past. Although our peace may be fearfully disturbed for a season, and the Union seriously threatened, the influence of the clergy in this country will ultimately be restrained within its appropriate sphere; and the moment its members mingle with excited crowds of citizens, making broad their phylacteries with strange and unholy characters graven thereon, they cease to compel or to merit the reverence of reflecting men. They may bring religion into contempt with the mass of the people; but they can never shake those establishments or dissolve that Union, which were founded in a deep jealousy of their controlling influence and mates our institutions, by a single breathing would | and when the slave states themselves in their own good shiver the enchanted talisman which guards all their time, shall deem it wise and proper, then, and not betreasured wealth. But for us, we are a new people, fore, will the sons of Ham go forth from the house of springing at once into the full vigor of life, unafflicted bondage. The single enemy, the natural foe of our with the weaknesses of infancy or the palsy of age; we institutions, is licentiousness; for as all free instituhave no records of the past-no traditions of glory; we tions repose on the broad basis of morality, whatever have commenced our sublime career; our associations, tends to introduce insubordination is eminently deour hopes, our honors, are all with the future; in the structive. And whenever the fanatic, the abolitionist, past we behold nothing but the sufferings of the many the politico-religious demagogue, in a spirit of wanton and the crimes and oppressions of the few-and shrink- mischief or misguided zeal, throw their fire-brands ing from the contemplation of the dark ages of man, we among any portion of the people, and stimulate them to have opened a sealed book, a new volume, filled with rebellion, let us reflect upon the wisdom of the Romans the promise of happiness and moral excellence and in the purer days of the republic, when they representdignity to the human family, under the influence of ed LICENTIOUSNESS AS THUNDERSTRUCK BY HEAVEN AT the equality breathed forth in every lesson of that other THE MOMENT SHE STRIVES TO BREAK A TABLE OF THE book, which is called the book of life. We are in the LAW AND THE BALANCE OF JUSTICE. bud and promise of blossom and fruit; and like the rod Yet we entertain no serious apprehensions of the conof the prophet in the tabernacle, the staff upon which sequences of clerical interposition in secular and poliwe lean blooms and fructifies. Let not the monarchists tical affairs; for, however deeply enthusiasts may deof Europe, misled by the intemperate language of en-plore it, the age of crusades, like the age of chivalry, is thusiasts or agitators, hug themselves in the forlorn hope that we shall find it necessary to borrow their artificial checks upon the will of the people, and let not Dr. Channing persuade himself that we shall require a "stronger government;" our forefathers have impressed upon their descendants too lively an image of their sufferings under the oppressions of kings and nobles, to permit them to abandon their own pure faith to bow down before such idols in their western asylum. We are now the only nation in whom the vital principle is active and progressive. Other nations have been-their onward career is closed- their history is written in the fate of other empires which have prece-frightful corruption in other lands. But if, instead of ded them in the march of ruin. But in the structure of our own beautiful edifice, it would appear that all the salutary lessons of history had been gathered and studied, and that the temple destined to flourish forevermore, had sprung up into fair and beauteous pro-northern and southern states, and coolly recommending portions, not unlike the foam-born Cytherea from amid disunion rather than the erection or admission of slave the wrecks of ages on the stormy shores of time. Our states into the confederacy, ministers of the gospel would institutions are based upon a sound morality; and the teach us how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together genius of christianity has imparted a portion of its im- in unity; if, instead of pandering to the coarse appetite mortality to the institutions which embalm it. What of monarchists, by collecting from every filthy deposit a sublime destiny is ours, and how immeasurably be- straggling instances of the profligacy of border morals neath contempt do those sink, who affect to see in or city license, and proclaiming them to the world as casual excesses that ruin which they rather desire than conclusive evidences of prevailing immorality and reanticipate. What a sublime destiny is ours? Of that publican licentiousness, they would (if indeed they Anglo-Saxon race peculiarly constituted for freedom, must transcend their sacred function,) vindicate the with political institutions admired by the world, and character of our free institutions and the morals of our only feared by its oppressors, with a prosperity like people, notwithstanding occasional outrages; if they that of the Samian prince, so startlingly stupendous as would discard from their alliance in behalf of the Into be its only evil omen; carrying civilization into the dian, the slave and the Mexican, the "friends of strongfastnesses of the forests; erecting empires and cities in er governments" in Europe, and uphold and sustain the wilderness, in one short generation of the children instead of disuniting and traducing our people and of men; with one arm stretched forth towards the government; then, would our march to eminence be abode of winter, and with the other reaching towards peaceful and prosperous, and before the curtain of time the tropics, with opposite oceans for boundaries; to shall have fallen upon another century, unborn milwhom is it given to calculate the future elevation and lions throughout the vast and untrodden regions of our moral grandeur of this people? And even while men productive soil, gathered together, the children of opof limited views discuss the excesses of the border, the pression, from the four winds of heaven, men of every frontier line has moved, and the theatre of semi-barba-tongue and clime, will exhibit to the world the sublime ric strife has already been subdued by all the refine-spectacle of a republic of boundless extent of territory ments of society. Before another century shall have and unprecedented populousness, flourishing in stable elapsed, empires will have sprung into being which security upon the broad basis of popular will. The cawill render feeble the voice of those who demand the pability of man for self-government will have ceased to abolition of slavery. When this unhappy race shall be a problem. have been fitly prepared for freedom, when their emancipation can be effected with safety to the white man, inciting the angry and vengeful feelings of the weaker portion of our people, the clergy would interpose to inculcate patience, forbearance, and brotherly love; if, instead of inflaming the passions which alienate the We may be mistaken in our judgment, but we are fully persuaded that if members of the clergy had the prompters of mournful and chastening feelings. The successor of the fisherman sits upon the throne of the Cæsars; the descendants of Ishmael, whose empire extended from the Atlantic to Bagdad, the seat of the Caliphs, from the gardens of Cairo to the shades of the Alhambra, have been driven back to the sandy deserts of Arabia; and the dynasties, which now seem to be firmly established, must yield to the empire of fate and furnish new lessons for the future. And although spe never promoted or sanctioned the efforts of the aboli-¡ the scattered vestiges of their magnificence are at once tionists in a spirit of misguided philanthropy, the pre- the evidences of the pride which goeth before ruin, and sent unhappy state of feeling between different sections of the Union would never have existed. This interference of the ministry with political discussions, this prompting of popular and sectional delusion, is eminently wrong and intolerably disgusting. But though we are indignant, let us be strictly just. In the American church there are meek, unpretending, and godly men, who stand aloof from these vexatious movements, and confine themselves exclusively to the work of their divine Master. And it is proper to state, that in the ap-culation on this subject may seem to be profitless, inaspeal we have now made to the clergy in behalf of reli- much as it is given to no man to lift a corner of the gion and humanity, we have addressed ourselves to that veil which overshadows the future; yet when we reportion of the ministry alone, which, feeling the justice flect upon the moral culture of our people, the nature and truth of our remarks, will stand rebuked, and there- of our institutions originating in the consent of the gofore indignant. Entertaining for the former class esverned, and founded upon the purifying and salutary teem and reverence, we have no apology to offer to principles of christianity and freedom, we may justly these latter for the boldness, it may be the presump- anticipate a longer duration, a more sublime destiny, tion, with which we have spoken unwelcome but salu- than has marked the career of other governments, tary truths. Engaged in a good cause we have no whose foundations have been less stable and permanent. false delicacy, no priestly apprehensions. But while we When by the slow and peaceful operation of wholesome respect a well-ordered priesthood, we love our common public opinion, we shall have emancipated the slave; country; while we revere religion, we detest fanati- when through the agency of a sober and pious minis. } cism; and while we are pleased to behold under benign | try, we shall have civilized the savage on our frontier, auspices, clouds of incense ascending in peaceful union we shall have no Goth to fear like the Roman, no Moor from altars of every denomination to the throne of grace, we abhor POLITICAL RELIGIONISM. Let clerical agitators beware. In rending the tree with Prospero to liberate the imprisoned spirit to do their bidding, let them take warning from the impressive lessons of antiquity, lest its reaction be destructive to themselves. But we will not despond; for, these assaults, however continuous and violent, can never overthrow the muniments which surround us; and there is a detergent energy in our system, which, however tardily excited, will effectually repel them. And when the "deluge of fanaticism