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utterly ruin the nation that undertakes | proceed to vigorous retaliation; nor should them. The wealth of England is the fruit of protection and Internal Improvements: her debt and misery on the other hand are consequences of her External Improvements,' or in other words, of her conquests and aggressions.

But the ingenuity of the draughters of Locofoco Resolutions, is in nothing more noticeable than in the guarded opposition which they offer to the national policy of Protection.

"Justice and sound policy," say they, "forbid the federal government to foster one branch of industry to the detriment of another, or to cherish the interests of one portion to the injury of another portion of one common country; every citizen, and every section of the country, has a right to demand and to insist upon an equality of rights and privileges, and to complete and ample protection of persons and property from domestic violence or foreign aggression."

A foreigner, unacquainted with our politics, would think upon reading this ingenious resolution that a party existed in the nation, whose policy it was to subvert some particular branch of industry by the exaltation of other branches; and that this same wicked faction had it in mind to leave unprotected the libertes and properties of citizens. The Whig party hold that every manufacture, every department of agriculture, every species of commerce or industry, from the cultivation of cotton and potatoes to the making of broadcloths, and the composition of works of art, has a just claim upon our care and brotherly pity: this party holds, that as the first of fice of the government of every nation is to protect the lives and properties of its citizens from foreign aggression, its second and not less important is to protect their industry and enterprise from foreign competition: they place these two duties upon the same ground of patriotism and humanity, and hold that to be a wretchedly weak and inefficient government that cannot fulfil them both. What matters it, say they, if we are kept poor and miserable, whether it be by the competition of foreign labor and capital, or by the terror of foreign fleets and armies? Should our commerce be extinguished by the fleets of an enemy, we should forthwirth arm ourselves and

we cease from war until the slightest unarmed vessel that bears our flag might sail unmolested into every nook of the ocean. But if this be so, if we are jealous for our commerce, and cheerfully tax ourselves millions, keeping up a vast and costly naval armament for its defence, by what infatuation are we persuaded to neglect this source and great material of commerce, this manufacture? Commerce is but a carrying trade-a free porterage; and is it lawful to lay indirect taxes for that, and not lawful to do the same for the materials of that? Is it lawful to take five millions a year from private property in the shape of revenue tariffs, for the support of commerce, and not lawful to take as much by the protection of manufactures? It is hardly necessary to say that these ingenious and respectable "Platforms" convey a falsehood, by insinuation; and if any ultra Democrat reads this, let him be assured that his instructors deceive him. The Whig policy is not what they affirm it to be; on the contrary, Whig legislation means to extend protection to the LIFE, PROPERTY, INDUSTRY, CREDIT, and HONOR of every citizen; to convince him by a judicious and patriotic conduct, that it is actuated by no theories, nor by any blind or selfish interest, but by the one desire to make this nation the free, the rich, and the powerful.

"Shall

On the delicate question of constitutionality, which every honest mind will approach with the most serious regard, the party who oppose all beneficent action of the government, exhibit a singular inconsistency. While they profess to be of the Jeffersonian school of politics, they strenuously and obstinately oppose the policy of which Jefferson must be looked upon as the first patron, if not the father. the revenue," says that President to Congress, in his eighth annual message, "be reduced? Or shall it not rather be appropriated to the improvements of roads, canals, rivers, education, and other great foundations of prosperity and union, under the powers which Congress may already possess, or such amendments of the Constitution as may be approved by the States? While uncertain of the course of things, the time may advantageously be employed in obtaining the powers necessary for a

between the States; the lines of separation will disappear, their interests will be identified, and their union cemented by new and indissoluble ties. Education is here

system of improvement, should they be thought best." Thus evidently of opinion that the Constitution does not directly forbid such a use of the revenue, he yet respectfully intimates that if any are doubt-placed among the articles of public care; ful upon that head they should proceed at once to alter the Constitution, to make it agree with their policy.

