The Nation 1868-12-31: Vol 7 Iss 183

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‘Lhe Nation. VOL. VIL—NO. 183. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 81, 1868. {Five Doui.ans ram Apwox

Tweive Cents rer Corr

—— = and then got into a kind of fit, like the

“Tus WEEE ..........+-+.. cdledinaéaepe 541 | CORRESPONDENCE: | } Pygoeupes Auenae : Pe eee i Beel Oview | Pron ccree Ris et iod 551 ecstasy of a Welsh bard, over the possible advantages of St, Thomas Pobile Meetings tn Prance--..1.2, S48 | Under the Willows 2207! ggg | 20 the Union, By holding it, America was to be able to “flank” the ‘The Presidency of Harvard College... 547 | CURRENT LireraTuns : | British fleet in the West Indies, and then, going on from conquest to Jouaph Righon, Heq..............0.... sas | rom nse vad a SPIES 7 of the Bitiemp Conquest, to seize India and most of the foreign possessions of Great England ........ 0 ...........+-+++++. 580 | Books of the Week .................. 556 Britain, and was finally to arm “the whole population” of Ireland, Terms ;— Five Dollars per annum, in advance ; Clergymen, Four Dollars. lov > mo - ‘ > aay The Nation is sent till positively ordered discontinued, and ali arrears have been | erthrow the m —— hy, and set => republic in London. Many paid, Subscribere are pay y reaesed to ant So expiration of by subscriptions, people asked at the time, more in sorrow than in anger, “ What had a what is dus for the ensuing year, with or without further reminder from | got into the man?” The answer to this irreverent question has, alas! Groner Srazer, 90 Conwmtit, Lonpon, E. C., AGENT ror THE RecereT oF Susscnir- been rendered. It appears h> was retained as “ counsel”—“ lobby agent” TIONS AND ADVERTISEMENTS.

ADDRESS, PUBLISHER OF “THE NATION,” BOX 6732, NEW YORK. jhe scorned to be—by B: ‘on Stoeckl to * put the Alaska business = — sss eee” through,” and got $26,000 or his services. The services consisted in The Week. writing letters and artic like that from which we have quoted ticle ae above, threatening to fill tac world with slaughter, and pouring sim- Tue nearest approach to a sensation at home, during the week, has | ilar views into the earsof Congressmen. Part of the money he gener- been occasioned by the report of a saeoeiiinti between Geailé and ously offered to Colonel For ey, in consideration of the fact that much some Congressmen, in which the reporter—the New York Tribune’s— of the thunder had rolled in the columns of that calm and judicial- mate the General brawi a little about his hostility to subsidies and | ™inded paper, the Washington Chronicle, But here he found he had extravagance, and the picture was still further heightened in color by | ™Staken his man, for the colonel proudly refused the foreign gold, representing ‘the Congressmen on whom this denunciation was ex-| whereupon the generous and indefatigable Walker took it to the pub- pended as having been stricken with astonishment and consternation. !i8her of the paper, Colonel Forncy’s brother, who, to preveait. waste, ‘The truth was, we believe, that Grant did indicate, in his way, his. and to save further trouble, pocketed it. If anybody now is opposed hostility to subsidies and extravagance; but then his way is not the | to further extension of the “ area of freedom,” we advise him to keep ’ ° “yeportorial” way, and it is doing him injustice to say or suppose out of Mr. Walker’s way, for when angry he must be terrible. that he has departed from his usual course—that is, saying little and ; ae ; ; ‘aS a thinking much. He has declined expressing himself for or against| There appears to be little question that all probability of an im- the repeal of the Tenure-of-Office Act, leaving the matter to the wis- | mediate settlement of the Alabama question is at an end. What are dom of Congress. To Jenckes’s bill there is no doubt he is favorable. ‘the exact terms of the “settlement” on which Mr, Johnson and Lord The Cabinet still continues a mystery. One late and reliable rumor is | Stanley have agreed we are unable to say, but it is now generally that Mr. Washburne will have a foreign mission, and another and less | understood that its nature is such that there is not the least chance that reliable one is that Mr. Hamilton Fish will have another mission; but | the Senate would confirm it, even if Mr. Seward were disposed to it is doubtful whether any rumor on these subjects is worth repeating. | adopt it. A successful renewal of the negotiations by Mr. Johnson with the new Ministry is jmpossible, if for no other reason, for want of General Butler has written another letter on financial matters, in time. Mr. Johnson is well known to have only two months of office sad ; ld ‘left, and Lord Clarendon will therefore hardly feel inclined to renew Ee ee ee | with him a very troublesome discussion. So the matter will now ground, viz., that he wished to equalize taxation by extracting from | the bondholders some equivalent for their exemption from State and | probably go off till his successor has made his appearance on the scene. unicipal taxes. That is to say, the exemption from State and munici- Mr. Johnson's public glorifications of the work he was doing have 7 . : done more to disgust people with “open diplomacy ” than ing been part of the bargain on which the money was Probably pa sccthen to inthe the i to evade the dipelation all the arguments the friends of ee sins — a by getting a certain amount out of the creditors in another way, pretty The way in which he has allowed himself to . used as an electioneer- much as if, having agreed not to tax pantaloons, it were to clap a 18 tool in England is for Americans a tolerably humiliating spectacle. heavy duty on buttons, needles, and thread. We call attention to this He was undoubtedly taken to Sheffield by the Tories to help them last effusion of the general’s solely because his constituents, having in- | with the artisans at the then approaching electign, and it is now said creased his force and importance by re-electing him, these utterances that Laird used him to help in proc ye ” be - oe of his continue and aggravate the difficulties in the way of contracting by showing that he had not, after all, done 3 a loan at anew rate of interest. Nobody will lend money to the Gov- | said he had, for there was the American mi oo ernment at any lower rate than at present as long as this kind of talk on | him. The working-men have been prevemg the part of politicians is permitted; but for whatever amount of dam- | banquet by the private representations made age General Butler is doing, his constituents ratherthan he are now, responsible.

icans in London, and by the publication in the’ London correspondent of the New York Tribune, GE A .* various papers in this country showing the state of pular’ feel Our readers may remember that we commented last February on | jere about his performances, i ia the horrible love of war and devastation manifested by the Honorable <— nortan : : es Robert J. Walker, apropos of the Alaska purchase and the purchase of Mr. Johnson is another melancholy illustration of d hé-« St. Thomas. The hesitation of the public about the annexation of|of our system of diplomatic appointments, Some wise people 7 fresh territory, and its slowness in seeing what we were to gain by | ascribe his follies to his being born in Maryland, but they might ~ paying in gold, which we had to borrow, as it turns out, for land which | just as well ascribe them to his height or weight. Had he been we were sure to have, in the ordinary course of events, whenever we trained to his work, he never could have made such an exhibition ‘could make a good use of it, threw him inte a paroxysm of patriotic | of himself, no matter where he was born or what his sympathies. indignation. He wanted to have Mr. David A. Wells removed for | Men possess tact, judgment, and discretion in very unequal degrees

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The Nation. and no school of politicians or moralists has @ monopoly of them. the Sheriff, who was found feasting with the plaintiff and others, Radical donkeys are fully as numerous as Conservative ones, and, on having been got out of the way. All concerned were evidently the whole, less docile ; and what we want, therefore, is not the selection determined to wreak on Mr. Bowles whatever vengeance might of public servants with reference to the place of their birth, or their | be contained a oy night’s confinement. In fact, Mr. Fiske in his re- political opinions, or social antecedents, but the training of public ply to the criticiems that the affair has called forth from the press, while servants for their work, and the supply of an artificial judgment where 4lleging that the time chosen for the arrest was the result of accident, a natural judgment does not exist, or is very feeble, or has failed does not deny that the taking of bail was purposely and maliciously evad- to supply one, or has only supplied a very poor one. No man) ed. The result of the matter has been to call forth for Mr. Bowles a pro- who had been long in diplomatic life, as any man who repre-| digious amount of sympathy, and to throw some very unpleasant light sents the United States at the court of a first-class power ought to be, ©? Mr. Fiske’s relations with the officers of justice, as well as on his could possibly do the things Mr. Johnson has done, even if he had 20tions of decency and fair play. The article in the Republican was traded in negroes, or edited De Bow’s Review, or preached a pro-slavery | °R¢ parts of which at least it would have done well not to print, and Gospel. At present the selection of foreign ministers is a mere lottery, | which had really nothing to recommend it but its “ spiciness ;” but then owing to the novelty of diplomatic work to those who undertake it, and few papers, if any, have done better service in waging war on the cor- the different ways in which the peculiar social influences of foreign ,TUption and rascality by which both politics and commerce are being capitals affect different men. For instance, it is hardly possible, even ©Verwhelmed, and no honest man therefore is disposed to examine its for his most intimate friends, to say beforehand how an American who | faults with a microscope, or see Mr. Fiske assail it or its editor without had never lived abroad, or a man of any country who had never occu- | indignation. If public opinion has any terrors for the barons, and it pied such a position as to be’ worth captivating, would be affected by , Seems it has, they made a most absurd blunder when they clapped Mr. the blandishments of London women of rank, long trained in the art Bowles in jail, and locked Judge McCunn in unwakable slumbers, and of cajoling men of distinction, and ever ready to use their social Spirited away that upright officer, Sheriff O’Brien, from the social board. charms and their drawing-rooms to help their husband or their party. Curiously enough, General Butler’s nephew figures in the affair as an To such snares the best lawyer or most practical philanthropist might attorney, and has produced a scathing “card” in the van of the fall a victim. Whether he would or not nobody can tell till he has Fiske battle, and leaves little doubt as to the master who taught him been tried; and one of the great objects of diplomatic training is to his rhetoric. The combat deepens in every direction, and one good subject diplomatists to the necessary tests, and familiarize them with effect of the Bowles arrest is the increasing disposition of the press to 54.2 [Dec. 31, 1868 inevitable dangers before they reach the highest positions in the pro- fession. “The work of family dismemberment” is the suggestive name which a Chicago paper applies to the divorce business of the Chicago courts during the year 1868. This word, it adds, will probably sug- | gest forebodings to “those eminently well-meaning persons, of a. dyspeptic turn, who are predestinated to morbid views of things,” and have not long been residents of Illinois; but the Chicago press seems not disposed to take too gloomy a view of the matter, and gives statistics with much cheerfulness of manner. 460, it appears, is the whole number of persons who have applied within twelve months for a dissolution of the marriage contract. This is 122 more than applied in 1867. Of these, 284 were women and 176 were men, and of the. successful suitors also the women were in a majority of 113. The’ greatest number of actions was brought in the month of June, for what reason is not stated, and we cannot conjecture. October was another month of emancipation, and that for the reason, as the Chi- cago Times thinks, that so many persons were then making their domestic arrangements for the winter—which seems quite plausible. As regards the causes of these suits, the most fruitful seem to have been cruelty, inebriety, desertion, and adultery. In adultery the wives lead the husbands—the cases alleged and proved against the latter being 39, while those charged against the former were 41. In drunk- enness and cruelty the men have the superiority. Perhaps these statistics mean little more than that women are scarce in the Western country. Their general drift seems to be in that direction. But they show, too, or we are mistaken, that here in America we are framing a theory of marriage which is in many respects decidedly new. It is almost to be wished that it could be completely framed and thor- oughly put together before many more people come together and produce homeless children. On the old theory of marriage, 460 divorced persons in one year, in one town, afford, with their sons and daughters, a spectacle that may well set society thinking. The ‘Erie War entered” on a new phase on Wednesday last, by the arrest of Mr. Bowles of the Springfield Republican, at the suit of Mr. James Fiske, Jr., one of the Erie barons, for an alleged libelious account of his origin and career, which had appeared in the Republican. Mr. Bowles was seized at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, and hurried with a good deal of unnecessary violence to Ludlow Street Jail, where he was forced to pass the night, all efforts to procure his release on bail hav- ing proved fruitless, owing to Judge McCunn’s refusal to wake up, and ‘make common cause against the “ rings.” ! A banquet was given in this city on Tuesday evening to Professor | Morse as a recognition of the sense entertained by his fellow-citizens of the great services he has rendered to telegraphy, and through telegraphy to civilization. The occasion was an interesting one, in that few greater inventors or discov.rers have ever had their claims on the grati- tude of the race as fully acknowledged in their lifetime as Professor Morse has had his, or have seen as earnest efforts made by those who have profited by their inventions to discharge the debt. He has been singularly fortunate, too, in finding his honors grow with his years, and in receiving this last expression of contemporary respect at a ripe but hale old age. His own contribution to the oratory of the dinner was very happy, and he rendered Congressmen a great service by reproducing a portion of the report of the debate in the House, in 1843, on the bill to appropriate $30,000 to test the merits of the Morse telegraph. It was cruel to recall it, and yet there is no present member of Congress who may not be the better for reading it. The bill was treated as a Joke, and Mr. Cave Johnson, of Tennessee, proposed that one half the amount should be given for experiments in mesmerism or animal magnetism, a field in which he evidently thought exploration would be just as profitable as in Professor Morse’s. But then, he was not half as severe as Mr. Houston, who bitingly suggested that “ Millerism should also have some of the benefit of the appropria- tion.” And then there was an exchange of pleasantries between the wag from Tennessee, Mr. Johnson, and another wag from North Caro- lina, Mr. Stanley, the latter offering to support the vote if Mr. Johnson were to be the subject of the mesmeric experiments, and Mr. Johnson pleasantly offering to submit if Mr. Stanley were te be the operator. Mr. Mason, of Ohio, objected to the mesmeric amendment as “not bond fide,” or, in other words, as a bad joke; but the Speaker gravely ruled against the point of order, on the ground that there was no say- ing, without actual scientific experiment, whether the magnetism of | mesmerism was not analogous to that which Professor Morse proposed | to employ in his telegraph. | The New York Times has been making some very sensible remarks on the violence with which the Sun has been denouncing Reverdy | Johnson’s opinion, given at a dinner got up by the French Cable Company, as to the rights of States to grant the exclusive privilege /of landing cables on their coast. The Sun is entitled to the credit of ' first calling attention to this new illustration of Mr. Johnson’s folly, but no good can possibly come of accusing him of “being in the pay

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The N Dec. 31, 1868] ation. 543 of the enemies of the country.” No suspicion of corruption of this kind has, we believe, ever rested on Mr. Johnson; and it is a well- established rule of reasoning, that in trying to account for a phe- nomenon it is not allowable to resort to unnecessary hypotheses. An invitation to a public dinner has already proved sufficient to seduce Mr. Johnson into the most lamentable indiscretions, and we, therefore, may be satisfied with attributing this last one to the same cause. The French Cable Company have wanted from the outset a good legal opinion as to the right of a State to grant them the desired monopoly to enable them to raise their capital, and their original idea was, we believe, to get the Chief Justice’s, but this was found to be impossible ; so they have fallen back on Reverdy Johnson as a leading lawyer, an ex-senator, and United States Ambassador, and knowing his weakness, have asked him to dinner as the best mode of loosening his tongue, and have been only too successful. Of course it is a great scandal and humiliation to have the United States Minister publicly giving certificates to commercial adventurers, as in this case and the case of the “Texas Emigration | culture are in a worse condition than ever. Although Turkey is cer- tainly going, it is byno means clear that Greece iscoming. The rising race in Turkey just now are the Bulgarians—that is to say, they are the raee which is growing in foreign estimation, whichever may get the upper hand ultimately. The only help afforded by the Romans to the crusade which ended in Mentana was to blow up the barracks of the Zouaves and as many of the Zouaves themselves as happened to be inside. This exploit was not calculated to relieve the reproach of apathy already incurred by the citizens, suggesting as it did a prudence not far removed from cowardice. Two men, paid to do the business, were caught and brought to trial, and were executed Jast month, more than a year after the event, on the day when the Italian Parliament reassembled, and while Prince Humbert and his wife were passing through the Papal dominions. All attempts to persuade the Pope to commute the death- sentence to imprisonment for life were ineffectual ; and the announce- ment that Monti and Tognetti were actually executed, with the and Steamship Company,” to be used by them as a trade advertise- | aggravating circumstances just mentioned, produced an extraordinary ment, but what is the use or the sense of saying he is bribed in money | sensation in Italy, and has revived the Roman question with increased to doit? Why should they bribe him, and what is there in his legal | bitterness. Public subscriptions have been opened in behalf of the views on the subject of State sovereignty to prove his rascality ? families of the deceased, and it has been proposed in Parliament to Good or bad, they are held by about half the lawyers in the country. vote them pensions from the national treasury. The aroused feeling What the war has done for the doctrine of State sovereignty, as held | "* alee haven hahaa: apenntnge nadiep wo m pegged pte tn by the Johnsons and Stephenses, is to render it harmless; its extinction | @°®8¥"e intended chiefly for Roman exiles, but which really makes could not be wrought by arms. Opinions are destroyed by refutation | citizens of any Italians who may register themselves for the purpose in or by time only. It has to be remembered, too, that, inasmuch as Mr. | ®2Y Commune of their choosing. . The obligations thus imposed upon Reverdy Johnson is the United States Minister unanimously nominated | the state are such as to render it liable to freque nt collisions with by the Senate, after forty years of political or forensic life, his charac-| #@@hboring powers—the Pope, of course, included—or else to a ter can hardly be blackened now without the rest of us catching a good | humiliating abstinence from interference or retaliation when the rights deal of the soot. For his turning out silly, we are not responsible ; |conferred by the new law are disregarded, as, in the case of revo- but for his proving knavish, we certainly should be. 'lutionary and other disorderly persons, they are sure to be. The settlement of the Greco-Turkish difficulty was confidently an-| | The Spanish Provisional Government has made the terrible mistake nounced in most of the European capitals, either officially or semi- | of still further postponing the elections for the Constituent Cortes, officially, during the past week, but the Cable telegrams show that the although they have been partially held, the great towns having voted. preparations for war continue on both sides, with many of the charac- | The expression of the national will on the form of the future govern- teristics of a farce. Both of the belligerents know they will not be | ment being thus delayed, disorders naturally multiply. The distress allowed to fight, and are consequently absolutely deaf to all proposals amongst the working classes grows, the taxes fall off, riots and insur- for accommodation. Turkey won’t hear of a conference for the settle- | rections multiply, and the popular suspicion of Prim, Serrano, and ment of the difficulty, and Greece won’t hear of concessions to Turkey. Olozaga gains strength. The Government committed, in the earlier But the Greeks meanwhile have the best of the row, as their opera- tions cost them nothing—there is not a cent in the treasury, not even | enough to pay the King’s travelling expenses to Germany—and if the | fighting began to-morrow, it would be carried on, as the present. agitation is, by volunteers—that is, Klephts by land and privateers by | sea. Hobart Pasha would find himself in the midst of a swarm of, days of the revolution, two other blunders of equal magnitude; one was distributing arms amongst the populace of Madrid, the other was imitating Ledru Rollin’s and Louis Blanc’s craze of setting up “ national workshops” in the capital. The workshops are still going, but the money to pay for the work is not forthcoming, and the workmen have arms in their hands, and the Government is afraid to discharge them ; mosquito-like craft which he could neither catch nor destroy. Com- | in other words, it has the wolf by the ears. It must be confessed that merce on the Mediterranean would be exposed to somewhat the same | the signs just now lead one to fear that Spain is going to furnish us perils as in the days of the Algerine corsairs, for we may be sure With a shabby imitation of the French farce of 1848. plenty of cruisers would quit Greek ports with large and comprehen- : oe sienetearerte sive views as to the nature of belligerent rights. ‘There is an amusing From France there is no news of importance. Berryer s funeral story, illustrative of the confusion which prevails on this subject in the has been the last sensation. He wrote a letter on his deathbed to Greek mind, told of the dragoman of a foreign embassy at Athens,— | Count Chambord (Henri V.), professing true allegiance to him as his an old and faithful servant—who, on learning that his son had been | lawful king, and praying fervently for his restoration to the throne. engaged in the highway robbery of two military officers of the same. Oddly enough, he gave as one of his reasons for taking the last sacra- nationality as the ambassador, was plunged in grief, and exclaimed | ments—in fact, the only reason—his desire to make this prayer more effi- that “he had always told his son what would happen to him if he kept cacious. The Moniteur took no notice of the funeral, and only one of meddling in politics.” {the Paris judges, contrary to all precedent, attended it—M. Berryer | having denounced them in the Corps Législatif as corrupt in the trial The present disturbance is bringing an old house about Lord! of political cases. A deputation from the English bar attended by Stanley’s ears in England, inasmuch as it is ascribed, in part at} invitation, and one member spoke at the grave. M. Paul de Cassag- least, to false hopes created by a speech of his delivered a few nac, writing a few days before Berryer’s death of his subscription to weeks ago at Lynn, in which he said, or seemed to say, that Baudin’s monument, abused him soundly as a vile and degraded old the desirableness of maintaining Turkey no longer occupied its old | man, and expressed his regret that it was not permissible to kill off place in English policy. The fact seems to be, the painful, unvarnish- | such old fellows when they had outlived their usefulness. The posi- able fact, that there is little or nothing to be perceived in Greek gov- tion occupied by this bravo is one of the saddest illustrations of the ernment or society, except the spread of education in the towns, to character of the Imperial régime. The approaching elections are stil! give it strong claims on foreign sympathy, in trying to extend the area | filling the Government with apprehensions, but the janissaries all say of the kingdom. The finance and administration of justice and agri-' there is to be no change in policy, no matter what the result may be.

