author, and the world is little solicitous to know whence proceeded the faults of that which it condemns; yet it may gratify curiosity to inform it, that the English Dictionary was written

with little assistance of the learned, and without any patronage of the great; not in the soft obscurities of retirement, or under the shelter

of academic bowers, but amid inconvenience and distraction; in sickness and in sorrow. It may repress the triumph of malignant criticism to observe, that if our language is not here fully displayed, I have only failed in an attempt which no human powers have hitherto completed. If the lexicons of ancient tongues, now immutably fixed, and comprised in a few volumes, be yet, after the toil of successive ages, inadequate and delusive; if the aggregated knowledge and cooperating diligence of the Italian Academicians did not secure them from

the censure of Beni; if the embodied critics of France, when fifty years had been spent upon their work, were obliged to change its economy, and give their second edition another form, I may surely be contented without the praise of perfection, which, if I could obtain, in this gloom of solitude, what would it avail me? I have protracted my work till most of those whom I wished to please have sunk into the grave, and success and miscarriage are empty sounds. I therefore dismiss it with frigid tranquillity, having little to fear or hope from censure or from praise."

The deep tone of sorrow that marks the closing sentences of this elegant and forcible address to the public, cannot fail to arrest the attention of every reader; and many will be ready to inquire why he was thus depressed in spirit. Some part of this may, perhaps, be ascribed to his constitutional melancholy, but much more to his circumstances. Omitting one or two names, we ask in vain who were "the most of those whom he had wished to please" who had already "sunk into the grave?" The circle of his intimate friends had never yet been extensive, and among those whom he had, it does not appear that there had been any unusual mortality. But death had invaded his household, and deprived him of the sole companion of his home, and she was more to him than all the world beside.

It

would probably have afforded him a higher satisfaction to have laid his "Dictionary" at her feet, and to have heard her commendation of his labors, than was derived from the applause of all the great world. The seeming indifference to the public judgment, however, though probably sincere, was only temporary, as is evinced by his cotemporary letters to his friends. He had too much self-respect to fawn for favor; he knew the merits of his productions, and was too proud to be vain; yet

praise freely offered was always gratefully accepted-though rather as a just recompense, than as a gratuity.

But a scarcely less painful cause of dejection existed in his finances. The price paid for his "Dictionary" was spent before the work was completed; and while it was in progress he was often compelled to devote himself to other things, in order to "make provision for the day that was passing over him ;" and when the work was done, and his wearied hands hung down, and his overtasked brain demanded repose, stern want was still clamoring for its daily supplies. In such a case, minds less inclined to melancholy might speak of their condition as a “gloom of solitude," and nothing else so effectually as starving poverty inclines one to be indifferent to censure or praise.

SOME

Methodist preacher on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, a portrait, entitled "John Wesley, A. M., of New Inn Hall, Oxford, Grandfather of Revs. John and Charles Wesley." Our correspondent wrote that he had obtained it from an English emigrant, then residing on "The Cape," who had found it among the rubbish of a seller of old books in an English provincial town. The English picture is evidently a "reliable" one; it is exceedingly well engraved, and was unquestionably got up with no little pains and expense. Our artist has executed a faithful copy of it. Though known in England, it is a novelty here, and we present it to our Methodist readers, as something more than a mere curiosity; for, without this John Wesley -the John Wesley would not have been. The characteristics and lives of the two men were also very similar, so much so that many of the most important traits of the founder of Methodism seem to have been inherited from his grandfather, rather

than derived, as is usually supposed, from his maternal education. The elder John Wesley, like his celebrated descendant, was a student at Oxford, was devotedly pious from his childhood, kept a very minute diary down to the end of his life, deviated from the "Uniformity" of the Church, was "ejected" from his pastoral charge, preached about the country, not unlike the circuit preachers of his grandson, was persecuted, was four times imprisoned, and died in all his obstinacy and piety. He was a character, and a good and noble one. The reader who would trace his history more minutely and especially trace in it the resemblances of the later John Wesley, will find some data for the purpose in Adam Clarke's "Wesley Family," and Calamy's "Non-conformists Memorial," though it is to be regretted that there are none but very meager accounts of him extant. It is supposed he was born about A. D. 1636, and died about A. D. 1678.

The origin of the engraving from which our cut has been taken is indicated by the

WHIL

HILE this excitement lasted, Law took good care not to expose himself unguarded in the streets. Shut up in the apartments of the regent, he was secure from all attack; and whenever he ventured abroad, it was either incognito, or in one of the royal carriages, with a powerful escort. An amusing anecdote is recorded of the detestation in which he was held by the people, and the ill-treatment he would have met had he fallen into their hands. A gentleman of the name of Boursel was passing in his carriage down the Rue St. Antoine, when his further progress was stayed by a hackney-coach that had blocked up the road. M. Boursel's servant called impatiently to the hackney-coachman to get out of the way; and, on his refusal, struck him a blow on the face. A crowd was soon drawn together by the disturbance, and Mr. Boursel got out of the carriage to restore order. The hackney-coachman imagining that he had now another assailant, bethought him of an expedient to rid himself of both; and called out as loudly as he was able, "Help, help! Murder, murder! Here are Law and his servant going to kill me! Help, help!" At this cry the people came out of their shops, armed with sticks and other weapons, while the mob gathered stones to inflict summary vengeance upon the supposed financier. Happily for M. Boursel and his servant, the door of the church of the Jesuits stood wide open; and, seeing the fearful odds against them, they rushed toward it with all speed. They reached the altar, pursued by the people, and would have been ill-treated even there, if, finding the door open leading to the sacristy, they had not sprung through, and closed it after them. The mob were then persuaded to leave the church by the alarmed and indignant priests; and finding M. Boursel's carriage still in the streets,

it considerable damage.

