Borlase Warren. Whilst the French admiral prepared to do honor to his flag, by a brave though hopeless defence, the French officers supplicated Tone to go on board a frigate, the Biche, that had the best chance of escape, and which in fact did escape. His answer was, 'Shall it be said that I fled while the French were fighting the battles of my country?' He was on board the Hoche 74, which, surrounded by four sail of the line and a frigate, sustained, during six hours, the fire of the whole fleet, and did not strike till her scuppers ran with blood, and she floated a dismasted and dismantled wreck upon the waters. Tone commanded a battery, and is reported to have fought like one who courted death. He was landed with the other prisoners, and was with other officers seated at breakfast at the table of Lord Cavan, when he was discovered by an ancient fellow student, Sir George Hill, and hurried from this extremity of the kingdom to the capital, in a most painful situation, fettered and on horseback, and exposed to indignities, which he bore with that loftiness of nature which never forsook him. His noble carriage at his trial, his courageous avowal of his acts and principles, and the affecting tragedy of his death, we leave for the reader, who, if his heart be not steeled, will sigh over the moving tale as we have done. Some future poet may take it for his theme of song; some orator borrow from it inspired thoughts and animated strains; but poetry or eloquence can add but little to the thrilling interest that it possesses.

The reader of the life of Tone will doubtless wish to learn the fate and fortunes of his family. The account given of them by his son is very affecting. He states that his mother, though in a delicate and precarious state of health, a stranger in the land, scarcely speaking the language, and without friend or adviser, having lived in the greatest privacy, rallied a courage and spirit worthy of the name she bore. She first addressed herself to the minister of foreign affairs, who could speak her language, and had known her husband. He entered into her feelings with kind solicitude, and gave her an introduction and strong recommendation to the directory. The Dutch ambassador, M. Schimmelpennick, also assured her that her husband should be claimed by the Batavian republic, in whose service he held the same rank as in the French. She wrote to her friend the brave Admiral De Winter, and to General Kilmaine, the commander in chief of the army in which he served, who also addressed a warm and affectionate letter to the directory.

At

They determined that hostages should be seized. With all the credentials and means she could desire, she was about to embark in hope of reaching his prison before the fatal stroke. this moment the news arrived, that she was a widow, and her children fatherless. Her misfortunes excited universal interest. Distinguished and powerful persons, as Talleyrand, Admiral Bruix, and General Kilmaine, proposed to adopt her sons. She was grateful, but preferred trusting to the nation to bestow on them a manly education, rather than have them brought up favorites and dependants in great men's families. This met their approbation and confirmed their esteem. Her lofty spirit could not brook dependence, nor stoop to complaint; and she was reckless of every honor, but the cherished memory of him that was no more, and of every employment but the education of his children. She locked up in her own breast her silent anguish, and gathered under her wing her little brood, to shield them as she could from the farther ills of fate, and taste thenceforth of no delight but that of educating them, and teaching them to be worthy of their father's name. Amongst many tokens of respect paid to his memory, and to her desert, will be found in the Appendix a discourse of unrivalled eloquence, pronounced by Lucien Bonaparte, then president of the council of five hundred.

The editor subjoins, as part of the history of the family after the decease of his father, a true account, from the pen of his mother, of a certain interview with Napoleon. Misrepresentations of this interview had been made in print, and repeated in the Monthly Magazine, accompanied indeed by very liberal and delicate comments. Although the article appears to have been written with no unkind view toward her, and the author was not sparing in compliments, it brought her before the public, in a light, which was to her peculiarly distressing, as having figured in the genteelest circles, when her life had been one of privacy and seclusion, estranged from every scene of gaiety, devoted to one only object, the care and education of her children. It is not therefore surprising, that this should have drawn from her a few strong expressions of her wounded feelings; for grief,' to use her own words, is proud, and makes its owner stout.' But however admirable such qualities may be, we prefer those specimens of female eloquence, when the soul, softened by the tender influences of nature, breathes forth the gentler accents of piety and love, and above all a mother's

love. In this narrative of simple truth, extorted from a widowed mother, are not wanting attractive and moving descriptions of this kind.

These volumes are closed with a memoir, containing a brief narrative of Captain Tone's services in the light cavalry and staff, until he emigrated from France to the United States, after the battle of Waterloo. It describes in a vivid manner the enthusiasm, buoyant dispositions, hardships, sufferings, and mode of living of that army, so long the terror of Europe. The battle of Leipsic, and the horrors which overspread the field and hung upon the French in their retreat, are the more impressive from the simplicity of the narration. This young officer, after much hardship and many wounds during three campaigns, resigned his commission upon the fall of his great chief, and renounced the prospects of advancement that were still open to him. He brought with him many and high testimonials of his merit, and is now employed in the service of this country, and settled with his mother near the seat of government. He married the daughter of Mr William Sampson, who was the early friend of his father, and many years ago, in his memoirs, published in this country, celebrated his virtues, and paid an affectionate tribute of respect and esteem to her, who had shared his fortunes when living, and by her faithful performance of every duty during a long widowhood, sustained the honor of his name and family.

