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has qualifications sufficient for being the mistress of a dame school. Socicties must exist, because man is a gregarious animal; but they are virtuous and happy in the inverse ratio of their size. Great schools, like great cities, are great evils; because they defy minute superintendance.

The account of Highways and By ways, or Tales by the Roadside, is a very excellent review of a very interesting volume. It is written in the good old style (which seldom appears in the Edinburgh), and gives us a sufficient quantity of extract to enable us to judge for ourselves of the nature of the work reviewed. Of the tales, this is not the place to give any abstract; besides, they must already be well known to most of our readers.

The tenth article treats of Carnot's celebrated work De la Defence des Places Fortes. We say celebrated, because, on the Continent, numerous fortresses are so constructed as to be defended on his plan. In this country we have no fortresses to defend, and consequently all the investigation that our engineers have bestowed on the subject has been matter of mere amusement. Carnot's work was published in 1811, and the experiments made by Sir Howard Douglas, with a view to demonstrate the inefficacy of the system, appeared in 1819. What has induced the Edinburgh Review to take up the subject, at this late period, we are not informed. Carnot has lately paid the debt of nature, having left behind him an imperishable name; but his death appears not to have been known to the reviewer when he wrote his remarks. Our readers will remember, that Carnot's system is that of "vertical fire." When the besiegers have formed the third parallel, horizontal fire has little effect, and therefore M. Carnot proposed their destruction by a shower of bullets, shot from a mortar, so as to fall upon their heads. These bullets were to be a quarter of a pound in weight, and Sir H. Douglas says they would not kill. The reviewer agrees with Sir H. D. on this subject, objecting only to the manner in which he has treated a person of Carnot's acknowledged celebrity. Sir Howard made experiments with four-ounce balls, both of cast and of wrought iron, shot at different degrees of elevation, and found that they made a very trifling indentation in a deal-board, and sunk

in a soft meadow only two or three inches. The inference then is, "that it is not possible to give to a fourounce ball such a descending force as will inflict a mortal wound on a bead of ordinary strength." We say that the experiment has not been fairly tried, and that it ought to have been made upon real human heads. Our skull is not, perhaps, so hard as Sir Howard's, but we should not like to venture it beneath a bullet, descending with a force capable of penetrating three inches into meadow-ground. Besides, we should be afraid lest the engineer, discovering that it was too light, might oblige us with a ball of a greater diameter.

The observations on the Warehousing System and the Navigation Laws, give a very good history of the origin and progress of these several commercial regulations, from the reign of Richard II. to the present time; and would make a useful pamphlet, which might be purchased by those who are, or wish to be, conversant in such matters, and should be distributed among the several Members of Parliament, who alone are able to give that relief to the shipping-interest which it appears to require.

The twelfth and last article is on the never-ending subject, the Emperor Napoleon. It professes to speak of Lord Ebrington's Conversations at Porto-Ferraio, and the six volumes of the Life and Conversations of Napo leon, written by Las Cases. We have repeatedly remarked, that Edinburgh Reviews are often written to serve a particular purpose, rather than to give information to the reader; and the present appears to be a glaring instance of that kind. It is throughout an eulogium on Mr. O'Meara's work, and it is obviously with this view alone that we are introduced to that of Las Cases. "The work of Las Cases is of the highest interest." Why?-Because, like Mr. O'Meara's, it assumes the form of a journal, but is more minute and regular." "Mr. O'Meara's work contained a body of the most interesting and valuable information,

information, the accuracy of which stands unimpeached by any of the attacks lately made against its author; and the work before us yields not in importance and entertainment to that of Mr. O'Meara." So it is in every page,

nothing but O'Meara! "The personal attacks upon its author merit

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scarcely greater regard. He (O'Meara) seems to have been somewhat imprudent; and there are several matters requiring explanation in his communications to the governor,-an explanation which he would probably have given in the most authentic form, by an affidavit, in answer to Sir H. Lowe's rule for a criminalinformation, bad not that proceeding been quashed by reason of the extraordinary length of time during which Sir Hudson had suffered the statements against him to pass unnoticed." Now we consider this as a very extraordinary sort of review, and a very improper interference with a question that remains to be settled in a court of

justice. When Mr. O'Meara's work appeared, we were among the first to speak in its praise. The author's political principles were professedly liberal, and we have a deep-rooted prejudice against despotism: but, liberales though we be, we are not partizans. Mr. O'Meara has been accused of political tergiversation of the worst kind; and his letters, which have been published, are appealed to as prima-facie evidence. A true bill has been found before the tribunal of the public: he has promised to prove his innocence, and we wait for that proof before we reiterate our praise.

