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proof of-his muscular power , a place is still pointed out at Fredencksburg , near the lower ferry , where , when a boy , he flung a stone across the Kappahannock . In horsemanship , too , he already excelled , and was ready to back , and able to manage the most restive steed . Traditional anecdotes remain of his achievements in this respect . Above all , his inherent probity and the principles of justice on which he regulated all his conduct , even at this early period of life , wer « soon appreciated by his schoolmates ; he was referred to as an umpire in their disputes , and his decisions were never reversed . As he had formerly been military chieftain , he was now legislator of the school ; thus displaying m boyhood a typ « of the future man . Washington ' s manuscript school books still exist . They are marvels of neatness and accuracy , and indicate those habits of perseverance and completeness in all his undertakings which in after life enabled him to keep perfectly in hand , under the most difficult circumstances , all the multifarious details of his public and private business . But—who "would have thought it ?— . . ' ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ . . ¦ ¦ . . . ¦ : . ¦• ¦ . ;¦ ¦ ¦ . ¦
In one of these manuscript memorials of his practical studies and exercises , we have come upon some documents singularly in coutrast with all that we have just cited , and ¦ with his apparently unromantic character . In .-a word , there are evidences in his own handwriting ,, that , toefore he -was fifteen years of age , he had conceived a . passion , for some unknown beauty , so serious as to disturb his otherwise well-regulated mind , and to make him really unhappy . Why this juvenile attachment was a source of unhappiaess we have no positive means of ascertaining . Perhaps the object of it anay have considered him a mere schoolboy , and treated him as such ; or his own shyness may have been in his way , and his ¦ " ¦ rules for behaviour and conversation " may as yet have sat awkwardly on him , and rendered him formal and ungainly when lie most sought to please . Even , in later years he was apt tobe silent and embarrassed in female society . " He was a very fcashful young man , " said an old lady , whom he "used to visit when they were both in their nonage . " I used often to wish he would talk , more . " .
Whatever may have been the reason , this early attachment seems to Iiave been a source of poignant discomfort to him . It clung to him after he took a final leave of school in the autumn of 1747 , and went to reside with his brother Lawrence at Mount Vernon . Here he continued his mathematical studies and his practice in surveying 1 , disturbed at times by recurrences of his unlucky passion . Though by no means of a poetical temperament , the waste pages of his journal betray several attempts to poux forth his Amorous sorrows in verse . They are mere commonplace rhymes , such as lovers at his age are apt to write , in which he bewails his " poor restless heart , Wounded by Cupid ' s dart , " and " bleeding for one who remains pitiless of his griefs and woes . " . ' . . ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ •• ' : '••¦ .. . . — .. ;¦ . . ¦"•' . ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦¦ . ; . . The tenor of some of his verses induce us to believer that he never told his love ; but as we have already surmised , was prevented by his bashfulness . "Ah , woe is me , that I should love and conceal ; . '_" . ¦ ' . Long have I wished and never , dare reveal . "
It is difficult to reconcile one's self to the idea of the cool and sedate " Washington , the great champion of American liberty , a Woe-Tvornlovci in his youthful days , 11 sighing like furnace , " and inditing plaintive verses about the groves of Mount Vernon . We are glad of an opportunity , however , of penetrating to his native feelings , and finding that under his studied decorum and reserve be had a heart of flesh throbbing with the warm impulses of human nature . The name of Washington ' s first love is not positively known ; but tradition states that she was a Miss Grimes , " afterwards Mrs . Lee , and mother of General Henry Lee , who figures in revolutionary history as Light Horse Harry , and "was always a favourite with Washington , probably from the recollection of his early tenderness fox the mother . " The marriage of Lawrence Washington wjth one of the daughters of Sir William Fairfax , of Belvoir , Virginia , introduced George to society which y could not but have a beneficial effect in moulding the character and
