yielding on all visionary projects, and all unworthy calls on his charity.— His heart was not warm in its affections; but he exactly calculated every man's value, and gave him a solid esteem proportioned to it. His person, you know, was fine, his stature exactly what one would wish, his deportment easy, erect, and noble; the best horseman of his age, and the most graceful figure that could be seen on horseback. Although in the circle of his friends, where he might be unreserved with safety, he took a free share in conversation, his colloquial talents were not above mediocrity, possessing neither copiousness of ideas, nor fluency of words. In public, when called on for a sudden opinion, he was unready, short, and embarrassed. Yet he wrote readily, rather diffusely, in an easy and correct style. This he had acquired by conversation with the world, for his education was merely reading, writing, and common arithmetic, to which he added surveying at a later day. His time was employed in action chiefly, reading little, and that only in agriculture and English history. His correspondence became necessarily extensive, and, with journalizing his agricultural proceedings, occupied most of his leisure hours within doors.On the whole, his character was, in its mass, perfect, in nothing bad, in few points indifferent; and it may truly be said, that never did nature and fortune combine more perfectly to make a man great, and to place him in the same constellation with whatever worthies have merited from man an everlasting remembrance.'- pp. 241, 242.

In another place, speaking of General Washington in his capacity of senator, Jefferson observes, "I served with General Washington in the Legislature of Virginia before the revolution, and during it with Dr. Franklin in Congress. I never heard either of them speak ten minutes at a time, nor to any but the main point, which was to decide the question." If brevity of speech be a proof of wisdom, certainly our British senators must be the most forlorn of that quality of any men in existence.

In 1784, Jefferson arrived in Paris as Minister Plenipotentiary. He witnessed some of the horrors of the French Revolution. His information being perfectly authentic, is well worth consulting. He is impressed with a very strong dislike for Marie Antoinette, who certainly amply atoned by her ignominious death for any errors she may have committed. Jefferson attributes to her ungovernable passions the whole mischief of the Revolution. After giving Louis the XVI. credit for the most upright intentions towards his subjects, this writer proceeds :

• But he had a Queen of absolute sway over his weak mind and timid virtue, and of a character the reverse of his in all points. This angel, as gaudily painted in the rhapsodies of Burke, with some smartness of fancy, but no sound sense, was proud, disdainful of restraint, indiguant at all obstacles to her will, eager in the pursuit of pleasure, and firm enough to hold to her desires, or perish in their wreck. Her inordinate gambling and dissipations, with those of the Count d'Artois, and others of her clique, had been a sensible item in the exhaustion of the treasury, which called into action the reforming hand of the nation; and her opposition to it, her inflexible perverseness and dauntless spirit, led herself to the guillotine, drew the King on with her, and plunged the world into

crimes and calamities which will for ever stain the pages of modern history. I have ever believed, that had there been no Queen, there would have been no revolution. No force would have been provoked, or exercised. The King would have gone hand in hand with the wisdom of his sounder counsellors, who, guided by the increased lights of the age, wished only, with the same pace, to advance the principles of their social constitution. The deed which closed the mortal course of these sovereigns, I shall neither approve nor condemn. I am not prepared to say, that the first magistrate of a nation cannot commit treason against his country, or is unamenable to its punishment: nor yet, that where there is no written law, no regulated tribunal, there is not a law in our hearts, and a power in our hands, given for righteous employment in maintaining right, and redressing wrong. Of those who judged the King, many thought him wilfully criminal; many, that his existence would keep the nation in perpetual conflict with the horde of kings, who would war against a regeneration which might come home to themselves, and that it were better that one should die than all. I should not have voted with this portion of the legislature. I should have shut up the Queen in a convent, putting harm out of her power, and placed the King in his station, investing him with limited powers, which, I verily believe he would have honestly excercised, according to the measure of his understanding.'-vol. i. pp. 86, 87.

Whilst Jefferson was fulfilling the duties of a representative of his government in Europe, he availed himself of the opportunities he possessed to extend his acquaintance with the countries bordering on that where the objects of his mission more particularly required his attendance. The following account of his present Majesty was penned in 1789, and before perusing it, it may be necessary to remind the reader that the person who drew the character had a warm interest, at the particular moment, in diminishing the pretensions of monarchs and their families to the respect of the world.

