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his called on him not long since. It was difficult to make him recollect who he was, and sitting one hour, he told him the same story four times over. Is this life?with lab'ring step

To tread our former footsteps! pace the round

Eternal ?-to beat and beat

The beaten track-to see what we have seen

have seen that they have drawn me out into the arena of the newspapers. Although I know it is too late for me to buckle on the armour of youth, yet my indignation would not permit me passively to receive the kick of an

ass.

To turn to the news of the day, it seems that the cannibals of Europe are going to eating one another again, A war between Russia and Turkey is

To taste the tasted-o'er our palates like the battle of the kite and snake;

to decaut

Another vintage?

It is, at most, but the life of a cabbage, surely not worth a wish. When all our faculties have left, or are leaving us, one by one, sight, hearing, memory, every avenue of pleasing sensation is closed, and athumy, debility and malaise left in their places, when the friends of our youth are all gone, and a generation is risen around us whom we know not, is death an evil?

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When one by one our ties are torn, Aud friend from friend is snatch'd for lorn;

When man is left alone to mourn,

Oh! then, how sweet it is to die!

When trembling limbs refuse their weight,

And films slow gath'ring dim the sight; When clouds obscure the mental light, "Tis nature's kindest boon to die!

I really think so. I have ever dreaded a doting old age; and my health has been generally so good, and is now so good, that I dread it still. The rapid decline of my strength during the last winter has made me hope sometimes that I see land. During summer I enjoy its temperature, but I shudder at the approach of winter, and wish I could sleep through it with the dormouse, and only wake with him in spring, if ever. They say that Starke could walk about his roon. I am told you walk well and firmly. I can only reach my garden, and that with sensible fatigue. I ride, however, daily; but reading is my delight. I should wish never to put pen to paper; and the more, because of the treacherous practice some people have, of publishing one's letters without leave. Lord Mansfield declared it a breach of trust, and punishable at law. I think it should be a penitentiary felony; yet you will

whichever destroys the other, leaves a destroyer the less for the world. This pugnacious humour of mankind seems to be the law of his nature, one of the obstacles to too great multiplication provided in the mechanism of

the universe. The cocks of the henrams, do the same; and the horse, in yard kill one another; bears, bulls, his wild state, kills all the young males, until worn down with age and war, some vigorous youth kills him.

*** I hope we shall prove how much happier for man the Quaker policy is, and that the life of the feeder is better than that of the fighter: and it is some consolation that the desolation by these maniacs of one part of it in other parts. Let the latter be the earth, is the means of improving while the Russian holds her by the our office; and let us milk the cow, horns, and the Turk by the tail.-God bless you and give you health, strength, good spirits, and as much of life as you think worth having.

THOS. JEFFERSON.

MR. ADAMS' REPLY. Montezillo, June 11, 1822.

DEAR SIR,

Half an hour ago I received, and this moment have heard read for the third or fourth time, the best letter that ever was written by an Octogenarian, dated June 1st.

*

I have not sprained my wrist; but both my arms and hands are so overstrained that I cannot write a line. Poor Starke remembered nothing and could talk of nothing but the battle of Bennington. ***** is not quite so reduced. I cannot mount my horse, but I can walk three miles over a rugged rocky mountain, and have done it within a month; yet I feel when sitting in my chair as if I could not

rise out of it; and when risen, as if I could not walk across the room: my sight is very dim, hearing pretty good, memory poor enough.

I answer your question-is death an evil?-It is not an evil. It is a blessing to the individual, and to the world; yet we ought not to wish for it till life becomes insupportable. We must wait the pleasure and convenience of the "Great Teacher." Winter is as terrible to me as to you. I am almost reduced in it to the life of a bear or a torpid swallow. I cannot read, but my delight is to hear others read; and I tax all my friends most unmercifully and tyrannically against their consent.

The ass has kicked in vain; all men say the dull animal has missed the mark.

This globe is a theatre of war; its inhabitants are all heroes. The little eels in vinegar, and the animalcules in pepper-water, I believe are quarrelsome. The bees are as warlike as the Romans, Russians, Britons or Frenchmen.-Ants, caterpillars, and canker worms, are the only tribes among whom I have not seen battles; and heaven itself, if we believe Hindoos, Jews, Christians and Mahometans, has not always been at peace.-We need not trouble ourselves about these things, nor fret ourselves, because of evil-doers; but safely trust the "Ruler with his skies." Nor need we dread the approach of dotage; let it come if it must.—*****, it seems, still delights in his four stories; and Starke remembered to the last his Bennington, and exulted in his glory: the worst of the evil is, that our friends will suffer more by our imbecility than we ourselves.

