him. The fact is, people generally baptise their bant-1 "there is no government of words; and it is no statulings to suit themselves; unless some rich old nabob table offence to invent a felicitous or daring expression, neighbor expresses a desire to perpetuate his appella- unauthorized by Mr. Todd!" tion by handing it down to another generation, having no children of his own;-and such a suggestion is generally sufficient, I freely admit, to alter the case entirely. But we have to deal, in this inquiry, not with the names of persons, but with the titles of literary works. The 'Tatler,' the 'Spectator,' the 'Idler,' the 'Rambler,' the 'Lounger,' the 'Connoisseur,' were all thought strange titles when they first appeared: and many were the droll mistakes, to which the application of them to those admirable essays gave rise. A French translation of Johnson's "Rambler " ran thus: "Le Chevalier Errant,"-and a literary gentlemen of that country actually proposed the health of the illustrious author, in downright earnest good faith, as the Monsieur Vagabonde! We learn from the indefatigable D'Israeli, that affected titles to literary productions were quite common among both the Greeks and the Romans: who gave to them such appellations as 'Cornucopiæ, or the Horn of Abundance;' 'Limone, or the Meadow; 'Pinakidion, or the Tablet;' 'Pancarpe, or All-fruits;"&c. The same author also cites the quaint titles of some of the religious writers of modern times, to show that all ages have indulged in these freaks, with equal ingenuity of invention. Among these are mentioned "Matches, lighted at the divine fire :" "the Gun of Penitence:" the " Spiritual Apothecary, his shop:" ""Some fine Baskets, (?) baked in the Oven of Charity, carefully conserved for the Chickens of the Church, the Sparrows of the Spirit, and the sweet Swallows of Salvation:" "A Fan to drive away flies," &c. &c. But to come down to our own time. The Gentleman's Magazine has been published to the present day from a very early date, by the impersonal "Sylvanus Urban,”—a name selected, of course, for the purpose of conveying, at a glance, an idea of the true purpose of the publication, as at the same time devoted to the detail of town and country matters. Blackwood's Magazine, in like manner, rejoices in the editorial control of "Christopher North,"-whom may Heaven long spare to the literary world! In our own country, that admirable miscellany, Dennie's Port-Folio, was edited by "Oliver Oldschool;" and that rare hebdomadal, so brief yet so brilliant in its career, Irving's "Salmagundi," (a title which, perhaps, the critics of that day might have called "ridiculously far-fetched,") was under the editorial management of "Launcelot Langstaff, Esquire." The admirable Pickwick papers, and other works of the same inimitable writer, purport to emanate from the pen of "Boz,"--but I have never yet heard them much depreciated on that score. I look upon all this kind of neology, in the matter of titles and signatures to books, pamphlets, periodicals, and papers in magazines, Mr. Editor, as nothing more nor less than an ingenious device to attract the attention of the reader to the subjects of them; an innocent conceit of the author, for the indulgence of which he is not to be too harshly criticised. For my own case, I certainly cannot admit that it was so very "ridiculously far-fetched" to denominate a series of off-hand, desultory papers for a monthly magazine, upon any and every topic that might present itself to the mind of the writer, as he wrote, as I have denominated these articles addressed, my dear Editor, to you. As D'Israeli, the Elder, in his most valuable "Curiosities," well says: I derive "Currente-calamosities" from the two Latin words, "currente calamo," with a running pen,—(solely for the purpose of indicating the character of these papers,) just as "Johnsoniana," was derived for a similar purpose, in the English magazines, from Johnson, soon after he died: and just as our own newspapers derive the heading of a column of good things from the Louisville Journal, "Prentice ana," from the surname of their witty author. I do not expect Time will ever stamp the word with his authority, nor, to adopt the felicitous allusion of an author already cited, do I flatter myself that it will secure the public adoption; nor that, even after I am laid in my grave, I shall ever "enter the dictionary," with my new phrase! Still, for my present purpose, the designation of a monthly article in the Southern Literary Messenger, during the current year, I will uphold it to be “a good phrase, and very commendable." * Some of the allusions contained in the above defence of my title, have called to mind some more of those "Readings with my pencil," a number of numbers of which have already appeared in your pages. Those which now recur to me are some short epigrams, jeux d'esprit, epitaphs, &c., &c., chiefly gathered from those pyramids of embalmed literature, the magazines of years gone by. Some of these are worth exhuming, and to this task I will, with your permission, devote some portion of this paper.