er, and senseless cry, at times also with cursing and swearing, or it may be perhaps with quarrelling and fighting outright. And where in the mean time is wife and child? Does the family enjoy the day of rest thus in common? The taverns are full, but how is it with the churches? We have perhaps 30,000 Protestant Germans in Philadelphia alone. Of these not more than 3,000 at most ordinarily attend church on Sundays. But where are the rest? Who can be foolish enough to expect much good from this state of things, as regards domestic life, social position, or public influence? However we may dislike all extreme principles and onesided views, and though we may find in the relations of the foreigners themselves much to account for such evils, and excuse what can bear excuse, the case is still one of real anxiety, that calls for the most vigorous and decisive remedies, and that should stir the heart especially of every capable German to sorrowful feeling, and engage him to the most earnest counteraction both in word and deed.

But we have not yet accompanied the wanderer though the whole of his Ulysses journey. The water travel itself is of no small account. Dangers of all sorts attend it. On the large lakes and rivers of America, he is threatened more than any where else with burning and explosion. In truth these catastrophes have so frequently occurred within the last few years, that we feel bound to notice them here in the name of our immigration. They deserve the most serious attention of the gov ernment. The immigrants too have here the hardest lot. What a horrible fate it is, to bid adieu to a beloved fatherland, to tear asunder the tenderest bands, to endure for months long the toil and peril of travel, and at last, almost at the goal, to become the victim of the most reckless and irresponsible carelessness, with a choice only between water and fire! And hundreds of our immigrants have already thus lost their lives. The number of those that perish through wanton neglect on our western waters, is much greater than the number buried in the waves of the ocean. On the sea however, other dangers of a moral nature are so much the more at hand. Think only of from 300 to 500 persons crowded together five or eight weeks long in a single ship, where they have nothing properly to do all this time. Consider farther the way in which they are huddled together in the vessel; old and young, male and female, good and bad live there promiscuously together; the time is passed in talking, singing, cooking, eating, drinking, playing, and dancing-anything in short to get rid of weariness. The anxiety of the voyage is generally over in two or three days; afterwards there is so much

the greater outbreak of levity, previously restrained, and things occur which it is better not to trust to the pen. Only a few days since an emigrant told us, who reported his ship companions as over 500, that the levity of the company was beyond all bounds, and when asked if they had no preacher replied, they had one indeed who gave them one sermon, but soon became so merry himself that it would have been better he had not preached at all. A bad business that! We could relate however far worse things still from such mass mingling of so many persons in idle; ness. If there be no help for the idleness, every other means should be so much the more employed, to uphold order and right manners, and to sow good seed instead of allowing free growth to all sorts of weeds.

Of the many shameless deceptions also to which the emigrants are exposed, from ship agents in the old world, and from land speculators and their factors in the new-how they are now detained, now put on false tracks, now grossly robbed of their little money by pretended passports: Of the danger again to which just the best are most exposed, of falling soon after their arrival into the hands of fanatics and sectaries, so as to exchange their solid principles of practical piety for the show and noise that are here too often current in its stead: Of the difficulties moreover that arise for the German emigrant in particular, from his ignorance of the reigning language, hindering him in his business, keeping him from the knowledge of the laws, and shuiting him out often from full insight into the spirit of the nation and a proper view of its relations as a whole Of all this, we say, and more besides, we might say much. These hints however may suffice, to give us some proper apprehension of the case under consideration, to illustrate the dangers that surround it, and to rouse our zeal for their partial mitigation at least if nothing

more.

That much might and should be done for the reduction of these evils, admits of no doubt. The military orders of the Middle Ages were founded, to protect the emigrants of the crusades in danger, to take care of them in poverty, sickness and sorrow. And shall our time not be willing to do its part?-Societies already exist here and there indeed for the benefit of immigrants, and their activity is blest no doubt a thousand fold. But how much more might be accomplished, if they were united in one common work. Even then however their strength would not be fully answerable by itself to the work or the need. For help here means a great deal. Perhaps the government of this country is itself still behind its duty towards the immigration. That

the German governments at all events neglect the matter, has often been charged upon them as a solemn reproach.

