Youth and the opening rose, And smile at thee: but thou art not of those That wait the ripen bloom to seize their prey. Leaves have their time to fall, And flowers to wither at the north wind's breath, And stars to set-but all Thou hast all seasons for thine own, O Death! And, as strikingly illustrative of our previous observations, we would point to the "Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers," What a picture is contained in the first two verses. The sea, and the storm, and the wild, dark night! The breaking waves dashed high, On a stern and rock-bound coast, And the heavy night hung dark When a band of exiles moored their bark, Not as the conqueror comes, And the trumpet that sings of fame. And truly beautiful are the stanzas following. The deep hush, the whispers, as it were, of the first two lines, and then the shout and the exultant music: Not as the flying come, In silence and in fear; They shook the depths of the desert gloom, With their hymns of lofty cheer. Amidst the storm they sang, And the stars heard, and the sea: And the sounding voice of the dim woods rang, To the anthem of the free! The ocean eagle soared, From his nest by the white wave's foam; And the rocking pines of the forest roared, This was their welcome home! It is such noble strains as these, and as the "Treasures of the Deep," the "Voice of Spring," the "Spirit's Return," the "Better Land," and many others, which must ever haunt our memories, like some beloved melody, and which the world "will not willingly let die." There are some nice portraits in the "Records of Woman," the work in which, according to the authoress herself, "she had put her heart and individual feeling more than in anything else she had written." The noble story of "Gertrude, or Fidelity till Death," is strongly told. Beautiful and touching are the last lines composed by Mrs. Hemans, the "Sabbath Sonnet," written a few days before her decease, a fitting finale to her literary labours : How many blessed groups this hour are bending Through England's primrose meadow-paths their Towards spire and tower, midst shadowing elms ascending Whence the sweet chimes proclaim the hallow'd day. The halls from old heroic ages gray Pour their fair children forth; and hamlets low With whose thick orchard blooms the soft winds play, Send out their inmates in a happy flow, Sweet and touching is the spirit of cheerful resignation breathing through the above. The idea presented in the commencement of the sonnet is as fair and truthful, as the conclusion is redolent of the serenest repose. We experience a sensation of pure and unmixed delight in the contemplation of genius, where, as in the case of Mrs. Hemans, the service of song is united to solemn and entire consecration of soul to the best interests of time and eternity. Poetry should ever have a definite purpose. It should be a thing not merely to gladden our idle hours, though that is well; but, further, it should be devoted to higher ends, and to all great and holy uses. This is not the place for us to dilate upon the poet's work and mission. We would, however, have him to remember that the power and the gift divine were not bestowed upon him to be wasted merely on the things of earth. It is through genius that the spirit of inspiration speaks; and assuredly, the "light that never was on sea nor shore," is not wont to be kindled in vain; and woe be to those who disregard the warning voice within, and who permit that celestial radiance to gild the roses of earth alone, instead of ascending to its native heaven. M. J. E. 170 FRANKLIN PIERCE. THE NEW AMERICAN PRESIDENT. THE situation of the United States is one of growing importance. Their political influence is growing as rapidly as their material prosperity and strength. They not only sell to Europe their cotton and their tobacco, but have also begun to export their ideas. The citizens of the United States are coming to act more and more each day upon the mind of Englishmen, just as the English act upon the minds of the people of the Continent. If we reproach them with their excesses and injustice, they retort upon us by pointing to the abuses which have been engendered by our own more ancient civilization. Thus, for example, if we in England hold public meetings, and draw up addresses in condemnation of the iniquitous system of slavery, they draw up others protesting against the unfortunate condition in which the Irish nation has now been placed for ages, and, pointing triumphantly to the miseries which for centuries have been accummulating in the old world, proclaim themselves the patrons of the peoples of the future, and the models which must be followed by all the nations of the earth. republican propagandism, not only carried on by words, but also, if need be, by the sword, seems to be a fixed idea of the Americans. General Franklin Pierce has been elected president of the United States, purposely to give a greater force to the tendencies of these ideas. He is the representative of the party which most violently desires their triumph. The question presents itself, therefore, "What are the character and antecedents of this man?" and it will be admitted to be a question both of interest and importance. Is he a man more sensible than passionate, or more vehement than firm? Is he weak or strongminded, and will he resist or yield to the pressure which will