3.- The Annual Address delivered before the National Institute, in the Hall of the House of Representatives, January 15, 1845. By LEVI WOODBURY. Washington: J. & G. S. Gideon. 1845.

MR. WOODBURY is an unpretending writer, but a sound thinker. His knowledge is various and his memory retentive. No individual, whether in the senate chamber, the forum or the lecture room, investigates his subject more thoroughly, or is apt to throw more light upon it. His genius is eminently practical. He is distinguished not only for the extent of his information on public questions, but so accurate are his judgments in respect to past events, and so faithful his recollection of dates, facts, persons, plans and transactions, connected with the history of the country, from the very origin of the government, that he may be appealed to with confidence, and often is appealed to as good authority. Among politicians, he belongs to the working men of the age, and he is a master-workman. Tropes, figures, rhetorical flourishes, the garniture of rounded periods and poetical numbers, are not to be expected in the written or spoken oratory of such a person. They would be wholly out of place in the productions of Mr. Woodbury, and his claims to reputation as a statesman and a man of science, rest on very different and higher grounds. Among his other excellencies, Mr. Woodbury is a powerful speaker;-that is the epithet which characterizes his eloquence ;-his enunciation is clear and distinct, and his language, for the most part, suitable, without being ornate. He is a good logician,

and admitting that his premises are true, as they generally are, having facts for their basis, it is seldom that he reasons weakly and inconsecutively, or arrives at false conclusions. In the United States Senate, where he occupies a prominent position, he is the champion of privilege more than of prerogative,―of laws simple, intelligible and well defined, rather than of many statutes,-of the rights of the ruled and their liberty, instead of the extension of the powers of the government. We have sometimes thought, if an individual might be selected to represent the utilitarian spirit of the age in our country, Mr. Woodbury was the person who would most truly shadow forth that character of the times. He is, in this respect, pre-eminently an American,—a true republican. He is not disposed to tear from the book of time the records of past achievement, as if our ancestors had done nothing; but thanks them for the light which their labors shed, and employs their experience as a lesson and a guide.

4.-Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Epistles of Paul to the Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians. By ALBERT BARNES. New-York: Harper & Brothers. 1845.

MR. BARNES is furnishing a series of these volumes, explanatory of the various Scriptural writings. His commentaries are most full, and generally satisfactory, if we may judge from the manner in which they have been received by the Christian world. He is generally minute, full, practical and evangelical. Theologians may quarrel with him for some of his interpretations. This is not our department. We cannot forbear a thrust at the commentator, however, when he really does come within our reach. It would appear that he has linked himself with that party, who are turning and twisting every passage in Scripture, which can possibly bear the torture, into a condemnation of the institution of slavery. No opportunity is allowed to slip, and in defiance of the sense of Scripture received for ages and supported universally by scholars, slavery, which is recognized, tolerated and regulated by it, is made to appear utterly repugnant to the whole soul and spirit of Christianity. These men have an arduous task, in which they are entitled to all the laurels they can win. We do not place Mr. Barnes altogether among them. We would hope better things of him, but there occur in his work a few passages which look rather darkly that way. Witness the illiberality of this on vi. Ephesians, 5-“It may be added here, that it was presumed then that servants could read. Of what use would be directions like these addressed to American slaves?" Does Mr. Barnes, then, think that these directions are not addressed to American slaves? Because Paul, writing to the Colossians of Onesimus, uses the phrase, "who is one of you," Mr. Barnes has had the wonderful sagacity to discover, in opposition to the best Biblical critics

and scholars, that Onesimus was not a slave. He asks, with the gravity which is enough to provoke a smile, when one is really talking such nonsense: "would a minister of the Gospel now, in the Northern States, who should send a letter by a runaway slave to a community of masters at the South, say of him that he was 'one of them"?" Not a word is here said about the runaway's being a true convert to Christianity, repentant, humbled, or the master's being subdued by the spirit of Christ into his own church, and yet Mr. Barnes draws the sweeping conclusion, "There is reason to think, therefore, that Onesimus was not a slave in the proper sense, but that he might have been a respectable youth, who had bound himself to service for a term of years." We leave our readers to smile at the quaintness of the conceit; or rather to sympathise with the labors of these perhaps really good men, whose hard task it is to vie with each other in talking, with the gravest face, the most nonsense in the shortest time.

5.-FULLER AND WAYLAND AND HAMMOND'S SLAVERY CORRESPOND

ENCE.

1. Domestic Slavery considered as a Scriptural Institution: in a Correspondence between the Rev. Richard Fuller, of Beaufort, S. C., and the Rev. Francis Wayland, of Providence, R. I. York: Lewis Colby. 1845.

2. Ex-Governor Hammond's Letters to Thos. Clarkson, Esq.

New

THE South may be well content to rest the question of slavery entirely upon these letters. There remains nothing more to be added. Every possible position has been assumed and defended, with a power of argumentation seldom if ever surpassed, if even equalled. We are entitled to consider the slave question as a closed one, and the institution as vindicated in a manner the most triumphant. We shall be loth ever to enter into this controversy again. Arguments have already been exhausted,-proof, positive "as holy writ", has been adduced,and all to no purpose, with men whose reasoning powers have long been blunted by habitual perversion, or whose ignorance or fanaticism renders them incapable of appreciating an argument at all. We counsel Southern men hereafter to let this subject of slavery alone,-to let our opponents "tear and fret and rage", whilst we maintain a position of dignified and manly independence. We have exhausted argument, we now throw ourselves upon our RIGHTS, and say to those who denounce us and our institutions, advance, if you dare, in these unhallowed schemes,-advance, and we meet you no more under the guise of friendship, but openly, as bitter, inveterate and deadly foemen.

