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political system of his country. As a member of the Continental Congress he had been compelled to witness, more nearly than most other persons, for a series of years, the defects of that plan; and had naturally turned his thoughts very intently upon the means of amending it. In the introductory article, prefixed to the report of the debates in the Convention, he gives a succinct account of the measures resorted to for this purpose, in all which he appears himself to have taken the initiative. As early as the year 1783, he retired from Congress, and accepted a place in the Assembly of Virginia, in order to employ his influence there in effecting the desired object. He took his seat in May, 1784, and after struggling for two years against a strong, and often successful opposition, obtained, on the 26th of January, 1786, the appointment of commissioners, of whom John Randolph and himself were the two first named, to "meet such commissioners as might be named by the other States for the same purpose, in order to take into consideration the trade of the United States,-to consider how far a uniform system in their commercial regulations may be necessary to their common interest, and their permanent harmony, and to report to the several States such an act, relative to this great object, as, when unanimously ratified by them, will enable the United States in Congress effectually to provide for the same."

The appointment of this commission was the first public proceeding in the course of measures that terminated in the adoption of the Federal Constitution. The resolution was moved by Mr. Tyler,-father to the present President of the United States,-"an influential member," who, from not having been a member of Congress, was thought a more suitable person than Mr. Madison to make the formal motion. It met, at first, with very little favor; but after the failure of some other propositions for increasing the powers of Congress, was proposed a second time by Mr. Tyler, on the last day of the session, and met with general acquiescence. Three of the commissioners, including the two first named, met at Annapolis on the first of September following, where they were joined by commissioners from Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and

New York. Not deeming it prudent for a meeting so thinly attended to attempt to transact the important business entrusted to them, the commissioners contented themselves with a recommendation to the State Legislatures, by which they had been delegated, "to concur themselves, and use their endeavors to procure the concur rence of the other States, in the appointment of commissioners, to meet at Philadelphia on the second Monday in May next, to take into consideration the situation of the United States; to devise such farther expedients as may appear to them necessary to render the Constitution of the Federal Government adequate to the exigencies of the Union, and to report such an act for that purpose to the United States in Congress assembled, as, when agreed to by them, and afterwards confirmed by the Legislatures of all the States, will effectually provide for the same." The recommendation, of which these are the concluding sentences, was written by Hamilton, and is a document of great ability. It is inserted entire in Mr. Madison's introduction to the debates. The Legislature of Virginia was the first that acted upon this recommendation. The proceedings were arranged with great unanimity, and delegates were appointed on the 4th of December. The venerated name of WASHINGTON, standing at the head of the line, already sanctified, as it were, to the American people, the plan in question, and gave, at the very outset, that favorable impulse to public opinion which is always so important to success.

The law passed by the Virginia Legislature in compliance with the recommendation from Annapolis was drafted by Madison, and is given entire in his introduction. The preamble contains a succinct, but impressive statement of the motives for attempting a reform, and is written with not less ability than the recommendation of Hamilton. Thus, these two illustrious men, who figured afterwards so prominently together, as the leading supporters of the Constitution, are seen already, moving harmoniously, side by side, towards the accomplishment of the great object, in the very initiatory steps of the proceedings.

The idea of a general Convention was not entirely new to the American people, having been previously suggested

in several quarters of greater or less authority. Hence the proceedings in Virginia, sanctioned as they were by the great name of Washington, were immediately imitated in all the other States, with the single exception of Rhode Island. That State, as is well known, took no part in the Convention, and did not adopt the constitution until two years after it went into operation. She was determined to this course, according to Mr. Madison, "by an obdurate adherence to an advantage which her position gave her, of taxing her neighbors through their consumption of imported supplies, an advantage which it was foreseen would be taken from her by a revisal of the Articles of Confederation."

