Ucfofurfi & mttte. BY MEYERS & BEDFORD. WHOLE NO. 2774. VOL 53. Political. gfflf 0\ HI & HRREMI. WASHINGTON, C. STREET, NOV. IF), 1857. To the Editors of the . Vationul Intelligencer : GENTLEMEN- Many papeis, desirous' of the establishment of a National Bank, are quoting what General Jackson said in lavor of such an institutional the beginning of his presidency. 1 have to remind all such papers that what was so said was said before Gen. Jackson saw a pros pect of restoring the currency of the Constitu tion, and that, after he saw that prospect, he .said nothing more in favor of Banks, National or State, but the contrary, and labored during the remainder of his public life to restore and preserve the hard money currency which the founders ofour Government had secured (as they believed) for us. The plan of that restoration and preservation consisted of five parts, namely: 1. To revive the gold currency by correcting the erroneous standard ot 1/91. To create a demand for haul money by making it the exclusive currency of the Federal Treasury. 3. To make sure of this money by keeping it in itsotvn treasures. 4. To suppress all paper currencv under twenty dollars by a stamp duty. 5. To wind up all defaulting banks by a bank rupt law against delinquents. The first three of these five parts were accom plished, and to these we are indebted for twenty vears exemption —from 183/ to 180/—from hank suspensions and depreciated currency; aiso, (or carrying the country through a foreign war—the Mexican —without paper money, and with the public securities above par; also, lor having in the country at this time full fifteen 11infs as much hard money as we had in the time ol the late Bank of the United States ; and we aie indebted to the want of the two latter parts of the plan tor what we now see: nearly two thousand hanks in the country, a great part of tbem fraud# from the beginning, and the bad governing the good: a general suspension in a season of peace and prosperity; people are for ced to use depreciated paper when there is more hard monev IU the country than its business could employ: men and women begging for work, and unable to obtain it, when the coun try needs all they can do, and has the means to ;pav for it: families crying for bread, when a bountiful Providence has given (he most exu berant crops that ever were seen: the business ot twenty five niilJious of people deranged, disor dered and thrown out of joint; and all this the york of the base part of the banks, falling down of themselves for want of foundations, and drag ging the solid ones after (hem. For it is in this case of bank suspensions as it is with a ship .sinking at sea, where those who cannot swim •drag down those who can.—A stamp duty on their notes, and a bankrupt process against themselves would have saved the country front ilhe calimaties it now endures; for many of the base order of banks would have been unable to "make currency" for want of money to pay for -slamps on their notes, and others would have been proper subjects for the bankrupt process m the first few days ot their existance. Ihe restoration of the gold currency was ♦/Feeteel under General Jackson's Administration the establishment of the hard money currency for tfie federal Government and the keeping of its own money in its own treasuries, was accom plished under Mr. Van Buren, both of which Presidents took the full responsibility of recom mending these three measures, and alo the two others—the two for the imposition of a stamp duly on all paper money under twenty dollars, and lor a bankrupt act against defaul ting nauks. Bills were repeatedly brought into Congress tor both purposes, but were always defeated by (lie defection of the paper-money wing of tfie Democratic party. I lie most plausible of ttie open objections made against the stamp duty was in the expense and the extensive machinery for its collection. I hat was answered by providing a cheap and simple process fir both purposes—a clerk in the lieaury Department for a superintendent oi the business, ami the clerks of the Federal courts to deliver out the stamps which they received from tii" treasury. The amount of the duty, arii, v heiher it should apply to all notes or only to those intended to be suppressed, were ques tions on which there was room fir some diver sity of opinion.