times: ' Is it not a very disgraceful circumstance
that such a man as So and So should be
acquiring a large property by the most infamous
and odious means, and notwithstanding all the
crimes of which he has been guilty, should be
tolerated and abetted by your citizens? He is
a public nuisance, is he not?' ' Yes, sir.' ' A
convicted liar?' ' Yes, sir. ' ' He has been
kicked, and cuffed, and caned?' 'Yes, sir.'
' And he is utterly dishonourable, debased, and
profligate?' ' Yes, sir.' ' In the name of wonder,
then, what is his merit?' ' Well, sir, he is a
smart man.'

"But the foul growth of America has a more
tangled root than this; and it strikes its fibres,
deep in its licentious Press.

"Schools may be erected, East, West, North,
and South; pupils be taught, and masters reared,
by scores upon scores of thousands; colleges
may thrive, churches may be crammed,
temperance may be diffused, and advancing
knowledge in all other forms walk through the land
with giant strides; but while the newspaper
press of America is in, or near, its present abject
state, high moral improvement in that country is
hopeless. Year by year, it must and will go back;
year by year, the tone of public opinion must sink
lower down; year by year, the Congress and the
Senate must become of less account before all
decent men; and year by year, the memory of the
Great Fathers of the Revolution must be
outraged more and more, in the bad life of their
degenerate child.

"Among the herd of journals which are published
in the States, there are some, the reader
scarcely need be told, of character and credit.
From personal intercourse with accomplished
gentlemen connected with publications of this
class, I have derived both pleasure and profit.
But the name of these is Few, and of the others
Legion; and the influence of the good, is powerless
to counteract the mortal poison of the bad.

"Among the gentry of America; among the
well-informed and moderate; in the learned
professions; at the bar and on the bench;
there is, as there can be, but one opinion, in
reference to the vicious character of these
infamous journals. It is sometimes contended—
I will not say strangely, for it is natural to seek
excuses for such a disgrace—that their influence
is not so great as a visitor would suppose. I
must be pardoned for saying that there is no
warrant for this plea, and that every fact and
circumstance tends directly to the opposite
conclusion.

"When any man, of any grade of desert in
intellect or character, can climb to any public
distinction, no matter what, in America, without
first grovelling down upon the earth, and
bending the knee before this monster of depravity;
when any private excellence is safe from its
attacks; when any social confidence is left
unbroken by it, or any tie of social decency and
honour is held in the least regard; when any
man in that Free Country has freedom of
opinion, and presumes to think for himself, and
speak for himself, without humble reference to a
censorship which, for its rampant ignorance and
base dishonesty, he utterly loathes and despises
in his heart; when those who most acutely feel
its infamy and the reproach it casts upon the
nation, and who most denounce it to each other,
dare to set their heels upon, and crush it openly,
in the sight of all men: then, I will believe that
its influence is lessening, and men are returning
to their manly senses. But while that Press has
its evil eye in every house, and its black hand in
every appointment in the state, from a president
to a postman; while, with ribald slander for its
only stock in trade, it is the standard literature
of an enormous class, who must find their reading
in a newspaper, or they will not read at all; so
long must its odium be upon the country's head,
and so long must the evil it works, be plainly
visible in the Republic."

The foregoing was written in the year eighteen
hundred and forty-two. It rests with the reader
to decide whether it has received any confirmation,
or assumed any colour of truth, in or about
the year eighteen hundred and sixty-two.

A MORTAL STRUGGLE.

SLOWLY gathering force in London during the
last autumn, becoming both more common and
virulent during November and December,
typhoid fever passed, in the beginning of this year,
into the severest form of typhus. In January
and in the first fortnight of February in this present
year, typhus fever became more prevalent in
some parts of London than it had been since the
last great fever year. Not very long ago, during
a healthy season, we narrated to our readers
the story of the London Fever Hospital in the
Liverpool-road, and described that institution as
we saw it—with not more than thirty or forty
patients in its beds, and a staff to support, on
voluntary subscriptions that came slowly in,
because there was no pressure of prevailing
sickness to direct towards it the ever-flowing stream
of active benevolence that is the one river of
England greater than the Mississippi of America.
A few weeks ago, the kind-hearted house-surgeon
of this hospital represented to us its continued
need of public aid, but his information came to
us as news from afar. Why should we speak
twice about this one hospital, important as it
is? We remained, therefore, as passive as the
rest of the world, and now we learn that typhus
has come, smiting both the poor, and the
hardworking helpers of the poor. In a few February
days the London Fever Hospital is crowded.
One hundred and seventy cases lie in it as we
write; beds cannot be got ready fast enough;
the house-porter who at all hours receives and
washes the in-coming sick, is exhausted with
work; the house-surgeon, overwhelmed with
his dangerous duties, is himself already struck
down with the infectious fever. Two of the
overworked nurses also, are lying ill of typhus.
One of the visiting physicians, showing on his
own battle-field the high and fearless spirit that
pairs the physician with the soldier facing peril