and politics in several cities. He also founded a swimming school in Boston, according to the principles which General Pfuel, whose pupil he had been in Berlin, had introduced in the Prussian army. Dr. Lieber is a capital swimmer. Ile several times tried his skill with John Quincy Adams, when the latter was President of the United States. In 1828 he commenced the publication, at Philadelphia, of the Encyclopædia Americana, which was completed in 1832. He took as his basis Brockhaus' Conversations-Lexicon. He then lived in Boston, where, not long after his arrival, he was visited by Justice Story, with whom a friendship sprang up, which continued during the life of the jurist. Story contributed many articles to the Encyclopædia, which are enumerated in his Life by his son, and feelingly acknowledged in Lieber's work on Civil Liberty and Self-Government. While engaged in editing the cyclopædia he had occasion to address Joseph Buonaparte, then in this country, on some points respecting the life of Napoleon. This led to a considerable correspondence and a personal acquaintance, which Dr. Lieber has lately commemorated in an article in Putnam's Magazine on the publication of his deceased friend's correspondence.* While in Boston he also published a translation of a French work on the July Revolution of 1830, and a translation of the Life of Caspar Hauser by Feuerbach, one of the foremost writers on criminal law in Germany. This translation passed through several editions. In 1832 Dr. Lieber removed to New York, where he wrote a translation of the work of his friends De Beaumont and De Tocqueville on the Penitentiary System in the United States, with an introduction and numerous notes, which, in turn, were translated in Germany. While in New York he received the honorable charge of writing a plan of education and instruction for Girard College, which was published by the board of directors, and forms a thin octavo volume. In 1834 he settled in Philadelphia, where he began a Supplement to his Encyclopædia; but the times proved inauspicious, during the bank derangeinent, and the publishers deferred the work for a time. In Philadelphia he published two worksLetters to a Gentleman in Germany on a Trip to Niagara, republished in London as "The Stranger in America," a change made by the London publisher, and Reminiscences of an Intercourse with Niebuhr the Historian, also republished in London. The latter has been translated into German by Mr. Hugo, son of the jurist of the name. In 1838-9 he published his Political Ethics at Boston in two large octavo volumes, with the usual typographical luxury of the press of Messrs. Little and Brown. This work is divided into two parts. The first treats of Ethics, general and political; the second, which goes more into detail, of the morals of the state and of the citizen. The grand rules of right are laid down according to the exalted code of principle and honor, as the various questions are passed in review, in which private morality is in contact with the law; • Putnam's Monthly, Jan., 1855. civil or social regulation. The work does not deal in abstractions, but discusses such topics as the liberty of the press, war and its manifold relations, voting, combinations for different purposes, the limitation of power, &c. This was succeeded after a considerable interval in 1853 by a somewhat similar work on Civil Liberty and Self-Government, published at Philadelphia. It is a calmn, ingenious, rational analysis of the essential principles and forms of freedom in ancient and modern states; exhibiting a much abused idea in its practical relation with the checks and counterchecks, and various machinery of political and legal institutions. As in his other works, the subject is everywhere illustrated by examples and deductions from history and biography, the author's wide reading and experience affording him, apparently, inexhaustible material for the purpose. His Legal Hermeneutics or Principles of Interpretation and Construction in Law and Politics, is one of Dr. Lieber's chief works. The separation of interpretation from construction, and the ascertainment of principles peculiar to each, has been adopted by eminent American jurists, as Dr. Greenleaf in his work on Evidence. His Essays on Labor and Property is one of his most important contributions to the science of political economy. In 1844, Lieber visited Europe. While in Germany, he published two small works in German; one on Extra Mural and Intra Mural Executions, in which measures were proposed which the Prussian government has adopted avowedly on his suggestion; and Fragments on Subjects of Penology, a term which was first used by Lieber for the science of punishment, and which has since been adopted both in Europe and America. In 1848 he again visited Europe, and while at Frankfort, published in German The Independence of the Law, The Judiciary, and a Letter on Two Houses of Legislature. Of the numerous remaining publications of Lieber, we may mention his Translation of Ramshorn's Latin Synonymes, in use as a school-book; his interesting compilation-Great Events described by Great Historians or Eye- Witnesses; The Character of the Gentleman, which takes a wide view of the quality, carrying it into provinces of public and social life where it has been too often forgotten. He thus seeks the gentleman in war, in politics, diplomacy, on the bench, at the bar, and on the plantation. His Essays on Subjects of Penal Law and the Penitentiary Systems, published by the Philadel phia Prison Discipline Society; on the Abuse of the Pardoning Power, re-published as a document