York: and after his short consideration, instead of proceeding on his journey, he turned his horses' heads, travelled immediately to Yorktown, and entered on the duties of his appointment." " After the evacuation of Philadelphia by the British, White was the only clergyman of his communion who remained in the state. As soon

as peace was concluded he took an active part in the re-organization of the Episcopal church, and at the first regular convention of the state was elected bishop. He soon after sailed to England, in company with the Rev. Dr. Provoost, who had been elected bishop in New York, to apply for consecration. An act of parliament having been passed to remove the obstacles which had prevented action in the case of Bishop Seabury, both were consecrated by the Archbishop of Canterbury, in the chapel of Lambeth palace, Feb. 4, 1787. They soon after returned, landing at New York on Easter Sunday. Bishop White returned to Philadelphia, where he resided when not absent on his official duties during the remainder of his long life. He published, in 1813, Lectures on the Catechism of the Protestant Episcopal Church: with supplementary lectures; one on the Ministry, the other on the Public Service: and Dissertations on Select Subjects in the Lectures; in 1817, Comparatire Views of the Controversy between the Calvinists and the Arminians, 2 vols. 8vo.; in 1820, Memoirs of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, reprinted in 1835, with a continuation to that period. A number of Sermons, Episcopal Charges, and Pastoral Letters, delivered in the course of his ministry, were published separately. Memoirs consist of a brief narrative of the early conventions and subsequent history of the Episcopal Church after the Revolution. The characteristic modesty of their author led him to touch very brielly upon his own services, and the historical value of the work is consequently less than it otherwise would have been. In 1817, at the request of Bishop Hobart, he addressed to that prelate a letter containing an account of his life up to the period at which the Memoirs cominence. He commences as follows:

The

A few years ago you requested of me to prepare for you some notices of the most material circumstances of my early life. Compliance was intended, but has been delayed, in common with many things which may be done at any time. It is now undertaken, with a protest against being understood to believe, that there have been such events as can make up a volume of biography; otherwise than by the help of that art of book-making, which has been much employed of late years on private history; the exercise of which I should be sorry to foresee on a life of so little variety or celebrity as mine.

but

We extract the chief portion of the Bishop's "Additional Instructions for the Missionaries to

eighth year, to Messrs. Hanson and Lockwood, the first missionaries sent out by the Protestant Episcopal Church to that country:—

It is

In the tie which binds you to the Episcopal church, there is nothing which places you in the attitude of hostility to men of any other Christian denomination, and much which should unite you in affection to those occupied in the same cause with yourselves. You should rejoice in their successes, and avoid as much as possible all controversy, and all discussions which may provoke it, on points on which they may differ from our communion, without conforming in any point to what we consider as erroneous. If controversy should be unavoidable, let it be conducted with entire freedom from that bitterness of spirit and that severity of language which cannot serve the cause of God under any circumstances; while in the sphere which you will occupy they will be repulsive from a religion which produces no better fruits on the tempers of its teachers. In the vicissitudes of European commerce, and especially in that of Canton, you will find many who speak your language, and whose object is the pursuit of commerce. to be lamented that no European government has sustained even the appearance of divine worship among these its distant subjects. Perhaps they may show themselves indifferent or even hostile to your design. In either case you will keep the even tenor of your way; not moved by the fear or expectation of the favour of men. It may happen incidentally to your ministry that some of these temporary residents shall be brought by it to a better mind in regard "to the things which belong to their peace." Especially they ought to be cautioned of the responsibility which they would incur by discouragement of the endeavours for the conversion of the heathen; while, under notice of missionaries employed for that purpose, there are so many professing the same faith, "yet living without God in the world." You cannot be ignorant that in a former age the Christian religion was extensively propagated in China; being countenanced by successive emperors, and by others of high rank in the empire. Neither can it be unknown to you that this was succeeded by an extensive persecution of all who owned the name of Christ. It is certain that the change arose from the interference of the decrees of a foreign jurisdiction with immemorial usages of the Chinese. It is an old subject of debate whether those decrees were called for by the integrity of Christian truth. Without discussing the question of them, the reason of noticing them is to remark, that in reference to foreign jurisdiction there can be no room for any difficulty concerning it within our communion; which holds the church in every country to be competent to self government in all matters left to human discretion. No faithful minister of our church will, in any instance, relax a requisition of the Gospel, in accommodation to unscriptural prejudices of his converts; but he will not bind them in any chain not bound on them by his Master. It has even been said that the court of Pekin found itself in danger of being brought under subjection to a foreign prelate. In proportion to the odium of such a charge, the converted Chinese should be assured of safety in the enjoyment of the liberty "wherewith Christ hath made them free."

