The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1857-09-09

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The reader OF the HERALD will have noticed
on several occasions within the past few days an
allusiol, In the law reports, to case in which
the magazine known a. Pmnam's Monthly Is
involved. The case is somewhat obscure to
the non-professioual reader; we may elucdate it
by explaining that the failure of Mr.. George p
Putnam, which occurred some two years since,
necessitated the sale of his magazine to new
firm. styled Dix & Edwards; that this firm was
in process Of time, strengthened by an accession
of two literary men. Mr. Olmstead the author Of
Travels in the Southern States" aud Mr.. George
W. Curtis, the author Of various social sketches
and anti-slavery speeches, and both, strange to
say, possessed Of some pecuniary means; that the
firm, Notwithstanding this acquisition of strength
failed some months hack; that Dix & Edwards
who were not capitalists, went out quietly, leav-
ing Olmstead and Curtis to settle with the Gre
ditoTs; that Of these the heaviest, Miller, prin-
ter, entered thereupon into partnership with Cur
tbs aud Olmstead, and carried on the business;
strength, the new firm was hardly pressed for
money, and was glad to receive $4,000 from
Mr.. Francis G. Shaw, who intended to become .
special partner to that extent; that, notwilh.
standing the, the business was still losing one,
and the firm found it necessary, few days
since, to suspend payment and finally,
that Rice and Kendall of Boston, paper makers,
and creditors Of the firm to the tune of some
sixteen or seventeen thousand dollars, pretend
that Mr.. Francis G. Shaw, who is man of for
tune, has inadvertently omitted to comply with
the provisions Of the law respecting special part
nerships and has rendered himself liable as q
general partner for all the debts of the firm.
The pending contest on their application for an
Injunction we understand to be based on this pre-
tension of theirs, which is denied by Mr. Shaw
and his late associates.
OF course it is not our business or our wish to
have anything to say about the private controversy
which we have thus explained. We only draw
attention to it in order to Improve" the history
of P,an0m's Monthly for the benefit of pub
fishers, men OF letters and the public generally.
When this periodical was started by Mr.. Put
nam, ii was intended to be vehicle for the best
kind of native literature irrespective of politics.
Restricting its matter to home made articles was,
of course, an absurd aud very juvenile idea: as
though one should protest that he would use no
foreign cutlery or dry goods ia his house. But
the general principle OF the magazine was that it
should instruct and amuse withou. being con-
troversal in politics We believe that under
these auspices, it throve pretty well; if
it made no money, it cannot have los.
much. But when Mr.. Putnan's embarrassments
compelled him to part with the magazine, it fell
into new and very different hands. The pub
fishers were young and inexperienced; they al
lowed the monthly to be controlled by that pecu-
liar set Of advanced philosophers who are con-
spcuous in the columns of the New York Tri-
lsne and Epening Post. These philosophers, as
young as the publishers, undertook to reform So
ciety at large. and the Southern States in par
ticular. They succeeded only in running the
magazine. Their arrogant selfesteem, their
childish vagaries, their dogrnatical assumption of
superiority TO each and every one who was not
of their clique, and their ndiscree. assaults upon
the feelings Of those on whose patronage they de-
pended, very speedily achieved the downfall of
the concern II fell; and in its fall, as we have
seen, il has ruined no less than four different
firms
P.daop,'s Mo,tdlE per- -, has now ceased to exist
but il II to be united with ERerson's United States
Magazine, and il may very well be that this cross
of the ideal with the practical will produce some
thing partGking Of both, which will meet one of
tie requirements of the popular mind. AT the
same time the spirit of the deceased Putndms
is to be raised from The dead In Boston. A firm
belonging TO the most advanced school of
ethics and politics, announce a magazine to be
called the Northern Magazine, ia which Wendell
Phillips, MIS- Stowe and other writer's OF the same
stripe, are going to give the South no mercy at
all AT last we are told, "the North will have
tongue the Southerners had best hide their
bcads a. once, and prepare for fagellation- The
Northern Nggozine IL not to be an amusing peri
odcal; ii is, on the contrary, to resemble the
British Quarterly Reviess; and it, claim to pat
ronage will rest upon the elevation OF its princi
pies and the force With which they viii be main
tained. Whether II Is to advocate equally adj
vanced theories in religion as in politics, we are
not Informed; though as Mr. Emerson il to be a
prominent contributor something Of the kind
may Be reasonably expected. But ferocious on
slaughts upon the South are to be the leading
feature
Now there can be no doubt where this euter
prize will lead Ruin Is plainly marked out as
the destiny Of the Northern Magazine; II follows in
the wake Of Pnnam's, aud being likely to be less
generally acceptable as being less entertaining IL
will rush to the same goal. with even greater
speed. II Is wonderful, Indeed, that men should
be found willing 70 risk money in such foolish
scheme. But these anti slavery philosophers are
incurable; they viii go on trying to improve the
world, and losing their pains and their money,
to the end Of time.
This does not at all argue that there is not