shall have fallen back from the Ark of Freedom, the dove will go forth with his olive branch," the harbinger of peace and tranquility, and the beautiful bow will be hung out in the heavens, the emblem of reconciliation. In our progress to eminence, we have not, like other nations, to pass through a tedious pilgrimage; separated from the nations of the earth by the ocean, we have no enemies to subdue; no sudden reverses of fortune to apprehend; springing at once into the vigor of early manhood, we have no early history to compose; we have only to fill up the measure of our dominion and glory. We shall sooner than other people enter upon the mature age of nations, and behold mind asserting its supremacy; animated by those patriotic emotions which glowed in the bosoms of our forefathers, we will speedily seck the enduring glories of peace, and by devoting all our energies to mental improvement, will adorn with all the triumphs of genius the land of our nativity. And when our power shall have attained its height, and our government its magnificence, who shall prescribe limits to its science or refinement? Wherefore shall we nct attain to those heights of knowledge, which, restoring us to the primitive range of intellectual vigor, will assimilate us to those men of the olden time who were deemed worthy to hold friendly converse with angelic spirits? Yet the star of our destiny must ultimately set forever, for the only star that gives promise of immortality is the one which conducted the eastern sages to the feet of the infant Redeemer. Other nations have perished, and left behind them a moral and a memory of desolation, and like the Spaniard, no Arab like the descendants of Constantine; but we shall attend singly to the preservation of our Union, to the intellectual and moral culture of our people, to the development of our vast resources, and to the perfection of our beautiful system. And after having attained this elevation, when the whole fabric shall slide from its foundations and crumble into rains, we shall not, like the cities of the desert, like Balbec and Palmyra, like the ancient seats of empire and the arts, like Rome and Athens, leave only vestiges of our former grandeur to attract the regard of future ge nerations; but we shall bequeath to man those indestructible principles of free government, which though they cannot impart their immortality to perishable institutions, will yet secure to the children of men, to the consummation of ages, the greatest possible moral elevation, the greatest political equality, and the purest social happiness. But to attain this sublime elevation, beyond which on this side of the grave, man has no hope and heaven has no boon, let us bear constantly in mind that we must realize the type of Roman virtue, and snatch the thunders of the Olympian Jupiter to "SMITE LICENTIOUSNESS WHENEVER SHE STRIVES TO BREAK A TABLE OF THE LAW OR THE BALANCE OF JUSTICE." MR. MAURY AND MISS MARY. Mr. Maury and Miss Mary, I would be Maury too.” BURTON; OR THE SIEGES.* A Romance, by J. H. Ingraham, Esq., Author of "South The author of this excellent novel is gaining for himself a distinguished name as an American novelist. We first hear of Professor Ingraham as a writer, through the pages of a book entitled "The South West, by a Yankee," published in January, 1836. This is a book of travels in Louisiana and Mississippi, containing valuable statistical information, fine descriptions of scenery, and graphic and racy sketches of manners and customs in that interesting, and hitherto little known portion of our country. The work originated from a private correspondence with a friend, who placed the letters, without the knowledge of their writer, in the hands of the editor of a Natchez paper, who published several of them. The truth of their descriptions, and their admirable style, (for which the writings of this author are distinguished,) attracted the attention of the press-and the letters were widely copied and praised. At the suggestion of his friends, the author was at length induced to write a book on the country, with which his letters showed him to be so familiar. The two volumes called the "South West," is the work he produced, and it at once won for him enviable reputation. Encouraged by the success of this work, in July of the same year, he wrote a novel called "Lafitte," which, though hastily written, (composed in less than six weeks, we believe,) and never copied, from its admirable style, and wildly thrilling story, became one of the most popular fictions ever issued from the American press. We reviewed it at the time, and although we did justice to the talents and genius of the author, we objected to the tone of the work-the moral of novels having bold, bad men for their heroes, however skilfully managed, being always of questionable utility. Within the last month, the author has put forth a third book which gives title to this notice. We sat down to the perusal of this work, with the feeling that the reputation of the author as a novelist would be made or lost by it. It appears to us that it is not a very difficult matter for a young man of brilliant imagination, active fancy, and some invention, to sit down and write a novel for the first time. In the heads of such persons there are a thousand wild