public life is less sought by respectability than elsewhere, or formerly, and that talents avoid it. Whether this be so in America, is it more so than elsewhere? Great talents are the creations of great conjunctures; and the tranquillity of the United States has been almost uniform under the present forms of government. In such circumstances, commercial, professional, and other lucrative pursuits are more attractive than politics; and with the growth of luxury, which has been prodigious since the introduction of paper money, there will always be a large class preferring fashionable idleness to political notoriety. Mdme. de Staël says, in her considerations on the French Revolution, that many of the old nobility of Europe despised the Emperor Alexander as an upstart, not to be received into good society. Social and ancestral distinction, a strong desire, more prevalent in Europe, is not without acknowledgment in America. Descendants of celebrated Americans are often chosen into political life for that reason. Congress and the state legislatures abound with members boasting some family merit, such as kindred with soldiers of the Revolution; and it is common to meet with Americans who preserve their ancestors' certificates of service in the Revolutionary army, as if they were patents of nobility. Besides the merits of personal pedigree, Burke eloquently vindicates those of honourable national lineage. Yet the country attorneys, village lawyers, notaries, brokers, traders, and clowns whom he enumerates as the majority of the third estate of the French National Assembly, inferior, in his judgment, to the noblemen and gentry he extols as hereditary legislators, enacted laws which reformed the crumbling basis of society, and reconstructed France so as to render that declining kingdom not only freer, but incomparably happier, richer, and greater than it was before the days of what Burke calls its downfall. If De Tocqueville's idea be true, that American democracy is irresistibly swallowing up every thing else American, and such be the decline which Europe imputes to this country; at all events, Great Britain, France, and all the freer kingdoms of Europe, are passing down the same declivity with more violence and precipitation than this country, one of whose consolations is Jefferson's maxim, that government, at best, is but relative good, and that, with all the faults of which it is accused, democracy is at least a less injurious and more durable state than royalty, since one of the unquestionable consequences of the American Revolution is, that revolutionary movements, with equality and liberty, have begun throughout the Old World.

MAJOR-GENERAL EDMUND P. GAINES,

COMMANDER OF THE EASTERN DIVISION OF THE AMERICAN ARMY.

AT New Orleans I became acquainted with General Gaines, who was then one of the notabilités of the celebrated St. Charles' Hotel. Since I left the United States (in the ill-fated Great Britain, on the 1st of August,) the General's name has frequently appeared in the public prints, in consequence of his being summoned to take his trial before a Court Martial, for raising Volun teers to serve in the Mexican War on his own responsibility. The veteran General received a slight reprimand, intended rather to act as a check on the impetuosity and unconstitutional assumption of military authority on the part of others, than as a serious reproof to one who had given nearly three parts of a century to the service of the Republic, and whose residue of life would cheerfully be yielded for her safety or her welfare. He has since been appointed to active service, and ordered to proceed to the seat of war. It is a usual, perhaps it is a natural presupposition, to connect the idea of youthful military men with this youthful Republic; we forget that though threescore years and ten are as one day in the age of a nation, yet that they comprise the life of man. On first seeing General Gaines, had I not known his name, I should have supposed him a Maréchal of France, of the Régime of Napoleon, and should have sought on his breast the "Star of the Brave," and the riband of the Legion of Honour. He has aided in protecting the cradle of American Independence; and though years of service have told their tale upon his earthly frame, the soldier's heart is still unchilled, his spirit unsubdued. This gallant Officer is eighty-three; he is pale and white haired, tall and emaciated; but his habits are punctual and early,* and so strict is his adherence to discipline, that a gentleman told me that having heard General Gaines was indisposed, he went to see him, and found him lying on the bed with his military collar on, and his sword by his side; he was with difficulty prevailed on to resign the badges of a soldier even while suffering. He is the mirror of courtesy to the fair sex, and no gentleman handles a lady's fan with greater dexterity; either sitting or standing he never forgets to relieve her from the onerous task of fanning herself.

* I remember, with shame, an appointment to accompany the General to the cupola of the St. Charles, one morning at five o'clock, to see the sun rise. The Doctor and I both overslept ourselves.

In every relation of private life General Gaines is exemplary; a most amiable and excellent man; and doubtless the President and the country, in the services of this faithful Officer, will reap the reward of the confidence they have reposed in him.

LIEUTENANT MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY,

OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY.

