administration, by arraigning all its acts, without knowing on what ground or with what information

it proceeds?"

tem was adopted, and there is no doubt that there is no doubt, mean well, but know little of the it received the sanction of Washington both real plan), purposely to sow among the people the in his private judgment and public capacity destroying all confidence in the administration of seeds of jealousy and distrust of the government, by War with the Indians, of a most expensive it, and that these doctrines have been budding and and protracted character, soon became inevi- blowing ever since, is not new to any one who is table, but was undertaken with deep regret acquainted with the character of their leaders and has been attentive to their manœuvres. Can any by Washington. A national bank, something be more absurd, more arrogant, or more per. what famous in modern days, not to use a nicious to the peace of society, than for self-created worse epithet, was commenced, and taxes bodies [Read this, Precursors and Repealers!] formwere laid on ardent spirits distilled in the ing themselves into permanent censors, and, under States. In all the above measures Hamilton the shade of night, in a conclave, resolving that acts of Congress, which have undergone the most de is to be looked upon as the great mover, liberate and solemn discussion by the representasince they were nearly all opposed by Jeffer- tives of the people, chosen for the express purpose, son. Between him and Hamilton differences and bringing with them from the different parts of of a nature wholly irreconcilable soon oc- the Union the sense of their constituents, endea curred. The next great measure was the Vouring, as far as the nature of the thing will ad. mit, to form their will into laws for the government regulation of the number of electors to each of the whole; I say, under these circumstances, member of congress, and after some discus- for a self-created body (for no one denies the right sion, and one bill being thrown out on the of the people to meet occasionally to petition for or authority of Washington alone, it was fixed remonstrate against any act of the legislature) to declare that this act is unconstitutional, and that at the ratio of one member to 33,000 elec- act is pregnant with mischiefs, and that all who tors. These measures being achieved, vote contrary to their dogmas, are actuated by selWashington's first presidency of four years fish motives, or under foreign influence, nay, are terminated. But the unsettled state of the traitors to their country? Is such a stretch of arrogant presumption to be reconciled with laudapublic mind induced Jefferson, Hamilton, ble motives, especially when we see the same set of and Randolph, all to concur in representa- men endeavouring to destroy all confidence in the tions to Washington of the immense importance of his re-election. He had prepared a farewell address, and obviously designed to quit office for ever. He accepted it, however, in consequence of the judgment of his friends, who united in one common sentiment as to the expediency of his retention of office. War ensued at this period between France and England. America decided on a strict neutrality. But for this "Demagogues are the natural fruit of republics, measure, probably, however it may be brand. and the fabled Upas could not be more poisonous ed by the democrats, the political existence Envious of his superiors, panting for honours which or desolating to the soil from which it springs. of America had terminated, save as matter he is conscious he can never deserve, endowed with of history. Hence arose the two great par- no higher faculties than cunning and an impudent ties of America, the Federalists and the hardihood, reckless of consequences, and grovelling Democrats. The French ambassador at alike in spirit and motive, the demagogue seeks first to cajole the people, then to corrupt, and last this time, Mr. Genet, fitted out privateers of all to betray and ruin them. When he has under the American flag for reprisals upon brought down the high to a level with himself, and England, a circumstance which drew down depressed the low till they are pliant to his will, his the remonstrance of Great Britain. These work is achieved. The treachery of a Catiline or proceedings were forcibly suppressed by the and crushed in its infancy; but the demagogue, Borgia may be detected by a fortunate accident President. Genet lost all command over under his panoply of falsehood and chicane, may himself, accused the President of usurping gradually sap the foundations of social order, and the powers of Congress, and talked of an appeal to the people. Particulars of all these matters were drawn up and forwarded to the French government, with a request that they would recall their ambassador. The British cruisers also, as well as the Genet, however, was the cause of the forma- French, at this period, were considered as vi. tion of associations, the curse of any land-olating the neutrality observed by America, in democratic societies, in imitation of the Jaco-seizing vessels bound to any French port and bin clubs of France. Their object and in-sending them to some convenient port where fluence are thus described by Washington. the cargoes might be purchased. This laid the foundation for the American navy, and a

Our author, though a republican, does not appear to hold the democratic party in high estimation. We extract, for the benefit of Mr. O'Connell, his description of this pest of nations.

his country may be left with no other recompense for the ruin he has wrought, and the misery he has caused, than the poor consolation of execrating his

name."

