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from the newspaper accounts of it: "Mr. Buckingham addressed the audience in a strain of surpassing eloquence," etc.; "Mr. Buckingham, the celebrated lecturer, addressed the company," etc. "As a speaker, he possesses remarkable ease, fluency and readiness, combined with a graceful, unaffected manner," etc.; "Mr. Buckingham concluded his most eloquent, diversified, powerful and convincing address," etc., Now however quotations like these, made by a writer in his own praise, may accord with the taste of British readers, to us they are intolerable. The wisdom of Solomon has enjoined it as a duty, and all the principles of correct taste, as well as of Christian humility, confirm the requisition: "Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips.'

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There is another prominent characteristic of this work, which we feel constrained to name in terms of decided disapprobation and reproof. It is the inaccuracy of many of its statements, amounting in some instances, apparently, to an entire recklessness of the precise truth. And this is the more censurable, because the author claims to have enjoyed "special privileges" and advantages for acquiring "extensive and accurate information" on all the subjects of his work. He also boldly admits, that by thus commending his work to the confidence of his readers, in respect to the accuracy of its information, he has "increased the weight of" his "responsi bility to public opinion for its execution." And yet in the face of these claims which are urged upon our attention, the work contains so many statements, which are palpably wrong or incomplete, that they destroy our confidence in the veracity of the whole, and we cannot appeal to it as an undoubted authority on any of the numerous subjects of which it treats. We regret the necessity of making these remarks, and we assure our readers they are the result of no unkind feelings towards Mr. Buckingham. He has ever appeared to us to be an amiable man, and our impressions are confirmed by the perusal of the present work. He is on the right side in respect to most of the great questions of morals, and of religious and political liberty. He is the friend of temperance, of missions, and of the universal diffusion of knowledge and religion. He is also a friend and an admirer of our free institutions. writes concerning America without the appearance of any unfriendly feelings. He is as ready to praise as to censure; and we can attribute the inaccuracy of his accounts of men and things in this country to nothing worse than, perhaps, an excess of vanity, which leads him unduly to magnify every thing

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with which he can associate his own name, and the long indulgence of a habit of speaking and writing without reflection.

But our readers will require of us some further evidence that our censure is well deserved. Take, then, the author's account of "the scale of remuneration to all classes of the legal profession" in New-York, which he says "is liberal without being absurdly extravagant or profuse. The younger members who have any practice at all as attorneys, readily make an income of 3,000 dollars, or from £600 to £700 a year, rising from this minimum to as much as 10,000 dollars, or about £2,000 sterling, a year. The smallest fee of a barrister of any standing, and in almost any cause, is 100 dollars, or about £20. The greatest fee to the most distinguished barrister in any regular cause tried in the city courts is 5,000 dollars, or about £1,000. But when a special cause of importance arises, requiring great skill and considerable application, especially if such cause has to be tried at a distance from the residence of the barrister, and he be a person of the first eminence, it is said, (and one of the profession was my informant,) that as large a sum as 25,000 dollars, or £5,000 have been paid; but this was admitted to be a very rare and unusual occurrence. The judges have fixed salaries, varying from 1,600 dollars for the youngest to 3,000 dollars to the oldest, including the Chancellor and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court respectively." Who, before this, ever heard that the salaries of our judges were fixed on a scale varying with their respective ages? And who, that knows any thing of the pleasure with which our lawyers receive half the amounts above stated for their services, does not perceive that our author has given them at least two for one? And yet his statement is made in figures, with all the parade of accuracy, reducing dollars to pounds, as if it were a veritable account of the matter.

Again (Vol. I. page 139), in his account of the great effort lately made to increase and improve the Common Schools of New York, he names Mr. John Orville Taylor as having "taken the most active and practical part in this valuable labor," and, as an evidence of his qualifications for the task, he states that Mr. Taylor fills "a Professorship of the Science of Education in the New York University." But the name of that gentleman has never appeared on the catalogues of the University, and the public possess none of the ordinary evidences of his connection with it. Our author also tells us of "a monthly periodical" commenced by Mr. Taylor in 1836, "admirably conducted," etc., of which, he says "the circulation is immense, approaching to 50,000 monthly ;" and adds (p.

SECOND SERIES, VOL. VI. NO. II.

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142): "For myself, I think the cheap little paper of the Common School Union of far more value and importance to the formation of the public mind and public morals of the rising generation of the United States, than all the other newspapers, magazines and reviews put together." It is a remarkable fact that the publication of the monthly paper here referred to (immense as Mr. Buckingham describes its circulation) was closed some two years since, as we suppose, for the want of support!

We have only space to add, that New-York politicians will be amused to read our author's grave account of the governor, lieutenant-governor, the comptroller and his deputy, the treasurer and his deputy, the attorney general, surveyor general, the secretary of state and his deputy, four canal commissioners and three bank commissioners, as constituting "what is called The Regency,' or effective force of the executive."Vol. II. p. 20.

