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cended the scaffold with a determined, Straf- | or more full of minor detail than the period

fordish, or Charles the First sort of feeling, during which I hung thus. The most trionly to meet the yells and execrations of the fling events stood out sharp and defined. assembled thousands below, and especially More than twice or thrice did I mark a man of my friends and relatives, who had en- at my feet pull out his watch, and note the gaged the windows in the Old Bailey, di- minutes as they passed to the time when I rectly opposite, amongst whom, above all was to be cut down. At length, five minvociferous, was one lady cousin, who was utes to nine arrived, when I could see imbeholden to me for long years of kind offices. mediately below me the executioner enter The night-cap was pulled over my face; the dark chamber formed by the scaffold, but I managed, manacled though I was, to and with long slow passes proceed to sharpen keep a small aperture to see through, not a huge knife on the flag-stones of the pavestraight forward, but in the direction of my ment. This operation occupied the remainfeet, as we do at the game of "Blind Man." ing five minutes, when it was over, he asThe cord was adjusted, the drop fell, and I cended the scaffold, and taking hold of the swung. I felt, however, no decided pain, rope just above my head, began to saw at merely a sort of numbed, quiet sensation, it with his knife. This action occasioned not in the least disagreeable. I could just the first pain I experienced during the ensee out of the aperture in the cap the as-tire operation, or-more correctly speaking sembled multitude below; but a singular-execution. The action of the knife seemed phenomenon presented itself; instead of re- to thrill and grate through every nerve and maining in one place, people, houses, and all, slowly but steadily moved round me, when at the end of one revolution they stopped a moment, and turned once round in the opposite direction. Thus did they continue passing and repassing before my eyes, like a moving panorama, till a few minutes' consideration, assured me that the phenomenon was nothing more than the effect of my own gyrations on the rope by which I was suspended.

No part of the dream was more distinct,

fibre of my body. He cut through one strand of the rope, and a jerk shook my whole frame; in a moment more, another strand went, and again the painful jerk was repeated; again, the executioner sawed away, the third strand went, and I was precipitated on the stones beneath. At this juncture, I awoke, and found that the rope by which my hammock was suspended had given way, and I was rolling on the floor.

T. H.

RECOVERY OF THE JOURNAL OF ADOLPHE | thirty-five pages of closely written notes, accomSCHLAGINTWEIT. -Sir Roderick Murchison panied by what is confidently asserted to be the writes to the Times that Lord William Hay, now poor fellow's skull. The last entry in the jouremployed as Civil Commissioner in Cashmere, nal is dated the 11th of August (1856), a few who has been indefatigable in his endeavors to days before he was beheaded." The surviving throw light upon the fate of Adolphe Schlagint-brothers will thus be enabled to enrich their work, weit, the Himalayan explorer, has at length suc- now in the course of publication, by descriptions ceeded in possessing himself of the journal of of a region never visited in modern times by any that most adventurous explorer. Quitting his other scientific traveller.-Examiner. brothers Hermann and Robert, who traversed the Karakorum and Kuenlun chains to Eltchi, near Yarkand, Adolphe, pursuing his travels on a more western meridian, succeeded in passing considerably further northward than his brothers, when he was beheaded by a robber chief in front of Kashgar, and on his road to Kokand. Lord William Hay, in a letter dated the 8th of September, writes to his brother Lord Gifford "You will be glad to hear, and please communicate the intelligence to friends and those who are interested, that I have succeeded in recovering, and have now in my possession, Adolphe Schlagintweit's journal, containing one hundred and

A PARAGRAPH is going the round of the French papers announcing that a Chinese speculator has arrived in our allies' country, with the naturalization and multiplication of fish as his mission. He is said not merely to have imported many new species, which are to prove of great value to European bills of fare, bu: he professes also to introduce new methods of breeding and feeding of the most extreme simplicity, which will place a plenteous supply of fish within the reach of the poor.

From The London Review, 16 Nov.
WHAT CAN THE SOUTH GAIN.

