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Editorial Department.

CURRENT EVENTS.

An unprecedented list of disasters and crimes has occupied the public mind even more than politics and war during the past few weeks. Defalcations and forgeries fearful in numbers, and still more alarming in magnitude, have shocked financial circles, and shaken the ground of confidence in men to a most painful extent, while crash after crash upon our railroads, until the victims are numbered by thousands, has created a still more painful sense of insecurity of life and limb among the travelling public, and that now is nearly the whole public. It seems as if recklessness were in competition with wickedness, each striving with superhuman power to outdo the other.

The only remedy for the latter is a better public sentiment. So long as great criminals are regarded somewhat like great heroes, and their operations almost excused on account of their magnitude, we can only look for the continuance of these great crimes. The prize is too tempting to stand against a penalty so trifling. But let these magnificent "operators" be called by their right names, thieves and robbers, and let them be despised as much more than petty criminals as their crimes are greater, and there will be comparatively few to run this

career. Men do not care to write their names

upon the roll of infamy when they are made to realize that it is the roll of infamy.

prevent. Nothing should be left to extemporaneous discretion where rules can be prescribed. Before the Legislature compelled the stopping of all trains at railroad crossings, these places were but Golgothas - -now they are the safest parts of the roads. Let commissioners be appointed to prescribe equally imperative rules for everything needed to secure safety in running the trains, and then punish severely every violation of these rules, whether any accident occurs thereby or not, and the public can travel in comparative safety.

Hon. Hannibal Hamlin of Maine has been

appointed Collector for the Port of Boston. This, we suppose, is to offset for not being Pres

ident, as he now would be if he had been reelected with Mr. Lincoln.

Gen. Sickles has been appointed to command this part of Gen. Hooker's Department. His headquarters are at the Parker House in Boston at present. He was serenaded on the evening of the 18th inst., and made a pleasant speech to the Bostonians who were out to pay him their respects, after which he gave a supper to the Band who had regaled him with their music.

has been $2,400,000 in one year. If the finanThe increase of property in Worcester, Mass.,

cial health of the Commonwealth is indicated

by the pulse at the heart, it is all that could be desired. Worcester is truly a delightful place to live in, an energetic, noble little city,-we say little, and yet it is as large as Boston was

two generations ago.

The proper remedy, and the only effectual remedy, for the recklessness that destroys so many lives upon our railroads, is to be furnished by legislation. The men who manage railroads and their employees have no criminal intent, and can never be made prudent by the farce of public opinion, nor by punishment for man-slaughter after accidents have occurred. The only safety in rail-road travelling is secured by observing safe rules in running the trains; and the law should prescribe such rules, and insist upon their observance in all cases. Then no disasters can occur which human foresight can found in the Southesk, Scotland.

VOL. XXXIV. — 8

The larger part of the rural towns in Massachusetts are steadily decreasing in population, while the cities and manufacturing towns are even more rapidly increasing. Thus the State is gradually becoming what its natural resources indicate that it must be, a mercantile and manufacturing, rather than an agricultural State.

A pearl, weighing seventeen grains, has been

The Pennsylvanian Democratic Convention recently declared the effort to confer suffrage upon colored people, "a deliberate and wicked attempt to degrade the white race to a level with the black." Why could they not just as well have called it "a deliberate and benevolent attempt to elevate the black race to a level with the white?" It is singular that "certain people" can have no idea of a levelling process, except that of levelling down; their habits of mind prevent their thinking of such a thing as levelling up. But suppose the negroes should vote, would it then be a fact that the Pennsylvania democrats would be as ignorant and degraded as the negroes? are they so particular upon this question because the right of suffrage is the only remaining distinction between the whites and the negroes? If there are other grounds of distinction, how would the negroes' voting put the two on a level?

Mr. Stephens, the Vice President of the bogus Confederacy, is still at Fort Warren in Boston Harbor. It is said that one reason which he gives for joining the South in the rebellion is, that he might be in a situation to be highly instrumental in effecting a reconciliation after the war was over. It can hardly be said that his present situation is very favorable for that work, and it is doubtful if the Government will have such a high appreciation of his patriotic motives as to liberate him immediately. In fact, his course during the four years of war against the United States was not such as to produce the highest conviction of his love for the Union, and his failure to even raise his voice against the torture of Union prisoners by abuse and starvation did not satisfy the loyal people of the North that he was one of their

staunchest friends.