—The fire-dominant opinion u a> t nat there should be a duty ujion all n -tes i-- •smd as a currency, (for what more tit to he taxed '• an the moneyed powers} the duty being the same on all notes, and such as the large one couid easily carry and tfie small ones not. The amount ot the duty was held necessary to be large—far greater'than in Great Britain; for t"ie no note is re-issiie ( |; no one goes 'out of ' banka frond time, so that the duty in " '-"and is paid every time the hank issues a note. •so in tfie L nited States. Here a note is <-issued until it is worn out : until it "has be ' ui." too ragged to hold together, or too filthy •' handled, or too defaced to be deciphered. - small duty is, tlierejore, sutiicient in Great ritain . it would require a very heavy one to eus equivalent in the United States. Among * penalties for violating the act, either by 'filing, receiving, or passing the unstamped P per, should be a disqualification to retain or r '"Ue a federal appointment ; for the pursuit o Re is so general at this time iri our country an o ardent, that, in arraying a class so large, so in. uential, and active against the unstamped r,( ' e , th"ir circulation would be effectually check-mated. fti" paper-money wing of the Democracy was iill nioie against the bankrupt act against 'an rupt hanks than against the stamp tax on to e 8 , and, acting with the habitual opponents t.ie party to which they professed to belong, easily defeated all the bHIs. The open objec " MJ" 1 " ' P ° m lawyers, with their profess ions drawn chiefly from British statutes, ia - merchants and traders were the proper subjects of the bankrupt law,* although every late British statue on the subject includes banks, (the Bank of England excepted :) and in a single season of suspension (that ol 1813-'l4-'ls) ninety-two of these banks had been subjected to commissions ofbankiuptcv. But this remedy was not of English, but of Roman origin, as i!s name would show, (" bancus ," and "rupfus") and bankers were the original objects of the law-j as the same name also shows. "Broken Bench" is the English of the Latin name, and was so called because the bankers (money cjiang e.-s of that time, as now in the east) hatf their benches in public places, on which they sat and did business ; and when any one Became delin quent, or criminal, he was driven awav and his bench was broken. And thus, in its origin, bankruptcy was a process against banks and bankers, and still is in Great Britian : and hence retains its original name of Broken-Bench—the bench so broken being the sign and warning to the public that the banker himself was insolvent and deprived his place of doing business. Banking in the United States is the most un restrained and unsafe that there is in the world ; unsafe even for solid and well conducted banks there being enough of ttie tinsolid and badlv conducted to fall down of themselves every few years, and to drag down the rest with them. The laws put few restraints or penalties upon them : and these restraints and penalties are regularly repealed just as often as the communi ty needs the benefit, of them. It is by name in some places, and by fact in others, a system of "free banking," which the hard-money Dem ocracy was accustomed to call "free swindling." Anybody becomes banker that pleases, and iss ues small notes and sends them ofFto a distance to be circulated and lost, and to sink upon the beads of the laboring people.f A favorite plan is to issue notes at one place payable at another far off, out of the way, and difficult to begot at, so as to compel the holder to submit to a shave. That mode of doing business was invented by a Scotchman of Aberdeen in 1S08; but he was in Great Britain, not in the United States ; and the British Ministry and the Rri'ish Parliament immediately took cognizance of the inventor and his imitators, and placed them all iri the category of swindlers, and so put an end to their operations. No stamp duty, no bankrupt act, and no requisition to keep any proportionate amount of hard money on fiand completes the license and unbounded freedom, anil the perfect title to periodical explosions, which belong to American banking. This last requisition, that of keeping on hand an amount of hard money proportionate to their liabilities, seems to be unknown (even in name) in the United States; yet that requisite is a legal and fundamental condition of the Bank of Eng land : and the proportion of one-third in gold of the total amount of its liabilities in circulation and deposits is the rate enforced : and below that proportion the Bank of England does not deem itself safe. Thus swore Mr. Horsley Palmer, Governor ol the Bank of England, he fore Lord A Ithorpe's committee, in 1832 : "The average proportion, as already observed, of coin and bullion which the bank deems it prudent to keep on hand, is at the rate of a third of the total amount of all her liabilities, including deposits as well as issues ." And thus swore Mr. George Ward Norman, a director of the Bank : " For a full stale of the circulation and deposits, say twenty-one millions of notes and six millions of deposits, making in the whole twenty-seven tuitions of liabilities, the proper •The American lawyer seldom looks beyond the statute ot Elizabeth, which was the first to confine the bankrupt process to merchants and traders : il they would look a little further back—look into the reign of that Queen's father—they would find a stat- ( ute sufficiently comprehensive to include other*, be sides merchants and traders; and the preamble to which is an accurate description ol many ot those who in our country, and at this day, follow the pur suit of issuing "rurrericy" lor the American people. That preamble