sing our American ignorance; but certainly we were "taken aback"-to use what we believe is a well-accredited sea-phrase-when Paul Powis, on parting with Eve Effingham and her father, whose lives he had saved on the coast of Africa, by his bravery and skill, politely remarked, ance." of the forest. Steadfast in their faith, they considered persecution a privilege; torture, beatitude; and mar tyrdom, glory; with spirits which oppression could not crush, nor cruelty tame, they had learned in the school of adversity, the worth of that freedom they could not enjoy. They it was who brought to the western hemisphere the germ of liberty, out of which the independence of these United States was unfolded to the world. "Chance has several times thrown me into your society, Mr. Effingham-Miss Effingham-and, should the same good fortune ever again occur, I hope I may be permitted to address you at once as an old acquaintProbably Mr. Cooper had found in his well-thumbed copy of the "Laws of Etiquette," with which he is, doubtless, as familiar as Captain Truck with his favorite author, Vattel, that passing acquaintances, formed at places of public resort, and in journeying by sea and land are not to be renewed, as of course, at after meet-home, points us to the ruins of his church, which bigoings! Though history proper makes us acquainted with the grand features and general outline of those times, by revealing to us the persecutions and sufferings, and heroism of the noted few, we cannot catch from her formal manner, the spirit of the times. It is such works as the present, that complete the picture. Mr. Fontaine takes us familiarly by the hand, leads us to his try had razed, and where persecution forbade him to minister. He conducts us thence with his neighbors to secret worship in the wood. And entering into their feelings, we follow him and them to prison, where we witness the sufferings, and are made fully acquainted with the condition of a Huguenot of the 17th century. Mr. Cooper is soon to give us the sequel of his story, in which he will attempt a complete delineation of American society. We predict that this attempt will prove a signal failure. His cosmopolitism, or so-called freedom from prejudice, will be greatly in the way of a fair representation of our national characteristics. Be- Mr. Fontaine commences the annals of his family sides, as we have before remarked, his fort does not lie from his great grandfather, John de la Fontaine, who in the description of refined and polished life :-now bore a commission in "Les ordonances du Roy," in the we think that there is enough refinement and polish in household of Francis I. He conducted himself so the United States, to put him at fault in the endeavor honorably and uprightly, that even after his father and to personify them in a fictitious character. We pre-himself had embraced protestantism at its first preachdict that he will fail; yet with all our hearts-for his ing in 1535, he remained in his office, and continued in country's honor, his own reputation, and our entertain-it during the reigns of Henry II, Francis II, and until ment-wish him, even at the expense of the prophet's the second year of Charles IX. disgrace, the most abundant success. An entertaining little story, plainly told, of one of the most interesting periods in European history. The naïveté with which Mr. Fontaine, in his old age, sits down to entertain his Huguenot children with a family tale-the simple manner in which he relates the stirring incidents and hair-breadth escapes of his adventurous life-carries the mind irresistibly back to the winter evening tales of childhood, and forcibly reminds us of the absorbing interest with which we used to devour the legends of the nursery. Though it purports to be the tale of a family, the work before us is the story of thousands. Varying the detail, with slight alterations, many, besides his two thousand descendants, may read their family history in the auto-biography of Mr. Fontaine. The persecutions and oppressions which drove him from his belle France, drove our ancestors to the rock of Plymouth, and peopled the wilds of a new world with the champions of civil and religious liberty. The protestants of Germany, the Huguenots of France, with the dissenters and congregationalists of England and Scotland, fled from their father land, to seek a place in an unexplored wilderness, where they might worship God, according to conscience and to reason. The early protestants were dragooned from place to place in Catholic Europe, and hunted down like beasts At the edict of Pacification, called the January Edict, granted in 1562, the protestants were lulled into false security, and induced to lay down their arms. John de la Fontaine trusting to the immunities guarantied to them, deemed himself secure without the protec tion afforded by his office, and threw up his commission. But, continues our biographer, "Some of the sworn enemies of God and his gospel, who had long watched John de la Fontaine, and conceived a deep hatred against him, thought the time had now arrived when they might safely put him out of the way; and such a man being got rid of, it would be comparatively easy to disperse the rest of the congregation to which he belonged. "It was in the year 1563 that some