art of war, under the famous prince Eugene, and other eminent commanders. He was patronised by the dukes of Argyle and Marlborough, by whose commendations he acted as secretary and aid-de-camp to the prince, though at an early period of life, and stored up much useful knowledge. It was said that he was offered some preferment in the German service, where he might have acquired the station which his companion, marshal Keith, afterwards obtained: but with a man of his sentiments, the obligations due to his country, and the services it required, were not to be dispensed with.

From the time of prince Eugene's campaigns, the pacific disposition of the powers of Europe, prevented the exercise of Oglethorpe's military talents for a considerable time: at length a field. was opened in the western world, where he had an opportunity of displaying them, and giving evidence of the feelings of his heart.

He was appointed colonel of a regiment the twenty-fifth of August, 1737, with the rank of general and commander in chief over all the king's forces in Georgia and Southcarolina. It is said that he commanded the first regular force that was ever stationed in America, and that he was the first general to whom a chief command had been given over two provinces. He was appointed brigadier-general in the British army the thirtieth of March, 1745, and major-general, the thirteenth of September, 1747. He was elected member of parliament for Haslemere, in Surry, in 1722, 1727, 1734, 1741, and 1747; and during that period many regulations in the laws of England, for the benefit of trade, and the public weal generally, were proposed and promoted by him. In 1728, finding a gentleman, to whom he paid a visit in the Fleet prison, loaded with irons, and otherwise barbarously used, he engaged in a philanthropic inquiry into the state of the prisoners and jails in England; where, upon investigation, facts disgraceful to humanity were developed. He moved, in the house of commons, that a committee should be appointed to inquire into the state of the prisoners confined in the jails of Great Britain. A committee was accordingly appointed, and Oglethorpe who was its chairman, reported, in 1729, several resolutions, which induced the house to at tempt a redress of many flagrant abuses.

Oglethorpe suggested a project for the consideration of a number of gentlemen, principally members of parliament, who lately had occasion to observe the miserable condition of prisoners confined in jails for debt: moved with compassion for their relief, they judged that if they were settled in some of the new colonics in North America, they might, instead of being a burthen and disgrace, be made beneficial to the nation.

On the fifteenth of July, 1732, he was vested with the functions of governor of Georgia, and in the ten succeeding years he crossed the Atlantic ocean six times, without fee or hope of reward, to forward his laudable design of settling the province. When he returned to England, for the last time, in 1743, he took with him an Indian boy, son of one of the chiefs, who received a pretty libcral education, and returned to Georgia a polished man; and when he went into the Creek nation, considerable expectations were entertained from his influence in planting the seeds of civilization amongst his countrymen; but he soon returned to his native habits.

General Oglethorpe, complimented colonel Noble Jones with his portrait in a neat frame, representing his Indian pupil standing by his side reading: it was lost when Savannah was captured by the British forces in December, 1778.

In 1745, he accompanied the duke of Cumberland into Scotland, which was his last military expedition. On the twenty-ninth of August, 1744, he married Eliza, daughter of sir Nathan Wright, baronet, an heiress.

Verses enclosed to a lady in Charleston, soon after Oglethorpe's marriage; who inquired when he would return to America:

"The fairest of Diana's train,

For whom so many sigh'd in vain,
Has bound him in her silken chain,

From whence he'll ne'er get loose again.

"The son of Jove and Venus knew,

Who bravely fought, could nobly woo,

And howsoe'er he dared in fight,
Was forc'd to yield to lovely Wright.

"Both charming, graceful, equal, fair,
Love glorying in so bright a pair;
Fortune and Nature both together,
Have left no vacant wish for either.

At the commencement of the American revolution, general Oglethorpe being the senior officer of sir William Howe, and now grown old in military fame without sullying his laurels, had the prior offer of the command of the forces appointed to subdue the colonies. He agreed to accept the appointment on condition the ministry would authorize him to assure the colonies, that justice should be done them. His proposal at once appeared the result of humanity and equity; he declared, that "He knew the people of America well; that they never would be subdued by arms, but that their obedience would ever be secured by doing them justice."t A man with these ideas was not a fit instrument for the designs of the British government: he was, therefore, agreeably to his own request, permitted to remain at home, where he was a quiet spectator of the folly of his country, through a seven years war with the colonies.

General Oglethorpe passed the eve of his life in easy retirement, at the seat of his wife, at Grantham hall, in Essex, where he died the thirtieth of June, 1785, in the eighty-seventh year of his age. He had been seventy-four years in the British army, and at his death he was said to have been the oldest officer in the king's service. His moderation, and the simplicity of his whole deportment, his prudence, virtue, delight in doing good, real regard to merit, unaffected simplicity in all his actions, great knowledge and experience, generous care and concern for his fellow creatures, his mercy and benevolence, will admit of but few parallels in the history of human life.

More can be said of general Oglethorpe, than of the subject of any other prince in Europe: he founded the province of Georgia, in

"He, noble, generous, and brave;
She all the virtues wise men crave,
With manly judgment too beside,
As e'er made hero happy bride.

"Help, youths and virgins, help to sing,
The prize which Hymen now does bring:
I too my feeble voice will raise;

To name but Oglethorpe, is praise."

British Annual Register.

America; he lived to see it flourish, and become of consequence to the commerce of Great Britain; he saw it in a state of resistance, and at length beheld it independent of its mother country; and ef great political importance in one quarter of the globe.

POLITICAL STATE OF CANADA.

The picture of the political state of Canada, given by Mr. Heriot, who resided there several years in an official capacity, and has published his "Travels in Canada," will be interesting at the present moment.

PREVIOUS to the year 1660, the influence of law was altogether unknown in Canada. The authority was entirely military: and the will of the governor, or of his lieutenant, was submitted to without ever being questioned. The sole power of bestowing pardon, of inflicting punishment, of distributing rewards, of exacting fines, was vested in him alone. He could imprison without a shadow of delinquency, and cause to be revered as acts of justice all the irregularities of his caprice.

In the year mentioned above, a tribunal, to decide definitively on all law-suits of the colonists, was established in the capital. The coutume de Paris, modified by local combinations, formed the code of these laws.

During the first four years after Canada came into possession of the British, it was divided into three military governments. At Quebec, and at Three Rivers, officers of the army became judges in causes civil as well as criminal. These important functions were, at Montreal, committed to the better order of inhabitants An equal want of legal information appears to have been the lot of all parties: and the commandant of the district, to whom an appeal from their sentences could be made, was no less defective in jurisprudence.

The coast of Labrador was, in 1764, dismembered from Canada, and added to the government of Newfoundland: and Lake Champlain, with all the territory to the southward of the fortyfifth degree of north latitude, was joined to the province of Newyork,

The extensive regions to the north, and west of Michilimakinac, in Lake Huron, were left without any jurisdiction. The territory from the mouth of the St. Lawrence, as far as that island, was placed under the authority of one chief.

The laws of the admiralty of England were, at the same time, established there: but these could only have a reference to the subjects of that country, into whose hands the whole of the maritime commerce necessarily flowed. To this improvement, beneficial to the interests of the colony, another of yet greater importance was added. This was the criminal code of England.

Before the introduction of this equitable mode of administering justice, a criminal, real or supposed, could be seized, thrown into confinement, and interrogated, without a knowledge of his crime or of his accuser; without being able to call to his aid, or to the alleviation of his distress, either friends, relatives or counsel.

The Canadians readily conceived, and felt, in a lively manner, the inestimable advantage of a system of jurisdiction too equitable to admit of any of the tyrannical modes of procedure which they had before been accustomed to witness or experience.

These people viewed not, however, with an equal degree of satisfaction the introduction of the civil code of England. They were prompted by habit and prejudice to give a preference to the ancient system under which their property had been protected. The magistrates, and other administrators of justice, found it, therefore, expedient to depart from the letter of the law, and to incline in their decisions, to the maxims which had before prevailed.

By an act, called the Quebec act, passed in the British legislature in 1775, Canada was extended to its ancient limits; and its former system of civil law, the coutume de Paris, was restored. The criminal and maritime regulations of England were retained, free exercise of the Roman catholic religion was allowed: and the profession of that faith was declared to be no impediment to the rights of the subject, or to his holding any office under the colonial government. Ecclesiastical dimes, and feodal obligations, resumed their validity.

A council formed by the sovereign might annul these arrangements, and exercise any power except that of imposing taxes.