GOLD.

FROM THE FRENCH.

was declared by acclamation the President of the Italian Republic ?—and yet this is called, as that, the Golden Age, which proves, as clear as daylight-whose existence M. Proudhon, has not yet contested, thank God!—that Gold was thought of even in that model period, in which they practised virtue so much more readily than in this course epoch of ours, which is stigmatized as the Age of Brass.

I will permit you to deny the existence of the Sun, or would excuse your vigorously denouncing the philosophic theories of M. Pierre Leroux.

Quousque tandem abutere respublica, nostra pecunia? It is thus, I fancy, Cicero would commence a series of funeral Orations, having for a title "Money." Money! Money if you please! Money for the love of God! Money for the love of money! This only resounds incessantly in my ears. Alas, why so? Has the thing become a mere abstraction, hypothesis, unreality—I would not prevent your questioning the El Dosimply proverbial? One would positively think as much from its rarity. Horace, one of our sub-Immortals, pointedly saith,

rado resulting from the harmonies of Fourier; the bliss of the inhabitants of Icaria; the eloquence of Caussidière; the pacific intentions of the house of Raspail, Barbes & Co., whose so"O cives, cives! quaerenda pecunia premium est," cial reason has not been made manifest to me; which, being interpreted, goeth to say. O my any or all of these Truths I would allow you to dear compatriots, above all else put gold in your handle, gloveless, even with their axiomatic pockets! Hurrah for money; which clothes us claims; but as for Money-stop there! you shall in purple and bespangles us with ornaments; not touch it. I shall plead its cause in the same which spreads out our joyous, jovial, jocular en- disinterested humor with which Mons. Lachard tertainments, which allows us to say to the beg-plead the case of a certain Defendant, whose gar, "Here, take this purse, dine as Lucullus, and acquittal was not of so much financial profit to get drunk with the Priests of Jove! drink my health," so true is it that Horace was a Socialist; every one is, in his own way.

him, as the honor of appearing an able advocate, and item-making it an occasion of charity to a poor indigent Devil. Yes, I will defend Money and prove the falsity of the proverb-The absent are always wrong.

There are some ultra Republicans who see, with strange persistence, in Silver, a corrupting metal, whose importance monarchical prejudices Money and I never meet, but by some strange have exaggerated, and the total suppression fortuity; yet instead of revenging myself thereon whereof is demanded by the interests of Virtue. for its prolonged absence from my purse, I promBut, nevertheless, these personages have by no ise it my perpetual esteem, and quite an hospimeans despised the seducing coin; the State table reception, should the fancy ever sieze it to Treasury has more than once felt their tender come and take up its abode with me. Alas! the caresses since their acquaintance with the same; only consolation I can afford myself for its conand I am inclined to think that they slander tempt and abandonment, is the reflection that I Money with pretty much the same spirit with am not the only one, by some billion, so neglected. drunken folk who abuse wine they are unable to If the general complaint is to be heeded, silver drink more; and I would further submit to these has become more invisible than ever, and radicals if this austere language does not slightly gold-umph! one never sees it, save in the boxes resemble the hypocritical morality of Seneca, of the money-changers. If things go on at this who, being possessor of fifty nine millions, which rate, in a few years we can find it only as the immense sum he had amassed during three years choicest specimen in some mineralogic collection, of Ministry, wrote on tablets of great value his with an inscription of this kind: work entitled "The Contempt of Riches." SPECIMEN OF GOLD DISCOVERED IN THE ENVIRONS OF PROUDHONVILLE IN 2020. And further down this notice :

"Persons visiting this Cabinet are particularly requested to respect in the interest of science, this curious piece; which is the more valuable, as it will be impossible to replace it."

