SCRAPS FROM A PORT-FOLIO.

NO. IV.

at crime by a white person was punishable at all! To take away or secrete another's child, from any person having lawful charge of its person, is punished by confinement in the penitentiary. [We question if the words in italics are wisely put in.] A stage-driver, or rail-way conductor, boat-cap- You tell us your wine is bad, and that the clergy tain, or other public carrier, willingly or negligent- do not frequent your house, which we look upon to ly injuring any person, is punished as for a misde- be tautology.-Gay in letter to Swift.

meanor-i. e. by fine and imprisonment.
"Benefit of clergy" is entirely abolished.

A felony is declared not to merge or stay the civil remedy of any person injured.

Bail in a criminal case is allowed to surrender his principal, as in civil cases.

We would gladly extend this mention of changes in the law; but time and space fail us. The newspapers would do the public a great service, and interest their readers more than any ordinary speech could do, by publishing copious selections from this new code. Constantly, through more than twenty years of close attendance upon courts, and of frequent converse with all sorts of people, we have been freshly surprised by their ignorance of the laws that bind them. Did we edit a newspaper, this is one point on which we would make the light of the Press shine. There are few points about which light is more important.

Indeed the Legislature ought to adopt some means for effectually diffusing a knowledge of the laws among the people. But how can that body be relied upon for any such thing? Even more than half the magistrates are not furnished with a Revised Code, or a Justice's Guide-Book.

SONNET.

POWERS' GREEK SLAVE.

woman, in thy modest meekness bold, When first I saw thy sad averted face,

M.

I missed the winning air, the conscious grace,
That so enchant in sculptured marbles old,;
But soon, in thy calm mien, despondent, cold,
With growing sympathy, I saw the trace
Of the deep woe that still could not debase,
And all thy tale of suffering was told.
Lost now is Nature's lovely wish to please,
And faultless though each limb, each feature fair,
Abides the nameless charm no longer there,
Baffled are they who would thy beauties seize,
Turned into stone. thou standest cold and pure,
Clothed in thy modesty, steadfast to endure.

Staunton, Va., 1848.

VOL. XIV-69

C. C. L.

Nor peace nor ease the heart can know,
That like the needle true,

Turns at the touch of joy or woe,
But turning trembles too.

A young lady being told that St. Paul said that they who married did well, but they who did not marry did better," replied, that "she did not want to do better than well."

A French Lady remarked, "I don't know how it happens, but I am the only person of my acquaint

How much pain have those evils cost us that ance that is always in the right." have never happened.-Jefferson.

THE DEAD SEA EXPEDITION.

BY LIEUT. M. F. MAURY.

had no right to do such a thing, because Congress had never directed it to be done. Among other places, that officer caused the bar and mouth of the Coatzacoalcas to be accurately surveyed, but Unfettered by the trammels of party, the Mes- because that river happened to be connected with senger is devoted to the high callings of Litera- the projected canal of Tehuantepec, no one ever ture, of Science, and of whatever tends to ennoble dreamed of holding up Commodore Perry as an the mind, or to advance the prosperity and happi- offender against the Constitution or the law ness, the honor and the glory of this great Republic. for doing it. He did it without any special auThe Navy always has been and we hope ever will thority or instruction whatever; he did it in be, above the reach of party. It gallantly fought consequence of the duties and responsibilities itself into being a few fir-built frigates, with a which attach to him merely in virtue of his bit of striped bunting" at the mast-head, enacted commission as an officer in the American Nadeeds which won the admiration of a gallant peo-vy. Nay, had the youngest midshipman in the ple; and since the war of 1812, the Navy has been Navy, the merest stripling in the service, been the pride and boast of every true-hearted Ameri- sent into that river in an open boat, and while there, can, of whatever political faith. had he of his own head found it practicable to run In former times, Navy matters and Navy mea- lines and take soundings without interfering with sures have occupied prominent places on the pages the special duties which called him there, not only of this journa!. Discussions of such subjects here would his right to do it have been acknowledged, have always been free from party. They have ever but he would have felt it his duty to do it; for the been so conducted as to leave the Navy as far be- regulations of the Navy themselves make it the yond the reach of the political battles of the day duty of every officer to survey and map every foreign as they found it; and for this we have been en-place visited by them, provided the survey can be couraged with the loud halloo of many a gallant made without interfering with other duties. These yeoman in the land. surveys are honorable to Commodore Perry and his officers, creditable to the country and useful to the world.

