404 The Nation. A&i&s on any of the subjects usually discussed in this journal will be received from

athy quarter. If used, they will be liberally paid for ; if ~*cjecid, they Will be ?~itu?wd to

the writers 011 the receipt of the reynisite amount of postarje stamnps. All Communications which pertain to the literary mawzgement @THE NATION should

be addressed to the Editor.

THE RESULT OF THE TRIAL. TEE vote on the verdict, even if it has not resulted in conviction,

has abundantly justified the IIouse in impeaching the President. When thirty-five out of fifty-four senators pronounce him guilty, it would be absurd as well as unjust to say that there Kas not (‘ probable cause ” for instituting t!le prosecution, and one may take this view of the matter even after making some allowance for the influence of party feeling and political excitement. The trial of a President by the Sen- ate for offences committed in the course of a long quarrel with Con- gress touching the limits of his polver under the Constitution cannot bc a.fair one in the sense in which we speak of a fair trial before an ordi- nary tribunal, where the accused and the judge hare never previously hacl any relations whatever. The Senate, being a branch of the lcgisla- ture, must have many imperfections as a court of justice; to expect that it will not, is to expect that senators will prove themselves more than men. 811 the public can ask of them is that they will make all pos- sible efforts to rid their minds during the trial of pride, prejudice, and passion, and govern themselves to the best of their ability by the law and the evidence. That in the present instance they have done so we have never seen good reason to question, and we therefore think their action a sufficient vindication of the action of the IIouse in preferring the charges. One may still doubt the policy of its course, but one cannot accuse it of mere vindictiveness, or mere subservience to party spirit in pursuing it.

The failure to convict is to be regretted for several reasons, but that it leaves Mr. Johnson in the Presidential chair we no longer include amongst the number. In the first place, it is not unlikely that during the remainder of his term he IT-ill behave well ; in tile second, even if he should desire to do mischief. his powers of mischief nom, as we have already pointed out, are almost ?zil; and in the third, if hc should commit fresh follies and extravagances, although the scandal will be great, it will be more than compensated for by the fact that they will help the Republican party during the coming campaign. His last follies helped it materially in 1YGG. Moreover, after the exhibition we have had durin g the last week or two of the taste ani temper of the men who would in case of his deposition have had charge of the Government, it is difficult to believe that the country would have gained by the change, and it is quite certain that the party would have lost by it, for it would have had to bear the burden o: their indiscretions.

But the acquittal, although the largeness of the vote for convictior may justify the House morally, is not likely to strengthen the conlidencc of the country in the judgment of the majority. Moreover, it has son16 tendency to create a certain amount of confidence in the judgment. It leaves him less hopelessly in the wrong than he seemec six months ago, and it leaves him in possession of the honors o the field. His escape, to be sure, has been very narrow, but ir politics, as in war, an inch of a miss is as good as a mile. He was before the trial, in the position of a man whom Congress might crush but would not ; noTv, he is in the position of a man who~ii Congrcs: tried to crush, but could not. It is certainly not Congress that ha: gained by this change. *

The House, too, did not shine on the trial. It was not we1 represented. It tried hard to have the case tried on high morn grounds, or on grounds of general expediency ; and yet it put in the forefront of its battle a lawyer whose opinions on high moral ques tions, or questions of general especliency, nobody heeds, and whost forte lies in his sharpness as p.leader in courts of law, and whose wan of manners, or rather want of decency, throughout the case gave thl President a constant advantage, which increased up to the very Ins day. Moreover, the Nanagers were overmatched throughout in learn ing and ability. There is no use now in passing this over withou

I( < j

[niray 21, 1868 ,: p

lotice. The contrast ras patent to everybody throughout the trial, ind was a constant subject of comment. What tllc N:mngcrs wanted n law and logic they had to make up by warmth qf l;mguage ; but his, though useful in a short case, is not efrcrtive in a trial protracted ,ver several weeks, and before a tribunal of cltlcrly men hardened to ,hetoric, and in whom the fires of enthusiasm llave I~>x~ (lied out.

What has made the effect of acquittal most it!ikirious, hc;wcver, has leen the conduct of a portion of the Raclical press ant1 politicians .omards those Republican members of the court who were not satisfied >y the evidence and the arguments of the guilt. To fail to :onvict at all was rather mortif~iug, of course ; but to fail after having :pent a ~cclc in holding the most honored of tlrc p:~rty lenders, its Xisest heads and purest characters, up to csccration as villains, s more mortifying still. Happily the great hotly of t11c party, ccrtain- y all the intelligent portion of it, and all its most inilucntial and .espected newspapers, made a determined stand against this amazing jurst of folly, and thus saved the party from damnation-and, et us add, from well-mcritcd claninati!,n. For a party which :oolly informs the world that its most trustctl, longest tried lead- :rs aud counscllors-men honored for their Ic:lrnin~, ability, and ntegrity-have committed perjury while sitting as jllllgos in the lighest court known to the law, and have acceptctl bril~cs from the ( whiskey ring” as the reward of their baseness-as the 3i.ibulcn and ;ome kindred sheets informed the public every day during the past week about-Messrs. Trumbull, Fessenden, and others-of course ought not to exist any longer. To vote its ticket after RUC~ a revelation would be a dcgrntlation of the deepc~t lcin(l. It would be useless for the 3?*ilj~2c to assure us that all the other politicians of the party were honest except these. Nobody could be dcceivcd in this way. Fancy following Nessrs. Butler, Stevens, Logan, ant1 JIomce Greeley with implicit confidence, after Trumbull, Fcsscntlen, Urimcs, IIen- clerson, Fowler, and Van Winhle~had turned out shameless and corrupt scoundrels. The party would have had to 1~ I)rokcn up as an abomination. No men in it have given such gusrantces of honor, and purity, and zeal as the so-called “ traitors.” If these be false, it is im- pudent to ask the country to trust any others the party can produce.

