sion into this region of the United States which he had yet attempted. The purpose of this journey was to place his son Robert at West Point, and to provide for his entrance into the military academy, to which he had lately received an appointment. We have a few sketches of his travel in letters to Mrs. Wirt, from which I make some extracts:

"CAMDEN, September 21, 1820.

"Here we are, opposite to Philadelphia !-So, this is Philadelphia ! Humph! as Sterne said of Paris. And what is there in Philadelphia to make such a mighty fuss about? One single church-steeple and a shot-tower are the only striking objects in view. All the rest is a mass of brick houses with white windows, on too flat a plain to be seen more than one or two hundred yards from the water. So, it is only by information that I know it extends two miles across to the Schuylkill. The extent upon the water—which they say, including suburbs, is four miles,-shows a common, plain, quakerly place, and, in point of beauty, no more to be compared to Richmond than a drab coat to the imperial purple. But the approach up the Delaware is very beautiful.

66

Let me see if they will allow me to breathe here long enough to give you a diary.

66

At five o'clock, P. M., we were off in the steamboat at Baltimore for Philadelphia; passed Fort McHenry, whose "Star-Spangled Banner" formed the subject of Key's celebrated song. The night bright and beautiful, and we kept the deck till nine, then supped and to bed, having to rise at one in the morning to take the stage from Frenchtown to New Castle.

"Cut off!-The bell is ringing for the Trenton boat — and so, here we are- off for Trenton:

"On Christmas day in Seventy-Six."

NEW YORK, September 23. "We arrived here yesterday morning at ten. After dressing, I sallied forth in quest of the commodities to be purchased for Robert, intending on my return to give you an account of every thing. We returned at two, when I found the mail had closed at one; so my chance to write was gone till to-day. In the evening we went to the Battery, and then to West's circus to let Robert see another entree of those celebrated horses. This morning I rose early, to visit the Fish Market. The first person I met in the twilight was Mr. Hagner, of Washington. He had just arrived from the north. Upon his suggestion I went into another room, where I found Mr. Calhoun and Major Roberdaux. In about five minutes afterwards, to the surprise of us all, came in Major Bomford, and soon after him, Major

Thayer, the commanding officer at West Point. We were in a parlour assigned to Wilde and his family, and, being invited to join them, we all breakfasted together. Calhoun insists on my going to visit the forts with him to-day, at eleven. Instead of employing the morning in a journal of my interesting travel to this place, I shall go. I will write to you again to-morrow. We are invited to dine with the Corporation on Monday.

"September 24.

"They played us a trick yesterday. Instead of carrying us to the forts, they took us to a silk factory on Staten Island, where we were detained the whole day; and this by a ruse de guerre, without the sanction or knowledge of the Secretary, against his will, and very much against all propriety-for the troops were under arms at all the forts, expecting him, throughout the day. For my own part, I thought it such a breach of the respect due to the Secretary, (whom, by-the-bye, it was intended to honour, or rather, to catch from him a reflected honour and to throw it on this institution,) that I was out of humour all day. Besides which, it was time lost to me without an equivalent; for I did not, by any means, consider a turtle dinner on Staten Island as a compensation for the lost opportunity of seeing the fortifications and the city itself. I have not the least doubt my displeasure was visible in my manner, and that I shall be set down for a very surly, ill-natured fellow, which, you know, is not the

case.

"About five we went to see the Vice-President,* who lives at the north end of Staten Island, fronting New York, and who, in answer to an invitation to the aforesaid silk-dyer's, had been reported sick in bed. He met us, however, at the gate, looking as well and smiling as ever. We stayed fifteen minutes, were introduced to his family, and then returned to New York in the steamboat "Nautilus," about dark. On our return, Mrs. Wilde told us she was quite surprised at reading in the newspapers of the day where we had been: -so that the printers, it seems, knew more of the Secretary's movements than he did himself. As to the sights-I must put off all that till my return; for if I spend my time in describing, I shall lose half that I ought to see."

"WEST POINT, September 27. "We arrived here last night. -I pass over the beauties of the Delaware River and of New York, to come at once to this place. Yet, how can I write a word-with that heavenly band of music, surpassing any thing I ever heard of its kind,-and that exact, majestic, and most beautiful march of the cadets, which is now going on in my view, on the finest plain and amidst the most captivating land

Mr. Tompkins.

scape in the world!-I can't stand this divine echo of the bugle from the mountains!

Poor

"The music pauses for the drill, and I resume my pen Robert is very differently employed, being now under examination before the academic staff, to determine whether he is to be admitted or not. He has been told by Thayer that the examination is very severe; but Thayer kindly requested a private interview with him this morning, and put some preparatory questions to him. He has told me that Robert will certainly pass.

"There goes the band again!—and here come these ravishing echoes once more from the mountains, which mountains hover over us with the old revolutionary fort, Putnam,' crowning the summit to the southwest. It is all in vain to write. There are too many beautiful objects. We have Newburg in full view, eight miles up the river, seen through the majestic jaws of the mountain, which form the passage for the river to the northwest. The academic staff have come to see me. Robert is highly spoken of.

"I go to Newburg to-morrow, to get on board of a descending boat at ten at night."

CHAPTER VII.

1821.

THE TRIALS AT BEL AIR.-ENCOUNTERS PINKNEY.-RIVALRY.LETTER TO CARR.- SEVERE LABOURS. SICKNESS. REMEMBRANCES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.-SUMMER EXCURSION TO SARATOGA, LAKE GEORGE, ETC. CHARLES COLLEY. A STORY OF MR. POPE'S. -LETTER TO POPE.-BURGOYNE'S SUR

RENDER.

-

THE cases which had taken the Attorney-General to Bel Air last year, now came on for trial in April. There was a great array of counsel. Mr. Pinkney and General Winder were the leading members associated in the defence. Mr. Wirt, General Harper, Mr. Mitchell, a gentleman distinguished at the Baltimore bar for his professional talents, and not less for his wit and humour, were en

gaged, with others, in the prosecutions. I hope I shall not be considered as transcending the limits of propriety, in referring to a few passages in the letters written to Mrs. Wirt, at this period, relating to these trials. They speak confidentially, and in good earnest, the writer's exultation in the success of his own performances. There is no motive at this time to conceal such opinions; and the expression of them, when we regard the circumstances in which they were written, and especially the person to whom they were addressed, will scarcely be open to the censure of egotism. We shall see the old rivalry renewed.

"This being my day to make a speech, I commenced at ten, thinking I should have done in two hours: but I spoke four, and was so much exhausted at two o'clock, that the Court adjourned without my application, I being then only about half-way in my speech. I satisfied myself; and knowing me as you do, that is enough for me. I will only add, that Pinkney paid me the compliment to say that 'it was very beautiful, and apparently very argumentative.' Others hold more flattering language; but I am a modest man, as you know, and can say nothing further on the occasion. I was hoarse, and extremely fatigued; but, judging by my feelings to-night, I shall be able to resume to-morrow with increased vigour.

"Thursday, April 5,

"I wrote you on Monday evening after I had finished about half my speech. The next day at two o'clock I closed. I have rarely, if ever, made a better argument. General Winder has been speaking ever since, and to-day comes out Roland. He has been closeted ever since he heard the first part of my speech, on Monday, to the subject of which alone he means to confine his answer, leaving the residue to Winder. We look for an Etnean explosion from him. He is certainly put up to full speed, and has much character staked upon his appearance. He has been unwontedly civil and kind to me.

"Saturday, April 7.

"This is the fourteenth day since this argument was opened. Pinkney, before he began, promised to speak only two hours and a half. He has now spoken two days, and is, at this moment, at it again for the third day. You will be gratified to hear that although there are four counsel on the same side with me, and the veteran General Harper,-hitherto the only Maryland rival of Pinkney,among them, yet here the Attorney-General is regarded as his chief antagonist, and the comparison made by the Court, the bar and the bystanders far from being to my prejudice.”

Trifles such as these, which on other occasions might be liable to disparaging comment, acquire value in a biographical sketch as exponents of character. They are to be regarded as illustrative anecdotes, which often serve to cast a better light upon personal qualities or the features of the mind, than more earnest and acute dissertation. They are chiefly valuable in the present case, for the evidence they furnish us of that eager, sensitive, and stimulating desire in the breast of Wirt, to contend with and to excel, if possible, the most renowned and skilful competitors in the theatre of his own art.

The letter which follows opens a history of severe labour and its too common penalty, discase. It is not without a strain of jocular vain-glory which usually goes with a cheerful ambition, and tells of a sanguine temper and a contented life. The remembrances of revolutionary France, with which it concludes, have some signification in connection with events of the present day.

MY DEAR FRIEND:

TO JUDGE CARR.

WASHINGTON, May 14. 1821.

Your letter is a cordial to me. It is such a letter as was to have been expected from such a friend, under the excitement that produced it. Who can say that life is not worth having, while such a friend is to be found and enjoyed? But enough, in this strain—for you know how much more I think and feel than I say.

The alarm which you have had, on my account, is, I hope, unfounded —at least in the extent to which it seems to have gone. It was only a longer continued, though a much less severe recurrence of an infirmity to which I have been subject, ever since I was fourteen years old-a vertigo, the first attack of which I experienced at old Parson Hunt's, in Montgomery county, twelve or fourteen miles above this place, while I went to school there, in 1786 or 1787. I had been, at that time, sitting, with my elbow on my knce, and my head resting on my hand, reading Swift's account of Partridge, the Almanacmaker, for the first time in my life; it was before breakfast, in a winter's morning, and before a rousing fire, which I was too much engaged to feel when, on being suddenly called upon by old Mrs. Hunt, from the next room, to ring the bell, I started up and crossed the floor to the bell-string and had only time to pull it once or twice, when my head began to swim and I fell-bereaved of all sensation and reflection, except that I was spinning on the floor like a top. A most profuse and deadly sweat, with sick stomach, followed-whereI got clear of my sickness. I sent for young Dr. Galt, who, at

upon