not, nor can it be, the abrogation of a right which those who are at present directing the operations of the revolution are far from believing themselves entitled to invade; thus precipitating the solution of so difficult a question. On the other hand, however, the Provisional Government could not in its turn oppose the use of a right which our slaveholders possess in virtue of our laws, and which many of them wish to exercise-namely, to emancipate their slaves at once. It also sees how desirable it is to employ at once in the service of the country the freedmen, and how necessary to make haste to prevent the evils which they and the country might receive from a failure to employ them immediately. The Government, therefore, urges the adoption of provisional dispositions, which are to serve as a rule for the military chiefs in the several districts of this department, in order to solve the questions presented to them. Therefore, availing myself of the faculties with which I am invested, I have now resolved that the following articles be observed:

1. Free are the slaves whom their masters at once present to the military chiefs for this purpose, the owners reserving, if they choose, a claim to the indemnification which the nation may decree.

2. The freedmen shall, for the present, be employed in the service of the country in such a manner as may be agreed upon.

3. To this end a committee shall be appointed to find for them employment, in accordance with regula

tions to be issued.

4. In other cases, the slaves of loyal Cubans and of neutral Spaniards and foreigners shall continue to work, in accordance with the principle of respect for property proclaimed by the revolution.

5. The slaves of those who have been convicted of

being enemies of the country, and openly hostile to the revolution, shall be confiscated with their other property and declared free without a right to indemnity, utilizing them in the service of the country.

6. The owners who shall place their slaves in the service of the revolution, without freeing them for the present, shall preserve their right as long as the slavery question in general is not decided.

7. The slaves of the Palisades, who may present themselves to the Cuban authorities, shall at once be declared free, with a right either to live among us or to remain among the mountaineers.

8. The isolated refugees who may be captured, or who may, without the consent of their masters, present themselves to the authorities or military chiefs, shall not be received without consulting with their

masters.

Of the leaders of the insurrection, the Havana correspondent of the New York Tribune gives the following account:

General Cespedes, the hero and chief of the revolt, was, I am well assured, a lawyer and property-owner, and at the opening of the war emancipated his slaves. He is a man of good appearance, fifty years of age, and has travelled in the United States. His second in command, Arango, the Marquis of Santa Lucia, is a native of Puerto-Principe, and at taking part in the insurrection also manumitted his slaves. General Aguilero was a man of great wealth, and had held once under the Government the office of mayor over the town of Bayamo, just burnt by the rebels. He, too, released his slaves. General Donato Marmol bears the repute of having genuine military talent, as he is said to have defeated his opponents in most of their encounters with him, and signally at Baire, in the Eastern District. He is admired for the ready invention of a new weapon of defence in war, which is called the horquetilla, and is a kind of hook to resist bayonet charges. The hook, which can be made without much trouble, of wood, is held with the left hand to catch the bayonet, while with the right the rebel brings his rude machete, a kind of sword, down upon his Spanish foe. General Que

sada, the one other mentionable Cuban leader, served with credit on the side of Juarez during the intervention in Mexico. The soldiers of the revolt are of the rawest kind. A good part of them have been recruited from the emancipated slaves of Cespedes, Arango, and Aguilero. Many of the weapons are of the poorest kind, but I have heard that a certain number of Enfields have been furnished them, and lately some hand-grenades. It is told me that no help, or exceedingly little, has reached them from the North. Among some other things of their own device, they have been employing wooden cannon, good for one shot and no more.

