tion in connexion with Mr Arthur Lee, and Silas Deane. He had much influence in forming the treaty of alliance and commerce with that nation, February 6, 1778. In conjunction with Mr Adams, Mr Jay, and Mr Laurens, he signed the provisional articles of peace, November 30, 1782, and the definitive treaty, September 30, 1783. In 1785, at his request to retire, congress appointed Mr Jefferson to succeed him as ambassador at the court of France. In the interval he negociated and signed two treaties of amity and commerce, one with Sweden, and the other with Prussia. During his residence in France, he was the idol of the literary and political circles of Paris, while his genius and talents were held in the highest estimation. On his arrival in this country, he was received with universal applause; and the citizens, in order to express their approbation of his invaluable services abroad, immediately appointed him president of the supreme executive council. In 1787, he was a delegate to the grand convention, which framed the constitution of the United States. In 1788, he retired wholly from public life, in consequence of the complication of diseases which for a number of years had laid waste his strength, and now entirely prevented him from attending to business. For the last twelve months, he was confined almost entirely to his bed. On approaching the confines of another world, he reasoned like a philosopher, and often expressed a grateful sense of the many blessings received from the Supreme Being, who had raised him from his humble origin to such consideration among men. On the 17th April, 1790, in the eighty-fourth year of his age, he departed this life in the city of Philadelphia. Almost to the last moment his mental faculties remained unimpaired, and with a pious resignation he commended his spirit to the will of Heaven. After his death the posthumous honours conferred on his memory and services, were but little short of enthusiastic. Congress ordered a general mourning for him in America for the space of one month. Obsequies were solemnized in Paris, and funeral panegyrics delivered by order of its municipality. The national assembly of France decreed a mourning of three days, and addressed a letter of condolence to the American congress, in which they style him the Nestor of America. His works, philosophical, political, and literary, have been published in England, France, and America. THE IRISH HEDGE-SCHOOLMASTER. 'COME here, Tom Fogarty, you little brat- MACREADY. THE following incident displays Mr Macready's courage and humanity, in so pleasing a point of view, that we are confident our readers will be gratified by its recital:—When Mr Macready was performing at the Birmingham Theatre, in August 1823, he had left the house after the Tragedy of Hamlet, in which he had delineated, with his accustomed ability, the philosophic Prince, and was proceeding on foot to his lodgings, when he approached a small cottage in flames, surrounded by a concourse of people, eager to look on, but loath to assist: a cry of distress was heard from within: he instantly threw off his coat and waistcoat, and with the greatest agility sprung into the parlour window, from whence he soon issued with an infant in his grasp, and was received by the speechless mother in an agony no words can describe. The hat, coat, and waistcoat of the adventurous hero were gone, and he darted through the crowd as he was, towards his lodgings; no one could |