Page images
PDF
EPUB

The opinion that the French seldom think, was partly established by the indifference of the lower order of people to affairs of state, and because a mechanic was not a politician, nor did amuse himself in idle discussions respecting the court and ministers: but this opinion is against true wisdom, which directs

the

In propria pelle quiesce*

of Phædrus, for the happiness of all. Meditations of the kind only serve to disturb, perplex, and lead astray the humble citizen who has not had a liberal education to improve his judgment. There are many great and important truths which may, by a false application, lead the ignorant into irrevocable errors. There are also some subjects on which it would not only be useless, but even dange. rous, to fix their attention. A good judgment, the knowledge of their proper station, and the love of their duty, is all, in reference to their own happiness, they ought to look to. Reflection is entirely useless if it does not tend to make us better and happier; and the first sentiments of men who are not corrupted in society are almost always the best. In all classes, in all situations, the man who endeavours to avoid error and the commission of crimes, and who has a real disposition to be quiet and to do good, is a worthy citizen. If you had proposed to a Frenchman of half a century ago to betray his sovereign, or abandon his religion, you would have subjected yourself to an honourable resentment, or he would have shunned you with contempt.

The fall of the French nation by the convulsions of a revolution has been owing to the abandonment of those principles that were the safeguard of the people's happiness.

A complete revolution is that great overthrow which changes at once the laws, the manners, and the character of a nation, which of a

* Every one in his station.

VOL, VIII. NO. XLVII.

monarchy makes a republic, and of a lawful king an usurping despot, crowned by one conspiration, and perhaps beheaded by another, without the people finding his criminal successor one jot more worthy, and without giving more liberty or happiness to even the artizans of his elevation.

I call revolutions the calamities of an unquiet people, who mistake the means, or who exceed the moderation, necessary to the work of redressing grievances; who, after many civil troubles, and much loss of generous blood, having forsook their God* and their sovereign, are lost to peace and happiness; who become the prey of self-made protectors. In short, I denominate revolutions those tumultuous shocks which unhinge the government, disorder the morals of the people, and, at length, throw the sovereign at the feet of some atrocious criminal who usurps his place.

Let us now compare the character of the French of the vieille cour with that of the present people. Brave, loyal, courteous; turbulent, unsettled, unsocial. Such is the anti-climax. The abuses of the old government, which were abated by the mild sovereign who reigned, so as scarcely to be known but by name, are cured, but so badly, that the foul blotches and stains of the desperate nostrum have caused a worse disease, from which nothing can restore the constitution but the mild alteratives of religion and morals, which teach us to love and not destroy each other, and between the government and people to guard the rights of each with a watchful affection for the benefit of both.

[blocks in formation]

For the Literary Magazine.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

Commodore Preble.

DIED on the 25th of August, 1807, commodore Preble, of the United States navy. He had just completed the 45th year of his age, being born in Portland, in August, 1761. The following sketch of his life is copied from "The Polyanthos."

Our young hero, almost from his infancy, discovered a noble and invincible courage, and admirable resolution and perseverance in all his pursuits. Blest with an athletick constitution, and having no great inclination to sedentary amusement, his hours of leisure from his academical and other early studies were mostly devoted to hunting, and other exercises of the greatest activity.

In his youth he became a mariner in the mercantile service, which he successfully followed, during some years after the commencement of the revolutionary war. In this war he was once made a prisoner. After his liberation from captivity, his enterprize and vigour were displayed in armed vessels of the state of Massachusetts, with honour and success.

About the year 1779, he entered as a midshipman on board the ship Protector, commanded by captain John Foster Williams; with whom he served one or two years, till he was promoted to a lieutenancy on board the sloop of war Winthrop, commanded by captain George Little. In this station he performed a very brilliant and heroic action, boarding and capturing with a few men a vessel of more than equal force, lying in the harbour of Penobscot; under a furious cannonade from the battery, and an incessant firing from the troops. After this he continued with captain Little, till the peace of 1783.

In the year 1801, he had the command of the United States frigate Essex, in which he performed a

voyage to the East Indies, for the protection of our trade in those seas; and, having driven off the cruisers, returned in the following year with a convoy from Batavia under his care, consisting of fifteen ships and other vessels, estimated at the value of four millions of dollars.

In the year 1803, captain Preble was honoured with the appointment of commodore, and with the command of the United States frigate Constitution, with a squadron consisting of seven sail of vessels in all; and before the end of the year made his passage to the Mediterranean Sea.