The more we look into this cr~sscle against the f;lir of the dis- sentients, the more reason we find for feeling thankful that the main body of the party refused to share in it. As all our readers know, what brought impeachment down on Mr. Johnson was his violation of the Tenure-of-Office Act in removing Mr. Stanton and appointing General Thomas Secretary nd interim in his place. The other charges, includ- ing that of bad language in 18GG, made in the articl(,s, except the slender one of trying to seduce General Emory, were all I,rought before the IIouse by the Impeachment Committee six months before the present articles were filed, were fully discussed, and it was solemnly declared by a large majority that they were insufficient to sustain a prosecution. When, however, be removed 3Zr. Stanton, the House agreed that he had at last done the deed which brought him within the meshes of the law, and voted for impeachment for this uct, and in conse- quence of this act, and this only. Rftcrwartls, ant1 just I,efore the filing of the articles, Thaddeus Stevens secured the atltlition of tbc eleventh article, which charged that the removal of Mr. Stanton was a high crime and misdemeanor, committed “in pursuance of” his declaration, made a year and a half previously, that ‘L Congress was not the Congress of the United States, but only of a part of the States, thereby denying and intending to deny that its legislation TTTas ohli,@ory on him.‘? The object of this article, therefore, was to connect the rcmovnl of Stanton in February, iSGH, with a speech delivered in August, 186G ; and this was an afterthought, too. It was not on this that impeachment was first voted; it was on the removal of Stanton taken by itself, as a viola- tion in terms of a valid law of Congress. Now it is admitted that large numbers of the Republican senators would vote (( not guilty ” on the charge of violating the lam in removing Stanton ant1 appointing Thomas-that is, on the very charges wliich pro~lncc(I tllc impeach- ment. In fact, these charges, it now appears, arc cc,naitlercd to have brdken down in the course of the trial, so that a l:c~pul~lican senator may vote “not guilty” on them without laying bimsclf open to the suspicion of corruption. Mr. Stevens, indeed, has declared that they have no weight ; that the real wejght is in his article : and his article

May 21,1868] The Nation.

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405 was submitted first to the vote as the strongest and therefore the best test.

The position of 3Iessrs. Trumbull and assailants, there- fore, is jLlst this. A Republican senator mightsny on his oath, and get be an honest man, that the removal of 1Ir. Stanton and the appointment of General Thomas did not constitute a high crime or misdemeanor ; and he might say on his oath, and yet be an honest man, that the wild speeches of i8GG did not constitute a high crime or misdemeanor; but if he says on his oath that he believes the removal of Mr. Stanton in February, iSF8, was not done “in pursuance of” a plan formed by 3Ir. Johnson in 1866, and of which the only evidence is a fragment of a stump speech made in that year-popularly supposed to have been delivered under the influence of whiskey-although &. Johnson has ever since gone on acknowledging the validity of Congressional legislation day by day in the ordinary course of business, he must be a corrupt scoundrel-bribed to violate his oath by fraudulent distillers. His guilt is evident ; he is not only to be driven out of the party, but to be held up to execration as a dishonorable man. This is a strictly correct statement of the case. This is the charge against the dissentient Republican senators, and the whole of it. There is not nearly as much reason for suspecting a good faith who refuses to convict on the eleventh article as on the second and third, on simple grounds of evi- dence. The reason why the eleventh article has been made a test of morals is the will of the extremists. They choose to consider it so, and Ii an end on ‘t.” They say simply, “ To this article we require your adhesion ; on the others we give you your liberty. Vote it, or we blacken your character to the extent of our ability.” We cast no im. putation on anybody who voted guilty on that article; but we ven- ture to say that the number of trained lawyers who could do so is small. Few, we venture to say, swallow it who have not worked them- selves into the state of mental inflammation which seems to be endemic at Washington, and of which Mr. Boutwell offered such a striking symptom when he showed that Andrew guilt was greater than that of Csius Verres by showing that the superficial area of the United States was greater than that of Sicily.

We be!ieve, for our part, that the thanks of the country are due to Messrs. Trumbull, Fessenden, Grimes, Henderson, Fowler, Van Winkle, and Ross, not for voting for acquittal, but for vinclicating, we presume nobody but themselves knows at what cost, the dignity and purity of the court of which they formed a part, and the sacred rights of individual conscience. They have American young men an example such as no politicians have ever afforded them in the whole course of American history, and at a time, too, when the tcn- dency to put party claims above everything is rapidly increasing, and when we are adding to our voting population a vast body of persons on whom the great laws of morality sit only very lightly, and for whom party discipline has, of course, the attraction it has everywhere and always for those who have little other discipline to guide them.

The issue of the impeachment trial was no doubt important as re- gards the actual political situation ; but the greatest of all questions for the American people is, whether amongst all the troubles and changes of this and coming ages the popular respect for the forms of law, for judicial purity and independence, can be maintained. As long as it can, all will go well, whatever storms blow ; whenever the belief becomes general that a court of justice, and especially a “ IIigh Court,” can be fairly used, whenever the majority please, as the instrument of their will, it will make little difference what its judgment will be or who fills the Presidential chair.

THE NEW CONSTITUTIONS OF THE SOUTHERN STATES, TEE time seems close at hand when many of the Southern States,

having complied with the Reconstruction Act, are to rejoin the ancient sisterhood. The votes upon the new constitutions have been scanned with only a passing interest, which has yielded to the more engrossing topic of impeachment ; while the constitutions themselves, and the very important facts to which they bear witness, have been hon- ored with a transient glance of kindly recognition by a few only of the many who should be their warm supporters at the North. While the

Democratic press has dealt in wholesale abuse, most Republican papers have seemed by their silence to admit that t,hey hat1 no case, and meant to let the matter go by default. Tct, to the careful observer, the composition not only of the constitutions, but also of the conven- tions which draughted them, offers perhaps the most satisfactory proof yet obtainable from actual experience of the soundness of the policy of Congress. Not to leave this statement uusupportctl, we propose to bring together in a compendious form the results of a pretty thor- ough examination into these matters-results both interesting and val- uable, and which can hardly fail to bring conviction in their train.

First, then, to show the component elements going to make up the conventions themselves. It is well known that their members were chosen by the combined votes of blacks and whites, without either educational or other proper restrictions-a system which, according to the Democratic soothsnycrs, is to inaugurate and for cvcr ensure ncgro dominance. The canvass on the part of the Iiepul)licnns wns active and thorough. The negroes were in the first flush of power, of the extent of which they were fully informed. Pet they used it in a manner and with a moderation which surprised many even of their admirers. Here are the statistics. In Virginia, North Carolina, and Mississippi the black delegates were outnumbered by the white ‘: Conservatives,” so-called. In all the States except Louisiana (where the yellow fever had frightened multitudes of whites from the State) and South Carolina, the black members were in so small a ratio as to bc, by themselves, utterly powerless. Save in the two above-named States, the propor- tions ranged from a minimum of one-fifteenth in Arkansas to a maximum of about one quarter in Florida. These figures certainly show that, however resolved any white faction may have been to rcp- resent the dividing line as one of color, no considerable numl)er of the blacks pursued the same illiberal policy ; an immense majority of them must have thrown their ballots for white candidates ; and a not incon- siderable minority actually sinned on the other side, and conferred their suffrage on thorough-paced “ Conservatives”-a technical appel- lation the force of which is wail untlcrstootl. To our mint1 this last fact appears a much sounder proof of the intellectual uufitness of the blacks for suffrage than any other charge against them which has yet been sustained by proof.

