1835.] BINNEY'S EULOGY ON JOHN MARSHALL. Rare indeed were the qualifications which he brought to the station, and which continued to be more and more developed the longer he held it. 299 upon the thirty-four years of unimpaired vigor that he He looked through the Constitution with the glance gave to the work, the extent to which the Court has of intuition. He had been with it at its creation, and explained the Constitution, and sustained its suprema- had been in communion with it from that hour. As the cy, the principles of interpretation it has established for fundamental law, instituted by the people, for the conthe decision of future controversy, and the confirmationcerns of a rising nation, he revolted at the theory that it has given to all the blessings of life, by asserting and seeks for possible meanings of its language; that will upholding the majesty of the law, we are lost in admi- leave it the smallest possible power. Both his judg ration of the man, and in gratitude to heaven for ment and affections bound him to it as a government his beneficent life. supreme in its delegated powers, and supreme in the authority to expound and enforce them, proceeding from the people, designed for their welfare, accounta ble to them, possessing their confidence, representing their sovereignty, and no more to be restrained in the spirit of jealousy, within less than the fair dimensions of its authority, than to be extended beyond them in the spirit of usurpation. These were his constitutional principles, and he interpreted the Constitution by their light. If it is said that they are the same which he held as a follower of Washington, a member of the legislature of Virginia, and of the Congress of the United States, when party divided the country, it is most true. He was sincere, constant and consistent from the beginning to the end of his life. If to others it appeared that his principles were meant for party, he knew that they were devoted to the whole people, and he received his earthly reward in their ultimate general adoption, as the only security of the union, and of the public welfare. He was endued by nature with a patience that was never surpassed;-patience to hear that which he knew already, that which he disapproved, that which questioned himself. When he ceased to hear, it was not because his patience was exhausted, but because it ceased to be a virtue. His carriage in the discharge of his judicial business, was faultness. Whether the argument was animated or dull, instructive or superficial, the regard of his expressive eye was an assurance that nothing that ought to affect the cause, was lost by inattention or indifference, and the courtesy of his general manner was only so far restrained on the Bench, as was necessary for the dig. nity of office, and for the suppression of familiarity. His industy and powers of labour, when contemplated in connection with his social temper, show a facility that does not generally belong to parts of such strength, There remain behind him nearly thirty volumes of copiously reasoned decisions, greater in difficulty and labour, than probably have been made in any other court during the life of a single judge! yet he participated in them all, and in those of greatest difficulty, his pen has most frequently drawn up the judgment; and in the midst of his judicial duties, he composed and published in the year 1804, a copious biography of Washington, surpassing in authenticity and minute accuracy, any public history with which we are acquainted. He found time also to revise it, and to publish a second edition, separating the History of the American Colonies from the Biography, and to prepare with his own pen an edition of the latter for the use of schools. Every part of it is marked with the scrupulous veracity of a judi cial exposition; and it shows moreover, how deeply the writer was imbued with that spirit which will live after all the compositions of men shall be forgotten, -the spirit of charity, which could indite a history of the Revolution and of parties, in which he was a conspicuous actor, without discolouring his pages with the slightest infusion of gall. It could not be written with more candour an hundred years hence. It has not been challenged for the want of it, but in a single instance, and that has been refuted by himself with irresistable force of argument, as well as with unexhausted benignity of temper. To qualities such as these, he joined an immoveable firmness befitting the office of presiding judge, in the highest tribunal of the country. It was not the result of excited feeling, and consequently never rose or fell with the emotions of the day. It was the constitution of his nature, and sprung from the composure of a mind undisturbed by doubt, and of a heart unsuscepti ble of fear. He thought not of the fleeting judgments and commentaries of men; and although he was not indifferent to their approbation, it was not the compass by which he was directed, nor the haven in which he looked for safety. His learning was great, and his faculty of applying it of the very first order. But it is not by these qualities that he is so much distinguished from the judges of his time. In learning and industry, in patience, firmness, and fidelity, he has had his equals. But there is no judge, living or dead, whose claims are disparaged by assigning the first place in the department of constitutional law to Chief Justice Marshall. To these principles he joined the most admirable powers of reasoning. When he came to his high of fice, hardly any interpretation of the Constitution could be assumed as true by force of authority. The Constitution is not a subject upon which mere authority is likely at any time to sustain a judicial construction with general consent. Reason is the great authority upon constitutional questions, and the faculty of reasoning is the only instrument by which it can be exercised. In him it was perfect, and its work was perfect,-in simplicity, perspicuity, connection and strength. It is commonly as direct as possible, rarely resorting to analogy, and never making it the basis or principal support of the argument. Of all descriptions of reasoning, this when sound is most authoritative, and such therefore are the judgments upon the Constitution to which it has been applied. This is not the place for a particular reference to these judgments. During the time that he has been upon the bench, the court have explored almost every question in regard to the Constitution that can assume a judicial form. The obligation of contracts, and that which constitutes its essence,-the restraint upon the issue of paper currency by the states-the authority of Congress to regulate trade, navigation, and intercourse among the states, those principles and provisions in the Constitution which were intended to secure the rights of property in each of the states and their enjoyments by intercourse among them all,-have been investigated, and settled upon a basis not to be shaken so long as the law shall retain any portion of our regard. If I were to select any in particular from the mass of its judgments, for the purpose of showing what we derive from the Constitution, and from the noble faculties which have been applied to its interpretation, it would be that in which the protection of chartered rights have been deduced from its provisions. The case of Dartmouth College is the bulwark of our incorporated institutions for public education, and of those chartered endowments for diffusive public charity, which are not only the ornaments but among the strongest defences of a nation. It raises them above the reach of party and occasional prejudice, and gives assurance to the hope, that the men who now live, may be associated with the men who are to live hereafter, by works consecrated to exalt and refine the people, and destined, if they endure, to unite successive gene racter. In a thousand ways the decisions of this court have given stability to the union, by showing its inseparable Connection with the security and happiness of the peo-human intellect and virtue, than effectually to accomple of the United States. While we think with just affection, my fellow citi rations by the elevating sentiment of high national cha-would have been to strike out the department from the hearts of the people, and have left the union without a judiciary. What greater responsibility ever rested upon the judgments of a court? What greater triumph to plish so great a work? What nobler destiny than to be qualified and appointed for the service? What eulogy is equal to so great a name as that of the man, who gave zens, of that state at whose bosom we have been nurtured, whose soil contains the bones of our fathers, and the last sands of life to his eightieth year in completis to receive our own, and reverence her for these insti- ing so much of it, and in tracing the plan of all that is to be done hereafter? Let it not be supposed that I tutions and laws, by which life is ennobled, and its en-claim for him the exclusive merit. His modesty would joyments enlarged, far from us be that purblin vision, which can see nothing of our country beyond the nar He has had by his reject it. Justice withholds it. row circle in which we stand. The union is our counside men now resting from their labours like himself, and men still living to continue them, who have contritry. The government of the union is our own. It breathes our breath. Our blood flows in its veins. It buted by their talents and learning to all that has been is animated with the spirit and it speaks the voice of done, and will ever be honoured for it by their country. the whole people. We have made it the depository of But it is both their praise and his, that they have ima part of that liberty with which the valour of the revo- proved their own powers by the inspiration of his wislution made us free; and we can never review the works dom, and have been raised to their eminence, in part, of this illustrious tribunal, since Chief Justice Marshall by the attraction of his example. In him his country has been at its head, without gratitude to heaven, that have seen that triple union of lawyer, statesman and it is the guardian of that part, which alone could enable patriot, which completes the frame of a great constituus in our separate communities to destroy the value of tional judge; and if we add to it "the heart of the wise man," inspired with the love of God, of country, and the rest. of mankind, and showing it in the walks of private life, as well as on the judgment seat, while we have that which the course of the world very rarely exhibits, we have no more than for the example of the world, has been bestowed upon our country. What were the states before the union? The hope of their enemies, the fear of their friends, and arrested only by the Constitution, from becoming the shame of the world. To what will they return when the union shall be dissolved? To no better than from that which the Constitution saved them, and probably to much worse. They will return to it with vastly augmented power, and lust of domination, in some of the states, and irremediable disparity in others, leading to aggres sion, to war, and to conquest. They will return to it, not as strangers who have never been allied, but as brethren alienated, embittered, inflamed and irrecon cileably hostile. In brief time their hands may be red with each others blood, and horror and shame together may then bury liberty in the same grave with the Constitution. The dissolution of the union will not remedy a single evil, and may cause ten thousand. It is the highest imprudence to threaten it,-it is madness to intend it. If the union we cannot endure, the dream of the revolution is over, and we must wake to the certainty that a truly free government is too good for mankind. When the venerable life of the Chief Justice was near its close, he was called in the 75th year of his age, to give his parting counsel to his native state in the revision of her Constitution. A spectacle of greater dignity than the Convention of Virginia in the year 1829, has been rarely exhibited. At its head was James Monroe, conducted to the chair by James Madison and John Marshall, and surrounded by the strength of Virginia, including many of the greatest names in the union. The questions to be agitated were of the last importance to the people of that state, and divided them, as they were never before divided in any period of their history. The basis of representation, and the tenure of judicial office, the former in by far the greater degree, were the occasion of fearful collisions in the convention, threatening to break up the body into irreconcileable parties, and to spread the flames of civil discord through the state. It cannot be doubted that The decisions of the Supreme Court of the United the presence and wisdom of these venerable persons, States, have raised the renown of the country, not less assuaged the violence of the contest, and contributed than they have confirmed the Constitution. In all parts mise and mutual concession in which the tranquillity of to reduce the general temper of that tone of comproof the world, its judgments are spoken of with respect. Its adjudications of prize law, are a code for all future a diversified people can alone be found. The reverence time. Upon commercial law it has brought us nearly manifested for Chief Justice Marshall was one of the most beautiful features of the scene. The gentleness to one system, befitting the probity and interests of great commercial nation. Over its whole path, learning of his temper, the purity of his motives, the sincerity and intelligence and integrity have shed their combined of his convictions, and his wisdom, were confessed by Justre. But its chief glory does and ever will eradiate and of the eminent men who paid it. He stood in the This was indeed a homage worthy of his virtue, from those records, in which it has explained, defended, centre of his native state, in his very home of fifty and enforced the Constitution. These are a great national monument so complete, so ample, and so harmo-years, surrounded by men who had known him as long nious in its part, that if all preceding debates and comas they had known any thing, and there was no one to mentaries upon the constitution were lost, the union rise up, even to question his opinions, without a tribute would still have in the arguments of that court, suffi- to his personal excellence. He spoke upon both the cient to elucidate its principles and limits, and to explain nearly all that is doubtful in it. all. great questions, with brevity, and with no less than his usual power, consistently maintaining opinions which he had cherished from the outset of his life; but he was The day of Chief Justice Marshall's appointment will the counsellor of peace, and in the spirit of religious ever be regarded as an epoch in the history of the Con- charity, regarded with catholic good will those who difstitution. The rules of its interpretation were still to fered from him. Upon one occasion he said—“after be settled, and the meaning of its doubtful clauses to the warm language (to use the mildest phrase) which be fixed, by that authority which under the Constitu- has been mingled with argument on both sides, I heard tion is final, and some of them regarded nothing less with inexpressible satisfaction, propositions for comthan the action of states, and the government of a na-promise proposed by both parties in the language of tion. To have erred, would have been to throw into conciliation. I hailed these auspicious appearances with disorder and convulsion the movements of the entire as much joy, as the inhabitant of the polar regions hails system. To have been suspected of incompetency, the re-appearance of the sun after his long absence of 1835,] BINNEY'S EULOGY ON JOHN MARSHALL. 301 high public character, and acknowledged usefulness could not fail to be a subject of pride and admiration to all of them, there is no one of his numerous relations, who has the happiness of a personal association with him, in whom his purity, simplicity, and affectioncherished impression, than all the achievements of his powerful intellect." Another of his intimate personal friends has said of him—“In private life he was upright and scrupulously just in all his transactions. His friendships were ardent, sincere and constant, his charity and benevolence unbounded. He was fond of society, and in the social circle, cheerful and unassuming. He participated freely in conversation, but from modesty rather followed than led. Magnanimous and forgiving, he never bore malice, of which illustrious instances might be given. A republican from feeling and judg ment, he loved equality, abhorred all distinctions found. ed upon rank instead of merit, and had no preference for the rich over the poor. Religious from sentiment and reflection, he was a christian, believed in the gospel and practised its tenets." This is the unbought praise of deep affection and intimate knowledge. It finishes his character in all his relations. That with which a stranger was most struck in a first interview, was the charm of his most engaging simplicity. The reputation of his remarkable powers of mind was coextensive with our country. Every one who approached him for the first time, was prepared to find something in the carriage of his person, the tones of his voice, or the strain of his conversation, which should distinguish him as much from men in general, as he was raised above them by his station and intellect. But although these were extremely attractive and highly suitable, they did not display his mind so much as the benignity of his heart. There was in his daily manners an unconsciousness of what he was, or how he was estimated, and a freedom of effort, affectation, and pretension, which makes the inscription he prepared for his monumental tablet, a perfect representation of the simplicity of him that lies beneath it. It records no more than his name and that of his deceased wife, with the date of his birth and marriage, and leaves a blank for the year and day of his death. six tedious months." This was the affection of his heart; but the spirit of his understanding still divided truth from error, by a line as bright and distinct, as in the clearest hour of his meridian day. It was particularly on the question of judicial tenure, the subject upon which he could speak after probably more personal re-ate benevolence, did not produce a deeper and more flection and observation than any man living, that he poured out his heartfelt convictions with an energy that belongs to nothing but truth. The proposed Constitution while it adopted for the judges of the Superior Courts the tenure of good behaviour, guarded by a clause against the construction which had in one instance prevailed, that the repeal of the law establishing the court, and by a mere majority should dissolve the tenure, and discharge the judge upon the world. In support of this clause which was proposed by himself, and of the general principle of judicial independence, he spoke with the fervour and almost with the authority of an apostle. "The argument of the gentleman," he said, goes to prove not only that there is no such thing as judicial independence, but that there ought to be no such thing: that it is unwise and improvident to make the tenure of the judge's office to continue during good behaviour. I have grown old in the opinion that there is nothing more dear to Virginia, or ought to be more dear to her statesmen, and that the best interests of our country are secured by it. Advert, sir, to the duties of a judge. He has to pass between the government, and the man whom that government is prosecuting-between the most powerful individual in the community, and the poorest and most unpopular. It is of the last importance that in the performance of these duties, he should observe the utmost fairness. Need I press the necessity of this? Does not every man feel that his own personal security, and the security of his property, depends upon that fairness? The judi. cial department comes home in its effects to every man's fire side;-it passes on his property, his reputation, his life, his all. Is it not to the last degree important, that he should be rendered perfectly and completely independent, with nothing to controul him but God and his conscience. I acknowledge that in my judgment, the whole good which may grow out of this convention, be it what it may, will never compensate for the evil of changing the judicial tenure of office. I have always thought from my earliest youth till now that the greatest scourge an angry heaven ever inflicted upon an ungrateful and a sinning people, was an ignorant, a corrupt, or a dependent judiciary." These sentiments are worthy of the profoundest consideration. They were the last legacy of his political wisdom, from an incorruptible patriot, and one of the wisent of men. Standing as it were on the verge of life, free from all mixtures and stain of selfish motive, having nothing to hope, nothing to fear from men, they are the parting testimony of his pure and disciplined reason. They are worthy of being written on the tables of the heart; and if elsewhere they may be disregarded in the spirit of change, or in the lust of experiment, let them animate us to preserve what we have, and to transmit it to our children. Fellow Citizens, this admirable man, extraordinary in the powers of his mind, illustrious by his services, exalted by his public station, was one of the most warm hearted, unassuming, and excellent of men. His life, from youth to old age, was one unbroken harmony of mind, affections, principles, and manners. His kinsman says of him-"He had no frays in boyhood. He had no quarrels or outbreakings in manhood. He was the composer of strifes. He spoke ill of no man. He meddled not with their affairs. He viewed their worst deeds through the medium of charity. He had eight sisters and six brothers, with all of whom, from youth to age, his intercourse was marked by the utmost kindpess and affection; and although his eminent talents, A It is The world, my fellow citizens, has produced fewer instances of truly great judges, than it has of great men in almost every other department of civil life. large portion of the ages that are past, have been altogether incapable of producing this excellence. the growth only of a government of laws, and of a tion of the highest attainments, and to permit the exerpolitical Constitution so free as to invite to the acquisicise of the purest virtues, without exposure to degradation and contempt, under the frown of power. The virtues of a prince may partially correct the mischiefs of arbitrary rule, and we may see some rare examples of judicial merit, where the laws have had no sanction, and the government no foundation, but in the uncontrolled will of a despot; but a truly great judge belongs to an age of political liberty, and of public morality in which he is the representative of the abstract justice of the people in the administration of the law, and is rewarded for the highest achievement of duty, by proportionate admiration and reverence. Of all the constitutions of government known to man, none are so favourable to the developement of judicial virtue, as those of America. None else confide to the judges the sacred deposit of the fundamental laws, and make them the exalted arbiters between the Constitution and those who have established it. None else give them so lofty a seat, or invite them to dwell so much above the impure air of the world, the tainted atmosphere of party and of passion. None else could have raised for the perpetual example of the country, and for the crown of undying praise, so truly great a judge as JOHN MARSHALL. From the United States Gazette. A VISIT TO THE NEW ALMS HOUSE. The poet has somewhere observed, "Distrustful sense with modest caution speaks; It still looks home, and short excursions makes." pants. One to whom our friend addressed himself, in the kindest accents, with inquiries after her health, responded in a gruff, unpleasant tone, as full of dissatisfaction as if the place was a hotel and the person she answered an offending servant. "I am not well," said she "cold and cheerless-you said we should have a fire to-day, and here we are half frozen." "There is fire in the furnace below," said the president of the board of managers, "and you will soon feel the benefit of it." The temper of the old woman was by no means that of the inmates generally. They met the kindly inqui ries of their friend, with thanks for that and for former offices of goodness. We would not designate by an appellation opposite in signification to "sense," the habit of visiting and describing things "far awa." We know well the pleasure which can be enjoyed in reading the impressions which those who travel, record from objects of grandeur or beauty that meet them in other lands, and we lose no opportunity of presenting to our readers descriptions of scenery and accounts of travels given by A host of little blacks, whose attractions were not our countrymen abroad; meantime "seized and tied heightened by the sickness or deforinities that made down" to the little circumference of our city and its them inmates of the place, flocked around us, and showenvirons, we have thought that a record of our impres-ed that the interest expressed in their feelings was not sions, as we looked into the institutions within and new to them; they had shared in it before. around our city, would not be uninteresting to our "You'll be giving us some coffee," said an old lady, readers, we took occasion some time since to describe whose accent betrayed her birth place, "won't you the old alms house-that is as we describe-not the Mr. J.?" thickness of walls, nor the number of apartments, but the arrangements of its tenants and the derangement of their persons and minds. We made also our visit to the Walnut street prison, a subject for a few reflections, and we gave a description of the county prison in Moyamensing, a few weeks ago. Since that time we have, not found, but taken time to visit the NEW ALMS HOUSE, ON THE SCHUYLKILL. A short time since, we intimated to the President of the Board of Guardians of the poor, George W. Jones, Esq. a desire to visit the institution over which he presides, and he seized a time of leisure to himself to conduct us through the wards of the spacious buildings, and make us acquainted with the internal reg ulations of a place of which few who read this article have little understanding. "May be," said another, lifting her foot, "may be you'd give me a pair of shoes?" "Can't I get permission to go out?" Our companion referred them all "to the committee," whose business it was to dispose of such matters, and he did it in a tone which satisfied the petitioners that if it had rested with him, he would have granted every request. Spirit of kindness, when driven from the busy scenes of life by the selfishness of speculation or the imagi nary independence of wealth, may thy retreat ever be to the chambers of an alms house; there the crust of charity, duled by thy smile, becomes sweet, while it is soaked with the tear of gratitude; and even denial has a charm, if thy influence softens the disappoint. ment. The comfortable situation of a few very ancient fer The alms house is situated near the western banks of males, arrested our attention. They were disposed of the Schuylkill; the land gently slopes for several hun-in the same large, airy apartment, and warmed by an dred yards from the main building to that beautiful stream, and on the opposite s de are the Mariners' Asylum and the United States Arsenal. The alms house, or rather houses, consist of four principal buildings, each about 600 feet in length, so situated as to form a "hollow square," the eastern house facing the Schuylkill being ornamented by a por. tico. In the centre of this building, entering from the portico, elevated above the basement story, on the right, is the office for business, where the clerks and other officers have their desks; this room is large and suitably furnished. On the left of the entrance is the room in which the board of guardians holds its sessions. It is neatly and appropriately furnished with chairs and desks for an orderly transaction of the important business devolving upon the board. In the rear of this room is the eating hall of the officers of the house and the keeper's family. In this building reside the steward's family-the remainder is occupied as a men's alms house. The capacious arched cellars are used for store rooms, baking rooms, the butcher's shop, &c. The neatness which pervaded every part of the building, was truly admirable-worthy of the highest praise. The western building is the "women's alms house." The northern part of the building is devoted to the accommodation of the lame, the halt, the blind, the idiot ic, the convalescent, and the decayed females, classified with care, and, so far as we could observe, provided for with all the liberality that true economy would allow. When we entered the room devoted to those who can yet occupy time by attempts at labor, we were forcibly struck with the different tempers of the occu anthracite fire from a pleasant grate. A little discrimi nation had separated these from others. Better days we mean as we say-better days had given to their feelings a del cacy which charity had respected, and they were placed apart, not to enjoy better food, but better feelings. Leaving this portion of the establishment, we were about to pass through a gate to another, when a female, aged and marked by infirmities, threw herself in front of our companion, to arrest his attention. "Could I get permission to pass yonder gate?" said she, pointing towards the entrance to the south building. What would you do there? "My old man is lame, and they have brought him here to put him into the hospital. I would see him, and may be I might do a bit for him. I could wait upon him better than the others, at least he would like it better, and it would do me good to see him and serve him. A proper direction was given to the applicant, and while search was being made for a key to pass to the other part of the building, we turned to look at the poor old woman, who was hobbling off with joy at the almost success which had attended her application. Neither age, nor disease, nor poverty, not even the disgrace, (why is it a disgrace?) of an alms house, had quenched the woman's affection. Her grey hairs had come in sorrow to the abode of helplessness, and, instead of ease and troops of friends attending on her age, she was condemned to eleemosynary fare; yet was not her attachment weakened. In competency, she might have complained, in health she might have reproached; but in poverty, she remembered only the husband of her youth, and even in sickness she would drag herself from her own couch, and the burthen, of A VISIT TO THE NEW ÁLMS HOUSE. all her petition was, to be permitted to assuage his pain. The northern extremity of the western building is devoted to the uses of those who, in poverty and pain, add to the number of the poor; and all that can be done to lighten the sorrow which for the first transgression was denounced, is there accomplished. The priestess of this portion of the temple remarked, that offerings at this season of the year were less frequent than in the winter. 303 Here are conveyed all the sick, the wounded and the In this building is a commodious apothecary's shop and a laboratory. In the rear there is an excellent medical library, and in the same room the medical board hold their meetings. The north Building is chiefly used as a house of employment. Beneath this is dug a large well, about 40 feet deep, over which is placed a steam engine, of 12 horse power, which propels the water to a reservoir A large room above is fitted up in an admirable style near the top of the building, whence it is conveyed by pipes to all parts of the house. This engine also turns for surgical operations. In this room occasionally three the lathes, and all the wheels, &c. in the various branch-hundred students witness the skill of the regular sures of manufactures which are carried on here. Differ- geons, and acquire that degree of knowledge so necesent rooms are devoted to the various trades, tailoring, sary to their profession, and for which they may vainly blacksmiths, shoemaking, weaving, dyeing, spinning, look in books. We believe that not even Paris furnishes a better practical school than this department of the &c. &c. Almshouse, and we are glad to know that the advan tages which it affords are eagerly improved by the stu dents of the medical schools in this city. This room is also used as a chapel on Sunday, and a pulpit is accordingly placed in a suitable position for the officiating clergymen. In the eastern extremity of this building is the Children's Asylum. Here is a large number of small children, comfortably dressed, well fed, and carefully watched by matrons. A school room has been arranged upon the most improved plan, and they will have all the benefit of those children who attend infant schools in the city. These dormitories are admirably arranged, and a bath room is provided for their frequent visitation. These little folks, as we approached, suspended, for a moment, their collocations, for it was a holy day and acquainted our companion with their progress in the alphabet, and their projections of some new sport. He entered heartily into their little pleasures, and they seemed to consider it a matter of course that he should We looked carefully at the little group, who seemed wholly unconscious of any thing in their situation differing from that of others of their own age; and we thought that if from them were to spring the great or the useful men of the coming generation, it would be partly owing to the kindness of tone, the gentleness of manner, the evident sympathy of feelings which they found in the man whom circumstances had placed over them as presiding over the governors of the house. has said that nothing more awakens early associations, than the recognition of a pleasant fragrance. How pleasant then to the retrospections of your life are the smiles that warmed us in childhood-the gentle stroking of the head-the word, the task of encouragement -oh, these are the chains that connect us upward with the best of our race—the conductors that bring down to us through them, that electric spark that is struck in Heaven. A poet We have hastily referred to three of the principal buildings; before proceeding to the fourth, we ought to remark that the buildings cover and enclose an area of about ten acres. Along the centre of the groundconstituting the square within, is a series of buildings; one in the immediate centre is the wash house, a noble structure, on which is a steeple, a bell and an excellent clock, with four illuminated dials,like those in the State House. These serve to aid the nurses and attendants in giving, with regularity, the medicines prescribed for appointed hours during the night. Another large building is the Store, whence are given out the clothing and comforts of the inmatesthose of each building entering by a separate door, having no connection with the others-depositing their orders, receiving their goods, and leaving their orders as vouchers, with the store keeper. Parts of Other buildings are appropriately used. this square are beautifully decorated by the gardener of the establishment, whose good taste and persevering He has also decoratindustry have long been known. ed other portions of the land outside the building, in a manner highly creditable to him. The two extremities of this building are occupied by the lunatics, the males on the east, and the females on We entered the lower easterly room, and the west. had scarcely set our foot within the ward, when a man stepped boldly up to us, and demanded to be tried for murder, for any crime, rather than to be cooped up in "It is all mine," said he-" is it not his own house. the poor house?"-aye-and am I not poor? Then it is And a gleam of delight shot across the poor mine." lunatic's face, as he concluded his logical deduction.In a longer room we found a very considerable number of these unfortunate beings, some amusing themselves with various games-some shuffling about the floor with their feet manacled, while others set apart in moody silence, as if half conscious of the irregularities of their room mates. In a cell above, we saw a wretched lunatic gazing with vacant eyes upon the white walls before him, running his hand along the plastering as if to catch some object that appeared to elude his grasp. He followed the fantom eagerly, muttering the while, strange broken sentences→ They escape me-strange that he should walk when I saw him in his coffin-what could he get up for," and still he chased the fantom with wild extravagant action-at length his face was turned towards us. It was the manly well formed visage of one whom we knew well-much drinking had made him mad, and from a place of public trust he had become a tenant of Hear that ye a lunatic cell, in the public alms house. who think that each debauchery of your own is a peculiarity, that your case differs from that of others—that you may quit your revelries when you chose-leave the beast before you have served your time, as did the King of Babylon. Early death, derangement, or palsied age follows the inebriating draught-and those who indulge therein, know little of themselves if they hope to avoid "Is thy servant a dog," one of these consequences. said the favourite of the Syrian King, when the prophet pointed out to him the evils of his coming course,-"is thy servant a dog that he should do this thing?"-The holy horror at the crime intimated, was natural, his pride started at such a gross imputation, the honor of a soldier was concerned to give the lie to such an assertion-yet he cherished his favourite pursuit, and did the evil foretold of him. In the western wing we found several females who had need of watching, but none that seemed as bad as the males who we had just left-some were employed The South Building is denominated the Hospital.—in mending, some in knitting, one or two were quiet, |