Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1845-02-15
NEW BOOKS.

"Sparks's Library of american Biography,
vol. xiii NeW series, vol. ii. Containing lives OF
/. James Otis, by Francis Bowen, and of General
| James Oglethorpe, by w. O. Peabody Boston,
Little IL Brown. l2mo 405 p.
| OF these two men it is scarcely necessary to say
that though both considerable, the merits and the
celebrity are by no means equal OTIs figured
much, by his civil abilities and courage in the con-
tests that Immediately preceded the breaking out of
the American Revolution. But his life has been
already given to the world, much at large, by Mr..
| TUDOR, from whose volume presume Mr. Bow
ems performance is abridged, as indeed, though Of
merit, that book had need to be. Mr.. Bowen APP
pears, from the slight glance that we have cast at
his work, to have preserved whatever he found in
Tudor and to have used further materials, not ac-
| cessible in that authors time.
OF OGLETHoRPE the life is far more attractive,
not only from the singular and noble character and
fortunes OF the man, but from the fact that he, the
adventurous, even heroic founder of Common
wealth, who displayed in that enterprise patience
and capacity rarely united with the romantic love
of benefiting his kind that led him to It, should SO
long have remained uncelebrated by special bio
grapher, except one-the Rev. DIR. Harris. ie
few men, in day when humbug had hardly begun
nor notoriety usurped the place of fame, ever com
manded wider or juster admiration than OGLE
THORPE among his contemporaries by his distinguish
ed vaor and his remarkable virtues, through career
Of three-quarters of century, that begun IN Hun
gary against the Turks and reached to the founda
ton by arms and policy, of an American State wor
with slender means from the Spanard and the In
| dian What Theseus was to Athens, or the wolf 4
nursing to Rome, he was to Georgia. and yet they
have built him monument, and are here suffering
one of those industrious Yankees whom they
are now abusing in Congress, to popularize the
I tb have
little more peculiarly than by calling county
after him
All this neglect is the more singular, because one
meets among the lives and letters and writings oil
the greatest writer's of Ogethorpe's day, continual
references to him.. PORE has celebrated him, in an
encomium such as he rarely bestowed; JOHNSON
las little given to hasty admiraton often refers to
him, in the conversations preserved by Boswell
with the highest reverence; HANNAH MORE speaks
| of him as one Of the most remarkable men OF nj:
times Thus on the very surface of his days liter
AZURE, his name is every where met, his command
ing and rare qualities commemorated; SO that 1t Is
surely from no lack of abundant and authentic mate
rial that he has received SO little American attention
| We can with pleasure commend Mr.. Peabody 8
summary of his life as in general good. Perhaps
he occupies in it too large space withDhe troubles
| of the Wesleys Phrases and modes of thought a
little too much tinged with the manner called "evan
gelical,'' also occur at times, as when he Styles
| Bishop BERKELEY "that heavenly man." But the
faults are not serious
/ Some Of the remarkable points OF OGLETHoRPE'
life deserve to be mentioned. In this country he il
l chiefly known as the founder of Georgia, and by
Popes lines,
II One driven by strong benevolencc of SOUL
i "shall fly, like ogethorpe, from pole to pole :
but he was, in reality, the predecessor Of HowARD
in that philanthropy celebrated by Burke, whlc
| first mitigated the horrors of prisons. Born OF
knightly family, and succeeding to a large fortune
he united great personal beauty and strength to
stature the loftiest, aspect and manners the mos
imposing, and bodily and mental vigor which h
preserved almost undecayed TO nearly or perhap
quite the age of one hundred years. He was tn
foster-broth of the Pretender was attached as
youth to the celebrated Earl of Peterborough IN SOM
of his embassies, particular favoriie OF Mari
borough and Argyle, by whose recommendation
Eugene of Savoy made him his aid-de-camp. With
him, in his Turkish campaigns, and especially a
the siege Of Belgrade, he won uncommon distinc.
| ton. He afterwards served thirty-two years IN
Parliament with unblemished honor, usefulness, and
independence lie is said, by Ramsay and Mccall
| o have been offered the chief command OF the Royal
forces in America at the breaking out OF the Revo-
luton but to have declined it, unless permitted to
act by those conciliatory methods which the Govern
ment would not adopt, and which he knew to be
the only ones that would avail. He died. we believe
the oldest Major General in the British service.