-he was taken prisoner, and continued with the British troops until exchanged towards the end of the year; but we cannot follow his biographer in narrating the varied career of Lord Stirling during the revolution. On the 19th February, 1777, he was made a Major General, and in different skirmishes in New Jersey-at the battles of Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth-in the attack upon Staten Island in January, 1780, and in command of the Northern Army in 1781 and 1782, his services were so distinguished, as to merit on several occasions the special commendation of his superiors, and the thanks of Congress.* But he was unfortunately less successful than courageous and enterprising. With the exception of the battle of Monmouth and perhaps one or two other minor affairs, all the actions in which he was engaged resulted unfortunately for the American cause. There were occasions when his personal coolness and bravery in the hour of danger testified to his military capabilities and called forth the eulogiums of his fellow soldiers; but his biographer has given us little opportunity for criticising his conduct in the field; the details of the engagements in which he participated as has been already remarked-being sketched in such a general way as to afford few points of observation. Mr. Sparks, it seems, with his usual liberality, extended to the Society the use of the plates of the battle fields, which illustrate his writings of Washington; but there is manifestly but a slight connection between them, and the contents of the pages they face.

Lord Stirling died at Albany, January 15th, 1783, while in command of the Northern department. His death

-" was lamented by his brother officers and the troops he had commanded, as well as by his personal friends. He was regretted, indeed, by all, both in military or civil life, who knew him either in his public capacity, or private relations; by many also, who, without knowing him personally, were aware of the loss the public cause had sustained, in being deprived at a critical moment, of the influence of his character and the benefit of his services. No stronger evidence could have been given of the estimation in which both were held, than is afforded by the manner in which his death was communicated to Congress by the Commanderin-chief-by the Resolution passed by that body, on receiving the intelligence-

It was through him that the Gates and Conway intrigue became known in 1778, he having communicated to Gen. Washington the purport of remarks made by Conway in a letter to Gates, which had come to his knowledge. A circumstance which seems to have secured for him the special regard of the Commanderin-chief.

and, above all, by the following touching letter of condolence, addressed to his widow :"*

Newburg, 20th January, 1783. "My Lady--Having been informed by a letter from Captain Sill, of the unspeakable loss which your ladyship has experienced, I feel the sincerest disposition to alleviate by sympathy those sorrows which I am sensible cannot be removed or effaced. For this purpose, I would also have suggested even every rational topic of consolation, were I not fully persuaded that the principles of Philosophy and Religion, of which you are possessed, had anticipated every thing I could say on the subject.

"It only remains then, as a small, but just tribute to the memory of Lord Stirling, to express how deeply I share the common affliction, on being deprived of the public and professional assistance, as well as the private friendship, of an officer of so high rank, with whom I had lived in the strictest habits of amity, and how much those military merits of his Lordship, which rendered him respected in his lifetime, are now regretted by the whole army. It will doubtless be a soothing considera. tion in the poignancy of your grief, to find that the general officers are going into mourning for him.

With sentiments of perfect esteem and respect, I am, &c."

"The man thus spoken of by Washington needs no other epitaph or monument. But it would perhaps be deemed a failure of customary duty on the part of his biographer, to close this narrative without some attempt to sketch the character of the deceased. Fortunately, in this instance, it is illustrated by his acts and their results. These bear witness that to strong native powers of mind, he added industry and perseverance, with early acquired habits of method and attention. His natural abilities were more solid than brilliant-his acquirements more useful than uncommon. His education was such only as the state of the country afforded, but he received from his father instruction in his favorite studies of Mathematics and Astronomy, which rendered him no ordinary proficient in those sciences. He was bred, as we have seen, a merchant, and was successfully pursuing his business, when he was induced to join the army under General Shirley,-first as a Commissary, afterwards as Aid-de-Camp and Private Secretary to the Commander-in chief. In these stations he served several campaigns, and the result of his military experience was especially evinced in the battles of Long Island, Brandywine, Germantown and Monmouth, in all of which he sustained a conspicuous and efficient part. In an evil hour, he accompanied General Shirley to England, . . . and when there, was persuaded to prefer a claim to what proved to be a barren title. The prosecution of this claim was attended with heavy pecuniary expenses, which together with those incident to his prolonged residence in England, of which it was the cause, laid the foundation of subsequent embarrassments, Remarkable for the cheerfulness and hilarity of his disposition, he was there confirmed in those convivial habits that increased upon him in after life, though never to such a degree as to interfere with the performance of his public duties or deprived him of the esteem and confidence of his official superiors, or private friends.

. . .

Before he went to England, Lord Stirling married Sarah, the eldest daughter of Philip Livingston, of New York.

They contributed, nevertheless, to deepen the shade cast over his latter years by the perplexity of his affairs, and rendered more striking the contrast between the open. ing and close of his career."-pp. 259, 262.