-This is quaint, though somewhat late in the day: "Art thou, my friend, so near the brink The following is an epitaph in St. Alban's Church Yard, in London. Tom must have been an odd-fellow, dead or alive. "Hic jacet, Tom Shorthose, sine tombe, sine sheets, sine riches, Jui vixit, sine gowne, sine cloake, sine shirt, sine breeches." Here is another, to be found in the same burial place. The challenge conveyed in the last four lines is inimitable, in its way. "Johnny Bell lyeth underneath this stane, I lived a' my days withouten sturt or strife, I had meet in my house, and was master o' my wife. Ye may tak this stane from my wame, The following contains a touching truth, conveyed in a figure of singular quaintness. It is inscribed on a stone at Frith in Denbighshire, and was written on the death of a youth. "Our life is but a winter's day, Others to dinner stay, and are full fed,- The following was written during the Revolutionary war, and was published in the Craftsman; a periodical then printed in London. It certainly contains a good deal of sense, as well as no small epigrammatic point. "We've fought some years to gain taxation,-- VOL. V.-28 Forty years ago, the practice of wreaking private vengeance, or of inflicting summary and illegal pun. ishment for crimes, actual or pretended, which has been glossed over by the name of Lynch's Law, was hardly known except in sparse, frontier settlements, beyond the reach of courts and legal proceedings. The first Bating the profanity, this Scotch epitaph has some point: example of it in my part of the country, was almost "Here lie I, Martin Elderbrod, Have mercy on my soul, Lord God! As I would do, were I but you, unanimously approved. It was exercised upon a man, accustomed, in frequent fits of inebriation, to beat his wife. Her three brothers, disguised as women, with The following, on the tomb-stone of a bustling little faces blackened, one dark night, took him from his own busy-body, is very neat: "Hic quiescit, qui nunquam quievit." Here is one, which is certainly anything but a flattering tribute to the departed: "Here he lies, besides a witch, In one of the oldest towns in the good old “baystate," is an ancient church-yard, enclosed contemporarily with the earliest settlement of the place and in that enclosure is the following pathetic tribute to the memory of a celebrated deacon of those parts. "Oh Rowley, Rowley! thou has sinned sore! door just after one of his outrages; carried him gagged and blindfold, to a neighboring wood; stripped him, tied him to a tree, and gave him a hundred lashes. All, save one, who heard of the deed, were loud in their praises—and I, with the rest. It operated like a charm, upon the brute of a husband. For some time, he was merely crest-fallen and sullen: but finding that he could fix only suspicion upon his mysterious execu tioners, and knowing that public opinion allowed him no hope of a successful suit or prosecution, he yielded to the assuaging influence of time and reflection. The discreet gentleness of his wife softened and re-won his heart: he became a pattern of sobriety and kindness. Still, there was one man, who would not approve. This was a sagacious old farmer and magistrate, who deserved to be, but was not, an oracle the county. From the very first, he shook his head at this infraction of the laws; and declared that it would But I must bring these extracts to a close; and, as the gested by debt. It is full of point, and far more witty "A copy of verses on Mr. Day, "Here Day and night conspired a sudden flight,- Day's passed and gone,---why, landlord, where's your rent? Day pawned and sold, and put off what he might, him, there were offences the law could not reach: sot- The old gentleman heard me patiently, and replied— 'Offences, the law cannot reach? Then amend the law, so that it will reach them. It has no defect, that may not be supplied by good, common-sense. Treat the sot like a lunatic, as he is. Put his property, and if need be his person, under a guardian: admit his wife's testimony for that purpose, as you do already when he does or threatens violence to her. Enact more effectual penalties, and better means of enforcing them, for transgression in all its forms. Provide sober, and more intelligent juries. Organize the courts, so that they may know their duties better, and perform them more steadily. Until all this be done, let us bear nuisances, which are the just penalty of our own supineLet us, every man, employ all the influence we possess, to get the needful amendments made: ard