who enjoy a "lion gathering" or a menagerie of foreign celebrities of the genus homo, as heartily as the Castilian enjoys his cock-fight.

(To be continued in our next.)

ODE

FOR THE FOURTH OF JULY.

BY COLONEL EIDOLON.

AGAIN has come the glorious day-
How blithe is every heart;
How splendid is the proud array-
It makes the life-blood start!
Now the old veteran's sparkling eye
Brightens as in days gone by,
And once again he tells the tale
Which oft has turned his hearers pale;
And vivid paints before their eyes
The swift attack-the night surprise-
The lonely watch-the meagre fare-
Their hopes elate-their blank despair-

Tells of the carnage and the rout,

The slain, where hosts had striven;
The vict'ry, the triumphant shout,
Whose pean swelled to heaven!
The bivouac, the social mess-
With glimpses faint of happiness-
The cup, the patriotic song,

That wiled the tedious time along;

The soldier friend, the true, the brave,
Who now lies mouldering in the grave;
And as he names the friend once dear,
Pays him a tributary tear.

But now no more the trumpet horn
Calls forth contending foes;
But yellow waving wheat is shorn
Where bristling bayonets rose.
Where charging squadrons reared and sprung,
And many a clanking sabre rung;
Where once the hardy foemen met
With glittering sword and bayonet;
Where horse and rider, cold in death,

Lay stretched upon the bloody heath:

Long since the waving grass has grown,

And flowers have wreathed each bleaching bone.

Hark to the rolling drum, and see,

Borne lightly on the air,

The banner of the proud and free,

The banner bright and fair!
And now the cannon's deafening roar
Again resounds from shore to shore;

And loud huzzas around arise,
That fill the concave of the skies;

And many a tribute now is paid

To those whose heads are lowly laid;
And many a name is loudly rung,

And many a gallant deed is sung.

Yes! 'tis the great, the glorious Fourth!
Rejoice! rejoice! rejoice!

Let East and West, and South and North

Raise a triumphant voice.

T'was on this day our Fathers broke
The British monarch's galling yoke;
T'was on this day that pealed on high
The first loud shout of victory;
T'was on this day a world beheld
A nation free, a cloud dispelled,

A little band of Patriots rise

A nation's pride and sacrifice.

How proud each freeman treads the sod,

How fires his flashing eye!

And muttered praises to his God,

In patriot cheering die!

He thinks but on the gallant band
That stood the bulwark of the land;
And from the plains of Lexington,
Till Washington at Yorktown won-
Follows again the blood-tracked route;
Hears the low groan, the thrilling shout,
By grief and joy alternato swayed,
Till the last glorious charge is made.

He can enjoy without regret,

Spoils that the gallant dead have won:

De Kalb, Pulaski, Lafayette,

Led by the godlike Washington. Spread out beneath a smiling sky, Millions on millions acres lie, Won by the high-souled men who bore The hardships of the fight of yore; Whose names we celebrate to-day, Whose deeds shall last till suns decay, While by their mother earth caressed, On well-fought fields their ashes rest.

From the far snow-capped hills of Maine,
To Mexic's burning clime,
Rises on high a glorious strain,

We're brothers for all time;

Let freedom's blessings spread abroad
The rights of man, the praise of God,
And bring within her hallowed fold
Each heart that's cast in manly mould,
Spreading her ægis o'er the whole,
From sea to sea, from pole to pole,
Till, through the world's immensity,
Man shall enjoy sweet Liberty.

STATE SOVEREIGNTY AND FEDERAL

USURPATIONS.

"WE, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, and insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."—Preamble of the Constitution of the United States.

CONSTITUTIONAL history teaches us that governments have usually been divided into consolidated and confederated. A consolidated government presumes that the interests of its people are so analogous as to warrant the depository of all power in one legislature, to be exercised for the benefit of the people as a unity. It is in a government of this nature that the legislative maxim of ubi major pars est, ibi est totum, is alone applicable; such communities having usually been of such limited territorial extent as to render the interests of its constituents so similar, that the adoption of this maxim would not materially endanger the political rights of the minority. The consolidated form of government has not usually been the result of voluntary association on the part of its constituents, but has more frequently grown out of adventitious circumstances, wholly beyond the control of the individuals composing it. A prolific source of this form of government is to be sought for in the ambition of some powerful individual urging a victorious career into neighboring communities, subjugating and finally consolidating them into one grand political body as a means of gratifying his peculiar views of personal aggrandizement. The principal European governments are illustrative of the consolidated form, both in their origin and operationbased as they are upon the Feudal System, which history teaches to have originated as above specified.

In contradistinction to the above, the confederate or federal form of government is a voluntary association of sovereign and independent political bodies of such dissimilitude of interests as to render the consolidated form, by virtue of the above-quoted maxim, highly objectionable; such an amalgamation as the consolidated form calls for necessarily proving subversive of the rights of the minority of said political bodies. Examples of this

47 form of government are to be sought for in the ancient republics of Greece, in the Achæan, the Lycian, and Amphyclonic council; in the Germanic, the Helvetic, and Hanseatic Republics of modern times; these being an association of sovereign and independent political bodies, of dissimilar local interests, but all having a common interest in certain objects of a general import.

Having defined the two governments now existing in the world, namely, the consolidated and the confederated-the momentous question, which now divides the public opinion of the people of the States, arises, Is the government of the United States a consolidated or a confederate or federal government? This question can only be determined by an appeal to the impartial page of history, the only arbiter between the highly-respectable parties which now divide the government of these States. To this source of light and truth we now turn in order to establish the confederate in opposition to the consolidated character of our government.

The history of the infant colonies teaches us that the country comprised within the limits of the now United States of America was originally patented in the reign of James I., of England, into two portions: that in less than eighty years from that period, the same was again divided into twelve distinct provinces; a thirteenth being after added in the creation of the State of Georgia. Thus far, then, it is evident, that in a territorial point of view, the now United States never formed one government; being in the first instance divided into two portions, then into twelve distinct provinces and subsequently into thirteen-by the addition of the State of Georgia. That they never formed one political body shall also be proved; their early constitutional history most indubitably proving the same.

By a reference to constitutional history we learn that the earliest forms of the colonial governments were four in number.

The first was the charter government, by which the power of legislating was vested in a Governor, Council, and Assembly. Of this kind were the governments of Connecticut and Rhode-Island, as also that of Plymouth Colony, and originally that of Massachusetts.

The second form of government was that of the proprietary, in which the proprietor of the Province was Governor, the Assembly being chosen by the people of the Province. Of this kind were the governments of Pennsylvania and Maryland; and originally those of New-Jersey and the Carolinas.

The third form of government was the royal, in which the Governor and Council were appointed by the Crown, the Assembly being elected by the people. Such were the governments of New-Hampshire, New-York, Virginia, and Georgia, and New-Jersey after 1702, as also the Carolinas after 1728.

The fourth was a mixed form of government, in which the Governor alone was appointed by the King; both the Assembly and the Council