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WASHINGTON IRVING.

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WASHINGTON IRVING-best known, at present, as author of the Sketch Book,' but likely to be respected with posterity as author of Knickerbocker's New York,'-was born, about 1784, in the city whose early history furnished the materials of his ablest performance. Soon after commencing his literary career by contributing theatrical criticisms to a newspaper, he recommended himself to public favour, as conductor of the well known Salmagundi,' a series of sketches humorous and satirical, after the manner of our Citizen of the World, in which he was assisted by Verplank, little known as an author, and by Paulding, author of the Backwoodsman,' &c. Disgusted with the study of law, to which he had begun to direct his attention, he entered into mercantile life, without abandoning his pursuits as author. Knickerbocker,' his next performance, soon acquired extensive popularity, and was succeeded by several papers, in an American Magazine, on the Naval Biography of his country. Shortly after the appearance of a criticism on the poetry of Mr Campbell, introductory to an American edition of that gentleman's works, he became unsuccessful in business, embarked for England, and published his Sketch Book,' which procured him an instant popularity, detrimental, as is usual, to the merit of his later publications, Bracebridge Hall,' and Tales of a Traveller.'

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We could expatiate with delight on the originality, the ingenious allusion, the happy language, the unrivalled humour, the felicitous drollery of our beloved Knickerbocker, from which we have extracted the following amusing, though distorted, portrait of General Wilkinson, under the

name of Von Poffenburgh; we could dwell on the pathos, the wit, the unpretending poetry of the Sketch Book: we might say of his descriptions that-though they possess not what has been happily expressed of those of the first of novelists, that sternness, in the midst of their beauty and graphical exactness, which animates with the spirit of the eagle, the scenery of the eagle's dwelling-place,'* yet— their gentle beauty and harmonious construction produce an effect allied to that of sounds and sweet airs;' and we could assign abundance of reasons for saying of his • Traveller's Tales' that, after all the allowances that can be made, their perusal must provoke a feeling resembling that which prompted Marival, in one of Fielding's comedies, to say, I've sometimes seen treatises where the author put all his wit in the title-page,' for to us it appears that the inventive Geoffry Crayon might have concocted these volumes without travelling far from the land of his birth: but it were idle to occupy the reader's time with remarks on writings so extensively known. Had the majority of them been less peculiarly English in all their bearings, we might have been justified in saying a few words on the general merits of the American novelists. It were doing injustice, however, to the question, as to the characteristics of this rising school, to judge from a work having so decided a resemblance to the manner of Goldsmith as that which runs through Salmagundi ;† 'and, with the exception of a slight

* We quote from the London Magazine for January 1820, where the reader will find an article on the Author of the Scotch Novels,' which we do not hesitate to pronounce one of the ablest criticisms ever given on this writer. It is from the pen of the late Mr John Scott, and so honourable to his head and heart, that we can fully conceive how soothing it must have been for its author to reflect, (as, Mr Hazlitt tells us, was actually the case,) when stretched on an untimely death-bed, that he had assisted in establishing the fame of one who has done so much for Scotland.

† Vide Blackwood's Magazine for January 1825. The article referred to concludes a valuable series of papers on the literature of America-being,

portion of their contents, those of his writings published in this country, cannot be regarded as Transatlantic either in matter or in manner. Knickerbocker's History of New York deals, indeed, with American manners and American history, but, to the credit of its author, is so completely a performance sui generis, that no production either of the American or any other press, of past or of present times, ean, for a moment, be put in competition with it.

Though thus unwilling to make his name an excuse for entering into sweeping generalities regarding the literature of his country, we may be pardoned for touching on one general topic in bearing our humble testimony to the powerful aid given by Irving's works towards removing that unseemly, that unnatural, depressing, ungenerous rivalship which had too long subsisted between England and America. Well may he congratulate himself on the good he has accomplished in this respect. Before he came to visit ‹ the land of his fathers,' America was seldom mentioned but as the object of the slanderer's dignified contempt, or as the cause of ribald jesting from the misinformed scribbler. How has public sentiment changed within the short period that has since elapsed! If the voice of detraction is now ever heard, it proceeds from those who conceive themselves to be interested in decrying every thing connected with America, from some vague apprehension lest the contagious example there exhibiting may affect the tottering security of institutions, immaculate because originating with--the infallible wisdom of the dark ages! Let Austria with her censorship,-let Ferdinand supported by the bayonets of Frenchmen, and let Charles, in worse than personal bondage, blinded by all the trickery of priestcraft-let the despots of the continent tremble when their outraged sub

in truth, a catalogue raisonnée of American books, as well as an index to the literary lives of their authors.

