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tional Union. Meantime, let us have the aptation of the French people to government Convention.

THE USE OF THE Suffrage. We have often remarked that the suffrage-right, when in the hands of ignorance, might be easily converted into an instrument of despotism, instead of operating as the guardian of liberty; and the French people have come up almost en masse to prove the truth of the assertion. Louis Napoleon gave them universal suffrage; and, planting his foot upon the constitution of the republic, commanded them to elect a President forthwith for a term of ten years, announcing himself as the only candidate to be voted for. The silly people, "possessing the faculty to be master of their own fate," but not knowing what they were about, not having the will, nor the resolution, nor the intelligence, to be free and happy, voted almost unanimously in favor of the despot. Louis Napoleon was elected by the people to be their master, and he has taken the lash in hand impromptu. Observe by what an easy transition thirty-six millions of people can glide out of liberty into bondage. The following decree, one of the first acts of the new tyrant, was issued, under date of Dec. 19, in Paris, by the Prefect of the Allier:

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"Whereas, political inscriptions, and particularly the words 'Liberty,' 'Equality,' and 'Fraternity,' which figure on most of the public buildings, present no character of utility, but are, on the contrary, for the people a perpetual excitement to revolt, by holding up to them the emblem and recollection of a triumphant insurrection; whereas, the same may be said of the trees, called 'of liberty, which obstruct our public squares and walks, and are now dried up and decayed sticks, the Prefect decrees:

"Article 1. Every political inscription, without exception, and in particular the words 'Liberty,' 'Equality,' 'Fraternity, shall be immediately removed from the fronts of public edifices and private dwellings. The trees of liberty shall be cut down or rooted up.

“Article 2. Trees which, having grown luxuriantly, are an ornament to the commune, are alone to be excepted."

Thus the spirit of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, to create which so much blood has been shed by these very people, is not only blotted out of existence, but the people are commanded to wipe away even the mementoes of what they once possessed; and of course, as they know no better, they submit. The simple fact is, Louis Napoleon and his confederates know better the capacities and ad

than we do; and all we can say of them, is to express our pity that they are still so far behind what we call "the age," and so little imbued with the essentials of a free people.

KOSSUTH AND CLAY.-Henry Clay, who at this time cannot be charged with motives of personal interest or ambition, nor regarded in the light of a partisan, has had an interview with the Hungarian patriot Kossuth, at which, while he declared himself as one dom," he also expressed an earnest attachamong the most "devoted votaries of freement to our long-settled policy of non-intertion; adding, that he should look upon an abandonment of that policy by the American people as the greatest calamity that could befall his country." He said he believed that this policy was "the best for us, and the best for Europe, and the best for the cause of liberty."

This solemn warning, under the circumstances in which it is given, cannot be disregarded by our countrymen. "Beware of entangling alliances;" "beware of foreign influence," said Washington; and the dying sage of the present day reiterates his instruction to us.

BINDING.-Persons wishing to have their numbers of the Republic of last year bound, may have them done neatly and cheaply by sending them to this office. Bound volumes will also be kept on hand for sale. By the destruction of Mr. Walker's bindery by fire, our specimen volumes were lost, but the deficiency will be supplied in a few days.

SUBSCRIPTION LISTS.-Those having lists of new subscribers to the Republic will perceive the necessity of handing them in immediately. By so doing, our friends will confer a favor on the publisher and subscribers alike. Don't fail to have those lists as large as possible.

volume, we shall issue a new title-page of

TITLE-PAGE.—At the close of the present

rare excellence and beauty.

PAYMENTS.-On receipt of this number, those of our subscribers who have not already done so, are requested to transmit the amount

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our new Democratic Fathers, who are always up to a thing or twoespecially a good thing-are determined to give their erratic children a little more than they bargained for when they agreed to that four dollars per diem. Those old sachems of the Wigwam have taught their whole brood the science, as well as the luxury of the bon vivant; and, as our friends the Fowlers would say, "they can't help it," the organs of alimentiveness must be gratified, let who will grumble; and as the stick, or rather the larder, is in their own hands, we may as well save our breath and pay the shot. Twenty thousand dollars a year will do it. What a trifle to talk about! Say no more then, and let the Metropolitan Fathers enjoy their woodcocks, canvas-backs, brandy, segars, and salaries, in peace and quiet. A bridge over the East River has been long talked about, and at last accomplished with the celerity of magic. Aladdin

