India, and that vibration was a loud and melodious tribute to the genius of literature. The memoir contains other facts illustrating the value of literature. Dr. Carey's impressions of missionary life, were deepened by his geographical studies. It ap pears that he taught school in England. He had a facility in acquiring knowledge, but not the talent of im died, he would have executed this task on a scale of proper dimensions. But by proper dimensions we do not mean that a bulky volume was necessary for the purpose. We wish the circle of biography to include all that it can legitimately be made to contain. With due deference to the author of Lalla Rookh, we think he made a circumference for the life of Lord Byron too vast to be filled up either with instruction or amusement;|parting it; and hence he succeeded but indifferently and five or six hundred letters deposited within it, ought to have found a place among the works, rather than the memoirs of the noble poet. This remark will apply to many lives in modern days, though there are some modern pieces of biography superior to any of which antiquity can boast. with his school. The superficial are always prompt to deal out what they know; but in the most of his attainments, Dr. Carey was profound. It is likely, how. ever, that he was too much bent on the improvement of his own mind, to give an undivided attention to the minds of his pupils. He was constantly engaged in collecting the statistics of geography, and in search of recondite facts-of customs not yet accurately defined, and systems of religion differing from the one received But in beginning this communication, we had a specific object in view, and that was to take out of this memoir a few incidental facts which illustrate the value of literature. We looked then, in reading it, with anx-in England. Geography has been called a science; but iety, to find the source from whence Dr. Carey derived it ought scarcely to be dignified with such a title. The the first impulse to a missionary life, and happily we earth lies so open to investigation, and an acquaintance have the statement, not from the biographer, but from with it demands so small a portion of abstract talent, the subject of the biography. On page twelfth of the that the science is claimed as belonging rather to the ge memoir, we find the following declaration: "Reading neral than to the precise operations of the mind. The Cooke's Voyages was the first thing that engaged my literary man cannot be indifferent to geographical infor mind to think of missions." We view this as an im- mation, because so many of the materials with which portant literary fact. These Voyages may not be a he works are brought from this source. There are finished production; but few works have ever wrought many things which the poet uses, with which he may so powerfully on the human mind. Perhaps De Foe, as a not be scientifically acquainted. There never was a writer, was more popular; but his was the romance of poet who did not admire the stars; but all poets have the sea, whilst Cooke gave us nothing but maritime re-not been conversant with astronomy. Thus Thompson alities. De Foe fixed attention on a solitary man; but honored the memory of Sir Isaac Newton in his verse, Cooke, on masses of men hitherto unknown. Many but sought from others the amount of philosophical in regarded De Foe's as a puerile performance, and would formation necessary to the execution of his task. But not look into the deep moral lessons which he taught, it is recorded in the Life of Thompson, that he was inwhilst no prejudice of the kind existed against Cooke. ordinately fond of voyages and travels. Such works Even the occupants of farm-houses could follow the feed the poetical mind, and some of the most imagina track of the navigator, under the conviction that it tive men have derived advantages from going abroad. would lead not to fictitious scenes, but to islands luxu- This may be said of Homer, Camoens, Milton and riant in tropical fruits, among which many of our spe- Byron. It was by this general study that the taste of cies had found a home. Customs entirely novel, trees Dr. Carey was fostered for missionary life, and no man laden with unusual fruits and flowers, expanded by the did more to stop the car of Juggernaut, to abolish sut sun, took their place among the colorings of the human tee, or to rupture the first links in the chain of the caste. imagination. These things appeared marvellous at the It further appears from the memoir, that Dr. Carey time, and realized a declaration since made, that was a botanist. It is not the object of the biographer to represent him in his character as a philosopher, nor is it ours to speak of him in his religious character. But he was always writing back to England for works on plants. He was always wanting the newest publica These voyages not only influenced many to attempt tions on this and kindred subjects, and that at a time the perils of the deep; but, by enlarging the boundaries when he had no home but the pinnace, the jungle, and of human knowledge, they incited many powerful minds. the sunderbund. The passion he had formed in Eng. Sir Joseph Banks, and Solander, a pupil of Linnæus, land was not the less vigorous, because the person in accompanied Cooke in one of his voyages. Having whom it resided was transferred to