The orders of the First Consul had been given to | put an end, as by enchantment, to all the little conspithose who were the most devoted to his service. The racies of princes which the police were daily disconDuke d'Enghien was arrested-carried to Vincennes- certing. However, this is not the matter with which tried and condemned, before the ministers or the police I pretend to concern myself; I wish only to establish knew any thing of the matter. M. Real set off for a fact. Vincennes the 21st of March, at nine in the morning, not in virtue of any particular commission that had been given him, but on the receipt of the notification of his arrival, transmitted by the governor of the prison of Vincennes in the daily report which he addressed to the councillor of state, specially charged with the management of every thing relative to the tranquillity and internal security of the republic. The Duke d'Enghien had ceased to exist since six in the morning, and M. Real met, at the barrière St. Antoine, General Savary, who induced him to return. I had written thus far, when on a new examination of the papers relative to the trial and condemnation of the Duke, I discovered two pieces of evidence which appeared to me favorable to the opinion I have just given. I find, in the first place, in the examination made by M. Dautaucourt, a captain-major of gendarmerie d'élite, acting as captain-reporter of the prince: the twelfth year of the Republic, the 29th Ventose, twelve at night: to the question, "If he knew the ex-General Dumouriez ; if he had had any connexion with him?" he replied, "No more than the other; I never saw him." The words, "no more than the other," referred to the negative answer, which immediately preceded in the examination, to a question concerning Pichegru. During the fifteen years of the restoration, numerous works were published on the subject of the trial and death of the Duke d'Enghien. Some individuals who had become repentant, when repentance was likely to be profitable, denied at pleasure the accusation of having more or less contributed to this event. One circumstance to which no attention has been paid, is this, that the true text of the judgment which condemned the Prince never appeared in any of these works. The reason is plain enough; this text, the authentic minutes of the judgment, was never published because it was not in existence. A judgment condemning the Duke d'Enghien to death, was published in the Moniteur, and sold in the streets of Paris; but this was not the judgment that was actually pronounced, and in virtue of which the Prince was shot. The true judgment was in these words. I copy it literally; the blanks existed in the original: "The commission, after the President had read his declarations to the accused, asked if he had any thing to add in his defence; to which he replied, that he had nothing more to say, and that he persisted in what he had already said. "The President caused the prisoner to be withdrawn; I find moreover in the judgment as it was published-the council deliberated in secret, and the President colI say published, and not rendered, for reasons that will be lected the votes, beginning with the youngest in rank, afterwards seen: the President giving his opinion last; the prisoner was ghien, &c. &c.-accused: "Louis-Antoine-Henri de Bourbon, Duke d'En-unanimously declared guiltyand the article of the law of —, in these words was applied to him, and in consequence he was condemned to death. 1stly-2dly-3dly-4thly-5thly. "6thly. Of being a favorer and accomplice of the conspiracy contrived by the English against the life of "Ordered that the present judgment be executed im the First Consul, and of intending, in the event of the suc-mediately by the captain reporter, after reading it to the cess of that conspiracy, to enter France."* THE MINUTES OF THE JUDGMENT OF THE DUKE D'ENGHIEN. I do not pretend in this place to pronounce an opinion on the arrest, trial and condemnation of the Duke d'Enghien; it is too exciting a question. I am convinced that the Duke d'Enghien had entered, like all the other princes of his family, into the vast conspiracy formed against the French government and its chief; but I am ready to admit, that little disposed to take an active part, he was not at work at the moment of his arrest. One of the most profound and wisest men of the empire has been made to say that the condemnation of the Duke d'Enghien was more than a crime; that it was a blunder. The individual to whom these machiavellian words were ascribed, knows very well that if the arrest and execution of the Duke were a crime, because in that extraordinary proceeding all the protecting formalities of the law were violated, at least, and experience has proved it, it was not a blunder; for his death Marshal Moneey is happily still alive: he might, if necessary, be consulted. prisoner in presence of the different detachments of the corps of the garrison. "Done, closed, and adjudged at