BIOGRAPHY OF EMINENT PERSONS.

SKETCH of the LIFE of ROBERT MORRIS," one of the FOUNDERS of the NORTH AMERICAN REPUBLIC; by JAMES MEASE, M.D. of PHILADELPHIA.

R OBERT MORRIS was the son of a respectable merchant of Liverpool, who had for some years been extensively concerned in the American trade; and, while a boy, he was brought by his father to this country, in which it appears he intended to settle. During the time that he was pursuing his education in Philadelphia, he unfortunately lost his father, in consequence of a wound received from the wad of a gun, which was discharged as a compliment by the captain of a ship consigned to him, that had just arrived at Oxford, the place of his residence, on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay; and he was thus left an orphan at the age of fifteen years. In conformity with the intentions of his parent, he was bred to commerce, and served a regular apprenticeship in the counting-house of the late Mr. Charles Willing, at that time one of the first merchants of Philadelphia. A year or two after the expiration of the term for which he had engaged himself, he entered into partnership with Mr. Thomas Willing. This connection, which was formed in 1754, continued for the long period of thirty-nine years, not having been dissolved until 1793. Previously to the commencement of the American war, it was, without doubt, more extensively engaged in commerce than any other house in Philadelphia.

Written for the Philadelphia edit. of the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, and trans. mitted to us by the author. MONTHLY MAG. No. 387.

Of the events of his youth we know little. The fact just mentioned proves, that, although early deprived of the benefit of parental counsel, he acted with fidelity, and gained the good-will of a discerning and wealthy young friend, the son of his master. The following anecdote will shew his early activity in business, and anxiety to promote the interests of his friend. During the absence of Mr. Willing at his country seat near Frankford, a vessel arrived at Philadelphia, either consigned to him, or that brought letters, giving intelligence of the sudden rise in the price of flour at the port she had left. Mr. Morris instantly engaged all that he could contract for, on account of Mr. Willing, who, on his return to the city next day, had to defend his young friend from the complaints of some merchants, that he had raised the price of flour. An appeal, however, from Mr. Willing to their own probable line of conduct, in case of their having first received the news, silenced their complaints.

Few men in the American colonies were more alive to the gradual encroachment of the British government upon the liberties of the people, and none more ready to remonstrate against them, than Mr. Morris. His signature on the part of his mercantile house to the non-importation agreement, as respected England, which was entered into by the merchants of Philadelphia in the year 1765, while it evinced the consistency of his principles and conduct, at the same time was expressive of a willingness to 'unite with them in showing their determination to prefer a sacrifice of private interest to the continuance of an inter2 H course,

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course, which would add to the revenue of the government that oppressed them. The extensive mercandle concerns with England of Mr. Morris's house, and the large importations of her manufactures and colonial produce by it, must have made this sacrifice considerable. His uniform conduct on the subject of the relative connexion between England and the colonies, his high standing in society, and general intelligence, naturally pointed him out as a fit representative of Pennsylvania in the national councils, assembled on the approach of the political storm; and he was accordingly appointed by the legislature of Pennsylvania, in November 1775, one of the delegates to the second congress that met at Philadelphia. A few weeks after he had taken bis seat, he was added to the secret committee of that body, which had been formed by a resolve of the preceding congress, and whose duty was to contract for the importation of arms, ammunition, sulphur, and saltpetre, and to export produce on the public account to pay for the same." He was also appointed a member of the committee for fitting out a naval armament, and specially commissioned to negociate bills of exchange for congress; to borrow money for the marine committee, and to manage the fiscal concerns of congress upon other occasions. Independently of his enthusiastic zeal in the cause of his country, of his capacity for business, and knowledge of the subjects committed to him, or his talents for managing pecuniary concerns, he was particularly fitted for such services; as the commercial credit he had established among his fellow citizens probably stood higher than that of any other man in the community, and of this he did not hesitate to avail himself whenever the public necessities required such an evidence of his patriotism. These occasions were neither few nor trifling. One of the few remaining prominent men of the revolution, and who filled an important and most confidential station in the department of war, bears testimony that Mr. Morris frequently obtained pecuniary and other supplies, which were most pressingly required for the service, on his own responsibility, and apparently upon his own account, when, from the known state of the public treasury, they could not have been procured for the government.

