sided, and held his position there until the end of the last sesɛion, when he went out of course, but was still before the people, and would no doubt have been returned again. In the House, he was not perhaps exactly in his proper element. (as he would have been in the Senate,) but he acquired great influence and reputation, by the gravity and moderation of his course, and, more particularly, by his wise and cordial support of those measures which have saved and strengthened our union, and by a memorable speech which, under peculiar circumstances, is said to have produced a finer and deeper impression than almost any other that was ever delivered on the floor.

For his character, the basis of all his worth was no doubt that firm religious principle which he possessed and practised upon with a uniformity and consistency that adorned his public, as well as his private life. Guided always by conscience, and aiming always to do right, his whole course was as beautiful as it was brilliant, and we may well believe, what we are happy to learn, that his "end was peace."

THE LATE PROFESSOR TUCKER.

Professor N. Beverley Tucker, sometime a Judge in Missouri, and subsequently Professor of Law in William & Mary College, died at Winchester on the 26th of August last, in the 68th year of his age. We take the following notice of him, (with some omissions,) from the International Magazine for this present mouth. The subject of our notice was not inferior to the kinsman whose fame was so peculiar, in all the essentials of a high character and an exquisite genius. His writings, like the speeches of John Randolph, were distinguished by freedom, grace, wonderful raciness and spirit, and remarkable eloquence and point. He was the author of a series of lectures on Government that of the United States in particular, in which he exhibits himself as a politician of the States Rights School, unbending and unyielding in his faith, and tenacious of its miuutest points. They are beautifully written-are, in short, among the best specimens of political writing which we possess. Judge Tucker, (he was sometime on the bench in Missouri,) was the author of many other works which deserve to be better known. His province was fiction as well as politics, and he wrote poetry with singular vigor. He was the translator of Goethe's Iphigenia, which was published in the Southern Literary Messenger, and has left among other manuscripts, an original drama, entitled Viola,' written in blank verse. His novel of George Balcombe,' will be remembered by many readers, as a prose fiction at once highly interesting and well-written. His Partisan

Leader,' another prose fiction in two volumes, is a political romance, embodying the Southern hostility to Mr. Van Buren's administration, and illustrating the tendencies of his party to a general usurpation of all the attributes of sovereign power.' His latest production, we believe, is a scathing criticism in the July issue of the Southern Quarterly Review, of Garland's Life of John Randolph, a work which he bitterly denounced. Like his half-brother, the orator of Roanoke, Judge Tucker was a person of intense feelings and great excitability, an eager impulse, and a keen power of sarcasm. He wrote with all the eloquence with which the latter spoke. His style is marked by great ease and freedom, by felicities of expression which give an epigrammatic point to his sentences, and by a sweetness and harmony of arrangement, which bestow music upon the ear without falling into monotony. Judge T. was a man of warm passions but noble nature; of powers of satire, but of benevolent heart. His last appearance in affairs was as a member of the Nashville Convention.

COMMERCIAL CONVENTION.

This patriotic assemblage was held in the Hall of the House of Delegates on the 10th ult. The object of this meeting-to awaken public attention to the importance of bringing back our foreign trade, and fostering our own shipping interest-is worthy of all approbation, and we may hope that the resolutions adopted by the body, and the spirit kindled and diffused by its action, will have a salutary influence towards producing the most desirable result. We regret that we have no room to record the proceedings; but we may revert to the subject again.

POLITICAL PREPARATIONS.

The Democratic Convention assembled at Staunton, on the 24th ult., anticipating the adoption of the new Constitution by the people, have nominated Joseph Johnson, of Harrison, for Governor; Shelton F. Leake, of Madison, for Lieut. Governor; and Willis P. Bocock, of Appomattox, for Attorney General.

The Whig Convention assembled at Charlottesville, on thə 25th ult., for the same purpose, have nominated George W. Summers, of Kanawha, for Governor; Samuel Watts of Norfolk county, for Lieutenant Governor; and Sydney S. Baxter, of Richmond, for Attorney General.

LIVES OF THE WESTERN PIONEERS.

For several years it has been known to many students of our early history, that Mr. Lyman C. Draper was devoting his time and estate, and faculties admirably trained for such pursuits, to the collection of whatever materials still exist for the illustration of the lives of the Western Pioneers. He has carefully explored all the valley of the Mississippi, under the most favorable auspices-by his intelligence and enthusiasm and large acquaintance with the most conspicuous people, commended to every family which was the repository of special traditions or of written documents-and he has succeeded in amassing a collection of MS. letters, narratives, and other papers, and of printed books, pamphlets, magazines, and journals, more extensive than is possessed by many of the state historical societies, while in character it is altogether and necessarily unique. He proposes soon to publish his first work, The Life and Times of General George Rogers Clarke, (whose papers have been long in his possession, and whose surviving Indian fighters and other associates he has personally visited), in two octavo volumes, to be followed by shorter historical memoirs of Colonel Daniel Boone, General Simon Kenton, General John Sevier of East Tennessee, General James Robertson, Captain Samuel Brady, Colonel William Crawford, the Wetzells, &c., &c. The field of his researches, it will be seen, embraces the entire sweep of the Mississippi, every streamlet flowing into which has been crimsoned with the blood of sanguinary conflicts, every sentinel mountain looking down to whose waves has been a witness of more terrible and strange vicissitudes and adventures than have been invented by all the romancers.*-Inter. Mag.

