Year: 1862

who have argued that our practice does not ac-
cord with our avowed principles, and shows that
secession is rightly regarded by our Government
as rebellion The ReUielo put the case to En-
ghshmen thus:


"Should we be inconsistent if we forciby pre-
vented the Irish from setting up for themselves,
however much they wished tP According to
these writer's it would be necessary for us in such
case to defend ourselves by the wretched quib-
bic that we never passed an Act of Parliament to
assert principles which we all believe, and should
act upon ourselves without hesitation and that.
as our technical language was framed before
those principles prevailed, we have perfect right
to disregard in practice what we all accept in the
ory, and so to neglect our principles without pre-
iudce to our consistency. No position can be
more undgnifed than playing fast aud loose in
this manner, protesting liberal opinions on all oc-
casions in which our own interests are not imme-
dately concerned, and throwing them up and re-
sorting to antiquated legal phraseoogy when
they are. 1t Is utterly impossible to distinguish
the case of Ireland from the case of the Southern
States by an argument which stops short of the
principle that nothing can justify armed resistance
to an established government. Whoever there
FORE charges the United States with inconsistency
ought either to maintain that we should be bound
to allow the Irish to proclaim their independence
of us as soon as they please, or to maintain that
no amount of msgovernment and oppression on
our part would justify them in doing so. No one
would accept either branch of this dilemma, yet
it is altogether inevitable if the Americans are
charged with inconsistency.


The London Spectator of August I'd, in an ar
ticle entitled the 'Test Hour of America" says
good word for the North, and adds:


We have not lost hope yet 1t is almost bias
phemy to suppose that all this loss and woe, this
expenditure of life and energy, this terrible break
in the march OF generation can end simply
in nothing, in a separation that will leave the ma
tional crime more rampant than before. The
opinion of the silent millions has still to be sought
and it may astonish the prophets again, as it did
after Sumter fell. The quiet yeomanry who, in
great crises, always govern the States, are not
represented by the "wirepullers," or by the press
they control, or by the city population of New
York. They may be maturing their minds for
last and grander effort, preparing slowly, as is
their won't for the revolution which shall rein
vigorate the national life. At ,he very last mo
ment they may step forward, follow some chosen
leader, declare the war a war of principles, and
precipitate the flower of twenty millions of men
once more upon the South. Even then they may
not win, for the South maddened by certain de-
feat and dreading the loss of property less than
suhjugation, may rise to the level of their situa-
ton, make the offer which the negroes in York
town say they expect, and promise their slaves
complete and immediate freedom. But short Of
that resolve there would in the event Of new
rising of the people, be still no chance for the
South, and the rising is no more impossible than
Americans declared the last to be. This may be
the resolve Of the silent mass but, meanwhile,
the only men in America acting with revolution
ary vigor the Shareholders of the South
They have all the strength of an oigarchy added
TO all the resources of despair. The conscrip-
ton, it is evident, has been obeyed, the produce of
the country is at its leaders disposal and they
have found, if not Generals, at least men who
understand how volunteer campaigns must be
won. The news, as we said, is dishtartening for
all who believe the cause of the North is STILL
amid many errors and much halfheartedness, the
cause of freedom.


Nor GENERALLY KNowN.-Martin Van Blu
ren was the only man who held the offices Of
President, Vice President, Minister to England,
Governor Of his own State, and member of both
Houses of Congress.


Thomas H. Benton was the only man who held
seat in the United States Senate for thirty con-
secutive years.


The only instance Of father and son in the Uni
ted States Senate at the same time, is that Of
Hen. Henry Dodge, Senator from Wisconsin,
and his son, Augustus G. Dodge, Senator from
Iowa.


General James Shields is the only man who
ever represented two States in the United States
Senate. AT one time he was Senator from Hill
nois, and subsequently Senator from Minnesota.


John Quincy Adams held position under the
Government during every administration, from
that Of Washington TO that of Polk, during
which he died. He had been Minister to England
member of both Houses of Congress, Secretary
of State and President Of the United States
He died while a member of the House of Repre-
sentatives.


The only instance where three brothers occu-
pied seats in the Lower House at the same time,
was when Elihu b. Washburne represented the
First District Of Illinois, Israel Washburne, Jr.,
the Third District of Maine, and Cadwalader
Washburne, the Third District of Wisconsin.


BoYHooD.-Boys, when they are boys, are
queer enough. How many ridiculous notions
they have, and what singular desires, which in