with his wonderful lamp could not have done the thing quicker or better; and why should he, since the oldest and most expert bridgemaker in the world did the job? In a space of less than six hours from the commencement of the work, in the beginning of the twentieth day of January, Anno Domini 1852, it was done, and hundreds of people crossed and recrossed to and from the suburban city of Brooklyn, in perfect safety, by the new thoroughfare. But, alas for the instability of all things inagical! the palace of Aladdin and our bridge were alike evanescent. The palace was wafted away by an evil genius, and the bridge was wafted away by the tide, and from the floating fragments many a luckless wight was rescued by the philanthropic efforts of certain boatmen. Jack Frost! Jack Frost! you shall be no aquatic architect for us. Apropos of ice bridges, we remember-long time ago, say about thirty years, when this present writer was a boy-the North River, between New-York and Jersey City, was covered with a vast field of ice, except a narrow strip of clear, cold water, which pursued its independent course near the Jersey shore. A shanty or two was built over the

river, where bad liquor was sold, for the novelty of the thing, at sixpence a glass. With many others, we were amusing ourself on skates, when suddenly a distant cry for help came screaming across the glassy pavement of the Hudson. All eyes were turned riverward, and in the far distance-say half across the head and shoulders of a man appeared, like a dark speck, above the ice; but that he was alive and kicking was very evident from the stentorian efforts of his lungs. In an instant, hundreds rushed to his assistance, and among them a stout boatman, with an oar on his shoulder, who, with gigantic strides, outstripped even the skaters, and, luckily in good time, threw the oar across the hole in the ice, and with the aid of two or three others, who alone were permitted to approach the spot, drew forth the half-frozen specimen of humanity. The poor fellow proved to be a Dutchman, who made a livelihood by casting pewter spoons in the streets, and selling them at two cents apiece to the passers-by. His whole manufactory and stock in trade, consisting of a small furnace, a mould, and some fifty pounds of lead, were lashed in a box to his back at the time he broke through the ice, and not being able

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to extricate himself from this load, he came very near going "down among the dead men." Though a good deal chilled, and thoroughly frightened, he was so delighted at his rescue, that, on getting ashore, he insisted on treating the party, which was accordingly done.- One of our country papers says: "Jenny Lind is outdone at last. There is a man in Myrtle street who has a canary bird with such a delightful voice, that he sweetens his tea with it!"-Another says that Pharaoh was the first gamester. We might be safe in adding, that Faro is the last device of the gamester.- -Kossuth produced a great stir in this city, and doubtless made many proselytes; but whatever impressions he may have left behind him, it is certain that he left his hat.- A singular coincidence occurred on the 14th inst. The steamer George Washington, on her passage from Cincinnati to New-Orleans, burst her boilers when near Grand Gulf, Miss., and afterwards took fire, and was totally destroyed. Sixteen persons were killed, and many others badly injured. On the same day, the steamer Martha Washington, also on her way to New-Orleans, when near Memphis, Tenn., took fire, and was burned, with every thing on board. Six persons were killed, and several injured. On the same day, a riotous mob took possession of the Senate Chamber of Pennsylvania; the military were called out to suppress the riot; and in the midst of that lawless uproar, Governor Johnson declared it to be the duty of the United States to cancel the Washingtonian doctrine of non-intervention. Is there any thing ominous in this coincidence?Some new-made husband describes the two conditions of man as follows: "Matrimony.-Hot buckwheat cakes; warm beds; comfortable slippers; smoking coffee; round arms; red lips, (ahem!) etc., etc.; shirts exulting in buttons; redeemed stockings; boot-jacks; happiness, etc. Single Blessedness.-Sheet iron quilts; blue noses; frosty rooms-ice in the pitcher; unregenerated linen; heelless socks; coffee sweetened with icicles; gutta percha biscuits; flabby steaks; dull razors; corns; coughs and colics; rhubarb; aloes; misery, etc. Pah!"-Louis Napoleon, the "nephew of his uncle," as he is sneeringly termed, is decidedly the philosopher of the age. Whoever takes him for a fool is grandly mistaken. He has invented a

new and most convenient plan of suffrage, viz., that of having but a single candidate. Such a course, if adopted in this land of notions, would prevent a world of trouble and vexation, and save a vast deal of wear and tear of conscience. Under such a plan, there would be no necessity for speeches to "Buncombe," and the vast waste of lungs and gas attendant on the process; no knock-down arguments at the polls; no bribery; no contested elections; and no bickering and backbiting between candidates; but all things would go on as smooth as new cream, and as harmonious as a cracked fiddle. Since the Yankees are so fond of French fashions, why not introduce this, as "the latest Paris?"We close our chat for the present, with a word of advice to that unfortunate class of creatures known as witnesses. Before proceeding to give testimony in a court of justice, (?) go into Wall street and get your character insured, because it is quite uncertain until you have got through, whether yourselves or the defendant in the suit will be put on trial. No man or woman, who, in childhood, was so imprudent as to eat an onion, should venture on the witness-stand; if they do, the lawyers will assuredly smell it out.

