guments, &c. Read good samples also of English eloquence. Some of these may be found in Small's American Speaker, and some in Cary's above all mercenary motives, a stern supporter of his country and his country's honor, and though so passionately fond of military adventure, as to be almost mad upon the sub still continue to contemplate his character with admiration, as we regard a beacon, upon some huge cliff, blazing out in the plenitude of its glory, from the midst of surrounding darkness. ject; yet never condescending like the myrmidons of his Criminal Recorder, in which last the defence of day to sell his sword to any other than his lawful prince. Eugene Aram is distinguishable as a model of Such a character is rare in any age; in that in which he logic, condensation of matter and classical purity existed it was indeed a prodigy. It is not wonderful, thereof style. Exercise yourself afterwards in pre-fore, that he should have excited the astonishment of the paring orations on feigned cases. venal and corrupt men of his day, and that posterity should In this observe rigorously the disposition of Blair into introduction, narration, &c. Adapt your language and figures to the several parts of the oration, and suit your arguments to the audience before whom it is supposed to be spoken. This is your last and most important exercise-no trouble should therefore be spared. If you have any person in your neighborhood engaged in the same study, take each of you different sides of the same cause, and prepare pleadings according to the custom of the bar, where the plaintiff opens, the defendant answers and the defendant replies It would further be of great service to pronounce your orations (having before you only short notes to assist the memory,) in the presence of some person who may be considered as your judge. NOTE. Under each of the preceding heads the books are to be read in the order in which they are named. These by no means constitute the whole of what might be usefully read in each of these branches of science. The mass of excellent works going more into detail is great indeed; but those here noted will enable the student to select for himself such others of detail as may suit his particular views and disposition, they will give him a respectable, an useful and satisfactory degree of knowledge in these branches, and will themselves form a valuable and sufficient library for a lawyer, who is at the same time a lover of science. (Signed,) TH: JEFFERSON. Notices of New Works. LIFE OF THE CHEVALIER BAYARD; the good Knight, sans peur et sans réproche. By Wm. Gilmore Simms. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1848. Many lives have, at various periods, been written of Bay. ard, the most remarkable, as well as by far the most graphic of which, is that by "the Loyal Servant." It possesses all the advantage of contemporary biography, the author having been long an attendant upon him and standing with him upon a footing of entire intimacy. Its details are highly graphic and the tale is told with such an air of näive simplicity, that it never fails to make a deep impression upon all who read it. The author, in fact, describes what he to Horace's celebrated maxim to convince any one, saw with his own eyes; and it does not require a reference there is a great difference between the narrative of him who has seen a thing with his own eyes, and him who relates it only at second hand. Who does not see the difference be tween Xenophon's Cyropædia and his Anabasis? that It strikes us, that Mr. Simms would have done a far more acceptable service to literature, had he revised the English translation of this book, and published it with editorial notes. It tells the tale in a much more picturesque manner, than can Mr. S., or anybody else, who was not a witness to the scenes described. The path, too, was a beaten one, and we can see no reason why a man of origi nal talent should have ventured upon it when there bad been ninety and nine before him. Be that however as it may, we do not mean to detract from the merits of the book under consideration. It is writ ten in excellent English, (no small recommendation by-thebye,) and is calculated to sell well. The narrative is managed with great adroitness, and if the subject were only s to Mr. Simms' skill. little less worn, the whole performance would do great credit We hope to see many more speci mens of his pleasing and graceful style. The book may be had of Drinker & Morris. DON QUIXOTE DE LA MANCHA. Translated from the ard. 1847. Philip the Third once said, when he saw a student laughing immoderately over a book, "That man must be either out of his wits, or reading Don Quixote." Certainly there is no production, that we have ever read, so provocative of mirth as this strange narrative of the feats and follies of the gallant, the high-toned, the visionary Knight of La Mancha. The book is far the best specimen that we have of the mock-heroic. Almost every adventure of the Don is a comic picture, and the "honest squire" amuses us as no other acquaintance can, save Dogberry or Falstaff. And yet we think that those who look upon Don Quixote merely The name of the Chevalier Bayard has a magic in it, which appertains to few, even of the most eminent characters, whose deeds form the subject of history. Born in an age when the