teraspfliifcsttrß.
FROM OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT.
Losdok, July 5, 1865.
The poor Lord Chancellor has suc
cumbed at length. For the last fortnight,
Jbe has been the best abused man in all
England. We are in the middle of tlie
hottest summer I ever remember;. we
are in the thick of the bustle of prepara
tion for a general election ; people are
flying to the seaside and to the country
in all directions ; but with a thousand
other drawbacks, the Lord Chancellor
has been the ,§nly man, who could hold
together an audience, and for the last
fortnight he has succeeded. At every
meeting, in every hut and house, in cas
tle and in cottage, from the palace to the
pettiest pot-house, universally the Lord
Chancellor has been the topic of all men's
talk. And Lord Westbury—for that is
his title—has yielded. No sooner had
the Edmunds’ scandal been bridged over
in the House of Lords, than another,
v the Leed’s ease” burst out in the Com
mons. The Commoners also appointed
a committee of investigation, who, after
sitting till as nearly the close of the Par
liament as they dared, and delaying the
printing of their report and evidence till
the last moment, had nearly proceeded
in relegating the whole matter to the
future; but the fates were adverse. The
Chancellor had few friends and many
sincere foes, and the chance of a counter
hit at him was too good to be lost. So
in spite of a favorable report from the
committee ; in spite of all the manceuver
ing of the ministry; in spite of the whole
weight of the Government, by a majority
of a dozen or so, the House of Commons
passed a motion which was equivalent
to a vote of want of confidence, and so,
on the following evening, in a speech of
great simplicity and dignity, and I may
add ability, the Lord Chancellor resigned;
came down from being the first subject
of the kingdom to being a plain “law
lord,” with no great character, profes
sional, political, public or private.
In all the cases, those made public
and those only talked of in private, his
sin has been nepotism, one of the . com
monest sinsinthis country,and one against
which the loudest outcry is occasionally
made. The late Bishop of Durham,
shortly after his translation to that, the
wealthiest of the bishoprics in England,
appointed his own son-in-law to a very
fat living shortly after it was vacated.
The outcry that was raised was so loud
and so long, that the poor Bishop heavily
felt the blow, staggered under it, and
speedily died. It was too much for him ;
and yet I fearlessly assert that not one
of all the curs that yelped and barked at
the poor man’s heels, but would have
done the very same thing had he only
had the chance. And Lord Westbury’s
only crime has been that he too easily let
off sinners against thepublic weal, that he
might make a comfortable berth for two
sons, the one of them Being a bigger
blackguard than his father. The Chan
cellor, too, is clever. He has worked his
way up very speedily from the lowest
seat at the Bar to the highest seat on
the Bench. But he is careless of hurt
ing the feelings of others. He is con
scious of his great powers, and often
makes onslaughts right and left. In the
House of Commons he made many ene
mies, when a member Of Parliament, by
his slashing speeches; and his character,
private and professional, is really bad;
and so he has come down faster than he
went up. The press has hunted him
down with a wonderful unanimity; and
now, that he has fairly and finally fallen,
it is to be hoped that he will be permit
ted to rest in peace. Your readers shall
be troubled about him no more by me.
I never met him but once, and then only
for a short time, and the only thing that
struck me about him was his soft, smooth
manner, and easy, nonchalant look. But
the stories one daily hears about him and
his, are truly awful. Requiescat in pace.
Parliament is about to be dissolved.
It came to a natural death, having ful
filled its days; the days of its life having
been the full seven years. For the first
time in my life has a Parliament seen
the full term of its existence; the thing
is not common with us ; there is gener
ally a crash and a ministerial crisis
every three or four years. But-at
present, politics in this country are
nearly a thing of the past. And so,
though the whole country is in the stir
and bustle of a general election, and
stump oratory is going on everywhere,
it: is all flat, stale and commonplace.
The driest-of all reading is these elec
tioneering speeches; no living soul,
whose time is of the least value to him,
does so much as look at them, Here
and there, however, there are small ex
ceptions.:* A man of mark in this place
and in that does cause a little more stir
than usual. One of these extra places
is the ancient city of Westminster. For
the . representation of that venerable city
there are no fewer than three candidates.