To epitomize any considerable number of these cnnatitutions would, in our space, be quite impossible. We select, therefore, as fair spcci- mens, those of Alabama and of Florida. Alabama was the first State in the field, with a constitution quite as R;ldical as any since published, aud subsequently invested with a peculiar interest by reason of the struggle over its adoption, and the practical lesson taught by that struggle. Curiously enough, it differs very little, in most respects, from its predecessor, which was so satisfactory to its opponents. It is true that it establishes universal suffrage for whites and blacks without any tests whatsoever; but it is equally true and evident that the trial of this theory in the Southern States is now a matter of sheer necessity, which cannot be evaded; and this is the only ratlical innovation in the entire document, unless the formal abolition of slavery and the recognition of the supremacy of the National Government may strike some minds as such. In its other parts, all the topics of the old con- stitution are touched upon, and all the views and principles of the old constitution are fully retained; the two run in quite parallel and similar courses until the subject-matter of the old one is exhausted. Then, indeed, we find certain additions; but they are objectionable only on the ignoble basis of a systematic obstruction of all progress whatsoever in civilization. They lie mainly in Articles XI. and XII. The former of these is a very long and thorough series of enactments concerning education, establishing a most complete system of universal popular training, and providing ample sources of revenue permanently to maintain the same in vigorous working order. The latter creates a Bureau of Industrial Resouraes, with large powers and correspondingly extensive and important duties, among which are the discovery and investigation of all the material resources of the State, and the general diffusion of information concerning them, and also concern- ing improvements in machinery, agriculture, manufactures, and the like. The great majority of the persons framing this document were native Alabamians, whose lot had been, and was to remain, inseparably bound to that of their State, and whose honest object it clearly was

406 The Nation. to keep all of good that was transmitted to them from the past, and to engraft upon it all the improvemcnta suggested by later years.

The constitution of Florida has more points of interest and novelty, ancl presents more matter for astonishn,ent, th:m any of its fe!lowS. In the convention about twenty out of eighty members were blacks. Yet the constitution probably surpasses in conservatism that of any State in the Union. A stable, and what is usually called a L6 strong,” administra- tion must, one would say, have appeared to these politicians to be the sumvawn bonum. Thus, the governor and senators hold office for the unusually long term of four years, and the members of the Assembly for two years. The executive arm is further strengthened by the privi- lege of appointment, in conjunction with the Senate, to nearly cvcrg 0fEce of power, trust, or exccntive importance in the State. On the other hand, the Legislature is limited to an annual session of only sixty days, unless special!y convened by the governor, when it may hold another session of twenty days. The governor appoints, and the Senate confirms, the judges, of whom those of the Supreme Court hold their position for life or during good behavior, and those of the Cir. cuit Court for eight years. The customary Council OI a.dvisory board is, in this State, a cabinet proper, in which sit a Commissioner of Immigration and a Superintendent of Public Iustruc. tion ; and to judge from the duties mapped out for this latter function ary, he will be the busiest and one of the most powerful officials in the State. Due provision is made to prevent bribery and tumult at elec- tions; and principals and seconds to duels or challenges, and person: interested in any election bet or wager, are clcnied the right of suffrage Neither was this convention slow to learn the lessons of the very late9 passing hours of the age ; they enact that officers may be impeach<Y for “drunkenness, gambling,” and ‘( any concluct detrimental to gooc morals.” Lastly, wc notice the provision, which we have not seen ir any other of thcsc documents, to wit : that after iSS0 the J,rgislnture shall pass laws requiring educational qualifications in all persons vot ing for t,he first time after that date. While Democrats, who havt probably never been at the trouble of reading this constitution, arc loading it with unlimited abuse as the characteristic work of Radical: and demagogues, many Radic,%ls, as Radicals, might criticise it Tit1 some asperity on quite opposite grounds ? . but we will content oursclvei with showing the ludicrous impossibility which our opponents woulc find in making out a case if they would submit to the ignominiou! drudgery of discovering facts, and to the petty trammels of those fact: when found.

One is irresistibly tempted to compare this constitution of Florid: with that recently prepared by a purely Caucasian convention fo submission to the people of this State. We are, of course, aware that the latter is not considered by the best of its frnmers as by any means perfect, or as anything more than the best attainable: but it is the work of white men, and of white men of whom a very large number doubted the propriety of ever letting negroes vote at elections, except under a property qualification, and this in a State in which nothing is required of electors of any other race except the possession of the human form and the male sex. Now, we are bound to say that, tried by any of the known tests-history, experience, or principles of human nature-this Florida constitution is not only a better one than the one we now have in this State, but, on the whole, better than the new one which, after twenty years of experiment, has been offered for our ac- ceptance by the flower of the white portion of the community.

THE RAILROAD FRATERNITY. THE question of railroad management has lately attracted a large

share of public attention. The great Erie quarrel, the New York Central monopoly, the various legal controversies arising from the doubtful action of several other companies, the violent fluctuations in the market price of many of the leadin g stocks, the repeated issue of large amounts of fresh shares by prominent lines, the awful accident at Port Jervis, and many similar event,, 9 have caused a great deal 01 enquiry, and nothing but the more exciting and pressing political events could well have stifled the general spirit of investigation.

To discuss the question intelligently, it is necessary to understand thoroughly that there are three parties in interest : first, the owners ol

he road, whether they be holders of bonds or of shares, who are relieved to have something to say in the mnttcr ; sccontl, tile general public who travel and send freight over the rontls, \\-ho are believed :o have no voice or power whatever, but only a purse to deplete and L bocly to mangle ; and third, thnt large class of in~livitlnnls who, for want of a more expressive clesignation, are generally stJlct1 (( tlie rail- road-men.” These railroad-men form a fraternity, a s?rrct league, a united body, bound together by a bond, not acknowlc~lgcd nor even fairly understood by themselves, but nevertheless real and substantial. This bond is none other than their acknowledgerl hostility to the general public and to the great mass of railroad stock and bond- holders. The class of railroad-men consists of and comprises the great majority of the oficers of all the rnilroads in the corlntr?, the prcsi- clents, vice-presidents, the actin, m directors, the engineers ant1 supcrin- tendents, all the great railroad builders and contractors, the owners of rolling-mills who furnish railroad iron, the builders of cars and of locomotives, the land agents and land speculators, the great lobbyists and getters of land-grants and subsidies, the capitalists who advance the monev, and the speculators who deal in the stocks. To these are added a crowcl of hungry hangers-on, la-ivyers, jutlgcs, writers for the press, and petty politicians-the whole forming a grand nrnly, or rather a series of grand armies, each under some tacitly acknowledged leader, all operating under the well-understood code of warfare known as railroad tactics ; knowing no laws save railroad laws, and knowing these only to evade them ; acknowledging no morals save railroad morals, something entirely apart from all other morals : all bound to live on the common enemy--the public, and to live well, and to ac- complish it by the forcible or treacherous control of every highway and by-way of communication throughout the country. No genera- tion of feudal barons in the fourteenth century were cvcr bound to- <rether by stronger ties of common interests than those that bind L,gether the railroad-men of the Unitetl Stntcs in this nineteenth century of ours. No generation of feudal barons lived more openly or undisguisedly by force and fraud than do the railroacl-men of our times. It is true the old barons ruled their countries sometimes well, more often ill, ant1 hence may be thought to ll;lvc: tlonc 5ome gootl. But the railroad barons are also thought to serve the state by manag- ing the railroad lines, and it is to the general prevalence of this belief, aided by their own audacity, that they owe their power.

