O'IE DOLLAR PER ANNUM INVARIABLY IN ADVANCE.
TOWANDA :
Thursday Morning, October 18, 1860.
Sclttttb IPottrj.
PROPHECIES OF THE SEASON.
BY ANTHONY BOXIK.
Where late the meadows blushed with bloom
And daisy flakes were white as snow.
The spectral shades ot autumn gloom
Prophetic wander to and fro.
The hills, so long encrowned with green,
A browner garb begin to wear ;
Gay summer half inclines to screen
tier beauty from the daylight's glare.
The woods fall leaved stand waiting nigh.
Their verdure touched with crimson stains,
Tet loth to lay their honors by.
As age to part with all its gains.
A sadder note from grove and glen.
Whereto the robin's vonng have flown ;
While mournfully the little wren
Pipes through the fading trees alone.
The brook, that prattled one sweet tone
When summer mist was sott and dim.
Keeps up a low incessant moan,
That times with Nature's graver hymn.
The swallows too have left the eaves
And flit and form in noisy bands.—
The goldtiuch plans among the leaves
Her coming flights to southern lands-
Above yon mountain's rocky side.
The wary hawk swings round and round,
A friendless rover, winged with pride.
That scorns the touch of kindred ground
These, these are hut the first faint signs
Of autumn's presence ;--dny by day
She draws in bright but fading lines.
The picture of her own decay.
Written for the Bradford Reporter.
The Power of Cougress over Slavery in
the Territories.
The second paragraph of section third of
the fourth article o f the Constitution of the
United States, says: "The congress shall
have power to dispose of ard make nil needful
rules and regulations resjn-oting the Territory
and other property of the United States."
Does this clause of the Constitution confer
on Congress the power to prohibit slavery in
tie Territories V
Hie Constitution regards " Territory'' as
ex -ting in two conditions, first, as land sim
r'v ind second as inchoate, or begun, com
menced, surveyed, exfnjsed to sale and partly
if'.tied In its first condition, it is property,
•,-.e property of the parent state : in its second,
. > a province, a colony—ill fact a Territory
American sense of the word—and tin?
I p.-'( attaches until it acquires the legal and
P'-)er attributes of sovereignty. What was
Ibeproper tv of the Union or Government in
■5 frit condition, has, by occupancy, purchase.
I "J cultivation, become the property of iudi
rijuals, in fact, of a community,—in the sec
i, The rule* and regulations of the first
xtnditioo attach, apply, and are continued to
tbe second so fur as they go, but they are not
- f!i ient for the demands of nn advanced civil
ization. Others are needed such as those which
[• vide for the administration of justice, the
s .Tirity of property, and for public defense
No* a community in this ear y stage is entire
W incompetent to meet these demands —it is
*eak and powerless in the face of a savage
foe,—it cannot even punish tbe midnight as
fa.y!i or robber except by lynch law, and its
oo'y ho;>e and salvation from foreign aggres
C'rss.ou and internal broil, is in the arms ami
treasure of the parent state. It has scarcely
& single attribute of sovereignty, and especial -
lIT that important one, the power of sclf-de
frose from foes without, and foes within. It
ttnnot afford to have, and for these reasons.
' 4 not sovereign within its boundaries, and
ability and power to protect and defeud,
tiers from Congress.
Tie emigrant from the parent state carries
*'• "im to his new home the mora! and po
•Ml elements which have controlled his
*-'■> life. He* surrounds himself with the
-Cations he lias learned to love. He is a
I -tr'.jr to an idea." His faith is seen in bis
*irish:ps and perils, and voluntary toil, —in
dangers he encounters, —and still more in
•*e tenacity with which he chogs to a.ught of
- 4 early home That is his Meal, his example,
I M-i he oatbes and spurns the restraint which
- 3ders bis imitation. How easy for the par-
I t state to impress upon the yoong commoni-
I 7 its o*3 law of existence, and imbrue it
1 *ith its r,*n vitality. How naturally it fol-
I .ow? that the Utter places itself in commani
"atiofl with the former, giving little but rc
w:;cg ail, creating nothing but appropriat
ing to itself the beuebts of a more perfect
wdety.