How does Money ostracise Virtue or Chastity? As for that matter France is now nearly canonized. Oh no. Money is nowise so pernicious as is represented. What period can boast more as regards morals and decency, or lay more claim to a character for honesty, candor, and especially the absence of all political and social prejudices? What generation of men hath seen more churches and fewer revolutions-ordistributed more of the Monthyon premiums, and at the same time known less of Police Officers? What "This Gold abounded formerly. It procured, period was so happy as that wherein Saturn 'it is said, that which constituted the happiness of

And in all probability we may read this historic Note subjoined :—

and merinos; which renounces, all arts, theatres, music and light literature, prose and verse. Bah! this is enough for one Republic.

Life; and men put themselves to incredible trou- | Economy which never buys silk, velvet uor lace, ble for its acquisition, for without it, they con- but makes it a point to dress in printed calicoes ceived, happiness must be incomplete. But Gold lost in one day its value and importance. Its possession became a positive danger in that famous epoch, when the false Republic of the veri- These are the pretexts. You have your pocktable Thor was proclaimed in France, and recog-ets filled with Money. You have not, however, nized in the five divisions of the Globe. The received the rent of your farms, and have hastily cosmo-social Assembly determined, on proposition lost your situation with the fruit of twenty years' of the cosmo-citizen, M. Proudhon, the abolition labor, perhaps, unless you are an old functionary. of all proprietorship and monied Aristocracy. You are not good enough Republican to figure the One piece of gold found on a persou sufficed to finances, or write in the Cabinet, for there you stamp on him the flagrant vice of Plutocracy, (!) will be flooded with customers and commands; a crime prohibited by Art. 18.952 of the Uni- but if you fail, notwithstanding, to pay your imversal Code and the punishment varies from 5 to posts the proprietor and deputy will immediately 10 years in the Workhouse. Finally, however, discover you as one of the aristocrats, reactionthe last vestiges of this substance which so com-ers, examiners; then you will see your Money promised the virtue of its possessors were ef- caught at; you are rich, and consequently its faced."

What would happen if by some miscarriage a Mineralogist of the Proudhon school should set foot in this Cabinet? I shudder to think of it!

quite a catch! O how the poor are rich and the rich are poor in this our Time! What an idle envy the Blouse bears the Cloak! The Blouse, which has never reached revolutions, which finds everywhere-whatever to the contrary-bread The precious specimen would vanish, and soon and work, knows not the 'carking care' and grief be numbered amongst the things that were. One that the cloak bears in its folds; nor how it is would then read in works on Chemistry::elbowed by the Coats which say to it, "clear "Gold was a simple substance; a very bright Seek not a change where the balance metal; very ductile; unchangeable to the eye, etc,” bends toward the Loss! Troja fuit!

You would be delighted recurring on the wings of Imagination to this remote period. What wise books have been written on Gold! What learued commentaries! What ingenious disputations! What curious Theses produced relative thereto! They will be divided into two classes. One part bearing the name of "les-or-alists," will support the anterior existence of the metal in question; whilst the other, designated "les contre-or-alists," will deny its existence and allege its mythic character. Perhaps these last may append to their refutation a passage from Robert le Diable, citing it as authentic; and even have the boldness to frame the following syllogism:

"Gold is a Chimera:

A chimera never existed;
Therefore Gold never existed."

But why the mischief should I allow myself! to be carried away by this hypothesis? That which is sadly true in all this folly, is, that with without being reduced to the fossil state, Money has become singularly rarified. Economy is the order of the day. And what economy-ye Gods! that which extends over the smallest, and gnaws all things; which regards wax candles as a luxury, since one may burn tallow; tea as useless, and coffee unhealthy at the approach of the Plague; which modestly refuses ale, and thinks it were best to pick up all the rags of Paris; an

out!"

INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITION OF 1851.

Some Notes of a Southern Excursion.