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THE TENURE-OF-OFFICE AOT. GENERAL ButTver’s friends are announcing with much zeal that he is about to press his bill for the repeal of the Tenure-of-Office Act through the House as soon as Congress meets again, with the view, the Springfield Republican suggests, of establishing a thoroughly cordial un- derstanding with General Grant before the distribution of offices begins under the new administration. Those who paid attention to the canvass in the Fifth Massachusetts District will remember that the only charge or threat or prediction from his opponents which seemed to throw him off his guard, was a hint—we forget from what quarter—that, even if elected, Grant would pay no attention to his wishes in the appoint- ments to office. This seemed to exasperate him a good deal, and caused him to forget for a moment the ré/e of admirer of Grant in which he was then figuring, and to exclaim that if Grant attempted anything o the kind, he (Butler) would give him plenty to do, or words to thate effect—meaning that Grant would find in him what is popularly called “a troublesome customer.” The inference the Republican therefore draws is, that the new bill is due to General Butler’s fear that Grant may possibly cherish sinister designs with regard to the Butler share of the spoils, and the latter therefore wishes to avoid an open row by establishing, before the division begins, a claim on the new President’s gratitude, As a piece of speculative enquiry, there is much in this examination of General Butler’s motives to command our respect, but we doubt the utility of examining his motives for acts in themselves good. He does so many things in themselves bad, that the analysis of his mental and moral constitution may safely be reserved for occasions on which these come under discussion. For ourselves, we are quite willing to take any active support he gives to useful legislation—and until now he can hardly be said to have given any whatever—at its full value, and to be only too thankful that he is not in mischief. If his zeal about the repeal of the Tenure-of-Office Act were only sufficient to prevent his damaging the public credit by writing letters about taxing the bonds—a kind of work in which he has been vigorously engaged during the last week or two—it would delight us, even if the measure were not in itself as useful as we believe it to be. It is not difficult to defend the Tenure-of-Office Act, even if its re- sults have not proved as valuable as was expected, or even if it be now proved worthless or mischievous as a permanent arrangement. In the earlier days of Mr. Johnson’s quarrel with Congress, in 1866, the most prominent of his hallucinations undoubtedly was his belief that he was going to be the founder of a new party, which was to back him up in excluding Congress from all share in the work of recon- struction, and Ife and his friends made no secret of his intention to use, or rather abuse, the appointing power in aid of this scheme, With the enormous amount of patronage which has been at the dispo- sal of the President since the outbreak of the war, it was easy to see that even if he could not make it available for the defeat of Congress at the elections, he could use it so as to create a false impression every- where, and especially at the South, of his real strength, and the suc- cess or failure of reconstruction depended largely on the Southern com- prehension of the real state of feeling at the North, and of the exact extent of the President’s power. Even, therefore, if Congress was not shocked by the spectacle of the conversion of the civil servants of the Government into electioneering tools,-which it certainly was not, for no spectacle was more familiar,—and even if it had been fully aware, as most members, we feel sure, were, that no such re- striction of the President’s powers and responsibilities could be justified as a permanent enactment--its depriving Mr. Johnson of the authority to dismiss, with a view simply to the existing emergency, was as natural and proper as any other step in the reconstruction pro- cess. He and his friends would doubtless have held strong ground, if he had been able, in defending his authority against Congressional en- croachment, to appear as the champion of reform, or as the advocate of the withdrawal of the civil service from the arena of party politics al- together. But he was not able to de anything of the kind. He could not pretend that the appointments or dismissals made by him without Congressional interference would be or were any better than those in which Congress meddled, or that the nation would lose anything as The Nation. [ Dec. 31, 1865 regarded the purity and efficiency of the administration by having his responsibility lessened. ’ The act undoubtedly had the effect of disabusing the President and his supporters of the idea that he was either a formidable political enemy or a valuable ‘political friend, and of putting an end to all hope in any quarter of his being able to impede seriously the work of reconstruction. But here its usefulness ended. In so far as it helped to precipitate impeachment, it was a calamity. It has done nothing to improve the public service. The President, if he had had full swing, could not have made it worse than it is at this moment. The Senate, if it had had none of the power of interference the act has given it, could not have done less for reform than it has done since the act was passed. In fact, whatever change has occurred in the administrative system since the act was passed has been for the worse and not for the better, and the difficulty of reform has been increased because it is more difficult than ever to fix the responsibility of abuses. To whom we owe the swarm of rascals who figure in the dissolving views offered to the public by the various “rings,” nobody can tell. Mr. Johnson says it is the Senate, and the Senate says it is Mr. Johnson. All the public can tell is that both are concerned in it. But one thing is cer- tain, and that is, that the repeal, “ pure and simple,” of the Tenure-of- Office Act will, as a measure of reform, prove illusory unless accompanied by the passage of the Civil Service bill; and if General Butler wants to associate his name with something useful, let him rally to the support of this also. It*would be difficult for us, without seeming extravagant, to express all the confidence we feel in General Grant’s character and ability, but he would have to be more than mortal if he could make head against the corruption which now prevails in Washington with- out the aid of a radical change in the system. The mere restoration of the authority the President enjoyed before the passage of the Tenure- of-Office Act, though a step in the right direction, would enable him to accomplish littleor nothing. The various “rings” have during the last three or four years gained such enormous strength that unless the Presi- dent’s legal authority—that is, legal power of exercising his discretion— is surrounded by stronger barriers than his personal character, however good or wise or able he may be, can supply, he must, sooner or later, succumb or be outwitted. The matter is all the more important be- cause, with Grant in the Presidential chair untrammelled by pledges, and with a great reputation and unquestioned claims on the national gratitude at his back, a chance of choosing between the upward and the downward road in the conduct of the Government is offered us which may not come again in the lifetime of any of those who elected him, or come at all till reform would have to be purchased by great structural changes in the Government. THE INDIAN DIFFICULTY. Tue effort which we are now witnessing in Congress to transfer the management of Indian affairs to the War Department, combined with the long continuance of the Indian hostilities on the Plains, and the news of Custer’s recent bloody encounter with the unfortunate “Black Kettle” and his tribe, is fixing a larger amount of public atten- tion on Indian affairs than they have succeeded in securing for several years. The “Indian Ring,” 7.¢., the jobbers who make money by the distribution of Indian supplies and annuities, are naturally offering all the opposition in their power to a measure which would take the Indians out of the political arena and rob political life of the prizes known as Indian agencies. Moreover, a very large number of humane people, who are as firm foes of corruption as are to be found, join in this opposition, from the feeling that military dealings with the Indians would, as the natural result of the military temper and mili- tary way of viewing the work of government, be characterized by cruelty and brutality; and they are strengthened in their opposition by such incidents as the Chivington massacre, about the atrocity of which there is no doubt, and by the more recent Hancock operations at Pawnee Fork in 1867, and Custer’s attack on “Black Kettle” a fortnight ago, both of which the partisans of the Indian Bureau are eagerly representing as unprovoked onslaughts on unoffending and even meritorious savages. The Bureau party has been still further reinforced by the appearance in the field, during the past week, of

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Dee. 31, 1868] Colonel Wynkoop, who has for some time acted as agent of the Chey- ennes and Arapahoes, and whose character for probity and humanity stands very high, but who has been so disgusted by the manner in which the operations of the troops against the Indians are conducted, that he has resigned his position in despair, and is now making speeches on Indian reform, which are not likely to help the transfer of Indian management to the War Department. One reason he gives for quitting his post is, that on more than one occasion, when he had brought Indians together to treat of peace, or to receive some peaceful communication from him, the troops have seized the opportunity to attack them, thus not only defeating his object, but destroying his credit in the eyes of the Indians, by inspiring them with the belief that he had acted as a decoy to bring them within reach of their ‘enemy. But that his testimony is probably in some respects inac- curate, owing to his strong feeling of sympathy with the Indians, may be inferred from the fact that one of his charges against General Han- cock, of having wantonly burnt an Indian village, has been success- fully disposed of by that officer. General Hancock found the village deserted, and found that some of the tribe that owned it were committing murders and outrages, and yet kept strict guard over it for five days, while in vain sending invitations to the owners to come back, and did not burn it down till his efforts had failed, and he had unquestionable testimony as to the nature of the work in which oy were engaged. + It will be very difficult to convince the public, by any amount of denunciation of the army, that the Indians would not gain by the abolition of the Bureau and the transfer of its duties to the War Department; first, because the public is satisfied that the Bureau is a sink of corruption; and, secondly, because it is convinced that, on the whole, the military service is honest. If, as Colonel Wynkoop and everybody else seem to think, the first requisite in dealing with the Indians be honesty and fairness, there is not the least probability that these can be secured through the Bureau, in the present state of the civil service; and if we were to acknowledge that nothing would be gained by handing over its business to the army, we should surrender one of the strongest arguments for Mr. Jenckes’s Civil Service Bill, inasmuch as we should admit that trained officials, holding office during good behavior, and promoted for merit or long service, were no more likely to be faithful and efficient than the tag-rag-and-bobtail who are gathered up at the beginning of every Presidential term and thrust into office, in reward for stump-speaking or bill-sticking. We should admit, too, what would be still more unreasonable, that the record of the army counted for nothing in deciding a question of this kind, and that the extraordinary purity and integrity in the transaction of public business, and the handling of public money, displayed by several generations of military officers, gave no ground for believing that they might be more safely trusted to take care of the pecuniary interests of wards of the nation than the class of adventurers who now fill the great majority of the offices in the civil service. Of course it would be absurd, as well as unjust, to say that there are no honest Indian agents; but what knaves some of them are, and what a terrible thing it is to have knaves entrusted with the expenditure of large sums of money, and the exercise of a sort of sovereignty over a class like the Indians—too ignorant to know when they are cheated, or to avail themselves of any system of checks, however well contrived—those who are familiar with Indian affairs know only too well. Of course the army, too, will have its faults in managing Indian affairs. It will prebably be too fond of coercion, and over-ready to fight rather than to | persuade; but these are faults comparatively easy to detect and cure. Massacres cannot be committed in secret, and it must be remembered | The Nation. 545 not on things as they Pap to be. It is useless to tell us that all would go well if the whites would not provoke the Indians, and that nearly all Indian wars are due to acts of violence or perfidy on the part of the former. The fact is—and it is a fact which cannot evaded or removed or modified—that the white population comes in contact with the Indians along a frontier line running through nearly twenty degrees of latitude, and that the white men along that line are, and in the present or any probable state of American society must continue to be, as long as there is any wilderness between this and the Pacific Ocean, more or less lawless in their habits, quick with their weapons, unscrupulous in their dealings, bitterly prejudiced against the Indians, and but very slenderly influenced by moral or religious ideas. This is the experience of everybody who lives amongst them; and is it not almost childish to go on year after year whining over their treatment of the Indians, as if better things were to be expected of them, or as if the brutality and recklessness of frontiersmen were something new and unlooked for, that could be abolished by declama- tion? In the Indian problem with which we have to deal, the white population of the Plains as it is, and not as we could wish it to be, is one of the leading elements; the Indians as they are, is another; and it is useless as well as silly for men calling themselves politicians to keep grumbling over their materials, and wishing they were some thing else, or would mi in different proportions. What should we think of a chemist who came to us every now and then to tell us of the splendid things he could accomplish if hydrogen were only not needed to produce water, or if alkalies did not neutralize acids ! be In talking of the Indians, it will be well, in their interest, for their friends not to draw too largely on the credulity of the public. We are not prepared to deny the Indian the possession of many good qualities; but it cannot be denied, also, that he is a savage, and pos- sesses all the characteristics covered by that terrible word, and has shown himself, ever since history dawned on him, cruel and treacher- ous, filthy and dishonest ; and the common run of men of any Euro- pean race will not, no matter what you may say, respect a person or breed notorious for these qualities. Moreover, no number of testime nials as to kindness, simplicity, or inoffensiveness will induce people to’believe that a man who, if you quarrel with him, will certainly col lect some of his friends, ravish your wife, tomahawk your children, burn your house, disembowel you, or hang you by the heels overa brisk fire, is really a good fellow; and yet there is no Indian who does not do these things if you go to “war” with him. A good deal of a character is shown in his mode of avenging his injuries, and the In- dian’s mode is fiendish, according to the popular idea of fiends; therefore we are satisfied that all attempts at whitewashing him, in the teeth of the popular knowledge of his character ply make it more difficult to improve his condition. man’s and habits, sim- His reformation and salvation are. plainly—the experience of two hundred years shows it—-impossible, except through civilization; and civilization means the dissolution of the tribal organization, which is simply a clumsy machine for the perpetuation of barbarism ; the sub- stitution of settled abodes for camps, of agriculture for hunting, of decent clothes for paint and skins of beasts, the supply of schools and teachers, the protection of the common law for each individual. and the responsibility of each individual to the courts. The present mode of making the Indians respect life and property by means of “treaties of peace” between one of the great powers of the world and a few hundred naked savages, is one of the greatest farces of the age. The fostering of habits of idleness, improvidence, and mendicancy, by the annual distribution of presents and annuities, is something worse than a farce, and so is our general failure to do anything whatever to start the In- that soldiers are under a kind of restraint in dealing with Indians of | dians on the path of progress. Keeping savages plentifully supplied with which civilians know nothing, inasmuch as the former “pay with | their persons” for any defects in policy toward the tribes, while the Indian agents are “reporting”. in Washington. Such expeditions as | Custer’s after “ Black Kettle” are not.those which the most enthusiastic | soldier undertakes for pleasure. In discussing Indian affairs, too, as in discussing all other human affairs, the facts of life must be taken into consideration ; in other! * hunting-grounds,” or, in other words, land enough for the continuance of the most wretched and precarious form of human existence, is an odd | sort of kindness for a civilized people possessed of boundless resources to plume itself on. The reform of the Indian Bureau should therer fore go further than the transfer of its powers and duties to othe- hands. What is wanted is a Bureau of Civilization, with force enough at its disposal to gather in the remnants of the tribes on the Plains words, all plans of reform must be based on things as they are, and, and settle them somewhere on farms, and teach them to live by labor.

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546 The Nation. [Dec. 31, 1868 Perhaps even under this treatment the Indians could not be saved; but if they cannot bear civilization, it will at least kill them decently, and be a humane substitute for the revolver, the small-pox, and the whiskey- bottle. PUBLIC MEETINGS IN FRANCE. Amonost the recent concessions of the Imperialists to the French Liberals is the right of holding meetings for discussion of political or other topics, Under the law as it previously existed, all assemblages of more than twenty persons, without a special authorization of the police, were forbidden; and the prohibition was enforced with such rigor that the English workmen who visited the Exposition in 1862 were arrested, to their great astonishment, for assembling at a rendez- vous in the street on coming from their various lodgings, in the morn- ing, preparatory to the day’s sight-seeing. Moreover, the co-operative ussociations have, ever since the coup d'état, been seriously embarrassed by the necessity of obtaining a permit for meetings of the members for ihe mere transaction of corporate business. [t must not be supposed, however, that this régime was a serious shock to French sensibilities or a serious inroad on French political habits. Agitation by public meeting, as known here and in England, las really never been known in France. Such formal expressions of public opinion as were witnessed before the Revolution—and they were both few and far between—came from official bodies, like the States- General, or the Parliaments as the judiciary wascalled. Since the Revo- lution, large public dinners have been the nearest approach made to pub- lic meetings. About public meetings as they are now known in America and England—that is, assemblages composed of all sorts of people, choosing their own chairmen, selecting their own subjects of discussion, and discussing them in their own way—or about the mode of conduct- ing such meetings, or, in fact, about the forms of procedure in deliber- ative bodies, Frenchmen of the old régime knew nothing whatever. Dumont tells of an amusing incident, illustrative of the strangeness of the whole machinery of free government to the French people, which cecurred on his journey to Paris in 1789, with M. Duroverai., While breakfasting on the road at Montreuil-sur-Mer, they found that the people of the place had been for three days making vain attempts to clect deputies; but never having heard of such things as presidents, or chairmen, or secretaries, or yoting tickets, made no progress, and passed the time in wrangling and tumult. Dumont and his friend called for pen, ink, and paper, and, greatly to their own amusement, drafted a code of rules for the conduct of an election, based on English practice, and presented it to the landlord of the inn, who, highly delighted, had it voted on by his fellow-citizens, and the election was completed forthwith with great order, and proved to be the first in the kingdom, and the fame of it so spread that the town was for some weeks covered with glory. In the early and best days of the National Assembly, there was similar helplessness and confusion. Romilly, then a’ young man, wrote a short and admirable treatise on the rules of par- liamentary procedure, as in use in the English Parliament, and indi- cated in it the manner of putting the question, regulating debate, taking the vote, and so on, and Dumont translated it. Mirabeau pre- sented it to the Assembly, and earnestly urged the framing of a code of regulations based on it, but the proposal was rejected with scorn and indignation—cries of “ Nothing English—we want nothing Eng- lish!” coming from all parts of the room. So the disorder continued, increasing every week, until at last the most boisterous, brazen-lunged, unscrupulous, and ignorant fairly got the upper hand, and, after having silenced their opponents, cut off their heads. The nearest approach to an*orderly debate was obtained by choosing the orators vu each side beforehand, as in a debating club, and giving each of them time to prepare an essay, which, when the day came, he read aloud, und which was usually preposterously long, and, as might have been expected, “exhaustive ;” but no orator replied, or thought of replying, One need hardly fear to say that the adoption and ob- servance from the outset of a good set of rules of procedure might have given the French Revolution a different turn, and made it a peaceful triumph of liberal ideas in legislation, instead of the triumph «f anarchy, ending in military despotism. io any other. iu England, even, the use of public meetings as a means of “ agita-! tion ”’—that is, of expressing discontent, and seeking changes in legisla- tion—was not known till the middle of the last century; but ages of parliamentary experience and a large degree of local self-government had made the people perfectly familiar with the forms to be observed in debate. The House of Commons was, in fact, a standing and con- spicuous “ meeting,” which, by great care and long experience, had hit the best mode of transacting business and eliciting expressions of opinion in large promiscuous assemblies. It served, too, as a model to the colonies in the organization and conduct of their own political business; and the consequence is that the huge and heterogeneous body known as the “ Anglo-Saxon race ” now possesses an amount of skill in the parliamentary art which seems wonderful to any conti- nental Europeans except Hungarians, who are also, and for the same reason, very able tacticians. The original idea of the meeting, however, was based on the sup- position that there were amongst those who attended it two sets of opinions; that the object of the meeting was to debate them, and find out by a vote which of them had the greater number of supporters. Parliamentary rules are all framed with reference to this hypothesis, and have, in fact, for their main object the securing of a fair hearing for both sides, and the close of the discussion by an orderly decision. But as the newspapers grew in power and circulation, meetings lost this character of debating clubs, and came to be simply a means of express- ing the opinions of one side and exciting enthusiasm amongst persons of one way of thinking. He has to be a bold man who now moves a. contradictory amendment to a resolution in an American or English political meeting in our day. In fact, so completely has the funda- mental idea been forgotten, that in nine cases out of ten he would run some risk of being handed over to a policeman as a disturber. In France, the recent change in the law can hardly be said to con- cede the right of meeting in the broad sense of the term. It concedes, however, the right of meeting on the invitation of some one per- son, addressed to each individual, and this invitation must be shown to a policeman at the door, the object being to give the affair as far as possible the air of a private gathering. Several meetings of consider- able size haye, however, been held under these restrictions in Paris, at which the most important social and political problems have been dis- cussed with the utmost freedom, and the reports of them—or rather summaries of reports—-which we have seen, throw some curious light on the condition of the French mind with regard to the working of polit- ical machinery. They show, in the first place—what, however, we knew already from the practice of the French legislative bodies ever since 1815 —ithat Frenchmen have never adopted, or even got hold of, the Ameri- can or English theory of the character of the presiding officer of a deliberative assembly; that is, instead of looking on him as a ser- vant of the meeting, or, at most, as an arbitrator bound by strict rules, they look on him as a kind of censor, sitting not to decide questions of procedure simply, but to decide who is getting the best of the argument, and whose arguments are sound or judicious, and whose opinions are respectable or the reverse—very much like a law professor presiding over a students’ moot court. The presiding offi- cer of a French legislature does not wait for somebody “to rise to order” before he interrupts a speaker. He listens closely himself, ad- monishes the orator whenever he thinks it necessary, calls his attention to his faults, whether of matter or manner, to the dangerous tendency of his opinions, and the fallaciousness of his arguments, and, in fact, plays the part of an officer of the government, whose duty it is to protect society against the license of the tongue—and this sort of criticism hardly any orator, however eminent, escapes. It is said that the late M. Berryer was the only member of the opposition in the Corps Législatif whom the president never ventured to interrupt; because it was well known that, should anything of the kind have been attempted, he would have returned to his seat with an expression of face, a shrug of the shoulders and a twirling of his eye-glass against which no president felt able to bear up. In the second place, they show what a strong hold on the French mind is stil] retained by the idea with which many of our “ come-outers * in this country have made us familiar, that the object of public speak- i