One of these is a “ Grosvenor,” captain,
or colonel, or something—a son, one
might guess, of the Marquis of West
minster, who, by the way, is about the
richest man in the kingdom, and the most
greedy. The second candidate is Mr.
W. H. Smith, whose father has made
enormous wealth byjbook'selling, at rail
way book-stalls,.and in other ways. The
son is—is his son. The third candidate
is Mr. John Stuart Mill, a man, who as
a writer on logic, or philosophy, and on
political economy, will be known to you,
and to a goodmany of yourreaders: Mr.
J. S. Mill is in politics, what they call a
“liberal,” and in religion, nothing at.all.
He is of the most advanced school, and so
THE AMERICAN PRESBYTERIAN, THURSDAY. AUGUST 3, 1865.
it is that sundry of our newspapers,
which fear God and seek to obey him,
have denounced him, as no fit represen
tative of anybody or of any place but
himself and his own house. The Becord,
'a Church of England evangelical paper,
The British Standard, an independent
journal, and The Morning Advertiser, a
worldly paper, but yet conducted by an
editor who personally fears God, and
seeks to keep his commandments, have
all come down heavily on Mr. Mill.
Whereupon out comes no end of people
to back up and bear out their chosen
friend. M r - Maurice could not miss the
chance of upholding one who is even
more advanced than himself; the Bishop
of Oxford, Mr. Charles. Kingsley, “ ethoc
genus omne ,” have all testified to the
genuineness of Mr. Mill’s faith and the
perfection of his orthodoxy. The contest
waxes hot. Wherever I go, on all dead ,
walls, on all pot-houses and posts, there
is nothing visible but “W. H. Smith for
Westminster;” -“Grosvenor for West
minster ;” “ vote for J. S. Mill, for West
minster,” etc., etc., etc. It would not at
all surprise me to bear that the infidel
candidate gets chosen. It will not mat
ter much, for the religion of the other
two taken together is about as small a
quantity as is expressible.
For the last two or three weeks, para
graphs of all sorts, shapes and sizes, have
been going the rounds of the newspapers,
concerning a merchant on the Exchange
who died very lately, and who is said to
have . been worth upwards of three mil
lion pounds sterling; say 15,000,000
dollars.' He is said to have been worth
that, which I greatly-doubt. A man is
worth not what he has, but what he
spends aright; a man is worth what he
gives rightly from a right motive, and no
more. An epitaph on a man’s tombstone,
who seems to have learned this truth,
reads thus: “ What I spent, I had;
what I kept, I lost; what I grape, I
have.” This poor man, three million
man, has given scope to no end of para
graphing. All. his ways, and how he
made his money; are duly chronicled.
In fact, he is hero-worshipped. Not a
word is said about the smallness, of in
tellect and of heart that is needed to
gather together, and keep safely when
gathered, so many pieces of paper, or of
gold. ~.Not .one, word is said.'abpnt the
wretched abuse of so lorig-a lire and of
so many opportunities of glorifying God
by doing good to .his fellow men, lost
and lost forever; not a word on the
wickedness of hoarding up the vast heaps
of gold representing so much bread, when
thousands were hungry; so much medi
cine when people were suffering agony
for the want of it; not a word about the
great God, and the great white throne, and
the reckoning day for every farthing of
that vast sum. Of him, silence is the best;
the name of him was Jones, or Smith,
or Thompson, or something like-that.
. With the close of Parliament has also
■A
come the dissolution of “ Convocation:”
It had a royal license to : do something,
with pretty full instructions as to What
was to be done, anarhow to do it, A
canon which nobody obeys except when
it suits himself, was to be altered, or an
other substituted for it, which would
have been liable to the same liberties,
but there \vas.a Jjjitch somewhere. Some
thing in the machinery went wrong and
Convocation dissolved, after a good deail
of stout talk, and nothing ever yet got
done. When the Church of England
does really waken up she: . will need a
real convocation—this sham one will not
do her any good.
Meanwhile there is abundant need of
some sort of work to be really done, not
any longer talked about. The Puseyite
party in the Church of England are no
longer Puseyites but Papists. They are
really as perfect Papists as any one can
be, Who does not, actually and in set
terms acknowledge the Pope and re
nounce everything and person besides.
Confession is openly preached and as
openly practiced. The garments of the
priests of Rome are openly worn. In
cense is used in very many churches.
"Virgin, worship is far from unknown*
and in “ Father” Ignatius we have a
superior of a Church of England mon
astery; The holy father is at present
causing some slight sensation in London,
so far as any thing or person can in this
fierce heat, fay preaching in shaven crown
and sandalled feet, and monk’s cloak and
hood, in St. Martin’s Hall, where you
must pay to go in, with reserved seats
at a high figure, aud the show is really
worth seeing, by all accounts. Unfor
tunately when the cat is away the mice
will play. And so when Father Igna
tius is up in London his unruly children
in the Monastery at Norwich have been
falling out, have fought, excommunicated
their Father, and had the police down
upon them. In fact playing at Monas
teries has turned out to be no joke at all,
and poor Father Ignatius is like to lose
both his children and his money. Whe
ther the man is mad or not, is a question
for a medical man, and I possess no di
ploma in medicine. Some of the con
gregations in London who attend these
English Popish churches are very small,
some of them very large. But at all
events the thing ,is now clear that within
the borders of one church, fed on the
same loaf, professing the same creed,
ruled by the same bishop, under the same
ecclesiastical'law, the two extremes of
the rankest popery and the fullest, freest
evangelism may dwell together in peace
and unity. Light and darkness, it would
appear, can have fellowship. It would
almost seem as if the insoluble problem
had yielded to man’s ingenuity at last,
and it were now possible to serve two
masters and be friends both with God
and mammon.
In the House of Lords the subject was
brought forward by the’ Marquis of
Westmeath. Uunfortunately both in the
House of Lords and of Commons the
men who take the lead in Protestant
matters are not all they should be; and
their appearance is a signal for “ loud
laughter.” But the Mafquis of West
meath is an old man, a' very old and
feeble man, and he is not the wisest of
men. A very good man, zealous, earn
est, but he lacks the power of leading.
When first he brought forward the sub
ject, the Bishop of London replies vir
tually, “ It may be all very true, but there
is no proof of it—it’s difficult to get legal
proof; people write to me anonymously,
or when not, I ask them to come forward
and substantiate their assertions, and
they decline.” Under these circum
stances what can a poor Bishop of Lon
don do, on only £15,000 a year ?. Where
upon the Marquis of Westmeath, not to
be beaten on that score, takes his wife
on his arm one fine Sabbath and goes in
to one of the worstof the Popish churches
of the establishment, has a friend to go
also, and makes him write a letter de
scribing what he saw, the Marquis also
telling out what his own eyes and ears
had made, him cognizant of. Here, now,
my Lord Bishop of London, is a good
and trustworthy witness who is ready
now, at any time, to bear testimony
in any place to the things which he has
seen and heard. Whereupon up rises
the Bishop of London, blows hot, then
blows cold, then hot again, indignantj
sorrowful; but .there- is. some-canon, or
there, is some clause in some old and
obsolete act of Parliament, that makes.it
doubtful if a conviction coqld bd got
readily at; indignation again, and a little
more see-sawing, and down sits the Lord
Bishop, leaving everybody but himself
exactly what and where they were, only
a little more confused and hopeless. The
result is that the Popish party are greatly ;
emboldened and take longer and swifter
strides than ever. *
The Parliament is dissolved and the'
country is astir in the agonies of a gene-:
ral election. It was doubtful what’
Lord Palmerston would do; to-day .the:
mystery is solved, and his lordship has
issued his electioneering . address to his
old constituents at Tiverton, in as hope- 1
ful, jaunty, and cheerful a style as a
youth of nineteen. He .-makes no sign;
of showing the white feather; but is
bold arM confident as ever. 4 It is also
reported to-day that the new. Lord
Chancellor is to be Lord Cranwortli, a
man of the v highest character and who
held, the same office under Lord Aber
deen’s short ministry in 1859. The
Lord Chancellors have a retiring pension
of £5OOO a year, and there will now be four
of them in receipt of that annual trifle.
