an orator, the most intimate and accurate knowledge or the most perfect dexterity in the use of the "rhetorician's tools" will be inadequate to produce excellence. And, however skilfully a man may round his periods and balance his sentences, select his phrases or direct their harmony; without that etherial and incomprehensible power which gives animation to matter, sweeps through nature like the lightning of Heaven, and creates and embodies and unfolds; he will still be cold and tame and spiritless, correct indeed but frigid, regular but insensible. From what I can learn, Mr. Adams, with all his knowledge and talent, did not attain the first rank among American orators. He wanted enthusiasm and fire; he wanted that nameless charm, which in oratory as well as poetry, delights and facinates, and leads the soul captive, without the desire of resistance, or the consciousness of error.

In the higher grades of eloquence, where the passions are excited and acted on, and the whole mind wrought up to a kind of phrenzy by weakening the dominion of reason, Mr. Adams did not excell; but in close argumentation, in logical analysis, in amplification and regular disposition, he is said to have been inferior to none. With great knowledge of art, he was however defective in the ars celare artem, an essential ingredient in the composition of an His personal appearance too, which is not very prepossessing or agreeable, must have

orator.

operated against him and rendered his eloquence less effective and resistless. Notwithstanding these defects, he was considerably above mediocrity, and maintained a character as an orator, inferior to but few in this country.

Mr. Adams's prominant inclination, however, appears to be political. To be eminent as a statesman is his predominant ambition; and I doubt not he will attain this character from the nature of his mind and the tenor of his studies. Much indeed is re quired to form a statesman. He must have a mind that will enable him in some degree, to remove the veil of futurity; to compare the present with the past; to yield to the government of reason, and be uninfluenced by the attractions of passion. "He must comprehend," says Mirabeau*, "all the defects of our social existence, discern the degree of improvement of which we are susceptible, calculate the advantages that result from the possession of liberty, estimate the danger of confusion and tumult, study the art of preparing men for felicity and conduct them towards perfection, by the plainest and most obvious paths. His survey must extend beyond ordinary limits; he must examine climates, deliberate on circumstances, and yield to events without suffering them to master him.""

To extensive research and general knowledge, Mr. A. adds great powers of observation. His residence as * Gallery of Portraits, by Morabeau.

minister at the courts of St. James and St. Petersburg; has enlarged his stock of facts, and rendered his information inore correct and practical. He is not one of those statesmen who theorise when experience can afford its aid, and avoids the application of abstract principles, when plainer and more obvious ones are calculated to subserve the object in view. He is sedate, circumspect, and cautious; reserved, but not distant; grave, but not repulsive. He receives, but seldom communicates, and discerns with great quickness, motives however latent, and intentions however concealed by the contorsions of cunning, or the drapery of hypocricy. This penetration seems to be intuitive and natural, and not the result of a mere acquaintance with men, or a long and intimate association with the different classes of society. It is the operation of native judgment and not the exercise of acquired cunning. This excellence is common to the people of the east, but whether it originates from education or from any peculiar organization of the physical powers, I am not sufficiently master of the theory of Helvetius and Godwin to determine. Mr. Adams has more capacity than genius; he can comprehend better than he can invent; and execute nearly as rapidly as he can design.

Though as a public minister, he had no great opportunity to display his powers, yet, from the little he exhibited, a judgment may be formed of his ability in that character. He has all the penetration, shrude

ness, and perseverence, necessary to constitute an able diplomatist, united with the capacity to perceive, and the eloquence to enforce, what would conduce to the welfare and interests of his country.*

Mr. Adams is a good writer. A state paper of his which I have lately seen, is composed with great ability, and though not sufficiently condenced, evinces much skill and dexterity in the art of composition, with which he is evidently well acquainted. In short, my lord, there is no public character in the United States, that has more intellectual power, the moral inclination to be more useful, or that will labour with greater assiduity to discharge the important duties he owes to himself and to his country.

Mr. Crawford, secretary of the treasury, is the same gentleman, to whom you were introduced at Paris, and though he possesses great dignity, wants the graceful elegance of manners of which I have previously spoken. What he was thought of in France I cannot inform you; but it is impossible he could have succeeded amidst the polite and splendid frippery of the Parisian circles-the courtly nonsense, and graceful and elegant nonchalance of a French politician, must have been strikingly and ludicrously contrasted by the republican simplicity and awkward movements of the American minister. Mr. Crawford has risen from obscurity to the situation he now

* See his correspondence with Don Onis, the Spanish minister.

holds, by the force of native genius. It appears he was employed in his early life in an occupation which is now unfortunately too much degraded, but which ought to be more highly esteemed. I mean that of" teaching the young idea how to shoot." His next career was at the bar, at which he rapidly acquired both emolument and reputation. The excellence of his understanding, and the superiority of his intellect, soon brought him into public life, where he displayed to advantage, those powers with which nature had so eminently gifted him. He became ambassador to France, and while in that capacity, was appointed secretary of war, and lastly chosen minister of finance. In all these various situations he has never failed to discover the same powers and energies of mind, and the same acuteness and depth of penetration: he has literally the men's sana in corpore sano, and the vigorous and athletic appearance of his body serves as an unerring index to the force and energy of his intellect. It is invidious to make comparisons; but it is by comparisons we are often enabled to arrive at truth. I will therefore endeavour to draw a parallel between the gentlemen of whom I have been speaking. Mr. Monroe and Mr. Crawford, are alike distinguished by integrity of understanding; but the latter has more quickness, and the former a greater range of mind. In the specimens of parliamentary eloquence, which are preserved here only in the ephemeral and