thoughts, romantic fancies and crude conceptions; a myriad of dazzling images, and a confused chaos of brilliant material, floating hither and thither without compass or aim. In a first novel, these will find vent. Every thing he has ever thought or dreamed of, heard or read, digested or undigested, will here find "habitation and a name." It will be the receptacle of every thing he knows or guesses at, and when it is completed, his brain will be like an exhausted receiver. His book will create a sensation-emphatically TAKE, and great things be prophesied of the successful debutant; but the author is never heard of again-or if so, it is to We are indebted to the politeness of Mr. R. D. Sanxay, of this city, for furnishing us with a copy of this admirable work; and would remind the public that it can be obtained at his book store. VOL. IV.-71 thoroughly damn himself in a second book. This is the secret of the existence of so many men who have "written a book," and only a book. With something like misgivings of this kind, with regard to the author of that glittering production, "Lafitte," we opened "Burton." As we progressed, each page reassured us, and we had not read half through the first volume before we gave ourself up to its perusal without fear of shipwreck, and permitted ourselves to be carried along with that delightful abandonment with which we have hurried through the pages of Scott. We do not here compare Burton with any of the Waverly novels. It is too American to admit of this. But in the style we are reminded of Sir Walter Scott, almost on every page: though without imitation, still the author shows that he has made this great model his careful study. We are glad to see this, for it promises well. In many of his finer passages he seems to have paused to study how Scott would have expressed such and such thoughtsand written accordingly. This seems to be wherein the secret of his resemblance lies. The care with which he has formed his style is most strikingly apparent, when contrasting "Burton" with "Lafitte." We see the same hand in each, but now it holds the burnisher where then it held the chisel. Now to the story of "Burton," the hero of which is Aaron Burr. When the American colonies rose in arms against Great Britain, it will be remembered that the first step of the colonial army was to plan an expedition against Canada. The army was divided into two divisions, one of which, under Montgomery, was to penetrate into Canada by the way of Lake Champlain, and fall upon Montreal; the other under Colonel, afterwards the traitor, General Arnold, by the way of Maine. It was planned between the two leaders, that which ever arrived first in Canada should send a messenger to inform the other, so that the two armies could form an immediate junction and act in concert. When Arnold arrived on the borders of Canada, he assembled his officers and called for a volunteer to go forward and inform Montgomery of his presence. Young Burr, a volunteer in Arnold's division, immediately offered himself for the expedition. In the disguise of a monk he left the army, and hastened forward on his perilous way. It is on the second evening of his journey that the novel opens, and introduces him to the reader in the following words: The bells of a ruined monastery in the vale of Chaudiere were chiming the hour of evening service at the close of a cold windy day in the month of November, seventeen hundred and seventy-five, when a single traveller, in the garb of a Roman Catholic priest, appeared on the skirts of a forest, that, sacred from the invading ploughshare or the axe of the woodman, stretched many leagues into the province of Maine. His steps were slow and heavy, as if he had travelled many a weary mile of the vast wilderness behind him; and, when the north wind howled at intervals through the wood, he drew his garment still closer about his person, and bore himself with a sturdier step; but, nevertheless, his slight frame and vacillating limbs did not promise to withstand for a much longer space such rude assaults. Although faint with fasting and toilworn with long travel, yet the sound of the convent bell, as it swept past him on the wind, infused additional vigor into his limbs; and roused to renewed exertions, with an exclamation of joy he hastened forward to a slight eminence which rose in his path. From its summit he beheld a prospect that fully rewarded him for all the hardships he had endured in his lonely pilgrimage through the wilderness. Beneath him lay a secluded and pleasant valley, about a league in breadth, guarded from the wintry winds that swept the highlands, by a chajn of hills, wooded to their tops with forest trees, the lingering foliage of which was dyed with every hue of the rainbow. Through its bosom the Chaudiere flowed, in a thousand romantic windings, towards a scarcely visible opening in the range of hills to the north, through which to pour its tributary waters into the St. Lawrence. * * retired into the monastery of St. Claude, then a thriv ing community, although, at the period of the disguised young officer's visit to the Father Etienne, the name assumed by the military recluse, it was only a ruined asylum for a few aged priests. Were we to weigh carefully the motives that induced the unsuccessful sol dier to