Page images
PDF
EPUB

In 1640, governour Winthrop, in his Journal, inferts the following paffage, viz. "Upon the great liberty which the king left the parliament to in England, fome of our friends there wrote to us, advifing, to fend over fome to folicit for us in parliament, giving us hopes we might obtain much: but confulting about it, we (the governour and affiftants, convened in council) declined the motion for this confideration, that if we should put ourselves under the protection of parliament, we must be fubject to all fuch laws they should make, or at leaft fuch as they might impofe on us; in which course, though they should intend our good, yet it might prove very prejudicial to us." Here obferve, that as at this time, fo it hath been ever fince, that the colonies, fo far from acknowledging the parliament to have a right to make laws binding on them in all cafes whatsoever, they have ever denied it in any cafe.

"The petition of the Earl of Stirling, William PhillipsLee, and Mary Trumbull, praying to be put in possession of some lands, called the county of Canada, granted to William Earl of Stirling, in 1635, by the council for the affairs of N. England. 1760."

"Letter from Jasper Mauduit, Esq. to the Speaker of the house of representatives of the province of Massachusetts-Bay, relative to a reimbursement from parliament for the expense of supporting the French neutrals from Nova Scotia." "Letter from Jasper Mauduit, Esq. to the Speaker of the house of representatives of the province of Massachusetts-Bay, relative to the duty laid by parliament on foreign molasses."

"Letter from Jasper Mauduit, Esq. to the Speaker of the house of representatives of the province of Massachusetts-Bay, relative to the duty on foreign molasses, the keeping up ten thousand troops in America, &c."

The titles explain the subjects of the foregoing papers. The hisVol. III. No. 6.

2R

torian will consult them, and the careless reader will consult the historian.

"Letter from Thomas Mayhew to Gov. Prince,"

Upon the politicks of the Indians of the Elizabeth islands and the Vineyard in 1671.

"James Walker's letter to Gov. Prince."

A few particulars about king Philip.

"Daniel Gookin's letter to Gov. Prince."

"Letter from Gov. Prince to Daniel Gookin."

"Instructions from the church at Natick to William and Anthony."

They were appointed mediators between the Missogkonnog Indians and the government of Plymouth in 1671."

"Copy of a letter from Governour Prince to Roger Williams."

This is an answer to a complaint of Roger Williams about liberty of religious worship, which he feared the colonies of Massachusetts,Connecticut, and Plymouth intended to take from him by conquering his colony at Providence.

"James Quanapaug's information."

Quanapaug was sent from Natick in 1675 to reconnoitre hostile Indians, kingPhilip, Narragansetts, &c. He saw much,and told it well.

"Letter from Governour Stuyvesant, of N. York, to the Governour and Council of Massachusetts."

Gov. S. complains of the irregular proceedings of some English colonial officers in New-York and the unjustifiable outrages of a large company of men on Long Island, and wishes for peaceable accommodation. Boston has long been celebrated for courtesy and kind attention to strangers, and we are proud to mention, that in 1663 Gov. S. thus writes:

The engagement whereby I confeffed myfelf obliged unto your honours, to your citizens, both horfe and foot, for the large refpects, honourable reception, and entertainment in the city and colony of Boston, doth provoke me, by this feafonable opportunity, to return all due and thankful acknowledgment, which fhould have been done fooner, if my ficknefs and other intervening occafions, had not occafioned this neglect. But I hope it will never be too late to offer this tribute of thankfulness, and due engagement, unto your honours, in any occafion.

"Deposition of Hugh Cole, at Plymouth Court, A. D. 1670," About king Philip.

