Chili, where the situation of private secretary to the President had been offered to him. Scarcely had he landed in England, however, when he learned that the ship had been forced unexpectedly to sail, and that the place he had hoped to occupy had been filled by another. Alone in a strange country, and wholly ignorant of the language, it is not astonishing that the young exile should prefer the roof of his prison in Paris to the sombre skies of England; he, therefore resolved to return, saying, perhaps, with Joscari "My native earth Will take me as a mother to her arms I ask no more than a Venetian grave, A dungeon, what they will, so it be there." The dungeon, however, was not to be his destiny. On landing at Havre, he was startled by the salutation of a friendly voice, the first that had fallen upon his ear since he left France; and on turning, he found himself beside his friend Baudin, then captain, and since admiral in the French navy. Advised of his intention to return to St. Pelagie, the good captain remonstrated, reminding his young friend that England was not the only free country, and earnestly advising him to seek a temporary asylum in the United States, from which he would return not the less devoted to liberty, and with an experience that would make him more useful to the good cause. He offered him a passage in his ship, about to sail for St. Domingo, from which he could easily reach the United States, and urged his immediate departure. This was one of those decisive moments in life which determines the future destiny. Casting his eyes along the western horizon, young Soulé seemed to see rising in the dim and uncertain distance, a new star in his horoscope; a new future, a new world, lay suddenly before him, and four hours after saw him sailing towards it, and watching from the deck of the vessel the receding shores of France. He arrived at Port-au-Prince in September, 1825, and was received with great distinction by President Boyer, to whom the famous Abbé Gregoire had recommended him. Finding here no field for his enterprising spirit, he took passage for Baltimore, where, soon after landing, he became acquainted with some gentlemen from New-Orleans, who interested themselves in his plans and fortunes, and advised him to make that city his future residence. He arrived there late in the autumn of 1825, with his slender resources exhausted, but with his energy, courage and enthusiasm unimpaired. Finding a knowledge of English essential to his advancement in the legal profession, he resolved to go into the interior of the country for the greater facilities of acquiring it; and, furnished with letters of introduction to General Jackson, he was for some time his guest; "and it was under the hospitable roof of the hermitage," says the writer of a sketch of Mr. Soulé, "in the house of the great leader and champion of democracy, that the most eloquent orator of that party in Louisiana uttered his first words of English." On parting with his venerable friend, he went to Bardstown for the purpose of continuing his studies in English; here a dangerous illness overtook him, under which he languished for many weeks. As he slowly recovered, finding his resources again exhausted, and unwilling to avail himself of the proffered kindness of his friends, even during the period of his convalescence, he sought refuge in the Convent at Bardstown, on condition that the brothers should permit him to take part in their labors. Accordingly, during many hours of the day he devoted himself to the cultivation of the garden that supplied them with fruits, vegetables and flowers; and during those that remained, he was occupied in the study of English. On returning to New-Orleans, he underwent his examination for the bar in that language, and was admitted. His first appearance in public, as a lawyer, was on the occasion of a celebrated trial, in which, although opposed by the most distinguished counsellors of the state, he succeeded in gaining the case. This was the beginning of a career of the most brilliant successes and the highest honors. His marriage with a beautiful and accomplished young Creole, and the birth of a son, attached him still more strongly to Louisiana, and fame and fortune soon crowned the exercise of those talents that had been nursed in solitude and strengthened by adversity. It would seem that those whom Providence destines to play any conspicuous part in the events of the world, it prepares beforehand by a long novitiate in the school of misfortune. Here, those latent energies of character are forced into action, that otherwise might remain dormant, and the fortitude to endure becomes equal to the courage to dare. In 1849, Mr. Soulé was again elected to the Senate; and in the stormy and protracted session that followed, he took an active part as a representative of the interests of the South; and since the death of Mr. Calhoun, he may be considered the leader of that party in the Senate. In the California question, it was regretted by many of his friends that he did not give his support to the compromise measures, so strongly advocated by Mr. Clay and others. Mr. Soulé, however, urged the adoption of that plan of adjustment, known as the Missouri compromise, and he defended it in an able speech, which was characterized by extraordinary ability, acumen and eloquence. His propositions were stated with such clearness and precision, and illustrated and supported with such persuasive reasoning, that they commanded the respect and admiration even of his political opponents. In the peroration, he introduced the episode of his own career from the moment when tyranny found a victim in the person of the young champion of liberty, passing through the struggles of aspiring manhood up to the period of his present elevation, declaring that he, the exile, whom our country had thus received and cherished, could take no part in any conflict which threatened her safety. Every breath was hushed in the Senate, and when the orator uttered his closing admonition, "Justice to the South if you would have perpetuity to the Union," there was a spontaneous outburst of hitherto repressed applause, that seemed too merited to be regarded as an indecorum. Mr. Soulé has been accused of maintaining sentiments hostile to the Union; and when, at one time, Mr. Clay made some intimation to this effect, he sprang to his feet, and, in a tone and attitude that startled the Senate, proclaimed, that he had never uttered such an opinion; "never!" said he, "no; not if the South were beaten at every point, and the North completely triumphant in this legislative contest, I would not then begin. to think of disunion-the people do not think of it." In defiance of the hammer of the dignified Vice-President, the galleries rang with applause. Mr. Soulé, while an ardent friend of the South, and maintaining, with undaunted courage, her rights, as he understands them, is yet, at heart, a true American; and, it is not strange that he should repel, with some warmth, the insinuation of his holding disunion sentiments. Born under any government, reared under any circumstances, Mr. Soulé would have been a democrat. His political principles are not the result of accident, study, or education, but of his originally noble nature; of his deep sympathy with human suffering; his scorn of all oppression; his stern sense of justice, and his unbounded goodness of heart; and it is to the possession of these qualities, as much as to his great talents, that he owes his brilliant success. Had Mr. Soulé remained th France, he would have played a conspicuous part in her recent revolutions. Familiar with our history and institutions, acquainted with our constitution and laws, both theoretically and practically, should he choose hereafter to return to his native country, he would, doubtless, there find ample scope for his highest aspirations, in aiding to control the troubled elements that have, for so long, agitated and distracted France. But he has become now thoroughly Americanized, and our country, proud of her adopted son, has yet much to offer him. At the bar, Mr. Soulé is distinguished as much for his originality as for his ingenuity. Having studied his cases with the most careful and persevering attention, and placed himself at a point from whence he can overlook the movements of his adversary,-watching for the favorable moment, he concentrates his powers, and is sure, at some place, to force a breach through the enemy's lines. But it is as a pleader in criminal cases, that Mr. Soulé has gained his greatest laurels in the legal profession. His keen observation and rteady wit, his intimate knowledge of the human heart, and the great sympathetic power he possesses, to appeal to it, and to move it, give him unbounded influence with a jury, which he seems to subjugate at will. The style of Mr. Soulé's eloquence is logical, earnest, and impassioned. His fine face, eloquent as his language, changes with every varying thought; and his eagle-eye flashes, or softens in expression, as he would kindle or subdue. His gestures are graceful and spontaneous, and his French accent gives an irresistible charm to his pure and choice English. Mr. Soulé is endowed with a rare combination of qualities, seldom found united in such strength in a single character: of the perception that discriminates, the judgment that reasons, and the imagination that creates; and all these elements are fused or blended by that fine sensibility to everything beautiful, generous, and noble, which, for want of a better name, we call sentiment. With a taste for the fine arts, that should have made him an artist; with a love and appreciation of poetry, that should have made him a poet; at home, in the higher walks of science and philosophy, with a brave and enthusiastic spirit that would lead him, like Cortez, to adventure and conquest; and possessing a power over the masses that would make him the Mirabeau of a revolution; he yet pursues the even tenor of his way, representing the interests of his state, in the Senate, with dignity and honor; or quietly pursuing the upward path in his professional life, while the unused energies of his nature remain quiet. But our brief sketch would be imperfect if we failed to speak of Mr. Soulé in private life, which, after all, is the truest test of the character. The public and private lives of distinguished men not unfrequently offer the most painful contrasts; and the hero to the eye of the world, is often quite the reverse to his family and immediate friends. Mr. Soulé, it may be, looks abroad for distinction, but he seeks his happiness at home. There, at work in his garden, or presiding at his hospitable board, surrounded by his family and friends, who regard him with the most affec tionate reverence, he preserves something of the patriarchal simplicity of his own early life. His only child is a son of great promise, whose tastes seem to incline rather to literature and the arts than to the more exciting scenes of political life. He has, however, other adopted children. Perhaps he knows that the fountain of youth is kept unexhausted and flowing when it lies open to the sweet influences of childhood; that "Heaven lies about us in our infancy;" and that, in later years, by cultivating the society of children, some gleams of it are reflected into our own souls. In society Mr. Soulé is not less distinguished than at the bar or in the senate. The elegance of his manners, the brilliancy of his conversational powers, his deference to others, as much the result of his kindness of heart as of his high breeding, his blended affability and dignity, would lead one to pronounce him pre-eminently a man of society, did not a certain presence or prestige that always accompanies him, indicate, that although he may adorn the saloon, his true sphere lies in the higher regions of thought and action.* UNION. Go-pierce the bosom whence ye drew warm life- Ere ye plot treason with its horrors rife, And for our Union light a funeral pyre! They are not maddened by yon brawling crew. Makes man more conscious of his fellow-man. So shall it be and yet our Eagle soar, Until a hundred States join hands from shore to shore. *The writer of this sketch is indebted, for the principal facts it contains, to a little work entitled Biographie de Pierre Soulé. Par Alfred Mercier. Paris: 1848. FINANCIAL AND COMMERCIAL REVIEW. THE ease which has been apparent in the money market during the last three years was interrupted to some extent by the sudden contraction of the NewYork banks towards the close of July, and money rose to 12 and 18 per cent. per annum on good paper. The pressure, which was very severe for a time, grew solely out of the caprice of the banking institutions, and is a legitimate result of the arbitrary control which those corporations have over the value of other men's property. The returns of the city banks for several quarters are as follow: In these figures the increase of loans in this city from the close of 1848 to the close of June, 1851-viz: during thirty months-was thirty millions of dollars, or one million per month paid out by the banks more than they received. This paper so discounted runs from thirty to ninety days, and may average sixty days, in which case $1,200,000 are due at the banks every day by the city merchants. The means which these possess to meet those liabilities are mostly notes for goods sold; and to make those notes available, they must, under our system of doing business, procure discount. If the banks utterly refused to discount, and the merchants could procure money from other sources, the entire loans of the banks would be liquidated in sixty days, and all demand for money would cease. That is, however, an impossibility. No doubt nearly all the paper held by the merchants is sound, and will be paid as it matures, and the avails would enable them to discharge their debts to the banks; but the latter mature first, and good notes or merchandise must be sold at any sacrifice to obtain the means of meeting the matured obligation. For the last thirty months the banks have sedulously encouraged the creation of obligations to them. They have discounted nearly $50,000 per day more than was paid into them—that is to say, where they received $1,200,000 they paid out $1,250,000, which involved a larger payment to them at the end of sixty days. Under these circumstances. goods have been purchased for notes and sold for other notes with perfect facility. Values have improved, prices advanced, and trade been nominally profitable. All at once, without sufficient reason, the banks suddenly refuse to discount, and all the supposed profits of dealers are sacrificed to meet obligations to the banks. The notes which the merchants held as cash to apply to their obligations become valueless at the mere bidding of a board of directors. The reason given is, that specie is too freely exported, although the institutions hold more than ever. The true motive is, however, to compel the merchants to pay |