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POMS rarer! hate ee Dec. 31, 1868 The Nation. : l ing is not so much to win others over to the orator’s way of thinking as to unburden his own soul; in other words, that when a man appears on the platform, it is rather as a prophet, with a message for | an adulterous generation which they will listen to if they are wise, but their reception of which is no concern of his, than as a debater whose highest object is to convince his fellow-men. The effect of this way of looking at the matter is to turn French meetings into what some of our Radical brethren would call “a free platform “—that is, a place to which all sorts of people go, not to debate any particular ques- tion, but to say their say on all subjects which, in their opinion, are con- nected with the welfare of humanity. The general result, as might be expected, is that wisdom does not abound in these gatherings, and in its place there is much of what Carlyle calls “temporary menacings and deliriums.” In some of the recent meetings in Paris—in spite of the presence of the Commissary of Police, who attended to look after the interests of society and frequently called the orators to order, and in spite of the efforts of sensible men, who got them up in order to assist in the reawakening of political life—the discussions took the widest possible range; and the very foundations of society—property and the family—were amongst the earliest objects of question. At one at which M. Horn, the distinguished political economist, presided, the institu- tion 6f marriage was assailed with great fierceness, and the superior advantages of concubinage preached with vigor; but after a good deal of talk, in which the friends of concubinage had everything their own way, when the vote was taken it was found that their arguments had produced no effect, or else an effect the reverse of what was intended, as the majority against their views was overwhelming. In fact, if one were to judge of the state of the political education of the French people from what has passed at the meetings— which, we are satisfied, would be unfair—one could hardly help feeling that France has still a long, thorny road to travel before reaching the pleasant fields of orderly self-government. THE PRESIDENCY OF HARVARD OOLLEGE. THE interregnum at Harvard College occasioned by Dr. Hiil’s resigna- tion of the presidency, affords an opportunity for some suggestions upon a topic of national importance. We speak deliberately in saying this. The welfare of an institution like Harvard College is, when properly regarded, a matter not merely of local but of national interest. It concerns not only the hundreds of students who yearly seek to obtain, in one or another of its departments, the best portion of their preparatory education ; not only Cambridge, which, gvd@ Cambridge, exists only in and through its time- honored university ; not only Boston, and indeed all Massachusetts, where it exerts a civilizing influence upon society that is noticeable by all, though duly estimated but by few; but also the whole United States as a nation, which needs nothing so much as one or two marked centres of culture; in brief, it nearly concerns every one that Harvard College should be as prosperous and well-governe® and should pursue a policy as progressive and enlightened as possible. We are aware that Harvard is not the only valuable college in the country, and that our boys might still get well educated if Cambridge were to become a deserted village or a hiding-place for antiquaries and bibliomaniacs. Nor when we insist upon the little-understood importance of Harvard as a centre of culture for the whole country, do we insist upon it in an exclusive spirit. We can hardly have too many bright points from which knowledge may be diffused, provided they shine with a genuine and not a meretricious light—provided they really impart to society something of a thoroughgoing, scholarlike spirit, and do not merely cater to crude popular fancies as to what is worth knowing and what is “ useful.” We shall therefore hail the time—if we live to see it—when Cambridge, New Haven, Ithaca, Ann Arbor, and Columbia, here in New York, shall be to this country what Tiibingen, Jena, and the rest are, or have been, to Germany, and what Oxford and Cambridge, in spite of their shortcom- ings, are to England. At present it must be acknowledged that none of our universities adequately fulfil these high social functions. To give them by degrees, and as rapidly as possible, the means of thus legitimately ex- tending their influence, should be one of the objects distinctly kept in view in each important act of university legislation. And if, meanwhile, we confine our remarks to Harvard, it is both because that is the only college of which the present writer has direct personal knowledge, and because the present crisis there renders its case, for the time being, of paramount importance, 547 The aberrations which it is the office of every university, as far as pos — - —-~ —-~ —-- - -~— - —_——-,-- — sible, to correct, and of which Harvard should strive to keep clear, are, among others, Philistinism, Toryism, Radicalism, and Sectarianism. By | Philistinism, we mean the group of opinions and resulting policy founded upon the genuive American idea of dollar-hunting. We are far from look ing without pleasure and satisfaction upon this great industrial civilization which our country is developing, and which will no doubt form the basis of culture in the future, even if it takes another renaissance to bring about the result. But at present the hurry and turmoil of a transition stage ot development affect, and are liable to affect injuriously, all our theories ot education and of living. There is a disposition to throw overboard what ever is not available from a practical (and by this is always meant a money getting) point of view. Colleges are founded in conformity to this idea and into all projects of university reform, as commonly agitated, this idea largely enters. Young men, it is thought, should be required to learn only those things which will be “of use” (for getting money) in afterlife. And a university, it is supposed, should become, as nearly as possible, an aggre- gation of professional schools and “ preparatory’ courses, ‘This view ot the functions of a university opens questions altogether too large to be argued here. We may content ourselves with registering our own opinion, that money-making is not, even in these ages of Philistinism, the worthiest end of life, any more than war-making, in the medieval ages of barbarism was the worthiest end. The culture of the whole individual is what a uni versity should aim at. And while new colleges are from time to time being founded in more or less strict accordance with the present American theory, it is desirable that Harvard should keep itself from getting drawn along too rapidly with the general current. Instead of making a Polytechnic Institute of itself, or attempting to compete with other colleges which are perhaps little more, it should strive to make itself yet more distinetly what it has been in times past—a nucleus about which all desirous of obtaining a complete and rounded culture might aggregate. In such a course, we are convinced, lies its only hope of maintaining its traditional prestige. A Boston merchant, therefore, or business man of any sort, no matter how much he may have the interests of the college at heart, is hardly the Kind of person needed just now for president. We want a man who can appre- ciate and do justice to the “great American idea,’ without having been himself too long or too exclusively under its influence. We want a man of solid scholarship and extensive culture, who is at the same time pos sessed of that sterling good sense, that happiest kind of practical abilits which consists in habitually seeking, as by an instinctive wisdom, the most effective attainable means of compassing any given end, It is by no means essential that such a person should have been “a man of business.” If he be sought among those who are now, or have lately been, concerned in the government of the college or the instruction of the students, he will doubtless be found to be one who—chief among many worthy compeers— has by the very strength of his character most uniformly succeeded in winning the esteem and confidence of his classes, while awakening in them some perception of what true culture is, and some desire to submit to its influences. Such a candidate for the headship of the university, if such can be found, will not be likely to err seriously either in the direction of Toryism or in that of Radicalism. Pulling up by the roots is not always the best way of removing ancient obstacles from the path of progress. Old abuses and anomalies are much like worm-caten woodbines : iv trying to dig them up, You must excavate a long distance, and will be pretty likely to loosen the foothold of some sound and valuable plant. Better to abstain from arti ficial manuring, or from any palliative scratching about the roots, and let the old vine die of natural inanition. The world is not governed on radi- eal principles. Nature is no radical; she does not rest, but neither does she haste; and, as it has been well said, she is content to let a hundred generations live and die while picture-writing grows into printing. Let us bear this in mind when we reflect upon the sort of policy to which we are willing to see the university committed. Let it be borne in mind that the mere mania for improvement, even in this anti-conservative time and coun try, is apt to excite a justifiable distrust ; and let us be slow in counselling a too reckless overthrow of a long-tried system at Harvard, in conformity with what a superficial view may regard as the “demands of the age.” But as nearly as we can make out, the college appears at present to be in more imminent peril from toryism than from any too eager iconoclastic spirit. By toryism we do not mean intelligent conservatism. We mean by it the disposition to tamper with nature—to manure and prop up the old tree, after its heart has rotted away and its sap dried up. If Nature is no radical, she is certainly no tory ; when the organism is once dead, she .

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548 (Dec. 31, 1868 The Nation. does not galvanize it into a semblance of new life. Only when toryism has too long coddled a sickly state of things, she sometimes has to let loose her barbarians and sans-culottes to shorten its miseries. Now, a tory president of Harvard—a man, perhaps, who was graduated fifty years ago, and who must have inevitably outlived the receptive and appreciative period of life long before any of the emergencies which now beset a college administration could have taken their rise, who, therefore, can have no lively sympathy with the needs of the present time, and will be likely to oppose every reformatory measure, not because it is too sweeping or too radical, but simply because it expresses the opinions of an age that has outlived him—such a Tory president, we say, would be the greatest evil with which Harvard could now be afflicted. Consider the enormous power for evil which such a president would have. For perhaps a dozen years to come, either all appointments of subordinate officers will be virtually con- trolled by him, or in such appointments he will at least have a share by no means insignificant. And especially will this apply to the appointment of tutors, proctors, and assistant professors—those officers, in short, who come into most direct contact with the students, and by whom they are most im- mediately influenced for good or evil. As often asa vacancy occurs, depend apon it a Tory president will fill‘the place with some promising young Tory, some unexceptionable, wooden young person who never “ cuts prayers,” and will in good time develop into a sapless King-Log of a pro- fessor. Such a prospect, considered merely as a possibility, is, for a true and devoted lover of the University, unutterably dreary. Finally, the college should—perhaps above all things—avoid sectarian- ism. At the present day, when clergymen are no longer the recognized teachers of the community—and when, in fact, their very vocation is apt to exclude them from the knowledge of the best part of that science which the community needs—there is really no reason whatever why a college should represent any religious sect in particular. The end for which a college exists is to stimulate culture, to train the faculties of youth—not to encourage or propagate a set of religious dogmas. Colleges which attempt this latter work are, by their very nature and inclinations, provincial. Metropolitan colleges—true universities which aim to make themselves cen- tres of culture for a country which prescribes no special form of belief for its citizens—cannot afford to circumscribe their sphere of usefulness in any such way. We are glad to be able to say that Harvard is not, and for a good while has not been, in reality sectarian. We congratulate her upon possessing two theological schools, teaching doctrines diametrically op- posed to each other. And we congratulate her still more heartily upon the fact that, for any influence which either of these schools may exercise upon her general policy, they might as well be Thibetan monasteries, or might cease to exist altogether, and the difference would hardly be noticed. The general tone of thinking at Harvard is, it must be admitted, very catholic and very tolerant. Nevertheless, Harvard has the reputation, among all those who know her only by hearsay, of being a “ Unitarian college.” Unitarians like to think so, for they like to believe that the biggest college ison their side. Trinitarians like to proclaim that it is so, in order that they may frighten the lay orthodox into entrusting their sons to some pro- vincial fold where sound doctrine constitutes a formidable proportion of the pabulum administered. There is nothing that would please the so-called “ orthodox,” as well as Unitarians, so much as tosee a Unitarian clergyman elected president of Harvard. .And we know of no “ appearance of evil ” which Harvard ought more carefully to avoid. Ceesar’s wife should be above suspicion. But we doubt if, after all, the appearance of evil would be commensu- rate with the deplorable reality. An old-school Unitarian would, of course, be an impracticable tory; a new-school Unitarian would be an equally impracticable radical. The former would regard each new question of policy from what is perhaps the least satisfactory of ecclesiastical points of view ; the latter would be continually guilty of the error of taking a pre- mature action upon complicated questions which “ask only to be let alone” in order that they may gradually desist from troubling us. And what our limited space obliges us here to express with such vague gener- ality would, in the concrete, amount to a thousand little acts, expressions of opinion, and declarations of policy, all tending with cumulative force to weaken the faith of the general public in the university. Unitarianism, or any other thing, good or bad, which is an ism, is not what the univer- sity wishes to adopt. Under the present circumstances, a clergyman should be regarded from the outset as a rather ineligible candidate ; a clergyman who was graduated more than twenty-five years ago should be ipse facto disqualified ; a clergyman who has ever been, directly or remotely, identified with opposition to any desirable measures of university reform, should not even be thought of. Against clergymen, as such, we entertain no sort of prejudice ; but a clergyman is one thing, the head of a college is another—and if a man is fit to be the first, he is, in all probability, in our day at all events, unfit to be the second. To sum up, then : What we do not want is a mere business man, a fossil man, an ultra-radical man, or a clergyman. What we do want is a man of thorough scholarship—not a specialist, not a mere mathematician or phys- icist or grammarian, but a man of general culture, able to estimate at their proper importance the requirements of culture, and at the same time endowed with sound judgment, shrewd mother-wit, practical good sense. If such a man is to be found among those who have already taken a part in the management of the college, so that he will come to his new office with some adequate knowledge of the work before him, so much the better ; he will be the better able to understand what the college needs. If he should also happen to be found among those who have been graduated within the past twenty years, he will be the better able to understand what the present time requires. These remarks have been made upon the assumption that the presi- dential office will be maintained upon its present footing. It has, indeed, been lately proposed that, owing to the accumulation of duties now devolv- ing upon the president, the office should be divided ; that there should be a chancellor, to exercise a general supervision over the numerous depart- ments of the university, and a master of the college, to preside over the faculty, and take charge of the undergraduate department. We doubt if this proposal is likely to meet with favor. And we strongly suspect that the “chancellor,” in such a scheme, would be simply « magnificent incum- brance. If he were to be selected for his distinction as a statesman, his- torian, or general scholar, in order to serve as an ornament, we doubt if his “general supervision” would be much more than a euphemism for an overlooking altogether. If a difficulty were to arise, implicating the master, confusion would probably be only worse confounded by summoning the chancellor, ab extra, to evolve a judgment upon the affair from the depths of his moral consciousness. A far preferable method of lightening the task of the president would be to provide him with an assistant—a sort of vice-president or secretary. Such an officer, acting under the president’s direction, might answer letters, etc., besides relieving the regent of the business of receiving petitions and computing the “rank” of the students This, as it seems to us, would be the most efficient as well as the least ex- pensive way of disposing of that mass of mere routine work which is now put upon the president, but might just as well be performed by a special subordinate. JOSEPH RIGDON, ESQ. He and his family and his chosen intimates are usually birds of a feather. They are all that is proper, providing they may see the ‘ Black Crook.”’ They are all that is select in their English reading, providing they may warm their imaginations with “Camors.” They are all that is honest, pro- viding they may issue bogus stock in Ontario. They are all that is puritanic, providing they may nominate for Congress fellows whom the Puritans would have whipped publicly as swindlers and slanderers. What is the use of a closet, thinks our hero, if a teetotaller may not keep his bottle in it? Where is the good of having the back of one’s vest made of the same costly and respectable stuff as the front? What profit is there in “ soundness on the main question,” unless it will hide a multi- tude of sins? If he does not distinctly say such things to himself, he at least lives as if they contained his confession of faith. Let us imagine him before the altar which is truly his, praying to the Demiurge who really guides his life: “O morality! 0 conveniently dou- ble-headed deity ! smile upon us with both your smiles as we offer incense to both your faces. We have this day exorcised a magazine for alluding to seduction, and we have read with avidity the last horrid divorce case in the Daily Scavenger. We have given money to save souls in Guinea, and we have issued bogus stock to rain widows in Mamaroneck. If we could have cheated the savages while converting them, or if we could have con- verted the widows while bankrupting them, we would have done it. Grant us both your seraphic smile and your impish leer, O duplex-visaged ! for we have made you what you are, and still we are your followers.” It will be observed that our friend does not worship the true God, or that he worships him with little understanding or with much hypocrisy. Now who is this heathen whom we have discovered in “our moral midst,” under the shadows of our churches? A native American, a fiercely loyal citizen, an eminent philanthropist, but, above all, a capitalist. In one word, Joseph Rigdon, Esq. Any one of a thousand villages in any section of our land might have