"That these societies were instituted by the art- system of maritime defence became absoluteful and designing members (many of their body, ly necessary. An ambassador, Mr. Jay,

and though earnest remonstrances were made that he would still continue his public services, he was now fully determined to retire from public life. His farewell address was published six months before his term of

cans as unrivalled in soundness of views, wisdom of policy, and benevolence of intention. If the composition is to be ascribed to Hamilton, there can be no doubt that the strong sense it embodied is to be traced to the clear mind of Washington. It was incorporated into the laws of most of the States, both from affection to the author and admiration of its contents. His last words to Congress were as follows:

"The situation in which I row stand for the last time in the midst of the representatives of the people of the United States, naturally recalls the period when the administration of the present form of government commenced; and I cannot omit the occasion to congratulate you and my country on the success of the experiment, nor to repeat my fervent supplications to the Supreme Ruler and Sove. reign Arbiter of nations that His providential care may still be extended to the United States; that the virtue and happiness of the people may still be preserved; and that the government which they have instituted for the protection of their liberties may be perpetual."

was despatched at this period to arrange all existing differences with Great Britain, and active preparations for war were carried on, to be ready in the event of the failure of the negotiation. Great Britain had, since the establishment of the constitution, sent an en-office had expired. It is regarded by Amerivoy to the United States. Mr. Jay negotiated the treaty, and it arrived in America in March, 1795. Washington, after a minute examination, determined on its acceptance. The constitution provided that all treaties should be ratified by the senate and the president. He summoned that body in consequence, and laid before them the draft. Violent discussions ensued on the subject, but the treaty was assented to by a constitutional majority, and Washington signed it as president; and to the ratification on the part of the senate, which made one exception only, assent was given by the British government. The great points urged by the opponents of the treaty, and reported by them to have been neglected, were, the imprisonment of seamen, neutral rights, and colonial trade, which, as our author says, "have never yet been settled, and are never likely to be settled satisfactorily while England maintains the ascendency she now holds on the ocean." But popular excitement was not yet at an end. When the treaty was presented to Congress His administration has never been equalas ratified by the British government, a led by succeeding presidents. Credit was large majority of the members requested the restored, the national debt secured, and president to lay before the house the instruc- means for its ultimate payment provided; tions of Mr. Jay, and other memoranda con- commerce prodigiously increased; tonnage nected with this proceeding. Washington in American ports doubled; imports and exknew that by the constitution the power to ports both augmented; a larger revenue form treaties rested simply in the chief ma- produced than had been calculated on; the gistrate and the senate, and he considered Indian War terminated; foreign treaties, all this attempt of the representatives as an en- honourable and advantageous to American croachment on that power. However sus interests, ratified. Even the election of his picion might dog his conduct, Washington successor, Adams, a federalist, like himself, determined on doing his constitutional duty, proved the magic of the name and measures and he refused to furnish the required docu- of Washington. He retired to his beloved ments. He gave, however, reasons for his Mount Vernon, but he was not even then to refusal, and powerful and energetic were his bid adieu, even at sixty-five, to the arduous remonstrances. He said the power of mak-duties that unquestionable ability entails on ing treaties rested exclusively in the presi- its possessor, he was fated to die

dent, with the consent of the senate; that, as a member of convention, he knew this was the impression of the founders of the consti tution; this construction, he urged, had hitherto been embraced by the representatives, and also that resistance to a novel principle in the state was equally the duty of the president and every well-wisher to the constitution. He further pointed out the vacillating policy that must result from the change, and the want of confidence in the ratification of treaties that must ensue. After violent debates, a majority of the representatives passed the treaty. The termination of Washington's second presidency now approached,

"Like a warrior taking his rest,

With his martial cloak around him."

An open rupture with France appeared at hand. France herself being in a state of revolution, and disposed to violate wantonly, every moral, social, religious, and political principle. The instant war appeared necessary all eyes were turned on Washington. Hamilton immediately wrote to him to apprize him of the sacrifice that he would again be compelled to make, and a letter from the president Adams intimated to him their intentions: "We must have your name if you will permit us to use it. There

will be more efficiency in it than in many an as singularly fortunate, that he should have army." Before receiving any reply, the experienced a lot which so seldom falls to the president had nominated him commander- portion of humanity, and have passed in-chief of the armies of the United States. through such a variety of scenes without It was unanimously confirmed on the 3d stain and without reproach. It must indeed July, 1798. From this time to the close of create astonishment that placed in circumexistence, Washington busied himself in mi- stances so critical, and filling for a series of litary matters, and in supplying from his years a station so conspicuous, his character veteran experience information to his raw should never have been called in question; recruits. France, however, never seriously-that he should, in no one instance, have contemplated the invasion of America from the instant she saw the nation bestirring her. self. Buonaparte then came into power, and settled all matters with America amicably.

been accused either of improper insolence or of mean submission in his transactions with foreign nations. To him it was reserved to run the race of glory without experiencing the smallest interruption to the brilliancy of his career."

Erskine wrote to Washington as follows:

"I have taken the liberty to introduce your au. gust and immortal name in a short sentence, which will be found in the book I send you. I have a large acquaintance among the most valuable and exalted class of men; but you are the only human being for whom I have felt an awful reverence. I sincerely pray God to grant a long and serene even. ing to a life so gloriously devoted to the universal happiness of the world."

