of his life. For a time, the strings of his fine intellect were jarred, and gave forth only confused and uncertain sounds. But it could hardly be said that his mind wandered; for when his thoughts were but little under his own control, invincible habit still turned them to the great purpose around which they had long been centred.

"On one occasion, he seemed to fancy himself to be about to administer the communion. He called all his family about him, and spoke to them in words like those with which he was accustomed to address his own flock on such an occasion; and to those around, he seemed as earnest, as collected, as devout, as when, in the days of health, he had actually stood at the altar of his church. Warm and elevated expressions of gratitude to the Saviour, intermingled with affectionate addresses and counsels to his family, fell from his lips. His thoughts turned to the closing hours and acts of the Master whom he loved; and speaking of the design of Jesus in instituting the Last Supper, as if inspired by the very spirit of his own boundless benevolence, he stretched out his feeble arms, saying, 'He intended it for all; he would gather all to his embrace.'".

pp. 450, 451. Periods of imperfect consciousness alternated with those in which he took considerable notice of what was passing, and the cloud was mercifully kept from darkening entirely over his spirit. On the 21st of September, the last day of his life, he recognized the members of his family, and spoke kindly and rationally to them; but towards nightfall a severe attack suspended all consciousness, and early the next morning, without convulsion or struggle, "he passed on."

"His remains were followed to Mount Auburn, and deposited in the sepulchre which had been presented to him by his friend Professor Farrar, of which he was the first tenant. Here, just at the edge of evening, in the midst of a gentle shower, whilst the falling of a few of the leaves of the early autumn were in solemn keeping with the melancholy ceremony, was left his weary and wasted form. He had grown old and died before his prime, worn down by those exertions, both of body and mind, which had been directed for thirty years to a single great object, an object to which he had devoted his whole spirit with a constancy which knew no repose, till he was thus laid, like his Master, in this new tomb, where man was never laid before. But of the grief, the sense of loss, which must always attend such a separation, there could in no case be more suffi cient and satisfactory consolations. His life had been a pure, an

active, a useful, and a happy one. There was as little in it for his friends to look back upon with regret, as is compatible with the necessary imperfections of the human character and condition; whilst there was much, very much, that could be contemplated only with, we will not say pride, — but with a sentiment of a higher and nobler sort. All the success which he wished, or was capable of enjoying, he had attained. He had striven constantly, and not in vain, in the only paths in which he desired to walk. He had enjoyed and he had suffered much. He had received multiplied favors from his fellow-men and choicest blessings from Heaven. Gratitude to God and men was among the most cherished of his feelings. He had been tried by repeated afflictions, and by wasting, protracted, and painful disease. But he had submitted in patience, and without repining. They had not dimmed the brightness of his hope, nor ever made him waver in his faith. He had always lived in the near expectation of death, and, when at last it came, he met it with unfaltering trust." — pp. 453, 454.

ART. IX.-1. The History of Oregon and California, and the other Territories on the Northwest Coast of North America; accompanied by a Geographical View and Map of those Countries, and a Number of Documents as Proofs and Illustrations of the History. By ROBERT GREENHOW, Translator and Librarian to the Department of State. Second Edition, revised, corrected, and enlarged. Boston: Little and Brown. 1845. 8vo. pp. 492. 2. The Oregon Question; or, a Statement of the British Claims to the Oregon Territory, in Opposition to the Pretensions of the Government of the United States of America. By THOMAS FALCONER, Esq., Barrister at Law of Lincoln's Inn. Second Edition. Second Edition. London: Samuel Clarke.

1845. 8vo. pp. 50.

THE readers of Guy Mannering probably remember Dandie Dinmont's famous lawsuit with his neighbour Jock o' Dawston Cleugh about the "marches," or boundaries, of the good farm of Charlies-hope. But for the benefit of those who have not read the passage, or who may have for

gotten it, we subjoin Dandie's own account of the dispute, together with Counsellor Pleydell's excellent advice on the occasion.

"We're at the auld wark of the marches again, Jock o' Dawston Cleugh and me. Ye see we march on the tap o' Touthop-rigg after we pass the Pomoragrains; for the Pomoragrains, and Slackenspool, and Bloodylaws, they come in there, and they belang to the Peel! but after ye pass Pomoragrains at a muckle great saucer-headed cutlugged stane, that they ca' Charlies Chuckie, there Dawston Cleugh and Charlies-hope they march. Now, I say, the march rins on the tap o' the hill where the wind and water shears, but Jock o' Dawston Cleugh again, he contravenes that, and says that it hauds down by the aul drove road that gaes awa' by the Knot of the Gate ower to Keeldarward, and that makes an unco difference.'

"And what difference does it make, friend? How many sheep will it feed?'

“Ou, no mony, it's lying high and exposed, it may feed a hog, or aiblins twa in a good year.'

"And for this grazing, which may be worth about five shillings a year, you are willing to throw away a hundred pound or two?"