jects speak respectfully of America: it is not for England to fear for the stability of a government so firmly established in the hearts of her thousands. But if jealousy must still subsist between her and America, let it partake of that generous emulation which may incite the philosophers of these widely separated regions to strive who of them shall most usefully extend the boundaries of science,—which may inspire the poet with strains imperishable as their mutual tongue, and unite all classes in contending which nation shall be first to free the negro from his chains, to spread among the heathen the doctrines of Christianity, and to assist other lands in obtaining that freedom which renders England the envy of the world, and stamps America as a nation worthy of its origin; giving, in the healthy vigour of its growth, the best comments on its parent stock; and reflecting, in the dawning brightness of its fame, the moral effulgence of British glory.'*

VON POFFENBURGH.

HITHERTO, most venerable and courteous reader, have I shown thee the administration of the valorous Stuyvesant, under the mild moonshine of peace, or rather the grim tranquillity of awful expectation; but now the war drum rumbles from afar, the brazen trumpet brays its thrilling note, and the rude clash of hostile arms speaks fearful prophecies of coming troubles. The gallant warrior starts from soft repose, from golden visions, and voluptuous ease; where, in the dulcet, piping time of peace,' he sought sweet solace after all his toils. No more in beauty's syren lap reclined, he weaves fair garlands for his lady's brows; no more entwines with flowers his shining sword; nor through the live-long lazy summer's day chants forth his love-sick, soul in madrigals. To manhood roused, he spurns the amorous flute; doffs from his brawny back the robe of peace, and clothes his pampered limbs in panoply of steel. O'er his dark brow, where late the myrtle waved-where wanton

Conclusion of Bracebridge Hall.

roses breathed enervate love-he rears the beaming casque and nodding plume; grasps the bright shield, and shakes the ponderous lance; or mounts with eager pride his fiery steed, and burns for deeds of glorious chivalry!

But soft, worthy reader! I would not have you imagine, that any preux chevalier, thus hideously begirt with iron, existed in the city of New-Amsterdam. This is but a lofty and gigantic mode in which heroic writers always talk of war, thereby to give it a noble and imposing aspect; equipping our warriors with bucklers, helms, and lances, and such like outlandish and obsolete weapons, the like which perchance they had never seen or heard of; in the same manner that a cunning statuary arrays a modern general, or an admiral, in the accoutrements of a Cæsar or an Alexander. The simple truth then of all this oratorical flourish is thisthat the valiant Peter Stuyvesant, all of a sudden, found it necessary to scour his trusty blade, which too long had rusted in its scabbard, and prepare himself to undergo those hardy toils of war, in which his mighty soul so much delighted.

Methinks I at this moment behold him in my imagination -or rather, I behold his goodly portrait, which still hangs up in the family mansion of the Stuyvesants, arrayed in all the terrors of a true Dutch general. His regimental coat of German blue, gorgeously decorated with a goodly show of large brass buttons, reaching from his waistband to his chin. The voluminous skirts turned up at the corners, and separat ing gallantly behind, so as to display the seat of a sumptuous pair of brimstone-coloured trunk breeches a graceful style still prevalent among the warriors of our day, and which is in conformity to the custom of ancient heroes, who scorned to defend themselves in rear. His face rendered exceeding terrible and warlike by a pair of black mustachios; his hair strutting out on each side in stiffly pomatumed ear-locks, and descending in a rat-tail queue below his waist; a shining stock of black leather supporting his chin, and a little, but fierce cocked-hat, stuck with a gallant and fiery air over his left eye. Such was the chivalric port of Peter the Headstrong; and when he made a sudden halt, planted himself firmly on his solid supporter, with his wooden leg inlaid with silver, a little in advance, in order to strengthen his position, his right hand grasping a gold-headed cane, his left resting upon the pummel of his sword; his head dressing spiritedly to the right, with a most appalling and hard-favoured frown upon his brow-he presented altogether one of