ever ready to lend a favorable ear to the advancement of the selfish few. "That we may be saved from any such calamitous results by the patriotic labors of your safe and worthy successors, and the well-directed efforts of the present executive and his associates in the federal government, is, and shall continue to be, the fervent wish of

"Your friend and ob't serv't., "M. VAN BUREN. "JOHN C. RIVES, Esq."

During the course of political strug gles so long and so severe-marked with sundry fluctuations in the relative positions of men and parties-any editor in Mr. Blair's situation must have made enemies neither few nor

feeble. If General Jackson was a good lover, he was, also, it must be confessed, not a bad hater. Sympathizing in this, as in other respects (probably without effort), with the habit of mind and tone of language of his friend and political chief, Mr. Blair, in the Globe, was not remarkable for very tender delicacies of phrase towards political opponents, or those among professed friends in whose suspicious conduct he already snuffed afar the approaching treachery. The Globe was, therefore, frequently accused-nor wholly without justice of a degree of rough violence in denunciation, carrying boldness into imprudence, justice into vindictiveness. It is certain, however, that it rarely erred in its early judgment of character and tendencies; and if it ever occasionally misconstrued and wounded friends, it far oftener simply detected and drove over into a little earlier desertion those who already were, or were soon about to be, the worst of enemies to the integrity of the Democratic party and principles. Weighing the evil with the good, this fault, if fault it was, which latter years had greatly tempered down from that excess which alone constitutes the fault, will detract but little from the worth of those qualities and those eminent services which have secured to Mr. Blair the enviable reputation on which he has now retired from the political arena. The following notice of the discontinuance of the "Globe" which appeared in the Philadelphia "Pennsylvanian," we know to have proceeded from the pen of a gentleman of high literary accomplishments, as well as

is at once so just and so well expressed an estimate of the editorial character and services of Mr. Blair, and proceeds from so distinguished a source, that we take pleasure in transferring it to our pages :—

Though it had been generally known, for some weeks, that the transfer of the official gazette at Washington, to new hands, would probably take place, yet the formal announcement of that occurrence in the Globe of Monday evening was not received among the democrats of this city, and especially those who have been actively engaged in the political struggles of the last fifteen years, without tions, and vividly recalling, not merely giving rise to many interesting reflecthe recollection of stirring events, but a strong sense of the obligations which the American Democracy recognize as due to the faithful and fearless press, which has sustained their principles and true measures through the administrations of Jackson, Van Buren and Tyler, equally while they were in the ascendant, as when they ceased to be for a time the guiding motives of the executive government. Of Francis P. Blair, it may be truly said, that, as the editor of a leading party paper, at the seat of government (and if as such he had faults, they were certainly not numerous), he has achieved, in the midst of its excitements and its difficulties, a high and permanent reputation. He brought to his labors an acute, discriminating and practical mind; great exactness and extent of political inthe discussion of public questions, as formation; a rapidity and promptness in they arose, which more than compensated for occasional and unavoidable roughness of composition: a wide knowledge of men; sound conceptions of democratic truth; and the warmest sentiments of patriotism, and of constant and honorable friendship. That he attacked fiercely, perhaps sometimes too fiercely, was often evident; that he defended firmly was hazards, ardently but conscientiously, the always confessed; he vindicated at all cause of truth and honesty; he tore the mask from political profligacy, heedless of the person by whom it was worn; the equanimity of his adversaries could not be maintained when touched by the pungency of his pen, but his associates felt

safe the instant his shield was thrown behis fidelity no shadow of turning, his infore them. His courage knew no limits, tegrity no taint of suspicion, his perseverance no pause. It is not our purpose to elaborate a picture; but these hints of his editorial character, drawn from observations made through a cotemporary

career, may not be regarded by our readers as inappropriate to the occasion. "Mr. Blair has retired from the eminent position he held, in a manner at once dignified and frank. He admits his obligations to the democracy, the desire which actuates him to aid in preserving its union by the course he has taken, and his sense of the fitness of his successor for the post he has assumed. There is a manliness in his conduct that must secure to him the respect and good will of all, the consciousness of which we sin cerely hope he may long live, in health and prosperity, to enjoy."

It is needless to say that in his retirement (which was deemed necessary to the union and harmony of the party, to some portions of which the recollections of old animosities made Mr. Blair still an object of unforgotten dislike, if not of dread) he carried with him the highest degree of respect and regard of the President and the administration. Of this, the fact that the post of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Spain is known to have been tendered to him, and declined from unwillingness to abandon the long coveted enjoyments of his present country life, is sufficient evidence. Mr. Blair's pre

sent residence is about five miles from Washington, in Maryland, at a farm known as the "Silver Spring," which it is his insatiable delight to adorn and improve. Here, realizing the often observed truth that the field and the garden afford the only retreat for the politician withdrawn from the toils and struggles of his arduous life, Mr. Blair is reported to have "become a boy again," and nothing short of an urgent necessity has power to induce him to leave it for even a day's return to the hot and dusty scenes of the political capital, where he has so long been a power in the state. No cause is likely ever again to bring him forward before the country as an active political writer; but General Jackson has bequeathed to him, as his most trusted friend, all his confidential papers, with the duty of watching over his famestanding sentinel, as it were, beside his tomb. That he will remain there with faithful vigilance till his own last hour, the past affords an ample guaranty; and, within that period, wo betide the hapless libeller who may dare to approach with sacrilegious step that glorious grave!