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trade in imports and exports by thousands of millions." We have no recollection of ever having read a puff of a quack medicine equal to this.

Some of the Secretary's figures are so strange, that we cannot make head or tail of them, and presume them to be misprints. Take for example the following:

"By table BB, it appears that the augmentation of our domestic exports, exclusive of specie, last year, compared with the preceding year, was $48,856,802, or upwards of 48 per cent., and, at the same rate per ceut. per annum of augmentation, would amount in 1849, per table CC, to $329,959,993, or much greater than the domestic export from State to State. (See tables from 7 to 12, inclusive.) The future per centage of increase may not be so great; but our capacity for such increased production is proved to exist, and that we could furnish these exports far above the domestic

demand, if they could be exchanged free of duty in the ports of all nations."

The following paragraph looks very much as though the Secretary either had become or was about to become a Fourierite:

"When all our capitalists (as some already have) shall surely find it to be their true interest, in addition to the wages paid to the American workman, to allow him voluntarily, because it augments the profits of capital, a fair interest in these profits, and elevate him to the rank of a partner in the concern, we may then defy all competition."

But whatever may be the meaning of this, we are inclined to believe that the Secretary's term of office is too short to enable him to convert the whole United States into phalanxes, groups and series.

On this wise do the President and Secretary argue in favor of the tariff of 1846; but the merits of that act are not confined to the reduction of duties. "It is not only the reduced duties, that have produced these happy results, (says the Secretary,) but the mode of reduction, the substitution of the ad valorem for unequal and oppressive minimums and specific duties." But without quoting farther, it may be stated generally, that both the President and Secretary assume the fact, as the basis of their arguments, that a specific duty upon an article which excludes it from our market, is a tax upon the consumer of the do

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mestic article to the full amount of the duty. Thus, a duty of ten cents a yard on cotton goods, which sell in our market for eight cents a yard, is nevertheless a tax on the poor consumer of the domestic article of ten cents a yard; and a duty of a dollar a pair on brogan shoes, would be a tax of a dollar a pair on American brogans, although they could be bought in any quantity for seventy-five cents a pair; and so a duty of one dollar a bushel on wheat, would be a tax on the poor American laborer of one dollar a bushel on all the wheat with which he feeds his poor children, although fifty cents should be the highest price he ever paid for a bushel of wheat. Now this is all ad captandum vulgus, and the President and Secretary both know it, and although it might be tolerated on the stump, yet when gravely put forth from the high places they occupy, it is a disgrace to the Republic.

The Secretary also says, "The great argument for protection (by which he means high duties) is, that by diminishing imports the balance of trade is turned in our favor, bringing specie into the country." If the Secretary does not know this to be an untruth, he is even a greater blockhead than we had supposed him to be. We have heard no such argument, by any intelligent advocate of either high duties or a protective tariff, in the last twenty-five years. That some very absurd arguments have been urged, both in and out of Congress, in favor of protecting duties, is very true, but Mr. Secretary Walker must not assume that he refutes the policy of a protecting tariff, by refuting some of the arguments of its advocates. It is true, that the old school political economists advocated high duties, for the purpose of increasing the imports of specie, but Mr. Hume and Adam Smith showed the fallacy of that idea before our revolution, and the doctrine has never prevailed in this country among intelligent political economists. High duties are advocated by those who understand the subject, for the purpose of replenishing the treasury. Protecting duties are advocated for the purpose of increasing and extending the market for our products; for the purpose of securing to the farmers of Ohio, for example, a steady and sure market for all the products of their farms at their own

from a hundred and fifty millions of exports under the tariff of 1846, was less than the revenue from one hundred and two millions under the tariff of 1842, yet the problem is solved, that the new system produces more revenue than the old! We have no patience to reason longer with so absurd à man, and therefore dismiss him.

