The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-05-02

Relies Of Scraps and Musings Ne. 80.
RESISTANCE CAT ALL HAZARDS AND no THE LAS
| ExTREMirr."
Making great rout at first, and ca ling on eve
rybody within hearing to follow your example
then backing out under pretence that the contin
gency for resistance has not arrived, and trying
to persuade all your neighbors to follow your ex
ample.
THE FEAR OF DEATH.
The cowardly fear of death gives men the cour
age to live.
! HUMAN PERFECTABILIrY
| The best Of men, are but men at best.
DEMoLIsHIN0 CHURCHES.
| The Scotch Presbyterians have been greatly
abused for pulling down churches. abbeys, and
monasteres, but this has been too much the prac-
tice Of all reformers, both in ancient and modern
times. The English Protestants did the same a,
the time Of the reformation, and even in the law
abiding town of Boston they burnt convent to
demonstrate their zeal and orthodoxy.
EATING ONES WAY INTO POWER.
Some great men eat their way into power as
mice do into cheese. The "godlike mar" seems
mined to drown all his enemies in toasis and bum
pers. If there is any truth in the old saying that
Sin vno peritas, he is devoted to the Union, for
his attachment increases with every glass he
swallows. am, however, inclined to believe
there is great danger Of his becoming dyspeptic
before the campaign is over and that his last feast
will be that of Belshazzer.
PETER FARLEY.
! perceive this distinguished literary character
has lately been appointed to the most honorable,
if not the most profitable, consulate in the gift Of
the government. There is no man living who
has published so many books with so little expence
of thought or invention, who has success
fully practced the system of free-soiism in lera-
ture. He has foraged in almost every man s
fields, and reaped his harvest everywhere without
sowing. Ifa book of new travels was published,
Peter forthwith set to work, SKINNED all the
cream, seized on all the most interesting facts and
adventures, disguised the plagiarism in his own
peculiar scholastic or schoolboy-style, and sent
them into the world as his own lawfully begotten
offspring, Without hint of acknowledgment of
the source whence they where derived. IL he met
with fine passage in any contemporary writer, he
seized it without ceremony, placed it in his great
omnibus, and rode off triumphantly with the
spoils without the least ntimation that might lead
the reader to knowledge Of the real writer.
don't speak at random, for distinguished literary
friend of mine once seriously contemplated prose-
cutting Peter for making free with his works. and
if not actually taking the credit to himself, lat least
emitting to credit the real author. He it, in short,
perfect jackdaw in literature, figuring in borrow
ed feathers, and making not only reputation but
fortune by plucking others. 1t must be ack-
nowledged, however, that he does not stand alone,
though certainly the most conspicuous of the class
o: Iiterati which flourshes by sucking the brains
Of the few, who supply all the material for
these manufacturers of second hand mammoth pc
riodicals, whose claim to public patronage is
founded on the quartity Of plumber, and the num-
Der of second-rate pictures they furnish at the
| lowest prices.
or the clar4- of Peter TO this, certainly one OF
the most desirable and gentlemunly situations in
the gift of the government, the public will proba
bly, be IL loss to judge. But there "myste-
res" at Washington as well as Paris. The late
consul, Mr.. Walsh, is certainly greatly superior
to Peter in talents and requirements, and is more
over Federast Of the school Of the Secretary of
State. from his letters to different editors of
| newspapers, which have been in course of publ
cation for years past is also evident that he has
as little sympathy with the progress OF European
| freedom, as the President himself, or any of his
ministers, since he takes every opportunity o.
misrepresenting the character and views of thu
real republican party in France, and lauding Lou
is Napoleon, whose conduct is, to say the least o
it, equivocal, and whose republcanism beyond
suspicion. How far he was justifabe, as pub
lie agent, in some measure representing his coun
try, in writing these letters expressly for pubca
ton, is another matter. think he was decided
ly wrong, and deserved to be superseded, though
his letters are certainly excellent compositions
Astounding in literary scientific and political in.
formation. This is not, however, the point in
question. |, is, what claim had Peter Farley to
be his successori Why was he selected from a
mass Of applicants some of them at least his SUI
perior in public services, and public estimation.
Can it be that Peter is one of the contributors to
the charitable fund of so GOO dollars, to enable a
Secretary Of State-not being bacheor--to
"have house to live in, and to entertain the
diplomatic corps which sis twice numerous as
1t was twenty years agoi" The public would
doubtless like to know the names Of these liberal
benefactors, in order to judge whether it is really
possible for great statesman to be grateful.
| GREAT TRIUMPH.-The National Jntelliceu-
Ger says that the greatest speed made by Prof
Pages electromagnetic locomotive on Tuesday
in running from Washington to Badensburg
and back, was nineteen miles an hour. The