What Shakspeare and Johnson believed and reasoned upon is, however, not a subject to be treated with contempt.

When I entered Columbia College the second Dr. Johnson was President of the institution. His father had been President before the revolution, and was exalted in his day and generation. Professor Cochran, an elegant classical scholar, filled the chair of Latin and Greek; Dr. Johannes Gros, a German, that of Moral Philosophy and Geography, and Professor Kemp, of Mathematics, Natural Philosophy and Astronomy; he was indefatigable in his duties, and considered by all who knew him a ripe scholar. These were the lights of mind that led us onward in the paths of knowledge of that day. Then the alumni were happy, but soon there sprung up a sectarian feeling, and great art was used to get a Presbyterian head to the college. This was after the death of that excellent and learned man, the Right Reverend Bishop Moore, the President who came after Dr. Johnson. This succeeded for a while. The charter of the institution made it imperative that the President must be an Episcopalian. The great mover of the machine would not have it so exactly; they made a nominal President, and put over his head a Provost. The President was an old man with a small salary; the Provost had a large one and a house provided for him. This, however, did not succeed; the evil remedied itself; the college did not prosper under the new auspices; many students took their degrees in other colleges; the Provost was translated to another institution, and all things were reinstated in their former regular course, and the President became an officer de facto as well as de jure.

The first voyage I took at sea must have been about the fall of 1791. A Captain John Keaquick, knowing well my father, I being then about twenty years of age, and a great favorite with the captain, it being vacation at college, persuaded my father to let me go with him to Boston in a brig he commanded.

On my return from Boston I was in the office of Samuel Jones, Esq., counsellor at law, for about six months. This was the gentleman whom the Indians liked so well in making their treaties with our State that they would not conclude any arrangement till Mr. Jones, or Old Pine Knot, as they used to call him, was present. There are two of his sons eminent lawyers, at this

day. The eldest has been Chancellor of the State, and is now Chief Justice of the Superior Court in the city of New York.

Being one day met by a sea-faring acquaintance, I took it into my head to go with him to the West Indies. He told me he was bound to one of the Windward Islands (I think Barbadoes). In October, 1793, we set sail in a brig belonging to Ten Eyck, Cockroft & Vandyke, commanded by Capt. Solomon Saltus, a Bermudean, a very skillful, worthy and respectable man. Her name

I have forgotten, but she was deeply loaded. My father and mother reluctantly parted with me, I being now an only son, but having been away from home at school in my early days so great a part of my time that I was hardly contented to sit quietly down in the family circle, although always treated with the greatest paternal kindness. The articles I was fond of when a boy were always placed where I could get them, such as boiled milk, tarts, fruits, custards, and the like, in a pantry, where I found them when I came home after meals on Saturday from school or college; and the students from college, or those with whom I was studying law, often shared with me. I would ask them to walk or ride out in the afternoons. Among these were Mr. James Woods, counsellor at law; Mr. Parson, Cave Jones (both now deceased), the Judge of our new Court of Sessions, Mr. Riker, and many others who came out to see me on that pleasant spot on the North River, the Glass House farm, where there was abundance of fruits in their season, and of the very best kind, and thus we used to enjoy ourselves comfortably with my parents. My father formerly, among other articles of trade, dealt in wines of various kinds, and had his cellar in Crown street often filled with pipes and casks of Madeira and other wines, and always, during his residence in the country, had a pipe on tap. I therefore was allowed to draw a decanter whenever any of my company came out to see me; and my mother was always pleased to see my friends and acquaintances, and would, from a spring we had on the place, make a fine dish of the best green tea, with smoked beef, excellent home baked bread and butter, and Bogert's crackers, prepared in the way hereafter described, with common comfiture, or some kind of sweetmeats, and in the season, currants, raspberries, strawberries, cherries, or peaches sliced and sugared.

Notwithstanding all my comforts at home, I had made up my mind to take this voyage. My father wished me to take a thousand dollars in cash with me for my expenses, but I preferred taking part of the cargo, and the owners agreed to let me have what sum I pleased. I chose for my adventure peas, ship-bread, and flour to the amount of about a thousand dollars. We laid in full and ample stores; we had twelve dozen of wine each, porter and cider, the same of Bogert's crackers, made of nothing but flour and water, and by putting them in a bowl of fresh cold water, they would rise up and burst open; any old man could eat them without teeth. These crackers were delicious; our modern bakers seem to have lost the art of making them. I often long for the days to return when I could share with the Knickerbockers in a cup of tea from the tea water pump. Whatever of other cake and bread and butter, we had always a plate of those Bogert's biscuits soaked in cold water, split open, and a bit of sweet fresh butter put on each half biscuit.

