the less regret, as having seen, during a long life, a good deal of this world, I feel a growing curiosity to become acquainted with some other; and can cheerfully, with filial confidence, resign my spirit to the conduct of that great and good Parent of mankind, who created it, and who has so graciously protected and preserved me from my birth to the present hour."

On the 17th of April, 1790, in the eighty-fourth year of his age, he expired in the city of Philadelphia; encountering this last solemn conflict, with the same philosophical tranquillity and pious resignation to the will of Heaven, which had distinguished him through all the various events of his life. In his will, he enjoined that all pomp or ostentation should be avoided in the celebration of his obsequies; that no monumental ornaments should be lavished on his tomb the former of which injunctions his cotemporaries appear, however, to have disregarded, for he was buried with great concourse and ceremony; but the latter has yet been observed by their descendants with inviolable fidelity..

He was interred on the 21st of April, and congress ordered a general mourning for him throughout America, of one month. In France, the expression of public grief was scarcely less enthusiastic. There the event was solemnized, under the direction of the municipality of Paris, by funeral orations; and the National Assembly, his death being announced in a very eloquent and pathetic discourse, decreed that each of the members should wear mourning for three days, "in commemoration of the event ;" and that a letter of condolence, for the irreparable loss they had sustained, should be directed to the American Congress,-honours extremely glorious to his memory, and such, it has been remarked, as were never before paid by any public body of one nation to the citizen of

another.

He lies buried in the north-west corner of Christ Churchyard; distinguished from the surrounding dead, by the humility of his sepulchre. He is covered by a small marble slab, on a level with the surface of the earth, and bearing the single inscription of his name, with that of his wife, and the year of his death. A monument sufficiently corresponding to the plainness of his manners, the simplicity of his character, and the even tenor of his life-No inscription could have recorded his merits; no monument could express the obligations of his posterity!

He had two children, a son and a daughter, and several grand-children who survived him. The son, who had been governor of New Jersey under the British government, adhered during the revolution to the royal party and spent the remainder of his life in England. The daughter married Mr. Bache of Philadelphia, whose descendants yet reside in that city.

Franklin enjoyed, during the greater part of his life, a healthy constitution, and excelled in exercises of strength and activity. In stature he was above the middle size; manly, athletic and well proportioned. His countenance, as it is represented in his portrait, is distinguished by an air of serenity and satisfaction; the natural consequence of a vigorous temperament, of strength of mind, and conscious integrity. It is also marked, in visible characters, by deep thought and inflexible resolution. Very rarely shall we see a combination of features, of more agreeable harmony; an aspect in which the human passions are more happily blended or more favourably modified, to command authority, to conciliate esteem, or to excite love and veneration.

His colloquial accomplishments are mentioned by those who knew him, in terms of the highest praise. From the great diversity of life which he experienced, from his exten

sive intercourse with the world, he had stored his memory with a variety of knowledge extremely curious and interesting; and besides the diffusion of thought and sentiment with which he animated his discourse, it was enlivened, in his peculiar manner, by ingenious illustrations, pointed sentences and aphorisms, and mostly seasoned by a vein of good humour and pleasantry, which he appears to have carried even into his most important and serious transactions; and which, in all societies, amongst the sprightly and morose, the old and young, learned and illiterate, recommended him to peculiar favour and attention.

The experiments which he made in science, amidst the continued intrusion of business, on objects too, which seemed to require a long life of labour and reflection; which had occupied men of the brightest genius and capacity, enjoying besides the most transcendent advantages of education, must afford an ample testimony of the vigour of his intellects and grandeur of his conceptions. Nor can we doubt, from what he has achieved, had he possessed from early youth, leisure to prosecute his studies without interruption, and to improve his understanding to the proportion of his natural abilities, that he had attained the ultimate dignity of letters, and have disputed, perhaps, with the old world the palm of philosophy and science.

Of his domestic manners and private life, which are considered as the truest test of the value of the human character, there exist the most unequivocal and honourable testimonies. The correspondence of his family and relations abounds with the tenderest expressions of regard for him. Of his intimate acquaintance, those who loved him in his youth, were the companions and friends of his old age; and those who have survived him, retain an undiminished affection and veneration for his memory.

recorded only by those whom a personal intimacy has enabled to observe them; and his imperfections are so lost in a life of virtuous and glorious occupation, that we must leave the care of detailing them, to those who have more leisure and sagacity for the investigation.

JOHN MORTON.

It is a matter of regret, that, even at this early day, the domestic remembrances, and the knowledge of the minor public services of many of our distinguished political fathers, have been, in a great measure, swept away by the current of time. Their prominent political acts, the general and effectual efforts of their patriotism,-are, indeed, perpetuated in the records of history; but we seek in vain to watch the bursting of the buds, and enjoy the fragrance of the blossoms, which brought forth such perfect and unrivalled fruit. It is a pleasant relief to retire with the statesman, or the warrior, from the perplexities of the senate, or the wild turmoil of battle, to the calm and quiet pleasures of domestic life. It affords a clearer insight into the character of man, to contemplate him in the unreservedness of retirement, divested of all worldly formality, and acting under the free impulse of natural feeling. The dangers of the state, and the intricacies of public affairs, often require the semblance of an insensibility, as foreign to the heart of the patriot, as it is painful to his feelings. The humane and benevolent chieftain weeps in secret over the inexorable and irrevocable decrees, which the stern duties of warfare have compelled him to pronounce. Thus, while we dwell with admiration on the eloquence and the energy of the patriot, and follow, with irresistible exciteVOL. III.-S