To many readers this may seem a fancy sketch. Rut it is a simple statement of facts. There are unquestionably railroads honestly man- aged, and there arc undoubtedly many honest men sitting as directors in railroad boards who are totally ignorant of the cheats practisecl under the shield of their honest names. But these are the exceptions, not the rule. Corruption taints the very birth of nine-tenths of the roads. The charter to build a road, however much needed by a ccnn- munity, is scarcely ever obtainecl without a great amount of log-rolling and generally of actual bribery. The charter, when ol)tnined, has a cash value, and the men who own it receive from the company which is supposed to build the road a large amount of the stock for procuring the charter, in addition to the repayment of their actual outlay ‘( for legislative expenses.” The company thus starts with a port.ion of its stock given away before it has really come into exist- ence. It has then to organize by electing directors. It is necessary to secure the services, or at least the names, of L‘ prominent railroad-men” to give credit and standing to the enterprise. Neither their services nor their names can be had without payment. A number of shares are respectfully tendered to, and generally accepted by, each of them, and permission is graciously given to use their names as directors of the new concern. One-half or one-third of the authorized issue of stock is thus often disposed of without any LL value received,” before the existence of the company is made known to the public. And now the road is to be built. The u prominent railroacl-men ” introduce “well- known contractors,” who undertake to grade the roacl-that is, to con- struct the road-becl and lay the ties-at a given sum per mile: and to take in payment the first-mortgage bonds of the cnmpnny at Fevrnty cents on the dollar, provicled the company will undertake to “ make a mar- ket ” for the bonds. The price contracted for per mile is, of course, sufficiently large not only to secure the contractor against loss by the bonds not bringing the stipulated price, but also to enable him to

May 21,1868-J

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The Nation, divide the proits of the contract with the “ prominent director” wb( procured it for him. Of course, no bargain to this effect is matle; it i; quite unnecessary. Among “ railroad-men ” of good faith the thing i; pelfectly well understood, and any contractor 7vho failed to m&c things right with his friends in the board would be immediatcl! denounced to all railroad-men as unreliable and unsafe, and would by for ever cast out from the community of railroad-men, and never by able to get another contract. The same course precisely is pursuec with the contractors for the iron and for the engines and everything else, and when the contractors get through they have generally receive< a one-thousand-dollar bond, of the market value df seven hundrec dollars, in payment of labor and material worth perhaps five hun dred dollars, the difference going into the pockets of the variou “emiuent railroad-men” connected with the enterprise. In this wa: the company has contracted a debt of one thousantl dollars for whicl it has received value to the extent of five hundred.

The next step of the board of directors is to comply with that par of their agreement with the different contractors by which they bounc themselves to ‘& make a market” for the bonds. It is herI that the services of ‘L eminent financial men ” connected with the enter prise come into play. By dint of judicious use of editors and reporters the public is gradually prepared for the appearance of these bonds il the market. One of the eminent financial men is the treasurer an< bond agent of the road. IIe generally agrees to buy of the company : round amount of the bonds at sixty or sixty-five cents on the dollar provided the company will not sell any thereafter at less than seventy cents. At the expense of the company the bonds are largely adver tised, the advertisers generally payin, v for a liberal amount of editoria and puffing. Every director, every contractor and mill owner, has an interest in praising and endorsing the bonds; the; recommend them to their banks, their brokers, to the insurance corn panies and trust companies in which they or their friends happen tc be directors, nnd they do so with a certain dcgrec of good faith, for thl bonds are as good as the generality of railroad bonds, and the price i! sure to advance. In this way a certain amount of the bonds is placec upon the market, and actually sold at seventy cents on the dollar. The company then at a convenient moment discovers that, the bonds arf selling faster than the money is recluired to construct the road, and tht price of (< this desirable security ” . 1s advanced to seventy-five cents or the dollar. Of course the eminent financial men who bought the bond: at sixty-five cents, and their friends who bought them at seventy cents have made a very good thing out of it, and are, of course, warmel friends of the road than ever before, and can safely recommend the bonds as an excellent investment. After a while it is rumored that the company is again selling more bonds than it wants, and that the prict is to be still further raised. Of course it can never be known how the secret got abroad, but it is apparently well authenticated ; those whc are fortunate enough to be posted buy more bonds at seventy-&c cents, and sure enough before long the secret is made public by ex tended advertisement, and no more bonds will be sold at less thar eighty cents. This operation is repeated two or three times, or as ofter as the market will bear it, and the market value of the bonds i! “ made,” as agreed with the contractors who undertook the building and equipping of the road.

The road is then rapidly pushed forward, and if it runs through desirable territory, and is carefully laid out and well and honestly built by the contractors, and reasonably well managed and run by the direc- tors, and no one else allowed to pilfer from it, the chances are ten to one, such is the need of railroads in our rapidly-growing country, that the road may be able to pay the interest on its first-mortgage bonds and never belie the statements of those who sold the bonds, nor the antici- pations of those who bought them. But it, will nevertheless be true that the road will be mortgaged-and this is the case with nine roads out of ten-for more than double its real cost, and generally mnre nearly for three times its actual crr,izLe. Unfortunately the probability is that the road will not, be managed as honestly as it should lje--the tempta- tions to be honest arc nowadays so inadequate, while the temptations to be a smart G1 are, under the circumstances, almost irresistible.

We have seen how a large part of the stock has been disposed of.

________..~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~.~~___ -__- - ~. ~~ - ~_.._

It is in the hands of legislators, lobbyists, etlitors, of the ori~in:~l owners of the charter, the eminent railroad-men who form the boarti 01 (li~c. tOI%, all Of W!lOIIl obtained the StOC!i Tyitllout l)axing for it, !)llt, all c+f Whom TVOUlcl l&c to see the stl:cli valn:tb~u 2nd s:~lnl~le in JVall Strtct or elsewhere. As lcng as the rc,ad is mort;~:~~~:,l li)r more than its full V:L~UC, and does not earn more than enough to e~.~~~!.~‘:: :!utl the interest on its morlgage bonds., there can of course IK no tlivicl~nds paid on the stock, and stock that does not pay diviclcnds, or is not likely soon to do so, will not sell for a great deal anywhere. JIere is where the temptation to be dishonest becomes almost irresistible. If only one or two dividends on the stock could be paid, the stock would readily sell for fifty to sixty cents on the dollar, and prove a liberal re- muneration to the holders for their services in getting the charter or in lending their eminent names to the enterprise. A tlivitlcntl VLUS~, be declared, n-hether earn4 or not, nncl the money 7il r/s/ l)c l)rovidecl, honestly if possible, but generally 0therTvise.

