MEMOIRS OF MR. JOHN HOWARD PAYNE. BEFORE entering upon the present biography, we feel it our duty to confess the very important aid, for which we are indebted to a London publication of considerable respectability. The Editor of that work commences his notice with the following paragraph: "As our readers have a right to expect from our diligence, the earliest account of every interesting novelty that attracts the attention, and employs the conversation of the town, we have the pleasure to present them a short biographical sketch of this Trans-Atlantic stranger, the materials for which we have obtained from unquestionable authority." It has fortunately chanced for us, however, to meet with documents more minute, than any which seem to have fallen in the way of our predecessor in the task, and these we shall freely incorporate with his, offering proper acknowledgments in the B outset, in order to avert the imputation of taking to ourselves more credit than we deserve. John Howard Payne is descended from a most ancient and respectable parentage in the city of New-York, where he was born, on the 9th of June, 1792, and was soon after, while yet an infant, removed with his family to Boston. The utmost care being taken of his education, he well rewarded the labour bestowed for the purpose of forming his heart and eliciting his genius, in affording the earliest indications of active goodness, and of great intellectual powers. When other boys of his age were playing at marbles, or flying kites, young Payne, by intense study, was storing the ample treasury of his mind with those supplies of knowledge, which enabled him, at the early age of twelve years, to support the conversation, and to perform the duties and transactions of maturity. The father of Mr. Payne was encumbered by a numerous, but very intellectual family, and, being far from affluent in his circumstances, destined only one of his sons to a liberal profession. This choice did not fall upon the subject of our memoir; in consequence of which, he was placed, at the age of thirteen, in the counting-house of a distinguished merchant in New-York. The ardent, aspiring mind of Master Payne, found in itself no congeniality with the objects of a sphere so contracted as this was, when measured by the scale of his inquisitive disposition and extensive capacity. He secretly undertook, during his few leisure moments, the Editorship of a literary work, the novelty of whose style, with its elegance and erudition, speedily secured it a wide circulation and universal perusal in the United States. The author, however, with a modesty ever found in alliance with eminent talents and virtues, most cautiously concealed himself from notice, by the guards which anonymous moralists can adopt, until the persevering search of several conspicuous characters, who, admiring his writings, penetrated his retreat, and, very happily for himself and the world, afforded him an immediate passport to celebrity. The circumstance of his discovery as editor of this paper, was the great hinge upon which his future fortunes turned; and there is about this affair, such an air of romantic adventure, that we cannot resist the feeling by which we are impelled, to insert an extract from the New-York Evening Post of January 24th, 1806, relating the circumstances in a manner which confers the highest honour on the head and heart of the gentleman from whom it proceeded. "We do ourselves the pleasure to recommend to the public a little weekly paper, under the title of the Thespian Mirror,, of which the Fourth Number has already ap peared. We believe we cannot do this more successfully, than by telling the following short and simple story, introductory of the Editor himself. The week succeeding the First Number, some remarks on its merits were sent to my paper by a correspondent, under the signature of Criticus, but there not being room for their insertion for several subsequent days, an apology was made, and a promise that they should appear the next evening. This, by mere chance, it seems, met the eye of the Editor of the Mirror, who immediately sent to my house the following billet, written in a beautiful hand, though evidently in haste. It is published just as I received it, without the alteration of a syllable. "The Editor of the Thes pian Mirror, having observed a note in the "Post of this evening, promising some re"marks on his work, would take the liberty of "asking Mr. Coleman, whether they are, "or are not, in favour of the publication? "He makes this request, which may appear singular, on account of some inaccuracies "which crept into the First Number, through entire accident, and which, though they might pass unnoticed by the community, probably would not escape the attention of a "Criticus. He would farther observe, that I although his extreme youth (being under "the age of fourteen) might, in the eyes of |