date for the same honor, but was defeated on local questions by a majority of one out of more than 100,000 votes. In 1841, he was appointed to represent the United States at the court of St. James, a position for which he was peculiarly qualified by his knowledge of the European tongues, and his acquaintance with the then mooted boundary question. Although the secretaryship of state at Washington was held by four different statesmen, of various politics, during Everett's mission, he enjoyed the confidence and approbation of all. His firmness, high intelligence, and assiduous habits, won him great respect in England; and his scholarship was recognized in the bestowal of the degree of D. C. L. by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. He returned to America in 1845, and was chosen president of Harvard college, which office he resigned in 1849. He now lives at Boston, employed on his promised 'Treatise on the Law of Nations.'
WASHINGTON IRVING.
Washington Irving was born in the city of New York, April 3, 1783,
in which place his father, William Irving, had been settled as a merchant
some twenty years. After receiving an ordinary school education, at the
age of sixteen, he commenced the study of the law. Three years later he
contributed, under the signature of Jonathan Oldstyle, a series of letters
to the 'Morning Chronicle,' a newspaper of which his brother, Peter
Irving, was editor. These juvenile essays attracted much notice at the
time, were extensively copied by other journals, and in 1823 or 1824 were
collected and published without the sanction of the author. In 1804, in
consequence of ill health, he sailed for Bordeaux on a visit to Europe, and
traveled through the south of France to Nice, where he took a felucca to
Genoa, in which city he remained some two months. He then went by
sea to Sicily, made the tour of the island, crossed from Palermo to Naples,
passed through Italy, meeting Allston at Rome, who strongly recommended
his devoting himself to art, thence over the St. Gothard, through Switzerland
to Paris, where he remained several months. He then went to
Holland, whence he embarked for England, where he spent part of the
autumn, and returned to New York in March, 1806, completely restored
to health. He again resumed the study of the law, and was admitted to
the bar in November of that year, but never practiced. Shortly after he
took the chief part in 'Salmagundi,' the first number of which appeared
in January, 1807, and the last in January, 1808. In December the
following year, he published his 'Knickerbocker's History of New York.'
In 1810, two of his brothers, who were engaged in commercial business,
one being at the head of the establishment in New York, and the other in
Liverpool, gave him an interest in the concern, with the understanding
that he was not to enter into the duties and details of the business, but
pursue his literary avocations. During the war with Great Britain, in
1813-14, he edited the 'Analectic Magazine,' and in the fall of the latter
year, joined the military staff of the governor of the state of New York, as
aid-de-camp, and military secretary, with the title of colonel. On the
close of the war, May, 1815, he embarked for Liverpool, with the intention
of making a second tour of Europe, but was prevented by the sudden and
great reverses which followed the return of peace, overwhelming, after a
