The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1860-02-16
MACAULAY'S DEATH.


From the Christian Advocate and Journal.
MACAULAY'S DEATH.
The foreign news reports the death of the
great author, Macaulay. he was the son Of
Zachary Macaulay, the noted emancipationist,
who was member of the noble Chaplain
Sect" which sprung from the influence of
Methodism on the Church, and produced the
" Low Church party" Zachary Macaulay was
its representative as first editor of the Chris
tian Observer, its organ, and his distinguished
son seems never to have forgotten his fathers
connection with the religious movement of the
eighteenth century, called Methodism. Baron
Macaulay was the first of the literat Of Eng
land to recognise the real greatness of John
Wesley. In his Edinburgh article on Southey's
Colleagues, he vndicated the great evangelist
in manner which has given him recognition
ever since outside of his own people.
Macaulay died of heart disease, at barely
sixty years of age. He has left his great work
uncompeted, but we hope it viii be found
brought down far enough to include his esti-
mate OF the Methodistic movement. The Meth
odist public have expected much of him.
There are all sorts of opinions given at pres
ent respecting his work as an author. Mr.
Everett gave the other day at the Franklin
Birthday celebration verdict which time will
be sure to confirm. He said "Nor will you
blame me if / allude to the melancholy tidings,
which have just reached us from abroad, of
the death of the most brilliant writer of our
own or of any age; whose works for thirty
years have been the wonder and the delight of
all who read the English language beneath the
circuit of the sun; an author who, as it seems
to me, more than any other, ancient or modern,
was clothed with the magic power of recreating
the dead past, and giving to the men and
things of other times the form and color of an
actual reviving presence; writer eminent
not among ordinary associates, but unsurpass-
ed, if not unequalled, in a company OF bisto-
rians several of them our honored country
men-two of them, with himself, mournfully
SIGNALLING the year that has just closed; any
one of whom would have conferred sufficient
honor on the age in which he lived. That 10
the intensity with which he threw himself into
the scenes described by him, and took part, so
to say, in the great contentious of the times,
he never fell into an error of judgment, or
made false estimate Of character, need not
be maintained one such has been keenly felt
in this country. An honest and fearless
thinker and writer, he could not avoid collision
of opinion and feeling with those who differed
from him. But his errors were spots on the
noontide sun. Better than this, in Lord Ma
caulay truly nobleman by Heavens patent)
the writer was less admirable than the man
the splendor of his page was excelled, if posi-
BILE, by the brilliancy of his conversation and
the charm of his personal intercourse. All
the world admired his gorgeous Imagination,
the magnifcence of his diction, his miraculous
range of memory, which grasped the literature
of every language and every age, and held oil
its stores of illustration prompt at command.
But those who knew him loved him for the un-
affected meekness with which he bore his tran
scendent honors, the sunny cheerfalness of his
disposition, the generous warmth Of his heart"
MODE OF TAKING THE CENSUS OF
THE UNITED STATES.
As this is the year for taking the census, the
following remarks in relation thereto, which we
find in the Washington Consolation, will be of
interest to many persons:
The duties of this undertaking devolve
upon the United States marshals, who appoint
their own assistants. The General Government
has in each State or Territory one or more Judi
cial districts, with each of which is connected
marshal, who acts as high sheriff in the Dis,
trict Court of the United States. These mar
shals are required by law to subdivide their
districts, and for each subdivision to appoint
an assistant, taking care not to include great
er population (by estimate) than 10000 in any
one subdivision.
The assistants having been qualified, by oath,
for the proper performance of their duties, are
furnished, through the marshals, with blanks
and instructions. In the prosecution of their
work they are required to make two copies Of
their report. The original returns are flied
with the clerk of the court of each county, and
the copies are forwarded to the marshal, who
transmits one copy to the Secretary of State for
his district, and the other to the Census Office
in Washington. The compensation to the mar
shall is in proportion TO the population enumer-
ated by his assistants should that exceed one
million, he is paid one dollar for each thousand
persons enumerated; should the population re-
turned by his ASST ants be less than one mil
lion, he receives I, sum of one dollar and
twenty. FIVE cents fokeach one thousand persons
returned-a system Of compensation sufficient
ly moderate, but which may admit of the pay
ment Of greater amount for q lesser service,
as in the case of . marshal whose returns in
clude CSC, 900 persons at one dollar and twenty
FIVE cents per thousand persons, no more than
he whose returns do not much exceed mil.
lion--an inequality not unusual in rating fees
for mileage and other services.
The assistants who perform the work of
enumeration are psid On different principle,
combining in novel manner compensation for
labor and travel, one which was found to oper-
ate very fairly and satisfactorily to the EN-.
ployees and Government. His allowance is
two cents for each person enumerated; for
each farm, ten cents for each establishment
of productive industry, fifteen cents; for social
statistics, two per centum ON the amount al
lowed for enumerating the population; and
two cents for each mortality return, with ten
cents for travelling expenses, to be ascertained
by multiplying the square root of the number
of dwelling. houses in his district by the square
root of the number of square miles in his d. |
vision; from the product whereof is to bs de-
rived the number of miles travelled, and eight
cents per page for the two copies.
"The marshals and assistants in California,
Oregon, Utah, and New Mexico, under the OPP
Grafton of en- amendment to the law, received
compensation at the discretion of the Secretary
of the Interior, which was determined by the
addition Of 100 per cent"