The Nation 1866-03-29: Vol 2 Iss 39

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The N ation.

VOL. IL—NO. 39.

THURSDAY, MARCH 29, 1866. SS = 2—=—->]=—>9eemmte#nn-P—-Wm_ a Srx DoLLARs PER ANNUM SIneLE Copres, 15 CENTs

CONTENTS. 385 | CORRESPONDENCE Political Situation from a Commer- cial Standpoin West Pointers aa Volunteers The Dean’s English MINOR TOPICS........ cccceceseeceeces 388 The ae of Congress over Recon- The Apology for Leontes Serer: The Crusade Against Canada. me ‘ 391 LITERATURE: An American Cemetery in Mexico..... | | Literary Notes Action and Reaction 3 Victor Hugo’s Last Poems The Debates in the French Parliament. Lippincott’s Pronouncing Gazetteer its —M., de Girardin................... Gurowski’s Di Warren and Sheridan at Five Forks 407 The Magazines for April 407 7 Fine ART: A Few Words about Art Criticiem ScIENCE: Scientific Notes Shakespeare: Poetry............ ..... 395 The Acting of Mr. Edwin Booth....... 395 An Almost Living Literature.......... 396 England.—House of Commons.—Re- form.—Dr. Whewell Paris Gossip . 409 Siz Dollars per annum, in advance; Six months, Four Dollars. When delivered by Carrier in New York or Brooklyn, Fifty Cents additional. JOSEPH H. RICHARDS, PUBLISHER, 130 NASSAU STREET, N. Y. The Week. Tue Manhattan Club of this city have elected Mr. Johnson an hon- orary member, and asked him to let himself be painted for them by “one of our first artists,” the reason being that they want to adorn their walls with-the “form and lineaments of the statesman and pa- triot, etc.” Mr. Johnson has accepted the compliment, and expressed his willingness to sit “for one of our first artists,” as soon as that gentle- man can be got ready. We believe the public has no right to object to this little interchange of civilities between a club and any public man. But we have a right to mention that the name of every signer of the ad- dress, except those of Mr. John Van Buren and Mr. James T. Brady, is that of a man notorious during the whole period of the war as what was then called a “malignant Copperhead,” One or two of them are strongly suspected of having been of the party who called on Lord Lyons to solicit the aid of Great Britain in breaking up the Union, and three of them are the reputed owners, and one the well-known editor, of the “ organ” which-a year ago pronounced Mr. Johnson “an inso- lent and drunken brute, an insolent and clownish drunkard,” with much other stuff of the same sort. The sudden admiration of these “ indi- viduals,” as the reporters call them, for Mr. Johnson’s “ form and line- aments” may be fairly set down amongst the “ odd instances of strange coincidence.”

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A Loan bill which had grown with various amendments out of that desired by the Secretary of the Treasury has passed the House. The new school of political economists, who believe that the issue of prom- ises-to-pay is a real addition to the wealth of the country, made some singular speeches, which will figure in the notes to some future history of rationalism as “specimens of by-gone delusions.” The question remains to be dealt with by the Senate. One thing is certain with re- gard to our financial policy, and that is, that there is not an enemy of the United States the world over who will hear of our rapid return to specie payments without chagrin hardly less acute than that with which he received the news of Lee’s surrender,

Tue House, on Wednesday week, by a vote of 79 to 46, passed a bill to facilitate intercourse between all parts of the Union by putting an end to railroad monopolies. It is substantially the same measure as that passed December 19th by the same body, but which was afterwards recalled for revision. It then received 93 against 51 votes. What we took occasion to say at that time in its favor we need not now repeat. More fortunate than certain political ventures, it can count upon be- coming law as soon as the Senate shall have added its approval, which we should like to be as swift as it is certain, ope Tut New York 7'imes publishes a more complete account of the fiendish massacres and tortures to which those suspected of fidelity to their country were subjected in Texas during the war than has hitherto appeared, The statements are too shocking to be readily believed, but we have seen refugees who report atrocities committed under their own observation which are not referred to by the correspondent of the Times, and which are, if possible, more disgusting. Not only were hundreds of worthy men and innocent women and children murdered in cold blood without form of trial or shadow of provocation, but the manner of their butchery was in many cases as disgraceful to human nature as the worst deeds of the Spaniards in the Netherlands or the Sepoys in the Indian rebelliog. The guilty men are now not only living in peace as good citizens of the United States, with the benefit of the Executive clemency, but some of them are taking active part in the work of reconstruction, and in cheering the President by assurances of their sympathy with his indignation at the Yankee radicals and traitors. —_

THe name of no man attaining equal rank came less before the

public during the war than that of Major-General Seth Williams, but