unfortunate fellow-creatures a full enjoyment of the rights of free men. The quakers are the only people, as a body, among whom fhort-fighted felf-intereft has given way to juftice, humanity, and religion; they having been the firft to fet the example of emancipating their flaves. The effect of this benevolent act is pleafingly related in a letter from a Ruffian gentleman, defcribing the vifit he paid, at the request of our Author, to Mr. John Bertram, the celebrated Pennfylvanian botanist.

By what means, faid I, Mr. Bertram, do you rule your flaves fo well, that they feem to do their work with all the cheerfulness of white men? He answered-" Though our erroneous prejudices and opinions once induced us to look upon them as fit only for flavery, though ancient custom had very unfortunately taught us to keep them in bondage; yet of late, in confequence of the remonftrances of feveral friends, and of the good books they have published on that fubject, our fociety treats them very differently. With us they are now free. I give those whom thee didit fee at my table, eighteen pounds a year, with victuals and clothes, and all other privileges which white men enjoy. Our fociety treats them now as the companions of our labours; and by this management, as well as by means of the education we have given them, they are in general become a new set of beings. Thofe whom I admit to my table, I have found to be good, truity, moral men; when they do not what we think they fhould do, we difmifs them, which is all the punishment we inflict. Other focieties of Chriftians keep them ftill as flaves, without teaching them any kind of religious principles: what motive befide fear can they have to behave well? In the first fettlement of this province, we employed them as flaves, I acknowledge; but when we found that good example, gentle admonition, and religious principles could lead them to fubordination and fobriety, we relinquifhed a method fo contrary to the profeffion of Chriftianity. We gave them freedom, and yet few have quitted their ancient mafters. The women breed in our families; and we become attached to one another. I taught mine to read and to write; they love God, and fear his judgments. The oldeft perfon among them tranfacts my bufinefs in Philadelphia, with a pun&uality, from which he has never deviated. They conftantly attend our meetings, they participate in health and fickness, infancy and old age, in the advantages our fociety affords. Such are the means we have made ufe of, to relieve them from that bondage and ignorance in which they were kept before. Thee perhaps haft been furprised to see them at my table; but by elevating them to the rank of freemer, they neceffarily acquire that emulation, without which we ourselves fhould fall into debasement and profligate ways."

The whole of this letter is exceedingly interefting. Mr. Bertram, the Linnæus of America, was originally no ore than an inconfiderable and unlettered farmer of Pennfylvania, who received the first bias of his botanical pursuits from an accidental contemplation on the curious formation of feld dany, while he was repofing himfelf under the fhade of ree, after being fatigued

Stuart's Hiftory

fatigued with holding the plough. This felf-taught philofopher has been honoured by the correfpondence of the first botanifts of Europe; and even by a crowned head, the accomplished Queen Ulrica of Sweden. He has also been employed in making very extenfive botanical collections for the King of Great Bri

tain.

*

We cannot part with good Mr. Hector St. John, the ingenious author of thefe new Pennsylvanian Farmer's Letters, without thanking him for the entertainment and inftruction which he hath afforded us. If he should think proper to hold any further communication with the Public, on American fubjects, we doubt not but he will be attended to with pleasure, by all who are admirers of natural, eafy compofition,-where truth and fimplicity unite with good fenfe, to furnish the philofophic inquirer with rational amusement, and ufeful information.

A work with a fimilar title appeared fome years ago, but that was a political production. Its author, if we mistake not, was Mr. Dickenson.

ART IX. Dr. Stuart's Hiftory of Scotland, CONCLUDED.

laft Month's Review.

See our

T is much to be regretted, that hiftorians fhould fo frequently feek for reputation in paths which almoft unavoidably deviate from truth. That the ancients fell into this error, in mingling with their narrative continued fpeeches and harangues, has been often acknowledged; and perhaps the fame objection may lie with equal force against the formal delineation of characters in terms of general description, so ufual in modern hiftory: for, in this method of dealing out praife or cenfure, a writer has full fcope for communicating, in an indirect and almost imperceptible manner, his own private opinions and prejudices, and will therefore be often liable to miflead the judgment of his readers. This kind of writing, however, gives an author fo favourable an opportunity of difplaying his talents, that it is no wonder, if those who find themfelves equal to the task, chufe to embellifh their narrative with hiftorical portraits.

