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diff --git a/18453.txt b/18453.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..343e362 --- /dev/null +++ b/18453.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8952 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Continental Monthly, Volume V. Issue I, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Continental Monthly, Volume V. Issue I + +Author: Various + +Release Date: May 26, 2006 [EBook #18453] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CONTINENTAL MONTHLY *** + + + + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Janet Blenkinship and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by Cornell University Digital Collections) + + + + + + + + + + + THE + + CONTINENTAL MONTHLY: + + DEVOTED TO + + Literature and National Policy. + + VOL. V. + + JANUARY-JUNE, 1864. + + New York: + JOHN F. TROW, 50 GREENE STREET, + (FOR THE PROPRIETORS.) + + 1864. + + + + + ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, by JOHN F. TROW, + In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the + Southern District of New York. + + + + + INDEX TO VOLUME V. + + + AEnone; a Tale of Slave Life in Rome, 287, 385, 500, 619 + + American Finances and Resources. By Hon. Robert J. Walker, 40, 249, + 324, 489 + + An Army: Its Organization and Movements. By Lieut.-Col. + C. W. Tolles, A. Q. M., 707 + + An Hour in the Gallery of the National Academy of Design--Thirty-ninth + Annual Exhibition, 684 + + An Indian Love-Song. By Edwin R. Johnson, 361 + + Aphorisms. By Rev. Asa Colton, 413, 450, 482, 595, 680, 706 + + A Pair of Stockings. From the Army, 597 + + Aspiro--A Fable, 158 + + A Summer's Night. From the Polish of Count S. Krasinski, translated + by Prof. Podbielski, 543 + + A Tragedy of Error, 204 + + A Universal Language. By S. P. Andrews, 595 + + A Vigil with St. Louis. By E. Fonton, 70 + + + Benedict of Nursla, and the Order of the Benedictines. + By Rev. Ph. Schaff, 451 + + Buckle, Draper, and a Science of History. By Edward B. Freeland, 161 + + + Carl Friedrich Neumann, the German Historian of our Country. + By Professor Andrew Ten Brook, 295 + + Clouds. By Mrs. Martha Walker Cook, 265 + + + Diary of Frances Krasinska; or, Life in Poland during the 18th + Century, 27, 180 + + Dr. Fox's Prescription. By E. R. Johnson, 717 + + + Editor's Table, 118, 245, 354, 487, 605, 721 + + English and American Taxation. By Egbert Hurd, 405 + + Ernest Renan's Theory. By Hugh Miller Thompson, 609 + + + 'Feed My Lambs,' 663 + + + Glorious! By L. G. W., 459 + + + Hannah Thurston, 456 + + Hints to the American Farmer, 584 + + + Jefferson Davis and Repudiation of Arkansas Bonds. By Hon. + Robert J. Walker, 478 + + + Language a Type of the Universe. By Stephen Pearl Andrews, 691 + + Lies, and How to Kill Them. By Hugh Miller Thompson, 437 + + Literary Notices, 116, 243, 362, 483, 601, 719 + + + Madagascar. By W. H. Whitmore, 65 + + Music a Science. By Lucia D. Pychowska, 575 + + + National Friendships, 239 + + North and South. By Charles Wm. Butler, 241 + + 'Nos Amis les Cosaques.' By M. Heilprin, 216 + + + 'Our Article,' 20 + + Our Domestic Relations; or, How to Treat the Rebel States. + By Charles Russell, 511 + + Our Government and the Blacks. By William H. Kimball, 431 + + Out of Prison. By Kate Putnam, 436 + + + Palmer, the American Sculptor. By L. J. Bigelow, 258 + + Petroleum. By Rev. S. M. Eaton, 187 + + + Reason, Rhyme, and Rhythm. Compiled and written by Mrs. Martha + Walker Cook, 14 + + Retrospective. By Rev. Dr. Henry, 1 + + + Sir Charles Lyell on the Antiquity of Man. By a Presbyterian + Clergyman, 369 + + Sketches of American Life and Scenery. By Lucia D. Pychowska, 9, 270, 425 + + Sleeping. By Hugh Miller Thompson, 716 + + + Temptation. From the Polish of Count Sigismund Krasinski, 53 + + The Andes. By William G. Dix, 229 + + The Angels of War, 203 + + The Conscription Act of March 3d, 1864. By L. M. Haverstik, 110 + + The Decline of England. By S. J. Bayard, 48 + + The Development of American Architecture. By A. W. Colgate, 466 + + The Dove. By Mrs. Martha Walker Cook, 625 + + The English Press. By Nicholas Rowe, London, 100, 139, 564 + + The Great American Crisis. By Stephen P. Andrews, 87, 300 + + The Great Lakes to St. Paul. By Robert Dodge, 397 + + The Great Struggle, 34 + + The House in the Lane. By Miss Virginia Townsend, 573 + + The Isle of Springs. By Rev. C. C. Starbuck, 461 + + The Issues of the War. By John Stahl Patterson, Quarter-master + Sergeant, 20th Ohio Battery, 287 + + The Lessons of the Wood. By George W. Bungay, 26 + + The Love Lucifer. By S. Leavitt, 319, 414 + + The March of Life. By Clarence Frederick Buhler, 649 + + The Mechanical Tendency in Modern Society. By John A. French, 351 + + The Mississippi River and its Peculiarities. By De B. R. Keim, 629 + + The Mound Builder. By January Searle, 517 + + The Red Man's Plea, 160 + + The Treasury Report and Mr. Sec'y Chase. By Hon. Frederick + P. Stanton, 151 + + The Unkind Word, 690 + + The War a Contest for Ideas. By Henry Everett Russell, 578 + + The Wild Azalea. By E. W. C., 596 + + The Young Author's Dream. By Edwin R. Johnson, 395 + + Thistle-Down. By Frances Lamartine, 318 + + Thomas De Quincey and His Writings. By L. W. Spring, 650 + + Thomas Jefferson, as Seen in the Light of 1863. By J. Sheldon, 129 + + Thought. By Virginia Vaughan, 577 + + + Union Not to be Maintained by Force. By Hon. Frederick P. Stanton, 73 + + + Was He Successful? By Richard B. Kimball, 80, 221, 341, 445 + + + + + THE + + CONTINENTAL MONTHLY: + + DEVOTED TO + + LITERATURE AND NATIONAL POLICY. + + VOL. V.--JANUARY, 1864.--No. I. + + + + +RETROSPECTIVE. + + +Time makes many dark things clear, and often in a wonderfully short and +decisive way. So we said hopefully two years and more ago in regard to +one of the unsolved problems which then pressed on the minds of +thoughtful men--how, namely, it was to fare with slavery in the progress +and sequel of the war. The history of our national struggle has +illustrated the truth and justified the hope. Time has quite nearly +solved that problem and some others almost equally perplexing. The +stream of historical causes has borne the nation onward on the bosom of +its inevitable flow, until we can now almost see clear through to the +end; at any rate, we have reached a point where we can look backward and +forward with perhaps greater advantage than at any former period. What +changes of opinion have been wrought! How many doubts resolved! How many +fears dispelled! How many old prejudices and preconceived notions have +been abandoned! How many vexed questions put at rest! How many things +have safely got an established place among accepted and almost generally +acceptable facts, which were once matters of loyal foreboding and of +disloyal denunciation! No man of good sense and loyalty now doubts the +rightfulness and wisdom of depriving the rebels of the aid derived from +their slaves, and making them an element of strength on our side; while +the fact that the enfranchised slaves make good soldiers, is put beyond +question by an amenability to military discipline and a bravery in +battle not surpassed by any troops in the world. + + +HAS THE WAR GONE SLOWLY? + +The work of subduing the rebellion has gone slowly as compared with the +impatient demands of an indignant people at the outset; but not slowly +if you consider the vast theatre of the war, the immense extent of the +lines of military operations, and the prodigious advantages possessed by +the rebels at the beginning--partly advantages such as always attend the +first outbreak of a revolutionary conspiracy long matured in secret +against an unsuspecting and unprepared Government, and partly the +extraordinary and peculiar advantages that accrued to them from the +traitorous complicity of Buchanan's Administration, through which the +conspirators were enabled to rob the national treasury, strip the +Government of arms, and possess themselves of national forts, arsenals, +and munitions of war, before the conflict began. + + +NOT TOO SLOW--WHY? SLAVERY. + +But either way the war has not gone too slowly with reference to its +great end--the establishment of a durable peace. If the rebellion had +been crushed at once by overwhelming force, it would have been crushed +only to break out anew. Slavery would have been left unimpaired, and +that would inevitably have entailed another conflict in no long time. In +the interest of slavery the rebels have drawn the sword; let slavery +perish by the sword. In the interest of slavery they have attempted to +overthrow the National Government and to dismember the national domain; +let slavery be overthrown to maintain the Government and to preserve the +integrity of the nation. Let the cause of the war perish with the war. +Not until slavery is extinguished can there be a lasting peace; for not +until then can the conditions of true national unity begin to exist. +What wise and good man would wish to save it from extinction? It is as +incompatible with the highest prosperity of the South as it is with a +true national union between the South and the North. Once extinguished, +there will be a thousand-fold increase in every element of Southern +welfare, economical, social, and moral; and possibilities of national +wealth and strength, greatness and glory, above every nation on the +globe, will be established. Let slavery go down. Let us rejoice that in +the progress and sequel of this war, it must and will go down. + + +EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. + +Looking back, we can now see that much that was trying to the patience +of the loyal masses of the North in the early stages of the war, has +only served to make it more certain that what ought to be will be. Time +has done justice to the idiotic policy of fighting the rebellion with +one hand and with the other upholding the institution that constituted +at once its motive and its strength. Time has brought policy and justice +to shake hands together at the right moment on the same road, and made +that respectable and acceptable as a military necessity which was once +repudiated as a fanaticism. Time has brought out the President's +Emancipation Proclamation, and established it on a firm basis in the +judgment and consent of all wise and true loyal men, North and South--to +the great discomfiture of sundry politicians--the utterances of some of +whom not long ago can be no otherwise taken than as the revelation and +despairing death wail of disconcerted schemes. Strange that men whose +whole lives have been passed in forecasting public opinion for their +political uses, should have rushed upon the thick bosses of the great +shield of the public will, which begirts the President and his +Emancipation Proclamation;--for certainly all the railing at +_radicalism_, which we heard in certain quarters last summer, was in +fact nothing but the expression of disappointment and chagrin at the +emancipation policy of the President, and that too at a time when that +policy had come to be accepted by the great body of the loyal people of +the nation (including all the eminent Southern loyalists), as not only +indispensable to the national salvation, but desirable in every view. +Strange that at such a time, and among those once active and influential +in the formation of the Republican party--a party born of the roused +spirit of resistance to slavery aggressions--there should have been +found a single person unable to discern and to accept the inevitable +logic of events which was to make the extinction of slavery the only +wise, practicable, and truly loyal stand point. Strange that any +Republican should be disposed to put a stop to the 'irrepressible +conflict.' It was too late in the day to attempt the organization of a +great, victorious Conservative party by splitting up the old +organizations. The old organizations may fall to pieces. It is best, +perhaps, they should--but not to form a Conservative party. Conservatism +is not now to the popular taste. It means nothing but the saving of +slavery, and the great body of the loyal people now feel absolved from +all obligation to save it; they do not care to have it saved; and the +vaticinations of those prophets of evil who predicted disaster and ruin +to the national cause from the emancipation policy of the Government +excite no consternation in the loyal heart of the nation. + +In a review of the conduct of the war, how little reason appears for +regret and how much for satisfaction in regard to all the great measures +of the Government! + + +THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM. + +The successful working of the _financial system_ has demonstrated the +wisdom of its principles. Instead of following the old wretched way of +throwing an immense amount of stocks into market at a sacrifice of +fifteen to thirty per cent., the Government has got all the money it +wanted at half or a little more than half the usual rate of interest. It +would have been better if the currency had been made to consist wholly +of United States legal-tender notes, fundable in six per cent., +bonds--with a proper provision for the interest and for a sinking fund. + +But the financial system adopted is a matter of satisfaction, apart from +its admirable success in furnishing the Government with the means to +carry on the war: it is the inauguration of sounder principles on +currency than have heretofore prevailed, which, if unfolded and carried +legitimately out, will give the country the best currency in the +world--perfectly secured, uniform in value at every point, and liable to +no disastrous expansions and contractions. The notion that any great +industrial, manufacturing, and commercial nation can conduct its +business--any more than it can carry on a great war--with a specie +currency alone, is indeed exploded; but the notion that a paper currency +to be safe must be based on specie, still prevails--although the +currency furnished by the thousands of banks scattered throughout the +country has never been really based upon the actual possession of specie +to the extent of more than _one fifth_ of the amount in circulation. It +may be the doctrine will never come to prevail that a specie basis in +whole or in part is no more indispensable to a sound and safe paper +currency than an exclusive specie currency is possible or desirable in a +country like this. It may be that the people will never come to believe +that a legal-tender paper currency, issued exclusively by the National +Government--based upon the credit of the nation, constituting a lien +upon all the property of the country, and proportioned in amount of +issue to the needs of the people for it as an instrument of +exchange--would, for all home uses, possess in full perfection the +nature, functions, and powers of money. It is a subject we do not +propose to discuss. It is enough now to say that the notes of the United +States, fundable in national six per cent. bonds, and drawing interest +as they do semi-annually in gold, must be admitted by everybody to be as +safe a currency as the banks as a whole have ever supplied, and to +possess other advantages which make them incomparably a better currency +than that of local banks. + +The high price to which gold has been carried by gambling speculators, +is not to be taken as indicating a proportionate want of confidence in +the success of the national cause and in the intrinsic value of the +national securities. It indicates nothing of the sort--at any rate, +whatever it may be taken to indicate, it is none the less true that +United States six per cent. bonds were from the first eagerly sought for +and taken as investments at the rate of a million a day--faster indeed +than the Government could at first supply them; with a constantly +augmenting demand, until in the last week of October _thirty-six_ +millions were disposed of--leaving only one hundred and fifty millions +unsold, which will doubtless all be taken before this paper is +published. Comment on this is entirely needless. + + +OUR FOREIGN RELATIONS. + +In the conduct of our _foreign relations_, certain official declarations +in the early part of the war on the policy and purpose of Government in +carrying it on, are to be regretted as gratuitous and unfortunate. It is +to be regretted also that the capture of the _Trent_ and the seizure of +Mason and Slidell was not at once disavowed as being contrary to our +doctrine on neutral rights, and the rebel emissaries surrendered without +waiting for reclamation on the part of the British Government; or, if it +was thought best to await that reclamation as containing a virtual +concession of our doctrine, it would have been better--more dignified +and effective--if the reply had been limited to a simple statement that +the surrender was necessitated by the principles always maintained by +our Government, and not by a reclamation which the British Government, +by its own construction of public law and by its own practice, was not +entitled to make, but which being made, might now, it was to be hoped, +be taken as an abandonment in the future of the ground heretofore +maintained by that Government. + + +CONCESSION OF BELLIGERENT RIGHTS TO THE REBELS. + +There has been some dissatisfaction with the conduct of our official +communications with Great Britain and France respecting the question on +belligerent rights and neutral obligations which the rebellion has +raised. But there are points of no inconsiderable difficulty and +delicacy involved in these questions, which a great many people, in +their natural displeasure against the English and French, have failed to +consider. Our Government deserves the credit of having consulted the +interests without compromising the dignity of the nation. Admitting the +conduct of the British and French Governments in recognizing the rebels +as belligerents to be as unfriendly and as unrequired by the obligations +of public law as it is generally held to be among us, that would not +make it right or wise for our Government to depart from the tone of +moderation. We can no more make it a matter for official complaint and +demand against these Governments, than we could the unfriendly tone of +many of their newspapers and Parliamentary orators. We might say to +them: We take it as unkindly in you to do as you have done; but if they +will continue to do so, we have nothing for it but to submit. Even if we +could have afforded it, we could not rightly have gone to war with them +for doing what we ourselves--through the necessity of our +circumstances--have been compelled in effect to do, and what they, +though not forced by any such necessity, had yet a right--and in their +own opinion were obliged--by public law to do. We could not have made it +a cause of war, and therefore it would have been worse than idle to +indulge in a style of official representation which means war if it +means anything. + + +THE REBEL CRUISERS. + +The question of the rebel cruisers on the high seas is a question by +itself. The anger excited among us by the injuries we have suffered from +these vessels is not strange; nor is it strange that our anger should +beget a disposition to quarrel with Great Britain and France for +conceding the rights of lawful belligerents to the perpetrators of such +atrocities. The rebels have no courts of admiralty, carry their prizes +to no ports, submit them to no lawful adjudication--but capture, +plunder, and burn private vessels in mid ocean. Such proceedings by the +laws of nations are undoubtedly piratical in their nature. We have a +right so to hold and declare. We may think that Great Britain and France +are bound so to hold and declare. But what then? Should they have +ordered their men of war to cruise against these rebel cruisers or to +capture every one which they might chance to encounter, and to send them +home for trial? We may think they were bound in vindication of public +law to do so; but could we make their not doing so a matter of formal +complaint and a cause of war? There are a number of things to be well +considered before any one should permit himself to quarrel with our +Government for not quarrelling with Great Britain and France on this +matter. + + +BRITISH VIOLATION OF NEUTRAL OBLIGATIONS. + +But the conduct of the British Government in allowing her ports to be +made the basis of these nefarious operations--in permitting vessels of +whose character and purpose there could be no doubt to be built in her +ports--not to be delivered in any Confederate port, but in effect armed +and manned from her ports to go immediately to cruise against our +commerce on the high seas--is an outrageous violation of the obligations +of neutrals, for which that Government may justly be held responsible. +It is a responsibility which no technical pleading about the +insufficiency of British laws, either in matter of prohibition or rules +of evidence, can avoid. Great Britain is bound to have laws and rules of +evidence which will enable her effectually to discharge her neutral +obligations; whether she has or not, does not alter her responsibility +to us. Her conduct may rightfully be made a matter of official +complaint, and of war too--if satisfaction and reparation be refused. It +is a case in which our rights and dignity are concerned; and it is to be +presumed that our Government will not fail to vindicate them.[1] + + +LEGISLATION--THE CONFISCATION LAW. + +The action of _Congress_ has in everything been nobly patriotic in +spirit, and in nearly everything it has wisely and adequately met the +exigencies of the crisis. + +But we are compelled to hold the Confiscation Act, in the form in which +it was passed, as a mistake.[2] If the clause of the Constitution +prohibiting 'attainder of treason to work forfeiture except during the +life of the person attainted,' be necessarily applicable to the +Confiscation Act, it seems to us impossible to avoid the conclusion that +the act is unconstitutional. So far as the language of the prohibition +is decisive of anything, it must be taken to include all sorts of +property, real as well as personal--the term _forfeiture_ certainly +having that extent of application in the old English law and practice, +from which the framers of our Constitution took it, and there is nothing +elsewhere in the Constitution or in its history to warrant any other +construction. So the Congress of 1790 understood it in the act +declaring the punishment of treason and some other high crimes. As to +the _perpetuity_ of forfeiture, it seems equally necessary to hold that +it is prohibited by the clause of the Constitution in question. Such is +undeniably the first and obvious meaning of the terms. It has been +argued indeed that it was not the intention of the framers of the +Constitution to prohibit perpetual forfeiture of property from being +'declared' by Congress, but only to prohibit 'attainder of treason' from +'working' of itself that effect by necessary consequence--as it did +under the Common Law of England. It has also been argued that the +constitutional restriction does not relate to perpetuity of forfeiture, +but only requires that the forfeiture or act of alienation take place, +have effect, and be accomplished 'during the life of the person +attainted,' and not after his death. + +But this reasoning is more subtile than satisfactory. A fair +consideration of the subject leaves little room for doubt that the +framers of the Constitution had in view and intended to prohibit +everything which under the old English common law followed upon +'attainder of treason'--to prohibit forfeiture in perpetuity of property +of every sort, no less than 'bills of attainder,' 'corruption of blood,' +and barbarities of punishment, such as disembowelling, quartering, etc. + +If therefore the constitutional restriction on forfeiture apply to the +Confiscation Law, it makes the law unconstitutional, in so far as it +enacts the _perpetual_ forfeiture of the personal estate of rebels; and +the discrimination made in regard to their real estate does not save the +constitutionality of the act. + +If, therefore, the Confiscation Law is to be held as constitutional, it +can be so, as it seems to us, only on the ground that it does not fall +within the scope of the constitutional prohibition in question. This +ground may be maintained by asserting that the constitutional +prohibition of perpetual forfeiture applies only to cases of 'attainder +of treason,' that is, according to Blackstone, of 'judgment of death for +treason,' and that cases under this act are not such; that the +limitations applicable to ordinary judicial proceedings against traitors +are not applicable here; that the Confiscation Act seizes the property +of rebels not in their quality of criminals, but of public enemies; that +it is not an act for the punishment of treason, but for weakening and +subduing an armed rebellion, and securing indemnification for the costs +and damages it has entailed--in short, not a penal statute, but a war +measure; and that the Constitution which gives Congress the right to +make war for the suppression of the rebellion, and to subject the lives +of rebels to the laws of war, gives it the right to subject their +property also to the same laws--putting both out of the protection of +the ordinary laws; and finally that all the objects aimed at by the +measure are legitimated by the principles of public law. + +If these views can be sustained, it follows that Congress was justified +not only in enacting the perpetual confiscation of the _personal_ +property of rebels, but need not, and should not, have passed the +explanatory clause prohibiting 'forfeiture of _real_ estate beyond the +natural life' of the rebel. So far as weakening the rebellion, +indemnifying the nation for costs and damages, or the rights and +interests of the heirs of rebels, are concerned, there is no reason in +justice or in policy for the discrimination made between personal and +real estate; if it is right and wise to take the one in perpetuity, it +is equally so to take the other. In our judgment, it is right and wise +to do both. + + +MILITARY ADMINISTRATION--NO ARMY OF RESERVE. + +In looking over the war, we can all now see a very great error in the +_military_ administration--the neglect, namely, to provide and keep up +a proper reserved force. It is the grand mistake of the war. Two years +and a half of war, and no army of reserve! Eighteen months ago, a force +of reserve of at least two hundred thousand men should have been formed. +It could probably then have been formed of volunteers. From it, +vacancies made in the armies in the field by battle, disease, or +expiration of time of service, could have been filled with drilled and +disciplined soldiers, and reinforcements drawn to meet any special +exigency. The victory of Gettysburgh might have resulted in the total +destruction of Lee's army before he could recross the Potomac; and +Rosecrans might have been strengthened without weakening the Army of the +Potomac or any other. Whether the cost of forming and keeping up such a +force of reserve would have greatly exceeded the cost of the recent +draft, we do not pretend to know. We are inclined to think it would not. +But that is a question of little moment. Money wisely spent is well +spent: money unwisely saved is ill saved. With such a force, the recent +draft might not have been necessary--at all events there would have been +no necessity for suspending active military operations in Virginia, and +awaiting the slow completion of the draft, at a moment when, large +additions to the forces in the field were precisely the one thing +needful. The army of reserve would at once have supplied disciplined +soldiers, and their places in the camps of instruction and reserve could +have been filled with the new conscripts as fast as they were collected. + + +CONSOLATION--ENFORCEMENT OF THE DRAFT IN NEW YORK. + +But grave as the error is which we have signalized, there is something +that might well console us for greater misfortunes than it has entailed, +and which gives us another illustration of the truth that God and Time +often work for us better than we for ourselves, and out of our errors +bring good that we could not forecast. + +It would not be wise to assert that the not having such a reserved force +necessitated the recent draft, and thereby occasioned the horrible +outbreak in New York. But if it may even be safely suggested as possibly +true, the successful enforcement of the draft becomes all the more a +matter for boundless joy and congratulation. Important as its +enforcement throughout the country was as a means of filling up the +ranks of our armies, the outbreak in New York made it a thousand times +more important as the only adequate assertion of the supremacy of +national law. + +There can be no doubt as to the nature, origin, and purpose of that +outbreak. It was the result of a long-prepared traitorous conspiracy in +the interest of the rebels. The enforcement of the draft against mob +violence instigated by treason, was indispensable not only to the +successful prosecution of the war against the rebels of the South, but +to the maintenance of the supreme authority and power of the National +Government, and of the foundations of social order at the North. Not to +have enforced it might have insured the triumph of the rebellion and the +independence of the South; it certainly would have rendered the North no +longer a country fit for any decent man to live in. Such and so great +was the significance of the crisis. The responsibility of the +Administration was immense. The President met it nobly. He took care +that a sufficient military force--not under the control of Governor +Seymour, but of a well-tried patriot--was present in New York. He +carried out the draft there and everywhere else. He crushed the schemes +and hopes of the traitorous conspirators--more guilty than the rebels in +arms-and gave a demonstration of the _strength of the National +Government_, as grand in its majesty as it was indispensable to the +national salvation in this crisis and to its security in all future +time. The Government has triumphed in the quiet majesty of its +irresistible force over factious and traitorous opposition at the North, +springing from treasonable sympathy with the rebels, or, from what, in a +crisis like this, is equally wicked, the selfishness of party spirit, +preferring party to country. More than this, it has triumphed over the +dangerous and destructive notions on State sovereignty, which traitors +and partisans have dared invoke. It is impossible to overestimate the +importance for the present and for the future of this victorious +assertion of the _supremacy of the National Government_. + + +SUMMARY REVIEW. + +In a review, then, of this gigantic struggle, we have every reason to be +content and confident--no reason to bate one jot of heart or hope. The +triumph over Northern treason, achieved by the force of the Government, +has been followed by a moral triumph at the polls, no less grand in its +significance. The country is not oppressed by the stupendous expenses of +the war. The money is all spent at home. It stimulates the productive +industry of the country, and the nation is all the time growing rich. +The rebels have been disastrously repulsed in two attempts at invasion, +and do not hold one inch of Northern soil. One third of the States +claimed by them at the outset, are gone from them forever: Maryland, +Missouri, Kentucky, are securely in the Union; Virginia we have cut in +two--nearly one half of its territory, by the will of its inhabitants, +now constituting a loyal member of the Union as the new State of West +Virginia--while of its eastern half we securely hold its coast, harbors, +and fortresses, and a considerable number of its counties. Tennessee is +ours, and cannot, we think, be wrenched away. We have New Orleans, and +the uncontrolled possession of the Mississippi river--cutting the +territory of the rebels in two, destroying their communications, and +giving us a considerable portion of the States bordering that river. In +North Carolina and South Carolina we have a hold, from which it will be +hard to drive us. On the Atlantic and Gulf coast nearly every fortress +is in our possession; there is not a port which is not possessed by us, +or else so blockaded that (except in the peculiar case of Wilmington) it +is a hazardous affair for any vessel to attempt going in or coming out; +and the rebels are utterly unable to raise the blockade of a single +port. In fine, they have lost more than one third of their territory +forever, and of the remaining portion there is not one considerable +subdivision over which in some part the flag of the Union does not +securely wave. What title to recognition as an independent power can the +Confederate rebels present to the neutral powers of the world? + + + + +SKETCHES OF AMERICAN LIFE AND SCENERY. + + +While American tourists are delightedly visiting and minutely describing +the most hidden recesses of beauty among the mountains, plains, seas, +lakes, and rivers of Europe, there are, close within their reach, +innumerable spots well worthy of consideration, and hitherto entirely +unknown to the great mass of pleasure and scenery seeking travellers. +These fair but hidden gems have become of the more importance that the +grand struggle convulsing our country has rendered foreign travel +difficult, even when advisable, and has roused within our people a love +for their own land, a pride in its loveliness, much more rarely felt +before the attempt to dismember and ruin it had awakened dormant +patriotism and completed the severance between the recent _province_ and +the historically renowned mother country. American painters are worthily +illustrating American life and landscape; American poets, and no less +poetical prose writers, are singing the forests, skies, flowers, and +birds of their native land; and the inquisitive traveller should surely +not fail to add his humbler mite in the way of discovery and +description. The following sketches are founded upon actual observation, +and the delineations of scenery and manners therein contained are +strictly in accordance with the personal experience of the author. + + +I.--A SUMMER EXCURSION. + +'All very well,' said Aunt Sarah; 'I have no doubt the excursion would +be charming; but who will accompany you?' + +'We do not require an escort; we can take care of each other,' + +'Can it be that you, Lucy, a staid married woman of thirty-six, and you, +Elsie, a demure young girl of twenty, are suddenly about to enter the +ranks of the strong minded?' + +'Why, dear aunt,' said Lucy D----, 'you would not have us weak minded, +would you? I think I heard you say no longer ago than yesterday that +half the domestic miseries in this world were due to the weak nerves and +feeble intellects of poorly educated women.' + +'True; but the technical expression, 'strong minded,' does not mean +strong in mind--rather the contrary.' + +'In other words, strong minded means weak minded, is that it, auntie?' +laughed Elsie. + +'I see, Aunt Sarah,' said Lucy, 'we shall be forced to call upon you for +that most difficult of tasks, a definition. What is meant by the term, +'strong-minded woman'?' + +'A monster,' replied Mrs. Sarah Grundy, 'who lectures, speaks in public, +wants women to vote, to wear men's garments; in a word, one who would +like to upset religion, social life, and the world in general.' + +'Well,' dear auntie, 'we surely do not purpose committing any of these +enormities; our intentions simply embrace a short excursion of some +forty miles in search of fine scenery, health, and a little amusement. +We have no confidence in our power to influence the public, even if we +thought we had aught to say which they do not already know; we do not +see that voting has a very beneficial effect upon men, witness election +days; as for their garments, they are too hideously ungraceful for us to +covet; in faith, we are of the most orthodox; we confess, we do think +social life needs sundry reforms, more charity and forbearance, less +detraction and ostentation, etc., etc.; and as for the world in general, +we think it very beautiful, and only wish to overlook some few +additional miles of its lovely mountains, lakes, and streams.' + +'Well, well, girls, young people always can talk faster than old ones; +but do you really think it safe for you to venture without escort? You +do not even know the name of the place which you wish to visit; you have +been informed that on the summit of yonder mountain is a lake, said to +be picturesque; but of its cognomen, and of the proper means to reach +it, you are utterly ignorant. You will have to ask questions of all +sorts of people.' + +'Suppose we do--being women, we will certainly in America receive civil +answers.' + +'But if some person unknown to you should speak to you?' + +'Little danger, dear aunt, of dread unknowns, if we comport ourselves +properly; I have travelled much in all kinds of public conveyances, and +never yet have been improperly addressed. Did you ever have an adventure +of the sort'? + +'Once only,' replied Aunt Sarah, 'and then the fault was my own. I was +young and giddy; Cousin Nancy was with me, and we were in a rail-car. In +a near seat sat a very good-looking young man; Nancy looked toward him +once or twice and, meeting his eye, began to giggle: I foolishly joined +her; thus encouraged, our young gentleman opened a conversation. Nancy +laughed immoderately; but I, being a few years older, soon controlled my +silly giggling; and by the tone of my reply speedily silenced our +would-be admirer. He turned his back upon us, and, so far as I know, in +less than five minutes had forgotten our very existence.' + +'Decidedly a case in our favor! And if the boat should blow up, or the +car roll down an embankment, in what would we be benefited by the fact +of having an escort also to be scalded or have his head broken?' + +'Ye maun even then gang your ain gait. I wish you a pleasant journey and +a safe return.' + +'Thank you, auntie, and you will not call us strong minded?' + +'Certainly not, unless I find you merit the appellation.' + +The little trunk was soon packed, and one fine July morning the two +travellers set off in search of the beautiful lake, whose name is not to +be found in the guide books. They knew it was to be looked for in a +sharp and peculiar dent in the Shawangunk mountain, which dent, so far +as they could judge from the hills near their dwelling on the northern +slope of the Highlands, must be nearly opposite Poughkeepsie. Neither +map nor gazetteer could they procure; the neighbors could give them no +information, and they were forced to proceed with only the +above-mentioned meagre stock of knowledge. + +The first stage was of five miles, in a carriage to Newburg, where they +took the day boat for Albany. Our novices felt more or less anxiety +regarding the fidelity of the porter intrusted with their two small +articles of baggage; but said articles appearing somewhat late, though +still in season, and being duly marked for Poughkeepsie, the first +question asked was as to the existence of such a place as New Paltz +Landing, opposite the above-named city, and the facilities for crossing +the river. None of those in authority knew certainly of a ferry, but +supposed it highly probable. The wharf at Poughkeepsie was suggested as +a proper place to obtain information; and, once there, our travellers +soon found themselves in the hands of an intelligent contraband, who +promised to place them safely on the desired ferry boat. As they neared +the dock, a great rock, with an upset wagon for foreground, furnished an +encouraging picture for two lone lady tourists. The boat proved neat and +comfortable, and here again inquiries were made. The very polite captain +had heard of a lake on the Shawangunk mountain, but knew neither its +name nor exact location. He advised them to have their baggage sent to +the little inn at the landing, where they might dine and await a stage +expected to pass in about an hour on its way to New Paltz, a village +nine miles west of the river. At the inn they fancied they must +certainly learn something definite regarding the final object of their +undertaking. A large map of Ulster county hung in the sitting room, and +gave promise of some decided information. Unfortunately, it was not of a +recent edition: a nameless lake on the Shawangunk mountain, about five +miles from New Paltz, seemed to be the object of their search; but the +landlord, who had heard of a lake in that direction, could not tell how +it was to be reached, or whether shelter could there be found in any +decent tenement; his impression was that there had been a public house +on top of the mountain, but that it had recently been destroyed by fire. +Certainties were evidently still unattainable. + +Finally, the stage arrived--a vehicle drawn by two horses, and intended +to seat four persons. In it were already two ladies, with bags and +bundles, two trunks, a champagne basket, numberless packages, and about +fifty bottles of soda water, laid in among the straw covering the bottom +of the accommodating conveyance. The driver, a good-natured, intelligent +man, gave our travellers his bench, and arranged a seat for himself and +the champagne basket on a sort of shelf overhanging the tails of the +horses. At the top of the first hill is the village of Houstonville, +where they stopped at the post office to leave the mail, and where two +ladies appeared as claimants for seats in the stage. The driver at first +demurred; but, finding the ladies persistent, he drew forth a board, +and, fastening it at either end to a perpendicular prop, constructed a +third bench, on which the two new passengers took their places. + +The stage was by this time more than well packed; but ere long the +process of lightening up commenced, as first the champagne basket, then +packages, bundles, and newspapers, were left at various dwellings along +the roadside. One novelty especially striking was the wayside post +office, consisting of a box on a pole, intended to contain the daily +newspaper therein thrust to await the coming of the owners. + +Of course the driver was plied with numerous questions regarding the +thus far nameless lake. He had been up the Shawangunk mountain fishing, +but that was years before; there was a lake, but he had never heard any +name given to it; he had understood a house had been built since his +last visit; but he did not know if it was intended to accommodate +visitors during the night. Of one thing, however, he was quite certain, +and that was, the impossibility of finding a horse in New Paltz to take +the ladies up that evening. The inns had none to let; there were no +livery stables, and his own pair were too greatly fatigued by their +twenty-mile drive to venture up so steep an ascent; but he thought a +conveyance might be found for the following morning. The views along the +road were charming; and the sharp, jagged crest known as Paltz Point, +overhung the well-cultivated rolling valley beneath, giving a fair +promise of an extended and characteristic view. + +The inn, to which the travellers were driven, proved very neat and +comfortable. It was a new edifice, with an accommodating landlord and +landlady, the latter of which personages seemed quite mystified by the +advent of two lorn ladies in search of an unknown lake. In the entry +hung a new map of Ulster county, on which appeared a lake nestling under +the cliffs of Paltz Point, but still without a name. Paltz Point!--that +must be the very jagged pile of rock visible from the Cornwall hills, +and the lake at its foot more than probably the object of the journey. + +The landlord was quite positive as to the existence of a house, but +doubted its capacity in regard to sleeping accommodations; he also +corroborated the testimony of the driver respecting the difficulty of +obtaining a vehicle, every horse being engaged haying. The ladies +announced that, as the distance was only six miles, it could be walked, +in case this difficulty proved insuperable. An individual at the tea +table proposed that the travellers should be taken up some time in the +middle of the night, that the horse might return by six o'clock in the +morning; but this suggestion was unanimously frowned down. The chief +reason for requiring a horse and wagon lay in the little trunk, which, +as it contained the painting box of our Elsie, who thought the lake and +vicinity might offer some picturesque studies, could not possibly be +left behind. After tea, a walk was taken, and the vicinage of New Paltz +duly inspected. The Wallkill, here a quiet stream, runs through rich, +green meadows, bordered by the noble range of the Catskills and the +singular, broken ridges of the Shawangunk. The sun set clear, casting +pale gold streams of light over the meadows, and leaving a long, +lingering, rosy twilight. The young art-student drank in beauty with +every breath. The cows were driven home; the ducks came slowly up out of +the stream, and all the winged creatures went to roost. Night came, and +repose was welcome after the pleasures and fatigues of the day's +journey. + +At eight the following morning, a steady black pony, with a light open +wagon, appeared at the door; and by ten o'clock the travellers reached +the mountain top. Their steed showed marvellous endurance in the way of +slow pacing down steep hills, which they afterward found had been +acquired in leading sad trains of mourners to the modest graveyards, +wherein rest the earthly remains of the peaceful dwellers in this +pastoral vale. The first four or five miles of road were excellent, but +the last one or two so rough and stony, that they were quite willing to +walk. On top of the mountain stands a little inn, commanding a +magnificent view in several directions. As they neared the end of their +journey, they rejoiced to see a white house gleaming through the trees, +and promising food and shelter. The sound of coming wheels brought out +the land-lady, who gave the travellers a hearty welcome, and assured +them of her ability to harbor them for the night. The end was +accomplished--the goal reached! And what a goal! Nowhere among all the +beautiful scenery in the Middle and Eastern States is there a spot more +characteristic and interesting than Paltz Point, and the lake that lies +under its shadow--that lake, whose name was a mystery, even to the +inmates of the house built upon its brink. Its waters are clear, and of +a deep green hue; its depth is said to be great, and its rocky shores +rise in perpendicular cliffs of from ten to two hundred feet. The +highest point stands three or four hundred feet above the surface of the +water; but in that part the cliffs are no longer perpendicular. The +length of the lake is about a mile, and the width perhaps half that +distance. The rocks are gray sandstone or quartz conglomerate, making +the cliffsides, except where covered by black lichens, of a glittering +white. On one side, the rocks rise in steep, precipitous masses, while +on the other they are shattered into every imaginable form. The clefts +are deep and narrow, great hemlocks rise from the bottoms of the +fissures, and the vast masses of fallen or split rock lie piled and +cloven, confusedly tossed about, gigantic memorials of the great +convulsion that in days long gone by heaped up the long ridge of the +Shawangunk, and shattered its northern dip into such majestic and +fantastic cliffs. The deepest and wildest chasm is filled by the weird, +green lake. Straying along the tops of the precipices bordering the +water, our travellers beheld lovely vistas of the far-away country, +north, south, east, or west, stealing in through rocky or leafy +openings. An easy ascent of about half a mile leads to the summit of the +Point. Blueberries were ripe, and beguiled the pair into many a moment's +dallying by the wayside. Not until they reached the very top were they +quite sure they had after all found the place they came to seek; but one +view down the jagged line of the Shawangunk, convinced our Elsie that no +other spot could have furnished the sketch seen in the studio, where she +had been advised to seek 'the lake on the Shawangunk mountain.' + +The view from Paltz Point is magical. The long line of the Catskills +sweeps boldly across the near northern horizon. Nowhere do those +mountains seem so majestic, or their forms so broken and beautiful; +nearer are the Olive mountains, beyond which flows the Esopus. Rondout +creek, the Wallkill, and the Hudson, water the fertile vales lying among +the hills. To the south stretches the line of the Shawangunk toward the +Delaware river, and on the extreme southern and southeastern horizon +rise the Highlands, with the river gap, the rifted sides of the Storm +King, the Beacons, the great broad shoulders of Schunemunk;--even the +white buildings on the plain at West Point may be seen glittering in the +afternoon sun. A clear atmosphere is needed for the full enjoyment of +the view, as the panorama is so vast that even a slight haze obscures +many of the more interesting distant objects. And what words could +describe the jutting headlands--wild, broken lines of white cliffs +stretching to the southward, deep chasms, steep, forest-clad mountains, +green or blue as distance, sunshine, or shadow may decree, and the +tranquil green lake, smiling as a deep, strong and cheerful spirit amid +the ruins of a shattered, wasted life? As our travellers gazed, they +thanked God that His world was so beautiful, and wondered if even Aunt +Sarah would not be willing to run the risk of being thought strong +minded to see so fair a corner of it. + +The moon that night rose late; and the air was chill as the sisters +stood on a rock waiting until its rays should silver the placid waves. +Overhead ran a strange, broad, coruscating band of magnetic light, +meteors flashed down the sky, a solitary loon sent a wild, despairing +cry athwart the lake, and for the first time did our travellers feel +they were alone, eighteen hundred feet above the Hudson, far away from +other human habitation. A truly feminine shudder ran through their +hearts, as they turned toward the house and betook them to the cells +appropriated to their use. The following day they were driven down the +mountain by the owner (not the keeper) of the little inn beside the +lake. He was one of nature's own gentlemen; tall,--six feet, +perhaps,--gray haired, blue eyed, with every feature well cut, and with +the most honest expression ever beaming through a human countenance. The +hearts of the sisters warmed toward him, and never were they more +willing to acknowledge the solidarity of the race, the great fact of the +brotherhood of all humanity. + +Cornwall once again safely reached, and the outlines of the journey duly +sketched, Aunt Sarah's first question was: 'Well, and what _is_ the name +of this famous lake?' + +The travellers were forced to confess the ill success of their efforts +in discovering the proper appellation of that exquisite gem, and it was +not until many months later that, when visiting an exhibition of +paintings, they found their new friend accurately portrayed under the +name of--Mogunk Lake. + + + + +REASON, RHYME, AND RHYTHM. + + 'All arts are one, howe'er distributed they stand, + Verse, tone, shape, color, form, are fingers on one hand.' + + +PREFACE TO VOLUME SECOND. + +Our first volume having been devoted to the Reason or Theory of Art in +general, it is our intention in the second, Rhyme and Rhythm, to bring +these comprehensive thoughts to a focus, and concentrate their light +upon the art of Versification. Indeed, this volume is to be considered +as a _manual_ of poetic Rhythm. Practical rules are given for its +construction and criticism; simple solutions offered of its apparent +irregularities and anomalies; and examples of sufficient length are +quoted from the best poets to afford just ideas of the scope and power +of the measure under consideration. The numerous citations given under +their appropriate metrical heads are intended not only to assist the +student in the analysis of verse, but to aid him in the choice of forms +in accordance with his subject, in case he should himself wish to create +Poems. + +By its extrication from the entanglement of quantity and syllabic +accent, under which it has been almost buried, an effort has been made +to simplify the study of Rhythm: by tracing its origin and +characteristics, and by the citation of poems in which its power and +beauty are conspicuous, we have endeavored to render the subject one of +vivid interest. + + +CHAPTER FIRST. + +RHYTHM. + +What is Rhythm? The best definition of this perplexing word has been +given by the grand old Bohemian composer Tomaschek: + + 'The _order_ perceptible in a succession of sounds recurring in + _determinate_ portions of Time, which portions of Time are more + distinctly marked for the ear through the _accentuation_ of certain + determinate parts, constitutes Rhythm. + +Rhythm has been surrounded with so much mystery, has been the subject of +so much learned debate and research, has called forth so many quartos +and folios, that few know what a familiar thing it is, how closely it +everywhere surrounds us, how constantly it beats within us. For the +pulsations of the heart are rhythmical, and the measured throbs of life +register in music every moment of our passing existence on the bosom of +Time. And when life manifests itself to the senses through the medium of +time, time being to the ear what space is to the eye, the Order of its +pulsations is Rhythm. Strange relation between our own marvellous being +and the march of time, for its mystic rhythm beats in tune with every +feeling that sweeps over the heart, forever singing its primeval chant +at the very core of our existence! The law of Rhythm is the law of +mortal life: the constant recurrence of new effort sinking but to +recover itself in accurately proportioned rest, rising ever again in new +exertion, to sink again in ever new repose: + + 'And our hearts, though true and brave, + Still, like muffled drums, are beating + Funeral marches to the grave.' + +This low music of the heart never ceases until stilled by the touch of +death, when the spirit, led by God, enters upon the waveless ocean of an +immeasurable eternity, where past and future meet in the eternal +present. Time with its rhythmic measures is then no more. The necessity +of 'effort and rest,' 'exertion and repose,' will exist no longer. What +the fuller music of that higher life is to be, 'it has not yet entered +into the heart of man to conceive.' But if the very _imperfection_ of +our being has been rendered so full of charm to us in the order and +proportion with which it records its law, 'effort and repose,' 'life and +death'--what may we not expect when this mortal shall have put on +immortality? We should think of this when that saddest of human sounds, +'it beats no more; it measures time no longer'--knells upon our ear the +silence of the throbbing, passionate heart. + +Nor is inanimate nature without the quickening breath of Rhythm. It +cadences the dash of the wave, chimes in the flash of the oar, patters +in the drops of rain, whispers in the murmurings of the forest leaves, +leaps in the dash of the torrent, wails through the sighing of the +restless winds, and booms in the claps and crashes of heaven's thunders. + +Only through _succession_ do we arrive at the idea of time, and through +a continual _being and ceasing to be_ are its steppings made sensible to +us. It is thus literally true, as sung by the Poet, that 'we take no +note of Time but from its loss.' Happy are we if so used that it may +mark our eternal progress. + +There is but little mystery in the art of keeping time, since we may at +once gather a correct notion of it from the vibrations of the pulse, or +from our manner of walking. If we listen to the sound of our own step, +we find it equal and regular, corresponding with what is termed common +time in music. Probably the time in which we walk is governed by the +action of the heart, and those who step alike have pulses beating in the +same time. To walk faster than this gives the sensation of hurry; to +walk slower, that of loitering. The mere recurrence of sounds at regular +intervals by no means constitutes the properties of _musical_ time; +accent is necessary to parcel them out into those portions which Rhythm +and the ear approve. If we listen to the trotting of a horse or the +tread of our own feet, we cannot but notice that each alternate step is +louder than the other--by which we throw the sounds into the order of +common time. But if we listen to the amble or canter of a horse, we hear +every third step to be louder than the other two, owing to the first and +third foot striking the ground together. This regularity throws the +sounds, into the order of triple time. To one or other of these +descriptions may be referred every sort of time. + +There is a sympathetic power in measured time which has not yet received +the attention it deserves. It has been found that in a watchmaker's shop +the timepieces or clocks connected with the same wall or shelf have such +a sympathetic effect in keeping time, that they stop those which beat in +irregular time; and if any are at rest, set agoing those which beat +accurately. What wonder then that the living, soldiers, artisans, such +as smiths, paviors, etc., who work in unison with the pulse, should +acquire habits of keeping time with the greatest correctness. + +Rhythm not only measures the footfall of the pedestrian, but exerts a +sympathetic power, so that if two are walking together, they feel its +spell, and unconsciously fall into the same step, not aware that they +are thus conforming to a Unity always engendered by the Order regulating +rhythmical motion. It is this entrancing sense of unity which wings the +feet of the dancers, and enables them to endure with delight a degree of +physical exertion which, without it, would be utterly exhausting. The +following extract from the _Atlantic Monthly_, of July, 1858, is so much +to our purpose, that we place it before the reader: + + 'The sailor does not lack for singing. He sings at certain parts of + his work;--indeed, he must sing, if he would work. On vessels of + war, the drum and fife or boatswain's whistle furnish the necessary + movement-regulator. There, where the strength of one or two hundred + men can be applied to one and the same effort, the labor is not + intermittent, but continuous. The men form on either side of the + rope to be hauled, and walk away with it like firemen marching with + their engine. When the headmost pair bring up at the stern or bow, + they part, and the two streams flow back to the starting point, + outside the following files. Thus in this perpetual + 'follow-my-leader' way the work is done, with more precision and + steadiness than in the merchant service. Merchantmen are invariably + manned with the least possible number, and often go to sea + short-handed, even according to the parsimonious calculations of + their owners. The only way the heavier work can be done at all is + by each man doing his utmost at the same moment. This is regulated + by the song. And here is the true singing of the deep sea. It is + not recreation; it is an essential part of the work. It mastheads + the topsail yards, on making sail; it starts the anchor from the + domestic or foreign mud; it 'rides down the main tack with a will;' + it breaks out and takes on board a cargo; it keeps the pumps (the + ship's, not the sailor's) going. A good voice and a new and + stirring chorus are worth an extra man. And there is plenty of need + of both. + + 'I remember well one black night in the mid-Atlantic, when we were + beating up against a stiff breeze, coming on deck near midnight, + just as the ship was put about. When a ship is tacking, the tacks + and sheets (ropes which confine the clews or lower corners of the + sails) are let run, in order that the yards may be swung round to + meet the altered position of the ship. They must then be hauled + taut again, and belayed, or secured, in order to keep the sails in + their place and to prevent them from shaking. When the ship's head + comes up in the wind, the sail is for a moment or two edgewise to + it, and then is the nice moment, as soon as the headsails fairly + fill, when the mainyard and the yards above it can be swung + readily, and the tacks and sheets hauled in. If the crew are too + few in number, or too slow at their work, and the sails get fairly + filled on the new tack, it is a fatiguing piece of work enough to + 'board' the tacks and sheets, as it is called. You are pulling at + one end of the rope--but the gale is tugging at the other. The + advantages of lungs are all against you, and perhaps the only thing + to be done is to put the helm down a little, and set the sails + shaking again before they can be trimmed properly. It was just at + such a time that I came on deck, as above mentioned. Being near + eight bells, the watch on deck had been not over spry; and the + consequence was that our big maincourse was slatting and flying out + overhead with a might that shook the ship from stem to stern. The + flaps of the mad canvas were like successive thumps of a giant's + fist upon a mighty drum. The sheets were jerking at the belaying + pins, the blocks rattling in sharp snappings like castanets. You + could hear the hiss and seething of the sea alongside, and see it + flash by in sudden white patches of phosphorescent foam, while all + over head was black with the flying scud. The English second mate + was stamping with vexation, and, with all his h's misplaced, + storming at the men: ''An'somely the weather mainbrace--'an'somely, + I tell you!