Washington certainly combined materials that wonderfully fitted him for the position he had to occupy. As a leader he appears

This adjustment of differences, however, Washington never lived to witness, dying in command of the army destined to operate against her ancient allies. On the 12th Dec., 1799, he had ridden round his farms as usual, and returned late in the afternoon, wet and cold from the rain and sleet. The waters had penetrated through his clothing to his neck. A sore throat and hoarseness on the next day soon gave evidence that he had taken cold. He did not seem to apprehend any danger, passed the evening with his family, and after some pleasant converse retired to bed. He was seized in the night with ague, and on Saturday, the 14th, his breath and speech became impaired. One calm, calculating, brave as his own sword, of his overseers bled him at his request, and yet free from the general accompaniment of a messenger was sent to his friend, Dr. Craik, personal bravery-reckless hardihood. It who lived ten miles off. Dr. Craik and two is possible that all this might not have told other physicians arrived on that day. Their in a wider scene of action, and his mind cerunited efforts proved useless. Towards tainly does not seem to have possessed so evening he said to Dr. Craik, "I die hard, much reach as many men of inferior note but I am not afraid to die. I believed from have shown; but nature had well mixed inmy first attack that I should not survive it. gredients in her cauldron when he was My breath cannot last long." He thanked formed, and, taken in a whole, his powers the physicians for their kindness, and re- must be considered large. As a writer his quested them to give themselves no further style is greatly defective in succinctness and trouble, but to let him die quietly. He kept elegance, and coherence of sentences; but a sinking gradually, and almost the instant be- fine broad line of common sense and judifore dissolution felt his own pulse. His cious reasoning is discernible throughout all countenance then underwent a change. His he wrote. There are strong affinities of hand dropped from his wrist, and he expir- character and disposition between him and ed. His country paid to his memory,-all Scott; yet was he neither imaginative nor that then remained to her of her Washing- loyal, like that distinguished writer. Still, in ton-every possible tribute of gratitude and the gentle placidity of their natures, there is affection. France, then a republic also, a wondrous resemblance. They did not paid due honours to the republican chief; and England, as far as the example of Lord Bridport, then commanding the fleet, may be given in proof, tendered a sincerer tribute still, by lowering her flag half-mast on the news of Washington's decease. He had commanded during life the applause of many distinguished men, Fox and Erskine may be adduced among others. The former said of him, "Notwithstanding his extraordinary talent and exalted integrity, it must be considered

think alike on many subjects, save on the immutable forms of moral law, on which they were both agreed, and of which they were punctually observant. Probably the Bard of Cavaliers might not have considered this comparison complimentary, but a resemblance there is both in habits and intellect, and piety. On this latter point we think it fitting to say a few words. Washington, never appears, in the latter years of his life, to have taken the sacrament of the Lord's

Supper, though a constant attendant at church, and always advocating the cause of religion. We are inclined to think that he was rather a latitudinarian in his religious notions; since it is difficult to conceive a churchman, when dying, not outwardly testifying his faith, and uttering prayers for his soul.

we are happy to learn, has been extremely successful in America. It is stereotyped, and more than 6,000 complete sets have been already sold. It is still selling with considerable briskness in the Southern and Western States, where literature permeates with slower course than in those bordering on the Atlantic, by reason of the distance from Boston, the place of publication, and the difficulties of conveyance. In the re

Possibly the character of Washington led him to much internal musing and inward untraced supplication of God. His charac-maining eleven volumes Mr. Sparks has ter possessed great moral goodness, his life was free from reproach, and his external devotions were constant. Still it is difficult to reconcile such a death with the holy and ennobling hopes of Christianity. Some. thing of such a system, if held deep at the heart, must have evinced itself. We do not say this reproach fully over the warrior's bier, but to us it would have been most satisfactory, and to the world more strongly evidential of a firm indwelling hope, had there been even a slight development of the holy bodements of futurity. Still, in the duties of his public station, in his charity to the poor, in the constant ascription of all his successes to the Divine Being, in the offices of son, husband, and brother, in his warm and generous friendship to his military associates, and especially La Fayette, in his love to his country, there are no points of reproach, but in all these offices he appears to merit the highest commendation. "Non omnia possumus omnes."

In this combination of qualities is to be found the power of Washington. On him we conclude our remarks, in the language of his latest biographer.

"It is the harmonious union of the intellectual and moral powers, rather than the splendour of any one trait which constitutes the grandeur of his character. If the title of great man ought to be reserved for him who cannot be charged with an indiscretion or a vice, who spent his life in establishing the independence, the glory, and durable prosperity of his country, who succeeded in all that he undertook, and whose successes were never won at the expense of honour, justice, integrity, or by the sacrifice of a single principle, this title will not be denied to Washington."