SPALDING, Very Rev. BENEDICT JOSEPH, D. D., administrator of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Louisville, Ky., a learned and able Catholic clergyman, born in Marion County, Ky., in 1810; died at Louisville, Ky., August 4, 1868, of injuries received by the accidental burning of the drapery of his bed. He was sent at an early age to St. Mary's College, in his native county, and, having passed through the course of study there, entered the Diocesan Seminary at Bardstown, where he continued his studies, with a view to the priesthood. In 1832 he went to Rome and entered the College of the Propaganda, where he graduated with high honors in 1837, and was shortly afterward elevated to the priesthood. Returning home in the latter part of the year named, he taught for several months the students in the theological seminary of St. Thomas, and was afterward assigned the position of agent and econome in St. Joseph's College. In this responsi the institution. In 1840 he engaged with the ble position his services were of great value to Rev. John Hutchins in establishing a first-class seminary for boys in Breckinridge County, which they jointly carried on for two years with great success, and with much benefit to both religious and secular education in that portion of the State. In 1842 Dr. Spalding was called to Bardstown, having been appointed vicepresident of St. Joseph's College. He remained in this position till July, 1844, when he was named by his bishop pastor of the Church of St. Joseph's, at Bardstown. He continued in charge of the Bardstown congregation till 1849, when he received the appointment of pastor of the Ca thedral church, Louisville, and vicar-general of the diocese. This position he retained till the day of his death, with but two short intervals, while the see was vacant, when he was invest ed by his superiors with the administratorship of the diocese. During the sixteen years of his vicar-generalship, though performing ardaous duties in connection with the temporalties of his Church in Kentucky, as well as those which devolved upon him as pastor of the Cathedral church, he never received any salary beyond his food and raiment, but dispensed largely of his own private fortune to those who were in need. His property, which was considerable, was left for benevolent objects. He was greatly beloved by Protestants as well as Catholics, for his blameless life, his generous liberality, and his courteous and self-sacrificing disposition.

STEVENS, THADDEUS, an American statesman and reformer, born at Peacham, Caledonia County, Vt., April 4, 1793; died in Washing ton, D. C., at midnight of Tuesday, August 11, 1868. His parents were poor. He was a sickly child, and lame; but his strong intellect was early detected by his mother, who toiled with all her strength to secure for him the benefit of an education. The boy was am bitious, and turned his few opportunities for improvement to such good account that he speedily succeeded in qualifying himself to en ter Dartmouth College, whence he graduated with honor in 1814. Immediately after leaving Dartmouth, he removed to York, Pa., where he taught a school for a livelihood and read law carefully and steadily through the intervals of the day and night. Admitted, after many discouragements, to the bar, he soon attained a good practice and rose to eminence in his profession, which for many years he followed without participating in politics. The election of John Quincy Adams to the presidency, and the bitter contests which followed the triumph of the Democrats in the election of General Jackson in 1828, and his decided action, aroused the political fervor of Mr. Stevens, and he threw himself into the contest with all the zeal and ardor of his nature. He took sides with the Adams party, and when that merged in the Whig party he became an active Whig. In 1833 he was elected to the Legislature by the Whigs of Adams County, and was returned by the same party during the years 1834-35-'37-'41. In 1836 he was a member of the Pennsylvania State Constitutional Convention, and took an active part in all the important debates in the framing of that instrument; but, being then, as always since, hostile to slavery, he refused to sign the document because it restricted suffrage on account of color. After the adoption of the constitution, Mr. Stevens was again in the Legislature. This was a period of intense political excitement. For a time two Legislatures were in session, Mr. Stevens being the leading spirit in one, and an equally ardent Democrat in the other. They finally coalesced without violence, and united in the choice of a Speaker, and in other acts of legislation. In 1838 Mr. Stevens was appointed a Canal Commissioner, and managed, so far as he had the power, the system of internal improvements of Pennsylvania with skill and ability. In 1842 Mr. Stevens removed to Lancaster, which, subsequently was his home. He immediately took a front rank at the bar, and was engaged in many important cases. The interval from 1842 to 1848 was devoted to his profession, but, in the latter year, he was elected to the Thirty-second Congress from the Lancaster district, and ardently opposed the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, the Fugitive Slave Law, and the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. In 1859 Mr. Stevens was again returned, and continued in Congress by successive reëlections, and at the time of