--'Alf a dozen of you clap on to the main sheet + here--down with 'im!--D'y'see 'ere's hall like a midshipman's + bag--heverythink huppermost and nothing 'andy. 'Aul 'im in, Hi + say!' But the sail wouldn't come, though. All the most forcible + expressions of the Commination Service were liberally bestowed on + the watch. 'Give us the song, men!' sang out the mate, at + last--'pull with a will!--together men!--haltogether now!'--And + then a cracked, melancholy voice struck up this chant: + + 'Oh, the bowline, bully, bully bowline, + Oh, the bowline, bowline, HAUL!' + + At the last word every man threw his whole strength into the + pull--all singing it in chorus, with a quick, explosive sound. And + so, jump by jump, the sheet was at last hauled taut.' + +It would be well if the philanthropist and utilitarian would stoop to +examine these primeval but neglected facts, for there is no doubt that +under the healthful and delicious spell of Rhythm a far steadier and +greater amount of labor would be cheerfully and happily endured by the +working classes. The continuous but rhythmed croon of the negro when at +work, the yo-heave-o of the sailor straining at the cordage, the rowing +songs of the oarsman, etc., etc., are all suggestive of what might be +effected by judicious effort in this direction. But man, ever wiser than +his Maker, neglects the intuitions of nature. Rendered conceited by a +false education, and heartless by a constant craving for gold, he +scorns the simple but deep intuitions which are his surest guide to +civilization, health, and cheerfulness. There can be no doubt that the +physical exercise so distasteful to the pale inhabitants of our cities, +yet so essential for the preservation of health and life, might be +rendered delightful and invigorating through the neglected powers of +rhythmical motion. Like Michal, the proud daughter of Saul, who despised +King David in her haughty heart when 'she saw him dancing with all his +might before the Lord,' we scorn the simple and innocent delights of our +nature, and, like Michal, we too are bitterly punished for our mistaken +pride of intellect, for, neglecting the rhythmical requisitions of the +body, we injure the mind, and may deprave the heart. Virtuously, purely, +and judiciously applied to the amusements and artistic culture of a +people, we are convinced the power of Rhythm would banish much of that +craving for false excitement, for drinks and narcotics, an indulgence in +which exerts so fatal an influence over the character and spiritual +progress of a nation. It is surely not astonishing that Rhythm should be +so pleasant to the senses, when we consider that the laws of order and +unity by which it is regulated are the proper aliment of the soul. + +Strange pedantries have grown out of the neglect of music as a practical +pervading element in modern education. We should endeavor to reform this +fault; we should use this powerful engine of healing nature to remove +from us the reproach of being merely a shopkeeping and money-making +people. + +The wildest savage is not insensible to Rhythm. It fires his spirit in +the war dance and battle chant, soothes him in the monotonous hum of the +pow-wow, and softens him in naive love songs. It is the heart of music, +and it can be proved that low and vulgar rhythms have a debasing effect +upon the character of a people. 'Let me write the songs of a people,' +said a great thinker, 'and I care not who makes its laws:'--if he +included the tunes, there was no exaggeration in his thought. Alas! a +meretricious age scorns and neglects the true, because it is always +simple in its sublimity, and, striving to banish God from His own +creation, would also banish nature and joy from the heart! A pedantic +age loves all that is pretentious, glaring, and assuming; and Rhythm +stoops to rock the cradle of the newborn infant; to soothe the negro in +the rice swamp or cotton field; to shape into beauty the national and +patriotic songs of a laborious but contented peasantry, as among the +Sclaves--but what cares the age for the happiness of the race? 'Put +money in thy purse,' is its consolation and lesson for humanity. + +The beat of the healthful heart is in unison with the feelings of the +hour. Agitation makes it fitful and broken, excitement accelerates, and +sorrow retards it. And this fact should be the model for all poetical +and musical rhythm. + +To show how readily we associate feelings with different orders of +sound, let us suppose we are passing the night somewhere, where a +stranger, utterly unknown to us, occupies a room from which we can hear +the sound of his footsteps. Suppose that through the tranquil hours of +the night we hear his measured tread falling in equally accented and +monotonous spondees, it is certain that a quick imagination will at once +associate this deliberate tread with the state of mind in the unknown +from which it will believe it to proceed, and will immediately suggest +that the stranger is maturing some great design of heavy import to his +future peace. + +Should the character of the spondaic tread suddenly change, should the +footsteps become rapid, eager, and broken, we look upon the term of +meditation and doubt as over, the resolve as definitely fixed, and the +unknown as restlessly longing for the hour of its fulfilment. + +When we hear steps resembling dactyls, anapaests, and choriambs thrown +hurriedly together, broken by irregular pauses, we begin to build a +whole romance on the steps of the stranger; we infer from them moments +of grave deliberation; the languor consequent upon overwrought thought; +renewed effort; resolve; alternations of passion; hope struggling with +despair; until all at last seems merged in impatient longing for the +hour of anticipated victory. + +Nor has the imagination been alone in its strange workings; it has +whispered, as it always does, its secrets to the heart, and succeeded in +arousing its ever-ready affections, so that we cannot help feeling a +degree of interest in the unknown, whose emotions we have followed +through the night, reading their history in his alternating footsteps: +_for sounds impress themselves immediately upon the feelings, exciting, +not abstract or antagonistic thought, but uniting humanity in concrete +feeling_. (See vol. i.) + +As the imagination necessarily associates different feelings with +different orders of Rhythm, it is the task of the Poet to select those +in the closest conformity with the emotions he is struggling to excite. +It is positively certain that we not only naturally and intuitively +_associate_ distinctive feelings with different orders of rhythmical +sounds, but that varied emotions are _awakened_ by them. Some rhythms +inspire calmness, some sublime and stately courage, some energy and +aggressive force, some stir the spirit to the most daring deeds, some, +as in our maddening Tarantulas, produce a restless excitement through +the whole nervous system, some excite mere joyousness, some whisper love +through every fibre of the heart, and some lead us in their holy calm +and unbroken order to the throne of God. Why is this? We need not look +in the region of the understanding for the philosophy of that which is +to be found only in the living tide of basic emotions. The pleasure we +receive from Rhythm is a feeling. Alternate accentuation and +non-accentuation are facts in the living organism of the universe; this +may be expressed, not explained. There is an order in the living +succession of musical sounds or poetic emotions, which order is +expressed by the words 'equality and proportion.' These things _are_. +What more can be said? Do comparisons help us? the waves in the eternal +ocean of vitality--the shuttle strokes of the ever-moving loom of +creation! Let us take it as it is, and rejoice in it. We cannot tell you +why we live--let us be glad that our life is music through every +heart-throb! + +Rhythm is a species of natural but inarticulate language, in which the +_thought_ is never disengaged from the _feeling_; in language its aim +should be to awaken the _feeling_ properly attached to the thought it +modulates; it should be the _tune_ of the thought of the Poet. To write +a love song in alexandrines, an idyl in hexameters, would be to +incarnate the shy spirit of a girl in the brawny frame of a Hercules, to +incase the loving soul of a Juliet in a gauntleted Minerva. Genius and +deep sympathy with human nature can alone guide the Poet aright in this +delicate and difficult path; it lies too near the core of our +unconscious being to be susceptible of the trim regularity of rule--he +must trust his own intuitions while he studies with care what has +already been successfully done by our best poets. We may however remark +in passing that if the rhythm be abruptly broken without a corresponding +break in the flow of thought or feeling, the reader will be confused, +because the outward form has fallen into contradiction with its inner +soul, and he discerns the opposition, and knows not with which to +sympathize. Such contrarieties argue want of power or want of freedom in +the poet, who should never suffer the clanking of his rhythmical chains +to be heard. Such causeless breaks proceed from want of truth to the +subject, and prove a lack of the careful rendering of love in the +author. The poet must listen to the naive voice of nature as he moulds +his rhythms, for the ingenious and elaborate constructions of the +intellect alone will never touch the heart. Rhythm may proceed with +regularity, yet that regularity be so relieved from monotony and so +modified in its actual effects, that however regular may be the +structure of parts, what is composed of them may be infinitely various. +Milton's exquisite poem, 'Comus,' is an example of perfect rhythm with +ceaseless intricacy and great variety. It would indeed be a fatal +mistake to suppose that _proportion_ cannot be susceptible of great +variety, since the whole meaning of the term has reference to the +adjustment and proportional correspondence of _variable_ properties. + +The appreciation of rhythm is universal, pertaining to no region, race, +nor era, in especial. Even those who have never _thought_ about it, +_feel_ order to be the law of life and happiness, and in the marking of +the _proportioned_ flow of time and the regular accentuation of its +_determinate_ portions find a perpetual source of healthful pleasure. + +If we will but think of it, we will be astonished how many ideas already +analyzed we may find exhibited through rhythm. We may have: similarity, +variety, identity, repetition, adaptation, symmetry, proportion, +fitness, melody, harmony, order, and unity; in addition to the varied +feelings of which it becomes the symbolic utterance. The Greeks placed +rhythms in the hands of a god, thus testifying to their knowledge of +their range and power. + +Wordsworth asserts that + + 'More pathetic situations and sentiments, that is, those which have + a greater proportion of pain connected with them, may be endured in + metrical compositions than in prose.' + +The reason of this seems to be that the bright beams forever raying from +the Divine Sun of unity and order, shine through the measured beat of +the rhythm, and are always felt as life and peace, even when their +golden light is broken by the wild and drifting clouds of human woe, or +seen athwart the surging and blinding mists of mortal anguish. + +Rhythm lurks in the inmost heart of language, accenting our words that +their enunciation may be clear and distinct; lengthening and shortening +the time of our syllables that they may be expressive, emotional, and +musical. Let the orator as well as the poet study its capabilities; it +has more power over the sympathies of the masses than the most labored +thought. + +Although through the quantitive arrangement and determinate accentuation +of syllabic sound, rhythm may be exquisitely manifested through +language, yet in music alone does it attain its full power and wonderful +complexity. For the _tones_ are not _thoughts_, but _feelings_, and +yield themselves implicitly to the loving hand which would reunite them +and form them into higher unities. These passionate tones, always +seeking for and surging into each other, are plastic pearls on the +string of rhythm, whose proportions may be indefinitely varied at the +will of the fond hand which would wreathe them into strands of +symmetrical beauty; while _words_, the vehicles of antagonistic thought, +frequently refuse to conform to the requisitions of feeling, are often +obstinate and wilful, will not be remodelled, and hard, in their +self-sufficiency, refuse to bear any stamp save that of their known and +fixed value. Like irregular beads of uncut coral, they protrude their +individualities in jagged spikes and unsightly thorns, breaking often +the unity of the whole, and painfully wounding the sense of order. + +The true poet overcomes these difficulties. When, in the hands of a +master, they are forced to bend under the onward and impetuous sweep of +the passionate rhythm, compelled to sing the tune of the overpowering +emotions--the chords of the spirit quiver in response. The heart +recognizes the organic law of its own life: _the constant recurrence of +new effort sinking but to recover itself in accurately proportioned +rest, rising again in ever-renewed exertion, to sink again in ever-new +repose_; feeling seems clothing itself with living form, while the +divine attribute, Order, marks for the ear, as it links in mystic Unity, +the flying footsteps of that forever invisible element by which all +mortal being is conditioned and limited: TIME! + + 'There is no architect + Can build as the Muse can; + She is skilful to select + Materials for her plan. + + 'She lays her beams in music, + In music every one, + To the cadence of the whirling world + Which dances round the sun. + + 'That so they shall not be displaced + By lapses or by wars, + But for the love of happy souls + Outlive the newest stars.' + EMERSON. + + + + +'OUR ARTICLE.' + +'John,' said I to my husband, as he came home from business, and settled +into an armchair for half an hour's rest before dinner, 'I think of +writing an article for THE CONTINENTAL MONTHLY.' + +'Humph!' said my husband. + +Now 'humph' bears different interpretations; it may argue assent, +indifference, disgust, disapprobation--in all cases it is aggressive; +but this 'humph' seemed to be a combination of at least three of the +above-mentioned frames of mind. + +Natural indignation was about taking full possession of me, but +reflection stepped in, and I preserved a discreet silence. The truth is, +no man should be assailed by a new idea before he has dined, and I, +having had three years' opportunity of studying man nature, met my +deserts when the above answer was given. So I still looked amiable, and +behaved very prettily till dinner was over, and then John, having +subsided into dressing gown, slippers, easy chair, and good nature, I +remarked again: + +'John, I think of writing an article for THE CONTINENTAL +MONTHLY.' + +'How shall you begin it?' said he. + +'Well, I haven't exactly settled on a beginning yet, but--' + +'Exactly! I supposed so!' remarked this barbarian. + +Unfortunately, he knew my weak point, for hadn't he been allowed to see +a desk full of magnificent middles, only wanting a beginning and an end, +and a publisher, and some readers, to place me in the front ranks of our +modern essayists, side by side with 'Spare Hours,' and the 'Country +Parson,' and 'Gail Hamilton?' + +The fact is, I have always been brimming over with brilliant ideas on +all sorts of subjects, which never would arrange themselves or be +arranged under any given head, but presented a series of remarkable +literary fragments, jotted down on stray bits of paper, in old account +books and diaries, and even, on one or two occasions, when seized by a +sudden inspiration, on a smooth stone, taken from the brook, a fair +sheet of birch bark, and the front of a pew in a white-painted country +church. Having been subject to these inspirational attacks for many +years, I had decided to take them in hand, and, if they must come, +derive some benefit from them. An idea suggested itself. Claude +Lorraine, it is said, never put the figures in his landscapes, but left +that work for some brother artist. Now I could bring together material +for an article; the inspiration, the picturing should be mine, but John +should put in the figures. In other words, he should polish it, write +the introduction and the _finis_, and send it out to the public, as the +work of 'my wife and I.' + +Then a question occurred: how should we divide the honors, supposing +such an article should really find its way into print? Would there not +be material for a standard quarrel in the fact that neither could claim +sole proprietorship? What would be John's sensation, should any one say +to him: 'Mr. ----, I have just been reading your wife's last article; +capital thing!' and, _vice versa_, imagine the same thing said of me. +Could I preserve amiability under such circumstances, and would not the +result be, a divorce in a year, and a furious lawsuit as to the +ownership of the copyright? John certainly is magnanimous, I thought, +but no one cares for divided honors, and there is that middle-aged +relation of his, with a figure like a vinegar cruet, and a voice as acid +as its contents, who never comes here for a day without doing her best +to set us by the ears, and who, in the beginning of our married life, +when we did not understand each other quite so well as now, sometimes +succeeded, to her intense satisfaction. + +How she would go about among all the friends and relations, pulling the +poor articles to pieces, giving all the fine bits to John and the +rubbish to me, and hinting generally that my pretensions to authorship +were all very well, but that every one knew John did the work and I +looked out for the credit. + +Here I paused. I had been successfully engaged in the pursuit of +trouble, and had conjured up so irritating a picture, that actually a +small tear had left its source, and was running over the bridge of my +nose! + +'John,' I said, 'notwithstanding that I never did know how to begin +anything in an effective way, I am still determined to write, and you +must help me.' + +Then I opened my heart to him, and told him my plan, and the imagined +tribulation it had given me in the last ten minutes. + +'There are too many writers already, Helen,' he said; 'every man who +cannot see his way clear through life--every woman who fancies herself +misunderstood and unappreciated, worries out a book or poem or a set of +essays, to picture their individual wrongs and sufferings, and bores +every publisher of every magazine and paper of which they have ever +heard, till he is tormented into printing, or dies of manuscript on the +brain. I tell you, Helen, we do our share in aggravating the people we +meet daily, without tormenting an innocent man, 'who never did us any +harm;' and I for one, don't want an extra sin on my conscience. +Moreover, I am afraid it would spoil you, should you happen to succeed. +Have you forgotten your old friend Angelina Hobbs? One article ruined +her for life. Until that poem got into print and was favorably noticed, +she was as sensible as ordinary girls, and never imagined herself a +genius. Since then, there is not an 'ism' in America that she has not +taken up and run into the ground; I have met her in every stage, from +the coat and pantaloons of the Bloomer ten years ago to the hoopless old +maid I saw yesterday going into Dodworth's Hall with the last spiritual +paper and a spirit photograph in her hand. Not a literary man or woman +do I know, who has not some crotchet in his or her brain, and who does +not in some way violate the harmonies of life at least once an hour. Be +content as you are: be satisfied to live without seeing yourself in +THE CONTINENTAL MONTHLY, or any other monthly under the sun!' + +'John,' I said, 'I am surprised, I am astonished at the view you take of +the case. I don't desire that publishers should be tormented into their +graves; and if they are all as fat and rosy as the two we met the other +day, I think you can dismiss all fears on that score. Moreover, I +believe the world to be better for every book that is written, however +insignificant it may be. The days of the corsairs and giaours, romantic +robbers, and devout murderers, are over: our young ladies and our +servant girls see no fascination in the pages of 'Fatherless Fanny,' +'The Foundling,' or 'The Mysteries of Slabtown.' Arthur's stories and +ten thousand others of the same class have taken their place, and +commonplace as they may often be, have brought a healthier influence +into action. No book written with an honest heart is lost; no poem or +essay, however poor, fails to reach some mark. The printed page that to +you or me looks so barren and poor, may carry to some soul a message of +healing; may to some eyes have the light of heaven about it. And to how +many aimless lives, writing has given a purpose which otherwise never +might have entered it! John, I believe in writing, and this baby shall +be taught to put his ideas into shape as soon as he is taught anything! +I never wish him to settle down in the belief that he is a genius and +can live on the fact; but he shall write if he can, and publish too, if +any one will do it for him. If not, we will have a private printing +press of our own, and get up an original library for our descendants.' + +'A genuine woman's answer,' said John; 'only one point in it touching +upon my argument.' Here the baby opened his blue eyes wide. 'There!' +said John; 'just for the present your life has a purpose, and we can +dispense with writing, at least till that fellow is asleep again. When +you have disposed of him, we will find out how many aims it is necessary +for one woman to have, and what arrangement of them it is best to make.' + +The baby stayed awake obstinately, but I was reconciled to the fact, for +our discussion might have become hot, and the writing ended for that +evening quite as effectually as the baby had done it. + +Night came again, and this time John opened the subject, by placing +before me a large package of foolscap, and a new gold pen. + +'I have brought some paper for you to spoil, Helen,' he said, 'for I +foresaw how it would end. Do your best, and I will do mine in the matter +of beginnings. I cannot write easily, you know, but I can suggest and +dictate, when you wish it; and you have been my amanuensis for a year +and more, so it will all seem very natural.' + +He looked down, as he spoke, at the scarred right hand and its missing +fingers, carried away eighteen months before by a rebel bullet, and a +little shade passed over his face. + +'No, John,' I said, 'don't look there now; look at my two hands waiting +to do the work of that, and tell me if two are not better than one. We +will write an article which shall astonish the critics, and bring +letters from all the magazines, begging us to become special +contributors at once; and we will not quarrel as to who shall have the +glory, but make it a joint matter. And now I am ready to begin, and +propose to speak upon a subject which I wonder greatly no one has taken +up in detail before. Your words last evening brought out some dormant +ideas. 'We do our share in aggravating the people we meet daily,' you +said, and I have been reflecting upon the matter ever since, till now I +am prepared to give my opinions to the world.' + +So saying, I arranged the table properly, took out some sheets of the +smooth, white paper, filled my pen, and waited for the dawning of an +idea. To which it came first, I shall not tell you. The results are +before you: which part is John's, which mine, you will never learn from +us. It will be of no avail for you to write to the editors, for they +don't know either, and will not be told. It will be a useful exercise +for you to dissect the article, and set apart the masculine from the +feminine portions. The critics will for once be quite at a loss how to +abuse it, probably. I foresee a general distraction in the minds of our +readers, and already hear ourselves classed as among one of the trials +which I select as the title of 'Our Article.' + + +SOME OF THE AGGRAVATIONS OF LIVING. + +Two thirds of life in the aggregate are made up of aggravations. They +begin with our beginning, and only cease with our ending; perhaps, if +good Calvinists speak the truth, not even then, for, according to their +belief, the souls in torment look always upon the blessed in heaven, and +this surely is the most horrible species of aggravation ever devised by +man or fiend. + +From the time when the air first fills the lungs and the infant screams +at the new sensation, to the day when fingers press down the resisting +lids and straighten the stiffening limbs, we are forced to meet and to +bear all manner of aggravations in nine tenths of our daily life. + +Has it ever occurred to any of you what an amount of unnecessary +suffering an infant endures, and have you ever watched the operations it +undergoes daily, with reference to the confirming of this fact? If not, +an inexhaustible field of inquiry lies open before you, and after a +week's observation of bandages rolled till the flesh actually +squeaks--of pins stuck in and left, where you know they will prick--of +smotherings in blankets and garrotings with bibs--of trottings for the +wind and poundings for the stomach ache--of wakings up to show to +visitors, and puttings to sleep when sleep is at the other end of the +land of Nod, and will not be induced to come under any circumstances--of +rockings and tossings--of boiling catnip tea and smooth horrible castor +oil poured down the unsuspecting throat--after a week of such +observations, I say, you will decide with me that the baby's life is +only a series of aggravations, and feel astonished the bills of infant +mortality do not double and treble. + +As years round out the little life, the hands, reaching out to the tree +of knowledge, find themselves pushed back on all sides. The dearest +wishes are made light of, the most earnest desires slighted, the most +sacred thoughts ridiculed, till one marvels that men can grow up +anything but devils. In the path where Gail Hamilton's feet have trod I +need not follow, for she has told us what these 'Happiest Days' are, in +better words than my pen can find. It warmed my heart as I read her +protest against the platitudes concerning childhood and its various +imagined delights. Mentally I shook hands, for she expressed my ideas so +fully, that the notes I had long ago jotted down upon the subject I +committed at once to the flames, satisfied I never could do any better, +and might possibly do very much worse. + +I believe that the major part of sour-tempered, perversely wrong-headed, +and unhappily disposed people, of hot-headed fanatics, victims to one +idea, of once noble souls who sink themselves in sensuality, and so go +down to death, and of all the sad cases one hears and reads of day after +day and year after year, are made so through unceasing aggravation at +the most impressible time of life. Do any of you who may be my readers +know of half a dozen happy families in your circle of friends and +acquaintance? Do you know of half a dozen where boys prefer home and +their sisters to the streets, or where girls do not court the most +uninviting boy in preference to their own brothers? + +One would almost imagine spite had been the feeling implanted in all +homes, as they look at the private pinch exchanged between John and +James, the face made by Mary at which Martha cries and is slapped by way +of adjusting matters, and the general refusal of requests made to father +and mother, whether reasonable or not. My own childhood was moderately +happy, and yet I recall now the sense of burning indignation I sometimes +suffered at wrongs done me, which the child's sense of justice told me +were wrongs, and which I now know to have been so. Children are +themselves one of the aggravations of living, but it is because we do +not know how to treat them. I look for a time when every father shall be +just, every mother reasonable as well as loving; when children shall +neither be flogged up the way of life as in times past, or coaxed up +with sugarplums as in times present, but, seeing with clear eyes the +straight path, shall walk in it with joy, and finish their course with +rejoicing. + +Another aggravation, and not a minor one either it strikes me, is the +summary way in which youth is put down by middle-aged and aged people. +Youthful emotions are 'bosh and twaddle,' youthful ideas, 'crude, sir, +very crude!' and youthful attempts to be and to do something in the +world frowned at, as if action of any sort, save inaction, before forty, +were an outrage on humanity, and an insult to the Creator. + +How fares it with young professional men during the first ten years of +their career? They hope and wait, doubt and wait, curse and wait, labor +to wait, and in the mean time a wheezing old lawyer, with no more +enthusiasm than a brickbat, takes the cases which Justice, if she were +not blind, would have sent to his starving younger brethren, and pockets +fat fees, a tenth of which would have lifted loads from many a heavy +heart. An old family physician, an old minister, an old lawyer, are +excellent in their way, and have a variety of pleasant associations with +them, which it is impossible to pass over to the young aspirant who +steps in to take their place; yet because Dr. Jones, aged sixty-eight, +carried us safely through the measles, does it follow that Dr. Smith, +aged twenty-eight, cannot do the same for our children? + +Because for thirty years the Rev. Dr. Holdfast has preached upon +election, and justification by faith, is the Rev. Dr. Holeman to be set +down as presumptuously progressive, because he suggests works as a test +of the faith we profess, and ventures to speak of God, not as the stern +Deity who commands us all to be afraid of Him, and who drops lost souls +into the pit with a calm satisfaction, but as the loving Father of the +world, who wills that all men should come to the knowledge of His truth. + +It is well for the old to give us their experience, well for the young +to listen, but every man and every woman lives a life of their own, +which the widest experience cannot touch at all points. No two natures +have ever been nor ever can be exactly alike; no rules of the past can +form the present in the same mould. Girls and boys, young men and women, +must 'see the folly' for themselves, and all the advice and warning of +all the ancestors under heaven cannot prevent it. Therefore, O +middle-aged aunt, or white-haired grandparent, aggravate by unceasing +advice, if you will, but be not aggravated if it isn't taken. Reflect as +to how fully you availed yourself of the experience of _your_ +grandparents when you were young, and then make your demands +accordingly. Tell the young the story of your life as a story, and they +will listen and mayhap profit; give it as advice, and you shall see them +keep as far off as circumstances will admit. It is my fixed belief that +until the people in the world have learned how to hold their tongues, it +will be entirely useless to read Dr. Cumming; believe in the Great +Tribulation as much as you please, for it is about us all day long, but +don't look out for the Millennium, which I think will consist entirely +in people's minding their own business. + +In the inability or unwillingness of people to let other people alone, +may be summed up all the aggravation of living. The bane of my life has +been never being let alone. People seem to think they have come into the +world with a special mission to give me advice, and from my babyhood up, +I have never been allowed to carry out the best-arranged plan of +operation, without interference. As each man and woman is the +representative of a certain class, I conclude others have had the same +experience with myself; and there is a gloomy satisfaction in reflecting +that there are many who have been made as essentially uncomfortable as +I. The result has been, I have come to the unalterable determination +never, under any circumstances, to either advise anybody or receive it +myself where it can be avoided. If it is ordained that I am to make a +fool of myself, it shall be done on my own responsibility, and not with +the assistance of meddling friends--though if they have any desire to +take the credit of it, I shall make no objections whatever. I doubt if +they will. The longer I live in the world, the clearer appears the fact +that half at least of our unhappiness is unnecessary. We seem perversely +bent on tormenting and being tormented. We visit people for whom we do +not care one straw, because our position in society or our interests +demand it. We sacrifice our own judgment to the whims of others as a +matter of expediency, and almost ignore our own capacity in the +eagerness to agree with everybody. We suffer because a rich snob snubs +us, and agonize over unfavorable remarks made concerning our abilities +or standing. These things ought not so to be. No man can find a +substitute when he lies a-dying;--why should all his years be spent in +the vain endeavor to find a substitute for living? An endless dependence +upon the opinions, the whims, the prejudices of others, is the bane of +living, and the mark of a weak mind, made so oftener by education than +nature. + +When the young forget to abuse the old, and the old to run down the +young; when mothers-in-law cease to hate their daughters-in-law, and to +improve all opportunities for sowing strife; when wives take pains to +understand their husbands, and husbands decide that woman nature is +worth studying; when women can remember to be charitable to other women; +when the Golden Rule can be read as it is written, and not 'Do unto +others as ye would _not_ they should do unto you;' when justice and +truth rule men, rather than unreason and petty spite, then the +aggravation of living will die a natural death, and the world become as +comfortable an abiding place as its inhabitants need desire. + +Till then, hope and wait. Live the life God gives us, as purely and +truly as you know how. Have some faith in human nature, but more in God, +and wait his own good time for the perfect life, not to be reached here, +but hereafter. + + + + +THE LESSON OF THE WOOD. + + + In the same soil the family of trees + Spring up, and, like a band of brothers, grow + In the same sun, while from their leafy lips + Comes not the faintest whisper of dissent + Because of various girth and grain and hue. + The oak flings not his acorns at the elm; + The white birch shrinks not from the swarthy ash; + The green plume of the pine nods to the shrub; + The loftiest monarch of the realm of wood + Spares not his crown in elemental storms, + But shares the blows with trees of humbler growth, + And stretches forth his arms to save their fall. + Wild flowers festoon the feet of all alike; + Green mosses grow upon the trunks of all; + Sweet birds pour out their songs on every bough; + Clouds drop baptismal showers of rain on each, + And the broad sun floods every leaf with light. + Behold them clad in Autumn's golden pomp-- + Their rich magnificence, of different dyes, + More beautiful than royal robes, and crowns + Of emperors on coronation day. + But the deserted nest in silence sways + Like a sad heart beneath a royal scarf; + And the red tint upon the maple leaves + Is colored like the fields where fell our braves + In hurricanes of flame and leaden hail. + I love to gaze up at the grand old trees; + Their branches point like hope to Heaven serene; + Their roots point to the silent world that's dead; + Their grand old trunks hold towns and fleets for us, + And cots and coffins for the race unborn. + When at their feet their predecessors fell, + Spring covered their remains with mourning moss, + And wrote their epitaph in pale wood flowers, + And Summer gave ripe berries to the birds + To stay and sing their sad sweet requiem; + And Autumn rent the garments of the trees + That stood mute mourners in a field of graves, + And Winter wrapped them in a winding sheet. + They seemed like giants sleeping in their shrouds. + + + + +DIARY OF FRANCES KRASINSKA; + +OR, LIFE IN POLAND DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. + + + CASTLE OF JANOWIEC, + Wednesday, _May 27th, 1760._ + +I had hoped too much! He is going, and the memory of the past will +render the days to come very sad. I knew that Monday was an unlucky day: +since my maid gave me such a fright by announcing the approaching +departure of the princes, all has gone from bad to worse. + +The huntsman who brought me the bouquet from the prince, told me, in his +name, that he too was forced to depart. With great difficulty could he +invent a pretext for remaining three days after his brothers left. These +three days will not expire until to-morrow, and yet he leaves me to-day; +he must go, and can no longer delay. The king has sent an express for +him, with an order to return as soon as possible. He will leave in one +half hour, and I do not know when we can meet again. Ah! how soon +happiness passes away!... + + +Sunday, _June 7th._ + +It is now two weeks since the prince royal left me; he has sent two +expresses, and slipped two notes for me under cover to the prince +palatine. But what is a letter?... An unfinished thought--it soothes for +a moment, but cannot calm. A letter can never replace even a few seconds +of personal intercourse; he has left me his portrait; I am sure every +one would think it like him; but for me, it is merely a shred of +inanimate canvas. It has his features, but it is not he, and has not his +expression.... I have him much better in my memory. + +All consolation is denied me, for I will not reply to his letters; this +restraint I have imposed upon myself; I am sure that my hand would +become motionless as the cold marble were I to write to the man I love +without the knowledge of my aunt, my elder sister, and my parents. I +told the prince royal that he could never have a letter from me until I +was his wife. This is a great sacrifice, but I have promised my God that +I will accomplish it. + +Since his departure, time weighs upon me as a continued torture. During +the first few days I wandered about as if bereft of reason; I could not +fix my thoughts, or apply myself to any occupation. The illness of the +princess has restored some energy to my soul. The injury to her foot, +which she at first neglected, has become very serious; during three days +she had a burning fever, which threatened her life. My anguish was +beyond description; I am sure I could not have been more uneasy had it +been my sister or one of my parents. I scarcely thought of the prince +royal during the whole of those three days; and what is most strange, I +no longer regretted his absence; if he had been here, I could not have +devoted myself so entirely to the princess. The idea of her death was +terrible to me, for, notwithstanding all the arguments of the prince +royal and of the Princes Lubomirski, I feel myself very culpable in +having withheld my confidence from her; if she suspects the truth, she +has every reason to accuse me of perfidy.... There is in this world but +one inconsolable evil, and that is the torture of a bad +conscience--remorse.... + +I hoped one day to be able to repair my wrongs toward the princess, to +fall at her feet and confess my fault, but when I saw her in danger, I +felt as if hell itself were menacing me, and as if I must be forever +crushed under the weight of an eternal remorse.... Another thought too +has distressed me to the very bottom of my soul! My parents are advanced +in years; if I should lose them before I have confessed my secret to +them! It is written above that I am to know every sorrow! Heaven has +cruelly tried me, but to-day a ray of pity seems to have fallen upon my +miserable fate. The princess is steadily improving, and I have received +good news from Maleszow; I breathe again. + +Were the king to give his consent to our marriage, I could not be +happier than I was on hearing from the physician's own mouth that the +princess was out of danger.... I will then be able to open my heart to +her! Ah! my God! if this painful dissimulation weighs so heavily upon +me, what must be the state of the prince royal, who is deceiving his +father, his king, and offending him by a misplaced affection! + +Why did not these reflections present themselves to me before? Why did I +not show him the abyss into which we were about to fall?... My happiness +then blinded me, and now I can fancy no condition which I would not +prefer to my own.... I feel humiliated by my imprudence. Did I not, with +the whole strength of my wishes and desires draw upon me this very love +so dear to my heart and so fatal to my repose? My pride has lost me; and +that pride is an implacable enemy, which I have no longer strength to +subdue. Oh! I must indeed blame our little Matthias! It was he who first +awoke such ambitious dreams within my soul. + +Happy Barbara! If I only, like her, loved a man of rank equal to my own! +But no, I am not of good faith with myself: the prince royal's position +dazzled me. Ah! how merciful is heaven to cover our innermost thoughts +with an impenetrable veil! Alas! God pardons the defects in our frail +humanity sooner than we ourselves can! + +I left the princess half an hour ago, and must now return to her; she +loves so to have me with her! And indeed, no one can wait upon her as +well as myself. I feel happy when sitting at her bedside; I regain +courage when I think that I am useful to her, and I feel a kind of joy +in finding that my heart is not occupied by one sentiment to the +exclusion of all others. + + +CASTLE OF OPOLE, Thursday, _June 18th._ + +The princess has entirely recovered, and we have been three days at +Opole. I was sorry to leave Janowiec, for all around me bore the impress +of his presence. In his last letter, he announces a very sad piece of +news: he is forced to pass two months in his duchy of Courland. He will +endeavor to see me before he goes; but will he succeed? Two months! how +many centuries, when one must wait! + +We have had several visitors from Warsaw; among others, Adam Krasinski, +Bishop of Kamieniec; he is in every way estimable, and universally +esteemed! All speak of the change in the prince royal: he is pale and +sad, and flies the world. The king himself is uneasy concerning his son, +and it is I who am the cause of all this woe. Is love then a +never-ending source of sorrow? He suffers for me, and his suffering is +my most cruel torment.... They say too that I am changed, and believe me +ill: the good princess attributes my pallor to the nights I have watched +by her side. Her manifestations of interest pierce my heart! When shall +I be at peace with my conscience? + + +Saturday, _July 11th._ + +Like a flash of lightning has a single ray of happiness shone out and +then disappeared. He came here to see me, but could remain only two +hours. Last Wednesday he left Warsaw, as if he were going to Courland, +but, sending his carriages before him on the way to the north, he turned +aside and hastened here. His court awaited him at Bialystok, and he was +forced to travel night and day to avoid suspicion. I saw him for so +short a time that those few happy moments seem only a dream. He was +obliged to assume his huntsman's dress in order to gain admittance +unknown into the castle. + +No one penetrated his disguise, and no one except the prince palatine +was cognizant of our interview. He spoke to me, he gave me repeated +assurances of his love, and restored to me my dearest hopes; had he not +done so, I feel I should have died before the expiration of the three +months. Three months is the very least that he can remain at Mittau. How +many days, how many hours, how many minutes in those three months! I +could be more resigned were I alone to suffer; but he is so unhappy at +our separation! + + +Thursday, _September 3d._ + +I have neglected my journal during nearly two months. Good and evil, all +passes in this world. My days have been sad and monotonous, but they are +gone, and their flight brings me nearer to my happiness. The prince +royal assures me in all his letters that he will return in October. I +was crazy with joy to-day when I found the leaves were falling: I am +charmed with this foretaste of autumn. We will leave for Warsaw in a +very few days. + +A new incident has lately come to pass: a very brilliant match has been +offered for me, and the princess, who loves me twice as well since I +nursed her through her illness, after having concerted the marriage with +my parents and the Bishop of Kamieniec, hoped to win my consent. I was +forced to bear her anger and reproaches, and worse than all that, the +bitter allusions which she made to the prince royal.... + +To satisfy my parents, I was obliged to humiliate myself, and write a +letter of excuse; my mother deigned to send me a reply filled with +sorrow, but without anger. She ends her letter by saying: 'Parents who +send their children away from them, must expect to find them rebellious +to their will.' + +My poor mother! She still gives me her sacred blessing, and assures me +of my father's forgiveness! Ah! I purchase very dearly my future +happiness and greatness! + + +WARSAW, Tuesday, _September 22d._ + +We returned to Warsaw several days ago. Ah! with what joy did I find +myself once more here; how beautiful this city is! Here I will often see +the prince royal. He assures me in his last letter that he will return +by the first of October; I have then only one week to wait; without this +hope I should no longer have any desire to live. Nothing now gives me +any pleasure. Dress tires and annoys me, visits and assemblies weary me +to death; every person whom I meet seems to me a scrutinizing judge; I +fancy that all are pitying or blaming me. Especially do I fear the women +of my acquaintance; they are not indulgent, because they are never +disinterested; they are no better pleased with another woman's good +fortune than they are with her beauty and agreeability.... + +Even yesterday, with what cruelty Madame ----, but I will not write her +name--questioned me! She enjoyed my confusion; I was almost ready to +weep, and she was delighted. In the presence of fifty persons, she +revenged herself for what is called _my triumph_, but what I consider +the most _sacred happiness_. Ah! how deeply she wounded me! I almost +hate her.... This feeling alone was wanting to complete the torment of +my soul. The prince palatine took pity on me, and came to my aid; may +God reward him! In every difficult crisis he is always near with his +active and powerful friendship. He would be quite perfect, if he only +understood me a little better; but when I weep and show my sorrow, he +laughs and calls me a child.... I cannot tell him everything. + +Thursday, _October 1st._ + +He has come, and I have seen him; he is quite well, and yet I am not +happy. I saw him amid a crowd of indifferent people; and when my +feelings impelled me to run and meet him in the palace court, I was +forced to remain by my work table and wait until he came into the +saloon, when he of course first saluted the princess, and my only +consolation consisted in being able to make him a formal and icy +reverence. But he is come, and all must now go well. + + +_October 12th._ + +Great God! how sweet are the words to which I have just given utterance! +Happy, a thousand times happy, is the woman who can promise with all her +heart to give her hand during her whole life to him whom she loves! The +fourth of November is the prince's birthday. He desires, he demands, +that this may be the day of our holy union! He made me swear by my God, +and by my parents, that I would no longer oppose his wishes; he said he +would doubt my affection if I still hesitated. His tears and prayers +overcame me; encouraged by the advice of the prince palatine, I promised +all he desired, and already do I repent my weakness. But he--he was +happy when he left me.... + +He wished our marriage to be kept secret from my parents, as it must be +during some time from the rest of the world; he desired that the Princes +Lubomirski should be our only witnesses and our only confidants; but I +opposed this project with all my strength; I even threatened him with +becoming a nun rather than play so guilty a part toward my parents. He +finally yielded: he is so kind to me. It was then decided that I should +write to my parents, and that he would add a postscript to my letter. + +At first I felt grateful to him for his submission; but with a little +more reflection I felt offended. Is it not he who should write to my +parents? Is it not thus that such affairs are conducted? Alas, yes; but +only when one weds an equal! It is a prince, a prince of the blood royal +who _deigns_ to unite himself to me! He then does me a favor in wedding +me.... This thought has become so bitter that I was on the point of +retracting; but it is too late, for I have given my word. + +I must now write to my parents; I must confess to them the love which I +have so long kept a secret from them. Ah! how wicked they will think me! +I have been wanting in confidence toward the best of mothers.... My God! +inspire me; give me courage! A criminal dragged before his judges could +not tremble more than I do! + + +Thursday, _October 22d._ + +The prince palatine's confidential chamberlain has already left for +Maleszow. I am very well satisfied with my letter; but the prince royal +finds fault with it, and says it is too humble; I, in my turn, found his +postscript altogether too royal. I was about to tell him so, when the +prince palatine stopped me. + +What will my parents say? Perhaps they will refuse their consent, and, +strange as it may appear, during the last few days, the sense of my own +dignity has been stronger than my vanity or my desire for greatness. +This event seems to me quite ordinary: it is true he is the prince +royal, Duke of Courland, and will perhaps one day be King of Poland, but +if he has not my father's consent, it is he who is not my equal. + +If no opposition is made to my marriage, I ardently desire that it may +be the parish priest of Maleszow who will give us the nuptial +benediction; the prince palatine has promised me to do all he can; at +least, he will be the representative of my parents, and will confer a +small degree of propriety upon the ceremony. Barbara's destiny is ever +in my thoughts! I deemed her wishes very modest when she said to me: +'Strive to be as happy as I am!' Alas! her happiness is immense, when I +compare it with mine!... + +Wednesday, _October 28th._ + +My parents' answer has arrived; they give us their blessing and wish me +much happiness; but the tenderness they express toward me is not like +that obtained and merited by Barbara. This is just; I suffer, but have +no right to complain. The prince royal expected to receive an especial +letter addressed to himself; but my parents have not written to him. He +is piqued, and conversed a long time with the prince palatine on the +pride of certain Polish nobles. + +I feel more tranquil since my parents know our secret; my heart is +relieved from a most cruel torment. My parents promise not to reveal our +marriage without the prince royal's consent; one may see in their letter +both joy and surprise; but there is a tone of sadness in my mother's +expressions which touches me deeply. She says: + +'If you are unhappy, I will not be responsible for it; if you are happy +(and I shall never cease to beg this blessing of God in my prayers), I +will rejoice, but at the same time regret that I had no part in +contributing to your felicity'.... + +These words are almost illegible, for I have nearly effaced them with my +tears. + +The curate from Maleszow will arrive next week, and we will be married +immediately after. The prince palatine has had the necessary papers +prepared, and no one has any suspicion. I can scarcely believe that my +marriage is so near.... No preparations will be made for me; all must be +conducted with the greatest secrecy. When Barbara married, she had no +reason to hide herself; all Maleszow was in commotion on her account. + +If I could only see the prince royal, I should feel consoled. But +sometimes two whole days pass by without any possibility of meeting him. +He is afraid of exciting the king's suspicions, and still more, those of +Bruhl; he avoids me at all public assemblies, and comes less frequently +to the prince palatine's. To all these painful necessities of my +position must I submit. + +Yesterday evening, at Madame Moszynska's _soiree_, I accidentally +overheard a conversation which pained me deeply. A gentleman whom I did +not know, said to his neighbor: 'But the Starostine Krasinska is +terribly changed!' The answer was: 'That is not at all astonishing, for +the poor young girl is madly in love with the prince royal, and he is +somewhat capricious; when he sees a pretty woman, he falls in love with +her immediately, and now he is all devotion to Madame Potocka, and has +eyes for no one but her.' + +I am sure the prince pretends to be occupied with other women that he +may the more readily conceal his real feelings, and yet I shuddered when +I heard this conversation. It is really frightful to be the subject of +such improper pleasantries! + +If I only had a friend in whom I could confide, and whose advice I could +ask! My maid is as stupid as an owl, and suspects nothing, but +notwithstanding, she is to be sent to the interior of Lithuania, and in +a few days her place will be supplied by a middle-aged married lady of +good birth and acknowledged discretion. I have not seen her yet, and I +have no one to consult with regard to my wedding toilette. For want of a +better adviser, I consulted the prince palatine, and he replied: 'Dress +as you do every day.' + +What a strange destiny! I am making the most brilliant marriage in the +whole kingdom, and yet my shoemaker's daughter will have a trousseau and +wedding festivities which I am forced to envy. + + +WARSAW, Wednesday, _November 4th, 1760._ + +My destiny is accomplished, and I am the prince royal's wife! We have +sworn before God eternal love and fidelity; he is mine, irrevocably +mine! Ah! how sweet, and yet how cruel was that moment! They were forced +to hurry the ceremony, as we feared discovery. + +I saw nothing of the prince royal during the week preceding my marriage; +he feigned sickness, and did not leave his room; he has refused to-day +invitations to dinner at the prince primates, the ambassadors, and even +one to the ball given by the grand general of the crown: his supposed +illness was the pretext on which he freed himself from these +obligations. + +My former waiting woman was sent away day before yesterday, and +yesterday came the new one, who has sworn upon the crucifix to be silent +upon all she may see and hear. + +At five o'clock this morning, the prince palatine knocked at my door; I +had been dressed for at least two hours. We departed as noiselessly as +possible, the prince royal and Prince Martin Lubomirski met us at the +palace gate.... The night was dark, the wind blew, and the cold was +intense. We went on foot to the Carmelite church, because it is the +nearest: our good priest already stood before the altar. If the prince +royal had not supported me, I should have fallen many times during the +passage. + +And how sad and melancholy was all within the church! On all sides the +silence and darkness of the grave! Two wax tapers burned upon the altar, +casting a dim and uncertain light, while the sound of our own steps was +the only sign of life heard within the solemn and sombre vault of the +temple. The ceremony did not last ten minutes, the curate made all +possible haste, and we fled the church as if we had committed some +crime. The prince royal returned with us: Prince Martin wished him to go +at once to the palace, but he would not leave me, and with great +difficulty did he at length part from me. + +My dress was such as I wear every day. I had only dared to place one +little branch of rosemary in my hair.... While I was dressing, I thought +of Barbara's wedding, and could not refrain from weeping.... It was not +my mother who prepared the ducat, the morsel of bread, the salt, and the +sugar, which the betrothed should bear with her on her wedding day; and +so, at the last moment, I forgot them. + +I am now alone in my chamber; not a single friendly eye will say to me: +'Be happy!' My parents have not blessed me.... Profound silence reigns +in every direction, all are yet asleep, and this light burns as if near +a corpse.... Ah! my God! what a mournful festival! Were it not for this +feverish agitation and this wedding ring, which I must soon take off and +hide from every eye, I should believe all these events to be merely a +dream.... But no, I am his, and God has received our vows. + + +SULGOSTOW, Monday, _December 24th._ + +I thought when I married that I would no longer have any occasion to +write in my journal: I believed that a friend, another me, would be the +depositary of all my thoughts. I said to myself: 'Why should I write, +when I will tell all to the prince royal (it seems to me as if I could +call him thus during my whole life)? He does not know enough Polish to +read my diary, and consequently it is useless.' But everything separates +me from my well-beloved husband; I will continue to write that I may be +more closely bound to him, that I may preserve all the remembrances +which come to me from him.... I am pursued by a pitiless fate! Ah! what +despair is at my heart!... When shall I see him again? + +These last few days have been fearful! I thank Heaven that I am not yet +mad! The princess palatiness has sent me from her house, driven me out +as if I were unworthy to remain.... I have taken refuge with my sister +at Sulgostow: when I arrived, I sent for Barbara and her husband, and +said to them: 'Oh, have pity, have pity on me, for I am innocent; I am +the prince royal's wife!' + +My poor sister, to whom the whole transaction was a mystery, thought I +had lost my reason, and was about calling in her maids to aid me. I +endeavored to calm her fears, and to-day I have confided to her all my +sorrows. + +I will try to write down all these recent events. If God ever permits me +to enjoy happiness and tranquillity, I will again read these pages, and +will better appreciate the value of