"A Description and History of Salem, by Rev. William Bentley." The history of Salem contains a great variety of facts. Whether all the statements are correct, we are not able to decide; nor can we point out what is true, and what is false. Dr. Bentley has investigated with diligence the state of population, diseases, religious worship, &c. His opinions and inferences may be open to doubt, but we are not disposed to withhold praise from curiosity of inquiry and accumulation of results. The character given of Roger Williams is different from that to be drawn from the statements of former historians, and although Dr. Bentley may have correctly estimated that singular man, still, as he knew there were doubts respecting the true character of the Patriarch of Providence, he ought to have cited authorities in support of his opinions. He would have made the work more luminous, had he divided it into chapters with appropriate heads; for now we cannot with facility find any particular fact, required to be known. The author mentions at the close, that the history is to be continued, but in the succeeding volumes of the Historical Collections the continuation does not appear. We hope

he will proceed in the work, for diligence and exactness are not to be found in every historian; and these qualities shall always receive our praise, though our disapprobation may be sometimes excited by obscurity of style and perpiexity of arrangement. As a specimen of Dr. Bentley's work we insert the character of Roger Williams, and we are willing to believe every conimendation of this extraordinary man; of one, who was enterprizing, eccentrick, heroick, and pious.

In Salem, every perfon loved Mr. Williams. He had no perfonal enemies under any pretence. All valued his friendship. Kind treatment could win him, but oppofition could not conquer him. He was not afraid to ftand alone for truth against the world; and he had always addrefs enough, with his firmhe had ever gained. nefs, never to be forfaken by the friends He had always a tenderness of conscience, and feared every offence against moral truth. He Breathed the pureft devotion. He was ready in thoughts and words, and defied difputation. He had a familiar imagery all his vaunting adverfaries to publick of style, which fuited his times, and he indulged even in the titles of his controverfial papers to wit upon names, especially upon the Quakers. He knew man better than he did civil government. He was a friend to human nature, forgiving,

upright, and pious. He understood the Indians better than any man of the age. He made not fo many converts, but he made more fincere friends. He knew their paffions, and the reftraints they could endure. He was betrayed into no wild or expenfive projects respecting them. He ftudied their manners and their customs and paflions together. His vocabulary alfo proves that he was famiif not with its principles. It is an happy liar with the words of their language, relief in contemplating fo eccentrick a character, that no fufferings induced any purposes of revenge, for which he afterwards had great opportunities; that great focial virtues corrected the first errors of his opinions; and that he lived of generous good nefs, and to be the parto exhibit to the natives a noble example ent of the independent state of Rhode

[ocr errors]

Mand.

in the 84th year of his age.

ART. 27.

THE SABBATH. A POEM.

The Sabbath, a poem. The first
American edition, to which are
now added, Sabbath Walks.
New-York, printed by Collins,
Perkins, & Co. 1805. 12mo.

[ocr errors]

$23

He died in his colony, in 1683, from laziness, but succeeding bards never presumed to take the same liberty. With the exception of these trivial faults, which, however, it was incumbent on us as reviewers to point out, we can recommend this poem to every class of readers. It has simplicity enough to be intelligible to the illiterate, and sufficient sentiment and poetry to gratify the learned. As the style of the poet is equable, without any occasional flights above its uniform tenor, we have no choice in selection, and shall therefore quote the first forty lines of the poem, as a specimen of the

pp. 168.

THIS little poem is written with great simplicity and considerable purity of style, excellencies the more welcome, as the more uncommon in the present degeneracy of taste, when a studied magnifi

cence has driven nature from our prose, and sound without sense characterizes our verse.

This poet, who writes in blank verse, has one peculiarity in his versification, which, from its frequent recurrence, he undoubtedly thinks a beauty, but which strikes us, as in the highest degree harsh and inharmonious. He often employs eleven syllables in a line.

His iron-armed hoofs gleam in the morning ray.'

In air, soaring heaven-ward, afar they float.'

The record of her blossoming age appears.'

The authority of Milton is not sufficient to justify a license of this nature, and from the refinement of modern times, and the improvement of our language, we expect from a poet of the present day, at least, smoothness of versification. He also indulges once in a hemistick, or half-verse.

Beyond the empyreal,'

Virgil, who died before his Eneid was completed, left many lines unfinished, and this is the only instance, which we have yet found, where an imperfection has been imitated from choice. Dryden indeed adopted the practice

writer's manner.

How still the morning of the hallowed day!
Mute is the voice of rural labour, hushed
The ploughboy's whistle, and the milkmaid's

song.

