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36 afternoon, they landed him at the Battery, in presence of congregated thousands of soldiers and citizens. As he passed up Broadway, escorted by the largest military procession we have ever produced; flags and banners waved over his'head from all the public buildings; and the dense masses of humanity lining the street and crowding the windows, balconies, roofs, trees, and awning posts, greeted him with one unbroken and enthusiastic welcome. As the venerable oid soldier passed beneath the windows of my hotel, actually trembling with linen cambrics, I could see that his lips were compressed to restrain his emotion, which, nevertheless, drew forth an unbidden tear upon his battle-stained cheek. “ Hail to the chief!” was the earnest sentiment of a hundred thousand hearts -on that beautiful day. The warmth of the welcome he re ceived, must have been deeply grateful to the brave soldier. In the evening he was ‘•dined” at the “Astor.” by the City Coun cil and the Military. All sorts of “ patriotic speeches were made, in which orators would not “eulogize the man in whose honor they were assembled that evening; who had just received the overwhelming homage of the public heart; whose deeds spoke trumpet tongued for themselves; who was justly named Win-field Scott; who had fought, and bled, and died, at Chippewa, at Lundy’s Lane, at Vera Cruz, Ccrro Gordo, Cherubusco, and Mexico; who lived and would live in the hearts of his countrymen,” etc., etc. Gen. Geo. P. Morris wrote and recited on the oc casion, a beautiful ode, said to be fully equal to u Woodman spare that tree.” On the fol lowing day the General’s hands were duly tortured by his dear friends, in the City Hall; and he was submitted to the aldermanic pur gatory, customary on such occasions: of a visit to the Deaf and Dumb, and Blind Asy lums, the Croton Reservoir, Rutger’s Female Institute, and other equally attractive exhibi tions. The city press is earnestly discussing the theme of a cheaper postage law, to reduce the postage on letters from all parts of the Union to two cents. A meeting on this subject was held lately at the American Institute, at which General Prosper M. Wetmore presided, a gen tleman always first and foremost, in every good word and work ; and whose very name is a sure earnest of triumph. We have had some very disastrous fires .since my last letter. On Thursday night, the ‘2sth inst., the extensive stables of Kip & Brown, the great stage proprietors, were com pletely destroyed, and 146 of their best hor ses burnt, besides 25 coaches, and many splen did sleighs. During the same night, two oth er stables, w T ith half a dozen horses were des troyed, while yet a fourth fire, did much dam age in another part of town. The Washington Monument Association will select, before long, designs from among those which may be submitted to them, for the proposed tribute to the memory of the Fa ther of his Country .From these selections the public itself will choose the one to be adopted, each person who has subscribed, inscribing his name upon that which he prefers, and the design having the largest number of votes, to be the successful one. Quite a number of them are now on exhibition in the lobby of the Art-Union Gallery; but all of such little merit, as to speak sadly of the state oi that department of art in our great country, so res pectable in all others. The adoption of either one of the plans at present submitted, I should consider an everlasting blot upon the taste of our people, and an insult to the memory of the great Immortal. Some of them look like the tops of gothic churches, waiting only to be hoisted up upon their pedestals; others again are mere barbarous second hand Chi nese pagodas, and others very questionable shot-towers. The best is an equestrian stat ue, upon a massive pedestal in the form of a 4 square flight of steps, drawn by Catherwood. @®Q)lf22 HIE B 9 DafIITSSAIEV ®&B&TF IT H . It is a pity that none of our best artists should have thought it worth their while to enter the lists. A successful design, one which should please the public taste, and be really worthy of the great purpose, would be sufficient to immortalize the draughtsman. I hope, how ever, that better ones may yet be sent in. In deed, 1 have heard of several now in prepa ration, and I have just seen one in the studio of the architect and sculptor Frazer, of great beauty. It is a circular Grecian temple, with a square pedestal of heavy steps, upon which rest massive columns supporting a splendid dome. This dome is divided into thirteen sections, each one having a cut-glass window in the form of a star. Bas-reliefs, depicting the leading incidents in the life of Washing ton, are sculptured beneath the columns; a statue of the great General, occupies the cen tre of the temple, and the whole, which it is purposed shall be two hundred and fifty feet high, is surmounted by the figure of History upon the car of Time. In domestic politics, nothing is at present talked of, but the Democratic nomination for President, by the Baltimore Convention. It appears to be anything but popular among the party in this city and state, while the Whigs are glorifying excessively, upon what they now regard as the certainty of their car rying New York by an overwhelming major ity. Cass would not have succeeded, had not our delegates been thrown out of the Conven tion. This rivality of the two great