a quiet felicity. + +Six weeks passed after our marriage, and no one had the least suspicion: +neither the king, the court, nor the watchful society surrounding me, +had penetrated our secret; all called me as usual, the Starostine +Krasinska. The prince royal, under the pretext of his health, went +nowhere, and the prince palatine managed our interviews. But a week +since the prince royal began to go out, and paid a visit to my aunt, the +princess. I was in the saloon when he was announced; it was the first +time since our marriage that I had seen him in presence of a third +person, and I found it impossible to hide my confusion. I could not see +and hear him without telling him through my eyes that I loved him. + +The princess observed me. When he was gone, she scolded me, and +reproached me with what she called my coquetry and imprudence; I could +not bear her injustice, and very rashly replied, that no one had a right +to blame me when my own conscience absolved me. The prince royal came +again the next day; the princess was abstracted, and a dissatisfaction, +which she strove in vain to disguise, appeared in her whole manner. He +was entirely occupied with me, and did not perceive the storm which was +gathering; not having been able to speak with me alone on that day, he +had written to me, and while pretending to play with my work basket, he +slipped a note into it. The princess saw it, and as soon as he had gone, +seized upon the fatal note, which was addressed to: 'My well beloved.' + +I can never describe her anger and indignation. How did I ever live +through that horrible scene!... + +'Your _intrigues_,' she cried, 'will never succeed in my house; you are +the horror, the shame, and the ignominy of your family, and you shall +not disgrace my mansion. I have already taken measures to put an end to +your infamous conduct; here is a copy of the letter sent by me this +morning to the minister, Bruhl. I tell him that honor is dearer and more +sacred to me than all family ties, that an ambitious hope will never +induce me to renounce the duties which it imposes upon me, and that I +now esteem it my duty to inform him that the prince royal loves Frances +Krasinska. I conjure the minister to do all in his power to end this +intrigue while there is yet time. I will prove that I have nothing to do +with this abomination, and that if I have been in fault, it was because +I placed such implicit confidence in my niece's virtue. Yes--the king +himself, at this very moment, probably knows the whole extent of your +shame and your insane pride.' + +'The king!' I cried, almost out of my senses, 'the king! Ah! Let no one +tell him that I am the prince royal's wife; let no one tell him that, or +I shall die at your feet!' + +Lost to all memory, all sense, except that of the fearful abyss just +opened before me, I thus confessed the secret which no personal +invective or humiliation could have drawn from me. + +'How?' she replied, 'the wife of the prince royal! You! his wife!' + +This word recalled me to myself, and led me to comprehend the enormity +of my fault. I shuddered when I thought of the prince's anger, and I saw +but one chance for safety, and that was by confessing all to the +princess. + +I fell at her feet, imploring, her to forgive the past, and keep our +secret. Whether she was offended by the tardiness of my confession, or +whether she thought she had gone too far to retrace her steps, I know +not, but she remained implacable, and with cold and repulsive dignity +commanded me to rise, saying: + +'So great a lady should never be found at any one's feet, and I offer +you a thousand apologies for my conduct toward you.' + +I attempted to kiss her hand, but she withdrew it, and ended by saying +that her house was unworthy of a lady of my quality, of a princess +royal, of an independent duchess, of the future Queen of Poland. She +then made all the preparations necessary for my departure. + +I retained strength enough to control my feelings, for which I thank +God: a momentary flash of anger did not cause me to forget so many +proofs of kindness and affection, and, with the docility of a girl of +sixteen, I prepared to depart, although I was entirely ignorant where I +should go to, or who would offer me protection and an asylum.... I +believe the word _Sulgostow_ was uttered either by myself or by the +princess. The valet who came to take the princess's orders during the +latter part of our conversation, mentioned throughout the mansion that I +was going to Sulgostow to pass the Christmas holidays. + +Chance decided my fate, and, incapable of forming any resolution, I was +happy in permitting myself to be guided by others. Before I left, I +wrote a long letter to the prince royal, which I confided to the +princess. In less than two hours all my arrangements were made; I came +and went, I acted mechanically, without fixed thought or purpose; I was +finally placed in the carriage with my lady companion, and the horses +bore us rapidly away from Warsaw. + +When I beheld the walls of Sulgostow, I began to think upon how I could +best acquaint my sister with these incredible events; but once in her +presence, my confusion was such that I lost the power of measuring my +words, and hence she fancied I had gone mad.... + +Now that all has been explained, we laugh together over this strange +mistake, but such laughter is only a momentary forgetfulness of my +position, and a passing truce to my torment. These first two days have +been most painful, for I have as yet heard nothing from the prince +royal. I cannot express my grief and my anguish; my health must be very +strong not to have suffered more from such torments.... At least, may I +not hope that my dreams of bliss will one day be realized? + + + + +THE GREAT STRUGGLE. + + +Is it true that 'our democratic institutions are now on trial?' +Everybody, or nearly everybody, says so. _The London Times_ says so, and +is or has been gloating over their failure. Many of our 'able editors' +say so, and are trying desperately to prove that they will not fail. +Thus, while there is a wide difference in opinion as to what may be the +result, there seems to be a quite general agreement as to the fact that +the trial is going on. There appears to be no suspicion that the +question is not properly stated. Doubtless the assertion will excite +surprise, if heeded at all, that in fact the great struggle here and now +is _not_ between aristocracy or despotism on the one hand, and democracy +on the other. Most people in the United States have come to entertain +the fixed idea that the only natural political antagonisms are +democratic as opposed to despotic in any and all shapes. And this idea +has become so ingrained in the American mind that it will be difficult +to gain credence for the assertion that the terms constitutionalism and +absolutism represent the forces or systems which, have really been +antagonistic ever since Christianity began to affect and animate social +and political relations. + +It may be a new idea to many readers that absolutism can be democratic, +as well as aristocratic or autocratic. Yet such is the fact, and the +whole history of Greece and Rome proves it. Plato, the friend of the +people, taught the absolute power of the state--of the power holder, +whoever that might be, whether the people, the aristocracy, the +triumvirate, the archon, or the consul. It was not possible for Plato, +Demosthenes, or Cicero, to conceive the idea of constitutionalism. + +Wherever the will of the power holder operates _directly_ upon the +subject or object, there is absolutism. Interpose a _medium_ between the +two, separate the law _maker_ from the law _executor_, make _both_ the +subjects or servants of the law, and then, if the people are virtuous, +you can harmonize private liberty with public order. The individual must +not be absorbed by the state; individual liberty must not be merged in +absolutism. Nor must the state go down before individualism. + +The problem is to render possible and reconcile the coexistence of the +largest private liberty and the highest public authority. This implies +the idea of _mediation_. There must be _mediatizing_ institutions +standing between the state and the individual, insuring the safe +transmission of power, and guaranteeing justice between the state and +individuals, as well as between individuals in their relations with each +other. This done, you realize or actualize the grand idea of mediation +in the political relations of men. The distinguishing idea of +Christianity--the God-man reconciling man with God, and thus harmonizing +the finite with the infinite--this idea must actualize itself in the +affairs of men, in order to harmonize perfect liberty with salutary +authority. Animated by this idea, penetrated with profoundest belief of +the infinite worth of the individual man because the God-man had +wonderfully renewed his nature, the early Christian heroes and martyrs +took hold of the hostile and disorganized elements of European +society--the fragments of the Roman empire on the one hand, and the +barbarians of the north on the other--and brought order out of chaos. +They re-organized society by naturally, though slowly, developing those +numerous intermediary institutions--guilds, corporations, trial by jury, +the judiciary, and representation of interests, orders, guilds and +corporations, _not of individual heads_, in Parliament--all which, as a +living, harmonious system, constitute, or _did_ constitute, the English +Constitution, and were essentially reproduced in the Constitution of the +United States, and which wonderfully distinguish constitutionalism from +absolutism. + +'The will of the emperor has the force of law,' was the fundamental +maxim of the civil law. Emperor, imperator;--hence, imperialism, +Caesarism, absolutism. That maxim obtained with pagans--civilized it may +be, but none the less pagans--whose theory or gospel was that 'man is +his own end.' Man's infinite moral worth as man, was not known or not +recognized in the pagan civilization of the classic Greeks and Romans. +Hence the state, which outlived the individual, was of more importance +than the individual, and naturally absorbed the individual. Man being +his own end, and existence being next to impossible without society, the +state was the best means to obtain his end, and therefore Plato taught +that man lives for the state, must be trained up for the state, belongs +to the state, and is of no value outside of the state. Hence the pagan +civilization of Greece and Rome, being intensely human, while it became +very splendid and refined, became also, and could not help becoming +intensely and unutterably corrupt--so corrupt that St. Paul refrained +from finishing the disgusting catalogue of its awful sins and vices. The +church, Christianity, could save _man_, but it could not save the +_empire_. The principle of social harmony being lost, government and +society fell to pieces. + +On a certain memorable occasion, the present Emperor of France uttered +the mystic phrase: _The empire is peace!_ So it is. But how? I answer: +Several centuries of Godless French statesmanship--engineered by men +who, though nominal Christians or Catholics, discarded God in affairs of +state, and attempted to rule without God in the world, except to use Him +(pardon the expression) as a sort of scarecrow for the 'lower +orders'--resulted in gradually drying up those intermediary institutions +which had served at once to develop a manly civic life and to protect +private liberty, and in reabsorbing and concentrating all power in the +central government. Even in the early part of these centuries, Louis the +Fourteenth made his boast, 'I am the state,' and thereby announced the +substantial reinauguration of pagan imperialism or absolutism. His +successors, aided by the ever-growing influence of the renaissance, +which was but the revivification of classic paganism, continued his +system, and when at last their cruel, inhuman, and unchristian +oppressions drove men to the assertion of their rights in the fierce +whirlwind of the French Revolution, that very assertion, 'clad in hell +fire,' as Carlyle says, was based on the self-same fundamental principle +that 'man is his own end.' The Revolution also ignored the divine idea, +and failed. The subsequent revolutions, and especially that of 1848, +were no wiser. The last was simply the triumph of democratic absolutism +by universal suffrage, in place of autocratic or monarchic absolutism, +as De Tocqueville clearly demonstrated in his 'Ancient Regime and the +Revolution.' De Tocqueville had thoroughly mastered the constitutional +system, as had also Lacordaire and Montalembert, and he, as well as +they, joined the so-called republican movement of 1848, hoping that +constitutionalism would triumph at last. But he soon saw that European +Democrats or Red Republicans did not comprehend the idea;--that, in +fact, they meant absolutism, though democratic; and he retired in +disappointment, though calm hopefulness, to his estate, and there wrote +his 'Ancient Regime.' + +True, the Red Republicans issued high-sounding phrases about liberty, +rights of man, and the right of the people to govern. But they meant +rights of man independent of God, and the right of the people to be +absolute; and they continued the system of centralism, or government by +bureaucracy, without God. The French have learned by sad experience that +there is a thousand times more danger of change, turbulence, and +disruption, under democratic absolutism than under autocratic +absolutism. Louis Napoleon knows it well, and hence his significant +phrase, 'The empire is peace.' It is the strong iron band around a mass +of antagonistic atoms, which have lost, at least in the sphere of +politics, the cohesive principle of harmony: union with each other by +virtue of union with the God-man. + +Through all the terrific scenes of turbulence and carnage, the frequent +dynastic changes, and the fearful scourgings of the French empire since +the days of Louis the Fourteenth, the nation itself has not been +destroyed, because, after all, there was and is a vast deal of virtue in +the people as individuals. God never destroyed a nation for its public +or national sins until the people themselves had become individually +thoroughly corrupt. The city of Sodom itself would have been spared had +even _five_ good men been found therein. And so the French nation does +not go to pieces, as the Roman empire did, because, notwithstanding the +vice of Paris, of which we hear and read so much, and the godlessness of +French statesmanship and French literature, the great body of the +people, even in Paris, still retain their integrity, and a wholesome +fear of God. But because their current literature is heathenish, and +their statesmanship has ignored honesty and the divine origin of man's +rights, those intermediary institutions, which were developed by +Christian charity from the idea that man's rights are sacred because +God-given and dignified by the God-man, have been undermined or +disanimated, and it has come to pass that the only government possible, +where the divine idea is eliminated from politics, is one in the form of +absolutism. How long this form will continue in France remains to be +seen. But it is certain that European Democrats or Red Republicans, with +their ideas--or rather lack of ideas--will never comprehend the +constitutional system, and will never rehabilitate or reanimate those +intermediary municipal institutions, the monuments of which De +Tocqueville was surprised to find scattered so generally through +continental Europe, as well as in England and in New England. + +Turning, now, to the United States, it is plainly evident that the whole +tendency of our politics, intensely accelerated by the influence of +Jefferson's French views, has been, first, to lose out of mind the true +significance of those intermediary institutions embodied in the common +law of England, and inherited by us from the mother country; and, +secondly, to depreciate them as standing in the way of the people's +will, or popular sovereignty; and, lastly, to break them down entirely, +and substitute for them the tyranny of an irresponsible majority, or +democratic absolutism. The persistent efforts to get rid of grand juries +and trial by jury, to popularize the judiciary, to make senatorial terms +dependent on changing party majorities, to reduce the representative to +a mere deputy, and other similar schemes to bring about the direct +_unmediatized_ operation of the popular will upon the subject, are all +illustrations of this direful tendency. + +Concurrently with, and greatly aiding this tendency, there has been a +gradual decay of the manly virtue that charactized our fathers. Men have +become less conscientious in the performance of their public duties, and +more regardless of private rights. A genuine manly self-respect implies +sincere respect for the rights of others, and both inevitably decay as +the fear of God dies out. When men continually act on the idea that man +is his own end, and when each one is intensely engaged in seeking his +own interest, what can result but jarring of interests, opposition, +repulsion, disregard of law in so far as it clashes with private ends, +and thus, finally, social and political disruption more or less +extensive? Thus our trouble lies deeper than slavery. Remove the canker +of slavery to-day, and yet the tendency to disruption and dissolution +would evermore go on while prevailing ideas actuated society. The +remorseless mill of selfishness would keep on grinding, grinding, +grinding toward dissolution. Look at our literature, our architecture, +our science, our political and moral theories, our social arrangements +generally, and especially our hideous, almost diabolical arrangements or +lack of arrangements for the care of the poor and the unfortunate, and +what a confused jumble they present! Having no grand animating idea, no +all-pervading principle of harmony, no universally recognized standard +for anything, we are necessarily the most anomalous, amorphous, +helter-skelter aggregation of independent and antagonistic +individualities ever gathered together since nations began to exist. +What can prevent such an agglomeration from falling to pieces? What can +hold it together? + +Thus, with the frightful decay of Christian, and even manly +virtue--alas! too plainly visible all around us--and the entire +divorcement of morality or religious ideas from politics, what fate is +in store for us but the inevitable triumph of anarchy, and through it of +despotism? Herein lies our real danger. The great struggle is _not_, as +many assert, between aristocracy, or monarchy, or despotism and +democracy. But it is between despotism or absolutism and +constitutionalism. It is the struggle of the pagan system (revived by +the renaissance), based on the idea that 'man is his own end,' with the +Christian system based on the idea of mediation, involving the idea that +the true end of man is God. It is not true, therefore, that democratic +institutions are now on trial in the United States. Democracy, pure and +simple, precisely in the form it is assuming or has assumed in this +country, was tried long ago. It was tried in ancient Greece, and found +wanting. It was tried in Rome, and ended in the dissolution of the +empire. And in both these trials it had, to begin with, a much more +highly finished, fresh, robust, and whole-souled manhood to work with +and to work upon than that of modern democracy. More recently it was +tried in France, and for the present is blooming in the despotism of +Napoleon III. + +The question, then, I repeat, is whether constitutionalism, as +originally developed in England and embodied and reproduced by our +fathers--who, perhaps, 'builded wiser than they knew'--can come safely +through this crisis and triumph over the two ideas which, thus far, have +predominated in the American mind, and driven us with fearful strides +toward absolutism. 'Every man for himself' is the first idea. In the +family, in church, in politics, in commerce, in all social and political +relations, every man striving, pushing, scrambling, straining every +nerve to advance himself, regardless of his neighbor or the public +interest--such everywhere is the confused and hideous picture of +American society. Selfishness predominates, and selfishness is +repellant. So it was before the ages were, when Lucifer, in the pride of +self, refused obedience to the Word. So it is even yet, and its +inevitable tendency is to hostile isolation and final dissolution. Its +logical consequence is anarchy. But anarchy is intolerable, and a +civilized people, yea, even barbarians, will submit to anything rather +than social and political chaos. Then comes the iron band of despotism +to hold together the antagonistic fragments. + +'The supremacy of the people's will' is the second idea. _Vox Populi, +vox Dei!_ What the people decree is right, and nothing must stand +between their will and the subject or object upon which it operates! +Such is the political gospel according to democracy, and fifty years' +earnest proclamation thereof has wellnigh abolished all the barriers of +constitutionalism--barriers, which stood like faithful guardians, stern +but just, between the Individual and the State, which reconciled the +harmonious coexistence of private liberty and public power--an idea +wholly unknown in pagan or classic civilization--and which at once +prevented the anarchy of individualism and the tyranny of absolutism. +But true it is, whatever a people constantly assert they come to +believe, and whatever they believe will at last crystallize itself in +action. And thus, with the oft-repeated and ever-increasing assertion +that 'man is his own end,' and 'is sufficient unto himself,' and with +that other assertion that the will of the people is law and must act +directly upon its object, we have gradually lost out of mind the true +significance of the constitutional system. Those numberless intermediary +institutions--which logically _grew_ out of the Christian idea of +mediation, as the oak naturally grows out of the acorn, and which +wonderfully reconciled liberty with authority, freedom with order, the +finite with the infinite--have become more and more obsolete, and less +and less understood. They have crumbled away like the stately columns of +a magnificent but neglected cathedral. They have become dead branches +that must be lopped off. They are rubbish that must be removed--relics +of monarchy or aristocracy, cunningly devised inventions of priestcraft +or kingcraft, that retard the triumph of democracy. + +If the will of the people is supreme, then away with your high and +life-long judges, or at least let them be elected by the people and for +very brief terms. Let grand juries be voted a humbug, and trial by jury +a nuisance. Let electoral colleges be abolished as meaningless and +cumbersome anomalies. Let the President be the direct representative of +a mighty people, and act without let or hindrance--only let him act with +gigantic energy and swift execution. Let senatorial terms be dependent +upon changing legislative majorities. In fact, let the two legislative +houses, as being wholly useless and very expensive, be reduced to one. +Let the representative be a tongue-bound deputy, and not a free, manly, +self-acting agent. Let county boards of supervisors give way to the one +man power of the county judge. And, in short, let us go on, as we have +been going on, democratizing or popularising our institutions, +'improving,' or rather impairing and tearing down one after another of +the venerable columns of the original system, until every safeguard of +personal freedom is removed, and there shall be nothing left to restrain +the giant sway of unmitigated and unmediatized public power. Then we +shall have despotism or absolutism, pure and simple--and none the less +so because it shall be democratic. + +The London _Times_ will have nothing to jubilate over if what it +mistakenly calls our 'trial of democratic institutions' shall be +unsuccessful. For in fact, our constitutional system was but the +reproduction, in a broader field and on a grander scale, of the British +Constitution, in all its essential features, differing only in what +philosophic historians call 'accidentals.' And if that system finally +fails here, _The Times_ may have a 'most comfortable assurance' that it +will fail in England. True, we have more rapidly departed from and +defaced that system than the English, chiefly because, in escaping from +the fogs of England, we left behind us that stolid conservatism, that +bulldog tenacity for the old because it is old, which are instinctive in +the narrow-minded islanders. But they, just as much as we, have lost out +of mind the significance of the Christian idea. They, just as much as +we, have become thoroughly paganized--have become saturated with the +central idea of pagan civilization, that man is his own end, lives for +himself alone, and not for God, and therefore is inferior to and must be +the mere tool of the state. If Americans hold that the state can _make_ +right, as well as enforce it, so do the English. If divine sanctions +have no longer any significance in America, so have they not in England. +If expediency, and not God's truth, is the universal rule of action +here, so is it there. If every American or 'Yankee' seeks his own end in +his own way, regardless of his neighbor, his Government, and his God, so +does every Englishman. The Englishman has no God except his belly or his +purse. Years ago it was said by one of themselves, 'The hell of the +English is--_not to make money_,' If the divine principle of charity is +a myth, and selfishness rages against selfishness here, much more so +with a people whose only God is Mammon. And finally, if inevitable +dissolution shall overtake us, and we rush into absolutism as a refuge +from anarchy, we shall have the melancholy pleasure--if it can be a +pleasure--of hailing the almost simultaneous wreck of the British +Constitution, whose noble ruins, no less than ours, would be mournful +monumental witnesses to the glory of ages wiser and better than our +own. + + + + +AMERICAN FINANCES AND RESOURCES. + +LETTER NO. II, FROM HON. ROBERT J. WALKER. + + + LONDON, _10 Half Moon Street, Piccadilly_, + October 8, 1863. + +In view of the fact that the people of the United Kingdom and of the +United States are mainly of the same race, speak the same language, have +the same literature, ancestry, and common law, with the same history for +centuries, and a reciprocal commerce exceeding that of all the rest of +the world, it is amazing how little is known in each country of the +other. This condition of affairs is most unfavorable to the continuance +of peace and good will between two great and kindred nations. It causes +constant misapprehension by each party of the acts and motives of the +other, arrests the development of friendly feeling, and retards the +advance of commercial freedom. It excites almost daily rumors of +impending war, disturbing the course of trade, causing large mercantile +losses, and great unnecessary Government expenditures. If war has not +ensued, it has led to angry controversy and bitter recrimination. It is +sowing broadcast in both countries the seeds of international hatred, +rendering England and America two hostile camps, frowning mutual +defiance; and, if not terminating in war, must, if not arrested, end in +embargoes and non-intercourse, or discriminating duties on imports and +tonnage, greatly injurious to both countries. I know it has become +fashionable in England and America to sneer at the fact of our common +origin; but the great truth still exists, and is fraught with momentous +consequences, for good or evil, to both nations, and to mankind. The +United States were colonized mainly by the people of England. Ten of our +original thirteen States bear English names, as do also nearly all their +counties, townships, cities, and villages. + +Leaving to Englishmen the task of disabusing the Americans in regard to +their own country, I will endeavor to present, in a condensed form, some +material and authentic facts as regards the United States, for the +consideration of the people of the United Kingdom. I read and hear every +day here predictions of our impending bankruptcy and national +dissolution; our wealth and resources depreciated; our cause, our +people, our armies, and Government decried; and a war in words and in +the press prosecuted against us with vindictive fury. All this hostility +is fully reciprocated in America; and if the war is not confined to +words and types, it will not be the fault of agitators in both +countries. So far as an American can, even in part, arrest this fatal +progress of misapprehension, by communicating information in regard to +his own country, is the principal purpose of these essays. + +In answer to the daily predictions here of our impending ruin and +national bankruptcy, I shall first discuss the question of our wealth, +resources, and material progress. + +AREA.--The area of the United States, including lakes and +rivers, is 3,250,000 square miles, being larger than all Europe. (Rep. +Sec. of Interior and of Com. of Gen. Land Office for Dec. 1860, p. 13.) + +Our land surface is 3,010,370 square miles, being 1,926,636,000 acres. +This area is compact and contiguous, divided into States and +Territories, united by lakes, rivers, canals, and railroads. We have no +colonies. Congress governs the nation by what the Constitution declares +to be '_the supreme law_,' whilst local regulations are prescribed and +administered by the several States and Territories. We front on the two +great oceans--the Atlantic and Pacific; extending from the St. Lawrence +and the lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, from near the 24th to the 49th +parallel of north latitude; and in longitude, from 67 deg. 25' to 124 deg. 40' +west of Greenwich. Our location on the globe as regards its land surface +is central, and all within the temperate zone. No empire of contiguous +territory possesses such a variety of climate, soil, forests and +prairies, fruits and fisheries, animal, vegetable, mineral, and +agricultural products. We have all those of Europe, with many in +addition, and a climate (on the average) more salubrious, and with +greater longevity, as shown by the international census. We have a far +more fertile soil and genial sun, with longer and better seasons for +crops and stock; and already, in our infancy, with our vast products, +feed and clothe many millions in Europe and other continents. Last year +our exports to foreign countries of breadstuffs and provisions, from the +loyal States alone, were of the value of $108,000,000. (Table of Com. +and Nav. 1860.) + +If as well cultivated as England, our country could much more than feed +and clothe the whole population of the world. If as densely settled as +England, our population would be more than twelve hundred millions, +exceeding that of all the earth. If as densely settled as Massachusetts +(among the least fertile of all our States), we would number 513,000,000 +inhabitants. + +We have seen that our area exceeds that of Europe, with a far more +genial sun and fertile soil, and capable of yielding more than double +the amount of agricultural products and of sustaining more than twice +the number of inhabitants. We have a greater extent of mines than all +Europe, especially of coal, iron, gold, silver, and quicksilver. Our +coal alone, as stated by Sir William Armstrong (the highest British +authority), is 32 times as great as that of the United Kingdom, and our +iron will bear a similar proportion. + +Our maritime front is 5,120 miles; but our whole coast line, including +bays, sounds, and rivers, up to the head of tide water, is 33,663 miles. +(Ex. Doc. No. 7, pp. 75, 76, Official Report of Professor A. D. Bache, +Superintendent of U. S. Coast Survey, Dec. 5th, 1848.) Our own lake +shore line is 3,620 miles. (Top. Rep. ib. 77.) + +The shore line of the Mississippi river above tide water and its +tributaries, is 35,644 (ib. 77); and of all our other rivers, above tide +water, is 49,857 miles, making in all 122,784 miles. Of this stupendous +water mileage, more than one half is navigable by steam, employing an +interior steam tonnage exceeding that of all the internal steam tonnage +of the rest of the world. No country is arterialized by such a vast +system of navigable streams, to have constructed which as canals of +equal capacity would have cost more than ten billions of dollars, and +then these canals would have been subjected to large tolls, the cost of +their annual repairs would have been enormous, and the interruption by +lockage a serious obstacle. We may rest assured then, that, all Europe +combined, can never have such facilities for cheap water communication +as the United States. This is a mighty element in estimating the power +and progress of a nation. It shows, also, why we have no such deserts as +Sahara, so small a portion of our lands requiring manures or irrigation, +and no general failures of crops, with so few even partial failures of +any one crop. + +We have more deep, capacious, and safe harbors, accessible at _all +tides_, than all Europe, with more than twenty capable of receiving the +_Great Eastern_. (Charts, U. S. Coast Survey.) + +Our hydraulic power (including Niagara) far exceeds that of all Europe. +We have more timber than all Europe, including most varieties, useful +and ornamental. We have, including cotton, vastly more of the raw +material for manufactures than all Europe. With all these vast natural +advantages, has man, in our country, performed his duty, in availing +himself of the bounteous gifts of Providence? We are considering now the +question of our material progress, in regard to which, the following +official data are presented. + +We have completed since 1790, 5,782 miles of canals, from 4 to 10 feet +deep, and from 40 to 75 feet wide, costing $148,000,000, and mostly +navigable by steam. (Census Table, 1860, No. 39.) + +We have constructed since 1829, 33,698 miles of railroad (more than all +the rest of the world), costing $1,258,922,729. (Table 38, Census of +1860, and Addenda.) + +We have in operation on the land, more miles of telegraph than all the +world, a single route, from New York to San Francisco, being 3,500 +miles. + +Our lighthouses exceed in number those of any other country, and we have +no light-dues, as in England. + +Our coast survey, executed by Professor Bache, Superintendent of the U. +S. Coast Survey, exceeds in extent and accuracy that of any other +country. On this subject, we have the united opinions of British and +Continental savans. + +We have made since 1790, 1,505,454 linear miles of survey of the public +lands of the United States, belonging to the Government, including +460,000,000 of acres already divided into townships, each six miles +square (23,040 acres), subdivided into square miles, called sections, of +640 acres each, and each section further subdivided into 16 lots of 40 +acres each. + +TONNAGE.--The total tonnage of the United States was in-- + + 1814, 1,368,127 tons. + June, 1851, 3,772,439 " + June, 1861, 5,539,812 " + +At the same rate of increase as from 1851 to 1861, our tonnage would be, +in + + 1871, 8,134,578 tons. + 1881, 11,952,817 " + 1891, 17,541,514 " + 1901, 25,758,948 " + (_Table of Com. and Nav._) + +At the close of this century our tonnage then, at this rate of increase, +would far exceed that of all the rest of the world. + +GOLD AND SILVER.--The aggregate product of our gold and silver +mines approaches now _one billion of dollars_, most of which has been +converted into coin at our mint. Nearly all of this product has been +obtained since the discovery of gold in California. Less than two per +cent. of the precious metals has been the product of the seceded States. +This gold and silver are found now in seven States, and nine +Territories; the yield is rapidly augmenting, and new discoveries +constantly developed. + +The Secretary of the Interior estimates the total product 'next year,' +of our mines of precious metals, at '$100,000,000,' and when our +railroad to the Pacific (traversing this region) is completed, his +estimate of the 'annual yield' is '$150,000,000.' The mines are declared +'inexhaustible' by the highest authority, and our Nevada silver mines +are now admitted to be 'the richest in the world.' The completion of our +imperial railroad, now progressing to the Pacific, will carry an immense +population to the gold and silver regions, vastly increase the number of +miners, diminish the cost of mining, and decrease the price of +provisions and supplies to the laborers. When we add to this, the vast +and increasing product of our quicksilver mines of California, so +indispensable as an amalgam in producing gold and silver, as also the +great and progressive improvement in processes and machinery for working +the quartz veins, it is now believed that the estimates of our Secretary +of the Interior, and Commissioner of the General Land Office, will be +exceeded by the result. These mines of the precious metals are nearly +all on the public lands of the United States; they are the _property of +the Federal Government_, and their intrinsic value _exceeds our public +debt_. + +PUBLIC LANDS.--The United States own an immense public domain, +acquired by treaties with France, Spain, and Mexico, and by compacts +with States and Indian tribes. This domain is thus described in the +Report of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, of November 29th, +1860: + + 'Of the 3,250,000 of square miles which constitute the territorial + extent of the Union, the public lands embrace an area of 2,265,625 + square miles, or 1,450,000,000 of acres, being more than two thirds + of our geographical extent, and nearly three times as large as the + United States at the ratification of the definitive treaty of peace + in 1783 with Great Britain. This empire domain extends from the + northern line of Texas, the Gulf of Mexico, reaching to the + Atlantic Ocean, northwesterly to the Canada line bordering upon the + great Lakes Erie, Huron, Michigan, and Superior, extending westward + to the Pacific Ocean, with Puget's Sound on the north, the + Mediterranean Sea of our extreme northwestern possessions. + + 'It includes fifteen sovereignties, known as the 'Land States,' and + an extent of territory sufficient for thirty-two additional, each + equal to the great central land State of Ohio. + + 'It embraces soils capable of abundant yield of the rich + productions of the tropics, of sugar, cotton, rice, tobacco, corn, + and the grape, the vintage, now a staple, particularly so of + California; of the great cereals, wheat and corn, in the Western, + Northwestern, and Pacific States, and in that vast interior region + from the valley of the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains; + and thence to the chain formed by the Sierra Nevada and Cascades, + the eastern wall of the Pacific slope, every variety of soil is + found revealing its wealth. + + 'Instead of dreary, inarable wastes, as supposed in earlier times, + the millions of buffalo, elk, deer, mountain sheep, the primitive + inhabitants of the soil, fed by the hand of nature, attest its + capacity for the abundant support of a dense population through the + skilful toil of the agriculturist, dealing with the earth under the + guidance of the science of the present age. + + 'Not only is the yield of food for man in this region abundant, but + it holds in its bosom the precious metals of gold, silver, with + cinnabar, the useful metals of iron, lead, copper, interspersed + with immense belts or strata of that propulsive element, coal, the + source of riches and power, and now the indispensable agent, not + only for domestic purposes of life, but in the machine shop, the + steam car, and steam vessel, quickening the advance of civilization + and the permanent settlement of the country, and being the agent of + active and constant intercommunication with every part of the + republic.' + +Kansas having been admitted since the date of this Report, our public +domain, thus described officially, now includes the sixteen _land +States_, and _all_ the Territories. + +Of this vast region (originally 1,450,000,000 acres), there was surveyed +up to September, 1860, 441,067,915 acres, and 394,088,712 acres disposed +of by sales, grants, etc., leaving, as the Commissioner states, 'the +total area of unsold and unappropriated, of offered and unoffered lands +of the public domain, 1,055,911,288 acres.' This is 'land surface,' +exclusive of lakes, bays, rivers, etc., 1,055,911,288 acres, or +1,649,861 square miles, and exceeds one half the area of the whole +Union. The area of New York, being 47,000 square miles, is less than a +thirty-fifth part of our public domain. England[3] (proper) has 50,922 +square miles, France 203,736, Prussia 107,921, and Germany 80,620 square +miles. The area then of our public domain is more than eight times as +large as France, more than fifteen times as large as Prussia, more than +twenty times as large as Germany, more than thirty-two times as large as +England, and larger (excluding Russia) than all Europe, containing more +than 200 millions of people. + +As England (proper) contained in 1861, 18,949,916 inhabitants, if our +public domain were as densely settled, its population would exceed 606 +millions; and it would be 260,497,561, if numbering as many to the +square mile as Massachusetts. Its average fertility far exceeds that of +Europe, as does also the extent of its mines, especially gold, silver, +coal, and iron, with every variety of soil, climate, mineral and +agricultural products. + +These lands are surveyed at the expense of the Government into townships +of six miles square, subdivided into sections, and these into quarter +sections (160) acres, set apart for homesteads. Our system of public +surveys into squares, by lines running due north and south, east and +west, is so simple as to have precluded all disputes as to boundary or +title. This domain reaches from the 24th to the 49th parallel, from the +lakes to the gulf, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Its isothermes +(the lines of equal mean annual temperatures) strike on the north the +coast of Norway midway, touch St. Petersburg in Russia, and pass through +Manchooria on the coast of Asia, about three degrees south of the mouth +of the Amour river. On the south, these isothermes run through Northern +Africa, and nearly the centre of Egypt near Thebes, cross Northern +Arabia, Persia, Northern Hindostan, and Southern China near Canton. + +Of this vast domain, less than two per cent. is cursed by slavery, which +is prohibited by law in eleven of these land States, and in all the +Territories. + +Now, however, within our present vast domain, not only the poor, but our +own industrious classes and those of Europe, may not only find a home, +but a farm for each settler, substantially as a free gift by the +Government. Here all who would rather be owners than tenants, and wish +to improve and cultivate their own soil, are invited. Here, too, all who +would become equals among equals, citizens (not subjects) of a great and +free country, enjoying the right of suffrage, and eligible to every +office except the presidency, can come and occupy with us this great +inheritance. Here liberty, equality, and fraternity reign supreme, not +in theory, or in name only, but in truth and reality. This is the +brotherhood of man, secured and protected by our organic law. Here the +Constitution and the people are the only sovereigns, and the Government +is administered by their elected agents, and for the benefit of the +people. Those toiling elsewhere for wages that will scarcely support +existence, for the education of whose children no provision is made by +law, who are excluded from the right of suffrage, may come here and be +voters and citizens, find a farm given as a homestead, free schools +provided for their children at the public expense, and hold any office +but the presidency, to which their children, born here, are eligible. +What does Europe for any of its toiling millions who reject this +munificent offer? He is worked and taxed there to his utmost endurance. +He has the right to _work_, and _pay taxes_, but not to vote. Unschooled +ignorance is his lot and that of his descendants. If a farmer, he works +and improves the land of others, in constant terror of rent day, the +landlord, and eviction. Indeed the annual rent of a single acre in +England exceeds the price--$10 (L2. 2s. 8d.)--payable for the +ownership in fee simple of the entire homestead of 160 acres, granted +him here by the Government. For centuries that are past and for all time +to come, there, severe toil, poverty, ignorance, the workhouse, or low +wages, and disfranchisement, would seem to be his lot. Here, freedom, +competence, the right of suffrage, the homestead farm, and free schools +for his children. + +In selecting these homestead farms, the emigrant can have any +temperature, from St. Petersburg to Canton. He can have a cold, a +temperate, or a warm climate, and farming or gardening, grazing or +vintage, varied by fishing or hunting. He can raise wheat, rye, Indian +corn, oats, rice, indigo, cotton, tobacco, cane or maple sugar and +molasses, sorghum, wool, peas and beans, Irish or sweet potatoes, +barley, buckwheat, wine, butter, cheese, hay, clover, and all the +grasses, hemp, hops, flax and flaxseed, silk, beeswax and honey, and +poultry, in uncounted abundance. If he prefers a stock farm, he can +raise horses, asses, and mules, camels, milch cows, working oxen, and +other cattle, goats, sheep, and swine. In most locations, these will +require neither housing nor feeding throughout the year. He can have +orchards, and all the fruits and vegetables of Europe, and many in +addition. He can have an Irish or German, Scotch, English or Welsh, +French, Swiss, Norwegian, or American neighborhood. He can select the +shores of oceans, lakes, or rivers; live on tide water or higher lands, +valleys, or mountains. He can be near a church of his own denomination; +the freedom of conscience is complete; he pays no tithes, nor church +tax, except voluntarily. His sons and daughters, on reaching twenty-one +years of age, or sooner, if the head of a family, are each entitled to a +homestead of 160 acres; if he dies, the title is secured to his widow, +children, or heirs. Our flag is his, and covers him everywhere with its +protection. He is our brother; and he and his children will enjoy with +us the same heritage of competence and freedom. He comes where labor is +king, and toil is respected and rewarded. If before, or instead of +receiving his homestead, he chooses to pursue his profession or +business, to work at his trade, or for daily wages, he will find them +double the European rate, and subsistence cheaper. From whatever part of +Europe he may come, he will meet his countrymen here, and from them and +us receive a cordial welcome. A Government which gives him a farm, the +right to vote, and free schools for his children, must desire his +welfare. + +Of this vast domain (more than thirty-two times as large as England) the +Government of the United States grants substantially as a free gift, a +_farm of 160 acres_ to every settler who will occupy and cultivate the +same, the title being in fee simple, and free from all rent whatsoever. +The settler may be _native_ or _European_, a present or future +immigrant, including females as well as males, but must be at least +twenty-one years of age, _or_ the head of a family. If an immigrant, the +declaration must first be made of an _intention_ to become a citizen of +the United States, when the grant is immediately made, without waiting +for naturalization. When the children of the settler reach twenty-one +years of age, or become the head of a family, they each receive from the +Government a like donation of 160 acres. The intrinsic value of this +public domain far exceeds the whole public debt of the United States. + +Our national wealth, by the last census, was $16,159,616,068, and its +increase during the last ten years $8,925,481,011, or 126.45 per cent. +(Census, 1860, p. 195.) Now, if, as a consequence of the Homestead Bill, +there should be occupied, improved, and cultivated, during the next ten +years, 100,000 additional farms by settlers, or only 10,000 per annum, +it would make an aggregate of 16,000,000 acres. If, including houses, +fences, barns, and other improvements, we should value each of these +farms at ten dollars an acre, it would make an aggregate of +$160,000,000. But if we add the product of these farms, allowing only +one half of each (80 acres) to be cultivated, and the average annual +value of the crops, stock included, to be only ten dollars per acre, it +would give $80,000,000 a year, and, in ten years, $800,000,000, +independent of the reinvestment of capital. It is clear that thus vast +additional employment would be given to labor, freight to steamers, +railroads, and canals, markets for manufactures, and augmented revenue. + +The homestead privilege will largely increase immigration. Now, beside +the money brought here by immigrants, the census proves that the average +annual value of the labor of Massachusetts, _per capita_, was, in 1860, +$300 for each man, woman, and child. Assuming that of the immigrants at +an average net annual value of only $100 each, or less than 33 cents a +day, it would make, in ten years, at the rate of 200,000 each year, the +following aggregate: + + 1st year, 200,000 = $20,000,000 + 2d " 400,000 " 40,000,000 + 3d " 600,000 " 60,000,000 + 4th " 800,000 " 80,000,000 + 5th " 1,000,000 " 100,000,000 + 6th " 1,200,000 " 120,000,000 + 7th " 1,400,000 " 140,000,000 + 8th " 1,600,000 " 160,000,000 + 9th " 1,800,000 " 180,000,000 + 10th " 2,000,000 " 200,000,000 + ------------- + Total, $1,100,000,000 + +In this table, the labor of all immigrants each year is properly added +to those arriving the succeeding year, so as to make the aggregate, the +last year, two millions. This would make the value of the labor of these +two millions of immigrants, in ten years, $1,100,000,000, independent of +the annual accumulation of capital, and the labor of the children of the +immigrants after the first ten years, which, with their descendants, +would go on constantly increasing. + +But, by the actual official returns (see page 14 of Census), the number +of alien immigrants to the United States, from December, 1850, to +December, 1860, was 2,598,216, or an annual average of 259,821, say +260,000. The effect, then, of this immigration, on the basis of the last +table, upon the increase of national wealth, was as follows: + + 1st year, 260,000 = $26,000,000 + 2d " 520,000 " 52,000,000 + 3d " 780,000 " 78,000,000 + 4th " 1,040,000 " 104,000,000 + 5th " 1,300,000 " 130,000,000 + 6th " 1,560,000 " 156,000,000 + 7th " 1,820,000 " 182,000,000 + 8th " 2,080,000 " 208,000,000 + 9th " 2,340,000 " 234,000,000 + 10th " 2,600,000 " 260,000,000 + -------------- + Total, $1,430,000,000 + +Thus the value of the labor of the immigrants from 1850 to 1860 was +fourteen hundred and thirty millions of dollars, making no allowance for +the accumulation of capital by annual reinvestment, nor for the natural +increase of population, amounting, by the census, in ten years, to about +24 per cent. This addition to our wealth by the labor of the children, +in the first ten years, would be small; but in the second, and each +succeeding decennium, when we count children and their descendants, it +would be large and constantly augmenting. But the census shows that our +wealth increases each ten years at the rate of 126.45 per cent. Now, +then, take our increase of wealth in consequence of immigration as +before stated, and compound it at the rate of 126.45 per cent, every ten +years, and the result is largely over three billions of dollars in 1870, +and over seven billions of dollars in 1880, independent of the effect of +any immigration succeeding 1860. If these results are astonishing, we +must remember that immigration here is augmented population, and that it +is population and labor that create wealth. Capital, indeed, is the +accumulation of labor. Immigration, then, from 1850 to 1860, added to +our national wealth a sum more than one third greater than our whole +debt on the 1st of July last, and augmenting in a ratio much more rapid +than its increase, and thus enabling us to bear the war expenses. + +As the homestead privilege must largely increase immigration, and add +especially to the cultivation of our soil, it will contribute more than +any other measure to increase our population, wealth, and power, and +augment out revenue from duties and taxes. + +We have seen that, by the Census (p. 195), the total value of the real +and personal estate in the United States was, in-- + + 1860, $16,159,616,068 + 1850, 7,135,780,228 + +Increase from 1850 to 1860, 126.45 per cent. + +At the same rate of increase, for the four succeeding decades, the +result would be, in-- + + 1870, $36,593,450,585 + 1880, 82,865,868,849 + 1890, 187,314,353,225 + 1900, 423,330,438,288 + +If we subtract one fourth from the aggregate, we will find that our +public debt constitutes less than _one half of one per cent._ of the +_increase_ of our national wealth. This debt, then, does not exhaust our +capital, but effects only a small diminution of the rate of +augmentation. + +If we look at the causes of this vast increase of our national wealth, +they will be found mainly in the enormous extent of our fertile lands, +the vast emigration from Europe, and the constant addition of new States +to the Union. Thus, from 1850 to 1860, four new States were added to the +Union. These four States were almost an untrodden wilderness in 1850, +but in 1860 were rich and flourishing States, with a population of +638,965, and an aggregate wealth of $331,809,418. Within this decade, +from 1860 to 1870, at least six new States will be added to the Union. +This is evident from a reference to our present Territories, as follows: + + Dacotah, 95,316,480 acres. + Nebraska, 48,636,800 " + Indian, 56,924,000 " + Idaho, 208,878,720 " + Washington, 44,796,160 " + Nevada, 52,184,960 " + Utah, 68,084,480 " + Arizona, 80,730,240 " + New Mexico, 77,568,640 " + Colorado, 66,880,000 " + ----------- + Total, 800,000,480 acres. + +Here then are Territories with an aggregate area of 800,000,480 acres, +sufficient for twenty-six States of the size of New York. In all these +Territories but one, the precious metals are found in great abundance, +and the railroad to the Pacific, with numerous branches through this +vast region, together with the greatest advantages of our new Homestead +Bill of last year, is settling these Territories with unprecedented +rapidity. Notwithstanding the war, immigration to the United States is +progressing with more than its usual volume, caused by the very high +wages for labor, the great benefits of our recent Homestead Bill, and +the exclusion, by recent act of Congress, of slavery from all this vast +domain. + +It will be observed, that, whilst the _lands_ constituting these +Territories remain _public_ lands, no estimate is made of them as wealth +in the national census. It is only when these public lands become farms +and private property, that they are valued as part of the wealth of the +nation. This remark also applies to that 255,000,000 acres of public +lands in the sixteen _Land States_ of the Union. Hence the amazing +increase of wealth at each decade, in the new States and Territories. +Thus, by Table 35 of the Census of 1860, page 195, the rate of increase +of wealth in the following States and Territories, from 1850 to 1860, +was: + +_Territories._ + + Washington, 5,000 per cent. + Nebraska, 4,800 " + Utah, 467 " + New Mexico, 302 " + +_States._ + + Kansas, 8,000 per cent. + Iowa, 942 " + California, 837 " + Minnesota, 6,000 " + Michigan, 330 " + Oregon, 471 per cent. + Illinois, 457 " + Wisconsin, 550 " + +It is thus that the wave of population moves onward in our Western +States and Territories, that the axe and the plough are the pioneers of +civilization, that farms, cities, and villages, the schoolhouse, and the +church, rise from the wilderness, as if by the touch of an enchanter's +wand. That enchantment is the power of _freedom and education_, the +effect of which (as compared with the deadly influence of slavery and +ignorance) shall be illustrated in a succeeding letter. In that letter, +by comparing the relative progress of our Free and Slave States, as +demonstrated by our Census, it will be proved, incontestably, that the +total exclusion of slavery from our Union will cause an addition to our +national wealth vastly exceeding the whole public debt of our country, +and soon leave us much richer than before the rebellion. + + R. J. WALKER. + + + + +THE DECLINE OF ENGLAND. + + +In Europe, two nations for almost a thousand years have contended for +empire. England and France, for the greater portion of that period, have +waged war with each other. When not engaged in actual hostilities, they +have watched each other with jealous animosity--seeking by intrigue and +diplomatic schemes to thwart or defeat the designs which one or the +other had formed for national aggrandizement. + +No one of Anglo-Saxon descent can peruse the histories of those +countries, and not feel pride in the valor and success which have +distinguished his race. Twice the victorious banner of England has +fluttered in the gaze of Paris. Until a recent age, the French flag +visited the ocean only at the sufferance of England. + +Whatever may be thought of the wisdom of the continental policy of +England since 1688--in pursuance of which she has persistently sought to +defeat the ambition of France--no one can help admiring the ability and +indomitable courage she has displayed in the gratification of her +national antipathy. From the League of Augsburg, of 1687, to which she +became a party, to the Treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, she put forth +herculean efforts to compel the relinquishment of the family compact by +Louis XIV. By that treaty, the darling project of that monarch to secure +the crown of Spain for a Bourbon, was forever abandoned by France. +Elated with this triumph over her adversary, throughout the eighteenth +century England continued to pursue the same policy of checking and +defeating all the schemes of France for territorial acquisition. It +mattered not where; in whatever quarter of the globe France sought to +plant her standard, she always found there an English enemy. In Asia, +Africa, and America, as well as in Europe, all her attempts to extend +her empire were defeated by England. Pondicherry was the only East +Indian possession which the genius of Clive allowed her to retain. By +the Treaty of Paris, of 1763, she was compelled to relinquish Canada in +order to regain her West Indian islands conquered by England.[4] + +Vainly, under good or bad, weak or potent sovereigns, did France +attempt the enlargement of her empire or an increase of national power. +England, on one pretence or another, always confronted her, and by +successful war, or unscrupulous diplomacy, baffled her designs. + +The English mind was cultivated throughout the eighteenth century into +the belief that every accession to France was a menace and an injury to +England. + +At last the French Revolution, inspiring with preternatural energy that +gallant people, turned the tide of events so long adverse to French +aggrandizement. Still true to her hereditary hostility, England combined +all Europe to resist the aggression of republican France. But soon, from +the raging elements of that awful convulsion, the 'Man of Destiny' +arose, who could 'ride the whirlwind and direct the storm.' He seized +the helm, evoked order from chaos, and smote the enemies of France +wherever they appeared, revived the splendors of her early history, and, +like her mediaeval Charlemagne, gave the law to Europe. + +England took the measure of Napoleon, and recognized in him an enemy +whom she must subdue at any cost, or submit to be reduced in the scale +of nations to that importance and those proportions befitting her +diminutive territory in Europe. + +The battle of Marengo--the Peace of Luneville--the ascendency of +Napoleon on the continent--the defection of the continental allies of +England--and the preparations of Napoleon for her invasion, led to the +Treaty of Amiens. + +That treaty, however, was only a brief truce, which England never +designed to observe but temporarily. She refused to respect its +obligations, and even to negotiate for its modification. She feared that +peace would enable Napoleon to rebuild his shattered navy. + +Lord Hawkesbury's note of March 15th, 1803, assigned as her avowed +reason for the renewal of the war--'the acquisition made by France in +various quarters, particularly in Italy, and therefore England would be +justified in claiming equivalents for these acquisitions as a +counterpoise to the augmentation of the power of France.'