ciations of feeling and circumstance, gazing upon them as upon the faces of friends, and into them as into the oracles of truth; by him, in a word, the idea of whose usefulness, honor, and daily enjoyment is associated indissolubly, in his own mind, with books and products of art, not in their general aspect, but as they have been gathered by the slow accumulation of careful expenditure, and become endeared by years of blessed and ministering companionship, in his own cheerful study. Who will deny to Mr. Roscoe, in the sacrifice of his library and collections, the credit of exer cising a degree of religious principle worthy of human nature? The general character of that library may be inferred from his pursuits; and its value from the catalogue prepared, with minute exactness, by his own hand, indicating its numerous varieties and treasures. It is worthy of remark that no volume or print was reserved, but such as were the sacred tokens of friendship; and although a few of his friends bought, at the sale, what they conceived he chiefly wished to retain, he would derive from this considerate act, no other advantage than the liberty of repurchasing, and when this was actually done, his conscientiousness led him to dispose of them to Mr. Rathbone, by whom they were presented to the Athenæum, where they still occupy a separate position. We cannot forbear quoting the sonnet suggested by this event. Familiar as it may have become, is is and will ever be a beautiful evidence of the not undignified regret of the literary enthusiast relieved by the manly cheerfulness of the intellectual Christian.

"As one who destined from his friends to part
Regrets his loss, yet hopes again erewhile
To share their converse and enjoy their smile,
And temper as he may affliction's dart,-
Thus, loved associates! chiefs of elder art!
Teachers of wisdom! who could once beguile
My tedious hours, and lighten every toil,

I now resign you; nor with fainting heart,-
For pass a few short years, or days, or hours,
And happier seasons may their dawn unfold,
And all your sacred fellowship restore;
When freed from earth, unlimited its powers,
Mind shall with mind direct communion hold,
And kindred spirits meet to part no more.'

When, therefore, the dreaded bankruptcy did occur, the only consolation of which such a case admits, was happily ever present to alleviate the sufferings of his delicate mind,—a deep sense of conscientious integrity.

the

Perhaps the most general principle involved in the lending interests of age, is the principle of integrity. It is this which lends an aspect of high moral dignity to the pursuits in which the multitude of our day are engaged. In England and this country, commercial enterprise being the predominant object of pursuit, uncompromising integrity is the virtue, for the exercise of which there is especial and often grand occasion. And while public opinion has been on the advance respecting the legal course proper to be pursued in relation to bankruptcy, the want of a high moral tone in regard to this subject is lamentably obvious. Were it not so, failures, which have bereft hundreds of half their just dues, and left the author of their suffering independent, would not be regarded, as they now are, with any degree of complacency; nor would an individual of this sadly numerous species, be allowed daily to parade himself or the tokens of his pe

cuniary superiority before the eyes of his abused and remediless creditor. In view of such considerations, enforced as they must be by the experience and reflection of every individual, it is morally refreshing to mark and appreciate the simple integrity of William Roscoe.

And now the cares of active life were wellnigh ended; the partner of his days had gone before to her rest, and his feet were treading the declivi. ty of life. He had put the finishing touch to an edition of Pope's works, and the Holkham catalogue was completed; what remained, then, for one who had so well sustained the burden and heat of the day, but that he should dedicate its close to recreative employment and repose ? With his diminished resources, increased by the grateful contributions of friendship, he accordingly released himself from all bustling or laborious employments, and passed into retirement. Here he prepared for the press a final edition of Lorenzo, and a work of long standing upon Monandrian plants-efforts which equal the most vigorous of an earlier period. And although with these his literary labors may be said to have closed, his intellectual and moral activity was beautifully exerted until another world became the scene of its ceaseless exercise. The lovely flowers with which he had bestrown the pathway of his being, were bright and fragrant to the last. Literally may it be said of them, as has been significantly said in another connection-that they smiled up to him as children to the face of a father. The perception of physical beauty, the intelligent love of nature, the philan. thropic spirit, the literary taste, which were the day-stars of his youth, continued their ministry in age; and the holier presence of domestic sympa. thies, of well-founded friendships, of blessed remembrances, was blending its cheerful influence with the deeper and more inspiring spirit of religion. How applicable to a life so happily passed, and so peacefully closed, are the well-remembered lines of our favorite poet !

