the proceedings of that day, are properly numbered, and sent to the printing office, in time to appear in the Globe, and be placed on the tables of the members the next morning. The reader of the notes to the copyists hesitates but little more than in reading from a book. These gentlemen are all paid for their services by the chief contractor, at a stipulated rate per column; a rather scanty allowance, (resulting, it may be, from necessity,) coming to the hands of the copyists. The accuracy of these reports is not often questioned, and has been the subject of frequent praise by the members. Whenever a question has arisen in regard to the terms that have been made use of in debate, the printed report has been usually admitted as conclusive. Indeed, the speakers have reason sometimes to be grateful to the reporters for certain little improvements which the press copy of their speeches exhibits. The absorbing studies and practice of the higher law may, in some cases, have left the laws of language to hold but a secondary place among the Lycurguses of the present day. The method of reporting in the other branch of Congress is the same that is here described; only, (this was in 1861,) there were four stenographers instead of two. The greater difficulty of hearing may, in part, have created the necessity. The reports of both houses commonly appear together the next day. The English and French Systems. M. de Martinville, the learned French writer above cited, after having presented a view of the ancient systems of stenography, and then having enumerated and analysed the various systems that had appeared in Paris at the time when he wrote, (1850,) expresses his doubts in regard to the perfection of the art, for the purpose of reporting. And he says, 'I know it will be said, that stenography is now so common that there does not exist an important journal, either at Paris or in the provinces, that has not a number of short-hand writers connected with the establishment, whose labors, day after day, furnish a protestation against my position.' His reply is this: 'I do not deny stenographers, but I do deny stenography. I say that there has not been yet present ed to us any method, resting upon fixed and rational principles, constituting the art such as to fulfil its unique, special destination, that of following the speech exactly, and of being at the same time attainable by ordinary capacities.' 'All the professional stenographers,' he continues, ‘are very intelligent men, of quick mind, of a happy memory, and especially endowed with much address and quickness of hand. But exceptional organizations can never be presented as proofs, nor be the basis of argument. Because Paganini, for example, could execute a concert upon the bridge of a violin, does it follow that this feat belongs to the art of playing on that instrument?" If the doubts of M. de Martinville be admitted to be well founded, it only proves that the art in France has not attained to the success that is witnessed with us. Those who practise stenography in Congress, and elsewhere, are not exceptional men, like the magical violinist, but are youths from the common classes, who having first for a while diligently practised in a more private manner, after having gained sufficient confidence, enter upon the public lines of employment. Words of Advice. A few remarks growing out of the question of success, above referred to, may be properly made here for the benefit of those who may propose to learn the art. It is sometimes said that it is soon learned; and, so far as it regards the theory, the remark may have its application; for although a system embraces a great number of particulars, patient attention and memory may soon master them. But not so of the practice, if we speak of the accomplishment of a reporter. But before attaining this degree, the art will still be useful to the learner in the earlier stages of progress. It may first come into use for making memoranda, or for a journal, or correspondence. Continued patient practice will yield. some reward by the way side. Application for a single month, with one hour daily, will make it begin to be serviceable in this degree. Soon the hand becomes quicker, and in a few months, the learner writes short-hand as he writes long-hand, without consciousness or thought, until he finds himself able to report. No one who possesses only the ordinary quali ties of mind and hand, should be discouraged in the hope of becoming a fair reporter; but it is quite certain, that the readier the hand, the quicker the apprehension, and the better the memory, the more skilful will be the reporter. If the party desirous of learning short-hand cannot have the advantage of the personal attention of a good teacher, which is doubtless desirable, he can procure from a bookstore or by letter directed to Benn Pitman, Cincinnati, Ohio, one of the manuals now generally used. They often appear under the name of the publisher, as Booth, &c., but they should be based upon Pitman's method, that being now almost exclusively used, as has been already stated. ART. IV.-Greece, Ancient and Modern. Lectures before the By C. C. Felton. Boston: Ticknor Lowell Institute. & Fields. 