feudal system tottered to its fall, and when one of its institutions, that of Chivalry, was fast following in the footsteps of its parent, the glory of the whole Round Table seems for a moment to have revived in his person. as an amusing satire on overheated enthusiasm, or as a It was but for a moment, however, and the last flickering spark expiring with him, it resembled in its death struggle the dying dolphin, illuminating the surrounding waters with the brilliancy of its unrivalled colors. He was the bravest, the most generous, the most magnanimous of men; loving glory for itself, seeking danger that it might add to his fame, corrective administered to a vitiated public taste, have failed to catch its moral. It is at once the most ludicrous and the most mournful of all personal histories. The spectacle of a noble soul thwarted in every endeavor, a man of acute sensibility exposed to ridicule at every turn, deeds of high emprise ending in absurd and whimsical, sallies, cannot fail for the sake of the army that no more such "vile prints" of its officers will be sent forth. These volumes may be found at the store of Nash & Woodhouse. to produce a sad impression on every thinking mind. Sis- CHEMISTRY, and its application to Physiology, Agricul- The present edition is most acceptable, as affording a good library copy, at a very reasonable price. It contains also more illustrations than any edition we have before seen. Sancho Panza once predicted that his doings would afford materiel for the pencil. "I will lay a wager," said be, "that before long there will not be a chop house, tavern, or barber's stall, but will have a painting of our achievements." Tony Johannot has depicted many of the most remarkable of these achievements, in a manner that would not offend the "squire" himself, The book is for sale by Drinker &. Morris. GENERAL SCOTT AND HIS STAFF: Comprising Memoirs The works of Smith and Johnston in these labors to diffuse among our farmers a more general desire for improvement in husbandry, by appealing to their intelligence and supplying them with facts. And we do not think that we have seen any work of a more useful character than this publication of Dr. Liebig. Its exceeding cheapness too (for it costs but 20 cents) places it within the reach of every one. It is for sale by J. W. Randolph & Co. A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA, from its Discovery and Settlement by Europeans to the Present Time. By Robert R. Howison. Vol. II. From the year 1763 to the Retrocession of Alexandria in 1847. Richmond: Drinker & Morris. New-York and London: Wiley and Putnam. 1848. We cannot do more, at this time than announce the appearance of a volume that demands a very large attention at our hands. In dipping into its pages we have been much pleased with its manner, and we do not doubt that a more careful consideration will confirm our prepossessions. The book is beautifully printed and makes a very handsome companion for the first volume. It is published by our friends, Drinker & Morris, to whom we refer all those desiring to purchase an interesting History of our State. Now AND THEN. By Samuel Warren, F. R. S. Néw 1848. York: Harper & Brothers, 82 Cliff street. We had occasion in the January number of our work to commend a very excellent Life of General Taylor, from Several publications have appeared since "Ten Thouthe press of Grigg, Elliot & Co., prepared by J. Reese sand a Year," which have been ascribed to the pen of Mr. Fry, and we have now to return our thanks to the same pub- Warren, but the present work bears the unmistakeable imlishers for two other works of a similar character. They press of his genius. No one can read it, without detectconsist almost entirely of accounts of the recent opera-ing on almost every page, those minute touches, which gave tions of our army in Mexico, from the battle of Palo Alto such attractiveness to the Diary of a Physician." All to the brilliant action of the Garitas, under the walls of recollect the truth-like representations of that sad narrathe great city. Short biographical sketches are also pre- tive and the interest, almost personal in its nature, to every sented, of 30 or 40 officers, below the rank of General, reader, which it excited. In "Now and Then" our symwho have illustrated by their valor the arms of the country. pathies are brought into active play, by the verisimilitude of These books bear evident marks of haste in preparation, the description, in behalf of a young man, under sentence but as they were compiled with reference to documentary of death, for a crime of which he is innocent. We do not evidence in the bureaus at Washington, they may be relied know when we have read anything more touching than the upon as authentic. exposition Mr. Warren gives us of the inward workings of that brave heart,—the alternations of hope and despairthe struggle between resentment at his wrongs and forgive We should have liked them all the better, we must confess, if the "accurate portraits" had been omitted. We do not recollect when we have seen a collection of such dis-ness of his accusers, and, last of all, the uncomplaining torted and lugubrious countenances. Really some of the officers represented have just grounds, we think, for an action of libel. The portrait of General Twiggs is but a caricature of