AMUSEMENTS.

BROADWAY THEATRE-The appearance of Lola Montes did not produce the furor that the management probably anticipated; and after playing a short engagement to tolerable houses, she has been sent to Philadelphia. Lola was received at her debut in a most generous spirit, by a house filled in every part by a masculine audience, who seemed determined to give her a fair field, and she had it; but after a trial of half an hour, it became apparent that as a danseuse she must take rank about thirdrate. We question very much the propriety and the policy of bringing before the American public actors or artists whose sole capital lies in an equisuries of our managers, we can find plenty of them vocal notoriety. If such are necessary to the trea

at home.

Mr. Collins, the Irish personator, succeeds Lola, and is now playing in a very bad play to very good houses. Paul Clifford, a melo-dramatic affair, gotten up expressly to glorify crime, by making an angel of a highway robber, is now on the boards. It has no merit, either literary, histrionic, or moral, and nothing but the talent of a good cast could

make it tolerable. Mrs. Vernon, Madame Ponisi, and Miss Gould, with Collins, Barry, Davidge, Reynolds, and others, manage, by great effort and good acting, to give an interest to the thing; and there are detached portions of the piece well worth looking at, especially the ball scene, where Sig. Neri and M'lle. Adeline perform a fashionable high life pas de deux. Paul Clifford is still underlined indefinitely."

Mr. Forrest having got through his divorce trial, will appear at the Broadway on Monday, Feb. 2d.

enemy that men put into their mouths, "to steal away their brains."

Mr. Greenwood has an excellent company, yet we cannot help saying to Miss Mestayer that, in many passages, her voice would seem more appropriate if pitched in a lower key.

Besides the interest of the lecture-room, the Museum is stored with curiosities, one of which, "The Happy Family," is worth the whole price of admission.

NATIONAL THEATRE.-Mr. Purdy, the manager of this house, is constantly on the alert for choice novelties, and the result is that his house is crowd

BARNUM'S MUSEUM.-Those who assert that the drama is an engine of Satan for the promotion of immorality, should go the Museum and witnessed the pieces produced under the management of Mr. Greenwood. The tact with which this gentleman produces a succession of small dramas, of profound moral tendency, is admirable, and the appreciation of his efforts is visible in the extent of patronage bestowed by the public, the lecture-room being always well filled. The last new piece, and the one now being performed at the Museum, is entitled "The Bottle." It presents a vivid picture of the insidious power of strong drink, and holds up the beacon of warning to those who harbor the

nightly by "the million." The present star attractions of the National are Mr. and Mrs. Barney Williams, who are playing a series of humorous Irish characters with great éclat and spirit. Of the many who have attempted the Irish character upon the stage, very few have succeeded, and among that few Barney Williams is found; there is a raciness, without affectation, about his style, that is very much to the purpose. We see by the bills that two new dramas are soon to be produced, in which Mr. and Mrs. Williams are to sustain the leading parts.

OUR BOOK TABLE.

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HE annual holidays have gone by, and with them came the annual

tribute to taste and intelligence, in a flood of elaborate gift-books.

This species of holiday courtesy is, in its character, a compliment to the age we live in, implying, as it does, an appreciation of literature and art; and we would that we could discover in the books themselves more of what they profess, and less of the humbug and catchpenny mania of the times. When the holiday gift custom first ran into the book channel, some twenty odd years ago, the whole artistic world of Old England was ransacked; the cream of its genius was employed in the collation of exquisite productions, from the pen, the pencil, and the graver, and the "Annuals"

came smoothly from the press, redolent of poesy and art. The rapid popularity of this family of books afforded a pleasant comment on the taste of the people; their yearly publication was looked for with impatience and hailed with pleasure; the books were purchased at prices commensurate with their perfection, and in a short time, men and women, who might otherwise have gone down to their graves as dolts, became connoisseurs in engravings, and critics in fine literature.

