We apprehend that one source of the endless loquacity of Congress, and of the various mischiefs with which it is connected, may be found in the compensation of the members, and the mode in which its amount is determined. He who hires a man by the day to perform a given job, will ordinarily find that he has hired a slow workman. And especially if that workman is earning higher wages at that job than he has ever earned before, or is likely ever to earn again in any honest employment, he will be quite sure to make as many days' work of the job as possible. Now the members of Congress are paid by the day, counting Sundays and holidays, from one end of the session to the other; and of the men who actually go to Congress, not one in five ever earned eight dollars a day for six months together, in his own business or profession, whatever that may be. It is therefore for the pecuniary interest of the great majority of the members, to make long sessions. Very few-perhaps none may deliberately act upon this consideration. But assembled bodies of men, however high-minded the individuals may be, will almost always be swayed by the insensible action of their personal interests. No plainer illustration of this can be desired, than the fact that those representatives in the last Congress, who are to have no seats in the next, voted as a body, for the reduction of compensation; while the other class, as a body, voted against it. Whenever a man rises in Congress to deliver himself of a tedious and impertinent harangue, the only effect of which is to distract attention from the matter in hand, and to obstruct the progress of business, he knows that he is not speaking at his own expense, and that the weary quorum who are compelled to hear him, are not hearing at their own expense; he knows, and they all know, that the time which he consumes is neither his

nor theirs, but belongs to the public; and therefore it is that he is audacious to speak, and they are patient to hear. If, on the contrary, that man had an interest in not speaking otherwise than to the purpose, and if every member had an interest in not hearing any thing impertinent or tending merely to delay, how greatly would the whole aspect of things be changed. Speaking otherwise than to the matter in hand-speaking to constituents a thousand miles off-speaking to the nation-would be well nigh as intolerable there as in a court of justice. All the feelings of courtesy between gentlemen, and of equity between man and man, would operate to keep the orator to the point; and the sense of the right of every man not to be defrauded or "bored" out of his own time, would make the House indig. nant against every impertinence. No need would there be of a "one hour rule" in such a state of things. No need of the speaker's hammer, like the sharp crack of a Kentucky rifle, bringing down the orator in the very midst of his loftiest gyration, beyond "the flaming bounds of space and time."

We say then that it is time for the people to prescribe a new mode of compensating members of Congress. A mere reduction of compensation would not answer the purpose. Let our members of Congress be well paid, so that we may, if we will, elect those whose services will be worth paying for. But instead of eight dollars a day, let the average annual amount of the per diem allowance for the last ten years be ascertained; and let three quarters of that amount be the yearly wages or salary of every member. is our plan; and if, within three years from the adoption of such a system, more business is not done, and better done, in sessions of half or two thirds of the length to which sessions have recently grown, then give the New Englander no credit

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for political wisdom. We commend this idea to the attention of the public. It has come to pass, that ordinarily every session of Congress is enlivened by some outbreak of war like patriotism, especially on the part of the southern or southwestern members, though that spirit is by no means confined to them. The country is suddenly alarmed by this man's speech or that man's report, in favor of a war with Great Britain or a war with Mexico. Partisan newspapers take up the cry; the minds of unthinking thousands are inflamed with the idea, that our country has been grievously wronged, or shamefully insulted, and that therefore the pride of Britain must be humbled, or the palaces and cathedrals of Mexico must be plundered. The swift steamships carry the story across the Atlantic; and by the time they return with European comments on the pugnacious and bullying temper manifested by American statesmen, it begins to be understood, perhaps, that all this irritation has proceeded from a few individuals, almost without influence, and quite unworthy of respect or perhaps, that the whole is only a cunning move on the chessboard of political parties. The negotiators of the treaty of Washington, not choosing to risk every thing by attempting too much, had wisely left two questions to be adjusted by future negotiation. The attempt to denounce the treaty having failed, and the people having shown their determination to rejoice that the principal causes, out of which a war might have arisen between this country and Great Britain, had been so fairly disposed of, an attempt was made to create a new boundary question, by the bill for the occupation and settlement of the Oregon territory. Mr. Calhoun, in particular, deserves commendation for his manly opposition to that bill. To the statesmanlike views which he presented, the country is

in a great measure indebted for the defeat of that bill in the Senate. Undoubtedly the time is near, when it will be the duty of Congress to organize a territorial government in Oregon; but before that time arrives, the boundary question in that quarter must be settled by peaceful negotiation. We entertain no doubt that it is the destiny of our Union to stretch itself from sea to sea. We hold it to be wisdom on the part of our statesmen, to secure on the Pacific as long a line of sea coast as possible. But this can be done only by peaceful and legitimate means. To attempt it by measures leading to war, is folly as well as guilt.

The construction put by the British government upon a point sup posed to have been adjusted in the last year's negotiation at Washington, gave occasion for another display of chivalry on the part of members of Congress. It seems that the British cruisers on the Afri can coast are authorized by their government-not indeed to 'search' American vessels for the sake of ascertaining whether they are employed in the slave trade, but to ascertain, by a 'visit' if necessary, whether a suspected vessel hoisting the American flag is indeed American or only piratical. We confess that we see in this nothing that ought to wound our national self. respect-nothing inconsistent with the law of nations. If every pirate that chooses to display the American flag in the presence of a British man-of-war, is to be therefore safe and sacred, and if the same vessel when pursued by an American man-of-war is to gain the same immunity by raising some other flag, nothing is plainer, than that piracy must soon become about as safe as any other sort of navigation. Of course, if the suspected vessel, when visited, turns out to be bona fide an American vessel, the only apology for the visitation must be

found in the statement of the circumstances which created in that case a reasonable suspicion; and if it can not be made to appear that the suspicion was reasonable, the visit is not justifiable. It will be soon enough to take offense when vessels, really American, have been actually subjected to any unjustifiable interference. The presence of an American squadron on that coast, will be the surest way to prevent any occasion of complaint. Yet men were found in Congress to propose, that on account of a speech made by Sir Robert Peel in the British House of Commons, the appropriations for the African squadron required by the treaty, should be with held; in other words, that the treaty itself should be set aside, and all the questions which it settles thrown back where they were a year ago. In regard to the existing post office system, nothing has been done. On the one hand, an attempt was made to forbid the transportation of “mailable matter," including all newspapers and periodicals, in any other way, than through the post offices. Under such an arrangement, the system would soon become sufficiently obnoxious to be entirely abolished. On the other hand, an attempt was made to reduce the postage on letters, to the

two rates of five cents for less than thirty miles, and ten cents for all greater distances. This, probably, would have diminished the revenues of the department, without at all diminishing its expenses. No considerable change for the better can be made, without an entire reconstruction of the system. All franking must be abolished; postage must be paid in advance; postage must be charged by weight, without discrim inating between written and printed sheets, or between double and single letters of equal weight; facilities must be given for the purchase of postage in advance, by the wholesale; without the introduction of such principles as these, there can be no improvement worth asking for.

Diplomatic relations have been opened with Hawaii-the youngest and feeblest among civilized na tions, just raised from the depths of barbarism, by God's blessing upon the toil of Protestant Christian missionaries from our shore. Similar relations are to be attempted with China, the oldest of all liv ing nations, and in numbers the greatest. The appointment of Mr. Everett as commissioner to China, gives universal satisfaction. None but "a first class mandarin" could with propriety be appointed to such

a trust.