As the character of the Prince of Wales is becoming interesting, I have endeavoured to learn what it truly is. This is less difficult in his case than in that of other persons of his rank, because he has taken no pains to hide himself from the world. The information I most rely on, is from a person here with whom I am intimate, who divides his time between Paris and London, an Englishman by birth, of truth, sagacity and science. He is of a circle, when in London, which has had good opportunities of knowing the Prince; but he has also, himself, had special occasions of verifying their information by his own personal observation. He happened, when last in London, to be invited to a dinner of three persons. The Prince came by chance, and made the fourth. He ate as much as the other three, and drank about two bottles of wine without seeming to feel it. My informant sat next to him, and being till then unknown to the Prince, personally, (though not by character) and lately from France, the Prince confined his conversation entirely to him. Observing to the Prince that he spoke French without the least foreign accent, the Prince told him, that when very young, his father had put only French servants about him, and that it was to that circumstance he owed his pronunciation. He led him from this to give an account of his education, the total of which was the

learning a little Latin. He has not a single element of mathematics, of natural or moral philosophy, or of any other science on earth, nor has the society he has kept been such as to supply the void of education. He carries his indifference for fame so far, that he would probably not be hurt were he to lose his throne, provided he could be assured of having always meat, drink, horses, and women. In the article of women,

nevertheless, he is become more correct since his connection with Mrs. Fitzherbert, who is an honest and worthy woman: he is even less crapulous than he was. He had a fine person, but it is becoming coarse. He possesses good native common sense; is affable, polite, and very good humoured. Saying to my informant, on another occasion, "your friend, such a one, dined with me yesterday, and I made him damned drunk;" he replied, "I am sorry for it; I had heard that your royal highness had left off drinking" the Prince laughed, tapped him on the shoulder very goodnaturedly, without saying a word, or ever after shewing any displeasure. The Duke of York, who was for some time cried up as the prodigy of the family, is as profligate, and of less understanding.'-vol. ii. pp. 421, 422.

Jefferson returned to his native country, where the most distinguished honours awaited him in succession. He was appointed Secretary of State, subsequently was elected Vice-President of the United States, and, at last, raised to the post of Chief Magistrate. In 1809, he retired from public life to the bosom of a family, whose presence seemed to constitute his chief source of earthly bliss, and to the pursuits of agriculture, which varied, in a most agreeable manner, the round of his domestic engagements.

To one of the events of the declining years of Jefferson, we turn with pain. His assiduous attention to public affairs, and his absence in foreign countries for so many years, naturally led to the depreciation of his property at home. He contracted debts, which, in the latter part of his life, fell upon him with mortifying force, in the shape of interest. He applied to Congress for leave to dispose of his property by lottery, as, if he pursued the ordinary course of sale, this property would fetch nothing like its value. Jefferson, notwithstanding his long course of public service, and notwithstanding the feeling manner with which, at upwards of eighty years of age, he enumerated his claims on public indulgence, for he went no further-was denied upon, perhaps, very sound principles, of parting with his property in the manner which he had desired. The disappointment preyed upon him; and, justified by its effects, to a certain extent, the rumour that he died neglected, a victim to the ingratitude of the republic.

Jefferson, united with a high moral feeling, a great deal of practical good sense. So thoroughly did he, by his words and actions, prove himself the genuine friend of his country, that no imputation was ever attempted to be made to the contrary. One of the ancients has said, that she must be an undoubtedly irreproachable woman against whom the breath of calumny was never raised. Jefferson has all the benefit of this negative testimony. The manner in which he speaks of his colleagues, both when they

were living as well as after their decease, sufficiently shews how little his mind was affected by jealousy, envy, or any of those base passions by which, too often, confederacies of men, that are formed for the most glorious purposes, are invalidated and degraded. The praises and distinctions which crowned his political career amply attest the integrity of his services as a patriot, whilst the number of his domestic virtues is proved in the cordiality of the affection of his friends.

