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of constitutional right. If no assault upon slavery in the States be designed, why this warfare against the entrance of the South into the territories? Has there been any other single question presented to our people, upon which sectional lines have been drawn? Combinations of men from the North and the South have sustained, and similar combinations have opposed, the establishment of national banks, and protective tariffs, and every contested measure of federal policy. Upon this single question is the South a unit. The worm, when trodden under foot, will turn upon the oppressor, and the unanimity of the South here is explicable upon the instincts of self-defence. The interdiction of slavery in the territories is avowedly designed as an indirect blow at the same institution in the States, from direct attacks upon which, all, save the most radical fanatics, admit that the Constitution protects us. The policy of Abolition is to encircle us with a cordon of free States, and thus to confine us in the limits of the present slave territory, until the increase of that class of our population shall coerce emancipation, if not amalgamation. We do not desire to dwell upon the dark future which the success of such a policy foreshadows. By Southampton and Hayti the South is forewarned, and forewarned, she is forearmed.

We had designed to notice the impudent claim which is asserted for "the outcast republicans of Europe,” to exclude us from the enjoyment of our own property, because " our form of society can never advance beyond a semi-barbarism." We envy not the heart that could conceive, or the tongue that could utter such a sentiment, libelling as it does, without discrimination, the whole body of a Christian community. However, the statement of the proposition carries with it to every fair-minded man its own reply, and time and space admonish us to hurry to a close.

We have endeavored to discuss this question calmly and philosophically; and to the sober reason of our readers-to the calm thinkers of the North-we appeal. What good has been accomplished, and what good may be accomplished by this war against us? As for the evil it may yet evoke, no man can anticipate its extent. It should be enough for every patriot and every Christian to know that in this matter is involved the perpetuity of the American Union. There is no

room for concealment or disguise. In no spirit of idle gasconade-in no ebullition of temporary passion-but in the sullen sternness of deliberate and calculated purpose, the South protests her high resolve. No apparent excitement pervades the masses of her people. Upon the Nebraska question she maintained, throughout, an unusual silence. Not loud in its expression, but deep and strong is the feeling that animates her masses. With the intensest interest they gaze from a distance on your fields of political strife, and await the result in anxious suspense. The issue is now

fairly joined, and fidelity to the Republic admits of no neutrality. Abolition hangs boldly out her banner, inscribed with these treasonable devices :-THE REPEAL OF THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW-THE RESTORATION OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE -No MORE SLAVE STATES-NO MORE SLAVE TERRITORIES. Under its folds are rallying an imposing array. 'Tis idle to close the eye to the peril of the day. Sectionalism is arming for a struggle of life or death. No sane man imagines that success, in any of her designs, is consistent with the stability of the Union. When the North shall repudiate her constitutional obligations, by repealing an act to carry into effect one of the fundamental provisions of the Constitutionwhen the defunct restrictive policy of excluding us and ours from the common territory of the Union shall be revived -when the covenant with Texas shall be ignored and the hand of fellowship be refused to an incipient State, unless she rejects our social polity-when thus a circle of fire is forming around us, and the preponderance of the hireling States to an extent sufficient to amend the · Constitution, and invest the Federal Government with control over our institutions-ensured at no distant daywhen all, or either of these events shall occur, the time for separation will have more than arrived. If upon them or either of them our Northern brethren are madly bent, we had better part, while we may part in peace. "Let there be no strife between our people and your people, for we be brethren. Is not the whole land before us? Separate yourselves from us. Go you to the North, and we will go to the South."

But we are not despondent. Our confidence in the ultimate decision of the Northern masses is still unshaken. There is too much of sound and practical sense in this Union to permit a senti

mental abstraction to shiver it into fragments. In the sober second thought of the yeomanry of the land, is its hope, and will be its salvation. The Old Guard is up and doing. Strong in the inherent justice of their cause, they gather themselves once more to throttle the demon of discord. With unwavering step, in the confident expectation of

certain triumph, they press boldly onward, bearing in the advance the timehonored banner of the Republic, radiant with the gathered glories of the past, and suggestive of still more unfading glory in the future, emblazoned with the simple, but august device-THE CONSTITUTION AND THE UNION!

PRUE and

TITBOTTOM'S SPECTACLES.

"In my mind's eye, Horatio."