meantime, countenance no outrage on the laws-no taking of the law into private hands, to redress particu ness. lar griefs. Tolerate this in one case, and you authorize it in a thousand: and that is anarchy at once. Every man, though he may disapprove such violence in general, will single out some one or two offences which, he thinks, justify it; until this extraordinary and usurp ing jurisdiction, shoving aside the regular penal code, will embrace the whole circle of transgression. Mark me-you will see the rankest injustice done, under pretence of summary justice. You will see lawless men using it, to satiate their private enmities. Mark me, if you do not.' (These were his thoughts: and very nearly, his words.) and there mangled with innumerable stripes and bruises. His oppressors ended by telling him, that he should receive the like treatment again, unless he quitted the neighborhood in two weeks; and that then it would be repeated once a week, so long as he remained. Such was the respect which the old man's uniform propriety of deportment had inspired, that the vicinage was at once in a flame, as the news of this barbarity spread. His neighbors were eager to trace out its authors: and circumstances were not wanting, which produced a decided belief, and seemed to promise a judicial conviction, of their identity, and guilt. Their He left me unconvinced. I thought him timid, and victim, in the few words they uttered, recognized the overscrupulous. voices of three. He had offended one of them-a The practice of Lynch's Law' went on. For a contiguous landholder-by steadily refusing to sell him while, it was deemed by our chivalry, appropriate only his little tenement, which ran in, awkwardly, upon to drunken husbands, who maltreated their wives. that neighbor's ampler tract. Another was an idler, Then, it was held justly applicable to some gross in- who subsisted by hunting, fishing, and other, more decencies of life, which shocked the moral feelings of doubtful means; and who, having seduced the old society, but were not effectually grasped by the laws. man's only son into profligate habits that ended in his Next, it was employed against receivers of stolen fleeing the country,-had become, according to a goods, and petty thieves, whose rogueries, it was said, very old rule, the injured father's implacable enemy. could not be proved, though every body knew them-The third was a son of the first. This hopeful youth they were notorious. In all these cases I justified the and exemplary parent, by addressing each other as practice; though I confess, misgivings began to flitFather,' and 'Tom' at the scene of violence, conathwart my mind when I saw its frequency and vio-firmed the sufferer's assurance of their identity. His lence increase, and when I heard various persons, re-impressions were reinforced by those of a little boy, his spectable and influential, talk of applying it also to orphan grandchild, who slept in the same, only apartmisdeeds of many other descriptions. Nobody was for ment, of his lowly mansion: and who was quite sure it in all cases on the contrary, every man condemned of the voices, and persons, of the pair-for a few coals it, except as to a very few offences-seldom above two-flickered in the fire-place, diffusing a dim light. which he considered as peculiarly flagrant. One worthy citizen thought strolling gamblers ought to be thus dealt with; another, suspicious vagabonds of all sorts; another, horse thieves; a fourth, all thieves;—a fifth, drunkards who had wives; a sixth, common drunkards, whether they had wives or not; a seventh, inhuman masters; an eighth, persons who traded clandestinely with servants, encouraging them to steal. All these opinions were severely acted upon, in the course of three or four years: and from avowals made, it was evident that men were ready to do the like with respect to any misdemeanor, real or supposed, which the sharpened optics of excited feeling might discern, or mag-vorable to success in this vigilance. nify into crime. But of what use was the old, or the young negro's knowledge? The stern, though indispensable rule of our law, arising from a state of things not chargeable to us, sealed their lips, as witnesses against white men. This circumstance heightened to intensity the general eagerness of the surrounding country, to ferret out and bring to justice the perpetrators of the outrage. It gave to their guilt a deeper shade of cowardice and cruelty, which swelled public indignation to a pitch absolutely sublime. Every eye, ear, and mind, were on the alert for evidence: and there was a cool discretion, unusual in such excitements, which was highly fa I (the nearest lawyer) was consulted in the old man's I was not so bigoted as to doubt any longer, that behalf, by two of his respectable neighbors; who told my sagacious old farmer friend had been more than me what he and his grandson had seen and heard. I half right in his warning. Each successive, novel ap-asked if Dickson (the idler) could be depended on, to plication of usurped authority, startled me; but by two speak the truth, if examined as a witness against Smith instances, which occurred in my own county, and and his son ? 