his death was serving his seventh term. In all these Congresses he was a recognized leader. During three sessions he was chairman of the important committee of Ways and Means, and held the position of chairman of the Committee on Reconstruction of the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congresses. He also served on other committees, his last important position being chairman of the Board of Managers, on the part of the House, in the impeachment of President Johnson before the Senate. Mr. Stevens was also a member of the Baltimore Convention, in 1864, and voted with the Pennsylvania delegation for Mr. Johnson for Vice-President. Thoroughly radical in his views, hating slavery with all the intensity of his nature, believing it just, right, and expedient, not only to emancipate, but to arm the negro and make him a soldier, and, after the war, to make him a citizen and give him the ballot, he led off in all measures for effecting these ends. The Emancipation Proclamation was urged upon the President by him on all grounds of right, justice, and expediency; the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution was initiated and pressed by him. He advocated and carried, during the war, acts of confiscation, and proposed the most rigid and stern measures against the Southern people to the last day of his life.

STOCKTON, Rev. THOMAS HEWLINGS, D. D., a Methodist clergyman, author, and poet, born at Mount Holly, N. J., June 4, 1808; died in Philadelphia, October 9, 1868. At the age of eighteen, though in frail health, he essayed to become a printer, but, finding himself disqualified for this work, he studied medicine. But, having become the subject of a religious change, his attention was directed to the ministry, and, just before he was twenty-one years of age, he preached his first sermon. He took charge of a circuit the same year on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and his eloquence, fervor, and remarkable command of language drew great congregations wherever he preached. In 1830 he was elected editor of the Methodist Protestant, but declined the appointment. In 1833 he was stationed at Georgetown, D. C., and in December of that year elected chaplain of Congress. In 1835 and 1837 he was again elected to the same position, and meantime published two small volumes of poems, and compiled a church hymn-book. In 1838 he removed to Philadelphia. From 1847 to 1850 he resided in Cincinnati, and while there was unanimously elected president of the Miami University, but declined the position. In 1850 he removed to Baltimore, where he remained six years, pastor for most of the time of two churches, one Methodist Protestant, the other Associate Reformed Presbyterian, and engaged also in literary labors. In 1856 he returned to Philadelphia, which was thenceforward his home, though he was in 1862 and 1863 again chaplain of Congress. He was for the twelve years 1856-1868 almost constantly pastor of the Church of the New Testament, and

performed also much literary labor. His principal published works were: "The Christian World," ""The Book and Journal," and "The Bible Times" (periodicals devoted to the diffusion of primitive and scriptural Christianity); "The Pastor's Tribute" (poems), 1848; "Floating Flowers from a Hidden Book" (poems), 1844; "Something New" (poems), 1844; "The Bible Alliance," 1850;"Sermons for the People," 1854; "Stand up for Jesus," and "The Blessing," small illustrated volumes, 1858; "Poems with Autobiographic and other Notes," 1862; "The Peerless Magnificence of the Word of God," and a work on "The Mediation of Christ," published since his death.

SUEZ CANAL, THE. Among the many works of extraordinary magnitude, expense, and general usefulness, which have been recently executed in different countries, the nearly-completed excavation and opening of the Suez Canal, in Egypt, is the most important. It connects the Mediterranean with the Red Sea, placing the East and the West in easy communication with each other by the shortest route.

The low, swampy, and in some parts sandy, strip of land which now separates the two seas, makes one conjecture and almost believe that their waters once mingled over this depression, and the Nile flowed through them across into Lake Timsah. Hence, dividing its waters into two branches, the one flowed northward to the Mediterranean, the other southward through the Bitter Lakes to the Red Sea near Suez, from which the whole isthmus has derived its name.