Dr. Stuart's pen is particularly fuited to delineations of this nature. There is a pointed brevity and ftrength in his diction, which enables him to mark, with precifion and diftinctness, the features of the characters which he defcribes. Our Readers will, we doubt not, be pleased with the bold and masterly style in which the following characters are drawn.

The death and the character of James Stuart Earl of Murray are thus described :

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James Hamilton, of Bothwelhaugh, who had been taken a prifoner at the battle of Langfide, obtained his liberty and life, but his eftates were forfeited. His wife, the heiress of Woodhoufslie, retired upon his emergency to her paternal inheritance, in the hope that it might efcape the rapacity of the Regent. He had, however, given it away in a gift to one of his favourites, Sir James Ballenden; and the instruments of his power having the inhumanity to ftrip her of her garments, and to turn her naked out of her houfe, in a cold and dark night, he became diftracted before the morning. Hamilton vowed revenge; and the Regent made a mockery of his threats, This contemot infpirited his paffions; and the humiliation of the houfe of Hamilton, to which he was nearly allied, foftered the eagernefs of his difcontents. The madnefs of party fermented in him with the atrocioufnefs of rage. His mind reconciled itfelf to affaffination, After watching, for fome time, a proper opportunity to commit his horrible purpose, he found it at Linlithgow. The Regent was to pafs through this town in his way from Stirling to Edinburgh. Intimations reached him, that Hamilton was now to perpetrate his defign; and he unaccountably, neglected them. The affaffin, in a houfe that belonged to the Archbishop of St. Andrews, waited deliberately his approach, and firing his mufquet from a window, thot him through the body. The wound, when examined, was not judged to be mortal; but the Regent, finding its pain to increafe, prepared himself for death; and in a few hours his foul took its departure. A flect horfe of the Abbot of Arbroth's carried the affaffin to the pa-, lace of Hamilton; and from thence he foon after effected his efcape into France.

Such was the lamentable fate of James Stuart, Earl of Murray. Great talents, a pleafing exterior, and a propitious fortune, had conducted him to distinction and eminence. A felfish and infatiable ambition was his ruling appetite; and he purfued its dictates with an unfhaken perfeverance. His inclination to aípire beyond the rank of a fubject was encouraged by the turbulence of his age; and his connections with Elizabeth overturned in him altogether the virtuous reftraints of allegiance and duty. He became an enemy to his fifter and his fovereign; and the arts by which he accomplished her overthrow, are the vouchers of his capacity, and his demerits. His obligations to her were exceffive; his ingratitude was monftrous; and no language has any terms of reproach that are fufficiently powerful to characterize his perfidioufnels and cruelty to her. Uncommon pretenfions to fan&tity, and to the love of his country, with the perpetual affectation of acting under the impulfe of honourable motives, concealed his purpofes, and recommended him to popular favour. His manners were grave, even to fadnefs. By a compofed and fevere deportment, and by oftentatious habits of devotion, he awakened and fecured the admiration of his contemporaries. His houfe had a greater refemblance to a church than a palace. A dark folemnity reigned within its walls; and his domeftics were precife, pragmatical, and mortified. The more zealous of the clergy were proud of reforting to him; and while he invited them to join with him in the exercifes of religion, he paid a flattering refpect to their expofitions of the Scriptures, which he hypocritically confidered as the facred rule

