the time, and has ever been esteemed unanswerable; and in a point of constitutional law, it would be cited as readily, and be entitled to nearly as much weight, as any of his constitutional opinions.

Had he remained all his life at the bar, he could hardly have occupied the imposing station before his country that he now does. Eminent as he must have been in the very highest ranks of the profession, he would have had comparatively few opportunities of displaying that kind of intellectual power in which he was so richly gifted. He was most remarkable for calm, penetrating, profound wisdom, which is not the quality most important to an advocate; indeed, it would sometimes stand very much in his way. It is hardly consistent with the fervid eloquence which addresses the minds of men through their passions and feelings; for this seldom exists without a taint of exaggeration, and a certain facility of understanding, which makes it the slave of the impulses and affections. That pure reason,that mens sine affectu, which is so essential to a great judge, is not, and cannot be combined with that vividness of feeling and susceptibility of organization, which are ingredients so necessary in the composition of an orator or a poet. We cannot have at once the strength of the oak and the flexibility of the willow. The splendid forensic eloquence of Lord Erskine did not prevent his being an indifferent Chancellor. Chief Justice Marshall could no more have spoken Mr. Ames's speech on the British treaty, than Mr. Ames could have pronounced his opinion on the constitutionality of the United States Bank. The bold and commanding features of his mind were inconsistent with that intellectual dexterity, versatility, and power of doing one thing about as well as another, which our English brethren call cleverness. He would have argued a great legal question with irresistible power, and his exalted character would have given to his simplest statement, a force unknown to the passionate exuberance of rhetoric. But in many points of an advocate's duty, he must have been surpassed by men, who, in intellectual stature, were pigmies to him, and his love of truth, no less than his strong moral sense, must have prevented him from manifesting much ardor, where he felt himself to be clearly in the wrong.

Nor could he have reached his present eminence, if he had

devoted himself to the graver departments of literature, in which he would undoubtedly have been eminent. His Life of Washington is remarkable rather for its judicial than its literary merit. It wants the vividness, the eloquence, the glowing narrative, the picturesque sketches, and the lively details, which make a biography attractive and popular; but it has, to a high degree, those qualities of accuracy, fidelity and truth, which give permanent value to a work. It is not an easy book to read; nor will it be read by those who read merely for the sake of reading; but it will be always consulted as the highest authority in the subjects of which it treats, equally correct in details, and just in its general views. It is almost unexampled for its candor and firmness, when we bear in mind that the author is narrating events in which he himself took an important share, and has occasion to make frequent mention both of political friends and foes. Let any one compare it with Clarendon's History of the Rebellion, for instance, and he will be prepared to perceive its superiority in these respects, and to understand how important it is that a historian should be a man of stern moral sense.

It is as a judge and a magistrate, that his claim upon the remembrance of posterity and the gratitude of his country, chiefly rests, and in this capacity he is entitled to rank side by side with the most exalted models of judicial excellence that the world has ever seen; with Sir Matthew Hale, Lord Mansfield, and Chancellor D'Aguesseau. In looking back upon his long life, so crowded with the efforts and sacrifices of duty, so spotless, so perfect, beaming with so serene a lustre from every point and period, we cannot but think it a cause of national gratitude, that Providence has given us such a man, and crowned him with such store of useful years. That he was one of our fellow-citizens, is a reason for feeling more proud of our country. A nation is twice blessed in such a being. He exerts a great indirect as well as direct influence upon the community. We are accustomed to speak of the inestimable services which Chief Justice Marshall has conferred upon his country, by drawing more closely the bonds of our Union, and by exercising over the various departments of the government that conservative and directing power, which is so essential to the good order and harmony of so complicated a system as ours. And this is just and proper.

But we must not overlook the debt of gratitude, which we owe him for his example, and the effect produced by the daily beauty of his life upon all who approached him. He was a man,

"Whose powers shed round him in the common strife, Or mild concerns of ordinary life,

A constant influence, a peculiar grace.

To converse with him was like beholding virtue in a visible shape; and no susceptible person could leave his presence without feeling every good resolve strengthened, and every weakness rebuked. He was a memorable instance of a man, who, having been always in public life, contracted no stain upon the whiteness of his soul, and never parted with one jot of his own stern self-respect. Did any one wish to cite an example of one, in whom intellectual greatness was combined with unslumbering devotion to duty, and the healthiest moral sense; did any father seek to point out to his son, a faultless model to be studied and imitated, and to make him love that light from Heaven, which shines round the good man's path, the name of Marshall came spontaneously to the mind and the lips. Other conspicuous men had obvious flaws; their public virtue was easily entreated; they acted under the influence of the selfish, animal appetites; they hungered after the loaves and fishes of office, or their private characters were stained with debasing vices, or they neglected the lesser moralities of social life. But here was one, in whose whole nature there was nothing upon which detraction could feed, or over which friendship could seek to cast a mantle of oblivion.

