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POETRY.-The Bells of Shandon, 67. Drawing Nearer, 67. Sweet Little Man, 96. Our First Martyr, 96.

SHORT ARTICLES.-The Emperor's Tobacco, 58. The Man of Sensibility, 66. Highland Epitaph, 66. Lost Party in the Alps, 92. John Knox's Deathbed, 95.

NEW BOOKS.

Mr. Putnam continues his REBELLION RECORD,-which will preserve for posterity some of the features of the monster,-from whom God grant us a safe deliverance.

CORRESPONDENCE.

L. E. P.-Will you not favor us with your address ?

P.-Thanks! We felt that the sacrifice of space, then, was considerable. But it would not do to lose the article, or the others of that class. They increase the value of our volAnd the proportion they fill is a small one, after all.

umes.

To all our Friends.-Please read the second page of cover, and help us to get over the evil days, and to begin 1862 with renewed courage.

PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY BY

LITTELL, SON, & CO., BOSTON.

For Six Dollars a year, in advance, remitted directly to the Publishers, the LIVING AGE will be punctually forwarded free of postage.

Complete sets of the First Series, in thirty-six volumes, and of the Second Series, in twenty volumes, handsomely bound, packed in neat boxes, and delivered in all the principal cities, free of expense of freight, are for sale at two dollars a volume.

ANY VOLUME may be had separately, at two dollars, bound, or a dollar and a half in numbers.

ANY NUMBER may be had for 13 cents; and it is well worth while for subscribers or purchasers to complete any broken volumes they may have, and thus greatly enhance their value.

A NATIONAL CURRENCY AND SINKING
FUND.

Third investment,
Principal, say,

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Interest one year,

1,449,000

10,000,000

32,000,000

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ton;

1866

Let the United States deposit Coin and 1864 Bullion in the MINT at Philadelphia, and make all the national expenditure by MINT DRAFTS at sight upon the same; such drafts 1865 to be payable also in New York and Bosand to be for the sums usually represented by bank notes, not under five dollars. Persons who receive these drafts will pay them away to others, or deposit them in banks for safe-keeping. The banks will not ordinarily draw the coin, for they can usually pay demands upon them by these drafts. 1868 Coin will only be needed for exportation, or for convenience of change. For the latter purpose it would be desirable to pay in 1869 quarter eagles, or in silver; for exportation, in large coin, or in stamped bars of bullion.

1867

1871

1872

Bearing in mind that the Bank of Eng-1870 land has now a circulation equal to 100 millions of dollars, and that this is considerably below its average amount, we may suppose that by next year it will be found that such an amount of MINT DRAFTS has remained in permanent circulation, that it would be safe to invest ten millions of dollars of the uncalled-for coin and bullion in the purchase from the people of United States Stocks; and an equal amount annually thereafter. Let the half-yearly interest on these Stocks be also so invested.

1873

Principal,

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1874

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That such an amount of MINT DRAFTS would be needed, we may reasonably suppose, when we consider that our population will then be sixty millions, and that our business will have increased in still greater 1880 proportion.

In calculating the following table, fractions

Principal,

Interest one year,
Fourteenth investment,
Principal,

Interest one year,
Fifteenth investment,

Principal,

Interest one year,
Sixteenth investment,
Principal,

Interest one year,

10,000,000

223,000,000

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are rejected to the amount of about ten 1881 Twentieth investment,

millions.

Living Age Office, Boston, 20 Sept., 1861.

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10,000,000

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304,000,000

21,000,000

10,000,000

335,000,000

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The charges involved in these documents were all known to Prescott, and summarily and ex cathedrâ disposed of in a couple of pages, as follows:

From The Athenæum. |instructions-the examination of the witCORTES AND HIS WIFE. nesses, etc., and a criminal process brought, Summary of the Acts of Don Fernando at the instance of his wife's mother and Cortes-[Archivo Mexicano: Documentos brother, against Cortes for the murder of his para la Historia de Mexico. Sumario de wife. la Residencia tomada a D. Fernando Cortes, Gobernador y Capitan General de la N. E. y a otros Gobernadores y Oficiales de la Misma. Palæografiado del original por el Lic. Ignacio Lopez Rayon]. (Mexico, Tipographia de Vicente Garcia Torres.) FASCINATED ourselves by the brilliant career and attractive qualities of Cortes, we should have expected that the modern Mexicans the descendants of his ancient comrades and compatriots-would have cherished his memory and been proud of his fame as their national hero. Strange to say,

this is not the case. In 1823 the mob would

have broken open his tomb, in order to scatter his ashes to the winds, had they not been anticipated by some friends who secretly removed the relics. In the present day, we cannot travel in Mexico without finding that the feeling towards Cortes is very different from that which is entertained by those who have formed their judgment of him solely from a perusal of Prescott's pages. The Mexican's admiration of his showy qualities is seasoned by a liberal admixture of depreciation; and dark stories of guilt and cruelty, handed down by tradition, are readily produced in support of their opinion.

