Desdemona on the stage, he had furnished a new catastrophe of a more fortunate description. Talma alone was bold enough to prefer the original termination, and after considerable hesitation, resolved, with the consent of the author, to risk the attempt. This success astonished even himself, and most honourably rewarded his intrepidity. From this moment he became the paramount tragedian, and though occasionally annoyed by criticism, the personality of some of which brought him on one occasion into personal contact with their author, he continued at the summit of his profession till his death.

He acquired a handsome fortune, and was not only generally esteemed by men of rank and talents for his powers of fascination in private society, but was also a favorite of the emperor Napoleon.

The death of Talma took place at Paris in 1826. As soon as it became known, public respect was shown to his memory by the closing the doors of the Comedie Francais. The funeral took place at the cemetery of Père la Chaise, agreeably to his directions.

The procession consisted of a magnificent hearse, fifteen mourning coaches, Talma's

own carriage, and several empty ones; a number of literary and theatrical characters followed on foot, and the whole was closed by a body of 4 or 5000 persons; a vast concourse of the citizens filling the cemetery and surrounding the tomb. Funeral orations or eulogies were delivered at the grave by Lafon, the colleague of the deceased, and by two tragic writers, on whose works Talma had by his talents great scenic popularity.

Thus ended the career of Talma, the great, the generous, the noble-hearted Talma, the Roscius of the French stage, who produced a revolution equal to that created by Garrick on the English.

GEORGE WASHINGTON.

He was a man, take him for all in all,
We ne'er shall look upon his like again.

THE ancestors of George Washington were among the first settlers of the oldest British Colony in America. He was the third in descent from John Washington, an English gentleman, who, about the middle of the 17th century, emigrated from the north of England, and settled in Westmoreland county, Virginia. In the place where he had fixed himself, his great grandson, the subject of this memoir, was born on the 22d of February, 1732.

Of the first nineteen years of George Washington's life, little is known. It is reported, in his youth, he was grave, silent and thoughtful, diligent and methodical in business, dignified in his appearance, and strictly honourable in all his deportment. His patrimonial estate was little, but that little was managed with prudence, and increased by industry. In the gay

est period of his life, he was a stranger to dissipation and riot.

At the age of nineteen, he was appointed one of the Adjutant Generals of Virginia with the rank of Major; and before he was barely twenty-two, he was despatched on an embassy to the French Commandant on the Ohio. Shortly after, he was appointed Lieutenant Colonel of a regiment, and an Aid-de-camp to General Braddock; and in an action with the French a few miles from Fort Duquesne, he had two horses shot under him, and four bullets passed through his coat. He was next appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in Virginia; which commission he resigned in 1758. He shortly after married Mrs Curtis, a lady of large fortune, and great accomplishments.

Washington, by the death of his elder brother Lawrence, had a few years before acquired an estate situated on the Potomac, called Mount Vernon in compliment to admiral Vernon, who about the year 1741, commanded the British Fleet in an expedition against Carthagena, in which Mr Lawrence Washington had been engaged.

The clashing claims of Great Britain and

B

her colonies were frequently brought before the Virginia Legislature, of which Washington was one of the burgesses. In every instance, he took a decided part in the opposition made to the principles of taxation claimed by the Parent State; this soon brought on a war, and Washington was chosen Commander-in-Chief of the forces of the twelve united colonies. To the president of Congress, announcing his appointment, in a short speech he said, 'As to pay, as no pecuniary considerations would have attempted him to accept the arduous employment, he did not wish to make any profit from it. That he would accept an exact account of his expences, the discharge of which was all he desired.' He shortly after joined the army at Cambridge; and on General Howe evacuating Boston, he took possession of that town, where he was received with every demonstration of joy. From this period, to the year 1781, when Lord Cornwallis surrendered his whole army, which gave the closing scene to the war, did this intrepid patriot victoriously struggle for the liberties. of his country, and surmount the most unaccountable difficulties; at length, at the conclusion of the war, he retired to his seat,