am I formed that I live, and why? Of what service can I be in this world, either to you or any one else, with a body reduced to premature old age, and a mind enfeebled and bewildered? Yet, since it is my lot to live, I will endeavour to fulfil my part, and exert myself to my utmost, though this life must henceforth be to me a bed of thorns. Whichever way I turn, the same anguish still assails me. You talk of consolation. Ah! you know not what you have lost. I think Omnipotence could give me no equivalent for my boy. No; none-none."

Surely these are the tokens of a high-souled daughter to a parent whose genius and feelings, whatever were his aberrations, were of a kindred order. And now we must have a taste of his style, and a sample of his vicissitudes. In the first specimen we find him in Paris:

"On my way home met Mr. who invited me to go home with him to communicate something. It is, that the Americans here entered into a combination against Aaron Burr. That every man who speaks to him shall be shunned as unworthy of society. That no master of vessel, or any other person, shall take any letter or parcel for him, or other like benevolent things: all which amused me, but alarmed my friend. The most violent of this association is a young Seaman, son of Edmund Seaman, of New York. More of the like. Mr. of Boston, related in a large company, that he, being on a jury at Boston last summer on an insurance case of the Herkimer, Judge Chase presiding, and Luther Martin, one of the lawyers, on some dispute between them, the judge said to Martin, I am surprised that you can so prostitute your talents.' Martin replied, 'I never prostituted my talents except when I defended you and Colonel Burr; and added, in the hearing of the jury, a couple of the greatest rascals in the world.' A Mr. Thompson, of Charleston, South Carolina, a Scotchman, but naturalised in the United States, now settled here, being asked if he had called on Colonel Burr, said, 'No; and no good American would call on him.

*

In London he writes on one occasion thus:

*

6

*

"Some of the books I must sell: i. e. Bayle and Moreri, at least. I went off to consult my friend Mr. Cooper, the solicitor. He had been at his office to-day. Waited half an hour, standing in the public room, but he came not. Went thence to J. Sm.'s, whose advice, as an intelligent merchant, I thought might be useful; out. Then posted back again to Grave's; he was out. Being a good deal fatigued, and something hungry, stepped into our eating-house (just by Grave's), and took beef and a pint of ale. Thence to see Koe, who has his office in my walk. Gave him my note to J. B., and told him the story of the books, for I have promised J. B. some of those books. Thence loitering, and staring at picture shops, and thinking of that cursed A., to J. Hug's, to get her to put my thirty-franc watch (the only one left) in order. She discovered the malady and repaired it in fifteen minutes. Sat an hour. It is, perhaps, the only creature in London who does exclusively love Gam. On my way, passed through Covent Garden, and bought her one shilling and sixpence

worth of apples and pears. Then slowly, and by various détours, home, where, at half-past five, having trotted about four leagues, was a little abattées. Sent out for half a pound mutton, eightpence; pint ale, four pence; one pound candles, elevenpence halfpenny; one pound sugar, ninepence; pipes and tobacco, fivepence; two quires paper, one shilling and sixpence; half-quarten loaf of bread, eightpence; six pounds potatoes, sixpence. So that my expenses yesterday and to-day, exclusive of room-rent and fire, have been eleven shillings and sixpence; but observe that I have had, in this fortnight, only half a pound of meat, six pounds of potatoes, and four pounds six ounces of bread. In my stroll to-day, seeing St. Paul's open, went in for the first time; cost fourpence, i. e. twopence for a book, and twopence for entrance."