As Virginia had thus taken the lead in the proceedings which produced the Convention, it was natural that she should also take the lead in the Convention itself; and Mr. Madison, as the most effective member of the delegation from that State on the floor, became, of course, the most important and prominent member of the body, Unaffectedly modest as he was, and continued to be through life, he was yet fully aware of the nature of his own position, and of the character of the proceedings in which he was engaged. He was resolved to do justice, so far as lay in his power, to the occasion. His remarks on the spirit with which he entered on the business, and the arrangements which he made for reporting the debates,—as given in the introductory article before alluded to, -are highly interesting:

"On the arrival of the Virginia deputies at Philadelphia, it occurred to them that from the early and prominent part taken by that State in bringing about the Convention, some initiative step might be expected from them. The resolutions introduced by Governor Randolph were the result of a consultation on the subject, with an understanding that they left all the deputies entirely open to the lights of discussion, and free to concur in any alterations or modifications which their reflections and judgment might approve. The resolutions, as the journals show, became the basis on which the proceedings of the Convention commenced, and to the developments, variations, and modifications of which the plan of government proposed by the Convention may be traced.

"The curiosity I had felt during my researches into the history of the most distinguished confederacies, particularly those of antiquity, and the deficiency which I found in the means of satisfying it,---more especially in what related to the process, the principles, the reasons and anticipations which prevailed in the

formation of them,---determined me to pre

serve, as far as I could, an exact account of what might pass in the Convention, whilst executing its trust, with the magnitude of which I was duly impressed, as I was by the gratification promised to future curiosity by an authentic exhibition of the objects, the opinions, and the reasonings from which the new system of government was to receive its peculiar structure and organization. Nor was I

unaware of the value of such a contribu

tion to the fund of materials for the history of a constitution on which would be staked the happiness of a people, great even in its infancy, and possibly the cause of liberty throughout the world.

"In pursuance of the task I had assumed, I chose a seat in front of the presiding member, with the other members on my right and left hands. In this favorable position for hearing all that passed, I noted, in terms legible and in abbreviations and marks intelligible to myself, what was read from the chair or spoken by the members; and, losing not a moment unnecessarily, between the adjournment and re-assembling of the Convention I was enabled to write out my daily notes during the session, or within a few finishing days after its close, in the extent and form preserved in my own hand and on my files.

"In the labor and correctness of this I was not a little aided by practice, and by a familiarity with the style and the train of observation and reasoning which characterized the principal speakers. It happened also that I was not absent a single day, nor more than a casual fraction of an hour in any day, so that I could not have lost a single speech, unless a very short one.

"It may be proper to remark that, with a very few exceptions, the speeches were neither furnished, nor revised, nor sanctioned by the speakers, but written out from my notes, aided by the freshness of my recollections. A farther remark may be proper, that views of the subject might occasionally be presented in the speeches and proceedings, with a latent reference to a compromise on some middle ground, by mutual concessions. The exceptions alluded to were,---first, the sketch furnished by Mr. RANDOLPH of his speech on the introduction of his propositions on

the 29th day of May; secondly, the speech of Mr. HAMILTON, on the 18th of June, who happened to call upon me when putting the last hand to it, and who acknowledged its fidelity, without suggesting more than a very few verbal alterations, which were made; thirdly, the speech of GOUVERNEUR MORRIS on the 2d day of May, which was communicated to him on a like occasion, and who acquiesced in it without even a verbal change. The correctness of his language and the distinctness of his enunciation were particularly favorable to a reporter. The speeches of Dr. FRANKLIN, excepting a few brief ones, were copied from the written ones read to the Convention by his colleague, Mr. Wilson, it being inconvenient to the doctor to remain long upon his feet.

"Of the ability and intelligence of those who composed the Convention the debates and proceedings may be a test;

as the character of the work, which was the offspring of their deliberations, must be tested by the experience of the future, added to that of nearly half a century that has passed.

"But whatever may be the judgment pronounced on the competency of the architects of the constitution, or whatever may be the destiny of the edifice prepared by them, I feel it a duty to express my profound and solemn conviction, derived from my intimate opportunity of observing and appreciating the views of the Convention, collectively and individually, that there never was an assembly of men, charged with a great and arduous trust, who were more pure in their motives, or more exclusively or anxiously devoted to the object committed to them than were the members of the Federal Convention of 1787 to the object of devising and proposing a constitutional system, which should best supply the defects of that

which it was to replace, and best secure the permanent liberty and happiness of the country."

in italics that the interesting paper of It appears from the phrase marked which these paragraphs form the conclusion, and which is not dated in the original manuscript, was written nearly fifty years after the adoption of the constitution, and was, of course, one of the lamented author's last productions. The draft does not even appear to have been corrected with much care, as there are some errors in it either of the pen or the memory. One of these will be observed in the remark included in the above extract upon a speech of GOUVERNEUR MORRIS, which is supposed to have been made on the 2d of May, when the Convention was not in session. tinguished by the same correctness and In general the paper is dissimple elegance of style, the same purity of sentiment, and the same vigor and clearness of thought, which have

been so much admired in the author's more elaborate efforts. It affords a satisfactory evidence of the full perfection in which Mr. Madison retained his intellectual and moral powers up to the very close of his long-continued life.

