sible, or amusing; but there is a universal | people"-but the aspirants to this title desire, almost amounting to a frenzy, to must, somehow or other, by fair means or meet "nice" people. Thus we find that foul, become acknowledged members of whenever a country residence is to be let the fashionable world; in short, to use a or sold, all the surrounding neighbors are modern slang expression, they must be devoutly hoping that it may be taken by "in the swim" of society. Although the nice people, and every one wishes for the parentage of these superior beings is entrée to houses where nice people are to sometimes the very reverse of aristocratic, be met. To be nice people, and to know this may be counterbalanced by great nice people, seem indeed to be the aim social recommendations; but high birth is and object of life in this latter half of the of considerable advantage at the outset of nineteenth century. Even the worship of their career. To be "born of honest the great idol of Mammon itself is for- parents," as old biographies quaintly put saken by many for devotion to the "nice." it, is of no account in any way; to be the Although, however, the companionship of descendant of an old line of country "nice people" is doubtless much to be squires is little better, unless these wordesired, these social angels are sometimes thies have of late years intermarried with so lacking in the qualities which are usu- the nobility; but to be linked to the peerally considered necessary to make inter-age, even by a bar sinister, makes an aspicourse entertaining, that one is almost tempted to shun their society for a season. First impressions may seem to justify the use of the much-coveted adjective, not only in its fashionable, but also in its general sense; but on closer acquaintance it is apt to be found that those on whom the title is bestowed are wanting in some of the most important of the characteristics which it is generally understood to imply. In a small, but very concise dictionary, we find the word nice defined as "very pleasant, dainty, precise." Now there are many persons who are conventionally spoken of as, not only nice, but very nice, people, whom we could point out as interesting subjects on which to try the test of this definition. "Very pleasant," in the general acceptation of the term, as meaning agreeable, amiable, and good-tempered, they certainly are not; "dainty" is a word which we could hardly apply to their conversation, especially when it touches upon social scandals; while "precise" is an adjective which defines neither their behavior nor the accuracy of their statements. What then are the qualifications which entitle a person to be classified among "nice people"? This is a question which would undoubtedly puzzle many of those who so glibly make use of the expression; but, generally speaking, we believe the phrase is conventionally understood to mean people who are received into good society. It does not necessarily point to the rich or to those of good family, since "nice people" are occasionally neither one nor the other; but it is a sine qua non that they should have a place in what is known as "society." In timacy with charming and well-educated persons will not do indeed education is rather at a low premium among "nice rant quite safe. Setting aside, however, the question of birth, it is more interesting to turn to the moral and social attributes of "nice people." In the first place, we will examine the manner in which they do their duty towards their Creator and their neighbor. They do not consider it to be what they elegantly term "good form” to indulge in religious or irreligious extremes. This is the first commandment among "nice people." To go to church, and to a fashionable church, is de rigueur; but religious enthusiasm must be strictly avoided. A certain amount of respectable piety may be tolerated as a necessary evil; and, after all, worship is in some measure reciprocal; for if the "nice" devotee spends an hour or two a week in a pretty church, and gives away a modest sum of money, which he does not miss, the devotion paid to him in return by the clergy is perhaps the nearest approach to adoration which men can reasonably expect from a fellow-creature. Many nice people are doubtless sincerely devout; yet of them it is said, "They are very nice people, but " and the "but " is followed by lamentations over the one failing which sullies their otherwise beautiful characters namely, their religious earnestness. As regards their duties towards their neighbors, nice people are often very charitable in nursing their invalided friends who happen to be wealthy. The poor they will also attend to so far as their labors will make them popular, and give them influence when elections take place. Besides, it is the proper thing to have the reputation of being kind to the poor; and their being so establishes a sort of mimic feudal relation between them and their poorer neighbors. When nice people are tenants, the expenditure of a very moderate sum of money, and a still more moderate | ing the rounds of the social ladder, and it amount of time among the neighboring is satisfactory to climbers to know that members of the laboring classes, will give the money given will at least conduce them almost as much influence as would eventually to their own social advancethe possession of a large estate. In Lon- ment. By refusing all appeals in obscure don they must be ever ready to subscribe cases they are enabled to give large sums, liberally to the pet charities of their fash- with great apparent magnanimity, to the ionable acquaintances. The judicious use favorite charities of the leaders of fashion, of charities is of great assistance in scal-thus making sure of a reward in this life. " PUBLIC OPINION AND THE GERMAN AR-1 PRIVATEERING. -There has been some disMY.