A-trial of great interest is at present
going on in Edinburgh, Dr.
a medical man of some standing, is on
trial for the murder by poison of Ms wife'
and his own mother-in-law. The details
are-very horrible and go to showthatfor
three months he kept dosing bis own wife
with antimony. The medical evidence
seems to leave not the shadow of a
doubt on the. case ;! .and the conviction is
universal -that he will be condemned-
The motive is said'to have been the post
session of some moneywhich his Mother
in-law had left to his wife, and'failing her
to Dr. Pritchard, for the benefit of their
children. By at once getting quit of them
both, he would haye obtained possession of
the money. Altogether in some of its fea
tures the case is worse than evpn Palm
er’s. The murdered' woman actually
died in her husband’s arms. A young
servant girl of seventeen is mixed- up in
the case in a most unpleasant manner.
. A serious fire broke out the other day
in the residence of the Prince of Wales.
By dint of great exertion the fire was
got subdued. The Prince himself hap
pened to be, on the spot—stripped off
his coat and waistcoat and worked as
hard as the hardest, all sweat, smoke,
and soot,, begrimed.,, No . very serious
damage resulted. The Duke of Suther
land, who lives opposite, and whose
great hobby is fire-engineering, was soon
on the spot,,and no doubt rejoiced in the
opportunity of displaying his fire-extin
guishing skill. The Prince and Princess,
with their two infant children, left soon
after for Windsor. '
After a long season of drought we
have refreshing rains.
LETTER FROM''CHINA',
Fern Chau, May 5, 1865.
MOHAMMEDANS IN CHINA.
An interesting passage in Chinese
history, both past and present, relates to
the rise and. prevalence of Moslem influ
ence. -I can give only.a very condensed
sketch. Adherents of the sect first ap
pear in the empire as early as the. Tang
dynasty, within a century after the
Hegira. The only and the first anthem
tic records of the very limited migration,,
during a thousand years from Ptolemy
to Marco Polo, are gathered from the
narratives of the Arab travellers, Wahab
and Abuzaid, A. D. 850 and 877. From
these accounts we learn 'that a flourish
ing trade was conducted by Arab mer
chants at Canfn, probably near the pre
sent Chassu, and that at the sack of
that place, (or of the opulent Hangchau.
in its vicinity ?) no less than 120,000
Mohammedans, Jews, Christians, and
Parsees were slaughtered. ' The foreign
trade subsequently, found its chief seat
at Canton, which indeed could boast of
having traders from the West as earlv
as A. D. 150.
THEIR POLITICAL INFLUENCE.
Chinese Mohammedans are found
throughout ' the whole empire, though'
they are comparatively few iu numbers
in the Southern provinces. They pass
the literary examination, and hold office;
and to gain such positions it is natural
to infer that they must yield to the pre
valent worship of Confucius and the
State idols. Such a despotic rule as
that of the “ Sons of Heaven” would
scarcely tolerate hetrodoxy in such a
vital matter. Yet it cannot be posi
tively asserted that they are addicted to
any other idolatry than that involved
in the worship of their prophet.
MOSQUES.
De Guignes speaks of a deserted
mosque at-Hangchau having a gate con
cave under the top like a cupola, and
columns with entablatures terminating
in crescents. An inscription in Arabic
reads thus, “ Temple for Mussulmen who
travel and wish to consult the Koran.”
In a mosque at Canton “the votaries
are distinguished from others as persons
who have no .idols, and who will not eat
swine’s flesh.” Mr. Milne, an English
missionary, visited a mosque at Ningpo.
The head priest boasted that his ances
tors came from Medina. He could read
the Arabic, and converse both in Arabic,
and Chinese. The pillars of the hall of
worship were inscribed with sentences
from the Koran, and “the sacred seat”
was supposed to lie behind a pair of
ornamented doors hung on the wall.
On observing the imperial tablet near
the Mr. M. asked the priest
how he could allow- such a blasphemous
monument in a place sacred to the wor
ship of Aloha, the true God. He re
plied that he never worshipped it, that it
occupied a low position, in the temple,
but that if" ever charged with disloyalty
by the enemies of his faith, he could ap
peal to the presence of the tablet in vin
dication of his innocence. It is an in
teresting fact, viewed in its connection
with the : sacred mosque in China, that
.(as stated,in “the Middle Kingdom”)
these Chinese Mohammedans occasion
ally visit Mecca to drink in new inspira
tion at the fountain head of their religion.
Only think of a phlegmatic Chinese
affecting the spirit of the fiery Mahomet!
