nful mortifications. Very noiseless was their quiet
way. In a spirit of thankfulness they accepted their lot, turning its
very bitterness into joy, by gratefully receiving the many pleasures
still vouchsafed them; for it is a happy world, in spite of all its
trials, to those who look aright for happiness. Our sisters found it
and bestowed it. How many blessed their name! How many have had reason
to love the memory of these two unobtrusive women, who, without name,
or station, or show, or peculiarity, or distinction of any kind, were
the types of a class the circle of which even this humble memorial, by
its truth and suggestiveness, may aid in extending--of the true,
simple, earnest, brave, holy Sisters of Charity of our country!

BRIBERY AND CORRUPTION.

I am not sure about bribery and corruption. It may be a bad thing, but
many seem to think otherwise. Much may be said on both sides of the
question. Oh! don't tell me of a worm selling his birthright for a
mess of pottage: I never read of such worms in Buffon, or even in
Pliny. But if they do exist in the human form, the baseness consists
in the sale, not in the _quid pro quo_. A mess of pottage in itself is
a very good thing--I should say, a very respectable thing; and no
exchange can take away from it that character. Still, if what we give
for it is an heirloom, coming from our ancestors and belonging to our
posterity, the transaction is shabby, and not only shabby, but
dishonest. If that is proved, I don't defend the worm. Trample on him
by all means--jump on him. But beware of insulting the mess of
pottage, which is as respectable as when newly out of the pot. Fancy
the sale to have been effected by means of some other equivalent: and
that, by the way, is just what puzzles me. There are numerous other
equivalents, not a whit more respectable in themselves--many far less
so--which not only escape all objurgation, but serve to lift the
identical transaction out of the category of basenesses. This confuses
a brain like mine, even to the length of doubting whether there is any
harm in the thing at all. Let us turn the question over patiently. I
confess I am slow; but 'slow and sure,' you know.

Bribery and corruption is a universal element in civilised society;
but let us talk in the meantime of political bribery and corruption.
It is the theory of the law--if the law really has a theory--that in
the matter of a parliamentary canvass, every man, as a celebrate