Benning Wentworth, as governor of New Hampshire, and William Shirley, as governor of Massachusetts, whose commissions arrived 14th of August, 1741. The historians, both of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, speak in strong terms of reprobation of the unwarrantable means resorted to by the enemies of Governor Belcher. Hutchinson says, that a few weeks' longer delay would have enabled him to defeat the machinations of his enemies; and it is well known that the king, in a short time after, discovering the injustice which had been done him, voluntarily promised him the first vacant government in the colonies. Belknap expresses the surprise which would naturally affect the mind of any one at this distance of time, that Governor Belcher should have met such treatment from a British court, in the reign of so mild and just a prince as George II. But Belknap was not probably aware of the full force of the intrigue against him. It happened that Lord Euston, son of the Duke of Grafton, was a candidate for the honour of representing the city of Coventry in parliament. A rival candidate seeming likely to prevail, a zealous dissenting clergyman of the name of Maltby, who possessed great influence among the electors of Coventry, and who rashly credited the assertions of Belcher's enemies that he was conspiring against the dissenters in New England, offered to the Duke of Grafton, to secure the election of his son, Lord Euston, on condition that Belcher should be dismissed from office. The offer was accepted: Lord Euston was returned to parliament, and Belcher was sacrificed to an intrigue, as Spottiswoode in Virginia, and Burnet in New York, had been before him. Governor Belcher was a warm admirer of the preaching of the celebrated Whitefield, and accompanied him not unfrequently in his journeyings through the province, always treating him with the greatest consideration. When this powerful preacher was on his way to New York, in October, 1740, the governor accompanied him as far as Worcester, and parted from him with great affection. Soon after the appointment of his successor, Governor Belcher went to London, where the nature of the intrigues against him being exposed, he was treated with great consideration by the king and court. They felt that he had been injured, and unjustly recompensed by the government he had most zealously laboured to serve. A vacancy happening in the province of New Jersey, occasioned by the death of Governor Hamilton, in 1747, Governor Belcher was appointed to succeed him, and met the assembly, for the first time, at nistration in Massachusetts, arose from his decided opposition to the land bank. The second was equally false, and originated with the adherents of Dunbar, in New Hampshire, who sent a forged representation to London, using the names of J. Gilman, Jos. Lord, George Gerrish, Peter Thing, and John Hall, of Exeter. The third had no better foundation, and was supported only by forged anonymous letters addressed from Massachusetts to dissenting clergymen in England. Burlington, on the 20th of August, 1747. In this province, his administration was generally acceptable. He was popular among the people, took pains to cultivate a good understanding with the assembly, and rarely interfered with their wishes, when their measures did not conflict with what he deemed his prerogative under the royal instructions. His course was dignified and conciliatory. In the difficult questions which arose during his administration, and the exigencies of the French and Indian war, his conduct was marked by prudence and good judgment. The College of New Jersey, which was first opened at Newark, was, in 1752, removed to Princeton, where, on the recommendation of Governor Belcher, it was decided to erect a large building for its use. The trustees proposed to name the building Belcher Hall; but this the governor declined, requesting that it might be called Nassau Hall, in memory of King William III., a branch of the illustrious house of Nassau. Governor Belcher seems heartily to have enjoyed his government in New Jersey. In a letter to Richard Waldron, of Portsmouth, dated at Burlington, N. J., 28th July, 1748, he says "I bless God, I am placid and easy in my present situation, and think I have abundant reason to be so, for this climate and government seem calculated for my advanced years." Mr. Waldron, who was secretary of the province of New Hampshire from 1730 to 1742, was the confidential friend and correspondent of Gov. Belcher until the close of his life. It seems that Waldron, and some other of his friends, had looked forward to an effort to reinstate Gov. Belcher in New Hampshire; in allusion to which he thus writes to Waldron, under date of 7th August, 1749: "I can form no rational view as to what my friends seem to be warmly desirous of. Wish-ers and would-ers are but poor house-builders. A good solicitor at home, with a pocket full of yellow dust, might do something; but, alas, where is such a one to be found? As to myself, I would not pass through another purgatory of three years' voyage, dancing attendance, and expense, for the king's favour in making me vice-roy of his English America. Indeed, sir, if I know my own heart, I would not." In another letter, dated 22d November, 1750, he thus speaks of his own course of conduct:-"In my public life, I was always desirous to be able to chant with the poet 'Nil conscire sibi nulla pallescere culpa Hic murus Atheneus esto."" Solomon tells us, a good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and is one of the rewards of virtue. The world is captious and censorious, and too apt to reproach a man's memory; therefore Pope, in caution, says "The flame extinct, the snuff will tell For several years, Governor Belcher resided at Burlington, but afterwards removed to Elizabethtown. During the closing years of his life, he suffered under great debility of body from paralysis, yet he bore up with great fortitude and resignation, and devoted himself with unremitting zeal to the duties of his office. During the two years preceding his death, the assembly held their sessions at Elizabethtown, on account of his inability to meet them at Burlington or Amboy. He died on the 31st August, 1757, in the 76th year of his age. Inheriting a large fortune, Governor Belcher affected an elegant and even splendid style of living, far beyond the income of his office, and was, through life, distinguished for his generosity and hospitality. He was graceful in person, and polished in his manners and conversation. In the judgment of President Burr, who preached the funeral sermon at his interment, "the scholar, the accomplished gentleman, and the true Christian, were seldom more happily and thoroughly united, than in him. His ears were always open to real grievances. The cause of the poor, the widow, the fatherless, as well as of the rich and great, was by him favourably heard, and the wrongs of all readily and impartially redressed. He was indeed a minister of God for good unto his people. Nor should I (continues his eulogist) pass over in silence what will distinguish Governor Belcher's administration, not only in the present, but, I trust in all succeeding ages. I mean, his being the founder and promoter, the chief patron and benefactor, of the