The State bank had also a banking-house at Springfield, erected at an expense of some fifty thousand dollars, after the bank had suspended pay.

ment.

It is not singular, therefore, that public indignation should have been excited against the banks; nor is it strange, that such indignation should have reached our legislative halls.*

Some doubts having recently been expressed, whether the cancelling of three millions and fifty thousand dollars of State bonds, and the transfer of an equal amount of bank stock by legislative acts, was doing justice to the billholders, or to the stockholders who had paid cash in full for their stock, while the State, like other speculating stockholders in eastern cities, had given her bonds or stock notes only; it becomes as imperative upon us as upon a grand-juror, to speak "without fear, favor, affection, or hope of reward," upon the subject.

That the cancelling of so much of our public debt was desirable, all admit. That it was expedient, if it could be done without a sacrifice of principle, is admitted also. Expediency, however, is a dangerous word, especially in legislative bodies. Its banners, as Burke once said of the French revolutionists, are too frequently "stolen from the altar of God; and its allies congregated from the abyss of hell."

The same question was once agitated in a public assembly at Athens, and a decision was thereupon had, against the doctrine of expediency. Although the proceedings of an Athenian assembly, we admit, are not of high authority," its fierce democracy" having been, as we are informed, ruled and governed at times by demagogues, lessons may be learned from its history replete with instruction.

Aristides, who, during his whole life, was exceedingly poor-notwithstanding he held some of the highest offices in the State, and was the friend and companion of Alexander and Pausanias, of Miltiades and Themistocles; by a series of virtuous actions, had acquired the name of "the Just." Themistocles, whose reputation for integrity was not equally apparent, (although Napoleon cites him for a model,) having once said in a public assembly at Athens, "that he had thought of an expedient which would be salutary to the State, but its success would depend upon its being kept a secret,' was commanded to submit it to Aristides, and to abide his decision.

Aristides, having heard Themistocles's proposal; returned to the assembly and said, that "nothing could be more advantageous than the project of Themistocles, and at the same time, nothing could be more unjust."

Themistocles was thereupon ordered to abandon his scheme. It is needless, perhaps, to inform our readers, that the project of Themistocles was to burn the fleet, "not the bonds" of the confederates, (allies and

Notwithstanding the apparent severity which characterizes the several acts above mentioned, it is more than probable that the billholders, and the stockholders, are gainers by their operation. That the speculators are, there can be no doubt.

+ The State bonds were afterward burned on the capitol square, in Springfield.

friends of the republic,) to secure the ascendency of Athens. (See note 2.)

'Tis needless, perhaps, to say more in relation to our bonds. They have been destoyed by the joint action of the bank and the Legislature, and our debt has thus been reduced three millions and fifty thousand dollars.*

Had those bonds been the notes of individuals, given for stock in 1837, and lain dormant in the bank till it became insolvent: and had they been given up by the bank to be cancelled on the assignment of so much stock, in an institution acknowledged to be bankrupt, Judge Lynch† would have erected his throne on Capitol Square, in Springfield; a thousand ju rors, without a summons, would have appeared at his bar; a sentence of condemnation would have been pronounced against the stockholders, and the officers thus offending; and in less time than was consumed in destroying the Bastile, the banking-house at Springfield, erected at so much expense, would have been levelled with the dust-not one stone would have been left upon another.

The act, however, was a legislative act. The people were interested in the reduction of the debt, and truth and justice were drowned by "mock hosannas to the Son of David."

Men, in their corporate capacity, do that of which, as individuals, they would be ashamed. Lord Coke in speaking of corporations, said, "they had no souls, and, therefore, could not be excommunicated." There is, however, a bar to which legislators are amenable-the bar of public opinion and, although public opinion may sometimes be wrong, "its sober, second thought" is generally right. The Legislature of Georgia once burned their records, and the Legislature of Illinois may, perhaps, yet profit by their example.

The above remarks are not intended as an apology for the banks. Our experience in banking has been unfortunate. A want of capital in some instances, and a want of integrity in others, (not but that many excellent men-men of principle and character, have been thus engaged,) have subjected this community to more than they can bear. The bubble has burst, and left nothing but "ruins and demagogues."

Banks, in many cases, are a public convenience. Bills are preferable frequently to specie. The millions, however, which have been lost by fraud, and by counterfeiting, will long be remembered. Those losses have seldom happened to the wary. The broker, the speculator, and the man who deals in his thousands, are seldom "their victims." The hardlaboring man, the unwary, the credulous, and those living remote from towns and cities, are generally the sufferers. The duty of the Legisla. ture to protect the latter is imperative.

Whatever, therefore, may be the action of our Legislature hereafter in

* Fifty thousand dollars of stock is still held by the State.

+ Judge Lynch's courts have been described too often to require a definition here, or a description of the "modus operandi" in these courts.

relation to the State bank, or to banking generally; the protection of those whose circumstances require its aid, will, it is hoped, now and for ever, be the objects of its watchful care.

NOTE I.

John Quincy Adams, alluding in Congress, a few years since, to the miserable condition of our western garrisons, moved an inquiry into the expediency of withdrawing the troops from thence," within the settlements," in order that they might be safe from the attacks of the Indians. The expedient was exceedingly well calculated to protect the troops, but was looked upon by many as being rather unmilitary.

NOTE II.

When a person be.

The Athenians had a peculiar way of rewarding their great men. came obnoxious, for good or ill, (for envy sometimes, we are told, raised up enemies in Athens as well as elsewhere,) he was subjected to the Ostrascism. This was conducted in the following manner:

Every citizen took a shell, and wrote the name of the person he wished to have banished upon it. He then carried it to the public market-place, where it was deposited. The shells thus deposited were then counted by the magistrates, and if six thousand shells had the name of any one person upon them, he was sentenced to ten years banishment. Aristides, having excited considerable envy, and among other things, the hostility of Themistocles, was subjected to this test. The latter having observed, that "he looked upon it as the principal virtue of a general, to know and foresee the designs of the enemy." Aristides replied, "That, indeed, is a necessary qualification; but there is another very excellent one, and really becoming a general, and that is, to have clean hands."