certainly be thrown upon him, by that large and important section of his party forming that portion of the American public which is the most extreme in its opinions, and the most violent in its disposition? Which will he care most for, the public good, or his own popularity? According to his biographer, Nathaniel Hawthorn, the great novelist, these questions all admit of a most fa: vourable solution; and, in truth, mode absence of vanity, together with firmness of character, and something very opposite to the impetuosity with which some members of his party advocate their exalted patriotic ideas and extreme political opinions, are qualities which we cannot deny to Franklin Pierce. There is plenty of room, therefore, to hope that his advent to power will not prove to have been that of republican excess, and patriotic intemperance. If we pass from the influence which is exercised by the Americans over our-ration, good common sense, a complete selves, as a brother people, to the consideration of what has been the nature of their connection with the states of the European Continent, we shall find everywhere the trace of their towering ambition. Austria has been insulted, Russia snubbed, and Spain threatened by them; and these menaces cannot possibly be looked upon as any thing but forerunners of conflicts of far greater importance. The doctrine of President Monroe respecting the legitimacy and necessity of excluding in future all the powers of General Pierce was born in 1804, Europe from setting foot in the New at Hillsborough, in the state of New World, is now more in favour amongst Hampshire, which was also the natal the Americans than ever. The speech State of Daniel Webster, and which has lately pronounced before the senate by produced several other most eminent General Cass, given birth to by the mere statesmen. His father, Benjamin Pierce, rumour of the occupation of the Penin- came originally from Massachussets, sula of Sawana by the French, bears and, like his son, bore the title of abundant witness to the great disquie- General. He was strongly attached to tude with which the citizens of the the democratic party, and un-like the United States survey the slightest at- present General Pierce, a democratic de tempt made by Europeans to gain a foot-condition, as the French would word it; ing on their Continent. An universal that is to say, a member of the industrial classes. Altogether, Benjamin Pierce was a remarkable character. He lost his parents at an early age, and was brought up by his uncle, with strict economy, and after the severe fashion which anciently prevailed in the Northern States of the Union. Two generations ago, we may remark in passing, the life of the Americans was very different from what it is to-day. It was a life of hardship, labour, and privations; simple, reserved, and without show, as are always the lives of the founders of new states, and even new houses, provided the latter be of any power or importance. In 1775, at the commencement of the Revolution, Benjamin Pierce forsook his plough, enrolled himself in the army, assisted at the battle of Bunker's Hill, and was made commander of a company. When the war was ended, in 1785, he bought fifty acres of uncleared land at Hillsborough, of which he formed one of the first settlers. There he built himself a house, cleared' his ground, married, and gradually caused sterility and solitude to fly from the vicinity of his dwelling. Under his roof grew up nine children, the fruit of two successive marriages. Even in the midst of his rustic labours, he did not, however, forget his ancient trade of a soldier. The recollections of the military period of his life were always present with him, and formed the pride of his old age. He had the happiness of being able to associate with a great human and patriotic interest, the emotions of youth, the birth of the first strong sentiments, and the first important episodes of life-in short all those things which we look back upon in old age with so much gentle, pleasant sadness, or so much deep regret, which are the eternal objects of our pride or our remorse. Hawthorn, on this head, relates some anecdotes which are truly touching. We will speak here of but one. One day, the old Benjamin Pierce gathered round his table all his old brother-inarms, who were then living, and, in the evening, at the moment of separation, he addressed to them these pathetic words: "We are about to separate, after what will probably be our last meeting upon earth. We shall all soon be called by the rolling of drums, veiled with crape, to rejoin our beloved Washington, and all the other noble comrades who once fought and bled by our sides." But in reality the military period of his life did not come to an end until his death; for in 1789 he was made General of Brigade in the militia corps of his adopted country, and this post he continued to fill until he died, educating in arms several generations of the young Americans of the County of Hillsborough. Under the presidency of John Adams he refused an important and lucrative command in the army-raised in consequence of the then existing fear of a war with the French Republicwhich was offered to him, because his political opinions would not allow him to accept it. "No, gentlemen," he replied, to the deputation of senators, which was sent to try to induce him to accept