Rambles about Portsmouth. Sketches of persons, localities, and incidents of two centuries: principally from tradition and unpublished documents. By Charles W. Brewster.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 21
social, economical and political problems which crowd and succeed each
other with such rapid succession-that tends to quicken his powers and
concentrate his energies; to give a decisive and practical cast to his
character, and to force him into prominence and success.
This pressure developed Mr. Brewster. He was naturally retiringunwilling to be before the public. His position compelled him to
write; and he was found in this, as well as in all other positions in
which he was placed, equal to the demands made upon him. This
discipline made him a good and able writer and author and a successful
business man, and gave him the tastes and habits of a scholar, a wile
influence and a high position. The life of an editor makes some persons aggressive and irritable. But Mr. Brewster yielded to no
such influence. He never alienated a friend or made an enemy.
He early formed a plan of life, and faithfully acted upon it to the end.
He was more anxious to be right than to be thought so; more intent
upon doing his duty than in obtaining the reward for it; thought
more of publishing a good than a profitable paper-more of bleing a
useful than a prominent man. And at his death the universal feeling:of respect for his memory, was his best eulogy.
But the great, rounded and ripened feature in Mr. Brewster's charp
acter, that which as years passed over him in his quiet walk of labor,and usefulness, gained, deepened and fiSed the public confidence and
respect, was his integrity and purity. He was a remarkable man,
not only for his industry and ability, his purity and success, but for
his self-culture and wise self-control. His life was harmonious and,symmetrical. His impulses were so under subjection that he appeared
not so much to resist temptations as to avoid them. He was so diligent. in the line of duty that he had as little opportunity as inclination
to depart from it. Such a life, sweetening and cementing the domestic and social relations, was as full of happiness as of beauty. He
died as calmly and serenely as he had lived, in the enjoyment of
the affectionate respect of his townsmen and of the public.
To a neighbor, and life-long friend, who in taking leave of
him a few evenings before his death referred to his approaching
end, he said, "It matters not whether to-morrow finds me in this world,or the next." A few hours before his death, as I approached his
bed-side to take leave of him, he made me sit down, and then with