momentary pique or passing effect. Though headlong and invariably vulnerable himself, no one was thus more frequent in imputing the grossest of motives to others, and few could be so uncharitable in the judgments they pronounced, or the accusations they dealt in, with the view of more effectually proclaiming their own superiority or immaculate virtue. Loose in his statements, and exaggerating in his speech, he was utterly unfit to lead a great party or conduet a lofty struggle; was a rash and injudicious partisan at best, and ultimately involved in ridicule every cause he espoused. All these characteristics, though long suspected, remained for years unknown, save to the discriminating few.

All his early efforts in favor of educational reform and other ameliorations, were forgotten in his after years, and he was known only as a renegade by his own party, or held up as a scarecrow by his new adherents, while Canning had in early life stigmatized him as an ally whose friendship was more formidable than his hostility, and Lockhart, at a more recent period, denounced him as an invariable charlatan; but the Tories claimed him as their own, and after exhibiting a youth full of promise, a maturity teeming with protestations for liberty, he signalized his age by virulent hatred to European freedom. When he abandoned his lofty position as member for Yorkshire, and vaulted into the doubtful elevation of Chancellor of England, these traits in his charcter became more conspicuous still. In the House of Lords he prejudiced every measure he advocated, converting ordinary opponents into implacable enemies; and when sitting in the Court of Chancery he dealt out decisions as if he had been shovelling dust-the rapidity of his movements and inconsiderateness of his judgments rendering equity, as dispensed by him, almost as worthless. One had but to see him as a Judge, to be convinced with how little dignity the bench may be filled; and to look on him as a minister, to prove to the world with how little judgment office may be administered.

But Lord Brougham has also claims to be considered as a man of science and an author, and these, it affords us pleasure to state, are of a superior order. He has, indeed, been accused of being but a smatterer in science, and is undoubtedly far more pretentious than profound. But his acquirements, though superficial, are wide and extensive; and without entering into the debatable ground whether it be better that a man be deeply versed in one science than have a general knowledge of many, it may at least be conceded that he who has taken the trouble of acquiring this general knowledge is entitled to praise. Brougham's pretensions to be considered a profound man of

science are not well sustained, and this was quickly discovered by any one versed in any of its divisions, who chanced to come in contact with his preposterous assumptions. Touch him on chemistry, and he became exceedingly discursive; try him on anatomy, and he forthwith launched into some vague generalities; take him on a more affectedly favorite topic, mathematics, and he immediately began to talk about the lower calculus; speak to him of astronomy or light, the subject of his highest pretensions, and instantly he would attempt to escape by uttering some unintelligible jargon about the "Milky Way." All this was obvious to any one skilled in any of these topics; but still Brougham's practice as a nisi prius advocate had given him a general knowledge of many multifarious objects; and from his habits as a reviewer, or as a peruser of reviews, he obtained a knowledge equally various and vast. As a literary man, he does not reach high, though his scientific treatises and discourses on moral as well as natural philosophy, and his characters of illustrious statesmen, indicate a fair degree of talent. Every topic treated by him involved a vast number of digressions, and a still greater infinitude of hypotheses. Still we are not sure that these characters, though much less pretentious in their style, and ushered into the world with no unseemly charlatanism, will not be ultimately preferred as more reliable to the ambitious displays of Macaulay.

The personal appearance of Lord Brougham was commanding. Those acquainted with him will remember his tall figure, his deep thick-set eyes, his lowering hair, and gloomy, though passably lofty brow, and his long, upturned, and peculiar nose. But neither chisel nor pencil could convey the slightest idea of his incessant restlessness, nor in the midst of all his affected gaiety, can any pen present the faintest portraiture of the countenance of a man whose unsatisfied ambition weighing within his breast, imprints upon his face indelible marks of disappointment and regret. Yet Lord Brougham's expression is the common expression of inordinately ambitious politicians.

Biographical Sketches.

HON. DELAZON SMITH,

SENATOR IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF OREGON.

THE fourteenth day of February last past was a proud and joyous day to all those citizens who were congregated at the Capital of the Nation, who have faith in the capacity of our Federal Constitution for indefinite expansion, confidence in the capacity of man for self-government, and hope in the perpe tuity of our free institutions. On that day the galleries of the new National Senate Chamber were crowded to their utmost capacity to witness the imposing ceremony of administering the oath of office to the two Senators from the new and distant State of Oregon.

The political antecedents of the Senators, whom the people of Oregon have chosen to represent the sovereignty of their new State, affords a pleasing assurance that the Pacific Slope is destined, in the good providence of Heaven, to contribute largely to bind the North American States together, and hold them to the Constitution and the Union, with cords irrefragably firm.

The States on the shores of the Pacific are beyond the reach of the fell spirit of fanaticism and disunion. Their people will grapple the Constitution and the Union, and hold them as with hooks of steel. They are as free as the winds and as the waves that break upon their rock-bound coast, and as firm as their own snow-capped mountains. It is this conviction-the conviction that Oregon brings with her into the sisterhood of States a conservative spirit of patriotism and devotion to the Constitution, and the integrity and perpetuity of the union of these States that caused such universal rejoicing in the Atlantic States upon the occasion of her admission.