General Quitman and that of General Shields resembles the original only in his moustache. We hope resignation with which he goes out to the "light of his stern, last morning." The incidents of the respite and the commutation of punishment, by which young Ayliffe's life is spared, are not new to us, but Mr. Warren has used them only for the high purpose of inculcating a lesson. The Pause o'er me and mournfully lean on the spear; But while the hot blood in each bosom is burning, Sing o'er me the feast song, and quaff the brown beer. character of Mr. Hylton is well drawn and commands our | Let none from the field of my glory returning, "Now and Then" is for sale by Drinker & Morris. HISTORY OF THE GIRONDISTS. By A. de Lamartine. Let my hillock be marked with the simple wild flower; Literary News. 200 BROADWAY. Perhaps the reader of our magazine will derive a better idea of the merit of this publication, from the article on the Life of Charlotte Corday, which we have presented in preceeding pages of this number, than from any other source. The volume before us is full of interest, embodying vivid TO BE PUBLISHED IMMEDIATELY BY D. APPLETON AND CO. descriptions of the exciting and stormy scenes of the Revolution and arraying in all the hues of poetry those persons and events, that most attach themselves to our sympathies. to which is appended a record of officers, non-commission 1. The origin, progress, and conclusion of the Florida War: Lamartine is certainly the least philosophical of all histo-ed officers, musicians, and privates of the U. S. Army, rians, but he is also the least tedious. His style never Navy, and Marine corps, who were killed in battle or died wearies. Glowing with fancy and brilliant in antithesis, it of disease. By John T. Sprague, Brevet Captain of the produces life-like portraits and enlivens its subject with United States Army. Illustrated with a Map and Wood personal anecdote, while the pages of a more abstruse Engravings, one volume octavo. chronicler would fatigue and discourage the inquirer. As a raconteur, Lamartine is superior, we think, to Thiers, and other stately writers upon the same tumultuous period; Alison is not altogether reliable and Carlyle, we confess, is absolutely forbidding (and sometimes unintelligible) with his strained conceits and introverted sentences. The book is well-printed and is prefaced with a steel engraving of the gifted Madame Roland, who went up to the guillotine, in the name of Liberty. THE LESSON OF LIFE AND OTHER POEMS. By George H. We think if Mr. Boker had bestowed a little more care upon the execution of his principal poem and had compressed it within the dimensions of forty pages, instead of extending it over sixty-six, he would have produced a work of very great excellence. We had marked out several passages in the "Lesson of Life," of much poetic beauty, which indicate a want of finish, to bring to Mr. Boker's notice, but we rose from the perusal of it, so favorably impressed with the high tone of sentiment which it conveys, as to be quite disarmed of all critical severity. We must say, however, that in the structure of blank verse (of all poetical adventures, perhaps, the most difficult, with the single exception of the Sonnet,) Mr. Boker would do well to be more cautions in future. 2. Ollendorff's New Method of Learning to Read, Write, and speak the Spanish Language. With an appendix. Containing a brief, but comprehensive Recapitulation of the Rules, as well as of all the Verbs, both Regular and Irregular, so as to render their use easy and familiar to the most ordinary capacity. Together with practical rules for Spanish pronunciation, and models of social and commer cial correspondence. The whole designed for young learn ers and persons who are their own instructors. By M. Velasquez and F. Simmonne. Professors of the Spanish and work is substantially the same with that of the French, French Languages. One vol., 12mo. The plan of this German, and Italian Grammars of Professor Ollendorff. It consists of a series of Lessons so arranged as gradually to eliminate every idiom and construction of the language, and to impart to the scholar a thorough knowledge of both its theory and practice. 3. Laneton Parsonage: A Tale. Second part. By the author of "Amy Herbert," "Gertrude," "Margaret Percival," etc. Edited by the Rev. W. Sewell, D. D. One volume 12mo. Uniform with the First Series. 4. The Sketches: Three Tales. 1. Walter Lorimore. 2. The emblems of Life. 3. The Lost Inheritance. By the author of "Amy Herbert," "The Old Man's Home," and "Hawkstone." Illustrated with engravings. One vol ume 12mo. We do not think very highly of Mr. Boker's smaller 5. A System of English Versification; containing rules for poems. But we cannot resist the temptation of copying the structure of the different kinds of verses. Illustrated the following very spirited translation, (page 189) in which by Numerous Examples from the best Poets. By Erastus is infused much of the old Norse vigor of the rude songs of Everett, A.M. One volume 12mo. the Anglo-Saxons. FRAGMENT FROM BEOWULF. TRANSLATED FROM THE ANGLO-SAXON. If death from the fierce shock of battle should take me, 6. The Mystery of Godliness. By the Rev. Samuel L Southard, A.M., Rector of Calvary Church, New York City. One volume 8vo. 7. Instructions to Young Marksmen, in