tives, personal and selfish as they in some sense were, coincided with what a more enlightened conscience would have felt to be duty. Thus his proconsulate is perhaps the purest and most honorable passage in his life. His strict and rare probity amidst the temptations of office arrests our attention and extorts our praise: yet assuredly Cicero had no nice sense of honor, and was

Catilina he displayed all the moral confidence of a veteran general: in the struggle with Antonius he threw himself without reserve into a position where there was no alternative but to conquer or to perish. In the earlier conflict he had still his fame to acquire, his proud ascendency to establish; and the love of praise and glory inspired him with the audacity which makes and justifies its own success. But in the later, he courted dan-controlled by no delicacy of sentiment, where pub ger for the sake of retaining the fame he so dear- lic opinion was silent, or a transaction strictly prily prized. He had once saved his country, and vate. His courting his ward Publilia for her he could not endure that it should be said he had dower, his caressing Dolabella for the sake of getever deserted it. He loved his country; but it ting his debt paid, his soliciting the historian Lucwas for his own honor, which he could preserve, ceius to color and exaggerate the merits of his rather than for his country's freedom, which he consulship, display a grievous want of magnanimdespaired of, that he returned to his post when ity and of a predominant sense of right. Fortuescape was still possible. He might have remain-nately his instinet taught him to see in the constied silent, but he opened the floodgates of his elo-tution of the republic the fairest field for the disquence. When indeed he had once launched him- play of his peculiar talents; the orator and the self on the torrent he lost all self-command; he pleader could not fail to love the arena on which could neither retrace nor moderate his career; he the greatest triumph of his genius had been or saw the rocks before him, but he dashed himself were yet, as he hoped, to be acquired. Aud Ciheadlong against them. But another grave au- cero indeed was not less ambitious than Cæsar or thority has given us the judgment of antiquity, Pompeius, Antonius or Octavius. To the pursuit that Cicero's defect was the want of steadfastness. of fame he sacrificed many interests and friendHis courage had no dignity because it lacked con- ships. He was not less jealous of a rival in his sistency. All men and all parties agreed that he chosen career than any of the leaders of party and could not be relied upon to lead, to co-operate, or candidates for popular favor. He could not ento follow. In all the great enterprises of his party, dure competition for the throne of eloquence and he was left behind, except that which the nobles the sceptre of persuasion. It was on this account undertook against Catilina, in which they rather perhaps that he sought his associates among the thrust him before them than engaged with him on young, from whose rivalry he had nothing to fear, terms of mutual support. When we read the ve- rather than from his own contemporaries, the canhement claims which Cicero put forth to the honor didates for the same prize of public admiration of association, however tardy, with the glories and which he aimed at securing for himself. From his dangers of Cæsar's assassins, we should deem the pages there flows an incessant stream of abuse of conspirators guilty of a monstrous oversight in all the great masters of political power in his having neglected to enlist him in their design, were time; of Caesar and Pompeius; of Crassus and we not assured that he was not to be trusted as a Antonius, not to mention his coarse vituperation confederate either for good or for evil. of Piso and Gabinius, and his uneasy sneers at the

tone which his disparagement assumes towards these men respectively. He speaks of Cæsar with awe, of Pompeius with mortification, with dislike of Crassus, with bitter malice of Antonius. Cæsar, even when he most deeply reprobates him, he personally loves; the cold distrust of Pompeius vexes his self-esteem; between him and Crassus there subsists a natural antipathy of temperament: but Antonius, the hate of his old age, becomes to him the incarnation of all the evil his long and bitter experience of mankind have discovered in the human heart. While we suspect Cicero of injustice towards the great men of his day, we are bound also to specify the gross dishonesty with which he magnifies his own merits where they are trivial, and embellishes them where they are really important. The perpetual recurrence to the topic of his own political deserts must have wearied the most patient of friends, and more than balanced the display of sordidness and time-serving which Atticus doubtless reflected back in his share of the correspondence between them.