says: "Whereas diver t and stt.lry persons craftily obtained into their hands threat sub stance of other men's goods', do suddenly flee to ports tin Ln own, or irep their houses, not minding to pay or restore to any of their creditors their debts and duties, but of their own wills and own pleasures consume the substance obtained by credit of other men for their own adornmeut and dainty living, against all reason, equity, and good coil science," Anno if, Henry \ 111. fA specimen of modern banking in the United States is seen in one o! the latest ol these institutions, duly chartered to issue "currency"—the "Gramte lluyf of Voluntown," Connecticut: whereol the Hartford (Connecticut) Times gives this briel and no doubt, veracious account: ••The charter was passed, and tor four or five mouths it was not heard of again. But suddenly, on or about the first of November instant, the bills ot the Granite Bank of Voluntown appeared in the mar ket. The bank commissioners were in this city at the time, and though having their hands lull ol busi ness tn various parts of the State, they repaired at once to Voluntown. There a very rich scene was o pened to them. They found, we understand, the 1 ol io win tg state of affairs. ♦•The managers of the bank, on or about the first instant, procured (i. e. borrowed for the occasion) a package of bills, or a package ot something which they calleds3o,ooo. This was the paid in capital of the bank, and upon this they commenced business, though on Saturday last they sent this same package hack to N'ew York, as they'claim, to procure specie for it. They have issued $17,000 in bills and had circula ted them in various parts of the country. "Five thousand dollars in bills were taken by a man who was to circulate them in Ohio. 1 his man letta receipt for Them, and verbally promised to send on a note when he arrived in Ohio. ••The assets were between three and four hundred dollars in coin, a one dollar bill on Windham County Bank, and a second-hand iron sate, not yet paid lor. Also the receipt of the Ohio man tor $.7,000 in the Granite bills." This is a samf le of a recent chartered hank in one of the oldest States. Here is another recent sample from one of the youngest Territories: "The Legislature of Kansas at its last winter ses. SIOII (lf*s(>-'O7) chartered a number ol Banks to is sue currency, one of which at Lecompton was re quired to have $">0,000 in specie, before it could be gin work. In the late Convention, while providing lor a new hank of three millions, the tact came out in debate that the Lecompton bank, without a dollar in hard money, obtained its certificate from the Gov ernor this summer past in this wise: It borrowed $'2,000, and, putting SI,OOO into two bags, and, while the Governor counted one bag at a time, the other was carried out anil brought in again: and this was done until $-70,000 were counted, and the certificate obtained." BEDFORD, PA., FRIDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 11,1857. sum in coin and bullion for the bank to retain ts nine millions." And to ttie same effect swore other directors. But in Great Britain it is not sufficient that this proportion of one-third is required to be on hand, but it must be shown - and that continually, that it is there.* This is accomplice! by the publication of the quar terly weekly iVerageof the liabilities and assets of the bank, from which the public can always see when the bank has crossed the line of safety. How different this from banking in the United ; where no proportionable rate of specie ! to the liabilities is even prescribed ; and when i five, ten, fifty, and hundred paper dollars for one hare one in the vault, are frequently ; issued. But one thing was wanting to complete the title ol our banking system to utter unworthi ness, and thatone thing has been discovered—it is the dispensation of the specie basis! Through out the world, so far as paper money is known, a specie basii j s deemed necessary to an institu tion which issues promises to pay specie. Not so in the United Stales. Paper upon paper has become the vogue with us. Stocks, and the notes of othT banks, are the "sandy" founda tion upon which a large propoition of our banks are built. I do not expatiate upon the evils of small pa per money :they are palpable to every observer, and only squire enumeration: 1. It drives away all hard money of equal denominations : for, in a competition between two currencies, the meanest is always the conqueror and chases the other out of the field. 2. It is the great source ofth crime of counterfeiting: fir the mass of the counterfeits consist of small notes. 3. It demoralizes the community : for people, not being villing to lose a note for which they have given value, instead of burning it when rejected by a knowing one as counterfeit, put it back in t e pocket and offer it again to an ignorant p-son, who receives it, and who goes through th-same process when rejected in his hands. 