readers the following extract of a letter of Judge Paine's, written at the time that Congress moved to Baltimore, in December 1776, on the approach of the English to Philadelphia.

'Our public affairs have been exceedingly agitated since I wrote you last. The loss of fort Washington made way for that of fort Lee; and the dissolution of our army happening at the same time, threw us into a most disagreeable situation. * * But to work we went-the associations of the city were drawn forth, and about three thousand men, with some artillery, marched. The country associations were called upon; but there was no expectation of immediate relief from them. As the week advanced, we had repeated advices from General Washington of the unopposed approach of the enemy, headed by General Cornwallis. On Monday, we were informed that they had arrived at Brunswick, and that Washington was retreating to the west side of the Delaware. We sent many continental stores into the country, and great numbers of the people are moving. The shops have not been open since Sunday; and there was a real apprehension that we should be routed. I need not tell you what our calculations were on the expectation of losing this city. I had called in my accounts and prepared matters for a regular retreat: but on Thursday we found the enemy had not crossed the Brunswick river. By an officer of my acquaintance, who went with a flag to the enemy, to exchange a prisoner, we learned that they were about six thousand strong, and were surprised to find Newark and Elizabethtown evacuated by their inhabitants; that they knew the state of our army, which induced them to make the excursion. The enemy are in possession of a large part of New Jersey; and the remaining part is greatly distressed by their approach. But I hope this affair will rouse them from that lethargy which occasioned this excursion. Had their militia been alert and resolute, and given General Washington the support they might have done, these events had not happened; but carelessness and apathy have been the lords of our ascendants this last month. It is to no purpose, however, to scold. Let us carefully ascertain our past errors and amend them. Sunday, 8th; congress were called this morning, on advice, that General Howe had joined General Cornwallis with a large reinforcement, and was marching to Princeton. This measure induces us to think, that the expedition is against Philadelphia. Monday, 9th; Yesterday General Washington crossed the Delaware, and the enemy arrived at Trenton on the east side, thirty miles from this place. Close quarters for congress! It obliges us to move; we have resolved to go to Baltimore.' pp. 229-232.

In the notes to this number also, is found the following sportive correspondence, which may relieve the attention from the contemplation of the more weighty discussions connected with the Declaration of Independence.

In 1762, J. Sewall, the attorney general of the province, wrote his friend Paine as follows: viz. "Brother Bob, pray be so kind as to deliver the enclosed to a Catchpole, and when you can give me an opportunity to cancel the obligation, please to command me freely; your hearty friend," &c.-"How is the harvest in your part of the vineyard? Which side do you take in the political controversy? What think you of coin? What of writs of assistance? What of his honor the Lieutenant Governor? What of Otis? What of Thacher? What of Coke, the cobbler? What think you of bedlam for political madmen? What think you of patriotsm? What think you of disappointed ambition? What think you of the fable of the bees? What ? Send me your thoughts on these questions, and I will send you fifty more." Mr Paine's reply, six days after the date of the above. "Friend Jonathan, I have just received yours, and shall take special care of the enclosed. Your queries demand an immediate answer, in which I hope you will find a satisfactory display of the orthodoxy of my mind. To first query, I answer, that the old account is reversed, for the harvest is small and the labourers many, and there are many little foxes that spoil the vines. To second query, I reply, the right side. To the third question I say, what hungry men do of food, if they can get any, never dispute the quality or the price. I reply to the fourth inquiry, never was more need of them; I shall soon apply for one to get me a help-meet. Question fifth: What of his honour the L. Ğ.? I answer as the son of Sirach said, all things cannot be in vain, because man is not immortal-what is brighter than the sun? yet the light thereof faileth. What of Otis? Answer: What the virtuosi do of Lemory's concave mirror, which burns every thing that cannot be melted. What of Thacher? Answer; as Jacob said of his son Dan, as a serpent in the way, he biteth the horse's heels, so that his rider falleth backward. What of Coke, the cobbler? That he is dignified with a title which many others deserve more. What of bedlam for political madmen? It will by no means do, being already occupied by madmen of a more sacred profession. What of patriotism? As I do of the balance master's art, very few have virtue enough, in the Roman sense, to keep themselves perpendicular. What of disappointed ambition? Consult your own mind, in having no reply to this question. What of the fable of the bees? It proves that good old word, The wrath of man shall praise the Lord. Last question, What -? It

is the recapitulation of all the others. Thus I have gone through my catechism, and according to the good rule of education, the next step is to learn it with proofs; in which I shall hardly fail of success, if I keep to that standard. As for the fifty questions more, with which you threaten me, I beg when you execute it, you would observe a modern rule of answering them yourself as you go along. pp. 242, 243.