of these ruffians were despatched from the city of Le Mans in search of him; and in the night time, when he least expected such a fate, he was dragged out of doors, and his throat cut; his wife, within a few weeks of her confinement, had followed him, hoping by her entreaties, to save his life; but she shared the same fate. "James de la Fontaine, my grandfather, then thirteen or fourteen years old, with Abraham, two years his junior, and another brother still younger, filed from the bloody scene, full of horror and consternation, without a guide save the providence of God, and no aim but to get as far as possible from the barbarians, who had in one moment deprived them of both father and mother. They did not stop until they reached Rochelle, then a very safe place for protestants, containing as it did, within its walls, many faithful servants of the living God. These poor lads were actually begging their bread when they arrived there, and were without any recommendation save their appearance. A charitable "A rumor prevailed that there were meetings in our parish, and that I was the preacher; but we had no traitor in our ranks, and the papists were unable to discover any thing with sufficient certainty to make a handle of. Our holy intercourse continued without any drawback till Palm Sunday, 1684. On that day some of my neighbors came to my house as usual, and not finding me there they retired to the wood behind my house, and one of their number, a mason by trade, who read very well, officiated as their pastor. He read several chapters from the Bible, the prayers of the church, a sermon, and they sang psalms. This meeting having been open, it was noised abroad, and on Holy Thursday from seven to eight hundred persons assembled on the same spot, the mason again their pastor; and on Easter day the number increased to a thousand. **** shoemaker, who feared God, and was in easy circumstances, received James into his house, and into his affections also, and taught him his trade. They all three lived poorly enough, until James reached manhood; he then entered upon commercial pursuits, and his career afterwards was comparatively prosperous. In the year 1603, he married, and had two daughters and one son, (James,) my father. He married again, but had no addition to his family; and better would it have been for him had he remained a widower, for his last wife attempted to poison him; and though unsuccessful, the affair became too notorious to be hushed up. She was carried to prison, tried, and condemned to death. It so happened that Henry IV was then at Rochelle, and application was made to him for pardon; he said before he granted it, he must see the husband she had been so anxious to get rid of. When my grandfather appeared before him, he cried out, 'Let her be hanged, let her be hanged, ventre saint gris! he is the handsomest man in my kingdom.' I have seen his pic-selves in the wood, and after scouring the country, the ture, and it certainly did represent him as a handsome man. "Warrants were issued; and the Grand Provost and his archers were in search of us. I was absent; the country people, having had timely notice, hid them archers found no one but the poor mason, who had officiated; him they took, fastened to a horse's tail, and dragged to Saintes, a distance of fifteen miles. They threatened him in all kinds of ways, and assured him that he would be hanged as soon as they reached the capital. It was late when they arrived-too late, they told him for him to be hanged that night, and that one solitary chance for life yet remained to him, and that was to recant without delay; for if he once got within the walls of the prison, a hundred religions would not save him from death." "I now proceed to my own father, who at an early age discovered great aptitude for study, and a very serious turn of mind. I was the youngest child of my parents, and have but little personal recollection of your grandfather, being only eight years old when he died. He was a man of fine figure, clear complexion, pure red and white, and of so dignified a deportment, that he commanded the respect of all with whom he came in contact. He absented himself on festive occasions, but never failed to visit every family in his flock twice Mr. Fontaine was also thrown into prison; and here a year. The sick and afflicted were visited as soon as commences the adventurous life of this singular man. their affliction was made known to him. When it was At the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, after he understood that he was praying with the sick, crowds had failed in the council of elders and ministers, to would flock to hear him, filling the house-for you must prevail on that body to resist persecution, and call on know that in that district all were protestants, save the protestants to take up arms in defence of their relifour or five families. He was most zealous and affec-gion, their lives, and their property, he found himself no tionate, and employed all his knowledge, his talents, and longer useful as a minister, and fled from France, he and his studies in the service of God. He had great learn- his ladye-love, in an open boat, and passed as drunken ing, quick and ready wit, clear and sonorous voice, fishermen, under the guns of a man-of-war