India. It is admittaken a record of plants in their native lands, they ted that botany is a science existing from the earliest went in search of other and cognate families. But times, but brought to a high state of improvement by these voyages affected the complexion of poetry. The the immortal Swede. This science has been appropri poet, tired of objects which he had seen, longed to de-ated by literature to its own service. It forms one of scribe what he had not seen; and we would ask whether Coleridge, Byron and Montgomery have written nothing, the materials of which have been brought from the grottos of the deep, the beaches of the sea, and the islands of the restless ocean. In this way, the book on which we are remarking has become interwoven with polite letters; and we have proved that this book awoke the moral chord which has vibrated throughout "Truth is strange- the elegant pursuits, and belongs clearly to that region of ideal enchantment over which poets delight to rove. The sun of science has here distributed his rays; but they have been combined into a thousand diamond and planetary points of beauty. Let it not then be forgot. ten, that in this pursuit, Dr, Carey employed moments of relaxation from the toils which consumed his valua ble life. He did not disdain the analysis of a Hindoo comes rich; but by his disinterestedness he dies poor. He is the associate of pundits, rajahs, and viceroys, and the King of Denmark presents him with a medal. Many great names are connected with India, but among them all there is not one brighter than that of the subject of this memoir. Comparisons are invidious among the living, but not among those who have fulfilled their appointed tasks. Sir William Jones was a man of more polished mind, and Bishop Heber of more refined taste, and Bishop Middleton was a more profound Greek scholar; but they were sustained by the plant, even when he was grappling with all the dialects of Asia. And then it appears that he was anxious to compose a system of Hindoo ornithology. Every branch of natural history engaged his attention; but it is probable that in some branches he was simply an amateur. His translation to India introduced him into a new world. The translation of Wilson to this country, produced the ornithological taste by which he was distinguished. Grahame wrote a poem entitled the "Birds of Scotland," but the genius of Wilson was never awakened in North Britain. Far be it from the writer to insinuate that Dr. Carey was devoted to pur-patronage of the government. The one was fortified by suits of this kind, to the injury or neglect of his appro- the seal of his king, and the others carried to India priate vocation. But the eagle, when poising himself crosiers from the church established by law; but in playfulness, may keep his eye on the sun; and this when did either or all of them publish the scriptures in good man kept his wide awake to the central mark at forty dialects. Much then as we revere such benefacwhich he aimed. It appears, too, that he engaged in tors of our race as Sir James McIntosh, or Sir Stamthe translation of a sanscrit poem. This employment, ford Raffles, or Claudius Buchanan, or Henry Martyn, however, does not seem to have been congenial to his let us generously yield the palm to the man who has taste; and this was owing probably to the defective-deserved it. The name of Carey will not be forgotten. ness of his imagination. One of his reviewers has re- It will float forever on the tide of the Ganges; it is asmarked, that a mytho-epic poem was scarcely in har- sociated with each grassy jungle, and it shall be more mony with missionary employment. Nor was an indigo conspicuous, when the children of the east shall weave factory at Malda in unison with the same employment. millenial flowers into the mane of the lion, or entwine But he found that he must subsist, or the mission die, them round the antlers of the Persian gazelle. When and therefore he superintended such a factory. It is the Ganges is low, the million who inhabit Calcutta are probable, then, that the translation of the poem was refreshed at a reservoir of vast dimensions excavated in subsidiary to acquiring a knowledge of the language, their city. When their antiquated systems of religious and of the religious belief of the Hindoos. Without error are exhausted, and the people shall be ready to an acquaintance with the Hindoo religion, how could die of mental and moral thirst, they will turn, we hope, he possibly subvert it; and without perfecting himself to those transparent cisterns of truth, which have been in the language, how could he have compiled the gram- excavated by the hand of religious literature. mars and dictionaries of which he was the author. But the value of literature is pre-eminently seen in the contrast between where literature found him, and the unparalleled usefulness to which he was elevated by its power. It may be said that his piety accomplished much in his behalf; but the object of piety is to confer moral rather than intellectual worth. When he lost sight of England, he left in it many a miner, hedger and toll-gatherer as pious as himself; but he went forth under the auspices of religious literature, and in her name, wrought for the benefit of millions, who, existing prospectively in the ocean of divine wisdom, will one day arrive on the beaches