The ancient Egyptians appreciated the importance of a water communication from sea to sea, and eventually opened it, though they confined their views to an intercourse with Arabia. But, enterprising though they were, and having inexhaustible means of manual labor at command, as their works attest, they shrank from the difficulty of cutting a canal across the isthmus in a direct line, on account of the various obstacles presented by the condition of the place, and sought to effect their passage in an easier manner by a roundabout way. They followed the course of the Nile, sailing on its waters so long as it was navigable, and from the point where it ceased to be so, they cut an artificial channel supplied with water from that river, and debouching into the Red Sea at a point near the present site of Suez. Their line was, as it were, divided into four sections, having an aggregate length of 92 miles: namely, 13 miles from Suez to the Bitter Lakes, 27 through these lakes, 40 from the Bitter Lakes to El Ouady (of Tomat), and 12 from El Ouady to Bubastis, then one of the principal branches of the Nile.

The origin of this canal of antiquity is assigned by some to Rameses II., or to Sesostris, about 1300 years before the Christian era, by others to Psammetichus's son Necho, who reigned six centuries later. Herodotus

ascribes it to this king, and adds the circumstance that, frightened by the response of an oracle foretelling the invasion of barbarians through the canal, if completed, he desisted from the enterprise, yet not till 120,000 Egyp tians had perished in the work. It was finished and opened, however, in the succeeding reign. That historian, who lived in the fifth century B. C., bears witness to the existence of the canal of the Pharaohs at the time when he visited Egypt, relating that it was wide enough to admit of two triremes sailing abreast, that it was much frequented by trading-craft, and that the navigation on it from sea to sea lasted four days. The nations, under whose subjection Egypt successively passed afterward, did not fail to give their attention to this canal as a matter of great public importance. On the Arab invasion in the seventh century of our era, however, it was no longer existing, as appears from the fact that Omar's vicegerent in Egypt proposed to open a channel from Suez to the Gulf of Pelusium, and supply it with water by restoring the canal of the Pharaohs. Omar at first disapproved the project, lest its execution should be a means for Christian incursions, but finally consented to it, in order to furnish Arabia with provisions. The canal remained in a navigable condition from 649 to 767, when the Caliph El Mussour Abool Hadur filled it up, for the purpose of starving the people of Mecca and Medina.

The vestiges of the old canal are still discernible, showing its width to have been from 100 to 200 feet. Men of power in the world have subsequently directed their attention to its reopening, and even taken some preliminary measures toward its realization, regarding it as vastly important to the development of European commerce in the Eastern seas. Napoleon Bonaparte, when he went, or was sent, to Egypt in 1798, discovered the traces of the ancient canal near Suez, and, appreciating its use, appointed a commission, in which M. Le Pire was prominent, for the purpose of inquiring into the subject of excavating one across the isthmus, a body of engineers being employed to survey the line. Although the then disturbed state of the country rendered the work both difficult and slow, the engineers being unable to proceed without an escort, and obliged to return with the escort when this was called back for active military service, which frequently happened, yet the survey was finally got through. Before seeing the report presented by the commission, however, Napofeon had returned to France, and, his attention being engrossed by other matters, the project of the canal could hardly be advanced toward realization, though he never abandoned it.

M. Le Pire's report stated that the level of the Red Sea was 30 feet higher than that of the Mediterranean; but the eminent French engineer M. Bourdaloue, having in 1846 accurately surveyed the grounds from Suez to Tineh, and again from Tineh to Suez, ascer

tained the difference of the levels to be quite insignificant, so that the current of the canal, when in actual operation, could present no serious obstacle to its navigation either way. But, prior to this double survey of M. Bourdaloue, M. Ferdinand de Lesseps had recognized the excavation of a navigable canal between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea as practicable, and conceived the idea of actually executing it. Besides his own ability and energy of character, he was powerfully helped in this by the happy concurrence of extrinsic circumstances, chiefly the favor of the Egyptian Government. His father, being attached to the French consulate in Alexandria, had become personally acquainted and rather intimate with Mehemet Ali, then pacha, and M. Lesseps's influence was probably no mean cause of Ali's being recognized as Viceroy of Egypt by the Sultan, who is said to have consulted the former on the subject. This circumstance could not but strengthen the relations of intimacy between Mehemet Ali and M. Lesseps,