From the regard thus manifested by the
I -■* but imperfect community to the stronger
i o'ier, from its dependence and inability
I • protect itsel', from it* origin from the right
I 1,.* 20fnt domain which inheres in tbe par-
I *-> >ute antil the new acquires sovereignty.
I -2 '.te title which occupancy and ownership
I ;•■ tab'y confers, is deduced the right which
1./ "^ ress txer ®ises and is bouud to exercise.
-/ -iT - tI2C ' n 4 " 04505 Ofor Territory
United States. It is not denied that
'■■" 'fa Territory to legislate
;a some cases, but it reserves the
jer ot saactkMuog that legislation in its
I* 5 creative bead, and may withhold tbe
. .sstoo to legislate at ail, if it sees fit. If
" ' neglects or refuses to pass a law or
a territory, has often done, the
i* 1 * "thout law except the law of i.a
-- *bich U always binding they are sqaat
not ciuieua. 3
, c grew possesses the right to legislate for
v",:orie* from the nature of the case it
the coaalitoticn were silent.
: ;n every stage of its torma
iv- V** 58, * * "Mtare's own ord'tna
:*Bae *•<> 4 die parent state which
I'.mtt *.' 2 "is'eare, which ere-
IT. w.abl.shwit a power ia the earth,
THE BRADFORD REPORTER.
and this allegiance is due from the inchoate
community until it is entitled to form a Con
stitution and erect a sovereign state. Con
gress has decreed that this period shall arrive
when the Territory shall attain a population
of a little over ninety-three thousand. It
might it is true, have said a less number, and
have been nearer right, but whatever the
number, in reasou, its will is sovereign and de
cisive.
The government of the United States by a
treaty with a foreign power, solemnly agreed
to " maintain and protect in the free enjoyment
of their liberty and property and the religion
they profess" all the people and inhabitants of
the Louisiana purchase. This obligation is
still biuding, and that, too, in reference to those
peculiar institutions over which it is claimed
ihut Congress has no power—the domestic.
What most affects the domicil ? What
comes nearer home, the family and social rela
tions than the right to iiberty, property and
religiou ? And if these are rightful subjects
of legislation by Congress, why not others
which as nearly pertain to his domestic state?
Why not slavery ?
The clause we have placed at the head of
this article, places the matter on precisely the
same ground. It means all legislation which
a Territory needs, for a Territory not being
sovereign, can have no lelations which are
not domestic, hence if Congress legislates at
all in reference to it, its legislation must have
the character of domestic legislation.
But we admonished that this clause of the
constitntion. has an application only to the
property of the general government in the
land of the territory and also that included
in navy yards, dock-yards, and the property
contained therein.
If this be so, the convention which framed
it was guilty of an unmeaning tautology, for
iu its enumeration of the powers of Congress,
Art. 1, Sec. S, this species of legislation
is expressly provided for, aud why would the
convention provide for the same object twice ?
There can be no reasonable question, but that
the power to make all " needful, rules and reg
ulations respecting the territory" includes the
power to legislate upon its domestic condition
in all its parts and institutions, slavery in
cluded.
Nor is this conclusion in the least weakened
by the terms used in confirming the power.—
To make " needful rules and regulations " is
entirely equivalent to enacting laws A rule
is a law ; a regulation has the poteucy of a
law. Tne terms in this connection are synon- i
imoos—meaning the creating an 1 enacting
power of Congress expressed in the usual
form, and embodying the wisdoui and wiil of
the people.
There is nothing more true in the political
history of the nation, than that unt! a late
period, our public men—those whom we have
most delighted to hanvT — held to the opi:.i-:i
that the convention which framed the consti
tution authorized the territorial prohibition of
>!avery by Congress. It is vain to deny this.
That convention must certainly understood its
meaning. It consisted of thirty-nine members. .
