and falls. The fourth round of the blinded horse closes the poem-a circumstance no less gratifying to the reader than to the poor animal himself.

We have opportunity to examine only one more ballad. "The Alchemist's Daughter," a dramatic sketch. Though last, it is not least, either in size or originality. So little are its style, arrangement, and object, like anything dramatic which ever preceded it, that it may as well be ranked with the other "lays," as not. Four persons are represented-Giacomo the alchemist; Rosalia, his daughter, married on the night previous to Bernardo; and Lorenzo, a servant. To these may be added "the Duke," an accomplice of Bernardo, but acting entirely behind the scenes. The author begins as usual, without preliminary

"Giacomo-Art sure of this?

Lorenzo-Ay, signior, very sure;

'Tis but a moment since I saw the thing."

What "the thing" is, which forms the principal hinge of the whole drama, we are no where clearly informed. But the energy of Giacomo amply atones for the omission. Hurriedly grasping the light, he rushes out to ascertain the truth and punish the guilty. Meanwhile, Lorenzo indulges in a learned soliloquy, three times as long as any other speech in the poem, replete with mysterious hints concerning the former night's marriage, and big with reports of suspected crimes which had escaped his master's blinder eyes. The dignity of the drama is well preserved by this trusty official, whose style differs in no respect from that of the more learned Giacomo and Bernardo. Probably the three had studied that " higher lore," about which the maid of Linden Lane was so thoroughly enlightened. The wedding must have been a queer ceremony; for says our faithful eye-witness

"Oh, what a night! It must be all a dream;
For twenty years since that I've wore a beard,
I've served my melancholy master here,
And never until now was such a night."

The circumstance of allowing a pair of mustaches and a goatee to sprout upon his phiz, seems to have been an epoch in our friend's autobiographical recollections.

What a night, fellow-reader! Uncertainty as to the nature of the calamity, renders the idea of it more terrible. While they were eating and drinking, did a servant rush before Giacomo-we mean Lorenzo-and exclaim-"The wind smote the house, and I only am left to tell thee?" Was the bride, (thinking of earlier days) carried to her room in a trance? Did it rain meteors? Or, lastly was the groom drunk? This was not the case. By the above quoted fearful exclamation, it is to be understood, that the events of that night differed slightly from those of other nights. Yet Lorenzo, not bewildered either by the ceremony or the weight of his beard, had carefully scrutinized each of the guests and was rewarded by some strange sights. His too careless master had

"Walked the halls, As if in search of something which was lost.”

(An expression, by the way, which very much resembles the algebraic formula OX0=0)

Our servant had also observed that Bernardo and the Duke were a very ugly kind of confectionary, to wit, "sugared villains;" and remembering "the thing" by which they had deceived Rosalia, he exclaims

"Oh holy Mother, that to villain hawks

Our dove should fall a prey! poor gentle dear."

This pious, natural, childlike, sympathizing expression soon gives way to manly rage. Hear him,

"Now if I had their necks within my grasp These fingers should be adders to their throats."

an ardor checked only by reflecting on his master's energy of purpose, which it seems was no way inferior to his own.

"He's not a man to spend his wrath in noise, But when his mind is made, with even pace He walks up to the deed and does his will.”

No language could more happily express our author's habitual perspicuity. At any important juncture we are to suppose Giacomo to be waiting silently and patiently until by some mysterious agency his mind is "made." Then he walks up

to the deed as easily as the old Saxon Jack and Jill went up the hill. Should any ask how he behaves before the manufacturing of his mind is finished, we answer that some such process may take place as Descartes attributes to brutes the movings of a machine whose propeller is our faithful and observing Lorenzo. But as this is not revealed, it becomes us to refrain from speculation, and drink in the abundant streams of knowledge vouchsafed by the soliliquizer. He speedily ascertains that Giacomo's mind is "made."

"I hear him coming; by his hurried step There's something done or will be very soon." Very rich!-ED.

This surmise is soon corroborated in a manner as abrupt to Lorenzo, as to the reader. Giacomo walks up to the deed, or as we say, "walks into it,"-by calling this faithful informer cheat and liar, and ordering him to leave the house! Yet under this apparent calamity Lorenzo is extremely cool. Either he had expected it, or the command was nothing new. His answer, therefore, is full of that philosophy which removes its possessor far above the mutations of this sublunary

existence.

"Well if it must be, then it must!" Rich again, by Jove!) Yet that this was not the effect of cowardice we have the ollowing to prove.

"But I could swear that what I said is truth, Though all the devils from the deepest hell Should rise to contradict me."