In wishing you health and happiness, I am very selfish; for I hope for more letters ;-this is worth more than five hundred dollars to me, for it has already given me, and it will continue to give me, more pleasure than a thousand. Mr. Jay, who is about your age, I am told, experiences more decay than you do.

I am, your old friend,

JOHN ADAMS.

President Jefferson.

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SIR,

Paternoster-Row, Spitalfields,

January 10, 1823. SOME particulars have lately come into my possession relative to the intercourse between the late Dr. Priestley and the Rev. Elhanan Winchester in America, and I beg leave to offer them as deserving to be recorded in the Monthly Repository. In conversation with a respected friend, I remarked that I was informed from undoubted authority, that the late Mr. Winchester, the Universalist, though a Trinitarian, was a most liberal Christian, and possessed a truly Catholic spirit, which he evinced by his friendly conduct towards Dr. Priestley in America, after the Doctor had been expelled from his native land, by those whose intolerant spirit could not bear the freedom and energy with which that great man advocated the cause of truth and unalloyed Christianity.— Wishing to possess a correct statement of the particulars, I requested my sister, who resided at that time in Philadelphia, to furnish me with any that fell within her knowledge, which she kindly and readily did in a letter from which I have made the following extracts, and which place both of those eminent characters in an estimable light. SAML. HART.

Exeter, December 10, 1822,

DEAR BROTHER,

It is now nearly five-and-twenty years since I was in America, having sailed therefrom for England in the spring of 1798, and in the lapse of a quarter of a century many circumstances have faded ever, I will with cheerfulness endeavour from my mind: at your request, how

to call back to remembrance the occur

rences of those long-departed days. It is ever a pleasure to me to reflect on the character of the late Mr. Winchester, in which were combined uniformity of Christian conduct and deportment with great urbanity and benevolence of heart; and what renders his memory peculiarly estimable to me, was that artlessness of manners, singularly his own, and an unaffected liberality which he manifested towards Dr. Priestley the first winter the Doctor came down to Philadelphia to preach, and for which I was quite unprepared.

I believe that Dr. Priestley's and Mr. Winchester's being first made known to each other arose from the following circircunistance: when the Doctor was

coming to Philadelphia, in the autumn of 1795 or 6, I think, to deliver his first course of Lectures, (afterwards printed,) the Unitarians of Philadelphia, who were lately from England, set on foot and concluded a negociation with the Universalists for the use, on Sunday forenoons, of a place of worship then building by them in Lombard Street, wherein Dr. Priestley might preach.

The four walls were raised and the roof on, but the internal fittings up had not been commenced: however, our friends made an advance of some huudreds of dollars, and employed great activity and energy, so that very soon the house was completely benched, and a pulpit erected, and though not quite finished, it was opened for divine service. The congregations that attended were so numerous that the house could not contain them, so that as many were obliged to stand as sit, and even the door-ways were crowded with people. Mr. VicePresident Adams was among the regular attendants, and to the best of my recollection, Mr. Winchester was never absent, and he constantly gave out the hymns when that excellent man Dr. P. did not read them himself.

On the floor, directly in front of the pulpit, and close to it, was placed a long seat, with back and arms, and a table before it on this seat, which was generally occupied by elderly men, members of the Universalist society, Mr. Winchester would take his place, unless he went into the pulpit with the Doctor, it being large enough to hold several: this 1 need not say was a strong mark of friendly-heartedness and liberality, and, in fact, gave umbrage, together with his acting as the Doctor's clerk, to some of his own people, many of whom were Antinomians. Well, thus did Mr. Wiuchester use to sit, placing himself so as to have the eye constantly directed to the preacher, the attention riveted to the subject, and a face beaming with heavenly love.

