THE NEW YEAR. "Readers! we salute you with the best wishes of our heart for your happiness, health and prosperity. Grace and remembrance to you all, and welcome to the pleasures and privileges, the satisfactions and immunities of the new-born year. May Happiness court you in her best array! Wisdom, the incorruptible Spirit of the Lover of souls, be the companion of your way! Peace and Prosperity attend upon your enterprizes! And all the ruins of distressful times Repaired with double riches of Content. "The face of the New Year wears an auspicious smile. It promises a reward to industry, success to enterprize, melioration to misfortune, security to wealth, relief to poverty, peace and the 'assurance of quietness' to all. Our country, we believe, has seldom been in a more prosperous condition. With foreign nations it has no quarrel, nor any cause of dispute that may not be adjusted by fair and liberalminded negotiation. The differences among ourselves, though noisy, and sometimes pushed on to uncomfortable extremities, excite the wonder of foreigners. Europeans who visit us, and who come from scenes where poverty and destitution prevail, are astonished at the contention and clamor, which are continually kept alive, in regard to elections; and the causes, when they can be made to understand them, appear insignificant, when compared with the provocations to complaint, riot and insurrection, which are of almost daily occurrence in the old world. Happy, indeed, are we, as a people, beyond all other nations, but how unspeakably more blessed, could we shake off the shackles of the Spirit of Party,-a tyrannical sovereign, ruling with a rod of iron its willing subjects, and pursuing the reluctant with the venom of the serpent and the ferocity of the tiger. If the New Year affords promise of peace and prosperity to the nation, it looks with an eye not less propitious on the condition and pursuits of the various members of the body politic. Our cities and seaports are full of life and activity. The exchange of merchandize between distant portions of our country, and between those portions and realms beyond the seas, is carried on with a rapidity, unexampled in the history of all former ages. The atmosphere of our manufacturing villages is turbulent with the buzzing of machinery; and the grounds of the husbandman bring forth plentifully. In our own beloved city, the architect, the carpenter, and the mason, are rearing almost innumerable edifices, - some on spots heretofore vacant, and others in place of the decayed and incommodious, for the residences of the industrious and the wealthy, or stores and warehouses for the reception of the products of both hemispheres, while our streets are rendered almost impassable by the constant procession of wagons, trucks, and other vehicles transporting those products from one purchaser or vender to another. Surely such indications of prosperous activity may justify the belief that this New Year is a happy one, and the wish that it may continue as it is to its close. - To friends and readers of every description, we repeat the salutations of the season. May the Young rejoice in their youth, and the glorious prospect that opens before them an opportunity of improvement in all that can render life a mutual and a personal blessing. May the Old rejoice in the consciousness of duty performed, responsibility discharged, the ends of life accomplished, not forgetting that "The hours have wings, and we are grown too old to overtake them.” May the Statesman rejoice in the conscientious performance of the obligations imposed by patriotism and public spirit, the Judge in the impartial distribution of law and justice, the Lawyer in faithfulness to his clients, and his Clients in well disposed ability to reward his fidelity, -the Doctor in the returning health of his patients, and They in the grateful remembrance of his services, the Clergyman in the privilege (and a holy privilege it is) of preparing souls for the enjoyment of a future life by living virtuously here, and of leading the way to a brighter and a purer world. May the Farmer rejoice in the bountiful product of his fields, and the overflowing richness of his barns, the Merchant in the accumulation of the profits of an honorable traffic, the Mechanic in the liberal compensation of honest industry, the Sailor in a happy deliverance from all his perils, and a return to wife, children, and friends, laden with rewards for the hardships and the hazard of his profession. In brief, may all the Good rejoice in the possession of a conscience void of offence towards God and towards all men, may the Wicked rejoice that they have a day for repentance and reformation, - and may All of us rejoice in the exercise of that "charity which never faileth: " All glory else besides ends with our breath, THE CLOSE OF THE YEAR. Reader! The old familiar Charioteer, whose wing never tires, and who seeks no rest for the sole of his foot till he plants it on the shore of eternity, has, again, brought us near to one of those points, which measure the distances in the pathway of life. He will not lay down his scythe and hour-glass, nor will he pause a single moment for us to survey the ground over which he has carried us. Let us, therefore, while the moment is before our eyes, and before we are hurried beyond it, open the book of Memory, and see what records stand upon its pages, to admonish, to console, or to encourage us in our future career. In the first place, let us examine our own personal accounts, and see how we stand with ourselves. Have we made any progress in the Science of Life? Have we derived any improvement from the scenes through which we have passed? or have we remained dull and thoughtless, or sunk back into still deeper abysses of ignorance and stupidity, while all around us has been glowing with the effulgence of Heaven and radiant with the beams of knowledge and truth? Have we purified our souls from the dross of selfishness, have we stifled in our bosoms the instigations of envy, and repressed the querulous aspirations of avarice? Or have we submitted to the government of unworthy and vindictive passions, and suffered ourselves to be the victims of dishonorable and degrading appetites and propensities, while others have fought manfully with the powers of darkness and obtained a glorious victory? In the next place, what have we done as members of the social compact, to promote intelligence, virtue, and the refinements which improve and brighten the intercourse of neighbors and friends? Have we stretched out our hands to feed the hungry, to console the afflicted, to raise the down-trodden, to enlighten the ignorant, to support the falling, and to stop the progress of the reckless and unthinking in the downward path to perdition? What have we done to relieve the oppressed and to break the chains of the slave? How have we manifested the sense of our obligations imposed by the great command,- Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself? Have we been obedient to the "golden rule "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them?" And lastly, what have we done for our country, its prosperity and its peace? As citizens of the republic, have we been jealous of its honor, active in preserving its name from reproach, prompt and persevering in our attempts to preserve the health and soundness of the body politic, to secure a just and |