The laborious and accurate work, to which the life we have reviewed, is prefixed,

adopted an arrangement of his multifarious materials into five parts; the first embrac ing official letters relating to the French War, and private correspondence before the American Revolution, from 1754 to 1775, two volumes; second, correspondence and miscellaneous papers relating to the American Revolution, from June, 1775 to 1783, six volumes; third, private letters from the time Washington resigned his commission as commander-in-chief of the army to his first presidency, from 1783 to 1789, one volume; fourth, letters official and private from the beginning of his presidency to the end of his life, from 1789 to 1794, two volumes; fifth, speeches and messages to Congress, proclamations and addresses, one volume; laborious indices follow. If Washington has not found a Homer to give to actual exploits ideal glory, he has at least obtained a faithful and affectionate biographer, who has given him to the world as he was, and few are the spirits that could have so well withstood its scrutiny, or have less needed fiction to embellish them. Whether we look on the private correspondence or the public documents of Washington, he appears (reserving the question of his allegiance to the British Crown) to merit equally the position he attained. To his biographer it must have been deeply gratifying to trace in his writings "no line which, dying, he might wish to blot ;" in his actions no moral intemperance to be extenuated or defended by the force of circumstances; but a sin. gular faultlessness, a wondrous freedom from all the vices that have stained, degraded, and dimmed the lustre of many a helmed chief, many a crowned king, and many a mitred sovereign.

CRITICAL SKETCHES

OF RECENT CONTINENTAL PUBLICATIONS.

ART. IX.-Les Barbares, Byzance et Rome, Latin, and Byzantine habits naturally inpar Christian Müller, Dr. (Barbarians, duced Theodoric to infuse some portion of Byzantium and Rome, by Dr. Müller.) Greek science and literature among his Geneva, 1839.

people; and while the Goths occupied Italy it was very differently circumstanced to THE work before us contains a most inge- what it afterwards became under the sole nious and beautiful statement of the oriental sway of the cultivated but effeminate Byzan. origin of the German nation. It is written tines. In effect, the mythology of the in a spirit of fair inquiry, and well calcu- Goths must have possessed great influence lated, from the multiplicity of topics em- over the passions of a barbarous age-and braced in it, to reward amply the time con- how cold does the semi-philosophic legend sumed on the interesting work. By various of Greece look by its side! The Goth and singular stages of induction the author con- the Greek had each his superstition, but the trives to establish abundantly the Indo-Ger- striking boldness of outline of the first, in all manic origin. Language, mythology, com. its pure orientalism, before men philosomon rites, customs, and etymons, are all phized on the ancient legend, or Socrates called to his aid, and when adduced are and Plato had ennobled mythology by makgenerally conclusive. The word German ing it speak out with more than the words he conceives to be of Roman origin, from of the maddened Pythoness, with some infuGermanus, brother, and to have relation to sion of the super-sensuous, must have had the wild and careless freedom of the early wondrous charms for the wild and singular tribes who, in independent clanship, ac- people among whom it had flourished in knowledged no superior. His etymon of their own clime, and been transplanted Wehrman, or Herman, from which the thence in their seulement in the land of the Roman name Arminius is derived, together conquered stranger. Valda, the Valkyrs, with the Persian Irman, implying a brother Elfs, Undines, Dwarfs, Giants, Odin, Thor, in arms, are all evident marks of common the Intermediate State, the mysterious origin in some primitive tongue. He is here Hölle, the abode of Balder, all these were quite at issue with the celebrated Lipsius, sung before Theodoric and his chiefs, and who derived the word Germanus from gerra, the bold Goths preferred the rough min. war, war-man. Equally singular and strik- strelsy of the Scald, embodying, as it did, ing, it must be owned, is the analogy be- their earliest associations, to the more potween runah, the Arabic for magic, and lished tones of a music, however fine, still Runes. But though apparent traces exist less free than the wild and bold descant that of tribes springing near the ancient Getæ, the harp of the north rung forth. The most and the Goths being one and the same na- celebrated version of the Bible also, it must tion, yet does the character of the people be remembered, the most glorious literary vary extremely, for the Goths, however we monument of the time, the version of Ulfilas, may feel inclined to the contrary opinion, from the early misapplication of the words * Ulfilas took the ancient alphabet and the Ru Goth and Barbarian as synonymous, cer- nic letters for this version, and by this means suc tainly did not injure, to any extent, the ceeded in getting his work into a shape in which monuments of ancient Rome, if we give the Goths could read it. By the translation he made an immense step towards the civilisation of credit to Orosius. Theodoric the Goth, his people. It is the noblest monument of the Boethius and Cassiodorus, we well know, Teuton extant, and the first writing of the middle used their united efforts to teach Gothic and ages. The university of Upsal preserves the frag