In a future paper we propose, with the aid of the information supplied by the invaluable work now before us, to offer a rapid sketch of the several plans that were offered to the Convention,of the progress of the discussion, and of the manner in which the materials employed were finally wrought up into the mature and finished instrument that has obtained so extensive a celebrity as THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.

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NEW NOTES ON RUSSIA.

BY A RECENT VISITER.

St. Petersburg.-WE are surprised to find a population of 470,000 in a city founded only in 1703, on a barren, desolate, and discouraging spot, and liable to occasional and disastrous inundations. More than 200,000, how ever, consists of the army, nobility, and their domestics. Its effective population is about 100,000 less than New York, including its suburbs on the opposite bank of the East River. The latter is rapidly outstripping the former. Since 1783 St. Petersburg has increased from 200,000 to 470,000, while New York has risen from 20,000 to 360,000, with its suburbs; and in another generation the latter will have a greater number of inhabitants than the capital of Russia, even including the army, nobility, and their servants.

The Architecture of St. Petersburg is distinguished for an admirable union of classic taste and oriental grandeur. It has nearly five hundred palaces, temples, and other public edifices, and a hundred and fifty bridges over the Neva and its branches, and the Moika, Fontanka, and Catherine canals. The Neva is walled with the red granite of Finland, and bordered on one side for more than a mile and on the other for more than two miles with ranges of palaces. Nothing can be more enchanting than the appearance of this fairy

city, when illuminated, and the glit tering lights of the palaces on its border are reflected in the clear and rapid waters of the Neva. At such a moment, stationed on the Admiralty Place, you are surrounded by the most splendid specimens of architecture in St. Pétersburg. Below, on the opposite bank of the Neva, you have the chaste and beautiful Academy of Fine Arts; above, you see the new Exchange, a copy of one of the ruins of Pastum; opposite to this stands the colossal Winter Palace,—in its rear, the column of Alexander and the admirable architecture of the Etat-Major. Returning to the Admiralty Place, you have the Admiralty on one side, the Palace of the Senate on the other; in front the still-unfinished church of St. Isaac, the grandest in Russia; and in the centre of this brilliant illumination rises the splendid statue of Peter the Great,-the flying horseman, apparently coursing his way among the stars, and waving the hand of that magician who raised all these glittering palaces from the marshes and solitudes of the Neva. But how long distant may be the day when all this magnificence is to be destroyed by the inundation to which it is well known that the peculiar situation of the city renders it every year liable ?*

:--

The following speculation, by another late traveller in Russia, M. Kohl, in a work entitled "Scenes in Petersburg," may be here appropriately quoted "The Gulf of Finland stretches in its greatest length in a straight line from Petersburg westward. The most violent winds are from this quarter, and the waters of the gulf are thus driven direct upon the city. Were the gulf spacious in this part, there would not be so much to apprehend; but, unfortunately, the shores contract immediately towards Petersburg, which lies at its innermost point; while close to the city the waters lie hemmed in the narrow bay of Cronstadt. In addition to this, the Neva, which flows from east to west, here discharges its waters into the gulf, thus encountering the violent waves from the west in a diametrically opposite direction. The islands of the Neva Delta, on which the palaces of Petersburg take root, are particularly flat and low. On their outer and uninhabited sides, towards the sea, they completely lose themselves beneath the waters, and even those parts which lie highest, and are, consequently, most peopled, are only raised from twelve to fourteen feet above the level of the gulf. A rise of fifteen feet is sufficient, therefore, to lay all Petersburg under water, and one of thirty or forty feet must overwhelm the city. To bring about this latter disaster, nothing more is requisite than that a strong west wind should exactly concur with high water and ice-passage. The ice masses from 20

VOL. XI-NO L.

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