THE EUH-CHAU MOSQUE.
The approach to it is through, a nar
row lane, lined with the small cottages
of native Mohammedans. The' temple
consists mainly of a 'Burge room, with
numerous gilt tablets on the walls. There'
are several resident priests, and. about
thirty fakirs, or religious beggars, sub
. sis ting, it is said, on the superstitious
fears of the people. This is, however,
nothing strange in a land where beggars
of both sexes and of• various grades,
often demand cash of shopmen with
loud menacing cries, and thumps of their
staves.
MOHAMMEDAN INSURBECTION.
' During the the Tai
pings against the?Tpji’erial dominion in
the central portions of China, a rebellion
• under Mohammedan leadership has been
in progress in the North and Northwest;
Aiid now that the power of .the former
seems to have collapsed, that of the
latter begins to assume a marked pro
gress. Allow me-to* send you a few
brief statements on the authority of a
Shanghai paper, whose sources of infor
mation are regarded; as in the main re
liable. . The Mohammedan insurrection
ists' started from Kansuh, in the extreme
Northwest, and followed the course of
the Yellow River to Kaifung, whence
they have made successful excursions
into Shantung; 'and" established them
selves at Tungchang on the Grand
Canal. There are rumors of conflicts
still raging in Kansuh, Shensi, and
Shansi, from which-it is manifest that a
large region is disaffected. It is an in
teresting question how these religionists
can effect so serious a : movement against
the legions of the Emperor. At the
commencement of the last century, ac
cording to “the Middle Kingdom,”they
numbered only half a million. During
the century and a half they have' pro-,
bably much increased in numbers, and,
what is more to the purpose, in political
influence. The Chinese toonre most in
veterately materialistic in their views,
and their busy scheming minds arc pro
lific in expedients to get gain and place.
Wealth, influence, and fame are their
watchwords and their gods. The mass
of the Taipings were doubtless Christians
only in name, who scented plunder, and
therefore readily swarmed about the
standard of a man whose amazing suc
cess in dp very ineipiency of his enter
prise promised so much. So It is, we
maf fairly suppose, in this Moham
medan movement. The poor and op
pressed, the vicious and turbulent, the
scheming and ambitious, of this vast hive
of humanity are swelling the predatory
armies which may yet task to the utmost
the imperial exechequer and soldiery.
'what of the future ?
Is there more temper in Mohammedan
swords than in the blades of the pseudo-
Christianity of • Taipingism ? To what
extent does this political influence per
meate the Northern provinces, and does
it possess the requisite constructive skill
to organize a State, and cope success
fully with the long established Manchu
dominion ? And will some second Ma
homet arise, crowned, not with a turban,
but with buttoned cap and feather, and
by the force of his personal character or
some new phase of the Moslem supersti
tion, gain a permanent ascendancy ?
These are questions awaiting the de
cision of the stern logic of events in
Providence. ■ A glance at the empire in
its politics, morals, and religion reminds
us of certain apt Scripture similes in
prophetic vision, as of the "beast”
rising -from the sea, having ten horns,
and of the four winds of the'heaven
striving on the great sea. - To borrow
these as illustrations merely, the “ great
sea” is the vast seething mass of a mul
titudinous people, while the “horns”
and “ winds” are the politico-religious
creeds striving for mastery. Here are
Confucianism, Tauism, Buddhism, Sham
anism, Mohammedanism, and Romanism
intermingling, and making themselves
felt in high places. We rejoice to know
that there is another power distinctive
and wholly antagonistic to these in their
religious elements, not a creed simply,
much less a policy; but a pure,- holy,
vitalizing faith, which will eventually
subdue them all. But by what special
moral process best adapted to national
characteristics and prejudices, by what
marked providences in the crises of this
people’s history, and in what “ accepta
ble year of the Lord” the leaven of grace
will affect the mighty transformation is
known only to Omniscience. Here is
food for faith, and incentive to patience
and prayer.
A MODERN IDEA.