The British Association for the advancement "When a traveller returneth home," saith my of Science recommended an annual exhibition of Lord Bacon, in one of those curt essays which products of British industry at such places as embody so much of his wisdom, let him not might be selected for the meeting of the Associ- leave the countries, where he hath travelled, alation. Such exhibitions, of a more or less spe- together behind him." Now we have not jourcial character, have been familiar for some years neyed into a far country, nor have we seen anyon the Continent of Europe, and have been fre- thing more of "men and cities" than is seen quent of late years in the United States. But every day by hundreds of our fellow-citizens who none have hitherto been projected on so grand a pass along the line of travel between the two scale as the approaching Exhibition of the Indus- great commercial emporia of our country, and try of all nations to be held in London. The yet we feel disposed to be mindful of the advice previous instances, however, might have sugof the sage of Verulam, and to discourse a little gested the greater scheme to Prince Albert, while our recent rambling. We have an idea that our the reasons in favour of its adoption are obvious sketches, however loose and fragmentary, will and innumerable. A curious anticipation of the same policy is however furnished in the following passage of Mortrofius, origiuinally published in 1687, or 164 years ago.

be quite as novel to some of our readers as the notes of European travel which are constantly appearing from the press. Indeed we believe that less is known by our fellow-countrymen of the physical and social aspects of the various sec"Sæpe ego in votis habui ut Schola quædam and domestic life of Switzerland or Tuscany. It tions of the United States than of the scenery Naturæ, Artis, et Actionum humanarum publica is too much the habit of our young men to go in juventute instituatur. *** Per Scholam Ar- abroad, before they have made themselves actis intelligo omnia opificum et artificum instru- quainted with the most prominent and interesting menta, quæ certis quibusdam receptaculis omnia objects of their native land or studied the instituasservarentur, et pueris explicarentur. Ac pos- tions which are peculiar to it. We do not wontea in easdem cogitationes dilapsum quoque der that the mirth of educated Englishmen should Beccherum deprehendi, qui in Methodo suo Di- be excited at meeting with an overgrown booby, dactica. part: 2. circa finem, Ideam aliquam from New York or Boston, just let loose upon Theatri Naturæ et Artis proposuit, atque in Epi- his travels, who could say nothing of the flora or logo Appendicis suæ inter alia talis Theatri fauna of America, who had never visited Niagara institutionem proposuit. Sed amplissima illa nor descended the Mississippi, and whose iguopromissa irrita fuere neque talia privatorum sump-rance of the manners of his own people was as tibus effici possunt. Id vero certum est, si PRIN- great as of the habits of the alligator or the growth CEPS ALIQUIS tale Theatrum instrueret, aut in of the live-oak. But we are digressing from our Academiis, quemadmodum Bibliothecæ publicæ, inveniretur, major confluxus Studiosorum has impensas facile resarciret: Immeusos enim fructus illa res præstaret, multisque laboribus, molestiis, et impensis studiosam juventutem sublevaret. Alios quoque etiam illiteratos curiosiores alliceret, unde multis accessionibus tale Theatrum augeri possit, et tota rerum universitas in unam domum compacta spectatoribus exhiberi, Mortrofi Polyhistor. Ps. I, lib. ii, c. iv. §§ 38-41, tom. I, pp. 348-9. Ed. II. Fabricii, 1732, 4to.

purpose, and with the reader's kind permission, we will take him along with us, at one bound, without the tedium of the intervening journey, to the hospitable and ancient city of

CHARLESTON.

There are few gayer little streets, that we have seen for many a day, than the narrow shopping thoroughfare, known as King Street, upou a sunny morning in February about the end of race week. For the reader must know that in Charleston the amusement of the turf is still kept up with great spirit, and that the recurrence of the racing season brings to town from all parts of the State the beauty and fashion of South

As manufactured and leaf tobacco seem to be so far the principle specimens of Virginia science, scholarship, and industry, this might be offered to the Exhibition as a purely literary and anti- Carolina. The city accordingly awakens from a quarian curiosity.

