'During the summer that I passed with Mr Pinkney, his personal habits were very regular He breakfasted late, and heartily. Then he retired to his study, and we saw him no more until dinner at six o'clock. The evening he passed with his family, or in visiting. He took very little exercise, eat and drank freely, and I thought suffered occasionally from the usual effects of a plethoric habit, with much indulgence as to food, and no attention to exercise. Undoubtedly his extreme attention to personal cleanliness contributed much to preserve his health. His family saw little company at home or abroad; he appeared to be extremely fond of them, and satisfied with passing his evenings in their society.' pp. 157,-158..

It might be inferred from his fondness for history, that he was a curious traveller, especially in the classical region of Italy. He speaks, in a conversation quoted by Mr Wheaton, of his desire to visit that classic land, and of the feelings with which he should set foot on its shores.' His enthusiasm, however, was very moderate. He was not an inquisitive traveller; he staid but eight days in Rome, and exhibited, we are told, nothing more than a decorous curiosity. He had an interview with the Pope, and was treated by him with great distinction. He was not much addicted to discourse on the character of the countries. he passed through, or make comparisons between them, thinking, perhaps, as those who see the most are often apt to think, that their essential differences are small. Of company he saw much more, both in England and Russia, than in his own country, perhaps from the nature of his station at their courts, and the weight of his avocations at home; but more probably from a preference of foreign society, acquired by long residence in it. He has sketched some of the members of the ruling family of Russia, in the following letter to his daughter, Mrs Williams.

The Empress Mother is still a charming woman, and when young must have been extremely handsome. She may be said to do the honors of this splendid court, and it is fit that she should. Her manners are infinitely pleasing, at the same time that they are lofty; and she is a perfect mistress of the arts of conversation. She is, moreover, exemplary in all the relations of life, and is beloved for her goodness by all classes.

'Of the reigning Empress it is impossible to speak in adequate terms of praise. It is necessary to see her to be able to comprehend how wonderfully interesting she is. It is no exaggeration to say, that with a slight abatement for the effects of time and severe affliction (produced by the loss of her children), sl

Her

combines every charm that contributes to female loveliness, with all the qualities that peculiarly become her exalted station. figure, although thin, is exquisitely fine. Her countenance is a subduing picture of feeling and intelligence. Her voice is of that soft and happy tone that goes directly to the heart, and awakens every sentiment which a virtuous woman can be ambitious to excite. Her manner cannot be described or imagined. It is graceful, unaffectedly gentle, winning, and at the same time truly dignified. Her conversation is suited to this noble exterior. Adapted with nice discrimination to those to whom it is addressed, unostentatious and easy, sensible and kind, it captivates invariably the wise and good, and (what is yet more difficult) satisfies the frivolous without the slightest approach to frivolity. If universal report may be credited, there is no virtue for which this incomparable woman is not distinguished; and I have reason to be confident from all that I have observed and heard, that her understanding (naturally of the highest order) has been embellished and informed to an uncommon degree by judicious, and regular, and various study. It is not, therefore, surprising that she is alike adored by the inhabitant of the palace and the cottage, and that every Russian looks up to her as to a superior being. She is, indeed, a superior being, and would be adored, although she were not surrounded by imperial pomp and power.' pp. 155, 156.

The ensuing sketch of Mr Pinkney's person is, with some other particulars, from the hand of a gentleman, who, during a few years preceding his death, was on a footing of intimacy with him.

In frame Mr Pinkney was robust, square shouldered, and firm set. His complexion was clear and florid, disclosing the smaller veins under the skin. His face full, his eye of a dead blue, variable in its expression, and quickly lighted up by excitement. His nose was small, turning a little upward; the eyebrow thinly clothed, and forming a marked protuberance, which was very conspicuous in his profile. His forehead was low and retreating; his lips thin, the corners of his mouth pointing downward a very little; his chin small. His head was oval, thinly covered with short brown hair of a silky texture; it was flattened on each side, and showed his ears in high relief; in that, and in some other respects, however different the tout ensemble, closely resembling the head of La Fayette. Although the habitual expression of his face was mirthful, it was deeply furrowed with the lines of thought. Under his eyes hung heavy circles, and his cheeks were defined by strong boundaries passing from

each nostril. These two were the predominant characteristics of his countenance.

'His carriage was more than erect; it might be called perpendicular. His action and gesture, emphatic at all times, seemed to bear defiance as if by habit, and to denote a temperament almost incapable of fatigue. He was always on his feet, even in his study, and his walk was firm and elastic. Sickness scarcely deprived him of this quality. His ardor was irrepressible, and nature seemed to have given him personal vigor, correspondent to the aspirations of his mind. He took the utmost pains with his dress, and encouraged the same particularity in this respect, among his young friends. His toilet was seldom made less than twice in the day; but he scarcely ever changed his dress to meet the fashions; having adopted that style, I suppose, which he thought best adapted to show off his person. As he carried his head high, his cravat was adjusted to that position. He constantly wore a white vest, buttoned up to the chin with gilt buttons; a blue frock and black stock in the morning, à la militaire, a style that he seemed to be fond of; but he appeared generally in the evening nearly in full dress, his garments adjusted almost to constraint, though they subjected him, apparently, to no inconvenience. In short, his exterior was that of a man of leisure and fashion, and seemed to show the training of high and formal company. It was after the English school, with its regulated movement, disciplined patience, and, to my taste, ungraceful constriction."

