dents, without motive or aim; and that to escape from their consequences it is only necessary to invent new tricks, and persevere in the same stupid course of resistance and duplicity. It is, indeed, a subject of mysterious wonder, that Providence should allow the happiness of men and the destiny of nations to be jeopardized for long years by the mischievous intrigues of corrupt and wicked men, and that the dazzling radiance of truth should not be permitted to shine out, like the sun at meridian, so as to enlighten the whole world in one day, and forever confound the plottings of the designing. To return, however, to the reflections I was just indulging, on my walk home from the Invalides, I began to give way to gloomy apprehensions of the future. My previous acquaintance with the President had inspired me, as all those who approach him,' with sincere regard; and the many conversations he had honored me with, had always led me to entertain confident expectations of vast reputation for himself, and immense advantage to his country, should it ever be his good fortune, which seemed then so improbable, to arrive at power. And now, by a change in the wheel of fortune so miraculous, as to let the hand of Providence be seen in its result, Louis Napoleon found himself at the head of the French nation; and no sooner was he then ready, and devoted to fulfil the mission apparently assigned him, than, it appears, a noxious band of men, hitherto his most inveterate enemies, spring forward, blind his vision, poison his ears, and struggle desperately with each other, to lead him towards a fatal abyss. Can this be so?-This query I repeated over and over to myself, each time growing more anxious and depressed. I had no data yet to lead me to a safe conclusion, and I sought rather to hope it otherwise. The Prince Napoleon, whom I had just quitted, might himself be misled by his fears or his true affection for his cousin; and after all, when I came to think of it, what could be more sage and discreet than the conduct the President has marked out for himself, in the words he had used to his cousin, “to wait till the new chamber assembled, and see what the country required.” My interest now was keenly aroused, and I was bent on keeping a vigilant gaze on public affairs hereafter, "wearing my eye thus," as the alarmed Othello said, neither too suspicious, nor yet too confident. I deem it a matter of paramount importance, for the sake of truth, of honesty, and of the future peace of the world, that passing events in France should be honestly chronicled; and I am as fit for that task as another, and perhaps, enjoy, by accident, some advantages that all have not obtained. I shall report impartially, "nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice."

I dined to-day with an old friend of mine, but lately a resident of Philadelphia, and who, for the sake of his wife's health, has resolved on spending a few years in Paris. He has a noble fortune, and is making a judicious application of it to his own comfort, and the advantage of his friends. There is no city, as I have before said, so much frequented by foreigners as this, and many of those of high rank and great wealth, which is prodigally dispensed in gorgeous entertainments. But it is strange,

that amongst them all some American or another, ever and anon raises his republican head, and maintains with intrepidity a successful rivalry in social splendor, which redounds equally to his own credit, and the importance of his country. It is only a few years since, that not Paris only, but all fashionable Europe, talked with incredulity of the princely magni

