. His immediate predecessor

,John

Stewart, Of witty memory, had been displacedfrom political con sideration s, the republican partyhaving just gain ed the a scenden cy. It was a

period Of great political excitemen t in Virgin ia .

T he celebrated “ Resolution s Of 1798” in relationto the Alien an d Sedition laws, had been passedin the Assembly the preceding year

, an d the

en suing session of the legislatu re was expectedwith un usual in terest by both the parties in towhich the fundamen tal con stitution al question sthat had by that time taken body an d shape, haddivided not the state on ly, but the whole Un ion .

T he illustrious Patrick Hen ry, who in this ques

tion took side with the gen eral governmen t,had

been elected to the House of Delegates,and

suitable preparation was made to oppose in that

44 B IOGRAPHY OF

assembly an adversary who,though infirm with

age an d disease, was still regarded as formidable .

Mr . Madison,Mr . Giles

,Mr . T aylor

'

of Carolin a ,an d Mr. Nicholas

,were arrayed aga in st the vete

ran,who n ever came

,however, to the conflict.

His death,which happen ed n ot long before the

session of the Assembly, disappoin ted Mr . Wirtof seeing the subject of his future biography, andleft him to pain t the picture from

‘

tradition , towhich his actual con templation of the man

might have given its most characteristic touches .He held the post of Clerk

,by two succeeding

election s,till February

,1802 . In the mean

time he did n ot wholly relin quish his practice,

and volun teered,in 1800

,as coun sel for the

accused in the trial of Callen der,whose prosecu

tion makes such a figure in the domestic politicalhistory of the Un ited States . Mr . Wirt

,it may

be remembered from a popular an ecdote,did n ot

escape his share of the judicial asperities wh ichgave such offen ce to Callen der’s coun sel, an d

afterward made part of the charges in the im

peachmen t of the judge. T he latter appears tohave appreciated his equableness of temper andman n ers . During the trial or shortly after it,meeting the father .ofMr . Wirt’s secon d wife, heasked after his son-in -law with some marks of

WILL IAM WIRT . 45

regard . They did not summon him,

” he

observed, “on my trial ; had I known it

,Imight

have summon ed himmyself ; yet it was on ly tothat

'

young man I said anything exception able,or which I have thought ofwith regret sin ce .

”

On the fourth of July,1800, Mr . Wirt was

selected by the democratic party at Richmon d,to pronoun ce the ann iversary oration . Thisbrief composition , which we have seen , is fervidand rapid, and has so unpremed itated an air

,

an d was pronoun ced, we have heard, so little

like other prepared oration s,as to have been

thought extemporary .

In 1802 the legislature of Virgin ia gave himan un expected proof of its con fiden ce an d esteem .

It was foun d n ecessary at this time to divide thebusin ess of the court of Chan cery, in which Mr.Wythe then presided,

‘

a man of the deepestlearn ing, and the best civilian that ever appearedin that state. Of three chan cery dist ricts n owcreated

,Mr. Wirt was appoin ted Chan cellor of

the eastern,comprehending the Eastern Shore

ofVirgin ia,and all the coun ties belowRichmond .

This appoin tmen t was wholly un expected to

him till the very momen t before the electioncame on in the House ofDelegates, and his fir stnotice of it, we believe, was his being requested

46 B IOGRAPHY OF

by his friends to withdraw till the nominationshould be made

,an d the votes taken . Sen sible

of the gravity of the trust, he wen t, even after

the election,to Mr . Mon roe

,then govern or of

Virgin ia,to express an apprehen sion of its un

suitablen ess to either his years or attainmen ts .Mr . Mon roe replied that the legisla ture

,he

doubted not,kn ew very well what it was doing,

an d that itwas n ot probable he would disappoin teither it or the suitors in the court. Mr . Wirtwas then but twen ty-n in e years of age, an d hisappoin tmen t to a court whose jurisdiction in

volves importan t in terests,and requires weight

of character, an d in tegrity, asmuch as exten siveattainmen ts

,was an emphatic mark of con sidera

tion from men who, from his post of Clerk tothe House

,had opportun ities of kn owing him

more than usually familiar. T he duties of thechan cellorship called him to reside at Williams~

burg,where he presided in his court with in

dustry an d ability,an d with equal satisfaction to

coun sel an d parties . In the autumn of the sameyear he married Elizabeth

,a daughter of the

late Colon el Gamble,of Richmon d ; an esti

mable lady,still living

,in the bosom of a large

family of son s an dfidaughters.

This marriage led to his resignation of the

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48 m BIOGRAPHY OF

n or any circlmmtan ces that could indicate hisen emy ; on ly some duck-shot appeared in the

wall,n ear the ceiling. While the crowd called

out by the scene, stood con founded around thedead body, a bystander, who had been employedby the late Chan cellor, a person remarkable tosome degree of oddity for his habits of close and

curious investigation , wen t out of the house, andplacing himself in the lin e of direction that theshot must have taken to the spot where theylodged, en deavoured to ascertain from that circumstan ce the exact position of the personwho discharged the gun . While thus occupied,his eye was caught by a very small piece of

paper on the ground betwixt himself and the

window, which appeared, on taking up,to have

been part of the wadding,an d had on it what

seemed to be two of the three strokes composingthe letter m . On e of the crowd excla imed at

this momen t, I wonder where Shan non is ;has any one seen Shannon ?” Shannon was

the son -in -law of the deceased, and resided onthe opposite shore of the James r iver ; and itwas soon ascertained that he had been seen inWilliamsburg that day, with a gun on his shoulder . T he gun , however, had n o cock upon it,an d a blacksmith towhom he had gone to have it

WILL IAM WIR‘

T . 49

repaired, stated that Shan n on h 3 workshop with it in this condition . T he man was

pursued, n evertheless, over the river, an d to hisown house, to which he was foun d not to havereturn ed ; and was traced at length to a tavern ,some thirty miles off, an d caught in bed with all

his clothes on , soun d asleep . He was seized ashe lay, and on being searched, some duck shotwas found about him,

an d a letter, with part ofit torn off. When this letter was afterward compared with the fragmen t of the wadding, thetwo were foun d to fit

,and the letter m

,before

men tion ed, to form part of the word my in the

letter. On these circumstan ces, strengthen edby the fact that the death of his father-in -law

would have put Shannon in possession of hiswife’s fortun e, he was brought to trial . A singlejuryman “ stood ou t,

”as the phrase is

, for ten

days,an d the defen dan t was discharged in con

sequen ce of this disagreemen t among his triers .No other circumstan ces ever threw light on thetruth of this tran saction . Some person , struckwith Mr. Wirt’s defen ce in the case, and havinga remarkable memory, afterward repeated it with

It was immediately before his removal to Norfolk thatMr. Wirt wrote the letters published in

5

50 B I OGRAPHY OF

the Richmond Argus un der the title of “ T he

British Spy,” which form part of the presen t

volume.

’ They were composed in a great degree for diversion Of mind, with little care, and

with still less expectation of the favourablereception they met at the time, or of the popu

larity they retained afterward . They have sin cebeen collected in to a small volume, ofwhich thepresen t is the ten th edition . T he sketches ofliving characters were received with a good dealOf curiosity by the public, and are probablyfa ithful pictures .At Norfolk he foun d for competitors the Tazewells

,the Taylors, the Neverson s an d others

,

men in the first ran k Of their profession, who at

tha t time adorn ed its bar. In a commercialplace too, whose foreign commerce was then veryexten sive, the question s most abun dan t beforethe courts were those of maritime law,

to,whichin the theatre of his former practice he had beenwholly a stranger, but to which he now appliedhimself with that indefatigable labour Of whichfew men are more capable . There are no morewilling witnesses than his oppon en ts

,Of his

learn ing, an d vigorous conduct of his causes,and

, con sequen tly, his rapid rise in the publicesteem. He con tinued to practise in Norfolk

WILL IAM WIR T . 51

and in the courts Of the surroun ding coun ties till1806

,when he on ce more changed his residen ce

to Richmond, solicited to it by his family an d

friends, who con ceived that he would fin d therea

,

wider and more lucrative profession al field .

In this city he remain ed till his appoin tmen t tothe Attorn ey-Generalship Of the Un ited States .Among the n ames which then gave remarka

ble celebrity to the Richmon d bar,were those

Of Edmund Ran dolph,John Wickham

,Dan iel

Call,George Hay, an d George K eith Taylor,

not to men t ion seve ral others who mingled theirrays in what was quite a con stellation of legallearn ing and talen ts . If the competition s Ofsuch a theatre required all his resources

,they

were also of a n ature to fashion an d strengthenthem . T he sphere of his busin ess and his reputation en larged according to the expectation of

his friends. He was Often called in to distan tparts Of the coun try both in crimin al an d greatcivil causes

,and in the course of a variou s prac

tice ofmore than ten years, with men of abilitiesas various, he rose in the gen eral opin ion to a

level with the first of them. He seems at no

poin t Ofh is career, n or in any of the differen tscen es to which it was successively tran sferred,to have en coun tered the n eglects which con s

52 B I OGRAPHY OF

spicuous talen t has Often had to struggle with inits outset. In more than on e in stan ce we haveseen that the esteem Of others an ticipated hisown modesty. We are little disposed to attributeto acciden t any perman en t success or popularity,though the reader’s recollection may furn ish himwith on e or more striking examples to the con

trary . However this may be in political life, orin other bran ches of affairs

,

“ it is n ot at the bar,at least,” as Mr . Pinkney used to say, perhaps

with some con scious triumph, “ that a man can

acquire or preserve a false and fraudulen t reputation for talen ts ” Fortun e, indeed, as is common ly said, is won t to smile upon such as knowhow to make a discreet use Of her favours .A fortunate’ Occasion Of this sort

, for his profession al fame, occurred in the year followmghis removal to Richmond, when the celebratedtrial ofAaron Burr took place in that city, on a

charge which, deeply moving the in terest an dpassion s Of the whole n ation

,made familiar with

every person who could read a n ewspaper, all

the p arties and actors in the cause. This trialcommen ced in the win ter Of 1807, and Mr.

Wirt was retain ed,under the direction of Presiden t Jefferson , to aid the Attorn ey for theUn itedStates in the prosecution . We believe it was

WILL IAM WIRT . 53

designed to engage him on the side of the prosecu ted ; butMr.Wirtwas absen t from Richmon dat the momen t, and no application was made to

Few trials in any coun try ever excited a

greater sen sation than this . T he crimeimputedwas of the deepest guilt ; the accused

,a per

son of the highest eminence both for talen ts an dpolitical station , having but ?lately occupied thesecon d post, with preten sion s to the first

,in the

coun try the governmen t ofwhich he was chargedwith a design to subvert . Con spicuousperson swere implicated in the supposed plot ; an d the

party violen cewhich marked the period, mingleditself in the opposite Opin ion s which the tran saction s themselves might n aturally create . Publicatten tion was con sequen tly fixed with eagercuriosity on every step Of the trial

,and the coun

sel, the ben ch, and thegovernmen t,scan n ed the

proceedings with the most in quisitive scrutin y.

T he overt act of treason bein g charged to havebeen committed within the jurisdiction Of theCircuit court for the District ofVirgin ia , the trialwas brought by this circumstan ce to the city

'

of

Richmon d, whose bar we have already men

Ition ed to have been adorn ed by some of the firstmen of the profession . T he defen ce

,which was

5#

54 B I OGRAPHY OF

conducted by some of the most con spicuous of

these,derived addition al a id from the legal learn

ing Of LutherMartin,who was familiarly called

,

in his n ative state,

“the law-leger

,an d n ot a

little from the legal acumen of the accused himself

,whose great talen ts did n ot desert him on

this occasion . A judge presided at the tribun al,

on whose in tellectual vigour and moral dign ity,

time an d long trial have con ferred a character ofgran deur . T he court was in cessan tly throngedwith earn est spectators an d hearers, both fromVirgin ia and other states, man y of them en lighten ed an d con spicuous men . It is eviden t thatthis was n ot a theatre where, in the language OfMr. Pin kney, a spurious reputation could besupported

,as

,on the other hand

,it gave scope

to the g reatest reach of abilities . It is justlyremarked by the reporter, a competen t judge

,

that “ perhaps n o trial for treason has takenplace in any coun try, in which more ability

,

learn in g,ingenuity an d eloquen cewere displayed .

All the importan t decision s on treason in Eng-4

lan d an d this coun try, were acutely an d tho

roughly examin ed,

an d their application to

question s before the court discussed with greatingenuity a nd skill ; n or was less industry or

judgmen t shown in arguing the application and

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56 B I OGRAPHY OF

the texture Of the whole oration happily showing that in this sen se the saying Of Sen eca isun true

,

“ Non est orn amen tum virile,con cin n i

tas.

” One well-known popular passage in thisspeech has shared the fate of many a classicpage

,of palling by familiar repetition .

But we might quote several others as veryhappy examples of oratorical skill the exordium,

in which he repels the charge repeatedly urgedOf person ality and persecution to the accusedan d the passage in which he describes the rhe

torical arts employed again st him by the oppositecounsel

,Mr . Wickham . In his argumen t on

the motion to commit Burr an d Others for trialin K en tucky

,a vein of ridicule en liven s an d

en forces the reasomng In to which the picture ofthe blasted ambition an d daring despair of Burris inwoven with great effect.We may add

,in takin g leave Of this cele

brated cause,that the excitemen ts of the period

which gave it so much of its in terest with thepublic, elicited from the counsel themselves some

thing more than the ordin ary keen n ess of forensic debate . Readin ess

,firmn ess

,an d a large

portion of that civic courage which is perhaps themost comman din g quality ofmind

, werep erpet

ually struck out in a proceeding in which the

WILL IAM W IR T . 57

whole public erected itself in to a tribunal,‘

or

rather took sides with all the eagern ess of partisan s.

In 1808,Mr . Wirt was elected, without any

canvass on his part, a member of t he Virgin iaHouse Of Delegates for the city of Richmond .

This was the first an d last time he ever sat inany legislative body, preferring the more con

gen ial Or more n ecessary pursuits of his profession

,from which n either his popularity n or the

suggestion s of those who thought they saw inpolitics a more con spicuous theatre of action

,

prevailed on him to withdraw. He was on e of

the special committee appoin ted by theHouse of

Delegates in that session , to whom were referredcerta in resolution s touching ou r foreign relation s

,

an d the measures of admin istration which grewout of them at that exceedingly embarrassin gand critical period . T he report of the committeeis from the pen of Mr . Wirt. It reviews en er

getically an d impartially the measures of the twobelligeren ts

,the Fren ch edicts and the British

orders in council, and commen ts indignan tly onthe ton e of the British diplomacy towards America , especially on the impertin en t an d in sultingdiscrimin ation ofMr . Can n ing between the peo

ple of this coun try and their governmen t. T he

58 B IOGRAPHY OF

report vindicates the measur es ofMr . Jefl'

erson’s

admin istration in this crisis , an d urges the support Of them on the n ation . In the precedingJuly he was one Of a committee appoin ted bythe Frien ds of the Manufacturing Association ”

ofVirg in ia , to prepare an address to the peopleof the state. This paper

,which was published

in the Richmond En quirer, reviews the abovemen tion ed measures

~

Of the belligeren ts,and

deduces from their u nhappy Operation on our

commerce the n ecessity of fosterin g domesticmanufactures, towhich it arg ues that the capital,resources and mechan ical skill Of the coun trywere en tirely adequate.

In the same year,1808

,he wrote the essays

in the En quirer sign ed “ One Of the People,

”

addressed to the members of Congress who hadjoin ed in a protest again st the n omination of

Mr . Madison to the presiden cy. In these hepour trays the character and services of that venerable statesman with a warmth an d emphasiswhich now that time has mellowed the asperity

,

of the period, and the illustrious sage of the con ~

stitution reposes in honoured retiremen t, onewon

ders to think should ever have been n ecessary.

It must be the sen timen t Of all good n atures,in reviewing this and similar periods of political

WILL IAM WIRT . 59

heats—when their eager con ten tion s have losttheir edge, an d when so man y of the acutestan d ablest minds find in the opposite opinion s sokeen ly main ta in ed, so much to be modified

,

explained or recon ciled—to retrace their wholecareer with some humility on their own part,and great in dulgen ce to contemporary actors .Of this feeling we hardly know a stron ger and

more affecting in stan ce than in the two illustrious sages of Mon ticello and Quin cy ; n or on e

that reads a more salutary and magn an imouslesson to the fierce riva lries of politician s . It cann ot be doubted that the same sen timen t which, inthe meditative period _of life, approached to eachother, these leaders an d idols of two parties soearn est an d so angry, must be shared in a largedegree by the subordin ate actors in the con ten

tious scen e. Such, at least, we believe to be theview which all better spirits cast back on thisperiod Of our domestic politics, when , indeed, ourforeign relation s were so perplexing and pr&

y oking asun avoidably to sharpen the bittern essof other dissen sion s . In reviewing these scen es

,

the author of the Life of Patrick Hen ry holdsthis candid language :

“ It is not my fun ction to decide between these parties ;nor do I feelmyself qual ified for such an Ofiice. I have lived

60 B IOGRAPHY OF

too near the times, and am con scious of having been toostrongly excited by the feelings of the day , to place myselfin the chair of the arbiter . It would

,indeed

,be no difficult

task to presen t, un der the engaging air of histor ic candour,

the argumen ts on on e side in an attitude so bold and com~

manding,an d to exhibit those on the other under a form so

fa int and shadowy,as to beguile the reader in to the adoption

ofmy own opin ions. But this wou ld be unjust to the opposite party, and a disingenuous abuse of the confidence of thereader . Let us then remit the question to the historian of

future ages ; who, if the particular memory of the past. timesshall n ot be lost in those great even tswhich seem prepar in gfor th e n ation

,w ill probably decide that

,as in most family

quarrels,both part ies have been somewhat in the wrong.

”

In his discourse on the death ofAdams andJefferson

,he puts this subject in a still more

amiable an d in teresting poin t of light. T he

orator says,“ T herewasone solace of the declin ing years of both thesegreat men

,whichmust not be“ passed . It is that correspon d

ence which arose between them,after the ir retiremen t from

public life. T hat correspon den ce, it is to be hoped, w ill begiven to the world. If it ever shall

,I speak from knowledge

when I say , it w ill be found to be one ofthemost in terestingan d affectin g that the world has ever seen . T hat “

coldcloud”

which had hun g for a time over their friendship,

passed away w ith the conflict out Ofwhich it had grown,and

th e a ttachrrient of their early life returned in al l its force.

T hey had both n ow bid adieu,a final ad ieu

,to all public

employmen ts, andwere don e w ith all the agitating passionsoflife. T hey were dead to the ambitious world ; and this correspondence resembles,more than any thing else, one ofthose

WILL IAM WIRT . 61

conversations in the Elysium of the ancien ts,which the

sh ades of the departed great weresupposed by them to hold,

w ith regard to the affa irs of the world they had left . T hereare the same playful allusion s to the poin ts of difference thathad divided their par ties ; the same mutual , and light, andun impassion ed rail lery on their own past miscon ception sand mistakes ; the same mu tu al and just admiration and

respect for their many v irtues and services to mankind.T hat correspon dence was to them both

,one Of the most

g en ia l employmen ts of their Old age ; and it reads a lessonof w isdom on the bittern ess of party spirit

,by which the

wise and the good will n ot fa il to profit. ”

But this candid mood was far from prevailing at the period which we have reached in thisbiographical sketch . Question s Of porten tousmagn itude agitated the n ation , an d called forthn o less passion than talen t. Mr. Jefferson wasjust about to leave the Presiden tial chair ; un derMr. Madison who was to succeed him

,the same

policywas to be pursued, and the same strenuousopposition to be an ticipated . Un der these cir

cumstances, when hon est men Of both sidesn aturally looked about for the most capableagent s—with the high confiden ce Of his party

,

and with abilities that might have led him to

any political distinction s —Mr. Wirt,however

linterested in the question s of the times, and with| a

_large knowledge of them derived from his

! familiarity with the even ts and actors, declined

62 B I OGRAPHY OF

to abandon the path ofprofession al life. Thoughu rged to it by such as could the most compe‘

ten tly estima te both the turn of his gen ius andthe value Of his services ~t0 the public

,he seems

sedulously to have con strain ed himself from thisbustling field within the calmer region of an

in tellectual pursuit, undazzled by the p rospectof popular hon ours, though n o man feels morethe sting of a laudable ambition . Of those whosaw in his capacity a broad foundation for famein this n ew d epartmen t Of affairs, was his friendMr. Jefferson , who, about the time of his ownretiremen t, in language equally complimen talOf Mr . Wirt, an d indicative Of his profoundin terest in the crisis approaching un der his suc~

cessor, poin ted out to him this career as equallyworthy Of his ambition and advan tageous to thepublic

,and on e ofWhich he might expect to

bear Off the first hon ours . His expression s den ote as large a share of admiration and esteemas the ambition of any man can desire. One

of the last acts, indeed, ofMr. Jefferson ’s lifewasan offer toMr. Wirt on the part of the Un iversity ofVirgin ia

,accompan ied by some circum

stan ces that particularly evinced the respect hewas held in by himself and the rest of thatbody.

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64 B I OGRAPHY OF

lished in September, 1817. This is the longest,an d , judging by its whole effect on the reader

,

the best ofMr. Wirt’s literary production s . Mr.Jefferson ’s praise of it is the justest

, an d perhapsthe best an author can desire ; that “ those whotake up the book will find they can n ot lay itdown , an d this will be its best criticism .

” Thoughn ot in cluded in the presen t publication , we havesome observation s to make hereafter on thiswork . It had an exten sive circulation

,which

would have been greater yet but for circumstan ces having no conn exion with its popularityor literary merit. In 1816 he was appoin ted

,by

Mr . Madison,the Attorn ey of the Un ited States

for the District of Virgin ia , and in the autumnof the following year, by Mr. Mon roe, Attorn eyGen eral of the Un ited States . Both these ap

poin tmen ts were un solicited and un expected byhim. In con sequen ce of the latter

,he removed

in the win ter of 1817—18 to Washington .

At the bar of the Supreme Court he foun d thehighest foren sic theatre In the coun try, an d perhaps there n ever was on e in any

'

coun try thatpresen ted a more splendid array Of learn ing an dtalen ts conjoin ed . In the causes, too, which itis the official duty of the Attorn ey-Gen eral toprosecute or defend, the most con spicuous coun

WILL IAM WIRT . 65

sel of that bar are commonly combined again sthim. In howmany conflicts he susta in ed theseodds again st him,

with a vigour always adequateto the occasion , is very well known to those whoare familiar with our

' judicial history. T he

Office ofAttorn ey-General he held twelve years,through the en tire admin istration s OfMr . Mon roeand Mr . Adams— longer by many years thanit has ever been held by any other ; and in thispost

,always arduous

,his labours seem much to

have surpassed those ofhis predecessors . Scarcelyanyof them resided atWashington

,n or did they

act as members of the cabin et. They left n owritten preceden ts n or opln lon s, n or any othertrace of their Official course, to aid their successors .Mr.Wirt, on the con trary

,left behin d him_thr_ee

large volumes of official opin ion s . His practicesoon became large in theSupremeCourt

,andwith

it his celebrity as a profound jurist no less than an

orator of the first ran k of his con temporaries . Afriend has remarked Of

'

him that his diligen tlabour well deserved this success . “ He was

I always,” he says, “a man of labour ; occasion ally

Of most in ten se an d un remitting labour. He was

Ithe most imp roving man,a lso

,I ever kn ew ;

can truly say that I n ever heard him speakany length of time, without being surprised

6¥r

66 B I OGRAPHY OF

and delighted at his improvemen t both in mann er and substan ce .

” This testimony of an old

in timate,a man Of parts an d discernmen t

,is

quoted as well for the praise it conveys, as inproof Of the un relaxing toil by which men mustga in judicial eminen ce. Mr . Pinkney was tothe en d of his days a model of this indefatigablelabour, an d died

,as it were

,

’in the very act of.

Struggle.

At the close Of Mr. Adams’s admin istration ,Mr . Witt

,having resign ed the Attorn ey-Gene

ralship, removed to Baltimore,where he n ow

resides . He had been previously selected by thecitizen s of Washin gton

, on the death Of Mr.Jefferson an d Mr . Adams, to pron oun ce a discourse on the lives an d characters Of those tworemark ablemen ; this was delivered on the n in eteen th of October, 1826. It con tain s severalpassages Of a strain altoge ther w orthy of one

Of the most impressive occasion s that ever happen ed in any age or coun try. In 1830 he de

livered an address to on e of the literary societiesat Rutgers’ College, an d another in the sameyear

,a t the celebration in Baltimore Of the tri

umph of liberty in Fran ce . These various discourses have been printed , and are in the handsof the public.

W ILL I AM WIRT . 67

It remain s to add to this sketch ofMr. Wirt ’s

profession al career, some notice of him as an ora

tor and a wr iter, in which latter capacity he ispresented in the en suing publication . Thiscon tain s, indeed, but his fugitive essays

,the

effusion s rather ofhaste than leisure. T he morestrenuous efforts of his mind are to be sought inhis foren sic argumen ts, a great portion ofwhichwill share the fate Of the labours of other greatlawyers, and live on ly in the tradition of hishearers

,and the admiring report Of the day .

Such, it is to be lamen ted, has been the fate of

the greater part of the displays ofMr . Pinkn ey.

T he report of Burr’s trial is in many hands however

,an d in the speeches Of Mr . Wirt in that

case the jurist will applaud more his exten sivelearn ing and comprehen sive reason in g, thanpopular readers the more adorn ed and familiarpassages . Others Of his argumen ts

,on

,

question sOf law or great constitution al prin ciples, may

still be preserved,an d we hOpe will be collected .

