the affusto is advanced again, and another work but about forty men had been killed set of workmen coming in, the perforators by premature explosions, falling of the rock, are set in motion. And so this continues by being crushed under the wagons, and year in and out, week days and Sundays, every other form of accident. The day afnight and day. The thousand workmen em- ter I visited the tunnel, upon the very spot ployed upon either side are divided into where I stood in the "advanced gallery" a three reliefs, each working eight hours and premature explosion occurred, caused by a resting sixteen. But two days in the year, spark struck from the rock while a miner Easter Sunday and Christmas, are acknowl- was tamping a charge, resulting in the edged holidays. And for this constant, dif- death of four men and the blinding and ficult, and dangerous subterranean labour, serious maiming of six others. accompanied with an oppressive heat and a poisonous atmosphere, with smoke and grime and dirt, the common labourers receive but three francs a day, the more important and experienced ones four and five.

Let us hope that they are right and the croakers all wrong, and that within the time predicted, on some fine morning, the miners upon either side may hear the steady rapid "thud" of the drill, as it strikes upon the then only thin wall, upon the other; and that the affusto having been withdrawn, and the mine fired, when the smoke of the explosion shall have cleared away, the labourers from Fourneaux and Bardonêche, climbing over the debris, may meet and shake their rough hands together, and mingle their rude voices in a shout of joy that their work is finished, and that there are no more Alps.

ED. GOULD BUFFUM.

may yet burst forth and overwhelm and en- | nally with the party which had elected him, gulf workmen, tunnel, and the valleys in to reintroduce the South without effective which its either end debouches. In reply guarantees, and to forbid exceptional cento all this, however, the geologists and en- tral legislation for the protection of blacks. gineers calmly assert that thus far their It was natural to make his statement in the "diagnosis," if I may use the term, of the form of a speech to a cluster of people from character of the mountain-chain beneath Washington assembled in his own grounds, which the tunnel runs, has proved correct, for that is the American mode, and becomand that they have no reason to believe it ing to speak with rough homeliness, for will not continue so to the end. nothing not simple would be acceptable to the West. But it was neither natural nor becoming for the President, a monarch in position and more than a monarch in power, to address a mob in the style of a mob orator, and lay aside, with all pomp of words, all dignity of forbearance. There was manliness, and even dignity, in the way in which the President accepted and neutralised a laugh at his origin, but there was no manliness in affecting to believe that the majority in his own Parliament, without whom he could not have been President, were plotting assassination, in talking of his own murder as imminent, or in exclaiming in a tone which seems even to Americans histrionic-"If my blood is to be shed because I vindicate the Union and the preservation of this Government in its original purity and character, let it be shed; let an altar to the Union be erected, and then, if it is necessary, take me and lay me upon it, and the blood that now warms and animates my existence shall be poured out as a fit libation to the Union of these States." There was no dignity in singling out individual opponents as traitors, and stigmatisWE regret that we cannot join in the en- ing others as "dead ducks" upon which he comiums which some of our contemporaries would not "waste ammunition," or publicly have lavished upon Mr. Johnson's speech to telling the people that he, a monarch, the people of Washington, a speech which "would not be bullied," or talking of the while praising it heartily they have most ju- constitution as an "instrument to be printdiciously suppressed. We do not remem-ed as if it were in the heavens punctuated ber ever to have read a great public deliv- with stars," while in the next breath he aferance by a man in high position so want- firmed that as a good tailor he wanted no ing in external decorum of form or internal "patchwork but a whole suit." Mr. Lindignity of thought. The occasion, it must coln, like Mr. Johnson, was a Western man be remembered, was a very great one -the of lowly origin, and his humorous homelispeaker one of the few mighty personages ness seemed often to Englishmen to pass of the world. President Johnson is the the limits of good taste, but Mr. Lincoln on head of one of the most powerful nations such an occasion would have been as incanow existing, perhaps the most powerful pable of speeches like this as any old world nation now existing, of a people which statesman, would have struck his opponents without striking a blow can compel a Gov-if at all by a few happy sentences of illu»ernment like that which now rules France tration, and have risen to Biblical imagery, to recede from a cherished purpose, and he deemed it necessary to proclaim to the world the policy by which he hoped to close up the wounds caused by the civil war. He had to announce that as President of the nation, and not of any faction within the nation, he had deemed it right to break fi

From the Economist 10th March.

