schemes for serving the public, or for benefiting my friends, occupied my whole attention.'

"At length a number of providential circumstances combined to revive the holy flame of early piety. Affliction overtook him. Many of his best concerted projects failed. Acts of kindness were repaid with ingratitude. Disinterested actions were ascribed to selfish policy. Giving undi

vided attention to public business, he had too much neglected, not only his religious but his family affairs; debts rapidly accumulated; his Indian claims, by which he hoped to clear them, were rejected, and sales of property became necessary, which it cost him much distress to part with. At home,' he says, I enjoyed much domestic happiness, but every thing without assumed a most gloomy aspect.'

"About this time, his constant friend, Bishop Watson, died. The last letter of that eminent man was a solemn warning to prepare for futurity. Like himself, the Bishop had been engrossed too much by worldly cares, and actuated inordinately by ambition. The two friends had been often and long associated in pursuits merely political or literary; and the Bishop, at the time of writing his farewell, had been visited with those presages of dissolution, which, however unavailing to the foolhardy and the reprobate, are so wisely fitted to instruct mankind in the nothingness of all pursuits but one. After describing the acute pain he suffered, and the utter inability of the physicians to anticipate the result, he continues: therefore I consult none, but wait with fortitude and humble trust the exit of this life, and the beginning of another. Your affectionate friend. R. L.'"

"The death of my eldest sister, and the publication of her work on the Principles of the Christian Faith, had also a great influence in drawing her father's mind to considerations of a strictly religious character.

"The difficulties, indeed, to which I have referred, passed away-but meantime the sufferer had profited by the painful but instructive lesson. He had learnt to look upon the trials and viceissitudes of human life with the serene eye of Christian wisdom, and to refer prosperity and adversity alike to the all-merciful Disposer of both. I began once more,' he says, to appreciate the value of devotion, and to profit by the Scriptures as the only source of present, but more especially of future happiness,"

"From papers written after this period, it appears that Christian principles, Christian hopes and consolations gradually acquired ascendancy over his mind. I am

gratified to find among his papers, various evidences of religious feeling. Several forms of prayer occur, adapted to his own private exigencies, as well as to the political aspect of the times.

"In 1821, he drew up with his own hand a testamentary document, in which, after solemn profession of his faith in the Jewish and Christian Scriptures as declarations of the Divine will, he acknowledges his unfitness as a fallen creature to abide the scrutiny of Omniscient justice, and humbly prays forgiveness through the mediation of his Redeemer.

"Another interesting paper is a short address, in 1823, to surviving connexions, on the impropriety of indulging grief for the loss of near relations or particular friends. He contends that Christians, when visited with bereavement, should not withdraw in sullen despondency from the duties of their station; but should manifest their Christianity by their patience, looking forward with cheerful hope to re-union in a better world, and taking comfort from the reflection of David- I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.""

Having, in the commencement of this article, put the reader in possession of our own crude impressions of the qualities which chiefly distinguished Sir John Sinclair, we shall now present him with the estimate of his public character and writings, formed by one whose capacity for just appreciation is undoubted, and who enjoyed opportunities far greater for close and accurate observation.

"In the intellectual character of Sir John Sinclair, the leading features were fertility of invention and indomitable perseverance. He was rather a man of talent than of genius: he occasionally amused him. self with poetry, but was not successful in that branch of composition. As a speaker he was argumentative and emphatic, but not brilliant; better fitted to convince than to persuade. During his career in Parliament the House of Commons was accustomed to the most magnificent efforts of rhetorical power; to such he never aspired. Both his taste and his judgment led him to prefer clear business-like statements and solid reas sonings. Occasionally, indeed, we find a passage in his speeches rising to great eloquence, but his ordinary style was calm, argumentative, and unostentatious. His early writings are confessedly superior to his later compositions: they possess more energy, and are unencumbered by those minute subdivisions, which, though adopted for the sake of perspicuity, sometimes embarrass and

fatigue the reader. His works are voluminous, but notwithstanding this disadvantage (for such it often is) they are redundant rather in facts than in words. The information he accumulated upon the various subjects of which he treats is immense; for he studiously improved every opportunity of acquiring knowledge, and endeavoured to make every possessor of it, to whom he could gain access, a contributor to the general stock. Few men knew so well how to elicit information from persons least habituated to communicate their ideas.

