But though he was only occasionally engaged as a member of the legislature, he yet was an active observer of public measures, and contributed his councils in many of the arrangements which took place. His political friends frequently sought his advice, and they always found him well acquainted with passing events, and ready to communicate his opinions.

In his political, as well as in his judicial character, there was an apparent suddenness of opinion, which at the moment seemed precipitancy, but which in most instances was discovered to be the effect of a rapid process of reasoning, or the immediate decision of judgment upon facts and principles stored in his memory and always ready for use. Instances could be adduced, in which his friends have rejected his opinions, from a doubt of their correctness, and yet have been brought, by the course of events which he had the sagacity to foresee, to the very point from which they had prudently, as they thought, receded.

His private character remains to be briefly exhihited. He was just, regular, and punctual in his transactions. Simplicity and order presided over his household; hospitality, without ostentation or ceremony, reigned within his mansion. Domestic tranquillity and cheerfulness beamed from his countenance, and was reflected back upon him from his delighted family. It has been the misfortune of many who have been devoted to literature, and who have attained great celebrity, to have been so much absorbed in grave contemplations as to acquire a distaste to those charities of life which are the sources of its happiness, or to become insensible to the ordinary excitements to recreation and pleasure. It was not so with Parsons. His conversation could instruct or amuse, as times and seasons suited. Neither philosophers nor children could leave his society without being improved or entertained. Amid the multifarious occupations of his mind, he had still found room for the lighter literature, and was ready with his critique even upon the ephemeral works of fancy and of taste. The more solid productions of polite literature had passed the

ordeal of his judgment, so that his materials for social converse were abundant. Indeed, his memory might be considered a capacious store house, separated into a multitude of apartments, in which principles, facts, and anecdotes were laid up according to their classes, marked and numbered, so that he could draw them out and appropriate them whenever occasion offered. His conversation was illumined with flashes of wit and merriment, which captivated his hearers, and rendered him at the same time an edifying and entertaining companion. He was accessible, familiar, and communicative, a patron of literature and literary men, a warm friend to the clergy and to the institutions of religion and learning, and an admirer and promoter of merit among the young. He was not an avaricious man, for, after a long life of labour in a lucrative profession, he left no greater estate than is frequently accumulated by a prudent and respectable tradesman.

His attainments in classical literature were great. The late Mr. John Luzac, professor of Greek in the university of Leyden, spoke of him as a "giant in Greek criticism," as his professional admirers styled him "the giant of the law." He loved, and occasionally cultivated the mathematical sciences. The learned and modest Bowditch, in his practical navigator, speaking, on the subject of lunar observations, of a method of correcting the apparent distance of the moon from the sun, acknowledges that it is an improvement on Witchell's method, in consequence of a suggestion from judge Parsons. When, fatigued with the labour of deep legal research, he would often amuse himself, as he called it, with mathematical calculations, or relax his mind by the perusal of some popular and interesting novel.

He lived to the age of sixty-three years; a long life for such a man, whose mind had been so active, and whose body had seldom been in exercise. He made a public profession of his belief in the christian revelation: his was the belief of a strong mind, unobscured by superstition, and undisturbed by the apprehensions of death. It was declared repeatedly in

the best state of his health, and confirmed in the screne contemplation of his expected change.

He died on the 30th of October, 1813, at his house in Boston, in the strength of his understanding, and the zenith of his reputation; and on the Tuesday following his remains were entombed, accompanied by a long procession of relatives and friends. The general sense of the public loss in the death of this learned jurist, exemplary magistrate, and sincere christian, alike honourable to the community and to the deceased, was shown in the unanimous act of the legislature, directing the secretary of the commonwealth to request of the honourable judge Parker a copy of that part of his charge to the grand jury of the county of Suffolk," wherein he delineated the character of the late venerated chief justice Parsons," and to cause it to be inserted in the next volume of the reports.*

In a note annexed to judge Parker's published address, he states the following circumstances:

About three months before the chief justice died, I had a conversation with him upon the subject of the christian religion, and particularly upon the proofs of the resurrection contained in the New Testament. He told me, that he felt the most perfect satisfaction on that subject; that he had once taken it up with a view to ascertain the weight of the evidence by comparing the accounts given by the four evangelists with each other; and that from their agreement in all substantial and important facts, as well as their disagreement in minor circumstances-considering them all as separate and independent witnesses, giving their testimony at different periods, he believed that the evidence would be considered perfect, if the question was tried at any human tribunal.