John Mann of Randolph, Mass., who died on the 28th ult., drove a four-ox team from Boston to Richmond, Va., with a load of domestic goods, when our ports were blockaded by the British in 1812. His was the first ox-team ever seen in Richmond.

Twenty thousand dollars having been collected for the erection of the SHAKSPEARE Monument in the Central Park, the committee now invite artists to send in proposals or designs for the monument, which is to consist of a fulllength representation of the bard. The designs are to be furnished gratuitously.

The laying of the Atlantic Cable, commenced with so many pleasant anticipations, has proved a failure, for the present at least. After about 1200 miles of it had been paid out, it parted at the stern of the Great Eastern, on the 2d of August, on account of the strain brought upon it by the drifting of the vessel, while a portion of it was being picked up to repair an injury occasioned by a short piece of wire forced through it as it was running out of the ship. The broken end of the cable fell to the bottom. a depth of about two miles. The ship put back twelve miles, and an attempt was made to raise the cable with grapnels, but the great weight of the cable broke the ropes of the grapnels before they were drawn to the surface. After leaving buoys to mark the spot, the fleet returned to Sheerness to obtain new picking-up apparatus. It is said another attempt will be made to raise the lost end, splice it and finish the work. The imperfect and bungling machinery which had been provided for picking up was the real cause of the failure. May wiser counsels secure better success next time.

Col. N. G. Taylor, the eloquent East Tennessean, whose introduction to our citizens at Faneuil Hall by Mr. Everett will long be remembered, has been elected to Congress from the First District in Tennessee. He was a member of Congress in 1854 and '55, and will undoubt

edly be a prominent member of the next House of Representatives.

Gen. Lee has been invited to accept the Presidency of Washington College, next to William and Mary, the oldest college in Virginia, it having been liberally endowed by Gen. Washington during his lifetime. Gen. Lee declines the proffered honor, preferring to spend the remainder of his days upon a farm.

The pro-slavery citizens of Washington are making great opposition to the education of the colored children in that city. When the devil of selfishness has taken full possession of the heart, it delights in the oppression of the weak. These windy egotists are too late. Their little game has been played out.

The income of the Girard estate, in Philadelphia, is now about $200,000 a year, and still increasing. On the 1st of January, 1864, there were 445 pupils in the institution, and 563 on the 1st of January, 1865, when 37 vacancies existed.

age.

The new Langham Hotel, in London, one of the largest and best furnished in the world, it being large enough to accommodate 2000 guests, and which the Prince of Wales says resembles the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York, furnishes lodgings for single gentlemen for

William Cullen Bryant has purchased the house in which he was born, in Cammington, Western Massachusetts, thus proving that "the heart turneth fondly, with the affection of a child for its mother, to the green spot of earth whereon in youth we gambolled." Mr. Bryant, called, though not correctly we think, the great-eighteen pence a night. Our American hotel est of American poets, is now over 70 years of Few distinguished poets have lived to a greater age. Tennyson is 56. Old Sam Rogers died at 92. Wordsworth lived to 80, Milton to 60, Calderon to 81, Corneille to 78, Lope de Vega to 73, Dryden to 70, Southey to 70, Moore to 73, Boileau to 74, Goethe to 83, Coleridge to 62, Scott to 64, Racine to 60, and so on. Fitz Greene Halleck is 70, and Mr. Pierpont is 80. Grey heads, it is clear, very often wear the greenest of laurels. The oldest great poet whom we can now name was Sophocles, who died at 90 years, or more.

nego

Austria, Russia and Prussia are still “ tiating" about the Danish duchies, which each of these powers desires to have, but desires more that the others should not have. In the meantime the people of these unfortunate duchies, which are made the foot-ball of contending empires, know not to whom they belong nor what is to become of them.

England is suffering from the plague among cattle, a kind of Pleuro-Pneumonia, that is both contagious and incurable. This will increase the already shockingly high price of meat, which now puts it beyond the reach of half the population of Europe, and is making an approach to this state of things here. It is suggested that if the enormous prices of provisions continue, people may have to die, as an economical business arrangement, and that this may account for the cholera's coming.

Mr. Rarey, the horse tamer, is very ill. There is one horse, the "pale horse," which he may not be able to tame.

The EMPRESS CHARLOTTE OF MEXICO is expected in Europe; the reason assigned for her visit being the illness of her father, KING LEOPOLD of Belgium.

Cholera is raging in Europe and making its way westward with rapidity. It is feared that it may be brought to this country.