In proposing the evidences of the Christian reli

Memoir of the Life of the Rt. Rev. William White, D.D., Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the State of Pennsylvania By Bird Wilson, D.D., Professor of Systematic Divinity in the General Theological Seminary.

description, there is to be avoided the alternate danger, on the one hand, of the measuring of success by any excitement of sensibility, which may be shortlived; and on the other, the not exhibiting of the subject in such a point of view as shall show it to be

congenial with the best sensibilities of our nature. The ground taken by the apostles must certainly be that which may most safely be taken by all the ministers of the Gospel. When St. Peter addressed a Jewish audience, as in the second chapter of Acts, he laid the stress on ancient prophecy. And when St. Paul addressed heathen audiences, as in sundry passages of the same book, the argument used by him was the recent miracle of the resurrection. These are points which associate themselves with the liveliest of our hopes, and tend to the excitement of our best affections; yet it is through the door of the understanding that truth enters in order to the taking of possession of the heart. It is still the ground of prophecy and of miracles on which the truth of Christianity must be advocated; although not without their connection with that sinfulness of human nature to which the contents of the Gospel are so admirably adapted; laying in it the only foundation of trust in the pardon of sin, and of claim of deliverance from its thraldom; and in addition being fruitful of consolation, and a sure guide through life, and a stay of dependence in the hour of death and the day of judgment. Let but these interesting subjects take possession of the mind, and its natural language will be, "What shall I do to be saved?"

When the Gospel is preached to a heathen at the present day, we ought not to forget to extend to his case that forbearance of divine mercy which St. Paul disclosed when he said to the Athenians, "the times of this ignorance God winked at."

The memory of his virtues and the recollection of his appearance are cherished by his friends, and well deserve to be.

For the last forty years of his life, Dr. White was Senior and consequently Presiding Bishop of the United States. His course on theological questions was regulated by the quiet and moderate character of his mind. He died after a short illness, during the time of morning service on Sunday, July 17, 1836.

ISAIAH THOMAS,

THE eminent printer, newspaper writer, and founder of the American Antiquarian Society, was born in Boston, January 19th, 1749. At six years of age, he was apprenticed to Zachariah Fowle, a ballad printer, and his first essay was setting one of these ballads, "The Lawyer's Pedigree," in double pica. After learning his profession, and pursuing some wandering adventures from Nova Scotia to South Carolina, he returned to Boston in 1770, to engage with his old master in the publication of the Massachusetts Spy. In 1774, when his political Whig course, carried on with spirit in his paper, became obnoxious to the authorities, he conveyed his types to Worcester, where he continued his paper.* *In various ways Thomas remained connected with the paper till

In 1788, he carried on the publishing business at Boston, in the firm of Thomas and Andrews. The Massachusetts Magazine was issued by them in eight volumes, from 1789 to 1796. He was connected with Carlisle at Walpole, in book publishing and printing the Farmer's Museum, and extended his business widely in other quarters. At Worcester, he published a folio Bible, Watts's Psalms and Hymns, with Barlow's additions, and a long series of the books in vogue in the day, travels, theology, biography,

of prefiguration, looking forward to a dispensation to be disclosed at the end of that portion of time; when it is seen that there was then manifested the great sacrifice which fulfilled all that had gone before; and when there is read the record of a sacrifice commemorative of the same, to be perpetuated until the second coming of the divine Ordainer, to sit in judgment on the world: it is a mass of proof, which, properly presented, will command the assent of unbiassed men in all times and places; progressing in its influence to the promised issue, when "all the kingdoms of the world shall have become the king

doms of our Lord and of His Christ."