PRINCIPAL OFFICER AT THE OBSERVATORY, AT GEORGETOWN,

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

HAVING thus introduced a gallant soldier, I cannot refuse myself the pleasure of presenting also an American Sailor to my English friends. Lieutenant Matthew Fontaine Maury is one of my husband's family; a Virginian, proud of his birthplace and his State; of generous, high bred-nature, and of democratic politics. He is a man of science, equally well versed in the secrets of the sea and of the sky; an accomplished mariner, an admirable astronomer and mathematician, and a superior author on many subjects; he writes excellent English. In spite of a certain utilitarian antipathy to a very profound study of the dead languages, a heresy which has most unaccountably become possessed of the Lieutenant in these latter years, he has a very classic taste both in reading and composition; owing, doubtless, though he would fain deny it, to his former intimate acquaintance with those worthy Greek and Latin Masters, whom he now despises for no other reason than that they did not speak English, and were dead and buried some hundreds of years before the Anglo-Saxon race began. He is a great favourite with his brother officers, both for his ability and his kindly nature; they are proud of the one, and love the other; and he is held in great estimation at Washington for his admirable regulations at the Observatory, his eminent professional knowledge and industry, his good judgment in political affairs, and his exceeding moral worth. 66 Pray ask him to come and see me often," said Mr. Calhoun," he is a man of most excellent thought."

Some years ago Lieutenant Maury was thrown from a stage coach in Ohio, and broke his leg. I have understood that a country practitioner was sent for, who being fortunately ignorant of the fatal art of amputation, set to work to save the leg, and succeeded. Maury is lame; but to this accident is owing the

developement of the most touching traits of his character, and perhaps of his choicest talents. Incapable of a murmur, suffering with manly resolution, and applying himself to every useful and philanthropic purpose, his life is a model of the best and truest heroism. I have never seen his temper ruffled, nor that serene and intelligent countenance overcast; his philosophy is that of the Christian, enduring, elevated, and manly. I love to think of his cordial welcome to me, his foreign stranger cousin, and of the honest pride he felt in seeing me so well beloved among his countrymen; and I know that he will not forget the pleasant time that we have spent together in familiar converse about those so dear whom I had left on England's shores. Many were the evening hours we sat upon the roof of the Observatory, watching the kindling lights of Washington and Georgetown, the Capitol glittering in the moonlight, and the stealthy course of the gentle Potomac; we gazed upon the planets, comets, stars, and nebulæ. We spoke of all the objects that surrounded us, and marvelled if in future times we might again behold them in the society of those so distant, yet so tenderly remembered.

The advantages of a tour in Europe would render the Lieutenant one of the most accomplished professional men living. He cordially approved of the Mexican war, and was zealous that the Navy should share the glory of the strife. He himself, forgetful of the bruised and suffering limb, and of a constitution injured by its effects, would instantly seize the boarding pike and cutlass, and leap to the oar.

*

THE HONOURABLE JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN,

MEMBER OF THE SENATE FOR SOUTH CAROLINA.

"A reasoning, high, immortal thing."

CALHOUN is my Statesman. Through good report and through evil report; in all his doctrines, whether upon Slavery, Free Trade, Nullification, Treasury and Currency Systems, active Annexation, or masterly inactivity, I hold myself his avowed and admiring disciple. If this distinguished Statesman could be prevailed upon to visit England, either in a public or in a private capacity, he would command more admiration, and attract more

* And fling away that mystical blue and scarlet night cap which, in half a second, converts our handsome Lieutenant of the Navy into a quaint old Astrologer.

interest than any other man of Europe or of America. The very anomaly of his position, the curious coincidences by which he becomes the representative of interests, which, nominally at least, are in contra-position to each other, and the skill and determined fidelity with which he unites and guards each several one of these interests; preserving entire the integrity of all; these attributes together compose a character so unique, an attitude so extraordinary as to be unparalleled either in his own or in any other country of the world. To know, to understand, and to appreciate him, it is requisite rapidly to review the measures of which he is the acknowledged expounder and advocate. The champion of Free Trade; a Slaveholder and Cotton Planter; the vindicator of State Rights, and yet a firm believer in the indestructibility of the Federal Union; now the advocate of war, and now of peace; now claimed as a Whig; now revered as a Democrat; now branded as a Traitor; now worshipped as a Patriot; now assailed as a Demon; now invoked as a Demi-god; now withstanding Power, and now the people; now proudly accepting office, now as proudly spurning it; now goading the Administration, now resisting it; now counselling, now defying the Executive; but in all changes of circumstances, all trials of patience, in smiling or in adverse fortune, ever forgetful of self, and faithful only to the inspirations of the genius and the virtue of which his name is the symbol. No vice, no folly, no frailty has soiled his nature, consumed his life, or extorted his remorse; his country has been his sole engrossing passion; loved with the devotion of a Brutus, and served with the fidelity of a Regulus; he has never wasted time; each moment has been and is employed in usefulness; his public hours in the advancement of just and wise measures of policy, and his moments of solitude in the study of all subjects which tend to elucidate those measures. Politics thus may be considered to have almost exclusively occupied the life of this great Statesman; not the sordid intrigue of partisanship, not the venal craving of place and pay, not the debasing sacrifice of honesty to popularity; his soul disdains such base employment of her faculties; nay, I question if, with all its keenness, his mind could comprehend such schemes of politics. His are not even the tactics of a state or section, nor alone those of the United States, or America: but they comprise those exalted views which, deduced from philosophy and history, and proved by practical experience, are found to constitute the true policy of all nations, and to be the universal principles of all righteous governments. They are the DECALOGUE OF REPUBLICS. And the impression produced by the single