door, instead of leaving them to seek a market across the Atlantic; for the purpose of enabling them to make their exchanges in Cincinnati instead of Liverpool. Protecting duties may or may not augment the revenue. If they afford complete protection, by excluding the foreign article altogether, they will not augment the revenue, because they will not increase We cannot, however, take our leave of the average of duty on the whole impor- the President, without expressing our tation; but if the duty is raised, but not regret that he should have attempted to so high as to exclude the foreign article, disguise the truth in his late Message to the revenue will be replenished. It does Congress. His high station ought to have not, however, follow, as the Secretary placed him above all subterfuge or trickseems to suppose, that the general revenue ery for the purpose of sustaining a favorwill be increased by an increased revenue ite theory. This dirty work should have on a particular article. Protecting duties, been left to the understrappers of his therefore, may greatly increase and secure party in Congress and out of it. When a market for our own products, without he gave forth the responses of the Treaseither increasing or diminishing the gen- ury department, he should have given them eral revenue. The home market, notwith-forth fairly, and not have made one-sided standing all Mr. Secretary Walker may say to the contrary, is of three times the value to us, that the foreign is or even will

be.

Two things are essential to commerce: goods for sale, and a market where they can be sold; in other words, sellers and buyers. If there be no goods for sale, there can be no market, and if there are no buyers there will be no goods for sale. But Mr. Secretary Walker seems to think that if we have plenty of buyers, no matter about the goods, they will come of themselves when wanted. Hence our exports are to equal thousands of millions as soon as free trade shall give us all the world for customers!

"The new tariff," says Mr. Secretary Walker, "is no longer an experiment; the problem is solved, and experience proves that the new system yields more revenue, enhances wages, and advances more rapidly the public prosperity," than the old system, we suppose, though the Secretary does not say so. The experience of a year of famine in Europe, with the most bountiful harvest ever known in this country, has, in the opinion of the Secretary, solved the problem. The experience of a single extraordinary year has overthrown the experience of a hundred preceding ordinary years! And although the revenue

statements. Why did he not confine himself to the fiscal year ending the 30th of June last? Why lug in five months of the following year? But if he thought proper to give the amount of revenue under the tariff of 1846, why did he not also give the imports and exports of that year? Was he afraid that the people would see that the revenue under the tariff of 1846 was some ten or twelve millions of dollars less than it would have been under the tariff of 1842? It almost surpasses belief, that a man of common sense could be sincere in the opinion, that a reduction of the duties would increase the revenue; yet it cannot be doubted, that President Polk and his party leaders were sincere in that opinion, or they never would have passed an act which would greatly reduce the revenue, at the same time that they entered upon an expensive war, which would, at least, double the expenses of the Government.

Had they doubled the duties instead of halving them, they would have acted much more like sensible men and practical statesmen. The people will find out by and by, that empirics and demagogues make expensive rulers. They will find it the cheapest course in the end to place capable men at the head of their Government.

Cincinnati, Ohio.

D. R.

JASMIN, THE BARBER POET.*

|

larger than nature; so when we look back into the past, things become magnified, and we involuntarily exaggerate their di

The

LAS PAPILLOTAS! Such is the title of the two volumes of poetry we have before us—a title which would be singular indeed, if it were not accounted for by the pro-mensions. It is thus in the present case; fession of the author. Jasmin is, indeed, but yet we think it may be said, that a coiffeur, and performs the menial offices among the ancients, as well as during the of his profession with all the accuracy of middle ages, poetry was more widely a Figaro; but when his work is done, he diffused, and had a more direct and does not, like so many of the brotherhood, powerful influence on the destinies of spend his time in laying in a stock of mankind, than it has in modern times. scandal and gossip, which he may retail The distance which separated the poet the next morning, when standing behind from those who listened to his verses, was the chair of some fair lady, whose chief then less great. Between them there delight it often is, to listen to such stories. seemed to be established an electric chain. No! Jasmin, when he has laid aside his He often borrowed from the people razors and his curling-tongs, devotes to images, which he returned, after having the Muses his hours of leisure. This con- given to them a new lustre, a new brilltrast between the vulgar occupation of iancy, as the glass refracts the rays of the poet of Agen, and the truly beauti- the sun with increased intensity. ful poetry we find in his works, is par- earlier Greek bards went from place to ticularly striking, in an age when poetry place reciting their verses, until they beseems to have sought a refuge in the came indelibly engraved in the hearts of higher classes of society, and to have their hearers. In the middle ages, the become rather the passetems of the man minstrel, or the troubadour, was the favorof fortune than the conscientious expres- ite of all classes. In the castle of the sion of a popular feeling. The class of feudal baron, he would arouse the ardent poets to which Jasmin belongs is, at pres- and chivalrous spirit of the guests assement, very limited. He is essentially a bled around the festive board, by the recital popular poet. Sprung from the lower of the noble exploits of Arthur and his orders of society, an artisan himself, he barons, or the valor of those devoted has, in all his poetic effusions, addressed Christians, who crossed the seas to rescue himself to the multitude, not to the select the sepulchre of their Saviour from an infew. In former times it was not uncom- fidel foe; or else he would bewail, in strains mon to find a poet thus devoted to the so pathetic, the untimely fate of some fair entertainment and to the instruction of the maiden, that every eye would be moistencrowd. Judging of past ages, by means ed with tears of pity and compassion. But of that knowledge of general facts which it was not alone in the mansions of the history affords for history deigns not to great, that the voice of the poet was heard. descend into the details of every private The peasant, too, would lend an ear to life-we almost fancy that there was a his songs, and himself repeat them, to time when poetry circulated in the world, beguile the weary hours of labor; and, as freely as the air we breathe,-when alas! how weary must those hours have every man was a poet, if not to create, at been, when he knew that it was not he least to understand and to feel. When who was to enjoy the fruits of this labor, the atmosphere is full of mists and va- but his tyrannical master. How different is pors, objects seen at a distance appear the occupation of the poet in our own times!