Such may be said to have been the prevailing and general condi tion of poor Burr while in England and France, although he attracted some stedfast friends, and men of note, such as Bentham, wherever he went. But it was his nature never to divulge to them the extent of his privations. He chose to wear a smiling and cheerful countenance, even when starving and homeless, and when not a few, we hope, would have thought it and found it ennobling to have succoured him. At any rate, one thing is certain; a man of such various and extensive experience, and whose capacities were so large and brilliant, must have possessed a store of extraordinary knowledge in regard to mankind and of the human heart; and although he does not appear to have attempted anything like a full or ambitious record of his observations and feelings, we have yet curious and striking glimpses of the world, and various touching indexes of his generosity and affectionate feeling. We have seldom heard of a slave-owner corresponding in terms similar to the following with those in bondage to himself:

66

To Peggy Gaitin ( a slave)

"Washington, January 4, 1804. "You may assure the family that I never was in better health; that I have not been wounded or hurt, and have had no quarrel with anybody. I received your letter of the 29th, this evening. Let nothing hinder you from going to school punctually. Make the master teach you arithmetic, so that you may be able to keep the accounts of the family. I am very much obliged to you for teaching Nancy. She will learn more from you than by going to school.

"I shall be at home about the last of this month, when I will make you all New Year's presents. Tell Harry that I shall expect to find a good road up to the house. Tell me what Harry is about, and what he is doing at Montalto. Sam and George are well.

You must write to Mrs. Alston about Leonora's child. letter to me. I hope little Peter is doing well.

Enclose your "A. BURR."

Burr was one of the most strenuous and able advocates for the abolition of slavery in New York; nor, after reading the above letter, is it possible to believe that he was at any time a heartless

task-master. Our next and last extract carries us back to 1794, and to a period when steaming on the Hudson was yet unknown. Burr is writing to his wife from Albany :-

"We arrived here yesterday, after a hot, tedious passage of seven days. We were delayed as well by accidents as by calms and contrary winds. The first evening, being under full sail, we ran ashore at Tappan, and lay there aground, in a very uncomfortable situation, twenty-four hours. With great labour and fatigue we got off on the following night. and had scarce got under sail before we missed our longboat. We lost the whole tide in hunting for it, and so lay till the morning of Wednesday. Having then made sail again, with a pretty strong head wind, at the very first tack the Dutch horse fell overboard. The poor devil was at the time tied about the neck with a rope, so that he seemed to have the alternative of hanging or drowning (for the river is here about four miles wide, and the water was very rough); fortunately for him, the rope broke, and he went souse into the water. His weight sunk him so deep that we were at least fifty yards from him before he came up. He snorted off the water, and turning round once or twice, as if to see where he was, then recollecting the way to New York, he immediately swam off down the river with all force. We fitted out our longboat in pursuit of him, and at length drove him on shore on the Westchester side, where I hired a man to take him to Frederick's. All this delayed us nearly a whole tide more. The residue of the voyage was without accident, except such as you may picture to yourself in a small cabin, with seven men, seven women, and two crying children-two of the women being the most splenetic, illhumoured animals you can imagine."

ART. XII.—The Dispatches of Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington ; compiled from Official and Authentic Documents. By LIEUT.-COLONEL GURWOOD. 12 vols. London: Murray.

It was lately announced by the newspaper press that the Queen had bestowed a pension of 2001. a-year on Colonel Gurwood as a reward for his editorship of these Dispatches; and certainly a work of greater national value has not appeared for many years. But it is not in a historical or political kind of view, although for such in after ages will it be eagerly consulted, that we now notice the compilation; but merely as conveying a faithful and admirable portrait of ̇the Duke as a man, a record of his feelings, his resolves, and his conduct in a great variety of circumstances of the most important, difficult, and delicate description.

It required neither twelve volumes nor one to publish his Grace's merits as a soldier and commander in the field of battle. In spite also of all that has been said of his becoming a politician in the time of peace, and placing himself at the head of a great party in the state, as if his better judgment had then forsaken him, and the other commonplaces uttered at one time on this subject, we believe no statesman or senator in the empire stands at this day higher in

