This municipal court, the principal and primitive form of western government, has proved a perfect polypus, if we regard the present almost countless municipal subdivisions into which the western country has been distributed. This court had a limited jurisdiction and might hold monthly sessions for the dispatch of ordinary business. It was under the old constitution of Virginia a fiscal, as well as a judicial tribunal. It first went into operation at Harrodsburg in 1777.

Colonel Bowman promptly arranged the citizens, whether permanent residents or not, in companies and batallions. Thus was organized the infant colony of Virginia, under the command of a county lieutenant with the rank of colonel. Nor was it an imperfect type of their ancestors, who had migrated to Jamestown and founded the parent Commonwealth. Let us for a moment consider the situation of our pioneers, at this period of their history. They were posted in the heart of the most favorite hunting ground of numerous and hostile tribes of ferocious savages, on the north and upon the south. It was a ground endeared to these tribes by its profusion of the finest game, subsisting on the luxuriant vegetation of this great natural park, in fatness not surpassed by the flocks and herds of agricultural society. It was emphatically the Eden of the red man. Was it then wonderful that all his fiercest passions and wildest energies should be aroused in its defence against an enemy whose success was the Indian's downfall? So wide spread were the enemies, into whose power our hand-ful of hunters had thrown themselves, that they occupied the present territory of Tennessee, and the whole northwestern side of the Ohio river, now embracing the States of Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana. These territories now embracing with a sparse population of five millions and a half of people, were the stronghold of the most ferocious and warlike savages, on this continent. They had frequently wasted the frontiers of the Carolinas, Pennsylvania and Virginia with the tomahawk and fire. Moreover the enemy was freely, at this time, and throughout a contest of twenty years, assisted by the arts and the treasure of Great Britain, feasted and furnished with arms by her military officers, from Detroit to Kaskaskia. Yet this little band of pioneers, so unequally matched with their enemies, was separated, by three or four hundred miles of Indian wilderness from the nearest fort of their countrymen at Pittsburg, and fully six hundred miles from the seat of government of Virginia, with forest and wilderness between them. Under such appaling circumstances may not this forlorn hope of our first settlers in the western wilderness bear some honorable comparison with the gallant, daring and noble enterprise of the fathers of our great republic, who led the way across the Atlantic waves, and

Benjamin Logan was appointed first colonel of Kentucky county, and Anthony Bledsol first lieutenant-colonel: Levi Todd as the first clerk.

founded an empire of freedom for the world, at Jamestown and Plymouth?

But well might the Indians have contested this fatal lodgment of ancient enemies in their fairest hunting grounds, with the last drop of their blood-well might they have anticipated the evils in store for them, and their whole race from this stand of the white man, in the midst of their great western park-the great natural preserve of the game which subsisted their people. They had seen the progress of the hated race from the Atlantic to the eastern side of the Alleghanies, and what better fate could they have expected in the West from the same antagonistic race of men?

The very treaty of Wataga implies considerable amity on the part of the Cherokees: though Boone was told on this very treaty by an old Indian chief who took him by the hand; "Brother," said the chief, "we have given you a fine land, but I believe you will have much trouble in settling it.* Could the Indian have alluded to the claims of the north-western tribes to the very grounds alienated to the whites by his countrymen? Yet the slightest reflection, much more the sagacity native to the Indian, must have suggested the fatality to them of this settlement of the white man south of the Ohio. The genius which had inspired their Pontiac, and which afterwards animated the Turtle and Tecumseh, could not have been more nobly exercised, than in crushing this daring encroachment upon their forests.

But combination is difficult, if not impossible, with tribes so hostile to each other; their own internal divisions are their most destructive enemies. These have furnished every European enemy by turns with their most powerful arms against them. Never, but by spasmodic efforts and by the inspiration of their most gifted chiefs have they been able to effect any combined effort against the whites.

To this remark, the celebrated confederacy of the Six Nations presents an exception, which is unrivalled among the tribes north of Mexico.

• Filson, 77.

THE MINING MAGAZINE.

This periodical is one of the most valuable and leading publications in the United States. The field which it occupies is comparatively a new one in American literature, and its labor in the development of our mineral resources, adds lustre to the glory of the country. While every reader of its pages is enlightened on a subject, which is one of the great bases of civilization and substantial progress, he, who is interested in iron, coal, copper, lead, silver or gold, is blind to his own

interests, if he does not patronize this work, and profit by its con

tents.

We hope to see the vast beds and mountains of minerals in Missouri occupying a wider space in the Magazine, and to hear that this periodical receives liberal subscriptions from the West.

The Mining Magazine is published monthly, at Five dollars per annum, payable in advance, by WM. J. TENNEY, 142 Fulton Street, New York, to which address all communications should be sent.

MUSIC.