1867. It may be doubted, if the law of compensation ever had a more striking illustration, in a national life, than is now afforded by the contrast between the aspirations and the condition of Greece; and it is because the former legitimately claim the respect and sympathy of every free and educated people, that we would have them appreciated by our countrymen. In order to do this, it is not requisite to evade the stern testimony of political and social facts, against which the spirit of independence and progress has, there and now, to contend. On the contrary, the more emphatically these formidable drawbacks are stated, and the more clearly they are understood, the better will every humane and noble mind recognize the latent heroism and the intense nationality which asserts itself, with unfaltering faith and fortitude, in the face of such material discouragement; for, notwithstanding the convenient cant which repudiates all earnestness and hope not based on obvious resources, as visionary and fanatical, the history of all great reforms and patriotic triumphs, shows that in the faith and endowments of humanity, not less than in the external means and methods of success; prosperous issues have, at last, been achieved. This truth is attested not less by the annals of the American Revolution than by the lives of individuals who have demonstrated truths essential to human welfare or significant of human skill, from Columbus the discoverer, to Palissy the potter. And if any age is inexcusable for scepticism as to the power of ideas, of sentiment, of culture, and character, over circumstances, it is our own; wherein such peerless conquests of mind over dynastic agencies, have been realized; and if any people are inexcusable for failing to recognize and uphold this faith, it is ourselves, who have raised the average welfare and intelligence, and, with them, the national life, to a more prosperous and progressive standard than was ever reached before; and that, in the last analysis, by virtue of knowledge and selfreliance. G Financial embarrassment palsies the energies of Greece; partisan intrigues and inveterate place-hunting mar her political integrity; brigandage accuses her civic authority; the absence of roads deprives her of an essential civilizing element : her dependent position gives scope to political adventurers; her wealthiest children prefer voluntary exile to sharing the precarious fortunes of their country at home; gross superstition overlays what is pure and precious in her religion; preference of brain to handiwork dwarfs her industry; distaste for agriculture, as a pursuit, keeps down the natural fertility of her soil; pride of birth is infinitely stronger in her native race than ambition of industrial success; they live in the past and future far more than in the present; their country is not only very limited in extent, but surrounded by unsettled tribes; and, with a large portion of their countrymen fellowcitizens but in name, dwelling as they do, as a subject and scattered race, among an alien people, while talking and starving at Athens, they dream of empire; intensely loyal to the sentiment and the purpose of national expansion and supremacy, they are superbly indifferent to local improvements and modern ameliorations; the protegé of more powerful and prosperous nations, the little kingdom chafes at a protectorate which keeps it in the swaddling clothes of infancy while the heart of manhood stirs its blood and nerves; unpractical but ingenious, intelligent but speculative, patriotic but egotistical, there is often a childish credulity united to a hero's self-reliance in these Hellenes, at once provoking and pathetic: without a single safe and convenient thoroughfare from the capital to the heart of the kingdom, in the former forty journals are published; they insist that their representatives and officials shall accept, if not advocate, the great idea of national aggrandizement, but are inactive and apparently indifferent as to the development of the material resources essential thereto; clever but fanatical as citizens, they believe in Hellenism, in nautical enterprise, in military training, in education; but practically ignore capital and labor, railways, factories, and all the approved machinery of modern civilization. Hence the taunts of the prosperous and practical English, and the satirical and complaisant French: 'Who ever heard of a Greek millionaire returning home to settle?' they ask; and 'shall we let these people try abroad the experiment they failed in at home?' Then, undismayed, the Greek patriot renews his trust in a Muscovite invasion that shall, one day, banish the Turk from Europe and extend the frontiers of Greece, and combine, into one grand political unity, her scattered and oppressed children. But the baffled enthusiast will exclaim with her martyred champion : O Greece, they love thee least who owe thee most, When Athens' children are with hearts endued, An hour may lay it in the dust, and when Can man its shattered splendor renovate, Recall its virtues back and vanquish Time and Fate? There is another reason for the reaction of the Philhellenic |