formation of the Federal government, has Congress attempted to perform its duty in this respect. The first bankrupt law was repealed, before it had been in operation long enough for a fair experiment. The second is now to share the same fate. Whatever mischief it was capable of doing by its retrospective operation, dissolving the obligation of contracts which were made when no such law was in existence is already done. Whatever good it was capable of performing as an established element of the commercial law of the country, by discouraging extravagant credit, or by enabling creditors, in any part of the country, to compel a dishonest and defaulting debtor in any other part of the country to surrender his property-commercial men have hardly begun to realize. Thus we are to have a new instance of that instability of legislation, so unpropitious to industry and so disastrous to morals, which afflicts the country.

The Postmaster General recommends in his report the reduction of postage, and in order to this he recommends-not the abolition, but the regulation of the franking privilege. This will end in nothing. The franking privilege cannot be regulated. The entire abolition of that privilege, at least in the form in which it now exists, is indispensable to any thorough reformation. Such reduction of postage as may be effected while franking is retained, will be of little account.

The President recommends a revision of the tariff of duties on imports, which has just gone into operation. The same thing we perceive is urged by some of the leading journals of the tariff party. We cannot but express our regret that the framers of this new tariff-if we may call that new, which so soon waxes old and is ready to vanish away-should have proceeded with so resolute a defiance of whatever is simple and well established in political economy, as to be compelled in less than half a year to attempt the emendation of their own work.

It is not probable that any thing will give rise to more debate, or will occupy more time, than the proposal to refund to General Jackson the amount of a fine, imposed on him by a legal tribunal in New Orleans, for a contempt of court, soon after the close of the last war.

This proposal, though endorsed by the chief magistrate of the United States, may be pronounced the latest political humbug, and seems to our view a little meaner on the part of those who have got it up, than any other that we can at this moment recollect. Few things are more honorable to General Jackson, or to the country which he has served so long, than the readiness with which when his strong passions, not unprovoked, had brought him as a military commander in the flush and pride of victory, into conflict with the law and its ministers, he forced his iron will into submission to the sentence of the court. It is to his honor that during the eight years of his own administration, and during the four years of the administration of his successor, (who gloried in being considered his representative-a sort of legate a latere' from the 'holy see' of the Hermitage,) no movement of this kind was made by him, or by any of the numerous friends who were ready to do any thing that might be deemed agreeable to him. Though we have never been admirers of all the measures of General Jackson's administration, we have always been ready to yield him due honor; and we are sorry that so bright a leaf is to be plucked from the laurels on that old white head, by men who only want to conjure with his name.

The Napoleonesque projections, if we may so call them, of the Secretary of the Navy, will probably receive but little attention at present. The increase of our naval force has become a favorite idea with southern statesmen, especially since the abolition of slavery in the British West Indies. Should a general emancipation take place by any accident, in Cuba, we should hear more than ever about the immense importance of our commerce, particularly in the Gulf of Mexico, and should be told more frequently and fiercely than ever, that we have nothing to do with slavery in the southern states, except to maintain armies and navies for its support. But just now, while the government cannot borrow money for its current expenses, economy is too popular, to permit any avoidable enlargement of a branch of the public service so necessarily and immensely expensive as the Navy.