In the following year, 1804, though he was destined to act in the Mediterranean with his fleet, and particularly designed to subdue or humble the Tripolitan barbarians; yet, on his arrival at Gibraltar, he found the emperor of Morocco had made war upon the vessels of the United States. This prevented for a time the fleet's progress up the Mediterranean, till the commodore had taken measures to obtain a peace with that power, on terms honourable to his country, which was happily effected. But after the unfortunate loss of the frigate Philadelphia, he found that his remaining force was by no means equal to the attack of the strong holds of Tripoli, with any rational prospect of success. Rather than fail, however, in his design, he obtained a number of gun-boats from the king of Naples, by which he was the better able to oppose the gun-boats of the enemy. After the burning of the Philadelphia, through the valour of the brave Decatur, under the mouths of the enemy's cannon, he made his first general attack; and all the attacks which he made on the city and fortifications were so little distant in time from each other, and so judiciously conducted, with consummate bravery and alertness, that though the obstinate bashaw was not induced to surrender or flee, yet he was induced to make great abatements from time to time, in his demands for the

emancipation of the prisoners whom he then held in durance.

what is still more valuable, my boat and nets into the bargain.”— John, who was then about nine years old, was sent to school the very next day; and in less than two years the pupil outstripped the master, who was allowed by all the island

It is thought that one vessel more added to the small fleet would have enabled the commodore to complete the ruin or capture of the place. Much indeed was done towards compelling the enemy to set at li-ers, to be an excellent teacher, as he berty captain Bainbridge, with his officers and men; and towards obtaining a peace on moderate and honourable terms, which has since taken place. The conduct of our prudent and intrepid commander was such, as to do much honour to himself and the flag of the United States, in the view of Europe as well as of America. His conduct has extorted praise from the bashaw of Tripoli himself: and what affords a peculiar and unexpected honour to this American warrior, though a heretick, is the declaration of his holiness of Rome, That he has done more towards humbling the antichristian barbarians on that coast, than all the christian states of Europe had ever done.

Mr. John Tullock.

The fate of this extraordinary victim to literature deserves notice. He was found dead the 3d October, 1804, in a garret in Rupert-street. He literally died of want. He was a native of Shetland. His father, who was a poor industrious fisherman, having one day discovered a chest washed on shore by the tide, found that it contained a quantity of carpenter's tools, and a few books. When he showed this treasure to his son John, he was surprised to find that the boy fixed his eyes on the books, and scarcely glanced at the chissels and planes. "Oh, father!" said he, after a pause and a sigh, "I would give all Lerwick (the chief town of the island) to be able to read any one of these books!"" Then," cried the old man, with tears in his eyes, "if I live, and you live, you shall read every one of them, if I should even sell the chest and all it contains, and,

could read Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress from beginning to end. John was not satisfied with his school acquisitions, he was resolved to try what he could do by himself. Amongst the books" which had fallen from heaven," to use his own expression, he found Hill's Arithmetic. Notwithstanding all the difficulties that rose in succession to a beginner, who had scarce ever ventured to count beyond a hundred, he was determined to make himself master of a science that daily extended the boundaries of his mind. In less than a year, he could solve all the questions in skill. His fame as an arithmetician was so great, that some of the ignorant people thought that he dealt a little in what they called the black art. He was resolved that the mere knowledge of numbers should not close his literary career; he sat down to study mathematics. Nature had endowed him with talents peculiary adapted to studies of this kind: a mind ardent yet patient in the pursuit of knowledge, a thorough contempt for what the world calls wealth, and a temperance in diet contributed to health and serenity. He was now about fifteen years of age: and as his father and mother were almost past their labours, he was advised to open a school, which would enable him to support his parents in decency. Dr. Young says, in allusion to instruction, that " in giving we receive, and in teaching we learn." This was verified in young Tullock. In consulting that peculiar bias which Nature has given to every mind, he was enabled to draw many deductions from the questions and pursuits of his pupils. Some of these questions led him to cast his eye to the heavens, the native seat of philosophy and kindred arts. Having

