THE DAILY TSVEKlMt? TELEGRAPH TRIPLE SHEET PHILADELPHIA, MONDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1807.
SriRIT OF TEE PJIFSS.
BSITOBUIi OraiOHS OF TBI LEilDIHO JOtTHHAL"
PFOB CTJBRIHT TOPICS COMPILED
DAT FOB ffH BTKNUIO KLW
Thl Northern raelfle Railway.
JTromiheN. Y. Tribune.
While the Central VaciHo and Union raciQo
Qailroad Companies are pushing on their
poads, both from the eastern and western
Wnts of departure, with amazing energy and
jnocess, the Northern Company has as yet
Jone little more than enlighten the oountry on
Ihe comparative advantages of its route over
liny other. The reason is plain. The former
lias a large Government subsidy, a loan of
United States credit, while the latter has only
A simple land grant. These roads lie at all
points nearly six hundred miles apart, and,
for local trade, could never be rivals. If there
he any jealousy between them, it Is because
lie Northern road, on account of its shorter
distance and easier grade?, mast eventually
Jje the great highway of international com
jnerce between Europe and Asia, and between
.Asia and our Atlantio seaboard. But we do
not propose to discuss the relative prospects
of the roads from any point of view.
The vast importance of either to the solid
nnd permanent growth of the Union, to its
commercial prosperity and its defensive
Strength, is beyond any possible estimate. In
the midst of the general satisfaction whioh
bails the rapid construction of the one. We
Simply desire to call attention to the grand re
sources which the other is likely to command
to the stupendous empire in extent and in
natural wealth which it is destined to develop.
In the success of the latter enterprise, New
3Tork and New England have a deep interest,
worthy of their most practical consideration.
The commercial supremacy of the city of New
York can never, of course, be disturbed, but
It may be enhanced; and it seems perfectly
' evident that, should the trade of Asia and the
freat Northwest be poured into the lakes which
wash the northern boundary of the State,
.whatever is broken in bulk, or distributed to
the Atlantio States, will be drawn off to the
Advantage of this metropolis.
The Company is authorized to build a road
'from the head of Lake Superior, on a line
' north of the forty-fifth degree of north latitude,
to Puget's Sound, throwing off a branch down
the Columbia Valley to Portland, Oregon,
from a point on the main line less than 300
jniles from its western terminus. This is not
cnlv the shortest route across the continent.
connecting lines of water communication, but
its termini are nearer, the one to Europe, and
, the other to Asia, than those of any other.
' Seattle, at the head of Puget's Sound, is one
of the finest and safest harbors on the globe,
.. with a broad and deep channel to the ocean.
In the distances to Amoor, Shanghai, Canton,
and Caloutta, Seattle has an average advan
tage of 260 miles. Besides, the prevailing
Winds of the Pacific compel all sailing vessels
to enter the Straits of Fuca; and thus, for
them, Seattle has practically an advantage of
700 miles. Seattle is three hundred miles
nearer to Chicago by the Northern route than
San Francisco by the Central; or, if we com
pare distances to the commencement of lake
navigation, at the heads of Lakes Michigan
and Superior respectively, the difference is
more than 700 miles in favor of the Northern
foute.