THE PRESIDENT'S SPEECH ON THE

WASHINGTON ANNIVERSARY.

which has always from association an effect
of moral grandeur, where his successor rises
only to wretched bunkum." It may be
said we make much of style, but in the ut-
terances of statesmen there are styles which
express tendencies and povers.
not liable to lose his head would in Mr.

No man

Johnson's position have uttered that angry | American securities are not largely held in burst about his own superiority to abuse, or London, any serious shock to them would the needless defiance of personal danger; rebound from all German Bourses with most no man whose judgment was balanced unpleasant violence. Moreover, Mr. Johnwould have resorted on such an occasion to son, on his own theory of his duty, is pushthe wild hopes and feeble slang of a West- ing his advocacy of State rights too far. ern stump orator; no man, above all, con- The law extending the operation of the. scious what it is to govern would have held Freedmen's Bureau may have been unwise, up constitutional opponents by name to the and certainly was exceedingly strong. But vengeance of the nation as assassins. It is still the President's object is the preservano light thing that in the crisis of its history tion of the Union, and if the South is to rea nation terribly powerful-and we use organise itself upon the basis of serfage inthe word terribly advisedly-should be stead of slavery, the Union will be no safer ruled by a man liable to be carried away than before the war. Setting aside altowhen speaking in public, vindictive to oppo-gether the claims and complaints of the nenents, capable of believing that wild protes- gro- which, as far at all events as negro. tations, become the Chief Magistrate of a soldiers are concerned, seem scarcely to adgreat State. Words are things in free poli- mit of discussion, the injustice of wronging tics. Mr. Bancroft's acrid nonsense about men who have fought for you being patent foreign States, uttered publicly to their Am--it is morally certain that Anglo Saxons bassadors, then sitting as the nation's guests, accustomed to live among an obedient colhave done more to breed soreness and a oured population, and to enforce their will false contempt for American institutions on a labouring class deprived by law of the than a lost battle could have done, and his ill-judged exhibition of spite was a triviality when compared with the speech of Mr. Johnson. A second-rate historian flinging pompous sarcasms may excite annoyance, but an American President talking as if he were inflamed with wine excites fear.

The matter of the President's speech can scarcely be more satisfactory to thoughtful men than its manner. So far as he is endeavouring to moderate the rage of the North against the South they will sympathise with him, but it must not be forgotten that attacks of this sort may increase rancour, that the moderating power of the President is lost whenever he can be fairly suspected of leaning to one side. The power of the two sections is not equal, is utterly unequal, and the statesman who, to protect the weak, gives the strong a new reason for fearing them, does not strengthen but only removes a great restraint. It is a great object to regain the South and enable the machinery of the Union to get into full motion again. But it must not be forgotten that in rebuilding the Democratic party upon the basis of a Southern alliance, the President strikes a heavy blow at public credit. It is not to be expected that the South, whose own debt has been repudiated, should be heartily willing to pay a debt incurred for the purpose of defeating them, and if the South is necessary to the new party, the public faith will be, at all events, less strictly guaranteed than before. That is a reflection which we commend to our City friends as one of grave import, for though

right to bear testimony in court, will not long remain in amity with a democratic community pressing on it on every side, very aggressive, very unrestrained in language, and conscious of power so great as to place it entirely beyond risk in any physical contest. They can no more unite heartily than Athens and Sparta could have done; and Mr. Johnson, in proclaiming that the central power cannot interpose to prevent ser ge, proclaims also that the central power will yet have to endure dangerous attacks. He risks the very calamity, an assault upon the Union, which he is so desirous to avoid. He has not the argument of constitutional necessity, for under the recent amendment, now part of that document, Congress can make any laws needful for the final extinction of slavery, and he is therefore acting solely on his own view of wise policy. It is very doubtful whether his people will agree with him. The shouts of his audience were natural; for the district of Columbia was, till the war, a slave-holding State, with an exceptionally severe Black code, and the applause of New York is very much affected both by patronage and Irishmen. Substantial power resides in neither city, but in a very stubborn class of yeomanry, who probably do not like negroes, but who have convinced themselves that the Union cannot last unless its component parts are placed on the same social basis. If they differ radically from the President, we have not seen the end of the American Revolution; and they are not the less likely to differ because he has accused their chosen representatives, without even

plausible ground, of wishing to assassinate of the Freedmen's Bureau, which would him, and has quitted his position as monarch, to become chief of the party which, for five years, they have met only in the field. Nor are they less likely because he has done these things in a style which will suggest to all men that, whatever justice or kindness the South may expect at Mr. Johnson's hands, Abolitionists need expect and will receive neither.