4. Small notes make the panic and bring on th> runs which break down good banks, for thse snail notes being in the hands of the masses, wen they get alarmed, they assemble by thousaids at the doors of tlie institution which issierf the notes, demand the money, break the anks, and propagate the alarm which they thetry-lves feel until it becomes general; for nothirg is more contagious than a monied panic, nonnything mote unmanageable. 5. It pillages lit* poor and the ignorant ; f>r every base note, everv one that is counterfeit, or on a broken hnk, or on a bank that never existed, although! will run for a while, must stop somewhev: and when it does, is sure to stops in the handy of the poor and uninformed, upon that class east able to bear the loss, wtio have no advan.ige from banks while in operation, and who car the loss when they slop. (i. It excites tc. swindling ; for knaves, with nothing hut bras lor their capital, and that in their I faces in ''ad of their coffers, are induced to set ! up man.factories of small paper, to be sent ■ abroad a d sunk upon the hands of those among whom it is scattered ; all that is so sunk being clear ga is to the manufacturer. 7. It induces and evet compels people to be wasteful of their money ; lor such is the natural honest and just contemj and distrust of small notes, that he or she that receives one, hurries off to lay it out for something not needed, while a piece of golf of the sam amount would he valued and cherish ed, and lidiby and added to, until enough ac cumulat I to make a purchase of something needed .md useful. 8. It subjects the payer to be cheated or worsted in change ; for, giving paper in payment, he must receive the change in other paper, and for this purpose, the meanest most dirty, and worthless will always be nickel out and shoved upon him. In short, such ar>-the evils, the crimes the demoralization and cheating of small paper mony, that all na tions, except the United States, place it in the category of a criminal agent, and suppress it accordingly- Twenty-odd years ago, when we were la boring to restore the constitutional currency to the Government and the people, the ready ob jection, repeated by all the friends of paper money, was, that there was not gold and silver in the world to carry on the business of tfie United States ; and the ready answer to that objection was, that there was precisely enough! arid tfiat exactly enough would come to the United States it we would only create a demand for it by correcting the gold standard, make it the Government currency, and suppressing small paper. Only a part of these things have been done, and there have flowed into the Uni ted States, or been obtained from our own mines, about four or five times as much gold as the bu siness of the United States could employ. The supply has been nearly a thousand millions of dollars, and the business of the United States would only employ about two hundred millions, i This no ' guess work, but bottomed upon au i thentic data ; for the statistics of political econ i omv show that nations can only use certain : amounts of money, some more, some less accor : ding to their pursuits. Thus, a highly manu | factuiing country, where the employer needs | moncv incessantly to carry on his business in ! the purchase of raw materials, and the payment of operatives, and in the construction or repair of buildings and machinery, and where the op eratives themselves need money daily for the support of their families, the quantity of money I required is lar greater than in an agricultural and planting country, where the farmer raises ! his own supplies, and has his crops and produce to pay large demands. And therefore Englanc, • p.tfery three months you may see in the leadiig Lon'ion newspapers a notice in about these words : <.yuai!erly average ot the weekly liabilities aid assets °f'he Bank of England, from the 12th day of ! December, 1647, to the 6th of March 1848, both in ciu.,ve, published pursuant to the act 3d ol William IV., cap. 98: LIABILITIES. ASSETTS. I Circulation A' 18,600,000 Securities £22,792/100 Deposits 11,535,000 Bul'ii & coin 10,015000 £30,135,000 £32,807000 Freedom of Thought and Opinion. the formost manufacturing country, requires the greatest amount of money : and has it, to wit: about eleven dollars a head ; and Russia, so largely agricultural, requires the least amount ! of money, and can employ but about four dollars a head. So the United States, in small part manufacturing and large!)' agricultural and plaoting, would find her maximum demand for money somewhere half way between the two— i say, eight dollars a head ; which, at the present ; amount of the white population, (say twenty five millions,) would give two hundred millons ;as the national demand ; always remenbering that the gtVat payments are made with crops and bifislof exchange founded on the proceeds |of industry. And thus it becomes a proposition ; demount fa ted 'l™ l 'be United States, since the correction of the gold standard twenty-three years ago, have received a supply of gold to four or five times the amount which the