use all proper means to substitute a law which is our own government, that resistance, the 'last rebetter; we do not deny the right of private judg-source of the thinking and the good,' is necessary ! ment, nor the right of resistance, nor the right of revolution; but in God's name, we do insist, before that last right be resorted to, and as you would justify your resistance on Christian principles, that you should convince yourself and convince others, that the benefits to be secured by resistance or revolution are vastly greater than any which follow acquiescence under constitutional order and security. To this narrow point we must come at last. You must not begin with natural rights and abstract rights, and push them in a blind, headstrong manner, in straight lines; for society is organized with a modification of our natural rights; and the advantages of a well-organized and well-governed social state are secured by the sacrifice of individual interests and personal preferences; and the question is, whether this state and order of things is not better than the resolution of society into its original elements, (if such a thing were possible,) each individual being left to assert and defend his own rights, in his own way, and by his own strength.

Evils there are. But are they of such a character as to overbalance the good? Slavery is an evil. We allow no man to surpass us in our utter detestation of the system. It existed in the country when our stern-souled fathers were called to frame the government. It existed by no choice or fault of theirs. When deliberating as to the formation of a Constitution, they were compelled to recognize the existence of an evil which they deplored; just as in using steel for a lever, you must allow for its natural properties, its permanent elasticity-the good notwithstanding the evil, when that evil is unavoidable and incidental. They have transmitted to us a priceless heritage, though the evil still inheres. Would to God that it never had existed. But can we soberly, intelligently, and religiously decide that it is so great, intolerable, and incurable, that we are justified in defying law, tearing the Constitution, revolutionizing the government; risking the advantages enjoyed by us and our children, for the sake of its removal? Every man, I think, will pause ere he rushes "Our Divine Lord beheld the sufferings of his on such a decision. Circumnavigate the globe; countrymen under Roman oppression. Jewish where do you find a government better than our taxation was farmed out in a way to occasion the own; one which better answers the ends of govJewish nation unprecedented suffering. The Pha-ernment?__ Go to Madrid, to Vienna, to Constantirisees, designing to entrap him, asked whether it was lawful to pay tribute to Cæsar. 'Of whom,' asked he in calmest majesty, 'do you take tribute; of children, or of strangers? They say, 'Of strangers. Then, replied he, are the CHILDREN FREE. But he did not take his stand on this natural right and refuse the tribute. Acquiescence even in an unjust law was better than any advantage which could be attained by a premature, inopportune, and abortive resistance. So he sent to the sea and procured the coin for himself and his disciples. A beautiful illustration, we must all admit, of the great law of Christian expediency. Let the best thing be done, that can be done, in given circumstances.

66

Certainly it is your right to eat meat, but for 'meat do not destroy the work of God.' The absence of all imperfection, of all defect, is more than can be demanded of any thing human. But do not destroy life for the sake of remedying blindness, deafness, or lameness. Do not demolish the temple for the sake of repairing a defect in its façade. Do not break the costly vase because of an unseemly stain on its surface. Do not overturn law and government to remove an incidental evil. If the evil, in your sober judgment, in your calm and religious reason, is so vast, so accumulative, so progressive, as to throw into shade all the benefits which accrue from a government administered according to charters and constitutions, the course before you is plain. The right of resistance is yours. The right of revolution is yours. But BEWARE THAT YOU DO NOT MAKE A MISTAKE, Interests too vast, too solemn, for ourselves and the world, are at stake, to justify rashness. In other matters you may trifle; but you must not trifle here. Mistakes elsewhere may be innocent; but they are not innocent here.

"Do evils of such helpless, hopeless, overshadowing enormity exist in our own country, and under

nople, to Rome, to Petersburg, to Rio Janeiro, to
Mexico, and be thankful for your own chartered,
free and liberal government. It is the product of
long history, of ancient events, ages of human ex-
perience. The roots of it lie back in the eventful
scenes of other centuries. The scholar's lamp, the
patriot's scaffold, the martyr's cell, the Christian's
prayers, all the hopes of good men in ages past
have been converging, in the sweeping current of
history, to the production of these liberal yet se-
cure institutions in which we rejoice. I see the
forms of our own fathers, wise in counsel, valiant
in deed, Christian in purpose, who won for us the
battle, and bequeathed to us the heritage. I see
the ministers of God, whose spirits walked on
every field of conflict, and whose prayers and
preaching brought down the sanctions of religion
to a cause which never could have triumphed had
it not been good. All these come thronging back,
peopling the air, as if incapable of enjoying their
repose while any uncertainty overhangs the fruit
of their sufferings and toils. I see the eyes of
millions from every part of the world turned
towards us, eagerly watching the great experi
ment of self-government. I see the exiled and
the sad from every land hastening for shelter to
our shores; finding liberty, home, and hope, be-
neath the protection of wholesome laws. I see
the unparalleled blessings which Divine Provi-
dence has conferred upon us in the past, the
present, and which open before us in the future.
I see a nation of freemen, stretching from State to
State, from sea to sea; free thought, free labor,
free religion, a free Bible; schools, homes and
churches; a nation involving in its success the
hope of the world. Then I turn my tearful eye
to that dark spot in our history-that great mys-
tery of Providence; but I seem to see the stars
in their courses fighting' against it. I feel that
the evil is subordinate and incidental, not pri-