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Dec. 31, 1868] The Nati given him birth. Wherever he may have sprung up, he had no ancestors, no education of family pride, no teachings which could lead him to suppose himself a patrician, no surroundings which could prevent him from under- standing that he must make his own position. He knew that he must work, either with his hands or head, for such money and respectability as he might want. All around him worked, and called on him to do likewise. Not seeing what else to do, not supposing that anything else could be done, he flung himself into the collar of labor. This one virtue of indus- try he has never forsaken. It is his chief and perhaps his only unmixed glory. Whatever people may allege against him on other scores, they all declare eulogistically that “ Rigdon is a worker.” While a clerk, and subsequently a “storekeeper,” in the country, he was more broadly moral than he has been since he came to Wall Street. Obedient to the opinions of the rustic population, he never robbed his mas- ter’s till, he never sanded his customers’ sugar. Even now, as he coolly swindles a hundred thousand in Ontario, he delights to talk of his upright boyhood, not aware that it isa ghost which reproaches him. His ethics, you perceive, are made for him, made by the majority, made by the major- ity nearest athand. What was wrong in his native village, because the villagers said it was wrong, is right in Wall Street because the Wall Street- ers say itis right. Public opinion, at least the opinion of Ais public, Mr. Rigdon considers as legal tender, and accepts it without discount. We will not follow him through his triumphant course of privateering. We will simply state the secret of his success: In the first place, he has been, as we have said, indefatigable ; in the second, he has sailed under two flags—two consciences. As aman he has held himself bound to be temperate, chaste, decorous, charitable, churchgoing. As a merchant, he has held himself bound to make money, ll is fair in business, except forging another man’s note, or failing to meet hisown. If these two crimes were not generally considered such, he would not so consider them, and he would practise them. If you found fault with his professional conscience, he showed you his private one. You were forced to admit that it was sound on all “main questions ” and “ moral issues ;” that it was not disfigured by unmentiona- ble vices, nor even by offences against the minor proprieties. On the credit of that conscience he asked you to entrust his business one with your money. Then he sailed away with it to the islands where he buries his treasure. Such a cunning rover ; a rover, too, not awkwardly conscious of his own cunning. How should he not prosper? To use the terse exagger- ation of a somewhat unjust critic, “Mr. Rigdon has made a character by talking through his nose, and a fortune out of his character.” What is at first sight odd, this half-finished moralist is very severe in his judgments, considering those the chief of sinners who break his fa- vorites among the commandments. He has fleeced a corner full of victims in the grain market! Yes, but he doesn’t play cards; he never entered a gambling saloon. He has seen the “ Black Crook!” Yes, but he has not been to hear the “Grande Duchesse ;” woe to those whose concupiscence leads them tothat siren! Rising from overmuch sherry, he must perforce condemn smokers. Having outwitted his own cousin on ’Change, he must denounce geologists as atheistical. Good Heavens! a man must have his share of morality ; if he takes it in small doses, he must take them strong. If you attempt to show him that his special ethics are not of such pre- eminent importance, he flies at you with a feeling that you are robbing him. “My rules of life not essential? You are trying to depreciate my spiritual investments ; you are making out that I have not salt enough to save me; you are sending me to perdition. Get out of my house, sir; I won’t take your periodical ; I won’t read your book.” A hypocrite? We think you err in trying to make that wag cover his whole ground. The main trouble with him is that his education, both ethical and intellectual, is incomplete. He is but a complex representative or prolongation of many a moral curiosity of ancient and barbarous ages. The growth of the idea of right and wrong in the mind of the human race has been gradual and very slow. It is interesting to look back along the ages and study the differing moralities of each. Probably there never was a more pious, prayerful, conscientious army than that little one of seventy Connecticut Puritans which burnt seven hundred Pequots alive. Earnest Christians of the Middle Ages plundered and murdered Jews. David, the holy man of his time, sawed Gentile prisoners asunder, and cut off the hoofs of Gentile horses. It would be edifying to enquire into the conscience-condition of those cave-dwelling ancestors of ours, who, as Charles Lamb describes them, “ sat and grumbled at.one another in the dark.” Did their sense of what was right allow them to snatch half-picked bones-from a rheumatic brother or & blind father? Did it- permit them,.or peshape- stimulate them,-todzive a “ 549 on stone hatch®t through the occiput of an old friend, who was returning cavern-ward by night with a tempting string of fish? Did it oblige them to stand manfally by the same comrade when he was charged by the British hyena or the prehistoric elephant? One of these suppositions is as likely as another. We may be sure thet the morality of the Troglodytes was at least as mixed and contradictory as our own, although it covered a narrower range of beliefs and influenced a smaller number of actioas. By the way, how few sins had been invented at that period! The most ascetic lake-dweller of Switzerland had not a word to say against Salbath- breaking or card-playing or the drinking of lager. And with a scarcity of sins, there was also a dearth of virtues. No Sabbath-keeping, no moral reforming, no Maine liquor-lawing, no writing of articles against tobacco. Imagine Mr. Parton in that era asking whether “ the coming man will drink wine.” The Albionic Troglodyte squatting among the bones of his cavern, and the Helvetian lake-dweller staring out of his fish-scented hovel, would have been even less able to attach a moral sequence to the enquiry than the Briton or Swiss of the present day. With them the “main question” may have been, Whether the coming man would eat his grandfather ? The fortunate truth is, that our stock of ethics has grown in proportion to our wardrobe, household furniture, and other results of material civiliza- tion. As society furnishes the body with new comforts and diseases, so it provides the soul with new virtues and new sins. Our present hero, Joseph Rigdon, Esq.,of New York City, is dowered with all these things in abundance. The point with the Troglodyte seems to have been, whether he had sins enough to take him to hell. The point with our contemporary is, whether he has virtues enough to take him to heaven. Toour mind, the future of both is equally dubious. On the whole, Mr. Joseph Rigdon is a relic of a barbarous antiquity. Despite his shaven face, bis modern sharpness of feature, his nineteenth- century alertness of intellect, he is a specimen of the moral architecture of a time which morticed persecution and piety, massacring of prisoners and founding of charities, plundering of Jews and reverence for Jesus, into the same edifice. The Englishman of King John’s time could not draw an in- ference from the fact that Christ had prayed that his executioners might be forgiven. Mr. Rigdon is equally incapable of reasoning with regard to his Hebrews. His prejudices date from beyond Stonehenge ; they are at least as old as the Troglodytes. Who but a cavern-dweller would consider his own double-faced morality adorable, and at the same time denounce his neighbor's double-faced morality as hellish? The Rigdons precisely answer Charles Lamb’s description ; they “ grumble at one another in the dark ;” only the darkness is intellectual. We are almost prepared to declare that the Rigdons are older than the Troglodytes. A late essayist has attempted to show that the elephant has notions which approach the nature of superstition. It appears that tha’ sagacious beast is unreasonably afraid of long white wands and absurdly conscientious about breaking into enclosures. He would charge a platoon of bayonets, when he would run away from a peeled branch. He would respect a bamboo fence around a tempting rice-field, when he would trample its coolie proprietor to a lifeless jelly. Our friend Rigdon is an elephant in a complex state of moral development. He, too, has his terrible wands ; they are the opinions of society. He, too, has his respected enclosures ; they are established laws and institutions. Beyond the thrust of these weapons and the shadow of these barriers, he feels free to frolic and plun- der at his pleasure. Yes; in a certain sense, he is older than the Troglo- dytes. Will this modern dweller in caves of darkness never come forth into the full light? The miserable difficulty is that we have as yet no fuil light into which to conduct him. There are fireflies of “ main questions ” and “moral issues,” but scarcely have we gathered about one ere its glow is out and we must rush after another. A few months, a few lustres, a few centuries, prove that our greatest discoveries are aot the “ pure truth,” but only fractions of it. We cannot too constantly remember that morality is not finished, that it is only in a state of growth, and that it grows through incessant change, like the physical phenomena of nature. Under these circumstances, the path of progress being thus blind, we must not hope to get a high speed out of Mr. Rigdon. If we urge him, he will not understand us; he imagines that he is pretty near the end of his route already: he has so completely distanced his grandfather! Let us glance at a somewhat similar case; let us turn aside into the ethical prairies of the Blackfeet ; we will tell a moralist of that community that it is wrong to roast prisoners. “But it is so much more decorous and humane,” be will allege, “than the old custom of eat. ing them! You must remember, my pale-faced friend, that this is an age apd progress.” He doce. not imagine that you require any

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550 | The Nation. ac 31, 7 3868 farther advance of him ; his first thought is that you wish Sm to take a step backward. Surrounded by mere will-o’-the-wisps of truth, Mr. Joseph Rigdon is measurably pardonable for making huge blunders among them, setting overmuch value on some and unjustly disregarding others. There is little chance of large improvement in him ; but we have high hopes of his de- scendants—say in the thirtieth generation. We trust that the Rigdon of that day will see that he must not ai the same time invoke the blessing of his Creator and speculate on the ruin of his fellow-creatures. Perhaps, however, we are too sanguine ; the thirtieth generation seems cmngy near; we had better rest our faith on the sixtieth. There are millions of Joseph Rigdons. In an enlarged sense, in refer- ence to our possible ignorance of the greater moral laws of the universe, we are, perhaps, all Rigdons. A profounder knowledge than we now have of the institutions and ethics of the Milky Way might show us that the moralities of carth are even more mixed, contradictory, and absurd than the most suspicious of us imagine. What if it should turn out that the greatest of all offences is a hardened indifference to the law of evolu- tion? What if it should appear that the calamities of this world are sent to teach its conceited inhabitants that they do not constitute the moral centre of the universe? What if we should learn that intelligent and complete goodness cannot be attained without a perfect conception of the etellar equilibrium ? Speaking seriously, it is probable that we have as yet only begun to comprehend the nature and the laws of the Creator. It is in our ignorance that we are wicked ; that we are double-faced moralists, or, rather, partial moralists ; that we are, more or less, Joseph Rigdons. If we should learn from this reflection to be cautious in our condemnation of the sinners that are, and patient in our expectation of the saints that are to be, perhaps that alone would be a step in grace. ENGLAND. LonpDoN, December 11, 1868. Mr. DisRAELI's judicious resignation of office has deprived the British public of its expected amusement of a Parliamentary battle before Christ- mas. The fortress has been evacuated at the moment that all preparations for assault had been completed. Mr. Disraeli and his followers have marched out, Carrying with them bag and baggage to no inconsiderable amount. Although we have not the American system of changing the great mass of officials at every change of government, there is still a good deal of plunder to stimulate the energies of patriots. Mr. Disraeli, as the Times reminds us this morning, has himself appointed an archbishop, three bish- ops, seven peers, “and a swarm of Irish functionaries that baffles English computation.” The Conservative administration has, in two years or a little over, made twenty-seven great legal appointments. And, in short, it is calculated that the amount of patronage of which they have disposed, and which, for the most part, is held by the fortunate receivers for life, amounts to £250,000 annually. If the prizes won would not seem very numerous, measured by an American standard, they are certainly very valuable, taken by themselves, Consoled by these solid profits, Mr. Dis- raeli’s followers may well go cheerfully into retirement ; and may hope— not withont probability—that some slip on the part of the present holders of office may before long reproduce a Conservative administration. To abolish the Irish Charch sounds an easy problem ; but it is no easy matter to provide a scheme for the new distribution of its revenues which will not endanger the unanimity of the Liberal party. We shall not know ti!l the beginning of next February what is Mr. Gladstone’s scheme; and I am only too glad to defer till that time the discussion of a subject which will he painfully obtrusive during the coming year; but it may be worth while to say a few words on the composition of the ministry to which this diffi- enlt task is committed. Of Mr. Gladstone himself it would be superfluous to say much ; but I may remark that he has the singular faculty of attracting in equal degrees the admiration of large masses of his countrymen and the hatred of certain schools of politicians. No man is more bitterly abused, not merely by the Conservative press, but by many soi-disant Liberals ; and yet it has been a marked peculiarity in the past elections that the constituents have rigor- onsly exacted from candidates the one pledge that they will fellow Mr. (ladstone’s lead, with the utmost loyalty, whilst all “ Adullamites” and party deserters have been sternly punished for their treason to the popular 'cader, [will not attempt to account for this state of feeling, farther than 'o say, that it seems to me to prove that, whilst Mr. G@ladstons has undoubt- edly some very weak sides to hie character as a politician, he has a force behind him ‘which it will be very difficult for his iisteaan to encounter. He will make blunders; he will, it may be, be outmancenvred in details by Mr. Disraeli’s acuteness ; but he represents a great power, and I venture to add that no candid or generous mind will deny that, whatever his faults, he is not only a man of genius, but one whose influence tants on the whole to raise the tone of English politics. In the House of Commons he will have able supporters. Mr. Bright has taken an office whose great recommendation is that it will give him little to do, his health being unequal to any severe administrative labors. It was of course anticipated that Mr. Bright would take office; but it certainly brings him into some singular relations. The one Adullamite who has escaped from the ruin of his party is Mr. Lowe; and Mr. Lowe has, by a singular felicity, received the most important post in the govern- ment from the Liberal party, after having deserted the Liberals and bitterly opposed all extension of the suffrage. Moreover, I should think that the majority of the party, on the whole, approve of an appointment at first sight so singular. The fact is, that Mr. Lowe not only possesses one of the clearest intellects, and the greatest talents in debate, of all our present statesmen, but he is a most thoroughgoing reformer of a certain type. He spoke admirably as a vigorous opponent of the Irish Church establishment, and in all Church matters is a thoroughgoing Liberal. Mr. Matthew Arnold holds him to be a Philistine, and he is certainly a stubborn believer in the /aissez-faire theories of political economists, and has, I am sorry to say, just published some remarks on our educational system, condemning very strongly the measures which most reformers feel to be necessary. He is an obstinate believer in the doctrinaire theory that government should improve things by lettifig them alone. However, he is the author of the valuable sentiment that we must educate our masters—the house- holders. He is, at any rate, a man of marked ability, and likely to make an effective Chancellor of the Exchequer. Turning to other members of the government, there is little appear- ance of any introduction of fresh vigor. The respectable Lord Claren. don is Foreign Secretary. The colonies are commitied to the charge of that most respectable and amiable nobleman, Lord Granville, and India to the equally respectable and able, if rather pedantic nobleman, the Duke of Argyll. The respectable Mr. Cardwell will be Secretary of War, an:i certainly is an improvement upon Sir J. Pakington, and Mr. Bruce is a re spectable Home Secretary, and Mr. Goschen a respectable President of th Poor-law Board. So are they all, all most respectable men ; but not likely perhaps to win any higher credit than that of good men of business. Two of the ablest men of the radical wing, Mr. Foster and Mr. Stan:- feld, take office, though, I am sorry to add, without the honor of being in the cabinet. Mr. Foster will be at the head of the educational department, and is excellently qualified for the post. Mr. Stansfeld,a man of much cultivation and an excellent speaker, will be concerned with the finances. The legal appointments are rather weak. Sir W. Page Wood, under the new name of Lord Hatherley, will be Lord Chancellor ; and is likely to be an excellent judge, but a very poor debater. Sir R. Collier is not a very strong Attorney-General, whilst Mr. Coleridge, the new Solicitor-General, has lately won great reputation as a Parliamentary speaker, but has certain weaknesses, and especially in Church matters, which fit him to follow Mr. Gladstone better than to give him a strong hold over his party. The general result is perhaps to this effect : In the House of Commons, the government has not only a large majority but will have a great superi- ority in debating power. Such men as Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Bright, Mr. Lowe, and, I might add, Mr. Coleridge, are altogether an overmatch for Mr. Disraeli and Lord Stanley, supported only by men of inferior calibre, such as Mr. Gaghorne Hardy. In the House of Lords matters are reversed, Lord Cairns, the outgoing Lord Chancellor, is incomparably superior to his successor, and he will have such supporters as Lord Derby and Lord Salisbury to oppose to the inferior eloquence of Lord Russell, the Duke of Argyll, and Lord Granville. The difference of power will be specially felt in the difficult legal questions which must arise in the course of the Irish Church debate, and the government has been much criticised for not taking as Chancellor one of the ablest of Parliamentary orators, the present Chief- Justice, Sir A. Cockburn. It may therefore be anticipated that the great fight of the ensuing session will be won with comparative ease in the House of Commons ; and I hope that the majority there may be sufficiently decisive to ensure the passage of the measure through the House of Lords in spite of the opposing weight of numbers and talents. Indeed, it can scarcely be anticipated that any manceuvres of skilfal par- tisans or any reliance upon the lurking bigotry of the country will embold- en the House of Lords to face the decided expression of opinion of the new constituencies. But it is impossible to look upon the prospect with unqual-

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Dec. 31, 1868] The Nation , 551

ified satisfaction. We urgently require a ministry that can take the initia- | pose we are to understand a secret agent employed to watch the conduct of tive in many wider schemes of reform. That the Irish Church should be | others without their knowledge, and to report his observations to his abolished is obviously desirable. It is a subject which has long passed be-| employer. A college proctor on his regular beat, or a collegé tutor or pro yond the reach of controversy in the minds of all sensible men ; and that | fessor in the regular discharge of his daily duty, is not a spy any more than fact makes me regret the strong probability that another year will be suf-| are the guardians of the public peace who constantly patrol the streets of fered to elapse in endless discussions and floods of Parliamentary elo-| our city. Now, whatever they may do at Harvard University, I have never quence upon a threadbare topic. The opposition will be strong enough | known or heard of an instance in which a college officer of any grade has and zealous enough in their prejudices to throw every possible hindrance jemployed a spy to watch over the movements of any student. While I in the way of the desired measure. Months of valuable time may be | was myself a student I oceasionally heard other students, in moments of easily consumed; and meanwhile other topics of far more immediate | excitement, throw such imputations upon their officers. importance, such as educational reform, army reform, poor-law reform, | slightest evidence that the imputations were true. and many more, will be postponed or crammed into spare half-hours Again, the assertion that a suspected student is “ generally supposed to of languid talk. The composition of the ministry justifies a hope that | /ie until he proves that he speaks the truth,” is so complete, and at the same they may carry the particular measure which will excite most public | time so grave, a misrepresentation, as to admit of no possible justification attention ; but they have too much of the old Whig leaven to give very | I know no college in which the simple, unsupported statement of a student sanguine hopes of any more far-seeing measures. As the first Parliament | whom circumstances have seemed to implicate in an offence is not accepted as elected by household suffrage is singularly like the old Parliament elected | entirely conclusive, and made the ground, in case it is a denial of the im- by ten pound householders, so the first ministry, in which its confidence is | putation, of his complete exoneration from the charge. I am not in the placed, is remarkably like the old ministries of the Palmerstonian era, | least disposed to deny the unfortunate fact, that the relations between stu with the faintest possible additional flavor of radicalism. We must still | dents and faculty in many of our colleges might be happier than they are ; hope for an improvement rather in the general advance of public opinion | but they are not likely to improve if we persist in imputing their pres. than in any very distinct change in the components of Parliament or the | ent state to causes which are not the true ones; and such is the imaginary ministry. cause here dwelt on by your correspondent. Pane esac ties . — — Now as to the broad assertion that we “ treat the young men of the nine-

I never saw the teenth just as the boys of the sixteenth century were treated.” Nothing Correspondence. could be more strikingly illustrative than this sentence of the loose manner vaca’ in which men will sometimes allow themselves to speak in regard to mat UNIVERSITY REFORM—THE FACULTY VIEW. ters of history which they have not taken the pains to study. The college student of the sixteenth century was kept under constant supervision, by night as well as by day, at his meals and his amusements as well as during Sm: The article of your Annapolis correspondent upon “ University | his hours of study and recitation. The aim of college government was to Reform,” published in the Nation of the 17th inst., contains some sugges- | prevent wrong-doing by simply depriving the student of the opportunity tions which are worthy of careful consideration. All that is said of daily | of doing wrong. The student of the nineteenth century, on the contrary, “ marks” will probably meet the approbation of many thoughtful men. | js left entirely and absolutely the master of his own actions. College For one, I can give it my hearty concurrence. No one can think more | government endeavors to influence him to act worthily and well by appeals meanly of “the marking system” than Ido. The assertions of the article, | to his heart, to his conscience, to his better tastes, to his common sense. however, in regard to the kind of government which is stated to prevail at | If such appeals are not effectual, and if in spite of them he will still dis. present in American colleges are so injurious that they ought not to be ac- | turb the good order of the college, or commit acts unworthy of a student, cepted without examination ; and if, after examination, it should be found then, in case the fact is brought home to him, he falls under some kind o that there is the slightest ground to question their universal, or at least gen- | censure. In the majority of cases, however, beyond a doubt, he even yet eral, truth, their utterance cannot possibly be justified. The writer asserts that escapes ; for the machinery which your correspondent denounces with so the college code now in force “ treats the young men of the nineteenth just | lofty disdain—the espionage which he supposes to follow the student in as the boys of the sixteenth century were treated ;” and further, that it his unguarded moments—has no existence except 'n your correspondent’s “works through a perfectly organized system of police, of which the | own fertile brain. president of the college is the chief, and whose spies” (at this point the If you will permit me here to quote one or two paragraphs relating te writer pauses to assure us that he means what he says, by adding—“ the | this subject, written and published by me many years ago but now passed word is a harsh one, but I use it considerately”) “are to be found in | out of memory, I think they will throw some light upon the causes of the every department of the university.” | peculiar relations which are found so often to exist between college stu Speaking of the disciplinary system, he goes on to say: “The conclu- | dents and college officers ; and will show at the same time how far it is ciom is inevitable that it [the system] tends directly to make students in their | true that the student of the nineteenth century is treated like the student relations with the faculty the reverse of manly and honorable. It is a legal of the sixteenth: evgugy ai pas aanggrees gan fe Senses = Ro entney te gag *| “Candidates for admission to college often apply at the early age of but at Cambridge, at least, the counter presumption generally obtains. t | fourteen years, and many enter below sixteen. On the other hand, not a may even be said that a suspected student is supposed to lie until he proves | few attain, or have nearly attained, their majority before becoming uem- that he speaks the truth. The result is as natural as it is deplorable. | bers of a college; and the consequence is that we have a community very Espionage is met by cunning, and accusation by equivocation.” The writer | ee et ee te de tat muacliness! very unfit to be all subjected to the here narrows down the scope of his charge so as to direct it against a sin-| .mo uniform regimen. In the younger classes we find a majority who gle institution—Harvard University; but the public will not suppose | have come directly from the schools, where their conduct has been subjected that this venerable seat of learning is laboring under a system of govern-|to the restraint of immediate and constant supervision. Such, even if ment which is exceptionally odious. The charge, therefore, implicates | ‘he¥ possess the rine’ bad i Fa aes < as equally all the colleges and all the college officers in the country, and de- | without consideration of every accidental opportunity to give way to nounces them as all alike culpabie of maintaining a system which is want- | frolicsome mirthfulness on the slightest relaxation of the severe vigilance ing in fairness, in wisdom, and even in simple common sense. of school supervision, is carried into the college, and is not laid aside until I know very little of Harvard University, but with many other colleges | familiarity with freedom neutralizes the temptation to extravagance. “Tt is a very great disadvant of college government that it can pro- Ihave had large opportunities to be acquainted. In one capacity or an- vide but one oe of discipline for all wuatuties of subjects ; and that ie. other, as a student, as a tutor, as a professor, as a trustee, or as anexecutive sequently the stringent system which the more volatile—those in whom officer, I have been connected with colleges for more than thirty years. My | the boy ype ag ne wget fgg - pots ~% aig ep see of : : . : | sive an¢ »y the graver class, who even the : hag wu. tho college oflcess of the countzy, genceally, io also} puerility. e The i idea of the college student is drawn ath more very wide. With many of them I have often counselled in past times from the latter class than from the former; and hence the strictures on upon the embarrassing problems which college government frequently college government which we so frequently hear carry with them among presents. Ifthe statements of your correspondent quoted above are gener- the people an sepmennee bie and oe de which they a hardly ally true of our collegiate institutions, I think I should have been likely were it nemmammbered: that this gyetem does not exh Se She super | visi d restraint of those who need no restraint, but on account of those to discover their truth. ‘I have never discovered anything of the kind. pr ca or do need it, yet cannot possibly be separately reached. . And first, as to what your correspondent says of spies. By a spy I sup- “ It is a curious fact that, while the popular idea of the college studen’ To THE EDITOR OF THE NATION :