take this pious step, we should, perhaps, find them composed, in part, of a desire to bury his own disgrace from the world: in part of a morbid melancholy, the consequence of his defeat and disappoint ment, a disposition of the mind which often drives men both to the church and the cloister; but we should also find that he was governed by a deeper feeling than either of these. Aware that the priesthood were gen object was to attach himself to this body, that, by the aid of so vast an engine of political power, and under the cover of a monastic life, he might combine a conspiracy against the new government, and, when it should become fully matured, apply the torch to the train he had, and spread a revolutionary flame like wildfire throughout the territory. After gazing, until twilight rendered distant objects dim and uncertain, upon the scene so unexpectedly pre-erally disaffected with the existing government, bis main sented to his eyes, long familiar only with the gloomy grandeur of path less forests, occasionally relieved by the hut of their savage denizen, the traveller gathered the folds of his robe beneath his belt, and grasped his staff resolutely; then for a moment fixing his eyes upon the towers of the island convent as the last chime of the bells ceased to echo among the hills, he said, as he prepared to descend a rude path, if the scarcely visible track left by the hunter or beasts of prey may thus be denominated, "There shall find what I most need, a night's repose; and, if all tales be true, good and substantial cheer withal; for the reverend fathers, while they have care of the souls of their flocks, are not wont to neglect their own bodily comforts." He is entertained in the convent by a Catholic priest, who was formerly a military leader. The following extracts will show best who he is, and the state of political feeling among the Roman Catholic clergy: Such were the motives which converted the Chevalier de Levi into Father Etienne. His schemes, however, never ripened into maturity; and though always planning and plotting with a perseverance and secrecy not unworthy of Lucius Catiline, and constantly corres ponding with the disaffected in every quarter of Cana da, and even with ambitious individuals in the British colonies, among whom, as has already been intimated, was the leader of the eastern division of the invading army, yet, on the day we intruded into his retirement, tion of the French dominion was concerned, as on the he was as remote from his object, so far as the restorafirst day he assumed the religious habit. By long devotion to one sole object, from which nothing could make him swerve, aided by an active imagination and a sanguine temperament, the chevalier had become trans formed from a calm and dispassionate patriot, devoting himself to his country, into a settled monomaniac. To such a mind, therefore, the threatened invasion, although it did not embrace its long-cherished and favor ite project, was, nevertheless, welcome intelligence, inasmuch as it would be, at least, the instrument of overthrowing the government of his conquerors. This object effected, the restoration of the old Canadian ré The monk, having at length succeeded in disengaging the fastenings of his cowl and gown, without replying, now hastily cast them aside, and stood before the astonished father no longer the hooded and shuffling monk, but an elegant and graceful youth, in a blue military surtout, with a short sword by his side attached to a buff belt, in which was stuck a pair of serviceable pistols. "Reverend father, I am neither monk nor priest, but a soldier of the patriot army, which, doubtless, you have learned, ere now, is preparing to invade the Cana-gime, he was willing to confide to the course of events, das," said the young stranger, in a firm, manly tone. "In proof of my words and in token of my good faith," he added, fixing his eyes with a look of intelligence on those of the priest, "I will repeat the talisman that shall beget mutual confidence between us. I have the honor, then, of addressing, not simply the monk Etienne, but the Chevalier de Levi." Inspired, therefore, with renewed ardor in the cause to which he had devoted his life, by these tidings of invasion, with his eyes sparkling and his hands trembling with excitement, he seated himself at the table as the young soldier threw himself upon the floor to sleep, and soon became involved in a manifold correspondence. His arguments were skilfully adapted to the circum"Thou hast the true credentials, young sir," said the stances and the prejudices of those to whom his letters priest, assuming the air and manners of a soldier and were addressed. To the disaffected priest, and there man of the world; "in me you see that unfortunate were many such throughout the Canadas, he held out the chief who was once the leader of a gallant army, and restoration of the Roman Catholic ascendancy and the conqueror of those proud islanders who now hold these return of the golden days of papal regality. Before the fair lands. In this peaceful garb," he continued, with imaginations of those Canadian gentlemen who desired emotion, "you behold the last general who drew blade a change of government, he displayed gorgeous pictures for the Canadas. Driven by a superior force from be- of