- get brooding," &c., &c., &c. Whose "attention was "concentrated on herself and her troubles," just now? I did not sound the horn, though of the two the salt sea and the Slough of Despond I think the former much the cleanest and wholesomest place to fall into; but I sprang from my seat, and ran down the hill at the speed of a goat, no bad way sometimes, if one is but young and sure-footed enough, to escape from thoughts that are too much to sit still with and bear. In a fine glow, I re-entered the parlor, where Miss Dudley rose to meet me, passed her fingers lightly over my hair, to feel if it was damp, and made me sit beside her, before the hearth, to dry it, before I went to the piano. How little do people know sometimes, when they are making us happy, how much they are doing to help us to be good! "Poor Paul's arm aches," said she. "It is dull for him without his sisters; and we have been longing for our song." "Then I will begin here," said I, again a little pricked in my conscience, "if you will excuse the accompaniment." So I sang a song there; and Paul cheered up, and sat up on his sofa, looking as if he wished for more ; and then I went to the piano and sang a good many songs there. The instrument was one of Chickering's most delicious ones; and Miss Dudley laid before me a fine collection of English ballads. She had all kinds of music for the voice and piano, in well-bound volumes; but those were the only sort that I was much accustomed to. "We are none of us performers," said she; "but, as we are all fond of music, we let Ditson supply us; because our visitors are so apt to say, 'I would play or sing to you with pleasure; but I cannot without my notes.'" The clock struck half past eight, in a pause while I was turning over some pages new to me. "There," said Paul, now they'll all have to go to take the cars !" The noise of wheels at the door, and of leave-takings in the hall, was heard; and soon in came the twins, looking sleepy and satisfied. Immediately after them entered a tall gentleman, with hair so perfectly white that Lily's looked yellow beside him, finely cut, regular features, such as one may see in the portraits en beau of the Duke of Wellington, a very expressive mouth, expressive of spirit, judgment, and benignity, I thought, but one cannot be sure about mouths of which one does not know the owners, a fresh and healthful complexion, and rather deep-set, very dark blue eyes, that lighted up his whole countenance when he smiled with the sunny sweetness peculiar to fine blue eyes, and that could flash, as I soon saw, when he became animated in conversation. "Ah, Charles! said Miss Dudley, "I'm glad to see you. Miss Morne, my brother." He turned from her and stood before me for an instant with graceful and cordial courtesy, saying that he understood he had me to thank, not only for some very correct and spirited contributions to his book, but for timely and highly acceptable kindness to his son on the afternoon of his accident; and then he did just what I was most glad to have him do, went back, sat down on the sofa between his sister and Paul, and, putting his arm round the boy and drawing him to lean comfortably against his shoulder, told them about his dinner-party, just as if I did not hear. "It went off as well as it could without you, Elizabeth. Your namesake did you credit; so did Rose. Then Clara Arden is in herself a success!" "Dear Clara! I am more sorry to have lost her than any or all of the others. How was she?" "O, that is looking a long way into the future! Can you tell me anything she said?" "Hardly. She was so far off that I could not listen much,— only look. It is a pleasure in these slovenly days to see a gentlewoman sit as a gentlewoman ought. Lily, what was that she was telling Mr. Deemus, that he was laughing at? some saying of a German theologian." a "O, it was a Mr. Nebelmann, traveller that she saw at a party in Boston, he said, 'in general, the deeper you look into one subject, the more you don't see through it.' She asked Mr. Deemus if that was not a maxim as often found true in politics as in metaphysics." "Miss Clara had rather a heavy time of it, I am afraid, with Mr. Bolder. I really don't see how I can invite him again, unless to a standing-up party, where people can get away from him when they are tired. They always wish to see him; but they cannot like to hear him. His topics are too ponderous by far for a dining-room, or in fact any room but a lecture-room. Who could rise refreshed - who, indeed, could rise at all— from a meal at which the very lightest entre-mets were legs of mutton?" "Who led you in, Rose?" "Mr. Madder. I never saw him before; but he was kind and funny, and kept telling me stories." "To make you laugh and see your dimples, I suspect," thought I. "He is a very ugly man," said Lily. "He's a beautiful artist," said Paul. "The only trouble is, that he wears his head wrong side out; all the beauty is on the inside." a thermometer-bulb to sit in," returned Master Paul. "Mr. Deemus talked very well and entertainingly, I suppose," said Miss Dudley. "Very entertainingly," answered her brother. "Yes, on the whole, very well. He's a pretty hot partisan, can't see any good out of his own party, or much evil in it; but even party-spirit, in a thoroughly honest fellow like him, is one step higher in the moral scale than the apathy and Epicureanism of some who affect to despise it; in fact, it wants only letting out, as a tailor would say, to include all the virtues. Let it out once; it becomes patriotism. Let it out again; it becomes philanthropy. Let it out but a third time, and it is fellowship with the angels and fealty to their King." "Papa, were n't you ponderous once yourself," said Lily, archly, "when you were talking to that dismal gentleman, who sat near the foot of the table, about Miss Nightingale? I was afraid you were