one sitting, at Vincennes, the day, month, and year above written, and signed by us." Such a judgment, it will be easily understood, could not be published; a new dress was necessary. Accordingly, the councillor of state, specially charged with the management of every thing relative to the tranquillity and internal security of the republic, wrote to the general of brigade Hullin, commanding the grenadiers of the guard: “General,―I beg you to transmit me the judgment rendered this morning against the Duke d'Enghien, as well as the interrogatories propounded to him. "I will be obliged if you can place them in the hands of the agent who carries my letter. I have the honor to be, &c. REAL." A little while afterwards, another letter was sent from the councillor of state to general Hullin. tories of the ex-Duke d'Enghien, for the purpose of "General,-I wait the judgment and the interrogavisiting the First Consul at Malmaison. "Will you inform me at what hour I can have these pieces. The bearer of my letter can take charge of the bundle, and wait until it is ready, if the copies are | private opinions of the Emperor, gave rise to frequent nearly prepared. I have the honor, &c. and violent quarrels between Napoleon and his Minister. REAL." When, after the explosion of the third Nivose, the First Consul returned to the Tuileries, the calm which he had preserved during the whole evening at the opera, gave place to a terrible fit of passion. His first accusation was, as usual, against the Jacobins, and indirectly, in ambiguous terms, against Fouché himself. The Mi At last the judgment is sent, carried to Malmaison, and submitted to the First Consul. All Paris was engaged in discussing the subject of the execution, which had taken place the preceding night; it was necessary for the government to explain itself. It was at this period that the new judgment was prepared, such as it was afterwards published. The members of the mili-nister perceived it, his disgrace appeared imminent, but tary commission were not present, so that their signatures could not be obtained; but their names were placed under the new judgment, and the former one was cancelled. I find still another piece from the hands of M. Real. the general of brigade Hullin, commanding the foot REAL." It is then true that there exists no authentic and signed minute of the judgment, by virtue of which the Duke d'Enghien was shot. FOUCHÉ. It seems to be the fate of men placed on thrones, to distrust their best friends, and to weary them out with unjust suspicions. I do not intend to examine into the fact, whether Fouché, soured by his disgrace in 1810, became a traitor in 1815. The conduct of the minister at this period is very naturally explained, in an answer which he gave to a question addressed to him by the Emperor, at the moment of his setting out on the campaign of 1809. What will you do, Fouché, should I happen to die by a cannon ball or other accident? I would seize as much power as I could, to avoid the necessity of being governed by events. Very good; it is the privilege of the game. What I wish to say here is, that Fouché was the best minister of Napoleon, and the one best placed to be of service to him. After having suppressed the revolution, Napoleon, as First Consul, or Emperor, was engaged in bringing about a reaction. Fouché was the only minister who moderated this movement, useful and necessary if arrested at a given point, but dangerous if pushed beyond. The Emperor was inclined to see only enemies among those over whom he had immediately triumphed. He forgot that those very persons had themselves conquered others, and that those others would not pardon him for having finally profited by the first victory. Fouché was convinced that the royalists were the true enemies of the Emperor. He took care of, and defended the Jacobins, over whom his former connections enabled him to exercise a very great moral influence; and he oppressed, with the whole weight of his hatred, the royalists, whom he had learnt to appreciate correctly. This conduct of Fouché, contrary to the he did not bend; without a moment's hesitation he defended the Jacobins, and accused the royalists. Even afterwards, when the truth was known, Napoleon did not forgive his Minister, not because he had suffered so dangerous a conspiracy to be consummated, but because he had been in the right in opposing him and his secret affections. assailed through his department. The Ministry of PoThe Minister, who could not be openly struck, was lice was suppressed, and that department was annexed to the Ministry of Justice. This was an error, and a tice, called the Police the disgraceful part of his minismost serious one. The chief judge, Minister of Justry. The Police, wanting, under his management, the direction necessary to so complicated a department, suffered the conspiracy of Georges to break out. Fouché always appeared to me the very model of a minister for a government succeeding a revolution. He