JE and I do not entertain much; our means forbid it. In truth, other people entertain for us. We enjoy that hospitality of which no account is made. We see the show, and hear the music, and smell the flowers of great festivities, tasting as it were the drippings from rich dishes. Our own dinner service is remarkably plain, our dinners, even on state occasions, are strictly in keeping, and almost our only guest is Titbottom. I buy a handful of roses as I come up from the office, perhaps, and Prue arranges them so prettily in a glass dish for the centre of the table, that even when I have hurried out to see Aurelia step into her carriage to go out to dine, I have thought that the bouquet she carried was not more beautiful because it was more costly. I grant that it was more harmonious with her superb beauty and her rich attire. And I have no doubt that if Aurelia knew the old man, whom she must have seen so often watching her, and his wife, who ornaments her sex with as much sweetness, although with less splendor, than Aurelia herself, she would also acknowledge that the nosegay of roses was as fine and fit upon their table, as her own sumptuous bouquet is for herself. I have that faith in the perception of that lovely lady. It is at least my habit,--I hope I may say, my nature, to believe the best of people, rather than the worst. If I thought that all this sparkling setting of beauty,

this fine fashion,these blazing jewels and lustrous silks and airy gauzes, embellished with gold-threaded embroidery and wrought in a thousand exquisite elaborations, so that I cannot see one of those lovely girls pass me by, VOL. IV.-42

without thanking God for the vision,if I thought that this was all, and that underneath her lace flounces and diamond bracelets, Aurelia was a sullen, selfish woman, then I should turn sadly homewards, for I should see that her jewels were flashing scorn upon the object they adorned, and that her laces were of a more exquisite loveliness than the woman whom they merely touched with a superficial grace. It would be like a gaily decorated mausoleum,-bright to see, but silent and dark within.

"Great excellences, my dear Prue," I sometimes allow myself to say, "lie concealed in the depths of character, like pearls at the bottom of the sea. Under the laughing, glancing surface, how little they are suspected! Perhaps love is nothing else than the sight of them by one person. Hence every man's mistress is apt to be an enigma to everybody else. I have no doubt that when Aurelia is engaged, people will say that she is a most admirable girl, certainly; but they cannot understand why any man should be in love with her. it were at all necessary that they should! And her lover, like a boy who finds a pearl in the public street, and wonders as much that others did not see it as that he did, will tremble until he knows his passion is returned; feeling, of course, that the whole world must be in love with this paragon who cannot possibly smile upon anything so unworthy as he.

As if

"I hope, therefore, my dear Mrs. Prue," Prue," I continue to say to my wife, who looks up from her work regarding me with pleased pride, as if I were such an irresistible humorist, you will allow me to believe that the depth may be calm although the surface is dancing.

If you tell me that Aurelia is but a giddy girl, I shall believe that you think so. But I shall know, all the while, what profound dignity, and sweetness, and peace, lie at the foundation of her character."

I say such things to Titbottom during the dull season at the office. And I have known him sometimes to reply with a kind of dry, sad humor, not as if he enjoyed the joke, but as if the joke must be made, that he saw no reason why I should be dull because the season was so.

"And what do I know of Aurelia or any other girl?" he says to me, with that abstracted air; "I, whose Aurelias were of another century and another zone."

Then he falls into a silence which it seems quite profane to interrupt. But as we sit upon our high stools at the desk opposite each other, I leaning upon my elbows and looking at him; he, with sidelong face, glancing out of the window, as if it commanded a boundless landscape, instead of a dim, dingy office court, I cannot refrain from saying:

"Well!"

He turns slowly, and I go chatting on, a little too loquacious, perhaps, about those young girls. But I know that Titbottom regards such an excess as venial, for his sadness is so sweet that you could believe it the reflection of a smile from long, long years ago.

One day, after I had been talking for a long time, and we had put up our books, and were preparing to leave, he stood for some time by the window, gazing with a drooping intentness, as if he really saw something more than the dark court, and said slowly:

"Perhaps you would have different impressions of things, if you saw them through my spectacles."

There was no change in his expression. He still looked from the window, and I said:

"Titbottom, I did not know that you used glasses. I have never seen you wearing spectacles."

"No, I don't often wear them. I am not very fond of looking through them. But sometimes an irresistible necessity compels me to put them on, and I cannot help seeing.

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Titbottom sighed.

"Is it so grievous a fate, to see?" inquired I.

"Yes; through my spectacles," he said, turning slowly und looking at me with wan solemnity.

It grew dark as we stood in the office talking, and taking our hats we went out together. The narrow street of business was deserted. The heavy iron shutters were gloomily closed over the windows. From one or two offices struggled the dim gleam of an early candle, by whose light some perplexed accountant sat beA lated, and hunting for his error. careless clerk passed, whistling. But the great tide of life had ebbed. We heard its roar far away, and the sound stole into that silent street like the murmur of the ocean into an inland dell.