of his life. By an attention to law and juftice, he endeavoured to conciliate the approbation of men, upon whom he could not impose by his affectations of piety. He was fedulous in attending the court of feffion; and as the most falutary ftatutes are of little avail where their administration is corrupt, he repreffed with vigour the inordinate venality of its fenators. To the interefts of science and learning he was favourable in an uncommon degree; and Buchanan, who had tasted his bounty, gives a varnish to his crimes. The glory of having atchieved the Reformation, afforded him a fame that was most feducing and brilliant. His other projects were equally fuccefsful; and perhaps they were more difficult and arduous. But as they were little diftinguished by heroic action, and were far lefs honourable, they added no fplendor to his renown; and it has been fuppofed that his talents were more eminent in his youth, than in his riper age. His activity, however, had only changed its objects; and his capacity and ambition were, at all times, equally ardent and vigorous. His abilities, notwithstanding, though extenfive and various, were better calculated for the ftruggles of faction, than the fpeculations of polity. He was greater as a demagogue than as a minifter; and it was more flattering to him to be the viceroy of a foreign potentate, than to direct the councils of his natural fovereign. His genius affimilated with bustle; and though he could be eafy and tranquil in the midst of dangers, the ever-flowing ftream of circumftances in the details of government, fatigued his attention, and disturbed his repofe. With a cold and perfidious heart, he conferred favours without being generous, and received them without being grateful. His enmity was implacable; his friendship dangerous; and his careffes, oftener than his anger, preceded the ftroke of his refentment. The standard of his private intereft directed all his actions, and was the measure by To the neceflities of his amwhich he judged of thofe of other men. bition he was ready to facrifice every duty and every virtue; and in the paroxisms of his selfishness, he feared not the commiffion of any crime or cruelty, however enormous or deteftable. Upon his elevation to the Regency, he gave a free indulgence to his pride. He parted with that fhew of fincerity and candour which had contributed to his rife, and became fullen and diftant. He neglected and despised his ancient friends, and, indulging himself in the enjoyment of statelinefs and adulation, affumed that contemptuous air which befits only a defpot who is furrounded with flaves. The pillars of his greatnefs were forfaking him; and the blow that laid him in the duft only prevented bis exit in the field, or on the fcaffold. To the great body of the Scottish nobles, whofe confequence he had humbled, his death was a matter of ftern indifference, or of fecret joy; but to the common people, it was an object of fincere grief, and they lamented him long under the appellation of the godly Regent. Elizabeth bewailed in him a ftrenuous partizan, and a chofen inftrument by which the might fubvert the independency of Scotland; and Mary, tender and devout, wept over a brother, a heretic, and an enemy, whom a fudden and violent destiny had overtaken in his guilty career, with his full load of unrepented crimes.'

The following is our Author's defcription of that eminent Reformer John Knox:

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The zeal which he had difplayed in overturning Popery, and in refifting the defpotic projects of Mary of Lorraine, have dif tinguished and immortalized his name; and upon the establishment of the Reformation, he continued to act with fortitude according to his principles. His piety was ardent, and his activity indefatigable; his integrity was fuperior to corruption; and his courage could not be fhaken by dangers or death. In literature and learning his proficiency was flender and moderate; and to philofophy he was altogether a ftranger. His heart was open, his judgment greater than his penetration, his temper fevere, his behaviour ruftic. The fears and contempt he entertained of Popery were extravagant; and while he propagated the reformed doctrines, he fancied he was advancing the purposes of heaven. From his conviction that the ends he had in view were the nobleft which can actuate a human creature, he was induced to imagine that he had a title to profecute them by all the methods within his power. His motives of conduct were difinterested and upright; but the strain of his action and life deferve not commendation. He was ever earnest to promote the glory of God; but he perceived not that this fublime maxim, in its unlimited exercife, confifts not with the weakness and imperfections of man. It was pleaded by the murderers of Cardinal Beaton; and he fcrupled not to confider it as a fufficient vindication of them. It was appealed to by Charles IX. as his apology for the maffacre of Paris; and it was urged by Ravaillac as his juftifying motive for the affaffination of Henry IV. The most enormous crimes have been promoted by it; and it ftimulated this Reformer to cruel devallations and outrages. Charity, moderation, the love of peace, patience, and humanity, were not in the number of his virtues. Papitts as well as Popery were the objects of his deteftation; and though he had risen to eminence by exclaiming against the perfecutions of priests, he was himself a perfecutor. His fufpicions that the Queen was determined to reeftablish the Popish religion, were rooted and uniform; and upon the most frivolous pretences, he was ftrenuous to break that chain of cordiality which ought to bind together the prince and the people. He inveighed against her government, and infulted her perfon with virulence and indecency. It flattered his pride to violate the duties of a fubject, and to fcatter fedition. He affected to direct the politicians of his age; and the afcendant he maintained over the people, drew to him their refpect and obeifance. He delivered his fentiments to them with the most unbounded freedom; and he fought not to restrain or to difguife his impetuofity, or his peevithnefs. His advices were preffed with heat; his admonitions were pronounced with anger; and whether his theme was a topic of polity, or of faith, his knowledge appeared to be equally infallible. He wished to be confidered as an organ of the Divine will. Contradiction inflamed him with hoftility; and his refentments took a deep, and a lafting foundation. He confidered the temporal interefts of fociety as inferior to the ecclefiaftical; and, unacquainted alike with the objects of government, and the nature of man, he regarded the struggles of ambition as impious and profane; and knew not that the individual is carried to happinefs and virtue on the tide of his passions, and that admiration and eminence are chiefly to be purchased by the vigour,

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