Sixteen of the thirty-nine fresh from the ue j
bates of the convention, voted two years later
in the firt Congress held under the constitu
tions to confirm the Jeffersonian ordinance
prohibiting -'avery in all the territories then
held by the United States. Flow d.J the--.
men under?'a:.J the coa.-iitaliuii ? As with
hold.ng the power to legidule in its broadest
serine upon the subject of slavery in the terri
tories ? As sanctioning slavery in any other
sense than as recognizing it in the states ?
Certainly not. But this is not ail. Seven
others of the thirty-nine, either before as
members <f the Congress und°r the confeder
ation, or after as of Congress under
the constitution voted upon bills legidating
upon the subject of slavery in the territories,
making twenty-three—a majority of all the
convention. Thus we see the principle of Con
gressional control over slavery in the territo
ries, was folly recognized br the very men w ho
framed the coaslitusit-n. There is no soph s
trj which can evade these simple facts. They
stand out a land marks to guide us, —as pre
cedents to which we may recur, —as proof?
that the fathers of the republic cherished no
doubts of the power of Congress to legislate
and control the domestic institutions of the
territories, and especially slavery
And there were great men in that conven
tion, —Washington, Franklin, Madison, King,
Sherman, Pickney, ltuileuge and others, —&
galaxy, a constellation, which even now iiln
m.ues our political horizon with the splendor
aod glory of its patriotism, and will through
all time.
In the Congress which immediately follow
ed tbe convention—the first nnder the consti
tuliou—James Madison was a leading aud iu
flaential member, be having been a member of
the constitutional convention also Would he
not have denounced as unconstitutional the
Jeffersonian ordinance when it was submitted
for confirmation and enforcement, bad such
been his pr.vate opinion, or had it beeu so con
sidered in the convention two years before?
Woudld not others of the sixteen have done
the same, an 1 yet tbe vote to confirm was not
opposed by any member north or sooth. The
expression was unanimous in favor of the or
dinance. so far as unanimity cau be predicated
of a vote where the yeas aud navs were not
called. And further George Washington was
alsoa member of the coostuutiooai convention,
and was now President under the constitution.
Would he have signed tbe confirmatory bill
had he doubted its constitutionality, or ques
tioned the power of Congress thus to legislate 7
He would not, have done it, be could not un
der his oath of office.
In like manner every execative of the go
vernment since, has recognized the priocipie of
cocgressiooal intervention, the only exception
being tbe present incumbent oi the Presiaeo
tiai chair.
It was daring the latter portion of *ba life
of John C Calboan. tbat Ute principle of con
gressional potecuon to slaver; in tba terri to
nes was 6r*t distinctly eeacciated And jet,
soother* statesman hesitated long to ex brace
t Tcey were startled at its boldness—M
PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY AT TOWANDA, BRADFORD COUNTY, PA., BY E. O'MEARA GOODRICH.
" RESARDLESB OF DENCNCIATIOS FROM AMT QUARTER."
novelty—at its otter disregard of the nsages
and precedents of the government—at its so
phistry and logical teudency to disunion and
revolution—at its insulting demands of politi
cal power where plain and obvious construc
tion denied it—at its contempt of the dictates
of common seuse aud common justice—at its
apparent determination to override all the
compromises of the government, and reduce
it to an instrument—a machine subservient to
sectional aggrandizement. They hesitated un
til northern pusillanimity emasculated the man
hood of the north—until the north wove the
web of its owu dishonor and proffered with
willing hands'its subjection, and gloried in its
self inflicted shame. What the constitution
and usage had always given it, it surrendered
at the first blast of the trumpet. Nay more,
it sold itself in advauce of the summons to
capitulate, and gave up the Missouri Compro
mise before it was demanded, as much a sur
prise and astonishment to the south as it was
a hutniliatiou to the freeman of the north
The logic of the south is set forth in these
three propositions : First, the constitution
recognizes slavery. Second, it recognizes
slaves as property. Third, the slaveholder
has the same right to take his property to the
territories that the northern freeman has to
take his. Let us examine the?e propositions.
