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camp, the members of which were about to rush into the arena of civil war. The feudal barons of long bygone days were far more peaceable, and less antagonizing than a portion of our Congress. All respect for the place, for the occasion, for character, for country, appeared to be lost, and passion and rage held the reins. Where almost all were clamorous talkers, few hearers were to be obtained, and long and angry debates, procrastinated and defeated business, neglected duties, discomfited hopes, and dishonoured names were the unpropitious and hapless results.

"It would not be fair, however, to suppose, that every man who has a seat in the National Legislature is included in this category. There are many, no doubt, who may claim an exemption, and to whom these strictures are in every way inapplicable; who are untiring in their exertions, and at all times eager to assume the duties, and fulfil the objects for which they are sent to Congress."

It were, perhaps, difficult to trace this state of things to any one defined cause, or beyond the yet crude and unsettled state of American society, particularly in the more inland or remote sections of the country, from whence a considerable proportion of its members are chosen; together with the few restraints that exist under their peculiar organization, to control the passions-repress the expression of easily aroused feelings, or soften down the violence or asperities of men, who though drawn together under the sanction of the same law, and

for one common purpose, are generally strangers to each other-to the peculiarities of their dispositions, who, though selected to promote one common interest, and watch over the destinies of the same nation, encourage those personal, anti-national and sectional feelings, that acknowledge the existence of a separate interest in the different States--that too frequently interrupts the harmony of the public counsels, and are at all times at variance with the admitted prosperity and welfare of the country. We have, indeed, heard of other causes advanced as explanatory of this state of social and legislative disorganization; the disgraceful exhibitions with which the Halls of Congress are familiarised; whilst amongst the most general, and in which we profess our entire incompetency to determine, is the too frequent indulgence of honourable members in habits of intemperance, induced, perhaps, by the idle, the uncertain and listless occupations-the mode in which they spend their time, away from their usual business pursuits, while in attendance at the capital. The Honourable Henry Wise, Member of Congress from the State of Virginia, who is certainly one of the most influential and leading men in the House of Representatives, in writing to Judge Hopper, of the State of Maryland, in answer to a public invitation to attend a meeting of the Maryland State Temperance Society, in 1837, observes :

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"I state the fact, then, to the nation, that some of the higher Executive Officers at Washington are, and have been, notorious drunkards - drunkards

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in my sense of the term, habitually affected by ardent spirits-once a week--impaired in constitution by the use of strong drink; and I further state, that I have often heard the reason assigned, and believe it was a valid one, for the House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States not sitting in the evening after dinner, when the public business required it, that many of the members were so much in the habit of intoxication, that they were not only unfit themselves for public duty after a certain hour in the day, but were likely to prevent others discharging their duty, by interrupting the order of proceeding. During the late part of the Sessions of Congress, when the two Houses were compelled to sit late, members, too drunk for the decencies of a tavern bar-room, were not uncommon sights in the Senate Chambers, and in the hall of the House of Representatives of a Republic, whose fathers handed down to it, the hallowed and immutable truth, that no free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people but by firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue. These are facts, Sir, which, in my name, if you choose, you may bring to the attention of the Convention, as worthy of the notice of the people of the United States."

Thus saith the Honourable Mr. Wise, whose past life has in great part been devoted to the public service, whose patriotism and ardent love of country none dare impugn; whose sincerity and high honour are unimpeachable; and whose means of

forming a correct judgment on the subject to which he directs the especial notice of his countrymen, none will venture to deny. Yet, do we hope, for the sake of poor humanity, its frailties and sufferings, that he may have been deceived; and that from his own exceedingly temperate habits, and natural distaste of every excess of this kind, that he may have been unwittingly led into error as to his coadjutors in either House, with whom we shall now leave the honourable member to discuss the subject, whilst undertaking a brief consideration of the Local or States Governments.

CHAPTER IV.

State Governments-Executive power in each State-State legislative bodies-Their constitution-Their component materials -Qualification of Electors-General character of the electedTheir venality-The late William Cobbett-His letter to President Jackson, describing the character of the Pennsylvanian legislature -The United States judicatory-Judicial power divided between Federal and States Governments-Judges of the United States- Their general incapacity and unfitness for their situation-Salary unequal to their expenses-Want of encouragement to the proficiency or attainment of legal information in the United States-Judges Sutherland and Cheevers-Mode of appointing Judges in the several States— The term for which they hold office-Their salaries-Mode of removal from office-The demoralizing influence on American Society of the American Judicatory-Foreigners, especially Englishmen, placed beyond the pale or sympathies of American Judges-Foreigners counselled to avoid litigation-If forced to have recourse to legal proceedings in the United States advised how to act-Precautions necessary to adopt-Judge Betts and Judge Edwards-Strange and opposite versions of the same law-The abuse of judicial trust tending to encourage a Lynch law system-The little interest that Americans take in the daily proceedings of their several law courts.

THE Local, or State Governments of the separate commonwealths are nearly similar in their composition, or constitutional formation to the Federal Government of the country; the executive power of each State being vested in a Governor with the title ex-officio of "His Excellency," their republican simplicity, and natural abhorrence of titles of all