by the Legislature of New York; Remarks on Mrs. Fry's Views of Solitary Confinement, published in England; a Letter on the Penitentiary System, published by the Legislature of South Carolina, are so many appeals to practical philanthropy. To these are to be added a pamphlet addressed to Senator Preston, urging international copyright law; a Letter on Anglican and Gallican Liberty, translated into German with many notes and additions by Mittermaier, the German Criminalist and Publicist; a paper on the Vocal Sounds of Laura Bridgman, the Blind Deaf-Mute, com pared with the Elements of Phonetic Language, published in the Smithsonian collections; a thin volume of English poetry, The West and Other Poems. If wanting in the ease and elegance of more polished productions, Dr. Lieber's occasional verses, like his other compositions, are marked by their force and meaning. Of one of them, an Ode on a proposed -hip-canal between the Atlantic and Pacific, Prof. Longfellow remarked, "It is strong enough to make the canal itself if it could be brought to bear." In this enumeration, we have not mentioned the review and minor articles of Lieber; nor do we pretend to have given all the pamphlets which have proceeded from his active pen. Dr. Lieber is at present engaged on an Encyclopædiac work of facts, to be entitled "The People's Dictionary of General Knowledge." These various writings are severally characterized by the same qualities of ingenuity of thought, sound sense, and fertile illustration, drawn from books and intercourse with the world; and dependent to no inconsiderable degree, it may be added, upon a vigorous constitution and happy temperament. In the just observation of Brockhaus' German Conversations-Lexicon "his works have a character wholly peculiar to themselves, since they are the result of German erudition and philosophical spirit, combined with English manliness and American liberty." Since 1835, Dr. Lieber has been employed as Professor of History and Political Economy in South Carolina College at Columbia; to which has been added a professorship of Political Economy. In connexion with this duty, Dr. Lieber delivered an Inaugural on "History and Political Economy as necessary branches of superior education in Free States," abounding in ingenious and learned suggestion. As the most concise indication of the spirit which he infuses into the teaching of the liberal studies of his professorship, we may mention the furnishing and decorations of his lecture room. This is, in some respects, unique, though its peculiarity is one which might be followed to advantage in all seats of learning. In place of the usual bare walls and repulsive accessories of education, it is supplied with busts of the great men of ancient and modern times, set up on pedestals, and bracketed on the walls, which also bear Latin inscriptions; while the more immediate utilities are provided for in the large suspended maps and blackboards. A hand-writing on the wall exhibits the weighty and pithy apho rism NON SCHOLÆ SED VITÆ VITÆ UTRIQUE. Another on a panel saved by Dr. Lieber from the recent consumption by fire of the former College Chapel in which Preston, Legare, and other distinguished men were graduated, records the favorite saying of Socrates in Greek characters ΧΑΛΕΠΑ ΤΑ ΚΑΛΑ The busts, to which each class as it enters College makes an addition of a new one by a subscription, now number Cicero, Shakespeare, Socrates, Homer, Demosthenes, Milton, Luther, and the American statesmen, Washington, Hamilton, Calhoun, Clay, McDuffie, and Webster. One of the blackboards is assigned to the illustration of the doctor's historical lectures. It is called the "battle blackboard" and is permanently marked in columns headed,-name of the war; in what country or province the battle; when; who victorious, over whom; effects of the battle; peace. OSCAR MONTGOMERY LIEBER, a son of Dr. Lieber, has published several works in connexion with his profession of Mining Engineer. His Assayer's Guide, which appeared at Philadelphia in 1852, has met with distinguished success." * THE GENTLEMANLY CHARACTER IN POLITICS AND INSTITUTIONS -FROM THE ADDRESS ON THE CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. The greater the liberty is which we enjoy in any sphere of life, the more binding, necessarily, becomes the obligation of self-restraint, and consequently the more important all the rules of action which flow from our reverence for the pure character of the gentleman-an importance which is enhanced in the present period of our country, because one of its striking features, if I mistake not, is an intense and general attention to rights, without a parallel and equally intense perception of corresponding obligations. But right and obligation are twins-they are each other's complements, and cannot be severed without undermining the ethical ground on which we stand-that ground on which alone civilization, justice, virtue, and real progress can build enduring monuments. Right and obligation are the warp and the woof of the tissue of man's moral, and therefore likewise of man's civil life. Take out the one, and the other is in worthless confusion. We must return to this momentous principle, the first of all moral government, and, as fairness and calmness are two prominent ingredients in the character of the gentleman, it is plain that this reform must be materially promoted by a general diffusion of a sincere regard for that character. Liberty, which is nothing else than the enjoyment of unfettered action, necessarily leads to licentiousness without an increased binding power within; for