Soon after the return of Washington from this expedition, the Governor and Council determined to enlist two volunteer companies of a hundred men each, to be employed in constructing a fort on the Ohio River, and the command of them was to be given to Washington, who was stationed at Alexandria, and retained his former rank of Major. The first letters in the collection before us are written from that place, on the subject of this expedition. The Assembly afterwards enlarged the force to be employed to three hundred men, divided into six companies; the chief command was given to Colonel J. Fry, and Washington was second, with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. On the 2d of April he marched from Alexandria with two companies; and on the 20th arrived at Will's Creek. Another division of the little army, which had preceded him, under Captain Trent, and taken up a position at the fork of the Allegany and Monongahela rivers, now Pittsburg, had been attacked by the French and compelled to surrender. This was the first act of open hostility that occurred in the memorable war, commonly called that of 1756. On the death of Colonel Fry, about the first of June, Washington took the temporary command of the expedition; and, on the permanent appointment of Colonel James to the same post, he was advanced to the command of the Virginia regiment. In the correspondence belonging to this period, he adverts to the affair of M. de Jumonville, and to the battle of the Great Meadows, both of which, as we have remarked, are illustrated at considerable length in the Appendix. The projected expedi- . tion across the mountains was found impracticable; but the Assembly, in October of the same year, voted to raise ten companies of a hundred men each, and in order to avoid the difficulties respecting rank, which had occurred between the royal and colonial officers, they determined that the companies should be all considered independent of each other, and that there should be no colonial officer of higher rank than captain. Washington, who already held the rank of colonel, declined of course to remain under the new organization, and resigned his commission. But his reputation was already so high, that his presence was regarded as important, if not essential, and on the arrival of General Braddock, at the opening of the next year, as commander-in-chief, in order to avoid any difficulty on the score of rank, he invited Washington to accompany him as his aid, with a Colonel's commission. The

following letters are occupied with details of the events of the disastrous expedition, that terminated in Braddock's defeat ; of which a long and interesting account is given by Mr. Sparks in the Appendix. It was immediately after this action, that President Davies, then a clergyman in Virginia, made use of the remarkable expression, alluded to above. Washington escaped unhurt, though he had two horses shot under him, and received four bullets in his coat. On the 14th of August, he was appointed by the Governor, commander-in-chief of the Virginia forces, which had now been raised to sixteen companies, comprehending in the whole a thousand men, and thus attained, at the early age of twenty-three, by the mere force of his own courage and conduct, the same respectable and elevated station, though on a smaller theatre, which he filled with so much honor in after life. His correspondence as commander-in chief, principally with the Governor, extends through the next three years, and occupies the greater part of the volume. At the close of the year 1758, he retired from the army, and took his seat in the House of Burgesses, of which he had recently been elected a member. The great satisfaction which he had given to the troops under his command, and to the public at large, is evinced by the address of the officers, now first published, and by the interesting scene which occurred in the House of Burgesses, upon his taking his seat. It is related by Mr. Wirt, on the authority of Edmund Randolph, in the following terms.

As soon as Colonel Washington took his seat in the Assembly, Mr. Robinson, the speaker, in obedience to an order of the House, and following the impulse of his own generous and grateful heart, discharged the duty with great dignity, but with such warmth of coloring and strength of expression, as entirely to confound the young hero. He rose to express his acknowledgements for the honor, but such was his trepidation and confusion, that he could not give distinct utterance to a syllable. He blushed, stammered, and trembled for a second, when the Speaker relieved him by a stroke of address, that would have done honor to Louis the Fourteenth in his proudest and happiest moment. "Sit down, Mr. Washington, said he, with a conciliating smile, your modesty is equal to your valor, and that is saying more for it than I could possibly express in any other language."

The concluding part of the collection is composed of a few private letters, written from Mount Vernon, during the inter

VOL. XXXIX.-No. 85.

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val between the retirement of Washington from the army and the opening of the Revolutionary War. We deem it unnecessary to make any extracts from the correspondence, as specimens of its style or substantial character. It is more valuable as materials for history, and as illustrating the character of the writer, than from the intrinsic interest of the contents, which relate in general to matters of mere detail. It has all the prominent qualities of the subsequent revolutionary correspondence, and exhibits a complete maturity of mind, as well as style. The latter was probably somewhat improved by revision at a later period of life. With cordial thanks to the Editor, for his indefatigable and well-directed labors, we take our leave, for the present, of this collection, to which we shall probably take occasion to invite the attention of our readers again, perhaps more than once,-before its final completion.

ART. X.-Temperance.

Fifth Annual Report of the New York State Society for the Promotion of Temperance, presented by the Executive Committee, Feb. 25, 1834.