We have taken up this Expedition with a double aim: first to snatch it away from party and the politician where it does not belong, and then to We should grieve to see the energies of officers place it where it does belong-viz: on that page damped, and the usefulness of the Navy crippled, whereon are recorded those deeds by which the by any attempt to bring them and their surveys into country has most been honored by its Navy. disrepute, for mere party purposes, or for the sake What is the Navy for, and what are the duties of connecting naval operations abroad with the of its officers? The Navy is for protection and questions of internal improvement at home, which safety both in peace and in war, and among the du- so much vex the rulers and lawgivers of the land. ties of its officers is legibly written the obligation to A ship cannot pursue her path across the ocean cultivate those branches of science and to under- without running her lines of soundings and contake those researches, upon the results of which ducting a series of observations of high interest the art of navigation is founded and the safe con- to science and of the first importance to the duct of vessels from one part of the globe to safety of the vessel and the encouragement of another depends. navigation. Among those observations the presPirates infest the sea; the commissioned ves-sure and the temperature of the atmosphere, the sels in the Navy wait for no special law of Con- force of the wind and the set of currents, the depth gress to go and chase them away. A man-of-war, of the sea, its temperature and the character of its while cruising on her station the other side of bottom, the height of mountains, the depression the world, discovers a danger to navigation: she of valleys, the co-ordinates of place on the globe, does not wait even for the formality of an order all that relates to the perfection of Hydrography, from home, but proceeds forthwith to survey, ex- or tends to the improvement of geography, with a amine and report upon it, as a matter of recogni- host of other matters near of kin to the science

zed duty. of navigation-come within the sphere and scope Nay more: squadrons of American ships are sent of Navy duty without special act of legislation. abroad to make war, or maintain peace; and the It exists ex necessitate rei. The mere law that esofficers do not hesitate, when the nature of the tablished the Navy, the appropriation bill which anservice admits, to survey ports and harbors, and nually passes Congress for the support of the Naval even to make charts of entire foreign coasts. service, give the executive the power and make it Commodore Perry while blockading the ports of the duty of officers to try currents, sound the ocean, Mexico in the Gulf and waging war, occupied him- measure altitudes and to do all those things which self also with the survey of long lines of foreign are necessary and convenient for the safety of navcoast, as well as of foreign ports and harbors; igation and the successful issue of present, as well and there has been no one so captious as to say he as for the benefit of future voyages.

From these views and considerations it will read- [vate property, build forts, and do many other things ily be perceived that the power which rests with which the public good requires, even in a foreign the Navy of making surveys in the Mediterrane- territory, which, to-morrow, after the return of an-which has been exercised since the Tripolitan peace, no power under the sun has the right to do— war, we might have said since the foundation of such is the character of some of the incidental pow the government, and which has never been called ers which the bills for the support of armies and in question before,-is derived from a source alto-navies draw after them. gether different from that whence flows the power to pull up snags and improve the navigation of our own rivers and "inland seas."

It remains now to show how the Dead Sea Expedition is connected with the well-being of the navy or the interests of navigation, in order to take away from party purposes and party abuse, this enterprise with its enlightened and patriotic projectors.