of our island world. Dr. Carey was born in Paulerspury, Northamptonshire, of obscure parents. He was apprenticed to a mechanic. He felt a desire to learn, which he could not suppress. He teaches school, and officiates as a preacher in several obscure towns. We wish his biographer had described these localities more fully. He seems destitute of the associating faculty. He does not so much as hint that Doddridge and Hervey officiated in the same shire--that it was one of the visiting places of Akenside, and the birth-place of Dryden. But Dr. Carey goes forth poor and unknown. Perplexed by the suspicious policy of the East India Company, he takes refuge in Serampore, a Danish town. Many go, year after year, from England to India, but they are allured by the love of gain. When Leyden was dying, he saw a piece of India gold, and he closed his life in the act of inditing to it a pathetic sonnet. When property enough is secured, these adventurers expect, with their acquired rupees, to purchase some greenwood home in England. But Dr. Carey expatriates himself as a perpetual exile. He be Finally, we go for missions, and if asked for a reason, we reply, for the present, in the words of the lamented Heber- "From Greenland's icy mountains, Roll down their golden sand From many a palmy plain, Their land from error's chain." CLERICUS. BAR ASSOCIATIONS. * It is well known that there exist, at divers places in the southern country, certain combinations among the tions, for the purpose of exacting from the community gentlemen of the bar, commonly styled Bar Associahigher fees than could be obtained, were a free competition permitted among the bar for professional business. true, substantial character of these confederations, Sincerely believing that I have correctly described the whatever be their ostensible objects, or whatever subordinate purposes they may effect, I shall endeavor to show that they are wrong in principle, and injurious in their practical results, both to the legal profession and the community at large. To prevent all misapprehen The following communications have been endorsed by one of the ablest political economists in the southern country, to whom they were submitted. He says: "I am against professional as well as trades unions. I consider them as conspi racies against the community at large, and against the younger and less experienced members of the craft." sion, I must say distinctly, at the outset, that I do not imposition, and all the best interests of mankind are impeach the motives of the members of these associa- advanced. tions. Far be it from me to hold up to public execra- Now, it is perfectly evident that all associations tion my respected brethren of the bar, as money-thirsty among the members of particular avocations, estabShylocks, wickedly conspiring together to practice lishing certain fixed prices for their commodities, and wholesale extortion upon a suffering community. I pledging themselves not to undersell each other, are would do them no such injustice; and it taxes not my│in_flagrant hostility to the great commercial law we charity in the slightest degree to admit, as I sincerely have been discussing. They prevent competition. The do, that, unconsciously biassed by the insidious influ- great strife in competition, is, to furnish the best article, ence of self-interest, they no doubt see in these associa- or to render a certain service in the best manner, for tions nothing objectionable, but much that is commenda- the least compensation. A fixed uniform price is then ble. It is hard to see the truth through the bewildering plainly at war with the great animating principle of and distorting mists of self-interest. Than self-interest all commercial enterprise. nothing is more insidious and ingenious. It is constant- Let us suppose for a moment that all other profesly operating upon the human heart, and we daily see sions and avocations enter into similar combinationsit giving a wrong determination to the judgments of that merchants and artisans pledge themselves not to the best of men. Whilst, therefore, I cheerfully acquit | take less than certain stipulated prices for their com these gentlemen of intentional wrong, I shall express my modities or services-what an unnatural scene society sentiments freely with regard to the principles and would present! What an utter subversion of the funeffects of all such organizations. damental principles of commerce would be exhibited! Buy where you can buy cheapest; sell where you can sell dearest-these common sense axioms of all sound traffic would be exterminated; industry and enterprise would be in a measure paralized; the spirit of improvement would be palsied; society would be ironbound and stereotyped, and, instead of advancing to higher and still higher degrees of improvement, would present from age to age the same dull, inanimate features. But where competition is unfettered, where It is a fundamental maxim in political economy, that trade is free, where it is untrammelled by unnatural the freest competition should not only be permitted, but restraints, its direct tendency is to stimulate enterprise encouraged in every department of human exertion. to its mightiest efforts, to create skill and ingenuity, Competition is admitted by the common sense of man- to reduce prices to their proper level, to adapt them