possessed, under the consulate and the empire, the merit, at that time very rare, of having an opinion of his own on men and things, of daring to support it against a master who suffered little contradiction, and of acting in keeping with that opinion. Fouché alone under the consulate and the empire, was really a minister; after his disgrace, there were only clerks, very good for executing or transmitting orders, but incapable themselves of any important step. In 1809, after the battle of Esling, so fatal to our cavalry, at the moment that Napoleon, having his bridges on the Danube carried away, saw his army se parated by that river, and placed in a perilous situation, which exacted of him prodigies of valor and genius, information was brought to Paris that Lord Chatham, brother of Pitt, at the head of an English expedition, having carried Flushing, was advancing upon Antwerp, and threatened Belgium. On the receipt of this news, the Prince Arch-Chancellor assembled a council of Ministers. Fouché, who had returned to the ministry in 1804, assisted at it. His advice was, to appeal immediately to the National Guards, and to send them against the enemy. "What would the Emperor and the army say, if France, defended by them abroad, should suffer her hearths to be insulted while waiting their assistance?" Such were the words of the Minister of Police. The Arch-Chancellor replied: "Monsieur Fouché, I do not wish to have my head cut off. I have despatched a courier to the Emperorwe must await his answer." "And for my part,” replied the Minister of Police, "I will do my duty while awaiting it." On that very day, while the Arch-Chancellor, the Minister of War, and the Minister of the Interior guarded silence, the Minister of Police addressed his manifesto to the bravery of Frenchmen, and ordered thrown up by fire, and we find in these rocks additional corroboration of such supposition, by the burnt appearance of the stone, in some places assuming appearances like the pummice stone the National Guards throughout the empire to march. I are seen in various places, and into which we look down near a From this circumstance one may see what a man Fouché hundred feet--being less generally than a foot in width the whole was—what energetic impulse he was capable of giving subterranean fire has once existed in this region. Trap or ba depth--lead to the well-grounded supposition, that a volcanic, to public affairs. The seventeenth day after the circu-salt rock is generally supposed, by the Plutonian theory, to be lar of the Minister, the department of the north set in motion the last detachment of a levée of 14,000 men, in uniform, armed and equipped. M. de Pommereuil was Prefect of this department. The department of Moselle equally distinguished itself on this occasion: it had M. de Vaublane for Prefect, who has since lived through the whole Restoration on his reputation of a good Prefect under the empire. The English expedition retired precipitately before the French militia, to whom Fouché had given the Prince of Ponté-Corvo for chief, much as he was out of favor at that moment. of Vesuvius, filled with spherical cells, indicative of the action of heat. Amygdaloid and beautiful agates are also found here; and some of these precious stones are transparent crystals, as richly empurpled as the most exquisite amethysts we have ever seen; all pointing out the same formation. This basaltic formation also, as is shown by the excavations for canals around their base, cut by enterprizing manufacturers (who have thus, unconsciously, contributed, on a gigantic scale, to the investigations of the geologist,) and as is also seen at the Pallisadoes, reposes, curious as it may seem,-on horizontal strata of red sandstone. The impressions of corals, or perhaps ferns (most probably the former,) which these contain, prove that the forma tion of this sandstone beneath the superincumbent trap, was an The Emperor either could not or dared not blame the Minister of Police; but he openly expressed his dissatisfaction that, in his empire, any single minister had suf-terior to the existence of animal life or vegetation, and yet posficient power to raise and to arm the whole country. The secret of the second disgrace of Fouché is, perhaps, to be found in the great service which he rendered to the Emperor in 1809. It was deferred for a year, and attributed to an entirely different cause-to a cause to which the Emperor, in full council of ministers, gave all the gravity of a charge of high treason, but which, at bottom, had nothing serious in it, if it was not a farce prepared on purpose. In separating from Fouché,-a man of genius, capacity for business, and energy,-Napoleon deprived himself of one of his most useful servants. From 1804 to 1810 the Emperor had overrun Europe, and the empire had been maintained in a state of perfect tranquillity: from 1810 to 1814 he had cause to regret the loss of this minister. During the two periods of his ministry