was passing. Having sold the cargo, or the principal part of it, to government, I had little else to do for months than to dance attendance upon the bureau which had the adjustment of the account, and was finally obliged to leave the matter to the care of a friend.

"After the fall of Robespierre, the revolutionary tribunal of which Fouquier Tinville was the Accusateur Public-like our attorney-general-being abolished, he, with five judges and ten jurymen, in all sixteen, were executed in the Place de Greve by that operation which they had inflicted on men, women, and even children, for pretended crimes. I went with Mr. Russell, Mr. Higginson, and several others, and secured a room, the nearest we could get to the place of execution, that we might witness it closely. The prisoners arrived in two carts, from which they were taken out and placed in the room directly under the seaffold. From there they were taken, one by one, and by a ladder of eight or ten feet were brought to the instrument and decapitated. The attorney-general was the last to suffer, and must have felt at the fall of the axe in every execution as much as he felt when his turn came. They all met their fate without a struggle, except a man, one of the judges, who had been of the noblesse of the country, and whose name was Le Roi, which he had, by decree of the convention, changed to Dix Aout, or Tenth of August, after the assault upon the Tuilleries on that memorable day, when the Swiss and the king's immediate attendants were so shamefully murdered by the populace of Paris. This man died game, but kept vociferating his execrations upon his executioner, until he was silenced by the fall of the axe.

"This mode of execution is certainly merciful, inasmuch as its work is soon done. From the time the prisoners descended from the carts until their heads were all in long baskets placed in the same carts with the lifeless trunks, was fourteen minutes! Two minutes were lost by changing the carts, so that if all the remains could have been placed in one basket, but twelve minutes would have been required for beheading the sixteen persons! The square was filled with people. Great numbers of the lowest classes--and the low class of women were the most vociferous--were there, clapping and huzzaing with every head that fell. These were the same people who sang hallelujahs on the deaths of those who had been condemned to the guillotine by the very tribunal who had now paid the debt they owed to the city, for their convictions were principally of the city. Other wretches of the same stamp were acting their infernal parts in different departments of France. Notwithstanding the deserts of this most execrable court, the exhibition was horrid to my feelings, however deserved the fate of the culprits.

"Mr. Monroe, the minister of the United States, told me that he wished a service to be rendered by some one, and felt great interest that I should give my aid to it. The object was that I should aid in sending Mr. George Washington La Fayette to the United States. His mother, the Marchioness La Fayette, was then in Paris with her daughters and Mr. Frestal, their tutor. Mr. Monroe gave me a letter to her, and I found her lodged in the third story in the Rue de L'arbre Sec. She explained her object to me, which was to get her son sent to the United States to prevent him from being drawn by the conscription into the army. He was then fourteen years of age. The proposal she made to me was, that I should apply to the convention for permission to procure a passport for her son to go to America for the purpose of his being educated in a countinghouse. As the marquis was in bad odor in France, it was deemed necessary to sink the real name of the party, and to apply to the Committee of Safety for a passport for G. W. Motier, this being a name of his family which he had a right to assume. Madame La Fayette was intimately acquainted with Boissy d'Anglas, the president of the committee, and of the old aristocracy of France, and from him she had assurance that if the application was made by an American, it would be favorably received. The marquis was at the time prisoner in the Castle of Olmutz, in Austria--and the object of madame was to go to him with her daughters and solace him in his deplorable confinement, where his health was suffering.

"The application to the comraittee was complied with, and my friend, Mr

Russell, who took an active part in aiding in the plan, accompanied George La Fayette to Havre, where was an American ship in which I had an interest, commanded by Capt. Thomas Sturgis, brother to Mr. R. Sturgis, who married my eldest sister. To him I gave letters, requesting that Mr. F. might have a passage in the ship, which was freely accorded. Mr. Russell and myself paid the expense of the journey and the passage, and Mr. F. arrived in Boston, where he was cordially received by my family, and passed some time there. He afterwards went to Mount Vernon, and lived in the family of General Washington, until, in the following year, he returned to Europe, when he entered the revolutionary army.

"He served with reputation; but as the name was not a favorite one with the existing leaders, he was kept in the back ground by the influence of General Bonaparte, and retired, after a year or two of service, to private life. He is yet living, (1846,) and has been a member of the House of Deputies since the fall of Bonaparte.

"Madame La Fayette went to Austria, and remained with her husband to the time of his liberation. Immediately after his being set at liberty, he wrote me a letter dated at Olmutz, thanking me for the share I had taken in enabling his wife to visit him in his distress, and declaring that I had been the means of saving his life by the means used in restoring his family to him. This letter is now in the possession of Mrs. Bates, of London, to whom I gave it as an interesting article for her portfolio.

"The circumstance of my interference in sending young La Fayette to this country was the cause of one of the most interesting events of my life. It was known to General Washington, through the father or son, or both, that I had been active in procuring the sending G. W. to this country, and from the great partiality he had for the marquis, he was pleased to regard the actors in a favorable light.