kind to be, according to the trite adage, emphatically to the ever fluctuating tide of human affairs, and "the life of business." It presents the most powerful thus to promote the best interests of society, and to stimulus to exertion. It arouses not only the self-in- carry forward the great work of human improvement. terest, but also the pride and vanity of the human heart. These associations, then, conflicting as they do, with It nerves the brawny arm of the laborer for ceaseless great and pervading public principles of vital impor toil by day, and it chains the pale student over his tance to society at large, are wrong in their very con dizzy page by his midnight lamp. It gives skill and stitution, and ought therefore to be abolished. vigor to the physical powers, and it sharpens and My second position was, that these confederations are strengthens all the faculties of the mind. It is the injurious to the legal profession. I do not mean in a patron of industry and enterprise, and the foster-pecuniary point of view, but in their influence upon mother of the arts and sciences. It gives life and en- the character of the bar for professional acquirements ergy to society, and it is in fact the great propelling power of the world. It is one of the great conservative and progressive principles of society. It is necessary to premise, that the members of these associations solemnly pledge themselves to each other, not to receive from their clients less than certain stipulated fees for certain defined professional services; pledging themselves, also, to suspend all professional intercourse with, and to withhold every professional courtesy from such refractory members of the bar as contumaciously refuse to join the confederation. First, then, these associations are wrong on principle. Destroy competition, and you cut the sinews of industry; you paralize enterprise; and you palsy the spirit of improvement. Society becomes at once a lifeless, stagnant pool, whose putrid exhalations will soon fill the whole atmosphere with its deadly mi asmata. But this is not all. Competition is not only the great stimulus to enterprise, and the parent of skill and ingenuity, but it is also the great guaranty of society against the unconscionable exactions of self-interest. Competition brings everything down to its proper level. Its natural tendency is to reduce all commodities to their fair average prices. Is an article unnaturally high-capital and labor are attracted towards it; competition ensues; the market is glutted, and prices sink, Everything is thus reduced to its proper level; prices are left free to adapt themselves to the ever changing condition of human affairs; society is protected against and abilities. Competition creates skill and ability; it sharpens the mental faculties, and stimulates the individual to the greatest possible exertion. But as these associations, in some degree at least, prevent competition, they must, also, in the same degree, tend to suppress the ability which competition would elicit. Every one would naturally expect to find the most skilful artisans, and the ablest professional men, where there was the keenest and freest competition. There is another view of this subject. These fixed tariffs of fees are ordinarily much too high for the plain, formal, ordinary business of the profession, which any one can transact. The consequence is, that the profession is surcharged with petty retainers, who add nothing to its dignity and respectability. Were a free competition permitted, this sort of petty business would soon fall to its proper level; the emoluments of the profession would be reserved as the rewards of learning, talent and worth; the number of pettifoggers would be diminished, and the respectability of the profession advanced. high minded and spirited men, who are conscientiously opposed to these associations, will, with the craven and dastardly spirit of a slave, tamely bow their necks to the yoke? I tell you, nay. No man in whose bosom beats a manly heart, will be deterred by any menaces, or by any unfounded imputation of sordid motives, from the plain path of duty. He will resist to the last gasp, all attempts to tyrannise over his conscience; and in this high course, I doubt not he would be triumphantly sustained by an enlightened and virtuous community. My last position was, that these associations are | contracts with my clients? Is it to be supposed that injurious to the community at large; and if there is any truth in the general scope of the preceding rude hints, (for these crude remarks aspire to no higher character) that position is already sufficiently established. But these confederations inflict a direct injury upon society, by exacting higher fees than a free competition would tolerate. If they do not have this effect, they are useless to the bar; if they do, they are injurious to the community. We all know that members of the bar frequently refuse to accept less than the stipulated fee, not because they could not in justice to themselves accept a smaller compensation for their services, but because they had pledged themselves not to take less than the tariff fee. These associations thus exact large sums of money from the community at large. If then, these associations are, as I have endeavored to show, wrong in principle and injurious in their practical effects, they ought to be forthwith dissolved. They are unworthy of the enlightened profession of the law. They are far behind the free spirit of the age. They savor too much of the shackles and manacles of the dark ages. A freer spirit is abroad upon the earth, bidding the spirit of enterprise go forth unshackled, as free as the gales which swell the sails of the adventurous mariner. Free trade, honorable traffic-these are the maxims of the age, and the true principles of all commercial prosperity; and any association which may oppose this free spirit, will one day be swept away like a bulrush before the swelling tide. A MEMBER OF THE ALABAMA BAR, BAR ASSOCIATIONS. These Associations present three questions. 