Fouché concealed much from the First Consul and the Emperor; but while he kept from him those things which he could well afford to be ignorant of, Fouché served him with a zeal and ability much more useful than the obsequiousness of the rest of his ministers. NEW JERSEY. Jaunt to Patterson--The Falls-Volcanic Rocks-The tories--Thom the Sculptor, &c. terior to the older formation of trap. The latter must, therefore, have been thrown up by volcanic action from below the sandstone on which it now reposes. This trap is composed of hori zontal strata of perpendicular columns, or hexagonal pillars, the regular outlines of which are in many places discernible, and would be more so, were it perfected into basalt, like the remarkable Giant's Causeway in the north of Ireland; so that the mass of Trap Rock is in perpendicular formations, resting on the perfectly horizontal layers of sandstone, on which it stands at right angles. The whole of this structure is so curious, that we might write volumes upon it; but we must pass to other objects. On the frowning precipices are erected, near the falls, several picturesque pleasure-gardens and pavilions, underneath groves of pine trees; one of which, kept by Mr. Crane, is an excellent establishment, furnished with the best of larders and liquors. Here, also, are wooden swings erected between the higher trees; some of them the most commodious and secure we have ever seen. To our surprise we also found here, perched on the top of the rocks, our old friends "Tam O'Shanter and Souter Johnny," so admirably carved in white sandstone by the celebrated uneducated Scotch sculptor Thom, who has chosen Patterson for his residence. After being defrauded, as we have heard, of the profits he ought to have received from this curious statuary, by those to whom he had, like other men of genius, unsuspect ingly entrusted the exhibition of his works, he has modestly located himself here, and is humbly occupied in carving out of the fine red sandstone of this region, pilasters and columns, the beauty of which, and the fine finish of the artist's chisel, struck our attention as we passed through the streets. We could not help stopping here for a moment, while we admired and mourned the humiliation of mind, whose noble powers were thus degraded to a servile occupation-yet in misfortune, soaring by its supe Manufac-riority, imprinted like a deathless seal on its productions, over its own grave, dug by ignorant knavery and sordid treachery. Most persons prefer to visit this interesting place during summer, when its picturesque scenery is clothed in beautiful verdure. But there are attractions about it, also, during winter, and at all seasons, which make it an agreeable excursion. There are few places in our immediate vicinity which combine so much of the beautiful and useful. Situated at the foot of an isolated link of that curious chain of Trap Rocks which, a few miles to the north, form the parapet of the Pallisadoes on the Hudson river, it enjoys an immense water-power for manufacturing purposes, from the celebrated Falls of the Passaic river, which here tumble down the perpendicular precipice. The admirer of nature's works is struck with the grandeur of this geological formation, the sides of which are cut out as regularly as a wall of masonry. But a greater architect than the possessor of human hands has here been at work. By comparing the angles and sides of the steep precipices, it is evident that they were once united, and have been rent asunder by some convulsion of nature; as the jutting angles and cornices could all be neatly dove-tailed, if they were approximated together in the gap or gorge through which the river now falls into the deep basins below. These latter have some of them a depth of more than six hundred feet, and have never yet been fathomed to their bottom. This, taken in connection with the fissures or clefts in the solid rock which From these reflections on the master productions of art, we turned again in rapture to the more masterly works of nature, as portrayed in the romantic scenery which every where discloses its beauties at this remarkable spot. On the winding river above the falls, we saw the cleared plots of unborn cities, already chalked out, in futuro, on the gentle promontories, by the proprietors of these new purchases (Messrs. Philemon Dickerson, Dudley Selden, Seth Geer, and others.) One of these plots attracted our notice on the more elevated portion of the ridge, where the Morris canal winds along on its sublime course, the surplus water of which is to be turned into three successive tiers or basins, admitting of the construction of sixty mills if necessary. This part of the river above the falls is the place, also, where the great public road, now cut through the gorge of the precipice from Patterson below, and rising by a gentle ascent, will pass by an admirably constructed bridge, now being built, through the tract of Messrs. Dickerson, Selden, Geer, &c. to the upper country of the Passaic. The cascade itself, so celebrated as the lion of this part of the world, of which many a sentimental tourist has written and poet sung, was dashing down the rocks in all its gorgeous splendor. Masses of white congealed foam, which can be seen only in this cold weather, encrusted the black rocks with exquisite chasing or embossed work, as if the VOL. III.