Messrs. BALMER & WEBER, of St. Louis, are publishing a large variety of beautiful and brilliant musical pieces; and the fineness of the mechanical execution of the print is in tone with the melody of the music.

We have observed and heard a great many of these pieces, and consider, with those who are acknowledged connoisseurs, that the "Mound City Waltzes," fair samples of the style, are bound to turn the head and heart of lovers of this art by their fascinating charms.

We have heretofore expressed our opinion of the superior social benefit of combining the finest sentiments of friendship, of affection and of country, with the finest musical composition, and hope that the public taste will soon make a greater demand for this combined satisfaction.

Translated from the German.

My heart, this question answer,
Tell me what love is? say!

Two souls with one emotion,
Two hearts with single sway.

MY HEART.

A Song.

And tell me where love comes from?
From beauty to the heart.
And say, how does love vanish?
True love cannot depart.

And when is love the purest?
When free from selfish will.
And when is love the deepest?
When flowing, strong and still.

And when is love the richest?

When giving without claims.
And what words does love talk with?
It does not talk, it flames.

Mein Herz, ich will dich fragen,
Was ist denn Liebe? fag'!
Zwei Seelen und ein Gedanken,
Zwei Herzen und ein Schlag.

Und sprich, woher kommt Liebe ?
Sie kommt, und sie ist da.
Und sprich, wie schwindet Liebe ?
Die war's nicht, der's geschah.

Und wenn ist Lieb' am reinsten ?
Wenn sie sich selbst vergißt.
Und wenn ist Lieb' am tiefsten?
Wenn sie am stillsten ist.

Und wenn ist Lieb' am reichsten ?
Das ist sie wenn sie giebt.
Und sprich, wie rebet Liebe ?
Sie rebet nicht, sie liebt.

No public measure has go fully occupied the attention of the American people for several years past as the construction of a railway from the Mississippi river to the Pacific ocean. The subject has been discussed in all its bearings and aspects by the press, by candidates at the hustings, by conventions called for that especial object, by State Legislatures, and by Congress; and never, perhaps, has the voice of the nation been more distinctly pronounced, or more unanimous upon any one subject, than in favor of this great enterprise.

It is true, there has been a want of agreement in respect to location, and, also, touching the amount of aid to be extended by the General Government, and the manner of conducting the work: all this was natural; it was to be expected that each of the great divisions of the country would desire the location to be made where it would best promote their respective interests. It was natural, also, that men should differ in opinion in respect to the amount of aid to be appropriated by Congress, and upon many other points involved in the economy of carrying on the work. But all seemed to agree that the road was necessary as a social and political bond to strengthen and conserve the union of the inhabitants of the eastern and western slopes of the continent; that it was necessary as a means of national defence; as a means of extending our commerce, and of developing the natural and industrial resources of the entire country. Nor have we heard of any objection being urged against an appropriation on the part of Congress, sufficient in amount, to insure the accomplishment of the work.

In view of these facts, we were authorized to expect that the appropriate committees in Congress would take a liberal, compre

hensive and statesmanlike view of the subject, and report a bill to their respective Houses which would correspond with the national sentiment, in making certain and ample provision for the construction of the work in the shortest time compatable with a reasonable economy. And, that their conceptions rising to the grandeur of the enterprise embracing the mighty results expected from its consummation, would bring forth a scheme combining the elements necessary to insure a speedy consummation of the work, and at the same time promote the settlement and improvement of the region through which the road might be located.

But we are constrained to say that, to our view, the principles and provisions of the bill reported to the Senate by its committee are narrow in conception and badly digested. The aid proposed

is, in our opinion, totally inadequate to the object, and is withal embarrassed with so many contingencies that it is doubtful whether capitalists will regard it as any inducement whatever to the undertaking of the enterprise.

Except the right of way, the only aid proposed by the bill, consists of twenty sections of land for each mile of road, to be located in alternate sections within twenty miles of the line.

We have been seeking information touching the character of the country between the Western States and the Pacific ocean for many years, and we are fully persuaded that at least three fourths of the land that would fall to the lot of the contractors for the work on any line of road commencing on the border of either of the States west of the Mississippi, would not, in twenty years, sell for an amount sufficient to pay the cost of surveying it. We believe that an average of five sections of saleable land to the mile of road is a large estimate, and, that this could not be made available at an average of more than one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre for it is to be remembered that one half of this land must be located at distances ranging from ten to twenty miles from the road.

Hence, according to our estimate, the right of way and four thousand dollars per mile is all the "material aid" proposed to be given by the Government to the most important national work ever undertaken by any people. But even this is encumbered and embarrassed with provisions and restrictions which are, in our opinion, calculated to lessen the value of the enterprise, to those who may build the road, to an amount at least equal to the value