"A remarkable document still exists, called the Pesquisa Secreta, or Secret Inquiry, which contains a record of the proceedings against Cortes. It was prepared by the Secretary of the Audience, and signed by the several members. The document is very long, embracing nearly a hundred folio witness are given, and the whole forms a pages. The name and testimony of every mass of loathsome details, such as might better suit a prosecution in a petty municipal court than that of a great officer of the Crown. The charges are eight in number, involving, among other crimes, that of a deliberate design to cast off his allegiance to the crown; that of the murder of two of the commissioners who had been sent out to supersede him; of the murder of his own wife, Catalina Xuarez; of extortion and of licentious practices; of offences, in short, which, from their private nature, would seem to have little to do with his conduct as a pubcontradictory; the witnesses, for the most lic man. The testimony is vague, and often part, obscure individuals; and the few persons of consideration among them appear to How comes such a feeling to prevail? have been taken from the ranks of his deWhere there is smoke there must be some cided.enemies. When it is considered that fire; and it may either be that this is the the inquiry was conducted in the absence of smoke issuing from the accusations made Cortes, before a court the members of which against Cortes in his lifetime, and dismissed were personally unfriendly to him, and that he was furnished with no specification of the by Prescott as unworthy of credit; or that charges, and had no opportunity, consePrescott has erred in so treating them, and quently, of disproving them, it is impossible that the opinion entertained by the Mexi- at this distance of time to attach any imporcans is the true one-that many of these ac- tance to this paper as a legal document. cusations were true, and that history must When it is added that no action was taken accept them as flaws on the character of this on it by the government to whom it was great man. The author, or rather compiler, sent, we may be disposed to regard it simply of the work which we have noted at the head as a monument of the malice of his enemies. It has been drawn by the curious antiquary of this article takes the latter view; and in from the obscurity to which it had been so his published extracts from the Mexican long consigned in the Indian archives at Searchives we have, doubtless, the long-for- ville; but it can be of no further use to the gotten source whence many of these stories historian than to show that a great name in and much of this feeling have arisen. the sixteenth century exposed its possessor to calumnies as malignant as it has at any

time since."

The documents here published exist in the archives of the city of Mexico, and were deciphered and copied by Rayon, a lawyer Now, we hold that no historian has a right there. They consist of the instructions from to form a verdict for the reader in this way the king to Luys Ponce de Leon-his secret without producing the evidence upon which

he has arrived at it. It is no matter that the with Catalina Xuarez. He thus secured the author has formed a right verdict. Let him give his opinion, plead in support of it, and sum up as he pleases, but, at least, let him, also, tell the reader what is the evidence which he has rejected, and why. If he does not do so, his verdict will not, and should not, pass unchallenged. It is so here. Had Mr. Prescott presented to the reader even a summary of the evidence for the charges which he repudiates, and discussed the evidence for or against them.with greater deliberation, the work which we are now noticing would probably never have seen the light. It is, we think, if taken without explanation or examination, calculated to damage the character of Cortes most materially; for there is an amount of vraisemblance and consistency in the evidence given which leaves an impression of its truthfulness; and yet, admitting its perfect truthfulness and bona fides, it seems to us to contain intrinsic evidence of Cortes' innocence.

It will answer the reader's purpose if we take the most flagrant, and apparently the best supported case,-viz., that of the murder of his wife, and give a summary of the evidence brought forward in support of it.

For the better understanding of some of the allusions, we may shortly recall to the recollection of the reader the chief circumstances connected with Cortes' marriage with Doña Catalina. Prescott tells us that

"among the families who had taken up their residence in Cuba was one of the name of Xuarez, from Granada, in old Spain. It consisted of a brother and four sisters remarkable for their beauty. With one of them, named Catalina, the susceptible heart of the young soldier became enamored. How far the intimacy was carried on is not quite certain; but it appears he gave his promise to marry her, a promise which when the time came, and reason, it may be, had got the better of passion, he showed no alacrity in keeping. He resisted, indeed, all remonstrances to this effect from the lady's family, backed by the governor, and somewhat sharpened, no doubt, in the latter by the particular interest he took in one of the fair sisters, who is said not to have repaid it with ingratitude."

This must have been about the year 1511. By and by, however, "for some reason not explained, perhaps from policy, he now relinquished his objections to the marriage

good offices of her family." There is some inconsistency here, for it seems difficult to understand what value could be attached to these good offices, when we are told by Prescott, in the next page, that "his days glided smoothly away in the society of his beautiful wife, who, however ineligible as a connection from the inferiority of her condition, appears to have fulfilled all the relations of a faithful and affectionate partner. Indeed, he was often heard to say, at this time, 'that he lived as happily with her as if she had been the daughter of a duchess.' Fortune," says Prescott, "gave him the means in afterlife of verifying the truth of his assertion." He should have said making comparison be tween her and the daughter of a duchess; for whether he verified the assertion (not verified the truth of the assertion) or not, there is no sufficient evidence to show. A testamentary expression of confidence and love in his second wife can hardly be regarded as such; and the issue is now raised further, whether it was fortune that gave him the means of doing so, or a more direct interference of his own.

