agricultural. He attended to his extensive plantations with the greatest assiduity, and most laborious punctuality. The business of a plantation in Virginia partook at this period to a considerable extent of the nature of commercial transactions. Tobacco was the great staple, and to this Washington gave his attention. The crop was forwarded by himself to his agents in London, Liverpool, and Bristol, and the returns were made in part of such articles of English manufacture as were required in his household. From the period of the Revolution the biography of Washington is the history of the war consequent upon that event. To attempt anything like a sketch of the subsequent portion of his life, would be absurd and manifestly impossible within the space allotted us for this article. We can therefore but offer our readers a few miscellaneous notices extracted at random, to give them a general glimpse of the subject. Intimating in the first place, that there is not a topic of the least importance in his career, in reference to which Mr. Sparks has not given all the information which could be obtained. In noticing the nomination of Washington to the office of Commander-in-chief of the American armies, we may state that the choice was made by ballot, and was unanimous. A short time after this appointment Mr. Adams, in a letter to Mr. Gerry, thus expresses himself of Washington :

"There is something charming to me in the conduct of Washington. A gentleman of one of the first fortunes upon the Continent, leaving his delicious retirement, his family and friends, sacrificing his ease, and hazarding all in the cause of his country! His views are noble and disinterested. He declared when he accepted the mighty trust, that he would lay before us an exact account of his expenses, and not accept a shilling for pay."

We select from among the curious and original materials collected by Mr. Sparks, the following letter which accompanied the official account of the battle of Bunker Hill, transmitted by General Gage to England :

"The success, of which I send your Lordship an account by the present opportunity, was very necessary in our present situation, and I wish most sincerely that it had not cost us so dear. The number of killed and wounded is greater than our forces can afford to lose. The officers, who were obliged to exert themselves, have suffered very much, and we have lost some very good officers. The trials we have had show the rebels are not the despicable rabble too many have supposed them to be; and I find it owing to a military spirit, encouraged among them for a few years past, joined with an uncommon degree of zeal and enthusiasm, that they are otherwise. When they find cover they make a good stand, and the country, naturally strong, affords it to them; and they are taught to assist its natural strength by art, for they intrench and raise batteries. They have fortified all the heights and passes around this town, from Dorchester to Medford or Mystic, and it is not impossible for them to annoy the town."

VOL. 1. (1839.) NO. 1.

H

This battle occasioned the recall of Gage, who was succeeded in his command by General Howe. In relation to the momentous events of the 19th of April 1775, Lord Dartmouth thus expresses himself in a letter :—

"I am to presume, that the measure of sending out a detachment of your troops to destroy the magazines at Concord was taken after the fullest consideration of the advantages on the one hand and the hazards on the other of such an enterprise, and all the probable consequences that were to result from it. It is impossible for me to reflect upon this transaction, and upon all its consequences, without feelings, which, although I do not wish to conceal them, it is not necessary for me to express."

We have also a letter written by General Gage to Lord Dartmouth on the 24th of July 1775, which gives a clear insight into the state of affairs at that period :

"The rebellion being general, I know of no better plan to quell it, than that I mentioned to your lordship in a former letter. This province began it, I might say this town; for here the arch-rebels formed their scheme long ago. This circumstance brought the troops first here, which is the most disadvantageous place for all operations, particularly when there is no diversion of the rebel forces, but all are collected into one point."

Our limits almost prevent any further quotation from the curious details with which these volumes are replete. The reader will observe them upon every page. The narratives of the various battles of the revolutionary war are all original compilations by Mr. Sparks, from a careful examination of the mass of documents contained in General Washington's collections. The "cabal of Conway," commonly so called, is treated by the biographer of Washington with a praiseworthy discretion. This cabal was a short-lived and public intrigue, exploding by the first hint of its existence; though annihilated in the bud, some mystery has been thought to hang over its precise objects as well as the motives of those concerned in it. The following letter of the General himself to Patrick Henry, probably gives us the generic character of this incident in his public career :

"I cannot precisely mark the extent of their views; but it appeared in general, that General Gates was to be exalted on the ruin of my reputation and influence."-" General Mifflin, it is commonly supposed, bore the second part in the cabal; and General Conway, I know, was an active and malignant partisan."

To attempt an abstract of the correspondence of Washington during the revolutionary war would be impossible, we must therefore content ourselves with observing that the labours of Mr. Sparks will, familiar as is the praise of Washington, add fresh lustre to his fame, and justify the language of eulogy which has in reference to him become proverbial throughout the world; these letters present to

our view the spectacle of a person invested with high and various civil and military trusts, during the continuance of a momentous struggle, engaged in transactions the most arduous and perplexing, and of a character that required the greatest delicacy, carrying on a voluninous correspondence, under the pressure and urgency of military haste, yet seldom writing a line that required to be qualified, let alone, retracted or explained. Washington exhibits self-possession, more than any other hero of a revolution; never was he seen borne off by passion or yielding to depression; we find him showing the same serene composure when retreating with his panic-stricken and defeated army through the Jerseys, as well as when, at the head of the united forces of France and America, he grants terms of capitulation to Lord Cornwallis.

The religious character of the hero of the American Revolution forms the theme of a very interesting notice in Mr. Sparks's work. He observes, that he engages in the inquiry, not because the subject requires an argument, but because there have been "in certain. quarters discussions tending to throw doubts over his religious belief." He states that there is a uniform tradition in the place of his birth and where he was educated, that he was brought up under religious influences. His earliest writings still preserved, contain deep religious impressions. In 1774, a fast-day was appointed by the House of Burgesses, of which he was a member, and there is an entry in his diary, that he "went to church, and fasted all day." It. was his regular practice to attend church in the forenoon of every Sunday. The afternoon of these days he passed alone in his room, and the evening with his family. Mr. Sparks sums up the various questions involved in this discussion of the religious and devotional points of Washington's character in the following manner :

"After a long and minute examination of the writings of Washington, public and private, in print and in manuscript, I can affirm, that I have never seen a single hint, or expression, from which it could be inferred, that he had any doubt of the Christian revelation, or that he thought with indifference or unconcern of that subject. On the contrary, whenever he approaches it, and indeed whenever he alludes in any manner to religion, it is done with seriousness and reverence.

