The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1849-08-14

roI HihtcIldis. 'w~oo -
Labor. l43 IL
Total ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. 1882 80
There are some twenty Of these Autograph
plans in Mr.. MAsoN's report of no posi-
BILE value, and serving only to give job
to the artist, and show of something in
the way of ''pictoriai' embellishments.
Then as to the letter-press. There are
in the report and documents annexed just
sir hundred and hirty.fve octauo pages,
besides the picturesl Now, good deal
of useful information, valuable and inter-
esting to the public, may be crowded into
six hundred and thirty-fve octave pages
of such Typography. They contained about
as much printed matter as the two vol
umes of MAcAULAY's History Of England,
or of HILDRETH's History Of the United
States. They certainly give ample room,
and verge enough, for the minutest details
of the affairs of the American navy for a
twelvemonth. We cannot complain, in
deed, of the general minuteness Of Mr..
MAsoN's report. 1t goes into the smallest
particularities. There is parade and osten-
tation of completeness which is amusing,
not to say ridiculous. Here we have the
"abstracts of proposals for small stores,
to be delivered at Norfolk and Pensacola,
with offers for shaving-brushes at SO 05
cents each, jackknives at IA cents, shaving
soap in cakes at 25 cents the dozen, and
thimbles for Jack Tar at one cent apiece.
Then we have lists of invalid pensioners,
and of widows drawing pensions, and state
ments of contingent expenditures, running
through the enormous number of pages
we have mentioned-pages enough for a
history of mankind from the days OF
Adam.
We have run our eye over this mass OF
materials for history, in the expectation OF
finding something about Mr. DENLY and
his case. A gentleman like Mr.. DENBY,
we supposed, acquainted with the editor
of the ex-ofhcial journal, favorably known
at Richmond, one of the ehte, of the Dem
ocrats of that distinguished metropolis,
and temporary navy agent at Marseilles,
must figure extensively in those pages.
1t was very natural supposition. Here
we expected to find the whole story of the
commercial houses and the French revo-
luton that ruined Mr.. OSBORNE, who has
ruined Mr.. DENLY, who has played the
deuce with the Immaculate Mr.. MASON
and the financial reputation of Mr.. WALK
Err, and the reputation for "truth and We
racity" of the whole concern!
We did not find a word about Mr..
DENNY in Mr.. MAsoN's report, which is
full Of lists of the squadrons, specuations
on the Mexican war, naval school, docks
and yards, and thousand other things,
but not word about that S155, 000-not
the first syllable. The report is quite
dumb on the subject We kept turning
over-turning over the pages-somewhat
rapidly at times, for the documents were
not absolutely entertaining-and did not
reach Mr.. DENLY, till we arrived at
page 1914 of Elk. Doc. No |, being
about page 372 of the Navy Department
report. There we find the illustrious re-
cord in the following words: "1S47, Aug.
9.-N. DENBy, navy agent, contingent ex-
penses 1851 40, commissions, &c. &c. y
Mr.. MAsoN's report bears date the 4th
day of December, 1S48. Mr.. DENBY's
defalcation was known at the banks in
Richmond in August previous. The ami
hlation of 1856, 900 of Government funds
was known to the Secretary long before
he commenced the compilation of his volu-
minous report The transaction in which
it was lost was extraordinary. 1t was cal
cuated to throw great discredit on all con-
cerned. 1t was an illegal transaction, and
therefore involved the honor of every man
implicated as an actor And yet Mr.. Ma
SON tells us nothing about Mr.. DENBY, ex-
cept that on the 9th day of August, 1s47, the