When the question in relation to the banishment of Aristides was pending, and the people were inscribing names on their shells, an illiterate burgher came up to Aristides, without knowing him, as to some ordinary person, and giving him his shell, desired him to write" Aristides" upon it. The good man, surprised at the request, asked him if Aristides had ever injured him? No," said he, "I do not know him; but it vexes me to hear him everywhere called the Just." Aristides, without replying, took his shell, wrote his own name upon it, gave it back to the man, and wandered in exile.

Instead of doing on his departure as Achilles did, implore his mother to influence Jupiter against his countrymen, and wishing them to feel the impotence of their chieftain, and to weep over the effects of his injustice; Aristides lifted up his hands toward heaven, and calling the gods to witness, prayed that the people of Athens might never see the day which should force them to remember Aristides. About three years afterward, when Xerxes, at the head of an army of one million one hundred thousand men, was advancing toward Greece, Aristides was suddenly recalled. Passing in the night-time through the enemy's fleet, he reached the tent of Themistocles, and expressed a desire to speak with him in private; tendered to him, as a leader and general, his services as a follower; fought and distinguished himself in the battle that ensued; and although the spoils of Marathon, "where Persian silver and gold were scattered about," awaited his command, he died poor, and as Plutarch observes, “did not leave enough to defray the expenses of his funeral."

29*

Religion in Illinois-Constitution of the State in relation thereto-Emigration hitherIts effect on society-Clergy members of Legislative bodies-Methodists in IllinoisCamp Meetings-Baptists, and other denominations-Literature-Fenelon-Jesuit College at Kaskaskia-Common Schools-School Funds-Jackson College-Jubilee College-Medical College, at Chicago-Academies-Slavery forbidden in IllinoisLegislation thereon-Origin of Slavery in Virginia-Elsewhere-Case of Lovejoy at Alton-Effects of Slavery-Its abolition.

RELIGION and learning, in every age, and almost every clime, have hitherto advanced with equal, though frequently, uncertain strides. Connected intimately, as they are, with human freedom, and with an enlightened system of legislation and jurisprudence, they are sometimes accelerated, and sometimes retarded, in their march. Each, therefore, deserves separate attention.

Religion, in Illinois, is left precisely where our Saviour wished it might be-unshackled by legislation-in the care, and under the protection of its author, a wise and holy God.

The 3rd section in the 8th article of our Constitution, declares, that "All men have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences; that no man can of right be compelled to attend, erect, or support any place of worship, or maintain any ministry against his consent; that no human authority can, in any case whatever, control or interfere with the right of conscience; and that no preference shall be given by law to any religious establishment or mode of worship; and that no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust, under the State."

The policy of religious establishments has always been questionable; and the idea of producing uniformity in religious opinions by legislative acts, has long been exploded. Christianity, while our Saviour was here on earth, and during the age of the Apostles, was rapidly diffused, even to "earth's remotest realms." It soon pervaded the Roman empireassumed the purple, and lost its purity. Neither armies nor thrones are its appropriate theatre. Even David, "the man after God's own heart,” was a great offender. Solomon, the wisest of princes, (surrounded by earthly glory,) forgot his Maker; and one of the ablest of the Roman pontiffs, who in early life, (when a priest of humble pretensions,) "had hopes of Heaven, on reaching the papal throne, had none at all."

There is something in Christianity adapted to every station, and to every condition in life; but more especially to the humble, the afflicted, and the oppressed:

"Art thou scorned, dost thou repine,

That a lowly birth was thine;
Boldly, friend, look up and know
None may higher lineage show;
Holy nature is thy mother,

God thy father, Christ thy brother."

Were sickness and sorrow to be done away, religion would at once be despoiled of half her charms; duty would be forgotten, or but slightly remembered, and truth and obedience be shipwrecked on their passage to eternity. Sickness and sorrow, therefore, are as necessary in the moral, as industry in the natural world. Were the earth to produce its fruits spontaneously, and further efforts on our part no longer required, man, civilized as he is, would relapse into barbarism, and the globe we inherit, God, however, in his now so beautiful, into a wild and solitary waste. Providence, has enjoined on man to toil; labor, therefore, so much deplored, is a blessing only in disguise.

The journal of one of the first settlers of Plymouth, or of James Town, detailing his progress from day to day, in building, inclosing, improving, and advancing, from the rude shelter that first protected his uncovered family against the elements, to comfort, convenience, and finally to elegance, would at the present time be sought for with avidity. The human mind traces with delight the majestic river to its source-and the power, the improvement, and the splendor of states and empires, to the germ from whence they sprung. The cottages of Romulus and Remus would, at the present time, be regarded with interest among broken columns, and the ruins of ancient magnificence.

To gratify a curiosity so laudable and so natural, in relation even to our own State, scarce anything remains; and even that is fast diminishing from vision and memory. To the greater part of our western readers, (and the State of Illinois, it will be recollected, is but of yesterday,) a faithful picture of some of the habitations of its early pioneers, the result of their first efforts in agriculture, and the festivities which solaced their early privations, would present a view of things already past, and nearly forgotten.

There is scarcely a nation in Europe which has not furnished us with emigrants. Even Norway's frozen cliffs, and Italy's land of song:

Here exiles meet from every clime,

And speak in friendship every distant tongue."

Philosophers from beyond the seas, princes and nobles, men of letters and learning, have resorted thither-some to study our natural history,