First the constitution does indeed recognize
slavery. In three several passages or clauses
it speaks of it, not as slavery but as service
due; —it also speaks of slaves not as slaves
but as persons from whom labor or service is
due. In either case it means slavery and
staves,—it means the black man with the
wooly head, and his condition of servitude
But the constitution only recognizes slavery in
the states where for years it has had an exis
tence, and is still acieature of State laic or of
local law if the phrase is any more correct
In these three cases the constitution only re
cognizes it, —it sees it there, —looks at it, —
apprehends it, —just as it does any other state
institution which the state has created, but it
does not sanction it, or protect it, or interfere
with it, except for the purposes severally set
forth in the clauses. It simply lets it alone
iu every other respect, as a state right or in
stitution, over which the state only has con
trol. Now just looking at it. observing it,
recognizing it, but not sanctioning it, or con*
troling it, gives Congress no authority over it
any where, —because it is a state institution
and not a national one, and can only exist as
such. CongreSa can not meddle with it except
as tne constitution prescribes,—it cannot go
bey nd the three cases mentioned in the text,
but by direct enactment under the article de
fining its power in the territories. Outside the
original states in which the const.tuti >n found
it, and those which have since come into the
anion as slave states, and tho-e which may
hereafter be admitted as such, slavery can
have no legai existence, not even in the terri
tories, for the constitution has made no pro
vision for it there, and it conld not-as'in its
teller, spirit, tenor, and d-*ign, it recognized
an 1 treated it as a s3c.ie institution Old v. .
The second_proposit;on that the coustituticu
rte slaves as property is only true where
state sovereignty has made them so. Inas
mn. h as the states at the tfnie of the forma
tioa of the constitution bad legalized slavery
and made persons property by usage custom
ami iaw. no matter how repugnant to the mor
al sense of the world, an 1 violative of justice
and right,—no matter how far and how much
it transgressed every sound principle of politi
cal economy ; the convention in the spirit of
compromise forbore to meddle with it, but left
it to the states to "vote it up or vote it down,"
to cherish or discourage, to abolish or estab
lish, as state wisdom might decide. And Con
gress does not at this day assume any daty
connected with it as a question of property ex
cept where the constitution provides for the
reud.t on of fugitives from labor, and this it
joes otdy to discharge an obligation it bad
i o'em:.iy covenanted to perform, as a condition
of the more perfect union. It is so " nomi
nated in the bond," and be.ug so, it stauds out
the soie exception to the rule iucukated by
that instrument, that freedom is the normal
condition of the people of these Totted States
and that tnan, under God, iris Irm-elf.
The constitution having reference oniy to
states, will not, therefore, permit the holding
of men as property in the territories. Con
trary as this opinion may be to that of the
ccurts.it wit! abide the examination of theworld.
It is not merely for the day or tfce honr that we
are discussing this question, but for all time,
and if we err in deciding it it will again and
again intrude, — Lite Banquet's ghost it will
rise in our places, and " push us from our
stools " and " will not down at our biddinsr."
And here we may remark, m passant, that
the Fugitive Slave Law, in just so much, as
it embraces the territories is clearly unconsti
tutional.
The right which the south claims in the
third proposition to have slaves regarded ar.d
protected as property in the territories is thus
found to be uo nsht at all. The absurdity of
the claim is pointed out in the foregoing re
marks. The constitution does cot, and can
not, carry shvery with it wherever it coes. Its
whole p : rit is antagonistic to that institution,
and for this reason tha friends to freedom in
the territories, may with more justice claim
that the constitution forbids its introduction
to all places where it is not established by
state law The trne constriction will at least
be found, that the constitution neither prohib
its nor establishes it, bat that Congress in the
exercise of its constitutional power to make
" all needful rules and regulations," and to
*•' provide for the general welfare " taav and
should, prohibit it in the territories.
Bat there are those among us who contend
that Congress has no power either to protect,
or prohibit, slavery in the territories, bat that
tbu question should be left to the people in
habiting them to decide. This m the doctrine
of Popalar Severelgnty,—plausible it is true,
bat fallacious, and in some respect*, simply ri
diculous.