How wonderful the growth of the United States! It is almost impossible to realize the fact that Oregon constitutes the thirty-third State of this Union, and the twentieth admitted since the adoption of the Constitution, thus practically confirming the national boast, that we possess an "Oceanbound Republic," and that it is not a mere poet's license which affirms that

"Westward the star of empire takes its way."

Another star-a bright particular north-western star-has taken its place in the grand galaxy-been emblazoned upon the national ensign! The elder sisters of the Republic salute that star, and striking hands with the democratic, conservative, and patriotic people of distant Oregon, bid them a hearty, cordial welcome into the Union.

In the May number of the Review of 1858 appeared a somewhat lengthy biographical sketch of GEN. LANE, one of the Oregon Senators, whom we regard as standing in the front rank of democratic statesmen of the day. In the present number it is proposed to speak of his colleague-the HoN. DELAZON SMITH,

and thus minister to the gratification of a very natural and laudable solicitude existing in the public mind to learn more of the origin and previous history of those who succeed to the occupancy of seats in the Senate of the United States.

The progenitors of the subject of this sketch were among the very earliest settlers of New England. Captain Jonathan Smith, the grandfather of Delazon, as was his father-was born in the colony of Rhode Island. Captain Smith was commissioned a captain in the war of the Revolution, and performed signal and important services from the inception of the war at Bunker's Hill until the final victory at Yorktown. From the "Memoir," recently published, of the late Rev. Stephen R. Smith, who was the nephew of Capt. Smith, we make the following quotation :

"My father's family, or, rather, that of my grandfather on my father's side, was, by intermarriage and common ancestry, intimately connected with several of the prominent families of the State of Rhode Island. The Hopkinses, Wilkinsons, and Harrises, and others in the vicinity of Providence, were near relatives. Among these, the Stephen Hopkins, whose name appears among the signers of the Declaration of Independence, I have always understood was cousin-german of my grandfather.

"The children of my grandfather, John Smith, of Scituate, R. I., were six sons and one daughter, namely, Richard, Joseph, Jonathan, Oziel, Thomas, Hope, and Sarah. The sons were, in their several spheres, distinguished for their devotion to the case of national freedom. Richard, the eldest, was a subaltern in one of the New England regiments, during one or two of the campaigns of what is known as the French War, and which terminated in the capture of Quebec, and the cession of Canada to Great Britain. Joseph, though never in the regular service, was one of those Green Mountain Boys who stormed the breast work in the battle of Bennington, and had charge of the prisoners; while his son, a lad of only fifteen years, fought in the second battle, on the same day. Jonathan (the grandfather of Delazon), with a lieutenant's commission, on hearing of the battle at Lexington, marched immediately, with his company, to Cambridge; was several years in the continental service, and lived to a very advanced age in the enjoyment of his country's bounty. Thomas declined a commission, and entered the service as a volunteer. He was killed at the bridge in Springfield, N. J. Capt. Olney, of the Rhode Island line, has given, in his own memoir, an interesting account of his feelings and fears when left to guard the bridge where he lost his life.

Oziel, though devoted to the cause of liberty, was emphatically a man of peace; and, though occasionally called out, for short periods of service, it is not known that he ever remained longer than immediate duty required."

The maternal grandfather of Delazon was Joseph Briggs, Esq., a native of Massachusetts, and at the time of the revolution, a citizen of Vermont. He was also a captain in the war of independence; he particularly distinguished himself in the battles of Bunker's Hill, Bennington, Saratoga, and Monmouth, and was present at the surrender of Burgoyne. On one occasion, in the midst of battle, his superior officer having deserted the American standard and sought protection under the British banner, Capt. Briggs moved gallantly forward to the command, rallied the dismayed and panic-stricken men, charged the enemy boldly and courageously, and turned the tide of battle, achieving a victory at a moment when defeat seemed inevitable. At the close of the war he returned to his home, and resumed the peaceful pursuits of private life, covered with honorable scars, and content with the consciousness of duties well performed, and rejoicing in the blessings of an honorable peace and the unquestioned freedom of his country.

Thus may the young Senator point with pride to his ancestors and to his country's record, which establishes the fact that he descends from "fighting stock." Indeed, every battle-field, where a foreign foe has been met, and resisted by American arms, has been wet with the blood of his kindred. One brother offered himself, and was sacrificed upon the altar of his country during the war with Mexico.

Delazon Smith was the fourth son of Archibald Smith, and was born in the village of New Berlin, in the county of Chenango, and State of New York, on the 5th of October, 1816. His father was an humble mechanic, in moderate circumstances. His mother was a woman of extraordinary intellectual powers, and of remarkable excellence of character and disposition-universally esteemed as a womanly perfection of nature's noblest handiwork. She died in the year 1825, leaving five surviving sons, of tender age, to rely, at the very commencement of life, mainly upon their own individual, native, inherent energy for success in the great battle of life.

In the year 1831, when but fifteen years of age, Delazon, provided with but a small bundle of clothing, which he carried under his arm, and almost penniless, started for "THE WEST." After a temporary residence of two or three years in Western New York, with an elder brother, who had preceded him—and where he sought, and to a limited extent obtained, the facilities of education-he renewed his journey westward. Having heard that there was a Manual-labor College in Ohio, where