A road that is in fair running order can be kept in cquallg good order by the expenditure of a given percentage of its receipts, say sixty per cent. If less is spent on it, it will deteriorate a little, slowly but not perceptibly, save ta the experienced eye. If a good deal less is spent on it, it Fill run down more rapidly, but need not necessarily become unsafe, unless the neglect is long continued. The commonest policy for raising the money to pay a dividenil is to cut tlown the ex- penses on the road to the lowest possil,le limit, so :,s to m:~lic~ :L show of increased net earnings for some months, boldly to assert that the road is making far more than its expenses and interest on its bonds, and then divide the surplus as a dividend upon the stock, wllich then immediately acquires a market value and enables tllc holtlcrs to sell out wholly or in part. It is evident that this operation cannot bc re- peated, for whatever amount has been cut down from the expenditures for repairs must very soon be put back into the road, and even largely increased, to prevent the line from going to ruin. The conscqnencc is, that after declaring a forcctl diridend the rontl ITill 11c more urgently in need of money than ever before. If there are no n~orc I)I)IIcI~ to sell, money will be borrowed on the general credit of the roatl, and the money so borrowed will appear, if it appear at all, in the next annual statement under the heading of “ floating debt,” and will not be very readily understood by the majority of the outside stoclcholtlers. Or else, under the pretence of extending the line or laying a doul)lc track, or of otherwise improviug the property, a fresh amount of stock will be issued and secretly sold to the unsuspecting public, who tllink they are buying the old stock on which the comply has just shown its ability to pay a liberal dividend. In the meantime, the eminent rail- road-men iu the board who know that this additional amount of stock is about to be issued, and that it will, of course, depress the price, sell through their own brokers for their private account large amounts of the stock, ancl after the fresh issue has become known and the price depressed, they buy their stock back again for much Icss than what they sold it for. awhile tile credit of the roatl I~e~omcs so bad that it can neither borrow money on its credit, contract Iloating debts, nor sell more stocks or bonds. The road is then allowed to get into very bad condition. Port Jerviv accidents become more common, the reputation of the line is injurecl, its traHic clcclincs, its incolnc is no longer suficicnt to pay expenses and interest on its ~uortgage bonds. Then the mortgage is: foreclosed, the property sold at auction ; if fortu- nate, the road sells at its full value, the amount of the mortgage is not fully realized, and the millions of stock held by the unsuspecting pub- iic are swept away and vanish into thin air.

We have purposely painted in strong colors, but there is no exag- zeration in what we have written. V7lile there arc mnny well and :lonestly managed roads in the country which will pay dividends, and :~n them too, through panic, famine, or pestilence, there are many roads in a tenfold worse condition than anything WC have described; roads whose colossal proportions will some fine day tmnl)lc about the ileads of their owners with a terrible crash; roads TV~OSC semblance of prosperity has been barely sustainecl by the most nblc railrod tactics, -luring a period of feverish activity, paper morey expansion, and gcn- :ral well-being, but which cannot bear up under auy long ~~ntinuancc 3f the present general depression.

As far as the evils under which our prcscnt railrontl 1ll~l~~gClllCd~

408 c

The Nation. 1

pay 21, 1868

labors affect the value of the property of railroad stock and bond- holders, the remedy lies in the hands of the stockholders themselves. But the evils nre have described have an influence on our national well- being far beyond what arises from their mere financial effects, and thus oome directly and prominently within the sphere of practical states manship. Railroad legislation is one of the great socio-political questions looming up in the immediate future. It is a question not confined to our country alone; the same question is being actively agitated in England as well. It is, in fact, only one of a series of ques- tions that are forcing themselves at this time upon the attention of all peoples of Anglo-Saxon race: and that will probably involve in their settlement some serious changes in the whole spirit of our domestic policy.

Probably no people of either ancient or modern times has given as complete a trial to the “no government” theory as that theory has received at the hands of the people of the United States. Nowhere has the policy of laker n&r had as full sway. Never has faith been more unlimited in the virtues of public opinion. Nowhere have equally magnificent results cf private enterprise furnished illustration and proof of the folly of entrustin g to governments what can be accom plished by individual effort. Pet with all this experience, Tit11 all this unlimited faith, amounting almost to a national principle of law, with all the resultant successes, there is, nevertheless, a growing dispo- sition to return to the old-fashioned belief that, after all, government is not a bad thing in itself; that there ought, after all, to be responsibil- ity attached to the actions of all men ; and that somewhere the power must reside to enforce that responsibility. We are being gradually, not by theoretical arguments but by the invincible logic of bitter practical experience, educated to the conviction that public opinion, while immensely effective for doing evil, is, at times, utterly powerless for good ; and each day now brings us a fresh example of the way in which great private enterprises, such as railroads, can be perverted into engines of the most tyrannical injustice, into means of gross offi- cial and private corruption, and into reckless instruments of destroy- ing human life by wholesale. In England, where the “ no government policy has never attained to the same development as with us, the reaction has yet set in carlicr, and for some years past there has been an active agitation of various practical suggestions looking towards an increased government control or a total absorption by the government of several important interests, notably life insurance, telegraphs, and railroads. In the discussion of these questions we are behind Englsnd, although everything indicates that we arc rapidly travelling in the same direction ; and it is safe to assert that, for the present, the 6‘ no government ” theory has exceeded its tenable limits, and that we are at the beginning of a decided reaction. Only a few weeks back we had occasion to refer to a proposition for placing all the insurance companies under the control of the General Government, to bc exercised in a manner somewhat similar to the present control over the national banks. Since then a bill has been introduced into Congress providing for the purchase of all the telegraph lines in the United States and for their management by the Post-office Department. And nom we find,

_ almost hidden amid the rank overgrowth of impeachment oratory, s resolution of egquiry into the condition of the railroads in all parts of the country. Let us hope that this enquiry may be the beginning ol a thorough reform of everything that is objectionable in our present system.

MR. EVARTS AND HIS TRADUCERS, W~EH two cr three Congressmen and several newspaper editors

denounced William M. Evarts for acting as counsel for the defence in the late impeachment proceedings, spoke contemptuously of his services as s mere matter of ‘I hire ” called him a “ hireling counsel,” and accused him in ‘I coarse terms of betraying his party, we said to ourselves : “ Theseare things which gentlemen do not say, and which no men say who comprehend the duties of a lawyer ; let them pass.” It was perfectly proper that honorable members who.could enjoy the eloquence of Mr. Donnelly, and who have on more than one occasion made the galleries intolerable for ladies not har dened to Washington life, should be disgusted with Mr. Evarts.

