after. Making due allowance for the fulsome laudation of his biographer (it seems to have been but a comparatively recent discovery, that one may speak, from a friendly stand-point, of a dead man, with out overpraising him in a manner manifestly idiotic), he seems to have enjoyed large repute and influence among his cotemporaries, and to have supported an excellent character at all points. But, however much a poet by nature, he was rather a scholar by choice: he cared more for making acquaintance with the children of other men's brains than for begetting or nourishing any of his own: the creative fire in him was smothered under so great a weight of paper and leather. For nearly his last half-century he wrote no verses (unless a few in Latin), nor seems to have bestowed a thought on those he had written before. When a man is thus careless of his literary fame, he cannot expect others to be more careful; and in some cases the loss may be, and is, the world's as well as his own. TOO MUCH GOVERNED.-A LESSON OF THE WAR. THE familiar maxim, "The world is governed too much," applies not to that natural or providential government under which we live, but to those artificial enactments which so often interfere with the general laws of the Almighty: In the former we behold an undeviating regularity; planets revolve, seasons return, rains fall, tides fluctuate as from the beginning; the same seed found by Belzoni, in the hands of a muinmy germinates to-day. Ice melts, flowers bloom agreeably to their original constitution, and when we come to the seeming irregularities of Providential events, we find that by the principles of adaptation and compensation evil and good are impartially distributed and life has its equilibrium. Prince of Abyssinia. The philosopher undertook the better regulation of the rain; he would distribute the quota more fairly among the different nations, and the result was that some countries were burned by drought while others were submerged by floods. Phaeton, presumptuously driving the courses of the Sun, became a victim to his own rashness; and yet these irrational fables are actually realized by human enactments continually interfering with laws self-regulating and more inexorable than those of the Medes and Persians. Such is the Divine Model Government, the designed anti-type of all others, to which all human legislation should assimilate, and is really beneficial in proportion to that assimilation. But what if, instead of these general laws, the world were governed by a series of special intermittent enactments; the various natural agencies, as fire, air, water, suspended their properties according to the caprice of the Ruler, or the importunities of some people more favored than others? How irrational such supposition! How destructive of all social or individual existence! Dr. Johnson describes a similar experiment in the beautiful history of Rasselas, How often has man tried to determine and graduate standard values! and yet all such restrictions have proved vain as the arrest of the billows or fulmination against the comet. Man's interference has been found not only a blunder, but a crime, imperium in imperio, and it requires no prophet to say which imperium must pulverize. This interference is most clearly seen in the enactments of legislatures; and what have they done? Ignorant or forgetful that mankind compose one brotherhood, they have acted on the supposition that various nations and classes were antagonistical to each other, and consequently what was beneficial to one was so far injurious to another. Indeed, on occasion of a debate in Parliament as to a commercial treaty with France, a noble speaker maintained that just as France received any commercial addition, there was a corresponding subtraction from the interests of England. We see the operation of this principle in the persecution of the Jews and in the expulsion of the Moors from Spain; and though at present class legislation is more refined, it is equally real in unsettling the standard of value, clogging the wheels of commerce, and producing general discontent. Can any remedy be found for this? Let the history of the past reply. Once on the banks of the Rhine each castellated lord divided that river into sections, calling that his owr and exacting toll from the voyager's vintage or harvest; and what was the result? The husbandman feared to bring his produce, and the Rhine had no boatmen's song to cheer its solitude. In after years a more intelligent principle prevailed, and by the Zollverein the sections were obliterated and the silent river became a highway. Once in prisons and insane asylums the victims were left to the caprice of each keeper's temper; the whip and the chain were deemed indispensable; but at last an appeal was made to milder moral treatment, and as that prevailed so did the external, artificial cruelties disappear; the treatment, hitherto so capricious, now became an advancing science, by no means perfect, but so far attended with the happiest results. These improvements illustrate the progress of selfregulation, the removal of empiric specialties, and that too in the face of great opposition. Is the substitution of general laws for special legislation an impracticable theory? What if it has been already partially tried, and so far with great success? Let such advance in some departments be the harbinger of its universal application. It was formerly the custom to apply to legislatures for the charter of each incorporated bank, and much time was consumed in discussion, especially when the capital was large and when special privileges were involved; opposition was silenced by the promise of the bank advocates to vote for some measure wanted in another section of the State, and thus through two methods, known as "logVOL. XI.-36 rolling" and "lobbying," the objectionable incorporation was enacted. In some States, at least, all that is changed, and by the simple substitution of a general law, the entire subject is removed from the Legislature, and the time previously given to such consideration is so much abridged from the session and saved to the State. A still more striking case is the charter of railroads, the prosecution of which often develops the most questionable agencies; but here mark another great advance in the general law of Ohio, where, without the intervention of the Legislature, any company may be chartered on complying with certain defined conditions; and thus in some States the applicants for the incorporation of any beneficial society may go before the Clerk of the Court, and at once obtain the required charter. Thus we see what has been done. In some most important departments there is actually no occasion whatever for the assembling of the Legislature. Now, why not extend this principle to other departments-the annual becoming biennial, quadrennial? A legislature might thus occupy the position of our constitutional conventions, which establish general laws, leaving their application to local authorities. And what would be the result of such extension? There is in the physical constitution of man a self-regulating vis medicatrix naturæ. It is this which knits the broken bone and gradually eliminates the injurious foreign object, and the highest medical skill is measured by its approximation to this ever active but greatly neglected principle, and thus in the avoidance of special enactments, in non-interference with the laws of commerce, the statesman, like the physician, consults this vis medicatrix, which regulates both the human system and every social department. We cannot go wrong in taking the Divine Government as our model, and our highest wisdom is to ascertain its mode of action, and govern ourselves accordingly. The danger of legislative interference is further seen in the inability of many legislators to comprehend the general laws ordained by infinite design. They consider this world, not as a Kosmos, but their own "pent-up Utica," their State, their country; they are unable to take that comprehensive view so necessary to an impartial judgment. They are unwilling to sacrifice the present advantage for the harvest of future success, and hence, influenced by partial or prejudiced views, they are incompetent for legislation. It is not contended that every legislator should necessarily be a statesman, but, on the supposition of an average intelligence, the risks of aberration are proportioned to the frequency of meeting. How many noble, comprehensive plans have been thwarted by ignorance or cupidity! They were too grandly simple to meet with general acceptance. The statesman was not supported because he did not do "some great thing." By the simple instrumentality of compound interest Pitt proposed the gradual extinction of England's debt, but all his eloquence and statesmanship failed to overcome the prejudice of his fellow-legislators. That is most popular which is most superficial: requiring little thought-easily grasped, it immediately arrests attention. The South Sea scheme was once universally popular, The French Republicans gave a fixed value to assignats, and even determined the baker's loaf. Lycurgus, to repress luxury, established an iron currency; and we may add, Canute the Dane gave orders to arrest the tidal billow. The incompetency of executives is often remarked. How could it be otherwise? A man renders himself useful in local politics, and thereby establishes a claim to an office for which he is unqualified by previous mental and moral character. Or should he prove competent, he knows that his tenure depends on the chances of the next general election, and though he perform his duty, he does not give that thought which dignifies his office by rendering it less mechanical; and thus with incompetent legislators social laws will not bear interference; the delicate plant frequently transplanted will wither and die. Permanency is required. The price of gold is immaterial; let it remain at that quotation, or let it naturally fluctuate agreeably to the law of supply and demand, and the business of the country goes on prosperously; but on the first interference, besides opening a field for speculation, every interest suffers. People ask "What next?" The farmer withholds his grain, the merchant suspends his purchase, some congressional action is anticipated, and hence that instability which paralyzes commerce, and hence that relief which comes from a temporary adjournment. Where the Legislature has the power to build up one interest and depress another, men of wealth will use every appliance to secure that power. There is not the direct bribe, but influences the more dangerous because of their indirection; there is always the temptation. But this must be said of general laws, that in this respect they are perfectly unassailable. Can one bribe gravitation? The recommendations thus made in reference to legislation will have greater force if we consider that some laws are so general that they not only need no legislation, but they dispense with a vast amount previously encumbering the statute books; until recently there was a slave code in one-half of our States, embracing many provisions of fine, penalty, and every year that subject was the engrossing theme of discussion, giving color to all other proceedings; but by the substitution of man's equality before the law this vast structure of legislation has entirely disappeared, and the time thus given to such enactments has been saved. Were our national debt extinguished, and, under a realizing sense of human brotherhood, our ports declared as free as the winds that fill the sails, what a mass would this declaration sweep from our States, what bitter cause of legislative contention be forever removed, and how diminished the friction with other nations! Shall we go to war or keep a standing army to protect the fisheries of the North or secure the products of the Antilles when they are substantially ours? And why could there not be a Congress of nations to arbitrate in case of such differences as embitter France and Prussia, to substitute the calmness of deliberation for caprice, and save humanity from a conflict that stains the 19th century, that startles us like lightning from a cloudless sky? Is there no way to neutralize this awful power? Shall the commerce of the world and the tranquillity of nations depend on the special tempers of one or more magnates? How glad the tidings, could some angel arrest this strife! This principle-a General Congress is that angel; and although the direct effect would be the removal of artificial death, with its untold horrors, the indirect consequence would be the removal of years of legislation, to repair the ravages of war, to graduate the increased taxes to supply pensions, to provide armies and navies for similar emergencies, and to meet those new questions which war invariably bequeaths to succeeding generations. It is gratifying to know that such a Congress has met, and that its first-fruits are most encouraging. In 1854 the President of the United States proposed the exemption of all private property not contraband from seizure on the high seas. On the 16th April, 1856, plenipotentiaries of Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, France, Russia, Sardinia, and Turkey met in Congress in Paris to agree on a uniform doctrine for the government of neutrals and belligerents in time of war, and they agreed on the following declaration, binding on their respective governments and on any other government acceding to the agreement: 1. The abolition of privateering. 2. The neutral flag covers enemies' goods, excepting contraband of war. 3. Neutral goods similarly protect the enemy's flag. To this declaration the President of the United States proposed to add the entire exemption of all private property, including that of belligerents, unless such property were contraband; and although that advance was not accepted, yet wonder-working time is bringing the nations to the American level. On the 10th of July (1870) Count Bismarck notified our Government that even without reciprocity Prussia would exempt all private property not contraband from seizure, and this, too, in the face of a war between that country and France. Well may our Secretary of State express the hope "that this principle will be universally recognized as another restraining influence imposed by modern civilization upon the art of war." Indeed, from this very war may spring new and better principles, and nations learn from mutual suffering that brotherhood of man declared by the investigations of science and by the revelation of religion. It was once thought that the dew-drops distilled on the mountains lost their identity as they hastened to the sea, but we know that they return purified to replenish the very spring whence they emanated. Shall this lesson be lost on man? Abstract truth has but little influence on individuals or nations, and this is especially verified in seasons of prosperity. It is only in calamity that we discover the long-slighted principle. In the world of nature some terrific convulsion is employed to elevate the mountain and thus bring from the ocean's depths the coal so necessary for man's comfort; and thus some social cataclysm seems equally necessary to teach the nations. Were it not for this consideration, one might almost despair of progress in civilization, and conclude that nations move in an endless cycle of barbaric wars-- man in、 curably carnivorous. But this adherence of Prussia to the American principle is some compensation for the catastrophe which marks this century; amid the peals of the flashing cloud it presents a bow of promise for a brighter morrow and more refined humanity. The framers of our Constitution vindicated their wisdom by confining the coining of money and the regulation of commerce to the General Government. Imagine such powers exercised by each one of our States. How increased the legislation; how encumbered the statute books! One State taxes the product of another, and immediately begin a series of similar enactments, affecting the remotest regions of our land. We should have no country, no commerce; but this supposed result, fortunately unknown in our vast and diverse regions, is constantly seen in the intercourse of the nations with each other. Shall this always continue? But It is wisely arranged that each country should possess such physical features as endear it to its own people, and surely our own land is not deficient in this respect. Our lakes, superior to seas in other lands; our cataracts; the trees of the Yo Semite towering in unrivalled majesty; a railway connecting the Atlantic and Pacific; a river valley from Alaska to the Gulf of Mexico blending the Arctic and Tropical regions. These in themselves justify the patriotic pulsation, and, like coming events, foreshadow elevated truths and towering principles. when we stand in the presence of such moral elevation enunciated by Franklin, Jefferson, and Adams, in 1785, reiterated by President Pierce, Mr. Marcy, and Mr. Seward; when we mark its adoption by one of the most powerful and enlightened nations of Europe; when we hear the Prussian minister express the hope that our Government will persevere in advancing this principle until it be universally adopted, surely we may and we will exult, not because of our physical advantages, but because of this universal beneficent idea, which, though indigenous to our country, attracts the distant nations, and shall, like the ocean itself, be equally theirs as ours. In view of such principles diffusing a lustre over our beautiful scenery, one may with far more reason than the Roman exclaim: American citizen!" "I am an Science has in its feeblest infancy maintained the brotherhood of man, and now, when every day increases her influence and every year crowns her with new triumphs; when with her cord she traverses oceans to bind the nations in one common tie, she will more forcibly declare the identity of commercial interests, and never cease her remonstrance until the different countries of the world become United States. This is the divine legislation which must ultimately prevail. In no way could the operation of general laws be more immediately beneficial than in the proposed competitive examination for public offices. We are too familiar with the office-seeking mania; the desertion of all other kinds of business for this, the demoralization of long expectancy as for a prize in a lottery, the incompetency of many appointees, as little acquainted with the intricacies of their office as the average crowd with the reg ulation of an engine. We know that this has hastened, if not occasioned, the death of several Presidents; but the point is the influence of office-seekers on legislatures. What consumption of time in advancing the claims of constituent candidates! Indeed, a congressman recently announced that only on consideration of being no more an office-broker would he consent to a re-election; and some years ago a distinguished statesman was compelled to refuse all recommendations. Thus only could he obtain relief from incessant importunity and be enabled to perform his own official duties. What an incubus would competitive examinations remove from our legislatures! What relief when, no longer waylaid by applicants, the legislator could devote his time to those national interests demanding study and reflection! How grandly simple are the greatest discoveries, the repetition of Columbus and the egg! The commonest objects around us furnish the most forcible agencies. The weight of the atmosphere, the latent heat of water, the undeveloped electricity. Every discovery of man has been long anticipated by the processes of nature. The bee constructs agreeably to the calculations of geometry. The spider may enter a caveat against the assumed invention of the balloon, the lifepreserving projectile, and the finest silkloom. The improvement in lenses came from the human eye. The foundation of the Eddystone light-house originated from the roots of a tree. The heating |