But is this route between termini so much
nearer to each other, and so much better situ
ated with regard to the great commercial
points of both hemispheres than those of any
other, entirely practicable f We no longer
propound the question in doubt, nor attempt to
eolve it npon imperfect data. United States
surveyors, explorers, travellers, and scientific
men unite, so far as we are able to learn, in
declaring it not only practicable, but compa
tively easy and desirable. Leaving the shores
. of Lake Superior, it will pass for 1010 miles,
to the eastern base of the Reeky Mountains,
through a fertile and beautiful country, every
Square mile of which will sustain a dense popu
lation, producing wheat, rye, corn, barley,
potatoes, and grass, of a superior quality, and
in great abundance. Here the mountains are
crossed at an elevation of 2500 feet less than on
the Central. Even on this mountainous
section, there is much fine timber and
excellent wheat lands, while the grades
afe not more difficult than some of
those on the Baltimore and Ohio. Here the
mountains are so low that the miners
have actually conducted the waters of the Mis
souri across the divide in little ditches, through
the Casoade Ranee, lust east of the Sound,
Which it was feared mieht prove a serious
obstacle. The recent aoourate surveys have
developed three passes, either of which is en
tirely feasible, and the summit of the middle,
or Snoqualmie Pass, is but 3000 feet above the
sea. The snow on these uplands, unlike those
on the same range a few hundred miles further
south, are never more than two and a half
feet deep. They do not fall soft, and pack
Lard, but dry and light, presenting no dilfi-
culty to the snow-plough. Grand lines of
railroad are now in operation in various parts
of the world where the snows are heavier
; and the climate far more severe than upon
this. From a point on a line with Fort La
ramie to the Pacific, nature has provided the
tepid winds of the ooean, and number
less boiling springs, which make the atmo
sphere milder and warmer than it i3 eight
or, ten degrees further Bouth. Ihis road
passes through no vast sage-plains or sandy
deserts, but through a country everywhere
propitious, everywhere inviting to either the
grain producer or the stock raiser, whose most
bngeuial portions sustain animals by winter
npon grass alone. It is intersected in four
great navigable rivers. It abounds in beauti
ful lakes, and streams of pure water, teeming
with fiah mid wild fowl. AVhen we add to the
landscape grandeur of these boundless and
luxuriant plains, agreeably diversified with
water, wood, U4 bill, the prodigal yield of
jiwu iui mau uu oeast which is there pro
mised 10 me seuier, it would seem that in no
land unaer uie sun can the immigrant find
more charming home.
When this road strikes the Red river of the
Forth in the neighborhood of Fort Abercrom
Juie, it will receive the trade of that stream
. i .' l it n.4 1. fntn I nl, llr. .
WIliuu uuws uuiui luvy Winnipeg f
oody of water as large as Lake Michigan
Into the same lake falls the Saskatchewan, i
magnificent stream which drains the British
Territory from the Rocky Mountains to the
Great Slave Lake, and giving, with the Red
river and the lake itself, a continuous naviga
tion of over two thousand miUs in length,
whone outlet mnst be over this road and
through Lake Superior. Again, when
reaches the great bend of the Missouri, about
four hundred miles from the west end of Lake
Superior, a thousand miles of that mighty
Stream to the north alone, from Fort Benton
to the point of crossing, immediately beoomes
t Its tributary. In short, were we to state all
. or half the grand facts which favor the
enterprise in hand, the prodigious sum of
il
pHslied, wonld startle the imagination. Out
of the territories of the United States it Beeks
to develop, eleven great States will be added
to the Union, containing some of the richest
mineral districts on the continent. Montana,
Idaho, and Dakota are as yet but a bare pro
mise of the future. While politically the
British possessions are the property ot another
power, commercially they are ours, if we
choose to make them so, and this fact is
one
of stupendous importance, whether we
consider their extent, their natural capa
bilities, or the trade they are destined to
maintain. From the British line to the
sources of the Mackenzie, stretches a magni
ficent wheat country a thousand miles in
breadth; much of it upon a prairie, and ready
for the plough.
Lake Superior projects into the far North
west several hundred miles further than any
other navigable water, and at Its head there
will be seen a city rivaling any of those which
in the ages gone by had enjoyed the commerce
of the Ea?t before it. West and northwest of
it, the mighty area we have described, inex
haustible in its minerals and its agricultural
productiveness, will pour its nnimagined
wealth of exchanges into and through it.