POLICY belongs essentially to the domain of reason. It is based on foresight. It looks calmly on the impulses and passions of the multitude, and excites or controls them for its purposes. It directs the energies of nations to the promotion of their own, and of the general welfare. Not from passion but from policy the leaders of the South resolved on secession, and Mr. Jefferson Davis, in his message to the Confederate Congress on April 18th, explained elaborately the reasons on which he and his colleagues acted. The objects aimed at were the good of the Southern people. They desired above all things, "peace," and "to be let alone." It is rational, therefore, now to inquire, what they have gained and what they can gain by the secession which Mr. Davis and his associates initiated, and by the separate Confederation they have undertaken to form and govern.

Policy necessarily takes into consideration the probable actions of opponents, as well as of friends and allies. From the absolute refusal of Mr. Lincoln to acknowledge the self-declared secession of the South, and to receive its negotiators as representing an independent State, it was from the first evident that war was inevitable. His policy in refusing to acknowledge secession, is warmly and passionately supported by a large majority of the population of the Union; and as the policy of Mr. Davis was in like manner warmly and passionately supported by the population of the South, the overt act of the secessionists, it cannot be denied, was the first cause of this deplorable and inevitable war. Instead, therefore, of the "peace" which the South desires, it is exposed to the horrors of war. Instead of being "let alone" its ports are blockaded, its trade is entirely extinguished, its armies and the armies of the North are almost daily engaged in deadly conflicts. The fields, where for nearly seventy years no sound has been heard but that of the clearing axe and the cotton hoe, the crash of falling trees and of the building hammer, the clatter of hoofs on the newly made road, and, progressively, the rushing of the locomotive and the screech of the engineer's whistle; where no sight has been seen but acre after acre reclaimed from the wilderness, and home after home rising in

quick succession, forming the village, the town, the magnificent city, the abodes of industrious, skilful, intelligent, learned, scientific men, laboring on farms or in workshops, worshipping in temples, and studying in colleges, are now red with the blood of the people, and flare defiantly to heaven with the conflagration of their sacked and destroyed homes. Till secession was declared there was peace, with rapid progress in the Union; now there is, chiefly in the South, destructive war. So far, it must be admitted, secession, as a policy, is a grievous failure. It has brought on the South, as on the North, great calamities.

In a military sense, the South has the advantage. It may find some consolation for the calamities of war in its successes. It may balance the glory of victory against the annihilation of trade. It may ultimately compel the North, when weary and worn out by vain efforts at conquest, to acknowledge its independence. Let us imagine this accomplished, and let us endevaor to realize, as far as our limited faculties will admit, what will then actually be the position of the Confederation and its gains by having conquered "independence."

Whatever may ultimately be the case, in the first instance the success of the South would probably compel the States of the North to remain united and form a more compact, homogeneous, and firm union. They would have in the South an embittered, and in comparison with them, a powerful State, against which they must be on their guard. Great Britain, in possession of Canada on the North, would be likely, with the Confederation on the South, to compress them into continual and firm union. We are disposed to believe, from the spirit of liberty prevalent in the North, and various other circumstances not at present enumerated, that it will not readily fall into anarchy, nor under despotism, but will, in a short time after the restoration of peace, again become, as it has now been for a long period, the refuge and home of the poor, the discontented, the skilful, and enterprising people of Europe. Supposing this to be the result, the new Confederation will have in the Northern States, instead of fellow-unionists, mutual parties to a compact which bound both to a mutual deference, and made one responsible, in degree, for the welfare of the other,

-a community of free white men, all ani- | of its former colleages, the means of recovmated by a hatred of slavery,-all completely ering its profitable monopoly.

distinct from the black men who fill the South, -and all bound by one of the strongest sentiments of human nature,-to prevent the extension of this slave and black community over any part of the earth. Hitherto the free North has increased faster than the Confederate South in wealth, population, and power, and for the future is likely to increase still faster. The Confederation, then, will, through the success of secession, create a predominant antagonistic power, no longer restrained by union from carrying into effect the resolution, we may say, of all civilized society, to extirpate negro slavery from its wide domain.