mary and intentional; and comparing evil with good, the smile of gladness will shine through the tears of my regret. I cannot, I dare not, I will not take the torch of Erostratus and apply it to a temple which is the wonder of the world, and a glory unto God. I will wait. I will hope. I will pray. My faith in God bids me be calm, patient, hopeful; believing that trials will consolidate our institutions, wisdom and goodness will perfect them, and that, with God's blessing, they will stand for us, for our children and children's children, a beneficent shelter and guardianship for an intelligent, industrious, contented, united, Christian people, to the end of time."

tinguished it, and must continue to do so, or all that has given stability to this great experiment of government, or certainty to the final triumph of liberty every where, will have passed away as a delusion.

Uniformity of action and sentiment as to the subject of the law, has been attempted to be set up as necessary to the cohesion of the party throughout the different sections of the country. This is an utterly impracticable delusion, and could only be entertained by those ignorant of the national character and the principles involved, or who are making use of the very pretense of nationality for

After this it will become us to draw to a close our somewhat hasty observations. We have attempted to call attention to the sec-sectional ends. tional and one-sided manner in which this Differences of opinion as to the character, question is discussed North and South. We consequences, &c., of the institution of slavery have tried to indicate the limit of individual must be allowed to exist-always have exand national responsibility for the existence isted, and will exist probably for several of the cause of the evil from which these generations to come. We cannot continue difficulties spring. We have shown that a as one nation, much less as one party, unless fanatical and inconsiderate opposition to it we can "agree to disagree" on the abstract has begotten a fanatical defense of it. The points involved in this subject; yet, as we Constitution, we have seen, acknowledges it, have shown, there is a vital principle dividing and in one particular carries it into every the two parties on which we have fought the State bound to its authority. A law has battle of constitutional stability and sure probeen made to define and regulate the man-gress on other fields, and which applies here ner of obedience to this peculiarity of the Constitution. We have shown that this law, as long as it is such, must be obeyed. This simple statement of the case seems to render unnecessary the space we have devoted to the subject; but the common-sense view of the case has been obscured by the violence of sectional and factional discussion; and the question, being a "case of conscience" as well as 66 a case of law," has, it is not to be denied, some difficulties which require careful elucidation. We have shown, we think, however, that no intelligent, unprejudiced, or truly patriotic man, can have any question as to his duty in the case. The existence of the government on which all his hopes, and the best hopes of his race, depend, demands, we have shown, his allegiance to law.

Now, although this summary of our article would appear to indicate a subject the principles of which are above and beyond the lines of party divisions; yet, as we have intimated, the country must look for its safety, in the crisis created by this question, to the party of law and order. To all who profess their allegiance to this party, therefore, we have appealed. The principles from which we have reasoned have always dis

with more than usual import. If, among the principles that distinguish the Whig party, we were called upon to select that which might be considered its soul—the immortal part-that which will never permit it to die, even if broken into fragments-we should name its adhesion to the prescribed constitutional and legal forms of establishing measures, and of effecting or resisting changes in existing ones. Its whole history is pervaded with this idea. We may refer, as examples, to the removal of the deposits from the Bank of the United States question; the Rhode Island rebellion; the disorganization movement in the State of Ohio; the disregard and resistance made in some of the States to the last electoral law of Congress; the Repudiation question; and at the present moment its battle in the State of New-York, against the outrageous arrest of legisla tion by the minority of the Senate. Here then we find a principle by which we can and must test the party allegiance of all sections and all individuals. To this each must sacrifice their sectionalisms, their predilections, and their private preferences for men or measures; confident that this will carry us safely through this, as it has every other difficulty, and ultimately establish the truth,

whatever it may be, on fixed and immovable | THEREOF; TAKING INTO CONSIDERATION BY foundations.