displeased, you spoke so much slower than usual; and I could hear your voice a good deal, under the others; but I could n't understand." "I certainly was not pleased, Lily," answered he, good-humoredly; "and I desired to be as ponderous as I could, without forgetting what was due to a guest. It was Mr. X. Tyng Wisher," said he, turning to his sister, "the weeping philosopher of the Boston Receder. That man's crocodile lamentations over everything that is good are worse, because more crafty, than the hyena laughter and sneers of his colleagues. They have been my trial in the readingroom, and I certainly never expected to hear them in my dining-room. Deemus gave him a letter of introduction to me, however; and I thought it would be an appropriate act of retribution to ask Wisher here to meet him. What should he do but fall to groaning over Florence Nightingale's 'misfortune in the possession of abnormal powers, which tempted her, out of her proper womanly sphere, to go to Scutari'! I "I don't know but I might, if I had only wish that his spectacles had n't "He wishes to paint Rose and Lily," said Mr. Dudley. "It may be our last chance. He is about to retire upon his fortune." "He will consent to include Paul, I hope," said his aunt. "What do you say to that, Mercury?" asked her brother. "Do you think you could ever sit still?" been too near-sighted to see Miss Ar- enough, in a generalizing way, that Naden look at him!" "Well, Lily," said Miss Dudley, "and what did papa say?" "Why I can't remember, because I did not know what it meant, -something about mathematics, I believe, and a balloon -” ture and Providence have ordained that the fish shall not fly; but if we chance to meet with a flying-fish, we must not cut off its wings for the sake of conformity, and then call the blades of our own shears Nature and Providence." "Cousin Clara seemed to under "And a flying - fish, and scissors," stand," said Rose; "she clapped her added Rose. hands softly." "Really," said their aunt, with one of her merry and musical laughs, "I begin to have a very distinct idea of your discourse, Charles; and I can perceive it must have been very bad." “Then, to clear myself," said he, echoing the laugh, "I must see if I cannot make out my speech from the heads furnished by these skilful reporters. Is not this something like what I said, little swan and shadow? Given for a centre a good and wise womanly heart. A sphere with a short radius, and a sphere with a long radius, starting from that centre, are equally its spheres. The larger space a good and wise woman can fill in this needy, human life, with her own innocent and beneficent life, the greater she is as a woman, the greater as a benefactress to us. Our chivalry can surely afford her at least so much countenance as to stand off, let the safety-valve alone, and allow her to swell her balloon according to her liking and ability. If it bursts, the loss is her own; if it does not, she will carry us all up with her. "Further: between you condolers with women, and the so-called Rightsof-Women people, I venture to place myself in the critical position of Mr. Pickwick, with the carpet-bag before and the poker behind him. I differ from the latter, in holding that almost all women are essentially auxiliary verbs in the grammar of humanity, and that of these the larger portion are best fitted for domestic auxiliaries; but I differ from you, in holding that some women also are extremely well fitted to be auxiliaries abroad. "Further yet: Nature and Providence have in general denied wings to fishes; therefore we may say truly "Yes; and she asked me if that was not good," added Lily. “And what did you answer? Did I receive any more compliments?" "I did the best I could for you, papa, considering that I had not the least idea what you were talking about. I said, 'Why, Cousin Clara, I must own I don't know whether it is good or not; but so much I know, it ought to be, if papa says it and you praise it.' And that won a compliment for Aunt Lizzy, I think; only I cannot tell it without telling another that I had myself." "Never mind that, Lily," said Miss Dudley; "I'll overlook your vanity for the sake of my own." "Well, then, Cousin Clara said, ‘Brava, candid little courtier! It is easy to see in what mistress's school you learned to speak the truth!' Then she turned to Mr. Bolder, and asked him if it was not good; and he said, 'Very, — O, yes; and, as I was saying, the tertiary formation -- and then I don't know what else he said." "Nor she either, I'll be bound," said Mr. Dudley. "The carriage has come back, sir,” murmured Butler, at his elbow. "It is to take Miss Morne home," said Miss Dudley; "but you need be in no hurry, need you, my dear?" Pray, do not," said Mr. Dudley, again turning towards me: "the horses can wait perfectly well. Tell Raynor to put their blankets on and let them stand," he began to say to Butler; but, though it was said with an air of frank hospitality, I did not resume my seat; for I knew that the dinner-party had broken up early on account of the invalids, and thought that all the family might already have had enough of me, - meditations as the gray ponies, whisking their long thick tails, bowled me smoothly along through the shadows and the moonbeams: Now, if I were Mr. Madder, I would paint a picture of the Archangel Michael saying to Adam, "Not too much!" and it would be a good likeness, too, if Mr. Dudley would sit for the head. He looks, as the gymnasts say, though in rather a different sense, like a perfectly trained man, as if he had always had enough to eat and enough to wear, enough to do with and enough to do, enough to enjoy and enough to learn, enough of conflict and enough of victory,-enough, but "not too much." THE CAUSES FOR WHICH A PRESIDENT CAN BE IMPEACHED. THE HE Constitution provides, in express terms, that the President, as well as the Vice-President