AMERICA and Great Britain engaged in hostilities! We can scarcely contemplate such an event but as a sort of civil war. May Heaven avert so great a calamity! But if the peace of the world should thus be disturbed, we trust our government will have put it beyond all doubt that such a result has been entirely owing to the blind and profligate spirit of democratic ambition.

Our object, at present, is not to discuss the question at issue respecting the Oregon territory, upon the settlement of which so much depends, but to avail ourselves of the volumes before us, for the purpose of giving our readers a glimpse into the interior economy of a state, or rather system of states, which is destined to exercise, whether for good or for evil, no small influence over the affairs of Europe.

Mr. Clay has, for the last forty years, played a prominent part in the affairs of the republic. He has been, more or less, connected with every event by which its history has been signalized. His biography, therefore, will afford not a little insight into the history and character of the American people. We shall see, as democracy developes itself, how far wisdom, and how far folly acquires the ascendant in the administration of affairs; and whether passion and prejudice, or sound principle and right reason, guide the popular choice in the public deliberations.

Henry Clay was born on the 12th of April, 1777, in Hanover County, Virginia, in a neighbourhood commonly called "the Slashes," from its low, swampy grounds. His father, the Rev. John Clay, died when he was about four years old, leaving his mother and seven children in very straitened circumstances. He, therefore, had but few early advantages. The rudiments of his education were attained at what we should call "a hedge school," where he learned to

At

read and write, and was advanced in arithmetic "as far as Practice." the age of fourteen he obtained a situation as shop-boy in the store of a Mr. Denny, at Richmond; and he was not long behind the counter, when his step-father, (for his mother had married a second time,) was enabled to procure for him a desk clerkship in the High Court of Chancery. He here attracted the attention of Chancellor Withe, whose occasions led him frequently to the office in which Henry wrote, and he soon became established as his amanuensis; a situation which must have familiarized him with the maxims of law and the principles of jurisprudence, as they are understood in the American courts; while his conduct was such as to secure to him the cordial good-will and esteem of his venerable superior. For four years he continued in this employment, at the end of which period, by the advice of the chancellor, he entered as a student of law, in the office of Attorney-General Brook, with a view to practise as a licensed pleader. To this hour Henry Clay retains of the good old Chancellor, by whom he was so fortunately befriended, the most grateful recollections.

Having thus chosen his profession, he was not negligent of the best mode of qualifying himself for the new duties in which he must be soon engaged. With this view he originated the Rhetorical Society of Richmond, in which he and several of his more distinguished cotemporaries were accustomed to practise themselves in public speaking, and where, no doubt, he acquired that fluency and readiness in debate by which he was subsequently so distinguished.

It may be observed that, at his outset in life, his advantages were few; but, such as they were, he availed himself of them; and we believe it rarely happens either in temporal or in spiritual things, that the truth of the precept, "to him that hath shall be

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given," is not exemplified. Mr. Clay's own character it was that recommended him to the friends and benefactors by whose advice and assistance he was advanced; and vain would any aid which they were able to afford have been, if it was not seconded by his own steadiness, diligence, and ability. But every advantage he gained was but a preparation for some one still in view; and he went on improving his opportunities and cultivating his talents, until the humble "Mill-boy of the Slashes," as he was called, who had wrought barefooted for his daily bread, became respectably established in a learned profession, and could look forward to the highest honours of the state as prizes within the reach of a generous ambition. It was not without emotion that he could have heard, at the close of a long public life, in which all but its highest honours were attained, the following home-spun tribute to his worth by an old Virgi nian gentleman, who knew him when they were both youths together, and followed him with an admiring gaze through the chances and changes of public affairs:-" HENRY CLAY; he and I were born close to the Slashes of old Hanover. He worked barefooted, and so did I; he went to the mill, and so did I; he was good to his mamma, and so was I. I know him like a book, and love him like a brother."

In 1797, he became established at Lexington as an advocate, and very soon, to use his own words, "rushed into a successful practice." His knowledge of law, upon entering his profession, was, no doubt, for an American lawyer, considerable; but it was not to that he was chiefly indebted for his success, but to an industry, a readiness, an aptitude for the business in hand, and a knowledge of human nature, which enabled him to take advantage of the characters of the men whom he addressed, or the circumstances of the case in which he was engaged, so as to accomplish or defeat, as the interests of his clients required, the ends of justice. It is the business of an advocate to do the best he can for the individual whom he undertakes to defend, and there is a recognised professional licence which not only allows but requires of him to leave nothing undone by which a favourable decision may be obtained; and it

must be allowed that in the American courts the latitude is far greater than in our own, which is permitted to the advocate in thus availing himself of prejudice or sympathy, against law and reason. We subjoin a case or two, not only to exhibit the ability of the man, but also the mixed nature of the institution of trial by jury in America, which often enables a showy advocate to win a verdict, of which, in our more severely legal courts, no hope could be entertained.