"Of all the characters of antiquity Cicero is un-impracticable Cato. We may note the different doubtedly that with which we are most intimately acquainted; for he alone has left to us the record of his thoughts and actions for more than half his public career in a voluminous mass of familiar as well as political correspondence. No public character probably could pass unscathed through the fiery ordeal to which he has thus subjected himself. Cicero, it must be avowed, is convicted from his own mouth of vanity, inconstancy, sordidness, jealousy, malice, selfishness, and timidity. But on the other hand no character, public or private, could thus bare its workings to our view without laying a stronger claim to our sympathy, and extorting from us more kindly consideration than we can give to the mere shell of the human being with which ordinary history brings us in contact. Cicero gains more than he loses by the confessions he pours into our ear. We read in his letters what we should vainly search for in the meagre pages of Sallust and Appian, in the captious criticism of Dion, and even in the pleasant anecdotes of his friendly biographer Plutarch, his amiableness, his refined urbanity, his admiration for excellence, his thirst for fame, his love of truth, equity, and reason. Much indeed of the patrioti-m, the honesty, the moral courage he exhibited, was really no other than the refined ambition of attaining the respect of his contemporaries and bequeathing a name to posterity. He might not act from a sense of duty, like Cato, but his mo

"But while Cicero stands justly charged with many grave infirmities of temper and defects of principle, while we remark with a sigh the vanity, the inconstancy, and the ingratitude he so often manifested, while we lament his ignoble subserviencies and his ferocious resentments, the high standard by which we claim to judge him is in itself the fullest acknowledgment of his transcend

ent merits. For undoubtedly had he not placed Thiers; England her Mitford, Arnold, Thirlhimself on a higher moral level than the states- wall, Grote, Napier, Hallam, Mackintosh, men and sages of his day, we should pass over Macaulay, Palgrave, and Malion; and we many of his weaknesses in silence, and allow his have ourselves the noble names of Bancroft, pretensions to our esteem to pass almost unchal- Prescott, and Irving, to send to the next ages. lenged. But we demand a nearer approach to Of the English authors we have mentioned, the perfection of human wisdom and virtue in one who sought to approve himself the greatest of we regard Lord Mahon as in many respects their teachers. Nor need we scruple to admit that the first; Hallam is a laborious and wise crithe judgment of the ancients on Cicero was for the tic; Thirlwall and Grote, in their province, most part unfavorable. The moralists of antiqui- have greatly increased the fame of British ty required in their heroes virtues with which we scholarship; and Macaulay, brilliant and piccan more readily dispense: and they too had less turesque beyond any of his contemporaries, sympathy with many qualities which a purer re- has an unprecedented popularity, which will ligion and a wider experience have taught us to last until the worthlessness of his opinions love and admire. Nor were they capable, from and the viciousness of his style are more justtheir position, of estimating the slow and silently appreciated than they are likely to be by effects upon human happiness of the lessons which Cicero enforced. After all the severe judgments we are compelled to pass on his conduct, we must acknowledge that there remains a residue of what is amiable in his character and noble in his teaching beyond all ancient example. Cicero lived and died in faith. He has made converts to the belief in virtue, and had disciples in the wisdom of love. There have been dark periods in the histoof man, when the feeble ray of religious instruction paled before the torch of his generous philanthropy. The praise which the great critic pronounced upon his excellence in oratory may be justly extended to the qualities of his heart, and even in our enlightened days it may be held no mean advance in virtue to venerate the master of Roman philosophy."

ry

LORD MAHON'S HISTORY OF THE AME

RICAN REVOLUTION.

NCOMPARABLY the best history of our

written by a foreigner is that of which we have the larger portion in the just-published fifth and sixth volumes of Lord MAHON'S History of England from the Peace of Utrecht, comprising the period from 1763 to 1780from the commencement of the popular discontents until the virtual conclusion of the

war.

the mobs of novel readers who in this generation have preferred him to James and Ainsworth. Lord Mahon is the most legitimate successor of the greatest historian of his country, David Hume.

volumes is the American war, the general Although the chief subject of these new political history of England, from the decline of the fortunes of Bute through the administhe Duke of Grafton, and Lord North, is iltration of Grenville, Rockingham, Chatham, lustrated and commented on as largely as the special purpose of the author permitted; and we have many striking passages respecting Wilkes and his various persecutions, the Letters of Junius and their authorship, and the common intellectual and material progress of the British empire. The spirit in which he regards our Revolution is illustrated by the following paragraph, on the rejection, by the

which Lord Chatham hoped, in 1775, to prevent the threatened separation of the colonies:

The

"It may be proper, or at least pardonable, here to pause for an inquiry, what probable issue might have attended an opposite decision in the British Parliament? If the ministers had been defeated on this Bill, if, in consequence, they had resigned, The character of Lord Mahon as a historian and it had in other hands been carried through, has long been established. When Sismondi, cheerfully and readily-would it for a long time would the Americans have accepted the measure in 1842, had brought his History of France to come have closed the breach, and cemented the down to the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, he la- union with the Mother Country? From all the mented that he could no longer be guided by facts and testimonies then or since made public. I Lord Mahon, and expressed a hope that his answer without hesitation that it would. "brilliant labors" would be continued. The sword was then slumbering in its scabbard. On portion of his work on which the illustrious both sides there were injuries to redress, but not Frenchman thus set the seal of his approval as yet bloodshed to avenge. It was only a quar has been reprinted in this country by the rel. It was not as yet a war. Even the boldest Appletons, in two large volumes (embracing leaders of that war in after years, whether in the first four of the original impression), care- council or the field, were still, in January, 1775, fully and judiciously edited by Professor Henry the firm friends of colonial subordination. Reed, of Philadelphia. It well indicates the ington himself (and he at least was no dissembler right of its author to a place with the best mise or assurance that did not deserve the most -from him, at least, there never came any proBritish writers in this department. History implicit credit) had only a few months before prewas never before written so brilliantly or pro-sided at a meeting of Fairfax County, in Virginia. foundly as in the last half century. Germany That meeting, while claiming relief of grievances, in this period has boasted her Schiller, Nie- had also at his instance adopted the following Rebuhr, Von Hammer, Heeren, Ranke, and solve:-That it is our greatest wish and inclinatwo Mullers; France her Sismondi, Barrante, tion, as well as interest, to continue our connection Thierrys, Michelet, Mignet, Guizot, and with, and dependence upon, the British Govern

Wash

WASHINGTON,

Field

His

ment.' But further still, although the first Con- | of Mr. William B. Reed's Life of President
gress was praised by Chatham for its moderate Reed is traceable in almost every allusion
counsels, and although the calmer voice of history made by Lord Mahon to our philosopher.
has ratified the praise, we learn that these moder- Without further observation upon the quali-
ate counsels did not lag behind, but rather ex- ties of the work, we avail ourselves of the pos-
ceeded and outran the prevailing sentiment in session of an early copy of it to present our
many of the colonies. To this fact we find an un-readers with some of the most striking pas-
impeachable testimony in the letters of President
Reed, who, writing to a friend in strict confidence, sages pencilled in a hasty reading.
laments that The proceedings of Congress have
been pitched on too high a key for some of those
middle provinces.' With such feelings, how glad-
ly, how gratefully would they have welcomed the
hand of reconciliation stretched out by the Parlia-
ment of England! It may be true, indeed, that
such feelings as these did not prevail in all, or
nearly all, the colonies. It may be true, especial-
ly, that no amount of good government, of for
bearance, or of kindness, would have won back
Massachusetts. But herein lay, as I think, the es-
pecial force and efficacy of Lord Chatham's scheme,
that it did not refer the questions of parliamentary
supremacy and colonial taxation to the decision of
any one province; but, as the Americans them-
selves desired, to the decision of a Congress com-
posed from all the provinces, so that disaffection,
however firmly rooted here and there, would of
course be overpowered by a loyal and large ma-
jority. Nor do I believe that the proposal of a
new grant to the Crown, and the consequent ne-
cessity of increased taxation to the people, would
have interposed any serious obstacle. The load
of taxation on the colonies was at this period light
indeed: according to a calculation made by Lord
North in that very year, each inhabitant of Eng-
land paid in taxes, upon an average, not less than
twenty-five shillings annually; but each inhabitant
of British America no more than sixpence. The ex-
perience of the closely-following Revolutionary war
proves how easily and readily, when their feelings
were involved, the Americans could raise far
greater supplies. And surely had Lord Chat-
ham's scheme prevailed, their feelings would have
been involved. They would have been pleased
and proud to show that their previous refusal to
pay taxes sprang from principle, and not from in-
ability or disaffection; and that, when once their
views of principle had been complied with, they
could contribute with no sparing hand to the exi-
gencies of their countrymen, and to the service of
their king."

