He ministers; he can send his political opponents, at a moment's notice, to Fort Lafayette, the American Bastille. He can dismiss every public servant of the Federal Union, down to the postmistress in the country village and the tide-waiter at the Custom-house, and he can. appoint their successors. In him lie the issues of peace or war. alone determines the awful question of the expenditure of hundreds of millions, and the destruction, calculating on the scale of the last four years, of half a million of human lives. Indeed, this is the avowed purpose of his re-election. An infatuated majority have replaced him in the Presidential chair, that the war may be carried on with vigour, and without remorse. They delight in war. Mr. Ward Beecher preached a political sermon every Sunday, in anticipation of the Presidential election. His doctrines were blasphemous, and his temper fierce. Not much better are those of the Bishop of Pennsylvania. The smooth and oily surface of society in New York is the index of a wantonness seldom attained. Cruelty has not reached her climax until she becomes sportive, assumes an air of gaiety, and finds her amusement in the misery of those she torments. With all possible seriousness we ask, what are the sanguinary "customs" of Dahomey compared with the resolutions, a hundred times expressed, by the friends of Mr. Lincoln's policy, to lay waste with fire and sword the Confederate States, and to sweep the white men, their kinsmen, from the face of the earth, rather than forego the restoration of the Union, now for ever lost? We have drawn a fearful picture, but who will tell us that we have exaggerated one of its features? Yet we do not forget that, in these guilty States, and even in New York, there are many righteous men; many who are the salt of the earth; and for their sakes we may hope that He, who would have spared Sodom, had ten righteous men been found there, will turn away His fierce anger, and spare a people which sins with a high hand, and sins without remorse. The one gleam of light which steals across the scene, comes from the Confederates; with whom, at the beginning of the war, we had no sym, pathy, and with whom, as a nation, we can have but little, however we may admire their bravery and self-respect, while slavery remains. President Davis, in his message to the Congress, which met at Richmond a few days ago, proposes the training of forty thousand negroes for military service, who shall be repaid, when the war, or the period of their enlistment, ends, with the boon of freedom. Surely, this must eventually work out the emancipation of the whole of the three millions of Confederate slaves. Of other news we have none of much importance. A system of kidnapping, to a formidable extent, for the Federal armies, has just been detected at Liverpool. Four hundred of our poor starving operatives, from the cotton districts around Manchester, were hurried down to Liverpool, on the pretence that they were to be employed in New York, at enormous wages, in a glass-house. The plot was 'detected by a brave and humane gentleman, who chanced to be on the platform when the train arrived; and suspecting what their destination was, instantly cautioned them of their danger, and offered them refreshment, and beds of clean straw under sheds in the iron founderies, in which he is a partner. It was late at night, and his kindness was Vol. 63.-No. 324. 6 I Scripture, a suggestion for explaining St. Paul's cloak at Troas, 709, 949. Debate on Mr. Disraeli's motion on Danish war, 635. Elliott, Rev. E. B., on prophetic articles Esdras, The first book of, 221. Future state of the wicked and the un- Garibaldi's visit to England and his Gold discoveries, On the recent, 282. Infidelity, The course of, 1. Jeune, Dr., appointment to the See of Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, Lincoln, President, re-election of, 958. Men, on the test of greatness among, 451. Millenium, Origin of the term, 591. Neology, The progresss of, 481. Obituary of the Earl of Aberdeen, 389. On the test of greatness among men, 451. Our present position, 418. 318. Parliament, Opening of, 236. -, Proceedings in, 477, 558, 635, 637. Poetry: "Not my will, but thine, be Alexander, Dr., 869. 639, 775. 245. Bellarmine, Cardinal, 4. 255. Beveridge, Bp., 811. Boyd, Rev. A., 156, 700. Bunsen, Chevalier, 3, 10. Chamberlain, M. Cator, 871. 170. Cheever, Dr., 314. 712. Dale, Rev. T., 78. 297. Davies, Rev. J. L., 117, 505, 872. Davis, Rev. C. H., 353. 231. Duff, Dr., 182. 941. Elliott, Rev. E. B., 199. Hale, Sir M., 372. Hall, Bp., 87, 949. gratefully accepted: he added a comfortable meal in the morning, The execution of the wretched Müller, for the murder of Mr. Briggs We close our labours for the year, and bid our readers for a time TO CORRESPONDENTS. WE must decline to make the Christian Observer the battle-ground on which to RUSTICUS Mus gives us an account of what he heard from different INDEX OF THE ESSAYS, SUBJECTS, INTELLIGENCE, OCCURRENCES, &c. &c. &c. ABBEOKUTA, the deliverance of, 705. Are we becoming a pleasure-loving Atonement, the love of God manifest in the, 412. Belfast riots, 717. CORRESPONDENCE:- Christ, on the Sonship of, 775. Church Parties, On the present aspect Church Pastoral Aid Society, and the Clerical Subscription, 62, 305, 548, 632. Confirmation by Presbyters, 776. article in Edinburgh Review, 231. Finch, Mr. G., on St. Bernard's life Lord's Supper, the order for ad- Miracles, our Lord's and other al- More's (Hannah), Cheap Repository Mount Hermon, was it the scene of the Transfiguration, 389. |