Amon g his writings n ot men tioned before, arethe essays published in the Richmond En quirerin 1809

,un der the signature of “ T he Sen tin el,”

which throw light on some of the debated question s of the day. T he essays in the followingvolumes , the in terludes of graver business, apart

68 B IOGRAPHY OF

from their in trin sic merit, may have some furthercuriosityas the recreation s Of a mind more thanusually engr ossed by the toils Of the most laborions of profession s . In a criticism of “ T he

Old Bachelor,

” written some years ago by an

accomplished scholar an d critic, the writer Ob

serves, “We look with gratitude an d won derupon a gen tleman of the bar, in whom

‘

the

severest labours, and highest Offices, and amplestemolumen ts, an d brightest laurels Of his profess10 n , have n ot stifled the gen erous ambition of

letters ; Whose min d has been for a long termof years exposed to the atmosphere of the courts,an d the attrition of the world of bu sin ess

,with;

out losing any Of the fin er poetical qualitieswith which it was richly endowed .

”

“ T he British Spy” Obta in ed

, on its first appearan ce, the most flattering proof Of merit

,

popularity, which, to judge from its n ine edition s,

it has con tinued to retain . T he story of the

Blind Preacher was almost as curren t as thoseof Le Fevre a nd La Roche.

”

T he sketches ofcharacter, a difficult departmen t Of good writing,were esteemed so highly descriptive, in the cir

Review of “ T he Old Bachelor ; AnalecticMagazine,October, 1818.

WILL IAM e'r . 69

cles where the depicted orators were known , asto be in every hand . This kind Of literaturewas little practised among us when these essaysappeared ; and if they were the m ore kindlyreceived on that accoun t, they have not howeverbeen succeeded, in a period Of n early thirty years

,

by any others of equal merit, of the same stamp.

T he Old Bachelor” seems,like its predecessor

,

to have Obtain ed an unexpected popularity. T he

critic just quoted, says of these essays,

“ theycon stitute one Of the most successful experimen tswhich have been made in this departmen t Of letters since the era of John son .

” T he disquisition s on eloquen ce

,origin ally

,

” says the author,

“a promin en t figure in his design

,

”are those,

perhaps,which display most vigour, are imbued

the deepest with observation and thought, andbest show the influen ce on the author’s mind,of his familiar reading Of the an cien t. classics .T he reader would be glad to see this topic re

sumed and expanded by one who may remin dhim

,in some of the better passages, of the grace

ful composition imputed to Tacitus, “ T he D ia

logue con cern ing Oratory.

”

Both these series of essays give a gen eralimpression that, had the author devoted himselfto letters, he would have reached some Of the

70 B IOGRAPHY OF

first excellen ces of writing . His con ceptionsare vigorous an d p len tiful, his sen timen ts elevated and warm ; his fan cy, if it sometimesbetrays him in to hyperbole, is gen erally delicatean d n atural, and var ies from grave to gay,

though not with equal facility in both . He isserious an d ferven t for the most part ;r hu t someOf his best papers are those which, in the midstof their earnestness an d even warmth

,have a

dash of good humour that shows he could haveplayed easily an d cheerfully with his subject.An example of this is in the third letter Of theSpy, where, exposing the “ cold conceit of theRoman division of a

' speech,” he describes ludicrously the bustle of the modern orator when hereaches the peroration where by establishedusage he 1s expected to be sublime or pathetic.This “ hysterical vehemen ce” is sketched fromlife, with the felicity of Steele or Addison . T he

same vein Of humorous description appears in thethirty-first and thirty-secon d numbers of the OldBachelor

,an d on e Of the illustrative an ecdotes

would shine in a n ew treatise p er i ba thous.

This sort o f pain ting, though in so differen t a.

style, might be expected from a han d from whichwe have the in spired sketch of the BlindPreacher.

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72 B I OGRAPHY OF

description s . He looks on the bright side of

n ature and human life ; a turn of min d in a

lawyer of two score years Of practice, that indicates a large original fun d of candour, gen erosityand good n ature. It must be men tioned thatsome Of the best papers Of the Old Bachelor arefrom other hands ; ofthis number are the twen tyfifth , twen ty-n in th an d thirty-third

,an d the let

ters in the fifteen th and twen ty-first .If we were to select a s ingle passag e from Mr.

Wir t’s writings in which he has most succesfully addressed our moral passion s, and calledin the beauty and grandeur of extern al n atureto heighten the effect, it wou ld be the descriptionin the discourse upon Adams an d Jefferson , ofthe habitation s and domestic habits of these twocivic heroes. In that ofMon ticello, the reader isso skilfully wrought up by the mute majesty Ofthe material images which the orator has beengradually assembling aroun d him, that he sympathetically starts at the announ cemen t of thetime-honoured” habitan t of the spot. We do

n ot fear to trespass on the reader by quoting thewhole passage.

Of ‘the chief of theArgonauts,’ asMr. Jefferson so clas

sically and so happily styled his illustr ious friend of the

North , it ismy misfortune to be able to speak on ly by re

WILL IAM WIRT . 73

port. But every represen tation con curs, in drawing the

same pleasing and affecting picture of the Roman simplicityin which tha t Fa ther of his Coun try lived ; of the frank,wa rm

,cordial , an d elegan t recep tion that he gave to all who

approached him ; of the in teresting kindn ess w ith which hedisbursed the go lden treasures of his

'

experience, and sheda roun d him the rays of his descending sun . His conversa

tion was r ich in anecdote an d characters of the t imes thatwere past ; rich in political and mora l instruction : full ofth at best ofwisdom,

which is learn t from real life, andflowin gfrom his heart with that warm and hon est frankness

,that

fervour of feel ing and force Of diction,which so strikingly

riidistinguished him in the mer idian of his life. Many of us

heard that simple and touching accoun t given of a par tingscene w ith him,

by one of our eloquen t divines : When herose up from that little couch behin d the door , on which hewaswon t to rest his aged an d weary limbs

,and w ith his

silver locks hanging on ea ch side of his hon est fa ce,stretched

forth that pure han d, which was n ever soiled even by a: sus

picion , and gave his kin d and partin g benediction : Such

was the blissfu l and honoured retiremen t Of the sag e of

Qu in cy. Happy the life,which

,verging upon a cen tury,

had met w ith but on e serious pol it ica l disappoin tmen t ! and

for that,too

,he had lived to receive a golden atonemen t.

Even there where he had garnered up his heart.’

Let us now turn for a momen t to the patr iot of the Sou th.

T he Roman mora list , in that great work which he has leftfor the governmen t of man in al l the offices of l ife

,ha s de

scended even to prescr ibe the kind of habitation in which anhonoured and distinguished man should dwell. It shouldnot

,he says

,be small

,and mean

,and sordid : nor , on the

o ther han d,extendedw ith profuse and wan ton extravagan ce.

It should be large ehough to receive and accommodate thev isiters which such a man n ever fa ils to attract

,and sui ted

7

74 B IOGRAPHY OF

2in

‘

its ornaments, as well as its dimensions, to the characterand fortune of the individual . Mon tic ello has now lost itsgreat charm. T hose of you who have n ot already v isited it ,w ill not be very apt to visit it hereafter : and

,from the

feelings which you cherish for its depar ted owner,I persuade

myself th at you will not be displeased with a brief and rapidsketch of that abode of domestic bliss

,that temple of scien ce .

N or Is it , indeed, foreign to the expresspurpose of this meet

ing , which, in looking to' his life and charac ter , ’naturally

embraces his home and his domestic habits. Can any thin gbe indifferent to us

,which was so dear to him

,and which

was a subject of such just admiration to the hundreds and

thou sands that were con tinually resorting to it,as to an object ‘

Of pious pilgrimage 2

T he Mansion House at Mon ticello was built and furn ished in the days of his prosperity. In its d imension s

,its

a rchitecture,its arrangemen ts and ornamen ts

,it is such a

one as became the character and fortune of . the man . It

stands upon an elliptic pla in,formed by cu tting down the

apex of a moun ta in ; and , on the west,stretching away to

the north and the south,it commands a v iew of the B lue

Ridge for a hundred and fifty miles,and brings under the

eye one of the boldest and most beautiful hor izons in the

world : while, on the east, it presen ts an extent of prospectbounded on ly by the spher ical form of the ear th

,in which

n ature seems to sleep in eternal repose,as if to form one of

her fin est con trastsw ith the rude and rolling grandeur on thewest . In the w ide prospect, an d scattered to the north andsouth

,are several detached moun tains, which con tribute to

an imate and diversify this en chan ting landscape and

amon g them, to the south,W illie’

sMoun ta in,which is so

in terestingly depicted in h is Notes. From this summit,the

Philosopher was won t to enjoy that spectacle,amon g the

sublimest of Nature’s opera tions

,the looming of the distant

WILL I AM WIRT 75

moun ta ins ; and to watch the motions of the planets, and

the greater revolu tion of the celestia l sphere. From thissummit, too, the patriot could look down , w ith un in terruptedvision , upon thew ide expanse of the world around, for whichhe con sidered himselfborn ; and upward

,to the Open and vault

ed heavens which he seemed to approach,as if to keep him

con tinually in mind of his high respon sibility. It is indeeda prospect in which you see and feel a t once, that nothingmean or little could live . It is a scen e fit to nour ish t hosegrea t and high-sou led pr in ciples which formed the ele

men ts of his character , an d was a most noble and appropriate post for such a sen tin el

,over the r ights an d liberties of

man .

“ Approaching the house on the east, the visiter instinctively paused, to cast a roun d on e thr illing glance at thismagn ificen t panorama : and then passed to the vestibule

,

where, if he had n ot been previously informed, he wouldimmediately perceive that he was en ter ing the house of

no common man . In the spacious and lofty ha ll whichopens before him,

he marks no tawdry and unmea n ing ornamen ts :

'

bu t before, on the r ight,on the left

,a ll around

,the

eye Is struck and gratified w ith objects Of science and taste,

so classed and arranged as to produce their finest effect . On

one side,specimen s of sculpture set ou t

,in such order

,as to

exhibit a t a coup d ’rr il

,thehistor ical progress of tha t a rt ;

from the first rude attempts of the aborigin es Of our cou ntry,

up to that exqu isite and fin ished bust of the great patr iothimself, from the master hand of Caracc i . On the otherside , the v isiter sees displayed a vast collection of specimensof Indian art

,th eir pa in tings

,weapons

,ornamen ts

,and

manufactures ; on an other,an array of the fossil productions

of our coun try , min eral and a nimal ; the polished remainsof those colossal monsters that on ce trod our forests

,and are

nomore and a variegated display of the branching honours

76 B IOGRAPHY OF

of those ‘monarchs of the waste,

’t hat still people the wilds

of the Amer ican Contin en t .“ From this hal l he was ushered in to a noble saloon , from

which the glorious landscape of the west aga in bursts uponhis v iew ; and which, w ithin , is hung thick aroun d w ith thefin est production s of th e pen cil—histor ical pa in tings of themost striking subjects from all coun tr ies

,and all ages ; the

portra its of distin gu ished men and patr iots,both of Europe

and Amer ica and medallions and engravings in endlessprofusion .

“ While the visiter was yet lost in the contemplation of

these treasures of the arts and scien ces, he was startled bythe approach of a strong and sprightly step

,and turn ing

w ith in stinctive reverence to the door Of en tran ce,he was

met by the tall,and an imated

,and stately figure of the pa

triot himself—his coun tenance beaming w ith in tell igenceand ben ign ity

,and his ou tstretched han d, w ith its strong

an d cordial pressure,confirming the courteouswelcome ofhis

lips. And then came that charm of manner an d converse

t ion that passes all descr iption—so cheerful—so unassuming-so free

,and easy, an d frank

,and kind, and gay—that

even the young, and overawed,and embarrassed v isiter at

on ce forgot his fears,and felt himself by the side Of an Old

and familiar fr iend .

”

In the “ Life Of Patrick Hen ry,” though a

work OfMr. Wirt’s more mature age, the man

n er of the n arrative has been thought too ambitions, an d the subject of it to be decked in the

colours Of declamation and fan cy. These are

faults to repel the judicious reader yet the vol

ume is n ot one which the most judicious will

WILL IAM WIRT . 77

lay down unfin ished,or will read with weari

n ess . It Often occurred to us, we confess, in ou r

first perusal of this work, that the hero of itseemed more like the creation of a rhetorician,than a person age Of history, however grave, elo

quen t an d emin en t in the view Of his con temporaries ; and

,in common with others of the

author’s readers, we gave him credit for having

filled up his drawing with colours over rich and

splendid . Y et when we referred again to the

inciden ts and an ecdotes, an d found them Oftentold in the words Of the relaters ; when we recol

lected however vaguely the causes might beassign ed

,there was a gen eral ‘ con currence as to

the effects of this tradition ary eloquen ce ; webegan to think that the exaggeration

,if any,

was that of the witn esses an d n ot Of the advocatein the cause . Nor will it accoun t for this lavishpraise, that these oration s, so celebrated in Virgin ia, were addressed

,as has been said

,to the

more popular kinds of assemblies,whose feel

ings are easily excited,an d whose opin ion s are

seldom founded on the basis of ration al convicThis is not true of a large portion Of

these efforts ; on the con trary, the auditors who

i r o

.A I j

t ” h i s 1 . n rm 1 1 sau r n . 18 t f> .

78 B IOGRAPHY OF

are witnesses in the case,were many of them

men n ot on ly of the first emin ence in their ownstate

,but famous throughout the con tinen t

,an d

some of them themselves the men Of posterity.

Mr . Jefferson,who is surely on e of the latter

class,uses language that justifies the boldest

praise of the biographer, and proves that the

powers of Hen ry were felt alike by all degreesboth of con dition an d discernmen t . That eminen t man is cited , it may be remembered

,as

authority for many passages in the work ; an din some Of his letters commun icating in formationto the author, he is kn own to have spoken Of theoratory Of Hen ry as bold , gran d an d

‘

overwhelming,” giving examples of eloquen ce suchas probably had n ever been exceeded,” and the

man himself ashaving been “ the idol Ofhis state,

”

beyon d example. Of the same ton e is the evi

den ce Of many other person s whose celebrity issome warran t Of their good taste ; an d man yauthen tic an ecdotes are afloat, some of them Oddenough, an d n ot such as to find place in a seriouswork, which would show what an extraordin aryimpression preva iled in his n ative state

,of the

command of this memorable person over the rea

son as well as the passion s of men . Of on e of

these great displays the Old Congress was the

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80 B IOGRAPHY or?

correcdy. Of those,

aga in,more regularly

reported, as in the debates of the Virgin ia Con ~

ven tion , it is a striking and very curious circumstance

,that the reporter seems to have

“ dropped” Mr. Hen ry,to use his biographer’s

expression , in those very passages where the

reader would be mostanxious to follow him . So

in the stenographical notes of the argumen t onthe British debts

,

‘it is,as the biographer in forms

us, where we are prepared for the most captivating or overwhelming flights

,that the frequen t

erasures bear most marks of an apparen t butineffectual effort to recall what the en chan tmen tof the momen t caused to escape the verbal recordof the reporter. Atten tively con sidered, this circumstance, which deprives us of the language ofthe orator

,is another of the man y homages of

his hearers to his en chan ting faculty .

Recollecting an d weighing these circum~

stan ces, we doubt whether the author of the Life

of Patrick Hen ry has done more in his ferviddelin eation of him

,than reflect the un ited testi

mony ofwitnesses of all classes,whether frien ds

or foes . Had he,in fact

,practised a rhetorical

art ; had he seemed to kindle less himself inbringing these glowing tradition s before hisreader

,an d in rea

l it y heig h ten e d the r effec t h y

WILLIAM w rRT . 81

a kind ofreluctan t exhibition of their energy an dun an imousness, we are tempted to think hewould more completely have won the convictionwhich we can not reason ably withhold from the

eviden ce he has adduced . T he same thingseems true of the compan ion -pieces of the princi

pal portrait. They were a body of men altogether remarkable an d splendid

,an d Mr . Jeffer

son,through whose hands the author’s manu

script passed,declares the characters to be in imi

tably an d justly drawn .

” Tradition,it must be

remarked,so un iform in respect to Mr . Hen ry’s

oratory is n o less so as to his defects and it isanother vindication of the biographer’s impartiality, that these are n oted without hesitation inhis memoir . In both he echoed the voice of

con temporaries, and in regard to his eloquen ce,

on ly joined in a gen eral acclaim .

These observation s are exceeding our limits,or we might remark it as somewhat curious

,that

the “action ” which Demosthen es has been

thought to have disproportion ably lauded,and

which,by un iversal con curren ce, formed the

secret an d chief charm ofPatrick Hen ry’s elocution , has in some sort caused his preten sion s tobe doubted . Unwilling to impute such extraor

dinary effects to such a cause, we prefer to reject

82 B IOGRAPHY OF

at on ce both the judgmen t of the Greek oratoran d this modern eviden ce of its truth ; thu sdenying to the critic the confirmation of the ex

ample, and to the example the authority of thecritic. There are

,however

,brief passages of

Hen ry’s,as they

‘

are given in his life,which

,

mutilated as they have come down to us, are

worthy of Chatham,and worthy of any orator

,

in any age. T he biography, we think, is n ot

likely to perish either from wan t of in terest in itssubject

,or of skill in the writer, who, without

alteration of the factsé tvhich , besides the popalar belief

, we have the ven erable authoritya lready quoted , that he took great pain s to siftan d scrutin ize,”— but by subduing the warmtone of the n arrative

,may ren der it an enduring

portion of our popular literature. T he subjecthas been pursued to such length, however,chiefly from its in terest as a gen eral question .

In taking leave of it we may add the opi nionof a writer* who, though sn atched away in the

morn ing of a promising day, may be cited on a

subject which he has treated with n o less kn owledge than eloquen ce.

_T he passage is equally

complimen tary to Patrick Hen ry an d Mr. Wirt.

The late ‘FrancisWalker Gilmer.

WILL IAM WIRT . 83

“ Had one,” he says, with so rich a gen ius,with

such a soul for eloquen ce, as Mr. Wirt certain lypossesses, seen Mr. Hen ry in some ofhis gran destexhibition s

,I should n ot n ow have to deplore the

wan t of a fin ished orator a t any American bar .

But that bright meteor shot from its mid-heavensphere too early for Mr . Wirt,and the glory ofhis art descended with him .

” As the most effective and correct description ofMr. Wirt’s oratoryto which we can add n othing

,and which we

should be unwillin g to retren ch, we extract the

remain der of this passage, though it is probablyfamiliar to many. T he readermay recollect thatthe elocution of Mr . Wirt was origin ally faultyin severa l particulars . Of these defects his n iceear an d good taste rendered him pain fully sen sible, and he ben t himself determin edly to the cureof them ; with what success will appear fromMr. Gihn er’

s picture of him.

“ But I have seen no one who has such natural advanta ges and so many qualities requ isite for genuine eloquenceas Mr . W irt . His person is dign ified and commanding ;his coun ten an ce open , manly and playful ; his voice clearand musical ; an d his whole appearan ce truly oratorical .

Judgmen t and imagin ation hold a divided domin ion over his

mind,and each is so con spicuous that it is difficult to decide

which is ascendan t . His diction un ites force,pur ity ,

varietyand splendou r , more perfectly than that of any speaker Ihave heard

,except Mr . P inkn ey . He had great or iginal

84 B IOGRAPHY of

powers of action,but they have been totally unassisted by

the con templation of a good model . H is wit is prompt ,pure

,and brillian t

,but these lesser scin tillation s of fan cy are

lost in the blaze of his reason in g an d declamation .

“ His premises are alwaysbroad and distinctly la id down,

his deduct ions are faultless,and his con clusions of course

,

irresistible from the predicate . In this he resembles whathe has observed ofMr . Marshall

,admit his first proposition

and the conclusion is in evitable . T he march of his mindis d irect to its object

,the evolutions by which he a tta ins it

,

a re so n ew and beautiful, and apparen tly n ecessary to theoccasion

,that your admiration is kept a live

,your fancy

delighted, an d your judgmen t convin ced,through every

stage of the process. He leaves n o objection to his reason

ing unanswered,bu t satisfies every doubt as he advances.

His power over his subject is so great,and so judiciously

directed,tha t he sweeps the whole field of discussion , rarely

leaves any thing for his assistan ts to glean,and somet imes

a n ticipating the position of his en emy’s battery

,renders it

useless,by destroying before-hand the mater ials of which

its fort ificat ionswere to be erected . He has been sometimes

known to an swer,by an ticipation

,all the argumen ts of the

opposing counsel so perfectly, as to leave him nothing tosay which had not been better sa id a lready . T hese greatcombinations ar e so closely connected

,the succession of

their parts so n atural , easy, and rapid, that thewhole operat ion

,offensive an d defensive

,appears bu t one effort. T here

is no weak poin t in his array,no chink in thewhole l in e of

his extended works. T hen the sweet melody of voice, thebeautiful decora tion s of fan cy

,the easy play of a powerful

reason,bywhrch all this is accomplished

,amaze and del ight .

His pathos is n atural and impressive ; there is a pastoralsimplicity and tenderness in his pictures of distress, whenhe describes female innocence

,helplessness, and beau ty,

WILL IAM WIRT . 85

which the husband on whom she smiled should have guardedeven from the w inds of heaven which might v isit it tooroughly

,

“shivering at midn ight on the w in ter banks of the

Ohio,and mingling her tears w ith the torren t

,which froze

as they fell ;” it is n ot a theatr ical tr ick,to move a fleetin g

pity,but a deep and impressive appeal to the dign ified char i~

t ies of our

An opin ion prevailed perhaps,at on e time

,

that it was rather “

in the orn ate than the severerqualities of oratory thatMr .Wirt excelled . Except in deed that s ome of his brillian cies

,if w e

may call them so,foun d their way in to popular

works,there was

,perhaps

,n o better reason for

supposin g a per son who wrote with taste, an dspoke with force an d feelin g, on that accoun t towan t argumen t, than for the con ver se in the

case of the a ttorn ey,who , as the je s t goes , was

reported to be a great lawyer because he was a

miserable speaker . Those who kn ew him the

earliest, con cur that the striking feature of hi smin d was the power ofargumen t, ofclose, conn ected

,cogen t

,logical rea son ing .

” In the un

foreseen poin ts that'

arise before a court, where theargumen t of coun sel must be in stan t and ex tem

poran eous, he was always eminen t for ready forceaswell asfor lucid order . T he writer remembers

G ilmer ’s Sketches, &c . pp . 38 39.

8

86 B I OGRAPHY or

the first foren sic en coun ter between him andMr.

Pinkney, in Baltimore, and the impression alsoof his speech compared with that of his formidable rival . If, to use an old figure, he was struckby the elaborate Gothic beauties of the on e, he

drew a calmer pleasure from the Grecian ele

gan ce and proportion s of the other,where grace

was subservien t to utility, an d all the parts werehappily disposed toward the main design . In

the structure of his speeches there is much of

what Quin tilian calls the apta jun ctura .

” He

seemed,however, in his own words, “

n ot decorated for pomp

,but armed for battle .

” Y et thisopin ion ofhis orn amen t

,scilicet n imia facilitas

magis quam facultas,

”appeared to have been

somewhat diffused ; for it is n ot longsin ce an

emin en t judge, on first hearing the advocatein some cause of momen t

, observed to him thathe did n ot know till then that he was a logician .

T he well known description of Blenn erhasset

an d his Islan d has been thought n o more thanthe creation of the orator’s fan cy . But it is aswell known to many

,that the eviden ce on which

that passage of the speech was founded, (whichdoes n ot appear in the report of the trial

,) was

quite as high-wrought in the description . In

fin e, we may appositely quote on this subject , a

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88 B IOGRAPHY OF

an tagon ist,Mr. Emmet, a quotation of the latterfrom Virgil.T he Attorney-Gen eral observed, that his learn

ed frien d (Mr . Emmet) had eloquen tly person ified the state of New-York

,castin g her eyes

over the ocean , witn essing every where the

triumph of her gen ius,and exclaiming

,in the

language ofE neas,

‘Quae regio in terr is, n ostr i non plenee laboris 2’

Sir,it was n ot in the momen t of triumph, n or w ith the

feelings of tr iumph, that fEn eas u ttered that exclamation .

It was when , w ith his fa ithful Achates by his side,he was

surveying the works of art w ith which the palace of Car

thage was adorned,and his atten tion had been caught by a

represen tation of the battles of T roy. T here he saw the

sons of Atreus, and Pr iam,and th e fierce Achilles. T he

whole exten t of hismisfortunes ; the loss and desola tion of

his friends ; the fall of his beloved coun try ; rushed uponhis recollection .

‘Constitit et lachrymans, qu is j am locus, inquit, Achate,

Quae regio in terr is, nostr i n on plenae laboris1

Sir,the passage may hereafter have a closer application

to the cause than my eloquen t and classical friend inten ded .

For if the!state of things which has already commenced

,is

‘

to go on ; if the spir it of hostilitywhich al ready exists in threeof our states

,is to catch by con tagion

,and spread among the

rest,as

,from the progress of th e human passions

,an d the

unavoidable conflict of in terests,it w ill too surely do ; what

a re we to expect ? Civil wars,ar ising from far in fer ior

causes,have desolated some of the fa irest provinces of the

WILL IAM wrn 'r . 89

earth . History is full of the afflicting narratives of suchwars ; and it w ill con tinue to be her mournful office to record

It is a momen tous dethem,till t ime shall be n o longer .

cision which this cou rt is called on to make. Here are threestates almost on the eve of war . It is the high province of

this court to in terpose its ben ign and mediatorial influen ce .

T he framers of our admirable constitution would have deserved the wreath of immortality which they have acqu ired,had they done n othing else than to establish this guardiantr ibun al

,to harmon ize the jarr ing elemen ts in our system.