Already in his sixth annual message he had pressed this policy upon Congress:"The question now comes forward, to what other purposes shall these surpluses be appropriated, and the whole surplus of import, after the entire discharge of the public debt, and during those intervals when the purposes of war shall not call for them? Shall we suppress the import, and give that advantage to foreign over domestic manufactures? On a few articles of more general and necessary use, the suppression in due season will doubtless be right, but the great mass of the articles on which import is paid, are foreign luxuries, purchased by those only who are rich enough to afford themselves the use of them. Their patriotism (!!) would certainly prefer its continuance and application to the great purposes of the public education, roads, rivers, canals, and such other objects of public improvement as it may be thought proper to add to the constitutional enumeration of federal powers." Here we have the great father of Democracy, not only advocating a political tariff, but proposing to continue this tariff, for the support of a system of Internal Improvement; in aid of which, and to satisfy the scruples of Mr. Madison and his friends, the Constitution is to be altered!-a system of internal improvement, let us observe, to be supported by a protective tariff! This was the Jeffersonian policy, urged in the Messages of 1806 and 1808! "By these operations," continues the first President of the Democratic party, "new channels of communication will be opened

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not that it would be proposed to take its ordinary branches out of the hands of private enterprise, which manages so much better all the concerns to which it is equal; but a public institution can alone supply those sciences, which, though rarely called for, are yet necessary to complete the circle, all the parts of which contribute to the improvement of the country, and some of them to its preservation. I suppose an amendment to the Constitution, by consent of the States, necessary, because the objects now recommended are not among those enumerated in the Constitution, and to which it permits the public moneys to be applied."

And yet, notwithstanding this deference to the scruples of strict constructionists, we find him, in the eighth annual message, proposing a system of protective and discriminating tariffs, without even a hint of unconstitutionality. "The situation into which we have been forced, (by the war,) has impelled us to apply a portion of our industry and capital to internal manufactures and improvements. The extent of this conversion is daily increasing, and little doubt remains, that the establishments formed and forming, will-under the auspices of cheaper materials and subsistence, the freedom of labor from taxation with us, and of protecting duties and prohibitionsbecome apparent." He never doubts that Congress has the power to impose duties for the protection of manufacturers, but only finds no clause in the Constitution which allows the duties so collected to.be given back to the people in the form of internal improvements for the aid of that internal commerce upon which manufacturers depend for their existence.

SIR THOMAS BROWNE.

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reflection no less healthy and sane than the most necessary and becoming action. There are minds, too, especially endowed by nature with the fitting qualities for meditation-for study-for tranquil observation. With an intellect to perceive, a heart to sympathize, a tongue to communicate, the hand to execute may be wanting, and yet no monstrosity be apparent-no deformity and no deficiency. Individuals, in the main, are but divers limbs of the great body of humanity-alone complete in themselves, and each fully performing its office, yet none accomplishing its ultimate purpose, or proving itself absolutely indispensable, but in co-operation with the rest. To be a genuine scholar, is doubtless one of the most exalted stations to which a human being can be called. And those who profess to underrate the importance of letters, have been among the first to do homage (however secretly or unconsciously) to learning and genius.

In the troublous times that marked the close of the reign of King Charles the First, and through all the commotions and vicissitudes attendant on the career of Oliver Cromwell, there lived in the quiet city of Norwich a remarkable man, whose spirit was never conscious of the tempests that raged about him,-whose "soul was like a star, and dwelt apart," in the regions of tranquil contemplation. To live independent of one's age, to be insensible to the thraldom of time and place, to bring the past and future into a common range of vision and upon the same plane with the present, is an elevated state of being, rare in this world, as the destiny of man plainly requires that it should be. Most men and women are born into a condition of life, whose actual, stern, pressing duties impose a limit to the motions of an enthusiastic temper, and restrict the range of imagination within the sphere of attraction that surrounds the substantialities of human existence. To inquire whether such be In many respects, the celebrated scholar our lot entirely through the fault of our- whose name has suggested these remarks, selves, were, perhaps, "to consider too is without a parallel. The class to which curiously." Rousseau has well styled re- he belongs includes many varieties, indeed, flection a disease, if we assume as the type though founded upon certain general charof reflection that peculiar cast of mind, and acteristics, common to all. In some, the that unnatural style of thinking, of which scholar is but dimly apparent through he was himself a pattern. To meditate another predominant shade of character. upon the modes and conditions of our life, We distinguish between those qualities at the very time a necessity is laid upon us which constitute the fundamental elefor immediate, energetic effort, is at once. ments of poetic genius, and those which unhealthy, enfeebling and ruinous. We belong simply to the man of letters do not reason upon this necessity. We and the student of nature. Yet the state the fact; for it stares us in the face two characters are many times combinedat every corner-in the market-place, in the former always, in such cases, predomthe work-shop, on the wharf, in the count- inating. The scholarly character, again, ing-room. Severe, unceasing conflict every- sometimes remains subordidate in the man where, with the rude elements of matter of business, through a long series of years stubborn collision with the subtler motions-prevailing at last or entirely smothered, of mind-anguish of the heart to be borne up against-oppression of spirit to be endured and patiently subdued: these make up the great sum of human experience.