1. Are they just to the public? 2. Are they just, as between the parties? 3. Is their tendency to elevate or degrade the profession? I. They partake of the nature of all agreements among the venders of any article, to fix among themselves a tariff of price. These again partake of the nature of monopoly. When all venders are of one mind, it is the same as if there were but one vender. Such associations, therefore, are attended by the practical evils of monopoly. All monopolies are odious. The odium varies in Similar associations have not been found necessary degree, according to the nature of the article monopoelsewhere, to secure the rights and to sustain the dig-lized. Thus we may suppose-1. Monopolies of articles nity of the profession; nor are they necessary here To assert that they are, is to libel the profession. The legality of these associations, too, is almost as questionable as their policy. It deserves serious consideration, whether they are not indictable at common law as conspiracies to raise or sustain the price of labor. They certainly come within the spirit, if not within the letter, of the doctrine. the use of which is pernicious. These are easily borne. Hence the high prices of tippling shops. 2. Of articles of mere luxury. Of these, for various reasons, some founded in justice, some in vanity, some in mere recklessness, men rarely complain. 3. Of articles of necessity, but for which substitutes may be found, or which the consumer may make for himself. 4. Of articles of necessity, which cannot be substituted or made by the consumer. To which of these classes does this monopoly belong? Clearly to the last and most odious. Men cannot investigate their rights, or pursue them, when ascertained, without the aid of the bar. Wherein then does this differ from an agreement among the owners of all the springs in any neighborhood, to fix a tariff of the price of water? In this: the necessity for water is one of God's creation. The other is the work of society and legislation. Men are especially bound not to abuse a power over artificial wants of their own creation. Besides, it is easier for every man to dig his own well, than for every man to be his own lawyer. "He who is his own lawyer," says the proverb, "has a fool for his client." But if these organizations are objectionable in these various aspects, the penalties by which they enforce obedience to their arbitrary laws, even upon those who may be conscientiously opposed to them, are liable to still severer reprehension. Recusants are to be summarily Lynched! Yes, sir; all who refuse to join the conspiracy are to be outlawed; all professional courtesy is to be withheld from them; non-intercourse is to be declared; every legal advantage is to be taken of them; they are to be kicked out of court on all occasions; their professional reputation is to be destroyed, and themselves, if possible, driven from the profession in disgrace! They are lawful game, and the whole pack of bloodhounds is to be let loose upon them! Is this right? Is it just? Is it worthy the generous profession of the law? If a member of the bar degrades himself These associations are also unjust to the public, beby dishonorable conduct, spurn him from you; but cause they force a man to give for an inferior article, what right have you to force me to join a confederation which he happens to want, the value of a superior which I disapprove? What right have you to at-article, which he does not want: to buy the time of a tempt to blast my professional reputation, because I mere drudge, at the price of the time of a man of genius choose to exercise my profession like a freeman? and learning: to pay coach hire, though he rides in a because I do not choose to do violence to my conscience, cart. It is as if the manufacturers of broadcloth should by adopting your arbitrary laws? because I will not engage the manufacturer of Kendal cottons not to permit you to dictate to me the rules of my professional undersell them. conduct, and officiously to interfere with my private II. These associations are unjust as between the parties. The terms are generally prescribed by the superior members, who thus take away the main inducement of the suitor to engage the services of inferior men. Such men may manage particular cases quite successfully, but there is a sense of security produced, by the knowledge that our business is in able hands, that decides us in favor of the superior man, if to be had at the same price. III. These associations degrade the bar. By securing to the leading members of the profession a large share of the plain business, and that at a higher price, they