storms of a revolution, he commanded, during seven years, the army of a free nation, without exciting the alarms of his countrymen, or the suspicions of the Congress.

Under every circumstance he united in his favor the suffrages of rich and poor, magistrate and warriors; in short, Washington is, perhaps, the only man who ever conducted and terminated a civil war without having drawn upon himself any deserved censure.* As it was known to all that he entirely disregarded his own private interest, and consulted solely the general welfare, he enjoyed, during his life, those unanimous homages which the greatest men generally fail to receive from their contemporaries, and which they must only expect from posterity. It might have been said that envy, seeing him so highly established in public estimation, had become discouraged, and cast away her shafts in despair of their ever being able to reach him.

Washington, when I saw him, was forty-nine years of age. He endeavored modestly to avoid the marks of admiration and respect which were so anxiously offered to him, and yet no man ever knew better how to receive and to acknowledge them. He listened, with an obliging attention, to all those who addressed him, and the expression of his countenance had conveyed his answer before he spoke.

Inspired with the purest and most disinterested love for his country, he refused to receive the salary assigned to him as general

* This point is more forcibly expressed by the Marquis de Chastellux, page 27. William Ellery Channing, also in his Essay on the Life and Character of Napoleon Bonaparte (Discourses, Reviews, &c., 1830) says: "To Washington belonged the proud distinction of being the leader in a revolution, without awakening one doubt or solicitude as to the spotless purity of his purpose."—ED.

in-chief, and it was almost in spite of him that the state undertook to defray the cost of his table. That table was, every day, prepared for thirty guests, and the dinner, which, according to the custom of the English and of the Americans, lasted several hours, was concluded by numerous toasts. Those most generally given were "The independence of the United States"-"The King and Queen of France"— "Success to the Allied Armies." After these came private toasts, or, as they were called in America, "sentiments." "sentiments." In general, after the table had been cleared, and nothing was left but bottles and cheese, the company still remained seated round it until night. Temperance was, however, one of Washington's virtues; and, in thus protracting the duration of his repast, he had only one object in view; the pleasure of conversation, which afforded a diversion from his cares, and repose from his fatigues.

General Washington received me with great kindness. He spoke to me of the gratitude which his country would ever retain for the King of France and for his generous assistance; highly extolled the wisdom and skill of General Count de Rochambeau, expressing himself honored by having deserved and obtained his friendship; warmly commended the bravery and discipline of our army; and concluded by speaking to me, in very obliging and handsome terms, of my father whose long services and numerous wounds were becoming ornaments, he said, to a minister of war.

LOUIS PHILLIPE, Count de Ségur, son of Marshal Ségur, minister of war under Louis XVI, was born at Paris, December 10th, 1753, and died there August 27th, 1832. He entered the army in 1767, and being appointed lieutenant-colonel to the regiment de Soissonnais then in America, embarked May 19th, 1782, on board the frigate La Gloire for the

United States, but in consequence of an accident to the vessel, and through conflicting orders did not leave France until July 15th. After an eventful voyage, being also intercepted by an English Squadron in Delaware Bay, and obliged to make a landing by boats, he succeeded in joining his regiment in camp at Crampond, nine miles from Peekskill, on the Hudson, September 26th. He shortly afterwards dined with Washington at his headquarters at Verplanck's Point, and returned to France with his regiment, sailing from Boston, December 24th, of the same year. Our extract is from his "Memoirs and Recollections," written in 1824, and of which a translation was published at Boston in 1825. 8vo. The Count represented France at the Court of St. Petersburg in 1789, as mentioned by PAUL JONES in a letter to Washington, dated Amsterdam, December 20th of that year, which, being pertinent to our subject we transcribe. "Sir,-I avail myself of the departure of the Philadelphia packet, Captain Earle, to transmit to your excellency a letter I received for you on leaving Russia in August last, from my friend, the Count de Ségur, minister of France at St. Petersburg. That gentleman and myself have frequently conversed on subjects that regard America: and the most pleasing reflection of all has been, the happy establishment of the new constitution, and that you are so deservedly placed at the head of the government by the unanimous voice of America. Your name alone, Sir, has established in Europe a confidence that was for some time before entirely wanting in American concerns; and I am assured, that the happy effects of your administration are still more sensibly felt throughout the United States. This is more glorious for you than all the laurels that your sword so nobly won in the support of the rights of human nature. In war your fame is immortal as the hero of liberty! In peace you are her patron, and the firmest supporter of her rights! Your greatest admirers, and even your best friends, have now but one wish left for you,--that you may long enjoy health and your present happiness."

CHATEAUBRIAND.

1828.

If we compare Washington and Buonaparte, man to man, the genius of the former seems of a less elevated order than that of the latter. Washington belongs not, like Buonaparte, to that race of the Alexanders and Cæsars, who surpass the ordinary stature of mankind. Nothing astonishing attaches to his person; he is not placed on a vast theatre; he is not pitted against the ablest captains and the mightiest monarchs of his time; he traverses no seas; he hurries not from Memphis to Vienna and from Cadiz to Moscow: he defends himself with a handful of citizens on a soil without recollections and without celebrity, in the narrow circle of the domestic hearths. He fights none of those battles which renew the triumphs of Arbela and Pharsalia; he overturns no thrones to re-compose others with their ruins; he places not his foot on the necks of kings; he sends not word to them in the vestibules of his palaces,

Qu'ils se font trop attendre, et qu' Attila s'ennuie.

Something of stillness envelopes the actions of Washington; he acts deliberately: you would say that he feels himself to be the representative of the liberty of future ages, and that he is afraid of compromising it. It is not his own destinies but those of his country with which this hero of a new kind is charged; he allows not himself to hazard what does not belong to him. But what light bursts forth from this

profound obscurity! Search the unknown forests where glistened the sword of Washington, what will you find there? graves? no! a world! Washington has left the United States for a trophy of his field of battle.

Buonaparte has not any one characteristic of this grave American: he fights on an old soil, surrounded with glory and celebrity; he wishes to create nothing but his own renown; he takes upon himself nothing but his own aggrandizement. He seems to be aware that his mission will be short, that the torrent which falls from such a height will speedily be exhausted: he hastens to enjoy and to abuse his glory, as men do a fugitive youth. Like the gods of Homer, he wants to reach the end of the world in four steps: he appears on every shore, he hastily inscribes his name in the annals of every nation; he throws crowns as he runs to his family and his soldiers; he is in a hurry in his monuments, in his laws, in his victories. Stooping over the world, with one hand he overthrows kings, and with the other strikes down the revolutionary giant; but in crushing anarchy he stifles liberty, and finally loses his own in the field of his last battle.

Each is rewarded according to his works: Washington raises his nation to independence: a retired magistrate he sinks quietly to rest beneath his paternal roof, amid the regrets of his countrymen and the veneration of all nations.

Buonaparte robbed a nation of its independence: a fallen emperor, he is hurried into an exile where the fears of the world deem him not safely enough imprisoned in the custody of the ocean. So long as, feeble and chained upon a rock, he struggles with death, Europe dares not lay down its arms. He expires: this intelligence, published at the gate of the palace before which the conqueror had caused so many