And that we may avoid the natural impediments to this consummation, we may conclude as a warning to all with the words of the great Bacon:-"FOR THE WISDOM OF A LAW-MAKER CONSISTETH NOT ONLY IN A PLATFORM OF JUSTICE, BUT IN THE APPLICATION

WHAT MEANS LAWS MAY BE MADE CERTAIN,

AND WHAT ARE THE CAUSES AND REMEDIES
OF THE DOUBTFULNESS AND UNCERTAINTY
OF LAW; BY WHAT MEANS LAWS MAY BE
MADE APT AND EASY TO BE EXECUTED, AND

WHAT ARE THE IMPEDIMENTS AND REMEDIES
IN THE EXECUTION OF LAWS."

VERSES

WRITTEN ON THE WALLS OF BOLOGNA, IN ITALY:

MUCH ADMIRED BY TRAVELLERS AND OTHERS WHO HAVE BY CHANCE MET WITH THEM.

What, if the stateliest buildings were thine own?
What, if the choicest fruits thy table crown?
If thou hast heaps on heaps of gold in store,
And each succeeding year still adding more?
What if thou hadst the fairest, kindest wife,
To be the sweet companion of thy life?
If thou art blessed with sons, a large estate,
And all around magnificent and great;
What if thou'rt comely, valiant, rich, and strong,
And teachest others in each art, each tongue;
If thou hast numerous servants at command,
All things in store and ready to thy hand;
If thou wert king, commander of a nation,
Full thousand happy years, without vexation;
If fortune raised thee to the highest strain
Of grandeur, wealth, and dignity-what then?
Soon, very soon, all ends and comes to naught;
Virtue alone 's the greatest glory sought.
Obey th' Almighty's will: from hence arise
All happiness within; in this all glory lies.

"PENDENNIS" AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES.

lieve the grouping, so mawkish and weak are they that one lacks patience to ridicule them. Indeed, it is quite a superfluous piece of labor to laugh at creatures whom the author made for nothing else than butts, and whom he was sure no mortal would imitate.

Ir every fiction writer did his work as well as the author of Pendennis, we should give up all other kinds of reading, and take to novels. Mr. Thackeray understands the world, and what is equally important and much more difficult, he understands himself. He writes very much as Fielding would have written, had he lived in an age of news- The novels, however, which the masters papers and railroads; no less contemptuous and misses of a moral community are alof fashionable absurdities, no less a good lowed to read, and which are warranted to hater of every thing that deserves to be contain "nothing that can offend the taste hated; fully as keen, as sly, as good-hu- of the most fastidious, or bring a blush to mored. Fielding's novels were exactly the cheek of the most refined modesty," are suited to his age, and Thackeray's are no of much readier growth than the extra-Byless adapted to ours-praise which can be ronic productions just hinted at. To write extended to the productions of very few the latter, one must know something of of his contemporaries. In fact, the latter both the day and the night side of the is, with perhaps two exceptions, the only world, and must have a free command of man living who knows how to write a novel. strong colors; while to fill many three-volWriting-filling up a given number of umed sets of the former, requires nothing sheets-is very easy; and perhaps it is easier but an efflux of words-a redundancy of to write a "fashionable novel" than any thing commonplace. Every novel must have a else. Patience and a penny-a-line will ac-hero, therefore you are entitled to yours; and complish wonders in this department of as no one limits you in your selection, you literature especially, and if to have produced a novel were to be famous, we should not, a year hence, have an ordinary individual amongst us. As it is, hardly a day passes but some "great American novelist" starts up on one side or the other, heralded by the intensest blasts of "able and impartial critics," who, in spite of the wealth of Web-resources, cram him with a jest-book, or the ster's Dictionary, seem to want language to repartees in Congreve, or give him a fund express their admiration of the new-born of sentiment which will necessarily render prodigy. To-morrow, the wonder and the him melancholy, and then no one will exbook are forgotten, and other geniuses and pect him to be otherwise than magnificently other developments of "ripe scholarship," dull. In your heroine you have if possible "profound insight into human nature," and more boundless latitude. An ugly hero "daring and dexterous philosophy," take might be endured, but a plain heroine never. their place. Meanwhile, in the intervals, we Riches, brilliancy, fascination, deep dark are required to acknowledge the transcend- eyes, "chiselled" features, a swelling form,— ent powers of Reynolds, Dumas, and a let her be the incarnation of all these. Then dozen others of the melo-dramatic and gas- your plot-what more simple? Every body light school, whose only skill lies in touch-likes to read about love, so yours shall be a ing up flaring pictures, in which all the love story. Your matchless embodiments men are bold, handsome, and devilish, and all the women beautiful and immodest. As for the virtuous characters thrown in to re

