knowledged by the judicial, as well as by the parliamentary legislation of the modern French system.

To justify the rigor of such a course, it is put on the score of the abolition, at the time of the Revolution, of the right to office, bought of the government under the "Ancien Régime," and on the fact that each purchaser is such only at the hands. of his predecessor; and subject at all times, to the sovereign power of the state.

Of course there is a standing protest kept up against this hardship, and the risk of losing one's whole fortune, and the future of children, and grandchildren; but thus far in vain.

Even the right of compensation, is narrowed down to the closest limit, and the indemnity once given, is distributable only by legal process, so as to protect all interests that may be concerned.

The right to create new offices, is just as well established, as the right to abolish the old; and it has often the same effect, as far as the diminished profit of the existing offices is concerned. The right of compensation is not admitted, although it has been granted in cases of great hardship, and under exceptional circumstances.

The right to add new duties, or to take away profitable employment, has always been maintained; and although modifications of either kind are rare, there are instances which prove it, as well as the increase or diminution of the caution money, according to the greater or less profit belonging to an office, after it has been in any way changed in its duties.

There are in France, but three modes of appointments to office,-direct nomination, competitive examination, or the presentation of a name by the officer, for his successor.

The first method, it is said, opens the gates to intrigue, and bargain and sale, without control or discretion; it surrenders offices to politicians, who parcel them out among their followers, and use them as the price of their allegiance; we can learn little of its evils from French example. Competitive examination was tried in France for ten years, beginning in 1791, and ending, we are told, with a general feeling that it

had failed of its purpose, by reason of the weakness, inconvenience, and inadequacy of its results; and it has not been fairly tried again.

The right of presentation, Durand says, gives the holder of an office a property in it; which secures him a recompense for honorable labor, induces him to secure public esteem, and furnishes him with incentives to honesty and industry, in the exercise of his office. The better he does its duties, the greater the value of the reward in hand, and the larger the compensation in the future.

There are now in France, not less than 25,000 ministerial offices; they were formerly taxed according to their estimated value; but since 1771 there has been no standard by which it can be ascertained. The place of an advocate of the Court of Cassation, of a notary, of an exchange broker, in Paris, is worth anywhere from half a million to two millions of francs; an effort to compensate on such prices as these, would add enormously to the national debt, and as that is not likely to be done, in the face of the opposition that would be made by the parties in interest, the discussion of any scheme of reform of that kind, has little practical worth.

The sketch thus given, of the course of legislation in Rome and in France, in reference to offices of a certain class, may serve to show how much remains to be done, toward perfecting and purifying our own system generally. There is, of course, nothing in our method of doing public business, which is likely to be modified by the example of French private offices, or rather of offices which are here strictly matters of private business; while in France, they are held by their occupants, under a limited right from the government. Here, however, we are doing what we can, as far as legislation on Mr. Jenckes's Civil Service Bill is in earnest, to settle the business of our own enormous army of public officers.

The original theory, which for forty years made our civil service unobtrusively good, was that public office was the reward of fitness, and that between the office and the officer there was no interposition other than for cause. The change since inaugurated, and the experience we have had of the system of rotation in office, for the second cycle of forty years

last past, has ended in a general feeling that unless we stop short, and reform the system, it will ruin us.

The rebellion, with its burden of debt; the debt, with its necessities of taxation; the taxation, with its inducements to fraud; fraud, with its rich rewards; and honesty, with its small encouragement: these have been the operating causes. that must at length open our eyes to the enormous difficulty of the task in hand, and its vast importance.