The scholar is a character that inevitably appears, wherever civilization and refinement have made any progress. There is a

VOL. II. NO, I. NEW SERIES.

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according to worldly success or failure. The daily avocations, also, pertaining to the three professions, are such as in general to distract the attention from literary studies; yet with each of these, the scholar is frequently mingled, in a greater or less degree.

To this latter class, although nominally | and fertile." Such an inference is worthy a professional man, and enjoying at some only of a "bread-scholar," blind to the very periods of his life an extensive practice, Sir character which he imagines himself to Thomas Browne can hardly be said to have wear. That this language is indeed characproperly belonged. In his character, so terized by a sort of sublime egotism, is far as we can now know him, there was only undeniably true, but that it includes or imthe genuine scholar, with scarce a percepti- plies a statement essentially incorrect, is ble tinge of any disagreeing mixture. His not to be admitted. The scholar's real profession, most certainly, if it ever gained life is, we repeat, in a measure hidden :any prominent place in his spirit, was that Browne's was, to his own mind, and speedily absorbed in the weightier and that it would have so appeared if told to rarer calling, and mingling its elements others in his own language, really poetical, therewith, became henceforth impercepti- and scarcely less than miraculous, is doubtble. Indeed, so purely and simply was he less strictly true. But this "hidden life " characterized by scholarly aims and habi- is veiled from our eyes, except as momentudes, that we know not where to look for a tary glimpses appear in his published more complete individual development of works. our ideal of the scholar. The beautiful and salutary admonition which, in the latter days of his life, he left for all who aim at a dignified and becoming rank among human spirits, was well exemplified in himself, and gives us a clue to his whole character: "Swim smoothly in the stream of thy nature, and live but one man.”

The life of a scholar (pre-eminently such) presents little to the outward eye, beyond the ordinary events of birth, christening, marriage, (perhaps,) and death. Had the case of Browne been otherwise, we should certainly have received the evidence of it, in some substantial shape. He did himself write, to be sure, when scarcely beyond the limits of youth," For my life, it is a miracle of thirty years, which to relate were not a history, but a piece of poetry, and would sound to common ears like a fable." But such language, to one who rightly conceives the manner of the author, and truly catches his spirit, can hardly create surprise, or admit of an ambiguity of meaning. This "miracle" and this "piece of poetry," to which he alludes, have no reference, certainly, to any remarkable visible and outward occurrences, such as go to make up the sum of biography; nor did it require even the acuteness of Dr. Johnson to discover that, "Of these wonders, however, the view that can now be taken of his life offers no appearance." Much less was it appropriate for this celebrated critic, after saying that "the wonders probably were transacted in his own mind," to fill out his sentence by inferring that they were the illegitimate offspring of "self-love" and "an imagination vigorous

Sir Thomas Browne was born in London, on the 19th of October, 1605. His father was a merchant, possessed of a considerable fortune, who died while his son was quite young. The widow subsequently married again, and is represented to have exercised hardly the usual amount of maternal care and solicitude for the well-being of young Thomas. He had, however, a sufficient inheritance to place him above want, and to enable him to avail himself of the highest privileges of education,--to which his nature seems to have early inclined him; while his friends had equally determined to bring him up to learning. He was put to school, first at Winchester, and afterwards, at the age of eighteen, entered the University at Oxford. He received the Bachelor's degree in 1627, and immediately after commenced the study of medicine. At a later period, (the precise year is not known,) he commenced travelling, first in Ireland, then in France, Italy, and Holland. At Leyden, he took the degree of Doctor of Medicine-a title rather more dearly obtained, in those days, than at present in our own country, and bestowed upon none who had not fitted themselves to receive it, by years of attentive study. In 1636, he settled as a practitioner, at Norwich, the capital of Norfolkshire, where he spent the remainder of his days. Wood, in his well-known biographical sketches of Oxford Students,* says

that he had an extensive practice, and was resorted to by many patients. Religio Medici, the best known of the

