ings which have induced Mr. Washington (while virtually compelled to part with the estate) to refuse to sell it for the purposes alluded to.

Excluding then the alienation of Mount Vernon for the purposes of speculation, there is no way in which the Public can turn its present tumultuary, violent, and illegal occupation of it (the character of which is not essentially altered by the consent of the owner, a consent only in name, and really extorted by the duress of circumstances) into a legal and honest possession, but by the fair purchase of the property. This could be, or could have been, effected either by Congress or the State of Virginia. There are strong reasons in favor of either course, and practical difficulties in the way of both, which this is not the place to discuss. Proposals have occasionally been made both in Congress and the legislature of Virginia for this purpose, but without success.

Such a purchase therefore being out of the question, the only remaining mode by which the Public can honestly become possessed of it, is that which has actually been resorted to, and is now in progress of execution, and that is, the purchase of the estate by a voluntary association coextensive with the Union;-endowed with requisite powers to hold and manage the property by a charter of incorporation from the State of Virginia, (and every one, I think, must admit that the legislature of the native State of Washington, and the State in which the property is situated, is the authority from which a charter could most appropriately be derived ;) composed of members and soliciting contributions from every part of the country. It is true that this mode of raising the funds to consummate the purchase is extremely laborious;-that, in fact, is the only great difficulty attending it. The country is willing,—desirous to effect the object. The five hundred thousand dollars, required to fulfil all the designs of the association above alluded to, could be raised in a day, by the cheerful cooperation of the people of the United States, each one giving

his proportionate mite; but to arrange the machinery, by which so large an amount can be collected throughout a country so vast as ours, is a matter of difficulty and labor.

It is really, however, as it seems to me, the best way to accomplish the object. It produces a more direct participation of the People in the result, than if it were accomplished by a legislative appropriation; and the zeal and energy with which the ladies of the association, alike those forming part of its central government, and those who, as local managers, have united with them, authorize a confident expectation of complete success, and that at no distant day. It is indeed very important that what is done should be done promptly, for Mr. Washington has engaged, in case the purchase money is paid in February next, to remit the interest due upon it for the current year.

I venture, in conclusion, to make a proposal, suggested by the munificence of the proprietor of the LEDGER, in paying the generous sum of Ten thousand dollars to the Mount Vernon Fund, for the preparation of these papers;-would that it were in my power to make them more worthy of his liberality! More than Three Hundred Thousand copies of this journal are circulated among the masses of the People, throughout the length and the breadth of the land. A large proportion of the copies are ordered by clubs, and are read in families, and I am told that it is not an extravagant calculation, that they are read by One Million of the People of the United States, each one of whom venerates the character of Washington, and would gladly co-operate in rescuing his dwelling and his tomb from neglect and decay. If this is a sound calculation, the contribution of half a dollar each by the readers of the LEDGER would at once accomplish the object!

I have hitherto taken no part in collecting funds for the purchase of Mount Vernon, in any other way, than by the repetition of my address on the character of Washington. But I shall be happy to aid the readers of the LEDGer to give

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effect to the above suggestion, by receiving any sum sent to me by mail or otherwise for that purpose, returning a receipt to the Donor, countersigned by the Treasurer of the Auxiliary Mount Vernon Fund.*

The result of this suggestion will be stated in the Appendix to the present volume.

NUMBER TWO.

CHRISTMAS.

Christmas day simultaneously celebrated in the Catholic and Protestant churchNot recognized by the Puritans, and why-Had degenerated into a disorderly Festival-Lord of Misrule-Extravagant revels in the sixteenth century-Mince pie and plum porridge-Baron of beef-Superstitions in the West of England relative to cattle-Anecdotes of the reformation of the calendar-Lord Chesterfield and Lord Macclesfield-Milton's beautiful ode to the nativity-Sir Walter ScottMr. Irving's charming description of the manner in which Christmas is celebrated in England at the present day.

WE have reached the season of the year when,-with a little variation as to the precise day, growing out of the difference between the old and new style,-Christians of almost every name commemorate the birthday of their common Master. On Christmas day, beginning at Jerusalem in the church of the sepulchre of our Lord, the Christmas anthem has travelled with the star that stood above his cradle, from region to region, from communion to communion, and from tongue to tongue, till it has compassed the land and the sea, and returned to melt away upon the sides of Mount Zion. By the feeble remnants of the ancient Syrian and Armenian churches, creeping to their furtive matins amidst the unbelieving hosts of Islam, in the mountains of Kurdistan and Erzeroum; within the venerable cloisters, which have braved the storms of barbarism and war for fifteen centuries on the reverend peaks of Mount Sinai; in the gorgeous cathedrals of Moscow and Vienna, of Madrid and Paris, and still imperia Rome; at the simpler altars of the Protestant church

in western Europe and America; in the remote missions of our own continent, of the Pacific islands, and of the furthest East, on Saturday last, for the Catholic and Protestant churches, the song of the angels which hailed the birth of our Lord was repeated by the myriads of his followers all round the globe.

The twenty-fifth of December is celebrated with an approach to unanimity, by the Christian world, as the anniversary of the birthday of our Saviour. Our Puritan fathers are almost the only great body of Christian believers who did not observe it as a holiday, or set it apart for special religious services. Not finding the day of our Saviour's birth specified in the sacred text, they considered this festival as resting upon no firmer foundation that the other feasts and fasts and saints' days, which they regarded in the aggregate as a human inven. tion. It is not the province of these papers to discuss theological questions, but it is highly probable that if Christmas and Easter had been the only days of this kind set apart for observance, their traditionary character would have been respected even by our scrupulous Puritan ancestors. As it was, their objection was perhaps rather to the mode in which Christmas was kept in their time, and still more to the manner in which it was kept at an earlier period, than to the observance of the day in itself. Milton's inimitable Christmas hymn shows us that there was at least one of those who paid little respect to the traditions of the Romish or the Anglican church, who felt in all its significance that

"This is the month, and this the happy morn.'

Among the reasons which led the Puritans to oppose the observance of Christmas was no doubt the fact, that it had almost lost the character of a religious festival, even of a cheerful and joyous character, and had degenerated into a day of grotesque and not seldom licentious revelry. The period from Christmas to Twelfth Night resembled the Roman