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have reflected not a little credit on the inventors and their native country. Such is the machine invented by Mr. Whitney for cleansing the upland cotton of its seeds. Such also was the submarine vessel invented by Mr. Bushnell of Saybrook.

"The poetry of the Americans is treated by these reviewers with not a little contempt. On this subject I shall say little. It may, however, be observed, that several reviewers have spoken of it in more favourable terms. It may also be observed, without any partiality, that M'Fingal is not inferior in wit and humour to Hudibras, and in every other respect is superior. It has a regular plan, in which all the parts are well proportioned and connected. The subject is fairly proposed, and the story conducted correctly through a series of advancements and retardations to a catastrophe, which is natural and complete. The versification is far better; the poetry is in several instances in a good degree elegant, and in some even sublime. It is also free from those endless digressions, which, notwithstanding the wit discovered in them, are so tedious in Hudibras; the protuberances of which are a much larger mass than the body on which they grow.

"The painters of this country have been holden in honourable estimation in Great Britain. A high reputation has been attained by West and Copely, by Trumbull and Stuart. As a portrait painter, it is believed, Stuart has rarely if ever been excelled. Several others, younger than these, are also advancing rapidly towards distinction.

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'Sculpture has not, within my knowledge, ever been attempted here. But engraving has already proceeded far, and is very fast advancing,

From the whole of this account, I cannot but persuade myself, that men of candour will think, that the inhabitants of this country have a claim to be considered with some other emotions than those of contempt, and to receive other treatment than sneers and

sarcasms.

"The reviewer is disposed to speak contemptuously of Marshall's Life of Washington. Yet there is no piece of biography, written in Great Britain, if we except

those of Johnson, which would not suffer by a comparison with it. The last volume is almost singularly excellent. It ought here to be added, that the ministers, sent out to Europe by America, have holden at least as high a rank in European estimation as those who were their companions from any of the European courts.

I will, however, dismiss the subject with one more remark concerning my countrymen. The speeches of Ames, and several other members of the American congress, have been rarely excelled in eloquence by British

orators."

EXTRAORDINARY MEN AND WOMEN,
CHIEFLY OF AMERICAN BIRTH,

MEN OF GENIUS AND ENTERPRISE.

PRESIDENT WASHINGTON.

(The Editor, from Various Authorities.) GEN. GEORGE WASHINGTON, the founder of

the freedom of the United States of America, and the first president of that congress, which laid the foundation of their union, was born on the 11th of February, 1732, O. S. in the parish of Washington, Virginia. He was descended from an ancient family in Cheshire, of which a branch had been established in Virginia, about the middle of the 17th century. Before he was 20 years, he was appointed major in the colonial militia, and he had very early occasion to display those political and military talents, of which the exertions on a greater theatre have since made his name so fainous throughout the world. Mr. Washington was sent as a delegate from Virginia to the Congress which met at Philadelphia, on the 26th Oct. 1774, and was appointed to the command of the army which had assembled in the New England provinces, to hold in check the British army. To detail his operations in the years which followed, would be to repeat the history of the American war. The magnanimity during the ravages of the civil war, in which he acted so conspicuous a part;