*Athenæ Oxoniensis.

works of Sir Thomas Browne, was written | at London, in 1635-previously to his settlement at Norwich. He was then thirty years of age, and his powers were fully matured. Aside from the additional experience which would naturally be accumulated during a long life, we see no tokens in his subsequent writings of any further development of his faculties, or of any new shape assumed by his character, indicative of intellectual progress. This work, however, was not given to the public until the year 1642. It very soon acquired an extensive celebrity, and established a permanent fame for its author. The ostensible subject of the book is expressed in its title, -the Religion of a Physician, or an extended confession of his faith.

In 1646, Browne published his next work, entitled Pseudodoxia Epidemica"Vulgar Errors." The purpose of this work is perhaps sufficiently indicated by its appellation. The author, with much and general learning, exposes the absurdity of a large number of notions that had in his day become fixed in the popular belief, and attempts to correct the false views which were entertained respecting objects really existing, or belonging solely to the region of fable.

In 1658, he published his Hydiotaphia, or Urn Burial-a work full of nice and varied learning, and especially of that kind of learning peculiarly belonging to the province of the antiquary. The subject was suggested to his mind by the discovery of certain urns, which were exhumed, at that time, in an ancient cemetery, in the county where he resided. The book contains descriptions of the various modes of burial among different nations, in former times especially, of the funeral ceremonies performed over the dead, and their significance, with characteristic contemplations of a grave and sublime nature, such as the occasion could not fail to awaken in a mind so constituted.

Various tracts, on divers subjects, but all more or less tinctured with antiquarian tendencies, and with the niceties of learning, complete the catalogue of works published during his lifetime. The excellent volume of Christian Morals" was composed in his very last years, and was not given to the world until after his death. Its genuineness is fully vouched for by his

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daughther, Mrs. Elizabeth Littleton, and others,-nor could it be doubted by any one who is familiar with his other productions.

Browne was married in 1641, to a lady named Mileham, with whom he lived happily, and who survived him two years. În 1671, he received the honor of knighthood from King Charles the Second. He died on his birth-day, 1682, at the age of seventy-seven years.

Every author of any great note has some one work (most usually) which may be safely assumed as the type of his character, and on which his general repute is made to depend. The Religio Medici will doubtless be accepted by all as an exponent of the spirit and genius of its author. We are left to infer, to be sure, that in the lifetime of Browne, his "Vulgar Errors" was the most extensively read, and most generally popular of all. This is not at all incredible, nor without some plausible reasons. It embraces a greater variety of topics, and those, too, topics that lay near the heart of all classes of readers intimately allied with all the sentiments of wonder, and mystery, and dread, which nestle under the wings of popular superstition. Some of the subjects discussed in this work are really curious, both as showing the extent of popular credulity two centuries ago, and as revealing the generality of the author's observation and learning. "That crystal is nothing else but ice strongly congealed;" "that a diamond is softened by the blood of a goat;" "that a pot full of ashes will contain as much water as without them;" "that men weigh heavier dead than alive;" "that storks will live only in republics and free states;" "that the forbidden fruit was an apple ;"" that a wolf first seeing a man begets a dumbness in him ;"---are a few among the many opinions vulgarly current in his day, that he takes upon him, in a learned and dignified style, to refute. He descants also upon the popular notions respecting the ringfinger, and the custom (still prevalent in many parts of Europe) of saluting upon sneezing. He finds matters for grave disquisition in pigmies, the dog-days, and the picture of Moses with horns. He expends much eloquence and research on the blackness of negroes, the food of John the Baptist, the poverty of Belisarius, the cessa

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