may be expedient to indulge this noble sentiment of preserving the integrity of dominions once acquired, is a question which her good and great men may be required to decide before another generation shall have passed away. To keep colonies for the mere sake of commercial advantage, or for the sake of vending manufactured goods, is now generally considered an idle thing. Whoever is at all familiar with the documentary history of our revolutionary era has met with bushels of remonstrances and petitions to parliament, all expressing in some form or other an apprehension that home industry would be ruined by a separation of the thirteen Colonies. We will give an instance. The merchants of Bristol were at that time largely concerned in the American trade, and in a most earnest appeal to government to preserve the empire unbroken, they declared, that, were independence acknowledged, their "port would be deserted, and not worth the charge of keeping up." How mistaken! Ten years elapsed, and the same worthy persons had prospered so much, and their trade had become so vast, that they petitioned parliament for leave to enlarge and improve their means of accommodating the ships of the newly born nation! Thus was it generally; and nothing can be more certain, than that Great Britain has gained much more by her trade with the United States since the acknowledgement of their freedom than before. So would it be with the remaining dependencies. How unwise was the policy, that wasted human life and millions of money, and caused enmities and heart-burnings which have not yet ceased, in order to keep us in colonial subjection, when nature's own irresistible laws had brought that subjection to an end! How inexcusable now would be a repetition of the same blunder! A second reason why a surrender may be objected to is the fear lest these Colonies should unite with us. This unwillingness to do any thing which will add to our power is entirely justifiable. British statesmen are not to be blamed, because they refuse to make their rival great on the ocean, and greater still in the workshop. They are set to guard their own people's welfare, and should be reprobated by all true-hearted men the earth over, if false to this great trust. Our own position is secure, and all the armed ships and armed men of Europe cannot disturb it. The destiny of governing this continent is marked out for the people of the United States; and nothing but our own departure from the rule of right can prevent us from accomplishing this high purpose. Jealousy and ill-will on the part either of parent or children is to be heartily rebuked. We should exult, that "the mother of the Gracchi" is able to rule one hemisphere; and she should be equally willing to allow her children to direct the affairs of the other; and mankind should witness no strife between them. If the Colonists north and east of us desire to separate from the parent stock and unite themselves to one of its branches, they should not be opposed by force. But we believe, that no such desire is common among them. On this point, we ask leave to tell what we deem to be the truth, and the whole of it; frankness is always best, even though unwelcome words are uttered. We believe, then, that there is now much less desire on the part of the British Colonists to join the American union than existed among them twenty or twenty-five years ago, when the old Navigation Act, and some of the laws of trade, which were resisted so manfully at a former period, were yet on the British statute-book. The removal of these restrictions did a vast deal to quiet those who take no share in the wrangles of the political arena; and events among ourselves the repudiation of honest debts, the frequent violations of law and order, the prevalence of mobs, and other circumstances have weaned many from their love of the United States. The hope of freedom, of establishing a government of their own, is perhaps increasing. That such a consummation may happen at the proper time, all may wish without offence. It is to this end that all effort should be directed. These Colonies must become a nation by themselves, or form a part of ours. Laws which man cannot alter have fixed a limit to colonial dependence. But let the Colonists bide their hour. Many a daughter has left the maternal home to lie in another, who would gladly return to the mother's embrace, but for vows thoughtlessly, though indissolubly, made. Those unions are most happy with which all the parties are satisfied; and we are full in the faith, that, before many years elapse, both the head of the family and the elder children will rejoice in the formation of a second American confederacy. But whatever inclination may exist in the Colonies for annexation to the United States, we can see no good which will result from it to either party, if it be speedily and hurriedly carried into effect. In the first place, there is no likelihood that the incongruous materials of which the population of British America is composed, torn and distracted as it now is, and as it must be, for some time to come, could be moulded into one homogeneous mass under the wisest plan that could be adopted; and if we could blend and bind together these discordant elements at will, it were better to defer the experiment, till the toil and trouble of fusing into one the mass already in our seething caldron are ended. Again, no great branch of our industry would be benefited by a closer intimacy, and no good derived from it which we may not enjoy without it. We have no need of additional wheat-lands or