by unusual exertions secured the election of the democrat. At the ensuing election, the same circumstances existing, he again refused to yield to the solicitations of his friends, and advocated the election of the same gentleman. The dissatisfaction of the democratic party had now become irrepressible. A third election was at hand; and his party almost imperatively demanded his acceptance of a nomination. He yielded to this demand; and against a united and untiring opposition, triumphed over both Whig and Democrat by some four hundred majority. This election afforded a fair test of his great popularity at home.

Mr. Smith served in Congress but one term. By re-districting the state and by his removal to Fauquier county, he was placed in a district hopelessly federal in its politics by a majority of more than 900. Brought out by his friends as a candidate for Congress in this district, against a talented and popular opponent, in a single canvass, he reduced this majority to 265. Although his career in Congress was short, upon the prominent questions of Bank, Tariff, Distribution and Loan bill, it was marked by a degree of research and talent which raised and extended his reputation as a statesman; gave satisfaction to his true and admiring constituents; and sustained the character of the district which had been represented by James Madison.

Governor Smith advocated the Independent Treasury scheme in a series of numbers in the Richmond Enquirer, over the signature of " Attalus,” before it was recommended by Mr. Van Buren.

His speech on the Tariff was one of masterly ability. It exhibited an array of facts, admirably arranged and generalized; and was used by many in the Presidential canvass of 1844 as a political vade mecum-one member, from a distant state declaring, that he had rode into Congress upon it. Upon every question of interest Mr. Smith showed himself the able debater and efficient representative. His short career in Congress gave good earnest that he would soon have attained a position of the highest distinction in the halls of legislation.

In 1843, when Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Van Buren were considered rival aspirants to the Presidency, Mr. Smith took no part in the contests of their friends. His preference, before the Texas question arose, was unknown. For Mr. Van Buren, personally, he entertained the highest respect; his principles and talents he esteemed and admired. He cherished admiration for the mighty intellect of the great South Carolinian, and sincere homage for his person.

In 1844, Mr. Smith was chosen the Democratic elector for the then only Whig district in the state; and was thus opposed, perhaps, to the most popular and talented Whig elector in Virginia. They met upon repeated occasions, and it was the "war of the giants." But he was not permitted to confine his labors to his appointed district. The distinguished and invaluable services which he had rendered his party in the campaign of 1840, were fresh in their memories; and he was called from his district to encounter the toil of a more general conflict. As in all former times, so in this, he was ready for the contest. As in all former crises, so in this, he was

The bright sword, which he had so successfully wielded in the celebrated contests of 1840, had not rusted. It was again taken from its scabbard and used with vigor and effect. With inextinguishable zeal and unwearied

diligence, he traversed every portion of the state, proclaiming the great doctrines of popular freedom and political equality. Success everywhere attended his efforts; and again Virginia triumphantly passed through the battle and the storm, giving to Mr. Polk a larger popular vote than she had ever given to any President.

Governor Smith had long been looked to in Virginia as a prominent candidate for a seat in the United States Senate. He was the choice of the Democratic party for that office. Too many evidences of this fact had been given to doubt its truth. A day in January, 1846, was fixed by the Legislature as the time for electing a Senator to succeed the Hon. William S. Archer, whose term of service would expire by limitation on the 4th March, 1846. According to well-known usage, a caucus of the Democratic party was held, in which Gov. Smith received, as is believed, every vote but one. The friends of the Governor thought his election secured. When the day arrived he received 70 votes on the first ballot; his successful Democratic competitor 23. With the aid of the Whigs this gentleman was elected. In the succeeding election for members to the Legislature, out of that 23, but three of those who were candidates for re-election, were returned; and since that time others of that number have been thrown aside by their party.

That it may be seen with what zest the Whig party voted against Mr. Smith in this election, and also in what estimation he is held by that party as an efficient advocate of the Democratic cause, the following circumstance, believed to be substantially correct, is here narrated. A leading Whig politician came to Richmond during this election, and when some of his party spoke of casting their votes for Mr. Smith, he said with warmth, alluding to Mr. Smith's election to the office of Governor, “You have got the lion chained, in God's name keep him so. Do not let him loose in the campaign of 1848, by electing him to the Senate."

In December, 1845, Mr. Smith was elected Governor of Virginia for three years from the 1st January, 1846. This was a highly popular appointment; and under the then and present circumstances, the most judicious selection that could have been made. The existing war with Mexico required Governors of states who were prompt to conceive and energetic to execute the measures demanded by the crisis.