"In the summer of 1796 I visited the city of Washington, which was decided upon as the future seat of government, though Congress still sat at Philadelphia. While I was there General Washington passed some days at the new seat of government. He lodged at the house of Mr. Peters, who married a Miss Custis, granddaughter of Mrs. Washington. At a ball given by Mrs. Peters, to which I was invited, I was introduced to the General by Colonel Lear, his private secretary, and was graciously received, and invited to visit Mount Vernon and pass some time there. This was not to be declined, and a few days after I went, as invited, to pay my respects to the man I cherished in my mind beyond any earthly being. There was no company there, except Mr. Thomas Porter, formerly of Boston, who then lived at Alexandria, with whom I was intimately acquainted, and who was a great favorite at Mount Vernon. He took me to the residence of General Washington, and returned after dinner to his own residence.

"It is generally known that the General was not in the habit of talking on political subjects with any but those connected with him in the government. Indeed, he was what may be called a silent man, except when necessity called upon him to be otherwise. He conversed with me on internal improvements, and observed to me that I should probably live to see an internal communication, by canals and rivers, from Georgia to Massachusetts. The State of Maine had not then been separated from the old Bay State. He little thought at that time, or ever, of the railroads which now span the country. General Washington, it is understood, was the first projector of the Dismal Swamp Canal, between Chesapeake Bay and Albemarle Sound, in North Carolina, at that time a great undertaking, as well as the lockage of the little falls of Potomac. As was before remarked, I was the only guest at Mount Vernon at the time spoken of. Mrs. Washington and her granddaughter, Miss Nelly Custis, with the General, were the only inmates of the parlor.

"The situation of Mount Vernon is known to every one to be of surpassing beauty. It stands on the banks of the Potomac, but much elevated above the river, and affords an extensive view of this beautiful piece of water, and of the opposite shore. At the back of the house, overlooking the river, is a wide

piazza, which was the general resort in the afternoon. On one occasion, when sitting there with the family, a toad passed near to where I sat conversing with General Washington, which led him to ask me if I had ever observed this reptile swallow a fire-fly. Upon my answering in the negative, he told me that he had, and that from the thinness of the skin of the toad, he had seen the light of the fire-fly after it had been swallowed. This was a new, and to me, a surprising fact in natural history.

"I need not remark how deeply I was interested in every word which fell from the lips of this great man. I found Mrs. Washington to be an extremely pleasant and unaffected lady, rather silent, but this was made up for by the facetious and pleasant young lady, Miss Custis, who afterwards married Major Lewis, a nephew of the General, and who is yet living. During the day the General was either in his study or in the saddle, overlooking the cultivation of his farm.

"I shall never forget a circumstance which took place on the first evening I lodged at Mount Vernon. As I have said before, it was in July, when the day trenched far upon the evening, and at seven or eight o'clock we were taking our tea, not long after which the ladies retired. Knowing the habit of the General, when not prevented by business, to retire early, at about nine o'clock I made a movement in my chair, which led the General to ask me if I wished to retire to my chamber. Upon my answering in the affirmative, observing there was no servant in the room, he took one of the candles from the table, leading the way to the great staircase, then gave me the candle, and pointed out to me the door at the head of the stairs as my sleeping room. Think of this!

"In the room in which I laid myself down, for I do not think I slept at all, so much was I occupied with the occurrences of the day, was a portrait of La Fayette the elder, and hanging over the fireplace the key of the Bastile, which, I believe, retain the same places to this day. On the afternoon of the second day after I arrived, I took my leave of Mount Vernon, more gratified than I can express.

"In the autumn of the year of my visit, Mr. Stewart (Gilbert) painted the fulllength portrait of the General, which is much the best likeness I have ever seen of him. The bust I have, also by Stewart, is a fac-simile of the original. The portrait of Mrs. Washington, also by Stewart, now in the Athenæum, is an excellent likeness of that excellent lady. I remember her amiable expression of countenance, and courteous, unaffected manner, as well at this time as half a century since.

"The President having inquired of me if I had visited the Great Falls of the Potomac, and being answered in the negative, observed. to me that I ought not to leave that part of the country without visiting them. I made the excursion, though pressed for time, and to my great satisfaction.

"I consider the visit to Mount Vernon as one of the most interesting of my life. It was the only opportunity which I should have ever had of conversing familiarly with this great and good man. Two years after my visit he died at his residence, of croup. It is stated that he was not well treated for the disorder, and that with more skill his life might have been preserved, though I doubt if his happiness would have been preserved to him, had his life been spared. Detraction and calumny had assailed him.

"The new city of Washington, when I was there, had but few houses. The capitol was not built for many years afterward, and when Congress first sat there, it occupied, I think, a building erected by means of a Tontine speculation got up by a Mr. Blodget, who went from Massachusetts, and was well known as a great projector of speculations of one sort and another."

About this time he was made commander of a military corps, the battalion which constitutes the guard and escort for public occasions of the Governor in the Commonweath of Massachusetts, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, having for some time previously held that of major in the same corps.