"The value of his long-continued labours was acknowledged by all classes, both at home and abroad. King George III. bestowed upon him the rank of baronet, admitted him a member of his Privy Council, and was understood to have intended for him higher marks of royal favour. Twenty-two counties in Scotland voted him thanks for his services to agriculture, and their example was followed in various towns, by the inhabitants of which he was regarded less as an indefatigable friend to husbandry than as a general benefactor to his country. He was received into a large proportion of the literary, scientific, and agricultural societies at home; and his list of foreign diplomas amounts to twenty-five.

"It was chiefly by adherence to the strictest rules of temperance, that Sir John Sinclair, with unimpaired faculties, outlived the ordinary term of mortal existence. During his long life, he never once transgressed the rules of sobriety. Having ascertained the kind of diet best adapted to his constitution, he adhered to it from year to year, with undeviating regularity. His chief imprudence regarded expenditure. He forgot limited amount of means, when objects of great national interest were to be secured.

"No patron could have greater zeal for advancing the interests of his friends, or

for encouraging meritorious individuals, however obscure in station or depressed in fortune.

He

About two hundred persons owed to him their success in life. He never cherished enmity to those who opposed or injured him. He was even blamed for not distinguishing sufficiently between supporters and opponents, friends and enemies. envied no man's reputation, but was eager to advance it wherever it was well deserved-a generosity which he did not always himself experience. He was no violent partisan; but admired talent and worth in men of all political sentiments; and although a hearty and zealous patriot, he never permitted national rivalries nor antipathies to bias his moral judgment in the case of individuals. His charities perhaps were too indiscriminate. He was unable to resist importunity, even of suspicious applicants; and although in theory a political economist, on the side of feeling he was a Christian.

"His piety shrunk from all display. He cherished an habitual reverence for the Supreme Being, and abhorred all approach to profaneness. He had, indeed, at one time, partly substituted usefulness to mankind for those high religious motives which are the only true foundation of beneficence; but he happily learnt afterwards to discriminate between external conformity to moral rules, and a complete devotion of the soul to its Creator; he learnt to acknowledge that a moral agent may even deserve applause from men, while in relation to the purity and majesty of God, he stands guilty and condemned. In the doctrines of Christianity my venerable parent saw the only ground of religious hope, and rising from the mere intimations of nature to the assurances of revelation, anticipated, with humble confidence, 'the life and immortality brought to light by the gospel.'

CAPTAIN Davis-or the "gentleman rover as he was termed by his comrogues, from his superior address and manner, on which he prided himself was the only son of a small Devonshire farmer, who having fallen into difficulties and been imprisoned, as has been already shown, by his landlord for sundry arrears of rent, &c., fell a victim to his disappointments died, in short, a madman; a catastrophe which so infuriated his son, whose mother soon followed her husband to the grave, that he murdered the author of these complicated calamities; and then, after wandering some weeks up and down the country, effected his escape, disguised as a common sailor, in a merchantman, bound for the Bahamas; joined the Bucaniers then headed by the ferocious Olonois; and in process of time, by his courage and strict attention to discipline, was raised to a high command among them.

At the period at which he is introduced to my reader's notice, he was about forty years of age; was frank, cordial, and even affable in manner, when nothing occurred to render him otherwise; a keen observer of character, for he had seen more of the world, and was better educated than the majority of the pirates; a thorough master of nautical tactics; patient and self-denying when such sacrifices were required; but a drunkard and a libertine when on shore and at ease, and capable of the greatest atrocities when once his passions were roused. In endeavouring to attach Trevanion to his interests, he exhibited tact of no mean order. His motive was not that which he had chosen to avow-namely, that he was short of hands, but a far deeper one. He imagined he saw in the young man superior sagacity and strength of character, and persuaded himself that if he could once prevail on him to join the crew under his command, he should in his intelligence, energy, and sense of gratitude-for he determined to conciliate him by all means in his power-find a sure support in those mutinies which so often took place between the pirates and their commanders. He was too

shrewd, however, remembering the menaces he had thrown out, to calculate much at first on John's good-will, but trusted that time and habit would soften down his spleen; and convince him that it was his interest to stand well with his Captain.