Bu t,srr

,if you do not in terpose your friendly han d

,and

extirpate the seeds of an archy which N ew-Y ork has sown ,you will have c ivil war . T he war of legislation which hasa lready commen ced

,w ill

,according to its usual course

,

become a war ofblows. Your coun try w ill be shaken w ithc ivil str ife. Y our republican institution s w ill per ish in theconflict . Y our con st i tu tion w ill fall . T he last hope of

n ation s w ill be gon e . An d what w ill be the effect upon therest of the world ’

! Look abroad a t the scenes now passin gon our globe

,an d judge of that effect. T he fr iends of free

governmen t throughou t the earth, who have been heretoforean imated by our example

,and have cheerfully cast their

glan ce to it,as to their polar star

,to gu ide them through the

stormy seas of revolution ,will w itness our fall , with dismay

an d desp a ir . T he arm that is every where lifted in the

cause of liber ty,w ill drop unn erved by the warr ior ’

s side.

Despotism w ill have its day of triumph,an d w ill aecom

plish the purpose at which it too certa in ly a ims. It w illcover the earth w ith theman tle ofmourn ing . T hen

,sir

,when

N ew-Y ork shal l look upon this scen e of ru in , ifshe have thegen erous feelin gs which I believe her to have

,it w ill not be

w ith her head aloft,in the pr ide of conscious triumph, ‘her

rapt soul sittin g in her eyes.

’—No,sir

,no ! Dejected w ith

shame and confusion,drooping under the weight . of her

90 BIOGRAPHY OF

sorrow,with a voice suffocated with despair

,well may she

then excla im,

Qu is j am locus,Qua: regio in terris, nostr i non plenae laboris 2’

Mr. Wirt has just en tered his sixtieth year,an d still resides in Baltimore, an emin en t orn a s

men t of a state which may number with somepride among her son s, a Dulany

,a Chase

,a

Martin,an d a Pinkn ey. For the n arrative

given in the preceding pages, we have the briefapology of the classic : hujus vitam n arrare,

fiduciam potins morum,quam arrogan tiam.

”

T he subject of the abovememoir has acquireda n ew in terest with the public from his n omination by the An ti-Mason ic Conven tion , assembleda t Baltimore in October last, as a candidate forthe Presiden cy of the Un ited States ; an emia

n cnoc towhich he brings the preten sion s of puremorals and n ative dign ity ; of a high in tellect,clear

,vigorous and direct, refin ed by knowledge,

and by a large acquain tan ce withman kind, especially with the emin en t talen ts of his age ; of

profound con stitution al learn ing, and of an in timate knowledge Of the poin ts and course of our

WILL IAM WIRT . 91

national policy, acquired during a period of

twelve years, durin g which, in the capacity ofAttorn ey-General, he held a seat in the cabin et . Noman has more in tegrity in private life

,

an d non e would bring in to the admin istrationof public affairs a more sin cere, candid, elevatedor patriotic purpose. Though

,restrained by

personal and profession al con sideration s, he hasnever mingled in the competition s ofpolitics

,he

has spoken and written on many of the question swhich have agitated and divided the publicopin ion . Such a mind, with such opportun itiesand occasion s of observation , must have castover the whole field of our policy, that broad andcomprehen sive glan ce which justifies this recen tproof of the confiden ce of a con siderable portionof the public.

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A D VERTI SEMENT .

and classical taste has pron oun ced it to be the

offspring of gen ius . T o those who would in

culcate the degrading doctrin e, that this is the

coun try

Where Gen ius sickens,and where Fancy

we would offer the letters of the British Spyas an un question able eviden ce that America is

en titled to a high ran k in the republic of letters ;and that the empyreal flame may be respired

un der any region .

Clifton .

TO THE ED ITOR or THE'

VIRGINIA ARGUS.

T HE manuscript,from which the following letters are

extracted,was found in the bed-chamber of a boarding-house

in a seaport town of V irgin ia . T he gen tleman , who hadpreviously occupied that chamber , is represen ted

,by the

mistress of t he house,to have been a meek and harmless

young man,who meddled very little w ith the affa irs of

others,and concern in g whom no on e appeared sufficiently

in terested to make any inqu iry . As it seems from the

manuscript that the n ame by which he passed was not his

real n ame,and as

,moreover

,she knew n othing of his

residence, so that she was totally ignoran t to whom and

whither to direct it,she considered the manuscript as law

ful pr ize, and made a present of it to me. It seems to be a

copy of letters wr itten by a young Englishman of rank,

during a tour through the U n ited States, in 1803,to a

member of the Br itish parliamen t. T hey are dated froma lmost every part of the U n ited States, con ta in a greatdeal of geographical description

,a delineation of every

character of n ote among us,some l iterary disqu isitions,

with a great mixture of moral and political observation .

9

T he letters are prettily wr itten . Persons of every description will find in them a light and agreeable enter

tainmen t ; and to the younger part of your readers theymay n ot be un instructive. For the present I select a

few which were written from this place, and by of

d ist in ction,w ill give them to you under the title of the

B r itish Spy.

T HE BR I T ISH SPY .

LET TER I .

R ichmon d,Sep tember 1 .

Y OU complain, my dear S that

although I have been '

residen t in Richmondupward of six mon ths

, you have heard nothingfrom me sin ce my arrival . T he truth is, that Ihad suspended writing un til a more in timateacquain tan ce with the people and their coun tryshould furn ish me with the materials for a cor

respondence. Having now collected those materials

,the apology ceases, an d the corresponden ce

begin s . But first,a word ofmyself.

I still con tinue to wear the mask, and mostwillingly exchange the atten tion s

,which would

be pa id to my ran k, for the superior an d exqui

site pleasure of in specting this coun try an d thispeople

,withou t attracting to myself a single eye

of curiosity, or awaken ing a shade of suspicion .

Under my assumed name, I garn an admission

1 00 T HE BR IT I SH SPY .

close enough to trace, at leisure, every line of

the American character ; while the plainn ess, orrather humility of my appearan ce, my man n ersan d conversation , put no on e on his guard, buten able me to take the portrait of n ature, as itwere

,asleep an d n aked . Beside, there is some

thing of in nocen t roguery in this masquerade,which I am playing, that sorts very well withthe sportiven ess ofmy temper . T o sit and decoythe human heart from behin d all its disguisesto watch the capricious evolution s of un restrainedn ature, frisking, curvetting an d gambolling at

her ease,with the curtain of ceremony drawn

Up to the very sky—Oh ! it is delightful !Y ou are perhaps surprised at my speaking of

the atten tion s which would be paid in thiscoun try to my ran k. Y ou will suppose that Ihave forgotten where I am : no such thing. Iremember well enough that I am in Virgin ia

,

that state,which

, of all the rest,plumes herself

most highly on the democratic spirit of her principles. Her political prin ciples are indeed democratic enough in all con science. Rights an d

privileges, as regulated by the con stitu tion of thestate, belong in equal degree to all the citizen s ;and Peter Pindar’s remark is perfectly true of

the people of this coun try,that “

every black

THE BR IT ISH SPY . 101

guard scoundrel is a king . Nevertheless,

there exists in Virgin ia a species of social ran k,

fromwhich no coun try can , I presume, be en

tirely free. I mean that kind of rank whicharises from the differen t degrees of wealth and

of intellectual refinemen t . These must in troducea style of living and of conversation , the formerof which a poor man can not attain , while an

ignoran t one would be in capable of enjoying thelatter. It seems to me that from these cau ses

,

wherever t hey may exist, circles of socrety,

strongly discrimin ated, must in evitably result .An d on e of these causes exists in full force inVirgin ia ; for, however they may vaun t ofi

equal liberty in church and state,” they havebut little to boast on the subject of equal property.

Indeed there is no coun try, I believe, whereproperty is more un equally distributed than inVirgin ia . This in equality struck me with peculiar force in riding through the lower coun tieson the Potomac. Here and there a stately aristocratic palace,with all its appurten an ces

,strikes

the view ; while all around, for many miles, noother buildings are to be seen but the little smokyhuts an d log cabin s of poor, laborious, ignoran t

T he reader needs scarcely to be reminded that the writeris a Br iton

,and true to his character .

git

102 THE BR IT ISH SPY .

tenan ts . And,what is very ridiculous, these

ten an ts, while they approach the g rea t house,

cap in han d, with all the fearful, trembling submission of the lowest feudal vassals, boast intheir court-yards, with obstreperous exultation ,that they live in a lan d of freeman , a land ofequal liberty and equal rights . Whether thisdebasing sen se of inferiority, which I havemen

tion ed, be a remn an t of their colon ial character,or whether it be that it is n atural for poverty an dimpoten ce to look up with ven eration to wealth,an d power, and rank

,I cannot decide. For my

own part,however

,I have ascribed it to the

latter cause ; and I have been in a great degr eeconfirmed in the Opin ion

,by observing the atten

tion s which were paid by the most gen teel peoplehere to the son of lordYou know the circumstances in which hislordship left Virgin ia : that so far from beingpopular

,he carried with him the deepest execra

tion s of these people. Even now,his n ame is

seldom men tion ed here but in con nexion withterms of abhorren ce or con tempt . Aware of

this, and believing it impossible thatwas in debted to his father

, for all the parade of

respect which was shown to him,I sought, in

his own personal accomplishmen ts,a solution of

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104 T HE BR IT ISH SPY .

attachmen t to mon archy an d its appendages. I

then stated the subject to a very sen sible gen tleman

,whom I kn ew to belong to the federal pha~

lan x . Not willing to degrade his party byadmitting that they would prostrate themselvesbefore the empty shadow of n obility

,he alleged

that n othing had been man ifested towardsyoung beyon d the hospitalitywhich was due to a gen teel stranger an d thatif there had been any thing of parade on hisaccoun t, it was attributable on ly to the ladies,whohad merely exercised their won ted privilege of

coquetting it with a fi ne young fellow. Butn otwithstandin g all this

,it was easy to discern

in the look,the voice, and whole man n er

,with

which gen tlemen aswell as ladies of both partiessaluted and accosted young a

secret spirit of respectful diffiden ce,a species of

silen t, reveren tial abasemen t,Which, as it couldn ot have been excited by his personal qualities

,

must have been homage to his ran k . Judge,

then,whether I have n ot just reason to appre

hend that on the annun ciation ofmy real n ame,

the curtain of ceremony would fall,and n ature

would cease to play her pranks before me.

Richmon d is built,asyouwill remember, on the

north side of James river,and at the head of tide

T HE BR IT I SH SPY . 1 05

water. There is a manuscript in this statewhichrelates a cur ious anecdote con cern ing the originof this town . T he lan d hereabout was own edby C01. William Byrd . This gen tleman

,with

the former proprietor of the land at the head oftide water on Appomatox river

, was appoin ted,it seems

,to run the lin e between Virgin ia and

North Carolina . T he Operation was a mosttremen dous on e ; for , in the execution of it, theyhad to pen etrate an d pass quite through the greatDismal Swamp. It would be almost impossibleto give you a just con ception of the horrors ofthis en terprise. Imagin e to yourself an immen semorass, more than forty miles in len gth and

twen ty in breadth,its soil a black

,deep mire

,

covered with a stupendous forest of jun iper an dcypress trees

,whose luxur ian t bran ches, in ter

woven throughout, in tercept the beams of thesun an d teach day to coun terfeit the n ight Thisforest

,which un til that time

,perhaps

,the human

foot had n ever violated, had become the secureretreat of ten thousand beasts of prey. T he

adven turers,therefore, beside the ahn ost endless

labour of felling trees in a proper direction to

form a footway throughout, moved amid per

petual terrors, an d each n ight had to sleep enmilitaire, upon their arms, surrounded with the

106 T HE BR ITI SH SPY.

deafen ing, soul-chilling yell of those hunger~

smitten lords of the desert . It was, one n ight

,

as they lay in the midst of scen es like these, thatHope, that n ever-failing friend ofman , paid thema con soling visit, and sketched in brillian t pros

pect the plan s ofRichmond and Petersburg .

*

Richmon d occupies a very picturesque and

most beautiful situation . I have n ever met withsuch an assemblage of striking and in terest ingobjects. T he town

,dispersed over hills ofvarious

shapes ; the river descending from west to east,

an d obstructed by a multitude of Small islands,clumps of trees, and myriads of rocks ; amongwhich it tumbles, foams, and roars, con stitutingwhat are called the falls ; the same river, at thelower end of the town , bending at right anglesto the south

,and winding reluctan tly off for

many miles in that direction ! its polished sur

face caught here an d there by the eye, butmore gen erally covered from the view by treesamong which the white sa ils of approaching an ddeparting vessels exhibit a curious an d in terest~

ing appearan ce : then again,on the opposite

So a t least , speaks the manuscript accoun t which Col.Byrd has left of this expedition , and which is now in the

hands of some of his descendan ts ; perhaps of the family at1Westover.

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108 T HE BR IT ISH SPY .

LET TER II.

R ichmon d, Sep tember 7.

ALMOST every day, My dear S ,some

n ew eviden ce presen ts itself in support of theAbbe Rayn al

’s opin ion

,that this con tinen t was

on ce covered by the ocean,from which it has

gradually emerged . But that this emersion is,

even comparatively speaking,of recen t date

,can

n ot be admitted ; un less the comparison be madewith the

'

creation of the earth ; and even then,in

order to justify the remark,the era of the crea

tion must, I fear, be fixed much further back thanthe period which has been inferred from the

Mosaic accoun t .*

Some error has certain ly happen ed in compu tin g the

era of the earth’s creation from the five books of Moses.

Voltaire informs us,that certa in Fren ch philosophers

,who

visited Chin a , inspected the official register or history of theeclipses of the sun and moon

,which

,it seems

,has been con

tinually kept in tha t coun try ; that on calculating them back,they were all foun d correct, and conducted those philosophersto a per iod

, (I w ill not undertake to speak w ith certa in ty of

the time,but I think ,) twen ty-three cen tu r ies before t he

Mosaic era . It is notorious,how ever

,that the Chinese

plume themselves on the an tiqu ity of their coun tr y ; and in

T HE BR IT I SH SPY . 109

T he following facts are authen ticated beyondany kind of doubt. Durin g the last spring a

gen tleman in the n eighbourhood of Williams

order to prop th is,it would have been just as easy for the

Chinese astronomers to have fabricated and dressed up theregister in question , by posterior calculations, as for the

French astron omers to have made their retrospective examina tion of the accura cy of those eclipses. T he same scien ceprecisely wa s requ isite for both purposes ; and a lthough theimprovemen t of the ar ts and scien ces in China

,was fou nd

by the first Europeans who wen t amongst them, to bear noproportion to the an tiqu ity of the coun try

, yet there is no

reason to doubt that the Chin esemandarins were a t least ascompetent to the calculat ion of an eclipse as the ShepherdsofEgypt . Indeed we are

,I believe

,expressly told

,tha t the

Chinese,long before th ey were visited by the people of

Europe, had been in the habit of using a species of astron o

mical appa ratus ; and of stamping alman acs from pla tes or

blocks, many hundred years, even before pr in ting was discovered in Europe. I see no great reason , therefore, to relyw ith very implicit confidence on the register of China .

Indeed I amvery little disposed to bu ild my fa ith, as to any

historical fact,on eviden ce perfectly w ithin the reach of

human art and impostur e ; comprehending all writin gs,in scr iptions

,l iterary or hieroglyphic, meda ls

,&c . which

tend either to flatter our passion for the marvellous, or

aggrandize the particular n at ion in whose bosom they are

found. And,therefdre

, together with the Chinese register, Ithrow out of the consideration of thisquestion another recordwhich goes to the same’

purpose ; I mean the Chalda ic manuscr ipt found by A lexan der in the c ity ofBabylon .

T he in ferences reported by Mr . B rydone,as having been

10

1 10 T HE BR IT ISH SPY .

burg,about sixty miles b elow th is place

,in dig

~

ging a ditch on his farm ,discovered about four

or five feet below the surface of the earth,a con

drawn by Recupero,from the lavas of moun t Etn a (those

stupendous records which n o human ar t or imposture cou ldpossibly have fabr ica ted) deserve, I th ink , muchmore ser iousa tten tion . T hey are subject

,indeed

,to on e of the precedin g

objection s, to wit : tha t the data , fromwhich all the subsequen tca lcu lat ions are drawn

,are inscr iptions : appealing n ot on ly

to our passion for the marvellous, bu t flatter in g the van ity ofthe Sicilians

,by establishing the gr ea t age of their mountain ,

a t once their curse and their blessing. T hese inscriptionshow ever

,do n ot rest merely on their own au thor ity : they

a llege a fact which is very strongly coun ten an ced by recen t

and un err ing observation . As Brydon e may n ot be in the

han ds of every person who may chance to possess an d readthis bag a telle, an d as this subject is really cur ious an d in teresting

,I beg leave to subjoin those par ts

'

of that traveller ’s

highly en ter ta in ing letters which relate to it.“ T he last lava we crossed

,before our arr ival there (Jaci

R ea le) is of vast ex tent. I thought we n ever should havehad don e w ith it ; it cer ta in ly is n ot less than six or seven

miles broad, and appears in many places to be of an enor

mous depth .

“ When we came n ear the sea,I was desirous to see what

form it had assumed in meeting w ith the wa ter . I wen t to

examin e it,an d found it had driven back th e waves for

upward of a mile,an d had formed a large

,black

,high prom

on tory ,where

,before

,it was deep water . T his lava

,I

imagin ed,from its barrenn ess

,for it is

,as yet, covered w ith

a very scan ty soil,had run from the moun ta in on ly a few

ages ag o ; but was surprised to be informed by S ign or Recu

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l 12 T HE BR IT ISH SPY .

regularly arranged and very litt le impaired as totheir figure. T hespot on wh ich this skeletonwas found, lies abou t two miles from the n earestshore of James river

,an d fifty or sixty from

the Atlan tic Ocean . T he whole phen omenonbore the clearest eviden ce that the an imal hadperished in its n ative elemen t ; and as the oceanis the n earest resort of the whale

,it follows that

but they have been all so shaken and shattered by themounta in

,that hardly any thing is to be foun d en tire.

“ Near to a vault,which is now thir ty feet below ground

,

and has,probably, been a bur ial place

,there is a draw-well

,

where there are several strata of lavas,with ea r th to a con sider able thickn essover thesu rfa ce of ea ch str a tum. Recupero hasmade use of this as an argumen t to prove the great an tiqu ity ofthemoun ta in . For if it requ ire two thousand years or upward

,

to form bu t a scan ty soil on the surface of a lava , theremusthave been more than that space of time betwixt each of theeruptions which have formed the strata . But what shall wesay of a pit they sunk n ear to Jaci of a great depth . T heypierced through seven distinct lavas

,one un der the other , the

surfaces ofwhich were parallel,an d most of them cover ed

with a thick bed of r ich ea r th . Now,says he, the eruption

which formed the lowest of these lavas,ifwemay be allowed

to reason from an alogy,must have flowed from the moun tain

a t least fourteen thousand years ago.

” Vol. I. Letter 7.

Whereas the computation in ferr ed, bu t w ithou t doubt inaccura tely , from the Pen ta teuch, makes

'

the ear th itself onlybetween five and six thousand years old.

THE BR IT ISH SPY . 1 1 3

the ocean must on ce have covered the coun try, atleast ashigh up asWilliamsburg.

Again,in digging several wells lately in this

town , the teeth of sharks were found from sixtyto n inety or a hundred feet below the surface of

the earth .

’

T he probability is that these teethwere deposited by the shark itself ; an d as thisfish is n ever known to in fest very shallowstreams

,the con clusion is clear that this whole

coun try has on ce been buried under several fathoms ofwater . At all even ts

,these teeth must

be con sidered as ascertain ing what was on ce thesurface of the earth here ; which surface is verylittle higher than that of James river . Now if itbe con sidered that there has‘been n o perceptibledifferen ce wrought in the figure or e levation of

the coast, nor, con sequen tly, in the precipitationof the in terior streams sin ce the earliest recordeddiscovery of Virgin ia

,which was two hun dred

years ago, it will follow,that James river must

,

for many hundreds,perhaps thousands of years

,

have been run n ing,at least here

,with a very

rapid, headlon g curren t ; the friction whereofmust certa in ly have ren dered the chan n el muchdeeper than it was a t the time of the depositionof these teeth . T he result is clear

,that the . sur

face of the stream, which even n ow,after all this

10"

1 14 THE'

BRIT I SH SPY .

friction and con sequen t depression , is so nearlyon a level with the site of the shark’s teeth,must, originally

,have been much higher. I

take this to be an irrefragable proof,that the land

here was then inundated ; an d as there is n o

groun d between this and the Atlan tic,higher

than that on which Richmond is built,it

'

seems

to me indisputably certain,that the whole of

this beautiful coun try was on ce covered with adreary waste ofwater.96

An elegan t andWel l informedwr iter on the theory of theearth

,under the sign a ture of “ An Inqu irer

,

”whose remarks

were suggested by the perusal of this letter of the Br itishSpy , observes that sea shells and other mar in e substancesare found in every explored part of the world

,

“on the lofti

estmoun tains ofEurope and the still loft ier An des of SouthAmer ica .

”As the Br itish Spy was not writing a regular

and elaborate treatise on the or igin of the ear th, he did not

deem it ma ter ial to con gregate all the facts which have beenseen , an d supposed, in relation to this subject .Whether the British Spy is to be considered as an Eng

l ishman of rank on a tour through Amer ica , and Wr iting theabove letter in Richmond to his fr iend in London ; orwhether he is to be considered as one of our own citizensdisposed to en terta in the people ofRichmon d and its vicin ityw ith a light and amusing speculatidn on the origin of theircoun try

,in eith er in stan ce it was both more n atural , and

more in teresting that the speculation shou ld appear to haveg rown ou t of recen t facts discovered in their own town or

neighbourhood,and with which they are all supposed to be

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1 16 THE BR IT ISH SPY .

the shores ofYork river, the bones of whalesaboun d ; and I have been not a little amused inwalking on the san d beach of that river duringthe recess of the tide

,and looking up at the high

cliff or bank above me,to observe strata of sea

shells n ot yet calcin ed, like those which lay on

the beach under my feet, in terspersed with strataof earth (the join t result, n o doubt, of san d andputrid vegetables) exhibiting at on ce a sample ofthe man ner in which the adjacen t soil had beenformed

,and proof of the comparatively re cen t

desertion of the watersUpon thewhole

,every thing here ten ds to con

firm the ingen ious theory of Mr . Buffon ; thatthe eastern coasts of con tinen ts are en larged bythe perpetual revolution of the earth from westto east

,which has the obvious tendency to con

glomerate the loose san ds'

of the sea on the

eastern coast ; while the tides of the ocean,

drawn from east to west,again st the revolving

earth,con tribute to aid the process, an d hasten

the alluvion . But admitting the Abbe Rayn al’s

idea , that America is a far younger coun try thaneither of the other con tin en ts

,or in other words,

that America. has emerged lon g sin ce their formation

,how did it happen that the materials,

which compose this con tinen t, were not accumu

THE BR IT ISH SPY . 1 17

lated on the eastern coast ofAsia ? Was it thatthe presen t moun ta in s of America , then protuberan ces on the bed of the ocean , in tercepted a

part of the passing san ds which would otherwisehave been washed on the Asiatic shore

,an d thus

became the rudimen ts of this vast con tin en t ? Ifso, America is under much greater obligation s toher barren moun tain s

,than she has hitherto

supposed .

But while Mr. Buffon ’s theory accoun ts very

han dsomely for the enlargemen t of the easterncoast, it offers no kind of reason for any extension of the western ; on the con trary

,the very

causes assign ed , to supply the addition to the

eastern,seem at first view to threaten a dimin a

tion of the western coast . Accordingly, Mr .

Buffon, we see

,has adopted also the latter idea ;

and, in the con stan t abluvion from the westerncoast of on e con tin en t, has foun d a peren n ialsource of materials for the eastern coast of thatwhich lies behin d it. This last idea , however,by n o means quadrates with the hypothesis, tha tthe moun tain s of America formed the origina lstamin a of the con tin en t ; for, on the latter supposition

,the moun tain s themselves !would con sti

tute the western coast ; smceMr . Buffon’s theory

precludes the idea of any accession in that quare

1 18 T HE BR IT SIH SPY .

ter . Bu t the moun tain s do not con stitute thewestern coast. On the con trary, t here is a.

wider exten t of coun try between the great mountain s in North America , an d the Pacific or the

n orthern ocean s, than there is between the samemoun tain s and theAtlan tic ocean . Mr. Buffon

’s

theory, therefore, however ration al as to the

eastern , becomes defective, as he presses it,in

relation to the western coast ; un less to aecommodate the theory, we suppose the total abrasionof some great moun tain which origin ally con stituted the western limit, an d which was itself, theembryon of this con tin en t. But for many reaSon s, an d particu larly the presen t con tiguity toAsia

,a t . on e part

,where such a moun tain

,

according to the hypothesis,must have run

,the

idea of any such limit will be thought rather tooextravagan t for adoption . T he fact is

,that Mr .

Buffon has con sidered his theory rather in itsoperation on a con tinen t already established

,than

on the birth or primitive emersion of a con tin en t from the ocean .

As to the western part of this con tin en t, I

mean that which lies beyon d the Alleghan ymoun tain s

,if it were n ot origin ally gained from

the ocean , it has received an accumulation of

earth by no mean s less wonderful. Far beyond

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1 20 T HE BR IT I SH SPY .

more like a wor ld than the petty territory thatwas inundated by Eucalion ’

sflood . If I remem»

ber aright, for I can n ot immediately refer to thebook, Stith, in his History of Virgin ia, has re~

corded a similar tradition among the Atlan tictribes of Indian s . I have n o doubt that ifM’K en zie had been aswell qualified for scien tificresearch, as he was undoubtedly hon est, firm and

persevering, it would have been in his power tohave thrown great lights on this subject

,as it

relates to the western coun try.