Among several facts in point, the following may be mentioned:

During the rapid march of Cornwallis

through New-Jersey, in pursuit of the American army, Congress, as a measure of security, removed to Baltimore, and requested Mr. Morris to remain as long as possible in Philadelphia, to furward expresses to them from General Washington. The daily expectation of the arrival of the enemy in the city, induced Mr. Morris to remove his family to the country; while he took up his abode with an intimate friend, who had made up his mind to stay in the city at every hazard. At this time, December 1778, he received a letter from General Washington, who then lay with his army at the place now called New-Hope, above Trenton, expressing the utmost anxiety for the supply of specie, to enable him to obtain such intelligence of the movements and precise position and situation of the enemy on the oppo. site shore, as would authorise him to act offensively. The importance of the occasion induced the general to send the letter by a confidential messenger. The case was almost hopeless from the general flight of the citizens: but a trial must be made, and Mr. M. luckily procured the cash as a personal loan, from a member of the Society of Friends, whom he met, when, in the greatest possible anxiety of mind, he was walking about the city, reflecting on the most likely means or person, by which, or from whom it was to be obtained. This prompt and timely compliance with the demand, enabled General Washington to gain the signal victory at Trenton over the savage Hessians; a victory which, exclusively of the benefits derived from its diminishing the numerical force of the enemy by nearly one thousand, was signally important in its influence, by encouraging the patriots, and checking the hopes of the ene mics of our cause ; and by destroying the impression which the reputed prowess of the conquered foe, and the experience of their ferocity over the unprotected and defenceless, had made upon the people. Upon another occasion, he became responsible for a quantity of lead, which had been most urgently required for the army; and which most providentially arrived at the time when greatly wanted.

the war,

At a more advanced stage of when pressing distress in the

afterwards for several years governor of The messenger was Capt. Howell,

New-Jersey.

+ See the particulars related by Judge Peters, in Garden's interesting Anecdotes of the American War, p. 334. Charleston, S. C. 1822.

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army had driven congress and the commmander-in-chief almost to desperation, and a part of the troops to mutiny; he supplied the army with four or five thousand barrels of flour, upon his private credit; and, on a promise to that effect, persuaded a member to withdraw an intended motion to sanction a procedure which, although common in Europe, would have had a very injurious effect upon the cause of the country: this was to authorise General Washington to seize all the provisions that could be found within a circle of twenty miles of his camp. While U. S. financier, his notes constituted, for large transactions, part of the circulating medium. Many other similar instances occurred of this patriotic interposition of his own personal responsibility for supplies, which could not otherwise have been obtained.

In the first year in which he served as a representative in congress, he signed the memorable parchment containing the Declaration that for ever separated us from England; and thus pledged himself to join heart and hand with the destinies of his country, while some of his colleagues, who possessed less firmness, drew back and retired from the contest. He was thrice successively elected to congress, in 1776, 77, and 78.

The exertion of his talents in the public councils, the use of his credit in procuring supplies at home, of his personal labour as special agent, or congressional committee-man, and of those in his pay, in procuring others from abroad, were not the only means employed by him in aiding the cause in which he had embarked. The free and public expression of his sentiments upon all occa sions, in the almost daily and nightly meetings of the zealous; in the interchange of friendly intercourse with his fellow-citizens, and the confident tone of ultimate success which he supported, served to rouse the desponding, to fix the wavering, and confirm the brave. Besides, the extensive commercial and private correspondence which he maintained with England, furnished him with early intelligence of all the public measures resolved on by the British government, the debates in parliament, and with much private information of importance to this country. These letters he read to a few select mercantile friends, who regularly inct in the insurance room at the Merchants' Coffee

* Debates on the renewal of the charter of the Bank of North America, p. 47. Philadelphia, 1786.

house, and through them the intelligence they contained was diffused among the citizens, and thus kept alive the spirit of opposition, made them acquainted with the gradual progress of hostile movements, and convinced them how little was to be expected from the government in respect to the alleviation of the oppression and hardships against which the colonies had for a long time most humbly, carnestly, and eloquently remonstrated. This practice, which begau previously to the suspension of the intercourse between the two countries, he continued during the war: and through the medium of friends on the continent, especially in France and Holland, he received for a time the des patches which had formerly come direct from England.

