But there is a party lately come into the field, and called the Know-nothings, which requires a special notice.  Their ostensible principles have been published in the leading journals of this country, and carry a certain degree of reason upon the face of them, the leading features being that they are a secret society banded together for the purpose of opposing the priestly influence of the Humanists in political matters:  for prolonging the period requisite to obtain the rights of citizenship; and for the support of the native-born American in opposition to all other candidates for any public situation that may be contested.  Such is the substance of their manifesto.  Their opponents say that they are sheer humbugs, and brought into life by a few old political hacks for their own selfish ends.  Owing to the factions in the old Whig and Democratic parties, their opponents believe they may succeed for a year or two, but they prophesy their speedy and total disruption.  Time will show—­I am no prophet.  There is one point in their charter, however, that I cannot believe will ever succeed—­viz., naturalization or citizenship.  Congress would be loth to pass any law that might tend to turn the stream of emigration into another channel, such as Australia or Canada; and individual States would be equally loth to pass such a local law for the same reason, inasmuch as if they did, the emigrants would move on to those States where they obtained most speedily the rights of citizens.  The crusade against the Romanists is also so opposed to the spirit of a constitution which professes the principle of the equal rights of man, that it is more than probable they may ere long divide upon the unsolvable question of how to draw the line of demarcation between the influence of the priest and the opinion of his flock.  As far, therefore, as I am capable of judging, I do not believe they have a sufficiently broad and distinct basis to stand upon, and I think also that the fact of their being a secret society will rather hasten their end than otherwise.

The last point I shall allude to is the future prospects of the Republic; a question which doubtless is veiled in much obscurity.  The black cloud of the South hangs perpetually over their heads, ever from time to time threatening to burst upon them.  In the Free States many feel strongly the degradation of being forced to aid in the capture of the fugitive slave; and the aversion to the repulsive task is increasing rather than decreasing.  The citizens have on many occasions risen in masses against those who were executing the law, and the military have been brought into collision with them in defending the authorities.  The dread of breaking up the Union alone prevents that clause being struck out from the Constitution, by which they are compelled not merely to restore but to hunt up the fugitive.  The “Freesoilers” also feel indignant at seeing their nation turning virgin soil into a land of Slavery; the Nebraska Bill has