The portrait of White, painted by Inman, represents a countenance of great purity and benevolence; one of the noblest types of personal character of our forefathers, which we are accustomed to associate with the friendships of Washington.

William Whice.

The modesty of Bishop White, with no lack of patriotic or Christian firmness, for he maintained on proper occasions the distinctive principles of his communion, and he remained at his post as a city clergyman during the terrible visitations of

tainment, instruction, and love of the marvellous throughout the country. His judgment was good. A book is likely to be of some interest which has his name attached. In 1810, he published his History of Printing. It commences with a brief history of the art of book production from the earliest known manuscripts to the date of its issue. This is followed by a history of printing in America brought down to the end of the last century; an account of the progress of the art in each state, and of the principal printers, being given. The work also contains a history of newspapers and an appendix of valuable notes.

Isaiah Thomas published his New England Almanac, which had something of the flavor of Franklin's "Poor Richard." It first appeared in 1775, and was continued with several titles for forty-two years, twenty-six by the father, thirteen by the son, and three years by William Manning.+

His most beneficent work, however, was the leading part which he took in the foundation, in 1812, of the American Antiquarian Society at Worcester, of which he was elected the first President. He furnished the library with books from the

On the 3d May, 1774. "This," says Buckingham, “was the first printing that was executed in any inland town in New England." A curious account of "Thomas's Almanac." in the Boston

stores of his own valuable collection, amounting in all to between seven and eight thousand bound volumes, a large number of tracts, and one of the most valuable series of newspapers in the country; erected a building for their reception on his own ground, and bequeathed the land and hall to the Society, with a provision equal to twenty-four thousand dollars for its maintenance. In the enjoyment of this legacy, the institution now occupies a fine library building, which is situated on a new lot, given to the Society, on one of the finest sites in the town.

Another considerable donor to the Society was the Rev. William Bentley, of Salem, a zealous collector of books and scientific curiosities. At his death, in 1819, he bequeathed his library and cabinet chiefly to the college at Meadville, Pennsylvania, and to the Antiquarian Society.*

One of the rarities of the library is the Mather collection, which consists of about a thousand volumes, once belonging to the three scholars and divines. Mr. Haven, in a communication to Mr. Jewett, remarks, "this is, perhaps, the oldest private library in the country that has been transmitted from one generation to another. It was obtained from Mrs. Hannah Mather Crocker, grand-daughter of Cotton Mather, and only remaining representative of the family in Boston, partly by gift and partly by purchase. It is called in the records, The remains of the ancient library of the Mathers,' and was considered by Isaiah Thomas as 'the oldest library in New England, if not in the United States.' With these books was obtained a large collection of tracts and manuscripts belonging to the Mathers, the latter consisting of sermons, diaries, correspondence, and common-places. Many of the tracts are political, and relate to the period of the Revolution and the Commonwealth in England."t

The library now numbers (1854) some twentythree thousand volumes, under the charge of the librarian, Mr. S. F. Haven, the author of a valuable contribution-the account of the Origin of the Massachusetts Company and of its Memberst -to the historic literature of New England.

The two first volumes of the Society's publications, the Archæologia Americana, include Caleb Atwater's Description of Western Antiquities and Albert Gallatin's Synopsis of the Indian Tribes of North America.

