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called, their “true American principles." Some of these worthies have been since called to their long account, before a more just and exacting tribunal : but before their death left a valuable and instructive lesson to the State-the record of its disgrace, in the public declarations of their crime, for which they had been tried and legally acquitted, detailing the active and persevering efforts they had made, in the plunder and destruction of the convent.

The property destroyed on this occasion, or otherwise lost to this religious community could scarcely be less than from eighty, to one hundred thousand dollars. Efforts were afterwards made by the goodly citizens of this fair portion of the republic to remove the stain, by moving in the house of representatives for a grant of ten thousand dollars, as a part indemnity for the loss: the question underwent a long and animated discussion, while the feeling and proper sense of the community were best tested by the proposition being ultimately lost by a majority of four hundred and twelve to sixty-seven.*

* There is no law at present in force in the United States, if we except the city of Baltimore, where such a law has only very lately been promulgated, securing any compensation to the party injured by mob violence, for the loss or destruction of his property. This provision in the law of England, while consistent with the principles of common justice, gives at the same time to every individual a direct interest in the preservation of the public peace, as well as the property of his neighbour, from wanton or unnecessary outrage. The city of Baltimore is stated to have paid for losses occasioned by mob outrage in the first year (1836) of an introduction of an act of this kind going into operation, a sum of about one hundred and three thousand dollars.

The desperate wickedness of the act, as may well be imagined, created a deep and sensible impression on the minds of the Catholic population of the country; it was, to say the least, a wanton and cruel outrage, a villainous and dastardly outbreak of popular vengeance; and as might very justly be anticipated, aroused every latent feeling of sectarian animosity and bitterness, amidst a large and influential class of the community, that threatened to eventuate in other and most fearful consequences. The town of Charleston had well nigh paid the forfeit of the temerity of its citizens; even the fair city of Boston was threatened with the retaliatory vengeance of a large Catholic population, amongst whom were several thousand Irish emigrants, many of them at the time employed on the canals, and public works of the neighbourhood, and who, ready for an onslaught, were only restrained by the extraordinary, the patient and Christian perseverance of their Bishop, the Right Rev. Doctor Kenwick, and his numerous clergy, from securing, what they conceived, a full and ample atonement.

The better feelings of every citizen revolted at these excesses, whilst the language of the Boston press, with few exceptions, was loud in its condemnation.

"The burning of the convent at Charleston," remarked the Alexandria Gazette, "would have been a crime of the deepest magnitude, and of the worst example, had it been done for real, and well authenticated offences against the purities of morals, and

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decencies of life. But destroyed as it was for imputed misdeeds, which rumour had circulated with malevolent exaggeration, and with unsparing zeal, and which were subsequently proved to have been without the slightest foundation in truth, the crime will ever remain a blot upon the country which not all the rioters can wash out. And here, too, the game of plunder was actively carried on. Things sacred from their very purpose and use, sacrilegiously hunted up and borne away by the defenders of morals, and champions of chastity!-And all this perpetrated in the face of the law, amongst a people renowned for their intelligence and love of order, and no effort made to arrest the incendiaries, or prevent the spoliations of their adjuncts. In this case, as in the case of New Orleans, the arm of civil authority was connivingly withheld, or only stretched forth when the work of destruction was complete."

But these iniquities, with a long list of others we could name, are thrown far into the shade, by the atrocities to which the south has been familiarised where the worst passion of man's nature, is the sole controlling guide of the actions of every citizen, and the immolation of human life the sacrifice made to the dastardly and sickly revenge of an outlawed population. Almost every individual in America, more particularly in the Southern States, carries some deadly instrument, or weapon about his person. The stiletto, the dirk, or the bowie knife;*

* This formidable weapon is said to have been invented by a reckless drunkard, Razin Bowie, after whom it is called, who

some, perhaps, for the murderous and secret purpose of assassination; whilst many no doubt are compelled

squandered his property, and was subsequently obliged to fly from his native country, the United States, to Texas, for slaying a man in a duel. The fact is well known in Texas, and is thus related by a friend of Bowie's, who was present when Razin Bowie fought a duel with knives across a table, at the Alame, a few days before Santa Anna took it:-His first duel was fought at Natchez, on the Mississippi, in the fall of 1834. A dispute arose at a card table, in the middle of the day, between Bowie and a man named Black. The lie was given by Bowie to his opponent, and at the same moment, drawing his knife, (which was a case one, with a blade about four inches long, such as the Americans always carry in their pockets,) he challenged the man to fight, which was accepted without any hesitation, and Black having taken his seat opposite Bowie, at a small square table, the conflict began. It lasted about twenty minutes, during which time both parties were severely cut, when Bowie rose from the table, and, with a desperate oath, rushed upon his antagonist, who immediately fell dead at his feet. The inconvenience felt by Bowie on this occasion, from the smallness of the knife, having called forth the exercise of his debauched and sanguinary mind, he invented a weapon which would enable him, to use his own words, "to rip a man up right away." This task he accomplished during his exile in Texas, and which was the only legacy he could leave his young and adopted republic; indeed it is all she can shew of her citizen, his body having been burned by the Mexicans, and his ashes swept from the face of the earth by the passing winds. The real Bowie knife has a twoedged blade, about nine inches long, slightly curved towards the point, and sufficiently thick in the back to serve as a chopper, in which way it is very formidable, but not so much so as in thrusting. The blade is covered with a sheath, and, when neatly got up, as some of them are, it forms a pretty ornament enough, when coming from under the corner of the waistcoat, or over the

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to adopt this usage, so repugnant to every noble, and chivalrous mind, from the necessity which obliges them to assume a precautionary course of this description, as their best and almost only defence from personal injury and violation. The mere knowledge of the fact, that a man carries concealed weapons about his person, to defend him from attack, and with which to retaliate, if assaulted, often secures his person, perhaps his life, when none of the restraints of order or moral propriety are acknowledged, or the defined laws of the land put in force. Though much we condemn the practice in the abstract, though much we repudiate the notion, amongst a peaceable and orderly community, of the treacherous, and cowardly habit of going abroad secretly armed, more suited to the timid bully—the blackleg- the craven and midnight assassin, than to the good, the peaceable and upright, we nevertheless can make excuses for such of the latter class of citizens, residing in any of the western or southern parts of the republic, with the many and dread examples before their eyes, of the

waistband of a pair of Texian trousers. They are generally of the best Sheffield manufacture, where they are now prepared exclusively for the American market; and of late years constitute an extensive and important article of British hardware export.

The habit of carrying these, and such-like weapons concealed about the person, became so very general, and withal so alarming in its consequence, that the government of Maryland, in 1836, with a view to put some check to so dangerous a practice, caused a prohibitory bill to be introduced into the house of delegates for this purpose; which, strange as the fact is, was rejected on a division by a majority of 51 to 17.