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that looked to the permanency, and th e enlargement of the advantages, of that institution. His last public act was in connection with his office of Trustee of the University. When the alumni, and the faculty, and trustees of that noble temple of learning shall meet to enjoy the intellectual feasts that are spread for its devotees, they will sadly miss the cheerful presence and the wise counsels of John J. Mcßae. But, extraordinary as was his adapta tion to public service, it was not amid its turbid scenes that his life shone brightest. His intellect was lofty, but it was beau tifully blended with the gentler elements of the good man. If it towered high, its range was also among the humble and the lowly of earth’s sons. In all the re lations of private life, he was generous, affectionate, and devoted. Faith, hope, and charity, were the ruling agencies of his life; and it was resplendent with the greatest of these virtues. Whether the tenement of his generous spirit shall sleep in a foreign soil, or be borne back to repose in the bosom of the land he loved so well, his virtues will remain a bright image engraven upon the hearts of those who loved him in his life, and now mourn that they will know him no more on earth. - [For the Banner of the South,] THE YOKE OF DESPOTISM- They may add daily to the weight of the yoke that they have fastened upon our necks. They may scourge us, by tanta lizing us on the rack of depotism. They in ay heap coals of fire upon our heads, and mock, scorn, and sneer at us, while kept in this temporary bondage. They may heap indignant abuse upon us, and let vent, in vengeful wrath, all the diabolical ire and calumny that they have in store for us. But they never can humiliate us, never can degrade or crush one iota of principle—never can make us bow the head, or bend the knee, only to force. Never will we yield one inch, to the right, or to the left; never will we acknowledge truth to be a lie, or lie to be a truth; never will we ask quarters, in humility; never plead favors as inferiors; never sacrifice true and high dignity of character, by courting popular favor from the political usurpers who disgrace the high stations which they occupy. But we will bear our burden with courage, bravery, and manliness, looking for ward to the happy period when the Goddess of Liberty will re-appear upon the throne of Justice, and holding in her hand the balance scales bo weigh our oppressed people against their oppressors, which will no longer tremble for the Right, but will at once go down in our favor. And then will the lightnings of wrath cease to flash in the dark cloud of hate that now rolls so heavily over our im perial land; then will the star of hope and power rise, and its resplendent beams gleam forth and brighten every hill and vale of our Southern land. Hope and courage will be invigorated, and energy will be re-awakened in every Southerner; and industry, enterprise, and prosperity, will be the watchwords; civilization will be enlivened, and take its true stand, and infuse vigor, life, and refinement into the minds of our people. We do not wish to mdulge in vain, visionary fantasies, and picture air-castles, and sing as the Poet has : “As Imagination bodies forth The forms of things unknown, the Poet’s pen Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing V local habitation and a name.” A c feel that the manacled hands of the people of the South will be loosed, Uiid the letters that now bind them will .. <)p to the earth, and these same hands • ill re-erect upon the charred and smouldering ruins a fabric of more than pristine glory ; yea, it will be reared to the highest pitch of grandeur, and its founders will exult and breathe forth praise to their ennoblement, and sin» a i’equiem to the downfall of the Tyrant And we owe a tribute to the noble, patri tic Southern ladies, for their deeds of gilor, around which admiration will love to hover, and twine chaplets of fame and g ory. r j hey have, by their soothing sym pathies with their liege lords, infused vigor, ■ lUJ gth, ii nd courage to bear the invec tives of the despoiler. They have gained the victory in the warfare they have un dertaken, in calming and allaying the surging billows that rise on the sea of passion, by their gentle words, loving smiles, and untiring devotion to the cause. They are the beacon lights of our ex istence, the crowning glories of our country', and are ornaments in the broad, profuse circle in which they move, as the sparkling dew drop is to the tender foliage kissed by the first genial rays of the morning sun. They are the embodr ment of modesty, morality, and purity Being, as we are, surrounded by all these inspiring influences, and pleasures, we cannot but be perfectly devoted to the sacred cause. And as for us, the day we prove treacherous to our country, we hope the unrelaxing hand of the lightnings may rive us where we stand. Patrician. Bluff City, Ala., June 18, 1868. [For the Banner of the South.] MR. CHASE-THE PRESIDENCY. Mr. Editor :—I am pleased to see the manly way in which you treat whatever you write about. You speak boldly for your Religion; and while you show no bitter feelings towards Protestants, you exhibit a faith in your own Church which will not allow you to compromise it. This is honest, at least. You state candidly *why Mr. Chase should not be the nominiic of the Demo cratic Convention, and you allude to his disgraceful