For my own part, while I believe the presen tmoun ta in s of America to have con stituted theorigin al stamin a of the con tin en t, I believe at

the same time,the western aswell as the eastern

coun try to be the effect of alluvion ; producedtoo by the same causes : the rota tion of the

earth, and the plan etary attraction of the ocean .

T he perception of this will be easy and simple,if,in stead of con foun ding the mind, by a wide

View of the whole con tin en t as it n ow stan ds,we carry back our imagination s to the time of.

its birth,and suppose some on e of the highest

pinn acles of the Blue Ridge to have just emergedabove the surface of the sea . Now whether therolling of the earth to the east give to the ocean

,

which floats loosely upon its bosom,an actual

THE BR IT ISH SPY . 121

coun ter-curren t, to the west,* which is occasion

ally further accelerated by the motion of the

tides in that direction,or whether this be n ot the

T his idea,which is merely stated hypothetica lly , is con

sidered,by the Inqu irer

,as having been a position absolu tely

taken by the British Spy : and as the reverse pr in ciple, (towit

,tha t the motion of the wa ters is taken from and corres

ponds with that of the solid ear th,) is sowell established

,he

con cludes th at it must have been con tested by the B ritishSpy through mere in adverten ce. But

,for my part , I do not

perceive how this hypothetica l idea of the Br itish Spy is, atall

,in collision w ith the doctrin e of the diurn al or annual

r evolu tion of the terraqueous globe.

T he Br itish Spy could not have been gu iltyof so great anabsurdity as to in ten d t hat the wa ters of the ocean desertedtheir bed an d broke over the eastern coasts an d lofty mounta ins of opposing con tin en ts, in order toma in tain their actualcoun ter-curren t to the west . It mu st have been clear to him

,

tha t the ocean , keeping itsbed , must a tten d themotion of theearth, not on ly on its axis

,bu t in its orbit .” But the ques

t ion here is n ot as to the position of th e whole ocean as it

relates to thewhole ear th ; the question ismerely as to the locomotion of the part icles of the ocean , among themselves. For

al though the ocean , aswell as the solid earth,must perform a

complete revolution aroun d their'

common axis on ce in twen tyfour hours

,it does not follow ,

as I take it,that the globules

of the flu id ocean must, all this time, rema in as fixed as theatoms of th e solid earth : they certa inly may and certa in lyhave

,from some cause or other , a subordin atemotion among

themselves, frequen tly adverse to the general motion of the

globe ; to wit, a curre nt to the west . T he atmosphere belongsasmuch to this globe as the wa ters of the ocean do : that is

122 T HE BR IT ISH SPY .

case still to our n ewly emerged pin nacle,which

is whirled, by the earth’s motion,through the

waters of the deep,the con sequen ces will be othe

to say , it cann ot any more than the ocean fly off an d attachitself to any other planet . It feels

,l ike the ocean

,the grav i

tatin g power of the earth and the a t traction of the n eighbouring plan ets. It is affected

,n o doubt

,very sen sibly (at

least the lower region of it) by the earth’s d iurn al rota tion

,

and l ike the ocean , is compelled to a tten d her in her annua ljour ney aroun d the sun . Bu t wha t of this? Does the

a tmosphere rema in fixed in such a mann er,as that the part

of it, which our an tipodes are respir ing a t thismomen t,is to

furn ish our diet,our pabu lum vitae

,twelve hours hen ce ?

Certa in ly not ; the a toms which compose the atmosphereare, we kn ow ,

in spite of the earth’s diurn al and an nual mo

tion,agitated and impelled in every direction ; and so also

,

we equally well kn ow,ar e the wa ters of the ocean .

If the Inqu irer,when he says that the motion of the

earth is commun icated to every part of it,whether solid or

flu id,

” in tend tha t the motion of the loose an d fluid particlesof the ocean take, from the ear th

,a flux amon g themselves to

th e east,the resu lt would be an actual curren t to the east ;

which is not pretended. If he mean,that the globules of the

ocean,unaffected by any other cause than the motion of the

earth, would always ma in ta in th e same position in rela tionto each other , he may , indeed , allege a

-prin ciplewhich iswell established ; but as it d oes not meet the approbat ion of

my reason , and as I am n ot in the habit of reading merelythat I may understand and bel ieve, I must beg permission toen ter my dissen t to the prin ciple . It would be difficult, ifnot impossible, so close as we are in the n eighbourhood ofthe earth’

s attraction , to inven t any appara tus by which a

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124 T HE BR IT ISH S PY .

cle,it is obvious that on the western coast

,

(protected, as it would be,from the curren t

,by

the n ewly risen earth,) thewaters will always be

heaven ; if it be den ied, I deman d the solution of the following phenomenon . if a pla te be filled w ith oil or other flu id

,

and the pla te be then dr awn in any direction , how does ithappen that the flu id w ill man ifest a tenden cy to flow In the

opposite direction ; insomuch that if the draught of the platebe sudden

,the flu id

,runn in g rapidly over the adverse edge

of the pla te,shall discharge itself completely ; leaving little

behind but the infer ior stratum ? I take it,that the man

who solves thisphenomen on,satisfactor ily

,w ill be compelled

to resort to pr in ciples,which

,when applied to our ocean s

,

r esting loosely as they do on the ear th which rolls un derthem

,wou ld in ev itably produce a w estern curren t ; an d this

curr en t once produced it w ill be difficu lt to say why an d whenit should cease. A curren t thus produced would be un equalfrom the n ature of its cause

,a t var ious depths : it would be

subject to temporary affection s and alterations n ear its sur

face,by the w inds

,the tides and the diversified shapes of the

coasts on which the ocean rolls. T he gen eral tenden cy,

however,of the great mass of the wa ters would be to th e

west.

I see no soun d reason in renouncingMr . Buffon’s theory

either'

on accou n t of the eloquent and beautiful mann er in

which it is expla ined ; nor because it has long had its justpor tion of admirers ; nor because there are other more mo

dern theor ies. While we are children , it may be well enoughto lie passively on our ba cks an d permit others to prepare andfeed usw ith the pap of science ; bu twhen our oWn judgmen tsand understandings have ga in ed their ma tur ity, it behovesus

,instead of being a feather for every w ind that blows,”

T HE BR IT ISH SPY . 125

comparatively low and calm. T he result isclear . T he sands, born e along by the ocean ’scurren t over the n orthern and southern ex tremi

ties of this pinn acle, will always have a tenden cyto settle in the calmbehin d it ; an d thus, by

instead of floating impoten tly before thecap r icious cu r r en toffashion and opin ion

,to heave out all our anchors ; to take a

position fromwhich n othing shall move u s but reason and

t ruth,not novelty and fashion . In the progress of scien ce

,

many principles,in my opin ion

,have been dropped to make

way for others, which are n ewer but less true. And amon gthem Mr . Buffon

’s theory of the earth . T he effect of allu

v ion is so slow , tha t any on e generation is a lmost un able toperce ive the change wrought by it ; hen ce, many people

,

un able to sit down and reflect on the wonders which timecan do

,fly off w ith a kin d of puerile impatien ce

,an d resort

to any thin g, even a bou levefi emeu te of a whole con tin ent ,rather than to depend on so slow and imperceptible an ope

ration as that of alluvion . T his is n ot philosophica l . Neitheron the other hand would it be philosophical to reject a theoryb ecause it might be n ew and un supported by a n ame . On

the con trary , the man who,on any branch of philosophy

starts a n ew hypothesis,which has even the gu ise of reason

,

confers a ben efit on the world ; for he en larges the ground ofthought, an d although not immediately in the temple of tru thhimself, may have dropped a hin t , an acciden tal clew

,which

may serve to lead others to th e door of the temple. In thisspirit , I not on ly excuse, bu t am gra teful even for the wildestof D r . Darw in ’

s philosophical chimeras. In the same Spir it,

I offer , w ithout the expecta tion of its fin al adoption,the idea

suggested by this note as to the cause of a western curren t.

1 1"

126 T HE BR IT ISH SPY .

perpetual accumulation s, form a western coast,more rapidly perhaps than an eastern on e ; as

we may see in min iature, by the capes and

shallows collected by the still water, on each

side, at the mouths of creeks, or below rocks, inthe rapids of a river .

After this n ew-born poin t of earth had gain edsome degree of elevation

,it is probable that suc

cessive coats of vegetation,according to D r .

Darwin ’s idea,spring ing up, then fallin g an d

dying on the earth,paid an annual tribute to

the in fan t con tin en t,while each rain which fell

upon it,bore down a part of its substan ce an d

assisted perpetually in the en largemen t of itsarea .

It is curious t hat the arrangemen t of the

moun tain s both in North and South America,

as well as the shape of the two con tinen ts,com

bin e to strengthen the preceding theory. For

the moun tain s,as you will perceive on in specting

your maps, run in chain s from n orth to south ;thus opposing the widest possible barrier to thesands

,as they roll from east to west. T he

shape of the con tinen t is just that which wouldn aturally be expected from such an origin thatis,they lie along

,collaterally

,with the moun

tain s . As far north as the coun try is well

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1 28 T HE BR IT I SH SPY .

between the poles, and produ ce a material differ~

en ce in ou r astronomical relation s . T he n avigators of that day will be as successful in theirdiscoveries in the southern seas, as Columbuswas heretofore in the n orthern . For there can

be little doubt that there has been a time whenColumbus, if he had lived, would have foun dhis reason ings, on the balan ce of the earth,fallacious ; and would have sought these seas fora con tin en t, as much in vain , as Drake, An son ,Cook an d others

,en couraged perhaps by similar

reason ing, have sin ce sought the ocean of the

south .

If Mr . Buffon’s n otion be correct

,that the

eastern coast of one con tin en t is perpetuallyfeeding on the western coast of that which liesbefore it

,the con clusion 1s InevItable

,that the

presen t materials ofEurope an d Africa , and Asia ,in succession , will

'

at some future day, composethe con tin en ts of North and South America ;while the latter, thrown on the Asiatic shore

,

will again make a part,an d

,in time

,the whole

of that con tin en t,to which by some philoso

phers, they are supposed to have been origin allyattached. It is equally clear that, by thIsmean s

,

the con tin en ts will n ot on ly exchange their ma

terials, but their position ; so that, in process of

T HE BR ITI SH SPY . 1 29

time,they must respectively make a tour around

the globe, main ta in in g still the same ceremo

n ious distan ce from each other, which they n owhold .

According to my theory, which supposes an

alluvion on the western as well as the easterncoast, the con tinen ts and islan ds of the earth,will be caused

,reciprocally, to approximate, and

(if materials enough can be foun d in the bed of

the ocean,or gen erated by any process of n ature)

u ltimately to un ite . Our islan d ofGreat Britain ,therefore

,at some future day, an d in proper per

son,will probably invade the territory ofFran ce.

In the course of this work of a lluvion,as it re

lates to this coun try, the -refulgen t waters of theAtlan tic will be forced to recede from HamptonRoads an d the Chesapeake ; the beds whereofwill become fertile valleys

,or

,as they are called

here,river bottoms ; while the lan ds in the lower

district of the state,which are n ow on ly a very

few feet above the surface of the Sea,will rise

in to majestic emin en ces,an d the presen t sickly

site of Norfolk be converted in to a high an d

salubrious moun tain . I apprehend,however,

that the presen t inhabitan ts ofNorfolk would beextremely unwill in g to have such an effectwrought in their day ; sin ce there can be little

1 30 T HE BR IT I SH SPY .

doubt that they prefer their presen t commercialsituation

,in cumbered as it is by the an nual

visits of the yellow fever, to the elevation and

health of the Blue Ridge.

In the course of this process, too, ofwhich Ihave been speaking, if the theory be correct, thegulf of Mexico will he even tually filled up

,and

the West India islands con solidated with the

American con tinen t .These con sequen ces

,visionary as they may

now appear,are n ot on ly probable

,but

,if the

alluvion which is demon strated to have takenplace already

,should con tinue

,they are in evita

ble. There is very little probability that theisthmus ofDalien

,which con n ects the two con ti

n en ts,is coeval with the BlueRidge or the Cordil

leras ; an d it requires on ly a con tinuation of the

cause which produced the isthmus,to effect the

repletion of the gulf and the con solidation of the

islands with the con tin en t.But when ? I am possessed ofn od a ta whereby

the calculation s can be made. T he depth at

which Hercu la n eum an d P omp eia were foun dto be buried in the course of sixteen hun dr edyears

,affords us n o light on this in quiry ; because

their burialwas effected not by the slow alluvionand accumulation of time, but by the sudden

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132 T HE BR IT ISH SPY .

LET TER III.

Richmon d , Sep tember 15.

Y ou inquire in to the state of your favouriteart in Virgin ia . Eloquen ce

,My dear S

has few successful votaries here : I mean elo

quen ce of the highest order ; Such as that toWhich

,n ot on ly the bosom of your friend

,but

the feelings of the whole British n ation bore evi

den ce,in listen ing to the charge of the Begums

in the prosecution ofWarren Hastings .In the national an d state legislatures

, as wellas at the various bars in the Un ited States

,I

have heard great volubility,much good sen se,

and some random touches of the pathetic ; butin the same bodies, I have heard a far greaterproportion of puerile ran t, or tedious an d disgusting in an ity . Three remarks are true as to

almost all their orators.First, They have n ot a sufficien t fund of gen

eral knowledge.

Secondly, They have not the habit of closeand solid thinking .

T HE BR IT I SH SPY . 1 33

Thirdly,They do not aspire at original orna »

men ts.From these three defects, it most gen erally

results, that although they pour ou t, easily

en ough, a torren t ofwords, yet these are destituteof the light of erudition , the practical utility ofjust and copious thought, or those n ovel andbeautiful allusion s an d embellishmen ts

,with

which the very scen ery of the coun try is so

highly calculated to in spire them .

T he truth is, my dear S that this scarcity of genuine and sublime eloquen ce

,is n ot

confin ed to the Un ited States : in stan ces of it inany civilized coun try have always been rare

indeed . Mr . Blair is certain ly correct in the

opin ion , that a state of n ature is most favourableto the higher efforts of the imagin ation , and themore un res train ed and n oble raptures of the

heart . Civilization , wherever it has gain edground, has in terwovepwith society a habit ofartificial and elaborate decorum

,which mixes in

every operation oflife,deters the fan cy from every

bold en terprise, an d buries n ature under a load ofhypocritical ceremon ies . A man

,therefore

,in

order to be eloquen t,has to forget the habits in

which he has been educated ; and n ever will hetouch his audien ce so exquisitely as when he

1 2

134 T HE BR IT I SH SPY .

goes back to the primitive Simplicity of the patria

archal age.

I have said that . in stan ces of genuine and

sublime eloquen ce have always been rare in

every civilized coun try. It is true that Tullyan d Pliny the younger have, in their epistles

,

represen ted Rome, in their respective days, as

swarming with orators of the first class ; yetfrom the specimen s which they themselves haveleft us

,I am led to en tertain a very humble Opin

ion of an cien t eloquen ce.

Demosthen es we kn ow has pronoun ced, n ot

the chief,but the sole merit of an orator to con ~

sist in d elivery , or as Lord Verulam tran slatesit,in a ction , an d

,although I know that the

world would proscribe it as a literary heresy,I

can not help believing Tully’s merit to have been

prin cipally of that kind . For my own part,I

con fess very frankly, that I have n ever met withany thing of his

,which has

,according to my

taste,deserved the n ame of Superior eloquen ce.

His style,indeed

,is pure

,polished, sparkling,

full and sonorous ; and perhaps deserves all theen comiums which have been bestowed on it.But an oration , certain ly,

'no more deserves thetitle of superior eloquen ce

,because its style IS

ornamen ted, than the figure of an Apollo would

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1 36 T HE BR IT ISH SPY .

more than a tissue of rhapsodies, assailing theear indeed with pleasan t sounds, but leaving fewclear and useful traces on the mind. Plutarchspeaks of his person as all grace, his voice as

perfect music,his look and gesture as all alive,

striking, dign ified and peculiarly impressive ;an d I in clin e to the opin ion

,that to these theat

rical advan tages, con nected with the just relian cewhich the Roman s had in his patriotism and

good judgmen t,their strong in terest in the sub

jects discussed by him,and their more in timate

acquain tan ce with the idiom ofhis language,his

fame while living,arose ; an d that it has been

sin ce propagated by the schools on accoun t of theclassic purity and elegan ce of his style.

Many of these remarks are,in my Opin ion

,

equally applicable to Demosthen es . He deserves,

indeed,the distin ction of having more fire and

less smoke than Tully. But in the majesticmarch of the mind, in the force of thought

,an d

splendour of imagery,I think

,both the orators

of Greece an d Rome eclipsed by more than one

person within his majesty’s domin ion s .Heaven s ! how should I be an athema tized

an d excommun icated by every pedagogue in

Great Britain , if these remarks were made publicSpirits ofCar and ofAscham have mercy upon

T HE BR IT I SH SPY . 137

me W0 betide the 'han d that plucks thewizardbeard ofhoary error ! From lisping in fan cy to

stooping age, the reproaches,the curses of the

world shall be upon it ! But to you , .my dearestS my friend

,my preceptor, to you I

disclose my opin ion s with the same freedom,an d

for the same purpose,that I would expose my

wounds to a surgeon . T o you , it is peculiarlyproper that I should make my appeal on thissubject ; for when eloquen ce is the theme

,your

n ame is n ot far off.Tell me then , you , who are capable of doing

it,what is this divin e eloquen ce. What the

charm by which the orator binds the sen ses ofhis audien ce ; by which he attunes an d touchesand sweeps the human lyre

,with the resistless

sway and master hand of a T imotheus'.Z Is n otthe whole mystery comprehen ded in on e word

,

I mean n ot merely that ten derpassion which quavers the lip an d fills the eye

of the babe when he looks on the sorrows an dtears of another ; but that still more delicateandsubtile quality by which we passively catch the

very colours, momen tum and strength of the

mind,to whose operation s we are attending ;

which converts every speaker,to whom we listen ,

in to a P rocrustes, and enables him, for the mm12“

1 38 T HE BR IT I SH SPY .

men t, to stretch or lop our faculties to fit thestandard of his own min d .

This is a very curious subject. I am sometimes half in clined to adopt the n otion stated byour great Bacon in his original an d masterlytreatise on the advan cemen t of learn ing Fas

cin ation,

” says he, “ is the power and act of

imagin ation in ten sive upon other bodies thanthe body of the imagin an t ; wherein the schoolofParacelsus an d the disciples of pretended n atural magic have been so in temperate

,as that

they have exalted the power of the imagin ationto be much on e with the power ofmiracle-working faith others that draw n earer to probability

,

calling to their View the secret passages of things,

an d especially ofthe con tagion that passeth frombody to body

,do con ceive it should likewise be

agreeable to n ature,tha t there shou ld be some

tr a n smissions a n d op er a tion s from sp ir it to

sp ir it. withou t the media tion of the sen ses ;

when ce the con ceits have grown, now almost

made civil,of the mastering spirit, and the force

of confiden ce, and the like.

” This n otion isfurther explained in his Sylva Sylvarum,

wherein he tells a story of an Egyptian soothsayer,who made Mark An thon y believe that hisgen ius, which was otherwise brave and confi

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140 T HE BR IT I SH SPY .

unworthy even of me,an d the num-fish visible

and tangible in every Sen ten ce ; whereas, if ‘I .

en ter on the same amusemen t,after having

attended to the last men tion ed orator, I shall bea ston ished at the elevation an d vigour of myown thoughts ; and if I meet, acciden tally, withthe same production , a mon th or two afterward,when my mind has lost the in spiration , shallscarcely recogn ise it for my own work .

When ce is all this T o me it would seemthat it must proceed either from the subtile com

merce between the spirits of men,which Lord

Verulam n otices,an d which enables the speaker

thereby to iden tify his hearer with himself ; orelse that the min d of man possesses, independen tly of any volition on the part of its proprietor

,a

'

species of pupillary faculty of dilating andcon tracting itself

,in proportion to the pen cil of

the rays of light which the speaker throws uponit which dilatation or con traction , as in the caseof the eye, cannot be immed

i

ately an d abruptlyaltered.

Whatever may be the solution , the fact, Ithink, is certa in ly as I have stated it. And it isremarkable tha t the same effect is produced

,

though perhaps in a less degree,by perusing

books in to which differen t degrees of spirit and

T HE BR IT I SH SPY . 141

gen ius have been in fused . I am acquain tedwith a gen tlemen who n ever sits down to a com

position,wherein he wishes to shin e

,without

previously reading, with in ten se application,half

a dozen pages of his favourite Bolingbroke .

Having taken the character and impu lse of thatwriter’s mind

,he declares that he feels his pen to

flow with a spirit n ot his own ; an d tha t, if, inthe course of his work

,his powers begin to Ian

guish,he fin ds it easy to revive and charge them

afresh from the: same n ever-failin g source .

If these things be n ot vision ary,it becomes

importan t to a man,for a n ew reason

,what

books he reads,and what company he

l

keeps,

sin ce, according to Lord Verulam’s n otion

,an

influx of the spirits of others may change the

n ative character of his heart an d understanding,before he is aware of it ; or, according to the

other suggestion,he may so habitually con tract

the pupil of his mind,as to be disqualified for the

comprehen sion of a great subject,an d fit on ly

for microscopic observation s . Whereas by keeping the compan y an d reading the works ofmen

of magnan imity an d gen ius on ly, he may re

ceive their qualities by subtile tran smission,an d

even tually, get the eye, the ardour and the en tero

prise of an eagle.

142 T HE BR IT I SH SPY .

But whither am I wan dering ? Permit meto return . Admitting the correctn ess of theprin ciples formerly men tion ed

,it would seem to

be a fair con clusion that when ever an oratorwishes to know what effect he has wrought onhis audien ce

,he should coolly an d con scien tiously

propoun d to himself this question : HaVe I,myself

,throughout my oration

,felt those clear

and cogen t conviction s of judgmen t,an d that

pure an d exalted fire of the soul,with which I

wished to in spire others ? For, he may rely onit,that he can n o more impart (or to use Bacon ’sword

,tran smit) conviction s an d sen sa tion s which

he himself has n ot,at the time, sincerely felt,

than he can convey a clear title to property, inwhich h e himself has no title.

This leads me to remark a defect which Ihave n oticed more than on ce in this coun try.

Followin g up too closely the cold con ceit of theRoman division of an oration , the speakers setaside a particular part of their discourse, usuallythe peroration

,in which

,they take it in to their

heads that they will be pathetic . Accordinglywhen they reach this part, whether it be prompted by the feelings or n ot , a mighty bustle com

th em es . T he speaker pricks up his ears, erectshis chest, tosses his arms with hysterical vehes

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144 T HE BR IT I SH SPY .

her,and sitting seren e and composed, looks on

a nd smiles at the ridiculous pagean t as it passes .Nothing can

,in my opin ion , be more ill

judged in an orator,than to indulge himself in

this idle,artificial parade . It is particularly u n

fortunate in an exordium. It is as much as to

say ca vea t a u d itor ; an d for my own part, themomen t I see an orator rise with this men acingmajesty ; assume a look of solemn wisdom ;stretch forth his right a rm

,like the ru ben s dex

ter of Jove ; an d hear him open his throat indeep an d tragic ton e ; I feel myself in volun tarilybraced

,an d in an attitude of defen ce, as if I were

going to take a bout with Mendoza .

T he Virgin ian s boast of an orator of n ature,whose man n er was the reverse of all this an d

he is the on ly orator of whom they do boast,with much emphasis . I mean the celebratedPatrickHen ry

,whom I regret that I came to

,this

coun try too late to see. I can not, indeed, easilyforgive him

,even in the grave

,his personal

in strumen tality in Separating these fair colon iesfrom Great Brita in . Y et I dare not withholdfrom the memory of his talen ts

,the tribute of

respect to which they are so justly en titled .

I am told that his general appearan ce and

man nerswere those of a pla in farmer or plan ter

T HE BR IT I SH SPY . 145

of the back coun try ; that, in this character, hea lways en tered on the exordium of an ora

tion ; disqualifying himself, with looks an d

expression s of humility so lowly an d unassuming , as threw every heart off its guard an d

induced his audien ce to listen to him, with thesame easy open n ess with which theywould converse with an honest n eighbour : but, by and by,when it was little expected

,he would take a

flight so high, an d blaze with a splendour So

heaven ly, as filled them with ‘

a kin d of religiousawe, and gave him the force an d authority of aprophet.Y ou remember this was the man n er ofUlys

ses ; commen cing with the look depressed and

hesitating voice. Y et I dare sayMr. Hen rywasdirected to it, n ot by the example ofUlysses

,of

which it is very probable, that, at the commen cemen t of his career, at least, he was en tirely ignoran t : but either that it was the genuin e

,

tremblin g difiidence, without which, if Tullymay be believed, a great orator n ever rises ; orelse that he was prompted to it by his own soun djudgmen t and his in timate knowledge of the

human heart.I have seen the skeleton s of some of his ora

tion s. T he periods an d their members are short,1 3

146 T HE BR IT ISH SPY .

quick, eager , palpitating, and are man ifestly theextemporan eous effusion s of a min d deeply convin ced

,and a heart inflamed with zeal for the

propagation of those conviction s. They afford,however

,a very in adequate sample of his talen ts

the stenographer having n ever attempted to follow him, when he arose in the strength and

awful majesty ofhis gen ius .I am not a little surprised to find eloquen ce of

this high order so n eg ligen tly !cult ivated in theUn ited States . Con sidering what a very powerful en gin e it is in a republic

,an d how peculiarly

favourable to its culture the climate of republicshas been always foun d

,I expected to haveSeen

in America more votaries to Mercury than evento Plutus . Indeed it would be so sure a road bothto wealth an d honours

,that if I coveted either

,

and were an American,I would ben d all my

powers to its acquiremen t,an d try whether I

could not succeed as well as Demosthen es invan quishing n atural imperfection s . Ah mydear S were you a citizen of this coun try !Y ou

, un der the influen ce ofwhose voice a parliamen t of Great Britain has trembled and Shuddered, while her refined an d en lightened gallerieshave wept an d fain ted in the excess of feeling !

what might you“

not accomplish ? But, for the

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148 T HE BR IT ISH SPY .

