one-term principle,” we never held it in much regard; and we are less disposed to approve it now than we should have been, had peace been maintained.  Were the President elected for six or eight years, it might be wise to amend the Constitution so as to prevent the reelection of any man; but while the present arrangement shall exist, it would not be wise to insist upon a complete change of Government every four years.  To hold out the Presidency as a prize to be struggled for by new men at every national election is to increase the troubles of the country.  Among the causes of the Civil War the ambition to be made President must be reckoned.  Every politician has carried a term at the White House in his portfolio, as every French conscript carries a marshal’s baton in his knapsack; and the disappointments of so many aspirants swelled the number of the disaffected to the proportions of an army, counting all who expected office as the consequence of this man’s or that man’s elevation to the Presidency.  Were there no other reason for desiring the reelection of President Lincoln, the fact that it would be the first step toward a return to the rule that obtained during the first half-century of our national existence under the existing Constitution should suffice to make us all advocates of his nomination for a second term.  That the Baltimore Convention will meet next month, and that it will place Mr. Lincoln once more before the American people as a candidate for their suffrages, are facts now as fully established as anything well can be that depends upon the future; and that he will be reelected admits of no doubt.  The popular voice designates him as the man of the time and the occasion, and the action of the Convention will be nothing beyond a formal process, that shall give regular expression to a public sentiment which is too strong to be denied, and which will be found of irresistible force.

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REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES.

Industrial Biography:  Iron-Workers and Tool-Makers. By SAMUEL SMILES, Author of “Self-Help,” “Brief Biographies,” and “Life of George Stephenson.”  Boston:  Ticknor & Fields.

The history of iron is the history of civilization.  The rough, shapeless ore that lies hidden in the earth folds in its unlovely bosom such fate and fortune as the haughtier sheen of silver, gleam of gold, and sparkle of diamond may illustrate, but are wholly impotent to create.  Rising from his undisturbed repose of ages, the giant, unwieldy, swart, and huge of limb, bends slowly his brawny neck to the yoke of man, and at his bidding becomes a nimble servitor to do his will.  Subtile as thought, rejoicing in power, no touch is too delicate for his perception, no service too mighty for his strength.  Tales of faerie, feats of magic, pale before the simple story of his every-day labor, or find in his deeds the facts which they but faintly shadowed forth.  And waiting upon his transformation, a tribe becomes a nation, a race of savages rises up philosophers, artists, gentlemen.