tion; and the world is under deep obligation to Mr. Wirt for collecting and preserving all that was remembered of a man of extraordinary genius, exhibited in a department in which commanding excellence is rare; for though speakers, copious and able ones too, are as numerous among us as the most patient auditor could desire, not many have there been, in any age, like the orators of Athens, "the eye of Greece," and mother of arts and rhetoric, — "Those ancients, whose resistless eloquence Shook the arsenal, and fulmined over Greece There is, however, a satisfaction to the reader in turning from the gorgeous descriptions of Mr. Wirt to the graver, but well considered and finely written, biography of Mr. Everett. We have no space to enter into a full exposition of its particular merits; but no one can fail to derive gratification from the calm and fair examination of the remarkable portions of Henry's life and rhetorical victories, which presents them all in clear but not dazzling light, and, instead of lessening, rather exalts our estimate of his ability and general character. The effect of the whole is greatly aided by Mr. Everett's profound acquaintance with the constitutional history of our country. A very curious note is appended by Mr. Sparks, the editor, to that part of the biography which treats of the celebrated Resolutions, offered by Patrick Henry in the House of Burgesses of Virginia, on the 29th of May, 1765. As originally adopted, they were five in number; but the fifth was, two days afterwards, expunged from the journals of the House. When the Resolutions were circulated through the country, they produced a sensation which is not to be accounted for by any thing contained in them as they were actually passed. The fifth, the rescinded one, was the boldest; but even this went no further than the declared sentiments of the Assemblies of Massachusetts and New York had gone before. Governor Fauquier, in a letter to the Lords of Trade, giving an account of the proceedings of the House of Burgesses on this subject, states, that those who presented the Resolutions had two more in reserve, which they were deterred from offering by the difficulty they experienced in carrying the fifth, which was adopted only by a majority of one vote. It seems, that a spurious copy of the Resolutions was first circulated in the newspapers, and afterwards printed in the "Prior Documents," Gordon's and Ramsay's histories, and Marshall's Life of Washington. In this copy, the third resolution is altogether omitted; the fifth essentially altered from Mr. Henry's draft; and two others added, which were never adopted by the Assembly, and respecting which there is no evidence that Henry wrote, or had even seen them. These are believed by Mr. Sparks to be the two alluded to by Governor Fauquier. They are far bolder and more decisive than those which were actually passed; and going forth to the world, as they did, by this strange accident, with the erroneous impression, that they were sustained by the authority of the Virginia Assembly, they had an extraordinary influence upon the public mind; an influence which the actual Resolutions, emphatic and earnest as they were, were not calculated to exert. ART. V. The Works of the REV. SYDNEY SMITH. Second Edition. In Three Volumes. London: Longmans & Co. 1840. 8vo. FEW persons on either side of the Atlantic are ignorant of the name of the Rev. Sydney Smith, the wit, the whig, the Edinburgh reviewer, and the holder of Pennsylvania bonds. But if we except his lately published "Letters on American Debts," his name is more familiar than his writings. It is not a matter of surprise, that the brilliant petulance and grotesque severity of the "Letters" did not win him many admirers in the United States. The fact, that they insulted our national pride, and were unjust and sweeping in their censures, was sufficient to prevent their singular merit, as compositions, from being acknowledged. After having withstood all the falsehood and exaggeration of the London press, a press which, in the sturdy impudence with which it retains its hold upon a lie, excels all others in the world,— we felt irritated, that a "pleasant man had come out against us," with the expectation that we were to be "laid low by a joker of jokes." A more thorough knowledge of Smith's writings, and a perception of the ingrained peculiarities of his character, would, we think, abate much of the grim asperity with which we received that specimen of his nimble wit and sarcastic rebukes. If we knew the man, we should see, that to return an acrimonious answer would be the most ridiculous of all possible modes of retort. While he has the laugh of all Europe on his side, from London to St. Petersburg, he may safely defy the utmost severity of denunciation, backed by the most labored array of facts. Revenge is to be sought, not in denouncing, but in quoting him. He has written for the last forty years upon the affairs of England, with the same careless disregard of the external proprieties of literature, and the same fearlessness of tone, which he has displayed in his censure of the United States; but as the offences which called forth invective have been far more numerous and flagrant in his own country than in ours, the brilliancy and bitterness of his satire have never appeared to more advantage, than when confined to home scenes and home institutions. His hostility to us arises from pardonable ignorance and personal prejudice, and therefore his accusations are to be regarded with suspicion; his hostility to many features of English society and English law sprung from his conscience and personal knowledge, and may be received with confidence. He has always been a strong friend of liberal principles, and an unflinching and merciless enemy to