But it is not so easy to determine, how or by what means the work of relief should proceed. We do not consider ourselves at all able to propose the right measures. The whole object requires a combination of large moral and pecuniary resources. But we have such a sense of its importance, and such faith in the good result of every enterprise prompted by wise human charity, that no sacrifice made for it would seem to us to be too great. Bodily and spiritual care should be secured to the emigrant during his journey. Were a great society formed for this end, and could the European governments be enlisted, printed directions and instructions should be furnished them in trust, with the request to have a copy handed at once to every one thinking of emigration, on the first noise of his purpose; whereby he might gain some proper information on the journey, the ways, the sta tions, the dangers to be avoided, the necessary cost for individuals and for families, on the proper conduct to be observed in traveling, on the purchase of lands, on the character of trades, &c., so as to have his whole prospect in view, and to be put upon due reflection before starting. At all the leading stations should be placed agents of the society, ready to come forward with counsel and help, who should be themselves raised above the possibility of seeking money from the strangers. On the ships should be found a preacher, and also a library of useful books. Could the society itself own ships, where there might be fixed order, a common table, and separate rooms for different families-how much mischief would it not prevent! In the seaports, where the emigrants set sail and land, should be erected large buildings, where at just cost, and under strict regulations of order, a temporary home should be open for the pilgrims, where sick persons and children especially might find loving care, and from whence adults might find opportunity for work, if choosing to remain as laborers in the cities, or for going on journey as quickly as possible, if bound for the interior of the country-so as to avoid tavern perils and the trickery of false friends. Printed directories to places where they could attend christian worship in the larger American cities, in their own tongue and free from all sectarian exclusiveness, with instructions on the relation here holding between Church and State, and the sacred duty of attaching themselves as members to christian congregations according to the faith of their fathers, as well as on much besides, should be placed in the hands of every individual. Might such means and ways not meet all the evils of

the case, they would at least work much good of a partial sort, which might be expected to issue gradually in a more general influence.

Still the weightiest question remains unanswered. Where is the fountain of this blessing? Who are the persons that shall or can lay hand to the work? It is not to be expected of the governments on this side of the Atlantic or the other should undertake it; the whole matter lies beyond their sphere; and if they did offer it their hand, we believe the object would be a failure from the start. That the Roman Catholic Church has undertaken nothing of the sort for its own members, and those who might become such, has always surprised us, since by their diligence and zeal in other similar enterprises they often put us Protestants to shame. It might be expected first from the foreigner citizens of the new world perhaps, that they would be foremost in helping the necessities of immigrants. In part they are so; there are societies among them for this purpose in New-York, Philadelphia, and other places. But however praiseworthy their efforts may be, and in single cases useful, they are not equal to the whole task. So vast a work demands the co-operation of very considerable powers. The great Colonization Society, to which the best citizens of the land belong and which has already won a comparatively glorious success, leaves us not without hope that if the eyes of influential and leading men of the country could be turned to the subject we have had here in hand, and their interest enlisted in it, a benevolence equally effective may yet meet the emigrant coming hither from Europe also, to guide him and shield him from harm. And truly it would be such a sowing of good, as could not fail to bring in a rich return of fruit. For the immigrants and their families begin in some sense a new life with their arrival in our midst; altogether new relations surround them, new duties are laid upon them, new cares overtake them. How much hangs here on a good beginning, how important it is that the new conflict be commenced, not with a spirit of levity, but rather in the fear of God! To this a great Immigration Society animated with christian zeal would above all contribute; and the reflex action which its work must have on the population of the country itself would be beyond calculation. The blessing of immigration depends on this, that those who come shall be truly worthy citizens, as friends of order seek to advance all good, and as members of a great association of free people have a lively sense of the importance of every action and of the conduct of every man. It is not the highest end of their adoption here, that they should find in their

new home what to eat, but that they should act on noble public spirited principles, and never lose sight of the bearing of their conduct on the general weal. Then first will they know how to serve the benefit of the whole along with their own. And much would be gained, if all who come were made to feel these sacred duties in their full weight.

Philadelphia

W. J. M.

PAST AND PRESENT.

To every intelligent observer of the progress of the world's life from one age to another, the signs of our time are fraught with deep and abiding interest. No one can study the scientific and moral lessons which this age has imposed on him, without feeling that more than school-boy mind and skill is needed for their proper mastery. On every hand latent principles are at work, and secret events transpiring, which loudly call for judicious and honest investigation. On all sides strange spiritual phenomena, full of significance and mystery, challenge our solemn regard. Though we only see and know in part the sig nificancy of the world's historical process, yet we see and understand enough to prompt our moral instincts to feel after something deeper and more comprehensive, of which these manifes tations are only the external revelation. Though we cannot fully see into and through the complex operations of the world's vast time-piece, yet there is an iron tongue in that grand horologe, which strikes the hour of its revolutions. It is not uncommon for man, and many even of high literary reputation, to regard History simply as a pragmatic collection and logical combination of authentic events, chronicled and registered according to the best mechanical ability of the composer. The mighty Past full of life and interest, possessed of infinite conceptions and unfath omable feelings, is eviscerated; cut up in strict anatomical style, and put together like a skeleton. Their world either works, like some brains, by clock-work, or stands still. When such men look back and up to hoary headed antiquity for its wisdom and counsel to instruct and direct them, they only hear, as might be anticipated, the hollow murmurs of another wooden (Trojan) horse. Did this flagrant error abide within the limits of mere theory, the wrong committed would be partially atoned for by the bitter pangs endured in its perpetration. But opinions like