[5] + +This note of Lord Hawkesbury avows distinctly the spirit of the foreign +policy of England for the last two hundred years. She would not tolerate +any acquisition by her rival unless she obtained 'equivalents.' In +pursuance of this unchangeable policy, she again declared war against +France. Mr. Pitt resumed his position of prime minister, and soon formed +a new continental coalition to resist the mighty power and the +aggressions of the French emperor. + +Thenceforward she listened to no overtures for peace, but prosecuted +with implacable resentment the war--until she finally prostrated her +imperial foe, and became his inglorious jailer, until death relieved her +from all apprehensions of danger. + +But this triumph of a vindictive policy, so gratifying to the national +antipathy, was purchased at a price perhaps far exceeding its value. + +The overthrow of Napoleon was an achievement which compelled England to +anticipate the resources of future generations. These generations have +come, and are coming, and they find themselves unable any longer to +contend with French ambition. + +The first Napoleon, whom England fought with such relentless animosity, +won his throne by the display of matchless ability in the field and the +cabinet. The present Napoleon reached _his_ throne by perjury, +assassination, and crimes of the blackest atrocity. The first Napoleon +England pursued with her hatred to his grave. The present Napoleon, +reeking with the blood of his unarmed fellow citizens, kisses the queen +of England, and the _entente cordial_ with him becomes the foreign +policy of England. Entangled in his toils, she makes war on Russia as +his ally, stands silently while he humbles Austria and changes the map +of Europe, and barely escapes by an afterthought being dragged into an +attempt to destroy a free republic in America, to enable France to +augment the area for the expansion of the Latin race at the expense of +that of the Anglo-Saxon. + +What would the great Chatham and his son--who so long moulded the +destiny of Europe--say, if they could revisit the earth and peruse the +history of their country for the last twelve years? Would they recognize +her as that England who in their hands smote the house of Bourbon, and +inaugurated the policy which led to the overthrow of the greatest +captain who ever tormented with his lust for glory the human race? +Certainly, in all the wars which England waged against the house of +Bourbon, France never attempted a conquest of greater value than that +which the present Napoleon has commenced in Mexico. Certainly, no +conquest which the first Napoleon ever threatened in Europe would have +so strengthened France as would the annexation of Mexico to her +dominions. But England has expended in her wars with the first Napoleon, +to restrain him from acquisitions which could not have materially +injured England, all her resources for war. She is not in the condition +to wage such wars with France as she prosecuted during the last and the +beginning of the present century. She knows that she must acquiesce in +the ambitious acquisitions of the present Napoleon, or else encounter +his hostility. Cherbourg and the steam navy of France render an invasion +of the British Isles a more practicable achievement for the present +Napoleon than ever the first Napoleon could hope for. England shrinks, +therefore, from any effort to curb the present aggrandizement of France, +from _fear_. She ignominiously renounces and abandons the policy of her +monarchy, her aristocracy, and her people--pursued for two hundred years +with unfaltering pertinacity; not because she condemns it, not because +she does not feel 'justified' in resisting French acquisitions unless +'equivalents for these acquisitions as a counterpoise to the +augmentation of the power of France' are obtained; but obviously, +because she fears to encounter the arms of the present Napoleon. + +When the French emperor forced upon the acceptance of Lord Aberdeen's +cabinet 'the harsh and insulting scheme of action' (as Kinglake calls +it) which provoked the war with Russia in 1854, England's dilemma was: a +war with Nicholas, or a rupture with France. 'The negotiation which had +seemed to be almost ripe for a settlement was then ruined.'[6] + +A war for Napoleon at that time with one of the great powers, was a +necessity. It was necessary for the stability of his throne. It was +necessary to prevent the thoughts of France from dwelling upon the +assassination of the republic and her own infamy in submitting to that +enormous villany. If it had not been Russia, it would have been England +that the imperial usurper would have denounced as disturbing the waters +for his provocation. + +Mellowed by time, and enlightened by their deplorable results, England +now views the wars with Napoleon the First in their true light. So far +from British power having been augmented by that tremendous struggle, it +has compelled England to descend from the position of a first-rate to +that of a second-rate power, so far as it concerns the politics of +Europe. Had the first Napoleon survived to this day, she would hardly +have consented to act with the same subserviency to him as she now +voluntarily acts toward his ignoble counterfeit. She would never have +stood an idle spectator of the humiliation of Austria by him. She would +never have permitted him to betray her into the causeless and ridiculous +war with her ancient ally Russia. It was the aid of Russia which +enabled her to overthrow the great Napoleon, and now she permits the +little Napoleon to bully her into a war with Russia that he may bedizen +his name with the glory of a conflict with the conqueror of his +illustrious kinsman. + +If the object of Napoleon was so ignominious, contemptible, and +criminal, as we know it to have been, in producing the war of 1854, with +what obloquy must England be covered for allowing herself to be beguiled +into such a war by such a juggler? + +The pretended cause of the Crimean war, as alleged, was the threatened +invasion of Turkey by Nicholas. But what injury was _that_ to England, +compared to the seizure of Mexico by France? + +England had not for two hundred years made it the chief object of her +foreign policy to resist the expansion of the Russian empire. She had +acquiesced in the partition of Poland, and by the Treaty of Vienna made +herself a party to that nefarious spoliation by Russia, Austria, and +Prussia. She knew that Austria, Prussia, and the German Confederation +were pledged to protect Turkey from Russia.[7] Her subserviency to +France in separately with her making war on Russia, upon the pretence of +the protection of Turkey, was supererogatory as well as needless. + +The truth is, and so will history make up the record, the French emperor +desired to humiliate England, and England dare not refuse to be +humiliated by him. It was a 'GREAT SURRENDER.'[8] + +It will not do for England to excuse herself for not resisting the +French invasion of Mexico by any such allegation as that she has +received Napoleon's assurances that he does not intend to make a French +province of Mexico. She must know, that no confidence can be placed in +his veracity. She must know, that such assurances are but a flimsy veil +to deceive her and other nations. They are designed to meet the +contingency--of Federal success in crushing rebellion. + +He has been willing to be fooled by those who surround him, into the +belief that the rebels will achieve their independence.[9] In that +event, he will never relinquish his grasp on Mexico, unless compelled to +do so by force of arms. Should the rebellion succeed, as he professes to +believe it will, his instrument and accomplice, Maximilian, will be +discarded with as little ceremony as the first Napoleon discarded some +of the puppet kings whom he saw proper to crown and discrown according +to the exigency of his occasions. + +The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748) terminated one of the wars of +England with Louis XIV. The renunciation by France of the cause of the +Pretender was the most material advantage accruing to England from that +treaty. But the ink was hardly dry with which it was written, before +England took umbrage at France for efforts to rebuild her navy, which +had been seriously reduced and crippled by the events of the previous +war, and also for the encroachments of the French in Canada on the +English settlements. For these causes the Seven Years' War was +commenced, and, under the auspices of the first William Pitt, +successfully prosecuted, until France was completely humbled. Now, +however, Napoleon the Third constructs a navy more powerful than France +ever before possessed, and, instead of molesting some obscure English +settlement in the interior of America, appropriates to himself a great +country, fertile in resources, with mines of incalculable wealth, and in +close proximity to English colonies, cherished by the most vigilant +protection of England. + +The value of Mexico is thus portrayed by the British historian Alison +(vol. iv., p. 423): + + 'Humboldt has told us that he was never wearied with astonishment + at the smallness of the portion of soil which, in Mexico and the + adjoining provinces, would yield sustenance to a family for a year: + and that the same extent of ground which in wheat would maintain + only two persons, would yield sustenance under the banana to fifty; + though in that favored region the return of wheat is never under + seventy, sometimes as much as a hundred fold. The return on an + average of Great Britain is not more than nine to one. If due + weight be given to these extraordinary facts, it will not appear + extravagant to assert that Mexico, with a territory embracing seven + times the whole area of France, may at some future and possibly not + remote period contain two hundred millions of inhabitants.' + +This is the magnificent empire which France now seeks to conquer, +without a murmur of remonstrance from Great Britain, who so often +combined Europe to resist the petty acquisition by France of territory +less than one of the Mexican States. + +It is needless to say that England relies on the United States to +prevent Mexico becoming a French province. Her statesmen have for the +past two years professed the belief that the dismemberment of the United +States is inevitable. In that event, they must know that the United +States would prove no obstacle to the occupation of Mexico by France. +No; the acquiescence of England in this gigantic acquisition of France +can be ascribed to no such assurance of the power of the United States. +It may be said that she has flattered herself that by letting alone +Napoleon, he may possibly, by an alliance with the rebels, secure the +permanent dissolution of the American Union;--that the United States, if +successful in crushing the rebellion, would be to her a greater terror +than Napoleon. We do not believe that she is influenced by such +considerations. She knows that the United States, however powerful by +the recent development of military strength, would hardly attempt the +invasion of the British Islands. But she has no such faith in her crafty +neighbor. She knows that France and the Bonapartes owe her a debt of +vengeance which only the ravage and desolation of the British soil will +ever liquidate. She remembers that the favorite scheme of Napoleon the +First was the invasion of England; and she knows that this scheme is +among the _Idees Napoleon_ of the nephew. She is aware, too, that +Napoleon the Third has the means at his command which will enable him to +place any number of troops on her shores. She is satisfied that upon the +first provocation which she offers, he will gratify the treasured hatred +of the French and of his family, by consummating the darling project of +his uncle. The terror of invasion has induced her to change the nature +of her foreign policy. She will cling to the French alliance until the +French emperor has satiated his national craving for her degradation; +and not until he strikes her a blow, which will resound throughout the +world, will England be prepared to battle with the Gaul. No future +accession of territory would make France more formidable for the +invasion of England than she is now. Her army of five hundred thousand +men, and her steam navy and ironclads are all-sufficient for that +purpose, whenever the French emperor chooses so to employ them. But if +Napoleon devotes this army and that navy to such a formidable conquest +as that of a country seven times as large as France, three thousand +miles from her shores, it is not probable that he will soon be able to +spare them for the invasion of Great Britain. Spain vainly struggled for +years to conquer her revolted provinces in America. England failed to +conquer her rebellious colonies, with a population not exceeding three +millions. France lost an army of thirty-five thousand men, veterans of +Moreau's, in the vain effort to subdue the negroes of St. Domingo. +England could desire no better scheme for the destruction of the +military strength of Napoleon than that of the attempted conquest of +Mexico. She will therefore rather stimulate than restrain the second +French emperor in his desire to devote his legions to the enlargement of +the area for the supremacy of the Latin race in America. Her motive will +be the despicable safety of her shores from Gallic invasion. For this +she sacrifices her prestige in the world--her hereditary policy--the +time-honored traditions of the Anglo-Saxon. The world hereafter is free +to the Frenchman, for robbery, spoliation, conquest, and invasion, +wherever else than in England he chooses to prosecute the vocation of +national crime. England is no longer the foe of French ambition or +rapacity. So long as France will abstain from the invasion of the +'inviolate isle,' where for almost a thousand years no foreign enemy has +placed his foot, so long she may be free from molestation from England, +whatever else she may attempt; and this is the inglorious policy of +England in the year of our Lord 1862-'3. + + + + +TEMPTATION. + + + [A literal translation of this remarkable prose-poem was kindly + placed in our hands by Prof. Podbielski. It is allegorical + throughout, every phase of its marvellous symbolism resting upon + dire and tragic truth. + + The many times murdered Mother is of course Poland. We hope that + the publication of this prophetic vision of her great son, patriot, + poet, statesman, and sage, as he undoubtedly was, may excite a + vivid interest at the present hour, when that heroic but unhappy + country is again struggling for life and freedom. + + In its present English form, 'Temptation' is reverently dedicated + to the patriot sons of the Mother of heroes, by MARTHA W. + COOK.] + + Alas, crimsoned with blood and swollen with tears run our troubled + life-waves! + From the depths and whirlpools of the stormful currents sounds the + moan of eternal sorrow! + Behind roars the bottomless abyss, black with the gloomy mists rising + from the woes of the Past: + Before lies the far-off Heaven, burning and blazing with flames red + as of blood: + Around struggle the swimmers, in surges so cold, hopeless, + and murky, + That from each as he floats onward is forced the cry; 'WOE! THE + CURSE IS UPON ME!' + +Mother, many times murdered! Unhappy mother! with the long and countless +blades of thy ever-green grasses, with the waving stems of thy grain +fields, thou wilt bind our undying memories closely to thee, but +henceforth must thy sons wander and suffer, as they love thee. Behind +them, from sea to sea, is the Grave; before them, wheresoever they may +roam, the Sun set; while monarchs and merchants curse the endless +progression! + +The Living cannot understand those reared on the bosom of the +Dead--human faces grow pale at the approach of the spectres--at the echo +of their footsteps the home-fires glimmer and flicker low on the +hearthstone--the mother hides her child--the wife leads away the husband +that he may not clasp hands with the wandering exile,--the evening star +alone, the star of graves, smiles from Heaven on them! + + * * * * * + +Was not the silence of the forests holy? When the wind swept over the +Pines, did not the mystic murmurs, sacred as the prayers of the Priest, +say to you: 'Nowhere there will you find your God!' The spaces are +filled with the giant skeletons torn from the dim woods; they are +chained and clamped with iron and fed with steam; the eagles soar not in +the air above them, nor do the glad birds twitter in the swaying +branches; none among you may mount the strong horse of the desert and +fly afar over the boundless steppes, rejoicing in his arrowy +swiftness;--you are alone in the midst of the world! + + * * * * * + +As you wander on, poor exiles, your very gratitude is half disdain! When +they lead you into cities without castles or temples, where trade and +commerce rule; among whitewashed houses where the spirit of Beauty is +not, and the green window-shutters are the sole adornment--murmur ye: +THE DEAD! + + * * * * * + +On the shores of the seas when you dwell with Jews, Armenians, and +Greeks, quarrelling forever over their vile profits; seeing not the +heavens, nor hearing the thunder as it booms over the waves--murmur ye: +THE DEAD! + + * * * * * + +When women in rich attire move around you, and you feel that the faint +fluttering of the silken robe is far more spiritual than the life-breath +of their souls--murmur ye: THE DEAD! + + * * * * * + +Float on, then, like the sacred whispers from the unhewn forests! The +world will not know you, because you are of the race sprung from +coffins; born and cradled in coffins; but as you rise from the grave, +strew upon the ground beneath your feet the mouldering rags of your +shrouds--and _he_, seated on the verge of the abyss, on the steep and +slippery declivity; _he_, robed in the royal purple of power, will not +survive your Resurrection--but must himself descend into the coffin! + + +I saw imaged before me, as in a wondrous vision, the varied scenes and +changes as it were of a long life--rising, progressing, and vanishing, +as if bound in a single day, beginning with the morning and fleeting +away with the evening shadows. + +It seemed to me in my vision that the morning was strangely transparent. +No clouds dulled the ether above. Far over the wide green space rose the +sun, and in front of the House on the Hill stood a horse already +saddled, impatiently wounding the velvety grass with his iron hoofs, and +snuffing with wide nostrils the fresh breeze from the valley. Near him +stood his young master. The light in his blue eye was bright as the +young beam of the day. He had one foot in the stirrup, and the other on +the soft home-turf; with one hand caressing the long waving mane of the +steed, and the other clasped in the grasp of the man from whom he was +taking leave--they knew not for how long, but yet felt it was not +forever. Words were pouring from the heart of the one into the heart of +the other. The elder, he who stood on the ground and was to move on on +foot, kept his gaze steadily fixed on the rocks and forests lying beyond +the smooth green turf. The younger, with raised eyes, gazed into the +sky, as if absorbing its light in the blue lustrous pupils; and when he +spoke, his voice was like the fresh breath of spring. The elder spoke +more slowly, almost sternly, as though advising, warning, beseeching--as +if he loved deeply, yet doubted, feared; but the younger had no fear, no +doubts--he pledged himself and vowed--threw himself first into the arms +of his friend, then leaped into his saddle. He pushed his horse rapidly +on, swift as the arrow skims the plain, or the mountain stream plunges +below. A cloud of servants poured forth from the halls of the ancient +House, and followed their young Lord. + +He who remained behind, knelt; and fragments of his prayer were brought +me by the wind, 'O Heavenly Father! let not this blooming soul wither +away upon this arid earth! Lead it not into the temptation of human +servitude; remove from it all sinful stain! Let it serve Thee alone! +Thee and the many times murdered Mother!' + +He continued kneeling, although sunk in silence, as if wrapped in deep +meditation, scarcely knowing whether to indulge in the dim prophecies +then surging his soul, or to prolong his prayers. Then I saw him start, +clasp his hands forcibly together--and again his words were borne to me +by the wind. + +'O Heavenly Father! I ask Thee not to sweeten the bitter cup of life for +my friend; I know that all who live must suffer; but, O merciful God, +spare him the blush of shame, the infamy of weakness!' + +Then I saw the Wanderer rise from his knees, descend the hill, and make +his way on foot through the forest to the distant rocks. + + * * * * * + +About high noon of the same day they met again before the gate of a +great city. The young man was still on his horse, his fair brow already +darkened by the heat of the sun; the dew from the fresh home-turf was +quite dry upon his stirrups, and the glitter of the steel dimmed with +rust. The horse gladly stopped, as if wearied with his rapid flight +through the distant space, but the blue eye of the youth still sparkled +with its early fire. + +The elder, gray from head to foot with the dust of the road, seated +himself on a stone by the wayside. The youth jumped lightly to the +earth, and threw himself into the arms of his friend. I saw him give his +horse in charge to his servants, take the arm of his companion, enter +the gate of the great city, and lead him to the imperial Palace. In one +of the inner chambers they sat down together to rest. They conversed +however in whispers, as if they feared the ear of the enemy even through +the massive stone walls. Stretching himself on the soft Persian carpet, +the younger raised the cup of wrought silver to his thirsty lip. But +when he handed it to the elder, he refused to taste the wine from the +rich goblet. Nor would he look upon the tapestried walls, or the objects +of luxury lying profusely scattered around the room, even when pointed +out to him by his young companion. At last he rose, and taking the hand +of the youth, led him to a window, from which the entire city was seen +lying below, with the moving crowds of the populous nation. The immense +city, wonderfully monotonous in its whitewashed walls! the immense +nation, wonderfully monotonous in its black garments! The young man +looked on curiously; the wanderer sighed, and said: 'When they shall +lead you into cities without castles or temples, where the spirit of +freedom is chained, murmur ye: THE DEAD!' + +But the younger continued to gaze with ever-growing interest. Carriages +filled with women dressed in brilliant hues were rapidly driving by, +drawn by strong, fleet horses. He saw one drive aside from the throng, +the snowy veil and white draperies of the fair one within fluttering and +floating far on, the breeze, as if the flying chariot were borne onward +by the outspread sails. The Wanderer sighed, and said: 'When women in +rich attire move around you, and you feel that the faint fluttering of +the snowy robe is more spiritual than the life-breath of their +souls--murmur ye: THE DEAD!' + +The young man seemed not to hear the words of his friend. Heavy masses +of lurid clouds gathered from every direction, and obscured the face of +the sky. How different the hour of the gloomy noon from that of the +fresh, transparent morning! + +The men before whom the People of the Black Nation kneel and prostrate +themselves now began to move through the streets. Their short garments +glittered with gold, and were richly embroidered in gorgeous colors. +They wore long thin swords at their sides, and thick tufts of plumes on +their heads. Shouting with harsh voices, they passed on in power, +striking the children who were lingering in the road as they moved +forward. The children cried and wept; the crowd drew back and fled; and +they remained alone upon the Great Square. More and more of them were +ever thronging there; more and more courteously they ever bowed to one +another, and lower and lower grew their salutes, until at last One rode +forward on a steed richly caparisoned--and then they all fell down with +their faces upon the ground--as if he were the Lord of Life and Death. + +Then said the Wanderer: 'He is already on the verge of the abyss, on the +slope of the steep and slippery declivity; he, robed in the purple of +Power, must himself descend into the coffin!' + +But the young man riveted his gaze on the magnificence of the rider, as +if absorbing the diamond glitter into the lustrous pupils of his eyes, +as in the morning they had absorbed and reflected the clear blue of the +skies. He seemed not to hear the words of his friend. When they were +earnestly repeated to him, he covered his face with his hands, and +tenderly uttered the holy name of the murdered Mother, as if the love of +childhood were upon his heart. The Wanderer pressed him to his breast, +and said: 'Look not upon them! Look not upon them!' + +'Never! never!' he replied, as he again threw himself down to rest upon +the Persian carpet. + +As the Wanderer rose to depart, I heard the prayer again rising to God +from his divining soul: + +'O Heavenly Father! even at the burning noon of this bitter trial, I +implore Thee for him whom I love! O God! I now entreat Thee to work a +miracle in his behalf--to sweeten the bitter cup of life for this young, +eager, thirsting soul! Deliver it from the temptations with which Thou +hast seen good to surround the strong on this earth, led like him into +these snares! Let him not fall, I beseech Thee, as did even the mighty +and beautiful angels round Thy Throne, when the thirst for power was +upon them. Save him, O God!' + +The young man remained alone, utterly alone, in the midst of the great +city, and was soon forced to seek companionship with his fellow beings. +It was strange, meanwhile, how black the heavens grew, as if the whole +sky were sheeted with a curtain of lead. I saw him now constantly in the +streets, the rooms, and in the midst of the people: he fascinated my +gaze as if I saw only him. Under the calm of a tranquil face, he +concealed bitter torment, intense suffering. Evil thoughts are winding +through him, like swarms of black and poisonous worms, while the good +are also thronging near him, like clouds of bright blue fireflies. The +worms crawl over his heart, boring and bleeding it as they writhe; the +fireflies would burn out the black congested gore, and cure the +festering wounds, but new swarms of reptiles are forever sliming into +life, and ever deeper and more gangrened are the wounds they make. +Everywhere danger, everywhere torment; there is no human being whom he +may trust! He too must learn to deceive in turn, to betray even women +and children; must learn to lie as the masterpiece of art. He attains +skill in the profession, and can command looks, smiles, tears, emotions; +but alas! the light in his clear eye, once rivalling the young beam of +day, no longer flashes from his pupils. Pity him, O God! his very +garments become a lie; he throws aside the costume of his nation, in +which he once rode so freely over the boundless steppe. He mounts on his +head the tall tufts of plumes; he girds the thin sword to his side; and +I saw in my dream that the people began to fall back before him, and +bow as he drew near. + +But I saw that the steed of the desert refused to recognize his master +when he entered the courtyard of the Palace. In vain he pats, with his +own hand, the wavy silken mane: no neigh of joy now answers his caress; +he strives to leap upon him as in the morning of this eventful day, but +the haughty charger rears, stands erect upon his hind legs, and refuses +to be mounted. Enraged beyond control, he thrusts his long sword into +the glossy flanks. The startled animal breaks away, spurns the +blood-sprinkled soil, and flies thundering afar, rattling and clashing +his iron hoofs on the pavement, marking his track with a long line of +glittering sparks, flashing but to die in the dying light of evening! + +The hour of twilight is already on the earth! + + * * * * * + +Again, for the third time in that day of life, met the Wanderer and his +friend. They stood together in a Church, which was without the gates, +and the cross on its towers was different from those on the Basilicas +within the walls of the city. The altar was without adornment, and, as +well as the walls and ceilings, was shrouded in the deepest mourning. +Three tapers only were upon it, and they struggled vainly with the +surrounding gloom. + +I saw the Wanderer take one of these lights, and gaze, with a look of +woe, upon the face of his friend. The young man was silent, he found no +utterance, he had lost the secret of revealing, by honest words, the +depths of the soul. But the bitter truth was expressed in the long wild +cry which burst spasmodically from his lips. In it might be read the +seduction and destruction of a young spirit, not consenting to its own +shame and ruin! + +He laid his head on the strong shoulder of his friend, and closed his +heavy eyelids, as if he dreamed, in this trying moment, it would be +possible for him thus to close them forever. But the Wanderer, suddenly +calling him back to consciousness, said: 'Follow me! follow me, that +thou mayst remember forever the Form of the murdered Mother!' + +So saying, he led the young man to a low door which opened behind the +Great Altar. A whirlwind, as if from plains of ice, blew upon them from +the subterranean passages below, and the flame of the taper streamed +upon the blast, swaying and torn into a line of dying sparks. And thus +they commenced the plunge into the very bosom of night, descending ever +lower and lower, exploring depth after depth, until at last they had +worked their way through the narrow and winding passages, and stood in +the sublime silence of the immensity of space. + +Their taper had long ago gone out, but they needed not its flickering +light. The swamp-fires of the night, the corpse-lights, the +will-o'-the-wisps, sometimes fell like falling stars; sometimes rose +like rising moons. Countless cemeteries seemed moving on in this weird +light, one solemnly following the other, and on the dark gate of each +glittered, as if graved in frosted silver, the name of the Murdered +Nation, and on the white crosses gleaming within, the names of her +martyred children. Vast piles of skeletons, of bones and skulls, lay in +the path of the young man, and as he advanced he read the glorious +inscriptions. + +It now seemed to him that the ghosts of the buried were also moving on +before him, increasing constantly in number, and all moaning as they +sped on, until at last they seemed to condense into a murky vapor like a +trailing storm-cloud, growing ever more and more pervading, and +murmuring with thousands upon thousands of sad, but spirit-stirring +national songs. The air gleamed with the flashing of sabres and wild +waving of standards; conflagrations and flames filled the intervening +spaces, like vivid flashes of restless lightning, now gleaming, now +sinking into the bosom of the cloud. Faster and faster, farther and +farther whirls the cloud of spirits. Then in my dream I saw them +suddenly descend, driven over the earth like the withered leaves of +autumn--beaten low upon the ground and drifting on like the summer's +dust--while a strong cry burst from the driven shadows: 'O God, have +mercy upon us!' + +The Wanderer stopped before the gate of an open sepulchre, on which was +graven the name of the many times Murdered. The letters blazed with a +soft lambent flame, and he fell reverently upon his knees. Penetrated +with mystic awe, he quivered from head to foot when he arose, and wept +tenderly as he crossed the threshold. + +A soft light, like that of an evening late in autumn, dimly illumined +the space within. I saw the holy Coffin as it lay on the gentle slope of +a hill; a giant Pine stood at its head, and in its topmost branches +perched the Eagle, pierced to the heart and sleeping in its own blood. +Within the coffin lay the sacred Form, with the cross on her breast, the +veil on her face, the fetters on her hands, and the crown upon her +forehead. I saw six such hills rising one after the other, separated +from one another by the long grass, through which, in place of sunny +brooks, flowed crimson streams of human gore. Hilts and shivered +fragments of broken swords, overgrown with weeds and covered with rust, +were lying scattered in every direction through the rank grass. On each +of the six hills lay the same Coffin; the same Form. But always more and +more strongly surged the streams of human blood; heavier and heavier +grew the chains on the hands of the Dead; and paler and paler the dim +autumnal light. At the foot of the last hill it was dark, and bitter +cold; the currents of blood were frozen; the icicles hung from the +branches of the Pine; the Eagle lay in his congealed gore; and in place +of the veil, the face of the six times murdered Mother was closely +covered with a sheet of snow. + +When the young man reached this spot of gloom, he fell with his face +upon the frozen earth, and cursed his life! In the distance sounded the +moans of the shadows left at the gate of the sepulchre; he bowed his +head and wept. He heard them ask: 'Is the six times Murdered really +dead? will she rise no more to deliver her faithful children from mortal +anguish?' + +The Wanderer replied not, but looked with eyes of melancholy love upon +his friend who had thrown himself upon the frozen earth, and gently +raised him in his strong arms. + +Then rose the wail of all the armies of the grave; they broke the +silence of death with loud and fearful cries: 'O Heavenly Father, Thou +hast betrayed us! Thou hast delivered us up to Hell, for our Saint is +really dead!' + +The Wanderer answered the cry, and his voice pealed like distant +thunder. 'Blaspheme not! Our Saint yet breathes! I see her lying in her +last coffin on the hill of ice--there is no seventh beyond it--from it +comes the Resurrection!' The wails and sobs of the spirits suddenly +ceased, and a murmuring chant of the Mother's was entoned, low and sweet +as the first sigh of a germing hope. + +The young man now perceived, for hitherto he had not seen it, the +illimitable space beyond the coffin. Afar over the infinite blue broke +the growing splendor of the early dawn--the clash and clamor of battles +yet unborn broke through the veil of Time--and above it all he heard the +Mother's ancient hymn of victory! + +The young dawn shone but for a moment, the clash of battle ceased, the +song of triumph died upon the ear--the gloomy silence of the twilight +was again upon them, and frost and cold upon the earth. The two friends +reverently pressed their lips upon the still feet of the fettered Form; +together listened to the faint breathing from the icy lips, catching it +even through the veil of snow shrouding the sacred face; together they +ascended the frozen hill, bowing their heads in their hands to hide +their tears. + +I saw them again as they were returning by the same road, and overheard +them binding themselves with fearful oaths. The Wanderer took leave of +the young man at the entrance of the church, saying with wonderfully +tender and conjuring tones: 'Be not deceived by those who would fain +ruin thy soul, and blot out thy name from the number of honorable sounds +on earth! Remember, whatsoever the splendor of the things thou shalt +this night see, they are but deceptions from the lowest Hell! Then +placing his hand on the heart of the young man, he prayed: 'O Heavenly +Father! have mercy upon him and upon me, for if he withstands not this +terrible Temptation, Thou knowest we shall both have lived in vain, and +our part on earth is done forever! After this they parted, and went +their way on different routes. + + * * * * * + +It was already night in the great city. Innumerable throngs were +crowding the streets, all moving in the same direction, to the palace +lighted with a thousand lamps, sounding with music, and gay with the +dance. Old and young, men and women thronged the brazen stairs leading +to the upper saloons; hurrying on as eagerly, as unceasingly as if +ascending into Heaven! + +The hours of the night passed slowly by, seeming longer to me than the +whole of the preceding day. It was almost one o'clock before I again saw +the young man, and the traces of the oaths he had taken were cunningly +hidden under smiles. Groups of servants stood around him; he carelessly +threw them his cloak, and climbed with the rest the brazen stairs. He +was richly dressed; the magnificent guest was worthy of the splendor of +the wedding feast. He entered gracefully, and gazed curiously on the +thousands who were dancing around him. His eyes fell upon the rich and +varied spoils overhanging the Hall; broken swords were wrought into the +walls like mosaics; the flags of the conquered nations were draped in +their varied hues across the vaulted ceiling; but as he looked on all +these trophies of power, I saw him suddenly turn pale with rage, and +bite his lips until the blood followed the pressure of his teeth; but +then the whirling crowds caught him in their midst--violins, harps, +flutes and horns poured the reeling air into his dizzied brain--clouds +of incense intoxicated his senses--piled and mossy carpets luxuriously +yielded to the pressure of his feet--rainbow hues shifted gayly before +his dazzled eyes--until giddy, fascinated, stimulated, he sank upon a +pile of cushions, resting his hot temples in his burning palms, dreaming +of snowy hands and taper fingers, of azure eyes and cheeks like rose +leaves. + +As he thus rested, I heard the bell heavily toll one; I felt that this +long night was in its darkest hour! + +When he raised his eyes, he saw, through the long vista of the +illuminated apartments, the Throne of the Splendor of the Sun. It stood +above the moving sea of dancers; upon it sat the Autocrat of Life and +Death; and above him waved the canopy of flags torn from the dying +nations. The young man started, for he saw one among them dyed in gore, +and tattered into rags, and from its torn streamers, drop by drop, the +blood was ever falling; but no one saw or heeded it save himself. When +this sight fell upon his reeling gaze, he determined to repel with all +his force the allurements of temptation, and again his eye gleamed blue +and pure as it had done in the early morning. + +A movement now began in the crowd. It dispersed, divided, and formed +into long lines upon the right and the left, leaving a wide, open +pathway through the whole length of the long vista of the apartments. +The Lord of the Palace descended from his Throne, and moved through the +living walls as if he were a God, while all prostrated themselves as he +passed along. He turned not aside, but went directly to the spot where +the young man was seated. Nearer and nearer he approached, wondrously +beautiful and strong. The young man rose and looked boldly into his +eyes. The Master of Life and Death did not frown upon him, but said +gently: 'Come, let us take a stroll together; I will show you the +wonders of my Palace!' + +The youth stood as if transfixed to the spot, but the Lord of Life and +Death drew closer to him, stooped and pressed a kiss on his brow, and +led him away with easy grace. + +Although he seemed to see the coffin of the murdered Mother ever winding +on before him, the young man accompanied the Monarch. His arm trembled +with the quick beating of his boiling blood as it lay on the hard one of +the Autocrat, who, thunder as he might to the bowing throng prostrating +themselves before him, continued to speak in soft tones and with a +noble, courteous air to his present companion. He spoke of the past, he +uttered without trembling even the name of the murdered Mother, as if +her assassination did not weigh upon his conscience. He did not seem to +have the least doubt that she was really dead, vanished forever from the +face of the earth. He artfully pointed out to the young man another +immense future,[10] graven, as he said, in the Book of Fate. He painted +it in the most alluring colors, awakening his young desires for its +attainment; he spared no promises, and as if he held himself to be one +of God's prophets, he parodied inspiration. The unhappy young man turned +his eyes toward the ground, away from the handsome face, as though it +had been that of Antichrist. Each word of the Tempter fell like a drop +of poison on his heart, engendering and hatching the worms within. They +walked together through the long ranges of apartments, the close ranks +of men prostrating themselves as they passed, until they struck with +their foreheads the malachites wrought into the tessellated floor. + +When they arrived at the other end of the Palace, the gates of bronze +upon the order of the Master were suddenly thrown open, while the mass +behind, lifting their heads from the ground, looked enviously after +them. + +'Behold, this is my Treasury,' said the Monarch. 'Look, and have faith +in the extent of my power!' + +The young man looked before him. He was standing at the portals of deep +mines of wealth, endlessly extended. Alas! the glowing splendor from the +hills and valleys burned into the blue eyes of the young man; his pupils +rapidly absorbed the molten torrents of gold and silver; circles of +light from amethyst, opal, and emerald, bent like rainbows round the +azure orbs. The subterranean flames roared and crackled; the hills were +shaken to their centre; the caves were heaving in their depths, and +fresh, glittering, golden, diamantine lumps came ever gushing from the +fused and seething mass. + +But strange sounds were ever and anon heard amidst the hissing and +sputtering of the boiling metals. Long cries came up as if from men in +the agonies of death; a clatter as of chains sounded from the abyss; +muttered curses; and bent and wretched human figures were seen moving +over swards of diamonds and precious stones, like the dark stains +passing athwart the bright face of the moon. The eye of the Monarch then +flamed with wrath. Sometimes clanging their chains as they moved their +fettered limbs, these melancholy figures raised to him their suppliant +hands, begging with anguished cries for one drop of water, for one +moment of respite to breathe the free air of heaven. He vouchsafed to +them no answer, and with every moment the wretched and emaciated shadows +fell from utter exhaustion into the molten metals seething in the depths +of the mine. But what mattered that, since with every instant, new bands +of living shadows, equally fettered, doomed, and wretched, arrived to +fill the vacant places? The young man thought he had seen some of these +melancholy faces before in the high places of the earth, that the noble +traits once had been dear to him, but the flashes of lightning blinded +him, and the features were rapidly lost in the depths of the succeeding +gloom. The roar of the seething, fusing metals deafened the sound of the +groans from the chained and broken-hearted miners. And as I gazed, an +all-pervading splendor, like the golden calm of the Desert, settled over +all, covering with glittering veil the anguish which had been revealed. + +As this light overflowed the scene with its brilliant haze, the gates of +bronze clapped to with heavy clang. The Master of Life and Death took +leave of the young man, and as he departed, said: When the great bell +again strikes, be in the Hall of the Throne; thy seat at my Banquet is +next my own. + +As the young man turned to move away, the throng greeted him with shouts +and cheers. Many knelt to kiss his hand, because it had touched the hand +of the Master. They asked him what music he would hear, and when his +choice was made, the grand orchestra rolled it forth in massive waves of +sound. They bore him luscious wines in jewelled vases, kneeling as he +took the cup. He marvelled, and at first scorned the homage, but again I +saw him look proudly round him, and assume an air of command. + +In a recess of the most exquisite beauty, veiled by groves of perfumed +flowers, he meets resplendent groups of married women, blooming clusters +of budding maidens. They surround him as he enters, greeting him with +lovely smiles; and scattering rose leaves o'er him. His cheeks flame as +with fever; his blood boils in his veins; he grows giddy, faint:--alas, +he feels at last that he might find happiness in the Palace of the +mortal enemy of his Mother! This feeling falls upon him like a +thunderbolt, and scathes his heart. He turns to fly, but they pursue, +the perfumed wind bearing onward and wafting around him the full drapery +of their floating trains of luxury. Their long ringlets kiss his cheeks, +and weave their nets around him. + +Through two long hours of this fitful night I watched him with the +keenest interest. I saw him struggle, confused, bewildered, reeling, +giddy, dazzled, sometimes almost yielding to temptation, sometimes +earnestly imploring the Heavenly Father for strength to resist delusion. +As if in despair, I saw him hurrying through the long suite of +apartments in search of a sword to pierce his weak, vacillating heart, +but no arms were here to be found. Sometimes I saw him rush to meet the +alluring Circes of the Palace, as if seeking their fascinations; then, +suddenly turning upon them, he would curse and insult the seductive +Sirens. I saw him tear from them their veils of snow, rend them asunder, +and trample the costly fragments under his feet. They knelt, wept, and +humiliated themselves before him. They prayed for love, saying: 'Once, +only once, we implore thee, confess that thou lovest!' Utter madness +came upon him; electric flashes fired his veins; rapture tingled through +every fibre of his young frame; and in the voluptuous delirium of the +moment he wildly cried: 'I love! I love!' + +As he spake, he caught in his arms the Houri of the foreign race; he +fastened his burning lips upon her rosebud mouth; and by the magic of +her breath she drew him on to the Hall of the Throne! + +There sat the Master of Life and Death, with the flags and standards of +the conquered nations floating around and above him. As the youth and +maiden entered, I again heard the great bell toll the hour. Throngs of +courtiers stood around the Throne. Slowly the curtain of inwrought +tapestry rose from the platina door. Those who had been waiting beyond +its threshold for admittance, were summoned by the Heralds to appear. +Ambassadors from the Kings of the East and the Kings of the West entered +the Presence Chamber. On they filed in long and solemn procession. They +all bowed as they passed the Throne, each one depositing an urn of pure +gold at the feet of the Monarch. The urns were filled with the ashes of +those who had fallen in battle, heroes killed in holy causes, patriots +and martyrs from different parts of the world. The Grand Duke entered +last in the train, he was clad in the ermine only worn by Princes, and +as he bowed his head, he placed the last urn on the floor. The young man +started--the name of the murdered Mother was deeply graven on the +sculptured swells. Then all grew dark before him, he saw neither the +Throne of the Monarch, nor the fair girl still clinging to his arm. But +his ear quickened as his eye grew dim, and the question of the Monarch +rang loudly through his brain: 'Are they all really dead, and will they +rise from the grave no more?' + +And as if with one voice answered the Ambassadors: 'They are all surely +dead, and will rise no more forever.' At a sign from the Monarch, the +courtiers approached, took up the urns, and solemnly deposited them upon +the columns of black marble ranged on either side of the Hall. Flaming +torches were then handed by the attendants, taken by those high in the +favor of the court, and held over the open crypt of the urn. The ashes +within kindled, and burned with a dim, bluish flame. The pale smoke rose +from the shrine, spread through the air, and wafted the smell of Death +to the nostrils of the Lord! + +It now seemed to the young man as if all he had seen at the hour of +twilight was but a dream; he looked upon these throngs as the sole +masters of the world, and on their Monarch as omnipotent and eternal. At +this moment the table of festival rose in the Hall, everywhere +surrounded by the blazing funereal urns. The maiden begged the +bridegroom to take his seat at the banquet; the Master, descending from +his Throne, placed his arm in his, and led him to the place of honor, at +his side. The great bell again tolled the hour. The guests also took +their places at the feast. + +Directly in front of the young man stood the column of black marble +bearing the urn containing the ashes of his Mother. And whenever he saw +her holy name, his long lashes veiled his sinking eyes; but his bride +constantly recalled his attention to the blue flames of the crypt. + +More and more madly, fiercely, fearfully, his reeling and wretched soul +struggled to regain its ancient faith, to return to its early hopes; but +temptation was around him; his brain was bewildered; his understanding +darkened; and madness within. + +Healths poisonous to his heart went round, and he was forced to drain +them in honor of the Master. An inward shivering disjointed his members, +unstrung his nerves, heart and frame fainted into weakness, a dew cold +as death covered his temples, and his head fell wearily upon his +breast--the walls, the floors, the ceilings, the men, the burning urns, +danced, reeled, and tottered in wild confusion before him. The murmuring +voices, the buzz of sound, the swell of the triumphant music, the +strange words of the foreign bride, mingled and boomed like the roar of +the sea in the ears of the swooning man--and so the last hours passed +away! + +He still lived, if life be measured by the wild throbs of the heart. +Like the clap of doom the last hour struck upon his ear. He opened his +heavy eyelids, the blue flames from the urns were dying out. The Master +of Life and Death, graciously smiling and courteously inclining toward +him, said: 'Guest of my Banquet, the hour has struck in which thou art +to swear to serve me; in which thou must abjure thine ancient faith and +name.' + +As he spake, he threw to him across the table jewelled orders and +diamond crosses, saying: 'Wear these in memory of me!' The Herald then +drew near, and read to him from the Black Book the form of abjuration. +The agonizing and swooning man mechanically repeated the words one by +one after him, not even hearing the sound of his own voice. His head had +fallen on the bosom of his bride, his lips still moved, but his eyes +were glaring in the whiteness of death--and so he uttered all the +prescribed words until the very last was said! + +Scarcely had he finished, when the Master of Life and Death arose and +said: 'Servant of my servants art thou now--beware! shouldst thou prove +false to thy oath, the rope of the hangman surely awaits thee.' Then he +broke into a loud, coarse laugh of triumph! + +The unfortunate man raised his wretched head, and his first look fell +upon the urn of his murdered Mother. In place of her name of glory +another word was standing now: 'INFAMY!' 'Infamy,'--he looked +again; he shrieked aloud, 'Infamy;' and started from his seat with the +last effort of his failing strength. 'Infamy!' shouted the thousands +from before, behind, from either side. 'Infamy' sounded from the +ceilings of the Palace, the Hall of the Throne, the deep mines and +limitless Treasury! Some among the crowd hastened to greet him by his +new name, while others fastened to his garments the glittering orders +and diamond crosses. Some commanded him to bow before them, while others +ordered him to trample under foot the still smouldering ashes of his +Mother! + +That thought sent the blood back in hot torrents to his heart. He broke +through the surrounding throng, rushed on, fled from the Presence +Chamber, eagerly looking for his bride. He saw her leaning on the arm of +another, mocking and jeering with the rest. He glides on behind the +statues, steals along the recesses, is discovered, and again flies +before the enemy. The Palace winds before him into countless +labyrinths--nowhere is shelter to be found sneers, menaces, insults, are +everywhere around him--but worse than all, _the curse is now within his +soul_! + +Then he suddenly turns to meet his enemies; he baffles them at first, +but countless numbers are upon him. They hurl him to the ground, trample +him under foot, and pass on singing a song from the land of his Mother. +As he rises, fresh numbers assail him, he bids defiance to them all, +struggles, advances, until foaming, bleeding, sinking, he is again +driven back, again forced to seek an outlet from the Palace. Thus +fighting, running, falling, fainting, he makes his way until the first +dim dawn of day, and as it breaks, he falls heavily down the brazen +staircase, and rolls below into the court of the Palace. Here strong +arms seize him, and bear him rapidly away to the steps of the +church--the same church which he had left in the evening twilight. + +It is the hour of the young dawn, but the sun of this earth will never +rise for him again! Light will awake the world, but it will shine into +his blue eyes no more! + +He awakes to consciousness on the steps of the church, and finds himself +face to face alone with the Wanderer. He is mute in his despair. The +Wanderer, regarding him sternly, says: 'In other times and scenes thou +mightst perchance have been a hero, but the Fates doomed thee to heavy +trial, and thou wert not strong enough to preserve thy virtue! The +_visible reality_ prevailed with thee above the _invisible_, _holy_, and +_eternal truth_! Alas, thou art lost!' + +'Give me back my horse!' cried the young man, as life again began to +flow through his veins. 'Give me the free dress of the steppes, give me +my arms, and thou shalt see that I know how to revenge the wrongs +inflicted on my brethren, to redress my own infamy!' + +He grasped the hand of his friend, and threw himself into his arms, +quivering with rage. Far more sadly than before, the Wanderer replied: + +'The hour for bold and open defiance is not yet near. It is the time for +silent sacrifice. But even shouldst thou live until the Day of Judgment, +the hour of Resurrection, thy brethren will always number thee among +those who have renounced the Mother. Hark! thy enemies are in pursuit of +thee, already near. Should they capture thee, thou must be the slave of +their wills, the partner of their crimes, the sport and butt of all +their bitter jests throughout the remnant of thy wretched life. One only +refuge remains for thee!' And as he spoke, he drew his glittering sword. + +The young man understood his meaning. With dauntless courage he tore +aside the covering from his breast. + +'Strike!' he exclaimed. 