college of New Jersey. He lived to see his generous designs of doing good, in this respect, have something of their desired effect." His remains were taken to Massachusetts, and deposited in the family tomb, near the entrance of the burial-place, in Cambridge. Two sons of Governor Belcher were educated at Harvard College, viz. Andrew, who graduated in 1724, was afterwards a member of the council, and died at the family seat, in Milton, Mass., 24th Jan. 1771, aged 65;* and Jonathan, who graduated in 1728, studied law at the Temple in London, rose to some eminence at the English bar, settled in Nova Scotia, was counsellor, lieutenant governor, and chief justice of the province, and died 29th March, 1776, aged 65. Governor Belcher's first wife was Mary, daughter of Lieutenant Governor Partridge, and she died at Boston, 6th October, 1736, aged 51. He married a second time in 1748, and his widow, after his decease, went to Milton, Massachusetts, and there resided with Andrew Belcher, Esq., eldest son of the governor. J. B. M. *The Belcher mansion, at Milton, was burned in 1776, in the night, by accident. The widow of Andrew B., with the old lady, Governor Belcher's widow, hardly escaped the flames. They were carried into the barn, placed in the family coach, and forgotten till all was over. Elliot, the biographer, says he took tea with those ladies in that barn. THE PRESS AND THE PERIODICAL LITERATURE OF THE UNITED STATES. The statistics of the press exhibit a very striking difference between the circulation of newspapers and periodicals in this country and in Europe. That there is a cause for this cannot be questioned, but what that cause may be, and what the relative effects of that cause may be, are matters worthy of serious consideration, especially to Americans. Political economists who have written upon their theory for Europe, divide society into three classes, namely, land owners, capitalists and operatives, representing the three great points of their so termed science; rents, profits and wages. We accept this division as the best key to explain the relative positions of men in European countries. The land owners, generally confined to the barons of the realm, forming the nobility, surround the throne, and aid by their luxurious splendour to keep up the show of its external glory, and by their intellect, to sustain its dignity. They are men who have been educated with care, both mentally and physically; inheriting the refined tastes of the cultivated generations that have preceded them, and exercising an acknowledged influence upon all society. Their position, their wealth, and their education, induce too luxurious habits, pardonable in them, because they are the result of long continued custom and usages. They are identified with the representative of sovereignty who wears the crown. Their existence is identified with that of the monarchy, which, as has been but lately demonstrated, if it falls, carries this class with it. They are taxed to support the reigning sovereign and his estate. Their lands must supply these taxes, and must also supply the means of gratifying expensive tastes. There is also a church to be supported, which in some countries is part of the state. These lands are leased, and leased in a manner to produce the highest rents. The lessees must live; they find a strict economy necessary to meet their engagements, and are forced to obtain the labour necessary for tilling the soil at the least possible price. The labourer has to take what is offered him, for he has no alternative but to starve. He receives enough to keep him in working condition, and his family alive-and he receives no more. He has nothing to do with his government. He has had no time in youth, and his father no means to educate him. He is not eligible to office,-and having no voice in public affairs, he knows and feels that his condition is not to be altered or amended by any efforts of his. He has no future. His cares are for the day. The next class are the capitalists, generally not among the nobility. They have the vanity, however, to vie with their superiors in the exhibition of wealth before the world. They ape their habits; they imitate their tastes. What is natural to the first, becomes mere imitation in the latter. They have their taxes to pay, and their extravagant follies to provide for. The means are derived from the profits of their investments. If their capital be invested in manufactures, as is most generally the case, they seek to realize the largest possible returns. This can only be done by getting their labour at a cheap rate. The operative has no alternative but to take what is offered. He finds all the channels by which he might earn his daily bread literally choked with competitors. He is forced to receive the mite awarded him by the capitalist, or starve. This mite is only enough to support himself and family, too often insufficient even for this end. What is he to do? He has no education himself, nor has he time, if he had, to educate his family. He has no means to provide schooling, and he requires the assistance of his children, so soon as they are able, to help him in the effort to gain their daily bread. They are shut out from any participation in government affairs; they have no voice in making laws; no means of altering their condition. The care for the day occupies their time and thought. They know no future. All these operatives feel that their condition is hopeless. Ambition, aspiration, honour, are to them hollow sounds. Their souls are crushed by their slavish position. If they have a heart left, it knows but tears, sorrow, woes and despair, or else the mere brutish enjoyment of physical existence. The world beyond their plough or their workshop, is an unknown country, and so it must remain, unless want and desperation force them to burst their prison bounds, like the pent up lava of a volcano, and by annihilating the established governments, breaking down the long acknowledged barriers of society, spread desolation far and wide, until the genial glow of freedom's sun, and man's awakening consciousness shall warm the ashes into life, into a healthy and a fruitful soil. Among the two former of these classes are alone to be found the patrons of the press in Europe. They are identified with the government. Their happiness and welfare depend upon the maintenance of a peaceful administration of affairs. They would do any thing to avoid political convulsions. Tranquillity is essential to their enjoyment, their wealth, their being. To preserve this tranquillity the press and its patrons know, that the operatives, the millions, must be kept in ignorance of their degradation. They must be deprived of education, nor be permitted to contrast their own forlorn condition with the luxury, wealth and splendour of the nobility, and the capitalists. They must not be suffered to ask, why that nobleman, or their king even, is permitted to wallow in riches, while they suffer for food, shelter and raiment. If the question should be asked by the millions, they know and dread the answer. In some countries the question has been asked, and the answer shattered thrones, exiled sovereigns and nobles, and made the wealthy tremble. This state of affairs has, heretofore in all countries, and now still in |