"That life was happy: every day he gave
Thanks for the fair existence that was his;
For a sick fancy made him not her slave,
To mock him with her phantom miseries.
No chronic tortures rack'd his aged limb,
For luxury and sloth had nourish'd none for him.
"And I am glad that he has liv'd thus long;
And glad that he has gone to his reward;
Nor deem that kindly nature did him wrong,
Softly to disengage the vital chord;
When his weak hand grew palsied, and his eye

Dark with the mists of age, it was his time to die."

We have spoken of the character of William Roscoe as a morally valua. ble example, and we have seen how little it is indebted to extraordinary occasions for its manifestation; it is as interesting to observe that it owes as little to any singular endowment or unnatural endeavor for its intrinsic worth. To the legitimate culture and exercise of the natural emotions and best impulses of the soul, we cannot but ascribe all that is good or beautiful in its aspect. That process of induration, so proverbially general, never bronzed the sensibilities of Roscoe; the dew of nature was not suffered wholly to evaporate in the heated atmosphere of 'worldly strife, nor to con geal in the frigid air of an artificial existence. That quality, so deep and morally auspicious susceptibility-the sharpness of the mental appetites,

the yearning of vigorous energies for free play and felicitous exercise, the fervid heat of the coals upon the soul's altar, which a little musing sufficeth to kindle-susceptibility-this he ever possessed, or rather never lost, or the richly freighted influences of improvement would have passed by him as the idle wind.

We confess ourselves disposed to attribute no inconsiderable importance to this view of our subject. If improving agencies are dispensed as liberally through the intellectual and moral universe, as the elements of physical nature, and are designed to minister to something beyond themselves, to develop mind, they constitute the common birthright of humanity. Like the air and light, they freely and equally occupy space, ranging the wide expanse on the broad wings of universal love, and restrained in their holy mission by nought but human perversity. And is not the essential condition by which alone their rich benefits can be experienced, susceptibility? The piercing beams of the sun bear no images of beauty to the closed eye, and the evening breeze wafts no refreshment to the brow unbared to its breath. What wonder, then, if nature and Providence sometimes fail to awaken the spirit steeled by indifference or shrouded in sin. In the life and character of Roscoe, we see nurtured, with a beautiful and holy care,— -Those first affections,

The most remarkable peculiarity in the character of Roscoe, is its rare combination of active with quiet virtues; of reflective with practical excel. lence; of refined sentiment and thought, with perfect simplicity of manner and effort. Its distinguishing good, as an example, is the lesson of just self-development which it so pleasingly unfolds. Throughout that long life of more than eighty years, in its early struggles, amid its honorable fame, and during the various periods of literary, political, or professional activity, by which that character was tried and formed, we behold the native supremacy of the moral nature uninvaded. And it is impossible not to recognise in this the true secret of Roscoe's success, the source of those intellectual and moral results which have hallowed his memory, the means and the method by the aid of which, in comparatively ordinary circumstances, and with comparatively common capacities, he identified himself with all the leading benevolent enterprises of the day, rendered valuable contributions to the literature of his native country, and drew, in broad relief, even from the calm tenor and narrow scene of his life, the deathless lineaments of an harmoniously beautiful character.

* The noble ode of Wordsworth, from which these lines were taken, was recited by the late S. T. Coleridge, to Baron Von Humboldt, who learned, with much surprise, that it was the work of a living English poet, declaring he should have attributed it to the age of Elizabeth.