The light, airy alcoves of the new hall, rich in old American periodical, newspaper, and other literature, with its choice stores of MSS., particularly of the old ecclesiastical history of New England, seldom preserved with equal care, are a noble monument to the far-sighted literary zeal of Isaiah Thomas.

The benevolence of Thomas was not confined to his own town. He left liberal bequests of books and money to the library at Harvard and the Historical Society of New York.

He died at Worcester, April 4th, 1831, in his eighty-second year.

BERNARD ROMANS.

IN 1775, Captain Bernard Romans_published at New York, A Concise Natural History of East and West Florida; containing an account of the natural Produce of all the Southern part of British America, in the three Kingdoms of Nature, particularly the Animal and Vegetable. Likewise, the Artificial Produce now raised, or possible to be raised, and manufactured there, with some commercial and political observations in that part of the world, and a Chorographical Account of the same. To which is added by Way of Appendix, Plain and Easy Directions to Navigators over the Bank of Bahama, the Coast of the two Floridas, the North of Cuba, and the dangerous Gulph Passage. Noting, also, the hitherto unknown Watering Places in that Part of America, intended principally for the use of such vessels as may be so unfortunate as to be distressed by weather in that difficult part of the world.

This ample title-page renders an account of the contents of the work unnecessary. It is well, though somewhat grandiloquently written, and its information is minute and well arranged. It is "Illustrated with twelve Copper Plates, and two whole-sheet Maps." The copper plates are very rudely executed, and consist mainly of "characteristic heads" of the various Indian tribes of the country. The allegorical frontispiece is very curious. It contains a shield on which are inscribed the letters S.P.Q.A. This is placed beside a seated female figure, having in one hand a rod on the end of which is a liberty cap. She wears a helmet, and smiles benignantly at an Indian who is unrolling a map at her feet. Beside him is a water god pouring copious streams from a jar on each side of him, one of which is labelled Mississippi. The remaining space is dry land, upon which a chunky cherub is measuring off distances with a compass on an outspread map.

Bernard Romans, of Pensacola, appears as the author of a letter on the compass, dated August, 1773, in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. Romans was an engineer in the British service, but was employed, about the period of the publication of this work, by the American government in constructing Fort Constitution, on the island opposite West Point. He applied for a commission in the American army,

which was refused him, and he soon afterwards abandoned his task.

In 1778 he published a second work, Annals of the Troubles in the Netherlands, from the Accession of Charles V. Emperor of Germany. In four parts. A Proper and Seasonable Mirror for the present Americans. Collected and Translated from the most approved Historians in the Native Tongue. Volume 1. It was published in Hartford, and "dedicated (by permission) to His Excellency, Jonathan Trumbull, Esq., Governor and Commander in Chief in and over the State of Connecticut and its dependencies, Captain General and Admiral of the same, &c. &c. &c." In the preface Romans claims the merit of a translator only, and says, "As a foreigner, it cannot be expected that I should excel in elegance of composition or correctness of language. May the dreary examples," he continues, "through which I lead you be a comfort to you (respected Americans) who are so highly favored by Providence, as in all appearance to obtain the glorious blessings contended for, with infinite less trouble and hardships than fell to the lot of those heroes, whose sufferings in freedom's cause are exhibited in this work."

The Captain does not appear to have got beyond one volume in either of his works. The one on Florida, from its rarity, commands a very high price; it exhibits a curious typographical peculiarity, the pronoun, I, being printed throughout, except at the commencement of a sentence, with a small i.

TEA.