I

ficence of an American mansion, which, by the elegance of its company, and the surpassing richness of its costly fétes, became the most recherché rendezvous of the beau monde in this capital. And in the present case, another American house has succeeded, which, without any ambitious pretensions to fashionable eclat, has already acquired an enviable distinction among the elite of Parisian society. On every side I had heard, since my arrival, flattering mention made of my friend's establishment; and I went to one of his grand dinners with no little curiosity, to ascertain by what display of good taste, and elegance combined, always indispensable in Paris for a succes, he had, without striving or effort, contrived in so short a time to reach so lofty a position in French society. His residence was situated in the consecrated quarter of the Faubourgh St. Germain, and consisted of the greater part of one of its old and finest hotels.* Passing through a commodious anti-chamber, I found the company assembled in a good sized and richly furnished saloon, from whence we proceeded, on the announcement of dinner, to a salle à manger of very ά noble proportions. The guests numbered some twenty-five, consisting chiefly of foreigners, with the addition of some American families resident in Paris, the American minister and his amiable family included was greatly struck with the pleasing effect of the garniture de table, which was of frosted silver, very little used in France, and of a style entirely new, which I afterwards learnt was suggested to the manufacturer by our host himself. The chief centre-piece consisted of a large vase filled with fresh flowers. Two capacious rafraichinaires for wine, garnished at the end of the table, whilst a blazing mass of light from numerous candelabra, all in silver, threw its radiance over the whole. Each of these various pieces were supported by small figures, which, for want of another name, I will call cupids, and for perfection of form, gracefulness, and animation of attitude, could hardly be surpassed. Of the dinner itself it was beyond praise for the rarity and delicacy of its viands; and to measure by the vulgar standard of cost, it seemed as if outlay had never entered into the consideration of our generous Amphytrion. In leaving the dinner-room, we entered by a different door into the grand saloon, a truly splendid apartment, decorated in white and gold. Another saloon was open beyond this of a smaller size, but great beauty. An evening party began to assemble by ten, and the room of reception soon echoed with the loud sounding titles of the oldest families of France, which are all the more dearly clung to from a deep and painful sense, that their prestige is rapidly passing away. Amid this affluence of rank and high-breeding, nothing gave me a keener glow of satisfaction, than to behold the perfect ease and grace with which the lovely lady-hostess presided over her company. Her extraordinary beauty has long been the marvel of more than one European capital; but what, perhaps, is still more surprising to the representatives of genealogies some centuries old, is the singular selfpossession and quiet reticence of an American lady, whom our history shows could not borrow its authority from a family over some two or three generations. Such a fact as this must be a violent blow to the illusions of Europe, which is so much given to suppose that breeding, like certain wine, requires long years to soften and enhance its quality.

*I should apprise my readers who have not visited Paris, that “ Hotel" is applied to the private mansions of the aristocracy.

This firm steadiness of manner, which the French so aptly expressed in the word a plomb, is strikingly characteristic of the Americans generally; and I remember a pleasant chat I had on this point with an experienced and close observer. It was in Holland, in 1845, that I went one day to court to be presented by our accomplished charge there, Mr. Davizac, to King William, lately deceased. We were standing in an ante-room, previous to our audience, where there was collected a large group of distinguished persons, from different parts of Europe, with their respective ambassadors, waiting for presentation. Every now and then the doors of the audience-chamber were thrown open, with a good deal of fracas to admit some new party, when I could hardly help smiling at the species of tremor which seized the greater part of the company at the thought of a nearer approach to royalty. My comments on this drew Mr. Davizac into one of those lively conversations for which he is so renowned, and he gave many instances of the singular composure which on similar occasions he had always seen evinced by the Americans of both sexes. Without ever being wanting in decorum or due respect, they seemed of all other people the only ones perfectly impenetrable to that sacred awe which poets will have it, "doth hedge a king."

It was not much after ten, when I drove away from the hospitable roof of my American friend in the Faubourgh St. Germain, to attend the ball of the President, at the Elysée National.

1849.]

Flogging in the Navy.

FLOGGING IN THE NAVY.

PART II.-OBJECTIONS TO ITS ABOLITION MET,

We will now endeavor to show the insufficiency of the objections urged against the repeal of the laws which sanction flogging in the navy. Should All injurious imputations upon those officers of the naval service who entertain different opinions, will be avoided with sedulous care. any harshness of judgment be expressed, it will be understood to apply to the acts of legislation, and not to the agents who have been designated to execute those acts. Opposition may come from some, who, instead of replying to arguments and to facts, will assail the motives of the writer. In fair combat and with lawful weapons, we do not mistrust the issue of the conflict; but where a feeling of personality exists, the advocates of the relics of barbarous times may resort to the mode of warfare of barbarous nations, and trust rather "to the venom of the shaft than the rigor of the bow." At all events, we will discuss the question without passion or violence. In the language of an eloquent friend of the cause, Mr. Brown, of Philadelphia, we will advocate this thing temperately, but firmly. Virtue never accomplishes her object by storm; We are not for breaking down the system in vice always resorts to it. spite of the law; but we are for reforming the law, and abolishing the soul-sickening and degrading sight of a man tortured by the application of the lash.

