I have excluded nothing merely for the reason of its being contrary to the prevailing or popular opinion, and on the subject of Slavery I have inserted many articles which go far beyond the tone of either of the great political parties of this day.

It will not be supposed, however, that the Editor of this publication, or the friends who have sanctioned it, adhere to the views expressed upon all the controverted topics which these pages contain. Many of those most attached to Mr. Leggett, and most devoted to the leading doctrines of his political faith, were at the same time the most opposed to the course pursued by him on particular subjects. But I have not thought myself at liberty to omit any articles for this reason. The effect of suppression would be to give a very imperfect idea of the mind and character of Mr. Leggett; and to suppress them from any apprehension of injuring the sale or circulation of the work, would be a subserviency to popular prejudice, which the author, of all men, would have been the last to permit.

In this collection, therefore, I have endeavoured to embody such of his writings as will serve to convey a just idea of the ability and virtues of the author, and perhaps I may be permitted, in a few words, to point out those attributes of peculiar merit to which they may justly lay claim.

The intellect of Mr. Leggett was of a very high order. His education was originally, in matters of mere accomplishment, defective; but perhaps, in other respects, it could not have been better calculated to form the able and intrepid man, whose memory these pages are intended to perpetuate.

Nurtured in moderate circumstances, unspoiled and unpampered by the seductions of affluence, his life was one of widely diversified experience— first a woodsman in the wilds of the west-next wearing the uniform of the navy and breasting the waves under the constellation banner-soon the victim of a harsh if not tyrannical commander, he threw up his commission, because his complaints were denied a hearing-then exposed to grievous hardships and to all the temptations of a great commercial metropolis-last a leading partisan editor-all these chances and changes were well fitted to make a hardy, self-relying man-an intellectual athlete.

But it is not to this education that Mr. Leggett owed his vigorous eloquence-his copious style-his close logic-his eminent powers of generalization. These attributes incontestably distinguished him. His articles are often prolix, often perhaps defective in other respects of style; but it must be reflected that there are no circumstances so unfavourable to composition as those under which an editor writes. The unavoid able haste-the eternal interruptions and distractions -the impossibility of concentrating the mind on the subject—the necessity of repetition-the want of time to condense ;-all these are sufficient reasons why the Press has in this country no higher literary character. But all these difficulties were, in a great degree, surmounted by him; and when it is remembered that the greater part of his articles were composed in the back room of a printing-office, amid the din of the press and the conversation of political loungers, it will be, I am persuaded, thought reinarkable that he overcame them to so great an extent. I do not mean to over

rate the merit of his writings. I am aware that very great deduction is to be made for the excitement under which they were first read, when they were animated and quickened by a deep interest in the events with which they were connected-that great deduction is also to be made for the strong bias which a similarity of political sentiments creates; but I am convinced that the admiration these writings excited is no delusion, no mere temporary feeling; and that the reputation which Mr. Leggett attained, during his short career as an editor, could not have been acquired unless his writings had possessed merits of an abiding character. What, then, was that character? What are the claims which these productions present to a permanent place in our literature?

The foundation of his political system was an intense love of freedom. This, indeed, was the corner-stone of his intellect and his feelings. He absolutely adored the abstract idea of liberty, and he would tolerate no shackles on her limbs. Liberty in faith-liberty in government-liberty in trade-liberty of action every way,-these were his fundamental tenets-these the source alike of his excellencies and his defects.

His love of freedom made him the warm and constant advocate of universal suffrage. He ever looked coldly if not with positive disinclination upon the different laws proposed for registering voters; he could not endure the idea of any impediment upon the liberty of the citizen, and he preferred the evils which resulted from a want of registry to those which he feared might follow from a system that should impose any restraint or qualification upon the right of suffrage.

In the same light he looked upon every effort to exclude foreigners from the polls. His love of liberty was far too catholic and comprehensive to be bounded by any line of language or birth, and he could never tolerate the hostility often expressed to the adoption of foreigners into our political family. As to freedom of trade, he was equally consistent. He from the first warred against the tariff, and a federal bank. He was the leader of those who raised the standard against the monopoly system of incorporated banks; and one of the first to insist upon the total disconnection of government from its fiscal agents. In like manner, he reprobated all the state inspection laws, and one of his last productions in the Plaindealer is that in which he advocates the idea of a free trade post office, or a system by which letters should be carried, as goods and passengers are now, by private establishments. In this respect the merits of his writings cannot be overrated; he must ever be remembered as one of the most able and consistent disciples of that school of commercial freedom which is destined ultimately to bind the whole civilized world in bonds of peace and amity-of that school of political science whose end and aim are to simplify and cheapen the operations of government.

His reading was extremely copious, and his style of the most vigorous and manly order. On the topics which excited him he poured forth a flood of reasoning or it might be of denunciation and invective which forced the mind irresistibly along and aroused the most sluggish intellect. His language often rises to a commanding eloquence, and is always earnest, impressive and powerful.

I have no desire or intention to pronounce a mere eulogy, an inconsiderate and sweeping panegyric. It would be I am convinced, the thing most repulsive to his own feelings. Mr. Leggett had unquestionably defects in his intellectual organization-he generalised too much he pushed out his theories without a proper reference to the time and means necessary to perfect them, and to persuade their adoption-and what was a greater defect for one who desired to lead the public mind on matters of daily and hourly importance, he was not sufficiently practical, nor did he listen with sufficient attention to the suggestions of practical men. His views when most correct, were frequently urged with a vehemence and impetuosity which prevented their adoption, and he often in this way displeased and alienated moderate men of all parties.

To this, which might perhaps be termed an impracticability of conduct, are to be ascribed some singular inconsistencies of his views on various topics. He was an author and a consistent advocate of the right of property and of free trade. But he at all times opposed the introduction of an international copyright law. No one was a more zealous and unflinching enemy of mobs, but he with almost equal ardor opposed the passage of any law granting indemnity to their victims. He detested slavery in every shape, but he was totally hostile to any action of Congress on the question in the District of Columbia. This diminished his influence as a party leader, for which station indeed he was not fitted, except in periods of great excitement and violence.

He was certainly at times deficient in forbearance towards his opponents, and indulged in a violence of