'I die as a true son of the many times murdered +Mother--honor to her holy name forever and ever!' + +The Wanderer groaned from the depths of his soul. He plunged the sharp +cold steel into the young naked heart. The unfortunate victim fell +without a moan. He fell in the first rays of the rising sun, and in the +same hour in which but yesterday, full of strength and hope, he had +mounted his swift horse from the green home-turf, urging him down the +hill to push eagerly over the broad steppe of life. + +He fell in silence, but his dying eye again flashed forth a light +rivalling the young beam of Day. + +The Wanderer knelt beside him, and lifting his clasped hands to Heaven, +said: 'O Heavenly Father! Thou knowest that I loved him better than +aught else on earth! As long as it was possible, I shielded him from the +Temptation of Hell, and in the first moment of his fall, I tore his soul +out from the grasp of the enemy, and sent it back to Thee! Save it in +eternity, merciful Father! Let the crimson tide poured out by me, be +joined to that sea of innocent blood which is ever wailing and moaning +at the foot of Thy Throne! Let it with that sea fall upon the head of +the Tempters!' + +After these words I saw him, with the point of the same sword, draw +blood from under his own heart, and write with the sharp red blade on +the stone above the head of the dead: SENT HOME BY THE HAND OF A +FRIEND! + +The echoing steps and voices of the pursuers fell loudly on the ear; +they were close at hand. The Wanderer arose, and rapidly disappeared +from my eyes in the sanctuary of the ancient church. + + +Thus passed and ended that one day of my vision! + + +O Mother, many times murdered! When thou shalt waken from thy long +sleep, and again rest on the long grass of the home turf, again hear the +holy whispers of thy unhewn forests green from sea to sea, again feel +thy youth returning upon thee, thou wilt remember thy long night of +death, the terrible phantoms of thy protracted agonies. Weep not then, O +Mother! weep not for those who fell in glorious battle, nor for those +who perished on alien soil--although their flesh was torn by the vulture +and devoured by the wolf, they were still happy! Neither weep for those +who died in the dark and silent dungeon underground by the hand of the +executioner, though the dismal prison-lamp was their only star, and the +harsh words of the oppressor the last farewell they heard on earth--they +too were happy! + +But drop a tear, O Mother! One tear of tender pity for those who were +deceived by thy Murderers, misled by their tissues of glittering +falsehood, blinded by misty veils woven of specious deceptions, when the +command of the tyrant had no power to tear their true hearts from thee! +Alas, Mother, these victims have suffered the most of all thy martyred +children! Deceitful hopes, born but to die, like blades of naked steel, +forever pierced their breasts! Thousands of fierce combats, unknown to +fame, were waging in their souls, combats fuller of bitter suffering +than the bloody battles thundering on in the broad light of the sun, +clashing with the gleam of steel, and booming with the roar of +artillery. No glory shone on the dim paths of thy deceived sons; thy +reproachful phantom walked ever beside them, as part of their own +shadow! The glittering eye of the enemy lured them to the steep slopes +of ice, down into the abyss of eternal snow, and at every step into the +frozen depths, their tears fell fast for thee! They waited until their +hearts withered in the misery of hope long deferred; until their hands +sank in utter weariness; until they could no longer move their emaciated +limbs in the fetters of their invisible chain; still conscious of life, +they moved as living corpses with frozen hearts--alone amidst a hating +People--alone even in the sanctuary of their own homes--alone forever on +the face of the earth! + +My Mother! When thou shalt again live in thy olden glory, shed a tear +over their wretched fate, over the agony of agonies, and whisper upon +their dark and silent graves, the sublime word: PARDON! + + + + +MADAGASCAR + + +The 'Last Travels' of Ida Pfeiffer, published in London in 1861, called +the public attention to an island which had been excluded from +civilization for more than a quarter of a century. The great Island of +Madagascar, situated in the path of all the commerce of Europe with the +East, for reasons we are about to explain, has again attracted the +notice of diplomatists, and threatens to become a second Eastern +question. We propose to sketch the history of the island and to explain +the cause of its sudden importance. + +Though discovered in 1506 by the Portuguese, and partially colonized at +times by the Dutch, French, and English, it has, up to this time, +preserved an independent government; or rather, the native tribes have +been allowed to fight and enslave each other without much aid or +hindrance from Europeans. + +When England, early in the present century, began the task of subduing +the East, she found in her conquests of Mauritius and Bourbon the +natural and important links in her chain of posts. As a recent writer +has well pointed out, she has a succession of fortified posts, +Gibraltar, St. Helena, the Cape of Good Hope, Mauritius, and Ceylon, +reaching from London to Calcutta and Singapore. The commerce of the +world, as it sweeps by the Cape of Good Hope, is forced to pursue a +track in which her strongholds are situated. But for the blindness of +her former rulers, she would be the mistress of the Eastern seas. Two +points, however, have been left unguarded. In some trading convention, +some congress of nations, England made the great mistake of restoring to +France the Island of Bourbon, surrendering one of the keys to the +impregnable position she held. Other reasons have prevented the +acquisition of Madagascar, and it is not yet too late to render this +mistake fatal to her supremacy. It is true that in case of war, her +armed steamers may start with the assurance of a secure coaling station +at the end of every ten days' journey, but from the Cape eastward she is +dependent upon her maintenance of Mauritius. + +France has made the most of the opportunity given to her, by holding +Bourbon as a military colony, and maintaining a powerful fleet there. It +is, however, for us to regard the interests of the United States, and to +see if any foothold can be gained for our protection. Had war been the +result of the _Trent_ affair, what would have become of our immense +fleet of merchant ships which was then afloat in Indian waters? Manila +and Batavia were the only two neutral ports to which they could have +fled for safety; and neither Spain nor Holland would have dared to +permit our cruisers to refit or to coal in their ports. The American +flag would have been driven from those seas without the slightest +difficulty. + +And yet the means for avoiding this disgraceful state of affairs in the +future lie open to us now. The fertile Island of Madagascar, abounding +in safe harbors, lies as near the track of commerce as do Mauritius and +Bourbon. It has innumerable advantages over either of these islands, and +it is especially adapted to our wants. Mauritius must be weak in time of +war, because it is so entirely an artificial colony. A mere dot on the +map, only some thirty miles in diameter, it has a population of over +three hundred thousand, wholly devoted to the cultivation of sugar. This +product has been the source of immense wealth to the island, but it has +necessitated the abandonment of every other branch of agriculture. These +three hundred thousand inhabitants are literally dependent for their +daily food on the kindness of the elements in time of peace, and on the +naval supremacy of England in time of war. There is not enough grain +raised there to supply the colonists with food for twenty-four hours, +and there is rarely a supply in reserve to last them for two months. +Their rice is brought from India, their cattle from Madagascar. Let the +free intercourse with these countries be suspended, and a famine is +inevitable. The noble harbor of Port Louis, with its fortifications, its +dockyards, and coal sheds, is a source of strength to England only so +long as she can prevent her enemies from establishing themselves in +Madagascar. + +France is striving to rival and surpass England. At Bourbon, already +strongly fortified, immense artificial docks are projected, perhaps +commenced. The colony has annually a deficit in its accounts to be made +good from the national treasury, but extension rather than retrenchment +is its policy. France has acquired the Mayotte or Comoro Islands, and +several ports on the north of Madagascar. She has also the sympathy of +all the creoles of Mauritius, in whose minds the English occupation of +fifty years has been unable to stifle the instinct of nationality. + +Thus the two great Western powers stand, nominally allies at home, +jealous and active enemies abroad. + +Circumstances have kept both powers from seizing the tempting prize +which has so long hung before them. What are these two pitiful islands +in comparison with the great, wealthy, and fertile island which, lies to +the west of them? In time of peace they are convenient points in the +great lines of commerce; here the disabled vessels of all nations find a +resting place. In time of war they are strongly entrenched positions, +liable to capture by any nation which can secure a base for operations +against them. Madagascar, on the other hand, stands fifth on the list of +islands in magnitude, is situated in the latitude most favorable for +agriculture, and abounds in every kind of material wealth. A harbor on +its coast, with the whole island as a depot from whence supplies can be +drawn, would be a source of strength more than sufficient to +counterbalance the works of half a century's growth at Mauritius. We +have only to see, therefore, if such a concession can be obtained for +this country. + +We have said that repeated and ineffectual attempts were made to subdue +and colonize the island. Numerous tribes, of widely varying origin, +people the island, some black as the blackest negro, others of the Malay +or Arab type. For centuries they had been engaged in domestic wars, when +in 1816 the English Government agreed to recognize the chief of one +tribe as king of the island, on condition that he would suppress the +foreign slave trade. + +The chief thus selected was Radama, king of the Hovas, a tribe occupying +the centre of the island, and the one which ranked highest in the scale +for intelligence. It is believed that this race, presenting so many +characteristics of the Malays, is the result of some piratical colony +here, established by chance or the desire of conquest. That the Hovas +possess a high degree of intelligence, and are capable of as much +culture as the Japanese or Mavris, is indisputable. + +Thanks to the muskets and military instructors with which England +provided him, Radama was enabled to extend his conquests in every +direction. He was indeed fitted to be a ruler, and, a savage Napoleon, +he devoted as much time to improvement of his subjects as he did to the +increase of his territories. Though not a convert, he allowed the +missionaries to preach the gospel, to reduce the Hova language to +writing, and to translate the Bible. He permitted them to establish +schools, to import printing presses, to instruct his people in +agriculture and mechanics. They rapidly availed themselves of the +opportunity, and with mines of coal, iron, and copper in abundance, they +became skilful artificers. + +Unfortunately, Radama died in 1828, in the prime of life; and, by an +intrigue in his harem, a concubine, Ranavalo, was proclaimed Queen of +Madagascar. The advance had been too rapid, and, as in Japan, there was +a large party of conservatives anxious to return to the old regime. The +new queen dissembled for a few years, but finally expelled the +missionaries in 1835. Idolatry was again resumed, and Christianity +stifled. A certain amount of commerce was allowed with Europeans, but +under severe restrictions. So necessary to the existence of the +neighboring colonists was the supply of food, that when in 1844 the +trade was forbidden, the English Government was obliged to yield. The +difficulty arose from the fact that an English vessel, the 'Marie +Laure,' kidnapped some of the Malagash. The Hovas seized one of the +crew, and then declared non-intercourse. In 1845, one English and two +French men-of-war attacked Tamatave, but were repulsed with considerable +losses. + +Finally the matter was settled by the payment of $15,000 to the queen as +an indemnity, and this sum, raised by the contributions of the merchants +of Port Louis, was paid with the consent of the English Government. + +Until 1861, there was no change in the position of affairs, except one +incident, which Madame Pfeiffer records. In 1831, a certain M. Laborde, +shipwrecked on the coast, was carried as a prisoner to the capital, +where he was kept in an honorable captivity. He taught the natives the +art of casting cannon and manufacturing gunpowder, and acquired a +considerable property. In 1855, he was joined by M. Lambert, a +Frenchman of wealth, and they became the favorites of the Prince Rakoto. +This son of the queen was at the head of the liberal party, as his +cousin, Ramboasalama, was of the conservative. The latter, nephew of the +queen, and brother-in-law of the prince, had been designated as heir +presumptive before the birth of Rakoto; and he had always the credit of +a design to contest the succession. + +The visit of Mr. Ellis, an English missionary, in 1856, was the signal +for the intrigues which were about to commence between the French and +English. The prince was warmly attached to M. Lambert, but the English +hoped to claim him as a Protestant. Finally, as Madame Pfeiffer says, M. +Lambert attempted to create a revolution, seeking to depose the queen, +but he was discovered and banished. + +In 1861, the queen died, and her son succeeded as Radama II, after a +short contest with his cousin. Having been on the island at the time, +and leaving it in the vessel which carried the new king's letters to the +colonial governments, the writer can testify to the intense interest +evinced by the French and English. It was confidently asserted at +Bourbon that Radama had placed the island under the protection of +France, and that French influence was to predominate. This proved +unfounded, but the court was the centre for incessant intrigues. + +The new king commenced his reign under the happiest auspices. He was +very popular, and his reputation for kindness had soon caused many of +the surrounding tribes to acknowledge his supremacy. The Hovas had +spread from the centre toward the coast in all directions--to the +eastward they had subdued the Betsimarakas; to the westward, the +Saccalaves. Yet numerous tribes had remained independent, and held large +portions of the coast and the interior. The cruelty of the queen had +kept alive their animosity, but now they voluntarily came forward to +acknowledge her son and to be received into the Hova nation. + +The people already had acquired a taste for European luxuries, and were +desirous of an extended commerce. As they were rich in herds and flocks, +in grain and fruits, as their forests of ebony, rosewood, and other +valuable woods were immense, as their mines yielded coal and iron, +perhaps even gold, they were ready and anxious to open their ports to +the commerce of the world. England and France both recognized the king, +sent envoys with congratulatory letters and presents, and appointed +resident consuls. The United States alone, unfortunately plunged in +civil war, neglected the opportunity. + +The king proclaimed freedom of religion, permitted the establishment of +schools, established freedom of imports and exports, and granted lands +to all _bona fide_ settlers. + +It was with the greatest surprise, therefore, that we have learned, some +two months since, that a revolution has taken place, and that these fair +prospects have been darkened by the murder of the king. It seems that he +had made such lavish grants of land to his favorite, Lambert, that his +nobles rebelled. Lambert had been sent to France to obtain the regalia +for the coronation, and had organized a great company to hold these +concessions. Whether the feuds of the missionaries, Protestant English +and Catholic French, aided this, is not yet known. + +It is clear, however, that the king and many of his personal friends +were killed, and that his wife, Rabodo, is the queen. She is the sister +of Ramboasalama, and probably represents the party of retrogression. + +It is not, however, too late for our Government to recognize the ruler +of Madagascar, and to obtain those indispensable advantages resulting. +In time of peace, we shall have safe harbors for our merchant vessels, +and we shall open a new field for our commerce. In time of war, we shall +have these neutral ports as a refuge, and should diplomacy go one step +farther and secure us a coaling station, we shall be on equal terms in +the East with the other great maritime powers. + +There is certainly no time to be lost. A single English steamer, flying +the confederate flag, can pass the Cape, can coal at Mauritius, or +rendezvous at Madagascar, and could then destroy more shipping than the +whole fleet of pirates has yet done. It is at least probable that our +national vessels would be refused permission to avail of Port Louis for +repairs or supplies. It certainly does not comport with the honor of the +nation to have to rely upon the churlish courtesy of England. Already, +too, we see it announced that Napoleon will find in the massacre of +French subjects a pretext to seize on the island. If our Government will +spare a single one of the cruisers which have so uselessly sought the +Alabama, it may, during the present year, negotiate a treaty which will +at once advance our prosperity in peace, and increase our strength in +any future war. + +It seems strange, indeed, that our statesmen cannot learn that we must +hereafter abandon our isolated condition. England has taught us the +folly of continuing indifferent to her aggressions in the East, in the +hope that she will not interfere in the West. No blow can be more fatal +to her supremacy abroad than the knowledge that we have secured a point +where we perpetually threaten her line of communication with her +colonies. + +We have written thus fully, because so few persons have had occasion to +consider the subject. It seems probable, from the latest advices from +Port Louis, that some envoy has visited the island, but what we require +is a more imposing display of our power. The new queen, who has assumed +the name of Rahoserina, is but a puppet in the hands of the council of +nobles, of which Rainivoninahitriniony is the chief. Formerly all honors +were held subject to the pleasure of the king, who could degrade his +servants at pleasure; but this power is now declared to be abrogated. +The powerful tribe of Saccalaves, always independent until the accession +of Radama II, refuses to acknowledge his successor. It may be necessary +to negotiate different treaties, perhaps, to protect American citizens +in case of civil war. It is certainly most important to show the natives +that we are really a great maritime nation. The time and position demand +the employment of an able envoy, and the presence of such a naval force +as may cause his mission to be respected. + +Our last topic is to be considered. We do not advocate the establishment +of costly works by Government, or the acquisition of a colony. The laws +of commerce will provide the first, if only a proper protection is given +to enterprise. Let us obtain but a single port under the safeguard of +the American flag, and it will become a depot as flourishing as +Singapore. Private enterprise will speedily establish dockyards and +machine shops; for not only will there be an immense legitimate commerce +with the Malagash, but the port will be the great centre for repairing +and refitting our merchant vessels and whalers. The one thing needful, +we repeat, is prompt action by our Government, with the certainty that +the opportunity now presented will not return. + + +NOTE.--The latest advices from Madagascar, received _via_ +Mauritius, throw a little light upon the revolution which resulted in +the death of Radama II. It seems probable that the late king had lost +the esteem of his people by his partiality toward his favorites, by the +concessions made to foreigners, especially to M. Lambert, and by his +vacillating course in religious matters. His private life was such as to +render it highly improbable that he had become a Christian; yet Mr. +Ellis, the English missionary, exercised a great control over him. + +The late queen was buried at Ambohimanga, a little village where there +was a temple devoted to the chief idol. It seems that her son had +promised to keep this spot sacred from the intrusion of the +missionaries. Mr. Ellis most imprudently determined to preach there, and +though driven away once, obtained troops from the king, and succeeded in +a second attempt. + +As the nobles and the population were almost unanimously in favor of +idolatry, this course gave cause for great dissatisfaction. The more +devout, assembling near the capital, held daily meetings, and a disease +called ramanenra--a sort of nervous affection, such as has too often +accompanied revivals in Christian countries--appeared among them. The +nobles confederated under the lead of the commander-in-chief, +Rainivoninahitriniony, and remained aloof from supporting the king. +Finally, the king published a mysterious law, allowing individuals or +tribes to fight in the presence of witnesses--a law supposed by the one +party to encourage assassination, and by the other to tend to the +extirpation of the Christians. + +The prime minister, in a letter written in English, explains the last +scene thus: On the 8th May, the chief officers requested the repeal of +these laws; the king refused; and the tenth day, a public tumult +resulted in the slaughter of the Menamaso, or native favorites of the +king. On the 12th May, the leaders, afraid to pause, strangled the king, +and proclaimed Rabodo queen, under the name of Rahoserina. + +It is believed that no foreigner was injured; but the nobles have taken +an important step in proclaiming the new queen as direct successor of +Ranavalo--thereby ignoring the reign of Radama II. As the fundamental +rule of the Hovas had been that the title to all land was in the +sovereign and inalienable, the grants to Lambert and others are held to +be void. We believe this has not been officially stated, but Commodore +Dupre, who negotiated the treaty between France and Radama, says that +the treaty was almost unanimously rejected by the great council of +nobles, and was accepted solely by the king. + +The last advices, 6th September, from Port Louis, are that the French +fleet at Tamatave maintains a semi-warlike attitude toward the Hovas, +not landing nor recognizing the authorities. Rumors are rife of the +intentions of the French Government to seize Tamatave, and apply other +coercive measures, unless the former treaty is carried into effect. + +The case seems to stand thus: The emperor, availing of the weakness of +Radama II for his favorite Lambert, concluded a treaty, by which the +king was to entirely alter the laws of the kingdom, and to give the +French a controlling influence in the Indian Ocean. The people have +deposed their ruler, and refuse to be bound by arrangements made by his +will alone. Under ordinary circumstances, Napoleon would hardly brave +the anger of England in a matter in which the latter has so much at +stake. The prize, however, is well worth the effort. Any European nation +obtaining sole possession of Madagascar dominates the East. It is surely +time for our Government to awake to the importance of the steps now +being taken. It is not a time when the interests of the country can be +intrusted to the efforts of a consul or any inferior naval officer. We +ought to send an envoy with powers to negotiate a treaty, and with such +a fleet as will insure a respectful attention to our demands. The number +of American vessels which frequent the coasts of Madagascar is a +sufficient reason for us to interfere, without regard to the vastly +greater interests which demand that this island shall not become a +French colony. Our prediction that the confederate pirates would soon +sweep the Indian Ocean of our richly laden India-men seems in a fair +way to be accomplished; and where, save by the contemptuous forbearance +of England and France, can our cruisers find a port for supplies, +repairs, or information? + + + + +A VIGIL WITH ST. LOUIS. + + [Greek: "Cheires men hagnai, phren d' echei miasma ti."] + + EURIPIDES. + + + O Friend, thy brow is overcast; but haply for thy grief, + Though all untold, a spell I hold to work a swift relief,-- + A hallowed spell;--no rites we need that shun the light, + Thy taper trim; for we must read some dark old words to-night. + For I will, shall I?--from their graves call up the holy dead, + More mighty than the living oft such soul as thine to aid. + From Fear and Woe, through fears and woes like thine, they won release, + And through our still confronting foes once fought their way to peace. + 'Twixt woe and weal, a balm to heal our every wound they found, + An outlet for each pool of strife, that whirls us round and round. + And if perhaps their childish time discerned not all aright,-- + While Fancy her stained windows reared between them and the light,-- + That in these clearer latter days 'tis given to thee to know, + Then seek the spirit they received, and bid the letter go. + Thy heart unto its Lord unlock; and shut thy closet's door. + The holy water of thy tears drop on the quiet floor. + Unclasp the old brown tome. The walls no more are seen. The page + I read; and we are backward borne far in a bygone age. + The spell hath wrought. To take us in, a tower and bower advance + Where grows upon our steadfast gaze the royal saint of France. + The bower full well a hermit's cell--with hourglass and with skull-- + Might seem,--the hangings woven all of rocks and mosses full. + The floor is thick with rushes strown. Some resting place is there + Worn,--as amid the rushy marsh by stag that made his lair,-- + Worn just beneath yon carven form, that bends in pain and love, + As if to bless, from its high place, and almost seems to move, + While round it in the wind of night the arras swells and swings,-- + The viceroy's of the universe, son of the King of kings. + For Louis loves to leave his court, and lay aside his crown, + And to a mightier Prince than he to bow in homage down. + In this great presence learns the king peace, truth, and lowlihead; + Here learns the saint the majesty no earthly power to dread. + But now the king's mute voice it rings, and through the shades doth call: + 'Ho, Sire de Jonville, come to me, my doughty seneschal!' + The rafters feel the tramp of steel; and by the monarch stand + Again the feet that by him stood far in the Holy Land. + 'O Sire de Jonville,' to his friend and servant Louis saith, + 'Hold fast and firmly to the end the jewel of thy faith. + Strong faith's the key of heaven; and once an abbot taught to me, + If will is good, though faith is weak, shall faith accepted be. + This tale he told[11]: + + A Master old,--Master of Sacred Lore,-- + Of life unsmirched, once came to him in straits and travail sore, + 'What wouldst thou, Master?--What the grief that makes thee peak + and pine? + And comest thou to me?--My soul hath often leaned on thine!' + 'Let each co-pilgrim lean in turn on each,' in anguish meek, + With tongue that clave unto his mouth, the Master then did speak; + But when the abbot led him in and lent his pitying ears, + Then tears came fast instead of words; words could not come for tears. + 'O brother, weep no more; but speak, and banish thy dismay. + Of man is guilt; but grace is God's, that purgeth guilt away. + If all our little being's bound were filled and stuffed with sin, + 'Twere nothing to the holiness His mighty heart within; + And in this wilderness of life there's no such crooked road, + But from it may a path be found straight to the throne of God. + The penitent that mourns like thee, that path will surely take. + What needeth but to own thy sin and straight thy sin forsake?' + 'Yet must I weep. Mine inward plight is one that stands alone. + The outward ill the tempted wight may do or leave undone; + But when I to the altar go, to eat the sacred bread + And gaze upon the blood divine, that for us all was shed, + Still Satan stirreth up in me a heart of unbelief!-- + This guilt must sure unmeasured be, save haply by this grief!' + The abbot's brows were sternly bent an instant on his guest: + 'Dost thou--thou dost not, sure!--invite this traitor to thy breast?' + 'The livelong day, though sore assailed, true watch and ward I keep,-- + Keep vigils long as flesh can bear,--but in my helpless sleep-- + Thronged heaven, canst thou no angel spare, to sit by me by night + And drive away the hell-sent dreams, that drive me wild with fright?-- + I seem to spill with frantic hands, and spurn the piteous blood, + To trample on the blessed bread, and spit upon the rood!' + The abbot's cheer grew calm and clear: 'Now, Master, tell me true: + For aught that Satan proffers thee, such trespass wouldst thou _do_?' + 'From his poor thrall he taketh all, and offers nought instead. + The Father's grace,--the Son's mild face,--are all I crave,' he said. + 'For any threat of any fate, wouldst follow his commands?' + 'The fiery stake I'd rather make my portion at his hands!' + The abbot's mien was bright, I ween, as 'twere a saint's in bliss: + 'O fiend, 'tis well to seek for hell so pure a gem as this! + O cunning foe, that round dost go these heavenward birds to snare, + When every brighter line is vain, wouldst tempt them with despair? + Bethink thee, Master. War doth rage 'twixt Britain's king, we know, + And ours. Now tell me unto whom most thanks our liege shall owe, + When war is o'er? To him who, oft assailed but never quelled, + The castle of Rochelle upon the dangerous Marches held,-- + Whose battlements must bristle still with halberd, bow, and lance,-- + Or Montl'hery's, that nestles safe close to the heart of France?' + 'Unto the warden of Rochelle. Thou'rt answered easily!' + 'That stronghold is thy heart, but mine the keep of Montl'hery, + For He who giveth gifts to all, hath given me to believe + So steadfastly, that strife like thine my wit can scarce conceive. + From th' Enemy God keepeth me,--He knows my weaker strength,-- + But suffers thee assayed to be for higher meed at length. + Then let us at our different posts His equal mercies own; + But they the sharpest thorns who bear may wear the brightest crown.' + Beside the kneeling penitent the abbot bent his knee, + Sent his own praise and prayers to heaven forth on an embassy, + Then raised him up, and saw that God had sent him answering grace; + The shadow of the Enemy had left his heart and face. + Calmly as warily he walked his fellow men beside, + A good, grave man. 'Tis said, at last a happy man he died.' + + + + +UNION NOT TO BE MAINTAINED BY FORCE. + + +The enemies of our cause in Europe seem to have settled in their own +minds the certainty of a final separation of the American States. +Compelled though they may be, reluctantly to admit the superiority of +our resources and the immense advantages we have recently gained over +the conspirators, they yet adhere with singular tenacity to the belief +that all our victories will be barren, and that all our vast +acquisitions of Southern territory will not avail for the ultimate +restoration of the Union. Though the domain originally usurped by the +rebellion is already sundered by our possession of that great +continental highway, the Mississippi river, and though no shadow of hope +remains that the enemies of the Union will ever be able to recover it; +though the recent boundless theatre of hostilities is gradually +contracting, and the resources of the rebellion are rapidly melting +away, until there remains no longer any doubt of our ultimate and even +speedy success in crushing the wasted armies of the desperate foe; and +though the boundaries of the boasted confederacy are uncertain, +ever-shifting, and mystical, while whole populations of recovered +regions of country hail the advent of our conquering flag with streaming +eyes and shouts of joy; yet our jealous friends across the water, in the +very act of acknowledging all this, never fail to assert, with the +utmost vehemence, that in spite of all our military advantages, the +Union is still irrecoverably destroyed. There is something remarkable in +this persistent opinion, which, through all the changes of condition +exhibited by the hostile parties in our struggling country, continues to +possess the mind of British statesmen with unshaken firmness. If they +undertake to justify their hasty recognition of the rebels as +belligerents, and to vindicate their alleged impartial neutrality, they +take apparently peculiar delight in fortifying themselves with the +declaration that the Union is effectually broken, and can never be +restored. It is necessary to throw the shield of this cherished +anticipation back on the unfriendly acts they have perpetrated against +us, in order fully to justify their conduct to themselves. If the +rebellious States should indeed be compelled to acknowledge the +authority of the Federal Government, and should return again to their +position in the Union, the hostile cruisers which have been fitted out +in England to harass our commerce, would occasion some unpleasant +negotiations, and perhaps some costly responsibilities. To brush these +all aside, and at the same time to get rid of a troublesome rival in +commerce and manufactures, by the final separation of the Union, is, to +them, on all accounts, 'a consummation most devoutly to be wished.' They +may yet have to learn, through the experience of their Southern friends, +that + + 'The ample proposition, that hope makes + In all designs begun on earth below, + Fails in the promised largeness.' + +But perhaps, after all, it is we, ourselves, who are the victims of +delusive hope in reference to the destiny of our noble Union. Possibly +our disinterested friends across the water, calmly looking on from a +distance, may be better able to understand the tendency of events, and +to foresee the issue of the mighty civil contest which rages around us. +They are not at all involved in the awful passions which the war has +engendered in our bosoms, and thus, cool and deliberate, from the great +altitude of their assumed moral serenity and disinterestedness, they may +in reality behold the division of our country already accomplished, +whatever may be the result of our grand strategy and our bloody battles. + +Let us open our eyes fully, and look this matter dispassionately in the +face. Let us try and ascertain whether we are in reality deceiving +ourselves and waging a vain and fruitless war against our exasperated +and misguided brethren of the South. We know they have instituted a +causeless rebellion, which has brought unnumbered woes upon our common +country. But if we cannot restore the Union, and reestablish one great +and powerful nationality within the magnificent domain which we possess +as it was when this unhappy war began, then surely we are wasting our +blood and treasure--our lives and fortunes--with the most wanton and +wicked disregard of the sufferings and sacrifices of the people. If the +war is to accomplish nothing, then the sooner it is closed the better. +If the Union is indeed irrevocably broken and gone forever, let us, by +all means, hasten to arrange the terms of honorable peace, and stop the +effusion of blood at the earliest practicable moment. Unless we can +assure ourselves that there is some object to be gained, commensurate in +value with all the terrible sacrifices we are daily making, it is only +criminal stubbornness and passion which induce us to continue the awful +conflict. + +Of one thing, at least, there is no shadow of doubt. The people of the +loyal States, who, by an immense majority, have just emphasized their +determination to sustain the war, are firmly convinced that they are not +laboring and suffering in vain. It is no spasmodic impulse of blind +passion, or even of useless though just resentment against wrong, which +impels them, after nearly three years of ruinous war, to redouble their +sublime efforts to conquer the treason that still obstinately resists +the lawful authority of the Union. Whatever else may be truly said of +this great conflict and its terrible results, it cannot be questioned +that the people of the loyal States are profoundly impressed with the +inestimable value of their free institutions and of the constitutional +integrity and unity of the Government which shall administer them on +this continent. They have faith in the exalted destiny of their country. +They at least do not admit that the Union is irrecoverably lost; on the +contrary, they believe, with a religious sincerity, which no temporary +disaster can shake, in the certainty of its speedy restoration. This +earnest faith is not merely the result of education and national +prejudice. While it is to some extent an instinctive or intuitive +insight of the American people, prophetically anticipating the future, +it is also a matter of sober judgment, founded upon the most substantial +and convincing reasons. + +In the first place, the loyal people of the United States plainly see +that the true interests of both sections demand the restoration of their +old connection under one free and benign Government. Having originated +and developed a mighty republican government, until it became +continental in its dimensions, and having through it achieved results +unexampled in history, with the promise of future prosperity +immeasurably grand and imposing, the lovers of the Union would hold +themselves utterly unworthy of their lineage and of their inherited +freedom, if they could consent, in the presence of whatever dangers and +difficulties, to see the glorious destiny of their country defeated. +They would justly consider themselves traitors, not only to their +country, but also to the highest interests of humanity itself; and they +would feel the ineffable shame of imprinting the brand of their +degradation upon their own brows. Partakers of the noblest forms and the +most precious blessings of liberty, under a splendid, powerful, and +growing nationality, they are too conscious of the dignity and glory of +the American character ever to be willing to fall from that high estate +without a struggle which shall fully demonstrate their lofty patriotism +and their intelligent appreciation of the priceless political and social +structure they seek to preserve for the benefit of the whole country and +of the world. The history of Europe, and indeed the experience of the +entire human race, have taught them the immense value of a mighty +continental organization, such as our Union has hitherto established. +Solemnly impressed with this great lesson of human history, they will +never consent to see their country broken up into discordant fragments. +As they plainly foresee the tremendous and ever-increasing evils of such +a national disintegration, they have deliberately come to consider the +worst calamities of this war as mere dust in the balance when weighed +against them. It is this awful picture of bloody conflicts, perpetuated +through coming generations, wasting the substance and paralyzing the +fruitful energies of this mighty nation, perhaps for centuries to +come--it is this vista of inevitable calamities and horrors, which +reconciles the loyal people of North America to the dreadful war in +which they have been so earnestly engaged for the last two years and +more. They feel the inspiration of a sacred cause, the mighty impulse of +an idea as grand as their cherished hopes for their country, and as +immense as the interests of all humanity. They hear the mute appeals of +a swarming posterity, gathered from all nations in pursuit of freedom, +progress, and happiness, and they know that these countless millions +will justly hold them responsible for the deeds of the present momentous +hour. Is it strange that, penetrated and nerved with the high motives to +be derived from these solemn considerations, the American people are +prepared to accept the responsibilities of the great occasion, and even +to wade through blood for the realization of the grandeur of those human +hopes which are now intrusted to their keeping? One nation--one +government--one universal freedom within those imperial boundaries which +have heretofore been the theatre of our glorious achievements as a +people! This is the grand thought of the Union men of America. This is +the principle of their organization, and this it is which gives them +hope, and strength, and courage. What weakness, what degeneracy, what +dwindling of power for good and retrogression of thought and aim would +be the consequence of permanent division! What a lamentable fall in our +position among the nations of the earth, and what a diminution of our +capacity for progress among ourselves and for usefulness to mankind! It +is our duty and our destiny to develop all the physical resources of the +continent--to stimulate its agricultural capabilities--to bring to light +its boundless mineral treasures--to pierce its mountains and level its +valleys--to control its mighty floods--and to make it worthy to be the +seat of human freedom and of human empire. Nor is it less our destiny to +build up a moral and social power and a political organization, which +shall shed abroad a new and glorious light, beaming with immortal hopes, +and penetrating to the farthest verge of the habitable globe. Nature, in +every form of benignant usefulness and unequalled grandeur, invites us +to this tremendous task. The loyal people of the nation have not been +insensible to these mystic calls and the noble anticipations growing out +of them, fraught as they are with the happiness and progress of the +human race. They have projected works of the most gigantic proportions, +nor, although they are conscious that union is indispensable to their +success, have they hesitated to begin them, with all the high confidence +necessary to their completion. Even amid the perils and the vast +expenditures of civil war have they embarked in the grand enterprise of +uniting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by a continental highway, equal +in its cost and its importance to the power and resources of a mighty +empire. Vast internal streams and lakes call for union by canals, which +shall typify the union of hearts and of interests destined to bind +together millions of freemen, whose connection of brotherhood and +national unity shall be as lasting as the perpetual flow of our mighty +rivers, and as full of blessings as our great lakes are of their pure +and crystal waters. The agitation of these momentous schemes, under +existing circumstances, is a phenomenon indicating a consciousness of +security and of vast power in the community, which, at the same time +that it is engaged in the perilous and bloody work of preserving the +Union, is preparing to perform the most important duties appertaining to +the nation in the hour of its most perfectly established and permanent +authority. It is the instinct of the national destiny working out its +ends in spite of the difficulties and dangers of the hour. It is the +prophetic vision of the popular mind, unconsciously preparing for a +great future not yet visible to the natural eye, but which the +providence of God, in its own good time, will verify to the firm and +courageous hearts of our people. + +The loyal people of our country, those who are determined to restore the +Union, are well aware that it cannot be maintained by force. That great +political organization was voluntary in its origin, based on the consent +of the governed; and it has been upheld through all its marvellous +career of prosperity by the free and unconstrained will of the people, +who rejoiced in its common benefits and blessings. The novel system on +which it was built, not only required the largest liberty for its very +conception and for its practical embodiment, but was also admirably +devised to secure the complete and permanent enjoyment of that +individual independence in thought and action, which is the first of +human privileges. Those States of the Union which are preeminently loyal +to it, have ever cherished the most liberal principles of civil polity, +and have framed their constitutions in accordance with the most modern +and advanced maxims of popular rights. So far are they from any +disposition to usurp authority or to impose unjust or unnecessary +restraints upon the political action of the people, that they are +charged with the opposite fault of carrying liberty to the extreme of +ungoverned license. Of all the American States, these are the least +likely to interfere with the great principles of civil liberty, or to +impose an unacceptable government on the people by force. All the +violence, so far as any has been shown, is wholly on the other side. +Leaving entirely out of view the exceptional irregularities arising from +a state of civil war, and it must be acknowledged that the social and +political system of the Southern States is one which rests on arbitrary +force as its corner stone. It is this arbitrary and tyrannical spirit +embodied in Southern institutions which has seized on the pretext of +secession in order to destroy the Government of the Union. The efforts +of the loyal States and of the Federal authority in the present war are +antagonistic to this spirit. Their purpose is to break down and destroy +this system of arbitrary power, which has set itself up against the +Union; and in its stead to bring into play the great principle of +popular assent to the fundamental principles and conditions of +government. Annihilate the despotism which controls in the pretended +confederacy, give the masses of the people absolute freedom of choice +under the conditions necessary for deliberate and intelligent decision, +and they will certainly pronounce for the restoration of the old Union, +under which they have enjoyed such boundless prosperity. No friend of +the Union entertains any serious thought of disregarding or destroying +the great principle that governments are only rightly founded on the +consent of the governed. But it is not every temporary aberration of +thought, nor every outbreak of revolutionary violence, which may +properly be allowed to avail in changing the forms of an established +government. Some respect is due to obligations once assumed and long +recognized as the basis of a permanent political organization; and when +the minority in that organization have taken up arms against it, the +majority, in possession of the lawful power of the nation, are bound to +vindicate its constitutional authority. If the Union cannot be +maintained by force, it ought not to be destroyed by force. The instinct +of self-preservation, which is but the impulse of a solemn duty, would +necessarily and rightfully lead it to suppress the lawless force that +assailed it. If this assault is wholly wrong and unjustifiable, if it is +in reality as injurious to the seceding States themselves as to those +which remain in the Union, then it is certain that, with the suppression +of the violence prevailing in the disaffected region, the spirit of +disunion itself will disappear. The Federal Government cannot escape the +necessity of performing this duty, of suppressing and destroying the +lawless power which assails it, and permitting the Southern people to +return to the Union. At the present moment, in the midst of a sanguinary +conflict, they are blinded with passion and overflowing with enmity. But +set them free from the power which now deceives and abuses them, which +arrays them against their own best interests, and makes them the +helpless victims of a wicked war, and they will, at no distant period, +gladly pronounce for the unity of the great nation with which Providence +has cast their lot. Innumerable indications of this disposition among +the masses of the Southern people are visible in the events of every +day; and these will multiply in proportion to the success of our arms +and the decline of power in the rebellion. If we are mistaken in this +view, then our argument falls to the ground. If, upon a full +consideration of all the circumstances and with perfect freedom to act +according to their understanding of their best interests, the people of +the Southern States should deliberately determine upon a permanent +separation, our noblest hopes would be sadly disappointed. But this is +utterly impossible. In moments of frenzy, men may perpetrate deeds of +desperation. Among the masses of all communities, some are found who, +under various impulses, will commit suicide. But the conduct of the +great majority everywhere is controlled by the dictates of reason and +self-interest. Whatever folly, even to the extremity of +self-destruction, a few madmen in the Southern States may counsel, it +may confidently be expected that rational thoughts will prevail among +the masses. The paths of duty and of interest are for them the same; +and, upon the whole, are too broad and plain to be mistaken. Their +self-constituted leaders have already overwhelmed them with calamities. +The emancipated people will scarcely heed the advice of these, when +their plausible schemes shall have been all baffled, and their usurped +power utterly overthrown. + +It is, therefore, very far from the thoughts of loyal men, in upholding +the Federal Government, to establish the principle of force as the bond +of the American Union. They repel the lawless force which now assails +it; and even while they do so, they invite the misguided people of the +rebellious region to return again to their allegiance and to take +shelter under the political system which is their only security for +permanent peace and prosperity. The result of the contest in the +restoration of the Union, so far from establishing force as the basis of +political authority, on the contrary, will certainly destroy it, and +give a far wider scope to the voluntary principle of consent, which is +the only solid foundation of freedom. In the normal condition of the +larger number of the loyal States, that is to say, in times of peace, +liberty prevails in its broadest and most universal sense. Force nowhere +holds a place in society, except for the protection of individual rights +and of public order. Every man is permitted to pursue happiness in his +own way, and to enjoy perfect freedom of thought, of speech, and of +action, except when his published words or his overt acts are calculated +to interfere with the acknowledged rights or interests of others. This +is, theoretically, the consummation of the greatest possible human +liberty. It provides only for order and justice, and leaves everything +else to the control of individual will and social cooeperation. In the +present war for the Union, the loyal States are by no means contending +for the abrogation of this principle of liberty, but for its extension. +They desire neither to abolish it with reference to the Union, when +exercised through the forms provided in the Constitution, nor to prevent +its operations within the limits of the Southern States themselves. + +It is not possible that the great civil conflict now pending could take +place without causing, in the end, an important extension of liberal +principles. These, when they once acquire a firm hold upon any society +possessed of the requisite intelligence, are altogether too strong for +the antagonistic principle of force, because the latter can be nothing +but an authority usurped by the few and exerted against the many; while +the former is the accumulation of the whole power of society wielded for +the benefit of all. Obviously, this affords the only basis broad enough +to sustain a social structure of any stability and permanence. + +Under the operation of this voluntary principle--the principle of +voluntary consent and of universal freedom--the conflicting elements of +Southern society will be compelled to adjust themselves to each other +more wisely, and therefore more safely and profitably, than under the +arbitrary system which has hitherto prevailed. + +Some of the wealthiest men and the largest slaveholders have already +discerned the necessities of their condition, and are fully prepared to +accept the new order of things, and to make their arrangements for +future operations accordingly. Under the law of liberty, the races, in +their new relations, will soon find their appropriate positions in the +social organization, subject chiefly to the natural influences of +intelligence, morality, industry, and property, but not without the +inevitable pressure and disturbance of traditional prejudice to hinder +and embarrass the operation of the principle of freedom. It is +impossible to prevent this, so long as human nature retains its present +tendency to selfishness and violence. The only alternative is to await +the soothing operation of time, which gradually softens the asperities +of prejudice, and may be expected ultimately to bring the noblest +harmony out of the present confusion and disorder. + +Many good and humane men apprehend the most serious evils from the +sudden change of relations, now certain to be effected, between the two +races in the South. It will be a rude and violent shock to the interests +and feelings of the whites, and will undoubtedly produce that +inconvenience which always results from great social transformations. +But the anticipation is doubtless worse than the reality will prove to +be. There is a plastic capacity in human nature which enables it readily +to adjust itself in new situations when overruling necessity compels +submission. It remains to be seen what will be the results, immediate +and remote, of freedom in a society composed of so nearly equal +proportions of the two races. Whatever may be the mere temporary +difficulties at the outset, we do not doubt that, in the long run, +freedom will produce the best results to both. Nature is unerring in the +wisdom of her general purposes and in the selection of the means by +which she fulfils them, when left free to pursue her own laws. Whatever +oscillations may take place, the mean result is always good. The +experience of a single generation will dissipate all the delusions which +now blind and enrage the Southern people. + +With the disappearance of the principle of arbitrary power now embodied +in Southern society, the last motive for a dissolution of the American +Union will have vanished forever. Should that principle only decline to +a subordinate authority, with the certainty of gradual extinction, the +interests of freedom will be in the ascendant, and their influence +secure the restoration of the Federal authority. Here lies the whole +problem: let despotism continue to prevail in the South, and the +separation, with all its terrible consequences, must inevitably be +accomplished; let freedom succeed, and from that moment, every hostile +sentiment at once subsides, and the sundered sections, 'like kindred +drops,' again 'mingle into one.' A free community will gravitate to the +central orb of liberty; one that is repellent to freedom will fly off on +its erratic course to the regions of outer darkness, and will never +return until, having completed the cycle of its destiny of ruin, it +shall be brought back to be regenerated at the fountain of light, and +truth, and liberty. + + + + +WAS HE SUCCESSFUL? + +_PART THE LAST._ + + + 'Do but grasp into the thick of human life! Every one _lives_ + it--to not many is it _known_; and seize it where you will, it is + interesting.'--GOETHE. + + 'SUCCESSFUL.--Terminating in accomplishing what is wished + or intended.'--WEBSTER'S _Dictionary_. + + +CHAPTER I. + +More than twenty-five years have elapsed since the events narrated in +the last chapter. + +New York has become a great and magnificent metropolis. The avenues of +the city extend for miles beyond the old landmarks. The adjacent farms +have been converted into lots, and covered with handsome houses. The old +buildings are torn down, and new and elegant ones erected in their +place. The streets are thronged with a purely cosmopolitan class. You +behold specimens of every nation under the heavens jostling the citizens +on the sidewalk, or filling the omnibuses which choke the way. And from +the commingled sounds of the tramp of horses, the rolling of vehicles, +and the tread of human beings, there arises through the day and far into +the night a perpetual but muffled roar from this great thoroughfare. + + * * * * * + +It is a lovely October afternoon--one of those mellow days for which +this latitude is so remarkable--possessing the softness and genial +temperature of summer, without its scorching heat. + +The world of fashion has returned from the Spas, the mountains, the +seaside. Elegant equipages pass up and down, or stop before the favorite +resorts for shopping. The streets and sidewalks are literally crowded, +as if it were some grand gala-time. + +It is nearly four o'clock. Walking slowly up Broadway is a person +probably about fifty-five, of medium height, inclining to be stout, who +carries his hands behind him as he proceeds thoughtfully along. His +dress is particularly neat. His hat, while it conceals an excessive +baldness, permits the escape of a quantity of light hair, quite unmixed +with gray, which fringes the back of the head. At a distance, his +complexion looks soft and fair; but, on closer observation, it has the +appearance of smooth leather. Occasionally he raises his face to regard +a building, as if he had a special interest in so doing; then one may +see a light-blue eye, clear and icy as a fine December day, having an +expression like a flint. + +He walks on. Two young men are just passing him. One says to his +companion: + +'Do you know who that is?' + +'Which?' + +'That old fellow right by your side.' + +'No. Who is it?' + +'That's Hiram Meeker.' + +'You don't say so!' + +He pauses, and lets the individual alluded to pass, that he may take a +good look at him. + +'I would like to have some of his cash, anyhow. What do you suppose he +is worth?' + +'Oh, there is no telling; he is variously estimated at from five to ten +millions, but nobody knows. Started without a penny, as clerk in a +ship-chandler's store.' + +Yes, reader, that _is_ Hiram. [We shall continue our familiarity, and +call him, when we see fit, by his first name.] That is our old +acquaintance Hiram Meeker, who commenced at Hampton, with Benjamin +Jessup--Hiram Meeker of Burnsville, now the great Hiram Meeker of New +York. + +We have devoted a large part of this volume to Hiram's early career, +going into the minutiae of his education, his religious training, and his +business life. This was not without design. For the reader, once in +possession of these circumstances, had no need to be informed in detail +of the achievements of those years in which Hiram worked vigorously on +through successive stages in his career, while his heart grew hard as +the nether millstone. + +As you see him now, pursuing his way along the street, he has really but +one single absorbing idea--ACQUISITION. True, he clings to his +belief in the importance of church membership. He has long been the +leading vestryman at St. Jude's. He is the friend and adviser of the +Bishop. + +Famous is Hiram Meeker the millionaire! + +Famous is Hiram Meeker the Churchman! + +Still, I repeat, he has but one thought--one all-absorbing, +all-engrossing passion. + +You have not forgotten, I am sure, the early calculating policy of +Hiram, and to what degree he had carried it when we took leave of him. +Imagine this developed and intensified day by day, month by month, and +year by year, over more than a quarter of a century. + +Since we first made his acquaintance, he has kept on rigidly. In all his +intercourse with his fellow beings--man to man--with high and low--with +the sex--with his nearest relations,--he has never, no, _never_ looked +to anything except what he considered his personal advantage. He is a +member of the Church; he performs certain rites and formulae of our holy +religion; he subscribes to charities: but it is to secure to himself +personally the benefit of heaven and whatever advantages may be +connected with it. So that, where he has acted wisely and well, the +action has been robbed of all merit, because there was no wise or right +intent, but simply a politic end in view. + +Look at him, as he pushes along in the crowd! Notwithstanding his +millions, he is there a mere atom out of this world's creation. He has +not a sympathy beyond himself--not a hope which does not centre in +self--no connecting link with anything outside or beyond--no thought, no +emotion, no sense, no feeling, which are not produced by a desire to +advance the interests of "_H. Meeker_," here and hereafter. + + * * * * * + +We will go on in advance of Hiram, and enter his house before him. + +It is one of the best in the city. Not showy, but large, ample, and well +constructed; indicating the abode of a solid man. It is situated in one +of the finest streets far 'up town.' + +Before the door are two equipages. One is Mrs. Meeker's carriage, very +handsome and in exquisite taste. The other is a stylish single-seat +phaeton, with two horses tandem, and a rather flashy-looking servant in +gay livery. + +Let us go into the house. + +Mrs. Meeker is just preparing for a short shopping excursion before +dinner. At the distance from which we regard her, Time seems to have +dealt very kindly with her. The figure is quite the same, the style the +same, the face the same, and you see no gray hairs. In short, you behold +our old friend Arabella, slightly exaggerated, perhaps--but it is she. + +She leaves her room, and prepares to descend. + +As she passes to the top of the staircase, a faint voice exclaims: + +'Mamma!' + +Mrs. Meeker stops with an expression of impatience, turns, and enters +the adjoining apartment. + +On a sort of couch or ottoman reclines a young lady, who, you can +perceive at a glance, is a victim of consumption. + +It is their oldest child, who for five years has been an invalid, and +whose strength of late has been fast declining. One can hardly say how +she would have looked in health, for disease is a fearful ravager. +Still, Harriet (she is named for Mr. Meeker's mother) probably resembled +her own mother more than any one else in personal appearance, but beyond +that there was no resemblance whatever. Neither was she like her father, +but more like her grandfather Meeker, of whom her uncle says she always +reminds him. She possesses a kind and happy nature; and since she was +stricken by the terrible malady, she has grown day by day more gentle +and more heavenly, as her frame has been gradually weakened under its +insidious inroads. + +When Mrs. Meeker came in, she demanded, in an irritated tone, 'What do +you want, Harriet?' + +'I wish very much, mamma, you would send and ask Uncle Frank if he will +not come and see me to-day.' + +'I think it very improper, Harriet, for you to be sending for your uncle +when you are under Dr. Alsop's charge.' + +'But, mamma, Uncle Frank does not prescribe for me. I do not send for +him as my physician.' + +'It looks very odd, though,' continued Mrs. Meeker, with increased +irritation. 