Las Papillotas de JASMIN COIFFEUR, Membre de la Societat de Sciencos et Arts d'Agen. Agen: 1835, 1842. 2 vols. 8vo.

Shut up in the narrow confines of a dense- | flowers; at the foot of the glaciers, she

ly populated city, or at best, inhabiting
some country-seat, in which he is fortunate
indeed, if, at every hour of the day, the
shrill whistle of a railroad train does not
break in upon his meditations, the only
means he possesses of acting on his fel-
low-men, is the press-a powerful engine
indeed, but how inferior, when the heart
is to be touched, to the varied tones of
the poet's voice when he recites his own
verses. The poet, now, is the invisible be-
ing who sets the puppets on the stage in
motion; in former days he was himself the
actor. We may indeed be touched by the
thoughts which he expresses, for there is
a secret harmony between different minds,
which enables them to communicate with-
out any material intermediary; but still,
we think that the poet, who addressed
himself directly to the public, could more
easily awaken deep emotions in the breast
of his hearers. Let us not, however, be
misapprehended. We would not be un-
derstood to express a regret for the past.
This is but a simple statement of facts.
We belong not to that class of worship-
pers of all that is gone by, who, in their
admiration for what no longer exists, for-
get the beauties and the blessings of the
present hour. The progress of civiliza-
tion modifies everything. Poetry, in an
age of material improvement, and of sci-
entific discovery, cannot be the same as in
an age when love and war seemed alone
to reign in the world. But it may still,
it does still exist, although modified in its
manifestation. At a period of high intel-
lectual culture, poetry must, of course,
partake in some degree of the philoso-
phical spirit of the times. Happy then,
when it does not take the form of the
stately and almost supernatural indiffer-
ence of a Goethe, or the impassioned
skepticism of a Byron! But even in these
ages of improved civilization, the simple
voice of pure and natural poetry is still
at times heard. In an age of political and
social reform, like our own, when all the
idols of the past are falling, one by one,
to the ground, there are still some poets,
whose poetry flows on in a calm and
tranquil stream, and fills the soul with
nought but pure and healthful instructions.
Nature delights in these contrasts.
barren soil, she, at times, brings forth

places verdant meadows and genial springs, as if to show that, even when she seems to have become extinct, she can, by the secret forces of which she is the mistress, arise with renovated vigor. Thus in ages of comparative barbarity, she often unexpectedly bursts forth with astonishing force and brilliancy; and in ages when civilization seems to have reached so high a pinnacle, as to leave nothing more for her to do, she still asserts her power, and shows that she is greater than civilization. She is not particular either about the garb in which genius is clothed. She often spurns the glare of pure and elegant form, and pours her richest gifts into a recipient of more homely shape and material. High intellectual culture is not always the necessary companion of genius. It is not alone by the contemplation and study of masterpieces, that the poet is enabled to produce works of which he may say, with the great Roman poet,

66

Exegi monumentum aere perennius."