Tea, a despicable weed, and of late attempted to be made a dirty conduit, to lead a stream of oppressions into these happy regions, one of the greatest causes of the poverty, which seems for some years past to have preyed on the vitals of Britain, would not have deserved my attention had it not so universally become a necessary of life; and were not most people so infatuated as more and more to establish this vile article of luxury in America, our gold and silver for this dirty return is sent to Europe, from whence, being joined by more from the mother-country, it finds its way to the Chinese, who, no doubt, find sport in this instance of superior wisdom of the Europeans. These considerations, joined to the additional evil of its being a monopoly of the worst kind, and the frauds of mixing it with leaves of other plants, ought to rouse us here, to introduce the plant (which is of late become pretty common in Europe) into these provinces, where the same climate reigns as in China, and where (no doubt) the same soil is to be found; by this means we may trample under foot this yoke of oppression, which has so long pressed the mother country, and begins to gall us very sore; and will the Europeans (according to an unaccountable custom of despising all our western produce, when compared to oriental ones) avoid drinking American tea! Be not ye so infatuated, ye sons of America, as not to drink of your own growth! Learn to save your money at home! I cannot think this advice contrary to the interest of Britain, for whatever is beneficial to the colonies will, in the end, be at least equally so to the mother country.

DAVID RAMSAY.

RAMSAY, the historian of the Revolution, was born, April 2d, 1749, in Lancaster county, Penn

sylvania. He was the son of an Irish emigrant. Before studying at the College of New Jersey, which he entered at the age of thirteen, he passed a year as assistant tutor in an academy at Carlisle. On leaving college, he was for a while a tutor in Maryland; he then studied medicine at the College of Pennsylvania, where he made the acquaintance of Rush, which exercised an important influence on his after life. He settled in Charleston, S. C., as a practitioner, and soon rose to distinction by his general powers of mind, particularly exerted in the cause of the Revolution. He delivered to the citizens a patriotic oration on the second anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, in 1778. He wrote, among other occasional papers relating to the times, a Sermon on Tea, from the text, "Touch not, taste not, handle not," in which he caricatured Lord North; a tract for the times, which had considerable popularity. He was army surgeon at the siege of Savannah, a member of the state legislature, and, in the fortunes of the war, was for a time prisoner at St. Augustine. He was in Congress in 1782 and 1785, in the latter year publishing his History of the Revolution in South Carolina, and preparing his History of the American Revolution, by inspection of public documents and conferences with Franklin, Witherspoon, whose daughter he had married, and with Washington, at Mount Vernon. This history was published in 1790. It would appear from some verses of Freneau on the subject, that the work was prohibited in Great Britain:

But alas! their chastisement is only begunThirteen are the states-and the tale is of one; When the twelve yet remaining their stories have told,

The king will run mad-and the book will be sold.

His Life of Washington, dedicated to the youth of the United States, appeared in 1801. In 1808, he published his History of South Carolina, an extension of A Sketch of the Soil, Climate, Weather, and Diseases of South Carolina, which he had published in 1796.

In 1811, Ramsay lost his second wife, the daughter of Henry Laurens, and a lady of great accomplishments and benevolence. She read Greek familiarly. Of her liberality and pious disposition it is related, that when in France she received five hundred guineas from her father, she employed it for the purchase and distribution of testaments and the establishment of a school. Memoirs of Martha Laurens Ramsay, with Extracts from her Diary, were published by her husband shortly after her death.

The medical publications of Ramsay include A Review of the Improvements, Progress, and State of Medicine in the Eighteenth Century, in 1800; A Medical Register for the year 1802; A Dissertation on the Means of Preserving Health in Charleston, and a Eulogium and Life of Dr. Rush before the Medical Society of Charleston, June 10, 1813; a valuable biographical sketch, in which he displays a warm personal admiration and close study of the character of his old friend and preceptor.

In 1815, Ramsay printed a History of the Independent or Congregational Church in Charleston, S. C., from its origin till the year 1814, including, in an Appendix, the speech of its pastor, the Rev. Wm. Tennent, in the House of Assembly, Charleston, on the Dissenting Petition for Equality of Religious Denominations in the eye of the Law.

Ramsay also published an Oration on the Acquisition of Louisiana and a Biographical Chart, on a New Plan, to facilitate the Study of History.