You

may take the best the market affords.
can easier make him handsome than ugly,
therefore let him be an Adonis. Nothing
more convenient and natural than to give
him a fine house, and plenty of cash in his
own hands or those of his guardian. If
you cannot make him witty out of your own

become enamored each of the other; there are obstacles sudden and fearful in their course toward happiness. You create stern

and unrelenting fathers, who have designed | bargains and make love."-real love, and not the pair to different embraces. You sup- the imaginary Cupid of perfect, and perfectly pose one or more uncles who look on grimly, silly, puppets. Common sense and ambition or always oppose the weaker party. Then have made him at last a novelist of whom you fill in with cousins, rivals, and confidants; the English ought to be proud. Bulwer in threats and reconciliations; pages of rapture 1851 knows how to make a novel what it and sentiment, of agony and bliss; and should be, and unless he is vainer than we wind up orthodoxly with a wedding and think a man of his mind and years can be, universal contentment. And after all this, he looks back on the rhapsodies of his earyou take breath, and find that to be a "dis- lier productions with more contempt than tinguished novelist" isn't really as difficult the most contemptuous critics. as some critics would make it out to be; and very possibly you come to the conclusion, that if you had the time, you might publish as many and as good novels as G. P. R. James, in which opinion, if you are of average common sense, we heartily coin

cide.

Thackeray and Bulwer-who next? who is the other exception to our wholesale condemnation of aspiring novelists of the "last half of the century?" We had almost said Dickens, but we repent of being so lenient in our judgment. Dickens is not equal to a first-rate novel. We will not say of him, as the wiseacre remarked of Sheridan, that "he has some talent!" Dickens is a great writer, a very great writer, and his faults lie more on the side of excess than deficiency. It is his great difficulty that he will not be satisfied with the eyes which Nature has given him. He looks about him through

The masculine good sense of Bulwer has but just escaped this easy and vapid round of love-ridden commonplace. Christopher North calls Bulwer "the foremost man of all the world;" and bating a little Scotch enthusiasm, and a slight predilection for the bantlings of his own Blackwood, his remark is well said. None but a very well-seasoned magnifiers-sometimes through a microsman could have written the Caxtons, which is as great in its way as the diplomatism of the other Bulwer, who is so kind as to ease us Americans of all the difficulties of governing ourselves. But in the case of our baronet-author, turn back a volume or two, and read those half-dozen fictions entitled the Pelham novels. Discover if you can the reasons-if indeed there were any reasons employed-which induced a man of strong mind, great information of books, hand-in-glove sympathy with such bold satirists as Fielding and Smollett, and an extensive acquaintance with all sorts of men and women, to fill so many endless sheets with sentimental nonsense, which would have grieved the type-setters of the Minerva Press. There was so much of freshness and wit in these novels, so much of keen perception and strong satire, that they could not help becoming famous; but their attemptedly "fine passages," which were neither few nor far between, "out-Heroded Herod," and burlesqued the romances that turned the head of poor Don Quixote. Purer, more unspeakable twaddle was never seen in the rejected manuscripts of a magazine scribbler. Gradually the author became wiser, and changed his tune. He began to write in the strain in which men "drive

cope. He mistakes caricature for satire, and when he ridicules any thing, he heightens it into an impossibility before he asks us to condemn it. He proposes to put us out of conceit with a tight-fisted and arrogant man of business, and he gives us as a specimen that unheard-of devil, Ralph Nickleby. He essays a pleasing contrast, and we are suffocated with those benevolent old idiots, the Brothers Cheeryble. His favorite heroes are for all the world like those "nice young men" who are the boast of their aunts in the country. His plots are beneath notice. In half of his fictions he makes no pretensions to such inconveniences. Dickens is the prince of sketchers, the great apostle of incident, the arch-master of low comedy. As for his pathos and philosophy, the less we say about them the better. Dickens has done the world a great deal of very practical good, and we hope he will live long to enjoy his reward, and do more. And without laughing one whit less with Mr. Pickwick, or shaking our fist less wrathfully in the face of Uriah Heep, we may say, as we said a few lines back, that Dickens has not yet shown himself equal to a firstrate novel.

What are we to say about the "great unknown" author or authoress of Jane