Power, depend upon such Taxation as shall | cient to pay current expenses, including Inpay the Interest and other expenses of the terest, would this year make our National government. It is desirable, and seems al- Credit strong enough to bear any strain most necessary, that such a Tariff as will which the possible pressure of Europe may yield the greatest revenue (and to be altered make necessary. In 1888 our population only to correct mistakes on this point) should will be seventy millions, and the Budget may be considered as fixed for twenty-five years. then safely be put on a Peace establishThis settled policy, added to such Direct Taxation as would make the revenue suffi ment. Living Age Office, Boston, 6 Feb. 1862. E. LITTELL. SINKING-FUND AND NATIONAL CURRENCY. ESTIMATED GROWTH IN 25 YEARS. THE present Bank-note Currency is estimated to exceed 200 millions. Mint Drafts would gradually supplant it, and increase as the growing business of the country should require. Suppose that by 1863 there should be a circulation of Mint Drafts, over and above the amount brought in for payment, of 20 millions, thus leaving that amount of gold uncalled for, and that it would be safe to invest in U. S. Stocks 10 millions thereof. So the amount of U. S. Stocks absorbed would be 735 millions; of which 452 millions is Interest, and 283 millions Principal. The outstanding Mint Drafts being under 300 millions at the end of the 25 years; which is, as it ought to be, much less in proportion than the corporation paper now is. DEAD. THE seasons weave their ancient dance, Still up the breezy western slopes The reaper girls, like apples brown, Bend singing to their gleeful toil, And sweep the golden harvest down: Still, where the slanting sunlight gilds The boles of cedar and of pine, Chants the lone blackbird from the brake With melancholy voice divine: Still all about the mossy tracks Hums at his darg the woodward bee; Still fitfully the corn-crake's note Comes to me from the upland lea: Still round the forest bower SHE loved, Still round her lattice, perched aloof, Still round the old familiar porch Her cherished roses blush and peer, And fill the sunny air with balm, And strew their petals year by year. Nor here within, one touch of change! The footstool-the embroidered chairThe books-the arras on the wall The harp-the music,-all are there. No touch of change! I close my eyes- I hear the rustling of her dress; I hear her footstep on the floor. I feel her breath upon my brow; Down, phantoms of the buried past! POETRY.-Drinking Songs, 530. Universal Prayer, 530. The Origin of Language, 576. Retrospection, 576. SHORT ARTICLES.-World's Fair, 549. Name for the United States, 563. PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY BY LITTELL, SON, & CO., BOSTON. For Six Dollars a year, in advance, remitted directly to the Publishers, the LIVING AGE will be punctually forwarded free of postage. Complete sets of the First Series, in thirty-six volumes, and of the Second Series, in twenty volumes, handsomely bound, packed in, neat boxes, and delivered in all the principal cities, free of expense of freight, are for sale at two dollars a volume. ANY VOLUME may be had separately, at two dollars, bound, or a dollar and a half in numbers. ANY NUMBER may be had for 13 cents; and it is well worth while for subscribers or purchasers to complete any broken volumes they may have, and thus greatly enhance their value. DRINKING SONGS. Mr. Haskell: Under the caption of "Brilliants," you have published the following DRINKING SONG. As o'er the glacier's frozen sheet So through life's desert springing sweet, 'Tis Nature's law that wine should flow To wet the lips of friends. Then once again, before we part They say we were not born to cat: It means, Be moderate in your meat, That know not wine or song: O. W. HOLMES. To have written anything for the benefit of mankind, and especially of the rising generation, must remain among the hæc dim meminisse juvabit of the writer. I therefore send you a humble imitation, making up in grave, every-day truth, whatever it may lack, in Bachanalian fiction. DRINKING SONG. As o'er the glacier's frozen sheet, He cannot keep upon his feet, Wine wears its welcome out, ere long- To change this trash for something strong, Then once again, before we part, They say we were not born to cat, And gray-haired tipplers think We spend too much for butcher's meat, And not enough for drink. Water may suit the grov'ling soul Unused to wine and song- Then once again, before we part, About our path, about our bed, When care and sorrow come, There's nothing for an aching head And bursting heart like rum. [From "The Martyrdom of Kelavane. A Poem." London, 1861.