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ERR le ae 55 at the present day invests him very much with the character of a man— though many individual students are in fact but boys—in the early history of colleges, both in this country and abroad, the case was completely the reverse, and the college or university student was looked upon and treated asa mere school-boy. It was this fact indeed which, if it did not determine the erection of colleges and halls in the universities, at least suggested the form of their organization. The universities of England taught only, and assumed no responsibility for the deportment or morals of the students. The Net Oe orcnng styled professors—did nothing, and do nothing to this day, but lecture ; they heard no recapitulations of the subjects by the students—that is, no recitations. But boy learners require both moral control and mental drilling. The colleges and halls were erected to sub. serve these purposes, In these establishments the students were boarded, lodged, and kept under close supervision. They were governed each by a master, assisted by one or more tutors as necessity might uire. It was the business of the tutor to see that the youths duly attended the lectures, and to intemagete them upon what they heard—that is, to hear them re- cite. It was also his business to give them religious instruction, and to ‘do all that in him lay to render them conformable to the Church of England.’ In addition to this, he had the further rather troublesome charge of ‘ contain- ing his pupils within statutory regulations in matters of external a ance, such as their clothes, boots, and hair; with the unpleasant liab, ity, in case the unmanageable urchins evaded his vigilance, expressed in this clause, ‘which if the pupils are found to transgress, the tutor, for the first, second, and third offence, shall forfeit six and eight pence, and for the fourth shall be interdicted of his tutorial functions.’” [It may be observed - just here that we have not, even in our own day, wholly discontinued the practice of punishing the officer for the offences of the student; only that instead of fining him six and eight pence, we simply speak disre- spectfally of him in the newspapers.] “ Corporal punishment was inflicted in the English universities so late as the time of Milton, who himself is said to have been subjected to this indignity. The same appears to have been true in the early years of Harvard and Yale inthiscountry. Down to the commencement of the present century the system survived in both these colleges—a system which rendered the student during his fresh- man year the drudge of his fellow-students above him ; and to quite as late a period the whole body of the students were compelled to observances toward the college officers which would now be held to be degrading, and could then only consist with the idea that the student isa mere school-boy. In those primitive days nice questions of casuistry as to how far a student may or may not, by his testimony, ——— or honorably criminate his fellow, were unknown ; but the youth who refused to testify—if that phenom- enon ever occurred—was neither remonstrated with nor dismissed, but sim- »ly, 1 suppose, ‘ licked.’ However, we have changed all that, and very proper y; but so far has the change gone that nearly all —— on the part of college faculties to use coercion of any kind, if not resisted in limine, are at least met with remonstrance and complaint. “From the foregoing statements it is a nt that the American col- leges have assumed to themselves the deckic Guy which, some centuries ago in England, was divided between college and university—the duty of instruction and that of government. . . . But, in undertaking this two- fold responsibility. our colleges have failed to copy from their models the devices by which they secured the ability to discharge it. Our college officers neither live in the same building nor eat at the same table with the students, nor are the college premises shut in by walls or secured by locks and bolts. In the absence of these material safeguards, we have spun around our colleges a cobweb of words; instead of immediate and constant supervision, we have substituted law ; instead of bolts and bars, we have invoked penalties; instead of substantial brick and mortar, we have built our reliance on a barricade of paper. What wonder that the merest breath sometimes bears down the barrier before it!” it thus appears that between the condition of the student of the six- teenth, or even of the eighteenth century, and that of the student of the present day, as it respects the form of government to which he is subjected, there is scarcely a single point of resemblance. And the reason of the existence of that peculiar relation between the governors and the governed of the academic body, of which mention has been made, is to be found partly in the heterogeneousness above explained of the student body, which makes it inevitable that there will always be some individuals who will be deficient in manliness, and who will delight to create confusion ; and partly in that traditional principle of solidarity universally recognized in colleges, which permits the vicious or the turbulent few to use the ex- emplary and well-disposed many as their invalnerable shield and inex- pugnable defence. = Whoever, in discussing the difficult questions connected with college government, overlooks these two capital facts, will arrive at no conclusions worthy of attention. The expedient proposed by your correspondent of separating the governing from the teaching body, while it would involve a largely increased expenditure, would afford no adequate solution of the problem—a truth too obvious to require argument. In conclusion, I would observe that, while there is doubtless room in vur colleges and universities for many improvements, no true friend of higher education in our country will speak of those institutions in terms calculated to shake the public confidence in the wisdom of their manage ent, or to bring their governors into. contempt, until at least he has suffi Netly inveciigated the enbject tobe quite sure of his facts. P. \ \ 32 The Nation. [Dec. 31, 1868 Notes. LITERARY. Mr. WiLLIAM JAMES MCCLURE sends us the prospectus of a volume of poems, comprising amatory, patriotic, moral, and miscellaneous pieces, which will be published in one month’s time by Mr. P. O’Shea, of 27 Bar- clay Street, to whom all communications should be addressed, — Messrs. G. P, Putnam & Son have in press a work by Mr. C. L. Brace, which is en- titled the “ New West; or, California in 1867 and 1868.” “Its main ob- ject,” say the publishers, “is to describe in California what is generally omitted in travellers’ journals.” In pursuance of this plan, Mr. Brace writes of the minute features of vegetation and scenery in respect of which California is very different from the older States; of the branches of industry and production almost peculiar to the Pacific Slope—as vine- growing and the rearing of silkworms; of the Digger Indians, ethno- logically considered ; of the antediluvian or post-pliocene skull of Cal- averas County; of the Yo Semite Valley, which, perhaps, is not exactly a virgin theme; of the Chinese in California; the climate, as compared with European and Asiatic climates; social life among the Califor- nians, and many topics more-——Mr. Howard Challen announces that his Trade List Directory for 1869 will contain a complete list of the books published by nearly every publisher in this country, and of the publications of many foreign publishers. To say this—and it can be truthfully said— is to say enough to show that the book is a valuable work for reference. ——With its sixth volume, the “Theological Eclectic,” which is mainly a repertory of foreign theological literature, will become a monthly periodi- cal, and its volumes will begin and end with the calendar year. What is its special character, and with what ability it is sustained, will be understood by our clerical readers when we say that its editors are Dr. George E. Day, Dr. Philip Schaff, Dr. H. B. Hackett, Dr. John McClintock, Dr. W. H. Green, Dr. C. M. Butler, and Mr. L. P. Evans. —0Our Philadelphia correspondent, “Subscriber,” may get the Pall Mali Budget of Messrs. Willmer & Rogers, of 47 Nassau Street, of this city, who will take his subscription or will themselves send the paper to him at his order. Mr. August Brentano, of 708 Broadway, will also send it to order, and has for sale single copies. In speaking of the Budget, by anticipation, some time since, we gave its outward appearance rather more praise than belonged to it. The printing is like that of the daily-issue, but—for the sake of cheapening the postal charges—the paperisthin. As for the mat- ter, the editors succeed wonderfully well in getting into the weekly issue everything of consequence contained in the Pall Mall Gazette. —The “ American Newspaper Directory ” is the title of a volume to be published almost immediately by Messrs. George P. Rowell & Co., a firm of advertising agents doing business in thiscity. Such a book can never be fin- ished, for each year witnesses the death of some journals and the birth of many more ; the publishers therefore intend to make their work an annual, and thus keep it as nearly full and accurate in itsinformation as its character will admit of. It will contain various lists giving the names of all newspapers and other periodicals issued in the United States and Territories, and in the British Provinces, giving brief descriptions of the towns and cities in which they are published, and giving, too, the circulation of each paper, the class of readers whom it addresses, the character of the community in which it is printed, and much similar information, which, as advertisers will see, can- not but be of value tothem. As its publishers point out, it is not so very long since such an index as they promise was not to be had at all, and such incomplete lists as the advertising agencies had in their possession were guarded with the utmost jealousy. Two or three years ago, a man who had made a list of the journals of the Southern States sold copies of it for a hundred and fifty dollars. Why advertisers should care to conceal such information it is easy to see; but the advertising agencies perhaps gained very little by a course of concealment ; they probably lost as much as they gained. The publicity in which the whole matter will hence- forth be set will be the best prevention of false opinions in regard to the circulation and influence of the different journals ; the means of making a just estimate will be within everybody’s reach, and the advertising agencies will be able to devote themselves to their proper business—that of agents between the newspaper owner and the man who wants to advertise. The latter will know just what it is he is buying, and will pay the middleman not for occult information nor for assistance in carrying on his business, but a fair compensation for his work. Of this projected “ Directory ” we have seen only a few of the specimen pages ; these, as regards paper and print- ing, look very well indeed, and the matter which they contain seems to

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Dee. 31, 1868] The N ation. 553 have been prepared with honesty as well as with industry and intelligence, To give a sample of their contents we copy from the list of Alabama papers : “ MONTGOMERY Advertiser ; every morning and evening except Sun- days, and Weekly, Tucsdays ; Democratic ; four pages; size—daily 24x36, weekly 27x40 ; subscription—daily $10, weekly $4; established 1830; W. W. Screws, editor and publisher; Robert Tyler, associate editor; claims 800 daily circulation.” “ MonTGoMERY, Alabama State Journal ; every evening except Sundays ; Republican ; four pages ; size 22x32; subscription $10 ; estollished 1867; John G: Stokes, editor ; State Journal Association, publishers ; 1,160 positive circulation.” In the little Advertisers’ Gazette which Messrs. Kowell & Co. have previously published we have noticed some decided mistakes in the characterization of different journals. For example, we have no objection to having the Nation set down as “ Radical,” because in a sense, and that, as we think, not the worst sense of the word, the Nation is radical. But what the compiler of the Gazette means by the word he indicates clearly when he applies it to the Independent and the Anti-Slavery Standard, and we may say, without any disrespect to those journals, that “ radical,” as appli- cable to them, cannot with any propriety be applied to this paper. --We spoke the other day of a general circular which would soon be laid before the alumni of Harvard College, by a committee acting in behalf of various classes from that of 1817 down to that of 1868, exclusive of the classes of 1818, 19, ’20, ’22, 24, ’41,°42, ’43,’45, °47, ’48, °49, 54. As we.said before, it is proposed to raise during the next ten years at least $500,000, which is in the first instance to be put into the hands of trustees, there to remain until $50,000 has accumulated, when that sum is at once to be turned over to the corporation. The circular, which we are requested to reprint, is as follows : TO THE GRADUATES OF HARVARD COLLEGE. The undersigned desire to lay before you a brief statement of a plan which has been lately set on foot for the benefit of the college. The plan is as follows: Each class is asked to agree to give a fixed sum every year for ten years, to be invested and kept as a fund to be called “ The Class Sub- scription Fund,” and the income devoted without restrictions to the purposes for which the general fund of the college is used by the corporation. Those classes which object to | mys ape subscriptions are requested to make outright payments. We do not think that much argument is needed to show—first, the necessity of raising money for the college now, and, secondly, the propriety of giving all that is raised by this subscription to the general fund. There are two objects eminently deserving all the pecuniary aid that can be given them, viz.: the salaries of the professors and the oe library. An article in the North American Review for last October by Mr. Cutter, assistant-librarian, draws a melancholy picture of the condition of the library. There are certain funds restricted to the purchase of books in particular branches, but for the increase of the library in the wide field of general literature and science the whole sums available in the hands of the library council is less than $400 a year. The professors’ salaries are in urgent need of an increase. The highest salary given is $2,400 a year, independent of any temporary aid the corporation may be able to grant ; and when it is considered that the expenditure of the college dur- ing the present financial year exceeds the income by nearly $8,000, it must be apparent that the corporation will not be justified in making any con- siderable increase at present. The property given at various times to the college has been generally restricted to special objects, such as the founda- tion of a particular professorship, the enlargement of a particular collec- tion ; and since the special gifts are frequently inadequate for the purpose to which they are devoted, the result is,in such cases, that the deficiency is supplied from the general fund, and thus each act of liberality becomes in one sense a drain upon the resources of the college. During the past —* was considered necessary to make some altera- tions in University . No money was to be had except some of the general fund that would otherwise have been used to eke out the salaries of the professors. Considering the necessity of the alterations a pressing one, they consented to the use of the money for that purpose, and pro- iessors’ salaries were accordingly clipped that the college carpenter might receive his dues. These facts justify our statément that any money that can be raised should be given to the genera] fund, and if any further argu- ment is needed we would suggest that the corporation have abandoned their former practice of setting aside for the general fund all the income above five per cent. from each endowment, so that the fund has actually been reduced. Meanwhile, — munificence has given to New York, in Cornell University, a college with abundant resources for present needs and future growth. For a library the corporation sends its president to purchase the treasures of Europe, and at the first examination three hundred candidates present themselves at her doors. Can a college of yesterday, without as- sociation, without a history, be dearer to its founders than our ancient uni- | versity is to us, her children ? —The committee of the Free Grace Protestant Union, feeling that every lawful effort ought to “ be used to stir up and keep alive a strong Protestant fecling among the people of this land, are anxious to purchase a first-rate magic-lantern.” Cradley, near Birmingham, the residence of the Rev. Thomas Husband Gregg, seems to be one of the committee’s scenes of oper ations, and the land meant is England and the North cf Ireland, probably To enable them to purchase the lantern, the committee make a special appeal to those whom Providence has blessed with funds, and who love the civil and religious liberties which have so long been enjoyed by the people of England. As one of their own poets hath said, “He is the freeman whom the truth makes free.” However, such considerations entirely apart, and to return to the curate and his optical instrument, he wants it in order that he may have the slides painted with scenes from the “ Book of Martyrs.” These are to be exhibited in the course of the delivery of certain lectures setting forth the most striking massacres and other atrocities re- corded in Fox’s work, and are expected to promote sound views of the Sear- let Woman, and teach in an unprejudiced way “ what she would do now if she only had the power.” “ The Catholic Church, let us always deny ;” of course, “it is built on a sandy foundation,” as Romanists in the South of Ireland falsely say of the Establishment ; but sometimes, in moments of depression, when we examine the weapons with which Babylon is assailed , the millennium seems not near at hand. —About this time will have been issued the thousandth volume of the memorable series, the Tauchnitz edition of standard works and authors, in which so many English novelists figure, and which has been so often con- fiscated on its arrival at British ports. The enterprise has been very skil- fully conducted, and has supplied one of the great needs of the present day—books of fair and open typography, and of portable size; easy for the hand, and adapted to the pocket. The first volume appeared Septem- ber 1, 1841, and most of the series has been stereotyped ; no less than 250,000 plates would be needed to reproduce it entire. The thousandth issue is worthy of the post of honor, being Tischendorf’s “ New Testament,” derived by comparison from the following manuscripts : The Coder Sinaitieus, dis- covered by the professor himself; the Coder Vaticanus ; and the Coder Alexandrinus. The editor accompanies the text with notes. It is pleasant to think that when the Baron Von Tauchnitz—his services to literature procured him ennoblement some time ago—shall have been gathered to his fathers, his good work will probably continue. He has a son who will no doubt carry on the enterprise. It is very likely, by the way, that as the publication of his five-hundredth volume made Tauchnitz a baron, that of the thousandth may make him a count. —‘The Geographical Knowledge of the Chinese” is the title of an interesting paper, originally read by K. A. Skatschkof before the [Imperial Geographical Society of Russia, and recently translated into German by Professor Voelkel, and published in Petermann’s “ Mittheilungen.” The catalogue of the Imperial Library of Pekin, issued in 1767, contained the titles of 729 geographical works, comprising in all 10,283 volumes. During the century that has elapsed since that time, it is estimated that this num- ber has increased to nearly 15,000 volumes. Some of these books are very ancient, and date back to at least three centuries before the Christian era. So far as the geography of China proper is concerned, they are very full and accurate, containing treatises on political economy, agriculture, com- merce, and manufactures, as well as indicating the configuration of the land, mountains, seas, rivers, canals, lakes, cities, villages, roads, bridges, dams, temples, cemeteries, and forts; describing, also, the peculiar products, cus- toms, costumes, and manners of the different provinces, and interspersing the whole with biographies and anecdotes of local celebrities, and accounts of the antiquities of these several places. The information about foreign countries (all of which are represented as tributary to the Celestial Em- pire) is such as might be expected from a conceited and exclusive people. The Europeans are described as extremely ignorant; and, although it is admitted that they publish almanacs and a few other books, it is neverthe- less affirmed that only a very small part of the population know how to read and write. In Europe, according to these writers, wheat is black and rice is wholly unknown. The fields are poorly cultivated, and the mechan- ical arts sadly neglected. Each class of society is distinguished by a peculiar costume. The women are remarkable chiefly for their frivolity, impudence, large feet, and indecency of attire. The inhabitants live in towers several stories high, are fond of table luxuries, and eat out of gold and silver dishes. They seldom walk, but ride in lofty, unwieldy coaches. Although very wealthy, they dislike to pay their debts, and are in general exceedingly avaricious. There is no truth in their courts of justice, no ingenuousnegs or confidence even between friends or brothers. Their statesmanship and public policy rest entirely on falsehood and hypocrisy. Such are the salient features of European civilization, as seen through the almond-shaped eyes of the Chinese. The most remarkable of their gro