A similar conversation was held by him with the rev. Mr. Thacher during his late sickness, through the whole of which he evinced a patience and resignation, which, considering his extreme nervous irritability and apprehensions of disease, when in his best state of health, can be accounted for only by the enlightened and satisfactory hopes he entertained of a happy immortality.

* See Massachusetts' Reports, vol. 10, p. 372.

SELECT REVIEWS.

The Colonial Policy of Great Britain, considered with relation to her North American Provinces, and West India Possessions; wherein the dangerous tendency of American Competition is attempted to be developed, and the necessity of recommencing a Colonial System on a vigorous and extensive Scale, exhibited and defended; with Plans for the promotion of Emigration, and Strictures on the Treaty of Ghent. By a British Traveller. 8vo. pp. 238.

[From the Critical Review.]

We are glad to have an opportunity of selecting from an English periodi cal publication, an answer to the execrable work of an English writer, hostile to the peace, reputation and prosperity of our country.

AT no period within our recollection, could a book, holding forth and defending the ill-imagined and impracticable system delineated in this bad-spirited volume, have appeared with less chance of establishing its immoral doctrines, or even of procuring for them a patient discussion, than the year 1816. In that golden æra of ministerial prosperity, when Napoleon occupied the throne of Europe, and was daily drawing the lines of circumvallation closer round the shores of England;—when the "Empress of the Seas" had, by her singular policy towards the ATLANTIC REPUBLIC, forced the deeply-injured citizens of her flourishing and peaceful commonwealths to ap peal to the sword;--when a spirit of aversion against France, and every country whom it pleased the "great men" of England to represent combined with her in plan, principle, and interest, was carefully cherished;-when an occasional advantage in Spain, or the capture of a West India island, sufficed to inflame the mind of the populace, and set them raving about Talavera and Salamanca, with a greater degree of frenzy than their forefathers indulged in the days of Blenheim and La Hogue; and lastly, when nineteen blockheads out of twenty, talked in a crazy style concerning the conquest of America; and solaced themselves by such silly prattle for the unprecedented expenditure required for the prosecution of their magnanimous wars-why, aye, in those bewitched and bewitching days, a pretty, well-printed book against our American brethren --abounding with all sorts of virtuous devices to increase the resentiment already entertained against us by the republic, highly seasoned in every page with bombastic compliments to

English heroism, and on the other hand, plentifully interspersed with malignant, stupid abuse against the states, would, we think, have been received with rapture by all the aged dames and vieux garcons of the kingdom,-tea-table and card-table. would have been enlivened by the sagacious observations and diffusive rhetoric of those venerable worthies; and we think it perfectly consistent with the prevalent mania of those curious times, that such a person as the author before us should have been looked up to as a most surprising gentleman, and that his political theories should have been regarded with a veneration equal to that once paid to Thomas Aquinas. But our hero is, we think, utterly in an error, if he suppose for a moment that his patriotic labours to kindle war between her and the republic, enjoy any thing like the same chance of success which they would in the course of the unfortunate period to which we have reluctantly turned our contemplation. Madmen, in the hour of their frenzy, are sure to adopt with fury all expedients that strike them as likely to injure their supposed enemies, thoughtless whether or not themselves are liable to suffer by their use, calamities greater than any they have it in their power to wreak upon their imaginary foes. But when a lucid interval permits them to comprehend the bitter truth-and when they have sense and leisure to understand how little evil they have been able to inflict on the objects of their rage, and how grievously they themselves have suffered by the furious exertions of their delirious hostility,and when, besides, they are rendered fully conscious of the debility superinduced by such a wreckless expenditure of strength, it is to be presumed that from every consideration suggested by returning wisdom, (laying aside the dictates of morality, since it is unnecessary to provide more causes than are adequate to the effect, and that it is the most unlikely thing we can suppose, to imagine that the conduct which is prompted only by feebleness and inability, can have any pretensions to a feeling of rectitude) they will comport themselves towards those whom they have offended, in such a manner, and exhibit such evident tokens of contrition for their recent misbehaviour, as shall, at least, give them a chance of pardon.

The whole and avowed object of this writer, is to promote the adoption of a plan on the part of England, that will, he conceives, go nigh to the ruin of American industry, and deprive her, by means which, were they not happily impracticable, would yet be utterly abhorrent, by reason of their iniquity, of that vast trade which has been secured to her, partly by her geographical position, partly by the perseverance and ac