"Na, sir, it's no for the value of the grass, - it's for jus

tice.'

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My good friend, justice, like charity, should begin at home. Do you justice to your wife and family, and think no more about the matter.'

"Dinmont still lingered, twisting his hat in his hand; — ' It 's no for that, sir, but I would like ill to be bragged wi' him,— he threeps he 'll bring a score o' witnesses and mair, — and I 'm sure there 's as mony will swear for me as for him, folk that lived a' their days upon the Charlies-hope, and wad na like to see the land lose its right.'

"Zounds, man, if it be a point of honor, why don't your landlords take it up?'

"I dinna ken, sir, (scratching his head) there 's been nae election-dusts lately, and the lairds are unco neighbourly, and Jock and I canna get them to yoke thegither about it a' that we can say, but if ye thought we might keep up the rent'

"No! no! that will never do, confound you, why don't you take good cudgels and settle it?'

"Odd, sir, we tried that three times already, that 's twice on the land and ance at Locherbye fair. But I dinna ken, we 're baith gay good at singlestick, and it could na weel be judged.'

"Then take broad-swords, and be damned to you, as your fathers did before you.'

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Aweel, sir, if ye think it wad na be again the law, it 's a' ane to Dandie.'

"Hold! hold! we shall have another Lord Soulis' mistake. — Pr’y thee, man, comprehend me; I wish you to consider how very trifling and foolish a lawsuit you wish to engage in.' 'Ay, sir? So you winna take on wi' me, I 'm doubting?' "Me! not I, go home, go home, take a pint and

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agree.'

Two of the richest and most powerful nations in the world, England and the United States, are now just in the position of Dandie Dinmont and his neighbour Jock, though the land in dispute between them is by no means of as great relative importance when compared with their other possessions. The territory of Oregon is not worth much; "it's lying high and exposed - it may feed a hog, or aiblins twa in a good year." It is separated from the one power by a broad ocean and the intervention of a vast continent, and from the other by a desert two thousand miles broad and a range of lofty and precipitous mountains. It has remained for half a century open to any wanderers who might see fit to establish themselves there, and run the risk of starvation. Yet, till within four or five years, it has been tenanted only by Indians, wolves, and bears, or by small companies of hunters and trappers, who go there to obtain furs, but not to found a home. England has found it worth her while to establish colonies at the antipodes; she is fast peopling Van Diemen's Land and New Zealand, but sends no emigrants to Oregon, though she had wrested from Spain, in 1790, by a threat of war and by an armament of enormous cost, a right to make settlements there if she found it expedient. The same treaty stipulated that the whole coast should remain open for settlement by Spain also; but not one Spaniard thought fit to build a hut on the inhospitable shore. The United States succeeded by treaty to the rights of Spain, but were almost equally dilatory in profiting by them. "The citizens of the United States in Oregon, previous to 1843," says Mr. Greenhow, "did not probably exceed four hundred in number." Within the last two years, indeed, a much larger number of our people, probably some three thousand, acting on the very extraordinary presumption, that a country, which two great nations were threatening to go to war about,

must be at least fit to live in, have actually traversed the vast and barren steppes and mountain ranges which separate Missouri from the Pacific Ocean, and have established themselves in that distant and unpromising region; though every one of them might have purchased an Illinois farm of the finest land in the world probably for less than what his journey has cost him. This attempt at colonization will hardly go much further; we shall see hereafter, that vastly the greater part of Oregon is absolutely uninhabitable by civilized

men.

But it's no for the value of the land, it's for justice." Ay, that is it; a regard to justice, or national honor, as the more current phrase goes, has been the sole cause of this angry and protracted dispute. Politicians and diplomatists are "all honorable men," remarkable for their high respect for all the requisitions of the moral code, and they are determined that the great nations for whom they act shall be equally punctilious with themselves. They would “give thrice so much land to any well deserving friend"; but when national honor, or their own political advancement, is at stake, mark you, they will "cavil on the ninth part of a hair." As for negotiation, "Odd, sir, we tried that three times already"; but the two parties are "baith gay good" at the singlestick of diplomacy, "and it could na weel be judged." So but one course seems to remain, that the two nations should once more take broadswords, and settle the matter as their fathers did before them. As we are of Counsellor Pleydell's mind, that they had much better "take a pint and agree," we will try to present a few considerations in favor of compromising the dispute, though at the risk of finding our advice as little heeded as was that of the honest Scotch lawyer.

As this is a grave national question, which has occupied the serious attention of the greatest statesmen of England and the United States for more than a quarter of a century, some may think that we treat it too lightly. But in all soberness we ask our readers to judge, whether the parallel here instituted, though seemingly ludicrous, be not a perfectly fair one, whether two civilized and Christian nations ought to be upheld in a mode of managing a dispute with each other, which if two neighbouring farmers were to adopt, it is hard to say whether they would subject themselves to more ridiVOL. LXII.-No. 130.

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