in time learned to call some of "the stars by their names," he began to emulate the fame of Flamstead and Halley. These illustrious men, however, could converse with the living and the dead; they had friends and books; they had leisure, and could view the moon through Gallileo's eyes. But Tullock had none of these aids: he was obliged to provide for the wants of the day that was passing over his head, and the only time that he could devote to the study of astronomy was at the expence of his humble pillow. A favourite mountain was his only observatory, on the top of which he used to pass many a night, even in the depth of winter, watching the motions of the heavenly bodies. At the age of twenty, he married a、 young woman, who in the course of time brought him a fine family of girls and boys. One of his friends, in an unlucky moment, conceiving that his native isle was too narrow a sphere for such a star to move in, advised him to try his fortune in London, the mart of genius, as he was taught to believe. This advice fell in with our young astronomer's wishes; he longed to converse with the learned, to consult books, and to communicate all that he knew to the world. Accordingly he set out for the capital on the wings of hope, and flattered himself that in less than a year he would be able to return with a sum sufficient to enable him to pass the rest of his days in lettered ease, in the bosom of his family. He travelled from Edinburgh to London on foot, with a few shillings in his pocket. All his golden prospects were not a little clouded, soon after his arrival, to find that he could not even procure the situation of a mathematical assistant in any one of the academies about the city. He had the mortification to experience, that talent is often estimated by dress and address, in both of which he was unfortunately wanting. Disappointed in all his applications, he opened a school in the neighbourhood of the Seven Dials. Having been told by

a person on whose judgment he depended, that all the treasures of learning were locked up in the Latin, he devoted all his spare moments to the study of that language, and, in the end, made so great a progress in the acquisition of it, that he could translate it with tolerable ease. He then began to turn his thoughts to chemistry, and soothed himself with the hopes of making some discoveries in that useful branch of knowledge, and of one day emerging from obscurity. The income arising from his school was so slender, that he was obliged to live on the cheapest food, and could scarce afford himself coal or candle light. Baron Maseres occasionally assisted him; but such was his modesty, that even the want of the necessaries of life could not urge him to solicit the least relief. Having caught a cold about two years ago, it fell on his lungs. As his health declined, his scholars fell off; and as to friends, he had none that could assist him. In this hopeless situation, the thoughts of his family, who eagerly looked out for his return, a series of disappointments, together with the cold neglect of those who affected to patronize science, preyed on his mind, and hastened his dissolution. He was found dead in a damp room, with a few shavings under his head.

[blocks in formation]

ter, in Philadelphia, in the year 1805.

By a fund, which is annually created among themselves, they are enabled to subscribe for all the periodical publications of the United States which are valuable, and also some of those most celebrated in England, to procure which, they assemble every fortnight, and, in order to make the convention subservient to more than one useful purpose, at every meeting two of their members read each an essay on either a scientific, moral, or literary subject. To such an institution the friends of learning must wish success. It does not appear to be built of those flimsy materials which will wear out in a day; but having for its object the promotion of knowledge among its members, as well as the extention of patronage toward American papers, it has a fair claim to long existence, creditable and honourable to its founders. August, 1807.

For the Literary Magazine.

S.

LITERARY, PHILOSOPHICAL, COMMERCIAL, AND AGRICULTURAL INTELLIGENCE.

EDWARD LIVINGSTON, of New Orleans, has offered proposals for publishing" The Body of the Civil Law," which he means to translate in ten volumes octavo, at ten dollars a volume.

During the late session of congress, the senate of the United States passed a resolution directing the secretary of the treasury to procure information touching the general progress of canals and turnpikes, and the improvement of the navigation of rivers throughout the union: and to report the result to the ensuing session. In compliance with this order, the secretary has recently invited the numerous corporations of the state

of Pennsylvania, through the medium of an officer of the government, to collect facts and observations relative to these highly interesting subjects.

The citizens of this commonwealth remember how much zeal was displayed, last winter, at Lancaster, to stimulate such undertakings, by showing the expediency of them, and the ability of the state to grant pecuniary aid; but without effect. It must therefore be pleasing to every patriotic mind to know that the general government is disposed to show its patronage. To render this the more certain, therefore, it becomes the duty of those persons who are possessed of any useful information of the kind to communicate it.

We have pleasure in stating, from actual knowledge, that there has lately been erected, within the boundaries of Philadelphia, a factory, which contains two looms for the purpose of making cloth of a strong quality, between sail duck and Russia sheeting. In the largest of these is made cloth seven yards wide, and, such is the superiority of its machinery, that one man alone is able to make from thirty-five to forty-two square yards per day, without more exertion than at common weaving. The first piece, containing near four hundred yards, was finished and cut from the loom about four weeks since. The proprietor is in possession of a mode of applying a rotatory motion to looms of the useful kind. In the present instance, however, that operation is unnecessary. In Europe, so far as our information is correct, two men at least are employed in the making of cloth of this width, who together seldom produce more than eighteen yards per day.

The lesser loom weaves, in a similar manner, cloth three yards wide of the same texture, which can be, and often is worked by a boy of twelve years; the tramp of this loom does not require eight ounces.

« PreviousContinue »