It ts pines, ole because ft promise* to sec or*
to tha jsttier in soae way not weii understood,
the right to ■? gorercxen: m more sxurcded
sense. Aud how ? Willpt give him the right
to elect his own governor or judges or magis
trates ? Not so. Will it allow him to insti
tute his own judiciary system, aHd inaugurate
any code of public instruction or improvement
which is denied him now? Not so. Will it
allow him te enact any law in his territorial
legislature, which will not be subject to the
veto of Congress or the President ? Not so,
not so. The territory not being sovereign, ail
it does must undergo the inquisition and dicta
of the home government at Washington. In
fact the sole and only right it contemplates
conlering, additional, is that of deciding upon
the admission or prohibition of slavery in the
territory. And here the privilege will be
merely nominal. Slavery, if it goes at all,
will go with the first ten or first hundred set
tlers nnder sqnatter law. Before a territorial
organization can be effected it will be an in
stitution coterminous with the boundries of the
territory, mocking any effort to expel it. Pre
cisely the same if freedom is the order of pro
gress,—the first teu cr one hundred will set
tle the question before a protecting or prohibi
tory code can be brought to bear. What then
the need of convulsing the country with this
exciting question, but to make some demago
gue president ?
It is plausible because it promises to trans
fer the agitation of the slavery question from
halls of Congress to the territorial arena. Bat
will it ? Let the settlement of the Missonri
question answer. Whichever way the territo
ry may decide, the same violence which then
shook the union to its centre will be inevitable.
Let Kansas answer the question. In fact.
Popular Sovereignty proposes two theatres of
agitation aod violence instead of one—one
theatre is the territory wbere the straggle
commences, —the other the Capitol in Wash
ington where it ends. In the one, the pioneers
and settlers will grapple in the conflict, —in
the other, representatives and senators, and
judges, aud cabinet officers, and presidents,
will mingle in the fight. The first quarrel will
be based upon protection and prohibition,—
the last upon admission as a state.
But if the principle of Popular Sovereignty
should he accepted by the people, how long
will it stand ' As long as the Missouri Com
promise line stood think you ? No, not a
ionrth of that lime. It came with the tide
of agitation, it will go with it and some other
quack witll put forth his nostrum, assuring a
perfect cure as this does. Since the repeal of
the Missouri Compromise, charlatans and ad
venturers with the brains of cats have launch
ed their scallop shells upon this great sea of
political experiment, promising all things with
out the power of performing any Tliey have
glutted the market with their placebos and
talse pretences, anu the people are beginniug
to return to the time honored principles of
their fathers.
The Popular Sovereignty claimed by the
colonies before the Revolution, was not the
Popular Sovereignty of 18 60. They were
crushed, but who will say that the territories
of this Union have been deprived of a single
right which freemen prize, except in the soli
tary ease of Kansas. Twenty territories, or
thereabouts, have come in as states since the
adoption of the federal constitution, and al
though. in the instance of Missouri, there was
a struggle, yet its memory had been oblitera
ted and and forgotten. The violence and
blood sh.d in Kansas, are not to be placed to
the fault of oor territorial system,—they arose
from the folly and tyranny of the federal exe
cutive of the government, —from the reckless
ness and rffnbition of those whose threat "we'll
crush you '' still lingers in a million hearts, and
whose right hands will in November next, play
the same crushing game.
The colonies had acquired a title, a right to
sovereignty. They were three millions, not
three hundred, —their arms rested upon the
Atlantic on one side and the Alleganies on
the other. They looked out npon a long line
of sea-coast from the Bay of Pa?samaqaoddy
to the Gulf of Mexico, —they had statesmen
and warriors ar.d orators and a yeomanry
burning for freedom Why should they not
be sovereign aod independent ? CATO.
WHAT AILED HIM—A late number of the
Albion has a good anecdote of a man who
rarely failed to go to bed intoxicated, and dis
turb his wife the whole night. L'pon his be
ing charged by a friend that be never went to
bed sober, he indignantly denied the charge,
and gave the incidents of one particular Light
in proof. " Pretty soon after I got into bed,
my wife said, ' Why,husband,what is the mat
ter with yon? Yon act strangely !' 'There's
nothing the matter with me,'said I ; 'nothing
at all' ' I'm sure there is.' said she ; ' you
don't act natural at ail. Shan't I get np and
cet something for you?' And she got np,
lighted a candle, and came to the bedside to
look at me, shadiDg the light with her hand.
