table which extended half across the room, was placed at one end of the room. At each end of the table were a couple of tallow dips, which shed a lurid light around, and gave a rather fiendish air to the figures and features of those nearest. Behind the table were duly installed and seated the Chairman and Secretaries of the meeting, and on the table was I mounted.

I delivered that first sentence with the "large utterance of the early gods." The benighted Whig population of Mount Bethel allowed me to deliver no more; therefore are they in the blackness of political darkness even until this day.

The first thing I saw was a huge opposition paw stretched across in front of me, to seize one of the candlesticks from the table. As it closed upon the brazen implement, a Democratic paw was clasped above it.

"What do you want with the candlestick?"

"None of your business."

"Put it down."

See you

first!"

Smack! Some body's knuckles made an audible remark to some body else's nose. An indefinite number of some body elses hit every body generally; numerous candlesticks circu lated in the neighborhood of my head; the "perturbed spirits" moved the table from under me in a sudden and violent manner, and after describing a parabola, I landed in the corner. On the side where I fell there stood one of those great old-fashioned side-boards or buffets. Between it and the wall there was barely room to squeeze in a small man. Now, I am not particularly small, and was therefore particularly well squeezed. As I was making a herculean effort to get on my feet, and squirm out into a larger place, I saw a big fellow in front of me draw a great knife out of his breast-pocket, and flourish it aloft. Impressed with the idea that he might possibly mistake my breast-pocket for his own, and put it back into the wrong place, I snatched an empty decanter, which luckily stood on the end of the sideboard, and applied it forcibly to the neighborhood of his left ear. The individual with the knife immediately crumpled up, and experienced a weakness in the knees, which afforded me an opportunity of darting out of the corner. A happy inspiration-the Quiggs are famous for them-a happy inspiration came to me, and as I leaped, I yelled, "Fire!" The bait took; a moment's pause in the Homeric strife ensued; numbers rushed out of the door to see, and I went out of the window. I take no great credit for this daring feat,

as the room was on the ground-floor. Luckily, too, I popped into a Democratic circle, and was caught up and carried direct to the Judge's shandrydan. I must do the Judge the justice to say that he had got there before me.

I am not aware what particular road we took home; but we came to Rougemont about daylight.

Mrs. Quigg woke up as I came into the room. She looked A grim horror and disgust overspread her gentle

at me. features.

"Yes," she exclaimed; "she shall see-she shall take an early lesson in politics." And she did, she actually did shake that blessed baby wide awake, and hold the screaming, struggling dear out at arms' length to look at me.

"For Heaven's sake, what is the matter, my love?" I cried. "Matter!" said Mrs. Quigg-"matter!-mud's the matter, Mr. Quigg. Look at your coat, sir! Rags are the matter, Mr. Quigg. Look at your trowsers. Black eyes, and a nose with no skin on, is the matter, Mr. Quigg! Look in the glass if you dare, sir. You've been to Mount Bethel to make a political speech, have you? You suppose I believe it. Ha! ha! ha! You've been to some improper place, Mr. Quigg. You've been where there were vile people, Mr. Quigg. You've been on a drunken spree, sir. Don't tell me you never drink. You've been drinking last night, if ever a man drank. You're a disgrace to humanity, Mr. Quigg. You've broken your wife's heart. You've destroyed the prospects in life of this blessed baby. You're a sight to behold. Oh! oh! oh! Don't attempt to come near me. None of your nonsense. I don't believe a word you say. I won't be kissed or deceived by such a monster. I won't; I won't. You've turned politician; now you better stick to it. Mean to be President of the United States? Going to the White House by way of Mount Bethel? You'll get there-you will-O dear! O dear! precious, pretty pet, mother's only darling, you won't go to political meetings. you won't break its poor, dear mother's heart. No, no, no!"

After a burst of tears, Mrs. Quigg grew calmer. She rose with dignity, bundled up her clothes and the baby's, and swept out of the room, with the parting advice:

"Mr. Quigg, you had better stay in the room, and let no body see you till you get sober, sir."

Now, that was the bitterest thing of all; to ride all night; to make a political speech-that is, to try to make it; to be pounded to a jelly; to have not even a drop of water to cool my parched lips all the time; and then to be advised to stay in

bed till I got sober. But-but-oh! a thousand buts-to be pointed out to that blessed baby, that tender scion of the Quigg stock, whose budding mind, no doubt, the stealing hand of time was destined to ripen into an immortal loveliness--to be marked down on the tablets of that blessed baby's memory, as an improper person; a father whose youth was without honor, whose age without respect; a man of dissolute courses and depraved tastes and all for nothing-for worse than nothingfor my unselfish and patriotic devotion to the Democratic party, James K. Polk, and the annexation of Texas-!- Had I been steeped in poverty to the very lips, I could have borne it; but to have Mrs. Quigg, to have my tender and affectionate Julia heap such sores and shames on my bare head-ah! that did indeed crush me to the earth, and show the heavens unjust!

