in the endless variety of the patchwork, of which society is composed, a liberal philosophic mind might meet with the specimens of all those tongues and nations which he comprehends in the wide circle of his enlarged philanthropy.

THA

in America acted upon liberal and patriotic views can not be doubted. There were many, indeed, of whom the public good was the leading principle; and to these the cause was a noble one: yet even these little foresaw the result. Had they known what a cold, selfish character, what a dereliction of religious principle, what furious factions, and wild unsettled notions of government, were to be the consequences of this utter alienation from the parent state, they would have shrunk back from the prospect. Those fine minds who, nurtured in the love of science and of elegance, looked back to the land of their forefathers for models of excellence, and drank inspiration from the production of the British muse, could not but feel this rapture as "a wrench from all we love, from all we are." They, too, might wish, when time had ripened their growing empire, to assert that independence which, when mature in strength and knowledge, we claim even of the parents we love and honor. But to snatch it with a rude and bloody grasp, outraged the feelings of those gentler

children of the common parent. Mildness of manners, refinement of mind, and all the softer virtues that spring up in the cultivated paths of social life, nurtured by generous affections, were undoubtedly to be found on the side of the unhappy loyalists; whatever superiority in vigor and intrepidity might be claimed by their persecutors. Certainly, however necessary the ruling powers might find it to carry their system of exile into execution, it has occasioned to the country an irreparable privation.

When the revocation of the Edict of Nantz gave the scattering blow to the protestants of France, they carried with them their arts, their frugal regular habits, and that portable mine of wealth which is the portion of patient industry. The chasm produced in France by the departure of so much humble virtue, and so many useful arts, has never been filled.

What the loss of the Huguenots was to commerce and manufactures in France, that of the loyalists was to religion, literature, and amenity, in America. The silken threads were drawn out of the mixed web of society, which has ever since been comparatively coarse and homely. The dawning light of elegant science was quenched in universal dulness. No ray has broken through the general gloom except the phosphoric lightnings of her cold blooded philosopher, the deistical Franklin, the legitimate father of the American "age of calculation." So well have "the children of his soul" profited by

the frugal lessons of this apostle of Plutus, that we see a new empire blest in its infancy with all the saving virtues which are the usual portion of cautious and feeble age; and we behold it with the same complacent surprise which fills our minds at the sight of a young miser.

Forgive me, shade of the accomplished Hamilton1 while all that is lovely in virtue, all that is honorable in valor, and all that is admirable in talent, conspire to lament the early setting of that western star; and to deck the tomb of worth and genius with wreaths of immortal bloom:

"Thee Columbia long shall weep;
Ne'er again thy kindness see;"

"They have no poet, and they die." - Pope.

His character was a bright exception; yet, after all, an exception that only confirms the rule. What must be the state of that country where worth, talent, and the disinterested exercise of every faculty of a vigorous and exalted mind, were in vain devoted to the public good? Where, indeed, they

1 General Alexander Hamilton, killed in a duel, into which he was forced by Col. Aaron Burr, Vice-President of the United States, at New York, in 1804. Mrs. Grant.

only marked out their possessor for a victim to the shrine of faction? Alas! that a compliance with the laws of false honor (the only blemish of a stainless life), should be so dearly expiated! Yet the deep sense expressed by all parties of this general loss, seems to promise a happier day at some future period, when this chaos of jarring elements shall be reduced by some pervading and governing mind into a settled form.

But much must be done, and suffered, before this change can take place. There never can be much improvement till there is union and subordination; till those strong local attachments are formed, which are the basis of patriotism, and the bonds of social attachment. But, while such a wide field is open to the spirit of adventure; and, while the facility of removal encourages that restless and ungovernable spirit, there is little hope of any material change. There is in America a double principle of fermentation, which continues to impede the growth of the arts and sciences, and of those gentler virtues of social life, which were blasted by the breath of popular fury. On the sea-side there is a perpetual importation of lawless and restless persons, who have no other path to the notoriety they covet, but that which leads through party violence; and of want of that local attachment, I have been speaking of, there can be no stronger proof, than the passion for emigration so frequent in America.