busi ! nessoperations of the people could employ. Of 1 that amount the leading banks- estimated two hunlred and ninety millions to be remaining in the country at the commencement of the pres ent panic ; and since that time more than twelve millions have arrived, and very little gone ; so j that three hundred millions would be the pres ent estimate of the amount of gold and silver jin the country ; being one hundred millions ; more than the business of the country would i employ. Three hundred millions is exactly fifteen times as much as the United States pos sessed in the timeofthe late Bank of the United States. Twenty millions was the wholp amount at that time, and that ail in silver—not a par ticle of gold being then in circulation. And it i is exactly thirty times as much as the whole j Union possessed at the time of the termination iot the first National Bank : the whole supply : being then hut ten millions, and that all silver. Under these circumstances, ($300,000,000 !in gold in the country, peace and prosperity ! throughout Europe and America, great crops I and good health,) there was nothing in the state of the country to justify the suspension, or anything to justify its continuance. The only solution of such a catastrophe is the obvious one, to wit, the failure of bad banks and the consequent run which their failure made upon the good ones. The insolvent pulled down the j solvent: and the Legislatures of several States I have [ut all on an equality ; but the solvent j should repulse the association. The living body should not he tied to the /lead one. The sol vent should recommence their payments, and make visible the broad line between the sound . and the rotten, which the Legislatures have covered up; and public sentiment would then of the latter in spite of legislative The solvent banks can and will resume, and that will satisfy those who do not look beyond the evil of the day ; but those who look ahead and see new evils in the perspective, arid to the legislative power whose duty it is to pro vide against evils before they happen, something more will be seen to be necessary. A recur rence ol such calamities, in the view of all such, shoo Id be guarded against, and can effectually be done by two acts of Federal legislation—a stamp-dulv on paper currency, and a bank rupt law against bankrupt banks. There is not a monaich in Europe who would treat his subjects, or surfer them to be treated, as the people of the United States are treated bv the base part of their own banks, and the indulgent Legislatures which legalize their vio lations of law, promises and contracts. The issue ol currency and its regulation is an attrib ute of sovereignty, and everywhere is exercised iby the sovereign power, except in the United States. Here, also, it was intended to be an attribute of sovereignty, and was placed in the hands of Congress, and limited to the issue of gold and siloer, and the regulation of its /mine. For our present government was formed by hard-money men, who had seen and felt the disastrous and demoralizing effects of paper money, and were anxious to save their posterity from such calamities as they had suffered.— They did their part to save us. Shall we be false to ourselves and to them 1 Respectfully THOMASH. BENTON. SPECULATORS AND CAPITALISTS.— This hit will fit other latitudes than that ot Paris—a "good tiling" of a Parisian gnmin, (urchin, loafer boy.) It is lively, energetic, character istic and effective : Two gentlemen chatting on the Boole, vard. One was a great speculator, developing the plan ola magnificent project, the other a dazzled capitalist, ready to snap at the bait. He hesitated a little ; but was not unyielding, merely making a few objections for conscience sake. Near these two passed a couple of young sters, of ten or twelve years. They were look ing into a tobacco shop close by, and one cries out to the other : "By the piper! I'd like to smoke a sous worth of tobacco." • Well," said the other, "buy a sous worth." "Ah ! as luck will have it, I haven't a sou." "Hold on, I've got two sous." "That's the ticket,just the thing—one for the pipe, and one for the tobacco." "Oh, yes ! but what am I to do!" "You 1 Oh, you shall be a stockholder ; you can spit !" It was a flash of light. The capitalist thrust ; his hand into his pocket and fled. The specula tor cast a furious look at the two urchins, and turned down the street. A CANDIDATE IN A FlX.