hall, and hear the author's description of the reception of the gallant youth.

"James the First, at the time we speak of, had become corpulent, and his ever ungainly figure made more so by the quilted doublet and vest which he wore, from a timidity of the assassin's dagger, of which, from youth upward, he had ever entertained a strange apprehension. He had also become feeble on his limbs, from his mortal enemy, the gout, which showed victorious in every encounter with his shattered frame; add to which, the anxiety of a father, and a king, from the repented promise which he had reluctantly yielded to the entreaties of Prince Charles and the favourite, towards the wild Spanish journey, which had cast an additional load of care over his heavy and unintellectual countenance. When Albert Barnadiston with his esquire, the pallid-featured Wilfred Conyers, joined Sir Philip Maulerever, the old warrior was tricked out in the costume of an Elizabethan gallant, and complimenting the young lord upon his comely appearance and dress, he mounted his horse, and carocolled with his juvenile companions to Whitehall, the beautifying and ornamenting of which, the king was busily hurrying forward in fond anticipation of bequeathing a splendid abode for the darling son of his old age. The ante-chamber at Whitehall, it was crowded with the young nobility arrayed in their richest garbs; and the picturesque dresses, costly jewels, and velvet cloaks, deeply trimmed with dark furs, with the flowing white plumes of the gay courtiers, threw a brilliancy around the courtly circle. There might be seen the magnificence of Buckingham, and the simplified garments, and calm bold bearing of the young puritanical leaders, Pym, Vane, and St. John, and the proud Algernon Percy, the Northumbrian heir, with Sidney of the house of courtly Leicester: there, too, was his young and talented brother, afterwards the Lord Lisle, and Lord Deputy of Ireland for the Parliament. When the presence-chamber was thrown open, and the high ministers of the crown had been admitted, Albert for the first time beheld the worn and shattered king, leaning against a high velvet stuffed chair, and supported by easy cushions he appeared feeble and care-stricken, and even the vein of pedantry in which he was used to indulge, to the utter confusion and vexation of many of the gailytrimmed courtiers, had lost its charm: no smile was seen to illuminate that sepulchral countenance, and the demon of death already sat in mockery upon the golden jewelled tiara which circled the temples of the king. On his right hand stood the Prince of Wales, in all the pride of youthful manhood, admirably set off by the dark vesture, black velvet cap and raven feather, which suited so well with his peculiar countenance, strongly expressive of melancholly, yet very indicative of resolution or obstinacy; which success might have pronounced to be heroism, but which the unfornate events of his life, his duplicity, and strange perverseness, stamped with the brand of folly. He possessed not any winning graces, and the unfortunate impediment in his speech threw an air of ill-favour over his discourse; yet to a spectator he bore himself princely, with a noble, kingly mein, and warrior carriage. The crowd of courtiers thronged through the presence, and the names which afterwards figured in the revolutionary war-the warm supporters of prerogative and tyranny, or the champions of equal rights and equal laws-were heard in the courtly circle of England's king."

Barnadiston, appointed by royal authority to accompany Prince Charles, proceeds with the rest of the suite to Paris. Here they were received with the highest consideration, and at a court mask, which the English party were invited to attend, Charles caught the first glimpse of Henrietta, the ill-fated daughter of Henry IV. Pursuing their journey to Spain, the royal party left Paris well pleased with the treatment they received, and having reached Madrid, were treated with still greater attention by that court.

The author puts forth all his power in depicting the spectacle of a bull-fight appointed for the amusement of the British Prince and his attendants. Barnadiston was one of the champions of the arena on that memorable day, and carried off the laurel which was placed on his head by the fair hand of the Duke of Lara's daughter. He now becomes an object of malignant jealousy to De Walden, one who filled a high office in Prince Charles's retinue, and as Barnadiston was returning from a court ball, where he was especially regarded by the beautiful lady already mentioned, De Walden, whose resentment had been raised to its utmost height by what he had witnessed, incited his page Paliker to way-lay and stab his rival. On his recovering from the consequences of the wound, Albert was despatched from Madrid to England on some private mission by the Prince. On his arrival in his native country, he finds his mother on the eve of terminating her existence, and promises to comply with her last injunction, that he should marry a young lady whom she had previously adopted, Miss Millbank.