To show how easily we modern's can
make the ends of the world meet at the
Chinese antipodes, look for a moment at
an illustrative instance taken from a
Shanghai paper. Here are two flowing
editorials, one relating to the Moham
medan insurrection, the other introduc
ing o<Hi'-American slaves and white ad
venturers to the flowery land. I omit
quotation marks, as there is room in my
letter for a resume only. The destinies
of the worid have been seriously affected
by the American contest, and more im
portant results will follow a cessation of
hostilities. . ... The negro once emanci
pated will settle in the productive dis
tricts of the Northwest of the United
States, where his distinctive characteris
tics will be lost by intermarriage, and
■the inevitable struggle between the two
races! (I am responsible for the exclama
tion-points.) Others will go to the large
cities and find the, same fate, while a
third class of more adventurous spirits
will leave the scenes of their degradation
in search of name and fame. By such
men, including turbulent whites from
the armies, this Empire will probably be
.flooded! ! And against the ill effects of
the irruption we should take all the pre
caution in our power!!! : The geological
formation of Southwest China is like the
West coast of South America. - There
are gold- mines to be worked, and the
said adventurers will come to work
them, and we may with/reason anticipate
a radical change in our intercourse with
the Chinese!!!!
I beg the indulgence of your readers
if the transition to the last: topic seems
too sudden. They will agree with me;
from the evidence thus furnished, that
“the world moves,”and often quite sud
denly. And doubtless we . shall see
strange revolutions in China and else
where, before the kingdom which is un
changeable comes in power. C, C. B.
- AWAY FROM HOME. -
; In going. iiHopi Albany.
Falls; the train stopsifirst at Schenectady,
a city of ancient elate, settled originally
. also by the Dutch.' Here, onan elevated
plateau, is '
.the venerable Dr. Nott still,presides, as
sisted by his very able and.popular col
league, the Bev. Dr. Hickok: The Col
lege is not as ' well filled' with students
as in former years. This’ is; probably,
owfng-mainly to the fact .that/other in
stitutions Sre now sharing the popularity
which at one .time, within certain geo
graphical limits, Union almost monopo
lized. An hour’s leisure will enable you
to visit the College grounds, which are
delightfully situated, overlooking the
toWn, and a wide extent of the. surround
ing country. The centre of attraction
is Professor Jackson’s garden, occupy
ing quite a large space of ground, and
exhibiting unusual taste in its arrange
ment. There are flower beds, rich in
the profusion and variety of the flowers
that adorn them-—pleasant' intertwining
. walks leading you to sudden surprises
as you emerge from dense shrubbery
into the presence of groups of < laughing
roses, or iillieS bending gracefully upon
their slender stems. At one moment
XQH cross a rustic bridge that spans a
bright, gurgling stream, and then pass
along a narrow, secluded path, over
shadowed by the branches of dense for
est trees. Then, as you emerge from
this forest seclusion, a large flower gar
den stretches out before you, free to ex
hibit all its glories at once, with no in
truding shrub, or tree to intercept the
view. Adjoining this is a broad lawn,
covered with verdure, the opposite side
bordered by a thickly studded grove. In
the centre of this lawn is an immense
tree, apparently the growth of more than
a hundred years, and beneath this tree
are rude benches on which the visitor
may sit and meditate. The vegetable
garden is near at hand, and in its luxu
riant products indicates diligent and
thorough cultivation. Large sums of
money have been expended here, as Well
as vast labor—but all to a good purpose.
It would be well if all other colleges
■would imitate this noble and useful ex
ample. Let* Hamilton, which has dis
played so much life and energy of late
in other respects, take the lead. There
is one professor-at least, connected with
that institution, who might direct such
an arrangement with ability that would
secure the most satisfactory results. Of
this, his own private grounds are the
assurance. Let the conception there so
beautifully expressed on a limited scale,
be expanded over> acres, to be cultivated
under the auspices of that same liberality
which has- already raised the college to an
eminent sphere of influence and usefulness.
And here we would respectfully sug
gest to Dr. Goertner an effort in this di
rection, as peculiarly worthy of his en
lightened perception of the wide range
of agencies essential to the thorough
training of the intellectual and moral
powers. There is no purpose, in our
view, for which twenty thousand dollars
could be so well and so wisely invested.
The annual proceeds of this sum would
furnish botanical contributions of im
mense practical value to the student; —
to say nothing of the aesthetic influence
which such an arrangement would per
petually exercise, refining and elevating
the thoughts by the very sight of.nature’s
choicest adornments.