it, "No, gentlemen, I am poor, it is true, and under other circumstances your proposition might have been acceptable; but rather than give my support, however humble, to the design for which this army has been levied, I will retire to the most distant mountains of my country, find myself a cabin, and live solely upon potatoes!" He thus refused to make war upon a republican government, and against a country which had rendered aid to the United States at their foundation. This occasion, however, was the sole one on which he refused to serve his country by the sword, and he brought up both his two sons in the army in which his son-in-law, General MacNeil also served. The old patriot died in 1839, after having been Governor of New Hampshire, and a member of the legislature of his own State for thirty consecutive years. This old Benjamin Pierce suggests to us a reflection which does not apply only to the United States, but also to the whole of Europe; it is that in several countries the generations of the eigh teenth century, with all their faults and comparitively deep ignorance, were far superior to those of the present century. We are not so fond of the men of the past century, as to be in the least degree tempted to be unjust to others for their sake. They knew that they owed themselves to their country; that it was their duty to die for it, if necessary; and always to sacrifice to its welfare their own This private fortunes and interests. was most especially the case in America, and upon the Continent: alas! the idea was sometimes carried to such an extent as to induce some individuals to believe that it was also their duty to sacrifice even their souls unto their country, and that it was excusable for them to appear before God charged with all manner of crimes, provided, they were only committed, as they belived, for the public good. No generations of men have ever been more attached to the things of this world, to mundane pleasures, and to dreams of perfect happiness, than those of the last century; but none ever forsook them more nobly when it was necessary, or exhibited less regret at parting with them. We have spoken in this last sentence more especially of the inhabitants of continental Europe, for those of America of that period were of plain and simple habits, as befitted the first descendants of the founders of a republic. There is a story told of one of them-a contemporary of Benjamin Pierce-which illustrates the position we have asserted. It is related by N. P. Willis, who tells us that he once encountered, living in the utmost poverty in a village of Massachusets, a centenarian who had been several times offered a pension by the government in reward of his past services-for he had fought in nearly all the battles of the revolution, and fought bravely toowhich pension he had as often refused to accept. People had never been able to make him understand that he had any right to any pension. My country," he used to say, "when I was younger, claimed my services and my blood, and, in duty bound, I responded to its call. It was simply natural and right that I should do so, why, therefore, trouble with such offers the peace of my last day?" It is true that to-day, as of old, we find great numbers of Americans who are capable of devoting themselves to their country; but how few are capable of refusing all recompense for their devotion! private man." He objected to the grant ing of these revolutionary pensions, not because he was ungrateful to the vete rans of the war of independence, but upon ground which will be gathered from the following extract from his speech:-"I am not insensible, Mr. President, of the advantages with which claims of this character always come before Congress. They are supposed to be based upon services for which no man entertains a higher estimate than myself-services beyond all praise, and above all price, But, while warm and glowing with the glorious recollections which a recurrence to that period of our history can never fail to awaken; while we cherish with emotions of pride, reverence, and affection, the memory of those brave men who are no longer with us; while we provide with a liberal hand, for such as survive, and for the widows of the deceased; while we would accord to their heirs, whether in the second or third generation, every dollar to which they can establish a just claim I trust we shall not, in the strong current of our sympathies, forget what become us as the descendants of such men. They would teach us to legislate upon our judgment, upon our sober sense of right, and not upon our impulses or our sympathies. No, sir; we may act in this way if we choose, when dispensing our own means; but we are not at liberty to do it when dispensing the means of our constituents. "If we were to legislate upon our sympathies-yet, more, I will admit-if we were to yield to that sense of just and grateful remuneration which presses itself upon every man's heart, there would scarcely be a limit for our bounty. The whole exchequer would not answer the demand. To the patriotism, the courage, and the sacrifices of the people of that day, we owe, under Providence, It was by a father imbued with such all that we now so highly prize, and principles that Franklin Pierce was what we shall transmit to our children brought up; and, in truth, it is not dif- as the richest legacy they can inherit. ficult