manners of a somewhat homebred schoolboy . " It had also a notable share in determining the course of his fortunes ; for Lord Fairfax , Sir William ' s cousin , employed him to survey his vast estates in Virginia , and it was probably through the influence of the same nobleman that Washington was appointed public surveyor in his seventeenth , year . He retained this lucrative office for three or four 3 'ears , spending the greater part of his time in toilsome expeditions in the mountains , and his leisure with his cultivated brother at Mount Vernon , or with the Fairfax family . While he was thus occupied , the French and English were severally taking measures to enforce their conflicting claims to the Ohio valley , and war was becoming imminent . Virginia was divided into military districts , each having an adjutant-general , ¦ with , the rank of major , and the pay of 150 ^ . a year . One of these
appointments was conferred 011 Washington , though he was hut nineteen years of age , and he proved himself worthy of it . He at once applied himself with his usual assiduity to the acquirement of the necesssiry military knowledge , but his studies were interrupted by the illness and death of his favourite brother , Lawrence- At the end of October , in the following year ( 1753 ) , he was . sent on a mission to the French commander , and thenceforth he was constantly occupied in the preliminaries or -the actual events of border warfare , until a few months before the termination of that contest between France and England for dominion in America in -which the first gun was fired in his own encounter with De Jumonville . The manner in which he discharged the mission above mentioned established him at once in public estimation as qualified for important civil and military trust . " From that moment , " says his biographer , " -he was tho rising hope of Virginia . "
Aft « r his last campaign as commander of the Virginian forces , Washington wais married , in January , 1759 , to Mrs . Martha Curtis , and retired to Mount Vernon , hia harbour of repose , where ho fancied himself anchored for life . "
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REPRINTS AND NEW EDITIONS . We have some new editions and reprints to catalogue . The precedence due to age belongs to Blade's Picturesque ' Tourist of Scotland ( Edinburgh : Adam and Charles liluck ) , which appears for tho twelfth time , revised and corrected , and which certainly should be the companion of every Scottish to"ri ^* - *^ r- Alexander Taylor ' s Comparative Enquiry as to the Preventive and ( surahae Influence of tho Climate of Pan and of Monlpellicr , Jh / trcs , ??• C W . Parker ) , haa been considerably altered and enlarged . Mr . F . S . l ^ avr has written a new preface to the third edition of his MsCorj / of Greece , dnetuOttuiilt Geograph y , Literature , and Political Institutions ( Simp kin and Marshall ; , a book which all tutors should know . Among Mr . Bohn ' a latest
reprints are volumes of the Memoirs of Sully , Thierry's Norman Conquest and the Orations of Bemostheties . . wiyuesu , _ Mr . Bayle St . John has published in a pretty volume—the first of" Addev ' s Library for Old and Young "~ his legends of the Christian Bast , alread / so fannliar to the readers of the Household Words . In a brief preface he mentions that , with one or two unimportant exceptions ,, they are based on narratives and suggestions gathered ^ himself in the East . ' Some of the titles have a very Oriental tone : ' The Legend oi the Weeping Chamber , " the " Sister of the Spirits , ' the " Merchant ' s Heart , " the " iSecret of the Well » * £ > " Little Flower , " and the '' Story ^ of a Ring . " We should remark that £ e new Library commenced by . the ^ Messrs . Addey is composed of attractive little volumes , neatly bound an cloth , with good illustrations in lithograph Among recent issues must also be noted Mr . St . John ' s novel , Maretmo re ' printed from C / icrmbcrs ' s Journal ( Chapman and Hall ) , and a third editio ' n of his lioo ' Residence hi
Years < t Levantine Family— forming volumes of Messrs Chapman and Hall ' s Popular Libraries . Mr 3 . Gore has revived , in a quaint shape , her Sketches of English Character , being reprinted between covers of gaudy red and yellow ( W ^ d and Lock ) . The same publishers have issued a volume of Mr . Albert Smith ' s miscellaneous writings , Sir . Horace May - liew's Wonderful People—scarcely , worth reprinting—and a batch of Mr . An ^ us Reach ' s light varieties , entitled Men of the ¦ Hour . Mr . George Raymond publishes Drafts for Acceptance—apparently a selection from the Magazines We suppose we may include among reprints Our Miscellany , by if . Yates and R . lirough . This contains a number of fragmentary pieces in imitation of various authors . They should have been left , we think , in dead back numbers , or still better in MS . We should have ¦ been "lad ; - " at all events , not to have seen these authors' names ( or portraits ) ° on such a title-page . It was injudicious to become a candidate Tor failure , in emulation of the Rejected Addresses .
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956 THE LIADER . rNo . 34 ) 1 . SlTTTimAT f 1 ¦ 1 ¦¦«¦ 1 — —^ - ^— . i ^ i . . i — .. him' 1 __ j _ . _ . '_!_ _^ ^______—__— , __________ J ____^ . ^__ — .. 1 1 . 1 1 1 . 1 .. i . i . . J .