But the Independent of last week, while devoting two columns to the extinction of Mr. Evarts, lays down a new rule on the subject of profes.

sional duty which calls for notice, because some simple people are likely to be deluded by it on a matter of even more importance than Mr. reputation. According to this ambority, Mr. Evarts might conscientiously ‘ defend the lowest villain who ever stabbed a fellow-creature in a midnight brawl,” and no one could censure him ; but in “ sbieldin~ a renegade Presi- lent from the righteous and avenging judgment of the American people,” he undertook a task (‘ unpatriotic and base,” ‘I shocking,” “ indefensible,” ‘ disgraceful,” and we know not what beside.

Whether rightly or wrongly, it is at least certain that the IIouse of Representatives refused to impeach Mr. Jolmson for anything short of a crime. He has been tried exclusively upon cbarg~s of misconduct which involved either the direct violation of a statute, or some grave moral delin- :luency. The Senate has not for a moment b~~en called upon to investigate his errors of political judgment. The task which Mr. Kvarts assumed, and which is so “shocking,” “ base,” and “ diegraceful,” was therefore simply that of defending the highest citizen, in the highest court of the land, against charges of crime. If he had defended the lowest citizen, in the lowest court, against charges of the same character, or a thousand times worse, his act would be perfectly proper ; but havin, e done for Andrew .Jolmson, Presi- dent of the United States, what he might without reproach have done for John Nokes, forger or thief, be is to be damned to endloss infamy.

Perhaps it is we who are losing our senses ; but if not, this is democracy run mad. Under such a rule the worst classes of society would be the most privileged. A lawyer must enquire, before undertaking to defend a party accused : “ Is he sufficiently low, his character sufficiently bad, and his crime sufficiently great, to justify me in taking up his case ?” Here, for example, in a neighboring city, an infamous and therefore influential poli- tician is charged with murder. His conviction would be a severe blow to the political faction of which he is an ornament; his acquittal, by fair means or foul, a triumph for them. Yet no one will breathe a word of cen- sure upon any counsel who may defend his cause. hIr. &arts might do this with impunity. But if the accused is respectable and wraltby, and the crime with which he is charged comparatively venial, tile qucation becomes a difficult one ; while if he is at the head of the nation, the path of duty is plainly in the opposite direction.

Not content with denouncing the act of Mr. Evarts in general terms, the Tnndcpmdent joins in the vulgar assertion that he sold his opinions for hire, md even specifically charges him with being “bribed.” It is a matter within our own knowledge that Mr. Evarts lost more than thrice the annual income of any ordinary lawyer by attending the impeachment pro- ceedings ; in other words, that he declined business vastly more remuner- ative, for the sake of conducting Mr. defence; and, moreover, that BIr. Evarts has received no fee whatever for conducting it. This is a fact which hIr. Evarts would not condescend to state bimeelf, and one which we should not be at liberty to mention had we learned it from him. We are almost ashamed to defend him at all against such coarse imputations ; but unfortunately many well-meaning persons are deceived by them ; and we must take this liberty with private affairs for the purpose of vindicating not a single member of the bar, but the whole bar it,self-the profession upon whose independence, honor, courage, and zeal the whole world must rely for the security of justice.

Setting aside all insinuations of this unworthy character, tlrere remains among many good people a vague impression that lawyers cannot act con- scientiously in defence of clients whom they believe to be wrong. This impression naturally leads to a belief that lawyers must necessarily be dis- hone&, since they cannot always choose the side which they believe to be justly entitled to success. Every lawyer knows very well that this is an erroneous view. There is scarcely any case presented to the courts which has not two sides, for each of which a great deal may be truly said. And it often happens that a cause which the lawyer employed in it believes at first to be unjust, eventually proves to be a just one. 1Ve hare known some very marked instances of this kind in which, if the lawyers employed had acted upon the popular theory of their duty as honest men, they would have committed a gross wrong.

It is the business of a lawyer to collect all the facts and the law which tend to favor his client, stating nothing untruly, but stating only his side of the case. It is the business of the judge, after this has been done on both sides, to decide upon the whole case, and the more thoroughly both the opposing advocates do their duty, the more easily can the judge ascer- tain what is exact justice.

This duty every lawyer owes to every citizen who desires his services. Eminence in the profession only increases the obligation of a lawyer to take every case which is o&red him upon his usual terms. and to the extent of his physical power. Men like hIessrs. Darts, Field, Stanbery, and

May 21, 1868-J The Nation. their compeers have no moral right to refuse their aid to political oppo. nents, when tried before courts of justice. Suppose that when, in times not long passed, Wendell Phillips was indicted for conspiracy to rescue a fugitive slave, all the lawyers of Boston had refused to defend him, on the ground that they thought him to be an enemy of the Bcl)ublic, what would the fi&q~/~de7~t have said of them ? Suppose (as was nearly the case) that when John Brown was brought under “ the righteous and avenging j udg. ment of the people” every lawyer inVirginia had refused to defend him, would not another indignant protest have made its way into Mr. orations? Yet every lawyer in Virginia was as thoroughly convinced of the guilt of John Brown as any editor now is convinced of the guilt of Andrew John. son. And the political necessity for conviction in the former case was ten- fold greater than in the latter.

It is Raid that Mr. Evarts was required to render a political service. This is entirely untrue. His services were purely legal. The only value of his political status was in the guaranty which it afforded of such caution and impartiality in his statements as would secure for him a respectfol hearing at the bar of the court. This was of immense value, undoubtedly, but it was an advantage to which Mr. Johnson was entitled, and which could do no injustice to the prosecution. In spite of the confident assertions to the contrary, made by editors who do not understand themen, we have no doubt that William Curtis Noyee, if living, would have done exactly what Mr. Evarts has done, and that Charles would have done the same thing for Abraham Lincoln, if he had been called upon to do it. We should lament the decline of professional honor at our bar if we believed that its leaders would refuse, under the influence of political prejudice, to perform their legitimate duties.

THE DUTY OF DOING ONE?3 BEST, TIIE “ elevation of the masses,” that is, the diffusion amongst them not

only of political power, but of such material comfort and intellectual light as our civilization supplies, having become the great work of the day, it is curious to see what a rush there is into it, and what an effect it is producing on literature and science and art. Until the close of the last century litera- ture existed only for scholars, and literary works were marked by a polish and elaboration which, as critics are constantly informing us, have almost entirely passed away. Afterwards writers addressed themselves to the upper classes, people of sufficient wealth to have plenty of leisure, and sufficient taste to make it necessary to take some pains in supplying wares to them, although they were not as exacting as the readers of Milton and day. But now nearly everything that leaves the press is intended for “the million,” or, if it is not, it is very soon adapted to “ the *million ” by the issue of abridgments or of “ editions.” The supply of the wants of “the million ” is proving a more attractive field both for capital and for inventive genius than any other. Two-thirds, at least, of the brain power of every civilized communit,y is absorbed in the simple work of cheapening things-of findia g out ways and means of placing them within the reach of a greater number of people. This is true of nearly every branch of industry; but it is doubly true of literature. Tbei-e is, perhaps, no field of industry in which so great an tfftirt is now made after diffusion. Periodical literature is the principal product of this effort ; cheap publications of all kinds form another. But cheap publications were corn mon, and the taste for reading widely diffused, for many years before much pains was taken to improve their quality. Scholars and literary men of the best class long held aloof from them. Even the newspapers for many years after they had come into general use were for the most part filled by per. sons whose follies and ignorance have left a stain on the press which, in spite of its prodigious improvement in every respect, it has not yet succeeded in wiping out. The monthly magazines were, until very recently, few in number, and their circulation was comparatively limited, and they were not intended to be and did not succeed in being popular, in the more recent sense of the word. The cheap weeklies, of the class of which I%nburgh Journal was the prototype, until very recently had no contributors who had made any figure in any other field, or were capable of any other kind of work.