With fifty bushels of wheat to the acre, as we
find it on the Saskatchewan, what may not be
predicted of the point which, by geographical
necessity, is to handle the products of a region
bo vast f Here will be the largest grain ele
vators ever seen, and that trade whioh has
built BO many flourishing cities will build an
other where nature has made a depot
for the most extensive grain-growing
country on the globe. In the Bay
of Superior, at the mouth of the St. Louis,
we have the largest harbor on the
lake, land-locked and perfectly sheltered. It
now admits lake-boats of the heaviest tonnage,
and to what extent it may be artifically im
proved we do not know; but an appropriation
for this purpose was made by the last Con
gress. A city, on the point of land formed by
the St. Louis and the Nemadji, has an eleva
tion of thirty-four feet, and will possess nearly
forty miles of water-frontage, where vessels
may discharge their freights on all the four
sides of a square. The distance to St. Paul,
the centre of Northwestern railways, is only
a hundred and thirty-five miles, while from
Chicago it is over three hundred and fifty; and
when you are at Chicago you are no nearer
to Europe or the Atlantio ports than when at
Superior. Various railroads are projected, or
in course of construction, to connect the
Upper Mississippi with the head of the lakes,
and the work on the St. Paul end of the St.
Paul and Superior road is rapidly progressing.
In view of the facts that we are an essen
tially pioneer people, that we plant and build
wherever nature permits, and especially where
she invites, and that we are annually rein
forced by an increasing proportion of immi
grants from the northern latitudes of Europe
peculiarly fitted for the settlement of the
Northwest, it is fair to presume that this gene
ration will see completed what we have only
faintly sketched the commerce of Asia and
Europe passing over a grand highway co
Meeting the Atlantio and Paciflo, Lake Superior
and Puget's Sound, the head-waters of the
Mississippi, the Missouri, and the Columbia,
wun cities at eitner terminus, whose import
ance can only be measured by that of the
trade they will control.
Progress of Southern Negro ReeoBstruo-
tion.
From the N. Y. Herald.
The passage of the new Reconstruction bill
by the Ilouse of Representatives to facilitate
the work and hurry up into Congress the ten
outside Rebel States on the basis of negro
supremacy and a Southern negro radical
balance of power,'naturally attracts our atten
tion to the progress of this business in the
five Southern Military Districts.
The Alabama Reconstruction Convention
has framed a constitution on the basis of negro
equality, and adjourned. The results of the
recent elections for a convention in each of the
States of Florida, South Carolina, Mississippi,
and Arkansas have not yet been fully reported,
although we presume they will turn out to
comprehend a majority in each case voting of
all the registered voters, a very large majority
of the votes cast for a convention, and a large
majority of radicals, whites and blacks, as
delegates, as in Virginia, ueorgia, Alabama,
and Louisiana.
The Virginia Reconstruction Convention Is
getting under way, and Senator Wilson, who
has lately been down to Richmond, has doubt
less given tne managers some wnoiesome
advice against such fanatical fellows as Hun
nicntt. At all .events, the Convention seems
disposed to proceed cautiously and carefully
TO business, meantime, vue vugiuia wuiie
conservatives have just closed in Richmond an
opposition Convention, at which the Rebel
General Imboden stated that on the question
of his right to the ballot-box he had secured a
writ of mandamus from the United States Cir
cuit Court, which he had served npon Gen
eral Scholield, who had asked a month in
which to form his opinion on the subject.
General Imboden, however, had no idea that
in pushing this question of suffrage iu his
case to the Supreme Court of the United
States a decision would be secured declaring
the law of Congress unconstitutional. This
Conservative Convention has organized a sys
tem of action on the basis of the abolition of
slavery and a white man's government, and
as the whites have a registered majority of
voters in Virginia, the main object in view is
doubtless a general turnout when the time
comes to vote down the constitution expected
from General Schofield'a radical Reconstruction
Convention.