In our number for January, 1833, we submitted some remarks to our readers, on the subject of Temperance. We expressed the opinion, at that time, that, for obvious reasons, the great work of producing a general reform in the matter of intemperance, was likely to become, to a certain extent, a standing duty of good men; a work, however successful, which must be always doing, and never wholly done.' We are disposed to repeat this remark, at the present time, as one of still pertinent application. We do not know that there is any perceptible relaxation of the zeal, with which this subject was taken up, a few years since, we have noticed no such relaxation. Should it manifest itself in any quarter, it must be considered as a perfectly natural occurrence, for the ardor, with which novelties of all kinds are taken up and pushed forward, is, with that part of the community who are caught with mere novelty, naturally followed by indifference, when the novelty is worn off. There is a class of pioneers in the world of benevolence and public spirit, as in the Western

territory, who, by the time the fields are beginning to open to the sun,—and while the tall black trunks are still standing, -fly forward to subdue some farther forest, still more remote from the haunts of men. But they are the most useful laborers in a great cause, who adhere to it when novelty is over, pursue it when the éclat of a popular wonder is past, -cherish it, when perhaps a partial reaction, in what is called public sentiment, comes on,-and clear it from the prejudice which results to it, in consequence of the abuses, evils, mistakes, and untoward incidents, which beset all human things, and seldom fail to develope themselves, in company with the benefits and blessings of great moral changes.

Our remarks in January, 1833, were drawn out, by one of the annual Reports of the New York State Temperance Society. By again making the record of its proceedings the text of a few observations, we intend no invidious preference of its agency, over that of the other associations for the same object, in the United States, from the American Temperance Society down to the smallest village Union; which have, as far as we are acquainted with them, all deserved nobly of the cause of humanity. In the motives of those, who take the lead in these institutions, or swell the ranks, we suppose there is the average amount of human infirmity,—in their measures, the average mixture of discretion and imprudence,-in the estimates of the effects produced, the average compound of truth and over-statement. If we insist on waiting to commence the reform of great evils, till we can find men and societies, of whom these same remarks cannot be made, we shall wait till this state of probation is over, and humanity, with all its capacities, imperfections, evils, and modes of discipline, is resolved into a different state of being. If we give as a reason for not countenancing a great work of reform for the extirpation of a crying evil, that those who are engaged in the work are not free from the imperfections of humanity;-that its first subjects, in ceasing to be the victims of the evil, do not become saints,-that some of those, who enlist in the cause, are mercenaries, or that some others become deserters, that, while a vigorous remedy is applied to the main evil, other shades of evil or inconveniences have crept in, we show a great degree of simplicity or insincerity; for these objections would suspend all effort, individual or social, to reform the most acknowledged evils.

or,

Thus it is said, that of those, who have been led to abstain from the use of ardent spirit, under the influence of the Temperance reform, some consume a larger quantity of wine, or cider, or beer, or some other succedaneous intoxicating liquor, and that therefore the Temperance reform is not a sincere, thorough, honest work. But this is very unjust. A work may be sincere and honest, and yet not wholly effectual. Is there any thing perfect in human affairs? We suppose, as a political movement, the American Revolution was as honest, as any that is recorded in the world's annals. Was there not in its secret history and in its public transactions, we do not say the usual amount, but the usual mixture of selfishness and passion?-And suppose some individuals abandon rum, only to indulge in cider or wine, what then?-It cannot be supposed that all, or a very considerable portion of those, who pretend to have become temperate, are of this description; and therefore the fact amounts to no more than this, that some persons, who were thought to have abandoned a very pernicious habit, have substituted another quite bad, though less pernicious than the former. It does not touch the value of the reformation, where it is sincere and genuine. The benefits and the blessings of the reform are to the individuals who are the subjects of it; and where it is genuine and entire, it is not the less so, because in some other cases, there has been deception or backsliding.

Again, it is reform to abandon rum, even to take up cider, beer, or wine; for though these last, taken in sufficient quantities, are inebriating, yet it is not so easy to produce that effect by their use. To extirpate the use of rum is taking a great and important step, even for those who fly to some other stimulant; for there is no substitute, in which the poison can be had so cheap, so palatable, so highly concentrated. There is nothing so formidable as rum; a man cannot well change in this matter, without changing to advantage ;-it is not possible, we believe, to go farther and fare worse.

The last annual Report of the New York State Temperance Society discloses a continued energy of purpose, an increased operation of a very thoroughly organized social machinery,and above all, a great enlargement of the sphere of operations through the press. The circulation of documents, effected by the Society, has risen from forty-eight thousand, which was the amount in the first and second years of the Society's ex