State or Territory from which he or she fled, owe service or labor to the person claiming him or her, it shall be the duty of such judge or magistrate to give a certificate thereof to such claimant, his agent or attorney, which shall be sufficient warrant for removing the said fugitive from labor to the State or Territory from which he or she fled.

"SEC. 4. And be it further enacted. That any person who shall knowingly and willingly obstruct or hinder such claitnant. his agent or attorney, in so seizing or arresting such fugitive from labor, or shall rescue such fugitive from such claimant, his agent or attorney, when so arrested, pursuant to the authority herein given or declared, or shall harbor or conceal such person, after notice that he or she was a fugitive from labor as aforesaid, shall, for either of the said offences, forfeit and pay the sum of five hundred dollars; which penalty may be recovered by and for the benefit of such claimant, by action of debt in any court proper to try the same, saving, moreover, to the person claiming such labor or service, his right of action for or on account of the said injuries on either of them."

This law was obstructed in its operation, and more stringent measures were thought to be required.' In July, 1798, the government of John Adams passed a law which read as follows:

"That if any persons shall unlawfully combine, or conspire together, with intent to oppose any measure or measures of the government of the United States, which are or shall be directed by proper authority, or to impede the operation of any law of the United States, or to intimidate or prevent any person holding a place or office in or under the government of the United States, from undertaking, performing or executing his trust or duty; and if any person or persons, with intent aforesaid, shall counsel, advise, or attempt to procure any insurrection, riot, unlawful assembly, or combination, whether such conspiracy, threatening, counsel, advice or attempt shall have the proposed effect or not, he or they shall be deemed guilty of a high misdemeanor," &c.

The punishment was $5,000 fine, and imprisonment not over five years, and to find sureties for future good behaviour. In the pursuance of the same general policy, the son of John Adams, aided by a corrupt coalition, reached the presidential chair a minority President, and the son of that person is now in connection with an assemblage of aliens and blacks, perpetrating such sedition as his grandfather's law was directed against; and he is not the only son of an ex-President who has lent himself to treasonable schemes; such are some of the curiosities of politics.

The cry against this new law has been on the ground of its alleged unconstitutionality, and suspension of the habeas corpus act. This allegation was made only by the dishonest, for fraudulent purposes. It is one of the cheats, the loaded dice of political gamblers. The Attorney-General, Mr. Crittenden, in reply to an official note of the President, as to the constitutionality of the fugitive slave bill, remarks :—

"The act of 12th February, 1793, before alluded to, so far as it respects any constitutional question that can arise out of this bill, is identical with it. It authorizes the like arrest of the fugitive slave, the like trial, the like judgment, the like certificate, with the like authority to the owner, by virtue of that certificate as his warrant, to remove him to the state or territory from which he escaped. And the constitutionality of that'act, in all those particulars, has been affirmed by the adjudications of state tribunals, and by the courts of the United States, without a single dissent, so far as I know.

"I conclude, therefore, that so far as the act of the 12th February, 1793, has been held to be constitutional, this bill must also be so received, and that the

custody, restraint and removal, to which the fugitive slave may be subjected under the provisions of this bill, are all lawful, and that the certificate to be granted to the owner is to be regarded as the act and judgment of a judicial tribunal having competent jurisdiction."

The slavery agitation having effected the defeat of the Democratic party in New-York, and of the national candidate, is now subsiding into those ranks whence it originated. The Democratic Convention of New-York re-asserted its national principles in the nomination of its candidates, and the Whig party has adhered to its sectionality, in the person of Mr. Seward, taking precisely the same course that it did on the Missouri question. Mr. Jefferson, writing to Lafayette, in 1823, said, on this question :

"On the eclipse of federalism with us, although not its extinction, its leaders got up the Missouri question, under the false front of lessening the measure of slavery, but with the real view of producing a geographical division of parties, which might ensure them the next President. The people of the north went blindfold into the snare, followed their leaders for a while with a zeal truly moral and laudable, until they became sensible that they were injuring, instead of aidjog, the real interests of the slaves; that they bad been used merely as tools for electioneering purposes ; and that trick of hypocrisy then fell as quickly as it had been got up.

How accurately does this describe the course now taken! The federalist leaders have led the “ people of the north blindfolded into the snare," and it may require another election to awaken them to the fraud that has been practised. The national Democratic party has rallied back upon its old principles, so nobly maintained by General Cass and Senator Dickin

It has been the happiness of this Review to have agreed perfectly with those great men upon the policy of the party and country, amid the perils that have arisen from the slayery question. Early in 1847 wę urged the non-intervention principle as the only democratic ground; and we have cause to congratulate the friends of republicanism, that after the most stormy and protracted debate that Congress ever witnessed, a general return to that principle became the basis of settlement. A great good has, however, grown out of the debate. It has exposed the hollowness of the free-soil abstraction. It has attracted the attention of every American to the subject, and the clear, good sense of the people has rejected it. The Democratic party being now purged of this pestilence, although some of the traitors are still permitted in the ranks, will rally upon its ancient ground, and federalism, with its corruption, treason and hypocrisy, will again resume its wonted minority.

The national Whig party having again, as before, attained power by the free-soil fraud, will rally upon that patronage which is now so fully in its hands, and from which its principles of latitudinarian construction of the Constitution removes all resraint in the exercise. The first attempt will be a loan, at the coming session, to be followed up by an increase of the tariff, the necessity for which will be urged on the ground, not of excess of expenditure, but of inadequate revenues. An abolition of postage, and a transfer of its expenses to the federal treasury, will be demanded on pretence of postage reform, but really for the purpose of extending that patronage in all branches of the service, already large in the direction of ocean steamers, but destined to be much larger." The land bounty bills have greatly extended executive patronage, while they have diminished revenue. The Democratic party must again take ground in opposition to federal extravagance and taxation. The attempt to raise the tariff, which

son.

will be earnestly made, if successful, would diminish the revenue by checking trade. The customs' revenues are levied upon the proceeds of United States produce returning from abroad, and to confiscate a portion of those returns to government use, is to cause persons to shun the business, and necessarily to curtail the markets for farm produce, now becoming important.

A deficiency of revenues caused by a protective tariff and inordinate expenditure, will be made good by borrowing, thus constantly increasing the money power and patronage of the government. The government bank system is dead forever, and the time is now come when the people should look steadily in the face, the fact that they have a Federal Government to support; that that government should be as economical as possible, and that the sum necessary for its support should be raised in such a manner as will the least interfere with the operations of labor. The principles of political economy are now well settled, and they show that direct taxes upon accumulated property are those only which should be levied in a free country. All indirect taxes or imposts upon consumable goods are levied upon labor and not upon capital; they interfere with the reward of the laborer, check the interchange of products, and therefore diminish their value, and tend constantly to make the rich richer and the poor poorer. These effects were never denied, but in monarchical governments were conceived to be a good. Indirect taxes were favorites with absolute rulers, because among an unenlightened people they were paid without remonstrance. This cannot be urged in this country. The people do not wish to be cheated out of taxes, but are ready to pay what is requisite in the most economical way. An abolition of customs' duties will have the effect, not only to promote the sale of very large quantities of the products of labor, but will deprive the government of the patronage of 6,000 office-holders, who divide $3,000,000 of the people's money among them annually. The amount now yielded by the customs can be assessed, pro rata, among the states, and paid in by the state treasurer to the general treasurer, without any federal machinery whatever. The wants of the community, also, require a relinquishment of the old post-office establishment, by the federal government throwing the mail-carrying open to private competition, which can perform it better and cheaper. By this movement 18,000 political agents will close their connection with the federal government, and a source of immense corruption be cut off,

The great object to be attained is, to deprive the federal government of patronage, without disturbing the constitution. That government now has the right of raising money by direct or internal taxes, by customs' duties, and by the sale of land. The latter source has been dried up, and the first-mentioned neglected. It is only now to abandon customs, and resort to internal taxes, assessed upon the states. All these have the machinery for state taxes in operation, and they have only to raise an additional amount and pay it over to the Secretary of the Treasury. The post-office arrangement may simply be abandoned, and the services, as in the case of expresses and telegraphs, will be much better performed by public competition. Responsible companies would be glad to carry letters for one cent each, almost to any distance, and danger of mail robberies would decrease. By the federalist policy of cheapening postage and throwing the expense upon the federal treasury, the farmers and laborers will have to pay the postage of the rich. By throwing it open to competition, every man will have to pay his own postage. The great end to be

achieved by substituting internal taxes for customs duties is, to restrain the expenditure of the government. Money cannot be squandered on Galphin claims, and corrupt contracts, when the constituency of the members voting for it will directly feel in their assessments the result of such votes. Instead of reaching office through the aid of expectant contractors and speculators, the candidate must appeal to economy, and urge reduction of expenses as the means of popular favor.

THE PRELUDE." The death of William Wordsworth is naturally suggestive of many reflections. During half a century he has been before the world as an author, claiming attention by his eminence, and provoking opposition by the peculiarities of his style and diction. He has accordingly encountered every variety of criticism : from the harsh and illiberal strictures of Jeffrey, and his coadjutors of the “ Edinburgh,” to the gentle appreciation of Charles Lamb and the just discriminations of Coleridge. Byron has left upon enduring record his utter “aversion” “ to that drowsy, frouzy poein called the Excursion ;'” and the early published " Lyrical BaHads” were greeted with every note of critical dissonance. But the quiet sage of Rydal Mount, unawed by authority, unmoved by the number or the violence of his opponents, still walked calmly along the path he had deliberately chosen, assiduously cultivating the peculiar talent he was conscious of possessing. The style and characteristics of his earlier and latest poems are the same, and he retained to the last his early adopted poetical creed, somewhat modified by experience, and the mellowing influences of riper years. With him, truly, " the child” has been “father of the man," and he seems to have realized his own wish

" that his days might be

Bound each to eack by patural piety." He is also a most striking illustration of the ultimate effect of persevering 'self-reliance. Notwithstanding the unpopular nature of his style, and, in general, the unattractiveness of his subject-matter, and in spite of all the prejudices he was obliged to encounter, he at length formed a public to appreciate his merits, and had finally the satisfaction of seeing himself regarded, for awhile, as the first living poet of a nation perhaps richer than any other in the production of poets and men of genius.

Still, it may be a question, whether, in following what he considered the monitions of his own genius, he did not neglect counsels to which it would have been wise to have listened; whether he has not given too large a portion of his tiine to solitude and self-communing thought, and yielded too little to the softening, modifying influences of congenial minds. He turns his eye outward upon Nature, and inward in contemplation of the subtle emotions which her mystic beauties and sublimities have excited, but never seems to have opened his heart to a full communion with

his fellow-man. Solitary reflection, whilst it deepens, also narrows; and if too much indulged, tends to conceit, bigotry, and all those faults of which self is the base; free intercourse with our kind, on the contrary, not only warms and invigorates, but tends to correct many a constitu tional fault and acquired folly.

The question how far one should yield to his own idiosyncracies, is one which we have never yet seen fully discussed; we can, at present, only glance at the opposite sides. The oft quoted motto

"To thine own self be true,

And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man"-

we have long held to be of the widest application. And in the work before us, our author happily expresses a similar sentiment.

"Dearest friend!

If thou partake the animating faith

That Poets, even as Prophets, each with each
Connected in a mighty scheme of truth,
Have each his own peculiar faculty,

Heaven's gift, a sense that fits him to perceive
Objects unseen before, thou wilt not blame
The humblest of this band that dares to hope
That unto him hath also been vouchsafed
An insight that in some sort he possesses,
A privilege whereby a work of his,

Proceeding from a source of untaught things,
Creative and enduring, may become

A power like one of Nature's."

Such is the high ground assumed, worthy of the noblest poet. The inference is clear enough. He that would accomplish the utmost possible, must act from within, and in accordance with his own constitution. And we are persuaded that it is on this very point that most of us fail. Allured by flattering appearances, or driven by trials and severities, we forsake our own true path, and waste our lives in vain and painful efforts, too often illustrating these pointed lines of Goethe:

"Much to be pitied is the man

Who fails to do the thing he can,

But undertakes what he was never made for;
No wonder that his work gets poorly paid for!"

Each in his own peculiar sphere should be superior to every other since that which is natural to him, another can attain only by laborious imitation. Moreover, when we act in obedience to the inmost law of our being, we find, if we persevere, all the laws of nature acting as forces to aid and support us. We feel also a satisfaction in our efforts, not otherwise to be attained. If we mistake not, the dissatisfaction, the ennui and disgust so generally expressed, arise from our desertion of our own posts. The burden that is crushing us to earth, is clearly enough none of ours; for that, according to the proverb, we should be fitted to endure. Could we escape from the artificial life we are leading to the simplicity of nature, and in humility and trustful confidence apply ourselves only to the tasks which God and nature impose, how joyous would be our life, how inexpressible the satisfaction our successful labors would then afford! But if it be true that without self-reliance and fidelity to our own pecu