'No-and, besides, he'd quit the country where, almost beyond question, the usurpers had made at a word. He has nothing to keep him here-proinnocent men suffer to gratify personal malice,-I was perty nor character.' 'Would Thomas Smith tell the thoroughly roused. In those two cases, they had taken truth, on oath, against his father and Dickson?' 'Yes. their measures so cunningly, that no sufficient clew was There's good in that youngster. He's a wild, out-breakfound to convict them. It did not occur to the counseling fellow, and no doubt he thought he was acting quite consulted, that they might be compelled to bear witness right, with his father standing by to help him. But he against each other: and some of them were honorable would not swear to a lie.' enough to speak the truth, if they had been sworn. At length an outrage took place, which excited general indignation for many miles around. A free negro, sixty years old, whose life had been upright, decorous, and useful, was taken from his bed one night by five men, who broke open his door for the purpose. He was put into a large bag, which was tied over his head: thus confined, he was carried to a retired place hard by; I therefore counselled at once a suit for damages, and a criminal prosecution, against the father (Smith), and Dickson: provided any material testimony could be obtained in addition to that of young Smith--upon whom, alone, it did not appear quite safe to rely. I urged the importance of trying to find out the two unknown assailants-and of strict secresy as to our views and plans. The unknown were soon discovered. They had [lumnious pretext for it, and for the outrage. In crossdropped hints of their intending, before long, to 'regu-examining our witnesses, and by some evidence on his late old Jerry Jackson,' who, they said, had been steal- own side, his counsel endeavored to elicit proof of the ing corn from Mr. Smith. And, about an hour before thefts, and encouragements to theft, which he had imthe violence, they had been seen going that way, by puted to the plaintiff. The court interfered, to stop one of the neighbors, whom they told, that they were any such testimony; saying, that be the plaintiff ever going to help Mr. Smith find some stolen goods. Amid so guilty, there were Laws which Smith should have the hubbub which shook the vicinage, they were singu- invoked, and not have taken justice into his own hands: larly unconcerned; showed no surprise on hearing the that therefore, such guilt was no justification for him, particulars; and cast furtive, knowing glances at each and no evidence of it could be heard. But we waived other, when the wonder went round, who could have all objection to such proof, if it existed; and set the done it?'--They were a couple of low bucks, named door of inquiry wide open,-daring the other party to Rakewell; intimate at Mr. Smith's, and fond of any enter, and prove whatever they could. All their siftthing like a frolick, or an adventure. They would notings, however, produced not the slightest ground of (1 verily believe) have engaged in this cowardly as sault, but for their confidence in what Mr. Smith saidthat he lost 100 bushels of grain every year, by that old rogue, and harborer of rogues, Jerry Jackson. This notable speech he had been heard to make in their presence, very soon after Jackson's refusal to sell his piece of ground. Various persons recollected also, that Smith had shown deep exasperation at that refusal; and had sworn, that if he did not get the place, the old rascal should find it too hot for himself. All his complaints of stolen grain were after this. suspicion against the negro. The argument came next. My associate, a young man of seven and twenty, opened it in a style of uncommon eloquence and power. He was answered by the two defending counsel.