The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-11-24
re alarmingly active in all our chief citie.

fare alarmingly active in all our chief cities"
and that these 'enjoy unenviabe notorietv'' for
the ''mal-administration of their municipal gov
ernments;' but then Ito have our authorities
'obeyed we should also seek to have them
respected and therefore, men ought not to
complain of their incompetency or faithlessness.
We were perplexed, indeed, as we pondered upon
these words of wisdom, and sought to penetrate
their hidden purport. They could not surely
mean to intimate that the only feasible method of
protecting the material interests of our CITY and
preserving her good name abroad is for every
honest citizen to join Club, to swell the last
triumphant majority" of nineteen thousand to
double that number at the next election, so as
ito sustain the City authorities" Read by the
light of its past lucubrations it did seem probable
that such was the drift of our contemporaries
suggestions, but our better reason still refused
to give them such Interpretation.
We then sought, was the custom of olden
times, to find in the circumstances surrounding the
speaker some clue which should lead US to an nm
Outstanding of the thing spoken. Our astonsh-
ment and admiration were profound, when, after
careful re-perusal of the whole article in question:
its force and beauty broke for the first time
upon us. We then perceived that our
friendly monitor while dallying with phrases
vaguely applicable to our own condition,
had adroitly managed to hint its sentiments
under cover of historical parallel Our authorities
ought ''to be respected, " and clubs it may be-
are feared, and both prudence and classical taste
had therefore suggested the propriey of discussing
them, only through a dissertation on the factions
of ancient Rome. We rejoice thus to have dscov-
cred the esoterc doctrine of our contemporary and
regret that did sooner arrive at this knowl-
edge, for we have doubtless missed many audable
structures upon the epidemic evils in orr midst,
that were hidden under the form of apologize and
parable. Able now to comprehend it, and desiring
its assistance in efforts 'to arouse public opin-
on," We propose TO adopt its line of policy, as it
has repudiated ours. Mahomet must 90 10 the
mountain. We will join in the discourse upon
the affairs of Rome. But we do not deem
it expedient to begin at so recent date as the
later ages of that city, nor will we feel obliged to
conhne ourselves to the strictly historical period
Tradition has handed down to us accounts of
those early years of the Republic, when under
the dictatorship of T. CyGNUs MAxMus, and the
prefecture OF hARENGUS, turbulence ana ulSOrdtr
disturbed the peace of the city, and fraud and
violence deprived its people of their rights. At
that time, it is said, the government was even
usurped without show of right, in order that
the rule of those weak and ambitious men might
be perpetuated. Uncomfortable as such legends
are at this day, when told to free and courage
Gus people the moral they can teach us is not
altogether useless, nevertheless. States have
passed from civilization to barbarism, and more
than one people has lapsed from liberty into
thraldom. Let US, therefore, not cease to
make the examples of the past do US good service
for the future. What then says The american, in
the Nineteenth century, to the story of the reign
of 7. CYGNUs MAxMUs, and HARENGUs or ALEC,
his project, in the darker ages of the world?
Every child is familiar with the tale Let us NOR
alize upon it, o philosophical co-adjutor, for the
benefit of our country's youth.