In another letter, dated Newburgh, April 2nd, 1782, General Washington observes, “After I wrote to you from Morris Town, I received information that the sentries at the door of Sir Henry Clinton were doubled at eight o’clock every night, from an apprehension of an attempt to surprise him in them.  If this be true, it is more than probable the same precaution extends to other personages in the city of New York, a circumstance I thought it proper for you to be advertised of.”

This intelligence of the awakened vigilance and precautionary measures of the British commander, effectually disconcerted the plans of Colonel Ogden, and His Royal Highness remained unmolested in his quarters until the sailing of the squadron.

* * * * *

THE SELECTOR

AND

LITERARY NOTICES OF NEW WORKS.

* * * * *

MICHAEL SCOTT, THE WIZARD.

No. 22 of the Family Library is another volume of pleasant biography; for, to speak the truth, the biographies, or biographetts of this series are the most agreeable reading of the day.  The Lives are not of undue length, and anecdote and judicious remark are abundantly scattered along each of them.  There are no dry details of “birth, parentage, and education;” but these particulars are given with more attractions.  In short, the Lives are just suited for parlour and drawing-room libraries, and many a reader who could not be persuaded to turn to Dr. Chalmers’s lengthy two-and-thirty tomes of Biography, would be tempted to sit down and read a volume of the Family Lives outright.

The volume before us is the first of “the Lives of Scottish Worthies,” by Mr. Patrick Fraser Tytler, author of an excellent History of Scotland.  It comprises Alexander III., Michael Scott, Sir William Wallace, and Robert Bruce.  We quote from Scott, who, though a wizard, deserves rank among “Worthies,” and the philosophers and scholars of his time.  Thus, Mr. Tytler says “he was certainly the first who gave Aristotle in a Latin translation to the learned world of the West.  He was eminent as a mathematician and an astronomer, learned in the languages of modern Europe—­deeply skilled in Arabic, and in the sciences of the East; he had risen to high celebrity as a physician—­and his knowledge of courts and kings, had recommended him to be employed in a diplomatic capacity by his own government.”  The following passage is, however, from “his more popular and wider honour”—­his superstitious character,—­whilst, as Mr. Tytler prettily observes, “his miracles and incantations are yet recorded beside the cottage fire, by many a grey-headed crone, and his fearful name still banishes the roses from the cheeks of the little audience that surround her.”