tinue to enjoy the pleasures and fulfil the duties
During many years did Washington con-
of an independent country gentleman.
sports divided his time with the cultivation and-
improvement of his land, and the sales of his to-
bacco; he showed kindness to his dependents, and
hospitality to his friends; and having been elected
one of the House of Burgesses in Virginia, he
was, whenever that House met, exact in his at-
within the course of its ordinary and appointed
tendance. To that well-regulated mind nothing
avocations seemed unworthy of its care.
ledgers and day-books were kept by himself; he
took note of all the houses where he partook of
hospitality, so that not even the smallest cour-
tesies might pass by unremembered; and until
his press of business in the Revolutionary War he
tions of the weather during the preceding day.
was wont every evening to set down the varia-
It was also his habit through life, whenever he
wished to possess himself perfectly of the con-
tents of any paper, to transcribe it in his own
point might escape his notice. Many copies of
hand, and apparently with deliberation, so that no
this kind were after his death found among his
manuscripts.

The opinion of Lord Mahon that, even after Burgoyne's surrender, and the treaty of alliance between France and America, the colonies might have been preserved, had Lord Chatham lived and returned to office, we think entirely erroneous. Our separation from England, though there had been no stamp act or tea tax, was inevitable.

We may observe, however, that in the mind of Washington punctuality and precision did not, as we often find them, turn in any degree to selfishness. On the contrary, he was rather careless of small points where only his own comfort was concerned. Thus he could seldom be persuaded to take any remedy, or desist from any business, whenever he caught a cold, but used to say, "let it go as it came!"

Nor yet was his constant regularity of habits attended by undue formality of manner. In one of his most private letters there appears given incidentally, and as it were by chance, a golden rule upon that subject:—“ "As to the gentlemen you mention I cannot charge myself with incivility, or what in my opinion is tantamount, ceremonious civility.

In figure Washington was thin and tall (above six feet high), in countenance grave, unimpassioned, and benign. An inborn worth, an unaffected dignity, beamed forth in every look as in every word and deed. His first appearance and address might not convey the idea of superior talents; such at least was the remark of his accomwhether friend or enemy, ever viewed without replished countryman, Mr. Gallatin; but no man, spect the noble simplicity of his demeanor, the utter absence in him of every artifice and every affectation.

Lord Mahon is exceedingly fond of personal portraiture, in which he is sometimes very successful. One of his most carefully-elaborated performances in this way has for its subIt has been justly remarked that of General ject Washington, and in the dozen pages he Washington there are fewer anecdotes to tell than devotes to the analysis of the character of perhaps of any other great man on record. the great chief he has displayed his best abili-equally framed were the features of his mind, so ties, though, we confess, without suggesting harmonious all its proportions, that no one quality any thing very novel. He dislikes Franklin, rose salient above the rest. There were none of and loses no opportunity of imputing to him those chequered ques, none of those warring emopersonal dishonesty. We think the influence tions, in which Biography delights. There was no

So

ing, and pleasantry. He excelled in the last, and it attached every one to him."

As a last resource, Patrick Henry now determined to make a trial of the law. It cannot be said that his preparatory studies were unduly arduous, since, as his biographer informs us, they were all comprised in the period of six weeks. Under such unpromising circumstances, and in the year 1763, he obtained a brief in the long-contested cause then raging in Virginia between the clergy on the one sile, and the legislature on the other, as regarding the stipends which the former claimed. On this occasion Henry, to the astonishment of all who knew him, poured forth a strain of such impassioned eloquence as not only carried the cause, contrary to all previous expectation, but placed him ever afterwards at the head of his profession in the colony. To this very day, says Mr. Wirt, writing in 1818, the impression remains, and the old people of that district think that no higher compliment can be paid to any public speaker than to say of him in their homely phrase, “ He is almost equal to Patrick when he plead (pleaded) against the parsons!"