Among the latest proceedings of this body
was a resolution from Mr. Hughes (black
delegate) for the appointment of a committee
to inquire into and report what should be done
with disloyal landholders who refused to em
ploy radical negroes, and who attempted to in
timidate them in voting, which was discussed
and referred. Absurd as this resolution may
appear in regard to the question of employ
ment, it involves a difficulty between white
landholders and late fclaveLolders on the one
hand, and black laborers and emancipated
slaves on the other, which wears a very threat
ening aspect. That this difficulty can be
settled on the basis of negro supremacy in the
State government of Virginia, or any other
Southern State, no sane observer of passing
events can believe.
In the Louisiana Reconstruction Convention
the ignorant aud fanatical negro radical dele
gates seem to be making considerable trouble.
One of them, in a debate the other day Crom
well by name, and Cromwell by nature on a
small scale declared himself ready for a war
of races. "We don't intend," said he, "to git
down on our knees and beg for our rights;"
but "we will rule till de last one ob us goes
down forehlwr. Geutlemens, much is said of
annudder rebellution. I eay if we can't git
our rights on a fuu equality wid de whites,
let it come let d rebellution come." This
belligerent African, however, was quickly
taken down by a BenBiUt, conservative darkey,
who argued that "three millions of blacks
against thirty millions of whites left the blacks
that which is possible, and may be aooom
no other chance than dependence upon their
white friends. A war of races was not to be
thought of." And so goes on the work of
reconstruction in Louisiana. General Han
cock's recent order, subordinating the mili
tary to the civil authorities and the laws (and
which baa resulted in bis nomination for the
succession by President Johnson), has evi
dently taken something of the conceit out of
the ultra radicals, and given some hope to
the conservatives of fair play. To get rid of
him as soon as possible, the radical convention
will doubtless make haste with the work before
them and get under the wing of Congress as a
full-blown reconstructed state.
In the Georgia Convention an ordinance has
been adopted whioh, it is understood, Gene
ral Pope will enforce, in the absence of a stay
law to suspend all legal proceedings in the
collection of private debts until the Conven
tion can act further. That this will prove a
popular measure we cannot doubt, inasmuch
as before the organization of the Convention,
Mr. Campbell (black man) moved "that an
gentlemen who have aspirations for the Presi
dency of this Convention be requested to de
fine their position on the relief question."
Among the latest proceedings of the Conven
tion is a resolution requesting uenerai rope to
remove the obnoxious Governor Jenkins and
to nut a certain Mr. Bullock In his place, a
reouest which General Pope will probably
find requires a good deal of nice considera
tion. Under the spur of this new bill in Con-
cress we may expect, .however, that these
little side issues will be dropped, and that the
Convention will follow the example of Ala
bama in pushing through their new constitu
tion. Oh, yes. "The work goes bravely on.
Til Question of flavin How Much la
Practicable 1
From the N. Y. Time:
The demand for retrenchment, as the ao
companiment of reduced taxation, will be
strong only so far a3 it is governed by intelli
gence. The necessities of the country must
be considered not less than the convenience
or interest of the people. Before fixing posi
tively the maximum income of the Govern
ment, we should understand the probable
minimum of its expenditure.
The national gathering of manufacturers at
Cleveland has affirmed the feasibility of saving
$150,000,000 on the basis ef the present income
and outgo; though precisely how this may be
done does not appear. The same statement
had previously received the indorsement of the
St. Louis Board of Trade, whose Finance Com
mittee furnishes an estimate which seems to
indicate the data relied upon for the calcula
tion. The initial point in the Committee's
argument is the assumption that, with the
war closed, the cost of the military and naval
establishments may be reduced to the standard
which sufficed in the former days of peaoe.
Eight years ago, it is computed, these branches
of the public service cost a sum in gold equal
to less than fifty millions in currency at pre
sent rates; and we are told tnat "it is difficult
to see why our navy should be much
larger or more expensive now than it
was then; or why, upon a peace estab
lishment, with the country tranquil and
the people contented, the army should exceed
by more than one-halt its force at that time."