fraud and corruption. There have been, in the present century, many able Englishmen who have made injustice and bigotry appear detestable ; but to Sydney Smith, more than to any other, belongs the merit of making them appear ridiculous. Placemen, pedants, hypocrites, tories, who could doze very placidly beneath threats and curses, fretted and winced at the sharp sting of his wit. He has subjected himself to charges which are most injurious to a clergyman,-impropriety, levity, infidelity; he has allowed his opinions to stand in the way of his professional advancement, rather than swerve from the principles of his political creed, or forbear shooting out his tongue at hypocrisy and selfishness. But even if his services to humanity and freedom had not given him the privilege to be a little saucy to republics, the individuality of his character would screen him from the indignation we feel against libellers, whose judgments are less in fluenced by eccentric humor. We desire to learn Sydney Smith's opinion on any matter of public interest, not because his temper of mind is such as to give it intrinsic weight, but because we know it will generally be shrewd, honest, independent, peculiar in its conception, and racy in its expression. Almost every thing he has written is so characteristic, that it would be difficult to attribute it to any other man. The marked individual features, and the rare combination of powers, displayed in his works, give them a fascination unconnected with the subject of which he treats, or the general correctness of his views. He sometimes hits the mark in the white, he sometimes misses it altogether; for he by no means confines his pen to themes to which he is calculated to do justice; but whether he hits or misses, he is always sparkling and delightful. The charm of his writings is somewhat similar to that of Montaigne's or Charles Lamb's,a charm which owes much of its power to that constant intrusion of the writer's individuality, by which we make a companion where we expected to find only a book; and this companion, as soon as we understand him, becomes one of our most valued acquaintances. The familiarity of Sydney Smith's manner does not consist only in his style; indeed, the terseness and brilliancy of his diction, though not at all artificial in appearance, could not have been attained without labor and solicitude; - but it is the result of the blunt, fearless, severe, yet goodhumored, nature of the man. He gives us not only his opinions, but himself; he allows us to see all the nooks and crannies of his heart and understanding. His frankness of expression is a glass, wherein his whole personality is mirrored. He does not observe any of those literary conventionalities which distinguish a writer from his book. His peculiarity in this respect is the more worthy of notice, as it is so rare. He possesses, more than any other author of the present century, the faculty of talking in printed sheets. The difference between the tone and character of literature and of social life is worthy of more attention than it generally receives. The ignorance of those who are called "book-men" arises, in great part, from a disregard of this distinction. Many of them think they can obtain a knowledge of history and human nature by haunting libraries; and if standard" histories fairly reflected events and persons, and standard philosophies gave us man instead of ethics and metaphysics, they would not be in the wrong. But this is not the case. Before books can be rightly interpreted, a knowledge of life and affairs is necessary. A very slight acquaintance with the different ranks and modes of society, a familiarity with two or three politicians who contribute to congressional or parliamentary debates, a little companionship with the world's rulers in literature and government, will soon teach us the difference between actions and the record of actions, between the man and the author. We then, to some extent, see the world, not in its official costume, but in nightgown and slippers. The dignitary whose sonorous sentences caught and charmed the ear, and seemed to lift him above the weaknesses of humanity, becomes simply a man, perhaps a prattler or a coxcomb. Many a statesman, whose talk is garnished with ribaldry and profanity, and who utters in conversation the grossest personalities against his opponents, no sooner rises to make an oration, than his whole course of speech undergoes a change, and the newspapers inform us of the grandeur of thought which characterized what is justly termed his "effort." A state document is often one of the rarest of juggles. Who shall say what false notions we obtain of governors from their missives and messages? Who can calculate what a vast amount of deception and quackery is hidden in the jargon of official papers and legislative enactments? The difference between Hume's James the First and Scott's King Jamie, between a newspaper report of a public dinner and that of an eye and ear witness, hardly measures the difference between a dignitary in undress and a dignitary in buckram. It is not wonderful, then, that our notions of dignity are somewhat shocked in reading an author who is not ashamed to write what he is not ashamed to think, who speaks to the world as he would speak to his immediate friends, who forces his meaning into no conventional moulds, but gives free course to all the natural and healthy impulses of his nature, and is not frightened into feebleness by the desire of " preserving his dignity." Indeed, in this last word we have the fundamental principle of artificial composition. An author conceives that he must be dignified, even if he is not profound, accurate, or powerful. The pharisees and dolts of society find the term a convenient substitute for every thing |