1826.

ART. IV.-Commentaries on American Law. By JAMES KENT. Volume I. New York. O. Halsted. 8vo. pp. 508.

In the accustomed security of a well regulated community we meet with but few occurrences to remind us of the influence of the laws that are blended in all our transactions, safely conducting us in the crossings and windings of our diverse pursuits, and being ever present to our persons and rights with a vigilant guard and sure protection. Law, in its broadest acceptation, cannot be better described than in the well known passage of Hooker, where he says, 'Of law no less can be acknowledged than that her seat is in the bosom of God; her voice, the harmony of the world; all things in heaven and

earth do her homage, the very least as feeling her care, and the greatest as not exempted from her power. The kindly guardianship of the municipal laws, and the obedience and reverence due to them, are nowhere more persuasively and beautifully illustrated than in Plato's account of the last scenes of the life of Socrates; where that philosopher, being urged by Crito to avail himself of the means provided for his escape into Thessaly from the execution of the unjust sentence of death passed against him by the Athenians, refuses to fly unless Crito can show it to be consistent with his obligations to the laws, which he introduces as reasoning with him on the proposed escape, reminding him of all the benefits they had conferred upon him, and expostulating with him on the ingratitude of disobeying and bringing reproach upon them, by escaping from even the unjust sentence of death passed against him. Plato finds much to admire and venerate even in laws liable to be capriciously altered and tyrannically administered by an Athenian mob. The old poets and historians are full of eulogies of lawgivers, as among the greatest benefactors of mankind, and similar praise is due to those who reform the laws or their administration, or make them better known, by rendering a knowledge of them more accessible and easy of attainment. Of all sciences or works of human genius, none is more admirable to contemplate, or instructive to study, than a skilfully contrived, well administered system of laws, conferring upon rulers all the necessary powers, and only those, with the requisite counterpoises, checks, and limitations; confining each to his own sphere; distinctly explaining to the citizens their rights and duties in their multiplied and almost numberless relations among themselves and to the government; offering large encouragement to arts, industry, intellectual efforts, and public spirit; and arraying all the moral and physical power of the community on the side of the general welfare, and in defence of the rights and possessions of each individual member. The searching, all pervading power, and sleepless vigilance of the law, bring to light deeds done in secret and darkness, and reclaim and punish offenders for offences committed in the remotest parts of the sea.

But all laws are not good, and good laws are not always well administered. Though the great moral principles more or less aimed at in every body of laws, are themselves unrepealable and unalterable, and remain ever fixed and shining in

the centre of the system, their brightness is too often obscured and eclipsed by the opaque bodies of legislators, and judges, and ministers of the law, interposed. Doctrines are promulgated, armies are raised, and fleets equipped, sometimes to vindicate, but sometimes to violate, the broad, everlasting principles, on which all laws and administrations of law profess to be founded. Legislators, forgetful of the general welfare, declare for law the dictates of a sinister private interest, or a vindictive party spirit. It sometimes happens that what they put forth as oracles of wisdom, bear too much resemblance to riddles, published, like those of the Sphinx, for the destruction of such as get entangled in their interpretation. Though the promotion of the general good, and the protection of private rights, are most commonly the real objects of legislation, yet instances are not wanting in which grave legislative assemblies solemnly decree public calamities, and private wrongs and injustice.

Besides the disorders infecting, in a greater or less degree, every body of laws, evils no less numerous or grievous are incident to their administration. The counsellor to whom you apply, may himself need the advice he professes to give, and conduct you to the proverbial end of the journey of the blind led by the blind; or if not ignorant, The may be dishonest, and make your distress his own opportunity. It will be little consolation to you that your judge is not corrupt, if, like a certain visiter at St Paul's cathedral, he is mazed amid the grandeur, and lost in the windings, cross avenues, and blind passages of the temple of justice in which he is a minister, until he comes to be like so many of the inhabitants of Nineveh, who did not know their right hand from their left. Or if he does not hear without being able to judge, he may judge without waiting to hear, be precipitate, opinionative, ready to decide from prejudice or favor, and instead of searching for grounds to form an opinion, may only search for arguments to defend one already formed. The judges may be appointed from party considerations, or popular or other influence foreign to their qualifications; and so the court, being little skilled in the laws, or the rights of parties, and not capable to decide according to the strength of the case, must be decided by the influence and skill of the parties and advocates, and instead of ruling the strife, be itself the prize for which the parties contend, as a weak prince, in a divided kingdom, gives the victory to the party that makes him prisoner.