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and therefore you may be curious to hear some portion of it. One of the representatives procured for me an introduction into the body of the house, and, arriving early, we entered the Speaker's room, and had an agreeable conversation with him before the business proceedings commenced. The moment that the Speaker had taken his seat in the house, a venerable-looking old man, who was sitting below him, immediately rose, and with uplifted hands in adoration, proceeded to invoke a blessing upon the deliberations of the day, and with trembling steps retired as soon as he had ended. I remarked to my friend the member, that Congress did not follow our example in England, seeing that they allowed the chaplain of the house to enter their presence unadorned by sacerdotal garments. His reply was, "You will not see any finery here,-neither the Speaker nor any official is distinguishable by any outward badge of servitude. The old gentleman, the chaplain, as you are pleased to designate him, is one of the few remaining officers who served his country in the war of independence, and, as he is now 94 years of age, and is not well provided for, he is willing to accept a small sum annually, not as a pension-you know that pensioners we have nonebut by way of compensation for coming once a day blessing upon what we are doing." Every member has a writing desk before him, and nearly every one appeared absorbed in giving attention to his correspondence. Very few of them appeared to be having regard to the proceedings of the house, and it was very common to see a member address the house under considerable excitement, whilst those who were sitting close at hand were coolly engaged in writing letters or turn

to ask a

ing over folds of papers, and appearing perfectly tranquil and unimpassioned. One instance of the prevailing irregularity and want of attention which I noticed, occurred in taking the votes.

A member

whose name was called over answered "Aye." Some time afterwards this gentleman appeared to discover that he had made a mistake, and appealed to the speaker, requesting that his vote might be reversed, alleging, as his reason, that he had been engaged at his desk, and had inadvertently voted the wrong way. Leave was given and the vote was reversed. Another member moved a resolution for a grant of money to explore the river Niger in Africa, and the clerk at the table in reading the form of resolution proposed to the House, fell into the very understandable error of proposing a grant of money for exploring the river "Nigger!" There were other proceedings which would be open to remark, as indicating a demeanour less dignified than would appear becoming of those upon whom there rests so weighty a responsibility.

SLAVERY.

Discussions of a party political character were frequent, and, as is often the case, the subjects upon which the parties appeared most confident, often proved to be those upon which, in reality, they were most nervous. For instance, slavery was in everybody's mouth. Those from the north would exclaim against the sin and the reproach brought upon their country by the proceedings of the south, always taking care to make sufficient parade of their own example in having liberated the slaves which had belonged to themselves. The southerners were not slow to make the retort, reminding those of the north that they had taken care to keep possession of their slaves until they had got a sufficient supply of white persons had emigrated from Ireland and from Germany, whom they greatly preferred to serve them; and it was then, and not before, that they had turned their slaves adrift, and had called upon the rest of the world to extol their philanthropy, and upon the southerners, who had no white emigrants to fall back upon, to follow their example. That the cases were very different,

who

and the example could not be followed. Incidental remarks bearing upon the subject were often being bandied about. The southerners would appeal to the northern men, whether they had ever known an instance in which a member of an American family had become a domestic servant, and the answer uniformly given was, seldom or never, that such a case was almost unknown. Upon this admission, the conclusion was considered as inevitable, namely, that the parties requiring such servants would have retained to this day the slaves they had held, if the emigrants from Europe had not, in so agreeable a manner, superseded the necessity of their retaining possession of them any longer. It was remarked of the negro race that in those states where they had been liberated from slavery, they had not only not increased as the white population had done, but that they had gradually diminished in numbers, and that this was attributed to their want of forethought, the neglect of their children in infancy, and the improvident and reprehensible courses which they pursued. A gentleman from Philadelphia, an eminent merchant, one of the visiting directors of a large philanthropic institution, and who was by no means favourable to slavery, expressed his sorrow and regret in making the statement of his belief that within a mile of his own city residence he could find, in the dwellings of the free blacks, a greater extent of distress, squalor, and misery, than could probably be found in any other place. These remarks may serve to indicate the state of party feeling, and the spirit in which the subject was being discussed in

Washington. The northern people feel sore, and deem themselves dishonoured, by the slavery of the south.

ANDREW MARVEL,

BY GEORGE DAWSON, ESQ., M.A.

[Delivered at the Southwark Literary Institution, London, April, 1839 Reprinted from the "Phonetic Journal."]

AMONGST English worthies of a second rank, one of the most noble of the kind is this man, Andrew Marvel. He lives by virtue of one anecdote and one characteristic. The anecdote we shall hereafter refer to, and the characteristic you will see running through the whole of his life. He was one of the most incorruptible Englishmen that ever lived: he lived in days the most corrupt and thoroughly des picable that England ever knew; in the reign of the weakest, and at the same time the vilest monarch that ever disgraced the English throne, Charles the Second. He was as a king as vile as he was as a man, and nothing but the grovelling we shall have to look into bye-and-bye, backed by the church, and therefore followed by the state, could ever have in duced a man to believe the king worthy of his support, or induced great men to grovel at his feet. All the great trees in England were cut down except two or three, and amongst these, the tallest and most noble was this Andrew Marvel.

In following the rule that you cannot know much about a man unless you know something of his father (and I need not remind you that what we have done for ourselves is often very little, and what our fathers have done for us is often the largest part of anything distinguishing about us) we shall have to

look a little into his family. His father was a native of Cambridge, and master of the grammar school at Hull. He was a very upright, bold, courageous Englishman. He had a friend, a lady on the other side of the Humber. She had an only daughter upon whom she greatly doted. This daughter crossed the river to attend a family baptism in Marvel's household, and she, anxious to get back the next day, went down to the water side, Mr. Marvel senior attending her. And although the boatman warned her, yet the girl was wilful, and determined to cross, for fear her mother should be anxious. Mr. Marvel, too, a thorough gentleman, seeing that she had crossed for his pleasure, determined to cross with her, and so sure and certain did he feel of the result of that short passage, that just as the boat was putting off, he threw his gold-headed cane on to the shore, and asked whoever might pick it up to give it to his son, and then with that cheerfulness anybody for heaven." men always feel, he cried out, “Oh, across the river, the boat upset, and both the geneBefore they had got half rous man and the enthusiastic girl met their death. That mother, after her grief was over, sent for Andrew, and at her death left him her little fortune. Marvel was born 15th November, 1620. At 15 years of age he went to Cambridge, and entered Trinity. There he stayed until they sent a recruiting party to Cambridge. They sent their recruiting Sergeants where young men were most rife, and unfortunately enlisted Marvel into their ranks. After a long and unremitting chase, he was found and carried back in triumph to Cambridge. Andrew did not approve of the company of the regiment

that perfect

enough to be induced to enlist again. We do not see much of Marvel's college life, except one uglylooking entry in the books-"It is agreed by the master and seniors that Mr. Carter, Dominus Wakefield, Dominus Marvel, Dominus Waterhouse, and Domi

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