of such political importance." He was evidently
unaware that, not only was such the case invariably in England, but that
soldiers are confined to barracks, or even removed during the excitement
of elections. There is no doubt that the falsehoods and exaggerations
with which the Press here teems, in matters referring to England, are
sufficiently glaring to be almost self-confuting; but if they can so
warp the mind of an enlightened senator, how is it to be wondered at
that, among the masses, many suck in all such trash as if it were Gospel
truth, and look upon England as little else than a land of despotism;
but of that, more anon. The changing of presidents in this country
resembles, practically speaking, the changing of a premier in England;
but, thank Heaven! the changing of a premier in England does not involve
the same changes as does the changing of a president here.

I believe it was General Jackson who first introduced the practice of a
wholesale sweeping out of opponents from all situations, however small;
and this bright idea has been religiously acted upon by all succeeding
presidents. The smallest clerkships, twopenny-halfpenny postmasterships
in unheard-of villages--all, all that can be dispensed with, must make
way for the friends of the incomers to power. Fancy a new premier in
England making a clean sweep of nine-tenths of the clerks, &c., at the
Treasury, Foreign-office, Post-office, Custom-house, Dockyards, &c., &c.
Conceive the jobbing such a system must lead to, not to mention the
comparative inefficiency it must produce in the said departments, and
the ridiculous labour it throws upon the dispensers of these gifts of
place. The following quotation may be taken as a sample:--

OUR CUSTOM-HOUSE--WHAT A HAUL.--The _New Hampshire Patriot_, in an
article on proscription, thus refers to the merciless decapitation of
the Democrats of our Custom-house, by Mr. Collector Maxwell:--

"Take the New York Custom-house as a sample. There are 626 officers
there, exclusive of labourers; and it appears from the records that,
since the Whigs came into power, 427 removals have been there made.
And to show the greediness of the Whig applicants for the spoils, it
need only be stated that, on the very day the collector was sworn into
office he made forty-two removals. He made six before he was sworn. In
thirty days from the time of his entrance upon his duties he removed
220 persons; and, in the cour