The estimate therefore limits the army to
thirty thousand men, at a cost of $46,000,000,
and the navy to its old standard at a cost of
say $20,000,000. Ninety millions are put
down as enough tor an other expenditures,
making the total charge upon the Government
something near glOO.OOU.uou. Deducting
these figures from the aggregate internal re
venue of 186G, which amounted to nearly
$311, 000,000, the Committee arrive at the
conclusion that an annual saving is practica
ble to the extent ol f 100,000,000. And this
is the view now promulgated by the Cleveland
Convention.
It is evident, however, that the calculation
needs revision. Its primary hypothesis in re
gard to the army and navy is a little in advance
of the time. If the whole country were tran
quil, and the whole people contented, it would
probably not be far removed from aocuracy,
But the population of ten States cannot be
said to be contented. A strong undercurrent
of discontent runs through all of them, and
the tranquillity they exhibit is in a large
degree due to the presenoe of the military
power. When reconstruction shall have been
liberalized and perfected, we may hope for
peace without the presence of soldiers; but in
the meantime nothing is gained by ignoring
existing and very ugly facts. Oa this point
we attach more weight to the opinion of
General Grant than to the computations of the
St. Louis financiers. General Grant has proved
himself an economist of the first water; no
officer of the Government has evinced the apti
tude er determination which he has shown in
cutting down expenditures. And his plans,
after close revision, embraoe a military foroe
of 45,000 available men being 15,000 more
than the Western economists calculate upon
in their statement of expenditures.
Besides,'.the other side of the account also
presupposes a state of things that does
not exist. The internal revenue of the cur
rent year will not reach the income from that
source in 18GG. The available margin will be
much smaller than the estimate we are con
sidering requires. As, therefore, the un
avoidable expenditure exceeds the sum put
forward by the gentlemen whose view the
Cleveland Convention appears to ' have
adopted, while the actual income from the
sources they have named is less than they
have supposed, we fear that the proposed
saving of 1150,000,000 is for the present un
attainable.
Probably Mr. Hooper's view of the case
more truly represents the saving which is
feasible. The limitation to $300,000,000
which he proposes for the total national
expenditure, would exhibit a saving of
about $117,000,000 on the 'estimates of the
current fiscal year, and of $81,000,000 on
those of 18C8-9. The retrenchment that
shall make either of these amounts avail
able will afford enormous relief to the tax
pavers.
Tax reform.however, to be just or completely
effective, should not be confined to the inter
nal revenue system. That is the worst part
of our fiscal arrangements, no doubt; its
crudities and complications operate most
directly to the detriment of domestio industry.
But the full measure of relief will not be
afforded until the errors and excesses of the
tariff shall be corrected in the light of the
economy which regards revenue as the first
essential, aud protection as an incident instead
of the all-pervading principle.
Presidential Straws.
from the JV. Y. Timet.
There certainly is a great deal of fog over
hanging the political future, and especially
the Presidential canvaEB. Neither of the po
litical patties seems to be very certain of its
precise position either in regard to its plat
form or its policy. The inoBt active section of
the Republican party insist upon universal
negro suffrage ia the Southern States, to be
enforoed against the whites by military power,
as tne corner-stone oi tne Kepublioan plat
form; and they will accept General Grant as
the candidate if they can first force him upon
that platform and if they can't do better. The
Democrats have not yet succeeded in getting
any platform or any candidate. Events yet to
ocour will probably do more to shape and con
trol the action of both parties than any which
have occurred hitherto.
One such is announced in the correspond
ence of the Anti-Slavery Standard. The letter
is dated at Alexandria, Va. (very near
Washington), and the following is an extract
from it:
"A movement is on foot to bring out General
Butler for .President, and Benjamin Wade for
Vice-President, upon a thoroughly radical
platform. That ticket, it Is believed, would
rally to its support the Houlhern radicals aud
true men of the North. I oo not know how
that wonld be; but it would be a ticket fit for
radicals to vote for, and that is more tlian enn
be said In favor of some other tickets I have
beard augmented.