speeches to Aegroes in North Carolina upon topics that, an all probability, he knew were coming up before him as Judge. But you omit the most disgrace ful act of his life. In the McArdle case, he, with the majority of the Court, refused to render judgment. That case was long ago argued, submitted, decided. But judgment was not rendered. The reason for this was, that the Court had “found” the Reconstruction Acts unconstitutional. A simple compliance with a sworn duty would have brought peace. The an nouncement of its decisions by the Court would have not only vindicated McArdle, but would have restored to ten States, and millions of people, their rights. The Judge who refuses judgment in favor of the weak, when he knows his cause is just, is fully as corrupt as he who decides falsely. This non-action by the Court is perjury. No wonder that one of the Associate Justices tried to wash his robes free from the stain. Whatever may befall us, let us hope that the country will never be ruled by that character which, of all others, in all ages, tongues, and races, has received the most deserved infamy, the Unjust Judge. And why are the people called upon to vote for him ? Because he ruled the Law correctly in the case of the Presi dent ? As if we are to reward, with the first office in the country, a man who simply has refrained from giving false judgment; who decided a few questions of evidence rightly. lie had no reason to do otherwise. There was no tempta tion in that case. Grant’s friends wanted the President impeached; and the Chief Justice had lost all hope of a Radical nomination. Grant appears meanly in the Stanton business; but perjury is worse than false hood. It is better for a party to be beaten while honest, than to succeed with a trick. It is better for the South that the Northern people should settle these present issues fairly, with an open can vass, of a Radical on one side, and a Democrat on the other. Y. Selma , Ala., June lAlh, 1868. Two Englishmen, one of whom is known to love his money, were at dinner in a Paris restaurant. “Lot’s have a bottle of ‘Gorton, ” said Reckless, who is very poor. “Well, Corton is deuced dear,” said Dives ; “let’s have some ordinary ‘Bor do,’” So they did; and when it came Dives tasted it, and said, “Now, I call that good ; that’s what I call honest wine.” ies » ’ replied his friend, “I should say poor but honest.” Avery benevolent old lady has taken the idea into her head of knitting a pair ot hose for a fire engine. ■Mflllß ©g ffMl §©!!!. [For the Banner of the South.] Dead Leaves. BY BINIBHAW. Life is laden but with blossoms like a garden. While the days Feel the rays Os the climbing golden sun. And the nights Are a-tremble with delights, When the gorgeous days are done, #nd the mocking-bird is singing to the moon. But, ah me! That they be Destined desolate to see Beauty passing out of sight, all too soon! For the face of earth will harden Into stone, And the light sadly gleams From a sick and pallid sun, And the groan Os the night render moan Underneath a ghastly moon when the shrinking day is done. 8o the hour Has they run Fall and wither, Like the flowers when the sun Is no more. And the weird and wintry weather With its frore And its frost shall have found them, And the chilling winds surround them— Lovers perishing together. Then the year. Robbed of leaf and robbed of blossom, is left sere, * And the wind will not bide; But passeth, even passeth By my side, Drifting down the autumn tide ; And its breathing is a sigh, And its wailing is a knell, And its wailing and its sigh Are for her I loved so well, Adon-ai 1 Tako her spirit whence it fell, Bear it past the gates of hell, To the mansions up on high, Where the happy angels dwell, Where the mind can never sigh, Never tell, Os the woe the hours bring, When their Summer roses die, And the Autumn, stripped and pale, Is a spectre of the Spring, And the Winter draweth nigh. New Orleans, June 3, 1868. BISHOP ELDER ON SOUTHERN IMMI GRATION. At one of the meetings of the Conven tion of the German Catholic Societies, held during the past week in New York, Bishop Elder made some very pertinent remarks on the subject of immigration to the Southern States, referring more di rectly to his own State, Mississippi. We annex a brief synopsis of his discourse : N. Y. Tablet. He remarked that the people in the Southern States, at least in his diocese, the State of Mississippi, prefer Catholics to settle among them ; that one Catholic planter had applied to him to send Ger man Priests to Germany to bring over German settlers of his faith to the State. He referred to the natural inducements which that State ollered to settlers, and that these were, in a measure, common to the Southern States. The political situ ation of the South is a great drawback, it is true; no one knows there whether they are in the Union or out of i\ or what their exact status at present is; but they had to wait what was intended with them, and hope the matter will soon be decided one way or the other—that peace will be vouchsafed them, lasting peace, the basis of all prosperity. He stated that the State can be reached for SSO in less than three days from New York. The climate presents a great variety, as exemplified by the variety of the crops. While in the northern part there is ex cellent wheat land, there is excellent soil for corn and cotton in the middle and southern parts, and figs, oranges, and bananas grow luxuriantly on the Gulf. Within from three to