to let loose their passions against each other, and of turning a beautiful country, almost resembling a blooming paradise, into an aceldema, when bringing before a venerable minister the above contrast, "Ah!" said he, "they will live to regret this."

The editors of the Daily News, Nov. 7, 1866, say that Gen. Wade Hampton, who was an officer in the Confederate army, ought to be thankful that he has not an old world government to deal with, as they would soon make short work of him. Unfortunately for these men, there is no analogy between the governments suggested or referred to since European governments were based on supremacy; but not so our Congressional, since all states respectively reserved their sovereignty when they gave in their adhesion to the Union; and it has also been exceedingly unfortunate for the Federals to have to amend a constitution to which they had pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honour to maintain.

It has been said that the black flag is flying on all sorts of enterprises at present, with the exception of our monetary ones in America, which are being described to be in a healthy, prosperous condition. But how is the market rigged to give us our sudden riches in America ? When the late war commenced paper money was made legal. The government turned banker, put vast sums of their paper currency into circulation, and depreciated their value. Another law was passed to make the legal

paper currency illegal when presented at the custom house. This practice brought one hundred million dollars of money into the Federal Exchequer in gold per annum. Can a nation ultimately prosper with such "hanky panky" processes, so called in high quarters? Private bankers entering such a "blue mist of fraud," by such deceptive financial practices, would be openly branded as dishonourable men; but such men, when they make their appearance, sink into diminutive proportions, when placed side by side with our Titanic official knaves. at Washington.

Of all the stings of bitterness left behind by the late war in America, none are so deep, or are adapted to create a stronger revulsion in the public mind than the continued imprisonment of Jefferson Davis, the chieftain of the late Confederate States.

What a disgrace to our so-called civilization! And what a stain it leaves on the character of men who claim to be descendants of the Anglo-saxon

race.

The attempt made to connect Jefferson Davis with the assassination of the late President Lincoln has miserably failed, and strange revelations have been brought to light, leaving deep stains of infamy behind to all concerned.

A tremendous reaction has taken place in the Southern states since their subjugation, which is shown in the advice unanimously given by the governors of those states to the state governments

and people to reject the amendment to the Constitution introduced into Congress by the Hon. Charles H. Sumner, so-called and adopted by it.

The extreme radicals have returned their representatives in increasing number and power to Congress, to relay the foundations of the United States government, which have been so much drenched in blood. The difficulties before them are of the most stupendous character, and we fear that such men as Butler, Stephens, and Sumner will not be able to lessen them or contribute to their removal.

The prospect in America is anything but bright and cheering; and how could it be otherwise except we had some of that stern, solid thing called moral stamina, underlying the character and institutions of the masses of the people like some huge granite rock?

This is the great desideratum required, without which we can have no sound religious history, or stable foundations on which any political institutions can repose.

JOSHUA R. BALME,

American Clergyman, 114 Gt. Dover Street,

Borough, London, Jan. 1st, 1867.

ON THE AMERICAN UNION.

THE above was simply and solely a Limited Liability Company. When the disruption took place it was composed of thirty-four states; each of which possessed all the powers of sovereignty that belong and appertain to free and independent states. The constitution made provision for equal rights and privileges, specified the object for which the Union was created, defined the duties of the president and administrators, and was made the bond or treaty which bound them together, whereof each was to be its own interpreter, reserving to itself the power to withdraw from the Union at pleasure on the encroachments of its rights, or the violation of its law of compact; and form such alliances as should seem to it desirable. And in the above concern the president and representatives of the different states were their servants; elected by them to execute their sovereign mandate or will; and held responsible for the trust reposed in them. The end contemplated in the formation of the Union was preservation from common danger. Its adoption was for economic purposes as well as prudential reasons. All the powers delegated to it were derived from the States. Its specific work was accurately and minutely described. The boundary line of its operations was fixed, labelled with the inscription, "hither shalt thou go, but no farther.”

And to the sovereignty of the States it was indebted for the ground on which its halls of Congress and forts were built, as well as for its maintenance and existence.

CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE OR LAW.

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THE great connecting link which united the States together in the Union-the central fundamental principle which constituted its groundwork-the essential, vital element of its existence, so grandly and broadly developed in the Constitution, was equal rights to each state and to all men. This principle had been inaugurated into their councils in Independence Hall, Philadelphia, proclaimed to the world in the Declaration of Independence, and afterwards embodied in all the grand clauses of the Constitution. The entire fabric of our institutions was made to rest on the above basis at the commencement of our history as a people. Its development or growth was to create a mighty power in America that would make the "despots" of Europe, so called, tremble, and "defy the world," transfer not only the balance of power, but also of trade, from the old world to the new; when "Mark Lane would cease to fix the prices of American farmers, and Wales and Staffordshire those of iron." And as the masters of the world and commerce we were then to repose on the lap of peace and harmony, surrounded with an elysium