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‘4 i i! / : ws a) 554 graphical works is the one entitled “ Elaborate Representation of Lands,” originally published in 1566, at the expense of the government. It is the principal source of Marco Polo’s information concerning China. A new and enlarged edition of this work was issued in 1754, in five hundred stout octavo volumes. The revision was entrusted to a committee of one hun- dred and eighty-one scholars, appointed by the Emperor. It is replete with statistical information, carefully collated and condensed from the official reports of provincial governors and magistrates throughout the empire, and is also enlivened by poems, panegyrics of illustrious men, bistorical essays, antiquarian treatises, etc. The Chinese are quite minute and pains- taking in cartography, although their maps are less accurate than those of the Western nations, because they are not based upon any nice system of triangulations, by which alone can be determined with scientific precision the different points of latitude and longitude, the courses of rivers, the ranges of mountains, the boundaries of provinces, and the irregular lines of sen-coast. UNDER THE WILLOWS.* Tur dedicatory verses with which Mr. Lowell begins this volume are not only an expression of his love and esteem for Mr. Norton, but also they strike the note which is most frequently heard in the poems that follow : *\ My Elmwood chimneys seem crooning to me, As of old, in their mace, ininor Rey And out of the past the hoarse wind blows, As I sit in my arm-chair and toast my toes. *** Hot! ho! nine-and-forty,’ they seem to sing, * We saw you a little toddling thing, We knew you child and youth and man, A wonde fellow to dream and plan, With a great thing always to come. who knows ’ Well, well! *t is some comfort to toast one’s toes,”’ And so they go on, ending thus: ** Instead of a fleet of broad-browed ships, To send a child’s armada of chips! Instead of the — guns, tier on tier, A freight of pebbles and grass-blades sere ! ‘Well, maybe more love with the less gift goes,’ I growl, as, half moody, I toast my toes.” Regrets for unfulfilled youthful visions, a pensive, though hardly a sad, recurrence to the thoughts and dreams of childhood, an inclination to self- blame for opportunities unused and time slipped away without fruits, have moved the poet to not a little of his serious singing. Sometimes, but not often, this tone is deeper; in one of his almost remorseful moods he asks of the melancholy pine-tree—the “ sea-foreboding pine,” as he finely calls it— * Do I, in this vague emotion, This sadness that will not pass Though the air throbs wiih wings, And the field laughs and sings, Do I forebode, alas ! The ship-building longer and wearier. The voyage’s struggle and strife, And then the darker and drearier Wreck of a broken life?” It would be ungracious and ungrateful to find fault with a mood to which we have owed very much good poetry, and we are hardly prepared to say ~ that we could find it in our heart to wish that it less often colored Mr. Lowell’s thoughts and found voice in his writing. Indeed, for the matter of that, it is a mood under whose dominion the poetical nature must of necessity often fall; from which, whatever we say of poetry at this or that point of its history, no poet, we may be sure, has ever been free since Lamech sang to Adah and Zillah. The poet’s occasional glimpses of things not to be uttered in human speech, his despair of ever doing more than to hint afar off the pleasure and the pain, “at once baffling and luring,” of which he is exquisitely sensible, though by the most part of mankind they are not regarded or pereeived, now and again make ali that he may have dione seem worthless ; make it all seem worse than that ; he discerns false- ood and a profaning indelicacy in his best attempts at making us acquainted with his muse ; even the praises which men give him and which are a better measure of his work’s value than any other that can justly be applied, if sometimes they give him pleasure and almost give him content, yet. not seldom, seeming to him flatteries or mistakes, only jnerease his disgust with himself. Yet, as it is easy to yield to this feeling more frequently than is good for him who experiences it, so, too, it is easy for the reader to have it presented to him—especially if it is presented in its nakedness—more frequently than is pleasing. It is, after all, in the nature of a confession of weakness; and necessary and inevitable as it is to make iat confession, it is what none of us like to do, and what we do not over- muuch enjoy when done by others. And if this is true of suqy confessions ; * Under the Willows, and Other Poems. By James Russell Lowell.’ Boston: ields, Osgood & Co. 1963 The Nation. [Dec. 31, 1868 when they are called forth by the vague, general sense of incapacity of which we have been speaking, all the more is it true of incapacity due to special causes within one’s self, and possibly within one’s own control. But of these we are not speaking. ’ It may, however, here be said—and all the more fitly as it has a connec- tion with what has been said before—that the power of sympathy with na- ture and the love of communion with her which Mr. Lowell possesses in so eminent a degree that it very often fills all his verse till the words and the music seem tremulously and delicately responsive to her direct influences, is a power the exercise of which is not unapt to breed a discontent of soul and a sort of despair. Doubtless the most immediately painful part of the rid- dle of the world would disappear with the disappearance of men, would not exist if it were not for the mental and spiritual trouble it gives to consider or enquire into the fates of one’s fellows and one’s own fate as a human being. But there is, too, the profounder if less poignant painfulness which the mere existence of this frame of things givesto the mind, especially to the modern mind, which has outgrown so many solutions of the problem, but finds the problem itself still to be outgrown. The contemplation of nature, then, no matter with what love and enjoyment the study is carried on, is not always, perhaps not generally, tonic and bracing, but often it directly nour- ishes a deep dissatisfaction. This is not a feeling -which gets explicit ex- pression in any of the poems before us ; but we imagine that it has had its share in giving a melancholy tinge to several of them, and that its influ- ence should have due consideration. Again, the habitual experience of ** This pleasure more sharp than pain, That baffles and lures us so;” the continual presence of * A something so shy, it would shame it To make it a show A something too vague, could we name it, For others to know ;” the inability to express in its charm and beauty what is most keenly felt and seems most worthy to be expressed and shared, naturally tends to induce a humor of turning on one’s self, and, unless one’s nature is very kindly, of turning on others also, in a half mocking way—which, by the way, does not fail to shock numerous downright, good people as being wholly mock- ing and bitter. Many of the best writers of vers de société, perhaps all whose vers de société are to be called poetry, have, as might be supposed, afforded illustrations of this fact, as we take it to be. .It is not surprising to find illustrations of it in Mr. Lowell’s poems. Such is the finely finished little poem called “ Without and Within,” which we copy not less for its excellence in its own way than for its serviceableness in making our mean- ing clear. Lovers of Mr. Lowell’s poetry will recognize in it an old fa vorite : WITHOUT AND WITHIN. ** My coachman, in the moonlight there, ks thi h the sidelight of the door ; I hear him with his brethren swear, As Icould do,—but only more. Flatte’ his nose against the pane, He envies me my brillian* lot, Breathes on his aching fists in vain, And dooms me to a place more hot. He sees me into supper go, A silken wonder by my side, Bare arms, bare shoulders, anda row Of flounces, for the door too wide. He thinks how happy is my arm "Neath its white-gloved and jewelled load : And wishes me some dreadful k Hearing the merry corks explode. Meanwhile, I inly curse the bore Of hun still the same old coon, And en outside the door, In golden quiets of the moon. The winter wind is not so cold As the bright smile he sees me win, Nor the ‘s oldest wine so old As our poor gabble sour and thin. I envy him the ungyved prance By which his freezing feet he warms, And drag my lady’s-chains and dance The ey-slave of dreary forms. O, could he have my share of din, And [ his Cy !—past a doubt *T would still be one man bored within And just another bored without.” We were going to say that we were not sure that this is not almost the completest and best of al] those poems which spring directly from Mr. Lowell’s personal feelings. There is, however, no question that the pref erence must be given to the delicately beautiful “ Auf Wiedersehen ”— without its autumn palinode—and that, too, we shall allow ourselves the pleasure of quoting :

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Dec. 31, 1868] The Nation. 555 AUF WIEDERSEHEN,. * The little gate was reached at last, Half hid in lilacs down the lane; She pushed it wide, and, as she past, A wistful look she backward cast, And said,—* Auf wiedersehen.’ With hand on latch, a vision white, pee reluctant, and again Half doubting-if she did aright. Soft as the dews that fell that night, She said.—‘ Auf wiedersehen.’ The lamp’s clear gleam flits up the stair ; ps I linger in delicious pain ; Ah, in that chamber, whose rich air To breathe in thought I scarcely dure, nks she,—‘ Auf wiederselien ? *T is thirteen years; once more I pres= The turf that silences the lane ; I hear the rustle of her dress, I smell the lilacs, and—ah, yee, Thear ‘ Auf wiedersehen Sweet piece of bashful maiden art ! The lish words had seemed too fuin, But these—they drew us heart to heart, Yet held us tenderly apart ; She said, ‘ Auf wiedersehen /* ” Of course, Mr. Lowell is not seen at his best in this poem. There are many detached passages in many of his serious pieces which are far supe- rior to this in strength and lofty earnestness of thought and feeling. Indeed, we may speak thus of the whole poem of the “Commemora- tion Ode,” which for sustained eloquence, for force of diction—despite what seems an occasional affectation of antiqueness—for manly nobleress of sentiment, for real fervor, for genuineness—despite occasional reminders of other poets—seems to us not equalled by any other American poetry. There are also passages in the volume before us which may boast greater positive felicities of phrase, or rather of statement, than the little gem we have just been looking at, though how this, in its kind, could be improved in that respect we do not know—and we believe there is nobody to tell us. Our poet’s great power of entering, with the insight of love and sympathy as well as by the keenness of his intellectual vision, into the characters of other men, is also more clearly revealed in more than one other portion of his writings than in “ Auf Wiedersehen ;” though there is a nice little faint touch of it in the last of the stanzas given above. And—however it may be as regards the revelation of himself, which is, perhaps, his best gift to us—no doubt his enduring fame is founded most firmly on the works in which he went farthest out of himself, was most objective, and displayed, together with his wisdom and wit, that power of character-painting—at once of types and of individuals—which makes the fortunately-planned and executed “Biglow Papers” a per- manent part of the literature of the century, and the only very good portraiture of real “characters” yet achieved by any American. But “Auf Wiedersehen” appears to be, as we have said, free from faults—a gem without flaw and a gem of pure ray. This is what cannot be said of very many of Mr. Lowell’s poems, which too often bear evident marks of haste, in which, as we have hinted, one is apt to find marks, too, of wide reading as well as more manifest and frequent signs of desultory writing. Witness the Emersonianism of several of the poems in this volume ; the imitativeness of the decidedly literary, fanciful “ Winter Evening Hymn to my Fire ;” the troubling sense of anachroniem —though that is not just the word either—which is felt in the reading of “Sir Launfal ;’ the incongruity of the Carlylism of the Rev. Homer Wilbur—who, no doubt, detested Carlylism ; of the nineteenth-century- ism, so to speak, of the “Voyage to Vinland "—which took place some thousand years before the nineteenth century affected any Scandinavian brains ; and of the unsuccessful balladizing of “The Singing Leaves.” But, for that matter, who does make a good ballad? There is a time for all things, and for ballads it is time past. Yet after making whatever abatements it has occurred to us to make in the course of a long acquaintance with Mr. Lowell's poetry, it remains, as a duty, not to take leave of it on any oceasion when it has been spoken of at any length without saying, as a last word, that, taken alto- gether, we have nothing so good; unless, possibly, we except a little of Emerson—and to make that exception we are not wholly willing. To Emerson, the poet, the reader who likes him much is likely to pay something of the regard which it is probable a stricter an- alysis would show to be due to him not in his character of poet, but as a thinker, or rather a seer primarily addressing himself to the perception of truth. It is, to be sure, truth in that ultimate form in. which it is felt to be one with beauty ; but even so, it is hardly one with the beauty which is assigned the poet as his object. It is hardly as a poet that one thinks of the writer of “Uriel,” for example. And coming down a little to the “ Threnody ” and the “ Humble Bee” and “Terminus” and the “Sea-shore "—if that is the title of it—do we remain above or do we come down below “In the Twilight” and “ Under the Willows ” and “ Auf Wiedersehen ” and the “Commemoration Ode ” and “Memorie Positum” and “Fitz Adams’ Story”? This, however, is criticism by comparison. Or it would be if it were not for the names we have given, which well enough exclude the thought of this man or that. Much more hard work from both is a wish that no lover of poetry will fail to form as he renders his thanks for the work already done ; and the wish is, perhaps, the best thanks and the highest praise we could give them. The Gates Ajar. By Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. (Boston : Fields, Osgood & Co. 1869.)—For the last year or two Miss Phelps has contributed vari- ous short stories to Harper's and the Atlantic, which we have usually read with some pleasure. They never, that we remember, gave promise of anything like high excellence ; but magazine! readers are not apt to be hypercritical, and magazine writers might, we dare say, with some jus- tice complain of being tried by other than very ordinary standards. Miss Phelps wrote with apparent ease, and her stories—notably “Kentucky's Ghost ”—had a sort of unlabored naturalness which sometimes made them contrast favorably with their immediate surroundings. We took up her book, therefore, with the expectation of being confirmed in our notion that she is a more than tolerable specimen of the average megazine story-teller and, although we confess to finding the “Gates Ajar” as unsatisfactory in most respects as it is certainly amusing in others, we are not yet inclined to recast our opinion of its author. She merely gives, in a small way, another illustration of the truth that one may observe and report ac- curately what goes on before his eyes, while his speculations on abstract and doubtful matters are worse than worthless. One may paint admirable portraits of every-day people and talk sad nonsense about the future life ; one may be a sorry theologian and tell unexceptionable love stories. The temptation of a whole book to herself has apparently proved too mach for Miss Phelps’s practical mind. Shall one be moral and not moralize ?—in herit the traditions of Andover and not import them into familiar speech ? But, though her youth and inexperience have given her courage to rush boldly into precincts which a little more wisdom would doubtless have made her fear to enter, there is no reason for supposing that she may no‘ yet do some very respectable literary work. Just now her sentiments are often absurd enough, but she has not, we should say, any inbred absurdity of nature which will always be bound to come out in what she does ; she is not flippant, though much that she says is sufficiently shallow, and, as she is, besides, neither affected nor untruthful, there is still time enough for her to learn the distinction between sentimentalizing and thinking, and to recognize that to lose sight of the essential difference between the de- sire for truth and goodness for their own sakes and the desire for the most innocent personal gratification, is to begin breaking down the barriers be- tween vice and virtue. Some time or other she may come to invent a heroine capable of smiling good-naturedly at the small vanities and the unpleasant self-consciousness of this one of to-day, who, veiled in sombrest crépe as to her outer woman and plunged into profoundest grief as to her inner woman, yet knows accurately who were the impertinent people who stared at her, and wonders gratefully at the forbearance of those who re- frained. Some time, too, she may be capable of recognizing an impassable barrier when she sees it, and of suspecting that to station at the outposts of her card fortification even such doughty sentinels as Whately and Chalmers and Isaac Taylor is still to leave the fortress exposed to the adverse winds of criticism. Meantime, her little book is put forth with such evident good faith as to its providing the true panacea for human ills, that it would only provoke a half sympathetic smile if it did not also make one sigh over the radical defect of much of the religious training given to the young. Here is Miss Phelps’s heroine, a New England girl of the ordinary type, who, on losing her brother by death, finds her love of God and her belief in His goodness utterly swept away, and the lessons taught her by “ six years’ membership in good and regular standing” of no value as a support in her trouble. Miss Phelps finds nothing surprising in this state of things—nor do we ; the remedy she proposes for it does move us to a little wonder and to some not very cheerful reflections. The reason why people sorrow without hope, | and why their faith does not glow with a more penetrating warmth, is, so she thinks, that heaven is not painted in sufficiently attractive colors. Miss Phelps’s experiment has been tried before. There are houris in the Mussulman’s heaven, as there are cosy little houses with ever. blooming door-yards, grand pianos, garden tools, and so on in Miss Phelps’s Winifred Foreeythe. In that blest abode the believer is to

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556 The Nation. [Dec. 31, 1868 have what he likes and do as he eliten: and meanwhile » his love for God can best be kindled by seeing in Him the great archetype of that best of | mortal types, “the good provider.” So Miss Phelps translates into the vernacular what she reads in Holy Writ about harps and palm branches and streets of shining gold. It is all very pretty, and we, for our own part, should not be disposed to object to her pleasing herself and other | people with fancies like these, if this sort of day dreaming did not seem as | weakening to the moral fibre as any other. There is, at the bottom of it, not oyly a false estimate of what constitutes success here or hereafter, but a self-seeking and self-indulgence which sap the foundations of all the | sterner virtues. Moreover, it seems to us that some of the religious lives which Miss Phelps has read ought to have shown her, if her own experi- ence is barren, that on noble souls the natural effects of grief, and of a belief in a happy future life as the reward of virtue, are not such as she has depicted. What gives the record of a life like that of Alexandrine de la Ferronnays a permanent value is not its special beliefs, but the fact | that it affords one more confirmation of the truth that through whatever | channels the soul draws its nourishment, whether through the creeds or ; through conduits of philosophy, from the same source, and brings forth similar fruits. In certain ways lives like hers, which show the serenity and the absorption of self in larger | ends which come from a real belief in the wisdom and goodness of God, are as satisfactory reading as we know. We recommend them to Miss, Phelps’s careful study. At present she appears to love God and desire heaven much as a child longs for Santa Claus and Christmas. A good thought for her practical consideration is that contained in the proverb that “a contented mind is a continual feast.” Just now it is only a con- tinual feast which can content her. She can be good for plenty of barley sugar; but that is a goodness one should outgrow before one gets into print. A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Bible. Smith’s “Dictionary of the Bible,” Mainly abridged from Dr. : Pott, Winer, Keil, Lange, Kitto, Fairbairn, Alexander, Barnes, Bush, { Thomson, Stanley, Porter, Tristram, King, Ayre, etc., etc. Edited by Rev. . Samuel Barnum. Ilustrated with five hundred Maps and Engravings. : (New York: D. Appleton & Co, 1868.)—This is only a part of the contents of the rather pretentious title-page with which the editor of the third abridgment of Dr. Smith’s Dictionary has seen fit to supply his ona executed publication. which is all we receive by way of introduction to so important a work— enumerates its distinctive features and special merits, by virtue of which, even after the appearance of the two abridgments superintended by Dr. i Smith himself, and known as the “Concise Dictionary of the Bible,” and | the “Smaller Dictionary of the Bible,” respectively, it aims to become a “ Standard Dictionary for the betes col The eo genseal principles which have | it lives and grows in all cases) but comprising important additions | and improvements from the works of Robinson, Gesenius, Fiirst, Pape, | ——— guided the present editor are: “(1) To make everything intelligible to those who understand only the English language. ... . (2) To condense the greatest possible amount of valuable information into one volume of convenient size and moderate cost. (3) To guard against all influences hostile to Christian faith and love.” We fully appreciate the advantages of plainness and condensation, and readily acknowledge that this dictionary, well-deserving to be called comprehensive, is both concise and intelligible, | but we are rather surprised to find that it was deemed necessary to do |additional guarding against anti-Christian influences in the reproduc- tion of a collection in which this kind of pious guardianship is carried to a degree almost destructive of true criticism. Mr. Barnum’s greater anti-critical fastidiousness, as'far as we could ascertain, manifests itself partly in omissions—like that of the remarks on Hebrew cosmogony under |“ Earth”—and partly in slight alterations and insertions—as, for instance, in the article “Jacob,” in regard to Stephen’s statement concerning the burial in Shechem. The words, frequently given in parenthesis, “so... the original author of this article,” serve to remove from the editor the responsibility for statements which might in the remotest degree appear heterodox. A great deal of care has evidently been bestowed upon the etymology and orthography of Hebrew names and words, though spellings like “ Yehezekel” for “Yehezkel (art. ‘“‘ Hezekiel”), and “cinnor” for “kinnor” (art. “ Harp”), the omission of the original Hebrew forms of so interesting names as Elijah and Jasher, and the inconsistent rendering of the Hebrew Cheth—generally, but not always, in two forms, h and ch, neither of which is as good as would be ‘h—show that the book is still open to improvement in this department. It contains numerous maps, plans, views of places, and other pictorial illustrations, not given in the original work ; various additions in the shape of references or supplemen- tary historical and geographical remarks, and also some new articles. | Yet, after a close comparison of various parts with the original “ Diction- ary of the Bible,” we cannot refrain from rejecting as decidedly unwar- ranted the broad claim expressed in the preface that “the additions and modifications in every part of this volume, and on every subject in it, make it, indeed, almost a new work.” Its mechanical execution is both fine and accurate. BOOKS OF THE WEEK. Publishers. ei (G. P. Putnam & Son (@. Ap “xX & Co. F Bs 1 50 1% A pier — Titles. B CU 2. Raat eeRa dass: Oia hg eh Cod graes Soderues pd oe H. F.), Dante's Divine Comedy, swd | Cha; rr rier | Co .), Complete Poetical Works, Globe ed... ... .... @. | Dickens (C.), Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, Bleak House, Pictures from Italy, 1 vol D. Appleton & Co.} ai wa. & Co.) leton 0. Fa Miser & Co.) Co.) | Father Connell: Gage | (Rey. eat! Ellen Lather (Be. M. | Pierce ( a Sem | Share other Poems ~ naboy for the Warfare of Life inv, Die Be Berliner Volkskfichen, swd...................-. Ren, Half Cent: and Highs with Juvenile D pateeste G ir W.),. The Betrothed » so ag otra sw es (Admiral R,), Memoirs ue igh | 0 2% 2 00 ” Piet & Co.) ayton & Co.) Ae Beemer we eee wee a “DE CIDEDLY ‘BLINDPITS’ Is NOT A Priced Catalogue No. —London Saturday . Rev lew. ,/ Commonplace Novel.” jem IssvED. THE JANUARY NUMBER OF Containing many books not SABIN & SONS’ AMERICAN BIBLI- OPOLIST: ij A NEW JOURNAL AND CATALOGUE FOR BOOKBUYERS. DAVID Cc. Its design is to be a Monthly Register of New Books—a Catalogue of Receipts and Additions to Stock, and Discur- sive Matter concerning Books, Auction Sales, and Literary OF NEW AND OLD BOOKS, and will be forwarded free to any address. DEALER IN NEW AND OLD oem, 4 ~ ~4 Astor Place and Eighth Street, New York. | seribag are constan’ ‘Dr. J.), The Differential ae The Nation. { O y | This Journal a gg its Kighth Volume with the first | ae * Jani t has a well-established ~ay social, et ag force, a medium fo: often met with, just ready, “the the ‘bert be of the coun! and a 8 See of ; while its absolute independence has, | tee the Publishers eve, = it the Jt. R. aoe en of every HRB. is proof of its value ie for | fee ¢ ej public teachers; and for the sake of its still wider diffusion among them the Publishers offer to send free, and repaid, for one month, to an Wabing Lo makes tial Cf oth eee Coan assured by Advertisers of FRANCIS, Sabjects generally. The Publishers’ extensive acquaintance and active con- nection with the trade, libraries, literary societies, and bookbuyers generally, will ensure a circulation to render it a profitable medium of advertisement. The Journal will, for the present, be sent gratis to appli- cants, but a subseription of one dollar will ensure its receipt for a year, SABIN & SONS, t J. 84 Nassau Street, New York. only with difficulty. L. W. SCHMIDT, CERMAN BOOKSELLER, i 24 BarcLay STREET, New YorK, ee A Unique Collection of b the University of Wisconsin. C an account of these Songs Club. rd) ng on et of York GLAVE SONGS OF THE UNITED STATES. music—obtained among the ay ps of the South lect, as observed at Port Roya iy RITICAL AND SOCIAL ESSAYS. Reprinted! Tne Week. from the Nation, and supp first two volumes of ‘cake r, Wi 10, OLYDORI VERGILII DE RERUM INVEN.- | | TORIBU3. The last publication of the | | Superbly printed, paper cover, 8vo, price | the profitable returns from , ee in the | Wation, the circulation of which is considerably pu’ ~~ in this coun ‘Bock pubis In every par pe wal makers ena Sehibt of works ks of it vera it Nation. on ihe N to their advantage to advertise in rr. 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Dec. 31, 1868]:

BOSTON DAILY ADVERTISER FOR (1869. The BOSTON DAILY ADVERTISER, established in 1813, is now the oldest daily paper in this metropolis, | From the first its position as a leading journal rewarded the sagecity and enterprise of its founders, The present proprietors have aimed to maintain the character it has long enjoyed, and to give it new claims to the public re- gard. By giving more attention to general news, and making the paper the medium of prompt. full, and trust worthy intelligence, they have large’y extended its circula- tion and increased its usefulness. Last year the establish” ment was removed to a new and commodious building finished and furnished throughout with a view to prompj and efficient work, the paper itself was enlarged. and nO | begi pains were spared to make it worthy in al! respects of the place it was designed to fill, These changes have also been followed by liberal additions to its subscription list, and an increase of business in all its departments, The Editorial Department. In ita editorial management the BOSTON DAILY AD- VERTISER aims to discuss all questions of public interest with inteiligence and candor. hile in politics distinctly Republican, and in substantial accord with the policy which has wrought so t results forthe nation and for humanity during the t decade. it is the organ of no party, is independent in its judgments, and expresses them with the res which is due to Fy opinion, »nd the frankness which a proper regard for the general welfare requires, To the discussion of nation»! topics ; the settlc- ment of old controversies on the basis of equal rights ; the return to specie payments ; the deve’opment of domes- tic industry ; whatever seems best for the credit of the na- tion and the prosperity of the people. as well as to the va- ried topics of the hour. it, will bring careful enquiry ana an earnest and liberai spirit. Correspondence. Our system of correspondence. already widely extended. and eniisting the services of many experienced writers. will be still further improved. e Washington corre- spondent whose despatches have for several years given value to this department. has the co-operation of capable assistants. From New York, in addition to regular miscel- laneous letters. our business correspondence from Wall Street will give the chief points of interest in the transac- tions there. Correspondents in the leading cities in the United States; at mdon. Paris. and Florence; at all laces of exceptional interest at home, or resorted to by Lovehers abroad, will continue to give a graphic, enter- taining. and truthful representation of affairs at these cen- tres of life and action. 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The Financial, Commercial, and Marine departments which have long nm a specialty with this paper. are still recognized as an impo t feature. and will continue to furnish a comprehensive and true business record. pre- ured by special and expert reporters, In the Financial are given a full list of the sales of the Stock Ex- change. and the sales of stocks by auction, reviews of the money market, the gold market, and the Government bond market, with the latest quotations ; fu'l telegraphic reports from New York. with the stock quotations, and such other financial matters as are of interest or value. In the Com- mercial Record we give full reports of the merchandise markets, domestic and foreign, including 2 daily report of the Boston market, We also give special attention to the dry goods market, with weekly quotations of the leading fa ; the boot and shoe market, with a record of the shipments; the metal ma:ket. and the lumber mar‘et. The report of the Cattle Market is prepared by experienced hands, In all these departments we avail ourselves nepey of the telegraph for market reports from distant points. Our Marine Journal also daily furnishes to the merchant and shipowner copious reports of the movements of our merchant marine, This prominent characteristic, which = eae been so widely recognized, will be fully sus- ned. The subscription price of the Daily Advertiser is $12 per annum, but we desire to offer it to any who will bring us a new subscriber for $10, or $22 for the twe, in advance. To clubs of five and under twenty, to one address, the price is $9 50 per copy. To clubs of twenty and upwards, $9 per copy. Address DUNBAR, WATERS & CO., The Nation. : JUST PURLINEED: : sey GREATER BRITAIN: A RECORD OF TRAVEL IN ENGLISH-SPEAKING COUNTRIES DURING 1866-67. By C, Wentworts DILKE.

With two Colored Plates and numerous Maps and Illus- trations. , Two volumes in one, containing over 700 pages crown 8vo tinted paper, fine cloth, $3. F ‘Mr. Dilke’s judgment is not that of a blind partisan, ' but he is not ashamed to ee what he likes because it happens to be American, fairness and good-will are a | double offence, which the enemies of America in England | will be slow to a te = will do what they can to | Gostoey his book by ostile criticism ; but we risk nothing in ict: that it will be widely read and admired in both countries."—V. Y. ‘* Mr. Dilke is a keen observer, with the pose of giving the result of his observations so effectively that few who n to read this record of his journeyings will lay it down until they have finished it.”— Noles and Queries. “A good idea lies at the root of Mr. Dilke’s record of travel.” — Atheneum, * For the general reader he has furnished abundant en- tertainment, in the way of pointed stories and anecdotes of places and persons.”’— London Leader, Tribune, ALSO, “ALL ’S FOR THE BEST” SERIES. By T. 8. Antuur. Embracing * All's for the Best,” * The Seen and the Unseen."’ ‘The Heroes of the House- hold.” 3 vols. 1émo, each with frontispiece; in box, $2 25; single volumes, 75 cents. WHO IS HE? AN APPEAL TO THOSE WHO REGARD WITH ANY DOUBT THE NAME OF JESUS. By 8. F. Smmzy. 16mo, cloth, %% cts. POETICAL WORKS OF THOMAS MOORE. Including a Sketch of his Life. GLOBE EDITION. 3160 Steel Plates, 12mo, toned paper, fine cloth,

For sale by all Booksellers, or will be sent by mail, post- age free, on receipt of price. J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., Publishers, 715 and 717 Market Street, Philadelphia. THE AMERICAN LAW REVIEW, VOL. [11.—No, 2.—JANUARY, 1869,

CONTENTS: I, Confinement of the Insane. II. Government Loans. Ili. The Meteor. IV. Arbitration Clauses. VY. Digest of the English Law Reports for August, Sep. tember, and October, 1868. VI. Digest of Cases decided in the Supreme Court of the United States, December Term, 1867. VII. Selected Digest of State Reports. VIII. Book Notices. IX. List of New Law Books published in England and America since October 1, 1868 X. Summary of Events, Published quarterly. Single number, $1 2%. Yearly subscription, which may begin with any number, $5, pay- able in advance. Vols. I. and IT., bound in law sheep, de- livered, post-paid by mail, on receipt of $6 for each volume. *,* No risk assumed upon remittances unless made by P. O. order, draft, or check. The Amsrican Law Review, pronounced by high literary and legal authorities to be raz Best Law Maea- zINnE in America, is now in its third volume, with a wide and rapidly increasing circulation, Lawyers who wish to subscribe for a first-class legal periodical are invited to ex- amine the Review. The July number will contain, in addition to the usual matter, A FULL AND MINUTE INDEX TO THE THREE VOLUMES THEN COMPLETED. Other numbers will embrace new features, which will be duly announced. *,* For subscription or enquiry, address the publishers,

29 Court Street, Boston. LITTLE, BROWN & CO., Boston.

HARPER & BROTHERS, New York, HAVE JUST PUBLISHED: DILKE’S CREATER BRITAIN. GREATER BRITAIN: A RECORD OF TRAVEL ENGLISH-SPEAKING COUNTRIES DURING 1866 AND 1867. CHARLES WENTWORTH DILKE, With Maps and Illustrations. 12mo, Cloth, $1. IN BY

A good idea lies at the root of Mr. Dilke’s record of tra vel.— Atheneum. The book may be read by all classes of readers, Those who look only for amusement wil! find much to interest them in the personal narrative, while the thinking portion of the community— those who have at heart the material well-being of their country—may study its pages with ad- vantage.— London Review, A work full of s tiveness and power, pleasant to read as a record of travel, but possessing larger c’aims upon our attention than any mere traveller's story. Many of the subjects discussed in these pages are of the widest interest, and such as no man, who cares for the future of his race and of the world, can afford to treat with indifference, The volume is admirably written. — Londen Deily News. Its merits are that it is written in a lively and agreeable style. that it implies a great deal of izctcal luck, that no pege of it fails to show an acute and highly intelligent ob- server, that it stimulates the imagination as well as the qunpneet of the reader. and that it is on perhaps the most nteresting subject that can attract an lishman who cares about his country —Safwrday Reriew. His volume has this great merit over the works of ordin- ary travel writers, that it is intended to suggest earnest thoughts upon the matters referred to in its pages, and suc- cess ¥ accomplishes the end had in view. For the general reader he has furnished abundant entertainment, in the “¥ “ pointed stories and anecdotes of places and persons. — Leader, It is with the utmost pleasure that we have accompanied our author in his scamper round the world, His reproduc- = L ~ — —< =. his own so clear ont vid. We ve it to for the most part impartial an truthful.— Auilder. Mr. Dilke is a keen observer, with the power of giving the result of his observations co eftectively that few who to read this record of his journeyings will lay it down until they have finished it.— Votes and Gweries. Mr. Dilke'’s ju ent is not that of a blind partisan. but he is not ashamed to praise what he likes becaare it hap- ns to be American. His fiirness and good-will are a ouble offence, which the enemies of America in England will be slow to forgive. They will do what they can to — his book by hostile criticism ; but we risk nothing in predicting that it will be widely read and admired in both countries.— New York Tridwune,

= Harper & Brothers will send the above Work by Mail, wr 4 prepaid, to any part of the United States, on receipt of the price. - BIBLIOTHECA SACRA.

The twenty-sixth volume of the BIBLIOTHECA SACRA will commence with the January number, 1869. Edited by Prof. E. A. Park and 8. H, Tartor, of Andover, with the co-operation of Dr, J. P. Taompson, of New York, Dr. H. B. Hacxerr, of Newton, and Dr, D. W. Suwon, of Berlin, Germany. Many excellent articles are in preparation for the coming numbers, among them a series on ‘* Homiletics,"’ by Profes, sor Park. The first of this series will appear in the July number. The price is as cheap as the cheapest, while hundreds of testimonials from the Press and individals assign the BIBLIOTHECA SACRA the first place among the Quar- terlies. Therefore get the best. It is published in superior style at $8 per annum. W. F. DRAPER, Publisher, ANDOVER, MASS, FIRST EDITION EXHAUSTED ON DAY OF PUBLI- CATION! Second Edition Now Ready. “ BLINDPITS:” A Srory or Scortisn Lis, Large 12mo, $1 75. Cc. P. PUTNAM & SON, New York.

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fh ne e N ation. | Dec. 31, 1868

BOOKS FOR THE HOLIDAYS, he GEMS OF ENGLISH ART ( OF THE NINETEENTH | | CENTURY. This magnificent volume, which has been iwo years in | PUBLISHED AND FOR SALE GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & 416 Broome Street, HOLIDAY CIFT-BOOKS. STANDARD WORKS. Being reproductions of the greatest | KNIGHT'S PICTORIAL SHAKSPERE, including the aie of some of the most celebrated artists of this | Biography and Doubtful Plays. With twelve hundred | country, in twenty-four pictures, er printed in | ee. beautifully printed on toned paper, | colors, by Leighton Brothers, with illustrative texts by Dm Lond on. 8yols. super royal 8vo, cloth, p40; inal Francis Turner Patorave. Imperial 8vo, sum tu. | cal ; tree calf, gilt cages, $85; or superbly uf ously bound in cloth, with inlaid ona illuminated side, in full morocco, extra $1 price $10; full morocco, STAUNTON’S MAGNIFICENT EDITION OF SHAKE- SPEARE’S PLAYS AND POEMS, with copious Ori- | | | EVERY BOY’S AREAL, 20S 1869, SONS, New York, ANY OF WHICH WILL BE SENT BY MAIL OR EXPRESS, PREPAID, ON RECEIPT OF THE ADVERTISED PRICES. NEW JUVENILES. An ente . Contains Thomas Miller, entith boon, in Goril la Land ; ;” and Srectes and Tales b Wood, Clement’ Seott, W. H. . Walenn, Si Chas. W. ain, Lieut. C. R. Low, ©. H. Ross. and max ers ‘ustrated with a of one hundred —— has been pronounced by competent judges to most splendid specimen of coior-printing wee | duced in Great Britain. Among the illustrations wil found copies of some of the best pictures of Landseer, ginal Notes, Glossary, and a new Life, in which are in- | corporated some items of information hitherto un- known, and recently discovered in Chapel, London, and —s upward of “700 beautiful | and six beau’ colored illustrations by Renee London. 8vo, extra cloth, gilt edges, $3. Cooper, Leslie, others. TENNYSON’S IDYLS OF THE KING, now complete, See, Se ed by the Brothers Dalziel, from gontgne by by dona G jOllbert rt In 3 8 vols, royal 8vo. cloth, & oo ; tree calf, gil t es. -%.% ges, gas loyment of _ ft resources of the paper- | sahae and the typographer, and multitudinous rw Be | Linnel!, Egg, Maclise, Stanfield, and many each volume containing nine superb steel engravings from designs by Gustav Dorf. A LIST OF THE VOLUMES EVERY BOY’S BOOK: A Gometote Rovdegnie of Pe me: ody LEDGE. With igh y- six hun sr lie, aia nore oe Be, Sports and Amusements, Edited uUT- ee = aes. , cloth, pages, $4 Enid, elegantly bound in cloth, $10 00 by John Gilbert, executed in his most genial mood, origina’ 4 Blaine, “* "40 00 and full of Shakesperian grace and comedy, claim for this | [HE OLD FOREST RANGER; or, Wild Sports of India Vivier, “ = 10 00 = of Shakespeare a place in every library.”—London | | on the Ne rry Hills, in the Jungles, and on the Virion ond Gatnovere, one veteme, 17 0) | THE ILLUSTRATED NATURAL HISTORY. By the | Plains. By Major Waiter Camrsrti. ‘Fourth edi- ( , e | - 4 The first of poets, the first of artists, and the foremost | Rev. J. G. Woop, L.S. With 1,500 Il tea. ith steel engravings. Svo, cloth, $2. of eugravers have been engaged upon the production of | ings, from the Designs of J. M. W. Turner and | has been studiously preserved in a simple —_ — — Tuomas Sroruarp, beautifully printed on fine toned | form, and the more strictly scientific portions ha . 4to, ele gantly bound in cloth, gilt edges, $12; il morocco. THE LANGUAG = FLOWERS ; or, Floral Emblems , Doré has never employed the wonderful vigor of his imag- | ination to better effect. while his = have been exseuten by engravers who stand foremost in their profession in he end of each v LANES TRANSLATION OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS’

of Thoughts, Feelings and Sentiments. By RoBERT | ENTERTAINMEN With severa! hundred engray- Tyas, M.A.. LL.D., F.R.B.S., with Twelve Colored | ings on wood, from designs b: William Harvey. 3vols. Groups of aoaeee rinted upon a thick, pare white | 8vo, cloth, $15; half calf, ; tree calf, gilt edges, paper, and chastely bound in — full gilt side and | = 50. | FROISSART’S CHRONICLES OF ENGLAND, FRANCE, AND THE 0 edges. price $5; fuil morocco, Ys: PICT FROM NATURE. Mary Howrrr, With SPAIN, INING COUNTRIES. twelve illustrations. Benutitully printed in colors by new edition from the text of CoLone. Jonnzs, with | Kronheim, London. Printed on ‘thick toned paper. = Notes, a Life of the Author, an Essay on his Works, | Small 4to, cloth. extra ilt e 3, $3. and a Criticism on his History. With 120 beautiful NORTH COAST AND THER POEMS, By Ronen woodcuts, illustrative of manners, customs, etc. 2 BucwANAN. . Illustrated by Engrav from Drawin vols. su royal 8vo, cloth, $12. * Also for sale, a few copies of the illuminated edition ot Heckawtle thontdia Svts., all cae gilt edges. | The illuminations = in number) are reproduced from | Froissart in the ibliothéque Royale, Paris, and other sources | MONSTRELET’S CHRONICLES; containing an account| of the cruel — Wars between the Houses of Orleans | and Burgun Beginning where that of Sir John by J. Wour, A. B. Hovearon, G, J. Prvwext. and the | Broturrs Dauzren. 4to, cloth, extra gilt and gilt edge, | gy full morocco, $15 WAYSIDE POSIES, Original Poems of the Countr Life, Edited by Ronert BucwaNnan, Pictures by J. Prxweue, J. W. Norra, and Frepertck WALKER. | Engrayed by the Brormrrs DatzigL. 4to, cloth, su- rip binding, enamel centre, $10 , full morocco, $15. CHES OF NATURE. By Eminent Artists and Froisaart fin fins jes, and en at the year 1467, and con- “ae This volume coanains Ninety-eight Dra tinued by others to the 1516. Translated by | THomas JOHNES, i with numerous ings on Wood, set in Gold Borders, produced 1“ the highest style of Art under the superintendence of | Messrs, “+ Brotuers. Royal 4to, extra cloth, —t ed es. (BI tKET) PICTURES OF ENGLISH LAND- 8c APES. with thirty superb ny ee ings by DaLzre. Beoruers, and pictures in words by Tom esteem 4to. = elegantly gilt and gilt edges, * $10; full morocco, HOME THOUGHTS AND HOME SCENES, in o en: ra 2 vols. super pagel ove. cloth, $9. | THE FIRS FOLIO (1623) SHA PEARE. a eprinted in fac-simile for Mr. Lionel ca —_—— Small 4to, cloth, $10; tree calf, gilt edges, $ A sinali number of this by on a can ee had. ro half bound in vellum, G2; tree calf edges, $25. FO og poms by Jean Ingelow, Dora Greenwel, Mrs. ‘THE OLD DRAMATISTS AND OLD POETS. In aylor, the Hon. Mrs. Norton, B. Edwards. 8vo volumes, with why ~~ = ettes, as origin Jdennett Humphreys. and the author of: * John ——" | panes by x ee printed upon fine Gentleman,” and pictures by A. B. tioughton, engra paper, and th one exception. complete in one the Brothers Dalziel. - oom richly gilt ny ait volume. The LI care has been taken in cages $10 ; full morocco the text in its utmost attainable purity ; and the edition A ROUND OF DAYS, described in original poems, by | | has been rendered still more desirable by the addition some of our most celebrated poets, and in pictures by | of interes biographical memoirs and critical notices — artists, engraved by the Broraers Dauzret. | from the able pens of Gifford, — , Barry Corn- 4to. handsomely bound. in full morocco = wall, Hunt, , Cary, an ers. At their G@OLDSMITH’S (OLIVER) POETICAL WORKS. Edited | now reduced prices, ey are at. A. adapted for the by the Rey. R. A. Witmorr, and illustrated with 40 pic- | tures by Birket Foster, and 60 ornamental design s by | Noel Humphreys, elaborately engraved and lendidly | } use of literary students. THE OLD DRAMATISTS: rinted in colors on toned paper. with a gold-line bor- co, gin cloth, fall gilt and gilt edges, $9; full moroc- Shabgpeare, ae 2 OT |Ben Jonson, ... 2vols, . .. . .$1000 ROBINSON CRUSOE (The Life and Adventure of), by | eo and Ford, 5 John Webster,: | . 450 Daniel Defoe, with sieel rtrait memoir of the au-| Wycherley, Congreve, Christopher Marlowe, 4 50 thor, and 100 beautiful illustrations from designs by | wee =e rqu- Greene and Peele,, . 6 00 J.D. Watson, beautifully printed on fine toned paper. har, . — 4to. cloth, zilt and gilt edges, PROVERBIAL PHILOSOPE e vis ont wart Se- THE OLD POETS: Chr sich mys t beautifully vitae ib; ‘Gus ty »rist Charch, Oxfor¢ ut ustrated by Gustav Spenser, . ra a 50 — ‘ 50 nal and others, 4to, extra clo th, full gilt side and | aucer, ey. eT “ 50 | Pope . ee * 50 ex os, eS, THE MILLER'S DAUGHTER. By ALFRED TENNYSON,! Complete sets of the above 18 volumes can be obtained with steel engravings by A. L. Bond. 4to, cloth, ele- half bound in calf, $90; or handsomely bound in tree calf,