How beautiful is the contemplation of such a life, while passing before our eyes; how beautiful its recollection, when no longer seen. The memory of such men constitutes neither the smallest nor the least valuable portion of a nation's wealth. How superior is it to the trophies and banners of a thousand battle fields, and the laurels and cenotaphs of a thousand mere warriors. Through the night of ages, it beams and sheds sweet influences. No generous-hearted Englishman can, at this day, pronounce the name of Alfred, without a throb of mingled gratitude and admiration. The lapse of time but deepens and hallows the feelings, with which the truesouled patriot contemplates such men as these. Short as has

been our own national existence, the page of our history is thickly studded with bright names.

"Great men have been among us; hands that penned,

And tongues that uttered wisdom; better, none."

The wise, the good, the faithful have toiled and watched and died for us. There is no dreary dearth of men to chill the patriot as he looks back upon the past. If we are insensible, it is not because there are no objects to awaken sensibility. The fault is in our own indifference. It is an ominous sign, when a nation no longer cherishes, with the liveliest fondness, the memory of its great men. When the languid pulse of patriotism shall cease to be animated and quickened by the recollection of such names as Washington, Jay and Marshall, the grave of our prosperity will have been already dug.

ART. X.-The Anthracite Coal Trade of Pennsylvania. 1. Report of the Committee of the Senate of Pennsylvania, upon the Subject of the Coal Trade. S. J. PARKER, Chairman. And Appendix of Documents. Harrisburg. 1834.

2. Comparative Views of the most important Anthracite Collieries in Pennsylvania; exhibiting their Avenues to Tide Water; with an Appendix, Map, and Draught of Comparative Heights and Distances.

Pottsville. 1835.

3. Report of the President and Managers of the Schuylkill Navigation Company to the Stockholders. (In Annual Numbers.) Philadelphia.

4. Report of the Board of Managers of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. (In annual numbers.) Philadelphia.

5. Annual Report made by the Board of Trade to the Coal Mining Association of Schuylkill County. (In annual numbers.) Pottsville.

WE visited, recently, the anthracite coal-mines in the interior of the State of Pennsylvania. The spectacle of enterprise, industry, and prosperity, which we there beheld, was most impo

sing to the eye, and most instructive to the mind. In the heart of a wild broken territory, amid the sharp ridges of the Alleghanies, intersected by the hundred rivers and streamlets which swell the tides of the Delaware and Susquehanna, in what was but a few years ago one of the most desert regions of the United States, we found a numerous and fixed population, with all the appliances of refined life, and a multitude of improvements, in railroads, canals, and other public works, of which the most advanced people in America, or even in Europe, might justly be proud. A new world seemed to have sprung up in the wilderness, as if by enchantment. Smiling villages were spread out in peace and abundance beneath overshadowing peaks, and beside mountain-tops reaching up their bleak summits to the sky. The dwellings of cultivated competency, and warehouses stored with merchandize, stood on the very edge of the old primeval forests of the Continent. Here was the centre of a vast business, which had all at once vivified the surrounding country, converted the wildest waste into the theatre of active life, given a fresh stimulus to individual enterprise, created an inexhaustible source of wealth to the State in which it lay, and opened a new commerce and a new bond of fraternity to the whole Union. We left the scene, with a strong and abiding sense of the energy and spirit of our people, with renewed admiration of the resources and destinies of our country, and with deep-felt gratitude to that bountiful Providence which bestowed upon us this our happy land. We cannot hope to communicate our feelings and impressions by words; the scene should be seen to be appreciated. Nor shall we attempt to do so. Neither shall we enter into any speculations or inquiries concerning the geological history, formation, or natural character, of anthracite coal. The objects we have in view are more plain and practical. We have collected, from personal observation, from correspondence, and from a large mass of printed matter, part of which is described at the head of this article, a variety of facts respecting the production and commerce of anthracite coal, a summary statement of which we propose to lay before the readers of the Review.

Pennsylvania abounds in mineral treasures of the most useful kinds, that is, iron, and coal; these being the precise means, out of which the actual grandeur and opulence of Great Britain have in great part sprung. On a future occasion we may recur to its deposits of iron ore, and of bituminous coal; our