'I am sure Dr. Alsop would not like it if he knew it.' + +'Dr. Alsop met Uncle Frank here one day, and they appeared to be +excellent friends. I am sure there can be no misunderstanding on his +part, and papa says he is quite willing.' + +'Do as you like, child,' replied Mrs. Meeker. Then turning to the nurse +she said, 'You may ring, and send Thomas with a message from Miss +Meeker, if she desires.' + +'Thank you, dear mamma. If you will come to me, I will give you a kiss.' + +The door closed before the sentence was finished, and Mrs. Meeker +descends the staircase, passes through the hall, and steps into the open +air. + +Alas, what is revealed to you! Marks, grim and ghastly marks of those +years of wear and tear, which the sunlight, that remorseless trier of +woman's looks, makes quite apparent. What evidence of irritability, of +discontent, and general disappointment and disgust with everything and +all things, is revealed in those deep-cut lines and angles which in the +light of day become painfully visible under the delicate layers of Baume +d'Osman, rouge, and pearl powder! + +Mrs. Meeker adjusts her veil so as to hang gracefully down to the tip of +her nose, and enters her carriage. + +I had nearly forgotten to point out a very genteel-looking young man in +black, who wears a distressingly long frock coat and a white neckcloth, +who escorts Mrs. Meeker to her carriage, and enters it after her. + +Arabella has not lost her _penchant_ for young clergymen, nor young +clergymen for her. + +Leaving Mrs. Meeker to her excursion, we go into the parlors. + +On one of the sofas is a young fair girl, no more than eighteen years +old. Her complexion, eyes, and general cast of features, exhibit a +striking likeness to her father. She is of medium height, and her form +is fine and well rounded. Add to these the adornments and appliances of +dress, and you have before you a very beautiful young woman. + +Seated on the same sofa, and in very close proximity, is a person whose +_status_ it will be difficult to decide from mere inspection. He is a +tall, large, coarse-featured, but well-proportioned man, with black +hair, inclining to curl, dark complexion, and very black eyes. His age +is possibly thirty. He is showily dressed, with a vast expanse of cravat +and waistcoat. Across the latter stretches a very heavy gold chain, to +which is attached a quantity of seals and other trinkets known as +charms. A massive ring, with coat of arms and crest carved on it, +encircles the little finger of the right hand. Every point of the dress +and toilet is in keeping with what I have already described. The hair +dresser has been devoted. There has been no stint of oil and pomade in +the arrangement of whiskers and mustache. In short, judging the +individual by a certain standard, which passes current with a good many +people, you would pronounce him remarkably well 'got up.' + +Looking at the fine and delicate-featured girl, in whose surroundings +you behold evidences of so much taste and refinement, you could scarcely +be made to believe that the gross organization by her side is to her +liking. Yet I assure you she is in love with the handsome animal--'madly +in love' with him, as she herself avows! + +This girl is the youngest of Hiram's three children. She is named for +her mother, but is called by all her acquaintance, Belle. And she is +_belle_ every way--except in temper and disposition. Resembling her +father so closely, she inherits her mother's jealous irritability and +tyrannical nature. She is beautiful only to look on. She is a spoiled +child besides. + +I cannot avow that Hiram has any genuine parental affection. He is so +entirely absorbed in gathering in his harvests from the golden fields at +his command, that I think in God's providence this is denied to him. + +[Else he would exhibit some tenderness and love for the poor, sinking +child who is lying in her chamber, with no companion but her nurse.] + +But there is that about the youngest which commends itself (I know no +other way to express it) to his senses. She is fair and young, and +graceful and a beauty, and she resembles him; and he loves to look at +her and have her near him when he is at home, and to pet her, after a +sort. + +Hiram is too much occupied, however, to attend at all to the well-being +of his children, and his wife 'has no taste for anything of the kind.' +So, as I said, Belle grows up a spoiled child. She has never been +subject to control, and has not the slightest idea of self-restraint. + +This is her second season in society. She is universally +admired--indeed, is quite 'the rage.' 'All the young men are dying for +her'--I quote from the observations about town; but few have the +hardihood to pay serious court to the daughter of Hiram Meeker. + +Yet you perceive one man has ventured--successfully ventured. + +Who is he? I do not wonder you inquire with some degree of curiosity. I +shall proceed to gratify it. + +The large, dark, coarse-visaged, foreign-looking fellow, who 'lives but +to adore the angel of beauty and perfection' at his side, and with whom +the 'angel' is so blindly infatuated, is Signor Filippo Barbonne, a +second-rate performer of the last season's opera _troupe_! + +It is a fact, reader, so it will be vain for me to deny it. + +What, meantime, can I say by way of explanation? I hardly know. This +Signor Filippo, who is an impudent, audacious scamp, made the +acquaintance of Belle two years ago, when she was a schoolgirl. She was +amused at seeing him follow her persistently, and at last she permitted +him to accost her. + +The cunning fellow conducted himself with the utmost deference, not to +say humility. He pretended not to have the slightest knowledge who she +was. He had been seized and subdued by her charms, her loveliness; and +it was quite sufficient happiness for him to be permitted to watch for +her and to tread in her steps day by day. He only wished to speak and +tell her so, lest she might suppose him disrespectful. + +The ice once broken, arrangements for accidental meetings followed. + +Signer Filippo did not disclose himself, except to say his position was +so far below hers, that he had but one hope, one aspiration, which was, +that she would permit him to be her willing slave forever. He asked and +expected nothing beyond the privilege of worshipping her. + +But how happens it that Belle Meeker is desperately in love with the +Signor? + +I will endeavor to explain. + +Possessing not one spark of sentiment or native refinement, accustomed +to no restraint on her temper or will, she presents an example of a +strong sensuous nature, uncontrolled by any fine moral instincts or +perceptions. + +This is why in person and appearance Signor Filippo is quite to her +taste. The wily adventurer had made no mistake when he judged of the +girl's nature. Understanding her arbitrary disposition, and her +impatience of any restraint whatever, he adroitly maintained his air of +extreme deference and respect, which was increased a thousand-fold on +his discovering, as he pretended one day to do, who the object of his +adoration was. + +What an agony he was in, lest now he should not be permitted even to +look on her! Though assured on this point, he became reserved and shy, +giving vent to his impassioned feelings by sighs and various mute but +eloquent expressions. + +Miss Belle began to be very impatient. These sentimental meetings had +lasted more than a year. Meantime, she was 'brought out.' This made it +difficult for her to keep up her stolen interviews, but she could now +ask the Signor to the house. + +To effect this, however, she must first bring over her mother. She +informed her that the gentleman was a Neapolitan Count, who from +political motives was forced to remain _perdu_ for a time, and so forth, +and so forth, and so forth. By dint of entreaty and argument, and +exhibition of much temper, Belle persuaded her mother to say nothing to +her father about the visits of this Count in disguise. The truth is, +Mrs. Meeker had sometimes to request Belle's silence about little +matters involving some expenditures which Mr. Meeker might consider +extravagant. So, with occasional protests on her part, the Signor was +permitted to make his visits. + +Belle was too shrewd to attempt to impose on her father in such a case. +She knew she could not succeed for a minute. So the intimacy is +continued without his knowledge. + +Long before this, she has been told by the Signor who he really is. He +admits his late position in the _troupe_, but has a long story to +recount of adverse fortune, and so on. His respectful manner still +continues; it is the young lady who woos. + +What is to be done? This state of things cannot last forever. Belle is +more and more impatient. Her adorer still respectful and sad. + +After this long but necessary digression, I return to our place in the +front parlor, where the lovers are seated. + +'I must leave you, oh, my angel--I must leave you! It is nearly time for +your father to be here.' + +'I do not care if it is. I want you to stay.' + +'As you will, but--' + +'If you really loved me, you would not be so indifferent,' exclaims the +young lady, passionately. + +Then follows a scene. The result is, that Belle vows she will endure the +suspense no longer. She will not ask her father's permission--she will +marry him--yes, she _will_ marry the Signor; and who dare prevent, who +dare thwart her wishes! + +The Signor takes impressive leave. His little plot approaches a +_denouement_. He walks with an 'air noble' down the steps, and, mounting +his phaeton, he takes the ribbons from the servant in gay livery, and +the tandem team, after some well-trained prancing, dash forward. + +Miss Belle is at the window, a delighted witness of the spectacle. + +[The Signor has got up this fine turn-out, through aid of a friend who +is in the plot, especially to captivate her.] + +'What a singular man!' she exclaims to herself. 'How heroic he seems, +controlling those wild creatures! Strange he should always be so +diffident when in my society. There shall be an end of this; I cannot +endure it!' + +Presently she sees her father mount the steps, and runs to meet him, a +little doubtful whether or not he beheld her lover start from before the +door. + +The greeting is most affectionate; Belle throws her arms caressingly +around her father's neck. + +'Who is our new visitor, Belle, who indulges in a tandem?' said Hiram, +turning his penetrating eyes on his daughter, but with no suspicious +glance. + +'New visitor! What do you mean, papa?' + +'I thought I saw a phaeton drive from here.' + +'Oh, that was at Mrs. Longworth's. Such a handsome man, though, papa! I +was at the window when he got in.' + +Hiram patted his daughter's cheek playfully, and passed in. Keen and +discerning as he was, his _child_ could deceive him. + +'Where is your mamma?' he asked. + +'Out for a drive.' + +'Is Gus at home?' + +'No, papa; I have not seen him to-day.' + +'Give orders to have dinner served punctually. I must go out immediately +after.' + + +CHAPTER II. + +I have spoken of Hiram's three children. + +The individual referred to in the last chapter as 'Gus' is the oldest, +and the only son. He is, at this period, about twenty-three years of +age. + +His father undertook to bring him up in a very strict manner. He could, +however, give none of his time to the important business of starting his +son in the right path, and aiding him to continue in it. It was enough +for Hiram that _he_ was secure. He contented himself with laying down +severe courses, and holding his boy to the strictest fulfilment of +'duty.' + +The result can readily be imagined. The young man, as he grew up and +understood fully his father's position, came to the conclusion that it +was quite unnecessary for him to practise the strict habits which had +been so despotically inculcated. So he gave loose rein to his fancies, +and while yet in college was one of the wildest in the class. By his +mother's interposition, he was sent abroad. He came back all the worse +for the year's sojourn, and, young as he was, soon got to be a regular +'man about town.' He lived at home--ostensibly; but he was seldom to be +seen in the house. He had come to entertain very little respect for his +father; for he had a sort of native insight into his character. He +constantly complains of his miserly treatment, though Hiram makes his +son a respectable allowance--more, I think, to be rid of the annoyance +of his repeated and incessant applications, than for any other reason. + +'Gus' was a favorite with his mother (I forgot to say she had named him +Augustus Myrtle Meeker, with her husband's full consent), and heavy were +the drafts he made on her purse. This was a point of constant discussion +between Mr. and Mrs. Meeker. It was of no use. The lady continued to +indulge her only son, and her husband to protest against it. + +Of late, Gus had been in possession of pretty large sums of money, which +he certainly had not obtained either from his father or mother. And it +was something connected with this circumstance which takes Hiram out +immediately after dinner. + +I think it is in place here to say something of Hiram Meeker's domestic +life. + +Taking 'Arabella' for just what the reader knows her to be, it is +probable he has made her a better husband than ninety-nine men of a +hundred would have made. True, he is master, in every respect. But this +is just what Arabella requires. She would have been the death of any +ordinary man in a short time. There is not the slightest danger of her +injuring Hiram's prospects of a long life, or of causing him an hour's +uneasiness. To be sure, he is despotic, but he is neither irritable nor +unamiable. Besides, he has a great desire for social position (it aids +in carrying out his plans), in which his wife is of real service. Hiram, +although close and careful in all matters, is not what would be called +penurious. In other words, he makes liberal provision for his household, +while he rules it with rigor; besides, in petty things he has not proved +a tyrant. + +On the whole, we repeat our conviction that Arabella has been fortunate +in her husband. To be sure, she is fretful, discontented, peevish, +irritable, cross; but that is her normal condition. At times Hiram has +treated her with severity, but never cruelty. He has borne quietly and +with patience what would have set most husbands frantic; and has +contented himself with remaining silent, when many would have been +tempted to positive acts of violence. + +Toward his sick child Hiram Meeker's conduct has been exemplary--that is +the word. He considers the affliction a direct chastening of _him_ from +the Lord; and 'whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth.' He spends some +moments with his daughter daily, but he has no more sympathy for her +situation than if his heart were made of leather. Yet the best care is +provided, the best medical attendance, and everything done for the poor +girl which is proper. Hiram even overrules his wife in many things where +he thinks her severe toward the invalid, as in the instance of her +wishing to see her Uncle Frank, who is our old acquaintance 'Doctor +Frank,' as you no doubt understand--now one of the first medical men of +New York. + +Although there has never been the least cordiality between the brothers +since the Doctor came to the city, still they have kept on visiting +terms. The Doctor has taken a deep interest in his invalid niece, and +she is never so happy as when he is talking with her. He has told her to +send for him at any time when she feels disposed to do so, and he is a +frequent visitor. + + * * * * * + +It was late before Mrs. Meeker returned. Something occurred to give her +excursion a very unpleasant direction. She was engaged in turning over +some new silks at Stewart's, while the young clerical gentleman stood +admiringly by, when a man of very coarse appearance and vulgar aspect +approached and placed a letter before her. + +Mrs. Meeker was prepared to utter a faint shriek, but it occurred to her +that it would not appear well where she was. The young clerical +gentleman cast a look of disgust and indignation on the intruder, who +did not stop to resent it, but turned quickly on his heel and left the +place. + +Mrs. Meeker, after waiting a moment to regain her composure, opened the +note, and read as follows: + + 'DEAR MA: Come to me directly, and bring all the money you + can. I am in a terrible fix! GUS.' + +Mrs. Meeker pushed aside the rich purple silk she was examining, with so +much suddenness, that the young clerical gentleman could not but notice +it. + +'My dear madam, are you ill?' he asked, with a show of devotion +distressing to witness. + +'No, oh no; but this moment I recollect I have a commission to execute +for a friend, which I had quite forgotten. And, do you know, I am going +to ask you to drive home, and tell Belle not to delay dinner for me.' + +The young clerical gentleman bowed in acquiescence. For him to hear was +to obey. But he felt curious to know what was the cause of so abrupt a +termination of the afternoon's shopping. + +'I hope there was nothing unpleasant in that letter?' + +It was presuming a good deal to ask such a question, but the young +clerical gentleman could not restrain his curiosity. + +'That letter!' exclaimed Mrs. Meeker, now quite herself again--'no, +indeed; it is only a word from Augustus. What a queer creature, to send +it by such a horrid fright of a man!' And Mrs. Meeker laughed. + +The young clerical gentleman was thrown completely off the scent. He +bowed and hurried to the carriage, leaving Mrs. Meeker still at the +counter. + +She looked carelessly over the different patterns, and said, in a +languid tone, 'I think I will not buy anything to-day,' to which the +clerk obsequiously assented--he well knew whom he was serving--and Mrs. +Meeker left the store. + +Her carriage was out of sight; first she assured herself of that. Then +she called a hack, and ordered it to be driven to a distant quarter of +the city. + +The carriage stopped at the number indicated in the note. Mrs. Meeker +was met at the door by her son, who conducted her to a back room in the +third story. It was dirty and in disorder. Bottles, wine glasses, and +tumblers were scattered around, and the atmosphere was full of the fumes +of whiskey and tobacco. + +What a spot for the son of Hiram Meeker to select, in which to receive +his mother's visit! + +What a place for the fastidious Arabella to enter! + + + + +THE GREAT AMERICAN CRISIS. + +_PART TWO._ + + +We come, in this paper, to the consideration of the possible results +which this war might have, viewed from the beginning; of the several +modes, in other words, in which it might terminate. The most distant +extremes of possible eventuality were the entire conquest of the North +by the South, and the entire conquest of the Southern rebellion by the +North, so as to secure the continuance of the old Union upon the old +basis; or with such modifications as the changed condition of things at +the South might require. The supposition of the conquest of the Northern +States by the Southern Vandals has been already glanced at and +sufficiently considered for so remote and improbable a contingency. The +counter supposition of the entire success of the United States +Government in the reassertion of its own authority over the whole of its +original domain, divided, at the commencement of the war, into two +branches. + +It was the general theory at the North, at that time, that the _animus_ +of rebellion was confined at the South to comparatively few minds, and +that the war was to be a war, not against the South as a people, but +against a tyrannical and usurping faction at the South, and for the +defence of the people at large residing in that region. There was a +modicum of truth in this theory, but events have shown, and any one who +knew the South well might safely have predicted, that the whole people +there would soon be subdued to the authority of those few. Such was the +terror throughout the confederacy, and still is, where the facts have +not been already changed by the war, at the mere imputation of sympathy +with anti-slavery sentiment in any form, that a part, hardly one tenth +even of the whole, in numerical strength, could successfully put the +remaining nine tenths into Coventry, and bully them out of all +expression of adverse opinion, by simply threatening to accuse them of +abolition tendencies. No people on earth were ever so completely _cowed_ +by the nightmare of unpopular opinion as the people of the South. Hence +whatever was violently advocated under pretence of excessive devotion +to, or ultra championship of the cause of slavery, was sure in the end +to succeed. By this process, the Union party at the South has been +gradually overawed and diminished for years past, and finally driven, +since the outbreak of the rebellion, into a complete surrender to, and a +full cooeperation with the rebel chiefs. Whatever may seem to be the +reaction in behalf of Union sentiment, as the triumphant armies of the +North march to the Gulf, it will be long before the real opinion of the +masses will declare itself in full as it exists. The fear of the renewal +of the old terrorism, so soon as our armies shall be withdrawn, will +effectually prevent the free expression of the favorable sentiment which +has heretofore existed, and still exists, as a substratum of Southern +opinion in favor of the Union, unless the Northern conquest is made +unquestionably final. + +In the event that the theory just stated should have proved true, that, +aided by the presence of Northern troops, there should have been a loyal +sentiment sufficiently powerful and extended to reassert itself, in the +extreme South, and that, consequently, all the Southern States should +have been again represented in Congress at an early day, and should +again have taken their places as equal partners under the Constitution +of our common country, it seemed just possible that the results of the +war should be confined, in their immediate action, to what may be called +its educational effects upon the Southern mind and its economical +bearings upon the wealth and industry of the nation. + +As the other branch of the alternative, the South might have to be +conquered by the force of our arms, and might remain unanimously, or in +vast preponderance, disloyal and rebellious in spirit. In that event, it +would be requisite, if those States were to be retained at all as part +of the Union, that they should be reconsigned to the Territorial +condition, or otherwise governed still by the central authority. + +In the former of these two latter suppositions: that of the +reestablishment of the old _status_, it was foreseen by some, as not +impossible, that the final result might prove disastrous to the freedom +of the North. With the advent of peace, the suspicions of the Northern +people with regard to the designs and real character of Southern men +would have been allayed. A certain appeal would even have been made, by +the suggestions of their own generosity, to the hearts of Northern men +to lay aside all hostile and adverse action as against the South, and to +welcome them with open arms to all the rights and privileges of the +common country. Meantime, a horde of unscrupulous machinators would have +been installed in the seats of power at Washington, and would have +recommenced operations, in the consciousness of the new strength +acquired in the field from which they had just retired, with all the +chicanery and craft with which heretofore they had blinded the North and +secretly controlled the destinies of our Government. Southern men and +Southern women would again have been feasted and feted at Northern +hotels and watering places, and again have given tone to Northern +opinion, while new and especial reasons would have seemed to exist for +opposing countervailing influences, as unnecessary agitation, and causes +of the retention of acrimonious feeling between the two sections, which +had now resolved to live in amity with each other. In a word, all the +sources of corruption of Northern sentiment, emanating from the South, +would have been renewed in their operation, with some circumstances +added, tending to give to them greater potency than ever before. + +Undoubtedly, immense advantages were to be contemplated in the +restoration of the United States to their primitive boundaries and +united power. But it was not without deep apprehension of moral taint +and ulterior evil consequences, that a wise patriot could look even then +to any attempt of the old matrimonial partners to dwell again in a +common household, upon the old terms, and with no real settlement of the +dispute between them. + +The latter of these suppositions, the remanding of a hostile and +rebellious tier of States, who had long and proudly enjoyed the dignity +of State sovereignty, to a subordinate condition, had also its +proportion of difficulty and danger. To carry out a _programme_ of this +kind would demand a great increase of the army and navy, and would give +to the military spirit and power a preponderance in the councils of the +nation which has always been deemed dangerous to the liberties of the +country. A constant drain of expenditure of the resources of the nation; +a continuous unrest and anxiety of the whole people; a succession of +outbreaks and partial renewals of the civil war; the installation of a +necessary system of proconsular or viceroyal commissions; the +appointment of men who, whether as provost-marshals, dictators, or what +not, would be in the stated exercise of authority unmeasured by the +theories of republican policy--all these were serious and threatening +considerations, which must give the thoughtful mind some pause ere it +entered upon their adoption. + +There were other remaining possible suppositions in respect to the +termination of the war, of a middling character, or those lying between +the two opposite extremes. In case, without any positive conquest or +submission on either side, the general tenor of success throughout the +war should be with the South, so that it finally behooved the North to +secure the most favorable terms, but to submit, nevertheless, to great +deductions from its confident expectations, a theory then not wholly +impossible, we had to contemplate, as one evil of the war, a final +disruption of the original territory of the United States into two +nationalities, coincident, as to boundary, with the Free and the Slave +States. Except in the way of absolute conquest, the South would be +little inclined to insist upon the addition to itself of any territory +absolutely free. We were not required, therefore, to make this +supposition any less favorable to the North than the division just +suggested; and unless, again, power had been acquired by the South to +impose terms on the North little short of those which a conqueror +imposes on a conquered people, the North, within its own limit of Free +States, would be left in a condition boldly to announce and actively to +defend its own legitimate policy in behalf of the extension of free +institutions and their development to the supreme degree of beneficent +truth. + +But again, it might have been foreseen that in case the eagle of victory +should perch on the banners of the North; in case our arms should be +generally victorious after a few incipient disasters; in case our armies +should move in power southward, meeting, nevertheless, a steady and +resisting front on the part of the South, making the prospect of +ultimate conquest remote or hopeless; in case, in a single word, the +North should find herself in position to dictate terms short of absolute +submission and return to the common fold, but substantially in +accordance with her own wishes, the question of boundary and of the +future policy of the new North would have become one of immense +importance. + +Had such considerations been forced on the attention of the country by +the course of the war, it may not be uninteresting to speculate upon +the nature of the possible boundary, which a drawn game in the +contest--a possibility at least, viewed from that early point of +observation--might have imposed upon the two future nationalities. We +are considering the case still in which the preponderance of advantage +should have remained with the North. It would have been, in that event, +of the first importance that we should retain within the limits of the +North all that portion of the South--by no means inconsiderable in +extent--which has never been thoroughly debauched by Southern +slaveholding opinion and theories of government; where the true American +feeling is still extant; and where a good degree of loyalty to the +Government of the United States has been hitherto exhibited. Such are +especially Delaware, Maryland, Western Virginia, Kentucky, Western North +Carolina, Eastern, and to some extent, Middle Tennessee, Northern +Georgia, Northern Alabama, and Missouri. An important object would have +been, had the power of the North proved inadequate to do more, to secure +this territory within the boundary of the new North, and upon such terms +as to give strength and new impetus to the freedom-loving sentiment +there extant. A second object would have been the retention of +Washington City, to be used, at least for the time being, as the capital +of the country; avoiding the disgrace of being driven from that centre +of national authority; and to secure it on terms in respect to +territorial arrangement which should prevent it from being continually +threatened from the South. To this end, it would have been necessary +that the boundary be carried far enough south to include a portion of +Northern and Northeastern Virginia, as thoroughly imbued at that day +with slaveholding faith and practice, and as little loyal, perhaps, as +any portion of the South--a region, however, which at this time has been +so completely devastated by the operations of the war, that it would be +readily liable to be resettled from the North, and made into an +efficient military border. + +If, retaining Fortress Monroe, we should then have run with the James +River and the line of Richmond and Lynchburg, or if, ascending higher to +the Chesapeake Bay and the Rappahannock, we were to run with the line of +Fredericksburg, we should reach either the Blue Ridge or the Alleghany +Mountains, as in the case of power on our part, we might have chosen. +With these mountains, sweeping in a southwesterly direction into +Northern Georgia and Alabama, runs the line of division between the +'true-blue' Southern slaveholding opinion and policy, on the south and +east, and the semi-Free-State opinion and policy on the north and west. +One or other of these mountain ranges, with their unfrequent and +difficult passes, would have offered the best natural boundary between +the two future nations, whose divergent national tendencies would not +have ceased with the nominal termination of the war to be essentially +hostile. + +Following this line till we reach the Tennessee river, thence along the +course of that stream, turning northwardly to the Ohio, or more +properly, perhaps, to the southern line of Kentucky, we exclude the most +pestilent portion of Tennessee, of which Memphis is the capital, and +retain the middle and eastern parts, along with Eastern Kentucky and +Western Virginia. Thence passing westward with the southern line of +Missouri to the Indian Territory, thence southward with the western line +of Arkansas to the Red river, thence westward along that river as the +boundary between the Indian Territory and Texas, to the one hundredth +degree of longitude west from Greenwich, and with that meridian south, +to the Rio Grande and the Gulf--dividing the western from the eastern +half of Texas--we circumscribe very fairly the exact region of country +in which the slaveholding epidemic is violent and intense, and throw +within the limits of the great Northern Republic all of the region in +which freedom is already established, and all that in which, as above +stated, there was still a surviving and half vital tendency in freedom's +behalf. + +In addition to a boundary so favorable to ourselves, and forced by our +commanding position upon our unwilling adversary, we might have imposed +upon her such other terms in relation to her foreign policy, +custom-house regulations, and the like, as the extent of our power +should have authorized. We might even have consigned the Southern States +to a species of provisional and _quasi_ nationality, with the claim and +expectation of their ultimate return within the pale of the Union, when, +through the severe ordeal of military despotism or anarchy at home, or +from other causes, they should have purged themselves of that +institution, adverse to all our policy, which has been the sole cause of +all our woes. + +Still more important it would have been, under the theory of this +essentially victorious position of the Northern people, that Northern +opinion and the purposes of Americanism on this continent--the assertion +and defence of freedom and of free institutions of all sorts--should +have been distinctly, peremptorily, and finally impressed upon the +character and future career of our own Northern nationality. While those +portions of slaveholding territory which would still have remained +within the Union, would have had, of course, to be treated with courtesy +and consideration, if the institution of slavery were to have been +permitted to survive, they should have been thoroughly made to know from +the first, that slavery among us was no longer to be regarded as a +perpetuity; that it was only tolerated provisionally; and that we, as a +people, had no intention of permitting its renewed influence in the +councils of the nation. Cut off as these States would then have been +from the possibilities of carrying on an inter-State slave trade with +the Southern confederacy, the institution of slavery would have lost +much of its value and potency; and allied, as those States would have +been, as a small minority, with a country whose territorial and +institutional preponderance would have been wholly in favor of freedom, +we might have anticipated that, if closely watched and incidentally +aided in its decline, the institution in these adhering slaveholding +States would have reached its term of existence at no very distant day; +at any rate, that it would, from the first, have been neutralized for +any serious bad effects which it might have otherwise impressed upon our +healthy national life. It was even worth reflection at that time +whether, if the whole adjustment of the future were placed at our own +disposition, there would not be less danger incurred, and more promise +of a prompt, healthy, and powerful development on this continent of +those grand purposes of national existence which the true American +people have always had in view and at heart, if this plan were to be +adopted, than if, on the contrary, the whole South were either +quiescently, by the subsidence of the rebellion, or forcibly, to be +reinstated within the limits of the Union, the institution of slavery +remaining intact. + +Northeastern Virginia, Southern Maryland, and portions of Kentucky, +Middle Tennessee, and Middle Missouri would still have furnished +pestilent centres of intense slaveholding sentiment, and would have +required, perhaps, as much exercise of vigilance in preventing their +undue influence as our usually sleepy habits of inattention to such +causes would have authorized us to count upon. + +With the gradual decline of this remnant of slavery in the Northern +Union, and with the thousand contingencies threatening its perpetuity in +the Southern States, after the sustaining influence of the North in its +behalf should have been finally withdrawn, the anticipation would not +have been without high grounds of probability, that the institution, as +a whole, would have hastened more or less rapidly to its final +dissolution; and that, one by one, the States of the South, ridding +themselves of the incubus of slavery and its comcomitants--oligarchic, +mobocratic, and military despotism--would have sought, for their own +protection and happiness, to reenter the original Union as Free States. +Such an issue of the conflict might at the commencement of the war have +been looked forward to as almost fortunate, and as perhaps that which +Providence had in store for us as a people. That larger measure of +success, the entire destruction of slavery throughout the land, now +rapidly coming to be a foregone conclusion in most minds, was then +hardly hoped for by the most sanguine, although, as will appear by what +follows, that alternative was then anticipated by the writer. + +Finally, in case the war should have proved a drawn game between the two +sections, with no special advantage on either side, some middle ground +of adjustment between the two last suppositions might have been sought +out, and an irregular line, running anywhere between Mason and Dixon's +line and the Ohio, on the one hand, and the Blue Ridge and the Tennessee +river on the other, might have been forced upon us. In that event, a +long-continued border warfare would have been to be anticipated, with +innumerable complex difficulties from expenditure in the protection of +the irregular and imperfect boundary, the collection of the revenues, +and the like. + +The reason why we have chosen, in these glances at the possible +outcomings of the conflict, to go back to the state of the case as it +was at the opening of the war, and to view the subject as it would +present itself to the mind of a thoughtful man then, is, that this very +paper was originally written at that day, and is now only recast to +adapt it to the altered events from the actual progress of the war. The +boundary line above sketched, as one which the nation might possibly +find itself compelled to accept, was sketched, as it stands above, at +that time, nearly two and a half years ago; and the reader will hardly +fail to be struck with the remarkable coincidence between it and the +present state of the military lines between the Northern and Southern +armies; except in the fact of our actual possession of the Mississippi +river to its mouth, cutting the Southern confederacy in twain. Had the +defences below New Orleans proved impregnable, and Vicksburg more than a +match for the strategy of General Grant, our present position would be +almost identical with that contemplated by the writer at that early +period of the war, as one of the alternative positions at which the +struggle might at least temporarily terminate; and our present military +line would be almost the same as that indicated as the halting point of +the war, then to be nominally but not really brought to an end. The +pages following, and until the reader is advised to the contrary, are +literally extracted from the original article, and should be read +therefore as relating to the past period in question. Quotation marks +are added to aid this understanding of the subject. They indicate, in +this exceptional way, not literally the words of another writer, but +those of the same writer, upon a different occasion. + +'We have reserved to the last the consideration of that possible +outcoming of the war which is looked upon with most dread, both at the +South and the North; from which both sections almost equally shrink as +the possible issue; but which, nevertheless, may be forced on them by +the logic of events, and that, too, at an earlier day than has been +indicated by the expectations of either. While we write, the startling +announcement is made from St. Louis that Major-General Fremont has been +forced, by the threatening progress of the Southern armies, to declare +martial law for the whole State of Missouri, coupled with the offer of +freedom to the slaves. A military critic, writing from the Potomac and +the lower counties of Maryland, is urging the application of the same +policy to that region, as a means of defeating the contemplated passage +of the river by the forces of the South. Whether the rumor so announced +prove to be literally correct or not, it is hardly possible that the war +can continue long, and grow desperate and earnest on any territory where +slavery exists, without leading to this result. Tenderness and deference +are sentiments which must soon give place to the stern struggle for life +between hostile and desperate men. Already the South has not hesitated, +in some instances, to muster her slaves into armed regiments, and in all +cases to avail herself of their brawny arms as equally valuable +assistants in the work of fortification, camp service, and all the other +incidents of war. Still further, as a great body of laborers, +undisturbed by the war, quietly conducting the general industry at home, +and providing the means of sustaining immense armies in the field, the +slaves are, in effect, an important auxiliary of the enemy's power. +Already the Congress of the United States has passed a law for the +confiscation of all property so used, so stringent in its terms that, +without much strain of legal ingenuity, it might be made to cover the +whole case. The threatened continuance of disaster to Northern arms may +at any moment force upon our generals the military necessity of +declaring emancipation within a given district or State, and finally, it +may be incumbent on the Government to resort to the same policy in +reference to the whole South. The contest is one of life and death for +the greatest human interests ever brought face to face in hostile array. +But a single step is wanting, and we may at any moment be forced over +the boundary which hitherto has prevented it from being a conflict +avowedly for the utter extinction of the institution of slavery on the +North American continent, on the one hand, and for the triumphant +establishment of the policy and power of that institution over the whole +land on the other. + +'In case such an event as that above alluded to should occur, a new +disappointment will probably, to some extent, break upon the Northern +mind. It will be found that the slaves of the South are not, as a body, +so desirous of freedom, not so consciously intent upon the attainment of +that boon, as ardent philanthropists at the North have supposed. The +great masses of that population are too far depressed in the scale of +humanity to avail themselves earnestly and at once, of even the most +favorable means which should be placed at their disposal to secure their +own emancipation from thraldom. + +'To progress, even from slavery to freedom, is progression, +nevertheless; and, as such, it is beset with all the hindrances and +prejudices from ignorance and superstition which the advancement of the +race meets always and at every step. Those among the slaves who fully +appreciate the disadvantages of their position, and are earnestly intent +upon the achievement of freedom, are a minority--the vigorous thinkers +and reformers of the slave-population. The great masses are stupid and +conservative, in the midst of the evil which they endure, until aroused +by circumstances or the appeals of their more enterprising leaders. Even +John Brown, knowing as much as he did of the South and of the negro +character, miscalculated the readiness of the slaves of Virginia to fly +to his standard, judging them by his knowledge of the readiness of +Missouri slaves upon the Kansas border, who, through a few years of +local agitation, had come to be on the alert and ready to move. + +'In case, therefore, of the proclamation of emancipation in any +slaveholding districts by our military chiefs, it will not be surprising +if, for a time, the results of that step shall seem to be feeble, and +shall be disproportionate to the expectations based upon it. + +'The course of events will probably be this: The emancipation of slaves +by the proclamation of Northern generals will be followed by a partial +tendency on the part of the slave-population to flock to their camps in +a way similar to what has already happened in the neighborhood of +Fortress Monroe; and this, again, by mustering them into our service, +arming and drilling them as part of the regular and effective force of +our armies, after the example of General Jackson in the defence of New +Orleans, and other Southern generals on various occasions in the South. +A step like this will be met by a nearly or precisely similar expedient +of desperate necessity by the military chieftains of the South. Either +with or without the offer of emancipation, they will muster the blacks +in great numbers into their army, arming, equipping, and drilling them +as thoroughly as the same offices are performed for the white soldiers. + +'Things may seem to stand much upon this footing, and no great advantage +have been gained by the North through emancipation, until, in the event +of some great battle, or successively through a series of local +contests, the blacks in the Southern army will fraternize with those of +the North, and go over in a body to their Northern allies, so soon as +the course of events shall have informed them somewhat of the true state +of the case, and have given them confidence in the earnest intention of +the Northern troops to stand by them in the assertion of their freedom. +A defection of this kind would carry dismay and insure defeat throughout +the whole South, especially if it were vigorously followed up by the +same policy and by adequate military skill on the part of the North; and +the result of a war so inaugurated could hardly fail to be the rapid and +complete disorganization of the whole system of Southern industry and +the total revolution and final submission of the Southern States. + +'No man can exactly foresee the consequences of so great a conflict, nor +predict with any certainty the course of events through such an untried +and tremendous pathway; but it is next to impossible to conceive that +the Southern war-spirit could in any way long survive the disasters +inevitably consequent upon the general prevalence of a claim to freedom +by the slaves, upon any legal basis, suddenly diffused throughout the +South. Should the alternative be forced upon the people of that region, +of submission, or servile in addition to civil war, their troubles will +thicken upon them to a degree calculated to calm their over-excited +imaginations, and to subdue their vaulting ambition. Panic will come to +their own doors with a new and all-pervading significance, such as the +North hardly knows how to conceive. The North should abstain to the last +moment from thrusting even enemies into calamity so dire. But, if the +arrogance and madness of the South shall force on us, now or later, this +terrific resort, the world _may_ witness, as the result of this war, the +most tremendous retribution for national and organic sin which any +people has ever yet been called on to endure. The Nemesis of History +may, perhaps, impress the darkest record of her terrible sanctions on +the page which records the termination of the great American Rebellion. + +'In the event last supposed, that is to say, if the war shall end in the +entire extinction of American slavery, the state in which the Southern +country, with its diverse populations, will find itself placed; the +future destiny of the cotton-growing region, of the South generally; of +our whole country, and of the continent, under this immense change of +our condition as a nation, are subjects of sufficient importance to +demand, on some future occasion, a distinct consideration. Enough points +have been crowded, in this article, upon the reflections of the reader. +History must not be too audaciously anticipated. The phases of the great +crisis, already developed and developing, are sufficiently grave and +numerous for the present occasion. Let the future withdraw her own veil +from our eyes, while we reverentially await the revelation of coming +events. + +'All the forbearance hitherto on the part of the North, may have had in +it an element of wisdom. It is not the object of this paper to criticize +or complain of the past conduct of the war, nor to urge on the +Government to convert a war, begun for the resistance of a violent and +fraudulent dismemberment of the Union, into a war against slavery or a +crusade in behalf of human rights. There is no present purpose on the +part of the writer to conduct the discussion--far less to attempt the +decision--of so grave a question of national policy at this eventful and +critical epoch in the affairs of our national life. No doubt the subject +stands as yet complicated in the minds of statesmen with the +possibilities of the early and frank submission of the South, and the +consequent early reestablishment substantially of the _status quo ante +bellum_; with the dread of inflicting measureless calamity upon those +who are at heart faithful to our cause in the South; and, most of all, +with the interests and feelings of the population of the few +slaveholding States remaining faithful to the Union. The object of the +present article is simply to lay open the true state of the case; to +reveal to the Northern mind in a clearer light, if possible, the causes +emanating from the South, which have gone and which go still to the +formation of Northern opinion adversely to the spirit of our own +institutions, and begetting, unconsciously in ourselves, a secret +treasonable sympathy at the bottom of our own hearts; a sympathy which +is the parent of that otherwise unaccountable tenderness on our part in +respect to the patent weakness of the enemy's defences. It is not that +we counsel, for the present, a change in the tenor of the war, but that +we wish, as the logic of circumstances shall force this question upon +us, that we may come to the consideration of it, in the future, +disabused of any preconceived prejudices in favor of that which is the +vital source of all the trouble which exists, and fully armed by a +complete understanding of the subject.' + +So ended the original paper, the same, with a few changes of the +tense-forms to adapt it to the present time, as the Part One, published +in the last number of THE CONTINENTAL, and Part Two of this +series up to this point. The document was written for publication at +that time, more than two years ago, but no periodical was found then +ready to indulge in such bold speculations on the future. What has now +in great part become history, was deemed too audacious for the public +ear then. Perhaps no better gauge of the progress of events and opinion +could have happened. A magazine article, rejected so recently, as too +radical or wild in its prognostications, now stands in danger of being +thought tame, in the light of the changes already effected. Thrown into +a drawer as refuse matter, it has been like the log of a ship thrown +overboard, and remaining quiescent, while the winds, the waves, and the +current have combined to surge the vessel onward in her course; and, +_hauled in by the line_ at this hour, it may serve to chronicle the rate +of our speed. + +Events hurry forward in this age with tremendous velocity. Great as has +been the progress of our arms, numerous as our warlike achievements and +advantages, the real victories we have won are, in the truest method of +judging, the victories of opinion which have occurred and are now +occurring. Our greatest conquest, as a people, is, and is to be, the +conquest over our own prejudices; our highest attainment the readiness +to be just, and to act with the boldness and vigor which justice +requires. + +Taking things as they now are, let us again try to penetrate the future, +or at least to sketch different alternatives of what may happen. Let us +then try to catch the spirit of each alternative, and so be prepared to +draw from the event such of good, and to guard against such of evil as +each may involve. + +As a first alternative, we may now speedily conquer the South. +Insurrection may spring up in the South, against the insurrection there, +and in aid of our arms. New vigor and new fortune may attend our own +military operations; and our future military task may--somewhat contrary +to our expectations, we confess--prove easy, and its conclusion close at +hand. In that event, dangers of another kind, dangers already alluded to +as existing at the commencement of the war, and hardly less to be +apprehended now than then, hardly less, indeed, than the indefinite +continuance of war, threaten the future of our political horizon. We may +see in a few months' time the very men who are leading the armies and +the councils of the Southern confederacy again cracking the whip of +their sharp and arrogant logic about the ears of the men who had +conquered them in the field of battle; claiming to dictate every +political measure; forcing the mould of their thought upon every form of +opinion, and, by astute political combinations, wielding the destiny of +the nation in behalf of slavery and despotism, and against the principle +of freedom. Do not imagine for an instant that any considerations of +modesty or humiliation on the one hand, nor of haughtiness or pride on +the other, would stand in the way of the immediate participation of +those men in our affairs. Let there be no delusions either, with regard +to the ability of the same leading class of men to keep themselves in +the saddle at the South, through all political changes not involving the +absolute destruction of slavery, and the complete and consolidated +establishment of other institutions and habits of life among the people +at large;--the virtual creation, in fact, of a new and different +population, by the blending of our own Northern men and manners with the +feeble indigenous freedom-loving growth. The return of this dominant +class of cotton lords among the common masses of a Southern population +anywhere, on any terms short of the utter extinction of their basis of +wealth and distinction, will be the return of an armed overseer to a +cowering mob of insubordinate slaves. The mere assertion of their +authority will be its instant acceptance, and the most abject submission +by the people. They will only have to demand reelection to the National +Congress, and to every place of power, to be reinstated in precisely +their old position, their arrogance and self-assertion only augmented by +their having met and survived every disaster short of the destruction of +the source of their superiority. + +Already schemes to restore the old State governments are rife, in +respect to Louisiana, Mississippi, and other of the rebel States, now +again brought within our military lines. Let this be done upon the old +footing at an early day, for these States and for the others, which +under the hypothesis now under consideration, will soon be subjugated; +let the Emancipation Proclamation fall into desuetude; let the military +authority of our army officers be withdrawn, and there is nothing in the +character of the Southern slaveholding aristocracy, and no other power +on earth, to prevent their flocking in crowds and at the very first +general election back to Washington, reuniting their forces with the old +body of profligate political hacks at the North, and flaunting with +increased presumption and activity the pretensions of slavery to +dictate the whole policy of the land. In that event, a strong party, +more distinctively proslavery and Southern than ever before, will be +organized; more openly and shamelessly than ever devoted to the +destruction of the last remnant of American liberty. Of course there +will be a new reaction against the new usurpation. The conflict will be +renewed, beginning precisely where the first war began, with the only +exception that the issue will be then more distinctly understood, the +conflict more desperate, and the result more definitive. + +It is of the utmost importance that the true nature of the case be +understood: that this war is no accident of the hour, no merely +political or national event even. It is a death struggle between two +antagonist civilizations; if indeed one of them can be called a +civilization, and not rather a conspiracy against the very idea of +civilization. Again, the men involved in that conspiracy are not +_hidalgos_, _ancien regime_, nor any of the proud aristocracies of the +old world, who, when beaten, retire upon their dignity and hide their +time. They are, on the contrary, an enterprising gang of desperadoes, +who for the nonce may find it convenient to play the _role_ of high life +and dignified pretension, but who, on the slightest change of +circumstances, are ready for any shift, any seeming degradation or +humiliation, any temporary lowering of their claims, in order to rise +higher on the next wave. There is also enough of the savage and +barbarous element of character remaining in the Southern bogus chivalry +to make them, like the Chinaman or the Japanese, incapable of +appreciating magnanimity. All conciliation or clemency will be construed +into weakness; generosity and forbearance into poltroonery. These are +sad truths; but being truths, the failure to know them in season may +cost us another and a more desperate war, with more doubtful and +dangerous results. + +Let us once surrender, through national verdancy, sentimental +commiseration, misunderstanding of the nature and purposes of our enemy, +or any or all of these causes combined with others, the dear-bought +advantages we have won, and disasters untold involve the future of the +land. Terrible beyond description will be, in that event, the condition +of the Union and emancipationist party now incipiently developing itself +at the South;--abandoned and deserted by the withdrawal of the actual +presence and protection of Northern arms. No barbarism on earth, no +savagism extant, is so barbarous or so savage as the ruthless vengeance +with which this hybrid civilization of the South is ready at any time to +visit the crime of abolitionism; and seven times hotter than usual will +the furnace of their wrath be heated against Southern men who under the +aegis of Northern protection shall have exhibited some sympathy with +freedom. + +That a powerful Northern party will immediately arise in behalf of the +simple readmission of the Southern States, upon precisely the old basis, +when the war shall end by the suppression of the rebellion, is certain. +The existence of such a party will rest, in part, upon a real sympathy +with the South and the rebellion; partly upon interested political +motives of a more ordinary and short-sighted character; and, in still +greater part than either of these, upon the easy credence and +insufficient information of the great mass of the Northern people; +somewhat, indeed, upon a magnanimity highly creditable to their +character as men, but unwise and dangerous in the extreme, in any +exercise of it which should surrender a vital advantage. + +It does not require even that the complete reconquest of the South +should be awaited in order that the question of the return of subdued +States into the Union upon the old terms should be sprung upon the +nation, and perhaps decided, by a precedent, before the attention of +the country can be thoroughly directed to the momentous nature of the +step proposed. The _New York Herald_ has been hitherto a steady and +consistent advocate of this policy, and a powerful agitator in its +behalf. The following extract from its columns indicates the imminence +of the issue, as well as the simple and seemingly reasonable political +machinery by which the whole thing is to be effected: + + 'It appears from the correspondence to which we have referred that + certain citizens of New Orleans, some of whose names are given + elsewhere, have resolved to restore Louisiana to the Union, and + that they intend to do this in the manner pointed out by Secretary + Seward in his famous reply to the intervention despatch of M. + Drouyn de Lhuys. That is to say, they intend to set the State + Government in motion, elect members of the Legislature, and send + loyal representatives to Congress. These gentlemen assert--and the + _Tribune_ does not deny--that Mr. Seward and Mr. Bates indorse this + idea, and that Mr. Etheridge, as Clerk of the House of + Representatives, has consented to receive the loyal members from + Louisiana, upon their own credentials, until the House is + organized. They also say--and the _Tribune_ does not deny--that Mr. + Etheridge has a perfect right to do this upon the precedent + established by the Broad Seal controversy, some twenty years ago. + Under these circumstances, the Union men propose to hold an + election for five members of Congress--one from each district and + one on the general ticket--and also for members of the State Senate + and Assembly. 