The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-05-07
MONDAY, MAY 7, 1866.
The "MOuntain Partridge'' Turns on Its
pu,suars


presses the beholder so strongly with amaze
ment, that what reason would have failed to ac
complish is secured by bold effrontery. There
is a military maxim which declares that
"Temerity is often the soundest discretion"
and JAMES NJ SCovEL, despairing Of cleans
ing himself of the charge of perldy, perjury,
and treachery, has sought to win by insolence
what could never be gained by argument.
When he appeared before the Board of D-
rectors of the Union League some ten days
since, to show cause why he should not be
suspended from that body, he read an elabo.
rately prepared defense, which, after consum-
ing another week in revision and probable
submission to friends, was given to the public
n the Sunday papers of yesterday.
The conduct of this rard Guis is too we'll
known to the reader for us to unnecessarily
waste time in repeating it here. But as his
defense is now entering on a new style of
oratory, we cannot forbear calling attention
to its beauties. The opening sentence, in
which Sir PHILIP SIDNEY, Pegasus, Par
nassus, Symposiums, and laurels are
tamiliarly introduced, is a fine outburst of
classic knowledge; and, had we not read it
before in an article from the pen of our ex-
Minister to Hong Kong, would have deeply
impressed us with a profound venera-
ton for the requirements of the estate
Senator" But all the playful satire con-
tanned lin the peroration disappears in
the succeeding sentence, when the accused
leaps up as though he would indeed escape
''like partridge fleeing to the mountains"
flaps his wings in the faces Of the Board, and
utters desperate sp peal to memory :-"Or it
flashed across the eye of my mind, as recol-
lected through how many weary days in the
fall of 1854 1 carried the flag of my country
and the banner of ANDY CURTIN through
Franklin, Venango Jefferson, and Clarion-it
occurred to me that l so nearly lost my own
election to the Senate OF New Jersey, in nv
anxiety that the Commonwealth of Pennsyl-
vania should stand without stain in that
memorable campaign, that the League-so
eager to reward modest merit-had prepared
some unexpected but not undeserved testl-
monial for me-"
We had never known before tha JAMES
carried or followed the flag OF his country
anywhere; but we think it more than likely
that this is not a metaphor. We know of old
how desrous 10 receive applause SCovEL
was; and hence are not surprised if he really
did wave an American flag, IN order by such
.clap-trap to be greeted with the coveted
round of cheers. There is something else
added to this short sentence, but the diction
grows SO obscure that we really cannot deter
mine whether "the eloquent BREWSTER"
called him "dear Philadelphia" or whether
somebody else was thus honored
Having laid mythology under contribution,
q charge is made on SHAKESPEARE. That
SCoVEL had read that author we know, be-
cause he distinctly asked, some time since,
"Whats he to Hecuba," etc. But now new
draught is drawn, and "air-drawn daggers'
skipping spirits" and the "God of Liberty
are conjoined There is a peculiarity
about the production of this victim
OF "The world, the flesh, and the
devip which is noticeable, and we would
call attention to it, so that the students of
the grammar schorlS can avoid the same error
in their compositions. When he commences
sentence the meaning is clear enough, but
as he progresses. the idea grows fainter and
fainter, until finally overwhelmed amidst a
mass of words. But we cannot continue to
analyze this refined and perspicuous pro-
duction. 1t is so thoroughly SoovEL that
the whistle of the partridge sounds in each
paragraph, the guns of the Cumberland seem
booming in its types and figures. while
Gibraltar is suggested because OF the dim
height at which the points are placed.
While we have a column of sentences about
mythology and certain counties in the inte-
rlor OF Pennsylvania yet the main, the only
question, is entirely avoided. He says -
"Here is not the place in which to state my
objections to the President of the Corn Ex-
change as the candidate for the United States
Senate from New Jersey. Ny objections to
him were perfectly satisfactory to me. 1 was
ready to elect any man other than the Presi-
dent OF the Corn Exchange. The po,oer which
sported with the Legislature did not recede
from a position imperiously assumed; could
not recede from nine" but does not state by
what right he constituted himself the Judge
oi whether the nominee of the party was a
suitable man or not. Who was J. M. S0oVRL
that he dared to dictate to the great Union
party OF New Jersey? He was the servant of
the Republican voters of Camden. They all
favor the regular nominee, and how dared he
to gainsay their choice, and act as a modern