After living with her for some time in pastoral retirement in Cuba, he sailed on the course of adventures which terminated in the conquest of Mexico; and it was not until he was firmly seated there as conqueror and governor that Catalina joined him. The remainder of the story is thus told by Pres

cott:

"His own wife, Doña Catalina Xuarez, was among those who came over from the Islands to New Spain. According to Bernal Diaz, her coming gave him no particular satisfaction. It is possible, since his marriage with her seems to have been entered into with reluctance, and her lowly condition and connections stood somewhat in the way of his future advancement. Yet they lived happily together for several years, according to the testimony of Las Casas, and whatever he may have felt, he had the generosity or the prudence not to betray his feelings to the world. On landing, Doña Catalina was escorted by Sandoval to the capital, where she was kindly received by her husband, and all the respect paid to her to which she was entitled by her elevated rank. But the climate of the table-land was not suited to her constitution, and she died three months after her arrival,-of asthma, according to Bernal Diaz, but her death

seems to have been too sudden to be attributed to that disease. Her death happened so opportunely for his rising fortunes, that a charge of murder by her husband has found more credit with the vulgar than the

The evidence for the defence (if there ever was any) is wanting.

Independently of their interest from the historic personages concerned in them, the other accusations brought against him. documents are in themselves curious from the Cortes, from whatever reason, perhaps from glimpses which they give us of the familiar, the conviction that the charge was too mon- every-day life of the times to which they restrous to obtain credit, never condescended late. The close similarity of the law proto vindicate his innocence. But, in addition to the arguments mentioned in the text for discrediting the accusation generally, we should consider that this particular charge attracted so little attention in Castile, where he had abundance of enemies, that he found no difficulty, on his return there, seven years afterwards, in forming an alliance with one of the noblest houses in the kingdom; that no writer of that day except Bernal Diaz (who treats it as a base calumny), not even Las Casas, the stern accuser of the conquerors, intimates a suspicion of his guilt; and that, lastly, no allusion whatever is made to it in the suit instituted some years after her death, by the relatives of Doña Catalina, for the recovery of property from Cortes, pretended to have been derived through her marriage with him; a suit conducted with acrimony, and protracted for several years. I have not seen the documents connected with this suit, which are still preserved in the archives of the house of Cortes, but the fact has been communicated to me by a distinguished Mexican who has carefully examined them, and I cannot but regard it as of itself conclusive, that the family, at least, of Doña Catalina did not attach credit to the

accusation."

But there is a very good reason why no notice of the charge of murdering his wife is taken by her relatives, in the process here referred to. It is simply this, that at the time it was going on she was still alive; and, were it not so, the existence of a process actually brought by them against him for this very charge would sufficiently prove that no inference favorable to his innocence

could be drawn from their silence. The fact, however, appears beyond doubt, from the criminal process (in which on its side sufficient allusion is made to the lawsuit), that the law process had been going on for years during the life of Doña Catalina.

The criminal process takes the form of a complaint by the mother and brother of Doña Catalina; an answer by Cortes; interrogatories proponed by the complainers; and the evidence adduced by them. There it stops.

ceedings to those of the present day is not actual style of procedure by jurisconsults, very flattering to the progress made in their however much the principles of jurisprudence may have advanced. The verbiage and repetitions of the writer, paid by the page, are shown to have been handed down to us uncorrected for at least three hundred years. We find here examination of witnesses upon interrogatories,-the whole procedure being as nearly as can be that of a modern proof of the same kind. The witnesses are duly sworn to tell the truth. Their depositions conclude almost in the words of a deposition of the present day. For instance, the closing words of a modern English deposition would be, "All which he depones to be truth, as he shall answer to God; and in respect that he cannot write, makes his mark." Here is the Spanish of 1529: "Swears to the truth of the preceding deposition; and not being able to write, makes a mark" (una rubrica),

and the mark, or rubrica, is not, as is supposed by some, a symbol or device specialized by its user, but the same villanous attempt at a cross, which our own uneducated classes still make.

The process thus proceeds:

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"Criminal Process.-Maria de Marcayda against D. Hernando Cortes.-In the great city of Temistilan, Mexico, of this New Spain, on the 4th of February, 1529, before the illustrious and magnificent Señor Nuño de Guzman and the licentiates Juan Ortiz de and Judges of the Royal Audience and ChanMatienso and Diego Delgadello, President this New Spain, and in presence of me, cery, residing, by order of his majesty, in Geronimo de Medina, Secretary of the said Audience, appeared Maria de Marcayda and Juan Suares, her son, in her name, and presented a complaint and accusation in writing against D. Hernando Cortes, the tenor of which is as follows: Most Potent Signors, -we, Maria de Marcayda and Juan Suares, her son, appear before your majesty, and complain of Don Hernando Cortes, Governor and Captain-General that was of this New

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