At the close of the course Dr. Priestley gave notice that, on the Sunday following, he intended to preach directly on the person of Christ, explaining the Unitarians' view of the subject, and that the Lord's Supper would be celebrated at the conclusion of that service: this intimation produced a sensation indeed, among the Philadelphians; they were puzzled, not being able to conceive what Uuitarians or Deists, as they termed them, had to do with it. One exclaims with surprise, they receive the Lord's Supper! Another, what have they to do with Christ? Whilst others asserted, they do

not believe in Christ, they are Deists. The idea was, that an Unitarian and a Deist meant, on the whole, the same thing; so concluding the former to belong as little to Christ as the latter, it naturally enough followed, in their way of reasoning, that Unitarians not being Christians, it was truly absurd for them to commemorate the death of Christ by receiving the Lord's Supper: however, the Unitarians were glad to assemble round the table of their Lord, especially with such a ministering servant of their profession; and I greatly mistake if Mr. Winchester did not give an indisputable aud unambiguous testimony of Christian love and forbearance in partaking with them; unhappily too, as by so doing he increased the offence before given to some of his more rigid adherents in his friendly demeanour to Dr. Priestley. Afternoons and evenings Mr. Winchester resumed his ministerial labours in his own pulpit, and afternoons Dr. Priestley was as attentive a hearer as in the morning he had been an excellent speaker.

On the same day that Dr. Priestley gave out his next Sunday's subject to be Unitarianism; after their own service it was notified that Mr. Winchester would, by desire, on that evening, defend the doctrine of the Trinity. He did preach about it to the dissatisfaction of many of his friends, and many more thought he had been peculiarly unhappy that evening in wielding the weapons of Trinitarianism. His general preaching was on the love of God, earnestly endeavouring of their Heavenly Father, on account of to persuade men to obedience to the laws his great love and goodness to them. He himself appeared to be deeply imbued. with the principle of gratitude : he was light in pacing his room for a long time very fond of psalmody, and used to detogether, singing the following hymn :

This God is the God we adore,

Our faithful, unchangeable friend,
Whose love is as great as his power,
And neither knows measure nor end.
"Tis He is the first and the last,
Whose hand shall conduct us safe

home;

We'll praise him for all that is past,

And trust him for all that's to come.

Your affectionate Sister,

SARAH HART.

Installation of Sir James Mackintosh as Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow.

and afterwards subscribed his name to the rules and orders of the University. Every breath was now held in suspense, and amid the mute and

(From The Glasgow Free Press, Wed- anxious attention of the immense asnesday, January 8.)

N Friday last, this distinguished O`statesman and philanthropist was installed into his high honorary of fice. In the early part of the day the forthcoming scene was the general topic of conversation. At the newsrooms, in the shops, and throughout the streets, scarcely any other subject was talked about. A great number of gentlemen assembled in the College Court a full hour before the proceedings commenced. At half-past_two the doors were opened for the admission of the students, and in the junior classes rushed, bounding, cheering, and exulting.

"Gay hope was theirs, by fancy fed."

It was a fine sight. All seemed to he alike;-joyous even to rapture. The senior classes followed, and, although the expression of their feelings was not so exuberant, it was evident they participated equally in the delights of the occasion. If there were any-and there must have been a few -who would have preferred another and more poetical Rector, their partiality was for the moment forgotten. Every face appeared clad with the same smiles, and the same expression of expectation. At three, strangers were admitted. The rush was tremendous, and in a minute the hall and galleries were crowded to excess. Repeated attempts to force themselves in, by individuals at the outer-doors, occasionally, according to the impetus, gave the dense mass the appearance of a single undulating wave. Shortly after three, Mr. Jeffrey appeared, escorting two ladies; he was received with considerable cheering. Sir James in a few minutes followed, accompanied by Lords Belhaven, Gillies and Alloway, Admiral Fleming, Mr. Finlay of Castle Toward, Mr. Campbell of Blythswood, Messrs. Cranstoun, Cockburn, Murray, Moncrieff, Sandford and Thomson; they were hailed with loud and long-continued plaudits. The oath was read over in Latin to the new Lord Rector, which he took,

sembly

commenced his speech by expressing SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH rose, and his sincere and hearty thanks for the high, unmerited and unexpected honour to which he had been raised by the suffrages of this University. So unexpected was the honour, that the election was completed before he knew he was a candidate. In addressing his hearers, he was placed in a situation of great difficulty and delicacy.