divisions of the Democratic party here, the Old-Hunk ers and the Barnburners, must prove extreme ly unfortunate to them. We are anxiously awaiting the doings of the Whig Convention, to meet in Philadelphia early next month. The foreign news, of Saturday, by the Hi bernia, is regarded as strongly prognostic of a general war in Europe. The coolness of public feeling towards Lamartine, so lately the idol of the nation, evinced in his being placed fourth in the Council of Five, is anoth er evidence of the instability of affairs in France. The maratime defences, too, ordered by the Government of the new Republic, which can be required only for protection against Great Britain, hint of purposes, which will rouse the lion from his present quiet. War indeed, seems inevitable, even if it were not time for such an event, after an ominous peace of more than thirty years. It is no more than reasonable to suppose that some terrible convulsion must follow the late events, before affairs can again settle down in peace. In accordance with the political spirit of the age, Pinteaux’s celebrated French “Case des mille colonnes ,” has changed its name in to “ Case de la Republique ;” and in passing up Broadway yesterday, I observed that the sign of a Mr. Herz, “ Pianist to the king of the French,” had been exchanged for a more citizen-like “ shingle.” But I must end my gossip, since not only will the mail soon close, but my dinner hour is near,, and the steward has just sent me up private inti mation that he is about to introduce straw berries for the season. In view thereof, I must give vent to my feelings, in the words of that beautiful psalm of life, “ Oh! to dinner how great debtors. Daily we’re constrained to be!” In the name of Epicurus—Amen! FLIT. NAVAL MANNERS. When the old duke of York (brother to George III) went on board Lord Howe’s ship, as a midshipman, the different captains in the fleet attended, to pay him their respects, on the quarter-deck. He seemed not to know what it was to be subordinate, nor to feel the ne cessity of moderation in the display of supe riority resulting from his high rank, and he received the officers with some hauteur.— This a sailor on the fore castle observed ; and after expressing astonishment at the duke’s keeping his hat on, he told one of his mess mates, that “the thing was not in its sphere;” adding, “it is no wonder he don’t know man ners, as he was never at sea before.” (Eclectic of tbit. THE HEIGHT OF THE RIDICULOUS. .BY OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. I wrote some lines once on a time In wondrous merry mood, And thought, as usual, men would say They were exceeding good. They were so queer, so very queer, 1 laughed as I would die; Albeit, in the general way. A sober man am I. I called my servant, and he came; How kind it was of him, To mind a slender man like me, He of the mighty limb ! “ These to the Printer!” I exclaimed, And, in my humorous way, I added, (as a trifling jest,) “ There’ll be the devil to pay.” He took the paper, and I watched, And saw him peep within; At the first line he read, his face ” Was all upon the grin. He read the next; the grin grew broad, And shot from ear to ear ; He read the third; a chuckling noise I now began to hear. The fourth ; he broke into a roar ; The fifth ; his waistband split; The sixth ; he burst five buttons off, And tumbled in a fit. Ten days and nights, with sleepless eye, I watched that wretched man, And since, I never dare to write As funny as I can. THE DEATH OF THE DOMINIE. “ Take him up, says the master.” [Old Spelling Book. My old Schoolmaster is dead. He “died of a stroke;” and I wonder none of his pupils have ever done the same. 1 have been flog ged by many masters, but his rod like Aaron’s swallowed up all the rest. We have often wished that he whipped on the principle of Italian penmanship,—up strokes heavy down strokes light; but he did it in English round hand, and we used to think with a very hard pen. Such was his love of flogging, that for some failure in English composition, after having been well corrected, I have been order ed to be revised. I have heard of a road to learning, and he did justice to it; we certain ly never went a stage in education without being well horsed. The mantle of Dr. Bus by descended on his shoulders, and on ours. There was but one tree on the play-ground— a birch, but it never had a twig or a leaf up on it. Spring or Summer it always looked as bare as if the weather had been cutting at the latter end of the year. Pictures they say are incentives to learning, and certainly we never got through a page without cuts; for instance, I do not recollect a Latin article without a tail-peice. All the Latin at that school might be comprised in one line— “ Arma virumque cano.” An arm, a man, and a cane. It was English ed to me one day in school hours, when I was studying Robinson Crusoe instead of Vir gil, by a storm of Bamboo that really carried on the illusion, and made me think for the time that I was assaulted by a set of savages. He seemed to consider a boy as a bear’s cub, and set himself literally to lick him into shape. He was so particularly fond of striking us with a leather strap on the flats of our hands that he never allowed them a day’s rest. There was no such thing as Palm Sunday in our calendar. In one word, he was disinterested ly cruel, and used as industriously to strike for nothing, as others strike for wages. Some of the elder boys, who had read Smollet, christ ened him Roderick, from his often hitting like Random, and being so partial to Strap. His death was characteristic. After ma king his will he sent for Mr. Taddy, the head usher, and addressed him as follows; “It is all over Mr. Taddy—l am sinking fast—l am going from the terrestrial globe—to the ce lestial—and have promised Tomkins a flogging —mind he has it, and don’t let him pick oil'the buds—l have asked Aristotle,” (here his head wandered,) “and he says I cannot live an hour I don’t like that black horse grinning at me cane him soundly for not knowing his verbs—Castego te, non quod odio habearri —Oh, Mr. Taddy, it’s breaking up with me —the vacati# ’s coming—there is that black horse again—Dulcis moriens -reminiscitur we are short of canes—Mr. Taddy, don’t let the school get into disorder when I am gone —l’m afraid, through my illness—the boys have gone back in their flogging—l feel a strange feeling all over me—ls the new pu pil come ?—I trust I have done my duty—and have made my will —and left all” —(here his head wandered again) —“to Mr Souter, the school bookseller —Mr. Taddy, I invite you to my funeral—make the boys walk in good order —and take care of the crossings.—My sight is getting dim—write to Mrs. B. at Mar gate —and inform her—we break up on the 21st. The door is left open —I am very cold —where jp my ruler gone —I will make him feel —John light the school Lamps —I cannot see a line—o Mr. Taddy—venit hora—my hour is come —I am dying —thou art dying— he —is dying. —We —are —dying—you—are —dy” —The voice ceased. He made a feeble motion with his hands, as if in the act of ruling a copy-book —the “ ruling passion strong in death” —and expired. An epitaph, composed by himself, was dis covered in his desk, —with an unpublished pamphlet against Tom Paine. The Epitaph was so stuffed with quotations from Homer and Virgil, and almost every Greek or Latin author beside, that the mason who was con sulted by the Widow declined to lithograph it under a Hundred Pounds. The Dominie consequently reposes under no more Latin than Hie Jacet; —and without a single parti cle of Greek, though he is himself a Long Ho mer.—Hood's Own. popular Sales. WHY THE SEA IS SALT, OR — The Adventures of Silly Nicholas. Once on a time, there lived a rich and ex tensive merchant, who was preparing to des patch a large ship to a distant country. — When she was just ready to sail, he called the whole crew together. “My good fellows!” said he, “ you are going on a long and difficult voyage in this ship, and will have to work hard to earn money for me; it is only fair, therefore, that you also should have your opportunity. In the country to which you are bound there is plenty of money to be made, if a man only knows how to turn his purse and his wits to good account. I give you all permission, therefore, to take with you whatever wares you may be able to purchase, and all that you make by the transaction shall be your own. And moreover, whoever, on your re turn, shall turn out to have been the most successful, shall receive a premium from my self ; for it is always right to encourage in dustry and enterprise. There are still two days at your disposal: turn them, therefore, to good account, for on the third morning from this you shall set sail.” The sailors, it need hardly be said, has tened on shore, and each, according to his own views, endeavored to invest his little capital profitably. Among the number, how ever, there was one poor friendless lad, who had just been bound apprentice in the ship, and as he had received no wages as yet, was of course without a single penny to make a purchase. The poor fellow was greatly de jected, and could not help envying his ship mates, as they returned on board, panting un der their burdens, and gloating over their dreams of future treasures. At last it oc curred to him that he had an old aunt in the city who had the character of being a very wise woman, and had helped many a one out of a difficulty by her counsel. He betook himself to her, therefore, and-bade her good morning. “Good-day, Silly Nicholas,” she replied; for this was the name her nephew commonly went by, not being supposed to be over-bur dened with sense. He sat down upon an old stool opposite his aunt, and told her a long roundabout story of all that had occurred, and how he was the only one who wasobliged to let the golden opportunity pass. “I don’t wonder at it in the least, my son,” she replied. “It was often your poor fa ther’s case before you, and is no novelty in my family. But you might have saved your visit to me, for I am poor, and have nothing to give you. There is small store of either goods or money in this poor little house.” Silly Nicholas began to cry. “ They are making game of me already on board, even without this,” said he ; “ and if I now go back without anything, I shall never have a mo ment’s peace the whole voyage.” The old aunt was struck by this. “For once in his life,” said she, “ the poor wight has spoken sense. Well, then, never mind. I have no gold or diamonds, it is true, to give you; but I have a very valuable article, which, if you only use it as you ought, will make a man of you ; and this I will give you.” “ What can it be ?” thought Nicholas, when she went out to fetch it; and what was his amazement when she returned with an old coffee-mill, so rickety, that it was almost fal ling to pieces! The old dame read his disap-