His industry was a proverb-carrying out the economy of time of Franklin and Rush to its maximum. He slept but four hours, rose before daylight, and meditated, book in hand, while he waited for the dawn. Besides his historical compositions and the pursuit of his profession, he took under his charge the general philanthropic and social movements of the day, urging them frequently in the press. His private fortune was injured by his enthusiastic speculations.

While in the full activity of his intellectual occupations, when he had just completed his sixtysixth year, he suddenly fell a victim to the insane attack of a lunatic, by whom, in open day, within a few paces of his own dwelling, he was shot with a pistol loaded with three balls, one of the wounds from which caused his death the second day, May 8th, 1815.

His posthumous writings are voluminous: A History of the United States from their first settlement as English colonies to the end of the year 1808, which was published in Philadelphia in 1816, with a continuation to the Treaty of Ghent by the Rev. Samuel Stanhope Smith, and a Universal History Americanized, or an Historical View of the World from the Earliest Records to the Nineteenth Century, with a particular reference to the State of Society, Literature, Religion, and form of Government of the University of America, which found its way to the press in

VOL. I.-20

Philadelphia, in twelve volumes octavo, in 1819. This last work had occupied its author for more than forty years.

JOHN PARKE,

IN 1786, in Philadelphia, a literary novelty for the times appeared in a volume entitled The Lyric Works of Horace, translated into English verse: to which are added, a number of original Poems, by a Native of America.* This was John Parke, of whom we learn from Mr. Fisher's notice of the Early Poets of Pennsylvania, that he was probably a native of Delaware, and born about the year 1750, since he was in the college at Philadelphia in 1768; that "at the commencement of the war he entered the American army, and was attached, it is supposed, to Washington's division, for some of his pieces are dated at camp, in the neighborhood of Boston, and others at Whitemarsh and Valley Forge. After the peace he was for some time in Philadelphia, and is last heard of in Arundel county, Virginia."t

Parke's use of the Odes and Epistles of Horace is a glory which the sanguine anticipation of the Venusian never dreamt of. Having done their duty nobly in old Rome, in compliments to Mæcenas and encouragements to Augustus, in triumph over barbaric hosts, and in the gentler celebration of love, friendship, and festivity, they emerge like the stream of Arethusa on a new continent, in gushing emotions to General Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Nathan Rumsey, Esq., A.B., and the Reverend Samuel Magaw.

Parke's book, if the honors of Horatian felicity in poetry be denied it, can fall back on its claims as a rather comprehensive Revolutionary directory. The inscriptions at the head of the odes are quite a catalogue of the worthies of the time. Augustus does duty for several persons :The Reverend William Smith, the late Provost, the Hon. Thomas M'Kean, his Excellency Benjamin Franklin, and even "His Most August Majesty" Louis XVI. Maecenas, in the same way, is in turn, the Right Honorable Major-General William Earl of Stirling; the Hon. John Vining, member of Congress for the Delaware State; Brigadier-General Richard Butler, and the Hon.. Major-General Varnum, of Rhode Island. Ode to Mercury is addressed to Charles M'Knight, Esq., M.D., professor of anatomy and surgery in Columbia College, New York; the exquisite one belonging to Quintus Dellius is assigned to the Hon. Colonel Samuel Wyllis, of Hartford, Connecticut; the delicate appeal to Pompeius Grosphus in behalf of moderation and equanimity, is laid at the feet, though it is hardly to be recognised in the least degree in the translation, of John Carson, M.D., Philadelphia. The ship which carried Virgil to Athens is again refitted, to bear the Rev. James Davidson on the Atlantic

An

The Lyric Works of Horace, translated into English verse: to which are added, a number of Original Poems. By a Native of America.

Qui cupit optatam cursu contingere metam,
Multa tulit fecitque puer

Philadelphia: Printed by Eleazer Oswald, at the Coffee House.. 1786. 8vo. pp. 884.

+ Mems. Hist. Soc. Penns. vol. ii. part ii. p. 100.