that guarded natural and agreeable action, and he always made use the coast against the escape of protestant refugees. He of the most chaste and elegant language; and genuine landed pennyless in England; mortgaged the jewelry humility, crowning the whole, gave such a charm to his of his intended; engaged in commerce; married; bediscourses, that he delighted all who heard him. ✶ ✶ ✶ came a schoolmaster; then a preacher; afterwards a "I now return to my own history. I went to Saintes weaver; then a manufacturer of calimancos, and a groto reside, in order to have the assistance of two able and cer. His skill and success in the two last excited the pious ministers, Mr. Mainard and Mr. Borillak, in admiration, and soon the envy and jealousy, of those pursuing my theological studies. After awhile they around him. also were cast into prison, and I returned home. "My brother Peter had been minister of my father's parish ever since his death, and about this time he was seized under a 'lettre de cachet,' and confined in the castle of Oleron. The church at Vaux was levelled to the ground, and most of the churches in our province shared the same fate; thus my neighbors could not reach a place of worship without great fatigue; and feeling compassion for them, as sheep without a shepherd, I felt myself called on to invite them to join me in my family devotions. The number who came soon increased to one hundred and fifty, and I then recommended to them not to come daily as heretofore. I frequently changed the days of assembling, giving previous notice to the people; and we continued this endearing intercourse uninterruptedly during the whole winter. From England he retired to Cork, where he became a dyer and a manufacturer of broadcloths. Here he distinguished himself as a preacher, and was presented with the freedom of the city. But preaching from the decalogue, his sermon on the eighth commandment, "thou shalt not steal," applied with so much force to some of his congregation, exciting them against him, that he deemed it expedient to resign his charge as minister. He again engaged in commerce; entered into the tobacco trade of Virginia; removed to Bear Haven; turned fisherman; became a justice of the peace; was attacked by a French corsair; he, assisted by his wife and children, defended themselves against great odds; drove off the privateer, who recruited; renewed the attack; battered down the house; capitulated and carried his son off as a hostage. And he himself became a pensioner of the British government. | brance, so that we may never degenerate from those mo He retired from Bear Haven, always a poor man, and again became a schoolmaster. dest and estimable privileges. Let their example serve us instead of the distinctions they could not transmit. "The conformity of name appears to indicate identity of race. I wish with all my heart we could disco Amidst all his misfortunes, he contrived to give his children good educations. His sons, James, Peter and Francis, and his son-in-law, Matthew Maury, emigra- | ver the proof of it. For if we do spring from one stem, ted to Virginia about 1717; from whom have descended the Maurys and Fontaines of this country. Mr. Fontaine's grandson, the Rev. James Maury of Albemarle county, was the tutor of our Jefferson and Madison, and the father of Mr. Maury of New York, well known in Virginia as the "Old Consul." Many years ago, when in Europe, this last gentleman wishing to trace the relationship between his branch of the family, and the celebrated Abbé Maury, opened a correspondence with that dignitary, from which we venture the following extracts. "Paris, Sept. 8, 1777.. "I have just received the letter, sir, with which you have honored me, and I hasten to thank you for the many polite things you are so kind as to say of me, as well as for the desire you express to know whether we belong to the same family. From the details into which you enter, it would appear we have a common origin; and in order that you may form your own opinion, I think I ought to tell you at once all I know of the name I bear. | the separation cannot be far distant. It would be very "Abbé de l'acadamie des arcades de Rome in 1773. "To JAMES MAURY, of Virginia." "Paris, May 12, 1778. "I am no more in the habit, Monsieur, of being the slave of ceremony than you are. Your letters bespeak a man amiable, educated, and well-bred, and far from finding any fault with your conduct towards me, I am on the contrary much flattered. Do more justice to yourself and to me also, and above all make no apology when I alone am to blame. * * * * "You are then on the eve of returning to Virginia. I wish you all kinds of good luck. I shall be overjoyed if I can be of any service to you in Paris during your residence in America. You should not doubt of my wish to hear from you as soon as you arrive. Besides the ties of blood, which perhaps unite us, those of friendship are sufficient to inspire me with a lively interest. I entreat you to believe that I can never be indifferent to the success of a man who makes himself known with as much merit as you do. Tell your countrymen that they My family, down to my father inclusive, was originally from Arnagon, a small village in Lower Dauphiny, where they possessed several manors, and where they had professed