And, be it remembered, that this active and equable spirit, this happy balance of the several faculties and sentiments, was ever calmly and prevailingly operative. We feel that the stripling, who mourned over the dying agonies of the bird his own hand had destroyed on the banks of the Mersey, and the aged man who years afterwards stood beside a bed of lilies in his little garden, and compared their frailty with his own, is one and the same being. In opposition to a very popular prejudice, he suc ceeded in uniting literature and business, and general philanthropy with domestic duty, without detriment to either. He was an amateur and a lit. erary man; but benevolent sentiment was intimately associated with the enjoyments of both. While carrying on a correspondence which connected him with the master spirits of the age, he could yet be sedulously attentive to the interests of an unfriended artist; sympathizing in the mag. nanimous character of a cultivated Florentine nobleman, and deeming it unappreciated, he wrote his history. How constant, too, was his fidelity to nature, and how bountifully did she reward that allegiance! It was in her invigorating embrace that his young spirit waxed strong, and, freed from the baneful excitements of modern education, it knew no precocious development, no premature decay. The cares of business could not super. sede an habitual communion with her influences, nor studious zeal allure him from obedience to her laws. He possessed a delightful inheritance in the kingdom of letters, and ever and anon retired thither; but the field of effort assigned him by the Creator, was the world; he mingled in its strife, and shed abroad the blessedness of an improving activity. Yet beneath the agitated or listless tide of his common existence, swelled and deepened an under current of meditative being. He imbibed the nutritive elements of spiritual life, as they came forth with the solemnity and effulgence of the starry host, from the deep teachings of experience,-burst in gladness, as tributary streams, from the converse of intellectual humanity; or rose, like the sun-lit mists of the ocean, from the wide domain of nature,-sitting meekly, the while, at the feet of Jesus of Nazareth.

Such is, indeed, one of those beings whom no nation can appropriate; universality characterized his philanthropy, and now that the "natural canonization" of death has hallowed his example, it is, and should be regarded as a common blessing. His countrymen have felt most nearly its holy influence, and among them will forever be the local memorials of his glory. Italy, though her classic ground was never pressed by his pilgrim feet, recognises in his works the beautiful evidences of a deep and philo. sophical interest in her literature, admiration for her great men, and sympathy in her woes. And to us there is a new scene of meditative enjoy ment in our father-land. Before we reach the sacred precincts of Westminster, or stroll along the green banks of the Avon, we shall linger with respectful and moving interest beside the monument to the memory of William Roscoe, in the churchyard of Liverpool.

ART. VI.-LAWS RELATIVE TO DEBTOR AND CREDITOR.

NUMBER SIX.

VERMONT.

MEANS OF ENFORCING THE COLLECTION of debts.

IN Vermont, as in New Hampshire, and the New England states gener. ally, all civil actions must be commenced in the county where one of the parties resides. If the defendant only be a citizen of the state, he must be sued in his own county. If neither party be a resident of the state, then the action may be commenced in any county of the state.

Justices of the peace have civil jurisdiction in personal actions generally, where the amount in dispute does not exceed one hundred dollars. The remedy, therefore, which the creditor has against the non-paying debtor, is usually promptly administered in these courts: but the same restrictions, as to residence, &c., exist here as in the higher courts. Either party may appeal from a justice's court to the county courts, and in most suits appeals may also be taken from the county courts to the supreme court, on entering into recognizance to prosecute the appeal. A writ of error, or certiorari, lies in cases proper from a justice's court to the county court, and in all cases from the county to the supreme court.

The county courts have, strictly speaking, jurisdiction only in their respective counties; yet suits of a transitory nature may be commenced in any county court in the state, with certain limitations as to citizens and strangers. The county court has exclusive original jurisdiction in all personal actions within the county, except those in favor of the state, and those which come within the jurisdiction of justices of the peace. The supreme court of Vermont has original and exclusive jurisdiction of all civil suits in favor of the state. It is by statute clothed with all the powers of the Chancery in England. Decrees may be enforced by attachment, or by the process called a writ of execution of a decree, and by the statute the court in proper cases may issue executions in the common form. supreme court is the only court, which, strictly speaking, is a court of equity, and this exercises both legal and equitable powers. The ordinary mode of proceeding is by bill and subpoena. The plaintiff may, however, file his bill in term, and take an order of notice; and where the defendant is beyond the reach of process, one of the chancellors, in vacation, may prescribe the order of notice. The county court, however, is empowered by statute to chancer bonds, &c., or prescribe the time of redemption, in ejectment on mortgages, &c.

The

All actions for the recovery of debts, of accounts, &c., are barred by statute, if not commenced within six years. Actions on promissory notes, attested by one or more witnesses, must be commenced within fourteen years. Notes having no witnesses are outlawed, like accounts, in six years. Actions of debt, or scire facias, founded on judgments in civil suits, must be commenced within eight years next after the rendition of such judgments. A writ of error must be sued out within one year after the judgment on which it is predicated.

The estate of any debtor, real or personal, may be attached on the origi