titles and dignities, and predicted the restitution of fore the walls of Quebec, which I had closely besieged, their alienated privileges and honors; while the eyes of I left that citadel in the hands of the enemy, and, in one individual, of high birth and once in power, were despair of ever retrieving our national misfortunes, dazzled with the glitter of a vice-regal crown. No buried my disgrace in the seclusion of a religious life. scheme, however wild, seemed impracticable to the But," he added, with increasing energy, pacing the mind of this visionary enthusiast. Finally, in address apartment, "the servile oath of allegiance to the British ing a distinguished primate, whose good sense, he was king I have never taken, nor do my religious vows in sufficiently aware, would not be blinded either by his terfere with my patriotism. I have ever been ready, sophistry or arguments, however plausible, and who, when the time should arrive, and, please God, that time he was convinced, would withhold his name and influis now at hand, to aid in the removal of the invading ence until there remained no doubt of the re-establish Britons; and, if need be, by the mass! I can still wieldment of the Catholic, or, which was virtually the same the sword as I have done before in the same good cause." thing, the Canadian ascendancy, he hinted that the American army was but a few thousand strong; that they should be supported by an active co-operation of the part of the Canadians until they had captured Que bec; "Then, if the partisan leaders are alive to their own interests, which," he continued, "I myself will undertake to be the active instrument in awakening, in the unguarded moment of victory, and by the aid of superior numbers, we can snatch the citadel from their grasp, and, please God, the flag of France will once more float above its towers." The crafty politician facetiously closed his diplomatic letter by relating the fable of the "Monkey and Cat's-paw." ANOTHER TREE ARTICLE. I am of the mind of old Drummond, who, two centuries agone, sang thus: "Thrice happy he, who, by some shady grove, Oh! how more sweet is birds' harmonious moane, We did think of entering into an analysis of the work, and of giving a skeleton of the story; but a fair lady at our elbow says we must do it by no manner of means, as it would destroy the whole mystery of the tale, and "who," she asks with a pretty pout, "would read never so fine a novel when it's known how it's a going to end?" As in the course of our terrestrial pilgrimage, experience has taught us that women are always right, in matters of taste, we shall be silent about the mystery involved in this tale. In graphic and truthful sketches of character, in richness of description of natural scenery, in dramatic vigor of dialogue, and in bold and trying scenes, where the highest moral and intellectual attributes are called into action, the author of "Burton" is peculiarly distinguished. The writings of this author must be admired for their elegance and purity of style. A fine imagination is characterized by a just taste throughout; a delicate humor prevades his pages, but it is never coarse-never far-fetched, but always natural. Some of his low characters, particularly Zacharie and Jacques, have no superior in any American novel. His pages are varied by bold tragedy, touches of gentle pathos, excellent wit, and irresistible humor, while the whole, unlike "Lafitte," wears an air of probability; and there is scarcely a worthy emotion or passion that the reader will not find awakened by the perusal of these volumes. If Professor Ingraham continues to write, he must reach a proud elevation in the literature of his country, as an American novelist. EPIGRAM Oh! how more sweet is zephyres wholesome breath, "Here up I rise, thre houris after twelfe, In which are okis grete, streight as a line, With branchis brode, ladin with levis new, Oakwood contains some scores of the species Quercus. I find a new one every day. With old Michaux, his admirable Sylva in my hand, I go among these shades, and sitting on the back of sorrel Mab, pull down the branches and compare them according to class with the book. Among the most curious of my specimens are boughs, which you would take your corporal davy are chesnuts, and willows, 'till you see the acorns putting forth under the leaves, and then you admit them oaks, and do not forswear yourself. I said something but now of sorrel Mab. She is the most charming of her sex" and species: a mare of all mares the paragon: perhaps transcending the best of the sex, of any species, in that she does every thing but talk. I mean audibly: for Mab is right eloquent at times. She has a quiet way of asking for drink at noontide, which it would do your heart good to witness. The front door of Oakwood opens into the park which On a hen-pecked husband, who opposed his wife's devotion to gives the place its name; and in the dim distance of Literature. Oh, why on Madam's musings frown, the leafy vista, when suns are hot and breezes are asleep, may be seen, leisurely approaching you, as you sit, book in hand, upon the piazza, the gazelle-eyed Mab. Coming quite up to your feet, she looks in your face, drops her head as if, modestly and ladylike, to avoid your answering gaze, plucks a tuft of clover, and |