The increasing and clamorous wants of the army, particularly for provisions, and the alarming letter written by the commander-in-chief to congress on the subject, on being communicated to Mr. Morris, induced him to propose to raise an immediate fund to purchase supplics, by the formation of a paper-money bank; and, to establish confidence in it with the public, he also proposed a subscription among the citizens in the form of bonds, obliging them to pay, if it should become necessary, in gold and silver, the amounts annexed to their names, to fulfil the engagements of the bank. Mr. Morris headed the list with a subscription of 10,0001.; others followed, to the amount of 300,000!. The directors were authorised to borrow money on the credit of the bank, and to grant special notes, bearing interest at six per cent. The credit thus given to the bank effected the object intended, and the institution was continued until the Bank of North America went into operation in the succceding year.* It was probably on this occasion that he purchased the four or five thousand barrels of flour above mentioned, on his own credit, for the army, before the funds could be collected to pay for it.†

On the occasion of the important, and, as regarded the fate of the Union, the decisive measure of the attack on Coru

Of ninety-six subscribers who gave their bonds, six only are alive, viz. Charles Thompson, Richard Peters, Thomas Leiper, Wm. Hall, John Donaldson, and John Mease. For the original list, and account of the bank, see the Pennsylvania Packet for June 1781.

+ Debates on the Bank of North America, p. 47.

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wallis, the energy, perseverance, and financial talents, of Mr. Morris were eminently conspicuous.

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By previous agreement, the French army, under Count Rochambeau, and the French fleet under de Barras, with that expected to arrive under De Grasse from the West-Indies, were to assist the American army in an attack upon NewYork, the strong-hold of the British. At that time, the American army lay at Philipsburg on York island, waiting for the fleet under Count de Grasse, who changed the destination of his squadron, and entered the Chesapeake bay. The communication of this occurrence, by one or other of the two first-named commanders, induced an immediate change of measures, and it was determined by General Washington if possible to proceed to the South; but the want of means to move the army, was a serious difficulty; and this consideration, with the disappointment of his long settled plans and arrangements, and in the breach of a positive engagement on the part of De Grasse, produced an agitation in the high-minded and honourable chief, which those who witnessed it can never forget." Most fortunately Mr. Morris, and Mr. Peters the secretary of war, had arrived the day before, as a committee from congress, to assist the general in his preparations for the attack on New York; and, the embarrassing sitnation of affairs being laid before them, they gave such consolation and promises of aid, each in his particular department, as to encourage his hopes and calm his mind. The utmost secrecy was enjoined on both, and so faithfully observed, that the first intelligence congress had of the movement of the army, was the march of the troops, on the third of September, through Philadelphia. It was not, however, until it had passed the city fifteen miles, that Mr. M. was relieved from his anxiety respecting his promise to General Washiington of a competent pecuniary supply to effect the transportation of the army. His object, for this end, was the loan of the French military chest, and the proposition was made to the French minister Luzerne, who refused in the most positive manner to assent. His persuasive talents succeeded in part with Count Rochambean; and at Chester, whither Mr. Morris had gone in company with General Washington, it was obtained. It is probable that the joy naturally felt on meeting at that place an express from the Marquis Fayette,

announcing the arrival of Count de Grasse in the Chesapeake, with an assorance from Mr. Morris that our army could not move without funds, bastened the negotiation of this fortunate loan.

In the year 1781, Mr. Morris was appointed by congress “superintendant of finance," an office then for the first This appointment time established.

was unanimous. Indeed, it is highly probable, that no other man in the country would have been competent to the task of managing such great concerns as it involved; for none possessed, like himself, the happy expedient of raising supplies, or deservedly enjoyed more of As the esta the public confidence. blishment of the office of finance, and the appointment of Mr. Morris to fill it, form an epoch in the history of the United States, and in the life of that officer, it merits particular notice.

It is well known that the want of a suficient quantity of the precious metals in the country, for a circulating medium, and the absolute necessity of some substitute to carry on the war, induced congress, from time to time, to issue paper bills of credit to an immense amount. For a time, the enthusiastic zeal and public spirit of the people induced them to receive these bills as equal to gold and silver; but, as they were not convertible into solid cash at will, and no fund was provided for their redemption, depreciation followed, as a necessary result, and with it the loss of public credit. "In the beginning of the year 1781, the treasury was more than two millions and a half in arrears, and the greater part of the debt was of such a nature, that the payment could not be avoided, nor even delayed: and therefore Dr. Franklin, then our minister in France, was under the necessity of ordering back from Amsterdam moneys which had been sent thither for the purpose being shipped to America. If he had not taken this step, the bills of exchange drawn by order of congress must have been protested, and a vital stab thereby given to the credit of the government in Europe. At home, the greatest public as well as private distress existed; public credit had gone to wreck, and the enemy built their most sanguine hopes of overcoming us upon this circumstance:" and "the treasury was so much in arrears to the servants in the public offices, that many of them could

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