contrast of lights and shades, no flickering of the flame; it was a mild light that seldom dazzled, but that ever cheered and warmed. His contemporaries or his close observers, as Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Gallatin, assert that he had naturally strong passions, but had attained complete mastery over them. In self-control indeed he has never been surpassed. If sometimes on rare occcasions, and on strong provocation, there was wrung from him a burst of anger, it was almost instantly quelled by the dominion of his will. He decided surely, though he deliberated slowly; nor could any urgency or peril move him from his serene composure, his calm and clear-headed good sense. Integrity and truth were also ever present in his mind. Not a single instance, as I believe, can be found in his whole career when he was impelled by any but an upright motive, or endeavored to attain an object by any but worthy means. Such are some of the high qualities which have justly earned for General Washington the admiration even of the country he opposed, and not merely the admiration but the gratitude and affection of his own. Such was the pure and upright spirit to which, when its toils were over and The natural eloquence which on this occasion its earthly course had been run, was offered the flashed forth from the coarse and unlettered Henunanimous homage of the assembled Congress, allry, as the spark of fire from the flint, continued to clad in deep mourning for their common loss, as to "the man first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his fellow-citizens." At this day in the United States the reverence for his character is, as it should be, deep and universal, and not confined, as with nearly all our English statesmen, to one party, one province, or one creed. Such reverence for Washington is felt even by those who wander furthest from the paths in which he trod. A President when recommending measures of aggression and invasion can still refer to him whose rule was ever to arm only in self defence as to "the greatest and best of men!" States which exult in their bankruptcy as a proof of their superior shrewdness, and have devised "Repudiation" as a newer and more graceful term for it, yet look up to their great General-the very soul of good faith and honor-with their reverence unimpaired!"

PATRICK HENRY.

distinguished him both as a Member of the House of Burgesses at Williamsburg, and afterwards as a member of Congress. He took from the first a bold and active part against the pretensions of the mother country; indeed Mr. Jefferson goes so far as to declare that "Mr. Henry certainly gave the earliest impulse to the ball of revolution." His most celebrated burst of oratory, or rather turn of phrase, was in this very year 1765, when descanting in the House of Burgesses on the tyranny of the Stamp Act. "Caesar-" he cried, in a voice of thunder and with an eye of fire-“ Cæsar had his Brutus-Charles the First had his Cromwell— and George the Third"-" Treason!" here exclaimed the Speaker, "Treason! Treason!" reechoed from every part of the House. Henry did not for an instant falter, but fixing his eye firmly on the Speaker, he concluded his sentence thus "-may profit by their example. If this be trea

son make the most of it!"

The colony of Virginia was the place, and the Indolence and aversion to reading seemed althe year 1736 the time, of birth to Patrick Henry. most as natural to Henry's mind as powers of deHis parents were in easy circumstances, but bur- bate. To the last he never overcame them. Thus, thened with a numerous family; they resided at at his death, in 1799, his books were found to be a country seat to which the ambitious name of extremely few, and these too consisting chiefly of Mount Brilliant had been given. In childhood odd volumes. But his gift of speech was (for his Patrick Henry gave little promise of distinction. hearers) sufficiently supported by his fiery energy, His person is represented as having been coarse, his practical shrewdness, and his ever keen glance his manners extremely awkward, his dress sloven-into the feelings and characters of others. Nor ly, and his aversion to study invincible. No per- were these his only claims to his country's favor. suasion could bring him either to read or to work. He retained the manners and customs of the comAt sixteen his father gave him means to open a mon people, with what his friendly biographer small shop, which failed, however, in less than terms "religious caution.-He dressed as plainly one year. Then he tried a small farm, and mar- as the plainest of them," continues Mr. Wirt, "ate ried; then again he entered upon the life of a only their homely fare, and drunk their simple betradesman, but in a few years more was a bank-verage, mixed with them on a footing of the most rupt. It was at this period that he became ac- entire and perfect equality, and conversed with quainted with Mr. Jefferson, afterwards President them even in their own vicious and depraved proof the United States. "Mr. Henry," says Jeffer-nunciation." By such means he soon acquired and "had a little before broken up his store (shop), long retained a large measure of popularity, and or rather it had broken him up, but his misfor-he applied himself with zeal and success before tunes were not to be traced either in his countenance or conduct. His manners had something of coarseness in them; his passion was music, danc

son,

any audience, and on every occasion which arose, to increase and perpetuate the estrangement between the North American Colonies and England.