Of his genius, whether in diplomacy or in the forum, the estimate has, we believe, been very correctly made by the public. Such as are curious to see to what extent of learning, such power of application, allied with such force of mind, may carry a man in a particular science, will regret, perhaps, that he ever wandered beyond the rugged tracts of his profession; while others may lament, that so happy a genius should have been expended on a kind of learning wholly technical, and which, being therefore remote from vulgar apprehension, neither allows the uninitiated to estimate the acumen it requires, nor enriches the mind proportionably to the toil of acquisition. We shall not inquire, whether the laborers in the mine of the law, are rewarded for their expense of toil in skill, nor whether we are to assign it a first rank among sciences which humanize the mind. Be this as it may, Mr Pinkney seemed born for his profession; and he would probably have made the pyramid of his re

nown' yet broader and higher, had he never been tempted aside from his task by less congenial pursuits. In diplomatic ability, so far as it is constituted by a large acquaintance with public law, a perfect understanding of the questions arising on it, and skill to disentangle their complexities, he did not fall short of any of the great names opposed to him. That he failed in address, is likely enough from the general turn of his character, especially a tincture of personal vanity, which, while it gave to more adroit negotiators an assailable point, would not permit him to suspect that he could be deceived or circumvented. Thence, even a cunning Neapolitan diplomatist might be an overmatch for him. No diplomatic position could be imagined, however, more embarrassing and vexatious, than the precise one he was placed in at St James's. Two colossal belligerents mutually encroaching on the rights of a neutral, whose true place in the political scale was not yet understood, its own government hardly prepared for the last resort, and the nation itself distracted by two fierce parties; these were circumstances in which the most consummate adroitness might have failed to unite all suffrages in its favor. As a statesman his views were sound; but his most successful efforts were, naturally, on points connected with his professional studies.

'But,' as his biographer remarks, 'in tracing the principal outlines of his public character, his professional talents and attainments must necessarily occupy the most prominent place. To extraordinary natural endowments, Mr Pinkney added deep and various knowledge in his profession. A long course of study and practice had familiarized his mind with the science of jurisprudence. His intellectual powers were most conspicuous in the investigations connected with that science. He had felt himself originally attracted to it by invincible inclination; it was his principal pursuit in life; and he never entirely lost sight of it in his occasional deviations into other pursuits and employments. The lures of political ambition and the blandishments of polished society, or perhaps a vague desire of universal acomplishment and general applause, might sometimes tempt him to stray for a season from the path which the original bent of his genius had assigned him. But he always returned with fresh ardor and new delight to his appropriate vocation. He was devoted to the law with a true enthusiasm; and his other studies and pursuits, so far as they had a serious object, were valued chiefly as they might minister to this idol of his affections.

'It was in his profession that he found himself at home; in this

consisted his pride and his pleasure; for as he said, “ the bar is not the place to acquire or preserve a false and fraudulent reputation for talents." And on that theatre he felt conscious of possessing those powers which would command success.'

This entire devotion to his professional pursuits was continued with unremitting perseverance to the end of his career. If the celebrated Denys Talon could say of the still more celebrated D'Anguesseau, on hearing his first speech at the bar, “that he would willingly END as that young man COMMENCED,” every youthful aspirant to forensic fame among us might wish to begin his professional exertions with the same love of labor, and the same ardent desire of distinction which marked the efforts of William Pinkney throughout his life.'

6

The editor well remembers in the last, and one of his most able pleadings in the Supreme Court, remonstrating with him upon the necessity of his refraining from such laborious exertions in the actual state of his health, and with what vehemence he replied, that he did not desire to live a moment after the standing he had acquired at the bar was lost, or even brought into doubt or question.

'What might not be expected from professional emulation directed by such an ardent spirit and such singleness of purpose even if sustained by far inferior abilities! But no abilities, however splendid, can command success at the bar without intense labor and persevering application. It was this which secured to Mr Pinkney the most extensive and lucrative practice ever acquired by any American lawyer, and which raised him to such an enviable height of professional eminence. For many years he was the acknowledged leader of the bar in his native State; and during the last ten years of his life, the principal period of his attendance in the Supreme Court of the nation, he enjoyed the reputation of having been rarely equalled and perhaps never excelled in the power of reasoning upon legal subjects. This was the faculty which most remarkably distinguished him. His mind was acute and subtle, and at the same time comprehensive in its grasp, rapid and clear in its conceptions, and singularly felicitous in the exposition of the truths it was employed in investigating.'

‘Of the extent and solidity of his legal attainments, it would be difficult to speak in adequate terms, without the appearance of exaggeration. He was profoundly versed in the ancient learning of the common law; its technical peculiarities and feudal origin. Its subtle distinctions and artificial logic were familiar to his early studies, and enabled him to expound with admirable force and perspicuity the rules of real property. He was familiar with every branch of commercial law; and superadded, at a later period of