-17 pearing as if in full blossom; and the effect of which, when the ground is covered with snow, is said to be, as it necessarily must, one of the most striking ornaments in the door-yards. This, we believe, is one of the numerous indigenous rare shrubs and plants peculiar, as is said by botanists, to the soil of New Jersey. But the sky--the sky! Can we forget it in this floral episode?— which, gentle reader, excuse! In the burnished yellow of one rested on the dark blue outline in the distance, we saw the spires of Newark, the bridge over the broad Hackensack, and the bolder, steeper curvature of Snake Hill. This latter spot is another sainted ground of romance and legend, standing like a high rocky island in the midst of the meadows, and from which our friend told us it is in the memory of the oldest inhabitants, that there was once a regular ferry to Bergen on the ridge or promontory beyond. Through the gorge which the rail-road makes on Bergen Hill, and where we take swift-footed horses that never afterwards, when placed before ordinary vehicles, can be made to go off a straight line, we were galloped, in two miles, into the depot in Jersey City; whence the steamboat waiting for us, now as swiftly bore us to our good old City of Gotham, where gas-lighted lamps, in the evening dusk, told us the refreshing beverage of tea was awaiting us at our homes. froth had been suddenly petrified in its course by the touch of Perseus' wand. Below were suspended, by the moving mass of green water that rolled its glassy arch into the deep abyss beneath, long ranges of spire-pointed icicles, that resembled the pipes of some vast organ, composed of transparent crystals-such was their regular shape and size, and their exact distance from each other in parallel lines. Above the clouds of the spray we traced, as the sun burst out, a most lovely rainbow, commin-uniform color which lighted up the lower part of the horizon, and gling its rich prismatic hues of orange, purple and gold, with the bright opaque mass of waters over which it was spread. The amethyst crystals, found in the surrounding rocks, and which we have already mentioned, seemed to have borrowed their celestial hues from this divine symbol, of the glittering imagery of which they may be said to be the mineral incarnation, if we dare use this license of expression. So we had here all the sublimity, in miniature, of the great cataract of Niagara. Nothing seemed to take away from it but the encroachments, or rather disfigurations, of art on the summits of these monumental rocks, which were more attractive far to behold, as a lady of Patterson truly said, when existing in their native wild scenery. The bridge of wood, on a level with the cascade, but directly below where it comes over, also mars, in some measure, the combination of beautiful objects with which it stands in such awkward contrast. From the lofty crag where we stood, we saw the rapids below passing swiftly down into the bed of the river, and stretched out along the banks the white dwelling-houses of the town of Pat. terson, connected by long bridges. Near these, in the centre of the channel, lies one of the most charming little islets of pine trees, and green lawn and shrubbery, and gravelled shore, we ever beheld. A connecting link should be made to this from the bridge; and it ought to be held as sacrilege to make the slightest alteration in this truly picturesque little gem, except an abutment above to turn the course of the current from it, and a pavilion, or rural cottage, to be built underneath the embowering branches of the pines. Patterson is, besides, another Manchester and Birmingham in miniature. It is in a most prosperous condition, and in addition to its long ranges of massive stone and brick factories, for cotton, woollens, &c. placed on three successive tiers of artificial canals brought from the river above the falls, there are now being erected four more large edifices, viz. two cotton factories, one for locomotive engines (a great business now in our country, and opening a new source of revenue for American enterprize,) and one for the manufacture of an ingenious species of fire-arms, patented by Mr. Colt. This gentleman and Gov. Dickerson, both of whom are residents of Patterson, have done wonders to exalt the character and enlarge the trade of this thriving city. But enough, for the present, of this exhaustless theme. Wending our way to the hospitable mansion of our guide, cicerone and friend, a foreign gentleman with us noticed, as we proceeded along, the handsome equipages and fashionable dress