easterly lines of the city of Washington; and on that walk no other person accompanied us. I perfectly recollect his conversing with me at that time, as if he were desirous of saying something to me, which he hesitated to communicate. His manner made such a strong and deep impression on my mind, that I shall never forget it. At length he said, that he thought the United States were too large, and their interests too variant, for the Union to continue long; and that New England, New York, and perhaps Pennsylvania, might and ought to form a separate government. He then paused, and, looking me fully in the face, awaited my reply. I simply asked him, if the division of the States was not the object which General Washington most pathetically warned the people to oppose. He said, "Yes; the fear of it was a ghost that, for a long time, haunted the imagination of that old gentleman." I do not recollect that he afterwards mentioned to me the subject of dismemberment.' 6 "It should be here observed, that before the date of this conversation Mr. Plumer had himself ceased to be a disunionist. Of Hunt, Mr. Plumer, under date of July 31st, 1831, says: His object was to divide the United States into two separate independent governments; the States easterly of Maryland to unite and form a government more energetic and more favorable to commerce than the one which then existed. To effect this object, he corresponded with a considerable number of influential Federalists in various States.' Under date of June 4, 1840, he says, that Tracy told him, in the winter of 1804, 'that he was in favor of the Northern States withdrawing from the Union.' "On reviewing this testimony, it may be remarked that there is no direct contradiction between the statements of Messrs. Hillhouse and Plumer. The former says, that he knew of no combination or plot to dissolve the Union. The latter, that Hillhouse told him the Eastern States must and would dissolve the Union, and the sooner they did it the better. The one is the avowal of an opinion merely; the other, the denial of any plan formed to carry that opinion into effect. It is observable that Mr. Pickering, though alive at the Adams controversy, took no part in it. He was not the man to deny any well-considered opinion which he might have entertained, because it would subject him to reproach. Mr. Plumer believed, on evidence which he deemed conclusive, that some other prominent men, several especially in Massachusetts, were concerned in this design, or approved of it; but they are not named here, as he had no direct personal communication with them on the subject."- pp. 298-301. These extracts are curious, though they add little to our knowledge of the supposed intrigue. It may be presumed that there was little to add. President Adams, in his letter to Mr. Otis and others, argues, with some care, to show that such a plan, if entertained, embraced "no overt act of treason." It contemplated resistance to the annexation of Louisiana; but it was the general confession, that that annexation was unconstitutional; and a citizen, by the abstract theory of our government, owes no obedience to an unconstitutional law. Arguing thus, Mr. Adams is, of course, eager to show that he did not think that the annexation justified secession. It is clear from the letters brought forward, that, as in every crisis in our country, there were those who considered this a question worth discussion. As yet, however, there is no evidence, brought forward in detail, that this discussion resulted in any digested scheme. We are not without hopes that the publication of these passages of old correspondence may bring forward more; but we are disposed to believe that it will prove that there is little more to know. We do not feel that Governor Plumer's son need have been pained at the duty of bringing forward these passages from his father's diaries and letter-books. There is no reason why any one should be disturbed by their publication. Indeed, as we have said, very little appears in them which had not already been made public. As he justly remarks, the whole chapter is instructive. By way of introducing all this old correspondence, he reviews with singular success the early history of the Union, and brings together a surprising mass of authorities, which show how freely public men in all sections then spoke of a proposed severance of it. It would seem to be more remarkable if a leading man of those days had not threatened disunion than to find that he had. We are willing to own that the study of this chapter has given to us a decided feeling of satisfaction, resulting from this very circumstance. It seems to us to teach that this Union of States the greatest Peace Society which the sun ever looked upon - is more strongly woven *President Adams's "Reply," pp. 25, 26. together than the politicians of an hour suppose. To find that it was gravely denounced and bitterly threatened in its infancy, when scarce any ties of interest and affection were twisted in with those of the Constitution, that it survived threat and denunciation, and gained that power which in later times we have seen, controlling men's political speculations, and winning their sentimental loyalty, — all this makes one hope that it may yet survive the dangers which bid timid prophets cry, "Ruin," and that our children may write of the disaffections of 1856 as indifferently as we do of those of 1803. We intentionally confine our extracts from this curious and interesting memoir to those which illustrate this single subject. There are, however, many other points of historical and of local interest