concerned, to follow the lights of the constitution, as expounded and illustrated by those whose opinions and expositions constitute the standard of my political faith in regard to the powers of the Government. It is, I trust, not necessary to say that no grandeur of enterprise and no present urging inducement promising popular favour will lead me to disregard those lights, or to depart from that path which experience has proved to be safe, and which is now radiant with the glow of prosperity and legitimate constitutional progress. We can afford to wait, but we cannot afford to overlook the ark of our security.

Principles of Union." It is a significant fact, that from the adoption of the constitution until the officers and soldiers of the Revolution had passed to their graves, or, through the infirmities of age and wounds, had ceased to participate actively in public affairs, there was not merely a quiet acquiescence in, but a prompt vindication of, the constitutional rights of the State. The reserved powers were unscrupulously respected. No statesman put forth the narrow views of casuists to justify interference and agitation, but the spirit of compact was regarded as sacred in the eye of honour, and indispensable for the great experiment of civil liberty, which, environed with inherent difficulties, was yet borne forward in apparent weakness by a power superior to all obstacles. There is no condemnation which the voice of freedom will not pronounce upon us should we prove faithless to this great trust. While men inhabiting different parts of this great continent can no more be expected to hold the same opinions, VOL. XCV.

or entertain the same sentiments, than every variety of clime or soil can be expected to furnish the same agricultural products, they can unite in a common object and sustain common principles essential to the maintenance of that object. The gallant men of the South and the North could stand together during the struggle of the Revolution; they could stand together in the more trying period which succeeded the clangour of arms.

As their united valour was adequate to all the trials of the camp and dangers of the field, so their united wisdom proved equal to the greater task of founding, upon a deep and broad basis, institutions which it has been our privilege to enjoy, and will ever be our most sacred duty to sustain. It is but the feeble expression of a faith strong and universal, to say that their sons, whose blood mingled so often upon the same field during the war of 1812, and who have more recently borne in triumph the flag of the country upon a foreign soil, will never permit alienation of feeling to weaken the power of their united efforts, nor internal dissensions to paralyse the great arm of freedom, uplifted for the vindication of selfgovernment.

Population Returns." The successive decennial returns of the Census since the adoption of the constitution have revealed a law of steady progressive development, which may be stated, in general terms, as a duplication every quarter-century. Carried forward, from the point already reached, for only a short period of time as applicable to the existence of a nation, this law of progress, if unchecked, will bring us to almost incredible results. A large allowance for at

[Z]

diminished proportional effect of emigration would not very materially reduce the estimate, while the increased average of human life known to have already resulted from the scientific and hygienic improvements of the past 50 years will tend to keep up through the next 50, or perhaps 100, the same ratio of growth which has been thus revealed in our past progress; and to the influence of these causes may be added the influx of labouring masses from Eastern Asia to the Pacific side of our possessions, together with the probable accession of the populations already existing in other parts of our hemisphere, which, within the period in question, will feel, with yearly increasing force, the natural attraction of so vast, powerful, and prosperous a confederation of selfgoverning republics, and seek the privilege of being admitted within its safe and happy bosom, transferring with themselves, by a peaceful and healthy process of incorporation, spacious regions of virgin and exuberant soil, which are destined to swarm with the fastgrowing and fast-spreading millions

of our race.

seem

ing topic of speculation that I present these views for your consideration. They have important practical bearings upon all the political duties we are called upon to perform. Heretofore our system of government has worked upon what may be termed a miniature scale, in comparison with the development which it must thus assume within a future so near at hand as scarcely to be beyond the present of the existing generation. It is evident that a confederation so vast and so varied, both in numbers and in territorial extent, in habits and in interests, could only be kept in national cohesion by the strictest fidelity to the principles of the constitution as understood by those who have adhered to the most restricted construction of the powers granted by the people and the States. Interpreted and applied according to those principles, the great compact adapts itself with healthy ease and freedom to an unlimited extension of that benign system of federative self-government, of which it is our glorious, and, I trust, immortal charter. Let us, then, with redoubled vigilance be on our guard against yielding to the temptation of the exercise of doubtful powers, even under the pressure of the motives of conceded temporary advantage and apparent temporary expediency.