Of late, however, a determined effort, and in a certain degree a successful one, has been made by publishers on both aides of the water to get writers who have already achieved renown as authors, or orators, or politicians, or philosophers to contribute articles on all sorts of subjects either to widely- circulated periodicals or to books intended to be popular-that is, to be bought and read by persons of limited education. In England the monthly magazines are now so numerous and so cheap that they can no longer be called a middle-class luxury. They are in hands ; and although there

409 is a very fair amount of really careful writing in them by persons who have something to say, and only speak ahnt what they undrrstand, tllc, co:npe- tition betrcen them is so great that they are bc,in g forced into suI~l)l<~tuent- ing the indispensable serial story by the use of “names “--tImt is, the publication of costly but worthless artic]as writtun l)y persons of highrepute for other things than magaziue writing. Tennyson lms br~,n r~ccutly writing something under this head which wq are afraid to c!larwctrrize. (+Iadstoue has been discussing “ Ecce Homo” also in Gootl Wo~la, a cheap religious periodical of wide circulation.

In this country the practice is still more common. The Nc:o Fx% G~7ger may be said to have begun it by getting Edward Everett to write a series of papers on all sorts of subjects; but after that it spread rapidly. There is hardly a man of eminence in the country, who has any facility in composition, whose contributions may not now be found either in religious newspapers, cheap periodicals, or the books got up to be peddled in the country districts. In ninety-nine cases out of one huntlrcd these contril)utions are below criticism, and are, in fact, too bad to be of much service to any human being. They are apt, too, from the necessities of the case, to treat of subjects with which the writer possessed no familiarity, and. to do him jus tice, with which he does not profees to have any familiarity. The pub- lisher wants his name for his advertisement and his title-page, and he and the publisher together work themselves up into the belief that anything from his pen must do service to people who do not read much, and who, on account of his reputation, will pay attention to what he says-whatever it may bc. The writer, too, being human, and generally in want of money surrenders readily to the plea that in this democratic age it is tlre duty of tbe highly cultivated to spread the results of their culture before the multi- tude ; that the great work of our day is the diffusion of knowledge ; and that none can do this so well as those who have been most successful in accumulating it. As soon as your professor or “ belles-Iettrrs scholar ” hears this, and learns that by contributing a short treatise on early rising, a little blast against tobacco, or an analysis of the waters of the Dead Sea, with his name attached-for the name is even of more conse- quence than the article-he will not only receive a hundred dollars. but be entitled to the credit of having given <‘ne turn to the crank of modern civilization, he sits down and “ stri lies his l)icc~~ wit11 infinite r<.Iish. In fact, some men are nom doing so much of this sort of work that it must, and does, make serious inroads on their time, and of course the result, in aught but money, must perforce be left to the imagination.

Of course there is a very large body of writera for popular periodicals and for book-1)eddlers literature who, in doing this, are doing what lb~~y arc best fitted for, and on whom therefore we simply bestow our blessing. Our object in touching on the subject at a]1 is not to upbraid them with the poor quality of their wares, but to suggest to men and women who have made their names worth buying by achievements of real value, the possibility that when they are scratching off slipshod contributions, either on snl\jccts wltich they only understand very imperfectly, or on which their say is not a whit more valuable than the say of hundreds of their neighbors, who are capable of nothing better than treating it, they are not doing their duty. TVe doubt very much if any man who has closely examined the needs and tendencies of modern democracy is not satisfied that what it wants most of aI1. and is likely to want, is not diffusers so mnch as accumulators ; that its danger is not that the intellectual or moral wants of the many will not be satisfied, but that their cravings will not be intense enough, and their standard not high enough. Of diffusers of knowledge there is not the least chance of a scarcity. One of the first things that everybody does who feels tllr least leaning towards literature is to seize on some other ideas, anti, having Ivatered and otherwise disguised them, to hawk them about for sale. In this, as in most other branches of industry, there is a perfect glut of middle- men or distributors, and the work is certainly done passably well. \Vhen a publisher wants, for instance, for a book to be sold by agents, a chapter on the domestic life of Queen Elizabeth, or on the noses of eminent statesmen, there is no reason whatever, as far as the quality of the article is concerned, for his procuring it from Mr. Motley or Chief-Justice Chase. The first lively “ magazinist ” of his acquaintance will do it just as well-in fact, we make bold to say considerably better-so that the masses wi]] not suft;:r by the being utterly unknown to fame, and never having dono any; thing to entitle him to be known.

But what the publisher wants is the name. True; but shou]d the author lend him his name? No ; for two reasons. If the name is intended to make that salable which would otherwise be unsalable, by leading people to expect the commodity to be of a higher quaIit,y than it reaI]y is, the use of it is a fraud, to which the owner should not lend himself. If, on the other hand, the work can be just as me11 done by some other a 1

410 The Nation. by the owmrr of the name, and the owner of the name can do some other work much better, he is cheating the country and the race by not doing the latter. This brings us to the pith of our argument. We believe it to be the duty of every man to do his best, and his best only, and his best always, and we believe that it is by doin, m this that he most service to humanity, and does most for the elevation of his own character. There are cases, of course, in which men of extraordinary powers and acquisitions can- not so well place the results of their labors before the general public as through the instrumentality of their own tongues or pens. Agassiz, for instance, is one of these, and therefore he is doing his appointed work not less on the platform than in the museum or laboratory. And generally wherever any. body, no matter what his attainments are, has extraordinary powers of statement or elucidation, combined with mastery of a difficult subject, his place is in the forum no less than in the closet ; he ought to be found in the “ enterprising and entertaining weekly ” as well as in the ponderous folio. But when a man who is passably at home in political economy and juris- prudence, and whose researches on these subjects are of real value to the world, tries to persuade himself that he can do good by laying down his regular pursuits to occupy himself with writing articles on market-garden- ing, he deludes himself. Or if an astronomer of celebrity should undertake a series of papers in a Sunday-school magazine on the Milky Way, he would certainly be guilty of great waste of time, and of waste of very valuable powers. Instead of helping the race, he would be injuring it. There is no saying one hears oftener than that all labor is honorable, and there are few sayings more fallacious, All labor is not honorable. Labor is honorable only when it is the best labor of which the person engaged in it is capable, and when the doing of it is imperative. Moreover, all labor is not always honorable in the same degree even then. Nothing but a total want of respect for and appreciation of the human mind-the greatest of works-will lead anybody, for example, to place a manual employ- ment on the same level in dignity or respectability with an intellectual one. A man grooming a horse, though he were doing it with all his soul and for

