After the death of his father, when George was about ten years of age, his mother sent him to a school at Westmoreland. Here his character for truth was such, that, when the boys were in violent dispute respecting a question of fact, nothing was more common than for some little shaver to call out, "Well boys! George Washington was there; George Washington was there; he knows all about it; and if he dont say it was so,then we will give it up;" "done," said the adverse party. He would never allow his playmates to fight with one another, if he could prevent it; and if his personal exertions were unsuccessful he would go to the master and inform him of their barbar. ous intentions. The boys were frequently angry with him for this, but he used to say, "angry or not angry, you shall never have my consent to a practice so shocking! shocking even in slaves and dogs!" Washington early evinced a propensity to the manœuvres of war. At school he divided his play mates into two armies, called the French and the Amer. ican, of which he commanded the latter. With corn stalks for muskets, and calabashes for drums, the two armies would every day fight their battles with great fury. The exercise, in which he delighted, was of the athletic kind. He had hardly an equal in throwing heavy weights or jumping with a long pole; and as to running there was nobody, that could come near him. He was often seen to throw a stone across the Rappahannock at the lower ferry of Fredericsburg, a feat, which VOL. II. New Series.

few at the present day can per form. In his fifteenth year he determined to enter as a midship. man in the British navy, and his trunk was actually sent on board. When he came to take leave of his mother she wept bitterly, and told him, that her heart would break, if he left her. With all the fire of youth burning within him, he yet was so su premely governed by a sense of duty, that he resigned his proud hopes of distinction, and imme diately got his trunk ashore! This was an almost unparalleled instance of filial piety. Soon after this period he was employed by lord Fairfax as a surveyor in the back woods of Virginia, in which service he continued till his twentieth year. While in Frederic county, he boarded at the house of a widow Stevenson, generally pronounced Stinson. She had seven sons, with whom every evening, after the toils of surveying, he used to run, jump, and wrestle on a fine green before. the house. These young men were heavier than George, so that at wrestling, and particularly at the Indian hug, he seldom had cause for triumph. Hugh Stinson used to tell his friends, that," he and his brother John had often laid the conqueror of England on his back;" but at the same time would agree, that “in running and jumping they were no match for him." For several years afterwards he was engaged in the Indian war, and at the defeat of Braddock in 1755 was wonder. fully preserved by divine provi dence. A famous Indian warrior, who was in that battle, was often heard to swear, that "Washington was not born to be killed by a bullet! for," continued he, "Thaï 3 T

seventeen fair fires at him with my rifle, and after all could not bring him to the ground!"

The principal facts in the remaining life of Washington are well known. The following anecdotes, relating to this period, are however gleaned from this work. After he had crossed the Delaware in Dec. 1776, and came in sight of Trenton with but one of his three detachments, destin. ed to attack that place, he observed some symptoms of terror in the countenances of his soldiers. Riding along the front of his balted troops, he rose up on his stirrups, and waving his sword towards the hostile camp, he exclaimed, "there! my brave friends! there are the enemies of your country! and now all I ask of you, is just to remember what you are about to fight for. March!" A thousand prisoners was the fruit of this enterprise.

In his last sickness Washington was heard once or twice to say, "if it had pleased God, I should have been glad to die a little easier, but I doubt not it is for my good." When his baffled physi. cians sat by his bed side, looking on him deeply affected, he stretched out his hand to them, and shaking his head, said, "0, no!--don't!-don't!" then with a smile added, "I am dying, gentlemen; but thank God, I am not afraid to die." Know

ing that the hour of his departure was at hand, he desired that every person might leave the room. He was accordingly left with his God.

As proofs of his religion, the following facts are adduced. One of his aids in the French and Indian war, colonel Benjamin Temple, has often declared,

"that he frequently knew Washington on the Sabbath read the Scriptures and pray with his regiment in the absence of the chaplain; and also, that on sudden and unexpected visits into his marquee, he has more than once found him on his knees at his devotions." He was very con. stant at church, and no company ever detained him from the house of God. In the winter of 1777, when the army lay encamped at Valloy Forge, an old quaker by the name of Potts, as he was passing through the woods near head quarters, heard the sound of a human voice; he cautiously approached the spot, and beheld the commander in chief of the American armies on his knees at prayer!