"i,e t uongrcM pursue tne same course a tew
weeks lonirer it has for seven months In the
past, and the Republican parly need not worry
IiHell about the next President. It will be de
feated, and a Democrat will All the Pi eslJentlal
olialr the next four yearB, and If the party aban
dons the principle or universal sullraiie. it
ought to be defeated, and every true radical
will aid Its defeat. On all questions of finance
and foreign policy the Dernocratlo party ooou.
pies as lair a position as the Kepublioan party,
and can be as safely trusted. The Republican
parly, nnder Grant, on a platform of expedi
ency iu lHiiS. will share the fate of the Whig
puny under Scott, In 1H"2, on a platform of anti
agitation and availability.
"A movement is now commenoea ror ine can
ing ot a Radical National Convention at Wash
lngton.on the twenty -second ot February next.
Ills proposed to organize a national itamcai
party, and adopt a platform of principles
around which to rally In the future. The cow
ardice of Republicans In Joiulng the Copper
heads In an Indorsement ot the policy of Presi
dent Johnson, has made such a movement
necessary. It is not proposed to nominate a
ticket unless mailers assume a new shape
before that day, to make auoh nomination
necessary."
We hope this project will be carried out. It
is square, straightforward, and above board.
It responds more directly ana aistinotiy to
the political necessities of the day than any
we have elsewhere met. It reoognizes. actual
facts; in the current phraseology of the time,
it understands and accepts the situation, and
takes its measures accordingly.
The real issue before the country to-day is
between a policy which recognizes and
accepts the Constitution as the paramount rule
of action, and one which virtually discards it
as inadequate to the emergency, and aooepts
the abstract doctrines and sentiments
ascribed to the Declaration of Independence
in its stead. The Republican party has
always hitherto held the former position. In
all its formal declarations cf principle and
policy, it has been especially careful to keep
within the restrictions and limitations of the
Constitution, and the indications of its
purpose to do so still, are what has caused
this revolt against its authority on the part of
the radical element.
We hope the Radical National Convention
will be held. We hope it will adopt a
"thoroughly radical platform" organize a
radical party, and nominate Ben. Butler and
Ben. Wade as its representative candidates
We shall then have one party in the field
which knows what it wants, and goes straight
ahead in its attempt to get it. If the radicals
had taken this action two years ago, the coun
try would have made much more progress
towards a solution of its political difficulties
than it has yet made; and if they will only
take it now, the people will understand what
they have to do hereafter. Those who ap
prove the radical policy will know how to op
pose it. will know how to meet it. And that
piece of information will be useful to both
classes and to the oountry at large. We hope
most earnestly that the convention will be
held.
Pork, Poems, and Piety.
From the N. Y. World.
A late Indejiendent contains an artiole whioh
is the plainest statement we have seen of one
of the most prevalent and most pernicious
misconceptions that are abroad. The burden
of this complaint is that the classes whioh
minister to the spiritual wants of mankind
are not rewarded, in proportion to the im
portance of their functions, as well as the
classes which minister to its merely material
wants. Especially the Independent instances
poets, editors, lecturers, and the clergy as
scandalously underpaid. The friends of the
editor ef that paper call him a poet. Cer
tainly he is an editor and a lecturer, and
whether a professional preacher or not, is at
least an active amateur at prayer-meetings and
the like. What private griefs he has we
therefore know, that made him do it. lie
puts the question finally in this bald way:
"We are acquainted with a gentleman who
made a million dollars in one year by selling
pork. Why then shall not an author make
quarter of a million by reoiting his books V
That is to say: As the dignity of pork-selling
. is to the dignity of art, so are the dollars the
pork-seller gets to tne dollars the .artist
ought to get. Besides, urges the Independent,
the higher wages we offer the better work
we procure; and the mute inglorious Miltons
who pack pork would devote themselves to
poetry and piety instead, if their labors in
tboFe fields were as adequately compensated.
