favour, must not seek to support his arguments by the principles or the practice of the United States.

Intimidation, or any other form of interference with the rights and the independence of the elector, will always in this country be stigmatised as it deserves; and neither that nor any other abuse of power, wherever it is disposed to show itself, can effectually or for any length of time resist the wholesome effects of public exposure.

NOTE.-Bribery at Elections.-Having adverted above to the alleged "bribery and corruption" that goes on at certain elections in the United States, notwithstanding what is in this country popularly considered a panacca for it and so many other evilsnamely, large constituencies-I feel bound to add the following justification of the assertion.

Extract from "The Message of the Governor of the State of New York to the Senate and Assembly," for the year 1850:

"The alarming increase of bribery in our popular elections demands your serious attention. The preservation of our liberties depends on the purity of the elective franchise, and its independent exercise by the citizen; and I trust you will adopt such measures as shall effectually protect the ballot-box from all corrupting influences."-New York Commercial Advertiser, Jan. 8, 1850.

Extract from the "Message of the Governor of the State of New York to the Senate and Assembly," for the year 1851 :"The increase of corrupt practices in our elections has become a subject of general and just complaint. It is represented that, in some localities, the suffrages of considerable numbers of voters

have been openly purchased with money. We owe it to ourselves and to posterity, and to the free institutions which we have inherited, to crush this hateful evil in its infancy, before it attains sufficient growth to endanger our political system. The honest and independent exercise of the right of suffrage is a vital principle in the theory of representative government. It is the only enduring foundation for a republic. Not only should the law punish every violation of this principle as a crime against the integrity of the State, but any person concerned in giving or receiving any pecuniary consideration for a vote, should, upon challenge, be deprived of the privilege of voting. I submit the subject to your consideration, in the hope that additional remedies may be prescribed and enforced."

The interpretation to be given to this passage is not, if I am rightly informed, to be confined to the lower Irish of the large cities, or to the State of New York. There is a certain class of persons, somewhat numerous in the United States, who live by "working the elections," which, as they are pretty frequent, give them ample occupation. There is another class, that of "trading politicians," who look for their reward in various shapes during the tenure of office of the party which they espouse. There is, finally, the large, and in some places not badly organized, class of Irish labourers, whose votes are apt to turn the scale on very many occasions. These are, it is notorious, often won to the side of the party in power, whatever it may be, by being employed out of the public funds, at by no means inadequate wages, for special jobs, just previously to the period of elections. The practice has given rise to a common euphony for bribery, "pipe-laying." It arose from an alleged manœuvre at New York during the progress of the introduction of the Croton water. After a period of inaction, the authorities, as is reported, were suddenly seized with an extraordinary degree of zeal in breaking up the streets and laying down pipes—in some instances, it is said, long before they were wanted; and Irishmen were brought into the city from all quarters to assist in that beneficent expenditure. It is further said that many of these pipes had to be taken up again, having been laid in a manner that did not meet with subsequent approval.

Another term appears frequently in the public prints which requires a little explanation, for the benefit of our optimists in this country it is the term "log-rolling," and is derived from the "backwoodsman's craft," and from the neighbourly assistance common on the outskirts of civilization. When a settler has cut down his timber, and sawn it into convenient lengths for getting it off the land, his neighbours assemble with their oxen and chains, and in a few hours drag the whole off his "clearing." When summoned, he is ready to do them the same turn. Political and electioneering "log-rolling" means, therefore, "Help me in my job, and I will help you in yours." There is evidently a slight difference in principle in the two processes, which, however, does not prevent the political "log-rolling" from being successfully resorted to. In the first case-that of the backwoodsman-the end is attained by all pulling one way; in the second, though ostensibly each party is pulling different ways, the end, somehow or other, turns out to be the profit of both.

It may be desirable to illustrate this by an instance. A member of a State Legislature wishes to obtain an appropriation of 20,000 dollars for some public work in his county; he secures the support of other members by promising to vote for a similar grant to theirs. Some 50,000 or 100,000 dollars of the public money will therefore be spent, where a tenth part of the sum would be all that would be strictly necessary for the public service. Authentic instances of this kind are freely mentioned to any one who may have the curiosity to inquire into this phase of the working of the United States Legislatures, some of which are, of course, more conspicuous than others in this particular.

Also in the matter of Government contracts of all kinds, if common fame is to be depended upon, the amount of jobbing and corruption, especially in times of war, would astonish the acute Parliamentary critics of our army and navy and miscellaneous estimates. It is asserted that one of the principal reasons why war is so popular in the United States is the wide field it opens for these practices. The Florida and Mexican wars abounded in examples of them, some equalling anything that could have occurred in the most corrupt period of our own Government during the last century.

THE PRESS.

IT had never come in my way, previously to my landing in New York, to read an American newspaper, and all I knew of them was by description, and through such extracts as are copied occasionally into the daily London papers. It was, therefore, a new and pretty ample field of study, between the intervals of riding, driving, and walking by the sea at Newport in Rhode Island, enjoying for ten days its refreshing coolness, and the abundant and most friendly hospitality of the numerous pleasant families who have their villa residences in that favourite neighbourhood. Papers from New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Charlestown, New Orleans, Richmond (Virginia), Cincinnati, St. Louis, Independence (Missouri), Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago-three at least from some of those places and two from otherstempt the curiosity of a stranger; and if the

whole of the above are not found at the gigantic hotels at Newport, you are not long before making their acquaintance on the desks round the walls of the reading-rooms in the hotels of the different cities.

Raising my eyes from the daily study of all that was attractive in I know not how many square yards of paper (no slight matter considering the usual smallness of the print), I was tempted for some time to ask myself whether it were really true that I, as an Englishman, was meeting with nothing but civility, cordiality, and kindness from every one I fell in with, while probably every individual among them had been just reading, in some paper or other, the most virulent denunciations of England, the bitterest taunts against her policy, the most undervaluing remarks on her power, and the most depreciating estimates of the individual character of her people.

After a three months' course of these papers, I think I am safe in saying that the ordinary tone of more than two-thirds of them is of that quality, whenever they take occasion to discuss