The following circumstance brings high honor to the youthful Washington, as it evinces his readiness to retract an error, and to resist the spirit of revenge. In the year 1754, when he was colonel, he got warm in a dispute with a Mr. Payne, who raised his sturdy hickory and levelled the hero to the ground. The next day the colonel wrote a polite note to Mr. Payne, and requested to meet him at the tavern. Washington received him in a friendly manner, and, instead of demanding satisfaction, acknowledged that he had been in the wrong, and settled the affair over a bottle of wine. A modern man of honor would have produced his pistols, and added murder to insult!

The following facts afford the most pleasing proofs of his benevolence. Before the commencement of the late war, he used annually to visit the sweet springs of Virginia, at which

place he always ordered the ba.

ker to supply the poor with bread at his expense. He often, says the baker, paid eighty dol. lars a season, and that for poor creatures, who did not know the hand, that fed them, as secresy was enjoined. The poor near his own plantation were constantly supplied with wool, corn, flour, bacon, clothes, &c. One of his managers had orders to fill a corn house every year for the sole use of the poor. One year, when corn was a dollar per bushel, he bought several hundred bushels for them, be. sides giving them what could be spared from the grauary.

With the following we shall conclude our extracts from this little work.

"When the children of years to come, hearing his great name re-echoed from every lip, shall say to their fathers, "what was it that raised Washington to

such height of glory?" let them be told,

that "it was his GREAT TALENTS CONSTANTLY GUIDED AND GUARDED BY RELIGION."------" What motives, under heaven can restrain men from vices and crimes, and urge them on, full stretch, after individual and national happiness, like those of relig ion? For lack of these motives, alas! how many, who once dazzled the world with the glare of their exploits, are now eclipsed, and set to rise no more! There was Arnold, who in courage and military talents glittered in the same firmament with Washington, and for a while his face shone like the star of the morning; but alas! for lack of Washington's religion, he soon fell, like Lucifer, from a heaven of glory into an abyss of never ending infamy. There was the gallant general Hamilton also-a gigantic geniusa statesman fit to rule the mightiest monarchy--a soldier, "fit to stand by Washington and give commund." But alas! for lack of religion, see how all was lost! Preferring the praise of man to that praise "which cometh from God," and pursuing the phantom honor up to the pistol's mouth, he is cut off at once from life and greatness, and leaves his family and country to mourn his hapless fate. And there was

the fascinating colonel Burr. A man born to be great,-brave as Cæsar, polished as Chesterfield, eloquent as Cicero, and lifted by the strong arm of his country, he rose fast, and bade fair soon to fill the place where Washington had sat But alas! lacking religion he could not wait the spontaneous fall of the rich honors ripening over his head, but in an evil hour stretched forth his hand to the forbidden fruit, and by that fatal act was cast out from the Eden of our republic and amerced of greatness for ever.

We have thus, for the gratifi cation of our readers, collected the principal and most interest, ing anecdotes, contained in this little volume, and presented sufficient specimens of the author's manner. His style in many places approaches to what is called prose run mad; but every part of his book is rendered in. teresting by the peculiar genius of the writer. His humor is inimitable. When he tells a story, every word is most aptly chosen, and every circumstance however minute, which can add any thing to the effect, is remembered. This disposition to copy closely after nature is, however, attend. ed with evils, when the object to be delineated is deformed and unpleasant; for, in that case, we are disgusted with the sight of what a different artist would keep from our view. In our opinion Mr. Weems is very skilful in the execution of what he undertakes, but wants judgment to direct him in his design. He says much to promote the cause of religion; but he admits some things, which must greatly counteract the object, which unquestionably was dear to him. It is to us not a little wonderful, that a person who professedly writes for the young, and who zealously incul. cates upon them the duty of lov ing and fearing God, should yet

repeat anecdotes, in which the name of Jehovah is not treated with sufficient respect. We should like therefore to see an expurgation of this little volume before we could be pleased with its introduction into schools. If the author should be inclined to review his work on this point, we would recommend to the blotting of his pen all those expressions, which do not become

the lovely mouths" of sweet little children; such for instance as governor Dinwiddie's oath in the fifth chapter; "damn em !" in the imaginary fight between old England's porters and the frog-eating foe; his majesty's curse on the next page; Braddock's profanity in his reply to Washington; Samuel Chase's terrible exclamation on the floor of congress, and the Waldeckers' vulgar irreverence to the name of the Most High, in the ninth chapter; Washington's address to Lee, at Monmouth; colonel Williams' first words, as he was roused from the torpor of approaching death; the rash expletive at the beginning of a sentence near the close of the thir. teenth chapter; the irreverent language, which follows an account of the affair between Washington and Mr. Payne; and general Wayne's profane

expressions, when he made his mistake about old bon repos. We ardently hope that these and other passages will receive some correction from the hand of the author, who certainly has no wish to corrupt the minds of our youth, or to accustom their ears to the dialect of Billingsgate.