pine-forests; and if those on whom the duty devolves will but hold Great Britain to the long understood construction of our fishing rights under the convention of 1818, we shall have no use for more extensive fishing-grounds. Of coal we have abundance; and with regard to gypsum, Nova Scotia has never had any other customer, and until we parted with the vantage-ground, by McLane's arrangement, in 1830, we had always taken that bulky article on terms that permitted the use of our own tonnage. Least of all do we wish for increased competition in maritime enterprises. The Colonists can build vessels much cheaper than we can ; and should they be allowed a share of our coasting trade, which now employs nearly two thirds of our whole shipping, the consequences would be disastrous to those portions of our people, whose location hardly leaves them liberty to choose any other employment. In conclusion, we have a word of advice for one of the States most deeply interested in our relations with the British Colonies. Maine, by the treaty of Washington, has obtained a considerable extent of territory inhabited by people of French origin. We pray her to look to their welfare, and to make them part and parcel of her own citizens without delay. They are but a grain of mustard seed now, it is true; but the French, at the time of the conquest of Canada, were only a small part of the population of British America; and what have they become? Let the frontier State, then, be wise in time. Let her afford them the means of improving their husbandry and reconstructing their dwellings. Let them be instructed in the elementary principles of our political system. And, above all, let their children at once be placed under school teachers who are competent and of pure life, who will teach them the Saxon tongue, and all the branches of education common to her best free schools. Else, "Nor happiness Domestic, mixed of tenderness and care, Nor moral excellence, nor social bliss, Nor guardian law were theirs; nor various skill ART. V.- Memoir and Correspondence of MRS. GRANT OF LAGGAN, Author of "Letters from the Mountains," "Memoirs of an American Lady," &c. Edited by her Son, J. P. GRANT, Esq. 3 vols., small 8vo. London. 1844. We shall begin a notice rather of Mrs. Grant herself than of the book just published, by speaking of her as she was in the latter period of her life. In 1820, she met with a severe accident, a fall, which produced permanent lameness, so that ever afterwards she was unable to move about without crutches. In 1827, when she was in her seventy-third year, she lost her only surviving daughter, Mary; and of a large family of children, but one son, the editor of her posthumous correspondence, remained. Her life had been marked by a peculiar series of domestic sorrows, and seemed to be closing in sadness and infirmity. If, shortly after this time, a well educated traveller from this country had visited Edinburgh, he would probably have been desirous to take a last look of one of whom he might have heard much to excite his respect and interest. He might naturally have expected to find her weighed down by age and affliction, broken in health and spirits. But, notwithstanding her lameness, this impression would soon have been removed in the course of a single visit. He would have seen a most respectable-looking old lady, with a countenance marked by the traces of past suffering, but still cheerful and animated. He would have found her ready to converse, and conversing in a manner particularly unaffected and agreeable. If it had been in her power to render him, as a stranger, any small services, which might very likely have been the case, from her extensive connections with society, no one would have been more ready to think of and to offer them. Her sympathies were unchilled. Through them she was still able to give and receive pleasure. She was an extraordinary woman, a woman of uncommon strength and excellence of character. The impression which she was likely to make on a stranger is expressed in a passage of a letter to her by one who had visited her shortly before writing it, which is given in the introductory memoir to the volumes under review. We quote it in this place principally because it is not quite correctly printed, and we happen to have a copy of the original before us. "It was delightful," says the writer, "to find you in old age, after such severe trials, so supported and strengthened by the power of God, - not resigned merely, possessing not the calm benevolence of age alone, but all the kinder feelings in their freshness and flower, which, beautiful as they are in youth, become so much more deeply interesting when we know that care and sorrow have had no power to wither them, and that they will soon form part of that crown of glory which fadeth not. If we could have forgotten the blessings which God has for a time taken to himself, and is reserving for you in his keeping, we might have thought of you only as one, 'Whose cheerful day benevolence endears, Whose night congratulating conscience cheers, In what follows we shall give a short account of the life and writings of Mrs. Grant. It may serve to explain in part why she was regarded with strong affection by many friends, and even by friends to whom she was personally unknown; and it may prepare one for reading with more interest the volumes just published. We shall bring together facts which have not before been presented in connection. Besides her published writings, we have some other sources of information, and especially two manuscript collections, |