of the farmers, and their wives and daughters, just returning home from church, and could not understand how our agriculturists were so well off in the world, with their money in the funds and large possessions of land, until we enlightened him on the subject, by explaining that our country was yet too happy, and all our population too rich and comfortable in the world, to know any such class as the peasantry (or paysans) the vassals and serfs of Europe. In the afternoon, we again took the cars that brought us, and going at a secure pace of only twenty miles an hourquite enough, in all conscience, for tourists travelling through this charming country-we coursed onward upon our way to Bergen and Jersey City. Appropos of all this level tract. Our own great river Hudson, doubtless, once had one of its embou. chures on those vast marshes, stretching down to Newark Bay: and the Pallisadoe rocks at Patterson were then, in all probability, washed by its current, as those above Hoboken are to-day. Every thought almost of the beauties we had left behind us, was now absorbed and forgotten in the twilight scenery which suddenly broke upon our view in the western sky, and the pageantry of which, though daily familiar to American eyes, ever aston. ishes and delights. It was a broad, magnificent drop-curtain, hanging down from the azure firmament, and composed of the brightest golden hues, here and there streaked with long lines of blue slender clouds, tipped on their edges with dyes more gorgeous than the Tyrean purple; patches also were seen of a dazzling blood-red, recalling the bright hues of the red berries of a bush which attracted our notice at Patterson, loaded with crimsoncolored fruit, though stripped of foliage, at this season, yet ap DRINK AND AWAY. "There is a beautiful rill in Barbary received into a large basin, which bears a name signifying 'Drink and Away,' from the great danger of meeting with rogues and assassins." When the fount of Pleasure, bright, But there is a fount above, That, when earth and time are flown, REVIEW Dr. Shato. OF PRESIDENT DEW'S ADDRESS. We have read with great attention the Introductory Address of President Dew, lately delivered before the Students of the College of William and Mary. It is a ble information in regard to the condition and prospects very interesting performance, presenting most agreeaof the Institution, giving a clear and comprehensive view of the enlarged course of studies to be pursued, and closing with some advice to the students, at once wise and parental, the tone and spirit of which cannot be too highly commended. President Dew may now be regarded as a writer of established reputation. Possessing fine talents, combined with great industry and a popular style, his compositions will doubtless exercise no little influence on the opinions and taste of the rising generation. The productions of such a writer, occupying too, as Presi Lord Grenville, which was evidently in his mind when the address was prepared. He cannot, however, plead the authority of this distinguished writer. The word was used by him in its proper sense, as denoting an act and not a quality of the mind. His expression is, "a far more extensive comprehension of things."* dent Dew does, a station, which confers not only influ-| Our author was probably misled by the use of this word ence, but a species of authority in the republic of letters, in Burke's celebrated description of the character of should be distinguished both for correctness of sentiment and purity of style; and so far from protecting him from criticism, the eminence of the author renders it the more necessary that his errors should be exposed, in order that they may be avoided by those who may select him as a model for imitation. Dissenting from some of the views presented in this address, and deeming it, as a literary production, liable to just criticism, we propose briefly to review it; and shall endeavor, in a candid and respectful manner, to point out some of its faults in style and errors in doctrine. We might add to this enumeration other expressions not free from objection, and point out defects in the structure of many of the sentences of the address that might be amended. But we desire not to be considered hypercritical; and no good purpose would probably be accomplished by prosecuting farther this species of verbal criticism. Enough has already been said to convince us of the facility with which even the best writers may fall into errors of expression, and of the importance of cultivating that habit of discrimination in the use of words, without which can never be attained, a style at once elegant, perspicuous and correct. The style is flowing and harmonious, but seems to us more florid and declamatory than is consistent with good taste in so grave a performance as an Inaugural Address. It is, moreover, not remarkable for purity or precision. We may possibly be regarded as performing a task useless, if not invidious, in