"The minimum of federal government compatible with the maintenance of national unity and efficient action in our relations with the rest of the world should afford the rule and measure of construction of our powers under the general clauses of the constitution. A spirit of strict deference

position to subordinate the States into a provincial relation to the central authority, should characterise all our exercise of the respective powers temporarily vested in us as a sacred trust from the generous confidence of our consti

tuents.

"In like manner, as a manifestly indispensable condition of the perpetuation of our Union, and of the realisation of that magnificent national future alluded to, does the duty become yearly stronger and clearer upon us, as citizens of the several States, to cultivate a fraternal and affectionate spirit, language, and conduct in regard to other States, and in relation to the varied interests, institutions, and habits of sentiment and opinion which may respectively characterise them. Mutual forbearance, respect, and non-interference in our personal action as citizens, and an enlarged

exercise of the most liberal principles of comity in the public dealing of State with State, whether in legislation or the execution of laws, are the means to perpetuate that confidence and fraternity, the decay of which a mere political union on so vast a scale could not long survive.

Conclusion.-"Entertaining unlimited confidence in your intelligent and patriotic devotion to the public interest, and being conscious of no motives on my part which are not inseparable from the honour and advancement of my country, I hope it may be my privilege to deserve and secure, not only your cordial co-operation in great public measures, but also those relations of mutual confidence and regard which it is always so desirable to cultivate between members of co-ordinate branches of the Government.

'FRANKLIN PIERCE."

OSS OF LIFE FROM SHIPWRECK IN 1852.-The records of Lloyd's present a sad catalogue of loss of life and property on our own shores during the year 1852. The total destruction of life, as far as has been ascertained, amounts to 920. Of these, 100 were lost in the Amazon, destroyed by fire on the 4th January, at about 90 miles from the Land's End; 13 in the Columbus, wrecked on the 6th January, near the Hook Lighthouse, Waterford, owing to the neglect of the Dunmore pilots; 12 in the John Toole, wrecked January 27, on the Arran Isles, near Galway; 15 in the Amy, wrecked March 23, at the Seven Heads, near Kinsale; 75 in the Mobile, wrecked September 29, on the Arklow Banks; 10 in the Ernesto, wrecked October 27, near Boscastle, Cornwall; 15 in the Minerva, wrecked November 11, near the Bar of Drogheda; 15 in the Ocean Queen, wrecked December 26, at Wembury, near the Plymouth Mewstone; 45 in the Louise Emile, wrecked December 28, at Dungeness; 15 in the Haggerston iron screw collier, lost in the gale of December 27, off Filey; 36 in the Lily, stranded December 28, in the Sound of the Isle of Man, when her cargo igVOL. XCV.

nited and she blew up; 13 in the Alcibiades, wrecked December 28, in Ballyteigue Bay, Wexford; and 10 in the Broad Oak, wrecked December 29, in Dunlogh Bay, Skibbereen. The remainder were lost in smaller numbers on the coast, or in vessels that foundered in the adjoining seas; making in all, 920.

1853.

JANUARY.

3. DREADFUL ACCIDENT ON THE BUCKINGHAMSHIRE RAILWAY. — A dreadful collision, causing great loss of life and limb, occurred on the Oxford branch of the NorthWestern Railway, from the carelessness or mistake of the guard or driver. In consequence of a partial falling in of Wolvercot Tunnel, two months since, the whole of the traffic between Oxford and Islip was carried on upon a single line. To prevent accidents, this part of the line was worked under strict directions conveyed between the stations by the telegraph; no train was allowed to leave one station till notice had arrived from the other that the rails were clear. At 5 P.M., the station-master at Islip B