An orator had proposed to convert an old politician into a general; but a citizen moved an amendment to convert donkeys into horses, and when the possibility of doing so was questioned, argued that the horses were necessary for the war, and that his measure was as feasible as the other.

To prepare our nation for war, let us select the Enfield rifle, the Colt revolver, the rifled and cast-steel cannon, the mail-clad steamer, and not resort to flint arrow-heads and tomahawks, or to any other fossil remains of antiquity.  The policy of creating an iron navy has been repeatedly urged of late in the foreign journals.  It has also been advocated with signal ability by Donald McKay of Boston, one of our most eminent naval constructors, who, after building the Great Republic, the Flying Cloud, and a fleet of other celebrated clippers, has visited the dockyards of France and England, examined their mail-clad ships upon the stocks and those already finished.  Although himself accustomed to work on wood, and a candidate for employment as builder of some of our wooden gun-boats, with great frankness as well as boldness he urges the construction of mail-clad steamers.  We trust Congress will no longer neglect so important a means of protecting our national prosperity.

PARTING HYMN.

“Dundee.”

  Father of Mercies, Heavenly Friend,
    We seek Thy gracious throne;
  To Thee our faltering prayers ascend,
    Our fainting hearts are known!

  From blasts that chill, from suns that smite,
    From every plague that harms;
  In camp and march, in siege and fight,
    Protect our men-at-arms!

  Though from our darkened lives they take
    What makes our life most dear,
  We yield them for their country’s sake
    With no relenting tear.

  Our blood their flowing veins will shed,
    Their wounds our breasts will share;
  Oh, save us from the woes we dread,
    Or grant us strength to bear!

  Let each unhallowed cause that brings
    The stern destroyer cease,
  Thy flaming angel fold his wings,
    And seraphs whisper Peace!

  Thine are the sceptre and the sword,
    Stretch forth Thy mighty hand,—­
  Reign Thou our kingless nation’s Lord,
    Rule Thou our throneless land!

WHERE WILL THE REBELLION LEAVE US?

“The United States are bounded, North, by the British Possessions; South, by the Gulf of Mexico; East, by the Atlantic Ocean; and West, by the Pacific.”  So the school-books told us which we studied in our childhood; and so, in every school throughout the land, the children are taught to-day.  The armed hosts whose tread resounds through thy Continent are marching Southward to teach this simple lesson in geography.  They all know it by heart.  “This they are ready to verify,” as the lawyers say.  Wherever,