illustrated in it. The book renews our old impressions of the genius and graceful literary power of the author. Governor Plumer appears in it less as a man of commanding talent, than as the careful and successful lawyer, the diligent student, the faithful legislator and chief magistrate. But his son shows, in his own work, all the gifts of genius which, with filial regard, he could claim for his father. He has made a most attractive book, attractive for its easy style, for its tender and affectionate spirit, for the completeness with which its details are wrought out, and the skill with which they are set in order. It was a labor of love, of course; the reader feels that it was a labor which had become a pleasure; and that, if Mr. William Plumer, Jr. could have been tempted to undertake any other biography, where his hero had not been a governor nor a senator, — had he written the life of an old woman in the poor-house, had he studied the history, not of the country, but of some unnamed gore in the mountains, he would have given to the world a book worth reading, for which it would have gratefully remembered his name. He died September 8, 1854, just before completing his father's biography. The work of completing it devolved on the editor named on the title-page, who has prefixed a short sketch of the life of the son to the biography of the father. Governor Plumer left some manuscripts of an historical and biographical character, which may yet furnish important materials for the student of American history. ART. XIII. Consolations of Solitude. Jewett & Co. 1856. 12mo. pp. 261. Boston John P. THE Copyright of the volume of poems bearing this unpre tending title is secured to John W. Randall, of Boston, who from that circumstance, and from internal evidence, may be presumed to be the author. Dr. Randall is known to the public as the writer of several valuable papers on subjects of natural history, and as having been at one time a member of the scientific corps attached to the United States Antarctic Exploring Expedition, under the command of Lieut. Wilkes. The internal evidence to which we refer is the acquaintance with natural history incidentally shown in several of the poems, and, especially, in the admirable notes to "The Mountain Journey." These notes, and some of the poems, could have been written only by one whose mind was imbued with a strong love of the beautiful, and, at the same time, trained by scientific study to be observant of nature, not merely in its more prominent features, but in its minute forms and evanescent traits. The Introduction closes with the following graceful lines, addressed "TO THE READER. "If aught, here painted to thy soul or sight, Welcome! for thou art straight a comrade grown, Yet if thy taste reject a thoughtful book, Seek not to know me, lest, thy labor o'er, We grow more perfect strangers than before.". p. 6. * In one of them, descriptive of a mountain summit, he mentions the interesting fact of his having there found certain species of insects not found in the valleys below, which were collected about the same time by the exploring party under the command of Sir John Richardson in the extreme north of the British possessions; thus verifying, on this continent, the law announced by Latreille,—" that when a traveller ascends among mountains to a height at which the temperature, the vegetation, and the soil are the same as those of a country much more northern, he there discovers many species [of insects] which are characteristic of boreal regions, and for which he would search in vain among the plains and valleys at the foot of the mountains." The epithet thoughtful applied to the book in these lines is aptly descriptive of one of its leading characteristics. A deep thoughtfulness, called into vigorous action by whatever subject arrests his attention, and embodying itself in language always simple and perspicuous, often singularly strong, terse, and elegant, seems to be a predominant feature of the author's mind. In these and other respects the volume offers a striking contrast to the inanity, affectation, and obscure and strained phraseology of much of the popular verse of the present day. The reader finds in it no far-fetched conceits, no vapid accumulation of mere words, no attempt to disguise commonplace ideas by distorting them into unnatural shapes and decking them out in glaring colors. The subjects of the different poems are quite various in character, and are treated with a corresponding diversity of style. Our limits forbid us to speak of them in detail; but we cannot refrain from referring to a few which have left a strong impression upon our mind. One of the most striking, and the only one founded upon a classical theme, is "The Lament of Orpheus." It is admirably conceived, and executed with a vividness of imagination and a condensed forcefulness of expression hardly surpassed, we think, by any poem on a classical subject in English literature. The measure in which it is written is original, and is suited to heighten by its cumulative structure the effect of the author's conceptions. We extract a few stanzas which describe the spell diffused by the lyre of Orpheus in the infernal regions, whither he had descended to recover his lost Eurydice. The rapid succession and sharp outlines of the pictures, deficient though they be in delicate limning, betray the bold and masterly touch of a genuine artist. "Ah! how each listening ghost, 'midst twilight pale, While Charon, resting on his oar, forgot to sail. "The torturers, at the tone, Seemed as if changed to stone, And backward turned to hear the strain, |