Had stuff of this sort struck our notioe in a
secular journal, or had we heard it from a
writer or a painter, we should have thought
its author had a very sorry notion of his voca
tion; bo Borry as to demonstrate that he had
altogether mistaken that vocation. But what
shall we say when we find in a paper whose
ostensible object is to promote piety, an
appeal, sot only that artists shall be aggran
dized in order that art may flourish, but that
preachers may prosper so God may be better
served T Certainly it is safe to say, for one
thing, that when a literary man bemoans him
self that he does not make as much money as
a pork-packer, literature will be advantaged,
however it may be with pork-packing, by his
taking himself out of the one and into the
other.
The truth is, art cannot be paid with money.
Writing poetry and packing pork may have
some similarity in the eyes of the editor of
the Independent, but in tact they are as dif
ferent as the appetite which poetry appeases
is from the appetite which pork appeases.
They are incommensurable quantities. . The
value of the one cannot be reckoned in the coin
of the other. The rewards of material in
dustry are money. In art, "the reward of a
thiDg well done is to have done it." No man
can ever make an artist who does not first of
all feel this. "Hath this fellow no feeling of
his business f" The idea of appraising
Shakespeare's plays, for instance, by the
same standard with which we measure the
value of Stewart's mdslins, is so palpable an
absurdity that it is odd a man oau be found
dull enough to undertake a comparison of the
merit of the two things. Really how many
dollars does the Independent consider "Paradise
Lost" to have been worth f What John Mil
ton got for it was "ten pounds paid by instal
ments, and a rather close escape from death
on the gallows." Does the Independent sup-
pope that he would have made a letter book if
he had had a "brown-stone front and his own
carriage" in his eye as the "reward" of
writing it f What literary men come to on
the Tiltonian theory is Illustrated by the
melancholy case of Sir Walter Scott, who
having written four or five real books for the
sake of writing them, spread them out into
four or flve-and-twenty poorer ones for the
sake of money, and bo wore out his life and
roke his heart at last to buy upholstery.
Nay, we have now with us an artist more oou
suinmate, yet from whose works we have all
derived great and pure pleasure, of whom it
may still be Bald, without charging him with
intended infidelity to his art. that had ha
written half as many books be would have
written twice as good ones, and that his books .
have been thus doubled and diluted for pecu- I
niary profit. I
The idea of the Independent about this thing '
is the same that moved a number of merchants
in this city, at the outbreak of the war, to oiler
money to the extent, as we recollect it, of five
hundred dollars, to the poet who should trans
cribe for them in a "national ode" the impulse j
that then thrilled the Amerioan people. These j
gentlemen knew that what they dealt in was
marketable for money, and they seem not to
have had a conception that there were wares
which it could not command. Ihe productions
they got for their bid were lust of the sort suoh
a bid might have been expected to elioit, and
ust of the sort the Independent' "compensa
tion" will always command. Or perhaps the
explanation of that paper would be that the
prize was too small; that the committee would
nave got an increase oi tne aivine ure wua
each advance of their offer; that a thousand
dollars would have got us just twice as good a
hymn, and fifteen hundred one just thrice as
good. How high does it think they would
have bad to oiler to tempt some lyrtxns to
write down such a song as that into which
Rouget de l'Isle distilled the fervor and the
fury of a France in revolt t "By Heavens,"
Burns said of his bundle oi banaas, "tney
shall be either invaluable or of no value; I
do not need your guineas for them." That is
a sentiment which the editor of the Independent
probably does not understand. If he did,
there might not be such an amazing difference
as there is between the Scottish songs of Kobert
Burns and "The Sexton's Tale, and other
Poems," of Mr. Theodore Tilton.
JNor is It in works of pure imagination aione
that the rule holds. Whatever calling minis
ters to more than the physical wants of men
demands a devotion on the part of its profes
sors which, as no money can procure, so no
money can requite. ine driest aruagery oi
literature cannot be decently done if it is done
for hire. The universities of Great Britain
are the richest places of education on the globe.