The scythe lies glittering in the dewy wreath
Of tedded grass, mingled with fading flowers,
That yester morn bloom'd waving in the breeze.
Sounds the most faint attract the ear,-the hum
of early bee, the trickling of the dew,
The distant bleating, midway up the hill.
Calmness seems thron'd on yon unmoving cloud.
To him who wanders o'er the upland leas,
The blackbird's note comes mellower from the
dale;

And sweeter from the sky the gladsome lark
Warbles his heav'n-tun'd song; the lulling brook
while from yon lowly roof, whose curling smoke
Murmurs more gently down the deep-sunk glen;

O'ermounts the mist, is heard, at intervals,
The voice of psalms, the simple song of praise.

With dove-like wings Peace o'er yon village
broods:

The dizzying mill-wheel rests; the anvil's din
Hath ceas'd; all, all around is quietness.
Less fearful on this day, the limping hare

man,

Stops, and looks back, and stops, and looks on
Her deadliest foe. The toil-worn horse, set free,
Unheedful of the pasture, roams at large;
And, as his stiff unwieldy bulk he rolls,
His iron-arm'd hoofs gleam in the morning ray.

But chiefly Man the day of reft enjoys.
Hail, Sabbath! thee I hail, the poor man's day.
On other days, the man of toil is doom'd
To eat his joyless bread, lonely, the ground
Both seat and board, screen'd from the winter's
cold,

And summer's heat, by neighbouring hedge or
tree;

But on this day, embosom'd in his home,
He shares the frugal meal with those he loves;
With those he loves he shares the heart-felt joy
Of giving thanks to God,-not thanks of form,

With cover'd face and upward earnest eye,

A word and a grimace, but rev'rently,

What we have said of the Sabbath is equally applicable to the short poems that follow it, entitled Sabbath Walks. A body of notes is subjoined to the whole, chiefly relating to the persecutions formerly experienced by the Scotch presbyterians. As their fanaticks, however, suffered no more than they, or their ancestors under John Knox, had inflicted, whatever sympathy they may excite in Scotland, they cannot expect to inspire much interest here. The character of Bonaparte, drawn with no inconsiderable ability, though in a style, perhaps a little too turgid, will be much more gratifying to the American reader.

The character of Bonaparte will furnish a fpecimen of more monftrous moral deformity, than was ever exhibited in the hiftorical mufeum. Poffeffing the power of conferring on mankind a great er portion of happiness than ever depended on the will of one man, he has been the author of miferies incalculable. He could have given liberty to France: he affumed abfolute power to himself. He could have given peace to Europe: he concluded an infidious truce. He could have emancipated Switzerland : he rivetted the chains, which the Directory had forged. In St. Domingo, his conduct was a complication of the moft fottifh impolicy, the moft favage cruelty, the most knavish perfidy, that ever difgraced the annals of human nature. By this felf-created monarch, was Touffaint, the elected ruler of a free people, fwindled into a treaty, kidnapped during the peace that fucceeded, torn from his wife and children, transported in irons to France, immured in a dungeon, and, finally, affaffinated, (if uncontradicted accufation deferve any credit,) in a mode perfectly fuitable to the commencement and progrefs of the horrid hiftory,-poifon under the difguife of medicine. Yet this masked murderer this druggift-affaffin prefumes to exclaim against the the uplifted arm of an Arena or a Georges. His effrontery can only be furpaffed by his hypocrisy. Compared to him, Cromwell was a mere

novice in the art.-As to military tal ents, how infinitely inferiour is he to his foldiers. Moreau, deftitute of refources, accomplished a retreat more fplendid than the Corfican fwindler's most celebrated victories. Moreau conducted his foldiers to their homes: the Corfican deferted his in a diftant, hostile, peftilential region.--His fuccefs in Italy (and there only he was fuccessful) was a matter of arithmetical, rather than of military tacticks. In the cause of liberty each individual of the French army