all that relates to the Improved American Rifle. By R. Chapman, Civil En gineer. One volume 12mo. PUBLISHED MONTHLY AT FIVE DOLLARS PER ANNUM-JNO. R. THOMPSON, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. VOL. XIV. RICHMOND, APRIL, 1848. VIRGINIA; NO. 4. nient to both, and not unjust to either. Virginia was willing to yield something of her just rights, if, by doing so, harmony could be secured and the her ancient title TO THE NORTH-WESTERN TER- intercourse of the two States fixed upon a stable RITORY, AND HER rights upon the ohio river, VINDICATED. BY GEO. W. THOMPSON. and friendly basis. This was her earnest desire. This failed of accomplishment. The two States remain upon their original and conventional rights, as settled by their histories, their constitutions and the just interpretation of the various laws touching the very delicate questions involved. Some difficulty having originated on the co-ter- These States, if harmony was the true object, minous borders of Virginia and Ohio, involving and we are to believe they were sincere, in seekquestions of boundary and jurisdiction between these ing the settlement of these questions, are more States, the State of Ohio proposed a commission fully committed to that comity and kind feeling for the settlement of these questions. Whatever which should regulate the intercourse of neighdoubts can possibly exist on these subjects, arise bouring Commonwealths, having a common destiny out of the character and construction of the deed of good or evil, though differing somewhat in their of cession from Virginia, in 1784, of the territo- internal systems. But it is not to be expected, ry "North-West of the river Ohio" to the Confed- that in an immense population with diversified ineration, and of the seventh clause of the fifth sec-terests and somewhat differing sentiments, that tion of the act of 18th of December, 1789, enti- collisions, between individuals in their transactions tled, “An Act concerning the erection of the Dis- of business and impulsions to conduct, will not trict of Kentucky into an independent State." take place, involving all the questions submitted The popular opinion of Virginia, traditionally de- for adjustment. It is therefore just and expedient rived from the cotemporaneous construction of to enter into a full, and so far as practicable, perthese grants and reservations, had always pointed spicuous examination and settlement of the histoto but one conclusion on this subject, namely, that ry of the title of Virginia and a statement of the the Ohio river was and remained the absolute pro- conventional and national rights retained by her, perty of Virginia, drawing with it all the rights of and with a view fully to understand what rights, dominion and jurisdiction, saving to the citizens of easements or jurisdictions have been surrendered the United States such easements and jurisdiction by her, heretofore, to other States or citizens, genonly, of the same, as are necessary to the "free erally, of the United States. and common use and navigation" of this river. This tone of public sentiment in Virginia generally, has never changed, while on the immediate On the 23rd of May, 1609, James I., as king border of the Ohio it is believed to have increased of England, granted by letters patent an extension in intensity. Some doubts and discussion, occa- of what may be called the corporation of Virginia. sioned by recent transactions, have, it is true, been The limits and jurisdiction of this corporate body started as to the exact line of boundary and the included "all those lands, countries and territories character of the anomalous jurisdiction, claimed situate, lying and being in that part of America, as against Virginia. But notwithstanding the uni- called Virginia, from the point of land called Cape versality and conclusiveness of this opinion on the or Point Comfort, all along the sea coast, to the part of Virginia, expressed in her legislative dec-northward, two hundred miles and from the said laration, the Commonwealth, in a spirit of frank-point of Cape Comfort all along the sea coast, to ness and concession, concurred in the request of the southward, two hundred miles, and all that Ohio to submit the matters referred to, to a joint space and circuit of land throughout, from sea to commission for settlement upon principles conve- sea, west and north-west." This was the description of the territorial limits. A form of govern*This commission was composed of Messrs. Wm. C. Rives, Wm. Green and Geo. W. Thompson, on the part of ment was ordained; the executive and legislative Virginia, and Messrs. Thomas Ewing, John Brough and authority was prescribed; crimes were to be punJames Collier on the part of Ohio. These gentlemen met ished; contracts enforced; census to be taken and in the City of Washington, in the early part of January, the entire organism of a colonial government was 1848, but could not agree upon terms of adjustment, and finally adjourned on the 26th of the month.