live hours’ travel from New Orleans, there is good garden land, and the Crescent City furnishes an excellent market for all kinds of garden produce. The Yazoo bottom lands would be the richest for cotton, but the dilapi dated condition of the levees subjects it to periodical inundations. The largest por tion of the State is hilly, but not moun tainous, and very healthy, and lung dis eases and consumption are hardly ever known. The State must always rely chiefly on agriculture, though even now manufactories are increasing, and water power lor the use of factories abounds. The seasons are long; there is not a month in the year when ploughing may not be done. At Natchez flowers may be seen in bloom during the whole year. The heat is never severe, the thermome ter for the last eleven years not ranging higher than ninety-four degrees Fahren heit in the shade, though sometimes it becomes oppressive, owing to its dura tion. The days are not as long as farther north, but the nights are longer and pleasant, and he (the speaker,) never lost a night’s sleep on account of the heat. Farmers can obtain three crops—first, potatoes, then sweet potatoes, then beans —and have the ground prepared for tur nips for a winter crop. The owners of large plantations in the State are willing to sell, and that very cheap. Some of the best improved lands have been sold as low as twelve or fifteen cents per acre. For Catholic settlers the State is to be highly commended, for Catholicism is making rapid progress. The number of conversions is increasing. In Natchez alone, a town of four thousand inhabitants, about 180 persons above seven years of age were baptized within the last three years. In a town where there was but one Catholic resident, the leading men, all Protestants, asked him, the Bishop, to establish a Convent School for the edu cation of their own daughters, and sub scribed a fund of SB,IOO to aid the un dertaking, against the strenuous remon strance of one or two zealous Protestants, at the town meeting. And this is the prevailing sentiment throughout the State, lhe Bishop urged the appoint ment of a committee on immigration, to whom he would give all the information in his power, and concluded by a feeling and eloquent appeal to the Convention to persevere in the good work for the pre servation of our free political institutions, based upon the true principles of morality and the true rules of living O’ UNCONQUERED STILL. W e are still a nation. Centuries of fraud and force have passed over us, and we remain unchanged and unchangeable as the verdure of our native hills. The indomitable individuality of the Irish race has been preserved by its alternate mobility and inertia. Active or passive, we have ever held steadfast to one un changing principle—that we were a na tion distinct and unincorporated with the country to which, through the force of circumstances, we were and are attached —never resigning our right to autonomy, but ever prepared to reassert it when ever those circumstances might be so or dered as to permit of a fair prospect of success. Pent within the prison holds of the victor—debased to the level of the mere villeins of our masters—prescribed on the soil that fostered the intellect and nurtured the manhood of our race, or triumphantly asserting in the cabinets, or on the battle-fields of Europe, the gifts of mind and manhood with which Irishmen are endowed—this principle has sustained us in suffering, and sweetened with still higher hope the thrilling pleasures of triumph. At home—though poor and passive—the peasant labored for his bread on the land that was the patrimony of his parents ; his spirit was unconquered, and he looked forward to the day of liberation as a saint yearns for the beatific vision that opens to him a vista of the Paradise for which his soul burns. And abroad, the warrior’s heart bounds as the steed to the trumpet-blast, when the breath of rumor wafted to his tent the welcome tidings that rising complications would roll the tide of battle back upon his enemy, and that he, again on the hill sides of his native land, would once more stand fairly confronted with the centuried despoilers of his race and nation. This principle was and is the vital spirit that made and kept us what we are. Simula ted justice and wholesale spoliation both proved in vain; the justice was deceit, and force was the means of convincing those who would not be the passive victims of this fraud. There is nothing altered in all this. The practice has changed, but the prin ciple is still the same. On the one side is arranged combined force and political subtlety to subvert the traditional policy of a people determined to be free. On the other, the people, conscious of their right, and knowing their strength and their weakness, are looking earnestly into the future, with hope and resolution in their hearts, and the language of defiance on their lips. To-day, as in the past, Irishmen live in their native land de prived of the first principles of the rights of freemen, and looking rather to their kindred abroad than to the Government under which they live for redress and assistance. To-day, as in the past, the toiler, as he returns weary from his labor, looks toward the setting sun, and won ders how long he is to labor that luxu rious idleness may fatten on the produce of his toil. To day, as in the past, the sons ot Ireland, banished from their native country by a land system not less iniqui tous than the infamous