In the meantime, the demise of James I. took place, and Charles ascended the throne. Barnadiston, who was in retirement at his castle, was summoned by the new monarch to proceed with Buckingham to the continent, for the purpose of escorting the young Queen, Henrietta, to England. A great portion of the work is occupied with an account of the court, various in its proceedings, and the conduct of the Queen; the latter being drawn strictly in obedience to the representations of history. Throughont the whole of the various adventures and employments in which Barnadiston was engaged, the malignity of De Walden was still operating actively against him. This individual at last joined the fanatic puritans, and from his subsequent acts, there is reason to believe that he did so merely to have a wider scope for the indulgence of his revengeful disposition.

The romance terminates by an attack on Barnadiston's castle, which was conducted by De Walden, and, as the former held out, the edifice was set fire to. The noble proprietor, in attempting to escape, was killed by the same Paliker who unsuccessfully attempted the same purpose before; the castle is reduced to a state of ruins by the conflagration, and the only inmate saved from the general devastation is the young lady to whom Barnadiston was betrothed. She was allowed to escape, and withdrew to such consolations as a convent afforded for her unparallelled misfortunes.

The above tale relates to a family of the name of Barnadiston which really existed, and resided in a castle that stood once on the banks of the little streamlet of the Stour, on the steep above the village of Kedington, in the county of Suffolk, on the Essex border. In the neighbourhood of that sequestered valley the author passed the happiest portion, he tells us, of his life.

ART. VI.-Forty Years Residence in America; or the Doctrine of a Particular Providence exemplified in the Life of Grant Thorburn, (the original Lawrie Todd) Seedsman, New York. Written by himself.-With an Introduction. By JOHN GALT, Esq. 1 vol. 12mo. London: Fraser, 1834.

MOST commonly it happens that those who undertake to write an account of their own lives, are actuated by the influence of certain qualifications which happen to be the best possible for fitting an individual for the task of biography. For example, it requires the greatest possible simplicity in any man to suppose, that he or his actions can form an adequate subject for the consideration of his fellow man, and who yet is induced from a contrary feeling to present a history of his career to the world. The very simplicity in which the work originates, is the guarantee of the fidelity of the author, and no man reciting the tale of his worldly fortunes, can ever be dull if he tells the truth. All the biographers, therefore, who have written amusing lines of themselves, have been remarkable for the quality to which we have alluded. The latest of these selfelevated heroes, the worthy author before us, Grant Thorburn, Seedsman, of New York, alias Lawrie Todd, will be found by no means deficient in the property of simplicity, and if any difference may be found to exist between him and his predrcessors, it will certainly be all on the side of the candid and careless Grant.

The subject of this autobiography, was born on the 18th of February, 1773, at a village called West Houses, near Dalkeith, about six miles from Edinburgh, in Scotland. He was bred to his father's mechanical trade, that of a nail-maker, in which he attained a dexterity that made him envied by his brother workmen.

Being of a temperament which made him easily susceptible of entering into warm sympathies with others, he joined one of the societies of the Friends of the People, which in 1792, were so numerous in these countries. In his capacity of member of the Dalkeith Corresponding Society, he was arrested in the winter of 1793, with seventeen of his colleagues, and marched to Edinburgh, where he was put into the same prison as Thomas Muir, the unfortunate Scotch Reformer. Mr. Thorburn gives the particulars of the life and trial of Muir, but the subject is already familiar to the public. Being released without much trouble from imprisonment in EdinVOL. I. (1834) NO L

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burgh, the autobiographer, accompanied by his brother, sailed for New York, in April, 1794. The party on board offered a singular combination as might have been expected at such a crisis. There were among the passengers, Presbyterians, Methodists, Universalists, Burghers, Cameronians, Deists, and an Anti-Burgher minister, and it was not uncommon to see the minister preaching on the quarter-deck, and singing the old version of the Psalms, whilst a Üniversalist was chanting Winchester's hymns on the forecastle.

Scarcely had the ship anchored opposite New York, when a party came on board looking for workmen that would respectively suit them. A call for nail-makers brought up Grant Thorburn on his legs, who being asked if he conld make nails, gave such a reply as astounded the inquirer. In fact, Grant, a few weeks before he quitted Scotland, executed between six A. M. and nine P. M., in one day, no less than 3320 nails, for a wager of sixpence. But as Grant and his brother were proceeding next morning on shore, they were accosted by another nail-maker at the head of the wharf at which they landed, and who being Scotch-folk and possessing other advantages, were naturally preferred as masters by the young nailers. Grant does not hesitate to say, that some of the most important advantages which he enjoyed during his life, resulted from this choice, for he took up his residence opposite to a schoolhouse, for the educaton of Quaker children, the boys were in the habit of frequenting his nail shop, either to warm themselves or feed a monkey, which he kept in the forge. Many of these boys in after-life, stood staunch friends to the nail-maker.