-[Ed. Mess. VOL. XIV-25 1 1 Hen. 88. HISTORICAL REVIEW. Carolina on the South, Maryland and Pennsyl defined. Its boundaries and its jurisdiction were delegated authority of the crown upon the contiprescribed. The corporation had a legal existence; nent, it was, in virtue of that relation, the occupant its jurisdiction was commensurate with the limits under the crown to the extent of the crown claim. of its grant. Whatever right belonged to, or was The extent of that claim and the title of England asserted by the crown of England, vested in the will appear as we progress. corporation; soil and sovereignty both passed. At the Trinity Term of the Court of King's Bench, vania on the North, limited the territory of Vir1624, the corporation was dissolved by the judg-ginia. New York had no existence and no jurisment of that court. The legal existence of the diction could vest in her she was conquered from corporation, as a monopoly, then ceased, and at the Holland in 1663. Then Virginia was not limited same moment the political existence of the Colo- farther than as above stated by any crown grants ny of Virginia commenced and continued uninter- of its adjacent territory, and before the establishruptedly to its independence. The corporation ment of New York as a distinct and separate was dissolved, but this made no change in the poli- crown colony, the grant to Pennsylvania, bounded tical condition of the people. All the elements of on Lake Erie, excluded her from the west and that government which had been granted to the corpo- colony was interposed between New York and the ration or developed by it, in the execution of pow-valley of the Mississippi. When, subsequently, ers necessary under the condition of things, were New York was created a proprietary colony and continued to the colony. From 1630 to 1642. a her bounds came to be definitely understood, they period of twelve years, there remain the partial were defined by the English historian with apparecords of sixteen legislative assemblies, and sub-rent accuracy. "From forty-one degrees forty sequent to the judgment of dissolution these as- minutes on Delaware river, New York runs twensemblies had been convened and were in corres- ty miles higher on Delaware river to the parallel pondence with the throne and their continuance is of forty-one degrees latitude, which by Pennsylvathe evidence of their recognition. The Colony of nia royal grant, divides New York from the prov Virginia was in existence it had merely passed ince of Pennsylvania. Upon this parallel, New from the condition of a proprietary, to that of a York is supposed to extend west to lake Erie: provincial or crown colony. The corporation of and from thence along Lake Erie and along the Virginia was, by the act of the crown, transmuted communicating great run of water from Lake Erie into the colony of Virginia, and by the act of to Lake Ontario," &c. This description of the transmutation, the limits of territory and jurisdic-bounds of New York is strengthened by “A new tion were not altered. The colony succeeded to and accurate map of the British dominions in Amerthe authority, territory and jurisdiction of the cor- ica according to the treaty of 1763, divided into poration. It became a crown colony, subject only the several provinces and jurisdictions projected to express limitations by the crown, of its territory upon the best authorities and astronomical observaand jurisdiction. And to the extent of such ex- tions.""" New York has her South West corner press restrictions was it limited and Virginia, as a resting upon Lake Erie and Pennsylvania interpocolony and as a State, has recognized all such sed between her and the west. But yet New known grants in the charters of Carolina, Mary-York is not in existence. Then, that Virginia was land and Pennsylvania. not limited farther than as above stated, must be re The claim of the crown embraced all the paral-peated. She had then a political existence. What lels of latitude through to the South or Pacific sea. were its powers? It represented the sovereignty This claim could only be maintained under the law of England; sold land; and extinguished Indian of nations by possession of some kind. The Colo- title; in October, 1629, the Grand Assembly passny of Virginia was now the only political organi- ed an Appropriation and Revenue law." This zation on the continent, in virtue of which Great Grand Assembly was never suppressed and the coloBritain could claim any possession of the country. ny continued to exercise jurisdiction over all persons Virginia represented the crown upon the conti- and property within her limits. In 1652, upon nent; her political possession extending to the pos- the capitulation with the commonwealth, it was session and claim of the crown, except in the subsequent cases of expressed grant and limitation by the crown to other colonies or proprietaries. As the 2 Instructions to Gov. Wyatt, 1621. 1 Hen. 114, et seq. 3 1 Banc. 199, n. 41 Hen. 134. And expressly recognized by the procla mation of George II., who guaranteed to the subjects of the new colonies, acquired by the treaty of 1763, the same institutions as existed in the other colonies. 7 Hen. 663. 5 Vattel, b. 1, c. 18, sec. 207. stipulated that the "People of Virginia" should have all the liberties of the freeborn people of England. At the termination of the Interregnum of English history, in 1660, Sir William Berkeley • Wynne's Br. Emp. in America, vol. 1, p. 171. London, 1770. Smith's Hist. of N. Y., p. 14. 7 Map to Knox's War in America, vol 1. See also Map in Russ. Hist. of America. vol. 2, p. 172 and title-page. R 1 Hen. 142. London, 1769. |