him in this quarter. That he is not Gen. Grant's choice is made very evident by the executive proceedings of the month, in spite of that message of congratulation. We refer of course to the removal of several of Mr. Bristów's most trusted subordinates, following his own resignation of the Treasury, and that of Postmaster Jewell. The request for Mr. Jewell's resignation seems to have been made in a fit of petulant irritation, not worthy of a great man. But we are not sure but that as regards the former removals the President was at least justified by circumstances. For some time past both Mr. Bristow and his subordinates seem to have assumed an independence of responsibility to the President, which indicated either a false conception of the nature of their position, or a wish to make political capital at the expense of the Administration. They have set aside those traditions of subordination and deference, which are necessary to the efficiency of any government, and which only the very gravest necessities should be suffered to interfere with. No British cabinet minister would have been so blind to the proprieties, without incurring a wholesale condemnation and receiving his dismissal on the spot; and it shows how far Gen. Grant has forfeited the confidence and sympathy of the public, that very few think of putting themselves into his place, and reflecting what they would do if similarly situated. At the same time it is evident that the President does not, in his management of affairs, give much consideration to the effect of his removals and appointments upon Mr. Hayes's chance of election. He gives all the more emphasis to those disavowals of "Grantism" made by the managers of the campaign.

WITHOUT doubting Mr. Hayes's honest intentions, we lay but little stress upon his promises of reform. They have probably produced their chief effect in making President Grant even more irritable than he was before that letter appeared. After all,

"Of all the ills republics may endure,

How small the part that Presidents can cure,"

while Presidents are elected, as at present, on the nomination of Parties. The Party comes into power behind the man; and it becomes more and more a choice, not between this and that body of principles, nor even between this and that man, but between the personnel of this and that party. This seems to us the great mis

take of some honest reformers, who worked hard to secure the nomination of a reformer at Cincinnati, whereas what they really wanted could only be got by the election of a man who had neither sought nor received any such nomination. And if reform is ever to be a live issue, it must be when there are enough of voters, who will step outside party lines, to elect a President.

THE Centennial celebration of the glorious Fourth was the most satisfactory possible, especially that in our own city. The monster parade on the previous evening was, as might have been expected, a failure. Such displays are not to be extemporized, and unless, like the Italian city republics, we arrange to have a grand civic parade every year, and thus acquire the necessary drill, we need not expect to make a very creditable display of that sort on great emergencies. The ceremonies of the day itself were most appropriate and successful. Mr. Evarts with us, and most of his brother orators throughout the country, rose above the old plane of braggadocio into a purer and calmer atmosphere of serious thought and patriotic aspiration. The old sneer contained in the very name of a "Fourth of July oration," has lost its force through the greatness of a celebration which called into popular service the ripest culture and the clearest heads in America. The poetry of the occasion was not of equal merit. Bayard Taylor's Ode contains some fine passages, but it is too ambitious in style and too boastful in tone to deserve the highest praise. There is as yet but one American poem intended to be read on such an occasion, that will live as literature; we mean James Russell Lowell's Harvard Ode.

The presence of an Emperor on the occasion but ill made up for the absence of the President. Our own ruler should have felt that his place was at the great focus of the nation's rejoicing. As for Dom Pedro, he goes from among us with a nation's good will; we have naturalized him by universal suffrage, and if ever he should-which is not likely become "a monarch retired from business," he may count on a hearty welcome back to our shores.

THE removal of Col. Etting from the Committee on the Restoration of Independence Hall and the Formation of a National Museum, which seems to give so much satisfaction to the councilmen and some

of the newspapers, presents itself in a different aspect to those who are interested in Pennsylvania history. For years they have been trying amid many discouragements to develop among the people that sentiment of pride in her past achievements which is at once an indication of the strength in a State and a means of preserving it. They have seen with admiration the memories and traditions of other localities carefully collected and treasured, and those of Pennsylvania to a great extent neglected and forgotten. Conscious of the fact that to her shore came the purest of emigrants during the settlements, and within her borders there occurred the most important and memorable events since, they have seen the histories of the country written from another standpoint, and adopting a different tone. With the coming of the Centennial year, however, attention was to a great extent concentrated here, and it was naturally to be expected that under the impulse thus given much that has been lost would be recovered, and a determination awakened to preserve all that remained. With peculiar propriety at this time Independence Hall, about which the most precious of the national memories cluster, was placed in the charge of Col. Etting, a gentleman whose life had been largely devoted to antiquarian pursuits, and whose acquaintance among historians and the descendants of the revolutionary patriots was extensive. He proved himself the man for the occasion. Under his efficient management the Hall, from being a place where were stowed the unassorted and incongruous materials which chance collected or vanity bestowed, was converted into a national shrine. The dross and rubbish were removed, and their places filled by portraits of those whose memories are associated with the Hall, the chairs upon which sat the Signers, the desks at which they wrote, and, greatest of all, the venerable Declaration itself. A national museum was started to which the descendants of Adams of Massachusetts, and Henry of Virginia, alike loaned their treasures and gave their assistance, and which promised to gather here in Pennsylvania all those tangible objects of patriotic interest that are now hidden and scattered throughout the land. Bancroft came to Independence Hall, read a tablet placed by Col. Etting upon the wall, and re-wrote a part of his history of the United States, restoring to Pennsylvania the honor he had awarded another State, of being the first to refuse importation from Great Britain. In the museum is the only copy in existence of the circular of Wm. Bradford, proposing to print the