feel less inducement to qualify themselves for dis. tinction in the more elevated departments. On the younger and inferior members their operation is yet more pernicious. If left to fight their way without any private understanding, they would get business in the beginning by low charges. In this case they could expect no indulgence or forbearance from the superior whom they had underbid. They must take care to con. duct their cases with order and regularity, which is a great source of improvement. The rules of pleading are like the commandments of the Lord. "In keeping them there is great reward," for he who is capable of correct pleading, and actually practises it, necessarily becomes an able lawyer. triously maintaining the superiority of genius, and ability, and application, over imbecility, ignorance and sloth. [Some letters appear in Blackwood, purporting to be from the German Baron mentioned below: but we are really at a loss to determine, whether there was any such author as Baron Von Lauerwinkel, or whether these letters are not in fact the handiwork of Chris topher North himself, or some one of his tory cortone favors the latter supposition; as to the following, respondents. Their strong English and conservative especially. None but a true born Briton, surely, could have either felt and thought, or expressed himself, in so English a manner. We are not to be considered as subscribing to all his praise of Pitt. But both portraits are finely drawn; and in many traits, truly.—Ed. Mess.] From Blackwood's Magazine, 1818. FOX AND THE YOUNGER PITT. The following sketch is translated from a MS. letter of the Baron Von Lauerwinkel. In the "I shall not easily forget the impression which was made upon me when I first found myself within the walls of the House of Commons. I was then a young man, and my temper was never a cold one. I had heard much of England. dearth of domestic freedom her great men had become ours; for the human mind is formed for veneration, and every heart is an altar, undignified without its divinity, and useless without its sacrifice. Now in all these associations, there is a tacit compact for mutual indulgence, which ends in blank declarations, and in formal pleadings, and uncertain issues, and an utter confusion of ideas, on subjects where nothing is known rightly, which is not known precisely. And this must be so. The tyro, who is forced to content himself with an occasional fee of $50, instead of ten fees of $5 each, will have a right to complain, if he, who has compelled him to charge the highest price for his article, should turn about and disgrace him by exposing its deficiencies. But this tacit understanding secures him in his ignorance. But for this, he would be fair game, and would presently find that he must quit the bar, or qualify himself for it. These associa. "A lover of England, and an admirer of every tions save him from the necessity of doing either. And thing which tends to her greatness, I contemplated, here is his inducement to acquiesce in such arrange-notwithstanding, with the impartiality of a foreignments. They bribe him through his love of ease. It er, scenes of political debate and contention, which is much more convenient to receive a high price for kindled into all the bigotries of wrath, the bosoms little work, slightly done, than for a great deal done of those for whose benefit they were exhibited. carefully. Such is the principle of the trades union. Hence loose practice, and its consequence, loose ideas heated minds of the English, made small impresAbsurdities which found easy credence from the sion on the disinterested and dispassionate German. While rival politicians were exhausting against each other every engine of oratorial conflict, their constituents eyed the combatants, as if every fear and every hope sat on the issue of the field, and prayed for their friends, and cursed their enemies, with all the fervor of a more fatal warfare; but the calm spectator, whose optics were not blinded by the mists of prejudice, though his reason might make him wish the success of one party, was in no danger of despising the honest zeal or the valor of those who were opposed to them. With whomsoever the victory of the day might be, the very existence of the combat was to him a sufficient proof that the great issue was to be a good one-that the spirit of England was entire—that the system of suspicion, on which the confidence of her people is of law. Here again the parable of the cloth manufacturers applies. The maker of Kendal cotton sells only to those who care nothing about the fineness of the article. Hence he too is indifferent to it. Hence also he sells less, but being better paid for worse work, he is content. The true tariff of prices is strict practice. No man incapable of learning the mysteries of pleading, is capable of being a good lawyer. Strict practice is an ordeal which excludes from the bar all who have no business to be there, and thus leaves full employment and rich rewards for the rest. But the system of mutual indulgence, which is but another name for sloth and self-indulgence, puts an end to strict practice. This opens the door to a multitude of pretenders. To drive these out again is the object of bar associations. Would it not be more honorable and more manly to effect the same object, by frankly asserting and indus |