The Tredegar Arsenal at Richmond exploded on the 15th inst., destroying the lives of two men and property to the amount of $60,000.

keepers who charge regularly $4.00 a day will do well to put this item of news in their pipes and smoke it. It would be actually cheaper to cross the ocean and spend the summer at this great London House than to remain in any of our first class hotels at our fashionable watering places or in our large cities. To spend three months at the "Tremont," or "Revere," or Glen House, costs $400. You can pay your passage to London and back and stay the same time at the most magnificent hotel in the world for this sum, and have $50 left in your pocket, saved by the operation.

The slaves of the once notorious Lawrence M. Keitt now occupy his plantation in South Carolina, and will harvest about three hundred acres of corn this season. There are forty "hands" on the estate among whom the crops will be divided. Mrs. Keitt is in the interior, and is represented to be in needy circum

stances.

The New York News, the rebel organ in New York City, calls upon the people of the South to join the conservatives of the North, and stand "persistent in the assertion of right— right, not because it is right, but as a matter of expediency. This is characteristic. The News goes just as heartily for the wrong, as a matter of expediency.

The English papers are discussing the need and importance of increasing the income of the Prince of Wales, which is now only $500,000 a year. His conduct and character are said to be an honor to the nation, it being apparent that he is striving to imitate both the private father and his royal mother. It is too bad that virtues and public usefulness of the Prince his so good a boy should be limited to so small an income.

There is a movement on foot to unite Portu

gal with Spain as Scotland was united with England, by putting the sovereign of the smaller country upon the throne of the united kingdom, but as the people of Portugal are proud and patriotic, and both hate and despise the Spaniards, the movement will probably not succeed.

EDITOR'S CHAIR.

Woman's Influence.

The influence of woman, although often extolled, and sometimes wrongly estimated, has probably never been over estimated. Her position as wife, mother, sister, and friend, and her quick discernment and strong sympathies give her ready access to the springs of character and the sources of feeling, and enable her to awaken in others the emotions and sentiments with which she herself is actuated, and give her an influence as potent as it is gentle. By her exquisite taste and delicate tact, and by the unconscious influence of her character, she controls public sentiment, raises or lowers the morals or the piety of a community by the standard she accepts or condemns; and, indirectly, through those who are nearest to her, if not directly, she helps to control the action, and to shape the destiny of nations.

first, to be without effect, but they live and burn in the hearts where they are lodged. and in time their effect becomes visible. The stubborn boy may be too proud to seem to heed his mother's counsel, but it is not lost; he cannot forget her kind words any more than he can forget the love she bears him; and years after he has listened to them, they guide him in the path of virtue, and though it may be too late to thank her for them, he will go to her restingplace and bathe it with his grateful tears.

No woman should distrust the moral power which God has given her. No one should see her husband, brother, son or friend in error and evil, without attempting to reclaim him. She can but fail at the worst; and her efforts may be successful, often will be.

A few years ago, a young English author, who has since risen to great distinction, became deeply interested in an accomplished and very worthy young woman, who belonged to the cirA true woman, although perhaps not aware cle of his acquaintance, and sought her hand in of the extent of her influence, is nevertheless marriage. His suit was rejected on the ground conscious of filling a responsible position, and of his intemperance. Not discouraged, he reearnestly desires to know her duty in that posi-newed his proposal and strongly urged his tion, and to faithfully perform it. Willing not only to do the offices of kindness, and to exercise the household cares which commonly fall to her lot, she desires to do higher service in the use of the moral powers with which she is endowed, quickening and moulding with Christian

truth and love, the minds and characters of those whom Providence has placed within her

reach.

This can be done, and is done to a large extent, by the silent and unconscious influence of a mind that is itself endowed with the virtues, and imbued with the spirit of religion. From the presence of a good woman, in the family or in larger circles, there goes out virtue as from the hem of the Savior's garment, which is felt and regarded, even if not acknowledged. Such a mind silently kindles its own light in other minds, and in a manner so quiet as scarcely to attract observation, yet with wonderful effect, dissipates the darkness of error and wrong.