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Author-actors . —" peedita" at the lyceum :. AuTiioris , every now and then , take it into their heads to "become actors , and , in connexion with such attempts , dran latic history records fewer successes than failures . Of Shukspeake ' s acting we hear little else than that he played the Ghost in his own Hamlet ( not that this was his only part ) , and that he was never conspicuous for any remarkable or brilliant powers as a performer , though as a manager and dramatic author he miitle a fortune . He seems always to have ranked far below Buhbace and Alibvkb . So- did Ben Jonson , Mari-owe , Heyivood , and the other li terary actors of those times . Shakspeaek evidently hated appearing personally on the stage , as being a degradation to 'the loftiness of lfis poetical genius ; and no doubt it is to this that he alludes when , in his Sonnets , he says : — My nature is subdued To what it works in , like the dyer ' s hand .
In out own days , we have seen two or three failures of a like nature , or rather of a much worse nature ; and , although Mr . Dickens , Mr . Jekuold , and others have achieved great things in semi-private theatricals , we do not know what even they might turn out if they were to take to the ordinary routine of professional acting- We recollect , some twenty years ago ( " in the greener times of our youth , " as Spenser , says ) , seeing Shekidan Knowles , during- his brief career on . the stage , perform Marc Antony , hx Julius Ccesar , with most lamentable inefficiency ; the chief characteristic being an amount of rant which made him hoarse long before the fifth act . This capacity to roar has mo doubt fceen useful to him in his subsequent exercitations in the Baptist pulpit ; but it failed on the Covent Garden stage , where audiences arc more critical , intelligent , and . discriminating .
After these conspicuous instances , Mr . William Buotjgh . will forgive us if we say that he succeeds better on foolscap than on " the boards "—wields his pen with more effect than his stage sceytre . Hia performance of Polixenes in his own "burlesque of Perdita , o >* the Royal Milkmaid , founded on . the story of Siiak .-speark ' s Winter ' s Tale , ia not positively bad , for it is neither conceived nor executed in bad taste ; T ) U , t it is so tame , flat , and insipid , as to be simply nothing . It exhibits no peculiar features , has no salient points , brings no fresh conception inta the conventionalities of the stage , lacks both point and breadth , is deficient in ease , assurance , and apparent spontaneity , and does not
compensate the necessary want of experience in the execution by any rough vigour in the design . We have suspended our judgment till Mr . Bkough has rubbed off the inevitable nervousness of the first lew nights ; but « ven now his actions want ease and appropriateness . He walks by jerks , stands with a certain irrelevance to the other performers , and exhibits an undue flurry in his exits and his entrances . His voice , however , is good , and his intonation not strained nor Affected—two points in his favour ; and , when he has got more accustomed to his new element , and lias appeared in a better character ( for he has modestly taken the least eilective part in his own piece ) , it is very likely we nuiy have to give him a heartier welcome .
The piece itself is much better than its author ' s acting . With the exception of a few vulgarities , more fitted for tlie AriELpia than the Lyceum , and which wo should never have hud under the management of the Mathewsks , we can commend PcrUita as a veiy bright , light , sparkling , amusing little triiie , some of tlie puns in which arc worthy of the veteran Planche ; and , the travestic having reference m 6 re to the story ilian to Buakspkahe ' b poetry , the disrespect to tho great dramatist is minimized . Charming is it to see jVUms Wooloak ( as wo must still bog leave to call her ) appearing again in one of her favourite young prince parts-. Tho other performers call for a passing word or two of comment . Mr . Toolis , as Autolycus , shows a good deal of low humour ,
and his parody of " Bobbing Around" is admirable in the intensity of its Yankceism . Hiss Hahriut Uoruom is smart and impudent in Time , an Chorus ; Miss Wilton is pretty and engaging as Perdita ; and Mrs . Buckingham White makes a magnificont Ilcrmionc , and looks particularly handsome in the statue , scene . Mr . S . Camiakm , who performs Lcontcs , is a wild Irish geiitlo inan , who , we should thinlc , has been lately caught in the deserts of Cuiinomuni , and who is evidently possessed with the idea that he is emulating Mr . Koitsotf in that actor ' s peculiar style of mingled tragedy and burl < esque . Tlie audience , however , do not share in that conception , nor can we . The piece is prettiLy put on tho stage , «»<* includes a pleasant liltlo ballet among its other attractions .
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 4, 1856, page 956, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2161/page/20/
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