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TO READERS AND CORRESPONDENTS.

WITH the last number of the Port Folio, for March 1814, terminated the superintendance of the editor, under whose care it has been published for more than two years.

In taking leave of a work which has been the source of some agreeable occupation to himself, and, perhaps, not altogether useless to others, it seems fit to add a few words in relation to its past management and its future prospects.

The motive which originally tempted him to share in the literary labours of Mr. Dennie, was the hope of retrieving the fortunes and soothing the afflictions of that estimable man, the excellent qualities of whose heart and understanding endeared every association with him. The melancholy close of his life disappointed all these favourite illusions, and destroyed at once that union which was to have lightened and recompensed their mutual exertions. It devolved at the same time on the surviver a duty neither anticipated nor desired, but which a regard to the interests of others forbade him suddenly to abandon. He therefore continued his superintendance, for which, in the absence of more important qualifications, he felt that he was not gifted with the requisite industry; but finding in it a pleasing amusement for his

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leisure, he forbore to relinquish it till now, when other cares and occupations claim his attention.

It would be difficult for the severest spirit of criticism to pass a harsher judgment on those parts of the work for which the editor is personally responsible, than is anticipated and felt by himself. His own contributions were, in fact, so wholly occasional and desultory, that he is scarcely permitted to feel a paternal solicitude for the fate of these volumes, nor any claim to exult at the little success which may await them.

The object to which his own exertions were chiefly directed and limited-that which gave to those exertions their principal value in his estimation, was to render this journal an American work-the depository of our national feelings, the record of our literary advancement a volume which might vindicate fearlessly the national character, and by cherishing an attachment to the admirable institutions of the country, render its literature at all times auxiliary to its patriotism-the most high and honourable destiny of letters.

He would however be deficient in taste as well as gratitude, if he forbore to express in a tone of more confident applause, his thanks for the assistance of many correspondents whose contributions have enriched this work, and formed valuable and permanent additions to our literature.

With the month of May commences a brighter æra in the history of the Port Folio. The labours of these distinguished scholars will continue as heretofore, and their zeal will then be animated and directed by the new editor, a gentleman to whose talents, taste, and acquirements, the public have often rendered a very distinguished homage, and whose various studies and untiring industry cannot fail to open new sources of amusement and instruction. The editor rejoices that the literary bark, which he has thus toofeebly and carelessly guided, should begin a new career under far better auspices: and as he perceives it in imagination gradually receding from his view, he gives all that remains for him to offer, his sincerest wishes for favouring gales and a more prosperous

course, Σ.

FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF THE MARQUIS DE VALADY.

THE French revolution is without a parallel in history for magnitude or duration. It still convulses the world, and by its widespread influence has so varied, perplexed, and unhinged the old order of things, as to give little hope of its speedy termination during the life of Napoleon. Every particular that can tend to develop the causes, or explain the secret movements of this astonishing event; every fugitive paper or unpublished sentiment, emanating from those who acted a conspicuous part in it, should be preserved. They may assist the historian who, at a period sufficiently remote for its true and impartial record, shall give to posterity a relation of its origin and progress.

A spirit of inquiry regarding man's natural and political rights ́had manifested itself among the philosophers of France in the latter part of the reign of Louis the fifteenth, which was very much increased by the success of the American revolution. The bosoms even of many of the high nobility were warmed by the pure flame that glowed in the hearts of our fathers, and which these true republicans knew so well how to regulate and maintain, and transmit to their sons, confined within rational limits. Our liberty was ra

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ther a boon to be preserved than acquired. American war was not to overthrow the charters of the colonial governments, or to introduce novel and ungenial immunities, foreign to our habits and to our wants, but to protect those rights which had ever been enjoyed by our ancestors since they settled on this side of the Atlantic.

Not so the French. To make room for fanciful and untried doctrines, they crumbled their ancient fabric into dust, and were glad, after years of misery, to shelter themselves from the general wreck, under the usurped sceptre of a military despot, who has long since convinced them that the remedy applied to the venial disorders of the old court, is a thousand fold worse than the disease.

It is inconceivable that men, possessed of rank and affluence, should have been the prime movers of this great commotion! But

such was the fact; and the subject of the following memoir is a notable instance of the irrational desire of man to seek variety even in the turbulence of faction, and at the risk of life and fortune; both which he might have enjoyed in a very enviable state, had a simple and very attainable reform of abuses taken place of the total overthrow which his own and his friends' enthusiasm engendered.

Godfroi Yzarn, marquis de Valady, was born on his father's estate, in the province of Auvergne, about the year 1765. Being an only child and heir to a fortune of fourteen thousand dollars a year (seventy thousand livres tournois) and descended from one of the most ancient families of his province, he was educated with the greatest care, and in a manner every way suitable to his birth and fortune.

His father had long been intimately connected with the marquis de Vaudreuil, a distinguished officer in the French navy; and who was second in command when count de Grasse blockaded Cornwallis at Yorktown; and succeeded to the chief command when that admiral was defeated on the tweifth of April, 1782, by lord Rodney. The marquis de Vaudreuil brought those French ships, that escaped capture, to refit at Boston, and took a zealous part in our struggle for independence.

Young Valady no doubt heard frequently from his father, through the marquis de Vaudreuil's correspondence, of the efforts and successes of the Americans, of the cause for which they fought, and of their courage in defence of their rights. These topics moreover were become fashionable in France, and no doubt, in connection with the studies of de Valady, many of which had reference to the bright days of ancient Greece and Rome, tended very much to nourish that abhorrence of oppression and love of strict justice and equal rights, which seems to have possessed his mind from his earliest youth.

Shortly after the peace of 1783, the marquis de Vaudreuil returned to France, where he concluded with de Valady's father a contract of marriage between the young marquis and mademoiselle de Vaudreuil, the eldest daughter of the admiral.

De Valady was not yet nineteen years old, and the affianced lady scarcely fifteen. The match had been made, as was usual among the higher classes in France, without consulting the younger

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