and baleful fruits of spiritual decline and coldness. When the fire of God descends upon the Church, it dissipates this bad thing as rapidly and as surely, as when Jesus whipped the thieves out from the temple of the Lord. Just as certain as Christ comes in, this goes out. Nor will it bear His glorious presence, more than the cold iceblock will retain its form and existence under the vertical and burning sun.

O! is it not this heavenly baptism that is needed this moment upon the Methodist Episcopal Church? Needs there not the mighty shower to gladden and refresh the multitudes-urging us, if we have wandered, back to the original-the true position and action—and calling us again to the childlike simplicity-the undying zeal-the allabounding love of Wesley the Catholic!

ART. II.-JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

Life and Public Services of John Quincy Adams, Sixth President of the United States; with the Eulogy delivered before the Legislature of New-York, by WILLIAM H. SEWARD. Auburn: 1849.

THE above-transcribed title-page seems to imply that this volume is from the pen of Senator Seward. It was evidently intended to make that impression. The same trick of the trade is embossed in gilt letters on the back of the book. There we have the naked falsehood: "LIFE OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. W. H. SEWARD." The publishers, however, in an advertisement not intended to be read. until the purchaser has paid for the volume, gravely tell him that he has been humbugged; that the name of the Ex-Governor of the State of New-York has only been used to serve a purpose; and that, in fact, the book is the work of "an able writer," completed "under his," the ex-governor's, " auspices." What is the precise idea intended by the word "auspices," we cannot tell. It may mean that Mr. Seward revised the proof-sheets; or that he exercised an editorial supervision; or, which is perhaps most likely, that he merely gave the publishers permission to append his eulogy to their volume, and to use his name.

In this matter Mr. Seward acted unwisely; as all do, who even seem to connive at imposition in any shape. The subject of the memoir would have been flayed alive before consenting to such a prostitution of his name. Nor is this the worst. The avowed object of this publication is to forestall an extended history of the life and services

of the lamented Adams, well known to be in preparation by members of his family. The "able writer," under " the auspices" aforesaid, concocts this volume, because that work, he tells us, "when published, would (will) undoubtedly be placed, by its size and cost, beyond the reach of the great mass of readers." Of course, his motives, and those of the publisher, are purely philanthropic. It was not to be supposed that the authorized biographers of Mr. Adams could prepare an abridgment that "would find its way into the midst of those moving in the humbler walks of life;" and we are assured that," to supply this want, the present work has been prepared." Prepared then, as it has been, for our special benefit, it becomes us to be grateful for the favour; and, without confining ourselves to the volume before us,-the sources from which it has been compiled being perfectly accessible,-let us trace, briefly, the more important events in the life of the great statesman of Massachusetts.

He was born at Quincy, formerly called Braintree, on the 11th of July, 1767. He was baptized in the church the day after his birth. In reference to that event, he thus speaks in a letter to a friend :

"The house at Mount Wollaston has a peculiar interest to me, as the dwelling of my great-grandfather, whose name I bear. The incident which gave rise to this circumstance is not without its moral to my heart. He was dying, when I was baptized; and his daughter, my grandmother, present at my birth, requested that I might receive his name. The fact, recorded by my father at the time, has connected with that portion of my name a charm of mingled sensibility and devotion. It was filial tenderness that gave the name. It was the name of one passing from earth to immortality. These have been among the strongest links of my attachment to the name of Quincy, and have been to me, through life, a perpetual admonition to do nothing unworthy of it.”

Before reaching his eleventh year, he went to France with his father, who had been sent as commissioner for the purpose of effecting a treaty with that government. He attended a public school for a year and a half at Paris, where his improvement in French, and in general knowledge, was rapid-for his age, says his father, uncommon. Then, successively, he pursued his studies, under the eye of his father, at a Parisian academy, at a school in Amsterdam, and in the University of Leyden. On his return to his native country, he entered the University at Cambridge; and two years afterwards graduated with honour, at the age of twenty

one.

Choosing the law for his profession, he entered upon its practice, in the city of Boston, after the usual term of study. At the bar he appears not to have been remarkably successful. He was "nearly

briefless;" and in letters written at the time, he expresses gloomy apprehensions of the future, and doubts of being able to acquire a comfortable subsistence. It is just this part of his life, the four years of his early struggles, that, when written, will be the most interesting and instructive; and on this period the book before us is, as might be expected, exceedingly meagre. We trust that in the forthcoming volumes, preparing by his family, this hiatus will be supplied. A few paragraphs from his Diary, which, it is understood, he kept with great minuteness and accuracy, in all his varying fortunes, to the end of his life, will show his own feelings at this time, and afford a specimen of its character and style:

"Wednesday, May 16, 1792. I am not satisfied with the manner in which I employ my time. It is calculated to keep me forever fixed in that state of useless and disgraceful insignificancy, which has been my lot for some years past. At an age bearing close upon twenty-five, when many of the characters who were born for the benefit of their fellow-creatures have rendered themselves conspicuous among their contemporaries, and founded a reputation upon which their memory remains, and will continue to the latest posterityat that period I still find myself as obscure, as unknown to the world, as the most indolent or the most stupid of human beings. In the walks of active life I have done nothing. Fortune, indeed, who claims to herself a large proportion of the merit which exhibits to public view the talents of professional men, at an early period of their lives, has not hitherto been peculiarly indulgent to me. But if to my own mind I inquire whether I should, at this time, be qualified to receive and derive any benefit from an opportunity which it may be in her power to procure for me, my own mind would shrink from the investigation. My heart is not conscious of an unworthy ambition; nor of a desire to establish either fame, honour, or fortune, upon any other foundation than that of desert. But it is conscious, and the consideration is equally painful and humiliating-it is conscious that the ambition is constant and unceasing, while the exertions to acquire the talents which ought alone to secure the reward of ambition, are feeble, indolent, frequently interrupted, and never pursued with an ardour equivalent to its purposes. My own situation, and that of my country, equally prohibit me from secking to derive any present expectations from a public career."