-I closed. It is not difficult to imagine the topics of argument, on both sides. We pourtrayed the old man's life-humble, peaceful, honest, respected: the leading astray and ruin of his only son, by one of the defendants: the attempt to blast his character, by the other: the midnight irruption into his cottage home, and the laceration of his person, by both! All, aggravated tenfold, by his condi tion--inferior, solitary, aged, every way defenceless! We exhibited the lengths to which illegal violences of the kind had gradually gone, from small and even good beginnings: the danger lest, if tolerated in cases of the plainest guilt, they should be abusively employed where there was no guilt: the necessity, therefore, of arresting them by signal penalties, even when they seemed warranted by crime in the sufferers-much more, where innocence had been oppressed, under a most foul and false pretence of guilt, to gratify These facts appearing sufficient, the suit was instituted; an action of trespass, assault and battery-laying the damages at 5000 dollars; in the then 'District Court,'-nearly corresponding to the present Circuit Court. At the next term of the same court, indictments were found by the grand jury against Smith, his son, and Dickson, upon the foregoing evidence. Writs were awarded to arrest the three indicted parties, and compel them, either by confinement in prison, or by finding sureties [bail], to appear, answer the indictments, and abide the final decision. The witnesses also, for the commonwealth, were recognized to attend and testify.-As to the civil action, we could only sub-personal hatred and cupidity. We did not omit to pœna them. I spare the reader a detail of the preparations for trial. By some odd casualty, such as often happens in our courts, to delay and disarrange their business, the civil suit came on to be tried before the indictments. It was against the elder Smith, and Dickson; Tom not being sued, because we designed to use him as a witness in the civil action. The jury being sworn, I opened the case for the negro, with a rapid and warm recital of the facts by which he had been aggrieved. An eminent counsel on the other side, followed, with a statement of the points relied upon for defence. Then, the witnesses were called. To the evidence of Thomas Smith and the two Rakewells, the defending counsel objected; on the ground that they, being accomplices in the assault (if any had been committed), were inadmissible as witnesses for the plaintiff. Here too, I forbear a detail of the points we made in discussing this important question, though I recollect them more distinctly than events of yesterday, and my spirit is roused by them, as that of an old war-horse by a trumpet-call.-The court overruled the objection; deciding that joint-trespassers, at least when not sued jointly, might be witnesses against each other. The proof was full and conclusive-of the outrage, in all its particulars; of the previous threats of Smith; of the real incentive to his displeasure; and of his ca urge the sacred, imperious duty, of spreading the shield of public justice peculiarly over the class to which our client belonged: a class debarred, by the necessary strictness of our laws, from one of the most important means of self-protection against outrage, and therefore entitled, when trampled upon, to have all the energies of the whole community animated and eager for redress. The adversary counsel made the best of their cause. They could no longer deny the outrage: they could only palliate it, and attempt to mitigate the damages. The suspicions of Smith, naturally excited by his loss of corn-the irritation of Dickson, at having been contumeliously termed by the old man an unfit associate for his son, a negro-the necessity, if there was theft, of its being punished in this way, for want of judicial proof-these, and similar topics were pressed with such boldness, eloquence, and plausibility, that some of the jury really seemed for a while staggered. A little time, however, and counter discussion, showed their fallacy, and converted them into additional causes of indignation. The verdict was for 2000 dollars damages: the jury intending, as one of them said, to give half of Smith's estate to Jackson and the commonwealth. When the indictments were tried, juries fined S. 300, his son 50, and Dickson 50 dollars. The court sentenced each of them to three months' imprisonment. This severe rebuke, and the attendant circumstances, repealed 'Lynch's Law' in that part of the country. The immense throng who witnessed the trials, and the far greater numbers who heard of the facts, seemed to perceive, as if written with sun beams, the liability of that dreadful code to insufferable abuse. Its origin, growth, and natural consummation, were obvious to every startled mind: all saw, and wondered they had not seen before, that if allowed in any case, however apparently flagrant, it would at length be used where nothing but weakness was on one side, and bad pas sions on the other. It was near the time of my retirement from the Bar, before any renewal of such violences met my knowledge. They then began, very much as before: they have multiplied by like degrees: and no doubt they will grow more frequent and more atrocious, until either the Legislature and the courts do their duty, or till some deed, too high-handed and shocking to be winked at, shall once more rouse a feeling, which may again