— The Detroit Free Press avers that the Republican candidate for ! Mayor in that City visited the Detroit Locomo tive Works to palaver the workmen. While doing the usual shaking of hands his coat tail was caught in the machinery and he was whirled uptothe ceiling amidst frantic kicks and strug gles on his part. While in this picturesque atti tude it is said that he insisted on shaking hands : with several of "the boys,' who crowded around ! to see the fun. Getting red in the face, and hav ing kicked himself out of breath, he was lower ' ed away, after which he speedily "disbursed." SLEEP. "GOD bless the man who first invented sleep !" So Sancho Panza said, and so say 1: And bless him, also, that he didn't keep His great discovery to himself; or try To make it-—as the lucky fellow might— A close monopoly by "patent right!" Yes—bless the man who first invented sleep! (I really can't avoid the iteration); But blast the man, with curses loud and depp, Whate'er th rascal's narne. or age, or station, Who first invented, and went'round advising, That artificial cut-off—early rising! "Rise with the lark, and wjih the lark to hed." Ufesftrves some sQljjmn sentimental owl— Maxims like these are very cheaply said; But ere you make yourself a fool, or fowl, Pray just inquire about their rise—and fall, And whether larks have any beds at all ! The "time for honest folks to be abed," Is in the morning, if I reason right; And he who cannot keep his nrecinus head Upon his pillow till it's fairly light. And so enjoy his forty morning winks, Is up—to knavery; or else—he drinks! Thomson, who sung about the "Seasons," said, It was a glorious thing to rite in season; But then he said it—lying—in his bed At ten o'clock A. M.—the very reason He wrote o charmingly. The simple fact is, His preaching wasn't sanctioned by his practice. 'Tis, doubtless, well to be sometimes awake— Awake to duty and awake to truth— But when, alas! a nice review we take Of our best deeds and days, we find, in sooth, The hours, that leave the slightest cause to weep, Are those we passed in childhood, or—asleep ! 'Tis beautiful to leave the worlds while For the soft visions of ihe gentle night; And free, at last, from mortal care or guile, To live, as only in the angels' >ight, In sleep's sweet realms so cosily shut in, Where, at the worst, we only dream of sin ! 80 let us sleep, and give the Maker praise; I like the lad who, when his lather thought To clip his morning nap by hackneyed phrase Of vagrant worm by early songster caught, Cried, "Served him right!—it's not at ail surprising— The worm was punished, sir, for early rising !" THOMAS DICK AND EUGENE SUE. The same mail from Europe which brought intelligence ol the death of EUGENE SUE also bore tidings of the demise of Dr. THOMAS DICK, author of "The Christian Philosopher,'* and many other works written in vindication of the sacred and sublime truths ol Revelation—works which, particularly in Scotland, have been cir culated most extensively, consoling, teaching, and elevating the minds of millions. He ran his earthly course in pain and poverty. He . did not sit at rich men's tables. He was not clothed in purple and fine linen. He had rcanty, simple fare, and knew no luxurybut that of do ing his duty. In the fullest and most beneficent manner he was a Teacher ol the People ; devo ted to scientific studies, and had the an—so rare and so valuable—of writing on these difficult and abstruse subjects so plainly, that even the peasantry of his native land could "understand him. Nor was his character unknown, unap- j predated, or unhonored in this country. His numerous works (moral, religious, and scien tific) were largely reprinted and circulated all over the Union. His name was even as a household word among hosts of serious-minded, thoughtful, religious people. American travel lers who visited Scotland often went out of their way lo visit him at his humble cottage, in the village of Broughty Ferry, on the banks ol the silvery Tay. There they found an aged man, infirm of body but strong of mind, acute, and learned; poor in worldly riches, but whose life had indeed been devoted to laying up lor himself treasures in heaven. The American heart warmly sympathized with this fine old man, and, a few years ago, some benevolent and wealthy citizens of Philadelphia practically illustrated their sentiment toward him, by pre senting him with a handsome pecuniary gilt, as some provision for his closing days. Strangely enough, this American liberality led to Dr. DICK'S receiving some justice, tardy and small enough, frotn the hands of the British Govern ment. He was the recipient of a small pension, (£SO a year,) and limited as this dole was, it sufficed for his humble wants. He died, a fortnight ago, at Broughty Ferry, at the ripe age of eighty-five. About the same time there passed awav, into the far Hereafter, the French novelist, EUGENE SUE, one ot the most popular and mischievous writers ever produced by a country which, though it gave the world such men as FENULON. PASCAL, BOSSUET, and MASSILLON, also casi up, on the scum of its society, such men as \ u- TAIRK, ROUSSEAU, PAUL DE KOCK, and ALEXAN DER DUMAS. Infidels, scoffers at all religions belief, socialists, and steeped in the very foul est obscurity, were the writers who, for several years, corrupted the mind of France. Chief among these ministers of evil was EUGENE SUE. Nor was the mischief he did confined to his own country. He wrote so remarkably well that j his works got translated into almost every liv- I ing language of Europe. They circulated widely in England,and here in America they | commanded a