There are many phenomena presented in the Mediterranean and on its borders of exceeding interest to navigation. Among these may be mentioned the saltness of the water, and the presence of a current which runs out through the Straits of Gibraltar. Notwithstanding the well known fact that the rivers and visible sources of supply to that sea, do not afford water enough to supply evaporation from it, there is a current which runs with great violence from it into the Atlantic. For years the source of this current has perplexed navigators and puzzled

The power to do the one is incidental. The mere act to maintain and support a Navy draws after it this power; it follows the Navy in all parts of the world. Its exercise is necessary to the safety of vessel and crew; for without charts, without the results of science, without the power and the right to conduct a series of scientific observations, the Navy could not be maintained. Without the lights and guides of science, a vessel of war could not be conducted from place to place-seas would be as impassable as an ocean of flame, by vessels of war. The survey of a shoal, or the removal of a wreck from a dangerous place in a distant sea, tends to improve navigation. So also does the clearing out of snags from the western rivers, or the deepen-philosophers. ing of their channels. But the power to do the one and the other does not arise in the same way. The former is incidental to a greater power, viz: to that of maintaining a navy; the latter is special and is to be derived only from the constitution and by special legislation.

The Cumberland dam may have a great deal to do with commerce, but no one will pretend that the shoals of that river have any thing to do with the maintenance of the Navy, and curious indeed must

What effect might a conjectured difference of level between that sea and the Dead, have upon this current, and other phenomena ?

An expedition there would improve geography, and therefore Navigation; for by giving the height of the mountains along the coast, you afford the navigator the means to determine his distance from them and to fix the place of his ship at sea, when the lights of heaven themselves may fail him in his straights.

He who elicits a fact from nature, often makes be the constitution of that mind which can re- a discovery, says Humboldt, of more value than cognize in an order from the Executive to a Navy he who discovers an island in the sea. Here was officer to survey a sheet of water up the Mediter-presented a bundle of facts the importance and ranean, any principles applicable to improving the value of which, like the bearings of every new fact navigation of the Ohio.

gathered from nature, it is impossible to foresee. Suppose that by some convulsion of nature the This expedition could be accomplished without any, present channel from the Navy Yard at Norfolk to the least inconvenience to the public service, and the sea should be filled up and a new one opened. at a cost so trifling that the sum expended upon Would any one doubt the right of the Executive the pole which was stuck up on the top of the forthwith and of his own accord to order the Navy Capitol, to be taken down again as a nuisance, to survey and buoy it out, in order that the men-of-would defray the expenses of twenty such expedi war which might be there, and which it is his duty tions. The spot to be explored was a mysteto keep afloat, might get to sea? Suppose the same rious one; those who had visited it before, had convulsion should alter the channel, or change the died, and by their fate invested it with deeper incourse of the Mississippi river, would it not require a terest and shrouded it in darker mystery. From special act of Congress to enable him to expend infancy up, associations of terror and awful veneven so much as a dollar in finding out a new chan-geance, were, in the minds of millions, associated nel there?

with the name of that spot, and throughout the Special powers may become incidental and the entire length and breadth of Christendom, there reverse, and officers of the government may to- was an eager, not an idle, curiosity with regard to day have incidental powers to do certain things, it; to explore it would redound to the glory of the which Congress itself by special act, has no right navy and the honor of the nation. Expeditions to give. Thus Congress votes supplies for an from other countries had been attempted and bad army in Mexico: the commanding officer of that failed. The American navy never fails; and one of army has the right to bridge streams, destroy pri- ' its most accomplished officers, willing to risk his

life and reputation upon success, appeared entreat- [He promised to consider the matter as soon as a ing for leave to go. His request came before an favorable opportunity should occur. And an opofficer of the government, a brother statesman, as portunity did occur which made the expedition high-minded, as generous and as true-hearted as most apropôs: The Spanish government had withhimself. It was therefore entertained with respect. drawn the privilege hitherto allowed us of having Lieutenant Lynch has redeemed his pledge: he at Port Mahon a depot of stores for our squadron has surveyed the Dead Sea, returned in safety, he in the Mediterranean. It was therefore found neand his party, to their ship, and may ere long be cessary to send out a store-ship to that sea, and to expected to arrive in the United States with the keep her there with provisions, &c. on board, to rich fruits of their labor. supply the wants of the squadron as they arose.