Moreau! Moreau faved, he facrificed

was felf-devoted to death. The Corfican's and were in reality, as fo much amtroops were in his estimation, munition. Not a barrel of powder, not a caiffon, was more entirely at his difpofal, than were the lives of his men. He had only to calculate, whether he or his adverfary was most abundantly fupplied with this human ammunition. It was a calculation of carnage. He was in truth the chief broker in the vendue-room of victory, and he carried off the best lots, by outbidding his competitors in the blood of the foldiery.-At laft, this puny mimick of Charlemagne, bedizened with the motley panegyricks of fawning fenas tors, obedient law-makers, and affenting tribunes, has erected his throne on the yet trembling crater of the revolutionary volcano. From this hollow eminence, his felf-filled eye looked upward to his gorgeous canopy of ftate, but difcerned not the ftill more extended cano

py of the world's derifion. Nor could his fancied exaltation be complete, withbled wearer of the Papal tiara, who, by out the actual degradation of the humhis fufferance, is ftil permitted to retain the fhadow of a mighty name. This miferable chief of an expiring fuperfti tion, dragged like another confcript to the Capital of Continental Europe, and

drilled to the minutia of the coronation manual, has been compelled to place an imperial diadem on that head fo much confummate the abfurd wickedness of the more worthy of a Damien's crown. To atchievement, the Sabbath, the day boly of the Lord, bonourable, has been proftituted to this facrilegious pantomime. Compared to fuch things as thefe, the former atheism of the Corfican creedmonger was fanctity itself.

progress of civilization and ima ART. 28.

provement towards our Western A new Map of the United States of frontiers, rendered the publication

America, including part of Louis- of the new map peculiarly interisiania. Drawn from the latest esting.

Gazetteers are auihorities. Boston, published

serviceable to and sold by John Sullivan, jun. show with facility the qualities of

soil, institutions, population, cli1806.

mates, productions, arts, manners, The science of geography owes and customs of different countries; its progress to the assistance of but we must look to maps for their maps, as in a less degree history is relative situations, and the connexa indebted to painting ; for of the ion, that one district or territory senses the eye is the most impor- has with another, the extent, situ. tant, and the objects it embraces ation, and direction of rivers, mounin the acquisition of knowledge are tains, &c. most extensive. The ideas receiv- In the compilation of a map, ed through this medium are gene- made up of different surveys and rally clear and distinct ; the im- descriptions of sınall sections of pressions they make are strong the country, difficulties and emand lasting, and seldom require an barrassments occur, which are not after operation of the mind to con- obvious to a cursory observer. By nect or arrange them. It com- diminishing large, and protracting prehends at once all the propor. small maps of the several states tions, numbers, and divisions of a and territories, and comparing the painting, or piece of architecture ; variable surveys and correcting the beauties are equally stamped the anomalies, which are found in upon the mind, and time, although them, the publisher is liable to it may weaken, can never oblit- commit many errours, and be. erate the images.

comes, in a great measure, answer, These reflections were suggest- able for the inaccuracies of his ed by inspecting the new map, predecessors, whose works he is lately presented to the American obliged to join and associate to publick, by Mr. John Sullivan, jun. form an aggregate of the whole. It comprehends, on a sheet of 4 by Nor are the materials easily ob 4 feet, the whole of the United tained. If he trusts to the nume, States, with part of Louisiana, the rous small maps in circulation, Floridas, and part of the British most of which are extremely de. provinces of Canada, and furnishes fective, his imprudence is inexcua very distinct and valuable expo- sable ; and if he looks for assist. sition of the political divisions and ance to original surveys, he will boundaries of the states.

generally find them incomplete. To give an exact and compre. Nor can an accurate map of the hensive map of the United States United States be expected, without was certainly a great and laudable efficient aid from government. undertaking, and such as the pub. Maps of some of the states have lick, if well executed, ought to en- been published by authority ; but courage by something more than instead of surveyors being emą an affectation of patronage. The ployed to fix the exact position of small maps in Morse's Gazetteer, prominent objects, the bearings of the scarcity of Bradley's and the which would correct other surveys, dearness of Arrowsmith's, and the the compiler has been obliged to

« PreviousContinue »