Luckily for the pious domestic he had found a paper which the confectionary villains had dropped, and which contained in substance the plot of the Duke and Bernardo. This immediately convinces Giacomo, unmakes his mind, causes him to walk back from, or out of the deed, and saves Lorenzo. The injured father bursts into a fit of indignation; bestows sundry appropriate epithets upon the aforesaid confectionary; and adopts the fearful resolution of devoting his remaining days to alchemy. In this last desperate resort of insulted worth, we still perceive traces of the energy which walks up to a deed. Every other philosopher has practised alchemy, from a love of

science, from avarice, or from a desire to rule the multitude of its spells. But neither avarice, ambition nor science influenced Giacomo; nor was it sorrow for "the thing" done to his daughter, nor a determination to leave for ever a perfidious world. Knowing some terrible secrets he determined to practise them upon the Duke and Bernardo, and thus accomplish his revenge. Their potency is soon exhibited. Bernardo being enticed into the laboratory is made to inhale a perfume which not only separates soul and body, but also gives the former to the devil before death. During this very interesting and Christian process, Giacomo soothes his last agonies by those favorite epithets of "villian," "impatient dog," &c., at the same time thrusting into his hand a paper whose charitable object is to gain for him, "speedy entrance at the infernal gate!" Our alchemist then pronounces a eulogy over the body, that showed how a pious and noble nature can stifle resentment after accomplishing its revenge. Evidently Giacomo was no Goth, not even a Vandal.

per

Immediately after, Rosalia enters, dressed in white, and bearing in her hand a small crucifix, over which the father forms some strange gesticulations. His reply to Rosalia's inquiry about her husband, is tenderly sympathizing.

This is one of the two references to ancient mythology, found in this volume of Lays and Ballads. The reader may imagine them to be interpolations by another hand; and indeed circumstantial evidences strongly corroborate this opinion. From the known consistency of our poet, the necessary offspring of his originality, it cannot be supposed that he would make use of that book stuff, which in the "Maid of Linden Lane," is styled "shallow science, shallow art," and whose misnomened philosophers, like gray spiders, are fit only to spin "misty tissues. Besides the "higher lore" had made him "weird." Still on the other hand it may be asked, if this is not a web of the enchanted shuttle, whence did it originate? What genius were suf

THE GREAT PACIFIC RAILROAD. NEW YORK CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.

In the Courier and Inquirer, (New York,) for Aug. 8th, we find a very full and satisfactory account of the proceedings of the New York Chamber of Commerce, in regard to Mr. Whitney's plan for a grand Pacific Railroad. The Chamber fully approves the plan, as given in Mr. Whitney's pamphlet. A full account of it has been given in our July number. We wish to add only a few points of argument in its favor, only lightly touched upon in that article, and which from the vast importance of the subject will bear repetition.

A committee had been appointed "to inquire into the expediency of any action, on the part of the Chamber, in relation to the proposed railroad of Mr. Whitney to the Pacific," and accordingly submitted a report.

The report touched first upon the importance of the plan, looking forward to the formation of a new State on the other side of the continent, and to the opening of an extended commerce with Asia. It adverted to the necessity of facilitating intercourse with our countrymen and fellow citizens on the Pacific. Assembling various considerations, it admitted the pressing necessity of some such measure, and argued that a work of the kind should be undertaken without delay. It details the main points of the plan, as we have already given them in our article alluded to above, and as they are given in Mr. W's pamphlet.

It mentions other plans suggested by other parties.

It returns to Mr. W's plan, and states objections that have been offered to it; one of these objections is, that the road will not perhaps pay for itself, and so come to a stand; another is, that the profits ought to be shared by Mr. Whitney with the people. The two objections balance each other very nicely.

From fifteen to twenty-five years is the estimated time of completion. Some persons think that a quarter of a century is a longer period than twenty-five years; but it is not. If you say the road will be finished in from fifteen to twenty-five years, it sounds very judicious; but if you say this road will demand an age, a quarter of a century, for its completion, you cast a damp over the imagination. If California becomes a rich and powerful State, it can shorten the period by pushing out a road to

meet Mr. Whitney's; but the plan of Mr. Whitney's road is not merely to serve California, but to provide a means of emigration to Oregon, and a rout for Asiatic commerce with this country and with Europe. For our own part, we do not believe if Mr. W's plan is adopted, that more than ten years will have elapsed before a perfect communication is established between the Atlantic and Pacific. Let Mr. Whitney carry out the road as fast and as far on as possible; should he fall short of the end, it will then be the duty of the Pacific and Atlantic States to come in to his aid; but he will need no aid. Energy and enterprise such as actuates our projector, with the remarkable judgment and foresight which he has already discovered in his management in these first and most difficult stages of the enterprise, the securing for it, and for himself, an unconnected and unassisted individual, the confidence of all parties, and of all sections of the country; such auspices need no prophet to read them.

To other plans submitted by other projectors the report found serious objections, and agreed that the proceeds of the sales of public lands ought to be relied upon for the expenses

of the work.

