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<rt deal of money to pay for the gratifica
tion of other people." "Benefit to you? why,
sir, it will benefit you more than anybody else.
The statue can be seen from every window of
your house ; it will be an ornament and add
dignity to the whole neighborhood, and it will
perpetually remind you of the Father of his
Country—the immortal Washington !" "Ah!"
answered old Lucre, t] do not require a statue
to remind me of him, for I always carry Wash
ington here," and he placed his hand upon his
heart. "Then, let me tell you," replied the
applicant, "if that is so, all I have to say is, that
you have got Washington in a very tight place!"
| ,[EP"It is said that the kind mothers of the
East have got so good, that they give their
children chloroform previous lo whipping them.
(CP"A hospitablp man is never ashamed of
his dinner, when you come to dine with him.
[CF"The young man who cast his eye on a
young lady coming out of church, has had it
replaced, and now sees as well as ever.
iGP""Did you ever see such a mechanical
genius as my son?" said an old lady; "be has
made a fiddle out of his head, and has wood
enough left to make another."
To the Memory of a Miser-
Here lies old thirty-three per cent,
The more he got the more he lent ;
The more he had the more he craved.—
Great God, can such a soul be saved!
man who "retraced" the past is sup
posed to be a harness maker.
(LP*Blessed are the orphan children ; for they
have no mothers to spank them.
—lt is said thai Forrest receives $5,000 for
his ten nights engagement in St. Louis.