We laid in for our voyage everything in proportion, as six dozen of ducks, six dozen of fowls, &c. We started in October, and instead of getting as far to windward as Barbadoes, we fell to leeward as far as the island of Dominique, and anchored at the town of Rosseau. Governor Bruce, a hearty old officer, invited my fellow passenger and myself to dine with him, as also Captain Saltus. He entertained us in the most sumptuous manner, with the very best Madeira, so good that I was quite inspired by it. He offered us beds in his cool house, but we declined, and went on board. I here think proper to mention that my friend and shipmate was a Mr. William Carpenter, of Brooklyn, who had been brought up a complete merchant. At the time of our arrival we found that flour was selling at a dollar a barrel less than it had cost us, but the captain luckily hit upon a project to have the price advanced, so that we might have a profit.

After having been in port a couple of days, the captain told the Governor if there was any part of his cargo that was wanting he might have it, but he could not sell it and sacrifice the property of his owners, and as they had money owing to them in the island, he would charter another vessel or two, and purchase all the flour in the island at six dollars and a quarter a barrel, for he

knew where to take it, to an island not very far distant, and get seven or more dollars for all they had. The bait took, and I got for my flour one dollar and a half a barrel more than it was at that time selling for. In a few days we sailed to Point á Petre, Guadaloupe, where the captain and the other passenger laid in sugars for a return cargo. They both had been concerned in merchandise all their lives, but they missed a figure in their purchase. They could easily have obtained white clayed sugars for the same or a less price, but no (the prejudice of education is a wonderful thing), they laid out all their money arising from the cargo they had sold, in brown sugars. "Why do you not buy coffee?" says I, "it is selling for sixpence a pound, New York money." "O, no; that would not do." For my part, I had no mind to lay out my money-I had sold my peas, beans and flour, and thought I would keep my return moneys snug and not try merchandise again. During our stay at Point á Petre, Guadaloupe, my fellow passenger was taken sick, and I sent for the most distinguished physician in the city, but could not get him to give my friend any medicine. On my urging him to prescribe something, he replied, "I know not the nature of his disease and he had better die with it than that I should kill him by adminis tering improper remedies for the complaint. Put him into the warm bath three times a day, and give him light chicken broth and gruel, as his appetite may require." The patient gave up all hopes of recovery and made his will, but under this treatment he slowly recovered. The captain earnestly assured me I could now make something of the return cargo, and he had room enough in the hold to put anything I might buy. I therefore bought some clayed sugars and coffee for sixpence a pound. We sailed on Monday morning, and on the following Wednesday arrived at St. Eustatia, where I sold my coffee for double the money I gave for it. That was pretty good profit in three days. The captain and my fellow passenger were ready to tear the hair from their heads with vexation. We then started for New York.

NARRATIVE OF GEORGE RAPELJE IN 1834.

NEW PUBLICATIONS.

The Johns Hopkins University has just published a series of lectures upon the "Federal Government in Canada," by John G. Bourinot, Clerk of the House of Commons of Canada. The work is one which will be examined with pleasure by all who desire to obtain a more thorough knowledge of the workings of the government of that country, which differs in its theory both from the one we are familiar with here and that of Great Britain, but which is still near enough to ours for us to derive much instruction from an analysis of its constitution and an examination of its mechanism. Canada is a confederation, having a Parliament over the whole country, somewhat similar to Congress, and lesser Parliaments, answering, though inexactly, to our State Legislatures. There is nothing corresponding to the latter on the other side of the water, and there is of course very little comparison between the highest legislative body in Canada and that in the mother country. The two Canadian legislative authorities, the general and the local, are divided from each other much more strictly by their fundamental act, or what we should term their Constitution, than ours are. Instead of enumerating a few general provisions showing the nature of the central government, the clauses giving it powers and limiting them are numerous and strictly defined, while a still more striking difference is shown in the powers not expressly mentioned. With us they belong to the States; on the other side of the St. Lawrence they are declared to belong to the Dominion. The GovernorGeneral is an anomaly. He is sent from Great Britain to govern, but he does this only by the advice of his ministers, who are Canadians, and are, as Mr. Bagehot declared about the ministry of England, only a Committee of the House of Commons. But when Ireland had a Parliament it was not thus governed, as can be seen by a study of the administrations of Wellesley and his predecessors. They not only were viceroys, but they actually ruled. Queen, although she administers by the advice of her ministers, is a person of indubitable power. But the Canadian Governor-General, if he adheres strictly to the constitutional idea, is simply a figure-head. We know, however, that he really is not, thus proving that pure theory must be modified in practice.

The

Mr. Bourinot shows the limitations of power in the governments of Canada more clearly than we ever remember to have seen before. Local acts can be disallowed by the Governor-General. Those of the general government can in turn be disallowed by the English ministry, which is the creature of the British Parliament. There are thus three authorities which must be consulted in making the laws of the country, one in a distant country and likely to be misinformed or to judge inadequately of the exigencies of the occasion. The colonies, therefore, find it necessary to keep up agents in London, to look after their special interests, as Burke represented the colony of New York at the time of the passage of the Quebec act, and as Franklin represented Pennsylvania for many years. For the last forty years or more our neighbor has prospered, peace and plenty steadily continuing, while liberty has been united with deference to the laws, but will it always continue to be obedient to the feelings and the prejudices of those who know nothing about it, and probably care little?