It had been well, therefore, if the original character of the "annuals" had been sustained; but the growing taste could not keep pace with the cupidity of publishers; the thirst for profit outran their zeal for the public good; and very soon that class of literature and the fine arts was, like mustard and Cayenne pepper, adulterated for the market, and the auction-shops were glutted with the spurious article. Volumes of external magnificence, reeking in "Turkey and gold," but, like the "whitened sepulchre," corrupt within, were knocked down nightly by hundreds, under the laborious efforts of the knights of the hammer. Annuals became as plenty as "green blackberries" in the

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month of June, and quite as trashy and unwholesome. The artistic beauty of their ancestors was supplanted by abortive efforts at "picter"-making, and schoolgirl effusions took the place of choice English; the growing bud of public taste was nipped and vitiated, and the whole country dazzled with a flood of hypocritical literature, costly enveloped. Few books of this kind that are published at the present day, are worth the leather and gold that cover them, and little more than the name is left of that once beautiful family.

is of a class that would have done credit to old John Bunyan himself. Such books as this do good in the world, and the writing of such a book supersedes the necessity of an epitaph. Mr. Shelton will be remembered.

WESLEY AND METHODISM. By Isaac Taylor. Harper & Brothers.-This is a most agreeable and instructive field for perusal; giving, as it does, a panoramic view of the rise and progress of a religious sect which numbers its millions of adherents

in every portion of the civilized globe; its transitions from the darkness of Papacy to the gradual developments of rationality, aided as it has ever been by the progress of civilization, with which, of the two, it is by far the most congenial, and its final consolidation into a tangible and distinct system of religion and theology. We should much like to see the history of all the various Protestant creeds, traced with a hand equally impartial.

DISCOVERIES AT NINEVEH. By Austen Henry Layard; also from the house of the Harpers. 12mo, pp. 360. This is, of course, an abridgment of Mr. Layard's larger work on the same sub

It is only here and there that one is to be found approaching the character of its early predecessors, though in some instances a faint attempt has been made, by substituting cost for excellence, to make the thing pass current. But it does not answer: the public have learned to appreciate what is good; and if compelled to take the bad, they want it at the pro rata price. We have noticed, among other strained efforts, Mr. Putnam's "Home Book of Beauty," which should be termed, rather, a congregation of egotism and ugliness. This book was gotten up, as we understand, ostensibly to encourage American artists, yet the whole artistic execution was done in Europe.ject, and is intended as a more cheap and popular The feature of the "Home Book" is a series of engravings, purporting to be portraits of wealthy American ladies, every one of whom is far more beautiful in her natural person than in the types of the "Home Book." There is an excessive elaboration about the engravings, which destroys every thing like nature, and leaves the attempt a mere picture; and the interest one might experience in looking upon them is not at all enhanced by that eccentric freak of taste and fancy by which each engraving is labeled with the name of the supposed "fair original." Let us be spared the infliction of any further attempts of this nature to "encourage American art," or to embellish Amecan beauty.

SALANDER AND THE DRAGON.-This beautiful and striking allegory, written by the Rev. Frederick William Shelton, has been entirely revised and enlarged by the author, and is now republished by John S. Taylor, 143 Nassau street, with beautiful illustrations. The story of Salander and the Dragon is one wherein some of the passions and sentiments of frail humanity, and especially the vicious propensity to slander, are personified and rendered tangible, and the fashioning of the thing

edition. These recent oriental and biblical discoveries have proven a capital windfall, not only to publishers, but to the readers of the middle of the nineteenth century, for they are full of interest, after making all due allowance for the humbug of the thing. Mr. Layard is one of the most authentic writers on the subject.

THE PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK, a work that every body wants, is published semi-occasionally, by the Harpers. No. 19 is just out. The "mammoth monthly" takes precedence in punctuality, if nothing else.

SORCERY AND MAGIC.-J. S. Redfield, Clinton Hall, has just issued a volume of 420 pp., with this title. It is from the pen of Thomas Wright, M.A., F.S.A. The title of this book is sufficient to bring it in demand, and the purchaser will find that he has made a good bargain. It treats of the impositions practised, under the names of sorcery, magic, and witchcraft, on the credulity and superstition of the ignorant, from the time of the middle ages down to the Reformation, and during its struggles against the machinations of the Papacy. We shall notice this work more fully hereafter.

VOL. III.

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