whose son Ferdinand became the friend of Saïd, the son and heir-apparent to the viceroy. Having long and carefully studied his plan, taken soundings in both seas, tested the currents and levels, bored the ground at different points along the intended line, and thus thoroughly ascertained that no insurmountable obstacles were presented by Nature to the opening of a canal from sea to sea, he communicated his project to Saïd, who understood its feasibility, as well as its importance and beneficial results, and, professing himself a firm supporter of the enterprise, authorized M. Lesseps to organize his company. The latter travelled for that end to Europe, where his project found favor, and even in England several capitalists were ready to take a part in it. The English Government, however, on political and other grounds, not only discountenanced, but positively opposed the enterprise in all its stages, both in England and at Constantinople, through its ambassador, in order that the Sultan, in exercising his rights of sovereignty over Egypt, should refuse to sanction the acts of the viceroy in the matter. Its opposition, however, has proved unavailing so far as the ultimate result aimed at is concerned. M. de Lesseps organized his company in 1854, and obtained his first concession (or, rather, a contract was entered into by the Egyptian Government on one side, and M. de Lesseps, for himself and his company, on the other), when two engineers of the viceroy commenced and in the autumn of 1855 completed a new survey, recognizing the practicability of the project. This new survey was submitted to an international commission which was nominated by the leading powers of Europe and met at Paris, deciding that five of its members should visit Egypt and examine all the parts of the project in detail. They went, and by the end of 1855 presented their report, confirming the feasibility of the enterprise. A

second concession was obtained this year by M. de Lesseps from the viceroy, though the Sultan had declined to sanction the first one previously submitted to him.

As the terms, on which the two parties stand at present toward each other in regard to their respective rights and duties concerning the Suez Canal, are about the same as were reciprocally stipulated in the first two concessions just referred to, we here subjoin their principal clauses, which are as follows:

1. M. F. de Lesseps to form a company called "La Compagnie Universelle du Canal de Suez," and of which he is to be appointed the director, for the purpose of making a canal across the Isthmus of Suez, and the formation of a port at each end of the said canal. 2. The managing director always to be appointed by the Egyptian Government, and chosen, if possible, from among the largest shareholders. the opening of the canal to navigation. 3. The concession to last ninety-nine years from

4. The works to be all at the company's expense, and to whom all requisite lands for construction and maintenance, not belonging to private individuals, deem it advisable to erect fortifications, the company shall be conceded. If the Egyptian Government

shall not be liable for the expense of construction. 5. The government shall receive 15 per cent. annually of the earnings of the company, without reference to interest or dividend derived from any shares they may hold, or hereafter take, in the company. 75 per cent. for the general shareholders, and 10 per The remainder of the net profits to be thus dividedcent. for the original founders of the company.

6. The tariff for ships passing through the canal (and agreed on mutually by the Egyptian Government and the company) to be always the same for ships of all nations."

7. Should the company deem it advisable to join the Nile and the Maritime Canal by a navigable channel, the land now uncultivated may be irrigated and cultivated at their expense and charge. The company to have these lands free of any charge for ten years, dating from the opening of the Maritime Canal. During the remaining eighty-nine years they will pay one-tenth of the usual land-tax; after which the whole usual tax on irrigated land in Egypt.

8. A plan to be made of all lands ceded to the company.

9. The company to be allowed to quarry stone on government lands free of charge. Also to be permitted to import any material, machinery, and supplies for the workmen, free of custom-duty. tian Government will be substituted in lieu of the 10. At the expiration of the concession the Egypcompany, and will enter into full possession of all the property and rights appertaining to the canal between the two seas. A due valuation to be made for material, etc., etc.