"You will come and dine with us, Titbottom ?"

He assented by continuing to walk with me, and I think we were both glad when we reached the house, and Prue came to meet us, saying:

"Do you know I hoped you would bring Mr. Titbottom to dine?" Titbottom smiled gently, and swered:

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"He might have brought his spectacles with him, and I have been a happier man for it."

Prue looked a little puzzled.

"My dear," I said, "you must know that our friend, Mr. Titbottom, is the happy possessor of a pair of wonderful spectacles. I have never seen them, indeed; and, from what he says, I should be rather afraid of being seen by them. Most short-sighted persons are very glad to have the help of glasses; but Mr. Titbottom seems to find very little pleasure in his."

"It is because they make him too farsighted, perhaps," interrupted Prue quietly, as she took the silver soup-ladle from the sideboard.

We sipped our wine after dinner, and Prue took her work. Can a man be too far-sighted? I did not ask the question aloud. The very tone in which Prue had spoken, convinced me that he might.

"At least," I said, "Mr. Titbottom will not refuse to tell us the history of his mysterious spectacles. I have known plenty of magic in eyes (and I glanced at the tender blue eyes of Prue), but I have not heard of any enchanted glasses."

"Yet you must have seen the glass in which your wife looks every morning, and I take it, that glass must be daily enchanted,” said Titbottom, with a bow of quaint respect to my wife.

I do not think I have seen such a blush upon Prue's cheek since-well, since a great many years ago.

"I will gladly tell you the history of my spectacles," began Titbottom. "It is very simple; and I am not at all sure that a great many other people have not a pair of the same kind. I have never, indeed, heard of them by the gross, like those of our young friend, Moses, the son of the Vicar of Wakefield. In fact, I think a gross would be quite enough to supply the world. It is a kind of article for which the demand does not increase with use. If we should all wear spectacles like mine, we should never smile any more. Or-I am not quite sure-we should all be very happy."

"A very important difference," said Prue, counting her stitches.

"You know my grandfather Titbottom was a West Indian. A large proprietor, and an easy man, he basked in the tropical sun, leading his quiet, luxurious life. He lived much alone, and was what people call eccentric, by which I understand that he was very much himself, and, refusing the influence of other people, they had their little revenges, and called him names. It is a habit not exclusively tropical. I think I have seen the same thing even in this city. But he was greatly beloved-my bland and bountiful grandfather. He was so large-hearted, and open-handed. He was so friendly, and thoughtful, and genial, that even his jokes had the air of graceful benedictions. He did not seem to grow old, and he was one of those who never appear to have been very young. He flourished in a perennial maturity, an immortal middle-age.

"My grandfather lived upon one of the small islands, St. Kit's, perhaps, and his domain extended to the sea. His house, a rambling West Indian mansion, was surrounded with deep, spacious piazzas, covered with luxurious lounges, among which one capacious chair was his peculiar seat. They tell me he used sometimes to sit there for the whole day, his great, soft, brown eyes fastened upon the sea, watching the specks of sails that flashed upon the horizon, while the evanescent expressions chased each other over his placid face, as if it reflected the calm and changing sea before him. His morning costume was an ample dressinggown of gorgeously flowered silk, and his morning was very apt to last all day. He rarely read, but he would pace the great piazza for hours, with his hands sunken in the pockets of his dressinggown, and an air of sweet reverie, which any author might be very happy to produce.

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'Society, of course, he saw little. There was some slight apprehension that if he were bidden to social entertainments, he might forget his coat, or arrive without some other essential part of his dress; and there is a sly tradition in the Titbottom family, that, having been invited to a ball in honor of the new governor of the island, my grandfather Titbottom sauntered into the hall towards midnight, wrapped in the gorgeous flowers of his dressing-gown, and with his hands buried in the pockets, as usual. There was great excitement, and immense deprecation of gubernatorial ire. But it happened that the governor and my grandfather were old friends, and there was no offence. But as they were conversing together, one of the distressed managers cast indignant glances at the brilliant costume of my grandfather, who summoned him, and asked courteously: "Did you invite me or my coat?'

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"You, in a proper coat,' replied the

manager.

"The governor smiled approvingly, and looked at my grandfather.

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'My friend,' said he to the manager, 'I beg your pardon, I forgot.'

"The next day, my grandfather was seen promenading in full ball dress along the streets of the little town.

"They ought to know,' said he, 'that I have a proper coat, and that not contempt nor poverty, but forgetfulness, sent me to a ball in my dressing-gown.'