Bible in English in 1688, upon which rests the claim of Pennsylvania, formerly admitted to belong to Massachusetts, of making the earliest effort in that direction. These are but instances which show how thorough was the work, and how effective were its results.

To the students of history, therefore, the removal of Col. Etting comes with a shock of pain because it means that the rough, coarse hand of politics is thrust into the bosom of æsthetics, and that there is nothing above its inclination, as there is nothing beyond its power, to rifle and pollute. Nor do we wish to cast any imputation upon the councils who were active in bringing about this result. To them the museum, with its faded uniforms, was but a collection of "old clothes." The sentiment connected with it they did not appreciate of the events which these old papers described and with which these rusted swords are associated, they probably never heard. They could see no reason why the portrait of Andrew Jackson, the hero of their youth, whose career was run before their eyes, and was therefore familiar, should not be hung in Independence Hall, or any where else. The exclusion from the recent ceremonies of the portly councilman carrying upon his shoulders one-half the responsibilities of a ward, and of the insinuating reporter ready to thrust his attenuated body into any crevice not air-tight-was a mystery they did not understand, and an insult to be expiated only by the decapitation of the offender. It is not to be expected, however, that people of culture will entrust articles which they have come to look upon as their Lares and Penates, to persons who, like the cock of Æsop, prefer corn to jewels. The probabilities are, therefore, that what they have they will keep, and what they have loaned to Philadelphia will be reclaimed. If Independence Hall does not, under the control of the committees of councilmen, relapse into its former condition, it will be because the good that Col. Etting has done will live after him.

"THE trader makes the wars, the soldier suffers by them and ends them," Napier wrote to an English Quaker. We have on hands now one of the meanest of all the Mammonite wars that have disgraced modern history, and because our soldiers have suffered by it, the Continent is working itself up into a paroxysm of rage at our foes as "murderers."

The discovery of gold in the Black Hills, and the miserable want of principle shown by the Government in the defence of the rights of the Indians, within whose reservation those Hills lie, have brought on another Indian war, as anybody might have foreseen. A part of the expedition against the hostile Sioux under the command of our most dashing cavalry officer, Gen. Custer of Michigan, has been outnumbered and killed to the last man by the Indians. All was done according to the code of warfare recognized on both sides; they who were to be our victims simply got the better of us. It was no case of murdering Peace Commissioners, as was done by the Modocs. And yet instead of taking this loss of our gallant soldiers as a just and well-deserved punishment of our national perfidy, everywhere the cry for vengeance is heard, and volunteers offer themselves on all sides "to avenge Custer."

Now we do not belong to the Peace party on this question. We have seen too much of them during their recent Convention, to have any hankering after their company. But we do say that if there be any such thing as a moral government of the Universe, including the United States, then our army has made, through the fault of its superiors in power, an ill-omened beginning of our second century in this richly-deserved defeat. No doubt the existing system of managing the Indians is very bad and inconsistent with itself. Possibly its entire abolition, even without their consent, and their reduction to the level of other citizens, would be justifiable. But to set aside the rights with which we have vested them, in one case only, and in compliance merely with that all-usurping spirit of greed which has corrupted all our national life, is an infamous and scandalous transaction.

THE hope that the South had at last learnt the lesson of equal rights, and was determined to acquiesce in the results of the war as affecting the colored race, has received a severe shock from the people of Hamburg, S. C. A quarrel picked with the captain of the colored militia, an armed white mob surrounding them and without legal authority demanding their weapons, the cold-blooded murder of five of their number after their surrender, and all this upon no provocation except some insolent words from the militia captain, make a wretched record with which to open our "era of good feeling." It would be incredible, were it not that we have the story