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. Cupid 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

lady's hand. Probably he lost half a dozen fortunes for the sake of saving a shilling.

At last, however, Mr. Smith's great name-sake, the little God Cupid, in one of his freaks, directed the two Miss Prymsticks, or the two Misses Prymstick, we don't remember the fashionable way, to take up their residence for a couple of winter months, at the boarding-house where Mr. Smith lived. These two ladies were sisters; the eldest, Caroline, was probably forty-the younger, Charlotte, thirty-eight. They looked very much alike and were very much alike, and they were never more alike in anything than in liking Cupid Smith. Hasn't he fine teeth, Caroline?" "Hasn't he beautiful hair, Charlotte?" they exclaimed together, after the first meeting. Mr. Smith quietly observed to a friend of his, "A pair of fine girls, the Miss Prymsticks. I wonder who they are?" It was an easy matter to learn exactly who they were; and Mr. Smith, very much to his satisfaction, learned that they were the orphan daughters of a jobbing grocer who had died some ten years before, and left them quite a little fortune, the interest of which enabled them to live very genteelly in a cottage ornée at Bloomingdale, and to contribute largely to several missionary enterprises. We do not know that Mr. Smith actually redoubled his attentions to the two Miss Prymsticks after he received this information, but he was suffificiently attentive to them; and let people say what they please of his manners, we are knowing to the fact that he treated them to ice-creams at Thompson's twice in one month. And such is the power of love on the mere externals of our nature, supposing Mr. Smith to have been influenced by that tender passion, we do not hesitate to say that his hair assumed a darker hue and a glossier surface, and even his teeth shone with a preternatural brightness, after his acquaintance with

Caroline and Charlotte Prymstick. His eyes, it is true, remained about the same as they had been, but their sparkles were probably perceived by the two sisters: for our own part we wondered at their dullness considering the happy excitement under which he must have labored.

Things wore a very smiling, a very cheerful, and a very contented outside with Caroline and Charlotte Prymstick, and Cupid Smith, for two whole months, let the same things have been ever so much the reverse inside. It is a great thing to appear happy, even, for two months. Mr. Smith was no doubt a happy man every way. He felt morally sure that one of the sisters, and her fortune, would be his, when he made up his mind which one he would take; the only thing that he grieved about was the strictness of the laws which forbade polygamy, for he would have been too happy to espouse both of them, and take the care of their fortunes, poor things! The young ladies felt equally certain that one of them could have Mr. Smith; but as they could not, like him, make an election, they were in a state of feverish anxiety night after night, amounting almost to one of those terrible cases of madness which we meet with in novels. At one time the chances seemed in favor of Caroline, at another Cupid seemed to be pointing his arrows at Charlotte. But we leave our readers to judge of the feelings of hope and despair which alternately scourged the hearts of these amiable young ladies. We are sure that they can be much more easily imagined than described. Indeed, nothing can be more easy than to imagine such feelings, and nothing more difficult, in the way of description, than to describe them.

Not to interrupt the train of reflection too suddenly into which our reader has probably fallen, we will pause for a moment before entering on the second division of our story.

The blasts of winter had given way to the soft breath of spring; the hillocks of ice and snow, which had long impeded the progress of the traveler as he wended his way from Union Square to Wall street, had disappeared and left pools of mud at the crossings of the streets: cloaks had given place to shawls, and marabout feathers to crape roses; and many other

changes equally important had taken place, which we will omit, because we are only writing a magazine story, and not a novel like those by Mr. James and Mr. Simms. To be very brief, then, and comprehensible, it was spring, and the two Misses Prymstick had returned to Sweet-Brier Cottage without having received any intimation from Mr. Smith of

his inclinations or intentions, excepting in a very general manner. It is true that Miss Caroline thought that he had shown rather more tenderness towards her, and had pressed her hand at parting a little more warmly than he had done to her sister, but then Miss Charlotte thought exactly the same respecting herself. The truth of the matter was that he had not shown the least partiality, neither did he feel any. But as soon as he felt relieved of the witchery of their personal charms he began to settle his thoughts upon Charlotte Prymstick. It was something to be on this side of forty, even though the distance was so short. Mr. Smith was something the other side of that venerable period himself, and any young lady under it was quite a girl. Having once allowed himself to think of Charlotte apart from her sister, he was not long in arraying her in a thousand graces which Caroline did not possess. Her complexion was better, her teeth whiter, her form more perfect, her foot smaller, her voice sweeter, her mind more elevated, for Mr. Smith would talk of elevated minds in spite of Wall street, and, what was of more importance, she had the most love for him. But we who knew these young ladies, well knew that Mr. Smith was mistaken in all of these particulars. The only difference between these unfortunate sisters was that of age, and that was too little to care about. However, we did not know at the time what thoughts had taken possession of Mr. Smith's mind, and therefore we could not set him right in the matter. So he went on day after day, and night after night, stuffing himself and filling up all the pores of his capacious heart with thoughts of Charlotte Prymstick, until the image of the young lady completely occupied every part of his system. It was just such another marriage of souls as took place in the beginning of things, when the original Cupid and Miss Psyche made their most memorable and desirable match. At last, Mr. Smith being entirely possessed with the image of Miss Charlotte Prymstick, felt himself irresistibly impelled towards her by that secret influence which men are beginning to understand since they have begun to make researches and discoveries in the science of Psydunamy; and finding that it would be of no use to attempt to hold out longer, he sent word to the sisters that he would pay them a visit of a Saturday night and remain with them at SweetBrier Cottage until Monday morning; in

tending to watch an opportunity of declaring his love to Miss Charlotte when she was alone, and, if she should reject him, to offer himself to her sister before they could have an opportunity to confer together.

The sisters were thrown into an indescribable tumult by Mr. Smith's message; and, as women always do on such occasions, immediately turned the house upside down, and had it scrubbed from garret to cellar; just as if Mr. Smith was going to inspect every closet and cupboard with his eye-glass. Then they began to inspect their Jars of preserves, and fretted themselves into a high fever in trying to think of something suitable for dinner. All their proceedings were on the most extensive and lavish scale, and if it had been possible to eat gold it would have been offered to Cupid for his supper. But nature has so ordered things, for wise purposes we have no doubt, that high and low, rich and poor, the favored and the oppressed, the master and the slave, must all come down to the same level in receiving sustenance from the bounteous Giver of all good. The same air and water and bread necessary for the slave are also necessary for the master. We live upon neither eagles nor bank bills; and although it would not be utterly impossible, as we know from our historical reading, to swallow a pearl dissolved in vinegar, yet nobody would take such a potation in preference to pure water. In spite, therefore, of the Cleopatraish desires of the Misses Prymstick, when their Anthony made his appearance at Sweet-Brier Cottage they were forced to see him sit at their table and eat a slice of dry toast and drink a cup of weak tea, the whole of which could not have cost fivepence.

And they were so willing and so able to feed him upon gold, and dissolve pearls in his drink! Why, what a mortification is this! To sweat and toil, and sacrifice blessed nights and days to the getting of money and then not to be able to swallow a sixpence more than the happy healthy creature who has laughed at care and grown old without a dollar at interest. Never did their wealth seem so small in the eyes of the Misses Prymstick, as when they saw Cupid sitting at their table and felt the impotence of money to add in the smallest degree to his pleasures. Oh! it would have drawn tears from the eyes of John Jacob Astor to see them in their distress. Why, anybody