' I knew there was something strange about
you. said she ;' why. won ore s berf Now this
;s a fact, and my wife will swear to it,so don't
you slander me any more by sayieg that I
haven't been to bed sober in six mouths, be
cause I nave
CO trwcv STYLE OF PCLPIT TFRBOSTTY. —The
other Sunday, an eminent divine was preach
ing upon the pirable of Dives and Lazarus,
and when he arrived at the point where, in
great beat, Pires lifted op his eyes and asked
Abraham to allow Lazams to come to hrm
with a drop of water, be said, "To this appa
rently reasonable, bat, aoder the circumstan
ces, totally inadmissible request, a negative
answer was returned.'*
SCCCESS. —The first and chief element of
success Is decision of character. Without
tars, and the kindred traits that are always
found ia its company, such as resolution, cour
age and hope, there is lime ca&ace of taceess.
With it " there is no sach word as fail," aad
seldom any ioqb a thing as a failure. Tosach
a spirit even £3caltJsi aflbrd a stiaahs. and
dangers a spar—*' for a resole te arod," it has
bcc forcinijr said, " b omnipotent.'
(flmtatiunal jßtprtineul.
fgy The annaal examinations for Teachers
for 1860, will be bolden at the following times
and places, viz:
October 24, at the Milan School Ilonse, in
Ulster.
Oct. 25, at the borough house, Athens.
Oct. 26, at the center house, Litchfield,
Oct. 27. at the Knvkendall house, Windham.
Oct. 29, at the Bowen Hollow house, War
ren.
Oct. 30, at the Orwell Hill house.
Oct. 31, at the Academy, Leßaysville.
Nov. 1, at the Black house, Tuscarcra.
Nov. 2, at the Merryall hoose.
Nov. 3, at the Ingham house, Wilmot.
Nov. 5, at the McGuyre house, Terry ; also
at the FrenchtowD house, Asylum.
Nov. 6, at the Brown 6chool house, for Al
bany and Overton ; also at the Stevens house,
Standing Stone, (at which last named place
the examination will commence at II o'clock,
a. m.
Nov. 7, at the borough honse, Monroe ; al
so at the Ilerrickviile school boase.
Nov. 8, at the borough house, for the To
wandas ; also at the Academy at Rome.
Nov. 9, at the Gore house for Shesbequin.
Nov. 10, at the Mversbnrg bouse, Wysox.
Nov. 12, at the Varuey bouse. Franklin ;
also at the borough house for Burlingtons
Nor. 13, at the Taylor honse. Granfille ;
also at the center house, Sprinnfield.
Nov. 14, at the center house, Leßoy ; also
at the Burnham house, Ridgbury.
Nov. 15, at the Corners house, for Canton
and Armenia ; also at the Gillett house, Sooth
Creek.
Nov. 16, at the borough house, Troy ; also
at the Rowley bouse, Wells.
Nov. 17, at the Academy, Smithfield ; also
at the Morgan Hollow house, Columbia.
The examinations will commence precisely
at 10 o'clock, A M. No candidates will be
examined who do not come in before 11, un
less the tardiness be unavoidable. No person
will be inspected who does not intend to teach
in the couuty doring-tbe year, neither will any
be examined that have attended inspections in
other townships. Private examio&tioos wiil
in no case be granted, except in accordance
with the provisions of the school law, as found
on page 51. Each teacher will bring a Read
er, one sheet of Foolscap Paper, pen aod ink.
Directors and parent 3 are earnestly invited
to be present at the examinations in their re
spective townships.
C. R. COB URN, Co. Sup't
Towar.da, September 4, 1860.
tax"* We clip the following from the School
Journal for the benefit of those who do cot
have an opportunity of seeing it :
QUESTION: Should a certificate be granted to
an old man wbois a sufficient scholar.bat whose
energies are too greatly impaired to be a suc
cessful teacher ?
