which he has recently proceeded as its head, and procured him access to the public archives from which he drew in part the materials for his beautiful and valuable works on Spanish subjects. He attached to the Legation, as interpreter, the late lamented George Washington Montgomery, one of the most accomplished scholars and elegant writers, both in Spanish and English, of the day. He also transmitted to Mr. Prescott a large portion of the materials for his work on Ferdinand and Isabella; and gave to Professor Longfellow and Mr. Slidell, now Capt. Mackenzie, who visited Madrid during his time, all the encouragement and aid in their literary pursuits which lay within his power.

In the management of the public affairs, he placed in the hands of the Spanish government projects of conventions on the subject of indemnities and of reciprocity in tonnage duties; and pressed forward the negotiations on both these subjects with all the urgency that propriety would admit, as long as he remained at Madrid. At the time of his departure there was a good prospect of success, which has since been confirmed by the conclusion of arrangements in regard to both, substantially on the basis of his proposals. In the autumn of the year 1829, he returned to the United States-desirous and determined to devote himself permanently and more fully than heretofore to literary pursuits.

From his long connexion with the North American Review as a contributor, he had become strongly interested in that journal, and soon after his return from Spain, by an arrangement with Mr. Sparks, who was desirous of devoting his time to the publication of the works of Washington, he became its proprietor and editor. He conducted the work with a tone of ability which needs no eulogy at our hands, for about five years, and made it during that time the principal object of his attention. Besides a large number of editorial notices with extracts, and other articles of less consequence, he prepared during this time elaborate papers on the following subjects: British Opinions on the Protecting System; Politics of Europe; Tone of British Criticism; Stewart's Moral Philosophy; The American System; Life of Henry Clay; Life and Writings of Sir James Mackintosh; Irving's Alhambra ; Nullification; The Union and the States; Hamilton's Men and Manners in America; Early Literature of Modern Europe; Early Literature of France; Progress and Limits of Social Improvement; Origin and Character of the Old Parties; Character of Jefferson; Dr. Channing; Thomas Carlyle.

In the last of these articles, which terminated his long connexion with the Review, he introduced to the American public a writer then almost unknown even in England, but who, in the short

period of four or five years which have since elapsed, has risen so rapidly in reputation, as to have not only completely justified the high commendation which he bestowed upon him, but to have become, notwithstanding some eccentricities, perhaps the most conspicuous person in the whole compass of contemporary English literature.

Although he had determined on his return from Spain to devote himself chiefly to literature, he yet felt no repugnance to taking a part in political affairs, so far as his friends might desire his aid, and as he could give it consistently with the necessary attention to his principal object. He accordingly assented to the proposal, which was made to him soon after his return, to become a candidate for the State Senate. There was, at that time, an era of good feelings" in Massachusetts, and the six Senators representing the county of Suffolk, in which he resided, were taken in equal number from the two old parties. He was elected in 1830 as one of the three Democratic candidates, and was annually re-chosen to that or the other branch of the Legislature for the next five years.

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As a member of the Legislature, he took an active and prominent part in the current business. He was the author of numerous able reports and valuable projects of law, upon which we cannot afford to dwell in detail. He attended the Tariff convention held at New York in the year 1833, and, as chairman of a committee of that body, prepared the memorial which was presented in their name to Congress at the next session, as a reply to the memorial prepared by Mr. Gallatin for the Free Trade convention previously held at Philadelphia. Mr. Everett was at this time a firm believer in the policy of encouraging domestic manufactures by protecting duties. Though not insensible to the truth and importance of the great principle of the Liberty of Trade, he considered it as a not less certain and important principle, that a country derives an immense advantage from possessing within itself manufactures of the most necessary articles, and indeed of all articles which it is fitted by situation, soil, and climate, to produce. Believing also that manufactures on their first establishment may require some positive encouragement to enable them to struggle with foreign competition, and that in this country a duty on the similar foreign article was the best mode of giving this encouragement, he considered the case as one of the few exceptions to the general doctrine of the perfect freedom of trade. These views were developed at considerable length in the memorial just mentioned, and in several articles in the North American Review, particularly those entitled "British Opinions on VOL. X., No. XLVII.-60