T O T HE E D ITOR OF T HE VIRG IN IA ARGUS .

S ir,

AS the theory of the earth derives importan cefrom its dign ity, if n ot from its utility, and has

oflate years given birth to many ingen ious speculations

,I shall offer n o apology for troubling you

with the following remarks,which were sug

gested by an essay, in last Wedn esday’s Argus,

en titled “ T he British Spy.

”

Sea shells an d other marin e production s,dif

fering in n o respect from those which,

now existin their n ative elemen t, have been foun d in everyexplored part ofthe globe. They are found

,too

,

in the highest aswell as in the lowest situation s :on the loftiest moun tain s ofEurope, and the stillloftier An des of South America . T o go n o

farther from home, ou r own Alleghany aboundswith them . How were these substan ces separated from their paren t ocean ? D o they stillrema in in their primitive beds ? an d has the

water desert ed them ? or have they deserted thewater ? These question s, differen tly an swered,give rise to differen t theories .

T HE BR IT I SH SPY . 149

Among these theories, that of the Coun t deBuflon stand con spicuous . Adorn ed with all

the graces of style, and borrowing a lustre fromhis other splendid production s, it has long hadits full Share of admirers . After exhibitin g n ewproofs of a former submersion , in which he discovers great ingenuity

,an d is certain ly en titled

to great praise,he proceeds to accoun t for the

earth in its presen t form,by a n atural operation

of the ocean which covered it. This hypothesis,

which the British Spy has partially adopted, isliable to many objection s, wh ich, to me at least

,

are in superable. I will briefly notice some of themost obvious .Although alluvion may accoun t for small

accession s of soil n early on a level with the

ocean , it cannot explain the formation ofmounta in s . It is con trary to all the known laws ofn ature to suppose that a fluid could lift, so far

above its own level, bodies many times heavierthan itself.Again

,if the ocean ,as Buffon main tain s, have

a tenden cy to wear away all poin ts and emi

n ences over which it passes, it would exert thistenden cy on the moun tain s itself had formed ; orrather, it would preven t their formation . It issurely inconsisten t to suppose the ocean would

1 3"

150 T H E BR IT ISH SPY .

produce moun tain s, and at the same time wearaway those that already existed . In deed

,the

author himself seemed to be aware of the invin cible objection s to this part of his theory, and en

deavours to evade their force by sinking a partof the earth

,in the cavity occasion ed by which

,

the superfluous waters fin d a suflicien t receptacle ;thus aban don ing the agen cy of alluvion

,and

adoptin g a n ew and totally differen t hypothesis .But while marin e substan ces are foun d far

above their proper elemen t,vegetable bodies are

often foun d far below the seat of their production .

In Europe they often meet with wood, at greatdepths of the earth

,in

!

a state of perfect preservation“

; an d in sinking wells, in this coun try,trunks of trees frequen tly obstruct the progressof the work . AMr . Peters

,ofHarrison coun ty,

n ot long sin ce, met with pieces of pine, twen tyfeet below the surface

,on a hill of con siderable

elevation,and at a distan ce from any water

course . In this town , leaves, believed to be thoseof the hazle

,were foun d mingled with marin e

production s These vegetable matters musthave been on ce exposed to air

,heat an d light,

to have attain ed the state in which they werefound ; an d the Same exposure would have

afterwards caused their decay, un less their in ter

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1 52 T HE BR IT I SH SPY .

there be a gen eral curren t to the west, it Should .

be strongest in high latitudes and weakest un derthe lin e. But the con trary is the fact . 4 No

gen eral curren t to the west is foun d without thetropics and that which prevails irregularlybetween them is usually an d ration ally ascribedto the trade winds .2 . If this supposed curren t existed

,its effect

would be readily perceived by ou r n avigators inthe differen ce of their passages to an d from Europe ; but, the on e before referred to excepted

,

they meet with n othing of the kind . A curren t,

at the rate of on e mile an hour,would make a

differen ce of n ear two thousan d miles betweenan ordin ary voyage to an d from Europe.

3 . By actual observation s,detailed in the

Secon d volume of the Philosophical Tran saction s,the preva iling curren ts about some islands in theAtlan tic ocean are to the east. At Owhyhee,which lies within the tropics

,and n early in t he

middle of the Pacific ocean , Captain Cook oh

served the curren t to set,without any regularity,

sometimes to thewest an d sometimes to the east .4 . But one argumen t may be deemed con clusive. T he air is a fluid a t least as sen sible tothe gravitating power of the plan et as the ocean ,and like that, must also have its tides. If, on

T H E BR IT ISH S PY . 153

the on e hand, the tides of the air are more liableto

,be disturbed by its compressibility, by partial

rarefaction or con den sation , its obstacles, on theother hand, to a free motion roun d the earth

,

are comparatively in con siderable. Its course issomewhat impeded, but n ever arrested . If thensuch a gen eral law existed

,as is con ten ded for

,

there would be, either a steady east wind,or

greater flow of air from that quarter than fromthe west, in every climate of the globe. Butthis is the case on ly between the tropics ; andthe prevalen ce of the east wind

,in that region

,

has been almost un iversally ascribed to rarefaci

tion by heat, sin ce n o other solution can accoun tfor the sea and land breezes

,

’

mon soon s, an d

other phen omen a of those climates .From these con sideration s I am disposed to

think, that there is n o un iform curren t to thewest ; or that it is too in con siderable to have anyeffect on the figure of the earth . Admitting theexisten ce of a gen eral curren t

,it may be merely

superficial . Curren ts,whose force gradually

dimin ishes from the surface downwards, are

known to exist ; and the practice of seamen ,when they wish “ to try the curren t

,

” is eviden tlyfounded on ! the belief that they do not extend togreat depths . T he accession of water by the

154 T HE BR IT I SH SPY .

tides is too small to require a gen eral movementof the ocean to its bottom .

In weighing the probability of a general curren t to the west, I have con fin ed myself to theoperation of the tides ; as the mere motion of

the earth, either in its orbit, or on its axis,can

have no possible effect this way . This motionis commun icated to every part of the earth

,

whether solid or fluid ; and while it con tinuesequable, they are both affected alike

,and their

relative Situation s remain the same. So wellestablished a prin ciple must have been con testedby the British Spy through mere in adverten ce.

If,after all that has been Said

, argumen ts, infavour of a curren t from the surface to the bot

tom, be deemed con clusive,it is worth while to

inquire in to its probable effects .T he British Spy supposes that this gen eralcurren t enlarges both the eastern and westerncoasts of con tinen ts ; in which hypothesis, hediffers less from Buffon than that elegan t butfan ciful theorist differs from himself. For

,in his

theory on the formation of the planets,be ad

van ces that the ocean is con tinuallywearing awaythe eastern coasts, and by a process

,which he

does n ot even hin t at,en larging the western ;

and that Asia is an older coun try than Europe.

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156 T HE BR IT ISH SPY .

the ocean . Successive fragmen ts of rocks andprecipices, by sloping the shore, gradually abatethe impetus of the waters, un til the

' coast attain sthat due in clination by which the gravity to beovercome exactly coun terbalan ces the projectileforce of the ocean . Without doubt, small variation s con tin ually take place in the outlin e of all

coasts but the equilibrium fbr which I con tend,

is founded on correct prin ciples an d every coast,

whether eastern or western , approaches to thatform,

if it have n ot already attain ed it,when

what it loses by the ocean will be preciselyequal to what it gain s .It Should be remarked that Buffon , in his last

addition to his T heorie, con scious of the in sufficien cy of alluvion in the formation of con tinen ts,supposes that the cavities, with which the earthabounds, are con tinually falling in , an d from the

con sequen t retreat of the ocean,that con tinen ts

are con tinually approximating. This conjecturecert ain ly ren ders his theory more con sisten t butit substitutes a cause for the immersion of the

earth totally differen t from his first hypothesis ofalluvion : and it has been that a lon e which Ihave con sidered . This last supposition is merelygratuitous ; as n either observation n or historyafford us any proofs of the existen ce of these

T HE BR IT I SH SPY . 157

immen se cavern s, or of any general retreat ofthe ocean .

For the reason s which I have given,an d for

many more, the theory of this celebrated n aturalist has long been deemed both improbable and

inadequate, and is now confined to the merit,(no small merit by the by,) of having collectedvaluable materials, and detected the fallacies ofBumst,Woodward and other dreamers on thesubject . It h as accordin gly given place to n ew

theories, more con sisten t at least, if not moresatisfactory.

Volcanoes, and in ten se heat in the cen tre of

the eart h,the recremen ts of an imals and vegeta

bles, have been employed, as separate or join tagen ts, by the speculators on this curious Sub

jcet. D r . Hutton,by far the most celebrated of

these, supposes the exuviae of Shell fish to havecon stituted the basis of the earth ; an d that ithas assumed its presen t form an d appearan ceby the fusion produced by the earth’s in tern alheat. He supports this opin ion by a train of

elaborate reason ing, and a chemical examin ationof the bodies which compose the outer crust ofthe earth . I regret that I am acquain ted withthe work on ly at second hand . But I believe

14

158 T HE BR IT ISH SPY .

that even this theory,Ingen lous and scien tific

as it is,gives little more gen eral satisfaction

than those which preceded it . It is, in com

mon with the other late hypothesis, opposedby the fine reason ing ofBuffon , in favour of theimmediate action of water in

,producing the cor

responden t angles of moun tain s, their wavin goutline

,parallel strata

, &c .

,as well as by many

of the facts I have glan ced at ; and it is,more

over,said to be con tradicted by some chemical

experimen ts,at on ce pertinen t and clear .

On the whole, then , I fear we have n ot yet

arrived at that certain ty which will satisfy theinquirer who is n either en amoured with the fancies of his own bra in , n or seduced by the elo

quence of others ; and therefore,to use the

words of an elegan t writer of our own coun try ,who discovers the same acuten ess

,the same phi

losophic caution on this as on other occasion s ,we must be con ten ted to acknowledge that thisgreat phenomenon is, yet, un solved. Ign oran ceis preferable to error ; and he is less remote fromthe truth who “believes n othing, than he whobelieves what is wron g.

”

Before we can obta in a sober conviction on the

subject, or even properly compare the proba

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160 T HE BRIT ISH SPY .

liminary question s ; but till they are solved Iin clin e to thin k that every theory is prematureand shall, therefore, remain Satisfied with thebut humble character of

AN INQUIRER.

T HE BR IT I SH SPY . 161

LET TER IV.

Richmon d, Sep tember 22 .

I HAVE just return ed,my dear S

from an in teresting morn ing’s ride. My objectwas to visit the site of the In dian town , Powhatan ; which you will remember was the

metropolis of the domin ion s of Pocahun tas’s

father,and

, very probably, the birth-place of

that celebrated princess .T he town was built on the river

,about two

miles below the ground now occupied by Richmon d ; that is, about two miles below the headof tide water T he land whereon it stood is

, at

presen t,part of a

‘beautiful an d valuable farmbelonging to a gen tleman by the n ame of William Mayo.

Aware of the Slight man n er in which the

Indian s have always con structed their habitation s, I was n ot at all disappoin ted in

.

findin gno vestige of the old town . But as I traversedthe groun d over which Pocahun tas had so oftenbounded and frolicked in the sprightly morn ing

14*

162 THE BR IT ISH SPY .

of her youth, I could n ot help recalling the

prin cipal features of her history, and heavrn g a

sigh of mingled pity an d veneration to her

memory .

Good Heaven ! What an even tful life washers ! T o speak of n othing else

,the arrival of

the English in her father’s domin ions musthave appear ed (as indeed it turn ed ou t to be) amost porten tous phenomenon . It. is n ot easyfor us to con ceive the amazemen t and constern ation which must have filled her mind an d thatof her n ation at the fir st appearan ce of our

coun trymen . Their great ship,with all her

sails spread,advan cing in solemn majesty to the

shore ; their complexion ; their dress ; their language ; their domestic an imals ; their cargo of

n ew an d glittering wealth an d then the thunder and irresistible force of their artillery ; thedistan t coun try announ ced by them, far beyon dthe great water

,of which the oldest Indian had

n ever heard,or thought, or dreamed—all this

was so n ew,so wonderful, so tremendous, that I

do seriously suppose,the personal descen t of an

army of Milton ’s celestial angels, robed in light,sporting in the bright beams of the sun and

redoublin g their splendour, making divine harmony with their golden harps, or playing with

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1 64 T HE BR IT I SH SPY .

exterminators ; no wonder that in the un abatingspite and fren zy of con scious impoten ce, theywage an eterna l war, as well as they are able ;that they triumph in the rare Opportun ity of

revenge ; that they dan ce, sing an d rejoice, as

the victim shrieks and fain ts amid the flames,

when they imagin e all the crimes of theiroppressors collected on his head, and fan cy thespirits of their injured forefathers hovering overthe scene, smiling with ferocious delight at thegrateful spectacle, an d feasting on the preciousodour as it arises from theburn ing blood of thewhite man .

Y et the people, here, affect to won der that theIndian s are so very un susceptible of civilization ;or, in other words, that they so obstin ately refuseto adopt the mann ers of the white men . Go

,

Virgin ian s ; erase, from , the Indian n ation,the

tradition of their wrongs ; make them forget, if

you can , that on ce this charming coun try wastheirs ; that over these fields and through theseforests their beloved forefathers, on ce, in carelessga iety

,pursued their sports an d hun ted their

game ; that every return ing day found themthe sole

,the peaceful, the happy proprietors of

this exten sive an d beautiful domain . Makethem forget, too, if you can

,that in the midst

T HE BR IT ISH SPY . 165

of all this inn ocence, simplicity and bliss—the

White man came ; an d lo —the an imated chase,the feast, the dan ce, the song of fearless, thoughtless joy were over ; that ever sin ce, they havebeen made to drin k of the bitter cup of hum iliation ; treated like dogs ; their lives, their liberties,the sport of the white men ; their coun try andthe graves of their fathers torn from them,

in

cruel succession un til, driven from river to river,from forest to forest, an d through a period of twohundred years

,rolled back

,n ation upon n ation

,

theyfind themselves fugitives,vagran ts and stran

gers in their own coun try, an d look forward tothe certa in period when their descendan ts willbe tota lly

“

extinguished by wars, driven at the

poin t of the bayonet in to the western ocean , orreduced to a fate still more deplorable an d horrid,the con dition of slaves . Go

,admin ister the cup

of oblivion to recollection s and an ticipation slike these

,and then you will cease to complain

tha t the , Indian refuses to be civilized . Butun til then , surely it is nothin g wonderful that an a tion even yet bleeding afresh, from the me

mory of an cien t wrongs, perpetually agon izedby new outrages, and goaded in to desperationand madness at the prospect of the certain ruinWhich awaits their descendan ts, should hate

,

the

166 T HE BR IT I SH SPY .

authors of theirmiseries, of their desolation , theirdestruction ; should hate their man ners, hatetheir colour, their language, their n ame

,and

every thin g that belongs to them . No : n ever,un til time shall wear ou t the history of their sorrows a nd their sufferings, will the Indian be

brought to love the white man , and to imitatehis man n ers .Great God ! T o reflect

,my S

the authors of all these wrongs were ou r own

coun trymen , our forefathers,professors of the

meek an d ben evolen t religion of Jesus Oh ! itwas impious ; itwas unmanly ; poor and pitiful !Gracious heaven ! what had these poor peopledon e T he simple inhabitan ts ofthese peacefulplain s, what wrong, what injury had they offeredto the English ? My soul melts with pity andshame.

AS for the presen t inhabitan ts,it must be

gran ted that they are comparatively innocen t ;unless indeed they also have en croached underthe guise of treaties

,which they themselves havepreviously con trived to ren der expedien t or ne

cessary to the Indian s .Whether this has been the case or not, I am

too much a stranger to the in terior tran saction sof this coun try to_ decide. But it seems to me

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168 T HE BR IT ISH SPY .

an d noble sen timen ts . I will not believe it.Magnan imity can n ever be lost

.

on a n ationwhich has p roduced an Alknomok, a L ogan ,an d a Pocahun tas.

T he repetition of the name of this amiableprin cess brings me back to the poin t fromwhich I digressed. I wonder that the Virgin ian s,fon d as they are of ann iversaries, have in stitutedn o festival or order in honour of her memory.

For my own part, I have little doubt, from the

histories which we have of the first attempts atcolon izing their coun try, that Pocahun tas deserves to be con sidered as the patron deity of theen terprise . When it is remembered how longthe colony struggled to get a footing ; how oftensickn ess or famine, neglect at home, mismanagemen t here, and the hostilit ies of the n atives

,

brought it to the brink of ruin ; through what atedious lapse of time, it alternately languishedan d revived

,sun k and rose

, Sometimes hanginglike Addison ’s lamp, “ quivering at a poin t

,

” thensudden ly shootin g up in to a sickly and Shortlived flame in one word, when we recollect hown ear and how often it verged towards total extin ction , marrg re the patronage of Pocahun tasthere is the strongest reason to believe that

,but

for her patronage, - the ann iversary cannon of the

T HE BR ITI SH S PY . 169

Fourth of July would never have resoundedthroughout the Un ited States .Is it not probable

,that this sen sible and amia

ble woman , perceiving the superiority of the

European s,foreseein g the probability of the sub

jugation of her coun trymen , and anxiou s aswellto soften their destiny, as to save the n eedlesseffusion ofhuman blood, desired, by her marriagewith Mr. Rolfe

,to hasten the abolition of all

distin ction between Indian s and white men ;

to bind their in terests an d affection s by the n earest and most en dearing ties, an d to make themregard themselves as one people

,the children

of the same great family ? If such were herwise and benevolen t views, an d I have n o doubtbut they were, how poorly were they backed bythe British court ? No wonder at the resen tmen t an d indign ation with which she saw themneglected ; no wonder at the bittern ess of thedisappoin tmen t an d vexation which she ex

pressed to captain Smith, in London , arising aswell from the cold reception which she herselfhad met , as from the con temptuous and insulting poi nt of view in which She found that hern ation was regarded .

Un fortunate prin cess ! She deserved a happier fate ! But I am con soled by these reflec

15

170 T HE BR ITISH SPY .

tion s : first,that she sees her descen dan ts among

the most respectable families in Virgin ia ; andthat they are not only superior to the false shameof disavovving her as their an cestor ; but thatthey pride themselves, and with reason too, on

the honour of their descen t ; secondly, that sheherself has gone to a coun try, where she findsher n oble wishes realized ; where the distin ctionofrcolour is n o more ; bu t where, indeed, it isperfectly immateria “ what complexion an In

dian or an African sun may have burn ed”on

the pilgrinr.

Adieu, my dear S This train of thoughthas destroyed the tone of my spirits ; when Irecover them you shall hear further from me.

On ce more, adieu.

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172 T HE BR IT I SH SPY .

Sible, for any Virgin ian to delineate either oftheir characters justly. Friendship or hostilitywould be almost sure to overcharge the picture.

But for me,I have so little conn exion with this

coun try, or her con cern s, either at presen t or inprospect, that I believe I can look on her mostexalted characters without envy or prejudice of

any kind ; and draw them with the Same cooland philosophic impartiality, as if I were a so

journet from another planet. If I fail in the

delineation , the fault must be in the han d or inthe head, in the pen cil or the judgmen t : andn ot in any prepossession n ear my heart .I choose to brin g those two characters before

you , together ; because they exhibit, with greatvivacity, an in tellectual phen omenon , which Ihave n oticed more than on ce before ; and in thesolution ofwhich I should be pleased to see your

pen employed '

I mean the very differen t celerity in the movemen t of two sound minds, whichon all subjects, wherein there is no mixture of

party zeal,will ultimately come to the same just

con clusion . What a pity it is, that Mr . Locke,while he was dissecting the human understanding , with such skill and felicity, did n ot advertto this characteristic varian ce in the minds ofmen . It would have been in his power

,by de

T HE BR IT ISH SPY . . 173

veloping its causes either to poin t to the remedyif it exist at all, or to relieve the man of slowmind, from the labour of fruitless experimen ts

,

by showing the total impracticability ofhis cure.

But,to our gen tlemen ; and in order that you

may know them the more in timately, I-will endeavour to prefix to each character a portrait ofthe person .

T he of this commonwealth Is thesame who was, not many years ago, the

at Paris . His presen t office is sufficien t eviden ce of the estimation in which he isheld by his n ative state. In his stature

,he is

about the middle height of men , rather firmlyset

, with n othing further remarkable in his person , except his muscular compactn ess an d appa4

ren t ability to endure labou r. His coun ten an ce,

when grave,has rather the expression of stern

n ess an d irascibility ; a smile however, (and a

smile is not unu sual with him in a Social circle,)lights it up to very high advan tage, and gives ita most impressive and engagin g air of suavityan d benevolen ce. Judging merely from hiscoun ten an ce, he is between the ages of forty-fivean d fifty years . His dress and personal appearan ce are those of a pla in and modest gen tleman .

He is a man of soft, polite and even assiduous15

"

174 T HE BR IT ISH SPY .

atten tion s ; but these, although they are alwayswell-timed

,judicious

,an d eviden tly the offspring

of an obliging and philan thropic temper,are

never performed with the striking an d captivating graces of a Marlborough or a Bolingbroke.

T o be plain , there is often in his man n er an inartificial an d even an awkward simplicity

,which

while it provokes the Smile of a more polishedperson , forces him to the opin ion thatMris a man of a most sincere and artless soul.Nature has given him a mind n either rapid

n or rich ; an d therefore, he can not shine on a

subject which is en tirely n ew to him. But tocompen sate him for this, he is endued with a

spirit of gen erous an d restless emulation,a judg

men t solid,strong and clear, an d a habit of appli

cation , which n o difficulties can shake ; no

labours can tire .

-With these aids simply,he has qualified himself

for the first hon ours of this coun try ; and presen tsa most happy illustration of the truth of themax

im, Qu isque, su cefor tunw,fa ber . For his emu

lation hasurged him to perpetual an d un remittingin quiry his patien t an d unwearied industry hascon cen trated before him all the lights whichothers have thrown on the subjects of his consideration , together with all thosewhich his own

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1 76 T HE BR IT I SH SPY .

subjects as expanded as the earth itself, with allthe relative in terests of the great n ation s thereof,may have in spired him with an in differen ce

,

perhaps an in aptitude, for mere poin ts of literature. Algern on Sidney has said that he deemsall studies unworthy the serious regard of a man ,except the study of the prin ciples of just govemmen t ; and Mr . perhaps, con curs withou r Coun tryman in this as well as in his otherprin ciples . Whatever may have been the occasion , his acquain tan ce with the fin e arts is certainly very limited an d superficial but, makin ga llowan ces for his bias towards republican ism

,he

is a profoun d an d even an eloquen t statesmen .

K n owing him to be attached to that politicalparty

, who, by their oppon en ts, a re called sometimes democrats

,sometimes jacobin s and aware

also, that he was a man ofwarm an d even ar

den t temper,I dreaded much

,when I first

en tered his company, that I should have beenshocked an d disgusted with the n arrow,

virulen tan d ran corous invectives of party an imosity .

*

How agreeably, how delightfully, was I disappoin ted ! Not on e sen timen t of in toleran ce pol~

luted his lips . On the con trary,whether they

T he cloven foot of the Br iton is v isible ; or , else, why fromthe premises could he have expected such a consequence?

T HE BR IT ISH SPY . 177

be the offspring of ration al in duction , of thehabit of surveying men and things on a greatscale, of n ative magn an imity, or of a combin ation of all those causes, his prin ciples, as far as

they were exhibited to me,wereforbearing, lib

eral, widely extended and great.AS the elevated ground, which he alreadyholds, has been gained merely by the din t ofapplication as every n ew step which hemoun tsbecomes a mean of in creasing his powers stillfurther

,by open ing a wider horizon to his view,

and thus stimulating his en terprise afr esh,reinvigorating his habits, multiplying the materialsand extending the range of his knowledge ; itwould be matter of no surprise to me, if, beforehis death

,the world should see him at the head

of the American admin istration . So much forthe of the commonwealth ofVirgin iaa living, an honourable, an illustrious monumen tof Self-created eminen ce, worth an d greatn ess I

Let us now change the Scene and lead forwarda very differen t character indeed : a truant , buta highly favoured pupil of n ature. It wouldseem as if this capricious goddess had fin ishedthe two characters

,purely with the view of ex

hibiting a vivid con trast. Nor is this con trastconfined to their minds .

178 T HE BR IT ISH SPY .

T he of the United States

tegin his person

,tall

,meager

,emaciated ; his

muscles relaxed,an d his join ts so loosely con

n ected, as not on ly to disqualify him,apparen tly,

I for any vigorous exertion of body, but to destroyevery th ing like elegan ce and harmony in hisair and movemen ts . Indeed

,in his whole ap

pearan ce, an d demeanour ; dress, attitudes, gestu re ; sitting, Stan ding or walking ; he is as farremoved from the idolized graces of lord Chesterfield

,as any other gen tleman on earth . T o

con tinue the portra it his head an d face are smallin proportion to his height ; his complexionswarthy ; the muscles ofhis face, being relaxed,

v

g ivef him the a ppea ra nce of

~

a~man -

offi ftyyearsofag e, noncan he be much'

y oun ger ; his coun te~

n an ce has a faithful expression of great goodhumour and hilarity while his black eyes— tha tunerrin g in dex— possess an irradiating spirit,which proclaims the imperial powers of the min dthat sits en thrprred withiryM .

