A TRUE AND BEAUTIFUL PORTRAIT

OF THE

CHARACTER OF GENERAL WASHINGTON,

BY THE

LATE HONORABLE GEORGE CANNING,

PRIME MINISTER OF ENGLAND.

General WashinGTON was, we believe, in his sixty-eighth year. The height of his person was about five-feet eleven; his chest full, and his limbs, though rather slender, well shaped and muscular. His head was small, in which respect he resembled the make of a great number of his countrymen. His eyes were of a very light grey colour; and, in proportion to the length of his face, his nose was long. Mr. STEWART, the eminent portrait painter, used to say, there were features in his face totally different from what he had ever observed in that of any other human being; the sockets of his eyes, for instance, were larger than he had ever met with before, and the upper part of the nose broader. All his features, he observed, were indicative of the strongest passions, yet, like SOCRATES, his judgment, and great self-command, have always made him appear a man of different character in the eyes of the world. He always spoke with great diffidence, and sometimes hesitated for a word, but it was always to find one particularly well calculated to express his meaning. His language was manly and expressive. At

levee, his discourse with strangers turned principally upon the subject of America; and if they had been through any remarkable places, his conversation was free and particularly interesting, for he was intimately acquainted with every part of the country. He was much more open and free in his behaviour at the levee than in private, and in the company of ladies, still more so, than when solely with men. Few persons ever found themselves for the first time in the company of General WASHINGTON, without being impressed with a certain degree of veneration and awe; nor did those emotions subside on a closer acquaintance; on the contrary, his person and deportment, were such, as rather tended to augment them. The whole range of history does not present to our view, a character, upon which we can dwell with such entire and unmixed admiration. The long life of General Washington, is not stained by a single blot.

He was indeed a man of such rare endowments, and such fortunate temperament, that every action he performed, was alike exempted from the character of vice or weakness. Whatever he said, or did, or wrote, was stamped with a striking and peculiar propriety. All his qualities were so happily blended, and so nicely harmonized, that the result was a great and perfect whole; the powers of his mind, and the dispositions of his heart, were admirably suited to each other. It was the union of the most consummate prudence, with the most perfect moderation. His views, though large and liberal, were not extravagant; his virtues, though comprehensive and beneficent, were discriminating, judicious, and practical; yet his character, though regular and uniform, possessed none of the littleness which may sometimes belong to those descriptions of men. It was formed a majestic pile, the effect of which was not impaired, but improved by order and symmetry; there was nothing in it to dazzle by wildness, or surprise by eccentricity. It was a higher

species of moral beauty; it contained everything great and elevated, but it had no false and tinsel ornament; it was not the model cried up by fashion and circumstance; its excellence was adapted to the true and just moral taste, incapable of change from the varying accidents of manners and opinions.

General WASHINGTON is not the Idol of a day, but the Hero of ages! Placed in circumstances of the most trying difficulty at the beginning of the American contest, he accepted that situation which was pre-eminent in danger and responsibility. His perseverance overcame every obstacle, conciliated every opposition; his genius supplied every resource. His enlarged views could plan, revise, and improve every branch of civil and military operation. He had the superior courage which can act, or forbear to act, as true policy dictates, careless of the reproaches of ignorance, either in power, or out of power. He knew how to conquer by waiting in spite of obloquy, for the moment of victory, and he merited true praise by despising unmerited censure,

In the most arduous movements of the contest, his prudent firmness proved the salvation of the cause which he supported. His conduct was on all occasions guided by the most pure disinterestedness. Far superior to low and grovelling motives, he seemed even to be uninfluenced by that ambition which has justly been called, the instinct of great souls. He acted ever as if his country's welfare, and that alone, was the moving spring. His excellent mind needed not even the stimulus of ambition, or the prospect of fame. Glory was but a secondary consideration. He performed great actions, he persevered in a course of laborious utility, with an equanimity that neither sought distinction, nor was flattered by it; his reward was in the consciousness of his rectitude, and in the success of his patriotic efforts.

As his elevation to the chief power was the unbiassed choice of his countrymen, his exercise of it was agreeable to the purity of its origin; as he had neither solicited nor usurped dominion, he had neither to contend with rivals, nor the revenge of enemies. As his authority was undisputed, so it required no jealous precautions, no rigorous severity. His government was mild and gentle; it was beneficent and liberal; it was wise and just; his prudent administration, consolidated and enlarged the dominion of an infant republic.

In voluntarily resigning the Magistracy which he had filled with such distinguished honour, he enjoyed the unequalled satisfaction of leaving to the state, he had contributed to establish, the fruits of his wisdom, and the example of his virtues. It is some consolation amidst the violence of ambition, and the criminal thirst of power, of which so many instances occur around us, to find a character whom it is honourable to admire, and virtuous to imitate. A conqueror for the freedom of his country! a legislator for its security! a magistrate for its happiness! his glories were never sullied by those excesses into which the highest qualities are apt to degenerate. With the greatest virtues, he was exempt from the corresponding vices. He was a man in whom the elements seemed so blended, that "Nature might have stood up to all the world," and owned him as her work. His fame, bound to no country, will be confined to no age.

The character of General WASHINGTON, which his contemporaries regret and admire, will be transmitted to posterity, and the memory of his virtues, while patriotism and virtue are held sacred among men, will remain undiminished!

Peace to the memory of a man of Worth!