ART. XIV.-Records of Captain Clapperton's last Expedition to Africa. By Richard Lander, his faithful Attendant, and the only surviving Member of the Expedition: with the subsequent Adventures of the Author. In two volumes. 8vo. London: Colburn and Bentley. 1830. It may be imagined that this work ought to have been comprised in a preceding article, which contains a review of Mr. Rose's "Four years in Southern Africa." But those who have had frequent opportunities of comparing the people of the latter part of that continent with those of its central and northern divisions, will readily agree with us in thinking that they are to be treated as wholly distinct nations. Sometimes it has happened, that two or three wanderers from the north have found their way even as far as the Cape of Good Hope. But instances of this kind are so rare, that they are looked upon as extraordinary events. Indeed, we have no reason to believe that any regular communication exists between the tribes who skirt the frontiers of the British colony, and those who occupy the countries which have been visited by Captain Clapperton.

Nor do we even know of any enterprize, connected with Africa, of which we should hear with greater pleasure, than the appointment of a mission, whose object would be to traverse and describe that continent, from the boundary of our settlements in the north to the sources of the Nile in the east, and the banks of the Niger in the opposite direction. For this purpose persons should be chosen, if possible, from the Cape of Good Hope, who have been accustomed to some at least of the African climates. It is quite unnecessary to select these pioneers of discovery from the ranks of professional learning or bravery. Men of plain sense who can note down whatever they may observe that is worthy of being recorded, who can endure privation, and accommodate their tempers to the strangers whom they mingle with, would sufficiently answer every useful end which a preliminary mission could be required to attain. If they play upon musical instruments, and do not despise now and then a little buffoonery, they may go where they like without danger of molestation. Lander tells us that a fiddler, provided he was not blind, might travel not only with safety, but with universal applause, from Badagry to Bornou.

It is creditable to his Majesty's Government, that they have not

been deterred by the unfortunate circumstances which have hitherto attended most of our African expeditions, from pursuing the course of enquiry which they have commenced in that quarter. And we look upon it as particularly judicious that Lander, who so justly entitles himself the faithful attendant' of his late master, has been fixed upon for a service in which he has already displayed abilities, and a degree of fortitude that could hardly have been expected from an individual in his humble station. He has already, we believe, sailed for his destination, accompanied only by his brother, to whose literary powers, it appears, we are indebted for the clear and agreeable style in which the journal, appended to that of Captain Clapperton, is written, and also the two interesting volumes now before us.

When we took those volumes up, we were apprehensive that they might only contain, for the most part, repetitions of the journals already published, clothed in a change of language. This is the case undoubtedly to some degree, but by no means to an extent greater than might fairly be attributed to the fact of the two writers having been eventually together during the period employed in their observations. The lamented Clapperton applied his mind to the principal objects of his expedition, such as ascertaining the characters of chieftains, the boundaries of their dominions, their resources and productions. He did not overlook the manners of the people, in their various peculiarities, but either the shortness of his time, disease, or higher occupations, prevented him from attending to their every day life in the way in which Lander seems to have done. The latter was less noticed than his master, and from mixing much among the multitude, he appears to have learned numberless little traits of character, as well as some national customs, which, either were unobserved, or but scantily touched by Captain Clapperton.

Lander gives a sketch of his own life, which is not without interest. From his youth upwards, he was actuated by an unconquerable love of rambling. Born of obscure parents at Truro, in Cornwall, in 1804, he accompanied a gentleman to the West Indies in his eleventh year, and after the expiration of his first service, travelled upon the Continent with various masters. He went in 1823 to South Africa with Major Colebrooke, and not long after his return to England in 1824, he sought and obtained the engagement with Captain Clapperton, which in its consequences is likely to "gild his humble name." The object of his new journey is to proceed to Fundale, and to trace the river thence to Benin.

Having in our review of Captain Clapperton's Journal, very fully touched upon all the material incidents of the expedition, we shall only advert to those parts of the present work which are altogether of a novel character. Plunging at once into the middle of the first volume, we light upon a scene of African revelry, followed by a tor