sale so large that we should prob ably be considered romancing if we stated it. But, even at this risk, we will add that over a million of copies of" The Mysteries of Paris," "The Wandering Jew," and "The Seven Cap ital Sins," have been sold in the United States, at a price and in a form calculated to throw them into the hands of the masses. They fig ured largely among the infamous "yellow-cover literature," for some years a disgrace to our country, and they demoralized the public mind to a greater extent than can readily be calcu lated. Communism and Socialism, with the strongest infusion of impiety and indecency, were the staple of EUGENE SUE'S popular fictions. He painted vice in the most attractive manner, so that, looking at her gorgeous habiliments, the spectator scarcelv heeded her la idly features. He was sensuous in his descriptions, and, even while sometimes pretending to condemn TER.HS, S PER YEAR. NEW SERIES VOL I, NO. 19. sin, drew its semblance so attractively that the opposite ol repulsion was the effect produced. He was constant and consistent in insinuating and declaring that Reason, (as he called it, in the slang ol the old Encyclopedists) was a surer and better guide than Revelation. AH through his works there is a ruling doubt of God's good ness and merciful justice, ol man's honor, of woman's chastity. >CE had no faith in Virtue. He professed to champion popular rights, and, while he lived in luxury which an epicurean might have envied, invariably turned a deaf ear to all personal appeals from Poverty. He was returned as a member of the National Assembly, between the last French Revolution and the re-organization of the Empire, but made a very remarkable failure in public lite. Finally, suspected of complicity in some of the plots against what is called 'The State' in Paris, he became an exile. Once off his own soil, it seemed as if his skill as a writer had vanished. He commenced a Socialist novel, called "Les Mysteries du Peuple;" the publication of which was prevented by the Government—a needless prohibition, for his former admirers, the work men contemptuously pronounced that he had written himself out. He died, in exile, at the age of fifty-two. Such, and so contrasted, were THOMAS DICK and EUGENE SUE, the believer and the infidel. Unquestionably, large intellectual gifts Mere bestowed upon each. How one used, and how the other misused them, we have briefly indi cated. These men might almost stand as repre sentatives, among modem writers, of Good and Evil. One felt that his mission was to teach, to Look through Nature up to Nature's God, and the other acted as if he were convinced that his allotted work was to defile the purest and holiest decencies of life, and impress dsrk doubts, of a world beyond the grave upon the minds of all who read his works. The Chris j tian philosopher to whom, at the age of eighty, a pension of XSO a year was comparative wealth lived in privation, self-denial, and frequent pov erty. The popular novelist was surrounded with all that wealth can supply, and with the flattery and adulation of millions. Yet who, life's fitful fever ended, would prefer a career like SUE'S? With indignant truth has the poet said: " I'd rather be One of those hinds that round me treau, With just enough of sense to see The noonday's sun tnat's o'er bis head, Than thus, with high-built genius curst. That bath no heart for its foundation— Be all, at once, that's brightest, worst, Subiimest, meanest in creation." [Forney'rPrest. [Cp""When I lived up in Maine," said Uncle Ned," I helped to break up a piece of ground: f I we got off the wood in the winter, and early in the spring we began ploughing on't. It was SD consarned rocky that we had to get .forty yoke of oxen to one plough, we did, faith, and I held the plough more'n a week—l tho't I should die. It e'ena' most killed me, I vow. Why,one day I was holdin', the plough hit a gtump which measured just nine feet and a half through— hard and sound white oak: the plough split it, and I was going straight through the stump, j when I happened to think it might snap togeth er again ; so I threw my feet out, and no sooner done so than it snapped together, taking a smart . hold of the seat ol my pantaloons. Of course I was tight, but 1 held on to the plough handle, and though the teamsters did all they could, the j team ofSO oxen couldn't tear my pantaloons, nor cause me to § let go my grip. At last, though, after felling the cattle breathe, they gave anoth er strong pull together, and the old stump came out about the quickest. It had monstrous long roots, too, let rne tell you. My wife made the cloth for them pantaloons, aud I hain't worn any other since." The only reply made to this was—"l should have thought it would have come hard upon your suspenders." "Powerful ' hard!" Lucre lives near Union Square.— He was applied to lor a contribution to the Washington bronze monument, but declined. '■l do not see." he said, " what benefit this stat ue will be to ine : and five hundred dollars is a gre