to the moral character of his hero, it would be that among his nearest and dearest friends he counted three such men as William Patterson, William Bradford and Timothy Dwight-than whom (we record the recollections of those who knew them well) no purer men ever lived. Mr. Patterson, as is well known, was honoured in every relation of life, public and private, as a man of singular talent and integrity-was at one time governor of the state of New Jersey-a distinguished member of the convention that framed the constitution of the Union-and, soon after the organization of the government, was appointed by President Washington one of the judges of the supreme court of the United States. Mr. Bradford, whom Mr. Davis familiarly terms a "college chum of great merit," died in 1795, before his fame had reached its promised height, and left behind him a reputation for equal talent and virtues. After occupying the highest rank in the judiciary of his native state, he too received an honourable testimonial of Washington's confidence-being appointed, a short time before his death, and on the promotion of Mr. Randolph, attorney-general of the United States. The lustre of Dr. Dwight's life and character needs no tribute here; they form an integral part of the moral and intellectual treasure of our country. These were the cherished and affectionate companions of Burr's college hours. What a contrast do their virtuous and useful lives, their tranquil and lamented deaths, present to the troubled scene of his turbulent and disastrous career!

The outbreak of hostilities at Lexington and Bunker Hill, summoned all the adventurous youth of the colonies from the retirement of peaceful studies, and impelled them into action. Burr, disregarding the prudent counsels of friends and guardians, in company with his friend, Matthias Ogden, left his home, in New Jersey, and joined the army before Boston. His impetuous temperament being unsuited to the dull routine of a siege, he gladly availed himself of the opportunity of adventure afforded by the projected invasion of Canada, and joined the heroic band which, under the command of Arnold, penetrated the wilderness to Quebec. He was present at the attempt on that city, in December, 1775, and received the dying Montgomery in his arms. He was, in fact, the only officer of the advancing party that was not killed or wounded. At this time he was but nineteen years of age. In relation to his gallantry on this occasion, we find in this volume the following affectionate letter, from one of the three friends to whom we have just referred :

"PHILADELPHIA, January 24th, 1776.

"Dear Burr,-I am informed a gentleman is just setting off for Quebec, and snatch the opportunity of at once condoling with you for the loss of

your brave general, and congratulating you on the credit you have gained in that action. 'Tis said you behaved well-you behaved gallantly. I never doubted but you would distinguish yourself, and your praise is now in every man's mouth. It has been my theme of late. I will not say I was perfectly disinterested in the encomiums I bestowed. You were a son of Nassau Hall, and reflected honour on the place of my education. You were my classmate and friend, and reflected honour on me. I make no doubt but your promotion will be taken care of. The gentlemen of the congress speak highly of you.

-p. 75.

"Your affectionate

"WILLIAM BRADFORD, Jun."

On leaving the army in Canada, in the spring of 1776, Burr returned to New York, and, through the intervention of some mutual friends, was attached, conditionally we are inclined to believe, as his name was never announced in general orders, to the military staff and family of the commander in chief. He continued in this relation to General Washington but for a few months, when, in consequence of a difference not yet explained, but to which, or rather to Mr. Davis's manner of treating it, we shall presently refer, he relinquished his post and was appointed aid to General Putnam. In this capacity he was actively engaged in the battle on Long Island, and in the subsequent operations during and after the evacuation of New York. During the retreat across New Jersey, in the fall and winter of 1776, Burr continued, we presume, with the army, and acted as aid to Putnam. We say this is our conjecture, for his biographer, through the interval which elapsed from September, 1776, to March, 1777, and during which the important military events at Trenton and Princeton occurred, has not condescended to tell us what his hero was doing, or even where he was, except by implication. We cannot refrain from incidentally showing in how summary a way this period is disposed of. The quotation will serve to show as well the historical accuracy as the literary merit of this abortive memoir. We especially admire the felicity of the quotation, with which the author ekes out even this meagre extract.

"After the abandonment of Manhattan Island by the American army, and some fighting in Westchester, General Washington crossed the North river with a part of the troops, and retreated through New Jersey. The movements of Lord Cornwallis left no doubt that the object of the British general was Philadelphia. He advanced rapidly from Brunswick upon Princeton, hoping, by forced marches, to get in the rear of the Americans. On the 8th of December, 1776, Washington crossed the Delaware, secured the boats, and broke down the bridges. Great apprehension and alarm for the safety of Philadelphia now existed. Judge Marshall, in his Life of Washington, says,

"In consequence of this state of things, the general advised that lines of defence should be drawn from the Schuykill, about the heights of Springatsbury, eastward to the Delaware, and General Putnam was

ordered to superintend them.' Major Burr was now actively engaged as the aid-de-camp of General Putnam, whose esteem and unbounded confidence he continued to enjoy." pp. 108, 109.

This is literally all that Mr. Davis vouchsafes to tell us of an epoch of our history which has no equal in point of romantic interest, and for the stirring incidents of which Burr's daring temperament was peculiarly adapted. Mr. Davis, in another part of his work (p. 175), informs us, with admirable simplicity, that "for history, Colonel Burr entertained a great contempt. He confided but little in its details ;" and adds, the expression of his own sagacious conjecture, that "this prejudice was probably strengthened by the consideration that justice, in his opinion, had not been done to himself." Could he inspect the production of this chosen chronicler of his own actions, we are very sure his respect would not be heightened.

