common minds are so apt to confound them--the _tendency_ of
the institutions of this country, in flagrant opposition to their _spirit_
or _intentions_, which were devised expressly to restrain the disposition
of men to innovate, is out of all question to foster this great abuse, and
to place numbers above principles, even when the principles were solemnly
adopted expressly to bring numbers under the control of a sound
fundamental law. This influence of numbers, this dire mistake of the very
nature of liberty, by placing men and their passions above those great
laws of right which come direct from God himself, is increasing in force,
and threatens consequences which may set at naught all the well-devised
schemes of the last generation for the security of the state, and the
happiness of that very people, who can never know either security or even
peace, until they learn to submit themselves, without a thought of
resistance, to those great rules of right which in truth form the _spirit_
of their institutions, and which are only too often in opposition to their
own impulses and motives.

We pretend to no knowledge on the subject of the dates of discoveries in
the arts and sciences, but well do we remember the earnestness and
single-minded devotion to a laudable purpose, with which our worthy friend
first communicated to us his ideas on the subject of using the electric
spark by way of a telegraph. It was in Paris, and during the winter of
1831-2, and the succeeding spring, a time when we were daily together; and
we have a satisfaction in recording this date, that others may prove
better claims if they can. Had Morse set his great invention on foot
thirty years earlier, Roswell Gardiner might have communicated with his
owner, and got a reply, ere he again sailed, considerable as was the
distance between them. As things then were, he was fain to be content with
writing a letter, which was put into the deacon's hand about a week after
it was written, by his niece, on his own return from a short journey to
Southold, whither he had been to settle and discharge a tardy claim
against his schooner.

"Here is a letter for you, uncle," said Mary Pratt, struggling to command
her feelings, though she blushed with the consciousness of her own
interest in the missive "It came from the Harbour, by some mistake;
Baiting Joe bringing it across just after you left home."

"A letter with a post-mark--'Beaufort, N.C.'--Who in natur' can this