Remarkable Incidents, &c.

DOMESTIC MANUFACTURES. At the late Cattle Show and Fair in Pittsfield, Berksire county, the prize of 50 dols. was awarded to Elkanah Watson, Esq. president of the Agricultural Society, for producing the best piece of broadcloth exhibited at the fair. It exceeds in all respects any cloth ever made in America, and probably any ever imported from Europe. One half the piece is left for inspection at the warehouse of American goods in the city of Albany.

SHOCKING INHUMANITY. In Opelousas county, New-Orleans, Mrs. Doucet, and four or five children were murdered by an African slave. The slave has since been executed. On confessing his crime, he said his father was a warrior, and that he inherited the family courage; and when about being hung he would not wait for the cart to be drawn from under him, but ordered the spectators to get out of the way that he might jump-which he did!

DISTRESSING ACCIDENT. In Greenfield, N. Y. Mr. Martin Blackman, while on a bear hunt with a friend, having wounded a bear, went back for his hounds, and upon returning with them, his friend seeing the hounds rush through a thicket, and perceiving something black, which he supposed was the bear, he fired and shot Mr. B. though the neck.

Obituary Notices---Deaths in the United States.

GEORGIA. In Savannah river, T. X. Muller; in swimming from a privateer to the shore, he was taken down by an alligator.-In Sunbury, Mr. T. G. Riggs, a native of Massachusetts, and captain of U. S. barge No. 2.

TENNESSEE. In East Tennessee, General Henry Conway,. one of the heroes of the revolution. His death was occasion

ed by the sting of bees.

MARYLAND. In Baltimore, William Wood, Esq. late Brittish consul for the state of Maryland.

NEW-YORK-Near the Black rock, Major William H. Cuyler of Palmyra, aid to major-general Hull, killed by a shot fired by the British from Fort Erie-In Lansingburgh, Dr. George White, aged 24.-In New-York city, George F. Cooke, the celebrated tragedian.

"Aged critics, who have been in the habit of observing the stage during the time of Garrick, and ever since, unite in declaring that Cooke was the only individual among Garrick's successors, who could be compared with that exalted genius. The acting of Cooke was entitled to a degree of praise very little below that which belongs to the productions which he so brilliantly illustrated. He was remarkable not only for conveying with un

paralleled fidelity and force the language and manners of the character he personated, but he would often, by the magic of his face and action, anticipate, extend, and improve, the meaning of its author. We, who have dwelt upon his perfections with so much wonder and delight, and have hung with new rapture upon the inspiring verse of Shakspeare, when aided by his eloquence, feel the most poignant sorrow in reflecting that such refined enjoyment should be lost forever!-In private, Cooke was affable and pleasing-enthusiastic in his friendships and charitable to profusion. We deeply regret, that his qualities should have been so incorporated that, with the memory of his transcendant genius and extreme benevolence, that of his frailties must also become immortal !" Federal Republican.

RHODE ISLAND.-In Portsmouth, Col. Alexander Thomas, aged 70, an officer of merit in the revolutionary war-At Providence, Dr. Ephraim Bowen, aged 96-At Gloucester, Hon. Daniel Owen, aged 81.

NEW-HAMPSHIRE.-In Sanborntown, Mr. Daniel Eastman; in attempting to fetter a young colt, he received a blow on the head, from the animal, which occasioned his death-In Portsmouth, Jane Stoodley, aged 14, instantaneously killed by the discharge of a musket, from the hands of a boy-At Exeter, Mrs. Mary, wife of Hon. John T. Gilman, aged 61.

MAINE. In Portland, Mrs. Eunice, wife of the Rev. S. Dean, aged 85-In Lebanon, Rev. Isaac Halsey, aged 71, and his grandson Isaac H. Wentworth, aged 12, entombed together-In York, Mrs. Mary, wife of Rev. Roswell Messinger, aged 37.

MASSACHUSETTS.-At Dedham, Oct. 19, the Rev. Thomas Thacher, pastor of the third congregational church in that place-In Roxbury, Mr. Peleg Heath, aged 41-In WestCambridge, Miss Caroline Whittemore, aged 19-In NewBedford, Mr. Humphrey Rowland, aged 53-In Deerfield, Mr. Amasa Smith, aged 66-In Amherst, a daughter of J. Danforth, aged 4, occasioned by her clothes taking fire at school-In Boston, Mr. Joseph Shed, aged 80; Miss Sarah Paine Perkins, only daughter of James Perkins, Esq. 23; Mr. Benjamin Faxon, 46; Mrs. Sarah N. Cannon, 19; Mrs. Elizabeth Townsend. 25; Mrs. Eliza Norton, 24; Mr. John Welsh, merchant, 82.

Correspondence.