ANSWER : Certain] Y not. It is learned
feathers, and not mere scholars thai are requir
ed, both by the .school-law and the youth of
the land. A scholar is one aho knaics lor bis
own information and satisfaction. A teacher
is one who not oniy knows, bat is "compet
ent " to impart instruction in all the branches
required to be taoght in his school ; and thi3
competency consists not more in the necessary
scholarly acquirements, than in professional
skill and physical and mental energy. If he
lack either of the latter, be is not a " compet
ent " teacher, and should not receive a certi
ficate.
QIESTIOX : Is " Laborer*' an occupation ?
Same District.
ANSWER : It is : and is to be taxed $l, un
less its Taiuation in the adjosted valuation, is
more than will yield $1 by the District rate
In the latter case, the whole amount of its
valuation is to be taxed by the rate, without
the $1 tax being added.
QCESTTOX : If a Connty Superintendent
receives a foor months certificate, duly made
oat and sworn to, and yot knows positively that
Teachers have been employed in the District
doriDg the year, without a certificate. —what
must be do?— County Superintendent.
ANSWER; It is bis duty, as it is that of any
other public officer, -to guard the trust confid
ed to him. In this case, he should ascertain
whether the act of apparent perjary was know
ingly and fradalently committed. If not, as
is barely possible, he may return the document
to the President of the District, leaving the
difficulty growing out of the illegal employ
ment of teachers, in the hands of the proper
Board and District for solution. If the act
was wilfnl and designed, then it is his duty to
transmit the fraudulent certificate to this De
partment, with his statement of the facts of
the case ; whence it will be transmitted to the
hands of the District Attorney of the proper
county for investigation.
Qr ESTION : If nothing is said in the con
tract between 'a Teacher and the Board of
Directors, about holidays and vacations, can
the teacher grant holidays without making op
for the time thus lost?— Teacher tn Bucks
Ceunty.
ANSWER : He cannot, unless be have the
consent of the Board to the granting of the
holiday. He most, if required, make up the
lost time, —except, perhaps in the case of
" thanksgiving day " which is now set apart
by public authority, and. certainly in that of
the 4th of July, if it occur in the school time,
which is set apart by common consent.
QCKSTIOS : I hare refused a number of ap
plications for Private Examinations. Hare I
been right iu so doing ? County Smperinun
ami.
Axswxa : Perfectly right, at present —
While the public examinations of a coaoty are
in progress, DO private examination sbooid be
allowed .All persons demroosof being examin
ed can attend one or the other of the poblic
examination# Thie will sot only fulfil th* law
bat avoid unnecessary occupation of the Coaoty
Superintendent's time. Beeide*. it is a so*
picioos circumstance for any one to ash a pr
vate examioauon. wbvc a pot!:: cos
TCsf % '*Z * ' ~
VOL. XXI. NO. 20
Private examinations are to be granted
only in extreme cases, and only after all the
public examinations of the county have taken
place. The only cases, now thought of, that
seem to justify what is called a private exam
ination, are those of a District having failed
to secure teachers for all its schools, by means
of the public examination, and of a school ren
dered Tacant by the death, resignation, or dis
missal of the teacher In these cases, private,
or more properly, rptaal examinations should
granted, bat only at the written request of the
proper Board, and with full opportunity for
them to be present if they desire it.
QCESTTOK : Is a provisional certificate, for
one year, granted by an outgoing County Sup
erintendent,binding on his successor?— County
Superintendent.
ASSWF.R : It is ; and it can only be annulled
for misconduct or incompetency, known by or
proved to the successor. A provisional cer
tificate is as valid as a professional one, daring
the term for which it is issued. This decision
—which should render County Superintendents
very cautious in the granting of provisional
certificates, —is based on the principle, that
though the person who holds the office of
County Superintendent may change every
three years or oftener, the office always re
mains the same in ibe eye of the law ; and its
acts, legally performed, are binding on all who
hold it.