The amplest apparatus for study is there, the
most sumptuous support for students, the
completest exemption from the cares of this
world. Here is a fair field, one would think,
for the operation of the Tiltonian theory of
petting and protection. Yet from these gilded
nurseries, since Bentley graduated more than
two hundred years ago, there has not gone out
a single great scholar. But in a garret in
Dresden, during the last century, there lived
a young German scholar "who shelled the
peas for his dinner with one hand while he
annotated his Tibullus with the other, and
that was his endowment. But he was recog
nized soon to have done a great thing. His
name was Christian Gottlob Heyne." Franz
Bopp, who died the other day at Berlin, does
the Independent suppose that money could
nave kept him for three-quarters of a century
at work in laying bare the roots of language ;
in establishing the brotherhood and tracing
the descent of all our modern orders of speech;
that money exists in sufficient quantities to
have recompensed him then, or to replace him
now ?
Not only can the love of money never in
spire art, but in bo far as the idea of pay
enters into the composition of any work of
art, in bo far is the composition spoiled. Ata
lanta, in fact as in the fable, loses the race
when the gilding of the apple allures her from
the track,
"Declinat cursus, aurumque volublle tollit."
Not that artists are above avarice, but that art
is above it. Turner wa3 greedy of money, but
he never allowed himself therefore to pander
to the fancy of the purchasers of his pictures
in the work he did. It is unnecessary to cite
the many examples among the living and the
dead of those who have pursued a oontrary
course. The pages of Lucretius and Horace
bear testimony how genius may be degraded
into licking the hand that feeds it, and how
a worthless Memmins. and a worthless Maece
nas may be rescued from just oblivion. The
patron of our time is the public Formerly
servility bore fruit in flattery. Now it bears
fruit in cant. Once unworthy artists were
parasites. Now they are demagogues. Virgil
celebrated Cicsar. The Independent sings "the
loyal millions."
The duty of the community towards the
artist is, plainly enough, to give to his art
honor and appreciation; to himself every
furtherance for the prosecution of his art, food
and raiment; and therewith, if he be an
artist, he will be content. "A man of genius,"
the article we notice winds itself up, "ought to
be set in the midst of comfort, like an Alderney
cow in a meadow of clover." To the contrary
of this, Schiller song of the muse: '
To some she is the goddess great.
To some ihe mllch-cow of the Held;
Their only care to calculate
How muoh butter sue will yield.
And here again one may discover the differ
ence between the poetry of Schiller and the
poetry of the editor of the Independent.
The most heinous part of the article is the
inclusion in it of the clergy. Tbe clergy ar
a body of men whose business it is to point
out always to us the utter worthlessness as
well as the evanescenoe of all our worldly aspi
rations. Surely they, less than any other
class whatever, ought to have care what they
shall eat or what they shall drink, or where
withal they shall be clothed. The objects
they think worth striving for are Buoh before
which all differences of earthly condition are
of infinitesimal importance. Does the Inde
pendent pretend to dispute this f The Inde
pendent pretends to exist for the enforcement
of this. It is a shocking solecism, then, for it
to maintain that the ministry can be made
more earnest or more effective by surrounding
it with tbe creature comforts which are so
utterly insignificant, and the state of mind it
reveals in the religionist who wrote it, and
the religionists who will eagerly aooept it, is
arrant infidelity. It was St. Peter who said
to the Independent of the period, "Thy money
perish with thee because thou hast thought
that the kingdom of God may be purchased
with money."
If our "men of genius" are to be Alderney
cows, and cannot get on without plenteous
"clover," and our teachers of religion are to
become servants of God and Mammon jointly,
and profess that they cannot get on without a
"noble competence," let us hope and work
for the speedy extinction of both these classes
of men.
Thflre ia soma disouBslon as to whether
we rib all pay for Alaska or not.
Tb city of Washington has gained iu
population 4G,0o0 ia seven year.
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