has lost credit for sagacity from accidental circumstances. It
does not appear that his position was ill chosen, or his means
disproportioned to his ends, had he been sustained by funds from
England, as he had a right to expect. But through the profligacy of a
near relative, commissioned to collect these dues, he was disappointed
of them, and his paper protested and credit destroyed in our cities,
before he became aware of his danger.

Still, though more slowly and with more difficulty, he might have
succeeded in his designs. The English farmer might have made the
English settlement a model for good methods and good aims to all that
region, had not death prematurely cut short his plans.

I have wished to say these few words, because the veneration with
which I have been inspired for his character by those who knew him
well, makes me impatient of this careless blame being passed from
mouth to mouth and book to book. Success is no test of a man's
endeavor, and Illinois will yet, I hope, regard this man, who knew so
well what _ought_ to be, as one of her true patriarchs, the Abraham of
a promised land.

He was one too much before his time to be soon valued; but the time
is growing up to him, and will understand his mild philanthropy, and
clear, large views.

I subjoin the account of his death, given me by a friend, as
expressing, in fair picture, the character of the man.

"Mr. Birkbeck was returning from the seat of government, whither he
had been on public business, and was accompanied by his son Bradford,
a youth of sixteen or eighteen. It was necessary to cross a ford,
which was rendered difficult by the swelling of the stream. Mr. B.'s
horse was unwilling to plunge into the water, so his son offered to
go first, and he followed. Bradford's horse had just gained footing on
the opposite shore, when he looked back and perceived his father was
dismounted, struggling in the water, and carried down by the current.

"Mr. Birkbeck could not swim; Bradford could; so he dismounted, and
plunged into the stream to save his father. He got to him before
he sunk, held him up above water, and told him to take hold of his
collar, and he would swim ashore with him. Mr. B. did so, and Bradford
exerted all his strength to stem the current and reach the shore at a
point where they could land; but, encumbered by his own clothing and
his father's weight, he made no progress; when Mr. B. perceived this,
he, with his characteristic ca