Of these, 40,630 were landed at ports West of Detroit and principally on the Western shore of Lake Michigan from Shebrygan to Chicago.

These are the passengers going one way and by steamboats. But if those coming from the West, in vessels of all sorts, be added, and those passing and repassing from port to port, it will not be unreasonable to state at 200,000, the number of persons who were embarked on the upper lakes in that year. If to these be added the number of passengers on Lake Ontario, and thence through the Welland Canal to the upper lake, the aggregate would not fall short of a quarter of a million of human beings, whose lives areannually hazarded on these lakes. Such is the present state of the navigation and commerce of the great lakes; but when the Illinois and Michigan Canal, to terminate at Chicago, which connects the Mississippi with Lake Michigan, is finished-when Wisconsin, the finest territory in the Union, shall be filled up and cultivated, and the process is now rapidly going on-and when a Railroad or Canal shall traverse its level prairies and bring into connection the upper Mississippi and the lake, who shall even conjecture the extent of commerce and navigation then to be carried on over these great inland seas? The commerce of the port of Buffalo alone, during the year 1845, amounted to $33,000,000 in value; that of all the other ports on the lake would exceed that sum, and probably swell the total to $70,000,000, and even that large figure fails to mark the real value of the whole lake trade, seeing that a considerable portion of it goes through the Welland Canal, direct to Canadian ports.

In duly considering the facts here brought together, it will, it is thought, be readily admitted, that when Mr. Polk treats the object for which appropriations were made by the River and Harbor bill vetoed by him, as of secondary importance to the Mexican war, and of no pressing urgency, he does great violence to truth. It is utterly inconsistent with

every notion of the uses of Government to say, that interests such as we have shown to exist, in constant peril from causes susceptible of removal, are not entitled to claim that in some shape and by some competent power, these perils shall be abated. No one will maintain that a sagacious and practical people have agreed to bind themselves into a form of government which is powerless to remove patent evils-and that the force of certain metaphysical abstractions is such, that countless lives and countless treasure may be annually destroyed, because that people cannot agree where the power is placed to apply the remedy, which all admit can be effectually applied. Such power must reside somewhere in every social and political organization, and when it is shown where, from the nature of things, it cannot reside, a great step is made towards determining where, of necessity, it must reside.

In regard to the Mississippi, Mr. Calhoun's Report already so copiously referred to, after asking "where the power, and where the duty, to improve the navigation of the Mississippi and its tributaries," thus proceeds to answer :

"It is certainly not that of individuals; their means and power. Nor is it that of the the improvement is beyond the reach of several States bordering on its navigable waters. It is also beyond their means and power acting separately. Nor can it be done by their united and joint action. There are 16 States and two Territories lying wholly or partly within the valley of the Mississippi, and there still is ample space for several more-these all have a common interest in its commerce-their united and joint action would be requisite for the improvement of the navigation. But the only means by which that could be done, is expressly prohibited by the 10th Sec. 1st Art. of the Constitution, which provides that "No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation." But if neither individuals nor States acting separately or jointly, have the power to improve its navigation, it must belong to the Federal Government, if the power exist at all, as there is no other agency or authority in our system of Government by

which it could be exercised."

This is well and soundly said, and every word of it is alike applicable to the case of the lakes-even in a greater degree indeed, than to that of the Mississippi.

Mr. Calhoun then proceeds to inquire under what provision of the Constitution the power can be exercised. It must be

comprised, he argues, among the expressly granted and enumerated powers, or among those necessary and proper to carry them into effect." If not to be found among them it does not exist at all.

It is admitted that whether the Federal Government possesses the power or not, it has heretofore acted on the supposition that it did," as the numerous acts of Congress for the improvement of the Mississippi, including its principal tributaries, abundantly prove." These appropriations so far as appear-were made under what is usually called the money power, that power which Madison, Monroe, and Jackson considered as still preserving to the Federal Government the means of attaining the great ends of internal improvement, even while they denied to that Government the right to carry on such improvement, directly.

But Mr. Calhoun is not content with this source of the power, and he looks elsewhere for it and after some fine spun metaphysics about the "common defence" and the general welfare," which he in like manner rejects as the source of this power, he finds it at last, though limited in degree, and tied up by subtleties most sophistical, in the authority granted to the Federal Government "to regulate Commerce with foreign nations and among the States."

After adverting to the constant and uncontroverted exercise of this power in establishing lighthouses, beacons, piers, &c. on the Atlantic, Mr. Calhoun assumes that the good sense of the thing requires that a like practice on the lakes and the great inland water-courses can be maintained and justified under the same provision.

Hence, says he, the Committee " are of opinion that it (the power of Congress) extends to removing all obstructions within the channel of the Mississippi, the removal of which would add to the safety and facility of its navigation. It includes the removal of snags, logs, rocks, shoals, sand-breaks, bars-including that at its mouth, and trees projecting over or liable to slide into its channel-where the removal would improve or secure the navigation."