Such specimens of running and flying carelessness, of ludicrous misconception and reckless statements occur very frequently on the pages of this work, and render it almost worthless for the purposes of accurate information. It is, however, pleasantly written, and contains a vast variety of extempore remarks and discussions, and hastily formed conclusions, some of which are worthy of consideration. The author characterizes us as a newspaper-reading people, and he seems to have constructed his work to meet what he conceives to be the prevailing taste of the age both here and in England. But we apprehend he has even exceeded the demand in this respect, and given us a work so like what Carlyle calls the "strawthreshing" of the daily press, that, even by those who are contented with this kind of intellectual entertainment, it will scarcely be preferred; its chapters having as little connection with each other as the successive numbers of a newspaper, and its subjects being as multifarious and incongruous as the topics of those ephemeral sheets, which even critics do not criticise.

A beautiful engraved likeness of the author appears as a frontispiece of the first volume, and the work contains numerous wood-cuts, illustrating American scenery, institutions, structures, etc. It is well "got up" by the publishers. It is dedicated by the author, in due form, to His Royal Highness, Prince Albert, who, it appears, approving of "the feelings of good will towards the American people, under which this work was undertaken," has promised it his "full sanction and patronage."

9.-The Life and Times of Red-Jacket, or Sa-go-ye-wat-ha; being the Sequel to the History of the Six Nations. By William L. Stone. New-York and London: Wiley & Putnam. 1841. pp. 484.

Much praise is due to Col. Stone for his valuable contributions to the history of the aborigines of our country. Our own nation has no fabulous age to which it can trace the history of its origin. The beginning of our existence as a people was in the possession of a degree of light and knowledge, which the nations of the old world have attained only after the lapse of ages. But, to make room for the millions to which we, in the good providence of God, have been multiplied, we have displaced a people whose origin, to use the language of our author, "is lost in the shadowy obscurity of tradition for ages before the sound of the white woodman's axe rang upon the solemn stillness of the forest-continent," and who perhaps, by a different course of treatment by us, might have been raised to the civilization, the liberty, the law, and the religious consolations which we possess. From us, indeed, these blessings demand the highest expressions of gratitude and praise to the Giver of all good. With the enjoyment of these favors, however, we have the lingering consciousness of guilt; "the voice of" our "brother's blood crieth from the ground,"-from the beautiful fields which we cultivate; and if the judgments which it demands are delayed, it should at least remind us of the duty we owe to the remnant of that devoted race which still survives among us, or trembles along the borders of our advancing possessions. We should, therefore, be deeply concerned to know their history, especially during the progress of that desolation to which our own arms have reduced them, that we may the better understand and feel our obligations.

Such are the considerations which should commend to the grateful regard of our countrymen the labors of Col. Stone in the present work, which is the execution in part of his design to compile a complete history of the great "Iroquois Confederacy," with the addition of the Tuscaroras, constituting what is usually called the "Six Nations." An exceedingly interesting and somewhat extended portion of this history was given to the public, some three years since, by the same author, in connection with his "Life of Brant." After the death of Brant, Red-Jacket became the most distinguished man of the Six Nations. Our author has accordingly chosen to weave into the "Life and Times of Red-Jacket," the subsequent por

tion of his proposed history, and promises, if life and health are spared, to take up the earlier periods of our Indian history in subsequent works. The present volume appears to have been compiled with great diligence, and contains a vast variety of interesting matter, and much that will be new to most readers. It is written in the lively and characteristic style of the author, and will be found no less entertaining than instructive. The title is preceded with an exquisitely beautiful engraved likeness of Red-Jacket, and the volume is executed in superior style by the publishers.

10.-Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation. A Book for the Times. By an American Citizen. New York: W. M. Dodd. 1841. pp. 240.

In some respects this is an extraordinary production. It is by "an American Citizen," and "published for the author." The edition is very small, and pecuniary profit does not enter into his plan. We are told in the Preface, moreover, that "with the exception of a few gentlemen, who kindly assisted in revising the sheets and reviewing the authorities and notes, it is not probable that any individual out of the writer's family will be able to conjecture, with the least degree of probability, who is the author."

We give the "occasion of the work" in his own language. "During some of the first years of the writer's active life he was a skeptic; he had a friend, who has since been well known as a lawyer and a legislator, who was also skeptical in his opinions. We were both conversant with the common evidences of Christianity; none of them convinced our minds of the divine origin of the Christian religion, although we both thought ourselves willing to be convinced by sufficient evidence. Circumstances, which need not be named, led the writer to examine the Bible. The result of the examination was a thorough conviction, in the author's mind, of the truth and divine authority of Christianity. He supposed at that time that in his inquiries he had adopted the only true method to settle the question in the minds of intelligent inquirers; subsequent reflection has confirmed this opinion." "The author commenced a series of letters to convey to his friend the evidence which satisfied his own mind beyond the possibility of doubt. The correspondence was, by the pressure of business engagements, interrupted. The investigation was continued, however, when leisure would permit, for a number of years.

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