The twenty-five millions secured on the municipal revenues of the city of Paris, bearing so low an interest as two and a half per cent., were not very popular among the large holders of Mississippi stock. The conversion of the securities was, therefore, a work of considerable difficulty; for many preferred to retain the falling paper of Law's Company, in the hope that a favorable turn might take place. On the fifteenth of August, with a view to hasten the conversion, an edict was passed, declaring that all notes for sums between one thousand and ten thousand livres should not pass current, except for the purchase of annuities and bank accounts, or for the payment of instalments still due on the shares of the company.

In October following another edict was passed, depriving these notes of all value whatever after the month of November next ensuing. The management of the mint, the farming of the revenue, and all the other advantages and privileges of the India, or Mississippi Company, were taken from them, and they were reduced to a mere private company. This was the death-blow to the whole system, which had now got into the hands of its enemies. Law had lost all influence in the Council of Finance, and the company being despoiled of its immunities, could no longer hold out the shadow of a prospect of being able to fulfill its engagements. All those suspected of illegal profits at the time the public delusion was at its height, were sought out, and amerced in heavy fines. It was previously ordered that a list of the original proprietors should be made out, and that such persons as still retained their shares should place them in deposit with the company; and that those who had neglected to complete the shares for which they had put down their names, should now purchase them of the company, at the rate of thirteen thousand five hundred livres for each share of five hundred livres. Rather than submit to pay this enormous sum for stock which was actually at a discount, the shareholders packed up all their portable effects, and endeavored to find a refuge in foreign countries. Orders were immediately issued to the authorities at the ports and frontiers, to apprehend all travelers who sought to leave the kingdom, and keep

them in custody, until it was ascertained whether they had any plate or jewelry with them, or were concerned in the recent stock - jobbing. Against such few as escaped, the punishment of death was recorded, while the most arbitrary proceedings were instituted against those who remained.

Law himself, in a moment of despair, determined to leave a country where his life was no longer secure. He at first only demanded permission to retire from Paris to one of his country-seats-a permission which the regent cheerfully granted. The latter was much affected at the unhappy turn affairs had taken; but his faith continued unmoved in the truth and efficacy

of Law's financial system. His eyes were opened to his own errors; and during the few remaining years of his life he constantly longed for an opportunity of again establishing the system upon a securer basis. At Law's last interview with the prince, he is reported to have said: "I confess that I have committed many faults. I committed them because I am a man, and all men are liable to error; but I declare to you most solemnly that none of them proceeded from wicked or dishonest motives; and that nothing of the kind will be found in the whole course of my conduct."

Two or three days after his departure the regent sent him a very kind letter, permitting him to leave the kingdom whenever he pleased, and stating that he had ordered his passports to be made ready. He at the same time offered him any sum of money he might require. Law respectfully declined the money; and set out for Brussels in a post-chaise belonging to Madame de Prie, escorted by six horseguards. From thence he proceeded to Venice, where he remained for some months, the object of the greatest curiosity to the people, who believed him to be

LAW DRAWN BY COCKS.

the possessor of enormous wealth. No opinion, however, could be more erroneous. With more generosity than could have been expected from a man who during the greatest part of his life had been a professed gambler, he had refused to enrich himself at the expense of a ruined nation. During the height of the popular frenzy for Mississippi stock, he had never doubted of the final success of his projects in making France the richest and most powerful nation of Europe. He invested all his gains in the purchase of landed property in France-a sure proof of his own belief in the stability of his schemes. He had hoarded no plate or jewelry, and sent no money, like the dishonest jobbers, to foreign countries. His all, with the exception of one diamond, worth about five or six thousand pounds sterling, was invested in the French soil; and when he left that country, he left it almost a beggar. This fact alone ought to rescue his memory from the charge of knavery, so often and so unjustly brought against him.

As soon as his departure was known,

Law in a car drawn by cocks; from Het groote Tafereel der Dwaasheid.

all his estates and his valuable library ⚫were confiscated. Among the rest, an annuity of two hundred thousand livres (£8,000 sterling) on the lives of his wife and children, which had been purchased for five millions of livres, was forfeited, notwithstanding that a special edict, drawn up for the purpose in the days of his prosperity, had expressly declared that it should never be confiscated for any cause whatever. Great discontent existed among the people that Law had been suffered to escape. The mob and the parliament would have been pleased to have seen him hanged. The few who had not suffered by the commercial revolution rejoiced that the quack had left the country; but all those (and they were by far the most numerous class) whose fortunes were implicated regretted that his intimate knowledge of the distress of the country, and of the causes that had led to it, had not been rendered more available in discovering a remedy.

At a meeting of the Council of Finance and the General Council of the Regency, documents were laid upon the table, from

which it appeared that the amount of notes in circulation was two thousand seven hundred millions. The regent stated that Law, upon his own authority, had issued twelve hundred millions of notes at different times, and that he (the regent) seeing that the thing had been irrevocably done, had screened Law by antedating the decrees of the council which authorized the augmentation. It was also ascertained that the debt, on the 1st of January, 1721, amounted to upward of three thousand one hundred millions of livres, or more than $620,000,000, the interest upon which was $15,980,000. A commission, or visa, was forthwith appointed to examine into all the securities of the state creditors, who were to be divided into five classes; the first four comprising those who had purchased their securities with real effects, and the latter comprising those who could give no proofs that the transactions they had entered into were real and bonâ fide. The securities of the latter were ordered to be destroyed, while those of the first four classes were subjected to a most rigid and jealous scrutiny. The result of the

From a print in Mr. Hawkins's collection.

effect was accordingly published and duly registered by the parliaments of the kingdom.

Another tribunal was afterward established, under the title of the Chambre de l'Arsenal, which took cognizance of all the