In the discussions which have taken place upon this subject in the halls of Congress, and in the public prints, it is presumed that all the arguments have been elicited which the advocates of the law can adduce in its support. These will be examined severally.

It is contended, in the first place, that the antiquity of the practice of flogging sailors affords a proper ground for its continuance. The same argument has been made use of, and with as much propriety, to perpetuate every abuse that has ever existed, and to oppose every reform that has ever been agitated.

Nothing is more obvious than the softening influences of civilization upon the human character. We remark this in the less harsh methods of correction practised, as refinement advances, in the work shop, the school-room, the domestic household, and even the prison. But milder substitutes have in no age been proposed without having to encounter violent opposition from those conservative advocates of the olden time, who forbode evil from every change. It is the same with the laws which sanction flogging and arbitrary punishments in the navy. Although these are admitted to be discreditable to the civilization of the age and the republican professions of the country, they still find upholders among the most distinguished legislators of the land, upon the ground of time. honored usage.

The origin of flogging sailors, for aught we know to the contrary,

VOL. XXV.-NO. CXXXV.

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may have been antediluvial. It is sufficient for our present purpose to be assured of the indisputable fact, that the existing naval code has undergone scarcely any change, so far as the rights of seamen are concerned, from the regulations used for the English navy in the reign of the latter Stuarts, when the military and naval services were, for the first time, entirely separated. Doubtless the practice enjoyed high favor, and was in vigorous employment at that period; but the treatment of sailors was not more barbarous than may have been expected in a state of society where the lash was of such general application. Merciless floggings were then an ordinary punishment, observes Mr. Macaulay, for political misdemeanors of no very aggravated kind. Men were sentenced, for hasty words spoken against government, to pain so excruciating, that they begged with unfeigned earnestness to be brought to trial on capital charges, and sent to the gallows.

Our naval polity being derived from that of the English, and their's having received the stamp from the particular period referred to, renders it proper to mention, from the authority of the distinguished writer quoted above, a few instances of punishments inflicted on individuals at that time, and learn from them the value to be attached to precedents of that historical era: Alice Lisle, for affording a hospitable shelter to an unfortunate friend, and Elizabeth Gauntt, for charity bestowed upon a distressed fugitive, were sentenced to be burned at the stake. A woman, for idle words uttered during a period of rebellion, was condemned to be whipped through all the market towns of her county, after the insurrection was quelled. The sentence of a boy for seditious words was, that he should be imprisoned seven years, and during that period be flogged through every market town in Dorsetshire every year. That floggings in those days were horribly severe, can be judged of from a record made of one, where seventeen hundred stripes were inflicted upon a single occasion. The blood is described to have run down in rivulets, while the bellowings of the sufferers were frightful to hear. It was in times that tolerated legal cruelties like these,--where a man, pressed to death for refusing to plead a woman burned for coining-excited less sympathy than is now felt for a galled horse, or an over-driven ox.* That those who had the making of laws for the navy, from which our own have derived much of their letter and all of their spirit, mercifully ordained, for the government of a ship's company, that if the offender be a private, he might be flogged by order of the captain, or be punished according to the custom of the sea service. The obsolete cruelties of keel-hauling, and running the gauntlet, prevailed at that period on board English ships. That they are not now part of the usages of

* Macaulay.

Keel-hauling was executed by plunging the delinquent repeatedly under the ship's bottom on the one side, and hoisting him up on the other, after having passed his body under the keel. The punishment of running the gauntlet was inflicted in the following manuer: The whole ship's crew was ranged in two rows, standing face to face on both sides of the deck, so as to form a line, whereby to go forward ou one side, and return aft on another; each person being furuished with a small. twisted cord, or spun yarn, called a knitle, having two or three knots upon it. The delinquent was then stripped naked above the waist, and compelled to march forward in ordinary or quick time between the two rows of inen, and aft on the other side, a certain number of times, rarely exceeding three; during which every person gave him a stripe