BURR, AARON. I have just finished (November 29, 1837) the perusal of the second volume of Davis's Memoirs of Aaron Burr. I took up that work with the most bitter prejudices against Burr, but I must confess that a perusal of it has very much softened, if not entirely eradicated, my detestation of his character. Burr, no doubt, was a persecuted man. He had intrigue, perhaps too much like Pope, he practiced it when a straightforward course would have answered his turn as well. This rendered him suspected; being suspected, made him suspicious; being thus suspicious and suspected, his conduct toward General Hamilton, on the one hand, and the conduct of the administration towards him in relation to the liberation of Mexico on the other, are accounted for. He went too far in call. ing out General Hamilton, although he received serious provocations which had never been caused, nor revenged by similar conduct on his part. He was above abusing a rival, but he would take all honorable means of triumphing over him. Hamilton was not above abusing a rival; but he would not go to such lengths, perhaps, to secure a triumph. As to his being guilty of treason in 1806 and 1807, there is very little ground to imagine such a thing. that devil incarnate which I had Aaron Burr was not supposed him to be. The letters which passed between him and his daughter are some of the finest models of epistolary writing I ever saw. I think them superior to Lady Mary W. Montague-not in mind, nor in polish, nor in literary merit, nor in refinement, but in that playful ease, and in that eternal sprinkling of the purest attic salt which should characterize the epistolary. They are perfect specimens of letters. Everybody can see that the author of the book has crowded as many of these letters into it as he possibly could, in order to exhibit Burr in his most attractive light-his private relations and thus abstract the attention of the reader from the events of his public life. Though, on a perusal of the book, one could not point out any particular event of Burr's public life on which the author could have been more full than he has been. On the whole, the work is a good one, in my view, and will tend to repress the imputation of sinister and vindictive motives to public men, by teaching the lesson that a man may be hunted down as a monster in society, who, to his own intimate friends, exhibited the tenderest, noblest feelings of our nature. A LOVE LETTER. SEPTEMBER 6, 1838.-" This world has not so many charms for me as it once had. I have been tossed on its ruder surges so long that I have learned to look for pure and abiding happiness in some more pure and abiding world. But life must be spent here; duties must be discharged here, and I should be ungrateful to my Maker if I did not believe that He has provided me with some source of happiness connected with the situation in which He has seen fit to place me. But, where is happiness to be found. She is not seen in the giddy world of fashion, nor does she smile on the plumes of vanity and conceit. She is social in her nature, and domestic in her habits. Sweet in her disposition, her smile is bewitching. Tenderness beams in her eyes, and affection throbs in her heart. Her own fireside is her empire; beyond it her wishes never extend. Good sense and intelligence are her attendants; religion is her friend." Such is the picture which I have often drawn of the purest earthly bliss-a picture which has had its counterpart in real life, but which I have had little hope ever to realize. (NOTE.) This extract is part of a love letter which, however, was never sent to the person for whom it was intended. ADMISSION TO THE BAR. DECEMBER 29, 1839.-On Wednesday evening, November 13, 1839, I was examined, at Trenton, before the Justices of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, on application for license to practice law; and on the next day, licensed and admitted to practice as an attorney at law and solicitor in chancery in said State. The following Friday I started for Albany, and after staying at home nearly five weeks, returned to Newark Wednesday, 18th inst., where I still remain, undecided where to settle. Whilst at home, I witnessed much of the Helderberg disturbances, which elicited a call from the Governor of New York on the militia to suppress them. No blood was shed but that of divers pigs and fowls. (Signed) J. P. BRADLEY. A PICTURE. George B. Corkhill, of Washington, D. C., lately purchased an engraving, a little old and rough looking, exhibiting a Judge with ass's ears sitting on a tribunal, with Justice blindfolded on his left. Before him an old man brings forward a female figure, who holds a torch in one hand, and with the other clutches by the hair a little imp, who makes wry faces and kicks about resistingly. Behind the female figure are some attendants of hers, one of whom carries a dragnet on her shoulder. Guards stand at the door half concealed. In the extreme left hand upper corner an open window shows a demon in the distance on the wing, dragging away a female figure, as if it were a spirit taken to perdition. The engraving has a legend, as follows: Attrahit insonte perjura calumnia Apelle. In jus immiscens fanda nefanda simul Auriculis judex insignis tepora aselli Jus pariter reddit collite cu comite Which may be freely translated thus: "False swearing Calumny drags into Court Apelles innocent. The stupid Judge, Confounding Right and Wrong, his temples crowned With Ass's ears, with blindfold Justice by, Awards alike to both-the Good-the Bad. Time's daughter (Truth), who now at length is brought, Reveals the hidden Fraud, alas, too late! The moment seized by the artist seems to be that at which Truth, with torch in hand, and clutching by the hair the struggling imp, representing the fraud that has lain concealed, and which has just been dragged from the water, reveals to the Court the awful mistake it has made. The Judge seems greatly surprised, and poor Justice hangs down her head in shame. The old man who brings "Truth" forward may be either "Time" or the agonized father of the victim, who was unjustly condemned, and whose spirit is seen to the left carried away by a demon. The drag-net of "Truth," held by one of her attendants, shows her perseverance in finding out the fraud, and reminds us how all hidden things are brought to light by her indefatigable efforts, even from the bottom of the sea. The engraving has inscribed on a slab or caryatides, in the body of the piece, this note: "Georgius Ghisi, Mant. f 1560." That is, executed by George Ghisi of Mantua 1560. At the foot is inscribed on a scroll, "Luca Penis. in." That is, That is, "Luca Penni's design." Luca Penni was born 1500, and was a scholar of "Raphael." Ghisi of Mantua was a generation later. In Spooner's Biographical history of the Arts, under the title "Ghisi, George," is a list of some of Ghisi's engravings, and amongst others, this, "An allegorical subject representing a Judge on his tribunal with ass's ears, after Luca Penni." The engraving purchased by Mr. Corkhill is probably a French copy. I judge that it is not an original, because wanting the artist's monogram, and because it has an imprimatur, "cum privilegio regis." It may have been copied in the reign of Louis XIV or XV. (Signed) J. P. BRADLEY. JUNE, 1882. |