"The foregoing observations have been made, not by way of argument, but merely as a statement of facts; for I must end, as I began, by saying, that I conceive any attempt at argument in so plain a case would be misapplied. If a man, who spoke, wrote, and acted as a Christian through a long life, who gave numerous proofs of his believing himself to be such, and who was never known to say, write, or do a thing contrary to his professions, if such a man is not to be ranked among the believers of Christianity, it would be impossible to establish the point by any train of reasoning. How far he examined the grounds of bis faith is uncertain, but probably as far as the large portion of Christians, who do not make theology a special study; and we have a right to presume, that a mind like his would not receive an opinion without a satisfactory reason. He was educated in

the Episcopal Church, to which he always adhered; and my conviction is, that he believed in the fundamental doctrines of Christianity as usually taught in that Church, according to his understanding of them; but without a particle of intolerance, or disrespect for the faith and modes of worship adopted by Christians of other denominations."

Perhaps there is no portion of the life of Washington so important as the period that elapsed from the close of the Revolution till his death. It is during this time that he is unfolded to our view in connexion with the Constitution and organization of the United States' government, and with its foreign and domestic politics during the early part of the French Revolution. Much to illustrate these are given by Mr. Sparks, but we are compelled to draw our summary of his life and character to a close. Throughout this period, from the influence of Washington the United States are in no small degree indebted for their happy escape from the peculiar dangers incident to their condition. To contemplate the action of such an individual's mind in the various elements of contemporary society, is one of the noblest employments in which a reflecting man can be engaged in ; and to one who wishes to embalm in his memory an influence at once so salutary and so permanent as is exhibited in Washington's career, we would recommend the perusal of the volumes before us. Before we dismiss this work we wish again to bear testimony to the persevering patience, extent of labour and toil, and rigid integrity of the Editor. The task could not have been undertaken, or, if undertaken, it certainly could not be completed in the manner it has been by one less in love with his theme than Mr. Sparks has throughout shown himself to be. The supplementary and illustrative researches are of the most valuable and important character, and gives to the work one of its most interesting features.

ART. VIII.—Memoirs of Charles Mathews, Comedian. By MRS. MATHEWS. 2 vols. London: Bentley. 1838.

THE sentiment we have uniformly experienced on hearing of the death, or on reading the life of an Actor whom we have often admired,-who has transported us by means of his resistless appeals, and sent emotions to the heart never to be forgotten, whether of tenderest or magnanimous sympathy, or whether laughter-moving like to burst the sides,-is one in which melancholy predominates. It may be that we know his private life to have been as gross as his public personations were perfect and refined; or it may be that he who became the king so well on the stage, was, when seen in his untinselled condition, and when he did not, in consequence of a curious and wonderful endowment of nature, throw himself into the delineated character, carrying out by an assumed passion, or a temporary inspiration, the poet's creation,-if not a weak minded, yet

an uninformed being, and really unworthy of consideration in society. But all actors are not either debased, vulgar, or uneducated. Charles Mathews, for instance, was learned beyond the majority of those who claim to be members of the profession to which the term is customarily applied; he was accomplished in as far as the fine arts go, above most amateurs; he was in regard to manners and tastes of a fashionable description, a model for our squirearchy; and in point of morals his character stands fair. In short he was what is understood by the best meaning of the word, gentleman. To use the words of a contemporary journal, he was "the man that made the hours of Byron light-that impressed an idea of intellectuality upon Sir Walter Scott-that relaxed the kingly pride of George the Fourth," And yet a perusal of these volumes has produced a species of sadness, not experienced in reading for the first time the biography of a king or a poet. Whence does this difference arise? Something, indeed, a great deal of the sentiment alluded to, must be owing to the fact that an actor's productions of art die with himself. Another truth is, that he who could so well personate the character of others, in the most remarkable phases or passages of life, has not only passed away for ever, and is lifeless, but that the very death-scene which he may often have represented with wonderful truth, has in reality been gone through by him. But upon our minds another sentiment, which is far from being of a cheerful kind is this, that he who assiduously and professionally has, during all the active years of his existence amongst us, devoted himself to the office of personating the characters of others, has been employed in a frivolous business, a business that not only attracted the idlest, and ourselves during our idlest hours, but what is more, that the genius who possessed such rare powers of attraction, and exhibited them so constantly, had, like all other men, weighty concerns of his own, which were in great danger of being overlooked, or carelessly attended to, owing to the mere circumstances of his profession. It may be all very well to talk of the actor's calling as entitled to the same liberal construction which that of any other of the arts obtain -to say that a man is never better employed than in the performance of the part which his lawful business imposes upon him,-and that the theatre is one of the best schools for teaching morality. Allowing all this in theory, (which is a vast deal more than many will do,) the fact is, that the community,-that the civilized world, has ever regarded the Player's life with disparagement, arising not merely from the general character of its professors, but from the very nature of the profession. The most respectable players themselves have for the most part been averse to their sons and daughters following in their steps,-a strong evidence, if not of their intrinsically objectionable nature, at least of an acquiescence in the prevalent way of thinking and feeling by parties who must be supposed most conversant with the subject and most tenacious of its rights. The