the Protecting System," and "The American System." Our own views on this subject are known to our readers. We are not aware that Mr. Everett has changed the views which he then entertained, excepting, perhaps, in regard to the last of the above stated principles, viz., that in this country a duty on the foreign article is the best mode of encouraging the manufacture of the domestic one. The full discussion of the Currency question, which has taken place within the last five years, has thrown a new light upon many points connected with that subject, and particularly upon the influence of the state of the currency on domestic industry, to which Mr. Everett's clear and discriminating intelligence has not been blind. A fluctuating currency holds out, in its periods of expansion, a bounty on the foreign article far more than equivalent to the encouragement given by protecting duties to the domestic one. In the great expansion of 1836, for example, our imports rose to nearly $200,000,000, against about $120,000,000 of exports. The specie all went to Europe to pay the balance; the banks exploded; and the industry of the country suffered a shock from which it has not yet recovered. The present tariff party are insisting, as a remedy for the evils occasioned by these fluctuations, the imposition of protecting duties; regarding these as tending to produce a sound state of the currency, by preventing specie from being carried out of the country. It is clear, however, to common sense, that the protecting duty, which is added to the price, and paid by the consumer, in no way diminishes the advantage drawn by the foreigner from the unnatural prices occasioned by an expanded currency, and has little or no tendency to prevent him from taking out specie. The true and only remedy for the evils occasioned by these fluctuations, and the best protection which the domestic manufacturer can possibly have against foreign competition, is a steady and natural state of the currency, which can only be brought about by a reform of the abuses of the present banking system. The New England manufacturers, who, from some inconceivable blindness, are among the strongest opponents of this reform, have a deeper interest than any other class of persons in the community in seeing it realized. This view has, within two or three years, begun to attract a good deal of attention. It is developed at some length in two articles on the Currency, which he contributed to the Boston Quarterly Review for July, 1839, and January, 1840. The whig leaders, and particularly Governor Davis of Massachusetts, perceiving the effect which the argument, if well understood, must inevitably produce, attempted to evade it by sophistically describing the proposed reform as intended to reduce wages, and thus diminish the

reward of labor. It is hardly necessary to say that this mode of representing the subject was adopted ad captandum vulgus, and did no credit to the honesty of the persons who pretended to' regard it as a just and correct one.

During General Jackson's first term, Mr. Everett stood ranged -naturally enough under the circumstances-in the party of oppositions. Mr. Adams's accession, after the close of Monroe's noparty Presidency, had considerably divided the old parties. Having been himself one of the old war Republicans, he carried many of them with him at this period. It is not surprising that Mr. Everett's sectional position and personal relations with Mr. Adams made him one of these. He had been abroad nearly the whole of the time. On his return, he was not ungrateful or false to his friends. In the convention held at Baltimore at the close of the year 1831, for the purpose of nominating a candidate for the Presidency, he attended as one of the delegates from Massachusetts; and in that body, as chairman of a committee, wrote the address which was issued in their name, recommending Mr. Clay. The election which took place in the autumn of the following year, decided the question in favor of General Jackson. Immediately after, the Nullification troubles came to a crisis, and the famous proclamation was issued. The stand taken by the President on that occasion was much approved by all parties in Massachusetts, and there was a general disposition to terminate opposition, and support the administration. A public meeting was held at Faneuil Hall, at which Mr. Webster moved resolutions highly favorable to the policy of the general government. His friends in the Legislature introduced resolutions inviting the President to visit the State the following summer. This he accordingly did, and was received with an enthusiasm not inferior to that which attended the presence of Washington. The whole proceedings amounted to an adhesion on the part of Massachusetts to the administration. Mr. Everett had not taken a leading or active part in these proceedings, but cheerfully concurred in them, and thought them in part dictated by the true policy of the State. The original differences between Mr. Adams and General Jackson had been rather personal than political; and as neither of them would ever be again a candidate for the Presidency, there was no reason why their competition, which had now become a matter of history, should be permitted to disturb our present or future politics. The questions which had agitated the country during General Jackson's first term, were, in one way or another, disposed of. The removals, right or wrong, were made, and could not be unmade;-the friends of the Indians had acquiesced in

the action of the government ;-the Tariff question was settled by compromise, and all minor matters being absorbed in the immense question of the Union, on which the course of the administration gave universal satisfaction, there was nothing to prevent the existing opposition from rallying to the standard of the country, supporting the administration, and joining with its friends in electing Mr. Van Buren, who possessed qualifications equal to those of any candidate before the public, and was certainly the only person having the least chance of being elected by the people.

This was the view which Mr. Everett took of the subject, and upon which he acted. It would probably have been taken universally in Massachusetts, and indeed throughout the country, had it not been for the Bank question, which became at that time and has been ever since the main point of controversy between the parties. As General Jackson, on entering upon his second term, manifested the determination to adhere to his policy of not assisting in the recharter of a National Bank, the portion of the then existing opposition party, who considered this question as paramount to all other considerations, persisted in opposing his administration, and reorganized the party under the new name of Whigs. Another portion, with which Mr. Everett acted, and which consisted chiefly of the democratic members of the party, who naturally took the old democratic view of the bank question, concurred with the administration on this subject, and having no motive to oppose it on any other, fell at once into the ranks of its supporters. As respects the subject of this memoir, he had, before his return from Europe, paid less attention to the bank question than to some others in political economy, considering it as settled by the practice of the country; and, though fully aware of the danger of abuse, had been rather disposed to take a favorable view of the existing system. But the conduct of the United States Bank toward the close of its charter, and under its new name, with the disastrous events of the year 1837, completely satisfied him of the demoralizing character of this system, and its utter inconsistency with the principles of a republican government. Indeed, the full discussion of the currency question, which has taken place within the last five years, and the practical illustration which it has received from the events of that period, have brought it, for the first time, distinctly before the public mind in its true character. In the midst of the full flood of light which has thus been thrown upon the subject, it has always, we know, been to Mr. Everett a matter of unmingled astonishment, that so many men of superior talents, and, it must be presumed, good