As Trevanion, at his request, took his seat beside him, he thought he had never seen a more imposing figure. He was of the middle height, admirably proportioned, with broad, square shoulders and chest, indicating prodigious strength. The expression of his countenance was, on the whole, stern, and his complexion bronzed by the winds of many winters; but there was at times a laughing good-humour in his eye, which gave him a far from repulsive aspect. Opposite the Captain, at the foot of the table, sat his Lieutenant, a bull-necked, beetlebrowed rascal, sulky and splenetic, with a desperate squint, a pot-belly, and legs which parted company with each other at the knees, like the two diverging sides of an isosceles triangle. Next him was old Tom, whose one eye glowed like a red-hot coal, by way of affording a lively relief to the black patch which covered the other. The rest of the crew presented nothing remarkable. They were merely so many coarse, hardy vagabonds, with little or nothing of the frankness of the sailor about them. Two or three were Dutchmen, and as many more Spaniards; but the majority were of English extraction; and all sat down fully equipped with pistols, daggers, and sabres, in the brightest possible condition, for the pirates were perfect dandies in these matters.

The table at which they sat, some on benches, some on meat-casks, and some on huge tea-chests, presented a rare, unleavened sample of the chaotic. Dried tropical fruits, cold meats, pies, biscuits, and other viands, were mixed in loving fellowship together, with drinking-cans, horns, bottles, bladders, and small spirit-flasks; while cach man helped himself, stretching half across the table, and talking or singing at the very top of his voice, without the slightest deference to his neighbour's auriculars. John eyed the

group attentively to see if he could read in the countenance of any one indications of a friendly spirit; but he could discern nothing, but, on the contrary, manya distrustful glance directed towards him, though no one took any further notice of his presence.

"I wonder what can have become of Morgan's squadron ? exclaimed the Captain, addressing old Tom; "it should have heaved in sight long before this."

"Mayhap the Commodore has taken a prize or two, Cap'n, and is busy with his prisoners."

"As you were with yours, Tom, at Vera Cruz," said the Lieutenant, "when you flung 'em overboard by the score. I've heard say that one or two of 'em threatened to visit you on your dying day. Is that true?

"No more of that, mess-mate," replied Tom, scowling on the speaker with an expression of countenance as savage as that of Polypheme when he woke and found his only eye put out, "no more of that, it's what I don't approve of."

The Captain here burst into an uproarious laugh. "And so Tom is

actually afraid of a visit from a ghost or two! For shame, Tom; what would old Olonois say to this?

Before the superstitious sea-cyclops could make any reply, the ship gave a sudden violent roll, which precipitated the pot-bellied Lieutenant headforemost into an empty meat-cask that stood upright beside him.

"Huzza!" cried the pirate chief, springing to his legs, "huzza, my lads, the wind is getting up; we shall have a spanking breeze shortly."

Hardly were the words out of his mouth, when a loud voice shouted down the hatchway, "The wind freshens; she is making way again."

"Then up with every sail you can carry," returned the Captain, "and do you, Tom, stir your stumps, we shall have work enough shortly. Gomez, look sharp to the helm-come, bustle, boys-no more tippling-business is business-so, huzza for the black flag!" with which words he rushed upon deck, while the rest of the revellers followed his example, and John retreated to his berth, there to dream of Mary, and the Dartmoor witch's prediction.

The time when Trevanion's fate was to be decided was now fast drawing on. True to his word, the Captain made no allusion to the circumstance, having evidently made up his mind that there would be no further squeamishness on the part of the young man. The crew appeared pretty generally of the same opinion, and no longer eyed him with the same undisguised contempt as formerly, though there was still any thing but a good understanding between them-especially on the part of the first Lieutenant, who fancied he saw in John a formidable rival in the good graces of his commander. Meanwhile the situation of the poor youth was pitiable in the extreme. Till now he had buoyed himself up with the hope that the vessel might touch on some coast before his week expired, which might afford him a remote chance of escape; but time flew on, and still they were on the wide ocean, unbounded save by a dim horizon of sky.

