The church in Princeton had been repaired during the summer (1783) which preceded the commencement at which I received my bachelor's degree. An extended stage, running the length of the pulpit side of the church, had been erected; and as the president of congress was a trustee of the college, and the president of the college had recently been a distinguished member of congress, and that body itself had been accommodated in the college edifice, an adjournment to attend commencement seemed to be demanded by courtesy, and was readily agreed on. We accordingly had on the stage, with the trustees and the graduating class, the whole of the congress, the ministers of France and Holland, and commander-in-chief of

the American army. The valedictory oration had been assigned to me, and it concluded with an address to General Washington. I need not tell you, that both in preparing and delivering it, I put forth all my powers. The General coloured as I addressed him, for his modesty was among the qualities which so highly distinguished him. The next day, as he was going to attend on a committee of congress, he met me in one of the long entries of the college edifice, stopped and took me by the hand, and complimented me on my address, in language which I should lack his modesty if I repeated it, even to you. After walking and conversing with me for a few minutes, he requested me to present his best wishes for their success in life to my classmates, and then went to the committee room of congress.

General Washington made a present of fifty guineas to the trustees of the college, which they laid out in a full length portrait of him, painted by the elder Peale, of Philadelphia. This picture now occupies the place, and it is affirmed the very frame, which contained the picture of George the Second, and which was decapitated by Wash

ington's artillery, as stated in my last letter. There is a representation in the back ground of this picture, of the battle of Princeton, in which General Mercer, prostrate, wounded and bleeding, holds a conspicuous place.

PROGRESS OF PERSONAL COMFORT.

It is of some importance at what period a man is born. A young man, alive at this period, hardly knows to what improvements of human life he has been introduced; and I bring before his notice the following eighteen changes which have taken place in England since I began to breathe the breath of life-a period amounting now to nearly seventy years. Gas was unknown; I groped my way about the streets of London, in all but the utter darkness of a twinkling oil lamp, under the protection of watchmen, in their climacteric, and exposed to every species of insult. I have been nine hours in sailing from Dover to Calais, before the invention of steam. It took me nine hours to go from Taunton to London. In going from Taunton to Bath, I suffered between 10 and 12,000 severe contusions, before stone breaking Macadam was born. I paid £15 in a single year for repairs of carriage springs on the pavement of London; and now I glide, without noise or fracture, on wooden pavements. I can walk, by the assistance of the police, from one end of London to the other, without molestation; or, if tired, get into a cheap cab, instead of those cottages on wheels, which the hackney coaches were at the beginning of my life.

I had no umbrella. They were little used and very dear. There were no water-proof hats, and my hat has often been reduced by rains to its primitive pulp. I could not keep my small clothes in their proper places, for braces were unknown. If I had the gout, there was no colchicum. If I was bilious, there was no calomel. If I was attacked by the ague, there was no quinine. There were filthy coffee houses instead of elegant clubs. Game could not be bought.

Quarrels about uncommuted tithes were endless. The corruption of Parliament before reform, infamous. There were no banks to receive the savings of the poor. The poor laws were gradually sapping the vitals of the country. Whatever miseries I suffered, I had no post, for a single penny, to whisk my complaints to the remotest corners of the empire. And yet, in spite of all these privations, I lived on quietly, and am now ashamed that I was not discontented, and utterly surprised that all these changes and inventions did not occur two centuries ago. I forgot to add that as the basket of the stage coaches, in which baggage was then carried, had no springs, your clothes were rubbed to pieces, and that even in the best society, onethird at least of the genteel were always drnnk.

Rev. Sidney Smith.

EUROPE, PAST AND PRESENT:

A Comprehensive Manual of European Geography and History; with Separate Descriptions and Statistics of Each State, and a copious Index, Facilitating Reference to every essential fact in the History and Present State of Europe. By Francis H. Ungewitter, L. L. D. New York; Geo. P. Putnam. 1850.

This work is truly all that it professes to be, a valuable guide and aid to any one who desires to obtain a good general view of Europe Past and Present-or any part of it at once. It is, of course, a book of reference rather than for reading-though there are parts of it which may be read with interest. It is, indeed, a Manual, which ought to be in every hand-or near it—and ready to be taken up twenty times a day. It is published under the auspices of Putnam, and, of course, in handsome style.

THE WORLD'S PROGRESS:

A Dictionary of Dates. With Tabular Views of General History, and a Historical Chart Edited by G. P. Putnam, &c. New York: G. P. Putnam. 1851. This work also is a valuable-or rather invaluable-help

to the student of History, or to the general reader. It contains, indeed, a large amount and great variety of useful and agreeable information, condensed into the smallest compass compatible with its object; and no one who desires to know what has been done in the world before he was born, and down to the present time, should suffer himself to be without it for a day. We must add that the appearance of the volume is altogether worthy of its merit.

THE MOON.

AN EMBLEM.

Ablata at Alba.

I saw the virgin Queen of Night
Pursue her path above,

While many an earthly gem grew bright
Beneath her beaming love.

And many a youth, with ardent gaze,
Admired each earthly gem,
While she, with all her radiant rays,
Passed unobserved by them.

But, with a meek and modest grace,
She smiled upon the crowd,
And hid her pale and pensive face
Within a lucid shroud.

Yet still, as one of heavenly birth,

Her way was in the skies;

And still, tho' hid from all on earth,

She shone to angels' eyes.

M. S.

Various Intelligence.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE VIRGINIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

In addition to our brief notice of the late Annual Meeting of the Society, on the 12th ult. in a former part of this number, we submit here some further particulars of the proceedings, for the information of the members, and all concerned.

List of Books, &c., presented to the Society during the past year.

Monthly Review, Enlarged, 21 vols., 8vo. By Conway Robinson, of Richmond.

Foote's Sketches of Virginia, Historical and Biographical, 1 vol., 8vo.; By the Author, Rev. Wm. Henry Foote, D. D., of Romney.

Smith's Tour in America, 2 vols., 8vo., (from the Library of the late John Randolph, of Roanoke.) By John R. Bryan, of Gloucester.

English Voyages and Discoveries in America, &c., in the 16th century, &c., by Sir Humphrey Gilbert, Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Francis Drake, and others, 1 vol. small folio. An Account of the Navigators of the Globe, and of the Discoveries of the East and West Indies, &c., 1 vol., folio. The Debate in the House of Representatives of the U. S. on the Seminole War, in 1819, 1 vol., 8vo. Knapp's Biographical Sketches of Eminent Men, 1 vol., 8vo. By Thomas H. Ellis, of Richmond.

Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1 vol., 8vo. By the Society.

Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society in 1850, in pamphlets. By the Society.

The Pennsylvania Journal of Prison Discipline and Philanthropy, in pamphlets. By the Society.