TffiSm

e-

xfraor‘dinary man,without the aid

of fan cy,without the advan tages of person,

voice, attitude, gesture, or any of the ornamen tsof an orator

,deserves to be con sidered as on e of‘

the most eloquen t men in the world ; if eloquen ce

may be said to con sist in the power of seizing

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180 T HE BR IT ISH SPY .

the question : though ten times more knottythan “

the gnarled oak,

”the lightn ing of heaven

i

is n ot more rapid n or more resistless,than his

5aston ishing penetration . Nor does the exerciseof it seem to cost him an effort. On the con

trary, it is as easy as vision . I and persuadedhis eyes do n ot fly over a landscape andIn Its various objects with more promptitude'

»and facility,than his mind embraces and an a

{lyzes the most complex subject .Possessing while at the bar this in tellectual

elevation,which en abled him to look down an d

{ comprehen d the whole ground at on ce, he determin ed immediately an d without difliculty, on

which side the question might be most advantageously approached and assailed . In a bad

cause his art con sisted in laying his premises soremotely from the poin t directly in debate, or

else in terms so gen eral an d so specious,that the

bearer,seeing n o con sequen ce which could be

drawn from them, was just as willing to admitthem as n ot ; but his premises on ce admitted,the demon stration , however distan t, followed as

certain ly, as cogen tly, as inevitably, as any

3

,demon stration in Euclid .

All his eloquence con sists in the apparen tlydeep Self-conviction , and emphatic earnes’ tness

THE BR IT ISH SPY. 181

ofhis manner ; the corresponden t simplicity anden ergy of his style ; the close and logical con e

n exion ofhis thoughts ; and the easy gradation sby which he open s his lights on the atten tiveminds of his hearers.T he audien ce are never permitted to pause

for a momen t. There is no stopping to weave

g arlands of flowers, to hang in festoon s, arounda favourite argumen t. On the con trary, everysen ten ce is progressive ; every idea sheds n ewlight on the subject ; the listen er is kept perpe;tually in that sweetly pleasurable vibration , withwhich the min d of man always receives n ewtruths ; the dawn advan ces in easy but un remitting peace ; the subject open s gradually on the

view ; un til, rising in high relief, in all its n ativecolours and proportion s, the argumen t is con s

summated, by the conviction of the delightedheat er .

1

T he success of this gen tleman has rendered itdoubtful with several literary characters in thiscoun try

,whether a high fan cy be of real u se of

advan tage to any one but a poet. They con tend,that although the most beautiful flights of theh appiest fan cy, in terspersed through an argumen t

,may give an audien ce the momen tary

deligh tful swell of admiration , the tran sien t thrill16

THE BR IT I SH SPY .

of divinest rapture ; yet, that they produce no

.

lasting effect in forwarding the purpose of the

speaker : on the con trary, that they break theun ity and disperse the force of an argumen t,which otherwise, advan cing in close array

,like

the phalanx of Sparta,would carry every thing

before it,I They give an in stan ce in the celebrated

”

Curran ; and pretend that his fine fan cy,

although it fires, dissolves an d even tran sports hisaudien ce to a momen tary frenzy, is a real and afatal misfortune to his clien ts ; as it calls off theatten tion of the jurors from the in trin sic andessen tial merits of the defen ce ; eclipses the justice of the clien t’s cause, in the blaze of the advocate’s talen ts ; induces a suspicion of the guiltwhich requires such a glorious display of refalgen ce to divert the inquiry ; an d substitutes afruitless short-lived ecstasy, in the place of perman en t an d substan tial conviction . Hen ce

,they

say, that the clien t ofMr. Curran is,invariably

,

the victim of the prosecution , which that ableand eloquen t advocate is employed to resistT he doctrine, in the abstract, may be true,

or, as doctor Doubty says, it may not be t rue ;for the presen t

,I will not trouble you with the

expression of my opin ion . I fear however, mydear S that Mr. Curran ’s failures may

0

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184 T HE BRIT ISH SPY .

the same illumination an d exercise in mattersof state as if he had devoted his life to them

,I

am unwilling to admit it. T he force of a can

non is the same, whether pointed at a rampartor a man of war, although practice may ha vemade the engineer more expert in the on e casethan in the other. So it is clear

,that practice

may give a man a greater command over on e

class of subjects than another ; but the inn eren tenergy of his min d remain s the same

,whither

soever it may be directed . From this impressionI have never seen any cause to won der at whatis called a un iversal gen ius : it proves on ly thatthe man has applied a powerful min d to the

con sideration of a great variety of subjects, andpays a complimen t rather to his superior in dus !try, than his superior intellect. I am very certain that the gen tleman ofwhom we are speaking , possesses the a cumenwhich might con stitutehim a un iversal gen ius

,according to the usual

acceptation of the phrase. But if he be the

truan t, which his warmest friends represen t himto be

,there is very little probability that he will

ever reach this distin ction .

Think you , my dear S that thetwo gentlemen

,whom I have attempted to por

tray to you, were, according to the notion of

T HE BR IT ISH SPY . 185

Helvetius, born with equal minds ; and that aoeiden t or education has produced the strikingdifferen ce which we perceive to exist betweenthem

’

.Z I wish it were the case ; and that the

would be pleased to reveal tous

,by what acciden t, or what system of educa

tion , he has acquired his peculiar Sagacity an dpromptitude. Un til this shall be done, I fear I

must consider the hypothesis of Helvetius as a

splen did an d flattering dream.

But I tire you —adieu, for the presen t, friendand guardian ofmy youth .

186 T HE BR IT I SH SPY .

LET TER VI .

Jamestown,Sep tember 27.

I H AVE taken a pleasan t ride of sixty milesdown the river, in order, my dear S to see

the remain s of the first English settlemen t inVirgin ia .

T he site is a very handsome one. T he riveris three miles broad and

,on the opposite shore,

the coun try presen ts a fine range of bold and

beautiful hills . But I find n o vestiges of thean cien t town

,except the ruin s of a church stee

ple, an d a disordered group of old tombstones .On on e of these

,shaded by the boughs of a tree,

whose trun k has embraced and grown over theedge of the ston e, an d seated on the heads ton eof another grave

,I n ow address you .

What a momen t for a lugubrious meditationamong the tombs but fear n ot ; I have n eitherthe temper n or the gen ius of a Hervey ; an d, asmuch as I revere his pious memory, I cannotenvy him the possession of such a gen ius andsuch a temper . For my own part, I would n othave suffered the mourn ful pleasure ofwriting

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188 THE BR IT ISH SPY .

ye who are weary and heavy laden , and I

will give you res t .”

T he ruin of the steeple is about thirty feethigh

, and man tled, to its very summit, withivy . It is diflicult to look at this ven erableobject

,surroun ded as it is with these awful

proofs of the mortality of man, without ex

claimin g in the pathetic solemn ity of our

Shakspeare,

T he cloud-capt towers, the gorgeous palaces,T he solemn temples, the grea t globe itself,Yea

,all which it inher its, shall dissolve ;

And,like th is insubstan t ial pagean t faded,

Leave not a wreck behind.

”

When ce,my dear S ari ses the irre

pres s ible reveren ce an d tender affection withwhich I look at this broken steeple Cl Is it thatmy soul

,by a secret

,subtile p rocess, in vests

the mouldering ruin with her own , powers ;imagin es it a fellow being ; a ven erable

‘

old

man, a Nestor

,or an Ossian , who has wit

n essed and sur vived the ravages of successivegene ration s, the compan ion s of his youth, an dof his maturity, and n ow mourn s his own so

litary an d desolate con dition , and hails theirSpirits in every pa s s ing cloud '.2 Whatevermay be the cause, as I look at it

,I feel my

T HE BR IT ISH S PY . 189

soul drawn forward, as by the cords of gen

tlest sympathy, an d in volun tarily open my lipsto offer con s olation to,

the droopin g pile.

Where,my S is the busy, bustlin g

crowd which lan ded here two hun dred yearsago

? Where is Smith, that pin k of gallan try,that flower of chivalry ? I fan cy that I can

see their first, S low an d cautious approach to

the shore ; their keen an d v igilan t eyes pierc~

in g the fore st in every direction , to detect thelurkin g In dian , with his tomahawk, bow and

arrow . Good Heaven s what an en terpri se !how full of the mos t fearful perils ! and yethow en tirely profitless to the daring men whoperson ally un dertook and achieved it Throughwhat a series of the most Spirit-chilling hardships

, had they to toil ! How often did theyca st their eyes to Englan d in vain ! an d withwhat delus ive hopes

,day after day, did the

little, famished crew strain their Sight to catchthe white sa il of comfort and relief ! But dayafter day, the sun set

,an d darkn ess covered

the earth ; but n o sail of comfort or reliefcame. How often in the pangs of hunger,sickn ess , solitude and dis con solation , did theythink of Lon don ; her shops

,her markets

groan ing under the weight of plen ty ; her

1 90 T HE BR IT ISH SPY .

streets swarming with g ilded coaches, bustlinghacks

,with crowds of lords , dukes and com

mon s,with healthy, busy, con ten ted faces of

every description an d among them n on e morehealthy or more con ten ted, than those of theirungrateful an d immoviden t director s But n ow—where are they, all ? the little, famished colo

ny which lan ded here, an d the many-colouredcrowd of Lon don—where are they, my dear

Gon e, where there i s n o distin otion ; con sign ed to the common earth . An othergen eration succeeded them which

,just as

busy an d as bustling as that which fell beforeit has sun k down in to the same n othingn es s

,

An other an d yet an other billow has rolled on ,each emulating its predeces sor in height tow

ering for it s momen t,and curling its foamin g

hon ours to the clouds ; then roarin g, breakin g,an d peri shing on the same shore .

Is it not strange,that, familiarly and un iver

sally as these things are known, yet each gene

ration is as eager in the pursuit of its earthlyobjects, projects its plan s on a scale as exten siveas and laborious in their execution , with a spiritas arden t and un relaxing

,as

.

if this life and thisworld were to la s t for ever ? It i s

,in deed

, a

most benevolen t in terposition'

of Providence,

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192 T HE BR IT I SH SPY .

soul of a republic . I mean,public Spirit ; that

sacred amor p a trice which filled Greece an d

Rome with patriots,heroes an d scholar s .

There seems to me to be but one objectthroughout the state to g row r ich a pa s s ionwhich i s v i s ible, n ot on ly in the walks of priVate life

,but which has crept in to an d poison ed

every public body in the state . In deed,from

the very gen ius of the governmen t, by whichall the public characters are

,at short period ica l

election s,evolved from the body of the people,

it cann ot but happen , that the coun cils of thesta te must take the impulse of the private

propen sities of the coun try . Hen ce,Virgin ia

exhibits n o great public improvemen ts ; hen ce,in spite of her wealth , every part of the coun tryman ifests her sufferings

,either from the penury

of her guardian s , or their wan t of that attention and n oble pride

,wherewith it i s their dutyto con sult her appearan ce. Her roads and

highways are frequen tly impa s sable, sometime sfrightful ; the very few public works whichhave been set on foot, in stead of being carriedon with spirit

, are permitted to lan gui sh an d

pin e and creep feebly along,in such a man n er

,

that the fir s t part of an edifice grows grey withage, an d almos t tumble s in ruin s

,before the

T HE BR IT I SH SPY . 1 93

la s t part i s lifted from the dust ; highes t offi~

cer s are susta in ed with so avaricious,so n ig

g ardly a hand, that if they are n ot driven to

subsis t on roots,an d drink ditch-water

,with

old Fabricius , it i s n ot for the wan t of republican econ omy in the projector s of the salarie s ;an d, above all

, the gen era l culture of the hu

man mind,that best cure for the ari s tocratic

dis tin ction s which they profess to hate,that

be st ba si s of the social an d political equality,

which they profess to love : this culture,in s tead

ofbecomin g a n ation al care,i s in trusted merely

to such in dividuals,as hazard

,in digen ce

,mis

fortun e s or crimes,have forced from their

n ative Europe to seek an a sylum an d breadin the wilds ofAmer ica .

They have on ly on e public semin ary of

learn ing a college in Williamsburg, aboutseven miles from this place, which was erectedin the reign of ou r William an d Mary, derivesits prin cipal support from their mun ificen ce,an d therefore very properly bear s their n ames .This college

,in the fa stidious folly an d affect

ation of republican i s’

m,or what is wor se, in

the n iggardly spirit of pars imon y which theydign ify with the n ame of econ omy

,the se demo~

crate have endowed with a few despicable1 7

194 T HE BR IT ISH SPY .

fragmen ts of surveyor s ’ fees,&c .

,thus con vert

ing their n ation al academy in to a mere lazar etro, and feedin g its polite, scien tific

,an d

highly respectable professors, like a ban d of

beggars,on the s craps an d crumbs that fa ll

from the fin an cial table. An d , then , in s tead ofa iding an d en ergizin g the police of the college

,

by a few civil regu lation s , they permit theiryouth to run riot in all the wildn ess of dis s i

pation while the ven erable professors are

forced to look on , in the deep mortification of

con s cious impoten ce, an d see their care an d

zeal requited,by the ruin of their pupils an d

the des truction of their semin ary .

These are poin ts which, at presen t,I can

barely touch When I have an ea s ier seat an dwritin g desk, than a grave an d a tombston e

,it

will give me plea sure to dilate on them ; for, itwill afford an opportun ity of exultin g in the

superiority of ou r own en ergetic mon archy,

over this republican body without a soulFor the presen t, my dear S

you a dieu .

* British insolence ! Y et it cann ot be den ied,however

pa inful the admission,that th ere is some foundat ion for his

censures.

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196 T HE BR IT I SH SPY .

motives . On en tering,I was struck with his

pretern atural appearan ce,he was a tall an d

very spare old man ; hi s head, which was

c overed with a white lin en cap, his Shrivelledhan ds

,an d his voice

,were all shakin g un der

the in fluen ce of a palsy ; an d a few momen tsa scerta in ed to me that he was perfectly blin d .

T he fir st emotion s which touched my brea s t,were those of min gled pity an d ven eration .

But ah ! sacred God“

! how soon were all myfeelings chan ged ! T he lips of Plato weren ever more worthy of a progn o s tic swarm of

bees,than were the lips of this holy man ! It

was a day of the admin i s tration of the sacramen t ; an d his subject, of cour se, was the pas

sion of our Saviour . I had heard the subjecthan dled a thousan d times : I had thought itexhausted long ago . Little did I suppose

,that

in the wild woods of America,I was to meet

with a man wh ose eloquen ce would give tothis topic a n ew an d more sublime pathos,than I had ever before witn essed .

AS he descen ded from the pulpit, to distribute the mystic symbols

,there was

”

a peculiar,

a more than human solemn ity in his air an d

man n er which made my blood run cold, andmy whole frame shiver.

THE BR IT ISH SPY . 197

He then drew a picture of the sufferings ofour Saviour ; his trial before Pilate ; his a s cen tup Calvary ; hi s crucifixion , an d his death .

I kn ew ‘

the wholehistory ; but n ever, un til then ,had I heard the circumstan ces so selected, soarran ged

,so coloured ! It was all n ew : an d

I seemed to have heard it for the fir s t time inmy life . His enun ciation was so deliberate,that hi s voice trembled on every syllable ; an devery heart in the a s sembly trembled in un i son .

His peculiar phra se s had that force of descrip

tion that the origin al s cen e appeared to be,at

that momen t,actin g before du r eyes . We saw

the very faces of the Jews the s tarin g,fright

ful distortion s of malice and rage . We saw

the buffet ; my soul kindled with a flame of

in dign ation ; an d my han ds were involun ta

rily and con vulsively clin ched .

But when he came to touch on the patien ce,

the forgivin g meekn ess of our Saviour ; whenhe drew,

to the life,his bles sed eyes streamin gin tears to heaven his voice breathing to God

,

a Soft an d gen tle prayer of pardon on his en emies

,

“ Father,forgive them, for they kn ow

n ot what they do” —the voice of the preacher,

which had all alon g faltered,grew fain ter and

fain ter, un til his utteran ce bein g en tirely oh1 7

"

198 THE BR IT ISH SPY .

structed by the force of his feelings , he raisedhis han dkerchief to his eyes , an d bur s t in to a

loud an d irrepres s ible flood ofgrief. T he effectis in con ceivable. T he whole house resoun d~

ed with the min gled groan s, an d sob s,an d

shr ieks of the congregation .

It was some tinue before the tumult hadsubs ided, so far as to permit him to proceed.In deed, judgin g by the usual, but fallaciousstan dard of my own weakn es s

,I began to be

very un ea sy for the s ituation of the preacher.For I could n ot con ceive

,how he would be

able to let his audien ce down from the heightto which he had woun d them ,

without impair s

ing the solemn ity an d dign ity of his subject,

or perhaps Shockin g them by the abruptn essof the fall. But—n o the des cen t was as

beautiful an d sublime, as the elevation had beenrapid an d en thus ia s tic .T he firs t sen ten ce

,with which he broke the

awful silen ce, was a quotation from Rous seau,“ Socrates died like a philo sopher, but JesusChrist, like a God !”

I despair of g ivin g you any idea of the effect

produced by this short sen ten ce, un le s s youcould perfectly con ceive the whole man n er ofthe man , as well as the peculiar cris i s in the

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THE BR IT ISH SPY .

truth an angel of light, the effect could scarcelyhave been more divin e.

Whatever I had been able to con ceive of thesublimity ofMa s s illon , or the force of Bour daloue

,had fallen far short of the power which I

felt from the delivery of thi s S imple sen ten ce .

T he blood, which just before had rushed in a

hurrican e upon my brain,an d

,in the violen ce

and agony ofmy feelings,had held my whole

system in suspen se,n ow ran back in to my

heart,with a sen sation which I can n ot de s cribe

—a kin d of shuddering delicious horror ! T heparoxysm of blen ded pity an d in dign ation

,to

which I had been tran sported, subsided in tothe deepest self-aba semen t, humility an d ado

ration . I had jus t been lacera ted an d dis solvedby sympathy

, for ou r Saviour as a fellowcreature ; but n ow ,

with fear an d trembling,I

adored him as a God !”

If this des cription give you the impres sion,

that this in comparable min i s ter had any thin gof shallow,

theatrical trick in his man n er,it

does him great injustice . I have n ever seen ,in any other orator, such a un ion of S implicityand majesty. He has n ot a gesture

,an a tti

tude or an accen t,to which he does n ot seem

forced, by the sen timen t which he i s express

T HE BR IT ISH SPY . 201

ing . His min d is too serious, too earn es t

,too

solicitous , an d , at the same time,too dign ified

,

to s toop to artifice Al though a s far removedfrom o s ten tation as a man can be, yet it isclear from the train

,the s tyle and substan ce

of his thoughts , that he i s , n ot on ly a verypolite s cholar

,but a man of exten s ive an d pro

foun d erudition . I was forcibly struck with a

short, yet beautiful character which he drew of

ou r learn ed an d amiable coun tryman , Sir Robert Boyle : he spoke of him,

as if hi’

s n oblemin d had

, even before death, dives ted her selfof all in fluen ce from his frail tabern acle of

flesh an d called him, in his pecul iarly em

phatic an d impres s ive mann er, “a pure in telli

gen ce : the lin k between men an d an gel s . ”

This man has been before my imagin ationa lmost ever sin ce. A thousan d times, as Irode alon g

,I dropped the rein s of my bridle,

stretched forth my han d, an d tried to imitatehis quotation from Rous seau a thousan d timesI aban don ed the attempt in despair, an d feltper suaded that his peculiar man n er an d powerarose from an en ergy of soul, which n aturecould give

,but which n o human being could

justly copy . In Short,he seems to be altogether

a being of a former age, or of a totally differen t.

202 T HE BR IT ISH SPY .

na ture from the rest of men . As I recall,at

this momen t, severa l of his awfully strikin ga ttitude s

, the chillin g tide, with which myblood begin s to pour a lon g my arterie s

,re

min ds me of the emotion s produced by ‘

the

fir s t S ight of Gray’s in troductory picture of his

hard

On a rock,whose haughty brow,

Frown s o’er old Conway’

s foaming flood,

Robed in the sable garb ofwo,W ith haggard eyes the poet stood ;(Loose his beard and hoary hairStreamed

,like a meteor

,to the troubled arr

And w ith a poet’s han d an d prophet ’

s fire,

Struck the deep sorrows of his lyre.

Guess my surpri se,when , on my arrival at:

Richmond , an d men tion ing the n ame of thisman

,I foun d n ot on e person who had ever

before heard of James Wa ddell ! IS it n otstran ge, that such a gen iu s as this, so accom

plished a scholar, so divin e an orator, shouldbe permitted to lan guish an d die in obscurity

,

within eighty miles of the metropolis ofVir

gin ia ? T o me it is a con clusive argumen t,either that the Virgin ian s have n o ta ste for thehighe s t s tra in s of the most sublime oratory, orthat they are destitute of a much more import

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204 T HE BR I T ISH SPY .

al so, from the modern,

fin espun , tin selled restra in ts of his divme Godwin . Having imbibed the high Spirit of literary adven ture, hedisdain s the limits of the moral world ; an dadvan cing boldly to the thron e of God, he

ques tion s him on his di spen sation s,

an d

deman ds the rea son s of his laws. But thecoun sels of heaven are a bove the ken

,n ot

con tr a ry to the voice of human reason ; an dthe un fortun ate youth, un able to reach an d

mea sure them,recoil s from the a ttempt, with

melan choly ra shn es s,in to in fidelity an d dei sm .

Godwin ’s glitter ing theories are on his lips.

Utopia or Mezoran ia,

‘ boast n ot of a purermoralist, in words, than the youn g Godwinian ; but the un bridled licen tiousn ess of his

con du ct makes it man ifest, that if Godwin ’s

prin ciples be true in the abstra ct,they are n ot

fit for this system of things ; whatever theymight be in the republic of Plato .

From a life of in glorious in dolen ce, by fartoo prevalen t am on g the young men of thiscoun try, the tran s ition is ea sy an d n atura l toimmorality an d dis s ipation . It is at thisgiddy period of life

,when a series of dis solute

courses have debauched the purity an d in n ocen ce of the heart

,shaken the pillars of the

T HE BR IT I SH SPY . 205

unders tan ding, and con verted her soun d an d

wholesome operation s in to little more than a

set of feveri sh starts and in coheren t an d deli»

t ious dreams it is in such a situation that an ew—fan gled theory i s welcomed as an amusin ggues t

,an d dei sm i s embraced as a balmy

comforter aga in s t the pangs of an offen dedcon s cien ce. This coalition

,on ce formed and

habitually con solidated, “ farewell,a lon g fare

well” to hon our, gen ius an d glory ' Fromsuch a gulf of complicated ruin

, few have the

en ergy even to attempt an e scape . T he mo

men t of cool reflection , which should savethem

,is too big with horror to be en dured .

Every plun ge is deeper,un til the tragedy is

fin ally woun d up by a pistol or a halter . D o

n ot believe that I am drawing from fan cythe picture is un fortun ately true . Few dramas,indeed, have yet reached their cata s trophe ; but,too man y are in a rapid progress toward it .These thoughts are affecting an d oppres s ive.

I am glad to retreat from them,by biddin g you

adieu ; an d offerin g my prayers to heaven , that

you may n ever . lo se the pure,the gen ial con

solation s of un shaken fa ith,and an approvin g

con s cien ce. On ce more,my dear S

adieu .

206 THE BR IT I SH SPY .

LET TER VIII:

R ichmond,October

MEN of talen ts in this coun try, my dearS have been gen erally bred to the

profes s ion of the law ; an d indeed, throughoutthe Un ited States , I have met with few per

son s of exalted in tellect,whose powers have

been directed to any o ther pursuit . T he bar,

in America i s the road to hon our ; an d hen ce,a lthough the profess ion i s graced by themos tShin ing gen iuses on the con tinen t

,it is in cum~

bered al so by a melan choly group of youn gmen

,who han g on the rear of the bar, like

Goethe’s sable clouds in the western horizon .

I have been told that the bar of Virginia was,

a few years ago, pron oun ced by the supremecourt of the Un ited States , to be the most enlighten ed and able on the con tinen t. I am

very in competen t to decide on th e merit of

their legal acquiremen ts’

; but, putting a s ide thepartiality of a Briton

,I do n ot think either of

the gen tlemen by any mean s’

so eloquen t or

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208 T HE BR IT I SH SPY .

posed to doubt the accuracy of my own judgmen t as it relates to him .

T o me,however, it seems, that hi s mind, as

i s often but n ot in variably the ca se, correspon ds with his person al appearan ce : that i s ,that it i s turn ed rather for orn amen t than forsevere u se : p omp aa, qu am p ug nw ap tior , as

Tully expres ses it . His speeches,I thin k

,

deserve the cen sur e which lord Verulam pro

n oun ces on the writers pos terior to the reforma tion of the church .

“ Luther,

”says he

,

stan din g alon e,aga in s t the church of Rome

,

foun d it n eces sary to awaken all an tiquity inhis behalf this in troduced the study of the deadlan guages

,a ta s te for the fuln ess of the Cice~

ron ean man n er ; an d hen ce the still prevalen t error of hun ting more after words thanmatter

,an d more after the choicen es s of the

phra se an d the roun d an d clean compos i~

tion of the sen ten ce, and the sweet failin gsof the clauses

,an d the varying an d illustration

of their works with tropes and figures,than

after the weigh t of matter, worth of subject,

soundn ess of argumen t,life of in ven tion

, or

depth of judgmen t .”

lVIr.