"He did not much frequent social festivals after this failure, but he always told the story with satisfaction and a quiet smile.

"To a stranger, life upon those little islands is uniform even to weariness. But the old native dons like my grandfather, ripen in the prolonged sunshine, like the turtle upon the Bahama banks, nor know of existence more desirable. Life in the tropics, I take to be a placid torpidity. During the long, warm mornings of nearly half a century, my grandfather Titbottom had sat in his dressinggown, and gazed at the sea. But one calm June day, as he slowly paced the piazza after breakfast, his dreamy glance. was arrested by a little vessel, evidently nearing the shore. He called for his spyglass, and surveying the craft, saw that she came from the neighboring island. She glided smoothly, slowly, over the summer sea. The warm morning air was sweet with perfumes, and silent with heat. The sea sparkled languidly, and the brilliant blue hung cloudlessly over. Scores of little island

vessels had my grandfather seen come over the horizon, and cast anchor in the port. Hundreds of summer mornings had the white sails flashed and faded, like vague faces through forgotten dreams. But this time he laid down the spyglass, and leaned against a column of the piazza, and watched the vessel with an intentness that he could not explain. She came nearer and nearer, a graceful spectre in the dazzling morning.

Decidedly I must step down and see about that vessel,' said my grandfather Titbottom.

"He gathered his ample dressing-gown about him, and stepped from the piazza with no other protection from the sun than the little smoking cap upon his head. His face wore a calm beaming smile, as if he approved of all the world. He was not an old man, but there was almost a patriarchal pathos in his expression as he sauntered along in the sunshine towards the shore. A group of idle gazers was collected to watch the arrival. The little vessel furled her sails and drifted slowly landward, and as she was of very light draft, she came close to the shelving shore. A long plank was put out from her side, and the debarkation commenced. My grandfather Titbottom stood looking on to see the passengers descend. There were but a few of them, and mostly traders from the neighboring island. But suddenly the face of a young girl appeared over the side of the vessel, and she stepped upon the plank to descend. My grandfather Titbottom instantly advanced, and moving briskly reached the top of the plank at the same moment, and with the old tassel of his cap flashing in the sun, and one hand in the pocket of his dressing gown, with the other he handed the young lady carefully down the plank. That young lady was afterwards my grandmother Titbottom.

"And so, over the gleaming sea which he had watched so long, and which seemed thus to reward his patient gaze, cam e his bride that sunny morning.

"Of course we are happy,' he used to say: 'For you are the gift of the sun I have loved so long and so well.' And my grandfather Titbottom would lay his hand so tenderly upon the golden hair of his young bride, that you could fancy him a devout Parsee caressing sunbeams.

'There were endless festivities upon occasion of the marriage; and my grand

father did not go to one of them in his dressing-gown. The gentle sweetness of his wife melted every heart into love and sympathy. He was much older than she, without doubt. But age, as he used to say with a smile of immortal youth, is a matter of feeling, not of years. And if, sometimes, as she sat by his side upon the piazza, her fancy looked through her eyes upon that summer sea and saw a younger lover, perhaps some one of those graceful and glowing heroes who occupy the foreground of all young maidens' visions by the sea, yet she could not find one more generous and gracious, nor fancy one more worthy and loving than my grandfather Titbottom. And if in the moonlit midnight, while he lay calmly sleeping, she leaned out of the window and sank into vague reveries of sweet possibility, and watched the gleaming path of the moonlight upon the water, until the dawn glided over it-it was only that mood of nameless regret and longing, which underlies all human happiness, or it was the vision of that life of society, which she had never seen, but of which she had often read, and which looked very fair and alluring across the sea to a girlish imagination which knew that it should never know that reality.

"These West Indian years were the great days of the family," said Titbottom, with an air of majestic and regal regret, pausing and musing in our little parlor, like a late Stuart in exile, remembering England. Prue raised her eyes from her work, and looked at him with a subdued admiration; for I have observed that, like the rest of her sex, she has a singular sympathy with the representative of a reduced family. Perhaps it is their finer perception which leads these tender-hearted women to recognize the divine right of social superiority so much more readily than we; and yet, much as Titbottom was enhanced in my wife's admiration by the discovery that his dusky sadness of nature and expression was, as it were, the expiring gleam and late twilight of ancestral splendors, I doubt if Mr. Bourne would have preferred him for bookkeeper a moment sooner upon that account. In truth, I have observed, down town, that the fact of your ancestors doing nothing is not considered good proof that you can do anything. But Prue and her sex regard sentiment more than action, and I understand easily enough why she is never tired of hearing me read of Prince

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