gant gilt edges, $4. gilt edges, $125. tions, from new designs ‘by Wolf, Zweeker, Weir, Har ROBINSON CRUSOE, IN WORDS OF ONE SYLLA- B ¥ GODOLPHIN. With twelve beautifully BLE, colored aaretiona. 12mo, extra cloth, $1 50. | —Sr FABLES, IN WORDS OF ONE SYLLABLE By xy GopoLrPain. With h eight beautifully colored il Letretions. 12mo, extra cloth, $1 75. | a? 4 og IN WORDS OF ONE SYL- ht beauti- » $1 %. yn Mary Gopo.train. With e fully colored illustrations. 12mo, extra clo Hood. By ANNE Bowman, Author of ‘ pangnete Hunters,” ete. 16mo, cloth, removed to the ee of Generic Distinctions” at at | THE 30Y FORESTERS: A Tale of the PP Eperanas of Robin strated, THE DOCTOR'S Mg =e. A Tale for ~*. By the Author of ‘The Four Sisters,” ‘*The Blessing,” etc. tomo. cl cloth, iilustrated, $1 50. aie 3 OF OLD DANIEL FOR THE AMUSEMENT YOUNG PERSONS. Illustrated. 16mo, cloth, Children of THE BOY CAVALIERS; or, The Si of Clidesford. A ALE .A., Author of “ Barford Bridge,” “ eee Honor,” ete. With illustrations. 16mo, cloth, $1. | THE bE ag OF JOSHUA HAUSEPIPE, MAS8- Fie gp rl A Tale of the Sea and Land. By (late) I. N. With illustrations. lomo, cloth 90 con read. AMONG THE 8Q Mrs. oe gd With Tiuctretene db p. Brothers Daizil. 18m wy ain ae 100. 1 50; cloth, gilt edge, $1 75. A FRENCH COUNTRY FAMILY. By Madame Dz Wrrr, née Guizot. me ED ee Gentleman.” ustrated toned paper. inno cloth, 1 00, ; cloth, br eilt edges gi, and Chilalike Me with additional Poems written

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Dec. 31, 1868] The Nation. 559 SPLENDID NEW GIFT-BOOK. | THE BIRD. | By Ju.es MIcHELET, author of ‘‘ History of France,” etc. This beautiful volume is illustrated by two hundred and | ten exquisite engravings, , A. GracomEnui, Doré’s col- lsborateur on his celebrated Pricz—Muslin extra, bevelled, - - $6 ‘ - 10 OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. | The a Review, “The French—as in other things, so in science knack which we have not. Since Buffon's da contrived to write scientific books in a poetical fa bey a certain bouquet, as it were, of sentiment, and a kind litter and s e which is far from us. We feel this jf ~~ A at Mi chelet’s ‘The Bird,’ which is graceful and airy in style, and is illustrated in quite the same spirit.” The Art Journal. “It b a Seruing book to read, oe a bo mas valuable | volume to think o It was a wise, and we can- | not doubt it will Be: a profitable, body to publish it here, where it must take a place second only to that it occu ies | in the language in which it was written. The engravings | on wood are of a very masterly character; they are a ot admirably drawn, and exquisitely engraved ; | be classed, indeed, with the best ,productions o the art t t have been produced in our age.” | The Art Journal (Second Notice). “Certainly natural history has Baeee, in our opinion, | been more exquisitely ve a wood engraving than | the whole of these designs Giacomelli, who has treated the subject with rare y of pencil. and the —_ charming poetical feelin, —e a fee age in har- | ner ony with the written descriptions of Michelet him- se ‘key Mor. extra antique, - —have a they have md and TIliustrated London News. ‘*One of the most charming books we have lately re- | eeived—certainly a book worthy of perusal, and no less | worthy of meditation.” | Extract from Letter of M. Michelet to the Leer ‘ARIS, January, 1 ‘s @ENTLEMEN: I have hitherto had no faith in eenietions, but your excellent translator has reconciled me to them. | As far as I can judge, his work is exceedingly well done. ‘* The illustrations are admirably gg with a softness | rarely shown in our French engrav ‘IT am much flattered by the pit tn care you have be stowed upon my book, and Madame Michelet is also de- lighted to see it so beantifully produced. Accept of our thanks —_ cordial greeting. . MICHELET. “To Tomas NEtson & Sons.” *,* Copies mailed on receipt of price. THOS. NELSON & SONS, 137 Grand Street, New York. NOW READY. The January Number of the QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGICAL MEDICINE AND MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE. EDITED BY PROF. WM. HAMMOND, M.D. With the beginning of a new volume of the Psychological Journal, several additional features have been introduced. Without detracting from its high scientific and professional | character, increased efforts will be made to render it more attractive and useful to the public at large. CONTENTS OF JANUARY NUMBER. L. +o de See: a Biographical Study. By Davip P. RamsEuR, M II. Homes for the Friendless. By J. A. Tuacker, M.D. III. On Some of the Effects of the Bromide of Potassium. when administered in Large Doses. By Wiii1am A. Hammonp, M.D. IV. Magic and Astro! in Antiquity and the Middle Ages. By Epwakpbs Crank, M.D PhD Y. Pleasure. By Samvurrt HENRY Dickson, M.D., LL.D. VI. Remarks on the Resumption of the Mental Faculties | at the Approach 0! Cases of Acute Diseases, Attended with Delirium. By R. La Rocug, M.D. | VII. Unilateral Sweating of the Head : its Relation to Dis- order of the Sympathetic System. By Rosperts Bar- THOLOW, M D VIII. Anesthesia and its Treatment by Electrization. By A.D. RockwE.t, M.D., and Gro rez M. Bearp. M.D. IX. Europeans and their Descendants in North America. By 8. 8. Herrick, M.D. X. Notes of a Case of Infantile Paralysis of Long Stand- ing. By C. G. STANLEY. The departments of ‘Contemporary Literature” and the * Chronicle” of Diseases of the Mind, Nervous Sys- tem, Medical Jurisprudence, etc., are unusually full. M.D., Subscription Price, $5 per annum. The Psychological Journal and the New York Medica) Journal together, $8 per annum. D. APPLETON &CO., 90, 92, and 94 Grand Street. | tend on or after the date hereof to continue business | under the said firm name. | ed the same. 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 72, and 74 Washington Street, and “A CHARMING NOVEL.”— A Srory or Scorrisn Lirs. C. P. PUTNAM & SON, New York. _ American Cattle. , THEIR HISTORY, BREEDING, AND MANAGEMENT. BLINDPITS. By Lewis F. Aten, President N. Y. State Agricultural Society. 532 pages. Price $250. ‘It is just such a book as our farmers need.’’—Marshall | ' P. Wilder, President U. 8. Ag’l Society. “It is, in my judgment, the best work on the subject yet | published in America, and worth ten times the cost.”—W. | W. Chenery, of Highland Stock Farm. ‘‘ Whatever works the stock-farmer may already have, he | | cannot afford to do without this.”— Ohio Farmer, “It is one of the best treatises within our knowledge, and contains information, sound and sensible, on every | page.” — The People, Concord, N. H. AGENTs WANTED. TAINTOR BROS., Publishers, 678 Broadway, N. Y. rPHIs IS TO CERTIFY THAT I, LOUIS DE PENNE- VET, residing in the City, County, 2 and State of New York. and heretofore, with BRAYER and JULES DE PENNEVET. carrying on a business in said City with foreign countries, under the copartnership name or firm of BRAYER, DE PENNEVET & CoO., in- Dated New York, 14th November, 1868 L. DE PENNEVET. In presence 8. 8. Sura. 2 cent stamp, cancelled.] TATE OF NEW YORK. CiTy AND County OF NEw YORK, ca this 10th day of December, 1868, before me person- ared LOUIS DE PENNEVET, known to me to be ne. ndividual described in and who executed the fore- going instrument, and acknowledged tome that he execut- AN VECH Vv Notary Public N. Y. State. City and Co. HUDSON RIVER INSTITUTE, AT CLAVERACK, N. Y. A first-class oe - neee for both sexes, opens December 28, 1868. REV. ‘ALONZO FLACK, A.M., Principal. Term MANHATTAN SAVINGS INSTITUTION, 644 Broadway, Corner Bleecker Street, New York, December 10, 1868, The Trustees of this Institution have declared the Thir- ty-sixth Semi-annual Dividend on all Deposits (by the rules entitled thereto), at the rate of SIX PER CENT. PER AN- NUM ON ALL SUMS NOT EXCEEDING $1,000; AND FIVE PER CENT. ON LARGER SUMS; payable on and i - January 18. 1869. free of Government The Dividend will be credited under date of January 1, and if not withdrawn will receive interest the same asa | oo of that date. SIX PER CENT. PER ANNUM ON ALL SUMS FROM $1 to $5,000 | will be allowed Depositors, July 1, 1869, and January 1, 1870 ; E. J. BROWN, President. F, ALVORD, Secretary. EDWARD SCHELL, Treasurer. HOME SCHOOL FOR YOUNG LADIES, NEWBURGH, NEW YORE. The Winter Term commences Wednesday, January 6, 1869. Miss H. M. PARKHURST, a B. 7. BABBITT’S ARTICLES OF EVERYDAY USE. | | B. T. Bassrrr’s LION COFFEE. B. T. Bassirt’s Labor-Saving SOAPS. B. T. Bassirt’s Celebrated SOAP POWDER, B. T. Bassrrt’s SALERATUS, B. T. Bassirr’s STAR YEAST POWDER, For sale everywhere. Ask your grocer for B. T. Bansrrt’s preparations, and take no other. I guarantee them to be PURE and UNADULTERATED. B. T. BABBITT, 44 Weat Street, New York. insurance Scrip. WILLIAM C. CILMAN, 46 Prxz Street, New Yor«k, BUYS AND SELLS INSURANCE SCRIP. BROWN BROTHERS & CO., 59 Wat STREET, ISSUE COMMERCIAL AND TRAVELLERS’ CREDITS FOR USE IN THIS COUNTRY AND ABROAD. WILLIAM C. TOWNSEND, Stock, Insurance, and Money Broker, 70 Weysosser Sr., PROVIDENCE, R. I. Russell Sturgis, Jr., ARCHITECT, 57 Broadway, New York. Vaux, Withers & Co., ARCHITECTS, 110 Broadway. Olmsted, Vaux & Co., LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS The undersigned have associated under the above title for the business of advising on all matters of location, and of J Designs and Superintendence for Buildings and other Architectural and Engineering Works. including the Laying-out of Towns, Villages, Parks Cemeteries, an ens. FRED. LAW OLMSTED, CALVERT VAUX RED'K ©. WITHERS. . 110 Broadway, New York, January 1, 1866. AMERICAN SILKS MANUFACTURED BY Cheney Brothers. MACHINE TWIST, SEWINC SILK, TRAMS AND ORCANZINES, FINE ORGANZINES FOR SILK MIXTURE CASSI MERES, FOULARDS AND FLORENTINES, PONGEE HANDKERCHIEFS, SILK WARP POPLINS, SILK DRESS GOODS, BELT RIBBONS. Silks for Special Pepe to Order, AGEN ‘EDWARD H. presi & SON, 102 Franklin Street, New York. CHENEY & MILLIKEN, 4 Otis Street, Boston. LEONARD BAKER & CO., 210 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, CHASE, STEWART & CO., 10 and 12 German Street, Baltimore. ~CULBERT & CO., 24 MAIDEN LANE, NEW YORK. POCKET BOOKS, TRAVELLING BACS, DRESSINC CASES, CARD CASES RUSSIA LEATHER GOODS. Writing Desks a Specialty.

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; ; - SO REFOE ET eae Quy eT oem oe ee PER y dau 560 The Nation. { Dec. 31, 1868 UNION ‘ADAMS, 687 BROADWAY, NEW YORE, MEN’S FINE FURNISHING GOODS, MANUFACTURER OF Fine Dress Shirts, - Coliars, and Cuffs. Orders nw mail receive prompt attention. DAVIS COLLAMORE & CO., 479 BROADWAY, Four doors below Broome, Street, OFFER A LARGE STOCK OF CHINA, CLASS, CUTLERY, ETC., SILVER-PLATED GOODS FROM THE MERIDEN BRITANNIA CO., PARISIAN GRANITE CHINA, BRONZES, FANCY GOODS, , EBTo., BTC., ALL AT VERY LOW PRICES. ———— - — COLGATE & CO.’S FRAGRANT TOILET SOAPS. A variety of kinds of superior excel- lence for sale by first-class druggists and temily grocers, and by all deal- ers in pascal oem, STAMFORD INSTITU TE FCR EOYS A family school founded 1850. With a limited Logg se my encouragement is given to backward or nid pupils and unusual attention to individual peculiari yeical M5 a specialty, includ Military Drill, Ge nastics, and Boating. Ample grounds, with buildings and appointments compete, in every respect. Boys fitted for College, business, West Point, or Annapolis. Circulars with ces sent on application. W. C. WILLCOX, M.A., Paincrea., Stamford, Conn, BENEDICT BROTHERS, (KEEPERS OF THE CITY TIME), 691 Broapway, NEAR Fourta Srrezt, NEW YORK. Agents for the American ‘‘ Waltham " Watch. Im and Manufacturers of Fine Watches, Diamonds, = Jewellery, and solid ** Sterling *’ Silver-Ware, Our Gold Chain is of the best quality, and we sell at the lowest price, qualit y considered. Every article of Silver Ware has Bengpict Broraers pee upon it, and is guaranteed to be equal to English nufacture mV ATOHES —not only of the celebrated American ** Waltham ** Watch Company, but the finest of European manufacture, Watches for Timing Horses, Watches that Wind and Set without a Key, the celebrated Nardin Watch, and a Watch made especially for us, in Europe, which has the name of Benepict BrRoTaers upon ita Perrect Time-KeepPer. *,* Very special attention is given to Repairing and Cleaning Watches, NorTe.— We have reduced the price of the American ** Waltham "’ Watch below the List Price of the Company. Should you desire anything in our line, we will answer any enquiries by letter, giving description, price, etc, ALL WATCHES FROM OUR HOUSE ARE IN SOLID GOLD OR COIN SILVER CASES ONLY, BENEDICT BROTHERS, 691 Broadway, New York. To CAPITALISTS & INVESTORS. THE FIRST MORTGAGE 7 PER CENT. BONDS OF THE ROCKFORD, ROCK ISLAND, AND ST. LOUIS RAILROAD COMPANY, PAY BOTH PRINCIPAL AND INTEREST IN GOLD, And are free of Government Tax. This enterprise has long since passed the point at which its completion could be considered doubtful. Near!y half the line ts substantially réady for the rails, and contracts are in progress for large quantities of iron, and an adequate supply of rolling stock. The rails for the division connect- ing the Company’s Coal Mines with the Chicago and North- western Line are all on the ground, and being rapidly laid so that the Company wi!l shortly be delivering their coal’ for which they have coitracts covering all they can mine this season. THE CAPITAL STOCK, FIXED AT NINE MILLIONS, is already largely subscribed for, and the remainder is going into the hands of individuals along the route, or being taken by the counties and towns through which the road passes. THE ENTIRE CAPITAL will, without doubt, be soon taken, and tee subscription closed. THE BONDS ARE A FIRST AND ONLY LIEN, ! of $21,000 per mile upon 490 miles of railroad, traversing THE RICHEST AND MOST POPULOUS DISTRICT of Illinois, upon the Company's franchises, and property of every description, including 20,000 ACRES OF VALUABLE COAL LANDS, partly owned in fe@‘and partly leased for 50 years, and | ym. estimated to contain ONE HUNDRED MILLION TONS OF COAL, Each Bond is for $1.000, or £200 sterling, and is converti- ble into Stock of the Company at the option of the holder, The interest is payable on Febraary 1 and August 1. The Trustee for the Bondholders is the-Union Trust Company of New York. Arrangements have been per- fected by which a considerable part of this Loan is likely to be'placed in Europe, and only a small portion of the issue will remain to be disposed of at home, Parties subscribing at once will secure the Gold premium on the coupon of February 1. which is equal to a reduc tion.of one per cent. on the price of the Bonds, We are authorized to offer what remains of these Bonds at 974g and accrued interest in currency; at which price, considering the soundness of the enterprise and the ample security of the Loan, the Bonds must be regarded as the CHEAPEST AND BEST INVESTMENT ON_ THE MARKDRT. Other ‘approved Securities received in exchange at’ mar- ket rates,’ —~ Pamphlets giving full information sent on application. The Bonds may be had at the OFFICE OF THE COM- PANY, 12 WALL STREET, and of HENRY CLEWS & CO.. BANKERS, 32 WALL STREET, NEW YORK. BIBLIOTHECA AMERICANA. THE VALUABLE COLLECTION OF America, iNtustrated Works, Etc., Belonging to Mr. T. H. MoRRELL, WILL BE SOLD AT AUCTION, BY ; BANCS, MERWIN & CO., 604 and 696 BROADWAY, January 12, 18, and 14, 1869, commencing each evening at “@ o'clock precisely. Catalogue ready. Price 2% cents. Books on HANOVER Fire Insurance Company. OFFICE, 45 WALL STREET, NEW YORK. CASH CAPITAL, $400,000. Total Assets, July 1, 1968 ............. $614,004 47 Losses Paid since Organization........ $941,059 30 B. 8S. WALCOTT, President. I. REMSEN LANE, Secretary. - NEW PATENT PIANOS, RAVEN & BACON (Established 1829), Warerooms 644 & 646 Broadway, N.Y., MANUFACTURERS OF PANO NDE DOA Patented August 14, 1866. This havent introduced COMBINA- ARCHER & PANCOAST M’F’C CO. Manufacturers of CAS FIXTURES, COAL-OIL, LAMPS, CHANDELIERS, Ete., OF EVERY DESCRIPTION, Manufactory and Warerooms, 13 Mercer Street ee WANTED. PER MONTH! Or a from latest woth tot a horhy4 that amoun sey 3 He ee ae een wire hia, 9, 11, N.Y. BURNSIDE FAMILY SCHOOL FOR BOYS, emcantham wrk VERMONT. This School combines mireatiom ato Senty Stoel with the benefits of Militar Drill and Discipline. an mat Gee erat eee ton youre Per further information Brattle- pene’. 8 per oF to the eoepeaaelagedae eS fon York John. Bora.

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