nounced the claims for which it was begun, much less have paid for the territory, and endeavored to secure the rights of their inhabitants by the protocol. Or-Mexico being quite broken-it renounced the idea of conquest, and made a voluntary purchase in the usual manner between equals. The treaty, with its protocol, was a compromise. Mexico wanted money, and we wanted land. Public opinion would not suffer our government to wrest the land; and Mexico, knowing this, and being willing to continue the war in her desultory manner, made a tolerable bargain. This was the victory of the peace party over the war party. If other persons, wiser and better informed, think differently, they have their opinion. That the bargain was a fair one, in every sense, we will not urge, but that we paid far more than the territory is worth to us, nay, that the advantages that we then saw in it were equal to the money expended in and guarantied to Mexico, we insist we have a right to think. The recent discovery of the gold mines only makes the bargain a worse one for ourselves; for, to support the army of emigrants in California, an annual outlay will be needed of at least fifty millions of the floating property of the nation, while the total annual yield of the mines, at the best esti

mate that we have seen, will not exceedtwenty-five millions of dollars, or half the amount; our new acquisitions will therefore cost us annually a sum nearly equal to the revenue of the United States. Mexico certainly lost nothing by the exchange.

To our occasional Contributors.

Our correspondents will confer a real favor by sending us fair copies, and not the original and sole MS. of their works. If an article is worth anything, it is worth the trouble of a fair copy. Not intending the least discourtesy to our occasional contributors, we yet find it necessary to say, in general, that time is not so cheap a commodity that we can conscientiously employ it in doing up and directing rejected copies of verses and short essays, to save authors the trouble of making fair transcripts of their own works. We hope, therefore, that no offense will be taken, if, in future, we fail to comply with the usual injunction, "to return the MS. if it be not used," unless it is too long to have been copied without considerable labor. A fair copy is also a favor to the printer and proof-reader, for which they are always grateful.

Nineveh and its Remains, with an Account of a Visit to the Chaldean Christians of Kurdistan, and the Yezidis, or Devil Worshippers, and an Inquiry into the Manners and Arts of the Ancient Assyrians. By AUSTEN HENRY LAYARD, Esq., D. C. L. 2 vols. 8vo. New York. G. P. Putnam.

The publication of this work in England has attracted the attention so largely of the public and the press, that it is only necessary for us to announce the issue of this American edition in a style every way creditable, not only to the enterprise of the publisher, but to the press of the country.

Of the merits of the work itself it is impossible for us to speak worthily in a brief notice. The wonderful discovery of Dr. Layard is one of the remarkable circumstances of the age, and must intensely interest every intelligent mind. Whilst with the minute detail of his persevering exhumation of those palaces and

temples of a forgotten race, with their curious sculptures, he has given us such graphic pictures of Arab life, and such an interesting account of that most interesting remnant of a race, the Chaldean Christians, as would of themselves have made one of the most remarkable books of the day. Indeed, we think some of his descriptions in this way are unequalled by anything we have read. We would particularly instance his visit to the great Shammar tribe. Several descriptions in this chapter convey such vivid pictures to the mind's eye of that probably most picturesque of all scenes, a large Arab encampment, or migration with its flocks, herds, and camels, that they seem more like the colorings of canvass. We need say no more, for no reader of books can voluntarily omit this one.

The second volume having just been issued, we have not had time to examine it as yet, but are extremely eager to see what Mr. Layard makes of the various inscriptions he has found.