liberty affords to man indeed a free choice of action, but it cannot absolve him from the duty of choosing what is right, fair, liberal, urbane, and handsome. Where there is freedom of action, no matter in what sphere or what class of men, there always have been, and must be, parties, whether they be called party, school, sect, or "faction." These will necessarily often act against each other; but, as a matter of course, they are not allowed to dispense with any of the principles of morality. The prin ciple that everything is permitted in politics is so shameless and ruinous for all, that I need not dwell upon it here. But there are a great many acts which, though it may not be possible to prove them wrong according to the strict laws of ethics, nevertheless appear at once as unfair, not strictly honorable, or ungentlemanlike, and it is of the utmost importance to the essential prosperity of a free country, that these acts should not be resorted to; that in the minor or higher assemblies and in all party struggles, even the intensest, we ought never to abandon the standard of a gentleman. It is all important that parties keep in "good humour," as Lord Clarendon said of the whole country. One deviation from fairness, candor, decorum, and fair play," begets another and worse in the opponent, and from the kindliest difference in opinion to the fiercest struggle of factions sword in hand, is but one unbroken gra Brockhaus' Conversations-Lexicon. * I dual descent, however great the distance may be, while few things are surer to forestall or arrest this degeneracy than a common and hearty esteem of the character of the gentleman. We have in our country a noble example of calmness, truthfulness, dignity, fairness, and urbanity-the constituents of the character which occupies our attention, in the father of our country; for Washington, the wise and steadfast patriot, was also the high-minded gentleman. When the dissatisfied officers of his army informed him that they would lend him their support, if he was willing to build himself a throne, he knew how to blend the dictates of his oath to the commonwealth, and of his patriotic heart, with those of a gentlemanly feeling towards the deluded and irritated. In the sense in which we take the term here, it is not the least of his honors that, through all the trying periods and scenes of his remarkable life, the historian and moralist can write him down, not only as Washington the Great, not only as Washington the Pure, but also as Washington the Gentleman. must not omit mentioning, at least, the importance of a gentlemanly spirit in all international transactions with sister nations of our race-and even with tribes which follow different standards of conduct and morality. Nothing seems to me to show more irresistibly the real progress which human society has made, than the general purity of judges, and the improvement of the whole administration of justice, with the leading nations, at least, on the one hand, and the vastly improved morals of modern international intercourse, holding diplomatic fraud and international trickery, bullying, and pettifogging, as no less unwise than immoral. History, and that of our own times, especially, teaches us that nowhere is the vaporing braggadocio more out of place, and the true gentleman more in his proper sphere, than in conducting international affairs. Fairness on the one hand, and collected self-respect on the other, will frequently make matters easy, where swaggering taunt, or reckless conceit and insulting folly, may lead to the serious misunderstanding of entire nations, and a sanguinary end. The firm and digni fied carriage of our Senate, and the absence of petty passion or vain-gloriousness in the British Parliament, have brought the Oregon question to a fair and satisfactory end-an affair which, but a short time ago, was believed by many to be involved in difficulties which the sword alone was able to cut short. Even genuine personal urbanity in those to whom international affairs are intrusted, is very frequently of the last importance for a happy ultimate good understanding between the mightiest nations. We may express a similar opinion with reference to war. Nothing mitigates so much its hardships, and few things, depending on individuals, aid more in preparing a welcome peace, than a gentlemanly spirit in the commanders, officers, and, indeed, in all the combatants towards their enemies, whenever an opportunity offers itself. I might give you many striking proofs, but I observe that my clepsydra is nearly run out. Let me merely add, as a fact worthy of notice, that political assassination, especially in times of war, was not looked upon in antiquity as inadmissible; that Sir Thomas More mentions the assassination of the hostile captain, as a wise measure resorted to by his Utopians; that the ambassadors of the British Parliament, and later, the Commonwealth-men in exile, were picked off by assassination; while Charles Fox, during the war with the French, arrested the man who offered to assassinate Napoleon, informed the French government of the fact, and sent the man out of the country; and Admiral Lord St. Vincent, the stern enemy of the French, di rected his secretary to write the following answer to a similar offer made by a French emigrant: "Lord St. Vincent has not words to express the detestation in which he holds an assassin." Fox and Vincent acted like Christians and gentlemen. a I have mentioned two cheering characteristics of our period, showing an essential progress in our race. I ought to add a third, namely, the more gentlemanly spirit