With some persons it may excite only a smile of derision to mention

this as worth remembering, and particularly to add as the cause of any allusion to it that he was so generally known afterwards as Colonel Perkins, that his numerous acquaintances throughout the country might be in doubt whether he is the individual spoken of in this memoir, if that appellation were omitted. But there are some considerations connected with this that deserve notice. The foreigner smiles or frowns, as he feels disposed, when he hears any reference among us to military rank beyond the field or day of parade, unless it be of the regular army; but in this he overlooks the fact that the customs of a nation are usually connected with its history and political character. Military rank among quiet citizens is not so empty a distinction here as it may seem, but constitutes a pledge which it may become necessary to redeem in earnest. A large portion of the bloodiest and most important battles that have ever occurred among us have been fought chiefly by the militia. The deference paid to it here is not greater now than that with which the same force was regarded in England, when the regiment of Coldstream Guards formed a large part of the standing army then no greater than ours is at this time.*

"The king was captain-general of this large force; the lords-lieutenants and their deputies had the command under him, and appointed meetings for drilling and inspection. There were those who looked on the militia with no friendly eye. The enemies of the liberties and religion of England looked with aversion on a force which could not, without extreme risk, be employed against those liberties and that religion, and missed no opportunity of throwing ridicule on the rustic soldiery.-In Parliament, however, it was necessary to express such opinions with some reserve. The array of the country was commanded almost exclusively by Tory noblemen and gentlemen; they were proud of their military rank, and considered an insult to the service to which they belonged as offered to themselves. They were also perfectly aware that whatever was said against a militia, was said in favor of a standing army; and the name of a standing army was hateful to them."

As that standing army was gradually enlarged, however, and the profession of arms became an occupation for life, a change naturally followed; the exclusive feeling in favor of professional rank gained strength; and the recognition of any similar claim for the militia was discouraged as a matter of taste, because it affected privilege.

But no such change has taken place here. We have no intention of having a standing army, beyond a mere nucleus, from which we can extend, when necessary, with an academy for the thorough education of officers, having no need of more.

It is not a mere channel or a narrow sea, but the broad ocean, that separates us from those nations whose power could ever endanger our safety. And if such power should be directed against us, our coast and frontier being equal in extent to those of several of the kingdoms of Europe taken together, no army that we are likely ever to have could guard the line of exposure. We rely, therefore, mainly on the local force of the country for security in war, and for the maintenance of order in peace. Some attempts have been made among us to break down the militia by ridicule; but it seems probable that until vast changes take place in other respects, we shall not dispense with this system, which by its efficient action gains deference for itself, in comparison with what is done elsewhere. Many proofs that it does so might be given; one will answer.

In 1849, the year succeeding that of revolutions in Europe, a serious

• Macaulay.

disturbance occurred in the city of New York in the dramatic performances there, arising from displeasure toward an eminent foreign tragedian. The theatre was surrounded by a vast multitude, many of them in a state of great excitement; acts of violence were committed; property and life were endangered; and that state of things existed which is thought to warrant the use of military force. It came promptly when summoned; numbers of people were killed and wounded; the mob was dispersed; and order was restored. When the account of this reached England, it was remarked in one of the leading journals there, with reference to a similar event which had just then occurred under British rule, that we had, at any rate, given an example to governments of greater energy in form than our own how to deal with rioters. In the same steamer that carried this account, or the one that preceded it, there went the particulars of a riot just over our frontier, in Canada. There, the nobleman who represented the majesty of England was driven by the mob from the seat of government, and pursued towards his country seat; the Parliament-house was burned with the archives, a library of great value, and other public property; and if any punishment has ever been inflicted for this, it must have been so slight that it has scarcely been heard of out of the province.

There is, likewise, something of exaggeration in reference to the use of military titles in this country. Where a dozen instances can be given of it, often arising accidentally from assiduous attention, personal appearance, or otherwise, probably a score of others might be adduced where there is no further allusion to rank in the militia after the service is performed, even including some officers who have met a foreign enemy successfully in battle.

But Col. Perkins was a man distinguished for energy, for a lively interest in all that concerned the welfare of the community in which he lived, and for a desire to maintain and promote its respectability. He acted with vigor in times of great excitement; a prominent part was frequently assigned him, either to assist in the direction of public meetings, or as leader on important committees; and his name being necessarily often in print, he was designated, naturally enough, in the way that indicated its connection with public order, and thus added something to its weight. The military rank, therefore, which might otherwise have soon been forgotten, as it generally has been in regard to those who have held it in the same corps, but with less distinction in other respects, became widely associated with his name, and so continued until his decease. This was the more natural, because the tone of his character and his ordinary bearing were obviously in keeping with the sentiment which he once proposed for a toast at some military festival-"That high and honorable feeling which makes gentlemen soldiers, and soldiers gentlemen!"

Soon afterward he was chosen President of the Boston branch of the United States Bank-quite a distinction at that time, when there were few banks in the country, and a remarkable one for a man so young as he was then. The choice was owing to a warm rivalry for the honor between two distinguished merchants, much older than himself, whose friends at length mutually agreed to end the contest by selecting a third candidate, on whom all could unite. He was too much engaged in his own enterprises to retain the place long, and in a year or two he was succeeded by the Hon. George Cabot, eminent not only as a commercial man, but as a Senator of the United States.

In 1805, he was elected to the Senate of the State, as he frequently was