glory, would not be doing as honorable a work as a man who was calculating an eclipse. There are degrees in the value of labor, as well as in the value of human beings. The meanest and poorest of human beings has something in him worthy of respect ; the lowest kind of labor, if done in the right spirit and for the right reason, is honorable ; but a noble and pure and cultivated human being is more valuable, judged by any standard, than any other, and the more exertion of the human faculties is involved in any employment, the more respectable will it be. So that if we saw Sir Isaac Newton taking a quarter of an hour from the “ Principia ” every morn- ing to black his boots, the proper remark to be made would be not, “What a fine fellow Sir Isaac is !” but, “ How can Sir Isaac be so silly? he can get his boots blacked for a trifle by a man who can do that better than he, and who can do nothing else.”

The work of civilization-that is, the work of making the human race wiser and happier-is best done, like all other work of difficulty and delicacy, by a division of labor, and the more the labor is divided, the better will the work be done. Naturally, as civilization advances, it is divided more and more, -and this division, were men wise, would be regarded with nothing but satisfaction. The whaler, who passes his prime in frozen seas storing up oil for the lamp, gains, and his children gain, by the researches. He loses, and his children lose, if the scholar uses the lamp to light him in making pantaloons. So, also, we are all gainers by having Chief-Justice Chase attend closely to the decision of contested suits in the Supreme Court. When he left the bench a .year ago to teach negroes their duties under the Constitution, we were all losers, because, that work could have been don8 by others. When, too, a good historian and an 8rUdit8 professor occupies himself in writing enter- taining twaddle or easily collected information for a book or for newspapers, he for the time being quits his post and leaves a portion of his real work undone.

Moreover-and this consideration is perhaps a higher one than the consideration of ,what a man OW8S to the rest of the race-every one owes it to his own character to do 8V8ryWher8 and at all times his best. His best will, of coUrs8, vary in excellence, and there ar8 times when on8 is incapable of doing any-thing well, and when, nevertheless, it is imperative that one should keep working ; but if we have to do bad work, it ought to be in our own line, and in the presence of familiar standards If a minister must twaddle, 18t him twaddle in his own pulpit, with all his excuses in the way of weariness, or anxiety, or natural deficiencies ranged around him in their places. lf the lawyer must talk slipshod folly, let it be in court, where there is some chance of its furthering the cause of justice or helping his own interests, and where he will, at all events, be con-

I

3cious of his shortcoming, though it be in never so slight a degree. Wh8n a great author or statesman feels the need of putting down som8 :rude thoughts or ill-digested information on paper, let it be in his own nemorandurn-book, so that it may serve afterwards for suggestion, For reproof, or for instruction. But do not let any one cart the stuff down :nto the forum, and call the people about him and say, “I zm the well- known Robinson ; my regular business is teaching school, but I have felt that the world would be the better of it if I made a few pairs of boots. Here they are; outwardly they do not look as good as if they were mad8 by a bootmaker, and I doubt if they are as good for ordinary uses. Still there must be some virtue, surely, in boots made by a teacher, and I recom- mend you to purchase them and see. You will, at least, find them interest- ing.” Now, not only does this performance lead friends and pupils to doubt whether there be such a thing as escclIance attainable in any vocation, or, at all events, whether absorbing devotion be necessary to attain it, but it leads Robinson himself to feel that all things ar8 possible to him. When his man of business tells him the boots have gone off like wild-fire, fifty pairs a day, he naturally begins to consider himself equal to anything ; instead of growing in modesty he grows in confidence, and his last end, instead of being better, is worse than his first.

Correspondence. MONEY AND TFLE MINISTRY,

To TRIF EDITOR OF TIIE NATION: I am a daughter, grand-daughter, wife, and so on, through

almost every shade of clerical relationship and connection. From an early age (say my sixth year, when I was presented with a pair

of No. 7 kid gloves-black at that, if bitter memory does not mislead me-in which my little claws were, perforce, sheathed every Sunday, in certainty that should the donor, whose pew adjoined the miss the grateful vision of ten limp finger-ends dangling abjectly to his honor, it would be a cusus beEli in the parish) I have intended to publish, the day before my death, a folio containing some of the things I have wanted to say, but have been prevented from saying by the fact that I was in the minis- terial succession. But the date of this prospective iasne bring uncertain, I venture to speak now on a single point of int8rest to minister and parish.

The majority of the laity, and here and there a clergyman, deprecate the mention of money in connection with the relationship between pastor and church. It is, forsooth, so unique, so sacred as to be out of the range of the vulgar considerations of prudence, humanity, and common honesty.

I have heard of an enfranchised clergyman acting as a member of an ecclesiastical caucus which was discussing, among other items, the annual stipend to be paid a new pastor, who adjured the session never to believe that the amount of salary they should offer would influence in any degree the decision of the favored candidate. But why should it not? The sub- traction of a very few hundreds-in some instances, of a few tens-may make all the difference between an anxious, constrained life and a life su& ciently free from care to secure independence of spirit, the easy working of the mind, proper provision for the physical necessities of a minister and his several dependents, with the privileges of charity, and now and then a mite for art and letters.

Indifference on this point is not a badge of spiritual exaltation, as many maintain, but the contrary. Hear St. Paul : “If any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, 7&e bath denied tiLe faith [not glorified it], and is worse than an infidel.”

The publicity of the life of a clergyman and his family requires no proof. The sanctities of birth, marriage, and death, when known to be, or to b8 anticipated, beneath his roof, are sanctities no longer. The last farthing of detail is rigorously exacted for common circulation in the parish, and any reluctance thereto is ascribed to a sinful pride or want of confidence. “ He

seem to throw himself onto the parish,” was one of the gravest charges which a disaffected faction in a certain church were able to bring against their young pastor. He had done his work bravely and devotedly, as all admitted, but too reticently for their liking. They wanted to hear from his own mouth just how many pounds of flesh he was losing weekly in their service, and how many pounds he had not bought in the market which he needed to have bought ; and had they heard these and other like pathetic statements from his trembling lips, they would doubtless have made up a purse which would have figured in the columns of a religious paper among the “ Sunny-side items.” Heaven destroy the mark !

The extent to which a minister is required to ‘(throw himself onto tha