The young lawyer was not destined to remain long in obscurity. Fortune, of which he complains in the preceding extract, soon became propitious; and in a lucky hour-to continue the figure-he wrote and published several political papers in the Boston Centinel, under the signature of "Publicola;" and others, two years afterwards, signed "Marcellus." This was in 1793, when the country was agitated by factions; and Federalist, or Democrat, was everywhere the rallying cry. Both parties were equally anxious that the United States should take some part in the great European conflict, then at its height. The Democrats' sympathized with France; and saw, in her revolutionary struggles, the germinating of those principles which had triumphed so gloriously on this Continent. The Federal

ists rather favoured England; and dreaded the anarchy and bloodshed which foreboded the utter demolition of law, and order, and society itself. The one party insisted that gratitude demanded from the United States assistance to the French in their struggle for liberty; the other, that duty and self-interest alike urged our young republic to throw its influence on the side of the allied sovereigns. The articles written by Mr. Adams struck out a neutral course. He was neither Democrat nor Federalist: not a Frenchman, nor an Englishman, but an American. With great power of argument, and felicity of diction, he contended that the true policy of the United States was to take part with neither. His papers, which for awhile were attributed to the pen of his father, then Vice-President of the United States, were republished in England; where, according to the testimony of Viscount Noailles, they made a great impression. "He heard Mr. Windham and Mr. Fox speak of them as the best thing that had been written, and as one of the best pieces of reasoning and style they had ever read."*

The sentiments put forth in these papers being in exact accordance with those of Washington, that sagacious statesman selected the young lawyer for the important post of minister of the United States at the Hague. Mr. Adams was then only twenty-seven. The father's letter communicating the information to his wife is so characteristic, that we cannot deny ourselves the pleasure of transcribing it :-"It is proper," he says, "that I should apprize you, that the President has it in contemplation to send your son to Holland. I make this communication to you in confidence, at the desire of the President, communicated to me yesterday by the Secretary of State. You must keep it an entire secret until it shall be announced to the public in the journal of the Senate. But our son must hold himself in readiness to come to Philadelphia, to converse with the President, Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, &c., and receive his commissions and instructions without loss of time. He will go to Providence in the stage, and thence to NewYork by water, and thence to Philadelphia in the stage. He will not set out, however, until he is informed of his appointment."

While minister to Holland, Mr. Adams had occasion to visit London, where he formed an acquaintance with the lady who afterwards became his wife. She was the daughter of Joshua Johnson, then consular agent of the United States at London. They were married on the 26th of July, 1797. From Holland our young diplomatist was transferred to Berlin, where he conducted the affairs committed to him with great skill, and succeeded in forming a treaty *Letter of the elder Adams to his wife, December 5, 1793.

of amity and commerce with the Prussian government. On his return to the United States, being recalled by his father, then President, he was elected to the Senate of the United States by the legislature of Massachusetts. Jefferson was then chief magistrate of the republic, and party politics ran high. Mr. Adams, although sent to the Senate by the Federalists, supported the administration. He received from his friends a tirade of abuse; and although those who own no allegiance paramount to that of party attributed his acts to the basest motives, he held on his way; calmly, resolutely, obeying the dictates of his conscience, and fearlessly doing what he believed to be his duty.

The earliest indication of what afterward appeared one of the strongest feelings of his nature-his hatred of slavery-is found in his efforts, made at this time, for the enactment of a law levying a duty on the importation of slaves. "It was a premonition," says the volume before us, "of the bold, unflinching, noble warfare against that institution, and of the advocacy of human freedom and human rights in the widest sense, which characterized the closing scenes of his remarkable career, and which will perpetuate his fame when other acts of his life shall have passed from the remembrance of men. Although at that early day but little was said in regard to slavery, yet the young senator saw it was fraught with danger to the Union -conferring political power and influence on slaveholders on principles false and pernicious, and calculated ultimately to distract the harmony of the country, and endanger the permanency of our free institutions. He laboured, therefore, to check the increase of slave power, by the only means which, probably, appeared feasible at that time."

His career in the Senate was cut short by the virulence of party. The Federalists being in the majority, the legislature of his native State passed resolutions censuring his course, and directing him to oppose the measures of Mr. Jefferson and his cabinet. He preferred to resign his seat; which he did in March, 1808.

· Previous to his resignation as senator, he had accepted the professorship of rhetoric and belles-lettres in the University of Cambridge. His lectures were exceedingly popular, and were afterwards published in two octavo volumes. Their popularity was owing more to the style of his delivery, and to the reputation of the senator, than to any intrinsic merits on the score of novelty or beauty of illustration. They were written in haste, published without revision, and have added little to his fame. They are, indeed, already almost forgotten.

In March, 1809, Mr. Adams was appointed minister to Russia