suspend (not abolish) the perpetually reviving mischief. The efforts of counsel, supported by facts more eloquent than any tongue, may cure for a time, and through a certain district: but it is the LAWGIVER, alone, who can eradicate the disease, utterly and forever, from the whole body politic. Let HIM, (as my early adviser, the sagacious farmer, said) enact more effective penalties for transgression, and provide better means of enforcing them: have juries more sober, intelligent, and respectable: so constitute the inferior tribunals, that they may know and perform their duties better: and (I add), as a measure of prevention perhaps equal to all other measures,--send the schoolmaster more widely and thoroughly abroad among the people; so that ONE FOURTH of them may no longer be qualified by ignorance to be nothing but brutes and law-breakers. JAMES MCDOWELL, ESQ. OF ROCKBRIDGE COUNTY, VIRGINIA. We have been favored by the publisher, John Bogart, Esq. of Princeton, with a copy of the "Address delivered before the Alumni Association of the college of New-Jersey, Sept. 26, 1838," by the distinguished individual whose name is prefixed to these lines. Mr. McDowell is well known in Virginia, as a gentleman of literary attainments and an eloquent speaker; and the address before us will not have the effect of dimin ishing his high reputation. It is true, that we do not consider his style in composition as perfect, or altogether a safe model for imitation by younger men; but its very faults are occasioned by the exuberance of his genius and the splendor of his imagination. If some might complain of the superabundant foliage which is spread before us, none could be dissatisfied with the rich and precious fruit which always accompanies it. We regret, that our limits will not permit us to present a critical analysis of the address, or to make copious selections from its pages. It is not easy to commend particular passages, where there is so much equality of beauty throughout, and so rapid a succession of brilliant thoughts and wholesome precepts, clothed in eloquent language. We cannot forbear extracting, however, the following forcible and beautiful appeal to those of his hearers, who were about to receive the "spur and belt of college knighthood," and to go forth upon the labors of life: "To you who have just received the ceremonial seal, which closes your connection with the college, and which accredits you with honorable testimony to the world, this hour, glad as it is in the exulting sense of independence which it inspires, is the beginning one of more anxious and solemn consequence than any other that has opened upon you. It is an hour which advances you to undertakings and duties which, whether considered in reference to mind or character, outmeasure by far, in complication and importance, any other to which you have yet been called. The gown, with all the responsibilities and obligations of manhood, is taken to day. The rubicon of youth is passed, and is now behind you: the battle of life stands ready before. The quiet harbor, where you have been ministered to for years in gentleness and peace, is now quit, and you are launched upon the wave of the wide sea, where your pilotage and success must be such as heaven and your own good heart shall supply. At this moment, which is always one of rejoicing, follow what may, when the restraints of impatient pupilage are taken away, and the heart leaps forward to busy life as to a revel and a feast; at this moment, to read you over the lessons of a grey and care-worn experience is, in some sort you may think, to exhibit anew the mystic hands and the mystic words upon the wall, the skeleton finger and the boding motto, calling up only images of gloom unseasonably to dim the ruby of your cup, unkindly to check the joy of your banquet. Rather imagine that as you are no Belshazzars to tremble at prophetic revealings, and I no sage or seer to announce them, that some words not of gloom, but of soberness and truth, may even now be spoken which may benefit and aid you when this festal hour shall have gone. So presuming, let it be said, that if you would acquire firmness, elevation and weight of character at the very outset in life, if you would impart to the mind the whole of that consistency and vigor of which it is susceptible, and would crown all these virtues by reputation and by profit, then choose at once the profession or pursuit to which you intend to be attached, and embody all your energies in preparation for it. Choose can. didly, upon thorough examination of yourself, but choose promptly. Decline to do so, loiter away a year or two of the most precious period of your lives in the vain and voluntary self-delusion that you are wisely exercising your judgment with observation and reading and facts, that you may decide at |