It conceded that Mr. Whitney is entitled to the credit of having offered the "first matured plan for a railroad, to connect the Atlantic with the Pacific across the continent." It also conceded that his plan and the location of his road from Lake Michigan is the correct one; it being imperatively necessary that this international communication "should be directly connected with the commerce of the vast inland seas of our continent."

It would also, urges the report, be the short

est route.

The report then suggests an amendment to Mr. Whitney's plan, namely, that the proceeds of the sales of land for the first five miles of the route"should be accounted for," and that after paying the cost of construction for the first ten miles, and a liberal compensation to Mr. Whitney, the remainder should be set apart as a fund for the finishing of the road, &c.; and that the work itself should then belong to the people, and be their "heritage."

To these emendations of the plan, Mr. P. M. Wetmore offered objections of such weight, that the report was set aside, and Mr. Whitney's plan approved by the Chamber, to use

the words of the "Courier and Inquirer," both "in its conception and in its details."

Mr. Wetmore's objections to the amendments proposed by the Report, strike us as altogether weighty and conclusive. He "was opposed to that recommendation of the Report which contemplated the withholding from Mr. Whitney the benefits that would result from the completion of the road, and vesting the property in the United States. He did not suppose any man could be found who could devote his life and means to forward an enterprise, of which the failure would ruin him, and the success-if successful-must accrue to the benefit of others. Besides, it was inexpedient, in his view, that the Government should have any property or interest in the matter."

We cannot but cordially assent to Mr. Wetmore's objections-that the Government should undertake a work which can better be accomplished by individual enterprise, and at individual risk, is no part of our creed. We maintain that the aid of Government can be constitutionally extended to works of internal improvement only when they are of a magnitude which renders their completion by companies, States, or individuals, impossible. Every improvement that can be undertaken by one man, is best accomplished by one man. When one man is unequal to the task, then let several combine; if a combination cannot effect it, and it is still agreed to be necessary to the public welfare, let towns and cities engage in it; if they cannot, then a State; if States fail, it must be undertaken by the nation. It has, however, been satisfactorily shown by Mr. Whitney, that this work can be accomplished by individual enterprise; and we hold that a true republican economy will therefore entrust it to him; and that government cannot justly engage in it until experience has shown that the individual projector cannot of himself accomplish it.

By the plan of Mr. Whitney, the work will pay for itself as it proceeds. The profits of the first sections of public land will of necessity be laid by by the contractor for the extension of the road. A failure to do this involves the failure of the entire scheme. And in case of such failure, the whole will revert to the original owners.

Now, no person ever doubted the constitutionality of a grant of land for public purposes to an individual. Land is granted to soldiers and pensioners, to academies and to colonists. Land may be granted in any case where the interests of the nation require it.

It is very commonly charged upon the Whigs by their opponents, and even incorporated as an article of opposition into the platforms of the other party, that they entertain "vast and unlimited schemes of internal improvement," calculated to ruin the finances, create an immense national debt, and increase

-a mere

na

to an injurious degree the patronage of the Executive. The charge is false and injurious "device of the enemy." The other party know very well that none but a few schemers entertain any such wild projects. The other party are themselves perfectly willing to appropriate the tional funds to national objects; the only difference we can discover, after some years of observation, between the two parties, is in the particular appropriations. The one party wished to apply the public money, before they took abolition ground, to the extension of the national territory. The $100,000,000 which they spent in the war, the Whigs would perhaps have spent in improving the navigation of the Mississippi river, and the harbors of the lakes. The Red Sea expedition was sent out under democratic rule; the money it cost might have been more profitably spent in the establishment of important light-houses; but such remarks are invidious; we will not oppose any measure calculated for the advancement of science. That, at least, is a national and a glorious object. We only wish to remind our readers that the two parties do not differ upon the ground that national funds must be priated for national purposes, differences arise upon the objects.

Now this pr mends itself e economists, and It is, like the public stocks, it costs nothin in a word, it el plicity.

h...

A grand

One of the g internal impro into "jobs" f commissioners Pacific railroa government commission, would ernment job; hundreds of persons wo apply for employment on it, large salaries would be given to the principal managers; at each change of dynasty the old managers and contractors would be turned off, and a new swarm come in; a committee of Congress would continually sit upon it; quarrels and jealousies would arise out of it; in brief, it would be like the introduction of a seton, or running ulcer, upon the body of the State. It would cost perhaps $200,000,000, would be fifty years in building, and prove a curse to all concerned in it.

Again, suppose a company with a capital stock of $100,000,000, like a vast South Sea scheme, with powers, military and judicial, for the management of such a road. It might be got up in a fit of national enthusiasm, and would end in the ruin of thousands. Twenty years would elapse before it could pay a dividend. In a word, we see nothing feasible that has