Agreeably to notice given last month, the present number of the Polyanthos appears in a new form. Gratitude for the patronage already bestowed on our labors is best proved by unceasing efforts to merit more. A steady pursuit of the path that leads towards perfection will perhaps be a better assurance of upright intention than a profusion of promises: and on our progression in that narrow way we alone rely for success.

An elegant and highly finished portrait of the reverend John Lathrop, D. D. will be given in our next.

We have room only for one general acknowledgement of thanks to those obliging corre spondents, whose communications enrich our pages this month.

THE

POLYANTHOS.

FOR NOVEMBER, 1812.

We shall never envy the honors which wit and learning obtain in any other cause, if we can be numbered among the writers who have given ardor to virtue and confidence to truth. Dr. Johnson.

BIOGRAPHY-FOR THE POLYANTHOS.

SKETCH OF THE CHARACTER OF

THE REVEREND JOHN LATHROP, D. D.

Nomen in exemplum sero servabimus ævo. Milton.

To delineate the character of the living is often a dangerous and always a delicate task. There is a modest diffidence in men of merit, that shrinks with apprehension or disgust from an open and unqualified tribute of praise, and they cannot feel easy in a station which subjects them to the eye of public observation, or the inquisitive ken of critical scrutiny. They naturally attribute to interested or parasitical motives the encomiums which they fear they do not deserve; and they can scarcely pardon the officiousness of the friendship, that holds them up to unsolicited notice and unwelcome animadversion. The pretensions of rival talent; the jealousy of contemporary ambition; and the inequality of human capacity to estimate the real worth of those with whom we are daily conversant, render the attempt to do justice to a fellow actor on the stage of being peculiarly difficult and hazardous. The Necrologer enjoys many advantages over the writer of unfinished life! The impartial grave is the only inviolable retreat

VOL. I.

from the persecution of satire, the malignity of prejudice, and the acrimony of censure. The hand of death confers a charter of immunity, and seals an act of oblivion, which avails his victim in the court of criticism without the trouble or formality of a special plea. Humanity prefers an undisputed claim, when envy has no object to destroy, and ambition no competitor to encounter ;-when slander is deprived of its power to injure; and ridicule, which delights to blazon the foibles of the living, leaves the dead to moulder in undisturbed repose.

But other, and more honorable claims has the faithful historian of departed excellence and accomplished designs, than those which we have enumerated. He ascends an eminence from whence he takes a calm and philosophical survey of his object. The passions, which conflicting interests had awakened and aggravated in life, are tranquillized when their cause of action no longer exists. The demands of truth are imperious, and they must be obeyed; but reason and candor also assert their sacred rights, and they will be sacredly regarded. The mutual aspersions and accusations, which are tolerated and deemed venial between contending candidates for fame or power, are condemned as disgraceful calumnies when they are uttered against the unconscious and unresisting tenants of the tomb. But we proceed to notice, very briefly, the reverend and amiable scholar and divine, whose portrait embellishes the present number of the Polyanthos. His learning, patriotism, and benevolence, justly entitle him to the great share of public respect and affection which he possesses; and sure we are, that to all who know his worth, no further reason need be assigned for the introduction of his "vera effigies" into our gallery of American worthies. Early in youth it seems, he adopted as his motto, the maxim, "That no life can be accept able to God, which is not useful to men." Perhaps no indi vidual can be named among our friends to science and benevolence, who is more zealously devoted to their interests than Dr. Lathrop. A judicious appropriation of his time enables him to attend to the discharge of many important duties. He

is pastor of the second church in Boston; senior member of the corporation of Harvard university, and secretary to its board of overseers; a counsellor and librarian of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; president of the Massachusetts Congregational Charitable Society, and of several similar institutions; and there is scarcely an association for literary and charitable purposes in this commonwealth, of which he is not an active officer or member. The university of Edinburgh, about the year 1783, conferred on him the degree of D. D. He is an honorary member of the Royal Humane Society of London, and has lately received a diploma from the Literary and Philosophical Society at Preston in England.

May the day be far distant, when propriety will sanction a more elaborate display of his virtues, and delineation of his character!

FOR THE POLYANTHOS.

Review of Tales of Fashionable Life, by Miss Edgeworth. VIVIAN AND EMILIE DE COULANGES.

WE introduced to the notice of our readers in our first number the tale of the Absentee, and we now have the satisfaction of suggesting a few observations upon the two remaining productions of Miss Edgeworth. There is a moral purpose so evident in all the writings which this lady hath given to the world, whether they are considered in relation to the general scope of her design or the reflections excited in its progress, that the most indifferent observer cannot fail to derive benefit or acquire knowledge from so copious a fountain of instruction as they supply. The tales related by her are founded chiefly upon some very prevalent fault observable among mankind, which she exposes with uncommon truth of nature, simplicity of narrative, temperance of judgement and accuracy of observation. A certain stamp of sterling value, from these causes, is impressed-and we venture to predict