Town, and believed himself no longer on the enemy's territory, when three young militiamen stopt him. He accosted them as Englishmen, and when he discovered his error, he showed them his passport, but it was too late. They searched his boots, and found in them, the papers which Arnold had put into his hands, and conducted him to colonel Jameson, who commanded the American advance post. The first idea of Jameson was to carry him before Arnold himself, which would have insured the success of the enterprize; but soon recollecting the papers seized were in the hand writing of that general, Jameson sent André to Old Salem under a strong escort, and addressed the papers to Washington, informing him of all that had happened.

The messenger entrusted with that despatch did not meet Washington, who returned from Hartford by another road, and it was this circumstance which saved Arnold. The latter was informed on the 25th, that André had been arrested on the 23d, and he did not deliberate long on the part which remained for him to take. He withdrew from West Point an hour before the arrival of Washington. The congress brought André to trial; two foreigners, generals Fayette, and Steuben, were of the number of his judges. Conformably to the laws of war and the usage of nations, it was declared that he had, as a spy of the enemy merited death, he submitted to it with calm courage, of which no ostentation lessened the nobleness or weakened the interest. Mrs. Arnold, who had been left at West Point, was treated with attentions, which the historian is pleased to represent as extremely honourable to the Americans. As to Arnold, it is not said whether he received the thirty thousand pounds sterling, but he obtained the rank of brigadier general in the English army, and served in that capacity during the rest of the war against his country. He died a few years since, despised even by the English, the usual fate of traitors.

"General Washington did not forget the three militiamen who had arrested André. He transmitted their names to congress, and that assembly passed a resolution importing, that they had a high opinion of the virtuous and patriotic conduct of John Paulding, David Williams, and Isaac Vanwert: that each of them should receive annually two hundred dollars from the public

treasury, and that a medal should be struck, upon which, after inserting their names, should be inscribed these words, 'love of country has triumphed.'"

It will easily be perceived that, in tracing this volume, we have passed over details which animate the narrative, colours which paint them, reflections which render them instructive, the interest, in fine, that the author sheds upon every circumstance by the justness of his ideas and expressions, by the elegance of his style and the nobleness of his sentiment. We have wished only to make known the object and character of his recital. This book is attributed to a magistrate who has filled several eminent stations in the state, and who at present presides in one of the first courts in the kingdom. The statesman formed by long experience is seen in every part of the work, and even in the notes which conIclude the volume. We believe it a duty particularly to point out the sixth, where are collected several facts which paint the character of Washington, the third which presents a picture of the population of the United States, and a view of its probable increase, but above all, the first, which concerns the finances of the nation, and which combines positive and authentic results with general observations of very great importance.

FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

CRITICISM.-An Inquiry into the Principles and Policy of the Government of the United States, &c. By John Taylor, of Caroline county, Virginia. Fredericksburg, Green and Cady. 1814. 8vo. pp. 656. $3.

THE funding and banking systems, are the most prominent features of Mr. Taylor's Inquiry: and, by blending with a large mass of desultory observations on those subjects, a multitude of remarks on a variety of others--many of them little, if at all, connected with the title of his book-he has swelled it into a ponderous octavo, containing no less than six hundred and fifty-six pages, compactly printed.

After perusing this capacious volume with a sufficient degree of attention to enable us to form an estimate of its character,

VOL. IV.

Ff

we are far from deeming its author to be a formidable enemy to these systems. He is, indeed, their "decided" and "unsparing" enemy: but, we believe, his hostility to those systems will be found harmless, because it is unreasonable. The intelligent reader of Mr. Taylor's book, if we are not much mistaken, will quickly discover, that the author is a person of inveterate prejudices; and that these have rivetted themselves upon a mind naturally possessing powers much above the common level. Hence, he has frequently substituted declamation for argument; made erroneous estimates of human nature; laid down visionary principles of government, deduced from these estimates; and, working up his principles into theories of civil polity, inconsistent with the character of man, demonstrated to every sound and well informed mind, as we conceive, the fallacy of his doctrines: for it must be apparent to men of experience and understanding, that governments founded on such principles-being composed of conflicting elements have ever been found either impracticable, when attempted to be carried into operation, or incompetent to answer the purposes of society.