The tone of those calm and mild

studies to which this University was to intrude herself upon them, and his consecrated, would not permit politics voice had for a long time been raised in political contention. Universities. are of value only for the production of those purposes which all good men of all ages, and sects and parties, equally esteem and equally cherish. Nothing is to be studied and contemplated here, but that which is to render men good subjects of a just government. (Great applause.) He felt himself honoured by the consideration of the illustrious competitor to whom he was opposed (Sir Walter Scott). He would with great pleasure have. taken this opportunity of saying of him in public, what he had uniformly said of him in private, if so much praise and admiration had not already been paid him by his friend and predecessor, (Mr. Jeffrey,)-the effect of whose encomium he would not mar by attempting to repeat it in less skilful phrase. Speaking of his own feelings, he would have considered it no loss of honour to have been vanquished by such a competitor. The presence of his excellent friend the late Lord Rector restrained him from saying all he could wish to say respecting him, "but I am sure," said he, no man who knows me will think that I underrate my own feelings, in the general assertion, that he is a man at least as much beloved as he is admired by his readers and his hearers. He is as much the darling of those societies of which he is an individual member, as he is almost a solitary instance of a long and brilliant literary reputation,

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joined to a professional career of equal length and brilliancy." He would be careful that there should not escape him a single expression which might create the least irritation. He would do his utmost to preserve concord and good-will within the University. If his own character was not sufficient security, that he would not depart from these rules, he had then beside him two of the dearest friends of his youth, (Lords Gillies and Alloway,) who had raised themselves to the highest judicial situations in the country, and he was sure, that even their friendship for him would not sanction party politics.

In reverting to the honour done him, he remarked that this was one of the most flattering distinctions that could have been conferred upon him, for it is peculiarly gratifying to those immersed in political affairs, that any part of their conduct should receive the calm approbation of those devoted to study. He greatly prized any literary honour from a Scottish University, and more especially from so distinguished a seminary, where he had received his own education. It re minded him of that period of life, and of those scenes where he derived that tone of literature which has been the never failing, and steady enjoyment, and consolation of his life, and to which he could now add, the testimony of a great Latin orator, as proved from his own experience: "Hæc studia, adolescentiam alunt, senectutem oblectant, secundas res ornant, adversis perfugium ac solatium præbent." He was verging on those years in which he was almost entitled to confirm by experience that which he felt not to be a panegyric on letters, but a testimony by him who was most eminently qualified to estimate their value. He felt in a more sensible manner the honour done him in this that the youth of the University have been principally instrumental in the election. "I must confess there is something in this feeling of approbation of youth, (which must of necessity be pure,) which is extremely gratifying, especially to those who pass through a long and varied life. I recur to the early period of my existence; and I now feel a renovation of the pleasure I enjoyed when I was

one of a similar class. I feel a sort of renovation of the pursuits and friends of my youth-my sympathy rises with your expressions of approbation; and I cannot but acknowledge that I feel as if I were sensible that were I in your situation, I should long to have done just as you have acted. (Loud and continued applause.) It can be no great infatuation in me, therefore, to say that I warmly value the approbation and support of youth, like the poet who revisits the scenes of his early life:

"I feel the gales that from ye blow, A momentary bliss bestow; As waving fresh their gladsome wing, My weary soul they seem to sooth; And, redolent of joy and youth, To breathe a second spring.' But, Gentlemen, no delight or gratification could recommend to me an Institution in which such privileges were granted to youth, as you enjoy, unless my reason and experience were satisfied of their utility. I am satisfied that the privileges of the Academic youth of this University, which have been enjoyed for so many ages, are most beneficial to your academical institutions. They serve to promote industry-to lighten obedience-to enforce discipline-and to attach the students to the University. It seems to me that all great seminaries should serve but as means of preparation for the active duties of life. I am satisfied that the original institutions of this seminary, which conferred upon the youth the election of their first magistrate, have been wisely contrived, for they have never exercised that valuable privilege without doing ho nour to themselves and the University. In looking over the list of names of those who have been raised to that distinguished eminence by their suffrages, I observe no name that I would wish to be expunged. They have always used this privilege wisely and honourably. Their minds are not yet influenced by venal or interested motives, and their voices are more to be valued than if they had been moved by considerations which influence persons of riper years, but of less disinterested feelings. Besides, the calculations of probability are in this respect confirmed by experience; the holders

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