But who will doubt the nerve of the Quiggs? who will hesitate to believe any story of their heroism? who will fail to class them, in their minds, with the greatest names of story, when I tell them, that even after that night at Mount Bethel, after that morning with my injurious Julia, I persevered in the painful duty to my country, to mankind, to the Democratic party, to the kingdom of New-Jersey, to the county of Somerset, and township of Bridgewater; and by the space of four months, by day and night, kept the stump for Polk and Dallas, and the annexation of Texas. By the shade of Andrew Jackson, by the iron shadow of that patriot-hero. I did it: "aloneI did it!"

Air-"The Star-spangled Banner."

Probably it was the excitement of mind caused by reading Amos Kendall's life of the old Hero, or so much of it as ever saw daylight, that I imbibed that martial spirit, and came to experience that blood-thirsty feeling which induced me to raise a company of volunteers for the Mexican war-but of that perhaps hereafter. I must deal gently with that subject, too, if I should take it up, for Mrs. Quigg has hardly forgiven my brass buttons and toad-sticker yet; and considers soldiers, generally speaking, dissolute monsters, who go away into foreign countries for the purpose, not of winning honor, but of playing monté; not of being illustrious, but of being no better than they should be-ehem! Mrs. Quigg is a woman of severe morality, and sees things in a very peculiar light.

HORATIO SEYMOUR ON THE TOPOGRAPHY AND HISTORY OF NEW-YORK.

THE accomplished statesman whom, there is reason to believe, the majority of the people of New-York desired at their recent election to make their Governor for a second term, has, in the pamphlet now before us,* laid the public under a new obligation, which we do not doubt will be as generally recognized as it assuredly deserves to be.

It is well known that Horatio Seymour did not desire to be reëlected Chief Magistrate of his native State. He had been chosen Governor by an overwhelming vote, at the same election in which New-York declared herself so majestically for Franklin Pierce as President; he had ably, faithfully, and fearlessly performed various public duties; he was content with the official honors he had won; and he wished to enjoy for a season the repose of private life, which the popular voice had not allowed him. But the Democratic party thought they had a just claim to further services from him, and they insisted that he should again be their candidate for the office of Governor. After deliberating on the subject, and in view of the great issues which were to be presented at the election-a prominent one of which was the principle of coercing abstinence from the use of intoxicating liquors, and prohibiting traffic in them, which principle he had himself unanswerably demonstrated both to be against sound morals and contrary to the Constitution-he reluctantly yielded to the demand of the Democracy, and became their candidate for reëlection. The result of the triangular canvass of 1854 is well known. Fanaticism obtained an apparent triumph. Governor Seymour received 156,000 votes; but his chief competitor, Mr. Clarke, by the aid of intrigue, deception, and falsehood, was declared to be elected. The most remarkable exploit of Governor Clarke has been the signing a compulsory statute for the obstruction of trade, which the Court of Appeals, the highest judicial tribunal of his own State, has just pronounced to be unconstitutional. In giving this judgment, the Court but affirmed the general principles

*A Lecture on the Topography and History of New-York. By Horatio Seymcur. Pp. 41. Utica, 1856.

upon which Governor Seymour, two years before, had declined to give his executive sanction to an odious, oppressive, and nugatory bill. The people, the chief sufferers, had lost as their Governor a Democratic statesman, who knew their rights and respected their Constitution; they found saddled on their backs a fanatical tool, who, true to his party instincts, appears to be as ignorant of the one as disdainful of the other.

But, in his retirement from official service, Mr. Seymour has not been unmindful of the duty every one owes to his fellowcitizens, nor has he failed to exhibit his constant interest in every thing of great public concern. In short, he has shown himself to be what many of our public men are not a statesman as well as a politician. While he was Governor of NewYork, his messages to the Legislature, and his addresses on various public occasions, proved him to be a man of no common mould, and confirmed to him the respect which is ever due to eminent ability. Among the many important subjects which he has been called upon to consider, he has given great prominence to the claims which their own history ought always to have upon the regard and affection of the people. This truth he has exhibited and enforced with great eloquence, as well in his official messages as in addresses and speeches at other times.

We very well remember the circumstances of the inauguration at Tarrytown, in the autumn of 1853, of a monument to commemorate the capture of Major André. The contributors to the fund for the purpose, had invited Governor Seymour to take a leading part in the proceedings of the day. He complied with their request, and delivered a most effective and patriotic address, at the conclusion of which he formally dedicated the monument as "a memorial of the fidelity and bravery shown by our ancestors in achieving our National Independence, a warning against treason to our political institutions, and a memento to remind us of the blessings which God has bestowed upon our land." In the course of his remarks, the Governor called attention to the fact, that although some of the most interesting events in American history had taken place within their borders, the people of New-York had been strangely neglectful of their claim to honorable distinction, and that the Tarrytown memorial was the only one which relieved them from the reproach of utter indifference. "I thank those," said he, "who have perpetuated the memory of this event, by rearing this, the first monument erected within the limits of our State, commemorative of the great events which have occurred within