to recognise in several acts of his The war of the revolution, it has been past life the traces of his early educa-justly remarked, was not a war of armies tion. The most memorable example which we are able to cite is that of his speech upon the subject of revolutionary pensions, which, as Mr. Hawthorn says, "is a good exponent of his character; full of the truest sympathy, but, above all things, just, and not to be misled, on the public behalf, by those impulses which would be most apt to sway the merely-it was the war of nearly a whole people, and such a people as the world had never before seen, in a deathstruggle for liberty. "The losses, sacrifices, and sufferings of that period, were common to all classes and all conditions of life. Those who remained at home suffered hardly less than those who entered on the active strife. of states and kingdoms, family and love of country, are brought in the presence of each other, and in which private and domestic devotion are estimated at the same price as military and political sacrifices. Such sentiments as those which inspire it are not common in the present day, at least in such a form, and Franklin Pierce is undoubtedly indebted for the possession of them to his early education. The aged father and mother underwent not less than the son, who would have been the comfort and stay of their declining years, now called to perform a yet higher duty-to follow the standard of his bleeding country. The young mother, with her helpless children, excites not less deeply our sympathies, contending with want, and dragging out years of weary and toilsome days and anxious nights, than the husband in the field, following the for- Old Benjamin Pierce-like all illitertunes of our armies without the common ate men, who exaggerate, in some meahabiliments to protect his person, or the sure, the advantages derivable from requisite sustenance to support his intellectual culture-wished, in spite of strength. Sir, I never think of that his poverty, that his children should patient, enduring, self-sacrificing army, have the fullest benefits of that literary which crossed the Delaware, in 1777, instruction which he himself had never marching barefooted upon frozen ground enjoyed. Accordingly, he sent his son to encounter the foe, and leaving bloody Franklin-for with him alone is it that footprints for miles behind them-I we have now to do-after he had undernever think of their sufferings during gone several years of preparatory study, that terrible winter without involun- to Bowdoin College, in the town of tarily enquiring where were then their families? Who lit up the cheerful fire upon the hearths at home? Who spoke the word of comfort and encouragement? Nay, sir, who furnished protection from the rigours of the winter, and brought them the necessary means of subsistence? Brunswick, state of Maine. There he was the fellow pupil of the famous Nathaniel Hawthorne, who has since become his biographer. Mr. Hawthorne leaves us to suppose that the future president's progress in his studies was slow and difficult, and that he was only able to keep up with his companions The true and simple answer to these by the force of extra perseverance and questions would disclose an amount of tenacity. He appears still as not to be suffering and anguish, mental and phy-possessing any very brilliant mental sical, such as might not have been qualities, but as more than making up found in the ranks of the armies,-not for all he lacks in this respect, by the even in the severest trial of that forti-patient perseverance with which he entude which never faltered, and that deavours to counteract and make up for power of endurance which seemed to know no limit. All this no man feels more deeply than I do. But they were common sacrifices in a common cause, ultimately crowned with the reward of liberty. They have an everlasting claim upon our gratitude, and are destined, I trust, by their heroic example, to exert an abiding influence upon our latest posterity." his own deficiencies. He has neither brilliant nor lofty faculties; everything that he has done he has accomplished slowly, by means of his force of character, perseverance, calculation, and exactitude. His qualities are those of an excellent man of business. He departed from College in the state of what the Americans call "an excellent subject;" that is as one to whom it was The argument may appear strange, known that the performance of the most but it is the entertainment of such sen-wearisome duties or the most unintertiments by General Pierce-sentiments esting functions, might be confided with by which he attaches himself to the assurance. He was at the time the tradition of the founders of the repub-president of an association named the lic-that have caused him to be es- "Athenian Society," and we are told he teemed worthy, and indeed made him worthy, of being elected to the important office of President of the United States. The virtues which the universal tradition of the human race attributes to republicanism truly animate this fine oration, in which the two grand supports not only performed the duties of his own office, and performed them well, but he also fulfilled most of those of his colleagues in the bargain. After he left college, Mr. Hawthorne tells us that every time he saw him he was struck with the remarkable progress which his |