We would have a grand conservatory,
so that the flora of every clime-might be
largely represented.
Would not such an enterprise render
more acceptable an institution already
advancing rapidly in public confidence
and favor ? There Are men of taste, we
believe, who would encourage the plan
by contributing liberally to its prosecu
tion; and there are, perhaps, tWo hun
dred of the graduates of Hamilton who
would cheerfully contribute one hundred
dollars each, in order to secure for Alma
Mater an arrangement which would give
it a marked and beautiful pre-eminence
among the colleges of the land.
It is amazing with what stupid facility
the names of places are changed, .oftjen
to gratify the pride of some wealthy in
habitant. Thus, not far west off Sche
nectady, we arrived at the village of Fon
da. _ The Indians called it Caugh-na-wa
ga; a word easily pronounced and truly
musical. The principal emphasis is on
the penult. This name was abandoned
some years ago for that of a reputable
gentleman, .who happened to own a little
more land in the neighborhood than any
one else. Another enterprising gentle
man took a leading interest in the pros
perity of the village, and ejected the
hotel, which, we believe, he still owns.
Our wonder now is that they did
not dignify the place with his name,
and call it Borst; vulgarly pronounced
Burst. We know not the meaning of
thq Indian designation; but it was pro
bably expressive of some historic or local
fact, Or of some poetic conception,. "
A few miles further west is Canajo
barie. The original name has been hap
pily preserved. In the creek that flows
near the village and empties into the Mo
hawk, is a huge-rock, scooped out proba
bly by the constant action of-the water
that falls upon it, and as the creek pours
its contributions in,to this receptacle, the
water whirls and foams; and hence the
appropriate and significant name, which
means, The Boiling Pot.
May'the time never come when Wy
oming shall be styled Brown’s Hollow;
or the Wissahickon shall be called Bear
Creek, in honor of the celebrated Bruin
who has so long perambulated its charm
ing banks. C. A. S. .
LITTER FROM lOWA.
JDeath of Bev. L. H. Loss—His Field’of
Labor — Soldiers’ Orphans’ Home —
Trials of Missionaries—Church Erec-
A correspondent writes from Marshal
town, of this State, to the Chicago Jour
nal, under date of July 14, as follows:
“ The death of Rev. Lewis H. Loss, a
Presbyterian clergyman of this city, has
caused great gloom over his .charge; and
through the whole community: It was
mainly through his exertions that his
church has one of the finest edifices in
the State, He did not live to see it
completed, but passed away peacefully
on the 10th inst., just as the daylight
began to. fade in the west.” Thus, alas!
another of.our brethren in' this State has
left us forever.
Marshaltown is a central and import
ant place on the railroad running west
from Clinton, and is situated a.little east
of the centre of this State. It numbers
about 2,500 inhabitant’s, though not
more than about six or seven years old;
and is surrounded by a most rich and
beautiful farming country.
Our departed brother has bee® labor
ing for two years or more to accomplish
the good work spoken of by the' .above
mentioned correspondent: This is an
important opening for some good- and
earnest practical man.
At this place, Marshaltown, there is
to be a grand fair in behalf of the Soldiers’
Orphans’ Home of this State, next month.
This institution is "in advance of all
others,” and is another evidence of the
thorough patriotism of lowa., Large
Sums of money have already been raised
for this noble object, and'now this fair
is contemplated to raise other needed
funds. The Home is alieady in opera
tion, and draws the benediction of all
good men. As there is no Old School
or Congregationalist church at this place
-—and as the building;, needs to be com
pleted—we earnestly hope that, the right
man may be found for this people.
-Brother Loss wrote your correspon
dent a few weeks before his de'ath- say
lng that he feared his work was almost
ended here-:—but expressed a great de
sire that this- work might be carried for
ward. There is little doubt that the de
ceased hastened his end by over-woTk
in the building of the church. There
was much to discourage him— and
among other things that seemed to have
weighed him down, was his disappoint
ment and trial in connection with the
plan of church erection and its working.
Much light, it would seem, may yet be
shed upon this system in its operations
with our Western .churches.' One who
has been on the field as a laborer, may
be supposed to understand the feelings
of brethren and the evils of the plan bet
ter than any other. G. D. A. H.
lowa Citt, July 19, 1865. , .