Mrs. Phelps, the wife of a respectable farmer, was accused of the murder of her sister-in-law, Miss Phelps, by discharging at her a loaded musket. The evidence of the fact was incontestibly established, nor was any wit ness produced to prove that the prisoner was of unsound mind at the time she perpetrated this dreadful crime, or that any such provocation was given as could amount to even a colourable justification. Such was the culprit whom Mr. Clay was called upon to defend, and whose life he succeeded in saving by an "ad captandum" appeal to the humanity of the jury.

a woman.

"He could not deny, that Mrs. Phelps had killed Miss Phelps, in the manner proved. But the criminal was She was of a respectable family, the wife of a respectable man, who stood by her side. She had not before been accused of fault, so far as appeared. It was, indeed, a shocking crime. Peradventure, no one had been more shocked than the perpetrator. In theory and in fact, passion is insanitydelirium. A dreadful crime had been committed, when reason was dethroned, and all the vice of the soul was in the ascendant. Penitence comes too late; nevertheless it comes. The wife and husband are there, pleading for mercythe latter forced to forgive the death of his own sister, by the hand of his own wife. Is there no exception to a general rule-no rescue from a common law? If the court and jury had been moved by any such appeals, to make an exception, where could they stop? They waver, by the pleadings of the advocate, and the advocate prevails, not only to save life, but to obtain a mitigated punishment, which contemplates the restoration of the unhappy woman to her husband and family.

engaged to defend two Germans, father "Not long after this, Mr. Clay was and son, in Harrison County, who were indicted for murder in the first degree, and of very aggravated character. The

evidence of the fact, as in the case of Mrs. Phelps, left no room for doubt. Not hoping to prevent a verdict against the prisoners, Mr. Clay's first object was to save life. After five days' struggle with the counsel for the prosecution, he obtained a verdict for manslaughter. He then surprised the court with a motion for an arrest of judgment; and after an argument protracted for a whole day, the court was forced to grant it, the consequence of which was a discharge of the prisoners! A remarkable incident of this trial would have been sufficient to commemorate it, apart from its extraordinary and unexpected result. The wife of one, and mother of the other, of the two prisoners, had been a spectator of the trial, in a retired part of the court-room, with an interest that may more easily be conceived than described. When advised of the final decision, she rushed through the crowd and over the bar, in presence of the court, threw herself on the neck of the deliverer of her husband and son, and clung to him so earnestly and so long, that he was forced to disengage himself with a degree of violence. It was a touching scene of nature, well worth witnessing, though not, perhaps, very much coveted by the object of these grateful effusions. It was, in fact, a handsome young man in the arms of a not very handsome old woman; but the moral of that spectacle was an ample equivalent for the otherwise unnatural conjunction. It is, besides, an evidence of the power of Mr. Clay's eloquence at that period. The old lady had witnessed and heard all, knew to whom and to what she was indebted, and therefore bounced upon him with irrepressible emotion. In ordinary circumstances the scene would have been ludicrous; but, in such a case, it could not be looked upon with other feelings than those of sympathy and respect.

"The next case, in the history of Mr. Clay's defence of criminals, is that of one Willis, of Fayette County, who was accused of murder, also of peculiar atrocity. Mr. Clay succeeded in dividing the jury, so that they could not agree. A motion for a new trial at the next session of the court was heard and granted. Mr. Clay did not object to this course; but at the second trial, he startled the court, in his address to the jury, with the announcement of the principle, that no man could be twice put in jeopardy of his life for the same offence. The court interfered, and forbade the use of that argument; whereupon, Mr. Clay, in a dignified and respectful manner, declared, that he could not proceed unless he was permitted to take that course- -took up his

bag and books, and retired. This decisive step threw all the responsibility on the court, who, apparently in doubt, or overawed by the character of Mr. Clay, sent a messenger after him, inviting his return, and informing him that he should be allowed to manage the defence in his own way. He accordingly went back, pressed the point on which he had been stopped, and on that ground, without any regard to the evidence, obtained from the jury a verdict of acquittal for the prisoner."

When such a style of advocacy might be adopted with success, we are not surprised that the rigour of law very often gave place to a mistaken humanity; and that such was Mr. Clay's own opinion, the following little incident is a sufficiently significant intimation :

Success at the bar in America invariably leads to senatorial distinction. The legal profession is regarded but as a sort of nursery for the House of Assembly; and the man who wins causes by captivating juries, will not long want an opportunity of making his voice heard and his opinions felt upon subjects of more general interest, which embrace the well-being of the republic, and its relations, whether warlike or pacific, with the surrounding nations.

We are far from thinking that such a school is favourable to that concentrated attention to the essence and spirit of law, which would produce able jurists. On the contrary, it offers an effective bounty to an "ad captandum" advocacy, which is only calculated to produce a race of noisy, flippant, rhetorical declaimers; and even men of solid judgment, who would, in our courts, attain the highest distinction by the legitimate application of their faculties to strictly legal topics of argument, would feel it a bootless waste of time to be thus occupied before an American judica