had changed your mind; but I am very glad to see you at last! Pray, my dear, be seated."

This familiar address, so different from what Dorcasina had been led to expect, and from what she had been accustomed to from O'Connor, so totally disconcerted her, that she was unable to answer a single word. She, however, did mechanically as she was desired, and seated herself upon the turf in silence. The barber placed himself by her, and still holding the haud which she had not attempted to withdraw, pitied her for what he thought her country timidity, and kindly endeavored to encourage her. "I suppose, my dear, you feel a little bashful or so! but don't be afraid to confess your love. Be assured you will meet with a suitable return; and that I shall be ever grateful and kind for being thus distinguished." Dorcasina, still more confounded by this strange speech, and wholly unable to comprehend its meaning, continued silent. The barber, after waiting some moments in vain for a reply, again began: Why, gad, my dear! if you don't intend to speak, you might as well have staid at home. Pray, now, afford me a little of your sweet conversation, if it is but just to say how much you love me."

Here Dorcasina 'could contain herself no longer. "I had thought, sir," said she, hesitating, "I had expected from your professions, a quite different reception from this." "Did you, indeed? Gad, my

dear, you are in the right." Upon this he threw his arms round her neck, and almost stifled her with kisses. The astonished Dorcasina endeavored to disengage herself, but in vain; for the enraptured barber continued his caresses, only at intervals exclaiming, "Gad, my dear, how happy we shall be when we are married. I shall love you infinitely, I am sure." Dorcasina, at length, finding breath, in a loud and angry tone, exclaimed, "let me go this moment; unhand me, sir. I will not endure to be thus treated."

Betty, who had hitherto sat quietly knitting upon a stump, hearing the angry voice of her mistress, darted towards the arbor, and instantly recognized little Puff, who had been once or twice at the house (though unseen by Dorcasina) to dress Mr. Sheldon, and whom she had observed to be a pretty, spruce young fellow. Her indignation being raised at the treatment of her mistress, she sprung upon him before he was aware of it, and gave him, with her large heavy hand, a rousing box on the ear; exclaiming, at the same time, in a tone of great contempt, "The little barber! as I hope to live, ma'am."

This unexpected blow had the desired effect. Puff, surprised in his turn, instantly released the mistress, and turning about to the maid, desired to know what the d-1 she meant. Betty did not deign to answer him, but "stood collected in her might." Recollecting with indignation the treatment she had so lately received in this very spot, of which she now supposed him to be the instigator, and incensed at his unpardonable insolence to her mistress, she now rejoiced in an opportunity of taking an ample revenge, in kind, for all the affronts they had both received. Rudely grasping him, therefore, under one arm (for though naturally mild, she was a virago when exasperated), " You pitiful little scoundrel," she cried, "what is it you mean by thus insulting Miss Sheldon? You pretend for to inspire to love her, and decoy her here, on purpose to be impudent to her; besides setting some impudent varlet in women's clothes to insult me, t'other night." Thus saying, she boxed his ears with great fury, till the terrified barber bawled to her to desist; which she did not do till she was heartily tired.

Meanwhile, the wicked scholar, perched on the tree (determined if matters should come to extremity to descend and take the part of Puff), enjoyed the scene with the highest relish; being obliged to stuff the corner of his gown into his mouth, to prevent laughing aloud and spoiling the sport.

Other equally extravagant adventures follow, but all stop far short of matrimony. Meanwhile Dorcasina, by the death of her father, comes into possession of her thousand pounds per annum. Having exhausted her stock of sentimental fiction, she, in default of anything else, reads Roderick Random. Finding that hero to have, while a serving man, fallen in love with his mistress, she forthwith resolves that her hired man, John Brown, is in a like predicament, and being, of course, like Roderick, a gentleman born, is worthy of a like reward. John displays no love for the mistress, but is sensible of the agreeal leness of the transition from master to man, and the banns are published. Dorcasina is saved by main force, a romantic abduction and imprisonment being planned and executed by her friends, one of whom, a lively young lady, vainly endeavors to supplant John by courting the susceptible lady in the disguise of a dashing young officer. John Brown is meanwhile bought off and sent off.

Dorcasina at last finds that men were deceivers ever, that married people, even married lovers, have cares and troubles from which celibacy is exempt, and settles down at last to an old age of

common sense.

Mrs. Tenney affords a good example of the literary character, her discipline of mind being associated with prudence in her affairs. She was uniform and methodical in her habits, and so frugal of her time as to execute much plain and ornamental work with her needle. Among her practical good services to the place of her residence, was the establishment of an old colored servant of her family in a house which became a popular place of entertainment as a rural retreat, with its "cakes and ale," and was known as "Dinah's Cottage."

*

Mrs. Tenney died at Exeter, after a short illness, in 1837.

JOSEPH BARTLETT

Was born at Plymouth, Mass., about the year 1763, of a family of good Puritan standing. He became a graduate of Harvard in 1782, and with the reputation of a wit went to Salem to study law, which he soon abandoned for a voyage to England. There is a popular anecdote of his appearance in the metropolis, which is thus related by Knapp, who, in his American Biography, has presented an elaborate sketch of the man. "One night when Bartlett was in the theatre in London, a play was going on, in which his countrymen were ridiculed I believe it is one of Gen. Burgoyne's plays); a number of rebels had been taken, and brought into the British camp; on the inquiry being made about their occupations, I believe the play says professions, before they became soldiers, the answer was, although many of them were officers, that they were of different callings; some were

*We are indebted for these interesting personal notices to a lady, a relative of Mrs. Teuney.

barbers, some tailors, some tinkers, &c. At this moment Bartlett rose from his seat in the pit, and cried, "Hurra! Great Britain beaten by barbers, tailors, and tinkers!" The effect was wonderful. John Bull took it all in good part, and many of the bloods of the day introduced themselves to him; and he made the best of the occasion.

Bartlett pursued the career of an adventurer in London; gambled, gained, spent, and got into prison, from which he extricated himself by writing a play which gave him funds for his release. He then went on the stage himself, and at Edinburgh acted under the assumed name of Maitland. One of his parts was Belcour in the West Indian. From an actor he became a merchant, and secured a large credit of goods for America, with which he was shipwrecked upon his return on Cape Cod. Knapp tells us, that on the voyage he frequently paraded his infidel opinions and his contempt of death; but that when the vessel struck, he displayed the most cowardly anxiety for his safety, saying "that it was not that he feared to die, but that he should dislike to be found dead on such a dreary place as the back of Cape Cod." At Boston he formed a mercantile connexion, which soon failed, when he turned again to the law. The movement for the suppression of Shay's rebellion gave him a brief opportunity to figure in the military line as captain of the Republican Volunteers; but his active services were not required. He was admitted to the bar, and opened an office at Woburn near Boston, where he affected oddity to attract attention, painting his house black, and calling it "the coffin." He next removed to Cambridge, where he bore a prominent part in the public altercations of the town, and busied himself in the affairs of the college. In 1799, he delivered a poem on Physiognomy before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard, in which, under an appearance of general satire, he is said to have taken off traits of individuals of note at the time. The poem is clever, and is not marked by any apparent personal scandal. Here are a few passages from it.

GOD shows the force of his creative powers,
From reasoning man, to ev'ry tree and flower;
The hand of nature paints, on every part
Of every face, the feelings of the heart;
Birds, Fishes, Serpents, Insects, all proclaim
Their diff'rent uses, qualities, and name.
The ROYAL LION, haughty beast of prey,
Who prowls by night, and shuns the light of day,
Undaunted treads the trackless desert o'er,
And rules supreme on Afric's burning shore;
His voice of thunder, and his savage eyes,
Joined with his strength, and majesty of size,
Declare his courage, confidence, and pride,
And mark him sov'reign of the forest wide.
See the fierce TIGER's haggard, ghastly eyes,
That show the baseness which in ambush lies;
His savage nature, easily we trace

In ev'ry line, that's marked upon his face;
When o'er his prey, exulting in his wiles,
You see a devil, when he laughs or smiles.

The grateful Dog, who licks his master's hand,
Consults his looks, obedient to command;
Sees every thought, and every wish arise,
In every movement of his master's eyes.

Look through the world, and every clime explore,
From Afric's sands, to Nova Zembla's shore;
View every bird, in every leafy grove;
Hear every note, in every song of love;
Observe their plumes, their wings, their beaks, their

eyes,

From Humming-bird, to Ostrich's lofty size;
And say if nature does not truly teach
In every bird the qualities of each.

Next the author takes up fishes, and follows with serpents:—

Who views the SERPENT, crawling on the earth, Observes the mischiefs it has given birth, Fraud, craft, and cunning darting from his eyes, Sees plagues unnumbered from his form arise; His spots, meandering, warn us of deceit, And every folding, shows him made to cheat. eyes and shapeless head make us believe The ancient story of old MoTHER EVE. Had but Lavater's science then been known, We had been happy, PARADISE our own;

His

EVE would have seen the craft, which lurk'd within ;

Perceiv'd the Devil, in the Serpent's skin,
Observ'd each wile, in every look complete,
Nor eat herself, nor given man to eat.
Then this our earth MILLENNIUM had been,
Free from all death, from misery and sin,
Man then had liv'd unconscious of the tomb,

Enjoying nature in eternal bloom.

FORGIVE, my friends, if I presume to scan,
And show the PHYSIOGNOMY of MAN,
Explore each windi g of the inmost soul,
Expose his vices and unveil the whole.

Make way, my friends, and give the CRITIC place,
With me observe the features of his face;
His front, his lips, his eyes, declare aloud,
That he's a man oppressive, harsh, and proud,
Point to a man unsociable, severe,

Who damns all genius with a haughty sneer;
Who walks the street with stiff, important air,
And judges merit by the rules of BLAIR;
A comma wanted, puts him in a rage;
A well-turn'd period, condemns the page.
Hard is the task of this unhappy WIGHT,
To read, to hear, examine all we write,
To turn o'er volumes with convulsive haste,
And dash out pages, to reform our taste.

We leave the Critic, with his envious mind,
To show a face, the noblest of its kind;
Majestic forehead, and an arched nose,
Boldness and vigor of the mind disclose.
A piercing eye, commanding, wild, severe,
Shows us a man incapable of fear;

The mild blue eye, the round and dimpled chin, Bespeaks a mind incapable of sin,

The laughing cheeks, the lips of coral dye,
Declare the CUPIDS which in ambush lie;
The nose and forehead, happily combine,
To show exertions of a power divine,
To show an angel in a woman's face,
On which is stamped both dignity and grace,
When fortune frowns, and adverse scenes arise,
Despair and horror stand before our eyes,
Our minds are wrapt in all the gloom of night,
The world appears a desert in our sight,
Our friends desert us like a summer's fly,
And leave us wretched, languishing to die;
An angel female, soothes our souls to rest,
And calms the passions raging in the breast,
Dispels all care, and ev'ry pain beguiles,
Subdues all fear, and clothes the face with smiles:
Females like her, would make all nature bloom,
And smooth the passage to the dreary tomb.

To this poem are appended, in the edition of 1823, at Boston, dedicated to John Quincy Adams, a number of Aphorisms on Men, Manners, Principles, and Things, which his various opportunities in the world had given him ample opportunity to collect. Here are a few of them, some of which, if we are to receive Knapp's view of his life, might have been profitable in his own

career.

SLANDER.

Whenever you find a man endeavoring to lessen and destroy the reputation of another, be certain his own character is desperate.

There never was a calumniator who was brave, honest, or just.

I never found a slanderer, who dared to meet face to face the person whom he abused and vilified when absent.

LAW.

The man who, for any trifling injury, applies to a lawyer for redress, will soon be obliged to apply to the town for support.

BOASTING.

Whenever you hear a man boasting of his courage, be convinced he will be a coward in time of danger.

A man who boasts of his honesty, or a woman of her chastity, are both to be suspected.

WOMAN.

Women possess less charity towards the foibles of their own sex than the men.

A woman, destitute of morals, will be more atrocious than a man: Devils were made from Angels Let woman be conscious of her beauty, and she will usually be inattentive to her mind.

Women possess stronger passions than men, less reason to govern them.

FRIENDSHIP.

Friendship is in every person's mouth-little understood, and less practised.

A man frequently loses the affection of his friend, when he loses his property.

Love is the attachment of bodies-friendship the union of souls.

Confidence is the cement of friendship.

PARTY SPIRIT.

A party spirit in a small village, is the poison and curse of all social intercourse.

Every social feeling, every generous emotion, every noble sentiment, is usually sacrificed on the altar of Party Spirit.

In 1823, Bartlett delivered a voluntary Fourth of July oration in Boston, after which he recited a poem, entitled the New Vicar of Bray.

Leaving Cambridge, Bartlett practised law and politics in Maine. He had before been in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, and was now elected to the Maine legislature. He was at this time a candidate for Congress, and nearly secured his election by his personal exertions as a speaker, and his political newspaper writings. He also practised law in Portsmouth, Mass., and finally settled down in Boston, a burden to his few friends in the last years of an improvident life. He died Oct. 27, 1827, at the age of sixtysix. Loring, in his Boston Orators, gives the following Epitaph, which Bartlett wrote on himself, and which he recited on his death-bed:

'Tis done! the fatal stroke is given, And Bartlett's fled to hell or heaven; His friends approve it, and his foes applaud,Yet he will have the verdict of his God. Another stanza, which he is said to have recited while attending the funeral of John Hale, an estimable citizen of Portsmouth, exhibits, perhaps, feeling and compunction:

God takes the good,

Too good by far to stay And leaves the bad,

Too bad to take away.*

JAMES KENT.

JAMES KENT was born in the town of Fredericks, Putnam co., New York, July 31, 1763. His father was a lawyer by profession, and occasionally practised; but his main attention was devoted to his farm, a pleasantly situated estate on the banks of the Croton river. The beautiful scenes of this locality made a deep impression on the mind of the son; and years after, when the stream, like the boy who dwelt beside it, had become famous, it was his delight to stand at the window of his library and watch its waters leaping forth in the Union Park fountain before him.

James Kent entered the Freshman Class of Yale College in 1777. His studies were inter

* Loring's Hundred Boston Orators, p. 406.

rupted in his Sophomore year by the occupation of the town by the British, in consequence of which the college was teinporarily closed. It was during this recess that he first met with Blackstone's Commentaries, and so delighted was he with that great work, that he at once resolved to master its contents by close study. This incident determined his choice of a profession.

Obtaining his degree in 1781, he at once commenced the study of the law in the office of the distinguished Egbert Benson, at Poughkeepsie. He was admitted attorney in January, 1785, and. commenced practice in his native village of Fredericks, but finding there too limited a field for his exertions, he returned to Poughkeepsie, where he opened an office in partnership with Gilbert Livingston. Here, in April, 1785, he married Miss Elizabeth Bayley.

A conviction of the limited extent of his classical acquirements (the course at Yale College, in his day, extending only to the study of the New Testament in Greek, and of portions of Virgil, Horace, and Cicero in Latin) led to a plan of study which he immediately put into execution. By rising very early he was enabled to devote two hours to Greek and two to Latin before breakfast. The business hours of the day were occupied by his profession. Two hours after dinner were given to the French language, and the evening, when not engaged socially, to the study of the English classics, in verse as well as prose. He continued this division of the day until he became a Judge of the Supreme Court.

In 1790 and 1792 he was elected a member of the State Assembly. He became a leader of the federal minority in this body, and distinguished himself by the ability with which, in 1793, he conducted the examination of witnesses relative to the destruction of the votes cast in Otsego county, in the election for Governor of the State, an act which had raised the candidate of the minority to the office. His course was warmly approved by John Jay, and remembered to his advantage, when the latter became Governor of the State.

In April, 1793, he was nominated for Congress in Dutchess county, but his party being in the minority, lost his election. He removed during the same month to the city of New York. Here, as at his previous residence, his professional receipts were very small, and as neither himself nor his wife possessed private resources, they were much straitened in their circumstances. In December, he was appointed Professor of Law at Columbia College, and after diligent preparation entered upon its duties in the following November. His introductory lecture was published by the trustees, and in 1795 he issued a small volume containing three others preliminary to his course on the common law, devoted to a review of the various forms of government which have existed at various periods, a history of the union of the United States from their first conjoined action to the adoption of the Federal Constitution, and an examination of the law of nations as applied to the circumstances of peace, war, and neutrality. He delivered in the same year an address before the State Society for the promotion of agriculture, art, and manufactures, which is printed in the first volume of their

In 1798, he resigned his professorship, the attendance of students and provision for support being too slight to warrant further effort in its behalf. He was appointed the same year a Justice of the Supreme Court by Governor Jay, and accepted the office, although the salary was much less than what he at this time received, as he held the office of recorder, by appointment, in 1797, as well as Master in Chancery. He here, in his second term, introduced the practice of rendering written decisions, a course followed by his associates, and which in a short time raised the Bench to a far higher dignity than it had previously attained. In 1804, he became Chief-Justice, an office which he held until his appointment in 1814 as Chancellor. During his tenure of this office he effected, says Judge Duer, "a change in the system and administration of equity law, so extensive and entire, that with a single exception (that of Lord Nottingham) it has no parallel in the history of the law." He retained this office until 1823, when having attained the age of sixty, he became incapacitated by the law of the State for judicial duty.

The same year, on occasion of a vacancy in the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States, Kent was talked of by his friends for the appointment, and the matter was warmly seconded by Wirt, then Attorney-General, who addressed a letter on the subject to President Monroe, in which he met the difficulty of Kent's political relations by urging the value of his character to the nation. "Kent holds so lofty a stand," he wrote, "everywhere, for almost matchless intellect and learning, as well as for spotless purity and high-minded honor and patriotism, that I firmly believe the nation at large would approve and applaud the appointment." Of his

personal character, Wirt held this appreciation. "His conversation and manners are indicative only of a simplicity almost infantile, and of the most perfect kindness and suavity of disposition; and such, I have understood, has always been his character. Judging by what I have seen of him, and by all that I have ever heard, he is as benig nant and patriotic as he is admitted on all hands to be great and enlightened." The appointment was proposed, while Mr. Sinith Thompson, to whom the post had been offered, hesitated in its acceptance. His entrance upon the office closed the matter.*

With a view to the establishment of a law school, Kent removed from Albany, where he resided during his judicial career, to the city of New York, and a second time accepted the professorship of law in Columbia College. He delivered a course of lectures in 1824, which he repeated the next year, when the increase of his practice as counsel, his intention of preparing his lectures for publication, and as before the inadequate pecuniary support of the professorship, rendered his further discharge of its duties merely nominal.

In 1826 he published the first volume of his Commentaries,f at the earnest solicitation of his friends, he himself having little expectation of a favorable reception by the public. He originally contemplated but two volumes, but these expanded as he proceeded into four, the last of which appeared in 1830. They at once took the high place they have since held in legal literature, and as the universally received text-books of the science throughout the country, as by the plan of stating first the common law on each topic, and afterwards the changes introduced by decisions or statute in each State, it is adapted to the use of every portion of the Union.

The

copyright of this work was held by the author exclusively in his own hands, the copies printed stored in his own residence, and disposed of as ordered by the booksellers.

Humor is hardly to be looked for in a volume of Commentaries on the law, but Kent, after having conducted the student through the intricate theme in his text, coolly informs him in a note that the rule in Shelley's case is entirely superseded.

The juridical scholar, on whom his great master, Coke, has bestowed some portion of the "gladsome light of jurisprudence," will scarcely be able to withhold an involuntary sigh, as he casts a retrospective glance over the piles of learning, devoted to destruction by an edict as sweeping and unrelenting as the torch of Omar. He must bid adieu for ever to the renowned discussions in Shelley's case, which were so vehement and so protracted as to arouse the sceptre of the haughty Elizabeth. He may equally take leave of the multiplied specimens of profound logic, skilful criticism, and refined distinctions, which pervade the varied cases in law and equity, from those of Shelley and Archer, down to the direct collision between the courts of law and equity, in the time of Lord Hardwicke. He will have no more concern with the powerful and animated discussions in Perrin v. Blake, which awakened all that was noble and illustrious in talent and endowment, through every precinct of Westminster

Kennedy's Memoirs of Wirt, ii. 153, 155.

+ Commentaries on American Law, by James Kent.

hall. He will have occasion no longer, in pursuit of the learning of that case, to tread the clear and bright paths illuminated by Sir William Blackstone's illustrations, or to study and admire the spirited and ingenious dissertation of Hargrave, the comprehensive and profound disquisition of Fearne, the acute and analytical essay of Preston, the neat and orderly abridgment of Cruise, and the severe and piercing criticisms of Reeve. What I have, therefore, written on this subject, may be considered, so far as my native state is concerned, as an humble monument to the memory of departed learning.

The reports of his opinions as Chief-Justice and Chancellor bear testimony with his Commentaries to his clearness of style and ability as a writer. As an evidence of their excellence, it may be stated that one quoted in an argument by Webster is cited in an article on that great orator in the North American Review as from his pen.

In 1828, Kent delivered an Anniversary Dis course before the New York Historical Society; in 1831, an address before the Phi Beta Kappa at Yale College; and in 1836 one before the Law Association of New York, in which he has given spirited reminiscences of the leading members of the bar at the commencement of his career.

In 1840 he prepared, at the request of the Mercantile Library Association, a Course of Reading for the guidance of its members, composed exclusively of merchants' clerks of this city. It contains an unusual preponderance of books of travel, a class of writings in which the compiler took interest. His friends were amused by the ample field of geographical study thus marked out for youthful readers engaged in unscholastic pursuits, but the preference was one not ill adapted to the purpose of aiding to interest, and at the same time instruct, while its bearing on the mercantile career is obvious.

The incentive these perpetually novel and adventu cu narratives afforded to the exercise of the imagination, with the engrossing but not exhausting employment to the mind of minute geographical study, supplied an inexhaustible fund of the purest gratification to a sympathetic and intellectual old age.

Chancellor Kent continued the practice of his profession as chamber counsel, until within a short period of his death, which occurred on the 12th Dec., 1847. The temperate and constant use of his faculties through life preserved their energy to a remarkable extent in his old age. His amiability and purity of character were as remarkable as his judicial acquirements.

His son, William Kent, is engaged upon a biography, which will hardly fail, by increasing our knowledge, to increase still more our respect for its eminent subject. The materials for our own article have been mainly derived from the excellent discourse delivered at the request of the Judiciary and bar of the city and state, by the Hon. John Duer, in 1848.

THE NEW YORK CONVENTION FOR THE ADOPTION OF THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION-FROM AN ADDRESS BEFORE THE LAW

ASSOCIATION.

I allude to the convention which acsembled at Poughkeepsie in the summer of 1788, to deliberate and decide on the adoption of the federal constitution. The intense interest with which the meeting of the convention was anticipated and regarded, can