But woman can exert her influence with still greater effect, by direct appeals to those whom she would elevate and improve. Few women are aware of the amount of good they can do in this way. It is hard for any but the most depraved to resist the direct appeals of a true woman, whose motives they know can only be to do them good. Their words may seem at

claims, but he could receive no encouragement
except upon the condition that he would reform.
Stung with a sense of injury, and too proud to
comply with her demands, which he declared
to be unreasonable, he turned from her and
plunged still deeper into dissipation. One day,
some months afterward, passing along the street,
she saw him lying in a stupor of beastly intox-
ication, with the hot, mid-day sun pouring down
into his unsheltered face. Disgusted, yet
touched with compassion, she approached him,
and spread her pocket-handkerchief, upon which
her name was written in full, over his face to
shield it from the burning rays, and passed on.
Some hours afterward, coming to himself, he
noticed the handkerchief and discovered the
name upon it, and then understood what she
had done. He was so much ashamed of him-
self, and so deeply moved by her kindness, that
he resolved from that hour he would drink no
more, and keeping this resolution, after a propre
time he renewed his attentions to her again
with better success, and she became not only
his devoted and honored wife, but the star of
his literary fortunes.

The treasures of the deep are not so precious
As are the concealed comforts of a man
Locked up in woman's love. I scent the air
Of blessings when I come but near the house.
What a delicious breath doth love send forth!

"There is Hope for the Child."

A few years ago, a family was desolated by the loss of the father and husband. At nearly the same time, a child of the family was taken ill and died. The head of the household had been a man rich in social and domestic virtues, kind, loving, generous; full of kindness to friends, to the poor and bereaved; and reverent in his ideas of God. His last words were of hope and joy-of forgiveness of injury, of blessings and love. In his whole life, he had never been known to treat any one unkindly, or to use an irreverent expression.

Yet one, who stood beside his bed of suffer

ing, and witnessed the sublime patience with

which he awaited death, the calmness with which he commended himself and his bereaved

take Heaven by storm, instead of “groping on the altar stairs," reaching up their hands to be helped onward. Such persons do not follow the example of Him "who spake as never man spake." The sermon on the Mount, the prayers which Jesus uttered while on earth, must seem time and cold to these “fiery sons of wrath.” His mild and gentle teachings bear no relation to their stormy words. But we forbear. There are those who know that it is better to tread, although at a humble distance, in the footsteps of the Redeemer; to try to copy His teachings, although, necessarily, far behind. May their number be multiplied upon the earth is, or should be, the wish of every true soul.

WE make bold to utter a gentle protest

family to God, and the sweetness and serenity against the ultra-sensationists, who would fain

of his last conscious hours, turned from that death-bed, and said, coldly, " There is hope in the future world for the child - but I do not see that there is any hope for its father. There is no evidence that he has been born again."

There spoke the narrow spirit of sectarianism. All the sweetness and beauty of his daily life—all the loving trust in God that had been his - all the patience and humility with which he had borne grief and sorrow from the Father's hand, were nothing in the scale held in the hand of the stern watcher by his bed-side, because his religious experience had not the technical characteristics which he looked for, and he did not subscribe to the same creed in which the stern man believed.

As some one has remarked, "how astonished will such persons be, to meet those in Heaven whom they have condemned to a far different place" Father and child were not separated in death; and it is a blessed belief, that they together behold the face of their Father who is in Heaven.

have us believe that the world is growing worse and worse every day. True, we have been startled by the disclosure of hideous crimes ; but, in what state of the world, and in what period have they failed to trouble the public mind. We think it is a libel upon the institutions of the present time, the multitudes of good and respectable people who live virtuous and innocent lives, and the various and vast means continually used to keep vice in check, to affirm that we are growing worse all the time.

Looking away to far-off periods of time, we find the same passions raging, the same enormities committed as now. Had there been newspapers in the days of old, what strong sensational articles would have been written! Yet the sacred writers contented themselves with a simple recital of facts, where modern editors would have exhausted language in portraying them. We must protest against the useless exaggeration that prevails, when these evils are committed. It does no good, we think. A simple condemnation of wicked deeds would, in our opinion, be quite as effective; and the details of these occurrences might sometimes be abridged, and sometimes withholden alto

itself. It does little good to our young people to be so familiar with the details of wickedness and crime.

SENSATION PREACHING AND PRAYING.There is, in the present age, a class of preachers who aim at this style of preaching, and seem together, except within the precincts of the Court think nothing is effective in sermons or prayers that is not accompanied by loud words and violent gestures. The "still, small voice," the qu'et manner, the calm exposition, have no charms for them. All is fire and fury, tempest an 1 storm. Their sermons are violent denunciations, their prayers seem more like dictating to the Lord what he must do, than a humble, beseeching, child-like request. They would

To brave each danger, bear each toil,
Traverse the seas, subdue the soil;
To seek the praise that learning yields,
Or glory wins in martial fields,
Was man first formed of hardy mould.
Patient of toil, in danger bold,
'Tis his to climb the rugged way.

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