Whatever we can learn of past evils and present good in the working of other governments, is worth knowing. To this end, the sketch we have given of the history of a limited class of offices in Rome and in France, as we have attempted it, from the learned pages of M. Durand's treatise, may serve to direct attention to the same quarter. "Political Biography" gives other writings on this branch of administrative law in the various Continental states. Wide as are their systems. from our own, there is yet a great deal to be learned from their wholesome faith in having the public business done as well as anybody else's, and it is just that that we have carefully unlearned and forgotten here. To those who know any thing of the advantages of any system besides our own, it seems only strange that even Congress should require such persistent efforts to secure the passage of some measure of reform. The cause, however, is not far to seek, and the result on public business and private interests in it, as exhibited of late, is enough to show that there is a world of difference between the public as citizens and as constituents of representatives and senators. It looks as if the votes given to Jenckes's bill were given in full knowledge that it never could become law; yet, the only means of reforming the public service is to take away the existing inducements to trade in offices, just as corrupt as was that openly recognized in Roman legislation.

ART. II.-The Early Regeneration of Subbath-School Children. ONE of the most important institutions which have arisen within the church, during the present century, is the Sabbathschool. Its original design was to reach the children of those who neglected the divine ordinances of worship, and who were thus kept aloof from the means of grace. While the sphere of its operation has been somewhat enlarged, and the children of the church are now generally included in its instructions, its first and chief aim is still preserved, and its work has widened till several millions of the children and youth of the land are embraced in its beneficent inclosures.

The remark is often made: "The Sabbath-school is still in its infancy." Its machinery and methods, the style and spirit. of its management and development are imperfect and crude. It by no means accomplishes the good of which it is capable and for which it is intended. Indeed, not a few evils grow out of it which should be corrected and avoided. Many of the best minds of the church are earnestly pondering these things, and we note not a little advance in many schools.

In the following pages we propose to suggest some thoughts touching the fundamental principles of this wide-spread institution. We shall not discuss its constitution, or government, or relations to the church, or modes of teaching, or external appliances by which the interest and attention of children are secured. We shall seek to reach the root of the matter, and attempt to point out some of the conditions of a larger success in the high end which we all so much desiderate.

The title of this article embodies the substance of what we wish to say, and we ask an earnest and candid attention to its unfolding. The views we offer are based upon the faith of the church, as expressed in its symbols; and we firmly believe that their intelligent application to the Sabbath-school work will greatly increase its usefulness, and result in the cure of many of the evils so generally deplored.

The first thing on which we remark is suggested by the language in which the theme is announced. It is not the "conversion" of little children that is brought before us, but

their "regeneration;" and the difference between the two should be carefully discriminated. Regeneration is the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit, creating anew its subjects in Christ Jesus. It is the planting of "the seed of God" in the soul; the imparting of a divine, spiritual life to one who is "dead in trespasses and sins." It is the resurrection of such a one, "by the exceeding greatness of God's power" from the grave of the apostasy, from the deep and dark depravity in which the whole race is buried. It is the formation of that vital and indissoluble union, between the sinner and the Lord Jesus Christ, in which, as the branch and the vine are one, as the body and the head are one, as the husband and the wife are one, so, by the operation of the Holy Spirit, the renewed sinner and Christ become one. It is a transcendent work of Divine power which any, and all human analogies fail fully to set forth in its supernatural reality, and which is resembled, by the Lord himself, to that mysterious and ineffable union which subsists between the Eternal Father and his only begotten Son: "As thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us."

Conversion is the result and evidence of regeneration. It is the action of the person's own mind and will, in consequence of this prior and fundamental work of the Spirit. It is the sinner himself turning from sin and the world to holiness and God, manifested by a variety of acts and exercises. And there is all the difference between this and regeneration, that there is between the work of the infinite God, and the resulting work of a finite man.

There is, moreover, a popular use of the word conversion, which is by no means applicable to regeneration. A person may be "converted" many times. Whenever sin has been committed by a Christian, and he is convinced of it, he is converted from it. So it was with Peter; "when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren." But we do not often hear, either in ordinary conversation or in the pulpit, of repeated "second births;" repeated "new creations" in regeneration by the Holy Spirit. Thus the distinction between the two terms is easily made. There is a divinity, a glory about the one we do not immediately associate with the other. A man