Imitation is useless. The poet may, it is true, borrow from others, but even that which he borrows must be newcreated within him, if it is to go forth in a poetic form. He must surround himself by that spiritual solitude, in which the voice of the world may yet be heard, but in which it only reaches him in a purer and more hallowed tone. Such a poet may well be found in the lower ranks of society. There is, indeed, a youthful force and vigor of intellect in those whose faculties have not been wasted on too vast a number of objects. Their thoughts are concentrated on some few great points. Unincumbered by the immense mass of knowledge which ages have accumulated, they can, when genius lends them wings, take the most bold and lofty flights. Such a child of nature is Jasmin, the barber poet.

Jaques Jasmin, or Jaqueon Jansemin, (as he is called in his native patois,) was born in the year 1787 or 1788 at Agen. His father was a tailor, who, although he did not know how to write, composed almost all the principal couplets which were sung in the popular festivities of the neighboring In a country. Jaques' father and mother were both poor, but he was as happy as a prince

when he was a child, for he had not yet learnt the meaning of those two words rich and poor. Until the age of ten, he spent almost all his time in the open air playing with his little companions or cutting wood. In the long winter evenings, he would sit at the family fireside on his grandfather's knee and listen to those wonderful stories which we all have heard as children, but which in the child of genius may be said to be the first cause which develops the poetic inspiration with which he is endowed. But these happy days could not last. One day, as he was playing in the street, he saw his grandfather taken to the hospital. "Why have you left us? Where are you going?" were the boy's questions at this melancholy sight. "To the hospital," was the reply; "it is there that the Jansemins must die." Five days afterwards the old man was no more. From that time Jasmin knew how poor he was. How bitter was this experience to him! He felt no longer any interest in his childish pastimes. As he has himself beautifully expressed it, if anything drew from him a smile, it was but like the pale rays of the sun on a rainy day. One morning, however, he saw his mother with a smiling countenance. What then had happened? She had succeeded in gaining admittance for him in a charity school. In six months afterwards he could read; in six months more, he could assist in the celebration of mass; in another six months, he could sing the Cantum ergo, and in two years from the time when he first went to school he was admitted into a seminary. Here, however, he remained but six months. He was expelled from thence on account of a rather suspicious adventure with a peasant girl, and perhaps still more because he had eaten some sweetmeats belonging to the director of the establishment. The despair of his family was great at this unexpected event, for they had been furnished with bread at least once a week from the seminary. They were now without money and without bread! But what will a mother not do for her children! His mother had a ring-her wedding ring: she sold it, and the children had bread once more, at least for a few days. He was now to learn a trade; he became the apprentice of a hair-dresser, and as soon as

| he could, opened a shop. His skill as a coiffeur, and, we may add, the charming verses which he had already composed, soon brought him customers. He married, and his wife, who at first objected to his wasting his time in writing poetry, soon urged him to do so when she found that this employment was likely to be profitable. He has since then been able to buy the house in which he lives. The first, perhaps, of his family, he has experienced that feeling of inward satisfaction which the right of possession is so apt to confer, when it has been purchased by the meritorious labors of the hand and the head. He now enjoys that honest mediocrity which seems to be the height of his worldly ambition. Such are the only circumstances of Jasmin's life which we have been able to gather from the poetical autobiography entitled, "Mons Soubenis." The life of a poet is not always interesting. Not unfrequently, its most striking features are the poetic flowers he has himself strewed on his path.

We have already said that Jasmin was a popular poet. To be this, in the true sense of the word, it is necessary to speak the language of the people. This Jasmin has understood. With the exception of two or three pieces in the collection we have before us, all his poems are written in his native patois. But he not only makes use of this language, he defends it against all attacks as the last distinguishing mark between his countrymen and the inhabitants of the rest of France. Among his poems, there is a reply to the discourse of a Mr. Dumon, member of the Chamber of Deputies, in which that gentleman, after having paid, it is true, a just tribute to the genius of the Gascon poet, said that it was not even desirable that the patois should be maintained. The reply of Jasmin is full of an ardent patriotic spirit, and is a noble defence of his native language.

"The greatest misfortune," he says, "which can befall a man in this world, is to see an aged mother, sick and infirm, stretched out on her bed and given over by the doctors. At her pillow, which we do not leave for an instant, our eye fixed on hers and our hand in her hand, we may for a day revive her languishing spirits; but alas! she lives to-day but to die to-morrow! This is not the case, however, with that

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