To these, which form the basis of all the arrangements subsequently agreed upon by the parties, a most important clause was added in a later concession, dated January, 1856, providing that, of the workmen employed on the canal, "in all cases, four-fifths at least should be Egyptians." This contingent of workmen to be employed by the company, and furnished of course by the Government, amounted to no less a number than 20,000 Egyptian fellahs (agricultural laborers), their wages being fixed at one-third of the European rates for similar work; which third, however, was again onethird more than what the fellahs were paid in their own country. They were also to be pro

vided with habitations, food, and medical assistance, and while in hospital receive half their pay when at work. This clause, which, while it imposed an obligation, conferred also a benefit on the company for quick dispatch in the work, and even economy, was objected to by the Sultan, and in 1859 the fellahs were withdrawn. This involved the company in no small embarrassment, as well as loss of time and money for procuring an adequate number of workmen from other countries. The Sultan refused also to confirm the clause enabling the company to sell or let any portion of their property in Egypt.

The withdrawal of the fellah labor and other wrongs heaped on the company, who were at one time even ordered to leave the country, sulted in an almost total cessation of the works for two years. But they manfully stood their ground, and, after a hard struggle, finally conquered all opposition. They have even a sufficient number of native laborers, who flock to the company for work on their own motion, induced by good wages and punctual payment. As to the losses suffered by the company on the two above-mentioned points, and others, their complaints had at last the effect that the viceroy remitted their settlement to the arbitration of the French Emperor, who in July, 1864, decided as follows: 1. That the concessions of November, 1854, and January, 1856, had the form of a contract, and were binding on both parties. 2. That, as, by the withdrawal of the fellah labor, the cost of the works would be increased, the viceroy should pay an indemnity of £1,200,000 sterling on that account. 3. That the company should cede to the viceroy all their fresh-water canals, reserving only the right of passage through them; that the viceroy should pay £400,000 representing the cost of the construction of the canals, and £240,000 as compensation for the tolls which the company thereby relinquished. 4. That the company should retain only such lands along the line of the Maritime Canal as might be necessary for the care and maintenance of the said canal. 5. That the company should cede to the viceroy their title to all lands capable of cultivation by means of irrigation from the fresh-water canals, and for which the viceroy should pay £1,200,000. The total sum awarded as indemnity to the company thus amounted to £3,360,000.

But, in the face of such obstacles and discouragements as would appear capable of stopping the course of any enterprise, M. de Lesseps and his engineers have persistently fought their way and progressed in the mighty work, and finally brought it, as it is at present, to the point of its completion.

To enter into details concerning the variety, magnitude, and difficulty of the works on and for the canal, and the several kinds and power of the machinery used, would occupy too much space. We lay before the reader the two cuts exhibiting the surface representation of the

On the northern extremity of the canal, where it debouches on the Mediterranean, a port has been constructed, named Port Said, consisting of two breakwaters, or moles, 2,726 and 1,962 yards long respectively, embracing a triangular area of about 550 acres, a safe harbor and easy to make. They are 26 yards at the base, 6 yards at the summit, and 12 yards in height, and formed of huge blocks of concrete, measuring 12 cubic yards, and weighing 22 tons each, prepared and made on the spot, by machines, from the harbor-dredgings and one-third hydraulic lime. The moles are visible at about 12 miles' distance. A writer says: "When we observe the scale on which Port Saïd now exists, no other portion of the vast engineering works along the line of the canal appears more strongly to exemplify the talent and indomitable zeal that have succeeded in so effectual a manner in surmounting those natural obstacles which here presented themselves." Besides being a port, properly so called, Port Said is now also a town regularly laid out in squares and streets, containing already 10,000 inhabitants, churches, mosques, hospitals and all the adjuncts of a thriving seaport town, the Sisters of Charity being also there to minister peace to patients in the hos pitals, and educate the children of this large French colony.

On the north of Lake Timsah, about the middle of the whole course of the canal, "stands Ismailia (named after Ismail Pacha), a flourishing French town, full of life and activity, a real oasis in the desert. It contains a population of five thousand inhabitants, and is divided into French, Greek, and Arab quarters." It is, as it were, the headquarters of the administration of the company.

At its southern extremity the canal runs into the Red Sea, where, after entering the sea, its embouchure gradually widens to about 300 yards, and the depth in this portion is to be 27 feet. Here stands Suez, which, to use the same writer's words, "no more than four or five