entering into an enumeration of errors, in the use of words, committed perhaps through haste or inadvertence. But in this repub- In the course of his address, President Dew pays a lican country, where the tendency to corruption in our well-deserved tribute to the value of classical learning; language is so great, that many seem to consider the and it should be a subject of congratulation with the privilege of murdering the "king's English" at pleasure, friends of William and Mary, that this important deas a necessary part of liberty, we cannot think that ver- partment of education, which has so long been neglected, bal criticism ought to be regarded as an art altogether is about to receive a proper degree of attention in that useless. There can, at least, be no cause of just com- venerable institution. It is most remarkable, however, plaint against its exercise, when the work to be reviewed that a gentleman of our author's extensive acquireis the finished production of a gentleman of acknow-ments, and one so thoroughly impressed with the imledged erudition, who is professionally engaged in importance of this species of literature, should have been parting to others instruction in the art of composition. so very unfortunate in his classical quotations. These The offences against purity of style in this Address should never be introduced in a written composition, are numerous, and may be classed, in the language of particularly in one emanating from a learned institution, grammarians, under the general heads of barbarisms and unless they be apposite, and calculated to illustrate or improprieties. Some words in it are not pure English, adorn the subject under consideration. Nor should they and others are applied in a sense not sanctioned by good be used except in the very language and true spirit of use, or the definitions of the best lexicographers. For the author from whom they are borrowed. In violation example, we have to ornament used as a verb, in place of these rules, President Dew has introduced in his adof to adorn, at once a legitimate and much more elegant dress the following prosaic line: “Addicti jurare in expression. An error of the same kind is committed verba nullius magistri.” How little this adds to the in the use of based on for founded on. Although the force or elegance of his composition, the genuine lovers latter of these expressions is frequently used in conver- of classical literature can determine. It can scarcely be sation and in public speaking, yet neither of them will regarded as a quotation; and literally rendered into be found in any work of such acknowledged merit that English, it would be flat and insipid, and perfectly ridiit may be regarded as a standard. We have also this culous as a part of the highly-wrought passage in which expression-"rail-roads are constructing." Expressions it occurs. The whole force and beauty of the original, of this kind are ungrammatical, and may be easily "nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri," are destroyed, avoided without offending against good taste; and al- and the classical reader is at a loss to determine for though they may be tolerated in colloquial discourse, what good purpose the sacrifice has been made. should never be introduced in an elaborate composition. The next quotation occurs in a very labored passage, By this criticism we wish, by no means, to be under- which, though evidently intended to be highly finished, stood as sanctioning the still more objectionable phrase is exceedingly defective. We will, therefore, transcribe "are being constructed," which of late has become fash-it: "Hence it is, that old William and Mary can boast ionable. The words pervasive and incipiency are new of so astonishing a number of distinguished statesmen to our ear: they are not found in Walker, and not hav-in proportion to her alumni-statesmen with whom she ing seen them in the course of our reading, we infer that they have not yet been licensed by that use, quem penes arbitrium est, et jus, et norma loquendi. might boldly challenge any other institution in this country or the world—statesmen who, whilst they have woven the chaplet of her glory, and engraven her name “There is nothing" (says the address) "in which our speakers are more defective than in comprehension of *We might have said, with truth, that this sentence contains idea." In this short sentence are two improprieties of three improprieties of expression. The word idea is used by our expression. The author means, that there is nothing author neither in its philosophical nor popular sense. We prein which our speakers are more deficient than in compre-sume he intended to use it in its popular sense, in which it is synonymous with a thought, an opinion. It is never used to signify hensiveness of idea. Comprehension occurs again in the mind, or the power of thought, in which sense our author seems same sense, in the same paragraph, and also in a note. to have applied it. |