* Mr. D. however, in a letter to us, written since the date of the above article, intimates that he shall probably begin his publications with the Life and Adventures of Capt. Samuel Brady, and reserve the Memoir of General Clark for a later issue. We shall expect the appearance of this last work with some impatience, as we hope to read it with much pleasure.

THE YACHT AMERICA.

Much excitement has been created in England by a match between the yacht America, owned by Mr. John C. Stevens, of New York, and the yacht Titania, and by other matches between the America and the most celebrated yachts in England, in all of which the America was successful. The America arrived out early in July. Hitherto the dozen or more yacht clubs in the United Kingdom had never dreamed of foreign competi

tion. It was just known that there was an Imperial Yacht Club of St. Petersburg, maintained to encourage a nautical spirit among the nobility; and that owners of yachts at Rotterdam had enrolled themselves as the "Royal Netherlands Yacht Club;" but, till the America appeared, the few who were aware of the fact that there was a flourishing club at New York did not regard it as of the slightest consequence, or as at all likely to interfere with their monopoly of the most useful of sports. The few trial runs the America made after her arrival proved she was possessed of great speed, and that the owners were not so little justified as at first they had been thought in offering to back an untried vessel against any yacht in the English waters for the large sum of £10,000. As the day of the Royal Squadron's grand match drew near, the entries became numerous. In the memory of man Cowes never presented such an appearance as on the 22d of August. A large portion of the peerage and gentry of the United Kingdom had left their residences, and forsaken the sports of the moors, to witness the struggle. There must have been a hundred yachts lying at anchor in the roads; the beach was crowded, from Egypt to the piers; the esplanade in front of the Club thronged with ladies and gentlemen, and with the people inland, who came over in shoals, with wives, sons, and daughters, for the day. Eighteen yachts entered as competitors; the largest of which was a three-mast schooner, the Brilliant, 392 tons; and the smallest a cutter, Volante, 48 tons. Nine of the yachts were of above 100 tons, and nine were of less than 100 tons. The America's burden is 170 tons. The umpire in the case was Earl Wilton, and the triumph of the America complete. The "Cup of All Nations" was presented to Commodore Stephens and his brother, the owners of the America, after a dinner in the club-house that night. Mr. Abbot Lawrence was present, and acknowledged the compliments paid to this country. The yacht has since been sold to an English gentleman,-to be a model for British naval architects. Inter. Mag.

THE GRAND EXHIBITION.

We see by the papers that this highly important and interesting display of the industry of all nations was to close-and we may fairly presume has closed-about this time. Its effect on the public mind, especially in Europe, has no doubt been great and salutary, and its happy influence will continue for years and ages to come. We are pleased to learn that, after all, our own country did not come off so badly in the affair. There was indeed, it seems, at first, some disposition on the part of some of the leading London papers to cavil at our contributions to the

Exhibition; but even they have changed their tone for the better. We are particularly gratified to observe that the palm of useful inventions has been very fairly carried off by a citizen of our own State. Mr. McCormick's reaping machine has been acknowledged on all hands to bear the bell, and he is likely, we learn, to reap an ample harvest of profit as well as praise. We rejoice heartily in his success.

RICHMOND ATHENÆUM.

We are happy to note here, that the Common Council of our city have passed an ordinance converting the Academy into an Athenæum-providing for the delivery of lectures-and assigning rooms in the building for the accommodation of the Richmond Library Company, and of our Virginia Historical Society, with an annual allowance of one hundred and fifty dollars to each, for the purchase of books. The scheme embraces also a provision for the education of the poor children of the corporation on a large and liberal scale. We regard this measure as highly honorable to the body, and as fairly promising to secure the most important results to our community, and to our whole State. We shall recur to the subject again.

Miscellany.

IDLENESS, AND IDLERS.

Many are the men, besides musicians, who lose their time in keeping it, and beat it only to kill it; but as it is better to wear out than to rust out, so is even an idle occupation, preferable to idleness. Time is the material of life; to kill it, therefore, is pro tanto a moral suicide. Indisputable is the fact that such idlers do sometimes actually die of the tædium vitæ brought ou by inoccupation, and I would respectfully submit that in these cases the coroner should be summoned, and a verdict be returned of felo de se. To bury them in a cross road, however, (after the provision of the English law,) would be inappropriate, since that locality is busy and bustling, and of service to the community. No, they should lie in a waste, for such they made of their