The great end of all legitimate government is, as all know, to enable mankind to enjoy in their respective civil association; constituting national communities-as large a portion of their natural liberty, as is compatible with their condition. A just government will not require a surrender of more of that liberty from its individual members, than will enable it to promote their own and the general welfare: nor will a wise people desire to retain so large a share of their natural liberty, as to incapacitate the government from protecting them in the enjoyment of those social rights and privileges, which they acquire by being members of civilized society. Tyrannical governments, conducted by vicious rulers, will, of course, strive, by artifice or violence, to deprive their subjects of that quantum of freedom, which is essential to their welfare: while, on the other hand, a fickle, ignorant, licentious people-instigated by ambitious and designing demagogues, professing to be their friends-too often permit themselves to be led into a criminal resistance to the necessary authority of laws and government. These opposite evils are to be guarded against: and hence

it has resulted, that in different ages of the world-from the time of Aristotle to the host of theoretical politicians who have appeared in modern times-mankind have been furnished with innumerable plans of government and political projects, for either preventing or curing those evils which are here referred to.

Mr. Taylor himself admits, that civil liberty is not understood. "Mankind," says he, "have talked and written for ages about liberty, and yet the world is as far from agreeing in a definition of it, as Europe is from settling a balance of power. It is because liberty is made to consist in metaphysical dogmas." He is a zealous, and no doubt a sincere, friend of liberty. But so excessive is this zeal for freedom, and so great his dread of power, that no existing form of government appears to him exempt from danger to the former, resulting from an abuse of the latter: And none of those theoretical principles of government, which speculative writers have laid down for the purpose of securing political liberty, appear to our author competent to that end.

Our author's book being entitled, An Inquiry into the Principles and Policy of the Government of the United States, the reader will expect to find in it a rational, clear, and full disquisition on those principles, and that policy. In this, however, he will be disappointed. Notwithstanding the author's division of his subject, and attempt to arrange it under distinct heads, the professed objects of inquiry in the fourth and fifth sections—namely, Funding and Banking-constitute prominent topics of discussion, and of severe reprobation, in the other seven sections of the work. He has, in fact, so blended his observations on those two systems of fiscal policy, with his remarks and strictures on the various principles of government, of whatever form, that public funds and banks are evidently main objects of his political hostility. He has, it is true, dwelt largely on monarchy, aristocracy, and even hierarchy; of which he considers the funding and banking systems as being, in their nature and tendency, powerful auxiliaries. In or

* Mr. Taylor informs the public, in his prefatory address, that the essays which constitute that book were written in 1811. We know not what would now be his idea of the existence of a balance of power in Europe.

der, therefore, to render funds and banks as odious as possible to the American reader, he represents them to be natural allies of monarchy and aristocracy: And, in addition to this, he labours to prove, that what he denominates "paper and patronage," are, in themselves, an aristocracy much more to be feared, than that titled order of men in the British empire, which has been so generally deprecated by men possessing republican principles; an order, nevertheless, which our author views as an harmless aristocracy, in consequence of being stript, by alienation and the equalizing principles of commerce, of their ancient territorial rights and feudal privileges. The hierarchy of the Englisn church, considered as an appendage or branch of the lay aristocracy, or body of nobility, are, in our author's estimation, equally inoffensive, as such; although, for some other cause-the nature of which the reader will be at no loss to conjecture-he has eagerly laid hold of every opportunity to manifest his disrespect for the clergy, without distinction. Even the power of the king, in Great Britain-deprived, as he has been for more than a century past, of his most dangerous prerogatives-would not appear to him to be a formidable member of the government, were it not for the support which the monarchy derives from "paper and patronage." Believing, as Mr. Taylor does, that these two objects are reciprocally the cause and effect of each other, he has very frequently linked them together, in his book. Each, separately, he contemplates as an enormous political evil: by repeatedly uniting them, he presents to his own affrighted imagination an hideous monster-of a disposition so malignant, of influence so extensive, and of power so uncontrolable, as that it must, sooner or later, occasion the inevitable destruction of public liberty, wherever they gain admission.

In the second section of his " Inquiry," our author connects with what he stiles "the principles of the policy of the United States," a variety of strictures on " the English policy." This he does, in order to be enabled, according to his mode of reasoning, to deduce from the policy of Great Britain, in relation to "paper and patronage;❞ examples of the pernicious effects produced, as he supposes, by those political engines, upon the public weal. The third section treats of the evil moral principles of our national government; and the fourth, of its good moral principles. In