Trial of John R. Buzzell, before the Supreme Court of Massa- chusetts, for Arson and Burglary in the Ursuline Convent at Charlestown. Reported by C. Pickering, Esq., the Reporter of Trial of William Mason, Marvin Marcy Jr., and Sargent Blaisdell, charged with being concerned in burning the Ursuline Convent in Charlestown, Massachusetts, on the night of the 11th Argument of James T. Austin, Attorney-General of the Com- monwealth, before the Supreme Judicial Court in Middlesex, on the case of John R. Buzzell, one of the twelve individuals charged with being concerned in destroying the Ursuline Convent at III. STORY'S CONFLICT OF LAWS, Commentaries on the Conflict of Laws, Foreign and Domestic, in regard to Contracts, Rights and Remedies; and especially in regard to Marriages, Divorces, Wills, Successions, and Judg- ments. By Joseph Story, LL. D., Dane Professor of Law in Har- A Sermon preached in St. Michael's Church, Charleston, Febru- ary 13th, 1833, before the Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Diocese of South Carolina, by the Rev. J. Adams, D.D., President of the College of Charleston, South Carolina, and (ex officio) Horry Professor of Moral and Political Philosophy. Memoir of Tristam Burges; with Selections from his Speeches and Occasional Writings. By Henry L. Bowen. VII. SHIRREFF'S TOUR THROUGH NORTH AMERICA, A Tour through North America; together with a comprehen. sive view of the Canadas and United States, as adapted for Agri- cultural Emigration. By Patrick Shirreff, Farmer, Mungoswells, VIII. WORKS OF FENIMORE COOPER, Romances, by J. Fenimore Cooper. Precaution inclusive to Notions of the Americans, picked up by a Travelling Bachelor. 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Dumon, Député de Lot-et-Garonne. (Séance du 28 Mars, 1835.) Supplé- A Statistical View of the Commerce of the United States of America, including also an account of Banks, Manufactures, In- ternal Trade, and Improvements; together with that of the Reve- A History of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. By Mann Butler, A. M. The Crayon Miscellany. By the Author of the Sketch Book. No. I. con- taining a Tour on the Prairies, The Writings of George Washington, &c. By Jared Sparks. Vols. VI. and VII. The Infidel, or the Fall of Mexico. A Romance. By the author of Calavar, AMERICAN QUARTERLY REVIEW. No. XXXIII. MARCH, 1835. ART. I.-CLASSICAL LEARNING. 1.—An Address delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard University, 28th August, 1834, on Classical Learning and Eloquence. By WILLIAM HOWARD Gardiner, Counsellor at Law. Cambridge: 1834. 2.-A Discourse on the Studies of the University. By ADAM SEDGWICK, M. A., F. R. S., &c. Woodwardian Professor and Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Second Edition. Cambridge (Eng.): 1834. 3.-A Discourse pronounced at the Inauguration of the Author as Eliot Professor of Greek Literature in Harvard University. August 26th, 1834. By CORNELIUS C. FELTON, A. M. Cambridge: 1834. 4.-Oration on the Comparativ Elements and Dutys of Grecian and American Eloquence: Deliverd before the Erodelphian Society of Miami University, at Oxford, Ohio; on the 23d September, 1834: being their ninth annual celebration; with notes. By THOMAS SMITH GRIMKE, of Charleston, S. C. Cincinnati: 1834. 5.-An Address delivered on Monday, December 22d, 1834, by REV. JOHN LUDLOW, D. D., on the occasion of his Inauguration as Provost of the University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: 1835. We trust the time may one day arrive, though we may not live to welcome it, when there shall be some prescription in fayour of the wisdom of our forefathers-when the self-sufficiency and arrogance of the present, will graciously yield a little defer ence to the experience of the past, and when the elements of knowledge, political, moral, and religious, shall cease to be daily reproduced, in new and monstrous combinations, to confound and bewilder all simple and sober inquiry; to puzzle the will, and harass the judgment. We cannot but hope, that the ferment of opinion, upon every debateable question, which distinguishes our age and country, is a process which, out of chaos, not only will produce forms beautiful and new, but which, on the retiring of the waters, will leave in our view, not shattered relics merely, but many a lofty column, with the evidence of ancient truth, untarnished, upon its capital. It might be a subject of curious and not unphilosophical investigation, to inquire, whither the lust of innovation may carry a people, whose very national existence originated in a bold disregard of probabilities and precedents, and whose government is even yet one of experiment. Speculation is a grand element of the American character. In physics it has done so much for us, that we would fain apply it to give direction to the laws which regulate moral action, and to the science of politics. Accordingly, none but the most general principles are held to be settled among us. There is a fascination to most men in the novelty of change, which causes them to forget the sacrifices which are made to produce it. Besides, it flatters the intellect, the assumption of the moment always being that it is for the better. That very activity of mind, which impels our countrymen to the execution of feasible and beneficial undertakings, prompts them, at the same time, to entertain every wild and visionary scheme which enthusiasm or cunning can broach. The wildest fanatic allures followers,* because, in an extended and diversified population, with much self-confidence and some acquirement, hemmed within no ancient boundaries of thought, and shackled by no venerable forms, he is sure to strike some responsive cord among the millions of his fellow-citizens. The imagination, which in old countries is fed from the past, and principally by the material, is with us forced upon the future and the moral. Our population, therefore, is more reflective than that of Europe, but reflection, undirected, or ill-directed, is not a little dangerous. It may teach a man his powers, but it is very apt to mislead him in their application. Thus, in no country is there to be found a greater mass of crude and undigested theory, of variant and absurd belief in no country where rights are so accurately defined, are they so liable to be misconceived-in no country are the rules of action subject to so many modifications and interpretations, * Witness the progress of Mormonism, and the blasphemous and impudent imposture of Matthias. |