Governor Smith is an informed, practical and patriotic statesman. No sickly sentimentality and closet philanthropy sway his mind and acts. These enervating affections, which have caused others to forget the honor and interests of their country, and have made them willing, in a spirit of cabal, to see that country ignominiously confess to the crimes of injustice, robbery and murder, have no place in his mind. Patriotism with him, as in the days of the ancient republics, is an overshadowing virtue. The love of country, which led him in his boyish days, during the war of 1812, to seek a midshipman's warrant, yet moved his heart. Its fires had only slumbered, to be rekindled with freshness and brilliancy, when the stirring occasion should arise. The Mexican war afforded an opportunity to Governor Smith for the frequent and eloquent expression of the patriotic impulses which glowed in his bosom, and urged him to give early, practical form to the prompt measures which his vigorous mind had conceived.

Governor Smith's messages bear striking characteristics of his mental constitution. They are bold, original, fervid and eloquent. In these he again displays the radical and progressive features of his mind. While for the Union he cherishes the most profound regard, for his native state he feels intense affection. Her people esteem and honor him; and her progress in wealth and happiness occupies his anxious thoughts. He desires. to see her rivalling the most prosperous of her sister states in their advance

ment in the arts, sciences, popular education, and internal improvemer ts. He sympathises with the masses, and by all his official acts, seeks their enlightened elevation in the scale of moral and intellectual being.

Upon the subject of internal improvements in the state, which have been permitted to languish through neglect, he recommended a speedy and radical reform. His projet for connecting Richmond with the Southern and Western states, bringing their trade and travel through Virginia, though at first vehemently opposed as too expensive, has at last awakened the attention of the people to the importance of the subject, and is beginning to receive their approval and support. The scheme is a grand and expensive one; but, if consummated, must amply repay the state and remunerate the private stockholders. To Richmond it will be of incalculable advantage, making it the rival city of New-Orleans. When Gov. Clinton, of NewYork, proposed to construct the Erie Canal, it met with similar opposition, and was considered chimerical. But it was projected and completed by untiring exertion, and well repays the great outlay required in its construction. The same auspicious results we would venture to predict for the efforts of Gov. Sinith. Few messages have been more extensively read in Virginia, than those of Governor Smith; none, perhaps, have elicited so many complimentary notices, at home and abroad, from both political parties.

Governor Smith is an honest politician. Party has honored him, and placed him in his present elevated position in his native state.He professes to be a party man, and makes no concealment of his principles of action. He is a democrat from profound conviction; not merely because the party to which he belongs is the one of power and progress. He believes that the principles and measures of his party will dig nify, elevate, and perpetuate the institutions of his country. Unlike many leaders in both parties, who, with a suppressed contempt for the opinions and actions of the people, are always hesitating and uneasy lest they may fail to catch the popular breeze, he, with a just regard for their opinions, and a heartfelt sympathy with their movements, always takes his position firmly and at once, confidently relying upon their virtuous intelligence for the approval of his course. Believing that an uncandid and timid policy is never wise, he has ever courted, rather than shunned responsibility. Hence has arisen his character for boldness as a politician; his great popularity with the people, and the enthusiasm with which they greet his appearance among them; the excessive jealousy of his rivals; the extreme bitterness towards him of the opposition; and the success of his political career.

Governor Smith's life and character are the result of republican institutions. In their progress he has been raised to the surface, and to eminence-a striking effect of their silent and powerful action. His character is original and decided in its cast, and peculiar to a republic; his spirit, like that of the age and his party, onward, progressive, and reforming. He has no latent and scarce-concealed dread of the wild excesses of the people. The opposition in his native state both fear and hate him. Still he does not hesitate. With a sacred regard for constitutional restrictions, he plainly and boldly recommends his measures of reform and performs his acts, honestly avowing his principles of action, and leaving to his friends. the vindication of his character, and to the test of time the wisdom of his measures. His friends cheerfully perform the one, and await with confidence the result of the other.

In his social relations, the character of Governor Smith shines with conspicuous lustre. He is affable, just, kind and generous to all; like the man of the Hermitage, devoted and true to his friends.

With a healthy and vigorous physical frame, Gov. Smith possesses an intellect of a superior order, combining, in a rare and happy manner, aud to an eminent degree, the powers both of argument and declamation. He has profoundly investigated and analyzed political questions; and combines the results of his research, and presents them in a style at once perspicuous, nervous and eloquent. This has rendered him eminent as a political debater, and given him a high and enviable position in the catalogue of distinguished American democratic statesmen.

Governor Smith will retire from the gubernatorial chair of Virginia on the 1st of January, 1849, one of the most popular of the many distinguished citizens who have filled that high office. The powers of a Virginia governor, although very limited in extent, have not been permitted to remain dormant in his hands. He has chosen, in no instance, to play the part of an automaton, in order to gain the praise of his political enemies, or to avoid the charge of violating the demands of established usage; but, like the present democratic governor of Pennsylvania, he has always advanced, directly and fearlessly, in the exercise of his own sound discretion, to the performance of his constitutional duties.

THE VINE AND THE OAK.

