the last, he complains most bitterly in a letter to the elder Mr. Adams, and states that on counting up the letters he had received in the year 1820, he found they amounted to twelve hundred and sixty-seven, "many of them requiring answers of elaborate research, and all to be answered with due attention and consideration."

In such of the letters written in the remaining seventeen years of his life, as are now given to the world, we have his opinions on many important subjects at great length; and where the reader may be inclined to dissent from them, as he no doubt will in many instances, he must still admire the ingenuity of the reasoning, and can never fail to derive profit from the perusal. The subjects of the greatest interest, and considered most at length, are banks of circulation; national debts; the science of medicine; the common law of England, how far obligatory here; religion; instruction of youth; the constitution of Virginia; the independence of judges; the English constitution; the successes of Bonaparte; and lotteries, morally and politically considered; on all of which we may consider that he has deliberately written so many essays, in the form of letters to his friends.

It is a source of very pleasing reflection to find, in the last volume of the Correspondence, that Mr. Adams and Mr. Jefferson, who had been, in early life, fellow-labourers in the great work of the Revolution-then rivals-and then, in the struggle between their respective parties, wholly alienated from each other-should, in the evening of their days, again come together and renew their first friendship. The letters of Mr. Jefferson to this venerable friend, sometimes playful, sometimes learned, and always containing moral and political reflections, befitting his long experience and wide survey of human concerns, are among the most agreeable parts of the work.

It gives a kindred pleasure too, to find, that there is little or nothing in these volumes to detract from the exalted and almost spotless character of General Washington; or to countenance the opinion once entertained, that Mr. Jefferson was his enemy. The character drawn of that illustrious man in the letter to Dr. Jones, in 1814, is sufficient to repel that imputation, though it will be considered by some, as scarcely doing justice to the original; but the letter to Mr. Van Buren, written ten years after wards, and on several accounts more likely to express his deliberate and precise opinion, contains a splendid eulogy on him, who, "of all men, is best entitled to the appellation of the Father of the Republic."

He had not been many years at Monticello, before his mind, always on the alert to discover what would advance the public good, thought of that mode which was at once most congenial with his favourite pursuits, and best suited to his permanent withdrawal from public life-the education of youth. His first scheme for this object did not extend farther than a college, to be built and supported by private contribution, and he set an example of liberality by subscribing a thousand dollars to the undertaking, which was followed by Mr. Madison, Mr. Monroe and several others. The plan was, however, gradually enlarged to the establishment of an University, in which he proposed that every branch of education, useful or ornamental, should be taught, and which, he trusted, would be recommended to all the Southern and Middle States, by its healthy and central situation. The plan was on a larger scale than comports with the limited resources of a state treasury, or the views of the great mass of our citizens, who, seldom having leisure for the cultivation of other than professional knowledge, are not sufficiently impressed with the dignity and utility of general science and literature. Such, however, was Mr. Jefferson's popularity, such the weight of his opinions, and such the persuasive powers of his pen, on the minds of the leading members of the legislature, for several years, that they were induced to extend their appropriations from time to time, until his large and liberal views were not far from being completed. Naturally sanguine and enthusiastic in his temper, and these qualities little chilled by the frost of age, he anticipated the most beneficent effects on the legislature, the professional ability, and the literary character of the state, from this institution; and in the pleasing perspective which was always before his eyes, he did little else, thought of little else, when left to himself, than how he should advance this favourite undertaking. He superintended the buildings-drew many of the plans which required a knowledge of architectural rules-minutely inspected every part of the work, though to do so, required a ride of ten miles, (from Monticello to the University and back) several times a week. The success of the University became, in short, his master passion, which left him only with consciousness and life.

It is painful to know that the last years of this patriot's busy, useful life were embittered by pecuniary difficulties. Tenderly attached to his surviving daughter, and his grandchildren, he saw that a large estate, by the depression in its value, and the accumulation of his debts, was not likely to afford them a competent support. He waited, year after year, in the hope of a favourable change in the value of lands, and finding that they VOL. V.-NO. 9.

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declined more and more, he thought of an expedient which had been formerly often resorted to in Virginia, that of disposing of his estate by lottery, by which his fellow-citizens might afford him relief, if they were so inclined, in a way the least disagreeable to their feelings or his own. He accordingly obtained the sanction of the legislature, but death intervened before the plan was carried into effect.

In a letter to Mr. Madison, a short time before his death, he gives a history of his embarrassments, and concludes with this interesting appeal to that friend of many years.

"But why afflict you with these details? Indeed, I cannot tell, unless pains are lessened by communications with a friend. The friendship which has existed between us, now half a century, and the harmony of our political principles and pursuits, have been sources of constant happiness to me through that long period; and if I remove beyond the reach of attention to the University, or beyond the bourne of life itself, as I soon must, it is a comfort to leave that institution under your control, and an assurance that it will not be wanting. It has also been a great solace to me to believe, that you are engaged in vindicating to posterity the course we have pursued, in preserving to them, in all their purity, the blessings of self-government, which we had assisted too. in acquiring for them If ever the earth has beheld a system of administration, conducted with a single and steadfast eye to the general interest and happiness of those committed to it, one which, protected by truth. can never know reproach, it is that to which our lives have been devoted. To myself, you have been a pillar of support through life-take care of me when dead, and be assured I shall leave with you my last affections."

That friend will surely not be unmindful of this last request, "to take care of him when dead;" but if he should be arrested by fate in the discharge of this just and pious office, posterity will surely supply the loss. They will do justice to his virtues, his talents and his services. We shall not attempt to draw a character of this illustrious man. A mere outline of one so well known, would be superfluous; and this is not the place or the time for the shades and touches of a finished picture. We may, however, say, that he was one of that class of men, who, by reason of their moral and intellectual qualities and the circumstances in which they are placed, are inseparably linked with the destinies of their country, and by the impetus of whose character, that country is advanced or retarded in its onward march, or deflected from the course it would otherwise take; and we think there are few of his contemporaries who have exerted this influence to a greater extent, or whose opinions will unite more suffrages in their favour than those of THOMAS Jefferson.

ART V.-Œuvres Completes de Paul Louis Courier. 4 vols. 8vo. Bruxelles. 1828.

A SOLDIER, during his campaigns, studying and editing Greek authors, and a vine-dresser, while attending to his wine-presses, exposing effectively with his pen the encroachments of church and state, are characters which, separately, excite our surprise and curiosity, but still more when, as in the case of Courier, they are united in the same individual. There was much in other respects to mark him as an extraordinary man, whether in society we view his purity of principles and noble bearing, or in politics his reckless independence amid varying factions, under the Republic, Napoleon and the Bourbons. The reputation he acquired was totally independent of extrinsic circumstances. He was not puffed into vogue by the periodical press; he lived remote from the metropolis, with few acquaintances and fewer intimates; he belonged to no party, he possessed neither wealth, office nor rank.

Paul Louis Courier de Mery, as he was baptized, was born at Paris, 1773. He always refused to bear the name of Mery, which was that of his paternal estate, lest it should be suspected that his blood was tainted with nobility. His contempt for titles, did not, as with many others, pass away with the Republic; but during all the changes of government, his language is consistent. "Born among the people," says he, late in life, "I have ' remained there through choice. It depended only on myself, 'to quit my class, like many others, who, thinking to ennoble, 'have, in fact, degraded themselves. When it shall be necessary to choose, according to the law of Solon, I will be of the 'party of the people-of the peasants, like myself."*

6

The father of Courier was a man of talent and learning, and with no other master, the son learnt Greek at the age of fifteen, in the family mansion in Touraine. Being intended for the engineer corps, he was sent to Paris for the purpose of studying mathematics; his teachers there, were, successively, Callet and Labey, both authors of reputation. He also prosecuted his Greek studies, for which he now evinced a strong predilection, under Vauvilliers, well-known as a classical scholar. "Now," writes he to his father, "I sacrifice every thing to my principal 'design, but I do not on that account totally renounce the Greek and Latin poets; it is an effort of which my virtue is not

*Réponse aux Anonymes.-Euv. vol. ii. p. 50.

'capable; on the other hand, the less I devote myself to this 'study, the more pleasure I enjoy as often as I am permitted to quit for a moment the rocks of Euclid (silvestribus horrida 'dumis) to descend into plains sprinkled with flowers and in'tersected with streamlets."+

Labey having been afterwards appointed Professor in the military school at Chalons, his pupil followed him thither. But the classics had so completely won the affections of Courier, that he certainly displayed no great application in any thing else, although he acquired a good knowledge of mathematics. The restraint too of a military institution, was little suited to one of his independent disposition, and who had never known restraint at home. Hence he often forgot the hour of locking the gates, and had to enter by scaling the walls.

June 1, 1793, he left the school with the rank of sub-lieutenant of artillery, and soon after joined his company, then in garrison at Thionville. Ambition, new scenes and new companions could not divert him a moment from his favourite pursuits. We see in his correspondence with his parents, an officer of twenty-one, anxious for private lodgings in order to study with more tranquillity, and complaining of the interruptions from acquaintances. Some of those letters to his mother, are every way characteristic of him. In one, after requesting her to send him the works of Belidor on Engineering and Artillery, he continues

"Hunt among my books for two volumes in octavo, that is, of the shape of the Royal Almanack, in green boards; one is all full of Greek, and the other of Latin. It is a Demosthenes you must send me with my other books. These two volumes are both large enough and dirty enough too. My books are my happiness, and almost my only society. I never feel weariness but when I am forced to quit them, and always revisit them with pleasure. Especially, I love to reperuse those which I have already perused a number of times, and by that I acquire an erudition less extensive, but more solid. In truth, I shall never have a great acquaintance with history, which requires far more study, but I shall gain something else, which I have no desire of explaining to you; for I shall never finish if I give way to an indescribable tendency which leads me to speak of my studies. I should add, however, that one thing is wanting to all this, which is almost enough to destroy the pleasure I take in such pursuits. I mean the tranquil life I lead with you. Female small talk, follies of youth, what are you in comparison? I can speak on this subject-I, who knowing both, have, in my moments of sadness, never felt the want of any thing but the smiles of my parents, to use the expression o a poet." Vol. iv. p. 17.

* Euvres, vol. iv. p. 11: