MINORITY REPORT ON A PROPOSED CONVENTION TO REVISE THE CONSTITUTION OF MARYLAND.

A most important feature of the age in this country, is the rapid change that is taking place in the Constitution of the States from the interference of State Conventions. Conventions are the order of the day; and are become quite common. The legislative responsibility attaching to a member of the Convention seems to be somewhat less than that attending a membership in a legislature. A representative in Convention is supposed to come more directly from the people. Mr. A., elected for a Convention, by the people of his district, is supposed to be a very different person from Mr. A. elected to the State Legislature.

The work he has to do, is a work of which he knows very little: He goes to the Convention to hear three or four influential persons declare what changes they think are to be made in the

fundamental laws. These few influential individuals represent the same party, among the people, with Mr. A. himself. Of course it would not do for him to offer any opposition to his leaders; and as the new law makers have it much their own way; if they be lawyers or demagogues as they usually are, they will have the skill to frame a Constitution suited to their own purposes, and that shall yet have every appearance of liberality and reform. We conceive that this true effect of a Convention is not generally understood. That effect, for the most part, is to throw the lawmaking power into the hands of a very few persons.

We do not mean to impugn the liberality of those persons who sincerely and rightfully desire to reform the laws of their State; it cannot be denied that there is hardly a Constitution, among the entire thirty, which does not demand reformation; and of all those the most in need of reformation are perhaps those which have been lately reformed.

The Report of the minority of the House of Delegates of Maryland on Constitutional Reform argues strongly against the necessity for assembling a Convention in that State. The principal features of the bill, presented by the majority of the same committee, are as follows: First, it is proposed that the will of the

majority of the people shall be ascertained on the expediency of a Convention.

That in the event of an affirmative vote, the Governor shall issue writs of election calling a Convention to revive the Constitution of the State.

The basis of representation in the proposed Convention shall be that of a representative in the House of Delegates.

The action of the Convention shall be submitted to the confirmation of the people, and if approved by a majority vote, shall supersede the existing Constitution of the State without further action by the Legislature.

The minority of the committee object that by this bill, the Legislature assume a power which of the State is commanded by them to issue does not belong to them; that the Executive his writs of election; the people are directed to vote immediately upon the subject; if they refuse to vote, those who do vote have given to them the entire power of establishing the fundamental laws; moreover, the Treasurer is directed to pay the daily allowance of the members. The entire bill, they argue, is an assumption, by the Legislature of more power than belongs to it.

The minority of the Committee concede the point that by the fifty-ninth article of the Constitution of the State of Maryland, a Constitution not yet fourteen years old, the power is conferred, without restriction, upon the Legislature to alter and change the fundamental law. And yet, instead of exercising this power, so explicitly given to them, the Maryland legislature wish to have it all referred back to a Convention.

Admitting that the Constitution of Maryland needs to be reformed, the method of effecting this reformation is a matter worthy of all attention. The Constitution of Maryland confers an unlimited power of altering the fundamental laws of that State, upon the Legislature; but that body have chosen to deny themselves the exercise of the power thus conferred upon them, and to yield it to a Convention, provided in such a step, they meet the approval of a majority of the people.

The report of the committee suggesting this plan will be adopted by a majority; that ma jority of the popular representatives compels

The Convention being assembled, will appoint by majority, a committee to frame a new Constitution: the majority of this committee will frame a Constitution. This Constitution will then be submitted to the people, and ratified by a majority.

It cannot escape the eye of a philosophical observer that there is an evident tendency to weaken and undermine the powers of the State sovereignties by throwing, more and more, the power into the hands of mere majorities. It will not be required that "twothirds of the people of Maryland should adopt a new Constitution; the immediate ends of the reformers will be sufficiently attained if their laws receive the sanction of the majority only. They have a particular end in view, which shall be nameless; when that end is accomplished, however excellent it may be, or however excellent the collateral ends, and final consequences of the measure, they will find that they have inflicted a wound upon the body of their State; they will find that their State is less venerable; less a distinct and stable member of the Union; more blended and lost in the mass of States which surround it; less able to resist the sectional and factious influences which set in upon it from other States-than it was before they shook the strong base of time and usage, and the consent of successive generations, to which alone Constitutions owe their stablity.

It is charged upon us by foreigners, that our people have an itch of change; we do not believe it. A more stable people does not exist on the face of the globe, or less given to change than the people of America. That they are lovers of reform, of genuine, natural progressive reform, which begins with the private affairs of the individual and his family, and extends upwards to the highest departments of State, we firmly believe; but that they are revolutionary we absolutely deny; if they were, the United States would be a chaos of revolutions; there is nothing to prevent it; but that the American people are naturally fond of change, for the sake of change, we do absolutely, and without hesitation deny for them. Common sense is their characteristic. and economy is their rule; and nothing is more wasteful of the time and money of the people than unnecessary changes in the fundamental laws. Every change in a Constitution breaks up a part of the system of society which moves under its control; there is time lost and labor lost. It is not the people, but a few designing and ambitious law-makers who

make unnecessary changes and persuade the people of their sincerity.

In regard to these particular changes which are to be made in the Constitution of Maryland, whether they are necessary or not the people of that State know better than their neighbors, and are the only competent judges, that is not our affair; we wish only to caution them against weakening, or taking from the dignity of their sovereignty, as a distinct and separate people; while they go on changing and changing, until there is nothing strong or fixed in their law, the grand system of the Union, the fundamental laws of the Nation, stand like the rock of ages, gather strength with time, and wear, to each succeeding generation, a more awful and unchangeable aspect. Take care of your State sovereignties; the faster they change the sooner they will deteriorate; the more they struggle the sooner they will be submerged.

WE subjoin from the columns of the New York Tribune, on account of the growth and successful establishment of that journal. In these days of universal reading, the press has become a separate estate of the realm. Sensitive to every breath of popular sentiment, watchful of men and manners, changing with the shifting hues of the element it lives in, it is the embodiment of public opinion. In its the embodiment of public opinion. In its reaction it exerts an influence that makes it a feature of the age. Clamorous and petulant and sectional in feelings and interest, it is nevertheless of easy absorption and reaches instanteously all parts of the social frame. It puts a girdle round the earth in forty minutes. Politically, it is a power behind the throne. But its political influence is the least important of its prerogatives. Governments, however conspicuous from the magnitude of their particular movements, form but a small part of the actual history of a people. The court and the camp are only the shadow of the spirit of the age. It is social life, with its diplomacies and its battles, deep guile-full diplomacies, and relentless, dogged battles, that with its steady current washes out the channels of individual and national existence. Periodical literature, with all its inaccuracies and special pleadings, its hasty judgments and one-sided views, is the page to which we must look for this true history. It gives us facts, men and opinions, the hasty, often correct generalizations of the day, the national common sense.

Newspaper reading may be the enemy of scientific depth or theoretic knowledge, but its wide spreading arrays of facts give the means of the broadest and most practical generalization. The indolent mental habits it favors, may lure a few away from research, but its interest will awaken thousands out of

mental lethargy. Its tentacula reach every man's door and every man's hearth. It is the social exchange, where all classes and conditions meet and exchange greetings and sympathies. The priest of public opinion, it lives only in the presence of its god. Its dictation is still condescending, its homely talk and blunt advice is only a finer adulation.

Mr. GREELEY states that his paper was started nine years ago, and under most discouraging circumstances. Of scanty means, and with little pecuniary aid from friends, he had to encounter the increasing competition of the daily press of this city. The hazard was such that nineteen out of every twenty similar attempts had proved unsuccessful. The current expenses, already great, were soon to be increased by the general progress of business, and the diffusion of the magnetic telegraph. His first issue, to the amount of five thousand copies, was with difficulty given away. Before the end of the year he had a steady daily sale for more than ten thousand copies.

The expansion and development of his journal, from a mere register of passing events, to its present maturity as an expositor of ideas and principles, rendered necessary an increase of price. From six cents, the weekly charge was raised to nine, and ultimately to twelve cents. The rapid increase of sale was somewhat checked by this, but the falling off was slight. In commencing, his subscribers' list numbered less than a thousand names. His present regular issue is 15,360 of the daily paper, 1,680 of the semi-weekly, and 39,720 of the weekly edition, besides a growing European and large though unsteady California edition. His first week's expenses $525, receipts $92; his last week's aggregates were, expenses $2,446, receipts $3,130; leaving a balance in his favor of $584.

were

The Tribune is now swelled to more than double its original size. It is printed in the quarto form, and contains forty-eight columns instead of the twenty at the outset. Four of its pages are devoted to News, Editorials, Literature, &c., the rest to advertisements.

The Editor is fitted by nature and art for a journalist. His long practice has given him a nice touch of the public pulse, his argumentation, though not always logical is broad and clear, and he writes currente calamo and with a full heart. His style is consequently warm and genial. It is even dramatic, for it shews the feeling that prompts the thought. He is really as the title of his paper imports, a Tribune of the people, eager to grapple with patrician wrong or insult, and disposed partly from kindness, and partly from love of popularity, to see them where none exist. There is little of dignity in his columns, but his earnestness and talent always extort respect. He is enthusiastic in theories for raising degraded humanity,

and equally warm in his expedients to save them from miseries and troubles that no legislation or social change, it is to be feared, can ever reach. Whatever policy may have to do with particular moves, no one that looks into his paper can doubt that he is a man who is in the main sincere, that his sympathies are with the million, and his heart in the right place.

The bill, securing the Homestead of a family from sale on execution, to the value of $1,000, has finally passed the New York Legislature. It was objected to by its opponents on the ground there was no call for it by laboring men, or men of moderate means, and that it would 'serve only to protect the idle, and thriftless, and dishonest. The amount was also thought too great. But $1,000, throughout the country, and in small towns and villages, would no more than meet the expenses of a decent shelter, with the ordicities it would hardly buy the ground that a nary comforts of a home, while in the larger wigwam could cover.

The British minister at Washington, Sir H. L. Bulwer, has notified our Government relative to an exhibition of works of industry of all nations, to be held in London in the early part of the year 1851. It is to be a world's fair, held at the great centre of the world's commerce. An industrial tournament, where our national ingenuity can tilt against the exactness of English art, French taste, German accuracy, and the artistic mind of the south of Europe.

The exhibition will be divided into four sections:

1. Raw materials and produce, illustrative of the natural productions on which human industry is employed.

2. Machinery for agricultural, manufacturing, engineering, and other purposes, and mechanical inventions, illustrative of the agents which human ingenuity brings to bear upon the productions of nature.

3. Manufactures, illustrative of the results produced by the operation of human industry upon natural productions.

4. Sculpture, models, and the plastic art generally, illustrative of the taste and skill displayed in such application of human industry.

FRANCE.

The late election to fill the place of the thirty-one members, expelled in consequence of the affair of June 13th, 1849, have returned ten socialists, and twenty-one of the more conservative parties. This is a gain of ten for the government. There was a decided falling off of the socialist vote in all the De

Classical Series. Edited by Drs. SCHMITZ and ZUMPT. Quinti Curtii Rufi de gestis Alexandri Magni. Philadelphia: Lee & Blanchard. 1849.

This history of the exploits of Alexander by Quintus Curtius, an author probably contemporary with the first Augustus, begins at the third book, when Alexander, having gained a victory on the Granicus, was entering on his career of Asiatic conquest. It is one of the original authorities for the exploits of that conqueror. It is written in a free and entertaining style, and requires but a moderate mastery of the Latin language for its enjoyment. A few slight deviations from the classical prose of Cicero and Cæsar in the choice of words, and some loosenesses and inaccuracies of expression, are hardly sufficient to degrade this author from the rank of a classic, and are certainly not a serious objection to his employment as a school-book. There is, perhaps, no Latin author easier to read and understand; beside that, he has the advantage over primary school-books of the class of Viri Roma, in being an original, and his work a continuous history. As a first book for the beginner, in Latin, we hold him, for these reasons, to be the very best. To facilitate the use of this history, as a school-book, the present very neat volume has, appended to it, an excellent small map of the conquests of Alexander the Great. The sole objection we have to find against it, is, that the impression of the letter press is from worn-out type, pale and painful to the eyes. For the popularity of a school-book publishers should have an especial care to make their letter-press clear and well defined. The quality of the paper is of much less consequence than the quality of the printing. It is saving at the wrong point to economise in the latter department.

The notes in this volume are abundant, and truly explanatory.

Anastasis. Sacred Dramatic Dialogue on the Resurrection of our Savior. The Temptations of the Wilderness, Bathsheba, and other Poems. By THOMAS CURTIS, D. D., original editor of the Encyclopedia Metropolitana, and editor throughout of the London Encyclopedia. New York: Leavitt & Co., 191 Broadway. 1850.

This little work is dedicated to Leonard Woods, Junr., D. D., the amiable and learned President of

"of many hours of affectionate fraternal intercourse." "I choose verse, because maxims, precepts, and principles, are thus more readily retained; because, it may seem odd, but it is true, I found I could express them more shortly in this way, than in any other."

The above quotation from Pope is placed by our author upon his title-page. This volume, however, contains a number of sonnets: the quotation certainly does not apply to them; for sonnets are, perhaps, done into verse for quite other reasons than the one thus assigned; and few that we have ever read have the virtue of brevity. Nor can it apply to an "Ode to Pain," which we find in the same volume, since it were quite impossible that an ode should be written in prose; nor to the poem of" Bathsheba," which is a very long-drawn history, with commentary, sentiment and all, attending in their robes of state. Brevity is not the characteristic of this author, though the volume is a small one.

Of the Anastasis, a poem of dialogues, which occupies some seventy pages of the work, the design is given by the author, in his introduction, as a poetic embodiment of the "legal evidence" for the resurrection of our Savior. He says, that Bishop Sherlock, while master of the temple, having had an audience chiefly composed of lawyers, drew their attention to the legal perfection of the evidence for our Savior's Resurrection; and, afterward wrote his celebrated tract, "The Trial of the Witnesses of the Resurrection of Jesus."

Our author, while holding a parochial charge happened to have several lawyers, and one a chief justice, in his audience. It was proposed, in imitation of Bishop Sherlock, to attempt something similar. The chief justice was requested to sit as judge witnesses, male and female, were induced to look over the facts in the New Testament, and counsel was engaged on both sides. The judge, after a mature examination, pronounced the evidence perfect.

At the suggestion of his friend the judge, our author undertook to make a sketch of the proceedings. He says that his prose, with the addition of some few poetical circumstances, soon became verse.

It seems a pity that this noble subject had not been worked out by our author in good, honest prose; for the poetic additions, we humbly conceive, rather serve to encumber and retard, than

to

advance the argument. For example, in the first dialogue Joseph of Aramathea addresses Pilot in a strain of Eastern adulation, at once