fendant, in the cause of Patrick Mc Gripinclaw et alii Plaintiffs, vs. Noadiah Chubber.

Judge. Oh! Aye! now I believe I understand -the young man wants the cause to be hung up for the next term, duz he?

Counsellor V. Yes, may it please the court.Judge. Well, well, if that is all he wants, why couldn't he say so in a few words, pat to the purpose, without all this larry cum lurry?

Our advocate took his hat and gloves from the table, cast a look of ineffable contempt upon the Boeotian magistrate and stalked out of the court house.

Although Mr. Dennie affected to view his unlucky debut in its proper light, and would frequently tell the story of his discomfiture with great humour, yet his friends perceived he was deeply wounded-disgusted with the profession. To entice him to a second essay, some months afterwards, I observed to him, "That I was engaged as counsel in an affair of seduction. An unfortunate girl, the daughter of a poor but respectable widow, had been ruined by the promises of a base but wealthy man; that the facts would be well substantiated, and the whole effort of her counsel directed to the enhancement of damages: this depending principally upon the eloquence of her counsel, presented a fine opportunity for the display of his peculiar talents. I proposed to introduce him into the

cause, and he might open it before a presiding Judge who possessed a taste for fine speaking and would justly appreciate the force and classical purity of his rhetoric.

His reply convinced me that he had taken a final leave of the "noisy bar."

D. "It may do for you, my friend, to pursue this sordid business-you can address the ignoble vulgar in their own Alsatia dialect. I remember the Boeotian Judge, and it is the last time I will ever attempt to batter down a mud wall with roses."

How long he remained at Charleston is not known. He removed to Walpole, where he opened an office, in which he continued but a short time.

It is related that he did not devote that attention to business which is indispensable in his profession; that he spoke but once in court, but then it was with great elegance. Whether it was precisely at this period that he read prayers for an Episcopalian congregation at Claremont, I cannot ascertain: but they took umbrage at his playing whist and smoking cigars on Saturday evenings, and he officiated only four months.

He went to Boston in the spring of 1795, and endeavoured to establish a weekly paper, under the title of "THE TABLET." It commenced on

the 19th of May, and terminated on the 11th of August.

Disappointed in this speculation, he returned, after a detention occasioned by ill health, to Walpole, where he became the editor of " THE FARMER'S MUSEUM," printed by David Carlisle, for Thomas and Thomas, the proprietors. Here he commenced the essays entitled "THE LAY PREACHER," which laid the foundation of his literary reputation.

While he was thus engaged, his ambition prompted him to offer himself as a candidate for Congress, which is said to have produced an unpleasant paper war between him and Mr.

During a portion of the time that he resided here, he was an inmate in the family of the late Rev. Mr. Fessenden, the presbyterian clergyman of that village, and father of the poet of the same name. From Carlisle, his printer, we learn that he had no settled plan of study. Sometimes he confined himself for weeks to his books, and at other periods he would scarcely touch one of them. He wrote in the same manner; his printer being frequently employed on the commencement of an essay while the author was endeavouring to keep pace with him, by writing the conclusion. Yet few were ever more jealous of the integrity of their writings. On one occasion, when the hour of publication arrived, and the devils came to his office to cry

for "copy"-that sound unmete to author's ear,— they found Dennie surrounded by convivial companions, and enveloped in smoke. One of the party, the only person who was awake and capable of writing, caught up an unfinished LAY PREACHER and completed the sermon. This was considered as a gross injury by the author, whose irritation did not subside for some time. The Gazette, enriched by his pen, very soon obtained a wide circulation, and was, no doubt, very profitable to the proprietors; but the editor was far from being satisfied with their conduct towards him.

In the year 1799 he removed to Philadelphia, in consequence of being appointed private secretary in the office of Mr. Pickering, then Secretary of State. This station he held until the memorable dispute between the President and his Secretaries, in the following year. His first care in this new occupation was to devote the emoluments which it yielded to the liquidation of his debts in New Hampshire. "Of the small sums which you may have obtained," he says to a friend, 7th Feb. 1800, I earnestly wish that the parts may be applied to satisfy those claims of Walpole creditors, which inattention disregarded, or my necessity urged to postpone. I had hopes from my long connexion at Walpole, that certain of those puny obligations would have been liquidated by those who

66

have been well benefited by my labours, and who, formerly, by the actual Sermons of a Lay Preacher, and lastly by the "mere whistle of a name," acquired and continue to acquire a very tolerable livelihood. The friendship of trade is proverbial. I have felt it. I remember the curious and convenient bankruptcy of and that two years were ignominiously lost in village editing, and book printing for the benefit of any one-except myself." He then proceeds to designate, minutely, different creditors, whose bills he wishes to obtain, as he will" now gladly and immediately pay men their own and with usury.”

In February, 1800, he wrote to a friend"my situation is agreeable. My employments are of the most liberal kind. My principal, Mr. P. is kind and true,' and my reasonable expectations as a political tyro and a lover of letters, are far from gloomy. I lingered in New Hampshire rather too long, but enough of mortal time is left, I hope, both for some fame and some fortune. Retaining my station, and following the fortunes of the Secretary, I meditate and shall shortly execute a literary scheme, not unmingled with a dash of politics, which, uniting the stipends of clerk and gazetteer, will place me on the rock of independence."

The scheme, which is here alluded to, was developed, about the end of the year, in a Prospectus of a weekly paper, entitled THE