This feature of the paper currency of the country is one that has long been needed. For the want of it the States have been for many years crowded with a currency of unequal market value, and of doubtful security. Added to this is a marked feature of the new system which did not pertain to the Bank of the United States in its best days. Its workings are free from individual favoritism. No loans are granted to political or personal friends, at the risk of the Government, and all temptation to needless and hurtful expansion is thus destroyed. There is no mammoth institution, under the control of one or a few individuals, liable at times to be prostituted to political and personal ends of an objectionable character. While the banks under the new system are spread over a large space, they perform what is needed of the best managed institutions; and although perfectly independent of each other in their liabilities, expenses, losses, and in their action generally, yet together they form a practical unit, and will be serviceable in counteracting that tendency to inflation and speculation which has marked many years in the commercial history of this country. We consider the Bank Act of 1863 as one of the most important features of the Thirty-seventh Congress, and of this Administration. It will create a link long wanted between the States and Territories, and do much to strengthen the Union and maintain commercial prosperity. The country will hereafter honor Secretary Chase for the conception and success of this scheme, even if there were no other distinguished traits in his administration of the Treasury and the Government finances. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 6: 'The scenes exhibited far exceeded in horror _anything yet recorded in European history_.' (Alison.) America, in her own fulness, sent succor to famished Ireland, in 1847, and when her own day of travail came near, in 1861, England volunteered no helping hand to her kindred.] [Footnote 7: See 'History of the Bank of England,' p. 851.] OCTOBER AFTERNOON IN THE HIGHLANDS. Slowly toward the western mountains Sinks the gold October sun; Longer grow the deepening shadows, And the day is nearly done. Rosy gleams the quiet River 'Neath the crimson-tinted sky; White-winged vessels, wind-forsaken, On the waveless waters lie. Glow the autumn-tinted valleys, On the hills soft shadows rest, Growing warmer, purple glowing, As the sun sinks toward the west. Slanting sunlight through the Cedars, Scarlet Maples all aglow, Long rays streaming through the forests, Gleam the dead leaves lying low. Golden sunshine on the cornfields, Glittering ripples on the stream. And the still pools in the meadows Catch the soft October gleam. Warmer grows the purple mountains, Lower sinks the glowing sun, Soon will fade the streaming sunlight-- See, the day is nearly done! THE ISLE OF SPRINGS. CHAPTER III. THE COUNTRY