the protestant religion for nearly two centuries. At the time of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, my grandfather, who had eleven older brothers-himself too young to leave home with themwas brought up by one of his maternal relatives in another village, called Péage, three leagues distant from Arnagon; he married there, and abjured; and at the | are dear to all France; that we wish for their pros commencement of the present century he settled at Valais, a town in the county of Avignon, where my father died, after having re-established his fortune by commerce and an advantageous marriage. Thanks to his good example, and the education he gave his children, they have done well, and he had the satisfaction of living to witness my advancement. Having given you this history of the branch from which I spring, I will proceed to relate what I have heard of the others whom I have never known. 'Immediately after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, all our property was confiscated. The eleven | brothers of my grandfather entered the king's service; three were killed at Mal Plaquet; another made his fortune, and died in 1762–he was a brigadier in the Royal Life Guards; another settled on the confines of Perigord, or Guienne: but we have never had any intercourse with him, because of my grandfather having left his native place, and his children becoming orphans at an early age. We are in total ignorance of what has become of the remainder of the family. "You see, sir, that in supposing yourself a descendant of one of these dispersed children, you will find no illustrious titles: we have little to boast of but the honor, the virtues, and the reputation for honesty and uprightness, which our ancestors always enjoyed in the neighborhood where they lived. Let us cherish the remem perity; that we glory in their triumphs; that we admire their courage, and respect their virtues; and that we could not feel more interested in a French army, than we are with the troops of Congress. Nothing is talked of here but the brave Americans; and we must ac knowledge that for three years past, they have multiplied actions calculated to keep up our admiration. This people is destined to play a grand part on the theatre of the world; but to whatever pitch of glory your descendants may rise, they will never forget the present generation, and the liberators of America will live forever in the memory of man. * * * * "I pray you to accept my wishes for your welfare at the moment of your departure; and be assured of the distinguished consideration with which I have the honor to be, sir, your most obedient and very humble servant, "MAURY, “Abbé de la Frenade, &c. &c. "JAMES MAURY, of Virginia." The merit of rescuing this interesting little memoir from the dusty shelf, where it had remained for more than a hundred years, belongs to a lady. In the office of translator and compiler, she has acquitted herself with much grace, and deserves the thanks of the reading public, no less than of her two thousand kinsfolk to whom her work is dedicated. Addressed to the Hon. Hugh S. Legaré of South Carolina. connected with the maintenance of the bond of union; "Truth is the supreme good, the first aliment of the soul. To search after truth, is the only employment correspondent with the high destinies of man. But like the Egyptian Isis, truth is a mystic divinity covered with a veil, which the wise and the virtuous of all ages have labored to raise, but which no one can entirely remove." To attain truth, is to see and to know God, for God alone is truth. In the merciful dispensations of Providence, the mind of man is made inquisitive, and its powers elastic and expansive; and while to the faithful and persevering worshipper the light of truth is slowly revealed from the depths of the sanctuary, it can never burst upon him in the fulness of its glory, for none can look upon it and live. It is only when this corruption shall have put on incorruption, when this mortal shall have been clothed with immortality, that truth can be fully revealed. Such is the divine excellence of truth, and such is the inquisitive character of the human mind, that although truth be unattainable in this life, the soul of man, in its progress towards this hidden divinity, is so refreshed and illumined by every emanation, that he is irresistibly attracted, and his thirst for further knowledge increases with every ray of light. This occupation, then, is the proudest and most beneficial exercise of the energies of man. To the contemplative mind there is a striking similitude between the institution of the natural, and the correction and enlargement of the moral and intellectual world. It was the exertion of the loftiest attribute of the Ancient of Time that imposed order on element, and gave to early confusion and commixture the impress of character, and the form and figure of action. To power thus exercised, and to benevolence so directed, there can be no homage so meet as that which proceeds from the family reflecting his image; and there can be no tribute more correspondent or acceptable than the cultivation and refinement of that intellect, which, emanating from himself, lifts the creature man from the degradation of the dust, and places him in the scale of creation