paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and it is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that." And yet, forsooth, according to Peter Sinclair and the pro-Federals, the sentiments of Lincoln are worthy of a place beside the noblest utterances of Granville Sharpe, Clarkson, Wilberforce, Brougham, or any of your British philanthropists! Can deception, fraud, or hypocrisy be exceeded in the above? The moral world must be moving the wrong way on its axis when such beggarly shams and gigantic swindles as the one referred to above, can be palmed off at public meetings as abolitionist, receive congratulatory addresses as such, and receive their plaudits! By the duplicity, cunning, and fraud which Lincoln practised, he obtained a few abolition votes; but what contributed most of all to his success was the division which had taken place in the Democratic party. This gave him a large majority. But although Lincoln was elected, a larger number of Democratic or proslavery senators and legislators were sent by the people of Congress at the general election of 1860 than obtained in the Senate, or the Hall of Legislature at Washington, under the presidency of Buchanan, Lincoln's predecessor! The Hon. A. H. Stephens, when referring to this fact in an eloquent speech which he delivered in the Hall of Representatives,

Georgia, November 14, 1860, says, "The President of the United States, is no emperor, no dictator. He is clothed with no absolute power. He can do nothing unless he is backed by power in Congress." The House of Representatives is largely in the majority against him. In the very face of the heavy majority which he has obtained in the Northern States, there have been large gains in the House of Representatives to the conservative constitutional party of the country, which here I will call the national Democratic party, because that is the cognomen it has at the North. There are twelve of this party elected from New York to the next Congress, I believe. In the present house there are but four, I think. In Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, and Indiana, there have been gains. In the present Congress there were 113 Republicans, when it takes 117 to make a majority. The gains in the Democratic party in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey, New York, Indiana, and other States, notwithstanding its distractions, have been enough to make a majority of nearly 30 in the next House of Representatives against Lincoln. Even in Boston, Mr Burlingame, one of the noted leaders of the fanatics of that section, has been defeated, and a conservative man returned in his stead.

Is this the time, then, to apprehend that Mr. Lincoln, with this large majority in the house against him, can carry out any of his unconstitutional principles in that body? In the Senate he will also be powerless. There will be a majority of four against him-this

after the loss of Bigler, Fitch, and others, by the unfortunate dissensions of the National Democratic party in their States. Mr Lincoln cannot appoint an officer without the consent of the Senate—he cannot form a cabinet without the same consent. He will be in the condition of George III., the embodiment of Toryism, who had to ask the Whigs to appoint his ministers, and was compelled to receive a cabinet utterly opposed to his views; and so Mr Lincoln will be compelled to ask the Senate to choose for him a cabinet, if the Democracy of that body chose to put him on such terms. He will be compelled to do this or let the Government stop, if the Democratic men in the Senate should so determine. Then how can Mr. Lincoln obtain a cabinet which would aid him or allow him to violate the constitution? So far, therefore, from there being an advance wave of public opinion in favour of liberty in the last general election of America, the result was a clear gain in favour of what is called the conservative or pro-slavery element, and Lincoln owed his election not to the Republican party, but to the dissensions and divisions which obtained amongst the Democrats. Why, then, it may be asked, did Southern senators and representatives retire from their places in Congress, and form themselves into a new government? This will form the subject of my next communication. Meanwhile, allow me to subscribe myself, yours for truth as well as liberty,

J. R. BALME, American Baptist Clergyman.

THE HAPPY FAMILY AND ITS QUARRELS.

TO THE EDITORS OF THE LIVERPOOL MERCURY.

GENTLEMEN,-In the neighbourhood of Trafalgar Square, London, there used to be a man who exhibited a cage containing birds, reptiles, insects, and animals, said to be living in quiet grace and harmony, bearing the title of "The Happy Family." But when any of them showed their irreconcilable natures, the exhibitor gave them a gentle tap on the head with a lath which he kept for that purpose. Our "Happy Union Family" in America, so called, bears a strong resemblance to the above, and with its antagonistic natures has required to be kept under restraint with the laths of presidential authority. The Abolitionist member, however, was the most difficult to manage, and had to endure not only gentle but sometimes very severe treatment in order to preserve its false harmony and peace from being interrupted, and its "nice and subtle happiness" from being destroyed, by the touch of his magical enchanter's wand. And not only is its happiness demonstrated to be of an imaginative and uncertain character, but also insecure, for on the election of President Lincoln to assume the functions of supreme power with his lath, there was an outburst

of enmity which has produced alienation and strife ever since; and the more President Lincoln has tried to reunite the different members of our once so-called "Happy Family," the more deadly have their resentment and hostility become. And although he has called to his councils and aid the Hon. W. H. Seward, who claims to be invested with extraordinary powers, shown in a despatch of Lord Lyons to Earl Russell, Nov. 14, 1861, which contains the following words, said to have been addressed to him by Seward-" My lord, I can touch a bell on my right hand, and order the arrest of a citizen of Ohio; I can touch another bell, and order the imprisonment of a citizen of New York, and no power on earth, except that of the President, can release them. Can the Queen of England do so much?" Although President Lincoln has the aid of such a wonderful man, with his spiritual mediums to boot, to all human appearance he will come to grief with the members of the Northern division in our Union family, and have his difficulties and trials the same as in the Southern one, over which he has lost all control, and for the subjugation of whom he uses all his powers and resources in vain.

"Is it, O man, with such discordant noises,

With such accursed instruments as these,
Thou drownest Nature's sweet and kindly voices,
And jarrest the celestial harmonies?

Were half the power that fills the world with terror,

Were half the wealth bestowed on camps and courts,