Penal Code, and even worse in its consequences—trained in the school of military discipline be neath a foreign banner, but differing from their brethren in the past in being im bued with the most exalted spirit of free dom, wearily long for the hour when the skill acquired on foreign battle-fields may be utilized for the liberation of their kin dred at home. There is no use in dis guising facts that are patent to all. We merely sketch the position of our people at home and abroad, and indicate the eternal love of liberty that animates them. The wounds that might have been healed bleed at every pore. Mis-legislation has perpetuated the hostility of the Irish race to the Government whose selfish tyranny has expatriated a moiety of them to be come its inveterate enemies under a foreign standard. That Government that now is compelled to simulate a liberal policy to propitiate the people whom it starved and banished, bows before their menace, and truckles to the power that holds them in reserve. To-day, as in the past, where force has failed, fraud, in the garb ot specious liberality, performs the double duty ot subserving party interests and postponing the settlement of Irish rights. England concedes her right of misrule because Ireland demands the right to rule herself. Like the hunter who drops a cub when pursued by.an angry lion, England yields part of her prey that she may the more securely retain the remainder. The Church Establishment is flung over to appease the multitude, because at home and abroad they have demanded the right of nationhood. We have outlived centuries of perse cution, and are to-day as intensely na tional as at any period of our history— nay, our national instincts are elevated and intensified by the illumination of learning and the progress of modern ideas. What was formerly an impulsive instinct of national justice has grown into an intelligent principle of freedom. Men no longer grovel in the slough of middle age prejudices. Might may, for a time, keep a nation subject, but it no longer constitutes a principle of right. Humanity is outraged when freedom is stifled—and a free press has given humanity a thou sand tongues to proclaim its wrongs in every language and in every land. ° The tyranny that pent in a race or people, and tortured it at will is no longer possible in our age. A voice goes forth that stirs the hearts of the nations, and tyranny trem bles before the shout of execration that responds to the cry of agonized humanity. The blood of the martyred does not sink into the earth, but ascends to Heaven, and mankind recognizes the justice of a cause, when sanctified by the blood of sacrifice. English statesmen have ad vanced the Irish national cause by resort ing to the brutal practices of the past, and our Whig friends, more astute than their rivals, are endeavoring to counteract the evil, by striking from the statute book one of the foulest vestiges of the legalized injustcies of the past. But no amount of palliation can allay the national spirit. The destruction of the Estab lishment is valuable only in so far as it removes the only barrier to the cordial union of Protestant and Catholic in the interests of our common fatherland. What policy concedes through fear loses the spontaneity of a free gift, and should be accepted at its worth. There is no political road for the Irish people but the direct one of national independence. We have preserved our nationality in the past, and shall in the future, whether force, menace, or fraud assail us. Our ultimatum is, “Our own institutions, fostered by our native legislature, and protected by our own laws.”— Dublin Nation . The Hero of Magdala a Catholic.— The London correspondent of the Irish (Dublin) Times, gives the following ac count of the family and religion of the leader of the English expedition to Abys sinia, Sir Robert Napier. “It (the ex pedition ) will do as much to set up Brit ish military prestige in a way as the Mexican expedition took down that of the French. It is rather hard to appraise such an article, but the English nation is one that sets a very high value on a good General; anil in Sir Robert Napier they appear to have got one of the exact kind they best like, a General of the Welling ton school, cool, wary, prescient, patient, saving of his men, an exact calculator, and one who when he does strike finishes his work at a blow. This Napier, who has added anew glory to an already illus trious military name, is not a scion of the family which produced the Admirals and Generals of the last generation, and of which Lord Napier, the present Governor of Madras, is the head. He belongs, I believe, to an obscure family of gentle blood in the Highlands, and is, I am told, on the authority of an old brother officer, this evening, a Roman Catholic by reli gion. There can be little doubt that he may have the peerage, and welcome, if he pleases ; but he has been, until within the last few years, only a Colonel of Engineers with his pay to live on. The appoint ments which he has more recently held have certainly been the most lucrative in the Indian army, but even so, not rich enough to enable him to save a fortune, lie will, it is said, be at once gazetted Grand Cross of the Bath, and promoted to the rank of General, as a military re cognition of his splendid achievement ; and further civil honors will certatnly follow.” Ladies, like auctioneers, are fond of offers. And some of them —the ladies— get a great many cheap ones. 5