which pervades modern penal laws. I am well aware that the whole system of punition has greatly improved, because men have made penology a subject of serious reflection, and the utter fallacy of many of the principles, in which our forefathers seriously believed, has at length been exposed. But it is at the same time impossible to study the history of penal law without clearly perceiving that punishments were formerly dictated by a vindictive ferocity-an ungentlemanly spirit of oppression. All the accumulated atrocities heaped upon the criminal, and not unfrequently upon his innocent kin, merely because he was what now would gently be called "in the opposition," make us almost hear the enraged punisher vulgarly utter, Now I have you, and you shall see how I'll manage you." Archbishop Laud, essentially not gentleman, but a vindictive persecutor of every one who dared to differ from his coarse views of State and Church, presided in the Star-Chamber, and animated its members when Lord Keeper Coventry pronounced the following sentence on Dr. Alexander Leighton, a Scottish divine, for slandering Prelacy: "that the defendant should be imprisoned in the Fleet during life-should be fined ten thousand pounds-and, after being degraded from holy orders by the high commissioners, should be set in the pillory in Westminster-there be whipped-after being whipped, again be set in the pillory-have one of his ears cut off-have his nose slit-be branded in the face with a double S. S., for Sower of Sedition-afterwards be set in the pillory in Cheapside, and there be whipped, and after being whipped, again be set in the pillory and have his other ear cut off." The whole council agreed. There was no recommendation to pardon or mitigation. The sentence was inflicted. Could a gentleman have proposed, or voted for so brutal an accumulation of pain, insult, mutilation and ruin, no matter what the fundamental errors prevailing in penal law then were? Nor have I selected this, from other sentences, for its peculiar cruelty. Every student in history knows that they were common at the time, against all who offended authority, even unknowingly. Compare the spirit which could overwhelm a victim with such brutality, and all the branding, pillory, and whipping still existing in many countries, with the spirit of calmness, kindness, yet seriousness and dignity which pervades such a punitory scheme as the Pennsylvania eremitic penitentiary system, which for the very reason that it is gentlemanly, is the most impressive and penetrating, therefore the most forbidding of all. Let me barely allude to the duties of the gentleman in those countries in which slavery still exists. Plato says, genuine humanity and real probity are brought to the test, by the behavior of a man to slaves, whom he may wrong with impunity. He speaks like a gentleman. Although his golden rule applies to all whom we may offend or grieve with impunity, and the fair and noble use of any power we may possess, is one of the truest tests of a gentleman, yet it is natural that Plato should have made the treatment of the slave the peculiar test, because slavery gives the greatest power. Cicero says we should use slaves no otherwise than we do our daylaborers. THE SHIP CANAL-FROM THE ATLANTIC TO THE PACIFIC. An Ode to the American People and their Congress, on reading the Message of the United States President in December, 1847. Rend America asunder And unite the Binding Sea That emboldens Man and tempers Make the ocean free. Break the bolt that bars the passage, Ours by all the hardy whalers, By the west-impelled and working, Long indeed they have been wooing, Have the snowy surfs not struggled That their lips might seal the union? When the mighty God of nature Able, mindful of his purpose, Or to force them through. What the prophet-navigator, Blessed the eyes that shall behold it, To the pilot still? Do we breathe this breath of knowledge Purely to enjoy its zest? Shall the iron arm of science Like a sluggard rest? Up then, at it! earnest people! Through the isthmus steer. Westward to the East. Ye, that vanquish pain and distance, Yon Antarctic ire? Shall the mariner for ever What was daring for our fathers, Ye that fight with printing armies, Let the vastness not appal us; Venture suits the free. Like a seer, I see her throning, Crowned with wreaths that still grow greener, For the wise, the stout, and steadfast: Rend the land in twain. Cleave America asunder, This is worthy work for thee. Hark! The seas roll up imploring "Make the ocean free." GEORGE BANCROFT. GEORGE BANCROFT, the eminent American historian, was born at Worcester, Massachusetts, in the year 1800. His father, Aaron Bancroft, was the distinguished Congregationalist clergyman of that place.* He took particular care of his son's education, which was pursued at the academy of Dr. Abbot, at Exeter, New Hampshire. A contemporary letter, dated October 10, 1811, written by the eminent Dr. Nathan Parker, of Portsmouth, to Dr. Bancroft, records a visit to the school, with special mention of the promising George. "I have this day," writes this friend of the family, "made a visit at Exeter, and spent an hour with George. I found him in good health, and perfectly satisfied with his situation. He appears to enter into the studies which he is pursuing with an ardor and laudable ambition which gives promise of distinction, and which must be peculiarly grateful to a parent. I conversed with him on his studies, and found him very ready to make discriminating remarks-and as much as I expected from him. I was surprised at the intelligence with which he conversed, and