With clamor prodigious, and falsities hideous,
We serve the litigious, the needful to share ;
Yet, in sorrowful attitude, find ingratitude,
Not beatitude, Barrister's fare.

For clients reluctantly draw on the pocket,

And I ne'er saw the fee that was tendered in smiles, Nor plenty of cases in Honesty's docket,

Nor the wretch, without money, who justice defiles. Then creditors slay us - (timeo Danaos) —

With, "When will you pay us?" and tick becomes rare, When, to wear an old hat, or a ragged cravat, or

A beard like a grater, is Barrister's fare.

Perhaps some sweet daughter of Beauty and Fashion
Has made in his heart and his quiet a gash;
He well knows, alas! that the fate of his passion
Depends but too much on the state of his cash;
While his scornful enslaver shall bless with her favor
Some fortunate shaver, his PLUNDER to share,

In sorrow to pine, such charms to resign, -
This, this, Tom, is mine, and Barrister's fare.

PARODY.

O think not my purse will be always as light
And as dry of the dibs as it doubtless is now,
For, though long is the face I exhibit to-night,
Yet joy may, to-morrow, enliven my brow.
I a ticket extracted from Gilbert & Sons,

And perhaps, by a prize, may accomplish a dash;
For the man that is sorest beset by the duns,
Is often the earliest to finger the cash.

And they, too, who dream of a lottery ticket,
Will often rejoice o'er the dream they believe;
For a treasure is floating, and I, if I nick it,
Shall beauty, and riches, and honor achieve.

Success to the wheels! while a remnant of truth

Is in dream, or in vision, this hope shall be mine, That the sunshine of gold may illumine my youth, And the moonlight of silver console my decline.

THE UNITED STATES BANK.

Having undertaken to give an account of the controversies that took place between the Courier and its cotemporaries, the course I followed in reference to the United States Bank, which brought upon me some of the hardest blows I have had to encounter, as an editor, cannot be passed over without a brief notice. With banking operations, and their effects upon the currency of the country, I was never familiar, and the discussion of questions involving the subject of political economy, I generally avoided, lest my own ignorance should be thereby illustrated, and become as apparent as the crude notions and immature decisions of some others.

The embarrassments which overtook the commercial and manufacturing interests of the country, caused, as has been often asserted, and perhaps generally believed, by the war between the two Presidents, Andrew Jackson of the United States and Nicholas Biddle of the United States Bank, are not yet quite forgotten. In the beginning of the year 1836, most of the banks throughout the Union suspended specie payments.

In the autumn of that year Mr. Biddle wrote a letter to Mr. J. Q. Adams, concerning financial affairs, in which he said "I go for the country, whoever rules

it;

I go for the country, best loved when worst governed." Congress had refused to re-charter the United States Bank, as a national institution, and Mr. Biddle had obtained a charter from the legislature of Pennsylvania. The usual routine of the business of the bank was pursued, and he established, in Boston, an agency, to take the place of the branch of the original bank. The purpose was to loan the funds of the bank then existing under the Pennsylvania charter. The loans made at the office of the agency in Boston for the accommodation of the merchants, were generally based on bills of exchange, and, an operation which bankers and brokers understand, compelled the payment of usurious (or extra) interest. The Courier, like most of the newspapers opposed to the administration of General Jackson, had strenuously advocated the re-chartering of the United States Bank, by Congress; but the operations of Mr. Biddle, under the authority of his Pennsylvania charter, were viewed with great distrust. The sentence just quoted from his letter to Mr. Adams was a favorite text, which opened the way for several columns of comments, comparing his declarations with his conduct. Reviewing his dispute with the national administration, and his subsequent operations in finance, I came to the conclusion that his love for his country was graduated according to the willingness of his countrymen to endure his despotism, and that it was manifested chiefly by his using the power he possessed to exact exorbitant premiums on bills of exchange between the principal commercial cities. It was sometimes said in extenuation of his exorbitant demands of those who

had the control of the money-market, that merchants could afford to pay those and even higher rates of interest, rather than lose their credit. To this it was replied," Is it right, is it moral or humane, is it lawful, to dictate to a drowning man the terms on which you will save his life? As he gasps for the last time, would you tell him you love him best when most in danger, and encourage him to keep in the water till you can strip him of every thing that is available to yourself?"

The position I had taken in this matter excited the anger of some, and secured the approbation of others. A storm of indignation was let off against the Courier; and, as the avowed friends of Mr. Biddle endeavored to identify him and his bank with the whig party, I had to suffer a sentence of excommunication from more than one of the whig presses.

In March, 1839, Mr. Biddle wrote a letter to the directors of his bank, resigning the office of president, which he had held for more than twenty years. “I have waited anxiously (he said) for the most appropriate moment at which I could be best spared, but hitherto, when I have sought the retirement I so much needed, some difficulty, in which my service was deemed useful, always interposed to detain me. such now exists. All the political dissensions connected with the bank for the last ten years have ceased, and the bank has returned to its accustomed channels of business in peace. I can, therefore, withdraw at length without inconvenience; and I do it the more readily, because I leave the affairs of the institution in a state of great prosperity, and in the hands

of able directors and officers." In the month of October, about six months after this letter was written, THE BANK FAILED. The intelligence of this event was received with feelings of a very opposite character; by some, with rejoicing, that "Babylon the Great had fallen," and by others with sorrow and lamentation. Inquiries like the following were made in the Courier: What has become of Mr. Biddle? Where has he hidden himself to escape the indignation of an injured and insulted people? Where are the able directors and officers, who had been able, in six months, to destroy an institution, whose "affairs were in a state of great prosperity; all the political dissensions connected with. it having ceased?" These, and other similar remarks, were met with anger or affected contempt, in some of the public journals, and the author of them was rebuked for his contumacy, with as much severity and sarcasm, as the spirit of party, in its liberal and merciful temper, could find it convenient to bestow. The bank continued its operations, on a small scale for a year or two longer; but it gradually sank deeper in the pit of insolvency, until the public sympathy (what there was of it) changed to indifference or indignation. The next two paragraphs are among the last I wrote on the subject. If any one should think them imbued with too much of the triumphant style, let him consider that my purpose is to show what sin I have perpetrated, not to defend or extenuate it:

If we were to credit all that we see in some of the Philadelphia and New-York papers respecting the United States Bank, we should believe it to be an institution of unspeakable value to the whole country, and one, which, for