This is all clear and undoubted; but in the next breath, Mr. Calhoun limits this power to the case where a river bounds three or more States, and denies that it can be rightfully exercised where a river runs clearly through one State, or between two States. The reasoning is too

superfine for use, and quite inconsistent with the robust arguments of other portions of the Report.

After establishing the right of the Federal Government to improve the Mississippi-even to the cutting down and removal of trees on its banks-Mr. Calhoun denies that "Harbors or canals round falls" in the river can be justly constructed under this power! It would be perfectly competent, according to such reasoning, for the Federal Government to blast and clear away the falls of the Ohio, for instance at Louisville-which at an enormous expense might probably be done-but it is not competent to obtain the same object, that of facilitating the navigation, by turning those falls with a sufficient canal!! So again, it is admitted that the Federal Government may dredge out, improve and render more secure, any existing harbor; but they may not, however valuable the commerce that may have sprung up to require it, form a new harbor!!!

And yet the men who indulge in such hair-splitting subtleties, and, where great benefit is certain to grow out of a common sense and liberal construction of the Constitution, insist upon adhering to its letter, have no scruples at other times, and for the furtherance of one special interest -that of slavery-to open wide the door of the Constitution.

Mr. Polk and Mr. Calhoun would search in vain for the provision of the Constitution which will justify the admission of Texas into the Union, in the manner in which that State was admitted. They can find no warrant in it, for an admission by act of Congress to the original limited partnership of these United States, of a foreign territory and all its citizens. Such a power belongs, if it exist at all, to the treaty-making branch: nor can even that justify cancelling two Representatives in Congress to the sparse white population of that foreign territory, numerically below the ratio which in the United States is required for one Representative-thus giving to Texas twice the weight in the popular branch possessed by Delaware-one of the old thirteen original founders of the Constitution—and equal weight in the Senate.

The same sticklers for the letter "which killeth" can find authority in the Constitution to fit out exploring expeditions, by land and by water, can approach the hyperborean rigors of the South pole, in their effort to solve a problem in geogra

CUPID SMITH was by no means an uncommon man. We do not remember that anybody ever called him one of the most remarkable men of the age. He was one of those persons who pass in a crowd without being seen; one who impresses you with the thought, the first time you happen to meet him, that you must have seen him before; and when you meet him a second time, causes you to doubt whether or no you ever did see him before so nearly did he resemble the average of humanity. He was of middle age, middle size, and in middling circumstances. But he once met with an uncommon adventure, which serves to segregate him from the rest of his tribe. Then there was something uncommon in his very common name. Cu pid and Smith are both common names enough, but it is not often that we see them united. We are not positive that his Christian name was Cupid. Perhaps not. But we are positive that we never heard him called by any other. He was a very smiling, agreeable gentleman, with a fine head of glossy, brown hair, which curled pleasantly round his very common face, and, together with his attention to the ladies, had probably caused his friends to apply to him the appellation of the little curly-headed God of Love. Cupid was unmarried, of course; it would be a strange freak for the God of Love to marry. Catch him doing such a thing. However, our Cupid really had a desire to marry: why he never did, is more than we know; but we know why he did not marry one of the Miss Prymsticks, and the reason of it will form the burden of our story. We could divulge that reason at a word, and put the reader out of suspense at once, and bring our story to an immediate close: and so might a mother with a spoonful of laudanum put an end to the life of her infant, and save herself the trouble of bringing it up, and

the infant the trouble of living. But magazine authors have an affection for their offspring, as well as other people, and feel it a sacred duty to keep them alive as long as possible. And even this little bit of a digression has added some lines to the span of our bantling's life, as you see, without doing anybody any harm; and also shown you how easy a matter it is to get up a magazine story, nothing being necessary with a practiced writer but pen, ink and paper, a subject and sure pay. But to resume the thread of our story.

Cupid Smith had some kind of employment in Wall street. What it was we do not know; but it was a gentlemanly occupation which never soiled his hands, however much it might have soiled his thoughts; he was always dressed exceedingly well, a little within the extreme of the fashion, and was always at leisure of an evening. Consequently he was a valuable acquaintance to ladies of a certain age, and was always willing to devote his time to them, but he never manifested any particular desire to devote any money to their enjoyments. We have heard it said, but mind it is only what the newspapers call an on dit, that in passing by an ice-cream saloon with a lady on his arm, or a pair of them on his arms, he never could be induced by any sly hints or inuendoes to stop, but on the contrary was certain to quicken his pace and pretend to be in a great hurry to get home. Ladies are terrible scandalizers, and they will give a gentleman a worse name for refusing them a glass of icecream, than for breaking half the laws of the Decalogue; and we suspect that the ladies of Cupid's circle had told as many bad things of him as though he had been a downright Don Giovanni. And this might have been one reason why he had never succeeded in obtaining any