On the morning, however, of the day previous to that on which his de

cision was to be made, a cry of land was raised from the mast-head, followed almost immediately by a shout from the same quarter that a Spanish galleon was heaving in sight. In an instant all was bustle and uproar, and the wild cheers of exultation raised by the crew soon brought the Captain on deck, who immediately began giving orders to his men to see to the guns and the state of the rigging, and, in short, to make every preparation for a desperate conflict. These orders were promptly complied with, and, all sails being set, the vessel soon came near enough to the Don to perceive that he also was on the alert, and, confiding in his superior weight of metal, evinced not the slightest indisposition to come to close quarters.

"Bravo," exclaimed the pirate chief, eying the Spanish ship with a seaman's steady gaze, "she carries a bold front; well, so much the better, it proves she is a prize worth tussling for;" then turning to his Lieutenant, "harkee, comrade, pipe all hands to prayers, and be d- d to you."

Scarcely was the order issued than the whole ship's company made their appearance on deck, while their commander, putting on an air of uncommon sanctity, seated himself on a gun, and began reading one or two chapters of the Bible.* 'Twas a strange thing to behold these ruffians, who were capable of the greatest atrocities, so far subdued by the force of continual habit, as to appear prodigies of piety. While Captain Davis continued reading, a reverential hush was maintained by all his congregation; every head was bowed, and the few Spaniards among them kept momently signing the cross on their foreheads, and giving out profound sighs, as if they were in the agonies of a heartfelt remorse. But decidedly the most pious of the squad was old Tom, whose aspect was quite picturesque, for his one eye sprung such a leak as to deluge his entire face, and his head swayed from side to side like the pendulum of a kitchen clock, while ever and anon he cast a pathetic glance towards his commander, as much as to say, "damme, it's too touching, I can't abide it."

This farce continued for full half an hour, when Captain Davis, returning the Bible to his Lieutenant with a special command that it should be deposited in the securest part of the cabin, started to his legs, and exclaimed with a blasphemous oath, at the same time pointing to the galleon which was now fast bearing down on them, "yonder, lads, is the enemy; twenty piastres to him who first boards her; ten to him who kills the first man; and, d'ye hear, no quarter-down with them all; dead men tell no tales, you know."

While he thus spoke, his eye chanced to fall on Trevanion, who stood some paces off gazing at the approaching vessel with looks of mingled hope and curiosity.

"Halloo, youngster," exclaimed the Pirate," forward here, we shall have need of your help to-day; but how is this, sir, sulking still? I'faith, we have enough of this boy's play; you must learn to be a man now.'

"Man!" said Tom, looking towards Trevanion with huge disdain, "do you call that jackadandy thing, a man? Why, he arn't as much gumption in him as would make a loblolly boy. In the good old times of".

"Right, Tom," said the Lieutenant, interrupting him, "the fellow's not of the true breed, I'll swear, tho'ff our Cap'n do take to him so hugely."

John felt that it was now become absolutely necessary for him to take a decided part, for all eyes were on him, and he could no longer temporize with safety. Advancing, therefore, towards the pirate commander, "hear me, Captain Davis," he said, "not an arm will I raise to day against the crew of yonder ship."

"Down with him-spy, traitor, coward-down with him," shouted a dozen ruffians, rushing with drawn swords towards him; "old Tom was right; he's chicken-hearted, after all."

"Stopper your jaws," roared the Captain; then turning to Trevanion, he added, "do you dare refuse obedience, sir? Do you remember who I am, and who you are?"

Till

"I am a man," replied John boldly, "and you are no more. You can brave death, so too can I. Hear, then, and respect my determination. the time when I was to have made my decision has arrived, I will not fight under your flag. I have no quarrel with the Spaniard; I have no wish for plunder; and I will not shed innocent blood. This is my fixed resolve, so do with me as you please, I am at your mercy, and I scorn to supplicate your pity."

"Kill the spy-hew down the trai