'They are anxious,' says the _Tribune_ correspondent, + 'that Louisiana shall take the lead in this matter, and there is no + doubt but Mississippi and the other States will, in due time, + follow.' So far, the patriotic reader will search in vain for any + objection to a plan which promises so much good for the Union, and + will be at a loss to know upon what grounds the _Tribune_ can + oppose it with any show of loyalty.' + +It is no part of the object of this writing to discuss the legality or +the constitutionality of any course of proceeding in the premises. What +can be done and what cannot be done under the law, as it stands, is a +question for lawyers and judges. How far, if at all, the exigency has +annulled or modified the law; how far the axiom, _inter arma silent +leges_ ('in war the laws are silent'), shall be stretched to cover the +case, is a question for statesmen and military commanders. The writer of +these strictures speaks from none of those points of view, but as a +social philosopher, viewing the drifts of inevitable consequence from +one or the other grand policy in respect to the national +destiny--irrespective of the minor measures by which it may be executed. +A course utterly suicidal, viewed from this higher platform of +observation, may proceed with the most unimpeachable subserviency to all +the forms of the law; or, contrariwise, a policy replete with the +highest prosperity and happiness of the coming ages, may chance to have +its foundations laid in some startling deviation from all considerations +of precedent and routine. + +In other words, what can be done or cannot be done under the law, or +without violence to the law, is not now the question under +consideration. What _must_ be done, whether under the law or above the +law,[12] to secure certain great ends of human progression, and to avoid +positions of utter disaster to the life of the American people of the +future, _is so_. + +Whether the theory of Mr. Sumner, that the revolted States are, by the +operation of the revolt, or should be by the action of the Government, +remanded to the territorial condition, holds good; whether the theory of +Mr. Owen, that the machinery of the State Governments at the South +remains unaffected by the insurrection, but that the inhabitants, being +traitors, are incapable of administering it, until they are purged of +their treason by the action of the United States Government, is held to +be the better opinion; or, whether, in fine, the easy and simple theory +of the _Herald_ is the law of the subject--none of these points is _the_ +point of the present investigation. We seek to fix attention on the +consequences of the act of an early readmission of the revolted States, +and, what would be the same thing, of the old and governing set of +slaveholding politicians, from those States, into the administration of +our national affairs, no matter what should be the method of its +accomplishment. In that event, the war will not be ended, but smothered +merely, and left smouldering. It will burst out again, and all that has +been done hitherto will have to be done over again, or fail to be +accomplished, and the consequences of failure endured. + +Let no ordinary and superficial method of reasoning obfuscate the public +mind on this subject. It is becoming popular to say and to think that +slavery at the South is already a dead or a dying institution, by the +operation of the war. This opinion has in it, undoubtedly, the value of +a prophecy, provided the war be continued to its legitimate termination; +provided all the measures against slavery hitherto adopted are firmly +maintained; provided the incipient anti-slavery sentiment now being +developed in the South, be wisely fostered and protected by the strong +arm long enough, or until new institutions and new methods of thinking +and acting have time to consolidate. But, whoever supposes that slavery +is as yet even essentially weakened, provided, for any reason, our +forces and the influence of Northern sentiment were suddenly withdrawn +from the South, and the ocean waves of the old despotism were for a +moment even permitted to surge back over those portions of the territory +which have been partially redeemed, has no adequate idea of the +tremendous vitality of that institution. + +A mistake on this subject, of the safe early return of the revolted +States, will be one of those political blunders worse than a crime; and +yet it is precisely this mistake which the American people are at this +hour most likely to commit. A latent love of Southern institutions _per +se_; the hope of personal political advantage, among politicians, by an +alliance with Southern leaders, on the part of others who care nothing +for the South as such; a lingering tenderness, a forgiving magnanimity +and generosity, among the people at large, which would in this case be +wholly misplaced; and finally an easy faith in the extent and +irrevocable nature of the successes already accomplished--all concur to +lead on to the commission of this error. + +Talk as we will of the purposes of this war, the hand of destiny is upon +us. We must accept the _role_ of emancipators and champions of human +freedom, or the only alternative will happen, the loss of our own +liberties and the forfeiture of our national office as the leader of +Progress combined with Order, on the planet. We have to deal with an +implacable, a subtle, and a versatile enemy, wholly committed to the +opposite cause; unscrupulous, inappreciative of magnanimity or +concession of any kind; restrained by no considerations whatsoever short +of the accomplishment of his absolute and tyrannical will. We have this +enemy nearly prostrate under our feet, and we stand hesitating whether +to avail ourselves of our advantage or to stultify ourselves at the +tribunal of the world and of history, by allowing him to rise, to +repossess himself of his arms, and to recommence the conflict upon terms +of equal advantage. + +A glance at the remaining alternative outcomings of the war must be +reserved for another article. + + + + +THE ENGLISH PRESS. + + + [The article with this title is written by Mr. NICHOLAS + ROWE, of London. Mr. ROWE is a lineal descendant of + the celebrated NICHOLAS ROWE, the author of the tragedy of + _Jane Shore_ and other well-known poems. The author, like his + famous ancestor, is a man of talents and a friend of freedom. His + account of the old English Press is one of the most perfect ever + given. He intends to bring the subject down to the present period, + and will become a regular contributor to our Magazine.--ED. + CONTINENTAL.] + + It is impossible to overestimate the influence of the English + press. It has raised itself to such a pitch of importance that it + has been not inaptly termed the fourth estate of the realm. But the + power which it wields is so enormous and so widespread that it + would be nearer the truth to concede to it the dignity of the first + estate. All classes see so clearly their interest in supporting it, + that the press has become, in effect, a general arbitrator, a court + of last appeal, to which kings, lords, and commons in turn address + themselves for support whenever the overwhelming force of public + opinion is to be conciliated or enlisted. It is in morals what a + multitude is in physics, and it may, without exaggeration, be said + that for all purposes of progress and of good the press of England + has in reality become something more than a single estate of the + realm, since it combines in itself, and exceeds the authority of + all. But while raised to this lofty pinnacle of greatness, it does + not, it dares not, it cannot from its very constitution permanently + abuse its power; and though isolated attempts have been, from time + to time, made in this direction, yet they have in the end, as was + to be expected, reaped nothing but disaster and disgrace. 'Great is + journalism,' says Carlyle. 'Is not every able editor a ruler of the + world, being a persuader of it?' Yes, truly a ruler of the world, + whose supremacy all other rulers must unhesitatingly acknowledge or + perish miserably and forever. Yes, truly a persuader of the world, + because he is the mouthpiece of the people, whose earnest, mighty + voice is making itself heard more and more irresistibly every day, + to the utter discomfiture and overthrow of the hydra-headed avatars + of the priestcraft and kingcraft and all the other mouldy and + rank-smelling relics of the dark ages. The press is the arch + apostle of civilization, progress, and truth--the Greatheart, whose + mission it is to combat and destroy the giants Pope and Pagan, Maul + and Despair, and all other misleaders and oppressors of men. + Language itself might be exhausted before all that could be said in + favor of the uses, benefits, and value of the press had found + fitting expression. The greatest and best of men have expatiated + upon this noble theme, but probably the truest and most eloquent + panegyric ever bestowed upon it is that of Sheridan: + + 'Give me but the liberty of the press, and I will give to the + minister a venal House of Peers--I will give him a corrupt and + servile House of Commons--I will give him the full sway of the + patronage of office--I will give him the whole host of ministerial + influence--I will give him all the power that place can confer upon + him to purchase up submission and overawe resistance--and yet, + armed with the liberty of the press, I will go forth to meet him + undismayed--I will attack the mighty fabric he has reared with that + mightier engine--I will shake down from its height corruption, and + bury it amidst the ruins of the abuses it was meant to shelter.' + +Had Sheridan never uttered or written anything besides these burning +words, he would have merited immortal fame, and unquestionably obtained +it. + +The press is not a thing of yesterday, for it is the slow growth of two +centuries; neither did it burst upon the world armed at all points, like +the fabled Athene. Yet in other respects the comparison holds good, for +the press, like Athene, unites in itself the attributes of power and +wisdom combined; it fosters and protects science, industry, and art; it +is the patron of all useful inventions; it is the preserver of the +state, and everything that gives strength and prosperity to the state; +it is the champion of law, justice, and order, and extends its +protecting aegis over the weak, the downtrodden, and the oppressed. It +has taken two centuries, as we have already said, to make the press what +it is; and a terrible uphill fight has it had to wage. Tyranny, +dogmatism, and intolerance in high places, and ignorance and +superstition in low, have ever been its sworn enemies. It has had its +saints and martyrs, more worthy of canonization in men's hearts than +many written high in the calendar of Rome. But though persecuted, +crushed, and at times apparently done to death, its vitality was +indestructible, and after every knock-down blow it rose again from the +earth, like Antaeus, with renewed strength. It was always a vigorous +stripling, and even so far back as the days of David Hume its future +greatness and magnificent destiny was clearly marked out, so that he +wrote: 'Its liberties and the liberties of the people must stand or fall +together.' Liberty and the press in England are convertible terms, and +this is the true reason of the success and power it enjoys. It is also +the cause of the persecutions it has had to undergo. Tyranny and the +press are as necessarily opposed to each other as are the principles of +good and evil. The word 'tyranny' is not here intended to refer only to +the despotic rulers of states and kingdoms, but to include the +oppression practiced by the strong upon the weak, the rich upon the +poor, the great upon the small, whether nations or individuals. The +press, moreover, is the guardian of social, political, and religious +morality. The greatest as well as the most trifling affairs which +conduce to the well-being and comfort of the multitude are eagerly +canvassed. The faults and vices which disfigure and disgrace even the +most advanced forms of civilization are unshrinkingly laid bare, and the +proper remedies prescribed. The political conduct of nations and of +public men is carefully scrutinized, and every false step that they may +make is immediately noted, commented upon, and held up to public +reprobation. Religious questions, although, ever since the world began, +they have been approached in a very different spirit to those of any +other description, and have been debated with greater heat and passion +than the bitterest political disputes, and with a lamentable disregard +of logic and common sense, are now-a-days treated with a candor and +fairness that has never yet characterized them. The press is, in fact, +the great physician of the mind, whose duty it is to impart a healthy +tone to the inner nature of man, to check the ravages of disease in it, +and, wherever it may imagine any traces of poison to lurk, to administer +a prompt and immediate antidote. It may not always and at once prosper +in its endeavors. Wrong-doing may still, in some cases, prove too +strong, vices may have become inveterate, diseases chronic, and the +poison may have been too completely absorbed. But not, therefore, is the +press discouraged: like Robert Bruce's spider, it returns again and +again to its task, and--success does and must crown it in the end. + +But while faithfully performing these lofty duties, in the discharge of +which it employs the trained minds and practised pens of the greatest +literary talent of the time, the press has other functions, which, if +not of such paramount importance, yet possess no small utility and +value. By no means the least of these is that of merely furnishing the +news of the day; and that this was the primary intention of the +newspaper its very name proves. Comment, argument, and reasoning were +after additions. There are thousands of persons at the present day even, +who patronize a newspaper solely for its news, and who do not trouble +their heads about any other portion of its contents. The births, +marriages, and deaths are eagerly perused by many who expect to meet in +that domestic chronicle with the names of their friends and +acquaintances. The court news and the movements of royalty and the upper +ten thousand have great charms for a large section of the community. +Accidents and offences and sensation headings, such as 'horrible +murder,' 'melancholy suicide,' 'terrific explosion,' 'fatal shipwreck,' +'awful railway collision,' and the like, have powerful attractions for +that class which is--alas for human nature!--only too numerous, and +which likes to sup full of horrors--in print. In the same category with +these may be placed police news, and the proceedings in the divorce +court, the full reports of which are a blemish from which not even the +greatest of English journals are free. There have been found able and +honest men to defend these reports on the ground of the 'interests of +morality,' than which there is not a more abused phrase in print. But to +the man of ordinary common sense it would appear that more harm than +good results from them. Where can the viciously disposed man or the +novice in crime apply with better prospects of instruction in the +pursuit of his evil designs than to the columns of the newspaper? It is +perhaps not too much to say that for every two persons whom these +reports deter from crime, there are three who have been either initiated +or hardened in wickedness and sin by their means. This is a matter which +calls loudly for reform; and let it, with all sorrow and humility, be +confessed, one in which the better American journals shine vastly +superior to their English brethren. To the general reader for +amusement's sake only, those scraps _de omnibus rebus et quibusdam +aliis_ with which editors fill up odd corners supply ample +gratification. But those who read for amusement's sake only, or from +mere idle curiosity, are by no means the majority, and a tolerable +insight may be obtained into a man's character and bias of mind by +observing what is the part of the paper to which he first turns when he +unfolds it. The man who is absorbed in business pursuits turns to the +prices of stocks and shares, the values of articles of merchandise, and +the rates of discount and exchange. He will also probably glance at the +'latest intelligence' and the most recent telegrams, but only with the +view of forming an opinion as to how the world of commerce and +speculation will be affected thereby. The politician finds matter to his +taste in the leading articles, the Parliamentary debates and the letters +of foreign correspondents, and, perhaps, after a careful perusal of +them, flatters himself that he has at last mastered the intricacies of +the Schleswig-Holstein question, or has arrived at an understanding of +the Emperor Napoleon's policy in Rome. The scientific man and the +literary man have their attention fixed by the reports of the meetings +of the various learned societies, the accounts of new discoveries and +inventions, and the reviews of new publications. This enumeration might +be extended almost _ad infinitum_, but to sum up briefly, whatever a +man's taste or predilections may be, he will be able to gratify them to +his heart's content. + +There is, however, one portion of the newspaper which must not be passed +over without especial notice, and which is so varied in its contents +that it appeals to all classes. This is the advertisements. The man who +wishes to buy may here ascertain whither he must bend his steps to +obtain the article he desires, and the man who wishes to sell may here +meet with a purchaser; and it is truly wonderful to observe how the two +great requirements of demand and supply, in all their varied +ramifications, are satisfied or seem to be satisfied in these columns. +If one may put faith in them, it is possible to gratify every mortal +wish and every mortal want through their instrumentality, on one +condition, and that condition is--money. But even this condition may be +satisfied through the same medium. Are there not untold fortunes +invested in Government securities and unclaimed for years, only waiting +for the lawful owners or rightful heirs to come forward and obtain them +through the agency of those obliging gentlemen who make it their +business to investigate such matters? Are there not also numbers of +benevolent philanthropists eagerly longing for opportunities to lend +money in large or small amounts, on personal security only, to such +persons even as are not fortunate enough to be rightful owners or lawful +heirs? The curious part of the affair, however, is that there are also +so many people who want to borrow money upon the same terms. Do these +two classes, we wonder, ever come together through the intervention of +the advertisement, and does the result wished for on both sides follow, +or does it not? If it does, why need both sets of advertisements appear +at all? And if it does not, what is the use of repeating either of them +day after day and week after week? The man of imagination must take +especial delight in the advertising columns. What splendid feasts they +afford him to banquet upon! Some of them, in a few pithy lines, contain +the plot of a three-volume novel or the materials for a grand sensation +melodrama. What tragedies and what comedies he may weave out of one or +two mysterious and almost unintelligible sentences! What reveries he may +indulge in, what castles in the air--the most harmless and inexpensive +of building operations--he may construct, provided he start with the +hypothesis, 'If I were to buy this,' or 'If I were to invest in that,' +and all the time he has neither the intention nor the ability of +purchasing the one or of investing in the other! How seductive are the +notifications by auctioneers and land agents of the 'charming and +valuable territorial estates, with the disposal of which they have had +the honor of being intrusted'! The dweller in towns, who, chained to the +one unceasing, unvarying round of official toil, still sighs for the +country, and, like Virgil, envies the 'fortunati agricolae,' may here +give the reins to his fancy, and indulge his rural proclivities _ad +libitum_. When the day's labors are over, and he sits in slippered ease +'by his own fireside,' what greater enjoyment can he have than to +abandon himself in true Barmecidal fashion to the tempting dainties +which the last page of the supplement to the _Times_ offers to his keen +appetite! How he revels in the luscious descriptions of 'noble parks,' +'swelling lawns,' 'ancestral woods,' 'silver lakes,' and 'endless +panoramas of scenery unequalled in the world'! How proudly he lingers +over the pictures of 'baronial castles,' and 'time-honored manorial +residences, indissolubly linked with the proudest names and proudest +deeds of England's history'! If he be a sportsman--and what Englishman +is not, more or less?--how intoxicating to him is the enumeration of +'game of all sorts, and countless myriads of wild fowl,' only waiting +his advent to fall victims to his prowess! If he be a philanthropist, +what visions of model farms, model cottages and model schools, of a +happy and contented peasantry, of comely, smiling matrons, and troops of +ruddy-cheeked children may he not conjure up! If he be ambitious, what +dreams of greatness crowd upon him--the revered benefactor of the +parish, the respected chairman of the bench of magistrates, nay, even +the county member returned to Parliament without a dis-sentient voice! +His fancy runs riot, and there is no limit to the bright future which +the skilful hand of the cunning knight of the hammer unfolds before his +enraptured gaze. + +To the energetic, enterprising man, how tempting must be those +prospectuses of schemes for the development of the vast and in many +cases untried natural, industrial, and commercial resources of the +country, which, combining in an eminent degree both pleasure and profit, +invite his cooeperation upon the joint-stock principle! How delightful to +him must be those announcements of wonderful inventions--secured by a +patent--and of old-established business firms, which offer a safe +investment for his spare hundreds and thousands by way of partnership, +with the certainty of immediate and enormous returns! To the invalid and +the valetudinarian, how cheering must be those modest and disinterested +encomiums upon the virtues of certain nostrums and specifics, which +cannot but carry conviction to his mind that there is a certain cure for +'all the ills that flesh is heir to!' And lastly, not to enlarge the +list any further, what a glow of heartfelt pleasure and gratitude must +the really good and benevolent man experience when he peruses the +reports of charitable societies, with their statistics of poverty, +misery, and privation, which afford him a channel for the dispensation +in works of mercy of the superfluous wealth with which a bountiful +Providence has blessed him! + +Such being the manifold uses and advantages of the newspaper, we are +tempted for a moment to pause and reflect upon what would be the +condition of the world without it. What a dreary waste it would be! Man +is an inquisitive animal, and at the present day is just like the +Athenians of old, going about seeking for some new thing. What would +become of him if the provender supplied him by his newspaper were +suddenly cut off? The consequences to society and to individuals would +be frightful to contemplate, and the mind especially recoils with horror +from the fate which would assuredly overtake those elderly +club-loungers, whose sole aim and object in life appears to be the daily +perusal of their favorite journal. How disastrous would be the effects +of such a stoppage to those persons who are compelled to pass the +greater portion of their lives together! They could not possibly +contrive to get through the day, and before long life itself would +become burdensome to them. Vast numbers of people have no ideas of their +own, and are therefore compelled to borrow them elsewhere. How important +is the part which the newspaper plays in that elsewhere! Paterfamilias +comes down to breakfast--his newspaper fresh, clean, and tidily folded, +lies invitingly on the table--he eagerly seizes it, and is forthwith +furnished with topics of conversation with his family. When he is +thoroughly posted up in the news of the day, he sallies forth, and is +ready to interchange ideas at secondhand with any acquaintance he may +meet. What would become of Paterfamilias, his family, and his friends, +if they were deprived of this resource? The whole framework of society +would be unhinged, business and pleasure would alike come to a +standstill, and the world would again relapse into barbarism and chaos. + +But let us turn from these fanciful speculations to a sober recital of +facts in connection with the history of the press. + +The derivation of the word 'newspaper' has been the subject of much +dispute. Some learned and ingenious writers, disdaining the obvious +'new,' have gone very far afield in their researches. Among other +derivations which have been suggested, is one taken from the four +cardinal points of the compass, N. E. W. S.; because the intelligence +conveyed came from all quarters of the globe. This suggestion is +contained in an old epigram: + + 'The word explains itself without the Muse, + And the four letters tell from whence comes News; + From N. E. W. S. the solution's made, + Each quarter gives account of war and trade.' + +And also, probably in jest, in the 'Wit's Recreations,' published in +1640: + + 'Whence news doth come if any would discusse, + The letters of the word resolve it thus: + News is conveyed by letter, word, or mouth, + And comes to us from North, East, West, and South.' + +For the first origin of newspapers in Europe we must look to Rome, and +there can be no reasonable doubt that the earliest germs of news sheets +are to be found among that wonderful people, who have left such enduring +monuments of themselves wherever they carried their victorious eagles. +The Roman news sheets were called _Acta Diurna_, and were issued by the +Government, and affixed to the walls in the most public places in the +city. They were also carefully stored in a building set apart for the +purpose, where any person could have access to them, and make copies of +them for the benefit of their friends in distant parts of the empire. It +is probable also that the Roman historians availed themselves of them in +their compilations. They were not only reports of the ordinary +occurrences in the city, but journals of the proceedings in the courts +and town councils as well, and they contain records of trials, +elections, punishments, buildings, deaths, sacrifices, state +ceremonials, prodigies, etc., etc. They are alluded to in the +correspondence between Cicero and Coelius, when the great orator was +governor of Cilicia. Coelius had promised to send him an account of +the news of Rome, and encloses in his first letter a journal of the +events which had transpired in the city during his absence. Cicero, in +reply, complains that his friend had misinterpreted his wishes, and says +that he had not desired him to send an account of the matches of +gladiators, the adjournments of the courts, and occurrences of that +kind, which nobody dared to talk to him about even when he was residing +in Rome: what he wanted was a description of the course of politics and +but the newspaper of Chrestus. He also refers to these sheets, that is +to say, to accounts of public affairs _in actis_ and _ex actis_, in two +letters to Cassius and one to Brutus, written previously to the +triumvirate. Suetonius also makes mention of them, and says that Julius +Caesar, in his consulship, ordered the diurnal acts of the senate and the +people to be published. Tacitus relates a speech of a courtier to Nero +to induce him to execute Thrasea, and among other things he says: +'Diurna populi Romani per provinciam per exercitus accuratius leguntur +ut noscatur quid Thrasea non fecerit.' Seneca and the younger Pliny also +allude to them. Dr. Johnson, in the preface to the tenth volume of the +_Gentleman's Magazine_, published in 1740, enters into a disquisition +upon these _acta diurna_, and gives an account of the discovery of some +of them with the date of 585 A. U. C., and adds some specimens +from them. He quotes them from the 'Annals of Rome,' by Stephen Pighius, +who declares that he obtained them from James Susius, by whom they were +found among the MSS. belonging to Ludovicus Vives. Their authenticity +has, as might be expected, been hotly disputed by many learned scholars +at various times, but sufficient grounds have not been adduced for their +rejection. The most suspicious circumstance connected with them is their +resemblance, _mutatis mutandis_, to a newspaper of the present day. Thus +among other things we are told that the consul went in grand procession +to sacrifice at the temple of Apollo, just as now a-days we might read +that Queen Victoria went in state to St. Paul's, or attended divine +service at the chapel royal, St. James's. Then we are favored with an +account of the setting forth of Lucius Paulus AEmilius, the consul, for +the war in Macedonia, and a description of the departure of the embassy +of Popilius Lena, Caius Decimus, and Caius Hostilius to Syria and Egypt, +with a great attendance of relations and clients, and of their offering +up a sacrifice and libations at the temple of Castor and Pollux before +commencing their journey. Then we hear how an oak was struck by +lightning on the summit of Mount Palatine, which was called _Summa +Velia_, and have the particulars given us of a fire which took place on +Mount Coelius, together with an account of the crucifixion of a +certain noted pirate. Dramatic intelligence is represented by a +description of the plays acted in honor of the goddess Cybele; and under +the head of 'fashionable intelligence,' the Jenkins of the day +chronicles the funeral of Marcia, a noble Roman matron, and remarks that +the attendance of images was greater than that of mourners. He also adds +an account of the entertainment given to the people by her sons upon the +occasion. By way of police news, we find a record of a disturbance in a +tavern, in which the tavern keeper was severely wounded; and how +Tertinius, the aedile, fined some butchers for selling meat which had not +been inspected by the overseers of the market. A counterpart of this +transaction may be met with every day in the city of London, but the +result of the affair is much the more satisfactory in Rome, for whereas +we do not know for certain what becomes of the money obtained from the +penalty in London, we learn that the aedile directed it to be devoted to +the building of an additional chapel to the temple of the goddess +Tellus. Dr. Johnson also quotes a second series of _Acta Diurna_, with +the date of 691 A. U. C., from the 'Camdenian Lectures' of +Dodwell in 1688 to 1691. Dodwell says that he obtained them from his +friend Hadrian Beoerland, who got them from Isaac Vossius, by whom they +were copied from certain MSS. in the possession of Petavius. Among other +things contained in this second set, we find noted certain trials, with +the number of the votes for and against the defendant, a bargain for the +repairs of a certain temple, an announcement by one of the praetors that +he shall intermit his sittings for five days, in consequence of the +marriage of his daughter, and an account of the pleading of Cicero in +favor of Cornelius Sulla, and of his gaining his cause by a majority of +five judges. + +Such are the earliest traces of newspapers to be found, and long +centuries elapse before we again catch a glimpse of anything of the +kind. Although it is the great Anglo-Saxon race alone which can boast of +having developed the usefulness and liberty of the press to its fullest +capabilities, both in England and America, yet it is not to us that the +credit belongs of having been the first to reintroduce newspapers in +Europe. Whether or no the Romans introduced their _Acta Diurna_ into +Britain, and whether or no any imitations of them sprang up then or in +after times, it is impossible to say. Some writers have asserted that +news sheets were in circulation in England at all events so early as the +middle of the fifteenth century, but as their assertions rest upon no +very trustworthy basis, they must be at once thrown aside. It is to +Italy that we must again turn for the reappearance of the newspaper. It +was in 1536, or thereabouts, that the Venetian magistracy caused +accounts of the progress of the war which they were waging against +Suleiman II, in Dalmatia, to be written and read aloud to the people in +different parts of the city. The news sheet appeared once a month, and +was called _Gazetta_, deriving its name, probably, from a coin so +called, of the value of something less than a cent, either because that +was the price of the sheet, or the sum paid for reading it, or for +having it read. There are thirty volumes of this MS. newspaper preserved +in the Maggliabecchi Library at Florence, and there are also some in the +British Museum, the earliest date of which is 1570. Printed news +letters, with date and number, but not so deserving of the title of +newspaper, began to appear about the same time in Germany. They were +called _Relations_, and were published at Augsburg and Vienna in 1524, +at Ratisbon in 1528, Dollingen in 1569, and Nuremberg in 1571. The first +regular German newspaper appeared at Frankfort, and was entitled +_Frankfurter Oberpostamtszeitung_, in 1615. The first French was brought +out by Renaudot, a physician, in 1632. The first Russian paper came out +under the auspices of Peter the Great, in 1703, and was styled the _St. +Petersburg Gazette_. Spain did not enter the lists until a year later, +and the _Gazeta de Madrid_ was born in 1704. It could not have been +worth much as a newspaper, inasmuch as the defeat off Cape St. Vincent +did not appear in its columns until four weeks after it had taken place. + +There must have been some sort of news sheets in existence in England +about the same time as the Venetian _Gazetta_, for in the thirty-sixth +year of King Henry VIII, the following proclamation appeared: + + 'The King's most excellent Majestie, understanding that certain + light persones, not regarding what they reported, wrote, or sett + forth, had caused to be ymprinted and divulged certaine newes of + the prosperous successes of the King's Majestie's army in Scotland, + wherein, although the effect of the victory was indeed true, yet + the circumstances in divers points were, in some parte + over-slenderly, in some parte untruly and amisse reported; his + Highness, therefore, not content to have anie such matters of so + greate importance sett forthe to the slaunder of his captaines and + ministers, nor to be otherwise reported than the truthe was, + straightlie chargeth and commandeth all manner of persones into + whose hands anie of the said printed bookes should come, + ymmediately after they should hear of this proclamation, to bring + the said bookes to the Lord Maior of London, or to the recorder or + some of the aldermen of the same, to the intent they might suppress + and burn them, upon pain that every person keeping anie of the said + bookes twenty-four hours after the making of this proclamation, + should suffer ymprisonment of his bodye, and be further punished at + the King's Majestie's will and pleasure.' + +None of these obnoxious 'printed bookes' have survived to the present +time, and it has been contended that they were probably nothing more +than ballads and copies of doggerel verses. But this is an hypercritical +objection, or rather groundless guess, for it is evident that the +proclamation points at something far more important. We may safely +conclude that they were newspapers, and that journalism had already +attained sufficient dimensions to alarm the powers that were, and draw +down their hostility. And a few years later, Pope Gregory XIII +fulminated a bull, called _Minantes_, against the news sheets, as +spreading scandal and defamation, etc. + +It was long fondly believed that the British Museum counted among its +treasures a full-blown printed English newspaper, dating so far back as +1588. It was entitled the _English Mercurie_, and purported to be +'published by authoritie for the suppression of false reports, ymprinted +at London by Christopher Barker, her Highness's Printer.' Writer after +writer exulted in the fact, and was loud in the praises of the sagacity +and wisdom of Burleigh, under whose direction it was supposed to have +been issued. But unfortunately for antiquaries and literati, the matter +was carefully investigated by Mr. Watts, of the British Museum, and he +pronounced on unquestionable evidence the copies of the _English +Mercurie_ to be nothing but a barefaced forgery, of which he went even +so far as to accuse, on good grounds, the second Lord Hardwicke of being +the perpetrator. But though we must discard this fictitious account of +the Spanish armada, etc., other news sheets did actually exist in the +reign of Queen Elizabeth, a list of which has been compiled by Dr. +Rimbault. The titles of some of them are: _New Newes, containing a short +rehearsal of Stukely and Morice's Rebellion_, 1579; _Newes from +Scotland, declaring the damnable Life of Doctor Fian, a notable +Sorcerer, who was burned in Edenborough in January last_, 1591; _Newes +from Spain and Holland_, 1593; _Newes from Flanders_, 1599; _Newes out +of Cheshire of the new-found Well_, 1600; _Newes from Gravesend_, 1604. +As time went on, these 'pamphlets of newes' increased in number. They +treated of all kinds of intelligence; some derived their materials from +foreign countries, and some from different parts of the kingdom at home; +some were true, and some were false. Thus we find, among others, +_Lamentable Newes out of Monmouthshire, in Wales, containinge the +wonderfull and fearfull Accounts of the great overflowing of the Waters +in the said Countye_, 1607; _Newes from Spain_, 1611; _Newes out of +Germanie_, 1612; _Wofull Newes from the west partes of England, of the +burning of Tiverton_, 1612; _Good Newes from Florence_, 1614; _Strange +Newes from Lancaster, containinge an Account of a prodigious Monster, +born in the Township of Addlington, in Lancashire, with two bodyes +joined to one back_, 1613; _Newes from Italy_, 1618; _Newes out of +Holland_, 1619; _Vox Populi, or Newes from Spain_, 1620. About this time +the news sheets began to assume particular and distinctive titles, under +which they appeared at uncertain intervals. We meet with _The Courant, +or Weekly Newes from Foreign Parts_, 1621; _The certain Newes of this +present Week_, 1622; _The Weekly Newes from Italy, Germany, etc._, 1622, +a title which was shortly after exchanged for that of _Newes from most +Parts of Christendom, London, printed for Nathaniel Butler and William +Sheppard_. These names ought to be preserved, as being those of the +great pioneers of regular journalism. It appears, however, that they did +not always keep the same title for their newspaper, for sometimes it was +called _The Last Newes_; at others, _The Weekly Newes continued_; _More +Newes_; _Our Last Newes_, and other various renderings of the same +theme. This great progenitor of a mighty race also adopted a system of +numbering, and, though exposed to many dangers and vicissitudes, did not +finally disappear until 1640. Butler and his contemporaries had to +struggle with many obstacles, and to contend against many and powerful +foes. In 1637, Archbishop Laud procured the passing of an ordinance +limiting the number of master printers to twenty, and punishing with +whipping and the pillory all such as should print without a license. +Butler's name does not occur in this list; so we may conclude that he +was particularly obnoxious to the haughty prelate and his party. But +this persevering journalist, whose name had for a long time appeared +alone as the printer of his newspaper, contrived to surmount this +difficulty, for in a manifesto, dated January 11th, 1640, he says: + + 'Courteous reader! we had thought to have given over printing our + foreign avisoes, for that the licenser (out of a partial affection) + would not oftentimes let pass apparent truth, and in other things + (oftentimes) so crosse and alter, which made us weary of printing; + but he being vanished (and that office fallen upon another more + understanding in these forraine affaires, and as you will find more + candid) we are againe (by the favour of his Majestie and the state) + resolved to go on printing, if we shall find the world to give a + better acceptation of them (than of late) by their weekly buying of + them. It is well known these novels are well esteemed in all parts + of the world (but heere) by the more judicious, which we can impute + to no other but the discontinuance of them, and the uncertaine + daies of publishing them, which, if the post fail us not, we shall + keep a constant day everie weeke therein, whereby everie man may + constantly expect them, and so we take leave.' + +This number of his journal is entitled _The continuation of the Forraine +Occurrents, for five Weeks past, containinge many remarkable Passages of +Germanie, etc.; examined and licensed by a better and more impartiall +hand than heretofore_. Another noticeable thing in this manifesto is the +first occurrence of the autocratic editorial 'we.' + +Butler had also to contend with the opposition of the news writers or +news correspondents, who doubtless found his undertaking interfere with +their trade. These gentry covenanted for the sum of L3 or L4 a year to +write a news letter every post day to their subscribers in the country. +That this curious trade was thoroughly systematized is evident from the +following passage in Ben Jonson's 'Staple of News,' published in 1635: + + 'This is the outer room where my clerks sit + And keep their sides, the register i' the midst; + The examiner he sits private there within-- + And here I have my several rolls and files + Of news by the alphabet, and all put up + Under their heads.' + +The news writers flourished greatly at this period, but as newspapers +began to get a footing, their credit gradually declined--and with +reason, if we may put confidence in the following extract from the +_Evening Post_, of September 6th, 1709: + + 'There must be L3 or L4 paid per annum by those gentlemen who are + out of town for written news, which is so far generally from having + any probability of matter of fact, that it is frequently stuffed up + with a 'we hear,' or 'an eminent Jew merchant has received a + letter,' being nothing more than downright fiction.' + +To Butler belongs the credit of having been the first to introduce +street newsboys, with this difference, that his employes were of the +other sex, and were styled 'Mercurie women.' + +Butler was a stanch royalist, and consequently suffered the vengeance of +the Parliamentary party. He fell into great poverty, and, according to +Anthony a Wood, died on board Prince Rupert's fleet in Kinsale harbor, +in 1649, just as a brighter day was beginning to dawn upon journalism. + +The struggle between the Parliament and the king set the press free from +the multiplied restrictions by which it had been 'cabined, cribbed, +confined' and almost stifled in its cradle. The country became flooded +with publications of all kinds, of which, while many were trashy, +ridiculous, and extravagant, there still remained a considerable portion +which materially helped forward that mighty uprising of the people to +which England owes her freedom, her glory, and her might. + +And here, having introduced to the reader the first real newspaper, and +the great ancestor of all after editors, and having attended the press +through its obscure infancy and perilous childhood, we must pause, +reserving for consideration in a future article the fair promise of its +youth and the development of its still more glorious manhood. + + + + +THE CONSCRIPTION ACT OF MARCH 3D. + + +Few subjects are more difficult of legislation than that of the military +service of a nation. The most profound wisdom, the most enlightened +statesmanship, the most intimate knowledge of society, are requisite in +the legislator. It is easy, indeed, to regulate the military service in +times of peace, when the army is small and volunteers are abundant. But +when the ordinary methods fail to fill up the ranks, decimated by actual +war, when the honor and perpetuity of a nation depend upon a +conscription of its citizens, then comes the tug of war, and many +legislatures have failed in their deliberations on this subject. In the +first place, a Conscription Act is opposed to popular prejudice. +Compulsory service of any kind, except for punishment, is contrary to +our ideas of personal freedom. We believe in the sovereign privilege of +doing what we please, and declining to do what we do not please, to its +fullest possible extent. We love to tell our neighbors that we have no +standing army to defend our national honor, but that it reposes safely +on the _voluntary_ patriotism of the people. We may admit the +_necessity_ for a Conscription Act--may confess its justice and +impartiality; but few men who are liable to fall into its pitiless +clutches, can speak of such an act without a shrug of uneasiness or a +wicked expression of anger. Again, it must be universal in its +application. It must meet all classes and conditions of society; must be +adapted to all shades of religious and political belief; must be +inflexible as Justice on his throne, yet tender and sympathetic as a +mother to her child. It must take into consideration different branches +of industry, and the fields of one section must not be depleted of +husbandmen that those of another may be filled with warriors. + +The act of March 3d meets these difficulties more successfully, perhaps, +than any previous act, whether of a State or National Legislature. It is +based upon the broad and well-admitted maxim, that every citizen owes +his personal service to the Government which protects him. But while the +Government impartially demands this service, the law provides for the +exemption of those who would suffer by the unqualified enforcement of +this demand. + +Many persons outside of the specified limits of age, are physically able +to do military service. But, _as a class_, it would have been cruel and +impolitic to have forced men into a service which would have wrecked +health and happiness for life, or, by a short and swift passage through +the military hospitals, have shuffled them into premature graves. Few +men under twenty-five have the power of endurance necessary for a long +and wearisome campaign. The muscles are not sufficiently knit and +hardened for the service, nor the constitution sufficiently fortified to +withstand the exposure. Men over forty-five have lost the vigor and +elasticity necessary to long and arduous exertion, and are constantly +liable to become a burden instead of a benefit to the service. + +No previous act has so equally disposed the military duty among the +various classes affected by it. It is a well-known fact that the burdens +of military service are wont to bear most heavily on the _laboring_ +classes. Probably no legislation can entirely remove this inequality. +But the act of March 3d makes special provision for the indigent and +helpless, and to a great extent relieves the suffering and inconvenience +dependent on an enforced military conscription. Poverty is not left +without relief, infancy without protection, old age without comfort. The +dependent widow, the infirm parent, the homeless orphan, are adopted by +the Government, and their support and protection provided for. And in +order that the character and dignity of the army may comport with the +greatness and purity of the cause for which it is fighting--that it may +be both the power and the pride of the nation, it is expressly provided, +that 'no person who has been guilty of any felony shall be enrolled or +permitted to serve in said forces.' For the benefit of those whose +peculiar business or family relations require their services at home, +Congress wisely inserted 'the $300 clause.' In this they but followed +the established custom in most nations since the days of feudalism. No +part of the act has been more violently assailed than this, none more +unjustly. It is asserted that this clause discriminates against the +poor, in favor of the rich; that it recognizes unjust distinctions +between the classes of society, and assigns military duty unequally +among the citizens. No assertion could more glaringly display the +author's ignorance and lack of judgment. + +The law, as originally drawn, required the service of the man drafted or +an acceptable substitute within ten days. Had 'the $300 clause' not been +inserted, the competition for substitutes would have been so great that +their price would have risen far beyond the ability of men in moderate +circumstances to pay, and many would have been forced into service who +thus have an opportunity for exempting themselves. It has kept the price +of substitutes at a low figure, and thus has proven itself emphatically +the poor man's provision. + +Nor is the law harsh toward those who may be drafted. Abundant time is +given for the settlement of any pressing business, the proper +disposition of family affairs, or the procuring of a substitute. It is +mild toward the infirm and afflicted, making ample provision for the +exemption of those who, from any cause, are unfit for service. + +It assures to drafted men the same pay, bounty, clothing, and equipments +as volunteers receive, and in all respects puts them on the same +footing. It thus removes the unjust distinction wont to be made between +the drafted man and volunteer, looking upon each as a true soldier of +his country, equally interested in its honor and perpetuity. And in +order that justice may be secured to the citizen as well as to the +Government, the entire business of the enrolment and draft is under the +supervision of a board of three men, generally residents of the +district. + +The prevailing spirit of the act, cropping out in almost every section, +is the tenderness with which it handles the subject. It scrupulously +seeks to avoid all violence, injustice, and suffering, and while it +firmly asks the service of the people, distributes that service equally +among all. And herein is its superiority over all previous militia acts. +State and national officers, members of Congress, custom-house +officials, postmasters, clerks, and the favored and fortunate generally, +were heretofore exempt, instead of those who, by misfortune or +otherwise, were in circumstances of dependence and want. + +But the act of March 3d, thus general in its application, thus humane in +its provisions, is not without omissions and imperfections. But these +arise rather from the language of its provisions, than from its general +design. Let us briefly examine these provisions as they are given in the +second section of the act. + +Clause second exempts 'the only son liable to military duty of a widow +dependent upon his labor for support.' + +The Judge Advocate General has decided, that 'a woman divorced from her +husband who is still living, is not in the sense of the law a widow--a +widow being defined to be a woman who has lost her husband by death.' +Her only son, therefore, upon whom she may be dependent for her support, +cannot be exempted. A divorced woman, whose husband is still living, may +thus be left entirely without support, unless she have several sons +'liable to draft,' in which case, she may elect one for exemption. + +Clause third exempts 'the only son of aged or infirm parent or parents +dependent upon his labor for support.' + +It has been decided that a son cannot be exempted under this clause +unless _both_ the parents are 'aged or infirm.' Thus it may happen that, +by reason of bodily or mental infirmity, a father, with a family of +helpless children, may be totally dependent upon the exertions of the +mother and a draftable son. But the law pitilessly takes the son without +possibility of exemption, throwing the entire burden of support upon the +mother. + +But no clause of this section is more liable to objection than the +_fourth_, which reads as follows: 'Where there are two or more sons of +aged or infirm parents subject to draft, the father, or if he be dead, +the mother, may elect which son shall be exempt.' It will be observed +that the provision--'dependent upon his labor for support'--is omitted +in this clause. Now, to interpret its language by the legal method of +construction, by the context, it would seem that such dependence were +necessary in order to secure the exemption. For the two clauses +immediately preceding exempt 'the only son of a widow or of aged or +infirm parent or parents _dependent upon his labor for support_. The two +immediately following, exempt 'the brother or father of orphan children +under twelve years of age _dependent upon his labor for support_.' That +is, _four_ of the five clauses referring strictly to this subject, grant +exemption to the applicant only when some one depends upon him for +support. Hence it may be presumed, according to an admitted custom of +legal interpretation, that in the remaining clause, standing between the +other four, the question of dependence, though not expressly _stated_, +is clearly _implied_. + +But an 'opinion,' published by the Provost-Marshal General's Bureau for +the guidance of the boards of enrolment, declares that 'the right to +this exemption does not rest upon the parents' dependence on the labor +of their sons for their support. The law does not contemplate any such +dependence.' + +What is the result of this decision? + +First, it places the wealthy and independent on the same footing with +the indigent and needy, exacting from the one no more service than from +the other. + +Second, it is more lenient toward the wealthy citizen who has several +sons liable to draft, than toward the helpless widow who may have but +one. + +Third, it makes a distinction against that family which may have +contributed most to the military service. + +By the 'opinion' just quoted, the only fact to be established by parents +electing one of several sons 'subject to draft,' is that they are 'aged +or infirm'. When this is done, boards of enrolment must grant the +exemption. The parents may live in affluence independent of their +children; the sons may all be in the second class except the one +elected; they may reside in different districts or States; they may +belong to different households: yet, if the same parents, or some +indigent widow adjoining them, had but _one_ son 'liable to military +duty,' or, having _several_, had sent them all into the army save _one_, +that one remaining could not be exempt unless it were proven that they +actually depended on him for their support. Why should a helpless widow, +having but _one_ son, be required to prove her dependence on him for +support in order to have him exempted, when her wealthy neighbor, who +has _two_ sons, can have one of them exempted without this dependence? + +Another published 'opinion' says: 'Election of the son to be exempted +must be made _before_ the draft.' Now amid the chances of a draft it may +happen that the brother or brothers of the elected son may not be drawn. +Thus the Government loses the services of the entire family. In many +cases no election would be necessary unless _all_ the sons were drafted, +in which case it could be made as well _after_ as _before_ the draft. +Besides, if there be a considerable interval between the time of +election and the time of draft, the ground of exemption may no longer +exist when the Government calls for the service of the man. + +On clause sixth an 'opinion' has been issued, stating that 'the father +of motherless children under twelve years of age, dependent upon his +labor for their support, is exempt, notwithstanding he may have married +a second time and his wife be living.' + +A stepmother is not believed to be a 'mother' in the sense of the act. +Another 'opinion' declares that the father of children of an insane +mother under twelve years of age dependent on his labor for support, is +_not_ exempt. + +A moment's reflection on these two 'opinions' is sufficient to establish +their injustice. A stepmother may and should, in all important respects, +take the place of the actual mother. Yet the father is exempt. Children +of an insane mother, however, may be left entirely without maternal care +and protection, and the father, upon whom may rest the burden of +children and wife, is _not_ exempt. + +Clause seventh reads as follows: 'Where there are a father and sons in +the same family and household, and two of them are in the military +service of the United States, as non-commissioned officers, musicians, +or privates, the residue of such family or household, not exceeding two, +shall be exempt.' + +In reading this clause, the question naturally arises: Why is this +provision made applicable only to families in which the father is still +living? Why should not a widow, having two uncommissioned sons in the +army, have her remaining son exempt, as well as if her husband were +still living? Judge Holt has decided that 'a widow having four sons, +three of whom are already in the military service, the fourth is exempt, +_provided_ she is dependent on his labor for support.' If the father +were living, the remaining son would be absolutely exempt. + +The evident design of this clause is to take into consideration the +amount which each family may have contributed to the service. But this +generous intention is practically ignored by another 'opinion,' which +makes it necessary that two members of the same family must be _now_ in +service, in order that the exempting clause may apply. Thus, by the +calamities of war, a father and several sons may have been killed or +rendered helpless for life, yet if there remains a son liable to draft +in the same family, he cannot be exempted unless his mother depends on +him for her support. It must be admitted that the parent or parents who +have had two sons _killed_ in their country's service, have made quite +as great a sacrifice as those who have two sons still engaged in that +service. And if the question of support is involved, it is reasonable to +suppose that two sons in the army would do quite as much for needy +parents as two sons in the grave. + +These are some of the inconsistencies of the law, as it has been +interpreted by authority. Other cases also may arise that seem to demand +an exempting clause equally with those in the act. Of such are the +following: + +First, the husband and father of a family depending upon his labor for +their support. + +Second, the only support of an aged or infirm spinster or bachelor. + +It is not unusual for persons of this class to adopt the son of a +relative or stranger. And when the infirmities of age render such +persons unfit for toil, the youth whom they brought up, and who is now +by his labor repaying their early attentions to him, should, not be +taken away. + +Third, the only support of helpless children, having neither parents nor +grown brothers. + +Orphans are often thrown upon the charity of a relative, and it seems +right that their support should not be taken from them. In view of the +many difficulties presented by the subject of exemptions, the many +diverse claims that arise, and the impossibility of making a special +provision for each, would it not be better to adopt a few general +principles on the subject, and submit all claims to the judgment of the +boards of enrolment? Thus, instead of clauses second to sixth, inclusive +of the second section, there might be a single proviso that--No person +who is dependent by reason of age, bodily, or mental infirmity, shall, +by the operations of this act, be deprived of his or her necessary and +accustomed support. This