the maturity of mind which he discovered. * * * * * * I found that he had become acquainted with the distinctions which are conferred on those who excel, and was desirous of obtaining them. I was much pleased with the zeal which he discovered on this subject. He said there were prizes distributed every year, or every term (I forgot which), to those who excelled in particular studies. He expressed a great desire to obtain one, but said he was afraid he should not succeed, for he was the youngest but three in the academy, and he did not think he should gain a prize, but he would try. These, you may say, are trifling things, but they discover a disposition of Ante, vol. i. p. 407. mind, with which I think you must be gratified. I made inquiries of Mr. Abbot concerning him. He observed that he was a very fine lad; that he appeared to have the stamina of a distinguished man; that he took his rank among the first scholars in the academy, and that he wished I would send him half a dozen such boys." The word of promise thus spoken to the father's ear has not been broken to the world. The In 1817, before he had completed his seventeenth year, the youth received his degree of Bachelor of Arts at Cambridge. The next year he went to Europe, and studied at Gottingen and Berlin, where he availed himself of the best opportunities of literary culture presented by those eminent universities. Before his return to America, in 1822, he had made the tour of England, Switzerland, Germany, and Italy. His mind was now richly furnished with the treasures of ancient literature, with the superadded modern metaphysical culture of the German universities. thoroughness of his studies is shown in the philosophical summaries of Roman history and policy, and of the literature of Germany, then rapidly gaining the ascendant, which he not long after published in America; while a thin volume of poems, published at Boston in 1823, witnesses to his poetical enthusiasm for the arts and nature, as he traversed the ruins of Italy and the sublime scenery of Switzerland. He also at this time, from his eighteenth to his twentyfourth year, wrote a series of poetical translations of some of the chief minor poems of Schiller, Goethe, and other German authors, which appeared in the North American Review, and have been lately revived by the author, in his Collection of Miscellanies. He also wrote for the early volumes of Walsh's American Quarterly Review, a number of articles, marked by their academic and philosophic spirit; among others, a striking paper on the Doctrine of Temperaments; a kindred philosophical Essay on Ennui; and papers on Poland and Russia, of historical sagacity and penetration. Immediately on his return to the United States, Mr. Bancroft had been appointed Tutor of Greek at Harvard, where he continued for a year; subsequently carrying out his plans of education, in connexion with his friend Dr. J. G. Cogswell, as principal of the Round Hill school, at Northampton, Massachusetts. Mr. Bancroft early became a politician, attaching himself to the Democratic party. One of the fruits of his promotion of its interests was his appointment from President Van Buren, in 1838, to the collectorship of the port of Boston. He retained this office till 1841. In 1844 he was the candidate of the Democratic minority, in Massachusetts, for the office of Governor. He was invited by President Polk, in 1845, to a seat in the Cabinet as Secretary of the Navy, the duties of which he discharged with his customary energy and efficiency in the cause of improvement. The next year he was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to Great Britain, and held this distinguished position till 1849. He then returned to the United States, and became a resident of the city of New York. Here he has established his home, and here he VOL. II.-20 The most important work of Mr. Bancroft's literary career, his History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent, appeared in a first volume, in 1834. It struck a new vein in American History, original in design and conception. Terse and pointed in style, in brief, ringing sentences, it took the subject out of the hands of mere annalists and commentators, and raised it to the dignity and interest of philosophical narration. The original preface stamped the character of the work, in its leading motives, the author's sense of its importance, and his reliance on the energetic industry which was to accomplish it. The picturesque account of the colonial period gave the public the first impression of the author's vivid narrative; while the tribute to Roger Williams was an indication of the allegiance to the principles of liberty which was to characterize the work. The second and third followed, frequently appearing in new editions. The interval of Mr. Bancroft's absence in Europe was profitably employed in the prosecution of his historical studies, for which his rank of ambassador gave him new facilities of original research in the government archives of London and Paris. Approaching the revolutionary period he was at that stage of the narrative where this aid became of the utmost importance. It was freely rendered. The records of the State Paper Office of Great Britain, including a vast array of military and civil correspondence, and legal and commercial detail, were freely placed at his disposal by the Earl of Aberdeen, Viscount Palmerston, Earl Grey, and the Duke of Newcastle, who then held the office of Secretary of State. The records of the Treasury, with its series of Minutes and Letter Books, were, in like manner, opened by Lord John Rus |