and all civil officers, may be impeached for "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors." It was framed by men who had learned to their sorrow the falsity of the English maxim, that "the king can do no wrong," and established by the people, who meant to hold all their public servants, the highest and the lowest, to the strictest accountability. All were jealous of any "squinting towards monarchy," and determined to allow to the chief magistrate no sort of regal immunity, but to secure his faithfulness and their own rights by holding him personally answerable for his misconduct, and to protect the government by making adequate provision for his removal. Moreover, they did not mean that the door should not be locked till after the horse had been stolen. By the Constitution, the House of Representatives has "the sole power of impeachment," and the Senate "the im sole power to try all impeachments." When the President of the United States is tried on impeachment, the Chief Justice is to preside. The concurrence of two thirds of the members present is necessary to convict. "The President, Vice-President, and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on peachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors." But judgment cannot "extend further than to removal and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States." Thus it is obvious that the founders of the government meant to secure it effectually against all official corruption and wrong, by providing for process to be initiated at the will of the popular branch, and furnishing an easy, safe, and sure method for the removal of all unworthy and unfaithful servants. By defining treason exactly, by prescribing the precise proofs, and limiting the punishment of it, they guarded the 1867.] The Causes for which a President can be impeached. people against one form of tyrannical abuse of power; and they intended to secure them effectually against all injury from abuses of another sort, by holding the President responsible for his "misdemeanors," — using the broadest term. They guarded carefully against all danger of popular excesses, and any injustice to the accused, by withholding the general power of punishment. This term "misdemeanor," therefore, should be liberally construed, for the same reason that treason should not be extended by construction. It is not better for the state that traitors should remain in office than that innocent men should be expelled. Besides, it is true in relation to this procedure, that the higher the post the higher the crime. What, then, is the meaning of "high crimes and misdemeanors," for which a President may be removed? Neither the Constitution nor the statutes have determined. It follows, therefore, that the House must judge for what offences it will present articles, and the Senate decide for what it will convict. And from the very nature of the wrongs for which impeachment is the sole adequate remedy, as well as from the fact that the office of President and all its duties and relations are new, it is essential that they should be undefined; otherwise there could be no security for the state. But it does not by any means follow that therefore either the House or the Senate can act arbitrarily, or that there are not rules for the guidance of their conduct. The terms "high crimes and misdemeanors," like many other terms and phrases used in the Constitution, as, for instance, "pardon," "habeas corpus," "ex post facto," and the term "impeachment" itself, had a settled meaning at the time of the establishment of the Constitution. There was no need of definition, for it was left to the House as exhibitors, and the Chief Justice and the Senate as judges of the articles, to apply well-understood terms, mutatis mutandis, to new circumstances, as the exigencies of state, and the ends for which the Constitution was established, 89 should require. The subject-matter was new; the President was a new officer of state; his duties, his relations to the various branches of government and to the people, his powers, his oath, functions, duties, responsibilities, were all new. In some respects, old customs and laws were a guide. In others, there was neither precedent nor analogy. But the common-law principle was to be applied to the new matters according to their exigency, as the common law of contracts and of carriers is applied to carriage by steamboats and railroads, to corporations and expresses, which have come into existence centuries since the law was established. Impeachment, "the presentment of the most solemn grand inquest of the whole kingdom," had been in use from the earliest days of the English Constitution and government. The terms "high crimes and misdemeanors," in their natural sense, embrace a very large field of actions. They are broad enough to cover all criminal misconduct of the President, - all acts of commission or omission forbidden by the Constitution and the laws. To the word "misdemeanor," indeed, is naturally attached a yet broader signification, which would embrace personal character and behavior as well as the proprieties of official conduct. Nor was, nor is, there any just reason why it should be restricted in this direction; for, in establishing a permanent national government, to insure purity and dignity, to secure the confidence of its own people and command the respect of foreign powers, it is not unfit that civil officers, and most especially the highest of all, the head of the people, should be answerable for personal demeanor. The term "misdemeanor" was likewise used to designate all legal offences lower than felonies, all the minor transgressions, all public wrongs, not felonious in character. The common law punished whatever acts were productive of disturbance to the public peace, or tended to incite to the commission of crime, or to injure the health |