estimation of the country for clear-headedness, straightforward and firm conduct, or generous opposition; so that, during the present generation, there cannot be any pressing call for proclaiming his praises upon this score, the living proofs being everywhere appreciated. We venture however to assert that any one who is ignorant of the contents of this voluminous work, never has been aware and never can become acquainted with the character of the Duke as a man, with the nature of his mental capacities, or with the cast of his moral sentiments. We confess that we have obtained, if not a far more elevated view of his military genius, at least a more expanded one of his talents, distinct from those which may be deemed purely professional, and a far more winning and gratifying index to his moral dispositions, since glancing into these Dispatches than we ever had before arrived at. There is a beautiful congruity of engaging evidence throughout the whole of the documents, extending as they do from the time that the Duke distinguished himself in India, and downwards, whatever may have been the country or the war in which he was engaged, until Waterloo left him no further scope for triumph. This congruity has all along had the strongest guarantees; for, independently of a deep devotion to the interests of his country and unsurpassed military qualities, a manly simplicity and directness of principles, strong common sense, and consummate candour and coolness, ever were at hand, not more to the command of the admiration and confidence of all who served with him, but to the support of the integrity and the self-possession of the hero himself.

Were we anxious to attempt tracing the development of his Grace's moral and mental qualities as exhibited in these volumes, it would be necessary to go through the whole of them, to analyze their consecutive, as well as to speculate upon their united, contents. We should, perhaps, find the first of them the most interesting, upon this plan, or at least the part that would principally attract philosophical inquiry. But to the general reader the last volume will be particularly arresting, not only on account of the mighty events to which it refers, but for the evidences which bear upon the character and genius of the Duke. Our few extracts will therefore be from this portion of the compilation; nor, though few, will any difficulty be encountered by the reflecting mind, of perceiving that the greatest and most splendid ideas and results must have ever been inseparable in the history of the first Captain of the age.

The first document which we copy is dated Waterloo, 18th June,

1815. 3 A.M.

་་

"My Dear Stuart,-I enclose two letters, which I beg you to peruse and forward without loss of time. You will see in the letter to the Duc de Berri the real state of the case and the only risk we run. The Prussians will be ready again in the morning for anything. Pray keep the English

quiet if you can. Let them all prepare to move, but neither be in a hurry or a fright, as all will yet turn out well. I have given the drections to the Governor of Antwerp to meet the crotchets, which I find in the heads of the King's Governors upon every turn. Believe me, &c.

"WELLINGTON."

"The post horses are embargoed in my name; I conclude, to prevent people from running away with them; but give the man orders to allow anybody to have them who goes with an order from you."

The supposed surprise which caught the Duke at the Ball, and the movement upon Waterloo, after the sanguinary battle of the 16th, must have spread much alarm on the part of all who wished the British well; still while the Duke seems to have had all his plans matured, and to have felt assured of success in his own mind, there must have been very many under his command who reposed entire confidence in him also, and thus to affect the result materially..

The Duke's letters, written immediately or very soon after the battle, must exalt him in the esteem of all who peruse them. We quote one, to the Earl of Aberdeen, of the 19th June:

"My Dear Lord,-You will readily give credit to the existence of the extreme grief with which I announce to you the death of your gallant brother, in consequence of a wound received in our great battle of yesterday. He had served me most zealously and usefully for many years, and on many trying occasions; but he had never rendered himself more useful, and had never distinguished himself more, than in our late actions. He received the wound which occasioned his death when rallying one of the Brunswick battalions which was shaking a little; and he lived long enough to be informed by myself of the glorious result of our actions, to which he had so much contributed by his active and zealous assistance. I cannot express to you the regret and sorrow with which I look round me, and contemplate the loss which I have sustained particularly in your brother. The glory resulting from such actions, so dearly bought, is no consolation to me, and I cannot suggest it as any to you and his friends; but I hope that it may be expected that this last one has been so decisive, as that no doubt remains that our exertions and our individual losses will be rewarded by the early attainment of our just object. It is then that the glory of the actions in which our friends and relations have fallen will be some consolation for their loss. Believe me, &c.

WELLINGTON."

"Your brother had a black horse given to him, I believe, by Lord Ashburnham, which I will keep till I hear from you what you wish should be done with it."

It would afford a fine treat to hear the Duke describe familiarly the battle of Waterloo, or any other of the many great actions in which he has been engaged. But in the absence of his living voice, the following possage from a communication to Marshal Beresford lets one have a taste of the plain unvarnished style which must mark the conversation as it does the writings of his Grace :