Secession implies boundaries between the new Confederation and the old Federal Union. It will imply, too, custom-houses on these boundaries, different, if not hostile tariffs, different revenue laws, and a great diminution, if not complete interruption to the perfectly free internal traffic which has contributed to the progress of the South as well as the North, and been one of the most important advantages of the Union. The South will have stronger motives than ever for securing its slaves against the contamination of freedom. It will no longer have the help of a fugitive slave law, and must guard every point of its land frontier with as much jealousy against the inroads of

ton harbor. The shipping of the North may not be employed quite so exclusively as at present in carrying away the produce of the South, but for over-sea carriage it will still have to confide in others. It cannot be the carrier of its own slave-grown products; the natural and indestructible freedom of roving sailors forbids it. If it ceases to receive imports through the North, it will have to

Separated from the North, the Confederation will be an insignificant State. Some freedom as South Carolina guards Charlesof its leaders, and some politicians in Europe, have flattered it by visions of a great Southern empire, but the powerful North, from the instant of separation, will become the determined opponent to the formation of such an empire. Spain, aided by Europe, and ceasing to be opposed by the North on behalf of the South, would prevent Cuba and every portion of the West Indies from becoming part of such an empire. Follow- pay a great additional price for them. ing its example, of seceding from a false expectation of gaining power, Texas on the one hand and Virginia on the other, disappointed in their expectation of advantage by a first secession, might try another; and the South, falling into pieces, would utterly lose the means of maintaining its peculiar institution against reason and civilization.

Trade, it may be quite sure, already takes the very cheapest and best mode known of exchanging its exports for its imports, and any alteration in this mode caused by its own political devices must be disadvantageous. The course of modern civilization is to connect by trade, by one medium of exchange, one common series of weights and The South is now teaching other nations measures, by an increasing diffusion of comthe necessity of avoiding exclusive depend- mon knowledge, including that of different ence on it for cotton. They are taking languages, and by a common interest, all means, in various quarters, for obtaining a the diverse nations of the earth. America, supply, to which the return of its supremacy into which people from all parts of the in the cotton-market would be hostile; and world, including China and Africa, have it cannot hereafter rely on the countenance gone, or are willingly going, seems destined, and support, which it has hitherto received it has been concluded from this principle; to from cotton-manufacturing nations. It will have with all the disadvantages of an additional Government, of heavy taxation to pay the expense of war, and of greatly crippled resources to meet the competition of many cotton-growing people in the markets of the world. Secession will effectually prevent it from finding in another Eli Whitney, and in the wealth, ingenuity, and resources

be an amalgamating home for all; and the political secession of the Confederation, totally in opposition to this general course, cannot be otherwise, as we have shown in some detail, than ruinous to itself and injurious to society.

The Federal Union, let us add as a concluding consideration for Southern politicians, has a potential voice in the politics of

the world. It has lifted itself up against decisive settlement of the whole vexatious Great Britain; it has challenged France, and question. obtained its own terms; it has taught Austria to respect American citizens; it is quite on a level with the empire of Russia; it has subdued Mexico; it extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific; thirty-one millions of strong and intelligent people constitute a great nation. The secession of the South, followed by other secessions incited by its pernicious example, may break into fragments this now powerful, free, and most valuable member of the community of the civilized world; but the South never can inherit its power. What great nation will ever care a straw for anything thought, said, or done by an almost shipless community on the Gulf of Mexico, the sinews of which are negro slaves? Secession is not the road to empire, but to insignificance and ruin.

ANOTHER VIEW OF SECESSION AND
SLAVERY.

To the Editors of the Evening Post :-At the present session of Congress the subject of slavery and the question, what shall be done with it, which has so long vexed the military and executive authorities of the nation, is transferred to a new theatre, and must seek a settlement by the debates and action of the national Legislature. Already it is a question of great interest-soon it will be one of absorbing consequence― "What are the rights and jurisdiction of Congress in the territories of the seceded

states ?"

While, then, it is the part of every general to deal with the subject practically in his orders to his army as the immediate exigencies of his position shall demand, and the part of the President to issue such more general orders as shall form a consistent and comprehensive military policy for the government—a duty which, through the recent orders of the Secretary of War, has already made some progress toward a satisfactory accomplishment-these, however important, are but transient expedients. The final adjustment must come from the wisdom and the authority of the nation; and it behoves us to be looking in time to the opportunities and the means which we possess for a definite and

What is, then, the authority of Congress in the seceded states? How far, and on what principle, may the nation legislate within the territory of South Carolina and Texas? Are the limitations which the constitution imposes upon the legislation of the general government the same now-when, by the action of the regular local authorities, the state is in a position of the most determined and intense hostilities-that they were when the state was, in good faith, carrying out the duties which the constitution imposed upon her? Or are the changes which this, a suicidal and desperate state of war, voluntarily assumed by the state, involves, so radical as to open a fair field for the largest discretion of Congress in reestablishing the state governments?