near to the ministering angel. The intellect of man is the germ of truth. It is a spark struck from the eternal rock of ages, and its proper destination is the bosom of the parent. Let us remember that we have been endowed with talents to be useful, and that the end of wisdom is truth. In all the vicissitudes of our earthly pilgrimage let us reflect, that, although the fulness of truth is unattainable here, there is a realm beyond the skies, where the chaste and virtuous mind will exult in a ful ness of vision, to which space will object no limit, and to which time can oppose no barrier. It is this reflection, which should incite us to untiring exertion in this lofty and legitimate pursuit of the understanding. In accordance with these principles, truth is the sole object with no prejudices or prepossessions for or against any sectional division of the confederacy; looking neither to the North, nor the South, to the East, nor to the West, but filled with a holy love for our common country; thoroughly assured that the perpetuity of our institutions mainly depends upon a calm and dispassionate consideration of the exciting question of slavery; we have boldly resolved to unfold those views which have been the result of much reading and reflection. We maintain the following propositions : 1. That slavery is coeval with society, necessary for its formation and growth, and was in the primitive ages a natural condition of a large portion of the human family. 2. That it is universal, and has existed in all ages. 3. That it is neither prohibited by the MORAL nor the DIVINE law. 4. That christianity alone, by its exalting influence, and by its peaceful and gradual operation, can abolish it. 5. That its sudden abolition by any people, either by a fanatical perversion of the mild principles of christianity, or by any intemperate agency, must be neces sarily attended with frightful social, and political revulsions, destructive alike to the bond and free. In the discussion of this interesting question, we do not design to treat each of these propositions separately, or in the precise order in which they are announced; for, many of the evidences and illustrations, which multiply around us as the stars of the firmament, will throw their rays over the whole field we traverse. Before we proceed to show that slavery derives its origin from the very nature and condition of primitive man, it will be proper to form a correct idea of slavery itself. In treating of the origin of slavery, we must carefully avoid the common error of forming our opinions upon the present state of things, or of permitting them to be influenced by the existing state of servitude; but we must ascend at once to the primitive ages, and calmly observe the condition of the early settlers of the world. Of all the theories of the origin of slavery proposed by modern writers--especially by those who immediately preceded or followed the French revolution, when the attributes of the Deity himself were made to bow before the insolent assertion of the "Rights of Man"-there are few which more feebly oppose the austere rules of sound reason than those of M. de Montesquieu.. "Slavery," says this far-famed writer, "slavery, properly so called, is the establishment of a right, which gives to one man such a power over another, as renders him absolute master of his life and fortune." And assuming this position, he declares that "the state of slavery is in its own nature bad; that it is neither useful to the master nor to the slave; not to the slave, because he can do nothing through a motive of virtue, nor to the VOL. IV.-93 master, because by having an unlimited authority over | unmitigated slavery, without fear of contradiction. He his slaves, he insensibly accustoms himself to the want of all moral virtues, and becomes fierce, hasty, choleric, voluptuous, and cruel." This is not slavery as it exists in this country, where it is protected by the laws, and is by the fundamental compact made an integral portion of the basis of federal representation. It is the abuse of slavery which is thus defined. And indeed the judicious observer will readily perceive, that the denunciations of slavery in all the writers upon natural law, apply only to the flagrant abuse of this institution, and have no reference to the qualified slavery or domestic servitude of the southern states. M. de Montesquieu proceeds to state the various theories which have prevailed in relation to the origin of slavery, and condemns them all. But we will soon discover that its true origin has escaped his observation, and that it neither originated in despotism, nor tyranny, nor contract, nor war, nor conquest, nor by captivity. Its origin will be traced to the infancy of social institutions, and the necessities and condition of the human family in those primitive ages, when the whole world was an unsubdued wilderness, and the labor of the whole human family was absolutely necessary for the erection of the first establishments of man upon the face of the earth. If this be the true origin of slavery, then all other theories are false, and this condition is founded in the nature of man; and Montesquieu himself declares, that "slavery ought to be founded in the nature of things." Elevating our minds then above the prejudices