has been much and justly celebrated. The conclusion of the American war permitted him to return to those domestic scenes, from which no views of ambition seemed to have had the power to draw his affections. As a genuine proof of his patriotism, he would receive no pay for eight years service, but defrayed his expences during the war out of his private purse. But he was not allowed long to enjoy this privacy. To remedy the distress into which the country had been thrown by the war, a convention of delegates was assembled at Philadelphia, which strengthened the bands of the Federal Union, and bestowed on congress those powers which were necessary for good government. Washing. ton was the president; and in three years after, he was elected president of the United States of America, under the New Constitution. During the turbulence of the French Revolution, he was re-elected to the office of the Presidency of the United States, which he held from April 1789, till Sept. 1796. His resignation was a measure of prudence, as well as of patriotism. From that period till July 1798, he lived in retirement at Mount Vernon. On Thursday the 12th Dec. 1799, he was seized with an inflammation in his throat, which became considerably worse the next day; and of which, notwithstanding the efforts of his physicians, he died on Saturday the 14th Dec. 1799, in the 68th year of his age. For the following character of this great man, we are indebted to the Earl of Buchan.-"He seemed to be one of those extraordinary men, whom the Almighty, in successive ages of the world has been pleased to raise up, to promote the grand and beneficent designs of his providence, in the melioration of his creatures and the improvement of human nature." "I feel a pride," (writes his learned successor, Jefferson, to Lord Buchan), "in the justice, which your Lordship's sentiments render to the character of my illustrious countryman, Washington. The moderation of his desires, and the strength of his judgment enabled him to calculate correctly that the road to that glory which never dies, is to use power for the support of the laws and liberties of our country, not for their destruction; and his will accordingly survive the wreck of every thing now living."-" He died"

(Lord Buchan adds) "as he lived, with fortitude and resignation to the will of the Almighty, and in the belief of the everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ. Not a syllable of impatience or discontent was uttered in his greatest distress. Yet he had naturally a violent temper, which the spirit of that gospel, which had subdued it, enabled him to render subservient to great aetions during the whole of the seven years war, and of his whole public administration. To draw his people to agricultural and industrious habits, and to a sinplicity of manners, and a good education of youth, seemed to be the leading principle of his political system; and the maxim he unfolded in his valedic tory oration to the Senate, when he voluntarily declined the continuation of supreme power, deserves to be recorded on tables of adamant.-"The foundations (said he) of national policy must be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality, since there is no truth more thoroughly established, than that there exists in the economy and course of nature, an indissoluble union between duty and advantage, between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous people, and the solid rewards of public prosperity and happiness. Since we ought to be no less persuaded, that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation, that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained.”—“In his stature," (adds the Eari), he was tail and firm; in his countenance grave and thoughtful; in his manners easy and polite: in his family and society correct in ail his relations; in his commerce with mankind scrupulously just and orreet, a most affectionate husband, Hind relation, and humane master to his slaves and servants. The ben tion of his slaves, if so they could be denominated, under his government, be let to his excellent vilor, Ms. Washington, whom he appointed the chief executris off his will, as well as his immediate beir in the greatest part of his property during her life. But she Ced soon after him of heart-break for her irrepantle loss."

“The character of this truly great man,” says another eminent writer, “will ever be revered by the siminers ef genius, integrity, and genuine patriotism; fea

though his exertions prevailed in depriving Great Britain of one of her most important possessions, the whole tenor of his conduct sufficiently proved, that he acted from the most thorough conviction, and from the purest principles. He fought and bled, not to degrade and enslave, but to render free and happy, his native land; and having done every thing that his country could expect or true patriotism could accomplish, like another honest Cincinnatus, he resigned his well, merited power into the same hands from which he received it, and withdrew into the tranquil bosom of honorable retirement; leaving to the state which he had contributed to establish, the fruits of his wisdom and the example of his virtues."*

DR. FRANKLIN.

(Jones's Biographical Dictionary.)

DOCTOR BENJAMIN FRANKLIN born at Boston in America 1706, was placed at a very early age under one of his brothers, who was a printer, where he made a rapid progress in that art so useful to mankind, and contracted an attachment for the press which continued as long as he lived.-Scarcely emerged from infancy, Franklin was a philosopher without being conscious of it, and by the continual exercise of his genius prepared himself for those great discoveries in science which have since associated his name with that of Newton, and for those political reflections which have placed him by the side of a Solon and a Lycurgus.Soon after his removal from Boston to Philadelphia, Franklin, in concert with some other young men, established a small club; where every member, after his work was over, and on holidays, brought his stock of ideas, which were submitted to discussion. This society of which the young printer was the soul, has been the source of every useful establishment in that province calculated to promote the progress of science, the mechanical arts, and particularly the improvement of the human understanding.-Higher employments, how

* See also page 73 this volume.

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