tion, and so get out of the way the obstacle to every one who measures the gravity of from place and power. Whether by assassina- the political crisis by a standard rather less tion or not, there are individuals in this Gov- hasty and Congressional than Mr. Seward's, ernment, I doubt not, who want to destroy our problematic in the extreme. Much fault institutions and change the character of the Government. Are they not satisfied with the as we find with the language and demeablood which has been shed? Does not the nour of both sides, we must say that the murder of Lincoln appease the vengeance and view taken by the Administration of the wrath of the opponents of this Government? true policy to be adopted towards the Are they still unslaked? Do they still want Southern party and the loyal freedmen, more blood? Have they not got honour and seems to us far the shallower, and, in subcourage enough to attain their objects other- stantial matters, far the least statesmanlike. wise than by the hands of the assassin? No, Its radical error lies in supposing that a no, I am not afraid of assassins attacking me four years' war and the defeat which folwhere a brave and courageous man would at lowed it, can eradicate the evils which gentack another. I only dread him when he would erations have sown and fostered. Mr. go in disguise, his footsteps noiseless. If it is blood they want, let them have courage enough Johnson hopes that by resolutely ignoring to strike like men. I know they are willing to disloyalty to the Union and the spirit of wound, but they are afraid to strike. If my caste, he can manage to erase it. He carblood is to be shed because I vindicate the ries all the full-blown State-rights prejuUnion and the preservation of the Govern- dices into the heart of a policy which has ment in its original purity and character, let it only succeeded as far as it has done, by be shed; let an altar to the Union be erected, assailing State rights wherever they came and then, if it is necessary, take me, and lay into collusion with the national spirit, and me upon it, and the blood that now warms and which can only succeed in future by so animates my existence shall be poured out as a fit libation to the Union of these States. But sternly limiting State rights in the disloyal let the opponents of this Government rememStates, as to carry out in its fullest extent ber that when it is poured out, 'the blood of the purport of the recent Constitutional the martyrs will be the seed of the church.' amendment, which not only abolished slaGentlemen, this Union will grow; it will con- very, but gave Congress the power to secure tinue to increase in strength and power, though the freedmen in the enjoyment of their it may be cemented and cleansed with blood." liberty by "appropriate legislation." Without jealously preserving and using this power, there can be no manner of doubt but that the old caste-spirit which produced secession once, and is capable, whenever the exhaustion produced by the war is over, of producing it again, will grow up once more, and will grow up only the more vigorous for the pruning to which it has been recently subjected. Indeed Mr. Johnson has himself given the first impulse to this reaction. No sooner was it known in Washington that he had vetoed the Bill for extending the protection given to the freedmen in the recently rebellious States, than the violent anti-negro feeling which has lately been under control in Washington burst out afresh. Negroes were excluded again from the ordinary vehicles and railway cars; they were once more subjected to public insult; a building which was to have been lent them That the speech is likely enough to prove for a meeting was refused by the directors, triumphant in paralyzing for a time the-though the proprietors on appeal reversed Radical party in Congress by detaching the the decision, and generally a strong imwaverers, and making even the most firm pulse was given throughout the country to and sagacious hesitate as to what they ought the old cruel spirit of caste. For this Mr. to do when they have got an Administra- Johnson is unquestionably responsible. He tion so hostile to the freedmen, so full of partiality to the South, through which alone they can work, is likely enough. That it will secure the safety of the country, looks

The whole speech is utterly unworthy of the communications which, with all his faults, we have hitherto learned to expect from Mr. Johnson. Is he growing jealous of the reputation of his great predecessor as a martyr, and anxious to show, by something that sounds to us like bounce, that he would not shrink from incurring such a danger in the discharge of his duty? If he had not boasted of it, we should never have thought of doubting it. But as every one must be well aware that none even of the most violent Republicans ever thought for an instant of assassinating Mr. Johnson, this menacing language sounds at once insincere and undignified. Yet Mr. Seward is said to have spoken of the President's speech as triumphant,' and as securing the safety of the country.

set the example by undoing all that Mr. Lincoln did in admitting the negroes to his levées, and directly it was known that he wished to diminish the powers of the Freed