Being in the habit of rising early to go to his work, Thorburn used to observe every morning, regularly, a young woman who met him precisely on the same spot each successive day. There was nothing in her conduct inconsistent with the greatest propriety, and Thorburn concluded that she was a tailoress or seamstress, and that she went out at this early hour for the benefit of her health. After a little time we find Thorburn and his brother actually established as lodgers with the mother of this very girl. The lodgers and the landlady, with her daughter, became all excellent friends; they were fortunate enough to be all disposed to religion, and Thorburn, being himself of a different persuasion from the landlady's daughter, contrived to influence her by arguments to come over to his faith. He succeeded, and she was publicly received in the chapel which Thorburn frequented. It is needless to say that our autobiographer at the time was over head and ears in love with the mantua-maker, and on the day on which her religious initiation took place he told her so. She heard his avowal with a sigh, which, to Thorburn's consternation, she afterwards interpreted by telling him that she sighed because of the pain it must give him to hear that she had received the addresses of a young man for two years, and was all but engaged to him. As this suitor had property, Thorburn began to despair, and he asked the young woman why

she did not marry this person. She replied, "I can't tell-I can't make up my mind." "I had confidence," continues Thorburn, "from previous observation, in connexion with her present answer, 'I can't tell,' that our marriage was registered in heaven, and if so, that all the powers of earth, and all the devils in hell, could not prevent it." He was under the necessity, however, of taking time to accomplish his wishes, for much was to be done before he could venture on so important a step as matrimony. As a specimen of the determined perseverance and industry of our autobiographer, we give the following statement :

"About this time, in the spring of 1796, my brother not being in good health, we hired a small store, having saved about one hundred dollars; we laid it out in small hardware, and got fifty dollars' worth more on credit, consisting of pins, needles, scissors, knives, &c. My brother was to attend the store, while I was to make nails to support us both. When I began

to place one hundred and fifty dollars' worth of goods on the shelves, I found they would make a very poor appearance; and as I was just beginning to find out that appearance went a great way in this world, I procured a number of brick-bats and round sticks of wood: the wood I sawed in lengths, and covered it with ironmongers' paper, having one shaving-box or snuff-box attached to one end. These, when laid on the shelves, occu pied the space, and appeared to be six, twelve, or twenty-four boxes, just as the size may be; a brick-bat thus covered, having a knife and fork outside, looked as well on the shelf as two dozen real ones; so on with scissors, &c. &c., till the shelves were decently filled, and the store made a respectable appearance. I procured a glass-case to stand on the counter, in which I kept four, six, or eight of a sort for retailing; and as they sold off, I procured half-a-dozen more by wholesale; so I had no occasion to discompose my brick-bats nor wood blocks. By mistake, I had tied a round shaving-box on a brick; a slikie old Scotchman, who used to step in for a crack, observed it. 'Ay, man,' says he, but ye hae unco queer things here: wha ever saw a square shaving-box?' I let him into the secret; we had a good laugh. Says he, 'Ye're an auld-farrant chap; na doobt but ye'll do very well in this country.' My brother got tired of attending store, and went off to Philadelphia. I was now in great trouble; we were beginning to make some pennies by the store, and did not like to give it up; neither did I like to give up my nail-making, for this was sure. So I resolved to push my courtship, calculating, that if I got married, I would have a shopkeeper of my own; but if not, to sell off and leave the city; for I could not live in New York and see her the wife of another; and in the meantime continued to keep both. For this end I arose at four o'clock A. M., and made nails till eight; opened store at eight; staid in till eight P. M.; shut up, and went to nail-making till twelve: thus getting scant four hours' sleep in the twenty-four. My nail-shop window opened into the yard of the house where I boarded, and where my girl lived. She used to come to the window: I helped her in, where she staid sewing or knitting till midnight; I working and courting, thus killing two birds with. one stone."-pp. 52–54.

These interviews very speedily terminated, and the parties were