’s temper an d habits lead him to

the swelling,s tately man n er of Bolingbroke

T HE BR IT ISH SPY . 209

but either from the wan t of promptitude and

richn ess of con ception , or his too sedulouscon cern and “ hun tin g after words

,

” he doesn ot ma in tain tha t man n er, smoothly an d hap~

pily. On the con trary,the spir its of hi s hear

ers,after having been awaken ed an d put in to

sweet an d plea san t motion,have their tide

,

n ot un frequen tly checked, ruflied an d pain fullyobstructed by the he s itation an d perplexity ofthe speaker . It certa in ly must deman d

,my

dear S a min d of very high powers tosupport the swell of Bolingbroke

,w ith felicity .

T he ton es of voice,which n aturally belon g to

it,keep the expectation con tinually on tiptoe

,

”

an d thismust be gratified n ot on ly by the mostoily fluen cy

,but by a course of argumen t clear

as light,an d an altern ate play of imagin ation

as gran d an d magnificen t asHerschell’s dan ceof the S iderea l system . T he work requires tobe perpetually urged forward . On e in terruption in the curren t of the language

,on e poor

thought or abortion of fan cy, on e vacan t

a ver s ion of the eye, or relaxation in the ex

pres s ion of the face, en tirely breaks an d dis

solves the whole charm . T he speaker,in deed

,

may go on an d evolve, here an d there, a pretty18*

210 THE BR IT ISH SPY .

thought ; but the wondr ous magic of the

whole i s gon e for ever .

Whether it be from any defect in the organ ization ofMr . .

’S min d, or that his pas~

sion for the fin e dress of his thoughts is thema ster pa s s ion , which, “ like Aaron ’

s serpen t,Swallows up the res t,” I will n ot un dertake todecide ; but perhaps it results from on e of tho setwo causes , that all the argumen ts

,which I

have ever heard from him,are defective in tha t

importan t and mos t material character, thelu cidus ordo.

I have been sometimes in clin ed to believe,that a man ’

s divi s ion of his argumen t wouldbe gen erally found to con tain a secret his toryof the difficulties which he himselfhas en countered in the in ve stigation of his subject . I amfirmly persuaded that the extreme prolixity of

many dis cour ses to which we are doomed toli sten , i s chargeable, n ot to the fertility, \

bu t to

the darkn ess an d impoten ce of the brain whichproduces them . A man , who sees his objectin a stron g light, marches directly up to it, ina righ t lin e

,with the firm s tep of a soldier ;

while an other, res iding in‘

a les s illumin edzon e

, wander s an d reel s in the twilight of thebrain , and ere he attain hi s object

,tread s a

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212 T HE BR IT I SH SPY .

clear an d full con viction,it leaves him bewil

dered,darkling

,asleep an d when he awakes,

he

wakes,emergin g from a sea of dream

T umu ltuous ; where his wreck’d,desponding thought

,

From wave tow ave ofw ild uncerta in ty,A t ran dom drove, -her helm of reason lost .”

I in clin e to believe that if there be a blemis hin the min d of this amiable g en tleman , it isthe wan t of a stron g an d ma s culin e judgmen t .If such an agen t had wielded the sceptre of

his un derstan din g,it i s presumable

,that

,ere

this,it would have cha s tised his exuberan t

fon dn ess for literary fin ery,an d the too osten

tatiou s an d un fortun ate parade of poin ts in hisargumen t

,on which I have jus t commen ted .

If I may con fide In‘

the replies which I haveheard given to h im at the bar , this wan t ofjudgmen t is ‘

sometimes man ifes ted in hisselection an d application of law ca se s . But ofthis I can judge on ly from the triumphan t airwith which his adver saries seize his ca ses an dappear to turn thhm aga in s t him .

He i s certa in ly a man of close an d elaborateresearch . It would seem to me

,however, my

dear S that in order to con stitute ascien tific lawyer, something more is n eces sary

T HE BR IT ISH SPY . 213

than the patien t an d persevering revolution of

the leaves of the author. Does it n ot requirea discernmen t sufficien tly clear an d stron g toevis cerate the prin ciples of each ca se ; a judgmen t poten t en ough to dige s t, con n ect an d

systematize them,an d to distinguish, at on ce,

in any future combin ation of circumstan ces ,the very feature which gives or refuses to a

prin ciple,a jus t application Without such

in tellectual properties, I should conjectur e, (foron this subject I can on ly conjecture

,) that aman could n ot have the fa ir advan tage and

perfect comman d of his reading . For, in the

fir s t place,I Should apprehen d, that he wou ld

n ever discover the application of a case,with

ou t the recurren ce of all the same circumstan

ces ; in the n ext place,that his ca ses would

form a perfect chaos,a rud is in d ig esta que

males, in his bra in ; and la stly, that he wouldoften and sometimes perhaps fata lly mistakethe iden tifying feature

,an d furn ish his an tag o

n i s t with a formidable weapon aga in s t himself.But let me fly from this en tangled wilder

n es s , of which I have so little kn owledge, andreturn to Mr . Although when broughtto the stan dard of perfect ora tory

,he may be

subject to the cen sures which I have pa s sed

214 T HE BR IT I SH SPY .

on him ; yet it i s to be ackn owledged, an d Imake the ackn owledgmen t with plea sure,that he is a man of exten s ive reading

,a well

in formed lawyer,a fin e belles lettres s cholar,

an d sometimes a beautiful speaker .

T he gen tleman who has been poin ted out

to me a s holdin g the n ext if n ot an equal gradein the profess ion , IS Mr . He i s

,I am

told,upwards of

“ forty years of age ; but hislook

,I thin k

,i s more juven ile . As to stature

,

he i s about the ordin ary height of men ; his

form gen teel, . hiS pers on agile. He i s distin

gu ished by a quickn ess of look,a sprightly

step,an d that peculiarly jaun ty air

,which I

have heretofore men tion ed,as characterizing

the people ofNew-York . It is an air,however

,

which, (perhaps, because I am a plain son of

John B u ll,) is n ot en tirely to my ta ste. Strik

in g , in deed, it is ; highly gen teel, and caleulated for ecla t but then , I fear, that it may be

cen sured as bein g to artificial : '

as havin g,

therefore,too little appearan ce of con n exion

with the heart ; too little of that amiable sim

plicity , that win n in g softn es s , tha t vital warmth,which I ha ve felt in the man n er of a certainfrien d of min e . This objection

,however

, is

not mean t to touch h is heart . I do not mean

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216 T HE BR IT ISH SPY .

This leads me off from the character cfMr to remark a moral defect

,which I

have several times observed in this coun try.Many well mean in g men

,"having heard much

of the hollow, ceremon ious profess ion s an d

hypocritical grimace of courts ; disgusted withevery thin g which savours of ari s tocratic or

mon archic parade ; an d smitten with the love ofrepublican simplicity an d hon es ty have fallenin to a ruggedn ess of deportmen t, a thousan dtimes more proud, more in tolerable an d disgustin g

,than Shakspeare

’s foppish lord, with

his chin n ew reaped an d poun cet box . Theyscorn to con ceal their thoughts ; an d in the

expression of them con found blun tn ess withhon esty. Their opin ion s are all dogmas. Itis perfectly immaterial _to them what any on e

el se may thin k. Nay, man y of them seem to

have forgotten , that others can thin k, or feel

at all. In pursuit of the haggard phan tom of

republican ismf they da sh on , like Sir JosephBan ks, givin g cha se to the emperor ofMo

rocco, regardless of the sweet an d ten der blossoms of sen s ibility

,which fall and bleed

,and

T his phrase is scarcely excusable, even in a Briton anda lord .

T HE BR IT I SH S PY . 217

die behind them . What an error is this,my

dear S I am frequen tly disposed toask such men

,

“ think you , that the stern and

implacable Achilles was an hon ester man thanthe gen tle

,human e an d con s iderate Hector ?

Was the arrogan t an d imperious Alexan der anhon ester man than the meek

,compa s s ion ate

,

and amiable Cyrus 22 Was the proud,the rough

,

the surly Cato,more hon est than the soft,

polite an d delicate Scipio African u s ’

.z In short,

are n ot hon es ty an d human ity compatible 7

And what i s the most genuin e an d captivatin gpoliten ess, but human ity refin ed ?”

But to return from this digress ion .

‘

T he

qualities , by which Mr. strikes the multitude, are his in genuity an d his wit . Buttho se

,who look more closely in to the an atomy

of his mind, dis cover man y properties ofmuchhigher dign ity and importan ce. This gen tleman

,inmy opin ion , un ites in himself a greater

diver s ity of talen t s and acquiremen ts,than any

other at the bar ofVirgin ia . He has the reputation , an d I doubt n ot a jus t on e, of pos sessing much legal scien ce. He has an exquis itean d a highly cultivated ta ste for polite literature ; a gen ius quick and fert ile ; a style purean d classic ; a stream of perspicuous and beau

19

218 THE BR IT I SH SPY .

tiful elocution ; an in genuity which n o ditfi

cu lties can en tan gle or embarra s s an d a wit,who se vivid an d brill ian t coruscation

,can gild

an d decorate the darkest Subject . He choo seshis ground

,in the first in stan ce with grea t

judgmen t ; an d when,in the progres s of a

cause, an un expected evolution of testimony,

or in termediate decis ion s from the ben ch,have

beaten that groun d from un der him,he pos

ses se s a happy, an a s ton i shin g ver satility,by

which he i s en abled at on ce, to take a n ew

pos ition,

'

without appearin g to have los t ana tom

,either in the mea sure or s tability of his

ba s i s . This i s a faculty which I have oh

served before in an in ferior degree butMr . i s so adr oit

,so superior In the ex e

cu tion of it,that in him it appear s a n ew and

peculiar talen t ; his statemen ts, hi s n arration s,his argumen ts

,a re all as tran sparen t as the

light of day . He rea son s logically, and de

claims very han dsomely . It i s true,he n ever

bran dishes the Olympic thun der of Homer,but then he seldom

,if ever, sinks beneath the

chaste an d attractive majesty ofVirgil .His fault is; that he has n ot veiled his inge

un ity with sufficien t address. Hen ce,

I am

told,that he isconsidered as a Proteus ; and the

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220 THE BR IT ISH SPY .

LET TER IX.

R ichmond , October 30.

TALENT S , my dear S wherever theyhave had a suitable theatre, have n ever fa iledto emerge from obscurity and a ssume theirproper ran k in the estimation of the world .

T he celebrated Camden is said to have beenthe ten an t of a garret . Y et from the darkn es s

,

poverty and ign ominy,of this res iden ce

,he

advan ced to distin ction an d wealth,and graced

the fir s t offices an d titles of ou r i sland . It isimpos s ible to turn over the Briti sh biography,without being struck and charmed by the multitude of corre sponden t example s a ven erablegroup of n ovi homin es

,as the Roman s ca lled

them ; men, who, from the lowes t depths of

obscurity an d wan t,and without even the in

fluen ce of a patron,have ri sen to the fir s t

hon ours of their coun try, an d founded theirown families an ew . In every n ation

,and in

ever? age, great talen ts , thrown fairly in to thepoin t of public observation

,will invariably pro

T HE BRIT ISH SPY . 221

du ce the same ultimate effect . T he jealouspride of power may attempt to repre s s an d

crush them ; the ba se an d malign an t ran courof impotent Spleen and en vy may s trive to

embarra s s an d retard their flight ; but the seefforts

,so far from achieving their ign oble pur

pose,so far from produ cing a discern ible obli

quity in the a s cen t of genuine an d vigorousta len ts

,will serve on ly to increa se their mo

men tum an d mark their tran s it with an addition al stream

.

of glory.

When the great earl of Chatham firs t madehis appearan ce in our house of common s , an dbegan to a ston i sh an d tran sport the Briti shparliamen t , an d the British n ation , by the boldn ess, the force and range of his thoughts

,and

the cele s tial fire and patho s of his eloquence,

it i s well kn own,that the min i s terWa lpole

,

and his brother Horace, (from motive s very

easily under stood,) exerted all their wit,all

their oratory, all their acquiremen ts of everyde scription

,sustained and en forced by the un

feeling “ insolence of office,

”to heave a moun

tain on his gigan tic gen ius,an d hide it from

the world . Poor and powerles s atteT he tables were turn ed . He rose uponin the might and irre sistible energy of‘Iiis

19“

222 T HE um r rsrr .SPY .

gen ius ; and in sp a m t h eir con volutions,

fran tic agon ie a .

. 1 : s,he strangled them

an d their who le f. with as much ea se as

Hercules d id U c .

‘

pm t min i s ter s of jealousytha t were sen t .il his in fan t cradle . Whocan turn over thed ebates of the day, and readthe accoun t of thi s conflict between youthfulardour an d hoary headed cun n ing and power

,

without kindling in the cause of the tyro,and

Shouting at hi s victory 7 That they Shouldhave attempted to pa s s off the grand

, yet solidand judicious Operation s of a mind like his

,as

being mere theatrical start and emotion ; thegiddy

,hair-bra in ed eccen tricities of a roman tic

boy That they should have had the presumption to suppose themselves capable of chain ingdown to the floor of the parliamen t

,a gen ius so

ethereal,towerin g, and sublime Why did they

n ot, in the n ext breath,by way of crown ing

the climax of van ity,bid the magn ificen t fire

ball to descen d from its exalted and appropriateregion

,to perform its splendid tour along the

surface of the earth

See a beau tiful note in Darw in ’s Botan ic‘ Garden

,in

which the wr iter suggests the probability of three concentric strata of our a tmosphere, in which, or between them,

are produced four kinds ofmeteors ; in the lowest, the com

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224 T HE BR IT I SH SPY .

‘

work . An d Mr . Pitt an d Mr . Fox have forman y years been reciprocally an d altern atelyrecogn ized

,just as their subject deman ds it

,

either as close an d cogen t rea son er s, or as

beautiful an d superb rhetorician s ..Talen ts

,therefore

,which are before the pub

lic,have n othin g to dread

,either from the

jealous pride Of power, or from the tran s ien tmi srepresen tation s of party

,spleen

,of en vy .

In Spite of Oppos ition from any cause, theirbuoyan t spirit will lift them to their propergrade : it would be unjust that it Should liftthem higher .

It i s true,there always are

,an d always will

be, in every society, in dividual s , who willfan cy themselve s examples of gen ius overlooked

,un derrated

,or invidiously '

oppres sed .

But the misfortun e of such person s i s imputable to their own van ity, an d n ot to the publicOpin ion

,which has weighed an d graduated

them .

We remember man y Of our s choolmates ,whose gen iuses bloomed an d died withinthe wall s of Alma Ma ter ; but whose bodiesstill live

,the moving monumen ts of departed

Splen dour,the an imated an d affectin g remem

bran ces of the extreme fragility of the human

T HE BR IT ISH SPY . 225

in tellect. We remember other s , who have en

tered on public life with the mo s t exultin gpromise ; have flown from the earth

,like

rockets and,after a short an d brillian t flight

,

have burs ted with on e or two explosion s—to

blaze n o more . Others,by a few premature

s cin tillation s of thought, have led themselvesan d their partial frien ds

,to hope that they were

fa s t advan cin g to a dawn of soft an d beauteouslight

,an d a meridian of bright an d gorgeous

effulgen ce but their day has n ever yet brokenan d n ever will it break . They are doomed forever to that dim,

crepuscular light,which su r

roun ds the frozen poles , when the sun has

retreated to the oppo s ite circle of the heaven s.

Theirs i s the etern al glimmerin g of the brain ;an d their mos t lumin ous displays are the

fa in t twin klin gs of the glow-worm . We haveseen other s

,who

,at their start, gain a ca sua l

projectility , which rises them above theirproper grade but by the just operation of theirspecific gravity, they are made to subside aga in ,an d settle ultimately in the sphere to whichthey properly belon g.

All these characters,an d many others who

have had even slighter ba se s for their on cesanguine, but n ow bla sted hopes , form a quer~

226 T HE BR IT I SH SPY .

u lous an d melan choly ban d ofmoon struck declaimer s again s t the injustice of the world

,the

agen cy of envy,the force of destiny, &c .

,

chargin g their misfortune on every thin g butthe true cause : their own wan t of in trin s icsterlin g merit ; their wan t of that copious ,peren n ial spring of great and useful thought,without which a man may hope in va in for

growing reputation . Nor are they alwayssatisfied with wa iling their own des tin y

,pour

in g ou t the bittere s t imprecation s of their soulson the cruel star s which pres ided at theirbirth

,and a sper sin g the justice of the public

opin ion which has s caled them : too often inthe con tortion s an d pan gs ofdisappoin ted ambitiou , they ca st a s cowlin g eye over theworld Of man ; s tart back an d blan ch at the

lustre of superior merit ; an d exert all thediabolica l in can tation s of their black art

,to

conjur e up an impervious vapour,in order to

shroud its glories from the world . But it isall in vain . In spite Of every thing

,the pub

lic Opin ion will fin ally do justice to us all.

T he man who comes fa irly before the world,

an d who po s ses se s the great an d vigorousstamin a which en title him to a n ick in the

temple of glory, has n o rea son to dread the

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228 T HE BR IT I SH SPY .

n es ses of this coun try ; gen ius , whose blossoms the light of scien ce has n ever courtedin to eXpan sion ;

o

gen iu s, which i s doomed tofall an d die, far from the n otice an d the haun tsOfmen ! How often , as I have held my w ay

through the western forests Of this state,an d

reflected on the vigorous shoots of superiorin tellect

,which were freezin g an d peri shing

there for the wan t Of culture ; how often haveI recalled the momen t, when our patheticGray, reclin ing un der the mouldering elm of

his coun try churchyard,while the s igh of

gen ial sympathy broke from his heart, an d

the tear of n oble pity started in his eye, ex

claimed,

Perhaps in this n eglected spot is laidSome heart on ce pregn an t w ith celestial fire

,

Hands that th e rod of empire might have sway ’d,

Or wak’d to ecstacy the l iving lyre.

But knowledge to their eyes,her ample page,

R ich w ith the spo ils of time,did n e’

er unroll ;Chill penury repress’

d their noble rage,

And froze the gen ial current of their sou l.

Ful l many a gem ofpurest ray serene,T he dark, un fathom’

d caves of ocean bear ;Full many a flower is born to blush unseen ,And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

T HE BR IT I SH SPY .

Some villageHampden,that w ith daun tless breast

,

T he little tyran t of his fields w ithstood ;Some mute

,inglor iousMilton

,heremay rest ;

Some Cromwell,gu iltless ofhis coun try ’

s blood.

T h’applause of list’n ing sen ates to command

,

T he threa ts Of pa in and ru in to despise,

T o scatter plen ty o’er a smiling lan d

,

An d. read their history in a n a tion’s eyes.

T heir lot forbade

T he heart of a philan thropist,n o matter to

wha t coun try or what form Of governmen t h emay belon g, immediately in quires

,

“ An d is

there n o mode to preven t this melan cholywa ste of talen ts '

.2 Is there n o mode by which

the rays of scien ce might be so diffused overthe state

,as to call forth each laten t bud in to

life an d luxurian ce There i s such a mode :an d what ren ders the legislature Of this st atestill more in excusable

,the plan by which these

importan t purposes might be effected,has been

drawn ou t an d has lain by them for n earlythirty years. T he declaration of the in dee

pen den ce of this commonwealth was made inthe mon th OfMay , In the fall Of that

T his is a fact which the public journ als of the state

established beyond controversy ; although the‘legal process20

230 T HE BR ITI SH SPY .

year, a statute, or, as,

it i s called here, “an act

of a s sembly,” was made, providing that a

committee offive per son s should be appoin tedto prepare a code of laws , adapted to the changeof the state governmen t . This code was to

be submitted to the legislature of the coun try,

an d to be ratified or rejected by their suffrage .

In the en suing November,by a resolution

of the same legislature, Thoma s Jeffer son ,Edmun d Pen dleton , George Wythe, GeorgeMa son an d Thoma s Ludwell Lee

,e s quire s

,

were appoin ted a committee to execute the

work in question . It w as prepared hy ‘ thethree fir st n amed gen tlemen ; th e fir s t of themn ow the Pre s iden t of the Un ited States ; thesecond

,the pres iden t of the supreme court of

appeal s of Virg in ia , an d the third , the judge of

the high court of chan cery a t this place .

I have perused this system of State policewith admiration . It is eviden tly the work of

minds of most aston ishing greatn ess ; capable,a t on ce

,of a gran d

,profoun d an d comprehen

sive Survey Of the presen t an d future in terest

and other public acts ofVirgin ia modestly wa ive this preceden ce

,an d da te the founda tion of the commonw eal th on

the 4th ofJu ly,1776

,the day on which the declaration of the

independence of the Un ited States was promulged .

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232 T HE BR IT I SH SPY .

foreign er, I can perceive n o possible reason forit, except that the comprehen sive views an dgen erous patriotism which produced the bill

,

have n ot prevailed throughout the coun try,n or presided in the body on whose vote the

adoption of the bill depen ded. I have n ew

reason to remark it, a lmost every day, thatthere is throughout Virgin ia , a most deplorabledestitution of public spirit, Of the n oble pridean d love of coun try. Un less the body of the

people can be awaken ed from this fatal apathy ;u n less their thoughts an d their feelings can beurged beyon d the n arrow con fin es of their ownpriva te affa irs ; un less they can be stronglyin spired with the public zeal, the amor p a tr ice

of the an cien t republics,the n ation al embellish

men t,an d the n ation al grandeur of this opu

len t state,must be reserved for very distan t

ages .Adieu

,my S perhaps you will hear

from me again before I leave Richmond .

T HE BR IT I SH SPY . 233

AN APOLOGY

IN REPLY T O A H IN T .

T HE letters of the British Spy were furn ishedto amuse the citizen s of the town an d coun try

,

an d n ot to give pa in to any on e human bein g .

Accordingly,n othing has been Sa id in cen sur e

of the in tegrity, the philan thropy, ben evolen ce,charity

,or any other moral or religious virtue

or grace of any on e Virgin ian,who

‘

has beenin troduced in to those letters . Nothing

,in deed

,

could be justly sa id on those heads,in cen sure

of either of the gen tlemen . It is true,that

some letters have been published,which have

attempted to an alyze themin ds of three or fourwell kn own citizen s of this state

,an d in order

to design ate them more particularly,a descrip

tion of the p erson an d ma n n er of each gen tleman was given . This has been called “ throwin g ston es at other people

’s glass houses,

’an d

the person who has commun icated those letters

(gratuitously styled their author”

) is politelyremin ded that he himself resides “ in a glasshouse .

”

234 T HE BR IT ISH SPY .

If this be correctly understood, it implies athreat of r eta lia tion but all that the laws ofr eta lia tion could justify, would be to amusethe town an d coun try with a description of

the p erson, ma nn er and min d of the author

(as he is called) of the British Spy . He fears,

however, tha t it would puzzle the hin ter, whatever his gen ius may be, to ren der so barren a

subject in terestin g an d amusin g to the public ;an d he would be much obliged to the hin ter ifhe could make it appear tha t he (the furn isherof the letters) deserves

‘

to be drawn in to com

parison,either as to person , man n er , or min d,

with any on e Of the gen tlemen delin eated bythe British Spy . AS to his person

,in deed

, he

is less solicitous ; the defects of that were ims

posed on him by za tu re ; an d there is n o

prin ciple better established than this gen era l

prin ciple of etern al truth an d 'justice,that n o

man ought to be cen sured for the con tingen ciesover which he had n o con troul . AS to hisman n er

,he has as little Objection to a public

description of that as his person .

T o save the trouble of others,however

,he

relin quishes all preten sion s either to the str ikin gelegan ce which is calculated to excite admiration and respect,

‘

or to the con ciliating'

grace

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236 T HE BR IT ISH SPY .

from the defects, much less in dued with the

en ergies and beauties of those which he critio

cises .But where .is the harm which has been

don e ? Who are the gen tlemen in troducedin to the British Spy Ar e they youn g men

just emergin g in to n otice,

an d con cern in gwhom the public have yet to form an opin ion ?

Far from it . They are gen tlemen , who havelong been , an d who still are displayin g themselves in the very cen tre of the circle of gen era lObservation . They have n ot hid their lightunder a bushel . Their city is built on a highhill . There is n ot a feature of their person s

,

n or a quality of their min d or man n er,which

has n ot been long and well kn own,an d re

marked,commen ted on

,criticised

,repea ted and

reiterated a thousan d and ten thousan d timesin every circle an d every corn er of the coun try .

Was it in the power,then

,Of any remarks

in an an on ymous an d fugitive n ewspaper publication

,either to injure or serve gen tlemen SO

well an d so emin en tly kn own ? On the con

trary, if those remarks were un true,they would

be in stan tan eously an d in fallibly corrected bythe public Opin on an d kn owledge of the subjcet if the remarks were true, they would add

T HE BR IT I SH SPY . 237

n o new fact to the public Opin ion and the publickn owledge . Thinking thus, n othing wasmoredista n t, either from the expectation or wish ofthe person who has furn ished the press withthe letters of the British Spy, than that he was

about to do an injury to the character,or to

inflict a wound on the feelings Of any citizen of

the coun try. Why could he have expected orwished any such effect ? He could n ot havebeen actuated by resen tmen t ; for n either of

those gen tlemen have ever don e him an injury.

He could n ot have been moved by person a lin terest sin ce his con scious in feriority

,as well

a s the n ature of his pursuits,remove him far

from the possibility of bein g ever brought in tocollision with either of those gen tlemen . He

could not have been impelled by diabolica len vy

,or the malicious agon y of blasted ambi

tion ; sin ce his coun try has already distinguished him far, very far, beyon d his desert . An d

of the malevolen ce of heart which could in tention ally do a wicked

,a wan ton an d unpro

~

voked injury,he is persuaded that either Of the

gen tlemen,if they kn ew him

,would most

freely an d cheerful ly acquit him .