- In countries where service is compul- cussion on the possibility, in case of war with sory on all classes of society, every member of Russia, of the revival of the practice of issuing the commonwealth has a direct interest in the letters of marque. The public have been well-being of the army. The army is not an warned that "in a war between England and armed caste, it is a part of the body of the Russia the latter power will issue letters of nation; through the gradations of the reserve marque to American adventurers and a swarm and Landwehr men, the army fades away insen- of Alabamas' may interrupt our commerce; sibly as it were into the general mass. It is but, in reply to this suggestion, a correspondthe bond of union between the future genera-ent of the Times writes to state that "the old tions and the past generations of the manhood of the country. Service may, it is true, be regarded as a severe tax; but, on the other hand, every one has to pay it in some shape or another. A man will not start in life quite so soon as he would otherwise have done, but at all events all start on even terms. It is difficult at first to realize the effect this has on the discipline of the army. In our own country desertion is, we are afraid, regarded by civilians (ignorant of the fact that ninety-nine men out of every hundred who desert are thieves as well as deserters) as a venial crime. A soldier who, in consequence of his insubordination, is committed to prison, and whose share of duty has to be undertaken by his comrades, is certainly not regarded as a criminal; but in Germany the man who offends against the military code, who refuses, by desertion, to do the part assigned to him; or who compels, it may be a neighbor, to do his duty for him by his absence from it, is considered to have committed an offence, not against the mere rules of discipline, but against the rest of his countrymen. Again, the territorial organization shows its value in this respect, as the public opinion of a locality from which a badlyconducted soldier has been drawn will be too strong for him on his return to allow such misbehavior to be practised with impunity. Macmillan's Magazine. practice of issuing letters of marque to the subjects of neutral States, by which they were authorized to carry on a sort of legalized piracy against the vessels and property of a nation with which they were not at war, had been abandoned and rigorously repressed long before the Declaration of Paris. In fact, no such letters of marque have been issued or accepted by neutrals in the present century." This may be true in the sense of the formal issue of such letters to subjects of neutral nations, but it is not true as to the general issue of letters of marque; for on April 17, 1861, the president of the Confederate States issued a proclamation offering letters of marque to all persons applying for them; and it appears that even Prussia, one of the signatories of the Declaration of Paris, which recites that "privateering is and remains abolished," in the course of the Franco-German war found herself, says Sir R. Phillimore, so pressed with the superiority of the French navy that she issued a decree for the purpose of creating a voluntary marine, which, according to that learned writer, it is very difficult to distinguish from the old system of privateering. With these examples before us, we cannot agree that "there is not the slightest probability that privateering will be revived. Solicitors' Journal. From The Quarterly Review. LIFE AND TIMES OF JAMES MADISON.* THE two books before us form a valuable contribution to a period of history too little known to the majority of educated Englishmen. We in this country have, for the most part, what may be called an intermittent knowledge of American history. The romance which surrounded the early settlers, the fate of Gilbert, the adventures of Smith, and the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers, are almost as familiar to Englishmen as the burning of Cranmer, or the trial of Strafford. Then, for most readers, the stream of American history loses itself in the earth, and reappears at Bunker's Hill. But there is another side of the subject, fraught with the deepest interest for students of constitutional his-ed many great names, and posterity will tory, which has hardly received due attention. The history of the United States is pre-eminently the history of the growth of institutions. We there see going on before our eyes those processes which, among the long-settled nations of the Old World, can only be known by their faintly-marked traces in the past. The history of the American colonies before the Declaration of Independence shows, as no other history does, the actual birth and growth of representative government. There can be few more attractive subjects of study than the various steps by which the different colonies took up the institutions of the mother country, and adapted them to their special wants. Yet even this fails to equal in interest the later period of American constitutional history. Most English readers, we fear, feel that the history of the contest for independence ends with the final triumph of the colonists. It would be nearer the truth to regard the war as a prelude to one of the most deeply interesting chapters which the constitutional history of any nation can lay before us. The formation of the Federal Constitution was, beyond doubt, the greatest and most arduous political experiment, and, if we measure the difficulties surmounted, may be fairly called the most successful one, which history records. In this, too, as in all great political changes, the interest does not end with the formal conclusion of the contest. The process by which the Federal Constitution was fashioned and determined really lasted through the presidencies of Washington and Adams, and only ended with the triumph of the Democrats under Jefferson. If we had to single out one person who might fitly serve as a central figure for a political sketch of this period, our choice would probably fall upon Madison. This is due rather to the nature, than the extent, of his abilities. The generation of statesmen among whom he moved includ Yet probably assign to Madison a place below at least three of his contemporaries. Even if he had possessed such qualities, his career gave him no opportunity of displaying the unwearied public spirit, the dauntless and patient courage, the pure and unselfish patriotism of Washington. He had none of that eager enthusiasm for party, that ardent faith in the future of his country, and that sympathy both with the nobler and the baser passions of mankind, which made Jefferson the founder and leader of American Democracy. With Hamilton he had more in common. Madison could claim but a small share in that far-sighted political wisdom to which every page of American history bears witness. But, in one sense, Madison was a more representative statesman than any of these. There probably was never a time at which he did not, better than any other living man, embody the views of a majority of educated American citizens. This it is which gives so much interest to the history of his political conduct and opinions, and it is from this point of view that we propose to consider his career. James Madison was born in Virginia in 1751. He was descended from one of the earliest settlers, Captain Isaac Madison, the founder of a family, in which James Madison was only the foremost among several distinguished members. Of his early days there is little to tell. His education began at the school of a |