But one word more, and we shall dismiss this work. In the twelfth chapter FRANKLIN, MERCER, and all the virtuous deceased patriots of the revolu. tion, are made to pour forth from heaven's gate in angelic forms to meet the ascending spirit of Washington. This may be called a flight of the imagination; but can it be justifi. ed in a work which is designed to impress the young with the value of religion? Is a brave soldier and an honest man ne. cessarily an heir of heaven? Is not deep, unfeigned piety essen. tial to salvation? And does the spirit of piety often take up its abode in camps? We wish not to be thought deficient in charity, but we cannot go the length, to which Mr. Weems' fancy would carry us.

In page 181 Pennsylvania is printed by mistake for New York, with which state it was that Vermont had a controversy.

Rev. JOHN LATHROP, D. D. Vice President.

Mr. SAMUEL H. WALLEY, Treas. Mr. HENRY G. FOSTER, Assistant Treasurer.

Rev. JOSEPH S. BUCKMINTER, Corresponding Secretary.

Rev. JOHN PIERCE, Recording Secre tary. TRUSTEES.

Rev. John Eliot, D. D.

Rev. Joseph Eckley, D. D.
Rev. James Freeman,

Rev. Eliphalet Porter, D. D.
Rev. Abiel Holmes, D. D.
Rev. Thomas Baldwin, D. D.
Samuel Salisbury, Esq.
Hon. William Brown,
Francis Wright, Esq.
Hon. Isaac Parker,
Hon. Peter C. Brooks,
John Tucker, Esq.
Joseph Hurd, Esq.
Joseph Sewall, Esq.
Redford Webster, Esq.
Samuel Parkman, Esq.
Joseph May, Esq.
Henry Hill, Esq.

HAVING obtained a copy of the following Resolutions, which have been lately entered into by all the most respectable inhabitants of Windsor, they appeared to me so well calculated to promote the great object they have in view (namely, the suppression of those gross profanations of the Lord's Day, which are now most prevalent and most obnoxious) that I thought I could not do a more material service to the inhabitants of my diocese, than by request. ing the clergy to promote similar resolutions in their respective parishes, wherever the same profanations, or any other flagrant violations of the Lord's Day, have taken place. I hope therefore, you will have the goodness to exert yourself with zeal in the accomplishment of this most laudable purpose; and am, Reverend Sir, your affectionate brother,

B. LONDON.

Resolutions of a Meeting for Promoting a due Observance of the Sabbath. Ar a general Meeting of the Inhabitants of the Town and Castle of Windsor, held at the Guildhall on Tuesday, the 26th of April, 1808, for the purpose of adopting such resolutions as should be thought most effectual for promoting the better observance of the Sabbath, with in the Borough and its neighbourhood, J. Eglestone, Esq. Mayor, in the chair, Resolved, That the prac tice of opening shoes, or otherwise exercising trades or callings on Sundays, the delivery of goods by the common carriers, and the admission of persons into public houses, and suffering tippling therein during divine service, are gross breaches of the Sabbath, and tend greatly to the corruption of morals and the increase of dissipation.-Resolved, That the persons present at this Meeting do hereby pledge themselves to discountenance such practices; and that they will not apply or send to any shop whatsoever for goods, provisions, or any other article, on Sunday, nor suffer their servants, or any of their res. pective families so to do; and they do recommend to the inhabitants generally to conform to this Resolution.Resolved, That this Meeting do recommend to the several trades people of this town and neighbourhood to keep their shops close shut during the whole day of every Sunday (excepting where it may be unavoidably necessary for light; and, in that case, to remove all appearance of exposing goods for sale from the windows;) and not to sell any thing, except in cases of absolute necessity, nor to permit the carriers to deliver goods at their respective houses during the day.-Resolved, That it be recommended to all persons who em. ploy workmen, labourers, and others, weekly, to pay all such their wages in sufficient time, to preclude the necessity of their purchasing provisions or other necessaries on a Sunday.-Resolved, That these Resolu tions be signed, and copies thereof be printed, together with extracts from the several acts of parliament, relative to the Due Observance of the Lord's Day, and circulated throughout this town and neighbourhood.