would include all possible cases, and would +secure to each the necessary maintenance, as designed by the law. It +would do away with the necessity of an unlimited issue of circulars of +explanation from the Department at Washington, throwing each case upon +the judgment of the board, who are to be presumed able to decide +intelligently on proper evidence being given before them. It would avoid +the unjust and injurious distinctions noticed under clause fourth, and +in the end would secure more men to the Government with less liability +of wrong to the citizen. Clause seventh also could easily be so modified +as to avoid the objections noticed above. + +Another evident objection to the act of March 3d, is the limited power +given to boards of enrolment as such. All clerks, deputy marshals, and +special officers, are appointed by the Provost-Marshal alone. Yet a +large--perhaps the _chief_ part of their duty is directly connected with +the enrolment and draft. The judgment of the remaining members of the +board would certainly be of some value in making these appointments, as +they are always residents of the district, and hence acquainted with the +peculiar wants of the service and the character of the applicants. The +duties of the commissioner should also be more definitely stated. +Special duties are assigned to the marshal and surgeon, but no further +definition of the commissioner's labor is given than that he is a member +of the board. Thus there is liability to a conflict of authority and a +shirking of responsibility, which could easily be avoided by more +explicit divisions of duty. The board system is undoubtedly a good one. +It gives _the people_ a larger representation in the business of +conducting a draft, tends to secure justice to all, and thus relieves +the popular prejudice and feeling of opposition to the law itself. + +But why should not every board of enrolment throughout the country also +be a board of enlistment? The time is fast approaching when the bulk of +our present army will return home. It is important that as many of these +men be reenlisted as can be, with any new troops that may offer +themselves. The Government should avail itself of every opportunity for +making voluntary enlistments. And by having a recruiting office within +every district, convenient to every man's residence, a surgeon always at +hand to examine applicants, offering the authorized Government bounties, +much could still be done in this way toward keeping an army in the +field, without any additional expense or without in the least +interfering with the draft. + +The act of March 3d is a law for the present, not for the future. It is +an act for the emergency, not for coming time. + +During the long years of peace and prosperity that we have enjoyed, the +great truth that every able-bodied man owes military service to his +country as sacredly as he owes protection to his family, has slumbered +in the minds of the people. For half a century there was scarcely +anything to remind us of it, and we were fast verging into that hopeless +national condition, when + + 'Wealth accumulates and men decay.' + +This act brings duty home to the conscience of the nation. It is an +impressive enforcement of a great political principle. But if our +quickened sense of obligation fail to make us _act_, if we refuse to +receive the lessons of wisdom which the developments of the hour force +upon us, if we fail to improve our military organization and +instruction, and render our able-bodied men effective for military +service at a moment's call--then this act will have done us little +permanent good. Our men of education and high social position, instead +of aiding to make the militia system respectable by the personal +performance of military duty and by using their influence to give tone +and character to the service, have evaded its requirements on +themselves, and have aided in sinking it into disrepute and contempt. +And here is where our militia laws are imperfect. They have done but +little toward cherishing the military spirit, developing the military +virtues, or securing an effective military force ready at any time to +take the field. + +In the future of our country we want no large standing army. It is +contrary to the genius of our institutions and to national precedent. We +must throw the duty of national support and defence directly on the +people--to them commit our country's honor. The Swiss motto--'No regular +army, but every citizen a soldier'--must be the foundation of our +military system. The course of the present war has fully demonstrated +the patriotism and loyalty of the people. The Government can rely upon +its citizens in any emergency. What we want is discipline, +organization, instruction. The act of March 3d does not secure these +essential requisites. It has enrolled the people, but has not made them +soldiers. We will not here attempt to describe how this can be secured. +But we may take it for granted that there must be greater facilities for +the military education of the young and the training of officers, a +proper division of the country into military districts, and stated times +for the drill and review of the citizen soldiery. Thus we shall be able +to maintain our national existence against invasion from without and +rebellion from within, and, being prepared for war, will be so much the +more likely to live in peace. + + + + +EDITOR'S TABLE. + + +With the present number, THE CONTINENTAL enters upon a new +volume. No efforts will be spared by its editors to increase its value +to its many patrons. The high character of its political articles, +always emanating from distinguished men and from reliable sources; its +loyal tone and catholic spirit; the great ability with which the +subjects of the deepest interest to the Government and community are +discussed in its pages--entitle it to a high, if not the highest place +among the journals of the country. + +It is intended to give utterance to the wants, wishes, tastes, views, +hopes, culture of every part of our Union. Having no band of sectional +collaborators, with local views and prejudices, narrowed horizons and +similar cultivation, it is confined to no clique of thinkers however +vigorous, no set of men however cultured, but receives thought and light +from every part of our vast country, without favor or prejudice. It is +the _Continental_, and thus represents and addresses itself to the mind +of the continent. + +The contributions flowing in, in a continuous stream from every quarter, +are subjected to but one great test--the test of real and substantial +merit. Thoroughly Christian in the noblest sense of that noble word, it +is never sectarian. Accepting Christianity as a _certain_ fact, it +rejects no scientific inquiry into its bases, convinced that all true +and thorough investigation will but lead men back to faith in a divine +Redeemer. Shallow thought and nascent inquiry may be sceptical, but the +deep mind is reverential and faithful. The problems of doubt torture the +soul, and call for solution. Infinite and finite stand in strange +relations in the mind of man; with his finite powers he would grasp the +infinite of God. He fails to find the equation of his terms, and, +baffled in his search, in the insanity of intellectual pride, denies his +Maker. He puts the infinite mysteries of revelation into the narrow +crucible of the finite, the residuum is--nothing; he calls it immutable +laws, as if laws could exist without a lawgiver, and bows before a +pitiless phantom, where he should love and worship the great I AM! + +Examine fearlessly into nature, O earnest thinker, for the created is +but the veil of the Creator. Revelation and nature are from the same +God, and both demand our serious attention. Revelation is indeed the +Word of Nature; the sole key to its many wards of mystery. Truth never +contradicts itself. Let the savant, whether in material nature or +metaphysical realms, examine, classify, and arrange his facts--they, +when fairly computed, thoroughly investigated, can lead but to one +conclusion. + +Nor will the literary department of this magazine be permitted to +languish. Tales, poems, and articles on art and artists, are solicited +from all who feel they have something to say, to which the human heart +will gladly listen. The talent of the East, West, North, and South shall +flow through our pages. Genius shall be welcomed and acknowledged, +though it may not as yet have registered its name on the radiant walls +of the Temple of Fame. It is the design of THE CONTINENTAL to +represent humanity in its different phases; to manifest to its readers +the thoughts of their fellow beings; to hold up the mirror of our mental +being to the complex human soul. Varied modes of thought and views of +life will be represented in our pages, for as men, nothing that concerns +humanity can be alien to us. We thus hope to be enabled to offer our +readers a wide range of subjects, treated from varied standpoints, +handled by writers widely scattered in space and severed in social +position. May the divergent rays be blended in a bow of beauty, of peace +and promise to the ark of truth! No personal bitterness shall find place +among us, no immoral lessons sully our record. There may be often want +of pruning, but even the undue luxuriance shall tell of the rich soil +of genius, ever germing and budding into prolific growth. + +Meantime let our patrons continue to trust us, and have patience with +our shortcomings. All that is human is liable to error, and the very +width and breadth of our base increases the difficulty of the temple we +would rear. + +Lend us your sympathies and moral aid, courteous reader, for many and +complicated are the difficulties with which an editor has to contend. +For example: 'Your review is quite too serious for success,' says the +first; 'its subjects are too heavy and grave; our people read for +amusement; you should give us more stories and light reading.' + +'Your review is too light,' says the second; 'the times are pregnant +with great events, humanity is on its onward march, and a magazine such +as yours ought to be, should have no space to throw away upon +sentimental tales and modern poetry. Your articles should lead our +statesmen on to the deeper appreciation of political truths, expose +vital fallacies, and not strive to amuse silly women and effeminate +men.' + +'You do not deal sufficiently with metaphysics,' says a third; 'you +should reproduce in popular and intelligible form the vast thoughts of +Kant, Fichte, Hegel, Schelling, Oken, Ronski, and Trentowski.' + +'Why do you give us so much metaphysics?' cries the fourth; 'modern +philosophy is essentially infidel; you should not introduce its +poisonous elements among our people.' + +'Such a review as you conduct,' remarks a fifth, 'should be the vehicle +of the thinkers and progressives; they alone are the men to benefit and +attract the attention of the community.' + +'Take great care to have nothing to do with the men calling themselves +progressive thinkers,' remarks a sixth; 'they are full of vital errors, +spiritualists, socialists, disorganizers. They have in reality nothing +new to offer; they are the old-clothes men of thought, harlequins +juggling in old Hindoo raiment, striding along in old German May-fair +rags, long since discarded--motley's their only wear--stalking +Cagliostros and Kings of Humbug.' + +'You are growing old fogy in your views,' says the seventh; 'we can bear +sermons enough in church of Sundays; we do not buy magazines to read +them there.' + +'Your journal is fast becoming an Abolition organ,' says the eighth. + +'Do you mean to oppose the Administration and distress the Government?' +says the ninth. + +'You give us no history,' sighs the tenth. + +'What do you mean by your long historical disquisitions?' vociferates +the eleventh. 'Nobody cares for the past now. Our hands are full of the +present. We are ourselves living the most important history which this +globe has yet seen.' + +Courteous reader, so it goes on forever, through all the unceasing +changes of thought, heart, mind, soul, taste, which characterize the +great, acting, struggling, thinking, conservative, progressive, +believing, doubting, Young American people. + +Meanwhile we will earnestly strive to hold up the glass of the +constantly shifting times before you, that you may be enabled to see the +flitting shadows of the hour as they pass across it, grave or gay, +portentous or hopeful, draped in solid political vesture, the toga of +the statesman, or robed in the blue gossamer of metaphysics, in the +drapery of sorrow or light hues of joy, in the tried armor of the +Divine, or the dubious motley of the progressive, in the soft, floating, +lustrous, aerial texture of the woman, or the monotonous Shanghai of the +man--while we will forever strive to point you to the Cross of Peace, +the Heavenly City, and the starry diadem of Eternal Truth. You may read +in our pages of 'immutable laws,' for such is the term now in vogue, but +you will remember that these words are but a veil used by the scientist +to hide the Eternal and Unchangeable Will, the Personal God, the Hearer +of Prayer, the Father of Creation. The kaleidoscope of nature, however +rudely shaken, through all its multiplicity of fragments, forever falls +back into the holy figure of God: + + 'Mirrors God maketh all atoms in space, + And fronteth each one with His perfect Face.' + +How long, lovely, and glowing has our autumn been, with its dreamy days +and soft shadowy mists. In its surpassing beauty it is peculiar to our +own loved land, and thus doubly dear to the hearts of Americans. Our +mountains borrowed the rainbow, dressing themselves in its changing +hues, holding up the great forests, like clustered bouquets, in their +giant palms, as if offering their dying children to God in the very +hour of their mature beauty. Crimsons and purples, oranges, golds, +yellows, browns, greens, and scarlet dye the trees; gathered sheaves and +golden pumpkins, marguerites, feathery golden rods, and bright blue +gorse are on every field. Have we not, in very truth, a country for +which a patriot should gladly die, and the devout heart never cease to +quiver in prayer that God may vouchsafe to bless? + +One of our patriot poets has sent us the stirring hymn of the +Cumberland. Let him chant it here, while we grave in our hearts the +grateful memory of the brave crew who perished with her, martyrs in a +holy cause: + + THE CUMBERLAND. + + Fast poured the traitors' shot and shell, + Where at their posts our gunners fell: + Our starboard portholes make reply-- + Each takes his comrade's place to die; + All time shall yield no battle field + Grand as thy deck, our Cumberland! + + Oh, crashing shock! our beams divide, + And death flows inward with the tide. + O'er gory decks,'mid sulphur smoke, + The climbing waters madly broke; + Our banner spread, still waved o'er head, + Above the sinking Cumberland. + + The wounded cheer,--the dying wave, + While sinking to their watery grave, + With straining sight and grateful prayer, + Exultant that the Flag is there;-- + Nor thought of life to glory's strife, + But of their ship, the Cumberland. + + The vessel sinks;--her latest breath + Hurls through the cannons' mouth of death + Defiance at the traitor foes! + O'er guns the throttling waters close-- + The hungry wave devours the brave-- + The gallant crew of Cumberland! + + No sailor yields; they gladly die; + Above them still the colors fly! + High o'er the black and surging flood, + That reels as drunk with patriots' blood, + Those glorious bars and Freedom's stars + Float o'er the sunken Cumberland! + + Deeds like these will live forever-- + Loyal hearts forget them never! + Hark! echoes from the brave and free, + Greet us from far Thermopylae: + All time shall ring while bards shall sing + The Martyrs of the Cumberland! + + In Glory's sky, 'mid heroes bright, + Immortal galaxy of light, + Through future ages shall they be, + The _Color Bearers_ of the Free! + The sleeping brave, in ocean's wave, + Who manned the Frigate Cumberland. + +Our monthly will enter many a home during the coming holidays--the eight +days consecrated to the memory of the most sublime record in the history +of mankind, the union of the Divine with the human, the introduction of +a human heart into the impenetrable but truly philosophical mystery of +the Trinity. Do we ever sufficiently realize the duties which this +marvellous union has enjoined upon us, the privileges with which it has +endowed us? + +We shall enter many a home--some joyous with the mirth of children, the +hopefulness of youth, the serene happiness of useful and contented men +and women;--some shadowed by recent sorrow, where perhaps patriots, as +in the olden time, learn to endure for the sake of a beloved +country;--or others, perchance, where worldliness, discord, and egotism +have severed hearts that should be united. God grant the number of the +latter may be few! Happy should we be, could we know that our arrival +would bring one more smile to the lips of the gay, a single ray of +support or consolation to the souls of the sorrowing--could we cause the +world-worn to dream of better and brighter things than mere matter can +ever afford, give the thinker a pregnant thought, soothe earth's weary +art-children with the hope of wider comprehension and sympathy, lead the +rich to open upward paths to their poorer brethren, or the poor nobly to +bear or to better their humble condition--in a word, could we offer but +single drops of that wine of immortal life for which every human soul is +thirsting. + +Frost and cold now are upon us; Christmas passing with its typal +evergreens and mystic chants; the old year dying fast with its weird +secrets buried until the Day of Doom; the New Year close upon us, with +its demands and duties. May the Heavenly Father bless its fleeting +hours, and enable us to sow them closely with the precious seeds of good +deeds,--germs to blossom on the Eternal Shore! + + + + +AMERICAN THANKSGIVING DAY IN LONDON. + +NOVEMBER 25, 1863. + + + [The following report of the proceedings at the Thanksgiving Dinner + in London arrived too late to be incorporated in the body of + THE CONTINENTAL; in consequence, however, of its immediate + interest to our readers, we have decided upon giving it to them, + even if it must appear as a supplement. It is surely a very + pleasant thing to know that our patriots abroad consecrated the + festival by grateful thanks to the Giver of all good; and that + public and loyal utterances were made of the great national truths + which, in our present crisis, it is of such vital importance to + make known to the men and governments of other countries.--ED. + CONTINENTAL.] + +In pursuance of the proclamation of the President of the United States, +addressed to all citizens, at home and abroad, the loyal Americans now +in England, to the number of several hundred, assembled at St. James +Hall to dinner. The Hon. Robert J. Walker presided, assisted by Hon. +Freeman H. Morse (our Consul here), and Girard Ralston, Esq. On the +right of Mr. Walker sat the American Minister, Mr. Adams, and on the +left, George Thompson, Esq., late M. P. from London. After the reading +of the proclamation, the prayer, and the hymn, Mr. Walker addressed the +company as follows: + + +LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: By the request of my countrymen, I shall +preface the toasts prepared for the occasion, by a few introductory +remarks. This day has been set apart by the President of the United +States for thanksgiving to Almighty God for all the blessings which he +has vouchsafed to us as a people. Among these are abundant crops, great +prosperity in all our industrial pursuits, and a vast addition, even +during the war, to our material wealth. Our finances have been conducted +with great ability and success by the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. +Chase, who has also succeeded in giving us, for the first time in our +history, a uniform national currency, which, as a bond of union, and as +an addition to our wealth and resources, is nearly equal to all the +expenses of the great contest. During the present year, nearly +400,000,000 of dollars of the six per cent. stock of the United States +has been taken at home, at or above par; whilst, within the last few +months, European capitalists, unsolicited by us, are making large +investments in the securities of the Union. But, above all, we have to +thank God for those great victories in the field, which are bringing +this great contest to a successful conclusion. + +This rebellion is indeed the most stupendous in history. It absorbs the +attention and affects the political institutions and material interests +of the world. The armies engaged exceed those of Napoleon. Death never +had such a carnival, and each week consumes millions of treasure. Great +is the sacrifice, but the cause is peerless and sublime. (_Cheers._) If +God has placed us in the van of the great contest for the rights and +liberties of man, if he has assigned us the post of danger and of +suffering, it is that of unfading glory and imperishable renown. (_Loud +cheers._) The question with us, which is so misunderstood here, is that +of national unity (_hear, hear_), which is the vital element of our +existence; and any settlement which does not secure this with the entire +integrity of the Union, and freedom throughout all its borders, will be +treason to our country and to mankind. (_Loud cheers._) To acknowledge +the absurd and anarchical doctrine of secession, as is demanded of us +here, to abdicate the power of self-preservation, and permit the Union +to be dissolved, is ruin, disgrace, and suicide. There is but one +alternative--we must and will fight it out to the last. (_Loud and +prolonged applause._) If need be, all who can bear arms must take the +field, and leave to those who cannot the pursuits of industry. (_Hear, +hear._) If we count not the cost of this contest in men and money, it is +because all loyal Americans believe that the value of our Union cannot +be estimated. (_Hear, hear._) If martyrs from every State, from England, +and from nearly every nation of Christendom have fallen in our defence, +never, in humble faith we trust, has any blood, since that of Calvary, +been shed in a cause so holy. (_Cheers._) Most of the rebellions which +have disturbed or overthrown governments, ave been caused by oppression +on their part. Such rebellions have been the rising of the oppressed +against the oppressor; but this rebellion was caused exclusively by +slavery. (_Cheers._) To extend, and perpetuate, and nationalize slavery, +to demand of the American Congress the direct and explicit recognition +of the right of property in man, to cover the whole vast territory of +the Union with chattel servitude, to keep open the interstate +slave-trade between the Border and the Cotton States, to give the +institution absolute mastery over the Government and people, to carry it +into every new State by fraud, and violence, and forgery, as was +exemplified in Kansas, and then, as a final result, to force it upon +every Free State of the Union--these were the objects conceived by those +who are engaged in this foul conspiracy to dissolve the American Union. +(_Cheers._) 'I have said that the American Union never will be +dissolved.' (_Loud and continued cheers._) This was the advice of the +peerless Washington, the Father of his country, in his Farewell Address, +and this was the course of the immortal Andrew Jackson, when he +suppressed the Carolina rebellion of 1833, by coercion and a force bill. +The American Union is the great citadel of self-government, intrusted to +our charge by Providence; and we must defend it against all assailants, +until our last man has fallen. This is the cause of labor and humanity, +and the toiling and disfranchised masses of the world feel that their +fate is involved in the result of our struggle. In England, especially, +this feeling on the part of the working classes has been manifested in +more than one hundred meetings, and the resolutions in favor of the +Union, passed by the operatives of Manchester, who were the great +sufferers from this contest, indicate a sublimity of feeling, and a +devotion to principle on the part of these noble martyrs, which exalt +and dignify the character of man. (_Cheers._) The working classes of +England, of France, and of Germany, who are all with us, in case of +foreign intervention, must have constituted the armies that would have +been taken to our shores to make war upon the American people. The men +who are for us would have been transported across the ocean to fight +against us in the cause of slavery, and for the degradation of labor. +Can there be any doubt as to the result of such a conflict? It is now +quite certain that this rebellion will receive no foreign aid; but if +any foreign despot or usurper had thus intervened and sent his myrmidons +to our shores, the result, though it might have been prolonged, would +have been equally certain--he would have lost his crown, and destroyed +his dynasty. (_Cheers._) Our whole country would have been a camp, we +should have risen to the magnitude of the contest, and all who could +bear arms would have taken the field. We know, as Americans, that our +national unity is the essential condition of our existence. Without it +we should be disintegrated into sections, States, counties, and cities, +and ruin and anarchy would reign supreme. (_Cheers._) No, the Lakes can +never be separated from the Gulf, the Atlantic from the Pacific, the +source from the mouth of the Mississippi, nor the sons of New England +from the home of their kindred in the great West. (_Cheers._) But, above +all, the entire valley of the Mississippi was ordained by God as the +residence of a united people. Over every acre of its soil, and over +every drop of its waters, must forever float the banner of the Union +(_loud applause_), and all its waters, as they roll on together to the +Gulf, proclaim that what 'God has joined together' man shall never 'put +asunder.' (_Loud cheers._) The nation's life blood courses this vast +arterial system; and to sever it is death. No line of latitude or +longitude shall ever separate the mouth from the centre or sources of +the Mississippi. All the waters of the imperial river, from their +mountain springs and crystal fountains, shall ever flow in commingling +currents to the Gulf, uniting ever more, in one undivided whole, the +blessed homes of a free and happy people. This great valley is one vast +plain, without an intervening mountain, and can never be separated by +any line but that of blood, to be followed, surely, by military +despotism. No! separation, by any line, is death; disunion is suicide. +Slavery having made war upon the Union, the result is not doubtful. +Slavery will die. (_Cheers._) Slavery having selected a traitor's +position, will meet a traitor's doom. (_Loud cheers._) The Union will +still live. It is written by the finger of God on the scroll of destiny, +that neither principalities nor powers shall effect its overthrow, nor +shall 'the gates of hell prevail against it.' But what as to the +results? It is said that we have accomplished nothing, and this is +re-echoed every morning by the proslavery press of England. We have done +nothing! Why, we have conquered and now occupy two thirds of the entire +territory of the South, an area far larger (and overcoming a greater +resisting force) than that traversed by the armies of Caesar or +Alexander. The whole of the Mississippi River, from its source to its +mouth, with, all its tributaries, is exclusively ours. (_Cheers._) So is +the great Chesapeake Bay. Slavery is not only abolished in the Federal +District, containing the capital of the Union, but in all our vast +territorial domain, comprising more than eight hundred millions of +acres, and nearly half the size of all Europe. The four slaveholding +States of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, are all devotedly +loyal, and thoroughly sustaining the Union. And how as to Virginia? Why, +all the counties of Virginia east of the Chesapeake are ours. All that +vast portion of Eastern Virginia north of the Rappahannock is ours also; +but still more, all that great territory of Virginia, from the mountains +to the Ohio, is ours also, and, not only ours, but, by the overwhelming +voice of her people, has formed a State government. By their own votes +they have abolished slavery, and have been admitted as one of the Free +States of the American Union. (_Loud cheers._) And where is the great +giant State of the West--Missouri? She is not only ours, but, by an +overwhelming majority of the popular vote, carried into effect by her +constitutional convention, has abolished slavery, and enrolled herself +as one of the Free States of the American Union. (_Cheers._) And now as +to Maryland. The last steamers bring us the news of the recent elections +in Maryland, which have not only sustained the Union, but have sent an +overwhelming majority to Congress and to State Legislature in favor of +immediate emancipation. (_Applause._) Tennessee also is ours. From the +Mississippi to the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers, from Knoxville, in +the mountains of the east, to Nashville, the capital, in the centre, and +Memphis, the commercial metropolis in the west, Tennessee is wholly +ours. So is Arkansas; so is Louisiana, including the great city of New +Orleans. So is North Alabama; so is two thirds of the State of +Mississippi; and now the Union troops hold Chattanooga, the great +impregnable fortress of Northwestern Georgia. From Chattanooga, which +may be regarded as the great geographical central pivotal point of the +rebellion, the armies of the republic will march down through the heart +of Georgia, and join our troops upon the seaboard of that State, and +thus terminate the rebellion. (_Loud cheers._) Into Georgia and the +Carolinas nearly half a million slaves have been driven by their +masters, in advance of the Union army. From Virginia, from Kentucky, +Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and North +Alabama, nearly all these slaves have been driven and huddled together +in the two Carolinas and Georgia, because, if they had been left where +they were, they would have joined the Northern armies. They preferred to +be freemen rather than slaves; they preferred to be men and women, +rather than chattels; they preferred freedom to chains and bondage; and +just so soon as that Union army advances into the Carolinas and Georgia +will the slaves rush to the standard of freedom, and fight as they have +fought, with undaunted courage, for liberty and Union. (_Loud +applause._) But how is it with the South? Why, months ago they had +called out by a levy _en masse_, all who were capable of bearing arms. +They have exhausted their entire military resources; they have raised +their last army. And how as to money? Why, they are in a state of +absolute bankruptcy. Their money, all that they have, that which they +call money, according to their own estimation as fixed and taken by +themselves, one dollar of gold purchases twelve dollars of confederate +paper. The price of flour is now one hundred dollars a barrel, and other +articles in like proportion. No revenue is collected, or can be. The +army and the Government are supported exclusively by force, by seizing +the crops of the farms and planters, and using them for the benefit of +the so-called confederate government. Starvation is staring them in the +face. The collapse is imminent; and, so far as we may venture to predict +any future event, nothing can be more certain than that before the end +of the coming year, the rebellion will be brought entirely to a close. +(_Hear, hear._) We must recollect, also, that there is not a single +State of the South in which a large majority of the population +(including the blacks) is not now, and always has been, devoted to the +Union. Why, in the State of South Carolina alone, the blacks, who are +devoted to the Union, exceed the whites more than one hundred thousand +in number. The recent elections have all gone for the Union by +overwhelming majorities, and volunteering for the army progresses with +renewed vigor. For all these blessings the President of the United +States has asked us to render thanks to Almighty God. Our cause is that +of humanity, of civilization, of Christianity. We write upon our +banners, from the inspired words of Holy Writ: 'God has made of one +blood all the nations of the earth.' We acknowledge all as brothers, and +invite them to partake with us alike in the grand inheritance of +freedom; and we repeat the divine sentiment from the Sermon on the +Mount: 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.' (_Loud +cheers._) + +Nor let it be supposed that we, as Americans, are entirely selfish in +this matter. We believe that this Union is the most sacred trust ever +confided by God to man. We believe that this American Union is the best, +the brightest, the last experiment of self-government; and as it shall +be maintained and perpetuated, or broken and dissolved, the light of +liberty shall beam upon the hopes of mankind, or be forever extinguished +amid the scoffs of exulting tyrants, and the groans of a world in +bondage. (_Loud applause._) Thanking you, ladies and gentlemen, for the +kind indulgence with which you have been pleased to receive these +remarks, I will now proceed to the toasts which have been prepared for +the occasion. Ladies and gentlemen, the first toast will be, 'The +President of the United States,' under whose proclamation we are this +day convened. Before asking you to respond to that toast, I would say +that we are honored by the presence this evening of his excellency, the +American Minister, Mr. Adams. (_Prolonged applause._) This is a name for +a century, and during three generations most honorably and conspicuously +connected with the cause of our country and of human liberty. The +grandfather and father of our American minister were each elevated to +the presidency of the United States by the votes of the American people. +The first, the illustrious John Adams, moved in 1776 the Declaration of +American Independence, and supported that motion by an immortal and most +eloquent address. He was the successor of the peerless Washington as the +President of the United States. The second, John Quincy Adams, eminent +for courage, for integrity, for opposition to slavery, for devotion to +the cause of liberty, for learning, science, eloquence, diplomacy, and +statesmanship, was the successor of President Monroe. His son, our +honored guest, inheriting all these great qualities and noble principles +of an illustrious ancestry, is requested to respond to the first toast, +'The President of the United States.' (_The toast was drunk amid the +most enthusiastic applause._) + + +Order of Exercises. + +_I.--Reading of Thanksgiving Proclamation, R. Hunting._ + +_II.--Prayer._ + +_III.--Hymn_ (prepared for the occasion). + +TUNE--_Auld Lang Syne_. + + We meet, the Sons of Freedom's Sires + Unchanged, where'er we roam, + While gather round their household fires + The happy bands of home; + And while across the far blue wave + Their prayers go up to God, + We pledge the faith our fathers gave,-- + The land by Freemen trod! + + The heroes of our Native Land + Their sacred trust still hold, + The freedom from a mighty band + Wrenched by the men of old. + That lesson to the broad earth given + We pledge beyond the sea,-- + The land from dark oppression riven, + A blessing on the free! + +_IV.--Dinner._ + +_V.--Prayer._ + +_VI.--Address of Hon. Robert J. Walker, introducing Toasts._ + + 1. The President of the United States. + + Responded to by His Excellency Mr. Adams. + + 2. Her Majesty the Queen. + + The Company. + + 3. The Day. Devoted to thanking God for our victories in the cause + of LIBERTY and UNION. + + Responded to by George Thompson, Esq. + + 4. The Union. From the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Lakes to + the Gulf, from the Source to the Mouth of the Mississippi, forever + one and inseparable. + + Responded to by Z. K. Pangborn. + + 5. The Emancipation Proclamation--Slavery's Epitaph, written by the + finger of God on the heart of the American President. + + Responded to by Hon. Freeman H. Morse. + + 6. The Army and Navy--Immortal champions of freedom, who bleed that + our country may live. + + Responded to by Capt. Mayne Reid. + + 7. WASHINGTON. The Man without a Peer. We follow his + farewell advice--NEVER TO SURRENDER THE UNION. + + Responded to by Capt. J. C. Hoadley. + + 8. The Press. The Tyrant's foe, the People's friend--where it is + free, despotism must perish. + + Responded to by Mr. Snow. + + 9. The Ladies. Our Sweethearts, Wives, Mothers, Daughters, Sisters, + Friends. Their holy influence will break all chains but those which + bind our hearts to them. + + The Company. + +_Benediction._ + + + + +LITERARY NOTICES. + + + RUMOR. By the Author of 'Charles Anchester,' + 'Counterparts,' etc. Boston: Published by T. O. H. P. Burnham, No. + 143 Washington street. New York: H. Dexter Hamilton & Co., 113 + Nassau street; O. S. Felt, 36 Walker street. + +'Rumor' is a book of genius, but genius of a peculiar character. Gleams +of intuition into the most secret recesses of the heart, analyses of +hidden feelings, flash brilliantly upon us from every leaf, and yet a +vague mysticism broods over all. No steady light illumes the pages; +scenes and characters float before as if shrouded in mist, or dimmed by +distance. The shadowy forms, held only by the heart, shimmer and float +before us, draped in starry veils and seen through hues of opal. We are +in Dreamland, or in the fair clime of the Ideal. 'Porphyro' we know to +be Louis Napoleon, but who are 'Rodomant and Diamid?' Adelaida and +deafness would point to Beethoven, but other circumstances forbid the +identification. Nor do we think Rodomant a fair type of a musical +genius; arrogant, overbearing, and positively ill-mannered as he +invariably is. He may be true to German nature, as he is pictured as a +German, but he is no study of the graceful Italian or elegant and suave +Sclavic Artist. We think the authoress unjust and cruel in her sketch of +that ethereal child of genius and suffering, Chopin. Did she study +exclusively in the German schools of musical art? If Beethoven is grand +and majestic, Chopin is sublime; if Beethoven is pathetic, Chopin is +pathos itself; if the one is broad and comprehensive, the other is high +and deep; the one appealing to the soul through a noble intellect, the +other reaching it through every nerve and fibre of our basic being. +Rubens is a great artist, but does that gainsay Raphael? Are not +Beethoven and Chopin twin stars of undying glory in the musical +firmament, and can we not offer _true_ homage to _both_, as they blaze +so high above us? Shall the royal purple so daze our eyes, that we +cannot see the depths of heavenly blue? + +Meantime we advise the admirers of 'Charles Anchester' to read 'Rumor;' +it is a book of wider knowledge and deeper intuitions. + + + GENERAL BUTLER IN NEW ORLEANS. History of the + Administration of the Department of the Gulf, in the year 1862; + with an account of the Capture of New Orleans, and a sketch of the + previous career of the General, civil and military. By JAMES + PARTON, Author of the 'Life and Times of Aaron Burr,' 'Life of + Andrew Jackson,' etc., etc. New York: Mason Brothers, 5 and 7 + Mercer street. Boston: Mason & Hamlin. Philadelphia: J. B. + Lippincott & Co. London: D. Appleton &. Co., 16 Little Britain, + 1864. + +Nothing is more difficult than, amid the whirl of passing events, to +form just estimates of living men. Either our knowledge of the facts may +be incomplete, or, if the external facts be known, we may be ignorant of +the character and motives of the individual. No public man has made +warmer friends or more bitter enemies than General Butler. History will +probably, in the future, pronounce a just and impartial decision in the +case. Meantime all that the public can learn regarding his political and +military career will be eagerly examined. + + + TALES OF A WAY-SIDE INN. By HENRY WADSWORTH + LONGFELLOW. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. For sale by D. Appleton + & Co., New York. + +The mere announcement of a new book by H. W. Longfellow, is sufficient +to secure for it the attention of all who read or love poetry. Long +before the critic can pronounce upon its merits, it will be found in the +hands of thousands. Longfellow is perhaps the most popular among +American poets. His rhythm is always varied and musical, his diction in +good taste, his treatment ever adapted to the subject he has in hand. If +he seldom strikes the deepest chords of being, his touch is always +true, tender, and sympathetic. 'The Birds of Killingworth' is full of +beauty. If the 'Tale of a Poet,' it is also a song of the sage. The +'Children's Hour' is charming in its home love and naive grace. +'Weariness' is simple as a child's song, but full of natural and true +pathos. Let it pleasure our poet that in this sweet, sad chant of his, +he has the warm sympathies of his fellow men. Let him not weary thinking +of the task yet before the 'little feet,' but rather rejoice in the +sunshine he has himself been able to throw o'er the path in which the +'little feet' must walk. + + + THE THOUGHTS OF THE EMPEROR M. AURELIUS ANTONINUS. + Translated by GEORGE LONG. Boston; Ticknor & Fields. For + sale by D. Appleton & Co., New York. + +Antoninus was born at Rome, A. D. 121, embraced the Stoic +philosophy from conviction, and, though an emperor, lived in accordance +with its stern spirit. This little book has been the companion of many +of our greatest men. That it still lives, and is still read by all who +delight in bold and vigorous thought, is sufficient proof of its +excellence. It has been rendered into English, French, Italian, and +Spanish. It was translated by Cardinal Francis Barberini, nephew of Pope +Urban VIII. as he said, 'in order to diffuse among the faithful the +fertilizing and vivifying seeds he found within it.' He dedicated this +translation to his own soul, to make it, as he says, 'redder than purple +at the sight of the virtues of this Gentile.' The strong pages act like +a tonic upon the spirit, and give the reader courage to endure. + + + REVERIES OF A BACHELOR; or, A Book of the Heart. By + IK. MARVEL. A new edition. New York: Charles Scribner, 124 + Grand street. + + DREAM LIFE: A Fable of the Seasons. By IK. MARVEL. + A new edition. Charles Scribner, 124 Grand street, New York. + +The old type of these books has from constant use grown so worn and +battered as to be unfit for further use, and it has been found necessary +from the constant demand, to issue entirely new editions. And beautiful +editions indeed we have before us. Print and paper alike excellent, and +pleasant binding in vivid green and lustrous gold. It were surely +useless to commend Ik. Marvel now to our readers, since no one ever +attained to more rapid popularity. His sketches are always graceful and +genial, his style of singular elegance. He wins his way to our heart and +awakens our interest we scarcely know how, for he is marvellously +unpretending and simple in his delineations of life. Our author says in +his Preface to the new edition of the 'Reveries of a Bachelor:' 'The +houses where I was accustomed to linger, show other faces at the +windows; bright and cheery faces, it is true; but they are looking over +at a young fellow upon the other side of the way.' + +We would whisper to him: 'Nay, not so. Humanity is ever grateful to its +true and earnest friends, and have borne thee over in triumph to the +fair clime of the Ideal, where undying affections await thee; and +ever-yearning loves shall keep thee ever young. Spring flowers are +forever blooming in our hearts as thou breathest upon them, and age is +but a name for thy immortal youth, O friend of dreamy hours and tender +reveries.' + + + MY FARM OF EDGEWOOD: A Country Book. By the Author of + 'Reveries of a Bachelor.' Eighth Edition. New York: Charles + Scribner. + +A book of farm experience from Ik. Marvel cannot fail to awaken the +interest of the community. If the author sees with the eye of the poet, +his imagination is no ignis-fatuus fire to mislead and bewilder him when +moving among the practical things of life. He begins with the beginning, +the search and finding of the farm. Every page is pregnant with valuable +hints to the farmer as well as to the gentleman and scholar. The book is +a real picture of country life, its pains, trials, pursuits, and +pleasures, and the most varied information is given with respect to what +it might be made, what it should become. A single glance at the varied +table of contents would be sufficient to convince the reader of the +great interest of the topics so pleasantly treated in the volume before +us. We extract a few of them: Around the House; My Bees; What to do with +the Farm; A Sunny Frontage; Laborers; Farm Buildings; The Cattle; The +Hill Land; The Farm Flat; Soiling; An Old Orchard; The Pears; My Garden; +Fine Tilth makes Fine Crops; Seeding and Trenching; How a Garden should +look; The lesser Fruits; Grapes; Plums, Apricots, and Peaches; The +Poultry; Is it Profitable? Debit and Credit; Money-making Farmers; Does +Farming Pay? Agricultural Chemistry; Isolation of Farmers; Dickering; +The Bright Side; Place for Science; AEsthetics of the Business; Walks; +Shrubbery; Rural Decoration; Flowers; L'Envoi. + + + LETTERS TO THE JONESES. By TIMOTHY TITCOMB, + Author of 'Letters to Young People,' 'Gold Foil,' 'Lessons in + Life,' etc., etc. Eighth edition. Charles Scribner, 124 Grand + street, New York. + +A work evincing strong practical common sense, and acute discrimination. +Our author is a poet, but no mysticism or sentimentalism disfigures his +pages; he is a clear, keen observer and analyzer of human nature, +lashing its vices, discerning its foibles, and reading its subterfuges +and petty vanities. He says: 'The only apologies which he offers for +appearing as a censor and a teacher, are his love of men, his honest +wish to do them good, and his sad consciousness that his nominal +criticisms of others are too often actual condemnations of himself.' + +He addresses himself in a series of letters to the Joneses of +Jonesville, each Jones addressed being a typal character and such as is +of frequent occurrence in our midst. Homely and excellent advice, +appropriate to their faults and needs, is administered to each +individual Jones in turn, as he falls under the salutary but sharp +scalpel of this keen dissector. There are twenty-four letters, +consequently twenty-four studies from life, true to reality and detailed +as a Dutch picture. We feel our own faults and foibles bared before us +as we read. While these pages are very interesting to the general +reader, the divine may learn from them how best in his preaching to aim +his shafts at personal follies, and the novelist find models for his +living portraitures and varied pictures. + + + THE WATER BABIES: a Fairy Tale for a Land Baby. By the + Rev. Charles Kingsley, Author of 'Two Years Ago,' 'Amyas Leigh,' + etc. With illustrations by J. Noel Paten, B. S. A. Boston: T. O. H. + P. Burnham. New York: O. S. Felt, 36 Walker St., 1864. + +A lively tale, dedicated to the author's youngest son, and calculated to +entertain the elders who read aloud, as well as the children who listen. +There are in it many tender touches, and numberless satiric blows +administered in Mr. Kingsley's own peculiar way. + + + ADVENTURES OF DICK ONSLOW AMONG THE RED SKINS. A Book for + Boys. With Illustrations. Edited by William H. G. Kingston. Boston: + J. E. Tilton & Co. 1864. + +Stories of the Western wilderness, and of life among the Indians, are +sure to meet with favor in the eyes of American boys, the descendants of +a race of pioneers. + + + MY DAYS AND NIGHTS ON THE BATTLE FIELD. A Book for Boys. + By 'Carleton.' Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1864. For sale by D. + Appleton & Co., New York. + +This is a useful book, containing sundry items of military information, +and many vivid descriptions of land and naval engagements during the +present war--all interesting to young people. + + + LOUIE'S LAST TERM AT ST. MARY'S. By the author of + 'Rutledge,' 'The Sutherlands,' 'Frank Warrington,' etc. New York: + Carleton, publisher, 413 Broadway, 1864. + +A book of school life, intended not less for teachers than for the +youthful maidens whose various typal forms act, love, hate, and suffer +through its very natural and interesting pages. + + + MILTON'S PARADISE LOST. In Twelve Books. New York: Frank + H. Dodd, 506 Broadway, 1863. + +The text is a literal reprint from Keightley's Library edition. Print, +binding, and size all render the tasteful little book a pleasant form in +which to possess the greatest epic in the English tongue. + + + THE GAME OF DRAUGHTS. By HENRY SPAYTH, Author of + 'American Draught Player.' Buffalo: Printed for the Author. For + sale by Sinclair Tousey, New York. + +This book has been pronounced by the highest authorities on checkers, +both in the Old and New World, the best work of the kind ever written. +It is said to contain 'lucid instructions for beginners, laws of the +game, diagrams, the score of 364 games, together with a series of novel, +instructive, and ingenious critical positions.' + + + PECULIAR. A Tale of the Great Transition. By EPES + SARGENT. New York: Carleton, publisher, 413 Broadway. + +Mr. Sargent has given us a tale of the times--his scenes are laid in our +midst. He grapples with the questions of the hour, handling even +Spiritualism as he passes on. Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, George +Saunders, Senator Wigfall, &c., are sketched in these pages. The story +is founded on the social revelations which Gen. Butler, Gov. Shepley, +Gen. Ullman, the Provost-Marshal, &c., authenticated in New Orleans +after the occupation of that city by the United States forces. These +materials have been skilfully handled by the author of 'Peculiar,' and +the result is a novel of graphic power and sustained interest. It will +make its own way, as it has the elements of success. We must, however, +give a caution to our readers: 'Kunnle Delaney Hyde' and 'Carberry +Ratcliff' are true as _individuals_ of the South, but it would not be +fair to regard them as _typal_ characters. Let the magnanimous North be +just, even to its enemies. Slavery is a great wrong, as well as a great +mistake in political economy; men are by no means good enough to be +trusted with irresponsible power; slaves have been treated with savage +cruelty, and the institution is indeed demoralizing: all this, and a +great deal more, we readily grant our writer; and yet we cannot help +wishing he had shown us something to love, to hope for, in our enemy. He +makes an earnest and able protest against a great wrong, and as such we +gladly accept his book; but as a work of art, we think his tale would +have held a higher rank had he given us some of the softer lights of the +picture. In this we may be wrong, for a dread Nemesis stalks even +through the plains of the Ideal. To stand up truly for the Right, we +must comprehend the Wrong; meanwhile an important end is answered. We +are taught, a lesson we should all learn, compassion for the negro, and +enabled to understand some of his latent traits. For the ability and +tenderness with which this has been done, we have reason to thank Mr. +Sargent. The tale of Estelle is one of pathos and beauty, and +'Peculiar,' the negro, shines in it like a black diamond of the purest +water. The book cannot fail to interest all who trace the cause of the +mighty transition through which we are passing to its true source, the +heart of man. + + + POEMS BY JEAN INGELOW. Boston: Roberts Brothers. + +Many of these poems are vague and incomplete, others evince maturity of +thought, and are of singular beauty. We are quite charmed with the +'Songs of Seven.' It is highly original and tender. The rhythms vary +with the chimes of the different ages, always in tune with the joys and +sorrows sung. The poem is full of nature and simple pathos. There is a +dewy freshness on these leaves, as if a young soul were thus pouring its +spring carols into song, Jean Ingelow has been highly commended by the +English critics. In regard to her poems the _London Athenaeum_ says: +'Here is the power to fill common earthly facts with heavenly fire; a +power to gladden wisely and to sadden nobly; to shake the heart, and +bring moist tears into the eyes through which the spirit may catch its +loftiest light.' + + + ALICE OF MONMOUTH, an Idyl of the Great War, with Other + Poems. By EDMUND C. STEDMAN. New York: Carleton, + publisher, 413 Broadway. London: Sampson Low, Son & Company. + +With the many stirring events passing around us, the heroic deeds +enacted in our midst, it is fitting that the poet should begin to find +his scenes in his own country. Mr. Stedman has so done in his 'Alice of +Monmonth.' The story of the Poem leads us from the fruit fields and +plains of New Jersey, from love scenes and songs, to the din of battle, +and the sufferings of hospitals in Virginia. There are various changes +rung in the rhythm, so that it never becomes monotonous; and many of the +descriptive passages are full of beauty. + + + DEEP WATERS. A Novel. By ANNA H. DRURY, Author of + 'Misrepresentation,' 'Friends and Fortune,' &c. Boston: Published + by T. O. H. P. Burnham, No. 143 Washington street. New York: H. + Dexter Hamilton & Co., 113 Nassau street. O. S. Felt, 36 Walker + street. + +Never having before met with a work by Miss Drury, we were quite +surprised to find 'Deep Waters' a novel of so much power. The plot is +original, and well managed throughout, the characters well conceived and +sustained, the morals entirely unobjectionable, the style pure, simple, +and unaffected, and the interest uninterrupted. The tale is indeed one +of singular beauty. + + + IN WAR TIME, and other Poems. By JOHN GREENLEAF + WHITTIER. Ticknor & Fields, Boston. D. Appleton & Co., New + York. + +If bold, varied, musical rhythm; high and tender thought; hatred of +oppression; warm sympathy with suffering; correct and flowing diction; +intense love of nature and power to depict her in all her moods, joined +with a glowing imagination and devout soul, entitle a man to be classed +with the great poets, then may we justly claim that glorious rank for +John Greenleaf Whittier. All honor to him, who, while he charms our +fancy and warms our heart, strengthens our souls, ennobles our views, +and bears us, on the wings of his pure imagination, to the gates of +heaven. We are ready to accord him the highest rank among our _living_ +poets. No affectations deform his lines, no conceits his thoughts, no +puerilities his descriptions. His 'Huskers,' should be graven on every +American heart; his 'Andrew Rykman's Prayer' on that of every Christian. +We regard this poem as one of the noblest of the age. Humble devotion +and heavenly grace are in its every line. We pity the being who could +read it unmoved. We deem 'the world within his reach' is indeed + + 'Somewhat the better for his living, + And gladder for his human speech.' + +It seems useless to us to commend this volume to our readers; the name +of its author must be all-sufficient to attract due attention. Has not +this truly national and patriotic poet a home in every American heart? +If not, he deserves it, and we for one offer him our grateful homage. +Not only shall the refined and cultivated in the coming ages praise the +noble singer, but the 'dark sad millions,' whose long 'night of wrong is +brightening into day,' shall bless him, as, + + 'With oar strokes timing to their song, + They weave in simple lays + The pathos of remembered wrong, + The hope of better days,-- + The triumph note that Miriam sung, + The joy of uncaged birds: + Softening with Afric's mellow song + Their broken Saxon words.' + + + MENTAL HYGIENE. By J. RAY, M. D. Ticknor & + Fields, Boston. + +This work is not offered as a systematic treatise on Mental Hygiene. Its +purpose is to expose the bad effects of many customs prevalent in modern +society, and to present practical suggestions relative to the attainment +of mental soundness and vigor. Many important facts are clearly stated, +and sound deductions drawn from them. The law of sympathy is clearly +traced in the propagation of tastes, aptitudes, and habits. Many curious +and startling examples of its effects are detailed. The author traces +the laws of mind, exhibits the consequences that flow from obeying or +disobeying them, in a succinct and able manner. The art of preserving +the health of the mind against incidents and influences calculated to +deteriorate its qualities; the management of the bodily powers in regard +to exercise, rest, food, clothing, climate; the laws of breeding, the +government of the passions, the sympathy with current emotions and +opinions, the discipline of the intellect--all come within the scope of +the work. It is designed for the general reader, and will interest all +who care for the preservation of mental or physical health. + +The subject is one of great importance in our excitable country, where +so many minds are overtasked, so many brains too early stimulated, and +insanity so rapidly on the increase. We heartily commend it to all +readers interested in the subjects of which it treats. + + * * * * * + + [Continuation of Literary Notices prepared for the present issue + unavoidably crowded out; they will however appear in our next + number.] + + + * * * * * + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Since the above was written, the speech of Earl Russell, in +Scotland, indicates a disposition on the part of the British Government +to do us justice, at least in the future; and it is to be hoped that a +satisfactory adjustment of all differences on the whole matter may be +peacefully made. + +[2] In the 'Letters to Professor Morse,' in the November number of +THE CONTINENTAL, a sentence on page 521, relating to the +Confiscation Law, was left incomplete. The whole sentence should have +been as follows: 'As to the _Confiscation_ Acts--it is enough to say +that the Constitution gives Congress power 'to declare the punishment of +treason';--_or if the constitutionality of the Confiscation law cannot +be concluded from the terms of that grant--about which there may be a +doubt--it is undoubtedly contained in the war powers vested in +Congress._' + +I have here put in italics the clause omitted in that article, and hope +my readers will insert it in the proper place. The sentence, as thus +completed, contains all I cared then to say on the point--my object +being mainly to vindicate the justice and conformity to public law of +the policy of confiscation. In the present article I have gone more at +length into the question of the constitutionality of the law of +Congress, and have come to the conclusions herein expressed. + +[3] Our whole area is more than sixty times as large as England. + +[4] One hundred years have elapsed since that treaty, and the London +_Times_ proclaims that England will not fight for Canada now. + +[5] See Alison's History, chap. xxxvii, p. 269. + +[6] Kinglake's Crimea Invasion, p. 250. + +[7] Kinglake. + +[8] See Kinglake's remarks on the design of Louis Napoleon in making St. +Arnaud commander-in-chief of the French army in the Crimean war, p. 321. + +[9] Written in August, 1863. + +[10] Pansclavism + +[11] The following story, in substance, is to be found in Joinville's +Memoirs. + +[12] There may be extreme cases, few and far between, when the evil +contained in laws may justify their overthrow by revolutionary +force--witness our own separation from Great Britain; but the doctrine +is one most unsafe when lightly broached, and we doubt not the +Constitution and laws of the United States offer a basis broad enough +for the legal as well as the most judicious mode of settlement under the +present difficulties.--ED. 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