H.

condition of slumberous quiet to all the animation of metropolitan gaiety. The streets, until lately so empty or trodden only by a few listless

pedestrians, now swarm with elegant equipages dozy discourse, the morning of our attendance at and the fair forms of the gentler sex. There are St. Michael's. not wanting fine shops, filled with costly goods There is an old wooden church, not altogether and wares, to challenge the patronage of the la- unlike St. Michael's, at Newport, which is medies, and we repeat that one may go far before morable as having been under the charge of the he will see a more attractive exhibition than the celebrated Bishop Berkeley and contains an ortrottoir of King Street, narrow as it is, can fur gan, yet in good preservation, presented by that nish, at this particular time. States and cities, famous old philosopher. The summer tenants everywhere, are jealous of the beauty of their of the Ocean House do not worship there, we women, and we shall not therefore, hazard a fear, as regularly as they should, for we discovcomparison between the lovely Charlestonians ered it quite by accident, during a visit to Newand the daughters of our own commonwealth, port some years since, but though we heard a but we can safely declare that we saw beauty enough in Charleston in a fortnight to establish the reputation, in this respect, of a much more populous city.

The stranger will be able to satisfy himself, upon this point, at the public balls, which are given here every winter and are attended by all the most charming and fascinating women of South Carolina. These balls are under the

management of very select Societies of gentlemen, one of the most famous of which, the St. Cecilia Society, gives four or five during the season. The man who could attend one of the entertainments of this excellent association, and fail

to be impressed with the grace and accomplish ments of the fairer portion of the company, would be beyond the reach of the music of St. Cecilia herself.

good sermon in it, and delighted our antiquarian taste with its Wren-ish interior, the music of the old Bishop's organ was not so pleasing, nor were the young ladies that sang to it as pretty, as the anthems at St. Michael's and the dark-eyed choristers of the South.

have his attention arrested by the extensive row Passing along Meeting Street the stranger will of buildings, used as the City Market, which are scarcely less than a third of a mile in length. He will not fail to notice, also, as a novelty, the presence of a certain "fowl ungainly" which seems to be the genius loci and steps about the shambles with a most deliberate and complacent air-the turkey-buzzard. Sometimes twenty or thirty of these birds may be seen at once, and one of the old haruspices of the early Roman commonwealth, could he walk forth once more into Among the public buildings of Charleston, the light of day, might suppose that the doom of which are numerous and elegant, none delighted Charleston was cast. But the turkey-buzzard us so much as the venerable church of St. Mi- is, by no means, a bird of evil omen here. On chael's, with its quaint, old, high-backed, square the contrary, he is regarded as one of the best pews-its odd pulpit with the sounding-board, Health Officers of the City and is therefore the like a huge extinguisher, which threatens momen- peculiar pet of the authorities. The geese that tarily to put out the light of the officiating cler- saved the capitol, the cats and crocodiles that gyman,—its rural tablets testifying to the good Mr. Gliddon tells us were once worshipped with deeds of many worthies long since laid beneath such veneration in Egypt, were not in better To kill the turf of the adjoining burial ground, and its favor thau is our friend. the buzzard. steeple of many stories from which a chime of him is a high misdemeanor. To the negroes he bells rings out the quarters to the inhabitants of is a sacred animal, and many of them believe the city. This Church was built, we believe, be- him to be the bird which appears upon the butfore the Revolution, and it is probable enough tous of our officers and the national insignia. that from the extreme elevation of its spire many persons watched the smoke of Moultrie's guns as it rolled upward from the palmetto fort. It is certain that during the siege of Charleston in 1780, the steeple was struck by a shell from the British batteries, and that after the capitulation the British officers regularly attended service in the church. We thought of these things, we are ashamed to say, as the minister, a young man, was favoring the congregation with a rather

There is no doubt that these ornithological scavengers keep the market very clean; the famous markets of Philadelphia and Boston are not more so. On Saturday evenings it is brilliantly lighted with gas, throughout its whole extent, and presents a lively appearance with its throng of buyers and sellers.

In the immediate vicinity of Charleston, there has been recently laid out a rural burial-place, to which the appropriate name of "Magnolia Cemetery" has been given. The nature of the ground * One account says that this shell after doing some is not favorable to picturesque effect, it being damage to the steeple, fell upon and shattered a statue of William Pitt, which stood in an open space, immediately nearly a flat, and it can never therefore be made as beautiful as Mount Auburn" or "Greencontiguous to the church.