If he be asked why he published the lettersdescribin g those characters ? He an swers ,

238 T HE BR IT ISH SPY .

First,For the same reason that he would

,if

he could, presen t to the town a set Of landscapepain tings

,represen ting all the lovely prospects

which belon g to their beautiful city ; to furn ishthem with the amusemen t an d pleasure whicharise from surveyin g an accurate picture Of awell kn own origin al : an d this implies

,that he

could n ot have believed himself adding n ew

in formation as to the origin als themselves .Secondly

,He hoped that the abstracted an d

miscellan eous remarks,which were blen ded

with the description of those characters,might

n ot be without their use to the man y literaryyoung men who are growing up in Virgin ia .

If the letters of the British Spy have gon ebeyon d these purposes ; if they have givenpain to the gen tlemen described ; (for as to

doing them an injury,it is certa in ly ou t of the

question,) there is n o man in the commun ity

disposed to regret it more sen sibly than the

man who furn ished those letters for publication .

But while hon our an d justice compel thewriter Of this article to give these explan ation s, an d make these ackn owledgmen ts tothe gen tlemen immediately in terested, he begshe may n ot be con sidered as descending to themean ness of begging mercy on his own “ glass

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240 T HE BR IT ISH SPY .

LET TER X.

R ichmon d , D ecember 10.

IN on e Of my late rides in to the surroundingcoun try, I stopped at a little in n to refi'

esh my

self and my horse ; an d , as the lan dlord was

n either a Bon iface,n or

“ min e host of the garter

,

” I called for a book, by way of kill ing time,while the preparation s for my repast were goingforward . He brought me a shattered fragmen tof the secon d volume of the Spectator, whichhe told me was the on ly book in the house

,for

he n ever troubled his head about readingan d by way of con clusive proof

,he further

in formed me,that this fragmen t

,the on ly book

in the house,had been sleepin g unmolested in

the dust Of his man tel-piece, for ten or fifteen

years . I could n ot meet my ven erable coun tryman

, in a foreign lan d,and in this humiliatin g

plight, n or hear of the inhuman an d gothiccon tempt with which he had been treated,without the liveliest emotion . SO I read myhost a lecture on the subject

,to which he

appeared to pay as little atten tion as he had

T HE BR IT I SH SPY . 241

before don e to the Spectator ; and, with thesang froid Of a Dutchman , an swered me in

the can t of the coun try, that he “ had other fishto fry,

”and left me .

It had been SO long sin ce I had had an Op

portun ity of open ing that agreeable collection ,that the few n umbers which “

were n ow beforeme

,appeared a lmost en tirely n ew ; an d I can n ot

describe to you , the avidity an d delight withwhich I devoured those beautiful an d in teresting speculation s .Is it n ot stran ge

,my dear S that

such a work should have ever lost an in ch of

groun d ? A style so sweet and simple,an d yet

so orn amen ted ! a temper so ben evolen t,so

cheerful, so exhilaratin g ! a body Of kn owledg e,an d oforigin al thought

, so immen se a n d various ! so strikingly just

, so un iversally ii seful !What person

,of any age, sex ,

temper,callin g

,

or pursuit, can possibly con verse with the

Spectator, without being con scious of immediate improvemen tT o the spleen

,he is as perpetual and n ever

failing an an tidote,as he is to ign oran ce an d

immorality. NO matter for the disposition of

min d in which you,

take h im up ; you catch , as

you go along, the ha y ton e of spirits whichI

242 T HE BR IT I SH SPY .

prevails throughout the work ; you smile at

the wit, laugh at the drollery,feel your min d

en lighten ed, your heart Open ed, soften ed and

refin ed ; an d when you lay him down , you are

sure to be in a better humour , both with yourself an d every body else . I have n ever men

t ion ed the subject.

to'

a reader Of the Spectator,who did n ot admit this to be the in variableprocess ; an d in such a world Of misfortun es

,

of cares, and sorrows, an d guilt, as this is , wha ta prizewould this collection be, if it were rightlyestimated !Were I the sovereign of a n ation

,which

spoke the English lan guage, and wished mysubjects cheerful, v irtuou s an d en lighten ed

,I

.would furn ish every poor family in my domin ions (an d See that the rich furn ished themselves) with a copy of the Spectator ; and

orda in that the paren ts or children shou ld readfour or five n umbers

,aloud

,every n ight in the

year. For on e of the peculiar perfection s of

the work is, tha t while it con tain s such a massof an cien t an d modern learn in g, SO much of

profoun d wisdom,an d of beautiful composition

,

yet there is scarcely a number throughout theeight volumes, which IS n ot level to the

meanest capacity. An other perfection is, that

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1244 .TH E BR IT I SH SPY .

There is,methin ks

,my S a great

fault in '

the world,as it respects this subject

a giddy in stability, a light an d fluttering van ity,

a prurien t longin g after n ovelty, an impatien ce,a disgust

, a fastidious con tempt of every thin gthat is old . Y ou will n ot un derstan d me as

cen surin g the progress of soun d scien ce. I amn ot so in fatuated an an tiquarian

,n or so poor a

philan thropist,as to seek to retard the expan sion

of the human min d . But I lamen t the etern a lOblivion in to, which our Old authors

,those

gian ts of literature,are permitted to Sin k

,while

the world stan ds open -eyed an d Open -mouthedto catch every modern , tin selled abortion as itfalls from the press . In the polite circles ofAmerica

,for in stan ce

,perhaps there is n owan t of

taste,an d even zeal

,for letters . I have seen seve

ral gen tlemen who appear to have an accurate,

a minute acquain tan ce with the whole range Ofliterature

,in its presen t state of improvemen t

yet, you will be surprised to hear; that I haven ot met with more than on e or two person s inthis coun try

,who have ever read the works of

Bacon or Of Boyle. T hey delight to saun terin the upper s tory

,Sustain ed an d adorn ed, as it

is, with the delicate proportion s, the foliage an dflourishes Of the Corin thian order but they

T HE BR IT ISH SPY . 245

disdain to make any acqu amtance, or holdcommun ion at all

,with the Tuscan and Doric

pla in n ess an d strength which base an d supportthe whole edifice.

AS to lord Verulam,when he is con sidered

as the father Of experimen tal . philosophy ; asthe champion whose vigour battered '

down the

idolized chimeras ofAristotle,together with all

the appen dan t an d immeasurable webs Of thebra in

,woven an d hun g upon them

,by the in

gen ious dreamers of the schools ; as the herowho n ot on ly rescued and redeemed the worldfrom all this darkn ess

,jargon

,perplexity and

error ; but, from the stores of his own grea tmind

,poured a flood of light upon the earth

,

straightened the devious paths of scien ce,and

plan ned the whole paradise,which we n ow

fin d so full Of fragran ce,beauty an d gran deur ;

when he is con sidered,I say, in these poin ts

ofv iew,I am a ston ished that literary gen tlemen

do n ot court his acquain tan ce,if n ot through

reveren ce, at least through curiosity T he

person who does SO will fin d every period filledwith pure an d solid golden bullion : that bullion , which several much admired posteriorwritershave merelymoulded in to variousforms,

21"

246 T HE BR IT I SH SPY .

or beaten in to leaf, and taught to spread itsfloatin g splen dours to the sun .

This in satiate palate for n ovelty which I havemen tion ed, has had a very striking effect onthe style of modern production s . T he plainlanguage of easy con versation will n o longerdo . T he writer who con tends for fame

,or

even for truth, is obliged to con sult the reign in gtaste of the day . Hen ce too often

,in opposi

tion to his own judgmen t , he is led to eucumber h is ideas with a gorgeous load of orn a

men ts ; an d when he would presen t to the

public a body of pure, substan tial an d usefulthought, he fin ds himself con strain ed to en crustan d bury its utility within a dazzling case ; tocon vert a feast of reason in to a con cert of

soun ds : a rich in tellectual boon in to a merebouquet Of variegated pin ks an d blushing roses .In his turn he con tributes to establish an d

spread wider the perversion of the public tastean d thus, on a prin ciple resembling that of

action an d reaction,the author and the public

reciprocate the injury ; just as, in the licen tiousreign Of our Charles the 2d

, the dramatistand his audien ce were won t to poison eachother.

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248 T HE BR IT I SH SPY .

remarks, it would seem that n either of thosehypotheses will solve the phen omen on beforeus . If I remember his opin ion correctly

,the

most sublime style is to be sought in a state Ofn a ture ; when , an terior to the existen ce Ofscien ce

,the scan tin ess of a language forces

a people to n otice the poin ts of resemblan cebetween the grea t n atura l Objects with whichthey are surroun ded ; to apply to on e the

terms which belon g to an other an d thus,by

compulsion,to rise a t on ce in to simile an d met

aphor, an d laun ch in to all the boldn ess 'Of tropeand figure . If this be true

,it would seem that

the progress of a civilized n ation toward sublimity of style is perfectly a retrograde manmuvre : tha t is, that they will be sublime accordin g to the n earn es s of their approach to the

primeval state of n ature .

This is a curious,an d to me

,a bewitching

subject . But it leads to a volume of thought,which is n ot to be con den sed in a letter . Iwill remark on ly on e extraordin ary fact as itrelates to style . T he Augustan age is pro

noun ced by some critics t o have furn ished, thefin est models of style, embellished to the highest en durable poin t ; and of this, Cicero is

always adduced asthe most illustrious example.

T HE BR IT I SH SPY .

’

249

Y et it is remarkable, that seven ty or eightyyears afterwards

,when the Roman style had

become much more luxurian t,an d was de

n oun ced by the critic s of the day"as having

tran scended the limits of gen uin e orn amen t,

Plin y, the younger

,in a letter to a frien d

,

thought it n ecessary to en ter in to a formal vindica tion of three or four metaphors

,which he

had used in an oration,an d which had been

cen sured in Rome for their extravagan ce ; butwhich

,by the side of the mean est of Curran ’s

figur es,would be poor, in sipid an d flat . Y et

who will say that Curran’s style has gon e be

yon d the poin t of en duran ce ? Who is n ot

pleased with its purity ? Who is n ot ravishedby its sublim ity .

In Englan d,how wide is the chasm between

the style ofLord Verulam an d that Of Edmun dBurke

,or M’In tosh

’s in troduction to his Vin

d icce Gallicce ’ That of the first is the pla indress of a Quaker ; that of the two last themagn ificen t paraphern alia of Louis XIV. of

Fran ce. In lord Verulam’s day, his style \was

distinguished for its superior orn amen t ; an d inthis respect

,it was thought impossible to sur

SeeQuinctillian’s Institutes.

250 T HE BR IT ISH SPY

pass it. Y et Mr . Burke,Mr . M’In tosh , an d the

other fin e wr iters Of the presen t age, have, bycon tra st, reduced lord Verulam’

s flower gardento the appearance of a simple culin ary square .

Perhaps it is for this reason,an d because

,as

you kn ow,I am an epicure

,tha t I am very

much in terested by lord Verulam’s man n er .

It is in deed a most agreeable relief to my mindto turn from the stately and dazzlin g rhapso

dies Of the day, an d con verse with this plainan d sen sible Old gen tleman . T o me his styleis gratifyin g on man y accoun ts ; an d there isthis advan tage in him

,that in stead Of having

three or four idea s rolled over an d over aga in,

like the fan tastic evolution s an d ever-changingshapes of the same sun -embroidered cloud

, you

ga in n ew ma terials, n ew in formation at everybreath .

Sir Robert Boyle is,in my opin ion , an other

author of the same description,an d therefore

an equal,if n ot a higher favourite with me .

In poin t Of orn amen t he is the first grade inthe mighty space, (through the whole Of whichthe gradation smaybe distin ctly traced,) betweenBacon an d Burke Y et he has n o redundan tverbiage ; has about him a perfectly patriarcha lsimplicity ; and every period is pregn an t with

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252 T HE BR IT I SH SPY .

their min ds more elevated an d more capable ofcomprehen din g the whole of this great subject

,

with all its con n exion s an d depen den cies,than

was the min d of Sir Robert Boyle Look at

the men : an d the question is an swered . How

then does it happen that they have been con

ducted to a con clusion so perfectly the reverseof his ? It is for this very reason ; becausetheir judgmen ts are less extricated from the

in fluen ce an d raised abov e the mists Of passionit is because their min ds are less etherea l andcomprehen sive ; less capable than his was

“ to

look through n ature up to n ature’s God .

” An d

let them hug their precious, barren , hopelessinfidelity : they are welcome to the horribleembrace May we, my friend, n ever lose therich and in exhaustible comforts Of religion .

Adieu,my S .

T HE BR IT ISH SPY . 253

T HE author of “ An In quirer on the theoryof the earth

,begs leave to Offer the following

observation s to the publisher of “the British

Spy,” in an swer to some of his addition al

n otes .When the In quirer r ead , in the secon d letterOf the British Spy, that “ the perpetua l revolution Of the earth

,from west to east

,hasthe obvi

ous ten den cy to con glomerate the loose San ds ofthe sea on the eastern coast

,

” “ that whethei'

the rollin g of the earth to the east give to the

ocean an actual coun ter-curren t to the westor n ot, the n ewly emerged pin n acles are

whirled,by the earth’s motion

,through the

waters of the deep ;”an d from the con tinued

Operation Of the causes which produced them,

that “all con tin en ts an d islands will be caused,

reciprocally to approximate when he readthese an d other similar passages, he saw n o

reason to doubt,that the British Spy con sidered

the ocean n ow,as well as formerly, affected by

the rotation of the earth ; or, to express the22

254 T HE BR IT I SH SPY .

same thin g more correctly, that the rotatory mo~

tion of the earth is but partially commun icatedto the ocean . This opin ion , which a thousan dfacts may be brought to disprove, ~

and whichthe favourite cosmogon ist of the British Spysays" n o man can en tertain who has the leastkn owledge Of physics, it was decorous to suppose

,had been advan ced h'

om in adverten ce.

If the meanin g of the writer were taken by theIn quirer in a greater latitude than was mean t,he is n ot the less Sorry for his mistake, becauseit was n ot a n atural on e

,and was n ot con fin ed

to himself.But the a nn otator of the Spy, without say

ing whether the supposed curren t n ow exist orn ot

,thinks theformer existen ce of such a cur

ren t n ot improbable,and puts a case by way

of. illustratin g his hypotheses . My reason ingon the subject

,somewhat differen t from his, is

briefly this :If the whole surface of the earth, when it

first received its rotatory impulse, were coveredwith water

,a n d this imp u lse were commun i

T he passage in Smellie’

s translation of Buffon stands

thus : but every man who has the least'

knowledge ofphysics, must allow,

that n o flu id which surround s the earth ,

can be affected by its rotation Vol. I. On Reg ula r Win ds.

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256 T HE BR I T I SH SPY ;

But let us suppose some ridges ofmoun tainsrun n ing from n orth to South, an d of suflicien t

exten t an d elevation to obstruct the course of

the waters . In this case,the sudden whirling

of the earth to the east would force the oceanon its western shores

,where it would accumu

late,un til the gravity of the mass

vthu s elevated,

overcome the forcew hich raised zit . Then on e

vast un dulation Of the stupen dou s mass wouldtake place

,from shore to shore, and would

con tin ue un til it gradually yielded to the un itedeffect of friction an d gravity.

,A comparison

between ves sels of d ifferen t sizes,partly filled

with water,might en able us to form a ration al

conjecture of the term of this oscillation ; butbe it in on e year

,or many years

,I thin k the

cflect would more probably be, an abrasionof the moun tain

,than the formation of a

con tin en t .But the p ostu la tum,

that the first impulse tothe earth w as commun icated to its solid parta lon e

,on which all these supposition s rest

,is

but a possibility : whether we suppose that thecause

,which first whirled the earth on its a xis

,

is an a scen ding lin k in n ature’s chain of causes,or the immediate act of the first Great Causeof all

,it is n ot un likely that it penetrated and

THE BR IT ISH SPY . 257

influen ced every particle of matter,whether it

were solid, liquid or aeriform .

On this subject, our supposition s are to belimited only by our in ven tion . On e man may

resort to electricity,according to an alleged

property Of that fluid ; an other , to magn etism ;a third

,to the action of the Sun ’s rays ; and a

four th, to a quality inheren t in matter ; according to either of which hypotheses, n o curren tcould have existed .

Mon sieur de Buffon,in deed, ascribes the

earth’s rotation to a mechan ical an d part ialpulse, the oblique stroke of a comet ; but as,accordin g to him

,the earth was then on e en tire

globe ofmelted glass,its rotatory motion must

have been un iform,lon g before the ocean

existed .

Whoever would dispel the clouds in whichthis question is en veloped

,an d make it as clear

“as the light Of heaven

,

” should in deed be mihimag nus Ap ollo but hypotheses, of whichn othing can be said, but that they are n ot impossible, though they may beguile the loungerof a heavy hour , are little likely to further ou rkn owledge of n ature. In so boundless a fieldof conjecture

,with scarce on e twinkling star to

guide us, we can hardly hope to find, among22"

258 T HE BR IT I SH SPY .

the numberles'

s tracts of error, that which singlyleads to truth .

When the Inquirer spoke of the gen era lbou leversemen t which many subterran ean ap

~

pearances in dicated, he did n ot mean even tohin t at their cause, but simply to express, as theword imports, the topsyturvy disorder , in whichvegetable an d marin e substan ces are foun d ; theon e far a bove, an d the other far below,

the seatof its origin al production . At the momen t hewas attempting to Show ,

that every explan ation of these phen omen a was imperfect an dpremature

,he hardly would have ven tured to

give on e himself ; for though “ we should n otsuffer ourselves to be pa ssively fed on the pap

of Scien ce,

”when we have a tta in ed ou r ma tu

r ity , yet un til we have atta in ed it,he thinks it

is better to be in leadin g-strings, than to stumblea t every -step .

In the progress of scien ce, I doubt whethersoun d prin ciples are aban don ed for those thatare less true . Novelty in moral speculation

,

a ided as it may b e, by our passion s, may daz

zle an d mislead,but in physics

,though on e

error may give place to an other,when truth

on ce gets possession,she holds it firm

,ever

a fter. Thus the - theories Of cosmogon ists fol

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260 T HE BR IT ISH S PY .

a celebrated sen timen t, my esteem for truth ex

ceeds even my esteem for the British Spy:

Though n either Of us may chan ce to con vin cethe other, yet, if our d iscussion should leadthose who have n ot the same paren tal tendern ess for particular hypotheses or doubts, to a

better Understanding of the subject, the light,that is thus elicited, will con sole me for the

collision which produced it.

October 12, 1803 .

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To himwho, as D r . K Nox Observes, although engaged in other pursuits,is St il l anxious to “

retain a t incture Of that elegance and l iberal ity of sentimen t which the mind acqu ires by the study of the ClaSSIcs

,and which

con tributes more to form the true g en tleman than all the unsubstan tialorn amen ts of modern affectation ,”

such a collection wil l, it is confiden tlyhoped, prove acceptable .

As the learned languages do not form par t of the education of femal es,the on ly access whi ch they have to the valuable stores of an tiqui ty isthrough themed ium of-correct translation .

T he selection is intended to include those authorswhose worksmaywith propr iety be read by persons of both sexes ; and i t will be obviousthat the nature of the publicat ion is of so permanent a character

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whole Wil l be presented to the publ ic in a cheap , handsome, and un iformSize, forming a complete Farmly Classica l Library,” al ike useful for thepurpose Of instruct ion and amusement . Indeed, as D r. PARR says, “ i fyou dream your son, though no great scholar, to read and reflect, it isyour duty to place in h is hands the best translations of the best ClassicalAuthors.

”

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“

In 2 v o ls. l em o . W i t h a. P o r t r a it .

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Spelman’s Anabasis’ is one of the most accurate and elegant transla

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"—s bon .

T he soldier has a lways admired the talen ts of Xenophon in conducting , and the scholar in describing, the ‘Retreat of the T en T housan dand the phi losopher and statesman have al ike been del ighted With h ischarming work denominated the Cyropeedia .

’ -Robmsmt ’s An tiqu it ies

of Greece.There are var ious and Obvious reasonswhich make a publicat ion of

this kind highly desirable in this country.”—The Chu rchman .

Good translat ions of the ancien t c lassws have a lways been a great

desideratum.

”—N . Y . Amen can .

T he publ icat ion deserves the most l iberal encouragement .” -N . Y .

It is truly one of themost valuable works that cou ld be presen ted tothe publ ic .

” -P rqvid ence American .

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ENGLISH SYNONYMES ; with copious Illustrations and Explanations drawn fromthe bestWriters.

By GEORGE CRABB, M.A. A n ew Edition , 8vo .

SThis valuable work is now used in several Colleges in the Un itedta tes.

T he impor tance of a knowledge of synonymes is very great—indeed ,indispensable to an accura te scholar ; yet the study ismuch neglected , asthe loose style ofmany of our best wr iters but too amply attests.

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York D ad y Adver t iser .

“ It deserves a place in every l ibrary, and on the table of every studen twho desires a correct knowledge of the Engl ish language.

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THE BOOK OF NAT URE ; being a popular Illust ration of the general Laws and Phenomena of

Creat ion , &c . By JOHN MASON GOOD , M .D . , F.R .S .

8vo . S ix th Ed it ion . To wh ich is prefixed the Lifeof the Au thor .

“ From a man of D r. Good’s acknowledged talen ts and learn ing, it is

natural to expect someth ing uncommon. Such expectat ionswill be fu llyrea lized in his Book of Nature.

’ We have read the work Withinterest and instruction . T he au thor possessed, in an emin en t deg ree,the happy talent of tracin g his subj ects from their elemen tary principlesto their sublime resu lts, and of in terspersing his lectures w ith pert inen tand in teresting anecdotes. N0 person who thirsts for knowled ge can readhis Book of Nature’ w ithout havin g hismind enr iched in the principlesof natura l philosophy far beyond he woul d have thought possible by abook of its size. It is a safe book for any person to read. T here is nskepticism in it .” -New-En g land Christian Hera ld.

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In 2 vols. 8vo . With a Por tra it .We do not know where the letters are to be foun d in any language

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”—Sou th . Review.

D OME ST IC D U T IE S ; o r In st r u c t io n s t o Ma r r iedLadies, on theManagement of their Household , and the Regu lat ion Oftheir Con duct in the various relations and du ties of Marr ied Life . ByMrs. WILLIAM PARK ES. Fifth Amer ican from the last LondonEdition , With Notes and Al terat ions adapted to the Amer ican Reader.In 1 vol. 12mo.

The volume before us is one Of those pract ical works, which are ofreal value and ut il ity . It is a perfect vademecum for the youngmarr iedlady, who may resort to it on all questions of household economy an d etiquette.

—T here is nothing omitted W ith wh ich it behooves a lady to beacquainted .

”—N ewMon thly Mag a zin e.

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T hiswork is calcu lated to arrest the atten t ion of those young marr iedladies who w ish to shine in the domestic c ircle .

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It is in Mrs. Sherwood ’s happiest mann er , and w il l rivet the atten t ion

of readers of unvi t ia ted taste of every age . We recommend i t as an excellen t and instructive book .

” —N ewYork Amer ican .

T he anthor h as acqu ired much celebri ty for her works of fancy, in

which she is always carefu l to mingle the usefu l Wi th the agreeable, andto ren der thewhole highly attract ive to the reader .

”—N ew York Even in gJou rn a l.

“ Mrs. Sherwoo’

d is wel l known as an agreeable wr iter of fiction . But

this is not the exten t of her character as an author ; she has an objectbeyond the mere amusement of her readers—to W it , the improvemen t ofthe mind

,by blendin g moral and religious instruct ion W ith in terest ing

tiarrat ive .

”—N ew York Con stella tion .

Mrs. Sherwood’s repu tat ion as an author is such that her n ame is a

Slifl'

lClel’

lt recommendation in the line of composition to which she has sosuccessfu lly and useful ly devoted her t ime and talen ts.

” —A tlas.

SIR EDWARD SEAWARD ’S NARRAT IVE of his

Shipwreck, and con sequen t Discovery of certain Islan ds inthe Caribbean Sea ; with 3.Detail ofmany extraordin ary an dhighly in terestin g Even ts in his Life , from the year 1 733 toto 1 749, as written in his own Diary. Edited byMissJANEPORTER . In 3 vols. 1 2mo .

T here is no finer picture in historical records or in poetry , of conjugalaffection strong in danger and in death , and un iformly tender and pious,than that of this affect ionate couple, as it is preserved in these plain and

old-fashioned,but g raphicmemoirs wh ich , for a t ime, at least , W il l ecl ipse

a ll the Voyag es Imag in air es,”not excepting even the admirable fiction

of D efoe .

”—Commercial Advertiser .

THE LIFE AN D DEATH OF LORD EDWARDFIT Z GERALD. By THOMAS Moons . In 2 vols. 1 2mo .

With a Portrait .Mr. Moore has acquitted himself creditably in the performan ce of th is

work .

” —Boston S tatesman .

T hese volumes are from the pen of the poet T homasMoore, and picture the eventful l ife of Lord Edward Fitzgeral d in such a manner thatall who haVe a sympathy for Oppressed Erin Wil l feel a strong desire togain a knowledge of these details.

”—Amer ican T raveller .

EVIDENCE OF THE TRUTH OF THE CHRIST IAN RELIGION, derived from the literal Fu lfilmen t of

Prophecy ; particu larly as illustrated by the History of the

Jews, an d by the D isoveries of recen t T ravellers. By theRev. ALEXAN D ER K EITH. From the sixthEdinbu rgh edition .

12mo .

R D 83