MY WIFE'S PlANO. —Thedeed is accomplish
ed. My wife has got a piano. It came on
a dray. Six men carried it into the parlor,
and it grunted awfully. It weighs a ton,
shines like a mirror, and has carved Cupids
climbing np on its limbs. And sncb lungs—
whew I My wife has commenced to practice,
and the first time she touched the machine, I
thought we were in the midst of a thunder
storm, and the lightning had struck the crock
ery chest. The cat, with tail erect, took •
bee line for a particular friend opon the back
fence, demolishing a six-shilling pane of glass.
The baby awoke, and the little fellow tried hi*
best to beat the instrument, but be couldn't
do it. It beat bios.
A teacher bas been introdaced into the
boose. He says he the last of Napoleon'i
grand army. He wears a huge moustache,
looks at ice fiercely, smells of gartic, and goes
by the name of Count Run a-way never-come
back-again-by. He played an extractdexoper*
the other night. He ran his fingers through
his hair twice, then grinned, then cocked his
eve np to the ceiling, like a monkey hunting
hies, and then came down one of bis fingers,
and I heard a delightful sound, similar to that
produced by a cockroach dancing npon the
tenor string of a fiddle. D:wn came another
finger,and I was reminded of the wind whistl
ing through the knot hole of a hen coop He
touched his thumb, and I thought I was in an
orchard listening to the distant braying of a
jackass Now he ran his fingers along the
keys, and I thought of a boy rattling a stick
upon a store box or a picket fence. All of
a sudden he stopped, ana I thought Bometbing
had happened. Then he came down with
fists, and. oh, Lord ! such a noise was Dever
beard before I thought a hurricane had struck
the house and the walls were cavirg in. I
imagined I was in the cellar, and a ton of ccal
was falling about my head.
w&- About ten years ago, there lived near
Cincinnati a family by the Dame of Stringer
The eldest son, Jake, was a most eccentric
genius. One day his mother said :
" Jake, I want yon to go to the store "
half & mile distant—" and get me a quarter's
worth of sugar and a quarter's worth of soap."
Jake roused himself up, brushed the whit
lings from his lap, and started forward on his
errand. He did not return. Ten years pass
ed by. and no tidiDg- were heard of the errand.
Yesterday, as the family were sitting down to
their Thanksgiving dinner, the door opened
and in came a tall, moustachoed, good-looking
mac, with some bundles in his band. It was
Jake Stringer. AI! the family sprang to their
feet in astonishment, but the mother and Jake
were perfectly cool.
" Mother," said Jake, " here's your sugar
and soap."
" Lay them on the table and eat your din
ner." said Mrs Stringer ; " you ont to be
whipped for staying so long r — Excharge.
START FOR HSAVES —The follow
ing " business view" of religious values will
not be amiss in statistics :—" A pew is for 6ale
in the meeting house of the first parish in Am
herst. The man that owns the pew owns the
right of space just as long as the pew is, from
the bottom of the meeting house to the top
or roof, and he can go as much higher as he
can get. If a man buy my pew, and sit in it
on Sundays, and repent and be a good man.
he will go to heaven, if God leu him go. Let
a man start from the right place, let him go
right, keep right, do right, and he will go to
heaven at last ; and my pew is as good a
place to start from as any pew in the meeting
boose r
A PHTSICUX, who lived iu London, visited
a ladr who resided in Chelsea After contin
uing "his visits for some tine, the lady express
ed an apprehension that it might be inconve
nient for him to come so far on her account.
" Oh, by no means," replied the doctor ; " I
have'another patient in the neighborhood, and
I always set oat hoping to kill two birds with
one stone."
MTV® WHIRR Toe LAT TBS EMVHARS.—
Sir Fletcher Norton was noted for his want
of courtesy. When pleading before Lord
Mansfield, on some question of manorial rlzbt,
he chanced unfortunately to say. "My lord, I
can ill as* rata the poiat in an nasaoca ia y
own pr*w ; { have *** frtt'a xs.
r -r " 7~- e ;xr ; i* > w-Ut
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