In the summer of 1777, Burr was appointed lieutenant-colonel of Malcolm's regiment; of which, however, owing to the inactive character of his senior officer, he had the actual command, and with which he was stationed, for the remainder of the campaign, in the neighbourhood of the North River. He thence joined the main army, and went into winter quarters at the Valley Forge. At this time, though constantly receiving from the commander in chief signal marks of confidence in his military abilities and personal courage, he appears willingly to have united himself with what is known in our history as the Conway cabal, which, fomented and stimulated by the imbecile ambition of Gates, the hot-headed irritability of Lee, the wily cunning of Conway himself, and the treacherous and wicked co-operation of other less prominent but as active agents, threatened the reputation of Washington, and the success of the great cause he was conducting. Whether Burr was in the battle of Germantown or not, his biographer has forgotten to mention. At Monmouth he was actively and brilliantly engaged; and in consequence of fatigue and extraordinary exposure on that occasion, his health was greatly and seriously impaired. From this time till he retired from the army, in 1779, he was stationed on the debateable ground above New York, and on the North River, and there rendered very valuable services in protecting the country from the incursions of the British and their adherents. His military life closed with his participation in the gallant defence of New Haven against Governor Tryon, in July, 1779. Colonel Burr was accidentally in the town, confined to his bed by sickness, when the enemy landed. Without a moment's hesitation, and with characteristic bravery, he mounted his horse, and placing himself at the head of a body of the college students, for a time successfully repelled the advancing foe. This incident, on which Burr himself, to

the last hour of his life, seemed to dwell with the most gratification, his biographer thus oddly narrates—

"Some skirmishes soon ensued, and portions of the militia united with them. The British, ignorant of the force that might be presented, retired; but shortly returned, with several pieces of artillery, when a cannonading commenced, and the boys retreated in good order. An American historian says,- The British entered the town after being much galled and harassed.' The slight check which they thus received, afforded an opportunity for the removal of some valuables, and many of the women and children." p. 174.

By the by, Mr. Davis's "impressed" quotations and "elegant extracts," from Boswell's Johnson (p. 25), Johnson's Life of Sydenham (Id.), Moore's Life of Lord Byron (p. 91), Marshall's Washington (p. 108), and Gordon's History (p. 126), are, in point of singular infelicity, unlike any thing we ever met with. Ensign Fluellen had a much more appropriate collection of recorded illustrations, and at least confined himself to the classic volume of antiquity. Mr. Davis drags in an unlucky quotation by the hair of the head, and then ungenerously leaves it to explain how it got there, and why it came.

Such was the military career of Colonel Burr, which, commencing at the age of nineteen, terminated at twenty-three, comprising within the period of rather more than four years, many of the most important and interesting incidents of the times. Of his military fame, Mr. Davis tells us Colonel Burr was justly proud, more jealous of it, indeed, than of his moral or intellectual character; and it may fairly be presumed that, during the "forty years' unreserved association" with his destined annalist, many a personal reminiscence-many an explanation or comment must have been imparted which we might expect to find recorded here. Yet we have searched the pages of Mr. Davis's stunted biography for something of the kind-but all in vain. Had he told the tale as it must have been told to him, it could not have been otherwise than deeply interesting. Had he narrated in detail (for the subject would have fairly authorized it) the incidents of such an adventurous life as it fell from the lips of him whose fame the book pretends to guard, he need have vouched no other authority. The personal narrative of the adventurous band which penetrated the wilderness in 1775, which never has been told but imperfectly, and which, in point of romantic daring, was worthy of its gallant leader and his brave followers, would of itself have outweighed, in point of value and interest, the actual materials of this whole volume. The detail of military operation and personal prowess, in which Burr was so active a participant, from the time Arnold's band reached the Chaudière, whence Burr

was sent (according to Mr. Davis) to meet Montgomery at Montreal, to the tragic catastrophe under the walls of Quebec, when, as has been stated, Burr stood by the side of his gallant commander, at the head of the advancing party, and received him in his arms as he fell; the accurate history of the abandonment of Long Island, and operations afterwards; the retreat through New Jersey; the winter campaign of 1777; the pursuit of Sir Henry Clinton; and the battle of Monmouth; these are subjects on which the world had a right to expect minute and novel information, at least, so far as relates to the personal agency of the hero of the tale. But, in point of fact, not more than twenty pages are filled with what may be supposed to have come from the source to which Mr. Davis had exclusive access, and which, on that account only, is valuable; and in lieu of it, we have a series of certificates from comparatively obscure individuals, taken for the purpose of sustaining a claim, made by Burr, in 1814, for remuneration from the legislature of New York. These certificates are utterly unworthy of insertion in a memoir, though no doubt very serviceable to sustain a memorial. We have, for instance, the certificates of Samuel Rowland, of Hezekiah Ripley, of Isaac Jennings and Andrew Wakeman, of Nathaniel Judson and Judge George Gardner, of Lieutenant Robert Hunter and Colonel Richard Platt, all very respectable persons, no doubt, of whom it is no offence to say, that their names are not written in capital letters on the roll of history; but not a word or line (for the few letters which are given from Burr scarcely deserve to be mentioned) from the lips or pen of him whose testimony would be valuable, if his fame were worth preserving.

If this book is barren of military incidents, it is an arid waste as to military criticism, though this, too, was a point on which we are told Colonel Burr was very tenacious, and which would have been, if properly treated, to many readers a point of great interest. On but three occasions is there any attempt at it-the attack on Quebec, the evacuation of New York, and the battle of Monmonth. That our readers may not consider us unjust to Mr. Davis, we will cheerfully let him be a witness in his own cause, and give the following extract, being the whole of his remarks on the assault on Quebec, omitting only a quotation from the Life of Washington, which, like Mrs. Malaprop's hard words, is most wantonly pressed into service, and begging the reader to observe the extent to which Mr. Davis is indebted to Colonel Burr in his critique:

Va

"The first plan for the attack upon the British works was essentially different from that which was subsequently carried into execution. rious reasons have been assigned for this change. Judge Marshall says,