of the age in which we live, let us ascend to the early ages, and with a docile and sober spirit, seek for information of those primitive races by whom slavery was introduced, among whom it was firmly established, and from whom it has descended to us. proclaimed it at the head of the wisest philosophers of antiquity, who lived in the midst of slavery; in the face of all Greece, which concurred in his opinion; he declared it to the nations of the earth, which, as well as Greece, possessed multitudes of intelligent slaves deeply interested in its refutation; it was advanced as an unquestionable fact, open to the observation of the whole world, which none could question, because it was the deliberate opinion of the age in which he lived. Now, it must be admitted that an assertion so positive, proclaimed without contradiction among a free people in an age of slavery, in the midst of a multitude of nations who held in slavery men who were learned in all the philosophy of the schools, and imbued with all the wis dom of the times, many of whom were distinguished writers, deeply interested in its denial,—that such an assertion, fortified with such testimony, is not without much weight in the investigation of the subject we discuss. Having thus considered the force of this declaration of Aristotle, let us inquire whether we shall reject the testimony of all antiquity in its favor, and whether we can concur with M. de Montesquieu in the opinion, that the reasoning of the Stagyrite is inconclusive. An attentive perusal of the first six chapters of Aristotle's political treatise will show, that this great philosopher has revealed the true cause of the necessity of slavery in the first ages of man. The first step of the primitive men in their march towards civilization, their first effort to subdue nature, was in the erection of a domestic establishment. And for that purpose, in that rude age, when nature herself was wild and unsubdued, were required multitudes of men, beasts of burden, and instruments and provisions of many kinds. In the very words of the philosopher: "Instrumentorum autem hæc sunt inanima, hæc autem animata; mansueta animantia propter cibum et propter usum, feræ autem cibi, et aliorum adminiculorum causa." Now, at the origin of things, in the infancy of man, when the first establishment was formed, to whom would necessarily appertain the right of controlling and directing these necessary agents? To the younger born-or to the father of the family alone? And while there was yet upon earth but a single establishment, the descendants of this family were compelled to remain with the parent, since it was impossible for them to establish themselves elsewhere, the labor of all being required to complete and maintain the first, before other establishments could be made. The authority exercised by the parent must necessarily have been absolute, and the nature of the services required of his descendants essentially servile. The inquisitive author of the Spirit of Laws says, that "Aristotle endeavors to prove that there are natural slaves, but what he says is far from proving it." To Aristotle, one of the most profound of the philosophers of antiquity, we confidently appeal, and with the more confidence, because in this iron age of utilitarianism, his material philosophy, fortified with all the powers of the "greatest, wisest, meanest of mankind,” has been pre- | ferred to the spiritual sublimity of the divine Plato. Aristotle has expressly declared, that "in the natural state of man, from the origin of things, a portion of the human family must command, and the remainder obey; that the distinction which exists between master and servant is a distinction at once natural and indispensable; and that when we find existing among men freemen and slaves, it is not man, but nature herself, who has ordained the distinction." "Naturâ plura quæ imperent, et quæ pa-So that whatever the French philosophists of modern rent; natura aliter herus, aliter servus; esse igitur naturâ, hos quidem liberos, hos vero servos, apertum est." And Montesquieu himself, while, in blind obedience to the spirit of the age in which he lived, he denies the force of Aristotle's reasoning, boldly affirms that slavery did not originate in the abuses of despotism, nor by conventional compact, nor by human institution, but that it must be derived from the very nature of things-"de la nature même." And this enunciation of the natural origin of slavery, so revolting to the friends of the rights of man, so directly opposed to the prevailing notions of freethinkers, was made by Aristotle, in a period of times may say of the natural condition of a people, it is evident that in the earliest state of society, the slavery of the after-born necessarily existed, and originated in the very nature of things, and in the primitive condition of man. Notwithstanding the objection of M. de Montesquieu to this declaration of Aristotle, we find in various passages of the Spirit of Laws, the cause of the indispensable necessity of slavery clearly indicated. In the thirtieth book we find this unquestionable and historical fact openly proclaimed: "que dans les premiers tems les enfans restaient dans la maison du père, et s'y etablissaient"—that in the earliest times the descendants |