- Kelavane was Georgian princess, who was martyred for Christianity by the Persians in 1624.] THE Sweet solemnities of simple prayer→→ A cry that love transforms into a song. The tempest roars, but cannot ring it down; The thunder stills it not; the ocean wild May howl up through the heavens, it cannot drown The simplest prayer that's breathed by a child. Men walk among the ancient yromises, And know that God is on Mount Horeb still, Although no prophet sees him face to face, Although no more he thunders from the hill. The silence of the desert still is his; The pilgrimage of sorrow, his dread hand Doth guide through all the weary wilderness, Betwixt old Egypt and the promised land. The mother mourning by the bed of death, The childless widow, and the orphan lone. Cry all, "O Father!" and the ear of faith Receives its answer from the eternal throne. And still the cry goes up the silent night; And from captivity for sweet release; A cry for that sweet peace it threw away. Oh, heartfelt prayers have more than angels' wings; And bruised souls there be, and men forlorn, Who sit all night and cry aloud with kings, Who lay aside their golden crowns, and mourn In one community of humble hearts, O'er all the earth where faithful men have trod, In that grand unity which faith imparts, The mystery of one broad life in God. From The Quarterly Review. Autobiography of Miss Cornelia Knight, Lady-Companion to the Princess Charlotte of Wales with Extracts from her Journals and Anecdote-Books. Two vols. London, 1861. 66 that Miss Knight intended her so-called Autobiography for publication, though her editor, Mr. Kaye, gives reasons for thinking she did; and, at all events, she did not betray, or enable others to betray, the confidences made to her in correspondence, by keeping and docketing private letters. Nor are her remains satirical in style, nor very liberal in their revelations. Miss Knight had the character in her generation of being an extremely cautious person, and her caution exhibits itself curiously enough in these volumes; for while at one time she notes down, in the most tranquil and matter-offact way, circumstances which any one who was interested in the personages concerned would forget if they could, or commit at all events to their memory alone, she seems at other times embarrassed by the delicacy of her own secrets, and chronicles them with much apparatus of mystery. She reminds us, occasionally, of that poor comrade of Thistlewood the traitor who wrote down some political sentiments in prison to please a fancier of autographs, but could not refrain, through habit, from designating Sidmouth and Castlereagh by initials and dashes, though he was going to be hanged next morning. But the general impression produced by the present diarist is only a trifle less painful than that left by her predecessor. She is constantly imputing, often by such quiet insinuation as is not readily detected, low or crooked motives to almost every person concerned in the Princess Char MORE than twenty years ago the world was scandalized by the appearance of the Diary Illustrative of the Times of George the Fourth," which made public such strange revelations respecting the court-history of the Regency. The book was condemned by public opinion, with an universal and righteous expression of disgust. The compiler, for the sake of earning a little money, had poured profusely out all the scandal hoarded in volumes of ill-natured note-books, and in numbers of confidential and careless letters, deeply affecting the character of some and the memory of many more, and in especial that of a benefactress. But it would probably have been dismissed with more of contempt than of hostile notice, had it not also deeply affronted two classes of readers, usually opposed to each other those who thought conservative principles engaged in the defence of the character of George IV., of which singular sect there were still a few living in 1838; and those, more powerful in that day, who had more or less committed themselves by their advocacy of the unfortunate Queen Caroline. Twenty years more have pretty nearly disposed of both these classes, and indeed of all who take any interest in the intrigues of Carlton House, and Warwick House, and Connaught Place, ex-lotte's affairs. Traits of the worst descripcept as matters of historical gossip, or who tion are recorded with such dispassionate care for the accurate distribution of posthu- tranquillity, that it is only on reflection and mous contempt between the unhappy couple second reading that we become conscious whose sordid quarrels were once affairs of how very base, and even shocking, are the State, and puzzled the wits and almost broke conduct or sentiments thus calmly ascribed. the hearts of statesmen who had nerve to It is therefore one of those books of scandal confront Europe in arms. It is therefore of which it is impossible not to regret the with comparative indifference that we find publication; such as do but cause unnecesthe favorite tattle of our grandmothers once sary annoyance, if not to the living, to those more revived by the publication of these who cherish the memories of their dead, relics of Miss Cornelia Knight, or Ellis Cor- while they add absolutely nothing to our nelia Knight, as she signs herself; lady-knowledge of any fraction of history worth companion, as she ought to have been styled knowing. But as such books will always -under-governess as people would persist in styling her to the Princess Charlotte during the eventful years of her life 1813 and 1814. Not that we would commit the gross injustice of comparing Miss Knight to the diarist in question. We cannot believe continue to be published while money is an object with "families into whose hands they have got," and will certainly be read when published (Miss Knight has already reached a third edition), we must content ourselves with entering this, our conventional protest, |