We remarked above, that we thought the plan of this work good. The declaration of Independence-a national monument, not more lasting than brass, but as durable in its effects and associations, as the republic itself and the name of freedom, still deserves every illustration, which documents, tradition, or the arts can afford. Several enterprises of the kind, fac similes of the instrument, portraits of the members of the congress, &c. have lately appeared. Certainly nothing is more desirable than that these efforts should not be directed merely to a mechanical preservation of this paper, venerable as it is. The plan of adding the most interesting facts, in the lives of the signers to their names and portraits, seems to comprise every thing necessary to render this document satisfactory and precious to us and posterity. Something of the same kind has also been undertaken in England, and a perfect fac simile of Magna Charta in lithography has just been executed London. But this baronial declaration of Independence, venerable and valuable as it is to Americans and Englishmen, wants the greatness of ours. Those are proud words, Nulli vendendam justitiam, but they are spoken by a master; the 'free, sovereign, and independent states' was a formula to equalise the subservient and oppressed provinces with the haughty metropolitan empire. Every association connected with this event too seems more generous and exalted than those of Magna Charta. One, extorted by rude violence from a base and treacherous spirit, whose cowardice and weakness gave up, what he could neither understand nor value, the other uttered by virtuous and wise men, with the gravity of age and the ardor of youth. The captive prince strove only to secure his own worthless life, the American patriots were eager to expose theirs to defend what they asserted; they were the full of hope, miscalled forlorn.' As one reads the Gothic characters of Magna Charta, some associations of darker and ruder ages unite themselves, with its promises of better and freer times, while the

generous and enlightened sentiments of the Declaration of Independence, soften the anticipations of danger and suffering which attended their utterance. We observe that these two numbers of this work are well executed in a mechanical point of view. There are some errors of the press, but on the whole, both the engraving and printing are handsome and creditable.

ART XIII.-Yelverton's Reports. First American from the fourth English edition, with notes and references to prior and subsequent decisions, by Theron Metcalf. Andover, Flagg & Gould, 1820, 8vo, pp. 228.

SIR HENRY YELVERTON was one of the most distinguished lawyers of his age. There are, however, but few traces of his life and character to be found. On the promotion of the great Bacon to the office of attorney general, in the eleventh year of James I. Yelverton was made solicitor general. He held this office seven years, when he was appointed attorney general, upon Bacon's being promoted to the office of lord keeper. In about four years, having incurred the displeasure of the king, he was removed from office, and sentenced in the star-chamber to be committed to the tower. The offence, with which he was charged, was the enlarging of a charter granted to the city of London, beyond the royal warrant. In 1621, whilst he was still imprisoned in the tower under this sentence, such was his popularity, that he was chosen to parliament by the burgesses of Northampton, but he was soon after accused by the commons of having drawn and supported patents for certain monopolies and of other misconduct, while he was the king's attorney. His articles of defence, which implicated the royal favorite, Buckingham, and even glanced at James himself, induced the king to repair to the house of lords, and require them to punish him for his alleged slander. The lords very complaisantly fined him ten thousand marks to the king, and five thousand marks to the duke. Now the truth was, that the persons, who had obtained these oppressive patents, shared the profits of their monopoly with sir Edward Villiers, the duke's brother; and yet that contemptible prince, his master, pretended to thank the commons for the information they had

given, and to be ashamed of the abuses which had crept into his administration unknowingly to him. Villiers was sent on

a foreign mission to screen him from punishment, and poor Yelverton was fined for apologising for drawing the patents, by saying, that he was forced by the duke, and supposed it to be the king's pleasure."* The fines imposed upon him were, however, afterwards remitted, and on the accession of Charles I. to the throne, he was appointed a judge of the Court of Common Pleas, which office he held until his death, which happened on the 24th of January 1630. The notices of his decease are full of testimonies of his virtues, talents, and learning.

The reports, of which a new edition has been presented to the profession by Mr Metcalf, consist of 'divers special cases' in the Court of King's Bench, in the latter part of the reign of Elizabeth and the first ten years of James I. They form an essential link in the long chain of works of this nature, which constitute the original authorities of the common law. They were originally published in Norman French by sir William. Wylde in 1661. A second edition was printed in 1674. The third edition was published in English in 1735, and the fourth in 1792. Yelverton also wrote a celebrated argument against the power of the crown to establish or increase impositions or duties on merchandise, without the concurrence of parliament,

*In the course of his speech before the lords, he showed that he had in fact opposed the granting of the obnoxious patents; and stated, that 'when sir Giles Monpesson saw I would not be wooed to offend his majesty, in his direction, I received a message by Mr Emmerson, sent me from sir Giles, that I would run myself upon the rocks, and that I should not hold my place long, if I did thus withstand the patent of inns; or to this effect: he had a message to tell me from my lord of Buckingham, that I should not hold my place a month, if I did not conform myself in better measure to the patent of inns ; for my lord had obtained it by his favor, and would maintain it by his power. -Soon after I found the message in part made good; for all the profits almost of my place were diverted from me, and turned into an unusual channel to one of my lord's worthies; that I retained little more than the name of attorney. It became so fatal and so penal, that it became almost the loss of suit to come to me, my place was but the seat of winds and tempests. Howbeit, I dare say, if my lord of Buckingham had but read the articles against Hugh Spencer, and had known the danger of placing and displacing officers about a king, he would not have pursued me with such bitterness. But by opposing my lord in this patent of inns, and in the patent of ale-houses, in the Irish customs, and in sir Robert Naunton's deputation of his place in the Court of Wards, these have been my overthrow; and for these I suffer at this day in my estate and fortune (not meaning to say I take it, but as I know, and for my humble oppositions to his lordship) above twenty thousand pounds!'