Lynch, who planned this expedition, is a Virginian; Mason who authorized it, is a Virginian, and could we envy the patriot any of the fruits of his labor, we should most of all covet the honors which Mason deserves for the "Dead Sea Expedition." We have some notes which we have treasured up for the benefit of our readers, and of all who look with longing eyes and eager minds for the results of this interesting and honorable service. We offer a few of them now, perhaps we will give more of them at another time.

In the spring of 1847, Lieut. Lynch first addressed the Secretary upon the subject. "In the hopes," said that officer, "that it may receive your sanction, I respectfully submit a proposition to circumnavigate and explore lake Asphaltites or Dead Sea, and its entire coast.

The store-ship" Supply" was fitting out at New York for this purpose. After delivering to the squadron enough to satisfy for the time, a large portion of her stores would still be left on board, and she would have to remain in port for several months, waiting for the first delivery to be consumed. If she continued in port her officers and crew would continue with her of course, dragging out a profitless and tedious time, if not contracting idle habits from the mere want of occupation.

Lieut. Lynch was a most accomplished seaman. Officers were scarce, for most of them had been sent down to the Gulf, and the cargo of the "Supply" was a valuable one. It therefore occurred to the practical and business mind of the Secretary, to send Lieut. Lynch in command of the "Supply," with his party as a part of her crew to the Medi

The expense will be trifling and the object terranean-to let her report to the Commodore, easy of attainment.

Our ships frequently touch at Acre in Syria. 'That place is forty miles distant from the foot of Lake Tiberias, or Sea of Galilee. Through and from the last, the river Jordan runs and debouches into the first named sea.

"The frame of a boat with its crew and their provisions, can be transported on camels from Acre to Tiberias. At the latter place, the boat can be put together, and the crew embark and accomplish the desired work in fifteen days.

“Arms and a tent, a few mathematical instruments, provisions and water are all that will be required. The tent can be made on board ship, temporarily used, and the canvass afterwards applied to other purposes on board ship. The arms from the ship, and the ordinary rations will suffice; and the boat itself can be safely returned. "The Dead Sea has been circumnavigated but by one traveller, Mr. Costigan. He very nearly accomplished it in eight days. Unfortunately he undertook it at a most insalubrious season of the year and died at the termination of the voyage, without leaving a journal or notes behind.

"This proposition pertains to a subject maritime in its nature, and therefore peculiarly appropriate to your office; and it is involved in mystery, the solution of which will advance the cause of science and gratify the whole Christian world."

meet the wants of the squadron, and then, instead of lying idle in port, doing nothing but wait for the men-of-war to eat up what she had given them, to allow her to proceed with Lieut. Lynch up the Levant, and land him and his party, taking care that after landing them, men enough should be left on board to manage the ship.

Instead therefore of idleness, here was active, useful and creditable occupation for a part of her crew, while the remainder could, as well as a thousand men, take care of the ship in port, or in her short and pleasant trips of a few days from place to place. The arrangement was admirable. Lynch was in the very nick of time with his proposition, and the opportunity presented was a glorious one.

While, therefore, the preliminary arrangements are in progress here, let us take a glance at what was transpiring in another quarter of the globe, with regard to the same subject.

At the very time that Lieut. Lynch was engaged with his preparations in New York, Lieut. Molyneux, a gallant officer of the British Navy, was actually engaged in transporting on the backs of camels and from the very point suggested by Lieut. Lynch, a boat for the survey of the Dead Sea.

The plans of these two officers for approaching and exploring that sheet of water were remarkably similar. Neither knew that the thoughts of the other were in that direction at all. But, that two The proposition came at a time when the Sec- Navy officers of different services, and in parts of retary was collecting all the available forces of the the world far remote, should each without the Navy for the combined attack upon Vera Cruz. knowledge of the other, be engaged with the same