Let it be observed, then, that the occurrence of war, and especially by the act of the states against the nation, involves changes of the most fundamental kind during the whole continuance of the struggle. As the great security of personal liberty, the habeas corpus, is put at the discretion of the President by the very existence of a state of war; and as every right of property in a country under military occupation must give way to the exigencies of the campaign and of the hour, so this institution of slavery, for the time being-durante bellostands at the sole discretion of the military authorities.

But if a change so great as this is the inevitable consequence of war, may it not be that other changes, equally sweeping, are involved? If the President, from the moment that war exists, becomes invested with so great an authority, may not the great exigency which clothes him with a character so new and so startling, bestow new powers upon the nation, equally beyond the view and provisions of the constitution?

So, indeed, it is and must be. An invasion by a foreign power would invest the President with a military dictatorship in the whole territory invaded. The power of the nation against the enemy would be absolute, nor could any state rights be pleaded against the necessity of its exercise. But war by a state against the nation converts that state into an enemy, and gives to the nation every right of war against the state. The author

ity, then, of the nation in the present con- | secession is abdication by the state authori flict is a twofold right-its right against pub- ties; and the impossibility of preventing it lic enemies, and its right against traitors.

The men who take up arms against the country lose all their rights in that country. During the war they are enemies, to be resisted to every extremity; after the war they are traitors, to be punished and secured from doing further mischief.

tution imposes upon it within the territories over which Congress has "sole and exclusive jurisdiction."

by the loyal citizens is the evidence of their absolute inability either to conduct their former government or to create a new one. The authority of Congress is the only authority left, and that becomes sole and supreme. The state sinks by its own act into the condition of a territory, to be organized, No laws, then, of the state can be pleaded provided with a government and protected against the permanent duty of Congress to in the enjoyment of it by the power of the secure to each state a republican form of gov-nation; and that power is subjected to no ernment. No laws of a treasonable state other restraints than those which the constiretain any validity whatever. The laws which appoint a governor and a legislature, and which institute a judiciary, become of no further authority when the power which ordained them becomes a public enemy. Such a community is wholly beyond the view of the constitution. That instrument gives to a state, while loyal, certain ascertained rights; but when the state ceases to be loyal to it, every right which it conferred is withdrawn, every right which it recognized is ignored, and the very existence of the state government is at an end. All its agents are enemies, all their acts are acts of hostility, and the constitution can know no longer the state which it previously recognized. An act of treason by the public authorities of a state is a complete abandonment of all functions and rights by that state; and it is the business of Congress to organize a republican government therein, upon its own idea of what such a government must be.

This doctrine is in complete accord with that recently laid down by Judge Freese in Alexandria, and approved by the national authorities, that no officer of a seceded state can retain his office under the national jurisdiction, and that all his acts as such officer are liable to punishment. The state being hostile, its authorities cannot be recognized as the state government; as none other can be immediately formed, it follows that within a seceded state there is no local government, and that it is the duty of Congress to institute one at its own discretion.

The end of our reasoning, then, is this: The seceded states are without governments and without laws. Secession is the annihilation of state authority, and the reversion of all authority into the hands of Congress. With the death of the state as an organized community die all its political institutions; no rights save the simple personal rights of a state of nature remain. Among the artificial policies and institutions which secession annihilates is slavery-an institution which, standing upon no natural foundation, goes down when the authority which supported it goes down; and that authority being at an end, slavery is at an end in every seceding state. Secession is, in fact and in law, abolition. That system is terminated by the political termination of the state authority. Slavery can have no existence, and no recognition, till some competent authority shall re-enact and re-institute it; and as Congress is the only authority competent to act and to maintain the supreme law of the constitution, slavery can have no existence within the limits of the Confederate States unless ordained by the national government. Abolished for the time by the act of the seceding states themselves, it only remains for Congress to afford to the world the pledge of its purposes by passing the Wilmot proviso; and to see to it that no state be re-invested with the functions of sovereignty without the permanent renunc

The true doctrine of the case, then, is that ation of this wrong.

B. N. M.

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