We have thus allowed Lord Stirling the benefit of this summary of his character, penned by his biographer; somewhat surprised, we admit, at the tenor of the closing remarks—if we interpret them correctly. That he was an early and steadfast friend to the colonial cause no one can doubt, and his name will ever be held in grateful remembrance among those of the worthies who achieved our independence; but we have failed to perceive in Mr. Duer's book, any special indications of his possessing those traits which make a man an object of love and respect to those immediately connected with him; indeed, from what we have ourselves learned of his Lordship's temperament, from documents and tradition, we should judge that, to considerable testiness of disposition there was joined such inflexibility of purpose and self-appreciation as necessarily operated to his prejudice, notwithstanding his usual cheerfulness and conviviality. Of his qualities as a husband and father, or of those more domestic occurrences which assist so materially on making up a correct estimate of every man's character, we receive little information from the work before us.

Like many other patriots of the time, Lord Stirling died poor, leaving, says our author:

"nothing but the certificates issued by the state of New Jersey for the depreciation of his pay, which, on his death-bed, he delivered to his wife for her future support. Even the bounty land promised by Congress to those officers who served during the war, was denied to his widow-although he died between the preliminary and definitive treaties of peace-on the technical ground that the war continued until peace was actually proclaimed.”—p. 263 and note.

This was assuredly a case of peculiar hardship. We believe. that of late years a claim has been pressed before Congress in behalf of the heirs of Lord Stirling for this allowance, and if no other objection can be advanced than the one stated above, it is certainly deserving their favourable consideration.

At the commencement of the Revolution Lord Stirling possessed a large landed estate in the provinces of New York and New Jersey, but it was heavily incumbered; and, at his solicitation, the New Jersey legislature before he joined the army, passed an act vesting his property in that state in commissioners, who were authorized to dispose of it and with the proceeds dis

charge his obligations, including the debt to the provincial treasury which has been mentioned. The lands were sold and payment received in continental money, then a legal tender; but the rapid depreciation which ensued in that kind of currency, caused a repeal of the "tender law" before the debts could be paid by the commissioners, and the proceeds consequently became valueless. Nothing remained but the debts, and to discharge them the rest of his property was sacrificed under legal proceedings of his creditors.

Mr. Duer, says nothing of the personal appearance of Lord Stirling, but from the portrait which the work contains we should form a favourable impression of both his face and figure; his features being well proportioned his eye penetrating-his forehead full and high-and the whole contour of his head pleasing. This portrait and the several plates of battle grounds add not a little to the appearance of the book, which in typographical execution and tasteful arrangement is creditable to the society under whose auspices it is issued.

Although, as we have remarked, less satisfactory in some respects than we could have wished, we commend the work to those interested in the men and times of which it treats as furnishing much information respecting them not before given to the public.

ART. II.-German University Education, or the Professors and Students of Germany. By W. C. Perry. 2d edition. London. 1846.

THE rapid multiplication of colleges and universities (so called) among us is not more remarkable than the uniformity of their organization. The literary institutions of the new states are as accurately copied as their civil institutions from the models in the older colonies. We have no more reason to be sure that every new state will have its Governor, Senate, and House of Representatives, than that every new college will be furnished with the usual apparatus of a President, a Board of Trustees, a Faculty consisting of Professors and Tutors, and if possible a

building far beyond the actual or probable necessities of the infant seminary. This last is one of the most curious features in the history of our literary institutions. In no other age or country has the idea of a public seminary been so generally understood to involve that of a building as one of its essential elements. While some of the most famous of the German universities have done their work for ages with scarcely anything that could be called a public edifice, our schools are often crippled in their infancy by a gratuitous expenditure in this way of resources which might have been otherwise applied with tenfold profit. This diversity of usage is connected with the preference of small country villages as seats of learning, where the want of public buildings cannot be so easily supplied as in large towns. As to this last question, there is not a little to be said on both sides, but we cannot enter on it here, and have only mentioned it as furnishing a partial explanation of the difference between American and European usage as to the relative importance and priority of brick and mortar in the creation of a school of learning. It is not yet fifteen years since the only academical structure belonging to the University of Halle was its Library, while all its lectures were delivered either in a large room of the old city weigh-house, or in hired apartments scattered through the town, and some of them inferior to a decent English or American kitchen. Now indeed there is a public edifice both there and in other places where they have been wanting; but the long delay in their erection has no doubt made it possible to provide for wants which could only have been made known by experience. In America, on the contrary, there are probably few cases where a false economy or want of taste in the original erection of such buildings has not prompted the wish that it had been reserved for a later generation.

We have already dwelt too long, however, on a topic which was only introduced at first, as serving to illustrate the remarkable uniformity of method in the institution of our public seminaries. The same poverty of invention is here visible as in the naming of our towns and counties, where, with few exceptions, the incessant repetition of the same familiar names presents a striking contrast with the endless variety which meets the eye on the first glance at a map of the old world. In both cases this perpetual repetition has its origin in early and exclusive associ