6.-The Necessity of Popular Enlightenment to the Honor and Welfare of the State; an Oration delivered before the Literary Societies of the South-Carolina College. By HENRY L. PINCKNEY. Columbia, S. C.: I. C. Morgan. 1845.

It is not for us to criticise any thing from the pen of Mr. Pinckney. We have usually nothing to do but to praise. There is a finish, a polish, an elegance of manner, about his productions, that always commend them to our highest regard. The chasteness of the style and the beauty of the thoughts go hand in hand together. Mr. Pinckney is by profession an orator, and has attained in his vocation a very high degree of perfection. In orations he is perfectly at home, and in not one of the many we have heard from his lips, or read from his pen, has he been found unequal to himself, or wanting in any of the higher requisitions. We need not say how pleased we have been with the oration now before us, and had we time, how gladly we would enter into an analysis of its merits. As it is, the most we can do is to let the reader judge for himself from a single specimen :

"What is there great or good, elegant or useful, for which mankind are not indebted to the influence of learning? It has reared up cities, and founded empires. It has conquered the earth, the sea and the air, and subjected them all to the will of man. It has filled the earth not only with comforts, but with luxuries,-not only with needful things, but with an endless variety of pleasures. It has perfected, equally, the art of war and the arts of peace. It regulates the movements of armies, and controls the destinies of nations. It navigates the ocean, spans the cataract, and reclaims the forest. It introduces nations to each other, and imparts to all the peculiar products and commodities of each. It unfolds the mysteries of nature, and teaches man to 'look through nature up to nature's God.' It enchains the lightning, converses with the stars, and traces comets in their fearful course. It subjects the elements to its power, and rides, like a conqueror, over earth and sea, by the magic power of resistless steam..... It is seen in the breathing canvass and the speaking marble. It is seen in the wisdom of philosophy, the usefulness of history, and the elegance of poetry. It calls up the spirits of the mighty dead, and makes us acquainted with the master minds of every age and nation. It travels with the traveller, and accompanies the adventurous explorer in his voyage of discovery. It instructs us in the customs and religion, the laws and polity, of every people upon earth. It developes the arcana of the human mind, and the wonderful structure of the human frame. It restores health and prolongs existence. It ascertains the causes of disease, applies a remedy to every ill, and vindicates the divinity of the healing art. It expounds the tenets and enforces the sanctions of religion. It is seen in the power of eloquence over the passions of the multitude, as it now rouses them to fury, and now subdues them into calmness. It is felt in the magic influence of poetry, as it animates to war or melts to love, as it nerves the patriot in his country's cause, or 'takes the captive soul, and laps it in Elysium.' But who can describe the power or the domain of learning! Extending over all nature, its power is over every thing in the material world, and in the human heart. It is the peculiar and distinguishing attribute of man. It is the pride of youth, and the companion of old age,-the grace of prosperity, and the consolation of misfortune. It conducts man with dignity

through the chequered scenes of life, and teaches him how he may enter, finally, through the gloomy portals of the grave, into the blissful mansions of eternal rest."

7.-A Discourse delivered before the Georgia Historical Society, on the occasion of its sixth anniversary. By A. CHURCH, D. D. Savannah. 1845.

THE object of this address is to stir up the spirit of our Georgia friends on the all-important subject of education. It comes to them with many strong appeals, and meets them at every point with arguments which cannot be resisted. We admit that education has become somewhat a hacknied theme, but there remain thoughts to be yet advanced upon it, which will have the deepest interest. We are not sure that Dr. Church has failed to present his subject in one of the strongest points of view. Our friends in Georgia appear to be advancing with the proper spirit and in the right direction in this matter of education. We wish them speed in their noble enterprizes, and trust that the day is not far distant when the whole South shall be thoroughly awakened. Dr. Church has afforded in his address, a history of the various movements which have been made, from the earliest times, in that State, for the better instruction of its youth; and also an account of the chief literary institutions of Georgia, and we observe with pleasure his statement on the 24th page,-"We have here for the purpose of establishing institutions of learning, private subscriptions by the citizens of Georgia, and that, within a few years, to the amount of more than $600,000." To this we can only heartily rejoin "well done." To the Georgia Society we must express our thanks for the various valuable publications it has afforded, and to Dr. Church, in particular, we proffer our highest regards.

8.-The Past and Present, a discourse delivered before the Erosophic Society of the University of Alabama, by BENJ. FANEUIL PORTER. Tuscaloosa: Printed by M. D. J. Slade. 1845.

We regret not having had an opportunity to notice this address at an earlier period. It presents an elaborate dissertation upon the formation of the earth and various geological speculations, which indicate industry and ability. The history of man in his relations to the moral world, embracing religion, law, philosophy, scientific improvements and manners, forms the second branch of the author's subject, and is treated in a philosophical spirit.

The following passage, taken from the introduction, contains much truth eloquently expressed:

"A few facts, simple in themselves, but wonderful in their connection