But the oak stood still in its lonely glade
With its furrowed sides that the vine had made,
Like the bird that had given its own life's
Hood

To cherish and feed its featherless brood,
The deep winding grooves, like the serpent's
track,

Were pierced by the storm, and the sap
shrunk back

(The mark guile that it touched in its rise,
Was the track of the fiend in Paradise ;)
And soon with a solemn and rustling sound
The leaves fell withered and dead to the
ground;

Lancaster, Jan. 1, 1848,

The sun shone forth, and the moistening rain
Was she lupon hill, and dale, and broad plain;
The trees put for h their rich foliage green,
Nature was dressed in her rich vernal sheen,
But the oak stood shorn of its dark green
dress,

The victim lost of a faithless embrace!
A beacon to warn the confiding one
To trust in nought but a cold heart of stone.

Thus upon earth-when the heart's fondest
tie

Is severed by faithlessness, both must die;
The union of hearts is the soul's deep well
Where TRUTH in her purity loves to dwell,
As clear and bright in the heart's faithful love
As the chrystal fountain that's floating above,
When the well is broken the deep clear flood
Runs bubbling and purpled with streams of
blood,

And TRUTH, in deep agony, shrieking, flies
To her sisters bright, the stars in the skies,
(The glittering sentinels, night and day
That watched in the well where their sister
lay.)

The pledges of love we may never reclaim
Without perjury, treachery, sin and shame;
The bolt that strikes such true friendship apart
Comes back to the breast that directed the

dart;

The strong one may pull down the temple's proud walls,

But its ruins shall cover them both when it falls.

FINANCIAL AND COMMERCIAL REVIEW.

DURING the past month the chief feature of the Markets has been the character of the news from Europe. The political revolutions taking the character in France of a disruption of the relations heretofore existing between capital and labor.

The financial panic prevalent there cannot but be regarded as in a great degree artificial, and the result of the policy of the new government, the active members of which do not scruple to avow the motives of the revolution to be a struggle between the working people and the Bourgeoise, or, as expressed in the language of a leading member: 26 By Bourgeoise, I mean all those who possess capital, who work with means of their own, and are not dependant on others. The people, is the whole body of citizens not possessing capital, and depend completely on others." The theory of those most influential in the government, and who profess the Communist and Fourierite philosophy, is, that the people have certain rights, of which they are deprived by the holders of capital; that the revolution of 1830 was for the benefit of the latter against the titled nobility, and the present revolution is of the people against the Bourgeoise—that is to say, for the benefit of those without capital against those who have it. In accordance with this philosophy the Provisional Government decreed that the government is bound to give work and wages to all who demand it, which of course must be at the expense of the tax-payers. The financial policy of the new government is that of the anti-bullion party of England; viz.: that there shall be no fixed standard, but that a paper currency should issue convertible in coin at the market price of the day; or, in other words, according to the depreciation of the paper. The efforts to carry out this branch of the policy it is, which has produced the financial panic, and decreed the suspension of the Bank of France in the following terms:

"The Provisional Government, considering the deliberation of the Council-General of the Bank of France, dated this day :-Considering that for some days past the demands of re-imbursement made on the bank are in great number, and threaten to drain its metallic reserve. Considering that this situation places the bank in the alternative, either of stopping its discounts, or of obtaining the authorization of no longer effecting its payments in specie. Considering that the suspension or even the restriction of the discounts of the bank would give a fatal blow to industry and commerce. Considering that this suspension would cause on all sides the forced stoppage of labor, and would plunge the laboring classes into utter misery. Considering, in consequence, that far from allow ing the suspension or restriction of the discounts of the bank, the government of the Republic ought to furnish this establishment with the means of procuring industry and commerce powerful instruments of credit. Considering that it is indispensable to secure to Paris the specie belonging to the Treasury, and which is disposed at the bank. Considering that the really flourishing state of the bank, and the guarantee formally stipulated of the limits of its emissions, give to the public every desirable security. Upon the propo sition of the minister, decrees: Art. 1. From the very day of the publication of the present decree, the bills of the Bank of France shall be received as legal money by public establish ments and by private individuals. Art. 2. Till farther orders, the bank is dispensed with the obligations of paying its bills in specie. Art. 3. In no case the sum of the emissions of the bank, and its branch banks, shall be allowed to exceed three hundred and fifty millions. Art. 4. In order to facilitate circulation, the Bank of France is authorized to emit coupures, which, however, shall not be inferior to 100f. Art. 5. The dispositions of the present decree are applicable to all the comptoirs the Bank of France has established in the departments. Art. 6. The Bank of France is to publish its situation in the Moniteur every week. "Given at Paris, in the Council of the Government, March 15, 1848."

That institution was never stronger than at the moment of its stoppage, as compared with previous returns. Its leading features were as follows: